eople, appeared to betray them. While boasting
of his good fortune, was it not evident that he was insulting their
misfortunes? They had, therefore, come to Dresden in order to swell the
pomp of Napoleon's triumph--for it was over them that he thus triumphed:
each cry of admiration offered to him was a cry of reproach to them; his
grandeur was their humiliation, his victory their defeat.

Doubtless they, in this manner, gave vent to their bitter feelings; and
hatred, day after day, sank more deeply into their hearts. One prince
was first observed to withdraw precipitately from this painful position.
The Empress of Austria, whose ancestors General Buonaparte had
dispossessed in Italy, made herself remarked by her aversion, which she
vainly endeavoured to disguise; it escaped from her by an involuntary
impulse, which Napoleon instantly detected, and subdued by a smile: but
she employed her understanding and attraction in gently winning hearts
to her opinion, in order to sow them afterwards with the seeds of her
hatred.

The Empress of France unintentionally aggravated this fatal disposition.
She was observed to eclipse her mother-in-law by the superior
magnificence of her costume: if Napoleon required more reserve, she
resisted, and even wept, till the emperor, either through affection,
fatigue, or absence of mind, was induced to give way. It is also
asserted that notwithstanding her origin, remarks calculated to wound
German pride escaped that princess, in extravagant comparisons between
her native and her adopted country. Napoleon rebuked her for this, but
gently; he was pleased with a patriotism which he had himself inspired;
and he fancied he repaired her imprudent language by the munificence of
his presents.

This assemblage, therefore, could not fail of irritating a variety of
feelings: the vanity of many was wounded by the collision. Napoleon,
however, having exerted himself to please, thought that he had given
general satisfaction: while waiting at Dresden the result of the marches
of his army, the numerous columns of which were still traversing the
territories of his allies, he more especially occupied himself with his
political arrangements.

General Lauriston, ambassador from France at Petersburgh, received
orders to apply for the Russian emperor's permission to proceed to
Wilna, in order to communicate definitive proposals to him. General
Narbonne, aid-de-camp of Napoleon, departed for the imperial
head-q