arrived at the eastern frontier. "I quitted, (said she,)
the territory of France, from which the allied powers
expelled me, in haste, weak woman as I am, with my
two sons ; so much was I feared by them, that from
post to post the enemies' troops were under arms, as it
was said, to protect my safe passage." It was thus
that the young princes whose birth was welcomed by
the thunder of cannon, and who had grown up under
the shadow of the greatest throne in the world, saw all
the magnificence of royalty depart from them. "With
their youth, their country, their family, and. their fu-
ture hopes, all seemed to disappear at once, and give
place to exile and the bitter trials of the world into
which they were entering by the gate of misfortune.
Augsburg, and afterward a house on the shores of the
Lake Constance, was the asylum to which Queen
Hortense retired. In this retreat she devoted herself
wholly to the education of her sons. Prince Louis
Napoleon was admitted into the camp at Thun, in the
canton of Eerne, which the Swiss assembled every
year for the instruction and practice of engineer and
artillery officers, under the direction of Napoleon's
skillful officers. This instruction consisted not merely
in communicating information on the science, but in
actual maneuvers and expeditions among the glaciers,*
in which the young prince, with his knapsack on his
back, took part, partaking of the bread of the common
soldier, and with his pick and compass in his hand.
