= |) 
éart, traveled thirty miles to Paris. Here she found her 
mother’s maid, Victorine, at the family mansion, where all the 
property was sealed by the revolutionary functionaries. Thus, 
after making unavailing efforts to obtain an interview with 
her parents, she returned the next day to Fontainebleau. Jose- 
phine was informed of this imprudent act of ardent afiection, 
whereupon she wrote Hortense the following letter: 
“My Hortense, I should be entirely satisfied with you, were 
I not displeased with your dear bad head. Tell me, my darling, 
how is it that, without permission from your aunt, you have 
come to Paris? This has been very wrong of you, though it 
has been because you have greatly desired to see me, you may 
say. Nevertheless, sweet child, you ought to be aware that no 
one can see me without an order, which requires both means 
and precautions to obtain. Eesides, you got into Mr. Dorcet’s 
cart, at the risk of incommoding him and retarding the con- 
veyance of his merchandise; in all this, Hortense, you_have 
been inconsiderate. My child, observe that it is not sufficient 
to do good; you must do good properly. At your age, the first 
of all virtues is confidence and docility toward your relatives. 
I am here therefore obliged to tell you that I prefer your tran- 
quil attachment to your misplaced warmth. This, however, 
does not prevent me from embracing you, but less tenderly 
than a shall do when I learn that you have returned to your 
aunt. 
She had the rare faculty of difusing animation and cheer- 
fulness wherever she appeared, hence, she beautifully said of 
herself: “It is a necessity of my heart to love others, bein 
loved by them in return. There is only one occasion in whic 
I would voluntarily use the words I will, namely, when I say: 
‘I will that all around me be happy!’” When she was Rent 
the Atlantic, being in penury, by kind sympathy manifeste 
for the sick and sorrowful, she won the hearts of the seamen; 
when a prisoner, being under sentence of death, by her cheer- 
fulness, her forgetfulness of self, and her hourly deeds of deli- 
cate attention to others, she became an object of universal 
love in those cells of despair. When prosperity again dawne 
upon her, and she was in the enjoyment of an ample compe- 
tence, every cottage in the vicinity of Malmaison testified to 
her benevolence. On the other hand, when she was placed in 
a position of power, all her influence was exerted to relieve 
the misfortunes of those illustrious men whom the storms of 
revolution had driven from their homes and France. Here 
she never forgot the unfortunate, for she devoted a consider- 
able portion of her income to the relief of the emigrants. 
With all this good that she did, she was accused of extrav- 
agance. Nevertheless, her nature was generous in the extreme, 
while the profusion of her expenditures was an index of her 
expansive benevolence. i 
