le, for you would drive away the few Frenchmen who remain
with you. You must be dealt with, not by affectionate advice, but
by threats and compulsion. What mean the prayers and mysterious
fasts you have ordered? Louis, you will not reign long. Your
actions disclose better than your confidential letters the
sentiments of your mind. Return to the right course. Be a
Frenchman in heart, or your people will banish you, and you will
leave Holland an object of ridicule.

--[It was, on the contrary, became Louis made himself a
Dutchman that his people did not banish him, and that he
carried away with him the regret of all that portion of his
subjects who could appreciate his excellent qualities and
possessed good sense enough to perceive that he was not to
blame for the evils that weighed upon Holland.--Bourrienne.
The conduct of Bonaparte to Murat was almost a counterpart to
this. When Murat attempted to consult the interests of Naples
he was called a traitor to France.--Editor of 1836 edition.]--

States must be governed by reason and policy, and not by the
weakness produced by acrid and vitiated humours.

(Signed) NAPOLEON.

A few days after this letter was despatched to Louis, Napoleon heard of a
paltry affray which had taken place at Amsterdam, and to which Comte de
la Rochefoucauld gave a temporary diplomatic importance, being aware that
he could not better please his master than by affording him an excuse for
being angry. It appeared that the honour of the Count's coachman had
been put in jeopardy by the insult of a citizen of Amsterdam, and a
quarrel had ensued, which, but for the interference of the guard of the
palace, might have terminated seriously since it assumed the character of
a party affair between the French and the Dutch. M. de la Rochefoucauld
immediately despatched to the Emperor, who was then at Lille, a full
report of his coachman's quarrel, in which he expressed himself with as
much earnestness as the illustrious author of the "Maxims" evinced when
he waged war against kings. The consequence was that Napoleon instantly
fulminated the following letter against his brother Louis:

BROTHER--At the very moment when you were making the fairest
protestations I learn that the servants of my Ambassador have been
ill-treated at Amsterdam. I insist that those who were guilty of
this outrage be delivered up