At first, he had merely said that she had had a nervous attack but in his inereasing agitation allowed some expressions to escape, whence the count first elearly perceived the nature of Josephine's calamity. When they had thus attained the private staircase, it appeared too steep and narrow for M. de Beaumont, unassisted to attempt to bear the empress down with safety. Napoleon then called the keeper of the portfolio, whose duty it was to be in constant attendance at the door of the cabinet, which also opened upon the corridor. Giving the taper to this attendant, and directing him to preeede, the emperor himself supported Josephine's limbs. and, descending last, the party thus attained the door of her bedroom. Here Napoleon dismissed both his companions, and laying the empress on the bed, rang for her women, who, on entering, found him hanging over her with an expression of the deepest anxiety.
On the 16th of the following December, Napoleon assembled all the members of the Senate, including the kings of Westphalia and Naples, the grand admiral, the prinee viceroy of Italy, the arch-chaneellor of state, the prince viee-constable, &c. After the usual ceremonies, a project of a "Sendatus Consultum" was read, respecting a dissolution of the marriage between the emperor Napoleon and the empress Josephine.
This deed of separation required by the two high contraéting parties themselves, and approved of by a family eouneil, at which all the prinees and princesses of the imperial family then at Paris bad assisted, reeeived, on the same day, the assent of the senate, after having been duly examined by a special commission. Jean-Jaques Regis Cambaeeres, prince areh-chaneellor of the empire, then stated, that, on the preceding day, he had visited the palaee of the Tuilleries, attended by Michael Louis Etienne Regnault de St. Jean d'Angeley, count of the empire, minister of state, and secretary of state to the imperial family. On being introdueed to the grand cabinet of the emperor, le there found his majesty the emperor and king, with her majesty the empress, attended by their majesties the kings of Holland, Westphalia, and Naples.
