HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



233 



duty ! no such thing. It soon 

 appeared how much of the blood 

 of Lorraine flowed in her veins. 

 She was gay, lively, and almost 

 playful, and delighted with her 

 conquest over a man who had 

 conquered the world. 



But while the face of France 

 and its dependencies seemed to 

 be brightened up with joy, the 

 friends of humanity and well- 

 wishers to established monarchies 

 and the old order of things, de- 

 plored the humiliation of Austria, 

 and execrated the servility of the 

 fallen Archduke Charles ! The 

 sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis, 

 scarcely cost more tears to assem- 

 bled Greece, than that of Louisa 

 Maria to the usurper of the throne 

 of France — France, of which so 

 near a relation perished, at so 

 late a period, was tiie murdered 

 queen. 



Intimation had been made by 

 Buonaparte in the beginning of 

 December, 1809, of an intended 

 change in Holland, by which it 

 would becomeapart of the French 

 empire to which indeed it natu- 

 rally belonged, as it was nothing 

 else but an alluvion of the Rhine, 

 Meuse, and the Scheldt, the great 

 arteries of the empire.* By this 

 time numbers of French troops 

 had begun to glide imperceptibly 

 into Holland, till at last it was 

 occupied by a French army of 

 40,000 men. The Exchange of 

 Rotterdam was converted into 

 a stable for French cavalry. This 

 was a virtual or real annexation 

 of that country to the French em- 

 pire. Yet Buonaparte appears at 

 first to have been willing that it 

 should possess a nominal indepen- 



dence, and his brother wear a no- 

 minal crown. A treaty was made 

 with Lewis, whereby Holland, on 

 the left bank of the Waal, was to 

 be annexed to France. An army 

 of 18,000 men, including 3,000 

 cavalry, partly French, and partly 

 Dutch, was to be distributed at 

 all the mouths of the rivers, along 

 with officers of the French customs 

 for the prohibition of all trade be- 

 tween Holland and England : the 

 whole to be paid, provisioned, and 

 clothed by the Dutch government. 

 Though the treaty did not autho- 

 rize the presence of French cus- 

 tom-house officers but upon the 

 banks of the sea and at the mouths 

 of rivers, or their interference in 

 any other measures than those 

 relating to the blockade, and 

 declared that the French troops 

 should remain only on the coast, 

 detachments of French soldiers, 

 accompanied by custom-house 

 officers, spread themselves over 

 various parts of the interior. 

 About the middle of June, 20,000 

 French troops were assembled in 

 the environs of Utrecht. On the 

 29th of that month, the king of 

 Holland received official informa- 

 tion, that his majesty the emperor 

 insisted on the occupation of Am- 

 sterdam, and the establishment 

 of the French head-quarters in 

 that capital. 



Under these circumstances, 

 Lewis, July 1st, resigned his rank 

 and royal dignity in favour of his 

 eldest son. Napoleon Lewis, and 

 of his brother, prince Charles 

 Lewis Napoleon. It was stated 

 in the deed of abdication, that her 

 majesty the queen, being of right, 

 and according to the constitution. 



* See Vol. LI. (1809) Hisx. Eun. p. 240. 



