The parlors of the duchess were therefore more talked of in Paris than they had been at St. Leu.  The old duchesses and princesses of the Faubourg St. Germain, with all their ancestors, prejudices, and pretensions, were enraged at hearing this everlasting praise of the charming queen, and endeavored to appease their wrath by renewed hostilities against its object.

It was not enough that she was calumniated, at court and in society, as a dangerous person; the arm of the press was also wielded against her.

As we have said, Hortense was the embodied remembrance of the empire, and it was therefore determined that she should be destroyed. Brochures and pamphlets were published, in which the king was appealed to, to banish from Paris, and even from France, the dangerous woman who was conspiring publicly, and even under the very eyes of the government, for Napoleon, and to banish with her the two children also, the two Napoleons; “for,” said these odious accusers, “to leave these two princes here, means to raise in France wolves that would one day ravage their country[42].”

[Footnote 42:  Cochelet, Memoires sur la Reins Hortense, vol. ii., p. 330.]

Hortense paid but little attention to these reports and calumnies.  She was too much accustomed to being misunderstood and wrongly judged, to allow herself to be disquieted thereby.  She knew that calumnies were never refuted by contradiction, and that it was therefore better to meet them with proud silence, and to conquer them by contempt, instead of giving them new life by combating and contradicting them.

She herself entertained such contempt for calumny that she never allowed anything abusive to be said in her presence that would injure any one in her estimation.  When, on one occasion, while she was still Queen of Holland, a lady of Holland took occasion to speak ill of another lady, on account of her political opinions, the queen interrupted her, and said:  “Madame, here I am a stranger to all parties, and receive all persons with the same consideration, for I love to hear every one well spoken of; and I generally receive an unfavorable impression of those only who speak ill of others[43].”

[Footnote 43:  Cochelet, vol. i., p. 378.]

And, strange to say, she herself was ever the object of calumny and accusation.

“During twenty-five years, I have never been separated from Princess Hortense,” says Louise de Cochelet, “and I have never observed in her the slightest feeling of bitterness against any one; ever good and gentle, she never failed to take an interest in those who were unhappy; and she endeavored to help them whenever and wherever they presented themselves.  And this noble and gentle woman was always the object of hatred and absurd calumnies, and against all this she was armed with the integrity and purity of her actions and intentions only[44].”

[Footnote 44:  Cochelet, vol. i., p. 378.]