to me, in order that their punishment
may serve as an example to others. The Sieur Serrurier has informed
me how you conducted yourself at the diplomatic audiences. I have,
consequently, determined that the Dutch Ambassador shall not remain
in Paris; and Admiral Yerhuell has received orders to depart within
twenty-four hours. I want no more phrases and protestations. It is
time I should know whether you intend to ruin Holland by your
follies. I do not choose that you should again send a Minister to
Austria, or that you should dismiss the French who are in your
service. I have recalled my Ambassador as I intend only to have a
charge d'affaires in Holland. The Sieur Serrurier, who remains
there in that capacity, will communicate my intentions. My
Ambassador shall no longer be exposed to your insults. Write to me
no more of those set phrases which you have been repeating for the
last three years, and the falsehood of which is proved every day.

This is the last letter I will ever write to you as long as I live.

(Signed) NAPOLEON.

Thus reduced to the cruel alternative of crushing Holland with his own
hands, or leaving that task to the Emperor, Louis did not hesitate to lay
down his sceptre. Having formed this resolution, he addressed a message
to the Legislative Body of the Kingdom of Holland explaining the motives
of his abdication. The French troops entered Holland under the command
of the Duke of Reggio, and that marshal, who was more a king than the
King himself, threatened to occupy Amsterdam. Louis then descended from
his throne, and four years after Napoleon was hurled from his.

In his act of abdication Louis declared that he had been driven to that
step by the unhappy state of his Kingdom, which he attributed to his
brother's unfavourable feelings towards him. He added that he had made
every effort and sacrifice to put an end to that painful state of things,
and that, finally, he regarded himself as the cause of the continual
misunderstanding between the French Empire and Holland. It is curious
that Louis thought he could abdicate the crown of Holland in favour of
his son, as Napoleon only four years after wished to abdicate his crown
in favour of the King of Rome.

Louis bade farewell to the people of Holland in a proclamation, after the
publication of which he repaired to the waters at Toeplitz. There he was
living in tranquil retirement when he l