XVII.
A SON.
And now, within three months after the marriage, Marie Louise gave signs that she was going to become a mother; and Napoleon is transported. At eight in the morning, on March 20th, 1811, after a painful time and some danger, Marie Louise gave birth to the poor child who is known to history as the Duke of Reichstadt.
The child remained seven minutes without giving a sign of life; Napoleon glanced at him, thought him dead, and occupied himself solely with the Empress. At last the child emitted a cry, and then the Emperor went and kissed his son. The crowd assembled in the Tuileries gardens awaited with anxiety the delivery of the Empress. A salute of twenty-one guns was to announce a girl, a hundred a son. At the twenty-second report, delirious joy spread among the people. Napoleon, standing behind a curtain at one of the windows of the Empress's room, enjoyed the spectacle of the general intoxication, and was profoundly moved by it. Large tears rolled down his cheeks, of which he seemed to be unconscious, and in that state he came to kiss his son a second time.
