hildren; he was, therefore, never at a loss for occupation. His
nonentity was a source of regret to us: we lamented to see a tall
handsome youth, destined to rule over his fellow-men, trembling at
the eight of a horse, and wasting his time in the game of
hide-and-seek, or at leap-frog and whose whole information consisted
in knowing his prayers, and in saying grace before and after meals.
Such, nevertheless, was the man to whom the destinies of a nation
were about to be committed! When he left France to repair to his
kingdom, "Rome need not be uneasy," said the First Consul to us
after the farewell audience, "there is no danger of his crossing the
Rubicon" (Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo, vol. i. p. 363).]--

In order to show still further attention to the King of Etruria, after
his three weeks' visit to Paris, the First Consul directed him to be
escorted to Italy by a French guard, and selected his brother-in-law
Murat for that purpose.

The new King of a new kingdom entered Florence on the 12th of April 1801;
but the reception given him by the Tuscans was not at all similar to what
he had experienced at Paris. The people received the royal pair as
sovereigns imposed on them by France. The ephemeral kingdom of Etruria
lasted scarcely six years. The King died in 1803, in the flower of his
age, and in 1807 the Queen was expelled from her throne by him who had
constructed it for her.

At this period a powerful party urged Bonaparte to break with the Pope,
and to establish a Gallican Church, the head of which should reside in
France. They thought to flatter his ambition by indicating to him a new
source of power which might establish a point of comparison between him
and the first Roman emperors. But his ideas did not coincide with theirs
on this subject. "I am convinced," said he, "that a part of France would
become Protestant, especially if I were to favour that disposition.
I am also certain that the much greater portion would remain Catholic,
and would oppose, with the greatest zeal and fervour, the schism of a
part of their fellow-citizens. I dread the religious quarrels, the
family dissensions, and the public distractions, which such a state of
things would inevitably occasion. In, reviving a religion which has
always prevailed in the country, and which still prevails in the hearts
of the people, and in giving the liberty of exercising their worship to
the minority, I shall satisfy ever