Page:Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin Foundress.djvu/38

26 and intentions were; however, her resolution was fixed, and her plans for the future grew up with her, as it were, although as to detail there was nothing definite.

When she was nearly twelve years of age her father accompanied Napoleon into Spain, and, later, was occupied in blockading ports in the Mediterranean, at the time that Marshal Suchet was laying siege to Saragossa, Terragonia, and Valencia. When the emperor returned to France preparatory to his Russian campaign, Monsieur Guérin, who was then in the waters of the North African coasts, obtained a furlough and returned to spend some weeks with his family before setting out for Russia. He had been absent about two years, during which time it had not been possible to exchange letters often, owing to the greatly disturbed condition of the country, warfare existing almost everywhere. Having disembarked at Toulon, Monsieur Guerin forwarded the glad message that he was on his way home, and would probably arrive almost as soon as the announcement. With full pay for his services he set out alone from Toulon, in order to reach Avignon in time to travel with a party intending to journey in the same direction. The days passed into weeks, the weeks into months, and feverish anxiety succeeded to the happy anticipations of the little family circle. At last the intelligence reached them that Monsieur Guérin had met with a tragic death at the hands of brigands not far from Avignon. The shock of his cruel fate intensified unspeakably the sorrow of his bereaved family; and as his Napoleonic sympathies had not mollified the resentment entertained for Madame Guérin by the members of her