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



THIS distinguished lady was horn on the 24th of June, 1763 on the island of Martinique, and while very young was taken to France by her father to marry the viscount Beauharnois. Two children were the fruits of this union, which during one period was not altogether felicitous. Certain suspicions took place on the part of the husband, the the tribunals were appealed to, and a separation was demanded. These at length decreed that the facts adduced were too uncertain to obtain a decree of so serious a nature, and the husband and wife, were at length prevailed upon to resume their former intercourse.

They now re-appeared at court, where they had always been well received. Madame de Beauharnois who was a great favourite with the queen, about this time began to be considered one of the handsomest women in the royal circle at Versailles and entered into all the dissipations of that period But the assembling of the states-general, and the events which already seemed to prognosticate an approaching revolution, soon banished every idea of gaity and pleasure from the palace of the kings of France.

This general inquietude was soon followed by private alarm. Her own husband who had been for some time a field-officer, and always evinced an eager desire for glory, was now about to join the army, in consequence of an unexpected declaration of war. He accordingly repaired to his regimen and soon attained the rank of general. But although attached to, and beloved in turn by Louis XVI he readily perceived that this monarch was destined at a period not very far distant, to lose that