"Men are we, and must grieve even when the shade Of that which once was great is pass'd away." WORDSWORTH.--S. CHAPTER XXXV. _Ungenerous conduct of Buonaparte to the Duke of Brunswick--The approach of the French troops to Brunswick compels the dying Prince to cause himself to be carried to Altona, where he expires--Oath of revenge taken by his Son--At Potsdam and Berlin, the proceedings of Napoleon are equally cruel and vindictive--His clemency towards the Prince of Hatzfeld--His Treatment of the Lesser Powers--Jerome Buonaparte--Seizure of Hamburgh--Berlin Decrees against British Commerce--Napoleon rejects all application from the continental commercial towns to relax or repeal them--Commerce, nevertheless, flourishes in spite of them--Second anticipation called for of the Conscription for 1807--The King of Prussia applies for an Armistice, which is clogged with such harsh terms, that he refuses them._ The will of Napoleon seemed now the only law, from which the conquered country, that so late stood forth as the rival of France, was to expect her destiny; and circumstances indicated, that, with more than the fortune of Cæsar or Alexander, the Conqueror would not emulate their generosity or clemency. [Sidenote: THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.] The treatment of the ill-fated Duke of Brunswick did little honour to the victor. After receiving a mortal wound on the field of battle, he was transported from thence to Altona. Upon his way to his native dominions, in the government of which his conduct had been always patriotic and praiseworthy, he wrote to Napoleon, representing that, although he had fought against him as a general in the Prussian service, he nevertheless, as a Prince of the Empire, recommended his hereditary principality to the moderation and clemency of the victor. This attempt to separate his two characters, or to appeal to the immunities of a league which Napoleon had dissolved, although natural in the duke's forlorn situation, formed a plea not likely to be attended to by the conqueror. But, on other and broader grounds, Buonaparte, if not influenced by personal animosity against the duke, or desirous to degrade, in his person, the father-in-law of the heir of the British crown, might have found reasons for treating the defeated general with the respect due to his rank and his misfortunes. The Duke of Brunswick was one of the oldest soldiers in Europe, and his unquestioned bravery ought to have recommended him to his junior in arms. He was a reigning prince, and Buonaparte's own aspirations towards confirmation of aristocratical rank should have led him to treat the vanquished with decency. Above all, the duke was defenceless, wounded, dying; a situation to command the sympathy of every military man, who knows on what casual circumstances the fate of battle depends. The answer of Napoleon was, nevertheless, harsh and insulting in the last degree. He