and proud of
heart--whether they succeed or not, we shall not then go down like the
_Augustuli_." "The destruction of this country," said Mr. Sheridan, "is
the first vision that breaks on the French Consul through the gleam of
the morning: this is his last prayer at night, to whatever deity he may
address it, whether to Jupiter or to Mahomet, to the Goddess of Battles
or the Goddess of Reason. Look at the map of Europe, from which France
was said to be expunged, and now see nothing but France. If the ambition
of Buonaparte be immeasurable, there are abundant reasons why it should
be progressive."

Stung to the quick by these continual invectives, Napoleon so far
descended from his dignity as to make them the subject of personal
complaint and reproach to the English Ambassador. He obtruded himself on
the department of Talleyrand, and attempted to shake the resolution of
the ambassador, Lord Whitworth, by a display of rude violence, such as
had, indeed, succeeded with the Austrian envoy at Campo-Formio, but
which produced no effect whatever in the case of this calm and
high-spirited nobleman. The first of their conferences took place in
February, when the Consul harangued Lord Whitworth for nearly two hours,
hardly permitting him to interpose a word on the other side of the
question. "Every gale that blows from England is burdened with enmity,"
said he; "your government countenances Georges, Pichegru, and other
infamous men, who have sworn to assassinate me. Your journals slander
me, and the redress I am offered is but adding mockery to insult. I
could make myself master of Egypt to-morrow, if I pleased. _Egypt,
indeed, must sooner or later belong to France_; but I have no wish to go
to war for such a trivial object. What could I gain by war? Invasion
would be my only means of annoying you; and invasion you shall have, if
war be forced on me--but I confess the chances would be an hundred to
one against me in such an attempt. In ten years I could not hope to have
a fleet able to dispute the seas with you: but, on the other hand, the
army of France could be recruited in a few weeks to 480,000 men. United,
we might govern the world:--Why can we not understand each other?" Lord
Whitworth could not but observe the meaning of these hints, and
answered, as became him, that the King of England had no wish but to
preserve his own rights, and scorned the thought of becoming a partner
with France in a general scheme of spoliation an