to me at the same time that the city was by no means so rich as formerly, as the war had created so many obstacles to their commerce; and the senate at length, for which I could not greatly blame them, signified to me, in the most delicate manner possible, that their circumstances would not permit them to accept the 'generous proposal' of the emperor. For my own part I could not but consider the proposition I had to make as in the highest degree absurd; since, in fact, there was no real advantage whatever I could offer to the Hanse Towns as an equivalent for their money. Against whom too could he offer to protect them? Prussia, Sweden, Russia, and England, might be and probably were desirous of obtaining possession of these towns, but the very wish which those powers entertained in common, proved the real security of the former; for it is very certain, that if the attempt had been made by either, the other three would immediately have interposed to prevent it. The truth is, that Napoleon even then wished to make an open seizure of these places, a pretext for which, however, he was not able to find till about four years afterwards.

The emperor arrived at Paris about the end of January, 1806. Having created kings in Germany, he deemed it a favourable opportunity for surrounding his throne with a new race of princes. At this period, therefore, he created Murat Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg; Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte Corvo; M. de Talleyrand, Duke of Benevento, and his two former colleagues, Cambacérès and Lebrun, Dukes of Parma and Placenza. He likewise gave to his sister Pauline, who had a short time before contracted a second marriage with the Prince Borghèse, the title of Duchess of Guastalla. How extraordinary the course of events! Who could then have foreseen that the Duchy of Cambacérès would afford a refuge to a Princess of Austria, the widow of Napoleon, ere death had made her so?

The affairs of the Bourbon princes now wore every day a more unfavourable aspect, and such was the exhausted state of their finances, that it was intimated to the emigrants at Brunswick, that the pretender could no longer continue their pensions. This produced the greatest consternation amongst them, as it deprived many of their sole means of existence, who, notwithstanding their fidelity to the royal cause, were by no

means disinclined that it should be strengthened by a pension. Amongst these emigrants was an individual whose name will occupy no ambiguous place in history; I allude to Dumouriez, of whom I have before spoken, and who was now busying himself in the peaceful employment of distributing pamphlets. He was then at Stralsund, and it was supposed the King of Sweden would entrust him with a command. The unsettled life of this general, who wandered from place to place soliciting, but in vain, to be employed against his native country, rendered him an object of general ridicule; in fact, he was every where looked upon with contempt.

With a view to put an end to all disputes, as regarded Holland,-which Dumouriez dreamed of conquering with an army which existed only in his own imagination,— and dissatisfied moreover with the Dutch, who had not excluded English vessels from their ports so rigorously as he desired, the emperor formed these states into a kingdom, which he conferred upon his brother Louis.

When, with other official matters, I communicated to the states of the circle of Lower Saxony, the accession of Louis to the throne of Holland, and the nomination of Cardinal Fesch as coadjutor and successor of the Archchancellor of the Germanic empire, I remarked that the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the only one who made no reply to me, and I learnt afterwards that he had applied to the court of Petersburg for instructions, 'whether, and in what way, he should reply.' He at the same time sent information to the emperor of the marriage of his daughter, the Princess Charlotte Frederica, with Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark.

At this period it would have been difficult to foresee in what way this union was destined to terminate. The prince was young, possessed of an agreeable exterior, and amiable disposition; every thing seemed to promise that he would prove a good husband. As to the princess, she was in person exceedingly beautiful, but her mind was thoughtless and volatile in the extreme; in short, she was completely a spoiled child. She adored her husband, and for several years their union was perfectly happy; little indeed did they imagine that they were afterwards to be separated for ever. The princess was at this time in all the height of her beauty; fêtes were frequently given in her honour on the banks of the Elbe,

at which the prince always opened the ball with Madame de Bourrienne. Lovely as she was; however, the Princess Charlotte could not secure the affection of the Danish court, which was occupied in intrigues against her. I am not aware that there were any real grounds of reproach in her behaviour, but the stately dames of the court objected to her continual levities, and, whether with reason or not, her husband considered himself obliged to separate from her; she was accordingly sent at the commencement of 1809 to Altona, attended by a chamberlain and a maid of honour. On her arrival, she gave herself up to despair; her's, however, was not a silent grief, for she related her history to every body. The unfortunate lady really excited commiseration when she wept for her son, three years of age, whom she was destined never to see again. But her natural levity soon gained the ascendancy; she did not continue to observe the decorum becoming her station, and some months afterwards was sent into Jutland, where, I believe, she is still living.

CHAP. XXVII.

Menaces of Prussia-Hostilities commenced between France and Prussia-Battle of Jena-Death of the Duke of Brunswick.

IN September, 1806, it was pretty evident that, as soon as war should break out between France and Prussia, Russia would not be long in forming an alliance with the latter. Peace, however, had been re-established between Napoleon and Alexander by virtue of a treaty just signed at Paris, by which Russia engaged to evacuate the mouths of the Cataro, a condition which she shewed no great readiness to fulfil. I received, too, a number of the St. Petersburg Court Gazette, containing an ukase of the Emperor of Russia, in which he pointed out the dangers which again menaced Europe; and shewed the necessity which existed of watching over the general tranquillity and the security of his own empire, declaring his intention, in consequence, not only of completing, but augmenting his army. A levy therefore was ordered of four men out of every five hundred inhabitants. Before the commencement of hostilities, Duroc was sent to the King of Prussia in order to dis

cover if there were yet a possibility of renewing negotiations; but affairs were already too much embarrassed, and all his endeavours were ineffectual. Perhaps, too, the King of Prussia had it no longer in his power to avoid a war with France; but be that as it may, he certainly had just grounds of complaint against her emperor. For although the latter, as we have seen, had given Hanover to him in exchange for the two margravates, he had nevertheless offered the restitution of that province to England, as one of the conditions of the treaty entered into with Mr. Fox. These clandestine proceedings were not unknown to the Berlin cabinet, and thus Duroc's mission was rendered useless by Napoleon's duplicity.

The King of Prussia was at this time at Weimar. The period was now approaching when the horrors of war were to be renewed in Germany, and in proportion as the hopes of peace were diminished the threats of Prussia redoubled. Inspired by the memory of the great Frederic, she was utterly averse to peace. Her measures, which hitherto had been sufficiently moderate, all at once assumed a menacing character, upon learning that the minister of the King of England had announced to parliament that France had consented to the restitution of Hanover. The French minister intimated to Prussia that this was a preliminary step towards a general peace, and that she would be liberally indemnified in return. But the King of Prussia, well aware how pertinaciously the house of Hanover clung to this ancient domain, which gave to England a certain preponderance in Germany, considered himself trifled with, and determined on war. He was, moreover, ambitious of the character of the liberator of Germany, and rejected every offer of compensation. Under these circumstances, Lord Lauderdale having been recalled from Paris by his government, the war with England continued, and was about to commence with Prussia. The cabinet of Berlin sent an ultimatum, couched -in terms which almost amounted to a defiance. From the well-known character of Napoleon, we may judge of his irritation at this ultimatum; and after a stay of eight months in Paris, passed in ineffectual negotiations, he set out on the 25th of September for the Rhine. On the 10th of October, 1806, hostilities commenced be

tween France and Prussia, and I demanded of the Senate that a stop should be put to the Prussian recruiting. The news of a great victory gained by the emperor over the Prussians on the 14th of October, was brought to Hamburg on the 19th by some fugitives, who gave such contradictory and exaggerated accounts of the loss the French army had sustained, that it was not till the 28th of October, when the official despatches arrived, that we knew whether to mourn or rejoice at the victory of Jena.

The Duke of Brunswick, who was dangerously wounded at the battle of Auerstaedt, arrived on the 29th of October at Altona. His entrance into that city presented a new and striking illustration of the vicissitudes of fortune. A sovereign prince, of high military reputation, but lately in the peaceable enjoyment of power in his own capital, now vanquished and wounded, was brought into Altona on a wretched litter borne by ten men, without officers or attendants, followed by a crowd of children and vagabonds drawn together by curiosity. He was lodged in a miserable inn, so much exhausted by fatigue and the pain in his eyes, that the day after his arrival his death was very generally reported. Doctor Unzer was immediately sent for to relieve the sufferings of the unfortunate duke; who, during the few days that he survived his wounds, saw no one but his wife, who joined him on the 1st of November. No visitors were admitted to see him, and on the 10th of the same month he expired. At this juncture Bernadotte returned to Hamburg. I asked him what construction I was to put on his conduct while he was with Davoust, who had left Nauemburg to attack the Prussian army; and whether it were true that he had refused to march with that general, and afterwards to assist him in his attack upon the Prussians on the Weimar road? 'My letters inform me,' I observed, that you took no part in the battle of Auerstaedt. To this statement I gave no credit, but doubtless you have seen the bulletin which I received a short time after the battle, in which it is mentioned that Bonaparte said at Nauemburg, in the presence of several officers, "Were I to bring him before a court-martial he would be shot. I shall say nothing to him about it, but he shall be at no loss to understand what I think of his behaviour. He has too nice a sense