sarcastic letters to her stepmother,
whom she loved, depicting the avarice of her grandmother and the
foibles of her other relatives. These, like all other suspected
letters of the time, were intercepted and read in the "cabinet noir";
their contents being made known to Napoleon, he sent the petulant,
witty writer back to her father. Despairing of any support from Lucien
or his family, Napoleon formally adopted his stepson Eugene, the
viceroy, with a view to consolidating and confirming the Italian
feeling of dependence on France.

Joseph's character also had ripened by this time. Experience had
destroyed the adventurous spirit in which he entered on his career; he
had become a gentle, philosophic, industrious monarch, careful of the
best interests of his people, and he was accordingly beloved by them.
Roederer had introduced order into the Neapolitan finances, his own
administrative reforms worked smoothly, and the only discontented
element of his people was composed of the nobles, who chafed at the
repression of their power and the curtailment of their privileges.
There is positive evidence that Joseph was summoned and came to
Venice, but there is no record of the interview, except a marginal
note written by Joseph himself in an existing copy of Miot de
Melito's memoirs, to the effect that Napoleon spoke of the troubles
among the members of the royal family of Spain as likely "to produce
results which he dreaded." The last word is underscored. "I have
enough anxiety prepared," he said; "troubles in Spain can only benefit
the English, who do not desire peace, by destroying the resources
which I find in that ally to carry on the war against them." Over and
above this information there is, however, a high probability that
Joseph was then informed that since Lucien had proved refractory, he
himself was now destined for Spain; that the King expressed at first a
decided unwillingness to accept the unwelcome task; and that, like
Lucien, he departed under his brother's disfavor. Napoleon's offer had
already been discussed at Tilsit as a contingency. Joseph was so
accustomed to obey that a sober second thought led him to repent of
his creditable hesitation; within a week, and before leaving Venice,
he had despatched a confidential messenger to secure Alexander's
formal compliance with his transfer to Spain. He was under the spell
of the magician, for it was probably Napoleon who prompted his
thoughts. After that of Charles th