HOME OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 313 
JHE FiomE 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 Mme. 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, 
