Dispersal of the Bonaparte family—Caroline—She accompanies Joseph and his wife to Rome—Her sojourn there—Murder of General Duphot by the Papal troops—Return of Joseph and his relatives to Paris—Caroline is sent to Madame Campan’s pension at Saint-Germain—Louis Bonaparte and Émilie de Beauharnais—Madame Bonaparte at Ajaccio—Her letters to Madame Clary—Birth of a son to Élisa—Pauline at Milan—Birth and baptism of her son Dermide—She comes to Paris—Her success in Society—She attends Madame Permon’s ball in “a toilette which is intended to immortalise her”—But is cruelly humiliated by a rival beauty.

ABSTRACT

At the beginning of July, the family gathering at Montebello broke up. Napoleon removed his headquarters to Passeriano, whither the negotiations with Austria were now transferred, and was followed by Louis and Joséphine; Pauline and her husband went to Milan, where Leclerc’s brigade was stationed; Jérôme was sent back to the College of Juilly; Madame Bonaparte, who was impatient to revisit her native land, returned to Marseilles, from whence she sailed to Corsica, accompanied by Élisa and Baciocchi, who, thanks to the good offices of his all-powerful brother, had been promoted to the rank of general of brigade, and—since Napoleon had no intention of allowing him to advertise his incapacity in Italy—appointed 182Commandant of the citadel of Ajaccio; while Joseph, who had just been nominated French Ambassador at Rome, set out for the Eternal City, taking with him his wife and his youngest sister Caroline.