The warmth with which he thanked her again and again for her zeal and her intelligent execution of his literary and scientific commissions, the delicacy with which he endeavoured repeatedly, but always in vain, to compel her acceptance of some of the pecuniary results of his writings, testify at once to the high value and thorough unselfishness of her work.

"[5] The rupture lasted for twelve years, although Hortense broke her silence to write and congratulate the Emperor on the birth of his son, the Prince Imperial, in 1856.

[15] One tribute to her, written after her death, stated that "she only made use of her influence with the emperor to repair and to prevent injustice, and she refused to accept a fortune from him, saying that she wished to preserve the right of telling him the truth.

"[16] According to Maxime du Camp "...there was in her a liberal fund, where often she drew the strength to combat the too authoritarian counsels of which the 'entourage' was not stingy...very often she intervened to soften the punishments incurred from political offenses.

[8][22] In 1841, Cornu translated the works of Benjamin Franklin into French (Mémoires complets, oeuvres morales et littéraires de B.

[25][26][27] Cornu promoted various archaeological expeditions in the Middle East and was the only woman to be admitted to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

[28] She also played an important role in establishing the National Archaeological Museum, France at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, helping to recruit archaeologists for the new institution.

[30] According to Renan, Cornu had a particularly successful influence in the sphere of educational reform: "The creation of several courses...at the College of France, the establishment of the School for Higher Studies, many scientific missions – some of which were very fruitful – a new impulse imparted to the acquisition of objects of antiquity, a great number of publications undertaken with the justest feeling of the requirements of erudition, marked a new era...all this belonged to her indirectly, since it was under her influence that the Emperor entered into the direction of ideas which rendered the second half of his reign a very brilliant epoch for critical studies.

[2] According to Ernest Renan, "this woman, to whom so many people owed their lives and fortunes, found herself in a state bordering on privation...If some of her friends had not made her understand that her poverty would be an insupportable reproach to them, she would have died in destitution.