ould have died
rather than surrender at discretion in so humiliating a manner. I know
full well that these gentlemen have done so only in order to save the
political existence of the king and his state. But how little do they
know the intentions and schemes of our powerful adversary, whom only the
most determined and obstinate resistance can induce to be moderate in
his exactions, and who, so soon as he has nothing to fear, shrinks from
nothing! As soon as the king, according to these stipulations, has
surrendered to him his fortresses and Silesian possessions, Napoleon
will give notice that he resumes hostilities within ten days, and the
king having not sufficient power to offer him any resistance, the loss
of his last and only possessions would be the natural consequence.
Napoleon would even manage matters in such a way as to leave it to
other hands to carry out this last spoliation. It is well known what
prospects he held out in Berlin to the deputation of the Poles, and by
what words and promises he instigated them to rise. He now demands the
removal of our troops from Graudenz and its environs, that is to say
from Prussian Poland. He wishes to promote the insurrection in Poland,
and to assist the Poles as efficiently as possible, so that we should
lose these provinces during the cessation of hostilities. His majesty,
moreover, is unable to enter into an engagement concerning the
withdrawal of the Russian troops, and the last fortresses, therefore,
would be sacrificed in vain. But it is just as little in the power of
the king to induce the Emperor of Russia to waive his just claims
against the Porte, or to deprive the Hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia
of the protection pledged to them. The Russian emperor has already
marched his troops into Moldavia. The struggle with the Porte has begun,
and his honor will not permit him to recede from the stand he has taken.
Up to this hour he has remained unwaveringly faithful, in words as well
as in actions, to his Prussian ally. A large Russian army is already
approaching our frontier, and it is said the Czar himself is
accompanying it in order to join the Prussian forces and then attack
Napoleon. By signing the treaty of Charlottenburg, however, the King of
Prussia would not only have to reject the assistance offered him, but be
compelled to turn his sword against him who, in his generous friendship,
is coming to help him fight for the preservation of his states.

"This so-c