dramas that set forth the strange surprises that the divorce laws of America sometimes produce.
"During dinner," says Mademoiselle Avrillon, "the Empress seemed happy and quite at ease, and any one would have thought that their Majesties had never parted."
He also provided a magnificent income for her—eighty thousand pounds, afterwards increased to one hundred thousand pounds. Poor Josephine was not thereby saved from herself; as in the days of her married life she continued to make debts, and over and over again Napoleon had to remonstrate with her. Once he sent M. Mollien as the messenger of his reproaches.
On his return from Malmaison the Minister informed the Emperor of Josephine's wretchedness at having displeased him; Napoleon interrupted Mollien, exclaiming, "You ought not to have made her cry!"
Josephine, on her side, asked after the child which Napoleon had by his new wife, had it brought to see her; and, finally, when disaster came upon her husband, offered to rejoin him once more. She died in 1814, before his final overthrow.
There have been many better women than Josephine, but the same softness, womanliness, weaknesses that gave her the empire she once held over Napoleon's heart, have enabled her to retain a tender place in the memory of posterity. She is one of the popular heroines of the great historic drama.
