



Produced by David Widger





MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD

By Lewis Goldsmith

Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London




Volume 4



LETTER XXXIII.

PARIS, August, 1805.

MY LORD:--The Italian subjects of Napoleon the First were far from
displaying the same zeal and the same gratitude for his paternal care and
kindness in taking upon himself the trouble of governing them, as we good
Parisians have done.  Notwithstanding that a brigade of our police agents
and spies, drilled for years to applaud and to excite enthusiasm,
proceeded as his advanced guard to raise the public spirit, the reception
at Milan was cold and everything else but cordial and pleasing. The
absence of duty did not escape his observation and resentment. Convinced,
in his own mind, of the great blessing, prosperity, and liberty his
victories and sovereignty have conferred on the inhabitants of the other
side of the Alps, he ascribed their present passive or mutinous behaviour
to the effect of foreign emissaries from Courts envious of his glory and
jealous of his authority.

He suspected particularly England and Russia of having selected this
occasion of a solemnity that would complete his grandeur to humble his
just pride.  He also had some idea within himself that even Austria might
indirectly have dared to influence the sentiments and conduct of her
ci-devant subjects of Lombardy; but his own high opinion of the awe which
his very name inspired at Vienna dispersed these thoughts, and his wrath
fell entirely on the audacity of Pitt and Markof.  Strict orders were
therefore issued to the prefects and commissaries of police to watch
vigilantly all foreigners and strangers, who might have arrived, or who
should arrive, to witness the ceremony of the coronation, and to arrest
instantly any one who should give the least reason to