HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 



313 



of an Empress. 



born. She had scarcely reached the age of three 

 years when the island was visited by a terrible hurri- 

 cane that destroyed an immense amount of property 

 and many lives. The hurricane was accompanied by 

 shocks of earthquake, thunder and lightning. None 

 so serious had occurred in the memory of man. The 

 mansion of La Pagerie was utterly ruined and the 

 crops swept away. The walls of the sugar-house 

 alone were left standing, and to this building M. La 

 Pagerie fled for shelter with his wife and two children. 

 Shortly after they had taken up their residence in the 

 sugar-house, a third child, a daughter also, was born 

 to Mine. La Pagerie. This child, with the other sis- 

 ter of Josephine, died young ; and a mistake on the 

 records of the burial of the youngest caused the erro- 

 neous statement subsequently that Josephine had an 

 elder sister. 



Down the hill, within a stone's-throw of the dwell- 

 ing, is the sugar-house to which M. La Pagerie re- 

 moved after the visit of the hurricane. It is of stone, 



