Oubril proceeded to Vienna, where he had long discussions with the British and French ambassadors:  Fox also requested that Lord Yarmouth, one of the many hundreds of Englishmen still kept under restraint in France, might have his freedom and repair at once to Paris for a preliminary discussion with Talleyrand.  The request being granted, the prisoner left the depot at Verdun, and, early in June, saw that Minister in his first flush of pride at the new title of Prince of Benevento.  At that time Paris was intoxicated with Napoleon’s glory.  The French were lords of Franconia, whence they levied heavy exactions:  in Italy they defied the Pope’s authority.[81] They were firmly installed at Ancona, despite repeated protests of Pius VII.  King Joseph with an army of 45,000 men was planning the expulsion of the Bourbons from Sicily.  And in these early days of June, Louis Bonaparte was declared King of Holland.

Yet Talleyrand was not so dazzled by this splendour as to slight the idea of peace with England; and when Lord Yarmouth stated that George III. would above all things require the restoration of Hanover, the Minister, after a delay in which he consulted his master, stated that that would make no difficulty.  As to the other questions, namely, Sicily and the maintenance of the Turkish Empire, he replied:  “You hold Sicily, we do not ask it of you:  if we possessed it, it might much increase our difficulties”; and as regards Turkey he advised that England should speedily gain the guarantee of its integrity from France—­“for much is being prepared, but nothing is yet done.”  After reporting these views at Downing Street, Lord Yarmouth returned to Paris for further discussions, with the general understanding that the principle of uti possidetis should form their basis—­except as regards Hanover.  He now was informed by Talleyrand that the negotiations with Russia were to be kept separate, and that Napoleon had other views about Sicily, as he looked on its conquest as necessary for Joseph’s security on the mainland.

Surprised at this change, our envoy stated that he could not discuss any terms of peace in which Sicily was not kept for the Bourbons; whereupon Talleyrand replied that things were altered, and that we ought to be content with regaining Hanover from Prussia and keeping Malta and the Cape of Good Hope.  On Lord Yarmouth declining to proceed further until the French claims to Sicily were renounced, the offer of the Hanse Towns (Luebeck, Hamburg, and Bremen) was made for his Sicilian Majesty; and on the refusal of that bait, Dalmatia, Ragusa, and Albania were proposed.