98 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



should have begun by doing what the Austrians, 

 Spaniards, and Neapolitans would have liked to do. 

 If, upon the other hand, we had made our entry under 

 the cover of treaties, and in promising to maintain a 

 National Government of some kind (either the old or 

 the new), to uphold the laws of the country, and 

 respect the free will of the inhabitants, I would ask 

 whether war with Austria might not have resulted 

 from a situation of this kind, in the event of the 

 Imperial troops advancing beneath the walls of Home 

 occupied by our army and manifesting their intention 

 of restoring the temporal power of the Pope upon the 

 lines indicated by the Court of Gaeta. 



The outer cantonments of the city occupying 

 healthy and strong positions, the possibility of the 

 General in command residing upon the French pro- 

 perties at Monte Pincio, and bringing into the city, 

 one after the other, the whole of his army corps, 

 which indeed the population would have clamoured 

 for the day my convention was signed ; these, surely, 

 were conditions which satisfied the aim of the expe- 

 dition, while satisfying the military honour of the 

 army and the amour propre of the General. What has 

 an opposite policy done for us, and what embarrass- 

 ments has it not in store for us ? 



7th. The last project agreed to by General 

 Oudinot would have been met with the jeers and 

 murmurings of the Koman Assembly, so that I ought 

 not to have pursued the negotiations further. 



