—­[When Louis XVIII. returned to France, and Fouche was his Minister of Police, the King asked Fouche whether during his (the King’s) exile, had not set spies over him, and who they were.  Fouche hesitated to reply, but the King insisting he said:  “If your Majesty presses for an answer, it was the Due de Blacas to whom this matter was confided.”—­“And how much did you pay him?” said the King.  “Deux cents mille livres de rents, Sire.”—­“Ah, so!” said the King, “then he has played fair; we went halves.”—­Henry Greville’s Diary, p. 430.]—­

Amongst those emigrants was one whose name will occupy a certain place in history; I mean Dumouriez, of whom I have already spoken, and who had for some time employed himself in distributing pamphlets.  He was then at Stralsund; and it was believed that the King of Sweden would give him a command.  The vagrant life of this general, who ran everywhere hegging employment from the enemies of his country without being able to obtain it, subjected him to general ridicule; in fact, he was everywhere despised.

To determine the difficulties which had arisen with regard to Holland, which Dumouriez dreamed of conquering with an imaginary army, and being discontented besides with the Dutch for not rigorously excluding English vessels from their ports, the Emperor constituted the Batavian territory a kingdom under his brother Louis.  When I notified to the States of the circle of Lower Saxony the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of Holland, and the nomination of Cardinal Fesch as coadjutor and successor of the Arch-chancellor of the Germanic Empire, along with their official communications, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the only member of the circle who forebore to reply, and I understood he had applied to the Court of Russia to know “whether” and “how” he should reply.  At the same time he made known to the Emperor the marriage of his daughter, the Princess Charlotte Frederica, with Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark.

At this period it would have been difficult to foresee the way in which this union would terminate.  The Prince was young and handsome, and of an amiable disposition, which seemed to indicate that he would prove a good husband.  As for the Princess, she was as beautiful as love; but she was heedless and giddy; in fact, she was a spoiled child.  She adored her husband, and during several years their union proved happy.  I had the honour of knowing them at the period when the Duke of Mecklenburg, with his family, sought refuge at Altona.  Before leaving that town the Duchess of Mecklenburg, a Princess of Saxony, paid a visit to Madame de Bourrienne and loaded her with civilities.  This Princess was perfectly amiable, and was therefore generally regretted when, two years afterwards, death snatched her from her family.  Before leaving Altona the Duke of Mecklenburg gave some parties by way of bidding adieu to Holstein, where he had been so kindly received; and I can never forget the distinguished reception and many kindnesses Madame de Bourrienne and myself received from that illustrious family.