[Footnote 61:  La Reine Hortense, p. 93.]

Hortense had taken no part in these attempts and efforts of her family; she knew that it was all in vain; she understood her sons better than they, and she knew that nothing in the world could alter a resolution they had once formed.  But she also knew that they were lost, that the revolution must be suppressed, that they would soon be proscribed fugitives, and she quietly prepared to assist them when the evil days should come.  She armed herself with courage and determination, and made her soul strong, in order that she might not be overwhelmed by the misfortune that was so near at hand.

While all about her were weeping and lamenting, while her husband was wringing his hands in despair, and complaining of the present, Hortense quietly and resolutely confronted the future, and prepared to defy it.

That which she dreaded soon took place.  An Austrian fleet sailed into the Adriatic; an Austrian army was marching on the insurrectionary Italian provinces.  Modena had already been reconquered; the insurgents were already flying in crowds before the Austrian cannon, whose thundering salvos were destined to destroy once more the hopes of the youth of Italy.

Like an enraged lioness glowing with enthusiasm and courage, Hortense now sprang up.  The danger was there, and she must save her sons!  She had long considered how it was to be done, and whither she was to go with them.  She had first resolved to go with them to Turkey, and to take up her residence in Smyrna, but the presence of the Austrian fleet which ruled the Adriatic made this plan impracticable.  At this moment of extreme danger, a volume of light suddenly beamed in upon her soul, and pointed out the way to safety.  “I will take them by a road,” said she to herself, “on which they will be least expected.  I will conduct them through France, through Paris.  The death-penalty will there hang suspended over them, but what care I for that?  Liberty, justice, and humanity, still exercise too much control over France to make me apprehend such severe measures.  I must save my sons; the way through France is the way of safety, and I shall therefore follow it!”

And Hortense immediately began to carry her plan into execution.  She requested an Englishman residing in Florence, to whose family she had once rendered important services in France, to call on her, and begged him to procure her a passport for an English lady and her two sons through France to England.

The lord understood her, and gladly consented to assist her and her two sons.

On the following day he brought her the required passport, and Hortense, who well knew that the best way to keep a secret was to have no confidants, now declared to her husband, as well as to her family and her friends that she was resolved to find her sons, and to embark with them from Ancona for Corfu!

For this purpose she demanded a passport of the government of Tuscany, and it was accorded her.