As Napoleon had offered to guarantee the integrity of the Turkish Empire, Lord Yarmouth showed some indignation at a proposal which would have begun its partition; and, but for the expected arrival of Oubril, would have broken off the negotiation.  On July 8th he saw the Russian envoy and found him a man of straw.  Oubril approved everything.  He was glad that France would give back Hanover to England, because that would sever the Franco-Prussian union and make the Court of Berlin dependent on Russia.  He even thought it might be well for the Hanse Towns to go to the Neapolitan Bourbons, provided those towns were placed under the Czar’s protection.  But even better was the proposal that those Bourbons should have Dalmatia and neighbouring lands; for that would drive a wedge between Napoleon and Turkey.  Such was the gist of this curious interview.  Desirous of testing the accuracy of his account of it, Lord Yarmouth read it over to Oubril at their next interview, when the Russian envoy added the following written corrections: 

“N.B.M. d’Oubril believes, though he has no directions on this subject, that it would be suitable to Russia, and even advantageous for the assuring their own independence, that Hamburg and Luebeck should pass under the suzerainty of Russia.—­N.B.  Although M. d’Oubril has a positive order to insist on the preservation of Sicily for the King of Naples, yet he is of opinion that the acquisition of Venetia, Istria, Dalmatia, and Albania” [should be an establishment for his Sicilian Majesty].[82]

That a reed shaken by every breeze should bow before Napoleon’s will was not surprising; and late at night on July 20th Lord Yarmouth heard that the Russian envoy had just signed a separate peace with France, whereby the independence of the Ionian Isles was recognized (Russia keeping only 4,000 troops in Corfu), and Germany was to be evacuated by the French.  But the sting was in the tail:  for a secret article stipulated that Ferdinand IV. should cede Sicily to Joseph Bonaparte and receive the Balearic Isles from Napoleon’s ally, Spain.

Such was the news which our envoy heard, after forcing his way to Oubril’s presence, just as the latter was hurrying off to St. Petersburg.  At that city an important change had taken place; Czartoryski had retired in favour of Baron Budberg, who was less favourable to a close alliance with England; and it appears certain that Oubril would not have broken through his instructions had he not known of this change.  What other motives led him to break faith with England, Sicily, and Spain are not clearly known.  He claimed that the new order of things in Germany rendered it highly important to get the French troops out of that land.  Doubtless this was so; but even that benefit would have been dearly bought at the price of disgrace to the Czar.[83]

Leaving for the present Oubril to face his indignant master, we turn to notice an epoch-making change, the details of which were settled at Paris in the midst of the negotiations with England and Russia.  On July 17th was quietly signed the Act of the Confederation of the Rhine, that destroyed the old Germanic Empire.