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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoirs of Napoleon--1803, v6
+#6 in our series by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
+#6 in our Napoleon Bonaparte series
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+Title: Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v6
+
+Author: Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
+
+Release Date: December, 2002  [Etext #3556]
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+[The actual date this file first posted = 04/20/01]
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+Edition: 11
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Napoleon, by Bourrienne, v6
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+
+MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 6.
+
+By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE
+
+His Private Secretary
+
+Edited by R. W. Phipps
+Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
+
+1891
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+CHAPTER IX.  to   CHAPTER XVIII.  1802-1803
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+1802.
+
+     Proverbial falsehood of bulletins--M. Doublet--Creation of the
+     Legion of Honour--Opposition to it in the Council and other
+     authorities of the State--The partisans of an hereditary system--
+     The question of the Consulship for life.
+
+The historian of these times ought to put no faith in the bulletins,
+despatches, notes, and proclamations which have emanated from Bonaparte,
+or passed through his hands.  For my part, I believe that the proverb,
+"As great a liar as a bulletin," has as much truth in it as the axiom,
+two and two make four.
+
+The bulletins always announced what Bonaparte wished to be believed true;
+but to form a proper judgment on any fact, counter-bulletins must be
+sought for and consulted.  It is well known, too, that Bonaparte attached
+great importance to the place whence he dated his bulletins; thus, he
+dated his decrees respecting the theatres and Hamburg beef at Moscow.
+
+The official documents were almost always incorrect.  There was falsity
+in the exaggerated descriptions of his victories, and falsity again in
+the suppression or palliation of his reverses and losses.  A writer, if
+he took his materials from the bulletins and the official correspondence
+of the time, would compose a romance rather than a true history.  Of this
+many proofs have been given in the present work.
+
+Another thing which always appeared to me very remarkable was, that
+Bonaparte, notwithstanding his incontestable superiority, studied to
+depreciate the reputations of his military commanders, and to throw on
+their shoulders faults which he had committed himself.  It is notorious
+that complaints and remonstrances, as energetic as they were well
+founded, were frequently addressed to General Bonaparte on the subject of
+his unjust and partial bulletins, which often attributed the success of a
+day to some one who had very little to do with it, and made no mention of
+the officer who actually had the command.  The complaints made by the
+officers and soldiers stationed at Damietta compelled General Lanusse,
+the commander, to remonstrate against the alteration of a bulletin, by
+which an engagement with a body of Arabs was represented as an
+insignificant affair, and the loss trifling, though the General had
+stated the action to be one of importance, and the loss considerable.
+The misstatement, in consequence of his spirited and energetic
+remonstrances, was corrected.
+
+Bonaparte took Malta, as is well known, in forty-eight hours.  The empire
+of the Mediterranean, secured to the English by the battle of Aboukir,
+and their numerous cruising vessels, gave them the means of starving the
+garrison, and of thus forcing General Vaubois, the commandant of Malta,
+who was cut off from all communication with France, to capitulate.
+Accordingly on the 4th of September 1800 he yielded up the Gibraltar of
+the Mediterranean, after a noble defence of two years.  These facts
+require to be stated in order the better to understand what follows.
+
+On 22d February 1802 a person of the name of Doublet, who was the
+commissary of the French Government at Malta when we possessed that
+island, called upon me at the Tuileries.  He complained bitterly that the
+letter which he had written from Malta to the First Consul on the 2d
+Ventose, year VIII.  (9th February 1800), had been altered in the
+'Moniteur'.  "I congratulated him," said M. Doublet, "on the 18th
+Brumaire, and informed him of the state of Malta, which was very
+alarming.  Quite the contrary was printed in the 'Moniteur', and that is
+what I complain of.  It placed me in a very disagreeable situation at
+Malta, where I was accused of having concealed the real situation of the
+island, in which I was discharging a public function that gave weight to
+my words."  I observed to him that as I was not the editor of the
+'Moniteur' it was of no use to apply to me; but I told him to give me a
+copy of the letter, and I would mention the subject to the First Consul,
+and communicate the answer to him.  Doublet searched his pocket for the
+letter, but could not find it.  He said he would send a copy, and begged
+me to discover how the error originated.  On the same day he sent me the
+copy of the letter, in which, after congratulating Bonaparte on his
+return, the following passage occurs:--"Hasten to save Malta with men and
+provisions: no time is to be lost."  For this passage these words were
+substituted in the 'Moniteur': "His name inspires the brave defenders of
+Malta with fresh courage; we have men and provisions."
+
+Ignorant of the motives of so strange a perversion, I showed this letter
+to the First Consul.  He shrugged up his shoulders and said, laughing,
+"Take no notice of him, he is a fool; give yourself no further trouble
+about it."
+
+It was clear there was nothing more to be done.  It was, however, in
+despite of me that M. Doublet was played this ill turn.  I represented to
+the First Consul the inconveniences which M. Doublet might experience
+from this affair.  But I very rarely saw letters or reports published as
+they were received.  I can easily understand how particular motives might
+be alleged in order to justify such falsifications; for, when the path of
+candour and good faith is departed from, any pretest is put forward to
+excuse bad conduct.  What sort of a history would he write who should
+consult only the pages of the 'Moniteur'?
+
+After the vote for adding a second ten years to the duration of
+Bonaparte's Consulship he created, on the 19th of May, the order of the
+Legion of Honour.  This institution was soon followed by that of the new
+nobility.  Thus, in a short space of time, the Concordat to tranquillize
+consciences and re-establish harmony in the Church; the decree to recall
+the emigrants; the continuance of the Consular power for ten years, by
+way of preparation for the Consulship for life, and the possession of the
+Empire; and the creation, in a country which had abolished all
+distinctions, of an order which was to engender prodigies, followed
+closely on the heels of each other.  The Bourbons, in reviving the
+abolished orders, were wise enough to preserve along with them the Legion
+of Honour.
+
+It has already been seen how, in certain circumstances, the First Consul
+always escaped from the consequences of his own precipitation, and got
+rid of his blunders by throwing the blame on others--as, for example, in
+the affair of the parallel between Caesar, Cromwell, and Bonaparte.  He
+was indeed so precipitate that one might say, had he been a gardener, he
+would have wished to see the fruits ripen before the blossoms had fallen
+off.  This inconsiderate haste nearly proved fatal to the creation of the
+Legion of Honour, a project which ripened in his mind as soon as he
+beheld the orders glittering at the button-holes of the Foreign
+Ministers.  He would frequently exclaim, "This is well!  These are the
+things for the people!"
+
+I was, I must confess, a decided partisan of the foundation in France of
+a new chivalric order, because I think, in every well-conducted State,
+the chief of the Government ought to do all in his power to stimulate the
+honour of the citizens, and to render them more sensible to honorary
+distinctions than to pecuniary advantages.  I tried, however, at the same
+time to warn the First Consul of his precipitancy.  He heard me not; but
+I must with equal frankness confess that on this occasion I was soon
+freed from all apprehension with respect to the consequences of the
+difficulties he had to encounter in the Council and in the other
+constituted orders of the State.
+
+On the 4th of May 1801 lie brought forward, for the first time
+officially, in the Council of State the question of the establishment of
+the Legion of Honour, which on the 19th May 1802 was proclaimed a law of
+the State.  The opposition to this measure was very great, and all the
+power of the First Consul, the force of his arguments, and the immense
+influence of his position, could procure him no more than 14 votes out of
+24.  The same feeling was displayed at the Tribunate; where the measure
+only passed by a vote of 56 to 38.  The balance was about the same in the
+Legislative Body, where the votes were 166 to 110.  It follows, then,
+that out of the 394 voters in those three separate bodies a majority only
+of 78 was obtained.  Surprised at so feeble a majority, the First Consul
+said in the evening, "Ah!  I see very clearly the prejudices are still
+too strong.  You were right; I should have waited.  It was not a thing of
+such urgency.  But then, it must be owned, the speakers for the measure
+defended it badly.  The strong minority has not judged me fairly."--
+"Be calm," rejoined I: "without doubt it would have been better to wait;
+but the thing is done, and you will soon find that the taste for these
+distinctions is not near gone by.  It is a taste which belongs to the
+nature of man.  You may expect some extraordinary circumstances from this
+creation--you will soon see them."
+
+In April 1802 the First Consul left no stone unturned to get himself
+declared Consul for life.  It is perhaps at this epoch of his career that
+he most brought into play those principles of duplicity and dissimulation
+which are commonly called Machiavellian.  Never were trickery, falsehood,
+cunning, and affected moderation put into play with more talent or
+success.
+
+In the month of March hereditary succession and a dynasty were in
+everybody's mouths.  Lucien was the most violent propagator of these
+ideas, and he pursued his vocation of apostle with constancy and address.
+It has already been mentioned that, by his brother's confession; he
+published in 1800 a pamphlet enforcing the same ideas; which work
+Bonaparte afterwards condemned as a premature development of his
+projects.  M. de Talleyrand, whose ideas could not be otherwise than
+favourable to the monarchical form of government, was ready to enter into
+explanations with the Cabinets of Europe on the subject.  The words which
+now constantly resounded in every ear were "stability and order," under
+cloak of which the downfall of the people's right was to be concealed.
+At the same time Bonaparte, with the view of disparaging the real friends
+of constitutional liberty, always called them ideologues,
+
+     --[I have classed all these people under the denomination of
+     Ideologues, which, besides, is what specially and literally fits
+     them,--searchers after ideas (ideas generally empty).  They have
+     been made more ridiculous than even I expected by this application,
+     a correct one, of the term ideologue to them.  The phrase has been
+     successful, I believe, because it was mine (Napoleon in Iung's
+     Lucien, tome ii.  p, 293).  Napoleon welcomed every attack on this
+     description of sage.  Much pleased with a discourse by Royer
+     Collard, he said to Talleyrand, "Do you know, Monsieur is Grand
+     Electeur, that a new and serious philosophy is rising in my
+     university, which may do us great honour and disembarrass us
+     completely of the ideologues, slaying them on the spot by
+     reasoning?"  It is with something of the same satisfaction that
+     Renan, writing of 1898, says that the finer dreams had been
+     disastrous when brought into the domain of facts, and that human
+     concerns only began to improve when the ideologues ceased to meddle
+     with them (Souvenirs, p.  122).]--
+
+or terrorists.  Madame Bonaparte opposed with fortitude the influence of
+counsels which she believed fatal to her husband.  He indeed spoke
+rarely, and seldom confidentially, with her on politics or public
+affairs.  "Mind your distaff or your needle," was with him a common
+phrase.  The individuals who applied themselves with most perseverance in
+support of the hereditary question were Lucien, Roederer, Regnault de St.
+Jean d'Angely, and Fontanel.  Their efforts were aided by the conclusion
+of peace with England, which, by re-establishing general tranquillity for
+a time, afforded the First Consul an opportunity of forwarding any plan.
+
+While the First Consul aspired to the throne of France, his brothers,
+especially Lucien, affected a ridiculous pride and pretension.  Take an
+almost incredible example of which I was witness.  On Sunday, the 9th of
+May, Lucien came to see Madame Bonaparte, who said to him, "Why did you
+not come to dinner last Monday?"--"Because there was no place marked for
+me: the brothers of Napoleon ought to have the first place after him."--
+"What am I to understand by that?" answered Madame Bonaparte.  "If you
+are the brother of Bonaparte, recollect what you were.  At my house all
+places are the same.  Eugene world never have committed such a folly."
+
+     --[On such points there was constant trouble with the Bonapartist
+     family, as will be seen in Madame de Remusat's Memoirs.  For an
+     instance, in 1812, where Joseph insisted on his mother taking
+     precedence of Josephine at a dinner in his house, when Napoleon
+     settled the matter by seizing Josephine's arm and leading her in
+     first, to the consternation of the party.  But Napoleon, right in
+     this case, had his own ideas on such points, The place of the
+     Princess Elisa, the eldest of his sisters, had been put below that
+     of Caroline, Queen of Naples.  Elisa was then only princess of
+     Lucca.  The Emperor suddenly rose, and by a shift to the right
+     placed the Princess Elisa above the Queen.  'Now,' said he, 'do not
+     forget that in the imperial family I am the only King.' (Iung's
+     Lucien, tome ii.  p.  251), This rule he seems to have adhered to,
+     for when he and his brothers went in the same carriage to the Champ
+     de Mai in 1815, Jerome, titular King of Westphalia, had to take the
+     front seat, while his elder brother, Lucien, only bearing the Roman
+     title of Prince de Canino, sat on one of the seats of honour
+     alongside Napoleon.  Jerome was disgusted, and grumbled at a King
+     having to give way to a mere Roman Prince, See Iung's Lucien, tome
+     ii.  p, 190.]--
+
+At this period, when the Consulate for life was only in embryo,
+flattering counsels poured in from all quarters, and tended to encourage
+the First Consul in his design of grasping at absolute power.
+
+Liberty rejected an unlimited power, and set bounds to the means he
+wished and had to employ in order to gratify his excessive love of war
+and conquest.  "The present state of things, this Consulate of ten
+years," said he to me, does not satisfy me; "I consider it calculated to
+excite unceasing troubles."  On the 7th of July 1801, he observed, "The
+question whether France will be a Republic is still doubtful: it will be
+decided in five or six years."  It was clear that he thought this too
+long a term.  Whether he regarded France as his property, or considered
+himself as the people's delegate and the defender of their rights, I am
+convinced the First Consul wished the welfare of France; but then that
+welfare was in his mind inseparable from absolute power.  It was with
+pain I saw him following this course.  The friends of liberty, those who
+sincerely wished to maintain a Government constitutionally free, allowed
+themselves to be prevailed upon to consent to an extension of ten years
+of power beyond the ten years originally granted by the constitution.
+They made this sacrifice to glory and to that power which was its
+consequence; and they were far from thinking they were lending their
+support to shameless intrigues.  They were firm, but for the moment only,
+and the nomination for life was rejected by the Senate, who voted only
+ten years more power to Bonaparte, who saw the vision of his ambition
+again adjourned.
+
+The First Consul dissembled his displeasure with that profound art which,
+when he could not do otherwise, he exercised to an extreme degree.  To a
+message of the Senate on the subject of that nomination he returned a
+calm but evasive and equivocating answer, in which, nourishing his
+favourite hope of obtaining more from the people than from the Senate,
+he declared with hypocritical humility, "That he would submit to this new
+sacrifice if the wish of the people demanded what the Senate authorised."
+Such was the homage he paid to the sovereignty of the people, which was
+soon to be trampled under his feet!
+
+An extraordinary convocation of the Council of State took place on
+Monday, the 10th of May.  A communication was made to them, not merely of
+the Senate's consultation, but also of the First Consul's adroit and
+insidious reply.  The Council regarded the first merely as a
+notification, and proceeded to consider on what question the people
+should be consulted.  Not satisfied with granting to the First Consul ten
+years of prerogative, the Council thought it best to strike the iron
+while it was hot, and not to stop short in the middle of so pleasing a
+work.  In fine, they decided that the following question should be put to
+the people: "Shall the First Consul be appointed for life, and shall he
+have the power of nominating his successor?"  The reports of the police
+had besides much influence on the result of this discussion, for they one
+and all declared that the whole of Paris demanded a Consul for life, with
+the right of naming a successor.  The decisions on these two questions
+were carried as it were by storm.  The appointment for life passed
+unanimously, and the right of naming the successor by a majority.  The
+First Consul, however, formally declared that he condemned this second
+measure, which had not originated with himself.  On receiving the
+decision of the Council of State the First Consul, to mask his plan for
+attaining absolute power, thought it advisable to appear to reject a part
+of what was offered him.  He therefore cancelled that clause which
+proposed to give him the power of appointing a successor, and which had
+been carried by a small majority.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+1802.
+
+     General Bernadotte pacifies La vendee and suppresses a mutiny at
+     Tours--Bonaparte's injustice towards him--A premeditated scene--
+     Advice given to Bernadotte, and Bonaparte disappointed--The First
+     Consul's residence at St. Cloud--His rehearsals for the Empire--
+     His contempt of mankind--Mr. Fox and Bonaparte--Information of plans
+     of assassination--A military dinner given by Bonaparte--Moreau not
+     of the party--Effect of the 'Senates-consultes' on the Consulate for
+     life--Journey to Plombieres--Previous scene between Lucien and
+     Josephine--Theatrical representations at Neuilly and Malmaison--
+     Loss of a watch, and honesty rewarded--Canova at St. Cloud--
+     Bonaparte's reluctance to stand for a model.
+
+Having arrived at nearly the middle of the career which I have undertaken
+to trace, before I advance farther I must go back for a few moments, as I
+have already frequently done, in order to introduce some circumstances
+which escaped my recollection, or which I purposely reserved, that I
+might place them amongst facts analogous to them: Thus, for instance, I
+have only referred in passing to a man who, since become a monarch, has
+not ceased to honour me with his friendship, as will be seen in the
+course of my Memoirs, since the part we have seen him play in the events
+of the 18th Brumaire.  This man, whom the inexplicable combination of
+events has raised to a throne for the happiness of the people he is
+called to govern, is Bernadotte.
+
+It was evident that Bernadotte must necessarily fall into a kind of
+disgrace for not having supported Bonaparte's projects at the period of
+the overthrow of the Directory.  The First Consul, however, did not dare
+to avenge himself openly; but he watched for every opportunity to remove
+Bernadotte from his presence, to place him in difficult situations, and
+to entrust him with missions for which no precise instructions were
+given, in the hope that Bernadotte would commit faults for which the
+First Consul might make him wholly responsible.
+
+At the commencement of the Consulate the deplorable war in La Vendee
+raged in all its intensity.  The organization of the Chouans was
+complete, and this civil war caused Bonaparte much more uneasiness than
+that which he was obliged to conduct on the Rhine and in Italy, because,
+from the success of the Vendeans might arise a question respecting
+internal government, the solution of which was likely to be contrary to
+Bonaparte's views.  The slightest success of the Vendeans spread alarm
+amongst the holders of national property; and, besides, there was no hope
+of reconciliation between France and England, her eternal and implacable
+enemy, as long as the flame of insurrection remained unextinguished.
+
+The task of terminating this unhappy struggle was obviously a difficult
+one.  Bonaparte therefore resolved to impose it on Bernadotte; but this
+general's conciliatory disposition, his chivalrous manners, his tendency
+to indulgence, and a happy mixture of prudence and firmness, made him
+succeed where others would have failed.  He finally established good
+order and submission to the laws.
+
+Some time after the pacification of La Vendee a rebellious disposition
+manifested itself at Tours amongst the soldiers of a regiment stationed
+there.  The men refused to march until they received their arrears of
+pay.  Bernadotte, as commander-in-chief of the army of the west, without
+being alarmed at the disturbance, ordered the fifty-second demi-brigade--
+the one in question--to be drawn up in the square of Tours, where, at the
+very head of the corps, the leaders of the mutiny were by his orders
+arrested without any resistance being offered.  Carnot who was then
+Minister of War, made a report to the First Consul on this affair, which,
+but for the firmness of Bernadotte, might have been attended with
+disagreeable results.  Carnet's report contained a plain statement of the
+facts, and of General Bernadotte's conduct.  Bonaparte was, however,
+desirous to find in it some pretext for blaming him, and made me write
+these words on the margin of the report: "General Bernadotte did not act
+discreetly in adopting such severe measures against the fifty-second
+demi-brigade, he not having the means, if he head been unsuccessful, of
+re-establishing order in a town the garrison of which was not strong
+enough to subdue the mutineers."
+
+A few days after, the First Consul having learned that the result of this
+affair was quite different from that which he affected to dread, and
+being convinced that by Bernadotte's firmness alone order had been
+restored, he found himself in some measure constrained to write to the
+General, and he dictated the following letter to me:
+
+                              PARIS, 11th Vendemiaire.  Year XI.
+
+     CITIZEN-GENERAL--I have read with interest the account of what   you
+     did to re-establish order in the fifty-second demi-brigade, and
+     also the report of General Liebert, dated the 5th Vendemiaire.
+     Tell that officer that the Government is satisfied with his conduct.
+     His promotion from the rank of Colonel to that of General of brigade
+     is confirmed.  I wish that brave officer to come to Paris.  He has
+     afforded an example of firmness and energy which does honour to a
+     soldier.
+                                        (Signed) BONAPARTE.
+
+Thus in the same affair Bonaparte, in a few days, from the spontaneous
+expression of blame dictated by hate, was reduced to the necessity of
+declaring his approbation, which he did, as may be seen, with studied
+coldness, and even taking pains to make his praises apply to Colonel
+Liebert, and not to the general-in-chief.
+
+Time only served to augment Bonaparte's dislike of Bernadotte.  It might
+be said that the farther he advanced in his rapid march towards absolute
+power the more animosity he cherished against the individual who had
+refused to aid his first steps in his adventurous career.  At the same
+time the persons about Bonaparte who practised the art of flattering
+failed not to multiply reports and insinuations against Bernadotte.
+I recollect one day, when there was to be a grand public levee, seeing
+Bonaparte so much out of temper that I asked him the cause of it.  "I can
+bear it no longer," he replied impetuously.  "I have resolved to have a
+scene with Bernadotte to-day.  He will probably be here.  I will open the
+fire, let what will come of it.  He may do what he pleases.  We shall
+see!  It is time there should be an end of this."
+
+I had never before observed the First Consul so violently irritated.
+He was in a terrible passion, and I dreaded the moment when the levee was
+to open.  When he left me to go down to the salon I availed myself of the
+opportunity to get there before him, which I could easily do, as the
+salon was not twenty steps from the cabinet.  By good luck Bernadotte was
+the first person I saw.  He was standing in the recess of a window which
+looked on the square of the Carrousel.  To cross the salon and reach the
+General was the work of a moment.  "General!" said I, "trust me and
+retire!--I have good reasons for advising it!"  Bernadotte, seeing my
+extreme anxiety, and aware of the sincere sentiments of esteem end
+friendship which I entertained for him, consented to retire, and I
+regarded this as a triumph; for, knowing Bernadotte's frankness of
+character and his nice sense of honour, I was quite certain that he would
+not submit to the harsh observations which Bonaparte intended to address
+to him.  My stratagem had all the success I could desire.  The First
+Consul suspected nothing, and remarked only one thing, which was that his
+victim was absent.  When the levee was over he said to me, "What do you
+think of it, Bourrienne?---Bernadotte did not come."--"So much the better
+for him, General," was my reply.  Nothing further happened.  The First
+Consul on returning from Josephine found me in the cabinet, and
+consequently could suspect nothing, and my communication with Bernadotte
+did not occupy five minutes.  Bernadotte always expressed himself much
+gratified with the proof of friendship I gave him at this delicate
+conjuncture.  The fact is, that from a disposition of my mind, which I
+could not myself account for, the more Bonaparte'a unjust hatred of
+Bernadotte increased the more sympathy and admiration I felt for the
+noble character of the latter.
+
+The event in question occurred in the spring of 1802.  It was at this
+period that Bonaparte first occupied St. Cloud, which he was much pleased
+with, because he found himself more at liberty there than at the
+Tuileries; which palace is really only a prison for royalty, as there a
+sovereign cannot even take the air at a window without immediately being
+the object of the curiosity of the public, who collect in large crowds.
+At St. Cloud, on the contrary, Bonaparte could walk out from his cabinet
+and prolong his promenade without being annoyed by petitioners.  One of
+his first steps was to repair the cross road leading from St. Cloud to
+Malmaison, between which places Bonaparte rode in a quarter of an hour.
+This proximity to the country, which he liked, made staying at St. Cloud
+yet pleasanter to him.  It was at St. Cloud that the First Consul made,
+if I may so express it, his first rehearsals of the grand drama of the
+Empire.  It was there he began to introduce, in external forms, the
+habits and etiquette which brought to mind the ceremonies of sovereignty.
+He soon perceived the influence which pomp of ceremony, brilliancy of
+appearance, and richness of costume, exercise over the mass of mankind.
+"Men," he remarked to me a this period, "well deserve the contempt I feel
+for them.  I have only to put some gold lace on the coats of my virtuous
+republicans and they immediately become just what I wish them."
+
+I remember one day, after one of his frequent sallies of contempt for
+human kind, I observed to him that although baubles might excite vulgar
+admiration, there were some distinguished men who did not permit
+themselves to be fascinated by their allurements; and I mentioned the
+celebrated Fox by way of example, who, previous to the conclusion of the
+peace of Amiens, visited Paris, where he was remarked for his extreme
+simplicity.  The First Consul said, "Ah!  you are right with respect to
+him.  Mr. Fox is a truly great man, and pleases me much."
+
+In fact, Bonaparte always received Mr. Fox's visits with the greatest
+satisfaction; and after every conversation they had together he never
+failed to express to me the pleasure which he experienced in discoursing
+with a man every way worthy of the great celebrity he had attained.
+He considered him a very superior man, and wished he might have to treat
+with him in his future negotiations with England.  It may be supposed
+that Mr. Fox, on his part, never forgot the terms of intimacy, I may say
+of confidence, on which he had been with the First Consul.  In fact, he
+on several occasions informed him in time of war of the plots formed
+against his life.  Less could not be expected from a man of so noble a
+character.  I can likewise affirm, having more than once been in
+possession of proofs of the fact, that the English Government constantly
+rejected with indignation all such projects.  I do not mean those which
+had for their object the overthrow of the Consular or Imperial
+Government, but all plans of assassination and secret attacks on the
+person of Bonaparte, whether First Consul or Emperor.  I will here
+request the indulgence of the reader whilst I relate a circumstance which
+occurred a year before Mr. Fox's journey to Paris; but as it refers to
+Moreau, I believe that the transposition will be pardoned more easily
+than the omission.
+
+During the summer 1801 the First Consul took a fancy to give a grand
+military dinner at a restaurateur's.  The restaurateur he favoured with
+his company was Veri, whose establishment was situated on the terrace of
+the Feuillans with an entrance into the garden of the Tuileries.
+Bonaparte did not send an invitation to Moreau, whom I met by chance that
+day in the following manner:--The ceremony of the dinner at Veri's
+leaving me at liberty to dispose of my time, I availed myself of it to go
+and dine at a restaurateur's named Rose, who then enjoyed great celebrity
+amongst the distinguished gastronomes.  I dined in company with M.
+Carbonnet, a friend of Moreau's family, and two or three other persons.
+Whilst we were at table in the rotunda we were informed by the waiter who
+attended on us that General Moreau and his wife, with Lacuee and two
+other military men, were in an adjoining apartment.  Suchet, who had
+dined at Veri's, where he said everything was prodigiously dull, on
+rising from the table joined Moreau's party.  These details we learned
+from M. Carbonnet, who left us for a few moments to see the General and
+Madame Moreau.
+
+Bonaparte's affectation in not inviting Moreau at the moment when the
+latter had returned a conqueror from the army of the Rhine, and at the
+same time the affectation of Moreau in going publicly the same day to
+dine at another restaurateur's, afforded ground for the supposition that
+the coolness which existed between them would soon be converted into
+enmity.  The people of Paris naturally thought that the conqueror of
+Marengo might, without any degradation, have given the conqueror of
+Hohenlinden a seat at his table.
+
+By the commencement of the year 1802 the Republic had ceased to be
+anything else than a fiction, or an historical recollection.  All that
+remained of it was a deceptive inscription on the gates of the Palace.
+Even at the time of his installation at the Tuileries, Bonaparte had
+caused the two trees of liberty which were planted in the court to be cut
+down; thus removing the outward emblems before he destroyed the reality.
+But the moment the Senatorial decisions of the 2d and 4th of August were
+published it was evident to the dullest perceptions that the power of the
+First Consul wanted nothing but a name.
+
+After these 'Consultes' Bonaparte readily accustomed himself to regard
+the principal authorities of the State merely as necessary instruments
+for the exercise of his power.  Interested advisers then crowded round
+him.  It was seriously proposed that he should restore the ancient
+titles, as being more in harmony with the new power which the people had
+confided to him than the republican forms.  He was still of opinion,
+however, according to his phrase, that "the pear was not yet ripe," and
+would not hear this project spoken of for a moment.  "All this," he said
+to me one day, "will come in good time; but you must see, Bourrienne,
+that it is necessary I should, in the first place, assume a title, from
+which the others that I will give to everybody will naturally take their
+origin.  The greatest difficulty is surmounted.  There is no longer any
+person to deceive.  Everybody sees as clear as day that it is only one
+step which separates the throne from the Consulate for life.  However, we
+must be cautious.  There are some troublesome fellows in the Tribunate,
+but I will take care of them."
+
+Whilst these serious questions agitated men's minds the greater part of
+the residents at Malmaison took a trip to Plombieres.  Josephine,
+Bonaparte's mother, Madame Beauharnais-Lavallette, Hortense, and General
+Rapp, were of this party.  It pleased the fancy of the jocund company to
+address to me a bulletin of the pleasant and unpleasant occurrences of
+the journey.  I insert this letter merely as a proof of the intimacy
+which existed between the writers and myself.  It follows, precisely as I
+have preserved it, with the exception of the blots, for which it will be
+seen they apologised.
+
+
+                AN ACCOUNT OF THE JOURNEY TO PLOMBIERES.
+                    To the Inhabitants of Malmaison.
+
+The whole party left Malmaison in tears, which brought on such dreadful
+headaches that all the amiable persons were quite overcome by the idea of
+the journey.  Madame Bonaparte, mere, supported the fatigues of this
+memorable day with the greatest courage; but Madame Bonaparte,
+Consulesse, did not show any.  The two young ladies who sat in the
+dormouse, Mademoiselle Hortense and Madame Lavallette, were rival
+candidates for a bottle of Eau de Cologne; and every now and then the
+amiable M. Rapp made the carriage stop for the comfort of his poor little
+sick heart, which overflowed with bile: in fine, he was obliged to take
+to bed on arriving at Epernay, while the rest of the amiable party tried
+to drown their sorrows in champagne.  The second day was more fortunate
+on the score of health and spirits, but provisions were wanting, and
+great were the sufferings of the stomach.  The travellers lived on the
+hope of a good supper at Toul; but despair was at its height when,
+on arriving there, they found only a wretched inn, and nothing in it.
+We saw some odd-looking folks there, which indemnified us a little for
+spinach dressed in lamp-oil, and red asparagus fried with curdled milk.
+Who would not have been amused to see the Malmaison gourmands seated at a
+table so shockingly served!
+
+In no record of history is there to be found a day passed in distress so
+dreadful as that on which we arrived at Plombieres.  On departing from
+Toul we intended to breakfast at Nancy, for every stomach had been empty
+for two days; but the civil and military authorities came out to meet us,
+and prevented us from executing our plan.  We continued our route,
+wasting away, so that you might, see us growing thinner every moment.
+To complete our misfortune, the dormouse, which seemed to have taken a
+fancy to embark on the Moselle for Metz, barely escaped an overturn.
+But at Plombieres we have been well compensated for this unlucky journey,
+for on our arrival we were received with all kinds of rejoicings.  The
+town was illuminated, the cannon fired, and the faces of handsome women
+at all the windows give us reason to hope that we shall bear our absence
+from Malmaison with the less regret.
+
+With the exception of some anecdotes, which we reserve for chit-chat on
+our return, you have here a correct account of our journey, which we, the
+undersigned, hereby certify.
+
+JOSEPHINE BONAPARTE.
+BEAUHARNAIS-LAPALLETTE.
+HORTENSE BEAUHARNAIS.
+RAPP.
+BONAPARTE, mere.
+
+The company ask pardon for the blots.
+          21st Messidor.
+
+It is requested that the person who receives this journal will show it to
+all who take an interest in the fair travellers.
+
+
+This journey to Plombieres was preceded by a scene which I should abstain
+from describing if I had not undertaken to relate the truth respecting
+the family of the First Consul.  Two or three days before her departure
+Madame Bonaparte sent for me.  I obeyed the summons, and found her in
+tears.  "What a man-what a man is that Lucien!"  she exclaimed in accents
+of grief.  "If you knew, my friend, the shameful proposals he has dared
+to make to me! 'You are going to the waters,' said he; 'you must get a
+child by some other person since you cannot have one by him.'  Imagine
+the indignation with which I received such advice.  'Well,' he continued,
+'if you do not wish it, or cannot help it, Bonaparte must get a child by
+another woman, and you must adopt it, for it is necessary to secure an
+hereditary successor.  It is for your interest; you must know that.'--
+'What, sir!'  I replied, 'do you imagine the nation will suffer a bastard
+to govern it?  Lucien!  Lucien!  you would ruin your brother!  This is
+dreadful!  Wretched should I be, were any one to suppose me capable of
+listening, without horror, to your infamous proposal!  Your ideas are
+poisonous; your language horrible!'--'Well, Madame,' retorted he, 'all I
+can say to that is, that I am really sorry for you!'"
+
+The amiable Josephine was sobbing whilst she described this scene to me,
+and I was not insensible to the indignation which she felt.  The truth
+is, that at that period Lucien, though constantly affecting to despise
+power for himself, was incessantly labouring to concentrate it in the
+hands of his brother; and he considered three things necessary to the
+success of his views, namely, hereditary succession, divorce, and the
+Imperial Government.
+
+Lucien had a delightful house near Neuilly.  Some days before the
+deplorable scene which I have related he invited Bonaparte and all the
+inmates at Malmaison to witness a theatrical representation.  'Alzire'
+was the piece performed.  Elise played Alzire, and Lucien, Zamore.  The
+warmth of their declarations, the energetic expression of their gestures,
+the too faithful nudity of costume, disgusted most of the spectators, and
+Bonaparte more than any other.  When the play was over he was quite
+indignant.  "It is a scandal," he said to me in an angry tone; "I ought
+not to suffer such indecencies--I will give Lucien to understand that I
+will have no more of it."  When his brother had resumed his own dress,
+and came into the salon, he addressed him publicly, and gave him to
+understand that he must for the future desist from such representations.
+When we returned to Malmaison; he again spoke of what had passed with
+dissatisfaction.  "What!" said he, "when I am endeavouring to restore
+purity of manners, my brother and sister must needs exhibit themselves
+upon the boards almost in a state of nudity!  It is an insult!"
+
+Lucien had a strong predilection for theatrical exhibitions, to which he
+attached great importance.  The fact is, he declaimed in a superior
+style, and might have competed with the best professional actors.  It was
+said that the turban of Orosmane, the costume of America, the Roman toga,
+or the robe of the high priest of Jerusalem, all became him equally well;
+and I believe that this was the exact truth.  Theatrical representations
+were not confined to Neuilly.  We had our theatre and our company of
+actors at Malmaison; but there everything was conducted with the greatest
+decorum; and now that I have got behind the scenes, I will not quit them
+until I have let the reader into the secrets of our drama.
+
+By the direction of the First Consul a very pretty little theatre was
+built at Malmaison.  Our usual actors were Eugene BEAUHARNAIS, Hortense,
+Madame Murat, Lauriston, M. Didelot, one of the prefects of the Palace,
+some other individuals belonging to the First Consul's household, and
+myself.  Freed from the cares of government, which we confined as much as
+possible to the Tuileries, we were a very happy colony at Malmaison; and,
+besides, we were young, and what is there to which youth does not add
+charms?  The pieces which the First Consul most liked to see us perform
+were, 'Le Barbier de Seville' and 'Defiance et Malice'.  In Le Barbier
+Lauriston played the part of Count Almaviva; Hortense, Rosins; Eugene,
+Basil; Didelot, Figaro; I, Bartholo; and Isabey, l'Aveille.  Our other
+stock pieces were, Projets de Mariage, La Gageltre, the Dapit Anloureux,
+in which I played the part of the valet; and L'Impromptu de Campagne, in
+which I enacted the Baron, having for my Baroness the young and handsome
+Caroline Murat.
+
+Hortense's acting was perfection, Caroline was middling, Eugene played
+very well, Lauriston was rather heavy, Didelot passable, and I may
+venture to assert, without vanity, that I was not quite the worst of the
+company.  If we were not good actors it was not for want of good
+instruction and good advice.  Talma and Michot came to direct us, and
+made us rehearse before them, sometimes altogether and sometimes
+separately.  How many lessons have I received from Michot whilst walking
+in the beautiful park of Malmaison!  And may I be excused for saying,
+that I now experience pleasure in looking back upon these trifles, which
+are matters of importance when one is young, and which contrasted so
+singularly with the great theatre on which we did not represent
+fictitious characters?  We had, to adopt theatrical language, a good
+supply of property.  Bonaparte presented each of us with a collection of
+dramas very well bound; and, as the patron of the company, he provided us
+with rich and elegant dresses.
+
+--[While Bourrienne, belonging to the Malmaison company, considered
+that the acting at Neuilly was indecent, Lucien, who refused to act at
+Malmaison, naturally thought the Malmaison troupe was dull.  "Hortense
+and Caroline filled the principal parts.  They were very commonplace.  In
+this they followed the unfortunate Marie Antoinette and her companions.
+Louis XVI.,  not naturally polite, when seeing them act, had said that it
+was royally badly acted" (see Madame Campan's Life of Marie Antoinette,
+tome i.  p. 299).  "The First Consul said of his troupe that it was
+sovereignly badly acted".  .  .  Murat, Lannes, and even Caroline ranted.
+Elisa, who, having been educated at Saint Cyr, spoke purely and without
+accent, refused to act.  Janot acted well the drunken parts, and even the
+others he undertook. The rest were decidedly bad.  Worse than bad--
+ridiculous" (Iung's Lucien's, tome ii. p. 256).  Rival actors are not
+fair critics.  Let us hear Madame Junot (tome ii.  p. 103).  "The
+cleverest of our company was M. de Bourrienne.  He played the more
+dignified characters in real perfection, and his talent was the more
+pleasing as it was not the result of study, but of a perfect
+comprehension of his part."  And she goes on to say that even the best
+professional actors might have learnt from him in some parts.  The
+audience was not a pleasant one to face.  It was the First Consul's habit
+to invite forty persons to dinner, and a hundred and fifty for the
+evening, and consequently to hear, criticise, and banter us without
+mercy" (Memoirs of Duchesse d'Abrantes, tome ii. p. 108). ]--
+
+Bonaparte took great pleasure in our performances.  He liked to see plays
+acted by persons with whom he was familiar.  Sometimes he complimented us
+on our exertions.  Although I was as much amused with the thing as
+others, I was more than once obliged to remind him that my occupations
+left me but little time to learn my parts.  Then he would assume his
+coaxing manner and say, "Come, do not vex me!  You have such a memory!
+You know that it amuses me.  You see that these performances render
+Malmaison gay and animated; Josephine takes much pleasure in them.  Rise
+earlier in the morning.--In fact, I sleep too much; is not that the
+cafe--Come, Bourrienne, do oblige me.  You make me laugh so heartily!
+Do not deprive me of this pleasure.  I have not over much amusement, as
+you well know."--"All, truly!  I would not deprive you of any pleasure.
+I am delighted to be able to contribute to your amusement."  After a
+conversation of this sort I could not do less than set about studying my
+part.
+
+At this period, during summer, I had half the Sunday to myself.  I was,
+however, obliged to devote a portion of this precious leisure to pleasing
+Bonaparte by studying a new part as a surprise for him.  Occasionally,
+however, I passed the time at Ruel.  I recollect that one day, when I had
+hurried there from Malmaison, I lost a beautiful watch made by Breguet.
+It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and the road was that day thronged
+with people.  I made my loss publicly known by means of the crier of
+Ruel.  An hour after, as I was sitting down to table, a young lad
+belonging to the village brought me my watch.  He had found it on the
+high road in a wheel rut.  I was pleased with the probity of this young
+man, and rewarded both him and his father, who accompanied him.  I
+reiterated the circumstance the same evening to the First Consul, who was
+so struck with this instance of honesty that he directed me to procure
+information respecting the young man and his family.  I learned that they
+were honest peasants.  Bonaparte gave employment to three brothers of
+this family; and, what was most difficult to persuade him to, he exempted
+the young man who brought me the watch from the conscription.
+
+When a fact of this nature reached Bonaparte's ear it was seldom that he
+did not give the principal actor in it some proof of his satisfaction.
+Two qualities predominated in his character--kindness and impatience.
+Impatience, when he was under its influence, got the better of him; it
+was then impossible for him to control himself.  I had a remarkable proof
+of it about this very period.
+
+Canova having arrived in Paris came to St. Cloud to model the figure of
+the First Consul, of whom he was about to make a colossal statue.  This
+great artist came often, in the hope of getting his model to stand in the
+proper attitude; but Bonaparte was so tired, disgusted, and fretted by
+the process, that he very seldom put himself in the required attitude,
+and then only for a short time.  Bonaparte notwithstanding had the
+highest regard for Canova.  Whenever he was announced the First Consul
+sent me to keep him company until he was at leisure to give him a
+sitting; but he would shrug up his shoulders and say, "More modeling!
+Good Heavens, how vexatious!"  Canova expressed great displeasure at not
+being able to study his model as he wished to do, and the little anxiety
+of Bonaparte on the subject damped the ardour of his imagination.
+Everybody agrees in saying that he has not succeeded in the work, and I
+have explained the reason.  The Duke of Wellington afterwards possessed
+this colossal statue, which was about twice his own height.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+1802.
+
+     Bonaparte's principle as to the change of Ministers--Fouche--His
+     influence with the First Consul--Fouche's dismissal--The departments
+     of Police and Justice united under Regnier--Madame Bonaparte's
+     regret for the dismissal of Fouche--Family scenes--Madame Louis
+     Bonaparte's pregnancy--False and infamous reports to Josephine--
+     Legitimacy and a bastard--Raederer reproached by Josephine--Her
+     visit to Ruel--Long conversation with her--Assertion at St. Helena
+     respecting a great political fraud.
+
+It is a principle particularly applicable to absolute governments that a
+prince should change his ministers as seldom as possible, and never
+except upon serious grounds.  Bonaparte acted on this principle when
+First Consul, and also when he became Emperor.  He often allowed unjust
+causes to influence him, but he never dismissed a Minister without cause;
+indeed, he more than once, without any reason, retained Ministers longer
+than he ought to have done in the situations in which he had placed them.
+Bonaparte's tenacity in this respect, in some instances, produced very
+opposite results.  For instance, it afforded M. Gaudin' time to establish
+a degree of order in the administration of Finance which before his time
+had never existed; and on the other hand, it enabled M. Decres to reduce
+the Ministry of Marine to an unparalleled state of confusion.
+
+Bonaparte saw nothing in men but helps and obstacles.  On the 18th
+Brumaire Fouche was a help.  The First Consul feared that he would become
+an obstacle; it was necessary, therefore, to think of dismissing him.
+Bonaparte's most sincere friends had from the beginning been opposed to
+Fouche's having any share in the Government.  But their disinterested
+advice produced no other result than their own disgrace, so influential a
+person had Fouche become.  How could it be otherwise?  Fouche was
+identified with the Republic by the death of the King, for which he had
+voted; with the Reign of Terror by his sanguinary missions to Lyons and
+Nevers; with the Consulate by his real though perhaps exaggerated
+services; with Bonaparte by the charm with which he might be said to have
+fascinated him; with Josephine by the enmity of the First Consul's
+brothers.  Who would believe it?  Fouche ranked the enemies of the
+Revolution amongst his warmest partisans.  They overwhelmed him with
+eulogy, to the disparagement even of the Head of the State, because the
+cunning Minister, practising an interested indulgence, set himself up as
+the protector of individuals belonging to classes which, when he was
+proconsul, he had attacked in the mass.  Director of public opinion, and
+having in his hands the means at his pleasure of inspiring fear or of
+entangling by inducements, it was all in his favour that he had already
+directed this opinion.  The machinery he set in motion was so calculated
+that the police was rather the police of Fouche than that of the Minister
+of the General Police.  Throughout Paris, and indeed throughout all
+France, Fouche obtained credit for extraordinary ability; and the popular
+opinion was correct in this respect, namely, that no man ever displayed
+such ability in making it be supposed that he really possessed talent.
+Fouche's secret in this particular is the whole secret of the greater
+part of those persons who are called statesmen.
+
+Be this as it may, the First Consul did not behold with pleasure the
+factitious influence of which Fouche had possessed himself.  For some
+time past, to the repugnance which at bottom he had felt towards.
+Fouche, were added other causes of discontent.  In consequence of having
+been deceived by secret reports and correspondence Bonaparte began to
+shrug up his shoulders with an expression of regret when he received
+them, and said, "Would you believe, Bourrienne, that I have been imposed
+on by these things?  All such denunciations are useless--scandalous.
+All the reports from prefects and the police, all the intercepted
+letters, are a tissue of absurdities and lies.  I desire to have no more
+of them."  He said so, but he still received them.  However, Fouche's
+dismissal was resolved upon.  But though Bonaparte wished to get rid of
+him, still, under the influence of the charm, he dared not proceed
+against him without the greatest caution.  He first resolved upon the
+suppression of the office of Minister of Police in order to disguise the
+motive for the removal of the Minister.  The First Consul told Fouche
+that this suppression, which he spoke of as being yet remote, was
+calculated more than anything else to give strength to the Government,
+since it would afford a proof of the security and internal tranquillity
+of France.  Overpowered by the arguments with which Bonaparte supported
+his proposition, Fouche could urge no good reasons in opposition to it,
+but contented himself with recommending that the execution of the design,
+which was good in intention, should, however, be postponed for two years.
+Bonaparte appeared to listen favourably to Fouche's recommendation, who,
+as avaricious for money as Bonaparte of glory, consoled himself by
+thinking that for these two years the administration of the gaming tables
+would still be for him a Pactolus flowing with gold.  For Fouche, already
+the possessor of an immense fortune, always dreamed of increasing it,
+though he himself did not know how to enjoy it.  With him the ambition of
+enlarging the bounds of his estate of Pont-Carre was not less felt than
+with the First Consul the ambition of extending the frontier of France.
+
+Not only did the First Consul not like Fouche, but it is perfectly true
+that at this time the police wearied and annoyed him.  Several times he
+told me he looked on it as dangerous, especially for the possessor of
+power.  In a Government without the liberty of the press he was quite
+right.  The very services which the police had rendered to the First
+Consul were of a nature to alarm him, for whoever had conspired against
+the Directory in favour of the Consulate might also conspire against the
+Consulate in favour of any other Government.  It is needless to say that
+I only allude to the political police, and not to the municipal police,
+which is indispensable for large towns, and which has the honourable
+mission of watching over the health and safety of the citizens.
+
+Fouche, as has been stated, had been Minister of Police since the 18th
+Brumaire.  Everybody who was acquainted with, the First Consul's
+character was unable to explain the ascendency which he had suffered
+Fouche to acquire over him, and of which Bonaparte himself was really
+impatient.  He saw in Fouche a centre around which all the interests of
+the Revolution concentrated themselves, and at this he felt indignant;
+but, subject to a species of magnetism, he could not break the charm
+which enthralled him.  When he spoke of Fouche in his absence his
+language was warm, bitter, and hostile.  When Fouche was present,
+Bonaparte's tone was softened, unless some public scene was to be acted
+like that which occurred after the attempt of the 3d Nivose.
+
+The suppression of the Ministry of Police being determined on, Bonaparte
+did not choose to delay the execution of his design, as he had pretended
+to think necessary.  On the evening of the 12th of September we went to
+Mortfontaine.  We passed the next day, which was Monday, at that place,
+and it was there, far removed from Fouche, and urged by the combined
+persuasions of Joseph and Lucien, that the First Consul signed the decree
+of suppression.  The next morning we returned to Paris.  Fouche came to
+Malmaison, where we were, in the regular execution of his duties.  The
+First Consul transacted business with him as usual without daring to tell
+him of his dismissal, and afterwards sent Cambaceres to inform him of it.
+After this act, respecting which he had hesitated so long, Bonaparte
+still endeavoured to modify his rigour.  Having appointed Fouche a
+Senator, he said in the letter which he wrote to the Senate to notify the
+appointment:
+
+     "Fouche, as Minister of Police, in times of difficulty, has by his
+     talent, his activity, and his attachment to the Government done all
+     that circumstances required of him.  Placed in the bosom of the
+     Senate, if events should again call for a Minister of Police the
+     Government cannot find one more worthy of its confidence."
+
+From this moment the departments of Justice and Police united were
+confided to the hands of Regnier.' Bonaparte's aversion for Fouche
+strangely blinded him with respect to the capabilities of his successor.
+Besides, how could the administration of justice, which rests on fixed,
+rigid, and unchangeable bases, proceed hand in hand with another
+administration placed on the quicksand of instantaneous decisions, and
+surrounded by stratagems and deceptions?  Justice should never have
+anything to do with secret police, unless it be to condemn it.
+
+     --[M. Abrial, Minister of Justice, was called to the Senate at the
+     same time as Fouche.  Understanding that the assimilation of the two
+     men was more a disgrace to Abrial than the mere loss of the
+     Ministry, the First Consul said to M. Abrial: "In uniting the
+     Ministry of Police to that of Justice I could not retain yon in the
+     Ministry, you are too upright a man to manage the police."  Not a
+     flattering speech for Regnier.--Bourrienne.]--
+
+
+What could be expected from Regnier, charged as he was with incompatible
+functions?  What, under such circumstances, could have been expected even
+from a man gifted with great talents?  Such was the exact history of
+Fouche's disgrace.  No person was more afflicted at it than Madame
+Bonaparte, who only leaned the news when it was announced to the public.
+Josephine, on all occasions, defended Fouche against her husband's
+sallies.  She believed that he was the only one of his Ministers who told
+him the truth.  She had such a high opinion of the way in which Fouche
+managed the police that the first time I was alone with her after our
+return from Mortfontaine she said to me, "My dear Bourrienne; speak
+openly to me; will Napoleon know all about the plots from the police of
+Moncey, Duroc, Junot, and of Davoust?  You know better than I do that
+these are only wretched spies.  Has not Savary also eventually got his
+police?  How all this alarms me.  They take away all my supports, and
+surround me only with enemies."--"To justify your regrets we should be
+sure that Fouche has never been in agreement with Lucien in favour of the
+divorce."--"Oh, I do not believe that.  Bonaparte does not like him, and
+he would have been certain to tell me of it when I spoke favourably to
+him of Fouche.  You will see that his brothers will end by bringing him
+into their plan."
+
+I have already spoken of Josephine's troubles, and of the bad conduct of
+Joseph, but more particularly of Lucien, towards her; I will therefore
+describe here, as connected with the disgrace of Fouche, whom Madame
+Bonaparte regretted as a support, some scenes which occurred about this
+period at Malmaison.  Having been the confidant of both parties, and an
+involuntary actor in those scenes, now that twenty-seven years have
+passed since they occurred what motive can induce me to disguise the
+truth in any respect?
+
+Madame Louis Bonaparte was enceinte.  Josephine, although she tenderly
+loved her children, did not seem to behold the approaching event which
+the situation of her daughter indicated with the interest natural to the
+heart of a mother.  She had long been aware of the calumnious reports
+circulated respecting the supposed connection between Hortense and the
+First Consul, and that base accusation cost her many tears.  Poor
+Josephine paid dearly for the splendour of her station!  As I knew how
+devoid of foundation these atrocious reports were, I endeavoured to
+console her by telling her what was true, that I was exerting all my
+efforts to demonstrate their infamy and falsehood.  Bonaparte, however,
+dazzled by the affection which was manifested towards him from all
+quarters, aggravated the sorrow of his wife by a silly vanity.  He
+endeavoured to persuade her that these reports had their origin only in
+the wish of the public that he should have a child, so that these seeming
+consolations offered by self-love to Josephine's grief gave force to
+existing conjugal alarms, and the fear of divorce returned with all its
+horrors.  Under the foolish illusion of his vanity Bonaparte imagined
+that France was desirous of being governed even by a bastard if supposed
+to be a child of his,--a singular mode truly of founding a new
+legitimacy!
+
+Josephine, whose susceptibility appears to me even now excusable, well
+knew my sentiments on the subject of Bonaparte's founding a dynasty, and
+she had not forgotten my conduct when two years before the question had
+been agitated on the occasion of Louis XVIII.'s letters to the First
+Consul.  I remember that one day, after the publication of the parallel
+of Caesar, Cromwell, and Bonaparte, Josephine having entered our cabinet
+without being announced, which she sometimes did when from the good
+humour exhibited at breakfast she reckoned upon its continuance,
+approached Bonaparte softly, seated herself on his knee, passed her hand
+gently through his hair and over his face, and thinking the moment
+favourable, said to him in a burst of tenderness, "I entreat of you,
+Bonaparte, do not make yourself a King!  It is that wretch Lucien who
+urges you to it.  Do not listen to him!"  Bonaparte replied, without
+anger, and even smiling as he pronounced the last words, "You are mad,
+my poor Josephine.  It is your old dowagers of the Faubourg St. Germain,
+your Rochefoucaulds, who tell you all these fables!...... Come now, you
+interrupt me--leave me alone."
+
+What Bonaparte said that day good-naturedly to his wife I have often
+heard him declare seriously.  I have been present at five or six
+altercations on the subject.  That there existed, too, an enmity
+connected with this question between the family of BEAUHARNAIS and the
+family of Bonaparte cannot be denied.
+
+Fouche, as I have stated, was in the interest of Josephine, and Lucien
+was the most bitter of her enemies.  One day Raederer inveighed with so
+much violence against Fouche in the presence of Madame Bonaparte that she
+replied with extreme warmth, "The real enemies of Bonaparte are those who
+feed him with notions of hereditary descent, of a dynasty, of divorce,
+and of marriage!"  Josephine could not check this exclamation, as she
+knew that Roederer encouraged those ideas, which he spread abroad by
+Lucien's direction.  I recollect one day when she had been to see us at
+our little house at Ruel: as I walked with her along the high road to her
+carriage, which she had sent forward, I acknowledged too unreservedly my
+fears on account of the ambition of Bonaparte, and of the perfidious
+advice of his brothers.  "Madame," said I, "if we cannot succeed in
+dissuading the General from making himself a King, I dread the future for
+his sake.  If ever he re-establishes royalty he will in all probability
+labour for the Bourbons, and enable them one day to re-ascend the throne
+which he shall erect.  No one, doubtless, without passing for a fool, can
+pretend to say with certainty what series of chances and events such a
+proceeding will produce; but common sense alone is sufficient to convince
+any one that unfavourable chances must long be dreaded.  The ancient
+system being re-established, the occupation of the throne will then be
+only a family question, and not a question of government between liberty
+and despotic power.  Why should not France, if it ceases to be free,
+prefer the race of her ancient kings?  You surely know it.  You had not
+been married two years when, on returning from Italy, your husband told
+me that he aspired to royalty.  Now he is Consul for life.  Would he but
+resolve to stop there!  He already possesses everything but an empty
+title.  No sovereign in Europe has so much power as he has.  I am sorry
+for it, Madame, but I really believe that, in spite of yourself, you will
+be made Queen or Empress."
+
+Madame Bonaparte had allowed me to speak without interruption, but when I
+pronounced the words Queen and Empress she exclaimed, "My God!
+Bourrienne, such ambition is far from my thoughts.  That I may always
+continue the wife of the First Consul is all I desire.  Say to him all
+that you have said to me.  Try and prevent him from making himself
+King."--"Madame," I replied, "times are greatly altered.  The wisest men,
+the strongest minds, have resolutely and courageously opposed his
+tendency to the hereditary system.  But advice is now useless.  He would
+not listen to me.  In all discussions on the subject he adheres
+inflexibly to the view he has taken.  If he be seriously opposed his
+anger knows no bounds; his language is harsh and abrupt, his tone
+imperious, and his authority bears down all before him."--"Yet,
+Bourrienne, he has so much confidence in you that of you should try once
+more!"--"Madame, I assure you he will not listen to me.  Besides, what
+could I add to the remarks I made upon his receiving the letters of Louis
+XVIII., when I fearlessly represented to him that being without children
+he would have no one to whom to bequeath the throne--that, doubtless,
+from the opinion which be entertained of his brothers, he could not
+desire to erect it for them?"  Here Josephine again interrupted me by
+exclaiming, "My kind friend, when you spoke of children did he say
+anything to you?  Did he talk of a divorce?"--"Not a word, Madame, I
+assure you."--"If they do not urge him to it, I do not believe he will
+resolve to do such a thing.  You know how he likes Eugene, and Eugene
+behaves so well to him.  How different is Lucien.  It is that wretch
+Lucien, to whom Bonaparte listens too much, and of whom, however, he
+always speaks ill to me."--"I do not know, Madame, what Lucien says to
+his brother except when he chooses to tell me, because Lucien always
+avoids having a witness of his interviews with your husband, but I can
+assure you that for two years I have not heard the word 'divorce' from
+the General's mouth."--"I always reckon on you, my dear Bourrienne; to
+turn him away from it; as you did at that time."--"I do not believe he is
+thinking of it, but if it recurs to him, consider, Madame, that it will
+be now from very different motives: He is now entirely given up to the
+interests of his policy and his ambition, which dominate every other
+feeling in him.  There will not now be any question of scandal, or of a
+trial before a court, but of an act of authority which complaisant laws
+will justify and which the Church perhaps will sanction."--"That's true.
+You are right.  Good God!  how unhappy I am."
+
+     --[When Bourrienne complains of not knowing what passed between
+     Lucien and Napoleon, we can turn to Lucien's account of Bourrienne,
+     apparently about this very time.  "After a stormy interview with
+     Napoleon," says Lucien, "I at once went into the cabinet where
+     Bourrienne was working, and found that unbearable busybody of a
+     secretary, whose star had already paled more than once, which made
+     him more prying than ever, quite upset by the time the First Consul
+     had taken to come out of his bath.  He must, or at least might, have
+     heard some noise, for enough had been made.  Seeing that he wanted
+     to know the cause from me, I took up a newspaper to avoid being
+     bored by his conversation" (Iung's Lucien, tome ii. p.156)]--
+
+Such was the nature of one of the conversations I had with Madame
+Bonaparte on a subject to which she often recurred.  It may not perhaps
+be uninteresting to endeavour to compare with this what Napoleon said at
+St. Helena, speaking of his first wife.  According to the Memorial
+Napoleon there stated that when Josephine was at last constrained to
+renounce all hope of having a child, she often let fall allusions to a
+great political fraud, and at length openly proposed it to him.  I make
+no doubt Bonaparte made use of words to this effect, but I do not believe
+the assertion.  I recollect one day that Bonaparte, on entering our
+cabinet, where I was already seated, exclaimed in a transport of joy
+impossible for me to describe, "Well, Bourrienne, my wife is at last
+enceinte!"  I sincerely congratulated him, more, I own, out of courtesy
+than from any hope of seeing him made a father by Josephine, for I well
+remembered that Corvisart, who had given medicines to Madame Bonaparte,
+had nevertheless assured me that he expected no result from them.
+Medicine was really the only political fraud to which Josephine had
+recourse; and in her situation what other woman would not have done as
+much?  Here, then, the husband and the wife are in contradiction, which
+is nothing uncommon.  But on which side is truth?  I have no hesitation
+in referring it to Josephine.  There is indeed an immense difference
+between the statements of a women--trusting her fears and her hopes to
+the sole confidant of her family secrets, and the tardy declaration of a
+man who, after seeing the vast edifice of his ambition leveled with the
+dust, is only anxious, in his compulsory retreat, to preserve intact and
+spotless the other great edifice of his glory.  Bonaparte should have
+recollected that Caesar did not like the idea of his wife being even
+suspected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+1802.
+
+     Citizen Fesch created Cardinal Fesch--Arts and industry--Exhibition
+     in the Louvre--Aspect of Paris in 1802--The Medicean Venus and the
+     Velletrian Pallas--Signs of general prosperity--Rise of the funds--
+     Irresponsible Ministers--The Bourbons--The military Government--
+     Annoying familiarity of Lannes--Plan laid for his disgrace--
+     Indignation of Lannes--His embassy to Portugal--The delayed
+     despatch--Bonaparte's rage--I resign my situation--Duroc--
+     I breakfast with Bonaparte--Duroc's intercession--Temporary
+     reconciliation.
+
+Citizen Fesch, who, when we were forced to stop at Ajaccio on our return
+from Egypt, discounted at rather a high rate the General-in-Chief's
+Egyptian sequins, became again the Abbe Fesch, as soon as Bonaparte by
+his Consular authority re-erected the altars which the Revolution had
+overthrown.  On the 15th of August 1802 he was consecrated Bishop, and
+the following year received the Cardinal's hat.  Thus Bonaparte took
+advantage of one of the members of his family being in orders to elevate
+him to the highest dignities of the Church.  He afterwards gave Cardinal
+Fesch the Archbishopric of Lyons, of which place he was long the titular.
+
+     --[Like Cambaceres the Cardinal was a bit of a gourmet, and on one
+     occasion had invited a large party of clerical magnates to dinner.
+     By a coincidence two turbots of singular beauty arrived as presents
+     to his Eminence on the very morning of the feast.  To serve both
+     would have appeared ridiculous, but the Cardinal was most anxious to
+     have the credit of both.  He imparted his embarrassment to his chef:
+
+     "'Be of good faith, your Eminence,' was the reply, 'both shall appear
+     and enjoy the reception so justly their due.'  The dinner was
+     served: one of the turbots relieved the soup.  Delight was on every
+     face--it was the moment of the 'eprouvette positive'.  The 'maitre
+     a'hotel' advances; two attendants raise the turbot and carry him off
+     to cut him up; but one of them loses his equilibrium: the attendants
+     and the turbot roll together on the floor.  At this sad sight the
+     assembled Cardinals became as pale as death, and a solemn silence
+     reigned in the 'conclave'--it was the moment of the 'eprouvette
+     negative'; but the 'maitre a'hotel' suddenly turns to one of the
+     attendants,  Bring another turbot,' said he, with the most perfect
+     coolness.  The second appeared, and the eprouvette positive was
+     gloriously renewed."  (Hayward's Art of Dining, P.  65.)]--
+
+The First Consul prided himself a good deal on his triumph, at least in
+appearance, over the scruples which the persons who surrounded him had
+manifested against the re-establishment of worship.  He read with much
+self-satisfaction the reports made to him, in which it was stated that
+the churches were well frequented: Indeed, throughout the year 1802, all
+his attention wad directed to the reformation of manners, which had
+become more dissolute under the Directory than even during the Reign of
+Terror.
+
+In his march of usurpation the First Consul let slip no opportunity of
+endeavouring to obtain at the same time the admiration of the multitude
+and the approbation of judicious men.  He was very fond of the arts, and
+was sensible that the promotion of industry ought to be the peculiar care
+of the head of the Government.  It must, however, at the same time be
+owned that he rendered the influence of his protection null and void by
+the continual violations he committed on that liberty which is the
+animating principle of all improvement.
+
+During the supplementary days of the year X., that is to say, about the
+beginning of the autumn of 1802, there was held at the Louvre an
+exhibition of the products of industry.  The First Consul visited the
+exhibition, and as even at that period he had begun to attribute every
+good result to himself, he seemed proud of the high degree of perfection
+the manufacturing arts had attained in France.  He was, above all,
+delighted with the admiration this exhibition excited among the numerous
+foreigners who resorted to Paris during the peace.
+
+In fact, throughout the year 1802 the capital presented an interesting
+and animating-spectacle.  The appetite for luxury and pleasure had
+insinuated itself into manners--which were no longer republican, and the
+vast number of Russians and English who drove about everywhere with
+brilliant equipages contributed not a little to this metamorphosis.
+All Paris flocked to the Carrousel on review days, and regarded with eyes
+of delight the unusual sight of rich foreign liveries and emblazoned
+carriages.  The parties at the Tuileries were brilliant and numerous, and
+nothing was wanting but the name of levees.  Count Markoff, who succeeded
+M. de Kalitscheff as Russian ambassador; the Marquis de Lucchesini, the
+Prussian ambassador; and Lord Whitworth, the Minister from England, made
+numerous presentations of their countrymen to the First Consul, who was
+well pleased that the Court he was forming should have examples set by
+foreign courtiers.  Never since the meeting of the States-General had the
+theatres been so frequented, or fetes so magnificent; and never since
+that period had Paris presented so cheering an aspect.  The First Consul,
+on his part, spared no exertion to render the capital more and more
+worthy the admiration of foreigners.  The statue of the Venus de Medicis,
+which had been robbed from the gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, now
+decorated the gallery of the Louvre, and near it was placed that of the
+Velletrian Pallas, a more legitimate acquisition, since it was the result
+of the researches of some French engineers at Velletri.  Everywhere an
+air of prosperity was perceptible, and Bonaparte proudly put in his claim
+to be regarded as the author of it all.  With what heartfelt satisfaction
+did he likewise cast his eye upon what he called the grand thermometer of
+opinion, the price of the funds!  For if he saw them doubled in value in
+consequence of the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, rising as they did at
+that period from seven to sixteen francs, this value was even more than
+tripled after the vote of Consulship for life and the 'Senates-consulte'
+of the 4th of August,--when they rose to fifty-two francs.
+
+While Paris presented so satisfactory an aspect the departments were in a
+state of perfect tranquillity; and foreign affairs had every appearance
+of security.  The Court of the Vatican, which since the Concordat may be
+said to have become devoted to the First Consul, gave, under all
+circumstances, examples of submission to the wishes of France.  The
+Vatican was the first Court which recognised the erection of Tuscany into
+the Kingdom of Etruria, and the formation of the Helvetic, Cisalpine, and
+Batavian Republics.  Prussia soon followed the example of the Pope, which
+was successively imitated by the other powers of Europe.
+
+The whole of these new states, realms, or republics were under the
+immediate influence of France.  The Isle of Elba, which Napoleon's first
+abdication afterwards rendered so famous, and Piedmont, divided into six
+departments, were also united to France, still called it Republic.
+Everything now seemed to concur in securing his accession to absolute
+power.  We were now at peace with all the world, and every circumstance
+tended to place in the hands of the First Consul that absolute power
+which indeed was the only kind of government be was capable of forming
+any conception of.  Indeed, one of the characteristic signs of Napoleon's
+government, even under the Consular system, left no doubt as to his real
+intentions.  Had he wished to found a free Government it is evident that
+he world have made the Ministers responsible to the country, whereas he
+took care that there should be no responsibility but to himself.  He
+viewed them, in fact, in the light of instruments which he might break as
+be pleased.  I found this single index sufficient to disclose all his
+future designs In order to make the irresponsibility of his Ministers to
+the public perfectly clear, he had all the acts of his Government signed
+merely by M. Maret, Secretary of State.  Thus the Consulship for life was
+nothing but an Empire in disguise, the usufruct of which could not long
+satisfy the First Consul's ambition.  His brothers influenced him, and it
+was resolved to found a new dynasty.
+
+It was not in the interior of France that difficulties were likely first
+to arise on Bonaparte's carrying his designs into effect, but there was
+some reason to apprehend that foreign powers, after recognising and
+treating with the Consular Government, might display a different feeling,
+and entertain scruples with regard to a Government which had resumed its
+monarchical form.  The question regarding the Bourbons was in some
+measure kept in the background as long as France remained a Republic, but
+the re-establishment of the throne naturally called to recollection the
+family which had occupied it for so many ages.  Bonaparte fully felt the
+delicacy of his position, but he knew how to face obstacles, and had been
+accustomed to overcome them: he, however, always proceeded cautiously, as
+when obstacles induced him to defer the period of the Consulship for
+life.
+
+Bonaparte laboured to establish iii France not only an absolute
+government, but, what is still worse, a military one.  He considered a
+decree signed by his hand possessed of a magic virtue capable of
+transforming his generals into able diplomatists, and so he sent them on
+embassies, as if to show the Sovereigns to whom they were accredited that
+he soon meant to take their thrones by assault.  The appointment of
+Lannes to the Court of Lisbon originated from causes which probably will
+be read with some interest, since they serve to place Bonaparte's
+character in, its true light, and to point out, at the same time, the
+means he disdained not to resort to, if he wished to banish his most
+faithful friends when their presence was no longer agreeable to him.
+
+Bonaparte had ceased to address Lannes in the second person singular; but
+that general continued the familiarity of thee and thou in speaking to
+Napoleon.  It is hardly possible to conceive how much this annoyed the
+First Consul.  Aware of the unceremonious candour of his old comrade,
+whose daring spirit he knew would prompt him to go as great lengths in
+civil affairs as on the field of battle, Bonaparte, on the great occasion
+of the 18th Brumaire, fearing his reproaches, had given him the command
+of Paris in order to ensure his absence from St. Cloud.
+
+After that time, notwithstanding the continually growing greatness of the
+First Consul, which, as it increased, daily exacted more and more
+deference, Lannes still preserved his freedom of speech, and was the only
+one who dared to treat Bonaparte as a comrade, and tell him the truth
+without ceremony.  This was enough to determine Napoleon to rid himself
+of the presence of Lannes.  But under what pretest was the absence of the
+conqueror of Montebello to be procured?  It was necessary to conjure up
+an excuse; and in the truly diabolical machination resorted to for that
+purpose, Bonaparte brought into play that crafty disposition for which he
+was so remarkable.
+
+Lannes, who never looked forward to the morrow, was as careless of his
+money as of his blood.  Poor officers and soldiers partook largely of his
+liberality.  Thus he had no fortune, but plenty of debts when he wanted
+money, and this was not seldom, he used to come, as if it were a mere
+matter of course, to ask it of the First Consul, who, I must confess,
+never refused him.  Bonaparte, though he well knew the general's
+circumstances, said to him one day, "My friend, you should attend a
+little more to appearances.  You must have your establishment suitable to
+your rank.  There is the Hotel de Noailles--why don't you take it, and
+furnish it in proper style?"  Lannes, whose own candour prevented him
+from suspecting the artful designs of others, followed the advice of the
+First Consul The Hotel de Noailles was taken and superbly fitted up.
+Odiot supplied a service of plate valued at 200,000 francs.
+
+General Lannes having thus conformed to the wishes of Bonaparte came to
+him and requested 400,000 francs, the amount of the expense incurred, as
+it were, by his order.  "But," said the First Consul, "I have no money."
+--"You have no money!  What the devil am I to do, then?"
+
+"But is there none in the Guard's chest?  Take what you require, and we
+will settle it, hereafter."
+
+Mistrusting nothing, Lannes went to the treasurer of the Guards, who made
+some objections at first to the advance required, but who soon yielded on
+learning that the demand was made with the consent of the First Consul.
+
+Within twenty-four hours after Lannes had obtained the 400,000 francs the
+treasurer received from the head commissary an order to balance his
+accounts.  The receipt for the 400,000 francs advanced to Lannes, was not
+acknowledged as a voucher.  In vain the treasurer alleged the authority
+of the First Consul for the transaction.  Napoleon's memory had suddenly
+failed him; he had entirely forgotten all about it.  In a word, it was
+incumbent on Lannes to refund the 400,000 francs to the Guards' chest;
+and, as I have already said, he had no property on earth, but debts in
+abundance.  He repaired to General Lefebre, who loved him as his son, and
+to him he related all that had passed.  "Simpleton," said Lefebvre,
+"why did you not come to me?  Why did you go and get into debt with that
+-----?  Well, here are the 400,000 francs; take them to him, and let him
+go to the devil!"
+
+Lannes hastened to the First Consul.  "What!"--he exclaimed, "is it
+possible you can be guilty of such baseness as this?  To treat me in such
+a manner!  To lay such a foul snare for me after all that I have done for
+you; after all the blood I have shed to promote your ambition!  Is this
+the recompense you had in store for me?  You forget the 13th Vendemiaire,
+to the success of which I contributed more than you!  You forget
+Millesimo: I was colonel before you!  For whom did I fight at Bassano?
+You were witness of what I did at Lodi and at Governolo, where I was
+wounded; and yet you play me such a trick as this!  But for me, Paris
+would have revolted on the 18th Brumaire.  But for me, you would have
+lost the battle of Marengo.  I alone, yes, I alone, passed the Po, at
+Montebello, with my whole division.  You gave the credit of that to
+Berthier, who was not there; and this is my reward--humiliation.  This
+cannot, this shall not be.  I will----"  Bonaparte, pale with anger,
+listened without stirring, and Lannes was on the point of challenging him
+when Junot, who heard the uproar, hastily entered.  The unexpected
+presence of this general somewhat reassured the First Consul, and at the
+same time calmed, in some degree, the fury of Lannes.  "Well," said
+Bonaparte, "go to Lisbon.  You will get money there; and when you return
+you will not want any one to pay your debts for you."  Thus was
+Bonaparte's object gained.  Lannes set out for Lisbon, and never
+afterwards annoyed the First Consul by his familiarities, for on his
+return he ceased to address him with thee and thou.
+
+Having described Bonaparte's ill-treatment of Lannes I may here subjoin a
+statement of the circumstances which led to a rupture between the First
+Consul and me.  So many false stories have been circulated on the subject
+that I am anxious to relate the facts as they really were.
+
+Nine months had now passed since I had tendered my resignation to the
+First Consul.  The business of my office had become too great for me,
+and my health was so much endangered by over-application that my
+physician, M. Corvisart, who had for a long time impressed upon me the
+necessity of relaxation, now formally warned me that I should not long
+hold out under the fatigue I underwent.  Corvisart had no doubt spoken to
+the same effect to the First Consul, for the latter said to me one day,
+in a tone which betrayed but little feeling, "Why, Corvisart says you
+have not a year to live."  This was certainly no very welcome compliment
+in the mouth of an old college friend, yet I must confess that the doctor
+risked little by the prediction.
+
+I had resolved, in fact, to follow the advice of Corvisart; my family
+were urgent in their entreaties that I would do so, but I always put off
+the decisive step.  I was loath to give up a friendship which had
+subsisted so long, and which had been only once disturbed: on that
+occasion when Joseph thought proper to play the spy upon me at the table
+of Fouche.  I remembered also the reception I had met with from the
+conqueror of Italy; and I experienced, moreover, no slight pain at the
+thought of quitting one from whom I had received so many proofs of
+confidence, and to whom I had been attached from early boyhood.  These
+considerations constantly triumphed over the disgust to which I was
+subjected by a number of circumstances, and by the increasing vexations
+occasioned by the conflict between my private sentiments and the nature
+of the duties I had to perform.
+
+I was thus kept in a state of perplexity, from which some unforeseen
+circumstance alone could extricate me.  Such a circumstance at length
+occurred, and the following is the history of my first rupture with
+Napoleon:
+
+On the 27th of February 1802, at ten at night, Bonaparte dictated to me a
+despatch of considerable importance and urgency, for M. de Talleyrand,
+requesting the Minister for Foreign Affairs to come to the Tuileries next
+morning at an appointed hour.  According to custom, I put the letter into
+the hands of the office messenger that it might be forwarded to its
+destination.
+
+This was Saturday.  The following day, Sunday, M. de Talleyrand came as
+if for an audience about mid-day.  The First Consul immediately began to
+confer with him on the subject of the letter sent the previous evening,
+and was astonished to learn that the Minister had not received it
+until the morning.  He immediately rang for the messenger, and ordered me
+to be sent for.  Being in a very.  bad humour, he pulled the bell with so
+much fury that he struck his hand violently against the angle of the
+chimney-piece. I hurried to his presence.  "Why," he said, addressing me
+hastily, "why was not my letter delivered yesterday evening?"--"I do not
+know: I put it at once into the hands of the person whose duty it was to
+see that it was sent."--"Go and find the cause of the delay, and come
+back quickly."  Having rapidly made my inquiries, I returned to the
+cabinet.  "Well?" said the First Consul, whose irritation seemed to have
+increased.  "Well, General, it is not the fault of anybody,  M. de
+Talleyrand was not to be found, either at the office or at his own
+residence, or at the houses of any of his friends where he was thought
+likely to be."  Not knowing with whom to be angry, restrained by the
+coolness of M. de Talleyrand, yet at the same time ready to burst with
+rage, Bonaparte rose from his seat, and proceeding to the hall, called
+the messenger and questioned him sharply.  The man, disconcerted by the
+anger of the First Consul, hesitated in his replies, and gave confused
+answers.  Bonaparte returned to his cabinet still more irritated than he
+had left it.
+
+I had followed him to the hall, and on my way back to the cabinet I
+attempted to soothe him, and I begged him not to be thus discomposed by a
+circumstance which, after all, was of no great moment.  I do not know
+whether his anger was increased by the sight of the blood which flowed
+from his hand, and which he was every moment looking at; but however that
+might be, a transport of furious passion, such as I had never before
+witnessed, seized him; and as I was about to enter the cabinet after him
+he threw back the door with so much violence that, had I been two or
+three inches nearer him, it must infallibly have struck me in the face.
+He accompanied this action, which was almost convulsive, with an
+appellation, not to be borne; he exclaimed before M. de Talleyrand,
+"Leave me alone; you are a fool."  At an insult so atrocious I confess
+that the anger which had already mastered the First Consul suddenly
+seized on me.  I thrust the door forward with as much impetuosity as he
+had used in throwing it back, and, scarcely knowing what I said,
+exclaimed, "You are a hundredfold a greater fool than I am!"  I then
+banged the door and went upstairs to my apartment, which was situated
+over the cabinet.
+
+I was as far from expecting as from wishing such an occasion of
+separating from the First Consul.  But what was done could not be undone;
+and therefore, without taking time for reflection, and still under the
+influence of the anger that had got the better of me, I penned the
+following positive resignation:
+
+GENERAL--The state of my health no longer permits me to continue in your
+service.  I therefore beg you to accept my resignation.
+                                                  BOURRIENNE.
+
+Some moments after this note was written I saw Bonaparte's saddle-horses
+brought up to the entrance of the Palace.  It was Sunday morning, and,
+contrary to his usual custom on that day, he was going to ride out.
+
+Duroc accompanied him.  He was no sooner done than I, went down into his
+cabinet, and placed my letter on his table.  On returning at four o'clock
+with Duroc Bonaparte read my letter.  "Ah!  ah!" said he, before opening
+it, "a letter from Bourrienne."  And he almost immediately added, for the
+note was speedily perused, "He is in the sulks.--Accepted."  I had left
+the Tuileries at the moment he returned, but Duroc sent to me where I was
+dining the following billet:
+
+The First Consul desires me, my dear Bourrienne, to inform you that he
+accepts your resignation, and to request that you will give me the
+necessary information respecting your papers.--Yours,
+                                                       DUROC.
+
+P.S.:--I will call on you presently.
+
+Duroc came to me at eight o'clock the same evening.  The First Consul was
+in his cabinet when we entered it.  I immediately commenced giving my
+intended successor the necessary explanations to enable him to enter upon
+his new duties.  Piqued at finding that I did not speak to him, and at
+the coolness with which I instructed Duroc, Bonaparte said to me in a
+harsh tone, "Come, I have had enough of this!  Leave me."  I stepped down
+from the ladder on which I had mounted for the purpose of pointing out to
+Duroc the places in which the various papers were deposited and hastily
+withdrew.  I too had quite enough of it!
+
+I remained two more days at the Tuileries until I had suited myself with
+lodgings.  On Monday I went down into the cabinet of the First Consul to
+take my leave of him.  We conversed together for a long time, and very
+amicably.  He told me he was very sorry I was going to leave him, and
+that he would do all he could for me.  I pointed out several places to
+him; at last I mentioned the Tribunate.  "That will not do for you," he
+said; "the members are a set of babblers and phrasemongers, whom I mean to
+get rid of.  All the troubles of States proceed from such debatings.  I
+am tired of them."  He continued to talk in a strain which left me in no
+doubt as to his uneasiness about the Tribunate, which, in fact, reckoned
+among its members many men of great talent and excellent character.
+
+     --[In 1802 the First Consul made a reduction of fifty members of the
+     Tribunate, and subsequently the whole body was suppressed.
+     --Bourrienne.]--
+
+The following day, Tuesday, the First Consul asked me to breakfast with
+him.  After breakfast, while he was conversing with some other person,
+Madame Bonaparte and Hortense pressed me to make advances towards
+obtaining a re-instalment in my office, appealing to me on the score of
+the friendship and kindness they had always shown me.  They told me that
+I had been in the wrong, and that I had forgotten myself.  I answered
+that I considered the evil beyond remedy; and that, besides, I had really
+need of repose.  The First Consul then called me to him, and conversed a
+considerable time with me, renewing his protestations of goodwill towards
+me.
+
+At five o'clock I was going downstairs to quit the Tuileries for good
+when I was met by the office messenger, who told me that the First Consul
+wished to see me.  Duroc; who was in the room leading to the cabinet,
+stopped me as I passed, and said, "He wishes you to remain.  I beg of you
+not to refuse; do me this favour.  I have assured him that I am incapable
+of filling your office.  It does not suit my habits; and besides, to tell
+you the truth, the business is too irksome for me."  I proceeded to the
+cabinet without replying to Duroc.  The First Consul came up to me
+smiling, and pulling me by the ear, as he did when he was in the best of
+humours, said to me, "Are you still in the sulks?" and leading me to my
+usual seat he added, "Come, sit down."
+
+Only those who knew Bonaparte can judge of my situation at that moment.
+He had at times, and when he chose, a charm in his manners which it was
+quite impossible to resist.  I could offer no opposition, and I resumed
+my usual office and my accustomed labours.  Five minutes afterwards it
+was announced that dinner was on table.  "You will dine with me?" he
+said.  "I cannot; I am expected at the place where I was going when Duroc
+called me back.  It is an engagement that I cannot break."--"Well, I have
+nothing to say, then.  But give me your word that you will be here at
+eight o'clock."--"I promise you."  Thus I became again the private
+secretary of the First Consul, and I believed in the sincerity of our
+reconciliation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+1802-1803.
+
+     The Concordat and the Legion of Honour--The Council of State and the
+     Tribunate--Discussion on the word 'subjects'--Chenier--Chabot de
+     l'Allier's proposition to the Tribunate--The marked proof of
+     national gratitude--Bonaparte's duplicity and self-command--Reply to
+     the 'Senatus-consulte'--The people consulted--Consular decree--
+     The most, or the least--M. de Vanblanc's speech--Bonaparte's reply--
+     The address of the Tribunate--Hopes and predictions thwarted.
+
+It may truly be said that history affords no example of an empire founded
+like that of France, created in all its parts under the cloak of a
+republic.  Without any shock, and in the short space of four years, there
+arose above the ruins of the short-lived Republic a Government more
+absolute than ever was Louis XIV.'s.  This extraordinary change is to be
+assigned to many causes; and I had the opportunity of observing the
+influence which the determined will of one man exercised over his fellow-
+men.
+
+The great object which Bonaparte had at heart was to legitimate his
+usurpations by institutions.  The Concordat had reconciled him with the
+Court of Rome; the numerous erasures from the emigrant list gathered
+round him a large body of the old nobility; and the Legion of Honour,
+though at first but badly received, soon became a general object of
+ambition.  Peace, too, had lent her aid in consolidating the First
+Consul's power by affording him leisure to engage in measures of internal
+prosperity.
+
+The Council of State, of which Bonaparte had made me a member, but which
+my other occupations did not allow me to attend, was the soul of the
+Consular Government.  Bonaparte felt much interest in the discussions of
+that body, because it was composed of the most eminent men in the
+different branches of administration; and though the majority evinced a
+ready compliance with his wishes, yet that disposition was often far from
+being unanimous.  In the Council of State the projects of the Government
+were discussed from the first with freedom and sincerity, and when once
+adopted they were transmitted to the Tribunate, and to the Legislative
+Body.  This latter body might be considered as a supreme Legislative
+Tribunal, before which the Tribunes pleaded as the advocates of the
+people, and the Councillors of State, whose business it was to support
+the law projects, as the advocates of the Government.  This will at once
+explain the cause of the First Consul's animosity towards the Tribunate,
+and will show to what the Constitution was reduced when that body was
+dissolved by a sudden and arbitrary decision.
+
+During the Consulate the Council of State was not only a body politic
+collectively, but each individual member might be invested with special
+power; as, for example, when the First Consul sent Councillors of State
+on missions to each of the military divisions where there was a Court of
+Appeal, the instructions given them by the First Consul were extensive,
+and might be said to be unlimited.  They were directed to examine all the
+branches of the administration, so that their reports collected and
+compared together presented a perfect description of the state of France.
+But this measure, though excellent in itself, proved fatal to the State.
+The reports never conveyed the truth to the First Consul, or at least if
+they did, it was in such a disguised form as to be scarcely recognisable;
+for the Councillors well knew that the best way to pay their court to
+Bonaparte was not to describe public feeling as it really was, but as he
+wished it to be.  Thus the reports of the councillors of State only
+furnished fresh arguments in favour of his ambition.
+
+I must, however, observe that in the discussions of the Council of State
+Bonaparte was not at all averse to the free expression of opinion.  He,
+indeed, often encouraged it; for although fully resolved to do only what
+he pleased, he wished to gain information; indeed, it is scarcely
+conceivable how, in the short space of two years, Bonaparte adapted his
+mind so completely to civil and legislative affairs.  But he could not
+endure in the Tribunate the liberty of opinion which he tolerated in the
+Council; and for this reason--that the sittings of the Tribunate were
+public, while those of the Council of State were secret, and publicity
+was what he dreaded above all things.  He was very well pleased when he
+had to transmit to the Legislative Body or to the Tribunate any proposed
+law of trifling importance, and he used then to say that he had thrown
+them a bone to gnaw.
+
+Among the subjects submitted to the consideration of the Council and the
+Tribunate was one which gave rise to a singular discussion, the ground of
+which was a particular word, inserted in the third article of the treaty
+of Russia with France.  This word seemed to convey a prophetic allusion
+to the future condition of the French people, or rather an anticipated
+designation of what they afterwards became.  The treaty spoke of "the
+subjects of the two Governments."  This term applied to those who still
+considered themselves citizens, and was highly offensive to the
+Tribunate.  Chenier most loudly remonstrated against the introduction of
+this word into the dictionary of the new Government.  He said that the
+armies of France had shed their blood that the French people might be
+citizens and not subjects.  Chenier's arguments, however, had no effect
+on the decision of the Tribunate, and only served to irritate the First
+Consul.  The treaty was adopted almost unanimously, there being only
+fourteen dissentient voices, and the proportion of black balls in the
+Legislative Body was even less.
+
+Though this discussion passed off almost unnoticed, yet it greatly
+displeased the First Consul, who expressed his dissatisfaction in the
+evening.  "What is it," said he, "these babblers want?  They wish to be
+citizens--why did they not know how to continue so?  My government must
+treat on an equal footing with Russia.  I should appear a mere puppet in
+the eyes of foreign Courts were I to yield to the stupid demands of the
+Tribunate..  Those fellows tease me so that I have a great mind to end
+matters at once with them."  I endeavoured  to soothe his anger, and
+observed, that one precipitate act might injure him.  "You are right," he
+continued; "but stay a little, they shall lose nothing by waiting."
+
+The Tribunate pleased Bonaparte better in the great question of the
+Consulate for life, because he had taken the precaution of removing such
+members as were most opposed to the encroachments of his ambition.  The
+Tribunate resolved that a marked proof of the national gratitude should
+be offered to the First Consul, and the resolution was transmitted to the
+Senate.  Not a single voice was raised against this proposition, which
+emanated from Chabot de l'Allier, the President of the Tribunate.  When
+the First Consul came back to his cabinet after receiving the deputation
+of the Tribunate he was very cheerful, and said to me, "Bourrienne, it is
+a blank cheque that the Tribunate has just offered me; I shall know how
+to fill it up.  That is my business."
+
+The Tribunate having adopted the indefinite proposition of offering to
+the First Consul a marked proof of the national gratitude, it now only
+remained to determine what that proof should be.  Bonaparte knew well
+what he wanted, but he did not like to name it in any positive way.
+Though in his fits of impatience, caused by the lingering proceedings of
+the Legislative Body and the indecision of some of its members, he often
+talked of mounting on horseback and drawing his sword, yet he so far
+controlled himself as to confine violence to his conversations with his
+intimate friends.  He wished it to be thought that he himself was
+yielding to compulsion; that he was far from wishing to usurp permanent
+power contrary to the Constitution; and that if he deprived France of
+liberty it was all for her good, and out of mere love for her.  Such
+deep-laid duplicity could never have been conceived and maintained in any
+common mind; but Bonaparte's was not a mind of the ordinary cast.  It
+must have required extraordinary self-command to have restrained so long
+as he did that daring spirit which was so natural to him, and which was
+rather the result of his temperament than his character.  For my part, I
+confess that I always admired him more for what he had the fortitude not
+to do than for the boldest exploits he ever performed.
+
+In conformity with the usual form, the proposition of the Tribunate was
+transmitted to the Senate.  From that time the Senators on whom Bonaparte
+most relied were frequent in their visits to the Tuileries.  In the
+preparatory conferences which preceded the regular discussions in the
+Senate it has been ascertained that the majority was not willing that the
+marked proof of gratitude should be the Consulate for life; it was
+therefore agreed that the reporter should limit his demand to a temporary
+prolongation of the dignity of First Consul in favour of Bonaparte.  The
+reporter, M. de Lacepede, acted accordingly, and limited the prolongation
+to ten years, commencing from the expiration of the ten years granted by
+the Constitution.  I forget which of the Senators first proposed the
+Consulate for life; but I well recollect that Cambaceres used all his
+endeavours to induce those members of the Senate whom he thought he could
+influence to agree to that proposition.  Whether from flattery or
+conviction I know not, but the Second Consul held out to his colleague,
+or rather his master, the hope of complete success Bonaparte on hearing
+him shook his head with an air of doubt, but afterwards said to me, "They
+will perhaps make some wry faces, but they must come to it at last!"
+
+It was proposed in the Senate that the proposition of the Consulate for
+life should take the priority of that of the decennial prolongation; but
+this was not agreed to; and the latter proposition being adopted, the
+other, of course, could not be discussed.
+
+There was something very curious in the 'Senatus-consulte' published on
+the occasion.  It spoke in the name of the French people, and stated
+that, "in testimony of their gratitude to the Consuls of the Republic,"
+the Consular reign was prolonged for ten years; but that the prolongation
+was limited to the First Consul only.
+
+Bonaparte, though much dissatisfied with the decision of the Senate,
+disguised his displeasure in ambiguous language.  When Tronchet, then
+President of the Senate, read to him, in a solemn audience, at the head
+of the deputation, the 'Senatus-consulte' determining the prorogation,
+he said in reply that he could not be certain of the confidence of the
+people unless his continuance in the Consulship were sanctioned by their
+suffrages.  "The interests of my glory and happiness," added he, "would
+seem to have marked the close of my public life at the moment when the
+peace of the world is proclaimed.  But the glory and the happiness of the
+citizen must yield to the interests of the State and wishes of the
+public.  You, Senators, conceive that I owe to the people another
+sacrifice.  I will make it if the voice of the people commands what your
+suffrage authorises."
+
+The true meaning of these words was not understood by everybody, and was
+only manifest to those who were initiated in the secret of Bonaparte's
+designs.  He did not accept the offer of the Senate, because he wished
+for something more.  The question was to be renewed and to be decided by
+the people only; and since the people had the right to refuse what the
+Senate offered, they possessed, for the same reason, the right to give
+what the Senate did not offer.
+
+The moment now arrived for consulting the Council of State as to the mode
+to be adopted for invoking and collecting the suffrages of the people.
+For this purpose au extraordinary meeting of the Council of State was
+summoned on the 10th of May.  Bonaparte wished to keep himself aloof from
+all ostensible influence; but his two colleagues laboured for him more
+zealously than he could have worked for himself, and they were warmly
+supported by several members of the Council.  A strong majority were of
+opinion that Bonaparte should not only be invested with the Consulship
+for life, but that he should be empowered to nominate his successor.  But
+he, still faithful to his plan, affected to venerate the sovereignty of
+the people, which he held in horror, and he promulgated the following
+decree, which was the first explanation of his reply to the Senate
+
+     The Consuls of the Republic, considering that the resolution of the
+     First Consul is an homage rendered to the sovereignty of the People,
+     and that the People, when consulted on their dearest interests, will
+     not go beyond the limits of those interests, decree as follows:-
+     First, that the French people shall be consulted on the question
+     whether Napoleon Bonaparte is to be made Consul for life, etc.
+
+The other articles merely regulated the mode of collecting the votes.
+
+This decree shows the policy of the First Consul in a new point of view,
+and displays his art in its fullest extent.  He had just refused the less
+for the sake of getting the greater; and now he had contrived to get the
+offer of the greater to show off his moderation by accepting only the
+less.  The Council of State sanctioned the proposition for conferring on
+the First Consul the right of nominating his successor, and, of his own
+accord, the First Consul declined this.  Accordingly the Second Consul,
+when he, the next day, presented the decree to the Council of State, did
+not fail to eulogise this extreme moderation, which banished even the
+shadow of suspicion of any ambitious after-thought.  Thus the Senate
+found itself out-manoeuvred, and the decree of the Consuls was
+transmitted at once to the Legislative Body and to the Tribunate.
+
+In the Legislative Body, M. de Vaublanc was distinguished among all the
+deputies who applauded the conduct of the Government; and it was he who
+delivered the apologetic harangue of the deputation of the Legislative
+Body to the First Consul.  After having addressed the Government
+collectively he ended by addressing the First Consul individually--a sort
+of compliment which had not hitherto been put in practice, and which was
+far from displeasing him who was its object.  As M. de Vaublanc's speech
+had been communicated beforehand to the First Consul, the latter prepared
+a reply to it which sufficiently showed how much it had gratified him.
+Besides the flattering distinction which separated him from the
+Government, the plenitude of praise was not tempered by anything like
+advice or comment.  It was not so with the address of the Tribunate.
+After the compliments which the occasion demanded, a series of hopes were
+expressed for the future, which formed a curious contrast with the events
+which actually ensued.  The Tribunate, said the address, required no
+guarantee, because Bonaparte's elevated and generous sentiments would
+never permit him to depart from those principles which brought about the
+Revolution and founded the Republic;--he loved real glory too well ever
+to stain that which he had acquired by the abuse of power;--the nation
+which he was called to govern was free and generous he would respect and
+consolidate her liberty; he would distinguish his real friends, who spoke
+truth to him, from flatterers who might seek to deceive him.  In short,
+Bonaparte would surround himself with the men who, having made the
+Revolution, were interested in supporting it.
+
+To these and many other fine things the Consul replied, "This testimony
+of the affection of the Tribunate is gratifying to the Government.  The
+union of all bodies of the State is a guarantee of the stability and
+happiness of the nation.  The efforts of the Government will be
+constantly directed to the interests of the people, from whom all power
+is derived, and whose welfare all good men have at heart."
+
+So much for the artifice of governments and the credulity of subjects!
+It is certain that, from the moment Bonaparte gained his point in
+submitting the question of the Consulate for life to the decision of the
+people, there was no longer a doubt of the result being in his favour.
+This was evident, not only on account of the influential means which a
+government always has at its command, and of which its agents extend the
+ramifications from the centre to the extremities, but because the
+proposition was in accordance with the wishes of the majority.  The
+Republicans were rather shy in avowing principles with which people were
+now disenchanted;--the partisans of a monarchy without distinction of
+family saw their hopes almost realised in the Consulate for life; the
+recollection of the Bourbons still lived in some hearts faithful to
+misfortune but the great mass were for the First Consul, and his external
+acts in the new step he had taken towards the throne had been so
+cautiously disguised as to induce a belief in his sincerity.  If I and a
+few others were witness to his accomplished artifice and secret ambition,
+France beheld only his glory, and gratefully enjoyed the blessings of
+peace which he had obtained for her.  The suffrages of the people
+speedily realised the hopes of the First Consul, and thus was founded the
+CONSULATE FOR LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+1802-1803.
+
+     Departure for Malmaison--Unexpected question relative to the
+     Bourbons--Distinction between two opposition parties--New intrigues
+     of Lucien--Camille Jordan's pamphlet seized--Vituperation against
+     the liberty of the press--Revisal of the Constitution--New 'Senatus-
+     consulte--Deputation from the Senate--Audience of the Diplomatic
+     Body--Josephine's melancholy--The discontented--Secret meetings--
+     Fouche and the police agents--The Code Napoleon--Bonaparte's regular
+     attendance at the Council of State--His knowledge of mankind, and
+     the science of government--Napoleon's first sovereign act--His visit
+     to the Senate--The Consular procession--Polite etiquette--The Senate
+     and the Council of State--Complaints against Lucien--The deaf and
+     dumb assembly--Creation of senatorships.
+
+When nothing was wanting to secure the Consulate for life but the votes
+of the people, which there was no doubt of obtaining, the First Consul
+set off to spend a few days at Malmaison.
+
+On the day of our arrival, as soon as dinner was ended, Bonaparte said to
+me, "Bourrienne, let us go and take a walk."  It was the middle of May,
+so that the evenings were long.  We went into the park: he was very
+grave, and we walked for several minutes without his uttering a syllable.
+Wishing to break silence in a way that would be agreeable to him, I
+alluded to the facility with which he had nullified the last 'Senatus-
+consulte'.  He scarcely seemed to hear me, so completely was his mind
+absorbed in the subject on which he was meditating.  At length, suddenly
+recovering from his abstraction, he said, "Bourrienne, do you think that
+the pretender to the crown of France would renounce his claims if I were
+to offer him a good indemnity, or even a province in Italy?"  Surprised
+at this abrupt question on a subject which I was far from thinking of,
+I replied that I did not think the pretender would relinquish his claims;
+that it was very unlikely the Bourbons would return to France as long as
+he, Bonaparte, should continue at the head of the Government, though they
+would look forward to their ultimate return as probable.  "How so?"
+inquired he.  "For a very simple reason, General.  Do you not see every
+day that your agents conceal the truth from you, and flatter you in your
+wishes, for the purpose of ingratiating themselves in your favour?  are
+you not angry when at length the truth reaches your ear?"--"And what
+then?"--"why, General, it must be just the same with the agents of Louis
+XVIII. in France.  It is in the course of things, in the nature of man,
+that they should feed the Bourbons with hopes of a possible return, were
+it only to induce a belief in their own talent and utility."--"That is
+very true!  You are quite right; but I am not afraid.  However, something
+might perhaps be done--we shall see."  Here the subject dropped, and our
+conversation turned on the Consulate for life, and Bonaparte spoke in
+unusually mild terms of the persons who had opposed the proposition.
+I was a little surprised at this, and could not help reminding him of the
+different way in which he had spoken of those who opposed his accession
+to the Consulate.  "There is nothing extraordinary in that," said he.
+"Worthy men may be attached to the Republic as I have made it.  It is a
+mere question of form.  I have nothing to say against that; but at the
+time of my accession to the Consulate it was very different.  Then, none
+but Jacobins, terrorists, and rogues resisted my endeavours to rescue
+France from the infamy into which the Directory had plunged her.  But now
+I cherish no ill-will against those who have opposed me."
+
+During the intervals between the acts of the different bodies of the
+State, and the collection of the votes, Lucien renewed his intrigues, or
+rather prosecuted them with renewed activity, for the purpose of getting
+the question of hereditary succession included in the votes.  Many
+prefects transmitted to M. Chaptal anonymous circulars which had been
+sent to them: all stated the ill effect produced by these circulars,
+which had been addressed to the principal individuals of their
+departments.  Lucien was the originator of all this, though I cannot
+positively say whether his brother connived with him, as in the case of
+the pamphlet to which I have already alluded.  I believe, however, that
+Bonaparte was not entirely a stranger to the business; for the circulars
+were written by Raederer at the instigation of Lucien, and Raederer was
+at that time in favour at the Tuileries.  I recollect Bonaparte speaking
+to me one day very angrily about a pamphlet which had just, been
+published by Camille Jordan on the subject of the national vote on the
+Consulate for life.  Camille Jordan did not withhold his vote, but gave
+it in favour of the First Consul; and instead of requiring preliminary
+conditions, he contented himself, like the Tribunate, with enumerating
+all the guarantees which he expected the honour of the First Consul would
+grant.  Among these guarantees were the cessation of arbitrary
+imprisonments, the responsibility of the agents of Government, and the
+independence of the judges.  But all these demands were mere peccadilloes
+in comparison with Camille Jordan's great crime of demanding the liberty
+of the press.
+
+The First Consul had looked through the fatal pamphlet, and lavished
+invectives upon its author.  "How!" exclaimed he, "am I never to have
+done with these fire brands?--These babblers, who think that politics may
+be shown on a printed page like the world on a map?  Truly, I know not
+what things will come to if I let this go on. Camille Jordan, whom I
+received so well at Lyons, to think that he should--ask for the liberty
+of the press!
+
+Were I to accede to this I might as well pack up at once and go and live
+on a farm a hundred leagues from Paris."  Bonaparte's first act in favour
+of the liberty of the press was to order the seizure of the pamphlet in
+which Camille Jordan had extolled the advantages of that measure.
+Publicity, either by words or writing, was Bonaparte's horror.
+Hence his aversion to public speakers and writers.
+
+Camille Jordan was not the only person who made unavailing efforts to
+arrest Bonaparte in the first steps of his ambition.  There were yet in
+France many men who, though they had hailed with enthusiasm the dawn of
+the French Revolution, had subsequently been disgusted by its crimes, and
+who still dreamed of the possibility of founding a truly Constitutional
+Government in France.  Even in the Senate there were some men indignant
+at the usual compliance of that body, and who spoke of the necessity of
+subjecting the Constitution to a revisal, in order to render it
+conformable to the Consulate for life.
+
+The project of revising the Constitution was by no means unsatisfactory
+to Bonaparte.  It afforded him an opportunity of holding out fresh
+glimmerings of liberty to those who were too shortsighted to see into the
+future.  He was pretty certain that there could be no change but to his
+advantage.  Had any one talked to him of the wishes of the nation he
+would have replied, "3,577,259 citizens have voted.  Of these how many
+were for me?  3,368,185.  Compare the difference!  There is but one vote
+in forty-five against me.  I must obey the will of the people!"  To this
+he would not have failed to add, "Whose are the votes opposed to me?
+Those of ideologists, Jacobins, and peculators under the Directory."  To
+such arguments what could have been answered?  It must not be supposed
+that I am putting these words into Bonaparte's mouth.  They fell from him
+oftener than once.
+
+As soon as the state of the votes was ascertained the Senate conceived
+itself under the necessity of repairing the only fault it had committed
+in the eyes of the First Consul, and solemnly presented him with a new
+'Senatus-consulte', and a decree couched in the following terms:
+
+ARTICLE I.  The French people nominate and the Senate proclaim Napoleon
+Bonaparte Consul for life.
+
+ARTICLE II.  A statue representing Peace, holding in one hand the laurel
+of victory, and in the other the decree of the senate, shall commemorate
+to posterity the gratitude of the Nation.
+
+ARTICLE III.  The Senate will convey to the First Consul the expression
+of the confidence, the love, and the admiration of the French people.
+
+Bonaparte replied to the deputation from the Senate, in the presence of
+the Diplomatic Body, whose audience had been appointed for that day in
+order that the ambassadors might be enabled to make known to their
+respective Courts that Europe reckoned one King more.  In his reply he
+did not fail to introduce the high-sounding words "liberty and equality."
+He commenced thus: "A citizen's life belongs to his country.  The French
+people wish that mine should be entirely devoted to their service.  I
+obey."
+
+On the day this ceremony took place, besides the audience of the
+Diplomatic Body there was an extraordinary assemblage of general officers
+and public functionaries.  The principal apartments of the Tuileries's
+presented the appearance of a fete.  This gaiety formed a striking
+contrast with the melancholy of Josephine, who felt that every step of
+the First Consul towards the throne removed him farther from her.
+
+She had to receive a party that evening, and though greatly depressed in
+spirits she did the honours with her usual grace.
+
+Let a Government be what it may, it can never satisfy everyone.  At the
+establishment of the Consulate for life, those who were averse to that
+change formed but a feeble minority.  But still they met, debated,
+corresponded, and dreamed of the possibility of overthrowing the Consular
+Government.
+
+During the first six months of the year 1802 there were meetings of the
+discontented, which Fouche, who was then Minister of the Police, knew and
+would not condescend to notice; but, on the contrary, all the inferior
+agents of the police contended for a prey which was easily seized, and,
+with the view of magnifying their services, represented these secret
+meetings as the effect of a vast plot against the Government.  Bonaparte,
+whenever he spoke to me on the subject, expressed himself weary of the
+efforts which were made to give importance to trifles; and yet he
+received the reports of the police agents as if he thought them of
+consequence.  This was because he thought Fouche badly informed, and he
+was glad to find him at fault; but when he sent for the Minister of
+Police the latter told him that all the reports he had received were not
+worth a moment's attention.  He told the First Consul all, and even a
+great deal more than had been revealed to him, mentioning at the same
+time how and from whom Bonaparte had received his information.
+
+But these petty police details did not divert the First Consul's
+attention from the great object he had in view.  Since March 1802 he had
+attended the sittings of the Council of State with remarkable regularity.
+Even while we were at the Luxembourg he busied himself in drawing up a
+new code of laws to supersede the incomplete collection of revolutionary
+laws, and to substitute order for the sort of anarchy which prevailed in
+the legislation.  The man who were most distinguished for legal knowledge
+had cooperated in this laborious task, the result of which was the code
+first distinguished by the name of the Civil Code, and afterwards called
+the Code Napoleon.  The labours of this important undertaking being
+completed, a committee was appointed for the presentation of the code.
+This committee, of which Cambaceres was the president, was composed of
+MM. Portalis, Merlin de Douai, and Tronchet.  During all the time the
+discussions were pending, instead of assembling as usual three times a
+week, the Council of State assembled every day, and the sittings, which
+on ordinary occasions only lasted two or three hours, were often
+prolonged to five or six.  The First Consul took such interest in these
+discussions that, to have an opportunity of conversing upon them in the
+evening, he frequently invited several members of the Council to dine
+with him.  It was during these conversations that I most admired the
+inconceivable versatility of Bonaparte's genius, or rather, that superior
+instinct which enabled him to comprehend at a glance, and in their proper
+point of view, legislative questions to which he might have been supposed
+a stranger.  Possessing as he did, in a supreme degree, the knowledge of
+mankind, ideas important to the science of government flashed upon his
+mind like sudden inspirations.
+
+Some time after his nomination to the Consulate for life, anxious to
+perform a sovereign act, he went for the first time to preside at the
+Senate.  Availing myself that day of a few leisure moments I went out to
+see the Consular procession.  It was truly royal.  The First Consul had
+given orders that the military should-be ranged in the streets through
+which he had to pass.  On his first arrival at the Tuileries, Napoleon
+had the soldiers of the Guard ranged in a single line in the interior of
+the court, but he now ordered that the line should be doubled, and should
+extend from the gate of the Tuileries to that of the Luxembourg.
+Assuming a privilege which old etiquette had confined exclusively to the
+Kings of France, Bonaparte now for the first time rode in a carriage
+drawn by eight horses.  A considerable number of carriages followed that
+of the First Consul, which was surrounded by generals and aides de camp
+on horseback.  Louis XIV.  going to hold a bed of justice at the
+Parliament of Paris never displayed greater pomp than did Bonaparte in
+this visit to the Senate.  He appeared in all the parade of royalty; and
+ten Senators came to meet him at the foot of the staircase of the
+Luxembourg.
+
+The object of the First Consul's visit to the Senate was the presentation
+of five plans of 'Senatus-consultes'.  The other two Consuls were present
+at the ceremony, which took place about the middle of August.
+
+Bonaparte returned in the same style in which he went, accompanied by M.
+Lebrun, Cambaceres remaining at the Senate, of which he was President.
+The five 'Senatus-consultes' were adopted, but a restriction was made in
+that which concerned the forms of the Senate.  It was proposed that when
+the Consuls visited the Senate they should be received by a deputation of
+ten members at the foot of the staircase, as the First Consul had that
+day been received; but Bonaparte's brothers Joseph and Lucien opposed
+this, and prevented the proposition from being adopted, observing that
+the Second and Third Consuls being members of the Senate could not be
+received with such honours by their colleagues.  This little scene of
+political courtesy, which was got up beforehand, was very well acted.
+
+Bonaparte's visit to the Senate gave rise to a change of rank in the
+hierarchy of the different authorities composing the Government.
+Hitherto the Council of State had ranked higher in public opinion; but
+the Senate, on the occasion of its late deputation to the Tuileries, had
+for the first time, received the honour of precedency.  This had greatly
+displeased some of the Councillors of State, but Bonaparte did not care
+for that.  He instinctively saw that the Senate would do what he wished
+more readily than the other constituted bodies, and he determined to
+augment its rights and prerogatives even at the expense of the rights of
+the Legislative Body.  These encroachments of one power upon another,
+authorised by the First Consul, gave rise to reports of changes in
+ministerial arrangements.  It was rumoured in Paris that the number of
+the ministers was to be reduced to three, and that Lucien, Joseph, and M.
+de Talleyrand were to divide among them the different portfolios.  Lucien
+helped to circulate these reports, and this increased the First Consul's
+dissatisfaction at his conduct.  The letters from Madrid, which were
+filled with complaints against him, together with some scandalous
+adventures, known in Paris, such as his running away with the wife of a
+'limonadier', exceedingly annoyed Bonaparte, who found his own family
+more difficult to govern than France.
+
+France, indeed, yielded with admirable facility to the yoke which, the
+First Consul wished to impose on her.  How artfully did he undo all that
+the Revolution had done, never neglecting any means of attaining his
+object!  He loved to compare the opinions of those whom he called the
+Jacobins with the opinions of the men of 1789; and even them he found too
+liberal.  He felt the ridicule which was attached to the mute character
+of the Legislative Body, which he called his deaf and dumb assembly.  But
+as that ridicule was favourable to him he took care to preserve the
+assembly as it was, and to turn it into ridicule whenever he spoke of it.
+In general, Bonaparte's judgment must not be confounded with his actions.
+His accurate mind enabled him to appreciate all that was good; but the
+necessity of his situation enabled him to judge with equal shrewdness
+what was useful to himself.
+
+What I have just said of the Senate affords me an opportunity of
+correcting an error which has frequently been circulated in the chit-chat
+of Paris.  It has erroneously been said of some persons that they refused
+to become members of the Senate, and among the number have been mentioned
+M. Ducis, M. de La Fayette, and the Marechal de Rochambeau.  The truth
+is, that no such refusals were ever made.  The following fact, however,
+may have contributed to raise these reports and give them credibility.
+Bonaparte used frequently to say to persons in his salon and in his
+cabinet; "You should be a Senator--a man like you should be a Senator."
+But these complimentary words did not amount to a nomination.  To enter
+the Senate certain legal forms were to be observed.  It was necessary to
+be presented by the Senate, and after that presentation no one ever
+refused to become a member of the body, to which Bonaparte gave
+additional importance by the creation of "Senatoreries."--[Districts
+presided over by a Senator.]--This creation took place in the beginning
+of 1803.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+1802.
+
+     The intoxication of great men--Unlucky zeal--MM. Maret, Champagny,
+     and Savary--M. de Talleyrand's real services--Postponement of the
+     execution of orders--Fouche and the Revolution--The Royalist
+     committee--The charter first planned during the Consulate--Mission
+     to Coblentz--Influence of the Royalists upon Josephine--The statue
+     and the pedestal--Madame de Genlis' romance of Madame de la
+     Valliere--The Legion of Honour and the carnations--Influence of the
+     Faubourg St. Germain--Inconsiderate step taken by Bonaparte--Louis
+     XVIII's indignation--Prudent advice of the Abbe Andre--Letter from
+     Louis XVIII. to Bonaparte--Council held at Neuilly--The letter
+     delivered--Indifference of Bonaparte, and satisfaction of the
+     Royalists.
+
+Perhaps one of the happiest ideas that ever were expressed was that of
+the Athenian who said, "I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober."
+The drunkenness here alluded to is not of that kind which degrades a man
+to the level of a brute, but that intoxication which is occasioned by
+success, and which produces in the heads of the ambitious a sort of
+cerebral congestion.  Ordinary men are not subject to this excitement,
+and can scarcely form an idea of it.  But it is nevertheless true that
+the fumes of glory and ambition occasionally derange the strongest heads;
+and Bonaparte, in all the vigour of his genius, was often subject to
+aberrations of judgment; for though his imagination never failed him, his
+judgment was frequently at fault.
+
+This fact may serve to explain, and perhaps even to excuse the faults
+with which the First Consul has been most seriously reproached.  The
+activity of his mind seldom admitted of an interval between the
+conception and the execution of a design; but when he reflected coolly on
+the first impulses of his imperious will, his judgment discarded what was
+erroneous.  Thus the blind obedience, which, like an epidemic disease,
+infected almost all who surrounded Bonaparte, was productive of the most
+fatal effects.  The best way to serve the First Consul was never to
+listen to the suggestions of his first ideas, except on the field of
+battle, where his conceptions were as happy as they were rapid.  Thus,
+for example, MM. Maret, de Champagny, and Savary evinced a ready
+obedience to Bonaparte's wishes, which often proved very unfortunate,
+though doubtless dictated by the best intentions on their part.  To this
+fatal zeal may be attributed a great portion of the mischief which
+Bonaparte committed.  When the mischief was done, and past remedy,
+Bonaparte deeply regretted it.  How often have I heard him say that Maret
+was animated by an unlucky zeal!  This was the expression he made use of.
+
+M. de Talleyrand was almost the only one among the ministers who did not
+flatter Bonaparte, and who really served both the First Consul and the
+Emperor.  When Bonaparte said to M. de Talleyrand, "Write so and so, and
+send it off by a special courier," that minister was never in a hurry to
+obey the order, because he knew the character of the First Consul well
+enough to distinguish between what his passion dictated and what his
+reason would approve: in short, he appealed from Philip drunk to Philip
+sober.  When it happened that M. de Talleyrand suspended the execution of
+an order, Bonaparte never evinced the least displeasure.  When, the day
+after he had received any hasty and angry order, M. de Talleyrand
+presented himself to the First Consul, the latter would say, "Well, did
+you send off the courier?"--"No," the minister would reply, "I took care
+not to do so before I showed you my letter."  Then the First Consul would
+usually add, "Upon second thoughts I think it would be best not to send
+it."  This was the way to deal with Bonaparte.  When M. de Talleyrand
+postponed sending off despatches, or when I myself have delayed the
+execution of an order which I knew had been dictated by anger, and had
+emanated neither from his heart nor his understanding, I have heard him
+say a hundred times, "It was right, quite right.  You understand me:
+Talleyrand understands me also.  This is the way to serve me: the others
+do not leave me time for reflection: they are too precipitate."  Fouche
+also was one of those who did not on all occasions blindly obey
+Bonaparte's commands.  His other ministers, on the other hand, when told
+to send off a courier the next morning, would have more probably sent him
+off the same evening.  This was from zeal, but was not the First Consul
+right in saying that such zeal was unfortunate?
+
+Of Talleyrand and Fouche, in their connections with the First Consul, it
+might be said that the one represented the Constituent Assembly, with a
+slight perfume of the old regime, and the other the Convention in all its
+brutality.  Bonaparte regarded Fouche as a complete personification of
+the Revolution.  With him, therefore, Fouche's influence was merely the
+influence of the Revolution.  That great event was one of those which had
+made the most forcible impression on Bonaparte's ardent mind, and he
+imagined he still beheld it in a visible form as long as Fouche continued
+at the head of his police.  I am now of opinion that Bonaparte was in
+some degree misled as to the value of Fouche's services as a minister.
+No doubt the circumstance of Fouche being in office conciliated those of
+the Revolutionary party who were his friends.  But Fouche cherished an
+undue partiality for them, because he knew that it was through them he
+held his place.  He was like one of the old Condottieri, who were made
+friends of lest they should become enemies, and who owed all their power
+to the soldiers enrolled under their banners.
+
+Such was Fouche, and Bonaparte perfectly understood his situation.  He
+kept the chief in his service until he could find an opportunity of
+disbanding his undisciplined followers.  But there was one circumstance
+which confirmed his reliance on Fouche.  He who had voted the death of
+the King of France, and had influenced the minds of those who had voted
+with him, offered Bonaparte the best guarantee against the attempts of
+the Royalists for raising up in favour of the Bourbons the throne which
+the First Consul himself had determined to ascend.  Thus, for different
+reasons, Bonaparte and Fouche had common interests against the House of
+Bourbon, and the master's ambition derived encouragement from the
+supposed terror of the servant.
+
+The First Consul was aware of the existence in Paris of a Royalist
+committee, formed for the purpose of corresponding with Louis XVIII.
+This committee consisted of men who must not be confounded with those
+wretched intriguers who were of no service to their employers, and were
+not unfrequently in the pay of both Bonaparte and the Bourbons.
+The Royalist committee, properly so called, was a very different thing.
+It consisted of men professing rational principles of liberty, such as
+the Marquis de Clermont Gallerande, the Abbe de Montesqiou, M. Becquet,
+and M. Royer Collard.  This committee had been of long standing; the
+respectable individuals whose names I have just quoted acted upon a
+system hostile to the despotism of Bonaparte, and favourable to what they
+conceived to be the interests of France.  Knowing the superior wisdom of
+Louis XVIII., and the opinions which he had avowed and maintained in the
+Assembly of the Notables, they wished to separate that Prince from the
+emigrants, and to point him out to the nation as a suitable head of a
+reasonable Constitutional Government.  Bonaparte, whom I have often heard
+speak on the subject, dreaded nothing so much as these ideas of liberty,
+in conjunction with a monarchy.  He regarded them as reveries, called the
+members of the committee idle dreamers, but nevertheless feared the
+triumph of their ideas.  He confessed to me that it was to counteract the
+possible influence of the Royalist committee that he showed himself so
+indulgent to those of the emigrants whose monarchical prejudices he knew
+were incompatible with liberal opinions.  By the presence of emigrants
+who acknowledged nothing short of absolute power, he thought he might
+paralyse the influence of the Royalists of the interior; he therefore
+granted all such emigrants permission to return.
+
+About this time I recollect having read a document, which had been
+signed, purporting to be a declaration of the principles of Louis XVIII.
+It was signed by M. d'Andre, who bore evidence to its authenticity.
+The principles contained in the declaration were in almost all points
+conformable to the principles which formed the basis of the charter.
+Even so early as 1792, and consequently previous to the fatal 21st of
+January, Louis XVI., who knew the opinions of M. de Clermont Gallerande,
+sent him on a mission to Coblentz to inform the Princes from him, and the
+Queen, that they would be ruined by their emigration.  I am accurately
+informed, and I state this fact with the utmost confidence.  I can also
+add with equal certainty that the circumstance was mentioned by M. de
+Clermont Gallerande in his Memoirs, and that the passage relative to his
+mission to Coblentz was cancelled before the manuscript was sent to
+press.
+
+During the Consular Government the object of the Royalist committee was
+to seduce rather than to conspire.  It was round Madame Bonaparte in
+particular that their batteries were raised, and they did not prove
+ineffectual.  The female friends of Josephine filled her mind with ideas
+of the splendour and distinction she would enjoy if the powerful hand
+which had chained the Revolution should raise up the subverted throne.
+I must confess that I was myself, unconsciously, an accomplice of the
+friends of the throne; for what they wished for the interest of the
+Bourbons I then ardently wished for the interest of Bonaparte.
+
+While endeavours were thus made to gain over Madame Bonaparte to the
+interest of the royal family, brilliant offers were held out for the
+purpose of dazzling the First Consul.  It was wished to retemper for him
+the sword of the constable Duguesclin; and it was hoped that a statue
+erected to his honour would at once attest to posterity his spotless
+glory and the gratitude of the Bourbons.  But when these offers reached
+the ears of Bonaparte he treated them with indifference, and placed no
+faith in their sincerity.  Conversing on the subject one day with M. de
+La Fayette he said, "They offer me a statue, but I must look to the
+pedestal.  They may make it my prison."  I did not hear Bonaparte utter
+these words; but they were reported to me from a source, the authenticity
+of which may be relied on.
+
+About this time, when so much was said in the Royalist circles and in the
+Faubourg St. Germain, of which the Hotel de Luynes was the headquarters,
+about the possible return of the Bourbons, the publication of a popular
+book contributed not a little to direct the attention of the public to
+the most brilliant period of the reign of Louis XIV.  The book was the
+historical romance of Madame de la Valloire, by Madame de Genlis, who had
+recently returned to France.  Bonaparte read it, and I have since
+understood that he was very well pleased with it, but he said nothing to
+me about it.  It was not until some time after that he complained of the
+effect which was produced in Paris by this publication, and especially by
+engravings representing scenes in the life of Louis XIV., and which were
+exhibited in the shop-windows.  The police received orders to suppress
+these prints; and the order was implicitly obeyed; but it was not
+Fouche's police.  Fouche saw the absurdity of interfering with trifles.
+I recollect that immediately after the creation of the Legion of Honour,
+it being summer, the young men of Paris indulged in the whim of wearing a
+carnation in a button-hole, which at a distance had rather a deceptive
+effect.  Bonaparte took this very seriously.  He sent for Fouche, and
+desired him to arrest those who presumed thus to turn the new order into
+ridicule.  Fouche merely replied that he would wait till the autumn; and
+the First Consul understood that trifles were often rendered matters of
+importance by being honoured with too much attention.
+
+But though Bonaparte was piqued at the interest excited by the engravings
+of Madame de Genlis' romance he manifested no displeasure against that
+celebrated woman, who had been recommended to him by MM. de Fontanes and
+Fievee and who addressed several letters to him.  As this sort of
+correspondence did not come within the routine of my business I did not
+see the letters; but I heard from Madame Bonaparte that they contained a
+prodigious number of proper names, and I have reason to believe that they
+contributed not a little to magnify, in the eyes of the First Consul, the
+importance of the Faubourg St. Germain, which, in spite of all his
+courage, was a scarecrow to him.
+
+Bonaparte regarded the Faubourg St. Germain as representing the whole
+mass of Royalist opinion; and he saw clearly that the numerous erasures
+from the emigrant list had necessarily increased dissatisfaction among
+the Royalists, since the property of the emigrants had not been restored
+to its old possessors, even in those cases in which it had not been sold.
+It was the fashion in a certain class to ridicule the unpolished manners
+of the great men of the Republic compared with the manners of the
+nobility of the old Court.  The wives of certain generals had several
+times committed themselves by their awkwardness.  In many circles there
+was an affectation of treating with contempt what are called the
+parvenus; those people who, to use M. de Talleyrand's expression, do not
+know how to walk upon a carpet.  All this gave rise to complaints against
+the Faubourg St. Germain; while, on the other hand, Bonaparte's brothers
+spared no endeavours to irritate him against everything that was
+calculated to revive the recollection of the Bourbons.
+
+Such were Bonaparte's feelings, and such was the state of society during
+the year 1802.  The fear of the Bourbons must indeed have had a powerful
+influence on the First Consul before he could have been induced to take a
+step which may justly be regarded as the most inconsiderate of his whole
+life.  After suffering seven months to elapse without answering the first
+letter of Louis XVIII., after at length answering his second letter in
+the tone of a King addressing a subject, he went so far as to write to
+Louis, proposing that he should renounce the throne of his ancestors in
+his, Bonaparte's, favour, and offering him as a reward for this
+renunciation a principality in Italy, or a considerable revenue for
+himself and his family.
+
+     --[Napoleon seems to have always known, as with Cromwell and the
+     Stuarts, that if his dynasty failed the Bourbons must succeed him.
+     "I remember," says Metternich, "Napoleon said to me, 'Do you know
+     why Louis XVIII. is not now sitting opposite to you?  It is only
+     because it is I who am sitting here.  No other person could maintain
+     his position; and if ever I disappear in consequence of a
+     catastrophe no one but a Bourbon could sit here.'" (Metternich, tome
+     i.  p.  248).  Farther, he said to Metternich, "The King overthrown,
+     the Republic was master of the soil of France.  It is that which I
+     have replaced.  The old throne of France is buried under its
+     rubbish.  I had to found a new one.  The Bourbons could not reign
+     over this creation.  My strength lies in my fortune.  I am new, like
+     the Empire; there is, therefore, a perfect homogeneity between the
+     Empire and myself."--"However," says Metternich, "I have often
+     thought that Napoleon, by talking in this way, merely sought to
+     study the opinion of others, or to confuse it, and the direct
+     advance which he made to Louis XVIII., in 1804 seemed to confirm
+     this suspicion.  Speaking to me one day of this advance he said,
+     'Monsieur's reply was grand; it was full of fine traditions.  There
+     is something in legitimate rights which appeals to more than the
+     mere mind.  If Monsieur had consulted his mind only he would have
+     arranged with me, and I should have made for him a magnificent
+     future'" (Metternich, tome i, p.  276).  According to Iung's Lucien
+     (tome ii.  p.  421), the letter written and signed by Napoleon, but
+     never sent, another draft being substituted, is still in the French
+     archives.  Metternich speaks of Napoleon making a direct advance to
+     Louis XVIII. in 1804.  According to Colonel Iung (Lucien Bonaparte,
+     tome ii.  pp.  4211-426) the attempt was made through the King of
+     Prussia in 1802, the final answer of Louis being made on the 28th
+     February 1803, as given in the text, but with a postscript of his
+     nephew in addition, "With the permission of the King, my uncle, I
+     adhere with heart and soul to the contents of this note.
+                         "(signed) LOUIS ANTOINE, Due d'Angouleme."
+
+     The reader will remark that there is no great interval between this
+     letter and the final break with the Bourbons by the death of the Duc
+     d'Enghien.  At this time, according to Savory (tome iii. p. 241),
+     some of the Bourbons were receiving French pensions.  The Prince de
+     Conti, the Duchesse de Bourbon, and the Duchesse d'Orleans, when
+     sent out of France by the Directory, were given pensions of from
+     20,000 to 26,000 francs each.  They lived in Catalonia.  When the
+     French troops entered Spain in 1808 General Canclaux, a friend of
+     the Prince de Conti, brought to the notice of Napoleon that the
+     tiresome formalities insisted on by the pestilent clerks of all
+     nations were observed towards these regal personages.  Gaudin, the
+     Minister of Finance, apparently on his own initiative, drew up a
+     decree increasing the pensions to 80,000 francs, and doing away with
+     the formalities.  "The Emperor signed at once, thanking the Minister
+     of Finance."  The reader, remembering the position of the French
+     Princes then, should compare this action of Napoleon with the
+     failure of the Bourbons in 1814 to pay the sums promised to
+     Napoleon, notwithstanding the strong remonstrances made at Vienna to
+     Talleyrand by Alexander and Lord Castlereagh.  See Talleyrand's
+     Correspondence with Louis XVIII., tome ii.  pp.  27, 28; or French
+     edition, pp.  285, 288.]--
+
+The reader will recollect the curious question which the First Consul put
+to me on the subject of the Bourbons when we were walking in the park of
+Malmaison.  To the reply which I made to him on that occasion I attribute
+the secrecy he observed towards me respecting the letter just alluded to.
+I am indeed inclined to regard that letter as the result of one of his
+private conferences with Lucien; but I know nothing positive on the
+subject, and merely mention this as a conjecture.  However, I had an
+opportunity of ascertaining the curious circumstances which took place at
+Mittau, when Bonaparte's letter was delivered to Louis XVIII.
+
+That Prince was already much irritated against Bonaparte by his delay in
+answering his first letter, and also by the tenor of his tardy reply;
+but on reading the First Consul's second letter the dethroned King
+immediately sat down and traced a few lines forcibly expressing his
+indignation at such a proposition.  The note, hastily written by Louis
+XVIII. in the first impulse of irritation, bore little resemblance to the
+dignified and elegant letter which Bonaparte received, and which I shall
+presently lay before the reader.  This latter epistle closed very happily
+with the beautiful device of Francis I., "All is lost but honour."  But
+the first letter was stamped with a more chivalrous tone of indignation.
+The indignant sovereign wrote it with his hand supported on the hilt of
+his sword; but the Abbe Andre, in whom Louis XVIII. reposed great
+confidence, saw the note, and succeeded, not without some difficulty,
+in soothing the anger of the King, and prevailing on him to write the
+following letter:
+
+     I do not confound M. Bonaparte with those who have preceded him.
+     I esteem his courage and his military talents.  I am grateful for
+     some acts of his government; for the benefits which are conferred on
+     my people will always be prized by me.
+
+     But he errs in supposing that he can induce me to renounce my
+     rights; so far from that, he would confirm them, if they could
+     possibly be doubtful, by the step he has now taken.
+
+     I am ignorant of the designs of Heaven respecting me and my
+     subjects; but I know the obligations which God has imposed upon me.
+     As a Christian, I will fulfil my duties to my last breath--as the
+     son of St. Louis, I would, like him, respect myself even in chains--
+     as the successor of Francis I., I say with him--'Tout est perdu fors
+     l'honneur'.
+
+     MITTAU, 1802.                            LOUIS.
+
+
+Louis XVIII.'s letter having reached Paris, the Royalist committee
+assembled, and were not a little embarrassed as to what should be done.
+The meeting took place at Neuilly.  After a long deliberation it was
+suggested that the delivery of the letter should be entrusted to the
+Third Consul, with whom the Abby de Montesqiou had kept up acquaintance
+since the time of the Constituent Assembly.  This suggestion was adopted.
+The recollections of the commencement of his career, under Chancellor
+Maupeou, had always caused M. Lebrun to be ranked in a distinct class by
+the Royalists.  For my part, I always looked upon him as a very honest
+man, a warm advocate of equality, and anxious that it should be protected
+even by despotism, which suited the views of the First Consul very well.
+The Abbe de Montesquiou accordingly waited upon M. Lebrun, who undertook
+to deliver the letter.  Bonaparte received it with an air of
+indifference; but whether that indifference were real or affected, I am
+to this day unable to determine.  He said very little to me about the ill
+success of the negotiation with Louis XVIII.  On this subject he dreaded,
+above all, the interference of his brothers, who created around him a
+sort of commotion which he knew was not without its influence, and which
+on several occasions had excited his anger.
+
+The letter of Louis XVIII. is certainly conceived in a tone of dignity
+which cannot be too highly admired; and it may be said that Bonaparte on
+this occasion rendered a real service to Louis by affording him the
+opportunity of presenting to the world one of the finest pages in the
+history of a dethroned King.  This letter, the contents of which were
+known in some circles of Paris, was the object of general approbation to
+those who preserved the recollection of the Bourbons, and above all, to
+the Royalist committee.  The members of that committee, proud of the
+noble spirit evinced by the unfortunate monarch, whose return they were
+generously labouring to effect, replied to him by a sort of manifesto, to
+which time has imparted interest, since subsequent events have fulfilled
+the predictions it contained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+1802.
+
+     The day after my disgrace--Renewal of my duties--Bonaparte's
+     affected regard for me--Offer of an assistant--M. de Meneval--My
+     second rupture with Bonaparte--The Due de Rovigo's account of it--
+     Letter from M. de Barbe Marbois--Real causes of my separation from
+     the First Consul--Postscript to the letter of M. de Barbe Marbois--
+     The black cabinet--Inspection of letters dining the Consulate--
+     I retire to St. Cloud--Communications from M. de Meneval--A week's
+     conflict between friendship and pride--My formal dismissal--Petty
+     revenge--My request to visit England--Monosyllabic answer--Wrong
+     suspicion--Burial of my papers--Communication from Duroc--My letter
+     to the First Consul--The truth acknowledged.
+
+I shall now return to the circumstances which followed my first disgrace,
+of which I have already spoken.  The day after that on which I had
+resumed my functions I went as usual to awaken the First Consul at seven
+in the morning.  He treated me just the same as if nothing had happened
+between us; and on my part I behaved to him just as usual, though I
+really regretted being obliged to resume labours which I found too
+oppressive for me.  When Bonaparte came down into his cabinet he spoke to
+me of his plans with his usual confidence, and I saw, from the number of
+letters lying in the basket, that during the few days my functions had
+been suspended Bonaparte had not overcome his disinclination to peruse
+this kind of correspondence.  At the period of this first rupture and
+reconciliation the question of the Consulate for life was yet unsettled.
+It was not decided until the 2d of August, and the circumstances to which
+I am about to refer happened at the end of February.
+
+I was now restored to my former footing of intimacy with the First
+Consul, at least for a time; but I soon perceived that, after the scene
+which M. de Talleyrand had witnessed, my duties in the Tuileries were
+merely provisional, and might be shortened or prolonged according to
+circumstances.  I saw at the very first moment that Bonaparte had
+sacrificed his wounded pride to the necessity (for such I may, without
+any vanity, call it) of employing my services.  The forced preference he
+granted to me arose from the fact of his being unable to find any one
+able to supply my place; for Duroc, as I have already said, showed a
+disinclination to the business.  I did not remain long in the dark
+respecting the new situation in which I stood.  I was evidently still
+under quarantine; but the period of my quitting the port was
+undetermined.
+
+A short time after our reconciliation the First Consul said to me, in a
+cajoling tone of which I was not the dupe, "My dear Bourrienne, you
+cannot do everything.  Business increases, and will continue to increase.
+You know what Corvisart says.  You have a family; therefore it is right
+you should take care of your health.  You must not kill yourself with
+work; therefore some one must be got to assist you.  Joseph tells me that
+he can recommend a secretary, one of whom he speaks very highly.  He
+shall be under your direction; he can make out your copies, and do all
+that can consistently be required of him.  This, I think, will be a great
+relief to you."--"I ask for nothing better," replied I, "than to have the
+assistance of some one who, after becoming acquainted with the business,
+may, some time or other, succeed me."  Joseph sent M. de Meneval, a young
+man who, to a good education, added the recommendations of industry and
+prudence.  I had every reason to be satisfied with him.
+
+It was now that Napoleon employed all those devices and caresses which
+always succeeded so well with him, and which yet again gained the day, to
+put an end to the inconvenience caused to him by my retirement, and to
+retain me.  Here I call every one who knew me as witnesses that nothing
+could equal my grief and despair to find myself obliged to again begin my
+troublesome work.  My health had suffered much from it.  Corvisart was a
+clever counsellor, but it was only during the night that I could carry
+out his advice.  To resume my duties was to renounce all hope of rest,
+and even of health.
+
+     --[There is considerable truth in this statement about the effect on
+     his health.  His successor, Meneval, without the same amount of
+     work, broke down and had to receive assistance (Meneval, tome i. p.
+     149).]--
+
+I soon perceived the First Consul's anxiety to make M. de Meneval
+acquainted with the routine of business, and accustomed to his manner.
+Bonaparte had never pardoned me for having presumed to quit him after he
+had attained so high a degree of power; he was only waiting for an
+opportunity to punish me, and he seized upon an unfortunate circumstance
+as an excuse for that separation which I had previously wished to bring
+about.
+
+I will explain this circumstance, which ought to have obtained for me the
+consolation and assistance of the First Consul rather than the forfeiture
+of his favour.  My rupture with him has been the subject of various
+misstatements, all of which I shall not take the trouble to correct;
+I will merely notice what I have read in the Memoirs of the Duc de
+Rovigo, in which it is stated that I was accused of peculation.  M. de
+Rovigo thus expresses himself:
+
+     Ever since the First Consul was invested with the supreme power his
+     life had been a continued scene of personal exertion.  He had for
+     his private secretary M. de Bourrienne, a friend and companion of
+     his youth, whom he now made the sharer of all his labours.  He
+     frequently sent for him in the dead of the night, and particularly
+     insisted upon his attending him every morning at seven.  Bourrienne
+     was punctual in his attendance with the public papers, which he had
+     previously glanced over.  The First Consul almost invariably read
+     their contents himself; he then despatched some business, and sat
+     down to table just as the clock struck nine.  His breakfast, which
+     lasted six minutes, was no sooner over than he returned to his
+     cabinet, only left it for dinner, and resumed his close occupation
+     immediately after, until ten at night, which was his usual hour for
+     retiring to rest.
+
+     Bourrienne was gifted with a most wonderful memory; he could speak
+     and write many languages, and would make his pen follow as fast as
+     words were uttered.  He possessed many other advantages; he was well
+     acquainted with the administrative departments, was versed in the
+     law of nations, and possessed a zeal and activity which rendered his
+     services quite indispensable to the First Consul.  I have known the
+     several grounds upon which the unlimited confidence placed in him by
+     his chief rested, but am unable to speak with equal assurance of the
+     errors which occasioned his losing that confidence.
+
+     Bourrienne had many enemies; some were owing to his personal
+     character, a greater number to the situation which he held.
+     Others were jealous of the credit he enjoyed with the Head of the
+     Government; others, again, discontented at his not making that
+     credit subservient to their personal advantage.  Some even imputed
+     to him the want of success that had attended their claims.  It was
+     impossible to bring any charge against him on the score of
+     deficiency of talent or of indiscreet conduct; his personal habits
+     were watched--it was ascertained that he engaged in financial
+     speculations.  An imputation could easily be founded on this
+     circumstance.  Peculation was accordingly laid to his charge.
+
+     This was touching the most tender ground, for the First Consul held
+     nothing in greater abhorrence than unlawful gains.  A solitary
+     voice, however, would have failed in an attempt to defame the
+     character of a man for whom he had so long felt esteem and
+     affection; other voices, therefore, were brought to bear against
+     him.  Whether the accusations were well founded or otherwise, it is
+     beyond a doubt that all means were resorted to for bringing them to
+     the knowledge of the First Consul.
+
+     The most effectual course that suggested itself was the opening a
+     correspondence either with the accused party direct, or with those
+     with whom it was felt indispensable to bring him into contact; this
+     correspondence was carried on in a mysterious manner, and related to
+     the financial operations that had formed the grounds of a charge
+     against him.--Thus it is that, on more than one occasion, the very
+     channels intended for conveying truth to the knowledge of a
+     sovereign have been made available to the purpose of communicating
+     false intelligence to him.  To give an instance.
+
+     Under the reign of Louis XV., and even under the Regency, the Post
+     Office was organized into a system of minute inspection, which did
+     not indeed extend to every letter, but was exercised over all such
+     as afforded grounds for suspicion.  They were opened, and, when it
+     was not deemed safe to suppress them, copies were taken, and they
+     were returned to their proper channel without the least delay.  Any
+     individual denouncing another may, by the help of such an
+     establishment, give great weight to his denunciation.  It is
+     sufficient for his purpose that he should throw into the Post Office
+     any letter so worded as to confirm the impression which it is his
+     object to convey.  The worthiest man may thus be committed by a
+     letter which he has never read, or the purport of which is wholly
+     unintelligible to him.
+
+     I am speaking from personal experience.  It once happened that a
+     letter addressed to myself, relating to an alleged fact which had
+     never occurred, was opened.  A copy of the letter so opened was also
+     forwarded to me, as it concerned the duties which I had to perform
+     at that time; but I was already in possession of the original,
+     transmitted through the ordinary channel.  Summoned to reply to the
+     questions to which such productions had given rise, I took that
+     opportunity of pointing out the danger that would accrue from
+     placing a blind reliance upon intelligence derived from so hazardous
+     a source.  Accordingly, little importance was afterwards attached to
+     this means of information; but the system was in operation at the
+     period when M. de Bourrienne was disgraced; his enemies took care to
+     avail themselves of it; they blackened his character with M. de
+     Barbe Marbois, who added to their accusations all the weight of his
+     unblemished character.  The opinion entertained by this rigid public
+     functionary, and many other circumstances, induced the First Consul
+     to part with his secretary (tome i. p. 418).
+
+Peculation is the crime of those who make a fraudulent use of the public
+money.  But as it was not in my power to meddle with the public money, no
+part of which passed through my hands, I am at loss to conceive how I can
+be charged with peculation!  The Due de Rovigo is not the author, but
+merely the echo, of this calumny; but the accusation to which his Memoirs
+gave currency afforded M. de Barbe Marbois an opportunity of adding one
+more to the many proofs he has given of his love of justice.
+
+I had seen nothing of the Memoirs of the Due de Rovigo except their
+announcement in the journals, when a letter from M. de Barbe Marbois was
+transmitted to me from my family.  It was as follows:
+
+     SIR--My attention has been called to the enclosed article in a
+     recent publication.  The assertion it contains is not true, and I
+     conceive it to be a duty both to you and myself to declare that I
+     then was, and still am, ignorant of the causes of the separation in
+     question:--I am, etc.
+                                   (Signed) MARBOIS
+
+I need say no more in my justification.  This unsolicited testimony of M.
+de Marbois is a sufficient contradiction to the charge of peculation
+which has been raised against me in the absence of correct information
+respecting the real causes of my rupture with the First Consul.
+
+M. le Due de Rovigo also observes that my enemies were numerous.  My
+concealed adversaries were indeed all those who were interested that the
+sovereign should not have about him, as his confidential companion, a man
+devoted to his glory and not to his vanity.  In expressing his
+dissatisfaction with one of his ministers Bonaparte had said, in the
+presence of several individuals, among whom was M. Maret, "If I could
+find a second Bourrienne I would get rid of you all."  This was
+sufficient to raise against me the hatred of all who envied the
+confidence of which I was in possession.
+
+The failure of a firm in Paris in which I had invested a considerable sum
+of money afforded an opportunity for envy and malignity to irritate the
+First Consul against me.  Bonaparte, who had not yet forgiven me for
+wishing to leave him, at length determined to sacrifice my services to a
+new fit of ill-humour.
+
+A mercantile house, then one of the most respectable in Patna, had among
+its speculations undertaken some army contracts.  With the knowledge of
+Berthier, with whom, indeed, the house had treated, I had invested some
+money in this business.  Unfortunately the principals were, unknown to
+me, engaged in dangerous speculations in the Funds, which in a short time
+so involved them as to occasion their failure for a heavy amount.  This
+caused a rumour that a slight fall of the Funds, which took place at that
+period, was occasioned by the bankruptcy; and the First Consul, who never
+could understand the nature of the Funds, gave credit to the report.  He
+was made to believe that the business of the Stock Exchange was ruined.
+It was insinuated that I was accused of taking advantage of my situation
+to produce variations in the Funds, though I was so unfortunate as to
+lose not only my investment in the bankrupt house, but also a sum of
+money for which I had become bound, by way of surety, to assist the house
+in increasing its business.  I incurred the violent displeasure of the
+First Consul, who declared to me that he no longer required my services.
+I might, perhaps have cooled his irritation by reminding him that he
+could not blame me for purchasing an interest in a contract, since he
+himself had stipulated for a gratuity of 1,500,000 francs for his brother
+Joseph out of the contract for victualling the navy.  But I saw that for
+some time past M. de Meneval had begun to supersede me, and the First
+Consul only wanted such an opportunity as this for coming to a rupture
+with me.
+
+Such is a true statement of the circumstances which led to my separation
+from Bonaparte.  I defy any one to adduce a single fact in support of the
+charge of peculation, or any transaction of the kind; I fear no
+investigation of my conduct.  When in the service of Bonaparte I caused
+many appointments to be made, and many names to be erased from the
+emigrant list before the 'Senatus-consulte' of the 6th Floreal, year X.;
+but I never counted upon gratitude, experience having taught me that it
+was an empty word.
+
+The Duc de Rovigo attributed my disgrace to certain intercepted letters
+which injured me in the eyes of the First Consul.  I did not know this at
+the time, and though I was pretty well aware of the machinations of
+Bonaparte's adulators, almost all of whom were my enemies, yet I did not
+contemplate such an act of baseness.  But a spontaneous letter from M. de
+Barbe Marbois at length opened my eyes, and left little doubt on the
+subject.  The following is the postscript to that noble peer's letter:
+
+     I recollect that one Wednesday the First Consul, while presiding at
+     a Council of Ministers at St. Cloud, opened a note, and, without
+     informing us what it contained, hastily left the Board, apparently
+     much agitated.  In a few minutes he returned and told us that your
+     functions had ceased.
+
+Whether the sudden displeasure of the First Consul was excited by a false
+representation of my concern in the transaction which proved so
+unfortunate to me, or whether Bonaparte merely made that a pretence for
+carrying into execution a resolution which I am convinced had been
+previously adopted, I shall not stop to determine; but the Due de Rovigo
+having mentioned the violation of the secrecy of letters in my case, I
+shall take the opportunity of stating some particulars on that subject.
+
+Before I wrote these Memoirs the existence in the Post Office of the
+cabinet, which had obtained the epithet of black, had been denounced in
+the chamber of deputies, and the answer was, that it no longer existed,
+which of course amounted to an admission that it had existed.  I may
+therefore, without indiscretion, state what I know respecting it.
+
+The "black cabinet" was established in the reign of Louis XV., merely for
+the purpose of prying into the scandalous gossip of the Court and the
+capital.  The existence of this cabinet soon became generally known to
+every one.  The numerous postmasters who succeeded each other, especially
+in latter times, the still more numerous Post Office clerks, and that
+portion of the public who are ever on the watch for what is held up as
+scandalous, soon banished all the secrecy of the affair, and none but
+fools were taken in by it.  All who did not wish to be committed by their
+correspondence chose better channels of communication than the Post; but
+those who wanted to ruin an enemy or benefit a friend long continued to
+avail themselves of the black cabinet, which, at first intended merely to
+amuse a monarch's idle hours, soon became a medium of intrigue, dangerous
+from the abuse that might be made of it.
+
+Every morning, for three years, I used to peruse the portfolio containing
+the bulletins of the black cabinet, and I frankly confess that I never
+could discover any real cause for the public indignation against it,
+except inasmuch as it proved the channel of vile intrigue.  Out of 30,000
+letters, which daily left Paris to be distributed through France and all
+parts of the world, ten or twelve, at most, were copied, and often only a
+few lines of them.
+
+Bonaparte at first proposed to send complete copies of intercepted
+letters to the ministers whom their contents might concern; but a few
+observations from me induced him to direct that only the important
+passages should be extracted and sent.  I made these extracts, and
+transmitted them to their destinations, accompanied by the following
+words: "The First Consul directs me to inform you that he has just
+received the following information," etc.  Whence the information came
+was left to be guessed at.
+
+The First Consul daily received through this channel about a dozen
+pretended letters, the writers of which described their enemies as
+opponents of the Government, or their friends as models of obedience and
+fidelity to the constituted authorities.  But the secret purpose of this
+vile correspondence was soon discovered, and Bonaparte gave orders that
+no more of it should be copied.  I, however, suffered from it at the time
+of my disgrace, and was well-nigh falling a victim to it at a subsequent
+period.
+
+The letter mentioned by M. de Marbois, and which was the occasion of this
+digression on the violation of private correspondence, derived importance
+from the circumstance that Wednesday, the 20th of October, when Bonaparte
+received it, was the day on which I left the Consular palace.
+
+I retired to a house which Bonaparte had advised me to purchase at St.
+Cloud, and for the fitting up and furnishing of which he had promised to
+pay.  We shall see how he kept this promise!  I immediately sent to
+direct Landoire, the messenger of Bonaparte's cabinet, to place all
+letters sent to me in the First Consul's portfolio, because many intended
+for him came under cover for me.  In consequence of this message I
+received the following letter from M. de Meneval:
+
+     MY DEAR BOURRIENNE--I cannot believe that the First Consul would
+     wish that your letters should be presented to him.  I presume you
+     allude only to those which may concern him, and which come addressed
+     under cover to you.  The First Consul has written to citizens
+     Lavallette and Mollien directing them to address their packets to
+     him.  I cannot allow Landoire to obey the order you sent.
+
+     The First Consul yesterday evening evinced great regret.  He
+     repeatedly said, "How miserable I am!  I have known that man since
+     he was seven years old."  I cannot but believe that he will
+     reconsider his unfortunate decision.  I have intimated to him that
+     the burden of the business is too much for me, and that he must be
+     extremely at a loss for the services of one to whom he was so much
+     accustomed, and whose situation, I am confident, nobody else can
+     satisfactorily fill.  He went to bed very low-spirited.  I am, etc.
+                                        (Signed) MENEVAL.
+
+     19 Vendemiaire, an X.
+     (21st October 1802.)
+
+Next day I received another letter from M. Meneval as follows:--
+
+     I send you your letters.  The First Consul prefers that you should
+     break them open, and send here those which are intended for him.  I
+     enclose some German papers, which he begs you to translate.
+
+     Madame Bonaparte is much interested in your behalf; and I can assure
+     you that no one more heartily desires than the First Consul himself
+     to see you again at your old post, for which it would be difficult
+     to find a successor equal to you, either as regards fidelity or
+     fitness.  I do not relinquish the hope of seeing you here again.
+
+A whole week passed away in conflicts between the First Consul's
+friendship and pride.  The least desire he manifested to recall me was
+opposed by his flatterers.  On the fifth day of our separation he
+directed me to come to him.  He received me with the greatest kindness,
+and after having good-humouredly told me that I often expressed myself
+with too much freedom--a fault I was never solicitous to correct--he
+added: "I regret your absence much.  You were very useful to me.  You are
+neither too noble nor too plebeian, neither too aristocratic nor too
+Jacobinical.  You are discreet and laborious.  You understand me better
+than any one else; and, between ourselves be it said, we ought to
+consider this a sort of Court.  Look at Duroc, Bessieres, Maret.
+However, I am very much inclined to take you back; but by so doing I
+should confirm the report that I cannot do without you."
+
+Madame Bonaparte informed me that she had heard persons to whom Bonaparte
+expressed a desire to recall me observe, "What would you do?  People will
+say you cannot do without him.  You have got rid of him now; therefore
+think no more about him: and as for the English newspapers, he gave them
+more importance than they really deserved: you will no longer be troubled
+with them."  This will bring to mind a scene--which occurred at Malmaison
+on the receipt of some intelligence in the 'London Gazette'.
+
+I am convinced that if Bonaparte had been left to himself he would have
+recalled me, and this conviction is warranted by the interval which
+elapsed between his determination to part with me and the formal
+announcement of my dismissal.  Our rupture took place on the 20th of
+October, and on the 8th of November following the First Consul sent me
+the following letter:
+
+     CITIZEN BOURRIENNE, MINISTER OF STATE--I am satisfied with the
+     services which you have rendered me during the time yon have been
+     with me; but henceforth they are no longer necessary.  I wish you to
+     relinquish, from this time, the functions and title of my private
+     secretary.  I shall seize an early opportunity of providing for you
+     in a way suited to your activity and talents, and conducive to the
+     public service.
+                              (Signed)BONAPARTE.
+
+If any proof of the First Consul's malignity were wanting it would be
+furnished by the following fact:--A few days after the receipt of the
+letter which announced my dismissal I received a note from Duroc; but,
+to afford an idea of the petty revenge of him who caused it to be
+written, it will be necessary first to relate a few preceding
+circumstances.
+
+When, with the view of preserving a little freedom, I declined the offer
+of apartments which Madame Bonaparte had prepared at Malmaison for myself
+and my family, I purchased a small house at Ruel: the First Consul had
+given orders for the furnishing of this house, as well as one which I
+possessed in Paris.  From the manner in which the orders were given I had
+not the slightest doubt but that Bonaparte intended to make me a present
+of the furniture.  However, when I left his service he applied to have it
+returned.  As at first I paid no attention to his demand, as far as it
+concerned the furniture at Ruel, he directed Duroc to write the following
+letter to me:
+
+     The First Consul, my dear Bourrienne, has just ordered me to send
+     him this evening the keys of your residence in Paris, from which the
+     furniture is not to be removed.
+
+     He also directs me to put into a warehouse whatever furniture you
+     may have at Ruel or elsewhere which you have obtained from
+     Government.
+
+     I beg of you to send me an answer, so as to assist me in the
+     execution of these orders.  You promised me to have everything
+     settled before the First Consul's return.  I must excuse myself in
+     the best way I can.
+                                   (Signed) DUROC.
+
+     24 Brumaire, an X.
+     (15th November 1802.)
+
+Believing myself to be master of my own actions, I had formed the design
+of visiting England, whither I was called by some private business.
+However, I was fully aware of the peculiarity of my situation, and I was
+resolved to take no step that should in any way justify a reproach.
+
+On the 11th of January I therefore wrote to Duroc:
+
+     My affairs require my presence in England for some time.  I beg of
+     you, my dear Duroc, to mention my intended journey to the First
+     Consul, as I do not wish to do anything inconsistent with his views.
+     I would rather sacrifice my own interest than displease him.  I rely
+     on your friendship for an early answer to this, for uncertainty
+     would be fatal to me in many respects.
+
+The answer, which speedily arrived, was as follows:--
+
+     MY DEAR BOURRIENNE--I have presented to the First Consul the letter
+     I just received from you.  He read it, and said, "No!"
+
+     That is the only answer I can give you.  (Signed) DUROC.
+
+This monosyllable was expressive.  It proved to me that Bonaparte was
+conscious how ill he had treated me; and, suspecting that I was actuated
+by the desire of vengeance, he was afraid of my going to England, lest I
+should there take advantage of that liberty of the press which he had so
+effectually put down in France.  He probably imagined that my object was
+to publish statements which would more effectually have enlightened the
+public respecting his government and designs than all the scandalous
+anecdotes, atrocious calumnies, and ridiculous fabrications of Pelletier,
+the editor of the 'Ambigu'.  But Bonaparte was much deceived in this
+supposition; and if there can remain any doubt on that subject, it will
+be removed on referring to the date of these Memoirs, and observing the
+time at which I consented to publish them.
+
+I was not deceived as to the reasons of Bonaparte's unceremonious refusal
+of my application; and as I well knew his inquisitorial character,
+I thought it prudent to conceal my notes.  I acted differently from
+Camoens.  He contended with the sea to preserve his manuscripts; I made
+the earth the depository of mine.  I carefully enclosed my most valuable
+notes and papers in a tin box, which I buried under ground.  A yellow
+tinge, the commencement of decay, has in some places almost obliterated
+the writing.
+
+It will be seen in the sequel that my precaution was not useless, and
+that I was right in anticipating the persecution of Bonaparte, provoked
+by the malice of my enemies.  On the 20th of April Duroc sent me the
+following note:
+
+     I beg, my dear Bourrienne, that you will come to St. Cloud this
+     morning.  I have something to tell you on the part of the First
+     Consul.
+                                   (Signed) DUROC.
+
+This note caused me much anxiety.  I could not doubt but that my enemies
+had invented some new calumny; but I must say that I did not expect such
+baseness as I experienced.
+
+As soon as Duroc had made me acquainted with the business which the First
+Consul had directed him to communicate, I wrote on the spot the subjoined
+letter to Bonaparte:
+
+     At General Duroc's desire I have this moment waited upon him, and he
+     informs me that you have received notice that a deficit of 100,000
+     francs has been discovered in the Treasury of the Navy, which you
+     require me to refund this day at noon.
+
+     Citizen First Consul, I know not what this means!  I am utterly
+     ignorant of the matter.  I solemnly declare to you that this charge
+     is a most infamous calumny.  It is one more to be added to the
+     number of those malicious charges which have been invented for the
+     purpose of destroying any influence I might possess with you.
+
+     I am in General Duroc's apartment, where I await your orders.
+
+Duroc carried my note to the First Consul as soon as it was written.  He
+speedily returned.  "All's right!"  said he.  "He has directed me to say
+it was entirely a mistake!--that he is now convinced he was deceived!
+that he is sorry for the business, and hopes no more will be said about
+it."
+
+The base flatterers who surrounded Bonaparte wished him to renew his
+Egyptian extortions upon me; but they should have recollected that the
+fusillade employed in Egypt for the purpose of raising money was no
+longer the fashion in France, and that the days were gone by when it was
+the custom to 'grease the wheels of the revolutionary car.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+1803.
+
+     The First Consul's presentiments respecting the duration of peace--
+     England's uneasiness at the prosperity of France--Bonaparte's real
+     wish for war--Concourse of foreigners in Paris--Bad faith of
+     England--Bonaparte and Lord Whitworth--Relative position of France
+     and England-Bonaparte's journey to the seaboard departments--
+     Breakfast at Compiegne--Father Berton--Irritation excited by the
+     presence of Bouquet--Father Berton's derangement and death--Rapp
+     ordered to send for me--Order countermanded.
+
+The First Consul never anticipated a long peace with England.  He wished
+for peace merely because, knowing it to be ardently desired by the
+people, after ten years of war he thought it would increase his
+popularity and afford him the opportunity of laying the foundation of his
+government.  Peace was as necessary to enable him to conquer the throne
+of France as war was essential to secure it, and to enlarge its base at
+the expense of the other thrones of Europe.  This was the secret of the
+peace of Amiens, and of the rupture which so suddenly followed, though
+that rupture certainly took place sooner than the First Consul wished.
+On the great questions of peace and war Bonaparte entertained elevated
+ideas; but in discussions on the subject he always declared himself in
+favour of war.  When told of the necessities of the people, of the
+advantages of peace, its influence on trade, the arts, national industry,
+and every branch of public prosperity, he did not attempt to deny the
+argument; indeed, he concurred in it; but he remarked, that all those
+advantages were only conditional, so long as England was able to throw
+the weight of her navy into the scale of the world, and to exercise the
+influence of her gold in all the Cabinets of Europe.  Peace must be
+broken; since it was evident that England was determined to break it.
+Why not anticipate her?  Why allow her to have all the advantages of the
+first step?  We must astonish Europe!  We must thwart the policy of the
+Continent!  We must strike a great and unexpected blow.  Thus reasoned
+the First Consul, and every one may judge whether his actions agreed with
+his sentiments.
+
+The conduct of England too well justified the foresight of Bonaparte's
+policy; or rather England, by neglecting to execute her treaties, played
+into Bonaparte's hand, favoured his love for war, and justified the
+prompt declaration of hostilities in the eyes of the French nation, whom
+he wished to persuade that if peace were broken it would be against his
+wishes.  England was already at work with the powerful machinery of her
+subsidies, and the veil beneath which she attempted to conceal her
+negotiations was still sufficiently transparent for the lynx eye of the
+First Consul.  It was in the midst of peace that all those plots were
+hatched, while millions who had no knowledge of their existence were
+securely looking forward to uninterrupted repose.
+
+Since the Revolution Paris had never presented such a spectacle as during
+the winter of 1802-3.  At that time the concourse of foreigners in the
+French capital was immense.  Everything wore the appearance of
+satisfaction, and the external signs of public prosperity.  The visible
+regeneration in French society exceedingly annoyed the British Ministry.
+The English who flocked to the Continent discovered France to be very
+different from what she was described to be by the English papers.  This
+caused serious alarm on the other side of the Channel, and the English
+Government endeavoured by unjust complaints to divert attention from just
+dissatisfaction, which its own secret intrigues excited.  The King of
+England sent a message to Parliament, in which he spoke of armaments
+preparing in the ports of France, and of the necessity of adopting
+precautions against meditated aggressions.  This instance of bad faith
+highly irritated the First Consul, who one day, in a fit of displeasure,
+thus addressed Lord Whitworth in the salon, where all the foreign
+Ambassadors were assembled:
+
+"What is the meaning of this?  Are you then tired of peace?  Must Europe
+again be deluged with blood?  Preparations for war indeed!  Do you think
+to overawe us by this?  You shall see that France may be conquered,
+perhaps destroyed, but never intimidated--never!"
+
+The English Ambassador was astounded at this unexpected sally, to which
+he made no reply.  He contented himself with writing to his Government an
+account of an interview in which the First Consul had so far forgotten
+himself,-whether purposely or not I do not pretend to say.
+
+That England wished for war there could be no doubt.  She occupied Malta,
+it is true, but she had promised to give it up, though she never had any
+intention of doing so.  She was to have evacuated Egypt, yet there she
+still remained; the Cape of Good Hope was to have been surrendered, but
+she still retained possession of it.  England had signed, at Amiens, a
+peace which she had no intention of maintaining.  She knew the hatred of
+the Cabinets of Europe towards France, and she was sure, by her intrigues
+and subsidies, of arming them on her side whenever her plans reached
+maturity.  She saw France powerful and influential in Europe, and she
+knew the ambitious views of the First Consul, who, indeed, had taken
+little pains to conceal them.
+
+The First Consul, who had reckoned on a longer duration of the peace of
+Amiens, found himself at the rupture of the treaty in an embarrassing
+situation.  The numerous grants of furloughs, the deplorable condition
+of the cavalry, and the temporary absence of artillery, in consequence of
+a project for refounding all the field-pieces, caused much anxiety to
+Bonaparte.  He had recourse to the conscription to fill up the
+deficiencies of the army; and the project of refounding the artillery was
+abandoned.  Supplies of money were obtained from the large towns, and
+Hanover, which was soon after occupied, furnished abundance of good
+horses for mounting the cavalry.
+
+War had now become inevitable; and as soon as it was declared the First
+Consul set out to visit Belgium and the seaboard departments to ascertain
+the best means of resisting the anticipated attacks of the English.  In
+passing through Compiegne he received a visit from Father Berton,
+formerly principal of the military school of Brienne.  He was then rector
+of the school of arts at Compiegne, a situation in which he had been
+placed by Bonaparte.  I learned the particulars of this visit through
+Josephine.  Father Berton, whose primitive simplicity of manner was
+unchanged since the time when he held us under the authority of his
+ferule, came to invite Bonaparte and Josephine to breakfast with him,
+which invitation was accepted.  Father Berton had at that time living
+with him one of our old comrades of Brienne, named Bouquet; but he
+expressly forbade him to show himself to Bonaparte or any one of his
+suite, because Bouquet, who had been a commissary at headquarters in
+Italy, was in disgrace with the First Consul.  Bouquet promised to
+observe Father Berton's injunctions, but was far from keeping his
+promise.  As soon as he saw Bonaparte's carriage drive up, he ran to the
+door and gallantly handed out Josephine.  Josephine, as she took his
+hand, said, "Bouquet,--you have ruined yourself!"  Bonaparte, indignant
+at what he considered an unwarrantable familiarity, gave way to one of
+his uncontrollable fits of passion, and as soon as he entered the room
+where the breakfast was laid, he seated himself, and then said to his
+wife in an imperious tone, "Josephine, sit there!" He then commenced
+breakfast, without telling Father Becton to sit down, although a third
+plate had been laid for him.  Father Becton stood behind his old pupil's
+chair apparently confounded at his violence.  The scene produced such an
+effect on the old man that he became incapable of discharging his duties
+at Compiegne.  He retired to Rheims, and his intellect soon after became
+deranged.  I do not pretend to say whether this alienation of mind was
+caused by the occurrence I have just related, and the account of which I
+received from Josephine.  She was deeply afflicted at what had passed.
+Father Berton died insane.  What I heard from Josephine was afterwards
+confirmed by the brother of Father Becton.  The fact is, that in
+proportion as Bonaparte acquired power he was the more annoyed at the
+familiarity of old companions; and, indeed, I must confess that their
+familiarity often appeared very ridiculous.
+
+The First Consul's visit to the northern coast took place towards the end
+of the year 1803, at which time the English attacked the Dutch
+settlements of Surinam, Demerara, and Essequibo, and a convention of
+neutrality was concluded between France, Spain, and Portugal.  Rapp
+accompanied the First Consul, who attentively inspected the preparations
+making for a descent on England, which it was never his intention to
+effect, as will be shortly shown.
+
+On the First Consul's return I learned from Rapp that I had been spoken
+of during the journey, and in the following way:--Bonaparte, being at
+Boulogne, wanted some information which no one there could give, him.
+Vexed at receiving no satisfactory answer to his inquiries he called
+Rapp, and said, "Do you know, Rapp, where Bourrienne is?"--"General, he
+is in Paris."--" Write to him to come here immediately, and send off one
+of my couriers with the letter."  The rumour of the First Consul's sudden
+recollection of me spread like lightning, and the time required to write
+the letter and despatch the courier was more than sufficient for the
+efforts of those whom my return was calculated to alarm.  Artful
+representations soon checked these spontaneous symptoms of a return to
+former feelings and habits.  When Rapp carried to the First Consul the
+letter he had been directed to write the order was countermanded.
+However, Rapp advised me not to leave Paris, or if I did, to mention the
+place where I might be found, so that Duroc might have it in his power to
+seize on any favourable circumstance without delay.  I was well aware of
+the friendship of both Rapp and Duroc, and they could as confidently rely
+on mine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+1803.
+
+     Vast works undertaken--The French and the Roman soldiers--Itinerary
+     of Bonaparte's journeys to the coast--Twelve hours on horseback--
+     Discussions in Council--Opposition of Truguet--Bonaparte'a opinion
+     on the point under discussion--Two divisions of the world--Europe a
+     province--Bonaparte's jealousy of the dignity of France--The
+     Englishman in the dockyard of Brest--Public audience at the
+     Tuilleries--The First Consul's remarks upon England--His wish to
+     enjoy the good opinion of the English people--Ball at Malmaison--
+     Lines on Hortense's dancing--Singular motive for giving the ball.
+
+At the time of the rupture with England Bonaparte was, as I have
+mentioned, quite unprepared in most branches of the service; yet
+everything was created as if by magic, and he seemed to impart to others
+a share of his own incredible activity.  It is inconceivable how many
+things had been undertaken and executed since the rupture of the peace.
+The north coast of France presented the appearance of one vast arsenal;
+for Bonaparte on this occasion employed his troops like Roman soldiers,
+and made the tools of the artisan succeed to the arms of the warrior.
+
+On his frequent journeys to the coast Bonaparte usually set off at night,
+and on the following morning arrived at the post office of Chantilly,
+where he breakfasted.  Rapp, whom I often saw when he was in Paris,
+talked incessantly of these journeys, for he almost always accompanied
+the First Consul, and it would have been well had he always been
+surrounded by such men.  In the evening the First Consul supped at
+Abbeville, and arrived early next day at the bridge of Brique.  "It would
+require constitutions of iron to go through what we do," said Rapp.
+"We no sooner alight from the carriage than we mount on horseback, and
+sometimes remain in our saddles for ten or twelve hours successively.
+The First Consul inspects and examines everything, often talks with the
+soldiers.  How he is beloved by them!  When shall we pay a visit to
+London with those brave fellows?"
+
+Notwithstanding these continual journeys the First Consul never neglected
+any of the business of government, and was frequently present at the
+deliberations of the Council.  I was still with him when the question as
+to the manner in which the treaties of peace should be concluded came
+under the consideration of the Council.  Some members, among whom Truguet
+was conspicuous, were of opinion that, conformably with an article of the
+Constitution, the treaties should be proposed by the Head of the
+Government, submitted to the Legislative Body, and after being agreed to
+promulgated as part of the laws.  Bonaparte thought differently.  I was
+entirely of his opinion, and he said to me, "It is for the mere pleasure
+of opposition that they appeal to the Constitution, for if the
+Constitution says so it is absurd.  There are some things which cannot
+become the subject of discussion in a public assembly; for instance, if I
+treat with Austria, and my Ambassador agrees to certain conditions, can
+those conditions be rejected by the Legislative Body?  It is a monstrous
+absurdity!  Things would be brought to a fine pass in this way!
+Lucchesini and Markow would give dinners every day like Cambaceres;
+scatter their money about, buy men who are to be sold, and thus cause our
+propositions to be rejected.  This would be a fine way to manage
+matters!"
+
+When Bonaparte, according to his custom, talked to me in the evening of
+what had passed in the Council, his language was always composed of a
+singular mixture of quotations from antiquity, historical references, and
+his own ideas.  He talked about the Romans, and I remember when Mr. Fox
+was at Paris that he tried to distinguish himself before that Foreign
+Minister, whom he greatly esteemed.  In his enlarged way of viewing the
+world Bonaparte divided it into two large states, the East and the West:
+"What matters," he would often say, "that two countries are separated by
+rivers or mountains, that they speak different languages?  With very
+slight shades of variety France, Spain, England, Italy, and Germany, have
+the same manners and customs, the same religion, and the same dress.  In
+them a man can only marry one wife; slavery is not allowed; and these are
+the great distinctions which divide the civilised inhabitants of the
+globe.  With the exception of Turkey, Europe is merely a province of the
+world, and our warfare is but civil strife.  There is also another way of
+dividing nations, namely, by land and water."  Then he would touch on all
+the European interests, speak of Russia, whose alliance he wished for,
+and of England, the mistress of the seas.  He usually ended by alluding
+to what was then his favourite scheme--an expedition to India.
+
+When from these general topics Bonaparte descended to the particular
+interests of France, he still spoke like a sovereign; and I may truly say
+that he showed himself more jealous than any sovereign ever was of the
+dignity of France, of which he already considered himself the sole
+representative.  Having learned that a captain of the English navy had
+visited the dockyard of Brest passing himself off as a merchant, whose
+passport he had borrowed, he flew into a rage because no one had ventured
+to arrest him.--[see James' Naval History for an account of Sir Sidney
+Smith's daring exploit.]--Nothing was lost on Bonaparte, and he made
+use of this fact to prove to the Council of State the necessity of
+increasing the number of commissary-generals of police.  At a meeting of
+the Council he said, "If there had been a commissary of police at Brest
+he would have arrested the English captain and sent him at once to Paris.
+As he was acting the part of a spy I would have had him shot as such.
+No Englishman, not even a nobleman, or the English Ambassador, should be
+admitted into our dockyards.  I will soon regulate all this."  He
+afterwards said to me, "There are plenty of wretches who are selling me
+every day to the English without my being subjected to English spying."
+
+     --[During the short and hollow peace of Amiens Bonaparte sent over
+     to England as consuls and vice-consuls, a number of engineers and
+     military men, who were instructed to make plans of all the harbours
+     and coasts of the United Kingdom.  They worked in secrecy, yet not
+     so secretly but that they were soon suspected: the facts were
+     proved, and they were sent out of the country without ceremony.--
+     Editor of 1836 edition.]--
+
+He had on one occasion said before an assemblage of generals, senators,
+and high officers of State, who were at an audience of the Diplomatic
+Body, "The English think that I am afraid of war, but I am not."  And
+here the truth escaped him, in spite of himself.  "My power will lose
+nothing by war.  In a very short time I can have 2,000,000 of men at my
+disposal.  What has been the result of the first war?  The union of
+Belgium and Piedmont to France.  This is greatly to our advantage; it
+will consolidate our system.  France shall not be restrained by foreign
+fetters.  England has manifestly violated the treaties!  It would be
+better to render homage to the King of England, and crown him King of
+France at Paris, than to submit to the insolent caprices of the English
+Government.  If, for the sake of preserving peace, at most for only two
+months longer, I should yield on a single point, the English would become
+the more treacherous and insolent, and would enact the more in proportion
+as we yield.  But they little know me!  Were we to yield to England now,
+she would next prohibit our navigation in certain parts of the world.
+She would insist on the surrender of par ships.  I know not what she
+would not demand; but I am not the man to brook such indignities.  Since
+England wishes for war she shall have it, and that speedily!"
+
+On the same day Bonaparte said a great deal more about the treachery of
+England.  The gross calumnies to which he was exposed in the London
+newspapers powerfully contributed to increase his natural hatred of the
+liberty of the press; and he was much astonished that such attacks could
+be made upon him by English subjects when he was at peace with the
+English Government.
+
+I had one day a singular proof of the importance which Bonaparte attached
+to the opinion of the English people respecting any misconduct that was
+attributed to him.  What I am about to state will afford another example
+of Bonaparte's disposition to employ petty and roundabout means to gain
+his ends.  He gave a ball at Malmaison when Hortense was in the seventh
+month of her pregnancy.
+
+     --[This refers to the first son of Louis and of Hortense, Napoleon
+     Charles, the intended successor of Napoleon, who was born 1802, died
+     1807, elder brother of Napoleon III.]--
+
+I have already mentioned that he disliked to see women in that situation,
+and above all could not endure to see them dance.  Yet, in spite of this
+antipathy, he himself asked Hortense to dance at the ball at Malmaison.
+She at first declined, but Bonaparte was exceedingly importunate, and
+said to her in a tone of good-humoured persuasion, "Do, I beg of you;
+I particularly wish to see you dance.  Come, stand up, to oblige me."
+Hortense at last consented.  The motive for this extraordinary request I
+will now explain.
+
+On the day after the ball one of the newspapers contained some verses on
+Hortense's dancing.  She was exceedingly annoyed at this, and when the
+paper arrived at Malmaison she expressed, displeasure at it.  Even
+allowing for all the facility of our newspaper wits, she was nevertheless
+at a loss to understand how the lines could have been written and printed
+respecting a circumstance which only occurred the night before.
+Bonaparte smiled, and gave her no distinct answer.  When Hortense knew
+that I was alone in the cabinet she came in and asked me to explain the
+matter; and seeing no reason to conceal the truth, I told her that the
+lines had been written by Bonaparte's direction before the ball took
+place.  I added, what indeed was the fact, that the ball had been
+prepared for the verses, and that it was only for the appropriateness of
+their application that the First Consul had pressed her to dance.  He
+adopted this strange contrivance for contradicting an article which
+appeared in an English journal announcing that Hortense was delivered.
+Bonaparte was highly indignant at that premature announcement, which he
+clearly saw was made for the sole purpose of giving credit to the
+scandalous rumours of his imputed connection with Hortense.  Such were
+the petty machinations which not unfrequently found their place in a mind
+in which the grandest schemes were revolving.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Ability in making it be supposed that he really possessed talent
+Absurdity of interfering with trifles
+Admired him more for what he had the fortitude not to do
+Animated by an unlucky zeal
+Ideologues
+Put some gold lace on the coats of my virtuous republicans
+Trifles honoured with too much attention
+Were made friends of lest they should become enemies
+Would enact the more in proportion as we yield
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoirs of Napoleon--1803, v6
+by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
+
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