ht. Next day an order was posted about
the city prohibiting the cry of hurrah! under pain of a severe
punishment. It was also forbidden that more than three persona should
collect together in the streets. Thus it was that certain persons
imposed the French yoke upon towns and provinces which were previously
happy.

Dupas was as much execrated in the Hanse Towns as Clarke had been in
Berlin when he was governor of that capital during the campaign of 1807.
Clarke had burdened the people of Berlin with every kind of oppression
and exaction. He, as well as many others, manifested a ready obedience
in executing the Imperial orders, however tyrannical they might be; and
Heaven knows what epithets invariably accompanied the name of Clarke when
pronounced by the lips of a Prussian.

Dupas seemed to have taken Clarke as his model. An artillery officer,
who was in Hamburg at the time of the disturbance I have just mentioned,
told me that it was he who was directed to place two pieces of
light-artillery before the gate of Altona. Having executed this order,
he went to General Dupas, whom he found in a furious fit of passion,
breaking and destroying everything within his reach. In the presence of
the officer he broke more than two dozen plates which were on the table
before him: these plates, of course, had cost him very little!

On the day after the disturbance which had so fatal a termination I wrote
to inform the Prince of Porte-Corvo of what had taken place; and in my
letter I solicited the suppression of an extraordinary tribunal which had
been created by General Dupas. He returned me an immediate answer,
complying with my request. His letter was as follows:

I have received your letter, my dear Minister: it forcibly conveys
the expression of your right feeling, which revolts against
oppression, severity, and the abase of power. I entirely concur in
your view of the subject, and I am distressed whenever I see such
acts of injustice committed. On an examination of the events which
took place on the 19th it is impossible to deny that the officer who
ordered the gates to be closed so soon was in the wrong; and next,
it may be asked, why were not the gates opened instead of the,
military being ordered to fire on the people? But, on the other
hand, did not the people evince decided obstinacy and
insubordination? were they not to blame in throwing stones at the
guard, forcing the palisades, an