Acting without delay on the theory of sudden passion, the Emperor signed, three days afterward, March 23, a decree known as the Decree of Rambouillet, in which the result of these long hesitations was at last condensed.[182] This document was a paraphrase of the projected Decree of Vienna of Aug. 4, 1809; and it showed the tenacity with which Napoleon, while seeming to yield to opposition, never failed to return to a purpose and effect its object. In order to carry out the Decree of Vienna in that of Rambouillet he was forced into a _coup d’état_. He had not only to expel his brother Louis from Holland, and annex Holland to France, but also to drive his ablest minister, Fouché, from the Cabinet. Of the steps by which he accomplished his objects, something can be seen in his letters; of his motives, no doubt ever existed. Armstrong described them in strong language; but his language was that of a party interested. Thiers recounted them as a panegyric, and his language was even clearer than Armstrong’s. He made nothing of the Emperor’s pretence that his seizures were in reprisal for the Non-intercourse Act. “This was an official reason (_une raison d’apparat_),” said Thiers.[183] “He was in search of a specious pretext for seizing in Holland, in France, in Italy, the mass of American ships which smuggled for the English, and which were within his reach. He had actually sequestered a considerable number; and in their rich cargoes were to be found the means of furnishing his Treasury with resources nearly equal to those procured for him by the contributions of war imposed on the vanquished.” The system of treating the United States as an enemy conquered in war rested on a foundation of truth; and as usual with conquered countries it met with most resistance, not from them but from bystanders. The Emperor of Russia, the kings of Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, the Hanse Towns, and King Louis of Holland were the chief obstacles to the success of the scheme to which they were required to be parties. King Louis of Holland refused to seize the American ships at Amsterdam, and forced his brother to the conclusion that if nothing else could be done, Holland must be annexed to France.