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.

The Emperor was engaged in so many projects at once that they could not all succeed.  Thus, while he was triumphant in the Hereditary States his Continental system was experiencing severe checks.  The trade with England on the coast of Oldenburg was carped on as uninterruptedly as if in time of peace.  English letters and newspapers arrived on the Continent, and those of the Continent found their way into Great Britain, as if France and England had been united by ties of the firmest friendship.  In short, things were just in the same state as if the decree for the blockade of the British Isles had not existed.  When the custom-house officers succeeded in seizing contraband goods they were again taken from them by main force.  On the 2d of July a serious contest took place at Brinskham between the custom-house officers and a party of peasantry, in which the latter remained masters of eighteen wagons laden with English goods:  many were wounded on both sides.

If, however, trade with England was carried on freely along a vast extent of coast, it was different in the city of Hamburg, where English goods were introduced only by fraud; and I verily believe that the art of smuggling and the schemes of smugglers were never before carried to such perfection.  Above 6000 persons of the lower orders went backwards and forwards, about twenty times a day, from Altona to Hamburg, and they carried on their contraband, trade by many ingenious stratagems, two of which were so curious that they are worth mentioning here.

On the left of the road leading from Hamburg to Altona there was a piece of ground where pits were dug for the purpose of procuring sand used for building and for laying down in the streets.  At this time it was proposed to repair the great street of Hamburg leading to the gate of Altona.  The smugglers overnight filled the sandpit with brown sugar, and the little carts which usually conveyed the sand into Hamburg were filled with the sugar, care being taken to cover it with a layer of sand about an inch thick.