, the sister of
Napoleon, and the widow of General Leclerc. He had been made Prince
and Duke of Guastalla when that duchy was given to his wife, 30th
Marsh 1806. He separated from his wife after a few years. Indeed
Pauline was impossible as a wife if half of the stories about her
are true. It was she who, finding that a lady was surprised at her
having sat naked while a statue of her was being modelled for
Canova, believed she had satisfactorily explained matters by saying,
"but there was a fire in the room."]--

My correspondence relative to what passed in the south of France and of
Europe presented to me, if I may so express myself, merely an anecdotal
interest. Not so the news which came from the north. At Hamburg I was
like the sentinel of an advanced post, always on the alert. I frequently
informed the Government of what would take place before the event
actually happened. I was one of the first to hear of the plans of Russia
relative to Sweden. The courier whom I sent to Paris arrived there at
the very moment when Russia made the declaration of war. About the end
of February the Russian troops entered Swedish Finland, and occupied also
the capital of that province, which had at all times been coveted by the
Russian Government. It has been said that at the interview at Erfurt
Bonaparte consented to the usurpation of that province by Alexander in
return for the complaisance of the latter in acknowledging Joseph as King
of Spain and the Indies.

The removal of Joseph from the throne of Naples to the throne of Madrid
belongs, indeed, to that period respecting which I am now throwing
together a few recollections. Murat had succeeded Joseph at Naples, and
this accession of the brother-in-law of Napoleon to one of the thrones of
the House of Bourbon gave Bonaparte another junior in the college of
kings, of which he would have infallibly become the senior if he had gone
on as he began.

I will relate a little circumstance which now occurs to me respecting the
kings manufactured by Napoleon. I recollect that during the King of
Etruria's stay in Paris--the First Consul went with that Prince to the
Comedie Francaise, where Voltaire's 'OEdipus' was performed. This piece,
I may observe, Bonaparte liked better than anything Voltaire ever wrote.
I was in the theatre, but not in the First Consul's box, and I observed,
as all present must have done, the eagerness with which the audience
applied to Napole