Note 44 — Chapter IV

At nine o’clock on the evening of the 10th May 1809, shells are thrown into the city of Vienna. At that moment the young Archduchess Marie-Louise was lying stricken down with illness in the paternal palace. The circumstance having been brought to Napoleon’s knowledge, the direction of the projectiles was immediately changed and the palace respected. Oh, the happy day! Who would have told Marie-Louise then that in a few months’ time those same hands that caused Vienna to shake would be weaving crowns for her brow, that at the palace of the Tuileries she would reign over those Frenchmen who inspired such fear.—Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène.