was inflicted [by Austria] on the Italian men and women who are traveling in France." In February 1832, Sébastiani took initiative in ordering a French occupation of Ancona. The Revue argued that this was the most significant gesture of his career, and credited him with having planned it as an indirect but effective strike at Austrian economic interests, when implying that France would march into Rome and Trieste in the event of a war with Austria. Among his last actions in office as Foreign Minister were negotiations with the United States over losses suffered by American citizens during the Napoleon's Continental Blockade, when several ships bearing the American flag were arrested in European ports, on suspicion that they were in fact serving British commercial interests (see Embargo Act of 1807). Raising much controversy, he set the sum France agreed to pay at 25 million francs, 10 million more than what committees of the Conseil d'État and Chamber had decided, although still significantly less than what had been asked by American plaintiffs. It was during the same period that Sébastiani remarried, to Aglaé-Angélique-Gabrielle de Gramont, one of Héraclius, duc de Gramont's daughters and the widow of the Russian General Count Alexander Davidoff. He retired from office after having a stroke which left him partly paralyzed, and traveled in the Italian Peninsula. He was later Minister of State for a short period of time. Later years In 1833, Sébastiani was ambassador to the Two Sicilies, and in 1835–1840, to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was recalled and replaced by François Guizot after refusing, against his government wishes, to support the cause of Muhammad Ali's design to extend his rule out of the Egyptian realm by conquering Ottoman lands in Syria (see London Straits Convention). Adolphe Thiers later pointed out that he agreed with Sébastiani's view, which he defined as: "The apprehension [...] over seeing France engaging in the Oriental question, to find herself the only one of that opinion, and from that moment on to be reduced to the alternative of either ceding or risk a universal war over an object that was not worth it [...]." During the ministerial crisis provoked by the fall of the Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult cabinet, before Thiers' nomination, Sébastiani was considered for the office of Premier; his failure to gain the position was attributed to rejection from all political camps,