except their content bottle

that Hortense now made through her beloved
France, that she could no longer call her country, and that now seemed
as ill-disposed toward the emperor and his family as it had once
passionately loved them.

In these days of political persecution, the Bonapartists had everywhere
hidden themselves in obscure places, or concealed their real disposition
beneath the mask of Bourbonism. Those whom Hortense met on her journey
were therefore all royalists, who thought they could give no better
testimony to their patriotism than by persecuting with cries of scorn,
with gestures of hatred, and with loud curses, the woman whose only
crime was that she bore the name of him whom France had once adored, and
whom the royalists hated.

Count Boyna was more than once compelled to protect Hortense and her
children against the furious attacks of royalists--the stranger against
her own countrymen! In Dijon, Count Boyna had found it necessary to call
on the Austrian military stationed there for assistance in protecting
the duchess and her children from the attacks of an infuriated crowd,
led by royal guards and beautiful ladies of rank, whose hair was adorned
with the lilies of the Bourbons[55].

[Footnote 55: Cochelet, vol. iii, p. 289.]

Dispirited and broken down by all she had seen and experienced,
Hortense at last reached Geneva, happy at the prospect of being able to
retire to her little estate of Pregny, to repose after the storms of
life. But this refuge was also to be refused her. The French ambassador
in Switzerland, who resided in Geneva, informed the authorities of that
city that his government would not tolerate the queen's sojourn so near
the French boundary, and demanded that she should depart. The
authorities of Geneva complied with this demand, and ordered the Duchess
of St. Leu to leave the city immediately.

When Count Boyna imparted this intelligence to the d


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