Empress Josephine: An Historical Sketch of the Days of Napoleon

he royal troops, a resident of the insignificant spot of the Trois Islets, on the is

brow of the young father hung the shadow of a cloud as he received the intelligence of the birth of his child. For it was a girl, and not the wished-fo

rved for him who had not come, the daughter received the name which had been destined to the son. For two hundred years the name of Joseph had been given to the eldest son of the family of Tascher de la Pagerie, but now that there wa

her birth, and who consecrated to the daughter the same love she would have

ur brother, my dear husband, and to you. Why should I have such a poor and meagre opinion of the female sex, that a daughter should not be welcomed by me? I am acquainted with many persons of our sex who concentrate in themselves as many good qualities as one would only w

Marie Rosa, the peace which secured to France the possession of her maritime colonies had been signed. Martinique, so often attacked, bombarded, besieged by English ships-Martinique was again the unconditional property of France, and on the bir

Naples, in Sicily, in the Molucca Islands, volcanoes broke out in fearful eruptions; for three days the earth trembled in Constantinople. But it was over Martinique that the hurricane raged in the most appalling manner. In less than four hours the howling northwest' wind, accompanied by forked lightning, rolling thunder, heavy water-spouts, and tremendous earth-tremblings, had hurled down into fragments all the houses of the town, all the sugar-plantations, and all the negro cabins. Here and ther

the hurricane. There M. Tascher saved himself, with Josephine and her younger sister, and there his wife bore him a third child. But Heaven even now did not fulfil the long-cherished wishes of the parents, for it was to a daughter that Madame de la Pagerie

Her father, casting away all ambition, was satisfied to cultivate his wide and immense domains, and to remain among his one hundred and fifty slaves as master and ruler, to whom unconditional and cheerful obedience was rendered. Her mother sought and wished for no other happiness than the peaceful quietude of the household joys. Her husband, her child

Lady de la Providence in Port Royal. There she learned all which in the Antilles was considered necessary for the education of a lady of rank; there she obtained that light, superficial, rudimentary instruction, which was then thought sufficient for a woman; there she was taught to write her mother tongue with a certain fluency and without too many blunders; there she was instructed in the use of the needle, to execute artistic pieces of

, and above all things to be a good mistress, a benefactress, and a protectress to her slaves. Under her mother's guidance, Josephine visited the negro cabins to minister unto the sick, to bring comfort and nourishment to the old and to the weak, to pray with the dying, to take under her lo

with that fiery, passionate nature of the Creoles. Ordinarily dressed only with the "gaule," a wide, loose garment of white muslin, falling loosely about the waist, where no belt gathered its folds, the beautiful head wrapped up in the many-colored madras, which

eir young mistress, ever ready to read every wish upon that dreamy, smiling countenance,

glowing sun was at its setting, away she hastened with her slaves into the garden, directed their labors, and with her own hands tended her own cherished flowers, which commingled together in admirable admixture from all climes under the genial skies of the Antilles. In the evening, the family was gathered together in the light of the

, she gladly attended in the evening the "barraboula" of the negroes, dancing their

terward were visited in their turn, and then the slaves carried their masters in hammocks, or else, what was far more acceptable, the young m

young maiden gleamed one day, as a lightning-flas

gro woman from a neighboring plantation, and she was telling the fortune of the young negro women of M. Tascher de la Pagerie. No sooner did the old woman cast her eyes on Josephine than she seemed to shrink into one mass, whilst

derful in my face and in my hand

l," repeated the negro woman,

a bad fortune w

etess slowly

a bad fortune for human beings? In your hand I see evi

ughing, "you are cautious, and

her eyes to heaven wit

she, "express mys

ity was excited by the very diffidence of the fortune-teller. "Say

in your countenance that you are called to high destinies. You will soon be married.

e, passionately, as the old woma

ophetess, with a loud voice. "You will live glorious, brilliant days, but at t

future, the old hag forced her way through the circle of negro women aroun

ung mistress, of whom the fortune-teller had said she would one day be Queen of France. Josephine endeavored to overthrow the faith of her swarthy servants in the fortune-teller, and, by pointing to the ridi

accustomed to do with her sisters. Followed by her slaves, she went into her garden and sank in a hammock, hung amid the gigantic leaves of a palm-tree, and, while the negro girls dan

rance! More than a queen!" Oh, it was mere folly to think on such thin

s sang and danced, and against her will the thoughts of t

Could not that prophecy become a reality? Was it, then, the first time that a da

n upon the sea, which, in its blue depths and brilliancy, hung there as if heaven had lowered itself down to earth. That se

her life. Once, when a child of three years old, she was bitten by a venomous serpent, and her life was saved only through the devotion of her black nurse, who sucked alike poison and death from the wound. Another time, as she was on a voyage with her parents, the vessel was in danger of being captured by a corsai

with all manner of horrors it submitted the child

y and want. Another blow more severe still came when on her return to France, whither her mother was going with her, she lost this last prop of her youth

e poor orphan of the

these children, the beautiful Madame de Montespan, to be cast away, and she became the friend, the beloved, the secret spouse of the king: and the lofty Louis, who c

ncess whom Martinique

woman could be realized? could not once more a daughter

n of France!" the

eloved Louis XVI, the young and beautiful Queen Marie Antoinette, the daughter of the mighty Empress Maria Theresa, sat on the throne. She was young,

bles. [Footnote: This prophecy, nearly as related above, was told by the Empress Josephine herself to her maids of honor in the castle of