as in
the seventy-second year of his age, and extremely infirm.]--His entrance
into that city afforded a striking example of the vicissitudes of
fortune. That Prince entered Altona on a wretched litter, borne by ten
men, without officers, without domestics, followed by a troop of
vagabonds and children, who were drawn together by curiosity. He was
lodged in a wretched inn, and so much worn out by fatigue and the pain of
his eyes that on the day after his arrival a report of his death very
generally prevailed. Doctor Unzer was immediately sent for to attend the
unfortunate Duke, who, during the few days that he survived his wounds,
saw no one else except his wife, who arrived on the 1st of November. He
expired on the 10th of the same month.

--[For the mistimed but rather pathetic belief of the old dying Duke
in the courtesy with which he and his States would be treated by the
French, see Beugnot, tome 1. p. 80: "I feel sure that there is a
courier of the Emperor's on the road to know how I am."]--

At this juncture Bernadotte returned to Hamburg. I asked him how I was
to account for his conduct while he was with Davoust, who had left
Nuremberg to attack the Prussian army; and whether it was true that he
had refused to march with that general, and afterwards to aid him when he
attacked the Prussians on the Weimar road. "The letters I received,"
observed I, "state that you took no part in the battle of Auerstadt; that
I did not believe, but I suppose you saw the bulletin which I received a
little after the battle, and which stated that Bonaparte said at
Nuremberg, in the presence of several officers, 'Were I to bring him
before a court-martial he would be shot. I shall say nothing to him
about it, but I will take care he shall know what I think of his
behaviour. He has too keen a sense of honour not to be aware that he
acted disgracefully."--"I think him very likely," rejoined Bernadotte,
"to have made these observations. He hates me because he knows I do not
like him; but let him speak to me and he shall have his answer. If I am
a Gascon, he is a greater one. I might have felt piqued at receiving
something like orders from Davoust, but I did my duty."

--[The complaints of Bernadotte's conduct on the 14th of October
1806. when he gave no assistance to Davoust in repulsing the main
body of the Prussians at Aneratadt, are well known. Jomini says
that Davoust proposed to Bernadotte to march with hi