Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/177

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torial tone in his correspondence about the form and manner of the negotiations; and throughout showed his usual duplicity. As the final results are known and are available to all readers, a few incidents of the negotiations may be mentioned here, as they illustrate Cornwallis's tact in negotiation.

Cornwallis left Dover early on the morning of November 3rd, 1801, and reached Calais at ten o'clock at night, after a stormy passage of fifteen hours. He was received with all due respect and honour, and pushed on almost at once to Paris. On November the 8th he had an interview with Talleyrand, whom he distrusted as unscrupulous. According to this Prince, Bonaparte was very anxious (empressé) to see the English plenipotentiary. The interview took place on the 10th of the month, Talleyrand being present, and we have this description of the meeting in a letter to Lord Hawkesbury.

'Bonaparte was gracious to the highest degree. He enquired particularly after His Majesty and the state of his health, and spoke of the British nation in terms of great respect, intimating that as long as we remained friends, there would be no interruption of the peace of Europe. I told him that the horrors which succeeded the Revolution had created a general alarm; that all the neighbouring nations dreaded the contagion; that when, for the happiness of mankind, and of France in particular, he was called to fill his present situation, we knew him only as a hero and