n near Vienna, during August and September, 1809, and
especially: the great number of letters and orders relating to the
English expeditions to Walcheren; the letters to chief-judge Regnier and
to the arch-chancellor Cambaceres on expropriations for public benefit
(Aug. 21, Sept. 7 and 29); the letters and orders to M. de Champagny
to treat with Austria (Aug. 19, and Sept. 10, 15, 18, 22, and 23);
the letters to Admirable Decres, to despatch naval expeditions to the
colonies (Aug.17 and Sept. 26); the letter to Mollien on the budget of
expenditure (Aug. 8); the letter to Clarke on the statement of guns
in store throughout the empire (Sept. 14). Other letters, ordering the
preparation of two treatises on military art (Oct. 1), two works on
the history and encroachments of the Holy See (Oct. 3), prohibiting
conferences at Saint-Sulpice (Sept. 15), and forbidding priests to
preach outside the churches (Sept. 24).--From Schoenbrunn, he watches
the details of public works in France and Italy; for instance, the
letters to M. le Montalivet (Sept.30), to send an auditor post to Parma,
to have a dyke repaired at once, and (Oct. 8) to hasten the building of
several bridges and quays at Lyons.]

[Footnote 1170: He says himself; "I always transpose my theme in many
ways."]

[Footnote 1171: Madame de Remusat, I., 117, 120. "1 heard M. de
Talleyrand exclaim one day, some what out of humor, 'This devil of a
man misleads you in all directions. Even his passions escape you, for he
finds some way to counterfeit them, although they really exist.'"--For
example, immediately prior to the violent confrontation with Lord
Whitworth, which was to put an end to the treaty of Amiens, he was
chatting and amusing himself with the women and the infant Napoleon, his
nephew, in the gayest and most unconcerned manner: "He is suddenly told
that the company had assembled. His countenance changes like that of
an actor when the scene shifts. He seems to turn pale at will and his
features contract"; he rises, steps up precipitately to the English
ambassador, and fulminates for two hours before two hundred persons.
(Hansard's Parliamentary History, vol. XXVI, dispatches of Lord
Whitworth, pp. 1798, 1302, 1310.)--"He often observes that the
politician should calculate every advantage that could be gained by his
defects." One day, after an explosion he says to Abbe de Pradt: "You
thought me angry! you are mistaken. Anger with me never mounts higher
than here