What could she do as she saw a trap being laid for him? One by one these boys ended up dead. Napoleon’s son. Eugene’s son. Hortense’s son.
This is an excerpt from a book about why Hortense broke the law. Previous entries can be found here.
The previous entry is about how the aristocrats had to appear in favor of liberty and the people in order to not be overthrown again.
There was enough loud talk of nearby agitations to give rise to fears but I saw nothing there that could seriously worry me about my son. I was therefore at least reassured about that. When I learned that the governor of Rome had found Cardinal Fesch too ill to shut himself up at the conclave, and had spoken to him of the desire that the government had to see my son to move away for some time from Rome, the Cardinal perceived the peculiar little vexation for his family.
He got angry and asked for the reasons. They could not be given to him, except that a young man by the name of Bonaparte, carrying on his horse a tricolored chabraque on his saddle attracted too much attention and would become dangerous to the government in a moment of disorder.
This council, since it was only one, displeased the Cardinal. He declared that his nephew, having done nothing that could be criticized, would not leave Rome. Informed the next day by King Jerome of this visit, I went to the Cardinal.
He was still outraged at the governor's conduct. Based on the desire that I expressed to him to see my son go away, since he was attracting negative attention, and that besides his father wished to have him near him. The Cardinal begged me not to do anything. To take send him away, he said, "was to give reason to malice" and that the matter did not concern me, since they "had not come to find me.”
I left him, agitated with a thousand worries. They were hatching some plot in Rome. It was obvious. How to protect my son from it?
This young man was rejected as a pariah of European society, because of the too great power of this name - which was always dreaded. What would he do in the midst of the advances and the dangers which will surround him? If the government fears him, others are thinking of him. I was absorbed in these reflections when I passed the Pantheon. I had my carriage stopped. Mademoiselle Masuyer, a young lady new to me, did not know this temple. I wanted to show it to her. Besides I -
To be continued.
The Napoleon memoirs so far are here.