o Prince Eugene, and
to the Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden, to request them, to renew
the same assurances to that sovereign, and to neglect no means of
detaching him from the coalition.

In fine, the Emperor directed overtures to be made to the cabinet of
London, by means of a person pointed out by the Duke of Otranto; and
in order to gain the suffrage of the parliament, and give the English
ministry a pledge of his good intentions beforehand, he abolished the
slave trade by a spontaneous decree.

After having taken these indirect steps, Napoleon thought his duty as
well as his dignity required him, to give a solemn and authentic
character to the manifestation of his pacific intentions.

Accordingly he wrote to the foreign sovereigns a letter couched in the
following terms:

"Sire, my brother,

"You will have heard in the course of last month of my return to the
French coast, my entering Paris, and the departure of the Bourbon
family. The true nature of these events must now be known to your
Majesty: they are the work of an irresistible power, the work and the
unanimous will of a great nation, who knows its duties and its
rights. The dynasty, which force had bestowed on the French people,
was not formed for them: the Bourbons would not accommodate themselves
either to their sentiments, or to their manners. France could not but
separate itself from them. Her voice called for a deliverer: the
expectations, that had induced me, to make the greatest of all
sacrifices, had been frustrated. I came, and from the spot where I
touched the shore I was conducted by the love of my people to the
bosom of my capital. The first wish of my heart is, to repay such
great affection by the maintenance of an honourable tranquillity. The
re-establishment of the imperial throne being necessary to the
happiness of the French, nothing can be more pleasing to my thoughts,
than to render it at the same time advantageous to the consolidation
of the tranquillity of Europe. Sufficient glory had crowned the
standards of the different nations by turns; the vicissitudes of fate
have occasioned a sufficient succession of great successes and great
defeats: a nobler career now opens itself to sovereigns, and I am the
first to enter it. After having exhibited to the world the spectacle
of great battles, it will be more pleasing, henceforth to know no
rivalry but that of the advantages of peace, no strife but the sacred
striving after the ha