THE MARRIAGE OF JOSEPHINE.
A.D. 1775-A.D. 1785
Alexander de Beauharnais.--His character.--A new suitor.--Motives
for the marriage.--The announcement.--Feelings of Josephine.--Zeal
of M. Beauharnais.--The engagement.--Departure from Martinique.--
Parting scenes.--Josephine's arrival in France.--Her interview with
William.--Explanation of William.--Distress of Josephine.--Josephine
retires to a convent.--She marries the Viscount Beauharnais.--
Fashionable life.--Josephine is introduced at court.--Maria Antoinette
and Josephine.--French philosophy.--Infidelity of Beauharnais.--Birth
of a daughter.--Birth of a son.--An arch deceiver.--Josephine betrayed.
--Application for a divorce.--Josephine triumphant.--Visit to
Versailles.--Interview with Maria Antoinette.--Kindness of the
queen.--Josephine embarks for Martinique.--Hours of despondency.--
Josephine arrives at Martinique.--Her kind reception.
Josephine was about fourteen years of age when she was separated from
William. A year passed away, during which she received not a line from
her absent friend. About this time a gentleman from France visited
her uncle upon business of great importance. Viscount Alexander de
Beauharnais was a fashionable and gallant young man, about thirty years
of age, possessing much conversational ease and grace of manner, and
accustomed to the most polished society of the French metropolis. He
held a commission in the army, and had already signalized himself by
several acts of bravery. His sympathies had been strongly aroused by the
struggle of the American colonists with the mother country, and he had
already aided the colonists both with his sword and his purse.
Several large and valuable estates in Martinique, adjoining the
plantation of M. Renaudin, had fallen by inheritance to this young
officer and his brother, the Marquis of Beauharnais. He visited
Martinique to secure the proof of his title to these estates. M.
Renaudin held some of these plantations on lease. In the transaction
of this business, Beauharnais spent much time at the mansion of M.
Renaudin. He, of course, saw much of the beautiful Josephine, and was
fascinated with her grace, and her mental and physical loveliness.
The uncle and aunt of Josephine were delighted to perceive the interest
which their niece had awakened in the bosom of the interesting stranger.
His graceful figure, his accomplished person, his military celebrity,
his social rank, and his large fortune, all conspired to dazzle their
eyes, and to lead them to do every thing in their power to promote a
match apparently so eligible. The ambition of M. Renaudin was moved at
the thought of conferring upon his niece, the prospective heiress of
his own fortune, an estate so magnificent as the united inheritance.
Josephine, however, had not yet forgotten William, and, though
interested in her uncle's guest, for some time allowed no emotion of
love to flow out toward him.
One morning Josephine was sitting in the library in pensive musings,
when her uncle came into the room to open to her the subject of her
contemplated marriage with M. Beauharnais. Josephine was thunderstruck
at the communication, for, according to the invariable custom of the
times, she knew that she could have but little voice in the choice of
a partner for life. For a short time she listened in silence to his
proposals, and then said, with tears in her eyes,
"Dear uncle, I implore you to remember that my affections are fixed upon
William. I have been solemnly promised to him."
"That is utterly impossible, my child," her uncle replied.
"Circumstances are changed. All our hopes are centered in you. You must
obey our wishes."
"And why," said she, "have you changed your intentions in reference to
William?"
Her uncle replied: "You will receive by inheritance all my estate. M.
Beauharnais possesses the rich estates adjoining. Your union unites the
property. M. Beauharnais is every thing which can be desired in a
husband. Besides, William appears to have forgotten you."
To this last remark Josephine could make no reply. She looked sadly upon
the floor and was silent. It is said that her uncle had then in his
possession several letters which William had written her, replete with
the most earnest spirit of constancy and affection.
Josephine, but fifteen years of age, could not, under these
circumstances, resist the influences now brought to bear upon her.
M. Beauharnais was a gentleman of fascinating accomplishments. The
reluctance of Josephine to become his bride but stimulated his zeal to
obtain her. In the seclusion of the plantation, and far removed from
other society, she was necessarily with him nearly at all hours. They
read together, rode on horseback side by side, rambled in the groves in
pleasant companionship. They floated by moonlight upon the water,
breathing the balmy air of that delicious clime, and uniting their
voices in song, the measure being timed with the dipping of the oars by
the negroes. The friends of Josephine were importunate for the match. At
last, reluctantly she gave her consent. Having done this, she allowed
her affections, unrestrained, to repose upon her betrothed. Though her
heart still clung to William, she thought that he had found other
friends in England, in whose pleasant companionship he had lost all
remembrance of the island maiden who had won his early love.
Alexander Beauharnais, soon after his engagement to Josephine, embarked
for France. Arrangements had been made for Josephine, in the course of a
few months, to follow him, upon a visit to a relative in Paris, and
there the nuptials were to be consummated. Josephine was now fifteen
years of age. She was attached to Beauharnais, but not with that fervor
of feeling which had previously agitated her heart. She often thought of
William and spoke of him, and at times had misgivings lest there might
be some explanation of his silence. But months had passed on, and she
had received no letter or message from him.
At length the hour for her departure from the island arrived. With
tearful eyes and a saddened heart she left the land of her birth, and
the scenes endeared to her by all the recollections of childhood. Groups
of negroes, from the tottering infant to the aged man of gray hairs,
surrounded her with weeping and loud lamentation. Josephine hastened
on board, the ship got under way, and soon the island of Martinique
disappeared beneath the watery horizon. Josephine sat upon the deck in
perfect silence, watching the dim outline of her beloved home till it
was lost to sight. Her young heart was full of anxiety, of tenderness,
and of regrets. Little, however, could she imagine the career of
strange vicissitudes upon which she was about to enter.
The voyage was long and tempestuous. Storms pursued them all the way. At
one time the ship was dismasted and came near foundering. At length the
welcome cry of "Land" was heard, and Josephine, an unknown orphan child
of fifteen, placed her feet upon the shores of France, that country over
which she was soon to reign the most renowned empress. She hastened to
Fontainebleau, and was there met by Alexander Beauharnais. He received
her with great fondness, and was assiduous in bestowing upon her the
most flattering attentions. But Josephine had hardly arrived at
Fontainebleau before she heard that William and his father were also
residing at that place. Her whole frame trembled like an aspen leaf, and
her heart sunk within her as she received the intelligence. All her
long-cherished affection for the companion of her childhood was revived,
and still she knew not but that William was faithless. He, however,
immediately called, with his father, to see her. The interview was most
embarrassing, for each loved the other intensely, and each had reason to
believe that the other had proved untrue. The next day William called
alone; Josephine, the betrothed bride of Beauharnais, prudently declined
seeing him. He then wrote her a letter, which he bribed a servant to
place in her hands, full of protestations of love, stating how he had
written to her, and passionately inquiring why she turned so coldly from
him.
Josephine read the letter with a bursting heart. She now saw how she had
been deceived. She now was convinced that William had proved faithful to
her, notwithstanding he had so much reason to believe that she had been
untrue to him. But what could she do? She was but fifteen years of age.
She was surrounded only by those who were determined that she should
marry Alexander Beauharnais. She was told that the friends of William
had decided unalterably that he should marry an English heiress, and
that the fortunes of his father's family were dependent upon that
alliance. The servant who had been the bearer of William's epistle was
dismissed, and the other servants were commanded not to allow him to
enter the house.
The agitation of Josephine's heart was such that for some time she was
unable to leave her bed. She entreated her friends to allow her for a
few months to retire to a convent, that she might, in solitary thought
and prayer, regain composure. Her friends consented to this arrangement,
and she took refuge in the convent at Panthemont. Here she spent a few
months in inexpressible gloom. William made many unavailing efforts to
obtain an interview, and at last, in despair, reluctantly received the
wealthy bride, through whom he secured an immense inheritance, and with
whom he passed an unloving life.
The Viscount Beauharnais often called to see her, and was permitted to
converse with her at the gate of her window. In the simplicity of her
heart, she told her friends at the convent of her attachment for
William; how they had been reared together, and how they had loved from
childhood. She felt that it was a cruel fate which separated them, but a
fate before which each must inevitably bow. At last she calmly made up
her mind to comply with the wishes of her friends, and to surrender
herself to the Viscount Beauharnais. There was much in the person and
character of Beauharnais to render him very attractive, and she soon
became sincerely, though never passionately, attached to him.
Josephine was sixteen years of age when she was married. Her social
position was in the midst of the most expensive and fashionable society
of Paris. She was immediately involved in all the excitements of
parties, and balls, and gorgeous entertainments. Her beauty, her grace,
her amiability, and her peculiarly musical voice, which fell like a
charm upon every ear, excited great admiration and not a little envy.
It was a dangerous scene into which to introduce the artless and
inexperienced Creole girl, and she was not a little dazzled by the
splendor with which she was surrounded. Every thing that could minister
to convenience, or that could gratify taste, was lavished profusely
around her. For a time she was bewildered by the novelty of her
situation. But soon she became weary of the heartless pageantry of
fashionable life, and sighed for the tranquil enjoyments of her island
home.
Her husband, proud of her beauty and accomplishments, introduced her at
court. Maria Antoinette, who had then just ascended the throne, and was
in the brilliance of her youth, and beauty, and early popularity, was
charmed with the West Indian bride, and received her without the
formality of a public presentation. When these two young brides met in
the regal palace of Versailles--the one a daughter of Maria Theresa and
a descendant of the Caesars, who had come from the court of Austria to
be not only the queen, but the brightest ornament of the court of
France--the other the child of a planter, born upon an obscure island,
reared in the midst of negresses, as almost her only companions--little
did they imagine that Maria Antoinette was to go down, down, down to the
lowest state of ignominy and woe, while Josephine was to ascend to more
and more exalted stations, until she should sit upon a throne more
glorious than the Caesars ever knew.
French philosophy had at this time undermined the religion of Jesus
Christ. All that is sacred in the domestic relations was withering
beneath the blight of infidelity. Beauharnais, a man of fashion and of
the world, had imbibed, to the full, the sentiments which disgraced the
age. Marriage was deemed a partnership, to be formed or dissolved at
pleasure. Fidelity to the nuptial tie was the jest of philosophers
and witlings. Josephine had soon the mortification of seeing a
proud, beautiful, and artful woman taking her place, and openly and
triumphantly claiming the attentions and the affections of her husband.
This woman, high in rank, loved to torture her poor victim. "Your dear
Alexander," she said to Josephine, "daily lavishes upon others the
tribute of attachment which you think he reserves solely for you." She
could not bear to see the beautiful and virtuous Josephine happy, as the
honored wife of her guilty lover, and she resolved, if possible, to sow
the seeds of jealousy so effectually between them as to secure a
separation.
In the year 1780 Josephine gave birth to her daughter Hortense. This
event seemed for a time to draw back the wandering affections of
Beauharnais. He was really proud of his wife. He admired her beauty and
her grace. He doted upon his infant daughter. But he was an infidel. He
recognized no law of God, commanding purity of heart and life, and he
contended that Josephine had no right to complain, as long as he treated
her kindly, if he did indulge in the waywardness of passion.
The path of Josephine was now, indeed, shrouded in gloom, and each day
seemed to grow darker and darker. Hortense became her idol and her only
comfort. Her husband lavished upon her those luxuries which his wealth
enabled him to grant. He was kind to her in words and in all the
ordinary courtesies of intercourse. But Josephine's heart was well-nigh
broken. A few years of conflict passed slowly away, when she gave birth,
in the year 1783, to her son Eugene. In the society of her children the
unhappy mother found now her only solace.
While the Viscount Beauharnais was ready to defend his own conduct, he
was by no means willing that his wife should govern herself by the same
principles of fashionable philosophy. The code infidel is got up for the
especial benefit of dissolute _men_; their _wives_ must be governed
by another code. The artful woman, who was the prime agent in these
difficulties, affected great sympathy with Josephine in her sorrows,
protested her own entire innocence, but assured her that M. Beauharnais
was an ingrate, entirely unworthy of her affections. She deceived
Josephine, hoarded up the confidence of her stricken heart, and
conversed with her about _William_, the memory of whose faithful love
now came with new freshness to the disconsolate wife.
Josephine, lured by her, wrote a letter to her friends in Martinique,
in which she imprudently said, "Were it not for my children, I should
without a pang, renounce France forever. My duty requires me to forget
William; and yet if _we_ had been united together, I should not to-day
have been troubling you with my griefs."
The woman who instigated her to write this letter was infamous enough
to obtain it by stealth and show it to Beauharnais. His jealousy and
indignation were immediately aroused to the highest pitch. He was led by
this malicious deceiver to believe that Josephine had obtained secret
interviews with William, and the notoriously unfaithful husband was
exasperated to the highest degree at the very suspicion of the want of
fidelity in his wife. He reproached her in language of the utmost
severity, took Eugene from her, and resolved to endeavor, by legal
process, to obtain an entire divorce. She implored him, for the sake of
her children, not to proclaim their difficulties to the world. He,
however, reckless of consequences, made application to the courts for
the annulment of the matrimonial bond. Josephine was now compelled
to defend her own character. She again retired with Hortense to the
convent, and there, through dreary months of solitude, and silence, and
dejection, awaited the result of the trial upon which her reputation as
a virtuous woman was staked. The decree of the court was triumphantly
in her favor, and Josephine returned to her friends to receive their
congratulations, but impressed with the conviction that earth had no
longer a joy in store for her. Her friends did all in their power to
cheer her desponding spirit; but the wound she had received was too deep
to be speedily healed. One day her friends, to divert her mind from
brooding over irreparable sorrows, took her, almost by violence, to
Versailles. They passed over the enchanting grounds, and through the
gorgeously-furnished apartments of the Great and Little Trianon, the
favorite haunts of Maria Antoinette. Here the beautiful Queen of France
was accustomed to lay aside the pageantry of royalty, and to enjoy,
without restraint, the society of those who were dear to her. Days of
darkness and trouble had already begun to darken around her path. As
Josephine was looking at some of the works of art, she was greatly
surprised at the entrance of the queen, surrounded by several ladies
of her court. Maria Antoinette immediately recognized Josephine, and
with that air of affability and kindness which ever characterized her
conduct, she approached her, and, with one of her winning smiles, said,
"Madame Beauharnais, I am very happy to see you at the two Trianons. You
well know how to appreciate their beauties. I should be much pleased to
learn what objects you consider most interesting. I shall always receive
you with pleasure."
These words from the queen were an unspeakable solace to Josephine. Her
afflicted heart needed the consolation. The queen was acquainted with
her trials, and thus nobly assured her of her sympathy and her
confidence. In a few days Maria Antoinette invited Josephine to a
private interview. She addressed her in words of the utmost kindness,
promised to watch over the interests of her son, and at the same time,
as a mark of her especial regard, she took from her neck an antique
ornament of precious stones, and passed it over the neck of Josephine.
The king also himself came in at the interview, for his heart had been
softened by sorrow, and addressed words of consolation to the injured
and discarded wife.
Josephine now received letters from Martinique earnestly entreating her
to return, with her children, to the home of her childhood. World-weary,
she immediately resolved to accept the invitation. But the thought of
crossing the wide ocean, and leaving her son Eugene behind, was a
severe pang to a mother's heart. Eugene had been taken from her and sent
to a boarding-school. Josephine felt so deeply the pang of separation
from her beloved child, that she obtained an interview with M.
Beauharnais, and implored him to allow her to take Eugene with her. He
gave a cold and positive refusal.
A few days after this, Josephine, cruelly separated from her husband and
bereaved of her son, embarked with Hortense for Martinique. She strove
to maintain that aspect of cheerfulness and of dignity which an injured
but innocent woman is entitled to exhibit. When dark hours of
despondency overshadowed her, she tried to console herself with the
beautiful thought of Plautus: "If we support adversity with courage, we
shall have a keener relish for returning prosperity." It does not appear
that she had any refuge in the consolations of religion. She had a vague
and general idea of the goodness of a superintending Providence, but she
was apparently a stranger to those warm and glowing revelations of
Christianity which introduce us to a sympathizing Savior, a guiding and
consoling Spirit, a loving and forgiving Father. Could she then, by
faith, have reposed her aching head upon the bosom of her heavenly
Father, she might have found a solace such as nothing else could confer.
But at this time nearly every mind in France was more or less darkened
by the glooms of infidelity.
The winds soon drove her frail bark across the Atlantic, and Josephine,
pale and sorrow-stricken, was clasped in the arms and folded to the
hearts of those who truly loved her. The affectionate negroes gathered
around her, with loud demonstrations of their sympathy and their joy in
again meeting their mistress. Here, amid the quiet scenes endeared to
her by the recollections of childhood, she found a temporary respite
from those storms by which she had been so severely tossed upon life's
wild and tempestuous ocean.