the object of his affection was Emilie de Beauharnais, the Empress
Josephine's niece by marriage. This lady became afterwards the wife
of M. de La Vallette, Napoleon's postmaster-general, who after
the return of the Bourbons in 1815, was condemned to death with
Ney and Labédoyère. His wife saved him by changing clothes with
him in prison; but the fearful strain her nerves suffered until
she was sure of his escape, unsettled her reason. She was not sent
to an asylum, but lived to a great age in an _appartement_ in Paris,
carefully tended and watched over by her friends.[1]

[Footnote 1: Jerrold's Life of Napoleon III.]

But whether it was with a Sophie or an Emilie, Louis Bonaparte fell
in love, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine, gay,
lively, poetical, and enthusiastic, had given her heart to General
Duroc, the Emperor Napoleon's aide-de-camp; therefore both the young
people resisted the darling project of Napoleon and Josephine to
marry them to each other. By such a marriage Josephine hoped to
avert the divorce that she saw to be impending. She fancied that
if sons were born to the young couple, Napoleon would be content
to leave his throne to the heir of his brother Louis, whom he had
adopted, and of his step-daughter, of whom he was very fond. But
Louis would not marry Hortense, and Hortense would not have Louis.
At last, however, in the excitement of a ball, a reluctant consent
was wrung from Louis; then Hortense was coerced into being a good
French girl, and giving up Duroc. She and Louis were married. A more
unhappy marriage never took place. Husband and wife were separated
by an insurmountable (or at least unsurmounted) incompatibility of
temperament. Louis was a man whose first thought was duty. Hortense
loved only gayety and pleasure. He particularly objected to her