m 
 
 I 
 
 l
 
 
 
 °\ 
 
 1/
 
 VOL. I
 
 Uniform ivith the present volume : 
 
 " Historical and Secret Memoirs of the 
 Empress Josephine." 2 vols. 
 
 " Memoirs of Marmontel." 2 vols. 
 
 " Memoirs of C. M. Talleyrand de Perigord.' 1 
 2 vols. 
 
 " Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz." i vol. 
 
 " Memoirs of Madame du Barri." 4 vols.
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH FOUCHE 
 
 a — 2
 
 Edition strictly limited to 500 copies. 
 Five extra copies have been printed on Japanese vellum, but 
 arc not offered for sale.
 
 ■ .^TTC 
 
 C&S 
 
 ^uc& 
 

 
 THE 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH FOUCHE 
 
 DUKE OF OTRANTO 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GENERAL POLICE OF FRANCE 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES— VOL. 1 
 
 <QPs 
 
 -1j^.\ — v-^k-L_x^i3 
 
 LONDON 
 H. S. NICHOLS 
 
 3 SOHO SQUARE and 6 2 a PICCADILLY W 
 
 MDCCCXCVI
 
 Printed and Published by 
 
 H. S. NICHOLS 
 AT 3 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON \V.
 
 ^ g SA NTA BARBARA 
 
 P7 #^ 
 
 1^3 6 
 v.) 
 
 PUBLISHER'S NOTE 
 
 These Memoirs of Fouche form the sixth issue 
 of my Historic Memoir Series. The original edition 
 was published in Paris in 1824, and was compiled by 
 A. de Beauchamp. The translation appeared in 1825, 
 and this issue is a reprint of the same without any 
 alteration. 
 
 The Biographical Sketches at the end of Vol. II., 
 of personages contemporary with Fouche, and who 
 played a part in the French Revolution, are an 
 addition, and it is hoped will increase the interest of 
 the book. The Biographical Sketch of Fouche is an 
 abridged translation from the "Biographie Universelle " 
 (Michaud), Paris, 1856. 
 
 The next issue of this series will be the Life of 
 Henry IV. of France and Navarre, with an Introduc- 
 tion describing the state of France in the previous 
 reign, and also Biographical Sketches of all persons 
 mentioned in the book. 
 
 London, May Stli, 7596'.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 These Memoirs have neither been produced b)- 
 party spirit, hatred, nor a desire for vengeance, and 
 still less that they might afford food for scandal 
 and malignity. I respect all that is deserving of 
 honour in the opinions of men. Let me be read, 
 and my intentions, my views, my sentiments, and 
 the political motives by which I was guided in the 
 exercise of the highest duties, will then be appre- 
 ciated ; let me be read, and it will then be seen if, 
 in the councils of the Republic and of Napoleon, I 
 have not been the constant opponent of the extrava- 
 gant measures of the government ; let me be read, 
 and it will be apparent whether or not I have 
 displayed some courage in my warnings and remon- 
 strances ; in short, by perusing me, the conviction 
 will follow, that I owed it as a duty to myself to 
 write what I have written. 
 
 The only means of rendering these Memoirs
 
 x AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 advantageous to my own character, and useful to 
 the history of those eventful times, was to rest them 
 solely upon the pure and simple basis of truth ; to 
 this I have been induced, both by disposition and 
 conviction ; my situation also made it an imperative 
 law to me, for was it not natural that I should 
 thus charm away the ennui attendant upon fallen 
 power ? 
 
 Under whatever form, the Revolution had accus- 
 tomed me to an extreme activity of mind and 
 memory ; irritated by solitude, this activity required 
 some outlet. It has been, therefore, with a species 
 of pleasure and delight that I have written this first 
 part of my recollections. 1 I have, it is true, re- 
 touched them, but no material change has been 
 made, not even during the anguish of my last mis- 
 fortune, for what greater misfortune can there be 
 than to wander in banishment, an exile from one's 
 country ! 
 
 France, thou that wast so dear to me, never shall 
 I see thee more ! Alas ! at what a cost have I pur- 
 chased power and grandeur ? Those who were once 
 
 1 This preface was prefixed to the first part, which was 
 published at Paris separately.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE xi 
 
 my friends will no longer offer me their hand. It is 
 clear they wish to condemn me even to the silence 
 of the future. Vain hope ! I shall find means to 
 disappoint the expectations of those who are already 
 anticipating the spoils of my reminiscences and revela- 
 tions, of those who are preparing to lay snares for 
 my children. If my children are too young to be 
 on their guard against the artifices of the designing, 
 I will ensure their preservation by seeking, far from 
 the crowd of selfish and ungrateful men, a discreet 
 and faithful friend. But what do I say ? This 
 other self I have already found, and it is to his 
 discretion and fidelity that I confide these Memoirs. 
 I constitute • him the sole judge after my decease of 
 the propriety of their publication. He is in possession 
 of my ideas upon the subject, and I am convinced 
 he will only place my work in the hands of an 
 honourable man, one who is equally superior to base 
 intrigue and sordid speculation. This is assuredly 
 my only and best guarantee that these Memoirs 
 shall remain free from the interpolations and gar- 
 blings of the enemies to truth and sincerity. 
 
 In the same spirit of candour I am now preparing 
 the second part of them. I do not blind myself
 
 xii AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 to the fact that I have to treat of a period of 
 peculiar delicacy, of one presenting innumerable and 
 serious difficulties, whether we consider the times, 
 the personages, or the calamities which it embraces. 
 But truth, when not deformed by the malignancy 
 of the passions, will ever command the attention of 
 mankind.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 A perusal of the author's preface will show that 
 I might indulge some degree of self-satisfaction in 
 the fulfilment of his intentions relative to the pub- 
 lication of these Memoirs. Pecuniary advantages had 
 no share in the selection of myself as editor, and I 
 dare affirm that in accepting the office I was actuated 
 by equal disinterestedness. To all persons but my- 
 self, such a publication would have been a great 
 desideratum, and they would only have considered it 
 as a source of profit, perhaps after all ideal. On the 
 contrary, I only saw in it a duty; this I have fulfilled, 
 but not without hesitation : I will even confess that 
 it became necessary to strengthen my own opinion 
 by that of others. The title of the work, and the 
 subjects of which it treats, appeared but too well 
 calculated to create uneasiness in my mind. I was 
 anxious neither to trespass against the laws, shock
 
 xiv EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 public decorum, nor offend the government of my 
 country. Not daring then to confide in my own 
 judgment, I consulted a gentleman of considerable 
 experience, and his assurances have removed my 
 apprehensions. If I requested him to favour me with 
 a few notes, it was rather to confirm my own 
 opinions than to present a contrast between the text 
 and the commentaries. Although these notes were far 
 from being numerous, they had, however, nearly de- 
 prived me of the publication of these posthumous 
 Memoirs. At length the person commissioned to 
 fulfil the author's intentions yielded to the force of 
 my reasons, and I am now enabled to announce to 
 the public that no time shall be lost in bringing out 
 the second part of the Memoirs of the Duke of 
 Otranto. As to the intenseness of their interest, 
 and their authenticity, I shall merely say with the 
 author — Read.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I 
 
 TAOE 
 
 The author introduces himself ...... i 
 
 Disclaims the responsibility of the Revolution . . . 2, 3 
 
 The higher classes accused of the first aspirations for democratic 
 independence — Who fired the train ? —Reflections on the 
 Revolution 4-7 
 
 Affair of the 10th of August ascribed to the Austrians and 
 
 Prussians .......... S 
 
 Early career — Elected to the National Convention — Offends 
 Robespierre — Repudiates the Girondins — Excuses his vote 
 for the execution of the King 9-13 
 
 Robespierre — His hatred of Fouche — Tallien determines to 
 assassinate Robespierre — Fouche's advice against such a 
 course ............ 14-16 
 
 Fouche publicly defies Robespierre — His fall — The turn of the 
 
 reactionists — Fouche expelled the National Convention . . 17-19 
 
 First interest in Bonaparte — The "whiff of grapeshot " . . 20 
 
 Establishment of the Directory— Fouche in disgrace— Barras— 
 The Babeuf faction — Fouche obtains a share of the 
 contracts • 21-24 
 
 Review of events of the period — Bonaparte's military clubs — 
 Military subjection of the capital — Fouche's advice to 
 Barras 25-28 
 
 Appointed ambassador to the Cisalpine Republic — Treaty of 
 
 Campo Formio ...... . . 29, 30 
 
 Bonaparte's designs upon the supreme government — Egyptian 
 campaign planned to get rid of him — Success of the ex- 
 pedition — Disaster of the Nile 31.32 
 
 Preparations for war — Forced loans — First military conscription ^3 
 
 Directory of Milan deposed — Brune— Soprensi forcibly removed 34, 35 
 
 Cisalpine Republic declared an independent power — Terms of 
 
 treaty 3*3 
 
 Disapproval of the French Directory— Deposition of Brune— 
 Joubert — Fouche recalled — His address to the Cisalpine 
 Directory . . .... . 3.
 
 XVI 
 
 CONTEXTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Directory of Milan forcibly restored — Rivaud — Fouche in hiding. 41, 42 
 Continental troubles — Difficulties of the Directory — French 
 
 reverses ........... 43 
 
 Rewbel expelled the Directory — Plots — Sieyes appointed . . 44-49 
 Joubert appointed commandant of Paris — Fouche becomes am- 
 bassador to Holland — Conversation with Sieyes . . . 50-52 
 Bonapartist faction endeavour to limit the power of the Directory 
 — Sieyes' plans — Joubert made commander of the army in 
 
 Italy ... . 53-55 
 
 Appointed minister of police — Reforms and methods . . . 56-58 
 
 Sieyes' policy in the Directory 59, 60 
 
 Obtains carte blanche to suppress the clubs and regulate the press 
 
 — Opposition — Hall of the Manege closed . . . . 61, 62 
 Lefevre replaces Marbot as commandant of Paris ... 63 
 
 Jacobin club closed — Measures against the royalists — The law of 
 
 hostages 64, 65 
 
 French reverse at Novi — Suspicious death of Joubert . . .66, 67 
 Suppresses eleven journals and arrests the authors — Suppression 
 
 of the ministry of police demanded — Moreau .... 68 
 Jourdan's gloomy picture of the political situation — Bernadotte 
 
 appealed to and removed 69-72 
 
 Stormy debate — Lucien Bonaparte hastens his brother's return 
 
 from Egypt 73 
 
 Massena gains the battle of Zurich ...... 74, 75 
 
 Fouche and Josephine — Her great extravagance .... 76 
 
 Victory of Aboukir announced — Bonaparte's sudden return to 
 
 Paris — His effusive welcome 77, 78 
 
 Bonaparte resolves to seize the chief authority — His first council 
 
 — Opposition of Lucien 79-Si 
 
 Pouche's reason for not bringing about the failure of the revolu- 
 tion of St. Cloud ......... 82 
 
 Bonaparte's attitude before the Directory — Hesitates between 
 Sieyes and Barras — Fouche's advice to him regarding Barras 
 
 — Bonaparte decides for Sieyes 83, 84 
 
 Rapid development of the conspiracy — The loan of two millions 85 
 Dubois de Crance, minister of war, reveals the plot, but is dis- 
 credited — Lucien and Madame Recamier . . . . 86, 87 
 
 Subscription banquet to Bonaparte — A chilling function . . 88 
 Secret arrangements for the 18th of Brumaire — Gohier, president 
 
 of the Directory, escapes a snare ...... 89, 90 
 
 The legislative corps transferred to St. Cloud — Bonaparte in- 
 vested with the chief command of the troops — Gohier and 
 
 Fouche 91-94 
 
 Barras compelled to resign . . . . . . . . 95, 96
 
 CONTENTS X vii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bonaparte's troops invest the public establishments . . -97, 98 
 
 Tumultuous proceedings at St. Cloud — ' ' Down with the Dictator ! ' ' 
 — Bonaparte addresses the council of the Ancients and de- 
 clares the government at an end — His agitation — Enters the 
 Assembly with a platoon of grenadiers — Danger of Bonaparte 
 — Rescued by the soldiers — His outlawry demanded — The 
 soldiers disperse the Assembly ...... 99-104 
 
 Act of the 19th Brumaire — The Directory abolished — Bona- 
 parte, Sieyes, and Roger Ducos appointed consuls — Avarice 
 of Sieyes I0 5, 106 
 
 The new ministry — Fouche retains his office — Sieyes plots 
 
 against him 107-110 
 
 Fouche's clemency towards the emigrants — His instructions to 
 
 the bishops and prefects . . . . . . . in, 112 
 
 History of " Irma " 113 
 
 The legislative commissions — Lebrun — Sieyes' project of social 
 organisation — The "grand elector" — Bonaparte's reception 
 of the scheme ......... 114-118 
 
 Proposal to limit the consular power — Bonaparte's rage— Sieyes 
 resigns his consulship — Cambaceres and Lebrun appointed 
 consuls — Sieyes' rewards . . . . . . .119, 120 
 
 Ratification of the new constitution — Bonaparte declares him- 
 self First Consul — Assumes the reins of government and 
 occupies the Tuileries ........ 121, 122 
 
 Judicial system reorganised — A rude awakening — Execution of 
 Toustain and the Count de Frotte — Poverty of the adminis- 
 tration — Bonaparte's aversion to bankers and brokers . 123-125 
 
 Fouche's delicate position with Bonaparte ..... 126 
 
 Bonaparte writes to the King of England — Declares his ability 
 
 to reconquer Italy ......... 127 
 
 Royalist league — The King of France asks Bonaparte to restore 
 him to the throne — Similar desire of the Count d'Artois — 
 Chagrin of Fouche 128-130 
 
 Rumoured disaster to the French arms near Alessandria — 
 Plans to reorganise the government and depose Bonaparte 
 —Victory of Marengo — Triumphant return of Bonaparte — 
 His suspicion of Fouche ....... 131-134 
 
 Jealousies of Bonaparte — Difficulties of Fouche's position . . 135-139 
 
 Cisalpine republic re-established — Preliminaries of peace signed 
 
 between France and Austria ....... 140, 141 
 
 Plots to assassinate Bonaparte — Carnot resigns — Mock attempt 
 
 on the life of the First Consul at the opera— Its results . 142-145 
 
 Lucien's designs on the government -His pamphlet: "Parallel 
 of Cromwell, Monk, and Bonaparte" — Its circulation sup- 
 vol. i b
 
 xviii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 pressed — Quarrel between Bonaparte and Lucien — Lucien 
 
 sent to Madrid as ambassador ...... 146-149 
 
 Embarrassment of Austria — M. de St. Julien imprisoned — Pre- 
 parations for war — Moreau : Bonaparte's jealousy of him . 150 
 
 Plot to blow up the "Little Corporal" — Chevalier — Experi- 
 ment with a bomb — Plots of Georges Cadoudal — Explosion 
 on the way to the opera — Narrow escape — List of wounded 
 who received pecuniary assistance — Bonaparte's rage against 
 Fouche — Unravelling of the plot ...... 151-160 
 
 Bonaparte becomes military dictator — Act of deportation — Trial 
 
 and execution of the conspirators 161-163 
 
 Moreau victorious at Hohenlinden 164 
 
 Police dictatorship established 165 
 
 Peace of Luneville — New boundaries — Recall of Massena. . 166 
 
 Treaty of peace with Naples — Advantages to France — Bonaparte 
 
 pleased with Talleyrand ........ 167 
 
 Bonaparte's amour with Signora G. — Rode, the violinist — 
 
 Bonaparte's contemptible revenge ...... 168, 169 
 
 Designs against England — The Northern League — Battle of 
 Copenhagen — Assassination of Paul I. of Russia — Bona- 
 parte's gloomy fears — Bernadotte suspected and recalled — 
 Reconciliation 170-174 
 
 Convention signed at St. Petersburg between England and 
 Russia — Resignation of Pitt — War between Spain and 
 Portugal — Preliminaries of peace signed at Badajoz — 
 Bonaparte exasperated with Lucien — Treaty concluded at 
 Madrid 175. x 7 6 
 
 English land in Egypt — Menou defeated at Alexandria — French 
 evacuate Egypt — Russia, France, and England at peace 
 _once more . 176, 177 
 
 New treaty of commerce completed between France and Russia 
 — The Tribunat object to the word subject — Secret articles 
 of the treaty treacherously sold to England — The police 
 baffled i77" I 79 
 
 Marquis of Cornwallis — Disastrous expedition to St. Domingo — 
 
 Public opinion concerning Bonaparte and Moreau . . 180-182 
 
 Bonaparte elected president of the Cisalpine Republic — Peace 
 
 of Amiens — Fouche's advice regarding Malta . . . 183 
 
 Fouche advises Bonaparte on the subject of the interior 
 establishment of peace — Project of the poet Fontanes and 
 his party — Cardinal Gonsalvez ...... 184-187 
 
 Ceremony of the promulgation of the concordat on ecclesiastical 
 
 affairs— Opposition of the military officers — Berthier's scheme 188, 189 
 
 Amnesty granted to the emigrants— Legion of honour instituted 190
 
 CONTENTS xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bonaparte aims at perpetual power — Counter plot of Fouche — 
 " Shall Napoleon Bonaparte be consul for life ? " — Excite- 
 ment — Threat to shoot him — Arrests — Appointed consul for 
 life — The fifth constitution ....... 191-199 
 
 The right of presiding over the senate granted to Bonaparte 
 
 — Goes in great pomp to the Luxembourg — Chilling reception 200, 201 
 
 Fouche has a presentiment that he will be dismissed — His enemies 
 
 —The poet Fontanes' secret missives to Bonaparte . . 202, 203 
 
 Ministry of police abolished — Fouche praised by Bonaparte — 
 Final report and advice to Bonaparte on the government 
 of the nation — Bonaparte's generosity — Fouche returns to 
 private life .......... 204-209 
 
 Civil war in Switzerland — Military occupation of that country 
 by Ney — Bonaparte as mediator — Conference of the opposite 
 factions — Swiss federalists victorious ..... 210-214 
 
 Germanic confederation to be demolished — Commission at 
 
 Ratisbon ........... 215 
 
 Caution of the English cabinet — Bonaparte complains of the 
 
 English press — Reprisals — A newspaper war . . . 216-218 
 
 Decree of 22nd May, 1803, ordering arrest of all Englishmen 
 then in France — Bonaparte seizes the electorate of Hanover 
 —Preparations to invade England ...... 219 
 
 Bonaparte seeks to become Emperor — Offer to Louis XVIII. for 
 
 rights of succession — Louis' noble declaration . . . 220 
 
 Conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal — Arrest of Pichegru, Georges, 
 
 and Moreau — Murder of the Duke d'Enghien . . . 221-224 
 
 Trial of Moreau — Military sympathy — Bonaparte's fear — Fouche's 
 
 advice — Moreau acquitted — Fouche's successful negotiations 224-226 
 
 Bonaparte advised to declare himself Emperor — Vote of the 
 
 Tribunat — Plan of Napoleonic succession .... 227, 228 
 
 Josephine's scheme for providing an heir to the throne— Bona- 
 parte's intrigue with Hortense — Marries Hortense to his 
 brother Louis- — Birth of a son — Bonaparte's affection for 
 the child ........... 229 
 
 Bonaparte's elevation to the imperial dignity received with 
 coldness — Military government — Imperial difficulties — 
 Fouche re-established . . ..... 230-235 
 
 Hostility of the people — The Emperor advised to travel 236 
 
 Sir George Rumbold arrested and imprisoned .... 237 
 
 The Pope's presence desired at the Emperor's coronation — The 
 
 Czar not well disposed — The coronation — Spectators silent 238-240 
 
 Bonaparte crowned King of Italy ...... 241 
 
 Proposed invasion of England fails — Admiral Bruix disgraced . 242 
 
 Russian minister insulted — Demands of his government . . 243, 244 
 
 b—2
 
 XX 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Austria invades Bavaria — The European league — Military suc- 
 cesses of the Emperor — Disaster of Trafalgar — The 
 
 Emperor's agitation 245-247 
 
 Fouche assumes power in the Emperor's absence . . . 248 
 
 Peace of Presburg — The Emperor master of Germany and 
 Italy — Seizes the kingdom of Naples — The public dazzled 
 by his victories — Royalist association of Bordeaux dispersed 249-251 
 Fouche appointed regulator of public opinion — " Essais de 
 
 Morale et de Politique" — A history of La Vendee . . 252 
 
 Consequences of Austerlitz and Presburg — The Emperor dis- 
 penses honours and rewards — Fouche becomes Duke of 
 
 Otranto 253, 254 
 
 Confederation of the Rhine — Death of William Pitt — Succeeded 
 
 by Charles Fox — War with Prussia — Jena .... 255, 256 
 Death of Charles Fox — The Continental system — Battle of Eylau 257 
 
 The English cabinet attempts to tamper with Fouche — Count 
 
 Dache 258-260 
 
 Victory of Friedland — Treaty of Tilsit 261 
 
 Return of the Emperor — Ministerial changes .... 262 
 
 British attack on Copenhagen — Treachery suspected in the 
 
 cabinet — Rage of the Emperor 263 
 
 The Emperor's power begins to decline — Designs on Spain — 
 The Peninsula invaded — French troops enter Rome — The 
 Pope threatens the Emperor — Massacre of Madrid — The 
 Peninsula ablaze— Violence of public opinion in France — 
 Sudden return of the Emperor — Fouche taken to task by 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 Interview between the Emperor and the Czar . 
 Death of the heir — The Emperor's grief .... 
 First hints of divorce — Josephine's plans foiled by Fouche 
 Second Peninsula campaign — Adverse public opinion — The Em 
 
 peror again suddenly returns ..... 
 
 Victories in Austria — Tann, Abensberg, Eckmuhl, Ratisbon 
 Vienna occupied — Reverses at Essling — Death of Lannes— 
 
 Massena saves the army 
 
 Roman states annexed — Napoleon excommunicated — Pius VII 
 seized and made prisoner ...... 
 
 Victory of Wagram — Armistice of Zna'im — An English expe- 
 dition — Fouche levies a national guard — Bernadotte, de- 
 prived of command at Wagram, accepts command of the 
 
 national guard 283-285 
 
 Arrest of Philadelphians — Massacre of Oudet and his staff . 286 
 
 Napoleon narrowly escapes assassination at Schonbrunn . . 287 
 
 Treaty of Vienna — Return of the Emperor .... 287, 288 
 
 . 264 
 
 -270 
 
 
 271 
 
 • 272, 
 
 273 
 
 • 274 
 
 ■276 
 
 • 277, 
 
 278 
 
 
 279 
 
 
 280 
 
 . 281, 
 
 282
 
 CONTENTS xxi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fouche's confidential report — Marriage with Josephine dissolved 
 —Negotiations with Russia and Austria for a consort — 
 General Narbonne — Marriage with Maria Louisa of Austria 
 decided upon .......... 289-295 
 
 Fouche expects to be dismissed ....... 296, 297 
 
 Duel between Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning — Marquis of 
 
 Wellesley recalled from Spain 298 
 
 Marriage of the Emperor — A sad catastrophe .... 299, 300 
 Napoleon and Fouche, unknown to each other, approach the 
 Marquis of Wellesley with overtures of peace — Discovery — 
 Fouche disgraced and supplanted by Savary . . . 301, 302
 
 *■
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 Joseph Fouche, Duke of Otranto, born at Nantes 
 on the 29th of May, 1763, was one of the most remark- 
 able men of the Revolution, and at the same time 
 one of the most difficult to appreciate. His life may be 
 divided into three very distinct epochs. In the first 
 he is simply a student and teacher at the school of the 
 Oratory ; in the second he appears to us during some 
 years as the Seide x of crime and anarchy ; and in the 
 third one only sees the man of power pursuing with 
 perseverance and some dignity the self-imposed task of 
 remedying the evils that he and his accomplices had 
 brought upon France. In these two latter phases of 
 his public life he did right and wrong with ability and 
 calculation a propos. Through all these variations the 
 man showed himself privately as of good and simple 
 manners, sensible of friendship and the domestic affec- 
 tions, always full of amenite, and treating frivolity with 
 consideration. Whilst not pretending to an extra- 
 ordinary amount of seriousness, he proved master of 
 
 1 A character in the tragedy of " Mahomet," by Voltaire. 
 [" Sectateur devoue, capable de commettre un crime par zele 
 religieux." — Littre.]
 
 xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 himself not only in the lightest affairs of life, but also 
 in the most serious crises. 
 
 His ability was best displayed in controlling events 
 whilst appearing to submit to them, because he knew 
 how to apppreciate them. No less discretion did he 
 show in the selection of the men he employed. 
 
 The account of his life during the first of our three 
 periods is very simple. Son of a captain in the mer- 
 chant service at Nantes, Fouche was at the age of 
 nine years confided to the care of the fathers of the 
 Oratory, who had a college in that town. At the 
 commencement his success in his studies was small. 
 To a mind slow to develop itself he joined a gaiety of 
 temperament which the masters mistook for want of 
 aptitude. His intelligence showed itself rebellious to 
 the generally accepted rules of grammar and of Latin 
 and French versification. 
 
 He was about to be classed as a wretched scholar, 
 when one of the tutors noticed that he preferred the 
 most serious books, amongst others the Pensees de 
 Pascal. Everything was done by this sensible in- 
 structor to cultivate agreeably the disposition of one 
 who departed from the usual groove. 
 
 Fouche was intended for the navy, but his delicate 
 appearance caused his father to give way to the repre- 
 sentations of the Oratorians, and the favourite pupil 
 of M. Durif, the tutor, was consecrated to the public 
 instruction in this learned association. Having made 
 some progress in mathematics, he was sent to the In-
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE XXV 
 
 stitute of Paris. Here the first books put into his 
 hands were Jansenius' commentaries on the Gospels 
 and the catechism of the Council of Trent. Fouche 
 avowed to his confessor what a dislike he had to these 
 books, and the wise director conducted him to the 
 library, where he permitted the young man to choose 
 his own books. Fouche passed with distinction in 
 philosophy and mathematics. All those who knew 
 him at this peaceful time of his life give him credit 
 for the regularity of his manners and zeal for his work. 
 During the time that Fouche was at Arras he became 
 acquainted with Robespierre, and when the latter was 
 elected to the Constituent Assembly lent him several 
 hundred francs for his journey and his establishment 
 in Paris. 
 
 When Fouche was twenty-five he was appointed 
 inspector of studies at the college of Nantes, when 
 the ardour with which he embraced the new ideas 
 threw him into the political storm. Not having taken 
 orders he married, and founded the Popular Society 
 of Nantes. He was not eloquent, but he distinguished 
 himself by his manner of exaggeration, which at that 
 time led to popularity. His election as deputy of the 
 Loire-Inferieure in September, 1792, showed that he 
 had calculated shrewdly. 
 
 During the first few months of the session of the 
 Convention he was little remarked ; he was biding 
 his time, however. His acquaintance with Robespierre 
 was renewed, but the disparity of their characters and
 
 xxvi BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 the diversity of their political views were not long in 
 causing a misunderstanding between them. Fouche 
 was too much of an egoist to submit to Robespierre, and 
 joined the Danton faction. From his first arrival in Paris 
 he frequented the Jacobin club, and appeared to have 
 a good understanding with Marat. At first he also 
 seemed to join Condorcet and Vergniaud ; but already 
 the fight had commenced between the Girondists and 
 the Mountain, and Fouche was too well advised to join 
 the former party. Members of both parties were still 
 in the habit of meeting each other. Coming from 
 Fouche's house on one occasion, where they had 
 just dined, Robespierre was vehemently attacking Ver- 
 gniaud, when Fouche, addressing the former, remarked, 
 " With such violence you may certainly gain the pas- 
 sions, but never esteem or confidence." Robespierre 
 never pardoned this remark, but the author, having be- 
 come a person of importance, was pleased to repeat it. 
 At the trial of the King, Fouche was as violent in 
 his denunciation of royalty as was any member of the 
 Mountain whose revolutionary reputation was well esta- 
 blished. He voted for death without appeal or respite. 
 As member of the Committee of Public Instruction, 
 Fouche at the sittings of 14th of February and 8th of 
 March, 1795, caused a decree to be issued for the sale 
 as national property of all the establishments of public 
 instruction except the colleges. On the Committee of 
 Finances he was not idle. He caused a decree to be 
 issued by which all property which had been kept in
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xxvii 
 
 hand by the fiscal authorities for any reason what- 
 soever should be taken possession of by the govern- 
 ment. All notaries and other officials were to give 
 an account of all property conveyed by them since 
 ist of January, 1793, under a penalty of 20,000 francs. 
 Ten years' imprisonment was threatened to any official 
 conserving the property of an emigre. 
 
 Soon after, upon the proposition of Marat, Fouche 
 was sent to the department of the Aube, where recruit- 
 ing had been difficult, and was successful in raising a 
 young and numerous militia simply by his persuasion. 
 Sent afterwards to Nievre to put into practice the 
 decrees of the Convention with regard to religious ser- 
 vice, he only took four days to accomplish his purpose. 
 He made atheism the order of the day, decreeing that 
 the dead should be buried in twenty-four, or at the 
 latest forty-eight, hours, and the only inscription over 
 them should be, Death is eternal sleep. 
 
 He caused all the churches to be pillaged, and sent 
 the valuables to the Convention ; for this he received 
 high praise. In one of his messages was included this 
 phrase : " You will see with pleasure two beautiful crosses 
 of ornamented silver, and a ducal crown in red. The 
 gold and silver have done more harm to the Republic 
 than have the lire and iron of the ferocious Austrians 
 and cowardly English." Chaumette, who was in the 
 department at the time, sent a most laudatory letter 
 to the Convention concerning Fouche. 
 
 The Convention were so well satisfied with Fouche's
 
 xxviii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 conduct in the Nievre that they sent him with Collot- 
 d'Herbois to Lyons in November, 1793, to put into 
 execution against that town the decree of destruction. 
 This decree was carried out in all its horrors. It was 
 at the time that this terrible work was being carried 
 out that Danton was executed. 
 
 Fouche returned to Paris, and was elected president 
 of the Society of Jacobins on 6th of June, 1794. This 
 growing popularity offended Robespierre, who had not 
 forgotten the incident at the " Fete of the Supreme 
 Being," when Fouche had predicted to him his ap- 
 proaching fall. Fouche was summoned to appear be- 
 fore the Jacobin society on the charge of persecution 
 of the patriots. He declined to attend, but requested 
 the society to defer its judgment until the report of the 
 committees had been published. An individual from 
 Lyons, having made certain charges against Fouche, 
 the latter was expelled the society. He had a narrow 
 escape from Robespierre's vengeance, his head being 
 demanded. Tallien pursued him mercilessly. Denun- 
 ciations continued to arrive from all the places where 
 Fouche had been in power, and especially from Lyons. 
 The inhabitants of Gannat also demanded his head, 
 making the most terrible charges against him. The 
 denunciations were overwhelming. His orders to the 
 administrators of the departments were sent to the 
 Convention. Laurenceot, the representative of Nevers, 
 accused him of not having rendered any account of the 
 taxes, which amounted to more than two million francs
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xxix 
 
 in the commune of Nevers alone. In an attempt to 
 turn aside these attacks, Fouche attempted to again 
 make friends with Tallien and the Thermidorians, whom 
 he had not approached since Robespierre's fall. He 
 found them willing, but weak. The result of this 
 universal dechainement was that Fouche was arrested, 
 but he was soon released. He then lived parti)- in 
 disgrace, until intrusted by the Directory with a mission 
 to the frontier of Spain. 
 
 About this time Fouche made the acquaintance of 
 Barras. Fouche, being in the secret of the Babeuf 
 conspiracy, disclosed it to Barras, and was in return 
 offered employment. He preferred, however, to have a 
 share of the army contracting, and thus build up an 
 immense fortune. At the 18th Fructidor (September 
 4th, 1797), Fouche again rendered Barras and his part)' 
 assistance by his timely warning and counsel. Barras 
 now rewarded Fouche, as desired by him, by sending 
 him as ambassador to the Cisalpine Republic. In 
 consequence of Fouche's conduct there, the Directory 
 caused him to be replaced. Relying on Barras' in- 
 fluence, he was tardy in leaving Milan, but was 
 obliged at last to return to Paris. Fouche was the 
 gainer by this arrangement, he being accorded an in- 
 demnity for displacement, the power of his opponents 
 (Merlin and Rewbel) being then on the decline. 
 
 Fouche was next sent as ambassador to Holland, 
 but had hardly arrived there when he was appointed 
 minister of police (July 31st, 1799). Fouche on his
 
 xxx BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 appointment at once rose to the occasion and grasped 
 the situation, having for some time coveted the position. 
 
 Fouche's first actions tended to give offence to his 
 old friends the demagogues, who flattered themselves 
 that they would find nothing but complaisance in the 
 pro-consul of the Commune affranchie. He obtained 
 carte blanche from the Directory, which enabled him to 
 limit the license of the journals as well as the audacity 
 of the popular societies. Fouche saw that to show 
 weakness would be to lose all, and, therefore, when 
 attacked by the Manege Society, their club was closed. 
 He also closed the Jacobins' Hall. The laws against 
 the relatives of the emigres were mitigated ; and by 
 this means he gained some royalist agents, and was 
 enabled to finish more quickly the civil war. Shortly 
 afterwards he was bold enough to suppress, at a single 
 blow, eleven of the most important journals of the 
 Jacobins and Royalists. Fouche was attacked by Briot 
 in the Council of the Ancients, the latter declaring that 
 Fouche was preparing a coup d'etat, and after having 
 recalled the atrocities of the missions of the deputy of 
 Nantes, demanded the suppression of the ministry of 
 police. On the morrow the Directory inserted in its 
 journals a eulogy of their minister. 
 
 Briot would not own himself beaten ; but returned 
 to the charge. The situation was becoming strained. 
 Joubert had been killed at Novi, and thus all the plans 
 of the Directory had been reversed, as they had looked 
 to Joubert for support. They were casting about for
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xxxi 
 
 a successor to him when Bonaparte disembarked on 
 the coast of Provence. Fouche was already in indirect 
 communication with the new dictator. Judging from 
 the state of affairs that the Directory could not sustain 
 itself, he took care not to hinder the conspiracy of 
 Bonaparte. There is no doubt that though he was 
 ready to agree if it were successful, he was none the 
 less ready to strike if it failed. All precautions were 
 taken. Had Bonaparte failed, his head and those of 
 his accomplices would have been in jeopardy. Fouche 
 told the intimates of Bonaparte that the latter should 
 lose no time, for if the Jacobins were allowed to 
 rally, and he were decreed, all would be lost. Fouche 
 kept himself so well informed of all that transpired at 
 Saint-Cloud that, when the orders were brought from 
 Bonaparte not to allow the fugitive deputies to return, 
 those who brought the orders found themselves antici- 
 pated. Fouche hoped by this action to win the favour 
 of the new victor. He used his power with discretion, 
 doing his best to calm the fears of the nervous and 
 restoring to liberty those who had been arrested. By 
 acting in this way he came into conflict with Sieyes — 
 " le haineux Sieyes qui ne revait que proscriptions.*' 
 Finally, Fouche was successful, and his administration 
 was such that the general police earned a character for 
 justice and moderation. He was also successful in 
 obtaining better treatment for those of the emigres who 
 had been shipwrecked at Calais ; and when he found 
 that the ameliorating orders were not properly carried
 
 xxxii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 out, he did not rest until he had obtained the release of 
 the unfortunate emigres, who were commanded to quit 
 the territory of the Republic. 
 
 One result of the improved state of affairs was that 
 the priests who had been expelled were allowed to re- 
 turn and exercise their calling. Under the Directory 
 the filles publiques had been made use of as spies, 
 thus obtaining indefinite license. The scenes in the 
 Rue St. Honore and the Palace Egalite were scandalous 
 every evening. By Fouche's orders these women were 
 arrested. They demanded their release on the ground 
 that they were police agents. This demand being sent 
 to Fouche, he answered that their arrest had been 
 appreciated by the public, and that he could not order 
 their release, also saying that the good they did was 
 counterbalanced by the evil, and that it would be a 
 disgrace to the law if such agents were necessary. 
 Confirmed as consul with Cambaceres and Lebrun, 
 Bonaparte took care to keep Fouche near him ; not 
 that his confidence in the latter was so great — on the 
 contrary, but the extent and power of the revolutionary 
 secrets of which the minister had made himself master 
 rendered his services indispensable. His presence in 
 power rallied to the First Consul the revolutionary 
 interests which had been alarmed at the dangers with 
 which the Republic was threatened. Fouche also ren- 
 dered himself useful by efficacious measures relative to 
 the troubles in the departments of the West. During 
 all this time he did not neglect to increase his own
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xxxiii 
 
 fortune by permitting gambling, and became one of 
 the richest men in France. It is said that he was paid 
 3,000 francs a day by one establishment alone for his 
 goodwill. This immense revenue enabled him to make 
 presents to members of the Court and to the Bonaparte 
 family, who were able to furnish him with information. 
 It is thus that he continued to have as pensioners 
 Bourrienne and Josephine, and to the latter he is said 
 to have given 1,000 francs a day. Lucien and Joseph 
 Bonaparte were inimical to Fouche, and did all they 
 could to disparage him to their brother, who, having 
 a penchant for the details of police, organised several 
 rival systems. So commenced a play of ruse against 
 ruse between Fouche and his emulators. Informed by 
 Bourrienne or Josephine, he often caused the Court 
 police to fall into the snare they themselves had laid 
 for him. Fouche was amused at this little war, seeing 
 that he always obtained the advantage ; but he showed 
 so much mystery in the means he took to combat the 
 plot against the Consul's life, that sometimes Bonaparte 
 thought his police had the advantage of those of the 
 minister. The latter had smothered, just before its 
 execution, a project of this kind formed by Juvenot 
 and about twenty Jacobins. While these were under 
 arrest, news came of a fresh plot to murder the Consul 
 at the opera. During the time that Fouche had the 
 plotters under supervision, one of them, a cashiered 
 officer named Harrel, revealed it spontaneously to 
 Bourrienne. He, by desire of Bonaparte, did not 
 
 VOL. 1 c
 
 xxxiv BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 mention it to Fouche, and acted in concert with the 
 commander of the guard of the Consuls in order to 
 follow the progress of the plot. Bourrienne, through 
 the agency of the denouncer Harrel, furnished the 
 conjures with the money necessary to purchase the 
 arms. The gunsmith refused to supply arms without 
 the authority of the police. Thereupon Fouche gave 
 his permission. The First Consul, thinking to take his 
 minister unawares, reproached him bitterly. Fouche 
 endured his reproaches with his accustomed calm, his 
 answer being to cause the man from whom he obtained 
 his first information to appear. This was Barere, then 
 charged with the political part of the journals written 
 under the ministerial influence. Fouche and Bonaparte 
 now united to allow this affair to proceed to a certain 
 extent. Bonaparte went to the opera, and the police 
 agents arrested Diana, Ceracchi, and their accomplices. 
 This affair caused an unpleasantness between Bona- 
 _parte and Fouche, which was soon augmented by the 
 courtiers inimical to the latter. After the explosion of 
 the infernal machine, the courtiers openly accused the 
 Jacobins and their protector Fouche. Different accounts 
 are given of the scene that occurred on the morrow of 
 this attempt. Bonaparte is said to have approached 
 Fouche with the question, " Well, do you still say this 
 was the work of the Royalists ? " " Yes, I will say it," 
 remarked Fouche. Bourrienne states that Bonaparte 
 remarked that he did not rely upon the police of 
 Fouche, but kept his own police. One of the zealous
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xxxv 
 
 courtiers of the consular power, Rcederer, approached 
 Josephine and said, " The days of the First Consul 
 should not be left at the disposition of a man surrounded 
 by scoundrels." Josephine answered, "The most danger- 
 ous men are those who wish to give Bonaparte ideas 
 of an hereditary dynasty, of divorce, and of marriage with 
 a princess." The explanation of this is that a pamphlet 
 had just appeared, entitled " Parallel of Cromwell, Monk, 
 and Bonaparte," the aim of which was to re-establish 
 the hereditary monarchy. It was Lucien, minister of 
 the interior, who had caused this pamphlet to be dis- 
 tributed. Fouche hastened to Malmaison and placed 
 the pamphlet before Bonaparte, with a report on the 
 inconvenience of an initiative so badly disguised. Bona- 
 parte pretended to be annoyed, and demanded why 
 he had allowed such a dangerous publication to appear. 
 When told that the delinquent was his brother Lucien, 
 "Then," said he, "your duty as minister of police was 
 to arrest him." This appeared the more strange to 
 Fouche, seeing that he had seen proofs of the pamphlet 
 with corrections in Bonaparte's own hand. Lucien and 
 Bonaparte quarrelled concerning this affair, the former 
 being dismissed ; and so, to all appearances, Fouche 
 had triumphed. Bonaparte appeared to be grateful to 
 him for the precautions taken to insure his safety. 
 
 Bonaparte insisted upon the proscription of some of 
 the Jacobins, although Fouche contended that it was 
 not they but the Royalists who were the authors of 
 the 3rd Nivose. When Bourrienne ventured to plead
 
 xxxvi BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 also for the revocation of the proscription, agreeing 
 with Fouche that the Jacobins were not the guilty 
 parties, "Bah!" said Bonaparte, "at any rate, I have 
 got rid of them." 
 
 It was about this time that the Abbe de Montesquiou, 
 on the part of Louis XVIII. and the Duchess de Guiche, 
 charged with a mission from the Count d'Artois, suc- 
 ceeded, firstly, in placing before Bonaparte a letter, in 
 which the King demanded his crown from this second 
 Monk, and secondly, in procuring an interview with 
 Josephine, who was the friend of the emigres. Fouche 
 was informed by Josephine of what was taking place, 
 and was annoyed that he had not received any orders 
 from Bonaparte with regard to it. He then represented 
 to the latter that he was the man of the Revolution 
 and could be only that. This, with other representa- 
 tions, made a deep impression upon Bonaparte, and 
 the duchess received orders to quit. 
 
 After the peace of Amiens, Bonaparte caused his 
 secret agents to propose for him the consulate for life. 
 Fouche opposed this, and soon found that a certain 
 reserve was shown towards him, and that mysterious 
 conferences were held at the house of Cambaceres. 
 Always well served by his spies, Fouche informed his 
 numerous friends in the senate, the result being that 
 this body only prolonged the power of the First Consul 
 for ten years (2nd of May, 1802). Bonaparte exhibited 
 great irritation at this, but the other consuls decreed 
 that the voice of the people should be taken. Bona-
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xxxvii 
 
 parte was elected for life, and proceeded to the Luxem- 
 bourg with a magnificent cortege, but he was much 
 annoyed at the silence of the people on the way, and 
 complained of it to Fouche, who replied that he had 
 not been ordered to provide an enthusiasm. At this 
 interview Bonaparte finally turned his back on Fouche, 
 which was supposed to predict the latter's near dis- 
 grace. Since the treaties of Luneville and Amiens* 
 the First Consul had been annoyed by the English 
 journals representing him as under the tutelage of 
 Talleyrand with regard to foreign affairs, and Fouche 
 for the affairs of the interior. The latter wearied 
 Bonaparte by his persistent counsels and his general 
 opposition to this budding tyrant. Fouche had taken 
 advantage of his position to interfere not only with 
 affairs of state, but also with those of the family of 
 Bonaparte and the Court. He often represented him- 
 self as being the repairer of the errors of the executive, 
 and thus sang his own praises at the expense of the 
 chief of the state. What Bonaparte forgave still less 
 was that Fouche sought not only to be useful, but to 
 render himself necessary. The First Consul looked 
 upon the police force organised by Fouche as being 
 a power outside the government, and at a critical time 
 very likely to be dangerous, seeing the versatile character 
 of the minister. Often when the latter was publicly 
 attacked by Bonaparte with regard to his conduct of 
 affairs, Fouche kept silence, not caring to excuse him- 
 self by divulging that which was then secret. This
 
 xxxviii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 silence irritated Bonaparte, although he understood the 
 motive of it. The enemies of Fouche, with Bonaparte's 
 brothers at their head, took advantage of this feeling. 
 Bonaparte hesitated for some time, but finally, after 
 working with Fouche in the forenoon, as usual, charged 
 Cambaceres with the mission that he dared not carry 
 out himself. Anxious to attenuate the disagreeableness 
 of the disgrace as much as possible to a man who, 
 though dismissed, retained a deal of influence, Bonaparte 
 thus wrote to the senate : " The citizen Fouche has 
 responded by his talents, by his activity, and by his 
 attachment to the government to all that has been 
 required of him. Placed in the midst of the senate, 
 should other circumstances redemand a minister of 
 police, the government will not be able to find one 
 more worthy of its confidence." 
 
 Fouche was appointed chief of the senatorship of 
 Aix, which added a revenue of 30,000 francs to the 
 36,000 that he received as senator. In presenting his 
 report to the First Consul at the final interview, Bona- 
 parte remarked that there was a reserve of 2,400,000 
 francs, and he gave half of this sum to Fouche. 
 Fouche was thus enabled to retire to private life in 
 comfort. His enemies were disconcerted at this. 
 Amongst those who assisted most at the fall of Fouche 
 was Regnaud de Saint-Jean-d'Angely, who afterwards 
 said, "Fouche conspires against the Emperor even when 
 he is still. Each of his dreams is a plot. I shall 
 distrust him even after his death."
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xxxix 
 
 Josephine saw with regret the dismissal of this 
 minister, with whom she had an understanding, imagin- 
 ing that he would be able to turn Bonaparte's thoughts 
 from the idea of a divorce. The duties of the minister 
 of police were united to those of the minister of justice 
 in the hands of Regnier under the title of chief justice. 
 During the summer of 1802 Fouche spent some peace- 
 able days on his estate at Pontcarre. He came but rarely 
 to Paris, where he received at his superb hotel in the 
 Rue du Bac all the distinguished personages of the 
 Revolution, keeping up a political activity inseparable 
 from his existence. In the month of November he 
 was called upon to transact some business with the 
 deputies from the Swiss cantons. He was, therefore, 
 on the eve of taking again the reins of power, which 
 the incapacity of his successor and new plots caused 
 Bonaparte to repent ever having taken from him. The 
 ex-minister several times said of Regnier, " He is too 
 gullible and too foolish to manage the police well ; he 
 will allow the First Consul to fall into the first snare." 
 This was what did happen, so that the enemies of 
 Fouche have stated that it was he who fomented the 
 conspiracy of Georges and Pichegru. The First Consul 
 hastened to call upon Fouche for advice. The issue 
 of the above-mentioned conspiracy was the assassina- 
 tion of the Duke d'Enghien, of which Fouche remarked, 
 " It is much worse than a crime ; it is a fault." At 
 the time of Moreau's arrest, Fouche opposed the arrest 
 of his wife, an act of violence which might have aroused
 
 xl BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 the people. The ex-minister obtained a promise of 
 clemency from Bonaparte, and prevailing upon Moreau 
 to ostracise himself, gained the thanks of Bonaparte. 
 
 Fouche now saw that it was necessary to agree to 
 the crowning of Bonaparte, as he was the only man 
 able to control events. Fouche's assistance was now 
 considered more necessary than ever, and by a decree 
 of the ioth of July, the ministry of police was re- 
 established. By a thoroughly complete system, Fouche 
 managed to relieve himself of the details of business, 
 and reserved to himself alone the direction of the 
 superior police. In the cabinet of the minister were 
 collected all the foreign papers which were prohibited 
 elsewhere. By this means he held the most important 
 threads of foreign politics, and, with the Emperor, 
 was able to control or balance the minister of foreign 
 affairs. 
 
 The police of Fouche acquired such a reputation that 
 he was able to count amongst his agents many persons 
 of high rank — some diplomatists, senators, councillors 
 of state, some of the great lords who had emigrated, 
 and people of letters. He caused it to be imagined 
 that where three or four persons were gathered to- 
 gether, someone was present to report. Informed of 
 all, he was able to advise Bonaparte of any public 
 sufferings, and was able to prevent many evils and to 
 resist the passions and violences of the Emperor. 
 During the absence of Bonaparte, Fouche maintained 
 a profound peace at home, which surprised even the
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xli 
 
 conflicting parties themselves. One of the causes of 
 his success was that he never failed in his engagements, 
 and when he had promised his support to anyone, he 
 always kept his word. The most surprising conquest 
 that he made was over the Royalist chiefs, whom he 
 had caused to be arrested because of letters being 
 found implicating them. Fouche would entertain him- 
 self for hours together among them, and they were 
 known to admit that, though they had been vanquished, 
 they had never before been subjugated. 
 
 The letter that Fouche addressed to the bishops 
 was a remarkable one. It is too lengthy to insert here, 
 but in it he claimed a connection between his functions 
 and theirs. 
 
 Fouche saw that public opinion would not be entirely 
 favourable to Bonaparte, unless the latter destroyed by 
 his presence and his personal efforts the unpleasant 
 feeling engendered by, among other incidents, that of 
 the assassination of the Duke d'Enghien. He, therefore, 
 counselled Bonaparte to travel, and the journey to the 
 camp at Boulogne, to Aix-la-Chapelle, and to Mayence 
 was the result. Fouche was not responsible for the 
 fate of Wright in the Temple, he not having super- 
 vision of that prison. 
 
 The brilliant campaign of Austerlitz and the peace 
 of Presburg had reinstated Napoleon in public favour. 
 Frankly, Fouche was able to congratulate him upon the 
 amelioration of public opinion. "Sire," said he, "Aus- 
 terlitz has shaken the old aristocracy. The Faubourg
 
 xlii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 St. Germain no longer conspires." Bonaparte was en- 
 chanted, and avowed that in all his battles and perils 
 he always had in view the opinion of Paris and of the 
 Faubourg St. Germain. Thus the old nobility came 
 in crowds to the Tuileries. Fouche was now accused 
 by the old Republicans of protecting the Royalists ; 
 but he did not change his general rule of attempting 
 to unite all parties in a common interest. 
 
 After the peace of Presburg (25th of December, 
 1805) Bonaparte thought of creating a new nobility, 
 and consulted Fouche on the subject, who had no 
 objection, and was decorated with the eagle of the 
 Legion of Honour. He was afterwards created count, 
 as were also all the members of the senate. In 
 March, 1806, he was admitted to the first rank as 
 Duke of Otranto, with a large endowment on the 
 state of Naples. This high position never dazzled 
 Fouche, and he was one of the few who always told 
 the truth to the Emperor. He was totally opposed 
 to the continental campaign, of which the first decree 
 from Berlin in 1806 declared Bonaparte to be at war 
 with all the commerce of Europe. He knew with how 
 much blood and with what efforts the doubtful victory 
 of Eylau had been bought. Paris even did not ignore 
 it ; and when Bonaparte wrote to Fouche complaining 
 of his inertia and negligence, the latter sent him letters 
 from the army which had reached him. After the 
 peace of Tilsit Bonaparte entertained designs upon 
 Spain, and Fouche had the good sense to attempt to
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xliii 
 
 dissuade him. " Go to Portugal, if you wish," said he, 
 " that is truly an English colony ; but the Bourbons 
 of Spain are and always will be your humble prefects, 
 and you have no cause to complain of them." But 
 Bonaparte ridiculed the fears expressed that he would 
 find himself between two fires, saying that he was sure 
 of Alexander. When the knowledge of the invasion of 
 Spain was made public, the reprobation of it was general. 
 
 About this time the son of Hortense died, and 
 with his death Bonaparte saw the hope of perpetu- 
 ating his dynasty vanish. This loss prompted Fouche 
 and all those whose political existence depended upon 
 Bonaparte to think seriously, and he submitted his 
 reflections to Bonaparte in a memorial the subject of 
 which was the dissolution of his marriage with Jose- 
 phine and union with one suited to his high position. 
 Prompted by an excess of zeal or by impatient ambi- 
 tion, Fouche, after having consulted certain senators, 
 warned Josephine. Bonaparte soon learnt from Jo- 
 sephine of this false step of Fouche and censured it, 
 but would not send him away (le chasser). 
 
 Finding himself opposed in the corps Icgislatif, 
 Bonaparte complained of it to Fouche, who advised 
 him to dissolve that body, saying that if Louis XVI. 
 had acted thus he would still have been reigning. 
 " But, Duke of Otranto," said Bonaparte, " I believe 
 you are one of those who sent him to the scaffold." 
 " Yes," said Fouche coolly, " and it is the first service 
 that I rendered your Majesty."
 
 xliv BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 The result of the battle of Essling caused great in- 
 quietude in Paris. Fouche now seemed at the zenith 
 of his power. The English had landed at Walcheren, 
 and all Belgium bid fair to fall into the power of an 
 enemy who was able to advance to the frontiers of 
 France, when Fouche organised an army, calling upon 
 Bernadotte to command it, and forced the English to re- 
 embark. But in this instance Fouche gave Bonaparte 
 offence, firstly, by giving the command to a general in 
 disgrace, and secondly, by a letter addressed to all 
 the mayors : " Let us prove to all Europe that if the 
 genius of Bonaparte can give glory to France by his 
 victories, his presence is not necessary to repulse our 
 enemies." Fouche now did his utmost to curb Bona- 
 parte's ambition, saying that after having resuscitated 
 the empire of Charlemagne, he ought to think of 
 making it durable. 
 
 Fouche at this time found himself constantly in oppo- 
 sition to Bonaparte. A rival police, called the gendar- 
 merie, were organised and the command given to Savary, 
 which was a great vexation (deboire) for the minister. 
 
 It was against the advice of Fouche that the Pope 
 was dispossessed of his estates. At the marriage of 
 the Emperor many cardinals absented themselves. 
 Bonaparte wished to arrest them, and had an alterca- 
 tion on the subject with Fouche. Finally it was 
 agreed that the delinquents should be banished to 
 different small towns of France, and compelled to habit 
 themselves in black as simple priests.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xlv 
 
 Bonaparte wished Holland to bear all the charges 
 of the continental system. This was opposed by his 
 brother Louis, and Fouche was accused of encouraging 
 the opposition. Bonaparte, wishing for peace, authorised 
 Fouche to concert with the King, his brother, an 
 arrangement with the Court of St. James. Fouche 
 ambitiously thought to make a private arrangement 
 with the English minister of foreign affairs, and en- 
 gaged Ouvrard as the go-between. Affairs were pro- 
 gressing favourably, when Bonaparte himself opened 
 negotiations through a house of commerce in Amsterdam. 
 Thus resulted a double negotiation and a conflict of 
 propositions which annoyed the English minister, and 
 the envoys were sent home. Bonaparte was furious at 
 this, and ordered Ouvrard to be arrested. He also 
 took the portfolio of police from Fouche and bestowed 
 it on Savary, after having accused the former of making 
 peace and war without his authority. Fouche was 
 appointed governor of Rome, the Emperor softening 
 the blow by a very flattering letter. Fouche pretended 
 to be very humble, and offered to explain Savary's 
 duties to him, even begging him to stay at the same 
 hotel under the pretext of putting in order the papers 
 he wished to transmit to him. Savary had the sim- 
 plicity to believe all this, and at the end of three weeks 
 had some insignificant papers handed to him, the rest 
 having been burnt. Fouche knew well that it was 
 never intended that he should be allowed to go to 
 Rome ; but, pretending to be duped, he had all his
 
 xlvi BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 household got up in the style of that of a governor- 
 general, and his equipages bore in large letters, 
 " Equipages of the Governor-general of Rome." When 
 he requested his orders and permission for a final in- 
 terview, he was told to go to his country seat and 
 await instructions. There he amused himself until 
 waited upon by ambassadors from Bonaparte, who 
 requested him to deliver up autograph letters and 
 papers not found at the ministry. He refused, and 
 Bonaparte uttered threats, of which Fouche was soon 
 informed. He then went to Florence, but receiving 
 alarming news from Paris, thought of going to the 
 United States. He chartered a vessel, but sea-sickness 
 was too much for him ; and although an English 
 captain promised him an antidote and offered to convey 
 him to England, he declined to again trust himself on 
 the ocean. Acting upon advice, he submitted to the 
 Emperor, offering to give up any letters if a receipt 
 were given him and permission to go to Aix. There 
 he was received with extraordinary honour, for a 
 minister in disgrace, and regularly received news from 
 the political world of Paris. 
 
 Bonaparte was now preparing his expedition to 
 Russia, and Fouche was permitted to present to him 
 a memorial against the campaign. Nothing could be 
 done to disenchant Bonaparte. The abdication of 
 Louis Bonaparte caused Fouche to consider the fall 
 of Napoleon possible. He thereupon thought of a 
 project for taking the regency from Maria Louisa.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xlvij 
 
 Metternich, with the idea of saving France from inva- 
 sion, discussed certain affairs which he was enabled to 
 re-open at a later period. After his defeat at Leipsic, 
 Bonaparte, fearing the presence of Fouche in Paris, 
 ordered him to Rome, of which he was yet the titular 
 governor. In January, 1814, he addressed a letter to 
 the Emperor, advising him to concentrate his armies 
 between the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Rhine, and to 
 declare to Europe that he would not pass his natural 
 frontiers, this being the only way by which he could 
 ensure a veritable peace. Some time after he received 
 orders to evacuate the Roman states. This he did, 
 but not before obtaining from the King of Naples 
 arrears of 190,000 francs for his emoluments as 
 governor-general of Rome, &c. Fouche went to Rome, 
 but his discourses hostile to Bonaparte causing him to 
 be suspected, he left. He dared not approach Paris, 
 but at Avignon he addressed the authorities, informing 
 them of the approaching fall of the imperial govern- 
 ment. At the news of the events of the 31st of March, 
 he hastened to Paris, hoping to participate in the new 
 direction of affairs, and arrived there on the same day 
 as the Count d'Artois. On the 23rd of April he wrote 
 to Bonaparte, advising him to leave Elba and go to 
 the United States. This letter coming to the know- 
 ledge of Louis XVIII. caused him to consider the 
 advisability of including Fouche in the ministry. The 
 conduct of the new government all agreed was un- 
 satisfactory, and Fouche at last saw that Bonaparte's
 
 xlviii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 return was possible. At the last moment Louis XVIII. 
 authorised Monsieur to offer him the portfolio of the 
 minister of police, but in an interview that they had 
 Fouche told him that it was too late, that Bonaparte 
 was bound to return, and that the latter would wish 
 him to accept that position. He offered to be the 
 private correspondent of Louis XVIII., his excuse being 
 that, even if he were serving two masters, he would 
 be best serving France. He is said to have predicted 
 that Bonaparte would not last three months, and to 
 have written to the Duke d'Aumont, " You save the 
 monarch, and I will save the monarchy." 
 
 The day following the interview with Monsieur, the 
 new prefect of police, Bourrienne, received orders to 
 arrest Fouche, the carrying out of which order would 
 have afforded him much pleasure, as by so doing he 
 would have greatly obliged his friend Savary, who 
 hoped that if Fouche were removed he would receive 
 the portfolio of police on the return of Bonaparte. 
 Fouche, informed as usual, was able to escape the 
 snare laid for him. Fouche's purpose was to again 
 proclaim the Republic with Bonaparte as generalissimo, 
 but the military party were too strong for any such 
 arrangement. During this crisis Fouche played his 
 part so well that he was able to appear both as the 
 patron of the Republicans and the protector of the 
 Royalists, leaving Bonaparte only the power of 
 the bayonets. Thus in the famous declaration of the 
 Council of State there occurred this phrase, inspired
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE x li x 
 
 by Fouche, which gave a contradiction to all the 
 doctrines of the Empire : " The sovereignty rests only 
 in the people ; it is the only source of power." By 
 establishing lieutenants of police in all parts of the 
 kingdom, Fouche was able to brave without fear the 
 tottering Emperor. Bonaparte more than once con- 
 sidered the advisability of ridding himself of Fouche. 
 Once he was inclined to have him shot, but was dis- 
 suaded by Carnot. It is said that Bonaparte told 
 Fouche that he knew that he had sold himself to the 
 enemy, and that he ought to shoot him, but he would 
 leave that task to others, and would prove to him that 
 he was not able to influence his destiny in the slightest. 
 After Waterloo Fouche forced the situation by the 
 advice that he gave to the different parties. He 
 advised the Bonapartists to demand the dissolution of 
 the Chamber, and then warned the opposite party to 
 be on the alert to oppose it. Bonaparte was compelled 
 to abdicate, as is well known. 
 
 Too enlightened to think that it was now possible 
 to proclaim a republic, Fouche would have been in 
 favour of the Orleans branch of the royal family, but 
 was content if it became necessary to accept the elder 
 branch, on certain conditions being agreed to. 
 
 Fouche was engaged at this time in various nego- 
 tiations, and in a famous letter to the Duke of Welling- 
 ton he inferred that the Duke of Orleans would be 
 a suitable occupant of the throne. But the latter did 
 not seem to have that ambition, and retired to his 
 
 VOL. 1 //
 
 1 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 villa at Twickenham. It is stated that Wellington 
 declined to treat with the French nation except upon 
 the understanding that Louis XVIII. would be re- 
 established. 
 
 Fouche has been accused of throwing obstacles in 
 Bonaparte's way, preventing him making his escape, 
 and in such a manner that he was likely to be 
 captured by the English. After Wellington's deter- 
 mination concerning Louis XVIII., it was necessary 
 for those who formed the provisional government either 
 to come to terms or to fight. All agreed that the capital 
 was not in a state to stand a siege. Fouche was de- 
 sirous that the treaty about to be entered into should 
 not have the appearance of a humiliating capitulation. 
 The French army was to take up its position behind 
 the Loire. Fouche and his friends were enabled to 
 arrange matters as they wished. It is said that Fouche 
 and Talleyrand gave reciprocal guarantees — Fouche to 
 Talleyrand on behalf of Bonaparte, and Talleyrand to 
 Fouche with regard to Louis XVIII. Certain con- 
 ditions were agreed to by the provisional government 
 to be demanded of the King if he returned. Among 
 them were these : That the tricolour should be pre- 
 served, two chambers maintained, and all enjoying 
 honours and pensions should continue to receive them 
 as heretofore. 
 
 Fouche and his colleagues soon learnt that the allied 
 powers considered that the authority exercised by 
 the chambers was illegitimate, and that all they were
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE \{ 
 
 expected to do was to proclaim Louis XVIII. king and 
 then dissolve. Carnot was inclined to protest, but Fouche 
 saw the futility of it. Louis XVIII. then re-entered 
 Paris, and Fouche and Talleyrand again became mem- 
 bers of the ministry. This displeased Carnot, and a 
 disagreeable scene took place between the latter and 
 Fouche. 
 
 In spite of his election to the chamber by three 
 departments, Fouche resigned in September, 1815, not 
 agreeing with the royalist reaction which had set in. 
 He was appointed ambassador to Dresden, but was 
 affected by the law of the 12th of January, 1816, and lost 
 his position and right to dwell in France. He retired 
 to Prague, and became a naturalised Austrian in 1818. 
 He then went to Trieste, where he died on 25th of 
 December, 1820. He left a fortune of fourteen million 
 francs. 
 
 Fouche was twice married, on the second occasion 
 (August, 1815), after having been a widower two 
 years, to Mdlle. de Castellane, whom he had known 
 at Aix when exiled there in 1810. Louis XVIII. and 
 the princes signed the marriage contract.
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH FOUCHE 
 
 DUKE OF OTRANTO 
 
 The man who, in turbulent and revolutionary 
 times, was solely indebted for the honours and power 
 with which he was invested, and, in short, for his dis- 
 tinguished fortune, to his own prudence and abilities ; 
 who, at first elected a national representative, was, 
 upon the re-establishment of order, an ambassador, 
 three times a minister, a senator, a duke, and one of 
 the principal directors of state affairs ; this man would 
 be wanting to himself if, to answer the calumnies of 
 libellers, he descended to apology or captious refuta- 
 tions : he must adopt other means. 
 
 This man, then, is myself. Raised by the Revolu- 
 tion, it is only to a counter one, which I foresaw, and 
 might myself have brought about, but against which 
 at the critical moment I was unprepared, that I owe 
 my downfall. 
 
 This fall has exposed me, defenceless, to the 
 clamours of malignity and the insults of ingratitude ; 
 me, who for a long time invested with a mysterious 
 and terrible power, never wielded it but to calm the 
 
 VOL. I
 
 2 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 passions, disunite factions, and prevent conspiracies ; 
 me, who was never-ceasingly employed in moderating 
 and tempering power, in conciliating and amalgama- 
 ting the jarring elements and conflicting interests 
 which divided France. No one dares deny that such 
 was my conduct so long as I exercised any influence 
 in the government or in the councils of the state. 
 What have I, an exile, to oppose to these furious 
 enemies, to this rabble which now persecute me, 
 after having grovelled at my feet ? Shall I answer 
 them with the cold declamations of the school, or 
 with refined and academic periods ? Certainly not ; 
 I will confound them by facts and proofs, by a true 
 exposition of my labours, of my thoughts, both as a 
 minister and a statesman ; by the faithful recital of 
 the political events, and the singular circumstances 
 through which I steered in times of turbulence and 
 violence. This is the object I propose to myself. 
 
 From truth I think I have nothing to dread ; and 
 even if it were so, I would speak it. The time for 
 its consummation has arrived : I will speak it, cost 
 what it may, so that when the tomb covers my mortal 
 remains, my name shall be bequeathed to the judgment 
 of history. It is, however, just that I should appear 
 before its tribunal with these Memoirs in my hand. 
 
 And first, let me not be considered responsible 
 either for the Revolution, its consequences, or even 
 its direction. I was a cipher ; I possessed no au- 
 thority when its first shocks, overturning France, 
 shook Europe to its foundations. Besides, what was 
 this Revolution ? It is notorious that, previous to the 
 year 1789, presentiments of the destruction of empires
 
 DURATION OF EMPIRES 3 
 
 had created uneasiness in the monarchy. Empires 
 themselves are not exempted from that universal law 
 which subjects all mundane things to change and 
 decomposition. Has there ever been one whose his- 
 torical duration has exceeded a certain number of 
 ages ? At most their greatest longevity may be fixed 
 at twelve or fourteen centuries, whence it may be 
 inferred that a monarchy which had already lasted 
 thirteen hundred years without undergoing any violent 
 change, was not far from a catastrophe. Of what 
 consequence is it, if, rising from its ashes and reor- 
 ganised, it has subjected Europe to the yoke and terror 
 of its arms ? Should its power again escape, again 
 will it decline and perish. Let us not inquire what 
 may be the new metamorphoses to which it is 
 destined. The geographical configuration of France 
 ensures us a distinguished part in the ages yet to 
 come. Gaul, when conquered by the masters of the 
 world, remained subjected only for three hundred 
 years. Other invaders are now forging, in the north, 
 the chains which shall enslave Europe. The Revo- 
 lution erected a bulwark which arrested them for a 
 time — it is being demolished piecemeal ; but though 
 destroyed, it will again be raised, for the present age 
 is powerful ; it carries along with it men, parties, 
 and governments. 
 
 You who exclaim so furiously against the wonders 
 of the Revolution ; you who directed it without daring 
 to face it ; you have experienced it, and perhaps may 
 experience it once more. 
 
 Who provoked it, and whence did we first see it 
 rise ? From the saloons of the great, from the
 
 4 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 cabinets of the ministers. It was invited, provoked 
 by the parliaments and by those about the King — by 
 young colonels, by court mistresses, by pensioned men 
 of letters, whose persons were protected, and sentiments 
 re-echoed by duchesses. 
 
 I have seen the nation blush at the depravity of 
 the higher classes, the licentiousness of the clergy, the 
 ignorant blunders of the ministers, and at the picture 
 of the disgusting dissoluteness of the great modern 
 Babylon. 
 
 Was it not those that were considered the flowers 
 of France, who, for forty years, established and sup- 
 ported the adoration of Voltaire and Rousseau ? Was 
 it not among the higher classes that the mania of 
 democratical independence, transplanted from the 
 United States into the French soil, first took root ? 
 Dreams of a republic were already afloat, while cor- 
 ruption was at its height in the monarchy ! Even 
 the example of a monarch exemplary and strict in his 
 morals could not arrest the torrent. During this de- 
 moralisation of the upper classes, the nation increased 
 in knowledge and intellect. By continually hearing 
 emancipation represented as a duty, it at length be- 
 lieved it as such. History itself can here attest that 
 the nation was unacquainted with the arts which 
 prepared the catastrophe. It might have been made 
 to have advanced with the times ; the King, and all 
 men of intellect, desired it. But the corruption and 
 avarice of the great, the errors of the magistrates and 
 of the court, and the mistakes of the ministry, dug 
 the pit of destruction. It was, besides, so easy to 
 urge to extremities a petulant and inflammable nation,
 
 WHO FIRED THE TRAIN? 5 
 
 one which, on the slightest provocation, would rush 
 into excesses ! Who fired the train ? Did the Arch- 
 bishop of Sens, did Necker 1 the Swiss, Mirabeau, La 
 Fayette, D'Orleans, Adrian Duport, Chauderlos Laclos, 
 the Staels, the Larochefoucaulds, the Beauveaus, the 
 Montmorencys, 2 the Uvailles, the Lameths, the La 
 Tour du Pins, the Lefrancs de Pompignan, and so 
 many other promoters of the triumphs in 1789 over 
 the royal authority — did these belong to the tiers-etat? 
 But for the meetings of the Palais Royal and Mont 
 Rouge, the Breton Club had been harmless. There 
 would have been no 14th of July if on the 12th the 
 troops and generals of the King had done their duty. 
 Besenval was a creature of the Queen ; and Besenval, 
 at the decisive moment, in spite of the King's orders, 
 sounded a retreat, instead of advancing against the 
 
 1 For short biographical sketches of the principal personages 
 mentioned in these Memoirs, see Alphabetical Appendix at end 
 of volume. 
 
 2 This name so truly French, and already so illustrious from 
 its historical celebrity, has become, if possible, still more re- 
 spectable, since the Duke Matthieu de Montmorency, to whose 
 conduct Fouche here alludes, has done honour to himself by a 
 public avowal of his fault. The sincerity and nobleness of his 
 conduct as a minister and a statesman have likewise gained 
 him universal esteem. M. Fouche cannot injure the reputation 
 of so respectable a character. The great protector of the old 
 noblesse under the imperial regime, Fouche recriminates here, 
 in order to reproach that very noblesse with its participation 
 in the Revolution ; it is among the revolutionists a forced re- 
 crimination. What he says may be true in some respects ; but 
 a small minority of an order is not the whole of it ; there will 
 also always be an immense distance between the follies, impru- 
 dences, and faults of 1789, and the dreadful crimes of 1793. 
 Fouche's subtle manner of reasoning, in order to exculpate 
 himself, does not appear to us historically conclusive. — Note by 
 the Editor.
 
 4 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 cabinets of the ministers. It was invited, provoked 
 by the parliaments and by those about the King — by 
 young colonels, by court mistresses, by pensioned men 
 of letters, whose persons were protected, and sentiments 
 re-echoed by duchesses. 
 
 I have seen the nation blush at the depravity of 
 the higher classes, the licentiousness of the clergy, the 
 ignorant blunders of the ministers, and at the picture 
 of the disgusting dissoluteness of the great modern 
 Babylon. 
 
 Was it not those that were considered the flowers 
 of France, who, for forty years, established and sup- 
 ported the adoration of Voltaire and Rousseau ? Was 
 it not among the higher classes that the mania of 
 democratical independence, transplanted from the 
 United States into the French soil, first took root ? 
 Dreams of a republic were already afloat, while cor- 
 ruption was at its height in the monarchy ! Even 
 the example of a monarch exemplary and strict in his 
 morals could not arrest the torrent. During this de- 
 moralisation of the upper classes, the nation increased 
 in knowledge and intellect. By continually hearing 
 emancipation represented as a duty, it at length be- 
 lieved it as such. History itself can here attest that 
 the nation was unacquainted with the arts which 
 prepared the catastrophe. It might have been made 
 to have advanced with the times ; the King, and all 
 men of intellect, desired it. But the corruption and 
 avarice of the great, the errors of the magistrates and 
 of the court, and the mistakes of the ministry, dug 
 the pit of destruction. It was, besides, so easy to 
 urge to extremities a petulant and inflammable nation,
 
 WHO FIRED THE TRAIN? 5 
 
 one which, on the slightest provocation, would rush 
 into excesses ! Who fired the train ? Did the Arch- 
 bishop of Sens, did Necker 1 the Swiss, Mirabeau, La 
 Fayette, D'Orleans, Adrian Duport, Chauderlos Laclos, 
 the Staels, the Larochefoucaulds, the Beauveaus, the 
 Montmorencys, 2 the Uvailles, the Lameths, the La 
 Tour du Pins, the Lefrancs de Pompignan, and so 
 many other promoters of the triumphs in 1789 over 
 the royal authority — did these belong to the iiers-etat? 
 But for the meetings of the Palais Royal and Mont 
 Rouge, the Breton Club had been harmless. There 
 would have been no 14th of July if on the 12th the 
 troops and generals of the King had done their duty. 
 Besenval was a creature of the Queen ; and Besenval, 
 at the decisive moment, in spite of the King's orders, 
 sounded a retreat, instead of advancing against the 
 
 1 For short biographical sketches of the principal personages 
 mentioned in these Memoirs, see Alphabetical Appendix at end 
 of volume. 
 
 2 This name so truly French, and already so illustrious from 
 its historical celebrity, has become, if possible, still more re- 
 spectable, since the Duke Matthieu de Montmorency, to whose 
 conduct Fouche here alludes, has done honour to himself by a 
 public avowal of his fault. The sincerity and nobleness of his 
 conduct as a minister and a statesman have likewise gained 
 him universal esteem. M. Fouche cannot injure the reputation 
 of so respectable a character. The great protector of the old 
 noblesse under the imperial regime, Fouche recriminates here, 
 in order to reproach that very noblesse with its participation 
 in the Revolution ; it is among the revolutionists a forced re- 
 crimination. What he says may be true in some respects ; but 
 a small minority of an order is not the whole of it ; there will 
 also always be an immense distance between the follies, impru- 
 dences, and faults of 1789, and the dreadful crimes of 1793. 
 Fouche's subtle manner of reasoning, in order to exculpate 
 himself, does not appear to us historically conclusive. — Note by 
 the Editor.
 
 4 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 cabinets of the ministers. It was invited, provoked 
 by the parliaments and by those about the King — by 
 young colonels, by court mistresses, by pensioned men 
 of letters, whose persons were protected, and sentiments 
 re-echoed by duchesses. 
 
 I have seen the nation blush at the depravity of 
 the higher classes, the licentiousness of the clergy, the 
 ignorant blunders of the ministers, and at the picture 
 of the disgusting dissoluteness of the great modern 
 Babylon. 
 
 Was it not those that were considered the flowers 
 of France, who, for forty years, established and sap- 
 ported the adoration of Voltaire and Rousseau ? Was 
 it not among the higher classes that the mania of 
 democratical independence, transplanted from the 
 United States into the French soil, first took root ? 
 Dreams of a republic were already afloat, while cor- 
 ruption was at its height in the monarchy ! Even 
 the example of a monarch exemplary and strict in his 
 morals could not arrest the torrent. During this de- 
 moralisation of the upper classes, the nation increased 
 in knowledge and intellect. By continually hearing 
 emancipation represented as a duty, it at length be- 
 lieved it as such. History itself can here attest that 
 the nation was unacquainted with the arts which 
 prepared the catastrophe. It might have been made 
 to have advanced with the times ; the King, and all 
 men of intellect, desired it. But the corruption and 
 avarice of the great, the errors of the magistrates and 
 of the court, and the mistakes of the ministry, dug 
 the pit of destruction. It was, besides, so easy to 
 urge to extremities a petulant and inflammable nation,
 
 WHO FIRED THE TRAIN? 5 
 
 one which, on the slightest provocation, would rush 
 into excesses ! Who fired the train ? Did the Arch- 
 bishop of Sens, did Necker 1 the Swiss, Mirabeau, La 
 Fayette, D'Orleans, Adrian Duport, Chauderlos Laclos, 
 the Staels, the Larochefoucaulds, the Beauveaus, the 
 Montmorencys, 2 the Uvailles, the Lameths, the La 
 Tour du Pins, the Lefrancs de Pompignan, and so 
 many other promoters of the triumphs in 1789 over 
 the royal authority — did these belong to the tiers-etat? 
 But for the meetings of the Palais Royal and Mont 
 Rouge, the Breton Club had been harmless. There 
 would have been no 14th of July if on the 12th the 
 troops and generals of the King had done their duty. 
 Besenval was a creature of the Queen ; and Besenval, 
 at the decisive moment, in spite of the King's orders, 
 sounded a retreat, instead of advancing against the 
 
 1 For short biographical sketches of the principal personages 
 mentioned in these Memoirs, see Alphabetical Appendix at end 
 of volume. 
 
 2 This name so truly French, and already so illustrious from 
 its historical celebrity, has become, if possible, still more re- 
 spectable, since the Duke Matthieu de Montmorency, to whose 
 conduct Fouch6 here alludes, has done honour to himself by a 
 public avowal of his fault. The sincerity and nobleness of his 
 conduct as a minister and a statesman have likewise gained 
 him universal esteem. M. Fouche cannot injure the reputation 
 of so respectable a character. The great protector of the old 
 noblesse under the imperial regime, Fouche recriminates here, 
 in order to reproach that very noblesse with its participation 
 in the Revolution ; it is among the revolutionists a forced re- 
 crimination. What he says may be true in some respects ; but 
 a small minority of an order is not the whole of it ; there will 
 also always be an immense distance between the follies, impru- 
 dences, and faults of 1789, and the dreadful crimes of 1793. 
 Fouche's subtle manner of reasoning, in order to exculpate 
 himself, does not appear to us historically conclusive. — Note by 
 the Editor.
 
 6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 insurgents. Marshal Broglio himself was paralysed by 
 his staff. These are incontrovertible facts. 
 
 It is well known by what arts the common people 
 were roused to insurrection. The sovereignty of the 
 people was proclaimed by the defection of the army 
 and the court. Is it surprising that the factious and 
 the heads of parties (meneurs) should have got the 
 Revolution into their hands ? The impulse of inno- 
 vations and the exaltation of ideas did the rest. 
 
 The Revolution was commenced by a prince who 
 might have mastered it, changing the dynasty, but his 
 cowardice permitted it to proceed at random and with- 
 out an object. In the midst of this distress some 
 generous hearts, some enthusiastic minds, joined with 
 a few freethinkers (esprits forts), sincerely imagined that 
 a social regeneration was practicable, and, trusting to 
 protestations and oaths, employed themselves in its 
 accomplishment. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that we, obscure 
 men of the tiers-etat, and inhabitants of the provinces, 
 were attracted and seduced by the dreams of liberty, 
 by the intoxicating fiction of the restoration of the 
 state. We pursued a chimera with the fever of the 
 public good ; we had, at that time, no secret objects, 
 no ambition, no views of sordid interest. 
 
 Opposition, however, soon inflaming the passions, 
 party spirit gave rise to implacable animosities. Every- 
 thing was carried to extremity. The multitude was 
 the sole mover. For the same reason that Louis XIV. 
 had said, "I am the state," the people said, "We are 
 the sovereign ; the state is the nation ;" and the nation 
 proceeded quite alone.
 
 THE ROYALISTS EMIGRATE y 
 
 And here let us remark a fact which will serve as 
 a key to the events which will follow, for these events 
 bear upon the wonderful. The dissentient royalists 
 and the counter-revolutionists, for want of available 
 materials for a civil war, finding themselves shut out 
 from honours, had recourse to emigration — the resource 
 of the weak. Finding no support at home, they ran to 
 seek it abroad. Following the example of all nations 
 under similar circumstances, the nation desired that the 
 estates of the emigrants should be held as a guarantee 
 for the motives which had induced them to arm them- 
 selves against her, and to wish to arm all Europe. But 
 how could the right of proprietorship, the foundation 
 of the monarchy, be touched, without sapping its own 
 basis ? Sequestration led to spoliation ; and from that 
 moment the whole fell to ruin, for the mutation of 
 property is synonymous with the subversion of the 
 established order of things. It is not I who said, 
 " Property must go into other hands ! " This sentence 
 was more agrarian than all that the Gracchi could have 
 uttered, and no Scipio Nasica was to be found. 
 
 From that moment the Revolution was nothing but 
 a scene of ruin and destruction. The terrible sanction 
 of war was wanting to it, and the European cabinets, 
 of their own accord, opened the Temple of Janus. 
 From the commencement of this great contest, the 
 Revolution, full of youth and ardour, triumphed over 
 the old system, over the despicable coalition, and over 
 the wretched and discordant operations of its armies. 
 
 Another fact must also be adduced, in order to 
 draw from it an important inference. The first coalition 
 was repulsed, beaten, and humiliated. But let us
 
 8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 suppose that it had triumphed over the patriotic con- 
 federacy of France ; that the advance of the Prussians 
 into Champagne had met with no serious obstacle as 
 far even as the capital ; and that the Revolution had 
 been disorganised even in its very birthplace : admit- 
 ting this hypothesis, France would certainly have 
 shared the fate of Poland, by a dismemberment and 
 by the degradation of its sovereign ; for such was at 
 that time the political theme of the cabinets and the 
 spirit of their co-partnership diplomacy. The progress 
 of knowledge had not yet introduced the discovery of 
 the European confederacy, of military occupation, with 
 subsidies. By preserving France the patriots of 1792 
 not only rescued her from the hands of foreigners, but 
 laboured, though unintentionally, for the restoration 
 of the monarchy. This is incontestable. 
 
 Much outcry has been made against the excesses 
 of this sanguinary Revolution. Could it remain calm 
 and temperate when surrounded by enemies and ex- 
 posed to invasion ? Numbers deceived themselves, but 
 few were criminal. The cause of the 10th of August 
 is alone to be ascribed to the advance of the combined 
 Austrians and Prussians. Had they marched later it 
 would have been of little consequence. The suicide of 
 France was not yet near at hand. 
 
 Undoubtedly, the Revolution was violent, and even 
 cruel in its progress ; all this is historically known, 
 nor shall I dwell upon it, such not being the object 
 of this work. It is of myself I wish to speak, or 
 rather of the events in which I was concerned as a 
 minister of state. It was necessary that I should in- 
 troduce the subject, and describe the character of the
 
 FOUCHE'S EARLY CAREER g 
 
 times. Let not the generality of my readers suppose 
 that I shall tediously recite my private life as a private 
 individual or obscure citizen. Of what advantage 
 would it be to know the first steps of my career ? 
 Minutias such as these can only interest the famished 
 compilers of contemporaneous biography, or the simple- 
 tons who read them ; they have nothing to do in 
 common with history, and it is to that which I aspire. 
 My being the son of the owner of a privateer, and 
 of having been at first destined for the sea, can be 
 of little consequence : my family was respectable. It 
 can likewise afford but little interest to know that I 
 was brought up among the Peres de l'Oratoire, that 
 I was one myself, that I devoted myself to teaching, 
 and that the Revolution found me prefect of the 
 college of Nantes ; it may, at least, be inferred that 
 I was neither an ignoramus nor a fool. It is likewise 
 entirely false that I was ever a priest, or had taken 
 orders. I make this remark to show that I was per- 
 fectly at liberty to become a freethinker or a phi- 
 losopher, without being guilty of apostasy : certain it 
 is that I quitted the oratory before I exercised any 
 public functions, and that, under the sanction of the 
 law, I married at Nantes, with the intention of 
 exercising the profession of a lawyer, which was much 
 more consonant to my own inclinations and to the 
 state of society. Besides, I was morally what the 
 age was, with the advantage of being so neither from 
 imitation nor infatuation, but from reflection and 
 disposition. With such principles, is it no subject 
 of self-congratulation to have been nominated by 
 my fellow-citizens, without the employment either of
 
 10 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 artifice or intrigue, a representative of the people at 
 the National Convention ? 
 
 It is in this political defile that the deserters of 
 the Court wait to attack me. There are no exaggera- 
 tions, no excesses, no crimes, either when in office or 
 in the tribune, with which they have not loaded my 
 historical responsibility, taking words for actions, and 
 forced speeches for principles ; neither taking into the 
 account time, place, nor circumstance ; and making 
 no allowance for a universal delirium, for the republican 
 fever, of which twenty millions of Frenchmen felt the 
 paroxysms. 
 
 My first introduction into the government was in 
 the Committee of Public Instruction, where I connected 
 myself with Condorcet, and through him with Ver- 
 gniaud. A circumstance relating to one of the most 
 important crises of my life must here be mentioned. 
 By a singular chance, I had been acquainted with 
 Maximilian Robespierre at the time I was professor 
 of philosophy in the town of Arras, and had even 
 afforded him pecuniary assistance to enable him to 
 settle in Paris, when he was appointed deputy to the 
 National Assembly. When we again met at the Con- 
 vention, we at first saw each other frequently, but 
 the differences of our opinions, and, perhaps, the still 
 greater dissimilarity of our characters, soon caused a 
 separation. 
 
 One day, at the conclusion of a dinner given at 
 my house, Robespierre began to declaim with much 
 violence against the Girondins, particularly abusing 
 Vergniaud, who was present. I was much attached 
 to Vergniaud, who was a great orator and a man of
 
 ROBESPIERRE OFFENDED IX 
 
 unaffected manners. I went round to him, and ad- 
 vancing towards Robespierre, said to him, " Such 
 violence may assuredly enlist the passions on your 
 side, but will never obtain for you esteem and con- 
 fidence." Robespierre, offended, left the room, and it 
 will shortly be seen how far this malignant man carried 
 his animosity against me. 
 
 I had, however, no share in the political system 
 of the Gironde party, of which Vergniaud was the 
 reputed head. I conceived that the effect of this 
 system would be to disunite France by raising the 
 greater portion of it in circles (zones) and provinces 
 against Paris. In this I foresaw great danger, being 
 convinced that there was no safety for the state but 
 in the unity and indivisibility of the body politic. 
 This was what induced me to enter a faction whose 
 excesses I inwardly detested, and whose violences 
 marked the progress of the Revolution. What horrors 
 waited on the names of Morality and Justice ! But 
 it must be admitted, we were not sailing in peaceful 
 seas. 
 
 The Revolution was at its height ; we were without 
 rudder, without government, ruled by only one assem- 
 bly, a species of monstrous dictatorship, the offspring 
 of confusion, and which alternately presented a counter- 
 part of the anarchy of Athens and the despotism of 
 the Ottomans. 
 
 It is here, then, that the Revolution and the 
 counter-revolution are politically at issue. Is the 
 question to be decided by the jurisprudence which 
 regulates the decisions of criminal tribunals cr the 
 correctional police ? The Convention, notwithstanding
 
 I2 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 its atrocities, its excesses and its furious decrees, or 
 perhaps by those very decrees, saved the country 
 beyond its integral limits. This is an incontestable 
 fact, and for that reason I do not deny my par- 
 ticipation in its labours. Each of its members, when 
 accused before the tribunal of history, may confine 
 himself to the limits of Scipio's defence, and say with 
 that great man, "I have saved the republic; let us 
 repair to the Capitol to thank the gods!" 
 
 There was, however, one vote which is unjustifiable; 
 I will even own, without a blush, that it sometimes 
 awakens remorse within me. But I call the God of 
 Truth to witness, that it was far less against the 
 monarch that I aimed the blow (for he was good and 
 just) than against the kingly office, at that time 
 incompatible with the new order of things. I will 
 also add, for concealment is no longer of avail, that 
 it then appeared to me, as to so many others, that 
 we could not inspire the representatives and the mass 
 of the people with an energy sufficient to surmount 
 the difficulties of the crisis but by abandoning every- 
 thing like moderation, breaking through all restraint 
 and indulging the extremity of revolutionary excess. 
 Such was the reason of state which appeared to us 
 to require this frightful sacrifice. In politics even 
 atrocity itself may sometimes produce a salutary effect. 
 
 The world would not now call us to account if 
 the tree of liberty, having taken strong and firm root, 
 had resisted the axe wielded even by those who had 
 planted it with their own hands. That Brutus was 
 more happy in erecting the noble edifice which he 
 besprinkled with his children's blood, I can readily
 
 FOUCHE'S PROCLAMATION I3 
 
 conceive ; it was far easier for him to have placed 
 the fasces of the monarchy in the hands of the aris- 
 tocracy already organised. The representatives of 1793, 
 by sacrificing the representative of royalty, the father 
 of the monarchy, for the purpose of founding a republic, 
 had no choice in the means of accomplishing their 
 object. The level of equality was already so violently 
 established in the nation, that the authority was neces- 
 sarily intrusted to a floating democracy : it could only 
 work upon a moving sand. After having condemned 
 myself as judge and accused, let me, at least, be allowed 
 to avail myself, in the exercise of my Conventional 
 duties, of some extenuating circumstances. Being 
 dispatched upon a mission into the department, forced 
 to employ the language of the times, and to yield to 
 the fatality of circumstances, I found myself compelled 
 to put in execution the law against suspected persons. 
 This law ordered the imprisonment, en masse, of priests 
 and nobles. The following is what I wrote, the fol- 
 lowing is what I dared to publish, in a proclamation 
 issued by me on the 25th of August, 1793 : 
 
 " The law wills that suspected persons should be 
 removed from social intercourse ; this law is commanded 
 by the interests of the state ; but to take for the basis 
 of your opinions vague accusations, proceeding from 
 the vilest passions, would be to favour a tyranny as 
 repugnant to my own heart as it is to natural equity. 
 The sword must not be wielded at hazard. The law 
 decrees severe punishments, and not proscriptions, as 
 immoral as they arc barbarous." 
 
 It required at that time some courage to mitigate 
 as much as was in one's power the rigour of tin
 
 14 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Conventional decrees. I was not so fortunate in my 
 missions as collective commissioner (commissariat col- 
 lectif), because the power of decision was not intrusted 
 to myself alone. Throughout my missions, the actions 
 which may be considered as deserving of censure will 
 be found far less than the everyday phrases expressed 
 in the language of the times, and which in a period of 
 greater tranquillity still inspire a kind of dread ; besides, 
 this language was, so to speak, official and peculiar. 
 Let not also my situation at this period be mistaken. 
 I was the delegate of a violent assembly, and I have 
 already proved that I eluded or softened down several 
 of its severe measures. In other respects these pre- 
 tended pro-consulates reduced the commissioned deputy 
 to nothing more than a man-machine, the wandering 
 commissary of the Committees of Public Safety and 
 of General Security. I was never a member of these 
 government committees ; therefore I never held, during 
 the Reign of Terror, the helm of power ; on the contrary, 
 as will shortly be seen, I was myself a sufferer by it. 
 This will prove how much my responsibility was confined. 
 
 But let us unwind the thread of these events. Like 
 that of Ariadne, it will conduct us out of the labyrinth, 
 and we can then attain the object of these Memoirs, 
 the sphere of which will increase in importance. 
 
 The paroxysm of revolution and of terror was at 
 hand. The guillotine was the only instrument of 
 government. Suspicion and distrust preyed upon every 
 heart ; fear cowered over all. Even those who held 
 in their hands the instrument of terror were at times 
 menaced with it. One man alone in the Convention 
 appeared to enjoy an inexpugnable popularity : this was
 
 CHARACTER OF ROBESPIERRE 1 5 
 
 Robespierre, a man full of pride and cunning ; an en- 
 vious, malignant, and vindictive being, who was never 
 satiated with the blood of his colleagues ; and who, 
 by his capacity, steadiness, the clearness of his head, 
 and the obstinacy of his character, surmounted circum- 
 stances the most appalling. Availing himself of his 
 preponderance in the Committee of Public Safety, he 
 openly aspired, not only to the tyranny of the decem- 
 viri, but to the despotism of the dictatorship of Marius 
 and Sylla. One step more would have given him the 
 masterdom of the Revolution, which it was his auda- 
 cious ambition to govern at his will ; but thirty victims 
 more were to be sacrificed, and he had marked them 
 in the Convention. He well knew that I understood 
 him ; and I therefore was honoured by being inscribed 
 upon his tablets at the head of those doomed to 
 destruction. I was still on a mission when he accused 
 me of oppressing the patriots and tampering with the 
 aristocracy. Being recalled to Paris, I dared to call 
 upon him from the tribune to make good his accusa- 
 tion. He caused me to be expelled from the Jacobins, 
 of whom he was the high priest ; this was for me 
 equivalent to a decree of proscription. 1 I did not trifle 
 
 1 After the death of Danton, of Camille Desmoulins, and 
 other deputies who were seized during the night at their habita- 
 tions by a mere order of the committees, delivered over to 
 the revolutionary tribunal, tried and condemned without being 
 able to defend themselves, Legendre, the friend of Danton, 
 Courtois, Tallien, and above thirty other deputies, never slept 
 at home ; they wandered about during the night from one to 
 another, fearful of sharing the same fate as Danton. Fouche 
 was more than two months without having any fixed residence. 
 It was thus that Robespierre made those tremble who seemed to 
 oppose his views to the dictatorship. — Note by the Editor.
 
 1 6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 in contending for my head, nor in long and secret de- 
 liberations with such of my colleagues as were threat- 
 ened with my own fate. I merely said to them — 
 among others to Legendre, Tallien, Dubois de Crance, 
 Daunou, and Chenier — "You are on the list, you 
 are on the list as well as myself; I am certain 
 of it ! " Tallien, Barras, Bourdon de l'Oise, and 
 Dubois de Crance evinced some energy. Tallien con- 
 tended for two lives, of which one was then dearer 
 to him than his own : he therefore resolved upon 
 assassinating the future dictator, even in the Conven- 
 tion itself. But what a hazardous chance was this ! 
 Robespierre's popularity would have survived him, and 
 we should have been immolated to his manes. I there- 
 fore dissuaded Tallien from an isolated enterprise, 
 which would have destroyed the man but preserved his 
 system. 
 
 Convinced that other means must be resorted 
 to, I went straight to those who shared with Robes- 
 pierre the government of terror, and whom I knew to 
 be envious or fearful of his immense popularity. I re- 
 vealed to Collot d'Herbois, to Carnot, to Billaud de 
 Varennes, the designs of the modern Appius ; and I 
 presented to each of them separately so lively and so 
 true a picture of the danger of their situation, I urged 
 them with so much ability and success, that I in- 
 sinuated into their breasts more than mistrust — the 
 courage of henceforth opposing the tyrant in any 
 further decimating of the Convention. " Count the 
 votes," said I to them, "in your committee, and you 
 will see that when you are determined he will be re- 
 duced to a powerless minority of a Couthon and a
 
 A BOLD STROKE Z y 
 
 Saint-Just. Refuse him your votes, and reduce him 
 to stand alone by your vis inertia" 
 
 But what contrivances, what expedients were neces- 
 sary to avoid exasperating the Jacobin club, the Seides, 
 and the partisans of Robespierre ! Sure of having 
 succeeded, I had the courage to defy him on the 
 20th Prairial (8th of June, 1794) — a day on which, 
 actuated with the ridiculous idea of solemnly acknow- 
 ledging the existence of the Supreme Being, he dared 
 to proclaim himself both his will and agent, in presence 
 of all the people assembled at the Tuileries. As he 
 was ascending the steps of his lofty tribune, whence 
 he was to proclaim his manifesto in favour of God, I 
 predicted to him aloud (twenty of my colleagues heard 
 it) that his fall was near. Five days after, in full com- 
 mittee, he demanded my head and that of eight of my 
 friends, reserving to himself the destruction of twenty 
 more at a later period. How great was his astonish- 
 ment, and what was his rage, upon finding amongst 
 the members of the committee an invincible opposition 
 to his sanguinary designs against the national repre- 
 sentation ! It has already been too much mutilated, 
 said they to him, and it is high time to put a stop to 
 a proscription which at last will include ourselves. 
 
 Finding himself in a minority, he withdrew, choked 
 with rage and disappointment, swearing never to set 
 foot again in the committee so long as his will should 
 be opposed. He immediately sent for Saint-Just, who 
 was with the army, rallied Couthon under his sanguinary 
 banner, and by his influence over the revolutionary 
 tribunal, still made the Convention and all those who 
 were operated on by fear to tremble. Being confident 
 
 VOL. I 2
 
 1 8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of the support of the Jacobin club, of Henriot, the 
 commander of the national guard, and of all the 
 revolutionary committees of the capital, he flattered 
 himself that he had still adherents fully sufficient to 
 carry him through. By thus keeping himself at a 
 distance from the seat of power, he was desirous of 
 throwing upon his adversaries the general execration, 
 of making them appear as the sole perpetrators of so 
 many murders, and of delivering them up to the ven- 
 geance of a people which now began to murmur at 
 the shedding of so much blood. But, cowardly, 
 mistrustful, and timid, he was incapable of action, 
 and permitted five weeks to pass away between this 
 secret secession and the crisis which was silently 
 approaching. 
 
 I did not overlook his situation ; and seeing him 
 reduced to a single faction, I secretly urged such of 
 his enemies as still adhered to the committee, at least 
 to remove the artillery from Paris, who were all de- 
 voted to Robespierre and the commune, and to deprive 
 Henriot of his command, or at least to suspend him. 
 The first measure I obtained, thanks to the firmness 
 of Carnot, who alleged the necessity of sending rein- 
 forcements of artillery to the army. As to depriving 
 Henriot of his command, that appeared too hazardous; 
 Henriot remained, and was near losing all ; or rather, 
 to speak the truth, it was he who on the gth 
 Thermidor (27th of July) ruined the cause of Robes- 
 pierre, the triumph of which was for a short time in 
 his power. But what could be expected from a 
 ci-devant drunken and stupid footman. 
 
 What follows is too well known for me to enlarge
 
 THE TURN OF THE REACTIONISTS 
 
 19 
 
 upon it. It is notorious how Maximilian the First 
 perished ; a man whom certain authors have been 
 very anxious of comparing to the Gracchi, to whom 
 he bore not the slightest resemblance, either in 
 eloquence or elevation of mind. I confess that, in 
 the delirium of victory, I said to those who favoured 
 his ambitious views, " You do him much honour ; he 
 had neither plan nor design : far from disposing of 
 futurity, he was drawn along, and did but obey an 
 impulse he could neither oppose nor govern." But 
 at that time I was too near a spectator of events 
 justly to appreciate their history. 
 
 The sudden overthrow of the dreadful system 
 which suspended the nation between life and death, 
 was doubtless a grand epoch of liberty ; but in this 
 world good is ever mixed with evil. What took place 
 after Robespierre's fall ? That which we have seen to 
 have been the case after a fall still more memorable. 
 Those who were the most abject before the decemvir 
 could, after his death, find no expression strong enough 
 to express their detestation of him. 
 
 It was soon a subject of regret that so happy an 
 event had not been made to contribute to the public 
 good, instead of serving as a pretext to glut the hatred 
 and vengeance of those who had been sufferers by the 
 Revolution. To terror succeeded anarchy, and to 
 anarchy reaction and vengeance. The Revolution was 
 blasted both in its principles and end ; the patriots 
 were for a long time exposed to the fury of the 
 Sicaires, enlisted in companies of the Sun and of 
 Jesus. I had escaped the proscription of Robespierre, 
 but I could not escape those of the reactionists. They 
 
 2 — 2
 
 20 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 pursued me even into the Convention, whence, by dint 
 of recriminations and false accusations, they caused 
 my expulsion by a most iniquitous decree ; I was for 
 almost a year the victim of every species of insult 
 and odious persecution. It was then I began to re- 
 flect upon man, and upon the character of factions. 
 I was compelled to wait — for with us there is nothing 
 but extremes — I was compelled to wait till the cup 
 was full, till the excesses of reaction had placed in 
 jeopardy the Revolution itself and the Convention en 
 masse. Then, and not till then, it saw the abyss which 
 yawned at its feet. The crisis was awful — it was ex- 
 istence or non-existence. The Convention took up 
 arms ; the persecution of the patriots was stopped, 
 and the cannon of one day (13th Vendemiaire) x re- 
 stored order among the crowd of counter-revolutionists, 
 who had imprudently risen without chiefs and without 
 any centre of object and action. 
 
 The cannon of Vendemiaire, directed by Bonaparte, 
 having in some degree restored me to liberty and 
 honour, I confess that I was the more interested in 
 the destiny of this young general, who was clearing 
 for himself a road by which he was soon to arrive at 
 the most astonishing renown of modern times. 
 
 I had still, however, to contend with the severities 
 of a destiny which did not yet seem inclined to bend 
 and be propitious to me. The establishment of the 
 Directorial regime, after this last convulsion, was nothing 
 more than the attempt of a multifarious government, 
 appointed as the directors of a democratical republic 
 of forty millions of souls ; for the Rhine and the Alps 
 1 Napoleon's whiff of grapeshot (Carlyle), 5th of October, 1795.
 
 TWO HOSTILE FACTIONS 21 
 
 already formed our natural barrier. This was, indeed, 
 an attempt of the utmost boldness, in presence of the 
 armies of a coalition, formed by inimical governments 
 and disturbers of the common peace. The war, it is 
 true, constituted our strength ; but it was attended 
 with reverses, and it was as yet uncertain which of 
 the two systems, the ancient or modern, would triumph. 
 More seemed to be expected from the capacity of the 
 men intrusted with the direction of affairs than from 
 the force of events and effervescence of recent passions : 
 too many vices discovered themselves. Our interior was 
 also not easily to be managed. It was with difficulty 
 that the Directorial government endeavoured to open 
 itself a safe road between two active and hostile factions 
 — that of the demagogues, who only considered our tem- 
 porary magistrates as oligarchs easily to be replaced, 
 and that of the auxiliary royalists abroad, who, unable 
 to strike a decisive blow, fanned in the southern and 
 western provinces the embers of civil war. The Direc- 
 tory, however, like every new government, which almost 
 always possess the advantage of being gifted with activity 
 and energy, procured fresh resources, and brought back 
 victory to the armies, stifling at the same time intestine 
 war. But it was, perhaps, too much alarmed at the 
 proceedings of the demagogues ; first, because their prin- 
 cipal rendezvous was in Paris, under the eyes of the 
 Directory itself; and secondly, because the discontented 
 patriots constituted their sole power. This difficulty, 
 which might have been easily avoided, caused a devia- 
 tion in the policy of the Directory. It abandoned 
 the revolutionists, an order of men to which it owed 
 its existence, and preferred favouring those chameleons,
 
 22 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 devoid of character and integrity — the instruments of 
 power so long as it can make itself respected, and its 
 enemies the moment it begins to totter. Five men 
 who in the Convention had been remarkable for the 
 energy of their votes, upon being invested with supreme 
 authority were seen to repel their ancient colleagues, 
 to caress the metis 1 and the royalists, and adopt a 
 system totally opposed to the condition of their 
 existence. 
 
 Thus, under the republican government, of which 
 I was a founder, I was, if not proscribed, at least 
 in complete disgrace, obtaining neither employment, 
 respect, nor credit, and sharing this unaccountable 
 dislike for nearly three years with a great number of 
 my former colleagues, men of approved abilities and 
 patriotism. If I at length made my way, it was by 
 the assistance of a particular circumstance, and of a 
 change of system brought about by the force of cir- 
 cumstances. This deserves being particularised. 
 
 Of all the members of the Directory, Barras was the 
 only one who was accessible to his former but now 
 cast off colleagues ; he had, and deserved, the reputa- 
 tion of possessing an amiability, candour, and generosity 
 peculiar to the people of the south. Without being well 
 versed in politics, he had resolution and a certain tact. 
 The exaggerated reflections upon his manners and his 
 moral principles was precisely what drew around him 
 a court which swarmed with intriguers, male, and female. 
 He was at this time Carnot's rival ; and only maintained 
 himself in the public opinion by the idea that, in case 
 of need, he would be seen on horseback, braving, as 
 
 1 Mongrels.
 
 SECRET INTERVIEW WITH BARRAS 
 
 23 
 
 on the 13th of Vendemiaire, every hostile effort ; he 
 also affected being the premier of the Republic — going 
 to the chase, having his packs of hounds, his courtiers, 
 and mistresses. I had known him both before and 
 after the catastrophe of Robespierre, and I had re- 
 marked that the justice of my reflections and presenti- 
 ments had had its effect upon him. I had a secret 
 interview with him, through the medium of Lombard- 
 Taradeau, one of his commensals and confidants. 
 This was during the first difficulties of the Directory, 
 at that time struggling with the Babeuf faction. I 
 imparted my ideas to Barras ; he himself desired me 
 to draw them up in a memorial ; this I did, and trans- 
 mitted it to him. The position of the Directory 
 was therein politically considered, and its dangers 
 enumerated with the greatest precision. I charac- 
 terised the faction Babeuf, which had dropped the 
 mask before me, and showed him that, while raving 
 about the agrarian law, its real object was to surprise 
 and seize by assault the Directory and the supreme 
 power, which would again have plunged us into dema- 
 gogy with terror and bloodshed. My memorial had 
 its effect ; the evil was eradicated. Barras then offered 
 me a second-rate place, which I refused, being un- 
 willing to obtain employment by mere drudgery ; he 
 assured me that he had not sufficient interest to 
 promote me, that his efforts to overcome the preju- 
 dices of his colleagues against me had been ineffectual. 
 A coolness succeeded, and all was deferred. 
 
 In the interval an opportunity presented itself of 
 rendering myself independent as far as fortune was 
 concerned. I had sacrificed my profession and my
 
 24 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 existence to the Revolution, and by an effect of the 
 most unjust prejudices the field of advancement was 
 closed against me. My friends pressed me to follow 
 the example of several of my former colleagues, who, 
 finding themselves in the same case with myself, had 
 obtained, by the influence of the directors, shares in 
 the government contracts (foumitures). A company 
 was formed ; I was admitted into it, and by the in- 
 fluence of Barras, I obtained a share of the contracts. 1 
 I thus commenced making my fortune, after the 
 example of Voltaire, and I contributed to that of my 
 partners, who distinguished themselves by the punctu- 
 ality with which they fulfilled the clauses of their 
 contract with the Republic. I was myself the director, 
 and in this new sphere found myself enabled to assist 
 more than once many worthy but neglected patriots. 
 Affairs, however, still grew worse in the interior. The 
 Directory confounded the mass of the revolutionists 
 with demagogues and anarchists, and these latter were 
 not punished without the former coming in for their 
 share. Public opinion was permitted to take the most 
 erroneous direction. The reins of government were in 
 the hands of the republicans, and they had opposed 
 to them the passions and prejudices of an impetuous 
 but superficial nation, which obstinately persisted in 
 viewing citizens zealous in the cause of liberty as 
 
 1 There is always a certain degree of artifice even in what 
 Fouche allows. Let us, however, give him credit for having 
 spoken the truth as much as it was possible for him to do ; it 
 is not a little to have obtained his avowal of having commenced 
 his fortune by jobbing in the contracts. It will be seen likewise, 
 in the course of his Memoirs, whence he drew his immense riches 
 at a later period. — Note by the Editor.
 
 PUBLIC OPINION AND SERVILE WRITERS 25 
 
 sanguinary men and terrorists. The Directory itself, 
 carried away by the torrent of prejudice, could not 
 continue in the prudent track which had hitherto pre- 
 served and strengthened it. Public opinion was daily 
 more and more falsified and perverted by servile writers, 
 by reviewers in the pay of the emigrants and of foreign 
 powers, openly recommending the destruction of the 
 new institution : their principal object was to vilify the 
 republicans and the heads of the state. By permitting 
 itself to be thus disgraced and dishonoured, the Direc- 
 tory, whose members were divided amongst themselves 
 by a spirit of rivalry and ambition, lost all the advan- 
 tages which a representative government affords those 
 who have ability enough to direct it. What was the 
 consequence ? At the very moment our armies were 
 everywhere victorious — when, masters of the Rhine, we 
 were achieving the conquest of Italy in the name of 
 the Revolution and the Republic — the republican spirit 
 languished in the interior, and the result of the elections 
 terminated in favour of the counter-revolutionists and 
 the royalists. A great schism became inevitable as 
 soon as the majority of the two councils declared 
 against the majority of the Directory. A kind of 
 triumvirate had been formed, composed of Barras, 
 Rewbel, and Reveillere-Lepaux : three men inadequate 
 to their duties in so important a crisis. They at 
 length perceived that the only support of their autho- 
 rity was the cannon and the bayonet, so that, at the 
 risk of arousing the ambition of the generals, they 
 were compelled to call in the armies to their assist- 
 ance : another serious danger, but one which, not 
 being so immediate, was the less anticipated.
 
 26 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 It was then that Bonaparte, the conqueror of 
 Lombardy and the vanquisher of Austria, formed a 
 club in each division of his army, invited the soldiers 
 to discuss the politics of the day, and represented to 
 them the two councils as traitors sold to the enemies 
 of France, and, after having made his army swear upon 
 the altar of their country to exterminate the brigands 
 moderes, sent abundance of threatening addresses into 
 all the departments, as well as into the capital. In 
 the north, the army did not confine itself to delibera- 
 tion and the signing of addresses. Hoche, general-in- 
 chief of the army of Sambre-et-Meuse, dispatched arms 
 and ammunition on the road to Paris, and marched 
 his troops upon the neighbouring towns. For some 
 secret reasons this movement was suddenly suspended ; 
 either because there was not a perfect understanding 
 upon the mode of attacking the two councils, or, as I 
 have great cause to believe, the object was to procure 
 the conqueror of Italy a more exclusive influence in 
 the direction of affairs. It is certain that the interests 
 of Bonaparte were at that time represented by Barras 
 in the Directorial triumvirate, and that the gold of 
 Italy flowed like a new Pactolus into the Luxembourg. 
 Women took an active part in affairs ; they at this 
 time conducted all political intrigues. 
 
 On the 4th of September (18th Fructidor), a military 
 movement placed the capital in subjection. This bold 
 manoeuvre was executed by Augereau, Bonaparte's lieu- 
 tenant, expressly sent for the purpose. As in all con- 
 vulsions in which the soldiers intermeddle, the toga 
 succumbed beneath the bayonet. Two directors, fifty- 
 three deputies, and a great number of authors and
 
 ADVICE TO BARRAS 
 
 2 7 
 
 printers of periodical journals who had perverted public 
 opinion, were banished without any form of trial. The 
 elections of forty-nine departments were declared null, 
 and the administrative authorities were suspended, 
 previous to being reorganised in the spirit of the new 
 revolution. 
 
 In this manner the royalists were vanquished and 
 dispersed without fighting, by the mere effect of a 
 military demonstration ; in this manner the popular 
 societies were reorganised ; thus it was that a stop 
 was put to the reaction upon the republicans ; and 
 thus the appellation of republican and patriot was no 
 longer a cause for exclusion from employments and 
 honours. As to the Directory, in which Merlin de 
 Douai and Francois de Neufchateau replaced Carnot 
 and Barthelemy, who were both included in the number 
 of the exiles, it at first acquired some appearance of 
 energy and power ; but in reality it was only a fictitious 
 power, incapable of resisting troubles or reverses. 
 
 Thus the only remedy for evil was violence ; an 
 example the more dangerous, as it compromised the 
 future. 
 
 Previously to the 18th Fructidor, a day which 
 seemed destined to decide the fate of the Revolution, 
 I had not remained idle. The advice I gave the 
 director Barras, my suggestions, my prophetic con- 
 versations, had contributed in no small degree to 
 impart to the Directorial triumvirate that watchfulness 
 and stimulus of which its gropings and irresolutions 
 had stood so much in need. Was it not natural that 
 an event so favourable to the interests of the Revo- 
 lution ought also to turn to the advantage of the
 
 28 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 persons who had founded and preserved it by their 
 intelligence and their energy? 1 Hitherto the path of 
 the patriots had been strewn with thorns : it was 
 time that the tree of liberty should produce fairer fruit 
 for those who were to gather and taste it ; it was 
 time that the high employments of the state should 
 devolve upon men of superior abilities. 
 
 To conceal nothing, however, we were much em- 
 barrassed by the coalition, by the scourge of civil war, 
 and by the still more dangerous manoeuvres of the 
 chameleons of the interior. On the other hand, by 
 our energy and the force of circumstances, we were 
 masters of the state and of every branch of power. 
 The only question now was the insuring entire posses- 
 sion according to the scale of intellect and capacity. 
 All other theory at the conclusion of a revolution is 
 but folly or impudent hypocrisy; this doctrine finds its 
 place in the hearts of those even who dare not avow 
 it. As a man of ability, I declared these trivial truths, 
 till then regarded as a state secret. 2 My reasons were 
 appreciated ; the application of them alone caused em- 
 barrassment. Intrigue did much, a salutary impulse 
 the rest. 
 
 A soft shower of military secretaryships, portfolios, 
 commissariats, legations, embassies, secret agencies and 
 commanderies of divisions soon came, like the manna 
 from heaven, to refresh my ancient colleagues, both 
 
 1 An invaluable confession, explaining at once the motives of 
 every revolution, past, present and to come. — Note by the Editor. 
 
 2 As far as I know, none of the heads of the Revolution 
 have as yet said so much. Fouche is truly open and undis- 
 guised in his avowals. — Note by the Editor.
 
 THE TREATY' OF CAMPO FORMIO 29 
 
 in the civil and military departments. The patriots, 
 so long neglected, were now provided for. I was one 
 of the first in seniority, and my worth was well known. 
 I, however, resolutely refused the subaltern favours 
 which were offered me ; I was determined to accept 
 of none but an employment of consequence sufficient 
 to introduce me at once into the career of the highest 
 political affairs. I had the patience to wait ; and 
 indeed waited long, but not in vain. This once 
 Barras overcame the prejudices of his colleagues, and 
 I was nominated, in the month of September, 1798, 
 not without many previous conferences, &c, ambas- 
 sador of the French Republic to the Cisalpine 
 Republic. It is well known that for this new and 
 analogous creation we were indebted to the victorious 
 arms and acute policy of Bonaparte. Austria, how- 
 ever, was to be indemnified by the sacrifice of Venice. 
 By the treaty of peace of Campo Formio (a village 
 of Frioul, near Udine) Austria had ceded the Pays 
 Bas to France ; and Milan, Mantua, and Modena to 
 the Cisalpine Republic. She had reserved to herself 
 the greatest part of the Venetian states, with the 
 exception of the Ionian Islands, which France retained. 
 It was easily seen that this was only a fresh stimulus 
 for us, and the revolutionising of all Italy was already 
 a subject of conversation. In the meantime the treaty 
 of Campo Formio served to consolidate the new re- 
 public, the extent of which ensured its being respected. 
 It was composed of Austrian Lombardy, of the Mode- 
 nese, of Massa and Carrara, the Bolognese, the Ferrari, 
 Romania, Bergamasque, Bressan, Cremasque, and other 
 possessions of the Venetian state on the Continent.
 
 3° 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Already matured, it demanded its emancipation ; that 
 is to say, that instead of languishing under the severe 
 guardianship of the French Directory, it might live 
 under the protection and influence of the great nation. 
 In fact, we were more in want of valiant and sincere 
 allies than of submissive vassals. Such was my 
 opinion, and likewise those of the Director Barras and 
 of General Brune, at that time commander-in-chief of 
 the army of Italy, and who had just removed his head- 
 quarters from Berne to Milan. But another director, 
 whose system of policy and diplomacy was decidedly 
 opposite, insisted that all, both friends and foes, were 
 to be subjected by power and violence. This was 
 Rewbel of Colmar, a harsh and vain man. He con- 
 ceived there was much dignity in his view of the 
 subject. He shared the weight of important affairs 
 with his colleague, Merlin de Douai, an excellent juris- 
 consult, but a very inferior statesman. Both these gave 
 th"e law to the Directory, for Treilhard and Reveillere- 
 Lepaux were but novices. If Barras, who remained 
 per se, sometimes obtained an advantage over them, it 
 was by dexterity and the good opinion they entertained 
 of him. They thought him a man of sufficient nerve 
 to be always ready for a coup de main. 
 
 But we had now recovered from the intoxication of 
 victory. My initiation into state affairs took place at 
 so important a crisis that it will be necessary to give 
 a sketch of its prominent features, especially as it is 
 a preliminary absolutely indispensable for the com- 
 prehending of what follows. In less than a year the 
 peace of Campo Formio, which had so much deceived 
 the credulous, was already sapped to its base. With-
 
 A BRILLIANT IDEA 
 
 31 
 
 out compunction we had made terrible use of the right 
 of the stronger in Helvetia, at Rome, and in the East. 
 Not finding kings, we had made war upon the shepherds 
 of Switzerland, and had even attacked the Mamelukes. 
 It was the expedition into Egypt in particular which 
 gave the deepest wound. The origin of that expedition 
 is sufficiently curious to be noted here. Bonaparte 
 held a multifarious government in horror, and despised 
 the Directory, which he called the five kings in routine 
 {cinq rois a terme). Intoxicated with glory upon his 
 return from Italy, welcomed with almost frantic joy 
 by the French, he meditated seizing upon the supreme 
 government ; but his party had not as yet sufficiently 
 established itself. He perceived — and I use his own 
 expressions — that the pear was not yet ripe. On its 
 side, the Directory, who feared him, found that the 
 nominal command of the English expedition kept him 
 too near Paris ; and he himself was not much in- 
 clined to seek his destruction against the cliffs of 
 Albion. To say the truth, it was scarcely known 
 what to do with him. Open disgrace would have 
 insulted public opinion and increased his reputation 
 and his strength. 
 
 An expedient was thus being sought for, when the 
 old bishop of Autun, a man distinguished for his 
 shrewdness and address, and who had just introduced 
 into foreign affairs the intriguing daughter of Necker, 
 conceived the brilliant plan of ostracism into Egypt. 
 He first hinted the idea to Rewbel, then to Merlin, 
 taking upon himself the acquiescence of Barras. His 
 plan was nothing but an old idea which he had found 
 amongst the rubbish of the bureau, and which he had
 
 32 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 furbished up for the occasion. It was converted into 
 a state affair. The expedient appeared the more for- 
 tunate, as it at once removed the bold and forward 
 general, subjecting him at the same time to hazardous 
 chance. 
 
 The conqueror of Italy, at first mention entered 
 unhesitatingly, and with the greatest ardour, into the 
 idea of an expedition which not only could not fail 
 to add to his renown, but would also ensure to him 
 distant possessions, which he flattered he should 
 govern either as a sultan or a prophet. But soon 
 cooling, whether he perceived the snare, or whether 
 he still aimed at supreme power, he drew back ; but 
 it was in vain for him to struggle, to raise obstacle 
 upon obstacle — all were removed ; and when he found 
 himself reduced to the alternative of a disgrace, or of 
 remaining at the head of an army which might revo- 
 lutionise the East, he deferred his designs upon Paris, 
 and set sail with the flower of our troops. 
 
 The expedition commenced with a kind of miracle, 
 the sudden taking of Malta, but this was succeeded 
 by the fatal catastrophe of the destruction of our 
 squadron in the waters of the Nile. The face of 
 affairs immediately changed. England, in its turn, 
 was in the delirium of triumph. In conjunction with 
 Russia she set on foot a new general war, of which 
 the government of the Two Sicilies was the ostensible 
 cause. The torch of war was lighted at Palermo and 
 Naples by hatred ; at Constantinople by a violation of 
 the rights of peace and of nations. The Turk alone 
 had justice on his side. 
 
 So many untoward circumstances coming fast upon
 
 A COUP-DE-MAIN PROJECTED 33 
 
 each other produced a deep impression upon Paris ; 
 it seemed that the political horizon again became 
 cloudy. Open preparations were made for war, and 
 everything assumed a threatening aspect. The rich 
 had already been subjected to a forced and progressive 
 loan of forty-eight millions, with which levies were 
 enabled to be raised. From this time may be dated 
 the idea and establishment of the military conscrip- 
 tion, an immense lever which had been borrowed from 
 Austria, perfected and proposed to the councils by 
 Jourdan, and immediately adopted by the placing in 
 active service two hundred thousand conscripts. The 
 armies of Italy and Germany were reinforced. All the 
 preliminaries of war burst forth at once — insurrection 
 in Escaut and the Deux Nethes, at the gates of 
 Malines and Brussels ; troubles in the Mantuan terri- 
 tory and at Voghera ; Piedmont on the eve of a con- 
 vulsion ; Geneva and Milan torn by the contending 
 factions and inflamed by the republican fever with 
 which our Revolution had inoculated them. 
 
 It was when surrounded by this gloomy prospect 
 that I set forward on my embassy to Milan. I arrived 
 at the very moment when General Brune was about 
 to effect, in the Cisalpine government, without an 
 essential alteration, a change of individuals, the key 
 to which change was in my possession. The object 
 was to remove the power into the hands of men 
 possessing greater energy and firmness, and to com- 
 mence the emancipation of the young republic, in order 
 that it might communicate the impulse to the whole 
 of Italy. We premeditated this coup-de-main with the 
 hope of forcing into acquiescence the majority of the 
 
 VOL. 1 3
 
 34 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Directory, which held its sittings at the Luxembourg. 1 
 I concerted measures with Brune, I encouraged the 
 most ardent of the Lombardian patriots, and we de- 
 cided that the movement should be put in execution, 
 and that there should be neither proscriptions nor 
 violence. On the morning of the 20th of October a 
 military demonstration was made ; the gates of Milan 
 were closed ; the directors and the deputies were at 
 their posts. There, by the simple impulse of opinion, 
 under the protection of the French troops, and at the 
 suggestion of the general-in-chief, fifty-two Cisalpine 
 representatives send in their resignations, and are re- 
 placed by others. At the same time the three direc- 
 tors, Adelasio, Luosi, and Soprensi, chosen by the 
 
 1 Fouche does not give us sufficient information respecting 
 this plan of revolutionising all in the exterior, a plan at that 
 time disapproved by the majority of the Directory, and of which 
 General Augereau was one of the first victims. Commander- 
 in-chief of the army of Germany, after the 18th Fructidor, he 
 was about to revolutionise Suabia, when he was recalled and 
 disgraced. Bonaparte had part in this, and was furious when 
 they were already desirous of demolishing his work, the peace 
 of Campo Formio. After his departure for Egypt, Brune and 
 Joubert will be seen to share the disgrace of Augereau, on the 
 same account. This plan, which was renewed by the propa- 
 gandist in 1792, appears to have had no other defender in the 
 Directory but Barras : this was but a weak support. Rewbel 
 and Merlin would not proceed precipitately in the affair ; already 
 alarmed at their excesses in Egypt and Switzerland, they per- 
 sisted in cradling themselves in a situation which was neither 
 that of peace nor war. It must be owned that the bold attempt 
 of universal revolutionising, which they only dared to attempt 
 by halves, gave to the revolutionists of France a great power 
 of choice in the operations of the campaign of 1799, which 
 rushed upon them from within and without. The Revolution 
 stopped, and assumed a more masculine character. — Note by the 
 Editor.
 
 CHANGE IN THE DIRECTORY OF MILAN 35 
 
 ex-ambassador Trouve, and confirmed by the French 
 Directory, are likewise invited to resign, and were re- 
 placed by three other directors, Brunetti, Sabatti, and 
 Sinancini. Citizen Porro, a Lombardian patriot, full 
 of zeal and intelligence, was appointed minister of 
 police. This repetition of our 18th Fructidor, so easily 
 effected, was confirmed by the primary assemblies ; 
 thus we rendered homage to the sovereignty of the 
 people, by obtaining its sanction to the measures 
 adopted for its welfare. Soprensi, the ex-director, with 
 twenty-two deputies, came to place their protests in 
 my hands ; all my endeavours to obtain their acqui- 
 escence to the measure were useless. It became 
 necessary to issue an order for removing Soprensi by 
 force from the apartments he occupied at the direc- 
 torial palace ; and I was compelled to receive from 
 him a fresh protest, the purport of which was that 
 he denied the general-in-chief the right which he had 
 arrogated over the Cisalpine authorities. Here the 
 opposition ended — we surmounted every difficulty with- 
 out noise or violence. It may be supposed that the 
 couriers were not idle ; the ex-deputies and the mal- 
 contents had recourse to the Directory of Paris, to 
 which they appealed. 
 
 I, on my part, dispatched an account of the 
 changes of the 20th of October, dwelling particularly 
 upon the experienced judgment of the general-in-chief, 
 the justice of his views, the example which France 
 had itself given on the 18th Fructidor, and the still 
 more recent one, when the Directory found itself under 
 the necessity of nullifying the elections of several de- 
 partments, in order to remove several obnoxious or 
 
 3—2
 
 36 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 dangerous deputies. I then launched into more im- 
 portant considerations, invoking the terms and the 
 spirit of the alliance entered in between the French 
 and Cisalpine republics, a treaty approved by the 
 council of ancients on the 7th of March preceding. 
 In this treaty the new republic was explicitly acknow- 
 ledged as a free and independent power, upon these 
 conditions only, that she should take part in all our 
 wars ; that she should set on foot all her forces at 
 the requisition of the French Directory ; that she 
 should support twenty-five thousand of the French 
 troops, by providing an annual fund of ten millions 
 for that object ; and, finally, that all her armaments 
 should be under the command of our generals. I 
 guaranteed the strict and faithful execution of this 
 treaty, protesting that the government and the welfare 
 of this nation would find a more certain pledge, and a 
 still firmer support, in the energy and sincerity of the 
 men to whom the power had just been intrusted ; 
 finally, I brought forward my instructions, which 
 authorised me to reform, without tumult or violence, 
 the vices of the new Cisalpine government, the ex- 
 cessive and expensive numbers of the members of the 
 legislative body, the administrations of the depart- 
 ments, &c, and which recommended me to take care 
 that the form of the republican government was not 
 oppressive to the people. From that I proceeded to 
 guarantee also the existence of immense resources ; the 
 legislative body of Milan having authorised the Direc- 
 tory to sell thirty millions of national domains, in 
 which was included the property of the bishops. The 
 dispatch of General Brune, the general-in-chief, per-
 
 THE DIRECTORY DISAPPROVES 
 
 37 
 
 fectly coincided with mine; but all was useless. Pride 
 and vanity, as well as the lowest intrigues, and even 
 foreign insinuations, were opposed to us. Besides, the 
 matter was now to solve one of the highest questions 
 of immediate policy, of the adoption or rejection of 
 the system of the unity of Italy divided into republics, 
 effected by the sudden overthrow of the old corrupted 
 governments, already tottering and incapable of sup- 
 porting themselves, a system which we do honour to 
 ourselves for having made to triumph. This nervous 
 and decisive policy was not to the taste of the wary 
 minister who at that time directed our foreign affairs 
 (Talleyrand); he employed roundabout means to ruin 
 our plan, and he succeeded. Rewbcl and Merlin, 
 whose vanity was brought into play, exclaimed loudly 
 against the affair of Milan ; we had only on our side 
 the isolated vote of Barras, which was soon neutral- 
 ised. A decree made, ab irato, on the 25th of October, 
 formally disavowed the changes effected by General 
 Brune. At the same time the Directory signified to 
 me its disapprobation, informing me that it would 
 have much satisfaction in seeing all the ex -directors 
 and deputies reinstated in their places. 
 
 I could easily have exculpated myself in this affair, 
 in which I was thought not to have taken a direct 
 part, having arrived at my post at the commencement 
 of the preparations, of which, in strictness, I con I, I 
 neither know the origin nor object. Such would have 
 been the conduct of a man anxious to preserve his 
 situation at the expense of his opinion and honour. 
 I adopted a more candid and firmer mode of pro- 
 cedure. I protested warmly against the disapprobation
 
 38 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of the Directory ; I pointed out to them the danger of 
 retrograding ; besides, the will of the people had been 
 declared in the primary assemblies, so that it was 
 impossible to undo what had been done without the 
 risk of being guilty of the most blamable frivolity and 
 inconsistency. I also insisted how impolitic it would 
 be to displease the Cisalpine patriots, and to risk 
 exasperating that republic at the very moment when 
 the hostilities, on the eve of commencing against 
 Naples, could not fail of being the prelude to a 
 general war. I announced to them that thirty 
 thousand Austrians were assembling on the Adige ; 
 but I was preaching to the winds. Brune, upon re- 
 ceiving the decree of the Directory which annulled 
 the depositions made on the 20th of October, received 
 instructions to leave the army of Italy, and to proceed 
 to command in Holland. He was fortunately replaced 
 by the brave, modest, and honourable Joubert, par- 
 ticularly qualified to calm and repair all. Milan was 
 in a state of fermentation, and the two rival factions 
 found themselves again opposed to each other — the 
 one full of hope at being re-established, and the other 
 resolved to make a firm stand — when a new decree 
 from the Directory reached me, bearing date the 7th 
 of November. It refused to acknowledge the will 
 of the people, and ordered me to break off all rela- 
 tions with the Cisalpine directory till that authority 
 had been reorganised such as it was previous to the 
 20th of October. The Directory likewise ordered a 
 new convocation of the primary assemblies. I was 
 much hurt at this contempt of the republican prin- 
 ciples, upon which my first proceedings had been
 
 FOUCHE'S ADDRESS 39 
 
 founded. The servile, vexatious system by which a 
 republic, our ally, was to be governed, appeared to 
 me the height of imbecility. In the midst of the 
 serious circumstances in which the Italian peninsula 
 was about to be placed, it was nothing less than de- 
 grading men and reducing them to the situation of 
 mere machines ; it was besides diametrically opposite 
 to the stipulations and the spirit of the treaty of 
 alliance. I explained myself — I did more : I in some 
 degree vindicated the majesty of the two nations by 
 addressing to the Cisalpine directory a message, of 
 which the following are the principal heads : 
 
 " Vain, citizen directors, is the attempt to infer 
 that your political existence is transitory, because it 
 has been accompanied by an act justly disapproved 
 of and strongly condemned by my government. (Here 
 a palliative was necessary.) Your fellow-citizens, by 
 giving it their sanction in your primary assemblies, have 
 given you a moral power for which you will henceforth 
 become responsible to the Cisalpine people. 
 
 " Proudly, then, assert its independence and your 
 own ; hold with firmness the reins of government 
 which are intrusted to you, without being embarrassed 
 by the perfidious suggestions of calumny ; make your 
 authority respected by a powerful and well-organised 
 police ; oppose the malignity of the passions by dis- 
 playing a majesty of character, and confound all the 
 machinations of your enemies by an inflexible justice. 
 
 " We desire always to give peace to the world ; but 
 if vanity and the thirst of blood cause arms to be 
 wielded against your independence, woe to the traitors ! 
 Their dust shall be spurned by the feet of free men.
 
 40 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 " Citizen directors ! elevate your minds with events ; 
 be superior to them if you wish to command them ; 
 be not uneasy about the future ; the solidity of republics 
 consists in the nature of things ; victory and liberty 
 shall pervade the world. 
 
 " Temper the ardent activity of your fellow-citizens, 
 in order to render it productive. . . . Let them learn 
 that energy is not delirium, and that to be free is not 
 to be licensed to do evil." 
 
 But the Italian character was little capable of 
 appreciating these precepts. I everywhere sought for 
 a firmness tempered by constancy, and, with few ex- 
 ceptions, I found nothing but wavering and pusillanimous 
 hearts. 
 
 Enraged at such language, addressed to the Cisalpine 
 Republic, our routine sovereigns (souverains a terme) sitting 
 in the Luxembourg, dispatched in all haste to Milan the 
 citizen Rivaud in quality of commissioner-extraordinary : 
 he was the bearer of a decree ordering me to quit Italy. 
 I paid no attention to it, persuaded that the Directory 
 had not the right to prevent me living as a private 
 individual at Milan. A sympathetic conformity of 
 opinions and ideas with Joubert, who had replaced 
 Brune in his command, induced me to remain there 
 to await the events which were in preparation. He 
 was, without doubt, the most intrepid, the most able, 
 and the most estimable of all Bonaparte's lieutenants ; 
 since the peace of Campo Formio he had favoured the 
 popular cause in Holland ; he came into Italy resolved, 
 notwithstanding the false policy of the Directory, to 
 follow his own inclination, and to satisfy the wishes of 
 the people, who anxiously desired liberty. I strongly
 
 FOUCHE IN HIDING +I 
 
 urged him not to commit himself on my account, but 
 to temporise. The commissary Rivaud, not daring to 
 undertake anything while I remained at Milan, informed 
 the committee-men of the Luxembourg of his situation, 
 and the next courier was the bearer of some thundering 
 dispatches. 
 
 The military authority was compelled to act, whether 
 willingly or not. In the night of the 7th of December 
 the guard of the directory and of the legislative body 
 was disarmed and replaced by French troops. The 
 people were not allowed to enter the place where the 
 directory and the two councils assembled. A secret 
 committee was held during the night, and on its break- 
 ing up the new functionaries were displaced to make 
 way for the former ones. Seals were placed upon the 
 doors of the constitutional circle, and the commissioner 
 Rivaud ordered several arrests. I think that I myself 
 should have been arrested, manacled, and passed from 
 brigade to brigade up to Paris had not Joubert apprised 
 me in time. I secreted myself in a country house near 
 Monza, where I immediately received the proclamation 
 addressed by citizen Rivaud to the Cisalpine Republic. 
 In this disgraceful memento of political absurdity the 
 irregularity and violence of the proceedings of the 
 20th of October were alleged and condemned on 
 account of their having been promoted by the military 
 power — a most ridiculous accusation, since it equally 
 condemned the 18th Fructidor and the late and 
 humiliating scene at Milan, performed by orders from 
 Paris, without any investigation. 
 
 This parrot of a commissioner, in enigmatical terms, 
 taxed both Brune and myself with being innovators and
 
 42 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 reformers, without character or mission ; in short, he 
 described the excess of our patriotism, which, said he, 
 caused the popular government to be calumniated. 
 
 All this was truly pitiable, from its bad reasoning. 
 Being informed that I had disappeared, and thinking 
 that I was concealed in Milan, the Directory again 
 dispatched an extraordinary courier, the bearer of a 
 fresh order for my expulsion from Italy. " If you are 
 aware," wrote immediately poor Rivaud to the Cis- 
 alpine directory, " that citizen Fouche is on your 
 territory, I beg you will give me information accord- 
 ingly." I smiled at his perplexity, and at the alarms 
 of both directories ; then, quitting my retreat, calmly 
 took the road to the Alps, which I crossed. I arrived 
 at Paris in the beginning of January, 1799. The credit 
 and influence of Rewbel and Merlin were already con- 
 siderably on the decline. Intrigues were being formed 
 against them in both councils, and they began to 
 lower their lofty tone. Therefore, instead of calling me 
 to their bar and making me give an account of my 
 conduct, they contented themselves with announcing 
 in their official journal that I had returned from my 
 mission to the Cisalpine Republic. 
 
 I now thought myself sufficiently strong to call 
 them to an account for their vindictive proceedings 
 towards me, and insisted upon indemnities for the loss 
 of my employment, which I received, accompanied 
 with an earnest entreaty not to give rise to any 
 scandal. 
 
 These details, upon my first failure in an im- 
 portant political mission, appeared to me necessary 
 to be known, for the better understanding of the
 
 ADVANCE OF THE RUSSIANS 43 
 
 state of the public mind at this period, and the 
 ground upon which my first operations were to com- 
 mence. I had, besides, already penned this expose by 
 desire of Bonaparte on the eve of his departure for 
 Marengo ; and I own that, upon re-perusing it, re- 
 collections were brought to mind which gave me no 
 small degree of satisfaction. 
 
 I found' the Directorial authority shaken less by 
 the public disasters than by the underhand machina- 
 tions of discontented factions, who, without throwing 
 off the mask, carried on their attacks in secret. 
 
 The public testified itself generally disgusted with 
 the narrow and paltry spirit which actuated our "five 
 routine kings " ; people were indignant that their 
 authority was only made known by exactions, in- 
 justice, and incapacity. By rousing the dormant 
 passions they provoked resistance. A few confidential 
 conversations with men who either possessed influence 
 or exercised their powers of observation, and my own 
 reflections, enabled me to form a right judgment of 
 the state of things. 
 
 Everything announced important events and an 
 approaching crisis. The Russians advanced, and 
 prepared to enter the lists. Note after note was 
 dispatched to Austria to endeavour to stop their 
 progress ; at length, towards the end of February, the 
 war signal was sounded, without our being in a state 
 to enter the field. The Directory had provoked this 
 second coalition, merely by depriving itself of its best 
 generals. Not only was Bonaparte an exile in the 
 sands of Africa ; not only had Hoche, escaped from 
 the Irish expedition, ended his days by poison ; but
 
 44 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Pichegru x had been banished to Sinnamary, Moreau 
 was in disgrace, and Bernadotte, who had retired 
 from diplomacy after the failure of his embassy to 
 Vienna, had resigned his command of the army of 
 observation ; even the removal of Championnet was 
 decreed, for having wished to put a stop to the 
 rapacity of the agents of the Directory. In short, 
 Joubert himself, the brave and virtuous Joubert, had 
 received his dismissal on account of his desire of 
 establishing in Italy a wholesome liberty, which would 
 have drawn still closer together the ties that united 
 the two nations, whose destinies appeared to be the 
 same. 
 
 This second continental war, of which Switzerland, 
 Italy, and Egypt had only seen the prelude, com- 
 menced on the ist of March ; and by the 20th 
 Jourdan had lost the battle of Stockach, which forced 
 him to repass the Rhine in the greatest precipitation. 
 This gloomy omen was soon followed by the breaking- 
 up of the congress of Rastadt, a political drama, the 
 last act of which was full of horrors. We were not 
 more fortunate in Italy than in Germany : Scherer, 
 Rewbel's favourite general, lost three battles on the 
 Adige ; these deprived us in a few days of the liberty 
 of Italy, together with the conquests which had cost 
 us three laborious campaigns. Till then we had 
 either invaded or resisted with firmness. The effect 
 produced by the intelligence that we were retreating 
 on all sides must be imagined ; it exceeds description ! 
 Every revolutionary government, which can only make 
 malcontents, but cannot command victory, necessarily 
 1 Succeeded in escaping. (See biographical notice.)
 
 EXPULSION OF REWBEL 45 
 
 loses its power : upon the first reverses all the am- 
 bitious assume an hostile attitude. 
 
 I was present at several meetings of the discon- 
 tented deputies and generals, and I concluded that, in 
 reality, these parties had not all the same intentions, 
 but that they reunited for the common purpose of 
 overturning the Directory, that each might be enabled 
 to further his own ambitious views. I set Barras right 
 upon this subject, and persuaded him to effect, at any 
 cost, the expulsion of Rewbel, being very sure that 
 we should afterwards gain over Treilhard, Merlin, and 
 Reveillere, on our own terms. These two last were 
 particularly disliked, from having favoured the system 
 of the electoral schisms, the object of which was to 
 clear the legislative councils of the most ardent re- 
 publicans. I was aware that Joseph and Lucien, 
 Bonaparte's brothers, intrusted by him to watch over 
 his interests during his warlike exile, were manoeuvring 
 with the same intentions. Lucien displayed an exalted 
 patriotism ; he was at the head of a party of dis- 
 affected with Boulay de la Meurthe. Joseph, on his 
 side, lived at a great expense, and kept a magnificent 
 establishment. His house was the rendezvous for the 
 most powerful deputies of the councils, the highest 
 functionaries, the most distinguished of the generals, 
 and the women most fertile in expedients and intrigue. 
 
 The coalition being formed, Rewbel, disconcerted 
 and abandoned by Merlin, to whom he was represented 
 as the scapegoat, thought himself extremely fortunate 
 in obtaining his expulsion, disguised by the chance of 
 the dice, on the principal condition that his retreat in 
 the council of ancients should be respected.
 
 46 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 But who was to fill his place in the Directory ? 
 Merlin, and the other overgrown deputies, his creatures, 
 determined upon appointing in his stead Duval, of the 
 Seine Inferieure, a man of mediocre talents, and with- 
 out influence, in other respects a worthy person ; he 
 at that time filled the office of minister of police, but 
 was too short-sighted for his post. They were per- 
 mitted to go on quietly, and all their measures being 
 taken, every effort was made for Sieyes, the ambas- 
 sador at Berlin, whose hidden abilities had been the 
 theme of praise for the last ten years. I knew him 
 to possess some strong and decided revolutionary 
 opinions, but I also knew that his character was 
 mistrustful and artificial ; I also believed he cherished 
 sentiments but little compatible with the basis of our 
 liberties and institutions. I was not his partisan ; 
 but I associated myself with the faction so suddenly 
 formed in his favour without my being able to con- 
 jecture from what motive. It was urged that it was 
 necessary to have at the head of affairs, upon the 
 commencement of a threatening coalition, a man who 
 of all others knew how to keep Prussia in a neutrality 
 so advantageous to her ; it was even asserted that 
 he had shown himself an experienced politician by 
 giving the first hints of the coalition. 
 
 The election commenced : I still smile when I re- 
 collect the disappointment of the subtle Merlin and 
 the worthy Duval his creature, who, whilst the council 
 were proceeding in the election, having established a 
 telegraphic line of agents from the Hotel de Police 
 to the Legislative Hall, whose duty it was to transmit 
 intelligence to the happy candidate, learnt that a party
 
 A DEEP-LAID SCHEME ,j 
 
 of the ventre had deserted. Neither Merlin nor Duval 
 could possibly comprehend how a certain majority 
 could be suddenly transformed into a minority. But 
 we, who knew the secret spring, often amused our- 
 selves with the affair at excellent dinners, at which 
 politics were discussed. 
 
 Merlin saw in Sieyes a dangerous competitor, and 
 from that moment looked upon him with an evil eye. 
 As to the worthy Duval, being soon replaced by 
 Bourguignon, he became misanthropical. These two 
 mediocre citizens were neither of them fitted to direct 
 the police. 1 The work was as yet only in embryo. 
 In order to bring it to perfection two legislative 
 coalitions were formed. In one were Boulay de la 
 Meurthe, Chenier, Francais de Nantes, Chalmel, Texier- 
 Olivier, Berlier, Baudin des Ardennes, Cabanis, Regnier, 
 the two Bonapartes ; in the other Bertrand du Cal- 
 vados, Poulain-Grandpre, Destrem, Garrau, Arena, 
 Salicetti, and several other vigorous athletes. In both 
 these, which had their auxiliaries without, I gained 
 over several to Barras, while he on his side man- 
 oeuvred tolerably well. Underhand means were the 
 only ones that could be employed at first ; the time 
 for throwing off the mask was not yet come. 
 
 In this respect our reverses served us admirably; 
 they were inevitable. Could one hundred and sixty 
 thousand men, exhausted and worn out by fatigue, 
 dispirited by repeated defeats, and commanded by 
 
 i A little vanity of Fouche, who prepares everything in the 
 style of a melodrama, in order to introduce himself upon the 
 stage as alone capable of guiding the police helm, of turning to 
 the best advantage his dark intrigues and fertile expedients. — 
 Note by the Editor.
 
 48 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 generals always liable to be disgraced, make head 
 against more than three hundred thousand enemies 
 seconded, in Italy and Germany, by the people, and 
 brought, either by the ardour of victory or the desire 
 of vengeance, upon the frontiers even of the Republic ? 
 
 The dissatisfaction with the majority of the Direc- 
 tory soon became general. " It has only," as was 
 observed, " displayed its authority in oppression, in- 
 justice, and incapacity ; instead of signalising its 
 dictatorship by some brilliant action, since the 18th 
 Fructidor it has but abused its immense power ; it has 
 ruined our finances, and dug the abyss which now 
 threatens to engulf the Republic." 
 
 It was now only in the councils that the Directory 
 could still find defenders amongst the creatures in its 
 interest, and its unskilful apologists. The exasperation 
 was at its height when Bailleul wrote in a pamphlet 
 that he feared more the Russians in the legislative 
 Body than the Russians approaching the frontiers. 
 
 A concerted message, addressed to the Directory, 
 requiring information upon the exterior and interior 
 situation of the Republic, became the signal for battle. 
 It was at the moment when Sieyes, the new director, 
 had just been installed. No answer arriving from the 
 Luxembourg, the councils, on the 18th of June (28th 
 Prairial), declared their sittings permanent. On its 
 side, the Directory adopted the same resolution by 
 way of reprisal ; but it was already incapable of parry- 
 ing the blows about to be aimed at its existence. 
 
 It was first deprived of the right of restraining the 
 liberty of the press. The expression of opinion being 
 no longer compromised, it was no longer possible for
 
 MERLIN AND REVEILLERE RESIGN 49 
 
 the lawyers to defend the field. Consequently, scarcely 
 was the appointment of Treilhard contested and re- 
 voked than he retired without opening his lips. 
 
 Merlin and Reveillere, however, were obstinate, and 
 endeavoured to maintain themselves in the Directorial 
 chairs. Boulay de la Meurthe, and the deputies of his 
 faction, proceeded to the Luxembourg to demand im- 
 periously the dismissal of the two directors. At the 
 same time Bertrand du Calvados, in the name of a 
 commission of eleven, of which Lucien was one, 
 ascended the tribune, and found means to alarm the 
 directors by the preface of their act of accusation. " I 
 will not speak to you," cried he, " of your Rapinats, 
 your Ivauds, your Trouves, and your Faypoults, who, 
 not satisfied with exasperating our allies by injuries of 
 every kind, have violated by your orders the rights of 
 nations, have proscribed republicans, or have arbi- 
 trarily displaced them to make way for traitors ! " I 
 was not ignorant of this sally, in which was implied 
 an indirect approbation of my conduct, and a tacit 
 condemnation of that pursued by the Directory with 
 respect to me. . 
 
 At length, on the 30th Prairial (18th of June), 
 Merlin and Reveillere, upon a solemn assurance that 
 they should not be impeached, sent in their resigna- 
 tion, and Sieyes became master of the field of battle. 
 At that very instant the whole strength of the revolu- 
 tion rallied round Sieyes and Barras. 
 
 In perfect understanding with the head of the 
 councils, they used every means to prevent the ad- 
 mission of any into the Luxembourg for their colleagues 
 in place of the expelled directors, but such men as 
 
 VOL. 1 4
 
 5 o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Roger Ducos, Moulins, and Gohier, who were inca- 
 pable of throwing them in the background by their 
 abilities or the strength of their character. This 
 arrangement tended greatly to make them masters of 
 affairs, Roger Ducos being associated in vote and in- 
 terest with Sieyes. 
 
 The first-fruit of the triumph of the councils over 
 the Directory was the appointment of Joubert to the 
 command of Paris, an appointment obtained from 
 Sieyes by Barras, and to which I also was not a 
 stranger. A few days afterwards I was appointed to 
 the embassy of Holland : this was a species of repara- 
 tion which the new Directory owed me. I went to 
 take leave of Sieyes ; he told me that till then govern- 
 ment had been directed by chance, without end and 
 without fixed principles, and that it should not be so 
 for the future. He expressed some uneasiness respect- 
 ing the new flight of the anarchical spirit, with which, 
 said he, it is impossible ever to govern. I answered 
 that it was time this aimless and irregular democracy 
 should give place to a republican aristocracy, or govern- 
 ment of men of wisdom and experience, the only one 
 which could establish and consolidate itself. " Yes, 
 doubtless," replied he ; " and if that were possible, you 
 should have it ; but how distant are we still from so 
 desirable an object ! " I then spoke to him of Joubert, 
 as a pure and disinterested general whom I had an 
 opportunity of being well acquainted with in Italy, and 
 to whom might be safely intrusted, in case of need, 
 a powerful influence ; nothing was to be feared either 
 from his ambition or his sword, which he would never 
 turn against the liberty of his country. Sieyes, having
 
 THE MANIFESTO OF 1792 51 
 
 attentively heard me to the conclusion, only replied by 
 a C'est bien ! I could discover nothing else in his side 
 glance. 
 
 It is clear that I did not succeed in my intention 
 of sounding him and drawing out his confidence. I 
 knew, however, that a short time before he had had 
 a very significant conversation with one of M. Talley- 
 rand's friends, who has since been made a senator ; 
 that he owned to him that the Revolution wandered 
 without any object in performing a vicious circle ; and 
 that no stability or safety could be found but by help 
 of another social organisation, which would present 
 us with a counterpart of the English revolution of 
 1688 ; adding, that in that country, for more than a 
 century, liberty and royalty were united together with- 
 out satiety and without divorce. The objection was 
 started that there was no longer a William. " That is 
 true," he replied ; " but there are in the north of 
 Germany wise princes, warriors, philosophers, who 
 govern their little principality as paternally as Leopold 
 governed Tuscany." Finding that he alluded to the 
 Duke of Brunswick, the manifesto of 1792 was men- 
 tioned. " He is not the author of that cursed 
 manifesto," replied he, with much warmth, " and it 
 would be easy to prove that he himself advised the 
 retreat from Champagne, refusing to deliver up France 
 to fire and bloodshed, and to fight for the emigrants." 
 "We must not, however," continued Sieyes, "think 
 of the son of the cowardly Egalite ; not only has he 
 not headpiece sufficient, but it is certain that he has 
 become reconciled with the Pretender ; he would not 
 
 dare to take a single step by himself. Among our 
 
 •1-2
 
 52 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 generals I do not see one who is capable of, or 
 adequate to, placing himself at the head of a coalition 
 of determined spirits to extricate us from the bog in 
 which we are at present knee-deep, for it cannot be 
 dissembled that our power and constitution are crum- 
 bling into ruin on all sides." This conversation required 
 no commentary ; I knew also that Sieves had held, 
 upon our interior situation, nearly the same language 
 to Barras. These glimmerings were sufficient to let 
 me into his views, and to form my opinion respecting 
 his ultimate intentions. 
 
 There is no doubt he already indulged the project 
 of favouring us with a social compact of his own 
 fashion. The haughty priest had been for a long time 
 preyed on by this ambition of raising himself to be 
 the sole legislator. I set off with the firm persuasion 
 that he had succeeded in making his views agreeable 
 to some men of influence, such as Daunou, Cabanis, 
 Chenier, Garat, and the greater part of the members 
 of the council of the ancients, who, hurried on since 
 that, went beyond the goal at which they were to 
 stop. Such was the germ of the revolution which 
 shortly began to be prepared, and without which 
 France would inevitably have fallen prostrate in the 
 convulsions of anarchy, or under the repeated blows 
 of the European coalition. 
 
 I had scarcely time to go and present my creden- 
 tials at the Hague, where I replaced Lombard de 
 Langres — a kind of affected author, but in other 
 respects a worthy man. I found this other young 
 republic divided in its authorities into firm and weak 
 men, into aristocrats and democrats, as everywhere
 
 ACTIVITY OF THE BONAPARTE FACTION 
 
 53 
 
 else. I convinced myself that the Orange, or English, 
 party would never have influence upon the destinies 
 of the country so long as our armies were capable 
 of protecting Holland. There I again met with 
 Brune, who kept our troops firm in their obedience 
 by shutting his eyes to the carrying on of a contra- 
 band trade, indispensable to prevent the ruin of the 
 country. I let him do as he pleased ; we could not 
 fail of being on perfectly good terms ; like me, he 
 found himself sufficiently avenged by the overthrow of 
 the ill-conducted governments which had injured and 
 expatriated us so mat a propos. 
 
 Nothing, however, was as yet fixed at Paris. The 
 greatest instability prevailed, and it was to be appre- 
 hended that the triumph of the councils over the 
 executive power might end by enervating and dis- 
 organising the government. It was, above all, to be 
 feared that the anarchists, by abusing the consequences 
 of the late revolution, might wish to overturn every- 
 thing in order to seize a power which they were 
 incapable of directing. They relied upon Bernadotte, 
 whom they had appointed to be minister of the war 
 department, and whose ambition and character did 
 not sympathise with the views of Sieyes and his part)-. 
 
 Fortunately, the faction of Bonaparte, directed by 
 his two brothers, and having for council Rcederer, 
 Boulay de la Meurthe, and Regnier, coincided in 
 viewing the necessity of arresting the flight of the 
 legislative movement. Lucien took upon him to speak 
 from the tribune. By proposing some line of demar- 
 cation for the future, he drew round his own party 
 the old directors and their followers, who were fearful
 
 54 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of being called to an account. The danger was press- 
 ing ; the ultra party demanded the impeachment of 
 the co-directors, a measure which would bring to 
 light or unveil every malversation. 
 
 A strong opposition, therefore, immediately arose in 
 a portion of those deputies even who had concurred in 
 overthrowing the majority of the Directory, but merely 
 in order to change the system of the government, and 
 to get it into their own hands. They alleged in favour 
 of the accused that people were liable to make mistakes 
 in politics, to adopt false theories, and be unsuccessful ; 
 that they might even yield to the intoxication which is 
 attendant upon great power, and in that be more un- 
 fortunate than criminal. They above all invoked the 
 promise, or rather the moral promise given and received, 
 that no measure should be adopted against the ex- 
 directors if they made a voluntary resignation ; and, 
 finally, they recalled to remembrance that the councils 
 had more . than once sanctioned by their plaudits the 
 expedition into Egypt and the declaration of war 
 against the Swiss ; the objects of so much declamation. 
 This impeachment, besides, would have revealed too 
 much, and this Barras wished to avoid ; it would also, 
 in other respects, have had consequences injurious to 
 power abstractedly considered, and this Sieyes con- 
 sidered as impolitic. These discussions were protracted 
 with the view of occupying the public attention till 
 other incidents and the march of events might operate 
 a diversion. 1 But how was it possible to stop at one 
 
 1 All this is very clear, and we know no other production 
 which throws so much light upon the intrigues of this period. — 
 Note by the Editor.
 
 JOUBERT APPOINTED COMMANDER 55 
 
 and the same time the abuses of the press, which 
 began to degenerate into licentiousness, and the con- 
 tagion of the popular clubs, which had everywhere been 
 reopened ? Could Sieves, at the head of his phalanx, 
 composed of some forty philosophers, metaphysicians, 
 and deputies, without any energy than that stimulated 
 by worldly interest, flatter himself with being able to 
 overthrow anarchy and erect a superstructure of social 
 order without foundations ? His coalition with Barras 
 was precarious. In the Directory he could only calcu- 
 late upon Roger Ducos. With regard to Moulins and 
 Gohier, his only guarantee for them was their extreme 
 sincerity and their limited political views. Men so in- 
 significant might, at the critical moment, become the 
 instruments of an enterprising faction. The ascendency 
 which Sieyes exercised in the Directory might be 
 diminished, or even turned against him by mistrust. 
 
 But when, indeed, he saw that it was in his power 
 to strengthen himself by means of Joubert — invested 
 with the command of Paris — and whose inclinations 
 were about to be gained over by a marriage into which 
 he allowed himself to be entrapped, Sieyes resolved to 
 make him the pivot of his reforming coalition. In con- 
 sequence, the chief command of the army of Italy was 
 given him, in the hope that he would bring back 
 victory to our standards, and thus acquire a quantum 
 of glory sufficient for the elevation of the part allotted 
 to him. 
 
 This arranged, Sieyes perceived that he wanted the 
 instrumentality of a firm and active police. The police, 
 as it was then constituted, naturally favoured the 
 popular party, which had introduced into its body
 
 5 6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 several of its creatures and of its leaders. The worthy 
 Bourguignon, the then minister, owed his elevation to 
 Gohier, but was entirely inadequate to such an office 
 beset with so many difficulties. This was felt, and at 
 the very moment when I had just drawn up for Barras 
 a memoir upon the situation of the interior, in which 
 I treated in its fullest extent the question of general 
 police,. Barras himself joined with Sieyes in order to 
 dismiss Bourguignon, and afterwards with Gohier and 
 Moulins, for the purpose of removing Alquier, Sieyes' 
 candidate, and of calling me into office. I willingly 
 exchanged my embassy for the direction of the police, 
 although the ground on which I trod appeared slippery. 
 I lost no time in taking possession of my post, and on 
 the ist of August I was installed. 
 
 The crown was lost in 1789 from the mere in- 
 capacity of the high police, the directors of it at that 
 time not being able to penetrate the conspiracies and 
 plots which threatened royalty. The first pledge for 
 the safety of any government whatever is a vigilant 
 police, under the direction of firm and enlightened 
 ministers. The difficulties of the high police are im- 
 mense, whether it has to operate in the combinations 
 of a representative government, so incompatible with 
 whatever is the least arbitrary, and that leaves to the 
 factious legal arms with which to execute their pro- 
 jects ; or whether it acts in behalf of a more concen- 
 trated form of government, aristocratical, directorial, 
 or despotic. In the latter case the task is the more 
 difficult, for nothing transpires from without : it is in 
 obscurity and mystery that traces must be discovered 
 which only present themselves to inquiring and pene-
 
 FOUCHE ASSUMES OFFICE 57 
 
 trating glances. I found myself in the former case, 
 with the double duty of discovering and dissolving the 
 coalitions and legal oppositions against the established 
 power, as well as the dark plots of royalists and 
 foreign agents. The danger from these last was far 
 less immediate. 
 
 I raised myself mentally above my functions, and 
 felt not the least fear at their importance. In two 
 hours I fully understood all my official powers. I did 
 not, however, fatigue myself with considering the 
 ministry intrusted to me in its minor details of 
 arrangement. As things were situated, I felt that 
 all the powers and abilities of a minister must be 
 absorbed in the high police ; the rest might safely 
 be left to the chefs de bureau. My only study was, 
 therefore, to seize with a steady and sure hand all 
 the springs of the secret police, and all the elements 
 composing it. I first insisted that, for these essential 
 reasons, the local police of Paris, called the bureau 
 central (the prefecture did not then exist), should be 
 placed entirely under my control. I found all the 
 constituent elements in the most deplorable state of 
 confusion and decay. The 'treasury was empty ; and 
 without money, no police. I soon had money at my 
 command, by making the vice inherent in this great 
 city contribute to the safety of the state. My first act 
 was to put a stop to a tendency to insubordination, in 
 which some of the chefs de bureau belonging to active 
 factions indulged themselves; but I judged it necessary 
 not to introduce hasty reforms or ameliorations in the 
 details. I restricted myself simply to concentrating 
 the high police within my own cabinet, with the
 
 58 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 assistance of an intimate and faithful secretary. I felt 
 that I alone should be judge of the political state of 
 the interior, and that spies and secret agents should 
 only be considered as indications and instruments 
 often doubtful : in a word, I felt that the high police 
 was not administered by memorials and long reports ; 
 that there were means far more efficacious ; for 
 example, that the minister should place himself in 
 contact with the men of greatest influence, over all 
 opinions and doctrines, and over the superior classes 
 of society. This system never failed me, and I was 
 better acquainted with France, veiled in mystery by 
 means of oral and confidential communications, and 
 by widely-grasping conversations, than by the heaps 
 of written rubbish which continually passed under 
 my eyes. Thus, nothing essential to the safety of 
 the state ever escaped me, as will be proved in the 
 sequel. 
 
 ' These preliminaries being settled, I informed my- 
 self of the political state of the interior — a kind of 
 examination which I had already prepared in my 
 mind. I had scrutinised every vice, and probed every 
 wound of the social compact of the year III., by 
 which we were governed ; and, to speak sincerely, I 
 considered that compact incapable of being executed 
 constitutionally. The two shocks it had sustained on 
 the 18th Fructidor, and the 30th Prairial, in a contrary 
 sense, changed the assertion into a positive fact. From 
 a government purely constitutional, the nation had 
 passed under the dictatorship of five men ; this did 
 not succeed. Now that the executive power was 
 mutilated and weakened in its very essence, every-
 
 SIEVES' POLICY MISTRUSTED 59 
 
 thing indicated that the despotism of a few would be 
 changed into a popular delirium, unless a strong 
 barrier could be opportunely raised. I knew also that 
 the man who had obtained the greatest influence, 
 Sieyes, had from the commencement regarded this 
 political establishment as absurd, and that he had 
 even refused to direct the helm. If he had now sur- 
 mounted his repugnance, it was because the oppor- 
 tunity of substituting a more reasonable organisation 
 appeared to have arrived ; he could not demolish the 
 bastions without approaching the fortress itself. I 
 explained myself to Barras, who, as much as I, mis- 
 trusted the sinuous policy of Sieyes. But he had 
 certain engagements with him, and, moreover, dreaded 
 on his own account the exaggerations and encroach- 
 ments of the popular party. This party had the 
 upper hand of him, but only from political considera- 
 tions, and with the hopes of opposing Sieyes, who 
 was beginning to throw off the mask. In the eyes of 
 the republicans, Barras was considered as an old worn- 
 out director, with whom the preservation of the public 
 weal was incompatible. On one side he found him- 
 self pressed by the club of the Manege, which, as- 
 suming the tone and attitude of the Jacobins, declaimed 
 against dilapidators and public robbers ; and on the 
 other, by Sieyes, who, taking advantage of some de- 
 gree of influence, had some ulterior views which he 
 did not care to intrust in confidence to Barras. 
 
 Sieyes had no doubt already prepared a constitu- 
 tion to his own taste, which should restrain and 
 counterpoise power, according as events should de- 
 velop themselves ; his coalition was complete, and he
 
 6o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 thought himself certain of the co-operation of Joubert. 
 A letter from this general showed me his real inten- 
 tions : he cherished the noble hope of returning, 
 strengthened by the ascendency of victory, to con- 
 ciliate all parties. Sieyes had been heard to say, 
 " Nothing can be accomplished with fools and drivel- 
 lers ; we only want two things, a headpiece and a 
 sword." I was in great hopes that the sword upon 
 which he so much relied would not place itself en- 
 tirely at his discretion. 
 
 Although his position was critical — temporising with 
 Barras, and not being able to rely either upon Gohier 
 or Moulins, who were both attached to the established 
 order of things — he could, however, still rely upon 
 his colleagues in their acquiescence to measures neces- 
 sary to oppose the new legislative encroachments and 
 the attempts of the anarchists. Sieyes had, in the 
 council of ancients, an organised band. It became 
 necessary to assure himself of a numerical majority 
 in the council of five hundred, in which the ardent 
 and ultra party fixed their headquarters. The union 
 of the directorials and politicals sufficed to keep it in 
 check. Sure of the majority, the Directory determined 
 to make trial of their strength. As minister of police 
 in this state of affairs, I had only to manoeuvre with 
 dexterity and promptitude upon the line of operations. 
 The first step was to render any dangerous coalition 
 against the executive government totally impossible. 
 I took upon myself to arrest the licentiousness of the 
 public journals, and the bold march of the political 
 societies which arose from their ashes. Such was the 
 first proposition which I made to the Directory, in
 
 FOUCHE'S PROCLAMATION 5 1 
 
 full sitting, after an explanatory report which Barras 
 had concerted with Sieyes. A carte-blanche was granted 
 me, and I resolved to suppress the clubs first. 
 
 I began by a kind of proclamation, or circular, 
 in which I declared that I had just taken upon myself 
 the duty of watching for all, and over all, in order 
 to re-establish the tranquillity of the interior, and to 
 put an end to the massacres. This last assurance, and 
 the word which ended it, displeased the demagogues, 
 who had flattered themselves with finding me accom- 
 modating. It was still worse when, on the 18th Ther- 
 midor (5th of August), four days after my entrance 
 into office, the Directory transmitted to the council 
 of ancients, who sent it to the council of five hundred, 
 my report upon the political societies. This was my 
 avowed production. In this report, which was guarded 
 in its expressions, for fear of irritating republican sus- 
 ceptibility, I began by establishing the necessity of 
 protecting the interior discussions of the clubs, by 
 coercing them exteriorly with all the power of the 
 Republic ; then adding that the first steps of these 
 societies had been attempts against the constitution, 
 I concluded by praying for measures which should 
 compel them to re-enter the constitutional boundaries. 
 
 The sensation which the communication of this 
 report produced in the chamber was very strong. 
 Two deputies (who, I believe, were Delbrel and 
 Clemanceau) considered this mode of transmission, 
 on the part of the council of ancients, as an incipient 
 blow to the constitution. The deputy Grandmaison, 
 after having applied the terms false and calumnious to 
 my report, said it was the signal of a new reaction
 
 62 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 against the most ardent supporters of the Republic. 
 A very warm discussion then took place, whether the 
 report should be printed — a discussion which produced 
 some animated observations from Briot and Garrau, 
 who demanded it might be put to the vote ; this did 
 not take place, and the printing of the report was 
 not ordered. 
 
 Thus, to speak the truth, in this first skirmish the 
 battle was a drawn one ; but I experienced a disad- 
 vantage : not one voice was raised in my favour, which 
 led me to observe how little reason there is, in a 
 revolution, for relying upon cold and calculating spirits, 
 whatever may have been the bait with which they were 
 allured. They afterwards give you good reasons for 
 justifying their silence ; but the only true one is the 
 fear of committing themselves. The same day I was 
 attacked with still greater violence in the society of 
 the Manege. 
 
 I was neither disconcerted nor alarmed by this 
 discouraging debut. To have flinched would have been 
 to work my own destruction, and abandon fortune in 
 the road she opened to me. I resolved to manoeuvre 
 skilfully in the midst of kindling passions and of 
 interests which clashed without the least disguise. 
 Sieyes, finding that the Directory was not firm, and 
 that Barras did not keep pace with his wishes, ordered 
 the commissioner of inspectors of the council of ancients, 
 who were sitting at the Tuileries, to close the hall of 
 the Manege. This stroke of authority caused a sen- 
 sation. I thought Sieyes certain of his object, and 
 still more so when, at the commemoration of the ioth 
 of August, which was held with much pomp in the
 
 LEFEVRE MADE COMMANDANT OF PARIS 63 
 
 Champ de Mars, he made in his state speech, as 
 president, the most violent attack upon the Jacobins, 
 declaring that the Directory knew all the enemies 
 which were conspiring against the Republic, and that 
 it would oppose them with equal vigour and perse- 
 verance, not by counterpoising one against the other, 
 but by suppressing them all alike. 
 
 As if at that very instant it was wished to punish 
 him for having fulminated forth these menacing words, 
 at the moment when the salvos of artillery and mus- 
 ketry terminated the ceremony, two or three balls were 
 heard, or were said to have been heard, whistling round 
 Sieyes and Barras, followed by some shouts. Upon 
 returning to the Directory, whither I closely followed 
 them, I found them both exasperated and enraged to 
 the utmost degree. I said that if indeed there had 
 been a plot, it could only have been planned by some 
 military instigators ; and fearing that I should myself 
 become suspected by Sieyes, who would not have failed 
 demanding my sacrifice, I insinuated to him, in a 
 pencilled note, that he should remove General Marbot, 
 commandant of Paris. It was notorious that this 
 general showed himself completely devoted to the party 
 of the high republicans, who were opposed to Sieyes' 
 politics. Upon the proposition of Sieyes, that very 
 night, without the advice of Bernadotte, at that time 
 the war minister, and without his knowledge, an order 
 was made out directing that Marbot should be em- 
 ployed on active service. The command of Paris was 
 conferred upon General Lefevre, an illustrious sergeant, 
 whose ambition was limited to being the instrument 
 of the majority of the Directory. The diatribe of
 
 64 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Sieyes at the Champ de Mars, and the Houra against 
 the Jacobins, were considered by one half of the 
 council of five hundred as an appeal to the counter- 
 revolution. The passions fermented still more and 
 more, and the Directory itself became divided and 
 irritated. Barras was in doubt whether he should 
 attach himself to Gohier and Moulins, which would 
 have isolated Sieyes. His incertitude could not escape 
 me ; I was convinced that it was not yet time to de- 
 termine : I told him so candidly. Three days after 
 the harangue of Sieyes, I took upon myself to recom- 
 mend the closing of the hall of the Jacobins of the 
 Rue du Bac. I had my reasons. 1 A message from 
 the Directory announced that the violation of the con- 
 stitutional forms by this reunited society had deter- 
 mined it to order the closing of it. This bold step 
 completed the irritation of a violent faction, which 
 now experienced nothing but checks either from the 
 government or the councils. 
 
 It became also necessary to show that measures as 
 decisive could be adopted against the royalists, who 
 began to stir in the west, and who had just made a 
 futile effort in La Haute Garonne. Upon my report, 
 the Directory required and obtained, by a message, 
 the authority of making, for the space of one month, 
 domiciliary visits to discover the emigrants, embaucheurs, 
 assassins, and robbers. A few military measures in 
 
 1 What, then, were Fouche's views in thus manoeuvring against 
 those centres of the popular government, or rather against the 
 sovereignty of the people — a favourite dogma of our author's ? 
 He has himself told us, he aspired to become one of the first 
 heads of the revolutionary aristocracy. — Note by the Editor.
 
 THE LAW OF HOSTAGES 65 
 
 La Haute Garonne were sufficient to stifle this ill- 
 conceived and ill-directed insurrection. 1 As to the ex- 
 cesses perpetrated afresh by the Chouans in Brittany 
 and La Vendee, as it was an inveterate evil proceeding 
 from a vast cause, the remedy was not so easy in its 
 application. The law of hostages, which prescribed 
 measures against the relations of emigrants and nobles, 
 instead of appeasing the troubles in their birth, did but 
 increase them. This law, which but too much recalled 
 to memory the Reign of Terror, appeared to me very 
 odious, and well calculated to raise us up still more 
 enemies. I contented myself with neutralising its 
 execution as much as depended upon myself, taking 
 care at the same time that my repugnance did not 
 irritate in too great a degree the Directory and the 
 departmental authorities. I perceived that these 
 troubles were connected with one wound of the state, 
 which the cabinet of London did its utmost to enlarge. 
 I dispatched into the western departments intelligent 
 emissaries, to give me exact information of the state 
 of things. I then gained over a certain number of 
 royalist agents, who, having fallen into our power in 
 the different disturbed departments, had to fear either 
 death, exile, or perpetual imprisonment. The greater 
 part of these had offered their services to the govern- 
 ment. I contrived means for their escape without 
 their being liable to be suspected by their own party, 
 whose ranks they again went to fill. They almost all 
 rendered valuable services, and I can even say that 
 
 1 He was here no longer the Fouchc of the revolutionary 
 aristocracy, but the Fouche of the Convention ; his police was 
 like Janus, it had two faces. — Note by the Editor. 
 
 vol. 1 5
 
 66 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 through them and the information they furnished I 
 succeeded at a later period in putting an end to the 
 civil war. 1 
 
 The greatest obstacles proceeded from amongst our- 
 selves ; they were raised by the schism of the revolu- 
 tionists, who divided themselves into the possessors of 
 power and the aspirants after office. The latter, im- 
 patient and irritated, became more and more exacting 
 and hostile. How could it be hoped to govern and 
 reform the state while the licentiousness of the press 
 was permitted? It was at its height. "The Directory, 
 now nearly royalty," said the Journal cics Homines 
 Libres, " has ostensibly sanctioned the massacre of re- 
 publicans by the speech of its president on the loth 
 of August, and by its message on the shutting up of 
 political societies." Upon arriving at the Luxembourg 
 I found, as I expected, Sieyes and his colleagues 
 exasperated against the journals. I immediately sug- 
 gested a message, requiring from the councils measures 
 calculated to curb the counter-revolutionary journalists 
 and the libellers. The message was being drawn up 
 when the first intelligence arrived of the loss of the 
 battle of Novi and the death of Joubert. The Directory 
 was thunderstruck and discouraged. Although over- 
 come with grief myself, I was nevertheless mindful that 
 the reins should not be let fall ; nothing, however, 
 could be decided on that day. In the circumstances 
 in which we were placed the loss of the battle was a 
 disaster, the death of Joubert a calamity. He had 
 set off with special instructions to come to an engage- 
 
 1 Here Fouche appears as the precursor and promoter of 
 the imperial regime. — Note by the Editor.
 
 THE DEATH OF JOUBERT 67 
 
 ment with the Russians. Unfortunately, the delay of a 
 month, occasioned by his marriage with Mademoiselle 
 de Montholon, had given the enemy time to reinforce 
 itself. 
 
 The death of Joubert, who was struck down at the 
 first discharge of musketry, and which has justly been 
 deemed suspicious, has never been clearly explained. 
 I have questioned ocular witnesses respecting the 
 event, who seemed persuaded that the murderous ball 
 was fired from a small country-house, by some hired 
 ruffian, the musketry of the enemy not being within 
 reach of the group of staff officers, in the middle of 
 which was Joubert, when he came up to encourage 
 the advance guard, which was giving way. It has 
 even been said that the shot was fired by a Corsican 
 chasseur of our light troops. 
 
 But let us not endeavour to unravel a dreadful 
 mystery by conjectures or facts not sufficiently sub- 
 stantiated. " I leave you Joubert ! ' said Bonaparte, 
 on setting off for Egypt. I will add, that his valour 
 was heightened by his simplicity of manners and his 
 disinterestedness, and that in him a correct coup d'ceil 
 was found united with rapidity of execution — a cool 
 head with a warm heart. And this warrior was just 
 snatched from us, perhaps by the hand of a murderer, 
 at the moment when he might have raised and saved 
 the country ! 
 
 The progress of the policy of the government was 
 suspended for nearly fifteen days ; we could not, how- 
 ever, see ourselves perish. I urged Barras ; and well 
 assured that Sieyes was meditating an important blow, 
 which it was essential to parry, these two directors 
 
 5—2
 
 68 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 reunited to Roger Ducos, resolved, upon my sugges- 
 tions, to resume their counteracting plans. Resolved 
 to restrain the licentiousness of the press, I determined 
 upon a decisive blow; I at one stroke of my pen sup- 
 pressed eleven of the most popular journals among the 
 Jacobins and the royalists. I caused their presses to 
 be seized ; and even arrested the authors, whom I 
 accused of sowing dissension among the citizens, of 
 establishing it by persisting to suppose its existence, 
 of blasting private character, misrepresenting motives, 
 reanimating factions, and rekindling animosities. 1 By 
 its message the Directory restricted itself to inform the 
 councils that the licentiousness of several journalists 
 had determined it to cite them before the tribunals, 
 and to put seals upon their printing presses. Upon 
 my report being read, murmurs were heard, and much 
 agitation pervaded the hall. The deputy Briot declared 
 that some coup d'etat was in preparation ; and, after a 
 personal attack upon me, demanded the suppression 
 of the ministry of the police. The next day the Direc- 
 tory caused a eulogium upon my administration to be 
 inserted in the Redacteur and Moniteur. 
 
 We had resumed our plans ; we had secured Moreau 
 to our party, a republican in his heart, but detesting 
 anarchy. He was indeed but a poor politician, and 
 we did not find a great occasion of security in his 
 co-operation. Indifferent, and easily alarmed, he was 
 
 1 Always the same when a government equally free from 
 contradictors and contradictions is the object in view ; Fouche 
 does but follow, in this place, the errors of the Convention, of 
 the Committee of Public Safety, and of the Directory on the 
 1 8th Fructidor; he will do the same under Bonaparte, and he 
 will prove to us he is right. — Note by the Editor.
 
 A GLOOMY OUTLOOK 
 
 69 
 
 constantly in need of a stimulus. But we had no 
 longer a power of choice ; for, among the generals 
 then in credit, there was not a single one upon whom 
 we could safely rely. 
 
 The political horizon daily became more gloomy. 
 We had just lost Italy, and were menaced with the 
 loss of Holland and Belgium ; an Anglo-Russian ex- 
 pedition had landed, on the 27th of August, in the 
 north of Holland. From these reverses the ultra 
 party derived fresh vigour. Their meetings became 
 more frequent and active ; they nominated for their 
 leaders Jourdan and Augereau, who had seats in the 
 five hundred and in the council, and Bernadotte, who 
 was minister of war. Nearly two hundred deputies 
 had recruited their party ; it was, indeed, a minority, 
 but an alarming one. As its roots in the Directory, it 
 had also the directors Moulins and Gohier, at the 
 moment when Barras, affecting to preserve a kind of 
 equilibrium, believed himself by this manoeuvre the 
 arbiter of affairs. If he did not detach himself from 
 Sieyes, it was solely from the fear that too violent a 
 movement might deprive him of the power. I care- 
 fully preserved him in this disposition, much less to 
 preserve my own stability than from love for my 
 country : 1 too violent a convulsion in favour of the 
 popular party would have been our destruction at this 
 crisis. 
 
 The motion for declaring the country in danger, 
 proposed by Jourdan, was the signal of a grand effort 
 on the part of our adversaries. I had been informed 
 
 1 What candour, what disinterestedness, in Fouche !— \'< U 
 by the Editor.
 
 7o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of it the night before. So that all our majority, 
 assembled not without difficulty, after a meeting at the 
 house of the deputy Fregeville, marched to their post, 
 determined to stand firm. The picture of the dangers 
 which surrounded us on every side was first drawn : 
 " Italy under the yoke, the barbarians of the north at 
 the very barriers of France, Holland invaded, the fleets 
 treacherously given up, Helvetia ravaged, bands of 
 royalists indulging in every excess in many of the de- 
 partments, the republicans proscribed under the name 
 of Terrorists and Jacobins." Such were the principal 
 traits of the gloomy picture which Jourdan drew of 
 our political situation. " One more reverse upon our 
 frontiers," cried he, " and the alarm-bell of royalty 
 will ring over the whole surface of the soil of France, 
 as that of liberty did on the 14th of July." 
 
 After having conjured the Directory, from the legis- 
 lative tnbune, to discard the lukewarm friends of the 
 Republic, in a crisis in which energy alone could be 
 the salvation of France, he concluded by a motion, 
 the object of which was to declare the country in 
 danger. The adoption of this proposition would have 
 hastened the movement which we were anxious to 
 prevent, or at least to regulate. It produced the most 
 violent discussion. The intention of the party had 
 been to carry it with a high hand ; but whether from 
 shame or irresolution, they consented to adjourn the 
 debate till the next day : this gave us breathing time. 
 
 I was informed that the most ardent among the 
 patriots had earnestly solicited Bernadotte to mount 
 his horse and declare for them, aided by a tumult at 
 once civil and military. Already, in spite of the efforts
 
 AN APPEAL TO BERNADOTTE 
 
 71 
 
 and opposition of the police, an appeal had been made 
 to the old and new Jacobins, to the old and new 
 Terrorists. Upon Barras and myself devolved the task 
 of dissuading Bernadotte from an enterprise which 
 would have made him the Marius of France, a part 
 compatible neither with his character nor habits. Am- 
 bition was doubtless his ruling passion ; but it was a 
 useful and generous ambition, and liberty was the 
 object of his sincere devotion. We both touched these 
 sensitive chords, and succeeded in overcoming him. 
 He was, however, aware of the projects founded under 
 the aegis of Joubert, together with the proposals made 
 to Moreau, to change the form of government. We 
 assured him that these were mere undigested ideas, 
 mere chance projects, proposed by those theorists with 
 which governments are continually annoyed in critical 
 times ; that nothing in this respect had been deter- 
 mined upon ; that the constitution would be respected 
 as long as our enemies did not wish to destroy it 
 themselves. Barras hinted to him that it was advis- 
 able he should express his wish to be appointed 
 commander-in-chief of an army, as while he held the 
 war portfolio, he was the rallying point for an active 
 party opposed to government. He avoided explaining 
 himself respecting the hint thrown out, and left us. 
 
 Sieyes and Roger Ducos were extremely fearful of 
 any failure ; the more so as I had certain intelligence 
 that vast crowds would be assembled round the Legis- 
 lative Hall, and that the party flattered themselves they 
 should carry their object by a coup dc main, with the 
 assistance of three generals devoted to their interests. 
 Sieyes, in his quality of president, having sent for
 
 72 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Bernadotte, talked him over, and with much ability 
 got him to say that he would consider the chief com- 
 mand of an army as an honourable reward for his 
 labours as minister. Upon which Sieyes proposed im- 
 mediate action. General Lefevre had already received 
 orders to concert with me the necessary military 
 measures for dispersing any popular assembling by 
 force, after being well assured of the good disposition 
 of the soldiery. I found him full of confidence, and I 
 believed I could rely upon his soldierlike inflexibility. 
 My secret informations coinciding with other confi- 
 dential communications, Sieyes and Barras, united with 
 Roger Ducos, dismissed Bernadotte without any com- 
 munication whatever to Moulins or Gohier. As a 
 douceur, we were compelled to assure them that they 
 should be consulted upon the choice of the new 
 minister — a choice which Gohier, seconded by Barras, 
 directed a few days after upon Dubois de Crance. 
 
 The debate was opened in rather an imposing 
 manner, upon the motion of Jourdan. Two opinions 
 were expressed. One party was desirous that the 
 government should preserve its ministerial and secret 
 character, the other that it should develop one more 
 national and public. These were so many masks to 
 conceal the real views of both parties. Jourdan's 
 motion was opposed with much talent and ingenuity 
 by Chenier and Lucien Bonaparte, and with less 
 ability by Boulay de la Meurthe. Lucien declared 
 that the only way to surmount the crisis was by 
 intrusting a great extent of power to the executive 
 authority. He, however, thought it his duty to combat 
 the idea of a dictatorship. " Is there one among us,"
 
 LUCIEN'S GRAND OBJECT 73 
 
 cried he — this is very remarkable — " who would not 
 arm himself with the poniard of Brutus and chastise 
 the base and ambitious enemy of his country ? " This 
 was anticipating the affair of the 18th Brumaire — a 
 day the triumph of which Lucien himself insured two 
 months afterwards. It is clear that he at this time 
 thought less of avoiding an inconsistency than at 
 keeping at a distance all kind of dictatorship, for this 
 would have dashed down the hopes which his brother 
 cherished in Egypt, to whom he had dispatched 
 courier after courier to hasten his return. Lucien's 
 grand object was that he should find the field clear, 
 being well assured that neither hesitation nor irresolu- 
 tion would be found in him — superior in this respect 
 to our timorous generals, who, fearful of the responsi- 
 bility of a precarious power, saw no other mode of 
 reform but that of a new organisation, consented to 
 by men who were averse to any. 
 
 The debate in the council of five hundred was very 
 stormy. The report of Bernadotte's dismission had 
 irritated it considerably. Jourdan perceived in this the 
 certain prognostics of a coup d'etat, and demanded the 
 permanence of the councils. His motions were nega- 
 tived by two hundred and forty-five votes against one 
 hundred and seventy-one. One hundred and two of 
 the warmest among the deputies entered their protests. 
 The mobs and crowds assembled around the hall were 
 dreadful, and their shouts and vociferations threatening. 
 The mass of the population of Paris • testified their 
 alarm. But, whether from imbecility or sluggishness, 
 or from the efficacy of the measures of the military, 
 and the manoeuvres of my agents, all the elements of
 
 74 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 trouble and discord were dissipated, and tranquillity 
 began to reappear. 
 
 The victory gained by the executive was complete ; 
 the council of ancients rejected the resolution which 
 was to have deprived the Directory of the power of 
 introducing troops within the constitutional radius. 
 
 These were, however, but evasive means. The 
 country was really in danger ; angry factions lacerated 
 the state. The removal of Bernadotte, disguised under 
 the appearance of a dismissal, solicited on his part, 
 was doubtless a decided act, but one which might be 
 interpreted to the disadvantage of the Directory. In 
 a letter which was made public, Bernadotte replied in 
 these terms to the official notification of his retirement, 
 " I did not give in the resignation which was accepted, 
 and I make known this fact for the honour of truth, 
 which equally belongs to contemporaries and to his- 
 tory." Then, declaring his want of repose, he solicited 
 his retiring pension {traitement de reform), " which I 
 think to have deserved," added he, " by twenty years 
 of uninterrupted services." 
 
 Thus were we again plunged into chaos by the 
 effect of this grand division of opinion which pervaded 
 both the legislative body and the Directory. " The 
 vessel of the state," said I often to myself, "will float 
 without any direction till a pilot presents himself 
 capable of bringing it safe into port." x 
 
 Two sudden events brought about our safety. First, 
 the battle of Zurich, gained on the 25th of September 
 by Massena, who, by again defeating the Russians, 
 
 1 Fouche ably prepares us for the 18th Brumaire. — Note by 
 the Editor.
 
 ANTICIPATED LANDING OF BONAPARTE 75 
 
 and by preserving our frontier, permitted us to linger 
 on without any interior crisis till the 16th of October, 
 the day on which Bonaparte, who had landed on the 
 gth at Frejus, made his entry into Paris, after having 
 violated the laws of quarantine, so essential to the 
 preservation of the public health. 
 
 Here let me pause an instant. The course of human 
 events is, doubtless, subjected to an impulse which is 
 derived from certain causes, the effects of which are 
 inevitable. Imperceptible to the vulgar, these causes 
 strike either more or less the statesman. He discovers 
 them either in certain signs or in fortuitous incidents 
 whose inspirations enlighten and direct him. This was 
 precisely what happened to me five or six weeks before 
 Bonaparte's landing. I was informed that two per- 
 sons, employed in the bureau de police, discussing the 
 state of affairs, had said that Bonaparte would be soon 
 seen again in France. I traced this remark to its 
 source, and found it to have no other origin than one 
 of those gleams of the mind which ma) 7 be considered 
 as a species of involuntary foresight. This idea made 
 its impression upon me. 
 
 I soon discovered by the temporising of Lucicn and 
 Joseph what were their real thoughts. They were per- 
 suaded that if their letters and packets arrived in 
 Egypt, in spite of the British cruisers, Bonaparte would 
 do his utmost to return ; but the chances appeared 
 to them so uncertain and hazardous that they dared 
 not trust to them. Real, one of Bonaparte's secret 
 correspondents, went still further ; he owned to me 
 his hopes. I imparted them to Barras, but found him 
 without an) - decided opinion upon the matter. As to
 
 76 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 myself, concealing previous discoveries, I made several 
 advances, both to the two brothers and to Josephine, 
 with the view of making both families favourable ; they 
 were divided. I found Josephine much more accessible. 
 It is well known by what ill-judged profusion she per- 
 petuated the disorder and the embarrassments of her 
 family : she was always without a sou. The income 
 of forty thousand francs, secured to her by Bonaparte 
 before his departure, was insufficient for her, inde- 
 pendent of two extraordinary remittances, amounting 
 together to the same sum, which had been sent her 
 from Egypt in less than one year. Besides this, 
 Barras having recommended her to me, I had included 
 her in the number of those who received secret pecu- 
 niary assistance from the funds arising from gambling 
 licenses. I gave her, with my own hands, one thou- 
 sand louis — a ministerial gallantry which completed her 
 favourable opinion of me. 1 Through her means I 
 obtained much information, for she saw all Paris; with 
 Barras, however, she was reserved, being more intimate 
 with Gohier, at that time president of the Directory, 
 and receiving his lady at the house ; complaining at 
 the same time very heavily of her brothers-in-law, 
 Joseph and Lucien, with whom she was on very bad 
 terms. My information from different quarters at 
 length convinced me that Bonaparte would suddenly 
 burst upon us ; I was therefore, as it were, prepared 
 for this event, at a time when everyone else was 
 struck with surprise at it. 
 
 1 This is truly being Vhommt habile, and it is pretty well known 
 what the signification of the adjective habile is with revolutionists. 
 — Note by the Editor.
 
 THE VICTORY OF ABOUKIR ANNOUNCED 
 
 77 
 
 There would have been no great merit in coming 
 to take possession of an immense power, which was 
 offered to the most enterprising, and of gathering the 
 fruits of an enterprise in which, to succeed, the display 
 of audacity was alone requisite ; but to abandon a 
 victorious army, to pass through hostile fleets, arrive 
 in the very nick of time, hold all parties in suspense, 
 and decide for the safest — to weigh, balance, and 
 master everything in the midst of so many contrary 
 interests and opposing passions, and all this in twenty- 
 five days, supposes wonderful ability, a firm character, 
 and prompt decision. To enter into the details of the 
 short interval between the arrival of Bonaparte and 
 the 18th Brumaire would fill a volume, or rather, it 
 would require the pen of a Tacitus. 
 
 Bonaparte, with much ability, had caused his own 
 arrival to be preceded by that of the bulletin announc- 
 ing the victory of Aboukir. It did not escape my 
 notice that in certain coteries it was made much of, 
 and that much inflation and hyperbole was put in 
 requisition. Since the last dispatches from Egypt, 
 much more movement and cheerfulness were percep- 
 tible at Josephine's and also at Joseph's and Lucien's. 
 "Ah! if he should arrive for us!'' said Josephine to 
 me ; "it is not impossible : should he have received 
 the news of our disasters in time, nothing would pre- 
 vent his flying hither to repair and save all ! ' A 
 fortnight had scarcely elapsed after hearing these 
 words, and Bonaparte suddenly landed. The most 
 lively enthusiasm was excited on his passing through 
 Aix, Avignon, Valence, Vienne, and especially Lyons. 
 It might have been supposed that the universal feeling
 
 78 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 was that a chief was wanting, and that this chief had 
 arrived under auspices the most fortunate. Upon 
 being announced at Paris, in the theatres, the intelli- 
 gence produced an extraordinary sensation, a universal 
 delirium of joy. 
 
 Perhaps there might have been something prepared 
 in all this, some concealed impelling power ; but the 
 general opinion cannot be commanded, and certainly 
 it was very flattering to this unexpected return of a 
 great man. From this moment he appeared to regard 
 himself as a sovereign who had been received as such 
 in his dominions. The Directory at first conceived a 
 hidden disgust for him, and the republicans, from in- 
 stinct, many fears. A deserter from the army of the 
 East, and a breaker of the quarantine laws, Bonaparte 
 would have been arrested by a firm government. But 
 the Directory, a witness of the general delirium, dared 
 not be severe : it was besides divided. How can it 
 agree upon so important an affair without a unanimity 
 of views and intentions ? 
 
 The very next day Bonaparte repaired to the 
 Luxembourg to render an account, in a private sitting, 
 of the situation in which he had left Egypt. There, 
 compelled to account for his sudden return by the 
 intention of sharing and averting the dangers of the 
 country, he swore to the Directory, grasping at the 
 same time the pommel of his sword, that it should 
 never be drawn but in defence of the Republic and 
 its government. The Directory appeared convinced, 
 so disposed was it to deceive itself. Finding himself 
 thus welcomed and courted by the governors them- 
 selves, Bonaparte, firmly resolved upon seizing upon
 
 BONAPARTE'S FIRST COUNCIL 79 
 
 the chief authority, considered himself certain of his 
 object. All depended upon the dexterity of his 
 manoeuvres. He first considered the state of parties. 
 The popular one, or that of the Manege, of which 
 Jourdan was one of the chiefs, floundered, as we 
 have seen, in the void of an interminable revolution. 
 Next succeeded the party of the speculators upon 
 revolution, whom Bonaparte called the pourris, at the 
 head of which was Barras ; then the moderates or 
 politique?,, conducted by Sieyes, who endeavoured to 
 fix the destinies of the Revolution, that they might 
 be the directors or arbiters of it. Could Bonaparte 
 ally himself with the Jacobins, even had they been 
 inclined to confer the dictatorship upon him ? But 
 after having been victorious with them, he would have 
 been under the necessity of being victor independent 
 of them. What had Barras really to offer him but a 
 rotten seat (planche pourrie), Bonaparte's own expression ? 
 The party of Sieyes remained, which he was compelled 
 to deceive, the illustrious deserter being unwilling to 
 employ, otherwise than as an instrument, him who 
 affected to remain at the head of affairs. Thus, in 
 fact, Bonaparte could calculate upon no party in his 
 favour, having for its object the foundation of his 
 fortune in an open usurpation ; and yet he succeeded 
 — by deceiving everyone, by deceiving the directors 
 Barras and Sieyes, and especially Moulins and Gohier, 
 who alone possessed sincerity and good faith. 
 
 Bonaparte first formed a kind of privy council, com- 
 posed of his brothers, of Bcrthier, Regnault de St. Jean 
 d'Angely, Rcederer, Real, Bruix, and another person, who 
 soon eclipsed the others by his acuteness and ability — I
 
 80 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 mean M. de Talleyrand, who, harassed by the party of 
 the Manege, and forced to abandon the ministry, made 
 himself of consequence in the new intrigues. He at 
 first feared that he should not be well received by 
 Bonaparte on account of the expedition to Egypt, or 
 rather for having advised it. He, however, adroitly 
 sounded his way, presented himself, and employed all 
 the resources of his insinuating and supple spirit to 
 captivate the man, who, with a single coup d'ceil, per- 
 ceived all the advantage to be derived from him. It 
 was he who disclosed to him the weaknesses of the 
 government, and made him acquainted with the state 
 of parties and the bearings of each character. From 
 him he learnt that Sieyes, followed by Roger Ducos, 
 meditated a coup d'etat; that he was exclusively occu- 
 pied with the project of substituting for that which 
 existed a government after his own fashion ; that if 
 on the one hand he had against him the most deter- 
 mined of the republicans, who repented having elected 
 him, on the other hand he had a party already formed, 
 the centre of which was in the council of ancients, an 
 advantage possessed by no other director, not even 
 Barras, who fluctuated between Sieyes on the one 
 part and Moulins and Gohier on the other ; that the 
 two last, blindly attached to the existing order of 
 things, were somewhat inclined towards the most ardent 
 republicans, and even to the Jacobins, and that with 
 more talent and decision of character they might 
 dispose as they thought fit of the council of the five 
 hundred, and even of a considerable part of the other 
 council. 
 
 Bonaparte found all Talleyrand's information con-
 
 LUCIEN'S INDECISION 8l 
 
 firmed by the opinions of his other advisers. As to 
 himself, nothing of his real intentions was yet to be 
 known. He apparently manifested much coolness 
 towards Sieyes, but little confidence in Barras, much 
 openness and intimacy with Moulins and Gohier; he 
 even went so far as to propose to them to get rid of 
 Sieyes, upon condition of himself being elected in his 
 place. But not being yet qualified by age to enter 
 the Directory, and the two directors fearing perhaps 
 his ambition, the objection was firmly maintained to 
 be insuperable. It was then doubtless that his agents 
 brought him upon more friendly terms with Sieyes. 
 In this affair Talleyrand had employed Chenier and 
 Daunou. In a first conference between him, Daunou, 
 Sieyes, and Chenier, he gave them the assurance of 
 leaving the direction of the government to them, pro- 
 mising to be satisfied with being the first officer of the 
 executive authority. This I have from Chenier himself. 
 
 It was immediately after this conference that the 
 first meetings of the deputies were held, sometimes 
 at Lemercier's, and sometimes at Fregeville's. Who 
 would credit it ? Bonaparte had at first his own 
 brother Lucien against him. " You know him not," 
 said he to them who wished to intrust him with the 
 entire direction of the movement which was in pre- 
 paration ; " you know him not ; once there, he would 
 think himself in his camp : he would command all, 
 would aspire to be all." 
 
 But eight days after this utterance Lucien's co- 
 operation was warm and powerful. As with so many 
 others, the republican mistrust was not able to resist 
 the tempting bait of riches and honour. 
 
 VOL. I 6
 
 82 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 It has been asserted that I took no part whatever 
 in these wholesale plottings ; that I had temporised, 
 but that I had gathered the fruits of them with the 
 greatest dexterity. Certainly, the moment in which I 
 am now writing is not very favourable for laying claim 
 to the honour of having contributed to Bonaparte's 
 elevation ; but I have promised the truth, and I feel 
 a satisfaction in telling it, superior to all the calcula- 
 tions of self-love, and all the disappointments of dis- 
 appointed hope. 
 
 The revolution of St. Cloud would have failed had 
 I opposed it. It was in my power to mislead Sieyes, 
 put Barras on his guard, and enlighten Gohier and 
 Moulins ; I had only to back Dubois de Crance, the 
 only opposing minister, and the whole would have 
 fallen to the ground. But it would have been stupidity 
 in me not to have preferred some future prospects to 
 an unpromising blank. My ideas were fixed. I con- 
 sidered Bonaparte as alone capable of effecting the 
 political reforms imperiously called for by our manners, 
 vices, and excesses, by our disasters and fatal divisions. 
 
 Bonaparte, indeed, was too cunning to let me into 
 the secret of his means of execution, and to place 
 himself at the mercy of a single man. But he said 
 enough to me to induce my confidence, and to per- 
 suade me, of what I was already convinced, that the 
 destinies of France were in his hands. 
 
 In two conferences at Real's house, I did not con- 
 ceal the obstacles he had to surmount. What chiefly 
 engaged his attention I knew to be the having to 
 combat the republican spirit, to which, he could only 
 oppose the moderates or the bayonet. He at this time
 
 BONAPARTE BEFORE THE DIRECTORY 83 
 
 appeared to me, politically speaking, inferior to Crom- 
 well ; he had also to dread the fate of Caesar, without 
 possessing either his fame or genius. 
 
 But, on the other hand, what a difference between 
 him, Lafayette, and Dumouriez ! All the advantages 
 of the revolutionary sword, which those men wanted, 
 he was in possession of, to command or seize upon 
 supreme power. All parties already seemed motionless 
 and in expectation before him. His return, his presence, 
 his renown, the crowds of his adherents, his immense 
 credit in public opinion, caused much inquietude among 
 the sombre lovers of liberty and of the Republic. The 
 two directors, Gohier and Moulins, now become their 
 hope, endeavoured to gain him by dint of attentions 
 and proofs of confidence. They proposed to their 
 colleagues to confer upon him the command of the 
 army of Italy. Sieyes opposed it ; Barras said that he 
 had already executed his mission there so well that 
 there was no necessity for his return. This proposal, 
 of which he was informed, caused him to come to the 
 Directory to provoke an explanation. There his firm 
 and elevated tone showed that he was above all fear. 
 Gohier, president of the Directory, leaving him the 
 choice of an army, he replied very coolly to his obser- 
 vations. I saw clearly he was hesitating whether he 
 should effect his revolution in conjunction with Barras 
 or Sieyes. 
 
 It was now that I pointed out to him the necessity 
 of prompt action, by persuading him to distrust Sieyes 
 and draw closer to Barras, so anxious was I that he 
 should associate him in his views. " Have Barras on 
 your side," said I to him, "manage the military party,
 
 84 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 paralyse Bernadotte, Jourdan, and Augereau, and lead 
 Sieyes." I thought for a moment that my own sugges- 
 tions and those of Real would overcome his dislike to 
 Barras ; he even went so far as to promise us either 
 to make him overtures or to receive his. We informed 
 Barras of this, who sent him an invitation to dine 
 with him the next day ; this was the 8th Brumaire. 
 In the evening Real and I waited upon Bonaparte at 
 his residence to know the result of his conference with 
 Barras. We there found Talleyrand and Rcederer. His 
 coach was soon heard approaching : he appeared. 
 " Well," said he to us, " do you know what this 
 Barras of yours requires ? He freely owns that it is 
 impossible to proceed in the present state of things : 
 he is very desirous of having a president of the Re- 
 public ; but it is himself whom he proposes. What 
 ridiculous pretensions ! And this hypocritical wish of 
 his he masks by proposing to invest with the supreme 
 magistracy — whom do you suppose ? Hedoaville, a 
 very blockhead ! Does not this sufficiently prove to 
 you that it is upon himself he wishes to fix the public 
 attention ? What madness ! It is impossible to have 
 anything to do with such a man." 
 
 I owned that in this there was certainly nothing 
 practicable, but I said that, notwithstanding, I did not 
 despair of convincing Barras that some arrangement 
 might be made for saving the public affairs ; and that 
 Real and I would go to him and reproach him with 
 his dissimulation and want of confidence ; that to all 
 appearance we should make him consent to more 
 reasonable arrangements, by proving to him that in 
 this case deceit was out of season, and that he could
 
 THE CONSPIRACY DEVELOPS 85 
 
 do nothing better than unite his own destinies with 
 those of a great man. " We will do our utmost," 
 added we, " to bring him over to us." " Well, do 
 so," said he. We immediately proceeded to Barras. 
 He told us at first that it was very natural he should 
 require guarantees which Bonaparte continually eluded. 
 We alarmed him by giving a picture of the real state 
 of things, and of the ascendency which the General 
 exercised over the whole of the government. He at 
 last agreed with us, and promised to go early the 
 next day and place himself at his disposal. He kept 
 his word ; and, upon his return, appeared persuaded 
 that nothing could be done without him. 
 
 Bonaparte had, however, decided for Sieyes. He 
 had entered into engagements with him ; besides, by 
 his manoeuvres in every direction, he had enabled him- 
 self to choose the intrigue most useful to his politics 
 and ambition. On the one hand, he circumvented 
 Gohier and Moulins ; on the other, he held Barras in 
 suspense, and Sieyes and Roger Ducos fettered. As 
 for me, I was only informed of his operations through 
 Real, who served, so to speak, as mutual guarantee 
 between Bonaparte and me. 
 
 Reckoning from the gth Brumaire, the conspiracy 
 developed itself rapidly. Each made his recruits. 
 Talleyrand gave us Semonville, and among the prin- 
 cipal generals, Beurnonville and Macdonald. Among 
 the bankers, we had Collot ; he lent two millions. 
 This set the enterprise in full sail. They commenced 
 secretly tampering with the garrison of Paris, amongst 
 others, two regiments of cavalry which had served in 
 Italy under Bonaparte. Lannes, Murat, and Leclerc
 
 86 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 were employed in gaining over the commanders of 
 corps, and in seducing the principal officers. Inde- 
 pendently of these three generals, and of Berthier and 
 Marmont, we could soon rely upon Serrurier and 
 Lefevre. Moreau and Moncey were already certain. 
 Moreau, with a self-denial of which he had afterwards 
 to repent, owned that Bonaparte was the man neces- 
 sary to reform the state. He thus spontaneously 
 pointed him out to play the lofty part which had 
 been destined for himself, but for which he had neither 
 disposition nor political energy. 
 
 On his side the most active and able of the faction, 
 Lucien, seconded by Boulay de la Meurthe and by 
 Regnier, concerted measures with the most influential 
 members devoted to Sieyes. In these meetings figured 
 Chazal, Fregeville, Daunou, Lemercier, Cabanis, Le- 
 brun, Courtois, Cornet, Fargues, Baraillon, Villetard, 
 Goupil-Pfefeln, Vimar, Bouteville, Cornudet, Herwyn, 
 Delcloy, Rousseau, and Le Jarry. The plotters of the 
 two councils were deliberating upon the best and 
 surest means of execution when Dubois de Crance 
 went to denounce the conspiracy to directors Gohier 
 and Moulins, requiring them to arrest Bonaparte in- 
 stantly, and offering himself to see the order of the 
 Directory to this effect executed. The two directors, 
 however, felt themselves so certain of Bonaparte that 
 they refused to give any credit to the information of 
 the minister of war. They required proofs from him 
 before they opened the matter to Barras or took any 
 other measure. They required proofs at a time when 
 a conspiracy was being openly carried on, as is the 
 custom in France. Conspiracy was afoot at Sieyes', at
 
 LUCIEN AND MADAME RECAMIER 
 
 87 
 
 Bonaparte's, at Murat's, at Lannes', and at Berthier's ; 
 conspiracy was being carried on in the saloons of the 
 inspectors of the council of ancients and of the principal 
 members of the commissions. Failing to persuade 
 either Gohier or Moulins, Dubois de Crance dis- 
 patched to them at the Luxembourg a police-agent 
 who was well acquainted with the plot, and who re- 
 vealed the whole of it to them. Gohier and Moulins, 
 after having heard him, caused him to be confined 
 while they deliberated upon his revelations. This man, 
 uneasy at a proceeding the motive of which he could 
 not understand, alarmed and terrified, escaped out of 
 a window, and came to inform me of what had passed. 
 His evasion and my own counter-mines soon effaced 
 from the minds of the two directors the impression 
 which the proceeding of Dubois de Crance had made. 
 I informed Bonaparte of all. 
 
 The impulse was immediately given. Lucien as- 
 sembled Boulay, Chazal, Cabanis, and Emile Gaudin ; 
 each had his part assigned to him. It was in the 
 house of Madame Recamier, near Bagatelle, that Lucien 
 arranged the legislative measures which were to coincide 
 with the military explosion. The presidency of the 
 council of five hundred, with which he was invested, 
 was one of the principal supports on which the con- 
 spiracy rested. Two powerful passions at this time 
 agitated Lucien — ambition and love. Deeply en- 
 amoured of Madame Recamier, a woman full of sweet- 
 ness and charms, he considered himself the more 
 unfortunate, because, having interested her heart, he 
 could not suspect the cause of her cruel severities. In 
 this tumult of his senses, however, he lost none of his
 
 88 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 activity and political energy. She who possessed his 
 heart could read all there, and was discreet. It had 
 been agreed that the more effectually to disguise the 
 plot, a splendid banquet should be given by subscrip- 
 tion to Bonaparte, to which should be invited the 
 chief of the high authorities and of the deputies of 
 both parties. The banquet was given, but was utterly 
 destitute of cheerfulness and enthusiasm; a mournful 
 silence and an air of restraint pervaded it ; the parties 
 were watching each other. Bonaparte, embarrassed 
 with the part he had to act, retired at an early hour, 
 leaving the guests a prey to their reflections. 
 
 With Lucien's consent, Bonaparte had, on the 15th 
 of Brumaire, a secret interview with Sieyes, in which 
 were discussed the arrangements for the 18th. The 
 object was to remove the Directory and to disperse 
 the legislative body, but without violence, and by 
 means to- all appearance legal, but prepared with all 
 the resources of artifice and audacity. It was deter- 
 mined to open the drama by a decree of the council 
 of ancients, ordering the removal of the legislative corps 
 to St. Cloud. The choice of St. Cloud for the assem- 
 bling of the two councils was to prevent all possibility 
 of a popular movement, and, at the same time, to 
 afford a facility for employing the troops with greater 
 security, away from the contact of Paris. 
 
 In consequence of what was agreed upon between 
 Sieyes and Bonaparte, the secret council of the prin- 
 cipal conspirators, held at the Hotel de Breteuil, gave, 
 on the 16th, its last instructions to Lemercier, the 
 president of the council of ancients. These were to 
 order an extraordinary convocation in the hall of the
 
 BAUDIN'S SUDDEN DEATH 89 
 
 ancients at the Tuileries, on the iSth, at ten o'clock 
 in the morning. The signal was immediately given to 
 the commission of the inspectors of the same council, 
 over which the deputy Cornet presided. 
 
 The third article of the constitution invested the 
 council of ancients with the power of removing the 
 two councils out of Paris. This was the coup d'etat 
 which had been proposed to Sieyes by Baudin des 
 Ardennes even before the arrival of Bonaparte. Baudin 
 was at that time president of the commission of the 
 inspectors of the ancients and an influential member 
 of the council. In 1795 he had a great part in draw- 
 ing up the constitution ; but, disgusted with his work, 
 he entered into the views of Sieyes. It had always 
 been his opinion that an arm for action was required ; 
 that is to say, a general capable of directing the 
 military part of an event which might assume a 
 serious character. The execution of it had been put 
 off. On the news of Bonaparte's landing, Baudin, 
 struck with the idea that Providence had sent the 
 man for whom he and his party had so long searched 
 in vain, died the very same night from excess of joy. 
 He was succeeded by Cornet in the presidency of the 
 commission of inspectors of the ancients, now become 
 the principal centre of the conspiracy. He possessed 
 neither the talent nor the influence of Baudin des 
 Ardennes, but he substituted in their stead great zeal 
 and much activity. 
 
 It was of great importance to neutralise Gohier, 
 president of the Directory. With the view, therefore, 
 of the better deceiving him, Bonaparte engaged him 
 to dine with him on lhe 18th, with his wife and
 
 90 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 brothers. He also caused to be invited to breakfast 
 for the same day, at eight o'clock in the morning, the 
 generals and chiefs of corps ; announcing also that he 
 would receive the visits and respects of the officers of 
 the garrison, and of the adjutants of the national 
 guard, who had in vain solicited admission to his 
 presence. One only obstacle caused uneasiness ; this 
 was the integrity of the president Gohier, who, being 
 undeceived in sufficient time, might rally round him 
 all the popular party, and the generals opposed to the 
 conspiracy. Indeed, I was awake to this. However, 
 for better security, it was proposed to draw the presi- 
 dent of the Directory into a snare. At midnight 
 Madame Bonaparte sent him, by her son, Eugene 
 Beauharnais, a friendly invitation for himself and his 
 lady to breakfast with her at eight o'clock in the 
 morning. " I have," wrote she, " some very important 
 things to communicate to you." But the hour appeared 
 suspicious to Gohier, and, after Eugene's departure, 
 he decided that his wife should go alone. 
 
 Already Cornet, the president of the commission of 
 the ancients, had secretly assembled in his bureau 
 at five o'clock in the morning (the hour of the meet- 
 ing), such members as were in the secret, or upon 
 whom he could rely. The two commissions of both 
 councils were in permanence. The ostensible meeting 
 of the deputies of the ancients was fixed for ten in 
 the morning, and the assembling of the deputies of 
 the five hundred at twelve. This last council was 
 about to find itself obliged to close the sitting, after 
 the mere reading of the decree of removal, which was 
 secured in the ancients. I had arranged everything,
 
 BONAPARTE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF gi 
 
 in order to be informed in time of what took place, 
 either at the commissions, at Bonaparte's, or at the 
 Directory. 
 
 At eight o'clock in the morning I learnt that the 
 president of the commission of the ancients, after 
 having formed, by his extraordinary convocation, a 
 fictitious majority, had, upon concluding a long and 
 turgid harangue, in which he represented the Republic 
 in the greatest danger, moved to transfer the legislative 
 corps to St. Cloud, and to invest Bonaparte with the 
 chief command of the troops. It was at the same 
 time announced to me that the decree would pass. 
 I instantly got into my coach, and going first to the 
 Tuileries, learnt that the decree had been made ; and 
 about nine o'clock I arrived at the hotel of General 
 Bonaparte, the courtyard of which was full of military. 
 Every avenue was filled with officers and generals, and 
 the hotel was not spacious enough to contain the 
 crowds of his friends and adherents. All the corps 
 of the garrison of Paris and of the military division 
 had sent officers to take his orders. I entered the 
 oval cabinet in which Bonaparte was ; he was im- 
 patiently awaiting, with Berthier and Lefevre, the 
 resolution of the council of ancients. I announced to 
 him that the decree of removal, which conferred upon 
 him the chief command, had just passed, and that it 
 would be instantly laid before him. I reiterated to 
 him my protestations of devotion and zeal, informing 
 him that I had just closed all the barriers, and had 
 stopped the departure of couriers and mails. " All 
 that is useless," said he to me, in presence of several 
 generals who entered ; " the numbers of citizens and
 
 92 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 brave men around me must sufficiently convince all 
 that I act with and for the nation. I shall take care 
 to cause the decree of the council to be respected, and 
 to maintain the public tranquillity." At that instant 
 Josephine came up to him, and told him, with much 
 dissatisfaction, that the president Gohier had sent his 
 wife, but would not come himself. " Write to him, 
 by Madame Gohier, to come as quick as possible," 
 cried Bonaparte. A few minutes after the deputy Cornet 
 arrived, quite proud at having executed for the General 
 the functions of state messenger. He brought him the 
 decree which placed in his hands the destiny of the 
 Republic. 
 
 Bonaparte, leaving his cabinet immediately, made 
 known to his adherents the decree which invested him 
 with the chief command ; then placing himself at the 
 head of the generals, of the superior officers, and of 
 i, 600 cavalry, forming part of the garrison of Paris, 
 which had just been brought him by Murat, he began 
 his march towards the Champs Elysees, after desiring 
 me to ascertain what resolution the Directory had 
 adopted upon learning the decree of removal. 
 
 I first repaired to my hotel, where I gave orders 
 for placarding a proclamation, signed by myself, in the 
 spirit of the revolution which had just commenced ; 
 I then directed my steps towards the Luxembourg. 
 
 It was a little after nine o'clock, and I found 
 Moulins and Gohier, who with Barras formed the 
 majority of the Directory, completely ignorant of what 
 was passing in Paris. Madame Tallien, in defiance of 
 the countersign, had entered the apartments of Barras, 
 whom she surprised in the bath ; she was the first to
 
 A MESSAGE FROM BARRAS 93 
 
 inform him that Bonaparte had acted without him. 
 " What do you mean ? ,! cried the indolent epicure. 
 " That man '" (designating Bonaparte by a coarse epi- 
 thet) " has included all of us in the affair." However, 
 in the hope of negotiating, he sent to him his con- 
 fidential secretary, Botot, modestly to inquire what he 
 might expect from him. Botot found Bonaparte at the 
 head of the troops, and, delivering his message, received 
 this harsh reply : " Tell that man that I will never see 
 him more ! " He had just detached Talleyrand and 
 Bruix from his interests for the purpose of forcing him 
 to resign. 
 
 Having entered the apartments of the Luxembourg, 
 I announced to the president the decree which trans- 
 ferred the sittings of the legislative corps to the chateau 
 of St. Cloud. " I am much astonished," said Gohier 
 peevishly to me, " that a minister of the Directory 
 should thus transform himself into a messenger of the 
 council of ancients." 
 
 " I considered it," replied I, " a part of my duty 
 to give you intelligence of so important a resolution, 
 and at the same time I thought it expedient to come 
 and attend the orders of the Directory." " It was far 
 more your duty," rejoined Gohier, in an altered tone, 
 " not to have let us remain in ignorance of the 
 criminal intrigues which have produced such a decree ; 
 this is no doubt but the prelude to all that has been 
 plotted against the government in the meetings which, 
 in your quality of minister of the police, you ought 
 to have discovered and made known to us." ' But," 
 returned I, " the Directory was not without this in- 
 formation. I myself, finding I did not possess its
 
 94 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 confidence, employed indirect means to give it the 
 necessary information ; but the Directory would never 
 give credit to my agents ; besides, is it not by its own 
 members that this blow has been struck ? The directors 
 Sieyes and Roger Ducos are already in coalition with 
 the commission of the inspectors of the ancients." 
 " The majority is at the Luxembourg," replied Gohier 
 vehemently; "and if the Directory have any orders 
 to give, it will intrust the execution of them to men 
 worthy of its confidence." 
 
 Upon this I withdrew, and Gohier lost no time in 
 summoning his two colleagues, Barras and Moulins. 
 I had scarcely got into my carriage when I saw the 
 messenger of the ancients arrive, bringing to the pre- 
 sident the communication of the decree of removal to 
 St. Cloud. Gohier immediately repaired to Barras, 
 and made him promise to meet him and Moulins in 
 the Hall' of Deliberations to determine what steps 
 were to be taken in the present conjuncture. 
 
 Such, however, was the perplexity of Barras that 
 he was incapable of adopting any vigorous resolution. 
 In fact, he did not hesitate a moment to forget his 
 promise to Gohier when he saw two agents from 
 Bonaparte enter his apartment, Bruix and Talleyrand, 
 who were commissioned to negotiate his retreat from 
 the Directory. They at first declared to him that 
 Bonaparte was determined to employ against him all 
 the means of force in his power should he attempt 
 to make the least opposition to his plans. After 
 having thus acted upon his fears, the two adroit 
 negotiators made him the most magnificent promises 
 if he would consent to send in his resignation. Barras
 
 BARRAS RETIRES INTO PRIVATE LIFE 95 
 
 exclaimed against this treatment for some time, but 
 at length yielded to the arguments of two artful men. 
 They repeated to him the assurance that he should 
 want for nothing that could contribute to a luxurious 
 and tranquil life, free from the anxieties of a power 
 he was no longer able to retain. Talleyrand had a 
 letter already drawn up, which Barras was advised to 
 address to the legislature to notify his determination 
 of retiring into private life. Thus placed between hope 
 and fear, he ended by signing all that was required 
 of him ; and having thus placed himself at Bonaparte's 
 mercy, he quitted the Luxembourg and set off for his 
 estate at Grosbois, escorted and watched by a detach- 
 ment of dragoons. 
 
 Thus, by nine o'clock in the morning, no majority 
 in the Directory existed. About this time arrived 
 Dubois de Crance, who, persisting in his opposition, 
 solicited from Gohier and Moulins an order for the 
 arrest of Bonaparte, Talleyrand, Barras, and the prin- 
 cipal conspirators, taking upon himself as minister of 
 war to arrest Bonaparte and Murat on the road even 
 to St. Cloud. Perhaps Moulins and Gohier, at length 
 undeceived, would have yielded to the urgent remon- 
 strances of Dubois de Crance had not Lagarde, chief 
 secretary to the Directory, and who had been gained 
 over, declared that he would not countersign any 
 decree which should not have the sanction of the 
 majority of the Directory. " At the worst," said 
 Gohier, rather damped by this observation, " how can 
 there be any revolution at St. Cloud ? I have here, 
 in my quality of president, the seals of the Republic." 
 Moulins added that Bonaparte was to dine with him
 
 g6 memoirs of fouche 
 
 at Gohier's and that he would soon discover his real 
 intentions. 
 
 I had for some time formed an opinion of the 
 abilities of these men so little calculated to govern 
 the state. Nothing could equal their blindness and 
 incapacity ; it may justly be affirmed that they be- 
 trayed themselves. 
 
 Events already began to develop themselves. Bona- 
 parte on horseback, followed by a numerous staff, first 
 took the road to the Champs Elysees, where several 
 corps were drawn up in order of battle. After being 
 acknowledged by them as their general, he proceeded 
 to the Tuileries. The weather was extremely fine, and 
 favoured the utmost display of military pomp in the 
 Champs Elysees, on the quays, and in the national 
 garden, which was in a moment transformed into a 
 park of artillery, and where the crowd became exces- 
 sive. Bonaparte was greeted at the Tuileries by the 
 shouts of the citizens and the soldiery. Having pre- 
 sented himself with a military suite at the bar of the 
 council of ancients, he eluded taking the constitutional 
 oath ; then descending from the chateau, he came to 
 harangue the troops already disposed to obey him. 
 There he learnt that the Directory was disorganised ; 
 that Sieyes and Roger Ducos had sent in their resig- 
 nations to the commission of the inspectors of the 
 ancients ; and that Barras was on the point of sub- 
 scribing to the conditions offered him. 
 
 Passing on to the commissions of the assembled 
 inspectors, the General there found Sieyes, Roger 
 Ducos, and several deputies of their party. Gohier, 
 president of the Directory, together with his colleague,
 
 BONAPARTE'S THREAT gy 
 
 Moulins, now arrived, both of whom refused their 
 adhesion to what had taken place. An explanation 
 took place between Gohier and Bonaparte. " My 
 plans,' 1 said the latter, "are not hostile; the Republic 
 is in danger — it must be saved. / will it ! " At this 
 very moment intelligence arrived that the Faubourg 
 St. Antoine was rising at the instigation of Santerre, 
 who was a relation of Moulins. Bonaparte, turning to 
 him and questioning him upon the subject, told him 
 that he would send a detachment of cavalry to shoot 
 Santerre if he dared to make the least stir. Moulins 
 removed Bonaparte's apprehensions, and declared that 
 Santerre could not assemble four men round him. He 
 was, in fact, no longer the instigator of the insurrec- 
 tion of 1792. I myself repeated the assurance that 
 there would not be the least shadow of popular tumult, 
 and said that I would answer for the tranquillity of Paris. 
 Gohier and Moulins, finding that the impulse was 
 given, that the movement was irresistible, re-entered 
 the Luxembourg to witness the defection of their 
 guards. Both were there soon besieged by Moreau, 
 for Bonaparte had already made certain military 
 arrangements which placed in his power all the public 
 authorities and establishments. Moreau was sent with 
 a detachment to invest the Luxembourg ; General 
 Lannes was intrusted with a corps to guard the 
 legislative body ; Murat was dispatched in all haste to 
 occupy St. Cloud ; while Serrurier was in reserve at 
 the Point-du-Jour. All proceeded without any obstacle 
 — or, at least, no opposition manifested itself in the 
 capital, where, on the contrary, the revolution appeared 
 to meet with general approbation. 
 
 VOL. 1 7
 
 98 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 In the evening a council was held at the commis- 
 sion of the inspectors', either for the purpose of pre- 
 paring the public mind for the events which the next 
 day was to produce, or to determine upon what was 
 to be done at St. Cloud. I was present, and saw 
 there, for the first time, undisguised, and in presence 
 of each other, the two parties now united for the 
 same object, but of which the one appeared already to 
 be alarmed at the ascendency of the military faction. 
 
 At first much discussion took place without any- 
 thing being well understood, and without coming to 
 any determination. All that Bonaparte himself pro- 
 posed, or that his brothers proposed for him, smacked 
 of the dictatorship of the sabre. The legislative party 
 who had embraced his cause took me aside and made 
 me the remark. " But," said I to them, " it is done ; 
 the military power is in the hands of General Bona- 
 parte ; you yourselves invested him with it, and you 
 cannot proceed a step without his sanction." 
 
 I soon perceived that the majority would willingly 
 have receded, but they had no longer the power of so 
 doing. The most timorous separated themselves, and 
 when we had got rid of the fearful and those we could 
 not depend upon, the establishment of three pro- 
 visional consuls was agreed upon ; namely, Bonaparte, 
 Sieyes, and Roger Ducos. Sieyes then proposed to 
 arrest about forty of the leaders who were hostile, or 
 imagined to be so. I advised Bonaparte, through 
 Saint-Real, not to consent to it ; and, in his first steps 
 on the road to supreme power, not to render himself 
 the instrument of the fury of a vindictive priest. He 
 understood me, and alleged that the idea was prema-
 
 A DICTATORSHIP IN SIGHT 99 
 
 ture ; that there would be neither opposition nor resist- 
 ance. " You will see that to-morrow, at St. Cloud," 
 said Sieyes, rather hurt. 
 
 I confess that I was not myself very confident 
 respecting the issue of the next day. All that I had 
 just heard, and all the information I could gather, 
 agreed in one point, that the authors of this move- 
 ment could not rely upon the majority among the 
 members of the two councils, almost all conceiving 
 the idea that the object was to destroy the constitu- 
 tion in order to establish the military power on its 
 ruin. Even a great party of the initiated repelled the 
 idea of a dictatorship, and flattered themselves with 
 being able to avert it. But Bonaparte already exercised 
 an immense influence both within and without the 
 sphere of these tottering authorities. Versailles, Paris, 
 St. Cloud, and St. Germain were favourable to his 
 revolution ; and his name among the soldiers operated 
 as a talisman. 
 
 His privy council appointed as leaders to the 
 deputies of the ancients, Regnier, Cornudet, Lemercier, 
 and Fargues ; and for guides to the deputies of the 
 councils of the hundred devoted to the party, Lucien 
 Bonaparte, Boulay de la Meurthc, Emile Gaudin, 
 Chazal, and Cabanis. On their side the opposing 
 members of the two councils, united to the leaders of 
 the Manege, passed the night in secret deliberations. 
 
 The next day, at an early hour, the road from 
 
 Paris to St. Cloud was covered with troops, officers 
 
 on horseback, spectators, coaches full of deputies, 
 
 functionaries, and journalists. The hall for the two 
 
 councils had just been hastily prepared. It was soon 
 
 7—2
 
 IOO MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 perceived that the military party in the two councils 
 was reduced to a small number of deputies, more or 
 less ardent for the new order of things. 
 
 I remained at Paris seated in my cabinet, with all 
 my police in hand, observing all that passed, receiving 
 and examining myself every report which arrived. I 
 had detached to St. Cloud a certain number of able 
 and intelligent emissaries for the purpose of placing 
 themselves in contact with the persons who were 
 pointed out to them ; and other agents, who, return- 
 ing thence every half-hour, came to inform me of the 
 position of affairs. I was thus made acquainted with 
 the least incident, the most trifling circumstance, that 
 could affect the expected denouement. I was decidedly 
 of opinion that the sword alone could cut the knot. 
 
 The sitting opened at the five hundred, over which 
 Lucien Bonaparte presided, with an artful speech by 
 Emile Gaudin ; the object of which was the appoint- 
 ment of a commission charged to present an imme- 
 diate report upon the situation of the Republic. 
 Emile Gaudin, in his prearranged motion, also re- 
 quired that no measures whatever should be deter- 
 mined upon till the report of the proposed commission 
 had been heard. Boulay de la Meurthe held the 
 report in his hand, already prepared. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had Emile Gaudin concluded 
 his motion than a most dreadful tumult agitated the 
 whole assembly. The cries of " Long live the Con- 
 stitution ! " " No Dictatorship ! " " Down with the 
 Dictator ! " were heard on all sides. Upon the motion 
 of Delbrel, seconded and supported by Grandmaison, 
 the assembly, rising in a body at the cry of " Long
 
 BONAPARTE ADDRESSES THE COUNCIL 101 
 
 live the Republic ! " resolved that they would renew 
 individually the oath of fidelity to the constitution. 
 Those even who had come for the professed object 
 of destroying it took the oath. 
 
 The hall of the ancients was almost equally 
 agitated ; but there the party of Sieyes and Bona- 
 parte, who were anxious to accelerate the establish- 
 ment of a provisional government, had asserted as a 
 fact, upon a false declaration of the Sieur Lagarde, 
 chief secretary of the Directory, that all the directors 
 had sent in their resignation. The oppositionists im- 
 mediately demanded that substitutes should be pro- 
 vided according to the prescribed forms. Bonaparte, 
 informed of this double storm, thought it was time 
 to appear upon the stage. Crossing the Salon de 
 Mars, he entered the council of the ancients. There, 
 in a verbose and disjointed speech, he declared that 
 there was no longer any government, and that the 
 constitution could no longer save the Republic. Con- 
 juring the council to hasten to adopt a new order 
 of things, he protested that, with respect to the magis- 
 tracy they should appoint, his only wish was to be the 
 arm commissioned to maintain and execute the orders 
 of the council. 
 
 This speech, of which I only give the substance, 
 was delivered in a broken and incoherent manner, 
 which fully testified the agitation the General suffered, 
 who sometimes addressed himself to the deputies, and 
 then turned towards the soldiery, who remained at the 
 end of the hall. Cries of " Long live Bonaparte ! ' 
 and the acquiescence of the majority of the ancients 
 having given him fresh courage, he withdrew, hoping
 
 102 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 to make a like impression upon the other council. He 
 was not without some apprehensions, knowing what 
 had passed there, and with what enthusiasm they 
 had sworn fidelity to the republican constitution. A 
 message to the Directory had just been decreed there. 
 A motion was being made to require from the ancients 
 
 t 
 
 an explanation of the motives of its removal to St. 
 Cloud, when they received the resignation of the 
 director Barras, transmitted to them by the other 
 council. This resignation, of which till then they had 
 been ignorant, caused a great astonishment throughout 
 the assembly. It was considered as the result of some 
 deep-laid intrigue. At the very moment the question 
 was being discussed, whether the resignation was legal 
 and according to the forms, Bonaparte arrived, followed 
 by a platoon of grenadiers. Scarcely, however, had 
 he entered the hall when the assembly were thrown 
 into the 'utmost disorder. All the members, standing 
 up, expressed in loud cries the effect produced upon 
 them by the appearance of the bayonets and of the 
 general who thus advanced armed into the temple of 
 the legislature. " You are violating the sanctuary 
 of the laws ; withdraw instantly ! ' exclaimed several 
 deputies. " What are you doing, rash man ? ' cried 
 Bigonnet to him. " Is it then for this you have been 
 a conqueror ? " said Destrem. In vain Bonaparte, who 
 had ascended the tribune, endeavoured to stammer out 
 a few sentences. On all sides he heard the cries 
 repeated of " Long live the Constitution ! ' " Long 
 live the Republic ! " On all sides he was saluted by 
 cries of " Down with the Cromwell ! " " Down with 
 the Dictator!' "Down with the Tyrant ! ' "Away
 
 BONAPARTE IN PERIL 103 
 
 with the Dictator ! ' Some of the more furious 
 deputies rushed upon him and pushed him back. 
 " You will make war then upon your country ! ' cried 
 Arena to him, showing him the point of his stiletto. 
 The grenadiers, seeing their General grow pale and 
 tremble, crossed the room to form a rampart around 
 him. Bonaparte threw himself amongst them, and they 
 escorted him away. Thus rescued, and almost frantic, 
 he remounted his horse, set off at a gallop, and riding 
 towards the bridge of St. Cloud, cried aloud to his 
 soldiers, " They have attempted my life ! They have 
 wished to put me out of the protection of the laws ! 
 They do not know, then, that I am invulnerable, for 
 I am the god of thunder." 
 
 Murat having joined him on the bridge, " It is not 
 fitting," said he to him, " that he who has triumphed 
 over such powerful enemies should fear drivellers. . . . 
 Come, General, courage, and the victory is our own ! ' 
 Bonaparte then turned his horse's head and again 
 presented himself before the soldiers, endeavouring to 
 excite the generals to bring matters to a conclusion 
 by a coup dc main. But Lannes, Serrurier, and Murat 
 himself seemed but little disposed to direct the bayonets 
 against the legislature. 
 
 In the meantime the most horrible tumult reigned 
 in the hall. Firm in the president's chair, Lucien 
 made vain efforts to re-establish tranquillity, earnestly 
 entreating his colleagues to allow his brother to be 
 recalled and heard, and obtaining no other answer 
 than, " Outlawry ! Let the outlawry of General Bona- 
 parte be put to the vote ! " They even went so far as 
 to call upon him to put to the vote the motion of
 
 104 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 outlawry against his brother. Lucien, indignant, quitted 
 the chair, abdicated the presidency, and laid aside its 
 ensigns. He had scarcely descended from the tribune, 
 when some grenadiers arrived, and carried him out 
 with them. Lucien, astonished, learnt that it was by 
 order of his brother, who was anxious for his advice, 
 being determined upon employing force to dissolve the 
 legislature. Such was the advice of Sieyes ; seated in 
 a chaise drawn by six post horses, he awaited the issue 
 of the event at the gates of St. Cloud. There was no 
 longer time for hesitation ; pale and trembling, the 
 most zealous partisans of Bonaparte were petrified, 
 whilst the most timid among them already declared 
 against his enterprise. Jourdan and Augereau were 
 observed standing aloof, watching the favourable moment 
 for drawing the grenadiers into the popular party. But 
 Sieyes, Bonaparte, and Talleyrand, who had come to 
 St. Cloud with Rcederer, were of opinion, as well as 
 myself, that the party would want both an arm and 
 a head. Lucien, inspiring Bonaparte with all his energy, 
 mounted a horse, and, in his quality of president, re- 
 quested the assistance of force to dissolve the assembly. 
 The grenadiers in close columns, with Murat at their 
 head, followed him into the hall of the five hundred, 
 whilst Colonel Moulins caused the charge to be beaten. 
 The hall is invaded amidst the noise of drums and 
 the shouts of the soldiers, the deputies escape out of 
 the windows, throw away their togas, and disperse 
 themselves. Such was the result of the day of St. 
 Cloud (19th Brumaire, 10th of November). Bonaparte 
 was particularly indebted for it to the energy of his 
 brother Lucien, to the decision of Murat, and perhaps
 
 ACT OF 19TH BRUMAIRE I0 5 
 
 to the weakness of the generals, who, being opposed 
 to him, dared not openly show their hostility. 
 
 But it became necessary to render national an anti- 
 popular event, in which force had triumphed over a 
 representative rabble, alike incapable of showing either 
 a real orator or chief. It was requisite to sanction 
 what history will call the triumph of military usurpation. 
 
 Sieyes, Talleyrand, Bonaparte, Rcederer, Lucien, and 
 Boulay de la Meurthe, who were the soul of the en- 
 terprise, decided that the deputies of their parties who 
 were wandering through the apartments and galleries 
 of St. Cloud should be instantly assembled. Boulay 
 and Lucien went in search of them, assembled between 
 twenty or thirty, and constituted them the council of 
 five hundred. From this meeting a decree was issued, 
 the burden of which was that General Bonaparte, the 
 general officers, and the troops which seconded him, 
 had deserved well of their country. The leaders then 
 determined upon asserting in the next day's newspaper 
 that several deputies had endeavoured to assassinate 
 Bonaparte, and that the majority of the council had 
 been ruled by a minority of assassins. 
 
 Then came the promulgation of the Act of the 
 19th Brumaire, likewise concerted among the chiefs, 
 to serve as a legal foundation for the new revolution. 
 This Act abolished the Directory, instituted a consular 
 executive commission, composed of Sieyes, Roger 
 Ducos, and Bonaparte, adjourned the two councils, 
 and excluded from them sixty-two members of the 
 popular party, among whom figured General Jourdan ; 
 it likewise established a legislative commission of fifty 
 members, chosen equally from both councils, whose
 
 106 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 duty it was to prepare a new draft of the constitu- 
 tion of the state. Upon being brought from the 
 assembly of the five hundred to the council of the 
 ancients, to be transformed into a law, this Act was 
 only voted for by the minority, the majority main- 
 taining a mournful silence. Thus the intermediary 
 establishment of the new order of things was con- 
 verted into a law by some sixty of the members of 
 the legislature, who declared themselves to be duly 
 qualified for the employment of ministers, diplomatic 
 agents, and delegates of the consular commission. 
 
 Bonaparte, with his two colleagues, came into the 
 council of the ancients to take the oaths, and on the 
 nth of November, about five o'clock in the morning, 
 the new government, quitting St. Cloud, came to 
 instal itself in the palace of the Luxembourg. I had 
 foreseen that all the authority of this executive trium- 
 virate w<5uld fall into the hands of him who had 
 already been invested with the military power. Of 
 this there was no longer any doubt after the first 
 sitting which the three consuls held together that 
 very night. There Bonaparte, with the authority of 
 a superior, took possession of the president's arm- 
 chair, which neither Sieyes nor Roger Ducos dared 
 to dispute with him. Roger, already gained over, 
 declared that Bonaparte alone could save the country, 
 and that he would henceforth follow his opinion in 
 everything. Sieyes sat silent, biting his lips. Bona- 
 parte, knowing him to be avaricious, abandoned to 
 him the private treasury of the Directory ; it contained 
 800,000 francs, which Sieyes immediately seized, and 
 adopting the lion's mode of division, left only 100,000
 
 CHANGE OF MINISTRY 10 y 
 
 francs to his colleague Roger Ducos. This trifling 
 douceur calmed his ambition a little, for he waited 
 till Bonaparte should engage in military affairs, and 
 resign the civil affairs into his hands. But hearing 
 Bonaparte at their first sitting treat upon the finances, 
 the administration, the laws, the army, politics in 
 general, and discuss these various subjects with much 
 ability, he said, upon entering his house, in presence 
 of Talleyrand, Boulay, Cabanis, Rcederer, and Chazal, 
 " Gentlemen, you have found a master." 
 
 It was easy to perceive that a mistrustful and 
 avaricious priest, surfeited with gold, would not dare 
 to contend a long time with a general, young, active, 
 possessed of immense renown, and who had by force 
 already made himself supreme. Besides, Sieyes pos- 
 sessed none of those qualities which could have insured 
 him a great influence with a proud and warlike nation. 
 His title of priest alone had made him unpopular with 
 the army: here artifice could do nothing against force. 
 By wishing to make a trial of it with respect to me 
 Sieyes fell. 
 
 In the second sitting held by the consuls, the 
 change of the ministry was discussed. The chief 
 secretary of the executive commission was first named, 
 and the choice fell upon Maret. Berthier was the first 
 called to be minister of war; he replaced Dubois de 
 Crance, whom Bonaparte never pardoned for his oppo- 
 sition to him. Robert Lindet yielded the finance to 
 Gaudin, formerly a chief clerk devoted to Bonaparte : 
 Cambaceres was left at the head of justice. In the 
 ministry of marine, Bourdon was replaced by Forfait ; 
 the geometrician Laplace succeeded Ouinette in the
 
 108 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 interior ; the ministry of foreign affairs was reserved in 
 petto for Talleyrand, and in the interim the Westphalian 
 Reinhard served him as a cloak. When they came 
 to the police, Sieyes, alleging some insidious reasons, 
 proposed that I should be replaced by Alquier, who 
 was his creature. Bonaparte objected that I had con- 
 ducted myself very well on the 18th Brumaire, and 
 that I had given sufficient proofs of it. In fact, not 
 only had I favoured the development of his pre- 
 liminary dispositions, but had also, at the critical 
 moment, succeeded in paralysing the efforts of several 
 of the deputies and generals who might have injured 
 the success of the day. Scarcely had the intelligence 
 reached me, than I caused to be placarded that very 
 night all over Paris, a proclamation full of attachment 
 and obedience to the saviour of the country. I was 
 retained in an office, without doubt, the most im- 
 portant cTf all, in spite of Sieyes, and in defiance of 
 the intrigues which had been played off against me. 
 
 Bonaparte judged better of the state of things ; he 
 felt that he had many obstacles yet to overcome, that 
 it was not sufficient to vanquish, but that he must 
 subdue : that it was not too much to have at his 
 command a minister experienced against the anarchists. 
 He was equally convinced that his interest rendered it 
 imperative upon him to lean for support upon a man 
 whom he believed most capable of keeping him on his 
 guard against a cheat who had become his colleague. 
 The confidential report which I placed in his hands 
 the very evening of his installation, at the Luxem- 
 bourg, had convinced him that the police was as 
 clear as it was quick-sighted.
 
 AN ARTFUL SPEECH 1Q g 
 
 Sieyes, in the meantime, who was anxious for pro- 
 scriptions, was continually exclaiming against such as 
 he called opposers and anarchists. He told Bonaparte 
 that public opinion, empoisoned by the Jacobins, had 
 become detestable ; that the police bulletins supported 
 it, and that severe examples were necessary. " See," 
 said he, " in what colours they have painted the 
 glorious day of St. Cloud ! To believe them, its only 
 springs, its only lever, were artifice, falsehood, and 
 audacity. The consular commission is nothing but a 
 triumvirate invested with a terrific dictatorship, which 
 corrupts in order the better to enslave ; the Act of the 
 19th Brumaire is the work of a few deserters, aban- 
 doned by their colleagues, and who, deprived of a 
 majority, are not less eager to sanction the usurpa- 
 tion. You should hear what they say of you, of me ! 
 We must not suffer ourselves to be thus dragged 
 through the mire, for if once debased we are lost. In 
 the Faubourg St. Germain, some say that it is the 
 military faction which has just snatched the reins of 
 government out of the hands of the lawyers ; others 
 assert that General Bonaparte is about to perform the 
 part of Monk. Thus by some we are classed with the 
 Bourbons, and by others among the most furious of 
 Robespierre's creatures. Severity is necessary to pre- 
 vent public opinion from being left to the mercy of 
 the royalists and anarchists. These must be struck 
 first. It is always in its debut that a new power 
 should show its force." 
 
 Upon concluding this artful speech, Sieyes sug- 
 gested that the head of the police should be required 
 to put in execution a measure highly essential to the
 
 HO MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 public weal and the general security ; and he persuaded 
 Bonaparte. It had been declared on the igth Bru- 
 maire that there should be no more oppressive acts, 
 no more lists of proscription, and yet on the 26th I 
 was required to furnish names in order to form a list 
 of the proscribed. That same day a decree was 
 issued, condemning to banishment, without previous 
 trial, fifty-nine of the principal opposers — thirty-seven 
 to French Guiana and twenty -two to the island of 
 Oleron. On these lists were seen names blasted and 
 odious, followed by those of amiable and esteemed 
 citizens. What I had prognosticated to the consuls 
 came to pass : the voice of the public loudly dis- 
 approved of this impolitic and useless proscription. 
 
 They were compelled to yield, and commenced 
 by naming exceptions. I solicited and obtained the 
 liberty of several proscribed deputies, and represented 
 how much France and the army would be shocked at 
 seeing people persecuted on account of their opinions 
 — Jourdan, for example, who had gained the battle of 
 Fleurus, and whose probity was unassailable. The 
 proscriber, Sieyes, finding Bonaparte alarmed, did not 
 dare to follow up any more the execution of an odious 
 measure, which he carefully imputed to me, it was 
 reported ; and they contented themselves, upon my 
 proposition, with placing their opponents under the 
 surveillance of the high police. The three consuls 
 then felt how necessary it was for them to consult 
 and gain public opinion. Many of their acts were 
 calculated to deserve the confidence of the people. 
 They lost no time in revoking the law respecting 
 hostages and loans, which was so unpopular.
 
 FOUCHE AS PHILANTHROPIST m 
 
 A few days sufficed to make it certain that the 
 transactions of the 18th Brumaire had obtained the 
 consent of the nation. This has now become an his- 
 torical truth ; it was at that time a fact which decided 
 between the government of the many and that of a 
 single person. 
 
 The strict republicans, the desponding friends of 
 liberty, alone saw with regret Bonaparte's accession 
 to the supreme power. They at first drew from it 
 the most gloomy consequences and anticipations. They 
 were right in the end ; we shall see why, and shall 
 assign the reasons of it. 
 
 I had declared myself against the proscriptions, 
 and against all other general measures. Certain hence- 
 forth of my credit, and finding myself firmly established 
 in the ministry, I endeavoured to impart to the general 
 police a character of dignity, justice, and moderation, 
 which, to render more lasting, has not depended upon 
 myself. Under the Directory the women of the town 
 were employed in the vile trade of espionage. I forbade 
 the use of such disgraceful instruments, wishing to give 
 to the scrutinising eye of the police the direction of 
 observation only, not of accusation. 
 
 I also caused misfortune to be respected by ob- 
 taining an alleviation of the fate of emigrants ship- 
 wrecked upon the northern coasts of France, among 
 whom were persons belonging to the flower of the 
 ancient nobility. I was not satisfied with this first 
 attempt towards a return to national humanity : I made 
 a report to the consuls, in which I solicited the liberty 
 of all emigrants whom the tempest had cast upon the 
 shores of their country. I forced from them this act
 
 112 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of clemency, which from that time gained me the 
 confidence of the royalists disposed to submit to 
 government. 
 
 My two instructions to the bishops and prefects, 
 which were published at this time, produced likewise 
 a great sensation upon the public. They were the 
 more remarked as I spoke a language in them which 
 had fallen into disuse ; that of reason and toleration, 
 which I have always considered to be very compatible 
 with the policy of a government strong enough to be 
 just. These two instructions were, however, differently 
 interpreted. In the opinion of some they bore the 
 stamp of that foresight and of that profound art of 
 influencing the human heart, so essential to a states- 
 man ; according to others, they tended to substitute 
 morality for religion, and the police for justice. But 
 the supporters of this last opinion did not reflect upon 
 the circumstances and times in which we were placed. 
 My two circulars are still extant ; they are in print ; 
 let them be read once again, and it will be seen that 
 some courage, and some fixed principles, were neces- 
 sary to render the doctrines and sentiments therein 
 expressed palatable. 
 
 Thus salutary modifications and a more certain 
 tranquillity were the first pledges offered by the new 
 government to the expectations of the French. They 
 applauded the sudden elevation of the illustrious 
 General, who, in the administration of the state, 
 manifested equal vigour and prudence. With the 
 exception of the demagogues, each party persuaded 
 itself that this new revolution would turn to its 
 advantage. Such especially was the dream of the
 
 A NOTABLE BOOK n 3 
 
 royalists ; they saw in Bonaparte the Monk of the 
 expiring Revolution, a dream which was particularly 
 favourable to the views of the First Consul. Fatigued 
 and disgusted with the Revolution, the moderate party 
 itself, confounding its views with those of the counter- 
 revolutionists, openly desired the modification of the 
 republican regime, and its amalgamation with a mixed 
 monarchy. But the time had not yet arrived for trans- 
 forming the democracy into a republican monarchy ; 
 for this could only be obtained by the fusion of all 
 parties, which was still very far off. The new adminis- 
 tration, on the contrary, faveured a kind of moral 
 reaction against the Revolution and the severity of its 
 laws. The writings most in vogue tended to royalism. 
 To judge from the clamours of the republicans, we 
 were rapidly approaching it. These clamours were 
 accredited by imprudent royalists, and by works which 
 recalled the recollection and the distresses of the 
 Bourbons — " Irma," for example, which at that time 
 was the rage in Paris, because it was supposed to 
 contain the recital of the affecting misfortunes of 
 Madame Royale. 1 
 
 1 The history of " Irma " appeared under the form of an 
 allegory. The scenes were laid in Asia, and all the names 
 were changed ; but the key to them was easily found by 
 anagrams. This able manner of publishing the history of the 
 misfortunes of the house of Bourbon excited curiosity in a high 
 degree, and warmly interested the public. The work was de- 
 voured; by following the events and arriving at the catastropl 
 the names were easily guessed at. Under a false appearance of 
 liberty, the First Consul permitted everything to bo published 
 respecting the Revolution that could disparage it; then succes- 
 sively appeared the Memoirs of the Marquis de Bouillc, of 
 Bertrand de Moleville, of the Princess Lamballe. those of the 
 
 VOL. I
 
 ii4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 At any other time the police would have caused a 
 similar work to be seized ; but I was obliged to 
 sacrifice public opinion to reasons of state, and these 
 reasons required that the royalists should be deceived. 
 The maxims and interests of the Revolution had, how- 
 ever, still too much life to be injured with impunity. I 
 thought it my duty to cool the hopes of the counter- 
 revolutionists, and to raise the courage of the republi- 
 cans. I observed to the Consul that he still acted a 
 part of great delicacy ; that, having manoeuvred with 
 men sincerely attached to the republican forms and to 
 the liberties of the public, and the army itself having 
 imbibed the same sentiments, he could not separate 
 himself without danger, either from his own party or 
 the army ; besides that, it was necessary for him to 
 quit a provisional and create for himself a permanent 
 establishment. 
 
 The "attention of the government had just been 
 engaged at this period in the preparatory labours of 
 two intermediary legislative commissions. That of the 
 five hundred was conducted by Lucien, Boulay, Jacque- 
 minot, and Daunou; that of the ancients by Lemercier, 
 Lebrun, and Regnier. The man of most ability was 
 unquestionably Lebrun. Bonaparte desired his advice, 
 and received it with deference. The object was to 
 discuss in grand conference the new project of social 
 organisation which Sieyes was anxious to present, in 
 place of the constitution of the year III., whose 
 
 Mesdames of France, the " History of Madame Elizabeth," the 
 "Cimetiere de la Madeleine," &c. But this toleration ceased as 
 soon as the First Consul found himself securely seated, as will 
 be seen in the sequel of these Memoirs. — Note by the Editor.
 
 A SECRET COUNCIL CONVENED H 5 
 
 obsequies he was eager to superintend. Sieyes, with 
 whose real thoughts Bonaparte was acquainted, affected 
 great mystery. He said he had nothing ready ; that 
 he had not time to arrange his papers. He played off 
 silence. In this he resembled those fashionable authors 
 who, eaten up with the desire manifested by the public 
 of reading their works, insist upon being first entreated 
 by coquetry and fashion before yielding to the prayers 
 of a curious and oftentimes satirical public. I was 
 commissioned to penetrate his mystery, and I employed 
 Real, who, using much address, with an appearance 
 of great good-nature, discovered the bases of Sieyes' 
 project by getting Chenier, one of his confidants, to 
 chatter upon rising from a dinner at which wine and 
 other intoxicating liquors had not been spared. 
 
 Upon this information a secret council was held, to 
 which I was called. Bonaparte, Cambaceres, Lebrun, 
 Lucien, Joseph, Berthier, Real, Regnault, and Roederer 
 were present. There we discussed the counter-projects 
 and the conduct to be pursued by Bonaparte in the 
 general conferences which were impatiently awaited by 
 all of us. 
 
 At length, towards the middle of December, the 
 three consuls and the two legislative commissions 
 assembled in Bonaparte's apartment. The conferences 
 commenced at nine o'clock in the evening, and were 
 prolonged far into the night. Daunou was charged 
 with the drawing up of them. Sieyes, at the first 
 sitting, did not utter a word. At length, pressed on 
 all sides, he yielded, and then gave several detached 
 parts of his theories, inclosed in separate papers. With 
 the tone of an oracle, he successively explained to us 
 
 8—2
 
 Il6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 the bases of his favourite constitution. It created tri- 
 bunals composed of one hundred members, who were 
 to discuss the laws ; a legislative body more numerous, 
 whose province was to receive or reject them by vote 
 in an oral discussion ; and lastly, a senate composed 
 of members elected for life, and charged with the im- 
 portant office of watching over the laws and the con- 
 stitution of the state. All these principles, against 
 which Bonaparte made no serious objections, were 
 successively adopted. As to the government, he gave 
 it the drawing up of laws, and for this purpose created 
 a council of state, charged with perfecting and im- 
 proving the projects and regulations of the public 
 administration. It was known that the government of 
 Sieyes was to terminate in a pinnacle, in a species of 
 monarchical shaft, erected upon republican foundations ; 
 an idea to which he had been for a long time at- 
 tached ; £n attention and even impatient curiosity was 
 manifested, till at last he discovered the capital of his 
 constitutional edifice. What was Sieyes' proposal ? A 
 grand elector, chosen for life by the conservative senate, 
 sitting at Versailles, representing the majority of the 
 nation, with a revenue of six millions, a guard of three 
 thousand men, and having no other functions than to 
 nominate two consuls, one for peace and another for 
 war, both independent of each other in the exercise of 
 their functions. And this grand elector, in case of a 
 bad choice, could be absorbed by the senate, which was 
 invested with the right of drawing back into its own 
 body, without explaining its reasons, every depositary 
 of public authority, the two consuls and the grand 
 elector not excepted ; the latter having become a member
 
 THE "GRAND ELECTOR" SCHEME uy 
 
 of the senate, would no longer have any direct share 
 in the operations of government. 
 
 Here Bonaparte could no longer contain himself; 
 rising up and bursting into a loud laugh, he took the 
 paper from the hands of Sieves, and, with one dash 
 of his pen, sabred what he called metaphysical non- 
 sense. Sieyes, who generally yielded to, instead of 
 resisting, objections, defended, nevertheless, his grand 
 elector ; and said that after all a king ought to be 
 nothing else. Bonaparte replied, with much warmth, 
 that he mistook the shadow for the substance, the 
 abuse for the principle ; that there could not be in 
 the government any active power without an indepen- 
 dence founded upon, and defined by, prerogative. He 
 also made several other preconcerted objections, to 
 which Sieyes replied very lamely ; and becoming gradu- 
 ally more warm, he finished by addressing his colleague 
 thus : " How could you have supposed, citizen Sieyes, 
 that a man of honour, of talent, and of some capacity 
 in affairs, would ever consent to be nothing but a hog 
 fattened up by a few millions in the royal chateau of 
 Versailles ? " Amused by this sally, the members of 
 the conference began to laugh ; and Sieyes, who had 
 already testified indecision, remained confounded, and 
 saw his grand elector sink never to rise again. 
 
 It is certain that Sieyes concealed some deep pro- 
 jects in this ridiculous form of government, and that 
 had it been adopted, he would soon have remained 
 sole master. It was he, doubtless, whom the senate 
 was to have nominated grand elector, and he would 
 have appointed Bonaparte consul for war, sure of 
 absorbing him at a convenient opportunity. By this
 
 Il8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 means everything would remain in his own hands, and 
 it would have been easy for him, by causing himself 
 to be absorbed, to have called a similar personage to 
 the head of the government, and to have transformed, 
 by a transition artfully prepared, an elective executive 
 power into an hereditary royalty, in favour of any 
 dynasty it was necessary for him to establish for the 
 interests of a revolution of which he was the supreme 
 pontiff. 
 
 But his circuitous and suspicious proceedings brought 
 against him the determined resistance of the consul, 
 which he ought to have expected ; and thence the 
 overthrow of all his projects. He had not, however, 
 neglected to secure, as will shortly be seen, a retire- 
 ment proof against all the shafts of adverse fortune. 
 
 It was not sufficient to do away with the project 
 of Sieyes ; it was necessary, besides, that the ad- 
 herents and intimate advisers of the General Consul 
 should be brought into the government, in order to 
 make themselves master of the supreme power. All 
 was ready. But notwithstanding the personal retreat 
 of Sieyes, the party who were attached to his opinions 
 returned to the charge, and, in despair at their cause, 
 proposed the adoption of forms purely republican. To 
 this was opposed the creation of a president, similar 
 to the plan of the United States, for ten years, free 
 in the choice of ministers, of his council of state, and 
 all the members of the administration. Others, also, 
 who were gained over, advised to disguise the sole 
 magistrateship of the president ; for which purpose 
 they offered to conciliate conflicting opinions by form- 
 ing a government of three consuls, of which two should
 
 BONAPARTE IN A RAGE Ir g 
 
 only be advisers as occasion required (conseillers neces- 
 saires). But when they were called upon to decide 
 that there should be a First Consul, invested with 
 supreme power, having the right of nominating to, 
 and dismissing from all appointments, and that the 
 two consuls should only have consulting voices, then 
 objections arose. Chazal, Daunou, Courtois, Chenier, 
 and many others besides, insisted upon constitutional 
 limits. They represented that if General Bonaparte 
 should take upon himself the supreme magistracy, with- 
 out a previous election, it would denote the ambition 
 of a usurper, and would justify the opinion of those 
 who had asserted that the events of the 18th Brumaire 
 were solely intended for his own aggrandisement. 
 Making a last effort to prevent it, they offered him 
 the dignity of generalissimo, with the power of making 
 peace and war, and of treating with foreign powers. 
 " I will remain at Paris," replied Bonaparte with 
 vivacity, and biting his nails ; I will remain at Paris ; 
 I am Consul." Then Chenier, breaking silence, spoke 
 of liberty, of the Republic, of the necessity of putting 
 some restrictions upon power ; insisting, with much 
 force and courage, upon the adoption of the measure 
 of absorption into the senate. " That shall not be ! ' 
 cried Bonaparte, in a rage, and stamping with his 
 feet ; " we will rather wade to our knees in blood ! 
 At these words, which changed into a scene a delibera- 
 tion hitherto kept within the bounds of moderation, 
 everyone remained speechless ; and the majority rising 
 placed the power not into the hands of three consuls, 
 the second and third having consulting voices, but to 
 a single one nominated for three years, re-eligible,
 
 120 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 promulgating laws, appointing and dismissing at his 
 will all the members of the executive power, making 
 peace and war, and, in fact, nominating himself. And 
 so Bonaparte, by avoiding to make a previous insti- 
 tution of the senate, would not even condescend to be 
 First Consul by the act of the senators. 
 
 Whether from spite or pride, Sieyes refused to be 
 one of the accessory consuls. This was expected, and 
 the choice which was already made by Bonaparte in 
 petto fell upon Cambaceres and Lebrun, who differed 
 but very little in politics. The one, a member of the 
 Convention, having voted for the death of the king, 
 had embraced the Revolution in its principles as well 
 as its consequences ; but, like a cold egotist, the other, 
 brought up in the maxims of ministerial despotism, 
 under the Chancellor Maupeou, whose intimate sec- 
 retary he was, caring little about theories, attached 
 himself solely to the action of power ; the one, a 
 powerless defender of the principles of the Revolution 
 and of its interests, was inclined for the return of 
 distinctions, honours, and abuses ; the other was a 
 warmer and a juster advocate of social order, of 
 morals, and of public faith. Both were enlightened 
 and men of probity, although avaricious. 
 
 As to Sieyes, nominated a senator, he concurred 
 with Cambaceres and Lebrun in organising the senate, 
 of which he was first president. As a reward for his 
 docility in resigning the helm of affairs into the hands 
 of the General Consul, he was voted the estate of 
 Crosne, a magnificent present of a million of francs, 
 independent of twenty-five thousand francs a year as 
 senator, and exclusive of his pot de vin as director,
 
 THE NEW CONSTITUTION RATIFIED I21 
 
 which amounted to six hundred thousand francs, and 
 which he called his poire pour la soif. From that 
 time, fallen from all consideration and sunk in secret 
 sensuality, he was politically dead. 
 
 A decree of the 20th of November ordained that 
 the two preceding legislative councils should assemble 
 of their own right in February, 1800. In order to 
 elude with more effect this decree, the execution of 
 which would have compromised the consular dignity, 
 a new constitution was submitted to the acceptance 
 of the French people. There was no longer any 
 question of collecting them in primary assemblies by 
 consecrating again the democratic principle, but of 
 opening registers in all the government departments 
 and public offices — registers in which the citizens were 
 to inscribe their votes. These votes amounted to 
 three millions and more, and I can affirm that there 
 was no deception in the computation, so favourably 
 received was the Revolution de Brumairc by the great 
 majority of Frenchmen. 
 
 Nine times in less than seven years, since the fall 
 of the royal authority, the nation had seen the helm 
 pass from hand to hand, and the vessel of state dashed 
 upon new shoals. But this time the pilot inspired 
 more universal confidence. He was considered to be 
 steady and skilful, and his government, in other re- 
 spects, assumed the forms of durability. 
 
 The day on which Bonaparte declared himself 
 First Consul, and was recognised in that character, he 
 judged that his reign was substantially to date from 
 that period, and he did not disguise that opinion in 
 the internal action of his government. Republicanism
 
 I22 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 was observed to lose every day some portion of its 
 gloomy austerity, and conversions in favour of unity 
 of power were seen to multiply. 
 
 The Consul induced us to believe, and we willingly 
 persuaded ourselves, that this necessary unity in the 
 government would cause no encroachment on the re- 
 publican structure ; and, in fact, up to the period of 
 the battle of Marengo, the forms of the Republic still 
 subsisted ; no person dared to stray from the language 
 and the spirit of that government. Bonaparte, when 
 First Consul, constrained himself to appear in no 
 other light than as magistrate of the people and chief 
 of the army. He assumed the reins of government 
 on the 25th of December, and his name was from 
 that time inscribed at the head of all public Acts, an 
 innovation unknown since the birth of the Republic. 
 Till then the chief magistrates of the state had in- 
 habited -the palace of the Luxembourg ; none of them 
 had yet dared to invade the abode of the kings. 
 Bonaparte, with more assurance, quitted the Luxem- 
 bourg and went in state, accompanied by great military 
 display, to occupy the Tuileries, which became from 
 that time the residence of the First Consul. The 
 senate held its sittings at 'the Luxembourg, and the 
 tribunal at the Palais Royal. 
 
 This magnificence pleased the nation, which ap- 
 proved of being represented in a manner more suited 
 to her dignity. Splendour and etiquette resumed a por- 
 tion of their empire. Paris beheld its circles, its balls, 
 and sumptuous entertainments revived. Observant of 
 forms, punctilious even in matters of public decency, 
 Bonaparte, breaking through the ancient connections of
 
 REORGANISATION OF JUDICIAL SYSTEM ^3 
 
 Josephine, and even his own, excluded from the palace 
 all females of decried or suspected morals who had 
 figured in the most brilliant circles, as well as in the 
 intrigues carried on at the Luxembourg under the reign 
 of the Directory. 
 
 The commencement of a new reign is almost always 
 auspicious. It was the same with the consulship, which 
 was distinguished by the reform of a great number of 
 abuses, by acts of wisdom and humanity, and by the 
 system of justice and moderation which the consuls 
 adopted. The recall of a portion of the deputies, 
 against whom were levelled the decrees of the 19th 
 Fructidor, was an act of wisdom, decision, and equity. 
 The same may be said of the measure for closing the 
 list of emigrants. The consuls permitted the erasure 
 of a great number of the distinguished members of the 
 Constituent Assembly. I enjoyed the satisfaction of re- 
 calling and erasing from the fatal list the celebrated 
 Cazales, as well as his old colleague Malouet, a man of 
 real talent and strict integrity. As well as myself, the 
 ex-elector Malouet had formerly taken his degree at the 
 Oratoire, and I entertained for him an extreme regard. 
 It will be seen that he repaid my friendship by a per- 
 severing and sincere return. 
 
 The reorganisation of the judicial system, and the 
 establishment of prefectures, equally distinguished that 
 auspicious opening of the consulship, of which the com- 
 position of the new authorities felt the beneficial results. 
 But, to confess the truth, this flattering picture was 
 soon overshadowed. " It is not my intention to govern 
 in the character of a beau magistrate," said Bonaparte 
 to me one evening; "the pacification of the west does
 
 124 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 not proceed ; there is too much license and boasting 
 in the journals." The awaking moment was terrible. 
 The execution of young Toustain, that of the Count de 
 Frotte and his companions in arms, the suppression of 
 a portion of the journals, the threatening style of the 
 last proclamations, while they filled both republicans 
 and royalists with dismay, dissipated through nearly 
 the whole of France the fond hopes which had been 
 cherished of an equitable and humane government. I 
 caused the First Consul to feel the necessity of dis- 
 persing these clouds. He relaxed a little ; gained over 
 the emigrants by favours and employments ; restored 
 the churches to the Catholic worship ; kept the re- 
 publicans either in a state of minority or dispersion, 
 but without persecuting them : he proclaimed himself 
 at the same time the scourge of contractors. 
 
 All the sources of credit were either dried up or 
 destroyed at the accession of the Consul by the effect 
 of the disorders, the dilapidations, and the profusion 
 which had crept into all the branches of the public 
 administration and revenue. It was requisite to create 
 new resources in order to meet the war and all the 
 departments of service. Twelve millions were borrowed 
 of the commercial interest of Paris ; twenty-four millions 
 were expected from the sale of the domains of the 
 house of Orange ; and at length one hundred and fifty 
 millions of bons de rescription de r achat de rentes, were 
 put into circulation. In decreeing these measures, the 
 First Consul perceived how difficult it would be for 
 him to depart from the ruinous control of the con- 
 tractors. He had a perfect horror of them. The 
 following note, of which he subsequently remitted me
 
 BONAPARTE'S DISLIKE OF USURY I25 
 
 a copy, prejudiced and singularly exasperated him 
 against our principal bankers and brokers. This is 
 the note : 
 
 " The individuals whose names are subscribed are 
 masters of the public fortune ; they give an impulse to 
 the course of public stock, and each of them possesses 
 about a hundred millions of private capital ; they, more- 
 over, dispose of twenty-four millions of credit ; namely, 
 Armand Seguin, Vanderberg, Launoy, Collot, Hinguerlot, 
 Ouvrard, the brothers Michel, Bastide, Marion, and 
 Recamier. The partisans of Haller the Swiss have 
 triumphed, because that Swiss, whose measures of 
 finance the First Consul did not choose to adopt, pre- 
 dicted the fall which has at this moment taken place." 
 
 Bonaparte could not support the idea of fortunes 
 so suddenly made and so gigantic ; it seemed as if he 
 feared to be subjected to them. He regarded them 
 generally as the disgraceful results of public dilapidation 
 and usury. He had only been able to triumph on the 
 18th of Brumaire with the money which Collot had 
 lent him ; and he was humiliated by the reflection. 
 Joseph Bonaparte himself only obtained possession of 
 Morfontaine with the two millions lent him by Collot. 
 " Yes," said he to his brother, " you wished to play the 
 great man with other people's money ; but the whole 
 weight of the usury will fall upon me." 
 
 I had much trouble, as well as the Count Lebrun, 
 to mitigate his indignation against bankers and broker.-. 
 and to divert him from the violent measures which 
 from that time he purposed instituting against them. 
 He comprehended little of the theory of public credit : 
 and it was obvious that he had a secret inclination t
 
 126 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 conduct the finance department amongst us, on the 
 system of the averages adopted in Egypt, Turkey, and 
 throughout the East. He was, however, compelled to 
 recur to Vanderberg in order to open the campaign ; 
 to him he committed the charge of the necessary 
 loan. His prejudices extended to all the secret parts 
 of the government. I was always the person to whom 
 he assigned the duty of verifying or controlling the 
 secret notes which intriguers and place-hunters never 
 failed transmitting to him. Some idea of the delicacy 
 of my functions may be formed from that circum- 
 stance. I was the only one capable of correcting his 
 prejudices or of triumphing over them, by placing 
 daily under his eye, by means of my police bulletins, 
 the expression of all kinds of opinions and ideas, and 
 the summary of such secret circumstances, a knowledge 
 of which interested the safety and tranquillity of the 
 state. In order not to exasperate him, I took care to 
 make a separate summary of all which might have 
 mortified him in his conferences and communications 
 with the two other consuls. My communications with 
 him were too frequent not to be of a ticklish character. 
 But I maintained a tone of truth and frankness tem- 
 pered with zeal, and that zeal was sincere. I found 
 in that unique personage precisely all that was wanted 
 in order to regulate and maintain that unity of power 
 in the executive authority, without which everything 
 would have fallen back into disorder and chaos. But 
 I found also that he possessed violent passions and 
 a natural tendency to despotism, derived from his 
 character and martial habits. I flattered myself with 
 being able successfully to restrain it by the exercise
 
 LETTER TO THE KING OF ENGLAND 127 
 
 of prudence and reason, and I pretty often succeeded 
 beyond my hopes. 
 
 At this period Bonaparte had no further cause to 
 fear any material opposition in the interior of France, 
 except that of some royalist bands which still retained 
 their arms in the departments of the east, and chiefly 
 in Morbihan. In Europe his power was neither so 
 well consolidated nor so undisputed. He was perfectly 
 aware beforehand that he could strike its roots deeply 
 only by new victories. Of these he was therefore 
 greedy. 
 
 But France was then emerging from a crisis ; her 
 finances were exhausted ; if anarchy had been quelled, 
 it was not so with royalism; and the republican spirit 
 was fermenting secretly beyond the sphere of power. 
 As to the French armies, notwithstanding their recent 
 successes in Holland and Switzerland, they were still 
 in no condition to resume the offensive. The whole 
 of Italy was lost ; even the Apennines were not able 
 to prescribe bounds to the soldiers of Austria. 
 
 What, then, did Bonaparte do ? By the excellent 
 advice of his minister for foreign affairs, he sagaciou six- 
 availed himself of the passions of the Emperor Paul I., 
 in order to detach him entirely from the coalition. 
 He next made appearance on the ostensible stage of 
 European diplomacy by publishing his famous letter to 
 the King of England. It contained overtures offered 
 in an uncustomary form. In that circumstance the 
 First Consul foresaw the double advantage of obtain- 
 ing credit for his pacific intentions, and of persuading 
 France, in the event of the refusal which he expected, 
 that in order to conquer that peace which was the
 
 128 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 object of all his desires, it was necessary to supply 
 him with gold, steel, and men. 
 
 When one day, on issuing from his private cabinet 
 council, he told me, with an air of inspiration, that he 
 felt assured of reconquering Italy in three months, I 
 was, in the first instance, struck with the seeming 
 audacity of the proposal, and nevertheless was induced 
 to give it credit. Carnot, who a short time previously 
 had become minister of war, perceived as well as I 
 that there was one thing which Bonaparte understood 
 above all others, and that was the practical science of 
 war. But when Bonaparte positively told me that he 
 understood, before his departure for the army, that all 
 the departments of the west were tranquil, and pointed 
 out to me measures connected with the subject, coin- 
 ciding with my own views, I not only recognised in 
 him the character of a warrior, but also of an able 
 politician ; and I seconded his exertions with a good 
 fortune, for which he manifested his obligations. 
 
 We were, however, not able to break up the royalist 
 league, except by means of the great primum mobile, 
 subornation. In this respect Bernia, the curate, and 
 two viscountesses, desirably assisted in favouring the 
 opinion that Bonaparte was exerting himself to replace 
 the Bourbons on the throne. The bait took so well 
 that the King himself, then at Mittau, deceived by his 
 correspondents in Paris, conceived that the favourable 
 moment was come for him to claim his crown, and 
 transmitted to the consul Lebrun, by means of the 
 Abbe de Montesquiou, his secret agent, a letter ad- 
 dressed to Bonaparte, wherein, in the most mincing 
 terms, he endeavoured to convince him of the honour
 
 * 
 
 THE DUCHESS DE GUICHE 
 
 129 
 
 he would acquire by replacing him on the throne of 
 his ancestors. " I can do nothing for France without 
 you," said that prince, "and you cannot contribute to 
 the welfare of France without me. Hasten, then, to 
 undertake the task." 
 
 At the same time the Count d'Artois sent the 
 Duchess de Guiche, a lady of great attraction and 
 talent, from London, in order, on his side, to open 
 a negotiation of a parallel description by means of 
 Josephine, who was considered the tutelary angel of 
 the royalists and emigrants. She obtained some in- 
 terviews, and I was informed of them by Josephine 
 herself, who, in conformity with our mutual treaty, 
 cemented by a thousand francs per day, informed me 
 of all that took place within the interior of the 
 chateau. 
 
 I confess that I was mortified in not receiving from 
 Bonaparte any instruction respecting circumstances so 
 essential. I therefore went to work. I employed ex- 
 traordinary means ; and I learnt in a positive manner 
 the proceedings of the Abbe de Montesquiou with the 
 consul Lebrun. I made it the subject of a memorial, 
 which I addressed to the First Consul, in which I 
 referred equally to that mission and the proceedings of 
 the Duchess de Guiche. I represented to him that, in 
 sanctioning such negotiations, he gave occasion to sus- 
 pect that he sought to secure to himself, in case of a 
 reverse of fortune, a brilliant means both of fortune 
 and security ; but that he miscalculated greatly, if, 
 indeed, it were possible for a spirit so magnanimous as 
 his to stoop to so erroneous a policy ; that he was, 
 essentially, the man of the Revolution, and could be 
 
 VOL. I 9
 
 ft 
 
 130 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 no other ; and that the Bourbons could by no chance 
 re-ascend the throne, except by reaching it over his 
 dead body. 
 
 This memorial, which I took the pains to compile 
 and write myself, proved to him that nothing which 
 concerned the secrets and safety of the state could 
 escape my notice. It produced the result which I ex- 
 pected ; that is to say, it made a vivid impression on 
 the mind of Bonaparte. The Duchess de Guiche was 
 dismissed with an order to repair without delay to 
 London ; and the consul Lebrun was taunted with the 
 fact of having received a letter from the king through 
 an underhanded channel. My credit from that time 
 assumed the solidity which befitted the eminence and 
 importance of my functions. 
 
 Other scenes were about to commence ; but they 
 were scenes of blood and carnage on different fields of 
 contention. Moreau, who had passed the Rhine on the 
 25th of April, had already defeated the Austrians in three 
 encounters before the 10th of May, when Bonaparte, 
 between the 16th and 20th, in an enterprise worthy 
 of Hannibal, passed the great St. Bernard, at the 
 head of the entire army of reserve. Surprising the 
 enemy which, either through negligence or delusion, 
 persisted, on the Var and toward Genoa, in invading 
 the frontier of France, he directed his march upon 
 Milan, through the valley of Aoste and Piedmont, and 
 arrived in time to cut off the communication of the 
 Austrian army, commanded by Melas. The Austrian, 
 disconcerted, concentrated himself between the cannon 
 of Alessandria, at the confluence of the Tanaro and the 
 Bormida, and, after some partial defeats, courageously
 
 A RUMOURED DISASTER I3I 
 
 advanced to confront the First Consul, who, on his 
 side, was marching in the same direction. 
 
 The decisive crisis was approaching, and kept the 
 public mind in suspense. Feelings and opinions were 
 in a state of ferment in Paris, especially among the 
 two extreme parties, popular and royalist. The mode- 
 rate republicans were not less moved. They felt a 
 kind of misgiving in seeing at the head of the govern- 
 ment a general more disposed to employ the cannon 
 and the sabre than the cap of liberty or the scales of 
 justice. The malcontents cherished the hope that the 
 individual whom they already called the Cromwell of 
 France, would be arrested in his course, and that, 
 owing his elevation to war, he would owe to war his 
 destruction. 
 
 Things were in this state when, on the evening of 
 the 20th June, two commercial expresses arrived with 
 news from the army, announcing that on the 14th 
 instant, at five o'clock in the evening, the battle 
 fought near Alessandria had turned to the disadvan- 
 tage of the consular army, which was retreating ; but 
 that the contest was still continued. This intelli- 
 gence, diffused with the rapidity of lightning throughout 
 all such classes as were interested, produced upon the 
 public mind the same effect as the electric shock does 
 upon the human body. Meetings were held, assem- 
 blies called ; visits were made to Chenier, to Courtois, 
 to the coterie of Stael ; some hurried to the house 
 of Sieyes, others to that of Carnot. The common 
 pretence was that it was necessary to withdraw the 
 endangered Republic from the grip of the Corsican ; 
 
 that it was necessary to remodel it on a wiser and 
 
 9—2
 
 132 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 freer system ; that it was requisite to have a chief 
 magistrate, but not an arrogant dictator, nor a mere 
 emperor of the soldiers. Every eye and every thought 
 were bent on the minister of war, Carnot. 
 
 I was at once informed of the news and of the 
 public ferment which it occasioned. I hastened in- 
 stantly to the two consuls, and I found them in a 
 state of consternation. I immediately applied myself 
 to the task of raising their fainting resolution. But 
 I confess that, on returning to my own house, my 
 brain stood in need of all its energy. My salon was 
 full of company. I took care not to show myself; 
 at length I was besieged even in my closet. In vain 
 I gave orders to be denied to all but my intimate 
 friends ; the heads of the file penetrated into my fast- 
 ness. I fatigued myself to death in telling everybody 
 that the news was exaggerated ; that probably it was 
 a result' of stock-jobbing ; that, moreover, Bonaparte 
 had always performed miracles on the field of battle. 
 " Above all things," I added, " wait ; let us have no 
 caprice, no imprudence, no bitter reflections, and no 
 overt and hostile acts." 
 
 The next day an express arrived from the First 
 Consul, loaded with the laurels of victory ; the dis- 
 enchantment of one party was incapable of suppressing 
 the universal intoxication. The battle of Marengo, like 
 that of Actium, enabled our young triumvir to triumph, 
 and raised him to the pinnacle of power : a triumvir, 
 equally fortunate, but not so discreet as the Octavius 
 of Rome. He departed in the character of the first 
 magistrate of a nation, still free, and he was about to 
 reappear in the character of a conqueror. It seemed,
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE CONQUEROR 133 
 
 in fact, as if he were less the conqueror of Italy at 
 Marengo than of France. From this period is to be 
 dated the first essay of that disgusting and servile 
 flattery with which all the magistrates and public 
 authorities conspired to turn his head during the fifteen 
 years of his predominance. One of his councillors of 
 state, named Rcederer, was observed to apotheosise his 
 new master, and apply to him, in a public journal, the 
 well-known line of Virgil : 
 
 Deus nobis haec otia fecit. 
 I foresaw all the fatal consequences that this adulatory 
 tendency (perfectly unworthy of a great people) would 
 produce on France and on her chief. But the intoxi- 
 cation was at its height, and the triumph was complete. 
 At length, in the night between the 2nd and 3rd of 
 July, the conqueror arrived. 
 
 I observed, from the first moment, an appearance 
 of moroseness and constraint on his countenance. That 
 very evening, at the hour devoted to business, he darted 
 a gloomy look at me on entering his closet, and broke 
 out in ejaculations : " What ? so ! I was thought to 
 be lost, and an experiment was about to be again 
 made on a Committee of Public Safety. I know every- 
 thing — and these were the men whom I saved and 
 spared. Do they take me for Louis XVI. ? Let them 
 try, and find the difference. There must be no more 
 deception ; a battle lost in my case is a battle gained. 
 I fear nothing ; I will crush all those ungrateful men 
 and traitors into dust. I am able to save France in 
 spite of factions and disturbers." I represented to him 
 that there had only been an access of the republican 
 fever excited by an inauspicious report, a report that I
 
 134 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 had contradicted, and the ill effects of which I had 
 restrained ; that my memorial to the two consuls, a 
 copy of which I had transmitted to him, would enable 
 him to appreciate at its true value that diminutive 
 movement of fermentation and misgiving ; and that, in 
 fine, the denouement was so magnificent, and the public 
 satisfaction so general, that a few clouds, which only 
 rendered the brilliancy of the picture more dazzling 
 by contrast, might easily admit of toleration. " But 
 you do not tell me all," replied he ; " was there not 
 a design to place Carnot at the head of the govern- 
 ment ? Carnot, who suffered himself to be mystified 
 on the 18th Fructidor, who is incapable of maintaining 
 his authority for two months, and who would inevitably 
 be sent to perish at Sinnamary." I affirmed that the 
 conduct of Carnot had been unimpeachable ; and I 
 remarked that it would be very hard to render him 
 responsible for the extravagant projects engendered by 
 sickly brains, and of which he (Carnot) had not the 
 least idea. 
 
 He was silent ; but the impression had struck deep. 
 He did not forgive Carnot, who some time after found 
 himself under the necessity of resigning the portfolio 
 of war. It is probable that I should have shared his 
 anticipated disgrace had not Cambaceres and Lebrun 
 been witnesses of the circumspection of my conduct 
 and the sincerity of my zeal. 
 
 Becoming more jealous as he became more powerful, 
 the First Consul armed himself with precautionary 
 measures, and surrounded himself with a military 
 equipage. His prejudices and distrusts were more 
 especially directed against those whom he called the
 
 BONAPARTE'S DISLIKE OF THE TRIBUNAT 
 
 J 35 
 
 perverse, whether they wished to preserve their attach- 
 ment to the popular party or dissipated their strength 
 in lamentations at the sight of dying liberty. I pro- 
 posed mild measures in order to bring back the mal- 
 contents within the circle of government. I demanded 
 means of gaining the chiefs of the party by pensions, 
 gifts, and places. I received carte blanche with respect 
 to the employment of pecuniary means ; but my credit 
 did not extend to the distribution of public employ- 
 ments and rewards. I saw clearly that the First 
 Consul persisted in the system of only admitting the 
 republicans into his counsels and high employments in 
 the form of a minority, and that he wished to main- 
 tain in full force the partisans of monarchy and abso- 
 lute power. I had scarcely sufficient credit to nominate 
 some half-dozen prefects. Bonaparte did not like the 
 Tribunat, because it contained a nucleus of staunch 
 republicans. It was well known that he more especially 
 dreaded the zealots and enthusiasts known by the 
 name of anarchists, a set of men always ready to be 
 employed as instruments of plots and revolutions. His 
 distrusts and his alarms were inflamed by the persons 
 who surrounded him, and who urged him towards 
 monarchy — such as Portalis, Lebrun, Cambac6res, 
 Clarke, Champagny, Fleurieu, Duchatel, Jollivet, Bene- 
 zech, Emmery, Rcederer, Cretet, Regnier, Chaptal, 
 Dufresne, and many others. To this effect must be 
 added the secret reports and clandestine correspond- 
 ence of men employed by him, which were couched 
 in the same spirit, and swam with the torrent of 
 the prevailing opinion. In these I was not spared. 
 I was exposed to the most malevolent insinuations :
 
 136 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 my system of police was therein often run down 
 and denounced. I had Lucien against me, who was 
 then minister of the interior, and who had also his 
 private police. Sometimes obliged to bear the re- 
 proaches of the First Consul about facts which he 
 believed concealed in obscurity, he suspected me of 
 keeping spies upon him in order to depreciate him in 
 my reports. I had a former order to keep nothing 
 concealed, whether popular reports or the gossip of the 
 salons. The result was that Lucien, making abusive 
 use of his credit and his position, playing the part of 
 a debauchee, seducing wives from their husbands, and 
 trafficing in licenses for the exportation of corn, was 
 often an object of rumours and innuendoes. In the 
 character of head of the police, it was not proper for 
 me to disguise how important it was that the members 
 of the First Consul's family should be irreproachable 
 and pure, in the eyes of the public. 
 
 The nature of the conflict in which I was thus 
 engaged may be conceived. Luckily, I had Josephine 
 in my interest ; Duroc was not against me ; and the 
 private secretary was devoted to my views. This 
 personage, who was replete with ability and talent, but 
 whose greediness of gain very shortly caused his dis- 
 grace, always exhibited so much cupidity that there is 
 no occasion to name him in order to point him out. 
 Having the control over the papers and secrets of his 
 master, he discovered that I spent 100,000 francs 
 monthly, for the purpose of incessantly watching over 
 the existence of the First Consul. The idea came into 
 his head to make me pay for such intelligence as he 
 might supply me, in order to furnish means of accom-
 
 BONAPARTE'S PRIVATE SECRETARY 137 
 
 plishing the aim I had in view. He sought me, and 
 offered to inform me exactly of all the proceedings of 
 Bonaparte for 25,000 francs per month ; and he made 
 me this offer as a means of saving 900,000 francs per 
 annum. 
 
 I took care not to let this opportunity slip, of 
 having the private secretary of the chief of the state 
 in my pay ; that chief whom it was so requisite for 
 me to follow step by step, in order to know what he 
 had done, and what he was about to do. The pro- 
 posal of the secretary was accepted, and he every 
 month very punctually received a blank order for 
 25,000 francs, the promised sum, which he was to 
 draw out of the treasury. On my side, I had full 
 reason to congratulate myself on his dexterity and 
 accuracy. But I took care not to starve the funds 
 which I employed, in order to protect the person of 
 Bonaparte from any unforeseen attack. The palace 
 alone dried up more than half the resource of my 
 100,000 francs, which were monthly available. In 
 fact, I was by that means very accurately apprised 
 of all that was important for me to know ; and I was 
 enabled, reciprocally, to control the information of 
 the secretary by that of Josephine, and that of the 
 latter by the secretary. I was stronger than all my 
 enemies put together. 
 
 But what were the next measures resorted to in 
 order to destroy me ? I was formally accused to the 
 First Consul of protecting republicans and demagogues ; 
 and the accusers went so far as to point out General 
 Parain, who was personally attached to me, of being the 
 intermediate agent whom I employed for the purpose
 
 138 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of supplying information to the anarchists, and of dis- 
 tributing money among them. The real fact is that 
 I employed all my ministerial influence in order to 
 counteract the designs of zealots., to appease passions, 
 to divert them from the means of combining any plot 
 against the chief magistrate ; and that many individuals 
 were greatly indebted to me for salutary assistance and 
 admonition. In doing this I only availed myself of the 
 latitude allowed me by my functions in the superior 
 police. I thought, and I still think, that it is better to 
 prevent criminal attempts than subsequently to exert 
 the power of punishing them. But the means of ren- 
 dering me suspected finally succeeded in exciting the 
 distrust of the First Consul. In a short time he found 
 pleas to limit my functions, by especially charging the 
 prefect of police with the duty of superintending the 
 malcontents. That prefect was Dubois ; an old lawyer, 
 avaricious and blindly devoted to power ; a magistrate 
 before the Revolution, who, after having adroitly in- 
 sinuated himself into the bureau central, got himself 
 appointed prefect of police, after the igth Brumaire. 
 In order to obtain a little private administration for 
 himself, he threw difficulties in my way in the matter 
 of the secret fund ; and I was obliged to give him a 
 large bonus out of the curie des jeicx, under pretext 
 that money was the sinew of all political police. But 
 afterwards I succeeded in detecting him in the employ- 
 ment of the funds of his budget, which were derived 
 from the base and disgraceful vices which dishonour 
 the metropolis. 
 
 The Machiavellian maxim, Divide et impera, having 
 prevailed, there were shortly no less than four distinct
 
 FOUCHE APPRECIATED 
 
 139 
 
 systems of police : the military police of the palace, 
 conducted by the aides-de-camp and by Duroc ; the 
 police of the inspectors of gendarmerie ; the police of 
 the prefecture, managed by Dubois ; and my own. As 
 to the police of the home department, I lost no time 
 in abolishing it, as will shortly be seen. Accordingly, 
 the Consul daily received four bulletins of separate 
 police establishments, derived from different quarters, 
 and which he was enabled to compare together, without 
 mentioning the reports of his privately accredited corre- 
 spondents. This was what he called feeling the pulse 
 of the Republic ; the latter was considered as in a very 
 bad state of health under his hands. All that it was 
 possible for me to have done, in order to keep up her 
 strength, would have turned to her disadvantage. 
 
 My adversaries laboured to reduce my functions to 
 that of a simply administrative and theoretical police. 
 But I was not a man to be so put down. The First 
 Consul himself — it is fair to do him justice — was capable 
 of firmly withstanding all manoeuvres of this descrip- 
 tion. He said that in thus wishing to deprive him of 
 my services, he was exposed to the hazard of remain- 
 ing defenceless in presence of the counter-revolutionists ; 
 that no one understood better than I how to manage 
 the police departments of the English and Chouan 
 agents, and that my system suited him. I nevertheless 
 was aware that I was only a counterpoise in the machine 
 of government. Besides, its march was more or less 
 subordinate to the course of public events and the 
 chances of politics. 
 
 Everything at that time seemed to intimate an ap- 
 proaching peace. The battle of Marengo had, by the
 
 140 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 results of a military convention more wonderful than 
 the victory itself, thrown into the power of the First 
 Consul Piedmont, Lombardy, Genoa, and the strongest 
 places in Upper Italy. It was only after having re- 
 established the Cisalpine republic that he departed 
 from Milan. 
 
 On his side, Moreau approaching Vienna, after 
 having made himself master of Munich, the Austrians 
 also were induced to solicit an armistice ; that of Italy 
 not extending to the German territory. To this Moreau 
 consented ; and on the 15th of July the preliminaries 
 of peace were signed at Paris between Austria and 
 France. 
 
 Successes so decisive, far from disarming the repub- 
 lican malcontents, exasperated them more and more. 
 Bonaparte created bitter enemies by his absolute and 
 military habits. There were, even at that time, counted 
 in the panks of the army a great number of opposi- 
 tionists whom a republican spirit induced to form 
 secret associations. General officers and colonels moved 
 their secret strings. They flattered themselves with 
 having in their party Bernadotte, Augereau, Jourdan, 
 Brune, and even Moreau himself, who already began 
 to repent of having assisted the elevation of the indi- 
 vidual who had now erected himself into a master. In 
 fact, no visible sign, no positive datum, furnished the 
 government with a hint of these intrigues ; but some 
 broken indications and disclosures prompted it to the 
 frequent removal from one place to another of the 
 regiments and officers who had rendered themselves 
 objects of suspicion. 
 
 In Paris affairs were in a more gloomy condition,
 
 A REMARKABLE TOAST 
 
 I 4 I 
 
 and the operation of the malcontents was more obvious. 
 The more violent were withheld from employments, 
 and watched. I was informed that, since the institu- 
 tion of the consular government, they held secret 
 assemblies and fabricated plots. It was in order to 
 render those plots abortive that I exerted all my 
 energies ; by that means hoping to mitigate the 
 natural inclination of the government to react upon 
 the individuals of the Revolution. I had even suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining from the First Consul some 
 exterior demonstrations favourable to republican ideas. 
 For example, on the anniversary of the 14th of July, 
 which had just been celebrated under the auspices of 
 concord, the First Consul had given at a solemn 
 banquet the following remarkable toast: "The French 
 people ; our sovereign." 
 
 I had supplied much assistance to indigent and un- 
 fortunate patriots ; on the other hand, by the vigilance 
 of my agents, and by means of timely information, I 
 retained in obscurity and inactivity the most violent 
 of those demagogues who, before the departure of 
 Bonaparte for Italy, had assembled and devised the 
 project of perpetrating his murder on the road, in 
 the vicinity of the capital. After his return, and his 
 triumphs, resentments became blind and implacable. 
 There were secret divans held, and one of the more 
 intemperate conspirators, muffled up in the garb of a 
 gendarme, took an oath to assassinate Bonaparte at 
 the Comedie Francaise. My measures, combined with 
 those of General Lannes, chief of the counter-police, 
 caused the frustration of this plot. But one baffled 
 conspiracy was quickly followed by another. How,
 
 142 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 indeed, could the possibility be expected of restraining 
 for any length of time men of a turbulent character 
 and of an unconquerable fanaticism, exposed, moreover, 
 to a condition of private distress so well calculated to 
 inflame them ? It is with such instruments that con- 
 spiracies are formed and fomented. I soon received 
 information that Juvenot, an old aide - de - camp of 
 Henriot, with some twenty zealots, were plotting the 
 attack and murder of the First Consul at Malmaison. 
 I put a stop to this, and caused Juvenot to be 
 arrested. But it was impossible to extract any con- 
 fession ; we were unable to penetrate the secret of 
 these intrigues and to reach their real authors. Fion, 
 Dufour, and Rossignol passed for the principal agents 
 of the conspiracy ; Talot and Laignelot for the in- 
 visible directors. They had their own pamphleteer ; 
 this was Metge, a resolute, active, and untraceable 
 individtlal. 
 
 Towards the middle of September intimation was 
 given me of a plot to assassinate the First Consul at 
 the opera. I caused Rossignol and some other obscure 
 persons who were suspected to be arrested and con- 
 veyed to prison in the Temple. The interrogatory 
 elicited no light ; and I ordered them to be set at 
 liberty, with directions to follow them. Five days 
 after, the same conspiracy was resumed ; at least, an 
 individual named Harel, one of the accomplices, in 
 the hope of large remuneration, made some disclosures, 
 in concert with the commissary Lefebvre, to Bourienne, 
 secretary of the First Consul. Harel himself being 
 brought forward, corroborated its first information, and 
 designated the conspirators. According to him they
 
 BARERE SUMMONED ! 43 
 
 were Roman emigrants named Ceracchi and Diana ; 
 Arena, brother of the Corsican deputy who had de- 
 clared against the First Consul ; the painter Topino- 
 Lebrun, a fanatical patriot ; and Demerville, an old 
 clerk to the Committee of Public Safety, intimately 
 connected with Barere. This affair procured for me 
 at the palace a tolerably vehement sortie, made up of 
 reproaches and bitterness. Luckily I was not thrown 
 off my guard. "General Consul," I calmly replied, 
 " if the indiscreet zeal of the accuser had been less 
 interested, he would have come to me, who direct, and 
 ought to direct, all the secret strings of the superior 
 police, and who secure the safety of the chief magistrate 
 against all organised conspiracy — organised, I say — for 
 there is no answering for the solitary madness of a 
 fanatical scoundrel. In this case, beyond a doubt, 
 there is a plot, or, at least, a real design to commit 
 violence. I had myself full knowledge of it, and caused 
 the incoherent projectors, who seem to have deluded 
 themselves with reference to the possibility of its 
 execution, to be observed. I can produce proofs of 
 what I advance by the immediate production of the 
 person from whom I derived my information ! ' It 
 was Barere, who was then charged with the political 
 department of journals written under ministerial in- 
 fluence. " Very well," replied Bonaparte in an ani- 
 mated tone ; " let him be produced and make his 
 declaration to General Lannes, who is already ac- 
 quainted with the affair, and with whom you will 
 concert the proper measures." 
 
 I soon perceived that the policy of the First Consul 
 led him to impart substance to a shadow, and that it
 
 i 4 4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 was his wish to have it believed that he had incurred 
 great danger. It was decided — and to this I was a 
 stranger — that the conspirators should be entrapped 
 into a snare which Harel was ordered to devise ; in 
 procuring them, as he had promised, four armed men, 
 who should be employed to assassinate the First Consul 
 on the evening of the ioth of October while present 
 at the performance of the opera of the Horatii. 
 
 This being decided, the Consul, in a privy council, 
 to which the minister of war was summoned, spoke of 
 the dangers by which he was surrounded, the plots of 
 the anarchists and demagogues, and of the perverse 
 direction which men of irritable and ferocious republi- 
 canism imparted to the public mind. He instanced 
 Carnot, and reproached him with his connection with 
 men of the Revolution, and with his morose dis- 
 position. Lucien spoke in the same strain, but in a 
 more artificial manner ; and he referred (the whole 
 scene being got up for the occasion) to the prudence 
 and wisdom of the consuls Cambaceres and Lebrun, 
 who, pleading reasons of state, had alleged that the 
 portfolio of the war department must be withdrawn 
 from Carnot. The fact is that Carnot had frequently 
 allowed himself to defend public liberty and remon- 
 strate with the First Consul against the favours granted 
 to royalists, against the royal magnificence of the court, 
 and against the inclination which Josephine manifested 
 of performing the part of Queen, and surrounding her- 
 self with females whose name and rank flattered her 
 self-love. The next day Carnot, in conformity with 
 the notice which I was instructed to give him, sent 
 in his resignation.
 
 MOCK ATTEMPT ON BONAPARTE'S LIFE iac 
 
 On the day following, at the performance of the 
 Horatii, the mock attempt on the life of the First 
 Consul occurred. On that occasion persons were sta- 
 tioned in readiness by counter-police, with respect to 
 whom the conspirators had been deluded, and those 
 persons arrested Diana, Ceracchi, and their accom- 
 plices. 
 
 This affair made a great stir, and it was what was 
 wanted. All the superior authorities hurried to con- 
 gratulate the First Consul on the danger he had 
 escaped. In his reply from the tribune he said that 
 he had in reality run no danger ; that, independently 
 of the assistance supplied by all good citizens who 
 were present at the performance which he attended, 
 he had with him a picket of his brave guard. " The 
 wretches," exclaimed he, " were incapable of braving 
 the looks of those gallant men." 
 
 I immediately proposed measures of superintendence 
 and precaution for the future, and, amongst others, to 
 disarm all the villages from Paris to Malmaison, and 
 to institute a search into all the detached houses on 
 the same road. Special instructions were drawn up 
 in order to impart redoubled vigilance to the agents 
 of police. The counter-police of the palace also or- 
 dained extraordinary measures. Less facility of access 
 to the chief magistrate was permitted ; all the avenues 
 by which he reached the boxes of the theatres were 
 secured from all risk of individual violence. 
 
 Every government of recent origin generally profits 
 by the occasion of a danger which it has provoked, 
 either to corroborate or to extend its power ; to have 
 escaped a conspiracy is sufficient ground for acquiring 
 
 VOL. I 10
 
 146 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 more energy and vigour. The First Consul was in- 
 stinctively induced to follow a policy adopted by all 
 his predecessors. In this latter case he was more par- 
 ticularly prompted thereto by his brother Lucien, who 
 was equally ambitious as himself, although his ambi- 
 tion exhibited a different shape and character. It had 
 not escaped his notice that he curbed and eclipsed his 
 brother, either by boasting with too much arrogance 
 and self-complacency of the 18th of Brumaire, or by 
 desiring to exercise too great a predominance in the 
 operations of government. He had at first entertained 
 a secret design of urging Bonaparte to establish a 
 species of consular duumvirate, by means of which he 
 meant to have retained in his own hands all the civil 
 power, and to have thus effected a participation of 
 power with a brother who never contemplated the 
 idea of any participation whatsoever. 
 
 This project having failed, he sought every means 
 of re-establishing his credit, which had declined in 
 consequence of his wants, and of that iron barrier 
 which he found in his way, and to the construction 
 of which he had himself so much contributed. 
 
 Availing himself of the impression produced by the 
 species of a republican conspiracy just suppressed, and 
 exaggerating to the eye of his brother the inconveni- 
 ence attending on the instability of his power and the 
 dangers stirred up against him by the republican spirit, 
 he hoped from that time to induce him to establish 
 a constitutional monarchy, of which he meant himself 
 to be the directing minister and support. I was 
 openly opposed to this project, which was at that 
 time impracticable ; and I was well aware that the
 
 LUCIEN AS AUTHOR I47 
 
 First Consul himself, however devoured by the desire 
 of rendering his power immovable, founded the anti- 
 cipated success of his encroachments upon other 
 combinations. 
 
 Lucien, however, persisted in his projects ; and 
 wishing to complete the work, which according to him 
 was only yet a sketch, at least (conceiving himself to 
 be secure of the tacit assent of his brother), he caused 
 a pamphlet to be secretly composed and written, en- 
 titled, " Parallel of Cromwell, Monk, and Bonaparte," 
 where the cause and principles of monarchy were 
 overtly advocated and cried up. Great numbers of 
 this pamphlet having been struck off, Lucien in his 
 private office inclosed as many packets of them under 
 cover as there were prefectures, and each packet con- 
 tained copies equal in number to the functionaries of 
 the departments. No official notice, it is true, accom- 
 panied this mission, which was sent to each prefect 
 by coach ; but the character of the envoi, the super- 
 scription bearing the marks of a ministerial mission, 
 and other indications, gave sufficient intimation of the 
 source and political object of the publication. I on 
 the same day received a copy, unknown to Lucien ; 
 and hastening to Malmaison, I laid it under the eye 
 of the First Consul, with a report, in which I exhibited 
 the serious inconveniences likely to result from so ill- 
 disguised an initiative. I designated it as unseason- 
 able and imprudent, and I supported my arguments 
 effectually by referring to the state of secret irritation 
 in which the mind of the army at that time was, 
 especially among the generals and superior officers, 
 who personally were little attached to Bonaparte, and 
 
 IO — 2
 
 148 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 who being indebted for their military fortunes to the 
 Revolution, were attached more than it was imagined 
 to republican forms and principles. I said that a 
 monarchical establishment could not without danger 
 be abruptly made to succeed them, and that it would 
 be obnoxious to all those who beforehand raised the 
 cry of usurpation. I concluded, in short, by making 
 the premature character of such tests obvious, and I 
 subsequently obtained an order publicly to prevent the 
 further propagation of the pamphlet. 
 
 I afterwards ordered the circulation to be stopped, 
 and in order with more effect to obviate the suspicion 
 that it emanated from government, I designated it in 
 my circular as the work of " some contemptible and 
 culpable intriguer." Lucien, in a rage at this, and con- 
 cluding that I should not have employed such expressions 
 without being authorised, hurried in his turn to Mal- 
 maison„ in order to extort an explanation, which was 
 of a stormy character. From this epoch the opposition 
 between the two brothers assumed a complexion of 
 hostility, which concluded by degenerating into violent 
 scenes. It is certain that Lucien, at the conclusion 
 of one intemperate altercation, passionately threw on 
 his brother's desk his portfolio of minister, exclaiming 
 that he divested himself the more readily of a public 
 character as he had suffered nothing but torment from 
 subjection to such a despot ; and that, on the other 
 hand, his brother, equally exasperated, called his aides- 
 de-camp on duty to turn out of his closet the citizen 
 who forgot the respect due to the First Consul. 
 
 Both decorum and state reasons required the separa- 
 tion of the two brothers without more scandal and
 
 A PALACE QUARREL x ,g 
 
 violence. M. de Talleyrand and myself laboured at 
 this task ; all was politically made up. Lucien in a 
 short time departed for Madrid, with the title of am- 
 bassador, and with an express mission to change the 
 inclinations of the King of Spain, and urge him to a 
 war against Portugal ; a kingdom which the First 
 Consul beheld with chagrin subjected to dependence 
 upon England. 
 
 The causes and the circumstances of the departure 
 of Lucien could scarcely remain secret. On this occa- 
 sion the opportunity was not lost in private correspon- 
 dence and in the Parisian saloons to exhibit me upon 
 the stage ; to represent me as having triumphed in a 
 contest for favour against the brother of the First 
 Consul himself. It was pretended that by such means 
 I had enabled the party of Josephine and the Beau- 
 harnais to preponderate over the party of the brothers 
 of Napoleon. It is true that, looking to the advantage 
 of the maturity and unity of authority, I was fully per- 
 suaded that the mild and benignant influence of the 
 Beauharnais was preferable to the excessive and im- 
 perious encroachments of Lucien, who alone wished 
 to domineer over the state, and to leave his brother 
 nothing but the management of the army. 
 
 New plots, engendered by extreme parties, suc- 
 ceeded these domestic quarrels of the palace. Ever 
 since the latter end of October the fanatics had re- 
 newed their sinister designs ; I perceived that they 
 were organised with a secrecy and ability which 
 disconcerted all the vigilance of the police. At 
 this period two parallel and almost identical plots 
 were formed against the life of the First Consul by
 
 l 5° 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 demagogues and royalists. As the latter, which was 
 more dangerous because entirely devised in darkness, 
 appeared to me to be connected with the political 
 situation which the chief magistrate then held, I will 
 give a summary of that situation in a few words. 
 
 The Emperor of Austria had received news of the 
 preliminaries of peace being signed in his name at 
 Paris by the Count St. Julien, at the very moment 
 when that monarch had signed a subsidiary treaty 
 with England. The cabinet of Vienna, thus embar- 
 rassed between peace and English gold, courageously 
 resolved on a new recourse to the risks of war. M. de 
 St. Julien was thrown into prison for having exceeded 
 his powers ; and, the armistice being about to expire 
 in a short time, preparations for renewing hostilities 
 were made on both sides. The armistice, however, 
 was prolonged till November. In this manner both 
 sides balanced between peace and war. The First 
 Consul and his government were at that time inclined 
 to peace, which then solely depended on the opera- 
 tions of Moreau in Germany ; of that Moreau whose 
 troublesome reputation Bonaparte even at that time 
 envied. 
 
 He was the only man whose renown could bear 
 competition with his in point of strategic skill. This 
 kind of military rivalry, and the position of Moreau in 
 regard to public opinion, subjected Bonaparte, in some 
 sort, to the mercy of his success, while in the interior 
 of France he was exposed to the plots of demagogues 
 and hostile royalists. In their eyes he was the com- 
 mon enemy. The vigilance of the police, far from 
 discouraging the anarchists, appeared to imbue them
 
 THE "LITTLE CORPORAL" 
 
 151 
 
 with more audacity and vigour. Their leaders some- 
 times assembled at the house of Chretien, the limon- 
 adier ; sometimes at Versailles ; sometimes in the 
 garden of the Capucines, organising insurrection, and 
 already devising a provisional government. Determin- 
 ing to bring the matter to a conclusion, they pro- 
 ceeded to desperate resolutions. One of them, named 
 Chevalier, a man of delirious republicanism and atro- 
 cious spirit, who was employed in the great artillery 
 magazine at Meudon, under the Committee of Public 
 Safety, conceived the first idea of destroying Bonaparte 
 by means of an infernal machine stationed on his 
 road. Stimulated by the approbation of his accom- 
 plices, and still more by his native disposition, Cheva- 
 lier, seconded by a man named Veycer, constructed 
 a kind of barrel, hooped with iron, furnished with nails, 
 and loaded with gunpowder and case-shot, to which 
 he affixed a firmly adapted and loaded battery, which 
 was calculated to be discharged at any given moment 
 by the aid of a match held by an engineer, who must 
 himself, of course, be sheltered from the effects of the 
 explosion. 
 
 The work proceeded rapidly ; all the conspirators 
 exhibited an impatience to blow up, by means of the 
 infernal machine, the " Little Corporal," a name which 
 they gave to Bonaparte. This was not all ; the most 
 daring among them, with Chevalier at their head, had 
 the audacity to make an experiment of the infernal 
 machine among themselves. The night between the 
 17th and 18th of October was chosen. The chiefs of 
 the plot proceeded to the back part of the Hospital 
 de la Salpetriere, believing themselves in that place
 
 152 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 secure from detection. The explosion was so great 
 there that the fanatics themselves, seized with terror, 
 dispersed. As soon as they recovered from their first 
 alarm, they deliberated on the effects of the horrible 
 invention ; some considered it well adapted to effect 
 their purpose ; others (and Chevalier was of this 
 opinion) thought that as it was not the object of their 
 plot to destroy many persons, but to secure the 
 destruction of one, the effect of the infernal machine 
 depended on too many hazardous chances. After 
 some deep reflection, Chevalier decided on the idea of 
 constructing a kind of incendiary bomb, which being 
 hurled against the First Consul's carriage, either at his 
 arrival or departure from the play, would blow it up 
 by a sudden and inevitable explosion. Accordingly, 
 he again set himself to work. 
 
 But the nocturnal explosion had already attracted 
 my attention ; and the boast of the conspirators tran- 
 spiring from one to the other, very shortly drew the 
 whole police after their heels. The greater part of the 
 secret intelligence referred to an infernal machine which 
 was intended to blow up the " Little Corporal." I 
 consulted my notes, and I felt assured that Chevalier 
 must be the principal artificer of this perfidious machina- 
 tion. He was found concealed on the 8th of November, 
 and arrested, as well as Veycer, in the Rue des Blancs 
 Manteaux ; all those suspected of being their accom- 
 plices being taken at the same time. Powder and ball 
 were found, the relics of the first machine, and a rough 
 model of the incendiary bomb ; in short, all the ma- 
 terials of the crime. But no confession was to be 
 obtained either by menaces or bribes.
 
 GEORGES CADOUDAL ^3 
 
 It will naturally be believed after this discovery 
 that the life of Bonaparte would be secure against 
 means so atrocious and attempts so perverted. But 
 the other hostile party, following the same object by 
 the same intrigues, already conceived the scheme of 
 robbing the demagogues of the invention of the infernal 
 machine. Nothing is more extraordinary, and never- 
 theless more true, than this sudden change of actors 
 on the same stage, in order to perform the same tragedy. 
 It would appear incredible did I not myself retrace its 
 secret causes, as they successively appear to classify 
 themselves in my own mind. 
 
 At the opening of the campaign, Georges Cadoudal, 
 the most decided and inveterate of all the unsubjected 
 chiefs of Lower Britanny, disembarked at Morbihan, 
 on a mission from London, to get up a new revolt. 
 He was invested with the command-in-chief of all 
 Brittany, the military details of which command he 
 deputed to his principal lieutenants, Mercier la Vendee, 
 De Bar, Sol de Grisolles, and Guillemot. These in- 
 trigues were connected with others in Paris among 
 correspondents and fellow-conspirators, as well as in 
 the departments of the west. In this particular I had 
 more than indications : I had full knowledge of a pro- 
 jected insurrection, which, at that epoch, namely, the 
 passage of St. Bernard by the First Consul, furnished 
 great cause of alarm to the two other consuls, Cam- 
 baceres and Lebrun. I immediately adopted vigorous 
 measures. My agents and the whole of the gendarmerie 
 took the field; I caused several of the old suspected 
 chiefs to be closely watched and arrested, and among 
 others, some very dangerous heads of parishes. But the
 
 ^4 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 operations of the police were more or less subordinate 
 to the chances of external war. 
 
 In a report transmitted to the First Consul at Milan, 
 I did not disguise from him the symptoms of a crisis 
 which displayed themselves in the interior of France ; 
 and I told him that he must absolutely return victori- 
 ous, and that instantly, in order to disperse the newly- 
 collected elements of troubles and storms. 
 
 In fact, as it has been shown, fortune on the plain 
 of Marengo loaded him with all kinds of favours at the 
 very moment when his enemies considered him lost for 
 ever. This sudden triumph disconcerted all the de- 
 signs of England, and destroyed all the hopes of 
 Georges Cadoudal, without however quelling his iron 
 resolution. He persevered in remaining in Morbihan, 
 which he considered as his domain, and the royalist 
 organisation of which was supported by his exertions. 
 Informed by his correspondents at Paris of the irrita- 
 tion and the reviving plots of the popular party, he 
 sent thither, toward the end of October, his most de- 
 cided confidential officers, such as Limolan, Saint- 
 Regent, Joyaux, and Haie-Saint-Hilaire. It is even 
 probable that he had already conceived, or adopted, 
 the idea of borrowing the infernal machine from the 
 Jacobins, of which machine his agents had furnished 
 him information. In the disposition of the public 
 mind, and of the government also, this crime, origi- 
 nated by royalists, did not fail of being ascribed to 
 Jacobins ; besides, the royalists were, at all events, in a 
 condition to gather the harvest of the crime. A com- 
 bination so audacious appeared more especially political. 
 Such was the origin of the attempt made on the 24th
 
 HAYDN'S "CREATION" PERFORMED 155 
 
 of December (3rd Nivose) by the agents, or rather the 
 delegates, of Georges. This double plot remained for a 
 short time concealed by a thick veil, so exclusively did 
 the suspicions and attention of all parties direct them- 
 selves toward the anarchists. 
 
 One circumstance appeared favourable to confer a 
 great probability of success on this new design. The 
 oratorio of the Creation, by Haydn, was announced for 
 the 24th of December, at the opera ; all Paris was 
 aware that the First Consul would be present with his 
 retinue. So profound was the perversity of the con- 
 spiracy that the agents of Georges deliberated whether 
 it would not be more certain to station the infernal 
 machine beneath the foundations of the opera pit in 
 such a manner as to blow up at the same time Bona- 
 parte and the entire elite of his government. Whether 
 it was the idea of so horrible a catastrophe, or the 
 uncertainty of destroying the individual against whom 
 such an outrage was designed, which caused the crime 
 to be put off, I am incapable, indeed I tremble, to pro- 
 nounce. Nevertheless, an old officer of the marines, 
 named Saint-Regent, assisted by Carbon, called " Little 
 Francis," a subaltern, was directed to station the fatal 
 machine in the Rue Saint-Nicaise, which it was neces- 
 sary for Bonaparte to pass, and to apply the match in 
 time to blow up his carriage. The burning of the 
 match, the effect of the powder and explosion, was all 
 computed by the time which the coachman of the First 
 Consul ordinarily employed in coming from the Tuileries 
 to that upper portion of the Rue Saint-Nicaise where 
 the infernal machine was to be placed. 
 
 The prefect of police and myself were apprised the
 
 i 5 6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 evening before that there was much whispering in cer- 
 tain clubs of a great blow that was to be struck on 
 the following day. This information was very vague ; 
 besides, notices equally alarming were brought to us 
 every day. The First Consul, however, was instantly 
 apprised of it by our diurnal reports. He at first ap- 
 peared to exhibit some hesitation ; but, on the report 
 of the counter-police of the palace that the opera-house 
 had been inspected, and all kinds of precautionary 
 measures taken, he called for his carriage and departed, 
 accompanied by his aides-de-camp. On this occasion, 
 as on so many others, it was Csesar, accompanied by 
 his fortune. It is well known that the hope of the 
 conspirators was only baffled by a slight accident. 1 
 The First Consul's coachman, being half intoxicated 
 
 1 The infernal machine did not accomplish its design, which 
 was that of destroying the First Consul; but it caused the death 
 of some -twenty persons, and wounded fifty-six others, more or 
 less severely. Medical assistance was given to the unfortunate 
 wounded, according to the greater or less severity of their 
 wounds. The maximum of that medical assistance was 4,500 
 francs, and the minimum twenty-five francs. The orphans and 
 widows received pensions, as well as the children of those who 
 perished ; but only till they arrived at their majority ; and then 
 they were to receive 2,000 francs for their fitting out. The 
 following are the names of the persons who received assistance 
 by order of the First Consul, with the amount of the sum 
 allowed them : — 
 
 FRANCS 
 
 Banny, Jean Frederic, gargon traiteur, Rue des Grands 
 
 Augustins 1000 
 
 Barbier, Marie Genevieve Viel, veuve, Rue Saint-Honore . 1000 
 Bataille, Madame, epiciere, Rue Saint-Nicaise . . . 100 
 Beirle, Alexandre, marchand gantier peaussier, Rue Saint- 
 Nicaise 800 
 
 Boiteux, Jean-Marie-Joseph, ci-devant frere de la charite . 50 
 
 Bonnet, Madame, Rue Saint-Nicaise 150
 
 EXPLOSION RETARDED 
 
 J 57 
 
 on that day, having driven his horses with more than 
 usual celerity, the explosion, which was computed with 
 rigorous precision, was retarded about two seconds, 
 and that scarcely perceptible fraction of time, deducted 
 
 Boulard (veuve), musicienne, Rue J. J. Rousseau 
 
 A second supply was granted her on account of her 
 wounds : it was ....... 
 
 Bourdin, Francoise Louvrier, femme, portiere, Rue Saint 
 
 Nicaise ......... 
 
 Boyeldieu, Marie Louise Chevalier, veuve, Rue Saint 
 
 Placide 
 
 Buchener, Louis, tailleur, Rue Saint-Nicaise 
 Chapuy, Gilbert, officier civil de la marine, Rue du Bac 
 Charles, Jean Etienne, imprimeur, Rue Saint-Nicaise. 
 Clement, garcon marechal, Rue de Petit Carrousel 
 Clereaux, Marie Josephine Lehodey, epiciere, Rue Neuve 
 
 de l'Egalite ........ 
 
 Collinet, Marie Jeanne Cecile, revendeuse a la halle . 
 Corbet, Nicolas Alexandre, employe a l'etat-major de la 
 
 i7 e division, Rue Saint-Honore .... 
 Couteux, vermicellier, Rue des Prouvaires . 
 Duverne, Louis, ouvrier serrurier, Rue du Harlay 
 Fleury, Catherine Lenoir, veuve, Rue de Malte . 
 Fostier, Louis Philippe, remplacant au poste de la Rue 
 
 Saint-Nicaise ........ 
 
 Fridzery, Alexandre Marie Antoine, musicien aveugle, Rue 
 
 Saint-Nicaise ........ 
 
 Gauther, Marie Poncette, fille, Rue de Chaillot . 
 Harel, Antoine, garcon limonadier, Rue dc Malte 
 Hiblot, Marie Anne, fille, Rue de Malte 
 Honore, Marie Therese Larue, veuve, Rue Marceau . 
 Honore, Therese, fille, ouvriere ..... 
 
 Huguet, Louis, cuisinier aux Champs Elysees 
 
 Jardy, Julien, remplacant au poste Saint-Nicaise 
 
 Kalbert, Jean Antoine, apprenti nienuisier . 
 
 Lambert, Marie Jacqueline Gillot, femme, Rue Fromenti;iu 
 
 Leclerc, eleve en peinture, mort a l'hospice 
 
 Lefevre, Simon Francois, garcon tapissier. Rue de la 
 
 Verrerie ......... 
 
 Leger, Madame, lnnonadicre, Rue Saint-Nicaise . 
 
 FRANCS 
 4000 
 
 3000 
 50 
 
 IOOO 
 
 25 
 800 
 
 400 
 
 50 
 3800 
 
 200 
 240 
 
 150 
 
 IOOO 
 
 50 
 
 25 
 
 750 
 
 100 
 
 3000 
 240 
 100 
 
 50 
 50 
 
 100 
 100 
 100 
 200 
 
 200 
 1500
 
 158 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 from the preconcerted time, sufficed to save the life 
 of the First Consul and consolidate his power. 
 
 Without expressing any astonishment at the event, 
 Bonaparte exclaimed on hearing the report of the 
 frightful explosion, " That is the infernal machine " ; 
 and, without desiring to retrograde or fly, he made 
 his appearance at the opera. But with what a 
 wrathful countenance and terrible aspect ! What 
 
 FRANCS 
 
 Lemierre, Nicolas, Rue de Malte, tenant maison garnie . 200 
 Lepape, Elisabeth Satabin, femme, portiere, Rue Saint- 
 
 Nicaise 100 
 
 Lion, Pierre Nicolas, domestique, Allee d'Antin . . . 600 
 Masse, Jean Francois, garcon marchand de vin, Rue des 
 
 Saints- Peres 150 
 
 Mercier, Jean Baptiste, rentier, Rue Saint-Honore . . 4500 
 
 Mitaine, Jeanne Prevost, veuve, Rue de Malte . . . 450 
 
 Orilliard, Stephanie Madeleine, fille, couturiere, Rue de Lille goo 
 
 1200 
 
 50 
 
 . 1000 
 
 Orphclins — Lister, Agnes, Adelaide .... 
 
 Palluel, portier, Rue Saint- Nicaise. .... 
 
 Platel, Jeanne Smith, veuve 
 
 Preville, Claude Barthelemi, tapissier, Rue des Saints-Peres 4500 
 Proverbi, Antoine, homme de confiance, Rue des Filles 
 
 Saint-Thomas ......... 750 
 
 Regnault, femme, ouvriere, Rue de Grenelle Saint-Honore. 200 
 Saint-Gilles, Louis, femme, ouvriere en linge, Galerie des 
 
 Innocens .......... 400 
 
 Selleque, veuve, Rue Saint- Denis ...... 200 
 
 Thirion, Jean, cordonnier en vieux, Rue Saint-Nicaise . 25 
 
 Trepsat, architecte, Rue de Bourgogne 4500 
 
 Varlet, Rue Saint-Louis, remplacant au poste Saint- 
 Nicaise .......... 25 
 
 Vitriee, Elizabeth, femme, cuisiniere, Rue Saint-Nicaise . 100 
 
 Vitry, perruquier, Rue Saint-Nicaise 50 
 
 Warme, N., marchand de vin, Rue Saint-Nicaise . . 100 
 
 Wolff, Arnoult, tailleur, Rue de Malte 150 
 
 Zambrini, Felix, garcon limonadier chez Corazza . . 600 
 
 The sum total was 77,601 francs ; the overplus was paid into 
 the fund at the Mont de Piete, in order to pay the pensions. — 
 Note by the Editor.
 
 FOUCHE'S PRESENCE OF MIND 
 
 159 
 
 gloomy thoughts must have rushed on his suspicious 
 mind ! The news of the attempt soon circulated 
 from box to box ; the public indignation was vivid, 
 and the sensation profound among the ministers, the 
 courtiers, and the relations of the First Consul ; in 
 short, among all individuals attached to the car of 
 his fortune. Anticipating the opera, all followed his 
 carriage ; and, on his return to the Tuileries, there 
 opened a scene, or, rather, an orgie of blind and 
 furious passions. On my arrival thither — for I hurried 
 there without delay — I calculated, from the mental 
 irritation which I perceived from the frozen glance 
 which his adherents and councillors darted at me, 
 that a storm was about to burst upon my head, and 
 that the most unjust suspicions were directed against 
 the police. For this result I was prepared, and de- 
 termined not to suffer myself to be put down by the 
 clamours of the courtiers nor the apostrophes of the 
 First Consul. " Eh bien ! ' exclaimed he, advancing 
 towards me with a countenance inflamed with rage ; 
 " Eh bien ! you will not now pretend to say that 
 these were royalists ? " " Yes," I replied, as if in- 
 spired, and with perfect presence of mind, "beyond 
 a doubt I will say so ; and, what is more, I will 
 prove it." 
 
 My reply at first caused a universal astonishment ; 
 but the First Consul repeating with more and more 
 bitterness, and with obstinate incredulity, that the 
 horrible attempt just directed against his life was the 
 work of a party too much protected and not suffi- 
 ciently restrained by the police — in short, of the 
 Jacobins — "No," I replied; "it is the work of the
 
 !6o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 royalists, of the Chouans ; and I only require eight 
 hours to furnish the demonstration." Having thus 
 obtained some attention, I gave a summary of recent 
 notices and facts, and justified the entire police ; ad- 
 verting at the same time to its subdivision into different 
 centres, in order to exonerate myself from all personal 
 responsibility. I even went further. I recriminated 
 against that tendency of the public mind which, within 
 the atmosphere of the government, was urged to impute 
 everything that was culpable to the Jacobins and the 
 men of the Revolution. I attributed to this false bias 
 the circumstance of the whole vigilance of the counter- 
 police being directed against individuals who were 
 doubtless dangerous, but who were now paralysed and 
 disarmed ; while the emigrants, the Chouans, the agents 
 of England, would not have been able, if my timely 
 warning had been attended to, to strike the metropolis 
 with terjor, and fill the public mind with indignation. 
 General Lannes, Real, Regnault, and Josephine were 
 of my opinion ; and corroborated by a respite of eight 
 days, I felt no doubt that proof sufficient would in- 
 stantly be supplied in support of my conjectures. I 
 had soon, in fact, possession (by means of the single 
 bait of 2,000 louis) of all the designs of the agents of 
 Georges, and I was furnished with the secret of their 
 hearts. I was apprised that, on the day of the explosion 
 and the day following, four-and-twenty chiefs of the 
 Chouans had clandestinely arrived at Paris, from dif- 
 ferent quarters and through by-ways ; that if all of 
 these were not in the secret of the meditated crime, 
 they at least were all in expectation of some great 
 event, and were all supplied with a pass-word. At
 
 AN ACT OF DEPORTATION I Q l 
 
 length the true author and instrument of the attempt 
 were revealed to me, and the proofs accumulating in a 
 few days, I concluded by triumphing over every in- 
 credulity and prejudice. 
 
 I had not failed to perceive that this last attempt 
 made on the life of the First Consul had irritated his 
 gloomy and haughty spirit, and that in the resolution 
 to suppress his enemies he looked to such an increase 
 of power as would render him the master. His incli- 
 nation was but too well seconded through all the 
 hierarchies of government. 
 
 His first essay as a military dictator was to pass 
 an Act of deportation beyond the seas against those 
 individuals among the demagogues and anarchists in 
 worst repute at Paris, of whom I was desired to 
 provide a list. The senate, impelled by the public 
 feeling, and conceding all that was required, made no 
 hesitation in conferring its sanction on this extra-judicial 
 Act. I succeeded, but not without difficulty, in saving 
 some forty of the proscribed, whom I caused to be 
 struck out of the list before the publication of the 
 Senatus Consultum authorising deportation into Africa. 
 Through my means that cruel decree of deportation 
 pronounced against Charles de Hesse, Felix Lepelletier, 
 Choudieu, Talot, Destrem, and other persons suspected 
 of being the ringleaders of plots which gave inquietude 
 to Bonaparte, was changed to a simple measure of exile 
 and surveillance beyond the limits of Paris. Measures 
 were not limited to a banishment of the most violent 
 Jacobins. The First Consul found the forms of the 
 constitutional tribunals too dilatory ; he demanded an 
 active and inexorable justice ; he wished to abstract the 
 
 VOL. I II
 
 j6 2 memoirs of fouche 
 
 accused from the sphere of their natural judges. It 
 was deliberated in the council of state, whether the 
 establishment of special tribunals, without jury, appeal, 
 or revision, should not be solicited as a law of exception 
 from the legislative body. 
 
 It was my task to make it felt how necessary it at 
 least was to abstract from the jurisdiction of the tri- 
 bunals none but persons accused of conspiracies, or 
 individuals who had attacked and robbed the diligences 
 on the high roads. I represented that the roads were 
 infested by brigands ; accordingly, a decree was pub- 
 lished by the consuls on the 7th of January, ordaining 
 that no diligence should depart from Paris without 
 having four soldiers commanded by a sergeant or 
 corporal on the imperial, and without having a night 
 escort. The diligences were still attacked ; such was 
 the system of petty warfare carried on by the Chouans. 
 At the same epoch, some scoundrels, known under the 
 name of chauffeurs, desolated the provinces. Strong 
 measures were necessary ; for the government felt more 
 alarm than it permitted itself to testify. Persons ac- 
 cused of conspiracy were punished without mercy. 
 
 Two military commissions were erected : one sen- 
 tenced Chevalier and Veycer, the persons accused of 
 having fabricated the infernal machine, and caused 
 them to be executed ; the other pronounced the same 
 penalty against Metge, Humbert, and Chapelle, charged 
 with having conspired against the government. They 
 were executed, like Chevalier and Veycer, on the plain 
 de Grenelle. At the same time, Arena, Ceracchi, 
 Demerville, and Topino- Lebrun, appeared before the 
 criminal tribunal, where they were allowed the benefit
 
 SENTENCE ON CONSPIRATORS 
 
 163 
 
 of a trial by jury ; but the period was inauspicious, 
 and the public prejudice decisive. They were con- 
 demned to die, and their four accomplices acquitted. 
 No tribunal before, on the attempt of the life of the 
 First Consul, would have dared to condemn them on 
 the single testimony of Harel, a hireling accuser. 
 
 The trial relative to the explosion of the 3rd Nivose 
 came on later. In order to complete its details, I had 
 possessed myself, as I had promised, of the necessary 
 proofs. There was no longer any doubt of the quarter 
 from whence the crime originated. It was in evidence 
 that Carbon had bought the horse and waggon in 
 which the infernal machine had been placed ; it was 
 equally proved that he and Saint-Regent had taken 
 back the same waggon ; had provided the casks ; 
 brought the baskets and boxes filled with small shot ; 
 and, in short, that Saint-Regent, having fired off the 
 machine, had been wounded by the effect of the 
 explosion. 
 
 The analogy remarked between these different at- 
 tempts caused a presumption that some understanding 
 had existed between their authors, although of different 
 parties. The only analogy, in reality, was the common 
 hatred which induced both to conspire against the 
 same obstacle ; nor were there any other relations 
 between them than those of a secret agency, which 
 rendered the royalists acquainted with the terrible 
 instrument projected by the Jacobins for the destruc- 
 tion of Bonaparte. 
 
 Blood enough was doubtless shed in order to strike 
 terror into the hearts of his enemies ; and from that 
 moment his power might be considered as established. 
 
 11-
 
 164 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 He had in his favour all those who surrounded him. 
 Fortune, moreover, which seemed ever watchful for his 
 advantage, loaded him with the consummation of her 
 favours in the great game of war. His German armies, 
 commanded by Moreau, had resumed the offensive at 
 the expiration of the armistice, and Moreau, following 
 up his successes, had just gained the battle of Hohen- 
 linden : on that occasion, and on the theatre of his 
 glory, he exclaimed, in addressing his generals : " My 
 friends, we have conquered peace." In fact, in less 
 than twenty days he had rendered himself master of 
 eighty leagues of vigorously disputed territory ; had 
 forced the formidable lines of the Inn, the Salza, the 
 Traun, and the Ens ; had pushed on his advanced 
 posts to within twenty leagues of Vienna ; had dis- 
 persed the only troops which covered his approaches ; 
 and not till he was stopped in his career by policy, 
 or envy, concluded a fresh armistice at Steyer. 
 
 Convinced of the emergency of circumstances, the 
 cabinet of London consented to Austria's desisting 
 from the conditions of the alliance, and opening 
 negotiations for a separate peace; which gave occasion 
 for the remark that Bonaparte had triumphed for his 
 own interest, Moreau for the peace of his country. 
 Such were the first seeds of that rivalry which were 
 sown between the two great captains. Difference of 
 character, and the relics of the republican spirit, 
 naturally produced between them at a later period an 
 open rupture. 
 
 This spirit exhibited itself in the capital, and created 
 there a sort of fermentation about a pro jet de lot, having 
 reference to the establishment of a special criminal
 
 THE NEW SEJANUS 265 
 
 tribunal, wherever such an institution might be deemed 
 necessary. To speak plainly, the question concerned 
 an unlimited commission, to be composed of one-half 
 judges, and the other military men. This project, when 
 introduced to the tribunal, embittered the minds of all 
 the tribunes who cherished a regard for liberty. To 
 their view it was a re-establishment of the justice 
 prcvotale of the old regime. 
 
 The government orators alleged that the social 
 fabric was attacked at its foundation by an organisa- 
 tion of crime more powerful and more extensive than 
 the laws. " The laws," said they, " have no longer 
 any relation with that scum of society which rejects 
 all justice, and which contends to the utmost extreme 
 against the entire social system." The discussion was 
 skilful and animated. It occupied seven sittings. 
 Isnard, Benjamin Constant, Daunou, Chenier, Gin- 
 guene, and Bailleul advanced as the rear-guard of the 
 public, and disputed with vigour, but with limitation 
 and decency, the proposal of the government. It only 
 passed by a small majority, and by means of the in- 
 fluence of the cabinet. The projet concluded with the 
 grant of a power to the consuls of banishing from the 
 city, where the primary authorities held their sittings, 
 and even from every other town, all persons whose 
 presence attracted suspicion. This grant constituted a 
 dictatorship of the police, and it did not fail to be said 
 that I was about to become the new Sejanus of a new 
 Tiberius. All that the First Consul required was thus 
 conceded. 
 
 Invested with legal dictatorship, armed with power 
 to punish his enemies with death or banishment, the
 
 !66 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 First Consul soon gave reason to understand that his 
 government had no other prinmm mobile but force. 
 But he gave peace to the world — and peace was a 
 talisman which, while offering a tranquil haven after 
 so many storms, dissipated a multitude of clouds. 
 
 The congress of Luneville, at the end of forty days, 
 produced a definitive treaty of peace, which was signed 
 on the gth of February, 1801, between France and 
 Austria. 
 
 The possession of the entire left bank of the Rhine, 
 from the point where it quits the Helvetic territory to 
 that where it enters the Batavian, was confirmed to 
 France. Austria reserved in Italy her ancient Venetian 
 jurisdiction ; the river Adige was its boundary. The 
 independence of the Batavian, Helvetian, Cisalpine, and 
 Ligurian republics was mutually guaranteed. 
 
 The First Consul had taken so much umbrage at 
 the opposition manifested by the tribunal against the 
 march of his government that, in order to signify his 
 displeasure, he made no reply on the occasion of the 
 peace of Luneville to the orator of that body. 
 
 Other points required regulation in Italy, whence 
 Massena had been recalled on suspicion of repub- 
 licanism. Since the preceding month of August he 
 had been superseded by Brune ; himself originally 
 suspected at the camp du depot at Dijon, and whom I 
 had succeeded in getting restored to favour by softening 
 down certain secret disclosures ; for there were spies 
 upon every staff officer. 
 
 But, however that may be, Brune had made himself 
 master of Tuscany, and confiscated Livourne, and every 
 kind of English property.
 
 TREATY OF PEACE WITH NAPLES z Sy 
 
 At the solicitation of the Emperor Paul, and in 
 deference to his mediation, Bonaparte, who from that 
 time had designed the conquest of the two Sicilies, 
 stopped the march of Murat upon Naples, and nego- 
 tiated with the Holy See. 
 
 The treaty of peace with Naples soon followed ; by 
 virtue of which, until the establishment of a definitive 
 peace between France and Great Britain and the Otto- 
 man Porte, four thousand French soldiers occupied the 
 northern Abruzzo, and twelve thousand the peninsula of 
 Otranto. It was I who first suggested the idea of this 
 in a privy council. The stipulations were to remain 
 secret. By this occupation of Abruzzo, Tarentum, and 
 the fortresses, France supported, at the expense of the 
 kingdom of Naples, a military corps which, as occasion 
 required, might either pass into Egypt, Dalmatia, or 
 Greece. 
 
 The treaty of Luneville had stipulated for Austria 
 and the Germanic Empire ; it was ratified by the Diet ; 
 and in this manner peace was established on the 
 European continent. Throughout this affair the First 
 Consul appeared charmed with the dexterity of his 
 minister of state for foreign affairs, Talleyrand-Perigord. 
 But at bottom he began to be tired of what the 
 gazetteers of London constantly represented, his being 
 under the diplomatic tutelage of M. de Talleyrand, and, 
 in point of fact, of being subjected to mine, as he could 
 not move a single step without us, whose ability was 
 purposely exaggerated in order to render us obnoxious 
 and suspected. I wearied him myself by constant 
 remarks that, when governments are not just, their 
 prosperity is only transitory ; that, in the elevated
 
 !68 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 sphere where fortune had placed him, he ought to 
 quench the hateful passions engendered by a long 
 revolution in the torrents of his renown, and thus 
 recall the nation to generous and benevolent habits, 
 which are the only real source of public prosperity and 
 happiness. 
 
 But how, on emerging from a long-protracted hurri- 
 cane, could anyone expect to find at the head of an 
 immense Republic transformed into a military dictator- 
 ship, a chief at once just, energetic, and discreet ? The 
 heart of Bonaparte was not alien from vengeance and 
 hatred, nor was his mind shut against prejudice ; and 
 it was easy to perceive through the veil in which he 
 shrouded himself a decided inclination to tyranny. It 
 was precisely that inclination that I exerted myself to 
 mitigate and combat ; but for that purpose I never 
 employed any other weapons than the ascendency of 
 truth and reason. I was sincerely attached to that 
 personage, fully persuaded as I was that there was no 
 one in the career of arms and in the civil order who 
 possessed a character so firm, so persevering; such a 
 character, in short, as was requisite to direct the 
 government and suppress faction. I even persuaded 
 myself at that time that it was possible to mitigate 
 that great character, in all that it comprised of too 
 much violence and intractability. Others calculated on 
 a passion for women ; for Bonaparte was by no means 
 insensible to their charms ; at all events, it was obvious 
 that the fair sex would never obtain an influence over 
 him prejudicial to public affairs. The first in this 
 direction was not successful. Having been struck on 
 his last passage through Milan with the theatrical
 
 BONAPARTE'S AMOUR 
 
 169 
 
 beauty of the singer G , and still more by the 
 
 sublime accents of her voice, he made her some rich 
 presents, and wished to attach her to him. He charged 
 Berthier with the task of concluding a treaty with her 
 on liberal terms, and conducting her to Paris ; she even 
 performed the journey in Berthier's carriage. Having 
 a tolerably rich establishment of fifteen thousand francs 
 a month, she exhibited her brilliancy at the theatre and 
 the concerts at the Tuileries, where her voice performed 
 wonders. But at that time the chief magistrate made 
 a point of avoiding scandal ; and not wishing to give 
 Josephine, who was excessively jealous, any subject of 
 complaint, his visits to the beautiful vocalist were abrupt 
 and clandestine. Amours without attention and without 
 charms were not likely to satisfy a proud and im- 
 passioned woman, who had something masculine in her 
 
 character. G had recourse to the usual infallible 
 
 antidote ; she fell violently in love with the celebrated 
 violin player, Rode. Equally smitten himself, he was 
 incapable of preserving any terms in his attachment ; 
 equally defying the vigilance of Junot and Berthier. 
 
 While these intrigues were going on, Bonaparte one 
 day told me that he was astonished, with my acknow- 
 ledged ability, that I did not conduct the police better, 
 and that there were circumstances of which I was 
 ignorant. "Yes," I replied, "there are things of which 
 I was ignorant, but of which I am so no longer; for 
 instance, a little man, muffled up in a grey great-coat, 
 often issues, on dark nights, from a back door of the 
 Tuileries, accompanied by a single attendant, mounts 
 a shabby vehicle, and proceeds to ferret out a certain 
 Signora G ; that little man is yourself; and the
 
 170 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 misjudging vocalist sacrifices her fidelity to you in 
 favour of Rode, the violin-player." At these words 
 the Consul, turning his back upon me and remaining 
 silent, rang the bell, and I withdrew. An aide-de-camp 
 was commissioned to perform the part of a black 
 eunuch to the unfaithful fair one, who indignantly 
 refused to submit to the regulations of the seraglio. 
 She was first deprived of her establishment and pen- 
 sion, in the hope of reducing her to terms by famine ; 
 but, deeply in love with Rode, she remained inflexible, 
 and rejected the most brilliant offers of the Pylades, 
 Berthier. She was then compelled to quit Paris. She 
 first retired into the country with her lover ; but 
 afterwards both made their escape, and went to 
 Russia to recruit their fortune. 
 
 As it was commonly pretended that war was the 
 only element of the First Consul, I urged him to 
 show the world that he could, when it was necessary, 
 govern an empire in a state of calm and in the 
 midst of pacific enjoyments. But the pacification of 
 the continent was not enough for him; his desire was 
 to disarm England. Hereditary rival of France, she 
 had become our inveterate enemy, from the moment 
 that the impulse of the Revolution had invested us 
 with a colossal power. Considering the state of 
 Europe, the power and prosperity of the two coun- 
 tries connected by the bonds of peace appeared 
 incompatible. The policy of the First Consul and 
 his privy council soon desired the solution of this 
 grave question — must England be forced to make 
 peace before the establishment of an internal and 
 external pacific system ? The affirmative was decided
 
 THE NORTHERN LEAGUE l > ]l 
 
 by necessity and reason. Without a general peace 
 every other description of peace could only be con- 
 sidered in the light of a suspension of arms. 
 
 As after Campo Formio the result was to threaten 
 Great Britain with an invasion, in favour of which 
 there was a strong prejudice in the more versatile 
 and capricious portion of public opinion, camps were 
 formed and occupied by numerous select troops on 
 the shores facing England. A combined fleet was 
 assembled at Brest, under the French and Spanish 
 flag ; an effort was made to re-establish our marine ; 
 and the port of Boulogne became the principal rendez- 
 vous of the flotilla designed to effect the descent. 
 Such was the chimera we then indulged. 
 
 On her side, England made great preparations, 
 watching all our movements, blockading our ports 
 and naval roads, and bristling all her coasts with 
 warlike apparatus. She had at that time subject for 
 alarm. I refer to the Northern League established 
 against her naval preponderance, and of which the 
 Emperor Paul had declared himself the chief. Its 
 direct object, loftily promulgated, was to annul ■ the 
 naval system maintained by England, and in virtue 
 of which that power arrogated to herself the empire 
 of the seas. 
 
 It is well understood how pleased the First Consul 
 must have been in imbuing his diplomacy with all his 
 activity and address, in order to impart life to that 
 maritime league of which Paul I. was the soul. All 
 the mobiliary force of the cabinet was exerted either 
 to captivate Paul, to win Prussia, to exasperate Den- 
 mark, or drag Sweden upon the field of battle.
 
 jj 2 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Prussia, having received her impulse, closed the 
 mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Ems, and 
 took possession of the Hanoverian territory. England 
 now perceived that the object of the quarrel could 
 only be decided by arms. Admirals Hyde Parker and 
 Nelson suddenly sailed to the Baltic with a powerful 
 naval force. Denmark and Sweden made vain pre- 
 parations to guard the passage of the Sound and defend 
 the approaches to Copenhagen. On the 2nd of April 
 was fought the terrible battle of Copenhagen, in which 
 England triumphed over all the maritime impediments 
 which had been opposed to her ascendency. 
 
 Eleven days previous the imperial palace of St. 
 Petersburg had become the theatre of a catastrophe 
 which alone had changed the aspect of affairs in the 
 North. On the 22nd of March, the Emperor Paul, a 
 monarch equally capricious and violent, and occasionally 
 despotic even to frenzy, was deprived of the throne by 
 the only mode of deposition practicable in a despotic 
 monarchy. 
 
 I received by estafette, from a foreign banker, the 
 first tragical intelligence of this event. I hurried to 
 the Tuileries and found the First Consul, whose courier 
 had also just arrived, grasping and twisting his dispatch, 
 while he walked about in a hurried manner and with 
 a haggard air. " What ! ' : said he, " an emperor not 
 in safety in the midst of his guards ! ' In order to 
 appease him, some of my colleagues, myself, and the 
 consul Cambaceres, told him that whatever might be 
 the mode of deposition practised in Russia, luckily the 
 south of Europe was a stranger to such treacherous 
 habits and attempts. But none of our arguments
 
 BERNADOTTE SUSPECTED 173 
 
 appeared to affect him ; his sagacity perceived their 
 hollowness in regard to his position and the danger 
 he had run in December. He gave vent to his passion 
 in ejaculations, stampings of the foot, and short fits of 
 rage. I never beheld so striking a scene. To the 
 grief which the result of the battle of Copenhagen had 
 inflicted was now added the poignant mortification 
 which he experienced from the unexpected murder of 
 the Russian potentate, whose friend and ally he had 
 become. Political disappointments thus added additional 
 pangs to his regret. There was an end to the Northern 
 League against England. 
 
 The tragical death of Paul I. inspired Bonaparte 
 with melancholy ideas, and aggravated the mistrust 
 and suspicion of his character. He dreamt of nothing 
 but conspiracies in the army; he cashiered and caused 
 to be arrested several general officers, among others 
 Humbert, whom I had some difficulty in saving from 
 his inflexible severity. At the same time an informer 
 caused the intentions of Bernadotte to be suspected, 
 and seriously compromised him. For more than a 
 year Bernadotte commanded the army of the west, 
 and had his headquarters at Rennes. Nothing could 
 be objected to his always discreet and moderate 
 operations. The preceding year, during the campaign 
 of Marengo, he had prevented the disembarkation at 
 Quiberon, and the departments of the west continued 
 to exhibit the most complete submission. 
 
 At various intervals advantage had been taken of 
 some republican speeches made by him in his 6tat- 
 major, to excite the distrust of the First Consul 
 against him. All of a sudden he was unexpectedly
 
 I74 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 recalled, and fell into disgrace. All that can be made 
 out — for the accusation was sent directly to the First 
 Consul's cabinet — was that the accuser pointed out one 
 Colonel Simon as having imprudently divulged a plan 
 of military insurrection against the chief magistrate; a 
 plan perfectly chimerical, since the design was to 
 march to Paris in order to depose the First Consul. 
 It was supposed that there was reality in this pre- 
 tended plot, and that it was not unconnected ; that 
 it was linked with a republican conspiracy, at the 
 head of which Bernadotte was naturally placed, and 
 which extended its ramifications through the entire 
 army. There were several arrests, and the whole staff 
 of Bernadotte was disorganised, but without much 
 noise ; above all, Bonaparte wished to avoid publicity. 
 " Europe," said he, " ought to think that there are 
 no more conspiracies against me." I maintained a 
 great reserve about all the particulars which were sent 
 to me concerning an affair which was more military 
 than civil, and which was connected by very slight 
 points of union with my functions. But I gave Ber- 
 nadotte, whom I forbore to see, some useful directions, 
 for which he expressed his obligations. A little time 
 after, his brother-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, arranged 
 his reconciliation with the First Consul ; it was the 
 second since the 18th Brumaire. In consequence of 
 my advice, Bonaparte made an effort, by well-deserved 
 favours and rewards, to attach so distinguished a 
 statesman and skilful a general to his person. 
 
 The vortex of affairs and the progress of foreign 
 politics fortunately imparted a diversion to all these 
 interior intrigues. The new Emperor of Russia, de-
 
 PORTUGAL AN ENGLISH COLONY I75 
 
 daring himself for another system, caused, in the first 
 instance, all the English marines who were prisoners 
 to be set at liberty, and a convention signed at St. 
 Petersburg, between Lord St. Helens and the Russian 
 ministers, soon adjusted all differences. 
 
 At the same time the Czar gave Count Marckoff 
 full powers to negotiate peace with the First Consul 
 and his allies. It was sufficiently obvious that the 
 cabinets were inclined towards a pacific system. 
 Already England, towards the end of the year 1800 
 and the beginning of 1801, perceiving itself involved 
 in a new quarrel for the maintenance of its maritime 
 rights, while left to contend single-handed with the 
 power of France, appeared to abjure a system of 
 perpetual war against our Revolution. That political 
 transition was in some degree effected by the resigna- 
 tion of the celebrated Pitt, and by the dissolution of 
 his war ministry. From that time peace between the 
 cabinet of St. James and that of the Tuileries was 
 considered practicable. It was accelerated by the re- 
 sults of two rival expeditions into Portugal and Egypt. 
 
 The mission of Lucien to Madrid had also a politi- 
 cal object— the declaration of war against Portugal by 
 Spain, at the instigation of the First Consul, who 
 justly regarded Portugal as an English colony. The 
 ascendency of his brother Lucien over the minds of 
 Charles IV. and his queen was without bounds. 
 Everything proceeded in the interests of our politics. 
 At the same time that a Spanish army obtained 
 possession of Alentejo, a French army, under the 
 order of Napoleon's brother-in-law, Leclerc, entered 
 Portugal by way of Salamanca.
 
 176 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 In its distress the court of Lisbon endeavoured to 
 find safety by lavishing its treasures on its invaders. 
 It opened direct negotiations with Lucien, and, on the 
 6th of June, preliminaries of peace were signed at 
 Badajoz, through the operation of a secret subsidy of 
 thirty millions, which were shared between the First 
 Consul's brother and the Prince of Peace. Such was 
 the source of the immense fortune of Lucien. The 
 First Consul, who wished to occupy Lisbon, was at 
 first outrageous, threatening to recall his brother, and 
 not to recognise the stipulation of Badajoz. Talley- 
 rand and I endeavoured to make him feel the ill 
 effects which would result from such a public display. 
 Talleyrand supported his argument in favour of the 
 basis of the treaty by the interest of our alliance with 
 Spain, by the happy position thus supplied us of an 
 approximation with England, who, finding herself ex- 
 cluded from the ports of Portugal, would be anxious 
 to re-enter them ; he very adroitly proposed modifica- 
 tions of the treaty. In fine, the sacrifice of the 
 diamonds of the Princess of Brazil, and a gift to the 
 First Consul of ten millions for his private purse, 
 mollified him so much that he suffered the definitive 
 treaty to be concluded at Madrid. 
 
 On their side the English had just effected a dis- 
 embarkation in Egypt, in order to wrest that posses- 
 sion from us ; and on the 20th of March General 
 Menou lost the battle of Alexandria. Cairo and the 
 principal cities of Egypt successively fell into the 
 power of Anglo-Turks. At length Menou himself 
 capitulated on the 7th of August, and found himself 
 compelled to evacuate Alexandria. So vanished the
 
 RUSSIA AND FRANCE AT PEACE jyj 
 
 magnificent project of the Directory to make a French 
 colony of Egypt, and Bonaparte's still more romantic 
 project of recommencing there the Empire of the East. 
 
 The war between England and France having from 
 that time no object worthy the trouble of prolonging 
 the struggle, and each of the two countries being suffi- 
 ciently consolidated in their government to preclude 
 any hope of change being therein effected by the other, 
 preliminaries of peace were signed at London on the 
 ist of October between M. Otto and Lord Hawkes- 
 bury. The news was received with extraordinary de- 
 monstrations of joy by both nations. 
 
 No further misunderstanding now existed between 
 Russia and France, the First Consul having neglected 
 nothing to gain the son and successor of Paul I. The 
 Russian plenipotentiary, M. Marckoff, employing his 
 full powers immediately after the preliminaries of 
 London, signed a definitive treaty of peace between 
 the Czar and the First Consul, to be completed by a 
 new treaty of commerce. 
 
 This approximation, effected between France and 
 Russia, was a master stroke for the First Consul. 
 The extension of his power both within and without, 
 which he too much abused afterwards, must be dated 
 from that fortunate epoch. It was not, however, with- 
 out experiencing on the score of his treaty with Russia 
 some opposition in the interior. 
 
 When communicated to the Tribunat, where the 
 most obstinate republicans held their sittings, this 
 treaty was sent back to a commission charged to 
 examine it, and report accordingly. In its report it 
 declared that the word subject employed in it had 
 
 VOL. I 12
 
 i 7 8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 excited surprise, inasmuch as it did not accord with 
 the idea they entertained of the dignity of French 
 citizens. It was requisite to discuss the treaty in 
 private committee; and there the tribunes did not the 
 less persevere in pronouncing the word subject to be 
 improper, without, however, pretending that this was a 
 sufficient motive for rejecting the treaty. 
 
 In the privy council, which took place that evening, 
 we had much difficulty in appeasing the First Consul, 
 who thought he perceived in the difficulty raised by 
 the Tribunat an intention to render him unpopular 
 and shake his power. I represented to him, with 
 some energy, after having made a summary of the 
 state of opinion in the capital, that it was important 
 to temporise with the remains of the republican spirit 
 by an apparent deference. He concluded by yielding 
 to my reasons. The councillor of state, Fleurieu, was 
 dispatched to offer explanation to the Tribunat by a 
 note from the cabinet of the First Consul, in which 
 he declared that for a long time the French govern- 
 ment had abjured the principles of dictating any kind 
 of treaty, and that Russia having appeared to desire 
 the mutual guarantee of the two governments against 
 troubles interior and exterior, it had been agreed that 
 neither should grant any kind of protection to the 
 enemies of the other state ; and that it was for the 
 purpose of stating this that the articles in which 
 the word subject had been employed were compiled. 
 Everything now appeared satisfactory, and the treaty 
 was approved by the legislative body. 
 
 It occasioned in the cabinet a more serious incident, 
 which excited in the highest degree the anger of the
 
 A DIPLOMATIC ROBBERY I79 
 
 First Consul. In the secret articles of the treaty the 
 two contracting parties mutually promised to arrange 
 the affairs of Germany and Italy by common accord. 
 
 It must be well understood how important it was 
 to England to have certain proofs promptly furnished 
 of the existence of this first link of a continental 
 diplomacy which united to her detriment the political 
 interest of the two most powerful empires of Europe, 
 who by that means became arbiters of her excommu- 
 nication. The secret articles were therefore sold to 
 her for their weight in gold ; and her cabinet, always 
 very generous for similar disclosures, paid to the 
 faithless betrayers the sum of sixty thousand pounds 
 sterling. Being shortly apprised of this diplomatic 
 robbery, the First Consul sent for me to the Tuileries, 
 and commenced by accusing at once the police and 
 his ministry of foreign affairs — the police as incapable 
 of preventing or discovering criminal communications 
 with foreigners, the ministry of M. de Talleyrand as 
 trafficking in affairs of state. I supported my defence 
 by instancing the intrigues of all periods which no 
 power could restrain ; and when I observed that the 
 suspicions of the First Consul carried him too far, I 
 did not hesitate to tell him that I had reason to be- 
 lieve, according to information given me, that the 
 state secret had been stolen by M. R. L., confidential 
 secretary of M. de Talleyrand, and afterwards sent 
 either directly to England or to M. le Comte d'An- 
 
 traigues, agent of Louis XVIII., by M. B , the 
 
 elder, one of the proprietors of the Journal des Dcbats, 
 a particular friend of M. R. L. I added that I had 
 strong reasons to believe that this individual was a 
 
 12 2
 
 !8o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 secret correspondent of foreign powers, but that at 
 all times it was difficult for the police to change data 
 or simple indications into material proof; that it could 
 only follow the track. The first impulse of the Consul 
 was to order the production of the two accused before 
 a military commission. I remonstrated. On his side 
 M. de Talleyrand alleged that the secretary of M. de 
 Marckoff, or even perhaps some clerk of the Russian 
 office, might be equally suspected of this infidelity ; but 
 there was not a sufficiently long interval from the signa- 
 ture to the publication to permit the surmise that it had 
 gone to St. Petersburg previous to reaching London. 
 
 But, however that may be, M. R. L. received an 
 order of banishment and went to Hamburg; M. B., 
 the elder, was in appearance worse treated ; the gen- 
 darmes deported him from brigade to brigade to the 
 isle of Elba. There his exile was singularly mitigated. 
 
 I did not fail in the course of this affair to remind 
 the First Consul that he had formerly laid it down as 
 a maxim in haute diplomatic, that after the lapse of 
 fort)- days there was no longer any secret in Europe 
 for cabinets directed by statesmen. It was on this 
 basis that he afterwards wished to erect his diplomatic 
 chancery. 
 
 In the interim the Marquis of Cornwallis came to 
 France as plenipotentiary ambassador to negotiate a 
 definite peace. He went to Amiens, the spot selected 
 for the conferences ; but the treaty experienced un- 
 expected delays, which did not prevent the First Consul 
 from industriously pursuing two projects of great im- 
 portance, one relative to Italy, the other to St. Domingo. 
 I shall have occasion to speak of the first ; as to the
 
 THE AFFAIR OF ST. DOMINGO ^i 
 
 second, the execution of which Bonaparte considered 
 as most urgent, its object was the reconquest of the 
 colony of St. Domingo, over which the armed negroes 
 maintained the authority of masters. 
 
 On this matter I did not participate in the views of 
 the privy council, nor of the council of state, where 
 my ancient colleague and friend, M. Malouet, a man of 
 honourable character, had just taken his seat ; but he 
 looked at this great affair of St. Domingo with preju- 
 dices which impaired the rectitude of his judgment. 
 His plans, chiefly directed against the liberty and power 
 of the negroes, prevailed in part, and were ruined by 
 the awkwardness and unskilfulness of our etats-majors. 
 I received from Sonthonax, formerly so celebrated at 
 St. Domingo, some well-written and soundly reasoned 
 memoirs respecting the method to be pursued for re- 
 suming our influence; but Sonthonax was himself in so 
 much disgrace that he had no means of getting the 
 First Consul to relish his ideas; he even gave me a 
 formal order to banish him from Paris. Fleurieu, Ma- 
 louet, and all the colonial party carried the day. It 
 was decided that, after conquest, slavery should be 
 maintained, conformably to the laws and regulations 
 anterior to 1789, and that the trade in blacks and 
 their importation should take place according to the 
 laws existing at that epoch. The result is known ; the 
 loss of our armament and the humiliation of our arms. 
 
 But the true cause of this disastrous expedition 
 must be sought in the impulses of the First Consul's 
 heart. In this respect Berthier and Duroc knew more 
 than the minister of police. But could I be mistaken 
 for a moment? The First Consul ardently seized tin-
 
 !8 2 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 happy occasion of sending away a great number of 
 regiments and general officers formed in the school of 
 Moreau, whose reputation pained him, and whose in- 
 fluence with the army, if not a subject of alarm, was 
 at least to him one of vexation and inquietude. He 
 equally comprised in the expedition the general officers 
 whom he judged to be not sufficiently devoted to his 
 person and interest, or whom he considered still attached 
 to republican institutions. The malcontents, who had 
 always more or less favour in public opinion, no longer 
 kept any measures with respect to this subject ; and 
 such were the rumours that my police bulletins became 
 frightfully imbued with truth. " Well," said Bonaparte 
 to me one day, " your Jacobins malignantly allege that 
 they are the soldiers and friends of Moreau, whom I 
 am sending to perish at St. Domingo ; they are grum- 
 bling maniacs. Let them jabber as much as they like. 
 No government could proceed if people were to allow 
 themselves to be impeded by defamation and calumnies. 
 Only endeavour to create for me a better public spirit." 
 " That miracle," I replied, " is reserved for you, and 
 it will not be your first essay in that department." 
 
 When everything was ready, the expedition, con- 
 sisting of twenty-three ships of the line, and twenty- 
 two thousand men, sailed from Brest in order to reduce 
 the colony. There was an assurance of the assent of 
 England, for the peace was not yet concluded. 
 
 Before the signature of the definitive treaty, Bona- 
 parte put the second project which had engaged his 
 attention into execution. A council of Cisalpins having 
 been convoked at Lyons, he went there in person in 
 January, 1802, was received with much pomp, opened
 
 THE PEACE OF AMIENS 
 
 183 
 
 the council, and got himself elected president, not 
 of the Cisalpine republic, but of the Italian ; thus re- 
 vealing his ulterior views upon the whole of Italy. On 
 the other hand, that same republic, the independence 
 of which was guaranteed by treaty, beheld French 
 troops establishing themselves on her territory instead 
 of evacuating it ; it thus became an appanage of 
 France, or rather of Bonaparte's power. 
 
 In arrogating to himself the presidency of Italy, he 
 had authorised the rupture of the negotiations ; but he 
 was in this respect without any fear, well knowing 
 that the English ministry were not in a condition to 
 resist, and moreover supporting himself by the secret 
 stipulations consented to by Russia. There was so 
 general a persuasion of the necessity of peace in 
 England, and of the impossibility of obtaining better 
 conditions by a protracted contest, that Lord Corn- 
 wallis, on the 25th of March, took upon himself to 
 sign the definitive treaty known under the name of 
 the peace of Amiens, which concluded a nine years' 
 war, as bloody as it was destructive. 
 
 It was obvious to any statesman that the condition 
 in which Malta was left was the weak part of the 
 treaty. I expressed this opinion frankly in the council : 
 but the public mind was in such a state of intoxication 
 after the signature of the preliminaries that my pre- 
 caution was considered unseasonable and vexatious. 
 I nevertheless observed, in the debates of the British 
 parliament, that one of the most considerable cabinet 
 ministers of that country viewed in the same light as 
 I did the stipulations relative to the possession of 
 Malta. In general, the new opposition of the old
 
 1 84 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 ministers and their friends considered the peace as an 
 armed truce, the duration of which was incompatible 
 with the honour and prosperity of Great Britain. In 
 fact, of all her conquests, she only preserved Trinidad 
 and Ceylon, while France retained all hers. On our 
 side, moreover, peace was a triumph for the principles 
 of our Revolution, which derived stability from the 
 brilliancy and charm of success. Besides, it was in 
 reality a lucky hit for Bonaparte. 
 
 But could it be fancied that he would employ it 
 for the good of France ? I had seen and known enough 
 of him to believe that he would employ it in order to 
 perpetuate and corroborate his authority. It was also 
 obvious to me that the enlightened class of the English 
 nation, and the friends of liberty in France, did not 
 without regret survey an event which seemed for ever 
 to consolidate the power of the sword. 
 
 I commenced this new era by communicating to 
 Bonaparte a memoir, which I had taken pains to 
 make him demand of me, on the subject of the 
 interior establishment of peace. 
 
 After having pointed out therein the shades and 
 vicissitudes of opinion, and the last agitations of 
 different parties, I represented that France could in 
 a few years obtain the same preponderance over 
 pacific Europe as her victories had given her over 
 Europe in arms ; that the gratitude and submission 
 of France applied less to the warrior than to the 
 restorer of social order ; that, called to preside over 
 the destinies of thirty millions of Frenchmen, he 
 ought to make it his study to become their benefactor 
 and father, rather than consider himself as a dictator
 
 FOUCHE'S CONCERN FOR RELIGION ^5 
 
 and military chief ; that, if decided henceforth to 
 become the protector of religion, good morals, the 
 arts, the sciences, all that improves society, he would 
 be sure by his example to prompt all Frenchmen to 
 the observance of the laws, decorum, and domestic 
 virtue ; that, in fine, with respect to the exterior re- 
 lations of France, there was every security, France 
 having never been either so great or so powerful since 
 Charlemagne ; that she had just established a durable 
 order of things in Germany and Italy ; that she had 
 disposed of Spain ; that she, moreover, had redis- 
 covered among the Turks that ancient good feeling 
 which attached them to the French ; that, besides, 
 the auxiliary states established beyond the Rhine and 
 the Alps as a barrier, expected nothing at his hand 
 but salutary modifications and reforms ; that, in a 
 word, his glory and the interest of the world re- 
 quired the consolidation of a state of peace which 
 was also necessary to the well-being of the Republic. 
 He knew that we sympathised with the development 
 of his secret views. For more than a year past he 
 had been prompted by the advice of the consuls 
 Lebrun and Cambaceres, and the councillor of state, 
 Portalis, to a design of re-establishing and recalling 
 all the emigrants into the bosom of their country. 
 Many projects on this subject had been read in 
 council. Personally consulted on these great measures, 
 I immediately admitted that religion could not be 
 neglected by the government of the First Consul, and 
 if established by his hands she might afford him 
 substantial support. But I did not share the opinion 
 that we ought to come to a concordat with the court
 
 !86 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of Rome, to the effect of which there was a project 
 presented. I represented that it was a great political 
 error to introduce into the bosom of a state, where 
 the principles of the Revolution had prevailed, a 
 foreign domination, capable of giving trouble ; that 
 the intervention of the head of the Roman Church 
 was at least superfluous ; that it would conclude by 
 causing embarrassments and probably disputes ; that, 
 moreover, it was reviving in the state that mixture of 
 the spiritual and the temporal which was at once 
 absurd and fatal ; that all that was necessary was to 
 proclaim the free exercise of public worship, but 
 securing revenues and salaries for that worship which 
 the majority of Frenchmen professed. 
 
 I perceived shortly that this project was nothing 
 more than a stepping-stone to another project of still 
 higher importance, and of which the poet Fontanes 
 had suggested the idea. He had remitted to the 
 First Consul by his sister Eliza, to whom he was 
 attached, an elaborate memoir, which had for its 
 object to induce him to follow the model of Charle- 
 magne in employing great officers and priests for the 
 re-establishment of his empire, and for this purpose 
 to avail himself of the aid of the Roman see, as 
 Pepin and Charlemagne had given the example. 
 
 The re-establishment of the empire of Charlemagne 
 had also occurred to my thoughts, with this difference, 
 that the poet Fontanes and his party wished to employ 
 the elements of the ancien regime for the purpose of 
 this resurrection, while I maintained that it was 
 requisite to employ the men and the principles of the 
 Revolution. I did not pretend to exclude the old
 
 CARDINAL GONSALVI 
 
 I8 7 
 
 royalists from participation in the government, except 
 in such a proportion as should always leave them in 
 the minority. This project, moreover (and it was that 
 which had most charms for Bonaparte), appeared to 
 me premature in reference to its execution ; it required 
 to be matured, prepared, and brought forward with 
 great address. I caused it to be postponed. 
 
 But in other respects my system of discretion and 
 delay ill accorded with that impatience and decision of 
 character which distinguished the First Consul. Ever 
 since the month of June in the preceding year (1801) 
 Cardinal Gonsalvi, secretary of state to the court of 
 Rome, had come to Paris by his invitation, and there 
 had drawn the bases of a convention, which the First 
 Consul made known to his council of state on the 10th 
 of August following. 
 
 The philosophical party, of which I passed for the 
 protector, had exhibited indocility, and in the council 
 itself had represented that, however powerful the First 
 Consul was, it was necessary to take precautions in 
 effecting the re-establishment of Catholic worship, since 
 they had not only to fear the opposition of the old 
 partisans of philosophical and republican ideas, which 
 were in great numbers among the public authorities, 
 but also that of the chief military men, who manifested 
 great opposition to religious ideas. Yielding to the de- 
 sire of not losing a part of his popularity by giving too 
 abrupt a shock to prejudices which had their source in 
 the condition of society, the First Consul, in conjunc- 
 tion with his council, consented to delay the re-estab- 
 lishment of the peace of the Church, and to cause it to 
 be preceded by the publication of a maritime peace.
 
 3 88 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 On this occasion I obtained concessions with more 
 facility on the subject of a measure relative to the 
 emigrants. Here my functions placed me in a con- 
 dition to exercise still greater influence, and therefore 
 my views, embraced in two memoirs, with some slight 
 modifications, prevailed. 
 
 The list of the emigrants, which composed nine 
 volumes, exhibited a nomenclature of about 150,000 
 individuals, out of which number there was no necessity 
 for regulating the lot of more than 80,000 at the 
 utmost. The rest had already returned or perished. 
 I succeeded in obtaining an order that no emigrants 
 should be definitively erased en masse, except by an act 
 of amnesty ; and that they should remain for ten years 
 under the surveillance of the high police, reserving to 
 myself the right of keeping them at a distance from 
 their ordinary residence. Many categories of emigrants, 
 attached to French princes, and who remained enemies 
 of the government, were finally retained on the list to 
 the number of a thousand persons, of whom five hun- 
 dred were to be designated in the current era. There 
 was an important exception to the restitution of un- 
 disposed of property belonging to erased emigrants ; 
 namely, that of woods and forests, comprising four 
 hundred acres ; but this exception was nearly delusive 
 with regard to old families. The First Consul, of his 
 own free-will, authorised frequent restitution of planta- 
 tions, in order to obtain creatures among the restored 
 emigrants. 
 
 It had been equally decreed that the promulgation 
 of this law of amnesty should be deferred to a general 
 peace, as*well as a project of a law for the establish-
 
 PROMULGATION OF THE CONCORDAT 
 
 i^ 
 
 ment of a legion of honour. We at length reached 
 the epoch so impatiently expected for the displa}- of 
 these great measures. From the 6th of April, 1802, 
 the concordat on ecclesiastical affairs, signed on the 
 preceding 15th of July, was sent for approbation to an 
 extraordinary assembly of the legislative body. It re- 
 ceived the vote of the Tribunat through the organ of 
 Lucien Bonaparte, who, on his return from Madrid, 
 had taken his place among the tribunes. On this 
 occasion he emphatically pronounced an eloquent dis- 
 course, polished by the poet Fontanes, whose pen had 
 become devoted to a torrent of new power, which was 
 about in his case to become a golden Pactolus. 
 
 Easter Sunday was selected for the solemn pro- 
 mulgation of the concordat, which was done at the 
 Tuileries by the First Consul in person, in the first 
 instance, and repeated throughout the whole of Paris 
 by the twelve mayors of the capital. A religious 
 ceremony was got up at Notre Dame, to return 
 thanks to Heaven, as well for the conclusion of the 
 treaty of Amiens as of that of the concordat. I had 
 informed the consuls that they would only be attended 
 by the generals and officers on service ; a kind of 
 league having been formed among the superior officers 
 then in Paris not to assist at the solemnity. An ex- 
 pedient was quickly devised, for it was not safe yet 
 awhile to employ constraint. Berthier, in his cha- 
 racter of war minister, invited all the superior generals 
 and officers to a splendid military breakfast, at the 
 conclusion of which he placed himself at the hr.uk and 
 induced them to go to the Tuileries, in order to pay 
 their respects to the First Consul. There Bonaparte,
 
 I9 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 whose cavalcade was ready, desired them to follow 
 him to the metropolitan church, and none of them 
 dared to refuse. Throughout his progress he was 
 saluted by public acclamations. 
 
 The re-establishment of Catholicism was followed 
 closely by a Senatus Consultum, granting an amnesty 
 to the emigrants. This act, which was very much cried 
 up, singularly alarmed the acquisitionists of national 
 property. It required all the firmness of the adminis- 
 tration, and all the vigilance of my ministry, to obviate 
 the serious inconveniences which might have resulted 
 from collisions between the old and new proprietors. 
 I was seconded by my colleagues of the home depart- 
 ment and the council of state, which regulated the 
 jurisprudence of the matter in favour of the interest 
 of the Revolution. 
 
 It was obvious that the Revolution was on the 
 defensive, and the Republic without guarantee or 
 security. All the designs of the First Consul tended 
 to transform the government into a monarchy. 
 
 The institution of the legion of honour was also 
 at that epoch a subject of alarm and inquietude to 
 the ancient friends of liberty ; it was generally re- 
 garded as a monarchical plaything, which impaired 
 those principles of equality which had obtained so 
 easy a possession of the public mind. This disposition 
 of public opinion, which I did not allow to remain 
 in the dark, made no impression on the mind of the 
 First Consul, nor on that of his brother Lucien, who 
 was a great promoter of the project. The absurdity 
 was pushed so far as to have it represented on govern- 
 ment authority by Rcederer, a salaried orator, as an
 
 BONAPARTE CONSOLIDATING HIS POWER I9I 
 
 institution auxiliary to all republican laws. A strong 
 and well-argued opposition was found in the Tribunat ; 
 the law was designated as attacking the foundations 
 of public liberty. But the government had already in 
 its hands so many elements of power that it was sure 
 to reduce all opposition to a feeble minority. 
 
 I perceived day by day how much easier it was to 
 get possession of the sources of opinion in the civil 
 hierarchy than in the military order, where the oppo- 
 sition was not less serious for being less perceptible. 
 The counter-police of the palace were too active and 
 too vigilant in this respect ; the officers called mal- 
 contents were suspended, exiled, or imprisoned. But 
 the discontent soon degenerated into irritation among 
 the generals and colonels, who, deeply imbued with 
 republican ideas, saw clearly that Bonaparte only 
 trampled on our institutions in order to advance more 
 freely to absolute power. 
 
 For some time past it was notorious that he con- 
 certed measures with his partisans for acquiring, 
 under legitimate pretences, a perpetuity of power. It 
 was in vain I represented in the council that a fitting 
 time was not yet come ; that public opinion was 
 not sufficiently mature to estimate the advantages of 
 monarchical stability; that there would be even a risk 
 of disgusting the elite of the army, and those in- 
 dividuals from whom the First Consul derived his 
 temporary power ; that if he had till now exercised 
 it to public satisfaction, because he had at the same 
 time exhibited himself in the character of a moderate 
 ruler and skilful general, he ought to take care not 
 to lose the advantages of so splendid a position by
 
 : g 2 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 placing himself either in too narrow a defile or on 
 too steep a declivity. But I made very little im- 
 pression ; I was not even long in perceiving that a 
 kind of reserve was maintained towards me, and that, 
 in addition to the deliberations of the privy council, 
 mysterious conferences were held at the house of 
 Cambaceres. 
 
 I penetrated into the secret, and, desiring to act 
 as much in favour of the First Consul's interest, as 
 well as that of the state, I imparted, with as much 
 discretion as possible, a particular impulse to my 
 friends who had seats in the senate. 
 
 My object was to counteract and invalidate the 
 plans concerted at the house of Cambaceres, and of 
 which I had evil forebodings. 
 
 Many of our friends, on the same day, dispersed 
 themselves amongst the most influential and most 
 accredited senators. Then extolling Bonaparte, who, 
 after having established a general peace, was about to 
 re-erect our altars and attempt to heal the last wounds 
 of our civil discords, these wise friends added that 
 the First Consul held the reins of government with a 
 firm hand, that his administration was irreproachable, 
 and that it appertained to the senate to fulfil the 
 general wish by prolonging the supreme power beyond 
 the ten years of his magistracy ; that this act of 
 national gratitude would have the double advantage 
 of imparting more weight to the senate and more 
 stability to the government. Our friends took special 
 care to have it thought that they were the organs of 
 the desires of the First Consul ; and the success at 
 first surpassed our hopes.
 
 PROLONGATION OF CONSULSHIP Ig3 
 
 On the 8th of Ma)- the conservative senate assem- 
 bled, and wishing, in the name of the French people, 
 to testify its gratitude to the consuls of the Republic, 
 issued the Senatus Consultum which re-elected citizen 
 Bonaparte First Consul for ten years beyond the ten 
 years fixed by Article 34 of the additional Act of the 
 13th of December, 1799. A message immediately 
 communicated this decree to the First Consul, the 
 legislative body, and the Tribunat. 
 
 It would have been necessary to have witnessed, 
 as I did, all the indications which the First Consul 
 gave of distaste and constraint to conceive an idea 
 of them. His partisans were in consternation. The 
 reply to the message was couched in ambiguous 
 terms ; it was insinuated that the senate dispensed 
 the public remuneration with too niggardly a hand ; 
 a tone of hypocritical sentiment reigned throughout ; 
 and this prophetic phrase was remarked : " Fortune 
 has smiled upon the Republic, but fortune is fickle ; 
 and how many men have there been loaded with her 
 favours who have lived too long by several years ! ' 
 
 It was nearly the same language as Augustus 
 employed in a similar situation. But the ten extra 
 years added by the senate to his actual power could 
 not satisfy the impatient ambition of the First Consul. 
 He saw nothing in this act of prolongation than a 
 first step in order to assist him in more rapidly 
 ascending the summit of power. Resolved on seizing 
 it with the same ardour as on the field of battle, 
 he two days after, that is to say, on the 10th of 
 May, urged the two other consuls, whom the constitu- 
 tion invested with no authority, to institute a de< 
 
 VOL. I IJ
 
 I94 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 purporting that the French people should be con- 
 sulted on this question : " Shall Napoleon Bonaparte 
 be consul for life ? '' The reading of this decree, and 
 of the letter of the First Consul to the senate, was 
 going on when I arrived to take my seat. I must 
 confess, in my turn, that it was requisite for me to 
 employ all my energy to restrain the feelings by 
 which I was agitated during the reading. I perceived 
 that all was over, but that it was still necessary to 
 make a stand in order to moderate, if possible, the 
 rapid invasion of a power henceforward divested of 
 counterpoise. 
 
 This act of fraudulent intrusion caused at first 
 among the primary authorities a rather unfavourable 
 impression. But already the springs of action were 
 prepared. 
 
 In a short time the senate, the legislative body, 
 and the Tribunat were canvassed with a venal success. 
 It was demonstrated to the senate that what it had 
 done was considerably behind what was expected of 
 it ; it was proved to the legislative body and the 
 Tribunat that the First Consul, in wishing the French 
 people to be consulted, did no more than pay due 
 homage to the sovereignty of the French people, to 
 that grand principle which the Revolution had so 
 solemnly consecrated, and which had survived so 
 many political hurricanes. The captious arguments 
 obtruded by the confidants and hirelings obtained the 
 adherents of the majority ; to those who objected it 
 was thought sufficient to say, " Let us wait, the nation 
 will definitively decide." 
 
 While the registers devoted to the inscription of
 
 AN IMPRUDENT PROPOSAL ig - 
 
 the public votes were ridiculously opened in the 
 secretariates of all the departments of government, in 
 the offices of all the tribunals, of all the mayors, and 
 of all the public functionaries, there happened a serious 
 incident which transpired, notwithstanding all the care 
 that was taken to suppress the particulars. At a 
 dinner, at which were assembled some twenty dis- 
 contented officers, along with some old republicans 
 and violent patriots, the ambitious projects of the 
 First Consul were brought upon the tapis without 
 compromise. When their spirits had once become 
 elevated by the fumes of wine, some of the parties 
 went so far as to say that it was indispensable to 
 make the new Caesar a participator in the same 
 destiny as the old, not at the senate, where there were 
 nothing but subjected and slavish spirits, but in the 
 middle of the army, at a grand parade at the Tuilerics. 
 So great was the excitement that a colonel of the 12th 
 regiment of hussars, Fournier Sarlovese, famous at that 
 time as a good shot, affirmed that he would pledge 
 himself not to miss Bonaparte at fifty paces' distance. 
 Such was at least the imprudent proposal that L., 
 another of the guests, maintained he had heard on the 
 same evening, and went immediately to denounce to his 
 friend, General Menou, with the intention of obtaining 
 access by his means to the First Consul ; for Menou, 
 since his return from Egypt, was in high favour. In 
 fact, he himself took the informer to the Tuileries, and 
 arrived there at the same moment in which Bonaparte 
 was about to enter his carriage to go to the opera. 1 he 
 First Consul heard the accusation, gave orders to his 
 military police, and immediately proceeded to his b 
 
 13 -
 
 I9 6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 at the theatre. He was there informed that Colonel 
 Fournier was at that time in the pit. The order was 
 instantly given to his aide-de-camp, Junot, to arrest 
 and carry him before me, as a person accused of con- 
 spiracy against the external and internal safety of the 
 state. 
 
 Apprised beforehand of the imprudent and blamable 
 intemperance of language of five or six weak heads, 
 heated by wine, by recollections of liberty, by the open 
 or tacit approbation of some twenty guests, I interro- 
 gated and reprimanded the colonel. I listened to the 
 expression of his repentance, while I did not dis- 
 guise that his affair might become extremely serious 
 after an examination of his papers. He assured me that 
 he feared nothing on that head. 
 
 I thought at first of hushing up the matter, by re- 
 ducing the rigour of the First Consul into a simple 
 military correction. But here an accident occurred to 
 aggravate the offence. The colonel passed the night at 
 the prefecture, and the next day police agents conducted 
 him to his own house, in order to assist in the exami- 
 nation of his papers. Although there was no indication 
 of any meditated attempt, the idea that verses, couplets, 
 directed against Bonaparte might be found there came 
 into his head. What was he to do ? Without permitting 
 his design to be suspected, he locked his keepers in his 
 room, and made his escape. The rage of the First 
 Consul may be conceived. Luckily it had to vent itself 
 against the stupidity of the agents of the prefecture, 
 as I, on my side, had the evening before given him 
 irrefragable proof that the indiscretion of the military 
 dinner had come to my knowledge. Nothing could have
 
 PERPETUAL POWER CONFERRED ig 7 
 
 excused me if so culpable a conversation, carried on 
 before so large a number of assembled persons, had come 
 to the ears of the chief magistrate without the head of 
 the police first obtaining intelligence of it. I carried 
 to him the papers of the colonel whose hiding-place I 
 undertook to find ; and I entreated him, after the 
 examination, not to give the affair the importance of 
 a conspiracy, as it would be doubly impolitic, first 
 with regard to the army, and next with reference to 
 the First Consul's position, contrasted as it was with 
 that of the whole nation convoked to give its suffrage 
 on the question of the consulship for life. As I had 
 undertaken, the colonel was discovered and arrested, 
 but with a military display which to me appeared 
 ridiculous. The chef d'escadron, Donnadieu, since be- 
 come a general, and the same who is now called a 
 celebrated one, was simultaneously arrested, and sent 
 with Colonel Fournier to a dungeon in the Temple. 
 Thanks to my representations, the catastrophe was 
 not tragical ; it was only distinguished by deprivations, 
 exile, and disgrace, accompanied by recompense to the 
 informer. 
 
 The First Consul only pursued the object of his 
 ambition with more fervour. All the solicitude of the 
 ministry was, during six weeks, devoted to collecting 
 and transcribing the registers in which the suffrages 
 for the consulship for life were inscribed. Got up by 
 a special committee, the proces-verbal exhibited 3,568,185 
 votes in the affirmative, and only 9,074 in the negative. 
 On the 2nd of August a Senatus Consultum, called 
 organic, conferred the perpetual power on the First 
 Consul Bonaparte. Very little importance was attached
 
 i g8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 to the manner in which this proceeding was managed. 
 The greater part of the citizens who had voted in 
 favour of investing him with the chief magistracy for 
 life considered themselves as re-establishing the mon- 
 archical system in France, and with it stability and 
 repose. The senate believed, or feigned to believe, 
 that Napoleon was obeying the popular will, and that 
 sufficient guarantees had been given in his reply to 
 the message of the first body in the state. " Liberty," 
 said the First Consul, " equality, the prosperity of 
 France, shall be secured. Satisfied," he added, with 
 a tone of inspiration, " of being elected by the order 
 of that power from whence all emanates, to restore 
 order, justice, and equality on the earth.'" 
 
 Without reference to this concluding passage, the 
 vulgar might really believe him born to command the 
 universe, so singular were the ways by which his 
 fortune., had arrived at the highest point of elevation, 
 and so much capacity did he demonstrate in govern- 
 ing men with eclat. Perhaps more fortunate than 
 Alexander and Caesar, he might have reached and em- 
 braced the great chimera of universal power if his 
 passions had not obscured his views, and if the thirst 
 for tyrannical domination had not concluded by re- 
 volting the popular mind. 
 
 All was not yet accomplished in this quackery of 
 the consulship for life ; and on the 6th of August, an 
 organic Senatus Consultum of the constitution of the 
 year XIII. made its appearance from the workshop 
 of the two journeymen consuls, elaborated by the 
 familiars of the cabinet, and proposed in the name of 
 the government.
 
 THE FIFTH CONSTITUTION ig9 
 
 Since the French enthusiastically adopted the 
 government to be in future comprised in the person 
 of the First Consul, he took care not to give them 
 time to cool ; he was, moreover, persuaded that his 
 authority would never be entirely established while 
 there remained in the state a power which did not 
 directly emanate from himself. 
 
 Such was the spirit of the Senatus Consultum of 
 the 6th of August imposed on the senate. It may be 
 considered as a fifth constitution, by which Bonaparte 
 became master of the majority of votes in the senate, 
 as well for the elections as for the deliberations, re- 
 serving to the senators, henceforward under his thumb, 
 the right of changing the public institutions by means 
 of organic Senatus Consulta ; reducing the Tribunat to 
 a nullity by diminishing one-half of the members by 
 dismission, by depriving the legislative body of the 
 right of approving, and by concentrating all the powers 
 of government in his single will. Moreover, the 
 council of state was recognised as a constituted autho- 
 rity ; finally, the Consul for life caused himself to be 
 invested with the noblest prerogative of sovereign 
 authority — the right of pardoning. He recompensed 
 the services and the docility of the two consuls, his 
 acolytes, by also investing them for life with their 
 consular functions. Such was the fifth constitution, 
 extorted from a people as full of levity as want of 
 reflection, which possessed very few correct ideas re- 
 specting political and social organisation, and which 
 proceeded, without pausing, from a Republic to an 
 Empire. One step alone remained to be taken, but 
 who could prevent it.
 
 2oo MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 In my own secret mind I saw nothing in this 
 result but an ill-formed and dangerous piece of work- 
 manship, and I expressed that opinion without dis- 
 guise. I said to the First Consul himself that he 
 had just declared himself the head of a transitory 
 monarchy, which, according to my view, had no other 
 basis but his victories and the sword. 
 
 On the 15th of August, the anniversary of his 
 birth, solemn prayers were offered up to God, for 
 having, in his ineffable bounty, granted to France an 
 individual capable of consenting to bear the burden of 
 supreme power for his whole life. 
 
 The Senatus Consultum of the 6th of August also 
 conferred on the First Consul the faculty of presiding 
 over the senate. Compelled to employ it, and still 
 more to sound the public feeling with regard to him, 
 he went in great pomp, on the 21st, to the Luxem- 
 bourg, accompanied by his two colleagues, his ministers, 
 his council of state, and a brilliant escort. Troops 
 under arms and in handsome uniform lined both sides 
 of the street from the Tuileries to the palace of the 
 Luxembourg. Having taking his place, the First 
 Consul received the oath of all the senators. M. de 
 Talleyrand then read a report on the subject of the 
 indemnities to be granted to the different princes of 
 Germany, and moreover presented several projects of 
 Senatus Consulta, among others, that which re-united 
 to France the isle of Elba, since become so famous as 
 the first place of exile to the very individual who then 
 was reputed the man of destiny. What a considera- 
 tion ! What an association ! 
 
 The procession, in going and returning, was not
 
 A COLD RECEPTION 20I 
 
 saluted by any acclamations, nor any sign of appro- 
 bation on the part of the people, notwithstanding the 
 demonstrations and salutations made by the First 
 Consul, and especially his brothers, to the crowd 
 assembled behind the soldiers which lined the way. 
 This melancholy silence, and the kind of ostentation 
 which some of the citizens exhibited, of not wishing to 
 show themselves at the procession of the chief magis- 
 trate, deeply wounded the First Consul. Perhaps on 
 this occasion he recalled to mind the well-known 
 maxim : " The silence of the people is a lesson to 
 kings ; " a maxim which that very evening was 
 placarded and read next day at the Tuileries and 
 in some of the public squares. 
 
 As he did not fail to impute this chilling reception 
 to the maladresse of administration, and the little zeal 
 of his friends, I reminded him that he had ordered 
 me to prepare nothing factitious, and I added, " Not- 
 withstanding the fusion of the Gauls with the French, 
 we always remain the same people; we always remain 
 like those ancient Gauls who were represented as 
 incapable of bearing either liberty or oppression." 
 "What do you mean?' he asked with animation. 
 " I mean to say that the Parisians have imagined 
 they perceived, in the last modifications of govern- 
 ment, the total loss of liberty, and too obvious a 
 tendency towards absolute power." "I should not," 
 replied he, " have been able to govern six wicks in 
 this pacific vacuum, if, instead of becoming the 
 master, I had only remained the image of authority." 
 " But, be at once paternal, affable, strong, and just, 
 and you will easily reconquer what you appear to
 
 202 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 have lost." "There is an oddity or caprice in public 
 opinion ; I shall be able to improve it," he said to 
 me as he turned his back. 
 
 I had a secret presentiment that my dismissal was 
 not far off; I no longer doubted of it after this last 
 interview. Moreover, a knowledge of the manoeuvres 
 of my enemies could not have escaped me. I had 
 powerful ones who incessantly watched for an oppor- 
 tunity to overthrow me. My opposition to the last 
 measures furnished them with a pretext. I had not 
 only Lucien and Joseph against me, but I had also 
 their sister Eliza, a woman at once haughty, nervous, 
 passionate, dissolute, and devoured by the double 
 hysterics 1 of love and ambition. She was influenced, 
 as has been seen, by the poet Fontanes, in whom she 
 was wrapped up, and to whom she, at that time, 
 opened all the gates of favour and fortune. Timid 
 and cautious in policy, Fontanes himself never acted 
 except under the influence of a coterie, pretending to 
 the title of religious and monarchical ; this coterie 
 controlled a portion of the journals, and had its own 
 romantic author, making a poem of Christianity and 
 a jargon of the French tongue. Proud of his success, 
 of his favour, and of his small literary senate, Fontanes 
 was inflated to the last degree in being able to intro- 
 
 1 In the first edition the printer had thought it hetter to 
 substitute the word hochet for that of hoquet, which appeared to 
 him improper in the sense in which Fouche employs it. This 
 alteration was not happy ; we have replaced the word hoquet, a 
 very singular expression beyond a doubt, but which is, doubtless, 
 that used by the Duke of Otranto. It is explained elsewhere by 
 the species of convulsive hiccups by which the sister of Bonaparte 
 was really afflicted. — Note by the French Editor.
 
 THE CHIMERA OF THE DAY 203 
 
 duce to the illustrious imitator of Charlemagne the 
 literary novices whose flights he superintended, and 
 who thought that they, as well as he, had a call to 
 reconstitute society with the debris of monarchy. 
 
 This Celadon of literature, an author as elegant as 
 pure, did not dare to attack me in front ; but in 
 clandestine memoirs which he remitted to the First 
 Consul, he cried down all the liberal doctrines and 
 institutions, endeavouring to render all the men of 
 mark produced by the Revolution suspected, repre- 
 senting them as the inveterate enemies of the unity 
 of power. His theme and object was to restore 
 Charlemagne in Napoleon, in order that the Revolu- 
 tion might be appeased and merged in a great and 
 powerful Empire. This was the chimera of the day, 
 or rather such was known to be the hobby of the 
 First Consul and his intimate friends. On this account 
 all aspirers after places, favours, and fortune did not 
 fail to model their plans and views on this basis, with 
 more or less exaggeration and extravagance. Towards 
 this period also appeared in the department of fabri- 
 cating secret writings, the pamphleteer F., originally 
 agent of the agents of Louis XVIII. , afterwards agent 
 for Lucien at London at the time of the preliminaries, 
 whence he had written, in a trenchant and self-sufficient 
 tone, wretched balderdash respecting the springs and 
 operation of a government which he was not in a con- 
 dition to comprehend. Pensioned for some reports, 
 which reached me anonymously from the cabinet, he 
 grew bold, and profiting by the favour of Lavalette, 
 the postmaster, he caused the first essays of a corre- 
 spondence, which afterwards became more regular, to
 
 204 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 be conveyed to the First Consul. Assuming the airs of 
 office, he descanted, right or wrong, on Charlemagne, 
 on Louis XIV., on the social order, talking of recon- 
 struction, unity of power, the monarchy — all things, be 
 it remembered, quite incompatible with the Jacobins, 
 even with those whom he called, with an assumed air 
 of capacity, the homines forts of the Revolution. This 
 officious correspondent, while scraping together the 
 reports of the saloons and coffee-houses, fabricated a 
 thousand tales against me and the general police, of 
 which he made a bugbear : such, no doubt, were his 
 instructions. 
 
 At length, all the materials being ready and the 
 occasion being favourable— Duroc and Savary having 
 been adroitly sounded — it was resolved, in an assembly 
 at Morfontaine, Joseph's residence, that in the next 
 family council, at which Cambaceres and Lebrun should 
 assist, a memoir should be read, in which, without 
 attacking me personally, an effort should be made to 
 prove that, since the establishment of the consulate for 
 life and the general peace, the ministry of police was 
 a useless and dangerous power ; useless against the 
 royalists, who, now disarmed and subjected, only re- 
 quired to rally round the government ; dangerous as 
 being of republican institution, and forming the mock 
 thunder of incurable anarchists who found therein pay 
 and protection. From thence it was inferred that it 
 would be impolitic to leave so great a power in the 
 hands of a single man ; that it was consigning to his 
 mercy the whole machine of government. The project 
 of Rcederer, the factotum of Joseph, came next, the 
 object of which was to concentrate the functions of
 
 FOUCHE'S OFFICE ABOLISHED 205 
 
 the police in the minister of justice; namely, in the 
 hands of Regnier, under the name of grand judge. 
 
 When I was informed of this hotch-potch, and be- 
 fore the decree of the consuls was signed, I could not 
 help telling my friends that I was superseded by a 
 grosse bete; and it was true. The dull and heavy 
 Regnier was never called by any other name from 
 that time but that of the gros juge. 
 
 I did nothing to parry the blow, so prepared was I 
 for it. Accordingly my confidence and tranquillity as- 
 tonished the First Consul, who, at the end of my final 
 task, said to me: " M. Fouche, you have well served 
 the government, which will not confine itself to the 
 rewards which it has just conferred upon you ; for from 
 this time you will constitute a portion of the first body 
 of the state. It is with regret that I part with a man 
 of your merit ; but it has been indispensable to prove 
 to Europe that I have frankly united with the pacific 
 system, and that I confidently repose on the love of 
 Frenchmen. In the new arrangement which I have 
 just decreed the police will henceforward be no more 
 than a branch of the ministry of justice ; and that 
 will be no sufficient field for you. But be assured 
 that I will neither renounce your counsels nor your 
 services — there is no dismissal in this case ; and d< 1 
 not suffer yourself to be annoyed by the idle gossip 
 of the saloons of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, nor In 
 that of the pot-houses where the old orators of the 
 clubs assemble, at whom we have so often laughed 
 together." 
 
 After thanking him for the testimonials of satisfac- 
 tion which he deigned to give me, I did not dissemble
 
 206 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 that the changes which he had thought fit to decide 
 on had by no means taken me by surprise. " What ! 
 you had some idea of it ? " exclaimed he. " Without 
 being precisely sure," I replied, " I had prepared myself 
 for it, in consequence of certain hints and whisperings 
 which reached my ears." 
 
 I begged him to believe that no personal interest 
 entered into the composition of my regret ; that I was 
 only moved by the extreme solicitude which I had 
 always felt for his person and government ; that these 
 sentiments induced me to beg permission to send him 
 in writing my last reflections on the present condition 
 of affairs. " Communicate to me all you wish, citizen 
 senator," he rejoined; "all that comes from you will 
 always attract my notice." 
 
 I requested and obtained an audience for the next 
 day, in which I proposed to furnish him with a detailed 
 statement of the state of the secret funds belonging to 
 my department. 
 
 I went immediately to compile my closing report, 
 for which I had already provided notes. It was brief 
 and nervous. I began by representing to the First 
 Consul that to my view nothing was less certain than 
 the continuance of peace, a circumstance which I en- 
 deavoured to prove by laying open the germs of more 
 than one future war. I added that, in such a state 
 of things, and while public opinion was not favourable 
 to the encroachments of power, it would be impolitic 
 to divest the supreme magistracy of the security afforded 
 by a vigilant police ; that, far from slumbering in im- 
 prudent security at a moment when the permanence 
 of the executive authority had been abruptly decided,
 
 A FINAL REPORT 2 OJ 
 
 it was expedient to conciliate public opinion, and attach 
 all parties to the new order of things ; that this could 
 not be effected except by abjuring all kinds of preju- 
 dices and distastes against particular men ; that while 
 disapproving the measures which had prevailed in the 
 council, I had always expressed myself with a view 
 to the interest of the First Consul, as those of his 
 most devoted and intimate servants may also have 
 done ; that our intentions were in all cases the same, 
 but our views and measures were different; that if 
 there was a perseverance in erroneous views, the issue 
 would be without intending it an intolerable oppression 
 or a counter-revolution ; that it was more especially 
 indispensable to avoid transmitting the public affairs 
 to the mercy of imprudent hands, or of a coterie 
 of political eunuchs, who, at the first shock, would 
 surrender the state to royalists and foreigners ; thai 
 it was in bold opinions and in new -created interest 
 that a substantial support was to be looked for; that 
 the support of the army would not suffice to main- 
 tain a power too colossal not to excite the greatest 
 alarm in Europe; that too much solicitude could not 
 be shown not to commit the new destinies of France 
 to the chances of new wars, which would of necessity 
 flow from the armed truce in which the respective 
 powers at present reposed; that, before re-entering the 
 arena, it was requisite to be assured of the affection 
 of the nation, and to rally round the government, not 
 disturbers, anarchists, and counter-revolutionists, but 
 straightforward men of character, who would find 
 security nor well-being for themselves except by main- 
 taining it; that they were to be found among the men
 
 208 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 of 1789, and all the discreet friends of liberty, who, 
 detesting the excesses of the Revolution, looked to 
 the establishment of a strong and moderate govern- 
 ment ; and, in fine, that in the precarious situation in 
 which France and Europe then were, the chief of the 
 state could not retain his sword in the scabbard and 
 resign himself to a satisfactory security except when 
 surrounded by his friends, and preserved by them. 
 Then came the application of my views and my 
 system to the different parties which divided us, parties 
 whose passions and colours, it is true, became weaker 
 and weaker every day, but whom a shock, an im- 
 prudence, repeated faults, and a new war, might 
 awaken and bring into collision. 
 
 The next day I remitted to him this memoir, 
 which was in some sort my political testament ; he 
 received it with an affected affability. I next brought 
 under his notice a detailed account of my secret 
 management ; and seeing with surprise that I had an 
 enormous reserve of near two millions four hundred 
 thousand francs, " Citizen senator," said he to me, 
 " I shall be more generous and equitable than Sieyes 
 was in respect to that poor devil Roger Ducos, in 
 appropriating to himself the amount of the funds of 
 the expiring Directory : keep the half of the sum 
 which you consigned to me ; it is not too much as 
 a mark of my personal and private satisfaction ; the 
 other half will go into the fund of my private police, 
 which, in conformity with your sagacious advice, will 
 receive a new impulse, and on the subject of which 
 I must entreat you to furnish me often with your 
 ideas."
 
 FOUCHE RETURN'S TO PRIVATE LIFE 2 OQ 
 
 Affected by this conduct, I thanked the First 
 Consul for thus raising me to the level of the best 
 remunerated men of his government (he had just 
 conferred upon me the senatorship of Aix) ; and I 
 protested that I should always remain devoted to the 
 interest of his glory. 
 
 I was sincerely persuaded then, as I am now, that 
 in suppressing the general police he had no other 
 object than to disembarrass himself of an institution 
 which, being incapable of saving what he had himself 
 overthrown, appeared to him more formidable than 
 useful ; it was the instrument which he at that time 
 feared more than the hands which controlled it. But 
 he had not the less yielded to an intrigue, by suffer- 
 ing himself to be deluded on the score of the motives 
 alleged against me by my adversaries. In one word, 
 Bonaparte, secured by the general peace against the 
 machinations of the royalists, imagined that he had 
 no longer any other enemies than those of the 
 Revolution ; and as he was incessantly told that 
 these men were attached to a department of govern- 
 ment, which, dating its birth from the Revolution, 
 protected its interest and defended its doctrines, he 
 abolished it by that means, hoping to remain the 
 arbiter of the mode in which he should from that 
 time please to exercise his power. 
 
 I returned into private life with a feeling of con- 
 tent and domestic happiness, the sweets of which I 
 had accustomed myself to taste in the midst of the 
 greatest affairs. On the other hand, I found myself 
 in so superior a condition of fortune and consideration 
 that I felt myself to be neither injured nor fallen. M\ 
 
 VOL. I 14
 
 2io MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 enemies were disconcerted by it. I even acquired in 
 the senate a marked influence on the most honourable 
 of my colleagues, but I was in no way tempted to 
 abuse it ; I even abstained from turning it to profit, 
 for I was aware that there were many eyes upon me. 
 I passed happy days and nights on my estate of Pont 
 Carre, seldom coming to Paris. In the autumn of 
 1802, when it pleased the First Consul to give me a 
 public mark of favour and confidence, I was called 
 upon to constitute a part of a commission charged 
 with holding a conference with the deputies of the 
 different Swiss cantons, a country too near France 
 not to influence it by a powerful interference. By its 
 geographical position Switzerland appeared destined to 
 be the bulwark of that most accessible part of France, 
 which possesses no other military frontiers than its 
 passes ; and, if I may so say, no other sentinels than 
 its peasantry. Under this point of view, the political 
 situation of Switzerland had two more claims on the 
 attention of the First Consul, since he had not a 
 little contributed, after the peace of Campo Formio, 
 to induce the Directory to invade and occupy it in a 
 military manner. His experience, and the comprehen- 
 sion of his views, caused him to perceive that this 
 once it was expedient to avoid the same errors and 
 the same excesses. His measures were much more 
 adroit and skilful. 
 
 The independence of Switzerland had just been 
 recognised by the treaty of Luneville. This treaty 
 secured to her the right of providing herself with such 
 a government as best suited her. She thought herself 
 indebted to the First Consul for her independence ;
 
 CIVIL WAR IN SWITZERLAND 2 I I 
 
 and he fully expected that the Swiss would make an 
 abusive exercise of their emancipation. In fact, they 
 were torn to pieces by two opposite factions ; namely, 
 the unionist, or democratic party, which desired a 
 republic one and indivisible; and the federalist party, 
 or the men of the old aristocracy, who demanded the 
 ancient institutions. The unionist party was engendered 
 by the French Revolution ; the other was that of the 
 ancien regime, and it leant secretly towards Austria ; 
 between these two factions the moderate or neutral 
 party balanced. Abandoned to themselves during the 
 year 1802, the unionists and the federalists came to 
 blows and civil war, each party by turns secretly 
 encouraged by our minister Verninac, in conformity 
 with the instructions of the cabinet of the Tuileries, 
 the policy of which tended to a denouement skilfully 
 calculated, and on that account inevitable. The 
 federalist party having got the upper hand, the 
 unionists threw themselves into the arms of France. 
 This was what the First Consul expected. He sud- 
 denly caused his aide-de-camp Rapp to make his 
 appearance, as the bearer of a proclamation, in which 
 he spoke in the tone of a master rather than a mediator, 
 ordering all the parties to lay down their arms, and 
 causing a military occupation of Switzerland by .1 
 corps d'armee under the orders of General Ney. In 
 yielding to force, the last federal Diet yielded none of 
 its rights. On that account the confederated cantons 
 were treated as conquered countries; and Bonaparfc 
 was seen to proceed to his task of mediator as if he 
 were going to a conquest which was the prize of hi 
 
 achievements. In this manner the last efforts of the 
 
 14—2
 
 212 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Swiss to recover their ancient laws and government 
 became abortive. 
 
 The delegates of the two parties had their rendez- 
 vous at Paris, in order to implore the powerful inter- 
 position of the mediator. Thirty-six deputies of the 
 unionists proceeded there. The federalists were more 
 dilatory, so much repugnance had they to a proceeding 
 which the) r regarded as a humiliation ; their delegates 
 nevertheless arrived, to the number of fifteen, and 
 the whole were assembled at Paris in the month of 
 December. It was then that the First Consul nominated 
 the commission charged with the function of conferring 
 with them, and maturing such an act of mediation as 
 should terminate the troubles of Switzerland. This 
 commission, over which the senator Barthelemi pre- 
 sided, was composed of two senators, the president 
 and myself being therein comprised, and of the two 
 councillors of state, Roederer and Demeunier. The 
 choice of the president could not have been more happy. 
 As well as the senator Barthelemi, I was assailed by the 
 worthy Swiss, who resorted to us as if we composed an 
 Areopagus. It was in vain that I told them that all 
 ulterior decision would depend on the will of the First 
 Consul, of which we were only the reporters ; they per- 
 sisted in attributing to me in particular a great influence ; 
 my closet and my salon were never empty. 
 
 The conferences opened ; and in the first sitting, held 
 on the ioth of December, our president read to the 
 delegates a letter in which the First Consul disclosed 
 to them his intention. " Nature/' said he, " has made 
 your state federative ; the attempt to vanquish it would 
 not be wise." This oracle was a thunderbolt for the
 
 SWISS FEDERALISTS VICTORIOUS 213 
 
 unionist party ; it was quite upset by it. However, to 
 moderate the triumph of the federalists, who already 
 conceived that the ancient order of things was about 
 to revive, the consular letter added : " A renunciation 
 of all privileges is your primary want, and your first 
 duty." Thus there was an end of the ancient aristo- 
 cracy. The close of the letter contained the express 
 declaration that France and the Italian republic would 
 never permit the establishment in Switzerland of a 
 system tending to favour the interests of the enemies 
 of Italy and France. 
 
 I immediately proposed that the consulta should 
 nominate a commission of five members, with whom 
 the consular commission and the First Consul himself 
 might confer. The next day, 12th of December, Bona- 
 parte had a conference, in our presence, with the com- 
 mittee of the consulta, in which his intentions were more 
 clearly expressed. A third party immediately formed 
 itself, which concluded by supplanting the unionists and 
 the federalists, whom we had determined to neutralise. A 
 tolerably strong opposition of views and interests gave 
 place to very animated discussions, which, sometimes 
 interrupted and sometimes resumed, were protracted 
 till the 24th of January, 1803. That day the First 
 Consul put a stop to them, in causing the consulta to 
 be called upon to name commissioners who should 
 receive from his hand the act of mediation which he 
 had just completed (in conformity with our reports 
 and views), an act on which they would be permitted 
 to offer their opinions. Convoked to a new conference, 
 which lasted nearly eight hours, the Swiss commissioners 
 obtained different modifications in the project of the
 
 214 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 constitution ; and, on the igth of February, received 
 from the hand of the First Consul, in a solemn sitting, 
 the act of mediation which was to govern their country. 
 This act imposed a new federative compact on Switzer- 
 land ; and, moreover, decided the particular constitution 
 of each canton. The next morning, the consult a having 
 been dismissed, the consular commission, of which I 
 composed a part, closed it sittings and its prods verbaux. 
 
 Thus finished the interference of the French govern- 
 ment with the internal affairs of Switzerland. 
 
 It would be difficult, I imagine, to conceive a 
 transitory regime more conformable with the real wants 
 of its inhabitants. Besides, never did Bonaparte less 
 abuse his vast preponderance ; and Switzerland is, 
 without contradiction, of all states, near or distant, 
 over which he has exerted his influence, that to which 
 he exhibited most leniency in his authority during the 
 fifteen years of his ascendency and glory. In order 
 to pay a proper tribute to truth, I will add that the 
 act of mediation in Switzerland was impregnated as 
 much as possible with the conciliatory and character- 
 istically moderate spirit of my colleague Barthelemi ; 
 and I dare affirm on my side that I seconded his 
 views to the utmost of my capacity and power. I had 
 on this subject many particular conferences with the 
 First Consul. 
 
 But how little did his conduct with reference to 
 the rest of Europe resemble his moderate policy 
 towards our neighbours the Swiss ! 
 
 Everything had also been matured in order to 
 strike a powerful blow at the Germanic confederation, 
 the demolition of which was about to be set on foot.
 
 COMMISSION AT RATISBON 
 
 215 
 
 The affair of the indemnities to be given to those 
 members of the Germanic body who, either en- 
 tirely or in part, had been deprived of their estates 
 and possessions, as well by various cessions as by the 
 reunion of the left bank of the Rhine to France, had 
 been sent back to an extraordinary deputation of the 
 Empire. The extraordinary commission was opened 
 at Ratisbon in the summer of 1801, under the media- 
 tion of France and Russia. Its operations awakened 
 all our intriguers in diplomacy ; they composed a mine 
 of it, which they exploded with an audacity which at 
 first revolted the chief magistrate, but which he could 
 not repress in consequence of the great number of 
 high personages connected with it. He was, besides, 
 naturally indulgent to all exactions which pressed upon 
 foreign nations. In this important affair our influence 
 predominated over the Russian. The extraordinary 
 commission did not give in its report, after its forty- 
 sixth sitting, till the 23rd of February, 1803, at the 
 very epoch when the Swiss mediation terminated. 
 The activity of intriguers, and the disgraceful proceed- 
 ings which occurred during this long interval, especially 
 in proportion as it approached its term, may be con- 
 ceived from this : When complaints arrived that great 
 rogueries had been detected, everything was imputed 
 to the management of the public offices, where there 
 were nothing but subordinate agents, while the whole 
 culpability really was derived from certain cabinets 
 and certain boudoirs where indemnities and princi- 
 palities were put up for sale. Although I was no 
 longer in office, it was always to me that complaints 
 and disclosures with regard to denials of justice were
 
 2i6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 transmitted ; it was obstinately concluded that I still 
 retained my influence and the ear of the master. 
 
 But it was not on the side of Germany, already 
 fallen into obvious decay, that the tempest which was 
 about to bring back upon us the scourges of war and 
 revolutions matured its elements ; it was beyond the 
 straits of Calais. What I had foreseen was realised 
 by a series of irresistible causes. The enthusiasm 
 which the peace of Amiens had excited in England 
 was not of long duration. The English cabinet, on 
 its guard, and placing little reliance on the sincerity 
 of the First Consul, delayed, under certain pretexts, 
 to give up its possession of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 Malta, and Alexandria in Egypt. But this only re- 
 ferred to political relations ; Bonaparte was in that 
 respect less assiduous than with reference to the main- 
 tenance of his personal authority, which, in the English 
 papers -continued to be attacked with a virulence to 
 which he could not become accustomed. His police 
 was then so feeble that it was soon seen to struggle 
 without dignity, and without success, against the press 
 and the intrigues of the English. To every memorial 
 presented against the invectives of the London journal- 
 ists, the ministers of Great Britain replied that it was 
 one consequence of the liberty of the press ; that they 
 were themselves exposed to it ; and that there was no 
 recourse against such an abuse but the law. Blinded 
 by his anger, and ill-advised, the First Consul fell into 
 the snare ; he committed himself with the pamphleteer 
 Peltier, 1 who was only sentenced to a fine, in order 
 
 1 Author of the " Ambigu," and a multitude of very witty 
 pamphlets against Bonaparte and his family.
 
 A NEWSPAPER WAR 2I - 
 
 to triumph with more effect over his adversary. A 
 subscription was instantly set on foot by the most 
 influential classes in England, to put him in a con- 
 dition to carry on a paper war against Bonaparte, 
 before which the Monitenr and the Argus turned pale. 
 
 Hence the resentment which Bonaparte felt against 
 England. " Every wind which blows," said he, " from 
 that direction brings nothing but contempt and hatred 
 against my person." From that time he concluded 
 that the peace could not benefit him ; that it would 
 not leave him sufficient facility to aggrandise his do- 
 minion externally, and would impede the extension of 
 his internal power ; that, moreover, our daily relations 
 with England modified our political ideas and revived 
 our thoughts of liberty. From that moment he re- 
 solved to deprive us of all connection with a free 
 people. The grossest invectives against the govern- 
 ment and institutions of England soiled our public 
 journals, which assumed a surly and wrathful character. 
 Possessing neither a superior police nor public spirit, 
 the First Consul had recourse to the artifices of his 
 minister of foreign affairs, in order to give a false colour 
 to French opinion. Heavy clouds now obscured the 
 peace, which had become problematical, but to which 
 Bonaparte still clung involuntarily through a kind of 
 presentiment of fatal catastrophes. 
 
 Beyond La Manche everything was becoming hostile, 
 and the complaints against the First Consul were ex- 
 plicitly expressed. He was reproached with the incor- 
 poration of Piedmont and the isle of Elba; he was 
 accused of having disposed of Tuscany and kept Parma; 
 of having imposed new laws on the Ligurian and
 
 2i8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Helvetian republics; of having united in his own person 
 the government of the Italian republic ; of treating 
 Holland like a French province ; of collecting consider- 
 able forces on the shores of Brittany, under the pre- 
 text of a new expedition to St. Domingo ; of having 
 stationed another corps the importance of which was 
 was quite out of proportion with its avowed object — 
 that of taking possession of Louisiana — at the mouth 
 of the Meuse ; in conclusion, of having sent officers of 
 artillery and engineers in the guise of commercial 
 agents to explore the harbours and ship-roads of Great 
 Britain, in order, in this manner, to prepare, in the 
 midst of peace, for a clandestine invasion of the shores 
 of England. 
 
 The only complaint which the First Consul could 
 adduce against the English was comprised in their 
 refusal to give up Malta. But they replied that poli- 
 tical changes effected since the treaty of Amiens 
 rendered that restitution impossible without some pre- 
 liminary arrangements. 
 
 It is certain that sufficient circumspection was not 
 employed in the political operations directed against 
 England. If Bonaparte had desired the maintenance 
 of peace, he would sedulously have avoided giving 
 umbrage and inquietude to that power, on the score 
 of its Indian possessions, and would have abstained 
 from applauding the braggadocio of the mission of 
 Sebastiani into Syria and Turkey. His imprudent 
 interview with Lord Whitworth accelerated the rupture. 
 I foresaw from that time that he would quickly pass 
 from a certain degree of moderation as chief of the 
 government to acts of provocation.
 
 VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS 219 
 
 Such was the decree of the 22nd of May, 1803, 
 ordering the arrest of all Englishmen who were on 
 business or on their travels in France. There had 
 never been till then an example of such a violence 
 against the rights of nations. How could M. de Talley- 
 rand lend himself to become the principal instrument 
 of so outrageous an act- — he who had always given 
 express assurance to the English residing in Paris that 
 they would, after the departure of their ambassador, 
 enjoy the protection of the government to as great 
 an extent as during his stay ? If he had had the 
 courage to resign, what would have become of 
 Napoleon without a superior police, and without 
 a minister capable of counterpoising the politics of 
 Europe ? How many other complaints should we 
 then have had to express, how many other accusa- 
 tions to exhibit on the subject of more monstrous 
 co-operations ! I thought myself lucky at that time 
 to be no longer in office. Who can answer for him- 
 self? I also might have yielded like another; but at 
 all events I should have recorded my resistance, and 
 made a protest of my disapprobation. 
 
 Without more delay Bonaparte took possession of 
 the electorate of Hanover, and ordered the blockade 
 of the Elbe and Weser. All his thoughts were 
 directed towards the execution of his great project 
 for invading the enemy's shores. The cliffs of Ostend, 
 of Dunkirk, and Boulogne were covered with cam))-; 
 the squadrons at Toulon, Rochfort, and Brest were 
 fitted out ; our docks were crowded with pinna* 
 praams, sloops, and gunboats. England on her side 
 took her measures of defence; the force of her nav)
 
 220 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 was raised to four hundred and sixty-nine ships of 
 war, and a flotilla of eight hundred vessels guarded 
 her coasts ; all her national population rushed to 
 arms ; camps were erected on the heights of Dover 
 and in the counties of Sussex and Kent ; the two 
 armies were only separated by the Channel, and the 
 enemy's flotilla came and insulted ours, under the 
 protection of a coast lined with cannon. * 
 
 In this manner formidable preparations on both 
 sides indicated the revival of the maritime war, which 
 was a prelude more or less proximate of a universal 
 war. A more serious political motive had accelerated 
 the rupture on the part of England. The cabinet of 
 London had early notice that Bonaparte was pre- 
 paring, in the silence of his closet, all the necessary 
 steps for getting himself declared Emperor, and for 
 reviving the empire of Charlemagne. 
 
 Even, since my retreat from public affairs the First 
 Consul was persuaded that the opposition which he 
 would experience to his coronation would be very 
 feeble, republican ideas having fallen into discredit. 
 All the reports that came from Paris agreed on this 
 point, that he would soon encircle his head with the 
 diadem of kings. That which particularly awakened 
 the notice of the cabinet of London was the proposal 
 made to the house of Bourbon to transfer to the 
 First Consul their rights to the throne of France. 
 Not daring to make the proposal directly himself, he 
 availed himself for the purpose of this negotiation of 
 the Prussian cabinet, which he moulded as he pleased. 
 The minister Haugwitz employed M. de Meyer, presi- 
 dent of the regency of Warsaw, who offered to
 
 A NOBLE DECLARATION 221 
 
 Louis XVIII. indemnities and a magnificent establish- 
 ment in Italy. But, nobly inspired, the King made 
 this well-known admirable reply: "I know not what 
 may be the designs of Providence respecting my family 
 and myself; but I know the obligations which He has 
 imposed upon me by the rank to which He has pleased 
 to call me. As a Christian, I will fulfil these obligations 
 to my last breath ; as a son of St. Louis, I shall, from 
 his example, know how to respect myself, even in 
 chains; as a successor of Francis I., I at least desire 
 the ability to say with him, ' We have lost everything 
 but our honour.' ' All the French princes concurred 
 with this noble declaration. I have expatiated on this 
 fact, because it serves to explain what I have to say 
 on the subject of the conspiracy of Georges and 
 Moreau, and of the murder of the Duke d'Enghien. 
 
 The ill success of the overture to the princes having 
 retarded the development of Bonaparte's plan, the rest 
 of the year (1803) passed in expectation. An air was 
 assumed of being exclusively occupied with prepara- 
 tions for invasion. But a double danger appeared 
 imminent at London : and there the conspiracy of 
 Georges Cadoudal was devised, upon the sole founda- 
 tion of discontent in Moreau, who was known to be in 
 opposition to Bonaparte. There was not the least idea 
 of harmonising and uniting the two extreme parties — 
 the armed royalists on the one hand and the in- 
 pendent patriots on the other. To cement such an 
 alliance was beyond the power of the agents who in- 
 terfered in it. Intriguers could only conduct it to a 
 false result. The discovery of a solitary branch of the 
 conspiracy rendered the whole abortive. When Real
 
 222 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 had received the first disclosures of Querelle, who was 
 sentenced to death, and had given an account of them, 
 the First Consul, in the first instance, refused to give 
 them credit. I was consulted, and I perceived traces 
 of a plot which it was necessary to penetrate and 
 follow. I could from that moment have caused the re- 
 establishment of the police administration and resumed 
 the reins of it myself, but I took care not to do so, 
 and eluded it. I yet awhile saw nothing clear in the 
 horizon. I admitted with candour that the gros-jugc 
 was incapable of detecting and transacting an affair of 
 so much moment ; but I cried up Desmarets, chief of 
 the secret division, and Real, councillor of state, as two 
 excellent bloodhounds and well-trained explorers. I 
 said that Real, having had the good fortune to make 
 the discovery, it was proper to give him the confidential 
 employment of accomplishing his work. He was put 
 at the head of an extraordinary commission, with carte 
 blanche, and he was permitted to call in the aid of the 
 military power, Murat having been appointed governor 
 of Paris. 
 
 Proceeding from discovery to discovery, Pichegru 
 was next arrested, and afterwards Moreau and Georges. 
 Bonaparte recognised in the nature of this conspiracy, 
 and especially in the implication of Moreau, a stroke 
 of fortune which secured to him possession of the Em- 
 pire ; he thought that it would be sufficient to charac- 
 terise Moreau as a conspirator in order to denationalise 
 him. This mistake, and the assassination of the Duke 
 d'Enghien, very nearly caused his ruin. 
 
 I was one of the first to obtain a knowledge of the 
 mission of Caulaincourt and Ordener to the banks of
 
 THE DUKE D'ENGHIEN DENOUNCED 
 
 22 3 
 
 the Rhine ; but when I was informed that the telegraph 
 had just announced the arrest of the prince, and that 
 an order to transfer him from Strasburg to Paris was 
 given, I foresaw the catastrophe, and I trembled for 
 the life of the noble victim. I hurried to Malmaison, 
 where the First Consul then was ; it was the 29th 
 Ventose (20th of March, 1804). I arrived there at 
 nine o'clock in the morning, and I found him in a 
 state of agitation, walking by himself in the park. I 
 entreated permission to say a word to him about the 
 great event of the day. " I see," said he, " what 
 brings you ; I am about this day to strike a great and 
 necessary blow." I represented to him that France 
 and Europe would be roused against him, if he did 
 not supply undeniable proof that the duke had con- 
 spired against his person at Ettenheim. " What neces- 
 sity is there for proof?' he exclaimed. "Is he not 
 a Bourbon, and the most dangerous of all of them." 
 I persisted in offering arguments of policy calculated 
 to silence the reasons of state. But all in vain ; he 
 concluded by impatiently telling me, " Have not you 
 and your friends told me a thousand times that I should 
 conclude by becoming the General Monk of France, and 
 by restoring the Bourbons ? Very well ! there will no 
 longer be any way of retreating. What stronger 
 guarantee can I give to the Revolution, which you 
 have cemented by the blood of a king ? It is besides 
 indispensable to bring things to a conclusion ; I am 
 surrounded by plots ; I must imprint terror or perish." 
 In saying these last words, which left nothing more 
 to hope, he had approached the castle. I saw M. de 
 Talleyrand arrive, and a moment after the two consuls
 
 224 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Cambaceres and Lebrun. I regained my carriage, and 
 re-entered my own house in a state of consternation. 
 
 The next day I learned that after my departure a 
 council had been held, and that Savary had proceeded 
 at night to the execution of the unfortunate victim ; 
 atrocious circumstances were quoted. Savary had re- 
 venged himself, it was reported, of having missed his 
 prey in Normandy, where he had flattered himself with 
 having ensnared, by means of the network of the con- 
 spiracy of Georges, the Duke de Berri and the Count 
 d'Artois, whom he would have more willingly sacrificed 
 than the Duke d'Enghien. 1 Real assured me that he 
 was so little prepared for the nocturnal execution that 
 he had departed in the morning to go to the prince 
 at Vincennes, expecting to conduct him to Malmaison, 
 and conceiving that the First Consul would finish the 
 affair in a magnanimous manner. But a coup d'etat 
 appeared indispensable to impress Europe with terror, 
 and eradicate all the germs of conspiracy against his 
 person. 
 
 Indignation, which I had foreseen, broke out in 
 the most sanguinary manner. I was not the person 
 who hesitated to express himself with the least re- 
 straint respecting this violence against the rights of 
 nations and humanity. " It is more than a crime," I 
 said, "it is a political fault"; words which I record 
 because they have been repeatedly attributed to others. 
 
 1 Without seeking to exonerate M. the Duke de Rovigo, who 
 has so inefficiently justified himself from participation in the 
 murder of the Duke d'Enghien, we will just observe that Fouche 
 labours here under a little suspicion of partiality ; he did not 
 like M. de Rovigo, who was invested subsequently with his post 
 as minister of police. — Note by the French Editor.
 
 THE TRIAL OF MOREAU 
 
 225 
 
 The trial of Moreau created a momentary diver- 
 sion, but by giving birth to a danger more real in 
 consequence of public excitement and indignation. 
 Moreau appeared to the eyes of all as a victim to 
 the jealousy and ambition of Bonaparte. The general 
 tendency of the public mind gave reason for fearing 
 that his condemnation would induce an insurrection 
 and defection of the army. His cause became that of 
 the greater part of the generals. Lecourbe, Dessoles, 
 Macdonald, Massena, and several others, spoke out 
 with a menacing fidelity and energy. Moncey de- 
 clared that he could not even answer for the gen- 
 darmerie. A great crisis was at hand, and Bonaparte 
 remained shut up in the castle of St. Cloud, as if 
 it were a fortress. I presented myself to him, two 
 hours after having addressed him in writing, in order 
 to point out the abyss which yawned at his feet. He 
 affected a firmness which at the bottom of his heart 
 he did not possess. 
 
 " I am not of opinion," said I to him, " that 
 Moreau should be sacrificed, and I do not approve 
 of violent measures in this case at all ; it is necessary 
 to temporise, for violence has too great an affinity to 
 weakness, and an act of clemency on your part will 
 produce a stronger effect than scaffolds." 
 
 Having lent an attentive ear to my exposition of 
 the danger of his situation, he promised me to pardon 
 Moreau by commuting the pain of death into a simple 
 exile. Was he sincere ? I knew that Moreau was 
 urged to abstract himself from justice by making an 
 appeal to the soldiers, whose disposition in his favour 
 were exaggerated. But better counsels and his own 
 
 VOL. I 15
 
 226 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 instinct prevailed so as to retain him within just 
 bounds. All the efforts of Bonaparte and of his 
 partisans to get Moreau condemned to death failed. 
 The issue of the trial having disconcerted the First 
 Consul, he caused me to be sent for to St. Cloud, 
 and there I was instructed to take upon myself the 
 direct management of this delicate affair, and bring 
 about a peaceable issue. I, in the first instance, saw 
 the wife of Moreau, and exerted myself to appease her 
 profound and vivid feelings of resentment. I after- 
 wards saw Moreau, and it was easy for me to get 
 him to consent to his ostracism, by exhibiting to him 
 the perspective of danger, from a detention of two 
 years, which would place him, in a manner, in the 
 power of his enemy. To say the truth, there was as 
 much danger for one as the other : Moreau might be 
 assassinated or liberated. He followed my advice, and 
 took the road to Cadiz, in order to pass from thence 
 into the United States. 
 
 The next day I was received and thanked at 
 St. Cloud, in terms which gave me reason to presage 
 the approaching return of very brilliant favour. I had 
 also given to Bonaparte advice to make himself master 
 of the crisis, and cause himself to be proclaimed Em- 
 peror, in order to terminate all our uncertainties, by 
 the foundation of a new dynasty. I knew that his 
 resolution was taken. Would it not have been absurd 
 on the part of the men of the Revolution to com- 
 promise everything in order to defend our principles, 
 while we had nothing further to do but enjoy the 
 reality ? Bonaparte was then the only man in a 
 position to maintain us in the possession of our
 
 THE TITLE OF EMPEROR 
 
 227 
 
 property, our distinctions, and our employments. He 
 profited by all his advantages, and even before the 
 denouement of the affair of Moreau, a suborned tribune 
 made a motion to confer the title of Emperor and the 
 imperial hereditary power upon Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 and to instil into the organisation of the constituted 
 authorities the modifications which the establishment 
 of the Empire might exact, with the proviso of pre- 
 serving in their integrity the equality, the liberty, and 
 the rights of the people. 
 
 The members of the legislative body assembled, 
 with M. de Fontanes at their head, in order to give 
 in their adhesion to the vote of the Tribunat. On 
 the 16th of May three orators of the council of state 
 having carried a project of a Senatus Consultum to 
 the senate, the report was sent to a commission, and 
 adopted on the same day. It was thus Napoleon 
 himself, who in virtue of the initiative conferred upon 
 him, proposed to the senate his promotion to the im- 
 perial dignity. The senate, of which I composed a 
 part, went in a body to St. Cloud, and the Senatus 
 Consultum was proclaimed at the very moment by 
 Napoleon in person. He pledged himself, during the 
 two years which would follow his accession, to take 
 an oath in the presence of the great officers of the 
 Empire and his ministers, to respect, and cause to 
 be respected, the equality of our rights, political and 
 civil liberty, the irrevocability of the national property ; 
 not to raise any impost, nor establish any tax, except 
 by virtue of the law. Whose fault was it that the 
 Empire from its establishment was not a real con- 
 stitutional monarchy ? I do not pretend to set myself 
 
 15—2
 
 228 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 against the public body of which I composed a part 
 at that period, but I found at that time very few ma- 
 terials for a national opposition. 
 
 The title of Emperor and the imperial power was 
 hereditary in the family of Bonaparte from male to 
 male, and by order of primogeniture. Having no issue 
 male, Napoleon might adopt the children or grand- 
 children of his brothers ; and in that case his adopted 
 sons were to enter into the line of direct descent. 
 
 This arrangement had an object, which could not 
 escape the attention of whomsoever was acquainted 
 with the domestic situation of Napoleon. It was 
 singular ; and it would require the pen of a Suetonius 
 to describe it. I will not make the attempt ; but it 
 is necessary to touch upon it for the sake of the truth 
 and utility of history. 
 
 For a long time Napoleon was convinced, not- 
 withstanding the artifices of Josephine, that she would 
 never give him any progeny. This situation was cal- 
 culated sooner or later to tire the patience of the 
 founder of a great empire, in all the vigour of his age. 
 Josephine therefore found herself between two rocks : 
 infidelity and divorce. Her anxieties and alarms had 
 increased since his accession to the consulship for 
 life, which she knew was only a stepping-stone to the 
 Empire. In the interim, mortified by her sterility, she 
 conceived a plan for substituting her daughter Hortense 
 in the affection of her husband, who already, in a 
 sensual point of view, was escaping from her, and who, 
 in the hope of seeing himself born again in a son, 
 might break the knot which united him to her : it 
 would not have been without pain. On one side,
 
 A MELANCHOLY UNION 
 
 229 
 
 habit ; on the other, the amiable temper of Josephine, 
 and a kind of superstition, seemed to secure to her 
 for ever the attachment, or at least the attentions, of 
 Napoleon ; but the great subject for inquietude and 
 anxiety did not the less exist. The alternative naturally 
 presented itself to the mind of Josephine; she was even 
 little impeded in the execution of her plan. 
 
 Hortense, when young, had felt a great dislike to 
 the husband of her mother ; she indeed detested him ; 
 but by degrees, time, age, and the halo of glory which 
 surrounded Napoleon, and his attentions to Josephine, 
 induced Hortense to pass from the extreme of anti- 
 pathy to adoration. Without being handsome, she was 
 witty, sparkling, replete with graces and talents. She 
 pleased ; and the liking became so animated on both 
 sides that it was sufficient for Josephine to affect the 
 air of being maternally pleased, and afterwards to shut 
 her eyes upon the matter, in order to secure her do- 
 mestic triumph. The mother and daughter reigned at 
 the same time in the heart of this haughty man. When, 
 according to the mother's views, the tree began to bear 
 fruit, it was necessary to think of masking, by a sudden 
 marriage, an intrigue which already began to reveal 
 itself to the eyes of the courtiers. Hortense would 
 have willingly given her hand to Duroc ; but Napoleon, 
 looking to the future, and calculating from that time 
 the possibility of an adoption, wished to concentrate in 
 his own family, by a double incest, the intrigue to which 
 he was about to be indebted for all the charms of pater- 
 nity. Thence the union of his brother Louis and Hor- 
 tense — a melancholy union, which ended in rending 
 the veil of deception.
 
 230 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Meantime the wishes of all parties, with the excep- 
 tion of those of the new husband, were at first auspi- 
 ciously fulfilled. Hortense gave birth to a son, who 
 took the name of Napoleon, and on whom Napoleon 
 lavished marks of tenderness, of which he was not 
 believed susceptible. This child came forward in the 
 most charming manner, and by its features alone 
 doubly interested Napoleon at the period of his acces- 
 sion to the Empire. No doubt he designed him from 
 that time in his heart as his adopted son. 
 
 His elevation to the imperial dignity met, in all 
 quarters, with the most chilling reception ; there were 
 public banquets without animation and without gaiety. 
 Napoleon had not waited for the formality of the 
 sanction of the people to hear himself saluted with 
 the name of Emperor, and to receive the oaths of the 
 senate, which was now becoming nothing but the pas- 
 sive instrument of his will. It was in the army alone 
 that he wished to strike deeply the roots of his govern- 
 ment ; and, accordingly, he hastened to confer the 
 dignity of marshal of the Empire, either on those of 
 his generals who were most devoted to him or on those 
 who had been opposed to him, but whom it would have 
 been impolitic to exclude. By the side of the names 
 of Berthier, Murat, Lannes, Bessieres, Davoust, Soult, 
 Lefevre, on whom he could most calculate, were seen 
 the names of Jourdan, Massena, Bernadotte, Ney, Brune, 
 and Augereau, more republican than monarchical. As 
 to Perignon, Serrurier, Kellermann, and Mortier, they 
 were only there in order to make weight and to com- 
 plete the eighteen columns of the Empire, whose selec- 
 tion was ratified by public opinion.
 
 FOUCHE RE-ESTABLISHED 231 
 
 There was more difficulty in getting up a court, 
 in re-establishing levees and evening parties, in special 
 presentations, and in creating an imperial household 
 of persons elevated by the Revolution, and of others 
 selected from the old families whom it had despoiled. 
 It was quite right to employ nobles and emigrants ; 
 the affairs of the household naturally devolved on them. 
 A little ridicule at first attached itself to these trans- 
 migrations, but the world soon got familiarised with 
 the change. 
 
 It was very obvious, however, that everything was 
 strained and forced, and that there was more skill 
 employed in organising the military government. The 
 civil government was as yet no more than a sketch. 
 The elevation of Cambaceres and Lebrun — the first in 
 the character of arch-chancellor, the second in that 
 of arch-treasurer — added nothing to the counterpoise 
 of the public councils. The institution of a council 
 of state as an integral part and superior authority 
 in the constitution had the appearance of being a 
 means of centralisation, rather than the elaboration 
 of discussions and enlightenment. Among the min- 
 isters, M. de Talleyrand alone exhibited himself in 
 a condition to exercise the influence of perspicuity ; 
 but that was only with regard to foreign relations. 
 With regard to the interior, an important spring was 
 deficient — that of the general police, which might have 
 rallied the past round the present, and guaranteed the 
 security of the Empire. Napoleon himself perceived 
 the void, and, by an imperial decree of the 10th of 
 July, re-established me at the head of the police, at 
 the same time investing me with stronger functions
 
 232 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 than those which I had possessed before the absurd 
 fusion of the police with the department of justice. 
 
 I here begin to perceive that I must limit the 
 range of my excursion and condense my narrative, 
 for there still remains for me the task of expatiating 
 over a lapse of six years fertile in memorable events. 
 This framework is immense ; and that is an addi- 
 tional reason to set aside all that is unworthy of 
 history, in order not to sketch or fill up anything but 
 what is worthy of the graving tool ; but nothing 
 essential shall be omitted. 
 
 Two years before the decree of my re-appointment, 
 I had been sent for to St. Cloud, in order to have a 
 special conference in Napoleon's cabinet. On that 
 occasion I obtained, if I may so express myself, my 
 own conditions, in causing the basis which completed 
 the new organisation of my ministry to be invested 
 with the- imperial sanction. 
 
 Real had aspired to the post as a recompense for 
 his zeal in tracing the conspiracy of Georges ; but, 
 though a skilful explorer and a good chef de division, 
 he was neither of energy nor calibre sufficient to give 
 motion to such a machine. But if he did not get the 
 post, he was amply recompensed in cash down, to the 
 charms of which he was not insensible ; and he was 
 besides one of the four councillors of state who were 
 united with me in the administrative department, in 
 order to correspond with the departmental prefects. 
 The three other councillors were Pelet de la Lozere, 
 a creature of Cambaceres ; Miot, a creature of Joseph 
 Bonaparte ; and Dubois, prefect of police. These 
 four councillors assembled once a week in my closet
 
 DEPARTMENTAL ROUTINE 233 
 
 to give me an account of all the affairs appertaining 
 to their functions, and take my opinion thereon. I 
 by that means disembarrassed myself of a multitude 
 of tiresome details, reserving to myself the duty of 
 alone regulating the superior police, the secret division 
 of which had remained under the direction of Des- 
 marets, an individual of a supple and crafty character, 
 but of narrow views. 
 
 It was to the central focus of my cabinet that all 
 the great affairs of state, of which I grasped the strings, 
 finally converged. It will not be doubted that I had 
 salaried spies in all ranks and all orders ; I had them 
 of both sexes, hired at the rate of a thousand or two 
 thousand francs per month, according to their import- 
 ance and their services. I received their reports directly 
 in writing, having a conventional mark. Every three 
 months I communicated my list to the Emperor, in 
 order that there might be no double employment, and 
 also in order that the nature of the service, occasionally 
 permanent, often temporary, might be rewarded either 
 by places or remunerations. 
 
 As to the department of foreign police, it had two 
 essential objects ; namely, to watch friendly powers and 
 counteract hostile governments. In both cases it was 
 composed of individuals purchased or pensioned, and 
 commissioned to reside near each government or in 
 each principal town, independent of numerous secret 
 agents sent into all countries, either by the minister 
 of foreign affairs or by the Emperor himself. 
 
 I also had my foreign spies. It was in my de- 
 partment also that the foreign gazettes prohibited to 
 the perusal of the French people, and transcripts of
 
 2 34 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 which were sent to me, were treasured up. By that 
 means I held in my hands the most important strings 
 of foreign politics, and I discharged, in conjunction 
 with the chief of the government, a task capable of 
 controlling or balancing that of the minister charged 
 with the function of foreign relations. 
 
 I was thus far from limiting my duties to espionage. 
 All the state prisons were under my control, as well 
 as the gendarmerie. The delivery and the visa of pass- 
 ports belonged to me. To me was assigned the duty 
 of overlooking amnestied individuals and foreigners. I 
 established general commissariats in the principal towns 
 of the kingdom, which extended the network of the 
 police over the whole of France, and especially our 
 frontiers. 
 
 My police acquired so high a renown that the world 
 went so far as to pretend that I had, among my secret 
 agents, three nobles of the ancien regime, distinguished 
 by princely titles, 1 and who daily communicated to me 
 the result of their observations. 
 
 I confess that such an establishment was expensive ; 
 it swallowed up several millions, the funds of which 
 were secretly provided from taxes laid upon gambling 
 and prostitution and from the granting of passports. 
 Notwithstanding all that has been said against gambling, 
 reflecting and decided minds must allow that in the 
 actual state of society the legal converting of vice into 
 profit is a necessary evil. A proof that all the odium 
 attendant upon the measure is not to be attributed 
 exclusively to the republican governments, is that at 
 
 1 The Prince de L , the Prince de C , and the Prince 
 
 de M .
 
 GAMBLING TAXES 
 
 2 35 
 
 the present day gambling taxes form part of the budget 
 of the old government now re-established. Since it 
 was an unavoidable evil, it became necessary to em- 
 ploy severe regulations, that the disorder might at 
 least be under control. Under the Empire, the estab- 
 lishment of which cost nearly four hundred millions of 
 francs, since there were thirty families to be provided 
 with dignities and honours, it became necessary to 
 organise the gambling-houses upon a much larger scale, 
 for the produce of them was not solely destined to 
 reward my moving phalanxes of spies. I nominated 
 as superintendent -general of the gambling -houses in 
 France, Perrein the elder, who already farmed them, 
 and who, after the coronation, extended his privilege 
 over all the chief towns of the Empire, upon condition 
 of paying fourteen millions yearly, independent of three 
 thousand francs daily to the minister of the police. 
 All, however, did not remain in his hands. 
 
 All these elements of an immense power did not 
 reach my cabinet there to expire without utility. As 
 I was informed of all, it became my duty to centre 
 in myself the public complaints, in order to make 
 known to the head of the government the uneasiness 
 and misfortunes of the state. 
 
 I will not therefore dissemble that it was in my 
 power to act upon the fear or terror which either 
 more or less constantly agitated the possessor of un- 
 limited power. The great searcher into the state, I 
 could complain, censure, and condemn for the whole 
 of France. In this point of view, what evils have I 
 not prevented ? If I found myself unable to reduce, as 
 was my wish, the general police to a mere scarecrow,
 
 236 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 or rather to a benevolent institution, I have at least 
 the satisfaction of being able to assert that I have 
 done more good than ill ; that is to say, that I have 
 avoided more evil than it was permitted me to do, 
 having almost always to struggle with the prejudices, 
 the passions, and the furious transports of the chief 
 of the state. 
 
 In my second ministry I succeeded much more by 
 the force of informations and of apprehension than by 
 restraint and the employment of coercive measures. 
 I revived the ancient police maxim — that three persons 
 could not meet and speak indiscreetly upon public 
 affairs without its coming the next day to the ears of 
 the minister of police. Certain it is that I had the 
 address to make it universally believed that wherever 
 four persons assembled, there, in my pay, were eyes to 
 see and ears to hear. Such a belief, no doubt, tended 
 to general corruption and debasement ; but, on the 
 other hand, what evils, what wretchedness, what tears 
 has it prevented ! Such then was this vast and 
 terrific machine called the general police of the Empire. 
 It may easily be conceived that, without neglecting 
 the details, I was chiefly engaged upon its ensemble and 
 its results. 
 
 The Empire had just been hastily established under 
 such fearful auspices, and the public spirit was so ill- 
 disposed and hostile, that I considered it my duty to 
 advise the Emperor to make a diversion, to travel, for 
 the purpose of removing these malevolent and slanderous 
 dispositions against his person, his family, and his 
 new court, more than ever exposed to the malicious 
 taunts of the Parisians.
 
 ARREST OF SIR GEORGE RUMBOLD 
 
 237 
 
 He acquiesced, and went first to Boulogne, where 
 he caused himself, so to speak, to be raised on the 
 shield by the troops encamped in the neighbourhood. 
 From Boulogne he proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle, where 
 he received the ambassadors from several powers, who 
 all, with the exception of England, Russia, and Sweden, 
 hastened to acknowledge him. 
 
 Then passing rapidly through the United Provinces, 
 and arriving at Mayence, he was visited there by a 
 great number of German princes ; he returned to St. 
 Cloud about the end of autumn. The political state 
 of Europe required more management than harshness. 
 One act of passion and rage on the part of the Emperor 
 had nearly ruined all. He caused Sir George Rumbold, 
 the English minister, to be arrested at Hamburg by a 
 detachment of soldiers ; his papers were likewise seized, 
 and himself conducted to Paris, and committed to the 
 Temple. This fresh violation of the rights of nations 
 roused the whole of Europe. Both M. de Talleyrand 
 and myself trembled lest the fate of the Duke d'Enghien 
 should be in reserve for Sir George ; and we did all 
 in our power to rescue him from a summary sentence. 
 The papers of Sir George had fallen into my hands, 
 and I carefully palliated all that might have been the 
 subject of a serious charge. The interference of Prussia, 
 whom we secretly urged, completed what we had so 
 happily begun. Sir George Rumbold was liberated 
 upon the condition of never again setting foot in Ham- 
 burg, and of henceforth keeping himself at a distance 
 of fifty leagues from the French territory ; conditions 
 proposed by myself. 
 
 I could do nothing against sudden and unexpected
 
 238 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 resolves, and I had then no means left me of eluding 
 or opposing those dark acts which, trampling upon 
 the forms of justice, were exercised by a direct order 
 emanating from the cabinet, and committed to sub- 
 alterns over whom I had no official control. I was 
 myself more or less exposed to the malevolence of the 
 prefect of police. At the time of the first affair of 
 General Mallet, he accused me to the Emperor of 
 being desirous of secretly protecting Mallet, of having 
 given Massena a hint of accusations which were hang- 
 ing over him, and of having suppressed papers which 
 implicated him. Plots were talked of which had their 
 ramifications in the army and in the high police. I 
 satisfied the Emperor that the whole amounted to 
 having put Massena upon his guard against the insinua- 
 tions of certain pamphlets and malicious intriguers. 
 
 Many important privy councils were held at St. 
 Cloud, their two principal objects being to obtain the 
 sanction of the Pope's presence at the Emperor's 
 coronation, and to detach Russia from an alliance with 
 England, which would have formed the nucleus of a 
 third coalition, the germs of which we perceived in the 
 political horizon. 
 
 The Pope was the first to swallow the bait, so 
 imperious appeared to him the interests of religion ; 
 and so striking in his eyes was the parallel of the 
 present times with those of Leon and Etienne, of Pepin 
 and Charlemagne. We knew that the King of Sweden, 
 after the murder of the Duke d'Enghien, was traversing 
 Germany to raise up enemies against us. Snares were 
 laid for him at every step, and at Munich he narrowly 
 escaped being carried off. Russia appeared to me to
 
 THE CZAR NOT WELL-DISPOSED 239 
 
 present greater difficulties ; she had vainly offered her 
 mediation for the maintenance of peace between France 
 and Great Britain. The murder of the Duke d'Enghien 
 had changed its coolness into extreme indignation. On 
 the 7th of May the Russian minister had dispatched 
 a note to the Diet of Ratisbon, by which the Empire 
 was requested to demand such reparations as the 
 violation of its territory demanded. The cabinet of 
 St. Petersburg had just satisfied herself of the false- 
 hood of the assertions, according to which the Emperor 
 of Germany and the King of Prussia had fully autho- 
 rised the French government to cause to be seized, in 
 Germany, the rebels who had deprived themselves of 
 the protection of the law of nations. In short, the 
 Czar showed himself ill-disposed towards us, and in- 
 clined for war, which would have overthrown all the 
 plans which the Emperor meditated against Great 
 Britain. To regain Russia, it was proposed to employ 
 the intrigues of courtiers and courtesans ; this resource 
 appeared to me perfectly ridiculous, and I affirmed in 
 the council that its success was impossible. "What! " 
 replied the Emperor, " is it a veteran of the Revolu- 
 tion who borrows so pusillanimous an expression ? 
 What, sir, is it for you to advance that anything is 
 impossible ? you who, during fifteen years, have seen 
 brought to pass events which were with justice thought 
 to be impossible. The man who has seen Louis XVI. 
 place his neck under the guillotine ; who has seen the 
 Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France, mend her 
 own stockings and shoes, while in daily expectation of 
 mounting the scaffold ; he, in short, who sees himself 
 a minister when I am Emperor of the French ; such a
 
 240 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 man should never permit the word impossible to escape 
 his lips." I saw clearly that I owed this severe rail- 
 lery to my disapprobation of the murder of the Duke 
 d'Enghien, of which they did not fail to inform the 
 Emperor, and I replied, without being disconcerted, 
 " I indeed ought to have recollected that your Majesty 
 has taught us the word impossible is not French." 
 
 This he immediately proved to us in a most striking 
 manner, by forcing the Sovereign Pontiff from his papal 
 palace, during a winter of extreme severity, to anoint 
 his head with the sacred unction. Pius VII. arrived 
 at Fontainebleau on the 25th of November ; and eight 
 days after, on the eve of the coronation, the senate 
 came to present the Emperor with three million five 
 hundred thousand votes in favour of his elevation to 
 the imperial power. In his speech the vice-president, 
 Francois de Neufchateau, still spoke of the Republic, 
 which appeared pure derision. At the ceremony of 
 the coronation (Napoleon himself placed the crown 
 upon his head), the acclamations, at first extremely 
 few, were afterwards reinforced by the multitude of 
 officials who were summoned from all parts of France 
 to be present at the coronation. 
 
 But upon returning to his palace Napoleon found 
 cold and silent spectators, as when he visited the 
 metropolis. Both in my reports and in my private 
 conferences I pointed out to him how much he still 
 stood in need of friends in the capital, and how essen- 
 tial it was to bury in oblivion the actions imputed to 
 him. 
 
 We soon perceived he meditated a great diversion. 
 When he mentioned in council his idea of going to be
 
 BONAPARTE CROWNED AT MILAN 
 
 241 
 
 crowned King of Italy, we all told him he would pro- 
 voke a new continental war. " I must have battles and 
 triumphs," replied he. And yet he did not relax his 
 preparations for invasion. One day, upon my objecting 
 to him that he could not make war at the same time 
 against England and against Europe, he replied, " I 
 may fail by sea, but not by land ; besides, I shall be 
 able to strike the blow before the old coalition machines 
 are ready. The tetcs a perniqiic understand nothing 
 about it, and the kings have neither activity nor 
 decision of character. I do not fear old Europe. 
 
 His coronation at Milan was the repetition of his 
 coronation in France. In order to show himself to his 
 new subjects, he traversed his kingdom of Italy. Upon 
 seeing the magnificent city of Genoa and its picturesque 
 environs, he exclaimed, "This is, indeed, worth a war! " 
 His conduct throughout was admirable; he paid par- 
 ticular attention to the Piedmontese, especially to their 
 nobility, for whom he had a decided predilection. 
 
 Upon his return to the coast of Boulogne, redoubling 
 his preparations, he kept his army ready to cross the 
 strait. But success was so dependent upon the execu- 
 tion of so vast a plan, that it was scarcely possible for 
 it not to be deranged, either by circumstances or un- 
 foreseen chances. To make the French fleets, composed 
 of vessels of the line, assist in the disembarkation of the 
 army was no easy task. It was under the protection 
 of fifty men-of-war, which having sailed from Brest, 
 Rochfort, L'Orient, Toulon, and Cadiz, were to rendez- 
 vous at Martinique, and then make sail with all ex- 
 pedition for Boulogne, that the disembarkation of a 
 hundred and forty thousand infantry and ten thousand 
 
 VOL. 1 16
 
 242 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 cavalry was to be effected. The landing once accom- 
 plished, the taking of London appeared certain. Napo- 
 leon was persuaded that, master of that capital, and 
 the English army beaten and dispersed, he should be 
 able to raise in London itself a popular party, which 
 would overthrow the oligarchy and destroy the govern- 
 ment. All our secret information showed the feasibility 
 of it. But, alas ! he lost himself in his maritime plans, 
 thinking that he could move our naval squadrons with 
 the same precision as that with which his armies 
 manoeuvred before him. 
 
 On the other hand, neither he nor his minister of 
 marine, Decres, who enjoyed his utmost confidence, 
 knew how to form, or where to find, a naval officer in- 
 trepid enough to conduct so prodigious an operation. 
 Decres persuaded himself that Admiral Villeneuve, his 
 friend, was adequate to the task ; an<i he was the cause 
 of the fatal event which completed the ruin of our navy. 
 Nothing less was required of Villeneuve than to unite 
 to his twenty vessels the squadrons of Ferrol and Vigo, 
 in order to raise the blockade of Brest ; there, joining 
 his own fleet with that of Gantheaume, amounting to 
 twenty-one vessels, making a total of sixty-three French 
 and Spanish vessels, he was to sail for Boulogne, accord- 
 ing to instructions. 
 
 When it was known that he had just re-entered 
 Cadiz, instead of accomplishing his glorious mission, 
 the Emperor was for several days highly exasperated 
 at the disappointment. No longer master of himself, 
 he ordered the minister to have Villeneuve called before 
 a council of inquiry, and nominated Rosily as his suc- 
 cessor. He afterwards wished to embark the army
 
 RUSSIAN MINISTER INSULTED 243 
 
 on board the flotilla, in spite of the opposition of 
 Bruix ; ill-treating this brave admiral so grossly as 
 to oblige him to place his hand upon his sword — a 
 lamentable scene, which caused the disgrace of Bruix, 
 and no longer left any hope of the enterprise. 
 
 It might, however, be said that Fortune, while she 
 prevented Napoleon from triumphing upon an element 
 which was hostile to him, prepared for him still 
 greater triumphs on the continent by opening an im- 
 mense career of glory for him, and of humiliation for 
 Europe. It was chiefly in the dilatoriness and blun- 
 ders of the different cabinets, however, that he found 
 his greatest strength. 
 
 No observations of the ministry, nor any efforts 
 of my agents, had as yet been able to make him 
 give up his fixed resolutions against England. He 
 however knew that since the month of January, 1804, 
 the Austrian minister, Count Stadion, had endeavoured 
 to arouse the demon of coalitions in a memorial ad- 
 dressed to the cabinet of London, a copy of which 
 had been procured. Napoleon also was not ignorant 
 that Pitt had immediately instructed the English lega- 
 tion in Russia to inform the cabinet of St. Petersburg 
 of it, who, since the affair of the German seculari- 
 sations, was upon cool terms with France. The 
 murder of the Duke d'Enghien kindled the fire which 
 had hitherto smouldered under the ashes. To the 
 note of the Russian minister at Ratisbon, Napoleon 
 had replied by an insulting one, addressed to the 
 charge d'affaires, D'Oubril, recalling the tragical death 
 of a father to the sensibility of his august son. D'Ou- 
 bril was censured by his court for having received it. 
 
 16 — 2
 
 244 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 I had just been recalled into the ministry when the 
 note in answer arrived from the Russian government ; 
 it required the evacuation of the kingdom of Naples, 
 an indemnity to the King of Sardinia, and the evacu- 
 ation of the north of Germany. " This," said I to 
 the Emperor, " is equivalent to a declaration of war." 
 "No," replied he, "not yet; they mean nothing by 
 it ; there is only that madman, the King of Sweden, 
 who is really in understanding with England against 
 me. Besides, they can do nothing without Austria ; 
 and you know that at Vienna I have a party which 
 outweighs the English one." But are you not appre- 
 hensive," said I to him, "that this party may slip 
 through your fingers?" "With God's help and that 
 of my armies," replied he, " I have no reason to fear 
 anyone ! " — words which he afterwards took care to 
 insert in the Moniteur. 
 
 Whether cabinet mystery concealed from us the sub- 
 sequent transactions, or whether Napoleon studiously 
 kept his ministers in the dark, it was not till the 
 month of July that we were informed of the traite de 
 concert signed at St. Petersburg on the nth of April. 
 The Archduke Charles had already resigned the helm 
 of affairs at Vienna, and Austria began its preparations. 
 This was well known, and yet the good understanding 
 between France and her appeared unshaken. M. de 
 Talleyrand strove hard to convince the Count de 
 Cobentzel that the Emperor's preponderance in Italy 
 ought not to inspire any apprehensions. Austria first 
 offered herself as a mediatrix between the courts of 
 St. Petersburg and Paris ; but the Emperor declined her 
 interference. Informed, however, that military prepara-
 
 AUSTRIA INVADES BAVARIA 245 
 
 tions were in great activity at Vienna, he caused it to 
 be signified to that court, on the 15th of August, that 
 he considered them as forming a diversion in favour 
 of Great Britain, which would oblige him to defer the 
 execution of his plans against that country, and he 
 insisted that Austria should reduce its troops to the 
 peace establishment. 
 
 The court of Vienna, finding further dissimulation 
 impracticable, published, on the 18th, an order which, 
 on the contrary, placed its troops on a war footing. 
 By its note of the 13th of September it developed a 
 succession of complaints against the inroads upon exist- 
 ing treaties, and upon the dependence of the Italian, 
 Swiss, and Batavian republics, and particularly objected 
 to the uniting the sovereignty of Italy and of France 
 in the person of Napoleon. All these communications 
 were shrouded with the veil of discreet diplomacy, and 
 the public, who had been solely occupied with the pro- 
 jected invasion of England, saw with astonishment in 
 the Monitcur of the 21st of September the announce- 
 ment of the invasion of Bavaria by Austria, without 
 any rupture or previous declaration of war. 
 
 What a fortunate diversion for the French Emperor! 
 It saved his maritime honour, and probably preserved 
 him from a disaster which would have destroyed both 
 himself and his nascent Empire. The army hastened 
 to abandon the Boulogne coast. It was a magnificent 
 one, and felt the highest enthusiasm at quitting a state 
 of irksome inaction to march on towards the Rhine. 
 
 The European league had for its object the uniting 
 against France five or, at least, four hundred thousand 
 men; namely, two hundred and fifty thousand Austrians,
 
 246 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 one hundred and fifteen thousand Russians, and thirty- 
 five thousand British. It was with these united forces 
 that the allied cabinets flattered themselves they should 
 be able to obtain the evacuation of Hanover and the 
 north of Germany, the independence of Holland and 
 Switzerland, the re-establishment of the King of Sar- 
 dinia, and the evacuation of Italy. The real object 
 was the destruction of the new Empire before it had 
 attained all its vigour. 
 
 It must be owned that Napoleon did not think 
 himself justified in resting his sole dependence upon 
 his excellent troops. He recollected the saying of 
 Machiavelli : that a prudent prince will be both a fox 
 and a lion at the same time. 1 After having well 
 studied his new field of battle (for it was the first time 
 he made war in Germany), he told us we should soon 
 see that the campaigns of Moreau were nothing in 
 comparison with his. In fact, he acted admirably, in 
 order to corrupt Mack, who permitted himself to be 
 paralysed in Ulm. All the Emperor's spies were more 
 easily purchased than may be conceived, the greater 
 number having already been gained over in Italy, where 
 they in no small degree contributed to the disasters 
 of Alvenzi and Wurmser. Here everything was effected 
 upon a grander scale, and almost all the Austrian staff- 
 officers were virtually gained over (enfonces). I had 
 remitted to Savary, who was intrusted with the manage- 
 ment of the espionage at the grand headquarters, all 
 my secret notes upon Germany, and, with his hands 
 full, he worked quickly and successfully, assisted by 
 
 1 In his book, " Of the Prince," chap, xviii. — Note by the Editor.
 
 THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL 247 
 
 the famous Schulmeister, a very Proteus in subordina- 
 tion and the mysteries of espionage. 
 
 All the breaches being once made, to effect the 
 prodigies of Ulm, the bridge of Vienna and Austerlitz 
 was mere play to the valour of our troops and the 
 skill of our manoeuvres. Upon the approach of these 
 grand battles, the Emperor Alexander ran blindly into 
 the snare ; had he delayed only for a fortnight, Prussia, 
 already urged, would have entered the league. 
 
 Thus Napoleon by a single blow destroyed the con- 
 certed plans of the continental powers. But this 
 glorious campaign was not without its reverse side of 
 the medal; I mean the disaster of Trafalgar, which, 
 by the ruin of our navy, completed the security of 
 Great Britain. It was a few days after the capitula- 
 tion of Ulm, and upon the Vienna road, that Napoleon 
 received the dispatch containing the first intelligence 
 of this misfortune. Berthier has since related to me 
 that while seated at the same table with Napoleon, 
 he read the fatal paper, but, not daring to present it 
 to him, he pushed it gradually with his elbows under 
 his eyes. Scarcely had Napoleon glanced through its 
 contents than he started up full of rage, exclaiming, 
 " I cannot be everywhere ! ' His agitation was ex- 
 treme, and Berthier despaired of tranquillising him. 
 Napoleon took his vengeance upon England in the 
 plains of Austerlitz, keeping by this means the Russians 
 at a distance, paralysing the Prussians, and dictating 
 severe conditions to Austria. 
 
 Occupied with war and diplomatic intrigues, it was 
 scarcely possible for him, in the midst of his soldiers, 
 to enter into all the details of the administration of
 
 248 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 the Empire. The council governed in his absence ; 
 and, by the importance of my functions, I found my- 
 self in some sort first minister ; at least no person 
 was independent of me. But it entered into the 
 Emperor's views to make it believed that even in 
 his camp he knew all, saw all, and provided for 
 all. His official correspondents at Paris were eager 
 to address to him, dressed up in fine phrases, all the 
 trifling facts which they gleaned from every refuse 
 of my bulletins of police. Napoleon was above all 
 desirous that people might be simple enough to 
 believe that the interior of the country enjoyed a 
 mild government and a liberality which gained every 
 heart. It was for this reason that during the same 
 campaign he affected to rebuke me, by means of the 
 Moniteur and his bulletins, for having refused Collin 
 d'Harleville permission to print one of his pamphlets. 
 " Where^ should we be," cried he, hypocritically, " if 
 the permission of a censor were necessary in France 
 for making our sentiments known in print ? " I, who 
 knew him, only saw in this peevishness an indirect 
 hint for me to hasten my organisation of the censor- 
 ship and my appointment of censors. A still more 
 serious expression of ill-humour took place upon his 
 return to Paris on the 26th of January, after the peace 
 of Presburg. It first showed itself at the Tuileries in 
 a burst of displeasure which fell upon several func- 
 tionaries, and especially upon the venerable Barbe- 
 Marbois ; the cause was some difficulty in the payments 
 of the bank at the commencement of hostilities. This 
 embarrassment he had himself caused by carrying off 
 from the vaults of the bank more than fifty millions.
 
 THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES SEIZED 249 
 
 Placed upon the backs of King Philip's mules, these 
 millions had powerfully contributed to the prodigious 
 success of this unexpected campaign. But are we 
 not still too near these events for us to remove the 
 veil from before them without inconvenience ? 
 
 The peace of Presburg rendered Bonaparte master 
 of the whole of Germany and Italy, and he soon seized 
 the kingdom of Naples. Being upon bad terms with 
 the court of Rome, he immediately commenced to 
 harass the Pope, who had so lately crossed over the 
 Alps to give him the holy unction. This glorious 
 peace produced another very important result — the 
 erection of the electorates of Bavaria and Wurtem- 
 berg into kingdoms, and the marriage of the King of 
 Bavaria's daughter with Eugene Beauharnais, Napoleon's 
 adopted son. Such was the first link in those alliances 
 which at last ruined Bonaparte, who was already less 
 interested in his own glory than infatuated with the 
 wish of distributing crowns,, and of mingling his blood 
 with that of the old dynasties which he was continually 
 opposing. At home, the battle of Austerlitz and the 
 peace reconciled Bonaparte with public opinion — all 
 eyes began to be dazzled by the splendour of his 
 victories. 
 
 I congratulated him upon this happy improvement 
 in the public mind. " Sire," said I to him, " Austerlitz 
 has destroyed the old aristocracy ; the Faubourg St. 
 Germain can no longer form conspiracies." He was 
 delighted at it, and owned to me that in battle, in 
 the greatest dangers, and even in the midst of deserts, 
 he had always in view the good opinion of Paris, and 
 especially of the Faubourg St. Germain. He was
 
 250 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Alexander the Great constantly directing his thoughts 
 towards Athens. 
 
 The old nobility were, therefore, now seen besieging 
 the Tuileries, as well as my saloon, and soliciting, 
 nay begging, for appointments. The old republicans 
 reproached me with protecting the nobles. This did 
 not, however, make me change my plan. I had besides 
 a grand object in view, that of extinguishing and con- 
 verting all party spirit into an undivided interest in 
 the government. Much severity, qualified by mildness, 
 had pacified the departments of the west, so long agi- 
 tated by civil war. We could now affirm that neither 
 Vendeans nor Chouans any longer existed. The dis- 
 affected as well as the emigrants wandered in small 
 numbers through England. Many of the old chiefs 
 had made a sincere submission ; few held out. All 
 secret organisations and dangerous intrigues were at an 
 end. The royalist association of Bordeaux, one of the 
 firmest, was broken up. All the agents of the Bourbons 
 in the interior had either been successively gained over 
 or had become known, from M. Hyde de Neuville and 
 the Chevalier de Coigny to Talon and M. Royer- 
 Collard. Some emissaries, suspected of hostile inten- 
 tions, had been severely dealt with, among whom was 
 the Baron de la Rochefoucauld, who died in a state 
 prison. As to old Talon, arrested by Savary upon his 
 estate at Gatinais, in consequence of an ex officio ac- 
 cusation, he at first experienced such brutal treatment 
 that I informed the Emperor of it. Savary was repri- 
 manded. Talon's daughter, a most interesting girl, 1 
 excited general sympathy, and contributed in a great 
 
 1 Now the Countess du Cayla. — Note by the Editor.
 
 THE "MONITEUR" 251 
 
 degree to alleviate her father's fate ; she herself saved 
 some important papers. I heartily interested myself in 
 affording relief to the victims of the royal cause as 
 well as to the martyrs of republican sentiments. Such 
 a system on my part at first astonished everyone ; but 
 it afterwards procured me crowds of partisans. I really 
 appeared likely to succeed in converting the police, an 
 instrument of inquisitorial power and severity, into one 
 of mildness and indulgence. But a malicious spirit 
 interfered ; I was continually beset by jealousy, envy, 
 and intrigue on the one side, and on the other by the 
 want of confidence and the mistrust of my master. 
 
 Finding itself supported, the counter-revolutionary 
 faction, under the mask of a religious and anti-philo- 
 sophical society, adopted the system of traducing and 
 removing all who had taken part in the Revolution, 
 and of completely surrounding the Emperor. For this 
 purpose, and with the view of commanding public 
 opinion, it got possession of the journals and of literature 
 in general. Affecting to defend taste and the belles- 
 lettres, it carried on a mortal war against the Revolution, 
 whether in the pamphlets of Geoffroi, or in the columns 
 of the Mercure. While invoking the grand era of a 
 temperate monarchy, it at the same time was working 
 for a power without control and without limits. As 
 to Napoleon, he attached no political importance, as an 
 organ, to any paper but the Moniteur, thinking he had 
 made it the power and soul of his government, as well 
 as his medium of communication with public opinion 
 both at home and abroad. Finding himself more or 
 less imitated in this respect by other governments, he 
 thought himself certain of this moral engine.
 
 252 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 I was appointed regulator of the public mind, and 
 of the journals which were its organs ; and I had even 
 bureaux for this business. Some persons, however, did 
 not fail to observe that this was placing too much 
 power and strength in my hands. The Journal des Debats 
 was accordingly removed from my control, and placed 
 under that of one of my personal enemies. 1 They 
 thought to console me in some degree for this by per- 
 mitting me to snatch the Mercure from the hands of 
 the counter-revolutionary faction. But the system of 
 depriving me of the journals was not less acted upon 
 in the cabinet, and I was soon reduced to the Publiciste 
 of Suard and the Decade Philosophique of Ginguene. 
 
 The influence of Fontanes having continually in- 
 creased since his advancement to the presidency of the 
 legislative body, he used his utmost to introduce his 
 friends into the avenues of power. His devoted writer, 
 M. MoIp, the inheritor of a name illustrious in the 
 parliamentary annals, produced his " Essais de Morale 
 et de Politique," a most injudicious apology for des- 
 potism as it is exercised in Morocco. Fontanes passed 
 great eulogiums upon this essay in the Journal des Debats ; 
 I complained of it. The Emperor publicly blamed 
 Fontanes, who excused himself by his desire of en- 
 couraging such distinguished talents in so distinguished a 
 name. It was upon this occasion that the Emperor 
 said to him, " In God's name, M. de Fontanes, leave 
 us at least the republic of letters ! " 
 
 But the game was now played ; the young adept 
 of the imperial orator was almost immediately named 
 
 1 Doubtless M. Fievee. — Note by the Editor.
 
 AUSTERLITZ AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 253 
 
 auditor of the council of state, then maitre des requetes, 
 and minister in petto. 
 
 It must be also confessed that the Emperor will- 
 ingly permitted himself to be smitten by the charm 
 of the names of the old regime ; he likewise allowed 
 himself to be seduced by the magic of the eloquence 
 of Fontanes, who panegyrised him with dignity, whilst 
 so many others only offered him gross and vulgar 
 flattery. Some idea may be formed of the disposition 
 of the public, and the tendency of literature at this 
 period, from the fact that this very year there ap- 
 peared a history of La Vendee, in which the Vendeans 
 were represented as heroes, and the republicans as 
 incendiaries and cut-throats. Nor was this all : this 
 history, considered as impartial, and cried up as pos- 
 sessing the greatest interest, was eagerly purchased, 
 and, in fact, became the rage of the day. All the 
 Revolution party were highly indignant at it. I was 
 obliged to interfere, in order to apply an antidote 
 capable of counteracting the assertions of this historian 
 of stage-coach plunderers (detrousseurs de diligences). 1 
 
 In the meantime the consequences and political 
 
 advantages of Austerlitz and Presburg were proving to 
 
 be immense. First, by an imperial decree, Joseph 
 
 Bonaparte was proclaimed king of the Two Sicilies, 
 
 the Monitcur having previously announced that the 
 
 dynasty then upon the throne had ceased to reign. 
 
 Almost immediately afterwards Louis Bonaparte was 
 
 proclaimed King of Holland — a crown, no doubt, to 
 
 1 Fouche, no doubt, here alludes to the pamphlet of M. de 
 Vauban, which was published at that time by the police to 
 counterbalance the effect produced by the history of the war 
 of La Vendee. — Note by the Editor.
 
 2 54 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 be envied, but one which could not make up for his 
 domestic troubles. Murat had the Grand Duchy of 
 Berg. The principalities of Lucca and Guastalla were 
 given as presents, one to Eliza, the other to Paulina. 
 The Duchy of Plaisance fell to Lebrun's share ; that 
 of Parma to Cambaceres ; and, at a later period, the 
 principality of Neufchatel was given to Berthier. In 
 a privy council Napoleon had announced to us that 
 he intended to dispose of his conquests in a sovereign 
 manner by creating grandees of the Empire and a 
 new nobility. Shall I confess that when, in a fuller 
 council, he proposed the question, whether the estab- 
 lishment of hereditary titles was contrary to the 
 principles of equality which almost all of us pro- 
 fessed, we replied in the negative ? In fact, the 
 Empire, being a new monarchy, the creation of grand 
 officers, of grand dignitaries, and the supply of a new 
 nobility _ appeared indispensable to us. Besides, the 
 object was to reconcile ancient France with modern 
 France, and to cause all remains of feudality to dis- 
 appear, by attaching the ideas of nobility to services 
 rendered the state. 
 
 On the 30th of March appeared an imperial decree, 
 which Napoleon was satisfied with communicating to 
 the senate, and which erected into duchies, grand fiefs 
 of the Empire, Dalmatia, Istria, Friuli, Cadora, Belluno, 
 Conegliano, Trevisa, Feltre, Bassano, Vicenza, Padua, 
 and Rovigo, Napoleon reserving to himself the con- 
 ferring the investiture with right of succession. It is 
 for contemporaries to judge who were among the small 
 number of the elect. 
 
 Created Prince of Benevento, the minister Talley-
 
 THE FEUDATORIES OF THE EMPIRE 255 
 
 rand possessed that principality as a fief immediately 
 dependent upon the imperial crown. 
 
 I had also a handsome prize in this lottery, and 
 was not long before I ranked myself, under the title 
 of Duke of Otranto, among the chief feudatories of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Till now, all fusion or amalgamation of the old 
 nobility with the chiefs of the Revolution would have 
 called down the reprobation of public opinion. But 
 the creation of new titles and of a national nobility 
 effaced the line of demarcation, and gave rise to a 
 new system of manners among the higher classes. 
 
 An event of greater importance, the dissolution of 
 the Germanic body, was also the consequence of the 
 prodigious extension of the Empire. In July appeared 
 the treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine. Four- 
 teen German princes declared their separation from 
 the Germanic body, and their new confederation under 
 the protection of the French Emperor. This new 
 federative act, drawn up with much ability, was 
 especially designed to isolate Prussia, and to fix still 
 firmer the yoke imposed upon the Germans. 
 
 This, and the disagreements which arose between 
 France and Prussia, had the effect of unmasking Russia, 
 whose policy had for some time appeared equivocal. 
 She refused to ratify the treaty of peace recently 
 concluded, alleging that her envoy had exceeded his 
 instructions. In her tergiversations we only saw an 
 artifice for gaining time. 
 
 Since the decease of William Pitt, whose death had 
 been occasioned by grief at the disasters of the last 
 coalition, England negotiated under the auspices of
 
 256 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Charles Fox, who had succeeded to the direction of 
 affairs. Much was expected from a minister who had 
 constantly reprobated the coalitions formed for the 
 purpose of re-establishing in France the old dynasty. 
 
 In the meantime the war with Prussia broke out, 
 a war which had been in preparation since the battle 
 of Austerlitz, and which was less occasioned by the 
 counsels of the cabinet than by the compilers of secret 
 memoirs. They began by representing the Prussian 
 monarchy as about to fall by a breath, like a house 
 built with cards. I have read several of these memoirs, 
 one, amongst others, very artfully written by Mont- 
 gaillard, who was then in high pay. I can affirm that 
 for the last three months this war was already pre- 
 pared like a coup de theatre; all the chances and 
 casualties were calculated, considered, and provided 
 against with the greatest exactness. 
 
 I considered it ill-becoming the dignity of crowned 
 heads to see a cabinet so ill regulated. The Prussian 
 monarchy, whose safeguard it should have been, de- 
 pended upon the cunning of some intriguers and the 
 energy of a few subsidised persons who were the very 
 puppets of our will. Jena ! history will one day develop 
 thy secret causes. 
 
 The delirium caused by the wonderful results of 
 the Prussian campaign completed the intoxication of 
 France. She prided herself upon having been saluted 
 with the name of the great nation by her Emperor, 
 who had triumphed over the genius and the work of 
 Frederic ; and Napoleon believed himself the son of 
 destiny, called to break every sceptre. Peace, and even 
 a truce with England, was no longer thought of ; the
 
 THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM 257 
 
 rupture of the negotiations, the death of Charles Fox, 
 the departure of Lord Lauderdale, and the arrogance 
 of the victor, were events rapidly succeeding each other. 
 The idea of destroying the power of England, the sole 
 obstacle to universal monarchy, now became his fixed 
 resolve. It was with this view he established the conti- 
 nental system, the first decree concerning which was 
 dated from Berlin. Napoleon was convinced that, by 
 depriving England of all the outlets for its manu- 
 factures, he should reduce it to poverty, and that it 
 must then submit to its fate. He not only thought of 
 subjecting it, but also of effecting its destruction. 
 
 Little acted upon by delusion, and enabled to see 
 and observe all, I foresaw the misfortunes which would 
 sooner or later fall upon the people. It was still worse 
 when the lists were to be entered against the Russians. 
 The battle of Eylau, of which I had detailed accounts, 
 made me tremble. There everything had been disputed 
 to the last extremity. It was no longer the puppets 
 which fell, as at Ulm, Austerlitz, and Jena. The sight 
 was equally grand and terrible ; corps was opposed to 
 corps, at a distance of three hundred leagues from the 
 Rhine. I seized my pen, and wrote to Napoleon nearly 
 in the same terms I had used before Marengo, but 
 with more explicitness, for the circumstances were more 
 complicated. I told him that we were sure of main- 
 taining tranquillity in France, that Austria could not 
 stir, that England hesitated to unite herself with 
 Russia, whose cabinet appeared to be vacillating ; 
 but that the loss of a battle between the Vistula and 
 the Niemen would compromise all, that the Berlin 
 decree was subversive of too many interests, and that, 
 vol. 1 17
 
 258 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 in making war upon kings, care should be taken not 
 to push the people to extremities. I entreated him, 
 in terms the most urgent, to employ all his genius, 
 all his powers of destruction and policy, to bring 
 about a quick and glorious peace, like all those for 
 which we had been indebted to his good fortune. He 
 understood me ; but one more victory was necessary. 
 
 From the time of the victory of Eylau he evinced 
 real discretion and ability ; so strong in conception, 
 so energetic in character, and pursuing his object, 
 that of overcoming the Russian cabinet, with un- 
 ceasing perseverance. Nothing of consequence escaped 
 him ; his eye was everywhere. Many intrigues were 
 formed against him on the continent, but without 
 success. Agents were dispatched from London to 
 tamper with Paris, to tamper even with myself. 
 
 Only imagine the English cabinet falling into the 
 snares of our police, even after the mystification of 
 Drake and Spencer Smith ; only imagine Lord Howick, 
 minister of state for foreign affairs, dispatching an 
 emissary to me with secret instructions, and the 
 bearer of a letter for me inclosed in the knob of a 
 cane. This minister requested of me two blank pass- 
 ports for two agents intrusted to open a secret nego- 
 tiation with me. But his emissary having imprudently 
 placed confidence in the agent of the prefecture, 
 Perlet, the vile instrument of the whole plot, the 
 bamboo of Vitel was opened, and the missive being 
 discovered, together with the secret, nothing could 
 save the life of the unfortunate young man. 
 
 It was impossible but that such a circumstance 
 should produce some distrust in the mind of Napoleon ;
 
 SECRET AGENT OF THE BOURBONS 
 
 259 
 
 he must at least have supposed that the idea in foreign 
 countries was that I was capable of being acted upon, 
 and that I was a man who would listen to all, and 
 take advantage of all, provided I could secure my own 
 safety. Nor was this the only overture of this kind, 
 for such was the blindness of the men composing the 
 cabinet of St. James, in the interests of the counter- 
 revolution, that they persuaded themselves I was not 
 averse to work in favour of the Bourbons, and to 
 betray Bonaparte. This was wholly founded upon 
 the opinion generally disseminated, that, instead of 
 persecuting the royalists in the interior, I, on the con- 
 trary, sought to guarantee and protect them ; that, 
 besides, any person was always welcome when he 
 applied personally to me for every kind of information 
 and confidence. So much was this the case that, a 
 few months after the death of Vitel, having taken up 
 from off my desk a sealed letter marked private, I opened 
 it, and found it so urgent that I granted a private 
 audience to the person who requested it for the next 
 day. 
 
 This letter was signed by a borrowed name, but 
 one well known among the emigrants, and I really 
 thought that the subscriber was the person who was 
 desirous of an interview. But what was my surprise, 
 when this person, full of confidence, gifted with a 
 language the most persuasive, and displaying manners 
 the most elegant, owned his artifice, and dared to avow 
 before me that he was an agent of the Bourbons and 
 the envoy of the English cabinet ! In an animated and 
 rapid manner, he demonstrated to me the fragility of 
 Napoleon's power, his approaching decline (it was at the 
 
 17 — 2
 
 2 6o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 commencement of the Spanish war), and his inevitable 
 fall. He then concluded by conjuring me, by the welfare 
 of France and the peace of the world, to join the good 
 
 cause, to save the nation from the abyss . All 
 
 possible guarantees were offered me. And who was 
 this man ? Count Dache, formerly captain in the 
 royal navy. "Unfortunate man!" said I to him, "you 
 have introduced yourself into my cabinet by means of 
 a subterfuge." "Yes," cried he, "my life is in your 
 hands, and, if it be necessary, I shall willingly sacrifice 
 it for my God and my king." " No," rejoined I, "you 
 are seated on my hearth, and I will not violate the 
 hospitality due to misfortune ; for as a man, though 
 not as a magistrate, I can pardon the excess of your 
 error and your deluded conduct. I allow you twenty- 
 four hours to leave Paris ; but I declare to you that, 
 at the expiration of that time, strict orders will be 
 given for your discovery and apprehension. I fcnow 
 whence you come ; I know your chain of correspond- 
 ence ; therefore reflect well that this is only a truce of 
 twenty-four hours ; and even I shall not be able to 
 save you in this short space of time if your secret 
 and your conduct be known to any but myself." He 
 assured me that not a soul had the least idea of it, 
 neither abroad nor in France ; and that those even 
 who had received him upon the coast were ignorant 
 of his having hazarded himself as far as Paris. " Well," 
 said I to him, " I give you twenty-four hours ; go." 
 
 I should have been deficient in my duty had I not 
 informed the Emperor of what had passed. The only 
 variation which I allowed myself was the supposition 
 of a safe-conduct previously obtained from me by Count
 
 THE TREATY OF TILSIT 261 
 
 Dache, under pretext of important information he was 
 desirous of making to me alone. This was indispen- 
 sable, for I was certain that Napoleon would have dis- 
 approved of my generosity, and would even have 
 perceived something suspicious in it. Independently 
 of the police orders, he himself gave some extremely 
 rigorous ones, so much he feared his enemies' energy 
 and decision. The whole of the police were set in 
 motion against the unfortunate count, and such was 
 their perseverance that at the moment of re-embarking 
 for London, on the coast of Calvados, he perished by 
 a dreadful death, having been betrayed by a woman, 
 whose name is now an object of execration among the 
 former friends of the ill-fated count. 
 
 It may easily be conceived that so hazardous and 
 perilous a mission was neither given nor executed 
 immediately after the negotiations and the treaty of 
 Tilsit, the glorious result of the victory of Friedland. 
 
 I have now to characterise this grand epoch of 
 Napoleon's political life. The event was calculated to 
 fascinate all minds. The old aristocracy was completely 
 humbled by it. " Why is he not a legitimate ? " said 
 the Faubourg St. Germain ; " Alexander and Napoleon 
 approach each other, the war ceases, and a hundred 
 millions of men enjoy repose and tranquillity." This 
 trickery gained credit, and it was not perceived that 
 the duumvirate of Tilsit was but a pretended treaty 
 of a division of the world between two potentates and 
 two empires, which, once in contact, must end by 
 clashing against each other. 
 
 In the secret treaty Alexander and Napoleon shared 
 between them the continental world ; all the South
 
 262 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 was abandoned to Napoleon, already master of Italy 
 and arbiter of Germany, pushing his advanced post 
 as far as the Vistula, and making Dantzig one of the 
 most formidable arsenals. 
 
 Upon his return to St. Cloud, on the 27th of July, 
 he received the most insipid and extravagant adulations 
 from all the principal authorities. Every day I per- 
 ceived the change which infatuation wrought in this 
 great character. He became more and more reserved 
 with his ministers. Eight days after his return he 
 made some remarkable changes in the ministry. The 
 portfolio of war was intrusted to General Clarke, 
 since Duke de Feltre, and that of the interior to 
 Cretet, at that time a simple councillor of state ; 
 Berthier was made vice-constable. But what caused 
 the greatest astonishment was to see the portfolio of 
 foreign affairs given into the hands of Champagny, 
 since Duke de Cadore. To deprive M. de Talleyrand 
 of this department was a sign of disgrace, which was, 
 however, disguised by conferring favours purely hono- 
 rary. M. de Talleyrand was promoted to be vice- 
 grand Elector, which did not fail to furnish subject 
 matter for the punsters. It is certain that a dis- 
 agreement of opinion upon the projects relative to 
 Spain was the principal cause of his disgrace ; but 
 this important subject had as yet only been treated of 
 in a confidential manner between the Emperor and him. 
 At this period the question had never been agitated in 
 the council; at least, in my presence. But I penetrated 
 the mystery before even the secret treaty of Fon- 
 tainebleau, which was executed towards the end of 
 October. Like that of Presburg, the treaty of Tilsit was
 
 SUSPECTED TREACHERY IN THE CABINET 263 
 
 signalised by the previous erection of a new kingdom 
 conferred upon Jerome, in the very heart of Germany. 
 The new king was installed in it under the direction of 
 preceptors assigned him by his brother, who reserved 
 to himself the supremacy in the political guidance of 
 of the new tributary monarch. 
 
 About this time was known the success of the attack 
 upon Copenhagen by the English, which was the first 
 blow given to the secret stipulations of Tilsit, in virtue 
 of which the navy of Denmark was placed at the dis- 
 posal of France. Since the catastrophe of Paul I., I 
 never saw Napoleon abandon himself to more violent 
 transports. What most struck him, in this vigorous 
 enterprise, was the promptness of the resolution of the 
 English ministry. He suspected a fresh infidelity in 
 the cabinet and charged me to discover if it was con- 
 nected with the mortification attendant upon a recent 
 disgrace. I again represented to him how difficult it 
 was in so mysterious a labyrinth to discover anything 
 except by instinct or conjecture. "The traitors," said I, 
 " must voluntarily betray themselves, for the police never 
 know but what is told them, and that which chance 
 discovers is little indeed." Upon this subject I had a 
 truly historical conference with a personage who has 
 survived, and who still survives all ; but my present 
 situation does not permit me to disclose the particu- 
 lars of it. 
 
 Home affairs were conducted upon a system anala- 
 gous to that pursued abroad, and which began to develop 
 itself. On the 18th of September the remains of the 
 Tribunat were at length suppressed ; not that the small 
 minority of the tribunes could offer any hostility, but
 
 264 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 because it entered into the Emperor's plans not to 
 allow the previous discussion of the laws ; these were 
 only in future to be presented by commissioners. 
 
 Here opens the memorable year of 1808, the period 
 of a new era, in which Napoleon's star began to wax 
 dim. I had at length a confidential communication of 
 the real object which had induced him to enter into 
 the secret treaty of Fontainebleau, and to determine 
 upon the invasion of Portugal. Napoleon announced 
 to me that the Bourbons of Spain and the house of 
 Braganza would shortly cease to reign. " Leaving Por- 
 tugal out of the question," said I to him, " which is 
 truly an English colony, with respect to Spain, you have 
 no cause for complaint ; those Bourbons are, and will 
 be as long as you wish it, your most humble prefects. 
 Besides, are you not mistaken with respect to the 
 character of the people of the Peninsula ? Take care ; you 
 have, it -is true, many partisans there, but only because 
 they consider you as a great and powerful potentate, 
 as a friend and an ally. If you declare without any 
 cause against the reigning family ; if, favoured by 
 domestic dissensions, you realise the fable of the oyster 
 and the lawyers, you must declare against the majority 
 of the population. Besides, you ought to know that 
 the Spaniards are not a cold, phlegmatic people like 
 the Germans ; they are attached to their manners, their 
 government, and old customs. The mass of the nation 
 is not to be estimated by the heads of society, who 
 are, as everywhere else, corrupted and possessed of but 
 little patriotism. Once more, take care you do not 
 transform a tributary kingdom into a new Vendee." 
 "What is it you say?" replied he; "every reflecting
 
 BONAPARTE'S DESIGNS ON SPAIN 265 
 
 person in Spain despises the government. The Prince 
 of the Peace, a true mayor of the palace, is detested 
 by the nation. He is a scoundrel who will himself 
 open the gates of Spain for me. As to the rabble, 
 whom you have mentioned, who are still under the 
 influence of monks and priests, a few cannon-shot will 
 quickly disperse them. You have seen warlike Prussia, 
 that heritage of the great Frederic, fall before my arms 
 like a heap of rubbish. Well, you will see Spain sur- 
 render itself into my hands without knowing it, and 
 afterward applaud itself. I have there an immense 
 party. I have resolved to continue in my own dynasty 
 the family system of Louis XIV., uniting Spain to the 
 destinies of France. I am desirous of availing myself 
 of the only opportunity afforded me by fortune of re- 
 generating Spain, of detaching it entirely from England, 
 and of uniting it inseparably to my system. Reflect 
 that the sun never sets on the immense inheritance of 
 Charles V., and that I shall have the Empire of both 
 worlds." 
 
 I found that it was a design resolved upon, that all 
 the counsels of reason would avail nothing, and that 
 the torrent must be left to take its course. However, 
 I thought it my duty to add that I entreated his 
 Majesty to consider in his wisdom whether all that 
 was taking place was not a ruse de guerre; whether the 
 North were not anxious to embroil him with the South 
 as a useful diversion, and with the ultimate view of 
 reuniting with England at a convenient opportunity, in 
 order to place the Empire between two fires. " You 
 are," cried he, " a true minister of police, who mis- 
 trusts everything and believes in nothing good. I am
 
 266 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 sure of Alexander, who is very sincere. I now exer- 
 cise over him a kind of charm, independently of the 
 guarantee offered me by those about him, of whom I 
 am equally certain." Here Napoleon related to me all 
 the trifling nonsense which I had heard from his suite 
 respecting the interview at Tilsit and the sudden pre- 
 dilection of the Russian court for the Emperor and 
 his people. He did not omit the flattery by means 
 of which he believed he had captivated the Grand 
 Duke Constantine himself, who, it is said, was not 
 displeased at being told that he was the best-dressed 
 prince in Europe, and had the finest thighs in the 
 world. 
 
 These confidential effusions were not useless to me. 
 Seeing Napoleon in good-humour, I again spoke to 
 him in favour of several persons for whom I particu- 
 larly interested myself, and who all received valuable 
 employments. He began to be more satisfied with 
 the Faubourg St. Germain, and approving my liberal 
 mode of directing the police as respected the old aris- 
 tocracy, he told me that there were near Bordeaux 1 
 two families whom I regarded as disaffected and dan- 
 gerous, but he wished them not to be molested ; that 
 is, that they should be watched, but without any 
 species of inquisition. " You have often told me," 
 added Napoleon, " that you ought to be like me, the 
 mediator between the old and new order of things : 
 that is your office ; for that, in fact, is my policy in 
 
 1 Apparently the families Donnissan and Larochejaquelein, 
 united by the marriage of the Marquis de Larochejaquelein, who 
 died in 1815, with the widow of the Marquis de Lescure, daughter 
 of the Marchioness de Donnissan ; they then inhabited the Cha- 
 teau of Citran, in Medoc.
 
 THE POPE THREATENS NAPOLEON 267 
 
 the interior. But as to the exterior, do not meddle 
 with that ; leave me to act ; and, above all, do not be 
 anxious to defend the Pope : it would be too ridiculous 
 on your part. Leave that care to M. de Talleyrand, 
 who is indebted to him for being now a secular, and 
 possessing a beautiful wife in lawful wedlock." I 
 began to laugh, and taking up my portfolio, made 
 way for the minister of the marine. What Napoleon 
 had just said to me about the Pope alluded to his 
 disputes with the Holy See, which began in 1805, 
 and were daily growing more serious. 
 
 The entrance of our troops into Rome coincided 
 with the invasion of the Peninsula. Pius VII. almost 
 immediately issued a brief, in which he threatened 
 Napoleon that he would direct his spiritual weapons 
 against him : no doubt they were much blunted, but 
 they would nevertheless have their effect upon many 
 minds. In my eyes these disputes appeared the more 
 impolitic, inasmuch as the)- could not fail to alienate 
 a great part of the people of Italy, and, among our- 
 selves, to favour the petite eglise, which we had annoyed 
 for a long time, and which began to avail itself of these 
 disputes to make common cause with the Pope against 
 the government. But Napoleon only proceeded to 
 extremities against the head of the Church that he 
 might have a pretext for seizing Rome and despoiling 
 it of its temporalities : this was one branch of his vast 
 plan of a universal monarchy and of the reorganisation 
 of Europe. I would willingly have seconded him, but 
 I saw with regret that he set out with false premises, 
 and that opinion already commenced to arm itself 
 against him. How, in fact, was it possible to proceed
 
 268 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 thus to universal conquest, without having at least the 
 people on one's side ? Before imprudently saying that 
 his dynasty, which was but the dynasty of yesterday, 
 should soon be the most ancient of Europe, he ought 
 to have understood the art of separating kings from 
 their people, and for that purpose, not have abandoned 
 principles without which he himself could not exist. 
 
 This affair of Rome was now eclipsed by the events 
 which took place at Madrid and Bayonne, where 
 Napoleon arrived on the 15th of April, with his court 
 and suite. Spain was already invaded ; and, under the 
 mask of friendship, the French had taken possession 
 of the principal fortresses in the north. 
 
 Having seized Spain, and full of hopes, Napoleon 
 now prepared to appropriate to himself the treasures 
 of the New World, which five or six adventurers came 
 to offer him as the infallible result of their intrigues. 
 All the ^machinery of this vast plot was prepared ; a 
 perfect understanding prevailed from the chateau of 
 Marrac to Madrid, Lisbon, Cadiz, Buenos Ayres, and 
 Mexico. Napoleon was followed by his private estab- 
 lishment of political imposture : his Duke of Rovigo, 
 Savary, his Archbishop of Malines, the Abbe Pradt, 
 his Prince Pignatelli, and many other tools more or 
 less active of his diplomatic frauds. The ex-minister, 
 Talleyrand, was also in his suite, but more as a passive 
 observer than an agent. 
 
 I had warned Napoleon, on the eve of his departure, 
 that public opinion was becoming irritated by the 
 anxiety of expectation ; and that the talk of the day 
 had already reached a height far above the power of 
 my three hundred regulators of Paris to suppress.
 
 THE PENINSULA ABLAZE 269 
 
 This was still worse when events developed them- 
 selves ; when by stratagem and perfidy all the family 
 of Spain found itself caught in the Bayonne nets ; when 
 the Madrid massacre of the 2nd of May took place ; 
 and when the rising of nearly an entire nation had set 
 almost the whole of the Peninsula in a conflagration. 
 All was known and ascertained in Paris, notwith- 
 standing the incredible efforts of all the police estab- 
 lishments to intercept or prevent the knowledge of 
 public events. Never in the whole course of my two 
 ministries did I see so decided a reprobation of the 
 insatiable ambition and Machiavellism of the head of 
 the state. This convinced me that in an important 
 crisis truth would assert all its rights and regain all 
 its empire. I received from Bayonne two or three 
 very harsh letters respecting the bad state of the public 
 mind, for which I seemed to be in some degree con- 
 sidered as responsible ; my bulletins were a sufficient 
 answer. Towards the end of July, after the capitula- 
 tion of Baylen, it became impossible to restrain it. 
 The counter-police and the Emperor's private corre- 
 spondents took the alarm ; they even deceived them- 
 selves so far as to put him on his guard against the 
 symptoms of a conspiracy totally imaginary in Paris. 
 The Emperor quitted Bayonne in all haste, after several 
 violent fits of rage, which were metamorphosed in the 
 saloons of the Chaussee d'Antin and the Faubourg 
 St. Germain into an attack of fever. Traversing La 
 Vendee, he returned to St. Cloud by the Loire. 
 
 I expected some severe observations upon my first 
 audience, and was consequently on my guard. " You 
 have been too indulgent, Duke d'Otranto," were his
 
 270 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 first words. " How is it that you have permitted so 
 many nests of babblers and slanderers to be formed 
 in Paris ? " " Sire, when everyone is implicated, what 
 is to be done ? Besides, the police cannot penetrate 
 into the interior of families and the confidences of 
 friendship." " But foreigners have excited disaffection 
 in Paris." " No, Sire, the public discontent has been 
 confined to itself; old passions have been revived, and 
 in this respect there has been much expression of dis- 
 content. But nations cannot be aroused without 
 arousing the passions. It would be impolitic, impru- 
 dent even, to exasperate the public mind by unseason- 
 able severity. This disturbance has likewise been 
 exaggerated to your Majesty ; it will be appeased as 
 so many others have been ; all will depend upon this 
 Spanish business and the attitude assumed by conti- 
 nental Europe. Your Majesty has surmounted diffi- 
 culties much more serious and crises much more 
 important." It was then that, striding up and down 
 his cabinet, he again spoke to me of the Spanish war 
 as a mere skirmish, which scarcely deserved a few 
 cannon shot ; at the same time flying into a rage 
 against Murat, Moncey, and especially Dupont, whose 
 capitulation he stigmatised with the term infamous, 
 declaring that he would make an example in the army. 
 " I will conduct this war of peasants and monks," con- 
 tinued he, " myself, and I hope to thrash the English 
 soundly. I will immediately come to an understand- 
 ing with the Emperor Alexander for the ratification 
 of the treaties and the preservation of the tranquillity 
 of Europe. In three months I will reconduct my 
 brother to Madrid, and in four I myself will enter
 
 INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE EMPERORS 271 
 
 Lisbon if the English dare to set foot there. I will 
 punish this rabble, and will drive out the English." 
 All was henceforth conducted upon this plan of 
 operations. Confidential agents and couriers were 
 dispatched to St. Petersburg. The favourable answer 
 was not long delayed. The town of Erfurt was chosen 
 for the interview of the two Emperors. Nothing 
 could be more auspicious than this interview, where, 
 at the end of September, the Czar came to fraternise 
 with Napoleon. These two formidable arbiters of the 
 continent passed eighteen days together in the greatest 
 intimacy, in the midst of fetes and amusements. Re- 
 course was also had to a diplomatic mummery sent to 
 the King of England, for the apparent purpose of 
 obtaining his being a party to the general peace. I 
 had given the Emperor, before his departure, informa- 
 tion that ought to have undeceived him. But what do 
 I say ? He, perhaps, believed no more than myself in 
 the possibility of a peace with which he would not 
 have known what to do. 
 
 Erfurt brought back opinion. At the opening of the 
 legislative corps, on the 26th of October, Napoleon, on 
 his return, declared himself to be indissolubly united 
 with the Emperor Alexander both for peace and war. 
 " Soon," said he, " my eagles shall hover over the towers 
 of Lisbon." 
 
 But this circumstance revealed to reflecting minds 
 his weakness in a national war, which he dared not 
 prosecute without a support in Europe, which might 
 escape him. It was no longer Napoleon acting by 
 himself. His embarrassments became serious from the 
 time of his declaring war against the people.
 
 272 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Spain, the gulf in which Napoleon was about to 
 plunge, raised in me many gloomy forebodings ; I saw 
 in it a centre of resistance, supported by England, and 
 which might offer to our continental enemies favourable 
 opportunities of again assailing our political existence. 
 It was melancholy to reflect that, by an imprudent 
 enterprise, the solidity of our conquests, and even our 
 existence as a nation, had become a matter of doubt. 
 By continually braving new dangers, Napoleon, our 
 founder, might fall either by ball or bullet, or sink 
 under the knife of the fanatic. It was but too true 
 that all our power centred in a single man, who with- 
 out posterity required of Providence at least twenty 
 years to complete and consolidate his work. If he 
 were taken from us before this term, he would not 
 even have, like Alexander the Macedonian, his own 
 lieutenants for the inheritors of his power and glory, 
 nor for the guarantee of our existence. Thus this vast 
 and formidable Empire, created as if by enchantment, 
 had nothing but a fragile foundation, which might 
 vanish on the wings of death. The hands which had 
 assisted in its elevation were too weak to support it 
 without a living stay. If the serious circumstances in 
 which we were placed gave rise to these reflections in 
 my mind, the peculiar situation of the Emperor added 
 to them the greatest degree of solicitude and anxiety. 
 
 The charm of his domestic habits was broken ; 
 death had carried off that infant who, at the same 
 time his nephew and adopted son, had by his birth 
 drawn so close the ties which bound him to Josephine 
 through Hortense, and to Hortense through Josephine. 
 " I recognise myself," said he, " in this child ! " And
 
 DEATH OF THE HEIR 
 
 273 
 
 he already indulged the fond idea that he would 
 succeed him. How often on the terrace of St. Cloud, 
 after his breakfast, has he been seen contemplating 
 with transport this tender offset, whose disposition and 
 manners were so engaging ; and, disengaging himself 
 from the cares of the Empire, join in its infantine 
 games ! Did he evince ever so little determination, 
 ever so trifling a predilection for the noise of the 
 drum, for arms and the glorious circumstance of war, 
 Napoleon would cry out with enthusiasm : " This boy 
 will be worthy to succeed me — he may even surpass 
 me ! " At the very moment such high destinies were 
 preparing for him, this beautiful child, a victim to the 
 croup, was snatched away from him. Thus was snapped 
 the reed on which the great man had been fain to lean. 
 
 Never did I see Napoleon a prey to deeper and 
 more concentrated grief ; never did I see Josephine 
 and her daughter in more agonising affliction : they 
 appeared to find in it a mournful presentiment of a 
 futurity without happiness and without hope. The 
 courtiers themselves sympathised with them in a mis- 
 fortune so severe ; as for myself, I saw broken the 
 link of the perpetuity of the Empire. 
 
 It would ill have become me to have kept within 
 my own breast the suggestions of my foresight ; but 
 in order to make them known to Napoleon, I waited 
 till time should have in some manner alleviated his 
 grief. With him, besides, the pains of the heart were 
 subordinate to the cares of empire, to the highest 
 combinations of policy and war. What greater diver- 
 sion could he have ? But already distractions of a 
 different kind and more efficacious consolations had 
 
 VOL. 1 18
 
 274 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 soothed his regrets and broken the monotony of his 
 habits : officiously encouraged by his confidant Duroc, 
 he had given himself up, not to the love of women, 
 but to the physical enjoyment of their charms. Two 
 ladies of the court have been mentioned as being 
 honoured with his stolen embraces, and who were just 
 
 replaced by the beautiful Italian, Charlotte Gaz 
 
 born Brind . Napoleon, captivated by her beauty, 
 
 had conferred a recent favour upon her. It was also 
 known that, being freed from the restraints of com- 
 mon-place domesticity, he no longer had the same 
 room nor the same bed as Josephine. This kind of 
 nuptial separation had taken place in consequence of 
 a violent altercation caused by the jealousy of his 
 wife, 1 and since then he had refused to resume the 
 domestic chain. As to Josephine, her torments were 
 much less occasioned by a wounded heart than by the 
 thorns -of unquiet apprehensions. She was alarmed at 
 the consequences of the sudden loss of Hortense's son, 
 of the neglect of her daughter, and the abandonment 
 of herself. She foresaw the future, and was in despair 
 at her sterility. 
 
 The concurrence of these circumstances both political 
 and domestic, and the fear of one day seeing their 
 Emperor, when age approached, follow the traces of a 
 Sardanapalus, suggested to me the idea of endeavouring 
 to give a future prospect to a magnificent Empire of 
 which I was one of the chief guardians. In a confi- 
 dential memoir, which I read to him myself, I repre- 
 sented to him the necessity of dissolving his marriage ; 
 
 1 In 1805, at the camp of Boulogne, according to the 
 " Memorial de Sainte Helene." — Note by the Editor.
 
 JOSEPHINE: FIRST HINT OF DIVORCE 275 
 
 of immediately forming, as Emperor, a new alliance 
 more suitable and more happy ; and of giving an heir 
 to the throne on which Providence had placed him. 
 My conclusion was the natural consequence of the 
 strongest and most solid arguments which the neces- 
 sities of the state could suggest. 
 
 Without declaring anything positive upon this serious 
 and important subject, Napoleon let me perceive that, 
 in a political point of view, the dissolution of his 
 marriage was already determined in his mind, but that 
 he was not yet as decided respecting the alliance he 
 intended to form ; that, on the other hand, he was 
 singularly attached, both by habit and a kind of super- 
 stition, to Josephine ; and that the most painful step 
 for him would be to inform her of the divorce. The 
 whole of this communication was made in a few signifi- 
 cant monosyllables and two or three almost enigmatical 
 phrases ; but these were sufficient for me. Urged by an 
 excess of zeal, I resolved to effect the breach, and pre- 
 pare Josephine for this great sacrifice demanded by the 
 solidity of the Empire and the Emperor's happiness. 
 
 Such an overture required some preliminaries. I 
 waited for an opportunity ; it presented itself one 
 Sunday at Fontainebleau, upon returning from mass. 
 There, detaining Josephine in the recess of a window, 
 I gave, with all verbal precautions, and all possible 
 delicacy, the first hint of a separation, which I repre- 
 sented to her as the most sublime and at the same 
 time as the most inevitable of sacrifices. She coloured 
 at first ; then turned pale ; her lips began to swell, 
 and I perceived over her whole frame symptoms 
 
 which caused me to apprehend a nervous attack, or 
 
 18—2
 
 276 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 some other physical convulsion. It was only in a 
 stammering voice that she questioned me, to know 
 if I had been ordered to make her this melancholy 
 communication. I told her I had had no order, but 
 that I foresaw the necessities of the future ; and, 
 hastening by some general reflection to break off so 
 painful a conversation, I pretended to have an engage- 
 ment with one of my colleagues, and quitted her. I 
 learnt the next day that there had been much grief 
 and disagreement in the interior of the palace ; that 
 a very passionate but affecting explanation had taken 
 place between Josephine and Napoleon, who had dis- 
 owned me ; and that this woman, naturally so mild, 
 so good, and being besides under more than one kind 
 of obligation to me, had earnestly solicited as a favour 
 my dismissal for having preferred the welfare of France 
 to her personal interests and to the gratification of her 
 vanity. _ Although he protested that I had spoken with- 
 out orders, the Emperor refused to dismiss me— for that 
 was the word — and he pacified Josephine as well as he 
 could by alleging on my behalf political pretexts. It 
 was evident to me that, if he had not already secretly 
 determined upon his divorce, he would have sacrificed 
 me, instead of contenting himself wiih a mere disavowal 
 of my conduct. But Josephine was his dupe ; she had 
 not strength of mind sufficient to prevent her flattering 
 herself with vain illusions ; she thought she could 
 obviate all by wretched artifices. Who would believe 
 it ? She proposed to the Emperor one of those poli- 
 tical frauds which would have been the derision of all 
 Europe, offering to carry on the deception of a fictitious 
 pregnancy. Certain that she would have recourse to
 
 SECOND PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN 277 
 
 this, I had trumpeted forth the possibility of this trick 
 by means of my agents, so that the Emperor had only 
 to show her my police bulletins to get rid of her im- 
 portunities. 
 
 Greater events made a powerful diversion. On the 
 4th of November Napoleon in person opened the second 
 campaign of the Peninsula, after having drawn from 
 Germany eighty thousand veterans. After kindling an 
 immense conflagration, he hastened to extinguish it by 
 rivers of blood. But what could he do against a whole 
 people in arms, and revolutionised ? Besides, all was 
 now to inspire him with suspicion and inquietude ; he 
 went even so far as to persuade himself that a centre 
 of resistance was forming in Paris, of which M. de 
 Talleyrand and I were the secret promoters. 
 
 After learning that one hundred and twenty-five 
 black balls, being one-third of opposers to his will, had 
 just astonished the legislative body, he was so shocked 
 and alarmed at it that he had thought fit to dispatch 
 from Valladolid, on the 4th of December, an official 
 note, explanatory of the essence of the imperial govern- 
 ment, and the place which he was pleased to assign 
 the legislature in it. " Our misfortunes," said he, 
 " have partly arisen from those exaggerated ideas which 
 have induced a body of men to believe themselves the 
 representatives of the nation ; it would be a chimerical 
 and even criminal pretension to wish to represent the 
 nation before the Emperor. The legislative body should 
 be called the legislative council, since it has not the 
 power of making laws, not having the power of pro- 
 posing them. In the order of the constitutional hier- 
 archy, the first representative of the nation is the
 
 278 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Emperor, and his ministers the organs of his de- 
 cisions. All would fall again into anarchy if other 
 constitutional ideas should interfere and pervert those 
 of our monarchical constitution." 
 
 These oracles of absolute power would but have 
 exasperated the public mind under a weak and ca- 
 pricious prince ; but Napoleon had continually the 
 sword in his hand, and victory still followed his steps. 
 Thus all succumbed ; and the mere ascendency of 
 his power sufficed to dissipate every germ of legal 
 opposition. When it was known that he had just 
 entered Madrid as an irritated conqueror, and that he 
 was determined to surprise and drive the English 
 army before him, the war was supposed to be finished, 
 and I thus instructed my active agents. But, suddenly 
 leaving the English and abandoning the war to his 
 lieutenants, the Emperor returned amongst us in a 
 sudden -and unexpected manner ; whether, as those 
 about him assured me, that he was alarmed at the 
 information that a band of Spanish fanatics had sworn 
 to assassinate him (I believed it, and had on my side 
 given the same advice), or whether he was still acted 
 upon by the fixed idea of a coalition in Paris against 
 his authority. I think both these motives united had 
 their weight with him, but they were disguised by 
 referring the urgency of his sudden return to the pre- 
 parations of Austria. Napoleon had still three or four 
 months good, and he knew as well as I that if Austria 
 did make a stir she was not yet ready. 
 
 At my first audience he sounded me upon the 
 affair of the legislative body and his imperial rebuke. 
 I saw him coming round, and I replied that it was
 
 A RAPID TRIUMPH 
 
 279 
 
 very well ; that it was thus monarchs should govern ; 
 that if any body whatsoever arrogated to itself alone 
 the right of representing him, the sovereign, the only 
 thing to be done would be to dissolve it ; and that 
 if Louis XVI. had acted so, that unhappy prince might 
 still have lived and reigned. Fixing upon me eyes full 
 of astonishment : " What, Duke d'Otranto ! " said he 
 to me, after a moment's silence ; " if I recollect right, 
 however, you are one of those who sent Louis XVI. 
 to the scaffold ! ' " Yes, Sire," I replied, without 
 hesitation, " and that was the first service I have had 
 the happiness of rendering your Majesty." 
 
 Summoning to his aid all the strength of his 
 genius and character to surmount the aggression of 
 Austria, he arranged his plans, and hastened to execute 
 them with the utmost promptitude. Some apprehen- 
 sions were entertained that he might be forced, or 
 else surprised, in the defiles of the Black Mountains, 
 for his forces were not strong, and he would have 
 been reduced to act on the defensive had he permitted 
 the concentration of the Austrian masses to be effected. 
 Tann, Abensberg, Eckmiihl, and Ratisbon witnessed 
 the rapid triumph of our arms, and signalised the 
 happy commencement of a campaign the more serious 
 from our carrying on, contrary to the rules of sound 
 policy, two wars at once. 
 
 The preparations made by Schill in Prussia re- 
 vealed to us all the danger. This Prussian major, 
 raising the standard of revolt, had just been brought 
 forward by the Schneiders and the Steins, the chiefs 
 of the illuminati ; it was a weak effort upon the part 
 of Prussia. The inhabitants of the northern part of
 
 2 8o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Germany were very near rising, in imitation of the 
 people of the Peninsula. Hemmed in by two national 
 wars, Napoleon would have fallen four years sooner. 
 This circumstance caused me to make serious reflec- 
 tions upon the fragility of an Empire which had no 
 other support than arms and no other stimulus than 
 an unbridled ambition. 
 
 We breathed again after the occupation of Vienna ; 
 but Schill was still active in Saxony, and the in- 
 habitants of Vienna showed much irritation. Several 
 insurrections took place in this capital of Austria. 
 Soon the first reports upon the battle of Essling 
 arrived to renew our alarms and increase our un- 
 easiness ; these reports were succeeded by confidential 
 communications, almost all afflicting. Not only Lannes, 
 the only remaining friend of Napoleon who dared to 
 tell him the truth, had fallen gloriously, but we had 
 also eight thousand men killed, eighteen thousand 
 wounded, among whom were three generals, and above 
 five hundred officers of all ranks. If, after losses so 
 serious, the army was saved, it owed its preservation 
 not to Napoleon, but to the coolness of Massena. 
 
 Our perplexity in Paris may be easily conceived, 
 as well as what efforts and address were necessary to 
 throw a veil over this severe check, which might be 
 followed by more than one disaster ! As to Napoleon, 
 he declared himself, in his bulletins, to have been 
 victorious, and to account for not following up his 
 victory he accused, in rather a trivial manner, General 
 Danube, the best officer in the Austrian service. In 
 fact, it was impossible to account for the want of 
 activity in the archduke, after so many losses on our
 
 ROMAN STATES ANNEXED 281 
 
 side, and when we could only find refuge in the isle 
 of Lobau. In proportion to the impudence of the 
 bulletin, the greater were the commentaries upon it. 
 
 The numerous enemies which Napoleon had in 
 France, whether among the republicans or the royalists, 
 again began to show themselves. The Faubourg St. 
 Germain resumed its hostility, and even some con- 
 spiracies were on foot in La Vendee. All those parties 
 openly flattered themselves that the affair of Essling 
 would prove a fatal blow to the Emperor. 
 
 The events upon the Danube had created so much 
 interest that scarcely any attention was bestowed upon 
 those taking place at Rome. It was reserved for us — 
 for us philosophers, the offspring of the eighteenth 
 century and adepts of incredulity — it was reserved for 
 us, I say, to deplore as impolitic the usurpation of the 
 patrimony of St. Peter and the persecution of the head 
 of the Church by him even whom we had chosen for 
 our perpetual dictator. A decree of Napoleon's to- 
 wards the end of May had ordered the annexation 
 of the Roman states to the French Empire. What 
 was the consequence ? The venerable Pontiff, riveted 
 to the papal throne, finding himself disarmed, despoiled, 
 and having only at his command spiritual weapons, 
 issued bulls of excommunication against Napoleon and 
 his coadjutors. All this would have only excited ridi- 
 cule had the people remained indifferent, if public in- 
 dignation had not rekindled expiring faith in favour of 
 the unyielding pontiff of the Christians. Then it was 
 that, after sustaining a species of siege in his palace, 
 Pius VII. was forcibly torn from it and carried from 
 Rome, to be confined in Savona. Napoleon was aware
 
 282 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 how averse I was to these outrages ; therefore I was 
 not intrusted with the direction of them. The prin- 
 cipal instruments against the Pope were Murat, Sali- 
 cetti, Miollis, and Radet. I had to go great lengths 
 when the Pope had arrived in Piedmont to prevent his 
 being forced to cross the Alps. It would have been 
 upon me that they would willingly have thrown the 
 responsibility of the last scenes of this persecution, 
 which appeared to all so odious and unjust. 
 
 In spite of the reserve of the government and the 
 silence of its agents, all public interest was directed 
 upon Pius VII., who in the eyes of Europe was con- 
 sidered as an illustrious and affecting victim of the 
 greedy ambition of the Emperor. A prisoner at 
 Savona, Pius VII. was despoiled of all his external 
 honours and shut out from all communication with the 
 cardinals, as well as deprived of all means of issuing 
 bulls and assembling a council. What food for the 
 petite eglise, for the turbulence of some priests, and for 
 the hatred of some devotees ! I immediately foresaw 
 that all these leavens would reproduce the secret asso- 
 ciations we had with so much difficulty suppressed. In 
 fact, Napoleon, by undoing all that he had hitherto 
 done to calm and conciliate the minds of the people, 
 disposed them in the end to withdraw themselves from 
 his power, and even to ally themselves to his enemies, 
 as soon as they had the courage to show themselves 
 in force. But this extraordinary man had not yet lost 
 any of his warlike vigour ; his courage and genius 
 raised him above all his errors. My correspondence 
 and bulletins, which he received every day at Vienna, 
 did not dissimulate the truth of things nor the unhappy
 
 AN ENGLISH EXPEDITION 283 
 
 state of the public mind. " A month will change all 
 this," he wrote me. " I am very easy, you are so 
 too," were his very words. I had never accumulated 
 on my head so much power and so much responsi- 
 bility. The colossal ministry of the police and per 
 interim the portfolio of the interior were both intrusted 
 to me. But I was reassured, for never had the en- 
 couragement of the Emperor been so positive nor his 
 confidence greater. I was near the apogee of minis- 
 terial power ; but in politics the apogee often conducts 
 to the Tarpeian rock. 
 
 The horizon underwent a sudden change. The battle 
 of Wagram fought and gained forty-five days after the 
 loss of the battle of Essling, the armistice of Znaim 
 agreed to six days after the battle of Wagram, and the 
 death of Schill, brought us back days of serenity and 
 of fairer promise. 
 
 But in the interval the English appeared in Escaut 
 with a formidable expedition, which, had. it been more 
 ably conducted, might have brought back success to 
 our enemies, and given Austria time to rally. 
 
 I perceived the danger. Invested during the Em- 
 peror's absence with a great part of his power, by the 
 union of the two ministries, I instilled energy into the 
 council, of which I was the life, and caused it to pass 
 several strong measures. No time was to be lost : 
 Belgium was to be saved. The disposable troops would 
 not have been sufficient to preserve this important part 
 of the Empire. I caused it to be decreed, with the 
 Emperor's concurrence, that at Paris and in several of 
 the northern departments there should be an immediate 
 and extraordinary levy of national guards.
 
 284 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Upon this occasion I addressed to all the mayors 
 of Paris a circular containing the following phrase : 
 " Let us prove to Europe that if the genius of Na- 
 poleon can shed lustre around France, his presence is 
 not necessary to repel the enemy." 
 
 Who would have believed it ? Both this phrase 
 and the measure which preceded it gave umbrage to 
 Napoleon, who, by a letter addressed to Cambaceres, 
 ordered the levy in Paris to be at once suspended ; 
 and for the present nothing was done but appointing 
 officers. 
 
 I did not at first suspect the real motive of this 
 suspension for the capital, the more so as elsewhere 
 the levy, operating without any obstacle, and with the 
 utmost rapidity, gave us about forty thousand men, 
 ready equipped and full of ardour. Nothing could so 
 much embarrass the measures I had caused to be 
 adopted., and the execution of which I had superin- 
 tended with so much zeal and care. It had been a 
 long time since France had given a spectacle of such 
 a burst of patriotism. During her journey to the 
 waters of Spa, the Emperor's mother had been so 
 much struck with it that she herself even congratu- 
 lated me upon it. 
 
 But it was necessary to appoint a commander-in- 
 chief to this national auxiliary force, which was to 
 rendezvous under the walls of Antwerp. I was in 
 doubt upon whom to fix, when Bernadotte unexpectedly 
 arrived from Wagram. The very day, when I had 
 scarcely heard of his arrival, I proposed him to the 
 minister of war, the Duke de Feltre, who lost no 
 time in giving him his commission.
 
 BERNADOTTE DEPRIVED OF COMMAND 285 
 
 What was my surprise the next day, when Berna- 
 dotte informed me, in the overflowings of friendship 
 and confidence, that having commanded the left at 
 Wagram, and the Saxons who composed part of it 
 having been routed, the Emperor, under this pretext, 
 had deprived him of the command, and sent him back 
 to Paris ; that his wing had, however, behaved well at 
 the close of the battle ; but that he had not been less 
 censured at headquarters for having, in an order of 
 the day, addressed to his soldiers a kind of commenda- 
 tory proclamation ; that he imputed this new disgrace 
 to the malevolent reports made to the Emperor ; that 
 many complaints were made of Savary, who had charge 
 of the secret police of the army ; that Lannes, after 
 having had the most violent scenes with him, could 
 alone restrain him ; but that since the death of that 
 hero, the influence of Savary had become unlimited ; 
 that he watched for opportunities of irritating the Em- 
 peror against certain generals who were the objects of 
 his dislike ; that he even proceeded to impute to them 
 connections with the secret society of the Philadelphians, 
 which he converted into a scarecrow for the Emperor, 
 by supposing, upon vague surmises, that it had dan- 
 gerous ramifications in the army. 
 
 For these reasons Bernadotte testified some repug- 
 nance to accept the commission of commander-in-chief 
 of the national guards of the Empire, destined for the 
 defence of Antwerp. I represented to him that, on 
 the contrary, this was the time to re-establish himself 
 in the Emperor's confidence ; that I had already several 
 times contributed to reconcile them, and to do away 
 with any misunderstanding between them ; that, with
 
 286 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 the high rank he held, if he refused to fulfil the com- 
 mission conferred upon him by the minister at war, he 
 would appear to assume the air of a discontented person, 
 and to refuse an opportunity of rendering fresh services 
 to his country ; that in case of need, we ought to serve 
 the Emperor in spite of himself, and that by thus doing 
 his duty he devoted himself to his country. He under- 
 stood me, and, after other confidential communications, 
 he set off for Antwerp. 
 
 The success attendant upon this movement is 
 well known ; it was general throughout our northern 
 provinces, and the English dared not attempt a 
 landing. So happy a result, joined to the judicious 
 conduct of Bernadotte, compelled Napoleon to keep 
 his suspicions and discontent to himself ; but in 
 reality he never pardoned either Bernadotte or me 
 for this eminent service, and our intimacy became 
 more than ever an object of suspicion with him. 
 
 Other private information which reached me from 
 the army perfectly coincided with what I had learnt 
 from Bernadotte respecting the Philadelphians, whose 
 secret organisation commenced during the perpetual 
 consulship. The members did not affect secrecy ; 
 their object was to restore to France the liberty of 
 which Napoleon had deprived it by the re-establish- 
 ment of the nobility, and by his concordat. They 
 regretted Bonaparte the First Consul, and considered 
 the despotism of Napoleon as Emperor insupportable. 
 The suspected existence of this association had already 
 caused the arrest and continued detention of Malet, 
 Guidal, Gindre, Picquerel, and Lahorie ; more recently, 
 the brave Oudet, colonel of the ninth regiment of the
 
 ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION 287 
 
 line, was suspected of having been raised to the presi- 
 dency of the Philadelphians. A vile accusation having 
 designated him as such, the fate of this unfortunate 
 officer was as follows : Having been appointed on the 
 day preceding the battle of Wagram chief of brigade, 
 he was the evening after the action decoyed during the 
 darkness of the night into an ambuscade, where he 
 fell under the fire of a troop supposed to be gen- 
 darmes ; the following day he was found stretched out 
 lifeless, with twenty-two officers of his party killed 
 around him. This circumstance made much noise at 
 Schonbrunn, at Vienna, and at all the etat-majors of 
 the army, without, however, any means of fathoming 
 so horrible a mystery. 
 
 Since the armistice, however, difficulties were being 
 slowly removed ; the ratification of the new treaty of 
 peace with Austria did not arrive ; but every letter 
 represented it as certain. We were expecting to re- 
 ceive momentary intelligence of its conclusion, when 
 I learnt that the Emperor, while reviewing his guard 
 at Schonbrunn, had narrowly escaped the dagger of an 
 assassin. Rapp had just time to seize him, Berthier 
 having thrown himself before the Emperor. He was 
 a young man of Erfurt, hardly seventeen years of age, 
 and solely excited by patriotic fanaticism ; a long sharp 
 knife was found upon him, with which he intended to 
 execute his purpose. He confessed his design, and 
 was shot. 
 
 The treaty of Vienna was signed a few days after 
 (the 14th of October) ; Napoleon, the conqueror and 
 pacificator, returned almost immediately to his capital. 
 It was from his own mouth that we learnt what serious
 
 288 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 difficulties he had had to surmount, and how determined 
 and strong had been the opposition of Austria. 
 
 I had several conferences with Napoleon at Fon- 
 tainebleau before his entry into Paris, and I found him 
 much exasperated against the Faubourg St. Germain, 
 which had resumed its satirical and sarcastic habits. 
 I could not avoid informing the Emperor that after 
 the battle of Essling, as after the Bayonne affair, the 
 wits of the Faubourg had spread the ridiculous report 
 that he had been struck with mental alienation. Na- 
 poleon was extremely incensed at this, and he spoke to 
 me of adopting severe measures with creatures " who," 
 he said, " wound me with one hand and solicit with 
 the other." I dissuaded him from it. " It is pro- 
 verbial," I said to him; "the Seine flows; the Faubourg 
 intrigues, solicits, spends, and calumniates ; it is in the 
 nature of things. Who has been more slandered than 
 Julius Caesar ? I will, besides, assure your Majesty 
 that among this party there will be no Cassius or 
 Brutus found. On the other hand, do not the worst 
 reports proceed from your Majesty's ante-chambers ? 
 Are they not propagated by persons forming part of 
 your establishment and of your government ? Before 
 measures of severity could be adopted, a council of ten 
 must be appointed ; the doors, the walls, and the chim- 
 neys must be interrogated. It is the part of a great 
 man to despise the gabble of insolence and to stifle it 
 under a mass of glory and renown." He acquiesced. 
 I knew that, after the battle of Wagram, he had 
 hesitated whether he should dismember the Austrian 
 monarchy; that he had several plans upon this subject; 
 that he had even boasted he would soon distribute
 
 FOUCIIE'S CONFIDENTIAL REPORT 289 
 
 crowns to some of the archdukes whom he supposed 
 discontented or blinded by ambition ; but that, arrested 
 by the fear of awakening the suspicions of Russia and 
 of raising the people of Austria, whose affection for 
 Francis II. could not be called in question, he had 
 had time to appreciate another difficulty in the exe- 
 cution of his plan. It required the military occupation 
 of the whole of Germany, which would not have per- 
 mitted him to put an end to the Peninsular War, which 
 now claimed all his attention. 
 
 The moment appeared to me favourable to make 
 him acquainted with the whole truth. I represented 
 to him, in a confidential report upon our actual situa- 
 tion, how necessary it had become to put a stop to a 
 system of policy which tended to estrange from us the 
 people ; and I first entreated him to accomplish the 
 work of peace, either by sounding England or offering 
 her reasonable propositions ; adding that he had never 
 been in a better situation to make himself listened to ; 
 that nothing equalled the power of his arms, and that 
 now there was no longer any doubt respecting the 
 firmness of his connections with the two most powerful 
 potentates of Europe next himself; that by showing 
 himself moderate in his demands with respect to Por- 
 tugal, and disposed, on the other hand, to evacuate 
 Prussia, he could not fail to obtain peace, and secure 
 his dynasty in Italy, Madrid, Westphalia, and Holland ; 
 that these should be the limits of his ambition and of 
 a lasting glory ; that it was already a splendid destiny 
 to have re-created the Empire of Charlemagne, but 
 that it became necessary to give this Empire guarantees 
 for the future ; that for this purpose it became urgent, 
 
 VOL. 1 19
 
 2go 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 as I had before represented to him, to dissolve his 
 marriage with Josephine, and to form another union, 
 demanded by state reasons as much as by the most 
 important political considerations, for, in seeing him- 
 self renewed, he at the same time insured existence 
 to the Empire ; that it was for him alone to determine 
 whether it would be preferable to form a family alliance 
 with one of the two great northern courts, either Russia 
 or Austria, or to isolate himself in his power, and 
 honour his own country by sharing the diadem with 
 a Frenchwoman rich in her fecundity and her virtues ; 
 but that the plan suggested by the want of social 
 stability and monarchical permanence would be de- 
 stroyed to its foundations if not supported by a general 
 peace ; that I insisted strongly upon this point, beg- 
 ging him to let me know his intentions upon the two 
 principal views of my report and my conclusions. 
 
 I only obtained a tacit assent, the only answer I 
 had been accustomed to hope for upon serious sub- 
 jects, which were considered out of my province. But 
 I saw that the dissolution of the marriage was settled 
 for at no very distant period, Cambaceres having been 
 authorised to confer with me respecting it. I instantly 
 had the rumour set afoot in the saloons, and it was 
 everywhere whispered that Josephine, plunged in secu- 
 rity, had not the least hint of it, so much was she 
 admired and pitied. 
 
 I also perceived that the Emperor, whether from 
 pride or policy, was inclined to unite himself to one 
 of the old courts of Europe, and that the previous 
 divorce was intended to induce them to make over- 
 tures, or prepare them to receive them.
 
 JOSEPHINE'S MARRIAGE DISSOLVED 291 
 
 The show of power was not however neglected. 
 Napoleon, having in absolute dependence upon him- 
 self the kings whom he had made, sent for them to 
 his court, and on the 3rd of December required them 
 to be present in the metropolitan church to hear the 
 "Te Deum " sung in commemoration of his victories 
 and of the anniversary of his coronation. 
 
 Upon quitting Notre Dame he proceeded to open 
 the sittings of the legislative corps ; there, in a pre- 
 sumptuous speech, he expressed himself in these terms : 
 " When I shall appear on the other side of the 
 Pyrenees, the frighted leopard shall seek the ocean 
 to avoid shame, defeat, and death." 
 
 It was with these lofty images he endeavoured to 
 palliate the difficulties of the Spanish war, deceiving 
 himself, perhaps ; for, with regard to this contest, he 
 had never had but very incorrect ideas. 
 
 The next day, during a tete-a-tete dinner with 
 Josephine, he informed her of his resolution. Josephine 
 fainted. It required all the rhetoric of Cambaceres, 
 and all the tenderness of her son Eugene, both to calm 
 her excitement and dispose her to resignation. 
 
 On the 15th of December the dissolution of the 
 marriage was proceeded with according to the form ; 
 and all being adjusted, an officer of the guard was 
 commissioned to escort Josephine to Malmaison, whilst 
 the Emperor on his side went to the grand Trianon 
 to pass a few days there in retirement. The chancery 
 was now fully instructed to open a parallel negotia- 
 tion with the two courts of St. Petersburg and 
 Vienna. In the first, the grand duchess, sister to the 
 
 Czar, was the desired object ; and in Austria, the 
 
 19 — 2
 
 292 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 Archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor 
 Francis. Russia was first sounded. It was said that 
 in the council the Emperor Alexander was favourable 
 to the union, but that there was a difference of 
 opinion in the imperial Russian family. 
 
 That which took place at Vienna, almost simul- 
 taneously, deserves the mention of a few preliminaries 
 to which I was not altogether a stranger. 
 
 One of the foremost men in the annals of polite- 
 ness and gallantry at the court of Louis XVI. was 
 undoubtedly Count Louis de Narbonne. Some per- 
 sons had been pleased to increase his celebrity by 
 deducing from the striking resemblance of his features 
 to Louis XVI. an inference implying some great mys- 
 tery as to his birth. He had also himself laboured 
 to add to his reputation by his perfect amiability of 
 disposition, his intimate liaison with the most extra- 
 ordinary woman of the age, Madame de Stael, and, 
 in short, by the easy and courteous manner in which 
 he exercised in the war department a constitutional 
 ministry in the decline of the monarchy. Forced to 
 emigrate, and exposed to the shafts of the ultra-re- 
 publicans and the ultra -royalists, he was at first 
 neglected upon his re-entering France ; at a later 
 period, however, I gave him a reception full of that 
 warmth with which the patriots of 1789, who had a 
 wish to conciliate royalty with liberty, had inspired 
 me. To accomplished manners he joined a brilliant 
 and ready wit, and often even a correctness and 
 depth of observation. At length he was with me 
 daily ; and such was the charm of his conversation 
 that it afforded me, in the midst of the most fatiguing
 
 GENERAL NARBONNE 
 
 293 
 
 labours, the sweetest relaxation. All that M. de Nar- 
 bonne requested of me on behalf of his friends and 
 connections I granted him. I spoke of him to the 
 Emperor. I had some difficulty in overcoming his 
 repugnance to him ; he was distrustful of his former 
 connection with Madame de Stael, whom Napoleon 
 regarded as an implacable enemy. I, however, per- 
 sisted, and the Emperor at length allowed him to be 
 presented. Napoleon was immediately struck with him, 
 and first attached him to his person as ojficier d'ordon- 
 nance. General Narbonne followed him in the cam- 
 paign of Austria, during which he was appointed 
 governor of Trieste, with a political mission, of which 
 I had intelligence. 
 
 Upon the Emperor's return, and when the affair of 
 the marriage was brought on the tapis, I named him 
 as the fittest person for adroitly sounding the inten- 
 tions of the court of Austria. It would have been 
 contrary to all propriety and custom for Napoleon to 
 have taken any decided step before positively ascer- 
 taining the determination of the Emperor Alexander ; 
 therefore the instructions delivered to the Count de 
 Narbonne merely authorised him to act in his own 
 name, and as a private individual, with all the delicacy 
 and ability requisite in an affair of such high import- 
 ance. He arrived at Vienna in the month of January, 
 1810, his only apparent object being to pass through 
 it on his way to return to France through Germany. 
 There, opening his batteries, he first saw M. de Metter- 
 nich, and was afterwards introduced to the Emperor 
 Francis. 
 
 The question of the marriage of the Emperor at
 
 294 
 
 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 that time interested all Europe, and naturally became 
 one of the subjects of his conversation with the Emperor 
 of Austria. M. de Narbonne did not fail to observe that 
 the greatest sovereigns of Europe courted the alliance 
 of Napoleon. The Emperor of Austria immediately ex- 
 pressed his surprise that the court of the Tuileries had 
 overlooked his family, and he said sufficient for M. de 
 Narbonne to know what he had to depend upon. He 
 wrote to me the same day, and, in communicating to 
 me the hints of the court of Vienna, said that he 
 thought he might conclude from them that an alliance 
 with an archduchess would enter into the views of 
 Austria. Upon the arrival of the courier, I immediately 
 hastened to communicate his dispatch to the Emperor. 
 I never saw him so joyous and happy. He caused 
 Prince Schwartzenberg, the Austrian ambassador, to be 
 sounded ; directing that this delicate negotiation should 
 be conducted with such circumspection that the ambas- 
 sador snould find himself compromised before he was 
 aware of it. The object was, not to offend the Emperor 
 Alexander by giving him room to suspect that a double 
 negotiation had been set on foot, and at the same 
 time of making all Europe suppose that the Emperor 
 had had the choice of a grand duchess and an arch- 
 duchess ; as to the Princess of Saxony, that was a 
 mere matter of form. 
 
 On the ist of February Napoleon summoned at 
 the Tuileries a grand privy council, composed of the 
 high dignitaries, great officers, all the ministers, the 
 presidents of the senate, and the legislative corps, and 
 those of the sections of the council of state. We were 
 in all twenty-five persons. The council being assembled,
 
 THE NEW CONSORT 
 
 295 
 
 and the deliberations begun, the minister Champagny 
 first communicated the dispatches of Caulaincourt, our 
 ambassador in Russia. From his representation it 
 appeared that the marriage with a Russian princess 
 solely depended upon our allowing her the public 
 exercise of her worship, and permitting for her use 
 the erection of a chapel of the Greek ritual. He then 
 made known the hints and desires of the court of 
 Vienna : thus embarrassment of choice seemed the 
 only difficulty. Opinions were divided. As I was 
 in the secret I abstained from giving mine, and pur- 
 posely withdrew before the end of the deliberation. 
 Upon the council breaking up, Prince Eugene was 
 commissioned by the Emperor to make formal over- 
 tures to Prince Schwartzenberg. The ambassador 
 had received his instructions, and all was arranged 
 without the least difficulty. 
 
 Thus Napoleon's marriage with Maria Louisa was 
 proposed, discussed, determined upon in council, and 
 stipulated within twenty-four hours. 
 
 The day after the holding of the council a senator, 
 one of my friends, always au fait at news, 1 came to 
 inform me that the Emperor had decided for an arch- 
 duchess. I affected surprise, and at the same time 
 regret, that a Russian princess had not been chosen. 
 " If this be the case," cried I, " I must pack up ! " 
 availing myself thus of a pretext to give my friends a 
 hint of my approaching disgrace. 
 
 Gifted with what is called tact, I had a secret 
 
 1 A recueil of anecdotes, in which this circumstance is related, 
 mentions M. de Semonville as the person ; hut Fouche suppresses 
 the name. — Note by the Editor.
 
 296 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 presentiment that my ministerial power would not long 
 survive the new order of things, which would, doubt- 
 less, effect a change in the habits and character of 
 Napoleon. I did not in the least doubt that, having 
 become the ally of the house of Lorraine, and be- 
 lieving himself henceforth certain of the cabinet of 
 Austria, and consequently of having it in his power 
 to subject ancient Europe to his will, he would think 
 himself in a situation to get rid of his minister of 
 police, as had already been the case after the peace 
 of Amiens. I was also firmly convinced that he would 
 never pardon my having of myself raised an army, 
 forced the English to re-embark, and saved Belgium. 
 I knew, in fact, that since that time my intimacy with 
 General Bernadotte had been an object of suspicion 
 with him. 
 
 The more he indulged within himself dispositions 
 inimical to me, the more I was persuaded of their 
 existence. They revealed themselves upon my pro- 
 posing to him to set at liberty, on the approaching 
 occasion of the celebration of his nuptials, a part of 
 the prisoners of state, at the same time relieving others 
 from surveillance. Instead of complying with my wish, 
 he exclaimed with an affectation of humanity against 
 the deplorable despotism exercised by the police, telling 
 me that he thought of putting an end to it. Two days 
 afterwards he sent me the sketch of a report drawn up 
 in my name, and of an imperial decree, which, instead 
 of one state prison, established six, 1 ordering besides 
 that henceforth no one could be arrested but in virtue 
 
 1 Vincennes, Saumur, Hani, Landskrona, Pierre-Chatel, and 
 Fenestrelle. — Note by the Editor.
 
 FOUCIIE AS PEACEMAKER 
 
 297 
 
 of a decision of the privy council. This was a bitter 
 scoff, the privy council being nothing else than the will 
 of the Emperor. The whole was so artfully managed 
 that I was compelled to present the project to the 
 council of state, where it was discussed and finally 
 adopted on the 3rd of March. In this manner did 
 Napoleon elude putting an end to illegal arrest and 
 throw upon the police all the odium of arbitrary deten- 
 tions. He also obliged me to give him a list of indi- 
 viduals under surveillance. Surveillance was a very mild 
 police measure, which I had invented merely to relieve 
 from the severities of arbitrary detention the numerous 
 victims daily hunted down by hired accusers, whom I 
 had great difficulty to keep within any bounds. This 
 odious and secret militia was inherent in a system 
 raised and maintained by the most suspicious and mis- 
 trustful man that perhaps ever existed. It was a state 
 wound. I had sometimes the weakness to imagine 
 that now, firmly established and at ease, Napoleon 
 would adopt a system of government more paternal, 
 and at the same time more conformable to our 
 manners. Under this point of view the marriage with 
 an archduchess gave me hopes ; but I felt more and 
 more that the sanction of a general peace was indis- 
 pensable. Could I not myself contribute to this peace, 
 as I had co-operated by my impulse to the dissolu- 
 tion of a sterile connection and to the alliance with 
 Austria ? If I succeeded in this object, I might, from 
 the importance of such a service, triumph over the 
 prejudices of the Emperor and reconquer his confi- 
 dence. But England was first to be sounded. I had 
 the less hesitation, from the change which had taken
 
 298 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 place in the composition of the English ministry having 
 given me some just grounds of hope. 
 
 The ill-success of the greater part of its operations 
 in this last campaign had excited the displeasure of 
 the English nation, and produced serious dissensions 
 among the ministers. Two among them, Lord Castle- 
 reagh and Mr. Canning, had even gone so far as to 
 fight a duel, after having sent in their resignations. 
 The cabinet had hastened to recall from the Spanish 
 embassy the Marquis of Wellesley to succeed Mr. 
 Canning in the place of secretary of state for foreign 
 affairs ; and to place at the head of the war department 
 Earl Liverpool, formerly Lord Hawkesbury. I knew 
 that these two ministers indulged lofty but conciliatory 
 views. Besides, the cause of Spanish independence 
 being almost desperate, in consequence of the victory 
 of Ocanna and the occupation of Andalusia, I imagined 
 that I should find the Marquis of Wellesley more 
 open to reasonable overtures ; I therefore determined 
 to reconnoitre the ground, and that in virtue of the 
 powers which I had frequently used, of sending agents 
 abroad. 
 
 In this mission I employed M. Ouvrard, for two 
 reasons : first, because a political overture at London 
 could scarcely be begun but under the mask of com- 
 mercial operations ; and next, because it was impossible 
 to employ in so delicate an affair a man more broken 
 into business or of a more insinuating and persuasive 
 character. But as M. Ouvrard could not without 
 inconvenience enter into direct relations with the Mar- 
 quis of Wellesley, I associated with him M. Fagan, 
 an old Irish officer, who, being intrusted with the first
 
 GREAT JOY AND GREAT SORROW 299 
 
 dispatches, was to open to him, so to speak, the way 
 to the British minister. 
 
 I determined that M. Ouvrard should not set off till 
 after the celebration of the marriage. The entry of 
 the young archduchess into Paris took place on the 
 1st of April ; nothing could be more magnificent or 
 more interesting. The day was beautiful. The ex- 
 pressions of joy from the prodigious crowds assembled 
 were rapturous. The court immediately set off for St. 
 Cloud, where the civil act was gone through, and the 
 next day the nuptial benediction was given to Napoleon 
 and Maria Louisa in one of the saloons of the Louvre, 
 amid numbers of ladies sparkling with jewels and 
 magnificent attire. The fetes were splendid. But that 
 which was given by Prince Schwartzenberg, in the 
 name of his master, offered a sinister omen. The 
 dancing-room, built in the garden of his hotel, took 
 fire, and in an instant the saloon was in a blaze ; 
 many persons perished, among others the Princess 
 Schwartzenberg, wife to the ambassador's brother. The 
 unfortunate conclusion of this fete, given to celebrate 
 the alliance of two nations, did not fail to be compared 
 to the catastrophe which had marked the fetes on the 
 occasion of the marriage of Louis XVI. and Marie 
 Antoinette; the most unfortunate presages were drawn 
 from it. Napoleon himself was struck with it. As I 
 had given the prefecture all the requisite orders, and 
 as that office had been specially charged with this 
 part of the public surveillance, it was upon that, or at 
 least upon the prefect of police, that the Emperor's 
 resentment fell. He disgraced Dubois ; and, unfortu- 
 nately, a public disaster was necessary to remove a
 
 300 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 man who had so often misdirected the moral end of 
 the police. At court and in the city the order of the 
 day was henceforth to please the young Empress, 
 who, without a rival, captivated Napoleon. It was 
 even on his side a kind of childishness. I knew 
 that an opportunity was being sought of finding fault 
 with the police touching the sale of certain works 
 upon the Revolution, which might have hurt the 
 Empress. I gave orders for their seizure; 1 but such 
 was the cupidity of the agents of the prefecture, 
 that these very works were clandestinely sold by 
 those even whose duty it was to send them to the 
 mill. Towards the end of April the Emperor set off 
 with the Empress to visit Middleburg and Flessingue ; 
 he also went to Breda. This journey was fatal to me. 
 
 1 The police, in virtue of an order from the Duke of Otranto, 
 made the most severe search, forbade and seized all works upon 
 the Revolution which were written with a bias towards royalty. 
 The editor" of " Irma," having published a large portion of those 
 works which recalled to the memory of the French nation the royal 
 family of the Bourbons, was the chief object of the inquisitorial 
 visits of the police. Thus this last search in his warehouses 
 continued for two days ; almost all his books were confiscated ; 
 he was himself seized and conducted to the prefecture. One 
 work only was partly the cause of this excessive severity ; it 
 had been published a long time ; it was the history of the 
 iniquitous trials of Louis XVI., the Queen, Madame Elizabeth, 
 and the Duke of Orleans. The work contained passages of the 
 highest importance, such as secret interrogatories, secret declara- 
 tions, decrees, and other unknown pieces, extracted from the 
 journals of the revolutionary tribunals, and which had never 
 seen the light. This work alone cost the editor more than 
 thirty domiciliary visits without their ever being able to seize 
 the entire edition, only some isolated copies being taken. In 
 spite of all these searches and visits the work was constantly 
 sold, and people even hid themselves in order to read it. — Note 
 by the Editor.
 
 FOUCHE IN DISGRACE 301 
 
 The Emperor, struck with my reflections upon the 
 necessity of a general peace, had endeavoured, without 
 my knowledge, to open secret negotiations with the 
 new English minister, through the medium of a 
 commercial house at Amsterdam. From this resulted 
 a double negotiation and double propositions, which 
 surprised the Marquis of Wellesley extremely. Both 
 the Emperor's agents and mine being equally sus- 
 pected met with a similar refusal. The Emperor, 
 surprised at so sudden and unexpected a conclusion, 
 in order to discover the cause, employed his foreign 
 agents and counter-police. At first he had only vague 
 informations ; but he was soon enabled to judge that 
 his negotiation had been crossed by other agents, 
 whose mission he was unacquainted with. His sus- 
 picions at first fell on M. de Talleyrand ; but, upon 
 his return, having received fresh information, he 
 discovered that M. Ouvrard had made overtures, 
 drawn up without his knowledge, to the Marquis of 
 Wellesley; and, as M. Ouvrard was known to be 
 connected with me, it was inferred that I had given 
 him his instructions. On the 2nd of June, being at 
 St. Cloud, the Emperor asked me in full council 
 what M. Ouvrard had gone to England for? "To 
 ascertain for me the sentiments of the new ministry 
 relative to peace, in conformity to the idea I had 
 the honour to submit to your Majesty before your 
 marriage." " So," replied the Emperor, " you make 
 war and peace without my being a party." He left 
 us, and gave orders to Savary to arrest M. Ouvrard, 
 and to conduct him to Vincennes ; at the same time 
 I was forbidden to have any communication with the
 
 3 02 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE 
 
 prisoner. The next day, the portfolio of the police 
 was given to Savary. It was this time a real disgrace. 
 I should certainly have made a prediction rather 
 premature, by recalling the words of the prophet : 
 " In forty days Nineveh shall be destroyed ; " but I 
 might have predicted with confidence that in less 
 than four years the Empire of Napoleon would no 
 longer exist. 
 
 END OF VOL. I 
 
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