Excerpt from Memoirs of Queen Hortense, Vol. 1 of 2: Mother of Napoleon IIIHort e is the member of the Napoleon family A most attracts sympathy. This deli Cate and yet haughty queen, when she descended from the throne, when she had ceased to be a queen, when she at length sought shelter in the tomb, weary of life and exhausted, still remained among us as the queen of ¿owers. Flowers have preserved the memory of Josephine's daughter, and they did not turn from her, as SO many of her friends did, when She was no longer the daughter of the omnipotent Emperor, but of the exile. She still lived among the ¿owers, and Gavarny, the great poet of ¿owers, has erected a most touching monument to the queen in, his ¿eurs anime'es. On a hill of Hor tensias reposes the picture of Queen Hortense, and in the distance, like a departing mirage, the domes and towers of Paris may be seen. Soli tude prevails around, but in the air soars the Imperial Eagle. The Imperial mantle with the golden bees spreads out behind it like a comet's tail, the dark red ribbon and cross of the Legion of Honour are round its neck, and in its beak it bears a richly-covered Spray of Crown Imperial.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.