814 
Copy of the third Note addressed by 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs 
to M. Knobelsdorf. 
The undersigned minister of fo- 
reign relations has expressed to his 
excellency M. Knobelsdorff, in the 
note which he had the honour to 
write to him on the 13th of Sept. 
the confiding dispositions with which 
bis majesty the emperor received 
the assurances given by M. Knobels- 
dortf, that the military movements 
of the court of Berlin were not the 
result of any hostile concert against 
France, but simply the effect of a 
misunderstanding ; and that they 
would cease the moment when the 
first communication of his excellency 
should have arrived at Berlin. 
Nevertheless, the news received 
every day bears so much all the cha- 
racter of an impending war, that his 
imperial majesty must fecl some re- 
gret at the engagement he made, not 
yet'to call out his reserve, and to 
defer the constitutional notification, 
after which all the forces of the na- 
tion would be placed at his dis- 
posal. He will fulfil that engage- 
ment ; but he shall think it contrary 
to prudence and to the interest of 
his people, not to order, in the in- 
terim, all the measures, and all the 
movements of the troops, which caa 
take place without previous notifi- 
cation. 
His majesty has, at the same 
time, charged the undersigned to 
éxpress again to M. Knobelsdortt, 
that he cannot yet conceive, by what 
forgetfulness of her interests, Prus- 
sia Should be willing to renounce 
hier ties of amity with France. War 
between the two countries appears 
to him a real political monstrosity ; 
and from the moment that the cabi- 
net of Berlin shall return to her 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
pacific dispositions, and shall ceasé 
to menace the armies of Germany; 
his majesty engages to countermand 
all the measures which prudence 
commanded him to take. He will 
cease with pleasure, as he does not 
cease to do in all circumstances, the 
occasion of testifying to his majesty 
the king of Prussia the price he at- 
taches to his friendship ; to aunion 
founded on a wise policy, and on re- 
ciprocal interests ; and to prove to 
him that his sentiments are always 
the same, and that no provocation 
has been able to alter them. 
The undersigned is happy in 
being able to give to his excellency 
M. de Knobelsdorff so formal an as- 
surance of the dispositions of his 
majesty, which are so foreign to all 
ideas of war with Prussia, that he 
has already committed a very grave 
military fault, in retarding his mili- 
tary preparations for one month, 
and in consenting to let fifteen days 
more pass over, without calling out 
his reserves and his national guards, 
This confidence, which his ma- 
jesty loves to preserve, proves what 
a value he sets upon what was stated 
to him by M. Knobelsdorff, that 
Prussia had entered into no concert 
with the enemies of France, and that 
the assurances that he had received, 
in putting a term to the misunder- 
standing which has just arisen, would 
cause the cessation of those arma~- 
ments which were the consequences 
of it. 
(Signed) 
C. M. Talleyrand, &c. 
Paris, Sept. 19, 1806, 
Second Note of M. Knobelsdorff to 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
The undersigned envoy extra- 
ordinary 
