now abandon the idea of keeping it, there is no person that will not admit that you yield to necessity."
Far into the night they talked, so late that the ministers slept at St. Cloud.
At daybreak Napoleon summoned Barbé-Marbois. "Read me the dispatches from London."
"Sire," returned the Secretary, looking over the papers, "naval and military preparations of every kind are making with extraordinary rapidity."
Napoleon leaped to his feet and strode again the marble floor.
"Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season. I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I will cede, but the whole colony without reservation. I know the price of what I abandon. I renounce it with regret. To attempt to retain it would be folly. I direct you to negotiate this affair with the United States. Do not even await the arrival of Mr. Monroe; have an interview this very day with Mr. Livingstone; but I require a great deal of money for this war, and I would not like to commence it with new contributions. I want fifty millions, and for less than that sum I will not treat. To-morrow you shall have your full powers."
The minister waited.
"Mr. Monroe is on the point of arriving," continued Napoleon. "Neither this minister, nor his colleague, is prepared for a decision which goes infinitely beyond anything they are about to ask of us. Begin by making them overtures, without any subterfuge. Acquaint me, hour by hour, of your progress."
"What will you pay for all Louisiana?" bluntly asked Barbé-Marbois that day of the astonished Livingstone.
"All Louisiana! New Orleans is all I ask for," answered Livingstone. So long had Talleyrand trifled and deceived, the American found himself distrustful of these French diplomatists.
"But I offer the province," said Barbé-Marbois.
Surprised, doubtful, Livingstone listened. "I have not the necessary powers."
