But these tears, no more than his wife’s regrets, could make him waver in his determination.

The word of separation had been spoken, and it had to be fulfilled.  Amid the anguish of parting, he felt for himself the necessity of breaking, by means of a long absence, with the evil practices of the past, and to make amends for the sad errors of his youth.

He left his home to win in a distant land the happiness which he had in vain sought at the side of his wife, of his son, and of his family.  Before the ship upon which he was to embark for his journey weighed anchor, he took a last farewell of his family in a letter addressed to Madame de Renaudin.

“I have,” said he, “received the letter which tells of your good wishes for the future, and I have read with the deepest interest the assurances of your attachment.  These assurances would still have been more flattering to me, could they have convinced me that my actual course has your approbation, and that you estimate rightly my determination, and the sacrifice I am making.  However, I have on my side conscience, which applauds me for preferring, to the real, actual joys of a quiet and pleasurable existence, the prospect, even if a remote one, of preferment, which may secure me a distinguished position and a distinction which may be of advantage to my children.  The greater have been my sacrifices, the more commendable it is to have made them; and if chance only favors my determination, then the laurels I will win shall make ample amends for all troubles and hardships, and shall change all my anguish into joy!—­Be kind enough, I pray you, to embrace for me, my father, my wife, and Eugene!” [Forward:  “Histoire de l’Imperatrice Josephine,” vol. i, p. 133.]

It is evident that Alexandre de Beauharnais had gone to Martinique to win fame and to fight for laurels.  But chance favored not his resolves.  He had no sooner landed in Martinique, than the news spread that negotiations had begun between England and France.  M. de Bouille received strict orders to make no attack on Jamaica; and a few weeks after, on the 20th of January, 1783, the preliminaries of peace were signed at Versailles.  A few months later, peace was concluded, and all the conquests made by the Marquis de Bouille were returned to England.

Alexandre de Beauharnais had then come in vain to Martinique.  No fame was to be won—­no laurels could be gathered there.

Unfortunately, however, the viscount found another occupation for his restless heart, for the vague cravings of his affections.  He made the acquaintance there with a young creole, who had been a widow for the last six months, and who had returned to Martinique from France to pass there her year’s mourning.  But her heart had no mourning for her deceased husband; it longed for Paris, it craved for the world and its joys.  She was yet, though a few years older than the viscount, a young woman; she was beautiful—­of