Davoust was at Haarburg, where he received the deputies from Hamburg with an appearance of moderation; and by the conditions stipulated at this conference on the 30th of May a strong detachment of Danish troops occupied Hamburg in the name of the Emperor.  The French made their entrance the same evening, and occupied the posts as quietly as if they had been merely changing guard.  The inhabitants made not a shadow of resistance.  Not a drop of blood was issued; not a threat nor an insult was interchanged.  This is the truth; but the truth did not suit Napoleon.  It was necessary to getup a pretext for revenge, and accordingly recourse was had to a bulletin, which proclaimed to France and Europe that Hamburg had been taken by main force, with a loss of some hundred men.  But for this imaginary resistance, officially announced, how would it have been possible to justify the spoliations and exactions which ensued?

The Dutch General, Hogendorff, became Governor of Hamburg in lieu of Carra St. Cyr, who had been confined at Osnabruck since his precipitate retreat.  General Hogendorff had been created one of the Emperor’s aides de camp, but he was neither a Rapp, a Lauriston, nor a Duroc.  The inhabitants were required to pay all the arrears of taxes due to the different public offices during the seventy days that the French had been absent; and likewise all the allowances that would have been paid to the troops of the garrison had they remained in Hamburg.  Payment was also demanded of the arrears for the quartering of troops who were fifty leagues off.  However, some of the heads of the government departments, who saw and understood the new situation of the French at Hamburg, did not enforce these unjust and vexatious measures.  The duties on registrations were reduced.  M. Pyonnier, Director of the Customs, aware of the peculiar difficulty of his situation in a country where the customs were held in abhorrence, observed great caution and moderation in collecting the duties:  Personal examination, which is so revolting and indecorous, especially with respect to females, was suppressed.  But these modifications did not proceed from the highest quarter; they were due to the good sense of the subordinate agents, who plainly saw that if the Empire was to fall it would not be owing to little infractions in the laws of proscription against coffee and rhubarb.

If the custom-house regulations became less vexatious to the inhabitants of Hamburg it was not the same with the business of the post-office.  The old manoeuvres of that department were resumed more actively than ever.  Letters were opened without the least reserve, and all the old post-office clerks who were initiated in these scandalous proceedings were recalled.  With the exception of the registrations and the customs the inquisitorial system, which had so long oppressed the Hanse Towns, was renewed; and yet the delegates of the French Government were the first to cry out, “The people of Hamburg are traitors to Napoleon:  for, in spite of all the blessings he has conferred upon them they do not say with the Latin poet, ’Deus nobis haec otia fecit.”