But all that passed was trifling in comparison with what was to come.  On the 18th of June was published an Imperial decree, dated the 8th of the same month, by virtue of which were to be reaped the fruits of the official falsehood contained in the bulletin above mentioned.  To expiate the crime of rebellion Hamburg was required to pay an extraordinary contribution of 48,000,000 francs, and Lubeck a contribution of 6,000,000.  The enormous sum levied on Hamburg was to be paid in the short space of a month, by six equal instalments, either in money, or bills on respectable houses in Paris.  In addition to this the new Prefect of Hamburg made a requisition of grain and provisions of every kind, wines, sailcloth, masts, pitch, hemp, iron, copper, steel, in short, everything that could be useful for the supply of the army and navy.

But while these exactions were made on property in Hamburg, at Dresden the liberties of individuals and even lives were attacked.  On the 15th of June Napoleon, doubtless blinded by the false reports that were laid before him, gave orders for making out a list of the inhabitants of Hamburg who were absent from the city.  He allowed them only a fortnight to return home, an interval too short to enable some of them to come from the places where they had taken refuge.  They consequently remained absent beyond the given time.  Victims were indispensable but assuredly it was not Bonaparte who conceived the idea of hostages to answer for the men whom prudence kept absent.  Of this charge I can clear his memory.  The hostages, were, however, taken, and were declared to be also responsible for the payment of the contribution of 48,000,000.  In Hamburg they were selected from among the most respectable and wealthy men in the city, some of them far advanced in age.  They were conveyed to the old castle of Haarburg on the left bank of the Elbe, and these men, who had been accustomed to all the comforts of life, were deprived even of necessaries, and had only straw to lie on.  The hostages from Lubeck were taken to, Hamburg:  they were placed between decks on board an old ship in the port:  this was a worthy imitation of the prison hulks of England.  On the 24th of July there was issued a decree which was published in the Hamburg Correspondent of the 27th.  This decree consisted merely of a proscription list, on which were inscribed the names of some of the wealthiest men in the Hanse Towns, Hanover, and Westphalia.

CHAPTER XXIX.

1813.

Napoleon’s second visit to Dresden—­Battle of Bantzen—­The Congress at Prague—­Napoleon ill advised—­Battle of Vittoria—­General Moreau Rupture of the conferences at Prague—­Defection of Jomini—­Battles of Dresden and Leipsic—­Account of the death of Duroc—­An interrupted conversation resumed a year after—­Particulars respecting Poniatowski—­His extraordinary courage and death—­ His monument at Leipsic