Part 3 (1/2)

The lively satisfaction which Bonaparte randeur where fortune had placed him was not, however, entirely unmixed with uneasiness and vexation Except at Berlin, in all the other great Courts the Emperor of the French was still Monsieur Bonaparte; and your country, of the subjugation of which he had spoken with such lightness and such inconsideration, instead of dreading, despised his boasts and defied his threats Indeed, never before did the Cabinet of St James more opportunely expose the reality of his impotency, the impertinence of his menaces, and the folly of his parade for the invasion of your country, than by declaring all the ports containing his invincible armada in a state of blockade I have heard from an officer itnessed his fury when in May, 1799, he was compelled to retreat from before St Jean d'Acre, and as by his side in the cane when a despatch infor co it For an hour afterwards not even his brother Joseph dared approach hiot so far the better of his policy, that whatbeen concealed fro to the whole camp

He dictated to his secretary orders for his Ministers at Vienna, Berlin, Lisbon, and Madrid, and couriers were sent aith them; but half an hour afterwards other couriers were despatched after them with other orders, which were revoked in their turn, when at last Joseph had succeeded in cal night full dressed and agitated; lying down only for an instant, but having always in his roo on a thousandthe insolent islanders; all equally violent, but all equally i, when, as usual, he went to see theof his troops, he looked so pale that he almost excited pity Your cruisers, however, as if they had been informed of the situation of our hero, approached unusually near, to evince, as it were, their contempt and, derision He ordered instantly all the batteries to fire, and went himself to that which carried its shot farthest; but thatdown their sails, cast anchors, with the greatest sang-froid, just without the reach of our shot In an unavailing anger he broke upon the spot six officers of artillery, and pushed one, Captain d' Ablincourt, down the precipice under the battery, where he narrowly escaped breaking his neck as well as his legs; for which injury he was coion of Honour Bonaparte then convoked upon the spot a council of his generals of artillery and of the engineers, and, within an hour's tireater calibre were carried up to replace the others; but, fortunately for the generals, before a trial could be ed, and your cruisers sailed

In returning to breakfast at General Soult's, he observed the countenances of his soldiers rather inclined to laughter than to wrath; and he heard soh in the vocabulary of encampments, and which informed him that contempt was not the sentiment hich your navy had inspired his troops The occurrences of these two days hastened his departure fro of his courtiers consoled hilish tars

LETTER X

PARIS, August, 1805

MY LORD:--According to a general belief in our diplomatic circles, it was the Austrian Ambassador in France, Count von Cobenzl, who principally influenced the determination of Francis II to assume the hereditary title of Ee Napoleon Emperor of the French

Johann Philipp, Count von Cobenzl, enjoys, not only in his own country, but through all Europe, a great reputation as a statesman, and has for a number of years been employed by his Court in the most intricate and delicate political transactions In 1790 he was sent to Brabant to treat with the Belgian insurgents; but the States of Brabant refusing to receive hi, where he published a proclamation, in which Leopold II revoked all those edicts of his predecessor, Joseph II, which had been the principal cause of the troubles; and reestablished everything upon the san of Maria Theresa In 1791 he was appointed A, where his conduct obtained the approbation of his own Prince and of the Empress of Russia

In 1793 the Couer, De Semonville, Ambassador to the Ottoainst Austria and Russia, and it becareat consequence to the two Iicides He was therefore stopped, on the 25th of July, in the village of Novate, near the lake of Chiavenne A rumour was very prevalent at this time that so Count von Cobenzl as a correspondent with the revolutionary French generals The continued confidence of his Sovereign contradicts, however, this inculpation, which seems to have been merely the invention of rivalry or jealousy

In October, 1795, Count von Cobenzl signed, in the naland and Russia; and in 1797 he was one of the Iotiate with Bonaparte, honed the Treaty of Campo Formio In the saress broke up, he returned again as an A

After the Peace of Lunwille, when it required to have a man of experience and talents to oppose to our so deeply able Minister, Talleyrand, the Cabinet of Vienna removed him from Russia to France, where, with all other representatives of Princes, he has experienced race, of our present Sovereign

Count von Cobenzl's foible is said to be a passion for women; and it is reported that our worthy Minister, Talleyrand, has been kind enough to assist him frequently in his amours Some adventures of this sort, which occurred at Rastadt, afforded much amusement at the Count's expense

Talleyrand, from envy, no doubt, does not allow him the same politicalfrequently repeated that ”the official dinners of Count von Cobenzl were greatly preferable to his official notes”

So well pleased was Bonaparte with this Aular favour, he permitted him, with the Marquis de Gallo (the Neapolitan Minister and another plenipotentiary at Udine), to visit the caland on the coast It is true that this condescension was, perhaps, as much a boast, or a threat, as a compliment

The famous diplomatic note of Talleyrand, which, at Aix-la-Chapelle proscribed en e of Bonaparte's for your mandate of blockade Rumour states that this measure was not approved of by Talleyrand, as it would not exclude any of your Ambassadors from those Courts not immediately under the whip of our Napoleon For fear, however, of soant deter before his brother any objections or representations ”But what absurdities do I not sign!”

exclaimed the pliant Minister

Bonaparte, on his arrival at Aix-la-Chapelle, found there, according to con diplo to present their new credentials to hine had been saluted as such, in the same place, about one thousand years before,--an inducene to set all these A soratify his ine had walked, sat, slept, talked, eaten or prayed, was visited by hi behind hin representatives, and by his side his wife To a peasant who presented hine was said to have once kneeled, he gave nearly half its weight in gold; on a priest who offered him a small crucifix, before which that Prince was reported to have prayed, he bestowed an episcopal see; to a manufacturer he ordered one thousand louis for a portrait of Charlehter, but which, in fact, was frohter of the manufacturer; a German savant was made a member of the National Institute for an old diplone, who e, was registered in the Legion of Honour for a ring presented by this Eh his nobility is well known not to be of sixty years' standing But woe to hiest any doubt about what Napoleon believed, or seemed to believe! A German professor, Richter, more a pedant than a courtier, and more sincere than wise, addressed a short memorial to Bonaparte, in which he proved, from his intimacy with antiquity, that ne were i of this century, the diploma written in the last; the crucifix , perhaps, within ten years The night after Bonaparte had perused this endarmes, entered the professor's bedroom, forced him to dress, and ushered him into a covered cart, which carried him under escort to the left bank of the Rhine; where he was left with orders, under pain of death, never more to enter the territory of the French Empire This expeditious and summary justice silenced all other connoisseurs and antiquarians; and relics of Charlene have since poured in in such numbers from all parts of France, Italy, Germany, and even Denmark, that we are here in hope to see one day established a Museune, by the side of the museums Napoleon and Josephine A ballad, written in hters and reat festivities, was addressed to Duroc, by a Danish professor, Cranener, who in return was presented, on the part of Bonaparte, with a dia worth twelve thousand livres--L 500 This ballad may, perhaps, be the foundation of future Bibliotheque or Lyceuust, 1805

MY LORD:--On the arrival of her husband at Aix-la-Chapelle, Mada her health by using the baths and drinking the waters; she was, therefore, as poor as low-spirited, and as ill-tempered as dissatisfied Napoleon himself was neither much in huances, or to forgive her ill-nature; he ascribed the inefficacy of the waters to her excesses, and reproached her for her too great condescension to -room and in her circle, but who, from their rank in life, were only fit to be seen as supplicants in her antechambers, and as associates with her valets or chambermaids