News from Calabria! capture of Buenos Ayres! : i.e. the comforts of an imperial déjeuné at St Cloud's / Js. Gillray invt. & fect.

Print shows an angry Napoleon at a round breakfast table. He has seized a massive urn and is about to bang it on the head of Talleyrand whom he holds by the ear, while kicking him behind. Talleyrand, terrified, drops two papers: 'Defaite de I'Armée Francois en Calabria' and 'la Prise de Buenos-Ayres'. He wears gown, bands, and rosary over his suit, and has the usual heightened shoe, which indicates his lameness. Napoleon is saying: "Out on ye Owl! - noting but song of Death?" ['Richard III', IV. iv]. Boiling water from the urn cascades into Josephine's lap; its lid is an imperial crown which flies off, its body a terrestrial globe. On the right are ranks of diplomats or messengers, proffering papers: Holland holds out 'Holland Starving! - & ripe for a Revolt'. An Austrian officer holds out 'All Germany Rising, & Arming en Masse'. An erect Swedish officer holds out 'Swedish Defiance - Charles ye XII Redivivus'. A Spaniard holds 'Spain in Despair for the loss of her Colonies'. Those behind the first rank stand, holding up their papers: Russia with 'St Petersburg - Refusal to Ratify the French Treaty'. A Prussian holds up the cap of a Death's Head Hussar and a paper: 'Prussia rousing from her Trance of Death'. Behind him is a Turk, his paper: 'Turkey Invoking Mahomet'. A Swiss holds up: 'Switzerland cursing the French Yoke'. The other envoys, hidden behind their companions, hold papers reading: 'Suspicions of the new Confederated States of ye Rhine'; 'Italy shaking off her Chains'; 'La Vendee again in Motion'; 'Portugal True, to the last Gasp'; 'Sicily Firing like Ætna'; 'Denmark waiting for an Opportunity'. In the foreground an open coffer is inscribed 'Cabinet de Lor Loderdale'. Behind Josephine stand Napoleon's sisters, Elisa, Caroline, and Pauline. Behind them is a file of imperial 'ducs et pairs' wearing ducal coronets encircling fool's caps and the canopied back of a throne: an irradiated crown with the inscription 'Vive le Dieu Napoleone'. From the ceiling hangs a chandelier whose centre is a crowned and 'N'; from it hang a terrestrial globe and crystal drops. Two pictures hang on the wall, both signed 'David pinx: la Victoire de Marengo and la Victoire de Ulm'.