270 MADAME DE STAEL AND NAPOLEON BONAPABTE. Halle made some patriotic demonstrations. The Emperor issued the following order, addressed to his chief of staff, Marshal Berthier : " My Cousin : Give orders that the University of Halle be closed, and that the students set out for their homes within twenty-four hours. If any are found in the city to-morrow they will be imprisoned, to prevent the con- sequences of the bad spirit which has been inculcated at this University." When the King of Prussia received the communication from Napoleon refusing the armistice, he sent- a nobleman of his court upon an embassy to the Emperor. After mentioning this circumstance in a letter to Talleyrand, the haughty conquerer adds : " I have made him wait at the outposts, and 1 have sent Duroc to see what he wants. 1 am awaiting Duroc's return. The King appears entirely willing to come io terms. I shall accommodate him, but that will not hinder me from going to Berlin." The next order decrees that the Duchy of Brunswick " shall be treated in all respects as a conquered country " — the ducal arms taken down everywhere, the treasure seized, and the ducal officers sent into France. Nine days after the battle appeared the formal decree in which the entire kingdom of Prussia and all its allied States were divided into five departments, each under the govern- ment of a French General, and all authority to be exer- cised by them through French officials. Prussia was placed under military law, and held absolutely at the mercy of the conquerer. For example, in the special orders relating to the city of Dresden, the capital of Saxony, one of the allies of Prussia, we find such sen- tences as these : " All the stores of salt, shoes, cloth, cavalry harness, munitions of war, and cavalry horses will belongto the
