At the reading of a letter conceived in this new and unexpected style, Bonaparte was seized with rage and astonishment.  He saw in it, and not without reason, a premeditated defection on the part of Bernadotte, a secret agreement with his enemies!  He was filled with indignation; he exclaimed, striking violently on the letter, and the table on which it lay open:  “He! the rascal! he presume to give me advice! to dictate the law to me! to dare propose such an infamous act[4] to me!  And this from a man who owes every thing to my bounty!  What ingratitude!” Then, pacing the room with rapid strides, at intervals he gave vent to such expressions as these:  “I ought to have expected it! he has always sacrificed every thing to his interests!  This is the same man, who, during his short ministry, attempted the resurrection of the infamous Jacobins!  When he looked only to gain by disorder, he opposed the 18th Brumaire!  He it was who was conspiring in the west against the re-establishment of law and religion!  Has not his envious and perfidious inaction already betrayed the French army at Auerstadt?  How many times, from regard to Joseph, have I pardoned his intrigues and concealed his faults!  And yet I have made him general-in-chief, marshal, duke, prince, and finally king!  But see how all these favours and the pardon of so many injuries, are thrown away on a man like this!  If Sweden, half devoured by Russia, for a century past, has retained her independence, she owes it to the support of France.  But it matters not; Bernadotte requires the baptism of the ancient aristocracy! a baptism of blood, and of French blood! and you will soon see, that to satisfy his envy and ambition, he will betray both his native and adopted country.”

[Footnote 4:  Napoleon no doubt spoke of the proposal which Bernadotte made to him to take Norway from Denmark, his faithful ally, in order by this act of treachery to purchase the assistance of Sweden.]

In vain did they attempt to calm him.  They represented the difficulties which Bernadotte’s new situation had imposed on him; that the cession of Finland to Russia had separated Sweden from the continent, almost made an island of that country, and thereby enlisted her in the English system.—­In such critical circumstances, all the need which he had of this ally was unable to vanquish his pride, which revolted at a proposition which he regarded as insulting; perhaps also in the new prince of Sweden he still saw the same Bernadotte who was lately his subject, and his military inferior, and who at last affected to have cut out for himself a destiny independent of his.  From that moment his instructions to his minister bore the impress of that disposition; the latter, it is true, softened the bitterness of them, but a rupture became inevitable.

It is uncertain which contributed most to it, the pride of Napoleon, or the ancient jealousy of Bernadotte; it is certain that on the part of the former the motives of it were honourable.  “Denmark” he said, “was his most faithful ally; her attachment to France had cost her the loss of her fleet and the burning of her capital.  Must he repay a fidelity which had been so cruelly tried, by an act of treachery such as that of taking Norway from her to give to Sweden?”