With respect to Bonaparte, he seemed quite certain that the English
would one day seize him in Elba. Have the English, then, he exclaimed,
fought for nothing these twenty years? They have only got Malta, and a
few other islands! He was impressed with the fear that there were
secret articles in the peace, which assigned to them the possession of
Egypt. The notion of their having re-established the balance of power in
Europe, and secured their own safety and independence, did not enter
into his mind. They should not leave Spain, he continued, without
[p.82] being handsomely paid by the Spaniards; and why now abandon
Sicily? That the English were guided in their policy by the laws of
honour, and a sense of the general good of Europe, he could not
comprehend. A great king, he exclaimed, with much warmth, knows
nothing but his sword and his purse; he draws the one to fill the other;
there is no honour among conquerors!--a frank avowal of the sentiments
which guide even the most petty of the Turkish rulers.