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he whole political horizon, apparently bright at Erfurt, completely
overcast. Murat, balked of the Crown of Spain, is now hoping for that
of France if Napoleon is killed or assassinated. It is Talleyrand and
Fouche who have decided on Murat, and on the ultimate overthrow of the
Beauharnais. Unfortunately for their plans Eugene is apprised by
Lavalette, and an incriminating letter to Murat captured and sent
post-haste to Napoleon. This, says Pasquier, undoubtedly hastened the
Emperor's return. Ignoring the complicity of Fouche, the whole weight
of his anger falls on Talleyrand, who loses the post of High
Chamberlain, which he had enjoyed since 1804. For half-an-hour this
"arch-apostate," as Lord Rosebery calls him, receives a torrent of
invectives. "You are a thief, a coward, a man without honour; you do
not believe in God; you have all your life been a traitor to your
duties; you have deceived and betrayed everybody: nothing is sacred to
you; you would sell your own father. I have loaded you down with
gifts, and there is nothing that you would not undertake against me.
Thus, for the past ten months, you have been shameless enough, because
you supposed, rightly or wrongly, that my affairs in Spain were going
astray, to say to all who would listen to you that you always blamed
my undertaking there, whereas it was yourself who first put it into my
head, and who persistently urged it. And that man, _that unfortunate_
(he was thus designating the Duc d'Enghien), by whom was I advised of
the place of his residence? Who drove me to deal cruelly with him?
What then are you aiming at? What do you wish for? What do you hope?
Do you dare to say? You deserve that I should smash you like a
wine-glass. I can do it, but I despise you too much to take the
trouble." This we are assured by the impartial Pasquier, who heard it
from an ear-witness, and second-hand from Talleyrand, is an abstract
of what Napoleon said, and to which the ex-Bishop made no reply.

No. 12.

_The English are in utter rout._--Still little but dead men and horses
fell into his hands. Savary adds the interesting fact that all the
(800) dead cavalry horses had a foot missing, which the English had
to show their officers to prove that they had not sold their horses.
Scott, on barely sufficient evidence perhaps, states, "The very
treasure-chests of the army were thrown away and abandoned. There was
never so complete an example of a disastrous retreat." The fact seems
to have been that the soldiership was bad, but Moore's generalship
excellent. Napier writes, "No wild horde of Tartars ever fell with
more license upon their rich effeminate neighbours than did the
English troops upon the Spanish towns taken by storm." What could be
expected of such men in retreat, when even Lord Melville had just said
in extenuation of our army that the worst men make the best soldiers?

NOS. 13 AND 14.

Written at Valladolid. Here he received a deputation asking that his
brother may reside in Madrid, to which he agrees, and awaits its
arrangement before setting out for Paris.

At Valladolid he met De Pradt, whom he mistrusted; but who, like
Talleyrand, always amused him. In the present case the Abbe told him
that "the Spaniards would never thank him for interfering in their
behalf, and that they were like Sganarelle in the farce, who
quarrelled with a stranger for interfering with her husband when he
was beating her" (Scott's "Napoleon").

He leaves Valladolid January 17th, and is in Paris on January 24th. He
rode the first seventy miles, to Burgos, in five and a half hours,
stopping only to change horses.[69] Well might Savary say, "Never had
a sovereign ridden at such a speed."

_Eugene has a daughter._--The Princess Eugenie-Hortense, born December
23rd at Milan; married the hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern
Hechingen.

_They are foolish in Paris_--if not worse. Talleyrand, Fouche, and
others were forming what amounted to a conspiracy, and the Empress
herself, wittingly or unwittingly, had served as their tool. For the
first time she answers a deputation of the Corps Legislatif, who come
to congratulate her on her husband's victories, and says that
doubtless his Majesty would be very sensible of the homage of an
assembly _which represents the nation_. Napoleon sees in this remark a
germ of aggression on behalf of his House of Commons, more especially
when emphasised by 125 blackballs against a Government Bill. He takes
the effective but somewhat severe step of contradicting his wife in
the _Moniteur_, or rather declaring that the Empress knew the laws too
well not to know that the Emperor was the chief representative of the
People, then the Senate, and last the Corps Legislatif.

"It would be a wild and even criminal assertion to try to represent
the nation before the Emperor."

All through the first half of 1809 another dangerous plot, of which
the centre was the Princess of Tour and Taxis, had its threads far and
wide. Many of Soult's generals were implicated, and in communication
with the English, preventing their commander getting news of
Wellesley's movements (Napier). When they find Soult cannot be
traduced, they lend a willing ear to stirring up strife between the
Emperor and Soult, by suggesting that the latter should be made King
of Portugal. Madame d'Abrantes, who heard in 1814 that the idea had
found favour with English statesmen, thinks such a step would have
seriously injured Napoleon (vol. iv. 53).

FOOTNOTES

 [67] Napoleon visited Madrid and its Palais Royal incognito, and (like
 Vienna) by night (Bausset).

 [68] With Lejeune on one occasion.

 [69] _Biographie Universelle._ Michaud says _ponies_.

SERIES L

1809.

The dangers surrounding Napoleon were immense. The Austrian army,
320,000 strong (with her Landwehr, 544,000 men) and 800 cannon, had
never been so great, never so fitted for war. Prussia was already
seething with secret societies, of which as yet the only formidable
one was the Tugendbund, whose headquarters were Konigsburg, and whose
chief members were Stein, Stadion, Blucher, Jahn. Perhaps their most
sensible scheme was to form a united German empire, with the Archduke
Charles[70] as its head. The Archduke Ferdinand invaded the Duchy of
Warsaw, and had he taken Thorn with its park of 100 cannon, Prussia
was to join Austria. In Italy the Carbonari and Adelphes[71] only
waited for the French troops to go north to meet the Austrians to
spread revolt in Italy. Of the former the head lodge was at Capua and
its constitutions written in English, since England was aiding this
_chouanerie religieuse_ as a lever against Napoleon. England had an
army of 40,000 men ready to embark in any direction--to Holland,
Belgium, Naples, or Biscay, while the French troops in Portugal were
being tampered with to receive Moreau as their leader, and to march
with Spaniards and English for the Pyrenees. At Paris Talleyrand was
in partial disgrace, but he and Fouche were still plotting--the
latter, says Pelet, forwarding daily a 

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