Perhaps this was the only occasion in Napoleon’s life when he stood between a nation willing to be robbed and a consciousness that to rob it was a blunder. The draft of his note showed his embarrassment. Remarkable in many ways, it required special notice in two points. The proposed Vienna Decree confiscated American ships because French ships were forbidden under threat of confiscation to enter American ports. The note of January 25 suggested a variation from this idea. American ships were to be confiscated everywhere except in France, because they were forbidden to enter France. As they were also confiscated in France because they were forbidden to leave America, the Emperor had nothing more to demand. His reasoning was as convincing as a million bayonets could make it; but perhaps it was less Napoleonic than the avowal that for six months the Emperor had been engaged in inveigling American property into neutral ports in order that he might seize it. Apparently Cadore still raised obstacles to the Emperor’s will. For some three weeks he held this note back, and when at last, February 14, he sent it to Armstrong, he made changes which were not all improvements in the Emperor’s text. Indeed, Napoleon might reasonably have found as much fault with Champagny as he found with some of his generals, for failing to carry out the orders he dictated:-- “His Majesty could place no reliance on the proceedings of the United States, who, having no ground of complaint against France, comprised her in their acts of exclusion, and since the month of May have forbidden the entrance of their ports to French vessels, under the penalty of confiscation. As soon as his Majesty was informed of this measure, he considered himself bound to order reprisals on American vessels, not only in his territory, but likewise in the countries which are under his influence. In the ports of Holland, of Spain, of Italy, and of Naples, American vessels have been seized because the Americans have seized French vessels.”