am.--Marshal Macdonald--Union of the Papal
States with the Empire--The battle of Talavera--Sir Arthur
Wellesley--English expedition to Holland--Attempt to assassinate the
Emperor at Schoenbrunn--Staps Interrogated by Napoleon--Pardon
offered and rejected--Fanaticism and patriotism--Corvisart's
examination of Staps--Second interrogatory--Tirade against the
illuminati--Accusation of the Courts of Berlin and Weimar--Firmness
and resignation of Staps--Particulars respecting his death--
Influence of the attempt of Staps on the conclusion of peace--
M. de Champagny.

Napoleon went to inspect all the corps of his army and the field of
Wagram, which a short time before had been the scene of one of those
great battles in which victory was the more glorious in proportion as it
had been valiantly contested.

--[The great battle of Wagram was fought on the 6th of July 1809.
The Austrians, who committed a mistake in over-extending their line,
lost 20,000 men as prisoners, besides a large number in killed and
wounded. There was no day, perhaps, on which Napoleon showed more
military genius or more personal courage. He was in the hottest of
the fight, and for a long time exposed to showers of grapeshot.--
Editor of 1836 edition.]--

On that day [the type] of French honour, Macdonald, who, after achieving
a succession of prodigies, led the army of Italy into the heart of the
Austrian States, was made a marshal on the field of battle. Napoleon
said to him, "With us it is for life and for death." The general opinion
was that the elevation of Macdonald added less to the marshal's military
reputation than it redounded to the honour of the Emperor. Five days
after the bombardment of Vienna, namely, on the 17th of May, the Emperor
had published a decree, by virtue of which the Papal States were united
to the French Empire, and Rome was declared an Imperial City. I will not
stop to inquire whether this was good or bad in point of policy, but it
was a mean usurpation on the part of Napoleon, for the time was passed
when a Julius II. laid down the keys of St. Peter and took up the sword
of St. Paul. It was, besides, an injustice, and, considering the Pope's
condescension to Napoleon, an act of ingratitude. The decree of union
did not deprive the Pope of his residence, but he was only the First
Bishop of Christendom, with a revenue of 2,000,000.

Napoleon while at Vienna heard of the affair of