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Amulets: Ancient, Medieval, and Oriental: Josephine

In the summer of 1804, Empress Josephine went to Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) to take the waters there, and during her stay, on August 1, she visited the tomb of Charlemagne in the Cathedral. We are told that Napoleon, who joined Josephine at Aix-le-Chapelle on September 3, had already authorized the Cathedral chapter to part with certain of the relics and bestow them upon Josephine at the time of her visit to the tomb. This authorization, of course, was only a polite equivalent for a command, and was duly carried out, the most prized object secured by Josephine being precisely this famed talisman. It eventually came into the hands of Hortense, Josephine's daughter, the mother of Napoleon III, and was inherited by him. It is said to be now in a private collection in Paris. Empress Eugenie is stated to have worn it at the time of the birth of the Prince Imperial, and to have further shown her belief in the mystic, or magic, virtues of the talisman by sending it several years later to Biarritz, that it might be kept for a time in the sick-room of M. Bacciochi, when he was prostrated by illness in that city.