At this period I observed among the news which I received from different places a singular coincidence of dates, worthy of being noted by the authors of ephemrides.  On the same day-namely, the 1st of February Paris, Lisbon, and Rome were the scenes of events of different kinds, but, as they all happened on one day, affording a striking example of the rapidity of movement which marked the reign of Bonaparte.  At Paris the niece of Josephine, Mademoiselle de Tascher, whom Napoleon had lately exalted to the rank of Princess, was married to the reigning Prince of Ahremberg, while at the same time Junot declared to Portugal that the house of Braganza had ceased to reign, and French troops were, under the command of General Miollis, occupying Rome.  This occupation was the commencement of prolonged struggles, during which Pins vii. expiated the condescension he had shown in going to Paris to crown Napoleon.

Looking over my notes, I see it was the day after these three events occurred that Bonaparte gave to his brother-in-law, Prince Borghese, the Governorship-General of the departments beyond the Alps which he had just founded; and of which he made the eighth Grand Dignitary of the Empire.  General Menou, whom I had not seen since Egypt, was obliged by this appointment to leave Turin, where he had always remained.  Bonaparte, not wishing to permit him to come to Paris, sent Menou to preside over the Junta of Tuscany, of which he soon afterwards made another General-Governorship, which he entrusted to the care of his sister Elisa.

—­[Prince Camille Philippe Louis Borghese (1755-1832), an Italian, had married, 6th November 1808, Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon, and the widow of General Leclerc.  He had been made Prince and Duke of Guastalla when that duchy was given to his wife, 30th Marsh 1806.  He separated from his wife after a few years.  Indeed Pauline was impossible as a wife if half of the stories about her are true.  It was she who, finding that a lady was surprised at her having sat naked while a statue of her was being modelled for Canova, believed she had satisfactorily explained matters by saying, “but there was a fire in the room."]—­

My correspondence relative to what passed in the south of France and of Europe presented to me, if I may so express myself, merely an anecdotal interest.  Not so the news which came from the north.  At Hamburg I was like the sentinel of an advanced post, always on the alert.  I frequently informed the Government of what would take place before the event actually happened.  I was one of the first to hear of the plans of Russia relative to Sweden.  The courier whom I sent to Paris arrived there at the very moment when Russia made the declaration of war.  About the end of February the Russian troops entered Swedish Finland, and occupied also the capital of that province, which had at all times been coveted by the Russian Government.  It has been said that at the interview at Erfurt Bonaparte consented to the usurpation of that province by Alexander in return for the complaisance of the latter in acknowledging Joseph as King of Spain and the Indies.