partments beyond the Alps which he had just
founded; and of which he made the eighth Grand Dignitary of the Empire.
General Menou, whom I had not seen since Egypt, was obliged by this
appointment to leave Turin, where he had always remained. Bonaparte, not
wishing to permit him to come to Paris, sent Menou to preside over the
Junta of Tuscany, of which he soon afterwards made another
General-Governorship, which he entrusted to the care of his sister Elisa.

--[Prince Camille Philippe Louis Borghese (1755-1832), an Italian,
had married, 6th November 1808, Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of
Napoleon, and the widow of General Leclerc. He had been made Prince
and Duke of Guastalla when that duchy was given to his wife, 30th
Marsh 1806. He separated from his wife after a few years. Indeed
Pauline was impossible as a wife if half of the stories about her
are true. It was she who, finding that a lady was surprised at her
having sat naked while a statue of her was being modelled for
Canova, believed she had satisfactorily explained matters by saying,
"but there was a fire in the room."]--

My correspondence relative to what passed in the south of France and of
Europe presented to me, if I may so express myself, merely an anecdotal
interest. Not so the news which came from the north. At Hamburg I was
like the sentinel of an advanced post, always on the alert. I frequently
informed the Government of what would take place before the event
actually happened. I was one of the first to hear of the plans of Russia
relative to Sweden. The courier whom I sent to Paris arrived there at
the very moment when Russia made the declaration of war. About the end
of February the Russian troops entered Swedish Finland, and occupied also
the capital of that province, which had at all times been coveted by the
Russian Government. It has been said that at the interview at Erfurt
Bonaparte consented to the usurpation of that province by Alexander in
return for the complaisance of the latter in acknowledging Joseph as King
of Spain and the Indies.

The removal of Joseph from the throne of Naples to the throne of Madrid
belongs, indeed, to that period respecting which I am now throwing
together a few recollections. Murat had succeeded Joseph at Naples, and
this accession of the brother-in-law of Napoleon to one of the thrones of
the House of Bourbon gave Bonaparte another junior in the college of
kings, of which he would h