that the whole land, even his own palace, was full of smuggled goods.  At last, though unwillingly, Louis consented to go in person to Paris and try to bring about an amicable settlement of the questions at issue.  He arrived on December 26, intending to return at the New Year, meanwhile leaving the Council of Ministers in charge of the affairs of the kingdom.  He soon found not only that his mission was in vain, but that he was regarded virtually as a prisoner.  For three months he remained in Paris under police surveillance; and his interviews with his brother were of the most stormy description.  The Dutch Council, alarmed by the constant threat of French invasion, at first thought of putting Amsterdam into a state of defence, but finally abandoned the idea as hopeless.  The king did his utmost to appease Napoleon by the offer of concessions, but his efforts were scornfully rejected, and at last he was compelled (March 16, 1810) to sign a treaty embodying the terms dictated by the emperor.  “I must,” he said, “at any price get out of this den of murderers.”  By this treaty Brabant and Zeeland and the land between the Maas and the Waal, with Nijmwegen, were ceded to France.  All commerce with England was forbidden.  French custom-house officers were placed at the mouths of the rivers and at every port.  Further, the Dutch were required to deliver up fifteen men-of-war and one hundred gunboats.

Louis was compelled to remain at Paris for the marriage of Napoleon with Marie Louise, but was then allowed to depart.  Discouraged and humiliated, he found himself, with the title of king, practically reduced to the position of administrative governor of some French departments.  Oudinot’s troops were in occupation of the Hague, Utrecht and Leyden; and, when the emperor and his bride paid a state visit to Antwerp, Louis had to do him homage.  The relations between the two brothers had for some time been strained, Napoleon having taken the part of his step-daughter Hortense, who preferred the gaiety of Paris to the dull court of her husband, reproached the injured man for not treating better the best of wives.  Matters were now to reach their climax.  The coachman of the French ambassador, Rochefoucault, having met with maltreatment in the streets of Amsterdam, the emperor angrily ordered Rochefoucault to quit the Dutch capital (May 29), leaving only a charge d’affaires, and at the same time dismissed Verhuell, the Dutch envoy, from Paris.  This was practically a declaration of war.  The Council of Ministers, on being consulted, determined that it was useless to attempt the defence of Amsterdam; and, when the king learned towards the end of June that Oudinot had orders to occupy the city, he resolved to forestall this final humiliation by abdication.  On July 1, 1810, he signed the deed by which he laid down his crown in favour of his elder son, Napoleon Louis, under the guardianship of Queen Hortense.  He then left the country, and retired into Bohemia.