the Continental system.

I now come to one of the periods of my life to which I look back with
most satisfaction, the time when Bernadotte was with me in Hamburg. I
will briefly relate the series of events which led the opposer of the
18th Brumaire to the throne of Sweden.

On the 13th of march 1809 Gustavus Adolphus was arrested, and his uncle,
the Duke of Sudermania, provisionally took the reins of Government. A
few days afterwards Gustavus published his act of abdication, which in
the state of Sweden it was impossible for him to refuse. In May
following, the Swedish Diet having been convoked at Stockholm, the Duke
of Sudermania was elected King. Christian Augustus, the only son of that
monarch, of course became Prince Royal on the accession of his father to
the throne. He, however, died suddenly at the end of May 1810, and Count
Fersen (the same who at the Court of Marie Antoinette was distinguished
by the appellation of 'le beau Fersen'), was massacred by the populace,
who suspected, perhaps unjustly, that he had been accessory to the
Prince's death.

--[Count Fereen, alleged to have been one of the favoured lovers of
Marie Antoinette, and who was certainly deep in her confidence, had
arranged most of the details of the attempted flight to Varennes in
1791, and he himself drove the Royal family their first stage to the
gates of Paris.]--

On the 21st of August following Bernadotte was elected Prince Royal of
Sweden.

After the death of the Prince Royal the Duke of Sudermania's son, Count
Wrede, a Swede, made the first overtures to Bernadotte, and announced to
him the intention entertained at Stockholm of offering him the throne of
Sweden. Bernadotte was at that time in Paris, and immediately after his
first interview with Count Wrede he waited on the Emperor at St. Cloud;
Napoleon coolly replied that he could be of no service to him; that
events must take their course; that he might accept or refuse the offer
as he chose; that he (Bonaparte) would place no obstacles in his way, but
that he could give him no advice. It was very evident that the choice of
Sweden was not very agreeable to Bonaparte, and though he afterwards
disavowed any opposition to it, he made overtures to Stockholm, proposing
that the crown of Sweden should be added to that of Denmark.

Bernadotte then went to the waters of Plombieres, and on his return to
Paris he sent me a letter announcing his elevation to the rank of Prince