was interchanged. This is the truth; but the truth did not suit
Napoleon. It was necessary to getup a pretext for revenge, and
accordingly recourse was had to a bulletin, which proclaimed to France
and Europe that Hamburg had been taken by main force, with a loss of some
hundred men. But for this imaginary resistance, officially announced,
how would it have been possible to justify the spoliations and exactions
which ensued?

The Dutch General, Hogendorff, became Governor of Hamburg in lieu of
Carra St. Cyr, who had been confined at Osnabruck since his precipitate
retreat. General Hogendorff had been created one of the Emperor's aides
de camp, but he was neither a Rapp, a Lauriston, nor a Duroc. The
inhabitants were required to pay all the arrears of taxes due to the
different public offices during the seventy days that the French had been
absent; and likewise all the allowances that would have been paid to the
troops of the garrison had they remained in Hamburg. Payment was also
demanded of the arrears for the quartering of troops who were fifty
leagues off. However, some of the heads of the government departments,
who saw and understood the new situation of the French at Hamburg, did
not enforce these unjust and vexatious measures. The duties on
registrations were reduced. M. Pyonnier, Director of the Customs, aware
of the peculiar difficulty of his situation in a country where the
customs were held in abhorrence, observed great caution and moderation in
collecting the duties: Personal examination, which is so revolting and
indecorous, especially with respect to females, was suppressed. But
these modifications did not proceed from the highest quarter; they were
due to the good sense of the subordinate agents, who plainly saw that if
the Empire was to fall it would not be owing to little infractions in the
laws of proscription against coffee and rhubarb.