He attempted to prevent the Consul Lagau from selling the confiscated
ships in order to sell them himself. Of this M. Lagau complained to me.
The more I observed a disposition to encroach on the part of the military
authorities, the more I conceived it necessary to maintain the rights of
the consuls, and to favour their influence, without which they would have
lost their consideration. To the complaints of M. Lagau I replied,
"That to him alone belonged the right of deciding, in the first instance,
on the fate of the ships; that he could not be deprived of that right
without changing the law; that he was free to sell the confiscated
Prussian ships; that Marshall Brune was at Bremen only for the execution
of the decree respecting the blockade of England, and that he ought not
to interfere in business unconnected with that decree." Lagau showed
this letter to Brune, who then allowed him to do as he wished; but it was
an affair of profit, and the Marshal for a long time owed me a grudge.

Bernadotte was exceedingly disinterested, but he loved to be talked
about. The more the Emperor endeavoured to throw accusations upon him,
the more he was anxious to give publicity to all his actions. He sent to
me an account of the brilliant affair of Braunsburg, in which a division
of the first corps had been particularly distinguished. Along with this
narrative he sent me a note in the following terms:--"I send you, my
dear. Minister, an account of the affair of Braunsburg. You will,
perhaps, think proper to publish it. In that case I shall be obliged by
your getting it inserted in the Hamburg journals," I did so. The
injustice of the Emperor, and the bad way in which he spoke of
Bernadotte, obliged the latter,--for the sake of his own credit, to make
the truth known to the world.

I have already mentioned that I received an order from the Emperor to
supply 50,000 cloaks for the army. With this order, which was not the