Wishing to repair with all possible speed to Holland he left Bremen on the evening of the 6th, and proceeded to Dehnenhorst, where his advanced guard had already arrived.  The Westphalian troops, commanded by Reubell, entered Bremen on the 7th, and not finding the Duke of Brunswick, immediately marched in pursuit of him.  The Danish troops, who occupied Cuxhaven, received orders to proceed to Bremerlehe, to favour the operations of the Westphalians and the Dutch.  Meanwhile the English approached Cuxhaven, where they landed 3000 or 4000 men.  The persons in charge of the custom-house establishment, and the few sailors who were in Cuxhaven, fell back upon Hamburg.  The Duke of Brunswick, still pursued crossed Germany from the frontiers of Bohemia to Elsfleth, a little port on the left bank of the Weser, where he arrived on the 7th, being one day in advance of his pursuers.  He immediately took possession of all the transports at Elsfleth, and embarked for Heligoland.

The landing which the English effected at Cuxhaven while the Danes, who garrisoned that port, were occupied in pursuing the Duke of Brunswick, was attended by no result.  After the escape of the Duke the Danes returned to their post which the English immediately evacuated.

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!”