"Where boldly spring two clasping hands."
The monument to Josephine, in the village church at Ruel, was erected by her children. Two hands, sculptured in marble, and grasping each other, appear as the symbols of their united, filial love; and only this simple inscription marks the stone; To Josephine, From Eugene and Hortense. It is well known that her love to Napoleon survived the divorce to which he exacted her consent. In her seclusion, she rejoiced at his prosperity, or wept and shuddered at the evils which his ambition drew upon him. One of our own writers has condensed in a few forcible sentences the sequel of her life.
"When his son was born, she only regretted that she was not near him in his happiness; and when he was sent to Elba, she begged that she might be permitted to share his prison, and cheer his woes. Every article, that he had used at her residence, remained as he had left it. She would not suffer a chair on which he had sat to be removed. The book in which he had last been reading was there, with the page doubled down. The pen which he had last used was there, with the ink dried on its point. When death drew nigh, she wished to sell all her jewels, that she might send the fallen Emperor money. She died before his return from Elba; but her last thoughts were of him
