[Gutenberg 24659] • Hortense / Makers of History Series

1870\. With Engravings. An historical account of Hortense, one of the world's noblest women. Hortense's father fell beneath the slide of the guillotine; her mother was imprisoned and doomed to die; and she and her brother were turned penniless into the streets. By the marriage of her mother with Napoleon, she became the daughter of the Emperor, and one of the most brilliant and illustrious ladies of the imperial court. The triumph of the Allies sent her into exile, where her influence and her instruction prepared her son to contribute powerfully to the restoration of the Empire, and to reign with ability which is admired by his friends and acknowledged by his foes. The mother of Napoleon III never allowed her royally-endowed son to forget, even in the gloomiest days of exile and sorrow, that it might yet be his privilege to reestablish the Republican Empire, and to restore the dynasty of the people from its overthrow by the despotic Allies.