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 MEMOIKS 
 
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 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 
 Vol. n.
 
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 ri<,>l,',ii>mni>- l'.n<fil .t I'f
 
 eSTE VOIUMJEN PERTE^.ECE 
 
 A LA BfWlOTECA DEL 
 
 DIL^tOQV^ E. GARRlGd 
 
 Pauline. 
 
 Photogravure from a painting by Goupil 6c Co. 
 
 — Bribe Madame Bonaparte for their appointment.
 
 ESTE VOIUMEN PERTE-^^ECE 
 
 A LA BIBtiOTECA DEL 
 
 DIL iOQl« E. GARRlGd 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME n. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 ni temper of Bonaparte on his return from Milan — 
 From what arising — His violence and insolence to the 
 Prussian and Saxon Ambassadors. Restoration of 
 ancient etiquette a desirable point to insist on from 
 Bonaparte — His conduct to the army of England — 
 Captain Foixrnois stabs himself on being struck by 
 him — His proceedings in consequence. Discipline 
 and spirit of the French troops — Instance of heroism 
 in a private soldier. G6n6ral Savary — His character, 
 birth, and "employments 21 
 
 LETTER n. 
 
 The Bank of France ordered by Bonaparte to furnish 
 him with a million and a half sterling at two hours' 
 notice — Alarm of the public — Run upon the bank — 
 Notes paid in copper coin — The people grow clamor- 
 ous « — Many arrested and transported to Cayenne — 
 Total stagnation of trade — Some Jews offer to pur- 
 chase the notes at discount — Are transported — 
 Arrangements for resuming payment — Amount of 
 notes in circulation at the time of stopping, and of 
 specie in the bank — Shock given to its credit — 
 Attempted to be supported by tyranny — Suspicion 
 and severity of the police — Anecdotes 
 
 LETTER m. 
 
 Rapacity and extortions of French officers in Hanover 
 — Bribe Madame Bonaparte for their appointment.
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 FAOB 
 
 General Mortier— His birth — Military appointments 
 — Mean addresses to Bonaparte — His marriage — His 
 lady's gallantries — Splendid christening of his child 
 
 His wealth and character — A great favourite with 
 
 Bonaparte. Bernadotte — His birth, political in- 
 trigues, military exploits, and violence — Sent Am- 
 bassador to Vienna — His insolent conduct there — 
 Bribed by Bonaparte on his assuming the Imperial 
 dignity — His barbarities and merciless extortions — 
 His character 39 
 
 LETTER rV. 
 
 Men of letters patronized by Bonaparte — Some obscure 
 writers in England and Ireland pensioned by him — 
 Literary mission to England intended — Bonaparte's 
 liberal rewards to his panegyrists — Examples — Great 
 number of works dedicated to him — More by Ger- 
 mans and Italians than by the French — Spanicetti 
 and Ritterstein, gensealogists of Bonaparte, magnifi- 
 cently rewarded by him — Vast number of pictures, 
 statues, and busts representing his person and exploits. 
 Schumacher, a German artist, executes a model of a 
 tomb for Bonaparte — How remunerated . . .47 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Misery and poverty of the French people — Wretched- 
 ness of the ci-devant nobles and returned emigrants — 
 Their employments — Anecdotes — Great number of 
 suicides 55 
 
 LETTER VL 
 
 Different opinions respecting Bonaparte's private char- 
 acter — Apparent attachment to his wife — His pro- 
 posed divorce from her and marriage with a Russian 
 Princess — His intrigue with Mademoiselle George — 
 Her insolent conduct. Chaptal — His former occupa- 
 tion — Political intrigues and employments — His 
 wealth and character . . . . , . .62
 
 CONTENTS. vii 
 
 PAOa 
 LETTER Vn. 
 
 Miserable state of Spain — Ignorance and presumption of 
 the Prince of Peace — The Prince of Astnrias endeav- 
 ours to remove him — Receives a deputation from the 
 Spanish nobles — Character of the Princess of 
 Asturias. The Prince of Peace informed of their 
 plans — His measures in consequence — Tries to concil- 
 iate the Prince and Princess — Is repulsed. Character 
 of Herman, secretary to the French embassy in Spain 
 - — The Prince of Peace — His illiberal prejudices — 
 Not liked by the French Government — Herman's 
 intrigue with a girl in the suite of the Princess of 
 Asturias — His discovery in consequence. Plan of the 
 Prince and Princess — Disclosed by the French Ambas- 
 sador to the favourite — Consequent proceedings — 
 The Duke of Montemar interferes — His speech to the 
 King — Note of the Prince of Asturias to the King — 
 Their reconciliation 68 
 
 LETTER Vm. 
 
 The Prince of Peace places spies round the Prince and 
 Princess of Asturias — His insolent conduct to them 
 
 — Indignation of the Spanish nobles — The history of 
 Don Carlos wi-itten by order of the favourite — Burnt 
 by the Queen's confessor — Dissimulation of the 
 French Ambassador, Beurnonville — Immense sums 
 paid by Spain to France — Deranged state of the 
 Spanish finances — Intrigue of Beurnonville to obtain 
 a subsidy — The Prince and Princess of Asturias dis- 
 avow his assertions — Punished in the persons of their 
 f avom-ites — Revolution and change of dynasty 
 expected in Spain — Sovereignties intended for Bona- 
 parte's brothers — Beurnonville's birth and character 
 
 — His political and military employments . . .78 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Madame Bonaparte's fears of her brothers-in-law — Their 
 powers during Napoleon's absence — His policy. Sup- 
 posed consequence of Bonaparte's death. New mili-
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 tary manners. G4n6ral Liebeau — His birth, vulgar- 
 ity, and character — Description of a military wedding. 
 Colonel Frial — His birth and -riharacter — Disputes 
 about their respective pretensions to the Imperial 
 Crown among the military members of the party — A 
 common subject of discussion and dispute among the 
 military in general .......88 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Madame Chevalier — Her person and manners — Her 
 early prostitution and fii'st entrance on the stage — 
 Her husband joins the Jacobin Clubs, and is impris- 
 oned as a terrorist — First appearance of Madame 
 Chevalier on the Hamburg stage — Riot in consequence 
 — Her gallantries and avarice — Employed by one of 
 Talleyrand's female agents to go to Russia — Her 
 intrigues with the Emperor Paul — Her cruelty and 
 avarice — Procures the cruel treatment of the Sardin- 
 ian secretary — Number of her victims — Her insinu- 
 ation, cunning, and effronty — Anecdotes. Female 
 political incendiaries and intriguers sent by the French 
 Government to Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Berlin. 
 
 Two ladies intended for the P of W and 
 
 D of Y Their persons and accomplish- 
 ments . . 100 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 Submission of America to the mandates of France — 
 Views of France on the American Continent — 
 Foments the disagreement between Spain and the 
 United States — Captiires and plunders American 
 ships — Condemns all neutral ships trading with St. 
 Domingo. G6n6ral Turreaux, French Ambassador to 
 the United States — Discontented with President 
 Jefferson — Why — Birth of Turreaux — His political 
 intrigues and military exploits — Horrors committed 
 by him in La Vendue — His letter to the National 
 Convention — Arrested as a terrorist — Writes Mem- 
 oirs of the Vendean war. Anecdote of Bonaparte. 
 Wealth of Turreaux — His conceit and character . .111
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAOB 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Discontent of Bonapaxte's Italian subjects — Their mis- 
 erable condition — Oppressed and plundered by 
 French generals and governors. Menou — His birth 
 and infamous character. Fate of the nobility who 
 have joined the French Revolution. Meki-Eril 
 seduced by French philosophers — Approves of the 
 French Revolution — Appointed vice-president of the 
 Italian Republic — His chagrin on Bonaparte's assum- 
 ing the sovereignty — Is refused leave to retire to 
 Spain — Attempts suicide by poison .... 121 
 
 LETTER Xin. 
 
 The foreign Ambassadors hesitate to salute Cambac^res 
 and Lebrun Serene Highnesses — Bonaparte insists — 
 They bribe Talleyrand, who obviates the difficulty. 
 Cambac^res b)ribes Talleyrand, and is created a prince. 
 Madame B s, a female intriguer and tool of Talley- 
 rand, alarms the Bavarian minister Cetto — He con- 
 ducts this petty intrigue. Cambac6res — His birth — 
 Infamous character — Raised to the consulate by 
 Bonaparte — His wealth and titles — His brother . . 129 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 King of Sweden hated by Bonaparte — National char- 
 acter of the Swedes — Cause of Bonaparte's hatred — 
 Baron Ehrensward constantly insulted by him — ■ 
 Orders issued to imprison the Baron for expressing his 
 sentiments. Education and character of Baron 
 Ehrensward. King of Sweden writes to Bonaparte on 
 the seizure of the Due d' Enghien — Recalls Ehrens- 
 ward, and orders a Court mourning. General Caulin- 
 court and fifty banditti hired to seize the King of 
 Sweden — Intentions of the French Government, if 
 their plot had succeeded — Their plan to partition the 
 Swedish territory. Character of the King of Sweden 
 and his counsellors. D'Ehrenheim. Count Fersen — 
 His attachment and fidelity to the Royal Family of 
 France — Refused admission to the Congress of 
 Rastadt by Bonaparte. Baron d'Armfeldt — The
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAoa 
 
 friend of Gustavus III. — Appointed guardian of the 
 present King — Sent Ambassador to Italy — Outlawed 
 
 Takes refuge in Russia, and serves with distinction 
 
 under Suwarow — Recalled to his country, and restored 
 
 to his dignities — His military talents and spirits . 135 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 Bonaparte dreads the liberty of the Press — All foreign 
 printers and booksellers under control of his police — 
 Emissaries employed to travel to coUect literary intelli- 
 gence — Number of French newspapers before and 
 during the Revolution — Reduced by Bonaparte — 
 Under the sole direction of Barrere — Foreign papers 
 and publications prohibited under severe penalties. 
 Examples of severity — Official presses established to 
 forge foreign papers — Dangerous to question the ve- 
 racity of the 3foni7ewr — Anecdote .... 143 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 Prince of Borghese — His birth — Joins the Revolution — 
 His meanness and pride — Marries Madame Leclerc's 
 fortune — Her vices — Despises her husband — Her 
 curious request to Bonaparte. Bonaparte exacts chas- 
 tity from his sisters-in-law — Sudden disappearance of 
 Princesses Joseph's and Louis's gallants. Princesse 
 Louis visits Madame Ney — A midnight occurrence 
 during her stay — She is placed under the care of 
 Madame Murat — Discovers a singular intrigue — 
 Arrangement in consequence — Princesse Louis's maids 
 confined by the police — One of them pregnant by 
 Louis 149 
 
 LETTER XVIL 
 
 Different sensations of the army of England on being 
 ordered to march for Germany — Company of perform- 
 ers sent from Paris to amuse them — Plays and ballads 
 written for the occasion — Great effect produced by 
 them — « The Grenadier's Adieu," a ballad written by 
 three authors — Profusely rewarded by Bonaparte.
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Stanzas on the rumour of a war with Austria — Dis- 
 tributed to the company at Madame Joseph's. Other 
 poetasters — How rewarded. Curious blunder at Ma- 
 dame Talleyrand's. Anecdote of an ancient Tyrant . 15.5 
 
 LETTER XVni. 
 
 Portugal forced from her neutrality by her connection 
 with Spain — Portuguese plenipotentiary at Paris in 
 1797 imprisoned in the Temple — Extravagant de- 
 mands of France on Portugal supported by the Prince 
 of Peace — Unmerciful plunder of Portugal by France. 
 Greneral Lasnes — His birth — Former employments 
 and infamous character — His mission to Portugal a 
 punishment for robbing the military chest — His inso- 
 lent manners at the Court of Lisbon — Smuggles — 
 Quits his post and returns without apology — Demands 
 a change of Ministry — Is recalled. General Junot — 
 His birth — Military appointments and exploits — His 
 tyranny and coiTuption while Governor of Paris — His 
 connection with a gang of robbers — Anecdote of his 
 swindling. Fitte — His infamous character — Emi- 
 grates to England — Cheats the English Ministry — 
 Procures the murder of his brother and sister . .165 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 Impolicy of the League of 1793 in admittiiig any neutral- 
 ity — Danger of neutral States. The late Count von 
 Bernstorff — His political character. The present 
 Count von Bernstoff — His system of politics not 
 adapted to existing circumstances — Impolicy in chang- 
 ing the alliance of Russia for that of Prussia. Prince 
 Royal of Denmark — His talents and character — In- 
 capacity of his counsellors. A paragraph in the Moni- 
 teur disbands a Danish army — Neutrality of Denmark 
 violated. Grouville, late French Ambassador in Den- 
 mark — Protects and encourages Illuminati and inno- 
 vators there — His education — Ingratitude to the 
 Prince of Cond6 — His talents and vices. Daguesseau, 
 his insignificant character — His secretary, Desaugiers, 
 an incendiary . . . , . . .174
 
 zu 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Avarice and rapacity of the Bonaparte family — Immense 
 wealth of Napoleon — His imperial and royal palaces. 
 Private chateaux of Madame Napoleon. Palaces and 
 estates of Joseph, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome — Of 
 Madame Letitia Bonaparte, Princesses Bacciochi, Santa 
 Cruce, Murat, Borghese — Of Cardinal Fesch — And 
 other relatives of Bonaparte. Unparalleled revolu- 
 tion of property — Just cause to Alarm England . . 180 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Daru pays an immense bribe for the place of commis- 
 sary-general to the French army in Germany — His 
 great wealth acquired by gambling — The terror of 
 all the gambling banks on the Continent. Extortions 
 of the French generals in Germany. Augereau — His 
 birth — Serves as a spy — As a common soldier, deserts 
 
 — Is flogged — His infamy and crimes. Van Damme 
 
 — His birth — Condemned to be hanged — Spared by 
 the judge and sent to the galleys — His ingratitude — 
 Disgraced by Moreau and Pichegru for his ferocity and 
 crimes — Restored to rank by Bonaparte — His wealth. 186 
 
 LETTER XXn. 
 
 Pillage and extortions of the French armies. G6n6ral 
 Ney, his conduct at Wetzlar — His birth — Former 
 occupation — Political intrigues and military appoint- 
 ments — His wife, maid of honoui- to Empress Joseph- 
 ine — Her bii'th — Gallantries — Pleasing manners — 
 Gambling and prostitution. Prince Mui-at, his crimes 
 — Birth — Marries Bonaparte's sister — His immense 
 wealth — Promotes and enriches his relations — Effect 
 of his elevation on his father and mother. Rapine the 
 chief object of revolutionists. Murat the executioner 
 of Bonaparte's despotic and murderous commands — 
 Jealous of his wife with her brother Lucien — Her 
 coquetry and gallantries — Her favourite, Flahault . 191
 
 CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 PAOX 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 Increased vigilance of the police at Paris since Bonac 
 parte's departure for Germany — All mandates of 
 arrest expedited by Louis Bonaparte — His vicious 
 character — A tragical intrigue — Another intrigue . 198 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Dignified conduct of Russia, its able Ministers. Count 
 Woronzoff — His talents, services, and amiable char- 
 acter — Instance of his magnanimity. Prince Czarto- 
 rinsky — His great information and polished manners. 
 Count Markof — His political services — Exiled by 
 Paul — Recalled by Alexander, and appointed Ambas- 
 sador to France — His surprise at the conduct of Bona- 
 parte to foreign Ambassadors — His witty letter to his 
 Court on the occasion — His dignified conduct — 
 Hated by Talleyi-and. Talleyrand's low malice — 
 Attempts to corrupt the fidelity of Madame Hus, the 
 mistress of Count Markof — Conversation of Count 
 Markof with him on the subject 204 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 Legion of Honour, when determined on — Distribution 
 of arms of honour among the military — Creation of 
 Knights — Members of the Legion of Honour divided 
 into classes — Bonaparte's desire to have Sovereigns for 
 members — Exchange of Orders between Bonaparte ^ 
 and the Kings of Spain and Prussia — Foreign Orders 
 debased by being conferred on Cambac^res, Fouch6, 
 etc. — Grand officers of the Legion of Honour, ci-devant 
 tailors, shoemakers, barbers, etc.; Kings, Electors and 
 Princes — Effect of the institution on the people — 
 Villeaume, an engraver, forges letters of Knighthood, 
 sells them, and escapes — Baron von Rinken, the agent 
 of a petty German Prince, confined in the Temple for 
 offering patents of Knighthood for sale. Anecdotes of 
 Captain Rouvais and a cobbler. Cambac^res reproved 
 for partiality to the Prussian Eagle. Bonaparte orna- 
 mented with an immense number of Orders — Pre- 
 sented with the Grand Cross of Malta. Order of
 
 ^v CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Confidence intended to be instituted by the Empress 
 Josephine — Her mantle and star . . . .212 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Fifteen persons brought prisoners from La Vendue — 
 Their crime not known — What reported to be. Im- 
 policy and cruelty of attempting to excite an insurrec- 
 tion in the Chouan departments. Apathy of the 
 French people — The general poverty — Anecdote — 
 Poverty of merchants and tradesmen — Vast number 
 of speculators and bankruptcies — Numerous forger- 
 ies and swindling — Landholders burdened with taxes 
 — Example — Their spirit and independence . .220 
 
 LETTER XXVIL 
 
 Military education of the French youth — The independ- 
 ence of Europe threatened by it — The only mode of 
 averting the danger. Berthier's compliment to Bonar 
 parte — The advantage of the French over their allies. 
 Bad consequences of an education entirely military — 
 Pointed out by Arnaud — His exile from Paris in con- 
 sequence. Instance of severity against a school- 
 master for deviating from the established mode — His 
 pupils taken care of by Government. Another 
 instance of severity in this respect. New organization 
 of the Ministry of Police and number of spies in- 
 creased 227 
 
 LETTER XXVm. 
 
 The Pope's Nuncio publicly rebuked by Bonaparte. The 
 Relatives of Bonaparte's Great OflBcers generally 
 appointed to the chief dignities of the Gallican Church 
 
 — Their infamous characters. The brother of G6it6- 
 ral Miollis — His notorious atheism and profligacy 
 
 — Nominated by Bonaparte to the Bishopric of Digne 
 
 — The Pope hesitates to grant a bull for that purpose 
 — His Nuncio at Paris applies to Bonaparte — How 
 answered — The nomination of Miollis confirmed by 
 the Pope. Debauched character of the Italian Bishops.
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Anecdotes of the Bishop of Pavia and of his grand vic- 
 ars, Sarini and Rami. Hypocrisy of the French clergy 
 — r Anecdotes. Indifference of the French Government 
 respecting the religious establishment — "Want of Min- 
 isters — To what to be attributed — Bonaparte refuses 
 the Pope to except the students in theology from the 
 military conscription — Permits him to establish a 
 seminary in the Ecclesiastical States . . . .233 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 Violation of the Prussian neutrality — Sudden alteration 
 in the expressions of the French courtiers in regard to 
 Prussia — Whence arising. Bonaparte's ascendency in 
 Prussia — Friendly intercourse between him and the 
 King of Prussia, and the Empress Josephine and the 
 Queen. Friendship of upstarts dangerous. Duroc's 
 mission to Berlin — Its object — Followed by warlike 
 preparations in Prussia — Necessity of Prussia's in- 
 stantly joining the league against France. Reports of 
 an alliance between Prussia and England. A war with 
 Prussia desired in France — Why . . « . 240 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 Instances of impolitic and degrading civility of the Prus- 
 sian Monarchs to the French. Field-marshal Knobels- 
 dorff — His satirical reply to Sieyes. General Knobels- 
 dorfE — His insignificant character — Affection for 
 Bonaparte — His favour with his Sovereign and politi- 
 cal missions. Object of Count von Haugwitz's mission 
 to Vienna — Annual subsidy proposed by France to 
 Prussia refused. Baron von Hardenberg — His polit- 
 ical character — His talents — Public employments — 
 His private agents in foreign countries. Baron von 
 Billow — His singular person and manners — Confined 
 in the Temple, and supported by Sir Sidney Smith. 
 Marquis of Lucchesini — His character and political 
 transactions. Marchioness of Lucchesini — Her man- 
 ners and gallantries. Prince Baciocchi — His former 
 occupation 245
 
 xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 Unexampled cruelty of the French Government to Cap- 
 tain Wright. Necessity of regulating the distinction 
 and treatment of prisoners of war — Generous conduct 
 of the English to the officers and men of French ships 
 landing rebels in Scotland and L-eland, and malefac- 
 tors in Wales. The firmness of Captain Wright 
 offends the French Government — Riches and rank 
 offered to him indignantly refused — He is put on the 
 rack and most inhumanly tortured — His heroic con- 
 duct — Is placed under the care of a surgeon — New 
 offers made him — Again racked — Undergoes the 
 INFERNAL torments — Description of them — Strangled 
 by a Mameluke. The particulars of this horrid tran- 
 saction — How discovered — The release of Captain 
 Wright promised to the Spanish Ambassador — Why . 254 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 Great changes to be made in the constitution and inter- 
 nal Government of France, should Bonaparte return 
 victorious — Heterogeneous composition of the tribu- 
 nate and legislative corps. Carnot declaims against 
 Bonaparte's Imperial dignity, by his permission — His 
 birth — Education and ingratitude to the House of 
 Bourbon — His crimes and falsehood — His letter to 
 Lebon — His talents and presumption — His wealth 
 — Instance of his libertinism aud cruelty — Despised 
 and mistrusted by Bonaparte. Cavaignac — His 
 former occupation — His revolutionary exploits — His 
 atrocities — Anecdotes. Pinet — His lust and cruelty. 260 
 
 LETTER XXXIIL 
 
 Vast naval schemes of Bonaparte — His immense re- 
 sources — Great number of ships built since the 
 present war. Malouet's official account of the number 
 of officers and sailors — The conscripts universally pre- 
 fer the naval to the military service. Genoa, an im- 
 portant naval station acquired by France — Number of 
 ships building there and at Antwerp. Naples and
 
 CONTENTS. xvii 
 
 Venice threatened — Deficiency of French Admirals. 
 Murat appointed to the chief command of the com- 
 bined fleets — The proposed plan of operations deranged 
 by subsequent events. Admiral Truguet — His opin- 
 ion of the French flotillas — Occasion of his disgrace — 
 His character — Public employments — Hated by 
 Talleyrand — Canes him publicly. Villeneuve — His 
 naval exploits — His gasconade. Ganteaume — His 
 promotions — Saves himself by swimming when l' Orient 
 blew up at Aboukir — Letter of Bonaparte to him on 
 the occasion — His naval exploits and character. La 
 Crosse — His intrigues, fanaticism, and cruelty . .267 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 Apathy of the French people — Indifferent about the vic- 
 tories obtained over the Austrians. Rejoicings at 
 Madame Joseph Bonaparte's — Patriotic verses and 
 ballads — List of Bonaparte's intended Kings, Emper- 
 ors, etc. Arthur O'Connor, his present rank and views 
 in France. The Irish rebels universally despised — 
 Treated as criminals, and act as such — Their infamy 
 and ingratitude — Anecdote 274 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Absurdity and incoherence of the plan of the campaign 
 of the Austrians. Inactivity of the army under the 
 Archduke Charles — To what to be attributed — char- 
 acter of the Archduke — His military life — Respected 
 by his enemies — His proclamations composed with 
 great adroitness. Massena — Deserts the army of his 
 Sovereign — Cause of his advancement in the French 
 service — His military exploits and merciless pillage — 
 Quarrels with Bonaparte — Appointed by him to the 
 chief command in Italy — His wealth and good for- 
 tune — Disliked by the Bonapartes for his familiarity. 
 Great talents of G6n6ral St. Cyr — His achievements. 
 Comte de Bellegarde — His eminent services and dis- 
 tinguished talents 280
 
 xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 Bonaparte's insolent threat at Ulm against the Emperor 
 of Germany — Conclusions to be drawn from it — 
 Louis Bonaparte's public comment on it. Abb6 Sieyes 
 
 — His sanguinary plots and intrigues — Has betrayed 
 and survived all factions — His restlessness and craft 
 
 — Cowardice and ambition — His wealth — Talley- 
 rand's opinion of him. Bonaparte's apparently indis- 
 creet threat at Ulm accounted for. G6n6ral Marmont 
 
 — His military education and public employments — 
 His honourable character — Bonaparte demands for 
 him in marriage the daughter of the banker, Perre- 
 geaiix — Industry and ambition of Perregeaux — His 
 public life and intrigue with Mademoiselle Mars. 
 G6n6ral Marmont's distinguished services — A great 
 
 favourite of Bonaparte 287 
 
 LETTER XXXVIL 
 
 Another great Revolution supposed necessary to counter- 
 balance that of France. Insignificance and presump- 
 tion of General von Mack — His personal intrepidity 
 at Lissa — His theoretical knowledge and declamation 
 impose on the Emperor Joseph — His campaigns — 
 His bad conduct at the head of the Neapolitan army — 
 His pusillanimous conduct in the present campaign 
 — His ill-health — His fidelity and honour . . . 296
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Vol. II. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pauline ....... Frontispiece 
 
 Chaptal 64 
 
 Madame Chevalier 100 
 
 Barrere 146 
 
 Napoleon 186 
 
 Cambac^res 214 
 
 Queen Louise 241
 
 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Paeis, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Since my return here, I have never 
 neglected to present myself before our Sovereign, on 
 his days of grand reviews and grand diplomatic 
 audiences. I never saw him more condescending, 
 more agreeable, or, at least, less offensive, than on 
 the day of his last levee, before he set out to be 
 inaugurated a King of Italy; nor worse tempered, 
 more petulant, agitated, abrupt, and rude than at his 
 first grand audience after his arrival from Milan, when 
 this ceremony had been performed. I am not the 
 only one who has made this remark; he did not 
 disguise either his good or ill-humour; and it was only 
 requisite to have eyes and ears to see and be dis- 
 gusted at the difference of behaviour. 
 
 I have heard a female friend of Madame Bonaparte 
 explain, in part, the cause of this alteration. Just 
 before he set out for Italy, the agreeable news of the
 
 22 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 success of the j&rst Rochefort squadron in the West 
 Indies, and the escape of our Toulon fleet from the 
 vigilance of your Lord Nelson, highly elevated his 
 spirits, as it was the first naval enterprise of any 
 consequence since his reign. I am certain that one 
 grand naval victory would flatter his vanity and 
 ambition more than all the glory of one of his most 
 brilliant Continental campaigns. He had also, at 
 that time, great expectations that another negotia- 
 tion with Russia would keep the Continent submissive 
 under his dictature, imtil he should find an opportu- 
 nity of crushing your power. You may be sure that 
 he had no small hopes of striking a blow in your 
 country, after the junction of our fleet with the 
 Spanish, not by any engagement between our Brest 
 fleet and your Channel fleet, but under a supposition 
 that you would detach squadrons to the East and West 
 Indies in search of the combined fleet, which, by an 
 unexpected return, according to orders, would have 
 then left us masters of the Channel, and, if joined 
 with the Batavian fleet, perhaps even of the North 
 Sea. By the incomprehensible activity of Lord 
 Nelson, and by the defeat (or as we call it here, the 
 negative victory) of Villeneuve and Gravina, all this 
 first prospect had vanished. Our vengeance against a 
 nation of shopkeepers we were not only under the ne- 
 cessity of postponing, but, from the unpolite threats and 
 treaties of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg with those of
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 23 
 
 Vienna and St. James, we were on the eve of a Con- 
 tinental war, and our gunboats, instead of being useful 
 in carrying an army to the destruction of the tyrants of 
 the seas, were burdensome, as an army was necessary 
 to guard them, and to prevent these tyrants from 
 capturing or destroying them. Such changes, in so 
 short a period of time as three months, might irritate 
 a temper less patient than that of Napoleon the 
 First. 
 
 At his grand audience here, even after the army 
 of England had moved towards Germany, when the 
 die was cast, and his mind should, therefore, have 
 been made up, he was almost insupportable. The 
 low bows, and the still humbler expressions of the 
 Prussian Ambassador, the Marquis da Lucchesini, were 
 hardly noticed ; and the Saxon Ambassador, Count 
 von Buneau, was addressed in a language that no 
 well-bred master ever uses in speaking to a menial 
 servant. He did not cast a look, or utter a word, 
 that was not an insult to the audience and a disgrace 
 to his rank. I never before saw him vent his rage 
 and disappointment so indiscriminately. We were, 
 indeed (if I may use the term), humbled and trampled 
 upon en masse. Some he put out of countenance by 
 staring angrily at them ; others he shocked by his 
 hoarse voice and harsh words ; and all — all of us 
 — were afraid, in our turn, of experiencing something 
 worse than our neighbours. I observed more than
 
 24 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 one Minister, and more than one general, change 
 colour, and even perspire, at His Majesty's approach. 
 
 I believe the members of the foreign diplomatic 
 corps here will all agree with me that, at a futm-e 
 congress, the restoration of the ancient and becoming 
 etiquette of the Kings of France would be as desirable 
 a point to demand from the Emperor of the French 
 as the restoration of the balance of power. 
 
 Before his army of England quitted its old quarters 
 on the coast, the officers and men often felt the 
 effects of his ungovernable temper. When several 
 regiments of grenadiers, of the division of Oudinot, 
 were defiling before him on the 25th of last month, 
 he frequently and severely, though without cause, 
 reprobated their manner of marching, and once rode 
 up to Captain Fournois, pushed him forwards with 
 the point of a small cane, calling out, " Sacre Bieul 
 Advance ; you walk like a turkey." In the first 
 moment of indignation, the captain, striking at the 
 cane with his sword, made a push, or a gesture, as if 
 threatening the person of Bonaparte, who called out 
 to his aide-de-camp, Savary : 
 
 " Disarm the villain, and arrest him ! " 
 
 " It is unnecessary," the captain replied, " I have 
 served a tyrant, and merit my fate ! " So saying, he 
 passed his sword through his heart. 
 
 His whole company stopped instantly, as at a word 
 of command, and a general murmur was heard.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 25 
 
 " Lay down your arms, and march out of the file 
 instantly," commanded Bonaparte, " or you shall be 
 cut down for your mutiny by my guides." 
 
 They hesitated for a moment, but the guides ad- 
 vancing to surround them, they obeyed, and were dis- 
 armed. On the following afternoon, by a special 
 military commission, each tenth man was condemned 
 to be shot ; but Bonaparte pardoned them upon con- 
 dition of serving for life in the colonies ; and the 
 whole company was ordered to the colonial depots. 
 The widow and five children of Captain Fournois the 
 next morning threw themselves at the Emperor's feet, 
 presenting a petition, in which they stated that the 
 pay of the captain had been their only support. 
 
 "Well," replied Bonaparte to the kneeling petition- 
 ers, "Fournois was both a fool and a traitor; but, 
 nevertheless, I will take care of you." Indeed, they 
 have been so well taken care of that nobody knows 
 what has become of them. 
 
 I am almost certain that I am not telling you what 
 you did not know beforehand in informing you that 
 the spirit of our troops is greatly different from that 
 of the Germans, and even from that of your own 
 country. Every one of our soldiers would prefer 
 being shot to being beaten or caned. Flogging, with 
 us, is out of the question. It may, perhaps, be na- 
 tional vanity, but I am doubtful whether any other 
 army is, or can be, governed, with regard to disci-
 
 26 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 pline, in a less violent and more delicate manner, 
 and, nevertheless, be kept in subordination, and per- 
 form the most brilliant exploits. Remember, I speak 
 of our spirit of subordination and discipline, and not 
 of our character as citizens, as patriots, or as subjects. 
 I have often hinted it, but I believe I have not ex- 
 plained myself so fully before ; but my firm opinion 
 and persuasion is that, with regard to our loyalty, our 
 duty, and our moral and political principles, another 
 equally inconsistent and despicable people does not 
 exist in the universe. 
 
 The condition of the slave is certainly in itself that 
 of vileness ; but is that slave a vile being who, for a 
 blow, pierces his bosom because he is unable to 
 avenge it ? And what epithet can be given him who 
 braves voluntarily a death seemingly certain, not 
 from the love of his country, but from a principle of 
 honour, almost incompatible with the dishonour of 
 bondage ? 
 
 During the siege of Yorktown, in America, we had, 
 during one night, erected a battery, with intent to 
 blow up a place which, according to the report of our 
 spies, was your magazine of ammunition, etc. We 
 had not time to finish it before daylight ; but one 
 loaded twenty-four pounder was mounted, and our 
 cannoneer, the moment he was about to fire it, was 
 killed. Six more of our men, in the same attempt, 
 experienced the same fate. My regiment constituted
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 27 
 
 the advanced guard nearest to the spot, and La 
 Fayette brought me the order from the commander- 
 in-chief to engage some of my men upon that des- 
 perate undertaking. I spoke to them, and two 
 advanced, but were both instantly shot by your sharp- 
 shooters. I then looked at my grenadiers, without 
 uttering anything, when, to my sorrow, one of my 
 best and most orderly men advanced, saying, " My 
 colonel, permit me to try my fortune ! " I assented, 
 and he went coldly amidst hundreds of bullets whis- 
 tling around his ears, set fire to the cannon, which 
 blew up a depot of powder, as was expected, and in 
 the confusion returned unhurt. La Fayette then 
 presented him with his purse. " No, monsieur," re- 
 plied he, " money did not make me venture upon 
 such a perilous undertaking." I understood my 
 man, promoted him to a sergeant, and recommended 
 him to Rochambeau, who, in some months, procured 
 him the commission of a sub-lieutenant. He is now 
 one of Bonaparte's Field-marshals, and the only one of 
 that rank who has no crimes to reproach himself 
 with. This man was the soldier of a despot; but 
 was not his action that of a man of honour, which a 
 stanch republican of ancient Rome would have been 
 proud of ? Who can explain this contradiction ? 
 
 This anecdote about Fournois I heard General 
 Savary relate at Madame Duchatel's, as a proof of 
 Bonaparte's generosity and clemency^ which, he af-
 
 28 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 firmed, excited the admiration of the whole camp at 
 Boulogne. I do not suppose this officer to be above 
 thirty years of age, of which he has passed the first 
 twenty-five in orphan-houses or in watch-houses ; but 
 no tyrant ever had a more cringing slave, or a more 
 abject courtier. His affectation to extol everything 
 that Bonaparte does, right or wrong, is at last be- 
 come so habitual that it is naturalized, and you may 
 mistake for sincerity that which is nothing but im- 
 posture or flattery. 
 
 This son of a Swiss porter is now one of Bona- 
 parte's adjutants-general, a colonel of the Gendarmes 
 d' Elite, a general of brigade in the army, and a 
 commander of the Legion of Honour ; all these 
 places he owes, not to valour or merit, but to abject- 
 ness, immorality, and servility. When an aide -de- 
 camp with Bonaparte in Egypt, he served him as a 
 spy on his comrades and on the officers of the staff, 
 and was so much detested that,.near Aboukir, several 
 shots were fired at him in his tent by his own coun- 
 trymen. He is supposed still to continue the same 
 espionage ; and as a colonel of the Gendarmes 
 d' Elite, he is charged with the secret execution of 
 all proscribed persons or State prisoners, who have 
 been secretly condemned, — a commission that a 
 despot gives to a man he trusts, but dares not offer 
 to a man he esteems. He is so well known that the 
 instant he enters a society silence follows, and he has
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 29 
 
 the whole conversation to himself. This he is stupid 
 enough to take for a compliment, or for a mark of 
 respect, or an acknowledgment of his superior parts 
 and intelligence, when, in fact, it is a direct reproach 
 with which prudence arms itself against suspected or 
 known dishonesty. Besides his wife, he has to sup- 
 port six other women whom he has seduced and 
 ruined ; and, notwithstanding the numerous oppor- 
 tunities his master has procured him of pillaging and 
 enriching himself, he is still much in debt ; but woe 
 to his creditors were they indiscreet enough to ask 
 for their payments ! The Secret Tribunal would soon 
 seize them and transport them, or deliver them over 
 to the hands of their debtor, to be shot as traitors or 
 conspirators.
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — I am told that it was the want of 
 pecuniary resources that made Bonaparte so ill-tem- 
 pered on his last lev^e day. He would not have 
 come here at all, but preceded his army to Strasburg, 
 had his Minister of Finances, Gaudin, and his Minis- 
 ter of the Public Treasury, Marbois, been able to 
 procure forty-four millions of livres — £1,800,000 — 
 to pay a part of the arrears of the troops ; and for 
 the speedy conveyance of ammunition and artillery 
 towards the Rhine. 
 
 Immediately after his arrival here, Bonaparte sent 
 for the directors of the Bank of France, informing 
 them that within twenty - four hours they must ad- 
 vance him thirty-six millions of livres — .£1,500,000 
 — upon the revenue of the last quarter of 1808. 
 The president of the bank. Senator Garrat, demanded 
 two hours to lay before the Emperor the situation of 
 the bank, that His Majesty might judge what sum it 
 was possible to spare without ruining the credit of an 
 establishment hitherto so useful to the commerce of
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 31 
 
 the Empire. To this Bonaparte replied that he was 
 not ignorant of the resources, or of the credit of the 
 bank, any more than of its public utility ; but that 
 the affairs of State suffered from every hour's delay, 
 and that, therefore, he insisted upon having the sum 
 demanded even within two hours, partly in paper and 
 partly in cash ; and were they to show any more 
 opposition, he would order the bank and all its effects 
 to be seized that moment. The directors bowed and 
 returned to the bank ; whither they were followed by 
 four waggons escorted by hussars, and belonging to 
 the financial department of the army of England. 
 In these were placed eight millions of livres in cash ; 
 and twenty -eight millions in bank-notes were de- 
 livered to M. Lefevre, the Secretary - General of 
 Marbois, who presented, in exchange, Bonaparte's 
 bond and security for the amount, bearing an interest 
 of five per cent, yearly. 
 
 When this money transaction was known to the 
 public, the alarm became general, and long before the 
 hour the bank usually opens the adjoining streets 
 were crowded with persons desiring to exchange 
 their notes for cash. During the night the direc- 
 tors had taken care to pay themselves for the bank- 
 notes in their own possession with silver or gold, and, 
 as they expected a rim, they ordered all persons to be 
 paid in copper coin, as long as any money of this 
 metal remained. It required a long time to count
 
 32 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 those halfpennies and centimes (five of which make a 
 sou, or halfpenny), but the people were not tired with 
 waiting until towards three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 when the bank is shut up. They then became so 
 clamorous that a company of gendarmes was placed 
 for protection at the entrance of the bank ; but, as 
 the tumult increased, the street was surroimded by 
 the police guards, and above six hundred individuals, 
 many of them women, were carried, under an escort, 
 to different police commissaries, and to the prefecture 
 of the police. There most of them, after being ex- 
 amined, were reprimanded and released. The same 
 night, the police spies reported in the coffee-houses of 
 the Palais Royal, and on the Boulevards, that this 
 run on the bank was encouraged, and paid for, by 
 English emissaries, some of whom were already 
 taken, and would be executed on the next day. In 
 the morning, however, the streets adjoining the bank 
 were still more crowded, and the crowd still more 
 tumultuous, because payment was refused for all 
 notes but those of five hundred livres — X21. The 
 activity of the police agents, supported by the gen- 
 darmes and police soldiers, again restored order, after 
 several hundred persons had been again taken up for 
 their mutinous conduct. Of these many were, on the 
 same evening, loaded with chains, and, placed in carts 
 under military escort, paraded about near the bank 
 and the Palais Royal ; the police having, as a measure
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 33 
 
 of safety, under suspicion that they were influenced 
 by British gold, condemned them to be transported to 
 Cayenne ; and the carts set out on the same night for 
 Rochefort, the place of their embarkation. 
 
 On the following day, not an individual approached 
 the bank, but all trade and all payments were at a 
 stand ; nobody would sell but for ready money, and 
 nobody who had bank-notes would part with cash. 
 Some Jews and money-brokers in the Palais Royal 
 offered cash for these bills, at a discount of from ten 
 to twenty per cent But these usurers were, in their 
 turn, taken up and transported, as agents of Pitt. 
 An interview was then demanded by the directors 
 and principal bankers with the Ministers of Finance 
 and of the Public Treasury. In this conference it was 
 settled that, as soon as the two millions of dollars on 
 their way from Spain had arrived at Paris, the bank 
 should reassume its payments. These dollars Gov- 
 ernment would lend the bank for three months, and 
 take in return its notes, but the bank was, neverthe- 
 less, to pay an interest of six per cent, during that 
 period. All the bankers agreed not to press unnec- 
 essarily for any exchange of bills into cash, and to 
 keep up the credit of the bank even by the individual 
 credit of their own houses. 
 
 You know, I suppose, that the Bank of France has 
 never issued but two sorts of notes ; those of one 
 thousand livres — ^42 — and those of five hundred
 
 34 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 livres — X21. At the day of its stoppage, sixty mil- 
 lions of livres — £2,500,000 — of the former, and 
 fifteen millions of livres — X 6 25, 000 — of the latter, 
 were in circulation; and I have heard a banker assert 
 that the bank had not then six millions of livres — 
 £250,000 — in money and bullion, to satisfy the 
 claims of its creditors, or to honour its bills. 
 
 The shock given to the credit of the bank by this 
 last requisition of Bonaparte will be felt for a long 
 time, and will with difficulty ever be repaired under 
 his despotic government. Even now, when the bank 
 pays in cash, our merchants make a difference from 
 five to ten per cent, between purchasing for specie or 
 paying in bank-notes ; and this mistrust will not be 
 lessened hereafter. You may, perhaps, object that, 
 as long as the bank pays, it is absurd for any one 
 possessing its bills to pay dearer than with cash, 
 which might so easily be obtained. This objection 
 would stand with regard to your, or any other free 
 country, but here, where no payments are made in 
 gold, but always in silver or copper, it requires a cart 
 to carry away forty, thirty, or twenty thousand livres, 
 in coin of these metals, and would immediately excite 
 suspicion that a bearer of these bills was an emissary 
 of our enemies, or an enemy of our Government. 
 With us, unfortunately, suspicion is the same as 
 conviction, and chastisement follows it as its shadow. 
 
 A manufacturer of the name of Debrais, established
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 35 
 
 in the Rue St. Martin, where he had for years carried 
 on business in the woollen line, went to the bank two 
 days after it had begun to pay. He demanded, and 
 obtained, exchange for twenty-four thousand livres — 
 .£1,000 — in notes, necessary for him to pay what was 
 due by him to his workmen. The same afternoon six 
 of our custom-house officers, accompanied by police 
 agents and gendarmes, paid him a domiciliary yisit 
 under pretence of searching for English goods. Sev- 
 eral bales were seized as being of that description, and 
 Debrais was carried a prisoner to La Force. On being 
 examined by Fouchd, he offered to prove, by the very 
 men who had fabricated the suspected goods, that they 
 were not English. The Minister silenced him by say- 
 ing that Grovernment had not only evidence of the 
 contrary, but was convinced that he was employed as 
 an English agent to hurt the credit of the bank, and 
 therefore, if he did not give up his accomplices or 
 employers, had condenmed him to transportation. In 
 vain did his wife and daughters petition to Madame 
 Bonaparte ; Debrais is now at Rochefort, if not already 
 embarked for our colonies. 
 
 When he was arrested, a seal, as usual, was put on 
 his house, from which his wife and family were turned 
 out, until the police should have time to take an in- 
 ventory of his effects, and had decided on his fate. 
 When Madame Debrais, after much trouble and many 
 pecuniary sacrifices, at last obtained permission to
 
 36 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 have the seals removed, and reenter her house, she 
 found that all her plate and more than half her goods 
 and furniture had been stolen and carried away. 
 Upon her complaint of this theft she was thrown into 
 prison for not being able to support her complaint 
 with proofs, and for attempting to vilify the charac- 
 ters of the agents of our Government. She is still in 
 prison, but her daughters are by her orders disposing 
 of the remainder of their parents' property, and 
 intend to join their father as soon as their mother has 
 recovered her liberty. 
 
 The same tyranny that supports the credit of our 
 bank also keeps up the price of our stocks. Any of 
 our great stockholders who sell out to any large 
 amount, if they are unable to account for, or unwill- 
 ing to declare the manner in which they intend to 
 employ, their money, are immediately arrested, some- 
 times transported to the colonies, but more frequently 
 exiled into the country, to remain imder the inspec- 
 tion of some police agent, and are not allowed to 
 return here without the previous permission of our 
 Government. Those of them who are upstarts, and 
 have made their fortune since the Revolution by plun- 
 der or as contractors, are still more severely treated, 
 and are often obliged to renounce part of their ill- 
 gotten wealth to save the remainder, or to preserve 
 their liberty or lives. A revisal of their former 
 accounts, or an inspection of their past transactions,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 37 
 
 is a certain and efficacious threat to keep them in 
 silent submission, as they all well understand the 
 meaning of them. 
 
 Even foreigners, whom our numerous national bank- 
 ruptcies have not yet disheartened, are subject to 
 these measures of rigour or vigour requisite to pre- 
 serve our public credit. In the autumn of last year a 
 Dutchman of the name of Tan der Winkle sold out 
 by his agent for three millions of livres — ^125,000 
 — in our stock on one day, for which he bought up 
 bills upon Hamburg and London. He lodged in the 
 H8tel des Quatre Nations, Rue Grenelle, where the 
 landlord, who is a patriot, introduced some police 
 agents into his apartments during his absence. These 
 broke open all his trunks, drawers, and even his 
 writing-desk, and when he entered, seized his person, 
 and carried him to the Temple. By his correspond- 
 ence it was discovered that all this money was to be 
 brought over to England ; a reason more than suffi- 
 cient to incur the suspicion of our Government. Van 
 der Winkle spoke very little French, and he contin- 
 ued, therefore, in confinement three weeks before he 
 was examined, as our secret police had not at Paris 
 any of its agents who spoke Dutch. Carried before 
 Fouch^, he avowed that the money was destined for 
 England, there to pay for some plantations which he 
 desired to purchase in Surinam and Barbice. His 
 interpreter advised him, by the orders of Fouchd, to
 
 38 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 alter his mind, and, as he was fond of colonial prop- 
 erty, lay out his money in plantations at Cayenne, 
 which was in the vicinity of Surinam, and where 
 Government would recommend him advantageous pur- 
 chases. It was hinted to him, also, that this was a 
 particular favour, and a proof of the generosity of our 
 Government, as his papers contained many matters 
 that might easily be construed to be of a treasonable 
 nature. After consulting with Schimmelpenninck, 
 the Ambassador of his country, he wrote for his wife 
 and children, and was seen safe with them to Bor- 
 deaux by our police agents, who had hired an Ameri- 
 can vessel to carry them all to Cayenne. This 
 certainly is a new method to populate our colonies 
 with capitalists.
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Hanover has been a mine of gold to 
 our Government, to its generals, to its commissaries, 
 and to its favourites. According to the boasts of 
 Talleyrand, and the avowal of Berthier, we have 
 drawn from it within two years more wealth than 
 has been paid in contributions to the Electors of 
 Hanover for this century past, and more than half a 
 century of peace can restore to that unfortunate 
 country. It is reported here that each person em- 
 ployed in a situation to make his fortune in the 
 Continental States of the King of England (a name 
 given here to Hanover in courtesy to Bonaparte) was 
 laid under contribution, and expected to make certain 
 douceurs to Madame Bonaparte; and it is said that 
 she has received from Mortier three hundred thousand 
 livres, and from Bernadotte two hundred and fifty 
 thousand livres, besides other large sums from our 
 military commissaries, treasurers, and other agents 
 in the Electorate. 
 
 G^n^ral Mortier is one of the few favourite officers 
 of Bonaparte who have distinguished themselves under 
 
 39
 
 40 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 his rivals, Pichegru and Moreau, without ever serving 
 under him. Edward Adolph Casimer Mortier is the 
 son of a shopkeeper, and was born at Cambray in 
 1768. He was a shopman with his father until 1791, 
 when he obtained a commission, first as a lieutenant 
 of carabiniers, and afterwards as captain of the first 
 battalion of volunteers of the Department of the 
 North. His first sight of an enemy was on the 30th 
 of April, 1792, near Quievrain, where he had a horse 
 killed under him. He was present in the battles of 
 Jemappes, of Nerwinde, and of Pellenberg. At the 
 battle of Houdscoote he distinguished himself so 
 much as to be promoted to an adjutant general. He 
 was wounded at the battle of Fleures, and again at 
 the passage of the Rhine, in 1795, under G^n^ral 
 Moreau. During 1796 and 1797 he continued to serve 
 in Germany, but in 1798 and 1799 he headed a divi- 
 sion in Switzerland from which Bonaparte recalled 
 him in 1800, to command the troops in the capital 
 and its environs. His address to Bonaparte, announc- 
 ing the votes of the troops under him respecting the 
 consulate for life and the elevation to the Imperial 
 throne, contain such mean and abject flattery that, 
 for a true soldier, it must have required more seK- 
 command and more courage to pronounce them than 
 to brave the fire of a hundred cannons ; but these 
 very addresses, contemptible as their contents are, 
 procured him the Field-marshal's staff. Mortier well
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 41 
 
 knew his man, and that his cringing in antechambers 
 would be better rewarded than his services in the 
 field. I was not present when Mortier spoke so 
 shamefully, but I have heard from persons who wit- 
 nessed this farce, that he had his eyes fixed on the 
 ground the whole time, as if to say, " I grant that I 
 speak as a despicable being, and I grant that I am 
 so ; but what shall I do, tormented as I am by ambi- 
 tion to figure among the great, and to riot among 
 the wealthy ? Have compassion on my weakness, or, 
 if you have not, I will console myself with the idea 
 that my meanness is only of the duration of half 
 an hour, while its recompense — my rank — will be 
 permanent." 
 
 Mortier married, in 1799, the daughter of the land- 
 lord of the Belle Sauvage inn at Coblentz, who was 
 pregnant by him, or by some other guest of her 
 father. She is pretty, but not handsome, and she 
 takes advantage of her husband's complaisance to con- 
 sole herself both for his absence and infidelities. 
 When she was delivered of her last child, Mortier 
 positively declared that he had not slept with her for 
 twelve months, and the babe has, indeed, less resem- 
 blance to him than to his valet de chambre. The 
 child was baptised with great splendour ; the Emperor 
 and the Empress were the sponsors, and it was 
 christened by Cardinal Fesch. Bonaparte presented 
 Madame Mortier on this occasion with a diamond
 
 42 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 necklace valued at one hundred and fifty thousand 
 livres — X 6,000. 
 
 During his different campaigns, and particularly 
 during his glorious campaign in Hanover, he has 
 collected property to the amount of seven millions 
 of livres, laid out in estates and lands. He is con- 
 sidered by other generals as a brave captain, but 
 an indifferent chief; and among our fashionables 
 and our courtiers he is held up as a model of connu- 
 bial fidelity — satisfying himself with keeping three 
 mistresses only. 
 
 There was no truth in the report that his recall 
 from Hanover was in consequence of any disgrace ; 
 on the contrary, it was a new proof of Bonaparte's 
 confidence and attachment. He was recalled to 
 take the command of the artillery of Bonaparte's 
 household troops the moment Pichegru, George, 
 and Moreau were arrested, and when the Imperial 
 tide had been resolved on. More resistance against 
 this innovation was at that time expected than 
 experienced. 
 
 Bernadotte, who succeeded Mortier in the command 
 of our army in Hanover, is a man of a different stamp. 
 His father was a chair-man, and he was born at Paris 
 in 1763. In 1779 he enlisted in the regiment called 
 La Vieille Marine, where the Revolution found him 
 a sergeant. This regiment was then quartered at 
 Toulon, and the emissaries of anarchy and licentious-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 43 
 
 ness engaged him as one of their agents. His activity 
 soon destroyed all discipline, and the troops, instead 
 of attending to their military duty, followed him to 
 the debates and discussions of the Jacobin clubs. 
 Being arrested and ordered to be tried for his muti- 
 nous, scandalous behaviour, an insurrection liberated 
 him, and forced his accusers to save their lives by 
 flight. In April, 1790, he headed the banditti who 
 murdered the Governor of the Fort St. Jean at Mar- 
 seilles, and who afterwards occasioned the Civil War 
 in Comtat Venaigin, where he served under Jourdan, 
 known by the name of Coup-tell, or cut-throat, who 
 made him a colonel and his aide-de-camp. In 1794, 
 he was employed, as a general of brigade, in the army 
 of the Sambre and Meuse ; and during the campaigns 
 of 1795 and 1796, he served under another Jourdan, 
 the general, without much distinction, — except that 
 he was accused by him of being the cause of all the 
 disasters of the last campaign, by the complete rout 
 he suffered near Neumark on the 23d of August, 1796. 
 His division was ordered to Italy in 1797, where, 
 against the laws of nations, he arrested M. d'An- 
 traigues, who was attached to the Russian legation. 
 When the Russian Ambassador tried to dissuade him 
 from committing this injustice, and this violation of 
 the rights of privileged persons, he replied : " There 
 is no question here of any other right or justice than 
 the right and justice of power, and I am here the
 
 44 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 strongest M. d' Antraigues is our enemy ; were he 
 victorious, he would cause us all to be shot. I repeat, 
 I am here the strongest, et nous verrons" 
 
 After the Peace of Campo Formio, Bernadotte was 
 sent as an Ambassador to the Court of Vienna, accom- 
 panied by a numerous escort of Jacobin propagators. 
 Having procured the liberty of Austrian patriots^ 
 whose lives, forfeit to the law, the lenity of the 
 Cabinet of Vienna had spared, he thought that he 
 might attempt anything ; and, therefore, on the anni- 
 versary day of the fete for the levy en masse of the 
 inhabitants of the capital, he insulted the feelings of 
 the loyal, and excited the discontented to rebellion, 
 by placing over the door and in the windows of his 
 house the tri-coloured flag. This outrage the Emperor 
 was unable to prevent his subjects from resenting. 
 Bernadotte's house was invaded, his furniture broken 
 to pieces, and he was forced to save himself at the 
 house of the Spanish Ambassador. As a satisfaction 
 for this attack, provoked by his own insolence, he 
 demanded the immediate dismissal of the Austrian 
 Minister, Baron Thugut, and threatened, in case of 
 refusal, to leave Vienna, which he did on the next 
 day. So disgraceful was his conduct regarded, even 
 by the Directory, that this event made but little 
 impression, and no alteration in the continuance of 
 their intercourse with the Austrian Government. 
 
 In 1799, he was for some weeks a Minister of the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 45 
 
 war depaxtment, from which his incapacity caused 
 him to be dismissed. When Bonaparte intended to 
 seize the reins of State, he consulted Bernadotte, who 
 spoke as an implacable Jacobin until a douceur of 
 three hundred thousand livres — £12,000 — calmed 
 him a little, and convinced him that the Jacobins 
 were not infallible or their government the best of all 
 possible governments. In 1801, he was made the 
 commander-in-chief in the Western Department, 
 where he exercised the greatest barbarities against 
 the inhabitants, whom he accused of being still 
 chouans and royalists. 
 
 With Augereau and Massena, Bernadotte is a mer- 
 ciless plunderer. In the summer, 1796, he sum- 
 moned the magistrates of the free and neutral city 
 of Nuremberg to bring him, under pain of military 
 execution, within twenty-four hours, two millions of 
 livres — £84,000. With much difficulty this sum 
 was collected. The day after he had received it, he 
 insisted upon another sum to the same amount within 
 another twenty-four hours, menacing in case of dis- 
 obedience to give the city up to a general pUlage by 
 his troops. Fortunately, a column of Austrians ad- 
 vanced and delivered them from the execution of his 
 threats. The troops under him were, both in Italy 
 and in Germany, the terror of the inhabitants, and 
 when defeated were, from their pillage and murder, 
 hunted like wild beasts. Bernadotte has by these
 
 46 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 means within ten years become master of a fortune 
 of ten miUions of livres — .£420,000. 
 
 Many have considered Bernadotte a revolutionary 
 fanatic, but they are in the wrong. Money engaged 
 him in the cause of the Revolution, where the first 
 crimes he had perpetrated fixed him. The many 
 massacres under Jourdan the cut-throat, committed 
 by him in the Court at Venaigin, no doubt display a 
 most sanguinary character. A lady, however, in 
 whose house in La Vendue he was quartered six 
 months, has assured me that, to judge from his con- 
 versation, he is not naturally cruel, but that his imag- 
 ination is continually tormented with the fear of 
 gibbets which he knows that his crimes have merited, 
 and that, therefore, when he stabs others, he thinks it 
 commanded by the necessity of preventing others 
 from stabbing him. Were he sure of impunity, he 
 would, perhaps, show humanity as well as justice. 
 Bernadotte is not only a grand officer of the Legion 
 of Honour, but a Knight of the Royal Prussian Order 
 of the Black Eagle.
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Bonaparte has taken advantage of the 
 remark of Voltaire, in his "Life of Louis XIV.," 
 that this Prince owed much of his celebrity to the 
 well - distributed pensions among men of letters in 
 France and in foreign countries. According to a list 
 shown me by Fontanes, the president of the legisla- 
 tive corps and a director of literary pensions, even in 
 your country and in Ireland he has nine literary pen- 
 sioners. Though the names of your principal authors 
 and men of letters are not unknown to me, I have 
 never read nor heard of any of those I saw in the 
 list, except two or three as editors of some news- 
 papers, magazines, or trifling and scurrilous party 
 pamphlets. I made this observation to Fontanes, 
 who replied that these men, though obscure, had, 
 during the last peace, been very useful, and would be 
 still more so after another pacification ; and that 
 Bonaparte must be satisfied with these imtil he could 
 gain over men of greater talents. He granted also 
 that men of true genius and literary eminence were, 
 in England, more careful of the dignity of their char- 
 
 47
 
 48 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 acter than those of Germany and Italy, and more 
 difficult to be bought over. He added that, as soon 
 as the war ceased, he should cross the Channel on a 
 literary mission, from which he hoped to derive more 
 success than from that which was undertaken three 
 years ago by Fi^v^e. 
 
 To these men of letters, who are themselves, with 
 their writings, devoted to Bonaparte, he certainly is 
 very liberal. Some he has made tribunes, prefects, 
 or legislators ; others he has appointed his Ministers 
 in foreign countries, and on those to whom he has 
 not yet been able to given places, he bestows much 
 greater pensions than any former Sovereign of this 
 country allowed to a Corneille, a Racine, a Boileau, a 
 Voltaire, a De Cr^billon, a D' Alembert, a Marmontel, 
 and other heroes of our literature and honours to our 
 nation. This liberality is often carried too far, and 
 thrown away upon worthless subjects, whose very 
 flattery displays absence of taste and genius, as well 
 as of modesty and shame. To a fellow of the name 
 of Dag^e, who sang the coronation of Napoleon the 
 First in two hundred of the most disgusting and ill- 
 digested lines that ever were written, containing 
 neither metre nor sense, was assigned a place in the 
 administration of the forest department, worth twelve 
 thousand livres in the year — X500 — besides a pres- 
 ent, in ready money, of one hundred napoleons d'or. 
 Another poetaster, Barr6, who has served and sung
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 49 
 
 the chiefs of all former factions, received, for an ode 
 of forty lines on Bonaparte's birthday, an office at 
 Milan, worth twenty thousand livres in the year — 
 X840 — and one hundred napoleons d'or for his 
 travelling expenses. 
 
 The sums of money distributed yearly by Bona- 
 parte's agents for dedications to him by French and 
 foreign authors, are still greater than those fixed for 
 regular literary pensions. Instead of discouraging 
 these foolish and impertinent contributions, which 
 genius, ingenuity, necessity, or intrusion, lay on his van- 
 ity, he rather encourages them. His name is, there- 
 fore, found in more dedications published within these 
 last five years than those of all other Sovereign 
 Princes in Europe taken together for the last century. 
 In a man whose name, unfortunately for humanity, 
 must always live in history, it is a childish and 
 unpardonable weakness to pay so profusely for the 
 short and uncertain immortality which some dull or 
 obscure scribbler or poetaster confers on him. 
 
 During the last Christmas holidays I dined at 
 Madame Remisatu's, in company with Duroc. The 
 question turned upon literary productions and the 
 comparative merit of the compositions of modern 
 French and foreign authors. " As to the merits or 
 the quality," said Duroc, " I will not take upon me to 
 judge, as I profess myself totally incompetent ; but 
 as to their size and quantity I have tolerably good
 
 60 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 information, and it will not, therefore, be very im- 
 proper in me to deliver my opinion. I am convinced 
 that the German and Italian authors are more numer- 
 ous than those of my own coimtry, for the following 
 reasons : I suppose, from what I have witnessed and 
 experienced for some years past, that of every book 
 or publication printed in France, Italy, and Germany, 
 each tenth is dedicated to the Emperor. Now, since 
 last Christmas ninety -six German and seventy -one 
 Italian authors have inscribed their works to His 
 Majesty, and been rewarded for it ; while during the 
 same period only sixty-six Frenchmen have presented 
 their offerings to their Sovereign." For my part I 
 think Duroc's conclusion tolerably just. 
 
 Among all the numerous hordes of authors who 
 have been paid, recompensed, or encouraged by 
 Bonaparte, none have experienced his munificence 
 more than the Italian Spanicetti and the German 
 Ritterstein. The former presented him a genealogical 
 table in which he proved that the Bonaparte family, 
 before their emigration from Tuscany to Corsica, four 
 hundred years ago, were allied to the most ancient 
 Tuscany families, even to that of the House of 
 Medicis ; and as this house has given two queens to 
 the Bourbons when Sovereigns of France, the Bona- 
 partes are, therefore, relatives of the Bourbons ; and 
 the sceptre of the French Empire is still in the same 
 family y though in a more worthy branch. Spanicetti
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 51 
 
 received one thousand louis d'or — XI, 000 — in gold, 
 a pension of six thousand livres — X250 — for life, 
 and the place of a chef du bureau in the ministry of 
 the home department of the Kingdom of Italy, pro- 
 ducing eighteen thousand livres yearly — .£750. 
 
 Ritterstein, a Bavarian genealogist, proved the ped- 
 igree of the Bonapartes as far back as the first 
 crusades, and that the name of the friend of Richard 
 Coeur de Lion was not Blondel, but Bonaparte ; that 
 he exchanged the latter for the former only to marry 
 into the Plantagenet family, the last branch of which 
 has since been extinguished by its intermarriage and 
 incorporation with the House of Stuart, and that, 
 therefore, Napoleon Bonaparte is not only related to 
 most Sovereign Princes of Europe, but has more right 
 to the throne of Great Britain than George the Third, 
 being descended from the male branch of the Stuarts ; 
 while this Prince is only descended from the female 
 branch of the same royal house. Ritterstein was 
 presented with a snuff-box with Bonaparte's portrait 
 set with diamonds, valued at twelve thousand livres, 
 and received twenty -four thousand livres ready 
 money, together with a pension of nine thousand 
 livres — .£375 — in the year, until he could be better 
 provided for. He was, besides, nominated a Knight 
 of the Legion of Honour. It cannot be denied but 
 that Bonaparte rewards like a real Emperor. 
 
 But artists as well as authors obtain from him the
 
 62 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 same encouragement, and experience the same liber- 
 ality. In our different museums we, therefore, 
 already see and admire upwards of two hundred 
 pictures, representing the different actions, scenes, 
 and achievements of Bonaparte's public life. It is 
 true they are not all highly finished or well composed 
 or delineated, but they all strike the spectators more 
 or less with surprise or admiration ; and it is with us, 
 as, I suppose, with you, and everywhere else, the 
 multitude decide : for one competent judge or real 
 connoisseur, hundreds pass, who stare, gape, are 
 charmed, and inspire thousands of their acquaintance, 
 friends, and neighbours with their own satisfaction. 
 Believe me, Napoleon the First well knows the age, 
 his contemporaries, and, I fear, even posterity. 
 
 That statuaries and sculptors consider him also as 
 a generous patron, the numerous productions of their 
 chisels in France, Italy, and Germany, having him 
 for their object, seem to evince. Ten sculptors have 
 already represented his passage over the Mount St. 
 Bernard, eighteen his passage over Pont de Lodi, and 
 twenty - two that over Pont d' Arcole. At Rome, 
 Milan, Turin, Lyons, and Paris are statues of him 
 representing his natural size ; and our ten thousand 
 municipalities have each one of his busts ; without 
 mentioning the thousands of busts all over Europe, 
 not excepting even your own country. When Bona- 
 parte sees under the windows of the Tuileries the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 53 
 
 statue of Caesar placed in the garden of that palace, 
 he cannot help saying to himself : " Marble lives 
 longer than man." Have you any doubt that his 
 ambition and vanity extend beyond the grave ? 
 
 The only artist I ever heard of who was disap- 
 pointed and unrewarded for his labour in attempting 
 to eternize the memory of Napoleon Bonaparte, was a 
 German of the name of Schumacher. It is, indeed, 
 allowed that he was more industrious, able, and well- 
 meaning than ingenious or considerate. He did not 
 consider that it would be no compliment to give the 
 immortal hero a hint of being a mortal man. Schu- 
 macher had employed near three years in planning 
 and executing in marble the prettiest model of a 
 sepulchral monument I have ever seen, read or heard 
 of. He had inscribed it : " The Future Tomb of 
 Bonaparte the Great." Under the patronage of Count 
 von Beust, he arrived here ; and I saw the model in 
 the house of this Minister of the German Elector 
 Arch - Chancellor, where also many French artists 
 went to inspect it. Count von Beust asked De Segur, 
 the grand master of the ceremonies, to request the 
 Emperor to grant Schumacher the honour of show- 
 ing him his performance. De Segur advised him 
 to address himself to Duroc, who referred him to 
 Denon, who, after looking at it, could not help pay- 
 ing a just tribute to the execution and to the talents 
 of the artist, though he disapproved of the subject.
 
 54 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 and declined mentioning it to the Emperor. After 
 three months' attendance in this capital, and all 
 petitions and memorials to our great folks remaining 
 unanswered, Schumacher obtained an audience of 
 Fouch^, in which he asked permission to exhibit his 
 model of Bonaparte's tomb to the public for money, 
 so as to be enabled to return to his country. 
 
 " Where is it now ? " asked Fouch^. 
 
 "At the Minister's of the Elector Arch-Chancel- 
 lor," answered the artist. 
 
 " But where do you intend to show it for money ? ** 
 continued Fouch^. 
 
 « In the Palais Royal." 
 
 « Well, bring it there," replied Fouch^. 
 
 The same evening that it was brought there, Schu- 
 macher was arrested by a police commissary, his 
 model packed up, and, with himself, put under the 
 care of two gendarmes, who carried them both to the 
 other side of the Rhine. Here the Elector of Baden 
 gave him some money to return to his home, near 
 Aschaffenburg, where he has since exposed for money 
 the model of a grand tomb for a little man. I have 
 just heard that one of your countrymen has purchased 
 it for one hundred and fifty louis d'or.
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord: — Those who only are informed of the 
 pageantry of our Court, of the expenses of our cour- 
 tiers, of the profusion of our Emperor, and of the 
 immense wealth of his family and favourites, may 
 easily be led to believe that France is one of the 
 happiest and most prosperous countries in Europe. 
 But for those who walk in our streets, who visit our 
 hospitals, who count the number of beggars and of 
 suicides, of orphans and of criminals, of prisoners and 
 of executioners, it is a painful necessity to reverse the 
 picture, and to avow that nowhere, comparatively, can 
 there be found so much collective misery. And it is 
 not here, as in other States, that these unfortunate, 
 reduced, or guilty are persons of the lowest classes of 
 society ; on the contrary, many, and, I fear, the far 
 greater part, appertain to the ei-devant privileged 
 classes, descended from ancestors noble, respectable, 
 and wealthy, but who by the Revolution have been 
 degraded to misery or infamy, and perhaps to both. 
 
 When you stop but for a moment in our streets to 
 look at something exposed for sale in a shop-window,
 
 66 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 or for any other cause of curiosity or want, persons 
 of both sexes, decently dressed, approach you, and 
 whisper to you : " Monsieur, bestow your charity on 
 the Marquis, or Marquise — on the Baron or Baroness, 
 such a one, ruined by the Revolution;" and you 
 sometimes hear names on which history has shed 
 so brilliant a lustre that, while you contemplate the 
 deplorable reverses of human greatness, you are not 
 a little surprised to find that it is in your power to 
 relieve with a trifle the wants of the grandson of an 
 illustrious warrior, before whom nations trembled, or 
 of the granddaughter of that eminent statesman who 
 often had in his hands the destiny of Empires. Some 
 few solitary walks, incognito, by Bonaparte, in the 
 streets of his capital, would perhaps be the best pre- 
 servative against unbounded ambition and confident 
 success that philosophy could present to imfeeling 
 tyranny. 
 
 Some author has written that " want is the parent 
 of industry, and wretchedness the mother of inge- 
 nuity." I know that you have often approved and 
 rewarded the ingenious productions of my emigrated 
 countrymen in England ; but here their labours and 
 their endeavours are disregarded ; and if they cannot 
 or will not produce anything to flatter the pride or 
 appetite of the powerful or rich upstarts, they have 
 no other choice left but beggary or crime, meanness 
 or suicide. How many have I heard repent of ever
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 57 
 
 returning to a country where they have no expecta- 
 tion of justice in their claims, no hope of relief in 
 their necessities, where death by hunger, or by their 
 own hands, is the final prospect of all their sufferings. 
 
 Many of our ballad - singers are disguised emi- 
 grants ; and I know a ci-devant Marquis who is, 
 incognito^ a groom to a contractor, the son of his 
 uncle's porter. Our old pedlars complain that their 
 trade is ruined by the Counts, by the Barons and 
 Chevaliers who have monopolized all their business. 
 Those who pretend to more dignity^ but who have in 
 fact less honesty, are employed in our billiard and 
 gambling-houses. I have seen two music-grinders, 
 one of whom was formerly a captain of infantry, and 
 the other a Counsellor of Parliament. Every day you 
 may bestow your penny or halfpenny on two veiled 
 girls plajong on the guitar or harp — the one the 
 daughter of a ci-devant Duke, and the other of a o- 
 devant Marquis, a general under Louis XVI. They 
 are usually placed, the one on the Boulevards, and 
 the other in the Elysian Fields ; each with an old 
 woman by her side, holding a begging-box in her 
 hand. I am told one of the women has been the 
 nurse of one of those ladies. "What a recollection, if 
 she thinks of the past, in contemplating the present ! 
 
 On the day of Bonaparte's coronation, and a little 
 before he set out with his Pope and other splendid 
 retinue, an old man was walking slowly on the Quai
 
 68 SECRET €OURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 de Voltaire, without saying a word, but a label was 
 pinned to his hat with this inscription: " I had sixty 
 thousand livres rent — X 2,500 — / am eighty years 
 of aye, and I request alms^ Many individuals, even 
 some of Bonaparte's soldiers, gave him their mite ; 
 but as soon as he was observed he was seized by the 
 police agents, and has not since been heard of. I am 
 told his name is De la Roche, a ci-devant Chevalier de 
 St. Louis,, whose property was sold in 1793 as belong- 
 ing to an emigrant, though at the time he was shut 
 up here as a prisoner, suspected of aristocracy. He 
 has since for some years been a water-carrier; but 
 his strength failing, he supported himself lately en- 
 tirely by begging. The value of the dress of one of 
 Bonaparte's running footmen might have been suffi- 
 cient to relieve him for the probably short remainder 
 of his days. But it is more easy and agreeable in 
 this country to bury undeserved want in dungeons 
 than to renounce unnecessary and useless show to 
 relieve it. In the evening the remembrance of these 
 sixty thousand livres of the poor Chevalier deprived 
 me of all pleasure in beholding the sixty thousand 
 lamps decorating and illuminating Bonaparte's palace 
 of the Tuileries. 
 
 Some of the emigrants, whose strength of body age 
 has not impaired, or whose vigour of mind misfor- 
 tunes have not depressed, are now serving as officers 
 or soldiers under the Emperor of the French, after
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 69 
 
 having for years fought in vain for the cause of a 
 King of France in the brave army of Cond^. Several 
 are even doing duty in Bonaparte's household troops, 
 where I know one who is a captain, and who, for dis- 
 tinguishing himself in combating the republicans, 
 received the Order of St. Louis, but is now made a 
 knight of Napoleon's Republican Order, the Legion of 
 Honour, for bowing gracefully to Her Imperial Majesty 
 the Empress. As he is a man of real honour, this 
 favour is not quite in its place ; but I am convinced 
 that should one day an opportunity present itself, he 
 will not miss it, but prove that he has never been mis- 
 placed. Another emigrant who, after being a page to 
 the Due d' Angouleme, made four campaigns as an 
 officer of the Uhlans in the service of the Emperor of 
 Germany, and was rewarded with the Military Order 
 of Maria Theresa, is now a knight of the Legion of 
 Honour, and an officer of the Mamelukes of the Em- 
 peror of the French. Four more emigrants have 
 engaged themselves in the same corps as common 
 Mamelukes^ after being for seven years volunteers in 
 the legion of Mirabeau, under the Prince de Cond^. 
 It were to be wished that the whole of this favourite 
 corps were composed of returned emigrants. I am 
 sure they would never betray the confidence of Napo- 
 leon, but they would also never swear allegiance to 
 another Bonaparte. 
 While the humbled remnants of one sex of the
 
 60 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 ci-devant privileged classes are thus or worse em- 
 ployed, many persons of the other sex have preferred 
 domestic servitude to courtly splendour, and are 
 chambermaids or governesses, when they might have 
 been Maids of Honour or ladies-in-waiting. Mademoi- 
 selle de R , daughter of Marquis de R , was 
 
 offered a place as a Maid of Honour to Princesse Murat, 
 which she declined, but accepted at the same time the 
 offer of being a companion of the rich Madame 
 Moulin, whose husband is a ci-devant valet of Comte 
 de Brienne. Her father and brother suffered for this 
 choice and preference, which highly offended Bona- 
 parte, who ordered them both to be transported to 
 Guadeloupe, under pretence that the latter had said in 
 a coffee-house that his sister would rather have been 
 the housemaid of the wife of a ci-devant valet, than 
 the friend of the wife of a ci-devant assassin and 
 Septembrizer. It was only by a valuable present 
 to Madame Bonaparte from Madame Moulin, that 
 
 Mademoiselle de R was not included in the act 
 
 of proscription against her father and brother. 
 
 I am sorry to say that returned emigrants have also 
 been arrested for frauds and debts, and even tried and 
 convicted of crimes. But they are proportionally 
 few, compared with those who, without support, and 
 perhaps without hope, and from want of resignation 
 and submission to the will of Providence, have, in 
 despair, had recourse to the pistol or dagger, or in the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 61 
 
 River Seine buried their remembrance both of what 
 they have been and of what they were. The suicides 
 of the vicious capital are reckoned upon an average 
 to amount to one hundred in the month ; and for 
 these last three years, one-tenth, at least, have been 
 emigrants of both sexes :
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord: — Nobody here, except his courtiers, 
 denies that Bonaparte is vain, cruel, and ambitious ; 
 but as to his private, personal, or domestic vices, 
 opinions are various, and even opposite. Most per- 
 sons, who have long known him, assert that women 
 are his aversion ; and many anecdotes have been told 
 of his unnatural and horrid propensities. On the 
 other hand, his seeming attachment to his wife is 
 contradictory to these rumours, which certainly are 
 exaggerated. It is true, indeed, that it was to oblige 
 Barras, and to obtain her fortune, that he accepted 
 of her hand ten years ago ; though insinuating, she 
 was far from being handsome, and had long passed 
 the period of inspiring love by her charms. Her hus- 
 band's conduct towards her may, therefore, be con- 
 strued, perhaps, into a proof of indifference towards 
 the whole sex as much as into an evidence of his 
 affection towards her. As he knew who she was when 
 he received her from the chaste arms of Barras, and 
 is not unacquainted with her subsequent intrigues — 
 particularly during his stay in Egypt — policy may
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 63 
 
 influence a behaviour which has some resemblance to 
 esteem. He may choose to live with her, but it is 
 impossible he can love her. 
 
 A lady, very intimate with Princesse Louis Bona- 
 parte, has assured me that, had it not been for 
 Napoleon's lingular inclination for his youthful step- 
 daughter, he would have divorced his wife the first 
 year of his consulate, and that indirect proposals on 
 that subject had already been made her by Talley- 
 rand. It was then reported that Bonaparte had his 
 eyes fixed upon a Russian Princess, and that from the 
 friendship which the late Emperor Paul professed 
 for him, no obstacles to the match were expected to 
 be encountered at St. Petersburg. The untimely end 
 of this Prince, and the supplications of his wife and 
 daughter, have since altered his intent, and Madame 
 Napoleon and her children are now, if I may use 
 the expression, incorporated and naturalized with the 
 Bonaparte family. 
 
 But what has lately occurred here will better serve 
 to show that Bonaparte is neither averse nor indif- 
 ferent to the sex. You read last summer in the 
 public prints of the then Minister of the Interior 
 (Chaptal) being made a Senator, and that he was 
 succeeded by our Ambassador at Vienna — Cham- 
 pagny. This promotion was the consequence of a 
 disgrace, occasioned by his jealousy of his mistress, 
 a popular actress. Mademoiselle George, one of the
 
 64 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 handsomest women of this capital. He was informed 
 by his spies that this lady frequently, in the dusk of 
 the evening, or when she thought him employed in his 
 office, went to the house of a famous milliner in the 
 Rue St. Honord, where, through a door in an adjoin- 
 ing passage, a person, who carefully avoided showing 
 his face, always entered immediately before or after 
 her, and remained as long as she continued there. 
 The house was then by his orders beset with spies, 
 who were to inform him the next time she went to 
 the milliner. To be near at hand, he had hired an 
 apartment in the neighbourhood, where the very next 
 day her visit to the milliner's was announced to him. 
 While his secretary, with four other persons, entered 
 the milliner's house through the street door, Chaptal, 
 with four of his spies, forced the door of the passage 
 open, which was no sooner done than the disguised 
 gallant was found, and threatened in the most rude 
 manner by the Minister and his companions. He 
 would have been still worse used had not the unex- 
 pected appearance of Duroc and a whisper to Chaptal 
 put a stop to the fury of this enraged lover. The 
 incognito is said to have been Bonaparte himself, who, 
 the same evening, deprived Chaptal of his ministerial 
 portfolio, and would have sent him to Cayenne, in- 
 stead of to the Senate, had not Duroc dissuaded his 
 Sovereign from giving an Sdat to an affair which it 
 would be best to bury in oblivion.
 
 Chaptal. 
 
 Photo-etching after paint'
 
 ^^?*' ^
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 65 
 
 Chaptal has never from that day approached Made- 
 moiselle George, and, according to report, Napoleon 
 has also renounced this conquest in favour of Duroc, 
 who is at least her nominal gallant. The quantity of 
 jewels with which she has recently been decorated, 
 and displayed with so much ostentation in the new 
 tragedy, The TemplarSy indicate, however, a Sovereign 
 rather than a subject for a lover. And, indeed, she 
 already treats the directors of the theatre, her com- 
 rades, and even the public, more as a real than a 
 theatrical Princess. Without any cause whatever, 
 but from a mere caprice to see the camp on the coast, 
 she set out, without leave of absence, and without any 
 previous notice, on the very day she was to play ; and 
 this popular and interesting tragedy was put off for 
 three weeks, until she chose to return to her duty. 
 When complaint was made to the prefects of the 
 palace, now the governors of our theatres, Duroc 
 said that the orders of the Emperor were that no 
 notice should be taken of this etourderie^ which 
 should not occur again. 
 
 Chaptal was, before the Revolution, a bankrupt 
 chemist at Montpellier, having ruined himself in 
 search after the philosopher's stone. To persons in 
 such circumstances, with great presumption, some 
 talents, but no principles, the Revolution could not, 
 with all its anarchy, confusion, and crime, but be a 
 real Messing^ as Chaptal called it in his first speech
 
 66 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 at the Jacobin Club. Wishing to mimic, at Mont- 
 pellier, the taking of the Bastille at Paris, he, in May, 
 1790, seduced the lower classes and the suburbs to 
 an insurrection, and to an attack on the citadel, 
 which the governor, to avoid all effusion of blood, 
 surrendered without resistance. He was denounced 
 by the municipality to the National Assembly, for 
 these and other plots and attempts, but Robespierre 
 and other Jacobins defended him, and he escaped 
 even imprisonment. During 1793 and 1794, he 
 monopolized the contract for making and providing 
 the armies with gunpowder ; a favour for which he 
 paid Barrdre, Carnot, and other members of the 
 Committee of Public Safety, six millions of livres — 
 ^250,000 — but by which he pocketed thirty-six mil- 
 lions of livres — .£1,500,000 — himself. He was, 
 under the Directory, menaced with a prosecution for 
 his pillage, but bought it off by a douceur to Rewbel, 
 Barras, and Siy^s. In 1799, he advanced Bonaparte 
 twelve millions of livres — .£500,000 — to bribe ad- 
 herents for the new Revolution he meditated, and 
 was, in recompense, instead of interest, appointed 
 first Counsellor of State ; and when Lucien Bona- 
 parte, in September, 1800, was sent on an embassy 
 to Spain, Chaptal succeeded him in the Ministry of 
 the Interior. You may see by this short account 
 that the chemist Chaptal has, in the Revolution, 
 found the true philosophical stone. He now lives in
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 67 
 
 great style, and has, besides three wives alive (from 
 two of whom he has been divorced), five mistresses, 
 with each a separate establishment. This Chaptal is 
 regarded here as the most moral character that has 
 figured in our Revolution, having yet neither com- 
 mitted a single murder nor headed any of our 
 massacres.
 
 LETTER Yn. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — I have read a copy of a letter from 
 Madrid, circulated among the members of our foreign 
 diplomatic corps, which draws a most deplorable pic- 
 ture of the Court and Kingdom of Spain. Forced 
 into an unprofitable and expensive war, famine rav- 
 aging some, and disease other provinces, experiencing 
 from allies the treatment of tyrannical foes, disunion 
 in his family and among his Ministers, His Spanish 
 Majesty totters on a throne exposed to the combined 
 attacks of internal disaffection and external plots, 
 with no other support than the advice of a favourite, 
 who is either a fool or a traitor, and perhaps both. 
 
 As the Spanish monarchy has been more humbled 
 and reduced during the twelve years* administration 
 of the Prince of Peace than during the whole period 
 that it has been governed by Princes of the House 
 of Bourbon, the heir of the throne, the young Prince 
 of Asturias, has, with all the moderation consistent 
 with duty, rank, and consanguinity, tried to remove 
 an upstart, universally despised for his immorality as 
 well as for his incapacity ; and who, should he con-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 69 
 
 tinue some years longer to rule in the name of 
 Charles IV., will certainly involve his King and his 
 country in one common ruin. Ignorant and pre- 
 sumptuous, even beyond upstarts in general, the 
 Prince of Peace treats with insolence all persons 
 raised above him by birth or talents, who refuse to 
 be his accomplices or valets. Proud and certain of 
 the protection of the Queen, and of the weakness of 
 the King, the Spanish nobility is not only humbled, 
 provoked, and wronged by him, but openly defied 
 and insulted. 
 
 You know the nice principles of honour and loyalty 
 that have always formerly distinguished the ancient 
 families of Spain. Believe me that, notwithstanding 
 what appearances indicate to the contrary, the Spanish 
 grandee who ordered his house to be pulled down 
 because the rebel constable had slept in it, has still 
 many descendants, but loyal men always decline to 
 use that violence to which rebels always resort. Soon 
 after the marriage of the Prince of Asturias, in Octo- 
 ber, 1801, to his cousin, the amiable Maria Theresa, 
 Princess Royal of Naples, the ancient Spanish families 
 sent some deputies to Their Royal Highnesses, not for 
 the purpose of intriguing, but to lay before them the 
 situation of the kingdom, and to inform them of the 
 real cause of all disasters. They were received as 
 faithful subjects and true patriots, and Their Royal 
 Highnesses promised every support in their power
 
 70 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 towards remedying the evil complained of, and pre- 
 venting, if possible, the growth of others. 
 
 The Princess of Asturias is a worthy granddaughter 
 of Maria Theresa of Austria, and seems to inherit her 
 character as well as her virtues. She agreed with 
 her royal consort that, after having gained the affec- 
 tion of the Queen by degrees, it would be advisable 
 for her to insinuate some hints of the danger that 
 threatened their country and the discontent that agi- 
 tated the people. The Prince of Asturias was to act 
 the same part with his father as the Princess did with 
 his mother. As there is no one about the person of 
 Their Spanish Majesties, from the highest lord to the 
 lowest servant, who is not placed there by the favour- 
 ite, and act as his spies, he was soon aware that he 
 had no friend in the heir to the throne. His conver- 
 sation with Their Majesties confirmed him in this sup- 
 position, and that some secret measures were going 
 on to deprive him of the place he occupied, if not of 
 the royal favour. All visitors to the Prince and 
 Princess of Asturias were, therefore, watched by his 
 emissaries; and all the letters or memorials sent to 
 them by the post were opened, read, and, if contrary 
 to his interest, destroyed, and their writers imprisoned 
 in Spain or banished to the colonies. These measures 
 of injustice created suspicion, disunion, and, perhaps, 
 fear, among the members of the Asturian cabal, as it 
 was called ; all farther pursuit, therefore, was deferred
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 71 
 
 until more propitious times, and the Prince of Peace 
 remained undisturbed and in perfect security until the 
 rupture with your country last autumn. 
 
 It is to be lamented that, with all their valuable 
 qualities and feelings of patriotism, the Prince and 
 Princess of Asturias do not possess a little dissimula- 
 tion and more knowledge of the world. The favourite 
 tried by all means to gain their good opinion, but his 
 advances met with that repulse they morally deserved, 
 but which, from policy, should have been suspended 
 or softened, with the hope of future accommodation. 
 
 Beurnonville, the Ambassador of our Court to the 
 Court of Madrid, was here upon leave of absence when 
 war was declared by Spain against your country, and 
 his first secretary, Herman, acted as charge cf affaires. 
 This Herman has been brought up in Talleyrand's 
 office, and is both abler and more artful than Beur- 
 nonville ; he possesses also the full confidence of our 
 Minister, who, in several secret and pecuniary transac- 
 tions, has obtained many proofs of this secretary's 
 fidelity as well as capacity. The views of the Cabinet 
 of St. Cloud were, therefore, not lost sight of, nor its 
 interest neglected at Madrid. 
 
 I suppose you have heard that the Prince of Peace, 
 like all other ignorant and illiberal people, believes no 
 one can be a good or clever man who is not also his 
 countryman, and that all the ability and probity of the 
 world is confined within the limits of Spain. On this
 
 72 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 principle he equally detests France and England, Ger- 
 many and Russia, and is, therefore, not much liked 
 by our Government, except for his imbecility, which 
 makes him its tool and dupe. His disgrace would 
 not be much regretted here, where we have it in our 
 power to place or displace Ministers in certain States, 
 whenever and as often as we like. On this occasion, 
 however, we supported him, and helped to dissolve the 
 cabal formed against him ; and that for the following 
 reasons : 
 
 By the assurances of Beurnonville, Bonaparte and 
 Talleyrand had been led to believe that the Prince 
 and Princess of Asturias were well affected to France, 
 and to them personally; and conceiving themselves 
 much more certain of this than of the good disposi- 
 tion of the favourite, though they did not take a 
 direct part against him, at the same time they did not 
 disclose what they knew was determined on to remove 
 him from the helm of affairs. During Beurnonville's 
 absence, however, Herman had formed an intrigue 
 with a Neapolitan girl, in the suite of Asturias, who, 
 influenced by love or bribes, introduced him into the 
 Cabinet where her mistress kept her correspondence 
 with her royal parents. With a pick -lock key he 
 opened all the drawers, and even the writing-desk, in 
 which he is said to have discovered written evidence 
 that, though the Princess was not prejudiced against 
 France, she had but an indifferent opinion of the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 73 
 
 morality and honesty of our present Government and 
 of our present governors. One of these original 
 papers Herman appropriated to himself, and des- 
 patched to this capital by an extraordinary courier, 
 whose despatches, more than the rupture with your 
 country, forced Beurnon\dlle away in a hurry from the 
 agreeable society of gamesters and prostitutes, chiefly 
 frequented by him in this capital. 
 
 It is not and cannot be known yet what was the 
 exact plan of the Prince and Princess of Asturias and 
 their adherents ; but a diplomatic gentleman, who has 
 just arrived from Madrid, and who can have no 
 reason to impose upon me, has informed me of the 
 following particulars : 
 
 Their Royal Highnesses succeeded perfectly in 
 their endeavours to gain the well -merited tender- 
 ness and approbation of their Sovereigns in everything 
 else but when the favourite was mentioned with any 
 slight, or when any insinuations were thrown out con- 
 cerning the mischief arising from his tenacity of 
 power, and incapacity of exercising it with advantage 
 to the State. The Queen was especially irritated 
 when such was the subject of conversation or of 
 remark ; and she finally prohibited it under pain of her 
 displeasure. A report even reached Their Royal High- 
 nesses, that the Prince of Peace had demanded their 
 separation and separate confinement. Nothing could, 
 therefore, be effected to impede the progress of wick-
 
 74 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 edness and calamity, but by some temporary measure 
 of severity. In this disagreeable dilemma, it was 
 resolved by the cabal to send the Queen to a convent, 
 until her favourite had been arrested and imprisoned ; 
 to declare the Prince of Asturias Kegent during the 
 King's illness (His Majesty then still suffered from 
 several paralytic strokes), and to place men of talents 
 and patriotism in the place of the creatures of the 
 Prince of Peace. As soon as this revolution was 
 organized, the Queen would have been restored to full 
 liberty and to that respect due to her rank. 
 
 This plan had been communicated to our Ambas- 
 sador, and approved of by our Government ; but when 
 Herman in such an honest manner had inspected the 
 confidential correspondence of the Princess of Astu- 
 rias, Beurnonville was instructed by Talleyrand to 
 warn the favourite of the impending danger, and to 
 advise him to be beforehand with his enemies. 
 Instead of telling the truth, the Prince of Peace 
 alarmed the King and Queen with the most absurd 
 fabrications; and assured Their Majesties that their 
 son and their daughter-in-law had determined not 
 only to dethrone them, but to keep them prisoners for 
 life, after they had been forced to witness his 
 execution. 
 
 Indolence and weakness are often more fearful 
 than guilt. Everything he said was at once believed ; 
 the Prince and Princess were ordered under arrest in
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 75 
 
 their own apartments, without permission to see or 
 correspond with anybody ; and so certain was the 
 Prince of Peace of a complete and satisfactory revenge 
 for the attempt against his tyranny, that a frigate at 
 Cadiz was ready waiting to carry the Princess of 
 Astm-ias back to Naples. All Spaniards who had the 
 honour of their Sovereigns and of their country at 
 heart lamented these rash proceedings ; but no one 
 dared to take any measures to counteract them. At 
 last, however, the Duke of Montemar, grand officer to 
 the Prince of Asturias, demanded an audience of 
 Their Majesties, in the presence of the favourite. 
 He began by begging his Sovereign to recollect that 
 for the place he occupied he was indebted to the 
 Prince of Peace ; and he called upon him to declare 
 whether he had ever had reason to suspect him either 
 of ingratitude or disloyalty. Being answered in the 
 negative, he said that, though his present situation 
 and office near the heir to the throne was the pride 
 and desire of his life, he would have thrown it up the 
 instant that he had the least ground to suppose that 
 this Prince ceased to be a dutiful son and subject; 
 but so far from this being the case, he had observed 
 him in his most unguarded moments — in moments 
 of convivality had heard him speak of his royal 
 parents with as much submission and" respect as if he 
 had been in their presence. 
 
 " If," continued he, " the Prince of Peace has said
 
 76 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 otherwise, he has misled his King and his Queen, 
 being, no doubt, deceived himself. To overthrow a 
 throne and to seize it cannot be done without 
 accomplices, without arms, without money. Who are 
 the conspirators hailing the Prince as their chief? 
 I have heard no name but that of the lovely Princess, 
 his consort, the partaker of his sentiments as well as 
 of his heart. And his arms ? They are in the hands 
 of those guards his royal parent has given to augment 
 the necessary splendour of his rank. And as to his 
 money ? He has none but what is received from 
 royal and paternal munificence and bounty. You, 
 my Prince," said he to the favourite (who seemed 
 much offended at the impression the speech made on 
 Their Majesties), " will one day thank me, if I am 
 happy enough to dissuade dishonourable, impolitic, or 
 unjust sentiments. Of the approbation of posterity 
 I am certain — " 
 
 "If," interrupted the favourite, "the Prince of 
 Asturias and his consort will give up their bad coun- 
 sellors, I hope Their Majesties will forget and forgive 
 everything with myself." 
 
 " Whether Their Royal Highnesses," replied the 
 Duke of Montemar, " have done anything that 
 deserves forgiveness, or whether they have any coun- 
 sellors, I do not know, and am incompetent to judge ; 
 but I am much mistaken in the character of Their 
 Royal Highnesses if they wish to purchase favour at
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 77 
 
 the expense of confidence and honour. An order 
 from His Majesty may immediately clear up this 
 doubt." 
 
 The Prince of Peace was then ordered to write, in 
 the name of the King, to his children in the manner 
 he proposed, and to command an answer by the 
 messenger. In half an hour the messenger returned 
 with a letter addressed to the favourite, containing 
 only these lines : 
 
 « A King of Spain is well aware that a Prince and 
 Princess of Asturias can have no answer to give to 
 such proposals or to such questions." 
 
 After six days' arrest, and after the Prince of Peace 
 had in vain endeavoured to discover something to 
 inculpate Their Royal Highnesses, they were invited 
 to Court, and reconciled both to him and their royal 
 parents.
 
 LETTER YIIl. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — I will add in this letter, to the com- 
 mmiication of the gentlemen mentioned in my last, 
 what I remember myself of the letter which was 
 circulated among our diplomatists, concerning the 
 intrigues at Madrid. 
 
 The Prince of Peace, before he listened to the 
 advice of Duke of Montemar, had consulted Beurnon- 
 ville, who dissuaded all violence, and as much as 
 possible all noise. This accounts for the favourite's 
 pretended moderation on this occasion. But though 
 he was externally reconciled, and, as was repoited at 
 Madrid, had sworn his reconciliation even hy taking the 
 sacrament, all the undertakings of the Prince and 
 Princess of Asturias were strictly observed and re- 
 ported by the spies whom he had placed round Their 
 Royal Highnesses. Vain of his success and victory, 
 he even lost that respectful demeanour which a good, 
 nay, a well-bred subject always shows to the heir to 
 the throne, and the Princes related to his Sovereign. 
 He sometimes behaved with a premeditated familiar- 
 ity, and with an insolence provoking or defying 
 
 78
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 79 
 
 resentment. It was on the days of great festivities, 
 when the Court was most brilliant, and the courtiers 
 most numerous, that he took occasion to be most 
 arrogant to those whom he traitorously and auda- 
 ciously dared to call his rivals. On the 9th of last 
 December, at the celebration of the Queen's birthday, 
 his conduct towards Their Royal Highnesses excited 
 such general indignation that the remembrance of 
 the occasion of the fete, and the presence of their 
 Sovereigns, could not repress a murmur, which made 
 the favourite tremble. A signal from the Prince of 
 Asturias would then have been sufficient to have 
 caused the insolent upstart to be seized and thrown 
 out of the window. I am told that some of the 
 Spanish grandees even laid their hands on their 
 swords, fixing their eyes on the heir to the throne, 
 as if to say : " Command, and your unworthy enemy 
 shall exist no more." 
 
 To prepare, perhaps, the royal and paternal mind 
 for deeds which contemporaries always condemn, and 
 posterity will always reprobate, the Prince of Peace 
 procured a history to be written in Ms own way and 
 manner, of Don Carlos, the unfortunate son of the 
 barbarous and unnatural Philip II. ; but the Queen's 
 confessor, though, like all her other domestics, a tool 
 of the favourite, threw it into the fire with reproof, 
 saying that Spain did not remember in Philip II. the 
 grand and powerful Monarch, but abhorred in him
 
 80 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 the royal assassin ; adding that no laws, human or 
 divine, no institutions, no supremacy whatever, could 
 authorize a parent to stain his hands in the blood of 
 his children. These anecdotes are sufficient both to 
 elucidate the inveteracy of the favourite, the abject 
 state of the heir to the throne, and the incomprehen- 
 sible infatuation of the King and Queen. 
 
 Our Ambassador, in the meantime, dissembled al- 
 ways with the Prince and Princess of Asturias; and 
 even made them understand that he disapproved of 
 those occurrences so disagreeable to them ; but he 
 neither offered to put an end to them nor to be a 
 mediator for a perfect reconciliation with their Sov- 
 ereigns. He was guided by no other motive but to 
 keep the favourite in subjection and alarm by pre- 
 serving a correspondence with his rivals. That this 
 was the case and the motive cannot be doubted from 
 the financial intrigue he carried on in the beginning 
 of last month. 
 
 Foreigners have but an imperfect or erroneous idea 
 of the amount of the immense sums Spain has paid 
 to our Government in loans, in contributions, in 
 donations, and in subsidies. Since the reign of Bona- 
 parte, or for these last five years, upwards of half 
 the revenue of the Spanish monarchy has either been 
 brought into our National Treasury or into the privy 
 purse of the Bonaparte family. Without the aid of 
 Spanish money, neither would our gunboats have
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 81 
 
 been built, our fleets equipped, nor our armies paid. 
 The dreadful situation of the Spanish finances is, 
 therefore, not surprising — it is, indeed, still more 
 surprising that a general bankruptcy has not already 
 involved the Spanish nation in a general ruin. 
 
 When, on his return from Italy, the recall of the 
 Russian negotiator and the preparations of Austria 
 convinced Bonaparte of the probability of a Continen- 
 tal war, our troops on the coast had not been paid for 
 two months, and his Imperial Ministers of Finances 
 had no funds either to discharge the arrears or to 
 provide for future payments until the beginning of 
 the year 14, or the 22d instant. Beurnonville was, 
 therefore, ordered to demand peremptorily from the 
 Cabinet of Madrid forty millions of livres — .£1,666,- 
 000 — in advance upon future subsidies. Half of that 
 sum had, indeed, shortly before arrived at Cadiz from 
 America, but much more was due by the Spanish 
 Government to its own creditors, and promised them 
 in payment of old debts. The Prince of Peace, in 
 consequence, declared that, however much he wished 
 to oblige the French Government, it was utterly im- 
 possible to procure, much less to advance such sums. 
 Beurnonville then became more assiduous than ever 
 about the Prince and Princess of Asturias ; and he 
 had the impudence to assert that they had promised, 
 if their friends were at the head of affairs, to satisfy 
 the wishes and expectation of the Emperor of the
 
 82 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 French, by seizing the treasury at Cadiz, and paying 
 the State creditors in vales deinero ; notes hitherto 
 payable in cash, and never at a discount. The stupid 
 favourite swallowed the palpable bait; four millions 
 in dollars were sent under an escort to this country, 
 while the Spanish notes instantly fell to a discount 
 at first of four and afterwards of six per cent., and 
 probably will fall lower still, as no treasures are 
 expected from America this autunm. It was with 
 two millions of these dollars that the credit of the 
 Bank of France was restored, or at least for some 
 time enabled to resume its payments in specie. Thus 
 wretched Spain pays abroad for the forging of those 
 disgraceful fetters which oppress her at home; and 
 supports a foreign tyranny, which finally must pro- 
 duce domestic misery as well as slavery. 
 
 When the Prince and Princess of Asturias were 
 informed of the scandalous and false assertion of 
 Beurnonville, they and their adherents not only 
 publicly, and in all societies, contradicted it, but 
 affirmed that, rather than obtain authority or influ- 
 ence on such ruinous terms, they would have con- 
 sented to remain discarded and neglected during their 
 lives. They took the more care to have their senti- 
 ments known on this subject, as our Ambassador's 
 calumny had hurt their popularity. It was then first 
 that, to revenge the shame with which his duplicity 
 had covered him, Beurnonville permitted and per-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 83 
 
 suaded the Prince of Peace to begin the chastisement 
 of Their Royal Highnesses in the persons of their 
 favourites. Duke of Montemar, the grand officer to 
 the Prince of Asturias ; Marquis of Villa Franca, the 
 grand equerry to the Princess of Asturias ; Count of 
 Miranda, chamberlain to the King ; and the Countess 
 Dowager del Monte, with six other Court ladies and 
 four other noblemen, were, therefore, exiled from 
 Madrid into different provinces, and forbidden to 
 reside in any place within twenty leagues of the 
 residence of the royal family. According to the 
 last letters and communications from Spain, the 
 Prince and Princess of Asturias had not appeared 
 at Court since the insult offered them in the dis- 
 grace of their friends, and were resolved not to 
 appear in any place where they might be likely to 
 meet with the favourite. 
 
 Among our best informed politicians here, it is 
 expected that a revolution and a change of dynasty 
 will be the issue of this our political embryo in Spain. 
 Napoleon has more than once indirectly hinted that 
 the Bonaparte dynasty will never be firm and fixed in 
 France as long as any Bourbons reign in Spain or 
 Italy. Should he prove victorious in the present 
 Continental contest, another peace, and not the most 
 advantageous, will again be signed with your country 
 — a peace which, I fear, will leave him absolute 
 master of all Continental States. His family arrange-
 
 84 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 ments are publicly avowed to be as follow: His 
 third brother, Louis, and his sons, are to be the 
 heirs of the French Empire. Joseph Bonaparte is, at 
 the death or resignation of Napoleon, to succeed to 
 the Kingdom of Italy, including Naples. Lucien, 
 though at present in disgrace, is considered as the 
 person destined to supplant the Bourbons in Spain, 
 where, during his embassy in 1800, and in 1801, he 
 formed certain connections which Napoleon still keeps 
 up and preserves. Holland will be the inheritance 
 of Jerome should Napoleon not live long enough to 
 extend his power in Great Britain. Such are the 
 modest pretensions our Imperial courtiers bestow upon 
 the family of our Sovereign. 
 
 As to the Prince of Peace, he is only an imbecile 
 instrument in the hands of our intriguers and innova- 
 tors, which they make use of as long as they find it 
 necessary, and which, when that ceases to be the case, 
 they break and throw away. This idiot is made to 
 believe that both his political and physical existence 
 depends entirely upon our support, and he has infused 
 the same ridiculous notion into his accomplices and 
 adherents. Guilt, ignorance, and cowardice thus mis- 
 led may, directed by art, interest, and craft, perform 
 wonders to entangle themselves in the destruction of 
 their country. 
 
 Beurnonville, our present Ambassador at Madrid, is 
 the son of a porter, and was a porter himself when, in
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 85 
 
 1770, he enlisted as a soldier in one of our regiments 
 serving in the East Indies. Having there collected 
 some pillage, he purchased the place of a major in the 
 militia of the Island of Bourbon, but was, for his 
 immorality, broken by the governor. Returning to 
 France, he bitterly complained of this injustice, and, 
 after much cringing in the antechambers of Minis- 
 ters, he obtained at last the Cross of St. Louis as a 
 kind of indemnity. About the same time he also 
 bought with his Indian wealth the place of an officer 
 in the Swiss Guard of Monsieur, the present Louis 
 XYIII. Being refused admittance into any genteel 
 societies, he resorted with Barras and other disgraced 
 nobles to gambling-houses, and he even kept to him- 
 self when the Revolution took place. He had at 
 the same time, and for a certain interest, advanced 
 Madame d' Estainville money to establish her famous, 
 or rather infamous, house in the Rue de Bonnes 
 Enf ants, near the Palais Royal, — a house that soon 
 became the fashionable resort of our friends of Liberty 
 and Equality. 
 
 In 1790, Beurnonville offered his services as aide- 
 de-camp to our then hero of great ambition and small 
 capacity, La Fayette, who declined the honour. The 
 Jacobins were not so nice. In 1792, they appointed 
 him a general under Dumouriez, who baptized him 
 his Ajax. This modern Ajax, having obtained a 
 separate conamand, attacked Treves in a most igno-
 
 86 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 rant manner, and was worsted with great loss. The 
 official reports of our revolutionary generals have 
 long been admired for their modesty as well as verac- 
 ity ; but Beurnonville has almost outdone them all, 
 not excepting our great Bonaparte. In a report to 
 the National Convention concerning a terrible engage- 
 ment of three hours near Grewenmacker, Beurnon- 
 ville declares that, though the number of the enemy 
 killed was immense, his troops got out of the scrape 
 with the loss of only the little finger of one of his rifle- 
 men. On the 4th of February, 1793, a fortnight after 
 the execution of Louis XVI., he was nominated Min- 
 ister of the War Department — a place which he 
 refused, under a pretence that he was better able to 
 serve his country with his sword than with his pen, 
 having already been in one hundred and twenty battles 
 (where, he did not enumerate or state). On the 14th 
 of the following March, however, he accepted the 
 ministerial portfolio, which he did not keep long, 
 being delivered up by his Hector, Dumouriez, to the 
 Austrians. He remained a prisoner at Olmutz until 
 the 22d of November, 1795, when he was included 
 among the persons exchanged for the daughter of 
 Louis XVI., Her present Royal Highness, the Duchess 
 of Angouleme. 
 
 In the autumn of 1796 he had a temporary com- 
 mand of the dispersed remnants of Jourdan's army, 
 and in 1797 he was sent as a French commander to
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 87 
 
 Holland. In 1799, Bonaparte appointed him an 
 Ambassador to the Court of Berlin ; and in 1803 
 removed him in the same character to the Court of 
 Madrid. In Prussia, his talents did not cause him to 
 be dreaded, nor his personal qualities make him 
 esteemed. In France, he is laughed at as a boaster, 
 but not trusted as a warrior. In Spain, he is neither 
 dreaded nor esteemed, neither laughed at nor courted ; 
 he is there universally despised. He studies to be 
 thought a gentleman ; but the native porter breaks 
 through the veil of a ridiculously affected and outre 
 politeness. Notwithstanding the complacent grimaces 
 of his face, the self-sufficiency of his looks, his sys- 
 tematically powdered and dressed hair, his showy 
 dress, his counted and short bows, and his presump- 
 tuous conversation, teeming with ignorance, vulgar- 
 ity, and obscenity, he cannot escape even the most 
 inattentive observer. 
 
 The Ambassador, Beurnom-ille, is now between 
 fifty and sixty years of age ; is a grand officer of our 
 Imperial Legion of Honour; has a brother who 
 is a turnkey, and two sisters, one married to a tailor, 
 and another to a merchant who cries dogs' and cats' 
 meat in our streets.
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Bonaparte did not at first intend to 
 take his wife with him when he set out for Strasburg ; 
 but her tears, the effect of her tenderness and appre- 
 hension for his person, at last altered his resolution. 
 Madame Napoleon, to tell the truth, does not like 
 much to be in the power of Joseph, nor even in that 
 of her son-in-law, Louis Bonaparte, should any 
 accident make her a widow. 
 
 During the Emperor's absence, the former is the 
 President of the Senate, and the latter the Governor 
 of this capital, and commander of the troops in the 
 interior ; so that the one dictates the Senatus Con- 
 sultum, in case of a vacancy of the throne, and the 
 other supports these civil determinations with his 
 military forces. Even with the army in Germany, 
 Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat, is as a pillar of the 
 Bonaparte dynasty, and to prevent the intrigues and 
 plots of other generals from an Imperial diadem ; 
 while, in Italy, his step-son, Eugene de Beauharnais, 
 as a viceroy, commands even the commander-in-chief, 
 Massena. It must be granted that the Emperor has
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 89 
 
 80 ably taken his precautions that it is almost certain 
 that, at first, his orders will be obeyed, even after his 
 death ; and the will deposited by him in the Senate, 
 without opposition, carried into execution. These 
 very precautions evince, however, how uncertain and 
 precarious he considers his existence to be, and that, 
 notwithstanding addresses and oaths, he apprehends 
 that the Bonaparte dynasty will not survive him. 
 
 Most of the generals now employed by him are 
 either of his own creation, or men on whom he has 
 conferred rank and wealth, which they might con- 
 sider unsafe under any other Prince but a Bonaparte. 
 The superior officers, not included in the above 
 description, are such insignificant characters that, 
 though he makes use of their experience and courage, 
 he does not fear their views or ambition. Among 
 the inferior officers, and even among the men, all 
 those who have displayed, either at re^-iews or in 
 battles, capacity, activity, or valour, are all members 
 of his Legion of Honour ; and are bound to him by 
 the double tie of gratitude and self-interest. They 
 look to him alone for future advancements, and for 
 the preservation of the distinction they have obtained 
 from him. His emissaries artfully disseminate that 
 a Bourbon would inevitably overthrow everything a 
 Bonaparte has erected ; and that all military and 
 civil officers rewarded or favoured by Napoleon the 
 First will not only be discarded, but disgraced, and
 
 90 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 perhaps punished, by a Louis XVIII. Any person 
 who would be imprudent enough to attempt to prove 
 the impossibility, as well as the absurdity, of these 
 impolitic and retrospective measures, would be in- 
 stantly taken up and shot as an emissary of the 
 Bourbons. 
 
 I have often amused myself in conversing with our 
 new generals and new officers ; there is such a curious 
 mixtiu'e of ignorance and information, of credulity 
 and disbelief, of real boasting and affected modesty, 
 in everything they say or do in company ; their 
 manners are far from being elegant, but also very 
 distant from vulgarity ; they do not resemble those 
 of what we formerly called gens comme ilfaut, and la 
 bonne societS ! nor those of the bourgeoisie, or the 
 lower classes. They form a new species of fashion- 
 ables, and a haut ton militaire, which strikes a person 
 accustomed to Courts at first with surprise, and per- 
 haps with indignation ; though, after a time, those of 
 our sex, at least, become reconciled, if not pleased 
 with it, because there is a kind of military frankness 
 interwoven with the military roughness. Our ladies, 
 however (I mean those who have seen other Courts, 
 or remember our other coteries), complain loudly of 
 this alteration of address, and of this fashionable 
 innovation ; and pretend that our military, under the 
 notion of being frank, are rude, and by the negligence 
 of their manners and language, are not only offensive,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 91 
 
 but inattentive and indelicate. This is so much the 
 more provoking to them, as our Imperial courtiers 
 and Imperial placemen do not think themselves fash- 
 ionable without imitating our military gentry, who 
 take Napoleon for their exclusive model and chief in 
 everything, even in manners. 
 
 What I have said above applies only to those offi- 
 cers whose parents are not of the lowest class, or who 
 entered so early or so young into the army that they 
 may be said to have been educated there, and as they 
 advanced, have assumed the ton of their comrades of 
 the same rank. I was invited, some time ago, to a 
 wedding, by a jeweller whose sister had been my 
 nurse, and whose daughter was to be married to a 
 captain of hussars quartered here. The bridegroom 
 had engaged several other officers to assist at the 
 ceremony, and to partake of the fete and ball that 
 followed. A general of the name of Liebeau was also 
 of the party, and obtained the place of honom- by the 
 side of the bride's mother. At his entrance into the 
 apartment I formed an opinion of him which his sub- 
 sequent conduct during the ball confirmed. 
 
 During the dinner he seemed to forget that he had 
 a knife and a fork, and he did not eat of a dish (and 
 he ate of them all, numerous as they were) without 
 bespattering or besmearing himself or his neighbours. 
 He broke two glasses and one plate, and, for equality's 
 sake, I suppose, when he threw the wine on the lady
 
 92 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS, 
 
 to his right, the lady to his left was inundated with 
 sauces. In getting up from dinner to take coffee and 
 liqueurs, according to our custom, as he took the hand 
 of the mistress of the house, he seized at the same 
 time a corner of the napkin, and was not aware of his 
 bhmder till the destruction of bottles, glasses, and 
 plate, and the screams of the ladies, informed him of 
 the havoc and terror his awkward gallantry had occa- 
 sioned. When the ball began, he was too vain of his 
 rank and precedency to suffer any one else to lead the 
 bride down the first dance ; but she was not, I believe, 
 much obliged to him for his politeness; it cost her 
 the tail of her wedding-gown and a broken nail, and 
 she continued lame during the remainder of the night. 
 In making an apology to her for his want of dexterity, 
 and assuring her that he was not so awkward in 
 handling the enemies of his country in battle as in 
 handling friends he esteemed in a dance, he gave no 
 quarter to an old maid aunt, whom, in the violence of 
 his gesticulation, he knocked down with his elbow 
 and laid sprawling on the ground. He was sober 
 when these accidents literally occurred. 
 
 Of this original I collected the following particulars : 
 Before the Revolution he was a soldier in the regi- 
 ment of Flanders, from which he deserted and became 
 a corporal in another regiment; in 1793 he was a 
 drum-major in one of the battalions in garrison in 
 Paris. You remember the struggles of factions in
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 93 
 
 the latter part of May and in the beginning of June, 
 the same year, when Brissot and his accomplices 
 were contending with Marat, Robespierre, and their 
 adherents for the reins of power. On the 1st of June 
 the latter party could not get a drummer to beat 
 the alarm, though they offered money and advance- 
 ment. At last Robespierre stepped forward to 
 Liebeau and said, " Citizen, beat the alarm march, 
 and to-day you shall be nominated a general." Lie- 
 beau obeyed, Robespierre became victorious and kept 
 his promise, and thus my present associate gained his 
 rank. He has since been employed under Jourdan 
 in Germany, and under Le Courbe in Switzerland. 
 When, mider the former, he was ordered to retreat 
 towards the Rhine, he pointed out the march route to 
 his division according to his geographical knowledge, 
 but mistook upon the map the River Main for a turn- 
 pike road, and commanded the retreat accordingly. 
 Ever since, our troops have called that river La 
 chausSe de Liebeau. He was not more fortunate in 
 Helvetia. Being ordered to cross one of the moun- 
 tains, he marched his men into a glacier, where twelve 
 perished before he was aware of his mistake. 
 
 Being afterwards appointed a governor of Blois, he 
 there became a petty, insupportable tyrant, and laid 
 all the inhabitants indiscriminately under arbitrary 
 contribution. Those who refused to pay were impris- 
 oned as aristocrats, and their property confiscated in
 
 94 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 the name and on the part of the nation ; that is to 
 say, he appropriated to himself in the name of the 
 nation everything that struck his fancy ; and if any 
 complaints were made, the owners were seized and 
 sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris to be con- 
 demned as the correspondents or adherents of the 
 royalists of La Vendue. After the death of Robes- 
 pierre he was deprived of this profitable place, in 
 which, during the short space of eleven months, he 
 amassed five millions of livres — £208,000. The 
 Directory then gave him a division, first under Jour- 
 dan, and afterwards under Le Courbe. Bonaparte, 
 after witnessing his incapacity in Italy, in 1800, put 
 him on the full half-pay, and has lately made him a 
 commander of the Legion of Honour. 
 
 His dear spouse, Madame Liebeau, is his counter- 
 part. When he married her, she was crying mack- 
 erel and herrings in our streets ; but she told me in 
 confidence, during the dinner, being seated by my 
 side, that her father was an officer of fortune, and a 
 Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis. She assured me 
 that her husband had done greater services to his 
 country than Bonaparte ; and that, had it not been 
 for his patriotism in 1793, the Austrians would have 
 taken Paris. She was very angry with Madame 
 Napoleon, to whom she had been presented, but who 
 had not shown her so much attention and civility as 
 was due to her husband's rank, having never invited
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 95 
 
 her to more than one supper and two tea-parties ; 
 and when invited by her, had sent Duroc with an 
 apology that she was unable to come, though the 
 same evening she went to the opera. 
 
 Another guest, in the regimentals of a colonel, 
 seemed rather bashful when I spoke to him. I could 
 not comprehend the reason, and therefore inquired of 
 our host who he was. (You know that with us it is 
 not the custom to introduce persons by name, etc., as 
 in your country, when meeting in mixed companies.) 
 He answered : 
 
 "Do you not remember your brother's jockey, 
 Frial?'* 
 
 " Yes," said I, " but he was established by my 
 brother as a hairdresser." 
 
 " He is the very same person," replied the jeweller. 
 " He has fought very bravely, and is now a colonel of 
 dragoons, a great favourite with Bonaparte, and will 
 be a general at the first promotion." 
 
 As the colonel did not seem to desire a renewal of 
 acquaintance with me, I did not intrude myself upon 
 him. 
 
 During the supper the military gentlemen were 
 encouraged by the bridegroom, and the bottle went 
 round very freely ; and the more they drank, the 
 greater and more violent became their political dis- 
 cussions. Liebeau vociferated in favour of republican 
 and revolutionary measures, and avowed his approba-
 
 96 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 tion of requisitions, confiscations, and the guillotine ; 
 while Frial inclined to the regular and organized des- 
 potism of one, to secret trial, and still more secret 
 executions; defending arbitrary imprisonments, ex- 
 iles, and transportations. This displeased Madame 
 Liebeau, who exclaimed : 
 
 " Since the colonel is so fond of an Imperial Gov- 
 ernment, he can have no objection to remain a faith- 
 ful subject whenever my husband, Liebeau, becomes 
 an Antoine the First, Emperor of the French." 
 
 Frial smiled with contempt. 
 
 " You seem to think it improbable," said Liebeau. 
 " I, Antoine Liebeau, I have more prospect of being 
 an Emperor than Napoleon Bonaparte had ten years 
 ago, when he was only a colonel, and was arrested as 
 a terrorist. And am I not a Frenchman ? And is 
 he not a foreigner ? Come, shake hands with me ; as 
 soon as I am Emperor, depend upon it you shall be 
 a general, and a grand officer of the Legion of 
 Honour." 
 
 " Ah ! my jewel," interrupted Madame Liebeau, 
 " how happy will France then be. You are such a 
 friend of peace. We will then have no wars, no 
 contributions ; all the English milords may then 
 come here and spend their money, nobody cares 
 about where or how. Will you not, then, my 
 sweet love, make all the gentlemen here your 
 chamberlains, and permit me to accept all the ladies
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 97 
 
 of the company for my Maids of Honour or ladies-in- 
 waiting ? " 
 
 " Softly, softly," cried Frial, who now began to be 
 as intoxicated and as ambitious as the general ; 
 " whenever Napoleon dies, I have more hope, more 
 claim, and more right than you to the throne. I am 
 in actual service ; and had not Bonaparte been the 
 same, he might have still remained upon the half- 
 pay, obscure and despised. Were not most of the 
 Field-marshals and generals under him now, above 
 him ten years ago ? May I not, ten years hence, if 
 I am satisfied with you, General Liebeau, make you 
 also a Field-marshal, or my Minister of War; and 
 you, Madame Liebeau, a lady of my wife's wardrobe, 
 as soon as I am married ? I, too, have my plans and 
 my views, and perhaps one day you will recollect this 
 conversation, and not be sorry foi' my acquaintance." 
 
 " What ! you a colonel, an Emperor, before me, 
 who have so long been a general ? " howled Liebeau, 
 who was no longer able to speak. " I would sooner 
 knock your brains out with this bottle than suffer 
 such a precedence ; and my wife a lady of your ward- 
 robe ! she who has possessed from her birth the soul 
 of an Empress ! No, sir ! never will I take the oath 
 to you, nor suffer anybody else to take it." 
 
 "Then I will punish you as a rebel," retorted 
 Frial ; " and as sure as you stand here you shall 
 be shot."
 
 98 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 Liebeau then rose up to fetch his sword, but the 
 company interfered, and the dispute about the priority 
 of claim to the throne of France between the ci-devant 
 drummer and ci-devant jockey was left undecided. 
 From the words and looks of several of the captains 
 present, I think that they seemed, in their own 
 opinions, to have as much prospect and expectation 
 to reign over the French Empire as either G^n^ral 
 Liebeau or Colonel Frial. 
 
 As soon as I returned home I wrote down this 
 curious conversation and this debate about suprem- 
 acy. To what a degradation is the highest rank in 
 my unfortimate country reduced when two such 
 personages seriously contend about it! I collected 
 more subjects for meditation and melancholy in this 
 low company (where, by the bye, I witnessed more 
 vulgarity and more indecencies than I had before 
 seen during my life) than from all former scenes of 
 humiliation and disgust since my return here. When 
 
 I the next day mentioned it to Gdndral de M , 
 
 whom you have known as an emigrant officer in your 
 service, but whom policy has since ranged under the 
 colours of Bonaparte, he assured me that these dis- 
 cussions about the Imperial throne are very frequent 
 among the superior officers, and have caused many 
 bloody scenes ; and that hardly any of our generals 
 of any talent exist who have not the same arriire 
 pensSe of some day or other. Napoleon cannot,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 99 
 
 therefore, well be ignorant of the many other dy- 
 nasties here now rivalling that of the Bonapartes, 
 and who wait only for his exit to tear his Senatus 
 Consultum, his will, and his family, as well as each 
 other, to pieces.
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — I was lately invited to a tea-party by 
 one of our rich upstarts, who, from a scavenger, is, by 
 the Revolution and by Bonaparte, transformed into a 
 Legislator, Commander of the Legion of Honour, and 
 possessor of wealth amounting to eighteen millions of 
 livres — .£750,000. In this house I saw for the first 
 time the famous Madame Chevalier, the mistress, and 
 the indirect cause of the untimely end, of the unfor- 
 tunate Paul the First. She is very short, fat, and 
 coarse. I do not know whether prejudice, from what 
 I have heard of her vile, greedy, and immoral char- 
 acter, influenced my feelings, but she appeared to me 
 a most artful, vain, and disagreeable woman. She 
 looked to be about thirty -six years of age; and 
 though she might when younger have been well made, 
 it is impossible that she could ever have been hand- 
 some. The features of her face are far from being 
 regular. Her mouth is large, her eyes hollow, and 
 her nose short. Her language is that of brothels, 
 and her manners correspond with her expressions. 
 She is the daughter of a workman at a silk manufac-

 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 101 
 
 tory at Lyons; she ceased to be a maid before she 
 had attained the age of a woman, and lived in a 
 brothel in her native city, kept by a Madame Thi- 
 banlt, where her husband first became acquainted 
 with her. She then had a tolerably good voice, was 
 young and insinuating, and he inti^oduced her on the 
 same stage where he was one of the inferior dancers. 
 Here in a short time she improved so much, that she 
 was engaged as a supernumerary ; her salary in 
 France as an actress was, however, never above 
 twelve hundred livres in the year — £50 — which 
 was four hundi'ed livres more than her husband 
 received. 
 
 He, with several other inferior and unprincipled 
 actors and dancers, quitted the stage in the beginning 
 of the Revolution for the clubs ; and instead of di- 
 verting his audience, resolved to reform and regen- 
 erate his nation. His name is found in the annals 
 of the crimes perpetrated at Lyons, by the side of 
 that of a Fouch^, a Collot d' Herbois, and other 
 wicked offsprings of rebellion. With all other ter- 
 rorists, he was imprisoned for some time after the 
 death of Robespierre ; as soon as restored to liberty, 
 he set out with his wife for Hamburg, where some 
 amateurs had constructed a French theatre. 
 
 It was in the autumn of 1795 when Madame Che- 
 valier was first heard of in the North of Europe, where 
 her arrival occasioned a kind of theatrical war between
 
 102 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 the French, American, and Hamburg Jacobins on one 
 side, and the English and emigrant loyalists on the 
 other. Having no money to continue her pretended 
 journey to Sweden, she asked the manager of the 
 French theatre at Hamburg to allow her a benefit, 
 and permission to play on that night. She selected, 
 of course, a part in which she could appear to the 
 most advantage, and was deservedly applauded. The 
 very next evening the Jacobin cabal called the man- 
 ager upon the stage, and insisted that Madame Cheva- 
 lier should be given a regular engagement. He replied 
 that no place suitable to her talents was vacant, and 
 that it would be ungenerous to turn away for her sake 
 another actress with whom the public had hitherto 
 declared their satisfaction. The Jacobins continued 
 inflexible, and here, as well as everywhere else, sup- 
 ported injustice by violence. As the patriotism of the 
 husband, more than the charms of the wife, was 
 known to have produced this indecent fracas, which 
 for upwards of a week interrupted the plays, all anti- 
 Jacobins united to restore order. In this they would, 
 perhaps, have finally succeeded, had not the bayonets 
 of the Hamburg soldiers interfered, and forced this 
 precious piece of revolutionary furniture upon the 
 manager and upon the stage. 
 
 After displaying her gratitude in her own way to 
 each individual of the Jacobin levy en masse in her 
 favour, she was taken into keeping by a then rich and
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 103 
 
 married Hamburg merchant, who made her a present 
 of a richly and elegantly furnished house, and ex- 
 pended besides ten thousand louis d'or on her, before 
 he had a mortifying comiction that some other had 
 partaken of those favours for which he had so dearly 
 paid. A countryman of yours then showed himself 
 with more noise than honour upon the scene, and 
 made his debut with a phaeton and four, which he 
 presented to his theatrical goddess, together with his 
 own dear portrait, set round with large and valuable 
 diamonds. Madame Chevalier, however, soon after- 
 wards hearing that her English gallant had come over 
 to Germany for economy, and that his credit with his 
 banker was nearly exhausted, had his portrait changed 
 for that of another and richer lover, preserving, how- 
 ever, the diamonds ; and she exposed this inconstancy 
 even upon the stage, by suspending, as if in triumph, 
 the new portrait fastened on her bosom. The Eng- 
 lishman, wishing to retrieve his phaeton and horses, 
 which he protested only to have lent his belle, found 
 that she had put the whole equipage into a kind of 
 lottery, or raffle, to which all her numerous friends 
 had subscribed, and that an Altona Jew had won it. 
 
 The successor of your countryman was a Russian 
 nobleman, succeeded in his turn by a Polish Jew, who 
 was ruined and discarded within three months. She 
 then became the property of the public, and, by her 
 active industry^ during a stay of four years at Ham-
 
 104 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 burg, she was enabled to remit to France, before her 
 departure for Russia, one million two hundred thou- 
 sand livres — .^SOjOOO. Her popularity was, how- 
 ever, at that period, very much on the decline, as she 
 had stooped to the most indelicate means to collect 
 money, and to extort it from her friends and acquaint- 
 ances. She had always lists of subscriptions in her 
 pocket ; some with proposals to play in her lotteries 
 for trinkets unnecessary to her; others, to procure 
 her, by the assistance of subscribers, some trinkets 
 which she wanted. 
 
 I suppose it to be no secret to you that the female 
 agents of Talleyrand's secret diplomacy are frequently 
 more useful than those of the other sex. I am told 
 that Madame Rochechouart was that friend of our 
 Ministers who engaged Madame Chevalier in her 
 Russian expedition, and who instructed her how to 
 act her parts well at St. Petersburg. I need not 
 repeat what is so well known, that, after this artful 
 emissary had ruined the domestic happiness of the 
 Russian Monarch, she degraded him in his political 
 transactions, and became the indirect cause of his 
 untimely end, in procuring, for a bribe of fifty thou- 
 sand roubles in money and jewels, the recall of P 
 
 Z , one of the principal conspirators against the 
 
 unfortunate Paul. 
 
 The wealth she plundered in the Russian capital, 
 within the short period of twenty months, amounted
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 105 
 
 to much above one million of roubles. For money she 
 procured impunity for crime, and brought upon inno- 
 cence the punishment merited by guilt. The scaffolds 
 of Russia were bleeding, and the roads to Siberia 
 crowded with the victims of the avarice of this female 
 demon, who often promised what she was unable to 
 perform, and, to silence complaint, added cruelty 
 to fraud, and, after pocketing the bribe, resorted to 
 the executioner to remove those whom she had duped. 
 The shocking anecdote of the Sardinian secretary, 
 whom she swindled out of nearly a hundred thousand 
 roubles, and on whom she afterwards persuaded her 
 Imperial lover to inflict capital punishment, is too 
 recent and too public to be unknown or forgotten. A 
 Russian nobleman has assured me that the number 
 of unfortunate individuals whom her and her hus- 
 band's intrigues have caused to suffer capitally during 
 1800 and 1801 was forty-six; and that nearly three 
 hundred persons besides, who could not or would not 
 pay their extortionate demands, were exiled to Siberia 
 during the same period of time. 
 
 You may, perhaps, think that a low woman who 
 could produce such great and terrible events, must be 
 mistress of natural charms, as well as of acquired 
 accomplishments. As I have already stated, she can 
 have no pretensions to either, but she is extremely 
 insinuating, sings tolerably well, has a fresh and 
 healthy look, and possesses an unusually good share
 
 106 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 of cunning, presumption, and duplicity. Her hus- 
 band, also, everywhere took care to make her fash- 
 ionable; and the vanity of the first of their dupes 
 increased the number of her admirers and engaged 
 the vanity of others in their turn to sacrifice them- 
 selves at her shrine. 
 
 The immorality of our age, also, often procured her 
 popularity for what deserved, and in better times 
 would have encountered, the severest reprobation. In 
 1797, an emigrant lodged at an inn at Hamburg 
 where another traveller was robbed of a large sum in 
 ready money and jewels. The unfortunate is always 
 suspected ; and in the visit made to his room by the 
 magistrates was found a key that opened the door 
 of the apartment where the theft had been committed. 
 In vain did he represent that had he been the thief 
 he should not have kept an instrument which was, or 
 might be, construed into an argument of guilt; he 
 was carried to prison, and, though none of the prop- 
 erty was discovered in his possession, would have 
 been condemned, had he not produced Madame 
 Chevalier, who avowed that the key opened the 
 door of her bedroom, which the smith who had 
 made it confirmed, and swore that he had fabricated 
 eight keys for the same actress and for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 At that time this woman lived in the same house 
 with her husband, but cohabited there with the hus-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 107 
 
 band of another woman. She had also places of assig- 
 nation with other gallants at private apartments, both 
 in Hambm-g and at Altona. All these, her scanda- 
 lous intrigues, were known even to the common 
 porters of these cities. The first time, after the affair 
 of the key had become public, she acted in a play 
 where a key was mentioned, and the audience imme- 
 diately repeated, " The key ! the key ! " Far from 
 being ashamed, she appeared every night in pieces 
 selected by her, where there was mention of keys, and 
 thus tired the jokes of the public. This impudence 
 might have been expected from her, but it was little 
 to be supposed that her barefaced vices should, as 
 really was the case, augment the crowd of suitors, 
 and occasion even some duels, which latter she both 
 encouraged and rewarded. 
 
 Two brothers, of the name of De S , were both 
 
 in love with her, and the eldest, as the richest, 
 became her choice. Offended at his refusal of too 
 large a sum of money, she wrote to the younger De 
 
 S , and offered to accede to his proposals if, like 
 
 a gentleman, he would avenge the affront she had 
 experienced from his brother. He consulted a friend, 
 who, to expose her infamy, advised him to send some 
 confidential person to inform her that he had killed 
 his elder brother, and expected the recompense on the 
 same night. He went and was received with open 
 arms, and had just retired with her, when the elder
 
 108 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 brother, accompanied by his friend, entered the room. 
 Madame Chevalier, instead of upbraiding, laughed, 
 and the next day the public laughed with her, and 
 applauded her more than ever. She knew very well 
 what she was doing. The stories of the key and the 
 duel produced for her more than four thousand louis 
 d'or by the number of new gallants they enticed. It 
 was a kind of emulation among all young men in the 
 North who should be foremost to dishonour and ruin 
 himself with this infamous woman. 
 
 Madame Chevalier and her husband now live here 
 in grand style, and have their grand parties, grand 
 teas, grand assemblies, and grand balls. Their hotel, 
 I am assured, is even visited by the Bonapartes and 
 by the members of the foreign diplomatic corps. In 
 the house where I saw her, I observed that Louis 
 Bonaparte and two foreign Ambassadors spoke to her 
 as old acquaintances. Though rich, to the amount of 
 ten millions of livres — £416,000 — she, or rather 
 her husband, keeps a gambling-house, and her super- 
 annuated charms are still to be bought for money, at 
 the disposal of those amateurs who are fond of an- 
 tiques. Both her husband and herself are still mem- 
 bers of our secret diplomacy, though she complains 
 loudly that, of the two millions of livres — X 83,000 — 
 promised her in 1799 by Bonaparte and Talleyrand 
 if she could succeed in persuading Paul I. to with- 
 draw from his alliance with England and Austria,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 109 
 
 only six hundred thousand livres — i£ 25,000 — has 
 been paid her. 
 
 I cannot finish this letter without telling you that 
 before our military forces had reached the Rhine, our 
 political incendiaries had already taken the field, and 
 were in full march towards the Austrian, Russian, 
 and Prussian capitals. The advanced guard of this 
 dangerous corps consists entirely of females, all 
 gifted with beauty and parts as much superior to 
 those of Madame Chevalier as their instructions are 
 better digested. Bonaparte and Talleyrand have 
 more than once regretted that Madame Chevalier was 
 not ordered to enter into the conspiracy against Paul 
 (whose inconsistency and violence they foresaw would 
 make his reign short), that she might have in- 
 fluenced the conspirators to fix upon a successor 
 more pliable and less scrupulous, and who would 
 have suffered the Cabinet of St. Cloud to dictate to 
 the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. 
 
 I dined in company several times this last spring 
 with two ladies who, rumour said, have been destined 
 
 for your P of W and D of Y 
 
 ever since the Peace of Amiens. Talleyrand is well 
 informed what figures and what talents are requisite to 
 make an impression on these Princes, and has made 
 his choice accordingly. These ladies have lately disap- 
 peared, and when inquired after are stated to be in the 
 country, though I do not consider it improbable that
 
 110 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 they have already arrived at headquarters. They are 
 both rather fair and lusty, above the middle size, and 
 about twenty-five years of age. They speak, besides 
 French, the English and Italian languages. They are 
 good drawers, good musicians, good singers, and, if 
 necessary, even good drinkers.
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 Paeis, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lobd : — Had the citizens of the United States 
 been as submissive to the taxation of your Govern- 
 ment as to the vexations of our ruler, America 
 would, perhaps, have been less free and Europe more 
 tranquil. 
 
 After the treaty of Amiens had produced a general 
 pacification, our Government was seriously deter- 
 mined to reconquer from America a part of those 
 treasures its citizens had gained during the Revolu- 
 tionary War, by a neutrality which our policy and 
 interest required, and which the liberality of your 
 Government endured. Hence the acquisition we 
 made of New Orleans from Spain, and hence the 
 intrigues of our emissaries in that colony, and the 
 peremptory requisitions of provision for St. Domingo 
 by our Minister and generals. Had we been victo- 
 rious in St. Domingo, most of our troops there were 
 destined for the American Continent, to invade, 
 according to circumstances, either the Spanish col- 
 onies on the terra firma or the States of the American 
 Commonwealth. The unforeseen rupture with your
 
 112 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 country postponed a plan that is far from being laid 
 aside. 
 
 You may, perhaps, think that since we sold Lou- 
 isiana we have no footing in America that can 
 threaten the peace or independence of the United 
 States ; but may not the same dictates that procured 
 us at Madrid the acquisition of New Orleans, also 
 make us masters of Spanish Florida ? And do you 
 believe it improbable that the present disagreement 
 between America and Spain is kept up by our intrigues 
 and by our future views ? Would not a word from 
 us settle in an instant at Madrid the differences as 
 well as the frontiers of the contending parties in 
 America ? And does it not seem to be the regular 
 and systematic plan of our Government to provoke 
 the retaliation of the Americans, and to show our 
 disregard of their privilege of neutrality and rights of 
 independence ; and that we insult them only because 
 we despise them, and despise them only because we 
 do not apprehend their resentment ? 
 
 I have heard the late American Minister here 
 assert that the American vessels captured by our 
 cruisers and condemned by our tribunals, only during 
 the last war, amounted to about five hundred; and 
 their cargoes (all American property) to one hundred 
 and fifty millions of livres — ^6,000,000. Some few 
 days ago I saw a printed list, presented by the Ameri- 
 can consul to our Minister of the Marine Department,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 113 
 
 claiming one hundred and twelve American ships 
 captured in the West Indies and on the coast of 
 America within these last two years, the cargoes of 
 which have all been confiscated, and most of the 
 crews still continue prisoners at Martinico, Gaude- 
 loupe, or Cayenne. Besides these, sixty-six American 
 ships, after being plundered in part of their cargoes 
 at sea by our privateers, had been released ; and their 
 claims for property thus lost, or damage thus done, 
 amounting to one million three hundred thousand 
 livres — X54,000. 
 
 You must have read the proclamations of our gov- 
 ernors in the West Indies, and therefore remember 
 that one dated at Guadeloupe, and another dated at 
 the City of San Domingo, both declare, without far- 
 ther ceremony, all American and other neutral ships 
 and cargoes good and lawful prizes, when coming 
 from or destined to any port in the Island of St. 
 Domingo, because Bonaparte^s subjects there were in 
 a state of rebellion. What would these philosophers 
 who, twelve years ago, wrote so many libels against 
 your Ministers for their pretended system of famine, 
 have said, had they, instead of prohibiting the carry- 
 ing of ammunition and provisions to the ports of 
 France, thus extended their orders without discrimina- 
 tion or distinction ? How would the neutral Ameri- 
 cans, and the neutral Danes, and their then allies, 
 philosophers, and Jacobins of all colours and classes,
 
 114 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 have complained and declaimed against the tyrants of 
 the seas; against the enemies of humanity, liberty, 
 and equality. Have not the negroes now, as much as 
 our Jacobins had in 1793, a right to call upon all 
 those tender-hearted schemers, dupes, or impostors, to 
 interest humanity in their favour ? But, as far as I 
 know, no friends of liberty have yet written a line in 
 favour of these oppressed and injured men, whose 
 former slavery was never doubtful, and who, there- 
 fore, had more reason to rise against their tyrants, 
 and to attempt to shake off their yoke, than our 
 French insurgents, who, free before, have never since 
 they revolted against lawful authority enjoyed an 
 hour's freedom. But the Emperor Jacques the First 
 has no propagators, no emissaries, no learned savans 
 and no secret agents to preach insurrection in other 
 States, while defending his own usurpation ; besides, 
 his treasury is not in the most brilliant and flourish- 
 ing situation, and the crew of our white revolutionists 
 are less attached to liberty than to cash. 
 
 Our Ambassador to the United States, G^n^ral 
 Turreaux, is far from being contented with our 
 friend, the President Jefferson, whose patriotic no- 
 tions have not yet soared to the level of our patriotic 
 transactions. He refused both to prevent the mar- 
 riage of Jerome Bonaparte with a female American 
 citizen, and to detain her after her marriage when her 
 husband returned to Europe. To our continual repre-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 115 
 
 sentation against the liberties which the American 
 newspapers take with our Government, with our 
 Emperor, with our Imperial Family, and with our 
 Imperial Ministers, the answer has always been, 
 " Prosecute the libeller, and as soon as he is con- 
 victed he will be punished." This tardy and negative 
 justice is so opposite to our expeditious and summary 
 mode of proceeding, of punishing first and trying 
 afterwards, that it must be both humiliating and 
 offensive. In return, when the Americans have com- 
 plained to Turreaux against the piracy of our priva- 
 teers, he has sent them here to seek redress, where 
 they also will, to their cost, discover that in eivil cases 
 our justice has not the same rapid march as when it 
 is a question of arresting or transporting suspected 
 persons, or of tormenting, shooting, or guillotining a 
 pretended spy, or supposed conspirator. 
 
 Had the peace of Europe continued, Bernadotte 
 was the person selected by Bonaparte and Talleyrand 
 as our representative in America; because we then 
 intended to strike,^ and not to negotiate. But during 
 the present embroiled state of Europe, an intriguer 
 was more necessary there than either a warrior or a 
 politician. A man who has passed through all the mire 
 of our own Revolution, who has been in the secrets, 
 and an accomplice of all our factions, is, undoubtedly, 
 a useful instrument where factions are to be created 
 and directed, where wealth is designed for pillage,
 
 116 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 and a State for overthrow. G^n^ral Turreaux is, 
 therefore, in his place, and at his proper post, as our 
 Ambassador in America. 
 
 The son of a valet of the late Due de' Bouillon, 
 Turreaux called himself before the Revolution Cheva- 
 lier de Grambonville, and was, in fact, a cheva- 
 lier cP Industrie (a swindler), who supported himself 
 by gambling and cheating. An associate of Beurnon- 
 ville, Barras, and other vile characters, he with them 
 joined the colours of rebellion, and served under the 
 former in 1792, in the army of the Moselle, first as a 
 volunteer, and afterwards as an aide-de-camp. In a 
 speech at the Jacobin Club at Quesnoy, on the 20th 
 of November, 1792, he made a motion — "That, 
 throughout the whole republican army, all hats should 
 be prohibited, and red caps substituted in their place ; 
 and that, not only portable guillotines, but portable 
 Jacobin clubs, should accompany the soldiers of 
 Liberty and Equality." 
 
 A cousin of his was a member of the National Con- 
 vention, and one of those called Mountaineers, or 
 sturdy partisans of Marat and Robespierre. It was 
 to the influence of this cousin, that he was indebted, 
 first for a commission as an adjutant -general, and 
 afterwards for his promotion to a general of brigade. 
 In 1793, he was ordered to march, under the com- 
 mand of Santerre, to La Vendue, where he shared in 
 the defeat of the republicans at Vihiers. At the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 117 
 
 engagement near Roches d' Erigne he commanded, 
 for the first time, a separate column, and the capacity 
 and abilities which he displayed on that occasion were 
 such as might have been expected from a man who 
 had passed the first thirty years of his life in brothels 
 and gambling-houses. So pleasant were his disposi- 
 tions, that almost the whole army narrowly escaped 
 having been thrown and pushed into the River Loire. 
 The battle of Dou^ was the only one in which he had 
 a share where the republicans were not routed ; but 
 some few days afterwards, near Coron, all the troops 
 under him were cut to pieces, and he was himself 
 wounded. 
 
 The confidence of his friends, the Jacobins, in- 
 creased, however, in proportion to his disasters, and 
 he was, in 1794, after the superior number of the 
 republican soldiers had forced the remnants of the 
 Royalists to evacuate what was properly called La 
 Vendee, appointed a commander-in-chief. He had 
 now an opportunity to display his infamy and bar- 
 barity. Having established his headquarters at 
 Nantes, where he was safe, amidst the massacres of 
 women and children ordered by his friend Carridre, he 
 commanded the republican army to enter La Vendi^e 
 in twelve columns, preceded by fire and sword; and 
 within four weeks, one of the most populous depart- 
 ments of France, to the extent and circumference of 
 sixty leagues, was laid waste — not a house, not a cot-
 
 118 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 tage, not a tree was spared, all was reduced to ashes ; 
 and the unfortunate inhabitants, who had not perished 
 amid the ruin of their dwellings, were shot or stabbed, 
 while attempting to save themselves from the com- 
 mon conflagration. On the 22d of January, 1794, he 
 wrote to the Committee of Public Safety of the 
 National Convention : " Citizen Representatives ! — A 
 country of sixty leagues extent, I have the happiness 
 to inform you, is now a perfect desert ; not a dwelling, 
 not a bush, but is reduced to ashes ; and of one hun- 
 dred and eighty thousand worthless inhabitants, not a 
 soul breathes any longer. Men and women, old men 
 and children, have all experienced the national ven- 
 geance, and are no more. It was a pleasure to a true 
 republican to see upon the bayonets of each of our 
 brave republicans the children of traitors, or their 
 heads. According to the lowest calculation, I have 
 despatched^ within three months, two hundred thou- 
 sand individuals of both sexes, and of all ages. Vive 
 la Repuhlique ! ,! V In the works of Prudhomme and 
 our republican writers, are inserted hundreds of let- 
 ters, still more cruelly extravagant, from this ci-devant 
 friend of Liberty and Equality, and at present faithful 
 subject, and grand officer of the Legion of Honour, of 
 His Imperial Majesty Napoleon the First. 
 
 After the death of Robespierre, Turreaux, then a 
 governor at Belleisle, was arrested as a terrorist, and 
 shut up at Du Plessis until the general amnesty
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 119 
 
 released him in 1795. During his imprisonment he 
 amused himself "vdth writing memoirs of the war of 
 La Vendue, in which he tried to prove that all his 
 barbarities had been perpetrated for the sake of 
 humanity, and to save the lives of republicans. He 
 had also the modesty to announce that, as a military 
 work, his production would be equally interesting as 
 those of a Folard and Guibert. These memoirs, how- 
 ever, proved nothing but that he was equally ignorant 
 and wicked, presumptuous and ferocious. 
 
 During the reign of the Directory he was rather 
 discarded, or only employed as a kind of recruiting 
 officer to hunt young conscripts, but in 1800 Bona- 
 parte gave him a command in the army of reserve ; 
 and in 1802, another in the army of the interior. He 
 then became one of the most assiduous and cringing 
 courtiers at the Emperor's levies ; while in the Em- 
 press's drawing-room he assumed his former air and ton 
 of a chevalier, in hopes of imposing upon those who did 
 not remember the nickname which his soldiers gave 
 him ten years before, of Chevalier of the Guillotine. 
 
 At a ball of the Bonaparte family to which he was 
 invited, the Emperor took the fancy to dance with his 
 stepdaughter, Madame Louis. He, therefore, un- 
 hooked his sword, which he handed to a young 
 colonel, D' Avry, standing by his side. This colonel, 
 who had been a page at the Court of Louis XVI., 
 knew that it would have been against etiquette, and
 
 120 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 even unbecoming of him, to act as a valet to Napo- 
 leon while there were valets in the room ; he there- 
 fore retreated, looking romid for a servant. " Oh ! " 
 said the Emperor, " I see that I am mistaken; here, 
 generals," continued he (addressing himself to half 
 a dozen, with whose independent principles and good 
 breeding he was acquainted), " take this sword during 
 my dance." They all pushed forward, but Turreaux 
 and La Grange, another general and intriguer, were 
 foremost; the latter, however, received the prefer- 
 ence. On the next day, D' Avry was ordered upon 
 service to Cayenne. 
 
 Turreaux has acquired, by his patriotic deeds in 
 La Vendue, a fortune of seven millions of livres — 
 ^292,000. He has the highest opinion of his own 
 capacity, while a moment's conversation will inform 
 a man of sense that he is only a conceited fool. As 
 to his political transactions, he has by his side, as a 
 secretary, a man of the name of Petry, who has re- 
 ceived a diplomatic education, and does not want 
 either subtlety or parts; and on him, no doubt, is 
 thrown the drudgery of business. During a Euro- 
 pean war, Turreaux's post is of little relative conse- 
 quence ; but should Napoleon live to dictate another 
 general pacification, the United States will be ex- 
 posed, on their frontiers, or in their interior, to the 
 same outrages their commercial navy now experiences 
 on the main.
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — A general officer, who has just arrived 
 from Italy, has assured me that, so far from Bona- 
 parte's subjects on the other side of the Alps being 
 contented and attached to his person and Govern- 
 ment, were a victorious Austrian army to enter the 
 plains of Lombardy a general insurrection would be 
 the consequence. During these last nine years the 
 inhabitants have not enjoyed a moment's tranquillity 
 or safety. Every relation or favourite whom Napo- 
 leon wished to provide for, or to enrich, he has sad- 
 dled upon them as in free quarters ; and since 1796, 
 when they first had the honour of our Emperor's 
 acquaintance, they have paid more in taxes, in forced 
 loans, requisitions, and extortions of every descrip- 
 tion, than their ancestors or themselves had paid 
 during the one hundred and ninety -six preceding 
 years. 
 
 Such is the public spirit, and such have been the 
 sufferings of the people in the ci-devant Lombardy ; 
 in Piedmont they are still worse off. Having more 
 national character and more fidelity towards their 
 
 121
 
 122 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 Sovereign than their neighbours, they are also more 
 cruelly treated. Their governor, G^n^ral De Menou, 
 has caused most of the departments to be declared 
 under martial law, and without right to claim the 
 protection of our happy constitution. In every city 
 or town are organized special tribunals, the progeny 
 of our revolutionary tribunals, against the sentences 
 of which no appeal can be made, though these sen- 
 tences are always capital ones. Before these, sus- 
 picion is evidence, and an imprudent word is subject 
 to the same punishment as a murderous deed. Mur- 
 mur is regarded as mutiny, and he who complains is 
 shot as a conspirator. 
 
 There exist only two ways for the wretched Pied- 
 montese to escape these legal assassinations. They 
 must either desert their country or sacrifice a part of 
 their property. In the former case, if retaken, they 
 are condemned as emigrants ; and in the latter they 
 incur the risk that those to whom they have already 
 given a part of their possessions will also require the 
 remainder, and having obtained it, to enjoy in security 
 the spoil, will send them to the tribunals and to death. 
 De Menou has a fixed tariff for his protection, regu- 
 lated according to the riches of each person ; and the 
 tax - gatherers collect these arbitrary contributions 
 with the regular ones, so little pains are taken to 
 conceal or to disguise these robberies. 
 
 De Menou, by turns a nobleman and a sans-culotte^
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 123 
 
 a Christian and a Mussulman, is wicked and profli- 
 gate, not from the impulse of the moment or of any 
 sudden gust of passion, but coldly and deliberately. 
 He calculates with sang-froid the profit and the risk 
 of every infamous action he proposes to commit, and 
 determines accordingly. He owed some riches and 
 the rank of the major-general to the bounty of Louis 
 XVI., but when he considered the immense value of 
 the revolutionary plunder, called national property, 
 and that those who confiscated could also promote, he 
 did not hesitate what party to take. A traitor is 
 generally a coward ; he has everywhere experienced 
 defeats ; he was defeated by his Royalist countrymen 
 in 1793, by his Mahometan sectaries in 1800, and 
 by your countrymen in 1801. 
 
 Besides his Turkish wife, De Menou has in the 
 same house with her one Italian and two French girls, 
 who live openly with him, but who are obliged to keep 
 themselves by selling their influence and protection, 
 and, perhaps, sometimes even their personal favours. 
 He has also in his hOtel several gambling - tables, 
 where those who are too bashful to address them- 
 selves to himself or his mistresses may deposit their 
 donations, and if they are thought sufficient, the hint 
 is taken and their business done. He never pays 
 any debts and never buys anything for ready money, 
 and all persons of his suite, or appertaining to his 
 establishment, have the same privilege. Troublesome
 
 124 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 creditors are recommended to the care of the special 
 tribunals, which also find means to reduce the 
 obstinacy of those refractory merchants or traders 
 who refuse giving any credit. All the money he 
 extorts or obtains is brought to this capital and laid 
 out by his agents in purchasing estates, which, from 
 his advanced age and weak constitution, he has little 
 prospect of long enjoying. He is a grand ofl&cer of 
 Bonaparte's Legion of Honour, and has a long claim 
 to that distinction, because as early as on the 25th of 
 June, 1790, he made a motion in the National 
 Assembly to suppress all former Royal Orders in 
 France, and to create in their place only a national 
 one. Always an incorrigible flatterer, when Napoleon 
 proclaimed himself Ali the Mussulman, De Menou 
 professed himself Abdallah the believer in the 
 Alcoran. 
 
 The late vice-president of the Italian Republic, 
 Melzi-Eril, is now in complete disgrace with his 
 Sovereign, Napoleon the First. If persons of rank 
 and property would read through the list of those, 
 their equals by birth and wealth, who, after being 
 seduced by the sophistry of impostors, dishonoured 
 and exposed themselves by joining in the Revolution, 
 they might see that none of them have escaped insults, 
 many have suffered death, and all have been, or are, 
 vile slaves, at the mercy of the whip of some upstart 
 beggar, and trampled upon by men started up from
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 125 
 
 the mud, of lowest birth and basest morals. If their 
 revolutionary mania were not incurable, this truth and 
 this eddence would retain them within their duty, so 
 corresponding with their real interest, and prevent 
 them from being any longer borne along by a current 
 of infamy and danger, and preserve them from being 
 lost upon quicksands or dashed against rocks. 
 
 The conduct and fate of the Italian nobleman and 
 Spanish grandee, Melzi-Eril, has induced me to make 
 these reflections. Wealthy as well as elevated, he 
 might have passed his life in uninterrupted tranquil- 
 lity, enjoying its comforts without experiencing its 
 vicissitudes, with the esteem of his contemporaries and 
 without reproach from posterity or from his own 
 conscience. Unfortunately for him, a journey into 
 this country made him acquainted both with our 
 philosophers and with our philosophical works ; and 
 he had neither natural capacity to distinguish errors 
 from reality, nor judgment enough to perceive that 
 what appeared Improving and charming in theory, 
 frequently became destructive and improper when 
 attempted to be put into practice. Returned to his 
 own country, his acquired half-learning made him 
 wholly dissatisfied with his Government, with his 
 religion, and with himself. In our Revolution he 
 thought that he saw the first approach towards the 
 perfection of the human species, and that it would 
 soon make mankind as good and as regenerated in
 
 126 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 society as was promised in books. With our own 
 regenerators he extenuated the crimes which sullied 
 their work from its first page, and declared them even 
 necessary to make the conclusion so much the more 
 complete. When, therefore, Bonaparte, in 1796, 
 entered the capital of Lombardy, Melzi was among 
 the first of the Italian nobility who hailed him as 9 
 deliverer. 
 
 The numerous vexations and repeated pillage of 
 our Government, generals, commissaries, and soldiers, 
 did not abate his zeal nor alter his opinion. "The 
 faults and sufferings of individuals," he said, " are 
 nothing to the goodness of the cause, and do not 
 impair the utility of the whole." To him, everything 
 the Revolution produced was the best ; the murder of 
 thousands and the ruin of millions were, with him, 
 nothing compared with the benefit the universe would 
 one day derive from the principles and instruction of 
 our armed and unarmed philosophers. In recom- 
 pense for so much complacency, and such great 
 patriotism, Bonaparte appointed him, in 1797, a plen- 
 ipotentiary from the Cisalpine Republic to the Con- 
 gress at Rastadt; and, in 1802, a vice-president of 
 the Italian Republic. 
 
 As Melzi was a sincere and disinterested republi- 
 can fanatic, he did not much approve of the strides 
 Bonaparte made towards a sovereignty that annihi- 
 lated the sovereignty of his sovereign people. In a
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 127 
 
 conference, however, with Talleyrand, at Lyons, in 
 February, 1802, he was convinced that this age was 
 not yet ripe for all the improvements our philoso- 
 phers intended to confer on it ; and that, to prevent 
 it from retrogading to the point where it was found 
 by our Revolution, it was necessary that it should be 
 ruled by enlightened men, such as he and Bonaparte, 
 to whom he advised him by all means never to give 
 the least hint about liberty and equality. Our Minister 
 ended his fraternal counsel with obliging Melzi to 
 sign a stipulation for a yearly sum, as a douceur for 
 the place he occupied. 
 
 The sweets of power shortly caused Melzi to forget 
 both the tenets of his philosophy and his schemes of 
 regeneration. He trusted so much to the promises of 
 Bonaparte and Talleyrand, that he believed himself 
 destined to reign for life, and was, therefore, not a 
 little surprised when he was ordered by Napoleon the 
 First to descend and salute Eugene de Beauharnais as 
 the deputy Sovereign of the Sovereign King of Italy. 
 He was not philosopher enough to conceal his cha- 
 grin, and bowed with such a bad grace to the new 
 Viceroy that it was visible he would have preferred 
 seeing in that situation an Austrian Archduke as a 
 governor-general. To soften his disappointment, Bona- 
 parte offered to make him a Prince, and with that 
 rank indemnify him for breaking the promises given 
 at Lyons, where it is known that the influence of
 
 128 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 Melzi, more than the intrigues of Talleyrand, deter- 
 mined the Italian Consulta in the choice of a 
 president. 
 
 Immediately after Bonaparte's return to France, 
 Melzi left Milan, and retired to an estate in Tuscany ; 
 from that place he wrote to Talleyrand a letter full 
 of reproach, and concluded by asking leave to pass 
 the remainder of his days in Spain among his rela- 
 tives. An answer was presented him by an officer of 
 Bonaparte's Gendarmes d' Elite, in which he was 
 forbidden to quit Italy, and ordered to return with 
 the officer to Milan, and there occupy his office of 
 Arch-Chancellor to which he had been nominated. 
 Enraged at such treatment, he endeavoured to kill 
 himself with a dose of poison, but his attempt did not 
 succeed. His health was, however, so much injured 
 by it that it is not supposed he can live long. What 
 a lesson for reformers and innovators !
 
 LETTER Xm. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 My Lord : — A ridiculous affair lately occasioned 
 a great deal of bustle among the members of our 
 foreign diplomatic corps. When Bonaparte de- 
 manded for himself and for his wife the title of 
 Imperial Majesty, and for his brothers and sisters 
 that of Imperial Highness, he also insisted on the 
 salutation of a Serene Highness being given to his 
 Arch -Chancellor, Cambac^rds, and his Arch -Treas- 
 urer, Lebrun. The political consciences of the in- 
 dependent representatives of independent Continental 
 Princes immediately took the alarm at the latter 
 innovation, as the appellation of Serene Highness 
 has never hitherto been bestowed on persons who 
 had not princely rank. They complained to Talley- 
 rand, they petitioned Bonaparte, and they even des- 
 patched couriers to their respective Courts. The 
 Minister smiled, the Emperor cursed, and their own 
 Cabinets deliberated. All routs, all assemblies, all 
 circles, and all balls were at a stop. Cambacdrds 
 applied to his Sovereign to support his pretensions, 
 as connected with his own dignity ; and the diplo-
 
 130 SECRET COURT IMEMOIRS. 
 
 matic corps held forward their dignity as opposing 
 the pretensions of Cambacer^s. In this dilemma 
 Bonaparte ordered all the Ambassadors, Ministers, 
 envoys, and agents en masse to the castle of the 
 Tuileries. After hearing, with apparent patience, 
 their arguments in favour of established etiquette 
 and customs, he remained inflexible, upon the ground 
 that he, as master, had a right to confer what titles 
 he chose within his own dominions on his own sub- 
 jects ; and that those foreigners who refused to 
 submit to his regulations might return to their own 
 country. This plain explanation neither effecting a 
 conversion nor making any impression, he grew 
 warm, and left the refractory diplomatists with these 
 remarkable words : " Were I to create my Mameluke 
 Rostan a King, both you and your masters should 
 acknowledge him in that rank." 
 
 After this conference most of Their Excellencies 
 were seized with terror and fear, and would, perhaps, 
 have subscribed to the commands of our Emperor 
 had not some of the wisest among them proposed, 
 and obtained the consent of the rest, to apply once 
 more to Talleyrand, and purchase by some douceur 
 his assistance in this great business. The heart of 
 our Minister is easily softened ; and he assented, 
 upon certain conditions, to lay the whole before his 
 Sovereign in such a manner that Cambac^res should 
 be made a Prince as well as a Serene Highness.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 131 
 
 It is said that Bonaparte was not easily persuaded 
 to this measure, and did not consent to it before the 
 Minister remarked that his condescension in this 
 insignificant opposition to his will would proclaim 
 his moderation and generosity, and empower him to 
 insist on obedience when matters of the greatest con- 
 sequence should be in question or disputed. Thus 
 our regicide, Cambac^res, owes his princely title to 
 the shallow intrigues of the agents of legitimate 
 Sovereigns. Their nicety in talking of innovations 
 with regard to him, after they had without difficulty 
 hailed a sans-eulotte an Emperor, and other sans- 
 culottes Imperial Highnesses, was as absurd as im- 
 proper. Report, however, states, what is very 
 probable, that they were merely the duped tools of 
 Cambac^res's ambition and vanity, and of Talleyrand's 
 corruption and cupidity. 
 
 Cambaceres expected to have been elevated to a 
 Prince on the same day that he was made a Serene 
 Highness ; but Joseph Bonaparte represented to his 
 brother that too many other princedoms would di- 
 minish the respect and value of the princedoms of 
 the Bonaparte family. Cambacdr^s knew that Tal- 
 leyrand had some reason at that period to be discon- 
 tented with Joseph, and, therefore, asked his advice 
 how to get made a Prince against the wishes of this 
 Grand Elector. After some consideration, the Min- 
 ister replied that he was acquainted with one way,
 
 132 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 which would, with his support, certainly succeed ; 
 but it required a million of livres to set the wheels in 
 motion, and keep them going afterwards. The hint 
 was taken, and an agreement signed for one million, 
 payable on the day when the princely patent should 
 be delivered to the Arch-Chancellor. 
 
 Among the mistresses provided by our Minister for 
 the members of the foreign diplomatic corps, Madame 
 
 B s is one of the ablest in the way of intrigue. 
 
 She was instructed to alarm her hon ami, the Bava- 
 rian Minister, Cetto, who is always bustlmg and 
 pushing himself forward in the grand questions of 
 etiquette. A fool rather than a rogue, and an in- 
 triguer while he thinks himself a negotiator, he was 
 happy to have this occasion to prove his penetrating 
 genius and astonishing information. A convocation 
 of the diplomatic corps was therefore called, and the 
 suggestions of Cetto were regarded as an inspiration, 
 and approved, with a resolution to persevere unani- 
 mously. At their first audience with Talleyrand on 
 this subject, he seemed to incline in their favour; 
 but, as soon as he observed how much they showed 
 themselves interested about this trifling punctilio, it 
 occurred to him that they, as well as Cambac^res, 
 might in some way or other reward the service he 
 
 intended to perform. Madame B s was again 
 
 sent for ; and she once more advised her lover, who 
 again advised his colleagues. Their scanty purses
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 133 
 
 were opened, and a subscription entered into for a 
 very valuable diamond, which, with the millions of 
 the Arch-Chancellor, gave satisfaction to all parties ; 
 and even Joseph Bonaparte was reconciled, upon the 
 consideration that Cambaceres has no children, and 
 that, therefore, the Prince will expire with the Grand 
 Oflficer of State. 
 
 Cambaceres, though before the Revolution a noble- 
 man of a Parliamentary family, was so degraded and 
 despised for his unnatural and beastly propensities, 
 that to see him in the ranks of rebellion was not 
 unexpected. Born in Languedoc, his countrymen 
 were the first to suffer from his revolutionary pro- 
 ceedings, and reproached him as one of the most 
 active instruments of persecution against the clergy 
 of Toulouse, and as one of the causes of all the blood 
 that flowed in consequence. A coward as well as a 
 traitor, after the death of Louis XVI. he never dared 
 ascend the tribune of the National Convention, but 
 always gave a silent vote to all the atrocious laws 
 proposed and carried by Marat, Robespierre, and their 
 accomplices. It was in 1795, when the Reign of 
 Terror had ceased, that he first displayed his zeal 
 for anarchy, and his hatred to royalty ; his contempt- 
 ible and disgusting vices were, however, so publicly 
 reprobated, that even the Directory dared not nomi- 
 nate him a Minister of Justice, a place for which he 
 intrigued in vain, from 1796 to 1799 ; when Bona-
 
 134 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 parte, either not so scrupulous, or setting himself 
 above the public opinion, caused him to be called to 
 the Consulate ; which, in 1802, was ensured him for 
 life, but exchanged, in 1804, for the office of an Arch- 
 Chancellor. 
 
 He is now worth thirty millions of livres — £1,- 
 250,000 — all honestly obtained by his revolutionary 
 industry. Besides a Prince, a Serene Highness, an 
 Arch-Chancellor, a grand officer of the Legion of 
 Honour, he is also a Knight of the Prussian Black 
 Eagle! For his brother, who was for a long time 
 an emigrant clergyman, and whom he then renounced 
 as a fanatic, he has now procured the Archbishopric 
 of Rouen and a Cardinal's hat. His Eminence is 
 also a grand officer of the Legion of Honour in 
 France, and a Pope in petto at Rome.
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — No Sovereign Prince has more in- 
 curred the hatred of Bonaparte than the present King 
 of Sweden; and I have heard from good authority 
 that our Government spares neither bribes nor in- 
 trigues to move the tails of those factions which were 
 dissolved, but not crushed, after the murder of Gusta- 
 vus III. The Swedes are generally brave and loyal, 
 but their history bears witness that they are easily 
 misled ; all their grand achievements are their own, 
 and the consequence of their national spirit and 
 national valour, while all their disasters have been 
 effected by the influence of foreign gold and of for- 
 eign machinations. Had they not been the dupes of 
 the plots and views of the Cabinets of Versailles and 
 St. Petersburg, their country might have been as 
 powerful in the nineteenth century as it was in the 
 seventeenth. 
 
 That Gustavus IV. both knew the danger of Europe, 
 and indicated the remedy, His Majesty's notes, as soon 
 as he came of age, presented by the able and loyal 
 Minister Bildt to the Diet of Ratisbon, evince. Had
 
 136 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 they been more attended to during 1798 and 1799, 
 Bonaparte would not, perhaps, have now been so 
 great, but the Continent would have remained more 
 free and more independent. They were the first 
 causes of our Emperor's official anger against the 
 Cabinet of Stockholm. 
 
 When, however, His Swedish Majesty entered into 
 the Northern league, his Ambassador, Baron Ehrens- 
 ward, was for some time treated with no insults dis- 
 tinct or different from those to which all foreign 
 diplomatic agents have been accustomed during the 
 present reign ; but when he demanded reparation for 
 the piracies committed during the last war by our 
 privateers on the commerce of his nation, the tone 
 was changed ; and when his Sovereign, in 1803, was 
 on a visit to his father-in-law, the Elector of Baden, 
 and there preferred the agreeable company of the 
 unfortunate Due d' Enghien to the society of our 
 Minister, Baron Ehrensward never entered Napole- 
 on's diplomatic circle or Madame Napoleon's drawing- 
 room without hearing rebukes and experiencing 
 disgusts. One day, when more than usually attacked, 
 he said, on leaving the apartment, to another Ambas- 
 sador, and in the hearing of Duroc, " that it required 
 more real courage to encounter with dignity and self- 
 command unbecoming provocations, which the per- 
 son who gave them knew could not be resented, than 
 to brave a death which the mouths of cannon vomit
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 137 
 
 or the points of bayonets inflict." Duroc reported to 
 his master what he heard, and but for Talleyrand's 
 interference, the Swedish Ambassador would, on the 
 same night, have been lodged in the Temple. Orders 
 were already given to that purpose, but were revoked. 
 
 This Baron Ehrensward, who is also a general in 
 the service of his country, has almost from his youth 
 passed his time at Courts ; first in his own country, 
 and afterwards in Spain, where he resided twelve 
 years as our Ambassador. Frank as a soldier, but 
 also polite as a courtier, he was not a little surprised 
 at the new etiquette of our new court, and at the 
 endurance of all the members of the diplomatic corps, 
 of whom hardly one had spirit enough to remember 
 that he was the representative of one, at least nomi- 
 nally, independent Prince or State. It must be added 
 that he was the only foreign diplomatist, with Count 
 Markof, who was not the choice of our Cabinet, and, 
 therefore, was not in our secrets. 
 
 As soon as His Swedish Majesty heard of the unex- 
 pected and unlawful seizure of the Due d' Enghien, 
 he wrote a letter with his own hand to Bonaparte, 
 which he sent by his adjutant -general, Tawast; but 
 this officer arrived too late, and only in time to hear 
 of the execution of the Prince he intended to save, 
 and the indecent expressions of Napoleon when ac- 
 quainted with the object of his mission. Baron 
 Ehrensward was then recalled, and a Court mourn-
 
 138 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 ing was proclaimed by Gustavus IV., as well as by 
 Alexander the First, for the lamented victim of the 
 violated laws of nations and humanity. This so 
 enraged our ruler that G^n^ral Caulincourt (the 
 same who commanded the expedition which crossed 
 the Rhine and captured the Due d'Enghien) was 
 engaged to head and lead fifty other banditti, who 
 were destined to pass in disguise into Baden, and to 
 bring the King of Sweden a prisoner to this capital. 
 Fortunately, His Majesty had some suspicion of the 
 attempt, and removed to a greater distance from our 
 frontiers than Carlsruhe. So certain was our Gov- 
 ernment of the success of this shameful enterprise, 
 that our charge d' affaires in Sweden was preparing 
 to engage the discontented and disaffected there for 
 the convocation of a diet and the establishment of a 
 regency. 
 
 According to the report in our diplomatic circle, 
 Bonaparte and Talleyrand intended nevermore to 
 release their royal captive when once in their power ; 
 but, after forcing him to resign the throne to his son, 
 keep him a prisoner for the remainder of his days, 
 which they would have taken care should not have 
 been long. The Duke of Sudermania was to have 
 been nominated a regent until the majority of the 
 young King, not yet six years of age. The Swedish 
 diets were to recover that influence, or, rather, that 
 licentiousness, to which Gustavus III., by the revolu-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 139 
 
 tion of the 19th of August, 1772, put an end. All 
 exiled regicides, or traitors, were to be recalled, and 
 a revolutionary focus organized in the North, equally 
 threatening Russia and Denmark. The dreadful con- 
 sequences of such an event are incalculable. Thanks 
 to the prudence of His Swedish Majesty, all these 
 schemes evaporated in air. 
 
 Not being able to dethrone a Swedish Monarch, 
 our Cabinet resolved to partition the Swedish terri- 
 tory, to which effect I am assured that proposals 
 were last summer made to the Cabinets of St. Peters- 
 burg, Berlin, and Copenhagen. Swedish Finland 
 was stated to have been offered to Russia, Swedish 
 Pomerania to Prussia, and Scania and Blekinge to 
 Denmark ; but the overture was rejected. 
 
 The King of Sweden possesses both talents and in- 
 formation superior to most of his contemporaries, 
 and he has surrounded himself with counsellors who, 
 with their experience, make wisdom more firm, more 
 useful, and more valuable. His chancellor, D' Ehren- 
 heim, unites modesty with sagacity ; he is a most 
 able statesman, an accomplished gentleman, and the 
 most agreeable of men. He knows the languages, as 
 well as the constitutions, of every country in Europe, 
 with equal perfection as his native tongue and 
 national code. Had his Sovereign the same ascend- 
 ency over the European politics as Christina had 
 during the negotiation of the Treaty of Munster,
 
 140 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 other States would admire, and Sweden be proud of, 
 another Axel Oxenstiern. 
 
 Count Fersen, who also has, and is worthy of, the 
 confidence of his Prince, is a nobleman, the honour 
 and pride of his rank. A colonel before the Revolu- 
 tion of the regiment Royal Suedois, in the service of 
 my country, his principles were so well appreciated 
 that he was entrusted by Louis XVI. and Marie 
 Antoinette, when so many were so justly suspected, 
 and served royalty in distress, at the risk of his own 
 existence. This was so much the more generous in 
 him as he was a foreigner, of one of the most ancient 
 families, and one of the richest noblemen in his own 
 country. To him Louis XVIII. is indebted for his 
 life ; and he brought consolation to the deserted 
 Marie Antoinette even in the dungeon of the Con- 
 ciergerie, when a discovery would have been a sen- 
 tence of death. In 17 9T, he was appointed by his 
 King plenipotentiary to the Congress of Rastadt, and 
 arrived there just at the time when Bonaparte, after 
 the destruction of happiness in Italy, had resolved on 
 the ruin of liberty in Switzerland, and came there 
 proud of past exploits and big with future schemes of 
 mischief. His reception from the conquerer of Italy 
 was such as might have been expected by distin- 
 guished loyalty from successful rebellion. He was told 
 that the Congress of Rastadt was not his place ! — 
 and this was true ; for what can be common between
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 141 
 
 honour and infamy, between virtue and vice ? On 
 his return to Sweden, Count Fersen was rewarded 
 with the dignity of a Grand Officer of State. 
 
 Of another faithful and trusty counsellor of His 
 Swedish Majesty, Baron d'Armfeldt, a panegyric 
 would be pronounced in saying that he was the friend 
 of Gustavus III. From a page to that chevalier of 
 royalty he was advanced to the rank of general ; and 
 during the war with Russia, in 1789 and 1790, he 
 fought and bled by the side of his Prince and bene- 
 factor. It was to him that his King said, when 
 wounded mortally, by the hand of a regicide, at a 
 masquerade in March, 1792, " Don't be alarmed, my 
 friend. You know as well as myself that all wounds 
 are not dangerous." Unfortunately, his were not of 
 that description. 
 
 In the will of this great Monarch, Baron d'Arm- 
 feldt was nominated one of the guardians of his 
 present Sovereign, and a governor of the capital ; but 
 the Duke Regent, who was a weak Prince, guided by 
 philosophical adventurers, by lUuminati and Free- 
 masons, most of whom had imbibed the French revo- 
 lutionary maxims, sent him, in a kind of honourable 
 exile, as an Ambassador to Italy. Shortly after- 
 wards, under pretence of having discovered a con- 
 spiracy, in which the Baron was implicated, he was 
 outlawed. He then took refuge in Russia, where he 
 was made a general, and as such distinguished him-
 
 142 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 self under Suwarow during the campaign of 1799. 
 He was then recalled to his country, and restored to 
 all his former places and dignities, and has never 
 since ceased to merit and obtain the favour, friend- 
 ship, and approbation of his King. He is said to be 
 one of the Swedish general officers intended to serve 
 in union with the Russian troops expected in Pomer- 
 ania. Wherever he is employed, I am convinced 
 that he will fight, vanquish, or perish like a hero. 
 Last spring he was offered the place of a lieutenant- 
 general in the Austrian service, which, with regard to 
 salary and emoluments, is greatly superior to what he 
 enjoys in Sweden ; he declined it, however, because, 
 with a warrior of his stamp, interest is the last 
 consideration.
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Believe me, Bonaparte dreads more 
 the liberty of the Press than all other engines, mil- 
 itary or political, used by his rivals or foes for his 
 destruction. He is aware of the fatal consequences 
 all former factions suffered from the public exposure 
 of their past crimes and future views ; of the reality 
 of their guilt, and of the fallacy of their boasts and 
 promises. He does not doubt but that a faithful 
 account of all the actions and intrigues of his Gov- 
 ernment, its imposition, fraud, duplicity, and tyranny, 
 would make a sensible alteration in the public opinion ; 
 and that even those who, from motives of patriotism, 
 from being tired of our revolutionary convulsions, or 
 wishing for tranquillity, have been his adherents, 
 might alter their sentiments when they read of 
 enormities which must indicate insecurity, and prove 
 to every one that he who waded through rivers of 
 blood to seize power will never hesitate about the 
 means of preserving it. 
 
 There is not a printing-office, from the banks of 
 the Elbe to the Gulf of Naples, which is not under
 
 144 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 the direct or indirect inspection of our police agents ; 
 and not a bookseller in Germany, France, Italy, 
 Spain, Portugal, Holland, or Switzerland, publishes a 
 work which, if contrary to our policy or our fears, is 
 not either confiscated, or purchased on the day it 
 makes its appearance. Besides our regular emissa- 
 ries, we have persons travelling from the beginning to 
 the end of the year, to pick up information of what 
 literary productions are printing ; of what authors 
 are popular ; of their political opinions and private 
 circumstances. This branch of our haute police 
 extends even to your country. 
 
 Before the Revolution, we had in this capital only 
 two daily papers, but from 1789 to 1799 never less 
 than thirty, and frequently sixty journals were daily 
 printed. After Bonaparte had assumed the consular 
 authority, they were reduced to ten. But though 
 these were imder a very strict inspection of our 
 Minister of Police, they were regarded still as too 
 numerous, and have lately been diminished to eight, 
 by the incorporation of Le Clef du Cabinet and Le 
 Bulletin de V Europe with the Gazette de France, a 
 paper of which the infamously famous Barrdre is the 
 editor. According to a proposal of Bonaparte, it was 
 lately debated in the Council of State whether it 
 would not be politic to suppress all daily prints, with 
 the sole exception of the Moniteur. Fouch^ and 
 Talleyrand spoke much in favour of this measure of
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 145 
 
 security. R^al, however, is said to have suggested 
 another plan, which was adopted ; and our Govern- 
 ment, instead of prohibiting the appearance of our 
 daily papers, has resolved by degrees to purchase 
 them all, and to entrust them entirely to the direction 
 of Barrere, who now is consulted in everything con- 
 cerning books or newspapers. 
 
 All circulation of foreign papers is prohibited, until 
 they have previously obtained the stamp of approba- 
 tion from the grand literary censor, Barrere. Any 
 person offending against this law is most severely 
 punished. An American gentlemen, of the name of 
 Campbell, was last spring sent to the Temple for 
 lending one of your old daily papers to a person who 
 lodged in the same hotel with him. After an im- 
 prisonment of ten weeks he made some pecuniary 
 sacrifices to obtain his liberty, but was carried to 
 Havre, under an escort of gendarmes, put on board a 
 neutral vessel, and forbidden, under pain of death, 
 ever to set his foot on French ground again. An 
 American vessel was, about the same time, confiscated 
 at Bordeaux, and the captain and crew imprisoned, 
 because some English books were found on board, in 
 which Bonaparte, Talleyrand, Fouch^, and some of 
 our great men were rather ill-treated. The crew 
 have since been liberated, but the captain has been 
 brought here, and is still in the Temple. The vessel 
 and the cargo have been sold as lawful captures,
 
 146 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 though the captain has proved from the names writ- 
 ten in the books that they belonged to a passenger. 
 A young German student in surgery, who came here 
 to improve himself, has been nine months in the 
 same state prison, for having with him a book, 
 printed in Germany during Bonaparte's expedition to 
 Egypt, wherein the chief and the undertaking are 
 ridiculed. His mother, the widow of a clergyman, 
 hearing of the misfortune of her son, came here, and 
 has presented to the Emperor and Empress half a 
 dozen petitions, without any effect whatever, and has 
 almost ruined herself and her other children by the 
 expenses of the journey. During a stay of four 
 months she has not yet been able to gain admittance 
 into the Temple, to visit or see her son, who perhaps 
 expired in tortures, or died broken-hearted before she 
 came here. 
 
 A dozen copies of a funeral sermon on the Due 
 d'Enghien had found their way here, and were se- 
 cretly circulated for some time ; but at last the police 
 heard of it, and every person who was suspected of 
 having read them was arrested. The number of these 
 unfortunate persons, according to some, amounted to 
 one hundred and thirty, while others say that they 
 were only eighty-four, of whom twelve died suddenly 
 in the Temple, and the remainder were transported 
 to Cayenne ; upwards of half of them were women, 
 some of the ci-devant highest rank among subjects.
 
 Barrere. 
 
 Photo-etcliing after painting by Moreau.
 
 ^M.BARKHK nKVVlli ZM^m 
 
 7/f </ /,'//-/'(\f /(■ /-/ S<y'/iV///"i- 
 
 l)(M)lltC (III Blo;oil<-. 
 
 // ///,i-.r/-/////v 7/(///i'/{t/A- (/<■ y-i'^'i/
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 147 
 
 A Prussian, of the name of Biilow, was shot as a spy 
 in the camp of Boulogne, because in his trunk was an 
 English book, with the lives of Bonaparte and of some 
 of his generals. Every day such and other examples 
 of the severity of our Government are related ; and 
 foreigners who visit us continue, nevertheless, to be 
 off their guard. They would be less punished had 
 they with them forged bills than printed books or 
 newspapers, in which our Imperial Family and public 
 functionaries are not treated with due respect. Bona- 
 parte is convinced that in every book where he is not 
 spoken of with praise, the intent is to blame him; 
 and such intents or negative guilt never escape with 
 impunity. 
 
 As, notwithstanding the endeavours of our Govern- 
 ment, we are more fond of foreign prints, and have 
 more confidence in them than in our own, official 
 presses have lately been established at Antwerp, at 
 Cologne, and at Mentz, where the G-azette de Leyden, 
 Sa7nburg CorrespoTidenten, B.nd Journal de Frankfort are 
 reprinted ; some articles left out, and others inserted 
 in their room. It was intended to reprint also the 
 Courier de Londres, but our types, and particularly 
 our paper, would detect the fraud. I have read one 
 of our own Journal de Frankfort, in which were 
 extracts from this French paper, printed in your 
 country, which I strongly suspect are of our own 
 manufacture. I am told that several new books,
 
 148 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 written by foreigners, in praise of our present brilliant 
 Government, are now in the presses of those our 
 frontier towns, and will soon be laid before the pubHc 
 as foreign productions. 
 
 A clerk of a banking-house had lately the impru- 
 dence to mention, during his dinner at the restaura- 
 teur's of Cadran Vert, on the Boulevards, some 
 doubt of the veracity of an official article in the 
 Moniteur. As he left the house he was arrested, 
 carried before Fouch^, accused of being an English 
 agent, and before supper -time he was on the road 
 to Rochefort on his way to Cayenne. As soon as the 
 banker Tournon was informed of this expeditious jus- 
 tice, as it is called here, he waited on Fouch^, who 
 threatened even to transport him if he dared to inter- 
 fere with the transactions of the police. This banker 
 was hunself seized in the spring of last year by a poUce 
 agent and some gendarmes, and carried into exile forty 
 leagues from this capital, where he remained six 
 months, imtil a pecuniary douceur procured him a 
 recall. His crime was having inquired after G^n^ral 
 Moreau when in the Temple, and of having left his 
 card there.
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Loed : — The Prince Borghese has lately been 
 appointed a captain of the Imperial Guard of his 
 Imperial brother - in - law, Napoleon the First, and is 
 now in Germany, making his first campaign. A de- 
 scendant of a wealthy and ancient Roman family, but 
 born with a weak understanding, he was easily deluded 
 into the ranks of the revolutionists of his own coun- 
 try, by a Parisian Abb^, his instructor and governor, 
 and gallant of the Princesse Borghese, his mother. He 
 was the first secretary of the first Jacobin club estab- 
 lished at Rome, in the spring of 1798 ; and in Decem- 
 ber of the same year, when the Neapolitan troops 
 invaded the Ecclesiastical States, he, with his present 
 brother-in-law, another hopeful Roman Prince, Santa 
 Cruce, headed the Roman sans-culottes in their retreat. 
 To show his love of equality, he had previously served 
 as a common man in a company of which the captain 
 was a fellow that sold cats' meat and tripe in the 
 streets of Rome, and the lieutenant a scullion of his 
 mother's kitchen. Since Imperial aristocracy is now 
 become the order of the day, he is as insupportable
 
 160 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 for his pride and vanity as he, some years ago, was 
 contemptible for his meanness. He married, in 1803, 
 Madame Leclerc, who, between the death of a first 
 and a wedding with a second husband — a space of 
 twelve months — had twice been in a fair way to 
 become a mother. Her portion was estimated at 
 eighteen millions of livres — ^750,000 — a sum suffi- 
 cient to palliate many faux pas in the eyes of a 
 husband more sensible and more delicate than 
 her present Serene Idiot, as she styles the Prince 
 Borghese. 
 
 The lady is the favourite sister of Napoleon, the 
 ablest, but also the most wicked of the female Bona- 
 partes. She had, almost from her infancy, passed 
 through all the filth of prostitution, debauchery, and 
 profligacy before she attained her present elevation ; 
 rank, however, has not altered her morals, but only 
 procured her the means of indulging in new excesses. 
 Ever since the wedding night the Prince Borghese 
 has been excluded from her bed; for she declared 
 frankly to him, as well as to her brother, that she 
 would never endure the approach of a man with a 
 bad breath ; though many who, from the opportunities 
 they have had of judging, certainly ought to know, 
 pretend that her own breath is not the sweetest in 
 the world. When her husband had marched towards 
 the Rhine, she asked her brother, as a favour, to 
 procure the Prince Borghese, after a useless life, a
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 151 
 
 glorious death. This curious demand of a wife was 
 made in Madame Bonaparte's drawing-room, in the 
 presence of fifty persons. " You are always 
 etourdie" replied Napoleon, smiling. 
 
 If Bonaparte, however, overlooks the intrigues of 
 his sisters, he is not so easily pacified when any re- 
 ports reach him inculpating the virtues of his sisters- 
 in-law. Some gallants of Madame Joseph Bonaparte 
 have already disappeared to return no more, or are 
 wandering in the wilds of Cayenne ; but the Emperor 
 is particularly attentive to everything concerning the 
 morality of Madame Louis, whose descendants are 
 destined to continue the Bonaparte dynasty. Two 
 ofl&cers, after being cashiered, were, with two o^ 
 Madame Louis's maids, shut up last month in the 
 Temple, and have not since been heard of, upon 
 suspicion that the Princess preferred their society to 
 that of her husband. 
 
 Louis Bonaparte, whose constitution has been 
 much impaired by his debaucheries, was, last July, 
 advised by his physicians to use the baths at St. 
 Amand. After his wife had accompanied him as far 
 as Lille, she went to visit one of her friends, Madame 
 Ney, the wife of Gdn^ral Ney, who commanded the 
 camp near Montreuil. This lady resided in a castle 
 called Leek, in the vicinity, where dinners, concerts, 
 balls, and other festivities celebrated the arrival of 
 the Princess; and to these the principal officers of
 
 152 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 the camp were invited. One morning, about an hour 
 after the company had retired to bed, the whole 
 castle was disturbed and alarmed by an uproar in 
 tlie anteroom of Princesse Louis's bedchamber. 
 On coming to the scene of riot, two officers were 
 found there fighting, and the Princesse Louis, more 
 than half undressed, came out and called the sentries 
 on duty to separate the combatants, who were both 
 wounded. This affair occasioned great scandal ; and 
 G^n^ral Ney, after having put the officers under 
 arrest, sent a courier to Napoleon at Boulogne, 
 relating the particulars and demanding His Majesty's 
 orders. It was related and believed as a fact that the 
 ouarrel originated about two of the maids of the 
 Princess (whose virtue was never suspected), with 
 whom the officers were intriguing. The Emperor 
 ordered the culprits to be broken and delivered up to 
 his Minister of Police, who knew how to proceed. 
 The Princesse Louis also received an invitation to 
 join her sister-in-law, Madame Murat, then in the 
 camp at Boulogne, and to remain under her care 
 until her husband's return from St. Amand. 
 
 G^n^ral Murat was then at Paris, and his lady was 
 merely on a visit to her Imperial brother, who made 
 her responsible for Madame Louis, whom he severely 
 reprimanded for the misconduct of her maids. The 
 bedrooms of the two sisters were on the same floor. 
 One night, Princesse Louis thought she heard the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 153 
 
 footsteps of a person on the staircase, not like those 
 of a female, and afterwards the door of Madame 
 Murat's room opened softly. This occurrence de- 
 prived her of all desire to sleep; and curiosity, or 
 perhaps revenge, excited her to remove her doubts 
 concerning the virtue of her guardian. In about an 
 hour afterwards, she stole into Madame Murat's bed- 
 room, by the way of their sitting-room, the door in 
 the passage being bolted. Passing her hand over the 
 pillow, she almost pricked herseK with the strong 
 beard of a man, and, screaming out, awoke her 
 sister, who inquired what she could want at such an 
 unusual hour. 
 
 " I believe," replied the Princess, " my room is 
 haunted. I have not shut my eyes, and intended to 
 ask for a place by your side, but I find it is already 
 engaged." 
 
 " My maid always sleeps with me when my 
 husband is absent," said Madame Murat. 
 
 " It is very rude of your maid to go to bed with 
 her mistress without first shaving herself," said the 
 Princess, and left the room. 
 
 The next morning an explanation took place ; the 
 ladies understood each other, and each, during the 
 remaining part of her husband's absence, had for 
 consolation a maid for a bedfellow. Madame Murat 
 also convinced the Emperor that his suspicions with 
 regard to the Princesse Louis were totally unfounded ;
 
 164 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 and he with some precious presents, indemnified her 
 for his harsh treatment. 
 
 It is reported that the two maids of the Princesse 
 Louis, when before Fouch^, first denied all acquaint- 
 ance with the officers; but, being threatened with 
 tortures, they signed a proces verbal, acknowledging 
 their guilt. This valuable and authentic document 
 the Minister sent by an extra courier to the Emperor, 
 who showed it to his stepdaughter. Her generosity 
 is proverbial here, and therefore nobody is surprised 
 that she has given a handsome sum of money to the 
 parents of her maids, who had in vain applied to see 
 their children ; Fouch^ having told them that affairs 
 of State still required their confinement. One of them, 
 Mariothe, has been in the service of the Princess ever 
 since her marriage, and is known to possess all her 
 confidence ; though during that period of four years 
 she has twice been in a state of pregnancy, through 
 the condescending attention of her princely master.
 
 LETTER XYII. 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — When preparations were made for the 
 departure of our army of England for Germany, it 
 excited both laughter and murmuring among the 
 troops. Those who had always regarded the con- 
 quest of England as impracticable in present circum- 
 stances, laughed, and those who had in their 
 imagination shared the wealth of your countiy, 
 showed themselves vexed at their disappointment. 
 To keep them in good spirits, the company of the 
 theatre of the Vaudevilles was ordered from hence 
 to Boulogne, and several plays, composed for the 
 occasion, were performed, in which the Germans were 
 represented as defeated, and the English begging for 
 peace on their knees, which the Emperor of the 
 French grants upon condition that one hundred 
 guineas ready money should be paid to each of his 
 soldiers and sailors. Every corps in its turn was 
 admitted gratis to witness this exhibition of the end 
 of all their labours ; and you can form no idea what 
 effect it produced, though you are not a stranger to 
 our fickle and inconsiderate character. Ballads, with
 
 156 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 the same predictions and the same promises, were 
 written and distributed among the soldiers, and smig 
 by women sent by Fouch^ to the coast. As all pro- 
 ductions of this sort were, as usual, liberally rewarded 
 by the Emperor, they poured in from all parts of his 
 Empire. 
 
 Three poets and authors of the theatre of the 
 Yaudevilles, Barr^, Radet, and Desfontaines, each 
 received two hundred napoleons d'or for their com- 
 mon production of a ballad, called " Des Adieux cTun 
 Grenadier au Camp de Boulogne." From this I have 
 extracted the following sample, by which you may 
 jndge of the remainder : 
 
 Le tambour bat; 11 faut partir: 
 
 Ailleurs on nous appelle ; 
 Et de lauriers, il va s'offrir 
 
 Une moisson nouvelle. 
 Si la-bas ils sont assez fous 
 
 Pour troubler TAUemagne, 
 Tant pis pour eux, tant mieux pour noos; 
 
 Allons : vite en campagne ! 
 
 La par ses exploits ^clatans 
 
 On connoit notre arm^e ; 
 C'est la qu'elle est depuis longtemps 
 
 A vaincre accoutum6e ; 
 C'est la que nos braves guerriers 
 
 Vont triomplier d'embl6e ; 
 C'est le pays oii les lauriers 
 
 Sont en coupe r6gl6e.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 157 
 
 Adieu, mon cher petit jardin, 
 
 Ma cabane jolie, 
 Toi que j'ai plants de ma main, 
 
 Et toi que j'ai batie I 
 Puisqu'il faut prendre mon mousquet 
 
 Et quitter ma chaumiere, 
 Je me'en vais planter le piquet 
 
 Par dela la frontiere. 
 
 Adieu, ponies, pigeons, lapins, 
 
 Et ma chatte gentille, 
 Autour de moi tous les matins 
 
 Rassembl^s en f amille ! 
 Toi, mon chien, ne me quitte pas I 
 
 Compagnon de ma gloire, 
 Tu dois toujours suivre mes pas : 
 
 Ton nom est la Victoire. 
 
 Sans adieu, p^niches, bateaux, 
 
 Frames et cannonieres, 
 Qui deviez porter sur les eaux 
 
 Nos braves militaires ! 
 Vous, ne soyez pas si contens, 
 
 Messieurs de la Tamise : 
 Seulement pour quelques instans 
 
 La parties est remise !
 
 158 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 THE GRENADIER'S ADIEU 
 
 TO THE CAMP AT BOULOGNE. 
 
 The drum is beating, we must march, 
 
 We' re summon'd to another field, 
 A field that to our conq'ring swords 
 
 Shall soon a laurel harvest yield. 
 If English folly light the torch 
 
 Of war in Germany again — 
 The loss is theirs — the gain is ours — 
 
 March ! march I commence the bright campaign. 
 
 There, only by their glorious deeds 
 
 Our chiefs and gallant bands are known ; 
 There, often have they met their foes, 
 
 And victory was all their own : — 
 There, hostile ranks, at our approach, 
 
 Prostrate beneath our feet shall bow ; 
 There, smiling conquest waits to twine 
 
 A laurel wreath round every brow. 
 
 Adieu, my pretty turf -built hut I * 
 
 Adieu, my little garden,* too I 
 I made, I deck'd you all myself, 
 
 And I am loth to part with you : 
 But since my arms I must resume, 
 
 And leave your comforts all behind. 
 Upon the hostile frontier soon 
 
 My tent shall flutter in the wind. 
 
 * During the long continuance of the French encampment at Bou- 
 logne the troops had formed, as it were, a romantic town of huts. Every 
 hut had a garden surrounding it, kept in neat order and stocked with 
 vegetables and flowers. They had, besides, fowls, pigeons, and rabbits ; 
 and these, with a cat and a dog, generally formed the little household of 
 every soldier.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 159 
 
 My pretty fowls and doves, adieu ! 
 
 Adieu, my playful cat, to thee I 
 Who every morning round me came, 
 
 And were my little family. 
 But thee, my dog, I shall not leave — 
 
 No, thou shalt ever follow me, 
 Shalt share my toils, shalt share my fame — 
 
 For thou art called Victory. 
 
 But no farewell I bid to you, 
 
 Ye prams and boats, which, o'er the wave, 
 Were doom'd to waft to England's shore 
 
 Our hero chiefs, our soldiers brave. 
 To you, good gentlemen of Thames, 
 
 Soon, soon our visit shall be paid, 
 Soon, soon your merriment be o'er — 
 
 ' T is but a few short hours delay'd. 
 
 As I am writing on the subject of poetical agents, I 
 ■will also say some words of our poetical flatterers, 
 though the same persons frequently occupy both the 
 one office and the other. A man of the name of 
 Richaud, who has sung previously the glory of Marat 
 and Robespierre, offered to Bonaparte, on the evening 
 preceding his departure for Strasburg, the following 
 lines ; and was in return presented with a purse full 
 of gold, and an order to the Minister of the Interior, 
 Champagny, to be employed in his offices, until better 
 provided for :
 
 160 SECKET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 STANCES 
 
 SUR LES BRUITS DE GUERRE AVEC L'AUTRICHE. 
 
 Rois tant de fois vaincus, O Rois dont I'imprudenoe 
 
 Menace encore votre vainqueur, 
 Fixez en ce moment vos regards sur la France, 
 
 Et perdez tout espoir en voyant sa splendeur. 
 
 Quel orgueil deplorable, insens6s que vous etes, 
 
 Peut done encore vous abuser ? 
 Tremblez, si votre voix invoque les tempgtes ; 
 
 La foudre va partir, mais pour vous ^eraser. 
 
 Et toi Napoleon, s'il faut a la victoire 
 
 Ramener ce peuple guerrier, 
 Vas ! I'Europe est t^moin qu'au laurier de la gloire 
 
 Ton ccBur eut prefere le modeste olivier. 
 
 Mais du soldat frangais la valeur irrit^e 
 
 T'appelle a de nouveaux exploits, 
 Dis un mot, un seiil mot, et Vienne epouvantee 
 
 Va revoir nos drapeaiix . . . pour la demiere fois. 
 
 STANZAS 
 
 ON THE RUMOUR OF A WAR WITH AUSTRIA. 
 
 Kings who, so often vanquish'd, vainly dare 
 Menace the victor that has laid you low — 
 
 Look now at France — and view your own despair 
 In the majestic splendour of your foe.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 161 
 
 What miserable pride, ye foolish kings, 
 Still your deluded reason thus misleads ? 
 
 Provoke the storm — the bolt with lightning wings 
 Shall fall — but fall on your devoted heads. 
 
 And thou, Napoleon, if thy mighty sword 
 Shall for thy people conquer new renown ; 
 
 Cro — Europe shall attest, thy heart pref err'd 
 The modest olive to the laurel crowu. 
 
 But thee, lov'd chief, to new achievements bold 
 The aroused spirit of the soldier calls ; 
 
 Speak ! — and Vienna cowering shall behold 
 Our banners waving o'er her prostrate walls. 
 
 I received, four days afterwards, at the circle of 
 Madame Joseph Bonaparte, with all other visitors, a 
 copy of these stanzas. Most of the foreign Ambassa- 
 dors were of the party, and had also a share of this 
 patriotic donation. Count von Cobenzl had prudently 
 absented himself ; otherwise, this delenda of the Aus- 
 trian Carthage would have been officially announced 
 to him. 
 
 Another poetaster, of the name of Brouet, in a long, 
 dull, disgusting poem, after comparing Bonaparte 
 with all great men of antiquity, and proving that he 
 surpasses them all, tells his coimtrymen that their 
 Emperor is the deputy Divinity upon earth — the 
 mirror of wisdom, a demi-god to whom future ages 
 will erect statues, build temples, burn incense, fall
 
 162 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 down and adore. A proportionate share of abuse is, 
 of course, bestowed on your nation. He says : 
 
 A Londres on vit briller d'un 6clat 6ph4mere 
 
 Le front tout radieux d'un ministre influent ; 
 Mais pour faire paiir I'^toile d'Angleterre, 
 Un SoLEiL tout nouveau parut au firmament, 
 Et ce soleil du peuple franc 
 Admire de I'Europe entiere 
 Sur la terre est nomm6 Bonaparte le Grand. 
 
 For this delicate compliment Brouet was made 
 deputy postmaster-general in Italy, and a Knight of 
 the Legion of Honour. It must be granted that, if 
 Bonaparte is fond of flattery, he does not receive it 
 gratis, but pays for it like a real Emperor. 
 
 It has lately become the etiquette, not only in our 
 Court circle and official assemblies, but even in fash- 
 ionable societies of persons who are, or wish to 
 become, Bonaparte's public functionaries, to distribute 
 and have read and applauded these disinterested effu- 
 sions of our poetical geniuses. This fashion occa- 
 sioned lately a curious blunder at a tea-party in the 
 hotel of Madame de Talleyrand. The same printer 
 who had been engaged by this lady had also been 
 employed by Chenier, or some other poet, to print a 
 short satire against several of our literary ladies, in 
 which Madame de Genlis and Madame de Stael (who 
 has just arrived here from her exile) were, with
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 163 
 
 others, very severely handled. By mistake, a bundle 
 of this production was given to the porter of Madame 
 de Talleyrand, and a copy was handed to each visitor, 
 even to Madame de Genlis and Madame de Stael, who 
 took them without noticing their contents. Picard, 
 after reading an act of a new play, was asked by 
 the lady of the house to read this poetic worship 
 of the Emperor of the French, After the first two 
 lines he stopped short, looking round him confused, 
 suspecting a trick had been played upon him. This 
 induced the audience to read what had been given 
 them, and Madame de Talleyrand with the rest ; who, 
 instead of permitting Picard to continue with another 
 scene of his play, as he had adroitly begun, made 
 the most awkward apology in the world, and by it 
 exposed the ladies still more who were the objects of 
 the satire ; wliich, an hour afterwards, was exchanged 
 for the verses intended for the homage of the Em- 
 peror, and the cause of the error was cleared up. 
 
 I have read somewhere of a tyrant of antiquity who 
 forced all his subjects to furnish one room of their 
 houses in the best possible manner, according to their 
 circumstances, and to have it consecrated for the re- 
 ception of his bust, before which, under pain of death, 
 they were commanded to prostrate themselves, morn- 
 ing, noon, and night. They were to enter this room, 
 bareheaded and barefooted, to remain there only on 
 their knees, and to leave it without turning their back
 
 164 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 towards the sacred representative of their Prince. 
 All laughing, sneezing, coughing, speaking, or even 
 whispering, were capitally prohibited ; but crjdng was 
 not only permitted, but commanded, when His Maj- 
 esty was offended, angry, or unwell. Should our 
 system of cringing continue progressively to increase 
 as it has done these last three years, we, too, shall 
 very soon have rooms consecrated, and an idol to 
 adore.
 
 LETTER XVIIL 
 
 Paris, September, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Portugal has suffered more from the 
 degraded state of Spain, under the administration of 
 the Prince of Peace, than we have yet gained by it in 
 France. Engaged by her, in 1793, in a war against 
 its inclination and interest, it was not only deserted 
 afterwards, but sacrificed. But for the dictates of 
 the Court of Madrid, supported, perhaps, by some 
 secret influence of the Court of St. James, the Court 
 of Lisbon would have preserved its neutrality, and, 
 though not a well-wisher of the French Republic, 
 never have been counted among her avowed enemies. 
 
 In the peace of 1795, and in the subsequent treaty 
 of 1796, which transformed the family compact of 
 the French and Spanish Bourbons into a national alli- 
 ance between France and Spain, there was no question 
 about Portugal. In 1797, indeed, our Government 
 condescended to receive a Portuguese plenipotentiary, 
 but merely for the purpose of plundering his countiy 
 of some millions of money, and to insult it by shut- 
 ting up its representative as a State prisoner in the 
 Temple. Of this violation of the laws of civilized
 
 166 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 nations, Spain never complained, nor had Portugal 
 any means to avenge it. After four years of negoti- 
 ation, and an expenditure of thirty millions, the imbe- 
 cile Spanish premier supported demands made by our 
 Government, which, if assented to, would have left 
 Her Most Faithful Majesty without any territory in 
 Europe, and without any place of refuge in America. 
 Circumstances not permitting your country to send 
 any but pecuniary succours, Portugal would have 
 become an easy prey to the united Spanish and 
 French forces, had the marauders agreed about the 
 partition of the spoil. Their disunion, the conse- 
 quence of their avidity, saved it from ruin, but not 
 from pillage. A province was ceded to Spain, the 
 banks and the navigation of a river to France, and 
 fifty millions to the private purse of the Bonaparte 
 family. 
 
 It might have been supposed that such renuncia- 
 tions, and such offerings, would have satiated ambi- 
 tion, as well as cupidity ; but, though the Cabinet of 
 Lisbon was in peace with the Cabinet of St. Cloud, 
 the pretensions and encroachments of the latter left 
 the former no rest. While pocketing tributes it re- 
 quired commercial monopolies, and when its com- 
 merce was favoured, it demanded seaports to ensure 
 the security of its trade. Its pretensions rose in 
 proportion to the condescensions of the State it 
 oppressed. With the money and the value of the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 167 
 
 diamonds which Portugal has paid in loans, in con- 
 tributions, in requisitions, in donations, in tributes, 
 and in presents, it might have supported, during ten 
 years, an army of one hundred thousand men ; and 
 could it then have been worse situated than it has 
 been since, and is still at this moment? 
 
 But the manner of extorting, and the indi^^duals 
 employed to extort, were more humiliating to its dig- 
 nity and independence than the extortions themselves 
 were injurious to its resources. The first revolution- 
 ary Ambassador Bonaparte sent thither evinced both 
 his ingratitude and his contempt. 
 
 Few of our many upstart generals have more illib- 
 eral sentiments, and more vulgar and insolent man- 
 ners, than General Lasnes. The son of a publican 
 and a smuggler, he was a smuggler himself in his 
 youth, and afterwards a postilion, a dragoon, a de- 
 serter, a coiner, a Jacobin, and a terrorist ; and he 
 has, with all the meanness and brutality of these 
 different trades, a kind of native impertinence and 
 audacity which shocks and disgusts. He seems to 
 say, " I am a \allain. I know that I am so, and I am 
 proud of being so. To obtain the rank I possess I 
 have respected no human laws, and I bid defiance to 
 all Divine vengeance. I might be murdered or 
 hanged, but it is impossible to degrade me. On a 
 gibbet or in the palace of a Prince, seized by the 
 executioner or dining with Sovereigns, I am, I will,
 
 168 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 and I must, always remain the same. Infamy cannot 
 debase me, nor is it in the power of grandeur to exalt 
 me." General, Ambassador, Field - marshal, First 
 Consul, or Emperor, Lasnes will always be the same 
 polluted, but daring individual ; a stranger to re- 
 morse and repentance, as well as to honour and vir- 
 tue. Where Bonaparte sends a banditto of such a 
 stamp, he has resolved on destruction. 
 
 A kind of temporary disgrace was said to have 
 occasioned Lasnes's first mission to Portugal. When 
 commander of the consular guard, in 1802, he had 
 appropriated to himself a sum of money from the 
 regimental chest, and, as a punishment, was exiled as 
 an Ambassador, as he said himself. His resentment 
 against Bonaparte he took care to pour out on the 
 Regent of Portugal. Without inquiring or caring 
 about the etiquette of the Court of Lisbon, he 
 brought the sans-culotte etiquette of the Court of the 
 Tuileries with him, and determined to fraternize with 
 a foreign and legitimate Sovereign, as he had done 
 with his own sans-cidotte friend and First Consul ; 
 and, what is the more surprising, he carried his point. 
 The Prince Regent not only admitted him to the 
 royal table, but stood sponsor to his child by a wife 
 who had been two years his mistress before he was 
 divorced from his first spouse, and with whom the 
 Prince's consort, a Bourbon Princess and a daughter 
 of a King, was also obliged to associate.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 169 
 
 Avaricious as well as unprincipled, he pursued, as 
 an Ambassador, his former business of a smuggler, 
 and, instead of being ashamed of a discovery, pro- 
 claimed it publicly, deserted his post, was not repri- 
 manded in France, but was, without apology, received 
 back again in Portugal. His conduct afterwards 
 could not be surprising. He only insisted that some 
 faithful and able Ministers should be removed, and 
 others appointed in their place, more complaisant and 
 less honest. 
 
 New plans of Bonaparte, however, delivered Por- 
 tugal from this plague; but what did it obtain in 
 return? — another grenadier Ambassador, less brutal 
 but more cunning, as abandoned but more dissimu- 
 lating. 
 
 General Junot is the son of a corn-chandler near 
 the corn-market of this capital, and was a shopman 
 to his father in 1789. Having committed some pil- 
 fering, he was turned out of the parental dwelling, 
 and therefore lodged himself as an inmate of the 
 Jacobin Club. In 1792, he entered, as a soldier, in a 
 regiment of the army marching against the county of 
 Nice ; and, in 1793, he served before Toulon, where 
 he became acquainted with Bonaparte, whom he, in 
 January, 1794, assisted in despatching the unfor- 
 tunate Toulonese ; and with whom, also, in the 
 autumn of the same year, he, therefore, was arrested 
 as a terrorist.
 
 170 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 In 1796, when commander-in-chief, Bonaparte 
 made Junot his aide-de-camp ; and in that capacity 
 he accompanied him, in 1798, to Egypt. There, as 
 well as in Italy, he fought bravely, but had no partic- 
 ular opportunity of distinguishing himself. He was 
 not one of those select few whom Napoleon brought 
 with him to Europe in 1799, but returned first to 
 France in 1801, when he was nominated a general of 
 division and commander of this capital, a place he 
 resigned last year to G^n^ral Murat. 
 
 His despotic and cruel behaviour while commander 
 of Paris made him not much regretted. Fouch6 lost 
 in him, indeed, an able support, but none of us here 
 ever experienced from him justice, much less protec- 
 tion. As with all other of our modern public func- 
 tionaries, without money nothing was obtained from 
 him. It required as much for not doing any harm as 
 if, in renouncing his usual vexatious oppressions, he 
 had conferred benefits. He was much suspected of 
 being, with Fouch^, the patron of a gang of street 
 robbers and housebreakers, who, in the winter of 
 1803, infested tliis capital, and who, when finally dis- 
 covered, were screened from justice and suffered to 
 escape punishment. 
 
 I will tell you what I personally have seen of him. 
 Happening one evening to enter the rooms at Frascati, 
 where the gambling-tables are kept, I observed him, 
 undressed, out of regimentals, in company with a
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 171 
 
 young man, who afterwards avowed himself an aide- 
 de-camp of this general, and who was playing with 
 rouleaux of louis d'or, supposed to contain fifty each, 
 at Rouge et Noir. As long as he lost, which he did 
 several times, he took up the rouleau on the table, 
 and gave another from his pocket. At last he won, 
 when he asked the bankers to look at their loss, and 
 count the money in his rouleau before they paid him. 
 On opening it, they found it contained one hundred 
 bank-notes of one thousand livres each — £4,125 — 
 folded in a manner to resemble the form and size of 
 louis d'or. The bankers refused to pay, and applied 
 to the company whether they were not in the right to 
 do so, after so many rouleaux had been changed by 
 the person who now required such an unusual sum in 
 such an unusual manner. Before any answer could 
 be given, Junot interfered, asking the bankers whether 
 they knew who he was. Upon their answering in the 
 negative, he said : " I am G^n^ral Junot, the com- 
 mander of Paris, and this ofiicer who has won the 
 money is my aide-de-camp ; and I insist upon your 
 paying him this instant, if you do not wish to have 
 your bank confiscated and your persons arrested." 
 They refused to part with money which they pro- 
 tested was not their own, and most of the individ- 
 uals present joined them in their resistance. " You 
 are altogether a set of scoundrels and sharpers," in- 
 terrupted Junot ; " your business shall soon be done."
 
 172 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 So saying, he seized all the money on the table, and a 
 kind of boxing -match ensued between him and the 
 bankers, in which he, being a tall and strong man, 
 got the better of them. The tmnult, however, 
 brought in the guard, whom he ordered, as their chief, 
 to carry to prison sixteen persons he pointed out. 
 Fortunately, I was not of the number — I say fortu- 
 nately, for I have heard that most of them remained 
 in prison six months before this delicate affair was 
 cleared up and settled. In the meantime, Junot not 
 only pocketed all the money he pretended was due to 
 his aide-de-camp, but the whole sum contained in the 
 bank, which was double that amomit. It was believed 
 by every one present that this was an affair arranged 
 between him and his aide-de-camp beforehand to pil- 
 lage the bank. What a commander, what a general, 
 and what an Ambassador ! 
 
 Fitte, the secretary of our Embassy to Portugal, 
 was formerly an Abbd, and must be well remembered 
 in your country, where he passed some years as an 
 emigrant, but was, in fact, a spy of Talleyrand. I 
 am told that, by his intrigues, he even succeeded in 
 swindling your Ministers out of a sum of money by 
 some plausible schemes he proposed to them. He is, 
 as well as all other apostate priests, a very dangerous 
 man, and an immoral and unprincipled wretch. Dur- 
 ing the time of Robespierre he is said to have caused 
 the murder of his elder brother and younger sister ;
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 173 
 
 the former he denounced to appropriate to himself 
 his wealth, and the latter he accused of fanaticism, 
 because she refused to cohabit with him. He daily 
 boasts of the great protection and great friendship of 
 Talleyrand. Qitalia rexs talis grex.
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 Paris, September, 1806. 
 
 My Lobd : — In some of the ancient Republics, all 
 citizens who, in time of danger and trouble, remained 
 neutral, were punished as traitors or treated as ene- 
 mies. When, by our Revolution, civilized society and 
 the European Commonwealth were menaced with a 
 total overthrow, had each member of it been consid- 
 ered in the same light, and subjected to the same 
 laws, some individual States might, perhaps, have 
 been less wealthy, but the whole community would 
 have been more happy and more tranquil, which 
 would have been much better. It was a great error 
 in the powerful league of 1793 to admit any neutral- 
 ity at all ; every Government that did not combat 
 rebellion should have been considered and treated as 
 its ally. The man who continues neutral, though only 
 a passenger, when hands are wanted to preserve the 
 vessel from sinking, deserves to be thrown overboard, 
 to be swallowed up by the waves and to perish the 
 first. Had all other nations been united and unani- 
 mous, during 1793 and 1794, against the monster, 
 Jacobinism, we should not have heard of either Jaco- 
 
 174
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 175 
 
 bin directors, Jacobin consuls, or a Jacobin Emperor. 
 But then, from a petty regard to a temporary profit, 
 they entered into a truce with a revolutionary volcano, 
 which, sooner or later, will consume them all ; for 
 I am afraid it is now too late for all human power, 
 with all human means, to preserve any State, any 
 Government, or any people, from suffering by the 
 threatening conflagration. Switzerland, Venice, Ge- 
 neva, Genoa, and Tuscany have already gathered the 
 poisoned fruits of their neutrality. Let but Bonaparte 
 establish himself undisturbed in Hanover some years 
 longer, and you will see the neutral Hanse Towns, 
 neutral Prussia, and neutral Denmark visited with all 
 the evils of invasion, pillage, and destruction, and the 
 independence of the nations in the North will be buried 
 in the rubbish of the liberties of the people of the 
 South of Europe. 
 
 These ideas have frequently occurred to me, on 
 hearing owr agents pronounce, and their dupes repeat: 
 " Oh ! the wise Government of Denmark ! Oh, what 
 a wise statesman the Danish Minister, Count von 
 Bernstorff ! " I do not deny that the late Count von 
 Bernstorff was a great politician ; but I assert, also, 
 that his was a greatness more calculated for regular 
 times than for periods of unusual political convulsion. 
 Like your Pitt, the Russian Woronzow, and the Aus- 
 trian Colloredo, he was too honest to judge soundly 
 and to act rightly, according to the present situation
 
 176 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 of affairs. He adhered too much to the old routine, 
 and did not perceive the immense difference between 
 the Government of a revolutionary ruler and the Gov- 
 ernment of a Louis XIII. or a Louis XIV. I am cer- 
 tain, had he still been alive, he would have repented 
 of his errors, and tried to have repaired them. 
 
 His son, the present Danish Minister, follows his 
 father's plans, and adheres, in 1805, to a system laid 
 down by him in 1795 ; while the alterations that have 
 occurred within these ten years have more affected 
 the real and relative power and weakness of States 
 than all the revolutions which have been produced 
 by the insurrections, wars, and pacifications of the 
 two preceding centuries. He has even gone farther, 
 in some parts of his administration, than his father 
 ever intended. Without remembering the poUtical 
 TRUTH, that a weak State which courts the alliance of 
 a powerful neighbour always becomes a vassal, while 
 desiring to become an ally, he has attempted to ex- 
 change the connections of Denmark and Russia for 
 new ones with Prussia ; and forgotten the obligations 
 of the Cabinet of Copenhagen to the Cabinet of St. 
 Petersburg, and the interested policy of the House 
 of Brandenburgh. That, on the contrary, Russia has 
 always been a generous ally of Denmark, the flour- 
 ishing state of the Danish dominions since the begin- 
 ning of the last century evinces. Its distance and 
 geographical position prevent all encroachments from
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 177 
 
 being feared or attempted ; while at the same time it 
 affords protection equally against the rivalry of Sweden 
 and ambition of Prussia. 
 
 The Prince Royal of Deimaark is patriotic as well 
 as enlightened, and would rule with more true policy 
 and lustre were he to follow seldomer the advice of 
 his coimsellors, and oftener the dictates of his own 
 mind. Count von Schimmelmann, Count von Revent- 
 low, and Count von Bernstorff, are all good and moral 
 characters ; but I fear that their united capacity 
 taken together will not fill up the vacancy left in the 
 Danish Cabinet by the death of its late Prime Min- 
 ister. I have been personally acquainted with them all 
 three, but I draw my conclusions from the acts of their 
 administration, not from my own knowledge. Had 
 the late Count von Bernstorff held the ministerial 
 helm in 1803, a paragraph in the Moniteur would 
 never have disbanded a Danish army in Holstein ; 
 nor would, in 1805, intriguers have been endured who 
 preached neutrality, after witnessing repeated viola- 
 tion of the law of nations, not on the remote banks 
 of the Rhine, but on the Danish frontiers, on the 
 Danish territory, on the banks of the Elbe. 
 
 It certainly was no compliment to His Danish 
 Majesty when our Government sent Grouvelle as a 
 representative to Copenhagen, a man who owed his 
 education and information to the Cond^ branch of the 
 Bourbons, and who afterwards audaciously and sacri-
 
 178 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 legiously read the sentence of death on the chief of 
 that family, on his good and legitimate King, Louis 
 XVI. It can neither be called dignity nor prudence 
 in the Cabinet of Denmark to suffer this regicide to 
 serve as a points of rally to sedition and innovation ; 
 to be the official propagator of revolutionary doctrines, 
 and an official protector of all proselytes and sectaries 
 of this anti-social faith. 
 
 Before the Revolution a secretary to the Prince of 
 Cond^, Grouvelle was trusted and rewarded by His 
 Serene Highness, and in return betrayed his confi- 
 dence, and repaid benefactions and generosity with 
 calumny and persecution, when his patron was obliged 
 to seek safety in emigration against the assassins of 
 successful rebellion. When the national seals were 
 put on the estates of the Prince, he appropriated to 
 himself not only the whole of His Highness's library, 
 but a part of his plate. Even the wardrobe and the 
 cellar were laid under contributions by this domestic 
 marauder. 
 
 With natural genius and acquired experience, Grou- 
 velle unites impudence and immorality ; and those on 
 whom he fixes for his prey are, therefore, easily duped, 
 and irremediably undone. He has furnished disciples 
 to all factions, and to all sects, assassins to the 
 revolutionary tribunals, as well as victims for the rev- 
 olutionary guillotine ; sans - culottes to Robespierre, 
 Septembrizers to Marat, republicans to the Directory,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 179 
 
 spies to Talleyrand, and slaves to Bonaparte, who, in 
 1800, nominated him a tribune, but in 1804 disgraced 
 him, because he wished that the Due d' Enghien had 
 rather been secretly poisoned in Baden than publicly 
 condemned and privately executed in France. 
 
 Our present Minister at the Court of Copenhagen, 
 D' Aguesseau, has no virtues to boast of, but also no 
 crimes to blush for. With inferior capacity, he is 
 only considered by Talleyrand as an inferior intriguer, 
 employed in a country ruled by an inferior policy, 
 neither feared nor esteemed by our Government. His 
 secretary, Desaugiers the elder, is our real and con- 
 fidential firebrand in the North, commissioned to 
 keep burning those materials of combustion which 
 Grouvelle and others of our incendiaries have lighted 
 and illuminated in Holstein, Denmark, Sweden, and 
 Norway.
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — The insatiable avarice of all the 
 members of the Bonaparte family has already and 
 frequently been mentioned ; some of our philosophers^ 
 however, pretend that ambition and vanity exclude 
 from the mind of Napoleon Bonaparte the passion of 
 covetousness ; that he pillages only to get money to 
 pay his military plunderers, and hoards treasures only 
 to purchase slaves, or to recompense the associates 
 and instruments of his authority. 
 
 Whether their assertions be just or not, I will not 
 take upon myself to decide ; but to judge from the 
 great number of Imperial and royal palaces, from 
 the great augmentation of the Imperial and royal 
 domains ; from the immense and valuable quantity of 
 diamonds, jewels, pictures, statues, libraries, museums, 
 etc., disinterestedness and self-denial are certainly not 
 among Napoleon's virtues. 
 
 In France, he not only disposes of all the former 
 palaces and extensive demesnes of our King, but has 
 greatly increased them, by national property and by
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD 181 
 
 lands and estates bought by the Imperial Treasury, or 
 confiscated by Imperial decrees. In Italy, he has, by 
 an official act, declared to be the property of his 
 crown, first, the royal palace at Milan, and a royal 
 villa, which he now calls Villa Bonaparte ; second, 
 the palace of Monza and its dependencies ; third, the 
 palace of Mantua, the palace of The, and the ci-devant 
 ducal palace of Modena ; fourth, a palace situated in 
 the vicinity of Brescia, and another palace in the 
 vicinity of Bologna ; fifth, the ci-devant ducal palaces 
 of Parma and Placenza ; sixth, the beautiful forest of 
 Tesin. Ten millions were, besides, ordered to be 
 drawn out of the Royal Treasury at Milan to purchase 
 lands for the formation of a park, pleasure-grounds, 
 etc. 
 
 To these are added all the royal palaces and 
 domains of the former Kings of Sardinia, of the Dukes 
 of Brabant, of the Counts of Flanders, of the German 
 Electors, Princes, Dukes, Counts, Barons, etc., who, 
 before the last war, were Sovereigns on the right 
 bank of the Rhine. I have seen a list, according to 
 which the number of palaces and chateaux appertain- 
 mg to Napoleon as Emperor and King, are stated to 
 be seventy-nine ; so that he may change his habita- 
 tions six times in the month, without occupying 
 during the same year the same palace, and, neverthe- 
 less, always sleep at home. 
 
 In this number are not included the private
 
 182 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 chslteaux and estates of the Empress, or those of the 
 Prmces and Princesses Bonaparte. Madame Napoleon 
 has purchased, since her husband's consulate, in her 
 own name, or in the name of her children, nine estates 
 with their chS-teaux, four national forests, and six 
 h8tels at Paris. Joseph Bonaparte possesses four 
 estates and chateaux in France, three hotels at Paris 
 and at Brussels, three chateaux and estates in Italy, 
 and one h8tel at Milan, and another at Turin. Lucien 
 Bonaparte has now remaining only one hStel at Paris, 
 another at Bonne, and a third at Chambery. He has 
 one estate in Burgundy, two in Languedoc, and one 
 in the vicinity of this capital. At Bologna, Ferrara, 
 Florence, and Rome, he has his own hStels, and in 
 the Papal States he has obtained, in exchange for 
 property in France, three chateaux with their depend- 
 encies. Louis Bonaparte has three hOtels at Paris, 
 one at Cologne, one at Strasburg, and one at Lyons. 
 He has two estates in Flanders, three in Burgundy, 
 one in Franche-Comte, and another in Alsace. He 
 has also a ch§,teau four leagues from this city. At 
 Genoa he has a beautiful h8tel, and upon the Genoese 
 territory a large estate. He has bought three planta- 
 tions at Martinico, and two at Guadeloupe. To 
 Jerome Bonaparte has hitherto been presented only 
 an estate in Brabant, and a hotel in this capital. 
 Some of the former domains of the House of Orange, 
 in the Batavian Republic, have been purchased by the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 183 
 
 agents of our Government, and are said to be intended 
 for him. 
 
 But, while Napoleon Bonaparte has thus heaped 
 wealth on his wife and his brothers, his mother and 
 sisters have not been neglected or left unprovided for. 
 Madame Bonaparte, his mother, has one hStel at 
 Paris, one at Turin, one at Milan, and one at Rome. 
 Her estates in France are four, and in Italy two. 
 Madame Bacciochi, Princess of Piombino and Lucca, 
 possesses two hStels in this capital, and one palace at 
 Piombino and another at Lucca. Of her estates in 
 France, she has only retained two, but she has three 
 in the Kingdom of Italy, and four in her husband's 
 and her own dominions. The Princess Santa Cruce 
 possesses one h8tel at Rome and four chateaux in the 
 papal territory. At Milan she has, as well as at 
 Turin and at Paris, hStels given her by her Imperial 
 brother, together with two estates in France, one in 
 Piedmont, and two in Lombardy. The Princesse 
 Murat is mistress of two hStels here, one at Brussels, 
 one • at Tours, and one at Bordeaux, together with 
 three estates on this, and five on the other side of the 
 Alps. The Princesse Borghese has purchased three 
 plantations at Guadeloupe, and two at Martinico, with 
 a part of the treasures left her by her first husband, 
 Leclerc. With her present husband she received two 
 palaces at Rome, and three estates on the Roman 
 territory ; and her Imperial brother has presented her
 
 184 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 with one hStel at Paris, one at Cologne, one at Turin, 
 and one at Genoa, together with three estates in 
 France and five in Italy. For his mother, and for 
 each of his sisters, Napoleon has also purchased 
 estates, or lands to form estates, in their native island 
 of Corsica. 
 
 The other near or distant relatives of the Emperor 
 and King have also experienced his bounty. Cardi- 
 nal Fesch has his hStels at Paris, Milan, Lyons, 
 Turin, and Rome ; with estates both in France and 
 Italy. Seventeen, either first, second, or third cous- 
 ins, by his father's or mother's side, have all obtained 
 estates either in the French Empire, or in the King- 
 dom of Italy, as well as all brothers, sisters, or 
 cousins of his own wife, and the wives of his brothers, 
 or of the husbands of his sisters. Their exact num- 
 ber cannot well be known, but a gentleman who has 
 long been collecting materials for some future history 
 of the House of Bonaparte, and of the French Empire, 
 has already shown me sixty-six names of individuals 
 of that description, and of both sexes, who all, thanks 
 to the Imperial liberality, have suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly become people of property. 
 
 When you consider that all these immense riches 
 have been seized and distributed within the short 
 period of five years, it is not hazardous to say that, 
 in the annals of Europe, another such revolution in 
 property, as well as in power, is not to be found.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 185 
 
 The wealth of the families of all other Sovereigns 
 taken together does not amount to half the value of 
 what the Bonapartes have acquired and possess. 
 
 Your country, more than any other upon earth, 
 has to be alarmed at this revolution of property. 
 Richer than any other nation, you have more to 
 apprehend ; besides, it threatens you more, both as 
 our frequent enemies and as our national rivals ; as a 
 barrier against our plans of universal dominion, and 
 as our superiors in pecuniary resources. May we 
 never live to see the day when the mandates of Bona- 
 parte or Talleyrand are honoured at London, as at 
 Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan, and Rome. The misery 
 of ages to come will then be certain, and posterity 
 will regard as comparative happiness, the sufferings 
 of their forefathers. It is not probable that those 
 who have so successfully pillaged all surrounding 
 States will rest contented until you are involved in 
 the same ruin. Union among yourselves only can 
 preserve you from perishing in the universal wreck ; 
 by this you will at least gain time, and may hope to 
 profit by probable changes and unexpected accidents.
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — The Counsellor of State and intend- 
 ant of the Imperial civil list, Daru, paid for the place 
 of a commissary-general of our army in Germany the 
 immense sum of six millions of livres — X250,000 — 
 which was divided between Madame Bonapaii« (the 
 mother), Madame Napoleon Bonaparte, Princesse 
 Louis Bonaparte, Princesse Murat and the Princesse 
 Borghese. By this you may conclude in what man- 
 ner we intend to treat the wretched inhabitants of the 
 other side of the Bhine. This Daru is too good a 
 calculator and too fond of money to throw away his 
 expenses ; he is master of a great fortime, made en- 
 tirely by his arithmetical talents, which have enabled 
 him for years to break all the principal gambling- 
 banks on the Continent, where he has travelled for no 
 other purpose. On his return here, he became the 
 terror of all our gamesters, who offered him an 
 annuity of one hundred thousand livres — .£4,000 — 
 not to play ; but as this sum would have been deducted 
 from what is weekly paid to Fouch^, this Minister 
 sent him an order not to approach a gambling-table,
 
 rj\apoleotL 
 
 Photo-etching after the painting by Robert Le Fevre.
 
 Rr- ... -J
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 187 
 
 under pain of being transported to Cayenne. He 
 obeyed, but the bankers soon experienced that he had 
 deputies, and foi* fear that even from the other side of 
 the Atlantic he might forward his calculations hither, 
 Fouch^ recommended him, for a small douceur, to the 
 office of an intendant of Bonaparte's civil list, upon 
 condition of never, directly or indirectly, injuring our 
 gambling-banks. He has kept his promise with re- 
 gard to France, but made, last spring, a gambling 
 tour in Italy and Germany, which, he avows, produced 
 him nine millions of livres — .£375,000. He always 
 points, but never keeps a bank. He begins to be so 
 well known in many parts of the Continent, that the 
 instant he arrives all banks are shut up, and remain 
 so until his departure. This was the case at Florence 
 last April. He travels always in style, accompanied 
 by two mistresses and four servants. He is a cheva- 
 lier of the Legion of Honour. 
 
 He will, however, have some difficulty to make a 
 great profit by his calculations in Germany, as many 
 of the generals are better acquainted than he with the 
 country, where their extortions and dilapidations have 
 been felt and lamented for these ten years past. 
 Augereau, Bernadotte, Ney, Van Damme, and other 
 of our military banditti, have long been the terror of 
 the Germans and the reproach of France. 
 
 In a former letter I have introduced to you our 
 Field - marshal, Bernadotte, of whom Augereau may
 
 188 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 justly be called an elder revolutionary brother — like 
 him, a Parisian by birth, and, like him, serving as a 
 common soldier before the Revolution. But he has 
 this merit above Bernadotte, that he began his politi- 
 cal career as a police spy, and finished his first mili- 
 tary engagement by desertion into foreign countries, 
 in most of which, after again enlisting and again 
 deserting, he was also again taken and again flogged. 
 Italy has, indeed, since he has been made a general, 
 been more the scene of his devastations than Ger- 
 many. Lombardy and Venice will not soon forget 
 the thousands he butchered, and the millions he 
 plundered ; that with hands reeking with blood, and 
 stained with human gore, he seized the trinkets which 
 devotion had given to sanctity, to ornament the 
 fingers of an assassin, or decorate the bosom of a 
 harlot. The outrages he committed during 1796 and 
 1797, in Italy, are too numerous to find place in any 
 letter, even were they not disgusting to relate, and too 
 enormous and too improbable to be believed. He 
 frequently transformed the temples of the divinity 
 into brothels for prostitution ; and virgins who had 
 ■ consecrated themselves to remain unpolluted servants 
 of a God, he bayoneted into dens of impurity, infamy, 
 and profligacy ; and in these abominations he prided 
 himself. In August, 1797, on his way to Paris to 
 take command of the sbirri, who, on the 4th of the 
 following September, hunted away or imprisoned the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 189 
 
 representatives of the people of the legislative body, 
 he paid a prostitute, with whom he had passed the 
 night at Pavia, with a draft for fifty louis d' or on the 
 municipality of that town, who dared not dishonour 
 it; but they kept the draft, and in 1799 handed it 
 over to General Melas, who sent it to Vienna, where 
 I saw the very original. 
 
 The general and grand officer of Bonaparte's 
 Legion of Honour, Van Damme, is another of our 
 military heroes of the same stamp. A barber, and 
 son of a Flemish barber, he enlisted as a soldier, 
 robbed, and was condemned to be hanged. The 
 humanity of the judge preserved him from the 
 gallows ; but he was burnt on the shoulders, flogged 
 by the public executioner, and doomed to serve as a 
 galley-slave for life. The Revolution broke his 
 fetters, made him a Jacobin, a pati'iot, and a gen- 
 eral ; but the first use he made of his good fortune 
 was to cause the judge, his benefactor, to be guillo- 
 tined, and to appropriate to himself the estate of the 
 family. He was cashiered by Pichegru, and dishon- 
 oured by Moreau, for his ferocity and plunder in 
 Holland and Germany ; but Bonaparte restored him 
 to rank and confidence ; and by a douceur of twelve 
 hundred thousand livres — .£50,000 — properly ap- 
 plied and divided between some of the members of 
 the Bonaparte family, he procured the place of a 
 governor at Lille, and a commander-in-chief of the
 
 190 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 ci-devant Flanders. In landed property, in jewels, in 
 amount in the funds, and in ready money (he always 
 keeps, from prudence, six hundred thousand livres — 
 X25,000 — in gold), his riches amount to eight 
 millions of livres — <£335,000. For a ci-devant sans- 
 culotte barber and galley-slave, you must grant 
 this is a very modest sum.
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord: — You must often have been surprised 
 at the immense wealth which, from the best and 
 often authentic information, I have informed you our 
 generals and public functionaries have extorted and 
 possess ; but the catalogue of private rapine com- 
 mitted, without authority, by our soldiers, officers, 
 commissaries, and generals, is likewise immense, and 
 surpassing often the exactions of a legal kind — that 
 is to say, those authorized by our Government itself, 
 or by its civil and military representatives. It com- 
 prehends thd innumerable requisitions demanded and 
 enforced, whether as loans, or in provisions or mer- 
 chandise, or in money as an equivalent for both ; the 
 levies of men, of horses, oxen, and carriages ; corvSes 
 of all kinds ; the emptying of magazines for the 
 service of our armies; in short, whatever was re- 
 quired for the maintenance, a portion of the pay, and 
 divers wants of those armies, from the time they had 
 posted themselves in Brabant, Holland, Italy, Switzer- 
 land, and on either bank of the Rhine. Add to this 
 the pillage of public or private warehouses, granaries,
 
 192 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 and magazines, whether belonging to individuals, to 
 the State, to societies, to towns, to hospitals, and 
 even to orphan-houses. 
 
 But these and other sorts of requisitions, under the 
 appellation of subsistence necessary for the armies, 
 and for what was wanted for accoutring, quartering, 
 or removing them, included also an infinite consump- 
 tion for the pleasures, luxuries, whims, and debauch- 
 eries of our civil or military commanders. Most of 
 those articles were delivered in kind, and what were 
 not used were set up to auction, converted into ready 
 money, and divided among the plunderers. 
 
 In 1797, General Ney had the command in the 
 vicinity of the free and Imperial city of Wetzlar. 
 He there put in requisition all private stores of 
 cloths ; and after disposing of them by a public sale, 
 retook them upon another requisition from the pur- 
 chasers, and sold them a second time. Leather and 
 linen underwent the same operation. Volumes might 
 be filled with similar examples, all of public 
 notoriety. 
 
 This Gdndral Ney, who is now one of the principal 
 commanders under Bonaparte in Germany, was a 
 bankrupt tobacconist at Strasburg in 1790, and is the 
 son of an old-clothes man of Sarre Louis, where he 
 was born in 1765. Having entered as a common 
 soldier in the regiment of Alsace, to escape the pur- 
 suit of his creditors, he was there picked up by some
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 193 
 
 Jacobin emissaries, whom he assisted to seduce the 
 men into an insurrection, which obliged most of the 
 officers to emigrate. From that period he began to 
 distinguish himself as an orator of the Jacobin clubs, 
 and was, therefore, by his associates, promoted by 
 one step to an adjutant -general. Brave and enter- 
 prising, ambitious for advancement, and greedy after 
 riches, he seized every opportunity to distinguish and 
 enrich himself ; and, as fortune supported his endeav- 
 ours, he was in a short time made a general of divis- 
 ion, and acquired a property of several millions. This 
 is his first campaign under Bonaparte, having previ- 
 ously served only under Pichegru, Moreau, and Le 
 Courbe. 
 
 He, with General Richepanse, was one of the first 
 generals supposed to be attached to their former chief, 
 Gdn^ral Moreau, whom Bonaparte seduced into his 
 interest. In the autumn of 1802, when the Helvetic 
 Republic attempted to recover its lost independence, 
 Ney was appointed commander-in-chief of the French 
 army in Switzerland, and Ambassador from the First 
 Consul to the Helvetic Government. He there con- 
 ducted himself so much to the satisfaction of Bona- 
 parte, that, on the rupture with your country, he was 
 made commander of the camp near Montreuil ; and 
 last year his wife was received as a Maid of Honour 
 to the Empress of the French. 
 
 This Maid of Honour is the daughter of a washer-
 
 194 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 woman, and was kept by a man-milliner at Strasburg, 
 at the time that she eloped with Ney. With him she 
 had made four campaigns as a mistress before the 
 municipality of Coblentz made her his wife. Her 
 conduct since has corresponded with that of her 
 husband. When he publicly lived with mistresses, 
 she did not live privately with her gallants, but the 
 instant the Emperor of the French told him to save 
 appearances, if he desired a place for his wife at the 
 Imperial Court, he showed himself the most attentive 
 and faithful of husbands, and she the most tender and 
 dutiful of wives. Her manners are not polished, but 
 they are pleasing ; and though not handsome in her 
 person, she is lively ; and her conversation is entertain- 
 ing, and her society agreeable. The Princesse Louis 
 Bonaparte is particularly fond of her, more so than 
 Napoleon, perhaps, desires. She has a fault common 
 with most of our Court ladies : she cannot resist, 
 when opportunity presents itself, the temptation of 
 gambling, and she is far from being fortunate. Re- 
 port says that more than once she has been reduced 
 to acquit her gambling debts by personal favours. 
 
 Another of our generals, and the richest of them 
 all who are now serving under Bonaparte, is his 
 brother-in-law. Prince Murat. According to some, 
 he had been a Septembrizer, terrorist, Jacobin, rob- 
 ber, and assassin, long before he obtained his first 
 commission as an officer, which was given him by the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 195 
 
 recommendation of Marat, whom he in return after- 
 wards wished to immortalize, by the exchange of one 
 letter in his own name, and by calling himself Marat 
 instead of Mwrat. Others, however, declare that his 
 father was an honest cobbler, very superstitious, re- 
 siding at Bastide, near Cahors, and destined his son 
 to be a Capuchin friar, and that he was in his novi- 
 tiate when the Revolution tempted him to exchange 
 the frock of the monk for the regimentals of a sol- 
 dier. In what manner, or by what achievements, he 
 gained promotion is not certain, but in 1796 he was 
 a chief of brigade, and an aide-de-camp of Bonaparte, 
 with whom he went to Egypt, and returned thence 
 with him, and who, in 1801, married him to his sis- 
 ter, Maria Annunciade, in 1803 made him a governor 
 of Paris, and in 1804 a Prince. 
 
 The wealth which Murat has collected, during his 
 military service, and by his mati'imonial campaign, 
 is rated at upwards of fifty millions of livres — 
 i£ 2,100,000. The landed property he possesses in 
 France alone has cost him forty - two millions — 
 Xl,750,000 — and it is whispered that the estates 
 bought in the name of his wife, both in France and 
 Italy, are not worth much less. A brother-in-law of 
 his, who was a smith, he has made a legislator ; and 
 an uncle, who was a tailor, he has placed in the Sen- 
 ate. A cousin of his, who was a chimney-sweeper, is 
 now a tribune ; and his niece, who was an apprentice
 
 196 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 to a mantua-maker, is now married to one of the 
 Emperor's chamberlains. He has been very generous 
 to all his relations, and would not have been ashamed, 
 even, to present his parents at the Imperial Court, 
 had not the mother, on the first information of his 
 princely rank, lost her life, and the father his senses, 
 from surprise and joy. The millions are not few that 
 he has procured his relatives an opportunity to gain. 
 His brother-in-law, the legislator, is worth three 
 millions of livres — <£125,000. 
 
 It has been asserted before, and I repeat it again : 
 "It is avarice, and not the mania of imiovation, or 
 the jargon of liberty, that has led, and ever will lead, 
 the Revolution — its promoters, its accomplices, and 
 its instruments. Wherever they penetrate, plunder 
 follows ; rapine was their first object, of which 
 ferocity has been but the means. The French Revo- 
 lution was fostered by robbery and murder; two 
 nurses that will adhere to her to the last hour of her 
 existence." 
 
 G^n^ral Murat is the trusty executioner of all the 
 Emperor's secret deeds of vengeance, or public acts 
 of revolutionary justice. It was under his private 
 responsibility that Pichegru, Moreau, and Georges 
 were guarded ; and he saw Pichegru strangled, 
 Georges guillotined, and Moreau on his way to his 
 place of exile. After the seizure and trial of the 
 Due d' Enghien, some doubts existed with Napoleon
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 197 
 
 whether even the soldiers of his Italian guard would 
 fire at this Prince. " If they hesitate," said Murat, 
 who commanded the expedition in the wood of Vin- 
 cennes, " my pistols are loaded, and I will blow out 
 his brains." 
 
 His wife is the greatest coquette of the Bonaparte 
 family. Murat was, at first, after his marriage, 
 rather jealous of his brother-in-law, Lucien, whom he 
 even fought ; but Napoleon having assured him, upon 
 his word of honour, that his suspicions were un- 
 founded, he is now the model of complaisant and 
 indulgent husbands; but his mistresses are nearly as 
 numerous as Madame Murat's favourites. He has a 
 young aide-de-camp of the name of Flahault, a son of 
 Talleyrand, while Bishop of Autun, by the then Count- 
 ess de Flahault, whom Madame Murat would not 
 have been sorry to have had for a consoler at Paris, 
 while her princely spouse was desolating Germany.
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Since Bonaparte's departure for Ger- 
 many, the vigilance of the police has much increased : 
 our patrols are doubled during the night, and our 
 spies more numerous and more insolent during the 
 day. Many suspected persons have also been exiled 
 to some distance from this capital, while others, for a 
 measure of safety^ have been shut up in the Temple, 
 or in the Castle of Vincennes. These lettres de 
 cachet, or mandates of arrest, are expedited during 
 the Emperor's absence exclusively by his brother 
 Louis, after a report, or upon a request, of the 
 Minister of Police, Fouche. 
 
 I have mentioned to you before that Louis Bona- 
 parte is both a drunkard and a libertine. When a 
 young and unprincipled man of such propensities 
 enjoys an unrestrained authority, it cannot be surpris- 
 ing to hear that he has abused it. He had not been 
 his brother's military viceroy for twenty-four hours 
 before one set of our Parisians were amused, whUe 
 others were shocked and scandalized, at a tragical 
 intrigue enterprised by His Imperial Highness.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 199 
 
 Happening to see at the opera a very handsome 
 young woman in the boxes, he despatched one of his 
 aides-de-camp to reconnoitre the ground, and to find 
 out who she was. All gentlemen attached to his 
 person or household are also his pimps, and are no 
 novices in forming or executing plans of seduction. 
 Caulincourt (the officer he employed in this affair) 
 returned soon, but had succeeded only in one part of 
 the business. He had not been able to speak to the 
 lady, but was informed that she had only been mar- 
 ried a fortnight to a manufacturer of Lyons, who was 
 seated by her side, jealous of his wife as a lover of 
 his mistress. He gave at the same time as his opin- 
 ion that it would be necessary to employ the police 
 commissary to arrest the husband when he left the 
 play, under some pretext or other, while some of the 
 friends of Prince Louis took advantage of the con- 
 fusion to seize the wife, and carry her to his hQtel. 
 An order was directly signed by Louis, according to 
 which the police commissary, Chazot, was to arrest 
 the manufacturer Leboure, of Lyons, and put him 
 into a post-chaise, imder the care of two gendarmes, 
 who were to see him safe to Lyons, where he was to 
 sign a promise of not returning to Paris without the 
 permission of Government, being suspected of stock- 
 jobbing (agiotage'). Everything succeeded according 
 to the proposal of Caulincourt, and Louis found 
 Madame Leboure crying in his saloon. It is said
 
 200 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 that she promised to surrender her virtue upon con- 
 dition of only once more seeing her husband, to be 
 certain that he was not murdered, but that Louis 
 refused, and obtained by brutal force, and the assist- 
 ance of his infamous associates, that conquest over 
 her honour which had not been yielded to his en- 
 treaties or threats. His enjoyment, however, was but 
 of short continuance ; he had no sooner fallen asleep 
 than his poor injured victim left the bed, and, flying 
 into his anteroom, stabbed herself with his sword. 
 On the next morning she was found a corpse, welter- 
 ing in her blood. In the hope of burying this infamy 
 in secrecy, her corpse was, on the next evening, when 
 it was dark, put into a sack, and thrown into the 
 river, where, being afterwards discovered, the police 
 agents gave out that she had fallen the victim of 
 assassins. But when Madame Leboure was thus 
 seized at the opera, besides her husband, her parents 
 and a brother were in her company, and the latter did 
 not lose sight of the carriage in which his sister was 
 placed till it had entered the hQtel of Louis Bona- 
 parte, where, on the next day, he, with his father, in 
 vain claimed her. As soon as the husband was in- 
 formed of the untimely end of his wife, he wrote a 
 letter to her murderer, and shot himself immediately 
 afterwards through the head, but his own head was 
 not the place where he should have sent the bullet ; 
 to destroy with it the cause of his wretchedness would
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 201 
 
 only have been an act of retaliation, in a country 
 where power forces the law to lie dormant, and 
 where justice is invoked in vain when the criminal 
 is powerful. 
 
 I have said that this intrigue, as it is styled by 
 courtesy in our fashionable circles, amused one part 
 of the Parisians ; and I believe the word amuse is not 
 improperly employed in this instance. At a dozen 
 parties where I have been since, this uiifortimate 
 adventure has always been an object of conversation, 
 of witticisms^ but not of blame, except at Madame 
 Fouche's, where Madame Leboure was very much 
 blamed indeed for having been so ovemice^ and fool- 
 ishly scrupulotis. 
 
 Another intrigue of His Imperial Highness, which 
 did not, indeed, end tragically, was related last night, 
 at the tea-party of Madame Recamier. A man of the 
 name of Deroux had lately been condemned by our 
 criminal tribunal, for forging bills of exchange, to 
 stand in the pillory six hours, and, after being marked 
 vrith a hot iron on his shoulders, to work in the 
 galleys for twenty years. His daughter, a young girl 
 under fifteen, who lived with her grandmother (hav- 
 ing lost her mother), went, accompanied by the old 
 lady, and presented a petition to Louis, in favour of 
 her father. Her youth and modesty, more than her 
 beauty, inspired the unprincipled libertine with a 
 desire of ruining innocence, under the colour of clem-
 
 202 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 ency to guilt. He ordered her to call on his cham- 
 berlain, Darinsson, in an hour, and she should obtain 
 an answer. There, either seduced by paternal affec- 
 tion, intimidated by threats, or imposed upon by 
 delusive and engaging promises, she exchanged her 
 virtue for an order of release for her parent ; and so 
 satisfied was Louis with his bargain that he added 
 her to the number of his regular mistresses. 
 
 As soon as Deroux had recovered his liberty, he 
 visited his daughter in her new situation, where he 
 saw an order of Louis, on the Imperial Treasury, for 
 twelve thousand livres — £500 — destined to pay 
 the upholsterer who had furnished her apartment. 
 This gave him, no doubt, the idea of making the 
 Prince pay a higher value for his child, and he 
 forged another order for sixty thousand livres — 
 £2,500 — so closely resembling it that it was with- 
 out suspicion acquitted by the Imperial Treasurer. 
 Possessing this money, he fabricated a pass, in the 
 name of Louis, as a courier carrying despatches to 
 the Emperor in Germany, with which he set out, and 
 arrived safe on the other side of the Rhine. His 
 forgeries were only discovered after he had written a 
 letter from Frankfort to Louis, acquitting his daugh- 
 ter of all knowledge of what he had done. In the 
 first moment of anger, her Imperial lover ordered her 
 to be arrested, but he has since forgiven her, and 
 taken her back to his favour. This iriek of Deroux
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 203 
 
 has pleased Fouchd, who long opposed his release, 
 from a knowledge of his dangerous talent and \dcious 
 character. He had once before released himself with 
 a forged order from the Minister of Police, whose 
 handwriting he had only seen for a minute upon his 
 own mandate of imprisonment
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Though loudly complained of by the 
 Cabinet of St. Cloud, the Cabinet of St. Petersburg 
 has conducted itself in these critical times with pru- 
 dence without weakness, and with firmness without 
 obstinacy. In its connections with our Government 
 it has never lost sight of its own dignity, and, there- 
 fore, never endured without resentment those imper- 
 tinent innovations in the etiquette of our Court, and 
 in the manner and language of our Emperor to the 
 representatives of legitimate Sovereigns. Had similar 
 becoming sentiments directed the councils of all 
 other Princes and the behaviour of their Ambassadors 
 here, spirited remonstrances might have moderated 
 the pretensions or passions of upstart vanity, while a 
 forbearance and silence, equally impolitic and shame- 
 ful, have augmented insolence by flattering the pride 
 of an insupportable and outrageous ambition. 
 
 The Emperor of Russia would not have been so 
 well represented here, had he not been so wisely 
 served and advised in his council chamber at St. 
 Petersburg. Ignorance and folly commonly select
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 205 
 
 fools for their agents, while genius and capacity 
 employ men of their own mould, and of their own 
 cast. It is a remarkable truth that, notwithstandino* 
 the frequent revolutions in Russia, since the death of 
 Peter the First the ministerial helm has always been 
 in able hands ; the progressive and uninterrupted 
 increase of the real and relative power of the Russian 
 Empire evinces the reality of this assertion. 
 
 The Russian Chancellor, Count Alexander Woron- 
 zoff, may be justly called the chief of political 
 veterans, whether his talents or long ser\ices are 
 considered. Catherine II., though a voluptuous 
 Princess, was a great Sovereign, and a competent 
 judge of merit ; and it was her unbiased choice that 
 seated Count Woronzoff, while yet young, in her 
 councils. Though the intrigues of favourites have 
 sometimes removed him, he always retired with the 
 esteem of his Sovereign, and was recalled without 
 caballing or cringing to return. He is admired by 
 all who have the honour of approaching him, as much 
 for his obliging condescension as for his great infor- 
 mation. No petty views, no petty caprices, no petty 
 vengeances find room in his generous bosom. He is 
 known to have conferred benefactions, not only on his 
 enemies, but on those who, at the very time, were 
 meditating his destruction. His opinion is that a 
 patriotic Minister should regard no others as his 
 enemies but those conspiring against their country,
 
 206 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 and acknowledge no friends or favourites incapable 
 
 of well serving the State. Prince de Z waited 
 
 on him one day, and, after hesitating some time, 
 began to compliment him on his liberal sentiments, 
 and concluded by asking the place of a governor for 
 his cousin, with whom he had reason to suppose the 
 Count much offended. "I am happy," said His 
 Excellency, " to oblige you, and to do my duty at the 
 same time. Here is a libel he wrote against me, and 
 presented to the Empress, who graciously has com- 
 municated it to me, in answer to my recommendation 
 of him yesterday to the place you ask for him to-day. 
 Read what I have written on the libel, and you will be 
 convinced that it will not be my fault if he is not 
 to-day a governor." In two hours afterwards the 
 
 nomination was announced to Prince de Z , who 
 
 was himself at the head of a cabal against the Minis- 
 ter. In any country such an act would have been 
 laudable, but where despotism rules with unopposed 
 sway, it is both honourable and praiseworthy. 
 
 Prince Adam Czartorinsky, the assistant of Count 
 Woronzoff, and Minister of the foreign department, 
 unites, with the vigour of youth, the experience of age. 
 He has travelled in most countries of Europe, not 
 solely to figure at Courts, to dance at balls, to look at 
 pictures, or to collect curiosities, but to study the 
 character of the people, the laws by which they are 
 governed, and their moral or social influence with
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 207 
 
 regard to their comforts or misery. He therefore 
 brought back with him a stock of knowledge not to 
 be acquired from books, but only found in the world 
 by frequenting different and opposite societies with 
 observation, penetration, and genius. With manners 
 as polished as his mind is well informed, he not only 
 possesses the favour, but the friendship of his Prince, 
 and, what is still more rare, is worthy of both. All 
 Sovereigns have favourites, few ever had any friends; 
 because it is more easy to flatter vanity than to dis- 
 play a liberal disinterestedness ; to bow meanly than 
 to instruct or to guide with delicacy and dignity ; to 
 abuse the confidence of the Prince than to use it to his 
 honour, and to the advantage of his Government. 
 
 That such a Monarch as an Alexander, and such 
 Ministers as Count Woronzoff and Prince Czartorinsky, 
 should appoint a Count Markof to a high and impor- 
 tant post, was not unexpected by any one not ignorant 
 of his merit. 
 
 Count Markof was, early in the reign of Catherine 
 II., employed in the office of the foreign department 
 at St. Petersburg, and was, whilst young, entrusted 
 with several important negotiations at the Courts of 
 Berlin and Vienna, when Prussia had proposed the 
 first partition of Poland. He afterward went on his 
 travels, from which he was recalled to fill the place 
 of an Ambassador to the late King of Sweden, Gusta- 
 vus III. He was succeeded, in 1784, at Stockholm, by
 
 208 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 Count Muschin Puschin, after being appointed a 
 Secretary of State in his own country, a post he occu- 
 pied with distinction, until the death of Catherine II., 
 when Paul the First revenged upon him, as well as on 
 most others of the faithful servants of this Princess, 
 his discontent with his mother. He was then exiled 
 to his estates, where he retired with the esteem of all 
 those who had known him. In 1801, immediately 
 after his accession to the throne, Alexander invited 
 Count Markof to his Court and Council, and the trusty 
 but difficult task of representing a legitimate Sovereign 
 at the Court of our upstart usurper was conferred on 
 him. I imagine that I see the great surprise of this 
 nobleman, when, for the first time, he entered the 
 audience-chamber of our little great man, and saw 
 him fretting, staring, swearing, abusing to right and 
 to left, for one smile conferring twenty frowns, and 
 for one civil word making use of fifty hard expres- 
 sions, marching in the diplomatic audience as at the 
 head of his troops, and commanding foreign Ambassa- 
 dors as his French soldiers. I have heard that the 
 report of Count Markof to his Court, describing this 
 new and rare show, is a ehef-d^oeuvre of wit, equally 
 amusing and instructive. He is said to have requested 
 of his Cabinet new and particular orders how to act 
 — whether as the representative of an independent 
 Sovereign, or, as most of the other members of the 
 foreign diplomatic corps in France, like a valet of the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 209 
 
 First Consul ; and that, in the latter case, he implored 
 as a favour, an immediate recall ; preferring, had he 
 no other choice left, sooner to work in the mines at 
 Siberia than to wear in France the disgraceful fetters 
 of a Bonaparte. His subsequent dignified conduct 
 proves the answer of his Court. 
 
 Talleyrand's craft and dissimulation could not 
 delude the sagacity of Count Markof, who was, there- 
 fore, soon less liked by the Minister than by the First 
 Consul. All kind of low, vulgar, and revolutionary 
 chicanery was made use of to vex or to provoke the 
 Russian Ambassador. Sometimes he was reproached 
 with having emigrants in his service ; another time 
 protection was refused to one of his secretaries, under 
 pretence that he was a Sardinian subject. Russian 
 travellers were insulted, and detained on the most 
 frivolous pretences. Two Russian noblemen were 
 even arrested on our side of the Rhine, because Tal- 
 leyrand had forgotten to sign his name to their passes, 
 which were otherwise in order. The fact was that 
 our Minister suspected them of carrpng some papers 
 which he wanted to see, and, therefore, wrote his 
 name with an ink of such a composition that, after 
 a certain number of days, everything written with it 
 disappeared. Their effects and papers were strictly 
 searched by an agent preceding them from this capi- 
 tal, but nothing was found, our Minister being misin- 
 formed by his spies.
 
 210 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 When Count Markof left Sweden, he carried with 
 him an actress of the French theatre at Stockholm, 
 Madame Hus, an Alsatian by birth, but who had. 
 quitted her country twelve years before the Revolu- 
 tion, and could, therefore, never be included among 
 emigrants. She had continued as a mistress with 
 this nobleman, is the mother of several children by 
 him, and an agreeable companion to him, who has 
 never been married. As I have often said, Talleyrand 
 is much obliged to any foreign diplomatic agent who 
 allows him to be the indirect provider or procurer of 
 his mistresses. After in vain tempting Count Markof 
 with new objects, he introduced to the acquaintance 
 of Madame Hus some of his female emissaries. Their 
 manoeuvres, their insinuations, and even their presents 
 were all thrown away. The lady remained the faith- 
 ful friend, and therefore refused with indignation to 
 degrade herself into a spy on her lover. Our Minister 
 then first discovered that, not only was Madame Hus 
 an emigrant, but had been a great benefactress and 
 constant companion of emigrants at St. Petersburg, 
 and, of course, deserved to be watched, if not pun- 
 ished. Count Markof is reported to have said to 
 Talleyrand on this grave subject, in the presence of 
 two other foreign Ambassadors : 
 
 " Apropos ! what shall I do to prevent my poor 
 Madame Hus from being shot as an emigrant, and my 
 poor children from becoming prematurely orphans ? "
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 211 
 
 " Monsieur," said our diplomatic oracle, " she 
 should have petitioned the First Consul for a per- 
 mission to return to France before she entered it; 
 but out of regard for you, if she is prudent, she \nll 
 not, I daresay, be troubled by our Government." 
 
 "I should be sorry if she was not," replied the 
 Count, with a significant look ; and here this grand 
 affair ended, to the great entertainment of those 
 foreign agents who dared to smile or to laugh.
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — The Legion of Honour, though only 
 proclaimed upon Bonaparte's assumption of the Impe- 
 rial rank, dates from the first year of his consulate. 
 To prepare the public mind for a progressive eleva- 
 tion of himself, and for consequential distinctions 
 among all classes of his subjects, he distributed 
 among the military, arms of honour, to which were 
 attached precedence and privileges granted by him, 
 and, therefore, liable to cease with his power or life. 
 The number of these arms increased in proportion to 
 the approach of the period fixed for the change of his 
 title and the erection of his throne. When he judged 
 them numerous enough to support his changes, he 
 made all these wearers of arms of honour knights. 
 Never before were so many chevaliers created en 
 masse; they amounted to no less than twenty -two 
 thousand four hundred, distributed in the different 
 corps of different armies, but principally in the army 
 of England. To these were afterwards joined five 
 thousand nine hundred civil functionaries, men of 
 letters, artists, etc. To remove, however, all ideas
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOXJD. 213 
 
 of equality, even among the members of the Legion 
 of Honour, they were divided into four classes 
 — grand officers, commanders, officers, and simple 
 legionaries. 
 
 Every one who has observed Bonaparte's incessant 
 endeavours to intrude himself among the Sovereigns 
 of Europe, was con^dnced that he would cajole, or 
 force, as many of them as he could into his revolu- 
 tionary knighthood ; but I heard men, who are not 
 ignorant of the selfishness and corruption of our 
 times, deny the possibility of any independent Prince 
 suffering his name to be registered among criminals 
 of every description, from the thief who picked the 
 pockets of his fellow citizens in the street, down to 
 the regicide who sat in judgment and condemned 
 his King ; from the plunderers who have laid waste 
 provinces, republics, and kingdoms, down to the 
 assassins who shot, drowned, or guillotined their 
 countrymen en masse. For my part, I never had but 
 one opinion, and, unfortunately, it has turned out a 
 just one. I always was convinced that those Princes 
 who received other presents from Bonaparte could 
 have no plausible excuse to decline his ribands, 
 crosses, and stars. But who could have presumed to 
 think that, in return for these blood-stained baubles, 
 they would have sacrificed those honourable and 
 dignified ornaments which, for ages past, have been 
 the exclusive distinction of what birth had exalted,
 
 214 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 virtue made eminent, talents conspicuous, honour 
 illustrious, or valour meritorious ? Who would have 
 dared to say that the Prussian Eagle and the Spanish 
 Golden Fleece should thus be prostituted, thus pol- 
 luted ? I do not mean by this remark to throw any 
 blame on the conferring those and other orders on 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, or even on his brothers; I 
 know it is usual, between legitimate Sovereigns in 
 alliance, sometimes to exchange their knighthoods; 
 but to debase royal orders so much as to present 
 them to a Cambac^r^s, a Talleyrand, a Fouch^, 
 a Bernadotte, a Fesch, and other vile and crim- 
 inal wretches, I do not deny to have excited my 
 astonishment as well as my indignation. What 
 honest — I do not say what noble — subjects of 
 Prussia, or of Spain, will hereafter think themselves 
 rewarded for their loyalty, industry, patriotism, or 
 zeal, when they remember that their Sovereigns have 
 nothing to give but what the rebel has obtained, the 
 robber worn, the murderer vilified, and the regicide 
 debased ? 
 
 The number of grand officers of the Legion of 
 Honour does not yet amount to more than eighty, 
 according to a list circulated at Milan last spring, of 
 which I have seen a copy. Of these grand officers, 
 three had been shoemakers, two tailors, four bakers, 
 four barbers, six friars, eight abb^s, six officers, three 
 pedlers, three chandlers, seven di-ummers, sixteen
 
 Cambaceres. 
 
 Photo-etching from a rare print.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 215 
 
 soldiers, and eight regicides ; four were lawful Kings, 
 and the six others. Electors or Princes of the most 
 ancient houses in Europe. I have looked over our 
 own official list, and, as far as I know, the calculation 
 is exact, both with regard to the number and to the 
 quality. 
 
 This new institution of knighthood produced a 
 singular effect on my vain and giddy countrymen, 
 who, for twelve years before, had scarcely seen a star 
 or a riband, except those of foreign Ambassadors, who 
 were frequently insulted when wearing them. It 
 became now the fashion to be a knight, and those 
 who really were not so, put pinks, or rather blooms, 
 or flowers of a darker red, in their buttonholes, so as 
 to resemble, and to be taken at a distance for, the red 
 ribands of the members of the Legion of Honour. 
 
 A man of the name of Yilleaume, an engraver by 
 profession, took advantage of this knightly fashion 
 and mania, and sold for four louis d'or, not only the 
 stars, but pretended letters of knighthood, said to be 
 procured by his connection with persons of the house- 
 hold of the Emperor. In a month's time, according 
 to a register kept by him, he had made twelve hun- 
 dred and fifty knights. When his fraud was discov- 
 ered, he was already out of the way, safe with his 
 money; and, notwithstanding the researches of the 
 police, has not since been taken. 
 
 A person calling himself Baron von Rinken, a
 
 216 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 subject and an agent of one of the many Princes of 
 Hohenlohe, according to his own assertion, arrived 
 here with real letters and patents of knighthood, 
 which he offered for sale for three hundred livres — 
 £12. The stars of this Order were as large as the 
 star of the grand officers of the Legion of Honour, 
 and nearly resembled it; but the ribands were of a 
 different colour. He had already disposed of a dozen 
 of these stars, when he was taken up by the police 
 and shut up in the Temple, where he still remains. 
 Four other agents of inferior petty German Princes 
 have also been arrested for offering the Orders of 
 their Sovereigns for sale. 
 
 A Captain Rouvais, who received six wounds in 
 his campaign under Pichegru in 1794, wore the star 
 of the Legion of Honour without being nominated a 
 knight. He has been tried by a military commission, 
 deprived of his pension, and condemned to four years' 
 imprisonment in irons. He proved that he had pre- 
 sented fourteen petitions to Bonaparte for obtaining 
 this mark of distinction, but in vain ; while hundreds 
 of others, who had hardly seen an enemy, or, at the 
 most, made but one campaign, or been once wounded, 
 had succeeded in their demands. As soon as sentence 
 had been pronounced against him, he took a small 
 pistol from his pocket, and shot himself through the 
 head, saying, " Some one else will soon do the same 
 for Bonaparte."
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 217 
 
 A cobbler, of the name of Matthieu, either in a fit 
 of madness or from hatred to the new order of things, 
 decorated himself with the large riband of the Legion 
 of Honour, and had an old star fastened on his coat. 
 Thus accoutred, he went into the Palais Royal, in the 
 middle of the day, got upon a chair, and began to 
 speak to his audience of the absurdity of true repub- 
 licans not being on a level, even under an Emperor, 
 and putting on, like him, all his ridiculous ornaments. 
 " We are here," said he, " either all grand officers, or 
 there exist no grand officers at all ; we have all 
 fought and paid for liberty, and for the Revolution, 
 as much as Bonaparte, and have, therefore, the same 
 right and claim with him." Here a police agent and 
 some gendarmes interrupted his eloquence by taking 
 him into custody. When Fouch^ asked him what he 
 meant by such rebellious behaviour, he replied that it 
 was only a trial to see whether destiny had intended 
 him to become an Emperor or to remain a cobbler. 
 On the next day he was shot as a conspirator. I saw 
 the unfortunate man in the Palais Royal ; his eyes 
 looked wild, and his words were often incoherent. 
 He was certainly a subject more deserving a place in 
 a madhouse than in a tomb. 
 
 Cambac^res has been severely reprimanded by the 
 Emperor for showing too much partiality for the 
 Royal Prussian Black Eagle, by wearing it in prefer- 
 ence to the Imperial Legion of Honour. He was
 
 218 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 given to understand that, except for four days in the 
 year, the Imperial etiquette did not permit any sub- 
 jects to display their knighthood of the Prussian 
 Order. In Madame Bonaparte's last drawing-room, 
 before His Imperial Majesty set out for the Rhine, he 
 was ornamented with the Spanish, Neapolitan, Prus- 
 sian, and Portuguese orders, together with those of the 
 French Legion of Honour and of the ItaUan Iron 
 Crown. I have seen the Emperor Paul, who was also 
 an amateur of ribands and stars, but never with so 
 many at once. I have just heard that the Grand 
 Master of Malta has presented Napoleon with the 
 Grand Cross of the Maltese Order. This is certainly 
 a negative compliment to him, who, in July, 1798, 
 officially declared to his then sectaries, the Turks and 
 Mussulmans, " that the Grand Master, Commanders, 
 Knights, and Order of Malta existed no more.'''' 
 
 I have heard it related for a certainty among our 
 fashionable ladies, that the Empress of the French 
 also intends to institute a new order of female knight- 
 hood, not of honour y but of confidence ; of which all 
 our Court ladies, all the wives of our generals, public 
 functionaries, etc., are to be members. The Imperial 
 Princesses of the Bonaparte family are to be hered- 
 itary grand officers, together with as many foreign 
 Empresses, Queens, Princesses, Countesses, and Baron- 
 esses as can be bayoneted into this revolutionary 
 sisterhood. Had the Continent remained tranquil, it
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 219 
 
 would already have been officially announced by a 
 Senatus Consultum. I should suppose that Madame 
 Bonaparte, with her splendid Court and brilliant reti- 
 nue of German Princes and Electors at Strasburg, 
 need only say the word to find hundreds of princely 
 recruits for her knighthood in petto. Her mantle, as 
 a Grand Mistress of the Order of Confidence, has 
 been already embroidered at Lyons, and those who 
 have seen it assert that it is truly superb. The dia- 
 monds of the star on the mantle are valued at six * 
 hundred thousand livres — £25,000.
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Since Bonaparte's departure for Ger- 
 many, fifteen individuals have been brought here, 
 chained, from La Vendee and the Western Depart- 
 ments, and are imprisoned in the Temple. Their 
 crime is not exactly known, but private letters from 
 those countries relate that they were recruiting for 
 another insurrection, and that some of them were 
 entrusted as Ambassadors from their discontented 
 countrymen to Louis XVIII. to ask for his return 
 to France, and for the assistance of Russia, Sweden, 
 and England to support his claims. 
 
 These are, however, reports to which I do not affix 
 much credit. Had the prisoners in the Temple been 
 guilty, or only accused of such crimes, they would 
 long ago have been tortured, tried, and executed, or 
 executed without a trial. I suppose them mere hos- 
 tages arrested by our Government, as secm-ity for the 
 tranquillity of the Chouan Departments during our 
 armies* occupation elsewhere. We have, nevertheless, 
 two movable columns of six thousand men each in 
 the country, or in its vicinity, and it would be not
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 221 
 
 only impolitic, but a cruelty, to engage or allure the 
 unfortunate people of these wretched countries into 
 any plots, which, situated as affairs now are, would 
 be productive of great and certain evil to them, with- 
 out even the probability of any benefit to the cause of 
 royalty and of the Bourbons. I do not mean to say 
 that there are not those who rebel against Bonaparte's 
 tyranny, or that the Bourbons have no friends ; on 
 the contrary, the latter are not few, and the former 
 very numerous. But a kind of apathy, the effect of 
 unavailing resistance to usurpation and oppression, 
 has seized on most minds, and annihilated what little 
 remained of our never very great public spirit. We 
 are tired of everything, even of our existence, and 
 care no more whether we are governed by a Maxi- 
 milian Robespierre or by a Napoleon Bonaparte, by a 
 Barras or by Louis XVIII. Except, perhaps, among 
 the military, or among some ambitious schemers, 
 remnants of former factions, I do not believe a 
 Moreau, a Macdonald, a Lucien Bonaparte, or any 
 person exiled by the Emperor, and formerly popular, 
 could collect fifty trusty conspirators in all France; 
 at least, as long as our armies are victorious, and 
 organized in their present formidable manner. Should 
 anything happen to our present chief, an impulse may 
 be given to the minds now sunk down, and raise our 
 characters from their present torpid state. But until 
 such an event, we shall remain as we are, indolent
 
 222 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 but submissive, sacrificing our children and treasures 
 for a cause we detest, and for a man we abhor. I 
 am sorry to say it, but it certainly does no honour to 
 my nation when one million desperados of civil and 
 military banditti are suffered to govern, tyrannize, 
 and pillage, at their ease and undisturbed, thirty 
 millions of people, to whom their past crimes are 
 known, and who have every reason to apprehend 
 their future wickedness. 
 
 This astonishing resignation (if I can call it so, 
 and if it does not deserve a worse name), is so much 
 the more incomprehensible, as the poverty of the 
 higher and middle classes is as great as the misery 
 of the people, and, except those employed under Bona- 
 parte, and some few upstart contractors or army 
 commissaries, the greatest privations must be sub- 
 mitted to in order to pay the enormous taxes and 
 make a decent appearance. I know families of five, 
 six, and seven persons, who formerly were wealthy, 
 and now have for a scanty subsistence an income of 
 twelve or eighteen hundred livres — £50 or X75 — 
 per year, with which they are obliged to live as they 
 can, being deprived of all the resource that elsewhere 
 labour offers to the industrious, and all the succours 
 compassion bestows on the necessitous. You know 
 that here all trade and all commerce are at a stand or 
 destroyed, and the hearts of our modern rich are as 
 unfeeling as their manners are vulgar and brutal.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 223 
 
 A family of ci-devant nobles of my acquaintance, 
 once possessing a revenue of one hundred and fifty 
 thousand livres — £6,300 — subsist now on fifteen 
 hundred livres — <£63 — per year; and this sum 
 must support six individuals — the father and mother, 
 with four children ! It does so, indeed, by an 
 arrangement of only one poor meal in the day; a 
 dinner four times, and a supper three times, in the 
 week. They endure their distress with tolerable 
 cheerfulness, though in the same street, where they 
 occupy the garrets of a house, resides, in an elegant 
 hotel, a man who was once their groom, but who is 
 now a tribune, and has within these last twelve years, 
 as a conventional deputy, amassed, in his mission to 
 Brabant and Flanders, twelve millions of livres — 
 £500,000. He has kindly let my friend understand 
 that his youngest daughter might be received as a 
 chambermaid to his wife, being informed that she has 
 a good education. All the four daughters are good 
 musicians, good drawers, and very able with their 
 needles. By their talents they supported their parents 
 and themselves during their emigration in Germany ; 
 but here these are of but little use or advantage. 
 Those upstarts who want instruction or works of this 
 sort apply to the first, most renowned, and fashion- 
 able masters or mistresses ; while others, and those 
 the greatest number, cannot afford even to pay the 
 inferior ones and the most cheap. This family is one
 
 224 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 of the many that regret having returned from their 
 emigration. But, you may ask, why do they not go 
 back again to Germany ? First, it would expose them 
 to suspicion, and, perhaps, to ruin, were they to 
 demand passes ; and if this danger or difficulty were 
 removed, they have no money for such a long journey. 
 But this sort of penury and wretchedness is also 
 common with the families of the former wealthy mer- 
 chants and tradesmen. Paper money, a maximum, 
 and requisitions, have reduced those that did not 
 share in the crimes and pillage of the Revolution, as 
 much as the proscribed nobility. And, contradictory 
 as it may seem, the number of persons employed in 
 commercial speculations has more than tripled since 
 we experienced a general stagnation of trade, the con- 
 sequence of war, of want of capital, protection, 
 encouragement, and confidence ; but one of the maga- 
 zines of 1789 contained more goods and merchandize 
 than twenty modern magazines put together. The 
 expenses of these new merchants are, however, much 
 greater than sixteen years ago, the profit less, and the 
 credit still less than the profit. Hence numerous 
 bankruptcies, frauds, swindling, forgeries, and other 
 evils of immorality, extravagance, and misery. The 
 fair and honest dealers suffer most from the intrusion 
 of these infamous speculators, who — expecting, like 
 other vile men wallowing in wealth under their eyes, 
 to make rapid fortunes, and to escape detection as
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 225 
 
 well as punishment — commit crimes to soothe disap- 
 pointment. Nothing is done but for ready money, 
 and even bankers' bills, or bills accepted by baniers, 
 are not taken in payment before the signatures are 
 avowed by the parties concerned. You can easily 
 conceive what confusion, what expenses, and what 
 loss of time these precautions must occasion ; but the 
 numerous forgeries and fabrications have made them 
 absolutely necessary. 
 
 The farmers and landholders are better off, but 
 they also complain of the heavy taxes, and low price 
 paid for what they bring to the market, which fre- 
 quently, for want of ready money, remains long un- 
 sold. They take nothing but cash in payment ; for, 
 notwithstanding the endeavours of our Government, 
 the notes of the Bank of France have never been in 
 circulation among them. They have also been sub- 
 ject to losses by the fluctuation of paper money, by 
 extortions, requisitions, and by the maximum. In 
 this class of my countrymen remains still some little 
 national spirit and some independence of character ; 
 but these are far from being favourable to Bonaparte, 
 or to the Imperial Government, which the yearly in- 
 crease of taxes, and, above all, the conscription, have 
 rendered extremely odious. You may judge of the 
 great difference in the taxation of lands and landed 
 property now and under our Kings, when I inform you 
 that a friend of mine, who, in 1792, possessed, in
 
 226 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 one of the Western Departments, twenty-one farms, 
 paid less in contribution for them all than he does 
 now for the three farms he has recovered from the 
 wreck of his fortune.
 
 LETTER XXVn. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — In a military empire, ruled by a mili- 
 tary despot, it is a necessary policy that the education 
 of youth should also be military. In all our public 
 schools or prytan^es, a boy, from the moment of 
 entering, is registered in a company, and regularly 
 drilled, exercised, and re\*iewed, punished for neglect 
 or fault according to martial law, and advanced if 
 displaying genius or application. All our private 
 schools that wish for the protection of Government 
 are forced to submit to the same military rules, and, 
 therefore, most of our conscripts, so far from being 
 recruits, are fit for any service as soon as put into 
 requisition. The fatal effects to the independence of 
 Europe to be dreaded from this sole innovation, I 
 apprehend, have been too little considered by other 
 nations. A great Power, that can, without obstacle, 
 and with but little expense, in four weeks increase its 
 disposable military force from one hundred and 
 twenty to one hundred and eighty thousand young 
 men, accustomed to military duty from their youth, 
 must finally become the master of all other or rival
 
 228 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 Powers, and dispose at leisure of empires, kingdoms, 
 principalities, and republics. Nothing can save 
 
 THEM BUT THE ADOPTION OF SIMILAR MEASURES FOR 
 THEIR PRESERVATION AS HAVE BEEN ADOPTED FOR THEIR 
 SUBJUGATION. 
 
 When V Etat Militaire for the year 13 (a work con- 
 taining the official statement of our military forces) 
 was presented to Bonaparte by Berthier, the latter 
 said : " Sire, I lay before Your Majesty the book of the 
 destiny of the world, which your hands direct as the 
 sovereign guide of the armies of your empire." This 
 compliment is a truth, and therefore no flattery. It 
 might as justly have been addressed to a Moreau, a 
 Macdonald, a Le Courbe, or to any other general, as 
 to Bonaparte, because a superior number of well dis- 
 ciplined troops, let them be well or even indifferently 
 commanded, will defeat those inferior in number. 
 Three to one would even overpower an army of 
 giants. Add to it the unity of plans, of dispositions, 
 and of execution, which Bonaparte enjoys exclusively 
 over such a great number of troops, while ten, or per- 
 haps fifty, will direct or contradict every movement of 
 his opponents. I tremble when I meditate on Ber- 
 thier' s assertion ; may I never live to see it realized, 
 and to see all hitherto independent nations prostrated, 
 acknowledge that Bonaparte and destiny are the same, 
 and the same distributor of good and evil. 
 
 One of the bad consequences of this our military
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 229 
 
 education of youth is a total absence of all religious 
 and moral lessons. Arnaud had, last August, the 
 courage to complain of this infamous neglect, in the 
 National Institute. " The youth," said he, " receive no 
 other instruction but lessons to march, to fire, to bow, 
 to dance, to sit, to lie, and to impose with a good grace. 
 I do not ask for Spartans or Romans, but we want 
 Athenians, and our schools are only forming Syba- 
 rites." Within twenty-four hours afterwards, Arnaud 
 was visited by a police agent, accompanied by two 
 gendarmes, with an order signed by Fouch^, which 
 condemned him to reside at Orleans, and not to re- 
 turn to Paris without the permission of the Govern- 
 ment, — a punishment regarded here as very moderate 
 for such an indiscreet zeal. 
 
 A schoolmaster at Auteuil, near this capital, of the 
 name of Gouron, had a private seminary, organized 
 upon the footing of our former colleges. In some 
 few months he was offered more pupils than he could 
 well attend to, and his house shortly became very 
 fashionable, even for our upstarts, who sent their 
 children there in preference. He was ordered before 
 Fouch^ last Christmas, and commanded to change 
 the hours hitherto employed in teaching religion and 
 morals, to a military exercise and instruction, as both 
 more necessary and more salubrious for French youth. 
 Having replied that such an alteration was contrary 
 to his plan and agreement with the parents of his
 
 230 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 scholars, the Mmister stopped him short by telling 
 him that he must obey what had been prescribed by 
 Government, or stand the consequences of his refrac- 
 tory spirit. Having consulted with his friends and 
 patrons, he divided the hours, and gave half of the 
 time usually allotted to religion or morality to the 
 study of military exercise. His pupils, however, re- 
 mained obstinate, broke the drum, and tore and burnt 
 the colours he had bought. As this was not his fault, 
 he did not expect any further disturbance, particularly 
 after having reported to the police both his obedience 
 and the unforeseen result. But last March his house 
 was suddenly surrounded in the night by gendarmes, 
 and some police agents entered it. All the boys were 
 ordered to dress and to pack up their effects, and to 
 follow the gendarmes to several other schools, where 
 the Government had placed them, and of which their 
 parents would be informed. Gouron, his wife, four 
 ushers, and six servants, were all arrested and carried 
 to the police office, where Fouchd, after reproaching 
 them for their fanatical behaviour, as he termed it, 
 told them, as they were so fond of teaching religious 
 and moral duties, a suitable situation had been pro- 
 vided for them in Cayenne, where the negroes stood 
 sadly in need of their early arrival, for which reason 
 they would all set out on that very morning for 
 Rochefort. When Gouron asked what was to become 
 of his property, furniture, etc., he was told that his
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 231 
 
 house was intended by Government for a preparatory 
 school, and would, with its contents, be purchased, 
 and the amount paid him in lands in Cayenne. It is 
 not necessary to say that this example of Imperial 
 justice had the desired effect on all other refractory 
 private schoolmasters. 
 
 The parents of Gouron's pupils were, with a severe 
 reprimand, informed where their sons had been 
 placed, and where they would be educated in a 
 manner agreeable to the Emperor, who recommended 
 them not to remove them, without a previous notice 
 to the police. A hatter, of the name of Maille, how- 
 ever, ordered his son home, because he had been sent 
 to a dearer school than the former. In his turn he 
 was carried before the police, and, after a short exam- 
 ination of a quarter of an hour, was permitted, with 
 his wife and two children, to join their friend Gouron 
 at Rochefort, and to settle with him at Cayenne, 
 where lands would also be given him for his property 
 in France. These particulars were related to me by 
 a neighbour whose son had, for two years previous to 
 this, been under Gouron's care, but who was now 
 among those placed out by our Government. The 
 boy's present master, he said, was a man of a noto- 
 riously bad and immoral character; but he was 
 intimidated, and weak enough to remain contented, 
 preferring, no doubt, his personal safety to the future 
 happiness of his child. In your country, you little
 
 232 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 comprehend what a valuable instrument terror has 
 been in the hands of our rulers since the Revolution, 
 and how often fear has been mistaken abroad for 
 affection and content. 
 
 All these mmutice and petty vexations, but great 
 oppressions, of petty tyrants, you may easily guess, 
 take up a great deal of time, and that, therefore, a 
 Minister of Police, though the most powerful, is also 
 the most occupied of his colleagues. So he certainly 
 is, but, last year, a new organization of this Ministry 
 was regulated by Bonaparte ; and Fouch^ was allowed, 
 as assistants, four Counsellors of State, and an aug- 
 mentation of sixty-four police commissaries. The 
 French Empire was then divided into four arrondisse- 
 ments, with regard to the general police, not includ- 
 ing Paris and its vicinity, inspected by a prefect of 
 police under the Minister. Of the first of these arron- 
 dissements, the Counsellor of State, Real, is a kind of 
 Deputy Minister; the Counsellor of State, Miot, is 
 the same of the second ; the Counsellor of State, 
 Pelet de la Lozere, of the third ; and the Counsellor 
 of State, Dauchy, of the fourth. The secret police 
 agents, formerly called s^ies, were also considerably 
 increased.
 
 LETTER XXVm. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Before Bonaparte set out for the 
 Rhine, the Pope's Nuncio was for the first time pub- 
 licly rebuked by him in Madame Bonaparte's drawing- 
 room, and ordered loudly to write to Rome and tell 
 His Holiness to think himself fortunate in continuing 
 to govern the Ecclesiastical States, without interfer- 
 ing with the ecclesiastical arrangements that might 
 be thought necessary or proper by the Government in 
 France. 
 
 Bonaparte's policy is to promote among the first 
 dignitaries of the Gallican Church the brothers or 
 relatives of his civil or military supporters ; Camba- 
 c^rd's brother is, therefore, an Archbishop and Cardi- 
 nal, and one of Lebnm's, and two of Berthier's cousins 
 are Bishops. As, however, the relatives of these Sen- 
 ators, Ministers, or generals, have, like themselves, 
 figured in many of the scandalous and blasphemous 
 scenes of the Revolution, the Pope has sometimes 
 hesitated about sanctioning their promotions. This 
 was the case last summer, when G^n^ral Dessolles's 
 brother was transferred from the Bishopric of Digne
 
 234 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 to that of Chamb^rj, and Bonaparte nominated for 
 his successor the brother of G^n^ral Miollis, who was 
 a curate of Brignoles, in the diocese of Aix. This 
 curate had not only been one of the first to throw up 
 his letters of priesthood at^ the Jacobin Club at Aix, 
 but had also sacrilegiously denied the divinity of the 
 Christian religion, and proposed, in imitation of Pari- 
 sian atheists, the worship of a Goddess of Reason in a 
 common prostitute with whom he lived. The notori- 
 ety of these abominations made even his parishioners 
 at Brignoles unwilling to go to church, and to regard 
 him as their pastor, though several of them had been 
 imprisoned, fined, and even transported as fanatics, 
 or as refractory. 
 
 During the negotiation with Cardinal Fesch last 
 year, the Pope had been promised, among other 
 things, that, for the future, his conscience should not 
 be wounded by having presented to him for the prel- 
 acy any persons but those of the purest morals of 
 the French Empire ; and that all his objections 
 should be attended to, in case of promotions ; his scru- 
 ples removed, or his refusal submitted to. When 
 Cardinal Fesch demanded His Holiness's Bull for the 
 curate Miollis, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Gon- 
 salvi, showed no less than twenty acts of apostasy 
 and blasphemy, which made him unworthy of such a 
 dignity. To this was replied that, having obtained 
 an indulgence in toto for what was past, he was a
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 235 
 
 proper subject ; above all, as he had the protection of 
 the Emperor of the French. The Pope's Nuncio here 
 then addressed himself to our Minister of the Eccle- 
 siastical Department, Portalis, who advised him not 
 to speak to Bonaparte of a matter upon which his 
 mind had been made up ; he, nevertheless, demanded 
 an audience, and it was in consequence of this re- 
 puest that he, in his turn, became acquainted with 
 the new Imperial etiquette and new Imperial jargon 
 towards the representatives of Sovereigns. On the 
 same evening the Nuncio expedited a courier to 
 Rome, and I have heard to-day that the nomination 
 of Miollis is confirmed by the Pope. 
 
 From this relatively trifling occurrence, His Holi- 
 ness might judge of the intention of our Government 
 to adhere to its other engagements ; but at Rome, as 
 well as in most other Continental capitals, the Sover- 
 eign is the dupe of the perversity of his Counsellors 
 and Ministers, who are the tools, and not seldom the 
 pensioners, of the Cabinet of St. Cloud. 
 
 But in the kingdom of Italy the parishes and 
 dioceses are, if possible, still worse served than in 
 this country. Some of the Bishops there, after hav- 
 ing done duty in the National Guards, worn the 
 Jacobin cap, and fought against their lawful Prince, 
 now live in open adultery ; and, from their intrigues, 
 are the terror of all the married part of their flock. 
 The Bishop of Pavia keeps the wife of a merchant,
 
 236 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 by whom he has two children ; and, that the public 
 may not be mistaken as to their real father, the 
 merchant received a sum of money to establish him- 
 self at Brescia, and has not seen his wife for these 
 two years past. G^ndral Gourion, who was last 
 spring in Italy, has assured me that he read the 
 advertisement of a curate after his concubine, who 
 had eloped with another curate; and that the Police 
 Minister at Milan openly licensed women to be the 
 housekeepers of priests. 
 
 A grand vicar, Sarini, at Bologna, was, in 1796, a 
 friar, but relinquished then the convent for the tent, 
 and exchanged the breviary for the musket. He 
 married a nun of one cloister, from whom he pro- 
 cured a divorce in a month, to unite himself with an 
 Abbess of another, deserted by him in her tarn for 
 the wife of an innkeeper, who robbed and eloped 
 from her husband. Last spring he returned to the 
 bosom of the Church, and, by making our Empress a 
 present of a valuable diamond cross, of which he 
 had pillaged the statue of a Madonna, he obtained 
 the dignity of a grand vicar, to the great edification, 
 no doubt, of all those who had seen him before the 
 altar or in the camp, at the brothel, or in the 
 hospital. 
 
 Another grand vicar of the same Bishop, in the 
 same city, of the name of Rami, has two of his 
 illegitimate children as singing -boys in the same
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 237 
 
 cathedral where he officiates as a priest. Their 
 mother is dead, but her daughter, by another priest, 
 is now their father's mistress. This incestuous com- 
 merce is so little concealed that the girl does the 
 honours of the grand vicar's house, and, with naivete 
 enough, tells the guests and visitors of her happiness 
 in having succeeded her mother. I have this anec- 
 dote from an officer who heard her make use of 
 that expression. 
 
 In France, our priests, I fear, are equally as 
 debauched and unprincipled ; but, in yielding to 
 their vicious propensities, they take care to save the 
 appearance of virtue, and, though their guilt is the 
 same, the scandal is less. Bonaparte pretends to be 
 severe against all those ecclesiastics who are accused 
 of any irregularities after having made their peace 
 with the Church. A curate of Picardy, suspected of 
 gallantry, and another of Normandy, accused of 
 inebriety, were last month, without further trial or 
 ceremony than the report of the Minister Portalis, 
 delivered over to Fouche, who transported them to 
 Cayenne, after they had been stripped of their gowns. 
 At the same time. Cardinal Cambacdres and Cardinal 
 Fesch, equally notorious for their excesses, were 
 taken no notice of, except that they were laughed 
 at in our Court circles. 
 
 I am, almost every day, more and more convinced 
 that our Government is totally indifferent about what
 
 238 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 becomes of our religious establishment when the 
 present race of priests is extinguished ; which, in the 
 course of nature, must happen in less than thirty 
 years. Our military system and our military educa- 
 tion discourage all young men from entering into 
 orders; while, at the same time, the army is both 
 more honourable and more profitable than the 
 Church. Already we want curates, though several 
 have been imported from Germany and Spain, and, 
 in some departments, four, and even six parishes 
 have only one curate to serve them all. The Bishops 
 exhort, and the parents advise their children to study 
 theology; but then the law of conscription obliges 
 the student of theology, as well as the student of 
 philosophy, to march together; and, when once in 
 the ranks, and accustomed to the licentiousness of a 
 military life, they are either unwilling, unfit, or un- 
 worthy to return to anything else. The Pope, with 
 all his entreaties, and with all his prayers, was un- 
 able to procure an exception from the conscription of 
 young men preparing themselves for priesthood. 
 Bonaparte always answered : " Holy Father, were I 
 to consent to your demand, I should soon have an 
 army of priests, instead of an army of soldiers." 
 Our Emperor is not unacquainted with the real char- 
 acter and spirit of his Volunteers. When the Pope 
 represented the danger of religion expiring in France, 
 for want of priests to officiate at the altars, he was
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 239 
 
 answered that Bonaparte, at the beginning of his 
 consulate, found neither altars nor priests in France ; 
 that if his reign survived the latter, the former would 
 always be standing, and survive his reign. He 
 trusted that the chief of the Church would prevent 
 them from being deserted. He assured him that 
 when once he had restored the liberties of the seas, 
 and an uninterrupted tranquillity on the Continent, 
 he should attend more, and perhaps entirely, to the 
 affairs of the Church. He consented, however, that 
 the Pope might institute, in the Ecclesiastical States, 
 a seminary for two himdred young Frenchmen, 
 whom he would exempt from military conscription. 
 This is the stock from which our Church establish- 
 ment is to be supplied !
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — The short journey of Count von 
 Haugwitz to Vienna, and the long stay of our Impe- 
 rial Grand Marshal, Duroc, at Berlin, had already 
 caused here many speculations, not quite correspond- 
 ing with the views and, perhaps, interests of our 
 Court, when our violation of the Prussian territory 
 made our courtiers exclaim : " This act proves that 
 the Emperor of the French is in a situation to bid 
 defiance to all the world, and, therefore, no longer 
 courts the neutrality of a Prince whose power is 
 merely artificial ; who has indemnities to restore, but 
 no delicacy, no regard to claims." Such was the 
 language of those very men who, a month before, 
 declared " that His Prussian Majesty held the balance 
 of peace or war in his hands ; that he was in a posi- 
 tion in which no Prussian Monarch ever was before ; 
 that while his neutrality preserved the tranquillity of 
 the North of Germany, the South of Europe would 
 soon be indebted to his powerful mediation for the 
 return of peace." 
 
 The real cause of this alteration in our courtiers'
 
 Oueeii Lout. 
 
 El,
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 241 
 
 political jargon has not yet been known ; but I think 
 it may easily be discovered without any official pub- 
 lication. Bonaparte had the adroitness to cajole the 
 Cabinet of Berlin into his interest, in the first month 
 of his consulate, notwithstanding his own critical sit- 
 uation, as well as the critical situation of France ; and 
 he has ever since taken care both to attach it to his 
 triumphal car and to inculpate it indirectly in his 
 outrages and violations. Convinced, as he thought, 
 of the selfishness which guided all its resolutions, all 
 his attacks and invasions against the law of nations, 
 or independence of States, were either preceded or 
 followed with some offers of aggrandizement, of 
 indemnity, of subsidy, or of alliance. His political 
 intriguers were generally more successful in Prussia 
 than his military heroes in crossing the Rhine or the 
 Elbe, in laying the Hanse Towns under contribution, 
 or in occupying Hanover ; or, rather, all these acts of 
 violence and injustice were merely the effects of his 
 ascendency in Prussia. When it is, besides, remem- 
 bered what provinces Prussia accepted from his bounty, 
 what exchange of presents, of ribands, of private let- 
 ters passed between Napoleon the First and Frederick 
 William III., between the Empress of the French and 
 the Queen of Prussia, it is not surprising if the Cabi- 
 net of St. Cloud thought itself sure of the submission 
 of the Cabinet of Berlin, and did not esteem it enough 
 to fear it, or to think that it would have spirit enough
 
 242 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 to resent, or even honour to feel, the numerous provo- 
 cations offered. 
 
 Whatever Bonaparte and Talleyrand write or assert 
 to the contrary, their gifts are only the wages of their 
 contempt, and they despise more that State they thus 
 reward than those nations at whose expense they are 
 liberal, and with whose spoil they delude selfishness 
 or meanness into their snares. The more legitimate 
 Sovereigns descend from their true dignity, and a lib- 
 eral policy, the nearer they approach the baseness of 
 usurpation and the Machiavellism of rebellion. Like 
 other upstarts, they never suffer an equal. If you do 
 not keep yourself above them, they will crush you 
 beneath them. If they have no reason to fear you, 
 they will create some quarrel to destroy you. 
 
 It is said here that Duroc's journey to Berhn was 
 merely to demand a passage for the French troops 
 through the Prussian territory in Franconia, and to 
 prevent the Russian troops from passing through the 
 Prussian territory in Poland. This request is such 
 as might have been expected from our Emperor and 
 his Minister. Whether, however, the tone in which 
 this curious negotiation with a neutral power was 
 begun, or that, at last, the generosity of the Russian 
 Monarch awakened a sense of duty in the Cabinet of 
 Berlin, the arrival of our pacific envoy was immedi- 
 ately followed with warlike preparations. Fortunate, 
 indeed, was it for Prussia to have resorted to her
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 243 
 
 military strength instead of trusting any longer to 
 our friendly assurances. The disasters that have 
 since befallen the Austrian armies in Suabia, partly 
 occasioned by our forced marches through neutral 
 Prussia, would otherwise soon have been felt in West- 
 phalia, in Brandenburgh, and in Pomerania. But 
 should His Prussian Majesty not order his troops to 
 act in conjunction with Russia, Austria, England, and 
 Sweden, and that very soon, all efforts against Bona- 
 parte will be vain, as those troops which have dis- 
 persed the Austrians and repulsed the Russians will 
 be more than equal to master the Prussians, and one 
 campaign may be sufficient to convince the Prussian 
 Ministers of their folly and errors for years, and to 
 punish them for their ignorance or selfishness. 
 
 Some preparations made in silence by the Marquis 
 of Lucchesini, his affected absence from some of our 
 late Court circles, and the number of spies who now 
 are watching his h8tel and his steps, seem to indicate 
 that Prussia is tired of its impolitic neutrality, and 
 inclined to join the confederacy against France. At 
 the last assembly at our Prince Cambac^r^s's, a 
 rumour circulated that preliminary articles for an 
 offensive alliance with your country had already 
 been signed by the Prussian Minister, Baron von 
 Hardenberg, on one side, and by your Minister to 
 the Court of Berlin on the other; nccording to which 
 you were to take sixty thousand Prussians and twelve
 
 244 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 thousand Hessians into your pay, for five years cer- 
 tain. A courier from Duroc was said to have brought 
 this news, which at first made some impression, but 
 it wore away by degrees; and our Government, to 
 judge from the expressions of persons in its confi- 
 dence, seems more to court than to fear a rupture with 
 Prussia. Indeed, besides all other reasons to carry 
 on a war in the North of Europe, Bonaparte's numer- 
 ous and young generals are impatient to enrich them- 
 selves, as Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and the South 
 of Germany are almost exhausted.
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — The provocations of our Government 
 must have been extraordinary indeed, when they were 
 able to awaken the Cabinet of Berlin from its long 
 and incomprehensible infatuation of trusting to the 
 friendly intentions of honest Talleyrand, and to the 
 disinterested policy of our generous Bonaparte. To 
 judge its intents from its acts, the favour of the 
 Cabinet of St. Cloud was not only its wish but its 
 want. You must remember that, last year, besides 
 his ordinary Ambassador, Da Lucchesini,His Prussian 
 Majesty was so ill advised as to despatch General 
 Knobelsdorff as his extra representative, to assist at 
 Napoleon's coronation, a degradation of lawful sov- 
 ereignty to which even the Court of Naples, though 
 surrounded with our troops, refused to subscribe ; 
 and, so late as last June, the same Knobelsdorff did, 
 in the name of his Prince, the honours at the reviews 
 near Magdeburg, to all the generals of our army in 
 Hanover who chose to attend there. On this occasion 
 the King lodged in a farmhouse, the Queen in the 
 house of the cm*ate of Koestelith, while our sans-cw-
 
 246 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 lotte officers, Bernadotte & Co., were quartered and 
 treated in style at the castle of Putzbull, fitted up for 
 their accommodation. This was certainly very hos- 
 pitable, and very civile but it was neither prudent nor 
 politic. Upstarts, experiencing such a reception from 
 Princes, are convinced that they are dreaded, because 
 they know that they have not merit to be esteemed. 
 
 Do not confound this Knobelsdorff with the late 
 Field-marshal of that name, who, in 1796, answered 
 to a request which our then Ambassador at Berlin 
 (Abb^ Sieyes) had made to be introduced to him, 
 NON ET SANS PHRASE, the vcry words this regicide used 
 when he sat in judgment on his King, and voted la 
 MORT ET SANS PHRASE. This Knobclsdorff is a very 
 different character. He pretends to be equally con- 
 spicuous in the Cabinet as in the field, in the boudoir 
 as in the study. A demi-philosopher, a demi-savant, 
 a demi-gallant and a demi-politician, constitute, all 
 taken together, nothing except an insignificant cour- 
 tier. I do not know whether he was among those 
 Prussian officers who, in 1798, cried when it was 
 inserted in the public prints that the Grand Bona- 
 parte had been killed in an insurrection at Cairo, but 
 of this I am certain, that were Knobelsdorff to sur- 
 vive Napoleon the First, none of His Imperial Maj- 
 esty's own dutiful subjects would mourn him more 
 sincerely than this subject of the King of Prussia. 
 He is said to possess a great share of the confidence
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 247 
 
 of his King, who has already employed him in several 
 
 diplomatic missions. The principal and most requi- 
 site qualities in a negotiator are political infonnation, 
 inviolable fidelity, penetrating but unbiased judgment, 
 a dignified firmness, and condescending manners. I 
 have not been often enough in the society of General 
 Knobelsdorff to assert whether nature and education 
 have destined him to illumine or to cloud the Prus- 
 sian monarchy. 
 
 I have already mentioned in a former letter that it 
 was Coimt von Haugwitz who, in 1792, as Prussian 
 Ambassador at Vienna, arranged the treaty which 
 then united the Austrian and Prussian Eagles against 
 the Jacobin Cap of Liberty. It is now said in our 
 diplomatic circle that his second mission to the same 
 capital has for an object the renewal of these ties, 
 which the Treaty of Basle dissolved; and that our 
 Government, to impede his success, or to occasion his 
 recall, before he could have time to conclude, had 
 proposed to Prussia an annual subsidy of thirty mil- 
 lions of livres — .£1,250,000 — which it intended to 
 exact from . Portugal for its neutrality. The present 
 respectable appearance of Prussia, shows, however, 
 that whether the mission of Haugwitz had the desired 
 issue or not, His Prussian Majesty confides in his 
 army in preference to our parchments. 
 
 Some of our politicians pretend that the present 
 Minister of the foreign department in Prussia, Baron
 
 248 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 von Hardenberg, is not such a friend of the system 
 of neutrality as his predecessor. All the transactions 
 of his administration seem, nevertheless, to proclaim 
 that, if he wished his country to take an active part 
 in the present conflict, it would not have been against 
 France, had she not begun the attack with the inva- 
 sion of Anspach and Bayreuth. Let it be recollected 
 that, since his Ministry, Prussia has acknowledged 
 Bonaparte an Emperor of the French, has exchanged 
 orders with him, and has sent an extraordinary 
 Ambassador to be present at his coronation, — not 
 common compliments, even between Princes con- 
 nected by the nearest ties of friendship and con- 
 sanguinity. Under his administration, the Rhine has 
 been passed to seize the Due d' Enghien, and the Elbe 
 to capture Sir George Rumbold ; the Hanse Towns 
 have been pillaged, and even Emden blockaded ; and 
 the representations against all these outrages have 
 neither been followed by public reparation nor a 
 becoming resentment ; and was it not also Baron von 
 Hardenberg, who, on the 5th of April, 1795, con- 
 cluded at Basle that treaty to which we owe all our 
 conquests and Germany and Italy all their disasters ? 
 It is not probable that the parent of pacification will 
 destroy its own progeny, if self-preservation does not 
 require it. 
 
 Baron von Hardenberg is both a learned nobleman 
 and an enlightened statesman, and does equal honour
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 249 
 
 both to his own rank and to the choice of his Prince. 
 The late Frederick William II. nominated him a 
 Minister of State and a Comisellor of his Cabinet. 
 On the 26th of January, 1792, as a directorial Min- 
 ister, he took possession, in the name of the King 
 of Prussia, of the Margravates of Anspach and Bay- 
 reuth, and the inhabitants swore before him, as their 
 governor, their oaths of allegiance to their new Sov- 
 ereign. He continued to reside as a kind of viceroy, 
 in these States, until March, 1795, when he replaced 
 Baron von Goltz as negotiator with our republican 
 plenipotentiary in Switzerland ; but after settling all 
 differences between Prussia and France, he returned 
 to his former post at Anspach, where no complaints 
 have been heard against his Government. 
 
 The ambition of Baron von Hardenberg has always 
 been to obtain the place he now occupies, and the 
 study of his life has been to gain such information as 
 would enable him to fill it with distinction. I have 
 heard it said that in most countries he had for years 
 kept and paid private agents, who regularly corre- 
 sponded with him and sent him reports of what they 
 heard or saw of political intrigue or machinations. 
 One of these his agents I happened to meet with, in 
 1796, at Basle, and were I to conclude from what I 
 observed in him, the Minister has not been very judi- 
 cious in his selection of private correspondents. Figure 
 to yourself a bald-headed personage, about forty years
 
 250 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 of age, near seven feet high, deaf as a post, stammer- 
 ing and making convulsive efforts to express a 
 sentence of five words, which, after all, his gibberish 
 made unintelligible. His dress was as eccentric as 
 his person was singular, and his manners corre- 
 sponded with both. He called himself Baron von 
 Billow, and I saw him afterwards, in the autumn of 
 1797, at Paris, with the same accoutrements and the 
 same jargon, assuming an air of diplomatic mystery, 
 even while displaying before me, in a coffee-house, his 
 letters and instructions from his principal. As might 
 be expected, he had the adroitness to get himself 
 shut up in the Temple, where, I have been told, the 
 generosity of your Sir Sidney Smith prevented him 
 from starving. 
 
 No member of the foreign diplomatic corps here pos- 
 sesses either more knowledge, or a longer experience, 
 than the Prussian Ambassador, Marquis of Lucchesini. 
 He went with several other philosophers of Italy to 
 admire the late hero of modern philosophy at Berlin, 
 Frederick the Great, who received him well, caressed 
 him often, but never trusted or employed him. I 
 suppose it was not at the mention of the Marquis's 
 name for the place of a governor of some province 
 that this Monarch said, " My subjects of that province 
 have always been dutiful ; a philosopher shall never 
 rule in my name but over people with whom I am 
 discontented, or whom I intend to chastise." This
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 251 
 
 Prince was not unacquainted with the morality of his 
 sectaries. 
 
 During the latter part of the life of this King, the 
 Marquis of Lucchesini was frequently of his literary 
 and convivial parties; but he was neither his friend 
 nor his favourite, but his listener. It was first under 
 Frederick William II. that he began his diplomatic 
 career, with an appointment as Minister from Prussia 
 to the late King of Poland. His first act in this post 
 was a treaty signed on the 29th of March, 1790, with 
 the King and Republic of Poland, which changed an 
 elective monarchy into an hereditary one ; but, not- 
 withstanding the Cabinet of Berlin had guaranteed 
 this alteration, and the constitution decreed in conse- 
 quence, in 1791, three years afterwards Russian and 
 Prussian bayonets amiiliilated both, and selfishness 
 banished faith. 
 
 In July, 1790, he assisted as a Prussian plenipoten- 
 tiary at the conferences at Reichenback, together 
 with the English and Dutch Ambassadors, having for 
 object a pacification between Austria and Turkey. 
 In December of the same year he went with the same 
 Ministers to the Congress at Sistova, where, in May, 
 1791, he signed the Treaty of Peace between the 
 Grand Seignior and the Emperor of Germany. In 
 June, 1792, he was a second time sent as a Minister 
 to Warsaw, where he remained until January, 1793, 
 when he was promoted to the post of Ambassador at
 
 252 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 the Court of Vienna. He continued, however, to 
 reside with His Prussian Majesty during the greatest 
 part of the campaign on the Rhine, and signed, on the 
 24th of June, 1793, in the camp before Mentz, an 
 offensive and defensive alliance with your Court; an 
 alliance which Prussian policy respected not above 
 eighteen months. In October, 1796, he requested his 
 recall, but this his Sovereign refused, with the most 
 gracious expressions; and he could not obtain it 
 until March, 1797. Some disapprobation of the new 
 political plan introduced by Count von Haugwitz in the 
 Cabinet at Berlin is supposed to have occasioned his 
 determination to retire from public employment. As 
 he, however, continued to reside in the capital of 
 Prussia, and, as many believed, secretly intrigued to 
 appear again upon the scene, the nomination, in 1800, 
 to his present important post was as much the conse- 
 quence of his own desire as of the favour of his King. 
 The Marquis of Lucchesini lives here in great style 
 at the beautiful H8tel de 1' Infantado, where his 
 lady's routs, assemblies, and circles are the resort of 
 our most fashionable gentry. Madame da Lucchesini 
 is more agreeable than handsome, more fit to shine 
 at Berlin than at Paris ; for though her manners are 
 elegant, they want that ease, that finish which a Ger- 
 man or Italian education cannot teach, nor a German 
 or Italian society confer. To judge from the number 
 of her admirers, she seems to know that she is mar-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 253 
 
 ried to a philosopher. Her husband was born at 
 Lucca, in Italy, and is, therefore, at present a subject 
 of Bonaparte's brother-in-law, Prince Bacciochi, to 
 whom, when His Serene Highness was a marker at a 
 billiard-table, I have had the honour of giving many 
 a shilling, as well as many a box on the ear.
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — The unexampled cruelty of our Gov- 
 ernment to your countryman, Captain Wright, I have 
 heard reprobated, even by some of our generals and 
 public functionaries, as unjust as well as disgraceful. 
 At a future General Congress, should ever Bonaparte 
 suffer one to be convoked, except under his auspices 
 and dictature, the distinction and treatment of prison- 
 ers of war require to be again regulated, that the 
 valiant warrior may not for the future be confounded 
 with, and treated as, a treacherous spy ; nor innocent 
 travellers, provided with regular passes, visiting a 
 country either for business or for pleasure, be im- 
 prisoned, like men taken while combating with arms 
 in their hands. 
 
 You remember, no doubt, from history, that many 
 of our ships — that, during the reigns of George I. 
 and II., carried to Ireland and Scotland, and landed 
 there, the adherents and partisans of the House of 
 Stuart — were captured on their return or on their 
 passage ; and that your Government never seized the 
 commanders of these vessels, to confine them as
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 255 
 
 State criminals, much less to torture or murder them 
 in the Tower. If I am not mistaken, the whole 
 squadron which, in 1745, carried the Pretender and 
 his suite to Scotland, was taken by your cruisers ; and 
 the officers and men experienced no worse or different 
 treatmeijt than their fellow prisoners of war ; though 
 the distance is immense between the crime of plot- 
 ting against the lawful Government of the Princes of 
 the House of Brunswick, and the attempt to disturb 
 the usurpation of an upstart of the House of Bon- 
 aparte. But, even during the last war, how many of 
 our ships of the line, frigates, and cutters, did you not 
 take, which had landed rebels in Ireland, emissaries 
 in Scotland, and malefactors in Wales ; and yet your 
 generosity prevented you from retaliating, even at 
 the time when your Sir Sidney Smith, and this same 
 unfortunate Captain Wright, were confined in our 
 State prison of the Temple ! It is with Governments 
 as with individuals, they ought to be just before they 
 are generous. Had you in 1797, or in 1798, not 
 endured our outrages so patiently, you would not 
 now have to lament, nor we to blush for, the un- 
 timely end of Captain Wright. 
 
 From the last time that this officer had appeared 
 before the criminal tribunal which condemned Georges 
 and Moreau, his fate was determined on by our Gov- 
 ernment. His firmness offended, and his patriotism 
 displeased ; and as he seemed to possess the confidence
 
 266 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 of his own Government, it was judged that he was in 
 its secrets ; it was, therefore, resolved that, if he 
 refused to become a traitor, he should perish a victim. 
 Desmarets, Fouch^'s private secretary, who is also the 
 secretary of the secret and haute police, therefore 
 ordered him to another private interrogatory. Here 
 he was offered a considerable sum of money, and the 
 rank of an admiral in our service, if he would divulge 
 what he knew of the plans of his Government, of its 
 connections with the discontented in this country, and 
 of its means of keeping up a correspondence with 
 them. He replied, as might have been expected, with 
 indignation, to such offers and to such proposals, but 
 as they were frequently repeated with new allure- 
 ments, he concluded with remaining silent and giving 
 no answers at all. He was then told that the torture 
 would soon restore him his voice, and some select 
 gendarmes seized him and laid him on the rack ; there 
 he uttered no complaint, not even a sigh, though 
 instrmnents the most diabolical were employed, and 
 pains the most acute must have been endured. When 
 threatened that he should expire in torments, he said : 
 "I do not fear to die, because my country will avenge 
 my murder, while my God receives my soul." Dur- 
 ing the two hours of the first day that he was 
 stretched on the rack, his left arm and right leg 
 were broken, and his nails torn from the toes of both 
 feet ; he then passed into the hands of a surgeon, and
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 257 
 
 was under his care for five weeks, but, before he was 
 perfectly cured, he was carried to another private 
 interrogatory, at which, besides Desmarets, Fouch^ 
 and R^al were present. 
 
 The Minister of Police now informed him that, from 
 the mutilated state of his body, and from the suffer- 
 ings he had gone through, he must be convinced that 
 it was not the intention of the French Government 
 ever to restore him to his native country, where he 
 might relate occurrences which the policy of France 
 required to be buried in oblivion ; he, therefore, had 
 no choice between serving the Emperor of the French, 
 or perishing within the walls of the prison where he 
 was confined. He replied that he was resigned to his 
 destiny, and would die as he had lived, faithful to his 
 King and to his country. 
 
 The man in full possession of his mental qualities 
 and corporeal strength is, in most cases, very differ- 
 ent from that unfortunate being whose mind is 
 enervated by sufferings and whose body is weakened 
 by wants. For five months Captain Wright had seen 
 only gaolers, spies, tyrants, executioners, fetters, racks, 
 and other tortures ; and for five weeks his food had 
 been bread and his drink water. The man who, thus 
 situated and thus perplexed, preserves his native 
 dignity and innate sentiments, is more worthy of 
 monuments, statues, or altars than either the legis- 
 lator, the victor, or the saint.
 
 258 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 This interrogatory was the last undergone by Cap- 
 tain Wright. He was then again stretched on the 
 rack, and what is called by our regenerators the 
 INFERNAL tormcnts, were inflicted on him. After 
 being pinched with red-hot irons all over his body, 
 brandy, mixed with gunpowder, was infused in the 
 numerous wounds and set fire to several times until 
 nearly burned to the bones. In the convulsions, the 
 consequence of these terrible sufferings, he is said to 
 have bitten off a part of his tongue, though, as before, 
 no groans were heard. As life still remained, he was 
 again put under the care of his former surgeon ; but, 
 as he was exceedingly exhausted, a spy, in the dress 
 of a Protestant clergyman, presented himself as if to 
 read prayers with him. Of this offer he accepted; 
 but when this man began to ask some insidious ques- 
 tions, he cast on him a look of contempt and never 
 spoke to him more. At last, seeing no means to 
 obtain any information from him, a mameluke last 
 week strangled him in his bed. Thus expired a hero 
 whose fate has excited more compassion, and whose 
 character has received more admiration here, than 
 any of our great men who have fallen fighting for our 
 Emperor. Captain Wright has diffused new rays of 
 renown and glory on the British name, from his tomb 
 as well as from his dungeon. 
 
 You have certainly a right to call me to an account 
 for all the particulars I have related of this scandal-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 259 
 
 ous and abominable transaction, and, though I cannot 
 absolutely guarantee the truth of the narration, I am 
 perfectly satisfied of it myself, and I hope to explain 
 myself to your satisfaction. Your unfortunate coun- 
 tryman was attended by and under the care of a sur- 
 geon of the name of Yaugeard, who gained his 
 confidence, and was worthy of it, though employed in 
 that infamous gaol. Either from disgust of life, or 
 from attachment to Captain Wright, he survived him 
 only twelve hours, during which he wrote the shock- 
 ing details I have given you, and sent them to three 
 of the members of the foreign diplomatic corps, with 
 a prayer to have them forwarded to Sir Sidney Smith 
 or to Mr. Windham, that those his friends might be 
 informed that, to his last moment. Captain Wright 
 was worthy of their protection and kindness. From 
 one of those Ministers I have obtained the original in 
 Yaugeard's own handwriting. 
 
 I know that Bonaparte and Talleyrand promised 
 the release of Captain Wright to the Spanish Am- 
 bassador ; but, at that time, he had already suffered 
 once on the rack, and this liberality on their part was 
 merely a trick to impose upon the credulity of the 
 Spaniard or to get rid of his importunities. Had it 
 been otherwise, Captain Wright, like Sir George 
 Rumbold, would himself have been the first to 
 announce in your country the recovery of his liberty.
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Should Bonaparte again retuin here 
 victorious, and a pacificator, great changes in our in- 
 ternal Government and constitution are expected, and 
 will certainly occur. Since the legislative corps has 
 completed the Napoleon code of civil and criminal 
 justice, it is considered by the Emperor not only as 
 useless, but troublesome and superfluous. For the 
 same reasons the tribunate will also be laid aside, and 
 His Majesty will rule the French Empire, with the 
 assistance of his Senate, and with the advice of his 
 Council of State, exclusively. You know that the 
 Senators, as well as the Councillors of State, are 
 nominated by the Emperor ; that he changes the 
 latter according to his whim, and that, though the 
 former, according to the present constitution, are to 
 hold their offices for life, the alterations which remove 
 entirely the legislature and the tribunate may also 
 make Senators movable. But as all menibers of the 
 Senate are favourites or relatives, he will probably not 
 think it necessary to resort to such a measure of 
 policy.
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 261 
 
 In a former letter I have already mentioned the 
 heterogeneous composition of the Senate. The trib- 
 unate and legislative corps are worthy to figure by 
 its side ; their members are also ci-devant mechanics 
 of all descriptions, debased attorneys or apostate 
 priests, national spoilers or rebellious regicides, de- 
 graded nobles or dishonoured officers. The nearly 
 unanimous vote of these corps for a consulate for life, 
 and for an hereditary Emperor, cannot, therefore, 
 either be expressive of the national will, or constitute 
 the legality of Bonaparte's sovereignty. 
 
 In the legislature no vote opposed, and no voice de- 
 claimed against, Bonaparte's Imperial dignity ; but in 
 the tribunate, Carnot — the infamously notorious 
 Carnot — pro forma, and with the permission of the 
 Emperor in petto, spoke against the return of a mon- 
 archical form of Government. This farce of decep- 
 tion and roguery did not impose even on our good 
 Parisians, otherwise, and so frequently, the dupes of 
 all our political and revolutionary mountebanks. Had 
 Carnot expressed a sentiment or used a word not pre- 
 viously approved by Bonaparte, instead of repos- 
 ing himself in the tribunate, he would have been 
 wandering in Cayenne. 
 
 Son of an obscure attorney at Nolay, in Burgundy, 
 he was brought up, like Bonaparte, in one of those 
 military schools established by the munificence of the 
 French Monarchs ; and had obtained, from the late
 
 262 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 King, the commission of a captain of engineers when 
 the Revolution broke out. He was particularly in- 
 debted to the Prince of Cond^ for his support during 
 the earlier part of his life, and yet he joined the ene- 
 mies of his house, and voted for the death of Louis 
 XVI. A member, with Robespierre and Barrere, of 
 the Committee of Public Safety, he partook of their 
 power, as well as of their crimes, though he has been 
 audacious enough to deny that he had anything to do 
 with other transactions than those of the armies. 
 Were no other proofs to the contrary collected, a let- 
 ter of his own hand to the ferocious Lebon, at Arras, 
 is a written evidence which he is unable to refute. It 
 is dated November 16th, 1793. " You must take," 
 says he, " in your energy, all measures of terror com- 
 manded or required by present circumstances. Con- 
 tinue your revolutionary attitude ; never mind the 
 amnesty pronounced with the acceptance of the 
 absurd constitution of 1791 ; it is a crime which 
 cannot extenuate other crimes. Anti - republicans 
 can only expiate their folly under the axe of the 
 guillotine. The public Treasury will always pay the 
 journeys and expenses of informers, because they 
 have deserved well of their country. Let all sus- 
 pected traitors expire by the sword or by fire ; con- 
 tinue to march upon that revolutionary line so well 
 delineated by you. The committee applauds all your 
 undertakings, all your measures of vigour ; they are
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 263 
 
 not only all permitted, but commanded by your mis- 
 sion." Most of the decrees concerning the establish- 
 ment of revolutionary tribunals, and particularly that 
 for the organization of the atrocious military com- 
 mission at Orange, were signed by him. 
 
 Carnot, as an officer of engineers, certainly is not 
 without talents; but his presumption in declaring 
 himself the sole author of those plans of campaign 
 which, during the years 1794, 1795, and 1796, were 
 so triumphantly executed by Pichegru, Moreau, and 
 Bonaparte, is impertinent, as well as unfounded. At 
 the risk of his own life, Pichegru entirely altered the 
 plan sent him by the Committee of Public Safety; 
 and it was Moreau's masterly retreat, which no plan 
 of campaign could prescribe, that made this general 
 so famous. The surprising successes of Bonaparte in 
 Italy were both unexpected and unforeseen by the 
 Directory ; and, according to Berthier's assertion, 
 obliged the commander-in-chief, during the first four 
 months, to change five times his plans of proceedings 
 and undertakings. 
 
 During his temporary sovereignty as a director, 
 Carnot honestly has made a fortune of twelve millions 
 of livres — X500,000; which has enabled him not 
 only to live in style with his wife, but also to keep in 
 style two sisters, of the name of Aublin, as his mis- 
 tresses. He was the friend of the father of these 
 girls, and promised him, when condemned to the
 
 264 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 guillotine in 1793, to be their second father ; but he 
 debauched and ruined them both before either was 
 fourteen years of age ; and young Aublin, who, in 
 1796, reproached him with the infamy of his con- 
 duct, was delivered up by him to a military com- 
 mission, which condemned him to be shot as an 
 emigrant. He has two children by each of these 
 unfortunate girls. 
 
 Bonaparte employs Carnot, but despises and mis- 
 trusts him ; being well aware that, should another 
 National Convention be convoked, and the Emperor 
 of the French be arraigned, as the King of France 
 was, he would, with as great pleasure, vote for the 
 execution of Napoleon the First as he did for that of 
 Louis XVI. He has waded too far in blood and 
 crime to retrograde. 
 
 To this sample of a modern tribune I will add a 
 specimen of a modern legislator. Baptiste Cavaignac 
 was, before the Revolution, an excise officer, turned 
 out of his place for infidelity ; but the department of 
 Lot electing him, in 1792, a representative of the 
 people to the National Convention, he there voted for 
 the death of Louis XVI. and remained a faithful 
 associate of Marat and Robespierre. After the evac- 
 uation of Verdun by the Prussians, in October, 1792, 
 he made a report to the Convention, according to 
 which eighty-four citizens of that town were arrested 
 and executed. Among these were twenty-two young
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 265 
 
 girls, under twenty years of age, whose crime was the 
 having presented nosegays to the late King of Prus- 
 sia on his entry after the surrender of Yerdun. He 
 was afterwards a national commissary with the 
 armies on the coast near Brest, on the Rhine, and in 
 Western Pjrrenees, and everywhere he signalized him- 
 self by unheard of ferocities and sanguinary deeds. 
 The following anecdote, printed and published by 
 our revolutionary annalist, Prudhomme, will give you 
 some idea of the morality of this our regenerator and 
 Imperial Solon : " Cavaignac and another deputy, 
 Pinet," writes Prudhomme, " had ordered a box to be 
 kept for them at the play-house at Bayonne on the 
 evening they expected to arrive in that town. Enter- 
 ing very late, they found two soldiers, who had seen 
 the box empty, placed in its front. These they or- 
 dered immediately to be arrested, and condemned 
 them, for having outraged the national representation, 
 to be guillotined on the next day, when they both 
 were accordingly executed ! " Labarr^re, a provost 
 of the Marechaussee at Dax, was in prison as a sus- 
 pected person. His daughter, a very handsome girl 
 of seventeen, lived with an aunt at Severe. The two 
 pro-consuls passing through that place, she threw her- 
 self at their feet, imploring mercy for her parent. 
 This they not only promised, but offered her a place 
 in their carriage to Dax, that she might see him 
 restored to liberty. On the road the monsters in-
 
 266 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 sisted on a ransom for the blood of her father, 
 "Waiting, afflicted and ashamed, at a friend's house at 
 Dax, the accomplishment of a promise so dearly pur- 
 chased, she heard the beating of the alarm drum, and 
 looked, from curiosity, through the window, when she 
 saw her unfortunate parent ascending the scaffold! 
 After having remained lifeless for half an hour, she 
 recovered her senses an instant, when she exclaimed : 
 " Oh, the barbarians ! they violated me while flatter- 
 ing me with the hope of saving my father ! " and 
 then expired. In October, 1795, Cavaignac assisted 
 Barras and Bonaparte in the destruction of some 
 thousands of men, women, and children in the streets 
 of this capital, and was, therefore, in 1796, made by 
 the Directory an inspector -general of the customs; 
 and, in 1803, nominated by Bonaparte a legislator. 
 His colleague, Citizen Pinet, is now one of our Em- 
 peror's Counsellors of State, and both are comman- 
 ders of His Majesty's Legion of Honour ; rich, 
 respected, and frequented by our most fashionable 
 ladies and gentlemen.
 
 LETTER XXXm. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — I suppose your Government too vig- 
 ilant and too patriotic not to be informed of the great 
 and uninterrupted activity which reigns in our arsen- 
 als, dockyards, and seaports. I have seen a plan, 
 according to which Bonaparte is enabled, and intends, 
 to build twenty ships of the line and ten frigates, 
 besides cutters, in the year, for ten years to come. I 
 read the calculation of the expenses, the names of the 
 forests where the timber is to be cut, of the foreign 
 countries where a part of the necessary materials are 
 already engaged, and of our own departments which 
 are to furnish the remainder. The whole has been 
 drawn up in a precise and clear manner by Bona- 
 parte's Maritime Prefect at Antwerp, M. Malouet, 
 well known in your country, where he long remained 
 as an emigrant, and, I believe, was even employed by 
 your Ministers. 
 
 You may, perhaps, smile at this vast naval scheme 
 of Bonaparte ; but if you consider that he is the 
 master of all the forests, mines, and productions of
 
 268 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 France, Italy, and of a great part of Germany, with all 
 the navigable rivers and seaports of these countries 
 and Holland, and remember also the character of the 
 man, you will, perhaps, think it less impracticable. 
 The greatest obstacle he has to encounter, and to 
 remove, is want of experienced naval officers, though 
 even in this he has advanced greatly since the present 
 war, during which he has added to his naval forces 
 twenty -nine ships of the line, thirty -four frigates, 
 twenty-one cutters, three thousand prams, gunboats, 
 pinnaces, etc., with four thousand naval officers and 
 thirty-seven thousand sailors, according to the same 
 account, signed by Malouet. It is true that most of 
 our new naval heroes have never ventured far from 
 our coast, and all their naval laurels have been gath- 
 ered under our land batteries ; but the impulse is 
 given to the national spirit, and our conscripts in the 
 maritime departments prefer, to a man, the navy to 
 the army, which was not formerly the case. 
 
 It cannot have escaped your observation that the 
 incorporation of Genoa procured us, in the South of 
 our Empire, a naval station and arsenal, as a counter- 
 poise to Antwerp, our new naval station in the North, 
 where twelve ships of the line have been built, or are 
 building, since 1803, and where timber and other 
 materials are collected for eight more. At Genoa, 
 two ships of the line and four frigates have lately 
 been launched, and four ships and two frigates are on
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 269 
 
 the stocks ; and the Genoese Republic has added six- 
 teen thousand seafaring men to our navy. Should 
 Bonaparte terminate successfully the present war, 
 Naples and Venice will increase the number of our 
 seaports and resources on the borders of the Medi- 
 terranean and Adriatic Seas. All his courtiers 
 say that he will conquer Italy in Germany, and 
 determine at Vienna the fate of London. 
 
 Of all our admirals, however, we have not one to 
 compare with your Nelson, your Hood, your St. Vin- 
 cent, and your Cornwallis. By the appointment of 
 Murat as grand admiral, Bonaparte seems to indicate 
 that he is inclined to imitate the example of Louis 
 XVL, in the beginning of his reign, and entrust the 
 chief command of his fleets and squadrons to mili- 
 tary men of approved capacity and courage, officers 
 of his land troops. Last June, when he expected a 
 probable junction of the fleet under Villeneuve with 
 the squadron under Admiral Winter, and the union 
 of both with Ganteaume at Brest, Murat was to have 
 had the chief command of the united French, Span- 
 ish, and Batavian fleets, and to support the landing of 
 our troops in your country ; but the arrival of Lord 
 Nelson in the West Indies, and the victory of Ad- 
 miral Calder, deranged all our plans and postponed 
 all our designs, which the Continental war has 
 interrupted; to be commenced, God knows when. 
 
 The best amongst our bad admirals is certainly
 
 270 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 Truguet ; but he was disgraced last year, and exiled 
 twenty leagues from the coast, for having declared 
 too publicly " that our flotillas would never be ser- 
 viceable before our fleets were superior to yours, when 
 they would become useless." An intriguer by long 
 habit and by character, having neither property nor 
 principles, he joined the Revolution, and was the 
 second in command under Latouche, in the first 
 republican fleet that left our harbours. He directed 
 the expedition against Sardinia, in January, 1793, 
 during which he acquired neither honour nor glory, 
 being repulsed with great loss by the inhabitants. 
 After being imprisoned under Robespierre, the Direc- 
 tory made him a Minister of the marine, an Ambas- 
 sador to Spain, and a Vice-Admiral of France. In 
 this capacity he commanded at Brest, during the 
 first eighteen months of the present war. He has an 
 irreconcilable foe in Talleyrand, with whom he quar- 
 relled, when on his embassy in Spain, about some 
 extortions at Madrid, which he declined to share with 
 his principal at Paris. Such was our Minister's in- 
 veteracy against him in 1798, that a directorial decree 
 placed him on the list of emigrants, because he 
 remained in Spain after having been recalled to 
 France. In 1799, during Talleyrand's disgrace, Tru- 
 guet returned here, and, after in vain challenging his 
 enemy to fight, caned him in the Luxembourg gar- 
 dens, a chastisement which our premier bore with
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 271 
 
 true Christian patience. Truguet is not even a mem- 
 ber of the Legion of Honom*. 
 
 Yilleneuve is supposed not much inferior in talents, 
 experience, and modesty to Truguet. He was, before 
 the Revolution, a lieutenant of the royal navy ; but 
 his principles did not prevent him from deserting to 
 the colours of the enemies of royalty, who promoted 
 him first to a captain and afterwards to an admiral. 
 His first command as such was over a division of the 
 Toulon fleet, which, in the winter of 1797, entered 
 Brest. In the battle at Aboukir he was the second 
 in command ; and, after the death of Admiral Brueys, 
 he rallied the ships which had escaped, and sailed for 
 Malta, where, two years afterwards, he signed, with 
 G^ndral Vaubois, the capitulation of that island. 
 When hostilities again broke out, he commanded in 
 the West Indies, and, leaving his station, escaped 
 your cruisers, and was appointed first to the chief 
 command of the Rochefort, and afterwards the Toulon 
 fleet, on the death of Admiral Latouche. Notwith- 
 standing the gasconade of his report of his negative 
 victory over Admiral C alder, Yilleneuve is not a 
 Gascon by birth, but only by sentiment. 
 
 Ganteaume does not possess either the intriguing 
 character of Truguet or the valorous one of Yilleneuve. 
 Before the Revolution he was a mate of a merchant- 
 man, but when most of the officers of the former royal 
 navy had emigrated or perished, he was, in 1793,
 
 272 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 made a captain of the republican navy, and in 1796 
 an admiral. During the battle of Aboukir he was 
 the chief of the staff, under Admiral Brueys, and 
 saved himself by swimming, when V Orient took fire 
 and blew up. Bonaparte wrote to him on this occa- 
 sion : " The picture you have sent me of the disaster 
 of V Orient, and of your own dreadful situation, is 
 horrible ; but be assured that, having such a miracu- 
 lous escape, destiny intends you to avenge one day 
 our navy and our friends." This note was written in 
 August, 1798, shortly after Bonaparte had professed 
 himself a Mussulman. 
 
 When, in the summer of 1799, our general-in-chief 
 had determined to leave his army of Egypt to its des- 
 tiny, Ganteaume equipped and commanded the squad- 
 ron of frigates which brought him to Europe, and was, 
 after his consulate, appointed a Counsellor of State and 
 commander at Brest. In 1800 he escaped with a divi- 
 sion of the Brest fleet to Toulon, and, in the summer 
 of 1801, when he was ordered to carry succours to 
 Egypt, your ship Swiftsure fell in with him, and was 
 captured. As he did not, however, succeed in landing 
 in Egypt the troops on board his ships, a temporary 
 disgrace was incurred, and he was deprived of the 
 command, but made a maritime prefect. Last year 
 favour was restored him, with the command of our 
 naval forces at Brest. All officers who have served 
 under Ganteaume agree that, let his fleet be ever so
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 273 
 
 superior, he will never fight if he can avoid it, and 
 that, in orderly times, his capacity would, at the 
 utmost, make him regarded as a good master of a 
 merchantman, and nothing else. 
 
 Of the present commander of our flotilla at 
 Boulogne, Lacrosse, I will also say some few words. 
 A lieutenant before the Revolution, he became, in 
 1789, one of the most ardent and violent Jacobins, 
 and in 1792 was employed by i^Q friend of the Blacks, 
 and our Minister, Monge, as an emissary in the West 
 Indies, to preach there to the negroes the rights of 
 man and insurrection against the whites, their mas- 
 ters. In 1800, Bonaparte advanced him to a captain- 
 general at Guadeloupe, an island which his plots, 
 eight years before, had involved in all the horrors of 
 anarchy, and where, when he now attempted to restore 
 order, his former instruments rose against him and 
 forced him to escape to one of your islands — I believe 
 Dominico. Of this island, in return for his hospitable 
 reception, he took plans, according to which our G^- 
 n^ral Lagrange endeavoured to conquer it last spring. 
 Lacrosse is a perfect revolutionary fanatic, unprinci- 
 pled, cruel, unfeeling, and intolerant. His presumption 
 is great, but his talents are trifling.
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord: — The defeat of the Austrians has 
 excited great satisfaction among our courtiers and 
 public functionaries ; but the mass of the inhabitants 
 here are too miserable to feel for anything else but 
 their own sufferings. They know very well that 
 every victory rivets their fetters, that no disasters 
 can make them more heavy, and no triumph lighter. 
 Totally indifferent about external occurrences, as well 
 as about internal oppressions, they strive to forget 
 both the past and the present, and to be indifferent as 
 to the future ; they would be glad could they cease 
 to feel that they exist. - The police officers were now, 
 with their gendarmes, bayoneting them into illumina- 
 tions for Bonaparte's successes, as they dragooned 
 them last year into rejoicings for his coronation. I 
 never observed before so much apathy ; and in more 
 than one place I heard the people say, " Oh ! how 
 much better we should be with fewer victories and 
 more tranquillity, with less splendour and more 
 security, with an honest peace instead of a brilliant 
 war." But in a country groaning under a military
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 275 
 
 government, the opinions of the people are counted 
 for nothing. 
 
 At Madame Joseph Bonaparte's circle, however, the 
 countenances were not so gloomy. There a real or 
 affected joy seemed to enliven the usual dullness of 
 these parties ; some actors were repeating patriotic 
 verses in honour of the victor; while others were 
 singing airs or vaudevilles, to inspire our warriors 
 with as much hatred towards your nation as gratitude 
 towards our Emperor. It is certainly neither phil- 
 osophical nor philmithropical not to exclude the vilest 
 of all passions, hatred, on such a happy occasion. 
 Martin, in the dress of a conscript, sang six long 
 couplets against the tyrants of the seas ; of which I 
 was only able to retain the following one : 
 
 Je deteste le peuple anglais, 
 
 Je detente son ministere ; 
 J'aime TEmpereur des Frangais, 
 
 J'aime la paix, je hais la guerre; 
 Mais puisqu'il faut la soutenir 
 
 Centre line Nation Sauvage, 
 Mon plus doiix, mon plus grand d6sir 
 
 Est de niontrer tout mon courage. 
 
 But what arrested my attention, more than any- 
 thing else which occurred in this circle on that 
 evening, was a printed paper mysteriously handed 
 about, and of which, thanks to the civility ot a Coun- 
 sellor of State, I at last got a sight. It was a list of
 
 276 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 those persons, of different countries, whom the 
 Emperor of the French has fixed upon, to replace all 
 the ancient dynasties of Uurope within twenty years to 
 come. From the names of these individuals, some of 
 whom are known to me, I could perceive that Bona- 
 parte had more difficulty to select proper Emperors, 
 Kings, and Electors, than he would have had, some 
 years ago, to choose directors or consuls. Our incon- 
 sistency is, however, evident even here ; I did not 
 read a name that is not found in the annals of Jacob- 
 inism and republicanism. We have, at the same time, 
 taken care not to forget ourselves in this new distri- 
 bution of supremacy. France is to furnish the stock 
 of the new dynasties for Austria, England, Spain, 
 Denmark, and Sweden. What would you think, 
 were you to awake one morning the subject of King 
 Arthur O'Connor the First ? You would, I dare say, 
 be even more surprised than I am in being the subject 
 of Napoleon Bonaparte the First. You know, I 
 suppose, that O'Connor is a general of division, and a 
 commander of the Legion of Honour, — the bosom 
 friend of Talleyrand, and courting, at this moment, 
 a young lady, a relation of our Empress, whose portion 
 may one day be an Empire. But I am told that, 
 notwithstanding Talleyrand's recommendations, and 
 the approbation of Her Majesty, the lady prefers a 
 colonel, her own countryman, to the Irish general. 
 Should, however, our Emperor announce his determi-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 277 
 
 nation, she would be obliged to marry as he commands, 
 were he even to give her his groom, or his horse, for 
 a spouse. 
 
 You can form no idea how wretched and despised 
 all the Irish rebels are here. O'Connor alone is an 
 exception ; and this he owes to Talleyrand, to G^ndral 
 Valence, and to Madame de Genlis ; but even he is 
 looked on with a sneer, and, if he ever was respected 
 in England, must endure with poignancy the contempt 
 to which he is frequently exposed in France. When 
 I was in your country I often heard it said that the 
 Irish were generally considered as a debased and 
 perfidious people, extremely addicted to profligacy and 
 drunkenness, and, when once drunk, more cruelly 
 ferocious than even our Jacobins. I thought it then, 
 and I still believe it, a national prejudice, because I 
 am convinced that the vices or virtues of all civilized 
 nations are relatively the same ; but those Irish rebels 
 we have seen here, and who must be, like our Jaco- 
 bins, the very dregs of their country, have conducted 
 themselves so as to inspire not only mistrust but 
 abhorrence. It is also an undeniable truth that they 
 were greatly disappointed by our former and present 
 Government. They expected to enjoy liberty and 
 equality, and a pension for their treachery ; but our 
 police conmiissaries caught them at their landing, our 
 gendarmes escorted them as criminals to their place 
 of destination, and there they received just enough
 
 278 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 to prevent them from starving. If they complained 
 they were put in irons, and if they attempted to 
 escape they were sent to the galleys as malefactors 
 or shot as spies. Despair, therefore, no doubt in- 
 duced many to perpetrate acts of which they were 
 accused, and to rob, swindle, and murder, because 
 they were punished as thieves and assassins. But 
 some of them, who have been treated in the most 
 friendly, hospitable, and generous manner in this cap- 
 ital, have proved themselves ungrateful, as well as 
 infamous. A lady of my acquaintance, of a once 
 large fortune, had nothing left but some furniture, 
 and her subsistence depended upon what she got by 
 letting furnished lodgings. Mischance brought three 
 young Irishmen to her house, who pretended to be in 
 daily expectation of remittances from theix' country, 
 and of a pension from Bonaparte. During six months 
 she not only lodged and supported them, but embar- 
 rassed herself to procure them linen and a decent 
 apparel. At last she was informed that each of 
 them had been allowed sixty livres — £2 10s. — in 
 the month, and that arrears had been paid them for 
 nine months. Their debt to her was above three 
 thousand livres — .£125 — but the day after she 
 asked for payment they decamped, and one of them 
 persuaded her daughter, a girl of fourteen, to elope 
 with him, and to assist him in robbing her mother 
 of all her plate. He has, indeed, been since arrested
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 279 
 
 and sentenced to the galleys for eight years ; but this 
 punishment neither restored the daughter her virtue 
 nor the mother her property. The other two denied 
 their debts, and, as she had no other evidence but her 
 own scraps of accounts, they could not be forced to 
 pay ; their obdurate effrontery and infamy, however, 
 excited such an indignation in the judges, that they 
 delivered them over as swindlers to the Tribunal 
 Correctional; and the Minister of Police ordered 
 them to be transported as rogues and vagabonds to 
 the colonies. The daughter died shortly after, in 
 consequence of a miscarriage, and the mother did 
 not survive her more than a month, and ended her 
 days in the H6tel Dieu, one of our common hospitals. 
 Thus, these depraved young men ruined and mur- 
 dered their benefactress and her child ; and displayed, 
 before they were thirty, such a consummate villainy as 
 few wretches grown hoary in vice have perpetrated. 
 This act of scandalous notoriety injured the Irish 
 reputation very much in this country ; for here, as 
 in many other places, inconsiderate people are apt to 
 judge a whole nation according to the behaviour of 
 some few of its outcasts.
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Paeis, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — The plan of the campaign of the 
 Austrians is incomprehensible to all our military 
 men — not on account of its profundity, but on ac- 
 count of its absurdity or incoherency. In the present 
 circumstances, half -measures must always be de- 
 structive, and it is better to strike strongly and 
 firmly than justly. To invade Bavaria without dis- 
 arming the Bavarian army, and to enter Suabia and 
 yet acknowledge the neutrality of Switzerland, are 
 such political and military errors as require long 
 successes to repair, but which such an enemy as 
 Bonaparte always takes care not to leave unpunished. 
 
 The long inactivity of the army under the Arch- 
 duke Charles has as much surprised us as the defeat 
 of the army under General von Mack ; but from 
 what I know of the former, I am persuaded that he 
 would long since have pushed forward had not his 
 movements been unfortunately combined with those 
 of the latter. The House of Lorraine never pro- 
 duced a more valiant warrior, nor Austria a more 
 liberal or better instructed statesman, than this
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 281 
 
 Prince. Heir to the talents of his ancestors, he has 
 commanded, with glory, against France during the 
 revolutionary war ; and, although he sometimes ex- 
 perienced defeats, he has rendered invaluable services 
 to the chief of his House by his courage, by his 
 activity, by his constancy, and by that salutary firm- 
 ness which, in calling the generals and superior 
 officers to their duty, has often reanimated the con- 
 fidence and the ardour of the soldier. 
 
 The Archduke Charles began, in 1793, his military 
 career under the Prince of'Coburg, the commander- 
 in-chief of the Austrian armies in Brabant, where he 
 commanded the advanced guard, and distinguished 
 himself by a valour sometimes bordering on temerity, 
 but which, by degrees, acquired him that esteem and 
 popularity among the troops often very advantageous 
 to him afterwards. He was, in 1794, appointed 
 governor and captain-general of the Low Countries, 
 and a Field -marshal lieutenant of the army of the 
 German Empire. In April, 1796, he took the com- 
 mand-in-chief of the armies of Austria and of the 
 Empire, and, in the following June, engaged in 
 several combats with General Moreau, in which he 
 was repulsed, but in a manner that did equal honour 
 to the victor and to the vanquished. 
 
 The Austrian army on the Lower Rhine, under 
 General Wartensleben, having, about this time, been 
 nearly dispersed by G^n^ral Jourdan, the Archduke
 
 282 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 left some divisions of his forces under General 
 Latour, to impede the progress of Moreau, and went 
 with the remainder into Franconia, where he de- 
 feated Jourdan near Amberg and Wurzburg, routed 
 his army entirely, and forced him to repass the Rhine 
 in the greatest confusion, and with immense loss. 
 The retreat of Moreau was the consequence* of the 
 victories of this Prince. After the capture of Kehl, 
 in January, 1797, he assumed the command of the 
 army of Italy, where he in vain employed all his 
 efforts to put a stop to the victorious progress of 
 Bonaparte, with whom, at last, he signed the prelim- 
 inaries of peace at Leoben. In the spring of 1799, 
 he again defeated Jourdan in Suabia, as he had done 
 two years before in Franconia; but in Switzerland 
 he met with an abler adversary in General Massena ; 
 still, I am inclined to think that he displayed there 
 more real talents than anywhere else ; and that this 
 part of his campaign of 1799 was the most inter- 
 esting, in a military point of view. 
 
 The most implacable enemies of the politics of 
 the House of Austria render justice to the plans, to 
 the frankness, to the morality of Archduke Charles ; 
 and, what is remarkable, of all the chiefs who have 
 commanded against revolutionary France, he alone 
 has seized the true manner of combating enthusiasts 
 or slaves ; at least, his proclamations are the only 
 ones composed with adroitness, and are what they
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 283 
 
 ought to be, because in them an appeal is made to 
 the public opinion at a time when opinion ahnost 
 constitutes half the strength of armies. 
 
 The present opposer of this Prince in Italy is one 
 of our best, as weU as most fortunate, generals. A 
 Sardinian subject, and a deserter from the Sardinian 
 troops, he assisted, in 1792, our commander, Ge'n^ral 
 Anselm, in the conquest of the county of Nice, rather 
 as a spy than as a soldier. His knowledge of the 
 Maritime Alps obtained, in 1793, a place on our staff, 
 where, from the services he rendered, the rank of a 
 general of brigade was soon conferred on him. In 
 1796 he was promoted to serve as a general of 
 division under Bonaparte in Italy, where he distin- 
 guished himself so much that when, in 1798, General 
 Berthier was ordered to accompany the army of the 
 East to Egypt, he succeeded him as commander-in- 
 chief of our troops in the temporary Roman Republic. 
 But his merciless pillage, and, perhaps, the idea of 
 his being a foreigner, brought on a mutiny, and the 
 Directory was obliged to recall him. It was his cam- 
 paign in Switzerland of 1799, and his defence of 
 Genoa in 1800, that prmcipally ranked him high as 
 a military chief. After the battle of Marengo he 
 received the command of the army of Italy ; but his 
 extortions produced a revolt among the inhabitants, 
 and he lived for some time in retreat and disgrace, 
 after a violent quarrel with Bonapai-te, during which
 
 284 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 many severe truths were said and heard on both 
 sides. 
 
 After the Peace of Lun^ville, he seemed inclined to 
 join Moreau, and other discontented generals; but 
 observing, no doubt, their want of views and union, 
 he retired to an estate he has bought near Paris, 
 where Bonaparte visited him, after the rupture with 
 your country, and made him, we may conclude, such 
 offers as tempted him to leave his retreat. Last 
 year he was nominated one of our Emperor's Field- 
 marshals, and as such he relieved Jourdan of the 
 command in the kingdom of Italy. He has purchased 
 with a part of his spoil, for fifteen millions of livres — 
 ^625,000, — property in France and Italy; and is 
 considered worth double that sum in jewels, money, 
 and other valuables. 
 
 Massena is called, in France, the spoiled child of 
 fortune; and as Bonaparte, like our former Cardinal 
 Mazarin, has more confidence in fortune than in merit, 
 he is, perhaps, more indebted to the former than to 
 the latter for his present situation; his familiarity 
 has made him disliked at our Imperial Court, where 
 he never addresses Napoleon and Madame Bonaparte 
 as an Emperor or an Empress without smiling. 
 
 G^n^ral St. Cyr, our second in command of the 
 army of Italy, is also an officer of great talents and 
 distinctions. He was, in 1791, only a cornet, but in 
 1795, he headed, as a general, a division of the
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 285 
 
 army of the Rhine. In his report to the Direc- 
 tory, during the famous retreat of 1796, Moreau 
 speaks highly of this general, and admits that his 
 achievements, in part, saved the republican army. 
 During 1799 he served in Italy, and in 1800 he com- 
 manded the centre of the army of the Rhine, and 
 assisted in gaining the victory of Hohenlindcn. After 
 the Peace of Lun^ville, he was appointed a Counsellor 
 of State of the military section, a place he still 
 occupies, notwithstanding his present employment. 
 Though under forty years of age, he is rather infirm, 
 from the fatigues he has undergone and the wounds 
 he has received. Although he has never combated 
 as a general-in-chief, there is no doubt but that he 
 would fill such a place with honour to himself and 
 advantage to his country. 
 
 Of the general officers who command under Arch- 
 duke Charles, Comte de Bellegarde is already known 
 by his exploits during the last war. He had distin- 
 guished himself already in 1793, particularly when 
 Valenciennes and Maubeuge were besieged by the 
 united Austrian and English forces ; and, in 1794, he 
 commanded the column at the head of which the 
 Emperor marched, when Landrecy was invested. In 
 1796, he was one of the members of the Council of 
 the Archduke Charles, when this Prince commanded 
 for the first time as a general-in-chief, on which occa- 
 sion he was promoted to a Field - marshal lieutenant.
 
 286 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 He displayed again great talents during the campaign 
 of 1799, when he headed a small corps, placed be- 
 tween General Suwarow in Italy, and Archduke 
 Charles in Switzerland ; and in this delicate post he 
 contributed equally to the success of both. After the 
 Peace of Lun^ville he was appointed a commander- 
 in-chief for the Emperor in the ci-devant Venetian 
 States, where the troops composing the army under 
 the Archduke Charles were, last summer, received 
 and inspected by him, before the arrival of the Prince. 
 He is considered by military men as greatly superior 
 to most of the generals now employed by the Emperor 
 of Germany.
 
 LETTER XXXYI. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 My Lord : — "I would give my brother , the Em- 
 peror of Germany, one further piece of advice. Let 
 him hasten to make peace. This is the crisis when, he 
 must recollect, all States must have an end. The 
 idea of the approaching extinction of the dynasty of 
 Lorraine must impress him with horror^ When 
 Bonaparte ordered this paragraph to be inserted in 
 the Moniteur, he discovered an arriere pensee, long 
 suspected by politicians, but never before avowed by 
 himself, or by his Ministers. " That he has deter- 
 mined on the universal change of dynasties, because 
 a usurper can never reign with safety or honour as 
 long as any legitimate Prince may distui'b his power, 
 or reproach him for his rank." Elevated with pros- 
 perity, or infatuated with vanity and pride, he spoke 
 a language which his placemen, courtiers, and even 
 his brother Joseph at first thought premature, if not 
 indiscreet. If all lawful Sovereigns do not read in 
 these words their proscription, and the fate which the 
 most powerful usurper that ever desolated mankind 
 has destined for them, it may be ascribed to that
 
 288 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 blindness with which Providence, in its wrath, some- 
 times strikes those doomed to be' grand examples of 
 the vicissitudes of human life. 
 
 "Had Talleyrand," said Louis Bonaparte, in his 
 wife's drawing-room, " been by my brother's side, he 
 would not have unnecessarily alarmed or awakened 
 those whom it should have been his policy to keep 
 in a soft slumber, until his blows had laid them 
 down to rise no more ; but his soldier-like frankness 
 frequently injures his political views." This I mi/self 
 heard Louis say to Abb^ Siey^s, though several foreign 
 Ambassadors were in the saloon, near enough not to 
 miss a word. If it was really meant as a reflection 
 on Napoleon, it was imprudent ; if designed as a defi- 
 ance to other Princes, it was unbecoming and imper- 
 tinent. I am inclined to believe it, considering the 
 individual to whom it was addressed, a premeditated 
 declaration that our Emperor expected a imiversal 
 war, was prepared for it, and was certain of its 
 fortunate issue. 
 
 When this Siey^s is often consulted, and publicly 
 flattered, our politicians say, " Woe to the happiness 
 of Sovereigns and to the tranquillity of subjects ; the 
 fiend of mankind is busy, and at work," and, in fact, 
 ever since 1T89, the infamous ex-Abb^ has figured, 
 either as a plotter or as an actor, in all our dreadful 
 and sanguinary revolutionary epochas. The accom- 
 plice of La Fayette in 1789, of Brissot in 1791, of
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 289 
 
 Marat in 1792, of Robespierre in 1793, of Tallien in 
 1794, of Barras in 1795, of Rewbel in 1797, and of 
 Bonaparte in 1799, he has hitherto planned, served, 
 betrayed, or deserted all factions. He is one of the 
 few of our grand criminals, who, after enticing and 
 sacrificing his associates, has been fortunate enough 
 to survive them. Bonaparte has heaped upon him 
 presents, places, and pensions ; national property, 
 senatories, knighthoods, and palaces ; but he is, never- 
 theless, not supposed one of our Emperor's most duti- 
 ful subjects, because many of the late changes have 
 differed from his metaphysical schemes of innovation, 
 of regeneration, and of overthrow. He has too high 
 an opinion of his own deserts not to consider it 
 beneath his philosophical dignity to be a contented 
 subject of a fellow-subject, elevated into supremacy 
 by his labours and dangers. His modesty has, for 
 these sixteen years past, ascribed to his talents all 
 the glory and prosperity of France, and all her misery 
 and misfortunes to the disregard of his counsels, and 
 to the neglect of his advice. Bonaparte knows it; 
 and that he is one of those crafty, sly, and dark con- 
 spirators, more dangerous than the bold assassin, 
 who, by sophistry, art, and perseverance insinuate into 
 the minds of the unwary and daring the ideas of 
 their plots, in such an insidious manner that they 
 take them and foster them as the production of their 
 own genius ; he is, therefore, watched by our Impe-
 
 290 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 rial spies, and never consulted but when any great 
 blow is intended to be struck, or some enormous 
 atrocities perpetrated. A month before the seizure 
 of the Due d' Enghien, and the murder of Pichegru, 
 he was every day shut up for some hours with Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte at St. Cloud, or in the Tuileries; 
 where he has hardly been seen since, except after 
 our Emperor's return from his coronation as a King 
 of Italy. 
 
 Siey^s never was a republican, and it was cowardice 
 alone that made him vote for the death of his King 
 and benefactor ; although he is very fond of his own 
 metaphysical notions, he always has preferred the 
 preservation of his life to the profession or adherence 
 to his systems. He will not think the Revolution 
 complete, or the constitution of his country a good 
 one, until some Napoleon, or some Louis, writes him- 
 self an Emperor or King of France, hy the grace of 
 Sieyes. He would expose the lives of thousands to 
 obtain such a compliment to his hateful vanity and 
 excessive pride ; but he would not take a step that 
 endangered his personal safety, though it might 
 eventually lead him to the possession of a crown. 
 
 From the bounty of his King, Sieyes had, before 
 the Revolution, an income of fifteen thousand livres 
 — £625 — per annum ; his places, pensions, and 
 landed estates produce now yearly five hundred 
 thousand livres — £20,000 — not including the in-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 291 
 
 terest of his money in the French and foreign funds. 
 Two years ago he was exiled, for some time, to an 
 estate of his in Touraine, and Bonaparte even deliber- 
 ated about transporting him to Cayenne, when Tal- 
 leyrand observed " that such a condemnation would 
 ejidanger that colony of France, as he would cer- 
 tainly organize there a focus of revolutions, which 
 might also involve Surinam and the Brazils, the 
 colonies of our allies, in one common ruin. In the 
 present circumstances," added the Minister, " if 
 Sieyes is to be transported, I wish we could land him 
 in England, Scotland, or Ireland, or even in Russia." 
 
 I have just heard from a general officer the follow- 
 ing anecdote, which he read to me from a letter of 
 another general, dated Ulm, the 25th instant, and, 
 if true, it explains in part Bonaparte's apparent in- 
 discretion in the threat thrown out against all ancient 
 dynasties. 
 
 Among his confidential generals (and hitherto the 
 most irreproachable of all our military commanders), 
 Marmont is particularly distinguished. Before Napo- 
 leon left this capital to head his armies in Germany, 
 he is stated to have sent despatches to all those 
 traitors dispersed in different countries whom he has 
 selected to commence the new dynasties, under the 
 protection of the Bonaparte Dynasty. They were, no 
 doubt, advised of this being the crisis when they had 
 to begin their machinations against thrones. A
 
 292 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 courier from Talleyrand at Strasburg to Bonaparte at 
 Ulm was ordered to pass by the corps under the com- 
 mand of Marmont, to whom, in case the Emperor had 
 advanced too far into Germany, he was to deliver his 
 papers. This courier was surprised and interrupted 
 by some Austrian light troops ; and, as it was only 
 some few hours after being informed of this capture 
 that Bonaparte expressed himself frankly, as related 
 above, it was supposed by his army that the Austrian 
 Government had already in its power despatches 
 which made our schemes of improvement at Paris no 
 longer any secrets at Vienna. The writer of this 
 letter added that General Marmont was highly dis- 
 tressed on account of this accident, which might 
 retard the prospect of restoring to Europe its long 
 lost peace and tranquillity. 
 
 This officer made his first campaign under Pichegru 
 in 1794, and was, in 1796, appointed by Bonaparte 
 one of his aides-de-camp. His education had been 
 entirely military, and in the practice the war afforded 
 him he soon evinced how well he remembered the 
 lessons of theory. In the year 1796, at the battle of 
 Saint-Georges, before Mantua, he charged at the head 
 of the eighth battalion of grenadiers, and contributed 
 much to its fortunate issue. In October of the same 
 year, Bonaparte, as a mark of his satisfaction, sent 
 him to present to the Directory the numerous colours 
 which the army of Italy had conquered ; from whom
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 293 
 
 he received in return a pair of pistols, with a fra- 
 ternal hug from Carnot. On his return to Italy he- 
 was, for the first time, employed by his chief in a 
 political capacity. A republic, and nothing but a 
 republic, being then the order of the day, some Italian 
 patriots were convoked at Reggio to arrange a plan 
 for a Cisalpine Republic, and for the incorporation 
 with it of Modena, Bologna, and other neutral States ; 
 Marmont was nominated a French republican plenipo- 
 tentiary, and assisted as such in the organization of a 
 Commonwealth, which since has been by turns a prov- 
 ince of Austria or a tributary State of France. 
 
 Marmont, though combating for a bad cause, is an 
 honest man ; his hands are neither soiled with plun- 
 der, nor stained with blood. Bonaparte, among his 
 other good qualities, wishes to see every one about him 
 rich ; and those who have been too delicate to accu- 
 mulate wealth by pillage, he generally provides for, by 
 putting into requisition some great heiress. After the 
 Peace of Campo Formio, Bonaparte arrived at Paris, 
 where he demanded in marriage for his aide-de-camp 
 Marmont, Mademoiselle Perregeaux, the sole child of 
 the first banker in France, a well-educated and accom- 
 plished young lady, who would be much more agree- 
 able did not her continual smiles and laughing indicate 
 a degree of self-satisfaction and complacency which 
 may be felt, but ought never to be published. 
 
 The banker, Perregeaux, is one of those fortunate
 
 294 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 beings who, by drudgery and assiduity, has succeeded 
 in some few years to make an ample fortune. A 
 Swiss by birth, like Necker, he also, like him, after 
 gratifying the passion of avidity, showed an ambition 
 to shine in other places than in the counting-house 
 and upon the exchange. Under La Fayette, in 1790, 
 he was the chief of a battalion of the Parisian 
 National Guards ; under Robespierre, a commissioner 
 for purchasing provisions ; and under Bonaparte he is 
 become a Senator and a commander of the Legion of 
 Honour. I am told that he has made all his money 
 by his connection with your country ; but I know that 
 the favourite of Napoleon can never be the friend of 
 Great Britain. He is a widower ; but Mademoiselle 
 Mars, of the Emperor's theatre, consoles him for the* 
 loss of his wife. 
 
 General Marmont accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, 
 and distinguished himself at the capture of Malta, 
 and when, in the following year, the siege of St. Jean 
 d'Acre was undertaken, he was ordered to extend the 
 fortifications of Alexandria; and if, in 1801, they 
 retarded your progress, it was owing to his abilities, 
 being an officer of engineers as well as of the artil- 
 lery. He returned with Bonaparte to Europe, and 
 was, after his usurpation, made a Counsellor of State. 
 At the battle of Marengo he commanded the artillery, 
 and signed afterwards, with the Austrian general, 
 Count HohenzoUern, the Armistice of Treviso, which
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 295 
 
 preceded shortly the Peace of Lundville. Nothing 
 has abated Bonaparte's attachment to this ofl&cer, 
 whom he appointed a commander-in-chief in Holland, 
 when a change of Government was intended there, 
 and whom he will entrust everywhere else, where 
 sovereignty is to be abolished, or thrones and 
 dynasties subverted.
 
 LETTER XXXYH. 
 
 Paris, October, 1805. 
 
 My Lord : — Many wise people are of the opinion 
 that the revolution of another great Empire is neces- 
 sary to combat or oppose the great impulse occasioned 
 by the Revolution of France, before Europe can 
 recover its long-lost order and repose. Had the sub- 
 jects of Austria been as disaffected as they are loyal, 
 the world might have witnessed such a terrible event, 
 and been enabled to judge whether the hypothesis was 
 the production of an ingenious schemer or of a pro- 
 found statesman. Our armies under Bonaparte have 
 never before penetrated into the heart of a country 
 where subversion was not prepared, and where sub- 
 version did not follow. 
 
 How relatively insignificant, in the eyes of Provi- 
 dence, must be the independence of States and the lib- 
 erties of nations, when such a relatively insignificant 
 personage as General von Mack can shake them ? 
 Have, then, the Austrian heroes — a Prince Eugene, a 
 Laudon, a Lasci, a Beaulieu, a Haddick, a Bender, a 
 Clairfayt, and numerous other valiant and great war- 
 riors — left no posterity behind them ; or has the pre-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 297 
 
 sumption of General von Mack imposed upon the 
 judgment of the Counsellors of his Prince? This 
 latter must have been the case ; how otherwise could 
 the weKare of their Sovereign have been entrusted to 
 a military quack, whose want of energy and bad dis- 
 position had, in 1799, delivered up the capital of an- 
 other Sovereign to his enemies. How many reputa- 
 tions are gained by an impudent assurance, and lost 
 when the man of talents is called upon to act and 
 the fool presents himseH. 
 
 Baron von Mack served as an aide-de-camp under 
 Field - marshal Laudon, during the last war between 
 Austria and Turkey, and displayed some intrepidity, 
 particularly before Lissa. The Austrian army was 
 encamped eight leagues from that place, and the com- 
 mander-in-chief hesitated to attack it, believing it to 
 be defended by thirty thousand men. To -decide him 
 upon making this attack. Baron von Mack left him at 
 nine o'clock at night, crossed the Danube, accompa- 
 nied only by a single Uhlan, and penetrated into the 
 suburb of Lissa, where he made prisoner a Turkish 
 officer, whom, on the next morning at seven o'clock, 
 he presented to his general, and from whom it was 
 learnt that the garrison contained only six thousand 
 men. This personal temerity, and the applause of 
 Field -marshal Laudon, procured him then a kind of 
 reputation, which he has not since been able to sup- 
 port. Some theoretical knowledge of the art of war,
 
 298 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 and a great facility of conversing on military topics, 
 made even the Emperor Joseph conceive a high opin- 
 ion of this ofl&cer ; but it has long been proved, and 
 experience confirms it every day, that the difference 
 is immense between the speculator and the operator, 
 and that the generals of Cabinets are often indifferent 
 captains when in the camp or in the field. 
 
 Preceded by a certain celebrity. Baron von Mack 
 served, in 1793, under the Prince of Coburg, as an 
 adjutant-general, and was called to assist at the Con- 
 gress at Antwerp, where the operations of the cam- 
 paign were regulated. Everywhere he displayed 
 activity and bravery ; was wounded twice in the 
 month of May ; but he left the army without having 
 performed anything that evinced the talents which 
 fame had bestowed on him. In February, 1794, the 
 Emperor sent him to London to arrange, in concert 
 with your Government, the plans of the campaign 
 then on the eve of being opened ; and when he re- 
 turned to the Low Countries he was advanced to a 
 quartermaster-general of the army of Flanders, and 
 terminated also this unfortunate campaign without 
 having done anything to justify the reputation he had 
 before acquired or usurped. His Sovereign continued, 
 nevertheless, to employ him in different armies ; and 
 in January, 1797, he was appointed a Field - marshal 
 lieutenant and a quartermaster-general of the army of 
 the Rhine. Li February he conducted fifteen thou-
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 299 
 
 sand of the troops of this army to reinforce the army 
 of Italy ; but when Bonaparte in April penetrated into 
 Styria and Carinthia, he was ordered to Vienna as a 
 second in command of the levy en masse. 
 
 Real military characters had already formed their 
 opinion of this officer, and saw a presumptuous char- 
 latan where others had admired an able warrior. His 
 own conduct soon convinced them that they neither 
 had been rash nor mistaken. The King of Naples 
 demanding, in 1798, from his son-in-law, the Em- 
 peror of Germany, a general to organize and head his 
 troops. Baron von Mack was presented to him. After 
 war had been declared against France he obtained 
 some success in partial engagements, but was de- 
 feated in a general battle by an enemy inferior in 
 number. In the Kingdom of Naples, as well as in 
 the Empire of Germany, the fury of negotiation 
 seized him when he should have fought, and when 
 he should have remembered that no compacts can 
 ever be entered into with political and military earth- 
 quakes, more than with physical ones. This impru- 
 dence, particularly as he was a foreigner, excited 
 suspicion among his troops, whom, histead of leading 
 to battle, he deserted, under the pretence that his life 
 was in danger, and surrendered himself and his staff 
 to our commander, Championnet. 
 
 A general who is too fond of his life ought never 
 to enter a camp, much less to conmiand armies ; and
 
 300 SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. 
 
 a military chief who does not consider the happiness 
 and honour of the State as his first passion and his 
 first duty, and prefers existence to glory, deserves to 
 be shot as a traitor, or drummed out of the army as 
 a dastardly coward. Without mentioning the nmner- 
 ous military faults committed by General von Mack 
 during this campaign, it is impossible to deny that, 
 with respect to his own troops, he conducted himself 
 in the most pusillanimous manner. It has often been 
 repeated that martial valour does not always combine 
 with it that courage and that necessary presence of 
 mind which knows how to direct or repress multi- 
 tudes, how to command obedience and obtain popu- 
 larity ; but when a man is entrusted with the safety 
 of an Empire, and assumes such a brilliant situation, 
 he must be weak-minded and despicable indeed, if he 
 does not show himself worthy of it by endeavouring 
 to succeed, or perish in the attempt. The French 
 emigrant, Gdn^ral Dumas, evinced what might have 
 been done, even with the dispirited Neapolitan troops, 
 whom he neither deserted, nor with whom he offered 
 to capitulate. 
 
 Baron von Mack is in a very infirm state of health, 
 and is often under the necessity of being carried on a 
 litter ; and his bodily complaints have certainly not 
 increased the vigour of his mind. His love of life 
 seems to augment in proportion as its real value 
 diminishes. As to the report here of his having
 
 THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 301 
 
 betrayed his trust in exchanging honour for gold, I 
 believe it totally unfounded. Our intriguers may 
 have deluded his understanding, but our traitors 
 would never have been able to seduce or shake his 
 fidelity. His head is weak, but his heart is honest. 
 Unfortunately, it is too true that, in turbulent times, 
 irresolution and weakness in a commander or a 
 Minister operate the same, and are as dangerous as 
 treason. 
 
 THE END.
 
 iDc 
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