rule ugh Ase with with 99 put o had er his iment le fail court, 1 been For id, the much Isness mpire, could is, put at perpublic is, Nalespise ations, n such e battle ting an ked and "stran the sea This is the truth pard." to ascer the marn affairs, would conis attempt lution, looked forward with deep disgust to the rule of a dynasty proud of sharing the blood of the haughtiest of all the royal houses of Europe, and consequently more likely to make common cause with the little band of hereditary sovereigns than with the people. Finally, the title, "King of Rome," put an end to the fond hopes of the Italians, who had been taught by Napoleon to expect that, after his death, their country should possess a government separate from France; nor could the same title fail to excite some bitter feelings in the Austrian court, whose heir-apparent under the old empire had been styled commonly "the King of the Romans." For the present, however, both at home and abroad, the event was naturally looked on as adding much strength to the throne of Napoleon. He, thus called on to review with new seriousness the whole condition and prospects of his empire, appears to have felt very distinctly that neither could be secure, unless an end were, by some means, put to the war with England. However he might permit himself to sneer at his great enemy in his public addresses from the throne, and in his bulletins, Napoleon had too much strength of mind not to despise those who, in any of their private communications, had the meanness to affect acquiescence in such views. When Denon brought him, after the battle of Wagram, the design of a medal, representing an eagle strangling a leopard, Buonaparte rebuked and dismissed the flatterer. 66 What," said he, "strangling the leopard! There is not a spot of the sea on which the eagle dares show himself. This is base adulation. It would have been nearer the truth to represent the eagle as choked by the leopard.” He sent a private messenger to London to ascer tain from personal communication with the marquis Wellesley, then minister for foreign affairs, on what terms the English government would consent to open a formal negotiation; but this attempt |