It would, however, have been very wrong to attach great importance to an
expression which, perhaps, escaped Murat in a moment of ardour, for his
natural temperament sometimes betrayed him into acts of imprudence, the
result of which, with a man like Napoleon, was always to be dreaded.

It was in the midst of the operations of the Spanish war, which Napoleon
directed in person, that he learned Austria had for the first time raised
the landwehr. I obtained some very curious documents respecting the
armaments of Austria from the Editor of the Hamburg 'Correspondent'.
This paper, the circulation of which amounted to not less than 60,000,
paid considerable sums to persons in different parts of Europe who were
able and willing to furnish the current news. The Correspondent paid
6000 francs a year to a clerk in the war department at Vienna, and it was
this clerk who supplied the intelligence that Austria was preparing for
war, and that orders had been issued in all directions to collect and put
in motion all the resources of that powerful monarchy. I communicated
these particulars to the French Government, and suggested the necessity
of increased vigilance and measures of defence. Preceding aggressions,
especially that of 1805, were not to be forgotten. Similar information
probably reached the French Government from many quarters. Be that as it
may, the Emperor consigned the military operations in Spain to his
generals, and departed for Paris, where he arrived at the end of January
1809. He had been in Spain only since the beginning of November 1808,'
and his presence there had again rendered our banners victorious. But
though the insurgent troops were beaten the inhabitants showed themselves
more and more unfavourable to Joseph's cause; and it did not appear very
probable that he could ever seat himself tranquilly on the throne of
Madrid.

--[The successes obtained by Napoleon during his stay of about three