prevail on the General to retract his orders. It was not till the
following day that M. de Barrel succeeded in getting these orders
revoked--that is to say, he obtained M. Notting's release from
confinement; for Dupas would not be satisfied until he heard that the
Senator had suffered at least the commencement of the punishment to which
his capricious fury had doomed him.

In spite of his parade of disinterestedness General Dupas yielded so far
as to accept the twenty Louis a day for the expense of his table which
M. Notting had offered him on the part of the Senate of Lubeck; but it
was not without murmurings, complaints, and menaces that he made this
generous concession; and he exclaimed more than once, "These fellows have
portioned out my allowance for me." Lubeck was not released from the
presence of General Dupes until the month of March 1809, when he was
summoned to command a division in the Emperor's new campaign against
Austria. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless the fact, that,
oppressive as had been his presence at Lubeck, the Hanse Towns soon had
reason to regret him.

CHAPTER XV.

1808.

Promulgation of the Code of Commerce--Conquests by Status-consulte--
Three events in one day--Recollections--Application of a line of
Voltaire--Creation of the Imperial nobility--Restoration of the
university--Aggrandisement of the kingdom of Italy at the expense of
Rome--Cardinal Caprara'a departure from Paris--The interview at
Erfurt.

The year 1808 was fertile in remarkable events. Occupied as I was with
my own duties, I yet employed my leisure hours in observing the course of
those great acts by which Bonaparte seemed determined to mark every day
of his life. At the commencement of 1808 I received one of the first
copies of the Code of Commerce, promulgated on the 1st of January by the
Emperor's order. This code appeared to me an act of mockery; at least it
was extraordinary to publish a code respecting a subject which it was the
effect of all the Imperial decrees to destroy. What trade could possibly
exist under the Continental system, and the ruinous severity of the
customs? The line was already extended widely enough when, by a
'Senatus-consulte', it was still further widened. The Emperor, to whom
all the Continent submitted, had recourse to no other formality for the
purpose of annexing to the Empire the towns of Kehl, Cassel near Mayence,
Wesel, and Flushing, with the territor