Page:History of the Empress Josephine (2).pdf/3

 HISTORY OF TIE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 3

hantom of power which he then enjoyed, together with his fe at one and the same moment. When all this occurred, as had been foreseen, M. do Beauharnois himself was de- ounced as an aristocrat by his own soldiers, deprived of his commission by superior authority, and conducted to Paris, here he was placed in a state of arrest. Josephine, the sensibility of whose heart is well known, immediately inter- osed, and adopted every possible mode, both through the medium of friends as well as by her own personal solicitations, obtain his liberty. Her husband, on his part, was deeply poved by the affectionate attachment and unceasing assiduity He his wife, who was not only soon after denied the pleasure of consoling her unhappy husband, but actually deprived of er own liberty, having been seized and confined at the con- sent of the Carmelites. In the course of a few weeks, the unfortunate vicomte was carried before the revolutionary Gribunal, which instantly condemned him to death. Dr. Memes has published so interesting an account of the impress Josephine, that we gladly avail ourselves of his valu- ble "Memoirs," which throw much new light on the domestic fe of this accomplished female. Josephine, we need not re- ind our readers, was a Creole. The native elegance of mind and manner so often possessed by these transatlantic Euro- peans, their aptness in the acquisition of all external accom- plishments, their warm temperament modified and restrained sy natural self-possession, are generally known :-"As regards accomplishments, she played, especially on the harp, and sung, lirith exquisite feeling, and with science sufficient to render Listening an intellectual pleasure without exciting the surmise at the cultivation of an attainment less showy, but more aluable, had been sacrificed. Her dancing is said to have been perfect. An eye-witness describes her light form, rising scarcely above the middle size, as seeming in its faultless symmetry to Hoat rather than to move-the very personation of grace. She exercised her pencil, and—though such be now antiquated or an elegante-her needle and embroidering frame, with beautiful address. A love of flowers,' that truly feminine inspiration, and, according to a master in elegance and virtue,