It is thus that opportunity only is wanting to men
of real genius and capacity, to make manifest the
qualities within them, and assure them of a commanding
position among their fellow men. This Napoleon had



JOSEPHINE. 89

gained, and straightway the path of fortune was wide
and smooth before him. Happy accidents almost
poured upon him, and none was more singularly au-
spicious than that which introduced him to a wife.
One day he was applied to by a boy not more than
ten years of age, for the restoration of his father's
sword, which had been seized in the general search,
although its owner was long 6ince dead. The ingenu-
ous earnestness of the youth pleaded in his favor,
and Napoleon restored him the sword ; but he was
induced to ask the circumstances of the family to
which he belonged. His father, Alexander de Beau-
harnais, had commanded one of the armies of the
republic, but had lost his head in the Eeign of Ter-
ror ; his mother, Josephine, still survived, having nar-
rowly escaped the same fate by the fortunate overthrow
of Robespierre within a few hours of her intended
execution. She was a native of Martinique, and was
enveloped in a strange interest, from the remarkable
prophecies that had been made concerning her. In
one of these, delivered by an old negress, she herself <
put faith, with the superstition natural to her clime ;
and so far, in truth, the prediction had been verified.
