midnight
Now that she had come to a decision , the queen exhibited a joyous determination , and her mind recovered from its depression . She hastened to dispatch a courier to Malmaison to the Empress Josephine , now forgotten and neglected by all , to conjure her to leave for Novara at once . She then retired to her bedchamber to seek the rest she so much needed after so many hours of excitement . But at midnight she was aroused from her repose to a sad awakening . Her husband , with whom she had held no kind of intercourse since his return , had now , in the hour of danger , determined to assert his marital authority over his wife and children . He wrote the queen a letter , requiring her to leave Paris with her children , and follow the empress . Hortense replied with a decided refusal .