After this my stay at Hamburg was not of long duration.  Bonaparte’s passion for territorial aggrandisement knew no bounds; and the turn of the Hanse Towns now arrived.  By taking possession of these towns and territories he merely accomplished a design formed long previously.  I, however, was recalled with many compliments, and under the specious pretext that the Emperor wished to hear my opinions respecting the country in which.  I had been residing.  At the beginning of December I received a letter from M. de Champagny stating that the Emperor wished to see me in order to consult with me upon different things relating to Hamburg.  In this note I was told “that the information I had obtained respecting Hamburg and the north of Germany might be useful to the public interest, which must be the most gratifying reward of my labours.”  The reception which awaited me will presently be seen.  The conclusion of the letter spoke in very flattering terms of the manner in which I had discharged my duties.  I received it on the 8th of December, and next day I set out for Paris.  When I arrived at Mayence I was enabled to form a correct idea of the fine compliments which had been paid me, and of the Emperor’s anxiety to have my opinion respecting the Hanse Towns.  In Mayence I met the courier who was proceeding to announce the union of the Hanse Towns with the French Empire.  I confess that, notwithstanding the experience I had acquired of Bonaparte’s duplicity, or rather, of the infinite multiplicity of his artifices, he completely took me by surprise on that occasion.

On my arrival in Paris I did not see the Emperor, but the first ‘Moniteur’ I read contained the formula of a ‘Senatus-consulte,’ which united the Hanse Towns, Lauenburg, etc., to the French Empire by the right of the strongest.  This new and important augmentation of territory could not fail to give uneasiness to Russia.  Alexander manifested his dissatisfaction by prohibiting the importation of our agricultural produce and manufactures into Russia.  Finally, as the Continental system had destroyed all trade by the ports of the Baltic, Russia showed herself more favourable to the English, and gradually reciprocal complaints of bad faith led to that war whose unfortunate issue was styled by M. Talleyrand “the beginning of the end.”

I have now to make the reader acquainted with an extraordinary demand made upon me by the Emperor through the medium of M. de Champagny.  In one of my first interviews with that Minister after my return to Paris he thus addressed me:  “The Emperor has entrusted me with a commission to you which I am obliged to execute:  ‘When you see Bourrienne,’ said the Emperor, ’tell him I wish him to pay 6,000,000 into your chest to defray the expense of building the new Office for Foreign Affairs.’” I was so astonished at this unfeeling and inconsiderate demand that I was utterly unable to make airy reply.  This then was my recompense for having obtained money