arge of the affairs of the kingdom. He soon
found not only that his mission was in vain, but that he was regarded
virtually as a prisoner. For three months he remained in Paris under
police _surveillance_; and his interviews with his brother were of the
most stormy description. The Dutch Council, alarmed by the constant
threat of French invasion, at first thought of putting Amsterdam into a
state of defence, but finally abandoned the idea as hopeless. The king
did his utmost to appease Napoleon by the offer of concessions, but his
efforts were scornfully rejected, and at last he was compelled (March
16, 1810) to sign a treaty embodying the terms dictated by the emperor.
"I must," he said, "at any price get out of this den of murderers." By
this treaty Brabant and Zeeland and the land between the Maas and the
Waal, with Nijmwegen, were ceded to France. All commerce with England
was forbidden. French custom-house officers were placed at the mouths of
the rivers and at every port. Further, the Dutch were required to
deliver up fifteen men-of-war and one hundred gunboats.

Louis was compelled to remain at Paris for the marriage of Napoleon with
Marie Louise, but was then allowed to depart. Discouraged and
humiliated, he found himself, with the title of king, practically
reduced to the position of administrative governor of some French
departments. Oudinot's troops were in occupation of the Hague, Utrecht
and Leyden; and, when the emperor and his bride paid a state visit to
Antwerp, Louis had to do him homage. The relations between the two
brothers had for some time been strained, Napoleon having taken the part
of his step-daughter Hortense, who preferred the gaiety of Paris to the
dull court of her husband, reproached the injured man for not treating
better the best of wives. Matters were now to reach their climax. The
coachman of the French ambassador, Rochefoucault, having met with
maltreatment in the streets of Amsterdam, the emperor angrily ordered
Rochefoucault to quit the Dutch capital (May 29), leaving only a charge
d'affaires, and at the same time dismissed Verhuell, the Dutch envoy,
from Paris. This was practically a declaration of war. The Council of
Ministers, on being consulted, determined that it was useless to attempt
the defence of Amsterdam; and, when the king learned towards the end of
June that Oudinot had orders to occupy the city, he resolved to
forestall this final humiliation by abdication. On July 1, 1