war indeed! Do you think
to overawe us by this? You shall see that France may be conquered,
perhaps destroyed, but never intimidated--never!"

The English Ambassador was astounded at this unexpected sally, to which
he made no reply. He contented himself with writing to his Government an
account of an interview in which the First Consul had so far forgotten
himself,-whether purposely or not I do not pretend to say.

That England wished for war there could be no doubt. She occupied Malta,
it is true, but she had promised to give it up, though she never had any
intention of doing so. She was to have evacuated Egypt, yet there she
still remained; the Cape of Good Hope was to have been surrendered, but
she still retained possession of it. England had signed, at Amiens, a
peace which she had no intention of maintaining. She knew the hatred of
the Cabinets of Europe towards France, and she was sure, by her intrigues
and subsidies, of arming them on her side whenever her plans reached
maturity. She saw France powerful and influential in Europe, and she
knew the ambitious views of the First Consul, who, indeed, had taken
little pains to conceal them.

The First Consul, who had reckoned on a longer duration of the peace of
Amiens, found himself at the rupture of the treaty in an embarrassing
situation. The numerous grants of furloughs, the deplorable condition
of the cavalry, and the temporary absence of artillery, in consequence of
a project for refounding all the field-pieces, caused much anxiety to
Bonaparte. He had recourse to the conscription to fill up the
deficiencies of the army; and the project of refounding the artillery was
abandoned. Supplies of money were obtained from the large towns, and
Hanover, which was soon after occupied, furnished abundance of good
horses for mounting the cavalry.

War had now become inevitable; and as soon as it was declared the First
Consul set out to visit Belgium and the seaboard departments to ascertain
the best means of resisting the anticipated attacks of the English. In
passing through Compiegne he received a visit from Father Berton,
formerly principal of the military school of Brienne. He was then rector
of the school of arts at Compiegne, a situation in which he had been
placed by Bonaparte. I learned the particulars of this visit through
Josephine. Father Berton, whose primitive simplicity of manner was
unchanged since the time when he held us under the authority of his
ferule