hand violently, she gazed with most earnest attention upon 
the lines traced in her palm. Josephine, amused, smiling, said: 
ee gee discover anything extraordinary in my destiny?” 
“What is it, happiness or misfortune?” 
“Very much misfortune, a little happiness.” 
“My good woman, you must be careful not to commit your- 
self; for your predictions are not very intelligible.” 
“Dear Madame, I am not permitted to render my revela- 
tions more clear.” 
“I give you permission to impart to me exactly what you 
see in my future, then.” 
“But you will not believe me if I reveal to you your strange 
destiny.” 
“Oh, yes, I will, I assure you; come, now, which I surely 
hope for and fear.” 
“On your head be it, then. Listen: You will soon be mar- 
ried, which union will not be happy, whereupon you will be- 
come a widow, then be Queen of France. Some happy years 
will be yours, and you will die in a hospital amid civil commo- 
tions. 
Such was the beginning of her misfortune, which she did not 
doubt. Thus, as she went about the woods, being alone, she 
came across a huge tree that had these names cut therein: 
William and Josephine. William, being her first lover, she 
here began to suffer solitary recollections, whereupon she ex- 
claimed, “Unhappy William, thou hast forgotten me!” More- 
over, that William was not allowed to see her, write to her, 
bed, whereupon she entreated her friends to allow her for a 
few months to retire to a convent, so that s h 
tary thought and prayer regain composure. Her friends con- 
sented to this arrangement, which caused her to take refuge 
in the convent at Panthemont; here she spent a few months in 
inexpressible gloom. Josephine, being lured by a certain 
woman in Martinique concerning William, wrote to her: 
“Were it not for my children, I should, without a pang, renounce 
France forever; my duty requires me to forget William. Yet, 
if we had been united, I should not today have been troubling 
you with my griefs.” The woman who instigated Josephine 
to write this letter was infamous enough to obtain it by stealth 
and show it to Beauharnais, whereupon his jealousy and in- 
dignation were immediately sroused to the highest pitch. He 
was led by this malicious deceiver to believe that Josephine 
had obtained secret interviews with William, which made him, 
her notorious husband of unfaithfulness, to become exasperated 
to the highest degree at the suspicion of the want of fidelity 
21 
