FROM THE 
 
 BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY 
 
 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DC 198.F76A4 
 
 Memoirs of Josepli Fouche,duke of Otrant 
 
 3 1924 024 337 895 
 
.^i'^x. I ^^<^J 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024337895 
 
JOSEPH FOUCHE 
 
^' ^' ^ f f f 
 
 IF this Edition of the Memoirs of 
 Fouche, One Hundred and Fifty 
 Copies are Printed for England and 
 Atnerica. 
 
 ^ 
 

 L VlnUT s™lp. 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 OSEPH IMOUCHE 
 
 DUKE OF OTRANTO 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GENERAL POLICE OF FRANCE 
 
 m-TH PORTRjilTS 
 
 WILLIAM W. GIBBINGS 
 
 i8, BURY STREET, LONDON, W.C 
 1892 
 
vi THE AUTHORS PREFACE. 
 
 extreme activity of mind and memory ; irritated by solitude, 
 this activity required some vent. It has been, therefore, 
 with a sort of unrestrained delight that I have written this 
 first part of my recollections ; ' I have, it is true, retouched 
 them, but no material change has been made, not even 
 during the anguish of my last misfortune — for what greater 
 misfortune can there be than to wander in banishment, an 
 exile from one's country ! 
 
 France, my country, ever dear to me, never shall I again 
 behold thee ! At what a price, therefore, have I purchased 
 my past power and grandeur. Those whom I once 
 succoured now offer me no friendly hand. But in vain 
 would they condemn my name to the silence of oblivion. 
 I shall find means to disappoint the expectations of those 
 who are already watching for the spoils of my reminiscences 
 and revelations ; of those who are preparing to lay snares 
 for my children. If my children are -too young to suspect 
 the artifices of the designing, I will guard them against 
 them by seeking, far from the crowd of ungrateful men, a 
 discreet and faithful friend. The human species is not yet 
 so depraved as to render my researches unavailing. 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 
 proper time for 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, unin- 
 fluenced by the coteries of the capital, one equally superior 
 to, the base intrigue and sordid speculation. This is 
 assuredly my only and best guarantee that these; Memoirs 
 
 This' advertisement was prefixed to the first part ; both are included 
 in the present volume. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 shall remain free from the interpolations and garblings 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 to the fact that 
 I have to treat of a period of peculiar delicacy, of one pre- 
 senting innumerable and serious difficulties, whether we 
 consider the times, the personages, or the calamities which 
 it embraces. But truth, when not deformed by the malig- 
 nancy of the passions, will ever command the attention of 
 mankind. 
 
 NOTE. — This edition has been printed from the text of the revised and 
 corrected second edition, published by Charles Knight in 1825. 
 
LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 Fouch£. Engraved by Wolff. (Frontispiece^ 
 
 Napoleon. Engraved by Hopwood. Face page 64. 
 
 LuciEN Bonaparte. Engraved by Maudiuson. 
 
 Face page 120. 
 Josephine. Engraved by Gouttiere. Face page 224. 
 
 Napoleon. Engraved by Hopwood. Face page 346. 
 
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 splendid elevation, 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 degrade himself if, to answer the calumnies of 
 libellers, he descended to apology or captious refutations : he 
 must use other arms. 
 
 This man, then, is myself. Raised by the revolution, I 
 fell from my grandeur, from the effects alone of a counter- 
 revolution, which I had foreseen, and might have warded 
 off, had I not found myself unarmed at the moment of the 
 crisis. 
 
 This second 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 passions, dissolve 
 factions, and prevent conspiracies ; — me, who was never- 
 ceasingly employed in moderating and tempering power, in 
 
2 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 conciliating and amalgamating 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, and 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 tur- 
 bulence and violence. This is the object I propose to 
 myself. 
 
 From truth I think I have nothing to dread ; and even 
 were it so, I would speak it. The time for divulging it 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 for the 
 revolution, — neither for the misdirection of its course, nor 
 the energy of its dictation. I was nothing, I possessed no 
 authority when its first shocks, overturning France, shook 
 Europe to its foundations. Besides, what was this revolu- 
 tion ? It is notorious, that previous to the year 1789, 
 presentiments of the destruction of empires had created 
 uneasiness in the monarchy. Empires are not exempted 
 from that universal law which subjects all mundane things 
 to change and decomposition. Has there ever been one 
 whose historical 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 3 
 
 years without having received any deadly attack, was not 
 far from a catastrophe. Of what consequence is it, if rising 
 from its ashes and reorganized, 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 revolution erected a bulwark which might 
 have arrested them for a time — it was 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 prodigies of the 
 revolution — you who have gone through it without daring 
 to look upon it — you have submitted to it, and perhaps may 
 submit to it once more. 
 
 Who provoked it, and whence did we first see it rise ! 
 From the saloons of the great, from the 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 modern Babylon. 
 
 Was it not those that were considered the flowers of 
 France, who, for forty years, established a worship in honour 
 of Voltaire and Rousseau ? Was it not among the higher 
 classes that the mania of democratical independence, trans- 
 planted from the United States into the French soil, first 
 took root ? Dreams of a republic were already afloat, while 
 
6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 disappointed of the honours they might have gathered in 
 it, had recourse to emigration, the resource of the weak. Find- 
 ing no support at home, they ran to seek it abroad. After 
 the example of what other nations had done in similar cir- 
 cumstances, the French nation decreed that the property of 
 the emigrants should be sequestrated, because they had armed 
 against France, and were calling all Europe to arms. But 
 how could the rights of property, the foundation of monarchy, 
 be touched without sapping the basis of the throne ? Seques- 
 tration led to spoliation ; and from that moment the whole 
 mass fell ; for the mutation of property is synonymous with 
 the subversion of the established order of things. It was 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 found. 
 
 From that moment the revolution was nothing but a scene 
 of total disorganization. The terrible sanction of war was 
 wanting to it ; and the European cabinets, of their own 
 accord, opened the temple of Janus. From the commence- 
 ment of this great contest, the revolution, full of youth and 
 ardour, triumphed over the old political system, over a des- 
 picable coalition, and over the contemptible operations of its 
 armies and their discord. 
 
 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 suppose that, it had 
 triumphed over the patriotic confederacy of France ; that 
 the arms of the Prussians in Champagne had met with no 
 serious check as far even as the capital ; and that the revo- 
 lution had been disorganized in its very focus : admitting 
 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 diplo- 
 macy. T^hs progress of knowledge had not yet introduced 
 the discovery of the European confederacy, of military 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 7 
 
 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 incontestible. 
 
 Much outcry has been made against the excesses of this 
 sanguinary revolution. Could it remain calm and temperate 
 when surrounded by enemies and exposed to invasion ? 
 Many were mistaken, but few were criminal. The cause of 
 the loth of August is alone to be ascribed to the advance of 
 the combined Austrians and Prussians. If they came too 
 late, it matters little. 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 these memoirs. 
 It is of myself I wish to speak, or rather of the events in 
 which I was concerned as a minister of state ; but it was 
 necessary that I should introduce the subject and describe 
 the character of the times. Let not the generality of my 
 readers suppose that I shall tediously recite my domestic life 
 as a private individual or obscure citizen. Of what advan- 
 tage would it be to know the first steps of my career ? 
 Minutiae such as these can only interest the famished com- 
 pilers of contemporaneous biography, or the gulls who read 
 them ; they have nothing to do in common with history, 
 and it is to the dignity of history that my narrative aspires. 
 
 My being the son of a shipowner, and having been at first 
 destined for the sea, can be of little consequence ; my family 
 was respectable. It is also of little interest to know — that I 
 was brought up among the Peres de I'Oratoire, that I be- 
 came a member of that College, that I devoted myself to 
 teaching, and that the revolution found me prefect of that 
 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 perfectly at liberty to become 
 
8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 a free-thinker or a philosopher without being guilty of apos- 
 tacy ; certain it is that I quitted the oratory before I exer- 
 cised any public functions, and that, under the sanction of 
 the law, I married at Nantes, with the intention of exercising 
 the profession of an advocate, which was much more con- 
 sonant 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 artifice or 
 intrigue, a representative of the people at the National Con- 
 vention ? 
 
 It is in this political defile that your rats of the minister's 
 antechamber wait to attack me. There are no exaggera- 
 tions, no excesses, no crimes, either in mission 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. 
 
 At first I buried myself in the committee of public in- 
 struction, where I became acquainted with Condorcet, and 
 through him with Vergniaud. 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 lent him 
 money, to enable him to take up his abode in Paris when he 
 was appointed deputy to the National Assembly. When we 
 again met at the Convention, we, at first, saw each other 
 frequently ; but the difference of our opinions, and perhaps 
 the still greater dissimilarity of our dispositions, soon caused 
 a separation. 
 
 One day, at the conclusion of a dinner given at my house, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 9 
 
 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 unaffected manners. I went 
 round to him, and advancing towards Robespierre, said to 
 him, " Such violence may assuredly enlist the passions on 
 your side, but will never obtain for you esteem and confi- 
 dence." Robespierre, offended, left the room ; and it will 
 shortly be seen how far this malignant man carried his ani- 
 mosity against me. 
 
 I had, however, no share in the political system of the 
 Gironde party, of which Vergniaud was the reputed leader. 
 I thought that the effect of this system would be to disunite 
 France, by stirring up the greater portion of the people of the 
 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 inwiardly 
 detested, and whose violences marked the progress of the 
 revolution. What horrors were committed in 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 assembly, a 
 species of monstrous dictatorship, the offspring of confusion, 
 and which alternately presented a counterpart of the anarchy 
 of Athens and the despotism of the Ottoman. 
 
 It is here, then, that the revolution and the counter-revo- 
 lution are politically at issue. Is the question to be decided 
 by the laws which regulate the decisions of criminal tribu- 
 nals ? The convention, notwithstanding its internal divi- 
 sions and its furious decrees, or, perhaps, by those very 
 decrees, saved the country beyond its integral limits. This 
 is an incontestible fact, and, in this respect, I do not deny my 
 participation in its labours. Each of its members, when 
 accused before the tribunal of history, may confine himself 
 
lo MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 to the limits of Scipio's defence, and say with that great 
 man, " I have saved the republic — let us ascend to the 
 Capitol to thank the gods ! " 
 
 There was, however, one vote which remains unjustifiable ; 
 I will even avow, without shame or without weakness, that 
 it has caused me to know remorse. 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 crown, at that time incompatible with the new order of 
 things. I will also add, for direct avowals must now super- 
 sede the shadows of disclosure, that it then appeared to me, 
 as to so many others, that we could not inspire the represen- 
 tatives, and the mass of the people, with an energy sufficient 
 to surmount the diificulties of the crisis, but by abandoning 
 everything like moderation, breaking through all restraint, 
 and involving all the leading men of the revolution in its 
 progress. Such was the reason of state which appeared to 
 us to require this frightful sacrifice. In politics, even atro- 
 city 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 Tvielded even by those who had planted it with their own 
 hands. That Brutus was more fortunate in erecting the 
 noble edifice which he besprinkled with his children's blood, 
 I can, as a thinking man, conceive ; it was far more easy for 
 him to have placed the fasces of the monarchy in the hands 
 of the aristocracy already organized. 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 as to the means of reconstruction. The level 
 of equality was already so violently established in the nation, 
 that the authority was necessarily 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 con- 
 ventional duties, of some extenuating circumstances. Being 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. ii 
 
 despatched upon a mission into the departments, forced to 
 employ the language of the times and to yield to the fatality 
 of circumstances, I found myself compelled to put in execu- 
 tion the law against suspected persons. This law ordered 
 the imprisonment, en masse, of priests and nobles. The 
 following is what I wrote, the following 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 pas- 
 sions, 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 random. The law decrees severe punishments, 
 and not proscriptions, as immoral as they are barbarous." 
 
 It required at that time some courage to mitigate as much 
 as was in one's power the rigour of the conventional decrees. 
 I was not so fortunate in those missions in which I was only 
 one member of a collective authority, because the power of 
 decision was not intrusted to myself alone. Throughout 
 my missions, the actions which may be considered as deserv- 
 ing of censure will be found far less than the every-day 
 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 
 established. 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 pretended 
 pro-consulates reduced the missionary deputy to be nothing 
 more than a man-machine, the itinerant commissary of the 
 committees of public safety and 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 
 
12 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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 mistrust 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 inex- 
 pugnable popularity : this was Robespierre, a man full of 
 pride and cunning ; an envious, malignant, and vindictive 
 being, who was never satiated with the blood of his col- 
 leagues ; and who, by his capacity, steadiness, the clearness 
 of his head, and the obstinacy of his character, surmounted 
 circumstances the most appalling. Availing himself of his 
 preponderance in the committee of public safety, he openly 
 aspired, not only to the tyranny of the decemviri, but to the 
 despotism of the dictatorship of Marius and Sylla. One step 
 more would have given him the masterdom of the revolu- 
 tion, which it was his audacious ambition to govern at his 
 will ; but thirty victims more were to be sacrificed, and he 
 had marked them out 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 accusation. He caused me to be 
 expelled from the Jacobins, of whom he was the high-priest ; 
 this was for me equivalent to a degree of proscription.' I 
 
 ' After the death of Danton, of Camille-Desmoulins, and other deputies 
 who were seized during the night at their habitations by a mere order of the 
 committees, delivered over to the revolutionary tribunal, tried and con- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi:. 13 
 
 did not trifle in contending for my head, nor in long and 
 secret deliberations with such of my colleagues as were 
 threatened 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 I'Oise, and Dubois de Crance evinced some 
 energy. Tallien contended 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 ! Robe- 
 spierre's popularity would have survived him, and we should 
 have been immolated to his manes. I therefore 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 Robespierre the government of terror, 
 and whom I knew to be envious or fearful of his immense 
 popularity. I revealed 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 address and good fortune, that I insinuated into 
 their breasts more than mistrust — the courage of henceforth 
 opposing the Tyrant in any further decimating of the con- 
 vention. "Count the votes," said I to them, "in your 
 committee, and you will see, that when you are determined, 
 he will be reduced to the powerless minority of a Couthon 
 and a St. Just. Refuse him your votes, and compel him to 
 stand alone by your vis mertice}'' 
 
 demned without being able to defend themselves, Legendre, the friend of 
 Danton, Curtois, 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. Fouch^ was more than two months 
 without having any fixed residence. It was thus that Robespierre made 
 those tremble who seemed desirous of opposing his views to the dictator- 
 ship. — Note by the French Editor. 
 
14 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 But what contrivances, what expedients were necessary to 
 avoid exasperating the Jacobin club, the Seides^^ and the 
 partisans of Robespierre ! Sure of having sown the seed, I 
 had the courage to defy him, on the 20th Prairial (June 8, 
 1794), ^ day on which, actuated with the ridiculous idea of 
 solemnly acknowledging 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 committee, 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 astonishment, and what was his rage, upon find- 
 ing amongst the members of the committee an invincible 
 opposition to his sanguinary designs against the national 
 representation ! It has already been too much mutilated, 
 said they to him, and it is high time to put a stop to a 
 deliberate and progressive cutting-down, 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 St. 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 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 
 
 I This is an allusion to a character in Voltaire's Fanatisme, whose name, 
 Seide, has become synonymous with the satellite of a tyrant, or the devotee 
 of an impostor. — English Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FO UCHt. 1 5 
 
 den of power, he was desirous of throwing upon his adver- 
 saries the general execration of making them appear as the 
 sole perpetrators of so many murders, and of delivering them 
 up to the vengeance of a nation which now began to mur- 
 mur at the shedding of so much blood. But cowardly, mis- 
 trustful, 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. 
 
 My eye was on him ; and seeing him reduced to a single 
 faction, I secretly urged such of his enemies who still clung 
 to the committee, at least to remove the artillery from Paris, 
 who were all devoted 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 reinforce- 
 ments 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 9th Thermidor (27th July) 
 ruined the cause of Robespierre, the triumph of which was 
 for a short time in his power. But what could be expected 
 from a drunken and stupid ci-devant footman. 
 
 What follows is too well known for me to dwell upon it. 
 It is notorious how Maximilian the First perished : a man 
 whom certain authors have compared 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 thought that his 
 views tended to the dictatorship, " You do him too 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 sus- 
 peftded the nation between life and death, was doubtless a 
 
i6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJk. 
 
 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 had crouched most abjectly 
 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 
 assassins, enlisted in companies of the Sun and of Jesus. I 
 had escaped the proscription of Robespierre, but I could not 
 that of the reactors. They pursued me even into the 
 convention, whence, by dint of recriminations and false 
 accusations, they caused my expulsion by a most iniquitous 
 decree ; for nearly a year, I was the victim of every species 
 of insult and odious persecution. It was then I learnt to 
 reflect 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, the convention saw the abyss which yawned 
 under its feet. The crisis was awful — it was a struggle for 
 life or for death. The convention took up arms ; the 
 persecution of the patriots was stopped, and the cannon of 
 one day (13th Venddmiaire) restored order among the crowd 
 of counter-revolutionists, who had imprudently risen with- 
 out chiefs and without any centre of object and action. 
 
 The cannon of Vend^miaire, 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 17 
 
 which he was soon to arrive at the most astonishing renown 
 of modern tinjes. 
 
 , 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 already formed our natural 
 barrier. . This was, indeed, an attempt of the utmost boldness, 
 in presence of the armies of a renewed coalition, formed by 
 inimical governments and disturbers of the common peace. 
 The war, it is true, constituted our strength ; but it was 
 sometimes 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 entrusted with the direction of affairs, 
 than from the force of events and the effervescence of recent 
 passions : too many vices discovered themselves. The regula- 
 tion of our home aifairs had also its embarrassments. 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 
 temporary magistrates as oligarchs 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 directory, however, 
 like every new government, which almost always possesses 
 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 the 
 directory saw, perhaps with too much inquietude, the 
 proceedings of the demagogues ; — it was alarmed because 
 they had their focus in Paris, under its own eyes, — and 
 because they associated with all the dissatisfied patriots in 
 their hatred to all organized power. This twofold difficulty, 
 
 3 
 
1 8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi.. 
 
 which might have been easily avoided, caused a deviation 'in 
 the poHcy of the directory. It abandoned the revolution- 
 ists, an order of men to which it owed its existence, and 
 preferred favouring those cameleons, 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. We saw five men, invested with the supreme 
 power, and who in the convention had rendered themselves 
 conspicuous for the energy of their votes, keep back their 
 former colleagues, caress the mongrels (miti's) and loyalists, 
 and adopt a system quite the reverse of that to which they 
 owed their political 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 in- 
 terest, and sharing this unaccountable disfavour 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 event, 
 and of a change of system brought about by the force of 
 circumstances. This deserves being particularized. 
 
 Of all the members of the directory, Barras was the only 
 one who was accessible to his former, but now neglected, 
 colleagues ; he had, and deserved, the reputation of pos- 
 sessing 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 blood-suckers, male and female. He 
 was at this time Carnot's rival ; and only maintained him- 
 self in the public opinion by the idea that, in case of 
 need, he would at once " to horse," braving, as on the 13th 
 Vendemiaire, every hostile effort ; he also affected the 
 manners of the prince of the republic, went hunting, and 
 kept his hounds, his courtiers, and his mistresses. I had 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi.. 19 
 
 known him both before and after the catastrophe of 
 Robespierre, and I had remarked that the justice of my 
 reflections and presentiments had struck him : I had a 
 secret interview with him, through the medium of Lombard- 
 Taradeau, a man; from the South, like himself, and one of 
 his boon-companions and confidants. This was during the 
 first difficulties of the directory, at that time struggling with 
 the Babceuf faction. I imparted my ideas to Barras ; he 
 himself desired me to draw them up in a memorial ; this 
 I did, and transmitted it to him. The position of the 
 directory was therein politically considered, and its dangers 
 enumerated with precision. I described the faction Baboeuf, 
 which had dropt the mask before me ; and showed Barras 
 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 
 the hands of the demagogy through terror and bloodshed. 
 My memorial had its effect ; the evil was eradicated. 
 Barras then offered me a second-rate place, which I refused, 
 unwilling to obtain employments, except by the main road. 
 He assured me that he had not sufficient interest to pro- 
 mote me, that his efforts to overcome the prejudices of his 
 colleagues against me had been ineflfectual. A coolness 
 succeeded, and all was deferred. 
 
 In the interval an opportunity presented itself of ren- 
 dering myself independent as far as fortune was concerned. 
 I had sacrificed my profession and my 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, through the patronage of the directors, 
 shares in the government contracts {fourmtures). A 
 company was formed ; I was admitted into it, and by the 
 influence of Barras I obtained a share of the contracts.' 
 'There is always a certain degree of artifice even in what Fouch^ 
 
20 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 I thus commenced making my fortune, after the example 
 of Voltaire, and I contributed to that of my partners,, who 
 distinguished themselves by the punctuality with which 
 they fulfilled the clauses of their contract with the republic. 
 I was myself the manager, and in this new sphere found 
 iiiyself enabled to assist more than once many worthy but 
 neglected patriots. Aifairs, however, still grew worse at 
 home. The directory confounded the mass of the' revolu- 
 tionists 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 sanguinary men and terrorists. 
 The directory itself, carried away by the torrent of preju- 
 dice, could not continue in the prudent track which might 
 have maintained and strengthened it. The public opinion 
 was daily more and more falsified and perverted, by ser- 
 vile writers, by pamphleteers in the pay of the emigrants 
 and of foreign powers, openly recommending the, destruction 
 of the new institutions : the task allotted them was to vilify 
 the republicans and the heads of the state. By permitting 
 itself' to be thus disgraced and dishonoured, the directory, 
 whose members were divided amongst themselves by a 
 spirit of rivalry and ambition, lost all the advantages which 
 a representative government offers to 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 copquest of 
 Italy in the name of the revolution and the republic — the 
 
 ■allows. Let us ho-wever give him credit for having spoken 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 of the French Edj-tpr. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 21 
 
 republican spirit languished at home, 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 triumviratie had been 
 formed, composed of Barras, Rewbel, and Reveillfere-Lepaux ; 
 three men inadequate to their functions in so important a 
 crisis. They at length perceived that the only support left 
 them was the cannon and the bayonet, so that at the risk of 
 arousing the ambition of the generals, they were compeflled 
 to' call in the armies to their assistance ; another serious 
 datigeir, but onfe which, not being so immediate, was less 
 anticipated. 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, 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 inodirhi poured threatening 
 addresses into all the departments, as well as into the 
 capital. In the north, the army did not confine itself to 
 deliberation and the signing of addresses. Hoche, general- 
 in-chief of the army of Sambre-et-Meuse, despatched arms 
 and ammunition on the road to Paris, and marched his 
 troops upon the neighbouring towns. Through some secret 
 means, this movement was suddenly suspended ; either 
 because there was not a perfect understanding upon the 
 mode of attacking the two councils, or because, as I have 
 great reason to beheve, the object was to procure the 
 conqueror of Italy a more exclusive influence in the 
 direction of aifairs. It is certain that the interests of 
 Bonaparte were at that time supported 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. 
 
22 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 On the 4th of September (i8th 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 it always 
 happens in those popular commotions in which the 
 soldiery interferes, the toga yielded to the sword. Two 
 directors, fifty-three deputies, and a great number of 
 authors and printers of periodical journals who had 
 perverted the 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 reorganized in the spirit of ^he 
 new revolution. 
 
 In this manner the royalistS;; were vanquished , and 
 dispersed without a blow, by the mere appearance of jthe 
 military ; in this manner the popular societies were re- 
 organized ; 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 places 
 and honours. As to the directory, in which Merlin de 
 Douai and Frangois de Neufchslteau 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 perilous, as it endangered the future. 
 
 Previously to the i8th 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 
 calculations, my prophetic words, had contributed in no 
 small degree to impart to the directorial triumvirate that 
 watchfulness and stimulus which its gropings and irreso- 
 lutions demanded. Was it not natural that an event so 
 favourable to the interests of the revolution should also 
 turn to the advantage of those men who had founded 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 23 
 
 and preserved it by their intelligence and their energy ? ^ 
 Hitherto the path of the patriots had been strewn with 
 thorns : it was time that the tree of liberty should produce 
 sweeter fruits for those who were to gather and enjoy them ; 
 it was time that the high places of the state should devolve 
 upon men of superior abilities. 
 
 Let us conceal nothing ; we had rid ourselves of the 
 coalition, of the scourge of the civil war, and of the still 
 more dangerous manoeuvres of the cameleons at home. 
 Now, by our energy, and the force of circumstances, we 
 were masters of the state and of every branch of power. 
 There only remained to ensure an entire possession of 
 power, that it should be distributed by the scale of capacity 
 alone : when power is once possessed, the only skill 
 necessary is that which will best keep it. Every other 
 theory at the conclusion of a revolution is but folly, or 
 impudent hypocrisy ; this doctrine will be found in the 
 hearts of those even who dare not avow it. As an ex- 
 perienced man, I declared those trivial truths, till then 
 regarded as a state secret." My reasons were appreciated : 
 the application of them alone caused embarrassment. 
 Intrigue did much ; a salutary activity the rest. Soon a 
 soft shower of secretaryships, ministeries, commissariats, 
 legations, embassies, secret missions, and commands of 
 military divisions, came, like the manna from heaven, to 
 quench the thirst of the iltte of my former colleagues. 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 
 
 ' An invaluable confession, explaining at once the motives of every 
 revolution, past, present, and to come. — Note of the French Editor. 
 
 ° As far as I know, none of the heads of the revolution have ever as 
 yet said so much. Fouch^ is really candid in his avowals. — Note of the 
 French Editor. 
 
24 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 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 Sep- 
 tember, 1798, not without many previous steps and inter- 
 views. Ambassador 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 fine 
 policy of Bonaparte. Austria, however, was to be indeihrii- 
 fied 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 Isles, 
 which France retained: It was evident that whilst we thus 
 built one house, we provided the connecting stones of 
 another edifice ; not to stop in so fair a course, we already 
 spoke of revolutionizing all Italy. In the meantime, the 
 treaty of Campo Formio served to consolidate the new 
 republic, the extent of which was respectable. It was 
 composed of Austrian Lombardy, the Modenese, Massa and 
 Carrara, the Bolognese, Ferrarese, Romania, Bergama, 
 Brescia, Cremona, and other possessions of the Venetian 
 state on the continent. Already matured, it demanded its 
 emancipation ; that is to say, instead of languishing under 
 the severe guardianship of the French directory, to 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 hkewise 
 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 headquarters from Berne to Milan. 
 But another director, whose system of poUcy and diplomacy 
 was that of kicks and cuffs, 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 conceived 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi.. 25 
 
 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 poor 
 statesman ; both these led the directory, for Treilhard and 
 Rfeveillere-Lepaux were humble followers of their colleagues. 
 If Barras, who played a game of his own, sometimes ob- 
 tained 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 pronjinent features; especially as it is a preliminary 
 absolutely indispensable for the clearer comprehension of 
 what follows. In less than one year, the peace of Campo 
 Formio, which had so much deceived the credulous, was 
 already sapped to its basis. Stopping at nothing, we had 
 made a dreadful abuse of the right of the stronger in 
 Helvetia, at Rome, and in the East. For want of kings to 
 attack, we had made war upon the shepherds of Switzer- 
 land, and had even started the Mamelukes as our game. 
 It was the expedition into Egypt, in particular, which 
 re-opened all our wounds. The origin of that expedition 
 is sufficiently curious to be noted here. Bonaparte held 
 our 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 expression, 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 
 iffclined to seek his destruction against the cliflFs of Albion. 
 
26 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 To say the truth, it was scarcely known what to do with 
 him. Open disgrace would have insulted the public opinion, 
 and increased his strength. 
 
 An expedient was thus being sought > for, when the ex- 
 bishop of Autun, a man distinguished for his shrewdness 
 and address, and whom the intriguing daughter of Necker 
 had just introduced into the foreign department, conceived 
 the brilliant ostracism into Egypt. He first insinuated the 
 idea to Rewbel, then to Merlin, taking upon himself to 
 obtain the acquiescence of Barras. His plan was nothing 
 but an old idea which he had found amongst the dust of the 
 bureau. It was converted into a state affair. The expedient 
 appeared the more fortunate, 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 entered 
 unhesitatingly, and with the greatest ardour, into the idea 
 of an expedition, which not only could not fail adding to 
 his renown, but would also ensure to him distant possessions, 
 which he flattered himself he should govern either as a 
 sultan or a prophet. But soon cooling, whether he per- 
 ceived 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 revolutionize 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 ; and was succeeded by the fatal 
 catastrophe, of the destruction of our squadron at the mouth 
 of the Nile. The face of afiairs immediately changed. 
 England, in its turn, was in the dehrium 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 hatre4 ; at Constantinople by a violation of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE, 27 
 
 the rights of peace, and of nations. The Turk alone had 
 justice on his side. 
 
 So many untoward circumstances coming fast upon each 
 other, produced a deep impression at Paris ; it seemed that 
 the poHtical horizon again became cloudy. Open pre- 
 parations were tnade 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 
 conscription, an immense lever which had been borrowed 
 from Austria, improved 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 the Scheld 
 and the Deux Nethes, at the gates of Malines and Bruxelles ; 
 troubles at Mantua, and at Voghera ; Piedmont on the eve 
 of a convulsion ; Geneva and Milan torn by the contending 
 factions, and inflamed by the republican fever, with which 
 our revolution had inoculated them. 
 
 It was 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 
 commence the emancipation of the younger 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 
 directory, which held its sittings at the Luxembourg.' 
 
 ' Fouch^ ' does not give us sufficient information respecting this plan of 
 revolutionizing all the countries abroad, a plan at that time discarded by 
 the majority of the directory, and of which General Augereau was one of 
 
28 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi, 
 
 I concerted measures with Brune, I encouraged the most 
 ardent of the Lombardian patriots, and we decided that 
 the movement should be put in execution} and that there 
 should neither be proscriptions nor violence. On the 
 morning of the 22nd of October, a military demonstration 
 was made ; the gates of Milan were closed ; the directors 
 and 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 replaced by others. At the same time, the three directors, 
 Adelasio, Luosi, and Soprensi, chosen by the ex-ambkssador 
 Trouv^, and confirmed by the French Directory, were 
 likewise invited to resign, and replaced by three other 
 directors, Brunetti, Sabatti, and Sinancini. Citizen Porro, 
 a Lombardian patriot, full of zeal and intelligencej was 
 appointed minister of police. This repetition of our i8th of 
 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 soothe them were useless. It became 
 
 the first victims. Commander-in-chief of the army of Germany,, after 
 the l8th Fructidor, he was about to revolutionize Suabia, when he was 
 recalled and disgraced. Bonaparte had part in tliis, and was furious 
 because they were already attempting to demolish 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 seemed to be A renewal of the propagattdum in 1792, appears to have 
 had no other adherent in thcr directory than Barras ; this was but a weak 
 support. Rewbel and Merlin did not like to proceed so precipitately in 
 the affair ; already alarmed at their excesses in Egypt and Switzerland, 
 they persisted in lulling themselves in a situation which was neither that 
 of peace nor war. It must be owned, that the bold attempt of universal 
 revolutionizing, which thfey only dared to attempt by halvfes, woulli have 
 given the revolutionists of France the great advantage of choice, with 
 regard to the operations of the campaign of 1799, which turned against 
 them at home and abroad. The revolution stopped, and assumed a more 
 masculine character. — Note of the French Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 29 
 
 necessary to issue an order for removing Soprensi hy force 
 from the apartments he occupied at the directorial palace ; 
 and I was compelled to receive from him a fresh protest, the 
 purport of which was, that he denied the general-in-chief 
 had the right which he had arrogated over the Cisalpine 
 authorities. Here the opposition ended — we surmounted 
 every difficulty without noise or violence. It may he 
 supposed, that the couriers were not idle ; the ex-deputies, 
 and the malcontents, had recourse to the directory of Paris, 
 to which they appealed. 
 
 I, on my part, despatched 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 1 8th of Fructidor, and the still more recent one, when 
 the directory found itself under the necessity of annulling 
 the elections of several departments, in order to remove 
 several obnoxious meddling or dangerous deputies. I then 
 launched into more important considerations, invoking the 
 terms and the spirit of the alliance entered into between 
 the French and the Cisalpine republics, a treaty approved 
 by the council of ancients on the 7th of March preceding. 
 In this treaty the new republic was explicitly acknowledged 
 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, in 
 assuring the directory, 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 entrusted ; finally, I rested 
 upon my instructions, which authorized me to reform 
 
30 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 
 
 without tumult or violence the vices of the new Cisalpine 
 government, the excessive and expensive numbers of the 
 members of the legislative body, the administrations of the 
 departments ; and which directed me to take care that 
 the form of the republican government should not be 
 oppressive to the people. From that I proceeded to 
 guarantee also the existence of immense resources ; the 
 legislative body of Milan having authorized the directory 
 to sell thirty millions of national domains, in which was 
 included the property of the bishops. The despatch of 
 General Brune, the general-in-chief, perfectly coincided 
 with mine ; but all was useless. Pride and vanity, as 
 well as the lowest intrigues, and even foreign insinuations, 
 interfered in the affair. Besides, the object was now to 
 solve one of the highest questions of immediate policy, that 
 is, the adoption or rejection of the system of the unity of 
 Italy divided into republics, effected by the sudden over- 
 throw of the old rotten governments, already tottering, and 
 incapable of supporting themselves, a system, the triumph 
 of which would, we thought, redound to our honour.' This 
 nervous and decisive policy was not to the taste of the wary 
 minister who at that time was at the head of our foreign 
 affairs' ; he employed indirect means to ruin our plan, and 
 he succeeded. Rewbel and Merlin, whose vanity was 
 brought into play, inveighed loudly against the affair of 
 Milan ; we had only on our side the single vote of Barras, 
 which was soon neutralized. A decree made ab irato, on 
 the 2Sth of October, formally disavowed the alterations 
 effected by General Brune. At the same time the directory 
 signified to me its disapprobation, informing me that it 
 
 ■ Very well, M. Fouch^. History will take notice of the declaration of 
 your system of 1798. Since you are a, man of such veracity, you will 
 doubtless give us fresh proofs that this system, which was only modified 
 by the force of circumstances, was perpetuated even to 1815, the period of 
 your last coming into power. — French Editor. 
 
 ' Here personal designation is unnecessary. The reader has but to refer 
 to the almanacs. We ought to respect the discretion of the Duke 
 d'Otranto towards one of his ancient colleagues. — French Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 31 
 
 would have much satisfaction in seeing all the ex-ditectors 
 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 could neither know the origin nor 
 the 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 
 proceeding. I protested warmly against the disapprobation 
 of the directory ; I pointed out the danger of retrograding, 
 the will of the people having openly declared itself in the 
 primary assemblies, so as to render it impossible to undo 
 what had been done, without the risk of being guilty of the 
 most blameable frivolity and inconsistency. I also observed 
 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 to be the prelude to a general war. 
 I announced to the directory that thirty thousand Austrians 
 were assembling on the Adige ; but I was preaching to the 
 winds. Brune, upon receiving the decree of the directory 
 which annulled the alterations made on the 20th of October, 
 received also instructions to leave the army of Italy, and to 
 proceed to take the command in Holland. He was for- 
 tunately replaced by the brave, modest, and loyal Joubert, 
 particularly qualified to calm and remedy everything. 
 
 Milan was in a state of fermentation, and the two rival 
 factions found themselves again opposed to each other ; the 
 one full of hope of being re-established, and the other fully 
 determined to resist strongly ; 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 relations with the Cisalpine directory till 
 it had been reorganized such as it was previous to the 20th 
 of October. The directory likewise ordered a new convoca- 
 
32 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 tion of the primary assemblies : I was much shocked at this 
 contempt of the repubh'can principles, upon which our own 
 constitution had been founded. The servile, vexatious sysljem 
 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 degrading men apd 
 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 ac- 
 companied by an act justly disapproved of, and strongly 
 condemned, by my government. (Here a palliative was 
 necessary.) Your, fellow-citizens, by giving i,t their sanction 
 in your primary assemblies,, have given you a moral power 
 for which you become responsible to the Cisalpine people. 
 
 " Proudly, then, assert its independence, and your own ; 
 hold with firinness the reins of government which are 
 intrusted to you, without being embarrassed by the per- 
 fidious suggestions of calumny ; make your authority re- 
 spected by a powerful and well-organized police ; oppose the 
 malignity of passions by displaying a majesty of character, 
 and confound all the machinations of your enemies by an 
 inflexible justice. 
 
 " We are always desirous of giving 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 freemen. 
 
 " Citizen directors ! elevate your minds with events ; be 
 superior to them if you wish to command them ; be not uneasy 
 about the future ; the strength of republics consists in the 
 nature of things ; victory and liberty shall pervade the world. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 33 
 
 " Direct the ardent activity of your fellow-citizens, in 
 order to render it productive. . . . Let them learn that 
 energy is not delirium, and that the independence of liberty 
 does not consist in acting wrong." 
 
 But the Italian character was little capable of apprecia- 
 ting these precepts. I everywhere sought for a firmness 
 tempered by constancy, and with few exceptions, I found 
 nothing but wavering and pusillanimous hearts. 
 
 Enraged at such language, addressed to the Cisalpine 
 republic, our routine sovereigns (souverains ^ terme) sitting 
 in the Luxembourg, despatched, 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 residing 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. From the first interviews we had together, 
 we understood each other perfectly. 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 
 had come 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 urged him not to compromise himself 
 on my account, but to temporize. The commissary Rivaud, 
 not daring to undertake anything while I remained at Milan, 
 informed his constituents of the Luxembourg of his situ- 
 ation, and the next courier was the bearer of thundering 
 despatches. 
 
 The military authority was compelled to act, whether 
 willingly or not. In the night of the 7 — 8th of December, 
 the guard of the directory and of the legislative body was 
 disarmed, and replaced by French troops. The people were 
 
 4 
 
34 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 not allowed to enter the palace where the directory and the 
 two councils assembled. A secret committee was held during 
 the night ; and on its breaking 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, ironed, and passed 
 from brigade to brigade up to Paris, had not Joubert 
 apprized me in time. I secreted myself in a country house, 
 near Monza, where I soon received a copy of the proclama- 
 tion addressed by citizen Rivaud to the Cisalpine republic. 
 In this disgraceful monument of political absurdity, the 
 irregularity and violence of the proceedings of the 20th of 
 November were alleged, and condemned on account of their 
 having been promoted by the military power ; a most 
 ridiculous accusation, since it equally condemned the i8th 
 Fructidor, and the late and humiliating scene at Milan, 
 acted by orders sent from Paris, without any previous 
 knowledge of the state of affairs. This patriot of a com- 
 missioner, in enigmatical terms, taxed Brune and myself 
 with being innovators and reformers, without character or 
 mission ; in short, he exposed the excess of our patriotism, 
 which, he said, caused the popular government to be ca- 
 lumniated. 
 
 All this was truly contemptible, and without any ap- 
 pearance of reason. Being informed that I had disappeared, 
 and thinking that I was concealed in Milan, the directory 
 again despatched an extraordinary courier, the bearer of a 
 fresh order for my expulsion from Italy. " If you are aware," 
 wrote immediately poor Rivaud to the Cisalpine directory, 
 " that citizen Fouche is on your territory, I beg you will give 
 me information accordingly." 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 considerably 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 35 
 
 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 them- 
 selves 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 my removal from Milan, which I 
 received, accompanied with an earnest request not to make 
 any noise about it. 
 
 I thought these details, upon my first failure in an im- 
 portant political mission, necessary for the better under- 
 standing of the state of the public mind at this period, and 
 to acquaint the reader with the ground upon which I had 
 to commence my operations. I had, besides, already penned 
 this expos'e by desire of Bonaparte, on the eve of his de- 
 parture for Marengo ; and I own that, upon re-perusing it, 
 recollections were brought to mind which gave me no small 
 degree of satisfaction. 
 
 I found the directorial authority shaken, less by the 
 expectations of public disasters, than by the underhand 
 machinations 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 (Rots a tertnes) ; people were indignant that their 
 authority was only made known by exactions, injustice, and 
 incapacity. By rousing the dormant passions they provoked 
 resistance. A few confidential interviews 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 ap- 
 proaching crisis. The Russians advanced, and were pre- 
 paring to enter the lists. The government grew tired of 
 
36 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 sending note after note to Austria, to endeavour to stop 
 their progress ; and, 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, and 
 at the same time deprived itself of its best generals. Not only 
 Bonaparte was as it were an exile in the sands of Africa — 
 not only Hoche, escaped from the Irish expedition, had 
 ended his days by poison — Pichegru was banished to Sin- 
 namary — Moreau was in disgrace — Bernadotte, who had 
 retired from the diplomacy, after the failure of his embassy 
 to Vienna, had resigned his command of the army of ob- 
 servation. But 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, commenced on the 
 1st 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 : Schoerer, 
 Rewbel's favourite general, lost three battles on the Adige ; 
 these deprived us, in a few days, of the hberty 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 may easily 
 be imagined ; every government, which, during a revolution, 
 can only make malcontents, and whose arms are unsuc- 
 cessful, must necessarily lose its power : upon the first 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 37 
 
 reverses, all the ambitious reassume of course an hostile 
 attitude. 
 
 I was present at several meetings of the discontented 
 deputies and generals, and I concluded that, in reality, the 
 parties had not all the same intentions, but that they met 
 for the common purpose of overturning the directory, in 
 order to be able afterwards to further their own views. I 
 set Barras right upon this subject, and prevailed upon him 
 to effect, at any cost, the expulsion of Rewbel, being very 
 sure that we should afterwards very easily subdue Treilhard, 
 Merlin, and Reveillere. These two last were particularly 
 disliked, for having favoured the system of the electoral 
 divisions, the object of which was to keep out of the legis- 
 lative councils the most ardent republicans. 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 dis- 
 played an exalted patriotism ; he was at the head of a party 
 of disaffected with Boulay de la Meurthe. Joseph, on his 
 side, lived at a great expense, and kept a magnificent estab- 
 lishment. His house was the rendezvous of the most 
 powerful deputies of the councils, the highest functionaries, 
 the most distinguished of the generals, and the women 
 whose minds were most fertile in expedients and intrigue. 
 
 The coalition being formed, Rewbel, disconcerted and 
 abandoned by Merlin, to whom he was represented as the 
 scape-goat to be sacrificed, thought himself too fortunate to 
 bargain for his withdrawing from the directory, under the 
 appearance of the lot having fallen upon him ; " the prin- 
 
 ' The directors were elected by the council of ancients, from a list of 
 fifty candidates, presented to them by the Council of Five hundred. It is 
 well known that, at every session of the legislative body, one of the five 
 thrones of the directory became vacant ; then lots were cast to know which 
 of the five members should come out. It seems that, on these occasions, 
 the power of parties was sufficient to make the lot fall upon the individual 
 who was obnoxious to them. 
 
 Thus it is reported, that when Letourneur, who was replaced by Barthe- 
 „lemy, nephew of the celebrated writer of that name, vacated his seat, it 
 
38 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 cipal condition was, that his retreat in the council of ancients 
 should be respected. But who was to fill his place in the 
 directory ? Merlin, and the other Ventrus ' deputies, his 
 creatures, determined upon appointing in his stead Duval, 
 of the Seine Inferieure, a man of humble 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 permitted to go on quietly, 
 and a,ll their measures being taken, every effort was made in 
 favour of Sieyes, the ambassador at Berlin, whose concealed 
 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 disposition was suspicious 
 and artful ; I also believed that he cherished sentiments but 
 little compatible with the basis of our liberties and institu- 
 tions. I was not for him ; but I belonged to the coterie 
 which so suddenly formed in his favour, without my being 
 able to conjecture from what motive. It was urged that it 
 was necessary to have at the head of affairs, upon the com- 
 mencement of a threatening coalition, a man who of all 
 others knew how to keep Prussia in a neutrality so advan- 
 tageous 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 recollect the disappointment of the subtle Merlin 
 and of that poor Duval, his creature, who, whilst the council 
 were proceeding in the election, having established a tele- 
 graphic line of agents from the Hotel de Police to the 
 Legislative Hall, whose duty it was to transmit to the happy 
 
 was announced, the day before, in one of the papers (I'ami des lots), that 
 the lot should fall on him. The same trick was played with regard to 
 Rewbel, who was glad thus to disguise his retreat ; he was immediately 
 after elected member of the council of ancients. — JVofe of the English 
 Editor, 
 
 ' The members 'of the council, who adhered to Merlin's party, were thus 
 nicknamed ; the same epithet recurs in the following page, in which Fouche 
 mentions the defections of this party. — English Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 39 
 
 candidate the intelligence of his having been raised to the 
 directorial dignity, learned from them that a part 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 of these operations, often amused ourselves 
 with the aflFair, at those excellent dinners in which politics 
 were discussed. 
 
 Merlin saw in Sieyes a dangerous competitor, and, from 
 that moment, looked upon him with an evil eye. As to 
 poor Duval, having soon after been replaced by Bour- 
 guignon, he turned misanthrope. These two inferior 
 citizens were neither of them fitted to direct the poUce.' 
 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, Chfenier, Francais de Nantes, 
 Chalmel, Texier-Olivier, Berlier, Baudin des Ardennes, 
 Cabanis, Regnier, the two Bonapartes ; in the other Ber- 
 trand du Calvados, Poulain-Grandpre, Destrem, Garrau, 
 Arena, Salicetti, and several other vigorous athletse. In 
 both these, which had their auxiliaries without, I gained 
 over several to Barras, while he on his side manoeuvred 
 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 with fatigue, dispirited by 
 repeated defeats, and commanded by 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 
 
 ' A little vanity of Fouche's, who prepares everything in the style of a 
 melodrame, 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 immense perquisites. — French Editor, 
 
40 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 the desire of vengeance, upon the frontiers even of the 
 repubhc ? 
 
 The dissatisfaction with the majority of the directory soon 
 became general : '' It has only," as was observed, " displayed 
 its authority in oppression, injustice, and incapacity : instead 
 of signalizing its dictatorship by some brilliant action, since 
 the 1 8th Fructidor it has but abused its immense power ; 
 it has ruined our finances, and dug the abyss which now 
 threatens to swallow 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 approach- 
 ing the frontiers. 
 
 A concerted message, addressed to the directory, requiring 
 information upon the situation of the republic abroad and 
 at home, 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 
 i6th June, 1799 (28th Prairial), declared their sittings per- 
 manent. On its side, the directory adopted the same 
 resolution by way of reprisal ; but it was already incapable 
 of parrying the blows with which it was threatened. 
 
 It was first deprived of the right of restraining the liberty 
 of the press. The expression of opinion being no longer 
 prevented, it was no longer possible for the legislators to 
 defend the field. Consequently, scarcely was the appoint- 
 ment of Treilhard contested and revoked, than Treilhard 
 retired, without opening his lips. 
 
 Merlin and Reveillfere, 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 imperi- 
 ously the resignation of the two directors. At the same 
 time Bertrand du Calvados, in the name of a commission 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 41 
 
 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 Rivauds, your Trouves, and your 
 Faypoults, who, not satisfied with exasperating our allies by 
 extortions of every kind, violated by your orders the rights 
 of nations, proscribed republicans, or arbitrarily 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 towards me. 
 
 At length, on the 30th Prairial (i8th June), Merlin and 
 Reveillbre, upon a solemn assurance that they should not 
 be impeached, sent in their resignation, and Sieyes became 
 master of the field of battle. At that very instant, the 
 whole strength of the revolution rallied round Sieyes and 
 Barras. 
 
 In perfect understanding with the leaders of the councils, 
 they used every means to admit, as their colleagues at the 
 Luxembourg, in the room of the expelled directors, men 
 such as Roger-Ducos, Moulins, and Gohier, who had not 
 sufficient capacity or firmness to excite their jealousy. This 
 arrangement tended greatly to make them masters of affairs, 
 Roger-Ducos being associated in vote and interest 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 in which I also had a hand. A few days afterwards I 
 was appointed to the embassy of Holland : this was a species 
 of reparation, which the new directory owed me. I went to 
 take leave of Sieyes ; he told me that, till then, they had 
 governed at random, without end and without fixed princi- 
 ples, and that it should not be so for the future ; he expressed 
 some uneasiness respecting the new flight of the anarchical 
 spirit, with which, said he, it is impossible ever to govern. I 
 
42 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 answered that it was time this aimless and irregular demo- 
 cracy should give place to a republican aristocracy, or 
 governme/iit by wise and experienced men, the only one 
 which could establish and consolidate itself. " Yes, doubt- 
 less," replied he, " and if that were possible, you should have 
 a part in it ; but how distant are we still from so desirable 
 an object ! " I then mentioned Joubert to him as a sincere 
 and disinterested general, whom I had 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 attentively heard me to the con- 
 clusion, only replied by a Cest bien ! I could discover 
 nothing else in his crooked looks. Thus, it may be seen 
 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. Talleyrand's friends, who has since been made a 
 senator ; that he owned to him that the revolution wandered 
 without any object in a vicious circle ; and that no stability 
 or safety could be found but by help of another social orga- 
 nization, 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 had already 
 been united together without 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 httle principality as paternally as Leopold 
 governed Tuscany." Finding that he alluded to the Duke 
 of Brunswick, the manifesto of 1792 was mentioned. "He 
 is not the author of that cursed manifesto," replied he, with 
 much warmth, " and it would be easy to prove that he him- 
 self advised the retreat from Champagne, refusing to expose 
 France to fire and bloodshed, and to fight for the emi- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 43 
 
 grants." " We must not, however," continued Sieyes, " think 
 of the son of the cowardly Egahte ; not only there . is not 
 substance enough in him, 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 generals, I do 
 not see one who is capable of, or adequate to, placing himself 
 at the head of a coalition of determined men to extricate us 
 from the confusion in which we are at present involved, for 
 it cannot be dissembled that our power and constitution are 
 crumbling into ruin on all sides." This conversation re- 
 quired no comments ; I knew also that Sieyes had held, 
 upon our situation at home, nearly the same language to 
 Barras. These glimmerings were sufficient to let me into 
 his views, and to form my opinion respecting his inward 
 ideas. 
 
 There is no doubt but that he already intended favouring 
 us with a social compact of his own fashion. The haughty 
 priest had long been devoured by the ambitious idea of 
 becoming 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, Chdnier, Garat, and the greater part of the 
 members of the Council of the Ancients ; who, hurried 
 on since that, went beyond the goal they had proposed. 
 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 credentials at the 
 Hague, where I replaced Lombard de Langres, a kind of 
 affected author, but in other respects a good-natured man. 
 I found this other younger republic divided, as to its 
 authorities, into firm and weak men ; into aristocrats and 
 democrats, as everywhere else. I convinced myself that the 
 
 ' Louis the XVIIIth. 
 
44 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHlt. 
 
 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, although, 
 at the same time, he winked at a contraband trade, in- 
 dispensable to prevent the ruin of the country. I let him 
 do as he pleased ; we could not fail understanding each other 
 perfectly ; like me, he found himself sufficiently avenged by 
 the overthrow of the unskilful rulers who had injured and 
 expatriated us so mal-a-propos. 
 
 Nothing, however, was as yet fixed at Paris. The greatest 
 instability prevailed, and it was to be apprehended that the 
 triumph of the councils over the executive power might end 
 by enervating and disorganizing the government. It was, 
 above all, to be feared, that the anarchists, by abusing the 
 consequences of the late revolution, might wish to overturn 
 everything, 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 sympathize with 
 the views of Sieyes and his party. 
 
 Fortunately, the faction of Bonaparte, directed by his two 
 brothers, and having for councillors Rcederer, Boulay de la 
 Meurthe, and Regnier, coincided in viewing the necessity of 
 arresting the march of the legislative body. Lucien took 
 upon him to speak from the tribune. By proposing some 
 line of demarcation for the future, he drew round his own 
 party the old directors and their followers, who were fearful 
 of being called to an account. The danger was pressing ; 
 the ultra party demanded the impeachment of the ex- 
 directors, a measure which would bring to light or unveil 
 all their malversations. A strong opposition, therefore, 
 immediately arose, in a portion of those very deputies 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 45 
 
 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 unfortunate than 
 criminal. They above all recalled the promise, or rather the 
 moral assurance 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 appro- 
 bation the expedition into Egypt, and the declaration of war 
 against the Swiss, now the objects of so much declamation. 
 This impeachment, besides, would have revealed too much ; 
 and this Barras wished to avoid : on the other hand, it 
 would also have had consequences prejudicial to the power 
 itself, a thing which Sieyes considered as impolitic. These 
 discussions were protracted, with the view of occupying the 
 public attention till other incidents, and th^ march of events, 
 might operate a diversion.' But how was it possible to stop 
 at once the abuses of the press, which began to exceed all 
 bounds, and the contagion of the popular clubs, which had 
 everywhere been re-opened ? Could Sieyes, at the head of 
 his phalanx, composed of some forty philosophers, meta- 
 physicians, and deputies, without any other energy than that 
 stimulated by worldly linterest, 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 calculate 
 upon Roger-Ducos ; with regard to Moulin s and Gohier, his 
 only guarantee for them was their extreme sincerity, and 
 their limited political views. Men so insignificant might, at 
 the critical moment, become the instruments of an enter- 
 prising faction. The ascendancy which Sieyes exercised in 
 the directory might be diminished, or even turned against 
 him by mistrust. 
 
 ' All this is very clear, and we know no other production which throws 
 so much light upon the intrigues of this period. — French Editor. 
 
46 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 But when, indeed, he saw that he could rely on Joubert, 
 invested with the command of Paris, and whose taste and 
 habits were about to be flattered by a marriage into which 
 he allowed himself to be entrapped, Sieyes resolved to make 
 him the pivot of his reforming coalition. In consequence, 
 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 portion of glory sufficient for the part he 
 was called to act. 
 
 This arranged, Sieyes perceived that he wanted the 
 springs of a firm and active police. The police, as it was 
 then constituted, naturally favoured the popular party, who 
 had introduced into its body several of its creatures and 
 leaders. The worthy Bourguignon, the then minister, owed 
 his elevation to Gohier ; but was entirely inadequate to fill 
 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 memorial upon the situation of the home affairs, 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 was about to tread appeared slippery. I lost no time in 
 taking possession of my post ; and on the 1st of August I 
 was installed. 
 
 The principle cause of the fall of the crown in 1789 was 
 the incapacity of the high police ; the directors of it, at that 
 time, were not able to penetrate the conspiracies and plots 
 which threatened the royal family. The first pledge for the 
 safety of any government whatever is a vigilant police, under 
 the direction of firm and enlightened leaders. The difficulties 
 of the high police are immense, whether it has to operate 
 in the combinations of a representative government, so in- 
 compatible with arbitrary measures, and that leaves to the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 47 
 
 factious legal arms with which to execute their projects ; or 
 whether it acts in behalf of a more concentrated form of 
 government, aristocratical, directorial, or despotic. In the 
 latter case, the task is the more difHcult, for nothing tran- 
 spires from without : it is in obscurity and mystery that 
 traces must be discovered which only present themselves to 
 inquiring and penetrating eyes. 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 duties. 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 had soon money at my command, by making 
 rhe vice inseparable from all great cities 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 confined myself, simply, to 
 concentrating the high police within my own cabinet, with 
 the assistance of an intimate and faithful secretary. I felt 
 that I alone should be judge of the political state of the 
 
48 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 interior, and that spies and secret agents were only to be con- 
 sidered as indicators and instruments often doubtful : in a 
 word, I felt that the high police was not to be administered 
 by memorials and long reports ; that there were means far 
 more efficacious ; for example, that the minister himself was 
 to place himself in contact with the leading men, of all 
 opinions and doctrines, and of all the' higher classes of 
 society. This system never failed me, and I was better 
 acquainted with the secrets of France by means of oral and 
 confidential communications, and by open 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 explained to myself 
 the political state of the interior, a kind of examination 
 which I had already prepared in my mind. I had scrutinized 
 every vice, and probed every wound of the social compact of 
 the year iii. (1795), by which we were governed ; and, to speak 
 sincerely, I considered that compact incapable of being 
 executed constitutionally. The two blows which had been 
 aimed at it, on the 18th Fructidor, and the 30th Prairial, in 
 a contrary sense, changed my 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, everything indicated that the 
 despotism of a few would be changed into a popular storm, 
 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 take 
 the helm.' If he had now surmounted his repugnance, it 
 
 ' On the formation of the Directory, loth Brumaire, year iv. (i Nov. 
 1795), Sieyes was one of the five named by the Council of Ancients. But 
 more flattered by being called to this high office, than anxious to undertake 
 it, or not feeling confidence in this new mode of government, he declined, 
 Carnot was named in his place, and accepted. — English Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 49 
 
 was because the opportunity of substituting a more reason- 
 able organization appeared to have arrived ; he could not 
 demoHsh the bastions, without approaching the fortress 
 itself. I explained myself to Barras, who mistrusted the 
 sinuous proceedings of Sieyes as much as I did. But he had 
 certain engagements with him, and, moreover, dreaded, on 
 his own account, the exaggerations and encroachments of 
 the popular party. This party spared him, but only from 
 political considerations, and with the hope 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 himself 
 pressed by the club of the Manhge,^ which, assuming the 
 tone and attitude of the Jacobins, declaimed against dilapi- 
 dators and public robbers ; and on the other, by Sieyes, 
 who, taking advantage of some degree of influence, had 
 some secret views which he did not trust entirely to Barras. 
 
 Sieyes had no doubt already prepared a constitution to his 
 own taste, which was to restrain and centralize power, as 
 soon as events should develop themselves ; his coalition was 
 complete, and he thought himself certain of the co-operation 
 of Joubert. A letter from this general gave me a glimpse 
 of these intentions ; he cherished the noble hope of returning, 
 strengthened by the ascendancy of victory, to conciliate all 
 parties. Sieyes had been heard to say, " Nothing can be 
 accomplished with meddling fools and babblers : we only 
 want two things, a head and a sword." I was in great hopes 
 that the sword upon which he so much relied would not 
 place itself entirely at his disposal. 
 
 Although his position was critical, temporizing with 
 
 ' On the 5th Brumaire, year IV. (27th October, 1795), the corps legislative 
 divided into two councils : the first, composed of 500 members, held its 
 sittings in the Salle de la Convention, and the second, composed of 250 
 members, called the Ancients, and which, even in those times, was con- 
 sidered as a sort of house of peers, met at the Riding School, Salle du 
 Manige. — English Editor, 
 
50 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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 necessary to oppose the new 
 legislative encroachments, and the attempts of the anarchists. 
 Sieyes had, in the council of ancients, an organized 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 the state of afifairs, I had 
 only to manoeuvre with dexterity and promptitude upon this 
 line of operations. The first step was to render any dangerous 
 coalition against the executive government totally impossible. 
 I took upon myself to put a stop to the too' great liberty of 
 the public journals, and to the bold march of the political 
 societies, which were rjsing again from their ashes. Such 
 was the first proposition which I made to the directory, be- 
 fore the assembled council, after an explanatory report which 
 Barras had concerted with Sieyes. I was left to act entirely 
 as I thought proper, 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 tran- 
 quillity at home, 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 
 accommodating. It was still worse when, on the i8th 
 Thermidor (sth August), four days after my entrance into 
 office, the directory transmitted my report upon the political 
 societies to the council of ancients, who sent it to the council 
 of five hundred. This was my ostensible task. In this 
 report, which was guarded in its expressions, for fear of 
 irritating republican susceptibility, I began with establishing 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 51 
 
 the necessity of protecting the interior discussions of the 
 clubs, by surrounding 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 con- 
 cluded by urging for measures which would compel them to 
 confine themselves within 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 forwarding my report, on the part of the 
 council of ancients, as a prerogative, in point of precedence, 
 contrary 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 re-action against the 
 most ardent supporters of the republic. A very warm dis- 
 cussion 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 disadvantage : 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 calcula- 
 ting 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 Manage 
 (council of ancients). 
 
 I was neither disconcerted nor alarmed by this dis- 
 couraging debut. To have given way, 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 so 
 openly. Sieyes, finding that the directory was shuffling. 
 
52 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 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 
 Manige. This stroke of authority caused a sensation. 
 I thought Sieyes certain of his object, and very strong, 
 when, at the commemoration of the loth of August, which 
 was held with much pomp in the Champ de Mars, he made 
 in his state-speech, as president, the most violent attacks 
 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 per- 
 severance, not by counterpoising one against the other, 
 but by suppressing them all alike. At that very instant, 
 as if some one wished to punish him for having fulminated 
 forth these menacing words, at the moment when the salvos 
 of artillery and musquetry terminated the ceremony, two or 
 three balls were heard, or believed to be heard, whistling 
 round Sieyes and Barras, followed by vociferations. Upon 
 returning to the directory, whither I closely followed them, 
 1 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 ultra republicans, who were 
 opposed to Sieyes' politics. Upon the proposition of Sieyes, 
 that very night, without taking the opinion of Bernadotte, 
 at that time the war-minister, and even without his know- 
 ledge, an order was made out, directing that Marbot should 
 be employed on active service, according to his rank. The 
 command of Paris was conferred upon General Lefevre, an 
 illustrious serjeant, whose ambition was limited to being the 
 instrument of the majority of the directory. The diatribe 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 53 
 
 of Sieyes at the Champ de Mars, and the Houra (shouts) 
 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 determine : I told him so candidly. 
 Three days after the harangue of Sieyes, I took upon myself 
 to order the closing of the hall of the Jacobins of the Rue 
 du Bac. I had my reasons.' A message from the directory 
 announced that the violation of the constitutional forms 
 by this assembled society, had determined 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 an ill-judged effort in La 
 Haute Garonne. Upon my report, the directory demanded 
 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 La Haute Garonne were sufficient to 
 stifle this ill-conceived and ill-directed insurrection. As to 
 the excesses 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. 
 
 ' 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 of the Editor. 
 
 " He was here no longer the Fouche of the revolutionary aristocracy, but 
 the Fouch^ of the convention ; his police was like Janus, it had two faces. 
 — Note of the Editor. 
 
54 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 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 to be very odious, and well calculated to 
 raise a great number of enemies. I contented myself with 
 neutralizing its execution as much as depended upon myself, 
 taking care, at the same time, that my repugna^nce should 
 not excite the apprehensions of the directory and the 
 departmental authorities. T was fully aware that these 
 troubles were connected with one wound of the state, which 
 the cabinet of London did its utmost to deepen. I de- 
 spatched into the western departments intelligent emis- 
 saries, to give me exact information of the state of things ; 
 I then gained 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 government ; 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 through them and the information they furnished, 
 I succeeded at a later period in putting an end to the 
 civil war.' 
 
 The greatest obstacles proceeded from amongst ourselves ; 
 they were raised by the schism of the revolutionists, divided 
 into the possessors of power and those who wished for 
 places. The latter, impatient and irritated, became more 
 and more exacting and hostile. How could it be hoped to 
 govern and reform the state while the press had too much 
 liberty ? Its licentiousness was at its height. " The direc- 
 tory, now nearly royalty," said the Journal des Hommes 
 Libres, " has ostensibly sanctioned the massacre of re- 
 
 ' Here, Fouche speaks as the precursor and promoter of the imperial 
 regime. — Note of the Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH&. 55 
 
 publicans by the speech of its president on the loth of 
 August, and by its message on the shutting up of pohtical 
 societies." Upon arriving at the Luxembourg, I found, as 
 I expected, Sieyes and his colleagues exasperated against 
 the journals ; I immediately suggested 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 thunder-struck and discouraged. 
 Although overcome with grief myself, I suggested never- 
 theless that the reins should not be let loose ; nothing, 
 however, could be decided on that day. In the circum- 
 stances 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 engagement with 
 the Russians. Unfortunately, the delay of a month, 
 occasioned by his marriage with Mile, de Montholon, had 
 given the enemy time to reinforce himself, and to oppose to 
 our army more formidable masses. The death of Joubert, 
 who was struck down at the first discharge of musquetry, 
 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 cottage, by some 
 hired ruffian, the musquetry 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 advanced 
 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 must add, that his valour was heightened 
 by his simplicity of manners and his disinterestedness, and 
 that in him a correct coup d''csil was found, united with 
 
S6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt:. 
 
 rapidity of execution — a cool head with a warm heart. And 
 this warrior was just snatched from us, perhaps by means of 
 the secret machinations of guilt, at the moment when he 
 might have raised and saved the country ! 
 
 The progress of the political views of the government was 
 suspended for nearly a fortnight ; we could not, however, see 
 ourselves perish. I roused Barras ; and knowing for certain 
 that Sieyes was meditating an important blow, which it 
 was essential to encourage, these two directors, reunited to 
 Roger- Ducos, resolved, upon my suggestions, to begin afresh 
 the execution of their plans. Resolved to restrain the 
 licentiousness of the press, I determined upon a decisive 
 blow ; I, at one stroke of my pen, suppressed 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 representing it as really 
 existing, of blasting private characters, misrepresenting 
 motives, reanimating factions, and rekindling animosities." 
 
 By its message, the directory confined itself to informing 
 the councils that the too great liberty of several journalists 
 had determined it to bring them before the tribunals, and 
 to put seals upon their printing presses. Upon my report 
 being read, murmurs were heard, and much agitation per- 
 vaded the hall. The deputy, Briot, declared that some coup 
 d'^etatvfa.i in preparation ; and after a personal attack upon me, 
 demanded the suppression of the ministry of the police. The 
 next day the directory caused an approbation of my adminis- 
 tration to be inserted in the Redacteur and Moniteur? 
 
 ■ Always the same when a government equally free from contradicfors 
 and contradictions is the object in view, Fouche, here, follows only the 
 errors of the convention, of the committee of public safety, and of the 
 directory, on the i8th Fructidor ; he will do the same under Bonaparte, 
 and he -viViX prove to us that he is right. — Note of the Editor. 
 
 ^ The Moniteur is still the government paper, and has been so -through 
 all the changes of the French revolution : its politics changing of course 
 with the times, and being dictated by the existing power. — English 
 Editor, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 57 
 
 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 derive 
 great motives of security in his co-operation. Careless, and 
 easily alarmed, he was constantly in need of a stimulus. 
 But we had no longer the faculty of choosing ; for, among 
 the generals then in credit, there was not 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 expedition 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 
 chose for their leaders Jourdan and Augereau, who had 
 seats in the five hundred and in the council, and Bernadotte, 
 who was minister for 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 very circumstance, 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 carefully supported him in this disposition, much 
 less to maintain myself in my post, than actuated by my 
 love for my country ' : 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 of it the night 
 before. So that all our majority, assembled not without 
 difficulty, after a meeting at the house of the deputy Fr6ge- 
 
 ■ What candour, what disinterestedness, in Fouche X— French Editor, 
 
58 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 ville, 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 inyaded, 
 the fleets treacherously given up, Helvetia ravaged, bands of 
 royalists indulging in every excess in many of the depart- 
 ments, the republicans proscribed under the name of 
 terrorists Andjacobths." Such were the principal traits of 
 the gloomy picture wJiich 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 July." 
 
 After having conjured the directory, from the legislative 
 tribune, to remove 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 pro- 
 duced the most violent debates. 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 both civil and military. 
 Already, in spite of the efforts 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. Ambition 
 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 sue- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 59 
 
 ceeded in overcoming him. He was, however, aware of the 
 projects which had been formed under the aegis of Joubert, 
 and of the proposals made afterwards to Moreau, to change 
 the form of government. We assured him that these were 
 mere undigested ideas, mere chance projects brought forward 
 by those theorists with which governments are continually 
 annoyed in critical times ; that nothing in this respect had 
 been determined upon ; that the constitution would be re- 
 spected, as long as our enemies did not wish to destroy it 
 themselves. Barras hinted to him, that it was advisable 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 adopting 
 a wrong measure ; the more so as I had certain intelligence, 
 that vast crowds would be assembled round the legislative 
 hall, and that the party flattered themselves they should 
 carry their object by a coup-de-mam, with the assistance of 
 three generals for their leaders. Sieyes, in his quality of 
 president, having sent for Bernadotte, talked him over, and 
 very adroitly got him to say, that he would consider the 
 chief command of an army as an honourable reward for his 
 labours as minister. Upon this, Sieyes proposed immediate 
 action. General Lef^vre had already received orders to con- 
 cert with me the necessary military measures for dispersing 
 by force the assembled multitude, after having previously 
 made himself sure of the good disposition of the soldiery. 
 I found him full of confidence, and I thought I might rely 
 upon his soldierlike inflexibility. My secret informations 
 coinciding with other confidential communications, Sieyes 
 and Barras, united with Roger-Ducos, dismissed Bernadotte, 
 without even mentioning it to Moulins or Gohier. To ap- 
 pease them, they were compelled to assure them that they 
 should be consulted upon the choice of the new minister, a 
 
6o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 choice which Gohier, seconded by Barras, directed, a few 
 days after, upon Dubois de Craned. 
 
 The debate was opened in rather an imposing manner, 
 upon the motion of Jourdan. Two opinions were ex- 
 pressed ; one party was desirous that the government should 
 preserve its ministerial and secret character ; the other 
 that it should receive a national and public one. These were 
 as so many masks, to conceal the real views of both parties. 
 Jourdan's motion was opposed with much talent and inge- 
 nuity by Chdnier and Lucien Bonaparte, and with less 
 abiUty by Boulay de la Meurthe. Lucien declared, that the 
 only mode of surmounting the crisis was, by intrusting a 
 great extent of power to the executive authority. He, how- 
 ever, thought it his duty to combat the idea of a dictator- 
 ship. " Is there one among us," cried he (this is very re- 
 markable), " who would not arm himself with the poinard of 
 Brutus, and chastise the base and ambitious enemy of his 
 country?" This was condemning beforehand the i8th 
 Brumaire, of which Lucien himself ensured the success two 
 months afterwards. It is evident that he, at that time, was 
 less anxious not to appear inconsistent than to prevent the 
 establishment of any kind of dictatorship ; for it would 
 have dashed down the hopes which his brother cherished in 
 Egypt, to whom he had despatched packet after packet to 
 urge his return. Lucien's grand object was, that he should 
 find the field clear, being well assured that neither hesita- 
 tion nor irresolution would be found in him ; superior in 
 this respect to our timorous generals, who, fearful of the 
 responsibility of a precarious power, saw no other mode of 
 reform but that of a new organization, 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 irritated it 
 considerably. Jourdan perceived in this the certain prog- 
 nostics of a coup d''itat, and demanded the permanence of the 
 councils ; his motions were all negatived by two hundred 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 6i 
 
 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 vocifera- 
 tions threatening. The mass of the population of Paris 
 showed their alarm. But, whether from inability or fatigue, 
 or from the efficacy of the measures of the military, and the 
 manoeuvres of my agents, all the elements of trouble and 
 discord were dissipated, and tranquillity seemed to be 
 restored. 
 
 The victory gained by the executive magistracy was com- 
 plete ; the council of ancients rejected the resolution which 
 was to have deprived the directory of the power of intro- 
 ducing troops within the constitutional radius. 
 
 These were, however, but evasive means. The country 
 was really in danger ; angry factions rent the state. The 
 removal of Bernadotte, disguised under the appearance of 
 his having himself tendered his resignation, was doubtless a 
 bold step, but one which might be interpreted to the disad- 
 vantage of the directory. In a letter which was made public, 
 Bernadotte replied in these terms to the official notice which 
 was given of his retiring. " I did not give in the resigna- 
 tion which has been accepted^ and I make known this fact 
 for the honour of truth, which equally belongs to contem- 
 poraries and to history." Then saying he was in want of 
 rest, he solicited a pension (fraitement de reforme), " which 
 I think I have deserved," added he, " by twenty years of un- 
 interrupted 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 following 
 any direction, till a pilot present himself capable of bringing 
 it safe into port.' " 
 
 ' FoucW ably prq)ares for the i8th Brumaire. — French Editor, 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 Two sudden events saved us. First, the battle of Zurich', 
 gained by Massena on the 2Sth of September, who, by again 
 defeating the Russians, and by preserving our frontier, perr 
 mitted us to linger on without any crisis at home till the 
 1 6th of October, the day on which Bonaparte, who had 
 landed on the 9th 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 us 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. What follows happened to me five or six 
 weeks before Bonaparte's landing. I was informed that two 
 persons, 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 may be considered as a species of involun- 
 tary foresight. This idea made its impression upon me. I 
 soon learned from some persons about Lucien and Joseph, 
 what were their real thoughts on the subject. They were 
 persuaded 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 un- 
 certain 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 any decided opinion upon 
 the matter. As to myself, concealing the discoveries I had 
 made, 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 pro- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 63 
 
 fusion she perpetuated the disorder and the embarrassments 
 of her affairs : she was always without money. The income 
 of forty thousand francs, secured to her by Bonaparte before 
 his departure, was insufficient for her ; independent of two 
 extra 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 had a share in the 
 secret distribution made of the funds arising from taxes on 
 gambling houses. I gave her, with my own hands, one 
 thousand louis, a ministerial compliment which more than 
 all rendered her favourable to me.' Through her I obtained 
 much information, for she saw all Paris ; with Barras, how- 
 ever, she was reserved ; but she was more intimate with 
 Gohier, at that time president of the directory, and whose lady 
 she admitted, into her society ; she complained much, at the 
 same time, of her brothers-in-law, Joseph and Lucien, with 
 whom she was on very bad terms. The information I ob- 
 tained from different quarters, at length, convinced me that 
 Bonaparte would suddenly burst upon us ; I was, therefore, 
 prepared for this event, at the time when it struck every 
 one with surprise. 
 
 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 enter- 
 prise in which, to succeed, the display of audacity was alone 
 requisite ; but, to abandon a victorious army, to pass through 
 hostile fleets, to 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 charac- 
 ter, and prompt decision. To enter into the details of the 
 short interval between the arrival of Bonaparte and the 
 
 ' This is truly being a clever man, and it is pretty well known what 
 the signification of the adjective " clever" is with revolutionists. — Editor. 
 
64 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 1 8th Brumaire, would fill a volume, or, rather, require the 
 pen of a Tacitus. 
 
 Bonaparte, with much adroitness, had caused his arrival 
 to be preceded by that of the bulletin announcing the victory 
 of Aboukir. It had not escaped my notice, that, in certain 
 coteries, people published it with a degree of earnestness, and 
 even had recourse to puffing and hyperbole. Since the last 
 despatches from Egypt, much more activity and cheerful- 
 ness were perceptible at Josephine's and her brothers'-in-law. 
 " Ah ! if he should arrive ! " said Josephine to me ; " it is 
 not impossible : should he have received the news of our 
 disasters in time, nothing would prevent 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 Lyon : it 
 seemed as if the universal feeling was that a chief was want- 
 ing, and that that chief had arrived under auspices the most 
 fortunate. Upon being announced at Paris, in the theatres, 
 the intelligence produced an extraordinary sensation, a 
 universal delirium of joy. No doubt there was something 
 factitious in all this, some concealed impelling power ; but 
 the general opinion cannot be commanded, and certainly it 
 was yery favourable to this unexpected return of a great man. 
 From this moment, he appeared to consider himself as a 
 sovereign who had been received in his dominions. The 
 directory, at first, felt a secret vexation, and the republicans, 
 from instinct, were much alarmed. A deserter from the 
 army of the east, and an infractor of the quarantine laws, 
 Bonaparte would have been crushed by a firm government. 
 But the directory, witnessing the general delirium, dared not 
 punish : it was besides divided. How could the directors 
 agree upon so important an aifair, without a unanimity of 
 views and intentions ? The very next day, Bonaparte re- 
 paired to the Luxembourg, to render an account, in a private 
 sitting, of the situation in which he had left Egypt. There, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 65 
 
 endeavouring to excuse his sudden return, by expressing a 
 determination to share and avert 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 themselves, Bonaparte, firmly resolved upon 
 seizing upon the chief authority, considered himself certain 
 of his object. Everything would depend upon the dexterity 
 of his manoeuvres. He first examined the state of parties. 
 The popular one, or that of the Manage, of which Jourdan 
 was one of the chiefs, was lost, as we have seen, in the abyss 
 of an interminable revolution. Next came the party of the 
 speculators upon revolutions, whom Bonaparte called the 
 pourris, at the head of which was Barras ; then the moderates 
 or pohttques, led by Sieyes, who endeavoured to fix the des- 
 tinies of the revolution, that they might be the directors or 
 arbiters of it. Could Bonaparte ally himself with the jaco- 
 bins, 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 soon conquering 
 without them. What had Barras really to offer him, but a 
 rotten plank, according to Bonaparte's own expression ? The 
 party of Sieyes remained, which he was also compelled to 
 deceive, the illustrious deserter being unwilling to employ, 
 otherwise than as an instrument, him who intended to remain 
 at the head of affairs. Thus, in fact, Bonaparte could calcu- 
 late upon no party whose object would have been the 
 foundation of his own fortune by an open usurpation ; and 
 yet he succeeded, by deceiving every one, by deceiving the 
 directors Barras and Sieyes, and especially Moulins and 
 Gohier, who alone were sincere. 
 
 He first formed a kind of privy council, composed of his 
 brothers, of Berthier, Regnault de St. Jean d'Angely, 
 Rcederer, Real, Bruix, and another person, who soon 
 
 6 
 
66 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 eclipsed the others by his acuteness and ability ; I mean 
 M. de Talleyrand, who, harassed by the party of the Manlge^ 
 and forced to abandon the ministry, made a merit of it 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 mind to captivate 
 the man, who, with a single coup d^cet'l, perceived all the 
 advantage he could derive from him. It was he who dis- 
 closed to his views all the diseases 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 cotcp cfkiat ; — that he 
 was exclusively occupied with the project of substituting for 
 the existing state of affairs, a government after his own 
 fashion ; — that, if on the one hand, he had against him the 
 most determined of the republicans, who repented having 
 elected him, on the other he had a party already formed, 
 the focus of which was in the council of ancients, an advan- 
 tage possessed by no other director, not even Barras, who 
 fluctuated between Sieyes on the one part, and Moulin and 
 Gohier on the other ; — that the two last, bUndly 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, at their own pleasure, of the council of the five 
 hundred, and even of a considerable part of the other 
 council. Everything Talleyrand told him was confirmed 
 by the opinions of his other advisers. As to himself, he 
 had not yet suffered his real intentions to transpire. He 
 manifested much coolness towards Sieyes, 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 67 
 
 directory, and the two directors fearing perhaps his ambition, 
 remained inflexible, on the score of his age. It was then, 
 doubtless, that his agents brought him upon more friendly 
 terms with Sieyes. In this affair Talleyrand employed 
 Chenier, and the latter Daunou. In a first conference be- 
 tween him, Daunou, Sieyes, Chenier, he gave them the 
 assurance of leaving to them the direction of the govern- 
 ment, promising to be satisfied with being the first officer of 
 the executive authority : this I have from Ch6nier himself. 
 
 It was immediately after this conference that the first 
 meetings of the deputies were held sometimes at Le 
 Mercier'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 entrust him with the entire direction of the move- 
 ment which was in agitation ; " you know him not ; once 
 there, he will think himself in his camp ; will command 
 everything, and be everything." 
 
 But eight days after, Lucien's co-operation was warm and 
 powerful. With him as with so many others, the republican 
 suspicion could not resist the tempting bait of riches and 
 honours. 
 
 It has been asserted, that I took no part whatever in these 
 salutary plots ; that I had temporized, but that I had gathered 
 the fruits of them with the greatest dexterity. Certainly, the 
 moment in which I am now writing is not favourable for 
 laying claim to the honour of having contributed to Bona- 
 parte's elevation ; but I have promised the truth, and I feel 
 a satisfaction in telling it, superior to all the calculations of 
 vanity, and all the disappointments of deceived hopes. 
 
 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 
 
68 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 some future prospects to an unpromising blank. My ideas 
 were fixed. I considered Bonaparte as alone capable of 
 effecting the political reforms imperiously called for by our 
 manners, vices, extravagances, 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 
 win my confidence, and to persuade me, of what I was 
 already convinced, that the destinies of France were in his 
 hands. 
 
 In two interviews we had at Real's house, I did not con- 
 ceal the obstacles he had to surmount. I knew well what 
 embarrassed him : it was to have to contend with republican 
 enthusiasm, to which he could only oppose the moderates or 
 the bayonet. He, at this time, appeared to me, politically 
 speaking, inferior to Cromwell ; he had also to dread the 
 fate of Caesar, without possessing either his fame or his 
 genius. 
 
 But, on the other hand, what a difference between him, 
 Lafayette, and Dumouriez ! He possessed all that these two 
 soldiers of the revolution had wanted, to master it or take it 
 in his own hands. All parties already seemed motionless, 
 and in expectation before him. His return, his presence, 
 his renown, the crowds of his adherents, his immense in- 
 fluence on the public opinion, caused much inquietude among 
 the jealous lovers of liberty and of the republic. The two 
 directors, Gohier and Moulins, now become their hope, en- 
 deavoured 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 improved his 
 own affairs there so much, as not to need to return again. 
 This expression, which was reported to him, caused him to 
 come to the directory to demand an explanation. There, his 
 firm and lofty manner showed that he was above all fear. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 69 
 
 ^ Gohier, president of the directory, leaving him the choice of 
 an army, he replied very coolly to his proposals. I saw 
 clearly he was hesitating whether he should effect his revo- 
 lution in conjunction with Barras or Sieyes. 
 
 It was now that I pointed out to him the necessity of acting 
 without delay, by persuading him to mistrust 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, " attend to the military party, paralyze Berna- 
 dotte, Jourdan, and Augereau, and force Sieyes to follow 
 you." I thought, for a moment, that my own suggestions 
 and those of Real would overcome his dislike to Barras ; he 
 even went so far as to promise us either to make him over- 
 tures, 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 (30th October, 1799). 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 Roederer. His carriage was soon heard ap- 
 proaching : he appeared. — " Well," said he to us, " do you 
 know what this Barras of yours requires ? He does not 
 deny, certainly, that it is impossible to proceed in the 
 present state of things : he will consent to the creation of 
 a president of the republic ; but it is himself whom he pro- 
 poses. What ridiculous pretensions ? And this hypocritical 
 wish of his he masks by proposing to invest with the supreme 
 magistracy — whom do you suppose ? Hedouville, 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 practi- 
 cable, but I said that, notwithstanding, I did not despair of 
 convincing Barras that there were means of coming to an 
 understanding to save the public affairs ; and that Real and 
 I would go to him, and reproach him with his dissimulation 
 
70 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 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, subtlety was out of season, 
 and that he could do nothing better than unite his own 
 destinies with those of a great man. " We take upon our- 
 selves," added we, " to bring him with 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 as- 
 cendency 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, in throwing 
 threads in every direction, he had enabled himself 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 lin suspense, and Sieyes and Roger- 
 Ducos fettered. For myself, I was only informed of his 
 operations through Real, who was, so to speak, a mutual 
 guarantee between Bonaparte and me. 
 
 Reckoning from the 9th Brumaire, the conspiracy de- 
 veloped itself rapidly ; each made his recruits. Talleyrand 
 gave us Semonville, and among the principal generals, 
 Beurnonville and Macdonald. Among the bankers, we had 
 Collot ; he lent two millions : this set the enterprise iii 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 were employed in gaining over the commanders of 
 corps, and in seducing the principal officers. Independently 
 of these three generals, and of Berthier and Marmont, we 
 could soon rely upon Serrurier and Lef bvre ; Moreau and 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 71 
 
 Moncey were secured. Moreau, with a self-denial of which 
 he had afterwards to repent, owned that Bonaparte was the 
 man necessary to reform the state ; he thus, of his own 
 accord, 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, Lebrun, Courtois, Cornet, 
 Fargues, Baraillon, Villetard, Goupil-Prefeln, Vimar, Boute- 
 ville, Cornudet, Herwyn, Delcloy, Rousseau, and Le Jarry. 
 The conspirators of the two councils were deliberating upon 
 the best and surest means of execution, when Dubois de 
 Crance went to denounce the conspiracy to the directors 
 Gohier and Moulins ; requiring them to arrest Bonaparte 
 instantly, and offering himself to see the order of the direc- 
 tory 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-at-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 a-foot at Sieyes', at 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 committees. Failing to per- 
 suade either Gohier or Moulins, Dubois de Craned despatched 
 to them at the Luxembourg a police agent, who was well ac- 
 quainted with the plot, and who revealed the whole of it to 
 them. Gohier and Moulins, after having heard him, caused 
 him to be confined, while they deliberated upon his revela- 
 tions. This man, uneasy at a proceeding the motive of 
 which he could not understand, alarmed and terrified 
 
72 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± 
 
 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 Craned had made. I 
 informed Bonaparte of all. 
 
 The impulse was immediately given, Lucien assembled 
 Boulay, Chazal, Cabanis, and Emile Gaudin ; each had his 
 part assigned him. It was in the house of Madame Recamier, 
 near Bagatelle, that Lucien arranged the legislative mea- 
 sures 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 conspiracy rested. Two powerful passions at this time 
 agitated Lucien ; ambition and love. Deeply enamoured of 
 Madame Recamier, a woman full of sweetness and charms, 
 he considered himself the more unfortunate, because, having 
 won her heart, he could not suspect the cause of her cruel, 
 severities. In this tumult of his senses, however, he lost 
 none of his 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 subscription 
 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. Bona- 
 parte, 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 iSth of 
 Brumaire, a secret interview with Sieyes, in which were dis- 
 cussed the arrangements for the i8th. 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 
 determined to open the drama by a decree of the council of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 73 
 
 ancients, ordering the removal of the legislative corps to St. 
 Cloud. The choice of St. Cloud, for the assembling 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 principal conspirators, 
 held at the Hotel de Breteuil, gave, on the 1 6th, its last in- 
 structions to Lemercier, the president of the council of 
 ancients. These were to order an extraordinary convocation 
 in the hall of the ancients, at the Tuileries, on the i8th, 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 cPetat which had been proposed 
 to Sieyes by Baudin des Ardennes even before the arrival of 
 Bonaparte. Baudin was at that time president of the com- 
 mission of the inspectors of the ancients, and possessed great 
 influence in the council. In 179S, he had a great part in 
 drawing 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 suc- 
 ceeded by Cornet in the presidency of the commission of 
 nspectors 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 made up for it 
 by his great zeal and activity. 
 
74 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 It was of great importance to neutralize Gohier, president 
 of the directory. With the view, therefore, of the better 
 deceiving him, Bonaparte invited him to dine with him on 
 the 1 8th, with his wife and 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, 
 since his return, had in vain solicited admission to his 
 presence. One only obstacle caused uneasiness ; this was the 
 integrity of the president, Gohier, who, if undeceived in 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 
 president of the directory into a snare. At midnight, 
 Madame Bonaparte sent him, by her son, Eugene Beauhar- 
 nais, 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 
 Eugfene's departure, he decided that his wife should go 
 alone. 
 
 Already Cornet, the president of the commission of the 
 ancients, was busy in despatching from his office private 
 invitations to such members as were in the secret, or upon 
 whom he could rely, to assemble at five in the morning. 
 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 assembly 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 read- 
 ing of the decree of removal, in favour of which votes were 
 already secured in the ancients. I had arranged everything, 
 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 
 
. MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± 75 
 
 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 was about 
 to pass. I instantly got into my carriage, and going first to 
 the Tuileries, learnt that the decree had been made ; and 
 about nine o'clock I arrived at the house of General Bona- 
 parte, the courtyard of which was full of military. Every 
 avenue was filled with officers and generals ; and the house 
 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 
 impatiently awaiting, with Berthier and Leffevre, the deter- 
 mination 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 stopped the departure of mails and stages. 
 " All that is useless," said he to me, in presence of several 
 generals who entered : " the numbers of citizens and brave 
 men around me must sufficiently convince, 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 tran- 
 quillity." 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 of performing, with the general, 
 the functions of state-messenger. He brought him the 
 decree which placed in his hands the fate of the republic. 
 
76 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 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,6oo 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 house, 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 orders given to refuse admission, 
 had entered the apartments of Barras, whom she surprised 
 in the bath ; she was the first to inform him that Bonaparte 
 had acted without him. " What can be done ? " cried the 
 indolent epicure — " that man (designating Bonaparte by a 
 coarse epithet) has taken us all in." However, in the hope 
 of negotiating, he sent to him his confidential 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 not see him again ! " He had just 
 despatched Talleyrand and Bruix to him, for the purpose of 
 forcing him to resign. 
 
 Having entered the apartments of the Luxembourg, I 
 announced to the president the decree which transferred 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 the ancients." 
 
 " I considered it," replied I, " a part of my duty to give you 
 intelligence of so important a resolution, and at the same 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 77 
 
 time I thought it expedient to come and receive the orders 
 of the directory." " It was more your duty," rejoined Gohier 
 in a faltering voice, " 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 secret meetings which, in your 
 quality of minister of the police, you ought to have dis- 
 covered and made known to us." " But," returned I, 
 " numbers of reports have been laid before the directory ; I 
 myself, finding I did not possess its confidence, employed 
 indirect means to give it the necessary information ; but the 
 directory would never give credit to my warnings ; 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 entrust 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 presi- 
 dent 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 delibera- 
 tions, 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 
 soon forgot his promise to Gohier when he saw the 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 
 
78 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 his fears, the two adroit negotiators made him the most 
 magnificent promises if he would consent to send in his 
 resignation. Barras 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 legis- 
 lature, to notify his determination of retiring into private 
 life. Thus placed between hope and fear, he ended by sign- 
 ing 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 detachment 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 principal 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 remonstrances 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 resolution 
 which should not have the sanction of the majority of the 
 directory. " After all," 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 repub- 
 lic." Moulins added, that Bonaparte was to dine with him 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 betrayed themselves. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 79 
 
 Events already began to develop themselves. Bonaparte 
 on horseback, followed by a numerous staff, first took the 
 road to the Champs Elysees, where several corps were drawn 
 up in battle array. 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 ex- 
 cessive. Bonaparte was greeted at the Tuileries by the 
 shouts of the citizens and the soldiery. Having presented 
 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 disorganized ; that Sieyes and Roger- 
 Ducos had sent in their resignation to the commission of 
 the inspectors of the ancients ; and that Barras having been 
 circumvented, and breaking the majority, was on the point 
 of subscribing 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, Moulins, now arrived ; both of whom 
 refused their adhesion to what was taking place. An expla- 
 nation took place between Gohier and Bonaparte. " My 
 plans," said the latter, " are not hostile ; the republic is in 
 danger — it must be saved . . . I will it .'"' At this very 
 moment, intelligence arrived that the faubourg Saint 
 Antoine was rising at the instigation of Santerre, who was a 
 relative of Moulins ; Bonaparte, turning to him, and ques- 
 tioning 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 insti- 
 
8o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 gator of the insurrection of 1792. I, myself, repeated the 
 assurance that there would not be the least shadow of 
 popular tumult ; and said that I answered 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 Luxem- 
 bourg ; General Lannes was intrusted with a corps to guard 
 the legislative body ; Murat was despatched 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. 
 
 In the evening a council was held at the commission of 
 the inspectors, either for the purpose of preparing 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 one of which appeared already to be 
 alarmed at the ascendency of the military faction. At first, 
 much discussion took place without understanding each 
 other, and without coming to any determination. All that 
 Bonaparte himself proposed, or that his brothers proposed 
 for him, smacked of the dictatorship of the sabre. The 
 legislators 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 Bonaparte ; 
 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 8i 
 
 themselves ; and when we had got rid of the fearful, and 
 those we could not depend upon, the establishment of three 
 provisionary 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 St. Real, not to consent 
 to it ; and, in his first steps in the road to supreme power, 
 not to render himself the instrument of the fUry of a vin- 
 dictive priest. He understood me, and alleged that the idea 
 was premature ; that there would be neither opposition nor 
 resistance. " You will see that to-morrow at St. Cloud," 
 said Sieyes, rather piqued. 
 
 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 that point, that 
 the authors of this movement could no longer rely upon the 
 majority among the members of the two councils ; almost 
 all being struck with the idea that the object was to destroy 
 the constitution, in order to establish the military power. 
 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, Saint Cloud, and 
 Saint 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 
 Meurthe, Emile Gaudin, Chazal and Cabanis. On their 
 side the opposing members of the two councils, united to the 
 leaders of the Manige, passed the night in secret delibera- 
 tions. 
 
 The next day (19th Brumaire, loth November, 1799), at 
 an early hour, the road from Paris to St. Cloud was covered 
 
 7 
 
82 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 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 per- 
 ceived, 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 permanence ; observing all that passed, receiving 
 and examining myself every report which arrived. I had 
 detached to St. Cloud a certain number of able and intelli- 
 gent emissaries, for the purpose of placing themselves in 
 contact with the persons who were pointed out to them ; 
 and other agents, who, being relieved every half-hour, came 
 to inform me of the posture of affairs. I was thus made 
 acquainted with the least incident, the most trifling circum- 
 stance 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, by an artful speech of Emile Gaudin ; 
 the object of which was the appointment of a commission 
 charged to present an immediate report upon the situation 
 of the republic. Emile Gaudin, in his pre-arranged motion, 
 also required 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 Constitution I 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 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. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 83 
 
 The hall of the ancients was almost equally agitated ; but 
 there the party of Sieyes and Bonaparte, who were anxious 
 to accelerate the establishment of a provisionary government, 
 had asserted as a fact, upon a false declaration of the Sieur 
 Legarde, chief secretary of the directory, that all the directors 
 had sent in their resignation. The oppositionists immedi- 
 ately demanded that successors should be named 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 magistracy 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 suiFered, 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 acqiiiescence of the majority 
 of the ancients having given him fresh courage, he with- 
 drew, hoping 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 
 Deing made to require from the ancients 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 
 
84 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 was being discussed whether the resignation was legal and 
 according to the forms, Bonaparte arrived, followed by a 
 platoon of grenadiers. Followed by four of them, he 
 advanced, leaving the others at the entrance of the hall. 
 Encouraged by the reception he had met with from the 
 ancients, he flattered himself with the hope of calming the 
 republican fever which agitated the five hundred. 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 I Down with 
 the Tyrant ! Away with the Dictator ! Some of the most 
 enraged deputies rushed upon him and pushed him back. 
 " Will you then wage war against your own country ? " 
 cried Arena to him, showing him the point of his dagger. 
 The grenadiers, seeing their general grow pale and tremble, 
 crossed the room to form a rampart around him ; Bonaparte 
 threw himself in their arms, and they carried him away. 
 Thus rescued, and alniost frantic, he remounted his horse, 
 set off at a gallop, and riding towards the bridge of Saint 
 Cloud, cried aloud to his soldiers, " They have attempted my 
 life ! they have proposed to put me out of the protection of 
 the laws ! they do not know, then, that I am invulnerable, 
 that I am the god of thunder." 
 
 Murat having joined him on the bridge, "It is not fit- 
 ting," said he to him, " that he who has triumphed over 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 85 
 
 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 be- 
 fore the soldiers, endeavouring to excite the generals to bring 
 matters to a conclusion by a coup de 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 out- 
 lawry of General Bonaparte be put to the vote ! They 
 even went so far as to call upon him to put to the vote the 
 motion of outlawry against his brother. Lucien, indignant, 
 quitted the chair, abdicated the presidency, and laid aside its 
 badge. 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 assistance, 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 trem- 
 bling, the most zealous partisans of Bonaparte were petrified, 
 whilst the most timid among them already declared against 
 his enterprise. Jourdan and Augereau were observed stand- 
 ing aloof, watching the favourable moment for drawing the 
 grenadiers into the popular party. But Sieyes, Bonaparte, 
 and Talleyrand, who had come to Saint Cloud with Roederer, 
 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, required 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. 
 
86 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 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 Saint Cloud (19th Bru- 
 maire, loth November). Bonaparte was particularly in- 
 debted for it to the energy of his brother Lucien, to the 
 decision of Murat, and perhaps to the weakness of the 
 generals, who, though 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, Roederer, Lucien, and 
 Boulay de la Meurthe, who were the soul of the enterprise, 
 decided that the deputies of their party, who were wander- 
 ing in the apartments and galleries of St. Cloud, should 
 be instantly assembled. Boulay and Lucien went in search 
 of them, gathered together twenty or thirty, and constituted 
 them the council of five hundred. From this mock assem- 
 bly 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 agreed upon asserting in the next day's news- 
 paper, that several deputies had endeavoured to assassinate 
 Bonaparte, and that the majority of the council had been 
 overruled by a minority of assassins. 
 
 Then came the promulgation of the act of the 19th 
 Brumaire, likewise concerted among the leaders, 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 mem- 
 bers of the popular party, among whom figured General 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 87 
 
 Jourdan ; it besides appointed a legislative commission of 
 fifty members chosen equally from both councils, whose 
 duty it was to prepare a new draught of the constitution of 
 the state. Upon being brought from the assembly of the 
 five hundred to the council of the ancients, to be trans- 
 formed into a law, this act was only voted for by the 
 minority, the majority maintaining a mournful silence. 
 Thus the intermediary establishment of the new order of 
 things was converted into a law by some sixty of the mem- 
 bers 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 i ith of Novem- 
 ber, about five o'clock in the morning, the new government 
 quitting St. Cloud, came to install itself in the palace of the 
 Luxembourg. I had foreseen, that all the authority of this 
 executive triumvirate would 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 took possession of the president's armchair, 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. 
 Bonaparte, 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 francs to his col- 
 league Roger-Ducos. This trifling douceur calmed his 
 ambition a httle, for he expected that Bonaparte would turn 
 his attention to war, and would leave the civil aiFairs in his 
 hands. But hearing Bonaparte, at their first sitting, treat 
 upon the finances, the administration, the laws, the army, 
 politics in general, and disciuss these various subjects with 
 
88 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 much ability, he said, upon entering his house, in presence 
 of Talleyrand, Boulay, Cabanis, Roederer, and Chazal : 
 " Gentlemen, you have a master." 
 
 It was easy to perceive that a suspicious and avaricious 
 priest, surfeited with gold, would not dare to contend long 
 with a general, young, active, possessed of immense renown, 
 and who, in fact, had already made himself master of power. 
 Besides, Sieyes possessed none of those qualities which could 
 have ensured him a great influence with a proud and war- 
 like nation. His title alone, of priest, had made him un- 
 popular with the army ; here artifice could do nothing 
 against force. In wishing to make a trial of it with respect 
 to me, Sieyes failed. 
 
 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 at 
 war ; he replaced Dubois de Crance, whom Bonaparte never 
 pardoned, having opposed him. Robert Lindet yielded the 
 finance to Gaudin, formerly a premier comnits ' devoted to 
 Bonaparte ; Cambacerbs was left at the head of justice. In 
 the ministry of marine. Bourdon was replaced by Forfait ; 
 the geometrician Laplace succeeded Quinette in the home 
 department ; the foreign affairs were 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 conducted myself very well 
 on the 1 8th Brumaire, and that I had given sufficient proofs. 
 In fact, not only I had favoured the development of his 
 incipient dispositions, but had also, at the critical moment, 
 
 ' The title of premier commis was formerly given, in France, to those 
 persons who, under the secretary of state, were at the head of the different 
 offices, into which every ministerial department is divided. Those persons 
 are now more properly called chefs de division. — English Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 89 
 
 succeeded in paralysing the efforts of several of the deputies 
 and generals who might have impeded the success of the 
 day. Scarcely had the intelligence of it reached me, than I 
 had 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 important of 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 Luxembourg, had con- 
 vinced him that the police was as clear as it was quick- 
 sighted. 
 
 Sieyes, in the meantime, who was anxious for proscriptions, 
 was continually exclaiming against such as he called opposers 
 and anarchists : he told Bonaparte, that the public opinion, 
 empoisoned by the Jacobins, became detestable ; that the 
 police bulletins proved 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 trium- 
 virate invested with a terrific dictatorship, which corrupts 
 the better to enslave ; the act of the 19th Brumaire is the 
 work of a few deserters, abandoned by their colleagues, and 
 who, though deprived of a majority, are not less eager to 
 sanction the usurpation. You should hear what they say 
 of you, of me I We must not suffer ourselves to be thus 
 
90 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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 prevent public opinion from being left to the 
 mercy of the royalists and anarchists. These must be struck 
 ■first. It is always in its dibtd that a new power should show 
 its force." Upon concluding this artful speech, Sieyes 
 insinuated that the head of the police should be required to 
 put in execution a measure highly essential to the public 
 weal, and the general security ; he conquered Bonaparte's 
 resistance. It had been declared, on the 19th Brumaire, 
 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 those to be pro- 
 scribed. That same day, the consuls issued a decree con- 
 demning, without previous trial, fifty-five of the principal 
 opposers to banishment ; thirty-seven to French Guiana, 
 and twenty-two to the Island of Oleron. On these lists, 
 names, blasted and odious, were seen followed by those of 
 amiable and esteemed citizens. What I had prognosticated 
 to the consuls came to pass ; the voice of the public, highly, 
 and in the strongest manner, disapproved of this impolitic 
 and useless proscription. 
 
 They were compelled to yield, but first commenced with 
 making exceptions. I entreated and obtained the liberty of 
 several proscribed deputies. I represented how much France 
 and the army would be shocked at seeing people persecuted 
 on account of their opinions — Jour dan, for example, who 
 had gained the battle of Fleurus, and whose probity was 
 immaculate., The proscriber Sieyes, seeing Bonaparte 
 shaken, did not dare to prosecute the execution of an odious 
 measure, which he had taken care to irnpute to me. It was 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 91 
 
 withdrawn, and they contented themselves, upon my propo- 
 sition, with placing the opponents under the eyes 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 the compulsory loans, which were so obnoxious. 
 
 A few days sufficed to make it certain, that the transactions 
 of the 1 8th Brumaire had obtained the consent of the nation. 
 This has now become an historical truth : it was at that 
 time a fact which decided the struggle between the govern- 
 ment 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 con- 
 sequences and anticipations ; the sequel has proved they 
 were right ; 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, henceforth, 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 espionnage. I forbade the use of such dis- 
 graceful instruments : wishing to give to the scrutinizing 
 eye of the police the direction of watchfulness only, not of 
 accusation. 
 
 I also caused misfortune to be respected by obtaining an 
 aUeviation of the fate of emigrants shipwrecked 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 those emigrants whom the tempest 
 
92 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 
 
 had cast upon the shores of their country. I forced from 
 them this act of clemency, which, from that time, gained me 
 the confidence of the royahsts disposed to submit to govern- 
 ment. 
 
 My two instructions to the bishops and prefects, which 
 were pubhshed at that time, produced likewise a great sen- 
 sation 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 
 sufficiently strong 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 again, and 
 it will be seen that moral courage, and fixed principles, were 
 necessary to render the doctrines and sentiments therein 
 expressed palatable. 
 
 Thus, salutary modifications and a less uncertain tran- 
 quillity 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 ad- 
 ministration of the state, manifested equal vigour and pru- 
 dence. 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 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 revolu- 
 tion, the moderate party itself mingling its views with those 
 of- the counter-revolutionists, openly wished for the modifi- 
 . cation of the republican regime, and its amalgamation with 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 93 
 
 a mixed pionarchy. But the time had not yet arrived for 
 transforming the democracy into a republican monarchy ; 
 for this could only be obtained by the fusion of all parties, 
 which was still very distant. The new administration, on 
 the contrary, favoured a kind of moral reaction against the 
 revolution and the severity of its laws. The writings most 
 in vogue tended to royalism ; and 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 cantain an 
 account of the affecting misfortunes of Madame Royale.' 
 
 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 those reasons required that 
 a bait should be offered to the royalists. The maxims and 
 interests of the revolution had, however, 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 republicans. I observed to the consul that 
 there were still great cautions to be observed ; that having 
 manoeuvred with men sincerely attached to the republican 
 forms, and to the liberties of the public, the army itself 
 having imbibed the same sentiments, he could not separate 
 
 ' The history of Irraa 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 through their anagrams. This clever 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 devoured ; by following the events and arriving at the catastrophes, the 
 names were easily guessed at. Under a false appearance of liberty, the 
 first consul permitted everything to be published respecting the revolution 
 that could disparage it ; then successively appeared the memoirs of the 
 Marquis de Bouille, of Bertrand de Moleville, of the Princess Lamballe, 
 those of the Mesdames of France, the History of Madame Elizabeth, the 
 Cimetiire 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 of the French Editor. 
 
94 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 
 
 himself without danger, either from his own party or the 
 army ; besides that, it was necessary for him to quit a pro- 
 visionary, and create for himself a permanent establishment. 
 
 At that period the attention of government was deeply 
 engaged on the preparatory work of two intermediary legis- 
 lative committees. That of the five hundred was conducted 
 by Lucien, Boulay, Jacqueminot, and Daunou ; that of the 
 ancients by Lemercier, Lebrun, and Regnier. Lebrun's 
 powers were unquestionably the greatest ; Bonaparte con- 
 sulted him and received his advice with respect. The object 
 was to discuss, at a general meeting, the new project of 
 social organization which Sieyes was anxious to present, in 
 place of the constitution of the year iii.j whose obsequies he 
 was eager to see. Sieyes, with whose real thoughts Bona- 
 parte was acquainted, assumed an air of great mystery ; he 
 said he had nothing ready ; that he had not time to arrange 
 his papers. He affected silence ; in this he resembled those 
 fashionable authors, who, eaten up with the desire of reading 
 their works, first, through affectation or fashion, suffer them- 
 selves to be entreated, before they yield to the curiosity of 
 the public, often inclined to be satirical. I was commis- 
 sioned to penetrate his mystery. 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 wines and other intoxicating liquors had 
 not been spared. 
 
 Upon this information, a secret council was held, to which 
 I was called ; Bonaparte, Cambacerfes, Lebrun, Lucien, 
 Joseph, Berthier, Real, Regnault, and Rcederer were pre- 
 sent. There we discussed on a counter-project, and the 
 conduct to be pursued by Bonaparte in the general con- 
 ferences which were impatiently awaited. 
 
 At length, towards the middle of December, the three 
 consuls and the two legislative commissions assembled in 
 Bonaparte's apartment. The conferences commenced at 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 95 
 
 nine o'clock in the evening, and were prolonged far into 
 the night. Daunou acted as secretary. 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, contained in separate books. With the tone of an 
 oracle, he successively explained to us the bases of his 
 favourite constitution. It created a Trtbunat, 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, without any oral discussion ; 
 and lastly, a senate composed of members elected for life, 
 and charged with the more important office of watching over 
 the preservation of the laws and the constitution of the 
 state. All these ground-works, against which Bonaparte 
 made no serious objections, were successively adopted. As 
 to the government, he invested it with the power of apply- 
 ing the laws, and, for this purpose, created a council of state, 
 charged with drawing up and improving the projects and 
 regulations of the public administration. It was known that 
 the government of Sieyes was to terminate in a point, in a 
 species of monarchical pinnacle, erected upon republican 
 foundations ; an idea to which he had been for a long time 
 attached : an attention and even impatient curiosity were 
 manifested, till at last he uncovered the capital of his con- 
 stitutional 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 office than to appoint 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 calling into its own 
 body, without explaining its reasons, every depositary of 
 public authority, the two consuls and the grand elector 
 himself ; the latter thus becoming a member of the senate. 
 
96 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 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 Sieyes, and, with one dash of his pen, sabred 
 what he called metaphysical nonsense. Sieyes, who gener- 
 ally sulked, instead of resisting, objections, defended, never- 
 theless, 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 independence 
 founded upon, and defined by, prerogative. He also made 
 several other preconcerted objections, to which Sieyes re- 
 plied very lamely ; and getting gradually warmer, he con- 
 cluded with apostrophizing his colleague thus : — " How 
 could you suppose, citizen Sieyes, that a man of honour, 
 talent, and some ability in aifairs, would ever consent to be 
 nothing but a hog fatting on a few millions in the royal 
 palace of Versailles ? " Amused by this sally, the members 
 of the conference began to laugh ; and Sieyes, who had 
 already showed indecision, remained confounded, and his 
 grand elector sunk for ever. 
 
 It^is certain that Sieyes concealed some deep projects in 
 this ridiculous form of government, and that had it been 
 adopted, he would have had the upper hand in its execution. 
 It was he doubtless whom the senate was to have nominated 
 grand elector ^ and he would have appointed Bonaparte con- 
 sul for war, leaving to circumstances to decide whether he 
 should absorb him. By this means, everything would have 
 remained in his own hands, and it would have been easy for 
 him, by causing himself to be absorbed.^ to have caused some 
 other personage to be called 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 might have suited him to establish, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 97 
 
 in the interests of a revolution of which he was the htero- 
 pkant. 
 
 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 safe retreat 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 adherents and intimate 
 advisers of the Genei-al-consul should cause some mode of 
 government to be adopted which would secure the power in 
 their own hands. AU was ready. But notwithstanding the 
 personal retreat of Sieyes, the "party who were attached to 
 his plans, the rejection of which had disappointed them, 
 made a new attack, and proposed the adoption of forms 
 purely republican. To this was opposed the creation of a 
 president, similar to that of the United States, for ten years, 
 free in his choice of ministers, of his council of state, and all 
 the members of the administration. Others, who had been 
 tutored, advised to disguise the sole magistrateship' of the 
 president ; for which purpose they offered to conciliate con- 
 flicting opinions, by forming a government of three consuls, 
 of which two should only be advisers as occasion required 
 (conseillers ntcessaires). But when they tried to have it 
 decided, that there should be a first consul, invested with 
 supreme power, having the right of nominating to, and dis- 
 missing from all appointments, and that the two other 
 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 took upon himself the supreme 
 magistracy, without a previous election, he would show the 
 ambition of a usurper, and justify the opinion of those who 
 had asserted that the events of the i8th Brumaire were 
 solely intended for his own aggrandizement. Making a last 
 
 8 
 
98 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 effort to remove him, they offered him the dignity of gene- 
 ralissimo, 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, break- 
 ing silence, spoke of liberty, of the republic, of the necessity 
 of putting some restrictions upon power, insisting, with 
 much energy and courage, upon the adoption of the measure 
 oi 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 deliberation hitherto kept 
 within the bounds of moderation, every one remained 
 speechless ; and the majority, being overcome, placed the 
 power, not into the hands of three consuls, the second and 
 third having only consulting voices, but into the hands of a 
 single one, nominated for ten years, re-eligible, promulgating 
 laws, appointing and dismissing, at his will, all the members 
 of the executive power, making peace and war, and, in fact, 
 nominating himself. In fact, Bonaparte, in avoiding to 
 establish the senate, as a prealable institution, would not 
 even 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 
 Cambacerfes 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 revolu- 
 tion 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 secretary 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 99 
 
 advocate of social order, of morals, and of public faith. 
 Both were enlightened, and men of probity, although 
 avaricious. 
 
 As to Sieyes, having been nominated a senator, he con- 
 curred with Cambacerbs and Lebrun in organizing 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 worth a million of francs, independent 
 of twenty-five thousand francs a year, as senator, and ex- 
 clusive of his pot de vtn, as director, 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 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 com- 
 promised the consular dignity, a new constitution was 
 submitted to the acceptance of the French people. The 
 object was no longer to collect them in primary assemblies 
 by consecrating again the democratic principle ; but to open 
 registers in all the government departments, and public 
 offices-^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 Brumatre 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 into 
 different hands, and the vessel of state dashed upon new 
 shoals. But this once the pilot inspired more universal 
 confidence. He was considered to be steady and skilful, 
 and his government, in other respects, assumed the forms 
 of stability. 
 
 From the day on which Bonaparte declared himself first 
 
loo MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 consul, and was recognized 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 was observed to lose every 
 day some portion of its gloomy austerity, and conversions 
 in favour of unity of power were seen to become fre- 
 quent. 
 
 The consul induced us to believe, and we willingly per- 
 suaded ourselves, that this necessary unity in the govern- 
 ment would cause no encroachment on the republican 
 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 inhabited the 
 palace of the Luxembourg ; none of them had yet dared to 
 invade the abode of the kings. Bonaparte, with more 
 assurance, quitted the Luxembourg, 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 Luxem- 
 bourg, and the tribunal at the Palais Royal. 
 
 This magnificence pleased the nation, which approved of 
 being represented in a manner more suited to her dignity. 
 Splendour and etiquette resumed a portion of their empire. 
 Paris beheld its circles, its balls, and sumptuous entertain- 
 ments revived. Observant of forms, punctilious even in 
 matters of public decorum, Bonaparte, discarding the former 
 connexions of Josephine, and even his own, excluded from 
 the palace those females of decried or suspected morals, who 
 had figured in the most brilliant circles, as well as in the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. ' loi 
 
 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 case with the consulship, which was 
 marked 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 had the gratification of re- 
 calling and erasing from the fatal list the celebrated 
 Cazal^s, 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 been a professor at the 
 Oratoire, and I entertained for him an extreme regard. It 
 will be seen that he repaid my friendship with sincere and 
 constant affection. 
 
 The re-organization of the judicial system, and the 
 establishment of prefectures, marked also the auspicious 
 opening of the consulship, equally happy in the choice of 
 the new authorities. But, to confess the truth, this agree- 
 able scene was soon darkened. " I will not," said Bonaparte, 
 one evening to me, " I will not govern, with the weakness 
 and indulgence of a debonnair chief: we -make little pro- 
 gress in the, pacification of the west ; there is too much 
 liberty and assurance in the writings of the day." The 
 awaking moment was terrible. The execution of young 
 Toustain, that of the Count De Frott6 and his companions 
 in arms, the suppression of some of the journals, the threat- 
 ening style of the last proclamations, while they chilled 
 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. 
 
103 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJ&. 
 
 I made the first consul feel the necessity of dispersing these 
 clouds. He relaxed a little ; gained over the emigrants by 
 favours and employments ; restored the churches to the 
 Catholic worship ; kept the republicans in a state of 
 minority, but without persecuting them ; he declared him- 
 self, at the same time, the enemy of speculators on the 
 government revenues. 
 
 All the sources of credit were either dried up or destroyed, 
 at the accession of the consul, by the effect of the confusion, 
 the dilapidations, and the squandering 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 
 expenses of war and of all the parts of the service. Twelve 
 millions were borrowed of the commercial interest of Paris ; 
 twenty-four millions were obtained from the sale of the 
 domains of the house of Orange ; and, at length, one 
 hundred and fifty millions of bons de rescriptton de rachat 
 de rentes, were put into circulation. In decreeing these 
 measures, the first consul felt how difficult it would be for 
 him to extricate himself from the hands of the money con- 
 tractors ; he held them in horror. The following note, of 
 which he subsequently gave me a copy, prejudiced and sin- 
 gularly 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 the impulse to the course of 
 public effects, and they possess among themselves a capital 
 of about one hundred millions (;^4,ooo,ooo sterling) ; they 
 moreover dispose of a credit amounting to eighty millions 
 (;^3, 200,000) ; namely, Armand Sdguin, Vanderberg, Launoy, 
 CoUot, Hinguerlot, Ouvrard, the brothers Michel, Bastide, 
 Marion, and Recamier. The partisans of Haller the Swiss 
 have triumphed, because that Swiss, whose plan of finance 
 the first consul does not choose to adopt, predicted the fall 
 which has, at this moment, taken place." 
 
 Bonaparte could not bear the idea of fortunes so suddenly 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOVCHi. 103 
 
 made and so gigantic ; it seemed as if he feared to be sub- 
 jected to them. He generally regarded them as the dis- 
 graceful results of public dilapidation and usury. He had 
 accomplished the events of the i8th of Brumaire, with the 
 money which Collot had lent him, and this idea humiliated 
 him. Joseph Bonaparte himself could not have purchased 
 Morfontaine, had not Collot lent him two millions (^80,000). 
 "Yes," said Bonaparte to his brother, "you will play the 
 lord with 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 contractors, 
 and to divert him from the violent measures which, even 
 then, he wished to apply against them. He understood 
 little of the theory of public credit ; and it was obvious that 
 he felt a secret inclination to manage the money matters 
 amongst us, according to the system of oppression adopted 
 in Egypt, Turkey, and throughout the East. He was, 
 however, compelled to have recourse to Vanderberg in 
 order to open the campaign ; he contracted with him for 
 the supply of the army. His suspicions extended to all 
 the secret parts of government. I was always the person 
 on whom devolved the charge of verifying or examining 
 the secret notes which intriguers and place-hunters never 
 failed to address to him. Some idea of the delicacy of my 
 functions may be formed from that circumstance ; I was 
 thus the only person who could correct his prejudices or 
 conquer 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 
 draw a separate account of those things which might have 
 annoyed him in his conferences and communications with 
 the two other consuls. My communications with him were 
 too frequent not to be of a dangerous nature. But I main- 
 
104 MEMOIRS OF.FOUCHE.. 
 
 tained a tone of truth and frankness tempered with zeal, 
 and that zeal was sincere. I found in that extraordinary 
 [unique) man 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 pos- 
 sessed violent passions, and a natural tendency to despotism, 
 having their source in his disposition and martial habits. I 
 flattered myself with being able successfully to restrain it by 
 the dikes of prudence and reason, and I pretty often suc- 
 ceeded beyond my hopes. 
 
 At that period, Bonaparte had no more 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, and beforehand, that 
 he could only strike its roots deeply 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 not yet in a condition to take 
 again the offensive. The whole of Italy was lost ; even 
 the Apennines no longer stopped the soldiers of Austria. 
 
 What then did Bonaparte do ? By the excellent advice 
 of his minister for foreign affairs, he sagaciously availed 
 himself of the passions of the Emperor Paul the First, 
 in order to detach him entirely from the coalition ; he next 
 made his appearance on the ostensible stage of European 
 diploma,cy, by publishing his famous letter to the King of 
 England ; it contained Overtures offered in an unusual form. 
 In that circumstance, the first consul saw the double advan- 
 tage of obtaining credit for his pacific intentions, and of 
 
■MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 105 
 
 persuading France, in the event of the refusal which he 
 expected, that in order to obtain that peace, which was the 
 object of all his wishes, he must have gold, steel, and men. 
 
 When one day, on coming out of his private cabinet 
 council, he told me, with an air of inspiration, that he felt 
 assured of re-conquering Italy in three months, at first I 
 saw a little presumption and boasting in these words, and 
 yet they persuaded me. Carnot, who, a short time pre- 
 viously, had become minister of war, perceived as well as 
 myself, that there was one thing which Bonaparte under- 
 stood above all others, and that was the practical science of 
 war. But when Bonaparte positively told me, that he 
 intended, before his departure for the army, that all the 
 departments of the West should be tranquil, and when he 
 pointed out means to obtain this end, which coincided with 
 my own views, I saw that he was not only a warrior, but 
 also a shrewd politician ; and I seconded his exertions with 
 a good fortune, for which he acknowledged his obligations. 
 
 We were, however, unable to break up the royalist league, 
 except by means of the great primum mobile, subornation. 
 In this respect, the curi Bernier, and two viscountesses, 
 served us most effectually in accrediting 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, and 
 thinking that the favourable moment was come for him to 
 claim his crown, forwarded to the consul Lebrun, through 
 the Abbd de Montesquiou, his secret agent, a letter addressed 
 to Bonaparte, in which, in the noblest expressions, he en- 
 deavoured to convince him of the honour he would acquire 
 by replacing him on the throne of his ancestors. " I can 
 do nothing for France without you," said that prince, " and 
 yourself cannot contribute to the welfare of France without 
 me. Hasten, then * * * *." 
 
 At the same time, the Count d'Artois sent the Duchess 
 de Guiche, a lady rich in the charms of her person and 
 
io6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 mind, from London, in order, on his side, to open a parallel 
 negotiation through Josephine, who was considered as the 
 tutelary angel of the royalists and emigrants. She obtained 
 some interviews, and I was informed of them by Josephine 
 herself, who, in conformity to our conditions, cemented, by a 
 thousand francs per day {£\o)i instructed me in all that 
 passed in 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 had recourse to 
 extraordinary means ; and I learnt, in a positive manner, 
 the proceedings of the Abb^ de Montesquiou with the consul 
 Lebrun. I made it the subject of a memorial,, which I 
 addressed to the first consul,, in which I mentioned equally 
 the mission and the proceedings of the Duchess de Guiche. 
 I represented to him, that, in sanctioning such negotiations, 
 he gave occasion to suspect that he sought to secure for 
 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 mind so mag- 
 nanimous as his, to stoop to so erroneous a policy ; that he 
 was, essentially, the man of the revolution, and could be no 
 other ; and that the Bourbons could by no chance reascend 
 the throne, except by reaching it over his dead body. 
 
 This memorial, which I took care to draw up 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 expected ; 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 
 reprimanded for 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 107 
 
 scenes of blood and carnage on new fields of battle. Moreau, 
 who had passed the Rhine on the 2Sth April, 1800, had 
 already defeated the Austrians in three encounters before 
 the loth May ; when Bonaparte, between the i6th and 20th, 
 in an enterprise worthy of Hannibal, passed the Great St. 
 Bernard, at the head of the whole army of reserve. Surpris- 
 ing 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, concen- 
 trated himself beneath the cannon of Alessandria, at the 
 confluence of the Tanaro and the Bormida, and, after some 
 partial defeats, courageously advanced to meet 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 moderate republicans were no 
 less moved. They felt a kind of misgiving in seeing at the 
 head of the government, 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 disadvantage of the consular army, which 
 was retreating ; but that the contest was still continued. 
 This intelligence, diifused with the rapidity of lightning 
 throughout all classes, equally interested, produced upon the 
 
io8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 public mind the same effect as the electric spark does upon 
 the human body. People are seen to seek each other, to 
 meet together ; these hasten to Chdnier's, others to Courtois', 
 those to the Stael coterie ; some to Sieyes', and others to 
 Carnot's. Every one says that the republic in peril must be 
 saved from the Corsican's claws ; that, in re-conquering it, 
 a plan more congenial with wisdom and liberty must be 
 adopted ; that a chief magistrate is necessary, but he must 
 not be an arrogant dictator, nor the emperor of the soldiery. 
 Then, every look, every thought is fixed upon Carnot, the 
 minister of the war department. 
 
 I was, at the same moment, informed of the news, and of 
 the public ferment which it occasioned. I hastened instantly 
 to the two consuls, and I found them in a state of conster- 
 nation ; I endeavoured to rouse and support them. But I 
 confess, that on returning to my own house, my mind stood 
 in need of all its energy. My audience room 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 
 forced their way to me. I fatigued myself to death in telling 
 everybody that the news was exaggerated ; that probably 
 it was a stock-jobbing trick ; that, besides, Bonaparte had 
 always performed miracles on the field of battle. "But 
 wait," said I, " do not act rashly, nor imprudently ; let 
 there be no envenomed speeches, nothing ostensible, nor 
 hostile." 
 
 The next day an express arrived from the first consul, 
 loaded with the laurels of victory ; the disenchantment of 
 one party could not stifle the universal intoxication. The 
 battle of Marengo, like that of Actium, made our young 
 Triumvir triumph, and raised him to the pinnacle of power, 
 equally fortunate, but not so discreet as the Octavius of 
 Rome. He had left us in the character of the first magis- 
 trate of a nation, still free, and he was about to reappear in 
 the character of a conqueror. In fact, one might have said 
 
MEMOIRS OFFOUCHA. 109 
 
 that, at Marengo, he had less conquered Italy than France. 
 From this period is to be dated the first step Of that disgust- 
 ing 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 Roederer, already made a divinity of his new 
 master, and was seen to apply to him, in a public journal, 
 the well-known verse of Virgil : 
 
 Deus nobis haec otia fecit. 
 
 I foresaw all the fatal consequences that this adulatory 
 tendency (so unworthy of a great people), would produce on 
 France and on her chief. But the intoxication 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 appointed to transact 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 everything — and 
 those were the men whom I saved and spared. Do they 
 take me for Louis XVI. ? Let them try, and find the differ- 
 ence. Let them be undeceived ; a battle lost is for ijie 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 the factious and anarchical." I repre- 
 sented to him that there had only been a fit of the republican 
 fever, excited by an inauspicious report, a report that I 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 trifling movementof ferment and misgiving ; 
 and that, in fine, the dknouement was so magnificent, and the 
 
no MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 public satisfaction so general, that one might easily bear a 
 few clouds, which only rendered the brilliancy of the picture 
 more dazzling.-^" But you do not tell me all," replied he ; 
 "was there not a design to place Carnot at the head of tJhe 
 government ? Carnot, who suffered himself to be mystified 
 on the 1 8th of Fructidor, who could not retain hia authority 
 for two months, and whom they would not fail to send 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 pro- 
 jects 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 Cambac^rfes and Lebrun been witnesses of the cir- 
 cumspection of my conduct and the sincerity of my zeal. 
 
 Becoming more jealous as he became more powerful,^he 
 first consul armed himself with precautionary measures, and 
 surrounded himself with a military train. His prejudices 
 and distrusts were more especially directed against those 
 whom he called the perverse, whether they wished to pre- 
 serve the attachment to the popular party, or vented their 
 sorrow in lamentations at the sight of dying liberty. I pro-' 
 posed mild measures in order to bring back the malcontents 
 to the government ; I asked to be authorized to gain the: 
 chiefs of the parties by pensions, gifts, and places ; I received 
 carte blanche with respect to the employment of pecuniary 
 means ; but my power did not extend to the distribution of 
 public places or favours. I saw clearly that the first consul 
 persisted in the system of allowing the republicans to form 
 the minority only in his councils and high places ; whilst he 
 wished to maintain in full force the partisans of monarchy 
 and absolute power. I had scarcely credit sufficient to 
 obtain the nomination of some half-dozen prefects. Bona- ; 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. hi 
 
 parte 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 
 the instruments of plots and revolutions. His distrusts and 
 his alarms were excited by the persons who surrounded 
 him, and who urged him towards monarchy ; such as 
 Portalis, Lebrun, Cambacerfes, Clarke, Champagny, Fleurieu, 
 Duchatel, Jollivet, Benezech, Emmery, Rcederer, Cretet, 
 Regnier, Chaptal, Dufresne, and many others. To this 
 must be added the secret reports and clandestine correspon- 
 dences of men employed by him, to watch the tendency 
 and torrent of public opinion. In these, I was not spared ; 
 I was exposed to the most malevolent insinuations ; my 
 system of police was often run down and denounced. I had 
 Lucien against me, who was then minister of the home 
 department, and who had also his private police. Sometimes 
 obliged to bear the reproaches 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 positive orders to keep nothing concealed, 
 whether popular reports or the gossip of the drawing-rooms. 
 The result was, that Lucien making a bad use of his patron- 
 age and position, playing the part of a debauchee, seducing 
 wives from their husbands, and trafiicking in licenses for the 
 exportation of corn, was often an object of public rumours. 
 As the head of the police, I was bound in duty to point out 
 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 disgrace, always exhibited so much 
 
1 1 2 MEMOIRS OF FO UOHi. 
 
 cupidity, that there is no occasiofi to name him in order to 
 point him out. Having charge of the papers and secrets 
 of his master, he discovered that I spent lOojooo francs 
 (;^400o) monthly, for the purpose of keeping a constant 
 watch on the life 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 accomplishing the 
 aim I had in view. He called on me, and offered to inform 
 me exactly of all the proceedings of Boqg.parte 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 
 proposal 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 be satisfied 
 with his dexterity and accuracy. But I took care, how- 
 ever, not to economize in the funds which I employed, 
 in order to protect the person of Bonaparte from any unfore- 
 seen attack. The palace alone consumed more than half the 
 100,000 francs which were monthly allowed me for that 
 purpose. But indeed I was by that means very accurately 
 apprized of all that was important for me to know ; and I 
 was enabled, reciprocally, to verify and strengthen the infor- 
 mations of the secretary, by those I received from Josephine, 
 and vice vers&. 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, as being the intermediate agent 
 whom I employed for the purpose of supplying information 
 to the anarchists, and of distributing money among them. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 113 
 
 The real fact is, that I employed all my tnipisterial 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 high 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 by dint of rendering me suspected, 
 they at last excited the distrust of the first consul. In a 
 short time, he imagined pretences to limit my functions, by 
 especially charging the prefect of police with the duty of 
 keeping a watch on the malcontents. That prefect was 
 Dubois ; an old lawyer, avaricious, and blindly devoted to 
 power ; a magistrate before the revolution, who, after having 
 adroitly insinuated himself into the bureau central, got him- 
 self appointed prefect of police, after the i8th of 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 good share on the 
 large sums proceeding from gambling houses {curte des 
 Jeux), under pretext that money was the sinew of all political 
 police. But, afterwards, I succeeded in detecting him in the 
 employment of the funds of his budget, which were levied 
 from the base and disgraceful vices which dishonour the 
 metropolis. 
 
 The Machiavelian maxim, divide et impera, having pre- 
 vailed, there were shortly no less than four distinct 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 
 different bulletins of police, derived from different quarters, 
 
 9 
 
ii4 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 and which he could compare together ; I do not mention 
 the reports of his own trusty correspondents. This was 
 what he called feeling the pulse of the republic ; but it was 
 considered as in a very bad state of health under his hands. 
 Everything I could have done to support it would have 
 turned to its disadvantage. 
 
 My adversaries laboured to reduce my functions to that of 
 a simply administrative and theoretical police ; but I was 
 not the man to suffer it. The first consul himself, — I must 
 do him this justice, — resisted firmly every attempt that was 
 made with this view. He said, that, in thus wishing to 
 deprive him of my services, he would be exposed to the 
 hazard of remaining defenceless in presence of the counter- 
 revolutionists ; that no one understood better than I did 
 how to manage the police of the English and Chouan agents, 
 and that my system suited him. I felt, however, that I was 
 no longer anything more than a counterpoise in the machine 
 of government. Besides, its march was more or less sub- 
 ordinate to the course of public events and the chances of 
 politics. 
 
 Everything, at that time, seemed to intimate an approach- 
 ing peace. The battle of Marengo had, by the results of a 
 military convention, more surprising than the victory itself, 
 thrown into the power of the first consul. Piedmont, Lom- 
 bardy, Genoa, and the strongest places in Upper Italy. He 
 did not leave Milan until he had re-established the Cisalpine 
 republic. 
 
 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 isth of July the preliminaries of peace were signed at 
 Paris between Austria and France. 
 
 Successes so decisive, far from disarming the republican 
 malcontents, exasperated them more and more. Bonaparte 
 created bitter enemies by his absolute and military manner. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FO UCHi. 1 1 5 
 
 There were, at that time, in the ranks of the army a great 
 number of oppositionists whom a republican spirit induced 
 to form secret associations. General officers and colonels 
 held 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 individual, who had now 
 erected himself into a master. It is true that no visible 
 sign, no positive datum, had opened the eyes of the govern- 
 ment on these intrigues ; but some signs and random hints 
 induced it to the frequent removal of the regiments and 
 officers who had rendered themselves objects of suspicion. 
 
 In Paris, aflFairs were in a more serious condition, and the 
 activity of the malcontents was more obvious. The more 
 violent were withheld from employments, and watched. I 
 was informed that, since the institution of the consular 
 government, they held secret assemblies and fabricated plots. 
 It was in rendering those plots abortive that I used all my 
 exertions ; by that means hoping to check the natural dis- 
 position of the government to re-act upon the individuals of 
 the revolution. I had even succeeded in obtaining from the 
 first consul some exterior demonstrations favourable to re- 
 publican 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 spent large sums in sending succours to 
 the indigent and unfortunate patriots ; on the other hand, 
 by the vigilance of my agents, and by means of timely infor- 
 mation, 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 perpe- 
 trating 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 meetings held, and one 
 of the more intemperate conspirators, concealed under the 
 
ii6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 uniform of a gendarme^ took an oath to assassinate Bona- 
 parte at the Comkdte Fratifaise. 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, indeed, could the 
 possibility be expected of restraining, for any length of time, 
 men of a turbulent character and of an unconquerable fana- 
 ticism, living, moreover, in a state of distress so well calculated 
 to inflame ? It is with such instruments that conspiracies 
 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 Juve- 
 not to be arrested. But it was impossible to extract any 
 confession ; 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 con- 
 spiracy ; Talot and Laignelot for its invisible directors. 
 They had their own pamphleteer ; this was Metge, a reso- 
 lute, active man, but whom no one could find. 
 
 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 conveyed to prison in the 
 Temple. The interrogatory eliciting no light, I ordered 
 them to be set at liberty, with directions to watch them. A 
 fortnight after, the same conspiracy was resumed ; at least, 
 an individual named Harel, one of tlie accomplices, in the 
 hope of large remuneration, made some disclosures, in con- 
 cert with the war commissary Lefebvre, to Bourienne, secre- 
 tary of the first consul. Harel himself being brought for- 
 ward, corroborated his first information, and designated the 
 conspirators. According to him they were Cerrachi and 
 Diana, Roman refugees ; Arena, brother of the Corsican 
 deputy who had declared against the first consul ; the painter 
 Topino-Lebrun, a fanatical patriot ; and Demerville, an old 
 
• MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi:. 117 
 
 clerk to the committee of public safety, an intimate acquaint- 
 ance of Barr^re. This affair brought upon me, at the palace, 
 a tolerably vehement attack 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 organized conspiracy — organized, I say — for there 
 is no one can answer for preventing the effects of the indi- 
 vidual rage of a fanatical ruffian. In this case, beyond a 
 doubt, there is a plot ; or, at least, a real design to commit 
 violence. I was myself acquainted with it, and had put a 
 watch on the rash projectors, who seemed to indulge the 
 hope of the possibility of its execution. I can produce proofs 
 of what I advance, by producing immediately the person 
 from whom I derived my information ! " It was Barrfere 
 who was then charged with the political articles inserted in 
 the papers under ministerial influence. " Very well," replied 
 Bonaparte in an animated tone ; "let him be produced and 
 make his declaration to General Lannes, who is already 
 acquainted with the affair, and with whom you will concert 
 the proper measures." 
 
 I soon perceived that the poUcy of the first consul led him 
 to impart substance to a shadow ; and that it 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 conspira- 
 tors should be entrapped into a snare which Harel was 
 ordered to devise ; in procuring them, as he had promised, 
 four armed men ready for the assassination of the first consul, 
 on the evening of the loth of October, while present at the 
 performance of the o,pera of the, Horatii. 
 
 This being arranged, the consul, in a privy council, to 
 which the minister of war was not summoned, spoke of the 
 dangers by which he was surrounded, the plots of the anar- 
 chists and demagogues, and of the perverse direction which 
 
ii8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. ' 
 
 men of irritable and ferocious republicanism imparted to the 
 public mind. He named Carnot, and reproached him with 
 his connection with men of the revolution, and with his 
 morose disposition. 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 tlie prudence and wisdom 
 of the consuls Cambacerfes and Lebrun, who, pleading reasons 
 of state, Said 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 
 remonstrate 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 herself with 
 females whose name and rank flattered her vanity. The 
 next day, Carnot, in conformity with the notice which I was 
 instructed to give him, sent in his resignation. 
 
 On the day following, at the performance of the Horatii, 
 the mock-attempt on the life of the first consul was made. 
 There, persons stationed in readiness by the counter-police, 
 and with respect to whom the conspirators had been deluded, 
 arrested Diana, Cerrachi, and their accomplices. 
 
 This affair made a great noise ; and it was what was 
 wanted. All the superior authorities hurried to congratu- 
 late the first consul on the danger he had escaped. In his 
 reply from the Tribunat, he said that he had in reality run 
 no danger ; that independently of the assistance given by all 
 good citizens, who were present at the performance which he 
 attended, he had with him a picquet of his brave guard. 
 " The wretches," exclaimed he, " could not have borne their 
 looks !".... 
 
 I immediately proposed measures of superintendence and 
 precaution for the future ; and among others, to disarm all 
 the villages on the road 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 im- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FO UCHA. 1 1 9 
 
 part redoubled vigilance to the agents of police. The 
 counter-police of the palace also took 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 new government generally takes advantage of a 
 danger which it has escaped, either to strengthen or to 
 extend its power ; to have escaped a conspiracy is sufficient 
 ground for acquiring more energy and vigour. The first 
 consul was instinctively induced to follow this policy, 
 adopted by all his predecessors. In this latter case, he was 
 more particularly prompted to it 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 displeased and annoyed his 
 brother, either by speaking with too much pride and 
 pleasure of the i8th of Brumaire, or by attempting 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 duum- 
 virate, 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 contem- 
 plated 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 ex- 
 aggerating, to the eye of his brother, the inconvenience 
 attending on the instability of his power, and the dangers 
 to which he would be exposed through the republican spirit, 
 he hoped from that time to' induce him to establish a cpn- 
 
I20 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 stitutional 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 first consul himself, however 
 devoured by the desire of rendering his power immovable, 
 founded the anticipated 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 thinking he might be certain of the 
 tacit assent of his brother, he caused a pamphlet to be 
 secretly composed and written, entitled, Parallel of Crom- 
 well^ Monk, and Bonaparte, where the cause and principles 
 of monarchy were overtly advocated and cried up. Great 
 numbers of this pamphlet having being struck off, Lucien, 
 in his private office, ordered so many packets as there were 
 prefectures to be made, and each packet contained copies 
 equal in number to the functionaries of the depart- 
 ments. No official notice, it is true, accompanied this 
 mission which was sent to each prefect by coach ; but the 
 nature of the thing, the superscription bearing the seal of a 
 minister, 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 hasten- 
 ing to Malmaison, I laid it under the eye of the first consul, 
 with a report, in which I pointed out the serious inconveni- 
 ences likely to result from so ill disguised an initiative. I 
 designated it as unseasonable and imprudent ; and I sup- 
 ported my arguments effectually by referring to the state of 
 secret irritation in which the mind of the army at that 
 tithe was, especially among the generals and superior officers, 
 who personally were little attached to Bonaparte, and 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 establish- 
 ment could not without danger be abruptly made to succeed 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 121 
 
 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 
 intrigue. Lucien, in a rage at this, and concluding that 
 I should not have employed such expressions without 
 being authorized, hurried in his turn to Malmaison, 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 a warm dispute, passionately 
 threw on his brother's desk his portfoUo of minister, ex- 
 claiming that he divested himself the more readily of a public 
 character, as he had suffered nothing but torment, from sub- 
 jection 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. 
 
 Decorum and state reasons united, required the separation 
 of the two brothers, without more scandal and violence. M. 
 de Talleyrand and myself undertook this task ; all was politi- 
 cally made up. Lucien in a short time set off for Madrid, 
 with the title of ambassador, and with an express mission 
 to try to change the resolutions 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 occasion, the 
 opportunity was not lost, in private correspondences and in 
 
122 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 the Parisian drawing-rooms, 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 Beauharnais to preponderate over the 
 party of the brothers of Napoleon. It is true, that, con- 
 sidering the advantages of the unity of authority, I was 
 fully persuaded that the mild and benignant influence of 
 the Beauharnais was preferable to the excessive and imperi- 
 ous encroachments of a Lucien, who wished to govern the 
 state, and to leave his brother nothing but the management 
 of the army. 
 
 New plots, engendered by totally opposite parties, suc- 
 ceeded these domestic quarrels of the palace. Ever since 
 the latter end of October, the fanatics had renewed their 
 sinister designs ; I perceived that they were organized 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 
 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 in which the 
 chief magistrate was then placed, I will give a summary of 
 that situation in a few words. 
 
 The Emperor of Austria had received news of the pre- 
 liminaries 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 placed between peace and the 
 gold of England, courageously resolved on running again 
 the chances of war. M. de St. Julien was thrown into a 
 state prison for having exceeded his powers ; and the armis- 
 tice being about to expire very shortly, preparations for re- 
 newing hostilities were made on both sides. The armistice, 
 howeverj was extended till November. Thus, on both- sides, 
 they balanced between peace and war. The fijst consul 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 123 
 
 and his government were at that time inclined to peace, 
 which then solely depended on the operations of Moreau in 
 Germany ; of that Moreau, whose reputation Bonaparte 
 even at that time envied. 
 
 He was the only man whose renown could bear competi- 
 tion 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 common enemy. The vigilance 
 of the police, far from discouraging the anarchists, seemed 
 to inspire them with more audacity and vigour. Their 
 leaders sometimes assembled at the house of Chretien, the 
 limonadier ; sometimes at Versailles ; sometimes in the 
 garden of the Capucines, organizing insurrection, and 
 already devising a provisional government. Wishing to 
 bring the matter to a conclusion, they proceeded to desperate 
 resolutions. One of them, named Chevalier, a man of 
 delirious republicanism and atrocious mind, who had been 
 employed in the great park of artillery at Meudon, under 
 the committee of public safety, to devise means of destruc- 
 tion calculated on the extraordinary effects of gunpowder, 
 conceived the first idea of destroying Bonaparte by means 
 of an infernal machine, which should be placed on his way. 
 Stimulated by the approbation of his accomplices, and still 
 more by his natural disposition. Chevalier, 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 lock ready cocked, and 
 which could be fired at pleasure, by means of a line, which 
 would enable the person who fired it to shelter himself from 
 the explosion. The work proceeded rapidly ; and the con- 
 spirators were very impatient to blow up, by means of the 
 infernal machine, the httle corporal f a name which they 
 gave to Bonaparte. This was not all ; the: most daring 
 
124 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA 
 
 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 i8th of 
 October was chosen ; the chiefs of the plot proceeded to 
 the back part of the convent de la Salpitrt^re, believing 
 themselves in that place secure from detection. The ex- 
 plosion was so great, 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 thrown into the first consul's carriage, 
 either at bis 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 exulting of the conspirators transpiring 
 from one to the other, very shortly drew the whole police 
 after their heels. The greater part of the secret intelligence 
 alluded to an infernal machine, which was intended to blow 
 up the little corporal. I consulted my memorandum book, 
 and I felt assured that Chevalier must be the principal arti- 
 ficer of this perfidious machination. He was found concealed 
 on the 8th of November, and arrested, as well as Veycer, in 
 the Rue des Blancs Manteaux ; all those who were suspected 
 to be their accomplices being taken at the same time. Powder 
 and bullets were found ; the relics of the first machine, and 
 a rough model of the incendiary bomb ; in short, everything 
 that could serve to substantiate the crime. But no confession 
 was to be obtained either by menaces or bribes. 
 
 It was natural to believe, after this discovery, that the life 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 125 
 
 of Bonaparte would be secure against means so atrocious and 
 attempts so heinous. But the other hostile party, following 
 the same object through similar plots, already hoped to rob 
 the demagbgues of the invention of the infernal machine. 
 Nothing is more extraordinaryj and nevertheless more true, 
 than this sudden change of actors on the same stage, in order 
 to perform the same tragedy. All this would appear in- 
 credible, did I not myself retrace its secret causes, as they 
 successively recur in my own mind. 
 
 At the opening of the campaign, Georges Cadoudal, the 
 most determined and inveterate of all the chiefs of Lower 
 Brittany, who had not been yet subdued, landed at Morbihan, 
 on a mission from London, to prepare a new attack. He 
 was invested with the command-in-chief of all Brittany, the 
 military details of which command he deputed to his prin- 
 cipal lieutenants, Mercier la Vendue, de Bar, Sol de Grisolles, 
 and Guillemot. These intrigues were connected with others 
 carried on in Paris, among correspondents and fellow-con- 
 spirators, and in the departments of the west. In this case, 
 1 had more than indications : I had a full knowledge of a 
 projected insurrection, which, at that epoch (the passage of 
 St. Bernard by the first consul), gave great cause of alarm to 
 the two other consuls, Cambac^r^s and Lebrun. I immedi- 
 ately adopted vigorous measures. My agents and the whole 
 of the gendarmerie took the field ; I caused several of the old 
 suspected chiefs to be watched and arrested, and among 
 others, some very dangerous heads of parishes. But the 
 operations of the police were more or less subordinate to the 
 chances of foreign war. 
 
 In a report which I addressed 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 victorious, and without 
 any delay, in order to disperse the newly-collected elements 
 of troubles and storms. 
 
 In fact, as has been seen, fortune on the field of Marengo 
 
126 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA^ 
 
 loaded him with all kinds of favours, and at the very moment 
 when his enemies considered him lost for ever. This sudden 
 triumph disconcerted all the designs of England, and de- 
 stroyed all the hopes of Georges Cadoudal, without, how- 
 ever, subduing his determined mind. He persevered in 
 remaining in Morbihah, which he considered as his domain, 
 and the royalist organization of which was supported by his 
 exertions. Informed by his correspondents, at Paris, of the 
 irritation and reviving plots of the popular party, he sent 
 thither, towards the end of October, his most determined 
 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 given him information. In the disposition in 
 which the public mind and the government were, this crime, 
 being perpetrated by royalists, could not fail being as- 
 cribed to the jacobins ; hence the royalists would reap alone 
 the fruits of it. A combination so audacious appeared 
 essentially political. Such was the origin of the attempt 
 made on the 24th of December (3rd Nivose), by the agents, 
 or, rather, the delegates of Georges. This double plot re- 
 mained for a short time concealed by a thick veil, so ex- 
 clusively did the suspicions and attention of all parties 
 direct themselves toward the anarchists. One circumstance 
 appeared favourable to confer a great probability of success 
 on this new design. The oratorio of the Creation of the 
 World, 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 court. So profound was the perversity 
 of the conspiracy, that the agents of Georges deliberated 
 whether it would not be more certain to place the infernal 
 machine beneath the very foundations of the opera-house, so 
 as to blow up at the same time Bonaparte and the whole Mite 
 of his government. Whether it was the idea of so horrible 
 a catastrophe, or the uncertainty of destroying the infiividual 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 127 
 
 against whom such an outrage was designed, which caused 
 the crime to be put off, I am incapable, indeed, I tremble to 
 pronounce. Nevertheless, an old naval officer, named Saint- 
 Regent, assisted by Carbon, called Littl^ Francis, a subaltern, 
 was directed to place the fatal machine in the Rue Saint- 
 Nicaise, which it was necessary for Bonaparte to pass, and to 
 apply the match in time to blow up his carriage. The 
 burning of the match, the eifect 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 the post in the Rue Saint- Nicaise, near which the infernal 
 machine was to be placed. 
 
 The prefect of police and myself were sipprized the even- 
 ing before, that there was much whispering in certain 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 apprized of it, by our diurnal reports. 
 He at first appeared 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 ordered his carriage and departed, ac- 
 companied by his aides-de-camp. On this occasion, as on so 
 many others, it was Caesar accompanied by his fortune. It 
 is well known that the hope of the conspirators was only 
 baffled by a slight accident. The first consul's coachman, 
 being half intoxicated on that day, having driven his horses 
 with more than usual celerity, the explosion, which was 
 computed with rigorous precision, took place two seconds 
 too late ; and that scarcely perceptible fraction of time, de- 
 ducted from the preconcerted interval, sufficed to save the 
 life of the first consul, and consolidate his power.' 
 
 ' 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. Succours 
 were given to the unfortunate wounded, according to the greater or less 
 severity of their wounds. The maximum of these succours was four 
 
128 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 Without expressing any astonishment at the event, Bona- 
 parte exclaimed on hearing the report of the frightful ex- 
 plosion, " That is the infernal machine ! " and unwilling to 
 retrograde or fly, he made his appearance at the opera. But 
 with what a wrathful countenance and terrible aspect ! 
 What gloomy thoughts must have rushed on his suspicious 
 mind ! The news of the attempt soon circulated from box 
 to box ; the public indignation was warm, and the sensation 
 profound among the ministers, the courtiers, and those who 
 approached the first consul ; in short, among all individuals 
 attached to the car of his fortune. Not waiting for the end 
 
 thousand five hundred 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 two thousand 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 : — 
 Bataille, Mme., ^piciire, rue St. Nicaise . . . . loo 
 
 Boiteux, Jean-Marie-Joseph, ci-devant fr^re de la Charite . . 50 
 
 Bonnet, Mme., rue St. Nicaise ..... 150 
 
 Boulard, (veuve,) musicienne, rue J. J. Rousseau . . . 4000 
 
 A second supply was granted her on account of her wounds : it was 30CX) 
 
 Bourdin, Frangoise Louvrier, femme, portiere, rue St. Nicaise 
 Buchener, Louis, tailleur, rue St. Nicaise 
 Chapuy, Gilbert, officier civil de la marine, rue de Bac 
 Charles, Jean Etienne, imprimeur, rue St. Nicaise . 
 Clement, garfon marechal, rue de Petit Carrousel 
 
 Cl&eaux, Marie Josephine Lehodey, ^pici^re, rue Neuve de I'EgaHt^ 3800 
 
 CoUinet, Marie Jeanne Cecile, revendeuse, a la halle . . 200 
 Corbet, Nicolas Alexandre, employe a IMtat-major de la t7e division, 
 
 rue St. Honor^ ....... 240 
 
 Couteux, vermicellier, rue des Prouvaires . . . .150 
 
 Duverne, Louis, ouvrier serrurier, rue du Harlay . . . 1000 
 
 Fleury, Catherine Lenoir, veuve, rue de Malte . . . 50 
 
 Fostier, Louis Philippe, remplagant au poste de la rue St. Nicaise . 25 
 Fridzery, Alexandrie Marie Antoine, musicien aveugle, rue St 
 
 Nicaise ........ 750^ 
 
 Gauther, Marie Poncette, fiUe, rue de Chaillo . . . 100 
 
 Harel, Antoine, garfon limonadier, rue de Malte . . . 3000 
 
 Hiblot, Marie Anne, fille, rue de Malte .... 240 
 
 Honor^, Marie Th&^se Larue, veuve, rue Marceau . . 100 
 
 Honore, Th^rfese, fill, ouvriere ..... 50 
 
 Huguet, Louis, cuisinier aux Champs Elys^es . . .50 
 
 Jardy, Julren, remplagant au poste St. Nicaise . . . 100 
 
 Kalbertj Jean Antoine, apprentif menuisier, rue . . . 100 
 
 SO 
 
 25 
 
 800 
 400 
 5° 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 129 
 
 of the opera, all followed his carriage : and, on his return to 
 the Tuileries, there opened a scene, or rather an orgy of 
 blind and furious passions. On my arrival, for I hurried 
 there without delay, I judged from the agitation of the 
 minds, 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 determined not to suffer myself to be put down by the 
 clamours of the courtiers nor the apostrophes of the first 
 consul. "Well!" exclaimed he, advancing towards me 
 with a countenance inflamed with rage ; " Well ! you will 
 
 Lambert, Marie Jacqueline Gillot, femme, rue Fromenteau 
 
 Leclerc, ^Ifeve en peinture, mort a I'hospice 
 
 Lefevre, Simon Fran9ois, garyon tapissier, rue de la Verreri 
 
 Leger, Madame, limonadi^re, rue St. Nicaise 
 
 Lepape, Elizabeth Satabin, femme, portiere, rue St. Nicaise 
 
 Lemierre, Nicolas, rue de Malte, tenant maison garnie 
 
 Lion, Pierre Nicolas, domestique, allee d'Antin 
 
 Masse, Jean Francois, garfon marchand de vin, rue des St. Peres 
 
 Mercier, Jean Baptiste, rentier, rue St. Honor^ 
 
 Orilliard, Stephanie Madeleine, fille, couturi^re, rue de Lille 
 
 Palluel, portier, rue St. Nicaise .... 
 
 Preville, Claude BartWlemi, tapissier, rue des Saints-Pires 
 
 Proverbi, Antoine, hommede confiance, rue des Filles St. Thomas 
 
 Regnault, femme, ouvri^re, rue de Crenelle St. Honor^ 
 
 St. Gilles, Louis, femme, ouvriere en linge, galerie des Innocens 
 
 Selleque, veuve, rue Saint Denis . . . 
 
 Thirion, Jean, cordonnier en vieux, rue St. Nicaise . 
 
 Trepsat, architecte, rue de Bourgogne 
 
 Varlet, rue Saint Louis, remplajant au poste St. Nicaise 
 
 Warm^, N. marchand de vin, rue St. Nicaise _ . 
 
 Vitriee, Elizabeth, femme, cuisinike, rue St. Nicaise 
 
 Vitry, perruquier, rue St. Nicaise .... 
 
 Wolff, Arnoult, tailleur, rue de Malte 
 
 Zambrini, Felix, garfon limonadier chez Corazza 
 
 Banny, Jean Frederic, earjon traiteur, rue des Grands Augustins 
 
 Barbier, Marie, Genevilve Viel, veuve, rue St. Honor^ 
 
 Beirle, Alexandre, marchand gantier peaussier, rue St. Nicaise 
 
 Boyeldieu, Marie Louis Chevalier, veuve, rue St. Placide . 
 
 Orphelins, Lister, Agnfes, Adelaide .... 
 
 Mitaine, Jeanne Prevost, veuve, rue de Malta 
 
 Platel, Jeanne Smith, veuve .... 
 
 The sum total was 77,601 fr. ; the overplus was paid in to the fund at 
 the Mont de PUti, in order to pay the pensions. — Note by the Editor. 
 
 10 
 
 100 
 200 
 200 
 
 1500 
 100 
 200 
 600 
 ISO 
 
 4500 
 900 
 
 5° 
 4500 
 750 
 200 
 400 
 200 
 
 25 
 4S00 
 
 25 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 50 
 
 150 
 
 600 
 1000 
 1000 
 
 800 
 1000 
 1200 
 
 450 
 1030 
 
13° MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 not now pretend to say that these were royalists ! " — "Yes," 
 I replied, as if inspired, 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 sufficiently restrained by the police ; in 
 short, of the jacobins — " No ; " I replied, " it is the work of 
 the royalists, of the Chouans ; and I only require a week to 
 furnish the proofs of it." Having thus obtained some atten- 
 tion, I gave a summary of recent notices and facts, and justified 
 the whole police ; adverting, at the same time, to its sub- 
 division 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 im- 
 pute 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 paralyzed and disarmed ; 
 while the emigrants, the Chouans, the agents of England, 
 would not have been able, if any timely warning had been 
 attended to, to strike the metropolis with terror, and fill the 
 public mind with indignation. I brought to my opinion 
 General Lannes, Real, Regnault, and Josephine ; and strong 
 on the respite of eight days granted me, I felt no doubt that 
 proof sufficient would instantly be supplied in support of 
 my conjectures. I had soon, in fact, possession, by means of 
 the single bait of 2000 louis, of all the designs of the agents 
 of Georges, and I was furnished with the secret of their 
 hearts. I was apprized, that the day of the explosion and 
 the day following, eighty chiefs of the Chouans had clandes- 
 tinely arrived at Paris, from different quarters, and through 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 131 
 
 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 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 the incredulity and 
 prejudices of my enemies. 
 
 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 inclination was but 
 too well seconded through all the hierarchies of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 His first essay, as military dictator, was to pass an act 
 of deportation beyond the seas against such individuals 
 among the demagogues and anarchists in worst repute at 
 Paris ; and of whom I was desired to draw up 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, authorizing deportation into Africa. 
 Through my means, that druel decree of deportation pro- 
 nounced against Charles de Hesse, Felix Lepelletier, Chou- 
 dieu, 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 
 the banishment .of the most violent jacobins. The first 
 consul found the forms of the constitutional tribunals too 
 dilatory ; he wanted an active and inexorable justice ; he 
 wished to abstract the accused from the sphere of their 
 natural judges. It was deliberated in the council of state, 
 that the establishment of special tribunals, without jury. 
 
132 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 appeal, or revision, should be solicited, as a law of exception, 
 from the legislative body. 
 
 I endeavoured to prove that it was at least necessary to 
 abstract from the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals none 
 but persons accused of conspiracies, or individuals who had 
 attacked and robbed the stages on the high-roads. I repre- 
 sented that the roads were infested by brigands ; accordingly, 
 a decree was published by the consuls on the 7th of January, 
 ordaining that no diligence should depart from Paris with- 
 out having four soldiers commanded by a Serjeant or corporal 
 on the roof, and without having a night-escort. The dili- 
 gences 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 alarmed than was apparent. 
 Persons accused of conspiracy were punished without mercy. 
 
 Two military commissions were nominated ; one sentenced 
 Chevalier and Veycer, the persons accused of having fabri- 
 cated 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, Cerrachi, Demerville, and Topino-Lebrun, appeared 
 before the criminal tribunal, where they were allowed the 
 benefit of a trial by jury ; but the period was inauspicious, 
 and the public prejudice decisive. They were condemned 
 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. I had at heart to gather every possible evidence, 
 as I had promised, and I succeeded. There was no longer 
 any doubt of the quarter from whence the crime originated. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 133 
 
 It was proved that Carbon had bought the horse and cart in 
 which the infernal machine had been placed ; it was equally 
 proved that he and Saint-Rdgent had kept the cart under a 
 shed ; had provided the casks ; brought 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 attempts, 
 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 intercourse between them than those 
 of secret watching, by which the royalists had become ac- 
 quainted with the terrible instrument with which the jacobins 
 intended to destroy 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. 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 armies in Germany, 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 Hohenlinden ; 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 
 dispersed the only troops which covered his approaches ; 
 and, stopped in his career by policy, or envy, he concluded 
 a fresh armistice at Steyer. Convinced of the emergency of 
 circumstances, the cabinet of London consented to Austria's 
 
134 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 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 
 these two great captains. Difference of character, and the 
 remains of the republican spirit, could not fail to produce 
 between them, at a later period, an open rupture. 
 
 This spirit showed itself in the capital, and caused a sort 
 of agitation, on account of a project of law tending to 
 establish a special criminal tribunal wherever it might be 
 deemed necessary. The truth is, that the thing proposed 
 was a sort of nondescript commission, composed one-half of 
 civil and the other of military judges. This project having 
 been laid before the tribunat, startled those of the tribunes 
 who cherished liberty ; in their minds they identified this 
 new measiire with the. Justice pr'evotale of the old times.' 
 
 The government orators alleged that the social fabric was 
 attacked at its foundation by an organization 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 whole social system." The 
 discussion was skilful and animated ; it occupied seven 
 sittings ; Isnard, Benjamin- Constant, Daunou, Chenier, 
 Ginguene, and Bailleul, advanced as the rear-guard of the 
 republic, and disputed with vigour, but with moderation and 
 decency, the proposal of the government. It only passed 
 by a small majority, and by means of the influence of the 
 cabinet. The project concluded with the grant of a power to 
 the consuls, of banishing from the city, where the principal 
 
 " The prev8ts were a sort of military magistrates who took cognizance of 
 some capital crimes and offences, such as murder, highway robbery, false 
 coining, &c. ; they had armed men under them, whose office it was to 
 protect the high roads, and to arrest offenders. The sentences of the 
 prev8tal court were without appeal. — English Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOVCHE. 135 
 
 authorities resided, and even from every other town, such 
 persons whose presence attracted suspicion. This grant 
 estabhshed, as it were, the dictatorship of the poHce ; and 
 people did not fail to say that I was about to become the 
 Sejanus of a new Tiberius. Everything which the first 
 consul required was conceded. 
 
 Invested with legal dictatorship ; armed with power to 
 punish his enemies with death or banishment, the first 
 consul soon gave reason to fear that his government would 
 very soon have no other primum mobile than force. But he 
 gave peace to the world — and peace was a talisman which, 
 while, offering a tranquil haven after so many storms, dis- 
 sipated a multitude of clouds. 
 
 The congress of Lun^ville, at the end of forty days, pro- 
 duced a definite treaty of peace, which was signed on the 
 9th of February, 1801, between France and Austria. 
 
 The possession of the 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 opposi- 
 tion manifested by the Tribunat 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 republicanism. Since the 
 preceding month of August, he had been superseded by 
 Brune, who himself had been suspected when at the camp 
 du depot, at Dijon, and whom I had succeeded in getting 
 restored to favour by attenuating certain secret disclosures ; 
 for there were spies upon every staff. 
 
 But however that may be, Brune had made himself master 
 
136 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 of Tuscany, and confiscated Leghorn, and every kind of 
 English property. 
 
 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 negotiated with the Holy See. 
 
 The treaty of peace with Naples soon followed ; by virtue 
 of which, vintil the establishment of a definitive peace between 
 France, Great Britain, and the Ottoman Porte, four thou- 
 sand French soldiers occupied the northern Abruzzo, and 
 tw^elve 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 extremely 
 pleased with the dexterity of his minister of state for foreign 
 affairs, Talleyrand- Perigord. But at bottom he began to be 
 annoyed by the gazetteers of London, who constantly repre- 
 sented him as being under the diplomatic tutelage of M. de 
 Talleyrand, and in point of government, under mine ; and 
 as being incapable of moving a single step without us, whose 
 abilities were purposely exaggerated, in order to render us 
 obnoxious and suspected. I tired him myself with repeating 
 incessantly that, when governments are not just, their pros- 
 perity is only transitory ; that in the elevated 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. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 137 
 
 But how, on emerging from a long-protracted hurricane, 
 could any one expect to find at the head of an immense re- 
 public, transformed into a military dictatorship, a chief at 
 once just, energetic, and moderate ? The heart of Bona- 
 parte 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 concealed himself, a decided 
 inclination to tyranny. It was precisely that inclination 
 that I exerted myself to soften 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 man, being fully convinced 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 
 factions. I even flattered myself at that time that I could 
 subdue whatever might be too violent or too harsh in his 
 great character. 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 trial of this sort was not successful. Having been 
 struck, on his last passage through Milan, with the theatrical 
 
 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 commissioned Berthier to 
 conclude a treaty with her on liberal terms, and to bring her 
 to Paris ; she even performed the journey in Berthier's 
 carriage. Having a tolerable income of fifteen thousand 
 francs a month, she exhibited her brilliant talents at the 
 theatre and the concerts at the Tuileries, where her voice 
 delighted every one. 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 beautifiil vocalist were abrupt 
 and clandestine. Amours without attentions and without 
 
I3S MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 charms were not likely to satisfy a proud and impassioned 
 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 could not observe any precau- 
 tions ; equally defying the vigilance of Junot and Berthier. 
 While these intrigues were going on, Bonaparte one day 
 told me that he was astonished, that with my acknowledged 
 talents, I did not govern 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 atten- 
 dant, mounts a shabby vehicle, and proceeds to ferret out a 
 
 certain Signora G ; that little man is yourself ; and the 
 
 whimsical vocalist sacrifices her fidelity to you in favour of 
 Rode, the violin player." At these words the consul, turn- 
 ing 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 pensions, in 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, where fortune met them again. 
 As it was commonly said 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 
 wish was to disarm England. The rival of France, from 
 remote time, she had become our inveterate enemy, from 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 139 
 
 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 countries connected by 
 the bonds of peace appeared incompatible. The policy of 
 the first consul and his privy council soon sought the solu- 
 tion of this grave question ; — must England be forced to 
 make peace, before we establish a pacific system at home 
 and abroad ? The affirmative was decided by necessity and 
 reason. Without a general peace, every other description of 
 peace could only be considered in the light of a suspension 
 of arms. 
 
 As after Campo Formio, the result was to threaten Great 
 Britain with an invasion, which resolution engaged the 
 attention of our versatile and capricious minds, 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 rendezvous 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 mean the northern 
 league formed against her naval preponderance, and of 
 which the Emperor Paul had declared himself the chief. Its 
 direct object, openly avowed, was to annul the naval system 
 maintained by England ; and in virtue of which that power 
 arrogated to herself the empire of the seas. 
 
 Every one must be aware how anxious the first consul 
 must have been to impart to his diplomacy all his activity 
 and address, in order to give life to that maritime league of 
 which Paul the First was the soul. All the mobiliary force 
 of the cabinet was made to play either to captivate Paul, to 
 win Prussia, to exasperate Denmark, or drag Sweden upon 
 the field of battle. 
 
140 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 Prussia having received the impulse, closed the mouths 
 of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Ems ; and took pos- 
 session of the Hanoverian territory. England now 
 perceived that the object of the quarrel could only be 
 decided by arms. Admirals Hyde Parker and Nelson sud- 
 denly sailed to the Baltic with a powerful naval force. 
 Denmark and Sweden made vain preparations to guard the 
 passage of the Sound and defend the approaches to Copen- 
 hagen. 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 
 from the north, grasping and twisting his despatch, while he 
 walked about in a hurried manner and with an haggard 
 air. " What ! " said he, " an emperor not in safety even in 
 the midst of his guards ! '' In order to appease him, some 
 of my colleagues, myself, and the consul Cambacdrfes, told 
 him that whatever might be the mode of deposition prac- 
 tised in Russia, luckily the south of Europe was a stranger 
 to such treacherous habits and attempts. But none of our 
 arguments could convince him ; his sagacity perceived their 
 hoUowness, when he remembered 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 
 
 ' Express messenger. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 141 
 
 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 the First inspired Bonaparte 
 with melancholy ideas, and made his disposition still more 
 suspicious and mistrustful. He dreamt of nothing but 
 conspiracies in the army ; and caused several general officers 
 to be arrested, 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 severely compromised him. For more 
 than a year Bernadotte had commanded the army of the 
 west, and had his headquarters at Rennes. Nothing could 
 have been objected to his always discreet and moderate 
 operations. The preceding year, during the campaign of 
 Marengo, he had prevented a landing at Quiberon, and the 
 departments of the west continued to show the most com- 
 plete submission. On several occasions, advantage had been 
 taken of some republican speeches, which had escaped some 
 of the officers of his stafi", to raise suspicions in the first 
 consul's mind against him. All of a sudden he was unex- 
 pectedly recalled, and fell into disgrace. All that could be 
 made out, for the accusation was sent directly to the first 
 consul's cabinet, was that the accuser pointed out Colonel 
 Simon as having imprudently divulged a plan of military 
 insurrection against the chief magistrate ; a plan perfectly 
 chimerical, since they had to march to Paris in order to 
 depose the first consul. It was supposed that there was 
 reality in this pretended plot, and that it was not uncon- 
 nected ; that it was linked with a republican conspiracy, at 
 the head of which Bernadotte was naturally placed, and 
 which extended its ramifications through the whole army 
 
143 MEMOIRS OF FOUCfli. 
 
 There were several arrests, and the whole staif of Berna- 
 dotte was disorganized, 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 observed 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 Bernadotte, 
 whom I forebore 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 i8th Brumaire. 
 By my advice, Bonaparte endeavoured, by well-deserved 
 favours and rewards, to attach so distinguished a statesman 
 and skilful a general to his person. 
 
 The vortex of affairs, and progress of foreign politics, 
 fortunately caused a diversion to all these home intrigues. 
 The new Emperor of Russia, declaring himself for another 
 system, caused, in the first instance, all the English sailors 
 who ^vere 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 Marckof 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. 
 
 England, who towards the end of the year 1800 and the 
 beginning of 1801, had seen herself involved in a new 
 quarrel for the maintenance of her maritime rights, although 
 she had to contend alone with the power of France, now 
 appeared to abjure a system of perpetual warfare against our 
 revolution. That political transition was, in some degree, 
 effected by the resignation of the celebrated Pitt, and by 
 the dissolution of his belligerent ministry. From that time, 
 peace between the cabinet of St. James and that of the 
 Tuileries was considered practicable. It was accelerated by 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 143 
 
 the results of two rival expeditions into Portugal and 
 Egypt. 
 
 The mission of Lucien to Madrid had also a political 
 object ; the declaration of war against Portugal by Spain, at 
 the instigation of the first consul, who justly looked upon 
 Portugal as an English colony : the ascendency of his 
 brother over the mind of Charles the Fourth and his queen 
 was without bounds : everything proceeded in the interests 
 of our politics. At the same time when a Spanish army 
 obtained possession of Alentejo, a French army, under the 
 orders of Napoleon's brother-in-law, Leclerc, entered Por- 
 tugal by way of Salamanca. 
 
 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, on a secret 
 subsidy of thirty millions being paid, 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 
 recognize the stipulation of Badajoz. Talleyrand and I 
 endeavoured to make him feel, the ill effects which would 
 result from such a public eclat. Talleyrand founded his 
 arguments, in favour of the basis of the treaty, in the in- 
 terest of our alliance with Spain, in the happy position thus 
 afforded us of reconciliation with England, who, finding 
 herself excluded from the ports of Portugal, would be anxious 
 to re-enter them ; he very adroitly proposed some modifica- 
 tions to 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, so effectually made him relax in 
 his severity, that he suffered the definitive treaty to be con- 
 cluded at Madrid. 
 
 On their side, the English had just effected a disembarka- 
 tion in Egypt, in order to wrest that possession from us ; 
 
144 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 and, on the 20th of March, General Menou lost the battle 
 of Alexandria. Cairo and the principal cities of Egypt suc- 
 cessively fell into the power of the Anglo-Turks. At length 
 Menou himself capitulated, on the 7th of August, and found 
 himself compelled to evacuate Alexandria. So vanished 
 the magnificent project of the directory to make a French 
 colony of Egypt, and Bonaparte's still more romantic pro- 
 ject of re-establishing by these means 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 so consolidated in its 
 government that neither of the two could alone effect any 
 alteration in the situation of the other, preliminaries of 
 j)eace were signed at London, on the ist of October, between 
 M. Otto and Lord Hawkesbury. The news was received 
 with extraordinary demonstrations of joy by both nations. 
 
 All misunderstanding between Russia and France had 
 also ceased to exist, the first consul having neglected nothing 
 to gain the son and successor of Paul I. The Russian 
 plenipotentiary, M. Marckof, availing himself of 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 reconciliation, effected between France and Russia, 
 was a master-stroke for the first consul's party. The ex- 
 tension of his power, both within and without, which he 
 too much abused afterwards, must be dated from that for- 
 tunate epoch. It was not, however, without experiencing, 
 on the score of his treaty with Russia, some opposition at 
 home. 
 
 When communicated to the Tribunat, where the most 
 obstinate republicans sat, this treaty was sent back to a com- 
 mission charged to examine it, and to make a report. In 
 this report, the commission declared that the word subject, 
 employed in it, had excited surprise, inasmuch as it did not 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. f4S 
 
 accord with the idea then entertained of the dignity of 
 French citizens. It was requisite to discuss the treaty in 
 private meetings ; 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 Tri- 
 bunal an intention to render him unpopular and shake his 
 power. I represented to him, with some energy, after 
 having provided for his perusal a summary of the state of 
 opinion in the capital, that it was important to temporize 
 with the remains of the republican spirit by an apparent 
 deference. He at last yielded to my reasons. 
 
 The councillor of state, Fleurieu, was despatched to offer 
 an explanation to the Tribunat, by a note coming from the 
 cabinet of the first consul, in which he declared that for a 
 long time the French government had abjured the principle 
 of dictating any kind of treaty ; and that Russia having 
 appeared to desire the mutual guarantee of the two govern- 
 ments against all troubles within and abroad, it had been 
 agreed that neither of them should grant any kind of pro- 
 tection to the enemies of the other ; and that it was to 
 obtain this purpose that the articles, in which the word 
 subject was used, had been drawn. Everything now ap- 
 peared 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 first 
 consul. In the secret articles of the treaty, the two con- 
 tracting powers mutually promised to arrange the affairs of 
 Germany and Italy by common accord. 
 
 It must be obvious how important it was for England 
 to obtain quickly certain proofs of the existence of this first 
 link of the continental diplomacy, which united, to her 
 
 II 
 
146 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 
 
 detriment, the political interest of the two most powerful 
 empires of Europe, who by that means became the arbiters 
 of her exclusion. The secret articles were therefore sold to 
 her by the weight of gold ; and her cabinet, always very 
 generous for similar disclosures, paid to the faithless betrayers 
 the sum of sixty thousand pounds sterling. Being shortly 
 apprized of this diplomatic robbery, the first consul sent for 
 me to the Tuileries, and commenced by accusing at once 
 the police and his ministry for foreign affairs ; the police, as 
 incapable of preventing or discovering criminal communica- 
 tions with foreigners ; the ministry of M. de Talleyrand, as 
 trafficking in affairs of state. I supported my defence by 
 saying that there had been intrigues at all times which no 
 power could restrain ; and when I observed that the sus- 
 picions of the first consul fell upon two high personages, I 
 did not hesitate to tell him that I had reason to believe, 
 according to information given me, that the state secret had 
 been divulged by M. R. L., confidential secretary of M. de 
 Talleyrand, and afterwards sent either directly to England, 
 or to M. le Comte d'Antraigues, agent of Louis XVIII., by 
 
 M. B , the elder, one of the proprietors of the Journal 
 
 des Dibats, a particular friend of M. R. L . I added 
 
 that I had strong reasons to believe that this individual was 
 a secret correspondent of the foreign powers, but that at all 
 times it was difficult for the police to change mere hints or 
 suspicions into material proofs ; that it could only follow 
 the track. The first impulse of the consul was to order that 
 the two accused should be brought before a military com- 
 mission ; I remonstrated ; on his side, M. de Talleyrand 
 alleged that the secretary of M. de Marckof, or even per' 
 haps of some clerk of the Russian office, might be equally 
 suspected of this infidelity ; but there was not a sufficiently 
 long interval, from the signature of the document to its 
 being divulged, 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA 147 
 
 banishment, and went to Hamburg ; M. B., the elder, was 
 in appearance worse treated ; the gens-d'armes deported 
 him from brigade to brigade to the Isle of Elba. There his 
 exile was much mitigated. 
 
 I did not fail, in the course of this affair, to remind the 
 first consul that, formerly, it was a maxim in haute diplo- 
 matie, that after the lapse of forty days there was no longer 
 any secret in Europe for cabinets directed by statesmen. It 
 was on this basis that he afterwards wished to shape his 
 diplomatic chancery. 
 
 In the interim, the Marquis of Cornwallis came to France 
 as plenipotentiary ambassador, to negotiate a definitive peace. 
 He went to Amiens, which had been selected for the con- 
 ferences ; but the treaty experienced unexpected delays, 
 which did not prevent the first consul from industriously 
 pursuing two projects of great importance, one relative to 
 Italy, the other to St. Domingo. I shall have occasion to 
 speak of the first ; as to the second, the execution of which 
 Bonaparte considered as most urgent, its object was the re- 
 conquest of the colony of St. Domingo, of which the armed 
 negroes had rendered themselves masters. 
 
 I did not participate, in this respect, 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 on this 
 great affair of St. Domingo with prejudices which impaired 
 the rectitude of his judgment. His plans, chiefly directed 
 against the liberty and power of the negroes, prevailed in 
 part, but were ruined by the awkwardness and unskilfulness 
 of our staff officers. I received from Sonthonax, formerly 
 so celebrated at St. Domingo, some well written and soundly 
 reasoning memoirs, respecting the method to be pursued for 
 resuming our influence ; but Sonthonax was himself in so 
 much disgrace, that there was no possibility of making the 
 first consul adopt his ideas ; he even gave me a formal order 
 to banish him from Paris. Fleurieu, Malouet, and all the 
 
148 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA 
 
 colonial party, prevailed. It was decided that, after the 
 conquest, slavery should be maintained^ conformably to the 
 laws and regulations, anterior to 1789 ; and that the slave 
 trade and their importation should take place according to 
 the existing laws 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 recess 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 the happy opportunity of send- 
 ing away a great number of regiments and general officers 
 formed in the school of Moreau, whose reputation pained 
 him, and whose influence with the army, if not a subject of 
 alarm, was at least to him one of restraint 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 as still adhering to 
 republican institutions. The malcontents, who have always 
 more or less influence on public opinion, no longer kept any 
 measures with respect to this enterprise ; and such were the 
 rumours, that my bulletins, in which they were faithfully 
 reported, became alarming. " Well," said Bonaparte to me 
 one day, " your jacobins malignantly say that they are the 
 soldiers and friends of Moreau, whom I am sending to perish 
 at St. Domingo ; they are grumbling maniacs. Let them 
 talk on. 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 trial of the sort." 
 
 When everything was ready, the expedition, consisting of 
 twenty-three ships of the line, and twenty-two thousand 
 men, sailed from Brest in order to reduce the colony. The 
 assent of England had been previously required, for the 
 peace was not yet concluded. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 149 
 
 Before the signature of the definitive treaty, Bonaparte put 
 the second project, which had engaged his attention, into 
 execution. A consulte of Cisalpins having been convoked 
 at Lyon, he went there in person, in January, 1802, was 
 received with much pomp, opened the consulte, and got 
 himself elected president, not of the Cisalpine, but of the 
 Italian republic ; thus revealing 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 in- 
 stead of evacuating it ; it thus became an appendage of 
 France, or rather of Bonaparte's power. 
 
 In arrogating to himself the presidency of Italy, he had 
 authorized 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 con- 
 sented 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 Cornwallis, on the zfth 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 precaution was considered un- 
 seasonable and vexatious. I, nevertheless, observed, in the 
 debates of the British parliament, that one of the most con- 
 siderable cabinet ministers of that country viewed, in the 
 same light as I did, the stipulations relative to the posses- 
 sion of Malta. In general, the new opposition of the old 
 ministers and their friends considered the peace as an armed 
 truce, the duration of which was incompatible with the 
 
ISO MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 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 to the principles of our revolution, which derived 
 stability from the brilliancy and attraction of success. Be- 
 sides it was in reality a happy stroke of fortune for Bona- 
 parte. 
 
 But could it be imagined that he would only use 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 strengthen 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 view without regret an 
 event which seemed for ever to consolidate the power of the 
 sword. 
 
 I commenced this new era by communicating to Bona- 
 parte a memorial, which I had previously taken care he 
 should require me to draw up, on the means of procuring 
 peace at home. After having pointed out 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 good wishes 
 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 and military chief ; 
 that, if decided, henceforth, to become the protector of 
 religion, good morals, the arts, the sciences, all that im- 
 proves 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 relations 
 of France with foreign powers, there was every security, 
 France having never been either so great or so powerful 
 since Charlemagne ; that she had just established a durable 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 151 
 
 order of things in Germany and Italy ; that she had dis- 
 posed of Spain ; that she, moreover, had found again among 
 the Turks that ancient friendly 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 
 required the consolidation of a state of peace which was 
 also necessary to the well-being of the republic. 
 
 I knew that we were approaching the moment when his 
 secret views would be disclosed. For more than a year 
 past he had been prompted by the advice of the consuls 
 Lebrun and CambacerSs, and the councillor of state, Por- 
 talis, to a design of re-establishing religion and recalling all 
 the emigrants into the bosom of their country. Many pro- 
 jects 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 of Rome, as was proposed. 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 causing troubles ; that the 
 intervention of the head of the Roman church was at least 
 superfluous ; that it would conclude by producing difficulties 
 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 incomes 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 im- 
 portance, and of which the poet Fontanes had suggested the 
 
152 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 idea. He had presented to the first consul through his 
 sister Eliza, to whom he was attached, an elaborate memo- 
 rial, which had for its object to induce him to follow the 
 example of Charlemagne, in employing the great officers 
 and the priests for tl^ re-establishment of his empire, and, 
 for this purpose, to avail himself of the aid of the Roman 
 see, as Pepin and Charlemagne had done. 
 
 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 ancient 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 royalists from participating in the govern- 
 ment, but 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 as to its execution ; it required to be matured, 
 prepared, and brought about 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 will which 
 characterized the first consul. Ever since the month of 
 June, in the preceding year (1801), Cardinal Gonzalvi, 
 secretary of state to the court of Rome, had come to Paris 
 by his invitation, and there had drawn the bases of a con- 
 vention, 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 pro- 
 tector, 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-estab- 
 lishment of the 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 principal military 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 153 
 
 men, who manifested great opposition to religious ideas. 
 Yielding to the desire of not losing a part of his popularity, 
 by giving too abrupt a shock to prejudices, which had their 
 source in the then present state of society, the first consul, 
 in conjunction with his council, consented to delay the re- 
 establishment of the peace of the church, and to cause it to 
 be preceded by the publication of the maritime peace. 
 
 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 condition to exercise still greater 
 influence ; and, therefore, my views, contained in two me- 
 morials, were adopted, with some slight alterations. 
 
 The list of the emigrants, which composed nine volumes, 
 exhibited a nomenclature of about 1 50,000 individuals ; out 
 of which there were not above 80,000 left, whose fate was to 
 be decided ; the rest having successively returned or perished. 
 I succeeded in obtaining an order that no emigrants should be 
 definitely 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 removing 
 them from their residence. Many categories of emigrants, 
 attached to the French princes, and who remained enemies 
 of the government, were finally retained on the list, to the 
 amount of a thousand persons, of whom five hundred were 
 to be designated in the course of the year. There was an 
 important exception to the restitution of the undisposed-of 
 property, belonging to those of the emigrants whose names 
 were erased from the list ; namely, that of woods and 
 forests, containing four hundred acres ; but this exception 
 was nearly illusive with regard to old families. The first 
 consul, of his own accord, authorized frequent restitution of 
 plantations, 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 till the general peace, as 
 well as a project of a law for the establishment of a legion of 
 
1 54 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 honour. We at length reached the epoch so impatiently 
 expected for the effecting of these great measures. As early 
 as 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 received 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 discourse, corrected 
 by the poet Fontanes, whose pen had become devoted to the 
 torrent of the new power, which was about to become for 
 him a golden Pactolus. 
 
 Easter Sunday was selected for the solemn promulgation 
 of the coiicordat, 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 who were then in 
 Paris, not to assist at the solemnity. An expedient was 
 quickly devised, for it was not safe yet awhile to employ 
 constraint. Berthier, in his character of war-minister, in- 
 vited all the superior generals and officers to a splendid 
 military breakfast, at the conclusion of which, he placed him- 
 self at the head, and induced them to go to the Tuileries, in 
 order to pay their respects to the first consul. There 
 Bonaparte, whose cavalcade was ready, desired them to 
 follow him to the metropolitan church, and none of them 
 dared to refuse. Through his progress, he was saluted by 
 public acclamations. 
 
 The re-establishment of Catholicism was followed closely 
 by a senattis-consulte, in granting an amnesty to the 
 emigrants. This act, which was very much cried up. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 155 
 
 singularly alarmed the acquirers of national property. It 
 required all the firmness of the administration, and all the 
 vigilance of my ministry, to obviate the serious incon- 
 veniences which might have resulted from collisions between 
 the old and new proprietors. I was seconded by my col- 
 leagues of the home department, and the council of state, 
 which regulated the jurisprudence of this matter in favour 
 of the interest of the revolution. 
 
 As may be seen, 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 regarded as a 
 monarchical pla)^hing 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 
 mockery was carried so far as to have it represented in the 
 name of government, by Roederer, a salaried orator, as an 
 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 opposition was often 
 more serious from its being more covered. The counter- 
 police of the palace was very active and vigilant in this 
 respect ; the officers called malcontents were suspended, 
 exiled, or imprisoned. But the discontent soon degenerated 
 into irritation among the generals and colonels, who, deeply 
 
iS6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 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 concerted 
 measures with his partizans for acquiring, under legitimate 
 pretences, a perpetuity of power. It was in vain that I 
 represented in the council that a fitting time was not yet 
 come, that ideas were not yet sufficiently matured, to esti- 
 mate the advantages of monarchical stability ; that there 
 would be even a risk of disgusting the 'elite of the army, and 
 those individuals 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 placing himself 
 either in too narrow a defile or oh too rapid an acclivity. 
 But I made very little impression ; I was not even long in 
 perceiving that a kind of reserve was maintained towards 
 me, and that, besides the deliberations of the privy council, 
 mysterious conferences were held at the house of Camba- 
 ceres. 
 
 I penetrated into the secret, and desiring to act as much 
 in favour of the first consul's interest as well as 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 no favour- 
 able opinion. 
 
 Our friends, on the same day, dispersed themselves about 
 among the most influential and most accredited senators. 
 There crying up Bonaparte, who, after having established a 
 general peace had just restored our altars, and attempted to 
 heal the last wounds of our civil discords, these wise organs 
 added, that the first consul held the reins of government 
 with a firm hand, that his administration was irreproachable, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 157 
 
 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. 
 
 On the 8th of May, the conservative senate assembled, 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 the 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 Tribunal. 
 
 One must have witnessed, like me, all the marks which 
 the first consul gave of his anger and constraint, to conceive 
 an idea of them. His partisans were in consternation. The 
 reply to the message was couched iti ambiguous terms ; it 
 was insinuated that the senate dispensed the public remu- 
 neration 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 years added, by the senate, 
 to the actual duration of power, could not satisfy the im- 
 patient ambition of the first consul ; he only saw in this act 
 of prorogation a first step in order to assist him in more 
 rapidly ascending the summit of power. Determined on 
 carrying it with the same ardour as on the field of battle, 
 two days after, that is to say on the loth of May, he urged 
 the two other consuls, whom the constitution invested with 
 
iS« MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 no authority, to institute a decree purporting that the 
 French people should be consulted 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, wa^ going on when I arrived, to take my seat. I 
 must confess, in my turn, that I, had to collect all my energy 
 to restrain within me the feelings by, which I was agitated 
 during the reading. I perceived that all was over, but that 
 it was still necessary to be firm, in order to moderate, if 
 possible, the rapid invasion of a power henceforward with- 
 out counterpoise.^ 
 
 This act of fraudulent intrusion caused at first, among the 
 highest 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 
 worked upon with 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, merely paid an homage due 
 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 storms. The 
 captious arguments brought forward by the confidents and 
 hirelings, obtained the adhesion of the majority ; to those 
 who objected, it was thought sufficient to say, " Let us wait, 
 the nation will definitively decide." 
 
 While the registers for the inscription of the public votes 
 were mockingly • opened in the secretariats of all the 
 departments of government, in the offices of all the 
 tribunals, of all the mayors, and of all the public function- 
 aries, there happened a serious incident, which transpired, 
 notwithstanding all the care that was taken to suppress the 
 particulars of it. At a dinner, at which some twenty dis- 
 contented officers had met with some old republicans and 
 violent patriots, the ambitious projects of the first consul 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 159 
 
 were brought upon the tapis without any "irestraint. 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 indis- 
 pensable to make the new Caesar share the fate of the 
 former, but not in the senate, where there were nothing but 
 subjected and slavish minds, but in the middle of the army, 
 at a grand parade at. the Tuileries. So great was the excite- 
 ment, that a colonel of the 12th regiment of hussars, 
 Fournier Sarlovese, famous, at that time, for his dexterity 
 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 on the same evening to have heard, 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 get into his carriage, in order to go to the 
 opera. The first consul heard the accusation, gave orders 
 to his military police, and immediately proceeded to his box 
 at the theatre. He was there informed that Colonel Fournier 
 was at that time in the house. The order was instantly 
 given to his aide-de-camp, Junot, to arrest and carry him 
 before me, as a person accused of conspiracy against the 
 safety of the state. 
 
 Apprised beforehand of the imprudent and blamable 
 intemperance of language of five or six hot-brained men, 
 heated by wine, excited by the recollections of liberty, and 
 the open or tacit approbation of some twenty guests, I inter- 
 rogated and reprimanded the Colonel ; I listened to the 
 expression of his repentance, while I did not disguise that 
 his affair might become extremely serious after an examina- 
 tion of his papers. He assured me that he feared nothing on 
 that head. I thought at first of hushing up the matter, by 
 reducing the rigour of the first consul into a simple military 
 
l6o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 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 examination of his papers. 
 Although there was no indication of any meditated attempt, 
 the idea that poetical squibs against Bonaparte might be 
 found, alarmed him for the consequences, and without per- 
 mitting 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 
 simplicity of the agents of the prefecture, and that I, on my 
 side, had the evening before furnished him with irrefrag- 
 able proof, that the indiscretion of the military dinner had 
 come to my knowledge. Nothing could have 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 having any 
 knowledge of it. I brought to Bonaparte 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 
 regard to his position as first consul, considering that the 
 whole nation was at that moment called to give its suffrage 
 on the question of the consulship for life. As I had promised, 
 the Colonel was discovered and arrested, but with a military 
 display which to me appeared ridiculous. The chef d'esca- 
 dron, Donnadieu, who has since become a general, and the 
 same who now pretends to celebrity, 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 marked by destitutions, exile, 
 and disgrace, and by rewards to the informer. 
 
 The first consul only pursued the object of his ambition 
 with more fervour. For six weeks the ministry was busily 
 engaged in collecting and transcribing the registers in which 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. i6i 
 
 the suffrages for the consulship for life were inscribed. Got 
 up by a special committee, the report presented 3,568,185 
 votes in the affirmative, and only 9,074 in the negative. On 
 the 2nd of August, a senatus consultum, called organic, con- 
 ferred the perpetual power on the first consul Bonaparte. 
 Very little importance was attached 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 monarchical system in France, and with it 
 its 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. — I am happy," he added, with a tone of inspiration, 
 " to have been called by the order of that power whence 
 all emanates, to restore order, justice, and equality on the 
 earth." 
 
 These last words would have been sufficient to make the 
 people believe that he was 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 display in governing men with hlat. Perhaps more 
 fortunate than Alexander and Caesar, he might have reached 
 and embraced the great chimera of universal power, if his 
 passions had not obscured his views, and if the thirst of 
 tyrannical domination had not at last revolted the popular 
 mind. 
 
 All was not yet accomplished in this sleight-of-hand trick 
 {escamotage) of the consulship for life ; and, on the 6th of 
 August, an organic senatus consultum of the constitution of 
 the year xin., made its appearance from the workshop of the 
 two consuls, his satellites, framed by the familiars of the 
 cabinet, and proposed t'n the name of the government. 
 Since the French enthusiastically adopted the government 
 
 12 
 
i62 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 which was 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, leaving to the senators, henceforward 
 under his thumb, the right of changing the public institu- 
 tions by means of organic senatus consulta ; reducing the 
 Tribunat to a nullity, by diminishing one half of the mem- 
 bers by dismission ; by depriving the legislative body of the 
 right of sanctioning treaties by its approbation ; and, finally, 
 by concentrating all the powers of government in his single 
 will. Moreover, the council of state was recognized as a 
 constituted authority ; finally, the consul for life caused him- 
 self 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, given to a nation whose 
 character is as light as it is inconsiderate, having but very 
 few correct ideas respecting political and social organization, 
 and who then was passing, without suspecting it, from a 
 republic to an empire. One more step remained to be taken, 
 but who could prevent it ? 
 
 In my own mind, I saw nothing in this but an ill-formed 
 and dangerous piece of workmanship, and I expressed that 
 opinion without disguise. I said to the first consul himself, 
 that he had just declared himself the head of a life monarchy, 
 which, according to my view, had no other basis but his 
 victories and sword. 
 
 On the isth of August, the anniversary of his birth, 
 solemn prayers were offered up to God for having, in His 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 163 
 
 ineffable bounty, granted to France a man who had deigned 
 to consent to bear the burden of supreme power for his 
 whole life. 
 
 The senatus consultum, of the 6th of August, also con- 
 ferred on the first consul the prerogative of presiding over 
 the senate. Eager to make use of it, and still more to sound 
 the public feeling with regard to him, Bonaparte went in 
 great pomp, on the 21st, to the Luxembourg, attended by 
 his two colleagues, his ministers, his council of state, and a 
 brilliant escort. Troops under arms, and in the best order, 
 lined both sides of the street from the Tuileries to the palace 
 of the Luxembourg. Having taken his seat, the first consul 
 received the oath of all the senators ; M. de Talleyrand then 
 read a report on the subject of the indemnities granted to 
 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 remembrance ! 
 What an association ! 
 
 The procession, in going and returning, was not saluted 
 by any acclamations, nor any sign of approbation 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 gloomy silence, and the kind of affecta- 
 tion of most of the citizens in not taking their hats off on 
 the passage of their chief magistrate, 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 the administration, and the little zeal of his 
 friends, I reminded him that he had ordered me to prepare 
 
i64 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA 
 
 nothing factitious, and I added, " Notwithstanding 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 anima- 
 tion. " I mean to say that the Parisians have imagined 
 they perceived, in the last dispositions of government, the 
 total loss of liberty, and too obvious a tendency towards 
 absolute power." " I could not," replied he, " govern six 
 weeks in this pacific vacuum if, instead of being the master, 
 I only was an image of authority." "But be at once 
 paternal, affable, strong, and just, and you will easily re- 
 conquer what you appear to have lost." "There is an 
 oddity and caprice in public opinion, which I shall be able 
 to improve," said he 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 opportunity to overthrow me. 
 My opposition to the last measures furnished them with a 
 pretext. Not only Lucien and Joseph were against me, but 
 also their sister, Eliza, a woman haughty, nervous, passionate, 
 dissolute, and devoured by the two passions 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 politics, Fontanes never acted himself 
 except under the influence of a coterie, which passed for 
 religious and monarchical ; this coterie controlled a portion 
 of the journals, and had its own romantic poet, making a 
 poem of Christianity, and a jargon of the French tongue. 
 Proud of his success, of his favour, and of his little literary 
 senate, Fontanes was inflated to the last degree, in being 
 able to introduce, to the illustrious imitator of Charlemagne, 
 the literary novices, whose flights he superintended, and 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 165 
 
 who thought that they, as well as himself, had a call to 
 reconstitute society with the assistance of old monarchical 
 ideas. 
 
 This Celadon of literature, an author as elegant as pure, 
 did not dare to attack me openly ; but in clandestine 
 memorials, which he addressed to the first consul, he cried 
 down all the liberal doctrines and institutions, and en- 
 deavoured to throw suspicion on all the noted characters 
 produced by the revolution, by representing them as the 
 inveterate enemies of the unity of power. His theme and 
 object was to restore Charlemagne in Napoleon, in order 
 that the revolution might find rest, and be 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 candidates 
 for places, favours, and fortune, did not fail to model their 
 plans and views on this basis, with more or less exaggeration 
 and extravagance. About this period also appeared, among 
 the fabricators of secret writings, the pamphleteer F., first 
 the agent of the agents of Louis XVIII., afterwards the 
 agent of Lucien, when in London, at the time of the pre- 
 liminaries, whence he had written in a positive and conceited 
 style, numbers of paltry articles respecting the springs and 
 operations of a government, which he was not able to com- 
 prehend. Pensioned for some reports, which reached me 
 anonymously from the cabinet, he grew bold, and profiting 
 by the favour of Lavalette, the postmaster-general, he caused 
 the first essays of a correspondence, which afterwards became 
 more regular, to be conveyed to the first consul. Shaping 
 his speeches by the opinions of the officers of state, with 
 which he made himself acquainted, he descanted right or 
 wrong, on Charlemagne, Louis XIV., on the social order, 
 talking of reconstruction, unity of power, monarchy, all 
 things, of course, quite incompatible with the jacobins, even 
 with those whom he called with conceit, the hommes forts of 
 the revolution. This officious correspondent, while he 
 
1 66 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 collected everything that was said in drawing-rooms and 
 coffee-houses, fabricated a thousand tales against me and the 
 general police, of which he made a bugbear ; such 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 a meeting at Morfontaine, 
 Joseph's residence, that, in the next family council, which 
 Cambacdres and Lebrun should attend, a memorial 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 subdued, only required to 
 rally round the government ; dangerous as being of re- 
 publican institution, and being a sort oi paratonnerre to 
 those incurable anarchists who found therein pay and pro- 
 tection. From thence it was inferred that it would be im- 
 politic 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. There came, next, a project drawn up by 
 Rcederer, the factotum of Joseph, the object of which was 
 to concentrate the functions of 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 before the 
 decree of the consuls was signed, I could not help telling my 
 friends, that I was superseded by a grosse bite, and it was 
 true. The dull and heavy Regnier was never called by any 
 other name, from that time, but that of the grosj'uge. 
 
 I did nothing to parry the blow, so prepared was I for it. 
 Accordingly my confidence and tranquillity astonished the 
 first consul, who, after having transacted business with me 
 the last time, he 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi, 167 
 
 t^me, 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 reposed on the love of Frenchmen. In the new 
 arrangement, which I have just adopted, the police will 
 henceforward be no more than a branch of the ministry of 
 justice ; and it would not have been proper to confer a 
 secondary place upon you. But be assured that I will 
 neither give up your advice nor your services — there is no 
 disgrace in this case ; and do not give ear to the idle gossip 
 of the drawing-rooms of the Faubourg Saint Germain, or to 
 that of the Tabagies,' where the old orators of the clubs 
 assemble, at whom we have so often laughed together." 
 
 After thanking him for the testimonials of satisfaction 
 which he deigned to give me, I did not dissemble 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 certain," 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 command my attention." 
 
 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. 
 
 ' When smoking became in fasliion, <t room in many of the coffee-houses 
 was fitted up for the reception of those wjio had that taste. It was .called 
 a Tabagie. During the Revolution members of the different clubs met in 
 those rooms, where, under the pretence of enjoying a pipe, they discoursed 
 on political affairs. — English Editor. 
 
t68 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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, in my eyes, 
 nothing was less certain than the continuance of peace, a cir- 
 cumstance which I endeavoured 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 
 imprudent security at a moment, when the permanence of 
 the executive authority had been abruptly decided, 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 prejudices and dislikes 
 against certain men ; that, although disapproving the mea- 
 sures which had prevailed in the council, I had always 
 expressed myself in the interest of the first consul, as much 
 as any of his most devoted and intimate servants ; 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 confiding 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 ; that it was 
 in bold opinions and in new-created interests that a sub- 
 stantial support was to be looked for ; that the support of 
 the army would not suffice to maintain 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 respec- 
 tive powers at present reposed ; that befoi^ Tre-entering the 
 arena, it was requisite to be assured of the affection of the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 169 
 
 people in the provinces, and to rally round government, not 
 disturbers, anarchists, and counter-revolutionists, but straight- 
 forward men of character, who would find no security nor 
 well-being for themselves, except by maintaining it ; that 
 they were to be found among the men 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 government ; and, in fine, that in the precarious 
 situation in which France and Europe then were, the chief 
 of the state ought not to keep his sword in the scabbard, 
 and resign himself to a gratifying security, except when 
 surrounded by his friends, and preserved by them. Then 
 came the application of my views and system to the 
 different parties which divided the state, parties whose 
 passions and colours, it is true, became weaker and weaker 
 every day ; but whom a shock, an imprudence, repeated 
 faults, and a new war, might awaken and bring in con- 
 tact. 
 
 The next day I presented to him this memoir, which was 
 in some sort my political testament ; he received it with 
 an affected aff'ability. I next placed before him a detailed 
 account of my secret management ; and seeing with sur- 
 prise that I had an enormous reserve of near two millions 
 four hundred thousand francs (/ioo,ooo), "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 the 
 division 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 treasury of my private police, 
 which, in following 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." 
 
 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 sena- 
 
I70 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 torship of Aix) ; and I protested that I should always remain 
 devoted to the interest of his glory. 
 
 I was sincere, persuaded then, as I am now, that in sup- 
 pressing the general police, he had no other view 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 had the 
 direction of it. But he had nevertheless yielded to an 
 intrigue, by suffering 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 government, 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 content 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 for- 
 tune and consideration, that I felt myself to be neither 
 injured nor fallen. My 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 was 
 spending time happily in 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 con- 
 fidence. I was called upon to constitute a part of a commis- 
 sion charged with holding a conference with the deputies 
 of the different Swiss Cantons, a country too near France 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 171 
 
 not to be influenced by its 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 no 
 other guards than its peasantry. Under this point of view, 
 the political situation of Switzerland was the more likely to 
 engage the attention of the first consul, that he had not a 
 little contributed, after the peace of Campo Formio, to 
 induce the directory to invade and occupy it with troops. 
 His experience, and the comprehension 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 recognized 
 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, who 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 rigime, 
 and it leant secretly towards Austria ; between these two 
 factions the moderate or neutral party balanced. Aban- 
 doned to themselves, during the year 1802, the unionists 
 and the federalists came to violent disputes, and civil war, 
 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 cal- 
 culated with art, 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 suddenly called his aide-de- 
 
172 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 camp Rapp to make his appearance, as the bearer of a pro- 
 clamation, 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 a 
 corps a^armke under the orders of General Ney. In yielding 
 to force, the last federative diet yielded none of its rights. 
 On that account, the confederated cantons were treated as 
 conquered countries ; and Bonaparte was seen to proceed to 
 his task of mediator as if he were going to a conquest which 
 had been the prize of his valour. In this manner the last 
 efforts of the Swiss, to recover their ancient laws and govern- 
 ment, became abortive. 
 
 The delegates of the two parties had their rendezvous at 
 Paris, in order to implore the powerful interposition of the 
 mediator. Thirty-six deputies of the unionists proceeded 
 there. The federalists were more dilatory, so much repug- 
 nance had they to a proceeding which they regarded as a 
 humiliation ; their delegates nevertheless arrived, to the 
 immber 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 media- 
 tion as should terminate the troubles of Switzerland. This 
 commission, over which the senator Barthelemi presided, 
 was composed of two senators, the president and myself, 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 con- 
 sul, of which we were only the reporters ; they persisted in 
 attributing to me, in particular, a great influence ; my closet 
 and my salon were constantly crowded. 
 
 The conferences opened ; and in the first sitting, held on 
 the loth of December, our president read to the delegates a~ 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 173 
 
 letter, in which the first consul disclosed to them his inten- 
 tion. " Nature," said he, " has made your state federative ; 
 the attempt to vanquish it would not be wise." This oracle 
 was a thunderbolt for the 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 renuncia- 
 tion of all privileges is your primary want, and your first 
 duty." Thus there was an end to the ancient aristocracy. 
 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, Bonaparte had a conference, in 
 our presence, with the committee 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 neutralize. A very strong opposition of views and 
 interests gave place to very animated discussions, which, 
 sometimes interrupted and sometimes resumed, were pro- 
 tracted 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 constitution ; and, on the 19th of February, 
 received from the hand of the first consul, in a solemn sitting, 
 the act of mediatian which was to govern their country. 
 -This act imposed a new federative compact on Switzerland; 
 
174 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 and, moreover, decided the particular constitution of each 
 canton. The next morning, the consulta having been dis- 
 missed, the consular commission, of which I composed a 
 part, closed its sittings and its, proch-verbaux. 
 
 Thus finished the interference of the French government 
 with the internal affairs of Switzerland. It would be diiE- 
 cult, I imagine, to conceive a transitory regime more con- 
 formable with the real wants of its inhabitants. Never 
 besides 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 
 which he has spared the most 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 characteristically moderate spirit of my colleague Bar- 
 thelemi ; 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 neigh- 
 bours 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. The affair of the 
 indemnities to be given to those of the members of the 
 Germanic body, who either entirely, 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 referred to an extraordinary deputation of 
 the empire. The extraordinary commission was opened at 
 Ratisbon, in the summer of 1801, under the mediation of 
 France and Russia. Its operations awakened all our 
 intriguers in diplomacy ; they composed a gold-mine of it, 
 which they worked with an audacity, which, at first, revolted 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 175 
 
 the chief magistrate, but which he could not repress, in con- 
 sequence of the great number of high personages connected 
 with it. He was, besides, naturally indulgent to all exac- 
 tions 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. People 
 may judge of the activity of intrigues, and the disgraceful 
 bargains which were struck during this long interval, espe- 
 cially when things were drawing to a conclusion. When 
 complaints arrived, or great rogueries were divulged, every- 
 thing was laid to the manoeuvres of the public offices, where, 
 they said, none but go-betweens were employed, when, to 
 speak the truth, everything came from certain great men's 
 cabinets, or ladies' boudoirs, where indemnities and princi- 
 palities were sold and purchased. Although I was no longer 
 ip office, it was always to me that complaints and disclosures, 
 with regard to denials of justice, were 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 realized 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 Alex- 
 andria in Egypt. But this only referred to political rela- 
 tions ; Bonaparte thought less of that than of the maintenance 
 of his personal authority, which, in the English papers, con- 
 tinued to be attacked with a virulence to which he could 
 not become accustomed. His police was then so feeble, that 
 
176 MEMOIRS OF FOUChL 
 
 he 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 Journalists, the ministers of Great Britain replied, 
 that it was one consequence of the liberty of the press ; that 
 they themselves were 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 ; ' who was 
 only sentenced to a fine, in order to triumph with more 
 effect over his adversary. A rich subscription, instantly set 
 on foot by the most influential classes in England, put him 
 in a condition to carry on a paper war against Bonaparte, 
 before which the Moniteur and the Argus turned pale. 
 
 Thence 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 aggrandize his dominion 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 
 resolved to deprive us of all connection with a free people. 
 The grossest invectives against the government and institu- 
 tions of England soiled our public journals, which assumed 
 a surly and violent character. Having no longer a high 
 police, nor the means of forming a public spirit, the first 
 consul had recourse to the artifices of his minister for foreign 
 affairs, in order to deceive the French, and thus to make 
 them adopt erroneous opinions. Heavy clouds now obscured 
 the peace, which had become problematical, but to which 
 Bonaparte still clung involuntarily through a kind of inward 
 presentiment of fatal catastrophes. 
 
 ' Author of the "Ambigu," and a multitude of very witty pamphlets 
 against Bonaparte and his family. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 177 
 
 Beyond the Channel, everything was becoming hostile, 
 and the complaints against the first consul were explicitly 
 expressed. He was reproached with the incorporation 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 Helvetian republics ; of 
 having united in his own person the government of the 
 Italian republic ; of treating Holland like a French province ; 
 of collecting considerable forces on the shores of Brittany, 
 under pretext of a new expedition to Saint Domingo ; of 
 having stationed at the mouth of the Maes another corps, 
 the importance of which was quite out of proportion with 
 its avowed object, that of taking possession of Louisiana ; 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 limited to their refusal to give up 
 Malta. But they replied, that political changes, effected 
 since the treaty of Amiens, rendered that restitution im- 
 possible, without some preliminary arrangements. 
 
 It is certain that sufficient circumspection was not 
 employed in the political operations directed against Eng- 
 land. If Bonaparte had wished for the maintenance of 
 peace, he would sedulously have avoided giving umbrage 
 and inquietude to that power, with regard to its Indian 
 possessions, and would have abstained from applauding the 
 rhodomontades about the mission of S^bastiani into Syria 
 and Turkey. His imprudent conversation with Lord Whit- 
 worth accelerated the rupture. I foresaw from that time 
 that he would quickly pass from a certain degree of modera- 
 tion as chief of the government, to acts of exaggeration, 
 violence, and even rage. 
 
 Such was his decree of the 22nd of May, 1803, ordering 
 
 13 
 
178 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± 
 
 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 Talleyrand 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 ambas- 
 sador, 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 
 high police, and without a minister capable of counterpoising 
 the politics of Europe. But how many other complaints 
 could we make ; how many other accusations on the subject 
 of more monstrous co-operations ! I thought myself lucky 
 at that time to be no longer in office. Who knows ? 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 beach of Ostend, Dunkirk, and Boulogne, 
 were covered with camps ; squadrons at Toulon, Rochfort, 
 and Brest, were fitted out ; our docks were crowded with 
 pinnaces, praams, boats, and gunboats. England, on her 
 side, took her measures of defence ; the force of her navy 
 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 contest, which was a 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA, 179 
 
 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 preparing, in the silence of his 
 cabinet, all the necessary steps for getting himself declared 
 emperor, and for reviving the empire of Charlemagne. Ever 
 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 bound his head 
 with the diadem of kings. That which particularly 
 awakened the notice of the cabinet of London, was the pro- 
 posal 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 the negotiation of the Prussian cabinet, 
 which he moulded as he pleased. The minister Haugwitz 
 employed M. de Meyer, president of the regency of Warsaw, 
 who offered to Louis XVIII. indemnities in Italy, and a 
 magnificent establishment. But nobly inspired, the king 
 made this well-known admirable reply. " I know not what 
 may be the designs of God 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 Chris- 
 tian, 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 wish to be able 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 sub- 
 ject 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 
 
i8o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 the year, 1803, passed in expectation. They affected to be 
 exclusively engaged with preparations for invasion. But a 
 double danger appeared imminent at London ; and there 
 the conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal was devised, upon the 
 sole foundation of discontent in Moreau, who was known to 
 be in opposition to Bonaparte. They thought of nothing 
 less but of bringing the two extreme parties together, and 
 forming a coalition between them, that is, the armed 
 royalists on the one hand, and the independent patriots on 
 the other. But to cement such an alliance was beyond the 
 power of the agents who interfered in it. Intriguers could 
 only arrive at a false result. The discovery of one branch 
 of the conspiracy rendered the whole abortive. When Real 
 had received the first disclosures of Querelle, who was sen- 
 tenced 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 ; as yet I saw nothing 
 clear in the horizon. I readily admitted, that the gros-juge 
 was incapable of detecting and transacting an affair of so 
 much moment, but I cried up Desm'arets, head of the secret 
 division, and Real, councillor of state, as two excellent 
 ferrets, and- well-trained explorers ; I said, that Real having 
 had the good fortune to make the discovery, the confidential 
 charge of accomplishing his work ought to be given to him. 
 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 saw in the nature of this conspiracy, and especi- 
 ally in the implication of Moreau, a stroke of fortune, which 
 secured to him possession of the empire ; he thought that it 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± i8i 
 
 would be sufficient to characterize Moreau as a conspirator, 
 in order to denationalize him. This mistake, and the assas- 
 sination of the Duke d'Enghien, very nearly caused his ruin. 
 I was one of the first who obtained a knowledge of the 
 mission of Caulaincourt and Ordener to the banks of the 
 Rhine ; but when I was informed that the telegraph had 
 iust announced the arrest of the prince, and that the order 
 to transfer him from Strasbourg to Paris was given, I fore- 
 saw the catastrophe, and I trembled for the life of the noble 
 victim. I hurried to Malmaison, where the first consul then 
 was ; it was on the 29th Ventose (20th 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 rise 
 against him, if he did not supply undeniable proof that the 
 duke had conspired against his person at Etteinheim. 
 " What necessity 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 im- 
 patiently telling me, " Have not you and your friends told 
 me a thousand times that I should conclude by becoming 
 the 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 sur- 
 rounded 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, Cambac^res and 
 Lebrun. I regained my carriage, and returned home in a 
 state of consternation. 
 
i82 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 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 circum- 
 stances were quoted. Savary had revenged himself, it was 
 reported, for having missed his prey in Normandy, where he 
 had flattered himself with having ensnared, by means of the 
 threads he held of the conspiracy of Georges, the Duke de 
 Berri and the Count d'Artois, whom he would have more 
 willingly sacrificed than the Duke d'Enghien.' Real assured 
 me that he expected so little this nocturnal execution, that 
 he had departed, in the morning, to go to the prince at 
 Vincennes, expecting to bring him to Malmaison, in the 
 hope that the first consul would finish the affair in a mag- 
 nanimous manner. But a coup a? '^/«^ appeared indispensable 
 to impress Europe with terror, and eradicate all the germs of 
 conspiracy against his person. 
 
 Indignation, as I had foreseen, broke out in the most 
 bitter manner. I was not the person who hesitated to 
 express himself with the least restraint, 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 repeated and attri- 
 buted to others. 
 
 The trial of Moreau created a momentary diversion, but 
 by giving birth to a danger more real, in consequence of the 
 public excitement and indignation. Moreau appeared to the 
 eyes of all as a victim to the jealousy and ambition of Bona- 
 parte. The general tendency of the public mind gave reason 
 for fearing that his condemnation would induce an insurrec- 
 tion and defection of the army. His cause became that of 
 the greater part of the generals. Lecourbe, Dessoles, Mac- 
 
 ' Without seeking to exonerate 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 subs^uently with his post as minister of police. — Note of the 
 French Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 183 
 
 donald, Massena, and several others, spoke out with a 
 menacing fidehty and energy. Monsey declared that he 
 could not even answer for the gendarmerie. 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 days 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 mea- 
 sures in this case at all ; it is necessary to temporize, 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 escape from 
 the hands of justice, by making an appeal to the soldiers, 
 whose dispositions in his favour were exaggerated. But 
 better counsels and his own 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 
 sent for me to St. Cloud, and there I was commanded 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 
 acute and vivid feelings of resentment. I afterwards saw 
 Moreau, and it was easy for me to get him to consent to his 
 ostracism, by pointing out to him the perspective of the 
 danger arising 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 
 
i84 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 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 
 Emperor, in order to terminate all our uncertainties, by the 
 foundation of his dynasty. I knew that his resolution was 
 taken. Would it not have been absurd, on the part of the 
 men of the revolution, to compromise 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 property, 
 our distinctions, and our employments. He profited of all 
 his advantages, and even before the denouement of the affair 
 of Moreau, a tribune, who had been previously instructed, 
 made a motion to confer the title of Emperor, and the 
 imperial hereditary power, upon Napoleon Bonaparte, and to 
 bring into the organization of the constituted authorities the 
 modifications which the establishment of the empire might 
 require, with the proviso of preserving in their integrity th6 
 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 i6th 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 
 imperial 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, within 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 185 
 
 to be respected, the equality of our rights, political and civil 
 liberty, the irrevocability of the national property ; and 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 constitutional monarchy ? I do 
 not pretend to set myself against the public body, of which I 
 composed a part at that period ; but I found, at that time, 
 very few materials for a national opposition. 
 
 The title of Emperor and the imperial power were here- 
 ditary 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, however, to 
 touch upon it for the sake of the truth and utility of 
 history. 
 
 For a long time Napoleon had been convinced, notwith- 
 standing the artifices of Josephine, that she would never give 
 him any progeny. This situation was calculated sooner or 
 later to tire the patience of a founder of a great empire, in 
 all the vigour of his age. Josephine, therefore, found her- 
 self 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 con- 
 ceived 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, habit ; on the other, the amiable temper of 
 
1 86 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 Josephine, and a kind of superstition, seemed to secure to 
 her for ever the attachment, or at least the attentions, of 
 Napoleon ; but great causes for inquietude and anxiety did 
 nevertheless exist. The preservative naturally presented 
 itself to the mind of Josephine ; she found even little 
 difficulty 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 sur- 
 rounded Napoleon, and his attentions to Josephine, induced 
 Hortense to pass from the extreme of antipathy to adoration. 
 Without being handsome, she was witty, lively, replete with 
 graces and talents. She pleased ; and the inclination became 
 so warm 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 domestic 
 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 paternity. Thence the union of his brother Louis 
 and Hortense — a melancholy union, and which ended in 
 rending the veil. 
 
 Meantime, the wishes of all parties, with the exception of 
 those of the new husband, were, at first, auspiciously 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, in grow- 
 ing, became more and more charming, and, by its features 
 alone, doubly interested Napoleon at the period of his acces- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 187 
 
 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, from all quarters, 
 with the most chilling reception ; there were public fites 
 without animation and without joy. 
 
 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 become nothing but the passive instrument of his will. 
 It was in the army alone that he wished to strike deeply the 
 roots of his government ; 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, Bessiferes, Davoust, Soult, Leffevre, on whom 
 he could most depend, were seen the names of Jourdan, 
 Massena, Bernadotte, Ney, Brune, and Augereau, more re- 
 publican than monarchical. As to P6rignon, Serrurier, 
 Kellermann, and Mortier, they were only there in order to 
 make weight, and to complete the eighteen columns of 
 the empire, whose selection was ratified by public opinion. 
 
 There was more difficulty in getting up a court, in re- 
 establishing levers and couchers, special presentations ; and 
 to create 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 were naturally 
 devolved on them. A little ridicule at first attached itself to 
 these metamorphoses, but the world soon got familiarized 
 with the change. 
 
 It was very obvious, however, that everything was con- 
 strained and forced, and that there was more skill employed 
 in organizing the military government. The civil govern- 
 ment was as yet no more than a sketch. The elevation of 
 Cambaceres and Lebrun, the first to the arch-chancellorship, 
 
1 88 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 the second to the rank of arch-treasurer, adding nothing to 
 the counterpoise of the pubHc councils. The institution of a 
 council of state, as an integral part, and superior authority in 
 the constitution, had more the appearance of being a means 
 of centralization, rather than of the elaboration of discus- 
 sions. Among the ministers, M. de Talleyrand was the only 
 one who appeared capable of exercising the influence of per- 
 spicuity ; but that was only with regard to foreign relations. 
 With regard to the interior, an important spring was 
 wanted, 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 loth July, re-established me at the 
 head of the police ; at the same time investing me with 
 stronger functions than those which I had possessed, before 
 the absurd fusion of the police with the department of 
 justice. 
 
 Here I feel I must hasten the march of my narrative ; for 
 there still remains for me the task of passing over a lapse of 
 six years, fertile in memorable events. The ground is im- 
 mense, and that is an additional reason to set aside all that 
 is unworthy of history, in order to point out or disclose only 
 those things which are worthy of its pen ; but nothing 
 essential shall be omitted. 
 
 Two days before the decree of my re-appointment, I had 
 been sent for to St. Cloud, in order to have a private inter- 
 view with Napoleon. On that occasion, I obtained, if I 
 may so express myself, my own conditions, in causing the 
 basis which completed the new organization 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-dtvtsion, his powers were by no 
 means 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. i8g 
 
 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 Lozire, a creature of 
 Cambac^rfes' ; Miot, a creature of Joseph Bonaparte's ; and 
 Dubois, prefect of police. These four councillors met once 
 a week in my closet, to give me an account of all the affairs 
 appertaining to their functions, and take my opinion. I, by 
 that means, got rid myself of a multitude of tedious details, 
 reserving to my own exertions the management of the high 
 police ; the secret division of which had remained under the 
 direction of Desmarets, an individual of a supple and crafty 
 character, but without foresight. It was to the central focus 
 of my cabinet that all the great affairs of state, of which I 
 held the strings, finally converged. It will not be doubted 
 that I had salaried spies in all ranks and orders ; I had some 
 of both sexes, hired at the rate of a thousand or two thousand 
 francs per month, according to their importance 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 government's police abroad, 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 cabinet, also, 
 that the foreign gazettes, prohibited to the perusal of the 
 French people, were collected, abstracts of which were made 
 for my own use. By that means, I held in my hands the 
 
iQo MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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 foreign relations. 
 
 I was thus far from limiting my duties to esptonnage. All 
 the state prisons were under my control, as well as the 
 gendarmerie. The delivery of the visa of passports belonged 
 to me. To me was assigned the duty of watching amnestied 
 individuals and foreigners. I established general com- 
 missariats in the principal towns of the kingdom, which 
 extended the net-work 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 anct'en rigime, distinguished by princely 
 titles,' 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. Notwith- 
 standing all that has been said against gambling, reflecting 
 and firm 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 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 have recourse to strict regulations, that the 
 disorder might at least be under control. Under the 
 empire, the establishment of which cost nearly four hundred 
 million of francs (;^ 16,000,000), since there were thirty 
 families who, having become magistrates and highnesses, 
 
 ■ The Prince de L**»»*»*»», the Prince de C*'**, and the Prince de 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 191 
 
 were to be provided with proper means, it became necessary 
 to organize 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 superin- 
 tendent-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, which, however, did not remain 
 entirely 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 discomforts and sufferings 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 con- 
 stantly agitated the possessor of an unlimited 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, or rather to a benevolent institution, I have at 
 least the satisfaction of being able to assert that I have done 
 more good than evil ; that is to say, that I have avoided 
 more evil than was permitted me to do good, 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 remonstrances and of apprehension, than by restraint 
 and the use of coercive measures. I revived the ancient 
 police maxim, namely, 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 
 
192 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 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 degradation ; 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 with its ensemble and 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. 
 
 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 departments, 
 and arriving at Mayence, he was visited there by a great 
 number of the German princes ; he returned to Saint Cloud 
 about the end of autumn. 
 
 The political state of Europe required more management 
 than rigidness. 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 brought 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 193 
 
 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, com- 
 pleted what we had so happily begun. Sir George Rumbold 
 was liberated upon the condition of never again setting foot 
 in Hamburg, and of henceforth keeping himself at a 
 distance of fifty leagues from the French territory ; condi- 
 tions proposed by myself. 
 
 I could do nothing against sudden and unexpected 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 subalterns over whom I had no official 
 control. I was myself more or less exposed to the malevo- 
 lence 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 
 Mass^na a hint of the accusations which were hanging 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 Massdna upon his guard 
 against the insinuations of certain dangerous meddlers and 
 intriguers. 
 
 Many important privy councils were held at Saint Cloud ; 
 their 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 
 Ldon and Etienne, of Pepin and Charlemagne. We knew 
 that the king of Sweden, since the murder of the Duke 
 
 14 
 
194 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 d'Enghien, was going about Germany trying to raise up 
 enemies against us ; snares were laid for him at every step, 
 and at Munich he narrowly escaped being carried oflF. 
 Russia appeared to me to present greater difficulties. Russia 
 had vainly offered her mediation for the maintenance of 
 peace between France and Great Britain. The coolness 
 which had arisen in consequence of this failure was, at the 
 murder of the Duke d'Enghien, changed into an extreme 
 indignation. On the 7th of May, the Russian minister had 
 despatched 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 itself of the falsehood of the 
 assertions, according to which the Emperor of Germany 
 and the King of Prussia should have fully authorized 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 inclined for war, which would have 
 overthrown all the plans which the emperor meditated 
 against Great iBritain. To regain Russia, it was proposed 
 to have recourse to the intrigues of courtiers and to the 
 seductive influence of the fair sex ; 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 revolution who borrows so pusillani- 
 mous 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 the daily expectation of 
 mounting the scaffold ; he, in short, who sees himself a 
 minister when I am emperor of the French ; such a man 
 should never permit the word impossible to escape his 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 195 
 
 lips ! " I saw clearly that I owed this severe sally 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 Fontain- 
 bleau on the 2Sth of November ; and eight days after, on 
 the eve of the coronation, the senate came to present the 
 emperor with three millions five hundred thousand votes in 
 favour of his elevation to the imperial power. In his speech, 
 the vice-president, Fran9ois de Neufchateau, still spoke of 
 the republic, which appeared pure derision. At the cere- 
 mony of the coronation (Napoleon himself placed the crown 
 upon his head), the acclamations, at first extremely few, 
 were afterwards reinforced by the multitude of men in office 
 (fonctionnaires) 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 my private conferences, I pointed 
 out to him how much he still stood in need of friends in the 
 capital, and how essential 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 
 crowned king of Italy, we all told him he would provoke a 
 new continental war. " I must have battles and triumphs," 
 replied he. And yet he did not relax his preparations for 
 the invasion of England. One day, upon my objecting to 
 him that he could not make war at the same time against 
 England and against all Europe, he replied, " I may fail by 
 sea, but not by land ; besides, I shall be able to strike the 
 
196 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA, 
 
 blow before the old coalition machines are ready. The 
 people of the old school (tHes h perruque) 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 corona- 
 tion in France. In order to show himself to his new sub- 
 jects, 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 particular 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 execution of so vast 
 a plan, that it was scarcely possible for it not to be deranged, 
 either by circumstances or unforeseen 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 
 rendezvous at Martinique, and thence make sail with all ex- 
 pedition for Boulogne, that the disembarkation of a hundred 
 and forty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry was 
 to be effected. The landing once accomplished, the taking 
 of London appeared certain. Napoleon was persuaded that, 
 master of that capital, and the English army beaten and dis- 
 persed, he should be able to raise in London itself a popular 
 party which would overthrow the oligarchy and destroy the 
 government. All our secret information showed the feasi- 
 bility 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, 
 Decrfes, who enjoyed his utmost confidence, knew how to 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 197 
 
 form, or where to find, a naval officer intrepid enough to 
 conduct so prodigious an operation. Decrfes persuaded him- 
 self that Admiral Villeneuve, his friend, was adequate to the 
 task : and he was the cause of the fatal event which completed 
 the ruin of our navy. Nothing less was required of Ville- 
 neuve 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 vesssels, making a total of sixty- 
 three French and Spanish vessels, he was to sail for Bou- 
 logne, according to his instructions. 
 
 When it was known that he had just re-entered Cadiz, 
 instead of accomplishing his glorious mission, the emperor 
 was highly exasperated at the disappointment for several 
 days ; no longer master of himself, he ordered the minister 
 to have Villeneuve called before a council of inquiry, and 
 nominated Rosily as his successor ; he afterwards wished to 
 embark the army on board the flotilla, in spite of the oppo- 
 sition of Bruix ; illtreating this brave admiral so grossly, as 
 to oblige him to place his hand upon his sword — a lament- 
 able 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 pre- 
 vented Napoleon from triumphing upon an element which 
 was hostile to him, prepared still greater triumphs for him 
 on the continent, by opening an immense career of glory 
 for him, and of humiliation for Europe. It was chiefly in 
 the dilatoriness and blunders of the different cabinets that 
 he found his greatest strength. 
 
 None of the warnings of his diplomatic agents, nor any 
 efforts of mine, 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 minis- 
 ter, Count Stadion, had endeavoured to arouse the demon 
 of coalitions, in a meniorial addressed to the cabinet of L6n- 
 don, a copy of which had been procured. Napoleon also 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 was not ignorant that Pitt had immediately instructed the 
 EngHsh legation in Russia to sound the cabinet of St. 
 Petersburg on it, who, since the affair of the German secu- 
 larizations, 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'Oubril was censured by his court for having received 
 it. I had just been recalled into the ministry, when the 
 note in answer arrived firom the Russian government ; it re- 
 quired the evacuation of the Kingdom of Naples, an indem- 
 nity to the King of Sardinia, and the evacuation 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 ; that madman, the 
 King of Sweden, is the only one who is really in under- 
 standing 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 apprehensive,'' 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 any one ! " — 
 words which he afterwards took care to insert in the Moniteur. 
 Whether cabinet mystery concealed from us the subse- 
 quent 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 traitk de concert signed at St. 
 Petersburg on the nth of April. The Archduke Charles 
 had already resigned the helm of aflairs 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 con- 
 vince the Count de Cobentzel that the emperor's prepon- 
 derance in Italy ought not to inspire any apprehensions. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi:. 199 
 
 Austria first offered herself as a mediatrix between the 
 courts of St. Petersburg and Paris ; but the emperor de- 
 clined her interference. Informed, however, that militar;^ 
 preparations 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 im- 
 practicable, published, on the i8th, 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 com- 
 plaints upon the inroads upon existing 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 a secret 
 diplomacy ; and the public, who had been solely occupied 
 with the projected invasion of England, saw, with astonish- 
 ment, in the Moniteur of the 21st of September, the 
 announcement of the invasion of Bavaria by Austria, with- 
 out 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 Rhiije. 
 
 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, 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 
 
200 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 
 
 obtain the evacuation of Hanover and the north of Ger- 
 many, the independence of Holland and Switzerland, the 
 re-establishment of the King of Sardinia, and the evacuation 
 of Italy. But 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 Machiavel : that a 
 prudent prince must be both a fox and a lion at the same 
 time.' After having well studied his new field of battle (for 
 it was the first time he made war in Germany), he told us 
 that we should soon see that the campaigns of Moreau were 
 nothing in comparison with his. In fact, he acted admirably 
 in order to derange Mack's plans, who permitted himself to 
 be petrified in his permission of Ulm. All the emperor's 
 spies were more easily purchased than may be conceived, the 
 greater part 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 larger scale, and almost all the Austrian staff-officers were 
 virtually gained over {enfoncis). I had intrusted Savary, 
 who was employed in the management of the espionnage at 
 the grand headquarters, with all my secret notes upon 
 Germany, and, with his hands full, he worked quickly and 
 successfully, assisted by the famous Schulmeister, a very 
 Proteus in subornation and the mysteries of espionnage. 
 
 All the breaches being once made, to effect the prodigies 
 of Ulm, the bridge of Vienna and of 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 concerted 
 plans of the continental powers. But this glorious campaign 
 
 ' In his book of the Prince, Chap, xviii. — Note of the French Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 201 
 
 was not without its reverse side of the medal ; I mean the 
 disaster of Trafalgar, which, by the ruin of our navy, com- 
 pleted the security of Great Britain. It was a few days 
 after the capitulation of Ulm, and upon the Vienna road, 
 that Napoleon received the despatch 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 every- 
 where ! " His agitation was extreme, and Berthier despaired 
 of tranquillizing him. Napoleon took his vengeance upon 
 England in the plains of Austerlitz, keeping by this means 
 the Russians at a distance, paralyzing the Prussians, and 
 dictating severe conditions to Austria. 
 
 Engaged 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 the empire. 
 The council governed in his absence ; and, by the im- 
 portance of my functions, I found myself, in some sort, 
 prime minister ; at least no person tried to elude my 
 influence. But it entered into the emperor's views to make 
 it be beheved 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 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 Wld government, and a liberality which 
 gained every heart. It was for this reason that, during the 
 same campaign, he affected to rebuke me, through the 
 Moniteur and his bulletins, for having refused Collin 
 d'Harleville permission to print one of his plays. " Where 
 should we be," cried he, hypocritically, " if the permission 
 of a censor were necessary in France for making our senti- 
 
202 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 ments known in print ? " I, who knew him, only saw in 
 this peevishness an indirect hint for me to hasten my 
 organization of the censorship, 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 Presbourg. It first showed itself at the 
 Tuileries in a burst of displeasure which fell upon several 
 functionaries, 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 above fifty millions. Placed upon 
 the backs of King Philip's mules, these millions had power- 
 fully contributed to the prodigious success of this unex- 
 pected campaign. But are we not still too near these events 
 for us to remove the veil from before them, without incon- 
 venience ? 
 
 The peace of Presbourg 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 traversed the Alps to give him the holy unction. 
 This glorious peace produced another very important result 
 — the erection of the electorates of Bavaria and Wirtemberg 
 into kingdoms, and the marriage of the King of Bavaria's 
 daughter with Eugene Beauharnais, Napoleon's adopted 
 son. Such was the first link of 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 against which he was continually taking up arms. 
 
 In the interior, 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 congratu- 
 lated him upon this happy improvement in the public mind. 
 " Sire," sa:id I to him, " Austerlitz has destroyed the old 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 203 
 
 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 Alexander the Great, constantly directing his thoughts 
 towards Athens. The old nobility were, therefore, now 
 seen besieging the Tuileries, as well as my audience-room, 
 and soliciting, nay begging for appointments. The old 
 republicans reproached me with protecting the nobles. This 
 did not, however, make me alter my plan ; I had besides 
 a grand object in view, that of extinguishing and converting 
 all party spirit into an undivided interest in the govern- 
 ment. Much severity, qualified by mildness, had pacified 
 the departments of the west, so long agitated by civil war. 
 We could now affirm that neither Vendeans nor Chouans 
 any longer existed. The disaffected, as well as the emi- 
 grants, wandered in small numbers through England. 
 Many of the old chiefs had made a sincere submission ; few 
 held out. All secret organizations 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-Colard. 
 Some emissaries, suspected of hostile intentions, had been 
 severely dealt with, among whom was the Baron de la 
 Rochefoucald, who died in a state prison. As to old Talon, 
 arrested by Savary upon his estate at Gatinais, in con- 
 sequence of an ex-officto accusation, he at first experienced 
 such brutal treatment, that I informed the emperor of it. 
 Savary was reprimanded. Talon's daughter, a most in- 
 teresting girl,' excited a general sympathy, and contributed 
 in a great degree to alleviate her father's fate : she herself 
 
 ■ Now the Countess du Cayla. — Note by the Editor, 
 
204 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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, 
 adopted by me, at first astonished every one ; but it after^ 
 wards 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 an evil genius interfered ; I was con- 
 tinually beset by jealousy, envy, and intrigue, on one side ; 
 and, on the other, by the want of confidence and the mis- 
 trust of my master. Finding itself supported, the counter- 
 revolutionary faction, under the mask of a religious and 
 anti-philosophical 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 
 Montteur, 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. 
 
 I was supposed to be the 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 Dihats was accord- 
 ingly removed from my control, and placed under that of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJk. 205 
 
 one of my personal enemies." They thought to console me 
 in some degree for this, by permitting 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 Publict'ste of Suard, and the Decade Philo- 
 sophique of Ginguene. 
 
 The influence of Fontanes having continually increased 
 since his advancement to the presidency of the legislative 
 corps, he used his utmost to introduce his friends into the 
 avenues of power. His devoted writer, M. Mol^, the in- 
 heritor of a name illustrious in the parliamentary annals, 
 produced his Essais de Morale et de Politique, a most in- 
 judicious apology for despotism as it is exercised in Morocco. 
 Fontanes passed great eulogiums upon this essay in the 
 Journal des D'ebats ; I complained of it. The emperor pub- 
 licly blamed Fontanes, who excused himself by his desire 
 of encouraging 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 auditor of 
 the council of state, then naitre des requites, and minister 
 in petto. 
 
 It must be also confessed that the emperor willingly 
 permitted himself to be gulled 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 
 panegyrized 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 mind, and the ten- 
 dency of literature at this period, from the fact that, that 
 very year, there appeared a history of La Vendue, in which 
 
 ' Doubtless M. Tiiwie,— Note by the Editor. 
 
2o6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 the Vendeans were represented as heroes, and the repub- 
 licans 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 revolutionary 
 party were highly indignant at it. I was obliged to in- 
 terfere, in order to apply an antidote capable of counter- 
 acting the assertions of this historian of stage-coach 
 plunderers {dSirousseurs de diligences '). 
 
 In the meantime, the consequences and political ad- 
 vantages of Austerlitz and Presbourg were about to be 
 immense. First, by an imperial decree, Joseph Bonaparte 
 was proclaimed king of the Two Sicilies, the Momteur 
 having previously announced that the dynasty then upon 
 the throne had ceased to reign. Almost immediately after- 
 wards Louis Bonaparte was proclaimed king of Holland, 
 a crown, no doubt, to 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 princi- 
 pality 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 kingly manner, 
 by creating grandees of the empire and a new nobility. 
 Shall I confess it ? When, at a council more numerously 
 attended, he proposed the question, whether the establish- 
 ment of hereditary titles was contrary to the principles 
 of equality which almost all of us professed, 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. 
 
 ' Fouch^, 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, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 207 
 
 Besides, the object was to reconcile ancient France with 
 modern France, and to cause all remains of feudality to 
 disappear, 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 conferring the investi- 
 ture 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 Talleyrand 
 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 highest 
 feudatories of the empire. 
 
 Till then, all fusion or amalgamation of the old nobility 
 with the leaders 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 demarca- 
 tion, 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. Fourteen 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 
 talent, 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 
 
2o8 MEMOIRS Of FOUCHJ&. 
 
 to ratify the treaty of peace recently concluded, alleging that 
 her envoy had exceeded his instructions. In her tergiver- 
 sations we only saw an artifice for gaining time. 
 
 Since the decease of William Pitt, whos^ death had been 
 occasioned by grief, caused by the disasters of the last 
 coalition, England negotiated under the auspices of Charles 
 Fox, who had succeeded again to the direction of affairs. 
 Much was expected from a minister who had. constantly 
 reprobated the coalitions formed for the purpose of re-estab- 
 lishing in France the old dynasty. 
 
 In the meantime, the war with Prussia broke out, a war 
 which had been hatching since the battle of Austerlitz, and 
 which was less caused by the counsels of the cabinet than by 
 the compilers of secret memoirs. They began by represent- 
 ing the Prussian monarchy as ready to f^H ^t the least puff, 
 like a house built with cards. I have read several of these 
 memoirs, one, amongst others, very artfully written by 
 Montgaillard, who was then in high pay. I can affirm, that 
 for the last three months, this war was prepared like a coup 
 de thi&tre ; all the chances and vicissitudes had been 
 calculated, and weighed, 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, depended upon the 
 cunning of some intriguers and the energy of a few 
 subsidized 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 Frederick. 
 
 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 rupture of the negotiations, 
 the death of Charles Fox, the departure of Lord Lauderdale, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± 209 
 
 and the arrogance of the victor, were events rapidly succeed- 
 ing each other. The idea of destroying the power of Eng- 
 land, the sole obstacle to universal monarchy, now became 
 his fixed resolve. It was with this view he established the 
 continental system, the first decree concerning which was 
 dated from Berlin. Napoleon was convinced, that by 
 depriving England of all the outlets for its manufactures, 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, when each soldier engaged with an enemy in 
 close combat, 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 in enter- 
 ing more fully in the details, for the circumstances were 
 more complicated, I told him that we were sure of maintain- 
 ing tranquillity in France ; that Austria could not stir ; that 
 England hesitated to unite itself 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 clashed with too many interests ; and 
 that, in making war upon kings, care should be taken not to 
 make it upon the people, nor to exasperate it. I entreated 
 him, in terms the most urgent, to employ all his genius, all 
 his powers of destruction and policy, to bring about quickly 
 a glorious peace, like all those for which we had been 
 indebted to his good fortune. He understood me ; but one 
 more victory was necessary. 
 
 15 
 
210 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 From 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 unceasing perseverance. Nothing of conse- 
 quence escaped him ; his eye was everywhere. Many 
 intrigues were formed against him on the continent, but 
 without success. Agents were despatched from London to 
 try Paris, to try even myself. 
 
 Only imagine the English cabinet falling into the snares 
 of our police, even after the mystifications of Drake and 
 Spencer Smith ; only imagine Lord Howick, minister of 
 state for foreign affairs, despatching an emissary to me with 
 secret instructions, and the bearer of a letter for me enclosed 
 in the knobs of a cane. This minister requested of me two 
 blank passports for two agents intrusted to open a secret 
 negotiation with me. But his emissary having imprudently 
 disclosed his object to the agent of the prefecture, Perlet, the 
 vile instrument of the whole plot, the bamboo of Vitel was 
 opened, and the mission 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 mistrust in the mind of Napoleon ; he must, 
 at least, have supposed that the idea in foreign countries was 
 that intrigues could be tried upon me, and that I was a man 
 capable of listening to everything, of seizing upon every- 
 thing, leaving to the times to direct my decision. Nor was 
 this the only overture of this kind, for such was the blind- 
 ness of the men who solicited for the cabinet of St. James', 
 in the interests of the counter-revolution, that , they per- 
 suaded themselves I was not averse to work in favour of the 
 Bourbons, and to betray Buonaparte. This was wholly 
 founded upon the opinion generally disseminated, that, 
 instead of persecuting the royalists in the interior, I, on the 
 contrary, sought to guard and protect them ; that, besides, 
 any one applying personally to me, with the intention of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FO UCH± 2 1 1 
 
 making disclosures of any sort, was always welcome. 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 
 directeA. 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 but rapid manner, he proved the 
 fragility of Napoleon's power, his approaching decline (it was 
 at the commencement of the Spanish war), and his inevitable 
 fall. He then concluded by conjuring me, for 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. " Un- 
 fortunate man," said I to him, " you have introduced your- 
 self 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, and 
 not as a magistrate, I can pardon the excess of your error, 
 and your imprudent step. 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 know whence you come ; I know your 
 chain of correspondence, and 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 
 
212 MEMOIRS OF FOVCHt. 
 
 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 altera- 
 tion which I allowed myself to make, was the supposition of 
 a safe conduct previously obtained from me by Count Dache, 
 under pretext of important information he was desirous of 
 making to rhe alone. This was indispensable, for I was cer- 
 tain that Napoleon would have disapproved of my generosity, 
 and would even have perceived something suspicious in it. 
 Independently of the police orders, he himself gave some 
 extremely rigorous ones from his cabinet, so much he feared 
 his enemies' energy and decision. The whole of the police 
 agents 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 those of his party. 
 
 It may easily be conceived that so hazardous and perilous 
 a mission would never have been given or executed immedi- 
 ately after the negotiations and the treaty of Tilsit, the 
 glorious result of the victory of Friedland. 
 
 I have now to characterize this grand epoch of Napoleon's 
 political life. The event was calculated to fascinate all minds. 
 The old aristocracy was seduced by it. " Why is he not 
 a legitimate f " said they, in the Faubourg St. Germain ; 
 "Alexander and Napoleon approach each other, the war 
 ceases, and a hundred millions of men enjoy repose and 
 tranquillity." These fine, empty words gained credit, and 
 it was not perceived that the duumvirate of Tilsit was but a 
 disguised treaty of a division of the world between two 
 potentates and two empires, which, once in contact, must 
 end by clashing together. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 213 
 
 In the secret treaty, Alexander and Napoleon shared 
 between them the continental world ; all the south was 
 abandoned to Napoleon, already master of Italy and arbiter 
 of Germany, pushing his advanced post as far as the Vistula, 
 and making Dantzic one of the most formidable arsenals. 
 
 Upon his return to St. Cloud, on the 27th of July, he re- 
 ceived the most insipid and, extravagant adulations from all 
 the principal authorities. Every day I perceived the change 
 which infatuation wrought in this great character ; he 
 became more and more reserved with his ministers. A 
 week after his return, he made striking changes in the 
 ministry. The portfolio of war was intrusted to General 
 Clarke, since Duke of Feltre, and that of the home depart- 
 ment to Cretet, at that time only a councillor of state ; 
 Berthier was made vice-constable. But what caused the 
 greatest astonishment was to see the portfolio of foreign 
 affairs pass 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 
 favours merely honorary. 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 disagreement 
 of opinion upon the projects relative to Spain was the prin- 
 cipal 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 Fontainbleau, which was executed towards the end of 
 October. The same as that of Presburgh, the treaty of 
 Tilsit was signalized by the erection of a new kingdom, con- 
 ferred upon Jerome, in the very heart of Germany. The 
 new king was installed in it, under the direction of precep- 
 tors assigned him by his brother, who reserved to himself 
 the supremacy in-the political guidance of the new tributary 
 monarch. 
 
214 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 About this time was known the success of the attack 
 upon Copenhagen by the Enghsh, which was the first blow 
 given to the secret stipulations of Tilsit, in virtue of which 
 the navy of Denmark was to be placed at the disposal 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 n;iinistry. 
 He suspected a fresh infidelity in the cabinet, and 'Charged 
 me to discover if it was connected 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 it, and that which 
 chance discovers is little indeed." Upon this subject I had 
 a curious and 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 par- 
 ticulars of it. 
 
 The affairs of the interior were conducted upon a system 
 analogous with that pursued abroad, and which began to 
 develop itself. On the i8th of September, the remains of 
 the Tribunat were at length suppressed ; not that the small 
 minority of the tribunes could offer any hostility, but because 
 it entered into the emperor's plans not to allow the previous 
 discussion of the laws ; these were only in future to be pre- 
 sented 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 commu- 
 nication 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. "It is very well as to 
 Portugal," said I to him, " it is truly an English colony ; 
 
MEMOIRS OF ROUCHi.. 215 
 
 but 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 Peninsular people ? 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, taking advantage of their 
 domestic dissensions, you realize the fable of the oyster and 
 the lawyers, you must declare against the majority of the 
 population. Besides, you cannot be ignorant 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 judged from the highest classes of society, they 
 are, as everywhere else, corrupted, and have little patriotism. 
 Once more, take care you do not transform a tributary 
 kingdom into a new Vendde." " What do you talk about ? " 
 replied he ; " every reflecting 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 the warlike Prussia, 
 that heritage of the great Frederic, fall before my arms like 
 an old ruinous cottage ; well, you will see Spain surrender 
 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 regenerating Spain, of detaching 
 
 ' Here allusions are made to the Maires du Palais, who, under the 
 reigns of the Sois fainians, governed the affairs of the state. — English 
 Editor. 
 
2i6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 it entirely from England, and of uniting it inseparably to 
 my system. Consider that the sun never sets in 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 
 wsdom, whether all that was taking place was not a ruse- 
 de-guerre ; whether the north was 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 sure 
 of Alexander, who is very sincere ; I now exercise 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 predilection 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 thigh 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 particularly inte- 
 rested myself, and who all received valuable employments. 
 He began to be more pleased with the Faubourg St. Germain, 
 and approving my liberal mode of directing the police, as 
 respected, the old aristocracy, he told me that thei:e were, 
 near Bourdeaux,' two families yirhom I regarded as dis- 
 
 . ' Apparently, the families Donnissan anJLarochejaquelein, united by the 
 marriage of the Marquis de Larochejaquelein, who died in 1815, with the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 217 
 
 affected and dangerous, 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 the interior. 
 But, as to my politics abroad, do not meddle with that ; 
 leave me to act ; and, above all, do not take upon you 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 port- 
 folio, 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 had, nevertheless, their effect upon many 
 minds. In my eyes, these disputes appeared the more impo- 
 litic, inasmuch as they could not fail to alienate a great part 
 of the people of Italy, and among ourselves, to favour the 
 petite iglise ' which had annoyed us for a long time ; it 
 began to avail itself of it 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 
 
 widow of the Marquis de Lescure, daughter of the Marchioness de Don- 
 nissan ; they then inhabited the chiteau of Citran, in M^doc. 
 
 ' By feiite iglise, is meant that part of the French clergy who did not 
 approve of the Concordat, and who, consequently, were not employed by 
 Napoleon's government. Their influence was nevertheless powerful, btting 
 considered, by all who called themselves good Catholics, as the supporters 
 of the true principles. — English Editor, 
 
2i8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± 
 
 universal monarchy, and of the reorganization of Europe. 
 I would willingly have seconded it, but I saw, with regret, 
 that it rested upon false bases, and that opinion already 
 began to resist. How, in fact, was it possible to proceed 
 thus to the conquest of all countries, without having at least 
 the nations on our 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 under- 
 stood 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 forgotten in 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 friend- 
 ship, 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 springs of 
 this vast plot were wound up ; they extended 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 Pig- 
 natelli, and. many other tools, more or less active in his 
 diplomatic fi-auds. 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 
 the public opinion became irritated by the anxiety of expec- 
 tation ; and that the talk of the day had already reached a 
 height which my three hundred regulators of Paris could 
 not suppress. 
 
 This was still worse when events developed themselves ; 
 when, by stratagem and perfidy, all the family of Spain 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 219 
 
 found itself caught in the Bayonne nets ; when the Madrid 
 massacre of the 2nd of May took place ; and when the rising 
 of nearly a whole nation had set almost the whole of the 
 Peninsula in a conflagration. All was known and ascer- 
 tained in Paris, notwithstanding the incredible efforts of all 
 the police establishments to intercept or prevent the know- 
 ledge of public events. Never, in the whole course of my 
 two ministries, did I see so decided a reprobation of the 
 insatiable ambition and Machiavelism of the head of the 
 state. This convinced me, that in an important crisis truth 
 asserts all its rights, and regains 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 considered as responsible ; my bulletins were 
 a sufficient answer. Towards the end of July, after the 
 capitulation of Baylen, it became impossible to restrain it. 
 The counter-police and the emperor's private correspond- 
 ents took the alarm ; they even were so much mistaken as 
 to put him on his guard against the symptoms of a con- 
 spiracy in Paris totally imaginary. 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 Saint Germain, into a fit of brain 
 fever. Traversing La Vendue, he returned to Saint 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 
 first words. "How could you allow so many nests of 
 babblers and slanderers to be formed in Paris ? " " Sire, 
 when the thing becomes general, there is no possibility to 
 punish ; besides, the police cannot penetrate into the inte- 
 rior of families and the confidence of friendship." "But 
 foreigners have excited disaffection in Paris ? " " No, Sire, 
 the public discontent broke out of itself : old passions have 
 been revived, and, in this respect, there has been much ill- 
 will. But nations cannot be roused, without arousing the 
 
220 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 passions. It would be impolitic, imprudent even, to ex- 
 asperate the public mind, by unseasonable 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 Continental Europe. Your majesty has' surmounted 
 difficulties 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 stigmatized 
 with the term infamous, declaring that he would make an 
 example in the army. "I will conduct this war of peasants 
 and monks," continued he, " myself, and I hope to thrash 
 the English soundly. I will immediately come to an under- 
 standing with the Emperor Alexander, for the ratification 
 of the treaties and the preservation of the tranquillity of 
 Europe. In three months I will take back my brother to 
 Madrid, and in four I, myself, will enter 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 despatched 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 fraternize 
 with Napoleon. These two formidable arbiters of the 
 continent spent eighteen days together in the greatest 
 intimacy, in the midst of fetes and amusements. Recourse 
 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, information that ought to have 
 undeceived him ; but what do I say ? He, perhaps, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 321 
 
 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 P 
 
 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 embarrass- 
 ments became serious from the time of his declaring war 
 against the nations. 
 
 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 encountering 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, without 
 posterity, without certainty as to the future, demanded of 
 Providence at least twenty years, to complete and con- 
 solidate his work. If he were taken from us before this 
 term, he would not even have, like Alexander the Mace- 
 donian, 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 enchant- 
 ment, 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 
 
222 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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 recognize myself," said 
 he, " in this child ! " And 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 to 
 contemplate with transport this tender offspring, whose 
 disposition and manners were so engaging, and, resting from 
 the cares of the empire, join in its childish games ! Did the 
 boy evince ever so little determination, ever so trifling a 
 predilection for the noise of the drum, of arms or the imagery 
 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 broken a reed on which ,a great 
 man thought he might lean. 
 
 Never did I see Napoleon a prey to deeper and more 
 concentrated grief ; never did I see Josephine and her 
 daughter in more agonizing affliction : they appeared to find 
 in it a mournful presentiment of a futurity without happiness 
 and without hope. The courtiers themselves sympathized 
 with them, in a misfortune so severe ; as for myself, 
 I thought I saw the link of the perpetuity of the empire 
 breaking. 
 
 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 diversion could he have ? But, already, distractions 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJk. 223 
 
 of a different kind and more efficacious consolations had 
 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, Char- 
 lotte 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 common domes- 
 ticity, 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,' 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 conse- 
 quences of the sudden loss of Hortense's son, of the neglect 
 of her daughter, and the abandonment of herself. She 
 foresaw the future, and lamented 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 
 solidity to a magnificent empire of which I was one of the 
 chief guardians. In a confidential memoir, which I read to 
 him myself, I represented to him the necessity of dissolving 
 his marriage ; 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 necessities of the state 
 could suggest. 
 
 Without declaring anything positive upon this serious 
 
 ' In 1805, at the camp of Boulogne, according to the Memorial de 
 Sainte Helfene.— A'b/e of the Editor. 
 
224 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 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 
 decided respecting the alliance he intended to form ; that, 
 on the other hand, he was singularly attached, both by habit 
 and a kind of superstition, 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 
 significant monosyllables, and two or three almost enig- 
 matical phrases ; but these were sufficient for me. Urged 
 by an excess of zeal, I resolved to effect the breach, and 
 prepare Josephine for this great sacrifice, demanded for 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 pre- 
 cautions and all possible delicacy, the first hint of a separa- 
 tion, which I represented 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 fit of hysterics, or some burst of 
 passion. 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 engagement with 
 one of my colleagues and quitted her. I learnt, the next 
 day, that there had been much grief and agitation in the 
 interior of the palace ; that a very passionate but affecting 
 explanation had taken place between Josephine and Napoleon, 
 who had disowned 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 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 225 
 
 disfiiissal, for having preferred the welfare of France to her 
 personal interests, and to the gratification of her vanity. 
 Although he protested I had spoken without orders, the 
 emperor refused to turn me out (me chasser), 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 with 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 
 political 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 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 importunities. 
 
 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 was hastening to extinguish it by rivers of blood. But 
 what could he do against a whole nation in arms and 
 revolutionized ? Besides, all now seemed 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 the opponents to his will, had just 
 astonished the legislative corps, he was so shocked and 
 alarmed at it, that he thought fit to despatch from Val- 
 ladolid, on the 4th of December, an official note, explanatory 
 of the essence of the imperial government, and the place 
 
 16 
 
236 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 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 representative of the nation ; it 
 would be a chimerical and even criminal pretension, to 
 wish to represent the nation, before the emperor. The 
 legislative corps should be called the legislative council, 
 since it has not the power of making laws, not having the 
 power of proposing them. In the order of the constitutional 
 hierarchy, the first representative of the nation is the em- 
 peror, and his ministers the organs of his decisions. All 
 would fall again into anarchy, if other constitutional ideas 
 were to interfere and pervert those of our monarchical 
 constitution." 
 
 These oracles of absolute power would but have ex- 
 asperated the public mind, under a weak and capricious 
 prince ; but Napoleon had continually the sword in his 
 hand, and victory still followed his steps. Thus everything 
 still yielded, 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, with the feelings of 
 an angry conqueror, and that he was determined to surprise 
 and drive the English army before him, the war was sup- 
 posed to be finished, and I gave instructions to my active 
 agents in consequence. 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 preparations of 
 Austria. Napoleon had still three or four months good, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 227 
 
 and he knew as well as I, that if Austria was to 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 what 
 he meant, and I replied, that it was very well ; that it was 
 thus monarchs should govern ; that if any body whatsoever 
 arrogated to itself alone the right of representing 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 — " How ! Duke of 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," replied I, without hesitation, "and 
 that is 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 apprehensions were enter- 
 tained, 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, Eck- 
 miihl, and Ratisbon, witnessed the rapid triumph of our 
 arms ; and signalized the happy commencement of a cam- 
 paign the more serious, from our carrying on, contrary to 
 the rules of sound politics, two wars at once. 
 
 The hostile preparations made by Schill, in Prussia, 
 revealed 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 Germany were very near rising, in 
 imitation of the people of the Peninsula. Hemmed in by 
 
228 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJ^. 
 
 two national wars, Napoleon would have fallen four years 
 sooner. This circumstance caused me to make serious 
 reflections 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 w^s still active in Saxony, and the inhabitants of 
 Vienna showed much irritation. Several insurrections took 
 place in the capital of Austria. Soon the first reports of the 
 battle of Esslirlg arrived to renew our alarms, and increase 
 our uneasiness ; 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 L>anube,Xh& 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 side, 
 and after we could find no other refuge than the Isle of 
 Lobau. In proportion to the impudence of the bulletin, 
 the greater were the comments 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 conspiracies were on foot in La 
 Vendue. All those parties openly flattered themselves, that 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 229 
 
 the affair of Essling would prove a fatal blow to the emperor. 
 The events upon the Danube so completely absorbed 
 public attention, that scarcely any was bestowed upon those 
 taking place at Rome. It was reserved for us, for us philo- 
 sophers, the offspring of the i8th century, and adepts of 
 incredulity^t was reserved for us, I say, to deplore as im- 
 politic, the usurpation of the patrimony of St. Peter, and 
 the persecution of the head of the church, by the very 
 person whom we had chosen for our perpetual dictator. 
 A decree of Napoleon's, towards the end of May, had 
 ordered the reunion of the Roman states to the French 
 empire. What was the consequence? The venerable 
 pontiff, clinging to the papal throne, finding himself dis- 
 armed, despoiled, and having only at his command spiritual 
 weapons, issued bulls of excommunication against Napoleon 
 and his coadjutors. All this would have only excited 
 ridicule, had the people remained ' indifferent ; if public 
 indignation 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 con- 
 fined in Savona. Napoleon was aware how averse I was 
 to these outrages, therefore I was not intrusted with the 
 direction of them. The Neapolitan police had this charge ; 
 the principal instruments against the pope were Murat, 
 Salicetti, MioUis, and Radet. I had to use the greatest 
 efforts, 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 govern- 
 ment, and the silence of its 'agents, all the public attention 
 was directed upon Pius VII., who, in the eyes of Europe, 
 was considered 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 
 
230 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 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 kgltse, for the turbu- 
 lence of some priests, and for the hatred, of some devotees ! 
 I immediately foresaw that all these leavens would re- 
 produce the secret associations we had with so much diffi- 
 culty 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 state of the public mind. "A 
 month will change all this," he wrote me. In another 
 circumstance, while speaking of our home affairs, he said to 
 me these very words : " I feel no uneasiness whatever ; you 
 are here." I had never accumulated on my head so much 
 power, and so much responsibility. The colossal ministry 
 of the police, and per tntertm the portfolio of the interior, 
 were both intrusted to me. But I was reassured, for never 
 had the encouragement of the emperor been so positive, nor 
 his confidence greater. I was near the apogee of ministerial 
 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. 
 
 But, in the interval, the English appeared in the Scheldt, 
 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. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 231 
 
 ' I perceived the danger. Invested, during the emperor'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 soul, and caused it to pass several strong measures. 
 No time was to be lost : Belgium was to be saved. The 
 troops that could be disposed of, would not have been 
 sufficient to preserve this important part of the empire. 
 I caused it to be decreed, but without the emperor's con- 
 currence, that at Paris and in several of the northern 
 departments, there should be an immediate and extra- 
 ordinary levy of national guards. 
 
 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 Napoleon 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 we had taken, gave umbrage to Napoleon, 
 who, by a letter addressed to Cambacerfes, ordered the levy 
 to be suspended in Paris, where, for the moment, 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, being 
 carried into execution without any obstacle, and with the 
 utmost rapidity, gave us about forty thousand men, ready 
 equipped and full of ardour. Nothing impeded any more 
 the measures I had caused to be adopted, and the execution 
 of which I had superintended 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, on her return, she congratulated me, 
 herself, upon it. 
 
 But it was necessary to appoint a commander-in-chief to 
 this national auxiliary force, which was to assemble under 
 the walls of Antwerp : I was in doubt upon whom to fix, 
 
232 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 when Bernadotte unexpectedly arrived from Wagram. On 
 that very day, ' when I had scarcely heard of his arriva:lj 
 I proposed him to the minister of war, the Duke de Feltre, 
 who lost no time in giving him his commission. 
 
 What was my surprise the next day, when Bernadotte 
 informed me, in the overflowings of confidence and friend- 
 ship;. that, having commanded the left at Wagraitn, and' the 
 Saxons, who.. composed part of it, having been routed, the 
 emperor, under this pretext^ had deprived him of the com- 
 mand, and sent him back to Paris ; that his wing had how- 
 ever 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 
 commendatory proclamation ;■ that he imputed this hew 
 disgrace to the- malevolent reports made to the emperor ; 
 that many complaints were made of Savary, who was 
 charged with .the secret police of the army ; that Lannes, 
 after having had' the most angry and violent scenes with 
 him, could alone. restrain him ; but that since the death of 
 that hero; ithe influence of Savary had ibedoihe unlimited ; 
 that he watched for opportunities of, irritating the emperor 
 against certain generals who were the objects of his dislike ; 
 that lie even went so far as to impute to them connexions 
 with the secret society of the Philadelphtans, which he con- 
 verted into a scarecrow for the emperor, by supposing, 
 upon vague surmises, that it had dangerous ramificatipns in 
 the army. ' ' ' ' 
 
 For these reasons, Bernadotte testified some repugnance 
 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 some misunderstand- 
 ings between them ; that, with the high rank he held, if he 
 refused to fulfil the commission conferred upon him by the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 233 
 
 minister at war, it would seem as if he wished to show his 
 discontent, and to shun 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 
 our duty, we devoted ourselves for our 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 pro- 
 vinces, and the English dared not attempt a landing. So 
 happy a result, joined to the judicious conduct of Berna- 
 dotte, compelled Napoleon to keep his suspicions and dis- 
 content 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. 
 
 Some other private informations, which reached me from 
 the army, perfectly coincided with what I had learnt from 
 Bernadotte respecting the Philadelphians^ whose secret 
 organization was traced back as far as the perpetual con- 
 sulship. The members did not affect secrecy ; their object 
 was to restore to France the liberty of which Napoleon had 
 deprived it, by the re-establishment of the nobility and by 
 his concordat. They regretted Bonaparte the first consul, 
 and considered the despotism of Napoleon as emperor in- 
 supportable. The suspected existence of this association 
 had already caused the arrest and prolonged detention of 
 Mallet, Guidal, Gindre, Picquerel, and Lahorie ; at that 
 time, the brave Oudet, colonel of the ninth regiment of 
 the line, was suspected of having been raised to the pre- 
 sidency 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. pre- 
 ceding the battle of Wagram, general de brigade^^ he was, 
 the evening after the action, decoyed during the darkness of 
 
 ' This rank corresponds with that of Major-general in the English army. 
 — English Editor. 
 
234 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 the night into an ambuscade, where he fell under the fire of 
 a troop supposed to be gens iTarmes ; the following day, he 
 was found lying lifeless, with twenty-two officers of his party 
 killed around him. This circumstance made much noise at 
 Schcenbrunn, at Vienna, and among all the staffs of the 
 army, without, however, any means of fathoming so horrible 
 a mystery. 
 
 But, since the armistice, difficulties were slowly overcome ; 
 the conclusion of the new treaty of peace with Austria did 
 not arrive ; but every letter represented it as certain. We 
 were every moment expecting to receive intelligence of its 
 conclusion, when I learnt that the emperor, while reviewing 
 his guard at Schoenbrunn, had narrowly escaped the dagger 
 of an assassin. Rapp had just time to seize him, Berthief 
 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 flogged to death 
 through the ranks. 
 
 The treaty of Vienna was signed a few days after (15th of 
 October) ; Napoleon, the conqueror and pacificator, returned 
 almost immediately to his capital. It was from his own 
 mouth that we learnt what numerous difficulties he had had 
 to surmount, and how determined and strong had been the 
 opposition of Austria. 
 
 I had several conferences with Napoleon, at Fontainebleau, 
 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. 
 Napoleon was extremely incensed at this, and he spoke to 
 me of adopting severe measures with creatures, " who," said 
 he, " tear me with one hand, and solicit with the other," 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 235 
 
 dissuaded him from it. " It is proverbial," said I to him, 
 " the Seine flows ; the Faubourg intrigues, sohcits, spends, 
 and caluminates ; 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 antechambers? 
 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 ap- 
 pointed ; the doors, the walls, and the chimneys must be 
 interrogated. It is the part of a great man to despise the 
 tattle 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 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, — he required the military occupation of 
 the whole of Germany, which would not have permitted him 
 to put an end to the peninsular war, which now claimed all 
 his attention. 
 
 The moment appeared to me favourable to make him ac- 
 quainted with the whole truth. I represented to him, in a 
 confidential report upon our actual situation, 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 ofi'ering her reasonable propositions ; adding, 
 that he had never been in a better situation to make them 
 listen to him \ that nothing equalled the power of his arms, 
 
236 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 and that now there was no longer any ddubt on the solidity 
 of his connections with the two most powerful potentates of 
 Europe next himself ; that by showing himself moderate in 
 his demands with respect to PortUgial, 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 am- 
 bition 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, 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 con- 
 siderations ; for, in seeing himself revive in a son, he, at the 
 same time, would assure the existence of 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 French-woman sufficiently 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 it were not supported by a 
 general peace. I insisted strongly upon this point, begging 
 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 subjects, which were 
 considered out of my province. But I saw that the disso- 
 lution of the marriage was settled for no very distant period, 
 Gambaceres having been authorized to confer with me re- 
 specting it. I instantly had the rumour set a-foot in the 
 saloons, and it was everywhere whispered, that Josephine, 
 plunged in security; had not the least hint of it, so much 
 was she pitied and her feelings spared. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 237 
 
 I also perceived that the emperor, whether from pride or 
 poHcy, was incHned to unite himself to one of the old courts 
 of Europe, and that the previous divorce was intended to 
 induce them to make overtures, or prepare them to receive 
 them. 
 
 The show of power was not however neglected. Napoleoq, 
 having in absolute dependence upon himself 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 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 presumptuous 
 speech, he expressed himself in these terms : — " When I 
 appear again 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, per- 
 haps ; for, with regard to the nature of this contest, he never 
 had but very incorrect ideas. 
 
 The next day, during a tete-a-Ute dinner with Josephine, 
 he informed her of his resolution. Josephine fainted away. 
 It required all the rhetoric of Cambac^rfes, and all the tender- 
 ness of her son Eugene, both to calm her transports, and 
 dispose her to resignation. 
 
 On the I Sth of December, the dissolution of the marriage 
 was proceeded in according to due 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 retire- 
 ment. The chancery was now fully instructed, though in 
 secrecy, to open a parallel negotiation with the two courts of 
 Saint Petersburg and Vienna ; in the first, the grand duchess, 
 sister to the Czar, was the desired object ; and in Austria, 
 the archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor 
 
238 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 Francis. Russia was first sounded. It was said, in the 
 council, that the Emperor Alexander was favourable to the 
 union, but that there was a difference of opinion in the im 
 perial Russian family. 
 
 That which took place at Vienna, almost simultaneously, 
 deserves the mention of a few preliminaries to which I was 
 not altogether a stranger. 
 
 One of the foremost men in the annals of politeness and 
 gallantry, at the court of Louis XVI., was undoubtedly Count 
 Louis de Narbonne. Some persons had been pleased to in- 
 crease his celebrity, by deducing, from the striking resem- 
 blance of his features to Louis XVI., an inference implying 
 some august mystery as to his birth. He had also himself 
 contributed to establish his reputation by his very great 
 amiability, his intimate liaison with the most extraordinary 
 woman of the age, Madame de Stael, and, in short, by the 
 easy and chivalrous manner in which he had 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-republicans, and of 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 accom- 
 plished 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 con- 
 versation, that it afforded me, in the midst of the most 
 fatiguing labours, the pleasantest relaxation. All that M. de 
 Narbonne requested of me, on behalf of his friends and con- 
 nections, I granted him. I spoke of him to the emperor ; I 
 had some difficulty in overcoming his repugnance to him ; 
 he disliked his former connection with Madame de Stael, 
 whom Napoleon regarded as an implacable enemy. I how- 
 ever, persisted, and the emperor at length allowed him to be 
 presented. Napoleon was immediately struck with him, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 239 
 
 and first attached him to his person as officer (Vordonnance} 
 General Narbonne followed him in the campaign 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 intentions of the court of 
 Austria. It would have been contrary to all propriety and 
 custom for Napoleon to have taken any decided step, before 
 he knew positively the determination of the Emperor 
 Alexander ; therefore, the instructions delivered to the 
 Count de Narbonne merely authorized 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 importance. 
 He arrived at Vienna in the month of January (18 10), his 
 only apparent object being to visit it, on his way back to 
 France, through Germany. There, opening his batteries, 
 he first saw M. de Metternich, and was afterwards introduced 
 to the Emperor Francis. 
 
 The question of the marriage, at that time, occupied 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 expressed his surprise that the court of 
 the Tuileries had overlooked his family, and he spoke openly 
 enough to enable M. de Narbonne to know what to think. 
 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 arch- 
 duchess would enter into the views of Austria. Upon the 
 arrival of the courier, I immediately hastened to communi- 
 cate his despatch to the emperor. I never saw him so 
 joyous and happy. He caused Prince Schwartzenberg, the 
 
 » A sort of confidential aide-de-camp, whose office is to carry messages. 
 — English Editor, 
 
24© MEMOIRS OF FOUChA 
 
 Austrian ambassador, to be sounded; directing that this 
 delicate negotiation should be conducted with such circum- 
 spection, that the ambassador should find himself engaged 
 without being so himself. 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, to make all Europe suppose that the emperor had had 
 the choice of a grand duchess and an archduchess ; for as to 
 the princess of Saxony, she had been mentioned as a mere 
 matter of form. 
 
 On the 1st 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, and the deliberations begun, 
 the minister Champagny first communicated the despatches 
 of Caulaincourt, our ambassador in Russia; From his 
 representation, it appeared, that the marriage with a Russian 
 princess solely deipended 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 
 the choice seemed the only difficulty. Opinions were 
 divided. As I was in the secret, I abstained from giving 
 mine ; and purposely withdrew before the end of the 
 deliberation. Upon the council breaking up, Prince Eugene 
 was commissioned by the emperor to make formal overtures 
 to the Prince of Schwartzenberg. The ambassador had 
 received his instructions, and all was arranged without the 
 least difficulty. 
 
 Thus Napoleon's marriage with Maria Louisa was pro- 
 posed, discussed, determined upon in council, and stipulated 
 within twenty-four hours. 
 
 The day after the holding of the council, a senator, one of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi, 241 
 
 my friends, always an fait at news,' came to inform me that 
 the emperor had decided for an archduchess ; 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 presentiment 
 that my ministerial power would not long survive the new 
 order of things, which would, doubtless, 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 believing 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 Bernadotte had been an object of suspicion with him. 
 The more he endeavoured to keep within himself his un- 
 favourable feelings towards me, the more I suspected them. 
 They discovered themselves, upon my proposing 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 com- 
 plying 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 draught of a report, 
 drawn up in my name, and of an imperial decree, which, 
 instead of one state prison, established six " ; ordering 
 
 ' A recueilof anecdotes, in which this circumstance is related, mentions 
 M. de S^monville as the person ; but Fouch^ suppresses the name. — Note 
 of the Edit 01: 
 
 ' Vincennes, Saumur, Ham, Landskaone, Pierre-Chitel, and Fenes- 
 Vc^t.—Note of the Editor. 
 
 17 
 
242 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 besides, that henceforth no one could be arrested but in 
 virtue of a decision of the privy council. This was a bitter 
 derision, 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 arrests, and threw upon the police all the odium of 
 arbitrary detentions. He also requested me to give him a 
 list of individuals 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 mistrustful 
 man that perhaps ever existed. It was one of the state 
 wounds. I had sometimes the weakness to imagine that, 
 once firmly established and at ease. Napoleon would adopt a 
 system of government more paternal, and, at the same time, 
 more in harmony with 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 indispensable. Could I not myself contribute to 
 this peace, as I had co-operated, by my impulse, to the 
 dissolution of a sterile marriage and to the alliance with 
 Austria ? If I succeeded in this object, I might, from the 
 importance of such a service, conquer the prejudices of the 
 emperor, and regain his confidence ; but England was. .first 
 to be sounded. I had the less hesitation, that the change, 
 which had taken place in the composition of the English 
 ministry, gave me some just grounds of hope. 
 
 The bad success of most 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 Castlereagh and Mr. Canning, had even 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 243 
 
 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 Marquess 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 Liver- 
 pool, 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 Marquess 
 Wellesley more open to reasonable overtures ; I, therefore, 
 determined to feel 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 could scarcely be begun in 
 London except under the mask of commercial operations ; 
 and next, because it was impossible to employ, in so delicate 
 an affair, a man more broken to business, or of a more 
 insinuating and persuasive character. But, as M. Ouvrard 
 could not, without some difficulty, enter into direct relations 
 with the Marquess Wellesley, I associated with him M. Fagan, 
 once an Irish oflScer, who, being intrusted with the first step, 
 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 ist of April ; 
 nothing could be more magnificent or more interesting. 
 The day was beautiful ! The expression of joy from the 
 prodigious crowds assembled was 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 in the richest attire. 
 The fetes were splendid. But that which was given by 
 Prince Schwartzenberg, in the name of his master, offered a 
 
244 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi,. 
 
 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 of 
 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 Maria 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 police, it was upon that, 
 or at least upon the prefect of police, that the emperor's 
 resentment fell. Dubois was discharged, and, unfortunately, 
 a public disaster was necessary in order to get rid of a man 
 who had so often misdirected the moral end of the police. 
 
 At court, and in the town, 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 they were watching for an oppor- 
 tunity to find the police at fault, touching the sale of certain 
 works upon the revolution, Avhich might have hurt the 
 empress. I gave orders for their seizure ' ; but such was 
 
 ' 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 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 declarations, 
 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 being 
 ever able to seize the whole edition ; only some isolated copies being taken. 
 In spite of all these searches and visits, the work was constantly sold, and 
 people hid themselves to read it. — TVb/'e of the Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 345 
 
 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 Middlebourg 
 and Flessingue ; he also went to Breda. This journey was 
 fatal to me. 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 negotia- 
 tion and twofold proposals, which surprised the Marquess 
 Wellesley extremely. Both the emperor's agents and mine, 
 being equally suspected, were sent away. The emperor, 
 surprised at so sudden and unexpected a conclusion, in order 
 to discover the cause, employed his secret foreign agents and 
 counter-police. At first, he obtained vague informations ; 
 but he was soon enabled to judge that his negotiation had 
 been crossed by other agents, whose mission he was unac- 
 quainted with. His suspicions at first fell on M. de Talley- 
 rand ; but, upon his return, having received fresh infor- 
 mations, and having ordered a circumstanced report to be 
 made, he discovered that M. Ouvrard had made overtures, 
 without his knowledge, to the Marquess Wellesley ; and, as M. 
 Ouvrard was known to be connected with me, it was inferred 
 that I had given him 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 the council, 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 prisoner. The next day, the portfolio of the police 
 was given to Savary. This time, it was a real disgrace. 
 
246 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 I should certainly have made a prediction rather pre- 
 mature, 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. 
 
PART II. 
 
 I IMPOSE upon myself a great and weighty task, in again 
 offering myself to all the severity of a public investigation ; 
 but I impose it on myself as a duty, to destroy the prejudices 
 of party spirit, and the impression of hatred. I have, how- 
 ever, little hope that the voice of reason will have strength 
 enough to make itself heard in the midst of the clamours of 
 the two violent factions which divide the political world. 
 No matter ; it is not for the present moment that I write, 
 but for that of a more tranquil period. As to what concerns 
 the present, let my destiny be accomplished ? And what a 
 destiny, just heaven ! What have T left of such grandeur 
 and of that enormous power, which I never abused, except 
 for the purpose of avoiding still greater evils 2 That which 
 I least value, that which I accumulated for others, indeed 
 remains to me, who, with the simplicity of my tastes, could 
 have dispensed with wealth altogether ; to me, who, in the 
 midst of splendour, always showed the moderation of a philo- 
 sopher, and the sobriety of a hermit. By turns powerful, 
 dreaded or disgraced, I sought for authority I own, but I 
 detested oppression. What services have I not rendered .? 
 What tears have I not dried ? Dare, if you can, to deny it, 
 ye whose good opinion I succeeded in gaining, notwith- 
 standing the dreadful events that had passed ! Did I not 
 become your protector ? Did I not guard you against your 
 own resentments, and the impetuous passions of the chief of 
 
248 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 the state ? I confess that there never was a more absolute 
 police than that whose sceptre I held ; but did you not 
 admit that there never was one more protecting under a 
 military government ; more adverse to violence ; more 
 gentle in the means with which it penetrated into the secret 
 recesses of domestic life, and whose action was less 
 obnoxiously obvious? Did you not say, then, that the 
 Duke of Otranto was, beyond a doubt, the ablest and the 
 most moderate of all Napoleon's ministers ? You hold a 
 different language — for this sole reason : that times have 
 changed. You form your opinion of the past by the present ! 
 I do not jjidge it so. I have committed errors, I own ; but 
 the good I have done must be taken in the account. Plunged 
 in the chaos of public affairs, occupied with the unravelling 
 of all kinds of intrigues, I took pleasure in calming hostilities, 
 in extinguishing passions, and conciliating men. It was 
 with a degree of luxury that I sometimes tasted repose in 
 the bosom of my domestic affections, which, in their turn, 
 were poisoned. In my recent disgrace, and in my great 
 misfortunes, can I forget that the supporter and guardian of 
 an immense empire, my sole disapprobation put it in peril, 
 and that it fell down the moment I ceased to support it with 
 my hand ? Can I forget, that if, by the effect of a great 
 reaction, and of a return which I had foreseen, I again re- 
 possessed myself of the scattered elements of so much 
 greatness and power, the whole vanished like a dream ? 
 Yet, nevertheless, I was considered as far superior, in con- 
 sequence of my long experience — I may add, perhaps, of my 
 sagacity — to all those who, during the catastrophe, suffered 
 the power to escape. 
 
 Now that, undeceived upon all points, I look down from 
 a superior region upon all the miseries and fallacious splen- 
 dours of greatness ; now that I no longer contend for any 
 object but the justification of my political intentions, I 
 recognize, too late, the emptiness of those contrary parties 
 who struggle for the government of the universe. I see and 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 249 
 
 feel that a more powerful First Mover modifies and guides 
 them, in spite of all our deepest speculations. 
 
 It is, nevertheless, but too true, that the wounds of 
 ambition are incurable. In spite of my reason, and in spite 
 of myself, I am pursued by the delusive chimeras of power, 
 by the phantoms of vanity ; I am as strongly tied to them as 
 Ixion was to his wheel. A deep and painful feeling oppresses 
 my mind. 
 
 And will it be said now that I do not show all my weak- 
 nesses, all my errors, and all my repentance ? A confession 
 like this, I should think, is a sufficient pledge of the sincerity 
 of my revelations. That pledge I owed to the importance of 
 this second part of the memoirs of my political life ; I am 
 thus irrevocably placed under the rigorous obligations of 
 retracing all its peculiarities, of unfolding all its secret 
 mysteries. This is my last labour. I shall, however, 
 experience some compensating enjoyment in the charms of 
 reflection, and in the fragrance of a certain number of 
 recollections ; this pleasure I have experienced in my first 
 narrative. 
 
 In preparing these memoirs, one consoling idea has never 
 abandoned me. I shall not entirely descend into the grave, 
 perhaps, into that grave which already yawns to receive me, 
 at the termination of my exile. I cannot dissemble it from 
 myself. However I may elude the decay of my spirit, I 
 have but too strong conviction of the decay of my bodily 
 strength. Pressed by the fates, I must hasten to offer, with 
 sincere feelings, the account of the events which passed 
 between my disgrace in 18 10 and my fall in 1815. The 
 complement is the most serious and the most thorny of all 
 my political confessions. How numerous are the incidents, 
 the mighty interests, the conspicuous characters, and the 
 turpitudes which are associated with this last scene of a 
 transitory power ! But fear nothing, enemies or friends ; 
 the police is not going to denounce here — it is history 
 which reveals. 
 
2SO MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 But, if I pretend to place myself above frivolous considera- 
 tions and regards in sparing no one, I am as firmly determined 
 to keep as far from satire and libelling as from falsehood and 
 dissimulation. I will brand with disgrace that which must 
 be despised, I will respect whatever is deserving of respect. 
 In a word, I will hold my pen with a firm hand ; and, in 
 order that it may not deviate, I will keep my eyes on the 
 synchronism of public events. 
 
 From these preliminaries, intended to awaken attention 
 and recall remembrances, I will proceed to the facts which 
 confirm, to the particulars which reveal, and to those deeds 
 which characterize. The result will, I hope, be a picture, to 
 which the reader may give, as he pleases, either the name of 
 history or materials for its composition. 
 
 At the end of the first part of these memoirs is the point 
 whence I resume my narrative ; it is marked by the event of 
 my disgrace, which transferred Xhe, porte feuille of the high 
 police of the State into the hands of Savary. It must not 
 be forgotten that the empire was then in the zenith of its 
 power, and that its military limits had no longer any bounds. 
 Possessor of Germany, master of Italy, absolute ruler of 
 France, invader of Spain, Napoleon was, moreover, the ally 
 of the Caesars, and of the autocrat of the north. So dazzling 
 was the halo of his power, that the ulcer of the Spanish war, 
 which was gnawing the vitals of the empire in the south, was 
 forgotten. Everywhere else. Napoleon had only to desire, 
 in order to obtain. All moral counterpoise had disappeared 
 from his government. Everything gave way ; his agents, 
 his functionaries, his dignitaries, exhibited nothing but a 
 group of flatterers and mutes, anxious to catch the least 
 sign of his decisions. In short, he had just dismissed, in me, 
 the only individual of his council who would have dared to 
 check the long chain of his encroachments ; in me, he had 
 removed a zealous and watchful minister, who never spared 
 him useful admonition, nor courageous reproof. 
 
 An imperial decree constituted me governor-general of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHli. 251 
 
 Rome.' But I never, for a single moment, thought that it 
 was the emperor's wish that I should exercise so important a 
 trust. This nomination was nothing but an honourable 
 veil, woven by his policy, in order to conceal and mitigate, 
 in the eyes of the public, my disgrace, of which his intimates 
 alone had the secret. I could not be mistaken ; the very 
 choice of my successor was in itself a frightful omen. In 
 every house, in every family, in short throughout Paris, 
 there was a general horror manifested at seeing the general 
 police of the empire thenceforth confounded with the mili- 
 tary police of the chief magistrate ; and, moreover, given up 
 to the fanatical subserviency of a man who considered it as 
 the greatest honour to execute the secret orders of his 
 
 ' Letter of the Emperor to the Duke of Otranto. 
 
 " My Lord Duke of Otranto, — The services which you have rendered 
 us, in the difficult circumstances which have occurred, induce us to confide 
 to you the government of Rome, until we have provided for the execution 
 of article eight of the act of the constitution of the 17th of last February. 
 We have determined, by a special decree, the extraordinary powers with 
 which the particular circumstances, in which that department is at present 
 placed, require that you should be invested. We expect that you will 
 continue, in your new post, to give us proofs of your zeal for our service 
 and attachment for our person. 
 
 " This letter having no other oT)ject, we pray God, my Lord Duke of 
 Otranto, to take you into His holy keeping. 
 
 " (Signed) NAPOLEON. 
 
 " St. Cloud, the yd of June, 1810." 
 
 Letter of the Minister of General Police to S. M., /., and R. 
 "Sire, — I accept the government of Rome to which your Majesty has 
 had the goodness to raise me, as a recompence for the humble services 
 which I have been so fortunate as to render you. * 
 
 " I must not, however, dissemble, that I experience a very poignant 
 regret in quitting your Majesty ; I lose at once the happiness and instruc- 
 tion which I daily derived from my interviews with you. 
 
 "If anything can mitigate that regret, it is the reflection that I give in 
 this circumstance, by my absolute resignation to the will of your Majesty, 
 the strongest testimony of my boundless devotion to your person. 
 " I am, with the most profound respect, 
 " Sire, 
 "Your Majesty's very humble and 
 " Most obedient servant, and 
 
 " Faithful subject, 
 ' ' (Signed) DU KE of OTRANTO. 
 
 " Paris, June yd, 1810." —Note by the French Editor, 
 
253 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 master. His name alone created a universal suspicion, a 
 kind of stupor, the impression of which was, perhaps, carried 
 too far. 
 
 I no longer communicated, except under extreme precau- 
 tion, with my intimate friends and private agents. I soon 
 obtained the confirmation of all I had foreseen. For several 
 days, my wife's apartments were crowded with distinguished 
 visitors, who carefully masked the object of their visits 
 under the appearance of paying their congratulations on 
 the subject of the imperial decree which raised me to the 
 government-general of Rome. I received the confidential 
 testimonies of crowds of exalted personages, who, while 
 expressing their regrets, assured me that my retreat carried 
 with it the disapprobation of all such men as were most 
 esteemed in all opinions and all ranks of society. " We are 
 not indeed satisfied," said they, " whether the regret of the 
 Faubourg Saint Germain be not, at least, as deep as that 
 displayed by the multitude of eminent men, who have at 
 heart the interests of the revolution." Testimonials of this 
 kind, offered to a fallen minister, were neither suspicious 
 nor doubtful. 
 
 My position and propriety imposed upon me the dis- 
 agreeable task of acting for several days the part of 
 Savary's mentor, during the dkbut of his ministerial novi- 
 ciate. It may easily be supposed, that I did not carry good 
 nature so far as to initiate him in the upper mysteries of the 
 political police. I took care not to give him a key, which 
 might one day contribute to our common safety. Neither 
 did I initiate him in the rather difficult art of arranging the 
 secret bulletin, the ideas, and often even the writing of 
 which must be left to the minister alone. The poor talents 
 of Savary, in this walk, were already known to me ; I had 
 previously obtained, without his being aware of it, copies of 
 the bulletins of his counter-police. What villainies did they 
 not contain ! To confess the truth, I was so out of patience 
 with his perpetual questions, and heavy conceitedness, that 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 253 
 
 I amused myself with talking nonsense to him ' {conter des 
 some ties). 
 
 By way of amends, I pretended to acquaint him with 
 the forms, the customs, and the traditions of the ministry ; 
 I particularly magnified the profound views of the three 
 councillors of state, who, under his direction, would each 
 of them work as much as four in administering the police of 
 France, which they would divide among themselves. He 
 was quite dazzled. I introduced, and sincerely recommended 
 to him the principal agents and clerks whom I had had 
 under my orders. He only received well the treasurer, a 
 little round personage, and the little inquisitor, Desmarets, 
 on whom I never placed any reliance. This latter indi- 
 vidual, endowed with a certain degree of tact, had instinct- 
 ively bowed to the rising sun. He was completely Savary's 
 right hand (cheville otivrtkre). 
 
 Nothing in the world was ever more ludicrous than to see 
 this soldier-like minister giving his audiences, spelling the 
 list of those who solicited, drawn up by the Huissiers " of 
 the chamber, with notes written by Desmarets in the margin. 
 It was his guide {guide-ane) for promises and refusals, which 
 were almost always accompanied by oaths or invectives. 
 I had not failed to tell him that I had disobliged the 
 emperor by being trop bon ; and that to watch over his 
 master's valuable days with more efficacy, he ought some- 
 times to make a show of resistance.^ 
 
 ' It was, doubtless, this circumstance, which since occasioned the Duke 
 de Rovigo, in referring to Fouche, to say, " That personage has imposed 
 upon us often enough !" It must be, however, understood that this phrase, 
 as we have heard it quoted in society, comprises all the Imperial govern- 
 ment. — Note by the French Editor. 
 
 ' Huissiers are a sort of Vergers, whose office it is to introduce visitors, 
 and people in general, calling on business. They previously write down 
 the names of such persons, and, presenting the list to the ministers or high 
 official personages, are instructed to give or refijse admittance accordingly. 
 — English Editor. 
 
 3 This would be going much too far for any other individual but Fouch^, 
 by nature revengeful, and indulging towards the Duke de Rovigo a hatred, 
 the evidences of which he suffers too conspicuously to transpire. — Note by 
 the French Editor. 
 
2S4 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 
 
 Puffed up by an insolent self-conceit, he affected, from the 
 first moment of his accession to ofHce, to imitate his master 
 in his frequent fits of passion, and his broken and incoherent 
 phrases. He considered that there was nothing of any utility 
 in the whole police, but secret reports, esfiionnage, and the 
 money-chest. I had the good fortune to witness his gambols 
 and fits of joy, on the day I put in his hands the agreeable 
 calculation of all the budgets which were merged in the 
 private chest ; tt appeared to him like a new Avonderful 
 lamp. 
 
 I burnt with impatience to get rid of this ministerial 
 pedagogueship ; but on the other hand, I resorted to 
 pretexts in order to prolong my stay in Paris. Ostensibly, 
 I carried on my preparations for my departure for Rome, as 
 if I had never for a moment doubted that I was about to be 
 installed there. The whole of my household was arranged 
 upon the scale of a governor-generalship, and even my 
 equipages were superin scribed in large characters, " Equi- 
 pages of the Governor-general of RoTney Informed that all 
 my proceedings were watched, I paid great attention to little 
 things. 
 
 At length, receiving neither decision nor instructions from 
 court, I requested Berthier to obtain my audience of leave 
 from the emperor. The only reply I got was, that the 
 emperor had not appointed a day for my audience, and that 
 it would be prudent, in consequence of the popular gossip, 
 for me to go to my country-seat, and there await the orders 
 that would be immediately sent me. I accordingly went to 
 my chateau de FerriireSy^ but not without indulging in the 
 
 ' The ch&teau de Ferriires is distant about three-quarters of a league 
 from the estate of Pont Carr^, emigrant landed property, about six leagues 
 from Paris, which Fouch^ had acquired from the state, but for which it is 
 asserted that he had paid the full value to the proprietor. The ch&teau of 
 Pont Carre being then in a dilapidated state, it would seem that Fouche 
 caused it to be demolished, and devoted its site to pasture land. Ferriferes 
 and Pont Carre, united with immense wooded estates, which are now 
 attached to them, constitute, according to report, one of the most magnificent 
 domains in the kingdom ; it comprises an extent of four leagues. It was to 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 255 
 
 venial malice of causing it to be inserted in the Paris 
 journals, by underhand means, that I had set out for my 
 new government.' 
 
 In my last interview with Berthier, I had not found much 
 difficulty in detecting the emperor's inclinations towards me ; 
 I saw how vexed he was in finding public opinion decidedly 
 pronounced against my dismissal, and as strongly declared 
 against my successor. The ministry of the police then 
 appeared to be nothing else than a Prev6t6 and Gen- 
 darmerie. All these indications confirmed me in the 
 opinion that I should, with great difficulty, escape the 
 consequences of an actual fall. 
 
 In fact, I had scarcely arrived at Ferriferes, when a relation 
 of my wife, who had secretly quitted Paris, hastened to me, 
 at midnight, to convey the important intelligence that I 
 should be arrested on the following day, and that my papers 
 would be seized. Although the particulars were magnified, 
 the information was positive ; it came from an individual 
 attached to the emperor's private cabinet, and long engaged 
 in my interest. I immediately went to work, and put in a 
 secure place all my most important papers. As soon as the 
 operation was completed, I resigned myself with stoical 
 fortitude to whatever might occur ; and at eight o'clock 
 
 my confidential emissary J arrived, having galloped 
 
 all the way, with a letter from Madame de V in a 
 
 feigned hand, informing me that Savary had just told the 
 emperor that I had carried off his secret correspondence and 
 confidential orders to Ferriferes. I saw, at once, from whom 
 
 Madame de V obtained her information. It confirmed 
 
 the first intelligence, but the papers now appeared to be the 
 only thing thought of. Although I had no longer any 
 
 the ch&teau de Ferriires that Fouche retired immediately after his disgrace, 
 and subsequently after his return from his senatorship at Aix, as will be 
 seen in the progress of these Memoirs. — Note by the French Editm'. 
 
 ' The author almost always neglects dates. We believe that it was on 
 the 26th of June, 1810. — Note by the French Editor. 
 
2s6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 apprehension as to their offering violence to my person, 
 I was picturing to myself the arrival of the chief Sbire 
 and his archers, when my people informed me that a 
 carriage, preceded by outriders, was entering the court of 
 the ch&teau. But Napoleon, restrained, I presume, by some 
 remains of decency, had spared me the mortification of 
 coming in contact with his police minister. It was Berthier 
 who entered my apartment, followed by the councillors of 
 state Rdal and Dubois. 
 
 From their embarrassment, I could see that I still kept 
 them in awe, and that their mission was conditional. In 
 fact, Berthier, commencing the business, told me, with some 
 constraint, that he came by the emperor's orders to demand 
 his correspondence ; that he imperiously insisted upon it ; 
 and that, if I refused, the police prefect, Dubois, who was 
 present, had orders to arrest me, and place a seal on my 
 papers. Real, assuming a tone of persuasion, and addressing 
 me with more feeling, as an old friend, begged of me, nearly 
 with tears in his eyes, to submit to the emperor's wishes. 
 '' I," said I, calmly, " I resist the emperor's wishes ? how can 
 you think of it ? I, who have always served the emperor with 
 so great a degree of zeal, although wounded by his unjust 
 suspicions, even at those times when I served him most 
 effectually. Come into my closet ; search everywhere, 
 gentlemen ; I will give my keys into your hands ; I will 
 myself put you in possession of all my papers. It is lucky 
 for me that the emperor has put me to this unexpected trial, 
 out of which it is impossible I should not come with advan- 
 tage. The rigorous examination of all my papers, and my 
 correspondence, will give the emperor means of convincing 
 himself of the injustice of the suspicions with which the 
 malice of my enemies alone could have inspired him against 
 the most devoted of his servants, and the most faithful of his 
 minister^." The calmness and firmness which I had assumed, 
 while making this short harangue, produced its effect, and 
 I proceeded in these words : " As to the private corre- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJ^. 257 
 
 spondence of the emperor with me during the exercise of my 
 functions, as it was of a nature which required its being buried 
 in eternal secrecy, I partly burned it, when I resigned my 
 oflBce, not wishing to expose papers of so great an importance 
 to the chances of an indiscreet investigation. As to the rest, 
 gentlemen, you will still find, with this exception, the papers 
 which the emperor requires ; they are, I believe, in two 
 locked and ticketed boxes ; you will have no difficulty in 
 recognising them, nor will you be likely to confound them 
 with my private papers, which I give up with the same 
 confidence to your research. Once more, I fear nothing, 
 and have nothing to fear from such a trial." 
 
 The commissioners overwhelmed me with protestations 
 and excuses. They proceeded to examine my papers, or 
 rather I examined them myself, in the presence of Dubois. 
 I must do this justice to Dubois, that although he was my 
 personal enemy, and more especially charged with the 
 execution of the emperor's orders, he conducted himself 
 with as much reserve as decorum ; whether it was that he 
 already had a presentiment that his own disgrace would 
 shortly follow mine,' or whether he judged it prudent not 
 to disgust too much a minister who, after two falls, might 
 again reascend the pinnacle of power. 
 
 Moved, probably, by my sincerity," the imperial com- 
 missioners contented themselves with some insignificant 
 papers, which I was pleased to let them have ; finally, after 
 the customary forms of politeness, Berthier, R6al, and 
 Dubois re-entered their carriage, and returned to Paris. 
 
 At the close of night, making my exit by the little gate in 
 my park, I got into the cabriolet of my homme d'affaires, 
 and, accompanied by a friend, hurried to Paris, where I 
 
 ' M. the Count Dubois was succeeded by M. Pasquier, in his functions 
 of prefect of police, on the 14th of October, 1810. Fouch^ has intimated 
 one of the motives of his disgrace, in the first part of his memoirs. —Note 
 by the French Editor. 
 
 ' The word openness (candeur) was underlined in the original notes. — 
 Note of the French Editor. 
 
 18 
 
258 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 alighted incognito at my mansion in the Rue du Bac. There 
 I learnt, two hours afterwards (for all my strings were laid 
 out), that the emperor, on the report of what had passed at 
 FerriSres, had fallen into a violent passion ; that after having 
 broken out in threats against me, he had exclaimed that 
 I had played off a trick upon the commissioners ; that they 
 were fools ; and that Berthier was, in regard to state affairs, 
 no better than an old woman, who had suffered himself to 
 be mystified by the craftiest man in the empire. 
 
 The next day, at nine o'clock in the morning, having 
 concerted my plan, I hastened to St. Cloud, and there pre- 
 sented myself to the grand marechal of the palace. " Here 
 I am," said I to Duroc ; " it is of the greatest consequence 
 for me to see the emperor instantly, and to prove to him, 
 that I am very far from deserving his cruel mistrust, and 
 unjust suspicion. Tell him, I entreat you, that I am waiting 
 in your closet, till he deigns to grant me a few minutes' 
 audience." " I will go instantly," replied Duroc, " and I am 
 very glad to see that you have cooled a little {que vous 
 mettiez de Veau dans voire vifi)!'' Such was the exact phrase 
 he used, and it squared with the idea which I wished to give 
 him of my step. Duroc, returning, took me by the hand, 
 led me forward, and left me in the emperor's closet. From 
 the first aspect and deportment of Napoleon, I guessed what 
 was passing in his mind. Without giving me time to say a 
 single word, he embraced me, flattered me, and went even 
 so far as to testify a kind of repentance for the dissatisfaction 
 he had expressed with regard to me ; then, with an accent 
 which seemed to say that he himself offered me a pledge of 
 reconciliation, he concluded by requiring, and, in short, de- 
 manding his correspondence, " Sire," I replied, with a firm 
 voice, " I have burnt it." " That is not true ; I must have 
 it," replied he, with compressed vehemence and anger. " It 
 is reduced to ashes." " Withdraw ! " These words were 
 pronounced with a motion of the head, and a terrible look. 
 " But, Sire " " Withdraw, I say ! " This was repeated 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 259 
 
 with such emphasis, as to dissuade me from staying. I held 
 ready in my hand a brief memorial, which I laid on the 
 table as I retired ; an action which I accompanied with a 
 respectful bow. The emperor, bursting with anger, seized 
 the paper, and tore it to pieces. 
 
 Duroc, who saw me so soon returning, perceiving neither 
 trouble nor emotion depicted in my appearance, imagined 
 that I was restored to favour. " You have come off well," 
 said he ; "I prevented the emperor yesterday from having 
 you arrested." " You have saved him," I returned, " from 
 committing an act of folly, — an act which, at all events, had 
 been impolitic, and which had furnished matter to malignity. 
 The emperor, by such an action, would have thrown alarm 
 among those individuals who are most devoted to the inte- 
 rests of his government." I perceived from Duroc's manner, 
 that this was also his opinion, and taking him by the hand, 
 I said, " Do not suffer yourself to be discouraged, Duroc ; the 
 emperor stands in need of your prudent counsel." 
 
 I quitted Saint Cloud, somewhat reassured by this half- 
 confidence of the grand markhal, for which I was indebted 
 to a mistake ; and returned, pondering on the posture of the 
 affair, to my mansion. 
 
 I was about to return to FerriSres, after having despatched 
 some urgent business, when the Prince de Neufchatel 
 (Berthier) was announced. " The emperor," said he, " is 
 very angry. I never saw him in so violent a passion ; he 
 has taken it into his head, that you have played with us ; 
 that you have carried audacity so far, as to maintain, to his 
 face, that you had burnt his letters, in order to avoid giving 
 them up ; he pretends that it is a punishable state offence, 
 to persist in retaining them." " This suspicion," said 1 to 
 Berthier, " is the most injurious of all. The correspondence 
 of the emperor would, on the contrary, be my only safeguard, 
 and, if I possessed it, I would not give it up." Berthier 
 urgently implored me to yield ; but finding me silent, he 
 concluded by threats in the emperor's name. " Go to him," 
 
26o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 I replied, " and tell him, that I have been accustomed for 
 these five and twenty years to sleep with my head on the 
 scaffold ; that I know the extent of his power, but that I 
 do not fear it ; and add, that if he wishes to make a Strafford 
 of me, he is the master." We then separated ; I more than 
 ever resolved to stand firm, and scrupulously retain the un- 
 deniable proofs that all which was most violent and iniquitous 
 in the exercise of my ministerial functions had been imperi- 
 ously prescribed, by orders emanating from the cabinet, and 
 invested with the sign manual of the emperor. 
 
 Neither was it the effect of public disgrace, which I so 
 much feared, as ambuscades prepared against me in dark- 
 ness. Determined by my own reflections, as well as the 
 entreaties of my friends and of all I held most dear, I threw 
 myself into a post-chaise, taking with me only my eldest son 
 and his tutor. I then took the road to Lyon ; there I found 
 my old secretary, Maillocheau, general commissary of police, 
 w^ho was indebted to me for his place ; I obtained from him 
 all the papers which I thought I might want, and rapidly 
 traversed a great part of France. Thence, passing with the 
 same celerity into Italy, I arrived at Florence with a boldly- 
 conceived design, which I thought was calculated to secure 
 me from the emperor's resentment. But such was the state 
 of my physical irritability, and the excess of the fatigue with 
 which so rapid and so long a journey had overwhelmed me, 
 that it was necessary to give up two whole days to repose, 
 before I could find myself in a proper condition to provide 
 for my own safety. 
 
 It was not unintentionally, and this I will explain presently, 
 that I had sought refuge in that classic land, beloved from 
 time immemorial by gods and men. The beautiful and free 
 Tuscany, which had at first fallen under the dominion of the 
 Medicis, subsequently under the sceptre of the house of 
 Austria, princes who had always governed it rather in the 
 character of fathers than of king, was at that time plunged 
 in the gulf of the French empire. I pass over the mock 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 261 
 
 cession made by Napoleon to the infant of Parma, under the 
 title of King of Etruria, a cession revoked almost as soon as 
 it was concluded, Tuscany was reserved for other destinies. 
 Ever since 1807, Eliza, Napoleon's sister, reigned thereunder 
 the title of grand duchess. And it was I, who through the 
 most inconsistent and unaccountable vicissitudes, now came 
 to place myself under the protection of a woman I disliked ; 
 who formerly giving strength to the coterie Fontanes and 
 Mole, had contributed to my first disgrace ; of that woman 
 of whom I shall have to say, in this place, more in her favour 
 than against her, in order to be just — for I have a habit of 
 speaking and writing according to the associations of the 
 epoch, but without passion or resentment. Such ought, in 
 fact, to be the standing maxim of the statesman ; the past 
 ought in his eyes to appear in no other light than history ; 
 everything is comprised in the present. 
 
 When, besides, the question concerns females subjected to 
 the influence of strong passions, it admits of an easy expla- 
 nation. At my resumption of the ministry I had an oppor- 
 tunity to conciliate Eliza ; I had successively protected two 
 individuals Hin**** and Les******, to whom she was much 
 attached, and who, within a short interval, had rendered 
 themselves in the strongest degree necessary to her imperious 
 inclinations. The one, a contractor, had been bitterly perse- 
 cuted by the emperor ; the other, more obscure, had plunged 
 himself into a disgraceful transaction. - It was not without 
 difficulty that I succeeded in hushing the matter up. 
 
 I had, moreover, prevailed upon Napoleon, in 1805, to 
 confer on his sister the sovereignty of Lucca and Piombino ; 
 I was, therefore, almost certain of still finding the heart of 
 Eliza disposed to feelings of gratitude ; and I had not neglected 
 to make myself sure of it, on the very day when my disgrace 
 was aggravated by my last interview with the emperor. 
 Having presented myself to the grand duchess, wlro was 
 then at Paris to attend the marriage fetes, I had solicited 
 from her, without entirely confiding to her all the thorny 
 
262 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 points of my position, letters for her dominions, through 
 which, as I told her, I was about to pass, in order to proceed 
 to Rome. Eliza assented with infinite affability, warmly 
 recommending me, and designating me in her letters by 
 the amiable epithet of the common friend. This is easily 
 explained. I had in Tuscany some friends, for whom I had 
 procured very lucrative places, and the grand duchess gave 
 them all the latitude I required to serve me. Such was the 
 steadiness of their character, that I could, without risk, reveal 
 to them all the difficulties of my situation. 
 
 The news which I received, nearly at the same time, from 
 Paris, and from my family, which had stopped at Aix, 
 brought nothing of a comforting description. On the con- 
 trary, they represented the emperor as urged by Savary, 
 and inclined to break out into violence against my alleged 
 obstinacy, which was termed indiscreet, and even mad. No 
 one at that time could entertain the idea of a single indi- 
 vidual daring to resist the will of him before whom all things, 
 whether potentates or nations, bowed. " What ! " wrote one 
 of my friends to me, " would you be more powerful than the 
 emperor ? " My head turned, and I was in my turn intimi- 
 dated. In my sleepless nights, and in my dreams, I imagined 
 myself surrounded by executioners, and seemed as if I beheld, 
 in the native country of Dante, the inexorable vision of his 
 infernal gates. The spectre of tyranny depicted itself on my 
 imagination with more frightful features than during the 
 most sanguinary despotism of Robespierre, who had con- 
 demned me to the scaffold. Here I was less in dread of the 
 scaffold than the oubliettes.^ I knew, alas, but too well the 
 man with whom I had to deal. My head becoming more 
 and more heated, I returned to the first idea which had pre- 
 sented itself to my mind ; and I took the desperate resolution 
 
 ' This is an untranslatable word. The name was given to certain 
 dungeons, underground, in which it is reported that state criminals, or 
 more properly speaking, the victims of tyranny, were formerly cast, there 
 to be left to die with hunger. It comes from oubli, forgetfulness— the " 
 persons there confined never being heard of. — English Editor, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 263 
 
 of embarking for the United States, that common refuge of 
 the unfortunate friends of liberty. Secure of Dubois,' director 
 of police in the grand duchy, who was indebted to me for his 
 place, I obtained blank passports ; and proceeded to Leghorn, 
 where I freighted a vessel, giving out that I was going by 
 sea to Naples, whence I intended to proceed to Rome. I 
 went on board ; I even set sail fully determined to pass the 
 straits, and cross the Atlantic. But, just heavens ! to what a 
 terrible affliction was my frail irritable habit of body sub- 
 jected. A dreadful sea sickness attacked me with the 
 greatest violence. Overcome by my sufferings, I began to 
 regret that I had not attended to the remonstrances of my 
 friends and family, whose future existence I was about to 
 compromise. I nevertheless struggled on ; and resisted as 
 much as possible the idea of yielding to the tyrannical ruler. 
 But I had already lost my senses, and was about to expire, 
 when I was put on shore. Overwhelmed by this rough trial, 
 I subsequently declined the offer of a generous English cap- 
 tain, who wished to convey me to his native island, on board 
 of a commodious vessel and a good sailer, promising me at 
 the same time such attention and antidotes as would secure 
 me against the return of sea-sickness. I could not find reso- 
 lution enough to comply. I was resolved to endure every- 
 thing sooner than again trust myself to an element incom- 
 patible with my existence. This cruel trial had besides 
 changed my ideas ; I no longer saw objects under the same 
 point of view. By degrees, I perceived that there was a 
 possibility of coming to some kind of compromise with the 
 emperor, whose rage pursued me even to the shores of the 
 Tuscan Sea. I still wandered there for a short time, in order 
 to mature my plan, and obtain opportunities for its realiza- 
 
 ' This individual must not be confounded with Count Dubois, prefect of 
 police. We have been informed that the Dubois, director of police in 
 Tuscany, and M. Maillocheau, commissary general of police at Lyon, were 
 severely reprimanded by the Duke of Rovigo, for having favoured the 
 furtive journey of Fouch^. The commissary general of Lyon was even 
 cashiered. — Note by the French Editor. 
 
264 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 tion. At length my resolution being taken, and my batteries 
 prepared, I returned to Florence. There I wrote to Eliza, 
 already well-disposed to do me service ; I conveyed a letter 
 to the emperor under cover to her, in which, without 
 flattery or humiliation, I confessed that I was sorry for 
 having displeased him ; but, that being in dread of falling a 
 defenceless victim to- the malignity of my enemies, I had 
 considered myself entitled, perhaps wrongfully, to retain 
 possession of papers which composed my only guarantee. 
 That, on reflection, and deeply regretting having incurred 
 his displeasure, I had placed myself under the protection of 
 a princess who, by the ties of blood, as well as by the good- 
 ness of her heart, was worthy of being his representative in 
 Tuscany ; that to her I consigned my interests, and that I 
 entreated his majesty to grant me, under the auspices of the 
 grand duchess, in exchange for the papers which I had de- 
 termined to give up in compliance with his wish, some kind 
 of irresponsihility for all the measures and acts which- 1 might 
 have executed by his orders, during the duration of my two 
 ministries ; that a pledge of this description, which was 
 necessary to my security and repose, would be as a sacred 
 Egis, which would defend me against the attacks of envy, 
 and the shafts of malice ; that I had already several reasons 
 to believe that his majesty, out of regard to my zeal and 
 services, would deign to re-open the only access which re- 
 mained to his goodness and justice, by perrriitting me 
 to retire to Aix, the chief place of my senatorship, and 
 to reside there in the bosom of my family, till further 
 orders. 
 
 This letter, sent by a special messenger to the grand 
 duchess, had a full and entire effect ; Eliza interested herself, 
 zealously. The courier's return announced to me that the 
 Prince de Neufchatel, vice-constable, was commissioned, by 
 an express order from the emperor, to deliver to me a motived 
 receipt in exchange for the correspondence and orders which 
 the emperor had addressed to me during the exercise of my 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± 265 
 
 functions, and that I might, with full security, retire to the 
 chief place of my senatorship. 
 
 In this way, through the intervention of the grand 
 duchess, was eifected, not certainly a reconciliation between 
 me and the emperor, but a kind of compromise, which I 
 should have regarded as impracticable three weeks before. 
 I was less indebted for it to inclination on my part, or sincere 
 submission, than to the results of a sea-sickness, the tortures 
 of which I was, from habit of body, incapable of supporting. 
 
 Restored to my family, I was at length enabled, at Aix, 
 to enjoy the tranquillity so necessary to the decay of my 
 strength and the state of my mind, which was irritated 
 without being vanquished. It was not without a very 
 painful inward struggle that I had consented to bend before 
 the violence of the despot. If at length I decided upon 
 yielding, it was only upon capitulation ; but sacrifices such 
 as these are not made without effort by any one who feels 
 the native dignity of man ; and who has no other wish than 
 to live under a reasonable government. There were for me 
 many other motives of bitterness and alarm, in contempla- 
 ting the secret and hurried march of a power advancing to 
 self-destruction, and the springs of which were so familiar to 
 me, that their results could no longer escape the foresight of 
 my calculations. 
 
 Although I had reason to believe myself condemned for a 
 length of time to perfect obscurity and nullity, this mode of 
 life, which might have conducted me to apathy and indiffer- 
 ence, was very ill accordant with a mind broken in to the 
 habits and exercise of great aifairs. Those things which 
 escaped others did not escape me ; flashes of light escaped 
 from the insipid and lying columns of the Montteur, which 
 attracted my notice. The cause of the events of the day was 
 revealed to me by the very announcement of its result ; I 
 could always supply the truth in the place of those half hints 
 and broken sentences contained in that paper ; and the 
 lucubrations 6i the chief magistrate alternately revealed to 
 
266 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 me the joy and torments of his ambition. I penetrated the 
 most secret actions, even the servile eagerness of his intimate 
 partisans and most unshaken agents. 
 
 Nevertheless, I wanted to know the details ; I was too far 
 from the scene of action. How, for example, could I divine 
 the sudden incidents, and the unforeseen accidents, which 
 occurred out of the ordinary circle of things ? There was 
 always some commotion or some storm in the interior of the 
 palace. If some scattered and broken rumours of these 
 transpired, they seldom reached the extreme limits of the 
 provinces without being altered or mutilated through 
 ignorance or passion. 
 
 The inveterate custom of knowing everything pursued 
 me ; and I yielded the more easily to it, in the midst of the 
 ennui of a tranquil and monotonous state of exile. By the 
 assistance of steady friends, and faithful emissaries, I arranged 
 my secret correspondence, corroborated by regular bulletins, 
 which, as they reached me from various quarters, might 
 be reciprocally corroborated ; in a word, I established my 
 counter-police at Aix. This amusement, which was at first 
 weekly, was repeated subsequently more than once a week, 
 and I was informed of all that occurred in a va.or& piquante 
 manner than when I was at Paris. Such were the occupa- 
 tions of my retreat. There, surrounded by the calm atmo- 
 sphere of reflection, my Parisian bulletins arrived in such a 
 manner as to stimulate my political meditations. Oh ! ever 
 
 courageous, sprightly, and faithful V ; you who held 
 
 almost all the threads of that network of information and 
 truth ; you who, endowed with superior sagacity and reason, 
 and who, always active and calm, remained faithful, under 
 all circumstances, to gratitude and friendship — accept the 
 tribute of respect and tenderness, which my heart will ever 
 feel the want of expressing, even to my last sigh. You were 
 not, however, the only agent employed for the common 
 interest, in weaving the patriotic web which had been 
 preparing for more than a twelvemonth, to meet the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 267 
 
 probable chance of a catastrophe.' The amiable and pro- 
 found D , the beautiful and alluring R , seconded 
 
 your noble zeal. You also had your knights of secret 
 mystery enrolled under the banners of the hidden graces and 
 virtues. It must be confessed, in the midst of social decom- 
 position, whether under the reign of terror, or during the 
 two directorial and imperial tyrannies, whom did we remark 
 so capable of a rare disinterestedness as to devote themselves 
 for the common good ? Some women — What do I say ? — a 
 large number of women retained the generosity of their 
 ideas, uninfected by that contagion of venality and baseness 
 which degrades human nature and bastardizes nations. 
 
 Alas ! we were at that time approaching, after many 
 vicissitudes, the boundaries of that fatal cycle in which we 
 had everj^hing to deplore or fear as a nation ; we were 
 approaching that future which was the more appalling 
 because it was near, and in which everything was likely to 
 be compromised and made doubtful again ; our fortune, our 
 honour, our repose : we had been indebted for them, it is 
 true, to the great man himself ; but that extraordinary 
 personage persevered, in spite of the lessons of all ages, in 
 attempting to exercise a power without counterpoise and 
 without control. Devoured by the fever of domination and 
 conquest, raised to the pinnacle of human authority, it was 
 no longer in his power to stop in his career. 
 
 Thanks to my correspondence and secret informations, I 
 followed him step by step in his public proceedings as well 
 as his private actions. If I did not lose sight of him, the 
 reason was, that the whole empire was in him ; the reason 
 was, that all our power, all our fortune, resided in his fortune 
 and his power ; an alarming incorporation, no doubt, because 
 it placed, at the mercy of a single man, not only one nation, 
 but a hundred different nations. 
 
 ' Fouche, in this place, only lifts a corner of the veil ; what follows will 
 apprize the reader of all which the ex-minister at present conceals. — Note 
 iy the French Editor. 
 
268 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 Arrived at the zenith of his power, Napoleon did not even 
 stop a moment ; it was during the two years which I passed 
 far from affairs, that the germ of his dechne, which was at 
 first imperceptible, began to develop itself. On that account 
 I thought, therefore, to advert, in this place, to the rapid 
 effects of it, less for the sake of gratifying a vain curiosity, 
 than of contributing to the utility of history. It will more- 
 over be by means of this natural transition, that I shall be 
 conducted, without leaving any gap, to my reappearance on 
 the stage of the world, and my redirection of state affairs. 
 
 The year 1810, at first marked by the marriage of 
 Napoleon and Maria Louisa, and afterwards by my disgrace, 
 was also rendered remarkable by the disgrace of Pauhne 
 Borghese, the emperor's sister, and by the abdication of his 
 brother Louis, King of Holland. Let us investigate these 
 two events, in order to be better enabled to explain what 
 followed. 
 
 Of the three sisters of Napoleon, Eliza, Caroline, and 
 Pauline, the latter, who was celebrated for her beauty, was 
 the one whom he most loved, without, however, suffering 
 himself to be led by her. Giddy, whimsical, and fond of 
 pleasure, without talent, but not without some quickness 
 and a smattering of things, she delighted in splendour, in 
 dissipation, and all kinds of flattery. She never hated any 
 one except Leclerc, her first husband, and, still more, the 
 most amiable of men. Prince Camille Borghese, to whom 
 Napoleon had united her by her second marriage. Her first 
 marriage was what is called a garrison marriage. Being 
 taken ill, and refusing to follow Leclerc in his expedition to 
 St. Domingo, she was carried by Napoleon's orders in a litter 
 on board the admiral's ship. 
 
 Consumed by the burning heat of that tropical climate, 
 and banished, in consequence of the unfortunate result of 
 that expedition, to the island De la Tortue, she, in order to 
 divert her mind, plunged into every species of sensuality. 
 On the death of Leclerc, she hastened to take shipj not like 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJi. 269 
 
 an Artemisia, nor like the wife of Britannicus, dissolved in 
 tears, and embracing the funeral urn of her husband, but 
 free, triumphant, and eager again to revel in all the luxuries 
 of the capital. There, for a long while eaten up by a com- 
 plaint, the seat of which is an accusing witness against 
 incontinence, Pauline had recourse to all the treasures of 
 Esculapius, and recovered. Strange effect of her miraculous 
 cure ; far from impairing her beauty, it derived from it a 
 greater degree of lustre and bloom, like some curious flowers 
 which are brought to blossom by manure, and rendered 
 more vivacious by the rottenness out of which they spring. 
 
 Desiring nothing but unrestrained and unlimited enjoy- 
 ment, but dreading her brother and his rough severity, 
 Pauline formed a project, in conjunction with one of her 
 ijvomen, of subjecting Napoleon to the full dominion of her 
 charms. She employed so much art, and so much refine- 
 ment, for the purpose, that her triumph was complete. 
 Such was the intoxication of the despot, that more than 
 once his familiars heard him exclaiming, in the excess of his 
 admiration, that his sister was the most beautiful of the 
 beautiful, and in short, the Venus of the age. Her beauty, 
 however, was only of a masculine description. But let us lay 
 aside these scenes, which are more worthy of the pencil of 
 Suetonius and Aretin, than of the pen of history. Volup- 
 tuous chateau de Neuilly I magnificent palace of the Fau- 
 bourg St. Honore ! if your walls, like those of the palaces of 
 the kings of Babylon, could reveal the truth, what licen- 
 tious scenes would you not depict in large characters. 
 
 For more than a year, the infatuation of the brother for 
 the sister maintained its power, although unaccompanied by 
 passion ; in fact, no other passion but that of dominion and 
 conquest could master that haughty and warhke mind. 
 When, after the battle of Wagram, and the peace of Vienna, 
 Napoleon returned in triumph to Paris, preceded by the 
 report of his approaching divorce with Josephine, he went 
 that very day to his sister, who was in a state of agitation, 
 
^^o MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 and the most anxious anticipation of his return. Never had 
 she displayed so much love and adoration for her brother. 
 I heard her say on that very day, for she was aware that 
 there was no veil for me, " Why do we not rule in Egypt ? 
 We might then act like the Ptolomies ; I might divorce my 
 husband, and marry my brother." I knew she was too 
 ignorant to have made such an allusion herself ; I saw in it 
 an ejaculation of Napoleon. 
 
 The bitter and concentrated disappointment which 
 Pauline felt may be conceived, when, some months after 
 that time, she saw Maria Louisa, adorned with all her inno- 
 cence and candour, make her appearance at the nuptial 
 ceremony, and take her seat on the throne, by the side of 
 Napoleon. The imperial court then underwent a thorough 
 reform in its habits, its morals, and its etiquette ; the reform 
 was complete and rigorous. From that moment, the licen- 
 tious court of Pauline was deserted ; and that woman, who 
 united all the weaknesses to all the graces of her sex, con- 
 sidering Maria Louisa in the light of a fortunate rival, con- 
 ceived a mortal jealousy against her, and nourished the most 
 intense resentment in the recesses of her heart. Her health 
 was impaired by it. By the advice of her physician, she 
 had recourse to the waters of Atx la Chapelle, as well for 
 the purpose of recovery, as for that of escaping the ennui to 
 which she was a prey. Having undertaken her journey, she 
 met, at Brussels, Napoleon and Maria Louisa, who were 
 travelling towards the frontier of Holland. There, compelled 
 to appear at the court of the new empress, and eagerly 
 seizing an opportunity of insulting her as much as possible, 
 she went so far as to make, behind her back, while she was 
 passing through the salon, a sign with her two fingers, and 
 that accompanied by an indecent tittering, which the 
 common people apply, in their gross style of derision, to a 
 credulous and deluded spouse. Napoleon, who witnessed 
 and was shocked by this impertinence, which the reflection 
 of the mirrors had even revealed to Maria Louisa, never 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 271 
 
 forgave his sister ; she received, on that very day, an order 
 to withdraw from court. From that time, disdaining sub- 
 mission, she preferred to live in exile and disgrace, till the 
 events of 18 14, when the misfortunes of her brother recalled 
 her affections and devotedness. 
 
 The disgrace of Louis, King of Holland, was of a more 
 dignified description. 
 
 Hitherto, the emperor had only persecuted and despoiled 
 ancient dynasties, as if, by that means, he had really 
 intended, according to his imprudent words, to make his 
 own the most ancient in Europe. But now, as if nothing 
 could restrain him, he went so far as to depose a king of his 
 own race, whose brow he himself had bound with the royal 
 diadem. It was asked whether in proclaiming his brother 
 King of Holland, he only meant to make a prefect of him. 
 Louis, who was of a mild disposition, and a friend to justice, 
 beheld, with deep sorrow, the ruin of his kingdom, 
 occasioned by the effect of that continental system which 
 destroyed all industry and commerce. He secretly favoured 
 a maritime trade, notwithstanding the threats of his brother, 
 who called him by the name of smuggler. Enraged by 
 seeing himself thus disobeyed. Napoleon prepared for the 
 invasion of Holland, forgetting that he had told his brother, 
 in calling him to the throne, and in order to conquer his 
 repugnance, that it was much better to die a king than live 
 a prince. Louis, finding he could not prevent the occupa- 
 tion of his states by the soldiers and custom-house officers 
 of his brother, abdicated the crown in favour of his son, 
 announcing his resolution, by a message, to the legislative 
 body of Holland, in these terms : " My brother, although 
 much exasperated against me, is not so against my children ; 
 he will certainly never destroy what he has erected for their 
 sakes ; he will not take away their inheritance, since he will 
 never have occasion to complain of a child who cannot 
 govern for himself. The queen, appointed to the regency, 
 will do her utmost to conciliate the emperor, my brother. 
 
27a MEMOIRS OF FOUCUi. 
 
 She will be more fortunate than I, whose endeavours have 
 never been crowned with success ; and who can tell ? — 
 perhaps I may be the only impediment to a reconciliation 
 between France and Holland. If that were the case, I 
 should find some comfort in passing the remainder of a 
 wandering and suffering life, far from the dearest objects of 
 my warmest affection." An abdication like this was not 
 undignified. The message was hardly delivered, when Louis 
 secretly quitted Holland, and retired to Gratz, in Styria, in 
 the Austrian states, having nothing more to live upon than 
 a trifling pension. His wife Hortense, less disinterested, 
 appropriated to herself the income of two millions which 
 Napoleon decreed in favour of his dethroned brother. 
 
 This first example of Napoleonian abdication struck me, 
 and made me reflect. Shall I confess the truth ? it gave me 
 the idea of the possibility of one day saving the empire, by 
 means of an abdication imposed upon him who might, by 
 his extravagance, compromise its prosperity. It will be 
 seen in what manner this idea, which was at first confined 
 to myself, was realized afterwards by other political heads. 
 
 It might be thought that the abdication of Louis would 
 have disconcerted Napoleon. But was he not surrounded 
 by men, incessantly occupied with the task of varnishing 
 over his invasions and encroachments ? Does any one want 
 to know what was the rhetoric employed, upon this subject, 
 by Champagny, Due de Cadore, his minister for foreign 
 affairs, successively promoted to the highest offices, and of 
 whom Talleyrand had formed so accurate a judgment, when 
 saying that he was a man fit for all places on the day previous 
 to an appointment being made to them ? This wise minister, 
 then commenced by proving, in a jumble called a report, 
 that as the abdication of the King of Holland could not be 
 made without the consent of Napoleon, it was null, from 
 that very circumstance, and of no effect. From this he 
 deduced the marvellous inference (and this grand effort of 
 logic was anticipated), that Holland ought to be considered 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 273 
 
 as a conquest, and reunited to the French empire ; an 
 inference which an imperial decree decided without appeal. 
 
 This event had a characteristic scene for its last act. 
 Napoleon sent for the son of Louis, still a child, and whom 
 he had created Grand Due de Berg ; and addressed him in 
 the following short harangue : " Come to me, my son ; the 
 conduct of your father afflicts my heart : his disorder alone 
 can explain it ' ; come to my arms ; I will be your father ; 
 you shall lose nothing by the event ; but never forget, in 
 whatever situation my policy may place you, that your 
 paramount duty is owing to me, and that all your duties 
 towards the people committed to your care are subordinate." 
 In this manner it was that Napoleon rent asunder the veil 
 of so measureless an ambition, that he placed himself above 
 the King of kings, and the sovereignty of all nations. 
 
 But let us now explain the true cause of the usurpation of 
 
 Holland ; I can do it here with the more propriety, as it is, 
 
 in some degree, connected with my fall. When the marriage 
 
 with an arch-duchess was resolved upon. Napoleon felt a 
 
 wish for general pacification, which I endeavoured to change 
 
 into a firm and determined purpose. I knew by my 
 
 emissaries, that the cabinet of London insisted upon two 
 
 decisive points ; the independence of Holland, and of the 
 
 Peninsula. With Louis, the maintenance of the separation 
 
 of Holland might be depended upon. As to the Peninsula, 
 
 Napoleon would consent to wave his pretensions to Portugal 
 
 alone, because he met with nothing but obstacles in his 
 
 endeavours to conquer it. I did not, however, despair of 
 
 disgusting him with the occupation of Spain, which had 
 
 already cost him so great an effusion of blood, and which 
 
 was everything but secure. By his authority, I concerted 
 
 with his brother Louis, during his residence in Paris, in 1810, 
 
 a plan of secret and special negotiation with London. Louis 
 
 ' This insinuation of Napoleon, against his brother, was calumnious. 
 Louis was melancholy, and valetudinarian ; but his sound and right-minded 
 judgment was not affected by that circumstance.— iVb^« by the French 
 Editor. 
 
 19 
 
274 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 wrote to his minister for foreign affairs, that Napoleon was 
 so enraged against him and the English, in consequence of 
 their clandestine trade with his dominions, that it would be 
 impossible to prevent the forcible reunion of Holland with 
 France, unless a maritime peace instantly took place, or, at 
 least, unless changes in the British system of blockade, and 
 orders of council, were effected. He authorized his minister 
 to confer with his colleagues, on this head, but as if acting 
 of their own accord in his absence, and to despatch to London 
 an agent, who, being invested with a certain degree of con- 
 sideration, might make overtures of negotiation in their 
 private names. This agent was to be instructed, in the first 
 instance, to point out to the cabinet of St. James' the 
 immense disadvantage which would result to the commerce, 
 and safety in coming from England, should Holland, by 
 means of its union with the empire of Napoleon, become an 
 instrument of aggression, in the hands of the latter ; for he 
 would, doubtless, take measures to preclude it from all 
 commercial connection. The ministers of Louis chose for 
 their agent, M. Labouchere, a banker of Amsterdam, who 
 repaired to London, with instructions to set on foot, in con- 
 junction with the Marquess Wellesley, a secret negotiation. 
 He was more especially to insist on the necessity of making 
 alterations in the execution of the orders of council of the 
 month of November, 1807. But the Marquess Wellesley 
 refused to enter into a detached negotiation on the subject 
 of Holland, fully aware that its independence could only be 
 ensured as long as it was Napoleon's pleasure, who, till then, 
 had shown himself little disposed to recognize the rights of 
 any of the nations placed under his influence. However, 
 with a view to sound the real intentions of Napoleon, he 
 authorized, about the same epoch (April, 1810), the English 
 commissioner Mackenzie, then carrying on the negotiations, 
 at Morlaix, relative to the exchange of prisoners, to open a 
 negotiation for a maritime peace, which was to be concealed 
 by the ostensible negotiation going on with the French 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 275 
 
 commissioner, appointed for the exchange.' The cabinet of 
 St. James', through the organ of the commissioner Mackenzie, 
 left to Napoleon his choice between three modes of treating, 
 viz., 1st. The state of possession before hostilities : 2nd. The 
 state of present possession : 3rd. Reciprocal compensation. 
 But Napoleon, intoxicated by his prosperity, refused to listen 
 to any of these modes of negotiation, rejecting every descrip- 
 tion of peace but that, the conditions of which he should 
 prescribe. 
 
 From that moment the Marquess Wellesley refused to 
 receive any overture from the banker Labouchfere, and even 
 from M. Fagan, whom I had commissioned to address him 
 with the same view. The English ministry was too well 
 persuaded of the efficacy of its system of blockade to accede 
 to any modification in that respect. The negotiation, there- 
 fore, was irredeemably broken off ; and Napoleon, perceiving 
 that he could not compel England to yield to his will, 
 resolved, in the spirit of vengeance, to invade the kingdom 
 of his brother, hoping, by that means, to withdraw Holland 
 for ever from the influence of English commerce. At the 
 same time, he conceived that he could no longer defer the 
 disgrace of his minister of police, who incessantly laboured 
 to bring him back to a reasonable system of administration 
 and policy. He was the more induced to sacrifice me, that 
 his private correspondents repeated, in reference to myself, 
 and with certain London pamphleteers — " that he trembled 
 before his own work, without having the courage to destroy 
 it." He had been waiting for the opportunity for several 
 months past. It has been seen = how uneasy he was respect- 
 ing my connection with Bernadotte ; but, in this case, there 
 appeared to him a more plausible motive for my disgrace. 
 He pretended that, under pretext of negotiating on the 
 subject of Holland, my agents at London had done nothing 
 
 ' Le Marquis du Moutier, at this time ambassador from Charles X., in 
 Switzerland. — Note by the French Editor. 
 ^ In the first part of these Memoirs. — Note by the French Editor. 
 
276 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 but abandon themselves to intrigues and fraudulent specula- 
 tions ; by that means seeking to make me responsible for 
 the rupture of a negotiation, which had only failed through 
 his insincerity and domineering spirit. Such were the true 
 motives of the invasion of Holland, and of my disgrace, the 
 accuracy of which I can guarantee. 
 
 This system of irreconciliation and violence was perpetuated 
 by an imperial decree (October 19, 1810), the purport of 
 which was, that all the English merchandises found in places 
 subjected to the emperor's dominions, or conquered by his 
 arms, should be publicly burnt. This was an appendix to 
 the Berlin and Milan decrees, that is to say, that the same 
 steps were to be taken at Amsterdam and Leghorn, as had 
 already been taken at Berlin, Frankfort, Mayence, and 
 Paris. If the observation could not here be made, that " to 
 burn was not to answer^'' it could at least be said, that " to 
 hum was not to govern^^ 
 
 Such were the consequences of the continental system, 
 which according to silly and dastardly councillors, was to 
 conclude by putting England hors de combat, and delivering 
 the whole world to Napoleon. And this incendiary idea, 
 which became with him, in particular, a steadfast belief, was 
 nothing but a political tradition, inherited by him from the 
 directorial government, which the reporters, clubs, and 
 newspapers had persuaded, that the only way to reduce 
 England was to exclude her from the ports of the continent. 
 
 But in order to do this, it was first necessary to subjugate 
 continental Europe, of which Napoleon did not yet possess 
 more than one-third ; the rest languished under the govern- 
 ment of the kings, his allies, friends, or tributaries. What 
 was the tenor of the notes which the minister Champagny 
 Cadore successively addressed to them, in order to persuade 
 them to close their ports against all English vessels ! " That 
 there was no longer any neutral territory for the European 
 states ; that they should not carry on any commerce active 
 or passive, on their own account, and that France alone^ by 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 277 
 
 means of licenses, negotiated at London, would provide them 
 with such goods as it was indispensable for them to receive." 
 Such was the famous continental system, which tended to 
 abolish the commerce of the world, and which on that very 
 account was impracticable. But they had soon found it 
 necessary to modify it, or rather to merge it in the system 
 of licenses, invented by England. 
 
 Bonaparte himself was, therefore, observed, at the end of 
 1 8 10, to impart a latitude to this system, by granting per- 
 mission, for a given sum, to introduce into France a certain 
 quantity of colonial produce ; but on condition of exchanging 
 it for goods of French manufacture, which were most fre- 
 quently thrown into the sea on account of the difficulties 
 raised by the English custom-house officers. 
 
 And who derived the greatest profit from this unheard-of 
 monopoly ? Undoubtedly not the subaltern speculators, nor 
 the rated commissioners of the great speculator in chief, who 
 were reduced to little more than a trifling commission. But 
 the emperor's profit was clear and net. Every day he 
 observed, with an excess of joy, which he did not disguise, 
 the accumulation of the enormous treasure stored in the 
 cellars of the Pavilion Marsan ; they were completely en- 
 cumbered with it. These treasures already amounted to 
 near five hundred millions in specie (;^20,ooo,ooo ') ; it was 
 a residue of the two milliards introduced into France by the 
 effect of conquest. The desire of gold might thus have 
 superseded eventually the desire of conquest in the mind of 
 Napoleon, if the inexorable Nemesis had suffered him to 
 grow old. 
 
 To form an idea of the accumulation of wealth identified 
 with the development of this individual's power, we must 
 add to the treasures concealed in the cellars of the Tuileries, 
 
 ' The voluntary companions of the captive of St. Helena have since 
 confirmed this disclosure ; but they only compute the especial treasure of 
 their idol in the best times at four hundred millions. — Note by the French 
 Mditor. 
 
278 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 forty millions in movables, and four or five millions in 
 plate, preserved in the imperial mansions ; five hundred 
 millions distributed under the name of dotations to the 
 army ; and, finally, the domaine extraordinaire, amounting 
 to more than seven hundred millions, and which was un- 
 limited, since it was composed of property, " which the 
 emperor, exercising the right of peace and war, acquired by 
 conquests and treaties." With such an indefinite text, it 
 Avas impossible for anything to escape him. Already the 
 funds of this domaine extraordinaire were composed of 
 whole provinces, of states whose fate had not been decided, 
 and of the produce of confiscations throughout the empire. 
 He would have, doubtless, ended in absorbing all the public 
 revenues and property which might chance to escape from 
 the two other institutions of imperial domains and private 
 domains. To divide the whole of France into fiefs, and to 
 attach them to his domain, by annual service, was one of 
 Napoleon's favourite ideas. 
 
 What a magnificent regim.e of military spoliation on the 
 one hand, and of gifts and prodigality on the other. Whither 
 was it likely to conduct us ? To shed our blood in order to 
 subject the whole world to a state of vassalage. And yet 
 there was but little hope of satiating the voracity of the 
 favourites and votaries of an insatiable conqueror. 
 
 Such calculations coming from my pen, and the reflections 
 which accompany them, will occasion some readers, I doubt 
 not, to smile or sneer. How, it will be said, was it, that this 
 minister, so mortified because he was disgraced, remained a 
 stranger to the abuses of lucrative gratuities which he now, 
 perhaps, exclaims against because their source is dried up ? 
 Was he not himself loaded with honours and riches ? — And 
 who denies it ? What, because a man has shared indivi- 
 dually in the advantages of an outrageous, pernicious, and 
 insupportable system, should he abstain from telling the 
 truth when he has pledged himself to reveal everything ? 
 The time for reservation is past. It is, besides, necessary in 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 279 
 
 this place, to state the causes of the fall of the greatest 
 empire which ever adorned or desolated the universe. 
 
 It will be seen how Napoleon, in a very little space of 
 time, voluntarily precipitated himself beyond all the bounds 
 of moderation and prudence. 
 
 As a consequence of the usurpation of Holland, he 
 declared, in a message addressed to the senate (December 
 10, 1 8 10), that new guarantees had become indispensable 
 to him, and those which had appeared most urgent, were 
 the reunion of the mouth of the Scheldt, of the Maes, 
 of the Rhine, the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe, and the 
 establishment of a navigation in the Baltic. Thence a 
 senatus consultum (December 13, 1810), decreeing that 
 Holland, a considerable portion of the north of Germany, 
 and the free towns of Hamburgh, Bremen, and Lubec, 
 should, thenceforth, become an integral part of the French 
 empire, and form ten new departments. It was thus that 
 Napoleon, without thinking of consolidating what he had 
 acquired, was incessantly tormented with the thirst of new 
 acquisitions. 
 
 This violent incorporation was effected \vithout any motive 
 of right, even ostensible ; without any previous negotiation 
 with any cabinet whatsoever ; and under the futile pretext, 
 that it was rendered indispensable by the war with England. 
 Napoleon, by this act, annihilated even his own creations ; 
 the states of the confederation of the Rhine, the kingdom 
 of Westphalia, and all other territories, were called upon 
 to furnish their quota towards this new lion's share. 
 
 But he thus obtained for himself a new frontier line, 
 which deprived the southern and central provinces of Ger- 
 many of all communication with the northern sea ; which 
 passed the Elbe, separated Denmark from Germany, estab- 
 lished itself on the Baltic, and, in its direction, seemed 
 intended to join with the line of Prussian fortresses, on the 
 Oder, which we occupied, in spite of treaties. 
 It is obvious enough that all the neighbouring powers 
 
28p MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 must hav? been alarmed at an act which thus established, 
 on the flanks of Germany, a new French dominion ; and 
 that by a mere decree, by a senatus consultum^ exacted from 
 a servile senate. I immediately concluded, that the treaty 
 of Tilsit, the principal object of which was to prevent the 
 two empires from bordering upon each other, was, by that 
 means, annulled ; and that France and Russia, thus brought 
 into contact, would not be long before they would fall to 
 blows. 
 
 When I learnt, by means of my correspondents at Paris, 
 the uneasiness which the junction of the Hanse-towns caused 
 to Russia, Prussia, and even Austria, I was confirmed in the 
 opinion, that there was, in that circumstance, not only the 
 germ of a new universal war, but of a conflict which would 
 finally decide whether we were to have a universal 
 monarchy in the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte, or the 
 restoration of everything which the revolution had dis- 
 persed or destroyed. 
 
 Alas ! with this great question was incorporated another ; 
 namely, the identical question of the interest of the revolu- 
 tion, and of the safety of the individuals who had founded 
 and established it. What was to become of them ? Could 
 I remain cold, alien, and insensible to so alarming a future 
 prospect ? 
 
 Among the princes recently despoiled was the Duke of 
 Oldenburg, of the house of Holstein Gottorp ; that is to 
 say, of the same house as the Emperor of Russia ; and 
 Napoleon thus took away the patrimony of a prince whom 
 every reason ought to have induced him to spare. A 
 negotiation was opened on this subject, between the court 
 of St. Petersburg and the cabinet of the Tuileries. 
 Napoleon, by way of indemnity, offered the Duke of Olden- 
 burg the city and territory of Erfurt. When I learnt that 
 this offer had just been haughtily rejected, that the Em- 
 peror Alexander had, by a formal protest, reserved the 
 rights of his family from encroachment, and that his 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. . 281 
 
 ministers had received orders to present that protest at 
 the various courts, I no longer entertained a, doubt that 
 war was on the point of breaking out. But, reflecting on 
 the circumspect and measured character of the Emperor 
 Alexander, I concluded that the approach of the crisis 
 would neither be abrupt nor precipitate. 
 
 Let. us now pass to the year 181 1, during which all the 
 elements of a frightful tempest were maturing in the midst 
 of a deceitful calm, the illusions and deceptions of which 
 I detected. From day to day my Parisian bulletins and 
 my private correspondences assumed a character of a deeper 
 interest. In order to connect the chain of facts, I will give 
 here a sketch of the most striking details and features, 
 scarcely allowing myself to combine with then! some short 
 reflections, or some necessary elucidations. I have, more- 
 over, already said, that anxious as I am to arrive at the 
 period of my re-entrance into office, an abridged historical 
 transition, which will bring us to the catastrophes of 1813, 
 1 8 14, and 1815, will be the most accordant with my design. 
 
 The iirst event which offers itself to notice, is that of the 
 birth of a child, proclaimed King of Rome (March 20, 181 1) 
 at the first moment of its existence ; as if a son of Bonaparte ' 
 could not be born anything else than a king ! This sudden 
 revival of the kingdom of Tarquin the Proud, appeared 
 to some persons in the light of a bad omen ; it reminded 
 too much of the recent spoliation of the holy see, and the 
 oppression exercised upon the person of the sovereign pontiif. 
 Ridiculous reports respecting the birth of this infant king 
 were propagated, and accredited, in Paris. If these reports, 
 which originated both in the upper and lower classes, did 
 not prove the hostile tendency of public opinion, at that 
 epoch, against the perpetuity of the new dynasty, I would 
 have dispensed with alluding to them, as unworthy of the 
 dignity of history. Malignity made a show of an ingenious 
 credulity. A pretended pregnancy was at first supposed ; 
 as if an arch-duchess, becoming barren, could ever belie the 
 
282 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 well-known Latin distich. The consequence of this sup- 
 position led to another fable, according to which, the King 
 of Rome was identified with a child lately born from a 
 
 connection between Napoleon and the Duchess de M . 
 
 Some newsmongers pretended that he was substituted in 
 the place of a stillborn child ; others in the room of a 
 female infant. Certes, the arch-chancellor, Cambaceres, 
 could not have been mistaken. The calumnies of the 
 malignant were inexhaustible. It is, however, true, that 
 the labour of Maria Louisa was horribly protracted ; that 
 the accoucheur got bewildered ; that the child was con- 
 cluded to be dead ; and that he only recovered from his 
 lethargy, by the effect of the repeated report of the hundred 
 and one guns fired at his birth. As to the emperor's 
 transport, it was very natural. Some flatterers inferred 
 from it, in the first instance, that Napoleon, more fortunate 
 than Caesar, would have nothing to dread from the ides 
 of March, since the 20th of March was distinguished as a 
 day of good fortune, both for himself and the empire. 
 Napoleon believed in horoscopes and predictions; Yet, 
 what a disappointment he experienced in March, 18 14 and 
 1815! 
 
 He departed from Rambouillet, with Maria Louisa, 
 towards the end of May, in order to visit Cherbourg. On 
 their return to St. Cloud (June 4, 181 1), they presided 
 at the baptism of their son, whom Napoleon, lifting in his 
 arms, himself exhibited to the numerous ipersons present. 
 All things seemed to conspire in announcing the most 
 brilliant destinies for this child ; three years sufficed to 
 overthrow the colossal ' power of his father, — and yet the 
 court, the great officers, the ministers, and the whole empire, 
 lived in the most profound security. There were scarcely 
 to be discovered, even among thinking men, a sign or two 
 of apprehension and vague disquietude. 
 
 Some few days afterwards (June 16, i8n). Napoleon, 
 opening the session of the legislative body, announced that 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 283 
 
 the birth of the King of Rome had accomphshed his wishes, 
 and fulfilled the prayers of his people. He spoke of the 
 incorporation of the Roman states, of Holland, of the Hanse 
 towns, and of the Valais ; and concluded by saying, that 
 he flattered himself that the peace of the continent would 
 not be broken. France easily understood the purport of 
 these last words, which were not dropped without a design 
 of preparing the public mind for war. 
 
 The ukase, intended by the Emperor Alexander to ex- 
 tricate his empire from the embarrassment in which the 
 continental system had thrown it, was made known to me. 
 Russia could no longer renounce her maritime commerce. 
 I, moreover, knew that the faction of the old Russians began 
 to predominate in the councils of Alexander. The ukase 
 confined the importation of merchandise to certain specified 
 ports ; and among those which were subjected to tariff, 
 no article of French manufacture was found. I saw in that 
 a retort for the arbitrary seizure of the Hanse towns. 
 
 As to our commerce, compressed from day to day within 
 our immediate limits, it only existed in land-carriage ; we 
 had no other vessels of burden than waggons and drays. 
 The great reputation of our industry rested, at that time, 
 upon the manufacture of sugar from beet-root. It was a 
 lucky experiment for certain adventurers in the line of 
 national industry, who thereby obtained from the govern- 
 ment advance-money, premiums, and grants of land. The 
 administration exhausted its funds in these juggleries, the 
 actors of which promised us beet-root sugar at a colonial 
 price. According to my Parisian correspondents, the em- 
 peror had already, under a glass, on his mantelpiece, at 
 St. Cloud, a loaf of refined beet-root sugar, which would 
 bear comparison with the best colonial sugar -that ever 
 issued from the warehouses of the sugar-refiner of Orleans. 
 It was so perfect a specimen, that his minister of the interior 
 had presented it to him, with all the pomp which\ might 
 correspond with a rarity worthy of figuring in a museum. 
 
284 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 Specimens of it were sent in presents to the piince primate, 
 and to all the little potentates of the confederation of the 
 Rhine. If it was above the public reach, in consequence 
 of its high price, it had, by way of compensation, under 
 its hand, syrup of raisins and indigenous coffee made of 
 chicory at a reasonable price. In the midst of this penury 
 of colonial produce, some new manufactures flourished in 
 the interior, and some hundred manufacturers, who shared 
 in the distribution of prizes and premiums, loudly cried up 
 the activity of our internal commerce. 
 
 All other commerce languished ; and, what was still more 
 deplorable, the people began to suffer from dearth, occa- 
 sioned by a bad harvest, and aggravated by the extent 
 of those exportations on which the government obtained 
 a profit. To say the truth, indeed, in order to render 
 misery less importunate, depdts of mendicity were esta- 
 blished in different parts of the empire, where one portion 
 of the population was successively penned up, and fed by 
 means of economical soups. But the people who persevered 
 in their fiantvorous propensities, accused the emperor of 
 selling our corn to the English. It is certain that the corn- 
 monopoly exercised by Napoleon partly contributed to pro- 
 duce the famine; The spirit which reigned in the salons 
 was not more favourable to the emperor ; it was even 
 becoming hostile. Such was the manner in which public 
 opinion was moulded since Savary directed it. 
 
 That individual, who was dazzled by the pomp of rank 
 and the illusion of outward circumstances, imagined that 
 he should arrive at a state of influence and power, if he pos- 
 sessed creatures, parasites, and literary men, enlisted at his 
 table, and at his orders. He conceived that, in order to 
 profit by my traditions, all that was necessary, was to 
 ingratiate the Faubourg St. Germain, without divesting 
 his police of its odious and irritating character. In a word, 
 he thought he could form the public spirit of the empire, 
 as Madame de Genlis formed the manners of the new court. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 285 
 
 It was then that the famous dejeuners h la fourchette were 
 estabhshed, at which Savary presided, and at which all the 
 hired jurists, who corresponded with the emperor, and all 
 the journalists who aspired to be made directors, or to 
 receive money, were to be found. It was there that Savary, 
 excited by previously made up bans mot, and by the fumes 
 of a plentiful breakfast, imparted commands, to each of his 
 guests, as to the colour they should give to the literature 
 of the week. 
 
 The direction of this moral portion of the police was con- 
 fided to the poet Esmenard, a writer of real talent, but in 
 so much discredit, that I thought it necessary to keep the 
 bridle constantly in his mouth, whenever I set him to work. 
 Soon, taking too great an advantage of the superiority of 
 his talents and of his position, he led the new minister, in 
 flattering his passions and follies. I had respected learning 
 and letters. My successor, appearing to become the pro- 
 tector of the academies, treated them in a military manner, 
 forcing his own creatures upon them as candidates ; and 
 seemed to have nothing more at heart than the desire of 
 degrading, in a scandalous manner, the organs of knowledge 
 and of public opinion. I had respected the proprietorship 
 of the journals ; Savary invaded its rights with audacity, 
 and divided its shares among his familiars and agents. 
 Thus he deprived himself, in consequence of the degrada- 
 tion of the journals, of one of the principal levers of public 
 opinion. It was in the same way that Napoleon took a 
 dislike to Madame de Stael ; and in concert with the poet 
 Esmenard, did all he could to injure her ; an impolitic per- 
 secution, because he thus made of the numerous coteries 
 of that celebrated woman, a hot-bed of opposition to the 
 imperial r'egime, and of animosity to the emperor. 
 
 In the upper police, there was the same system and the 
 same violence ; and there little Desmarets was to be found 
 acting the part of an effective minister. What was to be 
 expected from a man of such slender talents, and from the 
 
286 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 combinations of a minister of his description ? Awkward 
 inventions, repulsive acts, and a vexatious administration. 
 Some idea may be formed of it by the following example. 
 A certain Baron de Kolly, a Piedmontese, who was com- 
 missioned by the British government to attempt the libera- 
 tion of Ferdinand of Spain from his captivity, disembarked 
 about the beginning of March, 1810, in Quiberon Bay ; 
 thence he proceeded to Paris, where I ordered him to be 
 arrested and conveyed to the chateau de Vincennes. What, 
 forsooth, does my successor do ? He imagines a plan of 
 trying Ferdinand's inclinations, by means of a false Baron 
 de KoUy, supplied with the papers and the letters of credit 
 belonging to the real emissary. Ferdinand the Seventh 
 was, however, upon his guard ; he saw the snare, avoided 
 it, and left Savary to put the best face he could on his 
 defeat. 
 
 The Queen of Etruria, deprived of her states, lived at 
 Nice, in exile, where she was shamefully treated ; emissaries 
 were sent to induce her to throw herself into the arms of 
 the English. This unhappy queen, driven to despair, em- 
 braced what appeared to her the only means of safety ; she 
 was arrested and threatened to be carried before a military 
 commission, and two of her officers were shot. When there 
 is no conspiracy, a sham one is easily imagined, or a real one 
 excited. It was in this manner that some unfortunate in- 
 habitants of Toulon, said to be implicated in an obscure plot 
 against our arsenals, were dragged to punishment in a city 
 yet bleeding with the memory of its past afflictions. 
 
 In the meanwhile, opinion remained silent. There was 
 no more communication ; no more open conversations ; no 
 more confidence among the citizens. It was only in the 
 interior of the domestic circle, or in the bosom of friendship, 
 that the public grief dared to express itself in stifled accents 
 of affliction. In default of public opinion, the emperor 
 wished to be supplied with that which emanated from the 
 salons of Paris. A factitious opinion was manufactured 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 287 
 
 expressly for his service, by the three hundred police spies, 
 hired at large salaries. There were, in this manner, several 
 statistical surveys of public feeling ; the five or six polices 
 supplied theirs. The least insignificant was, unquestionably, 
 that of the director-general of posts, Lavalette. Already a 
 correspondent and confidential emissary of Napoleon, when 
 he was only a general, he was well acquainted with what 
 was agreeable to him in this respect. The emperor, who 
 was soon enabled to appreciate what was wanting in these 
 secret researches, the true spirit of which no one but myself 
 had seized, demanded facts. These were furnished ; but 
 miserable facts they were ; and he concluded, either by 
 rejecting or not reading them, so tiresome and incoherent 
 did he find them. In my retreat, some of these bulletins, 
 got up by the pupils of the police system, were brought to 
 me. At a later period, Savary himself wrote entirely the 
 bulletin which issued from his own cabinet, believing that 
 he should by that means impart more importance to his 
 vague discoveries. 
 
 If, since my disgrace, the police had degenerated in its 
 most essential functions, it was the same with another public 
 office, which was also the asylum of mystery. I allude to 
 the office of foreign relations, where, since the resignation of 
 M. de Talleyrand, the spirit of conquest, of violence, and 
 oppression, were no longer repressed by moderation or re- 
 straint. Napoleon had the imprudence (and the consequences 
 will be seen presently) to disgust that personage, so indepen- 
 dent in mind, so brilliant in talent, and so practised and 
 refined in his taste ; who, moreover, had by his diplomacy 
 done him at least as much service as I myself had been able 
 to render him in the higher affairs of state, which concerned 
 the security of his person. But Napoleon could never forgive 
 Talleyrand, for having always spoken of the war in Spain 
 with a disapproving freedom of speech. In a short time the 
 salons and the boudoirs of Paris became the theatre of a 
 secret warfare between the adherents of Napoleon on the 
 
288 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 one side, and of Talle3a-and and his friends on the other — a 
 war in which epigrams and hon mots constituted the artillery, 
 and in which the victor of Europe was almost always beaten. 
 This species of satirical encounter assumed a more serious 
 character, in proportion as the Spanish war grew more en- 
 venomed in its progress. On their side, M. and Madame de 
 Talleyrand only took a warmer interest in the princes of the 
 house of Spain, banished to their ch&teau de Valency^ by a 
 petty refinement of vengeance on the part of Napoleon. 
 Daily more incensed with Talleyrand, he one day perceived 
 him at his levee, in the midst of his courtiers ; and, in the 
 hope of humiliating him, by taking advantage of an affair of 
 gallantry supposed to have passed at Valency, he put a ques- 
 tion to him which, to a husband, is considered as one of the 
 greatest of insults. Without exhibiting any emotion in his 
 countenance, Talleyrand replied in a dignified manner, " It 
 would be well both for the glory of your majesty and mine, 
 if the princes of the house of Spain were never mentioned." 
 Never did Napoleon display so much confusion, as after re- 
 ceiving this severe lesson, given in a manner which showed 
 such a high sense of good-breeding. All things shortly 
 announced a complete disgrace, and the position of Talley- 
 rand was gradually becoming more difficult. His mansion, 
 his friends, and his servants, were subjected to a perpetual 
 esptonnage, which Savary himself even aifected not to disguise. 
 He boasted to his familiar partisans that he kept Talleyrand 
 and Fouche in perpetual alarm. The public drew the in- 
 ference, that the chief of the state, through his suspicious 
 character, had deprived himself of the services of two men, 
 whose advice would always have been beneficial ; and that 
 either in the police department, or in the foreign affairs, 
 there were no longer sufficient moderation or ability, since 
 they had retired. The police was nothing more than a 
 fruitless and aggravating inquisition. In the department 
 of foreign affairs, they had become accustomed to look upon 
 treaties as mere truces, or expedients calculated to arrive at 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 289 
 
 new wars. They even went so far as no longer to blush at 
 making the most scandalous avowals. " We no longer want 
 principles," said Champagny-Cadore, who succeeded Talley- 
 rand ; the same individual who had himself directed the 
 violence exercised on the person of the pope and the princes 
 of the house of Spain. And yet, this same minister, when 
 out of the diplomatic sphere, or rather beyond the influence 
 of Napoleon, was one of the mildest men in France in de- 
 portment, and one of the most moderate in opinion. Soon, 
 we shall see him share in a disgrace which, it seems, none of 
 Napoleon's ministers could escape. As it was no longer 
 possible to maintain one's self in place, except by flattering 
 the passions of the individual who had the source of all 
 power and favour, the journeymen labourers of the imperial 
 politics again set themselves briskly to work, in order to 
 accelerate the fall of England and the humiliation of Russia. 
 Memorials and projects followed each other, under the pro- 
 tection of the secret police of Desmarets and Savary, whose 
 function it was to make themselves responsible for those 
 daily projectors. The emperor no longer received any re- 
 ports, but those in which the truth of facts and their 
 consequences were either distorted or disguised ; he no 
 longer imbibed any information but such as was derived 
 from impassioned correspondences, replete with proposals 
 and projects of intrigue, adventures, and acts of violence. 
 
 The idea was at length entertained of manoeuvring {fra- 
 vatller) England at the same time as Russia. I had endea- 
 voured without effect, while I held the reins of the high 
 police, to bring the emperor to sounder ideas respecting 
 England. The emperor esteemed the English, and had no 
 especial dislike to England ; but he feared the oligarchy of 
 its government. It was his belief that England, under a 
 system of this description, would never suffer him to enjoy 
 a substantial peace, but only a truce of three years to the 
 utmost, after which it would be necessary to begin again. I 
 could never succeed in destroying the prejudices and mis- 
 
 20 
 
290 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 apprehensions of the emperor on this head. Other persons, 
 by the coarsest sophistries, inflamed his ruling passion against 
 the nature of the British constitution, a passion which plunged 
 him once more into an universal war. It was a revolution in 
 earnest which Bonaparte wished to eifect in England ; he 
 thirsted with a desire to strangle the libferty of the press, 
 and the liberty of parliamentary discussion. Induced to 
 wish for the moment when he could behold that island, in 
 her turn, a prey to the horrors of a political revolution, he 
 sent agents there, who deceived him as to its actual con- 
 dition. I told him a hundred times that England was as 
 powerful through her constitution as through her naval 
 force ; but he preferred believing the representations of 
 interested spies. It was in the hope of causing internal 
 dissensions to explode, that, during the year 1811, he chiefly 
 gave his mind to the project of entirely excluding English 
 commerce from the continent. His emissaries did not fail 
 to attribute to the continental blockade the distress of the 
 manufactures in that kingdom, as well as the numerous 
 bankruptcies, which, during the course of that same year, 
 struck deadly blows at the stability of English credit. They 
 announced the approach of serious tumults ; and maintained 
 that England could not much longer support a state of war, 
 which cost her more than fifty millions sterling. 
 
 In fact, riots among the working people who had no 
 occupation broke out in Nottinghamshire. The mutineers 
 assembled in numbers, burnt or destroyed the looms, and 
 committed all kinds of excess. They described themselves 
 as being under the orders of a Captain Ludd^ an imaginary 
 personage, whence they received the name of Luddites. The 
 emperor considered this in the light of a national wound, 
 which it was his policy to enlarge, like that of Ireland. In 
 a short time, indeed, the system of insurrection extended its 
 sphere of action, and involved the neighbouring counties 
 of Derby and Leicester. It was affirmed in the cabinet of 
 Napoleon, that persons of note were not strangers to the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH±. 291 
 
 commotion, and were even its instigators. In case of a 
 serious insurrection, supported by correspondent move- 
 ments, prepared in London, the co-operation, more or less 
 efficacious, of our prisoners, who amounted to fifty thousand, 
 was calculated upon. Such was one of the motives which 
 influenced Napoleon in not consenting to their proposed 
 exchange. As we had no more than ten thousand English 
 prisoners in France, but near fifty-three thousand Spanish 
 and Portuguese, the emperor feigned to consent to an ex- 
 change, but only in the proportion of one Englishman and 
 four Spaniards or Portuguese, against five Frenchmen or 
 Italians. He was sure beforehand that England would re- 
 ject an exchange founded upon this principle. In fact, the 
 mere proposal highly incensed the English ministry. 
 
 Napoleon, who became more rigid as to continental system, 
 in proportion as he saw the distress of England increasing, 
 insisted upon the ports of Sweden being more completely 
 closed, only leaving to that power the choice of a war with 
 England or with France. This impolitical severity, exhibited 
 towards an independent power, proceeded in some degree 
 from his discontent with Bernadotte, who had been pro- 
 claimed, the year preceding (Aug. 21, 1810), by the unani- 
 mous vote of the Swedish states, prince royal, and hereditary 
 successor of King Charles XIII. This sudden elevation had 
 not pleased Napoleon, at the bottom of his heart, and his 
 resentment against his old companion in arms had gone on 
 increasing since the mission with which I had intrusted him, 
 in 1809, for the defence of Antwerp. Napoleon was per- 
 suaded that there was a secret intelligence between Berna- 
 dotte and myself at that time, and that if he had then 
 experienced any striking reverse in Germany, I should have 
 caused Bernadotte to be proclaimed either first consul or 
 emperor, in order to close the gates of France against him 
 for ever. Thus, on the other hand, he saw him first depart 
 for the North, without regret, considering himself too happy 
 to be delivered from the presence of a man, whom Savary, 
 
292 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 and his familiars, represented to him in the light of an 
 adversary, who might one day become formidable. Believing 
 even, for some months, that he should be able to retain 
 him compulsively, within the orbits of his own politics, he 
 addressed note upon note, and injunction upon injunction, 
 to the government of Charles XIII., to induce it to keep its 
 ports rigorously closed against English commerce. Exas- 
 perated that sufficient promptitude was not exhibited in 
 accomplishing his views, he caused his privateers to seize 
 such Swedish vessels as were loaded with colonial produce, 
 and persevered in the occupation of Pomerania. Mutual 
 complaints being thus engendered. Napoleon gave new dis- 
 quietude to the government of which Bernadotte had become 
 the hope and the arbiter. The whole of the year 1811 was 
 spent in altercations between the two states. 
 
 The knowledge which I had of the character of Berna- 
 dotte gave me sufficient reason to foresee that he would 
 conclude by throwing himself into the arms of Russia, and 
 of England ; either to guarantee the independence of Sweden, 
 or to secure his rights of inheritance to a crown of which 
 Napoleon showed himself envious. 
 
 My former connection with the Prince of Sweden gave the 
 Emperor (through the representation of Savary) the idea 
 that I secretly excited Bernadotte to maintain himself in an 
 attitude of opposition to the cabinet of St. Cloud. I soon 
 learnt, beyond the possibility of doubt, that I was watched, 
 and that my letters were opened. And here I beg to ask 
 what would be thought of me, if I had not put myself in a 
 condition to defeat the ridiculous investigations of a police, 
 all the windings of which I was acquainted with ? I was 
 not, however, ignorant of what was passing at Stockholm, 
 
 nor even in all the North ; I had Colonel V. C near the 
 
 person of Bernadotte, who supplied me with all that it was 
 necessary to know. 
 
 Let us conclude, by some reflections on the Peninsular 
 war, our sketch of the political events of i8ii, which will 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 2,93 
 
 bring us to the fatal expedition into Russia. The resistance 
 of the Spanish people had already assumed the character of 
 a national war, and it was Napoleon himself who had 
 opened this field of battle on the continent, for England's 
 advantage. 
 
 Ever since the beginning of 18 10, the war had become so 
 complicated in Spain, it already offered so many chances to 
 the ambition and the rivalries of the various generals, that 
 when King Joseph came to Paris, to attend the nuptials of 
 the emperor, he made an express demand that all the troops 
 should be withdrawn, or that they should be placed under 
 his immediate orders, or rather under the direction of his 
 majcr-general. The emperor took good care not to grant 
 him the recall of the troops ; but he invested him with their 
 command. Joseph then took with him, from Paris, Marshal 
 Jourdan, who bore the title of major-general to the King of 
 Spain. The generals-in-chief were supposed to be under 
 his orders, and were to send their reports to King Joseph, 
 and to the emperor at the same time. But these measures 
 remedied nothing ; there were always several armies, and 
 the generals depending at once on Paris and Madrid, took 
 precautions to depend upon neither ; their first and principal 
 object was to remain masters of the provinces which they 
 occupied, or for which they were contending with the 
 enemy. 
 
 In the meanwhile, we had been twice driven from 
 Portugal, where the English army found infinite resources, 
 and a secure place of refuge. All things ought to have 
 convinced Napoleon, that in order to subject the Peninsula, 
 it was, in the first place, indispensable to effect the conquest 
 of Lisbon, and compel the English to re-embark. To this 
 he had, in some sort, pledged himself in the face of Europe. 
 But his genius was in fault, in this instance, as in many 
 other decisive circumstances, where the irritability and 
 impetuosity of his character ought to have given way to 
 profounder views, or at least to the most ordinary foresight. 
 
394 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 How could it have escaped his notice, that he was risking 
 not only his Spanish conquest, but even his own fortune, in 
 suffering a military and hostile reputation to establish itself 
 in the Peninsula ? Europe had a sufficient number of 
 soldiers ; all that she wanted was a general capable of 
 guiding them, and of making a stand against the French 
 army, no matter how. It is incredible how this view of the 
 subject could have escaped the observation of Napoleon. It 
 was only through too great a confidence in himself and in 
 his good fortune. Thus, instead of marching in person at 
 the head of a formidable army, to drive Wellington out of 
 Portugal (and this the state of the continent, at that time, 
 permitted), he sent Massena there, the most skilful, doubt- 
 less, of his lieutenants, a man gifted with unusual courage 
 and remarkable perseverance, whose talent grew with the 
 increase of danger, and who, when vanquished, always 
 appeared ready to recommence the struggle as if he had 
 been the victor. But, Massena, who was a daring depre- 
 dator, was also the secret enemy of the emperor, who had 
 compelled him to disgorge three millions of money 
 (^120,000). Like Soult, he indulged himself in the belief 
 that he also might be enabled to win a crown at the point 
 of the sword ; the examples of Napoleon, of Murat, and of 
 Bernadotte, were besides so alluring, that Massena's mind 
 easily gave way to ambitious visions of reigning in his turn. 
 Full of hope, he began his march at the head of 60,000 
 soldiers ; but in the very middle of the first diflSculties of 
 the expedition, he received certain intelligence that the 
 emperor was disposed to restore Portugal to the house of 
 Braganza, provided England would consent to his retaining 
 Spain ; and that a secret negotiation was opened for that 
 purpose. Massena, piqued and discouraged, suffered the fire 
 of his military genius to evaporate. Moreover, in an operation 
 so decisive, no one could supply Napoleon's place ; he alone 
 could dare to sacrifice from 30,000 to 40,000 men to carry 
 the formidable lines of Torres Vedras, which surrounded 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 295 
 
 Lisbon as a rampart of steel. And yet everything was 
 about to depend on the issue of this campaign of 18 10, both 
 with reference to Napoleon and to Europe. It showed a 
 real deficiency of tact and genius, to have failed in perceiv- 
 ing this intimate co-relation. 
 
 What was the consequence ? The campaign failed ; Lord 
 Wellington triumphed. Massena, falling into disgrace, re- 
 turned to dance attendance in the saloons of the Tuileries, 
 only obtaining, after a month's solicitation, a private 
 audience, in which he detailed the reverses of the campaign ; 
 and, in short, the Peninsular war, notwithstanding many 
 great exploits, exhibited, upon the whole, an alarming 
 aspect. Suchet alone, in the eastern provinces, transmitted 
 titles of incontestible glory to the French name ; he effected 
 the conquest of the kingdom of Valencia, and was always 
 equal to himself. While he was, as it were, making himself 
 independent there, Soult, who had not been able to make 
 himself King of Portugal, was playing the part of a sovereign 
 in Andalusia ; and Marmont, rallying the wrecks of the 
 army of Portugal, acted separately, on the Douro and the 
 Tormes ; in a word, the lieutenants of Bonaparte established 
 distinct military governments, and Joseph was no more 
 than a fictitious king. He could no longer go out of Madrid 
 without having an army for his escort ; more than once he 
 narrowly escaped being taken by the guerillas ; his king- 
 dom was not his own ; the provinces which we occupied 
 were, in reality, no more than French provinces, ruined by 
 our armies, or devastated by the guerillas^ who harassed us 
 without intermission. I lay it down as a fact, that all the 
 subsequent reverses of the Peninsula are to be attributed to 
 the errors of the campaign of 1810, so falsely conceived, and 
 so heedlessly undertaken. Towards the end of 1 8 1 1 , Joseph 
 despatched the Marquess of Almenara, invested with full 
 powers to sign his formal abdication at Paris, or to obtain a 
 recognition of the independence of Spain. But Napoleon, 
 turning his whole attention towards Russia, postponed his 
 
296 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 decision regarding Spain, till after the issue of the great and 
 distant enterprise in which he was about to engulf himself. 
 
 The Russian war was not a war undertaken for the sake 
 of sugar and coffee, as the vulgar at first believed, but a war 
 purely political. If the causes of it have not been accurately 
 understood, it is because, covered with the mysterious veil 
 of diplomacy, they could only be perceived by enlightened 
 observers and statesmen. The seeds of the Russian war were 
 enclosed even in the treaty of Tilsit. In oi der to prove this, 
 it will be sufficient for me to adduce its immediate conse- 
 quences. The foundation of the kingdom of Westphalia for 
 the Napoleonian dynasty ; the accession of the largest por- 
 tion of the princes of the north of Germany to the confedera- 
 tion of the Rhine ; the erection of the duchy of Warsaw, a 
 nucleus for the re-establishment of Poland, an ever-acting 
 bugbear in the hands of its inventor, and which he might 
 direct, at his will, either against Russia or against Austria ; 
 the re-establishment of the republic of Dantzic, of which the 
 independence was guaranteed, but whose permanent subjec- 
 tion gave to Napoleon a port and a garrison town on the 
 Baltic ; finally, military roads secured to the French armies 
 across the Prussian states, and which broke down every 
 barrier interposed between France and the Russian 
 frontiers ; — such were the conditions to which the Russian 
 cabinet subscribed in exchange for eventual acquisitions in 
 Turkey, which soon turned out to be illusory. It is true, it 
 was not so with regard to Finland. But, however that 
 might be, we cannot deny that, if the Russian autocrat 
 acknowledged an equal in Napoleon, he also recognised in 
 him a conqueror, who, sooner or later, would avail himself 
 of his advantages. 
 
 But, first, directing his ambitious views towards the south, 
 Spain, Portugal, and Spanish America became the immedi- 
 ate objects of his cupidity. Hence resulted a respite in 
 favour of the Russian empire, while Napoleon appeared to 
 abide by a captious treaty. But it cost him very little. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 497 
 
 besides, to fascinate the eyes of those whom he caressed 
 while he was concerting their ruin. At the time when I was 
 near him, his views upon Russia had not escaped me ; and, 
 I confess that, seduced myself by the grandeur of his plans, 
 I had once indulged in the hope of seeing the re-establish- 
 ment of Poland, founded upon its liberty ; but Napoleon 
 repelling Kosciusko; or at least endeavouring to draw him 
 into a snare, I perceived that his only object was to extend 
 his dominion beyond the Vistula, and the example of his 
 ravages in Spain soon corrected my judgment. 
 
 In fine, it was well understood that the Emperor Alex- 
 ander, in order to preserve peace, was, in everything, to 
 please Napoleon, his cabinet, his ministers, and his ambas- 
 sadors ; and that he was not to deviate, in any respect, from 
 the obligation of acknowledging his supremacy and of 
 obeying his will. 
 
 While proceeding to the conquest of Spain, Napoleon 
 had put the finishing hand to his federal system, and thus 
 prepared the way to universal monarchy. The last defeat 
 of Austria followed ; next the forced marriage of an arch- 
 duchess, — and the change operated in the politics of the 
 latter power. Then the European continent lost all hope of 
 being able to shake off the yoke, as long as the Emperor 
 Alexander remained faithful to his alliance with the chief of 
 the federal empire, already named the great empire. But 
 how was it possible to breathe in the neighbourhood of so 
 oppressive an atmosphere of ambition ? Russia already 
 began to recognise that the infallible results of the conti- 
 nental system, lor every nation which submitted to it, was 
 the ruin of commerce and of industry, the establishment of 
 excessive imposts, the burden of immense armies nearly 
 foreign to their princes, and princes incapable of protecting 
 their trembling subjects from the gripe of the usurper of 
 Europe. 
 
 The Emperor Alexander, after three years of an ambig- 
 uous and burdensome alliance, at length opened his eyes. 
 
398 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 He found it was necessary to gather all the strength of his 
 empire, in order to secure his independence. Instructed by 
 his emissaries that the anti-French party, or that of the old 
 Russians, began to prevail in the cabinet of St. Petersburg, 
 Napoleon returned, with regard to Russia, to his plan of 
 1805 and 1806, which he had only at that time postponed, 
 with the intention of preparing its execution with more 
 efficacy. 
 
 This was his plan : to divide or abolish the Russian 
 empire, or compel the Emperor Alexander to make a 
 humiliating peace, followed by an alliance between Russia, 
 France, and Austria, the basis and the price of which were 
 to be the restoration of Poland, and the dissolution of the 
 empire of the crescent. This was to be followed by the 
 acceding of all Europe to the continental system, which, 
 with Bonaparte, was only a mask for universal domination. 
 
 But, in the "first instance, it was indispensable to gain 
 Russia by intimidation, or otherwise to make a deadly war 
 upon her, for the purpose of abrogating her power, or expel- 
 ling her into Asia. Exertions were made, long beforehand, 
 to shake the fidelity of the Poles, by preparing their minds, 
 by means of underhand negotiation. 
 
 When Napoleon had determined that all the springs of 
 his diplomacy should be put in motion towards the north, 
 he changed his minister of foreign affairs, the complication 
 of so many intrigues and manoeuvres becoming too much, 
 not indeed for the zeal, but for .the energy,' of Champagny- 
 Cadore. 
 
 Napoleon did not think himself secure in confiding the 
 weight of affairs, so important, to any other person than 
 Maret, the chief of his secrHariat, — that is to say, all foreign 
 affairs were, from that moment, concentrated in his cabinet, 
 and received no other impulse than from him. Under this 
 point of view, Maret, who was a true official machine, was 
 the very man whom the emperor wanted. Without being 
 a bad man, he really admired his master, whose thoughts, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 299 
 
 secrets, and inclinations, he was acquainted with. He was, 
 moreover, his confidential secretary, and the individual best 
 acquainted with the art of connecting or transfusing into 
 grammatical phraseology his effusions and political imagina- 
 tions. It was also he who kept the secret book, in which 
 the emperor made his notes of such individuals of all 
 countries and parties, who might be useful to him, as well 
 as of men who were pointed out to his notice, and whose 
 intentions he suspected. He also kept the tar if of all courts 
 and pensioned personages from one end of Europe to the 
 other ; in short, it was Maret who, for a long time past, had 
 directed the emissaries of the cabinet. Constantly devoted 
 to the caprices of Napoleon, and opposing nothing but the 
 calmness of unconquerable resignation to the violence of the 
 emperor, it was with perfect sincerity, and under the im- 
 pression that he was following the line of his duty, that 
 Maret unscrupulously lent himself to proceedings which 
 attacked the security of the states. Never did it enter his 
 mind to oppose the will of Napoleon ; hence, the increasing 
 good graces of his master in his favour. 
 
 These mysteries of the cabinet, the unusual tone of some 
 of the notes in 181 1, the indication of great preparations 
 secretly set on foot, and manoeuvres and intrigues abroad, 
 awakened the attention of Russia. The Czar had already 
 found that the time was come to penetrate. Napoleon's 
 projects, and, desiring to obtain some better guarantee than 
 that of his ambassador, Kourakin, who was too much cajoled 
 at St. Cloud, and besides was a partisan of the continental 
 system, he had despatched Count Czernitscheif to Paris, 
 ever since the month of January, on a diplomatic mission. 
 This young nobleman, who was the colonel of a regiment of 
 cossacks, in the Russian imperial guard, attracted the notice 
 of the court of Napoleon, on his first appearance, by his 
 politeness and chivalrous deportment. He appeared in 
 every circle, and at every fete ; and he obtained there, as 
 well as among the highest society, so great a success, that 
 
30O MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 
 
 he soon became the rage among all those ladies who con- 
 tended for the empire of elegance and beauty. They all 
 aspired to the homage of the amiable and brilliant envoy of 
 the Russian emperor. For some time he appeared to be 
 doubtful about his choice, but at length it was to the 
 
 Duchess of R that the Paris of the Neva gave the 
 
 apple. This intrigue made the more noise, inasmuch as it 
 was the emperor, and not his minister of police, who first 
 suspected that, under the mask of gallantry, under the 
 exterior of amiable and showy accomplishments, the Russian 
 envoy concealed a mission of political investigation. 
 Suspicions increased when he was seen to return upon a 
 new mission, a month after his departure. Vexed at having 
 been anticipated and forewarned by his master, Savary, in 
 order to please him, commissioned his factotum, Esmenard, 
 to let fly some pointed, but indirect, squibs at the Czar's 
 emissary. The very evening previous to his arrival (nth 
 of April, 1811), the semi-official scribe inserted, in the 
 Journal de F Empire, an article, in which were related the 
 travels of an officer, named Bower, in the employ of Russia, 
 who Prince Potemkin commissioned one while to hire a 
 dancer at Paris ; at another time to purchase Botargo in 
 Albania, water-melons in Astracan, and grapes in the 
 Crimea. The allusion was obvious. CzernitschefF felt him- 
 self insulted, and complained firmly, having previously 
 consulted with his ambassador. The intention of Napoleon 
 not being to hurry a rupture, he pretended to be exasperated 
 at a satire of which he had himself supplied the idea ; and, 
 by way of satisfaction, pronounced the ostensible disgrace of 
 Esmenard, who was temporarily banished to Naples ; though 
 loaded at the same time with gold and secret favours. These 
 gifts were fatal to him ; he was, two months after (25th of 
 June, 1 811), run away with by spirited horses, which dashed 
 him down a precipice, on the road to Fondi, and the 
 unfortunate man was killed by the fracture of his skull 
 against a rock. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 301 
 
 Meantime, Napoleon and his ministers were incessant in 
 their complaints at St. Petersburg of the effects produced 
 by the ukase of the 31st of December, which favoured the 
 interest of England by permitting the introduction of 
 her colonial goods. The Paris Journals even frequently 
 announced that English vessels were admitted into Russian 
 ports. From that time, all clear-sighted men felt convinced 
 that a new rupture was inevitable. It was well understood 
 that the apparent causes of irritation merely served as 
 disguises for political complaints, which had become the 
 subject of animated debates between the two empires. In 
 the autumn of 181 1, the war was considered, even in 
 England, to be imminent, and the cabinet of London was 
 persuaded that Napoleon could no longer send to his armies 
 in Spain the reinforcement which his brother Joseph 
 solicited. 
 
 It was also from this epoch, an epoch still fresh on my 
 memory, that, by the sole medium of rumours and con- 
 jectures spread through society, and repeated in all classes, 
 public prepossession was created, accompanied by so great 
 an expectation, which, during six or eight months, absorbing 
 all the attention of the popular mind, concentrated it upon 
 the immense enterprise which Napoleon was about to 
 undertake. I was so absorbed in it, that I felt the greatest 
 desire of drawing nearer to the capital. I hoped to be 
 enabled to change my relative position there, and, by that 
 means, find myself in a condition to present to the emperor, 
 while time remained, some observations calculated to make 
 him abandon his resolution, or indtice him to modify his 
 projects ; for a secret presentiment seemed to warn me that 
 he was in this case rushing on his destruction. 
 
 Great difficulties, however, obstructed this design. In the 
 first instance, I could not dissemble from myself, that I 
 had become an object of suspicion and disquietude to the 
 emperor ; I knew that an order to watch all my actions had 
 been repeatedly given ; but that the high police had found 
 
302 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 itself so much at fault, as to be obliged to allege that my 
 great distance and mode of life rendered all watching 
 abortive ; that, in a word, I evaded all kinds of investiga- 
 tions with iniinite adroitness. Upon this datum I founded 
 my chance of success for the direct demand, which I 
 addressed to the emperor, through the intervention of 
 Duroc ; and I caused it adroitly to be supported by the 
 Count de Narbonne, who was at that time rising rapidly in 
 favour. 
 
 I alleged, that the climate of the South was particularly 
 prejudicial to my health ; that such was the opinion of my 
 physicians ; that, moreover, a residence of some months, 
 on my estate of Pont-Carr6, was rendered indispensably 
 necessary, by the interests of my family ; that I should 
 derive great comfort from being allowed to retire into 
 seclusion, for which I had always entertained a decided 
 predilection. I immediately received permission ; but 
 DuroC at the same time confidentially advised me to live 
 at FerriSres, in the greatest possible privacy, in order to 
 give no cause of umbrage, especially as I had the police and 
 many prejudices against me. I consequently changed my 
 residence, but without display, and, if I may so express 
 myself, incognito. As soon as I arrived at Ferriferes, I 
 began to live in seclusion, receiving nobody, and apparently 
 having no other occupation than that of benefiting my 
 health, educating my children, and improving my estate. 
 Jt was necessary to employ infinite caution, in order to 
 receive, from Paris, in the vicinity of which I now was, that 
 secret information, the want of which had now become an 
 invincible habit. Considering the importance of the con- 
 juncture, I soon felt that nothing could replace those 
 confidential conversations, which I possessed the art of 
 drawing out, without ever having had to reproach myself 
 with breach of confidence. But situated as I was, it was 
 only by stealth, and at long intervals, that I was enabled to 
 obtain a few clandestine interviews with trusty and devoted 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 303 
 
 persons. When this happened, they were always admitted 
 unknown to my people, through a small door, of which I 
 alone had the key, and under cover of the shades of night. 
 It was in a secret corner of my house that I received them, 
 and where we ran no risk of being heard or surprised. 
 
 Of all the individuals who were for the existing govern- 
 ment, or composing a part of it, the estimable and worthy 
 Malouet was the only one who had courage enough to visit 
 me openly, and without disguise. It was then that I was 
 enabled to appreciate all the merit of that valuable man. I 
 was deeply affected in thus seeing him defy authority, to 
 extend a friendly hand to his school-fellow and the com- 
 panion of his youth ; ' and yet, we had held opposite 
 opinions in politics, and were even then divided on im- 
 portant points. He had always been a prudent and moderate 
 royalist ; I had been an enthusiastic republican. On this 
 account, Malouet, on his return to France, had brought 
 back strong and well-founded prejudices against me. Those 
 prejudices were only dissipated when he was enabled to 
 judge for himself that I was now a different man, matured 
 by experience and reflection, employing the vast power with 
 which I was invested for no other purpose than to disarm 
 hostile passions, and heal the wounds of the revolution. He 
 then did me justice, and concluded by the profession of an 
 inviolable friendship. This flattering feeling, which he 
 carried with him to the tomb, is, beyond a doubt, the most 
 honourable pledge that I can offer either to my enemies or 
 my friends. 
 
 How deep and exquisite were those moments of mutual 
 confidence ! Although divided by shades of opinion, we 
 soon met on the same ground ; viewing the errors of power 
 with the same eyes, impressed with the same anxieties, and 
 convinced that Europe was upon the eve of one of the most 
 terrible social crises which had ever shaken the nations of 
 
 " Fouch^ and M. Malouet had been fellow-students at the Oratoire. — 
 Note by the French Editor. 
 
304 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 the earth. The Russian war, now considered inevitable, and 
 the extravagant ambition of the chief of the state, composed 
 the text of our commentaries and reflections. I learnt from 
 Malouet, that Napoleon had proposed to the emperor of 
 Russia, that the latter should invest his ambassador, 
 Kourakin, with powers to enter into negotiations, on the 
 subject of the three points in dispute ; namely : ist, the 
 tikase of the 31st of December, which, according to our 
 cabinet, had annulled the treaty of Tilsit, and the conven- 
 tions consequent upon it ; 2nd, the protest of the Emperor 
 Alexander, against the delivering up to France the duchy of 
 Oldenburg, Russia having no right, according to our cabinet, 
 to meddle with anything that concerned a prince of the 
 confederation of the Rhine ; 3rd, the order which Alexander 
 had given his Moldavian army, to direct its march towards 
 the frontiers of the duchy of Warsaw. But Alexander, 
 whose eyes were already open to the consequences of his 
 alliance with Napoleon, eluded the proposition ; at the same 
 time promising to send to Paris Count Nesselrode, who had 
 superseded Count RomanzofF in his confidence. 
 
 On a full examination of the matter, we considered the 
 points in dispute to be nothing but pretexts, mutually put 
 forward, in order to conceal the real question of state ; that 
 question consisted in the power and rivalry of two empires, 
 .which had latterly become too proximate not to be induced 
 to contend for the continental supremacy. Although he 
 considered as useless and abortive the representations which 
 I proposed to make to Napoleon, on the subject of the danger 
 of this new war, Malouet did not endeavour to dissuade me 
 from the attempt ; on the contrary, he told me that it was a 
 kind of protest which I owed to my country, to myself, and 
 to the importance of the office I had filled ; and which it 
 was proper to make for the exoneration of my conscience. 
 I showed him the draught I had made of it, which he 
 approved, observing, however, that I ought not to show 
 too much anxiety, since, as nothing official or ostensible 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 305 
 
 had appeared to occasion my solicitude, it would seem as if 
 I had penetrated the state secret ; that it depended on 
 myself alone to seize the opportune occasion, for which, 
 according to all probability, I should not have long to wait. 
 We took leave of each other, and I resumed my task. 
 
 The emperor, with a view to ingratiate himself with his 
 new subjects in Holland, departed in September, on a 
 journey along the coast. On his return, his attention was, 
 without loss of time, directed towards his immense prepara- 
 tions for the Russian war. For the mere sake of form, 
 privy councils were held, at which none but the most 
 servile instruments of power attended. Never had Napoleon 
 exerted that power, materially or morally, in a more despotic 
 manner ; — keeping his ministers and council of state in a 
 condition of dependence upon him by means of senatus 
 consulta, which emanated from his cabinet ; dispensing 
 with the legislative body by means of the senate, and with 
 both by means of the council of state, which was entirely 
 under his thumb. He, besides, never took the least heed 
 of the advice of his ministers, and governed less by means 
 of decrees submitted on their part to his approbation, than 
 of acts secretly suggested to him by his correspondents, his 
 private agents, and more frequently by his own impulses or 
 impatience. It has been seen to what a degree flattery had 
 obtained possession of his court, of his officers, of his 
 ministers, and council. Panegyric had become so out- 
 rageous, that adoration was a matter of command, and, from 
 that moment, it became shameful. 
 
 The rumours of the Russian war daily increasing in con- 
 sistency, became, in consequence of the general fever of the 
 public mind, the subject of every conversation. At length 
 the very acts of the government began to lift a corner of the 
 veil. A senatus consultum of the 20th of December placed 
 120,000 men, of the conscription of 181 2, at the disposal of 
 the emperor. The harangue of the government orator and 
 the report of the committee of the senate were not made 
 
 21 
 
3o6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHlt. 
 
 public, and this furnished additional motives for ascribing 
 everything to the approaching rupture. 
 
 I had arranged all my ideas on the dangers of engaging 
 in that distant war, which would admit of no comparison 
 with any other ; I had nothing more to do, therefore, than 
 to make a fair copy of my memorial, which it was now time 
 to present. It was divided into three sections. In the first, 
 I treated of the unseasonable period selected for the Russian 
 war, and I drew my principal inferences from the dangers 
 which would result from undertaking it at the very moment 
 when the flames of war in Spain, instead of being extin- 
 guished, were daily more and more increasing. I proved, 
 by examples, that it was a combination entirely contrary to 
 the rules of politics established even by conquering nations. 
 In the second section, I treated of the difficulties inherent 
 in the war itself ; difficulties which were, I might say, 
 intrinsic, and I deduced my arguments from the nature of 
 the country, and from the character of the inhabitants, con- 
 sidered under the double point of view of nobility and 
 people. I did not omit to notice even the character of the 
 emperor, which I thought myself warranted in considering 
 as being wrongly judged, or not understood. Finally, in 
 the third and last section, I treated of the probable conse- 
 quences of the war, looking at them under the two hypo- 
 theses of a complete success or a complete reverse. In the 
 first case, I laid down that to think of arriving at a 
 universal monarchy, through the conquest of Russia, bor- 
 dering upon China, was a brilliant chimera ; that from 
 Moscow the conqueror would inevitably be drawn on to 
 fall, at first, upon Constantinople, and thence to proceed to 
 the Ganges, by the effect of the same irresistible impulse 
 which had formerly impelled, beyond all the bounds of true 
 state reasons, Alexander, the Macedonian ; and, subsequently, 
 another still more profound and cooler genius, namely, 
 Julius Caesar, who, on the eve of undertaking his war 
 against the Parthians (the Russians of that period), indulged 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 307 
 
 the frantic hope of making the tour of the world with his 
 victorious legions. It may be easily perceived that, with 
 this matter for my text, I could not sink beneath my sub- 
 ject, with respect to general considerations. " Sire," said I 
 to Napoleon, " you are now in possession of the finest 
 monarchy upon earth ; is it your wish incessantly to 
 enlarge its boundaries, in order to leave the inheritance 
 of an interminable war to a weaker arm than your own ? 
 The lessons of history repel the idea of an universal 
 monarchy. Take care lest too much confidence in your 
 military genius should induce you to exceed all the bounds 
 of nature, and shock all the precepts of wisdom. 
 
 " It is full time to pause. You have. Sire, reached that 
 point of your career in which all that you have acquired is 
 more valuable than all which additional efforts could add to 
 your acquisitions. All new increase of your dominion, 
 which already exceeds all proportion, is associated with 
 obvious danger, not only for France, already overwhelmed, 
 perhaps, under the weight of your conquests, but also for 
 the well-understood interest of your own glory and security. 
 All that your power can gain in superficial extent will 
 be lost in substantial value. Pause, it is time ; enjoy, 
 in short, the advantages of a destiny which is, beyond a 
 doubt, the most brilliant of all those which, in our modern 
 times, the state of civilization could permit a bold mind 
 either to desire or possess. 
 
 " And what is the empire which you seek to subject ? 
 The Russian empire, resting upon the Pole, and backed by 
 eternal ice ; which is only assailable during one quarter of 
 the year ; which offers to its assailants nothing but hard- 
 ships, sufferings, and the privations of a barren soil, and of 
 a region universally benumbed and dead ? It is the Antaeus 
 of fable. You cannot conquer it unless you stifle it 
 in your arms. What ! Sire, will you penetrate into the 
 depths of the modern Scythia, heedless either of the rigour 
 and inclemency of the climate, of the barrenness of the 
 
3o8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 country which you will have to pass, of the roads, lakes, 
 and forests, which alone are sufficient to arrest your march, 
 of the dreadful fatigue, and innumerable dangers, which 
 will exhaust your army, however formidable it may be ! 
 True ; no force in the world can prevent you passing the 
 Niemen, and plunging into the deserts and forests , of 
 Lithuania ; but you will find the Dwina a much more 
 difficult obstacle to surmount than the Niemen, and, even 
 there, you will still be a hundred leagues distant from St. 
 Petersburg. There you will have to choose between St. 
 Petersburg and Moscow. What a balance of chances, just 
 Heaven, will that be which will decide you to march towards 
 either of these two capitals ! In one or the other will be 
 found the destiny of the universe. 
 
 " Whatever may be your success, the Russians will dispute 
 with you, inch by inch, those desert countries, in which you 
 will find none of the necessaries of war. You must draw 
 everything from a distance of two hundred leagues. Whilst 
 you will have to fight, perhaps, thirty battles, the half of 
 your army will be employed in defending your lines of 
 communication, weakened by their extension, and menaced 
 and broken by clouds of cossacks. Take care, lest all your 
 genius be unable to save your army, a prey to fatigue, 
 hunger, want of clothing, and the severity of the climate ; 
 take car^, lest you be afterwards compelled to fight between 
 the Elbe and the Rhine. Sire, I conjure you in the name 
 of France, for the sake of your own glory, and of ours, 
 replace your sword in its scabbard — .think of Charles XII. 
 It is true that prince could not, like you, command two- 
 thirds of continental Europe, together with an army of six 
 hundred thousand men ; but, on the other hand, the czar 
 had but four hundred thousand men and fifty thousand 
 cossacks. Perhaps you will say his heart was of iron, while 
 nature has bestowed the mildest disposition upon the 
 Emperor Alexander ; but do not deceive yourself, mildness 
 is not incompatible with firmness, especially when such 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi.. 309 
 
 vital interests are at stake. Besides, will you not have as 
 opponents, his senate, the majority of the nobles, the 
 imperial family, a fanatical people, hardy and warlike troops, 
 and the intrigues of the cabinet of St. James's ? Even now, 
 if Sweden escape you, it is by the sole influence of British 
 gold. Fear, lest that irreconcilable island should shake the 
 fidelity of your allies ; take care, Sire, lest your people 
 should reproach you with an inconsiderate ambition, and 
 anticipate too much the possibility of some great misfortune. 
 Your power and glory have laid asleep many hostile passions ; 
 but one unexpected reverse may shake all the foundations 
 of your empire." 
 
 This memorial being finished, I requested an audience of 
 the emperor. I was introduced into his cabinet, at the 
 Tuileries. He had scarcely perceived me, when assuming 
 an easy manner : " Here you are, Duke ; I know what 
 brings you." " What, Sire ? " " Yes, I know you have a 
 memorial to lay before me." " It is not possible." " Never 
 mind ; I know it, give me the paper, I will read it ; I am 
 not, however, ignorant that the Russian war is no more to 
 your taste than the Spanish." " Sire, I do not think that 
 the present war is successful enough for us to fight without 
 risk, and at the same time beyond the Pyrenees and the 
 Niemen ; the desire and the want of seeing your majesty's 
 power for ever secured have emboldened me to submit to 
 your majesty some observations upon the present crisis." 
 " There is no crisis ; the present is a war purely political ; 
 you cannot judge of my position, nor of the general aspect 
 of Europe. Since my marriage the lion has been thought 
 to sleep ; we shall see whether he does or not. Spain will 
 fall as soon as I have annihilated the English influence at 
 St. Petersburg ; I wanted eight hundred thousand men, and 
 I have them. All Europe follows in my train, and Europe 
 
 is no more now than an old rotten w , with whom I 
 
 may do what I please with my eight hundred thousand men. 
 Did you not formerly tell me that you thought genius con- 
 
3IO MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 sisted in finding nothing impossible ? Well, in six or eight 
 months you shall see what things upon a vast scale can 
 effect, when united to a power that can execute them. I 
 am guided by the opinion of the army and the people 
 rather than by yours, gentlemen who are too rich, and who 
 only tremble for me because you apprehend a fall. Make 
 yourselves easy ; regard the Russian war as dictated by 
 good sense, and by a just view of the interests, the repose, 
 and the tranquillity of all. Besides, how can I help it, if an 
 excess of power leads me to assume the dictatorship of the 
 world ? Have not you contributed to it, you and so many 
 others who blame me now, and would make a king debon- 
 naire of me. My destiny is not accomplished ; I must 
 finish that which is but as yet sketched. We must have 
 an European code, an European court of appeal, the same 
 coins, the same weights and measures, the same laws ; I 
 must amalgamate all the people of Europe into one, and 
 Paris must be the capital of the world. Such, my Lord 
 Duke, is the only termination which suits my ideas. At 
 present you would not serve me well, because you imagine 
 that everything is again to be placed in doubt ; but, before 
 twelve months are over, you will serve me with the same 
 zeal and ardour as after the victories of Marengo and Auster- 
 litz. You will see something superior to all that ; and it is 
 I who tell you so. Farewell, my Lord Duke ; do not affect 
 the interesting part of a man in disgrace, nor that of a 
 censor, and place a little more confidence in me." 
 
 I withdrew quite thunderstruck, after having made a 
 profound bow to the emperor, who turned his back upon 
 me. Having recovered from the astonishment I felt at this 
 singular conversation, I began to conjecture by what means 
 the emperor could have been so exactly informed of the 
 object of my proceedings. Not being able to arrive at any 
 satisfactory conclusion, I hastened to Malouet, supposing 
 that, perhaps, some involuntary indiscretion on his part had 
 put the high police, or one of the emperor's confidants, upon 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 311 
 
 the scent. I explained myself ; but soon convinced by the 
 protestations of the most upright man in the empire that 
 nothing had escaped him, I found the circumstance still 
 more extraordinary, as I could not fix my suspicions upon a 
 third person. How, then, could the emperor have learnt 
 that it was my intention to present a memorial to him ? 
 Was I, then, spied in my own house ? Suddenly a thought 
 struck me ; I recollected that one day a man had abruptly 
 entered my room without giving my valet time to announce 
 him, and had availed himself of some specious pretext to 
 keep me in conversation. After having weighed all the 
 circumstances, I inferred that he was an emissary ; and upon 
 a review of all that had taken place, my suspicions became 
 still stronger. I made inquiries, and learnt that this man, 
 
 whose name was B , was a returned emigrant, who had 
 
 purchased, near my seat, a small estate, for which he had 
 not yet paid ; that, he was mayor of his commune ; but was, 
 to all appearance, an intriguer and an impostor. I procured 
 some of his handwriting, and recognized it for that of an 
 agent, formerly commissioned at London to be a spy upon 
 the Bourbons, the emigrants of rank, and the Chouans. I 
 had the number of correspondence ; and this enabled me to 
 find out from among the papers deposited in the bureaux of 
 the police the reports of that worthy gentleman. One of 
 my former confidential agents undertook to come at the fact, 
 and succeeded. The affair was as follows : — 
 
 Savary, having been ordered by the emperor to inform 
 him how the ex-minister Fouche employed his time at his 
 seat at Ferrieres, presented a first report, in which he said 
 he was looking out for an agent sufficiently qualified to 
 fulfil the intentions of his majesty. He, at the same time, 
 observed to' the emperor that the investigation was of a 
 very delicate nature, the ex-minister being invisible to all 
 strangers, nobody, not even the country people, having 
 access into his house. After some research, Savary cast 
 his eyes upon the Sieur B . Hiving sent for this man. 
 
3X2 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJ^. 
 
 who is tall, well made, of pleasing manner, and an insinua- 
 ting character, cunning, adroit, possessing great volubility 
 and an imperturbable assurance, he said to him, " Sir, you are 
 mayor of your commune ; you know the Duke of Otranto, 
 or, at least, you have been in correspondence with him, and 
 you must be able to form some idea of his character and 
 habits ; you must give me an account of what he is doing 
 at FerriSres ; this information is absolutely indispensable, 
 
 for the emperor requires it." " My Lord," answered B , 
 
 " you have given me a commission extremely difficult to 
 execute ; I consider it as almost impossible. You know the 
 man ; he is mistrustful, suspicious, and constantly on his 
 guard ; besides, he is inaccessible ; by what means or under 
 what pretext can I gain an entrance into his house ? Indeed, 
 I cannot." — " It does not signify," answered the minister, 
 " this commission, to which the emperor attaches great im- 
 portance, must be executed ; I expect you will procure me 
 this intelligence as a proof of your devotion to the person 
 of the emperor. Go, and do not return without having 
 accomplished your object ; I allow you a fortnight." 
 
 B , in the greatest embarrassment, gave himself a 
 
 great deal of trouble, made inquiries, and found, through 
 an indirect channel, that one of my farmers was prosecuted 
 by my steward for large arrears of rents. He called upon the 
 man, and pretending to be extremely concerned for him, 
 obtained from him the documents relative to the affair. 
 Furnished with these papers, he took a cabriolet, and having 
 dressed himself neatly, presented himself at the lodge of 
 my chateau, announcing himself as the mayor of a neigh- 
 bouring commune, who had taken a great interest in an un- 
 fortunate family, unjustly prosecuted. Being first stopped 
 at the gate, he easily talked over my porter, who suffered 
 him to reach the house. There my valet refused to let him 
 enter my apartment. Without, however, being disheartened, 
 
 B begged, solicited, and entreated so earnestly, that at 
 
 last he obtained to be announced ; but, at the moment 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 313 
 
 when the valet was opening the door of my closet, he 
 pushed him on one side and entered ; I was at my writing- 
 desk, with my pen in my hand. 
 
 The sudden entrance of a stranger surprised me ; I asked 
 
 him what was his pleasure : " My Lord," said B , " I am 
 
 come to solicit from you a favour, an act of justice and 
 humanity the most urgent ; I am come to entreat you to 
 save an unhappy father of a family from total ruin ; " and 
 here he employed all his rhetoric to interest me in favour of 
 his client, and explained the whole affair to me in the 
 clearest manner possible. After a moment's hesitation, .1 rose 
 and proceeded to search in a box for the papers relative to 
 my farms. Whilst, my back being turned, I was searching 
 
 for the documents, B , still speaking on, succeeded in 
 
 deciphering backwards a few lines of my writing ; and what 
 particularly struck him were the initials, V. M. I. et R. ; 
 which, being in capital letters, were more striking ; he im- 
 mediately inferred that I was preparing a memorial to be 
 presented to his majesty. Upon returning to my desk, after 
 two or three minutes' search, and won by the fine speeches 
 of the man, I settled the affair with him in favour of his 
 client, with the utmost simplicity ; and dismissed him, ex- 
 pressing my thanks to him for having given me an oppor- 
 tunity of performing a praiseworthy action. B left me, 
 
 and immediately proceeded to Savary, to whom he related 
 the success of his undertaking, and Savary instantly hastened 
 to make his report to the emperor. I confess that, when 
 made acquainted with the details of this piece of mystifica- 
 tion, I was extremely vexed at it. I could scarcely forgive 
 myself for having been duped by a scoundrel, who for a long 
 time had sent me secret intelligence from London, and in 
 whose favour I ordered the annual payment of a sum of 
 twenty thousand francs. It will be seen later (in 1815), that 
 I did not allow myself to be actuated by too great resent- 
 ment. 
 
 Although this was a wretched intrigue, I yet derived from 
 
314 , MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 it an advantageous position which gave me more security 
 and confidence, by making me persevere in my system of 
 circumspection and reserve. It was evident that a great 
 part of Napoleon's suspicions respecting me was dissipated, 
 and that I had no longer any reason to apprehend, at the 
 moment that he was about to penetrate into Russia, being 
 made the object of any inquisitorial and vexatious measure. 
 I knew that in a cabinet council, to which the emperor 
 had only summoned Berthier, Cambaceres, and Duroc, the 
 question had been discussed whether it would be advantage- 
 ous to make sure, either by arrest or severe banishment, of 
 M. de Talleyrand and me ; and that upon mature considera- 
 tion, the idea of this coup d'itat had been rejected as im- 
 politic and useless ; impolitic, inasmuch as it would have 
 shaken public confidence too much, and aroused apprehen- 
 sions, for the future, in the minds of the high officers and 
 dignitaries of the state ; useless, because no act or deed 
 could be laid to our charge as a motive for such a measure. 
 Engaged, moreover, in the preparations for the expedition 
 into Russia, the government experienced, from another 
 cause, uneasiness more real, and disappointments more dis- 
 tressing. France was daily suffering more and more from a 
 scarcity of corn. Riots had taken place in several places ; 
 these had been repressed by force, and military commissions 
 had condemned to be shot many unfortunate wretches who 
 had been urged on by despair. It was not without feelings 
 of horror that the public ascertained that, among the 
 victims of these bloody executions, a woman in the town of 
 Caen had been included. 
 
 It became, however, necessary to withdraw a part of the 
 veil which concealed the mystery of the vast hostile pre- 
 parations, of which all the north of Germany was already 
 the theatre. An extraordinary sitting of the senate was 
 ordered, for the purpose of receiving the communication of 
 two reports which were supposed to have been presented to 
 the emperor ; the one by the minister for foreign affairs, the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi,. 315 
 
 other by the minister at war. The sole object of this fa'rce, 
 at once warhke and diplomatic, was to obtain a levy of such 
 men as had -escaped the conscription, and the formation of 
 cohorts of the first ban, according to a new organization of 
 the national guard, which divided into three bands or three 
 classes the immense majority of our male population. 
 
 There was no exaggeration this time in considering France 
 as one vast camp, whence our phalanxes marched, from all 
 parts, upon Europe as upon a prey. In order to colour this 
 levy of those classes which had been free from the conscrip- 
 tion, fresh motives and new pretexts were necessary, since it 
 was not desirable, for the moment, to reveal the true cause 
 of such extraordinary measures. Maret spoke to the senate 
 of the necessity of compelling England to acknowledge the 
 maritime rights established by the stipulations of the treaty 
 of Utrecht — stipulations which Fraiice had abandoned to 
 Amiens. But the levy of the first ban of the national 
 guards was granted by a senatus-consultum, and a hundred 
 cohorts were placed at the disposal of the government ; we 
 members of the senate evinced admirable docility and sub- 
 serviency. At the same time, two treaties of alliance and 
 reciprocal assistance were signed with Prussia and Austria. 
 All doubt was now removed. Napoleon was about to attack 
 Russia, not only with his own forces, but also with those of 
 Germany, and of all the petty sovereigns who could no 
 longer move out of the orbit of his power. 
 
 War was fully decided upon, when the emperor caused his 
 confidential minister to open fresh negotiations with London ; 
 but these proposals not only came late, but were made with- 
 out any ability. Some persons, who were in the secret of 
 every intrigue, assured me, at that time, that the cabinet 
 employed this clumsy expedient, in concert with the prin- 
 cipal Russians of the French party ; seeing themselves on the 
 eve of being expelled from the councils of St. Petersburg, 
 they had imagined that the Emperor Alexander, alarmed at 
 the idea of the possibility of an arrangement between France 
 
3i6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 and England, would re-enter the continental system to pre- 
 vent his being isolated, and that he would once more submit 
 to Napoleon's will. But however this may be, Maret wrote 
 to Lord Castlereagh a letter containing the following pro- 
 posals : — To renounce all - extension of territory on the 
 side of the Pyrenees, to declare the actual dynasty of Spain 
 independent, and to guarantee the independence of that 
 monarchy ; to guarantee to the house of Braganza the 
 independence and integrity of Portugal, as well as the king- 
 dom of Naples to Joachim, and the kingdom of Sicily to 
 Ferdinand IV. As to the other objects of discussion, our 
 cabinet proposed to negotiate them upon this basis ; that 
 each power should keep what the other could not wrest 
 from it by the war. Lord Castlereagh replied, that if by 
 the actual dynasty of Spain the brother of the chief of the 
 French government was meant, he was commanded by his 
 sovereign to declare candidly, that he could not receive any 
 proposals of peace founded upon that basis. Here the 
 matter dropped. Ashamed of its overtures, our cabinet, whose 
 only object was to have drawn Russia into some act of weak- 
 ness, perceived too late that it had impressed upon our 
 diplomacy a character of fickleness, bad faith, and ignorance. 
 As all was transacted in the utmost secrecy, what most 
 puzzled the politicians was, that in France, and even in 
 Russia, the exterior forms of amity were kept, although 
 making immense preparations. The Emperor Alexander's 
 ambassador was still at Paris, while Napoleon had his at St. 
 Petersburg : nor was this all ; Alexander had his confiden- 
 tial diplomatist. Count Czernitscheff, resident in the French 
 capital. This amiable Russian, in the midst of the dissipa- 
 tions of a brilliant court, and , the mysteries of many 
 amorous intrigues purposely ill-managed, did not neglect a 
 more secret commission of the highest importance to his 
 master. Seconded by women, some of whom were stimu- 
 lated by love and others by a spirit of intrigue, he managed 
 his plans so as to discover Napoleon's real intentions of in- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 317 
 
 vading Russia. Suspicion having been raised as to the secret 
 object of his mission, he was watched and spipd, but all to no 
 purpose. At length, Savary sent to him a person attached 
 to the police, who gave him some false information, and drew 
 from him, in return, some fresh indications which increased 
 the suspicions already existing. But, favoured by his love 
 affairs, Czernitscheff was warned in tirne ; he avoided the 
 snare, ill-used the spy, and went to Maret to complain of 
 having been subjected to such revolting proceedings. That 
 very day, the emperor having been informed of the subject 
 of his complaint, determined upon communicating ; to him 
 the secret accounts which inculpated him. Czernitscheff 
 came out triumphant from this ordeal by giving an explana- 
 tion of his conduct and of the cause of his complaints. The 
 police received formal orders , to take off the surveillance. 
 Being thus at liberty to continue his investigations, he 
 succeeded in executing the object of his mission. He was 
 particularly anxious to procure the lists of the intended 
 movements of the French army ; these he obtained, through 
 the medium of a clerk belonging to the Bureau des Mouve- 
 mens, named Michel. An imprudence of this person, who 
 thus betrayed the sfccret of the emperor's operations, having 
 awakened some suspicions, he was arrested. Czernitscheff 
 was immediately informed of it, and left Paris with the 
 greatest precipitation, carrying off with him the most im- 
 portant documents. In vain was a telegraphic order given 
 to seize his person ; he had got the start by five or six hours, 
 and this advantage was sufficient to enable him to cross the 
 Rhine. He had just passed the bridge of Kehl, when the 
 telegraphic order for his arrest reached Strasburg. 
 
 His precipitate flight from Paris prevented him . from 
 burning his secret correspondence, which it was his custom 
 to conceal under the carpet of his room ; ajjd as the latter 
 was necessarily the object of minute search, the, police agents 
 discovered the papers of Czernitscheff. Thp first thing foupd 
 in them was the proof that a great intimacy had been ,^ept 
 
3i8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 up between this Russian nobleman and several ladies of 
 
 Napoleon's court ; amongst others, the Duchess of R . 
 
 She, however, it is said, exculpated herself by alleging that 
 she had acted in concert with her husband, to endeavour to 
 ascertain the secret object of Czernitscheff's mission. Among 
 the papers discovered, was also a letter in Michel's hand- 
 writing ; so convincing a proof of his guilt sealed his fate, — 
 he expiated his treason with his life. This affair brought to 
 light a very singular fact, viz., that the Russian cabinet had 
 foreseen, even from the epoch of the interview at Erfurt, the 
 possibility of a rupture with France. It was then that 
 RomanzofF said, in order to justify his indulgent politics, 
 and in speaking of Napoleon : We must wear him out. {II 
 faut Puser.) 
 
 The circumstances of Czernitscheif's flight, which was 
 soon known in the saloons, made considerable noise, and 
 accelerated the rupture. The emperor, whose departure 
 was determined upon, anxious to obtain some popularity, 
 visited the different parts of Paris, examining the public 
 works, and acting little preconcerted scenes, either with the 
 prefect of Paris, or the prefect of police, Pasquier. He also 
 went frequently hunting, affecting to appear more occupied 
 with his pleasures than with the vast enterprise he had 
 engaged in. ~ I saw him at St. Cloud, whither I went to pay 
 my respects to him, without any intention of soliciting or 
 obtaining an audience. The mournful aspect of that court, 
 and the anxious looks of the courtiers, appeared to me to 
 form a strong contrast with the confidence of the emperor. 
 He had never enjoyed such perfect health ; never had I 
 seen his features, formed after the antique, lightedup with 
 a greater glow of mental vigour, of greater confidence in 
 himself, founded on a deep conviction of his prodigious 
 power. I experienced a feeling of involuntary melancholy, 
 which I should have been unable to define, had not the most 
 gloomy presentiments taken possession of my mind. 
 
 In the meantime the cabinet of St. Petersburg, whether 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCtii. 319 
 
 its real intention was to employ every possible means of 
 reconciliation compatible with the independence of the 
 Russian empire, or whether it had only the intention of 
 obtaining some certain information respecting the true in- 
 tentions of Napoleon, ordered the Prince Kourakin to make 
 known to the French government the bases of an arrange- 
 ment, which his sovereign was willing to accede to. These 
 were the deliverance of Prussia, a reduction of the garrison 
 of Dantzic, and the evacuation of Swedish Pomerania ; upon 
 these conditions, the Czar engaged to make no alterations 
 whatever in the measures prohibiting a direct trade with 
 England, and to concert, with France, a system of licences 
 to be established in Russia. 
 
 Kourakin's note remained unanswered for a fortnight. At 
 length, on the 9th of May, the day of the Emperor's depar- 
 ture for Germany, Maret asked Kourakin if he had full 
 powers for treating ; Kourakin replied, that the character of 
 ambassador, with which he was invested, should be con- 
 sidered as sufficient. Being only able to obtain evasive and 
 dilatory answers, he demanded his passports, which were 
 refused him under various pretences. It was not till the 20th 
 of June they were sent him from Thorn, an artifice, the 
 object of which was to allow Napoleon time to cross the 
 Niemen with all his forces, in order to surprise his august 
 adversary at Wilna, before he could receive the least intelli- 
 gehce from his ambassador. 
 
 The die was cast : the Niemen was crossed by six hundred 
 thousand men, by the finest and most formidable army ever 
 assembled by any conqueror of the earth. We will now 
 leave Napoleon, — we will leave this illustrious madman to 
 rush on to his ruin : it is not his military history I am 
 relating. 
 
 Let us ascertain the state of public opinion, at the 
 moment, when traversing Germany, and stopping at Dresden, 
 he riveted upon himself the anxious regards of twenty 
 nations. Let us first see what was thought of him in the 
 
320 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 salons of Paris, those very salons for whose good opinion he 
 was so anxious ; wishes were there expressed for his humilia- 
 tion, and even for his fall, so much did his aggression appear 
 the affect of a mad ambition. In the middling and lower 
 classes, the public disposition was not more favourable to 
 him. The discontent, however, had nothing of hostility in 
 it. The general wish was only to save Napoleon from his 
 own follies, and to restrain him within the bounds of modera- 
 tion and justice, 
 
 Some persons thought that combined resistance, on the 
 part of his marshals, and the army, would succeed in ruling 
 his will, and, eventually, in obtaining the mastery over him. 
 But such persons could understand but little the fascina- 
 tions of a military life, and the manners of a camp. I had 
 had the means of being convinced that the least political 
 idea, calculated to guarantee us from the abuses of victory, 
 or from the dangers of a reverse, never proceeded from the 
 brains of a discontented general. 
 
 There was, moreover, at the bottom of all this spirit of 
 disapprobation, a feeling superior to it ; that of an anxious 
 expectation and intense curiosity respecting the issue of 
 the vast expedition of the extraordinary man whose am- 
 bition devoured whole ages. It was generally admitted 
 that he would remain the conqueror and master of the 
 field. 
 
 As to politicians, by taking into consideration the destruc- 
 tion of Poland, on the one hand, and the encroachments of 
 the revolution on the other, they saw Germany destroyed by 
 two vast irruptions ; that of the French from the west, and 
 the Russians from the east. It was these latter that 
 Napoleon wished to drive back upon the polar ices, or into 
 the Steppes of Asia. That man, whom nothing could stop, 
 who drew after him one half of the military population of 
 Europe, and whose orders were implicitly executed, on a 
 space which embraced nineteen degrees of latitude, and 
 thirty degrees of longitude, — that man,, who had now set 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 321 
 
 foot on Russian ground, was about to risk his own fate, and 
 the existence of France. 
 
 Upon advancing beyond the Niemen, and proclaiming 
 war, he exclaimed, with an affectation of prophetic inspira- 
 tion — " The Russians are urged on by fate — let the des- 
 tinies be accomplished ! " His adversary, who dared not 
 to wait for him at Wilna, more calm, recommended to his 
 people to defend their country and their liberty. What a 
 contrast between the two nations, between these two adver- 
 saries and their language ! 
 
 At first, the forced retreat of the Russians, who, every- 
 where the weakest and least inured to war, endeavoured to 
 avoid the rencontre ; and the devastation of the country, 
 which they systematically effected, were considered as two 
 grand measures, the result of a plan preconcerted for the 
 purpose of drawing Napoleon into the heart of the empire. 
 
 But the imagination soon took the alarm when, after 
 a furious combat, Napoleon, against the advice of the 
 majority of his marshals, and in contempt of a kind of 
 engagement he had entered into at Paris with his council, 
 left in his rear Smolensko, the only bulwark of Russia on the 
 frontiers of Poland. The anxiety was still further increased, 
 when he was seen advancing, without the least hesitation, on 
 the line of Moscow, braving all the chances of war, and 
 equally regardless of the character of his enemies, the dis- 
 position of Europe impatient of her yoke, the season, the 
 distance, and the severity of the climate. 
 
 Inflated with gaining the most sanguinary battle of 
 modern times, a battle in which a hundred thousand soldiers 
 were victims to the ambition of one man,' and not in the 
 least affected by the miserable and wretched appearance of 
 his bivouacs. Napoleon imagined that he could, at length, 
 effect the destruction of a vast and powerful empire, as he 
 
 ' The battle of Moskowa, or Borodino, fought on the 7th of September, 
 at twenty-five leagues in advance of Moscow. — Editoi's Note. 
 
 22 
 
322 MEMOIRS OP FOUCHt. 
 
 formerly accomplished, as it were extempore, the fall of the 
 republics of Geneva, Venice, and Lucca. 
 
 The Russians had retreated, armed with torches ; they 
 had burnt Smolensko, Dorigobni, Viazma, Ghjat, and 
 Mqjaisk, and yet he imagined they would reserve Moscow 
 for him. The conflagration of this fine capital, while it 
 undeceived Napoleon too late, enlightened France with 
 its ill-omened flames ; the sensation was deep. It was 
 then, alas ! that I saw all my presentiments realized ; I per- 
 ceived its object ; that of depriving the victor of a pledge, 
 and the vanquished of a motive, for concluding peace. 
 
 How did Napoleon act upon witnessing this grand national 
 sacrifice ? He encamped for forty days on the ashes of Mos- 
 cow, contemplating his vain conquest, not doubting his 
 ability to conclude the campaign by negotiations, and never 
 even suspecting that two Russian armies, the one from the 
 Livonian Gulf, the other from Moldavia, had been ordered 
 to effect a junction at Borisow, a place one hundred leagues 
 in his rear. He was ignorant, perhaps, that Russia, without 
 a single ally at the commencement of the campaign, had 
 just signed, one after the other, three defensive treaties — 
 with Sweden, England, and the Regency of Cadiz. 
 
 In the interval, the interview at Abo, between the Em- 
 peror Alexander and Bernadotte, in presence of Lord Cathcart, 
 took place — an interview where the first appeal was made 
 to Moreau, whomi they wished to oppose to his persecutor, 
 to him who was now designated the oppressor of Europe. 
 The ruins of Moscow had been abandoned to Napoleon, who 
 could not at all comprehend a system of warfare so different 
 from his own strategy. For twenty-two days he awaited a 
 suppliant message from the Russian emperor, whose cabinet 
 kept in play his prolocutors and negotiators. Napoleon was 
 as blind at Moscow as in Spain. Prudent measures smacked 
 too much of methodical arrangement, which he utterly 
 detested. 
 
 At length, he commenced his retreat, but not till the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 323 
 
 fatal hour had struck. ; for on the very day of his tardy 
 evacuation of Moscow, the 13th of October, the Malet con- 
 spiracy, so humiliating for the emperor, for his adherents, 
 and his police, burst out ; a conspiracy which had nearly 
 cost him his empire, from the wish of gratifying his vanity in 
 dating a few decrees from Moscow. The Malet conspiracy 
 has never been well understood ; — Malet was not a mad, 
 but a bold, man. 
 
 Little known as a general, he was at first involved, in 1802, 
 in the Senate conspiracy, as it was called, of which Berna- 
 dotte was the soul, Madame de Stael the focus, and himself 
 the principal agent ; a conspiracy in which I was myself 
 denounced as an accomplice, by Dubois, the prefect of police. 
 It became necessary to throw the whole culpability on Malet. 
 He was put in prison. Upon being restored to liberty, by 
 the amnesty granted on the occasion of the coronation, he 
 was employed, in 1805, in the army of Italy ; and, upon his 
 return, was engaged in fresh plots against the emperor, in- 
 volving at one time Brune, at another Massena ; at length, 
 in 1808, he was imprisoned in the castle of Vincennes. It 
 was in the gloom of this prison that he hatched his double 
 conspiracy, which was to rally the disaffected of every party 
 against the emperor's government. The whole of this plot, 
 however, was not the offspring of Malet's brain.' Its con- 
 ception belonged to royalists, its execution to the republicans. 
 In fact, success was impossible without an understanding 
 between the two opposite opinions, cemented by a common 
 hatred, and a mutual want of overthrowing the oppressor in 
 order to restore public liberty. All was favourable to the 
 conspirators engaged in the boldest of enterprises. From 
 the instant that the mode of execution depended only upon 
 one man, and that man was determined, full of resolution 
 and courage, there was every reason to calculate upon the 
 probability of success. The rest was left to chance. Let 
 us demonstrate it ; and, first, let us consider into what hands 
 ' This deserves attention. — Editor's Note, 
 
324 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 the power was delegated in the emperor's absence. It is 
 certain that the arch-chancellor, Cambaceres, was the de- 
 positary of it ; a cowardly and disgraced man, and a true 
 sycophant. Among the ministers, one alone prided himself, 
 because he was at the head of the police, which for him re- 
 mained mute as to any discoveries ; but this man, a severe 
 officer of gendarmerie, was a mere cypher in politics and 
 state affairs. Next on the list, was Pasquier, prefect of 
 police, an excellent magistrate in all that regarded mud and 
 lanterns, in regulating the police of the markets, gambling- 
 houses, and prostitutes, but without intelligence, extremely 
 verbose, and entirely devoid of tact and power of investiga- 
 tion. So much for the civil power. 
 
 We will now proceed to the military ; the strength of the 
 sword was entrusted to Hullin, commander of Paris, a dull, 
 heavy soldier, but firm, although equally stupid and awkward 
 in politics as the others. Let it be observed, that the exer- 
 cise of authority having become, for the principal func- 
 tionaries, a kind of mechanism, they saw nothing but passive 
 obedience ; that the Empress Maria-Louisa resided at St. 
 Cloud ; that, at this time, in the garrison of Paris, there 
 were none of those old fanatical troops, who, in the name of 
 the emperor, would have carried fire and sword everywhere : 
 that they had been replaced by cohorts recently organized, 
 the greater part of which were commanded by old patriotic 
 officers ; and, lastly, that th^ anxiety, respecting the event 
 of the Muscovite expedition, began to make the high func- 
 tionaries apprehensive for their security. It is evident, 
 therefore, that Paris, in this state of things would, by an ably 
 directed and vigorous coup de main, remain in possession of 
 the first that seized it. The immense distance of the emperor, 
 the irregularity and frequent interruption of the couriers, by 
 increasing the anxiety and preparing the public mind, threw 
 all the chances in favour of the person who should be daring, 
 enough to take advantage of a momentary stupor and alarm. 
 The emperor is dead ; the abolishment of the imperial 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 325 
 
 government by a senatorial decree, and the establishment of 
 a provisionary one, were the pivot of the conspiracy, of 
 which the mover and the head was Malet. He had himself 
 drawn up the senatus consultum^ decreeing the abolition of 
 the imperial government. 
 
 But it may be said, you see there was no decree of the 
 senate, there was no provisionary government, the emperor 
 was full of life and vigour, and the conspiracy was only 
 founded in a fiction. Now, how could Malet have accom- 
 plished it, supposing even that he had remained master of 
 Paris ? 
 
 It is true, there was no decree of the senate ; but it is 
 equally certain, that there was not in the senate a nucleus of 
 opposition, which might have been made to act according to 
 the circumstances. I lay it down as a fact, that, out of one 
 hundred and thirty senators, nearly sixty,' who were gener- 
 ally led by M. de Talleyrand, M. de Semonville and me, 
 would have seconded any resolution which would have 
 a salutary object, upon the mere manifestation of an under- 
 standing between these three influential men. Now such a 
 coalition was neither improbable, nor impracticable. 
 
 This possibility explains the creation of an eventual pro- 
 visional government composed of Messrs. Mathiew de 
 Montmorency, Alexis de Noailles, General Moreau, Count 
 Frochot, prefect of the Seine, and a fifth not named. This 
 fifth person was M. de Talleyrand, and I myself was to fill 
 the place of Moreau during his absence, whose name had 
 been introduced either to satisfy or divide the army. 
 
 As to Malet, a mere instrument, he would voluntarily 
 have resigned the command of Paris to Massena, who, as 
 well as myself, lived at that time in retirement and disgrace. 
 
 But answer, it may be said, this last and strongest objec- 
 tion — the emperor was living ! — True, but it should be 
 
 ' The same, no doubt, who eighteen months after, on the 2nd of April, 
 1814, had the courage, protected by two hundred thousand bayonets, to 
 declare Napoleon fallen from the throne. — Noie of the Editor, 
 
326 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 recollected how the imperial revolution which overthrew 
 Nero was effected (although I do not mean to establish a 
 parallel between the two characters). It was operated with 
 the assistance of false rumours and alarms, by a servile, but 
 suddenly unshackled, senate. Where was Napoleon at the 
 moment when Malet made his coup de main f He was 
 evacuating Moscow ; he was commencing his disastrous 
 retreat, which had only been foreseen, but which once ascer- 
 tained for a fact, would have decided the general defection, 
 if fifteen or twenty people of note had replaced, in the 
 name of the safety of France, the first movers of the con- 
 spiracy. Let it be recollected that the couriers and bulletins 
 were already intercepted ; that the twenty-sixth and twenty- 
 seventh bulletins, announcing the evacuation and the retreat, 
 and dated the 23rd of October, were only followed by the 
 twenty-eighth, dated the nth of November; being an 
 interval of twenty days, which would have amply sufficed 
 to ensure the success of a plot, the ramifications of which 
 will^ for a long time, remain unknown. For a month, 
 nothing was heard of but a continual succession of disasters, 
 the knowledge of which alone might have closed the gates 
 of France against the emperor for ever. At first believed 
 to be dead, he would only have been resuscitated, to be again 
 struck down by the decree of his forfeiture. Never did a 
 more favourable opportunity present itself for the overthrow 
 of his military dictatorship ; never would it have been ipore 
 easy to have established the basis of a government which 
 would have reconciled us with ourselves and with Europe. 
 This supposition being admitted, how many fresh calamities 
 would France have been spared ? 
 
 Now let us examine what were the causes of Malet's 
 failure, in the midst even of his triumph. Shall I say it ? 
 It was for having regulated his means of execution upon a 
 basis too widely philanthropic. We will explain. Malet, a 
 republican, belonging, as well as Guidal and Lahorie, his 
 accomplices, to the secret society of the Philadelphians, was 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 327 
 
 justly apprehensive lest he should revive the alarm of the 
 return of those sanguinary and mournful days which France 
 remembered with horror. This moral conviction overcame 
 every more decisive consideration, and instead of immedi- 
 ately putting to death Savary, Hullin, and the two adju- 
 tants, Doucet and Laborde, the leaders of the staff, Malet 
 thought it would be sufficient to arrest them, without 
 effusion of blood. He at first succeeded, with respect to 
 the police, which was disorganized the moment that Savary 
 and Pasquier permitted themselves to be surprised and 
 ignominiously dragged to prison. But when Hullin's 
 resistance had forced Malet to discharge his pistols, his 
 hesitation lost him, not being able to fire at the same time 
 upon Hullin and Laborde. The latter, being at liberty, had 
 time to rally a few men round him, and rushing upon 
 Malet, disarmed and arrested him. The conspiracy failed. 
 Malet died with great sang frotd, carrying with him the 
 secret of one of the boldest coups de main which the grand 
 epocha of our revolution bequeaths to history. 
 
 The facility with which this surprise of power was 
 effected seemed to indicate that it was not unexpected. 
 All was prepared at the Hotel de Ville, for the installation 
 of the provisionary government. Pale and trembling, the 
 arch-chancellor remained, till ten o'clock in the morning, a 
 prey to the most dreadful alarms, at one moment imagining 
 he was about to be killed, at another, that he should at least 
 share the dungeon with Savary. As to the people, it is true 
 they did nothing for the success of an enterprise at first 
 enveloped in the shades of night ; but they indirectly 
 seconded it by that vis iturtim which is always opposed to 
 bad governments. In short, although it had failed, this 
 conspiracy was a home-thrust to Napoleon's dynasty, by 
 revealing a secret, fatal to its founder, his family, and his 
 adherents ; viz., that his political establishment would end 
 with his life. 
 
 It was at Smolensko, on the 14th or i6th of November, 
 
328 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 that the emperor, amid the horrors of his retreat, received 
 the first information of the conspiracy, and the prompt 
 punishment of its authors. He was much troubled at it. 
 " What an impression," said he, " that will make in 
 France ! " Savary and Cambaceres urged him to keep a 
 strict eye upon the army, in which plots were formed 
 against his life. Extraordinary precautions were immedi- 
 ately taken ; a sacred band of officers most devoted to him 
 was formed, the command of which was intrusted to 
 Grouchy ; but this chosen body was soon involved in the 
 general wreck. Jealous, in the extreme, of all that could 
 menace his throne. Napoleon felt far more anxiety to pre- 
 serve that than to save the wrecks of his army, the retreat 
 of which he hurried on at any cost. Thanks to the unskilful 
 pursuit of Kutusow, he gained three days' march upon the 
 Russians, arrived at the Berezina, eluded the generals of the 
 Moldavian army, and, under protection of a most horrible 
 disaster, gained the opposite bank. The whole army in the 
 meantime was completely disbanded ; the only remains 
 which could here and there be perceived of it were wander- 
 ing spectres, sinking under the severity of cold, fatigue, and 
 wretchedness. Napoleon, having made up his mind to end, 
 as a fugitive, an expedition which was going to deprive him 
 of his laurels as a general, and tear him from his reputation 
 as a statesman, betook himself to flight in a sledge,, and 
 intrusted himself solely to Caulaincourt's devotedness ; dis- 
 guised, and with the utmost haste, he made for Paris, where 
 everything conspired to make him tremble for the loss of his 
 crown. At Warsaw he himself revealed to his ambassador 
 his situation, and the state of his mind, by those well-known 
 words : " From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but a 
 step." Ever agitated with the fear of never reaching France, 
 he strove to surmount danger by the rapidity of his flight, 
 traversing the whole of Germany in an impenetrable 
 incognito. In Silesia he was very nearly taken by the 
 Prussians; aiid at Dresden he, only escaped a plot for his 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 329 
 
 seizure because Lord Walpole, who was at Vienna, dared 
 not give the signal. 
 
 And as if fortune had wished- to pursue him to extremi- 
 ties, he re-entered the palace of the Tuileries on the 1 8th of 
 December, the day after the publication of his twenty-ninth 
 bulletin, which carried mourning into so many families. But 
 this was, on his part, a new snare, held out to the devoted- 
 ness and credulity of a generous nation ; who, struck with 
 consternation, thought that their chief, chastened by mis- 
 fortune, was ready to seize the first favourable opportunity 
 of bringing back peace, and of, at length, consolidating the 
 foundation of general happiness. 
 
 This was the reason why France willingly made the 
 greatest sacrifices to support a man whose only success had 
 been to tread the ashes of Moscow, and carry desolation 
 into a vast extent of country, which he had left covered with 
 the corpses of a hundred and fifty thousand of his own 
 subjects, and those of his allies, after abandoning a still 
 greater number of prisoners and the whole of his artillery 
 and magazines. Of four hundred thousand men in arms 
 who had crossed the Niemen, scarcely thirty thousand 
 repassed that river five months afterwards, and, of those, 
 two-thirds had not seen the Kremlin. 
 
 Napoleon, however, appeared at first far less concerned on 
 account of the loss of his army than about the conspiracy 
 which had revealed so fatal a secret as the fragility of the 
 foundation of his empire. Tormented by the idea of his 
 death having been anticipated, his careworn brow appeared 
 bending beneath clouds of gloom ; the conspiracy was the 
 object of his first words, his first inquiries. He closeted him- 
 self with Cambac6res, and sifted him narrowly in a long and 
 secret conversation. Savary was next sent for, whom he 
 overwhelmed with questions and reproaches ; he afterwards 
 gave audience to several members of his council, and 
 appeared still wholly occupied with the conspiracy, while 
 his ministers and agents were in the utmost, alarm. But his 
 
330 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 police, being interested in representing the plot as an 
 isolated one, afKrmed that the whole of it originated in 
 Malet ; such was also the opinion of Cambaceres, of the 
 minister at war, and of the conficjential advisers, who con- 
 firmed Napoleon in the idea that the greatest danger he had 
 to fear, and against which he should be on his guard, was in 
 the reminiscences of the republic. Enraged with the prefect 
 of the Seine, a pupil of Mirabeau's, and whom we have seen 
 bending before the conspirators, he issued a Philippic against 
 pusillanimous magistrates^ who, said he, " are the destruc- 
 tion of the empire, of the laws, and of the throne. Our 
 fathers had for their rallying cry. The king is dead : long 
 live the king ! A few words," added Napoleon, " containing 
 the principal advantages of monarchy." All the bodies of 
 the state immediately came to assure him of their present 
 and future fidelity. Lacepede, the speaker of the senate, 
 designating the body to which he belonged as the first 
 council of the emperor^ added with great rapidity, " whose 
 authority exists only when the monarch requires it and gives 
 it movement." This allusion to the spring of which Malet 
 had availed himself, struck the senators very forcibly. In 
 his answer to the council of state. Napoleon, attributing all 
 the misfortunes which beautiful France had undergone to 
 ideology (gloorny metaphysics), took occasion to cast reflec- 
 tions upon philosophy and liberty. He did not perceive 
 that by ceasing to keep up the revolution and its principles, 
 he ceased to command its aid and support ; and that by 
 preaching up the maxims of monarchical legitimacy, he was 
 opening to the Bourbons the ways which the revolution had 
 closed against them. And yet, in great crises, the Bourbons 
 were ever uppermost in his thoughts. Besides what I have 
 myself seen and heard of him in this respect, I was at this 
 time made acquainted with the following fact. Ney, when 
 relating to me the disasters of the retreat, and putting the 
 firmness .of his own military conduct in opposition to the 
 want of foresight and stupor of Napoleon, added, that he 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 331 
 
 observed in him a kind of mental aberration. "I thought 
 him mad," said Ney to me : " when, struck with the grbat- 
 ness of his misfortune, at the moment of his departure he 
 said to us, Hke a man who saw himself utterly deprived of 
 all resource, ' The Bourbons would get out of this : ' " — an 
 observation, the sense of which escaped Ney, who was 
 incapable of combining two political ideas. 
 
 Napoleon's object, therefore, now was, to establish the 
 superiority of the fourth dynasty over the third^ and to 
 surmount the crisis. All the different bodies of the state 
 were now seen engaged in resolving a new question of public 
 right, in consequence of the impulse they had received from 
 the cabinet, and of the first words which fell from their 
 master's lips. "I will," said he to them, " reflect upon the 
 different epochas of our history." Every one immediately 
 began thinking of the means of securing the. hereditary 
 possession. The different speakers hastened to develop 
 and explain the new doctrine ; nothing was now heard of 
 but succession, legitimate rights ; these were the theme of 
 all public speeches. " The king of Rome," said they, " must 
 be crowned upon the express request of the senate, and a 
 solemn oath must, in anticipation, unite the empire to the 
 successor to the throne." 
 
 Such was the measure upon which the man relied, who, 
 indebted to the revolution for a vast power, the magic of 
 which he had just destroyed, renounced that very revolution, 
 and separated himself from it. He, however, felt all the 
 instability of a throne, the sole support of which is the sword. 
 
 Whilst he was thus exclaiming against the men and the 
 principles of the revolution, he recollected me, me against 
 whom he had indulged so much suspicious jealousy. Besides, 
 could he ever pardon me the warnings I had given him, and 
 my importunate foresight ? I was informed that he had 
 instituted a secret inquiry respecting my conduct connected 
 with Malet's affair ; but that all the reports had agreed as to 
 my circumspection and non-participation in it. Unable to 
 
332 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 reach me, he wounded me in the person of my friend, M. 
 Malouet, whom he never pardoned for having openly visited 
 me during my disgrace, this undisguised friendship between 
 a revolutionary and a royalist patriot making him more 
 uneasy ; besides, he was irritated against him on account of 
 the spirit of opposition which Malouet evinced in the dis- 
 cussion at the council-board, against so many extravagant 
 and vexatious measures. Being removed from the council 
 of state, Malouet was exiled to Tours, where he led the life 
 of a philosopher, less affected by his own disgrace than by 
 the evils which afHicted his country. His disgrace was to 
 me an additional motive to persist in the same reserve 
 towards a government, which in its despair, in its vengeance, 
 might be restrained by no consideration. Its power already 
 began to totter, and experienced eyes could perceive the 
 elements of its destruction. But seconded by his intimate 
 councillors, Napoleon employed every artifice calculated to 
 palliate our disasters, and conceal from us their inevitable 
 consequences. He assembled the whole phalanx of his 
 flatterers, now become the organs of his will ; he tutored 
 them, and all, with one voice, attributed the loss of our 
 army, and the fatal issue of the campaign, solely to the 
 rigour of the elements. By the aid of deception of every 
 kind, they succeeded in making it be believed that all might 
 be repaired if the nation did but show itself great and 
 generous ; that fresh sacrifices could not cost her anything 
 when weighed against the preservation of its independence 
 and glory. The public spirit was stimulated by addresses, 
 begged of the chief of cohorts of the first bans of the national 
 guards, who requested to march against the enemy out of 
 France, and also by offers from the departments and com- 
 munes to furnish cavalry, offers commanded by the govern- 
 ment itself. Napoleon endeavoured, at the same time, to 
 gain over new creatures to his interest, and to secure vacil- 
 lating affections ; he distributed secret bribes drawn from 
 his own treasures, which he had already diminished by 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 333 
 
 nearly a hundred millions, for his expenses in the Russian 
 war. This time he distributed his riches with a lavish 
 hand, for the double purpose of creating a new army, and of 
 keeping in pay the ministers of certain cabinets, in order to 
 maintain them in his interests. It was in his treasures that 
 he found an army of reserve. 
 
 In the meantime he held privy councils, which were 
 attended by Cambacerds, Lebrun, Talleyrand, Champagny, 
 Marat, and Caulaincourt. Maret, who had arrived from 
 Berlin, affirmed that he had received from the Prussian 
 ministers, and from the king himself, the strongest protesta- 
 tions that they would persevere in our alliance ; he added, 
 that every circumstance ought to set the emperor's mind at 
 ease, respecting the aifairs of" the north. Whether Maret 
 really spoke sincerely, or whether all was concerted for the 
 purpose of spurring on the council, which leaned towards 
 negotiations, Napoleon, affecting greater confidence, said, 
 that he could rely upon Austria, and, according to all 
 appearance, upon Prussia ; that consequently there was 
 nothing alarming in his situation ; that besides he found his 
 brother Joseph again at Madrid, and the English driven 
 back into Portugal ; in addition to which, he had already 
 under arms one hundred cohorts, and the anticipated levy of 
 the conscripts 1 81 3. He decided that the Spanish war and 
 that of the north should be carried on together. 
 
 On the other hand, the contents of Otto's ' correspondence 
 got wind ; it was known that Lord Walpole had made 
 Austria the most brilliant offers ; that he had represented 
 all Germany as ready to rise, and France on the eve of a 
 revolution. Otto added that the defection of Austria might 
 be expected. But this cabinet, being soon informed that 
 Napoleon had again seized the reins of power, that he was 
 making fresh levies, and that, in the interior, there was no 
 appearance of a crisis, hastened to despatch to Paris Count 
 Bubna. Otto also changed his tone, and his letters were in 
 ' Napoleon's ambassador at Vienna. 
 
334 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 perfect unison with the assertions of Austria, whom he 
 represented as only desirous of interfering, as mediator, for 
 a general pacification. 
 
 , Full of confidence. Napoleon gave the word to his official 
 organ, the Momteur ; according to its representations, 
 " Austria and France are inseparable, no continental power 
 will detach her from him ; besides, forty millions of French- 
 men have nothing to fear. ... If it be desired to know," 
 adds he, " the conditions to which I would subscribe for a 
 general peace, reference must be made to the letter written 
 by the Duke of Bassano to Lord Castlereagh, previous to the 
 campaign of Russia ; " which was equivalent tO saying that 
 he consented, as if he had experienced no reverse at Moscow, 
 to leave Sicily to Ferdinand IV., and Portugal to the house 
 of Braganza, but that no other sacrifice was to be required 
 of him. 
 
 The news of the defection of a Prussian corps, commanded 
 by Yorck, having arrived, " What sufficed yesterday," cried 
 Napolepn, " is not sufficient to-day ; " and all his councillors 
 perceived that very instant what use was to be made of such 
 an event. Maret drew up a report, stuffed, according to 
 custom, with invectives against the British government, and 
 concluding by proposing a levy of three hundred and fifty 
 thousand men. Regnault de St. Jean d'Angely hastened to 
 the senate, and, in the name of the emperor, required the 
 service of the young Frenchmen forming the hundred 
 cohorts, and who had been assured that they should only be 
 required to attend military games and martial exercises in 
 the interior ; a senatus consultum placed them at the dis- 
 posal of the emperor. 
 
 The legislative body was assembled, in order to vote the 
 supplies. " Peace," said Napoleon, in his opening speech, 
 " is necessary to the world ; but I will never make but one 
 honourable and consonant to the greatness of my empire." 
 Nothing could be more pompous than the exposi of his 
 situation presented by. Montalivet, the . minister of the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 335 
 
 interior ; everything, population, agriculture, manufactures, 
 commerce, public instruction, and even the navy, was in the 
 most flourishing and prosperous condition. Then came the 
 presentation of the budget by Count Mole, councillor of 
 state ; and here the worthy pupil of Fontanes, astonished at 
 so much prosperity, exclaimed, in concluding his speechj 
 " To produce so many wonders, twelve years' war and one 
 single man sufficed ! " And immediately eleven hundred 
 and fifty millions were, without discussion, placed at the 
 disposal of this one man. 
 
 He had reckoned, among the urgent affairs, the accommoda- 
 tion of his differences with the pope, who, since the month 
 of June, had been confined to the palace of Fontainebleau. 
 Under pretence of a hunting party, Napoleon hastened to 
 extort from him a new concordat, despoiling him of his 
 temporalities, but which the holy father retracted almost 
 immediately afterwards. Religious matters became in conse- 
 quence more and more embroiled. 
 
 The open defection of Prussia no longer left any doubts 
 upon the progress of the coalition. Frederick William, 
 suddenly quitting Berlin, had fled to Breslau, protected by 
 the good-nature of our ambassador. Saint Marsan, and in some 
 degree under the aegis of Augereau, who had suffered himself 
 to be humanized. Nothing could exceed the benignity of 
 our generals and our ambassadors since our reverses. Upon 
 receiving the news that the King of Prussia had escaped 
 him, Napoleon regretted he had not treated him as he had 
 done Ferdinand VII. and the pope. " This is not the first 
 instance," said he, " that in politics, generosity is a bad 
 counsellor." He generous towards Prussia ! ! ! 
 
 In the meantime, the reflux of the war, rushing from the 
 ruins of Moscow, proceeded rapidly towards the Oder and 
 the Elbe. Eugene, who had rallied a few thousand men, 
 had successively retired upon the Walthe, the Oder, the 
 Sprde, the Elbe, and the Saale. The German insurrection, 
 excited by the secret societies, spread itself from town to 
 
336 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 town, and from village to village, and the number of 
 Napoleon's enemies daily increased. How could we depend 
 upon our allies ? From the defection of Prussia, we had 
 reason to anticipate that of many others. Determined to 
 face everything, Napoleon, like a spendthrift, demanding, in 
 advance, his revenue of men, ordered the conscription of 
 1814 to be put at his disposal. He and his favourites 
 flattered themselves with raising an army of a thousand 
 battalions, presenting an effective force of eight hundred 
 thousand men, and four hundred squadrons, or one hundred 
 thousand horse ; in all, a million of soldiers to feed and pay. 
 He lulled himself with this flattering chimera, and his 
 ministers already demanded an additional sum of three 
 hundred millions. 
 
 On the other hand, one hundred and sixty thousand con- 
 scripts were wandering~"about the country, deserting from 
 their standards, and protected by the disaffected spirit of 
 the provinces. Napoleon dreaded this silent rebellion to 
 military law, to which nothing but leaders were wanting, 
 but who would be found ready when the opportunity required 
 presented itself : what did he do ? By the most artful of 
 plans, he collected together, in a guard of honour, ten 
 thousand young men, selected from the richest and most 
 illustrious families ; these were as so many hostages of their 
 parents' loyalty. 
 
 The mediation of Austria being unsuccessful. Napoleon 
 again endeavoured to open a direct communication with the 
 English ministry ; for this purpose, he despatched the 
 banker Labouchere, who, however, did not meet with a 
 more favourable reception than he did in my time. On her 
 side, Prussia, who had just entered into alliance with Russia, 
 proposed an armistice, upon condition that Napoleon would 
 content himself with the line of the Elbe, and would cede 
 all the places on the Oder and the Vistula. In our cabinet, 
 ^ party persisted in affirming that peace was still possible ; 
 M. de Talleyrand said, that we still had it in our power not 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH± 337 
 
 to fight ; Lebrun and Caulaincourt were likewise of opinion 
 that the offer of Prussia should be accepted, and that negotia- 
 tions should be entered upon. But how could Napoleon be 
 persuaded to give up the fortresses ? He could not make 
 up his mind to cede anything by negotiation. " Let them 
 take what they can from me," said he, " but I will not give 
 up anything." 
 
 He made his journals say, " Spain belongs to the French 
 dynasty ; no human effort can hinder it." Being informed 
 on the 31st of March that the Russians had begun to cross 
 the Elbe, he, himself, declared, through the medium of 
 these same journals, " that the enemy's batteries, placed 
 on the heights of Montmartre, could never make him yield 
 an inch of territory." 
 
 And yet he received, from every quarter, pacific councils 
 and useful advice. 
 
 I was hurt to see M. de Talleyrand, if not restored to 
 favour, at least recalled to the council-board, whilst I 
 remained inactive and in disgrace. I perceived the reason 
 of it to be the impression which the Malet plot, to which a 
 republican and liberal colour had affectedly been given, had 
 left ; it might also be imputed to my remonstrances against 
 the war with Russia. Certain, however, that sooner or later 
 my advice would be required, I thought it expedient to 
 hasten the period. I was not ignorant that an address from 
 Louis XVin. to the French people, dated from Hartwell, 
 1st of February, was being clandestinely circulated, in which 
 the senate was invited to become the instrument of a great 
 service. I knew that the emperor was aware of this docu- 
 ment, the authenticity of which, however, might be 
 questioned, as it had not given rise in England to any public 
 observation or discussion. I procured a copy of it, which I 
 addressed to him, assuring him, at the same time, of its 
 genuineness. 
 
 I represented to him, in my letter, that his triumphs had 
 lulled the Faubourg St. Germain, but that his reverses had 
 
 23 
 
338 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 again aroused it ; that these reverses had produced a vast 
 change in the opinion of Europe ; that, even in France, the 
 public mind had already undergone a change ; that the 
 partisans of the Bourbon family were on the alert ; that they 
 would secretly re-organize themselves the instant that the 
 power of the head of the empire should lose its fascination ; 
 that weariness of war was the most general and the deepest 
 feeling ; that nothing short of the national honour was 
 required to enforce the necessity of conquering peace by a 
 new campaign, in which the whole population were to be in 
 arms, in order to support negotiations so anxiously expected ; 
 that, for our safety and his own, he must either make peace, 
 or convert the war into a national one ; that too implicit a 
 confidence on the alliance of Austria would inevitably be his 
 destruction ; that great sacrifices must be made to Austria, 
 and that what could not be withheld from her should be 
 returned with the utmost promptitude ; that I did not con- 
 sider M. Otto as a person adequate to the discussion of such 
 complicated political interests, especially when opposed to 
 M. de Metternich ; and I pointed out M. de Narbonne as 
 alone able to penetrate the real intentions of Austria, whose 
 conduct was so very equivocal. 
 
 It was not till after the lapse of a fortnight or three weeks, 
 that I had a proof that my letter (though unanswered) had 
 produced its eiFect, by the mission of M. de Narbonne to 
 Vienna ; I neither wished for, nor expected more ; the rest 
 was to follow sooner or later. I could rely upon the influence 
 and credit of M. de Narbonne, whose mission was of the 
 highest importance. 
 
 However, it must not excite astonishment, if, at the 
 moment when Prussia obtained the levy en masse of the 
 people of Germany, in the rear of the armies of the northern 
 confederacy ; if, at the moment, when she held out to the 
 German nation its deliverance as the object of the war, that 
 Napoleon voluntarily rejected the first defence he could 
 have, — that of a national war. He was well aware he could 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA, 339 
 
 only obtain a burst of patriotic enthusiasm, by regaining the 
 public opimon> — by making to us concessions, easy to another, 
 but which would have cost him his heart's blood, as they 
 would have inflicted a wound upon his pride, and have been 
 a curb upon his power. I was, therefore, convinced that he 
 would no more acquiesce in such a measure, than in ceding 
 to Prussia the places upon the Vistula and the Oder, and, to 
 Austria, the Tyrol and Illyria. Napoleon thought he could 
 meet all difficulties by the formation of a new army of three 
 hundred thousand men, and by organizing a regency, in case 
 even of his death. 
 
 By conferring it upon Maria-Louisa, with the right of 
 assisting at the diiferent councils of state, his object was two- 
 fold ; to flatter Austria, and, at the same time, to prevent 
 any plot in favour of a provisionary government. But, as 
 the empress regent could not authorize, by her signature, 
 the presentation of any senatus consuJtum, nor the promulga- 
 tion of any law, the part she had to act was limited to her 
 appearance at the council-board. Besides, she was herself 
 under the tutorship of Cambacerfes, who was himself directed 
 by Savary. The ex-minister, Champagny, made also part 
 of the regency, under the name of secretary ; whose duty it 
 was to enter into a new register, ridiculously called the state- 
 book, the definitive intention of the absent emperor. In fact, 
 after the regency was set in motion, the soul of the govern- 
 ment did not the less travel post with Napoleon, who did 
 not fail of issuing forth numerous decrees from all his 
 movable headquarters. 
 
 The allies, after several battles, were preparing to cross 
 the Elbe, when the emperor, after having displayed extra- 
 ordinary activity, during three months, in his preparations, 
 quitted Paris on the i Sth of April, and proceeded to place 
 himself at the head of his troops. 
 
 At first, he astonished Europe by the creation and sudden 
 appearance, in the very heart of Germany, of a new army 
 of two hundred thousand men, which enabled him to act 
 
340 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 on the offensive. By gaining two battles successively, the 
 one at Bautzen, in Saxony, the other at Wurtchen, beyond 
 the Spree, he recovered the reputation of his military 
 talents. The first consequence of these victories was tor' 
 bring back to us the King of Saxony, who again threw 
 himself headlong into our alliance. 
 
 The Prusso-Russians, whom Napoleon had defeated, — 
 that is to say, the troops of Frederick William and the 
 Emperor Alexander, continued their retreat towards the 
 Oder, and he permitted himself to be drawn on in pursuit. 
 But in proportion as he advanced, he separated himself 
 from his reinforcements, whilst the allies, on the contrary, 
 fell back upon theirs. 
 
 Suddenly the news of an armistice was noised about 
 Paris. Napoleon acceded to it, as he stood in need of 
 reinforcements of every kind, and because he feared, under 
 the cloak of mediation, the armed interference of Austria. 
 
 The question was now, to decide where the line of de- 
 marcation between the two armies should stop. The two 
 points which they warmly disputed were Hamburg and 
 Breslau. The Prussians insisted, with the greatest ob- 
 stinacy, upon being left in possession of Silesia. Napoleon 
 was apprehensive that the enemy's object, in the armistice, 
 was rather to strengthen themselves for war than to use it 
 as a preliminary to peace ; he determined however to 
 acquiesce, the general wish around him being for a 
 suspension of arms. He, therefore, gave up Breslau, 
 abandoned the line of the Oder, and consented to withdraw 
 his army upon Leignitz. The armistice was concluded on 
 the 4th of June at Plessevig ; and Napoleon again fixed his 
 headquarters at Dresden. 
 
 Such were the events which occupied the first two 
 months of a campaign which was about to decide the fate 
 of Europe. They had, both on his and on the other side 
 of the Rhine, wound up public attention to the highest 
 possible pitch of excitement and anxiety. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 341 
 
 The armistice was as a respite ; the nations now flattered 
 themselves with the hope of an approaching peace — the 
 object universally desired. Was it not thus, besides, that 
 Napoleon, after all his victories, had succeeded in pacifying 
 Europe ? But, to an observer, how much times were 
 altered ! At that time, for want of information that could 
 be depended upon, we had in Paris but very imperfect ideas 
 upon events, the secret springs of which we were equally 
 ignorant of. 
 
 I was expecting news firom headquarters, by an indirect 
 channel, when I received from the arch-chancellor an invi- 
 tation to confer with him upon a subject of importance. 
 He informed me that he was commanded by the emperor 
 to make a communication to me. The emperor, who had 
 determined upon again accepting my services, desired that, 
 at the same time he wrote to the King of Naples, requesting 
 him to repair to Dresden, I should avail myself of the 
 intimacy 1 enjoyed with that prince to determine him not 
 to defer acquiescing in the emperor's wish ; I was to 
 represent to him that it became absolutely necessary that 
 we should make in Saxony the greatest display possible of 
 our forces, and of our resources, both military and political, 
 in order to induce the enemy to conclude a peace which 
 should be honourable for us. The arch-chancellor gave me 
 the emperor's letter to read, to which he joined his own 
 entreaties, adding that he had not the least doubt but I 
 should be immediately called to fill a mission which would 
 not be inferior either to my talents or rank. I replied that 
 I was ready to fulfil the emperor's wishes ; that I would, 
 that moment, write to the King of Naples, and would 
 communicate the contents of my letter to him, in order that 
 he might report them to his majesty. 
 
 Although, from preceding circumstances, I expected that 
 I should soon be recalled into activity, I could not doubt as 
 to what I should direct my views. I was mistrustful of 
 Italy, which, in x;ase of the resumption- of hostilities, 
 
342 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 would only be for me an honourable exile, dictated by 
 suspicion. However, I wrote my letter to Murat, who was 
 himself in no ordinary position. 
 
 Joachim Murat, a brave and noble-minded general, but a 
 king without any firmness or decision in his resolves, had 
 created for himself, at Naples, a species of popularity and 
 military power ; he was so much dazzled with this, as to 
 wish to shake off the yoke of Napoleon, who only considered 
 him as an obedient vassal. It was not without difficulty 
 that he had obeyed Napoleon's orders, in forming part of 
 the Russian expedition with his contingent, formed of twelve 
 thousand Neapolitans and a part of his guard. It was to 
 him that Napoleon, when he fled, confided the command of 
 the wretched remains of his army. Joachim, foreseeing the 
 changes which were about to take place in the political 
 system of Europe, resolved to return to his kingdom, and 
 endeavour to preserve himself from the consequences of such 
 a disaster. He quitted the army of Posen, and ten days 
 after (27th of January, 1813), the Montteur announced his 
 departure in these terms ; " The King of Naples, being 
 indisposed, has been obliged to retire from the command of 
 the army, which he has resigned into the hands of the 
 prince viceroy. The latter is more accustomed to the 
 direction of large masses, and possesses the entire confidence 
 of the emperor." 
 
 This official sally was the more galling to Murat, from the 
 emperor having, during the two preceding years, made him 
 feel that he was but a vassal of the grand empire. Murat, 
 perceiving that he must expect the fate of his brother-in- 
 law, Louis, if the emperor, surmounting his disasters, should 
 recover his ascendency, sought the alliance of Austria, which 
 was not as yet detached from Napoleon. His first com- 
 munications with the court of Vienna were managed by 
 Count Mier, the Austrian minister at Naples. Some 
 negotiations also took place with Lord BentincH, comhiander 
 of the English forces in Sicily. Joachim and Lord Bentinck 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 343 
 
 had even a secret interview in the island of Ponza ; but 
 Murat was watched by Bonaparte. 
 
 When it was known at Naples that the emperor, after 
 gaining the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, was assembling 
 a numerous army in Saxony, Queen Caroline wrote to her 
 brother, requesting he would be more considerate towards 
 her husband, and used all her influence with the king to 
 induce him to break off his rash connections with Austria 
 and England. Napoleon wrote to Murat, who, at first, 
 refused to proceed to Saxony. He then caused a very 
 affectionate letter to be written to him, in which Berthier, in 
 the name of the emperor, entreated him to repair to head- 
 quarters, assuring him, that in all probability the campaign 
 would not be opened ; that negotiations for peace were 
 about to be commenced, and that his own interests 
 imperatively demanded his presence. My letter was nearly 
 in the same terms ; and I flattered him by adding that glory 
 was to be won there, and that his honour required that he 
 should join his brothers in arms. Murat no longer hesitated. 
 Before even he could have received my despatch, a courier 
 from Dresden brought me an order from the emperor, 
 requiring my presence at headquarters. I immediately 
 concluded, that being as much apprehensive of my presence 
 at Paris, as of that of Murat at Naples, we might consider 
 ourselves as two hostages whom he was anxious to have in 
 his power. I made some hasty preparations, and set off for 
 Dresden via Mayence. 
 
 The defence of Mayence, our principal key to the Rhine, 
 was confided to Augereau, with whom I was anxious to 
 have an interview, and who was also ordered to form a corps 
 of observation on the Maine. I found him very incredulous 
 as to the peace, finding much fault with Napoleon, and 
 expressing much pity for the poor inhabitants of Mayence, 
 who were in the utmost alarm at the idea of a siege and the 
 ruin of the beautiful environs of their city. Finding that 
 he was completely master of all that had occurred, I set him 
 
344 MEMOIRS OF FOVCHE. 
 
 a babbling. " Adieu, now," said he, "to our days of glory ! 
 Alas ! how little do these two victories, with which Napoleon 
 makes all Paris re-echo, resemble those of our famous 
 campaigns in Italy, where Bonaparte was my pupil in a 
 science which he only now abuses. How great is the 
 difficulty now to make even a few marches in advance. At 
 Lutzen, our centre had given away ; several battalions even 
 had disbanded themselves ; in vain did our two wings, by 
 extending themselves, threaten to surround the forces 
 accumulated by the enemy at the centre ; we should have 
 been lost, but for sixteen battalions of the young guard and 
 forty-eight pieces of cannon. I tell you," continued his, 
 " we can only calculate upon the superiority of our artillery ; 
 we have taught them to beat us. After Bautzen, he forced 
 the passage of the Elbe, and made himself an opening into 
 the north ; but he was obliged to stop before Wurtzen, on 
 the other side of the Spree, and there we only carried the 
 position and the entrenched camp by immense loss of blood. 
 I have letters from headquarters, and from these this 
 horrible butchery has produced no advantages ; no cannon 
 taken, nor prisoners. In a hilly country like this, the enemy 
 are everywhere found entrenched, and disputing the ground 
 with invariable success. The battle of Reichenbach was 
 disadvantageous to us. Observe also, that in this short 
 opening of the campaign, a cannon-ball carried off Bessieres, 
 on this side the Elbe, while another killed Duroc at 
 Reichenbach ; Duroc, the only friend he had left ! The 
 same day, Bruyeres and Kirgemer fell also under random 
 bullets. What a war ! " cried Augereau, continuing his 
 disheartening reflections, "what a war is this ! it will be the 
 end of us all ! What is he now about at Dresden ? He will 
 not make peace ; he will get himself surrounded by five 
 hundred thousand men ; for rely upon it, Austria will be as 
 little faithful to him as Prussia. Yes, if he persist, and be 
 not killed, which he will not be, good-bye to us all." 
 
 These observations sufficiently convinced me of the truth 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOWCHA. 345 
 
 of what I had akeady heard, that an impatience for peace 
 and for returning to Paris, formed the anxious desire of 
 almost every general whose fortune was made. Dresden 
 presented to me, at the same time, the idea of a vast 
 entrenched camp, and a capital city. The forests in the 
 vicinity were being felled by the axes of the pioneers. Upon 
 my arrival, I everywhere found the earth dug Up, trees felled, 
 ditches, and palisadoes being made. The emperor was 
 continually on horseback, overlooking the works, and 
 surve3nng the surrounding country, accompanied by Ber- 
 their, Soult, and the geographical engineer Bacler d'Alby ; 
 he was almost continually, with the map in his hand, 
 examining all the openings which led into the plain of 
 Dresden. The construction of bridges, the tracing of roads, 
 the erection of redoubts and the formation of camps, formed 
 also the principal objects in his excursions and rides. 
 
 All these fortiiications and lines might be considered as 
 the advanced works of Dresden, the central point of a strong 
 position on the higher bank of the Elbe ; the works on the 
 right bank round the city were nearly finished ; peasants, 
 put in requisition from all parts of Saxony, were labouring 
 at their completion. The emperor had completely sur- 
 rounded the city by ditches and palisadoes, supplying the 
 intervals left by the walls ; the approaches were also defended 
 by a line of advanced redoubts, the cross-fires of which 
 commanded the country to a considerable distance. Not 
 confining himself to fortify the environs of Dresden, he had 
 established along the whole line of the Elbe, upon the banks 
 of that river, his cavalry ; the advance of which was at 
 Dresden, while its rear reached to Hamburg. The towns 
 of Kcenigstein, Dresden, Torgau, Wittenberg, and Magde- 
 burg, were his principal fortified points upon the Elbe, and 
 secured to him the possession of that large and beautiful 
 valley. All these works, begun and prosecuted with the 
 utmost ardour, suificiently revealed that Napoleon's plan 
 was to concentrate a great part of his forces in the environs 
 
346 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 of Dresden, there to await the course of events. Thus I 
 found him much occupied with negotiations, after having 
 chosen the environs of Dresden for his field of battle, and 
 the line of the Elbe for his rallying point. The majority 
 of his generals considered Dresden as possessing all the 
 advantages of a central position proper to serve as a pivot 
 for the emperor's intended operations. There were, how- 
 ever, some who owned to me that, if Austria declared itself, 
 we should find ourselves in an awkward predicament, being 
 exposed to an attack between the Elbe and the Rhine. They 
 considered the division of the enemies' forces, though 
 separate, as forming three grand masses. Towards the 
 north, on the Berlin road, the army of Bernadotte, Prince 
 of Sweden ; towards the east, on the road to Silesia, the 
 army of Blucher ; and behind the mountains of Bohemia, 
 the Austrian army of observation, under Schwartzenberg ; 
 for, at headquarters, the Austrians were already looked 
 upon as on the point of declaring against us. 
 
 Being informed that the emperor had returned to the 
 palace of Marcolini, in Friederichstadt, I hastened to present 
 myself at his audience. He called me into his cabinet ; 
 I found him very serious. " You have come late, my Lord 
 Duke," said he to me. " Sire, I have used the utmost 
 diligence in obeying your majesty's commands." " Why 
 were you not here before my grand discussion with Metter- 
 nich ? you would have fathomed him." " Sire, it was not 
 my fault." "Those people wish to dictate laws to me 
 without a sword being drawn ; and do you know who most 
 annoy me at this moment ? Your two friends, Bernadotte 
 and Metternich ; the one makes an open, the other an 
 underhand, war against me." "But, sire!" .... "Call 
 upon Berthier ; he will communicate to you everything 
 respecting our present situation, and will you put au fait 
 to all ; you must then give me your ideas upon this infernal 
 Austrian negotiation, which is slipping through my fingers ; 
 all your ability is required to preserve it. However, I will 
 

MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 347 
 
 no way compromise my power or my glory ! Those 
 scoundrels are so hard ; they want, without fighting, the 
 money and the provinces which I only obtained at the 
 sword's point. I have arranged matters well, as to the chief 
 point : Narbonne has undeceived us ; you will see what his 
 opinion is. Speak with Berthier as soon as possible, give 
 the matter mature consideration, and let me see you in two 
 days." 
 
 Upon withdrawing, I found it was impossible for me that 
 day to converse with Berthier, who, having become, since 
 Duroc's death, his confidant, both in politics and military 
 affairs, was continually with the emperor, and was even a 
 constant guest at his table. He put off the interview till the 
 day following. In the meantime, a member of the cabinet 
 made me acquainted with two circumstances which had just 
 overshadowed our political horizon, and rendered the hopes 
 of peace still more uncertain. I mean the political dispute 
 of Count Metternich with the emperor (of which I shall soon 
 speak), and the intelligence, which arrived that very day, of 
 the complete defeat of our army in Spain, at Vittoria ; a 
 defeat which left the Peninsula at the mercy of Wellington, 
 and brought the war to the foot of the Pyrenees. Such an 
 event, known at Prague, could not fail producing a baleful 
 influence upon the pending negotiations. The emperor, 
 confounded at this new reverse, which he imputed to the 
 inability of Joseph and Jourd'an, looked around for a general, 
 capable of repairing so many errors. This choice fell upon 
 Marshal Soult, at that time near his person, in his guard. 
 He enjoined him to go and rally his forces, and to defend, 
 inch by inch, the passage of the Pyrenees. Soult would not 
 have hesitated, had not his wife, recently arrived at Dresden, 
 with a splendid equipage, shown some repugnance, and 
 refused to return to Spain, "where," said she, "nothing 
 is to be got but blows." As she possessed considerable 
 influence over her husband, Soult, being much annoyed, 
 had recourse to the emperor, who immediately sent for the 
 
348 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 duchess. She made her appearance with an air of vast 
 importance, and assuming an imperious tone, declared that 
 her husband should not return to Spain ; that he had served 
 there too long, and stood in need of repose. " Madame," 
 cried Napoleon, enraged, "I did not send for you to hear 
 this insolence ; I am not your husband ; and if I were, you 
 would conduct yourself differently. Recollect that woman's 
 province is to obey ; return to your husband, and let him 
 be quiet." She was obliged to submit ; to sell horses, 
 carriages, &c. &c., and in dudgeon, take the road to the 
 western Pyrenees. This scene, with a -haughty duchess, 
 furnished much amusement at headquarters, and acted as 
 a diversion to the malicious chit-chat, of which one of our 
 most beautiful actresses. Mademoiselle de Bourgoin, had 
 recently been the object. Having been sent for to Dresden, 
 with the ih'te of the Comidte Franfatse, and being invited 
 one day to breakfast with the emperor, in company with 
 Berthier and Caulaincourt, she had, it is said, after laying 
 aside the character of Melpomene, successively assumed 
 that of Hebe, Terpischore, and Thais. 
 
 But let us pass on to more serious circumstances. I, at 
 length, obtained an interview with Berthier, who had a small 
 apartment in the Briihl ' palace. It would be tiresome to 
 relate v^rhatim^ our long conversation upon the military and 
 political position of the emperor at this time. I shall only 
 give here the portion really historical, introducing some 
 ideas, drawn from my own recollections. We will com- 
 mence by the Austrian negotiation. Narbonne, writing 
 from Vienna towards the end of April, was the first to 
 inform us that Austria could be but little depended upon, 
 he having forced from M. de Metternich the avowal, that 
 the treaty of alliance of the 14th of March, 1812, no longer 
 appeared applicable to existing circumstances ; he called for 
 
 ' We suppose it to be the same thing with the palace of Marcolini, which 
 was occupied by Napoleon, and formerly belonged to the Count de Briihl, 
 a minister of Augustus III., the Elector of Saxony, the King of Poland.— 
 Note by the French Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 349 
 
 a serious attention to the demands and armaments of Austria. 
 The emperor immediately conceived the idea of, at least, 
 neutralizing the cabinet of Vienna, by means of two negotia^ 
 tions : the one official, the other secret ; he flattered himself 
 with destroying the influence of the northern coalition, and 
 to do this he relied upon the emperor, his father-in-law, and 
 M. de Metternich. 
 
 The emperor had formed an erroneous opinion of this 
 statesman, who had resided for three years at Paris as 
 ambassador, and who had negotiated, in quality of prime 
 minister, the treaty of Vienna and of alliance. Of all 
 European statesmen, he was indisputably the one who best 
 understood the government and court of Napoleon. In this 
 he had succeeded, through his high office, by successively 
 paying his interested devoirs to Hortensia and Pauline, and 
 principally from predilection, to Murat's wife, afterwards the 
 Queen of Naples. 
 
 The emperor formed a superficial judgment of a diplomatist, 
 who under the exterior of a man of the world, agreeable, 
 gallant, and devoted to pleasure, masked one of the strongest 
 thinkers of Germany, and concealed a mind essentially 
 European and monarchical. Still deceiving himself, even 
 after his reverses, the emperor imagined that intrigue at 
 Vienna would be superior to considerations of state ; such 
 was the source of his errors. Imagining that he had cut the 
 Gordian knot of policy, in the fields of Lutzen and Wurtzen, 
 he thought he had fully succeeded in regaining Austria to 
 his interests. M. de Bubna was despatched to him ; this 
 minister did not dissemble, in the midst of his flatteries, that 
 his court would demand in Italy, the lUyrian provinces, on 
 the side of Bavaria and Poland, an increase of frontiers ; and 
 lastly, in Germany, the dissolution of the confederation of 
 the Rhine. Napoleon, considering it weakness to purchase 
 a mere neutrality with such sacrifices, in answer to the 
 autograph letter of his father-in-law, replied that he would 
 die fighting, rather than submit to such conditions. The 
 
350 MEMOIRS OF FO UCH±. 
 
 uncertainty respecting the alliance being prolonged, after 
 the armistice, Bubna was seen going to and fro betweeh 
 Vienna and Dresden, Dresden and Prague, and at length he 
 announced that Russia and Prussia adhered to the media- 
 tion of his court. A congress at Prague now was proposed. 
 Narbonne followed the court of Austria thither ; and scarcely 
 was he in the neighbourhood of Dresden, than he repaired 
 thither to receive fresh instructions. ''Well," said the 
 emperor to him, "what do they say of Lutzen ? " " Ah ! 
 sire," replied the witty courtier, " some say you are a god, 
 others, that you are a devil ; but every one allows you are 
 more than a man." Narbonne, a deep observer of mankind, 
 was not, however, mistaken respecting the supernatural 
 power of him whose head he compared to a volcano. 
 
 The secret negotiation turned upon two conditions, the 
 withdrawing from the Illyrian provinces, and the payment 
 of a provisional subsidy of fifteen millions, as a small 
 compensation for what Austria affirmed she had refused, 
 viz., ten millions sterling, offered her by the Cabinet of 
 London, in order to induce her to declare against us. She 
 had already received ten millions in two equal payments. 
 
 After having conferred with Narbonne, Napoleon decided 
 that the negotiations should be opened direct with M. de 
 Metternich, and that I should repair to Dresden, as I had 
 for a long time been in possession of the clue to the labyrinth 
 of diplomacy. 
 
 Whilst a courier was despatched for me, M. de Metternich 
 arrived, bringing with him the answer of his cabinet to the 
 pressing notes of the minister of foreign affairs. The alliance 
 considered as incompatible with the mediation was first to 
 be broken off. The Austrian minister, also, no longer dis- 
 sembled the intentions of his court to place itself between 
 the belligerent powers, to prevent their communicating with 
 each other, bvxt through the chancery of Vienna. Here fresh 
 difficulties arose, as Napoleon would not understand this 
 unusual mode of negotiation. Prince Metternich, being 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHlk. 351 
 
 the bearer of a private letter from his master, came to deliver 
 it to the emperor, who granted him a private audience. 
 Here the altercation began. First, Napoleon complained 
 that a month had already been lost, that the mediation of 
 Austria had the character of hostility, and that she would 
 no longer guarantee the integrity of the French empire ; he 
 complained that she had interfered to arrest his victorious 
 progress, in speaking of armistice and mediation. "You 
 talk of peace and alliance," said he to M. de Metternich, 
 " and the political horizon becomes more and more clouded. 
 The ties of the coalition are drawn still closer by the treaties 
 cemented with English gold. Now that your two hundred 
 thousand men are ready, you come to dictate laws to me ; 
 your cabinet is eager to take advantage of my embarrass- 
 ment, to recover all or part of what it has lost, and to 
 propose our ransom before we have fought. Well ! I will 
 consent to treat ; but, let us have a candid explanation. 
 What are your demands ? " " Austria," replied Metternich, 
 " is only desirous of establishing an order of things which, 
 by a wise distribution of the European power, may place the 
 guarantee of peace under the aegis of a confederacy of inde- 
 pendent states." " Be more explicit, I have offered you 
 Illyria ; I have consented to a subsidy to induce you to 
 remain neuter ; my army is quite sufficient to make the 
 Russians and Prussians listen to reason." M. de Metternich 
 then made the avowal, that things were at such a pass, that 
 Austria could not remain neuter ; that she was forced to 
 declare for or against France. Thus pressed, Napoleon, 
 without flinching, seized a map of Europe, and desired 
 Metternich to explain himself. Finding that Austria in- 
 sisted, not only upon. Illyria, but the half of Italy, the 
 return of the pope to Rome, the re-establishment of Prussia, 
 the ceding of Warsaw, of Spain, Holland, and the con- 
 federation of the Rhine ; he could no longer contain himself. 
 Your object then," cried he, "in going from camp to 
 camp, is a division ; you want the dismemberment of the 
 
352 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 French empire ! With a single dash of the pen, you 
 pretend to throw down the ramparts of the fortresses of 
 Europe, the keys of which I could only obtain by dint of 
 victorj? ! And it is without striking a blow, that Austria 
 thinks to make me subscribe to such conditions ! And it 
 is my father-in-law who makes an offer, in itself an insult ! 
 He deceives himself, if he thinks that a mutilated throne 
 can be an asylum for his daughter or his grand-son. Ah ! 
 Metternich, how much has England paid you, to induce 
 you to act this part against me ? " 
 
 At these words, the statesman, offended, replied only by 
 a proud silence. Napoleon, confused, became more calm, 
 and declared that he did not yet despair of peace ; he 
 insisted that the congress might be opened. Upon dis- 
 missing M. de Metternich, he told him that the cession of 
 lUyria was not his ne plus ultra. The Austrian minister 
 did not quit Dresden (30th of June) till after he had caused 
 the mediation of his court to be accepted, and prolonged 
 the armistice till the loth of August. When Napoleon 
 was asked, if the five last millions of the subsidy must be 
 paid : " No," said he, " these people would soon demand all 
 France of us." Such was the state of affairs on my arrival 
 at Dresden. 
 
 I did not conceal from Berthier, whose judgment was 
 sound, and opinions just, that I had not the least doubt but 
 that Austria would join the coalition, unless the emperor 
 abandoned, at least, Germany and Illyria. I added, that if 
 hostilities were resumed^ I foresaw the greatest disasters ; 
 as there had never existed, since the revolution, so firm a 
 principle of coalition against our power. 
 
 Berthier coincided with me in opinion. " But," said he, 
 " you cannot imagine how much circumspection is necessary 
 with the emperor ; an open contradiction would irritate him 
 beyond my power to pacify him. I am obliged to use the 
 most indirect means, unless he demands my opinion. For 
 example, since Austria has appeared desirous of dictating 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 353 
 
 to usj we are often discussing plans of campaign upon the 
 supposition of a rupture ; that is my ground. Well, would 
 you believe it? I did not dare to urge him to abandon the 
 line of the Elbe for the purpose of approaching methodically 
 that of the Rhine, which would cover the whole of all the 
 forces we can dispose of. How did I act ? In an indirect 
 manner, I seconded the plan of a very intelligent officer,' a 
 plan which consisted by calling in all the troops we had on 
 the other side of the Elbe, in reuniting all the detached 
 corps, and in retiring en masse upon the Saale, and from 
 thence upon the Rhine. One very serious consideration 
 pleaded in favour of this plan. Allowing that Austria 
 declared herself, she would immediately open the gates of 
 Bohemia, permit the allies to turn our position, and, in a 
 word, cut us off from France. Nothihg could make an 
 impression upon the emperor. ' Good God ! ' cried he, 
 ' why ten defeats could scarcely reduce me to the position 
 in which you place me all at once. You are apprehensive of 
 my situation in the heart of Germany being a very pre- 
 carious one. Was I not in a much more hazardous situation 
 at Marengo, Austerlitz, and Wagram ? Well ! I conquered 
 at Wagram, Austerlitz, and Marengo. What ! do you think 
 me in a precarious situation, who am protected by all the 
 fortresses of the Elbe, and by Erfurt? Dresden is the 
 pivot upon which I shall manoeuvre to make head against 
 every attack. From Berlin to Prague the enemy develop 
 themselves upon a circumference of which I occupy the 
 centre. Do you imagine that so many different nations 
 will long keep up a connected system of operations for such 
 an extent of line ? I shall sooner or later surprise them in 
 false movements. The fate of Germany must be decided in 
 the plains of Saxony. I repeat it : the position I have 
 chosen gives me such chances, that the enemy, if they even 
 
 ' We have reason to believe that the person here alluded to is Lieutenant- 
 General Rogniat, commander of the engineer department in the campaign 
 of Saxony. — Editor's Note. 
 
 24 
 
354 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 gained ten battles, could scarcely drive me back upon ;the 
 Rhine^while I, if once victorious, would take possession of 
 the hostile capitals, disengage my garrisons upon the Oder 
 and the Vistula, and force the allies to make a peace which 
 would leave my glory untouched. At any rate, I have 
 calculated upon everything ; fate must do the rest. As to 
 your plan of retrograde defence, it .cannot suit me : besides, 
 I do not ask you to furnish .plans of campaign ; do not make 
 them ; be satisfied with entering into my ideas, in order to 
 execute the commands I may give you.' " "But," said I to 
 Berthier, "if every general and staff-officer of the army 
 thought as you do, which I have no doubt is really the case, 
 do you not conceive that this combination of a moral oppo- 
 sition would force the emperor not to compromise everything 
 by his obstinacy? " " Do not deceive yourself," replied 
 Berthier ; " opinions are much divided at headquarters. 
 Because we have been a long time victorious, they imagine 
 we shall be so still, and do not perceive how much times are 
 altered. Besides, see how the emperor is surrounded : Maret 
 is completely drawn into hia system ; nothing, therefore, 
 can be expected from him. If Caulaincourt, who enjoys. his 
 confidence in a still greater degree, sometimes speaks his 
 mind, and forces the truth upon him, he is not less 
 obsequious. The emperor never consults his two bravest 
 generals, Murat and Ney, except on the field of battle — 
 and he is in the right. Those usually about his person 
 encourage to war ; all but Narbonne, Flahault, Drouet, 
 Durosnel, and Colonel Bernard, who are distinguished 
 exceptions, and whose opinions might easily be formed 
 into a reasonable system. As to his other favourites, 
 especially Bacler d'Abby, who, with his maps, is constantly 
 at his side, they, like their master, indulge the hope that 
 the allies will commit faults which may be turned to their 
 destruction ; they, speak of them with contempt, as acting 
 without any plan ; they will not see that all has undergone 
 a change since our unfortunate Russian campaign — that we 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA, 355 
 
 have taught them how to beat us — and that, if they cannot 
 attain the velocity and the precision of our manoeuvres, and 
 the superiority of our artillery, other advantages, especially 
 that of numbers, will ensure their eventual triumph ; for, as 
 in the days of Marshal Saxe, it is still les gros bataillons 
 who gain the victory." " Do not forget," I answered, " the 
 co-operation of the people, who are now stirred up in insur- 
 rection against us, not only by secret societies, but even by 
 their governments." " No doubt," rejoined Berthier : " add 
 to which we are also in want of spies and a good cavalry." 
 " Enough," said I, taking leave of him ; " I will commit to 
 writing your ideas, to which I will add my own ; and thus 
 provided, I will see the emperor, and tell him the truth, as 
 I have done upon every occasion." 
 
 My intention was not to enter into a military discus- 
 sion, nor even into a profound political disquisition : for 
 I was perfectly aware that either the abruptness of his 
 dialogue, of his questions, or of his dogmatizing tone, would 
 not allow me the time. I had been able to judge, at my 
 first audience, that two men were uppermost in his thoughts, 
 Bernadotte and Metternich. As to the latter I knew well 
 what to think ; the former was a more difficult subject to 
 speak of : it was, however, necessary. I had been assured 
 that, at the Abo interview (September, 181 2), the Emperor 
 of Russia said to him, " If Bonaparte be unsuccessful in his 
 invasion of my empire, and if, in consequence of that, the 
 throne of France should become vacant, I know no one 
 better qualified to ascend it than yourself." Were not these 
 words, which were a sufficient explanation of Bernadotte's 
 conduct, rather employed as a stimulus, than as an index of 
 the real sentiments of the august personage who uttered 
 them ? — ^The interior of France was, at this time, no way 
 prepared for such an event : how many chances were want- 
 ing to render it even probable ? After the disasters of 
 Moscow, the European cabinets could no longer think of 
 replacing the military chief of France by another soldier of 
 
356 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 fortune. They began to recollect that there was a dynasty 
 of Bourbons. Many doubts were removed by the expected 
 arrival of Moreau on the continent, in the suite of Berna- 
 dotte. The first operations of Charles John, who, previous 
 to the armistice, had landed at Stralsund with the Swedish 
 corps, was to retake Pomerania from us. What could his 
 politics be ? He was reported to be always accompanied 
 and almost watched by the English General Stewart, the 
 Austrian Baron de Vincent, the Russian General Pozzo-di- 
 Borgo, and the Prussian General Krusemarck. Amid such 
 mistrust, some glimmerings of hope shone around him ; for 
 almost all parties had their representatives at his head- 
 quarters, even the faction of the malcontents, of which 
 Madame de Stael was the life and soul. 
 
 Napoleon had just learnt, that, availing himself of the 
 armistice, Charles John had recently visited the Emperor 
 Alexander and the King of Prussia, at their headquarters of 
 Reichenbach, in order to confirm them in their resolution 
 not to sign peace so long as a single French soldier should 
 be left on the right bank of the Rhine. The temper in 
 which I was about to find him may easily be conjectured. 
 I prepared myself for the interview, and presented myself at 
 the gardens of Palace Marcolini. Being almost immediately 
 introduced, I found the emperor surrounded with maps and 
 plans. He had scarcely perceived me, when, rising, he 
 addressed me thus : " Well, my Lord Duke, are you now 
 acquainted with our situation ? " — " Yes, Sire." — " Shall we 
 be between two fires ; between the howitzers of your dear 
 Bernadotte and the bombs of my most excellent friend 
 Schwartzenberg ! " — " In my opinion, there cannot be the 
 least doubt ; unless you satisfy Austria." — " I will not do so ; 
 I will not tamely submit to be stripped without fighting. I 
 know full well that the ambition of all, and the bad passions 
 of many, have been set in action against me. Your Berna- 
 dotte, for example, may do us much harnli, by giving up the 
 key to our policy and the tactics of our army to the enemy." 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 357 
 
 — " But, Sire, has not your cabinet endeavoured to induce 
 him back into a less hostile system ? " — " By what means ? 
 he is bought over by England ; I have, however, written to 
 him, and have about him a man I can depend upon ; but 
 his head has been turned with seeing himself courted and 
 flattered by the legitimates." — " Sire, all this has appeared 
 to me in so serious a light, that I also have taken up the 
 pen to endeavour to open the Prince of Sweden's eyes, who 
 is at perfect liberty to come and show off" in Germany ; but 
 who ought not, in any case whatever, to make war upon 
 France." — " Pshaw ! France ! France ! I am France ! " — 
 " Will your majesty condescend to inform me if you approve 
 of my letter ; I prove in it to the Prince of Sweden that he 
 is making himself the instrument of Russia and England to 
 overthrow your power, and for the resuscitation of the cause 
 of the Bourbons." (I then delivered my letter to the em- 
 peror, who read it attentively.) " Very well ; but how 
 shall you get it conveyed to him ? " — " I think your majesty 
 might avail yourself of the medium of Marshal Ney, so long 
 the friend and companion in arms of the Prince of Sweden, 
 and who might add his own personal solicitations, your 
 majesty authorizing him to choose for his emissary Colonel 
 T * * * *." — " No, that officer was formerly a jacobin." — " Sire, 
 Lieutenant L* * * *, of the gendarmerie^ might be employed ; 
 his devotion and intelligence is well known to your majesty." 
 — " Well, let it be so ; instructions shall be given him, and 
 he shall wait upon Ney." After two minutes' silence, the 
 emperor suddenly i-esumed : " Have you considered the 
 means of prosecuting the secret negotiation with Austria ? " 
 " Yes, Sire." — " Have you drawn up a note for me ? " — 
 " Yes, Sire, here it is." (The emperor, after having read 
 it) " What ! does all appear to you unavailing ? Do you 
 see in my plans nothing but palliatives and half measures ; 
 do you agree with the opinions of those, who would wish to 
 see me disarmed, and reduced to an equality with a village 
 mayor ? Rely upon it, my Lord Duke, you will never find 
 
358 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHL 
 
 a more secure aegis than mine." — " Sire, of this I am so well 
 persuaded, that it is precisely one of the motives which 
 make me so ardently desire to see your majesty's throne no 
 longer exposed to the chances of war. But it is my duty 
 not to conceal from your majesty that the reaction of 
 Europe, for a long time arrested by your glorious victories, 
 can no longer be so except by other triumphs more difficult 
 to obtain. The same ministers, who were always ready to 
 negotiate with your cabinet, and whom it was formerly so 
 easy for you to divide and intimidate, now boast that their 
 voices shall no longer be stifled in the councils of kings by a 
 narrow and short-sighted policy ; they pretend that they 
 have at stake the salvation of Europe ? " — " Well ; I have 
 at stake the salvation of the empire, and certainly I shall not 
 undertake a part which they have rejected." — " But a solu- 
 tion is necessary ; if you do not disarm Austria, or if she do 
 not embrace your cause, you will have all Europe against 
 you, now firmly united. The best thing to be done would 
 be peace ; it is practicable by abandoning Germany to pre- 
 serve Italy, or by ceding Italy in order to keep a footing in 
 Germany. I am beset. Sire, with melancholy presentiments ; 
 in the name of Heaven, for the glory and consolidation of 
 that magnificent empire I have assisted you in organizing, 
 avoid, I entreat, a rupture, and avert, while it is yet time, 
 a general crusade against your power. Think, that this 
 time, upon the least reverse of fortune, the face of every- 
 thing will be changed, and that you will loge the rest of 
 your allies, who are even now wavering ; that by rejecting 
 a national defence, the only safeguard against disaster, your 
 enemies will turn to their advantage the vis inertioe, so fatal 
 to the power which isolates itself ; it is then that old 
 dormant hopes will be revived, and that England, ever on 
 the watch, will pour into Bordeaux, La Vendee, Normandy, 
 and Morbihan, its agents, commissioned on the first favour- 
 able opportunity to revive the cause of the Bourbons. I 
 conjure you. Sire, for the sake of our safety, and your own 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 359 
 
 glory, not to stake your crown and power on the chances of 
 a throw. What will be the event ? That five hundred 
 thousand soldiers, backed by a second line, consisting of a 
 whole population in arms, will compel you to abandon 
 Germany, without giving you time to renew the negotia- 
 tions." At these words the emperor, raising his head, and 
 assuming a warlike attitude, " I can yet," said he, " fight 
 ten battles with them, and one is sufficient to disorganize 
 and crush them. It is a pity, my Lord Duke, that a fatal 
 tendency to discouragement and despair should have thus 
 pervaded the best inclined minds ; the question is no longer 
 the ceding this or that province ; our political supremacy is 
 at stake ; and upon that depends our existence. If my 
 physical power be great, my moral power is infinitely more 
 so ; it is imagic ; do not let us break the enchantment. 
 What occasion for all this alarm ? Let events develop 
 themselves. As to Austria, she should deceive no one ; she 
 wishes to profit by my situation in order to wrest great con- 
 cessions from me ; I have almost made up my mind to 
 it ; but I can never be persuaded that she consents to ruin 
 me utterly, and thus place herself at the mercy of Russia. 
 This is my line of policy, and I expect you will serve me to 
 the utmost of your ability. I have appointed you governor- 
 general of Illyria ; and, to all appearance, you will have to 
 cede it to Austria. Go, make your way through Prague, 
 there make your dispositions for the secret negotiations ; 
 and from thence proceed to Gratz and Laybach, after which 
 you will act according to circumstances ; use all despatch, 
 for poor Junot, whom you replace, is certainly stark mad ; 
 and Illyria has need of an able and firm hand." "I am 
 quite ready. Sire, to answer the confidence with which you 
 honour me ; but, if I dared, I would beg you to observe, that 
 one of the principal springs in the secret negotiation would 
 doubtless be, independently of the withdrawing from the 
 provinces, the perspective of the regency, such as it has 
 been organized by your majesty in its greatest latitude." 
 
36o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 
 
 " I understand you well : say all you please upon the Sub- 
 ject ; I give you carte blanche J'' 
 
 My sole object was now, supposing that a rupture should 
 take place, to turn my new Situation to the advantage of the 
 state. Besides, the secret negotiation with Austria appeared 
 to be without an object, the moment that the emperor 
 refused to make to that power the concessions by which 
 alone he could retain it in his interests; My mission was 
 therefore, with respect to Austria, nothing but a blind ; and 
 towards myself, nought else but a pretext to remove me, 
 during the crisis, from the centre of affairs. The emperor 
 had also two other objects. First, to keep, as long as pos- 
 sible, the court of Austria in suspense ; and to keep up a 
 party there ready to second him, if, in case of a rupture, he 
 should succeed, by some grand defeat, in disuniting the 
 northern coalition. Secondly, he earnestly wished to make 
 me traverse the Austrian monarchy from one end to the 
 other, on my way to my government, being persuaded that 
 I should not make my observations upon it in vain. Ber- 
 thier owned to me that such was the emperor's intention ; 
 that he even desired I would stop at Prague as long as 
 possible, in order to concert matters with Narbonne, and to 
 penetrate the ulterior views of Austria. He did not fail to 
 expatiate much upon the high powers with which I was in- 
 vested in the Illyrian provinces, powers which, being at the 
 same time both civil and military, conferred upon me a kind 
 of dictatorship ; but I knew perfectly well what I had to 
 expect ifrom this Illyria, whether war broke out again, or 
 whether this province were ceded to Austria. As to my 
 stay and my observations at Prague, I was convinced that it 
 became me less than any other person to prolong the one, 
 or extend the others beyond the limits of propriety. 
 
 I was, however, desirous of adopting some plan, founded 
 equally upon reason and utility ; for I know nothing worse 
 than to act at random. Having no command on the existing 
 political state of affairs, I arranged my ideas upon the pro- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 361 
 
 babilities of the future. "The emperor," said I, ;" must 
 succumb under a general confederacy ; he may perish in the 
 field, or may be attainted by a decree of forfeiture, after a 
 series of fresh reverses, which would entirely dissipate the 
 fascination of his power. Spite of the egotism, the blind- 
 ness, and even the baseness which predominate among the 
 chief functionaries of the state, it is certain that ideas as to 
 the general preservation must take root among some of the 
 strongest thinkers of Paris ; this may bring about one of 
 those revolutions, determined by the weight of circum- 
 stances and the exigences of public opinion. Such a revo- 
 lution may have important consequences, for if England, the 
 soul of this new coalition, should assume the political direc- 
 tion of it, the chances would be found to be on the side of 
 the Bourbons." I have no need to say that my former 
 proceedings did not permit me to turn my thoughts to that 
 quarter, even supposing the overthrow of the empire ; and 
 perhaps I shall be considered as being too candid in con- 
 fessing that, during the last six months of 1813, the Bour- 
 bons would have found, among the high officers of state, but 
 few leading men upon whom they could reasonably depend. 
 In fact, all the revolutionary interests, which were detaching 
 themselves from the emperor, those even of the royalists, 
 who had become incorporated with the imperial government, 
 must first necessarily endeavour to rally under the power of 
 the regency, of which Napoleon himself had laid the basis, 
 if a few men of ability were enabled to prepare this transi- 
 tion in case of a reverse. But it was in that case that it 
 would have been imprudent to wait till all was lost. Austria 
 was much interested in seeing a regency established under 
 the aegis of an arch-duchess, and in maintaining a system 
 which, by allying her to France, reconciled to Europe, and 
 reduced within its natural limits, the Alps and the Rhine, 
 would enable her immediately to counterbalance the too 
 great preponderance about to be acquired by Russia. It 
 was upon this basis that I arranged my ideas, and explained 
 
362 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH&. 
 
 them in a memoir, in which I established the hypothesis of 
 an effective regency, the eventual existence of which might 
 be pointed out to statesmen. According to my plan, all 
 interests were to be represented in the council of regency. 
 I naturally was to be a member of it, as well as Messrs. 
 Talleyrand, Narbonne, Macdonald, Montmorency, and two 
 other persons, whose names I shall not mention. As to the 
 ambition of the marshals, it would have been gratified by 
 the erection of large military governments, which were to 
 be shared among them, and which would have increased 
 their influence in the state ; in a word, according to my 
 ideas, the regency would have conciliated all interests and 
 opinions. The government, instead of being the oppressor, 
 would have become the protector, of its subjects, — while its 
 form would have been that of a tempered monarchy, with a 
 mixture of a moderate aristocracy {aristocratic raisonnable)^ 
 and of a representative democracy. This was undoubtedly 
 the plan best suited to the serious character of circumstances, 
 as it would preserve France from the twofold danger of 
 invasion and dismemberment. I had the greatest reason for 
 believing that it would be favourably received by the states- 
 man at that time at the head of the Austrian policy, whose 
 solidity of character and depth of views were well known to 
 me ; I mean M. de Metternich. His kindness for me took 
 its rise from the declaration of war against Austria, in 1809. 
 At that time I received orders from the emperor to have 
 him seized (contrary to the usual forms dictated by propriety 
 in diplomatic affairs) by a brigade of gendarmerie, to be 
 conducted under this escort to the confines of Austria, sub- 
 jecting him at the same time to every severity which could 
 increase the insult offered to him. Much hurt at such 
 unheard-of treatment, I took upon me to soften down the 
 execution of it. I immediately ordered my carriage, and 
 repaired to the ambassador's ; I explained to him the object 
 of my visit, and expressed the deep regret it caused me. A 
 mutual explanation followed, sufficient, at least, for us to 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi:. 363 
 
 understand each other. Having requested Marshal Moncey 
 to appoint a captain of gendarmerie^ whose amiable and 
 polite manners might qualify, in some degree, the insult- 
 ing nature of his commission, I ordered him to take his seat 
 in the travelling-carriage of the ambassador, to whom I 
 allowed the requisite time for preparation. Upon taking 
 leave, he expressed to me his deep sense of obligation for 
 the attentions and delicacy I had observed upon this occasion. 
 
 My ideas, therefore, being thus settled, and being urged 
 by the emperor and Berthier, I began my journey, attended 
 by M. de Chassenon, an auditor attached to the commis- 
 sariat-general of the grand army, and took the road to 
 Prague, — not, however, without having, previous to my 
 departure from Dresden, paid my respects to the venerable 
 monarch of Saxony, who had devoted himself with so much 
 perseverance to the French cause. I had an opportunity of 
 remarking how much the Saxons regretted seeing their 
 king identified with the interests of Napoleon, and how 
 clearly they, foresaw the misfortunes which might accrue 
 firom it. 
 
 I arrived at Prague at the moment of the expected open- 
 ing of the congress, upon which, however, I founded not the 
 slightest hopes, as, in my eyes, it was nothing more than 
 one of those diplomatic scenes played off to justify the em- 
 ployment of force. M. de Metternich and the plenipoten- 
 tiaries of Russia and Prussia had just arrived, and the whole 
 Austrian chancery had already taken up its quarters. Of the 
 two French plenipotentiaries, I only found Narbonne ; he 
 was expecting Caulaincourt, and was ordered not to act 
 without his colleagues. Some difficulties had already pre- 
 ceded the meeting of the congress ; Napoleon had just 
 protested against the nomination of M. d'Anstett, the 
 Russian plenipotentiary, a Frenchman by birth, born in 
 Alsace, and whom he designated in his Montteur as a most 
 active agent of war. Besides these altercations, it was ex- 
 pected that questions relating to form and ceremony would 
 
364 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 arrest the progress of affairs at their very outset. Napoleon 
 had entered into the same explanation with Narbonne as 
 with me. " The peace that I will not make," he had said to 
 him, " is that which my enemies wish to impose upon me. 
 Be assured, he who has always dictated peace cannot, in his 
 turn, tamely submit to it. If I abandon Germany, Austria 
 will fight with still more ardour till she obtain Italy ; if I 
 cede Italy, she will, in order to secure her possession of it, 
 hasten to expel me from Germany." The only positive 
 instruction Narbonne had yet received, was to endeavour 
 not to place Austria in a hostile position. I communicated 
 to him the emperor's intention relative to a secret negoti- 
 ation, and he augured as unfavourably from it as I did myself. 
 
 I found myself at Prague in a sphere entirely new to me, 
 and on a ground with which I was equally unacquainted. 
 It was known that I had arrived there merely on my way 
 forward. Much delicacy was required in getting an interview 
 with the head of the Austrian chancery. I everywhere 
 found the same mistrust with respect to Napoleon, and 
 complaints, more or less well founded. I was assured, for 
 example, that, since the month of December, 1812, he had 
 offered to abandon to Austria, Italy, the Illyrian provinces, 
 the supremacy of Germany, and, in short, to re-establish the 
 ancient splendour of the court of Vienna ; but that he no 
 sooner saw himself enabled to open a new campaign, than he 
 had evaded all his promises, confining himself to cede nothing 
 but a few trifling advantages, which could bear no propor- 
 tion whatever to what Austria naturally expected, in order 
 to resume her rank and preponderance in Europe. 
 
 The cabinet of Vienna evidently wished to profit by the 
 diminution of our power, to recover what it had lost by the 
 peace of Presburg and that of Schcenbrunn. It attached but 
 little value to the regaining of Illyria, which could not fail, 
 on the first shot, returning under its vast dominion. 
 
 I learnt at Prague that the northern coalition had just 
 declared against the confederation of the Rhine, at the open- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 365 
 
 ing even of the campaign ; and that, on the 25th of March, 
 Marshal KutusofF had announced, by a proclamation pub- 
 lished at Kalisch, that the confederation of the Rhine was 
 dissolved. This was a species of sanction offered beforehand 
 to the defection of the German troops employed in our 
 armies. I Ukewise learnt, that the conference of Reichen- 
 bach had been just resumed at Trachenberg ; that the 
 Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and the Prince 
 Royal of Sweden, were present at them, as well as M. de 
 Stadion on the part of Austria, and the Earl of Aberdeen for 
 England, as well as the generals-in-chief of the combined 
 army. There the forces which the coalesced powers were 
 about to devote to the most determined war ever undertaken 
 against Napoleon were decided upon ; there their movements 
 of attack and their offensive operations were planned ; in 
 short, the rendezvous of the three grand armies was ap- 
 pointed to be in the very camp of the enemy. It was 
 impossible not to perceive an understanding between all the 
 contracting parties, about to be cemented by treaties of par- 
 tition and subsidy. 
 
 It was, however, decided to open the congress, but to 
 enclose Napoleon in it, in the circle of Popilius. Although 
 not openly admitted to the conferences, England was un- 
 doubtedly the soul of them ; it was she who was about to 
 direct the negotiations. Thus there was no longer any doubt 
 but that Austria was on the eve of joining the northern con- 
 federation, and strengthening it by two hundred thousand 
 troops of the line. To all that we could confidentially urge, 
 in order to dissuade her, she replied, that it was scarcely 
 possible to find in Napoleon any guarantee that she should 
 not be exposed to fresh spoliations, while the present state 
 of affairs promised her more. 
 
 All my efforts to renew the secret negotiation were un- 
 availing. As to my private views, as their object was the 
 future guarantee of our political establishment, I was 
 informed that the plan of a regency, in the interests of 
 
366 MEMOIRS OF F0VCH£. 
 
 Austria, might influence the determinations of its policy, but 
 not till suppositions should be converted into realities. I 
 could not succeed in getting any provisionary engagement 
 entered into, on the basis of contingent events ; I merely 
 obtained the assurance that they would only commence with 
 the destruction of the power of Napoleon abroad, and that 
 Austria would refuse to be a party to any plan for the sub- 
 version of our home affairs. I ought not to forget to mention 
 that, among the complaints made to me by the Austrian 
 chancery, I remarked its reproaches against Napoleon on 
 account of the diatribes of his Momteur, as well as of cer- 
 tain articles inserted in other journals. 
 
 I quitted Prague certainly with more information, but 
 without having found there the least shadow of a guarantee 
 for the future ; on the contrary, I carried with me the 
 melancholy conviction that a million of soldiers were about 
 to decide the fate of Europe ; and that, in this vast conflict, 
 it would be difficult to stipulate in time for the interests 
 which I had combined, and which no diplomacy would as 
 yet make an object of primary importance. 
 
 In traversing the Austrian monarchy, in my way to 
 lUyria, my journey, although a very rapid one, afforded me 
 much instruction. I first was convinced that this compact 
 monarchy, although composed of so many different states, 
 was better governed and administered than is generally sup- 
 posed ; that it was also inhabited and defended by a loyal 
 and patient people ; that there was, in its policy, a kind of 
 longanimity, well calculated to triumph over reverses, for 
 which it had always palliatives in reserve. By its perse- 
 verance in its maxims of state, it triumphed, sooner or later, 
 over. the shifting policy of circumstance and contingency ; in 
 short, it was evident that Austria, by the entire develop- 
 ment of its power, was about to throw a decisive weight into 
 the balance of Europe. 
 
 I proceeded, by the way of Gratz, the capital of Stiria, 
 and by the Stirian Alps towards Laybach, the ancient 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChL zSj 
 
 capital of the duchy of Carniola, at that time considered 
 the chief place of our Illyrian provinces. I arrived there 
 towards the end of July, and immediately installed myself 
 in quality of governor-general. These provinces, ceded 
 by the treaty of peace of Schcenbrunn, in 1809, were com- 
 posed of Austrian Frioul, of the government of the town 
 and port of Trieste, of Carniola, which includes the rich mine 
 of Idria, of the circle of Willach, and of a part of Croatia and 
 Dalmatiaj — that is to say, all the country situated to the 
 right of the Save, reckoning from the point where that river 
 quits Carniola, and takes its course as far as the frontier of 
 Bosnia. This last country includes Provincial Croatia, the 
 six districts of Military Croatia, Fiume, and the Hungarian 
 shore, Austrian Istria, and all the districts upon the right 
 bank of the Save, to which the Thalweg served as a boundary 
 between the kingdom of Italy and the Austrian territory. 
 From this description, it will be perceived that they were an 
 assemblage of heterogeneous parts, each repelling the. other ; 
 but which, had they been longer united to the French empire, 
 might have formed one whole, and acquired, from their 
 position, considerable importance, — the more so as Dalmatia 
 and a part of Albania were comprised in them. The sensa- 
 tion caused by my arrival in these provinces was the greater 
 because my name, as former minister of the general police, 
 was known there, and I replaced in the civil and military 
 government an aide-de-camp of the emperor, one of his 
 favourites, Junot, Duke of Abrantes, who had just given an 
 evident proof of madness. The circumstances relative to 
 poor Junot are these : the corrosive effect of the severe 
 climate of Russia upon the wound which had disfigured him 
 in Portugal, domestic cares, and resentment at not having 
 obtained a marshal's staff, had so affected his senses, that six 
 weeks before my arrival, the aberration of his mind had 
 been evinced in public. One day, making his aide-de-camp 
 get- into his barouche, to which six horses were harnessed, 
 and which was preceded by a picquet of cavalry, he himself, 
 
368 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi.. 
 
 covered with his decorations, and having a whip in his hand, 
 mounted the coach-box. Thus exposed, he rode for several 
 hours, from one end of the town of Goritz to the other, in 
 the midst of the crowd of astonished inhabitants. The next 
 day he dictated the most absurd orders and letters, which he 
 ended with this formula : " I, therefore, sir, pray that Saint 
 Cunegunda will take you into her gracious favour and pro- 
 tection." Actions still more deplorable followed this ; and 
 the unfortunate Junot was sent back to France, where he 
 died a fortnight after in consequence of a paroxysm, in 
 which he threw himself out of a window, at his father's seat. 
 Such was the man whom I had come to replace in the 
 government of provinces, which, as least harmonizing with 
 what was called the French empire, were still governed upon 
 the principles of conquest. It is true, I was to be seconded 
 by Lieutenant-General Baron Fresia, appointed commander- 
 in-chief, under my immediate orders. This general officer, 
 one among the Piedmontese who had most distinguished 
 himself in the French armies, possessed much penetration 
 and ability, and commanded a division of cavalry in the 
 grand army at Dresden, when the emperor sent him into the 
 lUyrian provinces. 
 
 We were here under a pure and mild climate ; the country 
 around us offered the greatest variety, and, though some- 
 times wild, was always picturesque ; while among its inhabi- 
 tants might at times be perceived the traces of advanced 
 civilization, at others the manners of the primeval ages. 
 
 Upon quitting Dresden, when taking leave of the emperor, 
 he told me that, in his hands, Illyria was an advanced guard 
 upon Austria, calculated to be a check upon her ; a sentinel 
 at the gates of Vienna, to force obedience ; that, notwith- 
 standing, it had never been his intention to retain it ; that 
 he had only taken it as a pledge, it having been at first his 
 intention to exchange it for Gallicia, and now, of oflFering it 
 to his father-in-law to retain his alliance. I, however, had 
 perceived from his vacillation, that he formed various projects 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 369 
 
 upon this said Illyria. He told me besides, that, at all 
 events, he intended sending to the prince viceroy, Eugene 
 Beauharnais, orders to be in readiness, upon the Italian 
 frontier, to make a vital attack upon the' hereditary states, 
 should the court of Vienna declare against us ; he added 
 that, at the same time, he would give directions to the 
 Bavarian army, to Augereau's corps of observation, and the 
 corps and cavalry under General Milhaud, to second the 
 enterprise of the viceroy, whom he had ordered to penetrate 
 even as far as Vienna. But could Napoleon deceive him- 
 self on these his gigantic views, and might he not propose 
 them merely with the view of intimidating Austria ? 
 
 I had scarcely arrived at my government, when I was con- 
 vinced that the season for bold projects was passed, and that 
 all idea of forming powerful diversions in the very heart of 
 the hereditary states must be abandoned. In Illyria we had 
 nothing but feeble attachments, and since the disasters of 
 the campaign of Moscow, the military power of Italy was 
 almost annihilated. Three corps of observation had been 
 successively drawn from it since 18 12, which had completely 
 exhausted all the French and Italian battalions ; the garrisons 
 were completely drained of troops, and the reports preserved 
 nothing but the numbers of the regiments ; the viceroy; 
 however, had just received a positive order to raise a new 
 army with the utmost expedition. For this purpose, the 
 conscriptions of the departments bordering upon the kingdom 
 of Italy were allotted to him. The recruiting was rapid, but 
 the skeleton regiments were with difficulty being completed ; 
 and this army, which was to consist of fifty thousand men, 
 was still unorganized and without materiel^ when Narbonne 
 informed me, by a letter from Prague, of the rupture of the 
 congress. It was there that the intentions of Austria had at 
 length been declared on the 7th of August ; she had de- 
 manded the dissolution of the duchy of Warsaw, and its being 
 divided between herself, Russia, and Prussia ; the re-estab- 
 lishment of the Hanseatic towns in their independence ; the 
 
 25 
 
370 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt, 
 
 re-integration of Prussia with a frontier on the Elbe ; and 
 the cession, to Austria, of all the Illyrian provinces, including 
 Trieste. The question of the independence of Holland and 
 Spain was referred to a general peace. Napoleon employed 
 the whole of the 9th in deliberating. He at length decided 
 upon giving a first answer, in which, accepting one part of 
 the conditions, he rejected the others. The nth was passed 
 in awaiting the effect ; but he soon learnt that, in the morn- 
 ing, the congress was broken up. That same day Austria 
 abandoned our alliance for that of our enemies, and the 
 Russian troops penetrated into Bohemia. Napoleon accepted 
 too late, in their full extent, the conditions prescribed by 
 M. de Metternich ; but these concessions, which would have 
 ensured a peace on the loth, were of no avail on the 12th. 
 Austria declared war, and adjourned, sine die, the question 
 of the re-assembly of the congress. Upon receiving this 
 letter, I had not the least doubt but that the attack would 
 commence by lUyria. 
 
 When traversing the hereditary estates, the continual 
 movement of the Austrian troops did not escape my notice. 
 I learnt that field-marshal lieutenant Hiller was expected at 
 Agram ; that he had been preceded there by generals 
 Frimont, Fenner, and Morshal ; that the strength of the 
 army, of which he was about to take the command, would 
 amount to forty thousand men, and that the troops in 
 Austrian Croatia had been already placed upon a war footing. 
 Upon my arrival, I had immediately despatched intelligence 
 of this to the prince viceroy. Every report I received 
 announced that among the inhabitants of French Croatia, 
 there were secret practices and silent machinations being 
 carried on by Austrian agents, sent for that purpose on the 
 other side of the Save ; they were organizing an insurrectional 
 movement which might assist the invasion. In fact, on the 
 17th of August, the day after the expiration of the German 
 armistice, two Austrian columns, without any previous 
 declaration of war, crossed the Save at Sissek and at Agram , 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 371 
 
 directing their march upon Carlstadt and Fiume. General 
 Jeanin, in command at Carlstadt, the chief town of French 
 Croatia, made at first some show of defence, but, abandoned 
 by the Croatian soldiers under his orders, and attacked by 
 the insurgent inhabitants, he effected his retreat almost alone 
 to Fiume. Less fortunate, the governor of Croatia, M. de 
 Contades, being arrested during his flight, was in danger of 
 losing his life. Having almost by a miracle escaped the fury 
 of the inhabitants, who were infuriated against all persons 
 employed in the French administration, he was detained a 
 prisoner by General Nugent, who would not consent to re- 
 store him his liberty, without being authorized so to do by 
 the court of Vienna. 
 
 The behaviour of the Croatians upon this occasion gave 
 me no surprise. I was aware of their attachment to the 
 Austrian government. Almost all the other parts of the 
 lUyrian provinces followed the example of Croatia. The 
 towns even of Zara, Ragusa, and Cattaro, defended by 
 Generals Roise, Montrichard, and Gauthier, with weak 
 garrisons of Italians, and a few French officers, were soon 
 besieged by the Austrian troops, seconded by bands of 
 Dalmatians. Upon the first intelligence of these movements, 
 I had caused the fortresses of Laybach and Trieste to be put 
 into a state of defence. Having gained intelligence that the 
 Austrian general, Hiller, commander-in-chief of the enemies' 
 forces, was uniting at Clagenfurt the greatest part of his 
 corps, with the view of forcing Willach and Tarvis, and of 
 afterwards penetrating into the Tyrol, by the valley of La 
 Drave; I immediately sent information of it to the prince 
 viceroy. He had already set his army in march upon 
 Illyria. The arrival of the Italian division of General Pino 
 at Laybach, enabled me to make head against hostilities. 
 
 I, however, did not deceive myself : Hiller was manoeu- 
 vring with forty thousand men ; besides which, all the 
 population was in his favour. The viceroy reduced, either 
 by the numerical weakness of his army, or the inexperience 
 
372 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 of his troops, to a defensive war, with the mere hope of 
 gaining time, could not think of reoccupying the line of the 
 Save, which the enemy had already left behind. As the 
 greatest part of the Austrian force was in march upon 
 Clagenfurt, it was really to be feared that the enemy might 
 succeed in forcing the positions of Travis and Willach. 
 This movement would have exposed the left of the viceroy's 
 army, and opened to the Austrians an access into the Tyrol, 
 through the valley of La Drave. The prince took up the 
 position of Adelberg, his left being at the sources of the 
 Save, and his right inclined towards Trieste. Upon his 
 extreme left, he had ordered the passes of the Tyrol to be 
 guarded by a detached corps. 
 
 The enemy, however, continued to be on the offensive. 
 Fiume and Trieste, which they had taken without much 
 effort, were retaken by General Pino with like facility. 
 Willach, which was successively lost and recovered, suffered 
 more from the battle than the combatants themselves. The 
 only operation of vigour was the carrying the camp of 
 Felnitz, by Lieutenant-General Grenier. 
 
 Thus passed all the month of September. As the emperor 
 had observed, the fate of Italy was to be decided in Germany. 
 At Dresden the rupture had been followed by military events 
 of far greater importance. 
 
 But the battle of Dresden, while it diffused joy among the 
 emperor's adherents, proved but a transient gleam of hope 
 for them ; they found themselves again plunged in doubt 
 and alarm. The intelligence of the reverses at Katsbach, 
 Gross-Beeren, and Culm, began to transpire at Paris and 
 Milan. I learnt from my correspondents that eighteen days 
 had elapsed without the arrival of any couriers at Paris. 
 Rumours began to spread a gloom over France ; the emperor 
 was losing the confidence of his people. I was informed 
 that royalist intrigues were again afloat in La Vendee, and 
 at Bourdeaux ; and that people whispered to each other, in 
 the parties and the saloons of the metropolis, " This is the 
 he^inning of the end^ 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 373 
 
 The same might be said of our beautiful Italy. Since the 
 last news from Germany, the Austrian generals opposed to 
 us showed themselves more and more confident ; while on 
 our side, the ItaHan troops no longer manifested the same 
 ardour. One of their chiefs, General Pino, who had at first 
 manoeuvred under my direction for the defence of Illyria, 
 revealing the secret dismay which pervaded the ranks, 
 suddenly quitted the army and retired to Milan, where he 
 awaited the result of the campaign. 
 
 I went to confer upon the state of affairs with the prince 
 viceroy, whom I found extremely uneasy; but firmly devoted 
 to the emperor. He was much hurt at the rupture, and had 
 no longer any confidence in the fortune of Napoleon : " It 
 had been better," said he to me, "if he had lost, without too 
 great a disadvantage, the two first battles in the commence- 
 ment of the campaign ; he would have retreated in time 
 behind the Rhine." I did not conceal from him that I had 
 given him that advice, at Dresden, but that nothing could 
 make an impression upon him. "It is," said I to him, "the 
 more unfortunate, because at the first battle he loses in 
 person, the political reorganization will be settled without 
 him." Eugene was struck with this reflection, and for the 
 first time, perhaps, he was awake to the instability of his 
 political existence. I did not open myself further upon this 
 occasion, having but little confidence in those about him. 
 He at length owned to me, what I had foreseen, that he had 
 strong reasons for believing that Bavaria was, at this moment, 
 about to detach itself from our alliance ; that the Bavarian 
 army upon the frontiers of Austria had made no movement 
 to arrest those of the Austrians, who were advancing in great 
 force, although slowly, through the valley of La Drave, to- 
 wards the Tyrol ; that himself being no longer able to 
 govern Italy, he was about to retreat behind the Isonzo, in 
 order to interpose the defiles between him and the enemy. 
 " If, contrary to all expectation," said I to him, "you cannot 
 make a stand there, endeavour, for I have more confidence 
 
374 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 in your talents than in your troops, at least to dispute for 
 some time the country between the Piave and the Adigd, in 
 order to allow time for events to develop themselves. It will 
 be doing a great deal, if, during the approaching winter, you 
 can cover Mantua, Verona, Milan, and the mouths of the Po." 
 
 He immediately made his arrangements for retreating; and 
 I, on my side, evacuated Laybaeh, after having left in the 
 castle the shadow of a garrison, chiefly composed of con- 
 valescents, whom I placed under the command of Colonel 
 L6ger. I followed the army, which came to occupy the line 
 of the Isonzo. The same day, the Austrians having appeared 
 in form upon Trieste, Lieutenant-General Fresia finally 
 evacuated that place by my orders, leaving in the castle a 
 very small garrison only, commanded by Colonel Rabie, 
 who, after a very gallant defence, capitulated about a month 
 afterwards. 
 
 From the headquarters of Gradisca, I addressed my 
 report to the emperor. I represented to him that the vice- 
 roy, thinking it his duty to listen only to prudential motives, 
 had just ordered the retreat upon Isonzo ; that, in conse- 
 quence of this movement, the Illyrian provinces were hence- 
 forth lost ; but that the objects to which the army of Italy 
 would confine its efforts possessed also their advantages ; 
 that they left nothing to chance, and might for some time 
 yet ensure the tranquillity of Italy. I added that as my 
 mission was now nearly at an end, I begged him to give me 
 some other appointment, and that I awaited his orders. 
 
 While awaiting either the events, or Napoleon's decision 
 with respect to me, I was induced to go and visit that dear 
 and magnificent Lombardy, to the liberty of which I had 
 devoted myself when I entered the career of high official 
 duties. Alas ! that also was suffering under imperial 
 oppression, and its political destiny depended but too much 
 upon that of Napoleon. 
 
 In conquering Italy, we had introduced into it our activity, 
 industry, and a taste for the arts and for luxury. Milan was 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 375 
 
 the city which derived the greatest advantages from the 
 French Revolution, which we had transplanted there. Milan 
 received a still greater lustre when it became the capital of 
 a kingdom ; a court, a council of state, a senate, a diplomatic 
 corps, ministers, civil and military appointments, and tri- 
 bunals of justice, added nearly twenty thousand inhabitants 
 to its population, which exceeded one hundred thousand 
 souls. Milan was considerably improved and embellished ; 
 but its brilliant period was of short duration, like that of all 
 the kingdoms, which the ambition of the ruler soon exhausted 
 both of men and money, in his vain intention of conquering 
 the world. The Viceroy Eugene was soon nothing more in 
 the eyes of the Lombards than the obedient executor of all 
 his wishes. After the affair of Moscow, in Italy as in France, 
 all the springs of government had lost their elasticity. The 
 conviction of Napoleon's power was destroyed at the moment 
 the illusion of his military fortune became eclipsed. Latterly 
 Eugene seemed to fear becoming popular, lest he should 
 excite his jealousy. Eugene, although a brave soldier and 
 of approved loyalty, was parsimonious, rather light, too 
 docile to the advice of those who flattered his taste, but 
 little acquainted with the character of the people whom 
 he governed, and placing too much confidence in a few 
 ambitious Frenchmen ; he needed an equal degree of 
 political knowledge to that which he possessed of mihtary 
 affairs. During these latter days of difficulty, this prince 
 completed the people's discontent by conscriptions and 
 forced requisitions : in short, the viceroy yielded too much 
 both to the example and the impulse of the sovereign ruler. 
 His position became the more difficult, as he had soon 
 against him both the partisans of Italian independence and 
 those of the ancient order of things. The first becoming 
 daily more uneasy, looked round for assistance. Like his 
 adoptive father, Eugene found no other, for the maintenance 
 of authority, but in his army, which he lost no time in 
 organizing and disciplining. 
 
37S MEMOIRS OF FOCfCH^. 
 
 All was suspense in Italy. It was known that three large 
 armies in Germany surrounded, so to speak, the emperor's, 
 with the intention of manoeuvring upon the basis of his line 
 of operations at Dresden, and, if the events of war should 
 prove favourable to them, of uniting in the rear of this line 
 between the Elbe and the Saal. It was likewise known, 
 that to oppose these three grand allied armies. Napoleon 
 had scarcely two hundred thousand men, divided into eleven 
 b6dies of infantry, four of cavalry, and his guard, which 
 presented a formidable reserve. We had just learnt that he 
 had resolved, in order to avoid being completely surrounded, 
 to abandon his central position at Dresden, to manoeuvre at 
 Magdebui^g and on the Saal. Suddenly, towards the end of 
 Octobet, I received from the viceroy's headquarters a notej 
 conceived in these terms : " For refusing to give up anything, 
 he has lost all." My anxiety and impatience to know the 
 extent of what had taken place may easily be imagined. The 
 next day gloomy reports were propagated respecting the fatal 
 battles of Leipsic, which might have the effect of forcing 
 Napoleon back upon the Rhine, followed by all Europe in 
 arms. Now were realized all my presentiments, all I had 
 foreseen. But what would become of us ? What fate was 
 reserved for the tottering empire ? It was easy to foresee 
 that the emperor's enormous power, if not entirely destroyed, 
 would at least be diminished. On the one hand, I was not 
 blind to the species of opposition he might meet with in the 
 interior of the empire ; all the constituent elements of public 
 power were known to me ; I could appreciate the persons 
 possessing more or less influence, and form an opinion of 
 their courage and energy. A bold man was now necessary, 
 and there were none but cowards. The only man who, by 
 his talents and ability, might have directed events and saved 
 the revolution, had no political nerve, and was fearful of 
 losing his head. As to myself, who certainly would not have 
 been wanting in resolution, I was far removed from the 
 centre, whether by fortuitous chances or by preconcerted 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 377 
 
 arrangements. I was burning with impatience ; and, having 
 resolved to brave everything, in order to re-enter the capital, 
 there to resume the secret clues of a plot which would have 
 conducted us to a happy issue, was already on my way, when 
 a letter from the emperor, dated Mayence, ordered me, in 
 answer to my last despatch, to proceed to take the govern- 
 ment of Rome, which, till then, I had only nominally 
 enjoyed. I perceived the blow, but there were no means of 
 parrying it ; the man who was thus losing the empire, found 
 himself still secure amid the wrecks of his military power. 
 I lingered on my journey in order to observe the course of 
 events, and in expectation of receiving from my confidential 
 friends in Paris positive information as to the sensation which 
 would be produced by the sudden return of the emperor, 
 after these fresh disasters. But how well I knew the ground, 
 arid how correctly had I judged of the men who occupied it ! 
 There were not twenty senators who did not consider the 
 empire out of danger, because the emperor was safe ! Not 
 one great functionary who suspected that the armies of 
 Europe were capable of crossing the Rhine. In spite of the 
 stupor which universally prevailed, a wilful blindness still 
 created illusions in favour of power. I must, however, 
 except that able man, whom I have sufficiently designated ; 
 with deep craftiness and disguised irony, he seemed to espy 
 the moment of a fall, which appeared to him not to be as 
 yet matured. 
 
 Italy, in the meantime, was on the point of undergoing 
 great changes ; abandoning successively the Isonzo, the 
 Tagliamento, the Piave, and the Brenta, the viceroy had 
 recently repassed the Adige, and fixed his headquarters at 
 Verona. The Austrian army, continually advancing and 
 receiving reinforcements, established itself at Vicenza, at 
 Bassano, and Montebello, already forming the blockades of 
 Venice, Palma, Nuova, and Osopo. In the secret negotia- 
 tions with which I had been intrusted, the cession of the 
 Venetian states, as far as the Adige, had been consented to. 
 
378 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 as one of the preliminaries of peace with Austria. But where 
 would the pretensions of that power now stop ? The two 
 armies remained thus in presence of each other, as in winter- 
 quarters. It was upon the South of Italy that all eyes were 
 fixed, and whence were expected the military and political 
 events which would impart activity to the two armies in 
 observation of each other on the Brenta and the Adige. 
 Murat, conceiving the fortunes of Napoleon entirely lost 
 after the affair of Leipsic, had returned in all haste to Naples, 
 to resume the plan which he supposed would maintain him 
 on the throne, even after the ruin of him who had placed 
 him on it. In an interview with Count de Mier, at the 
 headquarters of Ohlendorf in Thuringia, on the 23rd of 
 October, he had prepared, as it were, his accession to the 
 coalition and his treaty with the Austrian court. I had not 
 at that time any certain data respecting Murat's intentions, 
 but I foresaw his change of politics. I have learnt that upon 
 arriving at Lodi, on his way from Leipsic and Milan, whilst 
 he was changing horses, several Italians of distinction were 
 surrounding his coach ; and upon one of them asking if he 
 would soon come and assist the viceroy, " Certainly," replied 
 he, in his Gascon manner, " before a month is over, I shall 
 come to assist you with fifty thousand good fellows," and he 
 set off with the rapidity of lightning. I inferred from this 
 that he had said just the contrary to what he intended. In 
 fact, it thus formed part of Murat's plans to enter into 
 alliance with Austria, at the same time that he represented 
 himself to the Italians as the supporter of their independ- 
 ence ; I also learnt that, while traversing Northern Italy, he 
 had received very graciously several Italian noblemen and 
 general officers, who were also labouring for the liberation 
 of their country, promising them to embrace their cause and 
 lead an army on the Po. 
 
 Upon my arrival at Rome, I found General Miollis and 
 the administrator Janet labouring under mistrust and 
 suspicions respecting Murat's conduct ; who they told me 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 379 
 
 was openly joining the coalition, and was organizing a new 
 arjny, partly composed of Neapolitans, Italian deserters, 
 Corsicans, and Frenchmen. Every information from Naples 
 announced that he had just abolished the continental 
 system from his dominions, granting, at the same time, 
 the entry of his ports to vessels of every nation ; it was 
 asserted that he was not only negotiating with the court 
 of Vienna, but also with Lord William Bentinck, hoping 
 to conclude a separate peace with Great Britain. The fears 
 of the military commandant of Rome were shared by the 
 viceroy^ who despatched his aide-de-camp, Gifflenga, to 
 Naples, in order to ascertain the king's intentions. This 
 young officer, but little acquainted with the arts of that 
 court, was cajoled by a few fair promises of peace and 
 friendship. 
 
 Murat, declaring himself for the independence of Italy, 
 found a party within the Roman states, among the 
 Carbonari and the Criveilart, a species of political illu- 
 minati, who were raised among the nobles, the jurisconsults, 
 and the Roman prelates. A priest of the name of Battaglia 
 had just roused to insurrection the country about Viterbo ; 
 he had placed himself at the head of a band of insurgents, 
 seizing the public treasuries, and levying contributions upon 
 persons attached to the French interest. At the same time, 
 incendiary writings and proclamations were profusely spread 
 throughout the pontifical domains. MioUis having set in 
 motion the armed force, soon dispersed the bands of in- 
 surgents ; Battaglia having been arrested and conducted 
 to Rome, his depositions sufficiently proved that he was 
 the agent of the Neapolitan consul Zuccari, who was em- 
 ployed by his court to excite insurrection against the French 
 dominion. It appeared to me that great circumspection 
 and prudence were requisite in opposing the practices of the 
 Neapolitans, and that nothing should be undertaken un- 
 advisedly. 
 
 Murat, however, had set his troops in motion towards 
 
38o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi:. 
 
 Upper Italy. Early in December, a division of Neapolitan 
 infantry and a brigade of cavalry, with sixteen pieces of 
 artillery, entered Rome ; these troops were commanded by 
 General Carascosa. Although the emperor had given orders 
 that the King of Naples should be treated as an ally, who 
 was ready to show his good intentions ; and notwithstanding 
 the movement of this body had been concerted with the 
 viceroy, General Miollis received the Neapolitans with much 
 suspicion, ordering Civita Vecchia and the castle of St. Angelo 
 to be put into a posture of defence ; the money-chests, and 
 other precious articles, were all removed to the latter 
 fortress. Three or four Neapolitan divisions succeeded each 
 other, taking the road, through the Abruzzo, upon Ancona, 
 and through Rome, either upon Tuscany, Pesaro, Rimini, 
 or Bologna. It was to this last city that Murat had just 
 sent Prince Pignatelli Strongoli, less to trace the route of 
 his army, the object of whose appearance upon the Po 
 seemed to be that of checking the Austrians, than to dispose 
 all the friends of the independent cause to assist him in 
 his enterprises. Pignatelli was commissioned to gain him 
 partisans. 
 
 In the meantime, I received from the emperor an order 
 to return to Naples, to endeavour to dissuade Murat from 
 declaring against him. I was instructed to conciliate him, 
 and to employ the utmost address in this negotiation, and 
 even to flatter him with the prospect that the marches of 
 Pesaro and Ancona, the spoils of the Roman state, and the 
 objects of his ambition, should be ceded to him. My arrival 
 at Naples was preceded by three letters from the emperor 
 addressed to Joachim, one of them announcing my mission. 
 I made my entry at the court of Naples about the middle of 
 December. Joachim's court was certainly a singular one, 
 and his Vesuvian royalty (royauti de Visuve) most pre- 
 carious. Murat possessed great courage, but little mind ; 
 no great personage of his time carried farther than himself 
 whatever was ridiculous in ornament and the affectation of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 381 
 
 display ; it was he whom the soldiers called the King Fran- 
 cont. Napoleon, however, who did not mistake his brother- 
 in-law's character, erroneously supposed that Queen Caroline, 
 his sister, an ambitious and haughty woman, would govern her 
 husband, and that without her Murat could not be a king. 
 But, from the commencement of his reign, suspecting the 
 authority to which they wished to subject him as a husband, 
 he endeavoured to free himself from it ; and the political 
 circumstances in which he then found himself the more 
 effectually opposed the queen's ascendency, as he was 
 wholly surrounded by advisers who urged him to declare 
 against Napoleon, representing this political change of 
 system as a political necessity. 
 
 In a court where politics were nothing but cunning, 
 gallantry dissoluteness, and external magnificence theatrical 
 pomp, I found , myself nearly, if the comparison be not 
 considered too flattering to myself, as Plato did at the court 
 of Dionysiiis. Upon my arrival, I was beset by the in- 
 triguers of both nations, among whom, under the mask of 
 a kind of ingenuousness, I recognized some emissaries from 
 Paris. There were also some of these in the king's council ; 
 and I was particularly on my guard against a certain Mar- 
 quess de G * * * *, who, of the two acceptations which his 
 name has in Latin, had all the vigilance of the one, and 
 none of the candour of the other. In my first conferences 
 in the presence of Murat, I was obliged to maintain a great 
 reserve ; I affected to be without instructions, and begged 
 the king would explain his political situation to me. He con- 
 fessed that it was critical and embarrassing ; that, on the one 
 hand, he was placed between his people and his army, who 
 detested all idea of persevering in an alliance with France ; 
 on the other, between the emperor Napoleon, who had left 
 him without the least guide, and was continually giving him 
 fresh cause for disgust — and the allied sovereigns, who 
 insisted upon his immediately declaring his entire accession 
 to the coalition. Again, that the Italian chiefs required 
 
382 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 him to concur m declaring the independence of their 
 country, while the viceroy was decidedly opposed to all 
 measures favourable to the independents, either by the 
 emperor's orders, or to forward his own views. Lastly, 
 added the king, I have to contend against the manoeuvres 
 of Lord Bentinck, who, from his headquarters in Sicily, is 
 endeavouring to effect an insurrection in Calabria, and who 
 assists with money and promises the Carbonari throughout 
 the whole extent of my kingdom. I told the king that it 
 was not for me to oifer him any advice ; that, as to himself, 
 a decided resolution was all that was necessary ; that to 
 induce him to take one, and when taken firmly to adhere to 
 it, was all my duty required of me. 
 
 The king, upon the breaking up of the conference, owned 
 to me that having, a month before, communicated to the 
 emperor his fears that an Austrian detachment would 
 march towards the mouths of the Po, he had entreated 
 him, upon this occasion, freely to renounce the direct 
 possession of Italy, and by declaring its independence, thus 
 to complete the benefits he had already bestowed upon that 
 country. I replied to the king, that it was difficult to 
 imagine the emperor would make a virtue of necessity ; 
 but that, supposing he did, I should claim the priority for 
 France— I, who' had so often, and so vainly, entreated 
 Napoleon to render the war a national one. 
 
 My other conferences were all equally useless. Murat had 
 committed himself: his council impelled him more and 
 more into the interests of the coalition — a political situation, 
 incompatible with his project of calling Italy to inde- 
 pendence. I pointed this out to him, but in vain ; I then 
 confined myself to advise him, in a secret conference, to 
 increase his army, to have good troops, and, at any cost, 
 to attach to his cause the sect of the Carbonari, whom he 
 had, with much imprudence, persecuted, and who seemed to 
 me to acquire greater consistence, in proportion as events 
 became more serious. I concluded by advising the king 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 383 
 
 not to rely too much upon his princely crowd of Neapolitan 
 nobles, but rather to surround himself by people whose 
 excellence did not alone consist in their title, and to whose 
 firmness and devotion he could intrust himself. 
 
 My mission to Naples was not without its charms. I 
 breathed, in the midst of winter, the air of the finest climate 
 in Europe ; I found myself well received and respected 
 by a brilliant court ; but all my thoughts and looks were 
 continually turned towards France. She was threatened 
 with invasion ; foreigners were at her gates ; what would 
 the emperor do ? what would become of him ? I was 
 convinced that he would not have greatness of mind enough 
 to induce him to indentify himself with the nation. 
 Isolated, his ruin was certain : but the effects of his gradual 
 fall might yet, for a long time, prove fatal to the country. 
 
 Receiving no certain information, and having but vague 
 notions upon the state of affairs in Paris, I hastened to 
 resume my journey towards Rome, to which city my 
 private correspondence was addressed. I considered it the 
 more imperative upon me to quit Murat's court, as I knew 
 for certain that the arrival of Count Neyperg, the Austrian 
 plenipotentiary, empowered to conclude the King of Naples' 
 accession to the coalition, was hourly expected, and I should 
 then have found myself compromised at Naples. Having 
 once more entered the ancient capital of the world, I flew 
 to open my despatches from Paris. They contained the 
 intelligence I had every moment expected, of the violation 
 of the neutrality of Switzerland by the allies, and the invasion 
 of our territory by the eastern frontier. By them I also 
 learnt that the emperor could scarcely assemble, between 
 Strasburg and Mayence, some sixty thousand men in the 
 space of a month, so great had been the ravages inflicted 
 upon his armies by epidemic disorders and disorganization ; 
 but that he still obstinately rejected the fundamental bases 
 (bases sommaires) which the allies had just sent him from 
 Frankfort, notwithstanding that Talleyrand, in the council, 
 
384 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 strongly urged him to make peace, assuring him, in the 
 most positive terms, that he deceived himself as to the 
 energies of the nation, and that it would not second his 
 efforts, and that he would ultimately find himself abandoned. 
 Deaf to these prudent counsels, what did Napoleon meditate, 
 at this important crisis ? A coup d^etat; that of proclaiming 
 himself dictator. Indebted for his rise to the factions and 
 storms of a revolution in which words did much, he per- 
 suaded himself (from a confusion of ideas respecting ancient 
 history), that the title of dictator alone would produce a 
 great effect. He, however, gave this up, upon the repre- 
 sentations of of Talleyrand and Cambaceres. They observed 
 to him that he must exercise the power without assuming 
 the name ; that he could even lock up the senate-house 
 without arrogating any fresh title. He acted upon their 
 suggestions ; the senate-house was from this moment placed 
 under a guard. 
 
 Such was the total sum of my correspondence ; and, 
 yielding to the impressions such intelligence produced, 
 I wrote to the emperor the following letter : — 
 
 " I have taken leave of the King of Naples ; I ought not 
 to conceal from your majesty any of the causes which have 
 paralyzed the natural activity of that prince. 
 
 " 1st. It is the uncertainty in which you have left him, 
 with respect to the command of the armies of Italy. The 
 king, in these two last campaigns has given you so many 
 proofs of his devotion and his military abilities, that he 
 expected from you this mark of confidence. He complains 
 of a twofold humiliation, that of being the object of your 
 suspicions, and of being reduced to an equality with your 
 generals. 
 
 "2nd. Such is the language continually held to the king : 
 ' If, in order to preserve Italy to the emperor, you deprive 
 your kingdom of its troops, the English will effect a landing 
 there, and will excite insurrections, the more dangerous as 
 the Neapolitans loudly complain of the French influence. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 385 
 
 Besides, it is added, what is the situation of this empire ? 
 That of being without an army, and of being discouraged by 
 the events of a campaign, which the enemy do not consider 
 as the termination of its misfortunes, since the Rhine is no 
 longer a barrier, and since the emperor, far from being able 
 to preserve Italy, can scarcely prevent the invasion of his 
 German, Swiss, and Spanish fi-ontiers.' 'Take care of 
 yourself, rely only upon your own resources,' is the advice 
 he is continually receiving from Paris. ' The emperor can 
 no itrnger do anything for France ; how then can he secure 
 your dominions ? If, at the period of his greatest power, he 
 could thank of incorpbra:ting Naples with the empire, what 
 sacrifice can he be expected to make for you now ? He 
 wottld, at this moment, abandon you for a fortress.' 
 
 " 3rd. On the other hand, your enemies have contrasted 
 this picture of the situation of France with that of the 
 immense advantages which are likely to accrue to the king 
 by joining the coalition : ' This prince,' say they, ' by so 
 doing, consolidates his throne, and aggrandizes his power : 
 instead of making to the emperor a useless sacrifice of his 
 glory and his crown, he will diifuse over both the most 
 brilliant lustre, by proclaiming himself the defender of Italy 
 and the guarantee of her independence. But if, on the 
 contrary, he declare himself for your majesty, his army will 
 abandon him, and his people rise in insurrection. If he 
 abandon your cause, all Italy crowds beneath his banners.' 
 Such is the language addressed to the king by men who 
 are closely attached to your government. Perhaps, by 
 doing so, they - only deceive themselves as to the means of 
 being serviceable to your majesty. Peace is necessary to 
 the world ; and to persuade the king to place himself at the 
 head of Italy is, in their opinion, the surest method of 
 forcing you to make peace. 
 
 " I arrived at Rome on the i8th ; here, as throughout all 
 Italy, the word independenoe has acquired a magical virtue. 
 It cannot be denied, that under this banner are arranged 
 
 26 
 
386 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 opposing interests ; but each country demands a lodal 
 government ; and each complains of being obliged to repair 
 to Paris, upon subjects even of the least importance. The 
 French government, at so great a distance from the capital, 
 only causes them heavy charges without any equivalent. 
 
 "'All,' say the Romans, 'that we know of the govern- 
 ment of France is conscriptions, taxes,' vexations, privations, 
 and sacrifices. Add to which, we have no commerce, either 
 at home or abroad ; we have no means of disposing of ^ our 
 produce, and for the trifling articles we obtain from foreign 
 countries we pay most extravagantly.' 
 
 " Sire, when your majesty was at the acme of glory and 
 power, I had the courage to tell you the truth,. for it was 
 the only thing of which you then stood in need. ■. Now I 
 owe it to you equally, but with greater delicaqjr, since you 
 are unfortunate. Your speech to the legislative body would 
 have made a deep impression upon Europe, and would have 
 touched all hearts, if your majesty had added, to the wish 
 you expressed for peace, a magnanimous renunciation of 
 your former plan of universal monarchy. So long as you 
 are not explicit upon this point, the allied powers will 
 believe, or will say, that this system is only deferred, and 
 that you will avail yourself of events to recommence it. 
 The French nation itself will be labouring under the same 
 apprehensions. It appears to me, that if, under these cir- 
 cumstances, you were to concentrate all your forces between 
 the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Rhine, and make a candid 
 declaration that you would not overstep those natural 
 frontiers, you might then command both the wishes and 
 the arms of the nation in defence of your empire ; and, 
 certes, this empire would still be the finest and most power- 
 ful in the world ; it would still be sufficient for your glory 
 and the prosperity of France. I am convinced that you 
 can never procure a real peace, but at this price. I tremble 
 at being the only one to hold this language to you ! 
 Beware of the lying lips of your sycophants ; experience 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA 387 
 
 should have taught you to appreciate them. These are 
 they who induced you to march into Spain, Poland, and 
 Russia ; who persuaded you to remove your real friends ; 
 and who, still more recently, dissuaded you from signing a 
 peace at Dresden. These are they who now deceive you, 
 and who exaggerate your resources. You have still enough 
 left to be happy, and to make France peaceful and pros- 
 perous ; but you have nothing more, and of this truth all 
 Europe is persuaded.: it is even useless any longer to 
 employ delusion — ^to deceive her is no longer possible. 
 
 " I entreat your majesty not to reject my counsels ; they 
 are the eifusions of a heart which has never ceased to be 
 attached to you. I have not the foolish vanity of affecting 
 to see more or clearer than others ; were all equally candid, 
 they would hold the same language to you. They would 
 have spoken as I did, after the peace of Tilsit, after the 
 peace of Vienna, before the war against Russia, and, lastly, 
 at Dresden. 
 
 "It is mortifying for the dignity of human nature, that 
 I should be the only one who dares to tell you what I think. 
 Should your majesty have to undergo new misfortunes, I 
 shall not have to reproach myself with having suppressad 
 the truth. In heaven's name, put an end to the war ; let 
 mankind enjoy, at least, a momentary repose." 
 
 My letter was scarcely sent off, when Napoleon struck his 
 last coup-d^itat, the dissolution of the legislative body. 
 From the palace of the Tuileries, which ought to have 
 resounded with protestations of homage and fidelity, but 
 which was suddenly transformed into an arena for pride, 
 rage, and malice, legislators, magistrates, generals, and 
 public functionaries were seen departing, struck with fear 
 and apprehension. All were penetrated with profound 
 grief, at seeing a separation between the chief of the state 
 and the nation, at the moment when there was the greatest 
 necessity of mutual confidence and assistance. Under what 
 auspices, then, was the third lustrum .of the empire about to 
 
388 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 be opened ? Was this year to be the last of its duration ? 
 What a bad omen for the defence of the country, invaded 
 by five foreign armies, marching under the banners of all 
 the potentates of Europe ! 
 
 In order to continue to impose upon Austria, the emperor, 
 who still thought he had it in his power to detach that 
 power from the coalition whenever he pleased, at the com- 
 mencement of the decisive campaign intrusted the regency 
 to Maria-Louisa ; so that the empire, in its last struggles, 
 had actually two governments, the one in Napoleon's camp, 
 the other at Paris. He soon even increased the absurdity, 
 both in theory and practice, of this regency, by nominating 
 his brother Joseph to the lieutenancy^general of the empire, 
 almost at the very moment he had invested the empress 
 with the executive power. This was only infusing one 
 more ingredient of division into his government. 
 
 Such had not been the idea I had formed of a regency, of 
 which, but for the evil destiny of the revolution, which 
 detained me on the other side of the Alps, I could have 
 ensured the success. 
 
 I ask, who, in this jumble of power, was the person or 
 authority that could really be considered as the depositary 
 of Napoleon's will ? Joseph was but a, counterpoise to the 
 arch-chancellor Cambaceres, who himself counterbalanced 
 the empress and Joseph, and the empress was only intro- 
 duced for form's sake. Cambac&es was the grand pivot of 
 the regency of Paris ; but he was subjected to the surveil- 
 lance of the minister of police, a real domestic inquisitor. 
 In itself, the police is nothing but an hidden power, the 
 strength of which consists in the opinion it can impart of 
 its force ; then indeed it can become one of the greatest 
 state weapons ; but in the hands of a Savary, the talisman 
 of the police had been broken for ever. 
 
 From what has been observed, it may be seen that no 
 government was ever ready to fall under so many precau- 
 tions, perhaps even from excess of precaution. It is, how- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 389 
 
 ever, due to truth to say that all the authorities were 
 unanimously of opinion on one point, viz., the impossibility 
 of preserving the government in the hands of Napoleon. 
 But no one had the courage to declare this openly, and to 
 act in consequence. How disgraceful it is that so many 
 able and experienced men should have tamely permitted 
 the destruction of the state, and suffered the influence of 
 foreign powers to bring about a revolution, which the 
 country in tears entreated to be permitted to commence. 
 
 you, who have said to me since, after the blow was 
 struck, " Why were not you there ? " how much this ex- 
 pression of your regret betrays your baseness ! I was not 
 there, precisely because I ought to have been there, and 
 because it was foreseen that, by the force of things alone, 
 all the interests of the revolution, of which I was now the 
 only representative, would have prevailed, and averted the 
 catastrophe. 
 
 1 was so little mistaken as to our real situation, that, 
 anxious to hasten my return, and terminate my mission, I 
 wrote the emperor a second letter, in which I represented 
 to him how contrary it was to his dignity that I should 
 remain in the quality of his governor-general at Rome, 
 when invaded by the Neapolitans ; besides that it became 
 impossible that Rome, Tuscany, and the Genoese states 
 could be preserved, if the King of Naples acceded to the 
 coalition ; and that, in my opinion, sound policy required 
 that he should enter into arrangements with that prince, to 
 abandon to him the provisionary military occupation of 
 the countries which it was impossible for us to guard or 
 defend ; that, by this, we should obtain the double advan- 
 tage of saving our garrison, and indirectly re-attaching the 
 King of Naples to the French cause ; that, as to myself, 
 finding my dignity wounded at Rome, where my authority 
 could no longer possess any weight, I had taken the road 
 to Florence, where I should await his final instructions. 
 
 J found Florence, like the rest of Italy, unquiet, in sus- 
 
39° MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 pense, and divided as to the opinion that might be formed 
 of the movements of Murat towards Upper Italy. The 
 adherents of Napoleon asserted that the Neapolitans, still 
 faithful and devoted to his cause, only marched on the Po 
 to second our efforts against the common enemy, and that 
 Murat would come to command them in person. The 
 partisans of independence saw nothing in the approach of 
 the Neapolitans, but the near arrival of auxiliaries, who 
 would assist them in throwing off the French yoke. Others, 
 lastly, could not see without uneasiness, upon the theatre of 
 Upper Italy, a new army, which, in their eyes, was nothing 
 but a collection of vagabonds and thieves, forced into the 
 service, and completely undisciplined. " What," said they 
 to me, "is to be expected from a Carascosa, a man who 
 supplies a want of ability by boasting ; from a Macdonaldo, 
 formerly the aide-de-camp of the old Cisalpine general Tri- 
 vnlzi, whose mistress he married, and who, not being able 
 to obtain employment, either in France or in the kingdom 
 of Italy, has entered the service of Murat in despair ; from 
 the ex-general Lecchi, a Lombardian, unfortunately noto- 
 rious for his cruelties, his exactions, and his plunderings in 
 Spain, and who, brought before a council of war in France, 
 was dismissed without employment ? Perhaps young 
 Lavauguyon will be panegyrized, recently restored to 
 Murat's favour, who, in a jealous fit, had disgraced him in 
 1811, a time when, at the head of the chosen body-guard, 
 he was, according to some, too much noticed by Queen 
 Caroline, and to others, a still more happy rival to Murat. 
 The other generals possessed neither consistency nor respect. 
 Thus I soon knew to what extent I could rely upon this 
 Neapolitan army : it was composed of forty battalions, and 
 twenty squadrons, in all twenty thousand men, and fifty 
 pieces of artillery ; in other respects it was tolerably pro- 
 vided, but its discipline was very bad. 
 
 The government of Tuscany was the more uneasy respect- 
 ing its arrival, as on the loth of December the English had 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJt. 391 
 
 effected a landing at Via-Reggio, and had afterwards ap- 
 peared before Leghorn ; but the firmness of the French 
 garrison had compelled them to re-embark. This attempt 
 of theirs, however, appeared to me only to be a first 
 essay of their strength.^ 
 
 It was in the midst of these circumstances that I pre- 
 sented myself at the court of the grand duchess, where I 
 met with a most gracious reception. In the duchess I 
 found a very singular woman ; and this time I had leisure 
 to study her character. Without beauty or charms, Eliza 
 was not void of wit, and the first impulse of her heart was 
 good ; but an incurable defect in judgment, added to very 
 amorous propensities, continually betrayed her into errors 
 and even excesses. Her mania consisted in imitating the 
 habits of her brother, affecting his brusquerte, his predilec- 
 tion for pomp and military parade, and neglecting the arts 
 of peace, and even literature, of which formerly she had 
 professed herself the protectress. In a country where agri- 
 culture and commerce had flourished to so great a degree, 
 she was solely occupied in forming a splendid and servile 
 court, in organizing whole battalions of conscripts, and 
 
 " M. Fouche is quite mistaken here. We know for certain, and from 
 an eye-witness, that the re-embarking of the English troops could not be 
 attributed to the resistance of the French garrison. Lord Bentinck, who 
 commanded this expedition, might have taken Leghorn, if it had been his 
 pleasure, by landing a few pieces of artillery, and attacking the weakest 
 part of that town. One single hour would have rendered him master of 
 the place. In fact, it was expected he would do so, and nothing could 
 equal the surprise of the French and the inhabitants when, on the morn- 
 ing of the 1 2th, at the moment they thought the battery would begin, they 
 heard the English had left altogether. The place was so weakly supplied 
 with troops (there were not five hundred men, and even most of these were 
 young conscripts), that all those persons who held any employment in the 
 administration were obliged to take the musket. A deputation, composed 
 of the notable inhabitants of Leghorn (Italians), went on board the English 
 squadron, to make it known that the French commander refused to sur- 
 render. The reply made by Lord B. was, "That he would try what 
 cannon would do." It would appear that his lordship's motive for retiring, 
 was his unwillingness to injure a town which had always been a favourite 
 residence with the English, and which, according to the then state of 
 affairs, could not fail soon to be liberated from the French domination. — 
 English Editor. 
 
392 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 appointing and cashiering generals. There, where for- 
 merly the universities of Pisa and Florence, and the 
 academies della Crusca, del Cimento, and del Disegno had 
 shed so great a lustre, she permitted learning to lan- 
 guish and decay, granting her protection solely to actors, 
 rope-dancers, and musicians. In short, Eliza was feared, 
 but not beloved. 
 
 As to myself, far from having reason to complain of her, 
 I found her attentive, affectionat*, resigned even to the 
 crosses with which she was threatened, and willingly yielding 
 her own opinions to my experience and advice. From that 
 moment I directed her politics. She allowed me to see 
 how much she was hurt that Napoleon was about to lose, 
 not only his empire, through his obstinacy, but even to 
 sacrifice without hesitation the establishments of which his 
 family was in possession. I then guessed all her fears, and 
 well understood that she was alarmed at the precarious 
 situation of Tuscany, which it grieved her to think was 
 about to escape from her hands. I did not conceal from 
 her that, at Dresden, I had given Napoleon the most sin- 
 cere and wholesome advice ; that I warned him he was 
 about to stake his crown against the whole of Europe : that 
 he ought to give up Germany, and then entrench himself 
 upon the Rhine, calling the nation to his assistance ; that 
 he would be compelled against his own inclination to have 
 recourse to this ; but that then he would adopt, too late, a 
 measure exacted by necessity. 
 
 In the meantime, the different corps d^armie of Murat 
 successively arrived at their destination, either at Rome, or 
 in the Marches. General Lavauguyon, his aide-de-camp, 
 who was at Rome at the head of five thousand Neapolitans, 
 suddenly announcing himself as commander-in-chief of the 
 Roman States, took possession of the country. General 
 Miollis, who had only eighteen hundred Frenchmen under 
 his command, shut himself up in the castle of St. Angelo. 
 Lavauguyon immediately summoned him to surrender, and 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 393 
 
 invested the castle ; he demanded an interview with Miollis, 
 which the latter decidedly refused. 
 
 But shortly afterwards, Murat himself, who had left Naples 
 on the 23rd of January, made his entry into Rome with all 
 that pomp to which he was so fondly attached ; and was 
 received by the independents with great demonstrations of 
 joy. 
 
 Murat caused it to be proposed to General Miollis, as 
 well as to General Lasalcette^ who defended Civita Vecchia 
 with two thousand men, to return to France with their 
 garrisons ; both generals rejected his offer, and the king left 
 a corps of observation to blockade both these places. At 
 the same time he had caused the siege of Ancona to be com- 
 menced, a citadel into which General Barbou had retired. . 
 However, as yet there had been no open hostilities ; but 
 the King of Naples, at the head of nine thousand infantry 
 and four thousand cavalry, having entered Bologna, occupied 
 Modena, Ferrara, and Cento. His equivocal conduct, and 
 the movement of his troops, which were advancing upon 
 Parma and Tuscany, no longer left any doubt upon his 
 intended defection. Joachim entered Bologna on the ist of 
 February. That very day he detached from his army General 
 Minutolo, with eight hundred men, to take possession of 
 Tuscany, to the government of which he nominated General 
 Joseph Lecchi. Intelligence of this had no sooner arrived, 
 than the utmost consternation reigned in the court of the 
 grand duchess, who complained bitterly of being thus 
 despoiled by her brother-in-law. Being summoned to the 
 council, and having been previously informed that the 
 people everywhere met the Neapolitans with open arms, I 
 advised the grand duchess to yield to the storm., and to 
 retire either to Leghorn or Lucca. This resolution being 
 taken, she enjoined her husband, Prince Felix Baciocchi, to 
 evacuate Tuscany. 
 
 I was a witness to this convulsion, which, upon a smaller 
 scale, was but the rehearsal of what was soon to take place 
 
394. MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 at Paris. But in Tuscany there was no effusion of blood — 
 on one side it was nothing but a flight, and on the other but 
 a sarcastic war of words, with which the Florentines pur- 
 sued the chiefs and inferior agents of the government. Thus 
 Baciocchi, upon his accession of fortune, had thought proper 
 to change his name, and to adopt that of Felice (the happy), 
 instead of Pasquale, a name as ridiculous in Italy as that of 
 Jocrisse ' in France. The Florentines, therefore, in allusion 
 to this, upon his forced retreat indulged this jeu de mots^ 
 Quando eri Felice^ eravamo Pasquali ; adesso che set 
 ritornato Pasquale^ saremo felici. 
 
 The prefect of Florence, my intimate friend, was not 
 spared in squibs of this kind. He was very strict in matters 
 of conscription, and whenever a conscript alleged some 
 reason for being excused, he generally dismissed him with 
 this formula, "fit for marching" {bon a marcher). When 
 the authorities, therefore, were obliged to leave the city, he 
 found written on his door, in large characters, bon h marcher. 
 
 Whilst the grand duchess and I had retired to Lucca, 
 Baciocchi was still in possession of the citadel and fortifi- 
 cations of the cities of Florence and Volterra. I expected, 
 from day to day, the powers I had requested for the military 
 evacuation of Tuscany and the Roman States. The grand 
 duchess was equally desirous of seeing Tuscany delivered 
 from the French troops, in the hope of coming to some 
 arrangement with Murat, whose fortune appeared to her to 
 offer more favourable chances than that of Napoleon. She 
 was especially mistrustful of little Lagarde, whom the 
 emperor had set over her in quality of commissary-general 
 of police, and who was indebted to me for his fortune. She 
 even went so far as to suspect that he sent Napoleon ac- 
 counts injurious to her as well as to me. Eliza spoke very 
 openly on the subject, and, one day, expressed her anxious 
 
 ' The character ol Jocrisse., in the French plays, to which Brunet, of the 
 ThSdtre des Varietes, has given such celebrity, is somewhat like the Peter 
 of the Stranger, or Liston's Tony Lumpkin. — English Editor, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 395 
 
 wish to get the portefeutlle of this commissary into her 
 possession, in order to see if her suspicions were well founded. 
 Being myself persuaded that Lagarde's correspondence would 
 be more unfavourable to me than to the grand duchess, I 
 did not attempt to dissuade her from it, when she told me 
 that she intended employing him on a mission to Pisa, and 
 that she would afterwards have him stopped upon the road 
 by men hired and masked for that purpose. I was much 
 gratified in seeing a commissary-general of police thus robbed 
 upon the highway — one, too, who while affecting bluntness 
 and extreme good-nature, boasted of possessing more cunning 
 than the most wily Italian. It was necessary to undeceive 
 him. In fact, upon his return from Pisa, the persons hired 
 for the purpose stopped him, made him alight from his 
 coach, and whilst two of them held him on the edge of a 
 ditch, with their guns levelled at him, the others carried off 
 his money, jewels, and even his papers, which were in a 
 trunk in front of the carriage. When we saw people in the 
 greatest alarm come to inform us of the misfortune of the 
 commissary-general, the grand duchess and myself had great 
 difficulty to preserve our gravity, and we were obliged to 
 withdraw aside to give vent to our inclination for laughter. 
 This opera seria, however, disappointed us ; the pretended 
 papers of the commissary-general which were brought us, 
 consisted of a set of numbers of the Momteur, which Lagarde, 
 having a coach with a false bottom, where he concealed his 
 secret papers, had placed in the box in front. He escaped 
 with the loss of his money and his jewels ; and, according 
 to every probability, with fear alone, for he could not fail to 
 indemnify himself either at Florence or Paris. 
 
 Murat, in the meantime, who now kept the diplomatists 
 in full play, endeavoured to fill all Italy with his name. He 
 wroce me letter after letter, repeating that his alliance with 
 the coalition appeared to him the only means of preserving 
 the throne, and requiring me to tell the emperor the whole 
 truth upon the actual state of Italy. I answered, that I had 
 
396 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 
 
 anticipated him, in that point, and that he had no need to 
 encourage me to tell the emperor the truth ; that I had 
 always thought that to conceal it was to hetray princes ; I 
 insisted upon the necessity of the King of Naples keeping up 
 a good army as a means of influence with the coalition ; above 
 all I recommended him to avoid all irresolution ; it was ex- 
 tremely essential to his interests, I told him, to create for 
 himself a great respect, and to make his character an object 
 of esteem ; and since his resolution appeared wavering, I 
 owed it to the friendship he had testified for me, to own to 
 him that the least hesitation would be- fatal ; that it would 
 draw upon him general want of confidence ; that he could 
 besides promote the interests of his country by contributing 
 to the general pacification, and by supporting the dignity of 
 thrones and the independence of nations. I added that I 
 saw with regret the risings in the country ; that those 
 passions which could not be gratified ought not to be 
 excited. Being also requested by this prince to send him, 
 in writing, the reflections which I had communicated to him 
 at Naples upon the constitutions required of him by the 
 partisans of liberty, I warned him against suffering himself 
 to be induced to throw into the midst of the Neapolitan 
 people ideas for which they were not at all prepared ; in 
 short, said I to him, I fear that the word " constitution," 
 which I hear everywhere upon my road, is nothing with the 
 majority but a pretext for throwing ofi" all obedience. 
 
 The troops of Murat had arrived on the southern banks 
 of the Po. By taking possession of Tuscany and the 
 Roman States, he had declared against the emperor, his 
 brother-in-law, in favour of Austria. He had bound him- 
 self, without binding the opposite party ; for the treaty he 
 had signed at Naples on the i ith of January, with the Count 
 de Ne37perg, was not ratified. 
 
 In consequence of the seriousness of events, I judged it 
 expedient again to confer with Murat in person, and I had a 
 secret interview with him at Modena. There I convinced 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 397 
 
 him, since he had taken a decisive part, that he ought to 
 announce it. " If you had," said I to him, " as much firm- 
 ness of character as excellence of heart, you would be superior 
 in Italy to the coalition. You can only conquer it here by 
 much decision and frankness." He still hesitated ; I com- 
 municated to him the latest news I had received from Paris. 
 Determined by this, he confided to me his idea of a pro- 
 clamation, or rather declaration of war, in which I suggested 
 some alterations, which he made. This proclamation, dated 
 from Bologna, was conceived in the following terms : — 
 
 " Soldiers ! so long as I thought the Emperor Napoleon 
 fought for the peace and the happiness of France, I fought 
 at his side ; but now illusion is impossible ; the emperor's 
 whole wish is for war. I should betray the interests of my 
 former country, those of my dominions, and yours, did I not 
 immediately separate my arms from his, to unite them with 
 those of the allied powers whose magnanimous intentions 
 are to re-establish the dignity of thrones and the indepen- 
 dence of nations. 
 
 " I know that attempts are made to warp the patriotism of 
 the Frenchmen who compose a part of my army, by false 
 sentinjents of honour and fidelity ; as if any honour and 
 fidelity were shown in subjecting the world to the mad 
 ambition of the Emperor Napoleon. 
 
 " Soldiers ! — There are no longer but two banners in 
 Europe : upon one you read — Religion, Morality, Justice, 
 Moderation, Laws, Peace, and Happiness ! — upon the other. 
 Persecution, Deceit, Violence, Tyranny, War, and Grief, in 
 every family : choose." 
 
 I had also to treat with Murat upon a particular business, 
 in which my own affairs were interested ; I had to claim, as 
 governor-general of the Roman states and afterwards of 
 lUyria, the arrears of my salary, amounting to the sum of 
 one hundred and seventy thousand francs. The King of 
 Naples, having seized the Roman states and the public 
 revenues, became responsible to me for my debt. He gave 
 
398 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 an order for it, the execution of which was attended with 
 some delay ; however, before leaving Italy, I was enabled to 
 say that I had not made war at my own expense. 
 
 At Lucca, I again found the grand duchess in much 
 trouble, and extremely uneasy respecting the aspect of 
 affairs. I announced to her that Murat was at length 
 determined upon raising troops, but that I, nevertheless, 
 doubted whether his operations would be directed by suf- 
 ficient vigour and rectitude, to command the confidence of 
 his new allies ; that the Austrian ministers reproached him 
 with being a Frenchman, and, above all, of being too much 
 attached to the emperor ; that the revolutionists, who at this 
 moment governed Florence, affirmed openly that the King 
 of Naples was in intelligence with France, and that he was 
 deceiving the Italians ; that they even went so far as to im- 
 pute to my advice the inaction of the Neapolitan troops, 
 whom the Austrians were impatient to see marched against 
 the viceroy, who was about to be immediately attacked by 
 General Count Bellegarde. I lastly informed her that I had 
 left Murat ill with vexation ; that he was aware of the 
 critical situation in which he was placed ; but that, hence- 
 forth, it would be difficult for my councils to reach him. 
 
 A few days after, I received from the minister at war a 
 despatch, containing the emperor's instructions relative to 
 the evacuation of the Roman and Tuscan states. To these 
 was added a letter for the King of Naples, which I was 
 ordered to deliver to him in person ; I was also instructed 
 to make him, at the same time, certain confidential commu- 
 nications, to be modified according to the position in which 
 I found that prince. I immediately set off foi- Bologna, 
 where Murat then was. As far as Florence I experienced 
 no difficulty; but, on, my arrival in that town, the new 
 authorities notified to me that I could neither continue my 
 journey nor stop at Florence, and that I must retire to Prato, 
 there to await the king's answer. I immediately despatched 
 a courier to him, and returned to Lucca, preferring a resi- 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 399 
 
 dence ia that town, Prato being already in insurrection. I 
 soon received Murat's answer, who informed me that he had 
 already ordered his generals to treat with me respecting the 
 evacuation of Tuscany and the Roman states. 
 
 The powers with which the emperor had invested me 
 came very 01, propos. The greater part of the French 
 troops which were in Tuscany were concentrated at Leg- 
 horn ; those who were at Pisa seemed to make a show of 
 resistance. The Neapolitan general, Mihutolo, had already 
 marched with a column of Murat's army from Florence to 
 • Leghorn ; at Pisa there had been some hostilities between 
 this troop and a French detachment ; they were now about 
 to become more serious. Informed of this event, I left 
 Lucca with the utmost expedition, and presented myself at 
 the advanced posts. Having made known my powers, I 
 immediately stipulated a convention, by which the French 
 troops were to give up the posts and fortresses they occu- 
 pied, and return to France ; I immediately gave orders to 
 the garrisons of Leghorn and Tuscany to fall back upon 
 Genoa. 
 
 A few days afterwards, in virtue of the same powers, I 
 treated with Lieutenant-General Lecchi, the King of Naples' 
 governor in Tuscany, for the evacuation of the Roman states. 
 This new convention stipulated the giving up of the castle 
 of St. Angelo and of Civita Vecchia to the Neapolitans. 
 The French garrisons were to be conveyed by sea to Mar- 
 seilles, at the expense of the King of Naples. 
 
 Thus ended my mission in Italy, the termination of which 
 I so much wished for, in order to re-enter my country, at 
 that time in so wretched a condition ; it was inundated by 
 foreign troops, who were advancing nearer and nearer to- 
 wards the capital, the approaches even to which Napoleon 
 was reduced to defend. At such a distance, I had some 
 difficulty in accounting for the progress of certain events ; 
 thus, why the two allied armies again separated after having 
 beaten Napoleon' at La Rhotifere, instead of marching directly 
 
40O MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 and without delay to Paris. Such a movement would have 
 anticipated by two months the events which occurred at the 
 close of March, and consequently avoided many disasters, 
 and prevented the useless effusion of much blood and many 
 tears. But the allies had nothing ready, at that time, in 
 Paris ; and the cabinets, who were not inclined for the 
 regency, prolonged, doubtless with much regret, the calami- 
 ties of war, in order to form other plans, and produce 
 different results. As to the congress of Chatillon, I imagined 
 it would terminate as that of Prague had done. Everything 
 announced that the catastrophe of this grand drama would 
 soon arrive. 
 
 Before setting off for France, I proceeded to Volta, the 
 headquarters of the prince viceroy ; he had effected his 
 retreat upon the Mincio ; and, upon the King of Naples' 
 declaration of war against France, had fought with the 
 Austrians one of those battles which, being of no decisive 
 effect as to politics, are only productive of military glory. 
 I had two private conferences with the vicerey, in which I 
 represented to him that fighting battles was now the more 
 useless, as every thing would be decided within the environs 
 of Paris ; I dissuaded him from obeying the emperor's 
 orders to march the army of Italy upon the Vosges : first, 
 because it was now too late for a junction to be dfected ; 
 and secondly, because by crossing the Alps, he would for 
 ever lose his Lombardian possessions. Eugene owned to me 
 that Murat had made him a secret proposal to unite their 
 forces, for the purpose of sharing Italy, after having sent 
 away the French troops, and that he had rejected this 
 absurd offer ; that his declaration of war had placed him, 
 Eugene, in the greatest embarrassment ; and that 'he feared 
 he could hold out no longer, if Murat should serve the 
 Austrians with any degree of zeal. I made him easy upon 
 this point, being well acquainted with the uncertain character 
 of Murat, and knowing, besides, that his wishes for the in- 
 dependence of Italy had already been counteracted by the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 401 
 
 allies. I was at Eugene's headquarters, when Faypoult, 
 formerly a prefect, a man in whom Murat placed some con- 
 fidence, arrived. He had been sent by Napoleon to Murat, 
 as well as to Eugene, with the intelligence of the recent 
 successes he had obtained at Briey and at Montereau. 
 These advantages were purposely exaggerated, for the 
 double object of keeping up Eugene's hopes, and damping 
 Murat's zeal in the cause of his new allies. Count Tacher, 
 one of Eugene's aides^de-camps, whom he had despatched 
 to Napoleon, had returned also with the utmost expedition, 
 and reported to him the very words which the emperor, 
 intoxicated with some brilliant but transient success, had 
 addressed to him ; " Return to Eugene," said Napoleon, 
 " tell him how I have trimmed these scoundrels ; they are 
 a set of rabble whom I will whip out of my dominions." 
 The most general joy prevailed at headquarters. I took 
 Eugene aside, and told him that such bombast ought to 
 inspire with confidence only such as were mad enthusiasts, 
 but that they could have no effect upon reasonable people ; 
 that these latter saw, in its full extent, the imminent danger 
 which threatened the imperial throne ; that arms were not 
 wanting to defend the government, but rather the senti- 
 ments to set them in action ; and that by separating himself 
 from the nation, the emperor, by his despotism, had destroyed 
 all public spirit. I gave Eugene some advice, and began my 
 journey to Lyons, leaving Italy a prey, so to speak, to four 
 different armies, the French, Austrian, Neapolitan, and 
 English ; for this time Lord Bentinck had really landed at 
 Leghorn : from that place, having signified to Eliza, that he 
 acknowledged neither the authority of Napoleon, nor hers, 
 as grand duchess, and in this manner dictating the law to 
 Tuscany, he formed a junction with the Neapolitans who 
 occupied Bologna, Modena, and Reggio. Thus I left Italy 
 in a most uncertain and embarrassed situation ; nothing 
 could be then more precarious than our possessions beyond 
 the Alps. Neither the viceroy, nor Murat, and certainly 
 
 27 
 
402 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 neither of them were deficient in valour, had sufficient 
 political talents, nor even consistency enough in the eyes of 
 the Italians to prescribe the wrecks of our power in Italy, 
 especially as both proceeded in opposite directions. 
 
 To own the truth, I was much more uneasy about the 
 alarming condition of France, than about the tottering situa- 
 tion of the viceroy, and even of Murat ; in fact, the fate of 
 Italy was about to depend on the result of the contest, then 
 proceeding in so vigorous a manner, between Napoleon and 
 the allied monarchs, who endeavoured to establish them- 
 selves between the Seine and the Marne. 
 
 It was in the midst of these circumstances that I entered 
 Lyons, towards the beginning of March, Everything there 
 was in a state' of confusion and uncertainty, as to the result 
 of the campaign. The prefect, the commissary-general of 
 police, and some subordinate generals, were inclined to 
 defend Lyons, as a consequence of the universal persuasion 
 that Paris would also be defended ; and it was by throwing 
 up earthen outworks that they thought they could arrest 
 the enemy's progress before the second city of the empire, 
 which was threatened by the arrival of a reinforcement of 
 45,000 Germans. Augereau was gained ;■ he who depreciated 
 Napoleon, but who possessed little skill as a politician, and 
 who, in this crisis, yielding to evil counsels, could discover 
 no benefit for France, except by identifying her with his 
 destiny. A line of fortifications was hastily traced, and all 
 kinds of means employed to impart a national character to 
 this popular resistance. But the same inclinations, which 
 then were beginning to disclose themselves at Paris, the seat 
 of government, prevailed also at Lyons. The prefect Bondy 
 did his utmost to animate the patriotism of the lethargic 
 Lyonnese, which was extinguished by the same causes which 
 caused it to languish in other parts of France. 
 
 The very night of my arrival, I was admitted to a con- 
 ference with the chief public functionaries, which took 
 place every evening at the house of Marshal Augereau, J 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 403 
 
 perceived, from the first moment, that all desperate 
 measures were acceded to by no one but the prefect, a few of 
 the general officers, who had arrived with a corps from the 
 army of Arragon, and Saulnier, commissary-general of 
 pohce. I announced, without disguise, the defection of the 
 King of Naples, and that a million of men were about to 
 rush into France, which it was no longer possible to save, 
 except by some master-stroke of policy. I saw that my 
 opinions as well as my disclosures were in opposition to 
 the functionaries, who, carried away by their zeal for the 
 emperor, did not shrink from the horrors of a siege. They 
 did not disguise the mortification which my presence gave 
 them, and I soon perceived that they had received secret 
 instructions about me. Augereau, having refused to listen 
 to the only prospect of deliverance which was in harmony 
 with the interests of the revolution, of which, nevertheless, 
 he was a zealous partisan, concluded by acceding to the 
 measure proposed by the prefect and commissary-general of 
 police, the object of which was to compel me to quit Lyons, 
 and to reside, provisionally, at Valence. I yielded, though 
 with reluctance, and took the road to Dauphine ; casting, at 
 the same time, a longing look on that of Paris, which was 
 the only one whereon I could have wished to have travelled 
 post. 
 
 It was at Valence that I learnt the arrival of Monsieur, 
 Count d'Artois, at Vesoul, and the terrors of Napoleon at 
 the first daybreak of royalism which had just burst forth at 
 Troyes, in Champagne. I learnt, a few days after, and in 
 succession, the arrival of the Duke d'AngouMme at the 
 headquarters of Lord Wellington ; the loss of the battle 
 of Orthez by Soult ; the loss of the battle of Laon 
 by Napoleon ; and the entry of the Duke d'AngouMme 
 into" Bordeaux. How much deeper my regret then be- 
 came, to behold myself more than a hundred leagues from 
 the capital, where a political revolution was of necessity to 
 be expected as a consequence of so many disasters, The 
 
404 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 occupation of Lyons by the Austrians almost immediately 
 followed ; and Marshal Augereau withdrawing his head- 
 quarters to Valence, I departed for Avignon, in order to wait 
 the issue of events, and in full readiness to hurry to Paris at 
 the first signal. But surrounded by different corps d^armie^ 
 reduced to the uncertainty of conjectures, and to depend 
 upon vague rumours, by the interruption of the couriers and 
 by the difficulty of communication, I doubtless hesitated too 
 long in taking the decisive step. How much I subsequently 
 repented of not having clandestinely proceeded to Paris, 
 through the centre of France, which was at that time free 
 from foreign invasion ! One single consideration was cal- 
 culated to dissuade me ; I had reason to fear that secret 
 instructions, referring to me, were transmitted to each 
 prefect individually. 
 
 I was residing at Avignon, without any political character, 
 and I inhabited the same apartment in which the un- 
 fortunate Brune was assassinated a year afterwards. There 
 I found the public mind so greatly opposed to Napoleon, 
 that I had it publicly announced that I would receive all the 
 public bodies and constituted authorities, to whom I an- 
 nounced the approaching downfall of the imperial govern- 
 ment, adding that Murat, in Upper Italy, was labouring for 
 the good cause. In a greater extent than at Lyons and 
 Valence, an inclination to see the fall of Napoleon followed 
 by some kind of authority was manifested at Avignon. At 
 length, the news of the events of the 31st of March reached 
 me. Compelled to make a long circuit, in order to follow 
 the road of Toulouse and Limoges, I did not arrive at Paris 
 till towards the beginning of April ; but it was already too 
 late. The establishment of a provisional government, of 
 which I ought to have constituted a part ; the deposition of 
 Napoleon, which I was ambitious to pronounce, but which 
 was effected without my aid ; in short, the restoration of the 
 Bourbons, which I would have opposed, in order to substi- 
 tute my plan of a regency — annihilated all my projects; and 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOVCH&. 405 
 
 replunged me into a state of political nullity, in the presence 
 of princes to whom I had given matter of offence. I \yas 
 aware that clemency might be in harmony with the good- 
 ness of their hearts, but I was also aware that it was not 
 less incompatible with the principle of legitimacy. 
 
 I subsequently heard this double question agitated: — If 
 the Duke of Otranto had been at Paris, would he have 
 formed a part of the provisional government ; and, if he had 
 done so, what would have been the result of the revolution 
 of the 31st of March ? 
 
 I owe in this place some elucidations to my con- 
 temporaries, relative to secret circumstances which I have 
 not judged fitting to parcel out in my narrative, in order to 
 exhibit them to the light in a better form ; for there are 
 some confessions which are only to be justified by con- 
 junctures, and which ought not to be hazarded, except when 
 circumstances justify them. I will admit, in the first 
 instance, that impressed with the necessity of preventing a 
 European re-aetion, and of saving France by the assistance 
 of France, the events of 1809 — that is to say, the war with 
 Austria and the attack of the English on Antwerp — ^were 
 only the first steps towards the execution of a plan of 
 revolution, the object of which was the dethronement of the 
 emperor. I confess, moreover, that I was the moving soul 
 of this plan, which was alone capable of reconciling us with 
 Europe, and of bringing us back to a reasonable state of 
 government. It required the concurrence of two statesmen, 
 one directing the cabinet of Vienna, and the other that of 
 St. James's, I mean Prince Metternich and the Marquess of 
 Wellesley, to whom I had sent for that purpose M. de 
 Fagan, an old officer in the Irish regiment of Dillon, and 
 whose insinuating character was adapted for so delicate 
 a mission. 
 
 Before proceeding to overtures of this description, I had 
 not neglected, in the in)^rior of France, to reconcile myself 
 with the only man whose co-operation was indispensable to 
 
4o5 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 me. It will be easily guessed that I allude to Prince Talley- 
 rand. Our reconciliation had taken place in a conference at 
 Surene, at the house of the Princess of Vaudemont. From 
 the first moment of interview, our political ideas sympa- 
 thized ; and a kind of coincidence was established between 
 our future plans. I had not, however, been able to escape 
 from the epigrammatic mordacity of my noble and new ally, 
 who, being questioned by his intimate friends, after our 
 interview, as to what his opinion was with regard to me, 
 replied: — " Oui^om^fai vu^ Foucki ; c'est du papier dork 
 sur tranche." 
 
 The observation was of course brought to me ; I did not 
 show that I was offended at it ; political considerations, in 
 my case, have always superseded the irritability of wounded 
 self-love. 
 
 I had been equally aware of the necessity of placing' 
 myself in direct communication with one of the most 
 
 influential of the senators, M. de S , who was himself 
 
 in close connection with the secretaryship of state, by means 
 of Maret, an old fellow-prisoner. 
 
 An acquisition of this description was so much the more 
 valuable to me, as, since the disgrace of Bourienne, I had no 
 one in my interest in the secretary's office, but inferior 
 agents, who often suffered the thread of the higher class of 
 intrigues to escape from their grasp. But how was I to 
 obtain the confidence of a person, whom I had reckoned for 
 a considerable time among the number of my declared 
 antagonists. The senatorship of Bourges had just become 
 vacant ; that I resolved should be the price of our reconcilia- 
 tion ; I manoeuvred in consequence ; S obtained it ; and 
 
 from that moment I gained a friend in the senate, and, as it 
 were, an additional eye for ever on the watch in the cabinet 
 of Napoleon. 
 
 But another individual was still wanting for my plans ; 
 
 Marshal M , chief of the gendarmerie. Up to that time 
 
 he had been opposed to me. . Appointed to the command of 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 407 
 
 a corps d^armee in Catalonia, he was unprovided, although 
 in the highest offices, with the necessary funds for his outfit. 
 I knew his embarrassment, and sent him, by the advice of 
 a friend, eighty thousand francs, which I had in reserve, and 
 which it was in my power to dispose of, having obtained the 
 emperor's sanction. In this manner, in the space of a very 
 few months, I made friends of all enemies. I had two 
 ministries on my hands ; the home department and that of 
 the police. I had the gendaytnerie at my disposal, and 
 a multitude of spies at my command ; as a lever of public 
 opinion, I had also the immense patronage of the old 
 republicans, as well as of the determined royalists, who 
 found protection in my power. Such were the elements of 
 that power, when Napoleon, engaged in the double war of 
 Spain and Austria, and thenceforth considered as an in- 
 corrigible disturber, appeared to me to be involved in so 
 inextricable a position, that I concerted the plan which 
 I have disclosed in a preceding passage. Whether it was 
 that Napoleon's sagacity divined what I was about, or that 
 indiscretion inherent in the native character of Frenchmen 
 had awakened his suspicions (for as to being betrayed, I 
 certainly was not), my disgrace, which was almost sudden, 
 as I have related at the end of the events of 1809, postponed 
 for five years the subversion of the imperial throne. And 
 it was under the protection of feelings such as these, and 
 under the support of a body of public opinion, which had 
 never abandoned me either at the time of my disgrace or of 
 my exile ; it was, moreover, while fortified by the reputation 
 of a statesman, who, with the precision of cool and calcu- 
 lating foresight, had prophesied the fall of Napoleon, that 
 I found myself overtaken by the events of the 31st of 
 March. If I had been at Paris at that time, the weight 
 of my influence, and my perfect knowledge of the secret 
 bearings of parties, would have enabled me to impart an 
 entirely contrary direction to the bias of those extraordinary 
 events. My preponderance and prompt decision would have 
 
4o8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 prevailed over the more mysterious and tardy influence of 
 M. de Talleyrand. That distinguished individual was in- 
 capable of making any progress, unless when yoked with me 
 to the same car. I should have revealed to him all the 
 ramifications of my political plan ; and in spite of the odious 
 policy of Savary, the ridiculous administration of Cambacerbs, 
 the lieutenant-generalship of the puppet Joseph, and the 
 total prostration of the senate, we should have rekindled 
 fresh life in the caput mortuum of the revolution ; and 
 degraded patriots would have no longer thought, as they 
 have done when it was too late, of preserving nothing but 
 themselves. Impelled by me, they would, before the inter- 
 vention of foreign powers, have pronounced the downfall of 
 Napoleon, and proclaimed a regency, according to the forms 
 which I had laid down. This denouement was the only one 
 capable of imparting security to the revolution and its 
 principles. But the fates had otherwise decreed.' Napoleon 
 himself conspired against his own blood. What shifts, what 
 pretexts, did he not employ to keep me at a distance from 
 the capital, where he even feared the presence of his son and 
 of his wife ; for the order which he left to Cambaceres, to 
 cause the immediate departure of the empress and the King 
 of Rome, at the earliest appearance of the allies, cannot, 
 without great misrepresentation, be imputed to any other 
 motive, than that of averting such a revolution as might be 
 effected by the establishment of a national regency. After 
 having suffered himself to be juggled out of his capital by 
 the Emperor Alexander, he wished to have recourse to the 
 regency as a last shift. But it was then too late. The com- 
 binations of M. de Talleyrand had prevailed, and it was when 
 
 ' Rather say, that in spite of so many intrigues of all the military power 
 of Bonaparte, and of the protracted aberrations of European policy, 
 Providence at length determined that our native princes should resume the 
 sceptre of France. We were at length consoled for so many wars and 
 calamities, by the reign of Charles X., which the wise foresight of Louis 
 XVIII. enabled him to prepare for our advantage. — Note by the French 
 Editor. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 409 
 
 a provisional government was already framed, that I arrived, 
 to make my appearance before the restoration. What a 
 position, just Heaven, was mine ! Impelled by the con- 
 sciousness of the many claims which I possessed to power, 
 and withheld by a sentiment of remorse ; impressed at the 
 same time with the grandeur of a spectacle perfectly new to 
 the generation which witnessed it — the public entrance of 
 a son of France, who, after being the sport of fortune for 
 twenty-five years, reviewed, in the midst of acclamations and 
 universal rejoicing, the capital of his ancestors adorned with 
 the standards and emblems of royalty. Moved, I confess, by 
 the affecting picture of royal affability, intermingling with 
 royalist intoxication, I was subjugated by the feeling.' 
 I neither dissembled my regret nor my repentance : 
 I revealed them in full senate, while I urged the senators 
 to send a deputation to S. A. R. Monsieur ; at the same 
 time declaring myself unworthy to form a part of it, and of 
 appearing in my own person before the representative of 
 monarchy ; and withstanding to the utmost of my influence 
 such of my colleagues, as wished to impose restraints upon 
 the Bourbons. 
 
 A month had not yet elapsed when, tormented by the 
 secret disquietude with which the residence of Napoleon at 
 the Isle of Elba inspired me, a residence which I foresaw 
 might prove fatal to France, I took up my pen, and addressed 
 him in the following letter, which I surrender to the im- 
 partial judgment of history : — 
 
 " Sire, — When France and a portion of Europe were at 
 your feet, I never flinched from telling you the truth. Now 
 that you are in misfortune, I entertain more fear of wound- 
 
 ' Another effect of the same providence. What a sublime and affecting 
 spectacle, was that return of a son of France on the immortal day of the 
 I2th of April, 1814. That spectacle affected the soul of a regicide ; the 
 feeling of remorse overcomes him ; he recognizes, in the great catastrophe, 
 the hand of Divine Providence, which prepared, ten years before, the way 
 for the mild and paternal rule of Charles X., of that chivalrous king, who 
 was saluted by the acclamations of the Parisians on the very threshold of 
 our restoration. — Note by the French Editor, 
 
4IO MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 ing your sensibility while I address you in the language of 
 sincerity ; but it is a duty which I owe to you, because it is 
 useful, and even necessary to your own welfare. 
 
 " You have accepted the Isle of Elba and its sovereignty 
 for your retreat. I lend an attentive ear to all which is 
 dropped on the subject of that sovereignty and of that isle. 
 I think it is my duty to assure you, that the situation of 
 that isle, in Eurppe, is not adapted for you, and that 
 the title of sovereign of a few acres of land is still less 
 fitted for him, who has been the master of an immense 
 empire. 
 
 " I entreat you to weigh well these two considerations, 
 and you will perceive that they are well founded. 
 
 " The Isle of Elba is at a very short distance from Africa, 
 Greece, and Spain ; it nearly touches the shores of Italy 
 and France. From that island, tides, winds, and a little 
 felucca may suddenly bring you in those countries most 
 exposed to agitation, to chances, and revolutions. There is 
 as yet stability nowhere ; and, in this general condition of 
 national instability, a genius like yours may always excite 
 disquietude and suspicion among European powers. With- 
 out being criminal you may be accused, and without being 
 criminal you may also do mischief, since a state of alarm is a 
 great evil for governments as well as for nations. 
 
 " A king whoi ascends the throne of France must desire 
 to reign exclusively by justice ; but you know well what 
 numerous passions besiege a throne, and with what ingenuity 
 malice gives the colour of truth to defamation. 
 
 "The titles which you preserve, by constantly recalling 
 what you have lost to your mind, can only serve to aggravate 
 the bitterness of your regret ; they will not appear the 
 wrecks but a vain imagery of passed grandeur. I will go 
 farther ; without doing you honour, they will expose you to 
 the greatest danger. It will be said that you preserve your 
 titles, only because you retain your pretensions ; it will be 
 said that the rocky island of Elba is the point d^appui on 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHM. 411 
 
 which you will fix your lever, in order, a second time, to 
 shake the whole world. 
 
 " Permit me, Sire, to express with frankness all that 
 passes in my mind. It would be more glorious and more 
 consolatory for you to live in the character of a private 
 individual ; and the more secure asylum for a man like 
 yourself is the United States of America. There you will 
 recommence your existence in the midst of a nation still in 
 its youth, and which can admire your genius without stand- 
 ing in dread of its effects. You will be under the protection 
 of laws, equally impartial and inviolable, like everything 
 else in the country of Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson. 
 You will prove to the Americans that, if you had been 
 born among them, you would have thought and voted as 
 they had done, and that you would have preferred their 
 virtues and their liberty to all the sovereignties on earth." 
 
 This letter, which I am disposed to consider as creditable 
 to my character, was subsequently submitted, by the 
 royalists, to Monsieur Comte d'Artois, in conjunction with 
 the following letter, which I addressed to his royal high- 
 ness : — 
 
 " MoNSEiGNEUR, — It has been my wish to offer a last 
 service to the Emperor Napoleon, whose minister I was for 
 ten years. I think it my duty to communicate to your royal 
 highness the letter which I have just written. His welfare 
 cannot be a matter of indifference to me, since it has excited 
 the generous pity of the powers which have conquered him. 
 But the greatest of all interests for France and Europe, that 
 to which all others ought to give way, is the tranquillity of 
 nations and governments after so many storms and misfor- 
 tunes ; and that repose, even though established upon solid 
 bases, will never be sufficiently guaranteed, will never, in 
 short, be permanently enjoyed, as long as the Emperor 
 Napoleon remains in the Isle of Elba. Napoleon, residing 
 on that rock, may be regarded, with respect to Italy, France, 
 and the whole of Europe, with the same feelings as Vesuvius 
 
412 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 by the side of Naples. I see no place but the New World 
 and the United States which he will never shake." 
 
 The prince, whose sagacity is certainly unquestionable, 
 was enabled by this letter to judge, what he but imperfectly 
 knew before, that I was not to be reckoned among the 
 adherents of Napoleon. 
 
 On being consulted by ministers and courtiers, I frequently 
 repeated to them, " Be silent on all wrongs ; place yourself 
 at the head of the good which has been done for the last 
 twenty-five years ; reject all the evil on preceding govern- 
 ments, or, more justly, to the force of events ; profit by the 
 virtue which oppression has engendered, the energy which 
 our discords have developed, and the talents which popular 
 ferment has struck out. If theking do not make the nation 
 his point d^appm\ his authority will diminish, his courtiers 
 will be reduced to the necessity of extorting barren tributes 
 of homage on his behalf, which will be his ruin. " Take 
 care," I added, " not to touch upon the colour of the 
 national cockade and flag ; that question is not yet entirely 
 understood ; it is frivolous only in appearance, but it will 
 decide on everything ; the question is, as it were, to decide 
 under which standard the nation will rally ; the colour of 
 the riband may, also, decide the colour of the reign. A 
 sacrifice like this, on the part of the king, resembles that 
 made by Henry IV., with regard to the mass." It may be 
 seen from this, that, in my advice, I did not hesitate to 
 constitute the king into a head of the revolution, to which, 
 by this measure, a guarantee, much stronger than that of 
 the charter itself, would be presented ; my opinions, and 
 the interests of my country, as well as my own, prescribed 
 this course. But if, on the one hand, I possessed numerous 
 partisans, either among the royalists, or among the men of 
 the revolution ; I had, on the other hand, against me the 
 Bonapartists, and the relics of Savary's police. The latter 
 represented me as devoured by chagrin, at not having been 
 able to assist in the overthrow of an edifice which I had 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 413 
 
 taken pleasure in erecting ; and as hurrying to the legitimate 
 throne, making a parade of my remorse, and oifering my 
 services to the august family, which I had outraged, at any 
 price which they chose to fix. The former, on the contrary^ 
 depicted me as the only man calculated to maintain the 
 security of the Bourbons ; as a most sagacious minister, 
 capable of disposing of a portion of the elements of the 
 political body. I do not think that I deceive myself, when 
 I affirm that such was the prevailing opinion in the Faubourg 
 St. Germain. 
 
 I commenced a correspondence with several important 
 personages of the court ; among others, with my friend 
 Malouet, who, since his exile at Tours, had been appointed 
 by the king to the department of the navy. All the letters 
 which I wrote to him were placed under the king's eye. I 
 recommended to him, as well as to all those who came on 
 his majesty's behalf to ask my advice, not to establish a 
 warfare between old and new opinions, between the nation 
 and the emigrants ; but there was not energy enough to 
 follow any part of my recommendation ; and the torrent of 
 opposite opinions was suffered to prevail. 
 
 Towards the end of June, the king having desired M. de 
 Blacas to have a conference with me, I had a visit from that 
 minister, whom I coldly received. I knew him to be sur- 
 rounded by persons who were my enemies, and who enjoyed 
 no credit with the public ; such as Savary, Bourienne, the 
 
 old prefect of police Dubois, and a certain Madame P , a 
 
 woman in bad repute, and very notorious ; I knew that the 
 whole of them, united, exerted themselves to delude and 
 circumvent M. de Blacas. His unconciliating manner, and 
 his inexperience in business, joined to the aversion with 
 which his cabal inspired me, prevented him from fully 
 comprehending me, while it precluded me from speaking 
 openly to him. However, as Louis XVIII. would be in- 
 formed that I had shown reserve and want of confidence in 
 my communications with his minister, I took up my pen, 
 
414 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 and, the next day, wrote a detailed letter to M. de Blacas, 
 under the conviction that the king would be shortly made 
 acquainted with it. I said that the agitation of France was 
 caused among the people by a dread of the re-establishment 
 of feudal rights ; by disquietude respecting their acquisitions, 
 on the part of the possessors of emigrant property ; by a 
 doubt as to their personal security on the part of those who 
 had firmly declared themselves either for the republic or for 
 Bonaparte ; by the loss of, and regret for, so many prospects 
 of glory and fortune, on the part of the army ; and, finally, 
 by the astonishment produced on the publication of the 
 charter (which the king had chosen to characterize as an 
 emanation from his hereditary power) on the minds of the 
 constitutionalists. Among these causes, the most dangerous 
 of all was precisely that, the action of which all the wisdom 
 of the king and of his ministers could not entirely foresee 
 nor prevent : I mean the discontent of the army, and I 
 explained its motives ; among others, I stated that an army, 
 and more especially an army raised by conscription, always 
 imbibes the general feeling of the nation in which it lives, 
 and that it always ends with being either contented or dis- 
 contented, like the nation, and in conjunction with the 
 nation. With this cause of discontent, I added, that the 
 genius of Bonaparte still interfered. " A nation," I observed, 
 " in which, for five-and-twenty years, opinions and feelings 
 have been thrown into so strong an action as to shake the 
 universe, cannot, without long gradations of interval, return 
 to a tranquil and peaceable condition ; to attempt to stop 
 the force of that activity would be impolitic ; new fuel must 
 be found for its rapacity ; the boundless careers of industry 
 in all the branches of commerce, of the arts, of the sciences, 
 and of the discoveries which they may effect, must be 
 thrown open and enlarged as much as possible ; in short, 
 everything which extends the faculties and the power of 
 man. The nineteenth century has scarcely begun ; it ought 
 to bear the name of Louis XVIII., as the seventeenth bore 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 415 
 
 the name of Louis XIV." I equally pleaded the cause of 
 the liberty of the press and individual liberty ; and I 
 concluded in the following terms : — " Great numbers of 
 Frenchmen, who devoted themselves to participate in the 
 misfortunes of the Bourbons, as they had in their prosperity, 
 have returned with the dynasty of their kings ; they can no 
 longer pretend to the re-acquisition of their estates, without 
 exciting violent troubles and a civil war ; — then let one of 
 the king's ministers, with the logic of a reflecting mind, and 
 imbued with the eloquence of a soul alive to what is due to 
 great misfortunes and great virtues, ask of the two chambers 
 the allotment of an annual sum for the purpose of indemni- 
 fying calamities and privations so deserving of succour, at 
 the hands of a feeling and heroic nation ; I will take upon 
 myself to answer, that such a project in the chambers would 
 be passed into a law by acclamation." 
 
 But such advice could only be fruitless, as long as it came 
 from an individual out of the sphere of power. Supported 
 and urged by a numerous party of royalists, the ramifications 
 of which extended as far as the court, I confess that I, was 
 led to hope that I might again come into office as minister, 
 for the purpose of exerting an influence over events ; but I 
 had opposed to me M. de Blacas, who had subjected himself 
 to the crafty influence of Savary ; and the latter, being sold 
 to Bonaparte, trembled at the idea of a door of access to the 
 king's councils being opened to me. I had, moreover, too 
 many recollections, interests, and especially rival pretensions, 
 to struggle with. I did not disguise from myself, that the 
 main argument which was constantly reiterated against me 
 was undeniable. I felt my real position, and departed with 
 my family for my chateau of Ferriferes, whence I proposed 
 to cast an observing eye upon events. It was necessary to 
 oppose the wishes of my friend, in order to station myself, 
 in this manner, at a distance from the capital. 
 
 I was convinced, beforehand, that the feeble and in- 
 competent individuals who held the helm of government 
 
4i6 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 would continue to follow erroneous maxims in politics, and 
 to impart a false direction to affairs. 
 
 What serious reflections, therefore, assailed my mind, with 
 regard to the equivocal and inconsistent position of the new 
 government ! As a statesmanA it could not escape my 
 notice, that a restoration had been eifected without a revolu- 
 tion ; since all the springs of the imperial government still 
 subsisted, and nothing was changed, if I may so express it, 
 but the individuality oi •^a^QX. And, in fact, what could be 
 found, after the lapse of twenty years, in an immovable 
 condition ? Clergy, nobility, institutions, municipalities, 
 hereditary property, nothing had escaped the general over- 
 throw. The Bourbons, in reascending the throne, found 
 support in public inclination, but not in national interest. 
 Such was the origin and first cause of the commotion, the 
 first indications of which already began to exhibit themselves 
 to my eyes. France was participated between the votaries 
 and adversaries of the restoration. Louis XVIII. reigned 
 over a suffering and divided nation ; all who had shared in 
 the deeds of imperial despotism, all the individuals who had 
 distinguished themselves in our revolutionary crisis, feared 
 to be obliged to share their dignities with the ancient 
 nobility ; they had required securities, and they had 
 obtained them, or imagined they had obtained them, by 
 that declaration claimed from the king, and promulgated by 
 that prince before his entrance into his capital. I 
 I But, on the other hand, the reverses of Napoleon had 
 succeeded each other with so much rapidity, that the 
 possessors of high offices and great incomes had not had 
 sufficient time to retrench the luxury of their establish- 
 ments. When the Bourbons were recalled, some calculation 
 was necessary on their part, and it was indispensable to put 
 a sudden stop to the unlimited course of their expenses. 
 Here was a plentiful source of discontent and irritation 
 among the upper ranks of the social order. Another still 
 more alarming cause of instability for the new government. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 417 
 
 was to be found in the army, as yet intact, it had not yet 
 been disbanded (an enormous error), for all the old soldiers, 
 and all the prisoners, who were restored to France, were 
 imbued with a spirit at variance with the restoration, and 
 devoted to the interests of the ex-emperor. \ 
 
 3 flThe king, instead of accepting the charter, had granted 
 it ; another subject of discontent to that great body of 
 Frenchmen, whose political era dated from the revolution. 
 The charter, it is true, confirmed titles, honours, and in 
 some respects, places ; it legalized the acquisition of national 
 property ; but that was not entirely satisfactory for so many 
 restless and prejudiced individuals. The charter, moreover, 
 had a multitude of objectors. According to one party, it 
 was not sufficiently liberal ; according to the partisans of 
 the ancient rigtme, the old constitution of the kingdom was 
 preferable, j To this state of things must be added the laxity 
 and uncertainty of the ministers, who, without being either 
 royalists or patriots, took it into their heads that they could 
 render France ministerial. The general apprehension must 
 also be borne in mind, which was entertained of the congress 
 of Vienna, which, while employed in the reconstruction of 
 Europe, menaced such states as had become the seat of 
 revolution with subjection to an anti-revolutionary regime ; 
 in this manner the interests produced by twenty-five years 
 of troubles were thrown into alarm. The royalists enfeebled, 
 became divided, in proportion as their adversaries, shudder- 
 ing at the very name of the Bourbons, exhibited more 
 pertinacity in disputing their rights. \The possibility of 
 Napoleon's return, considered at first as a chimera, became 
 the favourite idea of the army ; plots were formed, and the 
 royal police countermined. It is easy to conceive, that 
 having occupied so many elevated posts in the state, and 
 still preserving such numerous links of connection with 
 
 public affairs, and with so devoted a body of clients in the 
 
 capital, my observations extended over all the intrigues 
 
 which were preparing. ) 
 
 28 
 
4i8 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 I was in this disposition of mind, when an individual, who 
 had possessed much influence and who was then losing it 
 daily, wrote to prevail upon me to make one of a secret 
 committee, the object of which was a change of government. 
 I wrote upon the very note of invitation the following 
 answer, which afterwards was made known : "I do not work 
 in secrecy [en cherres chaudes) \ I will not do anything that 
 may not appear in open air (au grand air) P 
 
 In the meantime affiliations were forming ; and influential 
 men were contracting political engagements to each other. 
 It was soon obvious to me, that the state was proceeding 
 towards a crisis, and that the adherents of Napoleon had 
 coalesced in order to accelerate its advent. But no success 
 was possible without my co-operation ; I was everything but 
 decided to concede it to a party, against whom I entertained 
 a grudge of long standing. Repeated applications were 
 made to me, and many plans suggested ; all tended to the 
 dethronement of the king, and the subsequent proclamation 
 either of another dynasty or of a provisional republic. A 
 military party made me a proposal of offering the dictator- 
 ship to Eugene Beauharnais. I wrote to Eugene, under the 
 impression that the matter had already assumed a substantial 
 form ; but I only received a vague answer. In the interim, 
 all the interests of the revolution congregated round myself 
 and Carnot, whose letter to the king produced a general 
 sensation, which attested still more efficaciously against the 
 unskilfulness of the ministry. The affair of Excelmans gave 
 additional strength to the persuasion that a considerable 
 ( party, the focus of which was in Paris, desired the re-estab- 
 lishment of Napoleon and the imperial government. 
 
 When, as winter approached, I returned to the capital, 
 the royal government appeared to me undermined by two 
 parties, hostile to legitimacy, and itself thenceforward with- 
 out resource. The king had, in his wisdom, commissioned 
 the Duke d'Havre to supersede M. de Blacas in his confi- 
 dential communications with me. The true nobility of this 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 419 
 
 nobleman's character, as well as his frank deportment, gained 
 him my entire confidence ; I opened my whole heart to him, 
 and found myself disposed to a freedom of communication 
 which I had never before known. Never had I, in any 
 moment of my life, felt so little inclination to reserve ; never 
 before did I find myself endowed with an eloquence so true, 
 and a sensibility so intense, as those which accompanied 
 the recital of the circumstances by which I had been 
 fatally induced to vote for the death of Louis XVI. I 
 can say it with truth, that this confession extorted from 
 my feelings was imbued at once with remorse and inspi- 
 ration. I cannot, indeed, at this time, recall to mind, 
 without profound emotion, the tears which I observed 
 in the eyes of my virtuous interlocutor — of that illustrious 
 duke, who was a personification of true and loyal French 
 chivalry. 
 
 Our political conversations were minuted, for the purpose 
 of being subsequently communicated to the king. But the 
 wounds of the state were beyond remedy, and a great crisis 
 was inevitable. Placed, on the one hand, between the 
 Bourbons, who only conceded to me a demi-confidence, 
 whose system closed all the avenues of power and honour 
 against me, and with regard to whom I was in a false 
 position, while, at the same time, I had no kind of engage- 
 ment towards them ; and on the other hand, between the 
 party to which I was indebted for my fortune, and to which 
 a community of opinions and interests attracted me, at the 
 moment when a prolonged state of doubt on my part might 
 have isolated me from both, I threw myself entirely into the 
 arms of the last. It was not against the Bourbons that I 
 resolved within myself to wage war, but against the dogma 
 of legitimacy. I was, however, thwarted in my combina- 
 tions by the existence of a Bonapartist party, which exerting 
 all its influence over the army, kept us all in a state of 
 dependence. It was my ancient colleague Thibaudeau who 
 first disclosed to me the progress of the faction in the Isle of 
 
420 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 Elba, whose principal agent he was. I saw that there was 
 no time to lose ; I, moreover, considered that Napoleon 
 would, at all events, serve as a rallying point for the army, 
 which we might the more easily overthrow afterwards, as 
 the emperor, in my eyes, was nothing but a worn-out 
 actor, whose first performance could not be re-enacted. I 
 then consented that Thibaudeau should make overtures to 
 some of Napoleon's friends, and I allowed Regnault, 
 
 Cambacerfes, Davoust, S , B , L , C , B 
 
 de la M , and M. de D to be admitted to our 
 
 conferences. But I demanded concessions and securities, 
 refusing to unite with that party, if their chief, abjuring 
 despotism, did not adopt a system of liberal government. 
 Our coalition was cemented by the reciprocal promise of an 
 equal participation of power, either in the ministry or in the 
 provisional government, at the moment of the explosion. 
 According to the plan arranged with Thibaudeau, I hastened 
 
 to despatch my emissary, J , to Murat, to induce him to 
 
 declare himself the arbiter of Italy ; at the same time the 
 
 great committee despatched Doctor R to the Isle of 
 
 Elba. Lyons and Grenoble became the two pivots of the 
 enterprise in the south ; in the north, a military movement 
 directed by d'Erlon and Lefebvre-Desnouettes was to deter- 
 mine the flight or capture of the royal family, which measure 
 would require the formation of a provisional government, of 
 which I was to form a part with Carnot, Caulaincourt, 
 
 Lafayette, and N . To resume the supreme power in 
 
 the midst of the general confusion, such was the drift of our 
 combinations. Impatient to reconcile himself with Napo- 
 leon, and hoping to remain master of Italy, Murat, although 
 the ally of Austria, was the first to take up arms on some 
 insidious pretences ; this show of hostilities apparently 
 directed against Louis XVIII., caused great sensation in the 
 king's council. Thirty thousand men were immediately 
 marched towards Grenoble and the Alps, or rather thrown 
 in Napoleon's way. The adroitness of this manoeuvre was 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 421 
 
 not discovered. In the meanwhile the disembarkation of 
 the emperor took place at Cannes ; and it may be alleged 
 in proof that we are not a nation of conspirators, that for the 
 preceding fortnight the overthrow of the Bourbons had been 
 publicly avowed by all parties, and had been a subject of 
 universal conversation. The court alone persevered in 
 refusing to see what was evident to everybody else. 
 
 Before touching on the events of the 20th of March, let us 
 throw a retrospective glance. It will have been seen that I 
 had, at first, no intention of joining the rebellious party; my 
 only aim was to induce the cabinet of the Tuileries to seize 
 the reins of the revolution, and hold them with a vigorous 
 hand through the midst of surrounding obstacles. I think 
 I may avow, without arrogating too much to myself, that I 
 alone was capable of heading and superintending such a 
 system ; at the court, in Paris, and in the provinces, I was 
 selected by all parties as fittest for this bold attempt. I had 
 to contend against rivals, to whom the past appeared to 
 furnish with invincible arms ; but, up to the latest moment, 
 I never ceased seeking for some mezzo-termme, some mode 
 of conciliation, which might do away with the necessity of 
 recurring to the de^erate expedient of the emperor's return. 
 It has been seen, how in yielding to it I yielded to the neces- 
 sity of the case. It was only at the moment of Napoleon's 
 landing, that I was thoroughly informed of the fatal combi- 
 nation which brought him back to our shores. Its object 
 embraced three distinct sub-divisions : the return of Napo- 
 leon to Paris ; the captivity of the king and the royal family ; 
 and the evasion of Maria-Louisa and her son from Vienna. 
 The first part of the plan was that, the execution of which 
 was the easiest, considering the disposition to defection 
 manifested by almost all the troops. The same could not be 
 said of the seizure of the king and the royal family ; for that 
 purpose it would have been necessary for an army to have 
 suddenly marched on the capital, an expedient which pre- 
 cluded the possibility of a secret ; and it was on that account 
 
422 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHlt. 
 
 that the attempt of Lefebvre-Desnouettes failed. As to the 
 evasion of Maria-Louisa and her son, that also was attempted 
 and had nearly succeeded. Shrinking with a kind of horror 
 from the idea of sacrificing to a military coup de main the 
 family of a monarch who had shown such a high opinion of 
 me as to take my advice, I requested an audience of the 
 king as soon as I learnt that Napoleon was marching upon 
 Lyons. This interview was not granted me ; but two 
 gentlemen came, on his majesty's behalf, to receive my 
 communications. I apprized them of the danger which 
 Louis XVIII. incurred, and I engaged to stop the progress 
 of the fugitive from the Isle of Elba, if the court would 
 consent to the terms which I required. My proposals 
 resulted from the actual nature of the events which were in 
 the act of being unfolded. A patriotic party, not less 
 inimical than myself to imperial despotism, had just com- 
 pleted its sudden organization ; it had for its chiefs MM. 
 de Broglie, Lafayette, D'Argenson, Flaugergues, Benjamin 
 Constant, &c. They had agreed to require of the king, the 
 dismissal of his ministers ; the nomination of forty new 
 members selected from men of the revolution, to the 
 chamber of peers ; and that of M. de Lafayette to the 
 command of the National Guard. It was, moreover, 
 proposed to send, into the provinces, patriotic commis- 
 sioners, in order to stop the defection of the troops and 
 kindle a national energy in their hearts. I was no stranger 
 to the motions of this party, by means of which I was 
 subsequently to become minister. I was, however, aware 
 that it was indispensable to rally all the elements of the 
 revolution, in order to oppose them in one body to the 
 power of the sword ; that it was necessary to oppose one 
 name against another, and the charm of those recollections, 
 which the heir of the first mover of the revolution would 
 excite in the hearts of freemen, against that of a glory, 
 which, by its sudden resurrection, dazzled the genius of the 
 camp. When the king's ministers desired to know what 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 423 
 
 were the means which I proposed to employ in order to 
 prevent Napoleon from reaching Paris, I refused to commu- 
 nicate them, being disinclined to disclose them to any 
 person but the king himself ; but I protested that I was 
 sure of success. The two chief conditions which I exacted, 
 was the appointment of the first prince of the blood to the 
 lieutenant -generalship of the kingdom, and the consignment 
 of power and the direction of affairs into my hands and those 
 of my party. This experiment of my political measures was 
 declined, and we therefore found ourselves necessitated, in 
 some sort, to second the impulse of the party which I had 
 wished to paralyse ; conceiving myself, besides, in a condition 
 to substitute a more popular government in the room of that 
 which Napoleon threatened to revive. 
 
 The alarm in the palace of the Tuileries hourly increasing 
 in proportion as the march of Napoleon became more rapid 
 and more certain, the court again turned its looks towards 
 me. Some royalists interfered to obtain, at least, for me, an 
 interview with Monsieur, the king's brother, in the apart- 
 ments of the Comte d'Escars. I only required permission to 
 go clandestinely to the Tuileries by night ; the publicity of 
 such a proceeding being otherwise calculated to compromise 
 my influence with my party. Everything was regulated 
 accordingly. Monsieur did not keep me waiting long ; he 
 was only attended by the Comte d'Escars, The aifability of 
 this prince, his condescending deportment, his polite atten- 
 tions, in which solicitude for the destinies of France and of 
 his family were depicted, to sum up all, his generous and 
 affecting language touched my heart, and doubled my regret 
 that an interview of so vital an importance had been decided 
 upon too late. I declared, with grief, to this frank and loyal 
 prince, that it was too late, and that it was now impossible 
 to serve the king's cause. It was at the conclusion of an 
 interview which will never be erased from my mind, that 
 subjugated by the charm of so august a confidence, and 
 finding in the painful conviction of my own powerlessness a 
 
424 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 sudden inspiration, I exclaimed as I took leave of the prince, 
 " Take measures to save the king, and I take upon me to 
 save the monarchy." 
 
 Who could have imagined, that, after communications of 
 so great an importance, there should almost immediately be 
 set on foot against me, and against my liberty, a kind of 
 plot, for plot it was, and a plot totally at variance with the 
 genuine sentiments of the magnanimous sovereign and his 
 noble brother. Its authors I will reveal. But, however it 
 may be, I was without the least suspicion, in my own house, 
 when some agents of the Parisian police, at the head of 
 which Bourienne had just been placed, suddenly made their 
 appearance) accompanied by gendarmes to arrest me. Having 
 timely intelligence, I hastily took measures for my escape. 
 The agents of police were already proceeding to an active 
 search in my apartments, when the gendarmes commissioned 
 to execute the order of the new prefect presented themselves 
 before me. These men, who had so long obeyed my orders, 
 not daring to lay their hands on my person, contented them- 
 selves with presenting me the written warrant. I took the 
 paper, opened it, and pretending to read it, said, " This order 
 is not regular ; stay a moment while I write my protest 
 against it." I entered my closet, seated myself at my desk, 
 and began to write. I then rose with a paper in my hand, 
 and making a sudden turn, I precipitately descended into my 
 garden by a secret door ; there I found a ladder resting 
 against a wall contiguous to the mansion of Queen Hortense. 
 I lightly climbed it ; one of my people raised the ladder, 
 which I took and let fall on its feet on the other side of the 
 wall ; this I quickly scaled, and descended with still more 
 promptitude. I arrived, in the character of a fugitive, at 
 the house of Hortense, who received me with open arms ; 
 and, as in a wonderful Arabian tale, I suddenly found myself 
 in the midst of the ihte of the Bonapartists, in the head- 
 quarters of the party, where I found mirth, and where my 
 presence caused intoxication. 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 425 
 
 This impromptu circumstance completed the dissipation of 
 that mistrust which the party entertained towards me ; and 
 the same individuals who, till then, had considered me in 
 the light of an almost acquired partisan to the Bourbons, 
 now beheld in me nothing more than an enemy proscribed 
 by the Bourbons. 
 
 Let it be here understood that political considerations had 
 nothing to do with the attempt to arrest me. His royal 
 highness Monsieur went so far as to say to some influential 
 members of the lower house, that it was against his know- 
 ledge that the attempt had been made to arrest me, and that 
 he would answer for the safety of my person. 
 
 This attempt was nothing but the result of an interested 
 contrivance between Savary, Bourienne, and B ; what- 
 ever might be the issue of the 20th of March, this trium- 
 virate, or rather the three members of this tripot, had 
 determined to secure to themselves the profits arising from 
 the gambling houses, and they were convinced that it was 
 necessary to sacrifice me, in order that their ambitious 
 cupidity might acquire a kind of guarantee and consistence. 
 
 If I had once fallen into their hands, what would they 
 have done with me ? It has been said, that their object was 
 to transfer me to Lille ; but no ! it was not Lille ; this I 
 have learnt since ; but it was to the castle of Saumur ; and 
 there, I repeat my question, what was the lot they intended 
 for me ? If I may rely on discoveries that my return to 
 power elicited, one of my enemies (for all the three were not 
 capable of crime) would have caused my assassination, and 
 subsequently imputed my death to the royalists, who would 
 have borne the odium. 
 
 Such was my singular position, that the departure of 
 Louis XVIII. and the arrival of Napoleon were requisite to 
 restore me entirely to liberty. Being one of the first to 
 obtain intelligence that the Tuileries were vacant, I learnt, 
 at the same time, that Lavalette had sent an express to 
 Fontainebleau, where Napoleon had just arrived, to apprize 
 
426 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 
 
 him of the king's departure. Madame Ham , who had 
 
 intrigued so much in producing this innovation, was 
 mortified that others should get the start of her, and, 
 despatching an express with orders to overtake the pre- 
 ceding one, obtained by that means the honour of conveying 
 the first intelHgence. 
 
 Carried onward by his own soldiers and a portion of the 
 populace, Napoleon resumed possession of the Tuileries in 
 the midst of his partisans, who exhibited symptoms of the 
 most clamorous joy. I was not present at first among the 
 other dignitaries of the state, with whom he conversed on 
 the present aspect of affairs. But Napoleon sent for me : 
 " So they wanted to carry you off," he said, as I approached 
 him, " in order to present you from being useful to your 
 country ? Well ! I now oifer you an opportunity of doing 
 her fresh service ; the period is difficult, but your courage, 
 as well as mine, is superior to the crisis. Accept once more 
 the office of minister of police." I represented to him that the 
 office of foreign affairs was more the object of my ambition 
 than any other, persuaded as I was that I could, in that 
 quarter, more than elsewhere, do my country effectual 
 service. " No," rejoined he, " take the charge of the police ; 
 you have learnt to judge soundly of the state of the public 
 mind ; to divine, prepare, and direct the progress of events ; 
 you understand the tactics, the resources, and the pretensions 
 of the various parties ; the police is your forte." There was 
 no way of receding. I gave him to understand, in all its 
 extent, the dangerous posture of affairs ; and, as if he wished 
 to engage me more deeply in his interest, he assured me 
 that Austria and England, in order to balance the pre- 
 ponderance of Russia, secretly favoured his escape and 
 return to France. Without giving credit to this assurance, 
 I accepted the office. 
 
 The next day I learnt, through Regnault, who was devoted 
 to me, that Bonaparte, always suspicious and mistrustful 
 with regard to me, would have wished to keep me out of the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 427 
 
 circle of government ; but that he had yielded to the soli- 
 citations of Bassano, Caulaincourt, and of Regnault himself, 
 and his chief partisans, who in disclosing their engagements 
 with me, impressed upon his mind the importance of 
 strengthening himself by my popularity and the adherence 
 of the party which I directed. 
 
 Cambaceres, who foresaw the fatal issue of this new inter- 
 lude, did not accept, till after much hesitation, the office of 
 minister of justice ; the porte-feuille of war was given to 
 Davoust, who was much more attached to his fortune than 
 to Napoleon. 
 
 Caulaincourt, in the conviction that no intercourse could 
 be established with foreign powers, at first refused the office 
 for foreign affairs. Napoleon offered it to Mole, who declined 
 having anything to do with it, and refused the home depart- 
 ment at the same time. Too much devoted to the emperor 
 to leave him without a minister, Caulaincourt at length 
 acceded. From hand to hand, the home department at 
 length passed into the possession of Carnot, a nomination 
 which was considered as a national guarantee. The navy 
 was given again to the cynical and brutal Decrfes ; and the 
 secretaryship of state to Bassano, notorious for the reputa- 
 tion of thinking with Napoleon's thoughts, and seeing with 
 his eyes. Out of deference to public opinion, Savary was 
 omitted ; however, Moncey having refused the gendarmerie, 
 it was given to him ; at least, he was so far in his proper 
 place. Champagny and Montalivet, who had appeared 
 invested with the highest employments when Napoleon, 
 almost master of the world, did not stand in so vacillating a 
 position, modestly contented themselves, the one with the 
 superintendence of public buildings, and the other with that 
 of the civil list. Bertrand, equally amiable, insinuating, and 
 zealous, superseded Duroc in the function of grand marshal 
 of the palace. Napoleon restored to their duty about his 
 person almost all the chamberlains, grooms, and masters of 
 the ceremonies, who surrounded him before his abdication ; 
 
428 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH±. 
 
 but ill-cured of his old unfortunate passion for noblemen of 
 the ancien rigtme, he must have them at any price ; he 
 would have thought himself in the midst of a republic if he 
 had not contrived to be environed by the ancient noblesse. 
 
 Yet, nevertheless, those who had assisted him in crossing 
 the Mediterranean, pretended that he had thought as much 
 of re-establishing the republic or the consulate as the empire. 
 But I knew what to believe on that head ; I knew also what 
 trouble I had had among the adherents, in getting them to force 
 him to abandon his oppressive system, and to engage him to 
 give pledges to the liberties of the nation. His decrees ifrom 
 Lyons had not been voluntary ; he had there pledged himself 
 to give a national constitution to France. " I return," he 
 then said, " in order to protect and defend the interests 
 which our revolution has engendered. It is my wish to give 
 you an inviolable constitution, which shall be the joint work 
 of the people and myself." By his decrees from Lyons, he 
 had abolished the chamber of peers by a single stroke of his 
 pen, and annihilated the feudal nobility. It was also from 
 Lyons that, in the hope of averting the resentment of foreign 
 powers, he had commissioned his brother Joseph, then in 
 Switzerland, to make known to them, through the inter- 
 vention of their ministers to the Helvetic confederation, that 
 he was positively determined on no longer troubling the 
 repose of Europe, and on faithfully maintaining the treaty 
 of Paris. 
 
 This compulsory disposition, on his part, the mistrust 
 which he met with in the interior of France, as to the 
 sincerity of his secret thoughts, and, I may add, my own 
 repulsive attitude, put a stop to the impulse of a man who 
 was ready to rekindle the flames of war throughout Europe. 
 In fact, on the very night of his arrival at the Tuileries, he 
 commenced a deliberation as to the expediency of renewing 
 the scourge of war by an invasion of Belgium. But a feeling 
 of dislike having exhibited itself among those who sur- 
 rounded him, he found it necessary to abandon this project ) 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 429 
 
 he succumbed beneath the hand of necessity, although once 
 more armed with his military power. That power, honrever, 
 since the Lyons decrees, had changed its nature. 
 
 By a decree of the 24th of March, suppressing the censor- 
 ship and the regulation of publications, he consummated 
 what it was agreed to call the imperial restoration. The 
 liberty of the press, so tumultuous in France, and which is, 
 nevertheless, the mother of all other immunities, had been 
 reconquered. I had much contributed to it, even in the 
 presence of its greatest enemy. Napoleon objected to me 
 that the royalists, on one side, would employ it to aid the 
 cause of the Bourbons — and the jacobins, on the other, to 
 render his sentiments and projects suspected. " Sire," I 
 rejoined, " the French require victory, or the nourishment 
 of liberty." I insisted, also, that his decrees should contain 
 no other epithets than that of emperor of the French, 
 inducing him to suppress the et ccetera, remarked with 
 uneasiness in his proclamations and decrees from Lyons. 
 
 But the idea of being indebted to the patriots for his 
 re-installation at the Tuileries was repugnant to him. 
 " Some intriguers," said he to me with bitterness, " wanted 
 to take all the credit to themselves, and turn it to their own 
 advantage. They now lay claim to having prepared my 
 progress to Paris ; but I know what to think about it — the 
 people, the soldiers, and the sub-lieutenants, have effected 
 everything ; it is to them and them only that I owe the 
 whole." I felt what was meant by these words, and that 
 they were intended as a reproof for my party and myself. 
 
 It must be obvious that, with such feelings, it was 
 indispensable for him to make himself certain of a police 
 different from mine. He sent for Real, whom he had just 
 invested with the office of prefect of police ; and after having 
 allured him with fine promises and more substantial gifts, 
 sent him to Savary, in order to devise means of tracing and 
 counteracting my designs — but I was on my guard. 
 
 In the meanwhile, he learnt with anxiety that Louis 
 
430 MEMOIRS OF F OUCH it. 
 
 XVIII. projiosed remaining in observation, on the frontiers 
 of Belgium. He had, besides, another cause of vexation ; 
 Ney, Lecourbe, and other generals, wished him to purchase 
 their services, and even to make him pay his ransom ; he 
 grew indignant at this. The result of the royalist enter- 
 prise rather contributed to tranquillize him. He was 
 astonished by the courage which the Duke d'Angouleme 
 exhibited in La Drome, and especially Madame at Bordeaux. 
 He admired the intrepidity of this heroic princess, whom 
 the desertion of an entire army had not been able to 
 dispirit. I must here do justice to Maret. On being 
 informed that Grouchy had just made the Duke d'Angou- 
 leme prisoner, in contempt of the capitulation of Palud, to 
 which the ratification of Napoleon was alone wanting, and 
 which was in fact obtained, but not sent off, Maret con- 
 cealed the arrest of the prince from Napoleon, transmitted 
 his original orders, and only apprized him of the nullification 
 of the convention, when the obscurity of night rendered all 
 telegraphic communication impossible. 
 
 The next day, it was proposed in council to obtain the 
 crown diamonds, which were worth forty millions, in 
 exchange for the Duke d'Angouleme. I recommended 
 the emperor to throw M. de Vitrolles into the bargain, if 
 the restitution could be obtained. " No," said Napoleon, 
 angrily : " he is an intriguer and an agent of Talleyrand ; it 
 was he who was despatched to the Emperor Alexander, and 
 who opened the gates of Paris to the allies. This man has 
 been arrested at Toulouse, in the act of conspiring against 
 me ; if he had been shot, Lamarque would have done no 
 more than his duty." I, however, represented to him, that 
 if military executions had been resorted to on both sides, 
 France would soon have been covered with blood ; that 
 political reasons prescribed a more temporizing system ; and 
 that in restoring the Duke d'Angouleme to liberty, some 
 stipulation could be made for M. D. Vitrolles, who was only 
 the avowed agent of the Bourbons. To this he at length 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUChA 431 
 
 acceded, and I instantly set on foot a negotiation on the 
 subject. 
 
 We had many other causes of inquietude. Caulaincourt 
 had just had an interview, at the house of Madame de 
 Souza, with Baron de Vincent, the Austrian minister, whose 
 passport was designedly delayed. The minister did not 
 disguise that it was the resolution of the allied powers 
 to oppose Napoleon's retention of the throne ; but he 
 suffered it to be perceived that Napoleon's son did not 
 inspire the same repugnance. It has been seen that it was 
 upon this same basis that I had previously modelled the 
 plan of an edifice, which I now considered myself in better 
 condition to erect. 
 
 Napoleon caused the Emperor Alexander and Prince 
 Metternich to be written to by Hortense, and also to the 
 latter by his sister, the Queen of Naples, hoping in this way 
 to deaden the force of the blows which he was not yet 
 prepared to ward off". He at the same time commissioned 
 Eugene, and the Princess Stephanie of Baden, to neglect 
 nothing, in order to detach them from the coalition. 
 Meanwhile, he caused overtures to be made to the cabinet 
 of London by an agent whom I pointed out to him. And, 
 finally, he hoped to ingratiate himself with the English 
 parliament and nation, by a decree abolishing the negro 
 slave trade. 
 
 Meanwhile, all our external communications were inter- 
 cepted by order of the various cabinets. The proceedings 
 of the congress of Vienna were for the Tuileries a subject of 
 expectation and the most painful anxiety. We at length 
 heard, in an unquestionable manner, what the public already 
 knew, the declaration of the congress of Vienna, dated the 
 13th of March, which pronounced the outlawry of Napoleon. 
 France was from that time alarmed at the evils which were 
 preparing for her ; she groaned at the thoughts of being 
 exposed to the horrors of a new invasion, for the sake of a 
 single man. Napoleon affected not to be moved ; and told 
 
432 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 us in full counsel, " This time, they will find that they have 
 not to deal with the France of 1814 ; and their success, if 
 they obtain it, will only serve to render the war more 
 sanguinary and obstinate ; while, on the other hand, if 
 victory favour me, I may become as formidable as ever. 
 Have I not on my side Belgium, and the provinces on this 
 side the Rhine. With the aid of a proclamation and a 
 tricoloured flag, I will revolutionize them in twenty-four 
 hours." 
 
 I was far from allowing myself to be lulled into security 
 by such gasconades as these. The moment I obtained 
 knowledge of the declaration, I did not hesitate to request 
 the king, by means of an agent, on whom I could rely, to 
 permit me to devote myself, when opportunity occurred, to 
 his service. I demanded no other condition in return, but 
 the right of preserving my repose and fortune in my 
 seclusion of Pont Carre. Everj^hing was acceded to, and 
 sanctioned by Lord Wellington, who arrived just then at 
 Ghent from the congress at Vienna ; the same kind of 
 convention had already been concluded, as far as I was 
 concerned, between Prince Metternich, Prince de Talleyrand, 
 and the generalissimo of the allies. 
 
 It will not be irrelevant to explain, in this place, the cause 
 of that kindness which I met with from the Wellesley 
 family, not only on the part of the Marquis, but also on that 
 of Lord Wellington. It had its origin in the zeal which 
 I manifested at the period of my second ministry, in putting 
 an end to the captivity of a member of that illustrious 
 family, who was detained in France in consequence of the 
 rigorous measures enforced by Napoleon's orders. 
 
 The treaty of the 2Sth of March, by which the great 
 powers engaged again not to lay down their arms while 
 Napoleon was on the throne, was only the natural con- 
 sequence of the decision of the 13th. All indirect overtures 
 had completely failed. " No peace, no truce, with that 
 man," replied the Emperor Alexander, to Queen Hortense ; 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 433 
 
 " anything but him." Flahaut, who was sent to Vienna, 
 was not allowed to pass Stutgard ; and Talleyrand refused 
 to enter the service of Napoleon. Notwithstanding, how- 
 ever, the manner in which his first overtures had failed, he 
 decided on making new applications to the Emperor of 
 Austria. At the same time that he sent the Baron de 
 Stassart to him, he despatched to M. de Talleyrand, MM. 
 de S. L. and de Monteron, well known by their connection 
 with that statesman, and the last being his most intimate 
 and devoted friend. But these attempts of the second order 
 could scarcely produce any effect upon the general course of 
 things. 
 
 I daily became an object of greater umbrage to Napoleon, 
 especially as I never let slip any occasion of repressing his 
 despotic inclination, and the revolutionary measures which 
 he promulgated. I was designated by no other name among 
 his partisans, than that of the minister of Ghent. I am also 
 going to explain the cause of his new displeasure. M de 
 Blacas, deaf to all advice, having suffered the affair of the 
 20th of March to ripen, without believing it, and without 
 troubling his head about it, forgot in the hurry and anxiety 
 of his departure, a mass of papers, which might have 
 compromised a great number of respectable individuals. 
 On being informed of this fact, I had been prompted by 
 an instinctive foresight, as early as the 21st of March, to 
 authorize M. Lainl, a notary and a colonel of the national 
 guard, to take possession of M. de Blacas' cabinet, arrange 
 all the papers, and burn all those which might have been a 
 cause of inquietude to the persons who had signed them. 
 Savary and Real having detected me in this operation, the 
 emperor desired me to deliver up those papers, which I 
 presented to him in a bundle. Finding nothing among 
 them but unimportant matters, he did not fail to suspect 
 me of having withdrawn those which he had an interest in 
 seeing. 
 
 On the 25th of March, he exiled, by a decree, to the 
 
 29 
 
434 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 distance of thirty leagues from Paris, the royalists, the 
 Vendean chiefs, and the royal volunteers and gardes du 
 corps. As I was opposed to this general measure, I sent for 
 the principal persons among them, and after having testified 
 the sympathy I felt for their situation, and explained the 
 attempts I had made to prevent their exile, I authorized 
 most of them to remain at Paris. 
 
 The vexation which the royalist intrigues gave Napoleon, 
 and the disposition I showed to mitigate everything, induced 
 him to promulgate his famous decree, which is thought to 
 have been prepared at Lyons, though it only saw the light 
 in Paris, by which he ordained the trial and sequestration 
 of the property of MM. de Talleyrand, Raguse, d'Alberg, 
 Montesquieu, Jaucourt, Beurnonville, Lynch, Vitrolles, 
 Alexis de Noailles, Bourienne, Bellard, Laroche-Jacquelein, 
 and Sosthfene de Larochefoucauld. Among this list was 
 also found the name of Augereau ; but it was erased, at the 
 entreaty of his wife, and in consideration of his proclamation 
 on the 23rd of March. I expressed myself very openly in 
 the council, on the subject of this new proscription list ; in 
 getting up which, all private deliberation had been eluded. 
 I maintained it was an act of vengeance and despotism, an 
 early infraction of the promises made to the nation, and 
 which would not fail to be followed by public disapprobation. 
 In fact, some echoes of it had already been heard within the 
 palace of the Tuileries. 
 
 Meanwhile, England and Austria were on the point of 
 successively adopting an open system of politics, the object 
 of which was to isolate more and more the position of 
 Napoleon. In her memorandum of the 25th of April, 
 England declared, " that, by the treaty of the 9th of March, 
 she had not engaged to replace Louis XVIII. on the throne, 
 and that her intention was not to prosecute the war with a 
 view of imposing any government whatever upon France." 
 A similar declaration, on the part of Austria, appeared on 
 the 9th of May following. In the interim, I was very near 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 435 
 
 finding myself compromised, in a serious manner, with 
 respect to Austria. A secret agent of Prince Metternich 
 having been despatched to me, that individual, in consequence 
 of some imprudence, was suspected, and the emperor ordered 
 Real to have him arrested. Terror was of course employed 
 to extort confession from him. He declared that he had 
 delivered a letter to me from the prince, and a sign of 
 mutual recognition, which was to be employed by the agent 
 whom I was about to despatch to Bale, in order to confer 
 with M. Werner, his confidential delegate. The emperor 
 instantly sent for me, as if he wished to transact business 
 with me. His first thought had been to have my papers 
 seized, but that he quickly abandoned, in the persuasion 
 that I was not a man to leave traces of what might com- 
 promise me. Not having the slightest intimation that 
 Prince Metternich's envoy had been arrested, I neither 
 exhibited embarrassment nor anxiety. The emperor, 
 inferring from my silence on the subject of this secret corre- 
 spondence, that I was betraying him, convoked his partisans, 
 told them I was a traitor, that he had proofs of it, and that 
 he would have me shot. A thousand exclamations were 
 immediately raised against it ; it was suggested to him that 
 proofs clearer than daylight were indispensable, in order to 
 warrant an act, which would produce the most violent 
 sensation in the public mind. Carnot, seeing that he 
 persevered, told him, "It is in your power to have Fouche 
 shot, but, to-morrow at the same hour your power will have 
 ceased." — "How?" cried the emperor. — "Yes, Sire," re- 
 turned Carnot ; " this is not the time for dissembling : the 
 men of the revolution will only suffer you to reign as long as 
 they have security that you will respect their liberties. If 
 you cause Fouche to be put to death, by martial law, Fouche, 
 whom they consider as their strongest guarantee, you may 
 be assured of it, that to-morrow you will no longer possess 
 any influence over public opinion. If Fouche be really 
 guilty, you must obtain convincing proofs of it, denounce 
 
436 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 him subsequently to the nation, and put him on his trial 
 according to form." This advice was approved by every 
 one ; it was decided that steps should be taken to detect the 
 intrigue, and that an agent should be sent to Bile, in order 
 to obtain the necessary proofs for my conviction. The 
 emperor confided this mission to His secretary Fleury. ' 
 Supplied with all the necessary signs of recognition, he 
 immediately departed for Bile, and subsequently opened 
 communications with M. Werner, as if he had been sent by 
 myself. 
 
 It may be easily guessed, that the first question he put to 
 him, was about the means on which the allies calculated for 
 the destruction of Napoleon. M. Werner said, that nothing 
 certain was decided on the subject ; that the allies would 
 have wished to have recourse to force only at the last ex- 
 tremity : that they had hoped that I might be able to find 
 some means of delivering France from Bonaparte, without 
 new effusion of blood. Fleury, continuing to act his part, 
 said, " There only remain, then, two methods to pursue ; to 
 dethrone him, or assassinate him." — " To assassinate him ! " 
 exclaimed M. Werner, with indignation ; " never did such 
 an idea present itself to the mind of M. de Metternich and 
 the allies." Fleury, notwithstanding all his artifices and 
 his captious queries, could obtain no other proof against me, 
 except the conviction which M. de Metternich felt, that I 
 hated the emperor, and that this conviction had prompted 
 him to open communications with me. 
 
 I had taken so little pains to disguise my opinion in that 
 respect from Prince Metternich, that the preceding year 
 (1814), at a similar epoch, on seeing him at Paris, I reproached 
 him warmly with not having caused Bonaparte to be con- 
 fined in a fortress, predicting that he would return from 
 Elba to renew his ravages in Europe. Fleury and M. 
 Werner separated, one to return to Vienna, and the other to 
 
 " Baron Fleury de Chaboulon . — Note by the French Editor, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 437 
 
 Paris, in order to provide themselves with fresh instructions, 
 and with a promise of meeting at Bale again in eight days. 
 
 But Fleury had scarcely begun his journey to Bale, when 
 another direct emissary gave me reason to suspect, and 
 enabled me to discover, what was passing : I put the letter 
 of Prince Metternich in my porte-feutlle ; and after having 
 transacted business with the emperor, feigning a sudden 
 recollection : " Ah, Sire," I said to him, with the tone of a 
 man awaking from a long forgetfulness, " how overwhelmed 
 I must be with the state of public affairs. I am positively 
 besieged in my cabinet ; and so it is that, for several days, I 
 have forgotten to lay a letter of Prince Metternich under 
 your eye. It_ is for your majesty to decide, whether I shall 
 send him the agent which he requires. What can be his 
 object ? I can scarcely doubt that the allies, in order to 
 avert the calamities of a general war, wish to induce you to 
 abdicate in favour of your son. I am satisfied, that such is 
 the especial desire of M. de Metternich : indeed, I must 
 reiterate that such is mine : I have never concealed it from 
 you ; and I am still persuaded that it will be impossible for 
 you to resist the arms of ujiited Europe." I instantly per- 
 ceived by the play of his physiognomy, that he was suffering 
 an internal struggle between the vexation which my candour 
 occasioned him, and the satisfaction he derived from the 
 explanation of my conduct. 
 
 When Fleury returned, the emperor Sent him to me to 
 make a confession of the whole proceeding, as if his inten- 
 tion had been to gain my confidence. It was no great 
 difficulty for me to play upon this young man, so full of 
 enthusiasm and activity, who most seriously employed all 
 his poor cunning to conceal from me the second appoint- 
 ment he had made at Bdle. I suffered him to depart ; he 
 arrived there post-haste, and had the fatigues of his journey 
 and the heat of his vehement zeal for his pains. Meanwhile, 
 Monteron and Bresson, who came from Vienna, commis- 
 sioned to bring me confidential communications on behalf 
 
438 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 of M. de Metternich and M. de Talleyrand, renewed the 
 feeling of distrust which Napoleon entertained towards me. 
 He sent for them both : questioned them for a considerable 
 time ; and could extract nothing positive from either. 
 Urged by his uneasy feelings, he wanted to place them 
 under surveillance ; but he learnt, with much vexation, 
 that Bresson had suddenly departed for England, apparently 
 commissioned by Davoust, to purchase forty thousand 
 muskets proposed to him by a shipowner. He did not fail 
 to suspect a secret intelligence between Davoust and me, 
 and that Bresson was our tool. 
 
 Situated as I was, it was incumbent on me to neglect 
 nothing to preserve the favour of the public opinion : I also 
 possessed my vehicles of popularity, in my circulars and 
 anti-royalist reports. I had just established throughout 
 France, lieutenants of police, who were devoted to me ; the 
 choice of secret agents was entirely left to me ; I got hold 
 of the journals, and thus became master of public opinion. 
 But I had soon upon my hands an affair of much greater 
 importance ; the unseasonable insurrection of La Vendee, 
 which disconcerted all my plans. It was of great moment 
 for me to have the royalists on my side, but not to suffer 
 them to meddle with our affairs. In this particular, my 
 views corresponded with the interests of Napoleon. He was 
 apparently much chagrined at this new fermentation of the 
 old leaven. I hastened to make him easy, by assuring him 
 that I would soon put an end to it ; that he had only to 
 give me carte blanche^ and to place twelve thousand of the 
 old troops at my disposal. In the conviction that I should 
 not sacrifice them to the Bourbons, he left me at full liberty 
 to take my own measures. I easily persuaded some idiots 
 of the royalist party, whose opinions I modelled after my 
 own fashion, that this war of some few fanatics was unseason- 
 able : that the measures which it would suggest would 
 reproduce the reign of terror, and occasion the revolutionary 
 party to be let loose ; that it was absolutely necessary to 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 439 
 
 obtain an order from the king, to cause this rabble to lay 
 down their arms : that the grand question could not be 
 decided in the interior, but on the frontiers. I immediately 
 despatched off three negotiators, Malartic, Flavigny, and 
 Laberaudiere, furnished with instructions and orders to 
 confer with such of the chiefs as the public effervescence had 
 not yet involved in this party ; and who would be glad to 
 be supplied with a plea for waiting the course of events. All 
 was soon arranged ; the affair was brought to a conclusion, 
 after a few skirmishes, and, at the decisive moment, La 
 Vendee was both repressed and composed. 
 
 The commencement of war by Murat caused me another 
 description of uneasiness, and so much the more serious, as 
 neither the emperor nor myself were possessed of efficacious 
 means of supporting or directing him. Unfortunately, the 
 impulse came from us, for it was absolutely necessary that 
 some one should bell the cat. But that individual, who 
 always overstepped moderation, was not able to stop in 
 proper time ; I wrote to him in vain at a later period, as 
 well as to the queen, begging him to be moderate, and not 
 to urge events too violently, which we should, probably, too 
 soon be obliged to obey. When I learnt that his troops 
 were already engaged with the troops of Austria, I said to 
 myself " That man is lost ; the contest is not equal." The 
 issue was, that he was struck by the storm he had excited. 
 
 Towards the end of May, he disembarked, as a fugitive, in 
 the gulf of Juan. This news had all the sinister effect of a 
 fatal omen, and threw the partisans of the emperor in 
 consternation. 
 
 On the other hand. Napoleon found himself involved in a 
 labyrinth of affairs, more and more serious, and in the midst 
 of which, all his feelings were absorbed in the sole idea of 
 facing the armaments of Europe. He would have wished to 
 transform France into a camp, and \xk towns into arsenals. 
 The soldiers appertained to him, but the citizens were 
 divided. Besides, it was not without fear that he set the 
 
440 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 instruments of the revolution in motion, by authorizing the 
 re-establishment of popular clubs, and the formation of civic 
 confederations ; circumstances which gave him occasion to 
 fear that he had regenerated anarchy — he who had boasted 
 so much of having dethroned it. What solicitudes, what 
 anxieties, and what constraint he was compelled to infuse 
 into his measures, in order to mitigate the violence of 
 associations, the management of which was so dangerous ! 
 
 This affectation of popularity had upheld him. in public 
 opinion until the moment of his acte additionnel aux consti- 
 tutions de V empire. Napoleon considered the latter as his 
 title-deeds to the crown, and in annulling them he would 
 have considered hirhself in the light of commencing a new 
 reign. He who could only date from possession, de facto, 
 preferred to model his system, in a ridiculous manner, after 
 the fashion of Louis XVIII,, who computed time according 
 to the data of legitimacy. Instead of a national constitution, 
 which he had promised, he contented himself with modifying 
 the political laws and the senatus-consulta which governed 
 the empire. He re-established the confiscation of property, 
 against which almost all his councillors protested. In 
 fine, he persevered, in a council held upon this subject, not 
 to submit his constitution to public debates, and to present 
 it to the nation, as an act additionnel. I strongly contended 
 against his resolution, as well as Decres, Caulaincourt, and 
 almost all the members present. .He persisted, in spite of 
 our exertions, to comprise all his -concessions within the 
 compass of this, irregular design. 
 
 The word additionnel disenchanted the friends of liberty. 
 They recognized in it the ill-disguised continuation of the 
 chief institutions created in favour of absolute power. From 
 that moment, Napoleon to their view became an incurable 
 despot ; and. I, for my part, regarded him in the light of 
 a madman delivered, bound hand and foot, to the mercy of 
 Europe. Confined to that description of popular suffragje 
 which Savary and Real directed, he caused some of the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 441 
 
 lowest classes to be assembled, who, under the name of 
 Federes, marched in procession under the windows of 
 the Tuileries, uttering repeatedly exclamations of Vive 
 VEmpereur! There he himself announced to this mobo- 
 cracy that, if the kings dared to attack him, he would 
 proceed to encounter them on the frontiers. This humili- 
 ating scene disgusted even the soldiers. Never had that 
 man, who had worn the purple with so much lustre, 
 contributed so greatly to degrade it. He was no longer, in 
 patriotic opinion, considered in other light than as an actor 
 subjected to the applauses of the vilest of the populace. 
 
 Scenes of this humiliating description made a strong 
 impression on my mind ; well assured, moreover, that all 
 the allied powers, unanimous in their resolution, were 
 preparing to march against us, or, rather, against him, I 
 proceeded early the next day to the Tuileries ; and a second 
 time I represented to Napoleon, in still stronger colours, 
 that it was an absolute impossibility for France, in her 
 divided condition, to sustain the assault of universal and 
 united Europe ; that it was incumbent upon him to explain 
 himself without disguise to the nation ; to assure himself of 
 the ultimate intentions of the allied sovereigns, and that if 
 they persisted, as everything gave reason to infer, there 
 would then be no room for hesitation ; that his interests, 
 and those of his country, imposed upon him the obligation 
 of withdrawing to the United States. 
 
 But, from the reply which he stammered, in which he 
 mingled plans of campaigns, punishments, battles, insurrec- 
 tions, colossal projects, decrees of destiny, I perceived that he 
 was resolved to trust the fate of France to the issue of war, 
 and that the military faction carried the day in spite of my 
 admonitions. 
 
 The assembly of the Champ-de-Mai was nothing but a 
 vain pageantry, in which Napoleon, in the garb of a citizeri, 
 hoped to mislead the populace by the charm of a public 
 ceremony, The different parties were not more satisfied 
 
442 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 with it, than they had been with the acte additionnel ; one 
 faction wished that he had re-estabhshed a repubhc ; and the 
 other that in divesting himself of the crown, he had left the 
 sovereign people in possession of the right of offering it to 
 the most worthy ; and, finally, the coalition of statesmen, 
 of whom I constituted the soul, reproached him with not 
 having availed himself of that solemnity to proclaim 
 Napoleon II. — an event which would have given us s. point 
 d'appui in certain cabinets, and, probably, would have pre- 
 served us from a second invasion. It will not be denied that, 
 in the critical position of France, the last expedient would 
 have been most reasonable. 
 
 As soon as we had acquired the conviction that all attempts 
 to produce this result in the interior of France would be 
 unsuccessful, without proceeding to the extremity of a 
 deposition, which the military party would not have suffered, 
 it was necessary to make up our minds to the expectation of 
 seeing all the gates of war thrown open. My impatience 
 then augmented, and I laboured to accelerate the march of 
 events. It was in vain that Davoust, in council, had 
 reiterated to Napoleon that his presence with the army was 
 indispensable ; relying too little on the capital to leave it 
 behind him for any length of time without mistrust, he did 
 not resolve on his departure till everything was ready to 
 strike an effectual blow on the frontiers of Belgium, in the 
 hope of making his debut by a triumph, and of re-conquering 
 popularity by victory. He departed ; he departed, I say, 
 leaving the care of hx^federks to Real ; large sums of money 
 to get them to cry " Napoleon, or Death ; " and authority as 
 to the publication of his military bulletins, with a plan of the 
 campaign arranged for the offensive, and the secret of which 
 was communicated to me by Davoust. 
 
 In so decisive a moment, my position became very delicate, 
 as well as very difficult ; I wished to have nothing further 
 to do with Napoleon ; yet, if he should be victorious, I 
 should be compelled to submit to his yoke, as well as the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHE. 443 
 
 whole of France, whose calamities he would prolong. On 
 the other hand, I had engagements with Louis XVIII. ; not 
 that I was inclined to his restoration ; but prudence required 
 that I should procure for myself beforehand something in 
 the shape of a guarantee. My agents, moreover, to M. de 
 Metternich and Lord Wellington had promised mountains 
 and marvels. The generalissimo, at least, expected that I 
 should divulge to him the plan of the campaign. 
 
 In the first impulse — but the voice of my country, the 
 glory of the French army which now appeared to me in 
 any other light than that of the nation, in short, the 
 dictates of honour, startled me at the thought, that the 
 word traitor might ever become an appendage to the name 
 of the Duke d'Otranto ; and my resolution remained un- 
 sullied. Meantime, in such a conjuncture, what resolution 
 was to be taken by a statesman, who ought never to be 
 left without resources ? This is the resolution I took. I 
 knew positively that the unexpected onset of Napoleon's 
 force would occur on the i6th or i8th, at latest ; Napoleon, 
 indeed, had determined to give battle, on the 17th, to the 
 English army, then separated from the Prussians, after 
 having previously routed the latter. He was so much more 
 justified in expecting that his plan would be successful, that 
 Wellington, deceived by false reports, thought it possible 
 to delay the opening of the campaign till the ist of July. 
 The success of Napoleon rested, therefore, on the success of 
 a surprise ; I took my measures accordingly. On the very 
 
 day of Napoleon's departure, I provided Madame D 
 
 with notes, written in cipher, disclosing the plan of the 
 campaign, and sent her off. At the same time I occasioned 
 impediments on the part of the frontier which she was to 
 pass, in such a manner as to prevent her reaching the head- 
 quarters of Wellington till after the result. This is a true 
 explanation of the inconceivable supineness of the genera- 
 lissimo, which occasioned so universal an astonishment, and 
 conjectures' of so opposite a description. 
 
44+ MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJ&. 
 
 If, therefore, Napoleon fell it was owing to his own 
 destiny ; treason had nothing to do with his defeat. He, 
 himself, did all that could be done in order to conquer ; but 
 his fall was divested of dignity. If I am asked what I 
 think he ought to have done, I will reply, as old Horace 
 did — Qu'tl motirut ! 
 
 It was on condition of his coming out of the contest as 
 a victor, that the patriots had consented to give him their 
 support ; he was vanquished, and they considered the 
 compact at an end. I learnt, at the same moment, the 
 circumstance of his nocturnal arrival at I'Elysee, and that 
 at Laon, after his defeat, Maret, at his instigation, had 
 broached the advice of his quitting the army, and proceed- 
 ing, without loss of time, to Paris, in order to avert a Sudden 
 reaction. I was also informed in the morning, that Lucien, 
 keeping up his courage,, endeavoured to derive resources 
 from a desperate resolution ; that he urgedihim to seize the 
 dictatorship — to surround himself with nothing but military 
 elements — and to dissolve the chamber. 
 
 It was then that I was impressed with the necessity of 
 setting in motion all the resources of my position and my 
 experience. The defeat of the emperor, his presence at 
 Paris, which occasioned a universal indignation, provided 
 me with a favourable opportunity of extorting from him 
 an abdication, which he had declined when it might have 
 saved him. I set in motion all my friends, all my adherents, 
 and all my agents, whom I provided with the watch- 
 word. For myself, I communicated, before attending the 
 council, with the principal members of all the parties. 
 To the unquiet, suspicious, and fearful members of the 
 chamber, I said, " It is now necessary to act ; we must 
 say little, and resort to force ; he is returned raving ; he 
 is determined upon dissolving the chamber and seizing 
 the dictatorship. I trust we shall not suffer such a return 
 to tyranny as this." I said to the partisans of Napoleon, 
 " Are you not aware that the ferment against the emperor 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 445 
 
 has reached the highest pitch, among the majority of the 
 deputies ? His fall is desired ; his abdication is demanded. 
 If you are bent on serving him, you have but one certain 
 path to follow, and that is to make head vigorously against 
 them, to show them what power you still retain, and to 
 affirm that one single word would be sufficient to dissolve 
 the chamber." I also entered into their language and 
 views ; they then disclosed their secret inclinations, and I 
 was enabled to say to the heads of the patriots, who rallied 
 round me : " You perceive that his best friends make no 
 mystery of it ; the danger is pressing ; in a few hours the 
 chambers will exist no longer ; and you will have much to 
 answer for, in neglecting to seize the only moment when 
 you could prevent a dissolution.'' 
 
 The council being assembled. Napoleon caused Maret to 
 read the bulletin of the battle of Waterloo ; and concluded 
 by declaring, that in order to save the country, it was indis- 
 pensable that he should be invested with larger powers ; in 
 short, with a temporary dictatorship. That he might seize 
 it, but that he thought it more useful and more national to 
 wait for its being conferred on him by the chambers. I left 
 to such of my colleagues who thought and acted with me, 
 the task of contending against this proposition, which had 
 already fallen into disrepute and ruin. 
 
 It was then that M. de Lafayette, apprized of what was 
 passing in the council, and sure of the majority, brought his 
 motion for the permanency of the chambers, a motion 
 which disconcerted the whole military party, and, rallying 
 the patriotic party, conferred upon it a considerable moral 
 force. 
 
 Kept in check by the chambers. Napoleon did not dare 
 to take any step ; he sounded Davoust as to the feasibility 
 of effecting its dissolution by military means ; but Davoust 
 declined. 
 
 The next day, we all manoeuvred to extort his abdication. 
 There was a multitude of messages backwards and forwards, 
 
446 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi:. 
 
 parleys, objections, replies — in a word, evolutions of every 
 description ; ground was taken, abandoned, and again 
 retaken. At length, after a warm battle. Napoleon sur- 
 rendered, in full council, under the conviction that longer 
 resistance was useless ; then turning to me, he said, with a 
 sardonic smile, " Write to those gentlemen to make them- 
 selves easy ; they shall be satisfied." Lucien took up the 
 pen, and drew, under Napoleon's dictation, the act of abdi- 
 cation, such as it was afterwards made public. 
 
 Here then was a change of scene ; the power having 
 passed away from the hands of Napoleon, who was to 
 remain master of the field ? I soon detected the secret 
 designs of the cabinet ; I discovered that the Bonapartist 
 party, now under the guidance of Lucien, intended, as a 
 consequence of the abdication, to countenance the immediate 
 proclamation of Napoleon II., and the establishment of a 
 council of regency. This would have been to have suffered 
 the hostile camp to triumph. In fact, that regency which 
 had been for so long a time the drift of all my calculations, 
 and the object of all my desires, being now about to be 
 organized under another influence than mine, excluded me 
 from a share in the government. It was necessary, there- 
 fore, to recur to new combinations, and to man counter- 
 batteries, in order, with equal address, to defeat the system 
 of the regency and the restoration of the Bourbons. I 
 therefore conceived the creation of a provisional government, 
 established in conformity with my own suggestions, and 
 which, in consequence, I should be able to direct according 
 to my own views. I presented myself to the chamber with 
 a view of inducing it to act with decision in consecrating 
 the principles and the laws of the revolution. 
 
 The chamber having accepted the abdication of Napoleon 
 without noticing the condition it contained, Lucien exerted 
 himself to procure the proclamation of Napoleon II. He 
 had in his favour the feder'es^ . the soldiers, the populace, 
 and a large part of the chamber of peers. I had on my 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 447 
 
 side the majority of. the lower chamber, a party also in the 
 chamber of peers, the national guard, the greater part of 
 the generals, and the royalists, who courted and surrounded 
 me in the hope that I should direct the throw of the die in 
 favour of the Bourbons. 
 
 Lucien had already sent R6al to the Elys^e in order to 
 assemble the federis under the windows of Napoleon. It 
 was with great difficulty that the assent of the ex-emperor 
 was obtained ; it was only procured by remarking that my 
 party intended to consider his abdication as a single and 
 unqualified act ; that if he did not at least preserve some 
 shadow of his power, neither his security by flight, nor the 
 conveyance of his wealth could be answered for ; that, 
 moreover, the abdication in favour of his son might probably 
 induce Austria to obtain more favourable conditions from 
 the rest of the allies in his behalf. Real immediately 
 entered the field, and raked together all the canaille of 
 Paris in the Champs Elys'ees ; while Lucien, on his side, 
 entered his carriage, and hurried to the chamber of peers, 
 where he exclaimed, in an harangue got up for the occasion : 
 ^^ The emperor is dead ; long live the emperor; let us pro- 
 claim Napoleon II. ! " The majority appeared to accede to 
 this proposal. Lucien returned in triumph to the Champs 
 Elystes, instructed the two or three thousand brigands 
 whom Real had assembled round the palace in their part, 
 and got them to promise to proceed to the chamber of 
 representatives, in order to determine the proclamation 
 of Napoleon II. He re-entered the Elyske, and returned 
 upon the terrace with his brother, whose countenance 
 betrayed evident marks of depression. There Napoleon 
 saluted the bands of fanatics, waving his hand, as they 
 defiled before him with acclamations of ^'■Long live our 
 emperor and his son ; we will have no other ! " 
 
 But these demonstrations of their zeal gave me little 
 uneasiness. I had my eye upon the most inconsiderable 
 movements, and the only staunch political string was in 
 
448 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 
 
 my hands. I had, moreover, secured to myself an initia- 
 tive influence ; and at the very moment of this ridiculous 
 hubbub, the chamber were naming an executive provisional 
 committee, the presidentship of which devolved upon me. 
 
 Meanwhile Real had given the pass-word to HtvQfeder'es^ 
 ordering them to march in procession before the palace of 
 the legislative body ; they flocked thither in crowds ; but 
 it was too late ; the terrified legislators had just abandoned 
 the hall, after having appointed a committee. Night dis- 
 persed the mob, which, in passing through the streets of 
 Paris, affrighted the citizens with the discharge of their 
 muskets, and set up loud cries of " Death to all who refuse 
 to recognize Napoleon II. ! " 
 
 The agitation of the day was terminated by nocturnal 
 meetings, the preludes of one of the most animated of public 
 sittings which was to occur on the following day. Next 
 morning, I and my colleagues, Caulaincourt, Carnot, 
 Quinette, and General Grenier, entered on our new posses- 
 sion of the reins of government. We were proceeding in 
 the task of our organization, when I learnt that the deputy 
 Berenger, at the opening of the sitting, had just demanded 
 that the members of the committee should be held collec- 
 tively responsible. The obvious drift of this proposal was 
 to engage each of them to separate themselves from my 
 vote, and to watch my proceedings, which was a conse- 
 quence of the suspicions which I occasioned among the 
 Bonapartist faction. As if he had not said enough, 
 Berenger added, " If these men be inviolable, you will, in 
 case any one of them should betray hi^ duty, possess no 
 means of punishing him." 
 
 I cared very little for these underhanded attacks ; as I 
 have before said, my party was the strongest. 
 
 The councillor of state, Boulay de la Meurthe, one of the 
 most zealous partisans of Bonaparte, went so far as to deliver 
 a philippic, in which he pointed out and denounced the 
 Orleans faction ; this was apprizing the friends of the 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA 449 
 
 Bbuirbons and the Bonapartists, that a third party was 
 marking its appearance in favour of the doctrine of de facto 
 go^ei-nment, which for three months we had been opposing 
 to' the doctrine of legitimacy. 
 
 It is certain, that, finding myself embarked with a new 
 party, more accordant with my principles than those which 
 oifered no other prospect than an absolute government or 
 counter-revolution ; and, feeling the impossibility of pre- 
 serving the throne of Napoleon II., I felt more-^nclined to 
 second the efforts of this new party, provided the cabinets 
 should not exhibit too hostile a feeling towards it. The 
 declamation of Boulay had for its principal object to cause 
 the proclamation of Napoleon II. by the chamber. The 
 party was strong, and it required some address to avert its 
 attack. M. Manuel undertook the delicate task in a dis- 
 course which obtained universal applause, and in which it 
 was fancied that the stamp of my policy was discernible. 
 He concluded by opposing himself to the design of investing 
 any member of the Bonaparte family with the regency ; 
 that was the decisive point, and that was abandoning the 
 field of battle to me. The assent of the chamber was a new 
 guarantee to the committee of government, and conferred 
 upon me, in my character of president, an incontestable 
 preponderance in public affairs. 
 
 Our first operation, after being installed on the 23rd of 
 June, was to cause the war to be declared national, and to 
 send five plenipotentiaries ' to the headquarters of the 
 allies, with powers to negotiate peace, and to signify assent 
 to any species of government but that of the Bourbons. 
 Their secret instructions went to the effect of conferring the 
 crown, in default of Napoleon II., on the King of Saxony, 
 or the Duke of Orleans, whose party had been reinforced 
 by a great number of deputies and generals. 
 
 ' These plenipotentiaries were M. de Lafayette, Laforet, Pont&oulaut, 
 d'Argenson, and S^bastiani. M. Benjamin Constant accompanied them in 
 quality of secretary to the embassy.— iVi»^« by the French Editor. 
 
 30 
 
450 MEMOIRS OF FOUCH^. 
 
 I confess that I, in this measure, made rather a large 
 concession to the actual leaders, and that I secretly enter- 
 tained strong doubts as to their attainment of the object 
 they proposed. I had also so much the more reason to 
 believe that the cause of the Bourbons was far from despe- 
 rate, as one of my secret agents shortly arrived to inform 
 me of Louis XVIII. 's entry into Cambray, and to bring me 
 his royal declaration. Our plenipotentiaries, therefore, were 
 at first amused with dilatory answers. 
 
 My position may be conceived. The party of Napoleon, 
 always in activity, was recruited, if I may use the term, by 
 eighty thousand soldiers, who arrived to make a stand under 
 the walls of Paris ; while the allied armies rapidly advanced 
 on the capital, driving before them all the battalions and 
 divisions which attempted to obstruct their passage. It 
 was incumbent upon me, at one and the same time, to 
 secure the generals, in order to control the army ; to 
 counteract the new plans of Bonaparte, which tended to 
 nothing short of replacing him at the head of the troops ; 
 and to repress the impatience of the royalists, whose wish 
 it was to open the gates of Paris to Louis XVIII. — and all 
 this in the midst of the unloosing of so many contending 
 passions, whence terrible convulsions were likely to be 
 engendered. 
 
 I will not occupy the reader with narrating, in this place, 
 a multitude of minor intrigues, of accessory details, of dis- 
 appointments and disputes, which, during the tornado, 
 inflicted upon me all the tribulations of power. Previous 
 to the abdication, I was spied upon, and continually kept on 
 the qui vive by the zealous partisans of Napoleon, such 
 as Maret, Thibaudeau, Boulay de la Meurthe,. and even 
 Regnault, who was sometimes in my favour, and sometimes 
 opposed to me ; now, I had to guard myself against the 
 pretensions of another party ; I had to fortify myself 
 against the mistrust of my own colleagues, of Carnot 
 among the rest, who, from having been a republican, had 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCMA. 451 
 
 become so attached to the emperor, that he had bewailed 
 him with a flood of tears in my presence, after having stood 
 alone, and that abortively, against the measure of his 
 abdication. 
 
 It may be easily conceived, that I did not succeed in 
 muzzling this mob of high functionaries, marshals and 
 generals, by any other means than pledging my head, 
 if I may so express myself, for the safety of their persons 
 and fortunes. It was in this manner that I obtained carte 
 blanche to negotiate. 
 
 I began with sending to Wellington's headquarters my 
 
 friend M. G , a man of probity, and on whom I placed 
 
 entire reliance. He was the bearer of two letters, sewed in 
 the collar of his coat, one for the king, and the other for 
 the Duke of Orleans ; for up to the latest moment, and 
 while involved in protracted uncertainty as to the inten- 
 tion of the allies, no means could justifiably be neglected 
 for returning into safe harbour. My emissary was im- 
 mediately introduced before Lord Wellington, and told 
 him that he wished to see the Duke of Orleans. " He is 
 not here," the generalissimo replied ; " but you can address 
 yourself to your king." And, in fact, he took the road to 
 Cambray, and presented himself before his majesty. Find- 
 ing that he did not return, I despatched General de T 
 
 on the same errand ; a man of courage and intelligence, 
 whom I expressly commissioned to sound the intention of 
 Lord Wellington, to apprize him of my peculiar situation, 
 to state how much the public mind was exasperated, and 
 public feeling inflamed ; and that I could not answer for 
 the preservation of France from the scourge of fire and 
 sword, if the design of reseating the Bourbons on the 
 throne was persevered in. I offered to treat directly with 
 him on any other basis. The reply of the generalissimo 
 was on this occasion peremptory and negative ; he declared 
 that he had orders not to treat on any other terms than 
 the re-establishment of Louis XVIII. As to the Duke of 
 
452 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 Orleans, he could only be considered — so Lord Wellington 
 expressed himself — in the light of a royal usurper,. This 
 reply, which I carefully concealed from my colleagues^ 
 rendered my position still more embarrassing. 
 
 On the other hand, our plenipotentiaries, having left 
 Laon on the 26th of June, arrived on the ist of July at 
 the headquarters of the allied, sovereigns at Haguenau. 
 There the sovereigns, not; considering it proper to grant 
 them an audience, appointed a commission to hear their 
 proposals. To the question, which I had foreseen could 
 not fail of being addressed to them ; " By what right does 
 the nation pretend to expel its king, and choose another 
 sovereign?" they replied, "By an example derived from 
 the History of England itself." 
 
 Apprized by this question of the disposition of the allies, 
 the national plenipotentiaries exerted themselves less to 
 obtain Napoleon II., than to repel Louis XVIII. They 
 insinuated, in fact, that the nation might accept the Duke 
 of Orleans or the King of Saxony, if it was not permitted 
 to secure the throne to the son of Maria-Louisa. After 
 several unimportant parleys, they were dismissed with a 
 note, implying, that the allied court could not, for the 
 present, enter into any negotiation ; that they considered it 
 as a sine qua non, that Napoleon should be placed for the 
 future out of a condition to disturb the repose of France 
 and Europe ; and that, after the events which had occurred 
 in March, the allied powers found it their duty to djemand 
 that he should be placed under their superintendence. 
 
 The committee of government then found itself frustrated 
 in its hope of obtaining the Duke of Orleans or Napoleon II. 
 Even before the return of the plenipotentiaries, I was directly 
 informed of the real intentions of the allied powers. 
 
 I employed myself from that time in imparting such a 
 direction to the course of events as should cause thern to 
 terminate in a result at once most favourable to my country 
 and to myself. I had demanded an grmistice, and with that 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 453 
 
 view sent commissioners ' to the allied generals, who had 
 just commenced the siege of the capital. Blucher and 
 Wellington eluded every proposal on the subject, raising 
 more than objections against the government of Napoleon 
 II. ; adverting to Louis XVIII. as the only sovereign who 
 appeared to them calculated to unite in his person all the 
 conditions which would prevent Europe from exacting 
 future pledges for its security ; and vehemently complain- 
 ing of the presence of Bonaparte at Paris, in contempt of 
 his abdication. That personage, as if a fatality impelled him 
 to plunge into the abyss which yawned before him, had, in 
 the first instance, persevered, instead of precipitately gaining 
 one of our seaports, in remaining at the palace of the Elysee ; 
 and subsequently at Malmaison, in the protracted hope of 
 repossessing himself of authority, if hot as emperor, at least 
 as general. Urged by fanatical friends, he even went so far 
 as to address to us a formal demand of that description. It 
 was then that I exclaimed, before a full meeting of the 
 committee : " This man is mad to a certainty ! Does he 
 wish, then, to involve us in his ruin ? " And here I am 
 bound to saiy^, that the whole committee, even Carnot him- 
 self, voted with me for a definite resolution to be taken with 
 respect to him. His actions were superintended, and Davoust 
 was determined to arrest him on the least attempt which he 
 might make to seduce' the army from us. It was so much 
 the more incumbent upon us to take a decisive step with 
 reference to him, as the enemy's cavalry, pushing their 
 detachments even as far as the environs of Malmaison, 
 might capture him from one moment to another ; and some 
 share in such an event would not have failed to be imputed 
 to myself. It was necessary to negbtiate for his departure, 
 and to send a general officer to superintend it. The result 
 is known. This short explanation of facts will be sufficient 
 to rebut the accusations of blind and malicious detractors, 
 
 ' MM. Andreossy, fiossy-d'Anglas, Flaugergues, Valence, and Labe- 
 snardiire. — Note 6y the French Editor, 
 
454 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 who, perceiving some resemblance between the captivity of 
 Napoleon and that of Perseus, king of Macedonia, have 
 attributed the former to treacherous combinations, which, 
 computing days and hours, delivered him into the hands of 
 the English through the operation of an underhanded and 
 skilfully-conducted intrigue. 
 
 We hoped, after the departure of Napoleon, to be able to 
 obtain an armistice, — but it was not so. It was then that I 
 wrote the two letters, which have been made public, to each 
 of the generals-in-chief of the besieging armies. It may be 
 remarked in those letters, wherein I feigned, in conformity 
 with the necessity of the case, to plead the cause of Napoleon 
 II., that I considered the question irrevocably decided in 
 favour of the Bourbons ; but, in order to lull the vigilance 
 of parties, it was indispensable for me to exhibit the 
 appearance of alternately leaning towards the younger 
 branch and the reigning branch. I hoped, moreover, that 
 by aiding Louis XVIII. to remount the throne, I should 
 induce that prince to detach some dangerous individuals 
 from his presence, and to make new concessions to France, 
 reserving to myself, if I could obtain nothing, the means of 
 subsequently recurring to other combinations. 
 
 I had at that time some nocturnal interviews with M. de 
 VitroUes, whose liberty I had just procured, and with several 
 other eminent royalists, as well as two marshals, who 
 inclined towards the Bourbons. I despatched emissaries 
 at the same time to the King, the Duke of Wellington, and 
 M. de Talleyrand. I knew that M. de Talleyrand, after 
 quitting Vienna, had proceeded to Frankfort, and subse- 
 quently to Wisbaden, in order to be nearer at hand for 
 the purpose of negotiating either with Ghent or Paris, 
 Decided as he was against Napoleon, he, however, thought 
 it proper, on his return to Paris, to come to an understand- 
 ing with me, promising, on his side, to secure my interest 
 with the Bourbons, whose re-establishment, after the battle 
 of Waterloo, appeared to him infallible. I thought, that he 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 455 
 
 would at that time be near the person of the king, and I 
 knew, beyond a doubt, that, in order to retain the control 
 over affairs, he would require the dismissal of M. de Blacas. 
 I arranged my measures accordingly ; but it was almost 
 impossible to avoid exciting the distrust of my colleagues. 
 My proceedings were watched, and I was obliged to support 
 reproaches and indignant declamations from some revo- 
 lutionary and Bonapartist partisans, whose imputations I 
 coldly repelled. Such was my position, that I was obliged 
 to have negotiations with all parties, and compromise with 
 all sorts of opinion either for my own interest or that of 
 the state. I did not disguise from myself, that conduct 
 such as this, which of necessity comprised something 
 mysterious and underhanded, was calculated to rouse all 
 kinds of suspicion against me, as well as all kinds of resent- 
 ment on the part of factions wounded in their dearest hopes. 
 The formidable moment would naturally be that when light 
 should dawn on this chaos of multitudinous and conflicting 
 intrigues. 
 
 A more serious and dangerous consideration still, was the 
 ferment of the federis, and the violence of the fanatics in 
 the chamber, who by turns excited against me the individuals 
 of my own party, the soldiers, and the populace. I wrote to 
 Lord Wellington, that it was high time to put a stop to 
 their ravings and excesses, or that they would shortly leave 
 me without the capability of acting. But Wellington was 
 thwarted by his intractible colleague, Blucher ; that Prussian 
 general, impelled by his native impatience and irritability, 
 wished to penetrate into Paris, in order, as he said, to secure 
 the better class of citizens from the pillage with which they 
 were menaced by the mob ; and he professed that it was 
 only within the walls of the capital he would consent to the 
 conclusion of an armistice. His letter exasperated us ; but 
 what could we do ? It was necessary to sustain a siege, and 
 give battle under the walls of Paris, or capitulate. Dis- 
 couraged by the abdication, the soldiers appeared irresdlute, 
 
456 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 and even the generals were intimidated by the uncertainty 
 of their prospects. The minister of war and general-in-chief 
 of the army, Davoust, wrote to me that he had conquered 
 his prejudices, and was now persuaded that no other means 
 of safety remained than that of instantly proclaiming Louis 
 XVIII. I laid my answer before the committee. The 
 members thought that I looked at the question of the recall 
 of Louis XVIII. in too implicit a manner,, and that I gave 
 Davoust too great a degree of latitude. I got over this 
 trivial difficulty, the marshal's determination having ap- 
 peared to me so important, that I had promised him safe 
 conduct, on behalf of the king, through the intervention 
 of M. de VitroUes. 
 
 Compelled to deliberate upon our military position, the 
 committee, in conformity with my advice, appealed to the 
 intelligence, the counsel, and the responsibility of the most 
 experienced individuals in the art of war. The principal 
 generals were convoked in presence of the presidents and 
 committees of the two chambers. A report of the situation 
 of Paris was made through the medium of Carnot, who 
 had himself visited our positions, and those of the enemy. 
 Carnot declared that the left bank of the Seine was entirely 
 uncovered, and offered, a wide field to the enterprise of the 
 generals-in-chief of the two combined armies, who had just 
 marched the major part of their forces in that direction. I 
 confess that I attached great national importance to the 
 circumstance of preventing a protracted defence of Paris. 
 We were in a desperate condition ; the treasury was empty, 
 credit extinct, and the government at the last extremity ; in 
 short, Paris, in consequence of the existence arjd collision 
 of so many different opinions, stood over the mouth of a 
 volcano. On the other hand, its neighbourhood was daily 
 inundated by new arrivals of foreign troops. If, under cir- 
 cumstances like these, the capital should be carried by main 
 force, we had nothing further to hope ; neither capitulation, 
 arrangement, nor concession. In one single day, which 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 457 
 
 would have thus completed what Leipsic and Waterloo left 
 undone, all the interests of the revolution might be for ever 
 ingulfed in a torrent of French blood. This, nevertheless, 
 was what the fanatics of a party, in its last death-struggles, 
 desired. 
 
 In such a crisis, was it not deserving well of the country, 
 to replace France, without effusion of blood, under the 
 authority of Louis XVIII. ? Were we to wait till foreign 
 armies delivered us bound hand and foot into the hands of 
 our adversaries ? I succeeded, by dint of insinuations and 
 promises, in persuading men, who, till that moment, had 
 been intractable. 
 
 It was decided that the military question should be 
 submitted, the night following, to a council of war con- 
 voked by Marshal Davoust. The possibility of defending 
 Paris was thus about to be determined. To capitulate 
 would save Paris, but compromise the national cause ; to 
 give battle would be attended by great and inevitable, 
 dangers, to a capital distracted by all the excesses of 
 popular fury, in case we should be vanquished. And in 
 fact, to what tremendous risks would those whose wish 
 it was to ; give battle have exposed that immense city, and 
 France itself, in the event of a defeat. 
 
 The discussions were solemn ; and in consequence of. the 
 negative and unanimous resolution of .the council of war, 
 the committee decreed that Paris should not be defendedj 
 and that the town should be delivered into the hands of the 
 allies, since they would not consent to suspend hostilities 
 on any other condition. But Blucher required also the 
 surrender of the army ; such a clause could not be accepted ; 
 it was to require that everything should be delivered up 
 to fire and sword. I hastily despatched to the two hostile 
 generals, MM. Tromeling and Macirone, ^;o whom I con- 
 signed, unknown to the committee, a confidential note 
 conceived, in these terms : " The army is dissatisfied because 
 it is unfortunate ; comfort it, it, will become faithful and 
 
45& MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 
 
 devoted. The indocility of the chambers arises from the 
 same cause. Tranquillize every one, and every one will be 
 in your favour. Let the army be removed ; the chambers 
 will assent to this, if they are promised that the guarantees 
 specified by the king will be added to the charter. In order 
 to understand each other well, mutual explanation is 
 necessary ; do not therefore make your entrance into Paris, 
 before three days are elapsed. In that space of time, every 
 body will have come to an agreement. The chambers will 
 be gained over ; they will conceive themselves to be in- 
 dependent, and sanction everything under that impression. 
 Force must not be employed with them, but persuasion." 
 
 Blucher soon became more manageable ; and consent was 
 given to negotiate the military surrender of Paris, which 
 was concluded at Saint Cloud, on the 3rd of July. I objected 
 to the name of capitulation being given to this treaty ; and 
 I caused that of convention to be substituted for it, which 
 appeared to me less harsh, and therefore more unobjectionable. 
 
 Faction was still in too exasperated a state to allow of 
 security from tumult and disorder. It was necessary to 
 oppose the national guard to the federis, who were not 
 restrained without difficulty, by the mass of peaceable 
 citizens. Real, who had the direction of the federis, and 
 who, I knew, was very easily frightened, yielded to my 
 advice, affecting to be taken ill, and abandoned his office 
 of prefect of police. The faction gave the post to Courtin, 
 a protegi of Queen Hortense, who, exhibiting herself the 
 greatest energy during the whole of the great crisis, vainly 
 endeavoured to support the relics of the expiring Bona- 
 partist party. All these manoeuvres ended in their own 
 defeat, by the greatest of all interests, the interest of all. 
 It was not long before imputations were made against the 
 generals and the committee, of having sacrificed Paris and 
 betrayed the army. In order to justify the conduct of the 
 government, I addressed an explanatory proclamation to the 
 French, in which I pointed out the vital necessity of a 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHt. 459 
 
 union of all ranks, without which there was no probability 
 of reaching the term of our misfortunes. 
 
 After having capitulated with the foreigners, it was 
 necessary to capitulate with the army, who, at the very 
 moment of marching to the Loire, mutinied, in order to 
 extort from us their arrears of pay; thanks to a few millions, 
 advanced by the banker Lafitte, the mutineers were disarmed, 
 and the needy satisfied. Meantime, all the emissaries and 
 agents of the king, and among the rest, M. de VitroUes, 
 with whom Davoust and myself conferred, assured us, that, 
 the king would shut his eyes upon all that had passed, and 
 that a general reconciliation would be the earnest of his 
 return. I had already conquered many unfavourable feelings 
 by the aid of these promises,, when the royal proclamations, 
 dated from Cambray, and printed by order of the chambers, 
 made their appearance. 
 
 This event created a new embarrassment in my position, 
 with regard to the chamber of representatives, who ex- 
 hibited an increasing hostility against the Bourbons. We 
 soon learnt, at the return of our agents and commissioners, 
 that Wellington and Blucher declared, in an unqualified 
 manner, that the authority of the chambers and the com- 
 missions proceeded from an illegitimate source, and that 
 consequently the best thing they could do was to dissolve, 
 themselves, and proclaim Louis XVIII. 
 
 The commission, then, at the instance of Carnot,. deli- 
 berated, if it would not be proper to join the chambers 
 and the army behind the Loire. I vehemently contended 
 against this proposal, which would infallibly have rekindled 
 the flames of foreign and domestic war. I maintained that 
 so desperatie a project would ruin France ; that I was, 
 moreover, satisfied that the greater part of the generals 
 would not subscribe to it, and affirmed that I would be 
 the last to quit Pafis. Induced by my arguments, the 
 commission took the more wise and prudent course of 
 waiting the issue of events in Paris. 
 
46o MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 As soon as the convention of Paris was signed, the Duke 
 of Wellington being informed of my wish to confer with 
 him, expressed an incHnation to come to an understanding 
 with me respecting the execution of the convention. The 
 Commission of the government did not object to an inter- 
 view which took place at the Ch&teau de Neiiilly. On that 
 occasion, I frankly opened my mind to the generalissimo of 
 the allies. I well knew the powel- of the words moderation 
 and clemency On noble minds ; and, without seeking to 
 diminish the culpability of those who had betrayed the 
 Bourbons, I maintained that the re-established throne could 
 only derive consolidation from an entire oblivion of the 
 past. I represented how formidable and menacing the 
 energy of the patriots still was, and referred to the moderate 
 means which would be necessary in order to calm their 
 effervescence ; I did not disguise the weakness of the 
 royalists, their intractability and their prejudices ; and I 
 affirmed' that there was no other means of restoring tran- 
 quillity, than by opposing reactions and resentments, and 
 by leaving no faction to indulge the hope of predominating 
 in th6 state. I claimed' the execution of the two authentic 
 declarations of England and Austria, purporting that their 
 intention was not to continue the war with a design of 
 re-establishing the Bourbons, or imposing on France any 
 government whatsoever. The generalissimo' replied, that 
 that declaratipn had no other object but that of preventing 
 war, and was resorted to in the hope that France would 
 not take up arms in the cause of Napoleon, after he had 
 been outlawed by the congress ;• but that, as we had risen 
 in his favour, we had by that means liberated the 'allies 
 from an engagement purely conditional. This sophistry 
 did not leave a doubt upon my mind that we had been 
 played upon. Lord Wellington declared to me, without 
 qualification, that the allied powers had formally decided 
 in favour of Louis XVIII., and that that sovereign would 
 make his entry into Paris on the 8th of July. General 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 461 
 
 Pozzo di Borgo, who was present, repeated the same 
 declaration on behalf of the Emperor of liussia ; he com- 
 municated to me a letter from Prince Metternich ?ind the 
 Count de Nesselrode, expressive of a determination to 
 recognize no one but Louis XVIII., and not to admit of 
 any proposal . at variance with the rights of that monarch. 
 I then insisted on a general, amnesty, and required guaran- 
 tees. On these conditions I consented to serve the king, 
 and even to give him such pledges as might be consistent 
 with my reputation and honour. The generalissimo 
 answered me, that he was determined to dismiss M. de 
 Blacas, and that I should copipose part of the council, as 
 well as M. de Talleyrand, the king having condescended to 
 continue me in my office of general police ; but he did not 
 disguise from me that all kinds of measures were taken, in 
 order that Napoleon might fall, as a hostage, into the power 
 of the allies, and that it was required of me that! should 
 do nothing, to favour his escape. It was. also required that 
 the army should submit itself to the king, and that, for 
 the sake of example, a few of its chiefs should be subjected 
 to punishment. To this I objected; I protested, that if 
 Bonaparte had not niade his appearence, a crisis would have 
 equally ensued. All my objections failed in shaking a 
 thoroughly made up resolution. I regarded the evil to be 
 without remedy, but at all events capable of being palliated 
 by my presence in the council. The duke announced to 
 me, that the next day he would himself present me to his 
 majesty, or at least convey me in his carriage to the Chateau 
 d'Arnouville. I replied that it was my intention to address 
 a letter to the king, which I had composed, and which I 
 communicated to him. It was conceived in the following 
 terms : — 
 
 " Sire, — The return of your majesty leaves no other duty 
 to be performed by the members of the government, than 
 that of divesting themselves of their functions. For the 
 exoneration of my conscience, it is my request that I may be 
 
462 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 permitted faithfully to describe the state of public opinion 
 and feeling in France. 
 
 "It is not your majesty who is dreaded, since you have 
 seen, during the space of eleven months, that a confidence 
 in your majesty's moderation and justice sustained the 
 French people, in the niidst of the terror which the pro- 
 ceedings of a portion of your court were calculated to 
 inspire. 
 
 " It is universally known, that intelligence and experience 
 are not wanting in your majesty ; you understand France 
 and the times ; you understand the power of opinion ; but 
 your condescension has too often induced you to listen to 
 the pretensions of those who followed you into adversity. 
 
 " From that time, France was divided into two nations. 
 It was, doubtless, a painful task for your majesty to be 
 continually obliged to repress the above pretensions by acts 
 resulting from your own will. How many times must you 
 have regretted that it was not in your power to oppose 
 them by national laws. 
 
 " If the same system be reproduced, and, if deriving all 
 your powers from hereditary title, your majesty will not 
 recognize any rights of the people but such as originate 
 from concessions of the crown, France, as she was before, 
 will be uncertain as to the nature of her duties ; she will 
 continue to waver between her love for her country and her 
 love for her prince ; between her inclination and her ex- 
 perience. Her obedience will have no other basis than her 
 personal confidence in your majesty ; and, if that confidence 
 be suflScent to maintain respect, it is likewise by such means 
 that dynasties acquire consolidation, and that dangers are 
 averted. Sire, your majesty has experienced that those who 
 urge the steps of power beyond its proper limits are very 
 inadequate to sustain it when it is shaken ; that authority 
 impairs itself by a continual contest, which compels it to 
 retrograde in all its proceedings ; that the fewer rights are 
 left to the people, the more its well-founded distrust prompts 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHJ&. 463 
 
 it to preserve those which cannot be disputed ; and that it 
 is always by such means as these that loyalty becomes 
 enfeebled, and that revolutions are matured. 
 
 "We conjure you, Sire, deign for this once to consult 
 nothing but your own sense of justice and your own en- 
 lightened judgment. Be persuaded that the French people 
 attach in these days as much importance to their liberty as 
 to their life. They will never consider themselves free, if 
 there be not rights, equally inviolable, interposed between 
 them and the claims of power. Have we not had, under 
 your dynasty, states-general independent of the monarch ? 
 
 " Sire, your wisdom cannot wait for events, in order to 
 make concessions. Under such circumstances, they would 
 be prejudicial to your interests, and probably, increase in 
 their extent. Concessions made now would soothe and 
 pacify the public mind, and give force to royal authority — 
 at a later period, concessions would only prove its weakness : 
 they would be extorted by disorder ; and the public mind 
 would retain its anger." 
 
 This letter was addressed on that very day to his majesty. 
 At my return to Paris, I declared to the commission that 
 the return of Louis XVIII. was inevitable ; that such was 
 the determined resolution of the allied powers, and that 
 the time was even fixed for the second day following. I 
 concealed from them that I was retained in office ; a circum- 
 stance which, instead of being considered in the light of a 
 guarantee to the patriots, and a species of transition, which 
 would enable the legitimate government, with a less violent 
 shock, to succeed a de facto government, would have ap- 
 peared in the eyes of the fanatics in no other light than 
 the wages of my treason, when, in fact, it was nothing but 
 a well-deserved reward for the safety of Paris. On that 
 very evening the news was spread, and the same individuals 
 loaded me, in their harangues, with insults and maledictions ; 
 the royaUsts alone addressed me in the language of con- 
 gratulation. , , . Yes ! I repeat, the royalists ; and, among 
 
464 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 the most distinguished writers of that party, there are some 
 who have since confessed that there was a unfi^ersal excla- 
 mation from all parts, that, had it not been for me there 
 would have been neither security for the king nor safety 
 for France ; and that all parties had come to an understand- 
 ing, to confer the ministry of the police on me. 
 
 The next day I repaired to St. Denis, and presented 
 myself at the Chateau d'Arnouville, in order to have my 
 first audience of the king. I was introduced into his closet 
 by the president of the council, who leant upon my arm. I 
 entreated the king to tranquillize the public mind, by secur- 
 ing to all individuals their personal safety ; I represented 
 to him that clemency was no doubt attended with disad- 
 vantages, but that the capitulation, just concluded, appeared 
 to demand that any other system should be rejected ; that 
 a full and entire amnesty, and without any conditions, 
 appealed to me the only method to impart stability to the 
 state, and durability to the government ; that, in this 
 instance, pardon was little more than another word for 
 justice ; alid that by an amnesty I understood not oiily an 
 oblivion of offences, but also a preservation of places, 
 property, honours, and titles. 
 
 My discourse seemed to make an impression on the king, 
 who listened to it with unbroken attention. That prince 
 was fully aware of the need in which we stood of skilfulness 
 and tranquillity, in order to reassemble the elements which 
 time and circumstances had dispersed. I thought I perceived 
 that he saw the necessity of throwing a veil over past faults, 
 and of gaining confidence by exemplary moderation and 
 good faith. I made a point of rendering this interview 
 as public as possible, in order to give public opinion an 
 opportunity of foreseeing a probable term to our discords 
 and calamities. 
 
 I did not confine myself to entreaties, I went so far as to 
 represent to the king that Paris was in the most violent 
 state of agitation ; that there would be danger to his person 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOVCHL 465 
 
 in showing himself at the gates of the capital with the 
 white cockade, and attended exclusively by the emigrants 
 of Ghent. My plan consisted in maintaining the continu- 
 ance of the chambers, in prevailing upon the king to 
 assume the tricolor cockade, and to dismiss all his military 
 household. In a word, it was my wish, as it always had 
 been, to see Louis XVIII. heading the march of the revolu- 
 tion, and so contributing to its consolidation. 
 
 These diflFerent views were submitted to deliberation in 
 the council ; my proposals were only rejected by the 
 majority of a single vote. The king, besides, remained 
 inflexible. Sooner than consent, he declared he would 
 rather return to Hartwell. Accordingly, his military 
 household was not dissolved, and it was decided that the 
 representatives should be expelled next day from the 
 chamber. That chamber had just laid down, in a new 
 bill of rights, the fundamental principles of the constitution 
 which, according to the views it entertained, could alone 
 satisfy the public desire. Although I had not expected 
 much success from my proceedings, because my tact in 
 public affairs had sufficiently apprized me of their tendency, 
 it appeared to me that I ought to neglect nothing for the 
 acquittal of my conscience. 
 
 The very evening of the 7th of July, several Prussian 
 battalions forced the gates of the Tuileries, and invaded the 
 courts and the avenues of the palace. The commission of 
 the government, being no longer free, discontinued its 
 functions, and announced the fact by a message. One 
 particular circumstance made this separation of my col- 
 leagues remarkable. Carnot, the most incensed of all in 
 seeing me continued in my office, and placed, as it were, 
 under my servetUance, until a place of residence was 
 appointed for him, wrote me the following note : " Traitor \ 
 where dost thou .require me to go ? " I answered in the 
 same laconic manner : " Fool ! where you please." It must 
 be confessed that I had, in the council, several altercations 
 
 31 
 
466 MEMOIRS OF FOUChA. 
 
 with Carnot, who never forgave me for having called him 
 an old woman. 
 
 The next day, as early as eight o'clock in the morning, 
 the deputies made their appearance, in order to enter the 
 hall of their deliberations ; but finding the doors closed, 
 surrounded by guards and gendarmes, they withdrew. A 
 few of them repairing to the house of their president, there 
 subscribed a protest. 
 
 The king made his public entry into Paris ; nothing dis- 
 turbed the excessive joy of the royalists, who hurried to 
 meet their monarch, and appeared in very considerable 
 numbers. I must confess that my presentiment was, in 
 some degree, deceived, and that all my apprehensions did 
 not receive conformation. Thus finished the reign of a 
 hundred days, and thus re-commenced a reign which had 
 been interrupted during its first year. But what were the 
 omens which accompanied this new accession ? Passions 
 in a state of ferment ; resentments thirsting for satiation ; 
 interests struggling and contending together ; minds in a 
 state of frenzy and rage ; in short, ulcerated feelings ready 
 for reaction ! In so deplorable a conjuncture, I did not 
 withhold from my country the benefit of my labours and 
 exertions. 
 
 The surrender of Bonaparte, the successive submission of 
 all the towns and all the provinces in France, soon an- 
 nounced that the country was pacified in all such respects 
 as could interest the allied sovereigns ; but it could not be 
 perfectly so, as regarded the repose and welfare of the king, 
 unless everything was forgotten ; unless there was an equal 
 restraint upon all extreme opinions, from whatsoever source 
 those opinions might be derived ; and unless, in short, all 
 the parties of the state enjoyed the protection of the laws, 
 with the same certainty and the same security. 
 
 Such was the moderation and clemency which I recom- 
 mended to Louis XVIII. (as I had previously done with 
 Napoleon), at the same time that I proposed efficacious 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi. 467 
 
 measures for averting the results of all such causes as 
 tended to re-plunge France into the abyss of a new revolu- 
 tion. But every one, either in or out of the council, did 
 not share my views ; examples and punishments were con- 
 sidered necessary. I had already, for a fortnight, constituted 
 a part of the royal administration, when the ordonnance of 
 the 24th of July made its appearance ; fifty-seven individuals, 
 divided into two categories, were therein proscribed, without 
 trial. It will be asked, how I could countersign such an 
 act, which affected individuals who had pursued the same 
 line of politics as myself. Let it be known, then, that ever 
 since the day following the 8th of July, the desire of 
 proscribing had possessed all classes of the royalist party, 
 from the salons of the Faubourg St. Germain, to the ante- 
 chambers of the palace of the Tuileries, and that thousands 
 of names, obscure as well as notorious, were pointed out to 
 the police department for the purpose of being involved in 
 a general measure of proscription. Heads were demanded 
 of the minister of police, as pledges of his sincere devotion 
 to the royal cause. There only remained two paths for me 
 to follow ; that of making myself an accomplice in acts of 
 vengeance, or that of giving up my office. To the first I 
 could not subscribe ; the second, I was too deeply com- 
 promised to adopt. I discovered a third expedient, and 
 that was to reduce the list to a small number of names, 
 selected from persons who had acted the most conspicuous 
 part during the late events : and here I must confess that 
 I met in the council, and more especially in the eminently 
 French feelings of the monarch, with everything that was 
 calculated to mitigate those measures of excessive rigour, 
 and to diminish the number of the victims. 
 
 But the torrent of reaction threatened to sweep away all 
 the barriers opposed to it. I had conceived the design of 
 acting the part of mediator between the king and the 
 patriots. I soon perceived that the only intention was to 
 make use of me as a necessary instrument for the re-estab- 
 
468 MEMOIRS OF FOUCHA. 
 
 lishment of a royal power without counterpoise and limit, 
 and which would have offered no guarantee to the men of 
 the revolution. The two ordonnances, with regard to the 
 electoral colleges and the elections which were about to 
 furnish France with the chamber of 1815, left me no longer 
 a shadow of doubt upon this point. It has been thought 
 that I exhibited a culpable neglect in the formation of the 
 electoral colleges ; and it has been said that it was not 
 excusable in a statesman like myself, grown old in ex- 
 perience and the exercise of important functions, to commit 
 such a political error, nor to be mistaken as to the bias 
 which the royalist faction, now re-possessed of influence, 
 exerted itself to impart to public opinion. My principles 
 and my anterior conduct ought to have secured me from 
 similar imputations. This accusatiorf as to imprudent care- 
 lessness and fatal indifference in '^uch grave conjunctures 
 must be laid to the amiable selfishness and the nonchalante 
 supineness of the president of the council, who indulged 
 himself in sensual illusions, and did not wish to see any- 
 thing else in the fautem'l of a minister, but a resting-place. 
 
 I was roused by this ; it was then that my notes, ad- 
 dressed to the allied powers, and my reports, presented to 
 the king in full council, appeared to the world. I had 
 drawn them, in conformity with the wishes of the allied 
 sovereigns, in order to supply them with materials for 
 judging of the actual condition of France. The publication 
 of those documents produced a profound sensation on en- 
 lightened minds ; but their contents exasperated to the 
 highest degree the ultra-royalist party, ' who regarded its 
 influence as lost, if my disclosures led to a change of system. 
 The king himself was displeased at the publicity given to 
 reports of a confidential nature : but I had pre-considered 
 my position ; deceived by M. de Vitrolles, whom I had 
 
 ' It was Fouch^ who first made use of this expression, which has since 
 become familiar, and which indeed has been quite worn out. — Note by the 
 French. Editor, 
 
MEMOIRS OF FOUCHi:. 469 
 
 introduced into the king's cabinet, deserted by the president 
 of the council, whom the past did not oblige to sacrifice the 
 present, I perceived that my fall was inevitable, unless I 
 could succeed in giving preponderance to my designs. 
 
 Shall I confess it in this place ? Yes ; I have promised to 
 disguise nothing. My notes and my reports were intended 
 to impart unity and integrity to the dislocated and scattered 
 members of the revolution, and especially to give Europe 
 cause to fear a national insurrection ; by that means, I 
 hoped to intimidate her so much, on the score of an ex- 
 plosion, that she would consent to grant us, as the price of 
 a definitive treaty of peace, that which I had never ceased 
 soliciting since the congress of Prague — the dynasty of 
 Napoleon, which had become the single object of our secret 
 demands, of our desirfes, and of our efforts. The interview 
 of two powerful monarchs contributed to disperse hopes 
 which were not without foundation. It belongs to history 
 to collect and compare circtimstances which it does not 
 appertain to me to elucidate. I may say I am summing up 
 my whole life, when I declare that it was my wish to conquer 
 for the revolution, and that the revolution has been con- 
 quered in me. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Alexander, Emperor of Russia, 
 142, 200, 216, 240, 281, 283, 
 297, 298, 304, 308, 31 s, 316, 
 322, 340, 408, 431, 432 
 Artois, Count d', 105, 182, 403, 411 
 Augereau, General, 22, 57, 69, 85, 
 US. 187, 335, 343, 344, 369, 402, 
 403, 404, 434 
 
 Bakras, Comte de, 13, 18, 19, 21, 
 22, 24, 25, 26, 37, 39, 41, 45, 46, 
 49. 5°. 52. S3. 56. 58. 59. 60.62, 
 63, 65, 66, 67, 68,69, 70. 71. 76, 
 77. 78, 83 
 
 Bart^re, 117 
 
 Beauhainais, Eugene de, 74, 202, 
 
 240. 33S> 369. 373. 37S. 400, 401. 
 
 418 
 Beauharnais, Hortense, 185, 186, 
 
 222, 272, 424, 431, 432 
 Benseval, j 
 Bentinck, Lord William, 342, 379, 
 
 382, 391 n. 
 Bemadotte, General, 36, 44, 52, 57, 
 
 58, 59,61,69, IIS, 141. 142, 187. 
 
 232, 233, 241, 27s, 291, 292, 
 
 322, 346, 355, 356 
 Berri, Duke de, 182 
 Berthier, General, 65, 70, 75, 88, 
 
 94. 137, 138. 148. 154, 187, 201, 
 
 206, 234, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 
 
 259, 264, 314, 343, 347. 348, 352, 
 
 354. 355. 363 
 Blacas, M. de, 413, 414. 4iS. 4'8, 
 433. 455. 461 
 
 Blucher, Marshal, 346, 453, 455, 
 
 45745 8. 459 
 Bonaparte, Caroline, z68, 343, 390 
 — Eliza, 152, 164, 206, 
 
 261, 262, 264, 268, 391, 394, 401 
 Joseph, 37, 62, 63, 94, 
 
 103, 142, 164, 166, 189, 206, 293, 
 29s. 301. 333. 347. 388, 408 
 
 Louis, 186, 206, 268, 
 
 271, 272, 273 
 
 Lucien, 37, 44, 60, 62, 
 
 63, 67, 71, 72, 81, 82, 85, 86, 94, 
 III, 118, 120, 121, 122, 143, 154, 
 164, 165, 446, 447 
 
 Napoleon, suppresses 
 
 the counter revolution, 16 ; forms 
 political clubs in the army, 21 ; 
 ordered to Egypt, 26 ; returns to 
 Paris, 62 ; forms a party, 65 ; 
 seizes power, 83 ; consul, 86 ; 
 proscriptions, 90 ; and the bankers, 
 loi ; crosses the Alps, 107 ; 
 Marengo, loS ; plot to assassin- 
 ate, 116; dispute with Lucien, 
 121 ; another plot, 123; attempt 
 on his life, 127 ; the opera singer, 
 137 ; concordat, 154; hfe consul, 
 161 ; Swiss constitution, 171 ; 
 attacked by the English press, 
 175 ; orders the arrest of all 
 Englishmen, 178 ; preparation for 
 war, 178; proposal to Bourbons, 
 179 ; Duke d'Enghien, i8l ; 
 proclaimed Emperor, 184 ; Jos^- 
 phineand Hortense, 185; anointed 
 
472 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 by the Pope, 195 ; crowned at 
 Milan, 196 ; attempt on England, 
 196 ; war with Austria, Russia, 
 and England, 199; Ulm, Tra- 
 falgar and Austerlitz, 201 ; war 
 with Prussia, 208 ; design on 
 Spain, 214; grief at the death of 
 his son, 222 ; goes to Spain, 225 ; 
 war with Austria, 227 ; excom- 
 municated by the Pope, 229; 
 marriage with Josephine dis- 
 solved, 237 ; negotiations with 
 Vienna, 239 ; marriage with 
 Maria Louisa determined, 240; 
 marriage, 243 ; letter to Fouche, 
 251 ; demands Fouche's corre- 
 spondence, 258 ; treasures, 277 ; 
 seizes Holland and the Hanse 
 towns, 279 ; birth of the King 
 of Rome, 281 ; effects of the 
 "continental system," 283 ; and 
 England, 289 ; war with Russia, 
 319; Malet conspiracy, 323; 
 retreat from Russia, 328 ; pro- 
 gress of the war, 335 ; sends 
 Soult to Spain, 347 ; Fouche's 
 note on the situation, 356 ; return 
 from Elba, 421 ; suspects Fouche, 
 435 ; departs for Belgium, 442 ; 
 defeat and return, 444 ; abdicates, 
 446 ; departure from Malmaison, 
 
 453- 
 Bonaparte, Pauline, 206, 268, 269, 
 
 270 
 Boulay de la Meurthe, 37, 39, 40, 
 
 44, 60, 71, 72, 81, 82, 86, 88, 94, 
 
 448, 449, 450 
 Bourienne, 116, 406, 417, 424,425, 
 
 434 
 Broglie, Marshal, S 
 Brune, General, 24, 27, 30, 31, 33, 
 
 34,44. "Si 135. 187. 323.404 
 
 Cadoudal, Georges, 125, 126, 
 130, 179, 180, 182, 188 
 
 Callot, 102, 103 
 
 Cambac^r^s, 88, 94, 98, 99, no, 
 III, 118, 125, 140, 151, 156, 166, 
 180, 187, 189, 206,231,236,237, 
 282, 314, 324, 328, 329,330, 333, 
 339. 384. 388, 408, 420, 427 
 
 Canning, Rt. Hon. George, 242, 
 
 243 
 Carnot, 13, 15, 18, 22, 104, 108, 
 no, 118, 418, 420,427,435,448, 
 
 450. 453. 456. 459. 465. 468 
 Castlereagh, Lord, 242, 316, 334 
 Cathcart, Lord, 322 
 Condorcet, Marquis de, 8 
 Cornwallis, Marquis, 147, 149 
 Cornet, 73, 74, 75 
 Couthon, 14 
 
 Danton, 12 
 
 Davoust, 187, 420, 427, 438, 442, 
 
 445. 453. 456 
 Dubois, 113, 189, 244, 256, 257, 
 
 323. 413 
 Dumouriez, General, 68 
 Duroc, III, 113, 148, 166, 186, 
 
 258, 259, 302, 314, 344, 427 
 
 Enghien, Duke d', 179, 181,194, 
 195 
 
 FoucHfi, Joseph, not responsible 
 for the revolution, 2 ; birth and 
 education, 7 ; acquaintance with 
 Robespierre, 8 ; defends Verg- 
 niaud, 9 ; on his vote for execu- 
 tion of Louis XIV., 10 ; mission 
 to provinces, n ; expelled the 
 Jacobin club, 12 ; struggle with 
 Robespierre, 13 ; end of the 
 Reign of Terror, 15 ; takes 
 government contracts, 19 ; advice 
 to Barras, 22 ; nominated am- 
 bassador, 24 ; at Milan, 27 ; 
 message to the Cisalpine re- 
 public, 32 ; expulsion from Italy, 
 34 ; ambassador to Holland, 41 ; 
 minister of police, 46 ; closes the 
 hall of the Jacobins, 53 ; sup- 
 presses the press, 56 ; Bonapar- 
 tist intrigues, 62 ; Josephine in 
 his pay, 63 ; interview with 
 Bonaparte, 68 ; opposes pro- 
 scriptions, 90 ; detects plots, 117, 
 123 ; royalist attempt to assas- 
 sinate Bonaparte, 127 ; memorial 
 on peace, 150 ; dismissed, 166 ; 
 senator of Aix, 169 ; commissioner 
 to Switzerland, 170 ; intercedes 
 
INDEX. 
 
 473 
 
 for the Duke d'Enghien, i8i ; 
 again police minister, i88 ; created 
 Duke of Otranto, 207 ; and the 
 English Cabinet, 210 ; advises 
 Napoleon to divorce Josephine, 
 224 ; interview with Josephine, 
 224 ; orders levy of national 
 guards, 231 ; advice to Napoleon, 
 235 ; negotiations with the 
 Marquess of Wellesley, 243 ; 
 discovered by Napoleon, 245 ; 
 di^ace, 245 ; governor-general 
 of Rome, 250; retires to his 
 chateau, 254 ; searched for papers, 
 256 ; Napoleon demands his cor- 
 respondence, 358 ; flight to Flo- 
 rence, 261 ; resolves to go to 
 America, 263 ; submits to the Em- 
 peror, 264 ; retires to Aix, 265 ; 
 reflections on the Peninsular War, 
 292 ; returns to Ferriferes, 302 ; 
 memorial on the war with Russia, 
 306 ; audience with the Emperor, 
 309 ; ordered to headquarters, 
 343 ; on the position, 348 ; 
 governor-general of lUyria, 359 ; 
 plan for a regency, 361 ; at Prague, 
 364 ; state of Illyria, 369 ; retreat, 
 374 ; mission to Murat, 380 ; 
 fetter to Napoleon, 384; conducts 
 the evacuation of Italy, 399 ; at 
 Lyons, 402 ; plot, 405 ; letter to 
 Napolegn at Elba, 409 ; advice 
 to Louis XVIII., 414 ; attempted 
 arrest, 424 ; again at head of 
 police, 426 ; ofiers to Louis, 432 ; 
 accepted by Wellington, 432 ; in 
 danger of being shot, 435 ; com- 
 munication with Metternich, 43S ; 
 puts down insurrection in La 
 Vendue, 438 ; communication 
 with Wellington, 443 ; action on 
 defeat of Napoleon, 444 ; head of 
 the provisional government, 448 ; 
 negotiations with Wellington, 
 451 ; letter to the King, 461 ; 
 interview, 464 ; opposes the pro- 
 scription, 467 ; publishes his notes 
 and reports, 468 ; end, 469 
 
 Fontanes, 151, 152, IS4. 164. 184, 
 205, 261 
 
 Fox, Charles James, 208 
 
 GoHiER, 41, 4S, 46. SO. S3. S7. S9. 
 
 60, 63, 6s, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70. 71. 
 
 74. 7S. 76, 77. 78. 79. 80 
 Grouchy, General, 328, 430 
 Guiche, Duchesse de, 105, 106 
 
 Hawkesbury, Lord, 144, 243 
 
 Haydn, 126 
 
 Hoche, General, 21, 36 
 
 Howick, Lord, 210 
 
 HuUin, 324, 327 
 
 Josephine, 62, 64, 74, 75, 100, 
 106, III, 118, 122, 130, 137. 185, 
 186, 222, 223, 224, 225, 237, 
 269 
 
 Joubert, General, 33, 34, 36, 41,42, 
 
 46. 49. SS. S9 ^ „ 
 
 Jourdan, Marshal, 27, 36, 57, 58, 
 60,65, 69, 85, 87, 90, 115, 187, 
 
 293. 347 
 Junot, General, 138, 159, 359. 367 
 
 Kosciusko, 297 
 
 LABOucHfeRE, 274, 275, 336 
 Lafayette, 4, 68, 420, 422, 445, 449". 
 Lannes, 70, 80, 85, 116, 117, 130 
 
 187 
 Laplace, 88 
 Lauderdale, Lord, 208 
 Lavalette, 165, 287, 425 
 Lebrun, 98, 99, 103, 105, 106, 1 10, 
 
 III, 118, 125, 151, 166, 180, 187, 
 
 206, 333, 337 
 Lefebvre, 116 
 
 Lef^vre, 52, 59, 70, 7S. 187 
 Liverpool, Lord, 144, 243 
 Louis XIV., 5 
 Louis XVI., 109 
 Louis XVIIL, 413, 416, 425, 430v 
 
 434, 443, 450, 452, 454, 457, 459. 
 
 460, 461, 463, 465, 466 
 
 Macdonald, 70, 182, 362 
 Mallet, General, 193, 323, 325, 326, 
 
 327. 330 
 Marbot, 52 
 Maret, 298, 299, 315. 316. 3I7.3I9> 
 
 333. 334, 3S4. 406.43°. 444.44S^ 
 
 45° 
 Maria Antomette, 244 
 
 32 
 
474 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Maria Louisa, 237, 240, 243, 268, 
 
 270, 282, 324, 339, 388, 421 
 Marmont, 70 
 Massena, General, 183, 187, 193, 
 
 228, 294, 295, 323, 325 
 Menou, General, 144, 159 
 Merlin, 22, 25, 26, 28, 30, 34, 37, 
 
 38,39,40,41 
 Metternich, 239, 338, 346, 347, 348, 
 
 349. 35°. 3SI. 352. 355, 362,363. 
 
 370, 40s, 431, 432, 435, 436, 437, 
 
 438, 443, 461 
 Mirabeau, 4. 
 Moreau, 36, 57, 59, 70, 71, 80, 114, 
 
 lis, 123. 133. 134. 148. 179. 180, 
 
 181, 182, 183, 184, 325.356 
 Moulins, 41, 45, 46, 50, 53, 57, 59, 
 
 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 76, 77. 78, 
 . 79, 80, 86 
 Murat, Joachim, King of Naples, 
 
 70, 76, 84, 85, 86, 136, 180, 187, 
 
 206, 220, 229, 294, 341, 342, 343, 
 
 354. 378, 379, 380. 381. 382, 383. 
 
 389. 390. 393. 394. 395. 396, 397. 
 
 398, 399, 400, 401, 404, 439 
 
 Narbonne, Count de, 238, 239, 
 302, 338, 347. 348, 350. 354. 360, 
 362, 363. 364, 369 
 
 Necker, 4 
 
 ^Nelson, Admiral, 140 
 
 Nesselrode, 304, 461 
 
 iJey, General, 172, 187, 331, 354, 
 357 
 
 OUVRARD, 102, 243, 245 
 
 Parker, Admiral Hyde, 140 
 Paul I. , Emperor of Russia, 104, 1 36, 
 
 139, 140, 141 
 Peltier, 176 
 Pichegru, 35, 180 
 Pitt, William, 142, 208 
 Pius VII., 195, 217, 229 
 Portalis, 151 
 
 ktcAMiEK, Madame, 72 
 
 Rewbel, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30, 34, 37 
 
 Robespierre, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16 
 
 Rode, 138 
 
 Rome, King of, 281 
 
 Rousseau, J. J., 3 
 
 Rumbold, Sir George, 192, 193 
 
 St. Helens, Lord, 142 
 
 St. Just, 14 
 
 Santerre, 79 
 
 Savary, 166, 182, 200, 203, 21S, 
 
 232, 245, 250, 252, 284, 285, 286, 
 
 287,288, 289, 300, 311,313. 3«7. 
 
 327. 328. 329. 339. 388, 412. 413, 
 
 415, 425, 429. 433, 440 
 Schwartzenberg, Prince of, 240,243, 
 
 244. 346, 356 
 Sieyes, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 
 
 46, 48. 49. 50. 51. 52, 53. 55, 56, 
 
 59, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 
 
 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 
 
 94, 95. 96, 97, 99, 169 
 Souchet, 295 
 Stael, Madame de, 26, 238, 285, 
 
 323, 356 
 
 Tallien, 13 
 
 Tallien, Madame, 76 
 
 Talleyrand, 26, 66, 67, 69, 70, 76, 
 77, 78, 85, 86, 88, 121, 136, 143, 
 146, 163, 178, 180, 188, 192, 198, 
 207, 213, 217, 218,225, 245.287, 
 288, 314, 325. 333, 336, 337, 362, 
 383, 384, 406, 408, 432, 433, 434, 
 438, 454 
 
 Vergniaud, 8, 9 
 Villeneuve, Admiral, 197 
 Voltaire, 3, 20 
 
 Walpole, Lord, 329, 333 
 Wellesley, Marquis, 243, 245, 274, 
 
 275, 405, 432 
 Wellington, Duke of, 294, 295, 347, 
 
 403, 432. 443, 450, 451,452,454. 
 455, 459, 460 
 Whitworth, Lord, 177 
 
imWlN BROTHERS* 
 CHILVrOKTH AND LONDON,