ed his presence at Madrid; but he was recalled to
Paris by the Minister of the Treasury, who wished to adjust his accounts.
The Emperor wanted money for the war on which he was entering, and to
procure it for the Treasury Ouvrard was sent to Amsterdam to negotiate
with the House of Hope. He succeeded, and Mr. David Parish became the
Company's agent.

Having concluded this business Ouvrard returned in all haste to Madrid;
but in the midst of the most flattering hopes and most gigantic
enterprises he suddenly found himself threatened with a dreadful crisis.
M. Desprez, as has been stated, had, with the concurrence of the
Treasury, been allowed to take upon himself all the risk of executing the
treaty, by which 150,000,000 were to be advanced for the year 1804, and
400,000,000 for the year 1805. Under the circumstances which had arisen
the Minister of the Treasury considered himself entitled to call upon
Ouvrard to place at his disposal 10,000,000 of the piastres which he had
received from Spain. The Minister at the same time informed him that he
had made arrangements on the faith of this advance, which he thought
could not be refused at so urgent a moment.

The embarrassment of the Treasury, and the well-known integrity of the
Minister, M. de Barbe Marbois, induced Ouvrard to remit the 10,000,000
piastres. But a few days after he had forwarded the money a Commissioner
of the Treasury arrived at Madrid with a ministerial despatch, in which
Ouvrard was requested to deliver to the Commissioner all the assets he
could command, and to return immediately to Paris.

The Treasury was then in the greatest difficulty, and a general alarm
prevailed. This serious financial distress was occasioned by the
following circumstances. The Treasury had, by a circular, notified to
the Receivers-General that Desprez was the holder of their bonds. They
were also authorised to transmit to him all their disposable funds, to be
placed to their credit in an account current. Perhaps the giving of this
authority was a great error; but, be that as it may, Desprez, encouraged
by the complaisance of the Treasury, desired the Receivers-General to
transmit to him all the sums they could procure for payment of interest
under 8 per cent., promising to allow them a higher rate of interest. As
the credit of the house of Desprez stood high, it may be easily conceived
that on such conditions the Receivers-General, who were besides secured
by the authority of