Napoleon's anger was especially directed against Cardinal Consalvi. "The rest have their theological prejudices," said he, "but he has offended me on political grounds; he is my enemy; he has dared to lay a trap for me by holding out against my dynasty a pretext of illegitimacy. They will not fail to make use of it after my death, when I am no longer there to keep them in awe!" On the day after the marriage the whole court were to defile before the new empress, and the cardinals were in attendance with the utmost punctuality, as they had announced. After the distinguished assemblage had waited three hours, an aide-de-camp came to announce the order that the prelates who had not been present on the previous evening in the chapel of the Louvre were to withdraw, because the emperor would not receive them. On the same day, Napoleon wrote to M. Bigot de Préameneu: "Several cardinals did not come yesterday, although invited, to the ceremony of my marriage. They have, therefore, failed in an essential duty towards me. I wish to know the names of those cardinals, and which of them are bishops in France, in my kingdom of Italy, or in the kingdom of Naples. My intention is to discharge them from their office, and suspend the payment of their salaries by no longer regarding them as cardinals."
In the first impulse of his anger, Napoleon thought of summoning the rebel prelates before a special court. "Since there is no ecclesiastical jurisdiction in France," said he to the minister of public worship, "nothing prevents them from being condemned." He was contented, however, with making use only of his own supreme authority. Despoiled of the insignia of their ecclesiastical dignity—which procured them the nickname of the "black cardinals"—and deprived of their private fortunes as well as of the revenues of their dioceses, which had been sequestered by the treasury, Consalvi and his colleagues were interned, two and two, in towns assigned to them for the purpose, put under police supervision, and reduced to the most precarious means of living. "Without the Pope they are nothing," said Napoleon. The Pope was still kept at Savona, meekly inflexible, like the cardinals.
A few men thus resolutely opposed their wills to the formidable power of the Emperor Napoleon. Just after the peace of Vienna, his hands filled with new conquests, he modified the frontiers of several of the states which he had recently formed or increased; some territories he yielded up, others he took back; to some he was prodigal of his favors, to others he denied them. He showed at this time special severity towards King Louis, a prince who was naturally of a serious, honorable, and upright character, and had tried sincerely to fulfil his duties as king towards the Dutch. He thought it his duty to protect against Napoleon himself the subjects which the latter had given him, and whom he saw ruined by the arbitrary acts of the imperial power. When, at the end of 1809, the emperor's family all met in Paris, King Louis had great difficulty in persuading himself to obey the order by which he was summoned. Napoleon had already threatened Holland in his speech at the opening of the Legislative Body. "Placed between England and France, the principal arteries of my empire meet there," said the emperor. "Changes will be necessary; the safety of my frontiers, and naturally the interests of both countries, imperiously demand it." Zealand and Brabant had not been evacuated by our troops, who advanced there when the English took possession of the island of Walcheren.
It was the union of Holland and France which Napoleon then intended, and he did not conceal it from his brother. Recriminations and reproaches were only followed by an obstinate determination. "Holland is really only a part of France," said the minister of the interior, officially, "and it is time she held her natural position." This determination was announced to Louis on his arrival in Paris. "That is the most deadly blow I can inflict upon England," said Napoleon.
The King of Holland had long and frequently cursed the imperious will which had called him to the throne. He had extolled the charms of private life; when abdication was, as it were, forced upon him, he drew back and defended himself. Napoleon insisted upon having a disguised national bankruptcy, an increase of their navy for French service alone, the strict application of the "continental blockade," which till then had been frequently evaded by the Dutch merchants, the rejection of the honorary titles accepted or created by his brother for the benefit of his subjects. King Louis struggled against such hateful conditions, implying the ruin of his adopted country as well as of his personal authority in Holland. The intimate relationship of the imperial family was disturbed by the discussions carried on between the two brothers; Champagny naturally had some share in them, and Fouché also. Napoleon seemed to become more reasonable. Nevertheless, he wished to take advantage of the alarm he had caused, and make its influence extend even to England. A trustworthy agent was appointed to inform the English ministry of the impending union between France and Holland, and the consequent danger for England; vast armaments were said to be prepared in our harbors. Peace was the only means of avoiding so many dangers; Holland would do herself honor by assisting to guarantee Europe of a rest now become possible by Napoleon's union with Marie-Louise.
Labouchère, descended from a family of French refugees, was appointed by the emperor, in the name of King Louis, to carry these overtures to the English cabinet. On account of the unfortunate campaign in Walcheren, which caused universal indignation in England, Canning and Castlereagh had been replaced in power by Perceval and the Marquis Wellesley, elder brother of Sir Arthur, formerly governor-general of India and the intimate friend of Pitt. He courteously received Labouchère, who was introduced by his brother-in-law, Mr. Baring, one of the principal bankers in London. It was not the first time that overtures of peace had reached the ministry. On his own account, and from the incessant passion for intrigue which seemed to haunt him everywhere, Fouché had instructed one of his agents to make to Lord Wellesley advances which had no real aim or earnestness. To these, as well as those, the English cabinet replied that they were firmly resolved never to abandon Spain or the kingdom of Naples to Bonaparte. Holland in King Louis' hands was unreservedly under French influence, and its union to the empire conveyed no threat of danger to England, which was, besides, well accustomed to the evils of the war, and determined to suffer the consequences to the last. Some new overtures with reference to modifying the continental blockade had been entrusted to Labouchère, but they were hampered and complicated by Fouché's intrigues. The minister of police had recently authorized Ouvrard to leave Vincennes, and employed him in those mysterious negotiations which was soon afterwards to cost him the confidence and favor of his master. At this time, however, it was against the King of Holland that the anger of the latter was let loose.
The emperor had agreed to delay his projected union, thus a second time granting his brother the honor of obedience. In accordance with his strict demands, he resolved to rectify the frontier separating Holland from Belgium, and by taking the Waal as the future limit to form two new French departments on this side the river, called Bouches-du-Rhin and Bouches-de- l'Escaut. Zealand and its islands, North Brabant, part of Guelder, and the towns Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda, Bois-le-Duc, and Nimeguen were thus taken away from Holland, with a population of 400,000 souls. Heavy conditions were imposed on the commerce; and the guard of all the river mouths was entrusted to Franco-Dutch troops under the orders of a French general.
Against this the conscience and reason of the King of Holland revolted equally. He gave secret instructions to his ministers to fortify Amsterdam, and forbid our troops to enter any stronghold. General Maison found the gates of Bergen-op-Zoom shut before him.
The action was as imprudent as the resolution was honorable. At the news of it Napoleon's violence exceeded all bounds. In accordance with the custom which he had followed for several weeks in his communications with his brother, with whom he was not on visiting terms, he wrote to Fouché, at the same time sending him a letter from Rochefoucault, the French minister in Holland:—
"I beg of you to read this letter, and call upon the King of Holland and let him know of it. Is that prince become quite mad? You will tell him that he has done his best to lose his kingdom, and that I shall never make arrangements which may make such people think they have imposed upon me. You will ask him if it is by his order that his ministers have acted, or if it is of their own authority: and let him know that if it is by their authority I shall have them arrested and their heads cut off, every one of them. If they have acted by the king's order, what must I think of that prince? And how, after that, can he think of commanding my troops, since he has perjured his oaths?"