had ordered, and
to the execution of which he attached great importance. He returned by
way of Ostend, Lille, and Normandy to St. Cloud, where he arrived on the
1st of June 1810. He there learned from my correspondence that the Hanse
Towns-refused to advance money for the pay of the French troops. The men
were absolutely destitute. I declared that it was urgent to put an end
to this state of things. The Hanse towns had been reduced from opulence
to misery by taxation and exactions, and were no longer able to provide
the funds.

During this year Napoleon, in a fit of madness, issued a decree which I
cannot characterise by any other epithet than infernal. I allude to the
decree for burning all the English merchandise in France, Holland, the
Grand Duchy of Berg, the Hanse Towns; in short, in all places subject to
the disastrous dominion of Napoleon. In the interior of France no idea
could possibly be formed of the desolation caused by this measure in
countries which existed by commerce; and what a spectacle was it to, the,
destitute inhabitants of those countries to witness the destruction of
property which, had it been distributed, would have assuaged their
misery!

Among the emigrants whom I was ordered to watch was M. de Vergennes, who
had always remained at or near Hamburg Since April 1808. I informed the
Minister that M. de Vergennes had presented himself to me at this time.
I even remember that M. de Vergennes gave me a letter from M. de Remusat,
the First Chamberlain of the Emperor. M. de Remusat strongly recommended
to me his connection, who was called by matters of importance to Hamburg.
Residence in this town was, however, too expensive, and he decided to
live at Neumuhl, a little village on the Elbe, rather to the west of
Altona. There he lived quietly in retirement with an opera dancer named
Mademoiselle Ledoux, with whom he had become acquainted in Paris, and
whom he had brought with him. He seemed much taken with her. His manner
of living did not denote large means.

One duty with which I was entrusted, and to which great importance was
attached, was the application and execution of the disastrous Continental
system in the north. In my correspondence I did not conceal the
dissatisfaction which this ruinous measure excited, and the Emperor's
eyes were at length opened on the subject by the following circumstance.
In spite of the sincerity with which the Danish Government professed to
enforce the Continenta