[Footnote 311: The Empress Catharine of Russia wrote to Marie Antoinette a letter with her own hand, containing the following sentence: "Kings ought to proceed in their career, undisturbed by the cries of the people, as the moon pursues her course unimpeded by the howling of dogs."--_Madame Campan_, vol. i., p. 207.] [Footnote 312: Mémoires de Madame Campan, t. ii., p. 172.] [Footnote 313: Thiers, vol. i., p. 204.] [Footnote 314: Bertrand's Private Memoirs, vol. v., p. 106.] [Footnote 315: There was an earnest debate in February, 1800, in the British House of Commons as to who were the aggressors in this war. Mr. Pitt denounced the French as the aggressors. Mr. Fox, on the contrary, affirmed that the war was unavoidable on the part of France from the menacing conduct of the German powers.] [Footnote 316: Mémoires de Bouillé, p. 314.] CHAPTER XXV. AGITATION IN PARIS, AND COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. Death of Leopold.--Assassination of Gustavus.--Interview between Dumouriez and the Queen.--Discussion in the Assembly.--The Duke of Brunswick.--Interview of Barnave with the Queen.--Interview between Dumouriez and the King.--Dismissal of M. Roland.--The Palace invaded.--Fortitude of the King.--Pétion, the Mayor.--Affecting Interview of the Royal Family.--Remarks of Napoleon. On the 1st of March, 1792, the Emperor Leopold died. His son, Francis II., a young man twenty-four years of age, ascended the throne. The court of Leopold had been a harem of unblushing sensuality and sin. He did not condescend to spread any veil over his amours. His attachments were numerous and fugitive, and his guilty favorites associated with each other and braved the frowns of the humiliated queen amid the voluptuousness of the palace. At the time of his death there dwelt with him Donna Maria, a young girl from Tuscany, whose surpassing charms had given her celebrity throughout Europe as "the beautiful Florentine;" a Polish girl of great attractions, Mademoiselle Prokache; and the Countess of Walkenstein, whose charms of person and fascination of manners gave her celebrity through all the European courts. Upon this latter favorite alone he lavished gifts, in drafts on the Bank of Vienna, to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars. There were also various other of these favorites of infamy, inferior in notoriety and rank. The annals of Roman story may be searched in vain to find a monarch more utterly profligate. Immediately after his death his widow said to her son Francis, "My son, you have before you the sad proofs of your father's disorderly life and of my long afflictions. Remember nothing of them except my forgiveness and his virtues. Imitate his great qualities, but beware lest you fall into the same vices, in order that you may not, in your turn, put to the blush those who scrutinize your life."