is
duchy until his death, which occurred on October 9th, 1802; and it is
stated by our envoy in Paris to have been hastened by news of that
odious bargain.[201] His death now furnished Bonaparte with a good
occasion for seeking to win an immense area in the New World at the
expense of a small Italian duchy, which his troops could at any time
easily overrun. This consideration seems to have occurred even to
Charles IV.; he refused to barter the Floridas against Parma. The
re-establishment of his son-in-law in his paternal domains was
doubtless desirable, but not at the cost of so exacting a heriot as
East and West Florida.

From out this maze of sordid intrigues two or three facts challenge
our attention. Both Bonaparte and Charles IV. regarded the most
fertile waste lands then calling for the plough as fairly exchanged
against half a million of Tuscans; but the former feared the
resentment of the United States, and sought to postpone a rupture
until he could coerce them by overwhelming force. It is equally clear
that, had he succeeded in this enterprise, France might have gained a
great colonial empire in North America protected from St. Domingo as a
naval and military base, while that island would have doubly prospered
from the vast supplies poured down the Mississippi; but this success
he would have bought at the expense of a _rapprochement_ between the
United States and their motherland, such as a bitter destiny was to
postpone to the end of the century.

The prospect of an Anglo-American alliance might well give pause even
to Napoleon. Nevertheless, he resolved to complete this vast
enterprise, which, if successful, would have profoundly affected the
New World and the relative importance of the French and English
peoples. The Spanish officials at New Orleans, in pursuance of orders
from Madrid, now closed the lower Mississippi to vessels of the United
States (October, 1802). At once a furious outcry arose in the States
against an act which not only violated their treaty rights, but
foreshadowed the coming grip of the First Consul. For this outburst he
was prepared: General Victor was at Dunkirk, with five battalions and
sixteen field-pieces, ready to cross the Atlantic, ostensibly for the
relief of Leclerc, but really in order to take possession of New
Orleans.[202] But his plan was foiled by the sure instincts of the
American people, by the disasters of the St. Domingo expedition, and
by the restlessness of Engl