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 Makers of History

 Josephine

 BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT

 WITH ENGRAVINGS

 NEW YORK AND LONDON
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
 1904




 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
 eight hundred and fifty-one, by

 HARPER & BROTHERS,

 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
 of New York.

 Copyright, 1879, by SUSAN ABBOTT MEAD.




[Illustration: JOSEPHINE.]




PREFACE.


Maria Antoinette, Madame Roland, and Josephine are the three most
prominent heroines of the French Revolution. The history of their lives
necessarily records all the most interesting events of that most fearful
tragedy which man has ever enacted. Maria Antoinette beheld the morning
dawn of the Revolution; its lurid mid-day sun glared upon Madame Roland;
and Josephine beheld the portentous phenomenon fade away. Each of these
heroines displayed traits of character worthy of all imitation. No
one can read the history of their lives without being ennobled by the
contemplation of the fortitude and grandeur of spirit they evinced. To
the young ladies of our land we especially commend the Heroines of the
French Revolution.




CONTENTS.


 Chapter                                                    Page

    I. LIFE IN MARTINIQUE                                    13

   II. MARRIAGE OF JOSEPHINE                                 31

  III. ARREST OF M. BEAUHARNAIS AND JOSEPHINE                48

   IV. SCENES IN PRISON                                      68

    V. THE RELEASE FROM PRISON                               81

   VI. JOSEPHINE IN ITALY                                   105

  VII. JOSEPHINE AT MALMAISON                               130

 VIII. JOSEPHINE THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL               149

   IX. DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER                            171

    X. THE CORONATION                                       198

   XI. JOSEPHINE AN EMPRESS                                 232

  XII. THE DIVORCE AND LAST DAYS                            282




ENGRAVINGS.


                                                            Page

 THE SIBYL                                                   24

 THE WARNING                                                 58

 THE PANTOMIME                                               85

 ISOLA BELLA                                                109

 THE INTERVIEW                                              156

 THE CORONATION                                             224




JOSEPHINE.




CHAPTER I.

LIFE IN MARTINIQUE.

A.D. 1760-A.D. 1775

Martinique.--Its varied beauties.--Birth of Josephine.--Her parents'
death.--M. Renaudin.--His kind treatment of his slaves.--Gratitude
of the slaves.--Josephine a universal favorite.--Hospitality of M.
Renaudin.--Society at his house.--Early education of Josephine.--Her
accomplishments.--Euphemie.--She becomes Josephine's bosom companion.
--Popularity of Josephine.--Childhood enjoyment.--Characteristic traits.
--The fortune-teller.--Predictions of the sibyl.--Credulity.--More
predictions.--Their fulfillment.--Explanations of the predictions.--
How fulfilled.--Falsity of the prediction.--Contemplated match.--
Attachment between Josephine and William.--Their separation.--Rousseau
throwing stones.--Josephine's superstition.--Mutual fidelity.--Deception
of friends.

The island of Martinique emerges in tropical luxuriance from the bosom
of the Caribbean Sea. A meridian sun causes the whole land to smile in
perennial verdure, and all the gorgeous flowers and luscious fruits
of the torrid zone adorn upland and prairie in boundless profusion.
Mountains, densely wooded, rear their summits sublimely to the skies,
and valleys charm the eye with pictures more beautiful than imagination
can create. Ocean breezes ever sweep these hills and vales, and temper
the heat of a vertical sun. Slaves, whose dusky limbs are scarcely
veiled by the lightest clothing, till the soil, while the white
inhabitants, supported by the indolent labor of these unpaid menials,
loiter away life in listless leisure and in rustic luxury. Far removed
from the dissipating influences of European and American opulence, they
dwell in their secluded island in a state of almost patriarchal
simplicity.

About the year 1760, a young French officer, Captain Joseph Gaspard
Tascher, accompanied his regiment of horse to this island. While here on
professional duty, he became attached to a young lady from France, whose
parents, formerly opulent, in consequence of the loss of property, had
moved to the West Indies to retrieve their fortunes. But little is known
respecting Mad