CHAPTER XIX.

1809.

The castle of Diernstein—­Richard Coeur de Lion and Marshal Lannes, —­The Emperor at the gates of Vienna—­The Archduchess Maria Louisa—­ Facility of correspondence with England—­Smuggling in Hamburg—­Brown sugar and sand—­Hearses filled with sugar and coffee—­Embargo on the publication of news—­Supervision of the ’Hamburg Correspondant’—­ Festival of Saint Napoleon—­Ecclesiastical adulation—­The King of Westphalia’s journey through his States—­Attempt to raise a loan—­ Jerome’s present to me—­The present returned—­Bonaparte’s unfounded suspicions.

Rapp, who during the campaign of Vienna had resumed his duties as aide de camp, related to me one of those observations of Napoleon which, when his words are compared with the events that followed them, seem to indicate a foresight into his future destiny.  When within some days’ march of Vienna the Emperor procured a guide to explain to him every village and ruin which he observed on the road.  The guide pointed to an eminence on which were a few decayed vestiges of an old fortified castle.  “Those,” said the guide, “are the ruins of the castle of Diernstein.”  Napoleon suddenly stopped, and stood for some time silently contemplating the ruins, then turning to Lannes, who was with him, he raid, “See! yonder is the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion.  He, like us, went to Syria and Palestine.  But, my brave Lannes, the Coeur de Lion was not braver than you.  He was more fortunate than I at St. Jean d’Acre.  A Duke of Austria sold him to an Emperor of Germany, who imprisoned him in that castle.  Those were the days of barbarism.  How different from the civilisation of modern times!  Europe has seen how I treated the Emperor of Austria, whom I might have made prisoner—­and I would treat him so again.  I claim no credit for this.  In the present age crowned heads must be respected.  A conqueror imprisoned!”

A few days after the Emperor was at the gates of Vienna, but on this occasion his access to the Austrian capital was not so easy as it had been rendered in 1805 by the ingenuity and courage of Lannes and Murat.  The Archduke Maximilian, who was shut up in the capital, wished to defend it, although the French army already occupied the principal suburbs.  In vain were flags of truce sent one after the other to the Archduke.  They were not only dismissed unheard, but were even ill-treated, and one of them was almost killed by the populace.  The city was then bombarded, and would speedily have been destroyed but that the Emperor, being informed that one of the Archduchesses remained in Vienna on account of ill-health, ordered the firing to cease.  By a singular caprice of Napoleon’s destiny this Archduchess was no other than Maria Louisa.  Vienna at length opened her gates to Napoleon, who for some days took up his residence at Schoenbrunn.