Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert PeelAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert Peel
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
thence to the old château of Compiègne.
Soon after his marriage Buonaparte made a tour with his Imperial bride.
It was very much the same that he had made with Josephine shortly
before their coronation--namely, through the northern provinces of
France, through Belgium and Holland. He decided, during this journey,
on the occasion of his uniting the part of the Low Countries called
Zealand with the Department of the Mouths of the Scheldt, on annexing
the whole country to France for ever. But whilst conversing with Louis
Buonaparte, his Holland king-brother at Antwerp, he suddenly stumbled
on a discovery of some daring proceedings of Fouché, his Minister of
Police, which sent him back to Paris in haste, and ruined that subtle
diplomatist with him. The arbitrary disposition displayed in this
arrangement very soon produced consequences between Napoleon and his
brothers which made more than ever manifest to the world that no law or
consideration could any longer influence Napoleon; that his self-will
was, and must be, his only guide. His brother Lucien, who had from
the first refused to become one of his puppets, and who was leading a
private life in Italy, received an intimation from Fouché that Napoleon
meant to arrest and shut him up. In consequence of this friendly hint,
Lucien fled from the Continent, and ultimately took refuge in England,
where he purchased an estate near Ludlow, and there resided till 1814,
when the fall of his brother permitted him to return to France. Lucien
Buonaparte (the ablest of the family next to Napoleon), now styled the
Prince of Canino, from an estate which he purchased in Italy, and which
the Pope raised to a principality, spent the three years in England in
writing a poem entitled "Charlemagne; or, the Church Delivered."
But if Lucien, who had rendered Napoleon such essential services in
enabling him to put down the French Revolution, could not escape this
meddling domination as a private man, much less could his puppet-kings,
whether brothers or brothers-in-law. He was beginning to have violent
quarrels with Murat and his sister Caroline, king and queen of Naples;
nor could the mild and amiable temper of Louis, king of Holland,
protect him from the insults and the pressure of this spoiled child of
fortune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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