Napoleon left Paris for
Wilna to take command of the vast armies that had been collected for the
invasion, and from that place, on the 11th of October, the duke de
Bassano addressed the following note to Mr. Barlow in Paris:

"SIR: I have had the honor to make known to you how much I regretted, in
the negotiation commenced between the United States and France, the
delays which inevitably attended a correspondence carried on at so great
a distance. Your government has desired to see the epoch of this
arrangement draw near: His Majesty is animated by the same dispositions,
and, willing to assure to the negotiation a result the most prompt, he
has thought that it would be expedient to suppress the intermediaries
and to transfer the conference to Wilna. His Majesty has in consequence
authorized me, sir, to treat directly with you; and if you will come to
this town I dare hope that, with the desire which animates us both to
conciliate such important interests, we shall immediately be enabled to
remove all the difficulties which until now have appeared to impede the
progress of the negotiation. I have apprised the duke of Dalberg that
his mission was thus terminated, and I have laid before His Majesty the
actual state of the negotiation, to the end that when you arrive at
Wilna, the different questions being already illustrated either by your
judicious observation or by the instructions I shall have received, we
may, sir, conclude an arrangement so desirable and so conformable to the
mutually amicable views of our two governments."

Barlow could do no less than comply with this invitation, since, as he
remarked in a letter to Monroe under date of October 25, "it was
impossible to refuse it without giving offence." His letter accepting
the duke's invitation was probably the last ever written by him, and is
dated Paris, October 25, 1812:

"SIR: In consequence of the letter you did me the honor to write me on
the 11th of this month, I accept your invitation, and leave Paris
to-morrow for Wilna, where I hope to arrive in fifteen or eighteen days
from this date. The negotiation on which you have done me the honor to
invite me at Wilna is so completely prepared in all its parts between
the duke of Dalberg and myself, and, as I understand, sent on to you for
your approbation about the 18th of the present month, that I am
persuaded that if it could have arrived before the date of your letter
the necessity of this meeting would not