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Page 32
I send you, my dear Bourrienne, two despatches, which I have
received for you. M. de Talleyrand, who sends them, desires me to
request that you will transmit General Victor's by a sure
conveyance.
I do not yet know whether I shall stay long in Berlin. By the last
accounts I received the Emperor is still in Paris, and numerous
forces are assembling on the Rhine. The hopes of peace are
vanishing every day, and Austria does everything to promote war.
I have received accounts from Marshal Bernadotte. He has effected
his passage through Hesse. Marshal Bernadotte was much pleased with
the courtesy he experienced from the Elector.
The junction of the corps commanded by Bernadotte with the army of the
Emperor was very important, and Napoleon therefore directed the Marshal
to come up with him as speedily as possible, and by the shortest road.
It was necessary he should arrive in time for the battle of Austerlitz.
Gustavus, King of Sweden, who was always engaged in some enterprise,
wished to raise an army composed of Swedes, Prussians, and English; and
certainly a vigorous attack in the north would have prevented Bernadotte
from quitting the banks of the Elbe and the Weser, and reinforcing the
Grand Army which was marching on Vienna. But the King of Sweden's
coalition produced no other result than the siege of the little fortress
of Hameln.
Prussia would not come to a rupture with France, the King of Sweden was
abandoned, and Bonaparte's resentment against him increased. This
abortive project of Gustavus contributed not a little to alienate the
affections of his subjects, who feared that they might be the victims of
the revenge excited by the extravagant plans of their King, and the
insults he had heaped upon Napoleon, particularly since the death of the
Due d'Enghien.
On the 13th of September 1805 I received a letter from the Minister of
Police soliciting information about Swedish Pomerania.
Astonished at not obtaining from the commercial Consuls at Lubeck and
Stettin any accounts of the movements of the Russians, I had sent to
those ports, four days before the receipt of the Police Minister's
letter, a confidential agent, to observe the Baltic: though we were only
64 leagues from Stralsund the most uncertain and contradictory accounts
came to hand. It was, however, certain that a landing of the Russians
was expected at Stralsund, or at Travemtinde, the port of Lubeck, at the
mouth of the little river Trave. I was positively informed that Russia
had freighted a considerable number of vessels for those ports.
The hatred of the French continued to increase in the north of Europe.
About the end of September there appeared at Kiel, in Denmark, a
libellous pamphlet, which was bought and read with inconceivable avidity.
This pamphlet, which was very ably written, was the production of some
fanatic who openly preached a crusade against France. The author
regarded the blood of millions of men as a trifling sacrifice for the
great object of humiliating France and bringing her back to the limits of
the old monarchy. This pamphlet was circulated extensively in the German
departments united to France, in Holland, and in Switzerland. The number
of incendiary publications which everywhere abounded indicated but too
plainly that if the nations of the north should be driven back towards
the Arctic regions they would in their turn repulse their conquerors
towards the south; and no man of common sense could doubt that if the
French eagles were planted in foreign capitals, foreign standards would
one day wave over Paris.
On the 30th of September 1805 I received, by an 'estafette', intelligence
of the landing at Stralsund of 6000 Swedes, who had arrived from
Stockholm in two ships of war.
About the end of September the Hamburg exchange on Paris fell alarmingly.
The loss was twenty per cent. The fall stopped at seventeen below par.
The speculation for this fall of the exchange had been made with equal
imprudence and animosity by the house of Osy and Company
The head of that house, a Dutch emigrant, who had been settled at Hamburg
about six years, seized every opportunity of manifesting his hatred of
France. An agent of that rich house at Rotterdam was also very hostile
to us, a circumstance which shows that if many persons sacrifice their
political opinions to their interests there are others who endanger their
interests for the triumph of their opinions.
On the 23d of October 1805 I received official intelligence of the total
destruction of the first Austrian army: General Barbou, who was in
Hanover, also informed me of that event in the following terms: "The
first Austrian army has ceased to exist." He alluded to the brilliant
affair of Ulm. I immediately despatched twelve estafettes to different
parts; among other places to Stralsund and Husum. I thought that these
prodigies, which must have been almost incredible to those who were
unacquainted with Napoleon's military genius, might arrest the progress
of the Russian troops, and produces some change in the movements of the
enemy's forces. A second edition of the 'Correspondent' was published
with this intelligence, and 6000 copies were sold at four times the usual
price.
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