■IIIIIIIIHIUUIIIMHIIUIIUMIHIIItUIIUUUIIUUIIIIIIIIIHIUIIUUIUIUIUUIinillHIIHIIIIIIIIIHIIUIIIIIllinUIUIIIWI IU M HUU M IWIMU lUIIUIlllUIIUUMMIlUIIll
 
 ' J'l?!: 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR.JOHNR. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTORI 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH 
 
 ■/;.■:
 
 This book is DUE on 
 
 the last date stamped below 
 
 msM^m^ 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 H. S. Nichols & Co. respectfully beg to call 
 the attention of purchasers to the fact that all Books 
 issued by them are intended to be sold at the net 
 ;idvertised prices without deduction, and that they 
 ;^.re supplied to Booksellers on terms which will not 
 allow of any discount being given by them to the 
 public. 

 
 VOL. I
 
 Uniform until the present volume : 
 
 " Memoirs of the Empress Josephine." 2 vols. 
 " Secret Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV." 
 
 1 vol. 
 
 " Secret Memoirs of the Royal Family of 
 
 France." 2 vols. 
 " The Private Memoirs of Louis XV." i vol. 
 " The Secret History of the Court of Berlin." 
 
 2 vols.
 
 THE 
 
 SECRET HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COURT AND CABINET OF ST. CLOUD 
 
 a — 2
 
 Edition strict!}' limited to 500 copies. 
 
 Five extra copies have been printed on Japanese vellum, hut 
 are not offered for sale.
 
 1^JA?C!)]L1E(Q)H B(n)MAPA\..
 
 THE 
 
 SECRET HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COURT AND CABINET 
 
 OF 
 
 ST. CLOUD 
 
 IN A 
 
 SERIES OF LETTERS FROM A GENTLEMAN AT 
 PARIS TO A NOBLEMAN IN LONDON 
 
 WRITTEN DURING THE MONTHS OF 
 
 AUGUST, SEPTEMBER and OCTOBER, 1805 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES— VOLUME I 
 LONDON 
 
 H. S. NICHOLS & CO. 
 
 3 SOHO SQUARE and 62A PICCADILLY W 
 
 MDCCCXCN' 
 
 9 3 b 6 fj
 
 Printed and Published by 
 
 H. S. NICHOLS AND CO., 
 AT 3, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
 
 3)CL 
 S ?6x5 
 
 PUBLISHERS' NOTE 
 
 The present work, which forms the sixth in 
 our Collection of Court Memoirs, will, in all 
 probability, be considered the most interesting yet 
 issued, for it contains particulars of the great 
 y Napoleon not to be found in any other publi- 
 cation, and forms an interesting addition to the 
 information generally known about him. 
 q;^ The writer of the Letters (whose name is said 
 
 ~* to have been Stewarton, and who had been a friend 
 ,. of the Empress Josephine in her happier, if less 
 ^ brilliant days) gives full accounts of the lives of 
 "' nearly all Napoleon's Ministers and Generals, in 
 addition to those of a great number of other 
 characters, and an insight into the inner life of 
 those who formed Napoleon's Court. 
 
 All sorts and conditions of men are dealt 
 with — adherents who have come over from the 
 Royalist camp, as well as those who have won
 
 Vlll PUBLISHERS NOTE 
 
 their way upwards as soldiers, as did Napoleon 
 himself. In fact, the work abounds with anecdotes 
 of Napoleon, Talleyrand, Fouche, and a host of 
 others, and astounding particulars are given of the 
 mysterious disappearance of those persoi»s who 
 were unfortunate enough to incur the displeasure 
 of Napoleon. 
 
 The next work in the series will be " The 
 Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan," 
 one of the famous mistresses of Louis XIV. 
 Translated into English for the first time. In 
 two volumes. 
 
 London, 3r^ May, 1895.
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER 
 
 Paris, November lofh, 1S05. 
 
 My Lord, — The Letters I have written to you were 
 intended for the private entertainment of a liberal friend, 
 and not for the general perusal of a severe public. Had 
 I imagined that their contents would have penetrated be- 
 yond your closet or the circle of your intimate acquaintance, 
 several of the narratives would have been extended, while 
 others would have been compressed ; the anecdotes would 
 have been more numerous, and my own remarks fewer ; 
 some portraits would have been left out, others drawn, and 
 all better finished. I should then have attempted more 
 frequently to expose meanness to contempt, and treachery 
 to abhorrence ; should have lashed more severely incor- 
 rigible vice, and oftener held out to ridicule puerile vanity 
 and outrageous ambition. Li short, I should then have
 
 X INTRODUCTORY LETTER 
 
 Studied more to please than to instruct, by addressing 
 myself seldomer to the reason than to the passions. 
 
 I subscribe, nevertheless, to your observation, " that 
 the late long war and short peace, with the enslaved state 
 of the Press on the Continent, would occasion a chasm 
 in the most interesting period of modern history, did 
 not independent and judicious travellers or visitors abroad 
 collect and forward to Great Britain (the last refuge of 
 freedom) some materials which, though scanty and insuf- 
 ficient upon the whole, may, in part, rend the veil of 
 destructive politics, and enable future ages to penetrate into 
 mysteries which crime in power has interest to render 
 impenetrable to the just reprobation of honour and of 
 virtue." — If, therefore, my humble labours can preserve 
 loyal subjects from the seduction of traitors, or warn 
 lawful sovereigns and civilized society of the alarming 
 conspiracy against them, I shall not think either my 
 time thrown away, or fear the dangers to which publicity 
 might expose me, were I only suspected here of being 
 an Anglican author. Before the Letters are sent to the 
 press I trust, however, to your discretion the removal of 
 everything that might produce a discovery, or indicate the 
 source from which vou have derived vour information.
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER XI 
 
 Although it is not usual in private correspondence to 
 quote authorities, I have sometimes done so ; but satisfied, 
 as I hope you are, with my veracity, I should have thought 
 the frequent productions of any better pledge than the word 
 of a man of honour an insult to your feelings. I have, 
 besides, not related a fact that is not recent and well- 
 known in our fashionable and political societies ; and of 
 ALL the portraits I have delineated, the originals not only 
 exist, but are yei occupied in the present busy scene of 
 the Continent, and figuring either at Courts, in camps, or 
 in Cabinets.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Introductory Letter 
 
 Letter I 
 
 Bonaparte's political character contrasted with his military education 
 and life — Governed by courtiers and favourites. General Duroc — 
 His character — The causes of his advancement — His military ex- 
 ploits in Italy and Egypt, and political missions to Berlin and 
 St. Petersburg — Visits Madame Bonoeil, a female intriguer — His 
 
 blunder in consequence. The Polish Count S tz — His character 
 
 — Dupes Duroc — Duroc's marriage ...... i 
 
 Letter II 
 
 Joseph Bonaparte — His character as a negotiator — The puppet of 
 Talleyrand. Talleyrand's intrigues, and motives for employing 
 the brothers of Bonaparte. Lucien's embassy to Spain. Joseph's 
 rapacity — Connection with an army contractor and stock-joljbing. 
 Secret articles of the Treaty of Luneville — Bonaparte's offence at 
 them — Reproaches Talleyrand. Departure of Lord Whitworth in 
 1803 — Bonaparte's rage and speech to Talleyrand on the occasion, 
 and violent conduct towards his mother, wife, &c. . . .10 
 
 Letter III 
 
 Debates on the religious concordat — Opposed by difierent factions — 
 Bonaparte's mother, how far instrumental in procuring the restora- 
 tion of religious worship. Cardinal Gonsalvi and Bishop Bernier — 
 Their intrigues and characters. Madame Bonaparte's astonishment 
 on being ordered to attend Mass, &c. — Her hypocrisy — Watched
 
 XIV CONTENTS 
 
 I'AGK 
 
 by spies — Her mode of passing her time at chapel discovered — 
 Regulations in consequence. Conversation at Viscount de Segur's 
 on the religious principles of the French — Imprudent remark of a 
 young officer the cause of his transportation to Cayenne . .16 
 
 Letter IV 
 
 The assumption of the imperial dignity, long determined on by 
 Bonaparte — Delayed by the rupture with England — His good 
 fortune mistaken for political foresight. The disgrace of Moreau, 
 the murder of the Duke of Enghien, Pichegru, and Georges, and 
 the treachery tovi^ards Mr. Drake not necessary steps to his ele- 
 vation. Moreau not dangerous as a rival to Bonaparte — Why 
 not assassinated. Honourable conduct of Pichegru the day before 
 his death. Murat the executioner of the Duke of Enghien . 24 
 
 Letter V 
 
 The characters of the principal emigrants well known to the French 
 government — Mehee de la Touche — His perfidy and ingratitude — 
 His mission and intrigues in England— Refused the wages of his 
 infamy by Talleyrand. Real — A forgery committed by him in 1788 
 — Strange mixture of society at his house. Madame de Soubray — 
 Her severe reproof of Mehee de la Touche . . . . -32 
 
 Letter VI 
 
 Unhappiness of Madame Napoleon on the day of her coronation — 
 Discipline of the Court of St. Cloud entirely military — Formation 
 of the household entrusted to Madame Napoleon — Consequent em- 
 barrassment — Extricated by an expedient proposed by De Segur. 
 Madame Napoleon confined — Released at the intercession of her 
 daughter 39 
 
 Letter VII 
 
 Religious discussion tolerated — Why — Remonstrance of Cardinal 
 Caprara on the subject. Two authors transported to Cayenne —
 
 CONTENTS . XV 
 
 PACK 
 
 Pigault Lc Brim owes his escape to Madame Murat — Cardinal 
 Caprara's influence over Bonaparte — Defeats a cabal formed against 
 him, and turns it to his advantage — Employed by the Pope in 
 his secret negotiations at Paris — Teases Bonaparte and is confined 
 by him, but obtains liis object — Trick attempted to be ]ilayed on 
 him ends unfort\matcly for the contrivers . . . . .46 
 
 Letter VIII 
 
 Grave dress and puritanical demeanour of the company at Madame 
 Napoleon's last levee previous to meeting the Pope — Bonaparte 
 surrounded by Cardinals and Priests — Remark of General Kellerman 
 —Occasions his disgrace — Conduct of the company on quitting the 
 levee — Princess Borghese's ideas respecting a parrot and an almoner, 
 monkeys and chaplains ......... 54 
 
 Letter IX 
 
 The reception of Bonaparte as Emperor by the army of England 
 not flattering — Ascribed by him to the adherents of Pichegru and 
 Moreau — His conduct in consequence — Orders a grenadier to be 
 shot, and disbands a regiment. Effect produced on the military 
 by the distribution of the ribands, &c. , of the Legion of lionour. 
 The French ports declared to be in a state of blockade by the 
 English — Bonaparte's rage and agitation — Fires at some British 
 cruisers — Breaks six officers of artillery and assaults another — 
 Quits the camp in disgust ........ 59 
 
 Letter X 
 
 Count Cobentzel advises his Sovereign to assume the title of Emperor 
 of Austria — His political employments and character — ^His passion 
 for women — Talleyrand's opinion of him — Livited by Bonaparte 
 to visit the camps of the army of England. Talleyrand's note 
 proscribing all British agents and ambassadors. Bonaparte's arrival 
 at Aix-la-Chapelle — Is met there by the foreign ambassadors — 
 Presented with relics of Charlemagne, and punishes a German 
 professor for proving them forgeries . . . . . .66
 
 XVI CONTENTS 
 
 Letter XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bonaparte finds his wife involved in gambling debts and surrounded 
 by Jews and other creditors — Talleyrand's mode of settling their 
 demands — Count de Segur completes Bonaparte's household estab- 
 lishment — His character and public employments — -His domestic 
 misfortunes. Character of the members of Bonaparte's civil list — 
 Methods adopted to augment it with Prussian and German Nobles . 72 
 
 Letter XII 
 
 Bonaparte's intention to seize on the Empire of Germany — His secret 
 treaties with the petty German princes at Mentz — The French 
 Revolution not looked on as dangerous in Germany — Why. The 
 Elector of Bavaria — His character and obligations to Louis XVI. 
 — Governed by Montgelas, the idol of Illuminati and patron of 
 Atheists — The jDrogress of illumination in Bavaria — Montgelas con- 
 cerned in the plot against Mr. Drake — His character . . -79 
 
 Letter XIII 
 
 Attendance of German Princes and Princesses on the Empress 
 Josephine at Mentz, and rich presents to her — Bribery and cor- 
 ruption openly practised there — Disappointment of the German 
 Princes — High price demanded by Talleyrand for indemnities — 
 
 His intrigue with the Countess de L ■ and the Baroness de 
 
 S z — Repulsed by the Princess of H — — . Bonaparte's jealousy 
 
 — Mistakes the object of Count de L ge's attention to the 
 
 Empress Josephine — His proceedings in consequence. The avarice 
 
 of the Empress .......... 86 
 
 Letter XIV 
 
 Former intimacy of the Writer with Madame Napoleon and her 
 daughter — Their friendly behaviour on his first introduction to 
 them since their elevation — Subsequent change— The Writer de- 
 clines the offer of a public situation— Arrested — Interview with 
 General Murat — Sentenced to be transported to Cayenne on the
 
 CONTKNTS XVll 
 
 PACK 
 
 report of Fouche, bul protected by Princess Louis — Cause of 
 Fouche's enmity — His infamous character and unliounded authority 
 — The oubliettes, his invention — His immense property — Bonaparte's 
 reasons for employing him . . . . . . . -91 
 
 Lettp;r XV 
 
 The poverty and dependent situation of the foreign ambassadors 
 at Paris — Invited by Talleyrand to a diplomatic dinner — -His 
 manoeuvre to obtain their declarations respecting the pretended 
 correspondence of Mr. Drake — Servility of the Danish and American 
 ambassadors — Their characters — Baron de Dreyer's reasons for 
 wishing to maintain his situation. Count de Haugwitz — His 
 l)irth, political life and character ....... loi 
 
 Letter XM 
 
 The Writer accepts an invitation from Princess Louis Bonaparte to 
 dinner — The conquest of Great Britain the subject of conversation 
 — Different opinions respecting the proper mode of treating the 
 inhabitants when vanquished. Imprudent observations of Marquis 
 
 de F Exiled to Blois in consequence, and saved from severer 
 
 punishment only by the interference of Princess Louis — Her good 
 nature — Character of Louis . . . . . . . . i lo 
 
 Letter XVII 
 
 Violent debates in the Sacred College on the journey of the Pope 
 to France — The members bribed by Cardinal Fesch. Birth of 
 Cardinal Fesch — His life and adventures — His marriage and de- 
 sertion of his wife — Her application to the Pope — His libertinism 
 and adventure at Lyons — His wealth, dignities and expectations . iiS 
 
 Letter XVIH 
 
 The Margrave of Baden made an Elector by the intrigues of 
 Talleyrand and Baron Edelsheim. Character and political life 
 of Edelsheim. Haughty and indecent conduct of Bonaparte to 
 VOL. I /;
 
 XVlll CONTENTS 
 
 TAGE 
 
 the Elector at Mentz — Secret treaty signed there. The vanity 
 and affected consequence of Edelsheim played on and exposed 
 by Talleyrand — His fondness for Orders of Knighthood — Fawns 
 on Bonaparte to obtain admission into the Legion of Honour . 125 
 
 Letter XLX 
 
 The journey of the Pope to France unfavourable to the cause of 
 religion — The restoration of Christianity the most popular act of 
 Bonaparte's Government — The opinion of the people respecting 
 the act of inauguration by the Pope — Their faith in his infallibility 
 shaken. Manners and character of the Pope — Promises made to 
 him by Bonaparte not performed — Refuses to admit De Lalandc 
 to see him — De Lalande's atheism — Enmity between him and 
 Talleyrand. The Pope's aversion to Fouche — Fouche's impious 
 conduct at Lyons . . . . . . . . . -133 
 
 Letter XX 
 
 Bonaparte's mother the favourite of the Pope — Family parties invited 
 to meet him — Ceremony observed on such occasions. Superstition 
 of Madame Letitia Bonaparte— Her fondness for relics — Buys the 
 shoulder-bone of St. John the Baptist — Robbed of her relics — Fouche 
 applied to — Who discovers pieces of them all in the possession of 
 a favourite servant — The rest found on Madame de Genlis, who had 
 bought them of a priest — The priest arrested — Claims the protection 
 of Madame Letitia — Threatened with the rack and confesses his 
 imposture ........... 141 
 
 Letter XXI 
 
 Decrease in the population of Paris not lu be lamented — The crimes 
 committed there not suffered to be published. The system of 
 espionage. Immense number of spies — How paid. Bonaparte's 
 private spies under the direction of Duroc. Dispute between Fouche 
 and Talleyrand. Ducroux employed as a spy by Bonajjarte and 
 Fouche on each other — His l:)lunder and execution . . -149
 
 CONTENTS XIX 
 
 Letter XX 1 1 
 
 r-Aiji. 
 The I'opc s manner of passing his time al Paris — (jreat stress laid 
 on his performing the ceremony of inauguration, and sacrifices 
 intended to have been made had he refused — All promises to him 
 disregarded — His hlfiid partiality for Bonaparte. Caprara dissuades 
 Bonaparte from being crowned by the Pope as King of Italy . 157 
 
 Letter XXIII 
 
 King and Queen of Naples — Their firm and dignified conduct. 
 Chevalier Acton — His birth — Political character — Enemy of the 
 French Revolution. Neutrality of Naples violated. The removal 
 of Acton insisted on I)y the French Government. Marquis de 
 Clallo — His public employments — .:\. favourite with Bonaparte — 
 Suspected of being tainted with modern philosophy. The Neapolitan 
 Revolution in 1799 favoured b)' the Nobles. Character of Manjuis 
 de Gallo . . . . . . . . . -163 
 
 Letter XXI\' 
 
 Bonaparte and all his family married by the Pope — His courtiers and 
 grand functionaries by the Cardinals — Their regular attendance at 
 Mass and \'espers — Trick of Salmatoris to expose their hypocrisy — 
 Is punished. Fouche's visit to the Imperial Chapel — His discovery 
 there. The indifierence of the conmion people to religious worship 
 — The military compelled to attend Mass — Singular occurrence in 
 consequence, and injustice of Bonaparte . . . . .169 
 
 Letter XXV 
 
 Seizure of Sir George Rumbold — Intended to have been tortured 
 and put to death — Why he was not — Rheinhard ofiicially disavows 
 the outrage — Is disgraced in consequence — His political life and 
 character. Bourrienne — His employment under Bonaparte — His 
 dispute with him and imprisonment — Released and pensioned — 
 His extortions and stock-jobbin — His character . . . ■ 1/5
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Letter X.W'I 
 
 Joseph Bonaparte's retired mode of life at Paris — His hospitality at 
 Morfontaine — Amusements there, and freedom allowed to the guests. 
 Montaigne, a young poet, a visitor there — His drunkenness — Writes 
 a poem against it. Madame Joseph's gallantries — Duel between 
 her gallants. Eugenius de Beauharnais forbidden the house of 
 Joseph. Madame Miot detected by her husband in an intrigue 
 with Captain d'Horteuil — The gallant beats Miot, who begs 
 pardon — Miot's infamous life and character . . . . . 1S4 
 
 Letter XXVH 
 
 Conduct of the King of Spain — His weak character. The present 
 the age of upstarts. The Prince of Peace — His former occupa- 
 tion — His want of talents — Cause of his advancement — His in- 
 trigue with the Queen and favour with the King — Weakness and 
 ignorance of his administration — Disgrace and misfortunes produced 
 by it. Gravina — His character and ambition — His military ex- 
 ploits — Intrigue with an opera girl — His marriage mania involves 
 him in a disagreeable scrape. . . . . . . .192 
 
 Letter XXVH I 
 
 Vicious morals, gross manners, and open corruption of the Court of 
 St. Cloud. Anecdotes. Merlin of Douai — His public employ- 
 ments — Infamous character and great wealth .... 204 
 
 Letter XXIX 
 
 Immense number of Bonajiarte's household troops — Regularly paid 
 and strictly disciplined — Their privileges, &c. Military reviews — 
 Their use — Less frequent since Bonaparte's coronation. Number 
 t)f military posted in and near Paris. Army of Invalids — Their 
 prejudices — How employed. Mode of enforcing jiayment of taxes 
 at Paris. Houses of the invalids — Their reading-rooms, libraries, 
 &c. — Their licentiousness and crimes — Screened from punishment
 
 CONTENTS XXI 
 
 I'AGt 
 
 by the orders of Bonaparte. Raljais, a horse grenadier — Mis 
 amours and debaucheries — Accused liefore Thuriol, and acquitted 
 — Mis intrigue with Madame Thuriot — Discovered by her jealousy — 
 Thuriot applies in vain for redress. Rabais' intrigue with Madame 
 Bacciochi — Denounced by Thuriot — Arrest and punishment of 
 Rabais — Curious effects discovered in his trunk ^Thuriot's rage 
 and violence in conseejuence — Mis employment and crimes . .211 
 
 Letter XXX 
 
 The Writer visits Lucien Bonaparte at his country seat — Lucien's 
 valuable collection of pictures — Mis hospitality and engaging 
 manners contrasted with those of Napoleon and Joseph — Mis 
 liberality — -Anecdotes — Mis republicanism — Mis vices compared 
 with those of Napoleon — Mis immense wealth, how accjuired — 
 Instance of his generosity and perversity ..... 222 
 
 Letter XXXI 
 
 Reasons for nut incorporating the Batavian Repuljlic with the French 
 Empire — Partition Treaty of Molland offered by France to Prussia 
 — Why declined. Bonaparte displeased with the Batavian Govern- 
 ment — Violates its neutrality — Remonstrance of Count Markoff, 
 how answered by Bonaparte — -Mis determination to change the form 
 of Government in Molland — Difficulty of finding fit magistrates — 
 Molland not lately productive of great men. Admiral de Winter 
 — Mis character — Political connections and employments. Generals 
 Daendels and Dumonceau — Their lives and characters . . . 232 
 
 Letter XXXM 
 
 Bonaparte advises Prussia of his intention to change the form of 
 Government in Molland — Chief Magistrates thought of — Young 
 Prince of Orange — Elector of Bavaria. Bonaparte's increasing 
 displeasure with the Batavian Directory — Intention to make his 
 brother Jerome Stadtholder. Schimmelpenninck — Mis education — 
 Want of talents — Political connections and opinions — Mis embassy 
 to France — -Bribes Talleyrand to procure him the appointment of
 
 XXU CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Grand Pensionary — His character. Madame Schinmielpenninck — 
 Her talents and amiable manners — Schimmelpenninck"s female 
 friends of the Palais Royal ........ 240 
 
 Letter XXXHI 
 
 Bonaparte's cool reception at Milan — Ascribed by him to the intrigues 
 of England and Russia — Measures of security adopted — Frequency 
 of conspiracies in France since the Revolution — Bonaparte's reasons 
 for concealing them. Plot of Charlotte Encore — Attempts to stab 
 Bonaparte, prevented by Duroc — Expires on the rack, refusing to 
 name her accomplices — Their plan and names — How discovered . 250 
 
 Leti'ER XXXI\' 
 
 All women forbidden to approach Bonaparte without permission — A 
 female servant of Cardinal Fesch, whom Bonaparte had seduced, 
 attempts to poison him — Discovered, and poisons herself — Plot to 
 assassinate him at Milan — His agitation on the discovery — Speech 
 of one of the conspirators, who stabs himself — The others torn to 
 pieces on the rack — Proceedings in consequence of this conspiracy. 
 Bonaparte an object of ridicule in Italy — League of generals against 
 him — Its object — The generals disgracetl ..... 257 
 
 Letter XXXV 
 
 Vanity and caprice of Bonaparte — His rage on the Emperor of 
 Germany refusing to become a member of the Legion of Honour 
 — His threat and violent conduct towards the Austrian ambassador 
 — Determines to incorporate the Ligurian Republic with France. 
 Salicetti, the French minister at Genoa — -His birth — Employments 
 — A terrorist — Recommends Bonaparte to Barras — Displeases him 
 by his familiarity. Lucien Bonaparte intended to have been made 
 .Sovereign of the Ligurian Republic — Why he was not — The change 
 of Government — How effected — The Doge and Ligurian Deputation 
 do homage to Bonaparte as Sovereign at Milan — Their grief anil 
 indignation. The Patriotic Robbers stop .Salicetti and seize 
 his papers — P.vtriotic Avengers 265
 
 CONTENTS XXlll 
 
 Lkitkk X'XXVI 
 
 FAOE 
 
 Exchange of Orders of Knighthood l)et\veen Bonaparte and Sovereign 
 Princes. Foreign ambassadors invited to his coronation at Milan 
 — Some decline to attend. Expenses of the journey to Milan and 
 coronation. General Jourdan — His marriage and military appoint- 
 ments — Cause of his enmity to I'ichegru — His military and political 
 exploits — His quarrel with Massena — His character . . . 273 
 
 Letter XXW'H 
 
 Conservative Senate, its heterogeneous composition — Character ol 
 its members. Senatorial Commission of Personal Liberty — Its 
 members. Lenoin Laroche, Boissy d'Anglas, Sers — Their lives 
 and characters. Senatorial Commission of the Liberty of the 
 Press — Carat and Roederer its principal members — Pedantry and 
 inhumanity of Carat — An enemy to the liberty of the Press — 
 Roederer unprincipled and profligate — Rejected by all factions 
 — Employed first by Bonaparte — His incest — His wealth, liber- 
 tinism and foppery ......... 283 
 
 Letter XXXXIII 
 
 Turkish Empire preserved by the mutual jealousies of Austria, France 
 and Russia — Its weakness and anarchy — Political intrigues at 
 Constantinople — The neutrality of the Porte more useful than 
 its alliance — Intrigue of the Brissot faction in 1792 to engage 
 it in a war with Austria — Counteracted by Count de Choiseul- 
 Gouffier, then French ambassador there — De Semonville sent on 
 an embassy thither in 1793 with rich presents — Made prisoner 
 by the Austrians — The Sultan declares war against France — Peace 
 concluded. Sebastiani's mission to Egypt and Syria. General 
 Brune appointed ambassador to the Porte — His character — His 
 vices — Political intrigues and military employments . . . 294 
 
 Letter XXXIX 
 
 Brune's numerous suite — Of what composed — Real object of his 
 mission avowed by Talleyrand — Markoft' remonstrates. Count
 
 XXIV CONTENTS 
 
 PACK 
 
 Italinski — His character — Warns the Divan against Brune — Libelled 
 by him in the Monitetn-. Brune's reception at Constantinople — 
 His chagrin — Demands his recall, upon the Porte's refusal to 
 acknowledge Bonaparte as Emperor. Joubert the bearer of a 
 letter from Bonaparte to the Grand Seignior — His education and 
 employments. Young men educated at the expense of the French 
 Government in foreign countries — For what purpose. Joubert's 
 interview with the Sultan — How obtained — Its result — His second 
 message, and failure. French emissaries in Austria, Hungary 
 and Servia — French officers in the service of Czerni George and 
 Paswan Oglou. Brune quits Constantinople — Appointed to the 
 command of the army of observation opposite the English coast 
 — His instructions — His wealth, ostentation and vanity . . 303 
 
 Letter XL 
 
 Madame de C n — Her fashionable parties — Her marriage with 
 
 Count de C n disputed — Character of Count de C n — His 
 
 physiognomical pursuits — Trick played on him — Purchases Madame 
 
 de C n from a Circassian merchant, and sends her to be 
 
 educated in France — His death — Madame de C n's numerous 
 
 suitors and gallants — Her pretended brother — Her own stor}' — 
 
 Birth and splendid christening of the son of Count de P 1. 
 
 Villetard — His crimes and violence — His sacrilege and infamous 
 conduct at Loretto — Treachery and hypocrisy. Cardinal de Bellois 
 — His birth — Governed by his grand vicaries. Treilhard steals 
 
 Madame de C n's gold plates — His political life. Madame 
 
 Fran9ois de Nantes — Her theft, gambling and prostitution . . 313
 
 SECRET HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COURT AND CABINET 
 
 OF 
 
 ST. CLOUD 
 
 LETTER I 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — I promised you not to pronounce in haste 
 on persons and events passing under my eyes : thirty-one 
 months have quickly passed away since I became an 
 attentive spectator of the extraordinary transactions, and of 
 the extraordinary characters of the extraordinary Court and 
 Cabinet of St. Cloud. If my talents to delineate equal my 
 zeal to enquire and my industry to examine ; if I am as 
 able a painter as I have been an indefatigable observer, 
 you will be satisfied, and with your approbation at once 
 sanction and reward my labours. 
 
 VOL. I I
 
 2 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 With most princes, the supple courtier and the fawning 
 favourite have greater influence than the profound statesman 
 and subtle minister ; and the determinations of Cabinets 
 are, therefore, frequently prepared in drawing-rooms, and 
 discussed in the closet. The politician and the counsellor 
 are frequently applauded or censured for transactions which 
 the intrigues of ante-chambers conceived, and which cupidity 
 and favour gave power to promulgate. 
 
 It is very generally imagined, but falsely, that Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte governs, or rather tyrannizes, by himself, 
 according to his own capacity, caprices or interest ; that all 
 his acts, all his changes, are the sole consequence of his 
 own exclusive, unprejudiced will, as well as unlimited 
 authority ; that both his greatness and his littleness, his 
 successes and his crimes, originate entirely with himself; 
 that the fortunate hero, who marched triumphant over the 
 Alps, and the dastardly murderer that disgraced human 
 nature at Jaffa, because the same person, owed victory to 
 himself alone, and by himself alone commanded massacre ; 
 that the same genius, unbiased and unsupported, crushed 
 factions, erected a throne, and reconstructed racks ; that the 
 same mind restored and protected Christianity, and proscribed 
 and assassinated a d'Enghien. 
 
 All these contradictions, all these virtues and vices, may 
 be found in the same person ; but Bonaparte, individually
 
 THE COURT OK ST. CLOUD 3 
 
 or isolated, has no claim to them. Except on some sudden 
 occasions that call for immediate decision, no sovereign rules 
 less by himself than Bonaparte ; because no sovereign is 
 more surrounded by favourites and counsellors, by needy 
 adventurers and crafty intriguers. 
 
 What sovereign has more relatives to enrich, or more 
 services to recompense ; more evils to repair, more jealousies 
 to dread, more dangers to fear, more clamours to silence ; 
 or stands more in need of information and advice ? Let it 
 be remembered that he, who now governs empires and 
 nations, ten years ago commanded only a battery ; and five 
 years ago was only a military chieftain. The difference is 
 as immense, indeed, between the sceptre of a monarch and 
 the sword of a general, as between the wise legislator who 
 protects the lives and property of his contemporaries, and 
 the hireling robber who wades through rivers of blood to 
 obtain plunder at the expense and misery of generations. 
 The lower classes of all countries have produced persons 
 who have distinguished themselves as warriors ; but what 
 subject has yet usurped a throne, and by his eminence and 
 achievements, without infringing on the laws and liberties 
 of his country, proved himself worthy to reign ? Besides, 
 the education which Bonaparte received was entirely mili- 
 tary ; and a man (let his innate abilities be ever so surprising 
 or excellent) who, during the first thirty years of his life,
 
 4 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 has made either military or poHtical tactics or exploits his 
 only study, certainly cannot excel equally in the Cabinet and 
 in the camp. It would be as foolish to believe, as absurd to 
 expect, a perfection almost beyond the reach of any man ; 
 and of Bonaparte more than of anyone else. A man who, 
 like him, is the continual slave of his own passions, can 
 neither be a good nor a just, an independent nor immacu- 
 late master. 
 
 Among the courtiers who, ever since Bonaparte was 
 made First Consul, have maintained a great ascendency over 
 him, is the present grand marshal of his Court, the general 
 of division, Duroc. With some parts, but greater presump- 
 tion, this young man is destined by his master to occupy 
 the most confidential places near his person ; and to his 
 care are entrusted the most difficult and secret missions at 
 foreign Courts. When he is absent from France, the liberty 
 of the Continent is in danger ; and when in the Tuileries, 
 or at St. Cloud, Bonaparte thinks himself always safe. 
 
 Gerard Christhophe Michel Duroc was born at Ponta- 
 JMousson, in the department of A'leurthe, on the 25 th of 
 October, 1772, of poor but honest parents. His father kept 
 a petty chandler's shop ; but by the interest and generosity 
 of Abbe Duroc, a distant relation, he was so well-educated 
 that, in March, 1792, he became a sub-lieutenant of the 
 artillery. In 1796 he served in Italy, as a captain, under
 
 THE COURT OV ST. CLOUD 5 
 
 General Andreossy, by whom he was recommended to 
 General I'Espinasse, then commander of the artillery of the 
 army of Italy, who made him an aide-de-camp. In that 
 situation Bonaparte remarked his activity, and was pleased 
 with his manners, and therefore attached him as an aide- 
 de-camp to himself. Duroc soon became a favourite with 
 his chief, and, notwithstanding the intrigues of his rivals, he 
 has continued to be so to this day. 
 
 It has been asserted, by his enemies no doubt, that by 
 implicit obedience to his general's orders, by an unresisting 
 complacency, and by executing, without hesitation, the most 
 cruel mandates of his superior, he has fixed himself so firmly 
 in his good opinion that he is irremovable. It has also 
 been stated that it was Duroc who commanded the drowning 
 and burying alive of the wounded French soldiers in Italy, 
 in 1797; and that it was he who inspected their poisoning 
 in Syria, in 1799, where he was wounded during the siege 
 of St. Jean d'Acre. He was among the few officers whom 
 Bonaparte selected for his companions when he quitted 
 the army of Egypt, and landed with him in France in 
 October, 1799. 
 
 Hitherto Duroc had only shown himself as a brave 
 soldier and obedient officer ; but after the revolution which 
 made Bonaparte a First Consul, he entered upon another 
 career. He was then, for the first time, employed in a
 
 6 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 diplomatic mission to Berlin, where he so far insinuated 
 himself into the good graces of their Prussian Majesties, 
 that the King admitted him to the royal table, and on the 
 parade at Potsdam presented him to his generals and officers 
 as an aide-de-camp du plus grand homme que je connais ; 
 whilst the Queen gave him a scarf knitted by her own 
 fair hands. 
 
 The fortunate result of Duroc's intrigues in Prussia, in 
 1799, encouraged Bonaparte to despatch him, in 1801, to 
 Russia ; where Alexander I. received him with that noble 
 condescension so natural to this great and good prince. He 
 succeeded at St. Petersburg in arranging the political and 
 commercial difficulties and disagreements between France 
 and Russia ; but his proposal for a defensive alliance was 
 declined. 
 
 An anecdote is related of his political campaign in 
 the North, upon the barren banks of the Neva, which, in 
 causing much entertainment to the inhabitants of the fertile 
 banks of the Seine, has not a little displeased the military 
 diplomatist. 
 
 Among Talleyrand's female agents sent to cajole Paul I. 
 during the latter part of his reign, was a Madame Bonoiil, 
 
 whose real name is de F . \\'hen this unfortunate prince 
 
 was no more, most of the French male and female intriguers 
 in Russia thought it necessary to shift their cjuarters, and
 
 THK COUKT OF ST. CLOUD 7 
 
 to expect, on the territory of neutral Prussia, farther in- 
 structions from Paris, where and how to proceed. Madame 
 Bonoeil had removed to Konigsberg. In the second week 
 of May, 1 80 1, when Duroc passed through that town for 
 St. Petersburg, he visited this lady, according to the orders 
 of Bonaparte, and obtained from her a hst of the' names 
 of the principal persons who were inclined to be serviceable 
 to France, and miglit be trusted by him upon the present 
 occasion. By inattention or mistake she had mispelled the 
 name of one of the most trusty and active adherents of 
 Bonaparte; and Duroc, therefore, instead of addressing 
 himself to the Polish Count de S — Iz, went to the Polish 
 
 Count de S tz. This latter was as much flattered as 
 
 surprised, upon seeing an aide-de-camp and envoy of the 
 First Consul of France enter his apartments, seldom visited 
 before but by usurers, gamesters and creditors ; and on 
 hearing the object of this visit, began to think either the 
 envoy mad or himself dreaming. Understanding, however, 
 that money would be of little consideration, if the point 
 desired by the First Consul could be carried, he determined 
 to take advantage of this fortunate hit, and invited Duroc 
 to sup with him the same evening ; when he promised him 
 he should meet with persons who could do his business, 
 provided his pecuniary resources were as ample as he had 
 stated.
 
 a THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 This Count de S tz was one of the most extrava- 
 gant and profligate subjects that Russia had acquired by 
 the partition of Poland. After squandering away his own 
 patrimony, he had ruined his mother and two sisters, and 
 subsisted now entirely by gambling and borrowing. Among 
 his associates, in similar circumstances with himself, was a 
 Chevalier de Causae, a French adventurer, pretending to 
 be an emigrant from the vicinity of Toulouse. To him 
 was communicated what had happened in the morning, and 
 his advice was asked how to act in the evening. It was 
 .soon settled that de Causae should be transformed into a 
 
 Russian Count de W , a nephew and confidential 
 
 secretary of the Chancellor of the' same name; and that 
 one Caumartin, another PVench adventurer, who taught 
 fencing at St. Petersburg, should act the part of Prince de 
 
 M , an aide-de-camp of the Emperor : and that all three 
 
 together should strip Duroc, and share the spoil. At the 
 appointed hour Bonaparte's agent arrived, and was com- 
 pletely the dupe of these adventurers, who plundered him 
 of twelve hundred thousand livres — ^50,000. Though not 
 many days passed before he discovered the imposition, 
 prudence prevented him from denouncing the impostors ; 
 and this blunder would have remained a secret between 
 himself, Bonaparte and Talleyrand, had not the unusual 
 expenses of Caumartin excited the suspicion of the Russian
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD y 
 
 police minister, who soon discovered the source from which 
 they had flowed. He (lauzac had the imprudence to return 
 to this capital last spring, and is now shut up in the 
 Temple, where he probably will be forgotten. 
 
 As this loss was more ascribed to the negligence of 
 Madame Boncjeil than to the mismanagement of Duroc, or 
 his want of penetration, his reception at the Tuileries, 
 though not so gracious as on his return from Berlin, 
 nineteen months before, was, however, such as convinced 
 him that if he had not increased, he had at the same time 
 not lessened, the confidence of his master ; and, indeed, 
 shortly afterwards, Bonaparte created him first prefect of his 
 palace, and procured him for a wife the only daughter of a 
 rich Spanish banker. Rumour, however, says that Bona- 
 parte was not ([uite disinterested when he commanded and 
 concluded this match, and that the fortune of Madame 
 Uuroc has paid for the expensive supper of her husband 
 with Count de S tz at St. Petersburg.
 
 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER II 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — Though the Treaty of Luneville will pro- 
 bably soon be buried in the rubbish of the Treaty of Amiens, 
 the influence of their parents in the Cabinet of St. Cloud 
 is as great as ever : I say t/ieir parents, because the crafty 
 ex-bishop Talleyrand, foreseeing the short existence of these 
 bastard diplomatic acts, took care to compliment ihe itmocent 
 Joseph Bonaparte with a share in the parentage, although 
 they vYere his o\Yn exclusive offspring. 
 
 Joseph Bonaparte, who in 1797, from an attorney's 
 clerk at Ajaccio, in Corsica, was at once transformed into 
 an ambassador to the Court of Rome, had hardly read a 
 treaty, or seen a despatch written, before he was himself 
 to conclude the one, and to dictate the other. Had he 
 not been supported by able secretaries, government would 
 soon have been convinced that it is as impossible to confer 
 talents as it is easy to give places to men to whom Nature 
 has refused parts, and on whom a scanty or neglected 
 education has bestowed no improvements. Deep and 
 reserved, like a true Italian, but vain and ambitious like
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD II 
 
 his brothers, under the character of a statesman, he has 
 only been the political puppet of Talleyrand. If he has 
 sometimes been applauded upon the stages where he has 
 been placed, he is also exposed to the hooting and hisses 
 of the suffering multitude : while the minister pockets undis- 
 turbed all the entrance-money, and conceals his wicked- 
 ness and art under the cloak of Joseph ; which protects 
 him besides against the anger and fury of Napoleon. 
 No negotiation of any consequence is undertaken, no 
 diplomatic arrangements are under consideration, but Joseph 
 is always consulted, and Napoleon informed of the consulta- 
 tion. Hence none of Bonaparte's ministers have suffered 
 less from his violence and resentment than Talleyrand, who, 
 in the political department, governs him who governs France 
 and Italy. 
 
 As early as 1800, Talleyrand determined to throw the 
 odium of his own outrages against the law of nations, upon 
 the brother of his master. Lucien Bonaparte was that year 
 sent ambassador to Spain, but not sharing with the minister 
 the large profits of his appointment, his diplomatic career 
 was but short. Joseph is as greedy and as ravenous as 
 Lucien, but not so frank or indiscreet. Whether he knew 
 or not of Talleyrand's immense gain by the pacification at 
 Luneville in February, 1801, he did not neglect his own 
 individual interest. The day previous to the signature of
 
 12 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 this treaty, he despatched a courier to the rich army con- 
 tractor Collot, acquainting him in secret of the issue of 
 the negotiation, and ordering him at the same time to 
 purchase six milHons of livres — ^250,000 — in the stocks on 
 his account. On Joseph's arrival at Paris, Collot sent him 
 the state bonds for the sum ordered, together with a very 
 polite letter ; but though he waited on the grand pacificator 
 several times afterwards, all admittance was refused, until a 
 douceur of one million of livres — nearly ^'42,000 — of Collot's 
 private profit opened the door. In return, during the dis- 
 cussions between France and England in the summer of 
 1801, and in the spring of 1802, Collot was continued 
 Joseph's private agent, and shared with his patron, within 
 twelve months, a clear gain of thirty-two millions of livres. 
 
 vSome of the secret articles of the Treaty of Luneville 
 gave Austria, during the insurrection in Switzerland, in the 
 autumn of 1802, an opportunity and a right to make repre- 
 sentations against the interference of France ; a circumstance 
 which greatly displeased Bonaparte, who reproached Talley- 
 rand for his want of foresight, and of having been outwitted 
 by the Cabinet of Vienna. The minister, on the very next 
 day, laid before his master the correspondence that had 
 passed between him and Joseph Bonaparte, during the 
 negotiation concerning these secret articles, which were 
 found to have been entirely proposed and settled by
 
 THK COURT OI-" ST. CLOUD 1 3 
 
 Joseph ; who had been induced by his secretary and 
 factotum (a creature of Talleyrand) to adopt sentiments 
 for which that minister had been paid, according to report, 
 six hundred thousand livres -^25,000. Several other tricks 
 have in the same manner been played ui)on Joseph, who, 
 notwithstanding, has the modesty to consider himself (much 
 to the advantage and satisfaction of Talleyrand) the first 
 statesman in Europe, and the good fortune to be thought 
 so by his brother Napoleon. 
 
 When a rupture with England was apprehended, in the 
 spring of 1803, Talleyrand never signed a despatch that was 
 not previously communicated to, and approved by Joseph, 
 before its contents were sanctioned by Napoleon. This 
 precaution chiefly continued him in place when Lord A\'hit- 
 worth left this capital, a departure that incensed Napoleon 
 to such a degree, that he entirely forgot both the dignity of 
 his rank amidst his generals, a becoming deportment to the 
 members of the diplomatic corps, and his duty to his mother 
 and brothers, who all more or less experienced the effects 
 of his violent passions. He thus accosted Talleyrand, who 
 purposely arrived late at his circle : " ^\'ell I the English 
 ambassador is gone ; and we must again go to war. Were 
 my generals as great fools as some of my ministers, 1 should 
 despair indeed of the issue of my contest with these insolent 
 islanders. Many believe that had 1 been more ably supported
 
 14 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 in my Cabinet, I should not have been under the necessity of 
 taking the field, as a rupture might have been prevented." 
 " Such, Citizen First Consul ! " answered the trembling and 
 bowing minister, " is not the opinion of the counsellor of 
 state, Citizen Joseph Bonaparte." — "Well, then," said Napoleon, 
 as recollecting himself, " England wishes for war, and she 
 shall suffer for it. This shall be a war of extermination, 
 depend upon it." The name of Joseph alone moderated 
 Napoleon's fury, and changed its object. It is with him 
 what the harp of David was with Saul. Talleyrand knows it, 
 and is no loser by that knowledge. I must, however, in 
 justice say that, had Bonaparte followed his minister's advice, 
 and suffered himself to be entirely guided by his counsel, 
 all hostilities with England at that time might have been 
 avoided ; her government would have been lulled into se- 
 curity by the cession of Malta and some commercial regu- 
 lations, and her future concjuest, during a time of peace, 
 have been attempted upon plans duly organized, that might 
 have ensured success. He never ceased to repeat, " Citizen 
 First Consul ! some few years longer peace with Creat Britain, 
 and the Te Deuins of modern Britons for the conquest and 
 possession of Malta, will be considered by their children as 
 the funeral hymns of their liberty and independence." 
 
 It was upon this memorable occasion of Lord Whit- 
 worth's departure, that l^onaparte is known to have betrayed
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 1 5 
 
 the most outrageous acts of passion ; he rudely forced liis 
 mother from his closet, and forbade his own sisters to 
 approach his person ; he confined Madame Bonaparte for 
 several hours to her chamber ; he dismissed favourite 
 generals ; treated with ignominy members of his council of 
 state ; and towards his physician, secretaries and princi])al 
 attendants, he committed unbecoming and disgraceful marks 
 of personal outrage. I have heard it affirmed that though 
 her husband, when shutting her up in her dressing-room, 
 put the key in his pocket, Madame Napoleon found means 
 to resent the ungallant behaviour of her spouse, with the 
 assistance of Madame Remusat.
 
 l6 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER III 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — No act of Bonaparte's government has 
 occasioned so many, so opposite, and so violent debates, 
 among the remnants of revolutionary factions comprising 
 his senate and council of state, as the introduction and 
 execution of the religious concordat signed with the Pope. 
 Joseph was here again the ostensible negotiator, though he, 
 on this as well as on former occasions, concluded nothing 
 that had not been prepared and digested by Talleyrand. 
 
 Bonaparte does not in general pay much attention to 
 the opinions of others when they do not agree with his own 
 views and interests, or coincide with his plans of reform or 
 innovation ; but having in his public career professed him- 
 self by turns an atheist and an infidel, the worshipper of 
 Christ and of Mahomet, he could not decently silence 
 those who, after deserting or denying the God of their 
 forefathers and of their youth, continued constant and firm 
 in their apostasy. Of those who deliberated concerning 
 the restoration or exclusion of Christianity, and the accept- 
 ance or rejection of the concordat, Fouche, Fran9ois de
 
 THE COURT or ST. CLOUD I7 
 
 Nantz, Roederer and Sieyes were for the religion of Nature ; 
 \'olney, Real, Chaptal, Bourrienne, and Lucien Bonaparte 
 for atheism ; and Portalis, Gregoire, Cambaceres, Le Brun, 
 lalleyrand, Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte for Christianity. 
 Besides the sentiments of these confidential counsellors, 
 upwards of two hundred memoirs, for or against the Christian 
 religion, were presented to the Mrst Consul by uninvited and 
 volunteer counsellors ; all differing as much from each other 
 as the members of his own privy council. 
 
 Many persons do Madame Bonaparte, the mother, the 
 honour of supposing that to her assiduous representations is 
 principally owing the recall of the priests, and the restoration 
 of the altars of Christ. She certainly is the most devout, or 
 rather the most superstitious of her family, and of her name ; 
 but had not Talleyrand and Portalis previously convinced 
 Napoleon of the policy of re-establishing a religion which, for 
 fourteen centuries, had preserved the throne of the Bour- 
 bons from the machinations of republicans and other con- 
 spirators against monarchy, it is very probable that her 
 representations would have been as ineffective as her piety 
 or her prayers. So long ago as 1796 she implored the 
 mercy of Napoleon for the Roman Catholics in Italy ; and 
 entreated him to spare the Pope and the papal territory, at 
 the very time that his soldiers were laying waste and ravaging 
 
 the legacy of Bologna and of Ravenna, both incorporated 
 VOL. I 2
 
 lO THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 with his new-formed Cisalpine Republic ; where one of his 
 first acts of sovereignty, in the name of the then sovereign 
 people, was the confiscation of Church lands and the sale 
 of the estates of the clergy. 
 
 Of the prelates who with Joseph Bonaparte signed 
 the concordat, the Cardinal (ionsalvi and the Bishop Bernier 
 have, by their labours and intrigues, not a little contributed 
 to the present Church ^establishment in this country ; and 
 to them Napoleon is much indebted for the intrusion of 
 the Bonaparte dynasty among the houses of sovereign 
 princes. The former, intended from his youth for the 
 Church, sees neither honour in this world, nor hopes for 
 any blessing in the next, but exclusively from its bosom 
 and its doctrine. With capacity to figure as a country 
 curate, he occupies the post of the chief secretary of state 
 to the Pope ; and though nearly of the same age, but of 
 a much weaker constitution than his sovereign, he was 
 ambitious enough to demand Bonaparte's promise of suc- 
 ceeding to the papal see, and weak and wicked enough to 
 wish and expect to survive a benefactor of a calmer mind 
 and better health than himself It was he who encouraged 
 Bonaparte to require the presence of Pius VII. in France, 
 and who persuaded this weak pontiff to undertake a journey 
 that has caused so much scandal among the truly faithful ; 
 and which, should ever Austria regain its former supremacy
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I9 
 
 in Italy, will send the present Pope to end his days in a 
 convent, and make the successors of St. Peter what this 
 Apostle was himself, a bishop of Rome, and nothing more. 
 Bernier was a curate in La Vendee before the Revo- 
 lution, and one of those priests who lighted the torch of 
 civil war in that unfortunate country, under pretence of 
 defending the throne of his King and the altars of his 
 Cod. He not only possessed great popularity among the 
 lower classes, but accjuired so far the confidence of the 
 Vendean chiefs that he was appointed one of the supreme 
 and directing council of the Royalists and Chouans. Even 
 so late as the summer of 1799 he continued not only 
 unsuspected, but trusted by the insurgents in the Western 
 departments. In the winter, however, of the same year 
 he had been gained over by IJonaparte's emissaries, and 
 was seen at his levees in the Tuileries. It is stated that 
 General Ikune made him renounce his former principles, 
 desert his former companions, and betray to the then P^irst 
 Consul of the Prench Republic the secrets of the friends 
 of lawful monarchy, of the faithful subjects of Louis XVIII. 
 Plis perfidy has been rewarded with one hundred and fifty 
 thousand livres in ready money, with the see of Orleans, 
 and with a promise of a cardinal's hat. He has also, with 
 the Cardinals Consalvi, Caprara, Pesch, Cambaceres and 
 
 Mauri, Bonaparte's promise, and, of course^ the expectation 
 
 2 — 2
 
 20 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 of the Roman tiara. He was one of the prelates who 
 ofificiated at the late coronation, and is now confided in 
 as a person who has too far committed himself with his 
 legitimate prince, and whose past treachery therefore answers 
 for his future fidelity. 
 
 This religious concordat of the loth September, 1801, 
 as well as all other constitutional codes emanating from 
 revolutionary authorities, proscribes even in protecting. The 
 professors and protectors of the religion of universal peace, 
 benevolence and forgiveness banish in this concordat from 
 France for ever the Cardinals Rohan and Montmorency, 
 and the Bishop of Arras, whose dutiful attachment to their 
 unfortunate prince would, in better times and in a more 
 just and generous nation, have been recompensed with 
 distinctions, and honoured even by magnanimous foes. 
 
 When Madame Napoleon was informed by her husband 
 of the necessity of choosing her almoner and chaplain, and 
 of attending regularly the Mass, she first fell a -laughing, 
 taking it merely for a joke ; the serious and severe looks, 
 and the harsh and threatening expressions of the First 
 Consul soon, however, convinced her how much she was 
 mistaken. To evince her repentance, she on the very next 
 day attended her mother-in-law to church, who was highly 
 edified by the sudden and religious turn of her daughter, 
 and did not fail to ascribe to the efficacious interference
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 21 
 
 of one of her fiavouritc saints this conversion of a profane 
 sinner. But Napoleon was not the dupe of this church- 
 going mummery of his wife, whom he ordered his spies to 
 watch ; these were unfortunate enough to discover that she 
 went to the Mass more to fulfil her ai)pointments with her 
 lovers than to pray to her Saviour ; and that even by the 
 side of her mother she read bilkts-doux and love-letters 
 when that pious lady supposed that she read her prayers 
 because her eyes were fixed upon her breviary. Without 
 relating to anyone this discovery of his Josephine's frailties, 
 Napoleon, after a violent connubial fracas and reprimand, 
 and after a solitary confinement of her for six days, gave 
 immediate orders to have the chapels of the Tuileries and 
 of St. Cloud repaired ; and until these were ready, Cardinal 
 Cambaceres and Bernier, by turns, said the Mass in her 
 private apartments ; where none but selected favourites or 
 favoured courtiers v.-ere admitted. Madame Napoleon now 
 never neglects the Mass, but if not accompanied by her 
 husband is escorted by a guard of honour, among whom 
 she knows that he has several agents watching her motions 
 and her very looks. 
 
 In the month of June, 1803, I dined with Viscount de 
 Segur, and Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte were among the 
 guests. The latter jocosely remarked with what facility the 
 French Christians had suffered themselves to be hunted in
 
 22 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 and out of their temples, according to the fanaticism or 
 policy of their rulers ; which he adduced as a proof of the 
 great progress of philosophy and toleration in France. A 
 young officer of the party, Jacquemont, a relation of the 
 former husband of the present Madame Lucien, observed 
 that he thought it rather an evidence of the indifference of 
 the French people to all religion ; the consequence of the 
 great havoc the tenets of infidelity and of atheism had 
 made among the flocks of the faithful. This was again 
 denied by Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, Savary, who observed 
 that, had this been the case, the First Consul (who certainly 
 was as well acquainted with the religious spirit of French- 
 men as anybody else) would not have taken the trouble to 
 conclude a religious concordat, nor have been at the 
 expense of providing for the clergy. To this assertion 
 Joseph nodded an assent. \\'hen the dinner was over, 
 de Segur took me to a window, expressing his uneasiness 
 at what he called the imprudence of Jacquemont, who, he 
 apprehended, from Joseph's silence and manner, would not 
 escape punishment for having indirectly blamed both the 
 restorer of religion and his plenipotentiary. These appre- 
 hensions were justified. On the next day Jacquemont 
 received orders to join the colonial depot at Havre; but 
 refusing to obey by giving in his resignation as a captain, 
 he was arrested, shut uj) in the Temple, and afterwards
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 23 ; 
 
 I 
 
 transported to Cayenne or Madagascar. His relatives and 
 
 friends are still ignorant whether he is dead or alive, and ! 
 
 what is or has been his place of exile. To a petition 
 
 presented by Jacquemont's sister, Madame de Veaux, Joseph 
 
 answered "that he never interfered with the acts of the \ 
 
 Jiautc police of his brother Napoleon's government, being J 
 
 well convinced both of its justice and moderaiiofi." 1
 
 24 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER IV 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — That Bonaparte had, as far back as 
 February, 1803 (when the King of Prussia proposed to 
 Louis XVin. the formal renunciation of his hereditary 
 rights in favour of the First Consul), determined to as- 
 sume the rank and title, with the power of a sovereign, 
 nobody can doubt. Had it not been for the war with 
 England, he would in the spring of that year, or twelve 
 months earlier, have proclaimed himself Emperor of the 
 French, and probably would have been acknowledged as 
 such by all other princes. To a man so vain and so 
 impatient, so accustomed to command and to intimidate, 
 this suspension of his favourite plan was a considerable 
 disappointment, and not a little increased his bitter and 
 irreconcilable hatred of (Ireat Britain. 
 
 Here, as well as in foreign countries, the multitude 
 pay homage only to Napoleon's uninterrupted prosperity; 
 without penetrating or considering whether it be the conse- 
 (juence of chance or of well -digested plans; whether he 
 owes his successes to his own merit, or to a blind fortune.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 2^ 
 
 He asserted in his speech to the constitutional authorities, 
 immediately after hostilities had commenced with England, 
 f/iaf the ivar would he of short di/ratiofi, and he firmly 
 believed what he said. Had he by his gunboats, or by 
 his intrigues or threats, been enabled to extort a second 
 edition of the Peace of Amiens, after a warfare of some 
 few months, all mouths would have been ready to exclaim, 
 " Oh, the illustrious warrior ! Oh, the profound politician ! " 
 Now, after three ineffectual campaigns on the coast, when 
 the extravagance and ambition of our government have 
 extended the contagion of war over the Continent; when 
 both our direct offers of peace, and the negotiations and 
 mediations of our allies, have been declined by, or proved 
 unavailing with, the Cabinet of St. James', the inconsistency, 
 the ignorance, and the littleness of the fortunate great man 
 seem to be not more remembered than the outrages and 
 encroachments that have provoked Austria and Russia to 
 take the field. Should he continue victorious, and be in 
 a position to dictate another Peace of Luneville, which 
 probably would be followed by another pacific overture to 
 or from England, mankind will again be ready to call out, 
 "Oh, the illustrious warrior! Oh, the profound politician! 
 He foresaw, in his wisdom, that a Continental war was neces- 
 sary to terrify or to subdue his maritime foe; that a peace 
 with England could only be obtained in Germany; and that
 
 26 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 this war must be excited by extending the power of France 
 on the other side of the Alps. Hence his coronation as a 
 King of Italy ; hence his incorporation of Parma and Genoa 
 with France; and hence his donation of Piombino and 
 Lucca to his brother-in-law, Bacchiochi ! " Nowhere in 
 history have I read of men of sense being so easily led 
 astray, as in our times, by confounding fortuitous events 
 with consequences resulting from preconcerted plans and 
 well-organized designs. 
 
 Only rogues can disseminate and fools believe that the 
 disgrace of Moreau, and the execution of the Duke of 
 Enghien, of Pichegru, and Georges, were necessary as foot- 
 steps to Bonaparte's imperial throne ; and that without the 
 treachery of Mehee de la Touche, and the conspiracy he pre- 
 tended to have discovered, France would still have been ruled 
 by a First Consul. It is indeed true that this plot is to be 
 counted (as the imbecility of Melas, which lost the battle of 
 Marengo) among those accidents presenting themselves apropos 
 to serve the favourite of fortune in his ambitious views ; but 
 without it, he would equally have been hailed an Emperor of 
 the French in May, 1804. ^^'hen he came from the coast, 
 in the preceding winter, and was convinced of the impossi- 
 bility of making any impression on the British Islands with 
 his flotilla, he convoked his confidential senators, who then, 
 with Talleyrand, settled the Senatus Consultum which
 
 THE COURT Ol' ST. CI.OUD 27 
 
 appeared five months afterwards. Mehee's correspondence 
 with Mr. Drake was then known to him; but he and the 
 minister of pohce were both unacquainted witli tlie resi- 
 dence and arrival of Pichegru and Georges in France, and 
 of their connection with Moreau ; the particulars of which 
 were first disclosed to them in the February following, when 
 Bonaparte had been absent from his army of England six 
 weeks. The assumi)tion of the imperial dignity procured 
 hin\ another decent opportunity of offering his olive-branch 
 to those who had caused his laurels to zvifher, and by 
 whom, notwithstanding his abuse, calumnies and menaces, 
 he would have been more proud to be saluted F^mperor, 
 than by all other nations upon the Continent. His vanity, 
 interest and policy, all rctjuired this last degree of 
 supremacy and elevation at that period. 
 
 Bonaparte had so well penetrated the weak side of 
 Moreau's character that, although he could not avoid doing 
 justice to this general's military talents and exploits, he 
 neither esteemed him as a citizen nor dreaded him as a 
 rival. Moreau possessed great popularity ; but so did 
 1 )umourier and Pichegru before him : and yet neither of 
 them had found adherents enough to shake those republican 
 governments with which the\- avowed themselves openly dis- 
 contented, and against which they .secretly plotted. I heard 
 'I'alleyrand say, at Madame de Montlausier's, in the presence
 
 28 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 of fifty persons, " Napoleon Bonaparte had never anything 
 to apprehend from General Moreau, and from his popularity, 
 even at the head of an army. Dumourier, too, was at the 
 head of an army when he revolted against the National 
 Convention ; but had he not saved himself by flight his 
 own troops would have delivered him up to be punished 
 as a traitor. Aforeaji, and his popularity, could only be 
 dangerous to the Bonaparte dynasty were he to survive 
 Napoleon, had not this Emperor ivisely averted this danger ^ 
 From this official declaration of Napoleon's confidential 
 minister, in a society of known anti-imperialists, I draw 
 the conclusion that Moreau will never more, during the 
 present reign, return to France. How very feeble, and 
 how badly advised must this general have been, when, 
 after his condemnation to two years' imprisonment, he 
 accepted of a perpetual exile, and renounced all hopes 
 of ever again entering his own country. In the Temple, 
 or in any other prison, if he had submitted to the sentence 
 pronounced against him, he would have caused Bonaparte 
 more uneasiness than when at liberty, and been more a 
 point of rally to his adherents and friends than when at 
 his palace of (Irosbois, because compassion and pity must 
 have invigorated and sharpened their feelings. 
 
 If report be true, however, he did not voluntarily ex- 
 change imprisonment for exile ; racks were shown him ; and
 
 THE COUR'l' Ol' ST. CI.OUD 29 
 
 by the act of banishment was placed a poisonous draught. 
 This report gains considerable credit when it is remembered 
 that, immediately after his condemnation, Moreau furnished 
 his apartments in the Temple in a handsome manner, so 
 as to be lodged well, if not comfortably, with his wife and 
 child, whom, it is said, he was not permitted to see before 
 he had accepted of Bonaparte's proposal of transportation. 
 
 It may be objected to this supposition that the man 
 in power, who did not care about the barefaced murder of 
 the Duke of Enghien, and the .secret destruction of Pichegru, 
 could neither much hesitate, nor be very conscientious about 
 adding Moreau to the number of his victims. True, but the 
 assassin in authority is also generally a politician. The 
 untimely end of the Duke of Enghien and of Pichegru was 
 certainly lamented and deplored by the great majority of the 
 French people ; but though they had many who pitied their 
 fate, but few had any relative interest to avenge it ; whilst in 
 the assassination of Moreau, every general, every officer, and 
 every soldier of his former army, might have read the destiny 
 reserved for himself by that chieftain, who did not conceal his 
 preference of those who had fought under him in Italy and 
 Egypt, and his mistrust and jealousy of those who had 
 vanquished under Moreau in (Germany ; numbers of whom 
 had already perished at St. Domingo, or in the other 
 colonies, or were dispersed in separate and distant garrisons
 
 30 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 of the mother country. It has been calculated that of 
 eighty-four generals who made, under Moreau, the campaign 
 of 1800, and who survived the Peace of Luneville, sixteen 
 had been killed or died at St. Domingo, four at Guadeloupe, 
 ten in Cayenne, nine at lie de France, and eleven at I'lle 
 Reunion and in Madagascar. The mortality among the 
 officers and men has been in proportion. 
 
 An anecdote is related of Pichegru, which does honour 
 to the memory of that unfortunate general. Fouche paid 
 him a visit in prison the day before his death, and offered 
 him " Bonaparte's commission as a field-marshal, and a 
 diploma as a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, pro- 
 vided he would turn informer against Aloreau, of whose 
 treachery against himself in 1797 he was reminded. On 
 the other hand, he was informed that, in consequence of his 
 former denials, if he persisted in his refractory conduct, he 
 should never more appear before any judge, but that the affairs 
 of state and the safety of the country required that he should 
 be privately despatched in his gaol." " So," answered this 
 virtuous and indignant warrior, " you will only spare my 
 life upon condition that I prove myself unworthy to live. 
 As this is the case, my choice is made without hesitation ; 
 I am prepared to become your victim, but I will never be 
 numbered among your accomplices. Call in your execu- 
 tioners ; I am ready to die as I have lived, a man of
 
 TUB COURT OF ST. CLOUD 3! 
 
 honour, and an irreproachable citi/en." \\'ithin twenty-four 
 hours after this answer, Fichegru was no more. 
 
 That the Duke of Enghien was shot on the night of 
 the 2ist of March, 1804, in the wood or in the ditch of the 
 castle of Vincennes, is admitted even by government; 
 but who really were his assassins is still unknown. Some 
 assert that he was shot by the grenadiers of Bonaparte's 
 Italian guard ; others say, by a detachment of the (Gen- 
 darmes d'Elite ; and others again, that the men of both 
 these corps refused to fire, and that ( General Murat, hearing 
 the troops murmur, and fearing their mutiny, was himself 
 the executioner of this young and innocent prince of the 
 House of Bourbon, by riding up to him and blowing out 
 his brains with a pistol. Certain it is that Murat was the 
 first, and Louis Bonaparte the second in command, on 
 this dreadful occasion.
 
 32 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER V 
 
 Paris, August^ i8o5- 
 
 Mv Lord, — Thanks to Talleyrand's political emigration, 
 our government has never been in ignorance of the cha- 
 racters and foibles of the leading members among the 
 emigrants in England. Otto, however, finished their picture, 
 but added some new groups to those delineated by his 
 predecessor. It was according to his plan that the expe- 
 dition of Mehee de la Touche was undertaken, and it was 
 in following his instructions that the campaign of this 
 traitor succeeded so well in Great Britain. 
 
 Under the ministry of Vergennes, of Montmorin, and 
 of Delessart, Mehee had been employed as a spy in Russia, 
 Sweden and Poland, and acquitted himself perfectly to 
 the satisfaction of his masters. By some accident or other, 
 Delessart discovered, however, in December, 1791, that he 
 had, while pocketing the money of the Cabinet of Versailles, 
 sold its secrets to the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. He, of 
 course, was no longer trusted as a spy, and therefore 
 turned a Jacobin, and announced himself to Erissot as a 
 persecuted patriot. All the calumnies against this minister
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 33 
 
 in Brissot's daily paper, Le Patriate Fnifipis, during January, 
 February and March, 1792, were the productions of 
 Mehee's malicious heart and able pen. Even after they had 
 sent Delessart a state i)risoner to Orleans, his inveteracy 
 continued, and in September the same year he went to 
 Versailles to enjoy the sight of the murder of his former 
 master. Some go so far as to say that the assassins were 
 headed by this monster, who aggravated cruelty by insult, 
 and informed the dying minister of the hands that stabbed 
 him, and to whom he was indebted for a premature death. 
 To these and other infamous and barbarous deeds, 
 Talleyrand was not a stranger when he made Mehee 
 his secret agent, and entrusted him with the mission to 
 England. He took, therefore, such .steps that neither hi.s 
 confidence could be betrayed, nor his money scjuandered. 
 Mehee had instructions how to proceed in Great Britain, 
 but he was ignorant of the object government had in view 
 by his mission ; and though large sums were promised if 
 successful, and if he gave satisfaction by his zeal and 
 discretion, the money advanced him was a mere trifle, and 
 barely sufficient to keep him from want. He was there- 
 fore really distressed, when he fixed upon some necessitous 
 and greedy emigrants for his instruments to play on 
 the credulity of the English ministers in some of their 
 
 unguarded moments. Their generosity in forbearing to 
 VOL. I 3
 
 34 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 avenge upon the deluded French exiles the slur attempted 
 to be thrown upon their otificial capacity, and the ridicule 
 intended to be cast on their private characters, has been 
 much approved and admired here by all liberal-minded 
 persons ; but it has also much disappointed Bonaparte and 
 Talleyrand, who expected to see these emigrants driven 
 from the only asylum which hospitality has not refused to 
 their misfortunes and misery. 
 
 Mehee had been promised by Talleyrand double the 
 amount of the sums which he could swindle from your 
 government ; but though he did more mischief to your 
 country than was expected in this, and though he proved 
 that he had pocketed upwards of ten thousand English 
 guineas, the wages of his infamy, when he hinted about 
 the recompense he expected here, Durant, Talleyrand's chef 
 dii bureau, advised him, as a friend, not to remind the 
 minister of his presence in France, as Bonaparte never 
 pardoned a Septembrizer, and the English guineas he 
 possessed might be claimed and seized as national property, 
 to compensate some of the sufferers by the unprovoked 
 war with England. In vain did he address himself to his 
 fellow - labourer in revolutionary plots, the counsellor of 
 state, Real, who had been the intermedium between him 
 and Talleyrand, when he was first enlisted among the 
 secret agents ; instead of receiving money he heard threats ;
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 35 
 
 and, therefore, with as good grace as he could, he made 
 the best of his disappointment ; he sported a carriage, kept 
 a mistress, went to gambUng-houses, and is now in a fair 
 way to be reduced to the sfati/s quo before his brilliant 
 exploits in (Ireat Britain. 
 
 Real, besides the place of a counsellor of state, 
 occupies also the office of a director of the internal 
 police. Having some difference with my landlord, I was 
 summoned to appear before him at the prefecture of the 
 police. My friend, M. de Sab -r, formerly a counsellor 
 of the parliament at Rouen, happened to be with me when 
 the summons was delivered, and offered to accompany me, 
 being acquainted with Real. 'I'hough thirty persons were 
 waiting in the ante-chamber at our arrival, no sooner was 
 my friend's name announced than we were admitted, and 
 I obtained not only more justice than I expected, or dared 
 to claim, but an invitation to Madame Real's tea party 
 the same evening. This justice and this politeness surprised 
 me, until my friend showed me an act of forgery in his 
 possession, committed by Real in 1788, when an advocate 
 of the parliament, and for which the humanity of my friend 
 alone prevented him from being struck off the rolls, and 
 otherwise punished. 
 
 As I conceived my usual societies and coteries could 
 not aj)prove my attendance at the house of such a per- 
 
 3—2
 
 36 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 sonage, I was intent upon sending an apology to Madame 
 Real. My friend, however, assured me that I should meet 
 in her saloon persons of all classes and of all ranks, and 
 many I little expected to see associating together. I went 
 late, and found the assembly very numerous : at the upper 
 part of the hall were seated Princesses Joseph and Louis 
 Bonaparte, with Madame Fouche, Madame Roederer, the 
 ci-deva?it Duchess de Fleury, and Marchioness de Clermont. 
 They were conversing with M. Mathew de Montmorency, 
 the contractor (a ci-devant lackey) CoUot, the ci-devant 
 Duke Fitzjames, and the legislator Martin, a ci-devant 
 porter : several groups in the several apartments were com- 
 posed of a similar heterogeneous mixture of ci-devant nobles 
 and ci-devant valets, of ci-devant princesses, marchionesses, 
 countesses and baronesses, and of ci-devant chambermaids, 
 mistresses and poissa?'des. Round a gambling table, by 
 the side of the ci-devant Bishop of Autun, Talleyrand, 
 sat Madame Hounguenin, whose husband, a ci-devant shoe- 
 black, has, by the purchase of national property, made a 
 fortune of nine millions of livres — ^375)Ooo- Opposite 
 them were seated the ci-devant Prince de Chalais, and the 
 present Prince Cambaceres, with the ci-devant Countess de 
 Beauvais, and Madame Fauve, the daughter of a fish- 
 woman, and the wife of a tribune, a ci-devant barber. In 
 another room, the Bavarian minister Cetto was conferring
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 37 
 
 with the spy Mehce de la Touche; but observed at a 
 distance by Fouche's secretary, Desmarets, the son of a 
 tailor at Fontainebleau, and for years a known police spy. 
 When I was just going to retire, the handsome Madame 
 Gillot, and her sister Madame de Soubray, joined me. 
 You have perhaps known them in England, where, before 
 their marriage, they resided for five years with their parents, 
 the Marquis and Marchioness de Courtin ; and were often 
 admired by the loungers in Bond Street. The one married 
 for money, Gillot, a a'-deva/ii drummer in the French Guard, 
 but who, since the Revolution, has, as a general, made a 
 large fortune ; and the other united herself to a ci-devant 
 abbe, from love ; but both are now divorced from their 
 husbands, who passed them without any notice while they 
 were chatting with me. I was handing Madame Gillot to 
 her carriage, when, from the staircase, Madame de Soubray 
 called to us not to quit her, as she was pursued by a 
 man whom she detested, and wished to avoid. We had 
 hardly turned round, when Mehee offered her his arm, and 
 she exclaimed with indignation, "How dare you, infamous 
 wretch, approach me, when I have forbidden you ever to 
 speak to me ! Had you been reduced to become a 
 highwayman, or a housebreaker, I might have pitied your 
 infamy — but a spy is a villain who aggravates guilt by 
 cowardice and baseness, and can inspire no noble soul 
 
 93666
 
 38 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 with any other sentiment but abhorrence, and the most 
 sovereign contempt." '\\'ithout being disconcerted, Mehee 
 silently returned to the company, amidst bursts of laughter 
 from fifty servants, and as many masters, waiting for their 
 carriages. M. de Cetto was among the latter, but, though 
 we all fixed our eyes steadfastly upon him, no alteration 
 could be seen on his diplomatic countenance : his face 
 must surely be made of brass, or his heart of marble.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 39 
 
 LETTER VI 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — The day on which Madame Napoleon 
 Bonaparte was elected an Empress of the French by the 
 constitutional authorities of her husband's empire, was, 
 contradictory as it may seem, one of the most uncom- 
 fortable in her life. After the show and ceremony of the 
 audience and of the drawing-room were over, she passed 
 it entirely in tears, in her library, where her husband shut 
 her up and confined her. 
 
 The discipline of the Court of St. Cloud is as singular 
 as its composition is unique. It is, by the regulation 
 of Napoleon, entirely military. From the Empress to her 
 lowest chambermaid, from the Emperor's first aide-de-camp 
 dow!! to his youngest page, any slight offence or negligence 
 is punished with confinement, either public or private. In 
 the former case the culprits are shut up in their own 
 apartments, but in the latter they are ordered into one 
 of the small rooms, constructed in the dark galleries at 
 the Tuileries and St. Cloud, near the kitchens, where
 
 40 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 they are guarded day and night by sentries, who answer 
 for their persons, and that nobody visits them. 
 
 When, on the 28th of March, 1804, the Senate had 
 determined on offering Bonaparte the imperial dignity, he 
 immediately gave his wife full powers, with order to form 
 her household of persons who, from birth and from their 
 principles, might be worthy, and could be trusted to 
 encompass the imperial couple. She consulted Madame 
 Remusat, who in her turn consulted her friend de Segur, 
 who also consulted his bonne amie, ]\Iadame de Montbrune. 
 This lady determined that if Bonaparte and his wife were 
 desirous to be served, or waited on, by persons above 
 them by ancestry and honour, they should pay liberally 
 for such sacrifices. She was not therefore idle, but wishing 
 to profit herself by the pride of upstart vanity, she had 
 at first merely reconnoitred the ground, or made distant 
 overtures to those families of the ancient French nobility 
 who had been ruined by the Revolution, and whose minds 
 she expected to have found on a level with their circum- 
 stances. These, however, either suspecting her intent and 
 her views, or preferring honest poverty to degrading and 
 disgraceful splendour, had started objections which she was 
 not prepared to encounter. Thus the time passed away ; 
 and when, on the i8th of the following May, the Senate 
 proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the French,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 
 
 41 
 
 not a chamberlain was ready to attend him, nor a maid- 
 of-honour to wait on his wife. 
 
 On the morning of the 20th May, the day fixed 
 for the constitutional republican authorities to present their 
 homage as subjects, Napoleon asked his Josephine who were 
 the persons, of both sexes, she had engaged, according to 
 his carte bianche given her, as necessary and as unavoidable 
 decorations of the drawing-room of an Emperor and 
 Empress, as thrones and as canopies of state. She referred 
 him to Madame Remusat, who, though but half-dressed, 
 was instantly ordered to appear before him. This lady 
 avowed that his grand master of the ceremonies, de Segur, 
 had been entrusted by her with the whole arrangement, but 
 that she feared that he had not yet been able to complete 
 the full establishment of the Imperial Court. The aide-de- 
 camp Rapp was then despatched after de Segur, who, as 
 usual, presented himself smiling and cringing. "Give me 
 the list," said Napoleon, " of the ladies and gentlemen you 
 have no doubt engaged for our household." — "May it please 
 your Majesty," answered de Segur (trembling with fear), 
 " I humbly supposed that they were not requisite before 
 the day of your Majesty's coronation." — "You supposed!" 
 retorted Napoleon. " How dare you suppose differently from 
 our commands ? Is the Emperor of the Great Nation not 
 to be encompassed with a more numerous retinue, or with
 
 42 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 more lustre, than a First Consul ? Do you not see the 
 immense difference between the sovereign monarch of an 
 empire, and the citizen chief magistrate of a commonwealth? 
 Are there not starving nobles in my empire enough to 
 furnish all the Courts in Europe with attendants, courtiers 
 and valets ? Do you not believe that with a nod, with a 
 single nod, I might have them all prostrated before my 
 throne ? What can, then, have occasioned this impertinent 
 delay?" — "Sire!" answered de Segur, "it is not the want 
 of numbers, but the difficulty of the choice among them. 
 I will never recommend a single individual upon whom 
 I cannot depend ; or who, on some future day, may ex- 
 pose me to the greatest of all evils, the displeasure of 
 my Prince." — "But," continued Napoleon, "what is to be 
 done to-day that I may augment the number of my suite, 
 and by it impose upon the gaping multitude and the 
 attending deputations?" — "Command," said de Segur, "all 
 the officers of your jNIajesty's staff, and of the staff of the 
 Governor of Paris, General Murat, to surround your 
 Majesty's sacred person, and order them to accoutre 
 themselves in the most shining and splendid manner pos- 
 sible. The presence of so many military men will also, 
 in a political point of view, be useful. It will lessen the 
 pretensions of the constituted authorities, by telling them 
 indirectly it is not to your Senatus Consultum, to your
 
 THE COURT or ST. CLOUD 43 
 
 decrees, or to your votes, that 1 am indebted for my 
 present sovereignty : I owe it exclusively to my own merit 
 and valour, and to tlie valour of my brave officers and men, 
 to whose arms I trust more than to your counsels." 
 
 This advice ol)tained Napoleon's entire approbation, 
 and was followed. De Segur was permitted to retire, but 
 when Madame Remusat made a curtsey also to leave the 
 room, she was stopped with his terrible aitx arrets .' and 
 left under the care and responsibility of his aide-de-camp, 
 Le Brun, who saw her safe into her room, at the door of 
 which he placed two grenadiers. Napoleon then went out, 
 ordering his wife, at her peril, to be in time, ready and 
 brilliantly dressed, for the drawing-room. 
 
 Dreading the consequences of her husband's wrath, 
 Madame Napoleon was not only punctual, but so elegantly 
 and tastefully decorated with jewels and ornaments that 
 even those of her enemies or rivals who refused her beauty, 
 honour and virtue, allowed her taste and dignity. She 
 thought that even in the regards of Napoleon she read a 
 tacit approbation, ^^'hen all the troublesome bustle of the 
 morning was gone through, and when senators, legislators, 
 tribunes, and prefects had complimented her as a model 
 of female perfection, on a signal from her husband she 
 accompanied him in silence through six different apartments 
 before he came to her library, where he surlily ordered her
 
 44 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 to enter and to remain until further orders. " AVhat have 
 I done, Sire I to deserve such treatment?" exclaimed she, 
 trembling. — " If," answered Napoleon, " Madame Remusat, 
 your favourite, has made a fool of you, this is only to teach 
 you that you shall not make a fool of me. Had not 
 de Segur — fortunately for him — had the ingenuity to extri- 
 cate us from the dilemma into which my confidence and 
 dependence on you had brought me, I should have made 
 a fine figure indeed on the first day of my Emperorship. 
 — Have patience, ^ladam ; you have plenty of books to 
 divert you, but 30U must remain where you are until I 
 am inclined to release you." So saying. Napoleon locked 
 the door and put the key in his pocket. 
 
 It was near two o'clock in the afternoon when she 
 was thus shut up. Remembering the recent flattery of her 
 courtiers, and comparing it with the unfeeling treatment 
 of her husband, she found herself so much the more un- 
 fortunate, as the expressions of the former were regarded 
 by her as praise due to her merit, while the unkindness 
 of the latter was unavailingly resented as the undeserved 
 oppression of a capricious despot. 
 
 Business, or perhaps malice, made Napoleon forget 
 to send her any dinner ; and when, at eight o'clock, his 
 brothers and sisters came according to invitation to take 
 tea, he said coldly, " Apropos, I forgot it. My wife has
 
 THK COl'RT OF ST. CLOUD 45 
 
 not dined yet ; she is busy, I suppose, in her philosophical 
 meditations in her study." Madame Louis Bonaparte, her 
 daughter, flew directly towards the study, and her mother 
 could scarcely, for her tears, inform her that she was a 
 prisoner, and that her hushand was her gaoler. "Oh, Sire!" 
 said Madame T.ouis, returning, " even this remarkable day is 
 a day of mourning for my ])oor mother ! " — " She deserves 
 wor.se," answered Napoleon, " but, for your sake, she shall 
 be released ; here is the key, let her out.'" 
 
 Madame Napoleon was, however, not in a situation to 
 wish to appear before her envious brothers and sisters-in-law. 
 Her eyes were so swollen with crying that she could hardly 
 see ; and her tears had stained those imperial robes which 
 the unthinking and inconsiderate no doubt believed a certain 
 preservative against sorrow and affliction. At nine o'clock, 
 however, another aide-de-camp of her husband presented him- 
 self, and gave her the choice eithe*- to accompany him back 
 to the study or to join the family party of the Bonapartes. 
 
 In deploring her mother's situation, Madame Louis 
 Bonaparte informed her former governess, Madame Cam — n, 
 of these particulars, which I heard her relate at Madame 
 
 de M r"s, almost verbatim as I report them to you. 
 
 Such, and other scenes nearly of the same description, are 
 neither rare nor singular, in the most singular Court that 
 ever existed in civilized Europe.
 
 46 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER VII 
 
 Paris, Augi/sf, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — Though government suffer a religious, or, 
 rather, anti-religious liberty of the Press, the authors who 
 libel or ridicule the Christian, particularly the Roman 
 Catholic, religion, are excluded from all prospect of ad- 
 vancement, or, if in place, are not trusted or liked. Cardinal 
 Caprara, the nuncio of the Pope, proposed last year, in a 
 long memorial, the same severe restrictions on the discus- 
 sions or publications in religious matters as were already 
 ordered in those concerning politics. But both Bonaparte 
 and his minister in the affairs of the Church, PortalLs, 
 refused the introduction of what they called a tyranny on 
 the conscience. Caprara then addressed himself to the ex- 
 Bishop Talleyrand, who on this occasion was more explicit 
 than he generally is. " Bonaparte," said he, " rules not 
 only over a fickle, but a gossiping {bavard) people, whom 
 he has prudently forbidden all conversation and writing 
 concerning government or affairs of state. They would soon 
 (accustomed as they are, since the Revolution, to verbal 
 and written debates) be tired of talking about fine weather
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 47 
 
 \ 
 
 or about the opera. To occupy them and their attention, 
 some ample subject of diversion was necessary, and religion 
 was surrendered to them at discretion ; because, enlightened 
 as the world now is, even atheists or Christian fanatics can 
 do but little harm to society. They may spend rivers of 
 ink, but they will be unable to shed a drop of blood." — 
 " True," answered the Cardinal, " but only to a certain 
 degree. The licentiousness of the Press, with regard to 
 religious matters, does it not also furnish infidelity with 
 new arms to injure the faith ? and have not the horrors 
 from which France has just escaped proved the danger and 
 evil consequences of irreligion, and the necessity of en- 
 couraging and protecting Christianity ? By the recall of 
 the clergy, and by the religious concordat, Bonaparte has 
 shown himself convinced of this truth." — " So he is," inter- 
 rupted Talleyrand ; " but he abhors intoleration and perse- 
 cution " (not in politics). " I shall, however, to please 
 your Eminence, lay the particulars of your conversation 
 before him." 
 
 Some time afterwards, when Talleyrand and Bonaparte 
 must have agreed about some new measure to indirectly 
 chastise impious writers, the senators Garat, Jaucourt, 
 Rcjederer and Demeunier, four of the members of the 
 senatorial commission of the liberty of the Press, were sent 
 for, and remained closeted with Napoleon, his minister
 
 48 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Portalis, and Cardinal Caprara for two hours. What was 
 determined on this occasion has not transpired, as even 
 the Cardinal, who is not the most discreet person when 
 provoked, and his religious zeal gets the better of his 
 political prudence, has remained silent, though seemingly 
 contented. 
 
 Two rather insignificant authors, of the name of 
 Varennes and Beaujou, who published some scandalous 
 libels on Christianity, have since been taken up, and after 
 some months' imprisonment in the Temple been condemned 
 to transportation to Cayenne for life ; not as infidels or 
 atheists, but as conspirators against the State, in conse- 
 quence of some unguarded expressions which prejudice or 
 ill-will alone would judge connected with politics. Nothing 
 is now permitted to be printed against religion but with the 
 author's name ; but by affixing his name, he may abuse 
 the worship and Gospel as much as he pleases. Since the 
 example of severity alluded to above, however, this practice 
 is on the decline. Even Pigault Le Brun, a popular but 
 immoral novel WTiter, narrowly escaped lately a trip to 
 Cayenne for one of his blasphemous publications ; and 
 owes to the protection of Madame Murat exclusively that 
 he was not sent to keep Varennes and Beaujou company. 
 vSome years ago, when Madame Murat was neither so great 
 nor so rich as at present, he presented her with a copy of
 
 \ THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 49 
 
 his works, and she has been unfashional)le enough not only 
 to remember the compHment, but wished to return it by 
 nominating him her i)rivate secretary ; which, however, the 
 veto of Napoleon prevented. 
 
 Of Napoleon Bonaparte's religious sentiments, opinions 
 are not divided in France. The influence over him of the 
 petty, superstitious Cardinal Caprara is, therefore, inexplicable. 
 This prelate has forced from him assent to transactions 
 which had been refused both to his mother and his brother 
 Joseph, who now often employ the ("ardinal with success, 
 where they either dare not or will not show themselves. 
 It is true his Eminence is not easily rebuked, but returns 
 to the charge unabashed by new repulses ; and he obtains 
 by teasing more than by persuasion ; but a man by whom 
 Bonaparte suffers himself to be teased with impunity is no 
 insignificant favourite, particularly when, like this Cardinal, 
 he unites cunning with devotion, craft with superstition ; 
 and is as accessible to corruption as tormented by ambition. 
 
 As most ecclesiastical promotions passed through his 
 pi(7-c and disinterested hands, Madame Napoleon, Talleyrand 
 and Portalis, who also wanted some douceurs for their extra- 
 ordinary expenses, united together last spring to remove him 
 from France, and Napoleon was cajoled to nominate him a 
 grand almoner of the Kingdom of Italy, and the Cardinal 
 
 set out for Milan. He was, however, artful enough to con- 
 VOL. I 4
 
 50 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 vince his Sovereign of the propriety of having his grand 
 ahnoner by his side ; and he is, therefore, obhged to this 
 intrigue of his enemies that he now disposes of the bene- 
 fices in the Kingdom of Italy, as well as those of the 
 French Empire. 
 
 During the Pope's residence in this capital, his Holiness 
 often made use of Cardinal Caprara in his secret negotia- 
 tions with Bonaparte ; and whatever advantages were ob- 
 tained by the Roman Pontiff for. the Galilean Church his 
 Eminence almost extorted ; for he never desisted, where 
 his interest or pride were concerned, till he had succeeded. 
 It is said that one day last January, after having been for 
 hours exceedingly teasing and troublesome, Bonaparte lost 
 his patience, and was going to treat his Eminence as he 
 frequently does his relatives, his ministers, and counsellors, 
 that is to say, to kick him from his presence ; but suddenly 
 recollecting himself, he said, " Cardinal, remain here in my 
 closet until my return, when I shall have more time to 
 listen to what you have to relate." It was at ten o'clock 
 in the morning, and a day of great military audience and 
 grand review. In going out he put the key in his pocket, 
 and told the guards in his ante-chamber to pay no attention 
 if they should hear any noise in his closet. 
 
 It was dark before the review was over, and Bonaparte 
 had a large party to dinner. When his guests retired, he
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 5I 
 
 went into his wife's drawing-room, where one of the Pope's 
 chamberlains waited on him with the information that his 
 HoHness was much alarmed about the safety of Cardinal 
 Caprara, of whom no account could be obtained, even with 
 the assistance of the police, to whom application had been 
 made, since his Eminence had so suddenly disappeared. 
 " Oh ! how absent I am," answered Napoleon, as with 
 surprise ; " I entirely forgot that I left the Cardinal in 
 my closet this morning. I will go myself and make an 
 apology for my blunder." His Eminence, quite exhausted, 
 was found fast asleep ; but no sooner was he a little re- 
 covered than he interrupted Bonaparte's affected apology 
 with the repetition of the demand he had made in the 
 morning ; and so well was Napoleon pleased with him, for 
 neglecting his personal inconvenience only to occupy him- 
 self with the affairs of his Sovereign, that he consented to 
 what was asked, and in laying his hand upon the shoulders 
 of the prelate, said, " Faithful minister ! was every prince 
 so well served as your Sovereign is by you, many evils 
 might be prevented, and much good effected." The same 
 evening Duroc brought him, as a present, a snuff-box with 
 Bonaparte's portrait, set round with diamonds, worth one 
 thousand louis d'or. The adventures of this day certainly 
 did not lessen his Eminence in the favour of Napoleon or 
 of Pius VII. 
 
 4—2
 
 52 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Last November, some not entirely unknown persons 
 intended to amuse themselves at the Cardinal's expense. 
 At seven o'clock one evening, a young abbe presented 
 himself at the Cardinal's house, Hotel de Montmorin, 
 Rue Plumet, as by appointment of his Eminence, and 
 was, by his secretary, ushered into the study and asked to 
 wait there. Hardly half- an -hour afterwards, two persons, 
 pretending to be agents of the police, arrived just as the 
 Cardinal's carriage had stopped. They informed him that 
 the woman introduced into his house in the dress of an 
 abbe was connected with a gang of thieves and house- 
 breakers, and demanded his permission to arrest her. He 
 protested that, except the wife of his porter, no woman in 
 any dress whatever could be in his house, and that, to con- 
 vince themselves, they were very welcome to accompany his 
 valet-de-chambre into every room they washed to see. To 
 the great surprise of his servant, a very pretty girl was 
 found in the bed of his Eminence's bed-chamber, which 
 joined his study, who, though the pretended police agents 
 insisted on her getting up, refused, under pretence that she 
 was there waiting for her bon ami, the Cardinal. His 
 Eminence was no sooner told of this than he shut the 
 gate of his house, after sending his secretary to the com- 
 missary of police of the section. In the meantime, both 
 the police agents and the girl entreated him to let them
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 53 
 
 out, as the whole was merely a badinage ; but he remained 
 inflexible, and they were all three carried by the real police 
 commissary to prison. Upon a complaint made by his 
 luninence to Bonaparte, the police minister, Fouche, re- 
 ceived orders to have those who had dared thus to violate 
 the sacred character of the representative of the holy Pontiff 
 immediately, and without further ceremony, transported to 
 Cayenne. The Cardinal demanded, and obtained, a process 
 verbal of what had occurred, and of the sentence on the 
 culprits, to be laid before his Sovereign. As Eugenius de 
 Beauharnais interested himself so much for the individuals 
 involved in this affair, as both to implore Bonaparte's 
 pardon and the Cardinal's interference for them, many 
 were inclined to believe that he was in the secret, if not 
 the contriver of this unfortunate joke. This supposition 
 gained credit when, after all his endeavours to save them 
 proved vain, he sent them seventy-two thousand livres — 
 ^3,000— to Rochefort, that they might, on their arrival at 
 Cayenne, be able to buy a plantation. He procured them 
 also letters of recommendation to the governor, Victor 
 Hughes, to be treated differently from other transported 
 persons.
 
 54 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER VIII 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — I was particularly attentive in observ'ing the 
 countenances and demeanour of the company at the last 
 levee which Madame Napoleon Bonaparte held, previous 
 to her departure with her husband to meet the Pope at 
 Fontainebleau. I had heard from good authority " that, to 
 those whose propensities were known, Duroc's information 
 that the Empress was visible was accompanied with a kind 
 of admonitory or courtly hint, that the strictest decency in 
 dress and manners, and a conversation chaste, and rather 
 of an unusually modest turn, would be highly agreeable to 
 their Sovereigns, in consideration of the solemn occasion 
 of a Sovereign Pontiff's arrival in France ; an occurrence 
 that had not happened for centuries, and probably would 
 not happen for centuries to come." I went early, and was 
 well rewarded for my punctuality. 
 
 There came the senator Fouche, handing his amiable 
 and chaste spouse, walking with as much gravity as formerly, 
 when a friar, he marched in a procession. Then presented
 
 THE COURT Ol'" ST, CLOUD 55 
 
 themselves the senators Sieyes and R(ederer, with an air as 
 composed as if the former had still been an abbe and the 
 confessor of the latter. Next came Madame Murat, whom 
 three hours before I had seen in the Bois de Boulogne in 
 all the disgusting display of fashionable nakedness, now 
 clothed and covered to her chin. She was followed by 
 the pious Madame Le Clerc, now Princess Borghese, who 
 was sighing deeply and loudly. After her came limping 
 the godly Talleyrand, dragging his pure moiety by his side, 
 both with downcast and edifying looks ; the Christian- 
 patriots, Gravina and Lima ; Dreyer and Beust, Dal berg 
 and Cetto, Malsburgh and Pappenheim, with the Catholic 
 Schimmelpenninck and Mohammed Said Halel Effendi, all 
 presented themselves as penitent sinners imploring absolu- 
 tions, after undergoing mortifications. 
 
 But it would become tedious and merely a repetition, 
 were I to depict separately the figures and characters of 
 all the personages at this politico - comical masquerade. 
 Their conversation was, however, more uniform, more con- 
 temptible, and more laughable, than their accoutrements 
 and grimaces were ridiculous. To judge from what they 
 said, they belonged no longer to this world ; all their 
 thoughts were in heaven, and they considered themselves 
 either on the borders of eternity or on the eve of the 
 day of the Last Judgment. The truly devout Madame
 
 56 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Napoleon spoke with rapture of martyrs and miracles, of 
 the Mass and of the vespers, of Agnuses and relics of 
 Christ her Saviour, and of Pius VII., his vicar. Had not 
 her enthusiasm been interrupted by the enthusiastic com- 
 mentaries of her mother-in-law, I saw every mouth open 
 ready to cry out, as soon as she had finished, "Amen ! 
 Amen ! Amen ! " 
 
 Napoleon had placed himself between the old Cardinal 
 de Bellois and the not young Cardinal Bernier, so as to 
 prevent the approach of any profane sinner or unrepentant 
 infidel. Round him and their clerical chiefs, all the curates 
 and grand vicars, almoners and chaplains of the Court, and 
 the capitals of the princess, princesses and grand officers 
 of state, had formed a kind of cordon. " Had," said the 
 young General Kellerman to me, " Bonaparte always been 
 encompassed by troops of this description, he might now 
 have sung hymns as a saint in heaven, but he would never 
 have reigned as an Emperor upon earth." This indiscreet 
 remark was heard by Louis Bonaparte, and on the next 
 morning Kellerman received orders to join the army in 
 Hanover, where he was put under the command of a 
 general younger than himself He would have been still 
 more severely punished, had not his father, the senator 
 (Cieneral Kellerman), been in such great favour at the 
 Court of St. Cloud, and so much protected by Uuroc, who
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 57 
 
 had made, in 1792, his first campaign under this officer, 
 then commander-in-chief of the army of the Ardennes. 
 
 When this devout assembly separated, which was by 
 courtesy an hour earHer than usual, I expected every mo- 
 ment to hear a chorus of horse-laughs, because I clearly 
 perceived that all of them were tired of their assumed 
 parts, and, with me, inclined to be gay at the expense of 
 their neighbours. But they all remembered also that they 
 were watched by spies, and that an imprudent look or an 
 indiscreet word, gaiety instead of gravity, noise when 
 silence was commanded, might be followed by an airing 
 in the wilderness of Cayenne. They, therefore, all called 
 out, "Coachman, to our hotel!" — as much as to say, we 
 will to-day, in compliment to the new-born Christian zeal 
 of our Sovereigns, finish our evening as piously as we have 
 begun it. But no sooner were they out of sight of the 
 palace than they hurried to scenes of dissipation, all en- 
 deavouring, in the debauchery and excesses so natural to 
 them, to forget their unnatural affectation and hypocrisy. 
 
 Well you know the standard of the faith even of the mem- 
 bers of the Bonaparte family. Two days before this Christian 
 circle at Madame Napoleon's, Madame de Chateaureine, with 
 three other ladies, visited the Princess Borghese. Not 
 seeing a favourite parrot they had often previously admired, 
 they inquired what was become of it. "Oh, the poor
 
 58 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 creature!" answered the Princess; "I have disposed of it, as 
 well as of two of my monkeys. The Emperor has obliged 
 me to engage an almoner and two chaplains, and it would 
 be too extravagant in me to keep six useless animals in my 
 hotel. I must now submit to hearing the disgusting bowl- 
 ings of my almoner instead of the entertaining chat of my 
 parrot, and to see the awkward bows and kneelings of my 
 chaplains instead of the amusing capering of my monkeys. 
 Add to this, that I am forced to transform into a chapel 
 my elegant and tasty boudoir on the ground-floor, where 
 I have passed so many fortunate moments, so many de- 
 licious tete-a-tetes. Alas ! what a change ! — what a shocking 
 fashion, that we are now all again to be Christians ! ! ! "
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 59 
 
 LETTER IX 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — Notwithstanding what was inserted in our 
 public prints to the contrary, the reception Bonaparte ex- 
 perienced from his army of England in June last year — the 
 first time he presented himself to them as an Emperor — 
 was far from such as flattered either his vanity or views. 
 For the first days, some few solitary voices alone accom- 
 panied the " Vive PEuipereur I " of his generals, and of 
 his aides-de-camp. This indifference, or, as he called it, 
 mutinous spirit, was so much the more provoking as it was 
 unexpected. He did not, as usual, ascribe it to the emis- 
 saries or gold of England, but to the secret adherents of 
 Pichegru and Moreau amongst the brigades or divisions 
 that had served under these unfortunate generals. He 
 ordered, in consequence, his minister Berthier to make 
 out a list of all these corps. Having obtained this, he 
 separated them by ordering some to Italy, others to Hol- 
 land, and the rest to the frontiers of Spain and Germany. 
 This act of revenge or jealousy was regarded both by the 
 officers and men as a disgrace and as a doubt thrown
 
 6o THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 out against their fidelity, and the murmur was loud and 
 general. In consequence of this, some men were shot, 
 and many more arrested. Observing, however, that severity 
 had not the desired effect, Bonaparte suddenly changed 
 his conduct, released the imprisoned, and rewarded with 
 the crosses of his Legion of Honour every member of the 
 so lately suspected troops who had ever performed any 
 brilliant or valorous exploits under the proscribed generals. 
 He even incorporated among his own body-guards and 
 guides, men who had served in the same capacity under 
 these rival commanders, and numbers of their children were 
 received in the Prytanees and military free schools. The 
 enthusiastic exclamation that soon greeted his ears con- 
 vinced him that he had struck upon the right string of 
 his soldiers' hearts. Men who, some few days before, 
 wanted only the signal of a leader to cut an Emperor 
 they hated to pieces, would now have contended who 
 should be foremost to shed their last drop of blood for 
 a chief they adored. 
 
 This affected liberality towards the troops who had 
 served under his rivals roused some slight discontent among 
 tliose to whom he was chiefly indebted for his own laurels. 
 P)Ut if he knew the danger of reducing to despair slighted 
 men with arms in their hands, he also was well aware of 
 the equal danger of enduring licentiousness or audacity
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 6l 
 
 among troops who had, on all occasions, experienced his 
 preference and partiality ; and he gave a sanguinary proof 
 of his opinion on this subject at the grand parade of the 
 1 2th of July, 1804, preparatory to the grand fete of the 
 14th. A grenadier of the 21st Regiment (which was known 
 in Italy under the name of the Terrible), in presenting arms 
 to him, said, " Sire ! I have served under you four cam- 
 paigns, fought under you in ten battles or engagements ; 
 have received in your service seven wounds, and am not 
 a member of your Legion of Honour ; whilst many who 
 served under Moreau, and are not able to show a scratch 
 from an enemy, have that distinction." Bonaparte instantly 
 ordered this man to be shot by his own comrades in the 
 front of the regiment. The six grenadiers selected to fire 
 seeming to hesitate, he commanded the whole corps to lay 
 down their arms, and after being disbanded, to be sent 
 to the different colonial depots. To humiliate them still 
 more, the mutinous grenadier was shot by the gendarmes. 
 When the review was over, " Vive rEi/ipcrei/r f" resounded 
 from all parts, and his popularity among the troops has 
 since rather increased than diminished. Nobody can deny 
 that Bonaparte possesses a great presence of mind, an un- 
 daunted firmness, and a perfect knowledge of the character 
 of the people over whom he reigns. Could but justice and 
 humanity be added to his other qualities — but, unfortunately
 
 62 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 for my nation, I fear that the answer of General Mortier 
 to a remark of a friend of mine on this subject is not pro- 
 blematical : " Had," said this imperial favourite, " Napoleon 
 Bonaparte been just and humane, he would neither have 
 vanquished nor reigned." 
 
 All these scenes occurred before Bonaparte, seated 
 on a throne, received the homage, as a Sovereign, of one 
 hundred and fifty thousand warriors, who now^ bowed as 
 subjects, after having for years fought for liberty and 
 equality, and sworn hatred to all monarchical institutions ; 
 and who hitherto had saluted and obeyed him only as the 
 first among equals. What an inconsistency ! The splendour 
 and show that accompanied him everywhere, the pageantry 
 and courtly pomp that surrounded him, and the decorations 
 of the stars and ribands of the Legion of Honour, which 
 he distributed with bombastic speeches among troops — 
 to whom those political impositions and social cajoleries 
 were novelties — made such an impression upon them, that 
 had a bridge been then fixed between Calais and Dover, 
 brave as your countrymen are, I should have trembled for 
 the liberty and independence of your country. The heads 
 and imagination of the soldiers, I know from the best 
 authority, were then so exalted, that though they might 
 have been cut to pieces, they could never have been de- 
 feated or routed. I pity our children when I reflect that
 
 THE COURT OK ST. CLOUD 63 
 
 their tranquillity and happiness will, perhaps, depend upon 
 such a corrupt and unprincipled people of soldiers ; easy 
 tools in the hands of every impostor or mountebank. 
 
 The lively satisfaction which Bonaparte must have 
 felt at the pinnacle of grandeur where fortune had placed 
 him, was not, however, entirely unmixed with uneasiness 
 and vexation. Except at Berlin, in all the other great 
 Courts the Emperor of the French was still Monsieur 
 Bonaparte ; and your country, of the subjugation of which 
 he had spoken with such lightness and such inconsidera- 
 tion, instead of dreading, despised his boasts and defied 
 his threats. Indeed, never before did the Cabinet of St. 
 James' more opportunely expose the reality of his impotency, 
 the impertinence of his menaces, and the folly of his parade 
 for the invasion of your country, than by declaring all the 
 l)orts containing his invincible armada in a state of blockade. 
 I have heard from an officer who witnessed his fury when 
 in May, 1799, he was compelled to retreat from before 
 St. Jean d'Acre, and who was by his side in the camp at 
 Boulogne when a despatch informed him of this circum- 
 stance, that it was nothing compared to the violent rage 
 into which he flew upon reading it. For an hour afterwards 
 not even his brother Joseph dared approach him ; and his 
 passion got so far the better of his policy, that what might 
 still have long been concealed from the troops was known
 
 64 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 within the evening to the whole camp. He dictated to 
 his secretary orders for his ministers at Vienna, BerHn, 
 Lisbon and Madrid, and couriers were sent away with 
 them ; but half- an -hour afterwards other couriers were des- 
 patched after them with other orders, which were revoked 
 in their turn, when at last Joseph had succeeded in calming 
 him a little. He passed, however, the w'hole following night 
 full dressed and agitated ; lying down only for an instant, 
 but having always in his room Joseph and Duroc, and 
 deliberating on a thousand methods of destroying the 
 insolent islanders ; all equally violent, but all equally im- 
 practicable. 
 
 The next morning, when, as usual, he went to see 
 the manoeuvres of his flotilla, and the embarkation and 
 landing of his troops, he looked so pale that he almost 
 excited pity. Your cruisers, however, as if they had been 
 informed of the situation of our hero, approached unusually 
 near, to evince, as it were, their contempt and derision. 
 He ordered instantly all the batteries to fire, and went 
 himself to that which carried its shot farthest ; but that 
 moment six of your vessels, after taking down their sail.?, 
 cast anchors, with the greatest sang-froid, just without the 
 reach of our shot. In an unavailing anger he broke upon 
 the spot six officers of artillery, and pushed one. Captain 
 d'Ablincourt, down the precipice under the battery, where
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 65 
 
 he narrowly escaped breaking his neck as well as his legs ; 
 for which injury he was compensated by being made an 
 officer of the Legion of Honour. Bonaparte then con- 
 voked upon the spot a council of his generals of artillery 
 and of the engineers, and, within an hour's time, some guns 
 and mortars of still heavier metal and greater calibre were 
 carried up to replace the others ; but, fortunately for the 
 generals, before a trial could be made of them the tide 
 changed, and your cruisers sailed. 
 
 In returning to breakfast at Cieneral Soult's, he observed 
 the countenances of his soldiers rather inclined to laughter 
 than to wrath ; and he heard some jests, significant enough 
 in the vocabulary of encampments, and which informed him 
 that contempt was not the sentiment with which your navy 
 had inspired his troops. The occurrences of these two 
 days hastened his departure from the coast for Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, where the cringing of his courtiers consoled him, 
 in part, for the want of. respect or gallantry in your English 
 tars. 
 
 VOL. I
 
 66 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER X 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — According to a general belief in our 
 diplomatic circles, it was the Austrian ambassador in 
 France, Count Cobentzel, who principally influenced the 
 determination of Francis II. to assume the hereditary title 
 of Emperor of Austria, and to acknowledge Napoleon 
 Emperor of the French. 
 
 Jean Philippe, Count de Cobentzel, enjoys, not only in 
 his own country, but through all Europe, a great reputation 
 as a statesman, and has for a number of years been 
 employed by his Court in the most intricate and delicate 
 political transactions. In 1790 he was sent to Brabant to 
 treat with the Belgian insurgents ; but the States of Brabant 
 refusing to receive him, he retired to Luxembourg, where 
 he published a proclamation, in which Leopold II. revoked 
 all those edicts of his predecessor, Joseph II., which had 
 been the principal cause of the troubles ; and re-established 
 everything upon the same footing as during the reign of 
 Maria Theresa. In 1791 he was appointed ambassador to 
 the Court of St. Petersburg, where his conduct obtained
 
 THE COURT OF ST, CLOUD 67 
 
 the approbation of his own Prince and of the ICmpress of 
 Russia. 
 
 In 1793 the Committee of PubHc Safety nominated 
 the intriguer, I)e Semonville, ambassador to the Ottoman 
 Porte. His mission was to excite the Turks against Austria 
 and Russia, and it became of great consequence to the 
 two Imperial Courts to seize this incendiary of regicides. 
 He was therefore stopped, on the 25th of July, in the 
 village of Novate, near the lake of Chiavenne. A rumour 
 was very prevalent at this time that some papers were 
 found in De Semonville's portfolio implicating Count de 
 Cobentzel as a correspondent with the revolutionary French 
 generals. The continued confidence of his Sovereign con- 
 tradicts, however, this inculpation, which seems to have 
 been merely the invention of rivalry or jealousy. 
 
 In October, 1795, Count de Cobentzel signed, in the name 
 of the Emperor, a treaty with England and Russia; and in 
 1797 he was one of the Imperial plenipotentiaries sent to 
 Udine to negotiate with Bonaparte, with whom, on the 
 17th of October, he signed the Treaty of Campo Formio. 
 In the same capacity he went afterwards to Rastadt, and 
 when this congress broke up, he returned again as an 
 ambassador to St. Petersburg. 
 
 After the Peace of Luneville, when it required to have 
 
 a man of experience and talents to oppose to our so deeply 
 
 5—2
 
 68 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 able minister, Talleyrand, the Cabinet of Vienna removed 
 him from Russia to France, where, with all other repre- 
 sentatives of princes, he has experienced more of the 
 frowns and rebukes, than of the dignity and good grace, 
 of our present Sovereign. 
 
 Count de Cobentzel's foible is said to be a passion 
 for women ; and it is reported that our worthy minister, 
 Talleyrand, has been kind enough to assist him frequently 
 in his amours. Some adventures of this sort, which occurred 
 at Rastadt, afforded much amusement at the Count's ex- 
 pense. Talleyrand, from envy, no doubt, does not allow 
 him the same political merit as his other political contem- 
 poraries, having frequently repeated, "that the official dinners 
 of Count de Cobentzel were greatly preferable to his official 
 notes." 
 
 So well pleased was Bonaparte with this ambassador 
 when at Aix - la - Chapelle last year, that, as a singular 
 favour, he permitted him, with the Marquis de Gallo (the 
 Neapolitan minister and another plenipotentiary at Udine), 
 to visit the camps of his army of England on the coast. 
 It is true that this condescension was, perhaps, as much 
 a boast, or a threat, as a compliment. 
 
 The famous diplomatic note of Talleyrand, which, at 
 Aix - la - Chapelle, proscribed en masse all your diplomatic 
 agents, was only a slight revenge of Bonaparte's for your
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 69 
 
 mandate of blockade. Rumour .states that this measure 
 was not approved of by Talleyrand, as it would not exclude 
 any of your ambassadors from those ('ourts not immediately 
 under the whip of our Napoleon. For fear, however, of 
 some more extravagant determination, Joseph Bonaparte 
 dissuaded him from laying before his brother any objections 
 or representations. "But what absurdities do I not sign!" 
 exclaimed the pliant minister. 
 
 Bonaparte, on his arrival at Aix - la - Chapelle, found 
 there, according to command, most of the members of the 
 foreign diplomatic corps in l^Vance, waiting to present their 
 new credentials to him as Emperor. Charlemagne had been 
 saluted as such, in the same place, about one thousand 
 years before ; an inducement for the modern Charlemagne 
 to set all these ambassadors travelling some hundred miles, 
 without any other object but to gratify his impertinent 
 vanity. Every spot where Charlemagne had walked, sat, 
 slept, talked, eaten or })rayed, was visited by him with 
 great ostentation ; always dragging behind him the foreign 
 representatives, and by his side his wife. To a peasant 
 who presented him a stone upon which Charlemagne was 
 said to have once kneeled, he gave nearly half its weight 
 in gold ; on a priest who offered him a small crucifix, 
 before which that Prince was reported to have prayed, he 
 bestowed an episcopal see ; to a manufacturer he ordered
 
 yo THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 one thousand louis for a portrait of Charlemagne, said to 
 be drawn by his daughter, but which, in fact, was from the 
 pencil of the daughter of the manufacturer ; a German 
 savant was made a member of the National Institute for 
 an old diploma, supposed to have been signed by Charle- 
 magne, who many believe was not able to wTite ; and a 
 German baron, Krigge, was registered in the Legion of 
 Honour for a ring presented by this Emperor to one of his 
 ancestors, though his nobility is well known not to be of 
 sixty years' standing. But woe to him who dared to suggest 
 any doubt about what Napoleon believed, or seemed to be- 
 lieve ! A German professor, Richter, more a pedant than 
 a courtier, and more sincere than wise, addressed a short 
 memorial to Bonaparte, in which he proved, from his inti- 
 macy with antiquity, that most of the pretended relics of 
 Charlemagne were impositions on the credulous ; that the 
 portrait was a drawing of this century, the diploma written 
 in the last; the crucifix manufactured within fifty, and the 
 ring, perhaps, within ten years. The night after Bonaparte 
 had perused this memorial, a police commissary, accompanied 
 by four gendarmes, entered the professors bedroom, forced 
 him to dress, and ushered him into a covered cart, which 
 carried him under escort to the left bank of the Rhine ; 
 where he was left with orders, under pain of death, never 
 more to enter the territory of the French empire. This
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 7I 
 
 expedition and summary justice silenced all other connois- 
 seurs and antiquarians ; and relics of Charlemagne have 
 since poured in, in such numbers, from all parts of France, 
 Italy, Germany, and even Denmark, that we are here in 
 hope to see one day established a museum Charlemagne, 
 by the side of the museums Napoleon and Josephine. A 
 ballad, written in monkish Latin, said to be sung by the 
 daughters and maids of Charlemagne at his Court on great 
 festivities, was addressed to Duroc by a Danish professor, 
 Cranener, who in return was presented, on the part of 
 Bonaparte, with a diamond ring worth twelve thousand 
 livres— ^500. This ballad may, perhaps, be the founda- 
 tion of a future Bibliothlque or Lyceum Charlemagne.
 
 72 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XI 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — On the arrival of her husband at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, Madame Napoleon had lost her money by gam- 
 bling, without recovering her health by using the baths and 
 drinking the waters ; she was, therefore, as poor as low- 
 spirited, and as ill - tempered as dissatisfied. Napoleon 
 himself was neither much in humour to supply her present 
 wants, provide for her extravagances, or to forgive her ill- 
 nature ; he ascribed the inefficacy of the waters to her 
 excesses, and reproached her for too great condescension 
 to many persons who presented themselves at her drawing- 
 room and in her circle, but who, from their rank in life, 
 were only fit to be seen as supplicants in her ante-chambers, 
 and as associates with her valets or chambermaids. 
 
 The fact was that Madame Napoleon knew as well 
 as her husband that these gentry were not in their place 
 in the company of an Empress ; but they were her creditors, 
 some of them even Jews ; and as long as she continued 
 debtor to them she could not decently — or rather, she 
 dared not — prevent them from being visitors to her. By
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUU 
 
 73 
 
 confiding her situation to her old friend, Talleyrand, she 
 was, however, soon released from those troublesome per- 
 sonages. When the minister was informed of the occasion 
 of the attendance of these impertinent intruders, he humbly 
 proposed to Bonaparte not to pay their demands and their 
 due, but to make them examples of severe justice in 
 transporting them to Cayenne, as the only sure means to 
 prevent, for the future, people of the same description from 
 being familiar or audacious. 
 
 When, thanks to Talleyrand's interference, these family 
 arrangements were settled, Madame Napoleon recovered 
 her health with her good-humour ; and her husband, who 
 had begun to forget the English blockade, only to think 
 of the papal accolade (dubbing), was more tender than ever. 
 I am assured that, during the fortnight he continued with 
 his wife at Aix-la-Chapelle, he only shut her up or con- 
 fined her twice, kicked her three times, and abused her 
 once a day. 
 
 It was during their residence in that capital that 
 Count de Segur at last completed the composition of their 
 household, and laid before them the list of the ladies and 
 gentlemen who had consented to put on their livery. This 
 de Segur is a kind of amphibious animal, neither a royalist 
 nor a republican, neither a democrat nor an aristocrat, but 
 a disaffected subject under a king, a dangerous citizen of
 
 74 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 a commonwealth, ridiculing both the friend of equality and 
 the defender of prerogatives ; no exact definition can be 
 given, from his past conduct and avowed professions, of 
 his real moral and political character. One thing is only 
 certain — he was an ungrateful traitor to Louis XVI., and 
 is a submissive slave under Napoleon the First. 
 
 Though not of an ancient family, Count de Segur 
 was a nobleman by birth, and ranked among the ancient 
 French nobility because one of his ancestors had been 
 a field -marshal. Being early introduced at Court, he ac- 
 quired, with the common corruption, also the pleasing 
 manners of a courtier ; and by his assiduities about the 
 ministers, Counts de Maurepas and de Vergennes, he procured 
 from the latter the place of an ambassador to the Court 
 of St. Petersburg. With some reading and genius, but with 
 more boasting and presumption, he classed himself among 
 French men of letters, and was therefore as such received 
 with distinction by Catharine II., on whom, and on whose 
 Covernment, he in return published a libel. He was a 
 valet under La Fayette, in 1789, as he has since been under 
 every succeeding king of faction. The partisans of the 
 Revolution pointed him out as a fit ambassador from 
 Louis XVI. to the late King of Prussia ; and he went in 
 1 791 to Berlin, in that capacity; but Frederick William II. 
 refused him admittance to his person, and after some
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 75 
 
 ineffectual intrigues with the illuminati and philosophers at 
 Berlin, he returned to Paris as he left it ; provided, how- 
 ever, with materials for another libel on the Prussian 
 Monarch, and on the House of Brandenburgh, which he 
 {printed in 1796. Ruined by the Revolution which he had 
 so much admired, he was imprisoned under Robespierre, 
 and was near starving under the Directory, having nothing 
 but his literary productions to subsist on. In 1799, 
 Bonaparte made him a legislator, and in 1803, a counsellor 
 of state ; a place which he resigned last year for that of a 
 grand master of the ceremonies at the present Imperial 
 Court. His ancient inveteracy against your country has 
 made him a favourite with Bonaparte. The indelicate and 
 scandalous attacks, in 1796 and 1797, against Lord Malmes- 
 bury, in the then official journal, Le Redacteur, were the 
 offspring of his malignity and pen ; and the philippics 
 and abusive notes in our present official Monitetir, against 
 your government and country, are frequently his patriotic 
 progeny, or rather, he often shares with Talleyrand and 
 Hauterive their paternity. 
 
 The Revolution has not made Count de Segur more 
 happy with regard to his family, than in his circumstances, 
 which, notwithstanding his brilliant grand - mastership, are 
 far from being affluent. His amiable wife died of terror, 
 and broken-hearted from the sufferings she had experienced.
 
 76 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 and the atrocities she had witnessed ; and when he had 
 enticed his eldest son to accept the place of a sub-prefect 
 under Bonaparte, his youngest son, who never approved 
 our present regeneration, challenged his brother to fight, 
 and, after killing him in a duel, destroyed himself. Count 
 de Segur is therefore, at present, neither a husband nor a 
 father, but only a grand master of ceremonies ! What an 
 indemnification ! 
 
 Madame Napoleon and her husband are both cer- 
 tainly under much obligation to this nobleman for his care 
 to procure them comparatively decent persons to decorate 
 their levees and drawing-rooms, who, though they have no 
 claim either to morality or virtue, either to honour or 
 chastity, are undoubtedly a great acquisition at the Court 
 of St. Cloud, because none of them has either been accused 
 of murder, or convicted of plunder ; which is the case with 
 some of the ministers, and most of the generals, senators 
 and counsellors. It is true that they are a mixture of 
 beggared nobles and enriched valets, of married courtesans 
 and divorced wives, but, for all that, they can with justice 
 demand the places of honour of all other Imperial courtiers 
 of both sexes. 
 
 When Bonaparte had read over the names of these 
 ("ourt recruits, engaged and enlisted by de Segur, he said, 
 " Well, this lumber must do until we can exchange it for
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 77 
 
 better furniture." At that time, young Count d'Arberg (of 
 a German family, on the right bank of the Rhine), but 
 whose mother is one of Madame Bonaparte's maids-of- 
 honour, was travelHng for him in Germany and in Prussia, 
 where, among other negofiatiofis, he was charged to procure 
 some persons of both sexes, of the most ancient nobility, 
 to augment Napoleon's suite, and to figure in his livery. 
 More individuals presented themselves for this honour than 
 he wanted, but they were all without education, and without 
 address : ignorant of the world as of books ; not speaking 
 well their own language, much less understanding French 
 or Italian ; vain of their birth, but not ashamed of their 
 ignorance, and as proud as poor. This project was there- 
 fore relinquished for the present ; but a number of the 
 children of the principal ci-devant German nobles, who, by 
 the Treaty of Luneville and Ratisbon, had become subjects 
 of Bonaparte, were, by the advice of Talleyrand, offe7-ed 
 places in French Prytanees, where the Emperor promised 
 to take care of their future advancement. Madame Bona- 
 parte, at the same time, selected twenty-five young girls 
 of the same families, whom she also offered to educate 
 at her expense. Their parents understood too well the 
 meaning of these generous offers to dare decline their 
 acceptance. These children are the plants of the Imperial 
 nursery, intended to produce future pages, chamberlains.
 
 78 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 equerries, maids-of -honour and ladies -in waiting, who for 
 ancestry may bid defiance to all their equals of every Court 
 in Christendom. This act of benevolence, as it was called in 
 some German papers, is also an indirect chastisement of 
 the refractory French nobility, who either demanded too 
 high prices for their degradation, or abruptly refused to 
 disgrace the names of their forefathers.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 79 
 
 LETTER XII 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — Bonaparte has been as profuse in his 
 disposal of the imperial diadem of (lermany, as in his 
 promises of the papal tiara of Rome. The Houses of 
 Austria and Brandenburgh, the Electors of Bavaria and 
 Baden, have by turns been cajoled into a belief of his 
 exclusive support towards obtaining it at the first vacancy. 
 Those, however, who have paid attention to his machina- 
 tions, and studied his actions ; who remember his pedantic 
 affectation of being considered a modern, or rather a second 
 Charlemagne ; and who have traced his steps through the 
 labyrinth of folly and wickedness, of meanness and greatness, 
 of art, corruption and policy, which have seated him on 
 his present throne, can entertain little doubt but that he 
 is seriously bent on seizing and adding the sceptre of 
 Germany to the crowns of France and Italy. 
 
 During his stay last autumn at Mentz, all those German 
 Electors who had spirit and dignity enough to refuse to 
 attend on him there in person, were obliged to send 
 extraordinary ambassadors to wait on him, and to compli-
 
 8o THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 ment him on their part. Though hardly one corner of the 
 veil that covered the intrigues going forward there is yet 
 lifted up, enough is already seen to warn Europe and 
 alarm the world. The secret treaties he concluded there 
 with most of the petty Princes of Germany, against the 
 Chief of the German empire (which not only entirely 
 detached them from their country and its legitimate 
 Sovereign, but made their individual interests hostile and 
 totally opposite to that of the German commonwealth, 
 transforming them also from independent princes into 
 vassals of France), both directly increased his already 
 gigantic power, and indirectly encouraged him to extend it 
 beyond what his most sanguine expectation had induced 
 him to hope. I do not make this assertion from a mere 
 supposition in consequence of ulterior occurrences. At a 
 supper with Madame Talleyrand last March, I heard her 
 husband, in a gay, unguarded, or perhaps premeditated 
 moment, say, when mentioning his proposed journey to 
 Italy, " I prepared myself to pass the Alps last October at 
 Mentz. The first ground-stone of the throne of Italy was, 
 strange as it may seem, laid on the banks of the Rhine : 
 with such an extensive foundation, it must be difficult to 
 shake, and impossible to overturn it." We were, in the 
 whole, twenty-five persons at table when he spoke thus, 
 many of whom, he well knew, were intimately acquainted
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 8l 
 
 both with the Austrian and I'russian ambassadors, who, 
 by-the-by, both on the next day sent couriers to their 
 respective Courts. 
 
 The French Revolution is neither seen in (Germany in 
 that dangerous hght which might naturally be expected 
 from the sufferings in which it has involved both princes 
 and subjects ; nor are its future effects dreaded from its 
 past enormities. The cause of this impolitic and anti- 
 patriotic apathy is to be looked for in the palaces of 
 sovereigns, and not in the dwellings of their people. There 
 exists hardly a single German prince whose ministers, 
 courtiers and counsellors are not numbered, and have long 
 been notorious among the anti-social conspirators, the lUu- 
 minati : most of them are knaves of abilities, who have 
 usurped the easy direction of ignorance, or forced them- 
 selves as guides on weakness or folly, which bow to their 
 charlatanism as if it was sublimity, and hail their sophistry 
 and imposture as inspiration. 
 
 Among princes thus encompassed, the Elector of 
 Bavaria must be allowed the first place. A younger brother 
 of a younger branch, and a colonel in the service of Louis 
 XVI., he neither acquired by education, nor inherited from 
 nature, any talent to reign, nor possessed any one quality 
 that fitted him for a higher situation than the head of a 
 regiment or a lady's drawing-room. He made himself 
 
 VOL. I 6
 
 82 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 justly suspected of a moral corruption, as well as of a 
 natural incapacity, when he announced his approbation of 
 the Revolution against his benefactor, the late King of 
 France, who, besides a regiment, had also given him a 
 yearly pension of one hundred thousand livres — ^^4,000. 
 Immediately after his unexpected accession to the Electorate 
 of Bavaria, he concluded a subsidiary treaty with your 
 country, and his troops were ordered to combat rebellion, 
 under the standard of Austrian loyalty. For some months 
 it was believed that the Elector wished by his conduct to 
 obliterate the memory of the errors, vices and principles of 
 the Duke of Deux -Fonts (his former title). But placing all 
 his confidence in a political adventurer and revolutionary 
 fanatic, Montgelas, without either consistency or firmness, 
 without being either bent upon information or anxious 
 about popularity, he threw the whole burden of state on 
 the shoulders of this dangerous man, who soon showed 
 the world that his master, by his first treaties, intended 
 only to pocket your money without serving your cause or 
 interest. 
 
 This Montgelas is, on account of his cunning and long 
 standing among them, worshipped by the gang of German 
 Illuminati as an idol rather than revered as an apostle. He 
 is their Baal, before whom they hope to oblige all nations 
 upon earth to prostrate themselves as soon as infidelity
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 83 
 
 has entirely banished (Jhristianity ; for the lUuminati do 
 not expect to reign till the last Christian is buried under 
 the rubbish of the last altar of Christ. It is not the fault 
 of Montgelas if such an event has not already occurred in 
 the lilectorate of Bavaria. 
 
 Within six months after the Treaty of T>uneville, 
 Montgelas began in that country his political and religious 
 innovations. The nobility and the clergy were etjually 
 attacked ; the privileges of the former were invaded, and 
 the property of the latter confiscated ; and had not his 
 zeal carried him too far, so as to alarm our new nobles, 
 our new men of property, and neiv Christians, it is very 
 probable that Atheism would have already, without opposi- 
 tion, reared its head in the midst of Germany, and 
 proclaimed there the rights of man, and the code of 
 liberty and equality. 
 
 The inhabitants of JJavaria are, as you know, all 
 Roman Catholics, and the most superstitious and ignorant 
 Catholics of Cermany. The step is but short from super- 
 stition to infidelity ; and ignorance has furnished in France 
 more sectaries of Atheism than perversity. The Illuminati, 
 [yrothers and friends of Montgelas, have not been idle in 
 that country. Their writings have 'perverted those who 
 had no opportunity to hear their speeches, or to witness 
 their example ; and 1 am assured by Count de l>eust,
 
 84 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 who travelled in Bavaria last year, that their progress 
 among the lower classes is astonishing, considering the 
 short period these emissaries have laboured. To anyone 
 looking on the map of the Continent, and acquainted with 
 the spirit of our times, this impious focus of illumination 
 must be ominous. 
 
 Among the members of the foreign diplomatic corps, 
 there exists not the least doubt but that this Montgelas, as 
 well as Bonaparte's minister at Munich, Otto, was acquainted 
 with the treacherous part Mehee de la Touche played against 
 your minister, Drake : and that it was planned between 
 him and Talleyrand as the surest means to break off all 
 political connections between your country and Bavaria. 
 Mr. Drake was personally liked by the Elector, and was not 
 inattentive either to the plans and views of Montgelas or to 
 the intrigues of Otto. They were, therefore, both doubly 
 interested to remove such a troublesome witness. 
 
 M. de Montgelas is now a grand officer of Bonaparte's 
 Legion of Honour, and he is one of the few foreigners 
 nominated the iiwsf worthy of such a distinction. In 
 France he would have been an acquisition either to the 
 factions of a Marat, of a Brissot, or of a Robespierre ; and 
 the Goddess of Reason, as well as the (jod of the Theophil- 
 anthropists, might have been sure of counting him among 
 their adorers. At the clubs of the Jacobins or Cordeliers,
 
 THK COURT OK ST. CLOUD 85 
 
 in the fraternal societies, or in a revolutionary tribunal ; 
 in the Committee of Public Safety, or in the council 
 chamber of the Directory, he would ecjually have made 
 himself notorious and been equally in his place. A 
 stoic scDis-culottc imder l)u Clots, a staunch republican 
 under Robespierre, he would now have been the most 
 pliant and brilliant courtier of Bonaparte.
 
 86 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XIII 
 
 Paris, Angus f, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — No Queen of France ever saw so many 
 foreign princes and princesses in her drawing-rooms as the 
 first Empress of the French did last year at Mentz ; and no 
 sovereign was ever before so well paid, or accepted with 
 less difficulty donations and presents for her gracious 
 protection. Madame Napoleon herself, on her return to 
 this capital last October, boasted that she was ten millions 
 of livres — ^420,000 — richer in diamonds : two millions of 
 livres — ^62,000 — richer in pearls, and three millions of livres 
 — ;!^i25,ooo — richer in plate and china, than in the June 
 before, when she (juitted it. She acknowledged that she 
 left behind her some creditors and some money at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle ; but at Mentz she did not want to borrow, nor 
 had time to gamble. The gallant ultra Jvo/iia/is provided 
 everything, even to the utmost extent of her wishes ; and 
 she, on her part, could not but honour those with her 
 company as much as possible, particularly as they required 
 uofhing c/sc for their civilities. Such was the Empress's 
 expression to her lady-in-waiting, the handsome Madame 
 Scran, with whom no confidence, no tale, no story and no
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 87 
 
 scandal expires ; and who was in a great hurry to inform, 
 the same evening, the tea party at Madame de Beauvais' 
 of this good news, complaining at the same time of not 
 having had the least share in this rich harvest. 
 
 Nowhere, indeed, were bribery and corruption carried to 
 a greater extent, or practised with more effrontery, than at 
 Mentz. Madame Napoleon had as much her fixed price for 
 every favourable word she spoke, as I'alleyrand had for every 
 line he wrote. Even the attendants of the former, and the 
 clerks of the latter, demanded, or rather extorted, douceurs 
 from the exhausted and almost ruined German petitioners ; 
 who in the end were rewarded for all their meanness and 
 for all their expenses with promises at best ; as the new 
 plan of supplementary indemnities was, on the very day 
 proposed for its final arrangement, postponed by the desire 
 of the Emperor of the French, until further orders. This 
 prm'oking delay could no more be foreseen by the Empress 
 than by the minister, who, in return for their presents and 
 money almost overpowered the German Princes with his pro- 
 testations of regret at their disappointments. Nor was Madame 
 iionaparte less sorry or less civil. .She sent her chamberlain, 
 1 )aubusson la Feuillad, with regular compliments of condo- 
 lence to every Prince who had enjoyed her protection. They 
 returned to their homes, therefore, if not wealthier, at least 
 ha]')pier ; flattered by assurances and condescensions, confiding
 
 88 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 in hope as in certainties. Within three months, however, it 
 is supposed that they would wilUngly have disposed both of 
 promises and expectations at a loss of fifty per cent. 
 
 By the cupidity and selfishness of these and other 
 German Princes, and their want of patriotism, Talleyrand 
 was become perfectly acquainted with the value and produc- 
 tion of every principality, bishopric, county, abbey, barony, 
 convent and even village in the German empire; and though 
 most national property in France was disposed of at one 
 or two years' purchase, he required five years' purchase-money 
 for all the estates and lands on the other side of the Rhine, 
 of which, under the name of indemnities, he stripped the 
 lawful owners to gratify the ambition or avidity of intruders. 
 This high price has cooled the claims of the bidders, and 
 the plan of the supplementary indemnities is still suspended, 
 and probably will continue so until our minister lowers his 
 terms. A combination is supposed to have been entered 
 into by the chief demanders of indemnities, by which they 
 have bound themselves to resist all farther extortions. They 
 do not, however, know the man they have to deal with ; 
 he will, perhaps, find out some to lay claim to their own 
 private and hereditary property whom he will produce and 
 support, and who certainly will have the same right to pillage 
 them as they had to the spoils of others. 
 
 It was reported in our fashionable circles last autumn.
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 89 
 
 and smiled at by Talleyrand, that he promised the Countess 
 
 de L an abbey, and the Baroness de S z a convent, 
 
 for certain personal favours, and that he offered a bishopric 
 
 to the Princess of H on the same terms, but this lady 
 
 answered, " that she would think of his offers after he had 
 put her husband in possession of the bishopric." It is not 
 necessary to observe that both the Countess and the 
 Baroness are yet waiting to enjoy his liberal donations, 
 and to be indemnified for their prostitution. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte was attacked by a fit of jealousy at 
 Mentz. The young nephew of the Elector Arch-Chancellor, 
 
 Count de L ge, was very assiduous about the Empress, 
 
 who, herself, at first mistook the motive. Her confidential 
 secretary, Deschamps, however, afterwards informed her 
 that this nobleman wanted to purchase the place of a co- 
 adjutor to his uncle, so as to be certain of succeeding him. 
 He obtained, therefore, several private audiences, no doubt 
 to regulate the price, when Napoleon put a stop to this 
 secret negotiation by having the Count carried by gen- 
 darmes, with great politeness, to the other side of the 
 Rhine. When convinced of his error, Bonaparte asked his 
 wife what sum had been promised for her protection, and 
 immediately gave her an order on his minister of the 
 treasury (Marbois) for the amount. This was an act of 
 justice, and a reparation worthy of a good and tender hus-
 
 90 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 band : but when, the very next day, he recalled this order, 
 threw it into the fire before her eyes, and confined her 
 for six hours in her bedroom, because she was not dressed 
 in time to take a walk with him on the ramparts, one 
 is apt to believe that military despotism has erased from 
 his bosom all connubial affection, and that a momentary 
 effusion of kindness and generosity can but little alleviate 
 the frequent pangs caused by repeated insults and oppres- 
 sion. Fortunately, Madame Napoleon's disposition is proof 
 against rudeness as well as against brutality. If what her 
 friend and console?; Madame Delucay, reports of her is not 
 exaggerated, her tranquillity is not much disturbed nor her 
 happiness affected by these explosions of passionate authority, 
 and she prefers admiring, in undisturbed solitude, her dia- 
 mond box to the most beautiful prospects in the most 
 agreeable company : and she inspects with more pleasure 
 in confinement, her rich wardrobe, her beautiful china, and 
 her heavy plate, than she would find satisfaction, sur- 
 rounded with crowds, in contemplating Nature, even m its 
 utmost perfection. ''The paradise of Madame Napoleon," 
 says her friend, '' must be of metal, and lighted by the 
 lustre of brilliants, else she would decline it for a hell and 
 accept Lucifer himself for a spouse, provided gold flowed 
 in his infernal domains, though she were even to be 
 scorched by its heat."
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 9I 
 
 LET'J'ER XIV 
 
 Paris, Augi/st, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lor J),— I believe that T have mentioned to you, 
 when in England, that I was an old acquaintance of Madame 
 Napoleon, and a visitor at the house of her first husband. 
 When introduced to her after some years' absence, during 
 which fortune had treated us very differently, she received 
 me with more civility than I was prepared to expect, and 
 would, perhaps, have spoken to me more than she did, 
 had not a look of her husband silenced her. Madame 
 Louis Bonaparte was still more condescending, and recalled 
 to my memory what I had not forgotten — how often she 
 had been seated, when a child, on my lap, and played on 
 m)- knees with her doll. Thus they behaved to me when 
 I saw them for the first time in their present elevation ; 
 I found them afterwards, in their drawing-rooms or at their 
 routs and parties, more shy and distant. This change did 
 not much surprise me, as I hardly knew anyone that had 
 the slightest pretension to their acquaintance who had not 
 troubled them for employment or borrowed their mone)', at 
 the same time that they complained of their neglect and
 
 92 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 their breach of promises. I continued, however, as much 
 as etiquette and decency required, assiduous, but never 
 famihar : if they addressed me, I answered with respect, 
 but not with servility ; if not, I bowed in silence when 
 they passed. They might easily perceive that I did not 
 intend to become an intruder, nor to make the remem 
 brance of what was past an apology or a reason for 
 applying for present favours. A lady, on intimate terms 
 with Madame Napoleon, and once our common friend, in- 
 formed me, shortly after the untimely end of the lamented 
 Duke of Enghien, that she had been asked whether she 
 knew anything that could be done for me, or whether I 
 would not be flattered by obtaining a place in the Legis- 
 lative Body or in the Tribunate ? I answered as I thought, 
 that were I fit for a public life nothing could be more 
 agreeable or suit me better ; but, having hitherto declined 
 all employments that might restrain that independence to 
 which I had accustomed myself from my youth, I was now 
 too old to enter upon a new career. I added that, though 
 the Revolution had reduced my circumstances, it had not 
 entirely ruined me. I was still independent, because my 
 means were the boundaries of my wants. 
 
 A week after this conversation (ieneral Murat, the 
 governor of this capital, and Bonaparte's favourite brother- 
 in-law, invited me to a conversation in a note delivered to
 
 THK COl'KT OF ST. CLOUU 93 
 
 nie by an aide-de-camp, who told nie that he was ordered 
 to wait for my company, or, which was the same, he 
 had orders not to lose sight of me, as 1 was his prisoner. 
 Having nothing with which to reproach myself, and all my 
 written remarks being deposited with a friend, whom none 
 of the Imperial functionaries could suspect, I entered a 
 hackney coach without any fear or apprehension ; and we 
 drove to the governor's hotel. 
 
 From the manner in which General Murat addressed 
 me, I was soon convinced that if I liad been accused of 
 any error or indiscretion, the accusation could not be very 
 grave in his eyes. He entered with me into his closet, 
 and encjuired whether I had any enemies at the police 
 office ? I told him not to my knowledge. — " Is the police 
 minister and senator, Fouche, your friend ? " continued he. 
 — " Fouche," .said I, " has bought an estate that formerly 
 belonged to me ; may he enjoy it with the same peace of 
 mind as I have lost it. I have never spoken to him in 
 my life." — " Have you not complained at Madame de la 
 I'brce's of the execution of the ci-devant Duke of Enghien, 
 and agreed with the other members of her coterie to put 
 on mourning for him ? " — " I have never been at the house 
 of that lady since the death of the Prince, nor more than 
 once in my life." — " Where did you pass the evening last 
 Saturday ? " — " At the hotel, and in the assembly of Princess
 
 94 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Louis Bonaparte." — "Did she see you?" — "I believe that 
 she did, because she returned my salute." — " You have known 
 her Imperial Highness a long time?" — "From her infancy." 
 — " Well, I congratulate you. You have in her a generous 
 protectress. But for her you would now have been on the 
 way to Cayenne. Here you see the list of persons con- 
 demned yesterday, upon the report of Fouche, to transporta- 
 tion. Your name is at the head of them. You were not 
 only accused of being an agent of the Bourbons, but of 
 having intrigued to become a member of the Legislature, 
 or of the Tribunate, that you might have so much the 
 better opportunity to serve them. Fortunately for you, the 
 Emperor remembered that the Princess Louis had demanded 
 such a favour for you, and he informed her of the character 
 of her protege. This brought forward your innocence, be- 
 cause it was discovered that, instead of asking for, you had 
 declined the offer she had made you through the Empress. 
 Write the Princess a letter of thanks. You have, indeed, 
 had a narrow escape, but it has been so far useful to you, 
 that (xovernment is now aware of your having some secret 
 enemy in power, who is not delicate about the means of 
 injuring you." 
 
 \\\ quitting General Murat, I could not help deploring 
 the fate of a despot, even while I abhorred his unnatural 
 power. The curses, the complaints, and reproaches for all
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUU 95 
 
 the crimes, all the violence, all the oppression perpetrated 
 in his name, are entirely thrown upon him ; while his 
 situation and occupation do not admit the seeing and 
 hearing everything and everybody himself. He is often 
 forced, therefore, to judge according to the report of an 
 impostor ; to sanction with his name the hatred, malignity 
 or vengeance of culpable individuals ; and to sacrifice inno- 
 cence to gratify the vile passions of his vilest slave. I have 
 not so bad an opinion of Bonaparte as to think him capable 
 of wilfully condemning any person to death or transportation, 
 of whose innocence he was convinced, provided that person 
 stood not in the way of his interest and ambition ; but 
 suspicion and tyranny are inseparable companions, and in- 
 justice their common progeny. The unfortunate beings on 
 the long list Creneral Murat showed me were, I dare say, 
 most of them as innocent as myself, and all certainly con- 
 demned un/ieard. But suppose, even, that they had been 
 indiscreet enough to put on mourning for a prince of the 
 blood of their former kings, did their imprudence deserve 
 the same punishment as the deed of the robber, the forger or 
 the housebreaker ? and, indeed, it was more severe than what 
 our laws inflict on such criminals, who are only condemned 
 to transportation for some few years, after a public trial and 
 conviction ; while the exile of these unconvicted, untried, 
 and most probably innocent persons is continued for life,
 
 96 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 on charges as unknown to themselves as their destiny and 
 residence remain to their famihes and friends. Happy 
 England ! where no one is condemned unheard, and no 
 one dares attempt to make the laws subservient to his 
 passions or caprice. 
 
 As to Fouche's enmity, at which General Murat so 
 plainly hinted, I had long apprehended it from what others, 
 in similar circumstances with myself, had suffered. He has, 
 since the Revolution, bought no less than sixteen national 
 estates, seven of the former proprietors of which have 
 suddenly disappeared since his ministry, probably in the 
 manner he intended to remove me. This man is one of 
 the most immoral characters the Revolution has dragged 
 forward from obscurity. It is more difficult to mention a 
 crime that he has not perpetrated than to discover a good 
 or just action that he ever performed. He is so notorious a 
 villain that even the infamous National Convention expelled 
 him from its bosom, and since his ministry no man has been 
 found base enough, in my debased country, to extenuate, 
 much less to defend, his past enormities. In a nation so 
 greatly corrupted and immoral this alone is more than 
 negative evidence. 
 
 As a friar before the Revolution he has avowed^ in 
 his correspondence with the National Convention, that he 
 never believed in a God ; and as one of the first public
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 97 
 
 functionaries of a Republic he has officially denied the 
 existence of virtue. He is, therefore, as unmoved by tears 
 as by reproaches, and as inaccessible to remorse as hardened 
 against repentance. With him interest and bribes are every- 
 thing, and honour and honesty nothing. The supplicant or 
 the pleader who appears before him with no other support 
 than the justice of his cause is fortunate indeed if, after 
 being cast, he is not also confined or ruined, and perhaps 
 both ; while a line from one of the Bonapartes, or a purse 
 of gold, changes black to white, guilt to innocence, removes 
 the scaffold waiting for the assassin, and extinguishes the 
 faggots lighted for the parricide. His authority is so ex- 
 tensive, that on the least signal, with one blow, from the 
 extremities of France to her centre, it crushes the cot and 
 the palace ; and his decisions, against which there is no 
 appeal, are so destructive that they never leave any traces 
 behind them, and Bonaparte, Bonaparte alone^ can prevent 
 or arrest their effect. 
 
 Though a traitor to his former benefactor, the ex- 
 Director Barras, he possesses now the unlimited confidence 
 of Napoleon Bonaparte, and, as far as is known, has not 
 yet done anything to forfeit it ; if private acts of cruelty 
 cannot, in the agent of a tyrant, be called breach of trust 
 or infidelity. He shares with Talleyrand the fraternity of 
 the vigilant, immoral and tormenting secret police ; and 
 
 VOL. I 7
 
 g8 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 with Real and Dubois, the prefect of police, the repro- 
 duction, or rather the invention, of new tortures and im- 
 proved racks ; the oubliettes, which are wells or pits dug 
 under the Temple and most other prisons, are the works 
 of his own infernal genius. They are covered with trap- 
 doors, and any person whom the rack has mutilated, or not 
 obliged to speak out ; whose return to society is thought 
 dangerous, or whose discretion is suspected ; who has been 
 imprisoned by mistake, or discovered to be innocent ; who 
 is disagreeable to the Bonapartes, their favourites, or the 
 mistresses of their favourites ; who has displeased Fouche, 
 or offended some other placeman ; any who have refused 
 to part with their property for the recovery of their liberty, 
 are all precipitated into these artificial abysses — there to he 
 forgotten ; or worse, to be starved to death, if they have 
 not been fortunate enough to break their necks and be 
 killed by the fall. 
 
 The property Fouche has acquired by his robberies 
 within these last twelve years is at the lowest rate valued 
 at fifty millions of livres — ^2,100,000 — which must increase 
 yearly ; as a man who disposes of the liberty of fifty 
 millions of people is also, in a great part, master of their 
 wealth. Except the chiefs of the governments and their 
 officers of state, there exists not an inhabitant of France, 
 Italy, Holland or Switzerland who can consider himself
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 99 
 
 secure for an instant of not being seized, imprisoned, 
 plundered, tortured or exterminated by the orders of 
 Fouche and by the hands of his agents. 
 
 You will, no doubt, exclaim, " How can Bonaparte em- 
 ploy, how dares he confide, in such a man ?" Fouche is 
 as able as unprincipled, and, with the most unfeeling and 
 perverse heart, possesses great talents. There is no infamy 
 he will not stoop to, and no crime, however execrable, that 
 he will hesitate to commit, if his Sovereign orders it. He 
 is, therefore, a most useful instrument in the hand of a 
 despot who, notwithstanding what is said to the contrary 
 in France, and believed abroad, would cease to rule the 
 day he became just, and the reign of laws and of 
 humanity banished terror and tyranny. 
 
 It is reported that some person, pious or revengeful, 
 presented some time ago to the devout mother of Napoleon 
 a long memorial containing some particulars of the crimes 
 and vices of Fouche and Talleyrand, and required of her, 
 if she wished to prevent the curses of Heaven from falling 
 on her son, to inform him of them, that he might cease to 
 employ men so unworthy of him, and so repugnant to a 
 Divinity. Napoleon, after reading through the memorial, 
 is stated to have answered his mother, who was always 
 pressing him to dismiss these ministers : " The memorial. 
 Madam, contains nothing of what T was not previously 
 
 7—2
 
 lOO THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 informed. Louis XVI. did not select any but those whom 
 he hought the most virtuous and moral of men for his 
 ministers and counsellors : and where did their virtues and 
 morality bring him ? If the writer of the memorial will 
 mention two honest and irreproachable characters, with 
 equal talents and zeal to serve me, neither Fouche nor 
 Talleyrand shall again be admitted into my presence."
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD lOI 
 
 LETTER XV 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — You have with some reason in England 
 complained of the conduct of the members of the foreign 
 diplomatic corps in France, when the pretended corre- 
 spondence between Mr. Drake and Mehee de la Touche 
 was published in our official gazette. Had you, however, 
 like myself, been in a situation to study the characters 
 and appreciate the worth of most of them, this conduct 
 would have excited no surprise ; and pity would have taken 
 the place both of accusation and reproach. Hardly one of 
 them, except Count Philippe de Cobentzel, the Austrian 
 ambassador (and even he is considerably involved), possesses 
 any property, or has anything else but his salary to depend 
 upon for subsistence. The least offence to Bonaparte or 
 Talleyrand would instantly deprive them of their places ; 
 and, unless they were fortunate enough to obtain some 
 other appointment, reduce them to live in obscurity, and 
 perhaps in want, upon a trifling pension in their own 
 country. 
 
 The day before Mr. Drake's correspondence appeared
 
 I02 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 in the Moniteur, in March, 1804, Talleyrand gave a grand 
 diplomatic dinner ; in the midst of which, as was previously 
 agreed with Bonaparte, Duroc called him out on the part 
 of the First Consul. After an absence of near an hour, 
 which excited great curiosit)' and some alarm among the 
 diplomatists, he returned very thoughtful and seemingly very 
 low-spirited. " Excuse me, gentlemen," said he, " I have 
 been impolite against my inclination. The First Consul 
 knew that you honoured me with your company to-day, 
 and would therefore not have interrupted me by his orders 
 had not a discovery of a most extraordinary nature against 
 the law of nations just been made ; a discovery which 
 calls for the immediate indignation against the Cabinet of 
 St. James', not only of France, but of every nation that 
 wishes for the preservation of civilized society. After 
 dinner I shall do myself the honour of communicating to 
 you the particulars, well convinced that you will all enter 
 with warmth into the just resentment of the First Consul." 
 During the repast the bottle went freely round, and as soon 
 as they had drunk their coffee and liqueurs, Talleyrand rang 
 a bell, and Hauterive presented himself with a large bundle 
 of papers. The pretended original letters of Mr. Drake 
 were handed about with the commentaries of the minister 
 and his secretary. Their heads heated with wine, it was 
 not difficult to influence their minds, or to mislead their
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I03 
 
 judgment, and they exclaimed, as in a chorus, " C'est aboiiti- 
 nable ! Cela fait fremir ! " Talleyrand took advantage of 
 their situation, as well as of their indiscretion. " I am 
 glad, gentlemen," said he, " and shall not fail to inform 
 the First Consul of your utianimous sentiments on this 
 disagreeable subject ; but verbal expressions are not suffi- 
 cient in an affair of such great consequence. I have orders 
 to demand your written declarations, which, after what you 
 have already expressed, you cannot hesitate about sending 
 to me to-night, that they may accompany the denunciation 
 which the First Consul despatches, within some few hours, 
 to all the Courts on the Continent. You would much 
 please the P'irst Consul were you to write as near as 
 possible according to the formula which my secretary has 
 drawn up. It states nothing either against conve?iatice, or 
 against the customs of Sovereigns, or etiquettes of Courts, 
 and I am certain is also perfectly congenial with your 
 individual feelings." A silence of some moments now 
 followed (as all the diplomatists were rather taken by sur- 
 prise with regard to a written declaration), which the 
 Swedish ambassador, Baron Ehrensward, interrupted by 
 .saying that, "though he personally might have no objection 
 to sign such a declaration, he must demand some time to 
 consider whether he had a right to write in the name of 
 his Sovereign, without his orders, on a subject still unknown
 
 I04 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 to him." This remark made the Austrian ambassador, 
 Count de Cobentzel, propose a private consultation among 
 the members of the foreign diplomatic corps at one of 
 their hotels, at which the Russian charge d'affaires, d'Oubril, 
 who was not at the dinner party, was invited to assist. 
 They met accordingly, at the Hotel de Montmorency, Rue 
 de Lille, occupied by Count de Cobentzel ; but they came 
 to no other unanimous determination than that of answering 
 a written communication of Talleyrand by a written note, 
 according as everyone judged most proper and prudent, and 
 corresponding with the supposed sentiments of his Sovereign. 
 
 As all this official correspondence has been published 
 in England, you may, upon reading the notes presented by 
 Baron de Dreyer, and Mr. Livingstone,^ the neutral ambas- 
 sadors of Denmark and America, form some tolerably just 
 idea of Talleyrand's formula. Their impolitic servility was 
 blamed even by the other members of the diplomatic corps. 
 
 Livingstone you know, and perhaps have not to learn 
 that, though a staunch republican in America, he was the 
 most abject courtier in France ; and though a violent de- 
 
 I In consequence of this conduct, Livingstone was recalled by 
 his Government, and lives now in obscurity and disgrace in America. 
 To console him, however, in his misfortune, Bonaparte, on his 
 departure, presented him with his portrait, enamelled on the lid of 
 a snuff-box, set round with diamonds, and valued at one thousand 
 louis d'or.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I05 
 
 fender of liberty and ecjuality on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, no man bowed lower to usurpation, or revered 
 despotism more, in Europe. Without talents, and almost 
 without education, he thinks intrigues negotiations, and 
 conceives that policy and duplicity are synonymous. He 
 was called here " the courier of Talleyrand," on account 
 of his voyages to England, and his journeys to Holland, 
 where this minister sent him to intrigue, with less ceremony 
 than one of his secret agents. He acknowledged that no 
 government was more liberal, and no nation more free, 
 than the British ; but he hated the one as much as he 
 abused the other ; and he did not conceal sentiments that 
 made him always so welcome to Bonaparte and Talleyrand. 
 Never over nice in the choice of his companions, Arthur 
 O'Connor, and other Irish traitors and vagabonds, used his 
 house as their own ; so much so that, when he invited 
 other ambassadors to dine with him, they, before they 
 accepted the invitation, made a condition that no outlaws 
 or adventurers should be of the party. 
 
 In your youth. Baron de Dreyer was an ambassador 
 from the Court of Copenhagen to that of St. James'. He 
 has since been in the same capacity to the Courts of 
 St. Petersburg and Madrid. Born a Norwegian, of a poor 
 and obscure family, he owes his advancement to his own 
 talents ; but these, though they have procured him rank.
 
 I06 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 have left him without a fortune. \Mien he came here, in 
 June, 1797, from Spain, he brought a mistress with him, 
 and several children he had had by her during his resi- 
 dence in that country. He also kept an Enghsh mistress 
 some thirty years ago in London, by whom he had a son, 
 ]\I. Guillaumeau, who is now his secretary. Thus encum- 
 bered, and thus situated, at the age of seventy, it is no 
 surprise if he strives to die at his post, and that fear to 
 offend Bonaparte and Talleyrand sometimes gets the better 
 of his prudence. 
 
 In Denmark, as well as in all other Continental States, 
 the pensions of diplomatic invalids are more scanty than 
 those of military ones, and totally insufficient for a man 
 who, during half a century nearly, has accustomed himself 
 to a certain style of life, and to expenses requisite to repre- 
 sent his Prince with dignity. No wonder, therefore, that 
 Baron de Dreyer prefers Paris to Copenhagen, and that the 
 cunning Talleyrand takes advantage of this preference. 
 
 It was reported here among our foreign diplomatists, 
 that the English minister in Denmark complained of the 
 contents of Baron de Dreyer's note, concerning Mr. Drake's 
 correspondence ; and that the Danish prime minister. Count 
 de Bernstorf, wTote to him in consequence, by the order of 
 the Prince Royal, a severe reprimand. This act of political 
 justice is, however, denied by him, under pretence that the
 
 THE COURT or ST. CLOUD I07 
 
 Cabinet of Copenhagen has laid it clown as an invariable 
 rule, never to reprimand, but always to displace those of 
 its agents with whom it has reason to be discontented. 
 Should this be the case, no vSovereign in Europe is better 
 served by his representatives than his Danish Majesty, 
 because no one seldomer changes or removes them. 
 
 While I am speaking of diplomatists, I cannot forbear 
 giving }ou a short sketch of one whose weight in the 
 scale of politics entitles him to particular notice : I mean 
 the Count de Haugwitz, insidiously complimented by 
 Talleyrand with the title of " The Prince of Neutrality, 
 the Sully of Prussia." Christian Henry Curce, Count de 
 Haugwitz, who, until lately, has been the chief director of 
 the political conscience of his Prussian Majesty, as his 
 minister of the foreign department, was born in Silesia, 
 and is the son of a nobleman who was a General in the 
 Austrian service when Frederick the Great made the con- 
 quest of that country. At the death of this King, in 1786, 
 Count de Haugwitz occupied an inferior place in the 
 foreign office, where Count de Hertzberg observed his 
 zeal and assiduity, and recommended him to the notice of 
 the late King Frederick William II. By the interest of 
 the celebrated Bishopswerder, he procured, in 1792, the 
 appointment of an ambassador to the Court of Vienna, 
 where he succeeded Baron de Jacobi, the present Prussian
 
 Io8 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 minister in your countr}-. In the autumn of the same year 
 he went to Ratisbon, to co-operate with the Austrian 
 ambassador, and to persuade the Princes of the German 
 empire to join the coalition against France. In the month 
 of March, 1794, he was sent to the Hague, where he 
 negotiated with Lord Malmesbury concerning the affairs of 
 France ; shortly afterwards, his nomination as a minister of 
 state took place, and from that time his political sentiments 
 seem to have undergone a revolution, for which it is not 
 easy to account ; but, whatever were the causes of his 
 change of opinions, the Treaty of Basle, concluded between 
 France and Prussia in 1795, was certainly negotiated under 
 his auspices ; and in August, 1796, he signed, with the 
 French minister at Berlin, Citizen Caillard, the first and 
 famous Treaty of Neutrality ; and a Prussian cordon was 
 accordingly drawn, to cause the neutrality of the North to 
 be observed and protected. Had the Count de Haugwitz 
 of 1795 been the same as the Count de Haugwitz of 
 1792, it is probable we should no longer have heard of 
 either a French republic or a French empire ; but a legiti- 
 mate monarch of the kingdom of France would have 
 ensured that security to all other legitimate Sovereigns, the 
 want of which they themselves, or their children, will feel 
 and mourn in vain, as long as unlimited usurpations 
 tyrannize over my wretched country. It is to be hoped,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 109 
 
 however, that the good sense of the Count will point out 
 to him, before it is too late, the impolicy of his present 
 connections ; and that he will use his interest with his 
 Prince to persuade him to adopt a line of conduct suited 
 to the grandeur and dignity of the Prussian monarchy, and 
 favourable to the independence of insulted Europe. 
 
 When his present Prussian Majesty succeeded to the 
 throne, Count de Haugwitz continued in office, with increased 
 influence ; but he some time since resigned, in consequence, 
 it is said, of a difference of opinion with the other Prussian 
 ministers on the subject of a family alliance, which Bonaparte 
 had the inodesty to propose, between the illustrious house of 
 Napoleon the First and the royal line of Brandenburgh. 
 
 On this occasion his King, to evince his satisfaction 
 with his past conduct, bestowed on him not only a large 
 pension, but an estate in Silesia, where he before possessed 
 some property. Bonaparte also, to express his regret at his 
 retreat, proclaimed his Excellency a grand officer of the 
 Legion of Honour. 
 
 Talleyrand insolently calls the several cordons^ or 
 ribands, distributed by Bonaparte among the Prussian minis- 
 ters and generals, " his leading-strings." It is to be hoped 
 that Frederick William III. is sufficiently upon his guard 
 to prevent these strings from strangling the Prussian 
 monarchy and the Brandenburgh dynasty.
 
 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XVI 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — Upwards of two months after my visit 
 to General Murat, I was surprised at the appearance of 
 M. Darjuson, the chamberlain of Princess Louis Bonaparte. 
 He told me that he came on the part of Prince Louis, 
 who honoured me with an invitation to dine with him the 
 day after. Upon my enquiry whether he knew if the party 
 would be very numerous, he answered, between forty and 
 fifty ; and that it was a kind of farewell dinner, because 
 the Prince intended shortly to set out for Compiegne to 
 assume the command of the camp formed in its vicinity, of 
 the dragoons and other light troops of the army of England. 
 
 The principal personages present at this dinner were 
 Joseph Bonaparte and his wife. General and Madame 
 Murat, the ministers Berthier, Talleyrand, Fouche, Chaptal 
 and Portalis. The conversation was entirely military, and 
 chiefly related to the probable conquest or subjugation of 
 Great Ikitain, and the probable consequence to mankind in 
 general of such a great event. No difference of opinion 
 was heard with regard to its immediate benefit to France
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD III 
 
 and gradual utility to all other nations ; but IJcrthier seemed 
 to apprehend that before France could have time to organize 
 this valuable conquest, she would be obliged to support 
 another war, with a formidable league, perhaps, of all other 
 European nations. The issue, however, he said, would be 
 glorious to France, who, by her achievements, would force 
 all people to acknowledge her their mother country ; and 
 then, first, Europe would constitute but one family. 
 
 Chaptal was as certain as everybody else of the de- 
 struction of the tyrants of the seas ; but he thought France 
 would never be secure against the treachery of modern 
 Carthage until she followed the example of Rome towards 
 ancient Carthage ; and, therefore, after reducing London to 
 ashes, it would be proper to disperse round the universe 
 all the inhabitants of the British Islands, and to re-people 
 them with nations less evil -disposed and less corrupted. 
 Portalis observed that it was more easy to conceive than 
 to execute such a vast plan. It would not be an under- 
 taking of five, of ten, nor of twenty years, to transplant 
 these nations ; that misfortunes and proscription would not 
 only inspire courage and obstinacy, but desperation. " No 
 people," continued he, " are more attached to their customs 
 and countries than islanders in general ; and though British 
 subjects are the greatest travellers, and found everywhere, 
 they all suppose their country the best, and always wish
 
 112 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 to return to it and finish their days amidst their native 
 fogs and smoke. Neither the Saxons, nor the Danes, nor 
 Norman conquerors transplanted them, but, after reducing 
 them, incorporated themselves by marriages among the 
 vanquished, and in some few generations were but one 
 people. It is asserted by all persons who have lately visited 
 Great Britain, that, though the civilization of the lower 
 classes is much behind that of the same description in 
 France, the higher orders, the rich and the fashionable, are, 
 with regard to their manners, more French than English, 
 and might easily be cajoled into obedience and subjection 
 to the sovereignty of a nation whose customs, by free choice, 
 they have adopted in preference to their own, and whose 
 language forms a necessary part of their education, and, 
 indeed, of the education of almost every class in the British 
 empire. The universality of the French language is the 
 best ally France has in assisting her to conquer an universal 
 dominion. He wished, therefore, that when we were in a 
 situation to dictate in England, instead of proscribing Eng- 
 lishmen we should proscribe the English language, and 
 advance and reward, in preference, all those parents whose 
 children were sent to be educated in France, and all those 
 families who voluntarily adopted in their houses and societies 
 exclusively the French language." Murat was afraid that if 
 France did not transplant the most stubborn Britons, and
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD II3 
 
 settle among them French colonies, when once their mili- 
 tary and commercial navy was annihilated, they would turn 
 pirates, and, perhaps, within half-a-century, lay all other 
 nations as much under contribution by their piracies as 
 they now do by their industry ; and that, like the pirates 
 on the coast of Barbary, the instant they had no connections 
 with other civilized nations, cut the throats of each other, 
 and agree in nothing but in plundering, and considering all 
 other people in the world their natural enemies and pur- 
 veyors. To this opinion Talleyrand, by nodding assent, 
 seemed to adhere ; but he added, " Earthquakes are gene- 
 rally dreaded as destructive ; but such a convulsion of nature 
 as would swallow up the British Islands, with all their in- 
 habitants, would be the greatest blessing Providence ever 
 conferred on mankind." 
 
 Louis Bonaparte then addressed himself to me and to 
 
 the Marquis de F : " Gentlemen," said he, " you have 
 
 been in England ; what is your opinion of the character of 
 these islanders, and of the probability of their subjugation?" 
 I answered that, during the fifteen months I resided in 
 London I was too much occupied to prevent myself from 
 starving, to meditate about anything else ; that my stomach 
 was my sole meditation as well as anxiety. That, however, 
 I believed that in England, as everywhere else, a mixture 
 of good and bad qualities was to be found ; but which 
 
 VOL. I 8
 
 114 "^^^ SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 prevailed would be presumption in me, from my position, 
 to decide. But I did not doubt that if we cordially hated 
 the English they returned us the compUment with interest, 
 and, therefore, the contest with them would be a severe 
 
 one. The Marquis de F imprudently attempted to 
 
 convince the company that it was difificult, if not impossible, 
 for our army to land in England, much less to conquer it, 
 until we were masters of the seas by a superior navy. He 
 would, perhaps, have been still more indiscreet, had not 
 Madame Louis interrupted him, and given another turn to 
 the conversation by enquiring about the fair sex in Eng- 
 land, and if it was true that handsome women were more 
 numerous there than in France ? Here again the Marquis, 
 instead of paying her a compliment, as she perhaps ex- 
 pected, roundly assured her that for one beauty in France, 
 hundreds might be counted in England, where gentlemen 
 were, therefore, not so easily satisfied ; and that a woman 
 regarded by them only as an ordinary person would pass 
 for a first-rate beauty among French beaux, on account of 
 the great scarcity of them here. " You must excuse the 
 Marquis, ladies," said I, in my turn ; " he has not been in 
 love in England. There, perhaps, he found the belles less 
 cruel than in France, where, for the cruelty of one lady, or 
 for her insensibility of his merit, he revenges himself on 
 the whole sex."- — " I apply to M. Talleyrand," answered the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD II5 
 
 Manjuis ; " he has been longer in li^ngland than myself." 
 ^ " I am not a competent judge," retorted the minister ; 
 " Madame Talleyrand is here, and has not the honour of 
 being a Frenchwoman ; but I dare say the Marquis will 
 agree with me that in no society in the British Islands, 
 among a dozen of ladies, has he counted more beauties, 
 or admired greater accomplishments or more perfection." 
 To this the Marquis bowed assent, saying that in all his 
 general remarks the party present, of course, was not in- 
 cluded. All the ladies, who were well acquainted with his 
 absent and blundering conversation, very good-humouredly 
 laughed, and Madame r^Iurat assured him that if he would 
 give her the address of the belle in France who had trans- 
 formed a gallant Frenchman into a chevalier of British 
 beauty, she would attempt to make up their difference. 
 " She is no more, INIadam," said the Marquis ; " she was, 
 
 unfortunately, guillotined two days before " the father 
 
 of Madame Louis, he was going to say, when Talleyrand 
 interrupted him with a significant look, and said, " Before 
 the fall of Robespierre, you mean." 
 
 From these and other traits of the Marquis's character, 
 you may see that he erred more from absence of mind 
 than any premeditation to give offence. He received, 
 however, the next morning, a lettre de cachet from Fouche, 
 
 which exiled him to Blois, and forbade him to return to 
 
 8—2
 
 Il6 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Paris without further orders from the minister of poUce. I 
 know, from high authority, that to the interference of 
 Princess Louis alone is he indebted for not being shut up 
 in the Temple, and, perhaps, transported to our colonies, 
 for having depreciated the power and means of France to 
 invade England. I am perfectly convinced that none of 
 those who spoke on the subject of the invasion expressed 
 anything but what they really thought ; and that, of the 
 whole party, none, except Talleyrand, the Marquis and 
 myself, entertained the least doubt of the success of the 
 expedition ; so firmly did they rely on the former fortune 
 of Bonaparte, his boastings and his assurance. 
 
 After dinner I had an opportunity of conversing for 
 ten minutes with Madame Louis Bonaparte, whom I found 
 extremely amiable, but I fear that she is not happy. Her 
 husband, though the most stupid, is, however, the best- 
 tempered of the Bonapartes, and seemed very attentive and 
 attached to her. She was far advanced in her pregnancy, 
 and looked, notwithstanding, uncommonly well. I have 
 heard that Louis is inclined to inebriation, and when in 
 that situation is very brutal to his wife, and very indelicate 
 with other women before her eyes. He intrigues with her 
 own servants, and the number of his illegitimate children 
 is said to be as many as his years. She asked General 
 Murat to present me and recommend me to Louche, which
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD llj 
 
 he did with great politeness ; and the minister assured me 
 that he should be glad to see me at his hotel, which I 
 much doubt. The last words Madame Louis said to me, 
 in showing me a princely crown, richly set with diamonds, 
 and given her by her brother-in-law, Napoleon, were, " Alas ! 
 grandeur is not always happiness, nor the most elevated 
 the most fortunate lot."
 
 Il8 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XVII 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — The arrival of the Pope in this country was 
 certainly a grand epoch, not only in the history of the Revolu- 
 tion, but in the annals of Europe. The debates in the Sacred 
 College for and against this journey, and for and against 
 his coronation of Bonaparte, are said to have been long as 
 well as violent, and only arranged according to the desires 
 of Cardinal Fesch by the means of four millions of livres — 
 ;^i 66,000 — distributed apropos among its pious members. 
 Of this money, the Cardinals Mattel, Pamphili, Dugnani, 
 Maury, Pignatelli, Roverella, Somaglia, Pacca, Brancadoro, 
 Litta, Gabrielli, Spina, Despuig and Galefifi, are said to 
 have shared the greatest part ; and from the most violent 
 anti-Bonapartists, they instantly became the strenuous ad- 
 herents of Napoleon the First, who of course cannot be 
 ignorant of their real worth. 
 
 The person entrusted by Bonaparte and Talleyrand 
 to carry on at Rome the intrigue which sent Pius VII. to 
 cross the Alps, was Cardinal Fesch, brother of Madame 
 Letitia Bonaparte by the side of her mother, who, in a
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD IIQ 
 
 second marriage, chose a pedlar of the name of Nicolo 
 Fesch, for her husband. 
 
 Joseph, Cardinal Fesch, was born at Ajaccio, in 
 Corsica, on the 8th of March, 1763, and was in his infancy 
 received as a singing boy {enfant de chirur) in a convent 
 of his native place. In 1782, whilst he was on a visit to 
 some of his relations in the Island of Sardinia, being on 
 a fishing party some distance from shore, he was, with his 
 companions, captured by an Algerine felucca, and carried a 
 captive to Algiers. Here he turned Mussulman, and, until 
 
 1790, was a zealous believer in, and professor of, the 
 Alcoran. In that year he found an opportunity to escape 
 from Algiers, and to return to Ajaccio, when he abjured 
 his renegacy, exchanged the Alcoran for the Bible, and, in 
 
 1 791, was made a constitutional curate, that is to say, a 
 revolutionary Christian priest. In 1793, when even those 
 were proscribed, he renounced the sacristy of his Church 
 for the bar of a tavern, where, during 1794 and 1795, he 
 gained a small capital by the number and liberality of 
 his English customers. After the victories of his nephew 
 Napoleon in Italy during the following year, he was 
 advised to reassume the clerical habit, and after Napoleon's 
 proclamation of a First Consul he was made Archbishop 
 of Lyons. In 1802, Pius VII. decorated him with the 
 Roman purple, and he is now a pillar of the Roman fi^ith,
 
 I20 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 in a fair way of seizing the Roman tiara. If letters from 
 Rome can be depended upon, Cardinal Fesch, in the name 
 of the Emperor of the French, informed his Holiness the 
 Pope that he must either retire to a convent or travel to 
 France, either abdicate his own sovereignty, or inaugurate 
 Napoleon the First a Sovereign of France. Without the 
 decision of the Sacred College, effected in the manner 
 already stated, the majority of the faithful believe that this 
 Pontiff would have preferred obscurity to disgrace. 
 
 While Joseph Fesch was a master of a tavern he 
 married the daughter of a tinker, by whom he had three 
 children. This marriage, according to the republican regu- 
 lations, had only been celebrated by the municipality at 
 Ajaccio ; Fesch, therefore, upon again entering the bosom 
 of the Church, left his municipal wife and children to shift 
 for themselves, considering himself still, according to the 
 canonical laws, a bachelor. But Madame Fesch, hearing, in 
 1 80 1, of her ci-devant husband's promotion to the Arch- 
 bishopric of Lyons, wrote to him for some succours, being 
 with her children reduced to great misery. Madame Letitia 
 Bonaparte answered her letter, enclosing a draft for six 
 hundred livres—/^25— informing her that the same sum 
 would be paid her every six months, as long as she con- 
 tinued with her children to reside at Corsica, but that it 
 would cease the instant she left that island. Either thinking
 
 THE COURT OF ST, CLOUD 121 
 
 herself not sufficiently paid for her discretion, or enticed by 
 some enemy of the Bonaparte family, she arrived secretly 
 at Lyons in October last year, where she remained unknown 
 until the arrival of the Pope. On the first day his Holiness 
 gave there his public benediction, she found means to 
 pierce the crowd, and to approach his person, when 
 Cardinal Fesch was by his side. Profiting by a moment's 
 silence, she called out loudly, throwing herself at his feet : 
 " Holy Ivither ! I am the lawful wife of Cardinal Fesch, 
 and these are our children ; he cannot, he dares not, deny 
 this truth. Had he behaved liberally to me, I should not 
 have disturbed him in his present grandeur ; I supplicate 
 you. Holy Father, not to restore me my husband, but to 
 force him to provide for his wife and children, according 
 to his present circumstances." — " Matta — ella e matta, 
 santissimo padre ! She is mad — she is mad. Holy Father," 
 said the Cardinal ; and the good Pontiff ordered her to be 
 taken care of, to prevent her from doing herself or the 
 children any mischief. She was, indeed, taken care of, 
 because nobody ever since heard what has become either 
 of her or her children ; and as they have not returned to 
 Corsica, probably some snug retreat has been allotted them 
 in France. 
 
 The purple was never disgraced by a greater libertine 
 than Cardinal Fesch : his amours are numerous, and have
 
 122 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 often involved him in disagreeable scrapes. He had, in 
 1803, an unpleasant adventure at Lyons, which has since 
 made his stay in that city but short. Having thrown his 
 handkerchief at the wife of a manufacturer of the name of 
 Girot, she accepted it, and gave him an appointment at 
 her house, at a time in the evening when her husband 
 usually went to the play. His Eminence arrived in dis- 
 guise, and was received Avith open arms. But he was 
 hardly seated by her side before the door of a closet was 
 burst open, and his shoulders smarted from the lashes 
 inflicted by an offended husband. In vain did he mention 
 his name and rank : they rather increased than decreased 
 the fury of Girot, who pretended it was utterly impossible 
 for a Cardinal and Archbishop to be thus overtaken with 
 the wife of one of his flock ; at last Madame Girot pro- 
 posed a pecuniary accommodation, which, after some oppo- 
 sition, was acceded to ; and his Eminence signed a bond 
 for one hundred thousand livres — ^4,000 — upon condition 
 that nothing should transpire of this intrigue — a high price 
 enough for a sound drubbing. On the day when the bond 
 was due, Girot and his wife were both arrested by the 
 police commissary, Dubois (a brother of the prefect of 
 police at Paris), accused of being connected with coiners, 
 a capital crime at present in this country. In a search 
 made in their house, bad money to the amount of three
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I23 
 
 thousand livres — ^125 — was discovered ; which they had 
 received the day before from a man who called himself 
 a merchant from Paris, but who was a police spy sent to 
 entrap them. After giving uf) the bond of the Cardinal, 
 the Emperor graciously remitted the capital punishment, 
 ui)on condition that they should be transported for life 
 to Cayenne. 
 
 This is the prelate on whom Bonaparte intends to 
 confer the Roman tiara, and to constitute a successor of 
 St. Peter. It would not be the least remarkable event 
 in the beginning of the remarkable nineteenth century 
 were we to witness the Papal throne occupied by a man 
 who, from a singing boy became a renegade slave, from 
 a Mussulman a constitutional curate, from a tavern-keeper 
 an archbishop, from the son of a pedlar the uncle of an 
 Emperor, and from the husband of the daughter of a 
 tinker, a member of the Sacred College. 
 
 His sister, Madame Letitia Bonaparte, presented him, 
 in 1802, with an elegant library, for which she had paid 
 six hundred thousand livres — ^25,000 — and his nephew, 
 Napoleon, allows him a yearly pension double that amount. 
 Besides his dignity as a prelate, his Eminence is ambassador 
 from France at Rome, a Knight of the Spanish Order of 
 the Golden Fleece, a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, 
 and a grand almoner of the Emperor of the French.
 
 124 '^^'^ SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 The Archbishop of Paris is now in his ninety-sixth 
 year, and at his death Cardinal Fesch is to be transferred 
 to the see of this capital, in expectation of the triple crown 
 and the keys of St. Peter.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I25 
 
 LETTER XVIIl 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — The amiable and accomplished Amelia 
 Frederique, Princess Dowager of the late Electoral Prince 
 Charles Louis of Baden, born a Princess of Hesse-Darm- 
 stadt, has procured the Electoral House of Baden the 
 singular honour of giving consorts to three reigning and 
 sovereign Princes — to an Emperor of Russia, to a King of 
 Sweden, and to the Elector of Bavaria. Such a distinction, 
 and such alliances, called the attention of those at the 
 head of our Revolution ; who, after attempting in vain to 
 blow up hereditary thrones by the aid of satis-culoite in- 
 cendiaries, seated sans-culottes upon thrones, that they might 
 degrade what was not yet ripe for destruction. 
 
 Charles Frederick, the reigning Elector of Baden, is 
 now near fourscore years of age. At this period of life 
 if any passions remain, avarice is more common than am- 
 bition ; because treasures may be hoarded without bustle, 
 while activity is absolutely necessary to push forward to 
 the goal of distinction. Having bestowed a new King on
 
 126 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Tuscany, Bonaparte and Talleyrand also resolved to confer 
 new Electors on Germany. A more advantageous fraternity 
 could not be established between the innovators here, and 
 their opposers in other countries, than by incorporating the 
 grandfather-in-law of so many sovereigns with their own 
 revolutionary brotherhood ; to humble him by a new rank, 
 and to disgrace him by indemnities obtained from their 
 hands. An intrigue between our minister, Talleyrand, and 
 the Baden minister, Edelsheim, transformed the oldest 
 Margrave of Germany into its youngest Elector, and ex- 
 tended his dominions by the spoils obtained at the expense 
 of the rightful owners. The invasion of the Baden territory 
 in time of peace, and the seizure of the Duke of Enghien, 
 though under the protection of the laws of nations and 
 hospitality, must have soon convinced Baron Edelsheim 
 what return his friend Talleyrand expected, and that Bona- 
 parte thought he had a natural right to insult by his attacks 
 those he had dishonoured by his connections. 
 
 The minister. Baron Edelsheim, is half an illuminato, 
 half a philosopher, half a politician, and half a revolutionist. 
 He was, long before he was admitted into the council 
 chamber of his Prince, half an atheist, half an intriguer, 
 and half a spy, in the pay of Frederick the Great of 
 Prussia. His entry upon the stage at Berlin, and particu- 
 larly the first parts he was destined to act, was curious and
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I27 
 
 extraordinary ; whether he acquitted himself better in this 
 capacity than he has since in his pohtical one is not 
 known. He was afterwards sent to this capital to execute 
 a commission, of which he acquitted himself very ill ; 
 exposing himself rashly, without profit or service to his 
 employer. Frederick II., dreading the tediousness of a 
 proposed congress at Augsburg, wished to send a private 
 emissary to sound the King of France. For this purpose 
 he chose Edelsheim as a person least liable to suspicion. 
 The project of Frederick was to indemnify the King of 
 Poland for his first losses by robbing the ecclesiastical 
 Princes of Germany. This, Louis XV. totally rejected ; 
 and Edelsheim returned with his answer to the Prussian 
 Monarch, then at Freyburg. From thence he afterwards 
 departed for London, made his communications, and was 
 once again sent back to Paris, on pretence that he had 
 left some of his travelling trunks there ; and the Bailli de 
 Foulay, the ambassador of the Knights of Malta, being 
 persuaded that the Cabinet of Versailles was effectually de- 
 sirous of peace, was, as he had been before, the mediator. 
 The Bailli was deceived. The Duke de Choiseul, the 
 then prime minister, indecently enough threw Edelsheim 
 into the Bastille, in order to search or seize his papers, 
 which, however, were secured elsewhere. Edelsheim was 
 released on the morrow, but obliged to depart the kingdom
 
 128 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 by the way of Turin, as related by Frederick II. in his 
 " History of the Seven Years' War." On his return he was 
 disgraced, and continued so until 1778; when he again was 
 used as emissary to various Courts of Germany. In 1786 
 the Elector of Baden sent him to Berlin, on the ascension 
 of Frederick William II., as a complimentary envoy. This 
 monarch, when he saw him, could not forbear laughing at 
 the high wisdom of the Court that selected such a per- 
 sonage for such an embassy, and of his own sagacity in 
 accepting of it. He quitted the capital of Prussia as he 
 came there, with an opinion of himself that the royal 
 smiles of contempt had neither altered nor diminished. 
 
 You see by this account, that Edelsheim has long 
 been a partisan of the pillage of Germany called indemni- 
 ties ; and long habituated to affronts, as well as to plots. 
 To all his other half- qualities, half- modesty can hardly be 
 added, when he calls himself, or suffers himself to be 
 called, " the Talleyrand of Carlsruhe." He accompanied 
 his Prince last year to Mentz ; where this old Sovereign 
 was not treated by Bonaparte in the most decorous or 
 decent manner, being obliged to wait for hours in his 
 ante-chamber, and afterwards stand during the levees, or 
 in the drawing-rooms of Napoleon or of his wife, < without 
 the offer of a chair, or an invitation to sit down. It was 
 here where, by a secret treaty, Bonaparte became the
 
 THE COURT OI" ST. CLOUD I29 
 
 Sovereign of Haden, if sovereignty consists in the disposal 
 of the financial and military resources of a State ; and 
 they were agreed to be assigned over to him whenever 
 he should deem it proper or necessary to invade the 
 German empire, in return for his protection against the 
 Emperor of (lermany, who can have no more interest 
 than intent to attack a country so distant from his 
 hereditary dominions, and whose Sovereign is, besides, 
 the grandfather of the consort of his nearest and best ally. 
 
 Talleyrand often amused himself at Mentz with playing 
 on the vanity and affected consequence of Edelsheim, who 
 was delighted if at any time our minister took him aside, or 
 whispered to him as in confidence. One morning, at the 
 assembly of the Elector Arch -Chancellor, where Edelsheim 
 was creeping and cringing about him as usual, he laid hold 
 of his arm and walked with him to the upper part of 
 the room. In a quarter of an hour they both joined the 
 company, Edelsheim unusually puffed up with vanity. " I 
 will lay any bet, gentlemen," said Talleyrand, " that you 
 cannot, with all your united wits, guess the grand subject 
 of my conversation with the good Baron Edelsheim." With- 
 out waiting for an answer, he continued : " As the Baron 
 is a much older and more experienced traveller than myself, 
 1 asked him which, of all the countries he had visited, could 
 
 boast the prettiest and kindest women. His reply was really 
 VOL. I 9
 
 130 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 very instructive, and it would be a great pity if justice were 
 not done to his merit by its publicity." Here the Baron, 
 red as a turkey-cock and trembling with anger, interrupted : 
 " His Excellency," said he, " is to-night in a humour to 
 joke ; what we spoke of had nothing to do with women." — ■ 
 '' Nor with men either," retorted Talleyrand, going away. 
 This anecdote. Baron Dahlberg, the minister of the Elector 
 of Baden to our Court, had the ingenuity to relate at 
 Madame Chapui's as an evidence of Edelsheim's intimacy 
 with Talleyrand ; only he left out the latter part, and for- 
 got to mention the bad grace with which this impertinence 
 of Talleyrand was received ; but this defect of memory 
 Count de Beust, the envoy of the Elector Arch-Chancellor, 
 kindly supplied. 
 
 Baron Edelsheim is a great amateur of knighthoods. 
 On days of great festivities his face is, as it were, illuminated 
 with the lustre of his stars : and the crosses on his coat 
 conceal almost its original colour. Every petty prince of 
 ("lermany has dubbed him a chevalier ; but emperors and 
 kings have not been so unanimous in distinguishing his 
 desert, or in satisfying his desires. 
 
 At Mentz no prince or minister fawned more assiduously 
 upon Bonaparte than this hero of chivalry. It could not 
 escape notice, but need not have alarmed our great man, 
 as was tlie case. The i^refect of the palace was ordered
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I3I 
 
 to give authentic information concerning I'^delsheini's moral 
 and political character. He applied to the |)oHce com- 
 missary, who, within twenty hours, signed a declaration 
 affirming that Edelsheim was the most inoffensive and least 
 dangerous of all imbecile creatures that ever entered the 
 Cabinet of a prince ; that he had never drawn a sword, 
 worn a dagger, or fired a pistol in his life ; that the 
 enquiries about his real character were sneered at in every 
 part of the I^^lectorate, as nowhere they allowed him 
 common-sense, much less a character ; all blamed his pre- 
 sumption, but none defended his capacity. 
 
 After the perusal of this report, Konaparte asked 
 Talleyrand, " What can Edelsheim mean by his troublesome 
 assiduities ? Does he want any indemnities, or does he 
 wish me to make him a Cicrman prince ? Can he have 
 the impudence to hope that I should appoint him a 
 tribune, a legislator, or a senator in France, or that I 
 would give him a place in my council of state ? " — " No 
 such thing," answered the minister ; " did not your Majesty 
 condescend to notice at the last fete that this eclipsed 
 moon was encompassed in a firmament of stars. You 
 would, sire, make him the happiest of mortals were you 
 to nominate him a member of your Legion of Honour." — 
 " Does he want nothing else ? " said Napoleon, as if re- 
 lieved at once from an oppressive burden. " Write to my 
 
 9—2
 
 132 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 chancellor of the Legion of Honour, Lacepede, to send 
 him a patent, and do you inform him of this favour." 
 
 It is reported at Carlsruhe, the capital of Baden, that 
 Baron Edelsheim has composed his own epitaph, in which 
 he claims immortality, because under his ministry the 
 Margravate of Baden was elevated into an Electorate ! ! I
 
 THE COURT Ol- ST. CLOUU I33 
 
 LETTER XIX 
 
 Paris, August, 1805- 
 My Lord, — The sensation that the arrival of the Pope 
 in this country caused among the lower classes of people 
 cannot be expressed, and if expressed, would not be 
 believed. I am sorry, however, to say that, instead of 
 improving their morals or increasing their faith, this journey 
 has shaken both morality and religion to their foundation. 
 According to our religious notions, as you must know, 
 the Roman Pontiff is the vicar of Christ, and infallible ; he 
 can never err. The atheists of the National Convention 
 and the Theophilanthropists of the Directory not only 
 denied his demi-divinity, but transformed him into a satyr ; 
 and in pretending to tear the veil of superstition, annihi- 
 lated all belief in a God. The ignorant part of our nation, 
 which, as everywhere else, constitutes the majority, witnessing 
 the impunity and prosperity of crime, and bestowing on 
 the Almighty the passions of mortals, first doubted of His 
 omnipotence in not crushing guilt, and afterwards of His 
 existence in not exterminating the blasphemers from among 
 the living. Feeling, however, the want of consolation in 
 their misfortunes here, and hope of a reward hereafter for
 
 134- THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 unmerited sufferings upon earth, they all hailed as a blessing 
 the restoration of Christianity ; and by this political act 
 Bonaparte gained more adherents than by all his victories 
 he had procured admirers. 
 
 Bonaparte's character, his good and his bad qualities, 
 his talents and his crimes, are too recent and too notorious 
 to require description. Should he continue successful, and 
 be attended by fortune to his grave, future ages may per- 
 haps hail him a hero and a great man : but by his con- 
 temporaries it will always be doubtful whether mankind has 
 not suffered more from his ambition and cruelties than 
 benefited by his services. Had he satisfied himself by con- 
 tinuing the chief magistrate of a commonwealth ; or, if he 
 judged that a monarchical government alone was suitable to 
 the spirit of this country, had he recalled our legitimate King, 
 he would have occupied a principal, if not the first, place in 
 the history of France ; a place much more exalted than he 
 can ever expect to fill as an Emperor of the French. Let 
 his prosperity be ever so uninterrupted, he cannot be men- 
 tioned but as an usurper ; an appellation never exciting 
 esteem, frequently inspiring contempt, and always odious. 
 
 The crime of usurpation is the greatest and most 
 enormous a subject can perpetrate ; but what epithet can 
 there be given to him who, to preserve an authority un- 
 lawfully acquired, associates in his guilt a Supreme Pontiff,
 
 THK COUKT OF ST. CLOUD I35 
 
 whom the multitude is accustomed to reverence as the 
 representative of their dod, but who, by this act of scandal 
 and sacrilege, descends to a level with the most culpable 
 of men? I have heard, not only in this city but in villages, 
 where sincerity is more frecjuent than corruption, and where 
 hypocrites are as little known as infidels, these remarks 
 made by the people : " Can the real vicar of Christ, by his 
 inauguration, commit the double injustice of depriving the 
 legitimate owner of his rights, and of bestowing as a sacred 
 donation what belongs to another : and what he has no 
 power, no authority, to dispose of? ('an Pius VII. confer 
 on Napoleon the First what belongs to Louis XVIII. ? 
 Would Jesus Christ, if upon earth, have acted thus ? 
 \\'ould his immediate successors, the Apostles, not have 
 preferred the suffering of martyrdom to the commission 
 of any injury? If the present Roman Pontiff acts 
 differently from what his Master and predecessors would 
 have done, can he be the vicar of our Saviour?" These 
 and many similar reflections the common people have 
 made, and make yet. The step from doubt to disbelief 
 is but short, and those brought up in the Roman Catholic 
 religion, who hesitate about believing Pius VII. to be the 
 vicar of Christ, will soon remember the precepts of atheists 
 and freethinkers, and believe that Christ is not the Son of 
 Cod, and that a Cod is only the invention of fear.
 
 136 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 The fact is, that by the Pope's performance of the 
 coronation of an Emperor of the French, a religious as 
 well as a political revolution was effected : and the usurper 
 in power, whatever his creed ma)' be, will hereafter, without 
 much difficulty, force it on his slaves. You may perhaps 
 object that Pius VII., in his official account to the Sacred 
 College of his journey to France, speaks with enthusiasm 
 of the Catholicism of the French people. But did not the 
 Goddess of Reason, did not Robespierre as a high priest 
 of a Supreme Being, speak as highly of their sectaries? 
 Read the Mo?iiteur of 1793 and 1794, and you will be 
 convinced of the truth of this assertion. They, like the 
 Pope, spoke of what they saw, and they, like him, did not 
 see an individual who was not instructed how to perform 
 his part, so as to give satisfaction to him whom he was to 
 please, and to those who employed him. As you have 
 attended to the history of our Revolution, you have found 
 it in great part a cruel masquerade, where none but the 
 unfortunate Louis XVL appeared in his native and natural 
 character and without a mask. 
 
 The countenance of Pius VH. is placid and benign, 
 and a kind of calmness and tranquillity pervades his 
 address and manners, which are, however, far from being 
 easy or elegant. The crowds that he must have been 
 accustomed to see since his present elevation, have not
 
 THE COL'KT OF SI". CLOUD I37 
 
 lessened a timidity the consequence of early seclusion. 
 Nothing troubled him more than the numerous deputations 
 of our Senate, Legislative Hody, Tribunate, National Insti- 
 tute, Tribunals, &.C., that teased him on every occasion. 
 He never was suspected of any vices, but all his 
 virtues are negative ; and his best quality is, not to 
 do good, but to prevent evil. His piety is sincere and 
 unaffected, and it is not difficult to perceive that he has 
 been more accustomed to address his (Sod than to converse 
 with men. He is nowhere so well in his place as before 
 the altar ; when imploring the blessings of Providence on 
 his audience he speaks with confidence, as to a friend to 
 whom his purity is known, and who is accustomed to listen 
 favourably to his prayers. He is zealous but not fonatical, 
 but equally superstitious as devout. His closet was crowded 
 with relics, rosaries, &:c., but there he passed generally eight 
 hours of the twenty-four upon his knees in prayer and medita- 
 tion. He often inflicted on himself mortifications, observed 
 fast-days, and kept his vows with religious strictness. 
 
 None of the promises made him by Cardinal Fesch, 
 in the name of Napoleon the First, were performed, but 
 were put off until a general pacification. He was promised 
 indemnity for Avignon, Bologna, Ferrara and Ravenna ; 
 the ancient supremacy and pecuniary contributions of the 
 (iallican Cliurch, and the restoration of certain religious
 
 13^ THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 orders, both in France and Ital)- : but notwithstanding his 
 own representations, and the activity of his Cardinal, Caprara, 
 nothing was decided, though nothing was refused. 
 
 By some means or other he was become perfectly 
 acquainted with the crimes and vices of most of our ])ublic 
 functionaries. Talleyrand was surprised when Cardinal 
 ('aprara explained to him the reason why the Pope re- 
 fused to admit some persons to his presence, and why 
 he wished others even not to be of the party when he 
 accepted of the invitations of Bonaparte and his wife to 
 their private societies. Many are, however, of opinion that 
 Talleyrand, from malignity or revenge, often heightened and 
 confirmed his Holiness's aversion. This was at least once 
 the case with regard to I)e Lalande. When Duroc enquired 
 the cause of the Pope's displeasure against this astronomer, 
 and hinted that it would be very agreeable to the Emperor 
 were his Holiness to permit him the honour of prostrating 
 himself, he was answered, that men of talents and learning 
 would always be welcome to approach his person ; that 
 he pitied the errors and prayed for the conversion of this 
 sava/if, but was neither displeased nor offended with him. 
 Talleyrand, when informed of the I'ope's answer, accused 
 Cardinal Cajjrara of having misinterpreted his master's com- 
 munications ; and this prelate, in his turn, censured our 
 minister's bad memory.
 
 THi; coi'Kr oi' SI', cloud 139 
 
 ^'ou must have read llial this I )c I.alande is regarded 
 in l-"ranc-c as the first astronomer of Kurope, and hailed as 
 the high priest of atheists ; he is said to be the author 
 of a shockingly blasphemous work called " The Bible of 
 a People who acknowledge no (lod." He iiiiplo?-cd the 
 ferocious Robespierre to honour the heavens by bestowing 
 on a new planet pretended to be discovered his ci-dcvaiit 
 christian-name, Maximilian. In a letter of congratulation 
 to Bonaparte, on the occasion of his present elevation, he 
 also implored him to lioiiour the (iod of the Christians by 
 styling himself Jesus Christ the First, Emperor of the 
 French, instead of Napoleon the First. But it was not 
 his known impiety that made Talleyrand wish to exclude 
 liini from insulting with his presence a Christian pontiff. 
 In the summer of 1799, when the minister was in a 
 momentary disgrace, De Lalande was at the head of those 
 who imputed to his treachery, corruption and machinations 
 all the evils France then suffered, both from external 
 enemies and internal factions. If Talleyrand has justly 
 been reproached for soon forgetting good offices and ser 
 vices done him, nobody ever denied that he has the best 
 recollection in the world of offences or attacks, and that 
 he is as revengeful as unforgiving. 
 
 The only one of our i:;rcat men whom Pius VII. 
 remained obstinate and inflexible in not receiving, was the
 
 140 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 .senator and minister of police, Fouche. As his Holiness 
 was not so particular with regard to other persons who, 
 like Fouche, were both apostate priests and regicide sub- 
 jects, the following is reported to be the cause of his 
 aversion and obduracy : — 
 
 In November, 1793, ^^e remains of a wretch of the 
 name of Challiers — justly called, for his atrocities, the Marat 
 of Lyons — were ordered by Fouche, then a representative 
 of the people in that city, to be produced and publicly 
 worshipped ; and, under his particular auspices, a grand fete 
 was performed to the memory of this republican martyr, 
 who had been executed as an assassin. As part of this 
 impious ceremony, an ass, covered with a bishop's vest- 
 ments, having on his head a mitre, and the volumes of 
 Holy Writ tied to his tail, paraded the streets. The remains 
 of Challiers were then burnt, and the ashes distributed 
 among his adorers ; while the books were also consumed, 
 and the ashes scattered in the wind. F'ouche proposed, 
 after giving the ass some water to drink in a sacred chalice, 
 to terminate the festivity of the day by murdering all the 
 prisoners, amounting to seven thousand five hundred ; but 
 a sudden storm prevented the execution of this diabolical 
 proposition, and dispersed the sacrilegious congregation.
 
 THK COURT Ol- ST. CI. QUI) 
 
 141 
 
 LICTTER XX 
 
 Paris, Ategusf, 1805- 
 
 My Lord, — Though all the Bonapartes were great 
 favourites with Pius VII., Madame Letitia, their mother, 
 had a visible preference. In her apartments he seemed 
 most pleased to meet the family parties, as they were 
 called, because to them, except the Bonapartes, none but 
 a few select favourites were invited ; a distinction as much 
 wished for and envied as any other Court honour. After 
 the Pope had fixed the evening he would appear among 
 them, Duroc made out a list, under the dictates of Napo- 
 leon, of the chosen few destined to partake of the blessing 
 of his Holiness's presence : this list was merely pro forma, 
 or as a compliment, laid before him ; and after his tacit 
 approbation, the individuals were informed, from the first 
 chamberlain's office, that they would be honoured with 
 admittance at such an hour, to such a company, and in 
 such an apartment. The dress in which the)' were to 
 appear was also prescribed. The parties usually met at 
 six o'clock in the evening. On the Pope's entrance all 
 y)ersons, of both sexes, kneeled to receive his blessing. Tea,
 
 142 -THE SFXRET HISTORY OF 
 
 ice, liqueurs and confectionery were then served. In the 
 place of honour were three elevated elbow-chairs, and his 
 Holiness was seated between the Emperor and Empress, 
 and seldom spoke to anyone to whom Napoleon did not 
 previously address the word. The exploits of Bonaparte, 
 particularly his campaigns in Egypt, were the chief subjects 
 of conversation. Before eight o'clock the Pope always re- 
 tired, distributing his blessing to the kneeling audience, as 
 on his entry. AVhen he was gone, card-tables were brought 
 in, and play was permitted. Duroc received his master's 
 orders how to distribute the places at the different tables, 
 what games were to be jilayed, and the amount of the 
 sums to be staked. These were usually trifling and small 
 compared to what is daily risked in our fashionable circles. 
 Often, after the Pope had returned to his own rooms, 
 Madame Letitia Bonaparte was admitted to assist at his 
 private prayers. This lady, whose intrigues and gallantry 
 are proverbial in Corsica, has, now that she is old (as is 
 generally the case), turned devotee, and is surrounded by 
 hypocrites and impostors, who, under the mask of .sanctity, 
 deceive and plunder her. • Her ante-chambers are always 
 full of priests ; and her closet and bedroom are crowded 
 with relics, which she collected during her journey to Italy 
 last year. She might, if she chose, establish a Catholic 
 museum, and furnish it with a more curious collection, in
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD I43 
 
 its sort, than any of our other nuiseums contain. Of all 
 the saints in our calendar, there is not one of any notoriety 
 who has not supplied her with a finger, a toe, or sorric 
 other part ; or with a piece of a shirt, a handkerchief, a 
 sandal, or a winding - sheet. Even a bit of a pair of 
 breeches, said to have belonged to St. Mathurin, whom 
 many think was a sans-culotte, obtains her adoration on 
 certain occasions. As none of her children have yet 
 arrived at the same height of faith as herself, she has, in 
 her will, bequeathed to the Pope all her relics, together 
 with eight hundred and seventy -nine Prayer- Books, and 
 four hundred and forty-six Bibles, either in manuscript or 
 of different editions. Her favourite breviary, used only on 
 great solemnities, was presented to her by Cardinal Maury at 
 Rome, and belonged, as it is said, formerly to St. Francois, 
 whose commentary, written with his own hand, fills the mar- 
 gins; though many, who with me adore him as a saint, 
 doubt whether he could either read or write. 
 
 Not long ago .she made, as she thought, an exceedingly 
 valuable acquisition. A priest arrived direct from the Holy 
 City of Jerusalem, well recommended by the inhabitants of 
 the convents there, with whom he pretended to have passed 
 his youth. After prostrating himself before the Pope, he 
 waited on Madame Letitia Bonaparte. He told her that 
 he had brought with him from Syria the famous relic, the
 
 144 "^^^ SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 shoulder-bone of St. John the Baptist : but that, being in 
 want of money for his voyage, he borrowed upon it from a 
 Grecian Bishop in Montenegro two hundred louis d'or. 
 This sum, and one hundred louis d'or besides, was 
 immediately given him : and within three months, for a 
 large sum in addition to those advanced, this precious relic 
 was in Madame Letitia's possession. 
 
 Notwithstanding this lady's care not to engage in 
 her service any person of either sex who cannot produce, 
 not a certificate of civisni from the municipality as w'as 
 formerly the case, but a certificate of Christianity, and a 
 billet of confession signed by the curate of the parish, 
 she had often been robbed, and the robbers had made 
 particularly free with those relics which were set in gold 
 or in diamonds. vShe accused her daughter, the Princess 
 Borghese, who often rallies the devotion of her mamma, 
 and who is more an amateur of the living than of the dead, 
 of having played her these tricks. The Princess informed 
 Napoleon of her mother's losses, as well as of her own 
 innocence, and asked him to apply to the police to find 
 out the thief, who no doubt was one of the pious rogues 
 who almost devoured their mother. 
 
 On the next day Napoleon invited ISIadame Letitia to 
 dinner, and Foucht' had orders to make a strict search, 
 during her absence, among the persons composing her
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I45 
 
 household. Though he, on this occasion, did not find what 
 he was looking for, he made a discovery which very much 
 mortified Madame Letitia. 
 
 Her first chambermaid, Rosina (laglini, possessed both 
 her esteem and confidence, and had been sent for purposely 
 from Ajaccio, in Corsica, on account of her general renown 
 for great piety, and a report that she was an exclusive 
 favourite with the Virgin Mary, by whose interference she 
 had even performed, it was said, some miracles : such as 
 restoring stolen goods, runaway cattle, lost children, and 
 procuring prizes in the lottery. Rosina was as relic - mad 
 as her mistress ; and as she had no means to procure them 
 otherwise, she determined to partake of her lady's by cutting 
 off a small part of each relic of Madame Letitia's principal 
 .saints. These precious morceaux she placed in a box upon 
 which she kneeled to say her prayers during the day ; and 
 which, for a mortification, served her as a pillow during 
 the night. Upon each of the sacred bits she had afifixed a 
 label with the name of the saint it belonged to, which 
 occasioned the disclosure. 
 
 When Madame T.etitia heard of this pious theft, she 
 insisted on having the culprit immediately and severely 
 punished ; and though the Princess Borghese, as the inno- 
 cent cause of poor Rosina's misfortune, interfered, and 
 Rosina herself promised never more to j)lunder saints, she
 
 146 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 was without mercy turned away, and even denied money 
 sufficient to carry her back to Corsica. Had she made 
 free with Madame Letitia's plate or wardrobe, there is no 
 doubt but that she had been forgiven ; but to presume to 
 share with her those sacred supports on her way to Para- 
 dise was a more unpardonable act with a devotee than to 
 steal from a lover the portrait of an adored mistress. 
 
 In the meantime the police were upon the alert to 
 discover the person whom they suspected of having stolen 
 the rehcs for the diamonds, and not the diamonds for the 
 relics. Among our fashionable and new saints, surprising 
 as you may think it, Madame de Genlis holds a distin- 
 guished place ; and she, too, is an amateur and collector 
 of relics in proportion to her means ; and with her were 
 found those missed by Madame Letitia. Being asked to 
 give up the name of him from whom she had purchased 
 them, she mentioned Abbe Saladin, the pretended priest 
 from Jerusalem. He, in his turn, was questioned, and by 
 his answers gave rise to suspicion that he himself was the 
 thief The person of whom he pretended to have bought 
 them was not to be found, nor was anyone of such a 
 description remembered to have been seen anywhere. On 
 being carried to prison, he claimed the protection of 
 Madame Letitia, and produced a letter in which this lady 
 had promised him a bishopric either in I'Vance or in Italy.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOl'D 
 
 147 
 
 \Vhen she was informed of his situation, she appHed to 
 her son Napoleon for his Hberty ; urging that a priest who 
 from Jerusalem had brought with him to Europe such an 
 extraordinary relic as the shoulder of St. John, could not 
 be culpable. 
 
 Abbe Saladin had been examined by Real, who con- 
 cluded, from the accent and perfection with which he spoke 
 the French language, that he was some French adventurer 
 who had imposed on the credulity and superstition of 
 Madame Letitia ; and, therefore, threatened him with the 
 rack if he did not confess the truth. He continued, how- 
 ever, in his story, and was going to be released upon an 
 order from the Emperor, when a gendarme recognized him 
 as a person who, eight years before, had, under the name 
 of Lanoue, been condemned for theft and forgery to the 
 galleys, from whence he had made his escape. Finding 
 himself discovered, he avowed everything. He said he 
 had served in Egypt, in the guides of Bonaparte, but de- 
 serted to the Turks and turned Mussulman, but afterwards 
 returned to the bosom of the Church at Jerusalem. There 
 he persuaded the friars that he had been a priest, and 
 obtained the certificates which introduced him to the Pope 
 and to the Emperor's mother ; from whom he had received 
 tw'elve thousand livres — ^500 —for part of the jaw-bone of 
 
 a whale, which he had sold her for the shoulder-bone of a 
 
 10 — 2
 
 148 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 saint. As the police believe the certificates he has pro- 
 duced to be also forged, he is detained in prison until an 
 answer arrives from our consul in Syria. 
 
 Madame Letitia did not resign without tears the relic 
 he had sold her ; and there is reason to believe that many 
 other pieces of her collections, worshipped by her as remains 
 of saints, are equally genuine as this shoulder- bone of 
 St. John.
 
 THK COrKT OF ST. CLOUD 1 49 
 
 J.KTTER XXI 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — 'i'hat the population of this capital has, 
 since the Revolution, decreased near two hundred thousand 
 souls, is not to be lamented. This focus of corruption 
 and profligacy is still too populous, though the inhabitants 
 do not amount to six hundred thousand ; for I am well 
 persuaded that more crimes and excesses of every descrip- 
 tion are committed here in one year, than are perpetrated 
 in the same period of time in all other European capitals 
 put together. From not reading in our newspapers, as we 
 do in yours, of the robberies, murders and frauds discovered 
 and jjunished, you may, perhaps, be inclined to suppose my 
 assertion erroneous or exaggerated ; but it is the poHcy of 
 our present (Government to labour as uiuch as possible in the 
 dark; that is to say, to prevent, where it can be done, all 
 publicity of anything directly or indirectly tending to in- 
 culpate it of oppression, tyranny, or even negligence ; and 
 to conceal the immoralit)' of the people so nearly connected 
 with its own immoral power. It is true that many vices 
 and crimes here, as well as everywhere else, are unavoid 
 able, and the natural consequences of corruption and
 
 150 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 might be promulgated, therefore, without attachiiig any 
 reproach to our rulers ; but they are so accustomed to 
 the mystery adherent to tyranny, that even the most 
 unimportant lawsuit, uninteresting intrigue, elopement, or 
 divorce, are never allowed to be mentioned in our journals, 
 without a previous permission from the prefect of police, 
 who very seldom grants it. 
 
 Most of the enormities now deplored in this country, 
 are the consequence of moral and religious licentiousness, 
 that have succeeded to political anarchy, or rather were 
 produced by it, and survive it. Add to this the numerous 
 examples of the impunity of guilt, prosperity of infamy, 
 misery of honesty and sufferings of virtue, and you will 
 not think it surprising that, notwithstanding half- a - million 
 of spies, our roads and streets are covered with robbers 
 and assassins, and our scaffolds with victims. 
 
 l"he undeniable truth that this city alone is watched 
 by one hundred thousand spies (so that, when in company 
 with six persons, one has reason to dread the presence of 
 one spy), proclaims at once the morality of the governors 
 and that of the governed : were the former just, and the 
 latter good, this mass of vileness would never be employed, 
 or, if employed, wickedness would expire for want of fuel, 
 and the hydra of tyranny perish by its own i)estilential 
 breath.
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUU I5I 
 
 According to the official registers published by Manuel 
 in 1792, the number of spies all over France during the 
 reign of Louis XVI. were nineteen thousand three hundred 
 (five thousand less than under Louis XV.), and of this 
 number six thousand were distributed in Paris, and in a 
 circle of four leagues around it, including Versailles. You 
 will undoubtedly ask me, even allowing for our extension 
 of territory, what can be the cause of this disproportionate 
 increase of mistrust and depravity ? I will explain it as far 
 as my abilities admit, according to the opinions of others 
 compared with my own remarks. 
 
 When factions usurped the supremacy of the kings, 
 vigilance augmented with insecurity ; and almost every- 
 body who was not an opposer, who refused being an ac- 
 complice, or feared to be a victim, was obliged to serve 
 as an informer and vilify himself by becoming a spy. The 
 rapidity with which parties followed and destroyed each 
 other made the criminals as numerous as the sufferings of 
 honour and loyalty innumerable : and I am sorry to say 
 few persons exist in my degraded country, whose firmness 
 and constancy were proof against repeated torments and 
 trials, and who, to preserve their lives, did not renounce 
 their principles and probity. 
 
 Under the reign of Robespierre and of the Committee 
 of Public Safety, every member of Clovernment, of the clubs.
 
 152 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 of the tribunals, and of the communes, had his private 
 spies ; but no regular register was kept of their exact num- 
 ber. Under the Directory a police minister was nominated, 
 and a police ofifice established. According to the declaration 
 of the police minister, Cochon, in 1797, the spies, who 
 were then regularly paid, amounted to one hundred and 
 fifty thousand ; and of these, thirty thousand did duty in 
 this capital. How many they were in 1799, when Fouche, 
 for the first time, was appointed a chief of the department 
 of police, is not known, but suppose them doubled within 
 two years ; their increase since is nevertheless immense, 
 considering that France has enjoyed upwards of four years' 
 uninterrupted Continental peace, and has not been exposed 
 to any internal convulsions during the same period. 
 
 You may, perhaps, object that France is not rich 
 enough to keep up as numerous an army of spies as of 
 soldiers ; because the expense of the former must be triple 
 the amount of the latter. Were all these spies, now called 
 police agents, or agents of the secret police, paid regular 
 salaries, your objection would stand, but most of them have 
 no other reward than the protection of the police ; being 
 employed in gambling-houses, in coffee-houses, in taverns, 
 at the theatres, in the public gardens, in the hotels, in 
 lottery offices, at pawnbrokers', in brothels, and in bathing- 
 houses, where the proprietors or masters of these establish-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 1 53 
 
 mcnts pay thcni. They receive nothing from the |)oHce, 
 but when they are enabled to make any great discoveries, 
 those who have been robbed or defrauded, and to wiioni 
 they have been serviceable, are, indeed, obliged to present 
 them with some douceur, fixed by the police at the rate of 
 the value recovered ; but such occurrences are merely acci- 
 dental. To these are to be added all individuals of either 
 sex who by the law are obliged to obtain from the police 
 licences to exercise their trade, as pedlars, tinkers, masters 
 of puppet-shows, wild beasts, &c. These, on receiving their 
 passes, inscribe themselves, and take the oaths as spies ; 
 and are forced to send in their regular reports of what 
 they hear or see. Prostitutes, who, all over this country, 
 are under the necessity of paying for regular licences, are 
 obliged also to give information, from time to time, to the 
 nearest police commissary of what they observe or what 
 they know respecting their visitors, neighbours, &c. The 
 number of unfortunate women of this description who 
 had taken out licences during the year 12, or from 
 September, 1803, to September, 1804, is officially known to 
 have amounted to two hundred and twenty thousand, of 
 ^vhom forty thousand zvere employed by the arniies. 
 
 It is no secret that Napoleon Bonaparte has his secret 
 spies upon his wife, his brothers, his sisters, his ministers, 
 senators, and other public functionaries, and also upon his
 
 154 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 public spies. These are all under his own immediate con- 
 trol and that of Duroc, who does the duty of his private 
 police minister, and in whom he confides more than even 
 in the members of his own family. In imitation of their 
 master, each of the other l^onapartes, and each of the 
 ministers, have their individual spies, and are watched in 
 their turn by the spies of their secretaries, clerics, &c. 
 This infamous custom of espionage goes ad i/ifj/iifinii, and 
 appertains almost to the establishment and to the suite of 
 each man in place, who does not think himself secure a 
 moment if he remains in ignorance of the transactions of 
 his rivals, as well as of those of his equals and superiors. 
 
 Fouche and Talleyrand are reported to have disagreed 
 before Bonaparte on some subject or other, which is fre- 
 (juently the case. The former, offended at some doubts 
 thrown out about his intelligence, said to the latter, " I 
 am so well served that I can tell you the name of every 
 man or woman you have conversed with, both yesterday 
 and to-day ; where you saw them, and how long you 
 remained with them or they Avith you." — " If such 
 commonplace espionage evinces any merit," retorted Talley- 
 rand, " I am even here your superior ; because I know 
 not only what has already passed with you and in your 
 house, but what is to pass hereafter. I can inform you 
 of cverv dish you had for your dinners this week, who
 
 THE COURT OI- ST. CI.OUIJ 155 
 
 provided these dinners, and who is e\[)ectcd to provide 
 your meats to-morrow and the da\- after. I can whisper 
 you, /// confidence, who slept with Madame l-'oucht- last 
 night, and who has an appointment with her to-night." 
 Here JJbnaparte interrupted them, in his usual dignified 
 language : " Hold both your tongues ; you are both great 
 rogues, but I am at a loss to decide which is the greatest." 
 Without uttering a single syllable, Talleyrand made a pro- 
 found reverence to P'ouche. Bonaparte smiled, and advised 
 them to live upon good terms if they were desirous of 
 keeping their places. 
 
 A man of the name of Ducroux, who, under Robes- 
 pierre, had from a barber been made a general, and after- 
 wards broken for his ignorance, was engaged b)- Bonaparte 
 as a private spy upon Fouche, who employed him in the 
 same capacity upon Bonaparte. His reports were always 
 written, and delivered in person into the hands both of 
 the Emperor and of his minister. One morning he, by 
 mistake, gave to Bonaparte the rejjort of him instead of 
 that intended for him. Bonaparte began to read : " Yes- 
 terday, at nine o'clock, the Emperor acted the complete 
 part of a madman ; he swore, stamped, kicked, foamed, 
 roared" — here poor Ducroux threw himself at P)onaparte's 
 feet, and called for mercy for the terrible blunder he had 
 committed. " For whom," asked Bonajjarte, " did you in-
 
 156 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 tend this treasonable correspondence ? I suppose it is 
 composed for some English or Russian agent, for Pitt or 
 for Marcoff. How long have you conspired with my 
 enemies, and where are your accomplices ? " — " For God's 
 sake, hear me, Sire," prayed Ducroux. " Your Majest}"s 
 enemies have always been mine. The report is for one 
 of your best friends ; but were I to mention his name, he 
 will ruin me." — " Speak out, or )ou die ! " vociferated 
 Bonaparte. — "Well, Sire, it is for Fouche — for nobody 
 else but Fouche." Bonaparte then rang the bell for 
 Duroc, whom he ordered to see Ducroux shut up in a 
 dungeon, and afterwards to send for Fouche. The minister 
 denied all knowledge of Ducroux, who, after undergoing 
 several tortures, expiated his blunder upon the rack.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 
 
 ^57 
 
 LETTER XXII 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — The Pope, during his stay here, rose 
 regularly every morning at five o'clock, and went to bed 
 every night before ten. The first hours of the day he 
 passed in prayers, breakfasted after the Mass was over, 
 transacted business till one, and dined at two. Between 
 three and four he took his siesfa, or nap ; afterwards he 
 attended the vespers, and when they were over, he passed 
 an hour with the Bonapartes, or admitted to his presence 
 some members of the clergy. The day was concluded, as 
 it was begun, with some hours of devotion. 
 
 Had Pius VIL possessed the character of a Pius VL, 
 he would never have crossed the Alps ; or had he been 
 gifted with the spirit and talents of Sextus V. or Leo X., 
 he would never have entered France to crown Bonaparte, 
 without previously stipulating for himself that he should be 
 put into possession of the sovereignty of Italy. Vou can 
 form no idea what great stress was laid on this act of his 
 Holiness by the Bonaparte family, and Vv'hat sacrifices were 
 destined to be made had anv serious and obstinate resist-
 
 158 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 ance been apprehended. Threats were, indeed, employed 
 personally against the Pope, and bribes distributed to the 
 refractory members of the Sacred College ; but it was no 
 secret, either here or at Milan, that Cardinal Fesch had 
 carte hlauchc with regard to the restoration of all provinces 
 seized, since the war, from the Holy See, or full territorial 
 indemnities in their place, at the expense of Naples and 
 Tuscany ; and, indeed, whatever the Roman Pontiff has 
 lost in Italy has been taken from him by Bonaparte alone, 
 and the apparent generosity which policy and ambition 
 required, would, therefore, have merely been an act of 
 justice. Confiding foolishly in the honour and rectitude of 
 Napoleon, without any other security than the assertion of 
 Fesch, Pius VII., within a fortnight's stay in France, found 
 the great difference between the promises held out to him 
 when residing as a Sovereign at Rome, and their accom- 
 plishment when he had so far forgotten himself and his 
 sacred dignity as to inhabit as a guest the castle of the 
 Tuileries. 
 
 Pius YII. mentioned, the day after his arrival at 
 Fontainebleau, that it would be a gratification to his own 
 subjec:ts were he enabled to communicate to them the 
 restoration of the former ecclesiastical domains, as a free 
 s^i/t of the Fm])cr()r of the I""renc-h, at their first conference, 
 as they would tlien be as well convinced of Napoleon's
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 159 
 
 good faith as he was himself. In answer, his HoUness was 
 informed that the Emperor was unprepared then to discuss 
 political subjects, being totally occupied with the thoughts 
 how to entertain worthily his high visitor, and to acknow- 
 ledge becomingly the great honour done and the great 
 happiness conferred on him by such a visit. As soon as 
 the ceremony of the coronation was over, everything, he 
 hopcd^ would be arranged to the reciprocal satisfaction of 
 both parties. 
 
 About the middle of last December, Bonaparte was 
 again asked to fix a day when the points of negotiation 
 between him and the Pope could be discussed and settled. 
 Cardinal Caprara, who made this demand, was referred to 
 Talleyrand, who denied having yet any instructions, though 
 in daily expectation of them. Thus the time went on 
 until February, when Bonaparte informed the Pope of his 
 determination to assume the crown of Italy, and of some 
 new changes necessary in consequence on the other side 
 of the Alps. 
 
 Either seduced by caresses, or blinded by his unac- 
 countable partiality for Bonaparte, Pius VII., if left to 
 himself, would not only have renounced all his former 
 claims, but probably have made new sacrifices to this idol 
 of his infatuation. Fortunately, his counsellors were wiser 
 and less deluded, otherwise the remaining patrimony of
 
 l6o THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 St. Peter might now have constituted a part of Napoleon's 
 inherita7ice in Ital)'. " Am I not, Hoi}' Father ! " exclaimed 
 the Emperor frequently, " your son, the work of your 
 hand ? And if the pages of history assign me any glory, 
 must it not be shared with you — or rather, do you not 
 share it with me ? Anything that impedes my successes, 
 or makes the continuance of my power uncertain or 
 hazardous, reflects on you and is dangerous to you. With 
 me you will shine or be obscured, rise or fall. Could 
 you, therefore, hesitate (were I to demonstrate to you the 
 necessity of such a measure) to remove the Papal See to 
 Avignon, where it formerly was and continued for centuries, 
 and to enlarge the limits of my kingdom of Italy with the 
 Ecclesiastical States ? Can you believe my throne at Milan 
 safe as long as it is not the sole throne of Italy ? Do 
 you expect to govern at Rome when I cease to reign at 
 Milan ? No, Holy P\ather ! the Pontiff who placed the 
 crown on my head, should it be shaken, will fall to rise 
 no more." If what Cardinal Caprara said can be depended 
 upon, Bonaparte frequently used to intimidate or flatter 
 the Pope in this manner. 
 
 The representations of Cardinal Caprara changed 
 Napoleon's first intention of being again crowned by the 
 l*ope as a King of Italy. His crafty Eminence observed 
 that, according to the Emperor's own declaration, it was
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD l6l 
 
 not intended that the crowns of France and Italy should 
 continue united. But were he to cede one supremacy 
 confirmed by the sacred hands of a Pontiff, the partisans 
 of the Bourbons, or the factions in France, would then 
 take advantage to diminish in the opinion of the people 
 his right and the sacredness of his Holiness, and perhaps 
 make even the crown of the French empire unstable. He 
 did not deny that Charlemagne was crowned by a Pontiff 
 in Italy, but this ceremony was performed at Rome, where 
 that Prince was proclaimed an Emperor of the Holy 
 Roman and German empires, as well as a King of Lom- 
 bardy and Italy. Might not circumstances turn out so 
 favourably for Napoleon the First that he also might be 
 inaugurated an Emperor of the Clermans as well as of the 
 French? This last compliment, or prophecy^ as Bonaparte's 
 courtiers call it (what a prophet a Caprara!) had the desired 
 effect, as it flattered equally Napoleon's ambition and vanity. 
 For fear, however, of Talleyrand and other anti-Catholic 
 counsellors, who wanted him to consider the Pope merely 
 as his first almoner, and to treat him as all other persons 
 of his household, his Eminence sent his Holiness as soon 
 as possible packing for Rome. Though I am neither a 
 Cardinal nor a prophet, sliould you and I live twenty years 
 longer, and the other Continental Sovereigns not alter their 
 present incomprehensible conduct, I can, without any risk,
 
 l62 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 predict that we shall see Rome salute the second Charle- 
 magne an Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, if before 
 that time death does not put a period to his encroach- 
 ments and gigantic plans.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 163 
 
 LETTER XXIII 
 
 Paris, Ai/giisf, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — No sovereigns have, since the Revolution, 
 displayed more grandeur of soul, and evinced more lirmness 
 of character, than the present King and Queen of Naples. 
 Encompassed by a revolutionary volcano more dangerous 
 than the physical one, though disturbed at home and 
 defeated abroad, they have neither been disgraced nor 
 dishonoured. They have, indeed, with all other Italian 
 princes, suffered territorial and pecuniary losses ; but these 
 were not yielded through cowardice or treachery, but en- 
 forced by an absolute necessity, the consequence of the 
 desertion or inefficacy of allies. 
 
 But their Sicilian Majesties have been careful, as much 
 
 as they were able, to exclude from their councils both 
 
 German Illuminati and Italian philosophers. Their principal 
 
 minister. Chevalier Acton, has proved himself worthy of the 
 
 confidence with which his Sovereigns have honoured him, 
 
 and of the hatred with which he has been honoured by 
 
 all revolutionists — the natural and irreconcilable enemies of 
 
 all legitimate sovereignty. 
 
 II — 2
 
 164 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Chevalier Acton is the son of an Irish physician, who 
 first was estabhshed at Besancon in France, and afterwards 
 at Leghorn in Italy. He is indebted for his present 
 elevation to his own merit and to the penetration of the 
 Queen of Sardinia, who discovered in him, when young, 
 those qualities which have since distinguished him as a 
 faithful counsellor and an able minister. As loyal as wise, 
 he was, from 1789, an enemy to the French Revolution. 
 He easily foresaw that the specious promise of regeneration 
 held out by impostors or fools to delude the ignorant, the 
 credulous and the weak, would end in that universal 
 corruption and general overthrow which we since have 
 witnessed, and the effects of which our grandchildren will 
 mourn. 
 
 When our Republic, in April, 1792, declared war against 
 Austria, and when in the September following, the dominions 
 of his Sardinian Majesty were invaded by our troops, the 
 neutrality of Naples continued, and was acknowledged by 
 our Government. On the i6th of December following, our 
 fleet from Toulon, however, cast anchor in the Bay of 
 Naples, and a grenadier of the name of Belleville was 
 landed as an ambassador of the French Republic, and 
 threatened a bombardment in case the demands he pre- 
 sented in a note were not acceded to within twenty-four 
 hours. Being attacked in time of peace, and taken by
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 1 65 
 
 surprise, the Court of Naples was unable to make any 
 resistance, and Chevalier Acton informed our grenadier 
 ambassador that this note had been laid before his 
 Sovereign, who had ordered him to sign an agreement in 
 consequence. 
 
 When in February, 1793, the King of Naples was 
 obliged, for his own safety, to join the league against 
 France, Acton concluded a treaty with your country, and 
 informed the Sublime Porte of the machinations of our 
 Committee of Public Safety in sending De Semonville as 
 an ambassador to Constantinople, which, perhaps, prevented 
 the Divan from attacking Austria, and occasioned the 
 capture and imprisonment of our emissary. 
 
 Whenever our Covernment has, by the success of our 
 arms, been enabled to dictate to Naples, the removal of 
 Acton has been insisted upon ; but though he has ceased 
 to transact business ostensibly as a minister, his influence 
 has always, and deservedly, continued unimpaired, and he 
 still enjoys the just confidence and esteem of his Prince. 
 
 But is his Sicilian Majesty equally well represented at 
 the Cabinet of St. Cloud as served in his own capital ? 
 I have told you before that Bonaparte is extremely par- 
 ticular in his acceptance of foreign diplomatic agents, and 
 admits none near his person whom he does not believe to 
 be well inclined to him.
 
 l66 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Marquis de Gallo, the ambassador of the King of the 
 Two SiciHes to the Emperor of the French, is no novice 
 in the diplomatic career. His Sovereign has employed hini 
 for these fifteen years in the most delicate negotiations, 
 and nominated him in May, 1795, a minister of the Foreign 
 Department, and a successor of Chevalier Acton, an honour 
 which he declined. In the summer and autumn, 1797, 
 Marquis de Gallo assisted at the conferences at Udine, 
 and signed, with the Austrian plenipotentiaries, the Peace of 
 Campo Formio, on the 17th of October, 1797. 
 
 During 1798, 1799 and 1800 he resided as Neapolitan 
 ambassador at A^ienna, and was again entrusted by his 
 Sovereign with several important transactions with Austria 
 and Russia. After a peace had been agreed to between 
 France and the Two Sicilies, in March, 1801, and the 
 Court of Naples had every reason to fear, and of course to 
 please, the Court of St. Cloud, he obtained his present 
 appointment, and is one of the few foreign ambassadors 
 here who has escaped both Bonaparte's pj-ivate admonitions 
 in the diplomatic circle and public lectures in Madame 
 Bonaparte's drawing-room. 
 
 This escape is so much the more fortunate and sin- 
 gular as our Government is f:ir from being content with 
 the 7iuitinflus spirit (as Bonaparte calls it) of the Govern- 
 ment of Naples, which, considering its precarious and en-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 167 
 
 feebled state, with a French army in the heart of the 
 kingdom, has resisted our attempts and insults with a 
 courage and dignity that demand our admiration. 
 
 It is said that the Marquis de (lallo is not entirely 
 free from some taints of modern philosoph)-, and that he, 
 therefore, does not consider the consecjuences of our inno- 
 vations so fatal as most loyal men judge them : nor thinks 
 a sans-culotte Emperor more dangerous to civili/.ed society 
 than a sa?is-cuIotte sovereign people. 
 
 It is evident from the names and rank of its partisans 
 that the Revolution of Naples in 1799 was different in 
 many respects from that of every other country in Europe ; 
 for, although the political convulsions seem to have origin- 
 ated among the middle classes of the community, the 
 extremes of society were everywhere else made to act 
 against each other ; the rabble being the first to triumph, 
 and the nobles to succumb. But here, on the contrary, 
 the lazzaroni, composed of the lowest portion of the popula- 
 tion of a luxurious capital, appear to have been the most 
 strenuous, and, indeed, almost the only supporters of 
 royalty ; while the great families, instead of being indig- 
 nant at novelties which levelled them, in point of political 
 rights, with the meanest subject, eagerly embraced the 
 opportunity of altering that form of government which 
 alone made them great. It is, however, but justice to say
 
 l68 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 that, though Marquis de Gallo gained the good graces ot 
 Bonaparte and of France in 1797, he was never, directly 
 or indirectly, inculpated in the revolutionary transactions 
 of his countrymen in 1799, when he resided at Vienna; 
 and indeed, after all, it is not improbable that he disguises 
 his real sentiments the better to serve his country, and by 
 that means has imposed on Bonaparte and acquired his 
 favour. 
 
 The address and manners of a courtier are allowed 
 Marquis de Gallo by all who know him, though few admit 
 that he possesses any talents as a statesman. He is said 
 to have read a great deal, to possess a good memory and 
 no bad judgment ; but that, notwithstanding this, all his 
 knowledge is superficial, a liquid in omnibus ct nihil in toto.
 
 IHi; COURT OF ST. CLOUD iChj 
 
 LETTER XXIV 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — Vou have perhaps heard that Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, with all his brothers and sisters, was last 
 Christmas married by the Pope according to the Roman 
 Catholic rite, being previously only united according to 
 the municipal laws of the French Republic, which con- 
 sider marriage only as a civil contract. During the two 
 last months of his Holiness's residence here, hardly a day 
 passed that he was not petitioned to perform the same cere- 
 mony for our coiisciejitious grand functionaries and courtiers, 
 which he, however, according to the Emperor's desire, 
 declined. But his Cardinals were not under the same 
 restrictions, and to an attentive observer who has watched 
 the progress of the Revolution and not lost sight of its 
 actors, nothing could appear more ridiculous, nothing could 
 inspire more contempt of our versatility and inconsistency, 
 than to remark among the foremost to demand the nuptial 
 benediction, a Talleyrand, a Louche, a Real, an Augereau, 
 a Chaptal, a Reubel, a Lasnes, a IJessieres, a Thuriot, a 
 Treilhard, a Merlin, with a hundred other ecjually notorious
 
 lyO THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 revolutionists, who were, twelve or fifteen years ago, not 
 only the first to declaim against religious ceremonies as 
 ridiculous, but against religion itself as useless, whose 
 motives produced, and whose votes sanctioned, those de- 
 crees of the legislature which proscribed the worship, 
 together with its priests and sectaries. But then the fashion 
 of barefaced infidelity was as much the order of the day as 
 that of external sanctity is at present. I leave to casuists 
 the decision : whether to the morals of the people, naked 
 atheism, exposed with all its deformities, is more or less 
 hurtful than concealed atheism, covered with the garb of 
 piety ; but for my part I think the noon-day murderer less 
 guilty and much less detestable than the midnight assassin 
 who stabs in the dark. 
 
 A hundred anecdotes are daily related of our new 
 saints and fashionable devotees. They would be laughable 
 were they not scandalous, and contemptible did they not 
 add duplicity to our other vices. 
 
 Bonaparte and his wife go now every morning to hear 
 Mass, and on every Sunday or holiday they regularly attend 
 at vespers, when, of course, all those who wish to be dis- 
 tinguished for their piety or rewarded for their flattery 
 never neglect to be present. In the evening of last 
 (Christmas Day, the imperial chapel was, as usual, early 
 crowded in expectation of 'I'heir Majesties, when the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 171 
 
 chamberlain, Salmatoris, entered, and said to tlie captain of 
 the guard, loud enough to be heard by the audience, "The 
 l*_^mperor and the iMiipress have just resolved not to come 
 here to-night, His Majesty being engaged by some unex- 
 pected business, and the lunpress not wishing to come 
 without her consort." In ten minutes the chapel was 
 emptied of every person but the guards, the priests, and 
 three old women who had nowhere else to pass an hour. 
 At the arrival of our Sovereigns, they were astonished at 
 the unusual vacancy, and indignantly regarded each other. 
 After vespers were over, one of Bonaparte's spies informed 
 him of the cause, when, instead of punishing the despic- 
 able and hypocritical courtiers, or showing them any signs 
 of his displeasure, he ordered Salmatoris under arrest, who 
 would have experienced a complete disgrace had not his 
 friend 1 )uroc interfered and made his peace. 
 
 At another time, on a Sunday, I*"ouche entered the 
 chapel in the midst of the service, and whispered to 
 Bonaparte, who immediately beckoned to his lord - in - 
 waiting and to Duroc. These both left the imperial chapel, 
 and returning in a few minutes at the head of five 
 grenadiers, entered the grand gallery, generally frequented 
 by the most scrupulous devotees, and seized every book. 
 The cause of this domit-iliary visit was an anonymous 
 communication received by the minister of police, stating,
 
 172 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 that libels against the imperial family, bound in the form 
 of Prayer-Books, had been placed there. No such libels 
 were, however, found ; but of one hundred and sixty pre- 
 tended breviaries, twenty-eight were volumes of novels, 
 sixteen of poems, and eleven of indecent books. It is not 
 necessary to add that the proprietors of these edifyi?ig 
 works never reclaimed them. The opinions are divided 
 here, whether this curious discovery originated in the malice 
 of louche, or whether I'alleyrand took this method of 
 duping his rival, and at the same time of gratifying his 
 own malignity. Certain it is, that Fouche was severely 
 reprimanded for the transaction, and that Bonaparte was 
 highly offended at the disclosure. 
 
 The common people, and the middle classes, are 
 neither so ostentatiously devout, nor so basely perverse. 
 I'hey go to church as to the play, to gape at others, or 
 to be stared at themselves ; to pass the time, and to 
 admire the show : and they do not conceal that such is 
 the object of their attendance. Their indifference about 
 futurity equals their ignorance of religious duties. Our 
 revolutionary charlatans have as much brutalized their 
 understanding as corrupted their hearts. They heard the 
 (Irand Mass said Ijy the Pope with the same feelings as 
 they formerly heard Robespierre proclaim himself a high 
 priest of a Supreme iJcing ; and they looked at the imperial
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CI.OUD 1 73 
 
 processions with the same insensibihty as they once saw 
 the daily caravans of victims passing for execution. 
 
 Even in Bonaparte's own guard, and among the officers 
 of his household troops, several examples of rigour were 
 necessary before they would go to any i)lace of worshi[), 
 or suffer in their corps any almoners : but now, after being 
 drilled into a belief of C'hristianity, they march to the Mass 
 as to a parade or to a review. With any other people, 
 Bonaparte would not so easily have changed in two years 
 the customs of twelve, and forced military men to kneel 
 before priests, whom they but the other day were en- 
 couraged to hunt and massacre like wild beasts. 
 
 On the day of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, a 
 company of gendarmes d'Elite, headed by their officers, 
 received publicly, and hy orders, the sacrament : when 
 the Abbe Frelaud approached Lieutenant Ledoux, he 
 fell into convulsions, and was carried into the sacristy. 
 After being a little recovered, he looked round him, as if 
 afraid that some one would injure him, and said to the 
 Grand ^'icar Clauset, who enfjuired the cause of his 
 accident and terror : " Good God I that man who gave me, 
 on the 2nd of September, 1792, in the convent of the 
 Carenes, the five wounds from which I still suffer, is 
 now an officer, and was about to receive the sacrament 
 from my hands.'' When this occurrence was reported to
 
 174 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Bonaparte, Ledoux was dismissed ; but Abbe Frelaud was 
 
 transported, and the Grand Vicar Clauset sent to the 
 Temple, for the scandal their indiscretion had caused. 
 
 This act was certainly as unjust towards him who was 
 
 bayoneted at the altar, as towards those who served the 
 altar under the protection of the bayonets.
 
 THE COURT Ol- ST. CLOUD 1 75 
 
 LETTER XXV 
 
 Pakis, August^ 1805- 
 
 Mv Lord, — Although the seizure of Sir George Rum- 
 bold might in your country, as well as everywhere else, 
 inspire indignation, it could nowhere justly excite surprise. 
 We had crossed the Rhine seven months before to seize 
 the Duke of Enghien ; and when any prey invited, the 
 passing of the Elbe was only a natural consequence of the 
 former outrage, of audacity on our part, and of endurance 
 or indifference on the part of other Continental States. 
 Talleyrand's note at Aix-la-Chapelle had also informed 
 Europe that we had adopted a new and military diplomacy, 
 and, in confounding power with right, would respect no 
 privileges at variance with our ambition, interest or sus- 
 picions, or any independence it was thought useful or 
 convenient for us to invade. 
 
 It was reported here, at the time, that Bonaparte was 
 much offended with General Erere, who commanded this 
 political expedition, for permitting Sir George's servant to 
 accompany his master, as Eouchc and Real had already 
 tortures prepared and racks waiting, and after forcing your
 
 176 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 agent to speak out, would have announced his sudden death, 
 either by his own hands or by a coup-de-smig, before any 
 Prussian note could require his release. The known 
 moralitv of our Government must have removed all doubts 
 of the veracity of this assertion ; a man might, besides, 
 from the fatigues of a long journey, or from other causes, 
 expire suddenly ; but the exit of two, in the same circum- 
 stances, would have been thought at least extraordinary, 
 even by our friends, and suspicious by our enemies. 
 
 The official declaration of Rheinhard (our minister 
 to the Circle of Lower Saxony) to the Senate at Ham- 
 burg, in which he disavowed all knowledge on the subject 
 of the capture of Sir George Rumbold, occasioned his 
 disgrace. This man, a subject of the Elector of Wiirtem- 
 berg by birth, is one of the negative accomplices of the 
 criminals of France, who, since the Revolution, have 
 desolated Europe. He began in 1792 his diplomatic 
 career, under Chauvelin and Talleyrand, in London, and 
 has since been the tool of every faction in power. In 
 1796 he was appointed a minister to the Hanse Towns, 
 and, without knowing why, was hailed as the point of 
 rally to all the philosophers, philanthropists, lUuminati and 
 other revolutionary amateur.s, with which the North of 
 (Germany, Poland, Denmark and Sweden then abounded. 
 A citizen of Hamburg — or rather, of the world — of the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I77 
 
 name of Seveking, bestowed on him the liand of a sister ; 
 and though he is not accused of avarice, some of the 
 contributions extorted by our (iovernment from the neutral 
 Hanse Towns are said to have been left behind in his 
 coffers instead of being forwarded to this capital. Either 
 on this account, or for some other reason, he was recalled 
 from Hamburg in January, 1797, and remained unemployed 
 until the latter part of 1798, when he was sent as minister 
 to Tuscany. 
 
 When, in the summer of 1799, Talleyrand was forced 
 by the Jacobins to resign his place as a -minister of the 
 Foreign Department, he had the adroitness to procure 
 Rheinhard to be nominated his successor, so that, though 
 no longer nominally the minister, he still continued to 
 influence the decisions of our Ciovernment as much as if 
 still in office, because, though not without parts, Rheinhard 
 has neither energy of character nor consistency of conduct. 
 He is so much accustomed, and wants so much to be 
 governed, that in 1796, at Hamburg, even the then 
 emigrants, Madame de Genlis and Cieneral Valence, directed 
 him when he was not ruled or dictated to by his wife or 
 brother-in-law. 
 
 In 1800, Bonaparte sent him as a representative to the 
 
 Helvetian Republic, and in 1802, again to Hamburg, where 
 
 he was last winter superseded by Bourrienne, and ordered 
 VOL. I 12
 
 170 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 to an inferior station at the Electoral Court at Dresden. 
 Rheinhard will never become one of those daring diplo- 
 matic banditti whom revolutionary governments always em- 
 ploy in preference. He has some moral principles, and, 
 though not religious, is rather scrupulous. He would 
 certainly sooner resign than undertake to remove by poison 
 or by the steel of a bravo, a rival of his own or a person 
 obnoxious to his employers. He would never, indeed, betray 
 the secrets of his Government if he understood they intended 
 to rob a despatch or to stop a messenger ; but no allure- 
 ments whatever would induce him to head the parties 
 perpetrating these acts of our modern diplomacy. 
 
 Our present minister at Hamburg (Bourrienne) is far 
 from being so nice. A revolutionist from the beginning of 
 the Revolution, he shared, with the partisans of La Fayette, 
 imprisonment under Robespierre, and escaped death only 
 by emigration. Recalled afterwards by his friend, the late 
 Director (Barras), he acted as a kind of secretary to him 
 until 1796, when Bonaparte demanded him, having known 
 him at the military college. During all Bonaparte's cam- 
 paigns in Italy, Egypt, and Syria, he was his sole and 
 confidential secretary — a situation which he lost in 1802, 
 when Talleyrand denounced his corruption and cupidity 
 because he had rivalled him in speculating in the funds 
 and profiting by the information which his place afforded
 
 THE COURT Ol' ST. CLOUD 1 79 
 
 him. He was then nuulc a counsellor of state, but in 
 1803 he was involved in the fraudulent bankruptcy of one 
 of our i)rinci[)al houses to the amount of a million of livres 
 — ^42,000 — and, from his correspondence with it, some 
 reasons appeared to suspect that he frequently had com- 
 mitted a breach of confidence against his master, who, after 
 erasing his name from among the counsellors of state, had 
 him conveyed a prisoner to the Temple, where he remained 
 six months. A small volume, called Le Livre Rouge of 
 the Consular Court, made its appearance about that time, 
 and contained some articles which gave Bonaparte reason 
 to suppose that Eourrienne was its author. On being 
 questioned by the grand judge Regnier and the minister 
 Fouche, before whom he was carried, he avowed that he 
 had written it, but denied that he had any intention of 
 making it public. As to its having found its way to the 
 press during his confinement, that could only be ascribed 
 to the ill-will or treachery of those police agents who in- 
 spected his papers and put their seals upon them. "Tell 
 Bonaparte," said he, " that, had I been inclined to injure 
 him in the public opinion, I should not have stooped to 
 such trifles as Lc Livre Rouge, while I have deposited with 
 a friend his original orders, letters, and other curious docu- 
 ments as materials for an edifying history of our military 
 
 hospitals during the campaigns of Italy and Syria — all 
 
 12 — 2
 
 loo THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 authentic testimonies of his humanity and tenderness for 
 the wounded and dying French soldiers." 
 
 After the answers of this interrogatory had been laid 
 before Bonaparte, his brother Joseph was sent to the 
 Temple to negotiate with Bourrienne, who was offered his 
 liberty and a prefecture if he would give up all the original 
 papers that, as a private secretary, he had had opportunity 
 to collect. " These papers," answered Bourrienne, " are my 
 only security against your brother's wrath and his assassins. 
 Were I weak enough to deliver them up to-day, to-morrow 
 probably I should no longer be counted among the living ; 
 but I have now taken my measures so effectually that, were 
 I murdered to-day, these originals would be printed to- 
 morrow. If Napoleon does not confide in my word of 
 honour, he may trust to an assurance of discretion, with 
 which my own interest is nearly connected. If he suspects 
 me of having wronged him, he is convinced also of the 
 eminent services I have rendered him, sufficient surely to 
 outweigh his present suspicion. Let him again employ me 
 in any post worthy of him and of me, and he shall soon 
 see how much I will endeavour to regain his confidence." 
 
 Shortly afterwards Bourrienne was released, and a 
 pension, ecjual to the salary of a counsellor of state, was 
 granted him until some suitable place became vacant. On 
 Champagny's being appointed a minister of the Home I)e-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 101 
 
 partmcnt, the embassy at X'iciina was demanded hy 
 J^ourrienne, but refused, as previously promised to La 
 Rochefoucauld, our late minister at 1 )resden. When 
 Rheinhard, in a kind of disgrace, was transferred to that 
 relatively insignificant post, Bourrienne was ordered, with 
 extensive instructions, to Hamburg. The Senate soon 
 found the difference between a timid and honest minister, 
 and an unprincipled and crafty intriguer. New loans 
 were immediately recjuired from Hanover ; but hardly 
 were these acquitted, than fresh extortions were insisted 
 on. In some secret conferences Bourrienne is, however, 
 said to have hinted that some douceurs were expected for 
 alleviating the rigour of his instructions. This hint has, no 
 doubt, been taken, because he suddenly altered his con- 
 duct, and instead of hunting the purses of the Germans, 
 pursued the persons of his emigrated countrymen ; and, in 
 a memorial, demanded the expulsion of all Frenchmen who 
 were not registered and protected by him, under pretence 
 that every one of them who declined the honour of being 
 a subject of Bonaparte, must be a traitor against the French 
 Government and his country. 
 
 Bourrienne is now stated to have connected himself 
 with several stock-jobbers, both in Germany, Holland and 
 I'^ngland ; and already to have pocketed considerable sums 
 by such connections. It is, however, not to be forgotten
 
 I02 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 that several houses have been ruined in this capital by 
 the profits allowed him, who always refused to share their 
 losses : but, whatever were the consequences, enforced to 
 its full amount the payment of that value which he chose 
 to set on his communications. 
 
 A place in France would, no doubt, have been pre- 
 ferable to Bourrienne, particularly one near the person 
 of Bonaparte. But if nothing else prevented the accom- 
 plishment of his wishes, his long familiarity with all the 
 Bonapartes, whom he always treated as equals, and even 
 now (with the exception of Napoleon) does not think his 
 superiors, will long remain an insurmountable barrier. 
 
 I cannot comprehend how Bonaparte (who is certainly 
 no bad judge of men) could so long confide m Bourrienne, 
 who, with the usual presumption of my countrymen, is 
 continually boasting to a degree that borders on indis- 
 cretion ; and, by an artful questioner, may easily be led 
 to overstep those bounds. Most of the particulars of his 
 ciuarrel with Napoleon I heard him relate himself, as a 
 proof of his great consequence, in a company of forty in- 
 dividuals, many of whom were unknown to him. 
 
 On the first discovery which Bonaparte made of 
 J5ourrienne's infidelity, Talleyrand complimented him upon 
 not having suffered more from it. "Do you not see," 
 answered Bonaparte, " it is also one of the extraordinary
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 183 
 
 gifts of my extraordinary good fortune ? Even traitors are 
 unable to betray me. Plots respect me as much as 
 bullets.'" I need not tell you that Fortune is the sole 
 divinity sincerely worshipped by Napoleon.
 
 184 THE SECRET HISTORY OK 
 
 LETTER XXVI 
 
 Paris, Angus f, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — Joseph Bonaparte leads a much more 
 retired Hfe, and sees less company, than any of his brothers 
 or sisters. Except the members of his own fomily, he but 
 seldom invites any guests, nor has Madame Joseph those 
 regular assemblies and circles which Madame Napoleon 
 and Madame Louis Bonaparte have. His hospitality is, 
 however, greater at his country seat Morfontaine, than at 
 his hotel here. Those whom he likes, or does not mis- 
 trust (who, by-the-bye, are very few), may visit him without 
 much formality in the country, and prolong their stay 
 according to their own inclination or discretion ; but they 
 must come without their servants, or send them away on 
 their arrival. 
 
 As soon as an agreeable visitor presents himself, it is 
 the etiquette of the house to consider him as an inmate ; 
 but to allow him at the same time a perfect liberty to 
 dispose of his hours and his person as suits his con- 
 venience or caprice. In this extensive and superb mansion 
 a suite of apartments is assigned him, with a valet-de-
 
 THE COL'KT OI' ST. CLOUD 185 
 
 chambre, a lackey, a coachman, a groom, and a jockey, 
 all under his own exclusive command. He has allotted 
 him a chariot, a gig, and riding horses, if he prefers such 
 an exercise. A catalogue is given him of the library of 
 the chateau ; and every morning he is informed what 
 persons compose the company at breakfast, dinner, and 
 supper, and of the hours of these different repasts. A bill 
 of fare is at the same time presented to him, and he is 
 asked to point out those dishes to which he gives the 
 preference, and to declare whether he chooses to join the 
 company or to be served in his own rooms. 
 
 During the summer season, players from the different 
 theatres of Paris are paid to perform three times in the 
 week ; and each guest, according to the period of his 
 arrival, is asked in his turn, to command either a comedy 
 or a tragedy, a farce or a ballet. Twice in the week 
 concerts are executed by the first performers of the opera- 
 bouffe ; and twice in the week invitations to tea-parties are 
 sent to some of the neighbours, or accepted from them. 
 
 Besides four billiard-tables, there are other gambling- 
 tables for Rouge et Noir, Trente et Quarante, Faro, La 
 Roulette, Birribi, and other games of hazard. The bankers 
 are young men from Corsica, to whom Joseph, who 
 advances the money, allows all the gain, while he alone 
 suffers the loss. Those who are inclined may pla)- from
 
 lob THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 morning till night, and from night till morning, without 
 interruption, as no one interferes. Should Joseph hear that 
 any person has been too severely treated by Fortune, or 
 suspects that he has not much cash remaining, some 
 rouleaux of napoleons d'or are placed on the table of his 
 dressing-room, which he may use or leave untouched, as he 
 judges proper. 
 
 The hours of Joseph Bonaparte are neither so late as 
 yours in England, nor so early as they were formerly in 
 France. Breakfast is ready served at ten o'clock, dinner at 
 four, and supper at nine. Before midnight he retires to 
 bed with his family, but visitors do as they like and follow 
 their own usual hours, and their servants are obliged to wait 
 for them. 
 
 When any business calls Joseph away, either to preside 
 in the Senate here, or to travel in the provinces, he notices 
 it to the visitors, telling them at the same time not to dis- 
 place themselves on account of his absence, but wait till 
 his return, as they would not observe any difference in the 
 economy of his house, of which Madame Joseph always 
 does the honours, or, in her absence, some lady appointed 
 by her. 
 
 Last year, when Joseph hrst assumed a military rank, 
 he passed nearly four months with the army of England on 
 the coast or in Brabanl. On his return, all his visitors
 
 THE COURT Ol- ST. CLOUD 1S7 
 
 were gone, except a young poet of the name of Montaigne, 
 who does not want genius, but who is rather too fond of 
 the bottle. Joseph is considered the best i:;ounnet or con- 
 noisseur in Hquors and wines of this capital, and Montaigne 
 found his champagne and burgundy so excellent that he 
 never once went to bed, that he was not heartily intoxicated. 
 But the best of the story is that he employed his mornings 
 in composing a poem holding out to abhorrence the dis- 
 gusting vice of drunkenness, and presented it to Joseph, 
 requesting ])ermission to dedicate it to him when published. 
 To those who have read it, or only seen extracts from it, 
 the compilation appears far from being contemptible, but 
 Joseph still keeps the cop}', though he has made the author 
 a present of one hundred napoleons d'or, and procured 
 him a place of an amanuensis in the chancellory of the 
 Senate, having resolved never to accej)t any dedication, 
 but wishing also not to hurt the feelings of the author by 
 a refusal. 
 
 In a chateau where so many visitors of licentious and 
 depraved morals meet, of both sexes, and where such an 
 unlimited liberty reigns, intrigues must occur, and have of 
 course not seldom furnished materials for the scandalous 
 chronicle. Even Madame Joseph herself has either been 
 gallant or calumniated. Report says that to the nocturnal 
 assiduities of Eugenius de Heauharnais and of Colonel la
 
 1 88 
 
 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Fond-Blaniac she is exclusively indebted for the honour of 
 maternity, and that these two rivals even fought a duel 
 concerning the right of paternity. Eugenius de Beauharnais 
 never was a great favourite with Joseph Bonaparte, whose 
 reserved manners and prudence form too great a contrast 
 to his noisy antl blundering way to accord with each other. 
 Before he set out for Italy, it was well known in our 
 fashionable circles that he had been interdicted the house 
 of his uncle, and that no reconciliation took place, notwith- 
 standing the endeavours of Madame Napoleon. To humble 
 him so much the more, Joseph even nominated la Fond- 
 Blaniac an equerry to his wife, who therefore easily con- 
 soled herself for the departure of her dear nephew. 
 
 The husband of Madame Miot (one of Madame 
 Joseph's ladies-in-waiting) was not so patient, nor such a 
 philosopher as Joseph Bonaparte. Some charitable person 
 having reported in the company of a boiuic aiiiie of Miot, 
 that his wife did not pass her nights in solitude, but that 
 she sought consolation among the many gallants and dis- 
 engaged visitors at Morfontaine, he determined to surprise 
 her. It was past eleven o'clock at night when his arrival 
 was announced to Joseph, who had just retired to his closet. 
 Madame Miot had been in bed ever since nine, ill of a 
 ;ni<^rai/ic, and her husband was too affectionate not to be 
 the Hrst to inform her of his presence, without permitting
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 189 
 
 anybody previously to disturb Iicr. Whh great reluctance, 
 Madame Miot's maid delivered the key of her rooms, 
 while she accompanied him with a light. In the ante- 
 chamber he found a hat and a great-coat, and in the 
 closet adjoining the bed-room, a coat, a waistcoat, and a 
 pair of breeches, with drawers, stockings, and slippers. 
 Though the maid kept coughing all the time, Madame Miot 
 and her gallant did not awake from their slumber, till the 
 enraged husband began to use the bludgeon of the lover, 
 which had also been left in the closet. A battle then 
 ensued, in which the lover retaliated so vigorously, that the 
 husband called out " Murder 1 murder!" with all his might. 
 The chateau was instantly in an uproar, and the apart 
 ments crowded with half dressed and half naked lovers. 
 Joseph Bonaparte alone was able to separate the com- 
 batants ; and enquiring the cause of the riot, assured them 
 that he would suffer no scandal and no intrigues in his 
 house, without seriously resenting it. An explanation being 
 made, Madame Miot was looked for but in vain ; and the 
 maid declared that, being warned by a letter from Paris 
 of her husband's jealousy and determination to surprise her, 
 her mistress had reposed herself in her room ; while, to 
 punish the ungenerous suspicions of her husband, she had 
 persuaded Captain d'Horteuil to occupy her place in her 
 own bed. The maid had no sooner finished her deposition.
 
 igo THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 than her mistress made her appearance and upbraided her 
 husband severely, in which she ^Yas cordially joined by ihe 
 spectators. She enc^uired if, on seeing the dress of a 
 gentleman, he had also discovered the attire of a female ; 
 and she appealed to Captain d'Horteuil whether he had 
 not the two preceding nights also slept in her bed. To 
 this he, of course, assented ; adding that, had M. Miot 
 attacked him the first night, he would not then perhaps 
 have been so roughly handled as now ; for then he was 
 prepared for a visit, which this night was rather unexpected. 
 This connubial farce ended by ^Nliot begging pardon of his 
 wife and her gallant ; the former of whom, after much 
 entreaty by Joseph, at last consented to share with him 
 her bed. But being disfigured with two black eyes and 
 suffering from several bruises, and also ashamed of his 
 unfashionable behaviour, he continued invisible for ten days 
 afterwards, and returned to this city as he had left it, by 
 stealth. 
 
 This Miot was a spy under Robespierre, and is a 
 counsellor of state under Bonaparte. Without bread, as well 
 as without a home, he was, from the beginning of the 
 Revolution, one of the most ardent patriots^ and the first 
 Republican minister in 'I'uscany. After the Sovereign of 
 that country had, in 1793, joined the League, Miot returned 
 to 1-Yance, and was, for his want of address to negotiate as
 
 THIC COURT OF ST. CLOUD I9I 
 
 a minister, shut up to perform the part of a spy in the 
 Luxembourg ; then transformed into a prison for suspected 
 persons. 'I'hanks to his patriotism, upwards of two hundred 
 individuals of both sexes were denounced, transferred to the 
 Conciergerie prison, and afterwards guillotined. After that, 
 until 1799, he continued so despised that no faction would 
 accept him for an accomplice ; but in the November of 
 that year, after Konaparte had declared himself a I-"irst 
 Consul, Miot was appointed a tribune, an office from which 
 he was advanced, in 1802, to be a counsellor of state. As 
 Miot squanders away his salary with harlots and in 
 gambling -houses, and is pursued by creditors he neither 
 will nor can pay, it was merely from charity that his wife 
 was received among the other ladies of Madame Joseph 
 Bonaparte's household.
 
 192 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XXVII 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — Notwithstanding the ties of consanguinity, 
 honour, duty, interest and gratitude, which bound the 
 Spanish Bourbons to the cause of the Bourbons of France, 
 no monarch has rendered more service to the cause of 
 rebelUon, and done more harm to the cause of royalty, than 
 the King of Spain. 
 
 But here, again, you must understand me. When I 
 speak of princes whose talents are known not to be brilliant, 
 whose intellects are known to be feeble, and whose good 
 intentions are rendered null by a want of firmness of 
 character or consistency of conduct : while I deplore their 
 weakness and the consequent misfortunes of their contem- 
 poraries, I lay all the blame on their wicked or ignorant 
 counsellors ; because if no ministers were fools or traitors, 
 no sovereigns would tremble on their thrones, and no 
 subjects dare to shake their foundation. Had Providence 
 blessed Charles I\'. of Spain with that judgment in select- 
 ing his ministers, and that constancy of persevering in his 
 choice, as your (ieorge III. : had the helm of Spain been
 
 THE COURT OI' ST. CLOUD ig3 
 
 in the firm and able hands of a (irenville, a Windham, 
 and a Pitt, the ("abinet of Madrid would never have been 
 oppressed by the yoke of the Cabinet of St. Cloud, nor 
 paid a heavy tribute for its bondage, degrading as well as 
 ruinous. 
 
 " This is the age of upstarts," said Talleyrand to his 
 cousin. Prince de Chalais, who reproached him for an un- 
 becoming servility to low and vile personages ; " and I 
 prefer bowing to them to being trampled upon and crushed 
 by them." Indeed, as far as I remember, nowhere in 
 history are hitherto recorded so many low persons who, 
 from obscurity and meanness, have suddenly and at once 
 attained rank and notoriety. Where do we read of such 
 a numerous crew of upstart emperors, kings, grand pen- 
 sionaries, directors, imperial highnesses, princes, field - 
 marshals, generals, senators, ministers, governors, cardinals, 
 &c., as we now witness figuring upon the theatre of 
 Europe, and who chiefly decide on the destiny of nations ? 
 Among these, several are certainly to be found whose 
 superior parts have made them worthy to pierce the crowd 
 and to shake off their native mud ; but others again, and 
 by far the greatest number of these novi homines, owe 
 their present elevation to shameless intrigues or atrocious 
 crimes. 
 
 The prime minister — or rather, the viceroy of Spain, 
 VOL. I 13
 
 194 "^^^ SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 the Prince of Peace — belongs to the latter class. From 
 a man in the ranks of the guards he was promoted to a 
 general-in-chief, and from a harp-player in ante-chambers to 
 a president of the councils of a prince ; and that within 
 the short period of six years. Such a fortune is not 
 common ; but to be absolutely without capacity as well as 
 virtue, genius as well as good breeding, and, nevertheless, 
 to continue in an elevation so little merited, and in a place 
 formerly so subject to changes and so unstable, is a fortune 
 that no upstart ever before experienced in Spain. 
 
 An intrigue of his elder brother with the present 
 Queen, then Princess of Asturia, which was discovered by 
 the late King, introduced him first at Court as a harp- 
 player, and, when his brother was exiled, he was entrusted 
 with the correspondence of the Princess with her gallant. 
 After she had ascended the throne, he thought it more 
 profitable to be the lover than the messenger, and con- 
 trived therefore to supplant his brother in the royal favour. 
 Promotions and riches were consequently heaped upon him, 
 and, what is surprising, the more undisguised the partiality 
 of the Queen was, the greater the attachment of the King 
 displayed itself; and it has ever since been an emulation 
 between the royal couple who should the most forget and 
 vilify birth and supremacy by associating this man not only 
 in the courtly pleasures, but in the functions of sovereignty.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I95 
 
 Had he been gifted with sound understanding, or possessed 
 any share of delicacy, generosity, or discretion, he would, 
 while he profited by their imprudent condescension, have 
 prevented them from exposing their weaknesses and frailties 
 to a discussion and ridicule among courtiers, and from be- 
 coming objects of humiliation and scandal among the people. 
 He would have warned them of the danger which at all times 
 attends the publicity of the foibles and vices of princes, but 
 particularly in the present times of trouble and innovations. 
 He would have told them : " Make me great and wealthy, 
 but not at the expense of your own grandeur or of the 
 loyalty of your people. Do not treat a humble subject 
 as an equal, nor suffer your Majesties, whom Providence 
 destined to govern a high-spirited nation, to be openly ruled 
 by one born to obey. I am too dutiful not to lay aside 
 my private vanity when the happiness of my King and the 
 tranquillity of my fellow-subjects are at stake. I am already 
 too high. In descending a little, I shall not only rise in 
 the eyes of my contemporaries, but in the opinion of pos- 
 terity. Every step I am advancing undermines your throne. 
 In retreating a little, if I do not strengthen, I can never 
 injure it." But I beg your pardon for this digression, and 
 for putting the language of dignified reason into the mouth 
 of a man as corrupt as he is imbecile. 
 
 Do not suppose because the Prince of Peace is no 
 
 13—2
 
 196 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 friend of my nation that I am his enemy. No I Had he 
 shown himself a true patriot, a friend of his own country, 
 and of his too liberal Prince, or even of monarchy in 
 general, or of anybody else but himself — although I might 
 have disapproved of his policy, if he has any — I would 
 never have lashed the individual for the acts of the minister. 
 But you must have observed with me, that never before his 
 administration was the Cabinet of Madrid worse conducted 
 at home or more despised abroad ; the Spanish Monarch 
 more humbled or Spanish subjects more wretched ; the 
 Spanish power more dishonoured or the Spanish resources 
 worse employed. Never before the treaty with France of 
 1796, concluded by this wiseacre (which made him a Prince 
 of Peace, and our Government the vSovereign of Spain), was 
 the Spanish monarchy reduced to such a lamentable dilemma 
 as to be forced into an expensive war without a cause, and 
 into a disgraceful peace — not only unprofitable, but abso- 
 lutely disadvantageous. Never before were its treasures 
 distributed among its oppressors to support their tyranny, 
 nor its military and naval forces employed to fight the 
 battles of rebellion. The loyal subjects of Spain have only 
 one hope left. The delicate state of his present Majesty's 
 health does not promise a much longer continuance of his 
 reign, and the Prince of Asturia is too well informed to 
 endure the guidance of the most ignorant minister that
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD I97 
 
 ever was admitted into the cabinet and confidence of a 
 sovereign. It is more than probable that under a new- 
 reign the misfortunes of the I'rince of Peace will inspire 
 as much compassion as his rapid advancement has excited 
 astonishment and indignation. 
 
 A cabinet thus badly directed cannot be expected to 
 have representatives abroad either of abilities or patriotism. 
 The Admiral and (Icneral Gravina, who but lately left this 
 capital as an ambassador from the Court of Spain to assume 
 the command of a Spanish fleet, is more valiant than wise, 
 and more an enemy of your country than a friend of his 
 own. He is a profound admirer of Bonaparte's virtues and 
 successes, and was, during his residence, one of the most 
 ostentatiously awkward courtiers of Napoleon the First. It 
 is said that he has the modesty and loyalty to wish to 
 become a Spanish Bonaparte, and that he promises to 
 restore by his genius and exploits the lost lustre of the 
 Spanish monarchy. A\'hen this was reported to Talleyrand, 
 he smiled with contempt ; but when it was told to Bona- 
 parte, he stamped with rage at the impudence of the 
 Spaniard in daring to associate his name of acquired and 
 established greatness with his own impertinent schemes of 
 absurdities and impossibilities. 
 
 In the summer of 1793, Gravina commanded a division 
 of the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, of which .Vdmiral
 
 198 THE SECRET HISTORY OI- 
 
 Langara was the commander-in-chief. At the capitulation 
 of Toulon, after the combined English and Spanish forces 
 had taken possession of it, when Rear-Admiral Goodall was 
 declared governor, Gravina was made the commandant of 
 the troops. At the head of these he often fought bravely 
 in different sorties, and on the ist of October was wounded 
 at the re-capture of Fort Pharon. He complains still of 
 having suffered insults or neglect from the English, and 
 even of having been exposed unnecessarily to the fire and 
 sword of the enemy merely because he was a patriot as 
 well as an envied or suspected ally. His inveteracy against 
 your country takes its date, no doubt, from the siege of 
 Toulon, or perhaps from its evacuation. 
 
 When in May, 1794, our troops were advancing to- 
 wards CoUioure, he was sent with a squadron to bring it 
 succours, but he arrived too late, and could not save that 
 important place. He was not more successful at the be- 
 ginning of the campaign of 1795 at Rosa, where he had 
 only time to carry away the artillery before the enemy 
 entered. In August that year, during the absence of 
 Admiral Massaredo, he assumed ad interim the command 
 of the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean : but in the 
 December following he was disgraced, arrested, and shut 
 up as a state prisoner. 
 
 During the embassy of Eucien Bonaparte to the Court
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUU igg 
 
 of Madrid, in the autumn of 1800, (Iravina was by his in- 
 fluence restored to favour ; and after the death of the late 
 Spanish Ambassador to the Cabinet of St. Cloud, Chevalier 
 d'Azara, by the special desire of Napoleon, was nominated 
 both his successor and a representative of the King of 
 Etruria. Among the members of our diplomatic corps, he 
 was considered somewhat of a Spanish gasconader and a 
 l)ull\'. He more frecjuently boasted of his wounds and 
 battles than of his negotiations or conferences, though he 
 pretended, indeed, to shine as much in the cabinet as in 
 the field. 
 
 In his suite were two Spanish women, one about forty, 
 and the other about twenty years of age. Nobody knew 
 what to make of them, as they were neither treated as 
 wives, mistresses, nor servants ; and they avowed themselves 
 to be no relations. After a residence here of some weeks, 
 he was, by superior orders^ waylaid one night at the opera, 
 by a young and beautiful dancing girl of the name of 
 Barrois, who engaged him to take her into keeping. He 
 hesitated, indeed, for some time ; at last, however, love got 
 the better of his scruples, and he furnished for her an 
 elegant apartment on the new Boulevard. On the day he 
 carried her there, he was accompanied by the cha])lain of the 
 Spanish Legation ; and told her that, previous to any further 
 intimacy, she must be married to him, as his religious prin-
 
 200 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 ciples did not permit him to cohabit with a woman who 
 was not his wife. At the same time he laid before her an 
 agreement to sign, by which she bound herself never to 
 claim him as a husband before her turn — that is to say, 
 until sixteen other women, to whom he had been previously 
 married, were dead. She made no opposition, either to 
 the marriage or to the conditions annexed to it. This girl 
 had a sweetheart of the name of Walere, an actor at one 
 of the little theatres on the Boulevards, to whom she com- 
 municated her adventure. He advised her to be scrupulous 
 in her turn, and to ask a copy of the agreement. After 
 some difficulty this was obtained. In it no mention was 
 made of her maintenance, nor in what manner her children 
 were to be regarded, should she have any. \"alere had, 
 therefore, another agreement drawn up, in which all these 
 points were arranged according to his own interested views. 
 Gravina refused to subscribe to what he plainly perceived 
 were only extortions ; and the girl, in her turn, not only 
 declined any further connexion with him, but threatened to 
 publish the act of polygamy. Before they had done dis- 
 cussing this subject, the door was suddenly opened and the 
 two Spanish ladies presented themselves. After severely 
 upbraiding (Iravina, who was struck mute by surprise, they 
 announced to the girl that whatever promise or contract of 
 marriage she had obtained from him was of no value, as
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 20I 
 
 before ihey came with him to France he had bound himself, 
 before a pubHc notary at Madrid, not to form any new 
 connexions, nor to marry any other woman without their 
 written consent. One of these ladies declared that she had 
 been married to (Iravina twenty- two years, and was his 
 oldest wife but one ; the other said that she had been 
 married to him six years. They insisted upon his following 
 them, which he did, after putting a purse of gold into 
 Barrois' hand. 
 
 U'hen ^'alere heard from his mistress this occurrence, 
 he advised her to make the most money she could of the 
 Spaniard's curious scruples. A letter was therefore wTitten 
 to him, demanding one hundred thousand livres — ^4,000 — 
 as the price of secrecy and withholding the particulars of 
 this business from the knowledge of the tribunals and the 
 police ; and an answer was required within twenty-four 
 hours. The same night Gravina offered one thousand 
 louis, which were accepted, and the papers returned ; but 
 the next day Valere went to his hotel. Rue de Provence, 
 where he presented himself as a brother of Barrois. He 
 stated that he still possessed authenticated copies of the 
 papers returned, and that he must have either the full sum 
 first asked by his sister, or an annuity of twelve thousand 
 livres settled upon her. Instead of an answer, Gravina 
 ordered him to be turned out of the house. An attorney
 
 202 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 then waited on his Excellency, on the part of the brother 
 and the sister, and repeated their threats and their demands, 
 adding that he would write a memorial both to the Em- 
 peror of the French and to the King of Spain, were justice 
 refused to his principals any longer. 
 
 Gravina was well aware that this affair, though more 
 laughable than criminal, would hurt both his character and 
 credit if it were known in France : he therefore consented 
 to pay seventy - six thousand livres more, upon a formal 
 renunciation by the party of all future claims. Not having 
 money sufficient by him, he went to borrow it from a 
 banker, whose clerk was one of Talleyrand's secret agents. 
 Our minister, therefore, ordered every step of Gravina to 
 be watched : but he soon discovered that instead of wanting 
 this money for a political intrigue, it was necessary to ex- 
 tricate him out of an amorous scrape. Hearing, however, 
 in what a scandalous manner the ambassador had been 
 duped and imposed upon, he reported it to Bonaparte, who 
 gave Fouche orders to have both ^^alere, Barrois and the 
 attorney immediately transported to (Cayenne, and to restore 
 (iravina his money. The former part of this order the 
 minister of police executed so much the more willingly, as 
 it was according to his plan that Barrois had pitched upon 
 Gravina for a lover. She had been intended by him as a 
 spy on his Excellency, but had deceived him by her re-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUIl 203 
 
 ports — a criiiic for which iraiisj)()rtation was a usual 
 punishment. 
 
 Notwithstanding the care of our Government to con- 
 ceal and bury this affair in obHvion, it furnished matter 
 both for conversation in our fashionable circles, and sub- 
 jects for our caricaturists. But these artists were soon seized 
 by the police, who found it more easy to chastise genius 
 than to silence tongues. The declaration of war by Spain 
 against your country was a lucky opportunity for Clravina 
 to quit with honour a Court where he was an object of 
 ridicule, to assume the command of a fleet which might 
 one day make him an object of terror. ^^'hen he took 
 leave of Bonaparte, he was told to return to France vic- 
 torious, or never to return any more ; and Talleyrand 
 warned him as a friend, " whenever he returned to his 
 post in France, to leave his marriage mania behind him 
 in Spain. Here," said he, " you may, without ridicule, 
 intrigue with a hundred women, but you run a great risk 
 by marrying even one." 
 
 I have been in company with (Iravina, and after what 
 I heard him say, so far from judging him superstitious, I 
 thought him really impious. liut infidelity and bigotry are 
 frequently next-door neighbours.
 
 204 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XXVIII 
 
 Paris, Ai/gusf, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — It cannot have escaped the observation of 
 the most superficial traveller of rank, that, at the Court of 
 St. Cloud, want of morals is not atoned for by good 
 breeding or good manners. The hideousness of vice ; the 
 pretensions of ambition ; the vanity of rank ; the pride of 
 favour, and the shame of venality, do not wear here that 
 delicate veil, that gloss of virtue, which, in other Courts, 
 lessens the deformity of corruption and the scandal of 
 depravity. Duplicity and hypocrisy are here very common 
 indeed, more so than dissimulation anywhere else ; but 
 barefaced knaves and impostors must always make indif- 
 ferent courtiers. Here the minister tells you, I must have 
 such a sum for a place ; and the chamberlain tells you, 
 Count down so much for my protection. The princess 
 requires a necklace of such a value for interesting herself 
 for your advancement ; and the lady-in-waiting demands 
 a diamond of such worth on the day of your promotion. 
 'I'his tariff of favours and of infamy descends ad infiidtiitn. 
 The secretary for signing, and the clerk for writing your
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 205 
 
 commissions ; the cashier for delivering it, and the messen- 
 ger for informing you of it, have all their fixed prices. 
 Have you a lawsuit, the judge announces to you that so 
 much has been offered by your opponent, and so much is 
 expected from you if you desire to win your cause. When 
 you are the defendant against the Crown, the attorney- or 
 solicitor -general lets you know that such a douceur is 
 requisite to procure such an issue. Even in criminal 
 proceedings, not only honour, but life may be saved by 
 pecuniary sacrifices. 
 
 A man of the name of Martin, b)- profession a 
 stock-jobber, killed, in 1803, his own wife; and for twelve 
 thousand livres — ^500 — he was acquitted, and recovered 
 his liberty. In November last year, in a ([uarrel with his 
 own brother, he stabbed him through the heart,, and for 
 another sum of twelve thousand livres he was acquitted, 
 and released before last Christmas. This wretch is now 
 in prison again, on suspicion of having poisoned his own 
 daughter, with whom he had an incestuous intercourse, and 
 he boasts publicly of the certainty of soon being liberated. 
 
 Another person, Louis de Saurac, the younger son of 
 Baron de Saurac, who together with his eldest son 
 had emigrated, forged a will in the name of his parent, 
 whom he pretended to be dead, which left him the sole 
 heir of all the disposable property, to the exclusion of two
 
 206 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 sisters. After the nation had shared its part as heir of all 
 emigrants, Louis took possession of the remainder. In 
 1802, both his father and brother accepted of the general 
 amnesty, and returned to France. To their great surprise, 
 they heard that this Louis had, by his ill-treatment, forced 
 his sisters into servitude, refusing them even the common 
 necessaries of life. After upbraiding him for his want of 
 duty, the father desired, according to the law, the restitution 
 of the unsold part of his estates. On the day fixed for 
 settling the accounts and entering into his right. Baron de 
 Saurac was arrested as a conspirator and imprisoned in 
 the Temple. He had been denounced as having served 
 in the army of Conde, and as being a secret agent of 
 Louis XVI I L To disprove the first part of the charge, 
 he produced certificates from America, where he had passed 
 the time of his emigration, and even upon the rack 
 he denied the latter. During his arrest, the eldest son 
 discovered that Louis had become the owner of their 
 possessions, by means of the will he had forged in the 
 name of his father; and that it was he who had been 
 unnatural enough to denounce the author of his days. 
 With the wreck of their fortune in St. Domingo, he 
 procured his father's release ; who, being accjuainted with 
 the perversity of his younger son, addressed himself to the 
 department to be reinstated in his property. This was
 
 THE COURT OK ST. CLOUD 2O7 
 
 opposed by Louis, who defended his title to the estate 
 by the revolutionary maxim which had passed into a law, 
 enacting that all emigrants should be considered as poli- 
 tically dead. Hitherto Baron de Saurac had, from affection, 
 declined to mention the forged will ; but shocked by his 
 son's obduracy, and being reduced to distress, his coun- 
 sellor produced this document, which not only went to 
 deprive Louis of his property, but exposed him to a 
 criminal prosecution. 
 
 This unnatural son, who was not yet twenty-five, had 
 imbibed all the revolutionary morals of his contemporaries, 
 and was well acquainted with the mora/ characters of his 
 revolutionary countrymen. He addressed himself, therefore, 
 to Merlin of Douai, Bonaparte's Imperial attorney-general 
 and commander of his Legion of Honour; who, for a 
 bribe of fifty thousand livres — ^2,100 — obtained for him, 
 after he had been defeated in every other court, a judg- 
 ment in his favour, in the tribunal of cassation, under the 
 sophistical conclusion that all emigrants, being according 
 to law considered as politically dead, a will in the name 
 of any one of them was merely a pious fraud to preserve 
 the property in the family. 
 
 This Merlin is the son of a labourer of Anchin, and 
 was a servant of the Abbey of the same name. One of 
 the monks, observing in him some application, charitably
 
 2o8 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 sent him to be educated at Douai, after having bestowed 
 on him some previous education. Not satisfied with this 
 generous act, he engaged the other monks, as well as 
 the chapter of Cambray, to subscribe for his expenses of 
 admission as an attorney by the parliament of Douai, 
 in which situation the Revolution found him. By his 
 dissimulation and assumed modesty, he continued to dupe 
 his benefactors; who, by their influence, obtained for him 
 the nomination as a representative of the people to our 
 First National Assembly. They soon, however, had reason 
 to repent of their generosity. He joined the Orleans faction 
 and became one of the most persevering, violent and cruel 
 persecutors of the privileged classes, particularly of the 
 clergy, to whom he was indebted for everything. In 1792 
 he was elected a member of the National Convention, 
 where he voted for the death of his King. It was he 
 who proposed a law (justly called, by Prudhomme, the 
 production of the deliberate homicide Merlin) against 
 suspected persons; which was decreed on the 17th of Sep- 
 tember, 1793, and caused the imprisonment or proscription 
 of two hundred thousand families. This decree procured 
 him the appellation of Aferlin Suspects and of Merlin 
 Potence. In 1795 he was first appointed a minister of 
 police, and soon afterwards a minister of justice. After 
 the revolution in favour of the jacobins of the 4th of
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 209 
 
 September, 1797, he was made a director ; a place which 
 he was obliged by the same Jacobins to resign in June, 
 1799. Bonaparte expressed at first the most sovereign 
 contempt for this Merlin ; but on account of one of his 
 sons, who was his aide-de-camp, he was appointed by 
 him, when First Consul, his attorney-general. 
 
 As nothing paints better the true features of a govern- 
 ment than the inorality or vices of its functionaries, I will 
 finish this man's portrait with the following characteristic 
 touches. 
 
 Merlin de Douai has been successively the counsel 
 of the late Duke of Orleans, the friend of Danton, of 
 Chabot and of Hebert, the admirer of Marat, and the 
 servant of Robespierre. An accomplice of Rewbell, Barras 
 and la Reveilliere, an author of the law of suspected persons, 
 an advocate of the Septembrizers, and an ardent apostle 
 of the St. Guillotine. Cunning as a fox and ferocious as 
 a tiger, he has outlived all the factions with which he has 
 been ^connected. It has been his policy to keep in 
 continual fermentation rivalships, jealousies, inquietudes, re- 
 venge and all other odious passions ; establishing by such 
 means his influence on the terror of some, the ambition 
 of others, and the credulity of them all. Had I, when 
 Merlin proposed his law concerning suspected person.s, in 
 
 the name of liberty and equality^ been free and his e//2Hii, 
 VOL. I 14
 
 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 I should have said to him, "Monster, this, your atrocious 
 law, is your sentence of death : it has brought thousands 
 of innocent persons to an untimely end — you shall die 
 by my hands as a victim, if the tribunals do not condemn 
 you to the scaffold as an executioner or as a criminal." 
 Merlin has bought national property to the amount of 
 fifteen millions of li\Tes — ^625,000 — and he is supposed 
 to possess money nearly to the same amount, in your or 
 our funds. For a man born a beggar, and educated by 
 charity, this fortune, together with the liberal salaries he 
 enjoys, might seem sufficient without selling justice, pro- 
 tecting guilt, and oppressing or persecuting innocence.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 211 
 
 LETTER XXIX 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — The household troops of Napoleon the 
 l''irst are by thousands more numerous than those even 
 of Louis XIV. were. (Grenadiers on foot and on horse- 
 back, riflemen on foot and on horseback, heavy and light 
 artillery, dragoons and hussars, mamelukes and sailors, 
 artificers and pontoneers, gendarmes, gendarmes d'Elite, 
 Velites and veterans, with Italian grenadiers, riflemen, 
 dragoons, «S:c., &c., compose all together a not incon- 
 siderable army. 
 
 Though it frequently happens that the pay of the 
 
 other troops is in arrears, those appertaining to Bonaparte's 
 
 household are as regularly paid as his senators, counsellors 
 
 of state, and other public functionaries. All the men are 
 
 picked, and all the officers as much as possible of birth, 
 
 or at least of education. In the midst of this voluptuous 
 
 and seductive capital, they are kept very strict, and the 
 
 least negligence or infraction of military discipline is more 
 
 severely punished than if committed in garrison or in an 
 
 14 — 2
 
 212 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 encampment. They are both better clothed, accoutred, 
 and paid, than the troops of the hne, and have every- 
 where the precedency of them. All the officers, and many 
 of the soldiers, are members of Bonaparte's Legion of 
 Honour, and carry arms of honour distributed to them 
 by imperial favour, or for military exploits. None of 
 them are quartered upon the citizens ; each corps has its 
 own spacious barracks, hospitals, drilling -ground, riding or 
 fencing- houses, gardens, bathing-houses, billiard -table, and 
 even libraries. A chapel has lately been constructed near 
 each barrack, and almoners are already appointed. In the 
 meantime, they attend regularly at Mass, either in the. 
 Imperial Chapel or in the parish churches. Bonaparte 
 discourages much all marriages among the military in 
 general, but particularly among those of his household 
 troops. That they may not, however, be entirely de- 
 prived of the society of women, he allows five to each 
 company, with the same salaries as the men, under the 
 name of washerwomen. 
 
 With a vain and fickle people, fond of shows and 
 innovations, nothing in a military despotism has a greater 
 political utility, gives greater satisfaction, and leaves behind 
 a more useful terror and awe, than Bonaparte's grand 
 military reviews. In the beginning of his consulate, they 
 regularly occurred three times in the month : after his
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 213 
 
 victory of Marengo, they were reduced to once in a fort- 
 night, and since lie lias been proclaimed Emperor, to 
 once only in the month. This ostentatious exhibition of 
 usurped power is always closed with a diplomatic review 
 of the representatives of lawful Princes, who introduce 
 on those occasions their fellow -subjects to another subject, 
 who successfully has seized, and continues to usurp the 
 authority of his own Sovereign. What an example fcjr 
 ambition ! what a lesson to treachery I 
 
 Besides the household troops, this capital and its 
 vicinity have, for these three years past, never contained 
 less than from fifteen to twenty thousand men of the 
 regiments of the line, belonging to what is called the 
 hrst military division of the Army of the Interior. These 
 troops are selected from among the brigades that served 
 under Bonaparte in Italy and Egypt with the greatest eclat, 
 and constitute a kind of depot for recruiting his household 
 troops with tried and trusty men. They are also regularly 
 paid, and generally better accoutred than their comrades 
 encamped on the coast, or quartered in Italy or Holland. 
 
 But a standing army, upon which all revolutionary 
 rulers can depend, and that always will continue their 
 faithful support, unicjue in its sort and composition, exists 
 in the bosom as well as in the extremities of this country. 
 1 mean, one hundred and twenty thousand invalids, mostl)-
 
 214 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 young men under thirty, forced by conscription against 
 their will into the field, quartered and taken care of by 
 our Government, and all possessed with the absurd preju- 
 dice that, as they have been maimed in fighting the battles 
 of rebellion, the restoration of legitimate sovereignty would 
 to them be an epoch of destruction, or at least of misery 
 and want : and this prejudice is kept alive by emissaries 
 employed on purpose to mislead them. Of these, eight 
 thousand are lodged and provided for in this city ; ten 
 thousand at Versailles, and the remainder in Piedmont, 
 Brabant, and in the conquered departments on the left 
 bank of the Rhine ; countries where the inhabitants are 
 discontented and disaffected, and require therefore to be 
 watched, and to have a better spirit infused. 
 
 Those whose wounds permit it are also employed 
 to do garrison duty in fortified places not exposed to an 
 attack by enemies, and to assist in the different arsenals 
 and laboratories, foundries and depots of military or naval 
 stores. Others are attached to the police offices, and some 
 as gendarmes, to arrest suspected or guilty individuals : 
 or as garttissaires, to enforce the payment of contributions 
 from the unwilling or distressed. When the period for the 
 payment of taxes is expired, two of these gan/issai'n's 
 present themselves at the house of the persons in arrears, 
 with a billet signed by the director of the contributions and
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 215 
 
 countersigned by the police commissary. If the money is 
 not immediately paid, with half-a-crown to each of them 
 besides, they remain (quartered in the house, where they 
 are to be boarded and to receive lialf-a-crown a day each 
 until an order from those who sent them informs them 
 that what was due to the State has been acquitted. After 
 their entrance into a house, and during their stay, no 
 furniture or effects whatever can be removed or disposed 
 of, nor can the master or mistress go out-of-doors with- 
 out being accompanied by one of them. 
 
 In the houses appropriated to our invalids, the inmates 
 are very well treated, and Government takes great care 
 to make them .satisfied with their lot. The officers have 
 large halls, billiards, and reading - room to meet in : and 
 the common men are admitted into apartments adjoining 
 libraries, from which they can borrow what books they 
 contain, and read them at leisure. This is certainly a 
 very good and even a humane institution, though these 
 libraries chiefly contain military histories or novels. 
 
 As to the morals of these young invalids, they may 
 be well conceived when you remember the morality of 
 our Revolution ; and that they, without any religious 
 notions or restraint.s, were not only permitted, but en- 
 couraged to partake of the debauchery and licentiousness 
 which were carried to such an extreme in our armies
 
 2l6 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 and encampments. In an age when the passions are 
 strongest, and often blind reason and silence conscience, 
 they have not the means nor the permission to marry ; 
 in their vicinity it is, therefore, more difficult to discover 
 one honest woman or a dutiful wife, than hundreds of 
 harlots and of adulteresses. Notwithstanding that many of 
 ihem have been accused before the tribunals of seductions, 
 rape and violence against the sex, not one has been 
 punished for what the morality of our government con- 
 sider merely as bagatelles. Even in cases where husbands, 
 brothers and lovers have been killed by them while 
 defending or avenging the honour of their wives, sisters 
 and mistresses, our tribunals have been ordered by our 
 grand judge, according to the commands of the Emperor, 
 not to proceed. As most of them have no occupation, the 
 vice of idleness augments the mass of their corruption ; for 
 men of their principles, when they have nothing to do, 
 never do anything good. 
 
 I do not know if my countrywomen feel themselves 
 honoured by or obliged to Bonaparte, for leaving their 
 virtue and honour unprotected, except by their own pru- 
 dence and strength ; but of this I am certain, that all our 
 other troops, as well as the invalids, may live on free 
 quarters with the sex without fearing the consequences ; 
 provided they keep at a distance from the females of our
 
 THE COURT 01-- ST. CLOUD 217 
 
 Imperial Family, and of those of our grand officers of state 
 and principal functionaries. The wives and the daughters 
 of the latter have, however, sometimes declined the advan- 
 tage of these exclusive privileges. 
 
 A horse grenadier of Bonaparte's imperial guard, of the 
 name of Rabais, notorious for his amours and debauchery, 
 was accused before the imperial judge Thuriot, at one and 
 the same time by several husbands and fathers, of having 
 seduced the affections of their wives and of their daughters. 
 As usual, Thuriot refused to listen to their complaints ; at 
 the same time insultingly advising them to retake their 
 wives and children, and for the future to be more careful 
 of them. Triumphing, as it were, in his injustice, he in- 
 considerately mentioned the circumstance to his own wife, 
 observing that he never knew so many charges of the same 
 sort exhibited against one man. 
 
 Madame Thuriot, who had been a servant-maid to her 
 husband before he made her his wife, instead of being 
 disgusted at the recital, secretly determined to see this 
 Rabais. An intrigue was then begun, and carried on for 
 four months, if not with discretion, at least without dis- 
 covery ; but the lady's own imprudence at last betrayed 
 her : or I should say rather, her jealousy. But for this, she 
 might still have been admired among our modest women, 
 and Thuriot among fortunate husbands and happy fathers ;
 
 2l8 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 for the lady, for the first time since her marriage, proved, 
 to the great joy and pride of her husband, in the family 
 way. Suspecting, however, the fidelity of her paramour, 
 she watched his motions so closely that she discovered an 
 intrigue between him and the chaste spouse of a rich 
 banker : but the consequence of this discovery was the 
 detection of her own crime. 
 
 On the discovery of his disgrace, Thuriot obtained an 
 audience of Bonaparte, in which he exposed his misfortune, 
 and demanded punishment on his wife's gallant. As, how- 
 ever, he also acknowledged that his own indiscretion was 
 an indirect cause of their connection, he received the same 
 advice which he had given to other unfortunate husbands : 
 to retake, and for the future guard better, his dear moiety. 
 
 Thuriot had, however, an early opportunity of wreaking 
 his vengeance on the gallant Rabais. It seems his prowess 
 had reached the ears of Madame Baciocchi, the eldest 
 sister of Bonaparte. This lady has a children mania, which 
 is very troublesome to her husband, disagreeable to her 
 relations and injurious to herself. She never beholds any 
 lady, particularly any of her family, in the way which women 
 wish to be who love their lords, but she is absolutely frantic. 
 Now, Thuriot's worthy friend Fouche had discovered, by his 
 spies, that Rabais paid frecjuent and secret visits to the 
 hotel Baciocchi, and that Madame Baciocchi was the object
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 2lCj 
 
 of these visits. Thuriot, on this discovery, instantly de- 
 nounced him to IJonaparte. 
 
 Had Rabais ruined all the women of this capital, he 
 would not only have been forgiven, but api)lauded by 
 Napoleon, and his counsellors and courtiers ; but to dare 
 to approach, or only to cast his eyes on one of our 
 Imperial Highnesses, was a crime nothing could extenuate 
 or avenge, but the most exemplary punishment. He was 
 therefore arrested, sent to the Temple, and has never since 
 been heard of; so that his female friends are still in the 
 cruel uncertainty whether he has died on the rack, been 
 buried alive in the oubliettes, or is wandering an exile in 
 the wilds of Cayenne. 
 
 In examining his trunk, among the curious effects dis- 
 covered by the police were eighteen portraits and one 
 hundred billets-doux, with medallions, rings, bracelets, tresses 
 of hair, iS:c., as numerous. Two of the portraits occasioned 
 much scandal, and more gossiping. They were those of 
 two of our most devout and most respectable Court ladies, 
 maids -of- honour to our Empress, Madame Ney and 
 Madame Lasnes ; who never miss an opportunity of going 
 to church, who have received the private blessing of the 
 Pope, and who regularly confess to some bishop or other 
 once in a fortnight. Madame Napoleon cleared them, 
 however, of all suspicion, by declaring publicly in her
 
 220 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 drawing-room that these portraits had come into the 
 possession of Rabais by the infideUty of their maids ; 
 who had confessed their faults, and therefore had been 
 charitably pardoned. Whether the opinions of Generals 
 Ney and Lasnes coincide with Madame Napoleon's assertion 
 is uncertain ; but Lasnes has been often heard to say that, 
 from the instant his wife began to confess, he was con- 
 vinced she was inclined to dishonour him ; so that nothing 
 surprised him. 
 
 One of the medallions in Rabais' collection contained 
 on one side the portrait of Thuriot, and on the other that 
 of his wife ; both set with diamonds, and presented to her 
 by him on their last wedding-day. For the supposed theft 
 of this medallion, two of Thuriot's servants were in prison, 
 when the arrest of Rabais explained the manner in which 
 it had been lost. This so enraged him that he beat and 
 kicked his wife so heartily that for some time even her life 
 was in danger, and Thuriot lost all hopes of being a father. 
 
 Before the Revolution, Thuriot had been, for fraud and 
 forgery, struck off the roll as an advocate, and therefore 
 joined it as a patriot. In 1791, he was chosen a deputy 
 to the National Assembly, and in 1792 to the National 
 Convention. He always showed himself one of the most 
 ungenerous enemies of the clergy, of monarchy, and of his 
 King, for whose death he voted. On the 25th of May,
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 22 1 
 
 1792, in declaiming against ('hristianity and i)rie.stliood, he 
 wished them both, for the 7velfare of /naiiki/id, at the bottom 
 of the sea; and on the i8th of December the same year, 
 he declared in the Jacobin Club that, if the National 
 Convention evinced any signs of clemency towards Louis 
 XVI., he would go himself to the Temple and l>hm' out 
 the brains of this unfortunate King. He defended in the 
 tribune the massacres of the prisoners, affirming that the 
 tree of libert}- could never flourish without being inundated 
 with the blood of aristocrats and other enemies of the 
 Revolution. He has been convicted by rival factions of 
 the most shameful robberies, and his infamy and depravity 
 were so notorious that neither Marat, Brissot, Robespierre, 
 nor the Directory would or could employ him. After the 
 Revolution of the 9th of November, 1799, Bonaparte gave 
 him the office of judge of the criminal tribunal, and in 
 1804 made him a Commander of his Legion of Honour. 
 He is now one of our Emperor's most faithful subjects 
 and most sincere Christians. Such is now his tender con- 
 scientiousness, that he was among those who were the first 
 to be married again by some Cardinal to their present 
 wives, to whom they had formerly been united only by the 
 municipality. This new marriage, however, took place before 
 Madame Thuriot had introduced herself to the ac([uaintance 
 of the Liiperial ( Grenadier Rabais.
 
 222 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XXX 
 
 Paris, Ai/gitsf, 1805. 
 
 My Lord,— Being considered as a connoisseur, though 
 I have no pretensions but that of being an amateur, Lucien 
 Bonaparte, shortly before his disgrace, invited me to pass 
 some days with him in the country, and to assist him in 
 arranging his very valuable collection of pictures — next our 
 public ones, the most curious and most valuable in Europe, 
 and of course in the world. I found here, as at Joseph 
 Bonaparte's, the same splendour, the same etiquette, and 
 the same libert}^ which latter was much enhanced by the 
 really engaging and unassuming manners and conversation 
 of the host. At Joseph's, even in the midst of abundance 
 and of liberty, in seeing the person or meditating on the 
 character of the host, you feel both your inferiority of 
 fortune and the humiliation of dependence, and that you 
 visit a master instead of a friend, who indirectly tells you, 
 " Eat, drink, and rejoice as long and as much as you like ; 
 l)ut remember that, if you are happy, it is to my generosity 
 you arc indebted, and if unliappy, that I do not care a pin 
 about you.'' With Lucien it is the very reverse. His con-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 223 
 
 duct seems to indicate that by your company you confer 
 an obligation on him, and he is studious to remove on all 
 occasions that distance which fortune has placed between 
 him and his guests ; and as he cannot compliment them 
 upon being wealthier than himself, he seizes with delicacy 
 every opportunity to shew that he acknowledges their 
 superiority in talents and in genius as more than an 
 cc^uivalent for the absence of riches. 
 
 He is, nevertheless, himself a young man of uncommon 
 parts, and, as far as I could judge from my short intercourse 
 with the reserved Joseph and with the haughty Napoleon, 
 he is abler and better informed than either, and much more 
 open and sincere. His manners are also more elegant, and 
 his language more polished, which is the more creditable 
 to him when it is remembered how much his education 
 has been neglected, how vitiated the Revolution made him, 
 and that but lately his principal associates were, like himself, 
 from among the vilest and most vulgar of the rabble. It is 
 not necessary to be a keen observer to remark in Napoleon 
 the upstart soldier, and in Joseph the former low member 
 of the law ; but I defy the most refined courtier to see in 
 Lucien anything indicating a ci-devant sans-culotte. He 
 has, besides, other qualities (and those more estimable) 
 which will place him much above his elder brothers in the 
 opinion of posterity. He is extremely compassionate and
 
 224 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 liberal to the truly distressed, serviceable to those whom he 
 knows are not his friends, and forgiving and obliging even to 
 those who have proved and avowed themselves his enemies. 
 These are virtues commonly ver)- scarce, and hitherto never 
 displayed by any other member of the Bonaparte family. 
 An acquaintance of yours, and a friend of mine, Count 
 
 de T , at his return here from emigration, found of his 
 
 whole former fortune, producing once eighty thou.sand livres 
 — ^3,300 — in the year, only four farms unsold ; and these 
 were advertised for sale. A man who had once been his 
 ser\'ant, but was then a groom to Lucien, offered to present 
 a memorial for him to his master, to prevent the disposal 
 of the only support which remained to subsist himself, with 
 a wife and four children. Lucien asked Napoleon to pro- 
 hibit the sale, and to restore the Count the farms, and 
 obtained his consent : but Fouche, whose cousin wanted 
 them, having purchased other national property in the neigh- 
 bourhood, prevailed upon Napoleon to forget his promise, 
 and the farms were sold. As soon as Lucien heard of it^ 
 he sent for the Count, delivered into his hands an annuity 
 of six thousand livres — ^250 — for the life of himself, his 
 wife, and his children, as an i/idenuiity for the inefficacy 
 of his endeavours to serve him, as he expressed himself 
 Had the Count recovered the farms, they would not have 
 given him a clear profit of half the amount, all taxes paid.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CI.OUD 225 
 
 A young author of the name of Oauvan, irritated by 
 the loss of parents and fortune by the Revolution, attacked, 
 during 1799, in the public prints, as well as in pamphlets, 
 every Revolutionist who had obtained notoriety or popu- 
 larity. He was particularly vehement against Lucien, and 
 laid before the public all his crimes and all his errors, and 
 asserted as facts atrocities which were either calumnies or 
 merely rumours. When, after Napoleon's assumption of the 
 Consulate, Lucien was appointed a Minister of the Interior, 
 he .sent for Gauvan, and said to him, "(Ireat misfortunes 
 have early made you wretched and unjust, and you have 
 frequently revenged yourself on those who could not prevent 
 them, among whom I am one. You do not want capacity, 
 nor, I believe, probity. Here is a commission which makes 
 you a Director of Contributions in the departments of the 
 Rhine and Moselle, an office with a salary of twelve 
 thou.sand livres — ^500 — but producing double that sum. If 
 you meet with any difficulties, write to me ; I am your 
 friend. Take those one hundred louis d'or for the expenses 
 of your journey. Adieu ! " This anecdote I have read in 
 Gauvan's own handwriting, in a letter to his sister. He 
 died in 1802 ; but Mademoiselle Gauvan, who is not yet 
 fifteen, has a pension of three thousand livres a year — 
 ^125 — from Lucien, who has never seen her. 
 
 Lucien Bonaparte has another good quality : he is con- 
 voL. I 15
 
 226 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 sistent in his political principles. Either from conviction or 
 delusion he is still a Republican, and does not conceal 
 that, had he suspected Napoleon of any intent to re-establish 
 monarchy, much less tyranny, he would have joined those 
 deputies who, on the 9th of November, 1799, in the sitting 
 at St. Cloud, demanded a decree of outlawry against him. 
 If the present quarrel between these two brothers were sifted 
 to the bottom, perhaps it would be found to originate more 
 from Lucien's Republicanism than from his marriage. 
 
 I know, with all France and Europe, that Lucien's 
 youth has been very culpable ; that he has committed 
 many indiscretions, much injustice, many imprudences, 
 many errors, and, I fear, even some crimes. I know that 
 he has been the most profligate among the profligate, the 
 most debauched among libertines, the most merciless among 
 the plunderers, and the most perverse among rebels. I 
 know that he is accused of being a Septembrizer ; of having 
 murdered one wife and poisoned another ; of having been 
 a spy, a denouncer, a persecutor of innocent persons in 
 the Reign of Terror. I know that he is accused of having 
 fought his brothers-in-law ; of having ill-used his mother, 
 and of an incestuous commerce with his own sisters. I 
 have read and heard of these and other enormous accusa- 
 tions, and far be it from me to defend, extenuate, or even 
 deny them. But suppose all this infamy to be real, to be
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 227 
 
 proved, to be authenticated, which it never has been, and, 
 to its whole extent, I am persuaded, never can be — what 
 are the cruel and depraved acts of which Lucien has been 
 accused to the enormities and barbarities of which Napo- 
 leon is convicted ? Is the poisoning a wife more criminal 
 than the poisoning a whole hospital of wounded soldiers ; 
 or the assisting to kill some confined persons, suspected of 
 being enemies, more atrocious than the massacre in cold 
 blood of thousands of disarmed prisoners ? Is incest with 
 a sister more shocking to humanity than the well-known 
 
 unnatural pathic but I will not continue the disgusting 
 
 comparison. As long as Napoleon is unable to acquit 
 himself of such barbarities and monstrous crimes, he has 
 no right to pronounce Lucien unworthy to be called his 
 brother ; nor have Frenchmen, as long as they obey the 
 former as a Sovereign, or the Continent as long as it 
 salutes him as such, any reason to despise the latter for 
 crimes which lose their enormity when compared to the 
 horrid perpetrations of his imperial brother. 
 
 An elderly lady, a relation of Lucien's wife, and a 
 person in whose veracity and morality I have the greatest 
 confidence, and for whom he always had evinced more 
 regard than even for his own mother, has repeated to me 
 many of their conversations. She assures me that Lucien 
 
 deplores frecjuently the want of a good and religious educa- 
 
 15—2
 
 228 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 tion, and the tempting examples of perversity he met with 
 almost at his entrance upon the revolutionary scene. He 
 says that he determined to get rich per fas mit nefas, be- 
 cause he observed that money was everything, and that 
 most persons plotted and laboured for power merely to be 
 enabled to gather treasure, though, after they had obtained 
 both, much above their desert and expectation, instead of 
 being satiated or even satisfied, they bustled and intrigued 
 for more, until success made them unguarded and prosperity 
 indiscreet, and they became with their wealth the easy prey 
 of rival factions. Such was the case of Danton, of Fabre 
 d'Eglantine, of Chabot, of Chaumette, of Stebert, and other 
 contemptible wTetches, butchered by Robespierre and his 
 partisans — victims in their turn to men as unjust and san- 
 guinary as themselves. He had, therefore, laid out a different 
 plan of conduct for himself He had fixed upon fifty millions 
 of livres — ^2,100,000 — as the maximum he should wish 
 for, and when that sum was in his possession, he resolved 
 to resign all pretensions to rank and employment, and to 
 enjoy otium cum dignitafe. He had kept to his determina- 
 tion, and so regulated his income that, with the expenses, 
 pomp, and retinue of a prince, he is enabled to make more 
 persons happy and comfortable than his extortions have 
 ruined or even embarrassed. He now lives like a philoso- 
 pher^ and endeavours to forget the past, to delight in the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 229 
 
 present, and to be i>idifferent about futurity. He chose, 
 therefore, for a wife, a lady whom he loved and esteemed, 
 in preference to one whose birth would have been a con- 
 tinual reproach to the meanness of his own origin. 
 
 \'ou must, with me, admire the i/iodesty of a citizen 
 sans-ci(/otfe, \s\\o, without a shilling in the world, fixes 
 upon fifty millions as a reward for his revolutionary achieve- 
 ments, and with which he would be satisfied to sit down 
 and begin his singular course of singular philosophy. But 
 his success is more extraordinary that his pretensions were 
 extravagant. This immense sum was amassed by him in 
 the short period of four years, chiefly by bribes from foreign 
 Courts, and by selling his protections in France. 
 
 But most of the other Bonapartes have made as great 
 and as rapid fortunes as Lucien, and yet, instead of being 
 generous, contented, or even philosophers, they are still profit- 
 ing by every occasion to increase their ill-gotten treasures, 
 and no distress was ever relieved, no talents encouraged, 
 or virtues recompensed by them. The mind of their garrets 
 lodges with them in their palaces, while Lucien seems to 
 ascend as near as possible to a level with his circum- 
 stances. AVithout being ostentatious, I have myself found 
 him beneficent. 
 
 Among his numerous {)ictures, I observed four that had 
 formerly belonged to my father's, and afterwards to my own
 
 230 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 cabinet. I enquired how much he had paid for them, 
 without giving the least hint that they had been my property, 
 and were plundered from me by the nation. He had, indeed, 
 paid their full value. In a fortnight after I had quitted 
 him, these, with six other pictures, were deposited in my 
 room, with a very polite note, begging my acceptance of 
 them, and assuring me that he had but the day before 
 heard from his picture-dealer that they had belonged to me. 
 He added that he would never retake them, unless he re- 
 ceived an assurance from me that I parted with them without 
 reluctance, and at the same time affixed their price. I 
 returned them, as I knew they were desired by him for his 
 collection, but he continued obstinate. I told him, there- 
 fore, that, as I was acquainted with his inclination to perform 
 a generous action, I would, instead of payment for the 
 pictures, indicate a person deserving his assistance. I 
 
 mentioned the old Duchess de , who is seventy-four 
 
 years of age and blind ; and, after possessing in her youth 
 an income of eight hundred thousand livres — ^33,000 — 
 is now in her old age almost destitute. He did for this 
 worthy lady more than I expected ; but happening, in his 
 visits to relieve my friend, to cast his eye on the daughter 
 of the landlady where she lodged, he found means to pre- 
 vail on the simplicity of the poor girl, and seduced her. 
 So much do I know personally of Lucien Bonaparte, who
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 23I 
 
 certainly is a composition of good and bad qualities, but 
 which of them predominate I will not take upon me to 
 decide. This I can affirm — Lucieii is not the worst tnember 
 of the Bonaparte family.
 
 232 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XXXI 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — As long as Austria ranks among inde- 
 pendent nations, Bonaparte will take care not to offend or 
 alarm the ambition and interest of Prussia by incorporating 
 the Batavian Republic with the other provinces of his 
 empire. Until that period, the Dutch must continue (as 
 they have been these last ten years) under the appellation 
 of allies, oppressed like subjects and plundered like foes. 
 Their mock sovereignty will continue to weigh heavier on 
 them than real servitude does on their Belgic and Flemish 
 neighbours, because Frederick the Clreat pointed out to his 
 successors the Elbe and the Texel as the natural borders of 
 the Prussian monarchy, whenever the right bank of the 
 Rhine should form the natural frontiers of the kingdom 
 of France. 
 
 That during the present summer a project for a partition 
 treaty of Holland has by the Cabinet of St. Cloud been laid 
 before the Cabinet of Berlin is a fact, though disseminated 
 only as a rumour by the secret agents of Talleyrand. Their 
 object was on this, as on all previous occasions when any
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 233 
 
 names, rights or liberties of people were intended to be 
 erased from among the annals of independence, to sound 
 the ground, and to prepare by such rumours the mind of 
 the public for another outrage and another overthrow. Hut 
 Prussia, as well as I'Vance, knows the value of a military and 
 commercial navy, and that to obtain it good harbours and 
 navigable rivers are necessary, and therefore, as well as from 
 principles of justice, jjerhaps, declined the acceptance of a 
 plunder, which, though tempting, was contrary to the policy 
 of the House of Brandenburg. 
 
 According to a copy circulated among the members of 
 our diplomatic corps, this partition treaty excluded Prussia 
 from all the Batavian seaports except Delfzijl, and those of 
 the river Ems, but gave her extensive territories on the 
 side of ( Juelderland, and a rich country in Friesland. Had 
 it been acceded to by the Court of Berlin, with the annexed 
 condition of a defensive and offensive alliance with the Court 
 of .St. Cloud, the Prussian monarchy would, within half-a- 
 century, have been swallowed up in the same gulf with 
 the Batavian Commonwealth and the Republic of Poland ; 
 and by some future .scheme of .some future Bonaparte or 
 Talleyrand, be divided in its turn, and serve as a pledge of 
 reconciliation or inducement of connection between some 
 future rulers of the French and Russian empires. 
 
 Talleyrand must, indeed, have a very mean opinion of
 
 234 "^"E SECRET HISTORY OI' 
 
 the capacity of the Prussian ministers, or a high notion of 
 his own influence over them, if he was serious in this over- 
 ture. For my part, I am rather incHned to think that 
 it was merely thrown out to discover whether Frederick 
 William III. had entered into any engagement contrary to 
 the interest of Napoleon the First ; or to allure his Prussian 
 Majesty into a negotiation which would suspend, or at 
 least interfere with, those supposed to be then on the carpet 
 with Austria, Russia, or perhaps even with England. 
 
 The late Batavian Government had, ever since the 
 beginning of the present war with England, incurrred the 
 displeasure of Bonaparte. When it apprehended a rupture 
 from the turn which the discussion respecting the occupa- 
 tion of Malta assumed, the I )utch ambassadors at St. Peters- 
 burg and Berlin were ordered to demand the interference 
 of these two Cabinets for the preservation of the neutrality 
 of Holland, which your country had promised to acknow- 
 ledge if respected by France. No sooner was Bonaparte 
 informed of this step, than he marched troops into the 
 heart of the Batavian Republic, and occupied its principal 
 forts, ports and arsenals. ^^'hen, some time afterwards, 
 Count de Markoff received instructions from his Court, 
 according to the desire of the l^atavian Directory, and 
 demanded, in consequence, an audience from Bonaparte, a 
 map was laid before him, indicating the ])Osition of the
 
 THE COL'KT OF ST. CLOUD 235 
 
 French troo[)s in Holland, aiui plans of the intended en- 
 campment of our army of I'^ngland on the coast of Manders 
 and France ; and he was asked whether he thought it pro- 
 bable that our (lovernnient would assent to a neutrality so 
 injurious to its offensive operations against (ireat Ikitain. 
 " But," said the Russian ambassador, " the independence 
 of Holland has been admitted by you in formal treaties.'" — 
 " So has the cession of Malta by I'2ngland," interrupted 
 Honaparte, with imjxitience. — "True," replied Markoff, "but 
 you are now at war with England for this point ; while 
 Holland, against which you have no complaint, has not 
 only been invaded by your troops, but, contrar\- both to 
 its inclination and interest, involved in a war with you, by 
 which it has much to lose and nothing to gain." — "I have 
 no account to render to anybody for my transactions, and 
 I desire to hear nothing more on this subject,'" said Bona- 
 parte, retiring furious, and leaving .Markoff to meditate on 
 our Sovereign's singular principles of political justice and \ 
 
 of jus gentium. 
 
 From that period Bonaparte resolved on another 
 change of the executive power of the Batavian Republic. 
 But it was more easy to displace one set of men for 
 another than to find proper ones to occupy a situation in 
 which, if they do their duty as patriots, the\- must offend 
 France : and if they are our tools, instead of the inde-
 
 236 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 pendent governors of their country, they must excite a 
 discontent among their fellow - citizens, disgracing them- 
 selves as individuals, and exposing themselves as chief 
 magistrates to the fate of the De Witts, should ever for- 
 tune forsake our arms or desert Bonaparte. 
 
 No country has of late been less productive of great 
 men than Holland. The Yan Tromps, the Russel, and 
 the William III. all died without leaving any posterity 
 behind them ; and the race of Batavian heroes seems to 
 have expired with them, as that of patriots with the De 
 Witts and Barneveldt. Since the beginning of the last 
 century we read, indeed, of some able statesmen, as most, 
 if not all, the former grand pensionaries have been ; but 
 the name of no warrior of any great eminence is recorded. 
 This scarcity of native genius and valour has not a little 
 contributed to the present humbled, disgraced and oppressed 
 state of wretched Batavia. 
 
 Admiral de Winter certainly neither wants courage nor 
 genius, but his private character has a great resemblance 
 to that of Oeneral Moreau. Nature has destined him to 
 obey, and not to govern. He may direct as ably and as 
 valiantly the manceuvres of a fleet as Moreau does those 
 of an army, but neither the one nor the other at the 
 head of his nation would long render himself respected, his 
 country flourishing, or his countrymen happy and trancjuil.
 
 THIC COURT or ST. CLOUD 237 
 
 Destined from his youth for the navy, Admiral de 
 Winter entered into the naval service of his country before 
 he was fourteen, and was a second lieutenant when the 
 Batavian patriots, in rebellion against the Stadtholder, were 
 in 1787 reduced to submission by the Duke of Brunswick, 
 the commander of the I'russian army that invaded Holland. 
 His parents and family being of the anti-Orange part}', he 
 emigrated to France, where he was made an officer in the 
 legion of Batavian refugees. During the campaign of 1793 
 and 1794, he so much distinguished himself under that 
 competent judge of merit, l-'ichegru, that this commander 
 obtained for him the commission of a general of brigade in 
 the service of the French ; which, after the conquest of 
 Holland in January, 1795, "^^'^^ exchanged for the rank of 
 a vice-admiral of the l^atavian Republic. His exploits as 
 commander of the 1 )utch fleet, during the battle of the 
 nth of October, 1797, with your fleet, under Lord Duncan, 
 I have heard applauded even in your presence, when in 
 your country. Too honest to be seduced, and too brave 
 to be intimidated, he is said to have incurred Bonaparte's 
 hatred by resisting both his offers and threats, and declining 
 to sell his own liberty as well as to betray the liberty of 
 his fellow-subjects. When, in 1800, Bonaparte proposed 
 to him the presidency and consulate of the United States 
 for Hfe, on condition that he should sign a treaty, which
 
 238 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 made him a vassal of France, he refused with dignity and 
 with firmness, and preferred retirement to a supremacy so 
 dishonestly acquired, and so dishonourably occupied. 
 
 General Daendels, another Eatavian revolutionist of 
 some notoriety, from an attorney became a lieutenant- 
 colonel, and served as a spy under Dumouriez in the 
 winter of 1792 and in the spring of 1793. Under Pichegru 
 he was made a general, and exhibited those talents in the 
 field which are said to have before been displayed in the 
 forum. In June, 1795, he was made a lieutenant-general of 
 the Batavian Republic, and he was the commander-in-chief 
 of the Dutch troops combating in 1799 your army under 
 the Duke of York. In this place he did not much dis- 
 tinguish himself, and the issue of the contest was entirely 
 owing to our troops and to our generals. 
 
 After the Peace of ^Vmiens, observing that Bonaparte 
 intended to annihilate instead of establishing universal 
 liberty, I )aendels gave in his resignation and retired to 
 obscurity, not wishing to be an instrument of tyranny, 
 after having so long fought for freedom. Had he possessed 
 the patriotism of a Brutus or a Cato, he would have bled 
 or died for his cause and country sooner than have 
 deserted them both ; or had the ambition and love of 
 glory of a Caesar held a place in his bosom, he would 
 have attempted to be the chief of his country, and by
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 239 
 
 generosity and clemency atone, if possible, for the loss of 
 liberty. Upon the line of baseness, the deserter is placed 
 next to the traitor. 
 
 Dumonceau, another IJatavian general of some publicity, 
 is not by birth a citizen of the United States, but was 
 born at Brussels in 1758, and was t)y profession a stone- 
 mason when in 17S9 he joined, as a volunteer, the Belgian 
 insurgents. After their dispersion in 1790 he took refuge 
 and served in France, and was made an officer in the 
 corps of Belgians, formed after the declaration of war 
 against Austria in 1792. Here he frequently distinguished 
 himself, and was, therefore, advanced to the rank of a 
 general ; but the Dutch general officers being better paid 
 than those of the French Republic, he was, with the per- 
 mission of our Directory received, in 1795, as a lieutenant- 
 general of the Eatavian Republic. He has often evinced 
 bravery, but seldom great capacity. His natural talents are 
 considered as but indifferent, and his education is worse. 
 
 These are the only three military characters who might, 
 with any prospect of success, have tried to play the part of 
 a Napoleon Bonaparte in Holland.
 
 240 THE SECRET HISTORY OI- 
 
 LETTER XXXII 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — Not to give umbrage to the Cabinet of 
 Berlin, Bonaparte communicated to it the necessity he was 
 under of altering the form of government in Holland, and, 
 if report be true, even condescended to ask advice con- 
 cerning a chief magistrate for that country. The young 
 Prince of Orange, brother-in-law of his Prussian Majesty, 
 naturally presented himself; but, after some time, Talleyrand's 
 agents discovered that great pecuniary sacrifices could not 
 be expected from that quarter, and perhaps less submission 
 to France experienced than from the former governors. An 
 eye was then cast on the Elector of Bavaria, whose past 
 patriotism, as well as that of his ministers, was a full 
 guarantee for future obedience. Had he consented to such 
 an arrangement, Austria might have aggrandized herself on 
 the Inn, Prussia in Franconia, and France in Italy ; and 
 the present bone of contest would have been chiefly removed. 
 
 This intrigue, for it was nothing else, was carried on 
 by the Cabinet of St. Cloud in March, 1804, about the time 
 that Cermany was invaded and the Duke of Enghien seized.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 24I 
 
 This explains to you the reason why the Russian note, 
 dehvered to the Diet of Ratisbon on the 8th of the following 
 May, was left without any suj)port, ex(-ej)t the ineffectual 
 one from the King of Sweden. How any cabinet could be 
 dupe enough to think Bonaparte serious, or the Elector 
 of Bavaria so weak as to enter into his schemes, is difficult 
 to be conceived, had not Euro[)e witnessed still greater 
 credulity on one side, and still greater effrontery on the 
 other. 
 
 In the meantime Bonaparte grew every day more dis- 
 contented with the Batavian Directory, and more irritated 
 against the members who composed it. Against his regula- 
 tions for excluding the commerce and productions of your 
 country, they resented with spirit instead of obeying 
 them without murmur as was required. He is said to have 
 discovered, after his own soldiers had forced the custom- 
 house officers to obey his orders, that, while in their 
 proclamations the directors publicly prohibited the introduc- 
 tion of British goods, some of them were secret insurers 
 of this forbidden merchandise, introduced by fraud and by 
 smuggling ; and that while they officially wished for the 
 success of the French arms and destruction of England, 
 thev withdrew by stealth what property they had in the 
 French funds, to place it in the English. This refractory 
 and, as Bonaparte called it, mercantile spirit so enraged 
 
 VOL. 1 1 6
 
 242 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 him, that he had already signed an order for arresting and 
 transferring e7i masse his high aUies, the Batavian directors, 
 to his Temple, when the representations of Talleyrand 
 moderated his fury, and caused the order to be recalled, 
 which Fouche was ready to execute. 
 
 Had Jerome Bonaparte not offended his brother by his 
 transatlantic marriage, he would long ago have been the 
 Prince Stadtholder of Holland ; but his disobedience was 
 so far useful to the Cabinet of St. Cloud as it gave it an 
 opportunity of intriguing with, or deluding, other cabinets 
 that might have any pretensions to interfere in the regula- 
 tion of the Batavian Government. By the choice finally 
 made, you may judge how difficult it was to find a suitable 
 subject to represent it, and that this representation is intended 
 only to be temporary. 
 
 Schimmelpenninck, the present grand pensionary of the 
 Batavian Republic, was destined by his education for the 
 bar, but by his natural parts to await in quiet obscurity 
 the end of a dull existence. With some property, little 
 information, and a tolerably good share of common sense, 
 he might have lived and died respected, and even regretted, 
 without any pretension, or perhaps even ambition, to shine. 
 The anti- Orange faction, to which his parents and family 
 appertained, pushed him forward, and elected him, in 1795, 
 a member of the first Batavian National Convention, where.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 243 
 
 according to the spirit of the times, his speeches were rather 
 those of a demagogue than those of a Republican. Liberty, 
 Equality and Fraternity were the constant themes of his 
 political declamations, infidelity his religious profession, 
 and the examples of immorality his social lessons ; so 
 rapid and dangerous are the strides with which seduction 
 frequently advances on weak minds. 
 
 In iSoo he was appointed an ambassador to Napoleon 
 Bonaparte and Charles Maurice Talleyrand. The latter 
 used him as a stockbroker, and the former for anything 
 he thought proper ; and he was the humble and submissive 
 valet of both. More ignorant than malicious, and a greater 
 t'ool than a rogue, he was more laughed at and despised 
 than trusted or abused. His patience being equal to his 
 phlegm, nothing either moved or confounded him ; and he 
 was, as Talleyrand remarked, " A model of an ambassador, 
 according to which he and Bonaparte wished that all other 
 independent princes and states would choose their repre- 
 sentatives to the French Government." 
 
 When our minister and his Sovereign were discussing 
 
 the difficulty of properly filling up the vacancy of the Dutch 
 
 Government, judged necessary by both, the former mentioned 
 
 Schimmelpenninck with a smile ; and serious as Bonaparte 
 
 commonly is, he could not help laughing. " I should have 
 
 been less astonished,'" said he, " had you proposed my 
 
 16 — 2
 
 244 "^^E SECRET HISTORY 01- 
 
 Mameluke, Rostan." This rebuke did not deter Talleyrand 
 (who had settled his terras with Schimmelpenninck) from 
 continuing to point out the advantage which France would 
 derive from this nomination. " Because no man could easier 
 be directed when in office, and no man easier turned out of 
 office when disagreeable or unnecessary. Both as Batavian 
 plenipotentiary at Amiens, and as Batavian ambassador in 
 England, he had proved himself as obedient dnd submissive 
 to France as when in the same capacity at Paris." 
 
 By returning often to the charge, with these and other 
 remarks, Talleyrand at last accustomed Bonaparte to the 
 idea, which had once appeared so humiliating, of writing to 
 a man so much inferior in everything, " Great and dear 
 Friend."' and therefore said to the minister, "Weill let us 
 then make him a grand pensionary and a Iocidh ienens for 
 five years ; or until Jerome, when he repents, returns to his 
 duty, and is pardoned." — " Is he, then, not to be a grand 
 pensionary for life?" asked Talleyrand; "whether for one 
 month or for life, he would be equally obedient to resign 
 when commanded ; but the latter would be more popular 
 in Holland, where they were tired of so many changes." — 
 " Let them complain, if they dare," replied Bonaparte. 
 " Schimmelpenninck is their chief magistrate only for five 
 years, if so long ; but you may add that they may re-elect 
 him."
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 245 
 
 It was not before Talleyrand had comi)ared the pecu- 
 niary i^roposal made to his agents by foreign princes with 
 those of Schimmelpenninck to himself, that the latter 
 obtained the preference. The exact amount of the pur- 
 chase-money for the supreme magistracy in Holland is not 
 well known to any but the contracting parties. Some pre- 
 tended that the whole was paid down beforehand, being 
 advanced by a society of merchants at Amsterdam, the 
 friends or relatives of the grand pensionary ; others, that 
 it is to be paid by annual instalments of two millions of 
 livres — ^84,000 — for a certain number of years. Certain it 
 is, that this high office was sold and bought ; and that, 
 had it been given for life, its value would have been pro- 
 portionately enhanced ; which was the reason that Talleyrand 
 endeavoured to have it thus established. 
 
 Talleyrand well knew the precarious state of Schimmel- 
 penninck's grandeur ; that it not only depended upon the 
 whim of Napoleon, but had long been intended as an 
 hereditary sovereignty for Jerome. Another Dutchman 
 asked him not to ruin his friend and his family for what 
 he was well aware could never be called a sinecure place, 
 and was so precarious in its tenure. "Foolish vanity," 
 answered the minister, "can never pay enough for the 
 gratification of its desires. All the Schimmelpennincks in 
 the world do not possess property enough to recompense
 
 246 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 me for the sovereign honours which I have procured for 
 one of their name and family, were he even deposed within 
 twenty-four hours. What treasures can indemnify me for 
 connecting such a name and such a personage with the 
 great name of the First Emperor of the French ? " 
 
 I have only twice in my life been in Schimmelpenninck's 
 company, and I thought him both timid and reserved ; but 
 from what little he said, I could not possibly judge of his 
 character and capacity. His portrait and its accompaniments 
 have been presented to me, such as delivered to you by 
 one of his countrymen, a Mr. M (formerly an ambas- 
 sador also), who was both his schoolfellow and his comrade 
 at the university. I shall add the following traits in his 
 own words as near as possible : " More vain than ambitious, 
 Schimmelpenninck from his youth, and particularly from his 
 entrance into public life, tried every means to make a noise, 
 but found none to make a reputation. He caressed in 
 succession all the systems of the French Revolution, without 
 adopting one for himself. All the kings of faction received 
 in their turns his homage and felicitations. It was im- 
 possible to mention to him a man of any notoriety, of 
 whom he did not become immediately a partisan. The 
 virtues or the vices, the merit or defects, of the individual 
 were of no consideration ; according to his judgment it was 
 sufficient to be famous. Vet with all the extravagances of
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 247 
 
 a head filled with paradoxes, and of a heart spoiled by 
 modern philosophy, added to a habit of licentiousness, he 
 had no idea of becoming an instrument for the destruction 
 of liberty in his own country, much less of becoming its 
 tyrant, in submitting to be the slave of France. It was 
 but lately that he took the fancy, after so long admiring all 
 other great men of our age, to be at any rate one of their 
 number, and of being admired as a prat man in his turn. 
 On this account many accuse him of hypocrisy, but no one 
 deserves that appellation less, his vanity and exaltation 
 never permitting him to dissimulate ; and no presumption, 
 therefore, was less disguised than his, to those who studied 
 the man. Without acquired ability, without natural genius 
 or political capacity, destitute of discretion and address, as 
 confident and obstinate as ignorant, he is only elevated to 
 fall and to rise no more." 
 
 Madame Schimmelpenninck, I was informed, is as 
 amiable and accomplished as her husband is awkward and 
 deficient ; though well acquainted with his infidelities and 
 profligacy, she is too virtuous to listen to revenge, and too 
 generous not to forgive. She is, besides, said to be a lady 
 of uncommon abilities, and of greater information than she 
 chooses to display. She has never been the worshipper of 
 Bonaparte, or the friend of Talleyrand ; she loved her 
 country, and detested its tyrants. Had she been created a
 
 248 THE secrf:t history of 
 
 grand pensionary, she would certainly have swayed with 
 more g'/ory than her husband ; and been hailed by con- 
 temporaries, as well as posterity, if not a heroine, at least 
 a patriot— a title which in our times, though often prosti- 
 tuted, so few have any claim to, and therefore so much 
 the more valuable. ^ 
 
 \\'hen it was known at Paris that Schimmelpenninck 
 had set out for his new sovereignty, no less than sixteen 
 girls of the Palais Royal demanded passes for Holland. 
 Being questioned by Fouche as to their business in that 
 country, they answered that they intended to visit their 
 friend, the grand pensionary, in his new dominions. Fouche 
 communicated to Talleyrand both their demands and their 
 business, and asked his advice. He replied, " Send two, 
 and those of whose vigilance and intelligence you are sure. 
 Refuse by all means the other fourteen. Schimmelpenninck's 
 time is precious, and were they at the Hague, he would 
 neglect everything for them. If they are fond of travelling, 
 and are handsome and adroit, advise them to set out for 
 London or for St. Petersburg ; and if they consent, order 
 them to my oflfice, and they shall be supplied, if approved 
 of, both with instructions, and with their travelling ex- 
 penses." — Fouche answered his colleague, " That they were 
 in every respect the very reverse of his description ; that 
 they seemed to have passed their lives in the lowest stage
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 249 
 
 of infamy, and that they ccnild neither read nor write." 
 Vou have, therefore, no reason to fear that these belle-s will 
 be sent to disseminate corruption in your happy island.
 
 250 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XXXIII 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — The Italian subjects of Napoleon the First 
 were far from displaying the same zeal and the same 
 gratitude for his paternal care and kindness in taking 
 upon himself the trouble of governing them, as we good 
 Parisians have done. Notwithstanding that a brigade of 
 our police agents and spies, drilled for years to applaud 
 and to excite enthusiasm, proceeded as his advanced 
 guard to raise the public spirit, the reception at Milan 
 was cold and everything else but cordial and pleasing. 
 This absence of duty did not escape his observation and 
 resentment. Convinced, in his own mind, of the great 
 blessing, prosperity and liberty his victories and sovereignty 
 have conferred on the inhabitants of the other side of 
 the Alps, he ascribed their present passive or mutinous 
 behaviour to the effect of foreign emissaries from Courts 
 envious of his glory and jealous of his authority. 
 
 He suspected particularly England and Russia of 
 having selected this occasion of a solemnity that would 
 complete his grandeur to humble his just pride. He 
 had also some idea within himself that even Austria
 
 THK COURT OI-" ST. CLOUU 25 1 
 
 might indirectly have dared to influence the sentiments 
 and conduct of her ci-devant subjects of Lomhardy ; but 
 his own high opinion of the awe which his very name 
 inspired at Vienna dispersed these thoughts, and his 
 wrath fell entirely on the audacity of Pitt and Markoff 
 Strict orders were therefore issued to the prefects and 
 commissaries of police to watch vigilantl}- all foreigners 
 and strangers who might have arrived, or who should 
 arrive, to witness the ceremony of the coronation, and to 
 arrest instantly anyone who should give the least reason 
 to suppose that he was an enemy instead of an admirer 
 of His Imperial and Royal Majesty. He also commanded 
 the prefects of his palace not to permit any persons to 
 approach his sacred person, of whose morality and politics 
 they had not previously obtained a good account. 
 
 These great measures of security were not entirely 
 unnecessary. Individual vengeance and individual patriotism 
 sharpened their daggers, and, to use Senator Raderers 
 language, " were near transforming the most glorious day 
 of rejoicing into a day of utiiversal mourning." 
 
 All our writers on the Revolution agree that in I'Yance, 
 within the first twelve years after we had reconquered our 
 lost liberty, more conspiracies have been denounced than 
 during the six centuries of the most brilliant epoch of ancient 
 and free Rome. These facts and avowals are speaking
 
 252 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 evidences of the internal tranquillity of our unfortunate 
 country, of our affection to our rulers, and of the itna?iimity 
 with which all the changes of government have been, 
 notwithstanding on?- p)-inted votes, received and approved. 
 
 The frequency of conspiracies not only shows the 
 discontent of the governed, but the insecurity and instability 
 of the governors. This truth has not escaped Napoleon, who 
 has therefore ordered an expeditious and secret justice to 
 despatch instantly the conspirators, and to bury the con- 
 spiracy in oblivion, except when any grand coup d'etat is to 
 be struck ; or, to excite the passions of hatred, any proofs 
 can be found, or must be fabricated, involving an inimical 
 or rival foreign Government in an odious plot. Since the 
 farce which Mehe'e de la Touche exhibited, you have, there- 
 fore, not read in the Moniteur either of the danger our 
 Emperor has incurred several times since from the machina- 
 tions of implacable or fanatical foes, or of the alarm these 
 have caused his partisans. They have, indeed, been hinted 
 at in some speeches of our public functionaries, and 
 in some paragraphs of our public prints, but their 
 particulars will remain concealed from historians, unless 
 someone of those composing our Court, our fashionable or 
 our political circles, has taken the trouble of noting them 
 down ; but even to these they are but imperfectly or in- 
 correctly known.
 
 Till-; COURT OF ST. CI.OUD 253 
 
 Could the veracit)- of a Fouchc, a Real, a 'I'allcyrand, 
 or a Duroc (the only members of this new secret and 
 invisible tribunal for expediting conspirators) be depended 
 upon, they would be the most authentic annalists of these 
 and other interesting sccirt occurrences. 
 
 What I intend relating to you on this subject arc 
 circumstances such as they have been reported in our best 
 informed societies by our most inquisitive companions. 
 Truth is certainly the foundation of these anecdotes : but 
 their parts may be extenuated, diminished, altered, or 
 exaggerated. Defective or incomplete as they are, I hope 
 you will not judge them unworthy of a page in ' a letter, 
 considering the grand personage they concern, and the 
 mystery with which he and his ( Government encompass 
 themselves, or in which they wraji up everything not 
 agreeable concerning them. 
 
 A woman is said to have been at the head of the first 
 plot against Napoleon since his proclamation as an Em[)eror 
 of the French. She called herself Charlotte Encore; but her 
 real name is not known. In 1803 she lived and had furnished 
 a house at Abbeville, where she passed for a young widow 
 of property, subsisting on her rents. About the same time 
 several other strangers settled there ; but though she visited 
 the principal inhabitants, she never publicly had any con- 
 nection with the newcomers.
 
 254 "^"^ SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 In the summer of 1S03, a girl at Amiens — some say 
 a real enthusiast of Bonaparte's, but, according to others, 
 engaged by Madame Bonaparte to perform the part she 
 did — demanded, upon her knees, in a kind of paroxysm 
 of joy, the happiness of embracing him, in doing which 
 she fainted, or pretended to faint away, and a pension of 
 three thousand livres — ^125 — was settled on her for her 
 affection. 
 
 Madame Encore, at Abbeville, to judge of her dis- 
 course and conversation, was also an ardent friend and 
 well-wisher of the Emperor; and when in July, 1804, he 
 passed through Abbeville, on his journey to the coast, she 
 also threw herself at his feet, and declared that she would 
 die content if allowed the honour of embracing him. To 
 this he was going to assent, when Duroc stepped between 
 them, seized her by the arm, and dragged her to an ad- 
 joining room, whither Bonaparte, near fainting from the 
 sudden alarm his friend's interference had occasioned, fol- 
 lowed him, trembling. In the right sleeve of Madame 
 Encore's gown was found a stiletto, the point of which 
 was poisoned. She was the same day transported to this 
 capital, under the inspection of l)uroc, and imprisoned in 
 the Temple. In her examination she denied having any 
 accomplices, and she expired on the rack without telling 
 even her name. The sub -prefect at Abbeville, the once
 
 THE COURT (JF ST. CLOUD 
 
 255 
 
 famous Andre 1 )uniont, was ordered lo disseminate a report 
 that she was shut up as insane in a madhouse. 
 
 In the strict search made Ijy the police in the house 
 occupied by her, no papers or any other indications were 
 discovered tliat involved other persons, or disclosed who 
 she was, or what induced her to attempt such a rash action. 
 Before the secret tribunal she is reported to have said, "that 
 being convinced of Bonaparte's being one of the greatest 
 criminals that ever breathed upon the earth, she took upon 
 herself the office of a volunteer executioner ; having, with 
 every other good or loyal person, a right to punish him 
 whom the law could not, or dared not, reach." ^^'hen, how- 
 ever, some repairs were made in the house at Abbeville 
 by a new tenant, a bundle of papers was found, which 
 proved that a M. Franquonville, and about thirty other 
 individuals (many of whom were the late newcomers there), 
 had for six months been watching an opportunity to seize 
 Bonaparte in his journeys between Abbeville and Montreuil, 
 and to carry him to some part of the coast, where a vessel 
 was ready to sail for England with him. Had he, however, 
 made resistance, he would have been shot in France, and 
 his assassins have saved themselves in the vessel. 
 
 The numerous escort that always, since he was an 
 Emperor, accompanied him, and particularly his conceal- 
 ment of the days of his journey.s, prevented the execution
 
 256 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 of this plot ; and Madame Encore, therefore, took upon 
 her to sacrifice herself for what she thought the welfare 
 of her country. How Duroc suspected or discovered her 
 intent is not known ; some say that an anonymous letter 
 informed him of it, while others assert that, in throwing 
 herself at Bonaparte's feet, this prefect observed the steel 
 through the sleeve of her muslin gown. Most of her asso- 
 ciates were secretly executed ; some, however, were carried 
 to Boulogne and shot at the head of the army of England 
 as English spies.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 257 
 
 LETTER XXXIV 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — After the discovery of Charlotte Encore's 
 attempt, Bonaparte, who hitherto had flattered himself that 
 he possessed the good wishes, if not the affection, of his 
 female subjects, made a regulation according to which no 
 women who had not previously given in their names to 
 the prefects of his palaces, and obtained previous permission, 
 can approach his person or throw themselves at his feet, 
 without incurring his displeasure, and even arrest. Of this 
 imperial decree, ladies, both of the capital and of the pro- 
 vinces, when he travels, are officially informed. Notwith- 
 standing this precaution, he was a second time last spring, 
 at Lyons, near falling the victim of the vengeance or malice 
 of a female. 
 
 In his journey to be crowned King of Italy, he occupied 
 his uncle's episcopal palace at Lyons during the forty-eight 
 hours he remained there. Most of the persons of both 
 sexes composing the household of Cardinal I'esch were from 
 his own country, ("orsica : among these was one of the 
 name of Pauline Riotti, who inspected the economy of the 
 
 VOL. I 17
 
 258 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 kitchens. It is Bonaparte's custom to take a dish of 
 chocolate in the forenoon, which she, on the morning of 
 his departure, against her custom, but under pretence of 
 knowing the taste of the family, desired to prepare. One 
 of the cooks observed that she mixed it with something 
 from her pocket, but, without saying a word to her that 
 indicated suspicion, he warned Bonaparte, in a note 
 delivered to a page, to be upon his guard. When the 
 chamberlain carried in the chocolate, Napoleon ordered the 
 person who had prepared it to be brought before him. 
 This being told Pauline, she fainted away, after having first 
 drunk the remaining contents of the chocolate pot. Her 
 convulsions soon indicated that she was poisoned, and, not- 
 withstanding the endeavours of Bonaparte's physician, 
 Corvisart, she expired within an hour ; protesting that her 
 crime was an act of revenge against Napoleon, who had 
 seduced her when young, under a promise of marriage ; but 
 who, since his elevation, had not only neglected her, but 
 reduced her to despair by refusing an honest support for 
 herself and her child, sufficient to preserve her from the 
 degradation of servitude. Cardinal Fesch received a severe 
 reprimand for admitting among his domestics individuals 
 with whose former lives he was not better acquainted, and 
 the same day he dismissed every Corsican in his service. 
 The cook was, with the reward of a pension, made a
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 259 
 
 member of the Legion of tlonour, and it was given out by 
 
 (Jorvisart that PauHne died insane. 
 
 W'itliin three weeks after this occurrence, Bonaparte 
 
 was, at Milan, again exposed to an imminent danger. 
 
 According to his commands, the vigilance of the police had 
 
 been very strict, and even severe. All strangers who could 
 
 not give the most satisfactory account of themselves, had 
 
 either been sent out of the country, or were imprisoned. 
 
 He never went out unless strongly attended, and during his 
 
 audiences the most trusty officers always surrounded him ; 
 
 these precautions increased in proportion as the day of his 
 
 coronation approached. On the morning of that day, about 
 
 nine o'clock, when full dressed in his imperial and royal 
 
 robes, and all the grand ofticers of state by his side, a 
 
 paper was delivered to him by his chamberlain, Talleyrand, 
 
 a nephew of the minister. The instant he had read it, he 
 
 flew into the arms of Berthier, exclaiming, " ^ly friend, 
 
 I am betrayed ; are you among the number of conspirators ? 
 
 Jourdan, Lasnes, Mortier, Bessieres, St. Cyr, are you also 
 
 forsaking your friend and benefactor?" They all instantly 
 
 encompassed him, begging that he would calm himself ; 
 
 that they all were what they always had been, dutiful and 
 
 faithful subjects. " But read this paper from my prefect, 
 
 Salmatoris ; he says that if I move a step I may cease to 
 
 live, as the assassins are near me, as well as before me."' 
 
 17 — 2
 
 26o THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 The commander of his guard then entered with fifty 
 grenadiers, their bayonets fixed, carrying with them a 
 prisoner, who pointed out four individuals not far from 
 Bonaparte's person, two of whom were Italian officers of 
 the Royal Italian Guard, and two were dressed in Swiss 
 uniforms. They were all immediately seized, and at their 
 feet were found three daggers. One of those in Swiss 
 regimentals, exclaimed, before he was taken, " Tremble, 
 tyrant of my country ! Thousands of the descendants of 
 William Tell have, with me, sworn your destruction. You 
 escape this day, but the just vengeance of outraged 
 humanity follows you like your shade. Depend upon it 
 an untimely end is irremediably reserved you." So saying 
 he pierced his heart and fell a corpse into the arms of 
 the grenadiers who came to arrest him. 
 
 This incident suspended the procession to the cathedral 
 for an hour, when Berthier announced that the conspira- 
 tors were punished. Bonaparte evinced on this occasion 
 the same absence of mind and of courage as on the gth 
 of November, 1799, when Arena and other deputies drew 
 their daggers against him at St. Cloud. As this scene did 
 not redound much to the honour of the Emperor and King, 
 all mention of the conspiracy was severely prohibited, and 
 the deputations ready to congratulate him on his escaj)c 
 were dispersed to attend their other duties.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 26l 
 
 The conspirators arc stated to have been four young 
 men who had lost their ])arents and fortunes l)y the Revoki- 
 tions effected by Bonaparte in Italy and Switzerland, and 
 who had sworn fidelity to each other, and to avenge their 
 individual wrongs with the injuries of their countries at the 
 same time. They were all prepared and resigned to die, 
 expecting to be cut to pieces the moment Bonaparte fell 
 by their hands ; but one of the Italians, rather superstitious, 
 had, before he went to the drawing-room, confessed and 
 received absolution from a priest, whom he knew to be an 
 enemy of lionaparte : but the priest, in hope of reward, 
 disclosed the conspiracy to the master of ceremonies, 
 Salmatoris. The three surviving conspirators are said to 
 have been literally torn to pieces by the engines of torture, 
 and the priest was shot for having given absolution to an 
 assassin, and for having concealed his knowledge of the 
 plot an hour after he was acquainted with it. Even 
 .Salmatoris had some difficulty to avoid being disgraced for 
 having written a terrifying note which had exposed the 
 Emperors weakness, and shown that his life was dearer to 
 him at the head of empires than when only at the head 
 of armies. 
 
 My narrative of this event I have from an officer 
 present, whose veracity I can guarantee. He also informed 
 me that in consequence of it, all the officers of the Swiss
 
 262 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 brigades in the French service that were quartered or 
 encamped in Italy were, to the number of near fifty, 
 dismissed at once. Of the ItaHan guards, every officer who 
 was known to have suffered any losses by the new order 
 of things in his country, was ordered to resign, if he would 
 not enter into the regiments of the line. 
 
 Whatever the police agents did to prevent it, and in 
 spite of some unjust and cruel chastisement, Bonaparte 
 continued, during his stay in Italy, an object of ridicule in 
 conversation, as well as in pamphlets and caricatures. One 
 of these represented him in the ragged garb of a safis- 
 ci/Iofte, pale and trembling on his knees, with bewildered 
 looks and his hair standing upright on his head like 
 pointed horns, tearing the map of the world to pieces, and, 
 to save his life, offering each of his generals a slice, who 
 in return regarded him with looks of contempt mixed 
 with pity. 
 
 I have just heard of a new plot, or rather a league 
 against Bonaparte's ambition. At its head the generals 
 fourdan, Macdonald, Le Courbe and Dessolles are placed, 
 though many less victorious generals and officers, civil as 
 well as military, are reported to be its members. Their 
 object is not to remove or disi)lace lionaparte as an 
 i*>mperor of the French ; on the contrary, they offer their 
 lives to strengthen his authoritv and to resist his enemies ;
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 263 
 
 l)ut they ask and advise Iiim to renounce for himself, for 
 his relations, and for 1"" ranee, all possessions on the Italian 
 side of the Alps as the only means to establish a per- 
 manent peace, and to avoid a war with other States, whose 
 safety is endangered by our great encroachments. A 
 mutinous kind of address to this effect has been sent to 
 the camp of Boulogne and to all other encampments of 
 our troops, that those generals and other military persons 
 there who chose, might both see the object and the 
 intent of the associates. It is reported that Bonaparte 
 ordered it to be burnt by the hands of the common 
 executioner at Boulogne ; that sixteen officers there who 
 had subscribed their names in approbation of the address 
 were broken, and dismissed with disgrace ; that Jourdan is 
 deprived of his command in Italy, and ordered to render 
 an account of his conduct to the Emperor. Dessolles is 
 also said to be dismissed, and with Macdonald, Le Courbe, 
 and eighty-four others of His Majesty's subject.s, whose 
 names appeared under the remonstrance (or petition, as 
 some call it), exiled to different departments of this 
 country, where they are to expect their Sovereign's further 
 determination, and in the meantime remain under the 
 inspection and responsibility of his constituted authorities 
 and commissaries of police. 
 
 As it is as dangerous to enquire as to converse on
 
 264 
 
 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 this and other subjects, which the mysterious policy of our 
 Government condemns to silence or oblivion, I have not 
 yet been able to gather any more or better information 
 concerning this league, or unconstitutional opposition to 
 the executive power ; but as I am intimate with one of 
 the actors, should he have an opportunity, he will cer- 
 tainly write to me at full length, and be very explicit.
 
 THE C01;RT of ST. CLOUD 265 
 
 LETTER XXXV 
 
 Paris, August, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, - 1 believe I have before remarked thai, 
 under the government of Bonaparte, causes relatively the 
 most insignificant have frequently produced effects of the 
 greatest consequence. A capricious or whimsical character, 
 swaying with unlimited power, is certainly the most danger- 
 ous guardian of the prerogatives of sovereignty, as well as 
 of the rights and liberties of the people. That Bonaparte 
 is as vain and fickle as a coquette, as obstinate as a mule, 
 and equally audacious and unrelenting, everyone who has, 
 witnessed his actions or meditated on his transactions must 
 be convinced. The least opposition irritates his pride, and 
 he determines and commands, in a moment of impatience 
 or vivacit)', what may cause the misery of millions for ages, 
 and, perhaps, his own repentance for years. 
 
 When Bonaparte was officially informed by his ambas- 
 sador at Vienna, the young La Rochefoucauld, that the 
 Emperor of (lermany had declined being one of his grand 
 officers of the Legion of Honour, he flew into a rage, and 
 used against this Prince the most gross, vulgar and unbe-
 
 266 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 coming language. I have heard it said that he went so far 
 as to say, "Well, Francis II. is tired of reigning. I hope 
 to have strength enough to carry a third crown. He who 
 dares refuse to be and continue my equal, shall soon, as 
 a vassal, think himself honoured with the regard which, as 
 a master, I may condescend from compassion to bestow 
 on him." Though forty-eight hours had elapsed after this 
 furious sally before he met with the Austrian ambassador, 
 Count de Cobentzel, his passion was still so furious, that, 
 from his grossness and violence, all the members of the 
 diplomatic corps trembled, both for this their respected 
 member, and for the honour of our nation thus repre- 
 sented. 
 
 A\'hen the diplomatic audience was over, he said to 
 Talleyrand, in a commanding and harsh tone of voice, in 
 the presence of all his aides-de-camp and generals, " Write 
 this afternoon, by an extraordinary courier, to my minister 
 at (ienoa, Salicetti, to prepare the Doge and the people 
 for the immediate incorporation of the Ligurian Republic 
 with my empire. Should Austria dare to murmur, I shall, 
 within three months, also incorporate the ci-devant Republic 
 of \'enice with my Kingdom of Italy I " — " But — but — Sire ! " 
 uttered the minister, trembling. — "There exists no 'but,' and 
 1 will listen to no ' but,' "' interrupted His Majesty. " Obey 
 my orders without further discussions. Should Austria dare
 
 THE COURT or ST. CLOUD 267 
 
 to arm, 1 shall, before next Christmas, make Vienna the 
 headquarters of a fiftieth military division. In an hour I 
 expect you with the despatches ready for Salicetti." 
 
 This .Salicetti is a Corsican of a respectable family, 
 born at liastia, in 1758, and it was he who, during the 
 siege of Toulon in 1793, introduced his countryman. 
 Napoleon Konaj)arte, his present .Sovereign, to the acquaint 
 ance of Ibarras, an occurrence which has since produced 
 consequences so terribly notorious. 
 
 Before the Revolution an advocate of the superior 
 council of Corsica, he was elected a member to the First 
 National Assembly, where, on the 30th of November, 1789, 
 he pressed the decree which declared the Island of Corsica 
 an integral part of the French monarchy. In 1792, he was 
 sent by his fellow-citizens as a deputy to the National Con- 
 vention, where he joined the terrorist faction, and voted for 
 the death of his King. In May, 1793, he was in Corsica, 
 and violently opposed the partisans of Ceneral Paoli. Obliged 
 to make his escape in August from that island, to save 
 himself, he joined the army of (General Carteaux, then 
 marching against the Marseilles insurgents, whence he was 
 sent by the National Convention with Barras, (iasparin, 
 Robespierre the younger, and Ricrod, as a representative of 
 the people to the army before Toulon, where, as well as 
 at Marseilles, he shared in all the atrocities committed by
 
 268 THE SKCRHT HISTORY OF 
 
 his colleagues and by Bonaparte ; for which, after the 
 death of the Robespierres, he was arrested with him as a 
 terrorist. 
 
 He had not known Bonaparte much in Corsica, but, 
 finding him and his family in great distress, with all other 
 Corsican refugees, and observing his adroitness as a captain 
 of artillery, he recommended him to Barras, and upon 
 their representation to the Committee of Public Safety, he 
 was promoted to a chef de brigade, or colonel. In 1796, 
 when Barras gave Bonaparte the conmiand of the army of 
 Italy, Salicetti was appointed a commissary of government 
 to the same army, and in that capacity behaved with the 
 greatest insolence towards all the princes of Italy, and most 
 so towards the Duke of Modena, with whom he and 
 Bonaparte signed a treaty of neutrality, for which they 
 received a large sum in ready money ; but shortly after- 
 wards the duchy was again invaded, and an attempt made 
 to surprise and seize the Duke. In 1797 he was chosen a 
 member of the Council of Five Hundred, where he always 
 continued a supporter of violent measures. 
 
 ^Vhen, in 1799, his former protege, Bonaparte, was 
 proclaimed a First Consul, Salicetti desired to be placed in 
 the Conservative Senate ; but his familiarity displeased 
 Napoleon, who made him lirst a commercial agent, and 
 afterwards a minister to the Ligurian Republic so as to
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 269 
 
 keep him at a distance. Durinj^^ his several missions, he 
 has amassed a fortune, calculated at the lowest, of six 
 millions of livres — ^^250,000. 
 
 The order Salicetti received to prepare the incorporation 
 of Genoa with France, would not, without the presence of 
 our troops, have been very eas\' to execute, particularly as 
 he, six months before, had prevailed on the Doge and the 
 senate to resign all sovereignty to Lucien Bonaparte, under 
 the title of a Grand Duke of Genoa. 
 
 The cause of Napoleon's change of opinion with regard 
 to his brother Lucien, was that the latter would not separate 
 from a wife he loved, but preferred domestic happiness to 
 external splendour freciuently accompanied with internal 
 misery. So that this act of incorporation of the Ligurian 
 Republic, in fact, originated, notwithstanding the great and 
 deep calculations of our profound politicians and political 
 schemers, in nothing else but in the keeping of a wife, and 
 in the refusal of a riband. 
 
 That corruption, seduction and menaces seconded the 
 intrigues and bayonets which convinced the Ligurian Govern- 
 ment of the honoui- and advantage of becoming subjects of 
 Bonaparte, I have not the least doubt ; but that the Doge, 
 Jerome Durazzo, and the Senators Morchio, ALaglione, 
 Travega, Maghella, Roggieri, Taddei, Balby and Langlade 
 sold the independence of their country for ten millions of
 
 270 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 livres — ^430,000 — though it has been positively asserted, 
 I can hardly believe ; and, indeed, money was as little neces- 
 sary, as resistance would have been unavailing, all the forts 
 and strong positions being in the occupation of our troops. 
 A general officer present when the Doge of Genoa, at the 
 head of the Ligurian deputation, offered Bonaparte their 
 homage at ]Milan, and exchanged liberty for bondage, assured 
 me that this ci-devaut chief magistrate spoke with a faltering 
 voice and with tears in his eyes, and that indignation was 
 read on the countenance of every member of the deputation 
 thus forced to prostitute their rights as citizens, and to vilify 
 their sentiments as patriots. 
 
 When Salicetti, with his secretary, Milhaud, had arranged 
 this honourable affair, they set out from (ienoa to announce 
 to Bonaparte, at Milan, their success. Not above a league 
 from the former city their carriage was stopped, their persons 
 stripped, and their papers and effects seized by a gang, called 
 in the country the gang of patriotic robbers, commanded 
 by Mulieno. This chief is a descendant of a good Genoese 
 family, proscribed by France, and the men under him are 
 all above the common class of people. They never commit 
 any murders, nor do they rob any but Frenchmen, or Italians 
 known to be adherents of the French party. Their spoils 
 they distribute among those of their countrymen who, like 
 themselves, have suffered from the revolutions in Italy
 
 THE COURT OK ST. CLOUD 27I 
 
 within these last nine years. They usually send the amount 
 destined to relieve these persons to the curates of the several 
 parishes, signifying in what manner it is to be employed. 
 Their conduct has procured them many friends among the 
 low and the poor, and though frequently pursued by our 
 gendarmes, they have hitherto always escaped. The papers 
 captured by them on this occasion from Salicetti are said 
 to be of a most curious nature, and throw great light on 
 Bonaparte's future views on Italy. The original act of 
 consent of the Ligurian Ciovernment to the incorporation 
 with France was also in this number. It is reported that 
 they were deposited with the Austrian minister at Genoa, 
 who found means to forward them to his Court ; and it 
 is supposed that their contents did not a little to hasten 
 the present movements of the Emperor of Germany. 
 
 Another gang, known under the appellation of the 
 PATRIOTIC AVENGERS, also desolates the Ligurian Republic. 
 They never rob, but always murder those whom they 
 consider as enemies of their country. Many of our oifficer.s, 
 and even our sentries on duty, have been wounded or 
 killed by them ; and after dark, therefore, no P>enchman 
 dares walk out unattended. Their chief is supposed to be 
 a ii-dcvatif abbe, Sagati, considered a political as well as a 
 religious fanatic. In consec[uence of the deeds of these 
 jxitriotic avengers, fJonaparte's Hrst act, as a Sovereign of
 
 272 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Liguria, was the establishment of special military commis- 
 sions, and a law prohibiting, under pain of death, every 
 person from carrying arms who could not show a written 
 permission of our commissary of police. Robbers and 
 assassins are unfortunately common to all nations, and all 
 people of all ages ; but those of the above description 
 are only the production and progeny of revolutionary and 
 troublesome times. They pride themselves, instead of 
 violating the laws, on supplying their inefficacy and 
 counteracting their partiality.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CI.OUD 
 
 273 
 
 LETTER XXXVI 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — Bonaparte is now the knight of more 
 royal Orders than an)- sovereign in Europe, and were he 
 to put them on all at once, their ribands would form stuff 
 enough for a light summer coat of as many different colours 
 as the rainbow. The Kings of Spain, of Naples, of Prussia, 
 of Portugal, and of Etruria have admitted him a knight- 
 companion, as well as the Electors of Bavaria, Hesse and 
 Baden, and the Pope of Rome. In return he has appointed 
 these Princes his grand ofifieers of his Legion of Honour, 
 the highest rank of his newly instituted imperial order. It 
 is even said that some of these Sovereigns have been 
 honoured by him with the grand star and broad riband of 
 the Order of his Iron Crown of the Kingdom of Italy. 
 
 Before Napoleon's departure for Milan last spring, Tal- 
 leyrand intimated to the members of the foreign diplomatic 
 corps here, that their presence would be agreeable to the 
 Emperor of the French at his coronation at Milan as a 
 King of Italy. In the preceding summer a similar hint, 
 
 or 07-der, had been gi\-en by him for a diplomatic trip 
 VOL. I 18
 
 274 "T^E SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 to Aix-la-Chapelle, and all their excellencies set a-packing 
 instantly ; but some legitimate Sovereigns, having since 
 discovered that it was indecent for their representatives to 
 be crowding the suite of an insolently and proudly -travel- 
 ling usurper, under different pretences declined the honour 
 of the invitation and journey to Italy. It would, besides, 
 have been pleasant enough to have witnessed the ambas- 
 sadors of Austria and Prussia, whose Sovereigns had not 
 acknowledged Bonaparte's right to his assumed title of 
 King of Italy, indirectly approving it by figuring at the 
 solemnity which inaugurated him as such. Of this incon- 
 sistency and impropriety Talleyrand was well aware ; but 
 audacity on one side, and endurance and submission on 
 the other, had so often disregarded these considerations 
 before, that he saw no indelicac}- or impertinence in the 
 proposal. His master had, however, the gratification to 
 see at his levee, and in his wife's drawing-room, the am- 
 bassadors of Spain, Naples, Portugal and Bavaria, who laid 
 at the imperial and royal feet the Order decorations of 
 their own Princes, to the no little entertainment of His 
 Imperial and Royal Majesty, and to the great edification of 
 his dutiful subjects on the other side of the Alps. 
 
 The expenses of Bonaparte's journey to Milan, and his 
 coronation there (including also those of his attendants 
 from France), amounted to no less a sum than fifteen
 
 THE COURT OI'" ST. CLOUD 275 
 
 niillions of livres - ^625,000— of which one liundrcd and 
 fifty thousand Hvres^ — -^6,000 — was laid out in fireworks, 
 double that sum in decorations of the royal palace and the 
 cathedral, and three millions of livres — ^125,000 — in pre- 
 sents to different generals, grand officers, deputations, &c. 
 ^I'he poor also shared his bounty ; medals to the value of 
 fifty thousand livres — ^2,100 — were thrown out among 
 them on the day of the ceremony, besides an equal 
 sum given by Madame Napoleon to the hospitals and 
 orphan-houses. These last have a kind of hereditary or 
 family claim on the purse of our Sovereign ; their parents 
 were the victims of the Emperor's first ste}) towards glory 
 and gra/idcur. 
 
 Another three millions of livres was expended for the 
 march of troops from France to form pleasu?-e camps in 
 Italy, and four millions more was requisite for the forming 
 and support of these encampments during two months, 
 and the Emperor distributed among the officers and men 
 composing them two million livres' worth of rings, watches, 
 snuff-boxes, portraits set with diamonds, stars, and other 
 trinkets, as evidences of His Majesty's satisfaction with their 
 behaviour, presence and performances. 
 
 These troops were under the command of PJonaparte's 
 
 field-marshal, Jourdan, a general often mentioned in the 
 
 military annals of our revolutionary war. During the 
 
 18—2
 
 276 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 latter part of the American war, he served under General 
 Rochambeau as a common soldier, and obtained in 1783, 
 after the peace, his discharge. He then turned a pedlar, 
 in which situation the Revolution found him. He had also 
 married for her fortune a lame daughter of a tailor, who 
 brought him a fortune of two thousand livres — ^84 — from 
 whom he has since been divorced, leaving her to shift for 
 herself as she can, in a small milliner's shop at Limoges, 
 where her husband was born in 1763. 
 
 Jourdan was among the first members and pillars of 
 the Jacobin club organized in his native town, which 
 procured him rapid promotion in the National Guards, of 
 whom, in 1792, he was already a colonel. His known love 
 of liberty and equality induced the Committee of Public 
 Safety in 1793 to appoint him to the chief command of 
 the armies of Ardennes and of the North, instead of 
 Lamarche and Houchard. On the 17th of October the 
 same year, he gained the victory of \\'attignies, which 
 obliged the united forces of Austria, Prussia and Germany 
 to raise the siege of Maubeuge. The jealous Republican 
 Government, in reward, deposed him and appointed Pichegru 
 his successor, which was the origin of that enmity and 
 malignity with which Jourdan pursued this unfortunate 
 general even to his grave. He never forgave Pichegru the 
 acceptance of a command which he could not decline
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 277 
 
 without risking his hfc ; and when he should have avenged 
 his disgrace on the real causes of it, he chose to resent it 
 on him who, like himself, was merely an instrument, or a 
 slave, in the hands antl under the whip of a tyrannical 
 power. 
 
 ^Vfter the imprisonment of (leneral Hoche in March, 
 1794, Jourdan succeeded him as chief of the army of the 
 Moselle. In June he joined, with thirty thousand men, 
 the right wing of the army of the North, forming a new 
 one, under the name of the army of the Sambre and 
 Meuse. On the i6th of the same month, he gained a 
 complete victory over the Prince of Coburg, who tried to 
 raise the siege of Charleroy. This battle, which was fought 
 near Trasegnies, is nevertheless commonly called the battle 
 of Fleurus. After Charleroy had surrendered on the 25th, 
 Jourdan and his army were ordered to act under the 
 direction of (leneral Pichegru, who had drawn the plan of 
 that brilliant campaign. Always envious of this general, 
 Jourdan did everything to retard his progress; and at last 
 intrigued so well that the army of the Sambre and the 
 Meuse was separated from that of the North. 
 
 With the former of these armies Jourdan pursued the 
 retreating confederates, and after driving them from different 
 stands and positions, he repulsed them to the banks of the 
 Rhine, which river they were obliged to pass. Here ended
 
 278 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 his successes this year, successes that were not obtained 
 without great loss on our side. 
 
 Jourdan began the campaigns of 1795 and 1796 with 
 equal brilliancy, and ended them with equal disgrace. After 
 penetrating into Oermany with troops as numerous as well- 
 disciplined, he was defeated at the end of them by Arch- 
 duke Charles, and retreated always with such precipitation, 
 and in such confusion, that it looked more like the flight 
 of a disorderly rabble than the retreat of regular troops ; 
 and had not Moreau, in 1796, kept the enemy in awe, few 
 of Jourdan's officers or men would again have seen France ; 
 for the inhabitants of Franconia rose on these marauders, 
 and cut them to pieces, wherever they could surprise or 
 waylay them. 
 
 In 1797, as a member of the Council of Five Hundred, 
 he headed the Jacobin faction against the moderate party, 
 of which Pichegru was a chief ; and he had the cowardly 
 vengeance of base rivalry to pride himself upon having pro- 
 cured the transportation of that patriotic general to Cayenne. 
 In 1799, he again assumed the command of the army of 
 Alsace and of Switzerland ; but he crossed the Rhine and 
 penetrated into Suabia only to be again routed by the Arch- 
 duke Charles, and to repass this river in disorder. Under 
 the necessity of resigning as a general-in-chief, he returned 
 to the Council of Five Hundred more violent than ever.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 279 
 
 and provoked there the most oppressive measures against 
 his fellow - citizens. Previous to the revolution effected by 
 lionaparte in November of that year, he had entered with 
 (iarreau and Santerre into a consi)iracy, the object of which 
 was to restore the Reign of Terror, and to prevent which 
 Bonaparte said he made those changes which placed him 
 at the head of government. It was even printed in the 
 papers of that period, which Bonaparte on the loth of 
 November addressed to the then deputy of Mayenne, 
 Prevost : " If the plot entered into by Jourdan and other.s, 
 and of which they have not blushed to propose to me 
 the execution, had not l)een defeated, they would have 
 surrounded the place of your sitting, and to crush all future 
 opposition, ordered a number of deputies to be massacred. 
 That done, they were to establish the sanguinary despotism 
 of the Reign of Terror." But whether such was Jourdan's 
 project, or whether it was merely given out to be such 
 by the consular faction, to extenuate their own usurpation, 
 he certainly had connected himself with the most guilty and 
 contemptible of the former terrorists, and drew upon him- 
 self by such conduct the hatred and blame even of those 
 whose opinion had long been suspended on his account. 
 
 General Jourdan was among those terrorists whom the 
 Consular (lovernment condemned to transportation : but 
 after several interviews with Bona])arte he was not only
 
 28o THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 pardoned, but made a counsellor of state of the military 
 section ; and afterwards, in 1801, an administrator -general 
 of Piedmont, where he was replaced by General Menou in 
 1803, being himself entrusted with the command in Italy. 
 This place he has preserved until last month, when he was 
 ordered to resign it to JNIassena, with whom he had a 
 quarrel, and would have fought him in a duel, had not 
 the Viceroy, Eugenius de Beauharnais, put him under arrest 
 and ordered him back hither, where he is daily expected. 
 If Massena's report to Bonaparte be true, the army of Italy 
 was very far from being as orderly and numerous as 
 Jourdan's assertions would have induced us to believe. 
 But this accusation of a rival must be listened to with 
 caution ; because, should Massena meet with repulse, he 
 will no doubt make use of it as an apology ; and should 
 he be victorious, hold it out as a claim for more honour 
 and praise. 
 
 The same doubts which still continue of Jourdan's 
 political opinions remain also with regard to his military 
 capacity. But the unanimous declaration of those who have 
 served under his orders as a general must silence both his 
 blind admirers and unjust slanderers. They all allow him 
 some military ability ; he combines and prepares in the 
 cabinet a plan of defence and attack with method and in- 
 telligence, but he does not possess the ijuick coup d^a'il.
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 28l 
 
 and lliat [)roni[)litu(Jc which perceives, and rectifies accord- 
 ingly, an error on the field of battle. If, on the day of 
 action, some accident, or some manoeuvre, occurs which has 
 not been foreseen by him, his dull and heavy genius does 
 not enable him to alter instantly his dispositions, or to 
 remedy errors, misfortunes or improvidences. This kind of 
 talent, and this kind of absence of talent, explain ec^ually 
 the causes of his advantages, as well as the origin of his 
 frequent disasters. Nobody denies him courage, but, with 
 most of our other republican generals, he has never been 
 careful of the lives of the troops under him. I have heard 
 an otificer of superior talents and rank assert, in the presence 
 of Carnot, that the number of wounded and killed under 
 Jourdan when victorious, frecjuently surpassed the number 
 of enemies he had defeated. I fear it is too true that we 
 are as much, if not more, indebted for our successes to 
 the superior number as to the superior valour of our troops. 
 
 Jourdan is, with regard to fortune, one of our poorest 
 republican generals who have headed armies. He has not, 
 during all his campaigns, collected more than a capital of 
 eight millions of livres — ;£333,ooo — a mere trifle compared 
 to the fifty millions of Massena, the sixty millions of Le 
 Clerc, the forty millions of Murat, and the thirty-six millions 
 of Augereau ; not to mention the hundred millions of 
 Bonaparte. It is also true that Jourdan is a gambler and
 
 2(52 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 a debauchee, fond of cards, dice and women : and that in 
 Italy, except two hours in twenty-four allotted to business, 
 he passed the remainder of his time either at the gaming- 
 tables, or in the boudoirs of his seraglio — I say seraglio, 
 because he kept in the extensive house joining his palace 
 as governor and commander, ten women — three French, 
 three Italians, two Germans, and two Irish or English girls. 
 He supported them all in style ; but they were his slaves 
 and he was their sultan, whose official mutes (his aides-de- 
 camp) both watched them, and, if necessary, chastised them.
 
 THE corirr oi- ST. CLOUD 283 
 
 LEITER XXXVII 
 
 Paris. Scphwiil>er, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — I can truly defy the world to produce a 
 corps of such a heterogeneous composition as our Con- 
 ser\-ative Senate, when I except the memljers composing 
 Bonaparte's Legion of Honour. Some of our senators have 
 been tailors, apothecaries, merchants, chemists, quacks, 
 physicians, barbers, bankers, soldiers, drummers, dukes, 
 shopkeepers, mountebanks, abbes, generals, savants, friars, 
 ambassadors, counsellors, or presidents of parliament, ad- 
 mirals, barristers, bishops, sailors, attorneys, authors, barons, 
 spies, painters, professors, ministers, sa//s-c///offes, atheists, 
 stonemasons, robbers, mathematicians, philosophers, regi- 
 cides, and a long c/ cetera. Any person reading through 
 the official list of the members of the senate, and who is 
 accjuainted with their former situations in life, may he 
 convinced of this truth. Should he even be ignorant of 
 them, let him but enfjuire, with the list in his hand, in 
 any of our fashionable or political circles: he will meet with 
 but few persons who are not able or willing to remove his 
 doubts, or to gratif}' his curiosity. There are not many of
 
 284 THE SECRET' HISTORY OF 
 
 them whom it is possible to elevate, but those are still 
 more numerous whom it is impossible to degrade. Their 
 past lives, vices, errors, or crimes, have settled their 
 characters and reputation ; and they must live and die in 
 sfaiu quo, either as fools or as knaves, and perhaps as both. 
 
 I do not mean to say that they are all criminals, or 
 all equally criminal, if insurrection against lawful authority 
 and obedience to usurped tyranny, are not to be con- 
 sidered as crimes ; but there are few indeed who can lay 
 their hands on their bosoms and say, vitaf/i expendere vera. 
 Some of them, as a Lagrange, Berthollet, Chaptal, Laplace, 
 Francois de Neuf- Chateau, Tronchet, Monge, Lacepede 
 and Bougainville, are certainly men of talents ; but others, 
 as a Porcher, Resnier, Vimar, Auber, Pere, Sers, Vernier, 
 Vien, Villetard, Tascher, Rigal, Baciocchi, Beviere, Beau- 
 harnais, de Luynes (a ci-devant duke, known under the 
 name of Le Gros Coc/ioii), nature never destined but to 
 figure among those half- idiots and half - imbeciles who 
 are, as it were, intermedial between the brute and human 
 creation. 
 
 Sieyes, Cabanis, (larran Coulon, Lecouteul, Canteleu, 
 Lenoin Laroche, Volney, Gregoire, Emmery, Joucourt, 
 Boissy d'Anglas, Louche and Roederer form another class. 
 Some of them regicides, others assassins and plunderers, 
 but all intriguers whose machinations date from the begin-
 
 I 
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 285 
 
 ning of the Revolution. 'J'hey are all men of parts, of more 
 or less knowledge, and of great presumption. As to their 
 morality, it is on a level with their religion and lo)alty. 
 They betrayed their king, and had denied their dod 
 already in 1789. 
 
 After these come some others, who again have neither 
 talents to boast of nor crimes of which they have to be 
 ashamed. They have but little pretension to genius, none 
 to consistency, and their honesty equals their capacity. 
 They joined our political revolution as they might have 
 done a religious procession. // 7iHis at that time a fashion : 
 and they applauded our revolutionary innovations as they 
 would have done the introduction of a new opera, of a 
 new tragedy, of a new comedy, or of a new farce. To 
 this fraternity appertain a ci-devant Count de Stult-Tracy, 
 Dubois — Dubay, Kellerman, Lambrechts, Lemercier, Pleville 
 — Le Pelley, Clement de Ris, Peregeaux', Berthelemv, 
 Vaubois, Perignon, d'Agier, Abrial, de Belloy, Delannoy, 
 Aboville, and St. Martin La Motte. 
 
 Such are the characteristics of men whose scnafi/s con- 
 sultuni bestows an timperor on P'rance, a king on Itah', 
 makes of principalities departments of a republic, and 
 transforms republics into provinces or principalities. To 
 show the absurdly fickle and ridiculously absurd ap{)ella- 
 tions of our shamefully perverted institutions, this senate was
 
 25b THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 called the Conservative Senate : that is to say, it was to 
 preserve the repuWican consular constitution in its integrity, 
 both against the encroachments of the executive and legis- 
 lative power, both against the manoeuvres of the factions, 
 the plots of the royalists or monarchists, and the clamours 
 of a populace of levellers. But during the five years that 
 these honest wiseacres have been preserving, everything 
 has perished — the republic, the consuls, free discussions, 
 free election, the political liberty, and the liberty of the 
 Press ; all — all are found nowhere but in old, useless and 
 rejected codes. They have, however, in a truly patriotic 
 manner taken care of their own dear selves. Their salaries 
 are more than doubled since 1799. 
 
 Besides mock senators, mock praetors, mock quaestors, 
 other nomina iibertatis are revived, so as to make the loss 
 of the reality so much the more galling. ^^'e have also 
 two curious commissions ; one called " the Senatorial Com- 
 mission of Personal Liberty," and the other "the Senatorial 
 Commission of the Liberty of the Press." The imprison- 
 ment without cause, and transportation without trial, of 
 thousands of persons of both sexes weekly, show the grand 
 advantages which arise from the former of these commis- 
 sions ; and the contents of our new books and daily prints 
 evince the utility and liberality of the latter. 
 
 I^ut from the past conduct of these our senators,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 287 
 
 members of these commissions, one may easily conclude 
 what is to be expected in future from their justice and 
 patriotism. Lenoin Laroche, at the head of the one, was 
 formerly an advocate of some practice, but attended more 
 to politics than to the business of his clients, and was, 
 therefore, at the end of the session of the first assembly 
 (of which he was a member), forced, for subsistence, to 
 become the editor of an insignificant journal. Here he 
 preached licentiousness, under the name of Liberty, and the 
 agrarian law in recommending Equality. A prudent courtier 
 of all systems in fashion, and of all factions in power, he 
 escaped proscription, though not accusation of having shared 
 in the national robberies. A short time in the summer of 
 1797, after the dismissal of Cochon, he acted as a minister 
 of police; and in 1798 the Jacobins elected him a member 
 of the Council of Ancients, where he, with other deputies, 
 sold himself to Bonaparte, and was, in return, rewarded 
 with a place in the senate. Under monarchy he was a 
 republican, and under a republic he extolled monarchical 
 institutions. He wished to be singular, and to be rich. 
 Among so many shocking originals, however, he was not 
 distinguished ; and among so many philosophical marauders, 
 he had no opportunity to pillage above two millions of 
 livres — ^84,000. This friend of liberty is now one of the 
 most despotic senators, and this lover of ecjuality never
 
 200 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 answers when spoken to, if not addressed as " his Excel- 
 lency," or " Monseigneur." 
 
 Boissy d'Anglas, another member of this commission, 
 was before the Revolution a steward to Louis XVIII. when 
 Monsieur : and, in 1789, was chosen a deputy of the first 
 assembly, where he joined the factions, and in his speeches 
 and writings defended all the enormities that dishonoured 
 the beginning as well as the end of the Revolution. A 
 member afterwards of the National Convention, he was sent 
 in mission to Lyons, where, instead of healing the wounds of 
 the inhabitants, he inflicted new ones. When, on the 15th of 
 March, 1796, in the Council of Five Hundred, he pronounced 
 the oath of hatred to royalty, he added, that this oath was 
 ill his heart, otherwise no power upon earth could have 
 forced him to take it ; and he is now a sworn subject of 
 Napoleon the First ! He pronounced the panegyric of 
 Robespierre, and the apotheosis of Marat. " The soul," 
 said he, " was moved and elevated in hearing Robespierre 
 speak of the Supreme Being with philosophical ideas, 
 embellished by eloquence " ; and he signed the removal of 
 the ashes of Marat to the temple consecrated to humanity! 
 In September, 1797, he wa.s, as a royalist, condemned to 
 transportation by the Directory; but, in 1799, Bonaparte 
 recalled him, made him first a tribune and afterwards a 
 senator.
 
 THE COURT OI' ST. CLOUD 289 
 
 Boissy d'Anglas, though an apologist of robbers and 
 assassins, has neither murdered nor plundered : but, though 
 he has not enriched himself, he has assisted in ruining all 
 his former protectors, benefactors and friends. 
 
 Sers, a third member of this commission, was before the 
 
 Revolution a bankrupt merchant at Bordeaux, but in 1791 
 
 was a municipal officer of the same city, and sent as a deputy 
 
 to the National Assembly, where he attempted to rise from 
 
 the clouds that encompassed his heavy genius by a motion 
 
 for pulling down all the statues of kings all over France. 
 
 He seconded another motion of Bonaparte's prefect, Jean 
 
 Debrie, to decree a corps of tyrannicides, destined to 
 
 murder all emperors, kings and j)rinces. At the club of 
 
 the Jacobins, at Bordeaux, he prided himself on having 
 
 caused the arrest and death of three hundred aristocrats ; 
 
 and boasted that he never went out without a dagger to 
 
 despatc:h, by a siiiiunary justice^ those who had escaped the 
 
 laws. After meeting with well-merited contempt, and living 
 
 for some time in the greatest obscurity, by a handsome 
 
 present to Madame Bonaparte, in 1799, he obtained the 
 
 favour of Napoleon, who dragged him forward to be j)laced 
 
 among other ornaments of his senate. Sers has just 
 
 cunning enough to be taken for a man of sense when with 
 
 fools ; when with men of sense, he reassumes the place 
 
 allotted him by Nature. Without education, as well as 
 VOL. I ig
 
 ago THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 without parts, he for a long time confounded brutal scur- 
 rility with oratory, and thought himself eloquent when he 
 was only insolent or impertinent. His ideas of liberty are 
 such that, when he was a municipal officer, he signed a 
 mandate of arrest against sixty-four individuals of both sexes, 
 who were at a ball, because they had refused to invite to 
 it one of his nieces. 
 
 Abrial, Emmery, Vernier and Lemercier are the other 
 four members of that commission ; of these, two are old 
 intriguers, two are nullities, and all four are slaves. 
 
 Of the seven members of the senatorial commission 
 for preserving the liberty of the Press, Garat and Roederer 
 are the principal. The former is a pedant, while pretending 
 to be a philosopher ; and he signed the sentence of his 
 good King's death, while declaring himself a royalist. A 
 mere valet to Robespierre, his fawning procured him oppor- 
 tunities to enrich himself with the spoil of those whom his 
 calumnies and plots caused to be massacred or guillotined. 
 When, as a minister of justice, he informed Louis XVI. of 
 his condemnation, he did it with such an affected and 
 atrocious indifference that he even shocked his accomplices, 
 whose nature had not much of tenderness. As a member 
 of the first assembly, as a minister under the convention, 
 and as a deputy of the Council of Five Hundred, he always 
 opposed the liberty of the Press. " The laws, you say"
 
 THK COURT OF ST. CLOUD 29I 
 
 (exclaimed he in the council) "punish Hbellers ; so they do 
 
 thieves and housebreakers ; but would you, therefore, leave 
 
 your doors unl)oIted ? Is not the character, the honour, 
 
 and the tranquillity of a citizen preferable to his treasures ? 
 
 and, by the liberty of the Press, you leave them at the 
 
 mercy of every scribbler who can write or think. The 
 
 wound inflicted may heal, but the scar will always remain. 
 
 Were you, therefore, determined to decree the motion for 
 
 this dangerous and impolitic liberty, I make this amendment, 
 
 tliaf conviction of haviii,^ written a lihel carries with it capital 
 
 punishment^ and that a label be fastened on the breast of 
 
 the libeller, when carried to execution, with this inscription : 
 
 A social murderer^ or A murderer of characters ! " 
 
 Roederer has belonged to all religious or anti-religious 
 
 sects, and to all political or anti-social factions, these last 
 
 twenty years ; but, after approving, applauding and serving 
 
 them, he has deserted them, sold them, or betrayed them. 
 
 Before the Revolution, a counsellor of parliament at Metz, 
 
 he was a spy of the Court on his colleagues ; and, since 
 
 the Revolution, he served the Jacobins as a spy on the 
 
 Court. Immoral and unprincipled to the highest degree, his 
 
 profligacy and duplicity are only equalled by his perversity 
 
 and cruelty. It was he who, on the loth of August, 1792, 
 
 betrayed the King and the royal family into the hands of 
 
 their assassins, and who himself made a merit of this in- 
 
 19 — 2
 
 292 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 famous act. After being repulsed by all, even by the most 
 sanguinary of our parties and partisans, by a Brissot, a 
 Marat, a Robespierre, a Tallien, and a Barras, Bonaparte 
 adopted him first as a counsellor of state, and afterwards 
 as a senator. His own and only daughter died in a mis- 
 carriage, the consequence of an incestuous commerce with 
 her unnatural parent ; and his only son is disinherited by 
 him for resenting his father's baseness in debauching a 
 young girl whom the son had engaged to marry. 
 
 With the usual consistency of my revolutionary country- 
 men, he has, at one period, asserted that the liberty of the 
 Press was necessary for the preservation both of men and 
 things, for the protection of governors as well as of the 
 governed, and that it was the best support of a constitutional 
 government. At another time he wrote that, as it was 
 impossible to fix the limits between the liberty and the 
 licentiousness of the Press, the latter destroyed the benefits 
 of the former : that the liberty of the Press was only useful 
 against a Government which one wished to overturn, but 
 dangerous to a Ciovernment which one wished to preserve. 
 To show his indifference about his own character, as well 
 as about the opinion of the public, these opposite declara- 
 tions were inserted in one of our daily papers, and both were 
 signed " Roederer." 
 
 In 1789 he was indebted above one million two hun-
 
 THE COURT OF ST, CLOUD 293 
 
 dred thousand livres — ^'50,000 — and he now possesses 
 national property purchased for seven millions of livres — 
 ^292,000 and he avows himself to be worth three mil- 
 lions more in money placed in our public funds. He 
 often says, laughingly, that he is under great obligations to 
 Robespierre, whose guillotine acquitted in one day all his 
 debts. All his creditors, after being denounced for their 
 aristocracy, were murdered en masse by this instrument of 
 death. 
 
 Of all the old beaux and superannuated libertines 
 whose company I have had the misfortune of not being 
 able to avoid, Roederer is the most affected, silly and dis- 
 gusting. His wrinkled face, and effeminate and childish air ; 
 his assiduities about every woman of beauty or fashion ; his 
 confidence m his own merit, and his presumption in his 
 own power, wear such a curious contrast with his trem- 
 bling hands, running eyes, and enervated person, that I 
 have frecjuently been ready to laugh at him in his face, 
 had not indignation silenced all other feeling. A light- 
 coloured wig covers a bald head ; his cheeks and eyelids 
 are painted, and his teeth false ; and I have seen a woman 
 faint away from the effect of his breath, notwithstanding 
 that he infects with his musk and perfumes a whole house 
 only with his presence. When on the ground floor, you 
 may smell him in the attic.
 
 294 '^^^ SFXRET HISTORY OF 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 Mv Lord, — The reciprocal jealousy and even interest 
 of Austria, France and Russia have hitherto prevented 
 the tottering Turkish empire from being partitioned hke 
 Poland, or seized like Italy ; to serve as indemnities, like 
 the German empire ; or to be shared, as reward to the 
 allies, like the empire of INIysore. 
 
 AVhen we consider the anarchy that prevails, both in 
 the Government and among the subjects, as well in the 
 capital as in the provinces of the Ottoman Porte : when 
 we reflect on the mutiny and cowardice of its armies and 
 navy, the ignorance and incapacity of its officers and 
 military and naval commanders, it is surprising indeed, as 
 I have heard Talleyrand often declare, that more foreign 
 political intrigues should be carried on at Constantinople 
 alone than in all other capitals of Europe taken together. 
 These intrigues, however, instead of doing honour to the 
 sagacity and patriotism of the members of tlie Divan, 
 expose only their corrujjtion and imbecility ; and instead 
 of indicating a dread of the strength of the Sublime
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 295 
 
 Sultan, show a knowledge of his weakness, of which the 
 gold of the most wealthy, and the craft of the most subtle, 
 by turns are striving to profit. 
 
 Beyond a doubt the enmity of the Ottoman Porte 
 can do more mischief than its friendship can do service. 
 Its neutrality is always useful, while its alliance becomes 
 fretjuently a burden, and its support of no advantage. It 
 is, therefore, more from a view of preventing evils than 
 from expectation of profit, that all other Powers plot, cabal 
 and bribe. The map of the Turkish empire explains 
 what may be thought absurd or nugatory in this assertion. 
 
 As soon as a war with Austria was resolved on by 
 the Brissot faction, in 1792, emissaries were despatched to 
 Constantinople to engage the Divan to invade the provinces 
 of Austria and Russia, thereby to create a diversion in 
 favour of this country. Our ambassador in Turkey at that 
 time, ( lount de Choiseul - Goutitier, though an admirer of 
 the Revolution, was not a republican, and therefore secretl}' 
 counteracted what he officially seemed to wish to effect. 
 The Imperial Court succeeded, therefore, in establishing 
 the neutrality of the Ottoman Porte, but Count de Choiseul 
 was proscribed by the Convention. As acade/nicia/i he 
 was, however, at St. Petersburg, liberally recompensed by 
 Catherine II. for the services the ambassador had performed 
 at Constantinople.
 
 2g6 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 In May, 1793, the Committee of Public Safety deter- 
 mined to expedite another embassy to the Grand Seignior, 
 at the head of which was the famous intriguer, De Semon- 
 ville, whose revolutionary diplomacy had, within three years, 
 alarmed the Courts of Madrid, Naples and Turin, as well 
 as the Republican Government of Genoa. His career towards 
 Turkey was stopped in the (Prisons Republic on the 25th of 
 July following, where he, with sixteen other persons of his suite, 
 was arrested, and sent a prisoner, first to Milan, and after- 
 wards to Mantua. He carried with him presents of immense 
 value, which were all seized by the Austrians. Among them 
 were four superb coaches, highly finished, varnished and 
 gilt ; what is iron or brass in common carriages was here 
 gold or silver-gilt. Two large chests were filled with stuff 
 of gold brocade, India gold muslins and shawls, and laces 
 of very great value. Eighty thousand louis d'or — ^80,000 — 
 in ready money ; a service of gold plate of twenty covers, 
 which formerly belonged to the kings of France ; two small 
 boxes full of diamonds and brilliants, the intrinsic worth of 
 which was estimated at forty-eight millions of livres — 
 ^2,000,000 — and a great number of jewels ; among others, 
 the crown diamond, called here the Regents', and in your 
 country the Titt Diamond, fell, with other riches, into the 
 hands of the captors. Notwithstanding this loss and this 
 disappointment, we contrived in ^•ain to ])unhase the hos-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 297 
 
 tility of the Turks against our enemies, though with the 
 sacrifice of no less a sum (according to the report of 
 St. Just in June, 1794) than seventy milHons of Hvres 
 ^~3, 000,000. These official statements prove the means 
 which our so often extolled cauioniical and niofal republican 
 governments have employed in their negotiations. 
 
 After the invasion of Egypt, in time of peace, by 
 Bonaparte, the Sultan became at last convinced of the 
 si/iccfifv of our professions of friendship, which he returned 
 with a declaration of war. The preliminaries of peace with 
 your country, in October, iSoi, were, however, soon fol- 
 lowed with a renewal of our ioxvni^r friendly intercourse with 
 the Ottoman Porte. The vo)age of Sebastiani into Egypt 
 and S}ria, in the autumn of 1802, showed that our tenderness 
 for the inhabitants of these countries had not diminished, 
 and that we soon intended to confer on them new hugs of 
 fraternity. Your pretensions to Malta impeded our pros- 
 ])ects in the East, and your obstinacy obliged us to postpone 
 our so well-planned schemes of encroachments. It was then 
 that Bonaparte first selected for his representative to the 
 Orand Seignior, General Brune, commonly called by Moreau, 
 Macdonald, and other competent judges of military merit, 
 an intriguer at the head of armies, and a warrior in time of 
 peace 7vhe?i seated in the council chamber. 
 
 This Brune was, before the Revolution, a journeyman
 
 298 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 printer, and married to a washerwoman, whose industr\- and 
 labour alone prevented him from starving, for he was as 
 vicious as idle. The money he gained when he chose to 
 work was generally squandered away in brothels among 
 prostitutes. To supply his excesses he had even recourse 
 to dishonest means, and was shut up in the prison of 
 Bicetre, for robbing his master of types and of paper. 
 
 In the beginning of the Revolution, his very crimes 
 made him an acceptable associate of Marat, who, with the 
 money advanced by the Orleans faction, bought him a 
 printing-office, and he printed the so dreadfully well-known 
 journal, called L'Aiiiie du Peuple. From the principles of 
 this atrocious paper, and from those of his sanguinary patron, 
 he formed his own political creed. He distinguished him- 
 self frequently at the clubs of the Cordeliers, and of the 
 Jacobins, by his extravagant motions, and by provoking 
 laws of proscription against a wealth he did not possess, 
 and against a rank he would have dishonoured, but did not 
 see without envy. On the 30th of June, 1791, he said, in 
 the former of these clubs : " ^^'e hear everywhere complaints 
 of poverty ; were not our eyes so often disgusted with tlie 
 sight of unnatural riches, our hearts would not so often be 
 shocked at the unnatural sufferings of humanity. The 
 blessings of our Revolution will never be felt by the world, 
 until we in France are on a level, with regard to rank as
 
 THK COURT ()!• ST. CLOUD 299 
 
 well as to fortune. I, fur my i)art, know too well the dignit)' 
 of human nature ever to bow to a superior ; but, brothers 
 and friends, it is not enough that we are all i)oliticalIy 
 equal, we must also be all eciually rich or equally poor — we 
 must either all strive to become men of property, or reduce 
 men of property to become sans-citlottes. Believe me, the 
 aristocracy of property is more dangerous than the aris- 
 tocracy of prerogative or fanaticism, because it is more 
 common. Here is a list sent to L'Aiiiie dii Fei/p/e, but of 
 which prudence yet prohibits the publication. It contains 
 the names of all the men of ])roperty of Paris, and of the 
 Department of the Seine, the amount of their fortunes, and 
 a proposal how to reduce and divide it among our patriots. 
 Of its great utility in the moment when we have been 
 striking our grand blows, nobody dares doubt ; I therefo re 
 move that a brotherly letter be sent to every society of 
 our brothers and friends in the provinces, inviting each of 
 them to compose one of similar contents and of similar 
 tendency in their own districts, with what remarks they 
 think proper to affix, and to forward them to us, to be 
 deposited in the mother club, after taking copies of them 
 for the archives of their own society." His motion was 
 decreed. 
 
 Two days afterwards, he again ascended the tribune. 
 " You approved," said he, " of the measures 1 lately pro-
 
 300 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 posed against the aristocracy of property ; I will now tell 
 you of another aristocracy which we must also crush — I 
 mean that of religion, and of the clergy. Their supports 
 are folly, cowardice and ignorance. All priests are to be 
 proscribed, and punished as criminals, and despised as im- 
 postors or idiots ; and all altars must be reduced to dust as 
 unnecessary. To prepare the public mind for such events, 
 we must enlighten it ; which can only be done by dis- 
 seminating extracts from L Aiine du Feitfik, and other 
 philosophical publications. I have here some ballads of my 
 own composition, which have been sung in my cjuarter ; 
 where all superstitious persons have already trembled, and 
 all fanatics are raving. If you think proper, I will, for a 
 mere trifle, print twenty thousand copies of them, to be 
 distributed and disseminated gratis all over France." After 
 some discussion, the treasurer of the club was ordered to 
 advance Citizen Brune the sum required, and the secretary 
 to transmit the ballads to the fraternal societies in the 
 provinces. 
 
 Brune put on his first regimentals as an aide-de-camp 
 to General Santerre in December, 1793, after having given 
 proofs of his military ])ro\vess the preceding September, in 
 the massacre of the prisoners in the Abbey. In 1793 he 
 was appointed a colonel in the revolutionary army, which, 
 during the Reign of Terror, laid waste the departments of
 
 THK COURT OI- ST. CLOUD 3OI 
 
 the (iironde, where he was often seen commanding his 
 corps, with a human head fixed on his sword. On the 
 day when he entered Hordeaux with his troops, a new-born 
 child occupied the same place, to the great horror of the 
 inhabitants. During this brilliant expedition he laid the 
 first foundation of his present fortune, having pillaged 
 in a most unmerciful manner, and arrested or shot every 
 suspected person who could not, or would not, exchange 
 property for life. On his return to Paris, his patriotism 
 was recompensed with a commission of a general of brigade. 
 On the death of Robespierre, he was arrested as a terrorist, 
 but, after some months' imprisonment, again released. 
 
 In October, 1795, he assisted Napoleon Bonaparte in 
 the massacre of the Parisians, and obtained for it, from the 
 director Barras, the rank of a general of division. Though 
 occupying in time of war such a high military rank, he had 
 hitherto never seen an enemy, or witnessed an engagement. 
 
 After Bonaparte had planned the invasion and pillage 
 of Switzerland, Brune was charged to execute this unjust 
 outrage against the law of nations. His capacity to intrigue 
 procured him this distinction, and he did honour to the 
 choice of his employers. You have no doubt read that, 
 after lulling the Oovernment of Berne into security by re- 
 peated proposals of accommodation, he attacked the Swiss 
 and Bernese troops during a truce, and obtained b\' treachery
 
 302 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 successes which his valour did not promise him. The pillage, 
 robberies and devastations in Helvetia added several more 
 millions to his previously great riches. 
 
 It was after his campaign in Holland, during the autumn 
 of 1799, that he first began to claim some military glory. 
 He owed, however, his successes to the superior number of 
 his troops, and to the talents of the generals and officers 
 serving under him. Being made a counsellor of state by 
 Bonaparte, he was entrusted with the command of the 
 army against the Chouans. Here again he seduced by his 
 promises, and duped by his intrigues, acted infamously — 
 but was successful.
 
 THE COURT OF ST, CLOUD 303 
 
 LETTER XXXIX 
 
 Paris, September^ ^^05- 
 
 My Lord, — Three months before Rrune set out on 
 his embassy to Constantinople, Talleyrand and Fouche 
 were collecting together all the desperadoes of our Revo- 
 lution, and all the Italian, Corsican, Greek and Arabian 
 renegadoes and vagabonds in our country, to form him 
 a set of attendants agreeable to the real object of his 
 mission. 
 
 You know too much of our national character and 
 of my own veracity to think it improbable, when 1 assure 
 you that most of our great men in place are as vain as 
 presumptuous, and that sometimes vanity and presumption 
 get the better of their discretion and prudence. What I 
 am going to tell you I did not hear myself, but it was 
 reported to me by a female friend, as estimable for her 
 virtues as admired for her accomplishments. She is often 
 honoured with invitations to Talleyrand's familiar parties, 
 composed chiefly of persons whose fortunes are as inde- 
 pendent as their principles, who, though not approving the 
 Revolution, neither joined its opposers nor oj)posed its
 
 304 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 adherents, preferring tranquillity and obscurity to agitation 
 and celebrity. Their number is not much above half-a- 
 dozen, and the minister calls them the only honest people 
 in France with whom he thinks himself safe. 
 
 When it was reported here that two hundred persons 
 of Brune's suite had embarked at Marseilles and eighty- 
 four at Genoa, and when it was besides known that near 
 fifty individuals accompanied him in his outset, this unusual 
 occurrence caused much conversation and many speculations 
 in all our coteries and fashionable circles. About that 
 time my friend dined with Talleyrand, and by chance 
 also mentioned this grand embassy, observing at the same 
 time that it was too much honour done to the Ottoman 
 Porte, and too much money thrown away upon splendour, to 
 honour such an imbecile and tottering Government. " How 
 people talk," interrupted Talleyrand, " about what they do 
 not comprehend. Generous as Bonaparte is, he does not 
 throw away his expenses ; perhaps within twelve months 
 all these renegadoes or adventurers, whom you all consider 
 as valets of Brune, will be three-tailed Pachas or Bey.s, 
 leading friends of liberty, who shall have gloriously broken 
 their fetters as slaves of a Selim to become the subjects 
 of a Napoleon. The Eastern empire has, indeed, long 
 expired, but it may suddenly be revived." — -" Austria and 
 Russia," replied my friend, "would never suffer it, and
 
 THE COURT OI- ST. CLOUD 305 
 
 England would sooner ruin her navy and exhaust her 
 treasury than permit such a revolution." — "So they have 
 tried to do," retorted Talleyrand, "to bring about a counter 
 revolution in France. But though only a moment is 
 requisite to erect the standard of revolt, ages often are 
 necessary to conquer and seize it. Turkey has long been 
 ripe for a revolution. It wanted only chiefs and directors. 
 In tipie of war, ten thousand Frenchmen landed in the 
 Dardanelles would be masters of Constantinople, and per- 
 haps of the empire. In time of peace, four hundred 
 bold and well-informed men may produce the same effect. 
 — Besides, with some temporary cession of a couple of 
 provinces to each of the Imperial Courts, and with the 
 temporary present of an island to Creat Britain, every- 
 thing may be settled pro te»ipori\ and a Joseph Bonaparte 
 be permitted to reign at Constantinople^ as a Napoleon does 
 at Paris." That the minister made use of this language 
 I can take upon me to affirm ; but whether purposely 
 or unintentionally, whether to give a high opinion of his 
 plans or to impose upon his company, I will not and 
 cannot assert. 
 
 On the subject of this numerous suite of Brune, 
 Markoff is said to have obtained several conferences with 
 Talleyrand and several audiences of Bonaparte, in which 
 
 representations, as just as energetic, were made, which, 
 VOL. I 20
 
 306 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 however, did not alter the intent of our Government or 
 increase the favour of the Russian ambassador at the 
 Court of St. Cloud. But it proved that our schemes of 
 subversion are suspected, and that our agents of overthrow 
 would be watched and their manceuvres inspected. 
 
 Count Italinski, the Russian ambassador to the Otto- 
 man Porte, is one of those noblemen who unite rank 
 and fortune, talents and modesty, honour and patriotism, 
 wealth and liberality. His personal character and his 
 individual virtues made him, therefore, more esteemed and 
 revered by the members of the Uivan, than the high 
 station he occupied, and the powerful Prince he represented, 
 made him feared or respected. His ivarnings had created 
 prejudices against Brune which he found difficult to remove. 
 To revenge himself in his old way, our ambassador inserted 
 several paragraphs in the Moniteiir and in our other papers, 
 in which Count Italinski was libelled and his transactions 
 or views calumniated. 
 
 After his first audience with the Crand Seignior, Brune 
 complained bitterly of not having learned the Turkish 
 language, and of being under the necessity, therefore, of 
 using interpreters, to whom he ascribed the renewed 
 obstacles he encountered in every step he took, while 
 his hotel was continually surrounded with spies, and the 
 persons of his suite followed everywhere like criminals
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 307 
 
 when they went out. Even the vaUiable presents he 
 carried with liiin, amounting in value to twenty-four 
 millions of livres — ^1,000,000 — were but indifferently re- 
 ceived, the acceptors seeming to suspect the object and 
 the honesty of the donor. 
 
 In proportion as our politics became embroiled with 
 those of Russia, the post of Brune became of more 
 importance ; l)ut the obstacles thrown in his way aug- 
 mented daily, and he was forced to avow that Russia 
 and England had greater influence and more credit than 
 the French Republic and its chief. When Bonaparte was 
 proclaimed an Emperor of the French, Brune expected 
 that his acknowledgment as such at Constantinople would 
 be a mere matter of course and announced officially on 
 the day he presented a copy of his new credentials. 
 Here again he was disappointed, and therefore demanded 
 his recall from a ])lace where there was no probability, 
 under the present circumstances, of either exciting the 
 subjects to revolt, of deluding the Prince into submission, 
 or seducing ministers who, in pocketing his bribes, forgot 
 for what they were given. 
 
 It was then that Bonaparte sent Joubert with a 
 
 letter, in his tnvn handwriting, to be delivered into the 
 
 hands of the (irand Seignior himself. This Joubert is a 
 
 foundling, and was from his youth destined and educated 
 
 20 — 2
 
 3o8 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 to be one of the secret agents of our secret diplomacy. 
 You may already, perhaps, have heard that our (Government 
 selects yearly a number of young foundlings or orphans, 
 whom it causes to be brought up in foreign countries at 
 its expense, so as to learn the language as natives of the 
 nation, where, when grown up, they are chiefly to be 
 employed. Joubert had been educated under the inspec- 
 tion of our consuls at Smyrna, and, when he assumes the 
 dress of a Turk, from his accent and manners even the 
 Mussulmans mistake him for one of their own creed and 
 of their country. He was introduced to Bonaparte in 
 1797, and accompanied him to Egypt, where his services 
 were of the greatest utility to our army. He is now a 
 kind of under - secretary in the office of our secret 
 diplomacy, and a member of our Legion of Honour. 
 Should ever Joseph Bonaparte be an Emperor or Sultan 
 of the East, Joubert will certainly be his drand Vizier. 
 There is another Joubert (with whom you must not 
 confound him), who was also a kind of Dragoman at 
 Constantinople .some years ago, and who is still some- 
 where on a secret mission in the East Indies. 
 
 Joubert's arrival at Constantinople excited both curiosity 
 among the people and suspicion among the ministry. There 
 is no example in the Ottoman history of a chief of a 
 Christian nation having written to the Sultan by a private
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 309 
 
 messenger, or of His Highness having condescended to 
 receive the letter from the bearer, or to converse with him. 
 The (Irand Vizier demanded a copy of Bonaparte's letter 
 before an audience could be granted. This was refused by 
 Joubert ; and as Brune threatened to quit the capital of 
 Turkey if any longer delay were experienced, the letter was 
 delivered in a garden near Constantinople, where the Sultan 
 met Bonaparte's agent as if by chance, who, it seems, lost 
 all courage and presence of mind, and did not utter four 
 words, to which no answer was given. 
 
 This impertinent intrigue, and this novel diplomacy, 
 therefore, totally miscarried, to the great shame and greater 
 disappointment of the schemers and contrivers. I must, 
 however, do Talleyrand the justice to say that he never 
 approved of it, and even foretold the issue to his in- 
 timate friends. It was entirely the whim and invention 
 of Bonaparte himself, upon a suggestion of Brune, who was 
 far from being so well acquainted with the spirit and policy 
 of the 1 )ivan as he had been with the genius and plots 
 of Jacobinism. Not rebuked, however, Joubert was ordered 
 away a second time with a second letter, and, after an 
 absence of four months, returned again as he went, less 
 satisfied with the second than with his first journey. 
 
 In these trips to Turkey, he had always for travelling 
 companions some of our emissaries to Austria, Hungary, and
 
 3IO THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 in particular to Servia, where the insurgents were assisted 
 by our councils, and even guided by some of our officers. 
 The principal aide-de-camp of Czerni George, the Servian 
 chieftain, is one St. Martin, formerly a captain in our 
 artillery, afterwards an officer of engineers in the Russian 
 service, and finally a volunteer in the army of Conde. He 
 and three other officers of artillery were, under fictitious 
 names, sent by our Government, during the spring of last year, 
 to the camp of the insurgents. They pretended to be of 
 the Grecian religion, and formerly Russian officers, and were 
 immediately employed. St. Martin has gained great influ- 
 ence over Czerni George, and directs both his political 
 councils and military operations. Besides the individuals 
 left behind by Joubert, it is said that upwards of one 
 hundred persons of Brune's suite have been ordered for 
 the same destination. You see how great the activity of 
 our Government is, and that nothing is thought unworthy 
 of its vigilance or its machinations. In the staff of Paswan 
 Oglou, six of my countrymen have been serving ever since 
 1796, always in the pay of our (iovernment. 
 
 It was much against both the inclination and interest 
 of our Emperor that his ambassador at Constantinople 
 should leave the field of battle there to the representatives 
 of Russia, Austria and England. But his dignity was at 
 stake. After many threats to deprive the Sultan of the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 3II 
 
 honour of his presence, and even after setting out once for 
 some leagues on his return, l>rune, observing that these 
 marches and counter-marches excited more mirth than 
 terror, at last fixed a day, when finally either Bonaparte 
 must be acknowledged by the Divan as an Emperor of the 
 French, or his departure would take place. On that day 
 he, indeed, began his retreat, but, under different pretexts, 
 he again stopped, sent couriers to his secretaries, waited 
 for their return, and sent new couriers again — but all in 
 vain, the Divan continued refractory. 
 
 At his first audience after his return, the reception 
 Bonaparte gave him was not very cordial. He demanded 
 active employment, in case of a Continental war, either in 
 Italy or in Germany, but received neither. When our 
 army of England was already on its march towards the 
 Rhine, and Bonaparte returned here, Brune was ordered 
 to take command on the coast, and to organise there an 
 army of observation, destined to succour Holland in case 
 of an invasion, or to invade England should a favourable 
 occasion present itself. The fact is, he was charged to in- 
 trigue rather than to fight ; and were Napoleon able to 
 force upon Austria another Peace of Luneville, Brune would 
 probably be the plenipotentiary that would ask your accept- 
 ance of another Peace of Amiens. It is here a general 
 belief that his present command signifies another pacific
 
 312 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 overture from Bonaparte before your parliament meets, or 
 at least before the New Year. Remember that our hero 
 is more to be dreaded as a Philip than as an Alexander. 
 
 General Brune has bought landed property for nine 
 millions of livres — ^375)Ooo — and has, in different funds, 
 placed ready-money to the same amount. His own and 
 his wife's diamonds are valued by him at three millions ; 
 and when he has any parties to dinner, he exhibits them 
 with great complaisance as presents forced upon him during 
 his campaign in Switzerland and Holland, for the protec- 
 tion he gave the inhabitants. He is now so vain of his 
 wealth and proud of his rank, that he not only disregards 
 all former acquaintances, but denies his own brothers and 
 sisters ; telling them frankly that the Field-Marshal Brune 
 can have no shoemaker for a brother, nor a sister married 
 to a chandler ; that he knows of no parents, and of no 
 relatives, being the maker of his own fortune and of what 
 he is ; that his children will look no farther back for 
 ancestry than their father. One of his first cousins, a 
 postillion, who insisted rather obstinately on his family 
 alliance, was recommended by Brune to his friend Fouche, 
 who sent him on a voyage of discovery to Cayenne, from 
 which he probably will not return very soon.
 
 THE COUKT OI- ST. CI.OUD 313 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 Paris, Septoiiber, 1805. 
 
 My Lord, — Madame de C^ n is now one of our 
 
 most fashionable ladies. Once in the week she has a 
 grand tea-party ; once in a fortnight a grand dinner ; and 
 once in the month a grand ball. Foreign gentlemen are 
 particularly well received at her house, which, of course, is 
 much frequented by them. As you intend to visit this 
 country after a peace, it may be of some service to you 
 not to be unacquainted with the portrait of a lady whose 
 invitation to see the original you may depend upon the 
 day after your arrival. 
 
 Madame de C n is the widow of the great and 
 
 useless traveller. Count de C n, to whom his relatives 
 
 pretend that she was never married. Upon his death-bed 
 he acknowledged her, however, for his wife, and left her 
 mistress of a fortune of three hundred thousand livres a 
 year — ^12,500. The first four years of her widowhood 
 she passed in lawsuits before the tribunals, where the 
 plaintiffs could not prove that she was unmarried, nor she 
 herself that she was married. But Madame Napoleon
 
 314 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Bonaparte, for a small douceur, speaking in her favour, the 
 consciences of the juries, and the understanding of the 
 judges, were all convinced at once that she had been the 
 
 lawful wife, and was the lawful heiress, of Count de C n, 
 
 who had no children, or nearer relatives than third cousins. 
 
 Count de C n was travelling in the East Indies 
 
 when the Revolution broke out. His occupation there 
 was a very innocent one ; he drew countenances, being 
 one of the most enthusiastic sectaries of Lavater, and 
 modestly called himself the first physiognomist in the 
 world. Indeed, he had been at least the most laborious 
 one : for he left behind him a collection of six thousand 
 two hundred portraits, drawn by himself in the four quarters 
 of the world, during a period of thirty years. 
 
 He never engaged a servant, nor dealt with a trades- 
 man, whose physiognomy had not been examined by him. 
 In his travels he preferred the worst accommodation in 
 a house where he approved of the countenance of the 
 host, to the best where the traits or lines of the landlord's 
 face were irregular, or did not coincide with his ideas of 
 physiognomical propriety. The cut of a face, its expression, 
 the length of the nose, the width or smallness of the mouth, 
 the form of the eyelids or of the ears, the colour or thick- 
 ness of the hair, with the shape and tout aisciiihlc of the 
 head, were always minutely considered and discussed before
 
 THIC COURT OF ST. CLOUD 315 
 
 he entered into an}- agreement, on any subject, with an)- 
 individual whatever. \\'hatever reconiniendations, or what- 
 ever attestations were produced, if they did not corresi)ond 
 with his own physiognomical remarks and calculations they 
 were disregarded ; while a person whose physiognomy pleased 
 him, required no other introduction to obtain his confidence. 
 Whether he thought himself wiser than his forefathers, he 
 certainly did not grow richer than they were. (Charlatans who 
 imposed upon his credulity and impostors who flattered his 
 mania, servants who robbed him and mistresses who 
 deceived him, proved that if his knowledge of physiognomy 
 was great, it was by no means infallible. At his death, 
 of the fortune left him by his parents only the half 
 remained. 
 
 His friends often amused themselves at the expense 
 of his foibles. When he prepared for a journey to the 
 East, one of them recommended him a servant upon whose 
 fidelity he could depend. After examining with minute 
 scrupulosity the head of the person, he wrote, " My friend, 
 I accept your valuable present. From calculations, which 
 never deceive me, Mauville (the servant's name) possesses, 
 with the fidelity of a dog, the intrepidity of the lion. 
 Chastity itself is painted on his front, modesty in his looks, 
 temperance on his cheek, and his mouth and nose bespeak 
 honesty itself." Shortly after the Count had landed at
 
 3l6 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 Pondicherry, Mauville, who was a girl, died in a condition 
 which showed that chastity had not been the divinity to 
 whom she had chiefly sacrificed. In her trunk were found 
 several trinkets belonging to her master, which she hotiest/y 
 had appropriated to herself. His miscalculation on this 
 subject the Count could not but avow ; he added, how- 
 ever, that it was the entire fault of his friend, who had 
 duped him with regard to the sex. 
 
 Madame de C n was, on account of her physiog- 
 nomy, purchased by her late husband, then travelling in 
 Turkey, from a merchant of Circassian slaves, when she was 
 under seven years of age, and sent for her education to a 
 relation of the count, an abbess of a convent in Languedoc. 
 On his return from Turkey, some years afterwards, he took 
 her under his own care, and she accompanied him all over 
 Asia, and returned first to France in 1796, where her 
 husband's name was upon the list of emigrants, though he 
 had not been in Europe for ten years before the Revolution. 
 However, by some pecuniary arrangements with Barras, he 
 recovered his property, which he did not long enjoy, for 
 he died in 1798. Mistress of a large fortune, with some 
 remnants of beauty and elegance of manners, the suitors 
 
 of Madame de C n have been numerous, and among 
 
 them several senators and generals, and even the minister, 
 Chaptal. But she has politely declined all their offers.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 317 
 
 preferring her liberty and the undisturbed right of following 
 her own tiic/i/ia/io/i, to the ineonvenient ties of Hymen. 
 A gentleman, whom she ai/Is, and who passes for, her 
 
 brother. Chevalier de M de T , a Knight of Malta, 
 
 assists her in doing the honours of her house, and is con- 
 sidered as her favourite lover ; though report and the 
 scandalous chronicle say that she bestows her favours on 
 every person who wishes to bestow on her his name, and 
 that, therefore, her gallants are at least as numerous as her 
 suitors. 
 
 Such is the true statement of the past, as well as the 
 
 present, with regard to Madame de C n. She relates, 
 
 however, a different story. She says that she is the daughter 
 
 of the Marquis de M de T , of a Languedoc family ; 
 
 that she sailed, when a child, with her mother in a felucca 
 from Nice to Malta, there to visit her brother ; was captured 
 by an Algerine pilot, separated from her mother, and carried 
 to Constantinople by a merchant of slaves ; there she was 
 
 purchased by Count de C n, who restored her to her 
 
 family, and whom, therefore, notwithstanding the difference 
 of their ages, she married from gratitude. This pretty, 
 romantic story is ordered in our Court circles to be officially 
 believed ; and, of course, is believed by nobody, not even 
 by the Emperor and Empress themselves, who would not 
 give her the place of a lady-in-waiting, though her request
 
 3l8 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 was accompanied with a valuable diamond to the latter. 
 The present was kept, but the offer declined. 
 
 All the members of the Bonaparte family, females as 
 well as males, honour her house with their visits and with 
 the acceptance of her invitations ; and it is, therefore, among 
 our fashionables, the haut ton to be of the society and circle 
 of Madame de C n. 
 
 Last February, Madame de P 1 (the wife of Count de 
 
 P 1, a relation by her husband's side of Madame de C n, 
 
 and who by the Revolution lost all their property, and now live 
 with her as companions) was brought to bed of a son ; the 
 child was baptized by the Cardinal de Belloy, and Madame 
 Joseph and Prince Louis Bonaparte stood sponsors. This 
 occurrence was celebrated with great pomp, and a fete was 
 given to near one hundred and fifty persons of both sexes — 
 as usual, a mixture of ci-dcvant nobles and of ci-devant sans- 
 culottes ; of rank and meanness ; of upstart wealth and 
 beggared dignity. 
 
 What that day struck me most was the audacity of the 
 Senator Villetard in teasing and insulting the old Cardinal 
 de Belloy with his impertinent conversation and affected 
 piety. This \'illetard was, before the Revolution, a journey- 
 man barber, and was released in 1789 by the mob from the 
 prison of the ( 'hatelet, where he was confined for theft. 
 In J 791 his patriotism was so well known in the Depart-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 319 
 
 nient of \'onne, that he was deputed by the Jacobins there 
 to the Jacobins of the capital with an address, encouraging 
 and advising the deposition of Louis XVI.; and in 1792 
 he was chosen a member of the National Convention, where 
 the most sanguinary and most violent of the factious were 
 always certain to reckon him in the number of their 
 adherents. 
 
 In December, 1797, when an insurrection, prepared by 
 Joseph Bonaparte at Rome, deprived the late revered Pontiff 
 both of his sovereignty and liberty, Villetard was sent by 
 the Jacobin and atheistical party of the Directory to 
 Loretto to seize and carry off the celebrated Madonna. In 
 the execution of this commission he displayed a conduct 
 worthy the littleness of his genius and the criminality of 
 his mind. The wooden image of the Holy Virgin, a black 
 gown said to have appertained to her, together with three 
 broken china plates, which the Roman Catholic faithful 
 have for ages believed to have been used by her, were 
 presented by him to the Directory with a cruelly scandalous 
 show, accompanied by a horribly blasphemous letter. He 
 passed the next night, after he had perpetrated this sacri- 
 lege, with two prostitutes in the chapel of the Holy "S'irgin ; 
 and, on the next morning, placed one of them naked on 
 the pedestal where the statue of the ^'irgin had formerly 
 stood, and ordered all the devotees at Loretto, and two
 
 320 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 leagues round, to prostrate themselves before her. This shock- 
 ing command occasioned the premature death of fifteen ladies, 
 two of whom, who were nuns, died on the spot on beholding 
 the horrid outrage ; and many more were deprived of their 
 reason. How barbarously unfeeling must that wretch be 
 who, in bereaving the religious, the pious, and the con- 
 scientious of their consolation and hope, adds the tormenting 
 reproach of apostasy, by forcing virtue upon its knees to 
 bow before what it knows to be guilt and infamy ! 
 
 A traitor to his associates as to his dod, it was he 
 who, in November, 1799, presented at St. Cloud the decree 
 which excluded all those who opposed Bonaparte's authority 
 from the Council of Five Hundred, and appointed the two 
 committees which made him a First Consul. In reward 
 for this act of treachery, he was nominated to a place in 
 the Conservative Senate. He has now ranked himself 
 among our modern saints, goes regularly to Mass and con- 
 fesses ; has made a brother of his, who was a drummer, an 
 abbe ; and his assiduity about the cardinal was probably 
 with a view to obtain advancement for this edifying priest. 
 
 The Cardinal de Belloy is now ninety-six years of age, 
 being born in 1709, and has been a bishop for fiftj'-three 
 years, but, during the Revolution, was proscribed, with all 
 other prelates. He remained, however, in France, where 
 his age saved him from the guillotine, but not from being
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 32 1 
 
 reduced lo the greatest want. A descendant of a noble 
 family, and possessing an unpolluted character, Bonaparte 
 hxed upon him as one of the pillars for the re-establishment 
 of the (Jatholic worshij), made him an Archbisho[) of Paris, 
 and procured him the rank of a cardinal from Rome. liut 
 he is now in his second childhood, entirely directed by his 
 grand vicaries, Malaret, De Mons and Legeas, who are in 
 the pay of, and absolutely devoted to, lionaparte. An inno- 
 cent instrument in their hand.s, of those impious compliments 
 pronounced by him to the Emperor and the Empress he 
 did not, perhaps, even understand the meaning. From such 
 a man the vile and artful \'illetard might extort any promise. 
 I observed, however, with pleasure, that he was watched by 
 the grand vicar, Malaret, who seldom loses sight of his 
 Eminence. 
 
 These two so opposite characters — I mean De Belloy 
 and Villetard — are already speaking evidences of the com- 
 position of the society at Madame de C n's. But I will 
 
 tell you something still more striking. This lady is famous 
 for her elegant services of plate, as much as for her deli- 
 cate taste in entertaining her parties. After the supper on 
 this night, eleven silver and four gold plates, besides 
 numerous silver and gold spoons, forks, (S:c., were missed. 
 She informed Fouche of her loss, who had her house sur- 
 rounded by spies, with orders not to let any servant pass, 
 VOL. I 21
 
 32- 
 
 THE SECRET HISTORY OF 
 
 without undergoing a strict search. The first gentleman 
 who called for his carriage was his Excellency the counsellor 
 of state and grand officer of the Legion of Honour, Treilhard. 
 His servants were stopped and the cause explained. The}' 
 willingly, and against the protest of their master, suffered 
 themselves to be searched. Nothing was found upon them ; 
 but the police agents, observing the full - dress hat of 
 their master rather bulky under his arm, took the liberty 
 to look into it, where they found one of Madame de 
 C — — n's gold plates and two of her spoons. His Excel- 
 lency immediately ordered his servants to be arrested, for 
 having concealed their theft there. Fouche, however, when 
 called out, advised his friend to forgive them for misplacing 
 them, as the less said on the subject the better, ^^"hen 
 
 Madame de C n heard of this discovery, she asked 
 
 Fouche to recall his order or to alter it. " A repetition of 
 such misplacings in the hats or in the pockets of the 
 masters," said she, " would injure the reputation of my 
 house and company." She never recovered the remainder 
 of her loss, and that she might not be exposed in future 
 to the same occurrences, she bought two services of china 
 the following day, to be used when she had mixed society. 
 Treilhard had, before the Revolution, the reputation of 
 being an honest man and an able advocate : but has since 
 joined the criminals of all factions, being an accomplice in
 
 TIIIC COURT OF ST. Cf-OUD 323 
 
 their guilt and a sharer of tlicir spoils. In the convention, 
 he voted for the death of T.ouis X\'l. and j)ursued without 
 mercy the unfortunate Marie Antoinette to the scaffold. 
 During his missions in the departments, wherever he went 
 the guillotine was erected and blood flowed in streams. 
 He was, nevertheless, accused by Robespierre of moderatism. 
 At Lille in 1797, and at Rastadt in 1798, he negotiated as 
 a plenipotentiary with the representatives of princes, and in 
 1799 corresponded as a director with emperors and kings, 
 to whom he wrote as his great and dear friends. He is 
 now a counsellor of state, in the section of legislation, and 
 enjoys a fortune of several millions of livres, arising from 
 estates in the country, and from leases in the capital. As 
 
 this accident at Madame de C n's soon became public, 
 
 his friends gave out that he had of late been exceedingly 
 absent, and, from absence of mind, puts everything he can 
 lay hold of into his pocket. He is not a favourite with 
 Madame Bonaparte, and she a.sked her husband to dismiss 
 and disgrace him for an act so di.sgraceful to a grand 
 ofificer of the Legion of Honour, but was answered, "Were 
 I to turn away all the thieves and rogues that encompass 
 me I should soon cease to reign. I despise them, but I 
 must employ them." 
 
 It is whispered that the police have discovered another 
 of Madame de C n's lost gold plates at a pawnbroker's.
 
 324 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 
 
 where it had been pledged by the wife of another coun- 
 sellor of state, FranCjOis de Nantes. This I give you 
 merely as a report ! though the fact is, that Madame 
 Francois is very fond of gambling, but very unfortunate ; 
 and she, with other of our fashionable ladies, has more 
 than once resorted to her charms for the payment of her 
 gambling debts. 
 
 END OF VOL. I 
 
 ^
 
 ^/fJ:,-' 
 
 •-i'vM 
 
 
 
 '■\'\'- "■-.•1.
 
 tf •^'vfr'V 
 
 3 1158 00995 0634 
 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBKAHV HAClUn 
 
 
 
 ■ ■ ' /■■■ ■^■^ 7"-» "^J 
 
 ^'i^ •'