And onward they went with the speed of the wind from station to station, approaching nearer and nearer to their destination; but as they neared their destination, the faces they met grew sadder and sadder.  At every station groups of people assembled about her carriage and gazed at her sorrowfully; everywhere she heard them murmur:  “Napoleon is dead!  Poor mother!  Napoleon is dead!” Hortense heard, but did not believe it!  These words had not been spoken by men, but were the utterances of her anxious heart!  Her son was not dead, he could not be dead.  Napoleon lived, yes, he still lived!  And again the people around her carriage murmured, “Napoleon is dead!”

Hortense reclined in her carriage, pale and motionless.  Her thoughts were confused, her heart scarcely beat.

At last she reached her destination; her carriage drove up to the house in Pesaro, where her sons were awaiting her.

At this moment a young man, his countenance of a deathly pallor, and flooded with tears, rushed out of the door and to her carriage.  Hortense recognized him, and stretched out her arms to him.  It was her son Louis Napoleon, and on beholding his pale, sorrowful countenance, and his tear-stained eyes, the unhappy mother learned the truth.  Yes, it was not her heart, it was the people who had uttered the fearful words:  “Napoleon is dead!  Poor mother!  Napoleon is dead!”

With a heart-rending cry, Hortense sank to the ground in a swoon.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FLIGHT FROM ITALY.

But Hortense now had no leisure to weep over the son she had so dearly loved; the safety of the son who remained to her, whom she loved no less, and on whom her whole love must now be concentrated, was at stake.

She still had a son to save, and she must now think of him—­of Louis Napoleon, who stood in sorrow at her side, lamenting that Fate had not allowed him to die with his brother.

Her son must be saved.  This thought restored Hortense to health and strength.  She is informed that the authorities of Bologna have already tendered submission to the Austrians; that the insurgent army is already scattering in every direction; that the Austrian fleet is already to be seen in the distance, approaching, perhaps with the intention of landing at Sinigaglia, in order to surround the insurgents and render flight impossible.

This intelligence aroused Hortense from her grief and restored her energy.  She ordered her carriage and drove with her son to Ancona, in full view of the people, in order that every one should know that it was her purpose to embark with her son for Corfu at that seaport.  At Ancona, immediately fronting the sea, stood her nephew’s palace, and there Hortense descended from her carriage.

The waves of the storm-tossed sea sometimes rushed up to the windows of the room occupied by the duchess; from there she could see the port, and the crowds of fugitives who were pressing forward to save themselves on the miserable little vessels that there lay at anchor.