It only remained now to find some one who would announce to Josephine her fate, who would communicate to her the emperor’s determination.  Napoleon had not the courage to do it himself, and he wanted to confide this duty to the Vice-King Eugene, whom for this purpose he had invited to Paris.

But Eugene declined to become a messenger of evil tidings to his mother; and when Napoleon turned to Hortense, she refused to give to her mother’s heart the mortal stroke.  The emperor, deeply touched by the sorrow manifested by the children of Josephine, was not able to repress his tears.  He wept with them over their blasted happiness—­ their betrayed love.  But his tears could not make him swerve from his resolution.

“The nation has done so much for me,” said he, “that I owe it the sacrifice of my dearest inclinations.  The peace of France demands that I choose a new companion.  Since, for many months, the empress has lived in the torments of uncertainty, and every thing is now ready for a new marriage, we must therefore come to a final explanation.” [Footnote:  Lavalette, “Memoires,” vol. ii., p. 44.]

But as none could be found to carry this fatal news to Josephine, Napoleon had to take upon himself the unwelcome task.

Wearied with the tears of the slighted empress, with the reproaches of his own conscience and with his own sufferings, Napoleon suddenly broke the sad, gloomy silence which had been so long maintained between him and his wife; in answer to her tears and reproaches, he told her that it was full time now to arrive at a final conclusion; that he had resolved to form new ties; that the interest of the state demanded from them both an enormous sacrifice; that he reckoned on her courage and devotedness to consent to a divorce, to which he himself acceded only with the greatest reluctance. [Footnote:  Thiers, “Histoire du Consulat,” vol. xi., p. 340.]

But Josephine did not hear the last words.  At the word divorce she swooned with a death-like shriek; and Napoleon, alarmed at the sight of her insensibility, called out to the officers in waiting to help him to carry the empress into her rooms upon her bed.

Such hours of despair, of bitter pain, of writhing, agonized love did Josephine now endure!  How courageous, yet how difficult, the struggle against the wretchedness of a rejected love!  How angrily and scornfully she would rise up against her cruel fate!  How lovingly, humbly, gently she would acquiesce in it, as to a long-expected, inevitable fatality!

These were long days of pain and distress; but Josephine was not alone in her sufferings, for the emperor’s heart was also touched with her quiet endurance, and her deep agony at this separation.