inevitable," cried Francis, who now dropped the mask of cold
indifference, and allowed his face to betray the agitation and rage
filling his bosom, by his quivering features, flashing eyes, and
clouded brow. "I have calmly listened to you," he added, raising his
voice; "I have received with silent composure all the arrogant
phrases which you have ventured to utter here in the name of your
emperor. I look on them as one of the famous proud bulletins for
which your emperor is noted, and to whose overbearing and
grandiloquent language all Europe is accustomed. But it is well
known too that these bulletins are not exactly models of veracity,
but sometimes the very reverse of it. An instance of the latter is
your emperor's assertion that he observes the treaties, and that he
gave me proofs of his magnanimity after the battle of Austerlitz.
No, the emperor did no such thing; he made me, on the contrary, feel
the full weight of his momentary superiority. He was my enemy, and
treated me as an enemy, without magnanimity, which, for the rest, I
did not claim at the time. But he has proved to me, too, that he
does not observe the most sacred treaties. He violated every section
of the peace of Presburg; he did not respect the frontiers as
stipulated in that treaty; he forced me, in direct violation of the
treaties, to allow him the permanent use of certain military roads
within the boundaries of my empire; he hurled from their thrones
dynasties which were related to me, and whose existence I had
guaranteed; he deprived, in violation of the law of nations, the
beloved and universally respected head of Christendom of his throne,
and subjected him to a most disgraceful imprisonment; he exerted on
all seas the most arbitrary pressure on the Austrian flag. And now,
after all this has happened, after Austria has endured all these
wrongs so long and silently, the Emperor Napoleon undertakes even to
meddle with the internal administration of my empire, and forbids me