DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67419#0415
NEEDLEWORK OF ROYAL LADIES.
393
after her divorce from Bonaparte, she kept a sort of
domestic court at Navarre or Malmaison, she and
her ladies worked daily at tapestry or embroidery-
one reading aloud whilst the others were thus occu-
pied , and the hangings of the saloon at Malmaison
were entirely her own work. They must have been
elegant; the material was white silk, the embroi-
dery roses, in which at intervals were entwined her
own initials.
An interesting circumstance is related of a con-
versation between one of those ministering spirits a
soeur de la charite and Josephine, in a time of pecu-
liar excitement and trouble. At the conclusion
of it, the soeur, having discovered with whom she
was conversing, added, “ Since I am addressing the
mother of the afflicted, I no longer fear my being
indiscreet in any demand I may make for suffering
humanity. We are in great want of lint; if your
majesty would condescend”-“I promise you
shall have some ; we will make it ourselves.”
From that moment the evenings were employed
at Malmaison in making lint, and the empress
yielded to none in activity at this work.
Few of my readers will have accompanied me to
this point without anticipating the name with which
these slight notices of royal needlewomen must con-
clude—a name which all know, and which, knowing,
all reverence as that of a dignified princess, a noble
and admirable matron—Adelaide, our Dowager
Queen. It was hers to reform the morals of a court
which, to our shame, had become licentious; it was
hers to render its charmed circle as pure and virtu-
ous as the domestic hearth of the most scrupulous
s 3
393
after her divorce from Bonaparte, she kept a sort of
domestic court at Navarre or Malmaison, she and
her ladies worked daily at tapestry or embroidery-
one reading aloud whilst the others were thus occu-
pied , and the hangings of the saloon at Malmaison
were entirely her own work. They must have been
elegant; the material was white silk, the embroi-
dery roses, in which at intervals were entwined her
own initials.
An interesting circumstance is related of a con-
versation between one of those ministering spirits a
soeur de la charite and Josephine, in a time of pecu-
liar excitement and trouble. At the conclusion
of it, the soeur, having discovered with whom she
was conversing, added, “ Since I am addressing the
mother of the afflicted, I no longer fear my being
indiscreet in any demand I may make for suffering
humanity. We are in great want of lint; if your
majesty would condescend”-“I promise you
shall have some ; we will make it ourselves.”
From that moment the evenings were employed
at Malmaison in making lint, and the empress
yielded to none in activity at this work.
Few of my readers will have accompanied me to
this point without anticipating the name with which
these slight notices of royal needlewomen must con-
clude—a name which all know, and which, knowing,
all reverence as that of a dignified princess, a noble
and admirable matron—Adelaide, our Dowager
Queen. It was hers to reform the morals of a court
which, to our shame, had become licentious; it was
hers to render its charmed circle as pure and virtu-
ous as the domestic hearth of the most scrupulous
s 3