my first care on returning to Hamburg was to collect information from the
most respectable sources concerning the influential members of the new
Government. Davoust was at its head. On his arrival he had established
in the Duchy of Mecklenburg, in Swedish Pomerania, and in Stralsund, the
capital of that province, military posts and custom-houses, and that in a
time of profound peace with those countries, and without any previous
declaration. The omnipotence of Napoleon, and the terror inspired by the
name of Davoust, overcame all obstacles which might have opposed those
iniquitous usurpations. The weak were forced to yield to the strong.

At Hamburg a Government Committee was formed, consisting of the Prince of
Eekmuhl as President, Comte de Chaban, Councillor of State, who
superintended the departments of the Interior and Finance, and of M.
Faure, Councillor of State, who was appointed to form and regulate the
Courts of Law. I had sometimes met M. de Chaban at Malmaison. He was
distantly related to Josephine, and had formerly been an officer in the
French Guards. He was compelled to emigrate, having been subjected to
every species of persecution during the Revolution.

M. de Chaban was among the first of the emigrants who returned to France
after the 18th Brumaire. He was at first made Sub-Prefect of Vendome,
but on the union of Tuscany with France Napoleon created him a member of
the Junta appointed to regulate the affairs of Tuscany. He next became
Prefect of Coblentz and Brussels, was made a Count by Bonaparte, and was
afterwards chosen a member of the Government Committee at Hamburg. M. de
Chaban was a man of upright principles, and he discharged his various
functions in a way that commanded esteem and attachment.

--[I recollect an anecdote which but too well depicts those
disastrous times. The Comte de Chaban, being obliged to cross