During this trip to Belgium, they had separated along the way. Bonaparte had gone as far as Koblenz on the Rhine River.
He had reached the "border river," though the bronze equestrian statue of William I that would symbolize German Corner did not yet stand there.
He had tried to move the tomb of a general named Marceau back to France. The general was said to have been cremated, his ashes placed in a pyramid designed for him by Kléber.
She sat in the carriage, holding the pink box containing Bonaparte's clothes, with no idea what she was thinking.
First, Napoleon Bonaparte really was dead. His coffin rested at Les Invalides in the twentieth century.
Second, he was Josephine's husband. If one day he truly... Josephine should be the one receiving these things.
But history said Josephine had died before Napoleon, and when his own time came, the Austrian princess he had married...
Her mind was a mess, but the carriage had already begun to move slowly.
When the gates of the Seine River Administration opened, there were surprisingly many people outside. At first, they craned their necks and pressed forward. Once the carriage drew near, they backed away and cleared a path.
"What are they doing?" Polina asked.
"Burying peace," said Catherina, wife of the Batavian ambassador to Amiens.
Georgiana remained expressionless.
The historical Treaty of Amiens had lasted only a year. One year was just enough to tally the cost of maintaining peace and the profits it produced. As Bonaparte had put it, "profitable war" and "unprofitable peace."
What it brought was not peace, but a truce, even with the Pope intervening to witness the treaty's signing.
When someone possessed power, they never felt they lacked anything. Whatever he or she wanted, the next order would bring it