and other requisites for
crossing the desert. The King of Prussia was to have been applied to
by both of us to grant a passage for my troops through his dominions,
which would have been immediately granted. I had, at the same time,
made a demand to the King of Persia for a passage through his country,
which would also have been granted, although the negotiations were not
entirely concluded, but would have succeeded, as the Persians were
desirous of profiting by it themselves."[28]

[Footnote 28: "Napoleon at St. Helena," p. 534.]

On another occasion, speaking upon this same subject, Napoleon said to
Las Casas, "Paul had been promised Malta the moment it was taken
possession of by the English. Malta reduced, the English ministers
denied that they had promised it to him. It is confidently stated
that, on the reading of this shameful falsehood, Paul felt so
indignant that, seizing the dispatch in full council, he ran his sword
through it, and ordered it to be sent back, in that condition, by way
of answer. If this be a folly, it must be allowed that it is the folly
of a noble soul. It is the indignation of virtue, which was incapable
until then of suspecting such baseness.

"At the same time the English ministers, treating with us for the
exchange of prisoners, refused to include the Russian prisoners taken
in Holland, who were in the actual service and fought for the sole
cause of the English. I had hit upon the bent of Paul's character. I
seized time by the forelock. I collected these Russians. I clothed
them and sent them back without any expense. From that instant that
generous heart was altogether devoted to me, and, as I had no interest
in opposition to Russia, and should never have spoken or acted but
with justice, there is no doubt that I should have been enabled, for
the future, to dispose of the cabinet of St. Petersburg. Our enemies
were sensible of the danger, and it has been thought that this
good-will of Paul proved fatal to him, It might well have been the
case, for there are cabinets with whom nothing is sacred."

The death of Paul brought the enemies of France and the friends of
England into power at St. Petersburg. The new emperor, the first day
after his accession to the throne, issued a proclamation declaring his
intention to follow in the footsteps of his grandmother, Catharine. He
liberated all the English sailors whom Paul had taken from the ships
laid under sequestration. All the decrees again