uornell University Library 
 DC 146.B56A12 1871 
 
 Life and adventures of Count Beugnot, mi 
 
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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 VOL. L 
 
LIFE AKD ADYENTUEES 
 
 COUNT BEUGNOT, 
 
 ilinistcr of State unticr ilapolcon E. 
 
 EDITED FROM THE FRENCH 
 
 CHARLOTTE M. YONGE, 
 
 AUTHOU OP "the HF.IK OF EEDCLTFFE," ETC. 
 
 IN TWO YOLUilES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 :.-?, GREAT MAELBOEOUGH STREET. 
 
 187L 
 
 The Right of TmnslaiiOfi is Hesn-red. 
 
LONDON : 
 BBABBtTRY, EVJ^IT?, AND CO., PEINTFRS, -WHITrFHTARS. 
 
IiNTEODUCTION. 
 
 The autlior of these memoirs, Jeau Claude Goimt 
 Bengaot, was a minister mrder Napoleon I., then a 
 member of the Government, a Deputy and Peer of 
 France under the Restoration. Tie was born at Bar- 
 sur-Aube on the 25th of July, 17C1. The father, 
 Edmund Beugnot, was an advocate and receiver for 
 the royal property in that town. The son was destined 
 for the bar, and was early sent to Paris to attend the 
 sittings of the Parliament in his position as licentiate 
 of law, not yet called to the bar. 
 
 The Memoirs of Count Beugnot commence at this 
 period of his life, when he was twenty-two years of 
 aij-e. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 The Countess Lamotte — Account of her Family — Iler Arrival at Bar- 
 sur-Aube — Her Marriage — Appearance in Paris — Her First 
 Interview with the Cardinal de Eohau — Her Liaison with him— 
 The Queen Marie Antoinette — M. Beranger — Intrigues of 
 Madame de Lamotte 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 My Vacation in Champagne — Visit of Madamo Lamotte — M. de 
 Latour — Conversation at Supper — Madame de Lamotte's Rela- 
 tions with Society — Her Plate and Jewelry — Supposed Source 
 of Madame de Lamotte's Oj)ulence — Portrait of the Cardinal de 
 Kohan — His Letters to Madame de Lamotte — My Career at the 
 Bar — M. d'Ambraj-— MM. Seguier, d'Aguesseau, and Joly do 
 Fleury — Course of the Lyceum — Pictui'e of France in 1785 — 
 Cagliostro — Credulity of Madame de Latour . . . .28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Castle of Brienne — Clairvaux — Conversation with the Count de 
 Dampierre — Jour de la St. Bernard — The Abbe Maury — The 
 Diamond Necklace — My Advice to Madame de Lamotte — Letters 
 of the Cardinal de Eohan — Arrest of Madame de Lamotte^ 
 Conduct of the Baron de Bretcuil — Mile. d'Oliva — M. de Crosne 
 — My Refusal to defend Madame do Lamotte — M. Doitot — 
 Cagliostro and Serafina Feliciani — The Opposition Party . . 62 
 
vni CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Eetui-n to Bar-suv-Aubo— Measures taken to Secure my Election as 
 Deputy— The Electors — Tho Grand Bailli and his Costume- 
 General Assembly of tbe Three Orders— M. lu Vicomte do 
 Laval— Le Comte de Briennc— Jurisdiction of Chaumont — 
 IJupont de Xeniours — M. Guillaume — Nomination of Gompert- 
 le-Gbevaux — My Nomination to tlio tats Generaux — Eeoeption 
 at Bar-sur-Aube— Insurrection of Paris— Capture of the Bas- 
 tille — Brigandage — Decrees of August 4 93 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Eeminiscences of 1793 — Order for my Arrest — Eeflections in tlie 
 Labyrinth, Jardin des Plautes — My Arrest — The Inspector and 
 the Gendarme — ^The Couciergerie — Companions in my Dungeon 
 — The Infirmary — The Doctor — Night in Prison — The Girondists 
 — Duces, Fonfredo, and Eauchet 132 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Execution of the Girondists — Tho Pevolutiojiary Tribunal — Bailly — 
 General llouchard — Madame Eoland and the Eevolution — 
 Eemmes do Monde in the Conoiergerie — Egle — Lamourette — ■ 
 Death of Clavieres — The Deputy Cassj' — Conversation vdth the 
 Advocate Lafeutrie— General La Marliere — Strange Scene of 
 Evocation 165 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 The Advocate Lafeutrie — General La Marliere— Aide-de-Camp of 
 the Comte d'Estaing — Magic in Prison — Prisoners Condemned 
 to Death — Suicides — Le Due du Ohfitelet — Eemoval from tho 
 Conciergerio — La Eorce — My Eellow-Prisonors — The Native 
 Parisian — Chambre du Conseil — Deputies in Prison — Dupont 
 do Nemoui-s— Erancoeur, Director of the Orchestra of the Opera 
 — J [y Refusal of a Mission to Genoa . . . . . |()y 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The First Victim from La Force — Ex-Comto de Ferrieres- 
 SauvelDCEuf — Toting FasHonatles in La Force — ConnseUor 
 Leconteulx de la Noraye — Results of his Lioonsiderate De- 
 rmnoiation — The Lesconteulx transferred to the Eveche — Ill- 
 ness of Madame Beugnot — L'Abbe de Perigord — The Oomte de 
 Brienne — Condemnation of Madame Elizabeth — Increased Ac- 
 tivity of the Eevolutionary Tribunal — The Tocsin — A Friend of 
 Eobespierre — Death of Robespierre — Restored to Liberty . . 228 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Les Annales Troyennea — M. Beugnot Prefect of La Seine Inferieure — 
 Financial Minister of Westphalia — Appointed President of the 
 Council of Regency of the Grand-duchy of Berg — M. de 
 Talleyrand — Dlisseldorf — Miinster — -Feudality — Le Cohnat — 
 Westphalia — La Marck — Nassau-Siegen — Portrait of Beurnon- 
 ville — Murat at Diisseldorf — M. Agard — Le Due de Gaeta . . 256 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Gift of the Grand-duchy of Berg to Napoleon Louis — Le Due 
 de Bassano — M. Maret — M. Eegnault — Organisation of the 
 Grand-ducal Government — Le Comte do Nesselrodo — • M. 
 Fusohius — General Damas — Journey through the Grand-duchy 
 — Secrets of German Diplomacy — Threatenings of War — 
 Humiliation of Prussia — Major SchiU — Battle of EssUng — Le 
 Duo de Brunswick-Oels — Battle of Wagram .... 28G 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Administration of the Grand- duchy —M. de Semonville— The Waters 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle— The Court of Madame Mere— The King 
 of Holland— La Princesse Borghese— Divorce of the Empress 
 Josephine — Surprising Effect, in Germany, of Napoleon's Second 
 Marriage— Introduction of the Civil Code into the Grand-duchy 
 — M. Eosderer — Studies in Political Economy— A Miracle . .311 
 
CONTE.\TS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PAGE 
 Ai'rival of the Emperor at Diisseldorf — Presentation of the Authorities 
 — Eeview of the Troops — Council of Administration — A Stormy 
 Sitting — Displeasure of the Emperor — Le Haras Sauvage — Un- 
 expected Invitation to Dinner — Imperial Eamiliaritj' — Semi- 
 official Conversation -with the Emperor Napoleon I. — The. Em- 
 press — Dinner at the Eesidence — Reception of the Emperor in 
 Public— Plight and Left Banks of the EMne . . . . 33j 
 
LIFE AND ADVENTFEES 
 
 or 
 
 COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Countess Lamotte— Account of her Family — Her arriyal at Bar-sur-Aube 
 — Her Marriage — Appearance in Paris — Her First Interview with the 
 Cardinal de Rohan — Her Liaison with him — The Queen Marie Antoinette 
 — M. B&anger — Intrigues of Madame de Lamotte. 
 
 * * * * At this time occurred .an 
 episode in my life which caused me most poignant 
 anxiety, and certainly the greatest sorrow in the course 
 of a career full of vexatious incidents. This arose 
 from the arrival at Paris of the woman afterwards so 
 unhappily celebrated under the name of the Countess de 
 Lamotte. 
 
 I must go far back to explain how I became acquainted 
 with her. Mention has elsewhere been made of the 
 rather free style of society meeting in the house of 
 Madame de Surmont at Bar-sur-Aube. One day in the 
 autumn of 1762, it was announced there that two fugitive 
 princesses had made their appearance at the Hotel de la 
 Tete Rouge ; that is to say the most miserable hostel in a 
 town where there is not a single decent one ; and we all 
 had a laugh at the notion of princesses in such a place. 
 By the next day, the mists that the princesses had 
 diffused around themselves began to clear ; it was 
 
2 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 discovered that they had escaped from the convent at 
 Longchamps, and had made then- way to Bar-sur-Aube 
 as a central position from whence to direct their endea- 
 vours to recover some large possessions that had be- 
 longed to their family. This property consisted of the 
 estates of Essoyes, Fontette, and Verpilliferes. One of 
 these ladies was called Mademoiselle de Valois, the 
 other Mademoiselle de Saint R^mi. This intelligence in 
 some degree modified the first impressions of them. 
 When I went home that evening I mentioned these 
 particulars, and they aroused some recollections in 
 the mind of my father. He remembered that some 
 fifteen or twenty years before he had been obliged to go 
 every year to Essoyes for the assessment of taxes, and 
 when he passed through the parish of Fontette the priest 
 never failed to make a levy on his purse for the poor 
 little Saint Remi children. There were three of these 
 children left alone in a miserable hovel with a little hole 
 towards the road ; and the neighbours conveyed to them 
 by turns through this opening some broth or other simple 
 fare. My father said he had himself seen this, and the 
 priest would not open the door of the hovel for fear of 
 shocking him by the sight of these children, naked, and 
 growing up like savages, saying that his gift would help 
 to clothe them. 
 
 My father's stoiy was quite correct. The three 
 children so miserably brought up were the Baron de 
 Valois, who died captain of a frigate, the famous Countess 
 de Lamotte, and Mademoiselle de Saint R6mi, who 
 perhaps is still living as a canoness in some corner 
 of Germany unknown to me. Thus, these last de- 
 scendants of tlie Baron de Remi, a natural son of 
 Henry II., and recognised as such, had fallen into a 
 state of misery approaching to starvation. My father 
 had seen the hc"'^ ^,+'+Ki"q mispral-ilfi familv. and described 
 
FAMILY OF SAINT EEMI. 3 
 
 him as a man of powerful frame, living by hunting, by 
 the spoils of the forest, on wild fruits, and even on 
 cultivated ones obtained by theft. The members of the 
 family of Saint Remi had for two or three generations 
 lived this heroic life, tolerated by the people out of fear, 
 and by the authorities from the celebrity still clinging to 
 a name which had long been famous. This last of the 
 family had not lived long enough to induct his son into 
 his own manner of life ; and the village of Fontette 
 contained no Chiron to undertake the education of this 
 new Achilles. He and his sisters fell, in common with 
 other destitute persons, under the care of the priest of the 
 parish. He, poor man, had provided for their subsistence 
 in childhood in some sort of way, as we have seen ; but 
 notwithstanding their miserable condition the children 
 grew, their wants increased, and their resources at the 
 utmost remained the same. In this difficulty, the priest 
 implored the interest of La Luzerne, the bishop of 
 Langres, and of the Marquise de Boulainvilliers, wife of 
 the provost of Paris, who lived on an estate not far off. 
 He explained the origin of these children, and was hardly 
 beheved. If there were doubts about their nobility, 
 there could be none about their wretchedness. Their 
 most pressing wants were provided for by these two 
 charitable persons who had been consulted ; they were 
 clothed ; the boy was sent to school at Bar-sur-Seine, 
 and the two girls were put into the Ursuliue convent at 
 Ligny, where the board of a young lady of rank at that 
 time amounted to about five pounds per annum. Thus 
 a,bout the end of the eighteenth century, the last natural 
 descendants of the Valois passed into a civilised condition 
 from one of almost savagery. 
 
 One thing alone had been preserved amid the wreck 
 of this family ; its pedigree. The priest placed it in the 
 hands of the Bishop of Langres, and he sent it for 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 verification to Clierin, who was then official genealogist 
 to the King. 
 
 I knew this official, on acconnt of some distant relation- 
 ship between us. His examination was most minute, 
 and his opinion unimpeachable. He was profoundly 
 acquainted with the origin of all the great houses, and 
 had he been allowed, would have banished as many- 
 nobles from the court as Bollandus did saints from the 
 calendar. I was somewhat posted-up by him, and some- 
 times when I meet at the Tuilcries men who, in all good 
 faith, are proud of their birth, I whisper to myself, 
 " Where are you, Ch6rin?" Anyhow, he examined this 
 title of the Saint Remis, and certified to their direct 
 descent in the male fine from the Baron of Saint E^mi, 
 natural son of Henry the Second. The pedigree was not 
 quite equal on the female side, for when the Saint Remis 
 took to the wild life of the ancients, they always married 
 dairy-maids or servants. But that was of no great 
 consequence, since from the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century, inferior marriages seemed to have been fashion- 
 able with great families, and at least they could not be 
 reproached with having sold their dignity for riches 
 obtained by doubtful means. They had remained so free 
 from this taint, that there were no marriage settlements 
 for the last three generations, but the certificates of the 
 weddings were quite correct.* 
 
 Ch6rin's certificate was of such authority as to remove 
 all doubts, and then the government came to the rescue. 
 The King granted to the Baron de Valois a pension of 
 40/., and free admission to the naval school. The "-iris 
 besides receiving 24/. each, were placed gratuitously in 
 
 * In the public papers of April 10, 1SG7, might be seen — " Died, on Wednes- 
 day, at Tours, in his sixty-eighth year, M. Etienne Melchior de Valois de Saint 
 Remi, late Receiver of Stamps at Tours, son of Charles II. de Valois de Saint 
 Eemi, Baron of Fontette and Essoyes, one of the last direct descendants of 
 Henry II. King of Franaa^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^,^- 
 
MADEMOISELLE DE SAINT EEMI. 5 
 
 the Abbey of Longchamps, near Paris. The patrons 
 of the family and the director of the king's household had 
 the same views. They hoped that the Baron de Valois 
 would make no objection to take the vows of the order 
 of St. John of Malta. His sisters might be gently per- 
 suaded to embrace a religious life, even if it were neces- 
 sary to hold out the prospect of an abbey for the eldest. 
 Thus would be honourably extinguished a family which 
 could not be more publicly produced without exposing 
 the Kino; to the oblia:ation of furnishing them with a for- 
 tune proportionable to their birth. The legitimate Valois 
 were already far enough off; why should an illegitimate 
 branch be raised up ? Money is wanted so much for 
 other purposes. 
 
 The plan was wise, and would have succeeded, had not 
 the elder Mademoiselle de Saint Remi been armed by 
 nature with more weapons than were necessary to upset 
 it. The brother had reached the rank of lieutenant in 
 the navy, and the sisters had passed six years at Long- 
 champs, when one fine morning these young ladies made 
 their escape from the convent in search of adventures, 
 with a very light bundle under their arms, and just 
 thirty shillings in their pockets. They intended to go to 
 Bar-sur-Seine, but mistook their way and got into a 
 barge that took them to Nogent ; they there found a 
 cheap conveyance that awaited travellers as they left 
 the barge to take them to Bar-sur-Aube, and adopted 
 this means of proceeding. Of their thirty shilhngs, 
 twenty had been spent on the road ; so that they 
 descended at the Tete Rouge, at Bar-sur-Aube, with a 
 crown piece each in their pockets, and their whole 
 wardrobe one change of linen. Madame de Lamotte 
 explained to me how it was that she determined on so 
 sudden a departure. The Abbess who had always 
 previously been obsequious to her, had for some time 
 
6 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 past become importunate in her exliortations to her to 
 come to a decision ; that is to say, to embrace a religious 
 life. The order of St. Bernard was proposed as the most 
 agreeable and offering the most speedy chance of an 
 abbey ; but a religious life had not the smallest attrac- 
 tion for Madame de Lamotte, and besides, she suspected 
 from the persistence of the Abbess, that some more 
 important interest was involved in the desire to make 
 her take the veil, and she interpreted this interest as 
 a dread of the claim she might raise to the family 
 property. 
 
 In the miserable hovel where she had found shelter at 
 Fontette, she had conceived trreat notions of these 
 
 &'■ 
 
 claims ; and these ideas had gained strength from the 
 care afterwards taken of her. The moment for flight 
 Avas ill chosen, for she had no money ; but in her last 
 conversation with her, the Abbess had gone so far as to 
 threaten her. She had no chance but submission or 
 flight ; and regardless of consequences she took the 
 latter course. She had no difficulty in persuading her 
 sister, for she had long been used to think for both. 
 
 Behold her happily arrived in port ! that is to say, at 
 the Tete Rouge Inn, at Bar-sur-Aube, and possessed of 
 five shillings remaining from the expenses of the journey. 
 She had prepared letters to her protectors, and Avhile 
 awaiting their answers, was living on the credit gained by 
 her good looks and high connections, when she received a 
 visit from Madame de Surmont. AYe had had much 
 trouble in persuading this lady to take this step ; but at 
 last we managed to convince her that her position in the 
 town required her to undertake the patronage of young 
 ladies of quality, fugitives, perhaps persecuted, and 
 shamefully deserted by the nobility. We had touched a 
 chord in her heart ; she paid a visit to the ladies at the 
 Tete Rouge, and they showed themselves very sensible of 
 
MADAME DE LAMOTTE. 7 
 
 the favour, and greatly delighted to see her. Madame de 
 Surmont returned enchanted with her visit ; she had 
 been quite captivated by Mademoiselle de Lamotte, who 
 had proved that she was able to captivate others also. 
 She was inclined to take the girls into her house, if her 
 husband approved ; and kept on expatiating on the in- 
 difference of the nobility in a case in which the interests 
 of relatives of the King were involved. Her husband 
 as usual reluctantly yielded ; and the Demoiselles de 
 Saint Remi were installed in the house. This was the 
 object we desired to obtain. 
 
 Madame de Lamotte was not strictly beautiful ; she 
 was of medium height, but slight and well formed ; her 
 blue eyes, which were surmounted by black arched eye- 
 brows, were full of expression ; her face was rather long, 
 the mouth wide, but with beautiful teeth, and like many 
 people of that style, she had an enchanting smile. Her 
 hand was pretty, and her feet very small, her complexion 
 remarkably fair. By a curious freak, nature, when 
 forming her throat, had stopped when half was done ; 
 and that half made one long for the rest. She was 
 destitute of any sort of information, but she had a great 
 deal of intelligence, and was very quick and penetrating. 
 She braved the laws of social order, with which she had 
 been at war from her birth, and did not pay much more 
 attention to those of morality. She might be heard 
 making game of both, as if it were the most natural 
 thing in the world, and as if she had no notion of their 
 existence. Thus, was composed a being formidable to a 
 close observer, but captivating to the generality of those 
 who looked from a greater distance. 
 
 The sister. Mademoiselle de Saint Remi, was a large 
 handsome girl ; very fair, very insipid, very dull ; with 
 just enough instinct to perceive that she was a great 
 lady, but always ready to descend from her position. 
 
8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 The exterior of the Baron de Valois was ordinary, and 
 his mind not enlarged ; but he was a sensible man, and 
 an attentive officer. He was fond of his profession, and 
 devoted himself to it without jwrmitting the remem- 
 brances and hopes, nursed by his sister, to distract him 
 from it. 
 
 He died during the com-se of her trial, and not with- 
 out some suspicion that he could not bear to awaft the 
 conclusion of it. Such was the family that met their end 
 amid crime and disgrace, while attempts had been made 
 to render their lives pleasant and honourable. 
 
 The Saint R6mi young ladies brought movement and 
 life into the society of Madame de Surmont. The young 
 people who formed a part of it, soon perceived that 
 these ladies had much in common with the princesses of 
 romance, and were not a bit more cruel. After due con- 
 sideration, they would have been persuaded to condescend 
 if some rich citizens, sincerely attached to them, had 
 aspired to the honour of their hands. The recovery of 
 the immense property of the family was retarded by 
 delays, the termination of which could not be foreseen. 
 Meanwhile, all they had to subsist on was the pension of 
 twenty-four pounds a year, a sum on which it was im- 
 possible to live, and they feared that Madame de Surmont 
 might grow weary of the daily sacrifices imposed on 
 her by her imprudent patronage. 
 
 The day after their arrival at her house, she had lent 
 the girls, in their pressing need, two white dresses, with- 
 out the least expectation that they would wear them 
 long, since the good lady's figure was a stout one. What 
 was her surprise to see next morning that these dresses 
 became them beautifully ! The fact was, the o-irls 
 had spent the night in cutting them down and alter- 
 ing them. They used the same licence in every- 
 thing, and Madame de Surmont began to find that 
 
A BRAVE SPIRIT. 
 
 the easy condescensions of tlie princesses carried tliem 
 too far. 
 
 It was intended tliat the Saint Remi young ladies, should 
 not at the outside, pass more than a week at Madame de 
 Surmont's ; they remained there a year. Time passed 
 as it does in a little country town ; in quarrels and recon- 
 ciliations, in trifling gossip and solemn talk, in contriving 
 and frustrating frightful intrigues, things that never pass 
 the walls of the city, if it has any. The genius of the 
 elder Mademoiselle de St. Remi found, nevertheless, 
 scope for its development in this narrow circle. She 
 was playing a prelude -while waiting for her part. She 
 had taken possession of the mind of M. de Surmont, and 
 by the help of the blind attachment conceived for her by 
 this good man, many of the aspersions she cast on all 
 comers, and Madame de Surmont in particular, were 
 counterbalanced. The poor hostess has often told me 
 that the most unhappy year of her life was that which 
 she spent in the society of that demon. 
 
 I had seen little of her when she came to Bar-sur-Aube, 
 but enough to be fascinated like the rest. "Without 
 being aware of the danger, I admired this brave spirit 
 that was checked by nothing, and contrasted so curiously 
 with the timid and narrow character of the other ladies 
 in the town. Besides, she knew how to assume, on 
 occasion, the softness and even the weakness of her sex. 
 She had youth, beautiful eyes, and her smile went to the 
 heart. This was more than was requisite to make me 
 her vassal. I was inexhaustible in her praise. The year 
 that the Demoiselles de Saint Remi came to live at Bar- 
 sur-Aube, my father for the first time in his life, hastened 
 my departure for Paris, for he had a deadly horror of the 
 unheard-of honour of uniting his blood to the remains of 
 that of Valois. 
 
 My correspondents kept me informed of the life that 
 
10 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 these ladies passed, and of their amiable tricks. I 
 learned that at last the elder Saint Eemi had particularly 
 distinguished M. de Lamotte, nephew of M. de Surmont. 
 They told me that at last this lofty spirit had found its 
 master ; but I was a little surprised at the quarter where 
 it had gone in search of him. 
 
 M. de Lamotte was an ugly man, but well made, 
 expert in all bodily exercises, and notwithstanding his 
 plainness, his face had a sweet and amiable expression. 
 What spirit he had — and he was not without it — had 
 hitherto been directed towards inferior adventures. He 
 was of noble blood, and the third of his name who had 
 served in the gendarmes. His father, a knight of Saint 
 Louis, and a quarter-master general of the army, had been 
 killed at the battle of Minden. Destitute of any sort of 
 fortune, he had talents enough to plunge himself in debt, 
 and only lived on his wits and on a pension of fifteen 
 pounds which M. de Surmont, his uncle, was obliged to 
 allow him in order to keep him in the corps. 
 
 At the present day, there is a risk of not being 
 understood when speaking of the gendarmes, in which 
 M. de Lamotte served. The corps preserved the ancient 
 standard of the gendarmes so renowned in former times, 
 when an armed man and horse were a real power. Up 
 to the year 1787 (when it was abolished), it was the first 
 cavalry regiment of France. The simple troopers held 
 the rank of officers, and as such, obtained the cross of 
 Saint Louis. But it was the refuge of the poor nobility, 
 and likewise received citizens who could not make way in 
 other corps of the army. The force maintained the most 
 brilliant reputation for bravery ; but, as the private 
 troopers did much the same duties as the soldiers of any 
 other regiment, there was but little respect paid to them 
 individually. The very junior sub-lieutenant of infantry 
 considered himself above a gendarme. M. de Lamotte 
 
MAEEIAGE OF MADEMOISELLE SAINT EEMI. 11 
 
 might have been an exception, because his name recom- 
 mended him for promotion, had his conduct been good ; 
 but of all the means of success, good conduct was that 
 of which he was least capable. 
 
 In the course of the same month I heard that the 
 marriage of the elder Saint Remi with M. de Lamotte 
 was not a mere joke, then that the marriage was deter- 
 mined on, and moreover with the consent of the Bishop 
 of Langres, and at last that the wedding was celebrated. 
 Each of these pieces of news as it arrived redoubled my 
 surprise, and it reached its height when I learnt that the 
 very next month Madame de Lamotte had given birth 
 to twin boys, who only survived a few days. The last 
 circumstance reduced to the class of very common events 
 a marriage that up to that time had appeared so strange. 
 All was explained, even to the approval of the Bishop of 
 Langres, which was on the prelate's side only a forced 
 consent. 
 
 Madame de Surmont had been deceived to the end by 
 her nephew and Mademoiselle de Saint Remi ; and as 
 soon as she knew of the insult they had offered to her 
 house, she forbade the former to come thither, and sent off 
 the latter. They took refuge with Madame Latour, a 
 sister of M. de Lamotte, who herself having very little to 
 live on could not long support her two visitors. 
 
 Mademoiselle de Saint Remi had given two years of 
 her pension for fifty pounds, and with these did her best 
 to take her share of the display reqitired by the nuptial 
 ceremony. M. de Lamotte sold for the same purpose, 
 for twenty-four pounds in ready money, a horse and car- 
 riage that he had bought on credit at Luneville. Thus 
 did they commence house-keeping. 
 
 After the children were born and they had time to 
 review their position, it was evident that it was one of 
 great difficulty. There was no course that Madame de 
 
13 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Lamotte could adopt but to run the risk of a journey to 
 Paris, the receptacle of all the wealth and all the misery 
 of France. They had no money and very little credit, 
 but had the good fortune to manage to borrow fifty 
 pounds from my father, who had not forgotten the poor 
 children of Fontette, to whom he had given a few crowns 
 as alms, and besides, he rather gloried in a few such acts 
 of generosity. He liked Mademoiselle de Saint Remi as 
 soon as he was sure she would never be his daughter-in- 
 law. He had beheld her marriage with such perfect 
 satisfaction, that he would have been glad to have de- 
 frayed the whole expenses. 
 
 I have already spoken ill of Madame de Lamotte, and 
 shall have more to say ; but I wish to be entirely just. 
 Her gratitude towards my father was perfect ; and she 
 never spoke of him and of the service he had rendered 
 to her without emotion. In her brief moments of wealth, 
 she not only returned the sum that had been lent to her, 
 but my father was even twice obliged to return to her a 
 box intended, as she said, for payment of interest, and 
 worth nearly as much as the capital. 
 
 The sum total of the loan was justly, that is to say 
 equally, divided between Monsieur and Madame de La- 
 motte. The husband took twenty-five pounds, and went to 
 Fontette to engage in proceedings for recovering possession 
 of the property of the house of Saint Remi, and Madame 
 de Lamotte went to Paris with a like sum to utilise her 
 husband's discoveries. On her arrival she stopped in 
 the Rue de la Verricia, at the Hotel de Reims, a kind of 
 inn, of about as good reputation as the Tete Rouge, at 
 Bar-sur-Aube. 
 
 From that place I received one morning a note from 
 Madame de Lamotte to tell me of her arrival, and in- 
 forming me that she had brought a letter from my father 
 and wished to deliver it the same day. I had more than 
 
SEAECH FOE TITLES 13 
 
 one reason for haste, and went to her hnmediately. By 
 her permission I then read my father's letter, which 
 contained an expression of real interest in Madame de 
 Lamotte. My father wished me to consider carefully 
 whether her claim was well-founded, and, if it was, to do 
 all in my power to assist her. He added, that the lady 
 was very amiable (I had known it before he did), that 
 she was aware of the imfortunate position in which she 
 had placed herself, and it would be inhuman to desert 
 her. He told me nothing about the charity that had 
 prompted him to a loan of fifty pounds. 
 
 I took the matter into serious consideration, as my 
 father wished. I gave a scheme for a search for titles 
 in the public archives of the places where the property 
 of the Saint Remi family had been situated, and I em- 
 ployed myself in investigations in the archives of the 
 Rolls Office in Paris. I easily found the letters-patent 
 of Henry II., conferring on his natural son, the lands, 
 the recovery of which was claimed ; but I could not 
 discover on the file any deed that had made these 
 deeds pass from the hands of Saint Remi into those 
 of different owners not of the same family. The last of 
 them was a M. Orceau of Fontette, superintendent of 
 Caen, who had restored them to the King by way of 
 exchange ; a circumstance very favourable to our claim, 
 as the King had only to open his hand in order to restore 
 the fortune of their father to the Saint Remis. Perhaps 
 it might have been obtained, had the children come for- 
 ward under other auspices, and had they succeeded in 
 interesting some influential personage in their claims. 
 
 My efforts were thankless. M. de Lamotte did not 
 understand a single word of what I wanted of him. In 
 his eyes a first step to success would have been a kind of 
 triumphal entry into the places which had witnessed the 
 extreme misery of the earlier years of his wife. He had 
 
14 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 already thought fit to have a Te Beum sung there ; and 
 on leaving the church he had scattered money among the 
 people,— so much deducted from the twenty-five pounds 
 intended for the expenses of his travels and researches. 
 His wife in Paris was not any better inclined to hsten to 
 reason. When I told her of what I had done, and what 
 I wished to do, of the obstacles and difficulties, she 
 shrugged her shoulders and accused me of conducting 
 her business like an attorney. She thought the business 
 quite a simple affair ; the lands of Essoyes, Fontette, and 
 Verpilliferes had belonged to her ancestors, that was 
 proved. At this day they are said to be in the hands of 
 the King. What matters that ? One takes one's pro- 
 perty wherever it can be found. There is nothing more 
 to be done than to take possession, and inform M. de 
 Lamotte how that is to be done. If I had not sense 
 enough to find out, she would undertake it herself and 
 forward instructions to her husband. This made me 
 tremble with fear, for I knew she was just as capable of 
 directing acts of foUy as her husband was of executing 
 them. 
 
 When M. de Lamotte had exhausted his means in 
 feasts, Te DeiLvis, and donations to the people, a process 
 which was not very long, he went back to Bar-sur-Aube 
 to his sister's, just as far advanced in his business as if 
 he had never gone away, but minus twenty-five pounds. 
 He sent to Paris a hst of three or four profes- 
 sional men residing on the spot, with whom I might 
 communicate on certain details into Avhich a man of his 
 cjuality could not enter. I laughed with compassion, and 
 informed his wife that I repudiated the honour of such 
 a correspondence. Thus ended all researches in the 
 localities. 
 
 At Paris we made more progress. I had composed a 
 statement by no means devoid of interest. I represented 
 
MEMORIALS TO THE KING. 15 
 
 as an additional insult of fortune to the house of Valois, 
 the fate of a branch derived from the ancient tree that 
 had so long covered France and other states of Europe 
 with its regal shade. My production was interspersed 
 with such philosophical reflections as were very much 
 the fashion at that time, and I begged of the Bourbons 
 to pay the debts of the persons whose magnificent in- 
 heritance they had received. I submitted my composi- 
 tion to M. Elie de Beaumont, a celebrated advocate and 
 man of taste, whom the bar consulted on any production 
 that departed from the beaten paths. M. Elie de Beau- 
 mont had the goodness to read my work, and did me the 
 still greater kindness of pointing out some useful correc- 
 tions. He told me it was a pity that such a matter 
 could not be brought before the Parliament of Paris, as 
 it would be enough to make me a name. But I did not 
 even get the honour of being in print for my pains. The 
 question was said to lie in the province of royal favour, 
 and it would have been an olfence against the respect 
 due to the King to print anything ! I made many attempts 
 to alter the arrangement in more than one way, but 
 never managed to take the business oat of that province 
 where all publicity was considered a want of respect to 
 the King. I was much raised in Madame de Lamotte's 
 estimation by this memorial ; she thought the city was 
 already taken by storm ; but the advocate did not share 
 in his client's confidence. I always said that credit, 
 powerful friends, and money were requisites for success, 
 and all these were lacking. I nevertheless composed 
 another memorial to the King, or rather another petition, 
 which I endeavoured to make very short, so that it might 
 be read to him by the persons who undertook to present 
 it, and possibly by the King himself But alas ! Madame 
 de Lamotte commenced her shameless intrigues with the 
 production of my muse in her hand ! My only consola- 
 
16 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 tion is, that at least my petition was not employed in the 
 negotiations about the necklace. 
 
 These labours took up much of my time during the 
 summer of 1783. Madame de Lamotte continued to 
 inhabit the Hotel de Reims, and had very good reasons 
 for not leaving it. Her credit then had remarkably 
 diminished, and two loans of ten pounds each that I 
 had made her at different times had not done much to 
 raise it. I could not invite her to dine with me at 
 home, as I did not keep house, but once or twice 
 a week she favoured me by accepting a dinner at the 
 Cadran Bleu, and astonished my youthful eyes by her 
 appetite. On other days she had recourse to my arm for 
 a walk that always led to a cafe. She had a remarkable 
 taste for good beer, but never in any place seemed to find 
 any that came amiss to her. In the intervals, which 
 were so frequent that I could not help j^erceiving that 
 she must have made a light dinner, if she had dined at 
 all — she ate two or three dozen biscuits ! 
 
 One morning I beheld Madame de Lamotte arrive in a 
 glow of joy ; she had obtained, by favour of Madame de 
 Boulainvilhers, an audience of the grand almoner, the 
 Cardinal de Rohan. The audience was appointed for 
 noon on the next day, and she came to ask me for three 
 things in a great hurry : my carriage, my servant to 
 attend her, and my arm to support her. "All this," she 
 said to me, " is indispensable, according to your principle 
 that in this country tliere are only two good ways of 
 begging— at the church doors, and in a carriage." I 
 agreed, and so did not raise any difficulty on the two 
 former heads ; but I refused my arm, because I could not 
 present myself before the Cardinal with her in the 
 character of her advocate, unless his Eminence had been 
 informed of it and given his permission. This was found 
 to be correct ; and it was agreed on, as a middle course 
 
PEOFESSIOXAL BUSINESS. 17 
 
 that I should go ^vitli her, but that she should put me 
 down at the Prince de Soubise's garden, and come for 
 me again when she had left the palace of the Cardinal. 
 All was done as proposed, and the grand almoner's first 
 interview with Madame de Lamotte lasted half-an-hour. 
 She came out full of hope, his Eminence had promised to 
 use his influence to support the claim of the Saint Remi 
 family. He had read the petition to' the King twice, 
 and could not recover from his surprise at the Court 
 leaving the descendants of Henry H. destitute. He had 
 touched on the point of assistance, but gently, and with 
 delicacy, and Madame de Lamotte assured me that she 
 had followed the advice I gave her, not to spoil this 
 first interview by the spectacle of her degradation and 
 mendicancy. 
 
 Some days went by. I had retired into my study, and 
 demanded from Madame de Lamotte a respite even from 
 our walks, because I had to compose a memorial in a very 
 important cause that was to be decided in the Session 
 between several parishes of the Duchy of Nevers and the 
 Duke. The feudal rights that were at least doubtful, 
 were exercised by the agent of that nobleman with 
 incredible harshness. For two years I had been working 
 at the suit, and an absti\act carefully drawn was required 
 of me, in which I was to make a kind of appeal to the 
 Duke of Nevers himself, to his kindness of heart from the 
 harsh behaviour of his superintendents. It is the nature 
 of my mind to be quite absorbed in whatever I am about, 
 and to detest interruptions. Add to this defect that of 
 myself undertaking what I could have set others to do, 
 and the secret will be explained of the crowd of enemies 
 that I gratuitously made myself when I was in any high 
 position, composed of all those with whose interruptions 
 I had sometimes been impatient. I even acquired a 
 reputation for laziness, when I was spending whole nights 
 
18 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 in my office ; yet not without some reason, for while I 
 was engaged on memorials and reports, portfolios would 
 be lying in heaps around me. I had never appreciated 
 the words of M. de Choiseul, " A minister's inkstand is 
 full enough when there is sufacient to sign his name 
 with." The origin of this defect was in the avocations 
 of my earlier years ; for whatever may be said of it 
 now-a-days, the education acquired by mixing in the 
 world is necessary to those v/ho are intended to fill high 
 posts. I brought to office my old inclination and habit 
 of writing on any given subject, and of finishing my work 
 with care ; thus acting as if I were earnestly pursuing 
 my career at the bar. A real statesman disdains such 
 habits, or at least looks down on them. 
 
 I was fully absorbed in my memorial against the Duke 
 de Nevers, when one day Madame de Lamotte came to me 
 in a fresh outburst of rejoicing ; she had received a note 
 from the Cardinal, asking her to go to his palace. The 
 style was affectionate, but not forgetful of his dignity. 
 The three things found to be so useful in the former visit 
 were again requested ; but on that day I was not inclined 
 to grant them. I had but little faith in the success of the 
 affair in which I had embarked. In a word, I was inter- 
 rupted, and as usual the occasion of the interruption was 
 ill received. 
 
 Some days elapsed before I saw her again ; meanwhile 
 she carried her complaints to Madame de Crozat, of 
 whom I have already had occasion to speak. She 
 described me as a capricious person, one day all fire, the 
 next all ice, saying even that I sometimes used her very 
 ill; as an instance, she stated that the last time she had 
 been to see me, I had almost turned her out of my study. 
 Madame de Lamotte had for some time been in the habit 
 of applying to Madame de Crozat for the small loans that 
 were indispensable, to prevent her from being turned 
 
MADAME DE CEOZAT. 19 
 
 out of her inn, even though she could not mamtain 
 herself in it in a manner suitable to her position. 
 
 Madame de Crozat was aware of the faults of Madame 
 de Lamotte, and feared the viciousness of her disposi- 
 tion as much as I did, but always wound up by the 
 same chorus, " She is so important ! who knows if we 
 were in her place, whether we should be better than 
 she is ? " 
 
 It was arranged that I should go to dinner with 
 Madame de Crozat on the next Sunday ; that Madame 
 de Lamotte should be there, and that peace should be 
 made between us under the auspices of the mistress of 
 the house. At the Sunday dinner Madame de Lamotte 
 was amiable to the company, and only polite to me. I 
 thought I saw some marks of satisfaction in her expres- 
 sion and manner ; a little hauteur could be perceived in 
 her, and instead of waiting for me to take her home as 
 usual at seven o'clock in the evening, she asked for a 
 carriage and departed alone ; thence I concluded that 
 her business had made some progress in her second visit 
 to the Cardinal. I was foolish enough to be almost 
 jealous, and especially curious about the details. Next 
 day I was at her bed-side, and required an explanation. 
 I wished to know if she had dehvered the great me- 
 morial to the Cardinal ; if his Eminence had promised 
 to address himself to Monsieur de Bonnaire de Forges, 
 the superintendent at that time in charge of the pro- 
 perty; if he would aid the request with a liberal supply 
 from the available funds of the Grand Almoner's chest. 
 She only gave general replies to all these particular 
 questions : namely, that the Cardinal was an excellent 
 man, devoted to her, and would do all that was asked 
 of him. 
 
 When I insisted on previously settling the questions 
 that were to be put to him, I was told to be without 
 
20 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 aioprelieusion, that business conld not be conducted with 
 a Cardinal in the same way as with an attorney, but that 
 all was going right. She added that she had a little 
 afterwards obtained an interview with the Marshal de 
 Pdchelieu, and that he, ever amiable and gallant, had 
 given her so charming a reception that she founded many 
 hopes on that quarter. Madame de Lamotte was thus- 
 placed in a position between the oldest and the most 
 awkward courtier of the age. A little advocate could 
 scarcely find place among them ! 1 considered this the 
 moment for my retreat; but in order to learn at once 
 how much credit I stiU possessed, I proposed a dinner at 
 the Cadran Bleu for the next Wednesday, and it was 
 accepted. 
 
 At' this dinner, I found Madame de Lamotte in her 
 best spirits, but she expended them in sneers at our 
 common acquaintance and at myself I tried in vain to 
 bring her back to more serious considerations ; I saw 
 that she had made up her mind to eat my dinner and to 
 mystify me. I became angry, and threatened to leave 
 her to her folly ; she answered quite gaily, that she 
 wanted no more of me. I frowned, and she saw I was 
 on the point of making my escape, so she took the trouble 
 to explain to me that I had been very useful to her in 
 clearing up her business, writing memorials and petitions, 
 in doing everything, in a word, that pertained to the 
 office of an advocate ; but she had now reached a point 
 when she required counsels of a different nature. She 
 wanted those who could tell her how to get at the Queen 
 and the Comptroller-general, who would know equally 
 well what to do, and what to avoid ; in a word, who 
 could set a pretty little intrigue on foot, and manao'C to 
 make it successful. Then I had to hear from her mouth 
 and without a Avry face, that on all these points I 
 was the most incapable of men. She had already 
 
FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE CLAIMED. 21 
 
 taken some steps without me or my advice. The position 
 of her husband was ridiculous in the eyes of the world, 
 and therefore an obstacle ; so she had made him leave 
 the gendarmerie, and enter the guards of the Count 
 d'Artois as a supernumerary. This was a kind of step- 
 ping-stone which could be avowed, while the footing of 
 a gendarme would not bear mention ; besides, she 
 could now find means of having her husband brought to 
 Versailles on duty, and at any rate he would not make 
 so foolish an exhibition of jhimself there as in the 
 country. She intended also to establish herself there 
 with the view of seizing on all the means of success, and 
 especially of interesting the Queen in her favour. This 
 was the first occasion on which she pronounced the name 
 of her sovereign in my presence. 
 
 I agreed that there was some truth, and even some 
 advantage, in all this, and especially praised her resolu- 
 tion of quitting this dirty Hotel de Reims, and settling 
 herself at Versailles ; but I entreated her to be very 
 cautious about the people she would find around her, 
 and to ha.ve no confidence in the professional busy-bodies 
 seeking their fortunes in the streets of that city, and 
 always ready both to advise and to execute whatever 
 ought not to be done. I reserved my goodwill and zeal 
 in her service for any occasion when she might have 
 some lawsuit, and until then I would trouble her 
 neither with my advice nor with what she was pleased 
 to term my illegible scrawls. Madame de Lamotte had 
 not forgotten these words when, less than two years 
 afterwards, she wrote to me from the depths of the 
 Bastille, to claim the performance of my promise, 
 and rec^uest me to defend her in her unfortunate 
 affair. 
 
 From that time forward I ceased to pour forth my wise 
 and very useful advice to Madame de Lamotte, or to employ 
 
Z-Z LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 myself about her business; but did not give up lier 
 society. That very evening I took her to the Comedie 
 Itahenne, to a performance of "Eichard Coeur-de-Lion," 
 and we parted quietly, neither too much pleased nor 
 dissatisfied with one another. A few days afterwards, I 
 heard from a man of whom I hired carriages (who came 
 to inform me of a bill for some days' hire to Madame de 
 Lamotte, which I had guaranteed), that she had gone to 
 Versailles ; and I felt some anxiety as to whom she got 
 the money from. The last loan from Madame de Crozat 
 had been as much as six weeks before. She had been 
 discreet enough long before to cease her attacks upon 
 my little store. By mere chance I found out that she 
 had received a grant of a hundred pounds from the office 
 of the Grand Almoner; which was in fact a natural 
 and fair apportionment of part of the sum yearly 
 provided for charitable purposes by the King. I recon- 
 sidered the great distance between Monsieur le Cardinal 
 de Rohan and Madame de Lamotte, and blamed myself 
 for having so lightly suspected a close intimacy between 
 them. 
 
 When she got to VersaiUes, Madame de Lamotte fell 
 into all the snares that I had endeavoured to warn her 
 against; she was speedily surrounded by those palpable 
 rogues who, driven from every honourable career, seek 
 for intrigues, succeed in finding them, and thrive upon 
 them as best they may. Madame de Lamotte brought a 
 name and a misfortune into the game ; the others took the 
 trouble to play the cards. Without any difficulty in 
 persuading her, they made this unhappy Avoman act in 
 the most extravagant way. Only to mention one : she 
 one day pretended to faint away in Madame's * waitino-- 
 room. They had provided a confederate in the house- 
 
 * The Countess of Provence, wife to the King's eldest brother. 
 
THE QUEEN CAI.UMNIATED. 28 
 
 hold, wlio told tlie Princess that a lady of quality was 
 dying of hunger in her waiting-room. Madame, in the 
 first impulse of her pity, sent her ladies to the assistance 
 of the lady of quality, had her petition brought to her, 
 read it, and sent her a gift of some pounds. But when 
 another attempt was made to reach the Princess, she 
 suspected the trick employed to get at her the first time, 
 and would not allow Madame de Lamotte's name to be 
 mentioned in her presence. An attempt in equally bad 
 taste was not more successful with the Countess d'Artois. 
 Madame de Lamotte saw neither the one nor the other 
 of the Princesses during her first stay at Versailles, no 
 man in office, nor indeed any honourable person. She 
 sowed her petitions broad-cast in the hands of those false 
 pretenders to credit to whom no request is refused, only 
 because they are never allowed to make one, and in a 
 very short time she had managed to bring discredit both 
 on herself and on her business. 
 
 A painful reflection must be made here, and one which 
 forms a key to the romance of Madame de Lamotte. 
 The Que^n had at that time a reputation, doubtless never 
 deserved, for lightness of conduct ; she was supposed to 
 be in difficulties on account of the scarcity of money 
 caused by her extravagance. Words and incidents con- 
 nected with her were mentioned, that reduced her from 
 the position of Queen to that of a woman in love. The 
 latter characteristic became familiar in thought and 
 modes of expression. The people of the Court, who 
 permitted themselves greater liberties, excited this imagi- 
 nation in other classes. The Queen was no longer the 
 great lady of Versailles, standing above suspicion or 
 curiosity. Marie Leczinska, though she attained this 
 high rank, almost by a miracle, had maintained the dignity 
 of it, but it seemed as if, when she died, she had carried 
 away the model. 
 
24 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Before the appearance of Madame de Lamotte, there 
 had been other intriguing women, who made experi- 
 ments on this dangerous tendency of mind. A lady 
 called Cahouette de Villiers, who by chance had obtained 
 an opportunity of reaching the presence of the Queen, and 
 obtaining some favours from her inexhaustible kindness, 
 ended by selling much more than she dared ask for. 
 Her sale of imaginary influence was cut short by a lettre 
 de cachet, — but an example had been set. A little 
 while afterwards one of the Queen's women went to 
 Monsieur Beranger, the receiver-general, pretending she 
 had been sent by her mistress, to ask a loan of sixteen 
 hundred pounds. She said he had been named to the 
 Queen as an excellent serviceable man, and in her clever 
 deception she repeated to Monsieur Beranger expressions 
 actually employed by Her Majesty, imitating, to give a 
 greater appearance of truth, the slightly German accent 
 of which the royal lady had never been able to free herself. 
 Monsieur Beranger asked for two lines, or even one word 
 written by the Queen ; he was told that on such terms 
 the Queen could get millions, and more ; that there was 
 no question of notes or writing, nor indeed of a loan, but 
 of a momentary service for which the Queen desired 
 to be indebted only to his confidence in her. Monsieur 
 Beranger rehnquished his demand for her hand-writing, 
 but required that at least the Queen should say a word, 
 or give a sign, and humbly represented that the matter 
 was worth so much trouble. The clever rogue com- 
 plained of his want of confidence, seemed desirous to 
 break off the treaty, and said the Queen would find a 
 hundred willing to do the service, the refusal of which 
 she ]iad secured for him with some difficulty. Monsieur 
 Beranger finally reduced his demand to a sign, or a nod, 
 as she went along the gallery. 
 
 Madame L agreed to this, and told him to come 
 
CLEVER ROGUERY. 25 
 
 to mass next Sunday, and to sit under the third arch on 
 the same side as the Queen, as it would thus be easier 
 for her to give him some signal by a motion of her head, 
 
 than when walking amid her suite. Madame L 
 
 made up a story for the Queen of the strange head-dresses 
 that two of the court ladies meant to wear that day at 
 mass, adding that she intended to station herself under 
 the third arch, to see the effect of the masquerade the 
 better. Her Majesty declared that it was impossible. 
 
 Madame L contrived that a hint should be conveyed to 
 
 these ladies that the Queen would have, on next Sunday, 
 an entirely new head-dress, which she was determined to 
 render fashionable, and gave them the ridiculous design 
 with which she had anuised Her Majesty. The ladies 
 were caught in the snare, and the more absurd they 
 thought the mode, the more eager were they to adopt 
 it. On Sunday all the actors were at their posts. 
 M. Beranger was under the third arch, and Madame 
 L placed herself behind him. The Queen ap- 
 peared. She at once observed the two ladies of the 
 Court who had been mentioned to her. As soon as she 
 saw the first of them she turned her eyes to the third arch, 
 where her waiting-maid was, and smiled at her, nodding 
 her head in assent ; when she saw the other, the 
 gesture was repeated in a more marked manner. 
 Poor M. Beranger took it all to himself Madame 
 
 L smiled, and said to him, " You will not doubt any 
 
 more ; I told the Queen you were hard of belief, and she 
 has done it twice over to convince you." M. Beranger, 
 
 without any more hesitation, charged Madame L 
 
 to make his excuses to Her Majesty, and gave her the 
 £1600, with which the swindler escaped to England that 
 very night with her lover. 
 
 These adventures wei'e known to the public before 
 that of the necklace. They made sensible men sigh, 
 
26 LIFE AND AUVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 amused the thoughtless, and were a contmual source of 
 emulation for rogues and tricksters. I often heard the 
 last story told, but no one really expressed indignation at 
 it. Poor M. Beranger was the victim who was every- 
 where immolated, while Madame L • was considered 
 
 a wonderfully clever woman, and was very near being 
 held up as an example. Such were the manners of a 
 time that I hear daily regretted by men who proclaim 
 themselves religious and royalists par excellence. 
 Imagine Madame de Lamotte arrived at Versailles, dying 
 of hunger, without fixed principles of any kind ; believing 
 herself justified in attempting anything against a social 
 order that had robbed her of everything, and cast into 
 those abysses of civilisation, where elegant rogues narrate, 
 praise, and extol horrors that are merely laughed at even 
 in good society. The education in evil of such a woman, 
 who was already debauched, was soon to be quickly 
 brought to perfection. Besides, she met at Versailles, 
 and soon made friends with a man called Villette, a fellow 
 gendarme of her husband's. This Villette was not such 
 a fool as his brother ; indeed, a little smattering of lite- 
 rature and the arts made him superior to his com- 
 rades. His youthful extravagance had soon consumed 
 his inheritance ; and the debts which he left behind him 
 in every place did not permit him to stay long in any 
 town ; so he migrated between Paris and Versailles, and 
 no one could say how he lived. 
 
 Subtle and insinuating by nature, the condition of the 
 poor devil had in no respect altered his character ; it had 
 even taught him to give a mild approval, in the most 
 polished terms, to the dirtiest methods of getting out of 
 a scrape, and he was always ready to make use of them. 
 He was the Philintas of rogues. 
 
 This was the wretch who forged, or thought he forged 
 the Queen's handwriting- every time that Madame de 
 
VILLETTE. 27 
 
 Lamotte required this service of liim. After her first 
 journey to Versailles, Madame de Lamotte raised Villette 
 to the rank of secretary, and the notes and letters that 
 she was supposed to dictate to him, were not devoid either 
 
 of cleverness or of a certain gracefulness. 
 
28 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 My Vacation in Champagne— Visit of Madame Lamotte— M. de Latour— Con- 
 versation at Supper — Madame de Lamotte's Relations with Society— Her 
 Plate and Jewelry— Supposed Source of Madame de Lamotte's Opulence- 
 Portrait of the Cardinal de Rohan — His Letters to Madame de Lamotte— 
 My Career at the Bar— M. d'Amhray— MM. Seguier, d'Aguesseau, and 
 Joly de Fleury — Course of the Lyceum — Picture of France in 1785— 
 Cagliostro — Credulity of Madame de Latour. 
 
 I LEFT Paris to spend the vacation in Cliampagne, 
 without having seen Madame de Lamotte again, and did 
 not much regret it. I had had proof that it was impos- 
 sible to keep her in the ways of wisdom and prudence, 
 and I was quite in despair when I heard of the persons 
 by whom she was surrounded at Versailles, and of her 
 first dissipations. When 1 came to Bar-sur-Aube, numbers 
 came to question me about Madame de Lamotte, but I 
 only answered with great reserve. I gave a detailed 
 account of her to my father alone, and made him under- 
 stand that no one who possessed the slightest self-respect 
 could meddle with the affairs of his protegee. 
 
 My vacations passed pleasantly enough ; I returned 
 every year to my native city with an increase of gravity. 
 I no longer confined myself to the company at Madame 
 de Surmont's, but consented even occasionally to under- 
 go the weariness of a ball. I was beginning to hold in 
 some esteem the modest and rather stern virtues there 
 displayed, when I received a very friendly letter from 
 Madame de Lamotte, telling me that, as she had a few 
 leisure days at her disposal, she was coming: to spend 
 
MADAME DE LAMOTTE AT BAE-SUE-AUBE. 29 
 
 tliem at Bar-sur-Aube with lier friends. She told me 
 quite easily, as if it were a matter of course, that she had 
 sent on her luggage cart and led horses?, which would 
 spend five days on the road, as she had given strict orders 
 that they should not be hurried, and she would arrive two 
 days later. In nearly the same terms she informed her 
 sister-in-law that she was coming, and only oixlered some 
 sjoecial arrangements to be made for the lodging of her- 
 self and household. Madame de Latour hurried to my 
 house in a state of amazement, and asked me what it 
 meant. 
 
 I said I knew no more than she did. We compared our 
 despatches, and agreed that there was a mystery beneath 
 it, and that of the worst kind. We both determined not 
 to be cajoled ; she would not make any preparation to 
 accommodate the princess or her train, and we would 
 both say nothing about the letters we had received. 
 
 But what was our surprise when we saw a well-filled 
 baggage cart arrive on the day named, drawn by good 
 horses, and followed by two valuable ones in hand. 
 There could be no longer any uncertainty, nor was there 
 any means of retreat. For the accommodation of what 
 had arrived, and what was said to be coming, the owner 
 of a house of some size was turned out ; and rooms 
 were hastily prepared. A maUre-dlwtel, who arrived 
 with the baggage cart, sent out requisitions for more 
 victuals than would be wanted to provision the best 
 house in the place for six months. People stared at 
 each other as they met in the street, and wondered what 
 would be the appendix to the " Arabian Nights," when 
 Monsieur and Madame de Lamotte, preceded by two 
 couriers, arrived in a very elegant open carriage, and 
 had no sooner alighted than they sent to ask me to 
 supper. 
 
 My father, wise as he was, allowed himself to be 
 
30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 caught by appearances, and was inwardly pleased to find 
 my prudence at fault. " ]\Iy son," said he, " you have 
 the ill luck of judging very hastily, indeed, too much so. 
 Because what you wrote for Madame de Lamotte was 
 not valued by her, you have, as you yourself confess, 
 treated her harshly. Perhaps I know as much about 
 rights of property as you do, and I have never thought 
 it impossible that she might regain the family estates. 
 A great advance has been made, for I am told the Queen 
 takes an interest in her. You stick to that wretched 
 Latour, whom I never see, for he would speak evil of the 
 Divinity Himself were He here on earth. Do not share 
 his wickedness, and show yourself what you should never 
 have ceased to be to Madame de Lamotte, respectful and 
 devoted. Poor child ! ' ' said my father, in a melting 
 moment, " when I think of the trifles of crowns that I 
 gave to the priest of Fontette, to help to clothe her ! " 
 
 M. de Latour, with whom my father had ceased to 
 have intercourse, because nothing was too sacred for his 
 tongue, was indeed the scourge of the country by his 
 hon-mots and sneers. 
 
 He was a man of great wit of the best style, when 
 he liked, speaking gracefullj^, and with the remarkable 
 power of extracting absurdity from subjects in which none 
 but himself would have suspected its existence. It is 
 true, that no sort of considerations deterred him. 
 
 After all, he was a man of honour, incapable of a 
 base action ; but what was not much better, always 
 ready to indulge in mischievous talk. The fortune of 
 his life had fixed him, I know not how, at Bar-sur-Aube, 
 and he had made a prosperous marriage there, taking 
 to wife the sister of M. de Lamotte. He was out of 
 place, for Paris would have been his true sphere, where 
 such a man would indeed have been detested, but would 
 have been much sought after. 
 
M. DE LATOUE. 31 
 
 I was alone with him in Madame de Lamotte's house, 
 the day she came. He accosted me with a loud laugh, 
 in which he was determined that I should join. "Have 
 I not excellent cause," he said, "for always declaring that 
 Paris contains some of the most stupid people in the 
 world? In what other country, I ask you, could this 
 little fury and her lanky husband have managed to raise 
 what they are coming to display to us here ? You know 
 the lady ; besides, no one can be half an hour with her 
 without having more than enough of her lies and low 
 insults. As for the husband, he is a gendarme, fit 
 enough to carry his bundle of hay from the forage store 
 to the stable, but ask no more from him. Except your 
 good father, the princess, with all her attractions, and 
 the prince with his genius, would not have found 
 anyone here to lend them a shilling, and yet in half an 
 hour they have unpacked more plate than there is in the 
 whole town, not excepting the chalices and altar plate. 
 Oh Paris, the sanctuary of rogues and fools ! I salute you 
 once more for this additional miracle." 
 
 " liave done ! " I said. " After all, they are your own con- 
 nections ; you are going to sup with them, and you know 
 it is said that the Queen protects Madame de Lamotte?" 
 
 "I am their connection, therefore the business sticks to 
 me like pitch ; for when I have had a good laugh at this 
 show, perhaps I shall be condemned to cry over it, and 
 you know my natural aversion for that kind of grimace. 
 As for their supper, however good it may be, you and I 
 are doing them great honour by going to eat it. I 
 cannot give you any answer on the jjoint of the Queen's 
 protection. Between ourselves, I suspect that the 
 spouse of our sovereign lord the King is not the most 
 prudent woman in the world ; but I beg her pardon, she 
 is not foolish enough to be infatuated by this sort of 
 people. Well ! let us make the best supper we can, and 
 
32 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 above all, do not let us seem to be the least astonished at 
 this display. That is the best way to fill the hearts of 
 our friends with rage." 
 
 A supper was sent up that would have seemed splendid 
 in Paris for any sort of guests. We were eight, includ- 
 ing the hosts. Though Bar-sur-Aube was one of the 
 ancient cities of the Gauls, never, perhaps, had such 
 luxury been displayed within it, not even when Caesar, as 
 it is said, did it the honour of halting in it to hang the 
 Mayor and Town Council of the day. Latour and I 
 were steady to our plan, ate heartily, and without 
 noticing our fare, as if we were used to such feasts, we 
 took pains to keep the conversation upon such matters that 
 the most adroit talker could not introduce into it praise of 
 what was before us. M. de Lamotte could not endure 
 this, for he wanted to make us all admire his dinner- 
 service, which was finely worked, and some pieces of 
 which were of novel use. Latour declared tha't they 
 had been known long ago, but given up as inconvenient. 
 The nil admirari was sustained throughout. 
 
 At last, Madame de Lamotte thought she would find 
 favour in our eyes by praising a very fine fowl that had 
 just been removed, telling us that she had given orders 
 to have provisions sent by mail while she stayed at Bar- 
 sur-Aube, for, to her taste, the poultry in the neighbour- 
 hood was not fit to eat. " I beg your pardon, Madtime, 
 but I think very differently," said Latour, seriously. 
 " I think a country capon, as you have just now caUed 
 it, fatted under the care, and a little by the very hands 
 of Madame Latour, and better still of Madame de 
 Saumont, superior to all your cockerels and pullets of 
 Normandy, and Le Mans ; for their flesh is soft, insipid, 
 and distasteful ; but after the capon has been reared in 
 a good place, he must be well roasted, and for this 
 purpose, I do not think much of the jack, but much prefer 
 
CONVERSATION WITH MADAME DE LAMOTTE. 33 
 
 to have tlie spit turned by one of the Kttle boys of the 
 family, or a stranger, or even by a clog." 
 
 Madame de Lamotte lost patience on hearing the 
 honours of her husband's relatives thus displayed before 
 four great scamps they had brought from Paris, in 
 liveries, laced all over. "Sir," said she to Latour, in 
 a spiteful tone, " I am edified by your preference, it is a 
 rustic taste, and you drive it too far." 
 
 "I entirely agree," replied Latour, "country taste, or 
 family taste, come much the same. You know, Madame, 
 that I take as little account of one as the other." 
 
 The supper was shortened by this conversation. 
 Latour quietly asked me, " How do you think I have 
 paid my scot?" "You have been almost vulgarly 
 literal." " No, but I was determined to put down either 
 husband or wife, if they should have the impudence to 
 hold up anything to my admiration. The masquerade 
 that has begun to-night is a sort of triumph to those 
 people, and mine is the post of the soldier who used to 
 cast wholesome truths at the hero of the triumphal 
 procession." 
 
 Madame de Lamotte made me come iuto her room, 
 and complained of the insulting tone of her husband's 
 brother-in-law. She told me that her luck had changed, 
 that she was now in a fortunate position, both for 
 herself and her friends, and it would be as well for all 
 of us to adopt another tone towards her. She let fall a 
 little about very high acquaintance whom she possessed at 
 Versailles, and ended by telling me that she hardly knew 
 whether she could give us the fortnight she had promised. 
 I gave her a specimen of the different tone she had 
 desired to see adopted, by not allowing myself to 
 question her on any point ; I only promised to endeavour 
 to prevail on her brother-in-law to be more reserved, but 
 I did not expect much success. 
 
34 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Two days after, she paid a round of visits, dressed 
 with such taste as excessive ostentation could sug- 
 gest, and sparkling with diamonds. Except for this 
 absurdit}', she made herself agreeable everywhere, and 
 displayed familiarity with the nobility. Great and small 
 were enchanted, and her visits were punctually returned, 
 but when she wished to go a step farther and give some 
 little entertainments, the respectable ladies of the town 
 excused themselves under different pretexts, and Madame 
 de Lamotte was reduced to young men, and to the ladies 
 of her husband's family ; so perfect was the respect for 
 morality, at this^time, in a little country town. These 
 good ladies said to me, " Madame de Lamotte is charm- 
 ing, and we love her from the bottom of our hearts, hut 
 Avhy should you wish us to give our daughters notions 
 they ought not to have, and perhaps, awake in their minds, 
 desires that can never be gratified?" I was perfectly 
 respectful and discreet with Madame de Lamotte. She 
 seemed to have quite forgotten the terms on which we 
 liad formerly been, and I was well content to do so. I 
 liad assumed the position of a civil man to whom she 
 could talk. So, she told me the secret mortifications she 
 experienced in her stay at Bar-sur-Aube, and spoke of 
 the miserable tone of her husband's family. I consoled 
 her as well as I could, showing her that, in her position, 
 it was an anomally for her to stay in a little country 
 town, tluit she ought to have an hotel at Paris, and a 
 mansion in the country. She told me she would not 
 buy any land, for she was going immediately to resume 
 her family estates, and thought of building there. The 
 hotel at Paris was a matter of course, but she wanted 
 another at Bar-sur-Aube, and would pass the summer 
 tliere, while the mansion she proposed was being built. I 
 took the liberty of opposing the project of buying a 
 house at Bar-sur-Aube, and asserted it was fashionable 
 
TESTIilONY OF GKATITUDE. :]?> 
 
 to live in a cottage, Avlnle biiilding a mansion by its side. 
 But ]\Iadame de Lamotte, who had ah-eady had some good 
 lessons on this head, persisted in the ordinary weakness 
 of displaying her magnificence in places that had seen 
 her poverty. In spite of me, she bought a house at Bar- 
 sur-Aube, paid twice as much for it as it was worth, and 
 gave it over to architects, who set to work at once to 
 perpetrate all the follies that the site was capable of, and 
 perhaps a little more. 
 
 I observed, with much surprise, that IMadame de 
 Lamotte had learned the art of keeping within bounds in 
 her dealings with society. She paid to others all that 
 they could expect, and seemed not to be exacting on her 
 own account. She gave alms, and paid her del its regu- 
 larly. One morning she paid a friendly visit to my 
 father, and brought him back, as I have mentioned, the 
 fifty pounds he had lent her eigliteen months before, and 
 wdien she went away left a gold box on the chimney- 
 piece. My father, I do not know why, took this testi- 
 mony of gratitude for an insult, and returned the box. 
 
 Madame de Lamotte who might have more justly 
 taken offence at its return, did not do so, and pressed me 
 to take back her little present, and to persuade my father 
 to hear reason. As I knew that this, in some cases, was 
 not easy, I would not accept the commission. Despair- 
 ing of success, she tried to make me accept the unhappy 
 snuff-box for myself; and I had again to refuse, in order 
 not to do anything so unbecoming as^to accept a present 
 refused by my father : besides that he would never have 
 forgiven me. 
 
 The period of this stay at Bar-sur-Aube passed quietly 
 enough, and towards the end of it people were sorry 
 they could not venture to visit Madame de Lamotte. 
 M. de Latour alone would not be persuaded. Yet I 
 begged him to remark the notable change that the 
 
3G LIFE AND ADVENTUKES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 possession of wealth, however sudden, had produced in 
 the tone, and even in the conduct of M. and Madame de 
 Lamotte. He repUed, " I half agree with you, the lady 
 is an adventuress, who has gained some depth, while the 
 husband has lost ; he went away a fool, and has returned 
 an idiot, but I shall continue to think ill of them, 
 and, indeed, to speak ill of them, so long as they do 
 not avow by what honest means they have gained, 
 in four months, what they are so foolishly lavishing • 
 and, you yourself, — who are acting the part of Philintas in 
 this comedy, — whom could you convince that the King 
 and Queen, the Comte d'Artois, the Comptroller-general, 
 and all sorts of other grandees have given heaps of gold 
 to i^eople who were begging even for bread ? I know 
 these times are full of extravagance, but not altogether 
 of that kind. Little whispers have come to mine ears, that 
 Madame was in favour with the Queen. I have been 
 keeping a Avatch over them for a fortnight ; and if one 
 word betraying it had been let slip in my presence, I had 
 a nice story ready of the Countess de Gayon and the 
 Queen of Congo, and should have made every one 
 present burst with laughter at their expense. My dear 
 friend, all this is too unreasonable, considering every- 
 thing, and one should really be ashamed at being so 
 easily taken in. Accept it all if you please ; for my part, 
 I will not. I hold to what I know. Now I do know, and 
 from you, that Madame is intimate with the Cardinal de 
 Rohan, since she was carried five or six times at your 
 expense to his Eminence's palace. Probably she went 
 thither afterwards on her own nimble feet. Of all the 
 said lady's acquaintances, the Cardinal de Rohan is the 
 only one to whom prodigality is not impossible. One of 
 two things, therefore, must have happened, either that he 
 has provided them with all that we see, or, that they have 
 stolen it from him. I am willing to give up the second 
 
SOURCE OF MADAJIE DE LAMOTTE's WEALTH. 37 
 
 liorn of my dilemma if you will allow me the first ; and even 
 then I cannot understand, without great difficulty, how a 
 little village rogue could captivate a prince, a prelate, and 
 a rascal of such consequence." 
 
 I certainly felt that there was some truth in the severe 
 conclusions of ^[. de Latour, and took refuge in the 
 common-places of moderation. " I do not judge as yet, 
 I am willing to wait. Yesterday, I blamed what was 
 bad, why not heartily applaud to-day what I think is 
 good ? " 
 
 Madame de Lamotte at this time possessed a magni- 
 ficent set of diamonds, and another of topazes. She had 
 gown pieces of Lyons embroidery, that she seemed to 
 have bought in order to show off, and they were worth 
 the trouble. Her service of plate was complete and in a 
 new style. M. Target was mistaken in placing all this 
 magnificence after the necklace was stolen, and as a con- 
 sequence of the theft ; it existed nine months sooner. No 
 doubt it came from two grants of 2,400/. each, given to 
 Madame de Lamotte on the funds of the Grand Almoner's 
 office, and a sum of 1,200/. assigned on the Cardinal's 
 private fortune. With this G,000/. she had managed to 
 obtain twice its value in more or less valuable moveable 
 ■effects, and had not failed to make use of it for that 
 purpose. Then she had treated herself to the frivolous 
 pleasure of coming to display her riches at Bar-sur-Aube ; 
 but after having by my advice asked alms in a carriage, 
 and with good success, it was necessary to take a higher 
 line still, and she was obliged to assume the appearance 
 of having riches at her disposal, in order to inspire con- 
 fidence in the imaginary reputation she was about to claim. 
 
 I saw Madame de Lamotte the day before she went 
 away ; she seemed well satisfied with the stay she had 
 made at Bar-sur-Aube, and rejoiced as much in the kind 
 reception the inhabitants had given her as if this had not 
 
38 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 been iraaginary. She seemed to remember, as if by chance, 
 that she owed me some money. I myself had forgotten 
 it, and did not fancy that her memory could contain the 
 remembrance of such a slight matter. She carelessly 
 gave me a rouleau of 1,200 francs. I observed to her 
 that I could not tell her exactly what she owed me, but 
 it was certainly not so much as 60^. She said " Take it 
 all the same, if there is too much you can give it to your 
 motlier for her poor people." 
 
 Having cast up the account, I sent 201. to my mother, 
 and she was delighted, and never ceased to stand up for 
 the innocence of Madame de Lamotte, even after her 
 condemnation. And when the poor creature, after her 
 escape from the Salpetriere, came to hide in the quarries 
 near the town, my mother was bold enough to go and 
 visit her there at night, and faithfully returned to her, in 
 the name of religion, the alms she had given to her for 
 the wretched hi the time of her prosperity. She added 
 to the sum, and did yet more by awakenhig self-respect 
 in the poor branded creature, by bringing her perfect 
 virtue in contact with her. 
 
 Madame de Lamotte returned to Paris in the end of 
 November. I did not myself go thither till the middle of 
 next January. I was beginning to become used to a 
 permanent residence in the country, and took more in- 
 terest in local affairs. People took notice of this, and I 
 was better received on all sides, being considered as a 
 man that it was considered advantageous to live on good 
 terms with. My conduct, while Madame de Lamotte was 
 tliere, had been appreciated. People did me the justice 
 to see that I had neither been one of the ridiculous 
 admirers of her and her fortune, nor one of the greater 
 number who despised her. All the wise ones agreed 
 with me in saying that we must wait and hope that all 
 this vould last. 
 
MADAME DE LAMOTTE S PLAXS. 39 
 
 AVhen I got back to Paris, I was confirmed in my 
 opinion that jMadame do Lamotte's wealth was derived 
 from lier intimate connection with the Cardinal de Rohan, 
 and I regulated my conduct towards her upon that sur- 
 mise. I only visited her occasionally. I never went to 
 dine with her without an invitation. I put her at her 
 ease by making a show of treating her with respect. 
 
 However, she made occasional reference to her plans 
 before me, with that carelessness which indicates assur- 
 ance of success. She was going to take her brother out 
 of the navy, an unpleasant and tedious service in time 
 of peace ; she had bought a half-pay Captaincy for her 
 husband, in order to give him the title, and was going to 
 see if she could get him made a Colonel on the retired 
 list ; as for her sister, she had no notion of her following 
 her own example, and making a foolish marriage. She 
 should be, if she did not object to it, a Canoness at 
 Douxi(ires or Poulangy, since all the places at Remire- 
 mont were filled up for ten years to come. 
 
 " Had I," she said, " married a man of some name, and 
 about the Court, as I could so easily have done, my 
 advance would have been more speedy ; but my husband 
 is more of an obstacle than an assistance to me. In 
 order to gain any real advantage, I must put my name 
 before his, and that is quite contrary to etiquette." 
 
 By these and some other remarks, I saw that she had 
 made progress in the Cardinal's society, and began to 
 speak a language which she learned there. 
 
 She had sometimes invited me to dinner, and I always 
 went in black, with my hair down, and tliis mark of 
 respect was pleasing to her. She never failed to in- 
 troduce me as a young magistrate, and gave me prece- 
 dence next to persons of title. The tone of the house 
 was, at least in those days, that of good society. There 
 I met the Marquis of Saisseval, a great gamester, rich, 
 
40 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGKOT. 
 
 and attaclied to tlie Court ; the Abbe de Cambres, coun- 
 sellor in Parliament ; Rouille d'Orfeuil, superintendent of 
 Champagne ; Count d'Estaing, a receiver-general ; and 
 Lecoulteux de La Noraye, who aspired to the post of 
 director of her affairs and finances. 
 
 I recall these particulars, because they correct one of 
 the mistakes the defenders of the Cardinal have fallen 
 into. They have represented Madame de Lamotte as a 
 despicable adventuress, "without recollecting that they 
 thereby proclaimed the Cardinal to be a fool ; and he 
 certainly was not that. Now this was the real state of 
 things. 
 
 Madame de Lamotte, as I have said, had natural 
 abilities, a rare capacity for intrigue, and personal beauty 
 enough to make her liked. As soon as the Cardinal be- 
 came acquainted with her, he took the sort of interest in 
 her that could not be refused by a man of his rank to 
 one of the last remains of a noble family. 
 
 It was after serving her apprenticeship at Versailles, 
 that she began the romance of her life, and managed it 
 with great skill. She quickly disseminated the story of 
 her having mysterious communication with the Queen. 
 This penetrated to the Cardinal, who had been prepared 
 to believe in it by former instances of a similar cha- 
 racter ; and this portion of her story was supported 
 by such an assumption of discretion and reserve as 
 might impose on any one. At this time, I, and others 
 like myself, were kept at a distance, as were also any 
 persons who found it too burthensome to be respectful 
 to her. 
 
 The sentiment with which M. le Cardinal had regarded 
 Madame de Lamotte, from his first interviews with her, 
 was stimulated by these revelations, and the reports 
 which this woman disseminated soon became of so much 
 interest to him, that at last he liad no doubt of their 
 
CARDINAL DE EOHAN. 41 
 
 truth. His position at Court must also be borne in 
 mind. In the eyes of Marie Antoinette, he had been 
 guilty of the irreparable guilt of having, during his 
 embassy to A'ienna, depicted the Archduchess, then 
 destined to occupy the throne of France, in colours only 
 too faithful. 
 
 This act of honesty had been the misfortune of his 
 life. The King, as was often the case, put up with him, 
 although he had little esteem for him, or for other pre- 
 lates whose morals were doubtful. So the Cardinal de 
 Eohan was the man of all unlucky courtiers, whom his 
 position rendered most unfortunate. He never ceased to 
 suffer from it, but he expected to become reconciled to his 
 Queen through the good offices of IMadame de Lamotte, 
 and to gain whatever a man could want, who was already 
 nothing more than a Prince of the house of Rohan, 
 Cardinal, Grand Almoner of France, Commander of the 
 Order of the Saint Esprit, Bishop of Strasburg, Sove- 
 reign Prince of Hildesheim, Abbot of Noirmoutiers 
 and Saint Vaast, Provost of the Sorbonne, &c., Mem- 
 ber of the Academies, and the darling of all the great 
 ladies of Paris ; besides being owner of revenues of the 
 church, to the amount of some thirty or thirty-five thou- 
 sands a year, and as was naturtil, deeply in debt. 
 
 Just at the time when his relations with Madame de 
 Lamotte became more intimate, he was in a state of em- 
 barrassment, between a most ardent ambition and a very 
 tender affection. Each of these feelings reacted so as to 
 increase the other, and the unlucky man was almost out 
 of his senses. By an opportunity that I will relate, I 
 was able to e:lance over some letters he wrote at that 
 time to Madame de Lamotte ; they were all fire ; the con- 
 test, or rather the surge, of the two passions was terrific. 
 It is fortunate for the prince's memory, that these letters 
 have been burnt, but it is a loss to the history of the 
 
43 LIFE AND ADYENTUEES OP COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 human heart. They would have brought to hght another 
 recess in that abyss. ' At the time I speak of, the Cardinal 
 had gone no further than granting unlimited amounts of 
 subsidies to Madame de Lamotte from the Grand Al- 
 moner's chest, and some large sums from his private 
 means. She might have extracted much more, the time for 
 refusal being far enough off; but the splendid swindle of 
 the necklace was soon to be attempted, and the approaches 
 were so prepared as to assure success, notwithstanding 
 the most gross improbabilities. The cardinal was ready 
 to believe anything, being incapable of sound judgment. 
 Such is a portion of the knowledge requisite, in order to 
 approach towards the truth of this extraordinary busi- 
 ness. It often, however, seems as if writers thought them- 
 selves bound to represent Madame de Lamotte as nothing- 
 more than a vulgar adventuress who plans a robbery one 
 day, and executes it the next. Besides, the business of 
 the necklace has become an enigma to which every one 
 seeks to find a clue, according to the bent of his own 
 passions, and on which he makes comments, whether true 
 or false ; and innocence, though seated on a throne, has 
 been made the butt of the most rashly absurd judgments. 
 As before mentioned, I had left Madame de La- 
 motte in the midst of her ambitious intrigues, and 
 resumed my studies at Paris, Avitli my former friendships. 
 I was not so mucli engaged in business as if I had 
 followed the legal profession in order to make a fortune ; 
 but I was always retained for suits in which I had 
 been previously employed. I was fortunate enough to 
 argue two causes at the afternoon sitting, and with some 
 success. I prepared also some written pleadings, attended 
 discussions in the hbrary, and followed a course of lec- 
 tures on Canon Law, delivered by a certain Abbe Berthier. 
 I then first had the advantage of making the acquain- 
 tance of M. d'Ambray, at that time Solicitor-General 
 
M. D AMBEAY. 43 
 
 to the Court of Exchequer, the prince of rising orators 
 and the richest hope of the legal profession in France. 
 
 M. d'Ambray found nothing to employ him at the Ex- 
 chequer, except matters naturally dry ; but to a just and 
 penetrating mind he added a power of oratory most bril- 
 liant, and at the same time most easy ; and infused such 
 a charm into everything that he touched, that we used 
 to hasten from attendance in the higher court, where 
 causes of the greatest importance were being argued by 
 the most fluent advocates, in order to crowd the Court of 
 Exchequer, whenever we expected to hear the youngest 
 Sohcitor-General of the time. M. d'Ambray was a 
 magistrate even in the bosom of his family. His strict 
 morality, his respect for, and his practice of, its duties, 
 was overlaid by a kindly gaiety, and he was regarded as 
 an example as much for his virtues as for his talents. 
 The great inheritance of the glory of d'Aguesseau was 
 predicted for him. 
 
 He had two comrades at the Exchequer, who had been 
 created expressly to serve as foils to this splendid example 
 of the rising sun. One was M. Clement de Barville, an 
 extreme Jansenist, and no less common-place than all the 
 race of Clement. The other was a M. Darfort de Roch- 
 fort, who at last got made superintendent of Brittany 
 through the interposition of the first president de Barintiu 
 when he became- keeper of the seals. Tie still lives 
 sotnewhere in a post given to him by M. d'Ambray in 
 his turn ; a most singular specimen of the old order of 
 things. His relations declare that he has lost none of 
 his ability: they should be believed, and even still he 
 may be cited as an example of the omissions of nature 
 in her distribution of human intellect. The floor of the 
 Parliament was then occupied by MM. Seguier, d'Agues- 
 seau, and Joly de Fleury, three illustrious names ! I did 
 not share in the admiration then felt in the profession for 
 
4-1 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 M. Seguier. His exterior was unfortunate for an orator. He 
 was short in stature and unpleasantly fat, and had a nasal 
 tone of voice, and a wety of poising himself carelessly on his 
 legs when he spoke, but T admit that these defects were 
 concealed by some inexplicable dash of genius of which 
 his language and gestures both partook. He was praised 
 for his knowledge and strength of judgment; others went 
 further and claimed him as the most recent model of a 
 good style of oratory, and quoted his three speeches at 
 the Beds of Justice, in 1771. These speeches produced 
 a prodigious effect at that time, and justly so ; but in 
 reading them again at the present time, they seem to be 
 more in the character of a courageous magistrate than 
 of a good orator ; perhaps he is a Cato — certainly not a 
 Cicero. 
 
 M. Seguier had returned to the hall surrounded with 
 the halo he had made his own in the days of danger. The 
 reputation gained by his conduct was so great that it was 
 extended rather too freely to his talents. Men discovered 
 a wise development of old principles, opposed to the 
 turbulence of new opinions, in the various presentments 
 against the ever-renewed productions of philosophy con- 
 tained in his principal pleadings, and especially in his 
 refutation of the memorial of Dupatty in the affair of the 
 rogues of Chaumont. He was a laborious champion of 
 the good old cause, but not a brilliant one. His blows 
 are very seldom startling, and never carry one away. 
 Like M. d'Ambray at the Exchequer, M. Seguier had 
 two poor colleagues at his side in the session ; the first, 
 M. d'Aguesseau, grandson to the Chancellor, a handsome 
 young man, very insipid, very well curled, who delivered 
 in schoolboy fashion, the pleadings that the advocate 
 Blondcl prepared for him indifferently well. This was 
 so well known in the hall that if the solicitor-general 
 had made use of any ridiculous arguments Blondel was 
 
M. D AGUESSEAU. 45 
 
 blamed for them. He defended himself as best he could, 
 but without venturing to say that ]M. d'Aguesseau had any 
 share in the matter, as that would have been a mere joke. I 
 was present at the commencement of a session at a very 
 remarkable suit for abduction, between the English family 
 of Hamdton as plaintiffs, and a ]\I. Beresford as defendant. 
 The circumstances detailed composed a most interesting 
 romance, and the affair was the more complicated by the 
 circumstance that the 2:)laintiff and the defendant were 
 both foreigners. I\I. d'Aguesseau had to speak in it, 
 and we used to say that the retainer had been given 
 two generations too late for the name he bore. Any- 
 how Blondel did his best, obtained assistance, and the 
 pleading was considered fair enough. The exordium 
 particularly struck us by its chaste style and thoughts, 
 beyond the range of those in common circulation in the 
 hall. The solicitor-general, for instance, appealed to 
 Richardson, wdiose mind could not have created a more 
 astonishing fiction than the real event that had to be 
 tried before session. The young advocates had but one 
 opinion about the exordium. 
 
 When the court rose, Blondel was placed in the 
 witness-box, and allowed that the preface came from 
 Laharpe, who in his turn corrected the memorials of 
 Legouvo and Elie de Beaumont, and composed aca- 
 demical discourses for advocates who could not do it 
 for themselves. The other colleague of M. Seguier was 
 that M. Joly de Fleury whom we afterwards saw in the 
 post of attorney-general. He brought into the Palais de 
 Justice the most perfect, and at the same time most ob- 
 jectionable mediocrity ever seen, and thus to him, much 
 better than to his uncle, would have applied the explana- 
 tion that Voltaire gave of the names Omer Joly de Fleury, 
 which the latter also bore. He is not Homer to read, 
 not jolly to look at, nor flowery in speech. At the 
 
46 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 present day it is hard to understand liow sucli a man 
 could get into one of the most important offices of state, 
 that of attorney-general to the Parliament of Paris. The 
 state of things at that time must be remembered. The 
 family of Joly had been long known in the profession ; a 
 member of it had held the office of attorney-general at 
 the same time as d'Aguesseau, and was very nearly his 
 equal. From that time the family had had a firm footing 
 before the council, and on the higher benches of parliament. 
 Its nrembers had contracted honourable alliances, and 
 Avhen they all united their influence to get a place in the 
 same career transferred from father to son, or from uncle 
 to nephew, the minister was not powerful enough to 
 resist them, even in the interest of the state or the King. 
 The first families of the Parliament of Paris made a sort 
 of oligarchy, that was often very embarrassing to the 
 minister, because he could neither grant them a favour 
 nor inflict a penalty on them. 
 
 I steadfastly pursued the course at the Lyceum. I 
 had been one of its founders, and was obliged, together 
 witli some of my friends, at certain times, to labour at a 
 periodical work in which the suliject which had occupied 
 each course was reproduced, leaving as much as possible 
 to each professor his own style and manner. This w^ork 
 proved unsuccessful, because each professor wanted to 
 keep his lecture untouched, that lie might avail himself 
 of it at a future time, as they really did. And I remem- 
 l)er a rather exciting scene we had with Laharpe, when 
 Ave wished to suppress some bitter language about reli- 
 gion which he would introduce without reason and with- 
 out excuse into his excellent literary lectures. It was not 
 because we were in the least opposed to the philosophy 
 of the 18th century, very far from it; but we passed 
 half our lives in the Palais, where the old doctrines were 
 daily preached, and where we werp hrnno-li+ in+A rlr^T^+.^r.f 
 
CONDITION OF FliANCE. 47 
 
 witli magistrates, some of whom were sincerely religious, 
 and others at least made such a profession before us. 
 Thus our manners insensibly acquired a grave tone, and 
 an appearance at least of external respect for anything 
 worthy of general deference. The Academy, or rather 
 the philosophers' party, acted in a very different manner. 
 To attack Vinfame was quite the order of the day ; irre- 
 ligious maxims were to be found everywhere,- — in works 
 of natural history, of geometry, and of medicine, in travels, 
 in university lectures, and almost in sermons. Laharpe 
 was the leader of this party ; the patriarch of Ferney 
 had selected him as his favourite disciple, and he justified 
 his selection by an excess of vigour, gall, and insolence. 
 He so deeply repented of his faults that they may be 
 recalled without shaking the reputation of sanctity that 
 illuminated his decline. 
 
 What a strange spectacle did France then present ! 
 As long as the American war lasted, the issue of that 
 contest had kept the minds of men in suspense, and every 
 sentiment was merged in real patriotism. Peace was 
 concluded, and not ingloriously. The object for which 
 war had been undertaken was accomplished at last. We 
 had gained in it some unimportant colonies ; and, what 
 was of much more consequence, we had ascertained that, 
 by enlisting Spain under our banner, we could make head 
 against England. The disgrace of the treaty of Paris 
 was efhiced ; the present seemed certain, and the future 
 only presented itself under smiling colours. Our ports 
 and markets were abundantly supplied. The wealth of 
 Europe flowed into Paris, and it seemed as if the gifts 
 of heaven crowned, as a natural consequence, the suc- 
 cess of our policy; the harvests of all kinds, of the 
 years 1784 and 1785, were admirable. 
 
 Liberty had made its appearance in France without 
 any invitation. It was known that lettres de cacliet, 
 
48 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT EEUGNOT. 
 
 formerly so much dreaded, were iio longer permitted 
 except to assist certain unfortunate families. Men wrote, 
 spoke, and argued about all sorts of things. The clergy, 
 always assisted the government, never placed themselves 
 in opposition to it, and took the lead in the practice of 
 toleration. Parliaments lagged a little behind, like fathers 
 who said to their children, " Use, but do not abuse." The 
 Court erred in being too frivolous, but that defect applied 
 only to our recollections of it, for in its present aspect it 
 appeared more attractive in the eyes of both town and 
 country. An air of contentment animated our places 
 of meeting, our assemblies, and family circles with new 
 charms ; an odour of public felicity seemed to be dis- 
 seminated throughout tlie beautiful country of France. 
 But we soon became tired of this happiness ; novelty was 
 requisite at any price, and minds seemed to be seized 
 with universal giddiness ; the people ran to that mes- 
 meric goblet around which so many who were in good 
 health learned to consider themselves sick, and the dying- 
 were confident in the faith that they were cured. Marat, 
 who was then only a professor of physics, made a crusade 
 against the sun, declaring that it was not the fountain 
 of light ; and found persons senseless enough to listen 
 to, and even to commend him. The court and city 
 abandoned the master-pieces of the French stage, and 
 unworthily bestowed their applause in unworthy bootlis 
 already too base for the populace. Charlatans of all 
 kinds found followers. At Strasburg was a Cagliostro, 
 born in the mines of Memphis, brought up in the bosom 
 of tlie Pyramids ; he had the gift of miracles, he cured 
 the sick, he sowed gold and benefits on the bosom of 
 poverty and misfortune, and no one could discover whence 
 he obtained this gold or this power. He displayed valuable 
 diamonds, and attached no value to them. Possessor of the 
 grand succedaneum, he hesitates in his choice of the mortal 
 
STOCKJOBBING. 49 
 
 with whom he would share this immense secret ! And 
 there was a prince of the church, a Cardinal de Rohan, 
 at the feet of the knave begging to be selected! At 
 Paris there was a fellow named Bliton, who clearly per- 
 ceived springs of water a hundred feet underground, and 
 even like a new Moses, made them spring forth at the 
 will of his magic hazel wand. In society, men of weight, 
 and persons about the Court, were heard stating that they 
 had been eye-witnesses of all these miracles. 
 
 The Comptroller-General committed the error, or rather 
 introduced the novelty, of making the bonds of the loan 
 of 1783 negotiable by a simple transfer, and with this 
 impulsion stock-jobbing made unheard-of progress. Then 
 these loan -bonds appeared in the public market, backed 
 by securities of the Indian Company, by the shares of the 
 Water Companies of Paris, with shares of discount banks, 
 stock of a Geneva loan, foreign paper, &c., &c. Stock- 
 jobbing found at its birth adepts who could have shown 
 a trick to those of the present day, and even the govern- 
 ment was reduced to tremble before this modern Moloch. 
 
 At the same time Montgolfier produced the curious 
 and useless invention of balloons, and all heads were up 
 in the air ; there was no doubt what would be their next 
 direction. In the meantime there was a rivalry among 
 men for the honour of breaking their necks ; and the 
 example of some maniacs who succeeded in doing so was 
 not enough to deter others. Yet the youth of the Court 
 were tired of being merely Frenchmen ; they flocked to 
 the field-days at Potsdam for the chance of kissing the 
 boot of Frederic the Great during his lifetime. They 
 were transformed by the touch of that relic, and re- 
 turned to Paris Prussians from head to foot. They 
 dreamed of nothing but file-marching, blows of the cane, 
 long pigtails, and light infantry, as in the system of the 
 great Frederic, and in all good faith undertook to make 
 
50 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT EEUGNOT. 
 
 French soldiers submit to a system appropriately forced 
 oil German automatons. 
 
 So we became extravagant from satiety of enjoyment. 
 Minds were soon to be so goaded and Awenclied in such 
 contrary directions that the old social ties would not be 
 sufScient to restrain them, but such bonds would be 
 violently burst asunder, and the revolution would set in. 
 
 As soon as I heard of the arrival of Gagliostro at Paris, 
 and that he had gone to the Cardinal's palace, I had no 
 doubt that some connexion would soon be established 
 between him and ]\Iadame de Lamotte, and I hoped she 
 would procure me the pleasure of supping with so curious 
 a personage. She made a great fuss about it. The 
 Count de Cagliostro had given out that he would not be 
 the guest of any one, or he would have been besieged 
 with invitations from the Court and the city ; he had 
 already given absolute refusals on this point to the 
 Count d'Artois and the Duke de Chartres, and had 
 declared that he would not go to anyone. At the 
 Cardinal's palace, he would not even have his meals with 
 his Eminence, but had them sent up to his own rooms. 
 
 I returned to the charge without more success. 
 Sometime after Madame de Latour, driven to extremity 
 by some of her husband's malicious witticisms, had 
 separated from him, and come to take up her abode at 
 Paris with Madame de Lamotte, accompanied by her 
 daughter, a young beauty of fifteen, remarkably fair 
 and slender, the very person who was soon written 
 down in Cagliostro' s conjuring book to act the part 
 of little innocence. I learned from these ladies that 
 Madame de Lamotte and Cagliostro were hand-and- 
 glove, and that he used to come to supper with her. So 
 I complained to them bitterly of Madame de Lamotte's 
 refusal to bring me into his company, and added some 
 more complaints of some unfriendly proceedings of 
 
CAGLIOSTKO. 51 
 
 that lady, saying tliat I had resolved not to expose 
 myself any more to her refusals and insults. This 
 threat did not fail to succeed. A few days later I 
 received a note from Madame de Lamotte in which she 
 accused me of injustice, and yet invited me to supper 
 two days afterwards, telling me I had better arrive 
 before ten o'clock. I was there at the time fixed. 
 Madame de Lamotte wanted to warn me that she must 
 disarm the suspicion of the Count de Cagliostro, as he 
 would not stay to supper on any account if he suspected 
 that any one had been invited to meet him. Besides 
 she begged me not to ask him any questions, not to in- 
 terrupt him, and readily to answer any questions he might 
 address to me. I assented to these conditions, and would 
 have borne much harder ones in order to satisfy my curio- 
 sity. At half-past ten Count Cagliostro was announced, 
 and both leaves of the door were flung open. Madame de 
 Lamotte hastily quitted her chair, sprang to meet him, 
 and conducted him to a corner of the room, where she 
 seemed to demand forgiveness for my presence. Cag- 
 liostro advanced and bowed without appearing in the 
 least embarrassed at seeing a stranger. 
 
 Cagliostro seemed moulded for the express purpose of 
 playing Signer Tulipano at the Italian Theatre ; he was 
 of a medium height, rather stout, with an olive com- 
 plexion, a very short neck, round face, two large eyes on 
 a level with the cheeks, and a broad turned-up nose. I 
 never saw any one so like him as Andre of the Consti- 
 tutional Assembly, who died not long ago director of the 
 forests on the Civil List, with this difterence, that Andre 
 had designedly degraded himself to the appearance and 
 manners of a clown, while Cagliostro, also by design, had 
 prepared his whole exterior to appear as a charlatan. 
 His hair was dressed in a way new to France, being 
 divided into several small tresses that united behind the 
 
 B 2 
 
52 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 head, and were twisted up into what was then called a 
 club. 
 
 He wore on that day an iron-grey coat of French make^ 
 with gold lace, a scarlet waistcoat trimmed with broad 
 Spanish lace, red breeches, his sword looped to the skirt 
 of his coat, and a laced hat with a white feather, the 
 latter a decoration still required of mountebanks, tooth- 
 drawers, and other medical practitioners who proclaimed 
 and retailed their drugs in the open air. Cagliostro set 
 off this costume by lace ruffles, several valuable rings, 
 and shoe-buckles, which were, it is true, of antique design, 
 but bright enough to be taken for real diamonds. There 
 was no one at supper but the members of the family, 
 amon£r wnom I include a certain Father Loth, a Minim 
 friar from the Palais Royal, who managed in some way 
 to make his frock agree with the j^ost of sub-secretary to 
 Madame de Lamotte. He said mass to her on Sunday, 
 and for the rest of the week performed such commissioDS 
 at the Cardinal's palace as the first secretary, Villette, 
 considered beneath his dignity. Nor was a certain 
 Chevalier de Montbruel considered as a stransjer. He 
 was a veteran of the green-room, but still a good speaker, 
 always ready to affirm anything, who always chanced to 
 be wherever Cagliostro was, bore witness to the miracles 
 he had worked, and offered himself as an example cured 
 of — I do not know how many maladies, with names 
 enough to frighten one. So we were nine or ten at 
 table. Madame de Lamotte was between Cagliostro and 
 Montbruel, and I was beside Madame Latour, opposite to 
 the former. I could only look at him furtively, and did 
 not yet know what to think. The face, the attire, and 
 the whole man made an impression on me that I could 
 not prevent. I listened to the talk. He spoke some 
 sort of medley, half French' half Italian, and made many 
 quotations which might be Arabic, but which he did not 
 
CAGLIOSTEOS CONVERSATION. 58 
 
 trouble himself to translate. He alone spoke, and had 
 time to run over twenty subjects, for he only allowed 
 them to be discussed as far as he liked. He never failed 
 continually to ask if he were understood, and the 
 company bowed all round to assure him that he was. 
 When he began on any subject he seemed carried away 
 by it, and spoke impressively with voice and gesture ; 
 bat all at once came down from it to pay very tender 
 compliments and odd civilities to the mistress of the 
 house ; the same performance continuing throughout 
 the supper. I could not remember any more of it than 
 that the hero had spoken of heaven, of the stars, of the 
 Great Secret, of Memphis, of the high-priest, of tran- 
 scendental chemistry, of giants and monstrous beasts, of 
 a city ten times as large as Paris, in the middle of Africa, 
 where he had correspondents ; how ignorant we were of 
 all these charming things that he had at his fingers' ends ; 
 and that he had mingled in his discourse curious inane 
 compliments to Madame de Lamotte, whom he caUed his 
 hind, his gazelle, his swan, his dove, borrowing his 
 appellations from the most amiable of the animal 
 kingdom. After supper he did me the honour to address 
 to me a number of questions in succession. I answered 
 them all by the most respectful avowals of my ignorance, 
 and afterwards learnt from Madame de Lamotte that he 
 had conceived a most favourable idea of my appearance 
 and learning. 
 
 I was determined to return home alone and on foot. 
 It was one of those nights in spring when the moon 
 seems to put itself in harmony with the first moments of 
 awakening nature by a still softer light than usual. The 
 city was as lonely and silent as it is in fen-land after mid- 
 night. I stopped at the Place Poyale, for I could not but 
 meditate on the spectacle lately before my eyes. I pitied 
 poor humanity, as I reflected that the powerful of the 
 
54 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 earth broke out into tlae most extravagant absurdities 
 in consequence of the satiety whicli social order had im- 
 posed on them from the cradle. I thought of the 
 unfortunate Cardinal de Rohan between Cagliostro and 
 Madame de Lamotte, who I clearly saw were already in 
 league to drag him to ruin. And was my own curiosity 
 really innocent ? What was I about in this gilded cavern, 
 inhabited by beings whom I despised, and ought to have 
 abhorred ? I recalled my earlier years, passed so quietly 
 under my father's roof, those spent at college in the study 
 of learning and virtue, and again the time when I was 
 seduced into such errors as might leave regrets, but not 
 remorse. I blamed myself for being weak, and resolved, 
 quietly but effectually, to separate myself from Madame 
 de Lamotte and her crew. 
 
 Cagliostro, before whom I had not opened my lips, 
 had considered me a very learned man. The ladies 
 had confirmed an opinion so favourable to me, and the 
 next week I received a pressing invitation to supper 
 from Madame de Lamotte. I could not doubt that this 
 was for a second meeting with Cagliostro. I had had 
 enough of the first and refused, giving a polite excuse. 
 Madame Latour, whom I met at the house of Madame de 
 Crozat, accused me of being very odd. " You were all 
 on fire," she said to me, "to know the Count de 
 Cagliostro ; a week later you will not come and meet 
 him at supper." " That," said I, " is easily explained. 
 If the Count de Cagliostro is in my eyes no more than a 
 man of peculiar species, curious to see for once, but 
 very wearisome the second time, why should I be 
 bored with him? Allow me to reserve your sister's 
 kindness for a better occasion." " But indeed I cannot 
 conceive how you think so ill of the Count de Cagliostro ; 
 lie is an extraordinary man ; you do not know what he 
 can do." "No, but I suspect a little, and do not wish 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 55 
 
 to see." " Sir, you are getting as bad as M. de 
 Latour." " Madame, I do not know if your husband 
 be pleasant or otherwise with ladies, but I ought not to 
 hear it from you." The lady left me in anger, and I 
 was well satisfied that I had already come to a rupture 
 with her. 
 
 I do not know the foundation of the credulity of 
 Madame de Latour, nor of her hopes and dreams. One 
 of the tricks of Cagliostro was to make known at Paris 
 an event occurring at the moment at Vienna, at London, 
 or Pekin ; or that would take place in six days, six 
 months, six years, or twenty years from the moment. 
 But this required an apparatus which consisted of a 
 glass globe full of clear water, and placed on a table. 
 The table was covered with a cloth, the ground of which 
 was black, and cabalistic signs of the highest Rosicrucian 
 order were embroidered on it in red. On the table, and 
 around the gloI)e, were placed different emblems at 
 distances carefully arranged. Among them were little 
 Egyptian figures, antique phials of lustral water, 
 and even a crucifix, but different from that which 
 Christians adore. The apparatus ))eing all ready, a 
 clairvoyante was to kneel before the glass globe — that is 
 to say, a young person was to observe the scenes of 
 which the globe should offer a representation, and to 
 relate them ; but a clairvoyante was hard to find, for 
 more than one condition was required. The young- 
 person must be of a purity unequalled, except by the 
 angels ; she was to be born under a given constellation, 
 have delicate nerves, great susceptibility, and blue eyes. 
 By unspeakable good luck. Mademoiselle de Latour, niece 
 of Madame de Lamotte, having been examined by 
 Cagliostro, was stated to fulfil all the conditions of a 
 clairvoyante, and was declared to be one. The mother 
 nearly died of joy, and thought that the treasures of 
 
56 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Memphis, and of the great city in the interior of Africa, 
 were going to fall to her family, who were prodigiously 
 in want of them ! 
 
 The invocation commenced Avith the young innocent 
 or clairvoyante kneeling, with eyes fixed on the globe 
 filled with water. He who presided at this awful 
 mystery must be an affiliated member of an order of men 
 who have preserved the Great Secret from the time of 
 the origin of all things. It had been only partially 
 revealed here and there to the magi, to the Egyptian 
 priesthood, to the high-priests, to magicians, to Templars, 
 to the Eosicrucians. The practitioner summoned the genii 
 by a concurrence of emblems and cabalistic words, 
 requiring them to enter into the globe, and there to 
 represent unknown past events, or future, that were to 
 be revealed. It seems that this game is not at all amusing 
 to the spirits, and among them are some obstinate indi- 
 viduals who do not care to insert themselves into a glass 
 globe fidl of water, and place themselves under a magi- 
 cian's orders, and even some are so violent as to contend 
 with him vigorously. Sometimes the performer has to 
 use the most violent exertion for whole hours together 
 in endeavouring to overcome the resistance of the 
 spirits, and even then never obtains his object. In 
 this case he declares that he has exhausted his learning and 
 power, and the affair is put off to another day. If on the 
 other hand the spirits are conquered, they crowd into the 
 glass globe, the water in it is agitated and clouded, the 
 clairvoyante falls into convulsions, cries out that she sees 
 and is going to see, and begs loudly for help. The exorciser 
 holds her up before the globe, and orders her in the Name 
 of the Great Being to declare what she sees. It seems 
 that in her turn she has more or less suffering ; but the 
 orders are repeated always in the same Name ; they 
 become more and more pressing, and proceed to menaces. 
 
HUMAN CREDULITY. 57 
 
 The poor clairvoyante falls to the ground and rolls ; she 
 is raised up and supported before the globe ; trembling 
 and agitated, she declares that there appear before her 
 eyes, still in a state of confusion and uncertainty, the 
 persons and things that compose the scene on which 
 information is desired. The performer does not let her 
 off so easily ; she is obliged- to recognise the persons, to 
 make sure of their dress and their actions, and to repeat 
 the words they make use of. This is only obtained by 
 the exercise of great patience, through contortions, 
 grinding of teeth, and such severe convulsions that at 
 the end of the ceremony the clairvoyante is carried to 
 bed half-dead. 
 
 It would be hard to believe that such scenes took place 
 in France at the end of the eighteenth century ; yet they 
 attracted persons of consequence in the court and in the 
 ■city. The Count d'Estaing had been led away by these 
 follies, and became their champion. The Cardinal de 
 Eohan was in a state of admiration of the advantage that 
 the new divination would procure to him over his 
 enemies, and it was reported that the Duke de Chartres,""' 
 at whose court it had been decided no longer to believe 
 in a God, was quite inclined to believe in Cagliostro, 
 so true is it that there always is a fountain of credulity 
 in human weakness, and if it be not exhausted by the 
 mysteries of religion, it bursts forth at hap-hazard in 
 ridiculous or dangerous forms. M. de Malesherbes told 
 me that Voltaire went home out of humour when he heard 
 a raven croak on his left, and Bonaparte was a fatalist ! 
 
 As I said, I left Madame de Lamotte to her intrigues, 
 to her greatness, and her miracles, and divided my time 
 between study and society which was very good 
 company in itself, and especially for me. Twice a 
 
 * Afterwards Duke of Orleans, and ' £galit^. ' 
 
68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 month at the outside I went to see Madame de Lamotte ;. 
 if she were oiit I wrote m}^ name in her visiting-book, 
 and it reckoned as a call ; if I met her the terms were 
 well understood. She told me no more of her fortune, 
 of her connections, or her business at Paris ; and thus our 
 intimacy was nothing more than in accordance with 
 frigid politeness. 
 
 I went to the last supper I had with her C[uite by 
 chance ; one of my comrades had spoken of the arc|ue- 
 busiers of Paris in my presence, and had added that a 
 president of the legal profession, M. Pinon, was colonel. 
 I knew that tlie arquebusiers of Bar-sur-Aube were the 
 first in rank of the military institutions of that city, but I 
 did not think that anything so ridiculous would be known 
 at Paris. I was curious to see if it were true; my comrade 
 offered me the means of so doing, and proposed to take 
 me to an arquebus banquet that was to be held exactly 
 three days later. I accepted his offer, and we went thither. 
 
 We amused ourselves for some time at the ridiculous 
 appearance of the little shopkeepers of Paris, clothed in 
 very rich uniforms, and at the mixed character of the 
 feast presided over by M. Pinon the younger. 
 
 My comrade was expected at an evening party, and I 
 sent him in my carriage, while I stayed some time longer 
 at the ball, as there were some pretty women there. I 
 walked away about ten o'clock, and kept along the boule- 
 vard, intending to hire a carriage at the stand in the Rue 
 St. Louis. When I came to opposite the Rue Saint 
 Gilles, where Madame Lamotte lived, I instinctively 
 went down it, and found myself at the door of her house. 
 I remembered where I was, and asked if anyone were at 
 home. I was told the owners were all out, and that I 
 should only find Mademoiselle Colson. It only made me 
 the more disposed to stop. This Colson girl was a 
 relation of M. de Lamotte, on whom his ladv had 
 
TETE-A-TETE WITH MLLE. COLSON. 59 
 
 conferred a degree, and made her a companion. She was 
 tolerably sensible and witty, and when I met her we used 
 to hold up our hands in astonishment at the extravagance 
 and follies of the heads of the family. They told her 
 nothing, but she made it all out. She said to me that 
 day, " I think their highnesses have some great scheme 
 on hand. They spend their lives in secret councils, 
 to Avhich the first secretary alone is admitted. His 
 reverence the sub-secretary is reduced to listening at 
 the doors, and he makes three journeys a day to the old 
 Rue du Temple, without being able to make out a word 
 that will betray the meaning of the message he carries. 
 The friar is in despair, for he is as curious as a devout 
 old woman." 
 
 Thus we passed two hours in speaking ill of our 
 neighbour, in guessing, and making prophecies. AVhen 
 I wanted to take leave. Mademoiselle Golson showed me 
 the clock. It was midnight, I should find no carriage on 
 the stand. Since it was so late, there was nothing for me 
 to do but wait for the return" of Madame de Lamotte, 
 and for her to send me home ; I consented to do so. 
 At last, between twelve and one o'clock, we heard the 
 sound of a carriage, out of which there got Monsieur and 
 Madame de Lamotte, Villette, and a woman of from 
 twenty-five to thirty years of age, fair, very handsome, 
 and very well made. The two ladies were elegantly but 
 simply dressed ; the two men, in morning coats, so that 
 they looked as if they had returned from a party of 
 pleasure in the country. Of course they began by joking 
 on my tete-a-tete with Mademoiselle Golson, and on our 
 vexation at such an untimely interruption. There were 
 discussions and laughter ; we sat down. The unknown 
 lady shared in the general liveliness, but in moderation, 
 and with timidity. We sat down to table, the mirth 
 went on, and became noisy ; Mademoiselle Golson and I 
 
60 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 preserved such an appearance of wonder and gi'avity as 
 always distinguishes persons thrown among very mirthful 
 people, without being able to share their amusement, or 
 knowing its occasion. However, our presence was a con- 
 straint to the party in their overflow of mirth, for they 
 could not freely speak of the subject of their pleasure, 
 and enjoy all the circumstances. M. de Lamotte con- 
 sulted Villette whether there were any danger in speaking 
 out. Villette answered that "he did not consider the 
 saying true, that one is only betrayed by one's friends, as 
 one is so by all the world, and that really discretion — " 
 He had got so far, when Madame de Lamotte, at whose 
 side he sat at table, sharply put her hand on his mouth, 
 telling him in a most imperative tone, " Be quiet, M. 
 Beugnot is too honest a man for us to confide in him." 
 I give the words, without the alteration of a syllable. 
 It would have been a flattering compliment, had not 
 Madame de Lamotte, in her ordinary conversation, used 
 the words stupid and honest as synonymous. 
 
 Madame de Lamotte, as she generally did with me, 
 turned the conversation on Bar-sur-Aube, on my family, 
 and when I expected to get back there. Everybody 
 wished the supper to come to an end. I asked 
 Madame de Lamotte to let her horses take me home. 
 She only made a trifling objection ; she had to send 
 home the unknown guest at table, and settled that 
 whichever lived the farthest off' should first drop the 
 other. I objected, and asked the handsome lady to allow 
 me to see her home wherever she might live, and said I 
 was afraid that in any case it would prove too near. I 
 had, from the first moment that I set eyes on her, been 
 disquieted by the face of this woman, with the sort of 
 feeling that one has towards a face that one is certain of 
 having seen somewhere, without being able to remember 
 where and when. And I hoped to find this out while 
 
MADEMOISELLE D OLIVA. 61 
 
 seeing her home. I put several questions to her, in 
 hopes that she would put me on the track, but could get 
 nothing out of her ; whether it were that in a private 
 conference before we started, Madame de Lamotte had 
 recommended her to say nothing, or, as I am more in- 
 clined to think, that she was disposed naturally to prefer 
 mute scenes to conversation. I set down the silent 
 beauty in the Rue de Clery. The uneasiness I had 
 experienced at her face was really caused by no less than 
 her perfect likeness to the Queen ; for the lady was 
 no other than Mademoiselle d'Oliva, and the delight of 
 the party was occasioned by the perfect success of the 
 plot just played off in the groves of Versailles, where 
 the Cardinal de Rohan, deceived by her likeness, received 
 a rose and a little speech from Mademoiselle d'Oliva, 
 thinking in his madness that they came from the Queen 
 herself ! T was then devoid of any key to the mystery ; 
 but soon found it, when the matter became public ; and 
 could then have no doubt who were the real culprits. 
 
63 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Castle of Brienne— Clairvaux — Conversation witli the Count de Dampierre — 
 Jour de la St. Bernard— The Abbe Maury— The Diamond Necklace— My 
 Advice to Madame de Lamotte — Letters of the Cardinal de Rohan— Arrest 
 of Madame de Lamotte — Conduct of the Baron de Breteuil — Mile. d'Oliva 
 — M. de Crosne — My Refusal to defend Madame de Lamotte— M. Doitot — 
 Cag-liostro and Serafina Feliciani — The Opposition Party. 
 
 I RESOLVED to return into Champagne though it was 
 no later than the month of July. I\Iy sister was going 
 into Provence with her husband, and I wished to see her 
 before she went. I was afraid my parents would suffer 
 from the unaccustomed loneliness, and thought it a duty 
 to gi\'e up some months of my stay in Paris. I went to 
 bid adieu to Madame de Lamotte, and she scolded me 
 sharply for my sudden departure, saying that she did not 
 intend to leave Paris till about the beginning of October. 
 
 I was much surprised to see her arrive in the first days 
 of August with her whole household, husband and all. 
 Villette alone stayed at Paris like a hidden sentinel ; and 
 what seemed the more strange was the daily arrival of 
 waggon-loads of furniture, much more than the house 
 could hold, and splendid furniture too. Two complete 
 services of plate and china of the greatest beauty wound 
 up this luxurious outfit. To complete their rashness, 
 they displayed a case of diamonds worth eight thousand 
 pounds. The husband possessed more than was likely 
 to belong to an honest man, and every carriage they had 
 was built in England with a care and attention to detail 
 that showed that expense was the last thing- considered. 
 
EUIENXE. 63 
 
 Among tlie furniture might be noticed some of those 
 costly fancies that the arts invent to tempt the most i^ro- 
 digious wealth — two artificial canary birds that sung an 
 air in two parts ; golden musical boxes (now become 
 more common, but still rare at tliat time) ; mechanical 
 clocks that exhibited different spectacles every hour they 
 struck. And on seeing these things one could not but 
 feel that they could only have been purchased by people 
 weary of their money, and ready to throw it away. All 
 along it might be thought possible for the Cardinal de 
 Rohan to be at the bottom of this magnificent waste, 
 and to admire the good use to which his Eminence put 
 the funds of the Grand Almoner. Men were surprised 
 the first time the house had displayed its magnificence ; 
 this time they were anxious and almost indignant. The 
 husband and wife gave no sign of uneasiness, their table 
 was excellent, and they gave parties in rapid succession. 
 They tried to attract the whole town, and to distribute 
 their favours beyond it; but their success was not very great 
 in either direction. I saw a melancholy instance of this. 
 
 Brienne was at that time one of the most frequented 
 country mansions in France. Persons of consequence, 
 and distinguished literary men, from Paris visited it ; 
 and the county nobility were constantly there. Plays 
 were much acted there, as well as everywhere else. M. 
 de Lamotte told me one day that he was asked thither 
 by M. de Brienne, and offered me a seat in his carriage 
 if I would like to see the sight. I accepted. We went 
 in a very splendid carriage with four horses, and three 
 servants behind. Just before starting I should have liked 
 to cry off, for I felt that I should share in the absurdity 
 of this ostentation ; and, indeed, our arrival disgusted 
 every one. Happily for us the preparation for the pla}- 
 occupied every one's attention, pariicularly that of the 
 owners of the house. After entering the saloon in order 
 
04 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 to sliow ourselves, we went into tlie theatre. I was- 
 beside M. de Lamotte, and soon saw that lie was the 
 object of malicious glances, and of opera-glasses passed 
 from hand to hand with sarcastic smiles and shrugs. 
 He deserved it, being most elaborately dressed, and in 
 the worst taste had managed to introduce several dia- 
 monds at a period of great simplicity. Indeed, he 
 wore a dress-coat of sky-blue, a white waistcoat 
 with embroidery, and canary-coloured taifety breeches. 
 Dress-coats were worn then as now, crossing in front, 
 but with larger facings. Madame de Lamotte had 
 taken a fancy to have a beautiful nosegay of lihes 
 and roses embroidered on the left lajDpet of her 
 husband's coat. Such an ornament had never been used 
 by any one before, and never was again ! Everybody 
 was wondering what it meant, and conjectured that it 
 was a sort of parody on the impaled arms of husband 
 and wife, the one being roses and the other fleurs-de-lis. 
 Stupidity and folly could go no fiu'ther. 
 
 After the play the company returned to the saloon ; 
 there were among them the neighbouring nobility, and 
 men of letters from Paris ; the Abbe de Morellet, De 
 Laharpe, and Masson de MorviUiers. I bowed to 
 Madame de Brienne, who hardly nodded to me, and 
 turned her back ; my welcome by the master of the 
 house was confined to a " good evening, sir," in a very 
 dry tone. It is impossible to be at ease in a large 
 company when ill-received by the master of the house. 
 I remained standing, not knowing whither to direct my 
 steps in the enemy's camp ; when my good stars brought 
 the Count de Dampierre into the room, and he took 
 possession of my person when I did not know what to do 
 with myself It was a piece of luck for him to have me to 
 talk to of all the innovations that were already working 
 in his head ; and even much greater luck for me to have 
 
M. DE LAMOTTE. 65 
 
 Mm to listen to. That lie might not waste the time of 
 supper, he dragged me to the table, and seated me next 
 him, presenting an example of a person who could talk 
 eagerly and eat plentifully both at once. I was a little 
 distracted by trying to see what had become of my travel- 
 ling companion. M. Dampierre continually brought me 
 back to the subject in hand. He said : "Take no notice, 
 there's a poor fop down there, and they have been 
 laughing at him for these two hours ; do you know him ? " 
 "Yes, a little." " Well, who is he? Is he one of our 
 sort ? Does he know where we are ? " " Not in the 
 least." "Well, let them serve him as they like." 
 Then M. Dampierre resumed his discourse with the 
 same eagerness. 
 
 Supper came to an end long before my lecturer, and 
 on leaving the table I listened to him with additional 
 pleasure, for my position as his auditor was just such as to 
 prevent my being put out of countenance. I only knew what 
 happened through the stories of some guests who came to 
 tell us the tricks that they had played M. de Lamotte during 
 supper. He had been carefully prevented from getting 
 anything to eat, in spite of the splendid repast before his 
 eyes, and quitted the table as unpleasantly hungry as 
 Sancho Panza at the end of the first banquet served up 
 to him in his government. This was effected by a set of 
 tricks, and the inventors were delighted by their success. 
 Every newcomer wanted to tell us what he had to do 
 with it. The Count de Dampierre broke out against 
 interruptions. " Good, very good ; but let us alone, we 
 have no canary-coloured breeches, nor flowers em- 
 broidered at our button-hole ; there is your man 
 crouching in the chimney-corner ; go and laugh at him, 
 if he chooses to bear it, and leave us to talk sense." 
 M. de Lamotte took courage. He came to me, and 
 asked me to go. I was very glad to do so ; but there 
 
66 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT EEUGNOT. 
 
 was somethmg more at the bottom of the cup. ^A' hen I 
 went to make my bow to M. de Brienne, and asked him 
 almost trembhng if he had any commands to Bar-sur- 
 Aube, he made me a sign to come to him, and as I left 
 the hands of M. de Dampierre, who could never leave 
 off, I fell into the hands of M. de Brienne, who was 
 not much better. He had not sat down to table, 
 and had taken no share in the practical jokes from 
 which M. de Lamotte had suffered. Indeed, he had 
 angrily refused to hear any stories about them; but 
 he had not been a bit better pleased at my coming 
 to his house in such company. I made my excuses 
 as best I could, saying that M. de Lamotte had told 
 me that he had been invited to Brienne for that very 
 day. M. de Brienne showed me that whether M. de 
 Lamotte were invited or not, I had been very wrong to 
 come with him. I quite agreed, and asked his pardon, 
 because it was the quickest way of concluding the matter. 
 But the conversation at once took another turn. Hardly 
 anything went on in the county that M. de Brienne did 
 not take an interest in, and always a most honourable 
 view of it. I was consulted on many points, so there 
 were several subjects we had to speak of, and he was 
 lengthy. Poor M. de Lamotte stood at a distance, 
 watching our motions, and longing for the moment when 
 I should be released ; and all the while people were 
 passing backwards and forwards, with marks of scorn or 
 pity. I did not dare to mention his name, nor to point out 
 that he had been waiting an hour for me. I ventured on 
 a first salutation, as if to take leave. M. de Brienne 
 took no notice, and went on talking. A few minutes 
 later he began again, and asked me to sleep at Brienne. 
 All this time my travelling companion was on live coals. 
 At last I plucked uj) a morsel of courage, and took my 
 leave. I went out with M. de Lamotte, and we got into 
 
TEOPOSED VISIT. 67 
 
 his magnificent carriage, M'ith two servants holding 
 torches behind, and, besides them, a negro covered with 
 silver from head to foot. The Avindows of the saloon at 
 Brienne look out on the north terrace, forming the 
 principal entrance of the mansion. Lladame de Brienne 
 and all the company were at the windows to behold the 
 majesty of our departure, and to do homage to it by 
 clapping their hands, with laughs and jokes that we could 
 very plainly hear ; and which only made the carriage 
 go the faster. I behaved as if I had heard nothing of 
 what had taken place, M. de Lamotte as if he Lad nothing 
 to complain of We both took refuge in talking of the 
 play we had witnessed ; how the comedy was acted, 
 and fell, to the best of our ability, on Madame de Brienne, 
 who, at her age and with her figure, was bold enough 
 to undertake the parts of the prettiest and archest 
 soubrettes. When we got back, M. de Lamotte had 
 the modesty not to say anything about his reception, I 
 did as much from good feeling. The adventure soon got 
 wind, and was embellished by the tales of those who had 
 performed in it, and for a fortnight divided the interest 
 of the houses of the neighbourhood with the riddle about 
 Mercury. Madame de Brienne never ceased talking of 
 it, and rejoicing over it, though 1 sometimes took the 
 liberty of telling her that it was one of those moments of 
 her life when she had failed in kindness. 
 
 Some days later, Madame de Lamotte proposed to me 
 to go with her on a visit to the Duke de Penthievre, who 
 was then at Chateau Vilain. The wound inflicted at Brienne 
 was still open, and I had taken all sorts of oaths that I 
 would not be caught again, so I refused. She insisted ; I 
 pointed out to her that, having no claim to be received 
 by one of the royal family, nor any request to make from 
 him, I w^ould not submit to dining with his gentlemen- 
 in-waiting, nor be present at his taking coffee. I must 
 
68 LIFE AND ADTENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 add, to make what I have mentioned intelhgible, that 
 etiquette was more scrupulously observed in the house- 
 hold of the Duke de Penthievre than in that of any 
 other prince of the blood. His Christian humility never 
 transgressed that sanctuary. Madame de Maintenon had 
 profoundly inculcated on the Duke de Maine that he 
 must be the more especially particular in requiring all 
 his dues as prince of the blood, in order that he might 
 find means of rendering himself independent of those 
 persons who were determined to make some difference 
 between a legitimate and an illegitimate prince. 
 
 The tradition of the lessons of the royal instructress 
 had been preserved in that collateral branch of the 
 family of Louis XIV., and was even not lost in the 
 amiable daughter of the Duke de Penthievre, wdio was 
 easy in the intercourse of life, but did not the less assert 
 exaggerated pretensions on some points, without choosing 
 to see that they were entirely out of date. When a 
 person attended in the morning at Chateau Vilain, to 
 pay his respects to the Prince, the honour of an audience 
 had to be solicited through one of his gentlemen, and it 
 was granted for that day after mass. The prince 
 received all persons presented to him with equally 
 gentle kindness. The nobles were asked to dine with 
 him, the others with his first gentleman. MM. clu Hausier 
 and de Florian, who took turns to fulfil the duties of that 
 office, were two specimens of the most gracious urbanity. 
 After the first gentlcinan's dinner, it was proposed to go 
 and have coffee with him, or to take it with the Prince. 
 The second proposal was always adopted. The company 
 went to the salon, and found there the party that had 
 the honour of dining with his highness, in full force and 
 haughtiness. They did not fail to salute the newcomers 
 with patronising complaisance. There might be some 
 among them ill-dressed, others who seemed deficient in 
 
CHATEAU VILAIN. 69 
 
 good manners, but one and all, for fear of being confused 
 with tlie commoners, had resumed the antique sword or 
 hunting knife, for either ornament was admissible at the 
 Court at Chateau Vilain. Then M. de Penthifevre continued 
 his attentions to the newcomers with studied refinement. 
 His countenance full of touching serenity, the sound of 
 his voice, and his bearing, all conspired in this prince to 
 express the most lofty and amiable virtue. In him could 
 be seen one of the relics of the time of Louis XIV., that 
 had, it is true, been handed down to us with its graces, 
 sanctified by religion. Nothing was too much to pay for 
 the pleasure of enjoying — if only for a few minutes — the 
 favour of his gentle presence. Yet commoners did not 
 present themselves at Chateau Vilain, unless they were 
 dependants of the Prince, or had some favour to ask of 
 him. I had once been there with that intention, but not 
 for any favour for myself To be sure, I could do 
 nothing but be j^roud of the reception given to me, but 
 still I had no wish to repeat the experiment. 
 
 So I refused Madame de Lamotte, and only asked 
 her to put me down at Clairvaux, a place on the road 
 from Bar-sur-Aube to Chateau Vilain, and pick me up 
 again in the evening after her visit. Having agreed on 
 this, we set out on the 17th of August, 1785, at eight 
 o'clock in the morning, a day I cannot forget. Madame 
 de Lamotte left me at Clairvaux, as we had settled, and 
 went to Chateau Vilain. She dined there, and Avas 
 received in a way that surprised the members of that 
 court. The Prince escorted her to the door of the 
 second room, close to the top of the grand staircase, an 
 honour he did not grant to the duchesses, and that he 
 reserved for princesses of the blood ; so deeply had the 
 lessons of Madame de Maintenon, on the honours to be 
 paid to illegitimate branches, sunk into his memory. 
 
 While Madame de Lamotte paid her visit, I stayed at 
 
70 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Clairvaux, where I was a familiar guest. The Abbot 
 begged me to spend three days there, if I was not afraid 
 of the feast of Saint Bernard ; and promised in return 
 that I should hear the Abbe Maury, who was to come 
 that evening and preach a eulogium on the saint. 
 Saint Bernard's day was a great affair at Clairvaux. 
 The poor who came to the abbey gates, received a dole 
 there, and the citizens of Bar-sur-Aube or its neighbour- 
 hood were invited to dine in the refectory, where the 
 Abbot took the head of the table on this occasion only 
 every year. I wished to be present at this dinner, partly 
 in order to have my joke at the Abbot, who had spoken 
 in my presence of this custom as an old relic that he was 
 going to put down, and had rather superciliously talked 
 of the guests who attended. The Abbot's figure was 
 handsome, his face good-looking and amiable, so that 
 when he had the honour of being presented to the King 
 at Versailles after his election, the Queen, struck with 
 his appearance, and the grandeur with which he bore the 
 habit of his order, could not refrain from exclaiming, 
 " What a handsome monk ! " Dom Rocourt was pohte to 
 men, gallant towards women, and, with or withotit 
 all this, very dull. I could never make him understand, 
 at the beginning of the Revolution, that it was all over 
 with him, his abbey and his monks, and that they would 
 be delighted to leave him. He had the disposal of 
 £15,000 or £20,000 a year, had very nice carriages, and 
 never stirred without four horses and an outrider. He 
 caused himself to be called your Grace by his monks, and 
 the persons who composed his court, and also by the 
 numerous applicants for his favours. He governed as 
 a despot, I know not how many convents of monks 
 and nuns, all dependent on his abbey, and he delighted 
 in the visits of the latter. When despoiled of all this 
 by the Revolution, nothino- wns Ipft nf Tiim 1-,n+ Li'c! rlnll 
 
NEWS FROM PAPaS. 71 
 
 comeliness, and he retired to Bar-sur-Aube with a house- 
 keeper, and a daughter by her. At the time of the Con- 
 cordat, I tried to raise him from this condition, and get 
 him a bishopric. Portahs was well disposed to give him 
 one ; indeed we had selected Chrdons ; but, after medita- 
 ting some time, our friend at last refused. He must have 
 put away his companions, to devote himself seriously to 
 the apostolic functions, and he would not, or rather could 
 not, do so. 
 
 I return to Madame de Lamotte. She came back 
 about eight o'clock. I informed her how I was 
 engaged ; she wanted to join me, and stay for the 
 feast of Saint Bernard. The Abbot made excuses ; the 
 performance was entirely religious, the ladies that 
 generally live at Clairvaux depart for that day, and leave 
 it to the ceremony of Saint Bernard, and to his children ; 
 but they return next day, and the Abbot begged 
 Madame de Lamotte to add to their number. He was 
 profuse in respect and reverence. Doubtless the Abbot 
 was aware of the intimate connection between the 
 Cardinal de Ptohan and Madame de Lamotte, for he 
 treated her like a princess of the Church. 
 
 We walked about in company while waiting for the 
 Abbe Maury and supper ; nine o'clock struck, and the 
 Abbd Maury had not arrived ; at half-past nine it was 
 settled to wait no longer for him. We were hardly 
 seated when the noise of a carriage was heard ; it was 
 the eulogist of Saint Bernard. The Abbot ran to meet 
 him, and forced him to come into the dining-room, with- 
 out giving him time to change his travelling dress. The 
 travellers had hardly had time to unfold their napkins, 
 before the Abbot asked his visitor from Paris what was 
 the talk there, what was going on, and if there was any 
 news. "What!" said the Abbe Maury ; "news? why, 
 where do you live then ? There is a bit of news not the 
 
73 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 least understood, tliat astonishes and confounds all Paris. 
 M. the Cardinal de Rohan, Grand Almoner of France, 
 was arrested last Tuesda}^, the day of the Assumption, in 
 his pontifical dress, and as he left the King's cabinet." 
 " Is the cause of such a severe decree known? " "No, 
 not exactly. There is talk of a diamond necklace he 
 was to have bought for the Queen, and did not buy. 
 But it is not believed that the Grand Almoner of France 
 would be arrested for such a trifle as that in his pontifical 
 dress, — -you understand in his pontifical robes, when 
 leaving the King's cabinet ! " 
 
 Directly I heard this piece of news, I cast my eyes on 
 Madame de Lamotte, who had dropped her napkin from 
 her hands, and stared over her plate, pale and motionless. 
 After the first instant, she made an effort, and left the 
 dining-rooin. One of the officials of the house followed 
 her, and some minutes later I left the room, and went 
 to look for her. She had already ordered her horses, 
 we went away together, and this was nearly our con- 
 versation. 
 
 "Perhaps, I was wrong to come away so suddenly, 
 particularly before the Abbe Maury?" "Not at all; 
 your intimacy with the Cardinal is known — almost 
 public. His life may be concerned in this ; you ought to 
 be beforehand with letters, couriers, or news. You 
 might have done wrong to lose time by supping at 
 Clairvaux ; but can you give any cause for this arrest ? " 
 "No, unless it be for some sleight of hand of his — 
 Cagliostro, the Cardinal is infatuated with him ; it is 
 not my fault, I never ceased to warn him." "Very 
 good. But what is this story of a necklace that was to 
 have been bought for the Queen ? How could a 
 Cardinal have to buy a necklace? And how could the 
 Queen have selected Prince Louis for this, whom she 
 openly detests?" " I tell vou ap-ain it is all Cno-linstrn " 
 
AREEST OF THE CARDINAL DE ROHAN. 73 
 
 " But you liave had this charlatan at your house, and 
 are you not at all compromised with him?" "Not the 
 least bit in the world, and I am quite easy ; I was very 
 wrong to leave the supper." "No, that was not the 
 least wrong. If you are easy for yourself, on your own 
 account, you ought not to be so for an unfortunate friend." 
 " Ah, you do not know him ; as he is in a mess now, he 
 is capable of saying a hundred foolish things to get him- 
 self out of it." 
 
 " Madame deLamotte, you are saying much more than 
 I should have wished to hear. I have a last service to 
 offer you. It is ten o'clock at night and we are near 
 Bayet ; I will leave you then in charge of a friend, whom 
 you know I can answer for. I will return to Bar-sur- 
 Aube in your carriage and tell M. de Lamotte, and he can 
 come for you in an hour's time in a travelling carriage, 
 with your two best horses, and all your most valuable 
 things packed in it. And you will together start on the 
 road to Cha.lons this very night, for that of Troyes is not 
 safe for you. You will get to the coast of Picardy or 
 Normandy. Do not appear at Boulogne, nor at Calais, 
 nor Dieppe, whither your description is perhaps already 
 sent, but between these harbours there are twenty places 
 whence you can get put across into England for ten 
 pounds." " Sir, you are tedious ; I have let you proceed 
 to your conclusion, because I was thinking of something 
 else. Must you be told ten times over that I have 
 nothing to do with this business ? I repeat, I am very 
 sorry I rose from table, as if I was an accomplice of your 
 Cardinal." " Madame, we will say no more ; yet I wish 
 to add that, by your own confession, you have more than 
 once been sorry that you had not followed my advice ; 
 may heaven grant that in the present business your re- 
 pentance be not more poignant than usual." 
 
 We proceeded in silence for half an hour. As we 
 
74 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 entered the town, I begged her at least to burn any 
 papers that might compromise her or the Cardinal I 
 said, " It is a measure required by honour on one side, 
 and your own safety on the other." She consented to do 
 so, I offered to help her ; she did not refuse, and when 
 we left the carriasre we went to her room. Her husband 
 had gone out hunting in the morning, and had not re- 
 turned. We opened a great sandal-wood box full of 
 papers of all sizes and colours. I was in haste to have 
 done ; I asked her if there were among these papers any 
 cheques to bearer, or notes of the discount bank; and on 
 her answer that there were not, pi'oposed to throw them 
 altogether into the fire. She insisted on at least a 
 summary examination. We set to work at it very slowly 
 on her side, precipitately on mine. Then it was that, 
 casting cursory glances over some of the thousands of 
 letters of the Cardinal de Rohan, I was sorry to see what a 
 wreck the delirium of love, exaggerated by the madness 
 of ambition, had made of this wretched man. It is 
 fortunate for the Cardinal's memory that these letters 
 have been suppressed ; but a loss to the history of human 
 passion. What an age was that when a prince of the 
 church did not hesitate to WTite, to sign with his name, 
 and to address to a w'oman letters that a man of our 
 day who had the least self-respect might begin to read, 
 but would never finish. 
 
 Among this medley of papers, were found numbers of 
 bills, some receipted, some not, offers of lands for sale, 
 advertisements of precious ornaments, of new inventions, 
 as if all kinds of greediness had combined to draw from 
 the Pactolus flowing at the feet of Madame de Lamotte. 
 I found letters of Bohemer and Bossange which mentioned 
 the necklace, notified the expiry of terms, acknowledged the 
 receipt of certain sums and asked for larger. I asked Madame 
 
 de Lamotte what to do with thpm ftViP lipsitn+prl n mnmont. 
 
AEKEST OF MADAME DE LAMOTTE. 75 
 
 to reply, and I took the shortest way and threw them mto 
 the fire altogether. It was a long business. I left Madame 
 de Lamotte, begging her more than ever to go away. 
 She answered by promising me she would go to bed 
 directly. So I left her in her rooms, poisoned by the 
 smell of burnt papers, impregnated with twenty 
 different scents. It was three o'clock in the morning; 
 at four she was arrested, and by half-past four on the 
 way to the Bastille. The examination I had made of her 
 papers, though very superficial, had solved my doubts ; 
 but I had found so much extravagance in the Cardinal's 
 letters, that I thought them both ruined, and through 
 each other. 
 
 I learnt her arrest from ]\I. de Lamotte, who came to 
 tell me at six in the morning, in a consequential and 
 tranquil tone. He had taken no part in looking over the 
 documents of his lady wife in the night, because when 
 she came home she said she was going to bed, and closed 
 her door against all the world, not excepting him. He 
 had only heard in the morning, and from his wife, after 
 her apprehension, what was passing in Paris, and why she 
 was conducted thither. He pretended to be quite at his 
 ease. " Madame de Lamotte is only gone for three or 
 four days at most ; she is going to furnish the minister 
 with some explanations he wants. I think she will be 
 back by Wednesday or Thursdtay, and we must arrange 
 to go and meet her and bring her back in triumph." 
 " Sir," said I to him, " I beg to inform you, as you are 
 unaware of it, that this very night I advised your -wife to 
 set off for England with you, and that by the shortest 
 road. If she had taken that advice, she would not now 
 be on the high road to the Bastille. I would counsel you 
 to perform alone what I advised for both of you ; believe 
 me, it will be much more safe for you than to lose 
 ■Drecious time in lulling yourself with delusions, or en- 
 
76 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 deavouring to inspire tliem into otliers. I know enough 
 of your position to tell you plainly that you are acting 
 the part of a maniac or idiot." 
 
 " How sharp you are with me to-day ! What has 
 Madame de Lamotte told you ? " " She has told me 
 nothing. The more reason why I advise you to make a 
 very speedy retreat. You understand me, very speedy." 
 M. de Lamotte left me, shrugging his shoulders and 
 humming a tune. When he got home, whether it was 
 that he only came to give me a catch word, and to 
 others through me, or that he thought it well to follow 
 my advice, he got into a carriage and travelled to 
 England as quickly as he could. This occurred on the 
 18th of August, and, only four days later, orders for his 
 arrest came to Bar-sur-Aube. 
 
 I have never been able to satisfy myself as to the con- 
 duct of the minister when this matter exploded. The 
 Cardinal de Rohan was arrested on the 15th, at noon, 
 and in the explanation he gave in the King's cabinet 
 before the Queen, M. de Vergennes, and the Baron de 
 Breteuil, he declared that he had been deceived by a 
 woman who called herself Countess de Valois de Lamotte. 
 There should have been no hesitation at such a declara- 
 tion : twenty-four hours would have been enough to have 
 Madame de Lamotte arrested at Bar-sur-Aube. But the 
 day of the 16th, and that of the 17th, passed, and it was 
 only at five o'clock in the morning of the 18th that this 
 pressing matter was executed. Had Madame de Lamotte 
 retained, as they ought to have expected, some one at Paris 
 to send a messenger to her on the 16th, or even on the 
 morning of the 17th, if only she had chosen to make use 
 of the intelligence received at Clairvaux from the Abb6 
 Maury, who had given it in perfect innocence, the lady 
 would have escaped, and then the Cardinal's situation 
 
 would have been dpsp p.ratp But to nnntinn p ■ tlip niips- 
 
CONDUCT OF THE MINISTER. 77 
 
 tion was the theft of a magnificent set of diamonds, per- 
 formed by means of a set of comphcated negotiations. 
 Madame de Laraotte was arrested, bnt arrested alone. 
 It was not till five days later that they came to arrest 
 her husband, as if he would have been likely to remain 
 quietly at home, and devotedly prepare for a journey to 
 the Bastille, Avhen warned of what awaited him by the 
 fate of his wife.* And it was not for a week after M. de 
 Lamotte's departure that it ever entered their heads to 
 search for the diamonds. They returned to look for them 
 at Bar-sur-Aube, one would think in the expectation of 
 not finding them ; for how was it possible to imagine 
 that M. de Lamotte, when they had gi\'en him time, had 
 not carried them off, or placed them in security? So 
 much for Bar-sur-Aube. At Paris they gave Villette 
 the secretary and confidant of Madame de Lamotte 
 plenty of time to return to Switzerland ; and he took it, 
 For this Villette, the slowest and most imprudent of men 
 spent ten days at Paris getting information on all sides 
 and publicly, of how the matter proceeded, and did not 
 decide on departure till forced to do so by some persons 
 who took an interest in him. Even Father Loth, that 
 shameless monk, was allowed time to go and bury him- 
 self under another name in some distant convent of his 
 order. How is this conduct of the Baron de Breteuil 
 to be explained ? Was it want of skill in his office, or 
 was the tradition lost how to perform the orders of a 
 King of France in a firm and vigorous manner, thanks 
 to an indulfrence that here dated from the time of 
 
 '&"■ 
 
 Louis XIV. ? Must something be allowed for the re 
 
 o 
 
 * "M. Mnstiphragasis, Count de Valois, Knight of St. Louis and of the 
 Crown, of the mounted nobility of Angoiileme, has just died in Paris very old 
 and rather poor. He had been the husband of the famous Madame de Lamotte 
 Valois, who so audaciously made a dupe of the Cardinal de Rohan in the 
 business of the necklace. He was generally known by the name of Valois 
 ecklace."— From the ' Journal de Paris' of the 12th of November, 1831. 
 
7S LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 markable incapacity of tlie lieutenant of police, de Crosne, 
 whose eyes could not perceive tlie springs so cleverly 
 set by liis tv^^o latest predecessors, MM. de Sartine and 
 Lenoir ? At that time the preventive pohce was still in 
 great force, for it is a machine that goes on of itself 
 and only requires not to be disturbed. But the political 
 police was weak, for it greatly depends on the dexterity 
 of the highest persons who direct it. The Baron de 
 Breteuil did not by a long way find in the good credulous 
 M. de Crosne the assistance that his predecessor, M. 
 Amelot, had found in that very dexterous M. Lenoir. It 
 cannot be here denied that the famous business of the 
 necklace was conducted by the Minister, from itf^ com- 
 mencement, with an incapacity so great as to justify the 
 friends of the Cardinal in accusing the Baron de Breteuil 
 of having contrived by it to accomplish the triumph of 
 his passion and resentment. I have some reason for 
 thinking that the two causes were combined, and shall 
 soon find an opportunity for giving the grounds of my 
 opinion.* 
 
 Suppose that the business had been conducted with 
 skill and firmness. On the 15th they ought to have 
 sealed up all Madame de Lamotte's property in Paris, 
 arrested her two secretaries, and with them all who had 
 been intimate in the house. On the 16th they ought to 
 have captured M. and Madame de Lamotte at Bar-sur- 
 Aube, their papers, their diamonds, and also their faithful 
 servants in that city. When all was collected at the 
 
 * At tlie first moment the idea of tlie King-, the Queen, and ministers was 
 that the Cardinal, being involved in debt, had been desirous of appropriating 
 the necklace by making use of the Queen's name. Then Madame de Lamotte 
 made her aiipearance in the eyes of these people not as author of the robbery, 
 but at most as an accomplice of the Cardinal. It was not till the lady's guilt 
 became apparent that they felt it to be necessary to apprehend her com- 
 panions. There is an explanation that may be supplied, after reading the 
 memoirs of Georgel, for the delay that surprised the author so much. — 
 [Fe. Ed.] 
 
FEAR OF AEEEST. 79 
 
 Bastille, the indictment would have been easy. For 
 instance, they would have found in Madame de Lamotte's 
 jewel-case a bonbonniere that I had often admired there. 
 It was a box of black tortoiseshell, with a ring of large 
 diamonds round it, of exactly the same size and most 
 perfect water ; the medallion on the top of the box was 
 a rising sun cleaving away the clouds from the horizon. 
 On touching a spring underneath this first painting was 
 discovered a portrait of the Queen clothed in a simple 
 white robe, with no more ornament on her head than her 
 hair, raised according to the fashion of the day, and two 
 curls that fell on each side down her neck, and holding 
 a rose in her hand, exactly in the attitude and the dress 
 that Mademoiselle d'Oliva had taken in the part which 
 she played among the thickets of Versailles ; and by 
 putting two of the Cardinal's letters in juxta-position 
 with this box, it would have appeared that he had been 
 made to hope that it might have been a pledge of re- 
 conciliation with the Queen. It might have made it 
 evident that he had received a full description of this 
 splendid ornament ; that he was no longer in doubt of 
 the hand from which he was to obtain it, and that he 
 had thus lost his judgment. They would have seized 
 on many details of great interest that were sure to 
 disappear as soon as the matter was not treated as a 
 simple swindle with nothing extraordinary in it except 
 the names of the personages concerned. 
 
 I could not imagine the excess of the Baron de Bre- 
 teuil's clumsiness or want of zeal in this matter, and 
 conjecturing what he would do from what he ought to 
 have done, expected to be arrested. I remembered then 
 the secret horror I always experienced in passing the 
 Bastille, and I took it for a presentiment. I did not dare 
 to leave Bar-sur-Aube, and trembled at staying there, 
 because I represented to myself the despair of my rela- 
 
80 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 tions in case of my arrest at my father's house, to be 
 taken to the head of the Fanbourg Saint Antoine (the 
 Bastille). A fortunate accident delivered me from my 
 embarrassment. The town of Bar-sur-Aube had a suit 
 in progress of some consequence, and ready to be tried 
 before the council. The advocate required some one to 
 be sent to second him at the court. The town-council 
 selected me, and I was able to regain the capital without 
 exciting any suspicion of the cause of my journey. My 
 position there was very delicate. Men were much taken 
 up with the affair of the necklace ; and yet it was not 
 cleared up. I never went anywhere without being put 
 into the witness-box. I adopted the course of secluding 
 myself from all society. I did not attend the courts, and 
 entirely occupied myself about the cause for which I had 
 been sent. The business had caused a division among 
 the population of Bar-sur-Aube, as was the case in any 
 affairs of importance that concerned small towns. The 
 side against whom I was writing and pleading, considered 
 my presence at Paris very inconvenient, and tried to 
 get m'e away. I received letters dictated by the purest 
 friendship, but without the authors being bold enough to 
 declare themselves, containing the intelligence that I was 
 going to be sent to the Bastille. I was conjured to get 
 away with all speed. These pieces of information found 
 me the more inclined to uneasiness, because I thought, 
 as I repeat, that my arrest was most probable. The last 
 letter that I received made some impression, because it 
 had been artfully contrived to make me suspect that it 
 came indirectly from a chief clerk in the King's house- 
 hold, with whom I was on terms of great intimacy, 
 but whom I had not gone to see from motives of deli- 
 cacy. Then I wanted to have recourse to the great 
 protector of the afflicted of the province, the Count de 
 Brienne. By my unlucky visit I had given him such 
 
PRlirAEING FOE THE BASTILLE. 81 
 
 a fair opportunity for overwhelming me with reproaches, 
 that I did not hke to expose myself to them. I went to 
 look for my old friend, M. Finot, who, faithful to the 
 axiom of the President de Harlay, considered that wdiile 
 awaiting the moment for clearing oneself it was better to 
 be beyond the reach of the first blows; and to induce 
 me to fly, he quietly reminded me of one of our 
 clients who had come under my observation, and 
 surrendered himself to purge a contempt of court for- 
 gotten twenty years before, and had very nearly lost his 
 head by it, though under the protection of President de 
 Lamoignon, who had given him this dangerous advice. 
 I think I should have determined on flight, if I had only 
 had my own interests dependent on me, but I was de- 
 puted by the city of my birth, I was employed to defend 
 her in a cause on which the council was immediately to 
 pronounce judgment. To abandon such an affair, to fly 
 from a sacred duty, was to proclaim myself guflty. I 
 even felt that longer consultations might make me liable 
 to suspicion. I put myself into a state of self-concentration, 
 and having deliberated on the reasons for and against, I 
 came to the determination to remain at all costs. I had not 
 to reproach myself with a singlefalse step, or piece of advice 
 that an honest man need disavow ; so I had nothing to 
 be afraid of, if, as then seemed hkely, the matter should 
 be sent up for trial ; and if it were treated as a political 
 matter, the worst that could happen to me would be to 
 spend six months, or a year at most, in the Bastille. 
 Persons were every day to be met in the world who had 
 undergone this, and were none the worse for it. When 
 once I had taken my part, I endeavoured to accustom 
 myself to the impending retirement. I prepared my 
 bao'e;a2,'e for the Bastille. I made it up of small editions 
 of our best authors, then called Cazins, from the pub- 
 lisher's name. I added a case of mathematical instru- 
 
82 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 ments, an atlas, a sufficient provision of paper, pens, ink, 
 and body linen. I packed it all in a trunk, whicli I placed 
 at the bottom of my bed like a friend on the watch, to 
 follow me when the time should come. I did more. I went 
 two or three times to the entrance of the Faubourg Saint 
 Antoine and to the Arsenal garden, to accustom myself 
 to the sight of the Bastille, and to map it out as much as 
 possible from a distance. Counting the narrow air-holes 
 that served the purpose of windows, I endeavoured to 
 conjecture which one it might be that would perform the 
 office of conveying hglit to me. 
 
 Thus I managed to accustom myself insensibly with the 
 idea that had caused me so much terror. The governor 
 of the BastiUe, the unfortunate M. Delaunay, was from my 
 own province. I had heard him defended more than once 
 against the calumnious imputations that Linguet had 
 allowed himself to make against him in his Memoirs on 
 the Bastille, and on this head I had heard it said that 
 he performed his painful duty with all the kindness and 
 politeness that were compatible with it. And this in- 
 formation was not false ; for the persons who had been 
 arrested and were not implicated in the business of the 
 necklace, vied with each other in doing the governor 
 justice as to the treatment they had experienced. M. 
 Delaunay was the first victim of a revolution that claimed 
 so many others, and I have felt some satisfaction at thus 
 having an opportunity afforded me of paying a tribute to 
 his memory. So I felt the more easy on this account. 
 I at once cast off my terrors, and returned to composing 
 with perfect freedom of mind the best memorial I ever 
 made in my life on the cause of Bar-sur-Aube. I went 
 on the journey to Fontainebleau, during which the cause 
 came up for judgment, and I gained it according to M. 
 de la Galaisifere, who very much wished to tell me, on 
 the rising of the Council, that I had made the questions 
 
AFFAIR OF MADAME DE LAMOTTE. 83 
 
 SO clear that there was not the least difficulty in their 
 determination. The receipt of my memorial on Bar-sur- 
 Aube, and the decree of the Council that had crowned it, 
 was a little local triumph for me which entirely removed 
 any prejudice that my connexion with Madame de La- 
 motte might have lei't there. I had refused to receive 
 any payment for my mission, and so my fellow-citizens, 
 desirous of showing their gratitude, elected me, though not 
 twenty-five years old, one of the notables of the town, a 
 position now represented by that of member of the muni- 
 cipal council. This was the first occasion on which my 
 fellow-citizens honoured me with their choice, and no 
 other election gave me such great satisfaction, though I 
 always gained their votes for the most emiuent public 
 employments of which they had the disposal. 
 
 During my absence the affair of Madame de Lamotte 
 had been sent before the Parliament. They had been 
 imposed upon in making this transfer. The Parliament 
 had been given charge of the aifair by virtue of letters- 
 patent, and a form of commission. Certainly there had 
 been no desire, in adopting this form, save that of pre- 
 venting the trial from passing through the two usual 
 steps of the course of law ; but the world did not think 
 of it in that manner, being very little aware of what these 
 two usual steps were. It was better known that this 
 form of commission had been sent to the Parliament 
 when they were expected to deal justice more severe and 
 prompt. There were several examples in support of this 
 opinion. The trials were remembered of the Constable 
 de Bourbon, of Marshal Biron, of the Constable de Mont- 
 morency, of Keeper of the Seals de Marillac, of tlie Car- 
 dinal de Retz, and more recently of the Count de Lally. 
 There was the more reason for believing that another 
 great example of severity was likely to be given, because 
 the letters-patent, in their preamble, considered as proved 
 
84 LIFE AXD AUYEKTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 all the facts that related to the purchase of the necklace 
 by the Cardinal on the Queen's account, and the theft by- 
 Madam e de Lamotte. So there was no more occasion 
 for inquiry on these jDoints, for having been put forth by 
 the King, and the Parliament having enrolled the letters- 
 patent containing them without remonstrance, they be- 
 came evidence unquestionable. It was seen, under the 
 principles that then governed us, how absurd it was to 
 have an inquir}^, before the session, whether what the King 
 had advanced in public letters were true or false. Such 
 an idea not only was contrary to all the principles of the 
 monarchy, but even bordered on the crime of treason. 
 As the Parliament had adopted the letters-patent, it was 
 obliged to agree to the spirit of them. Taking then as 
 proved all the facts that they contained, its duty was 
 to carefully inquire to what degree the King's majesty 
 had been offended. The negotiation, the purchase, the 
 robbery of the necklace, were more or less culpable, but 
 still were nothing but means to an end. The grand fact 
 that predominated in this miserable business was this, that 
 M. and Madame de Lamotte had had the audacity to 
 counterfeit; that at night, among the groves of Versailles, 
 the Queen of France, the wife of the King, had arranged a 
 meeting with the Cardinal de Ptohan, had spoken to him, 
 had given him a rose, and allowed him to cast himself at 
 her feet ; and that on his side, a Cardinal, and grand of- 
 ficial of the Crown, had dared to believe that this appoint- 
 ment had been made with him by the Queen of France, 
 the wife of the King, — that he had kept it, had received 
 a rose there, and thrown himself at her feet. There was 
 the crime, the punishment for which was imperatively 
 demanded by respect for religion, for royal majesty, and 
 morality, which were all grievously outraged. Perhaps 
 the time had already arrived when it became necessary 
 to repress by a severe example the blind passion that 
 
M. DE CROSNE. 85 
 
 played with what had hitherto been considered most sacred. 
 At the present day, when the Revolution has too much 
 broken down the traditional respect for royal person- 
 ages, who can conceive that the Parliament should 
 not have looked on the scene in the thicket at Versailles 
 as a mere swindle, and the actors as rogues and a 
 dupe ? The Revolution had already taken place in those 
 minds who could reiivard such an insult to the Kino" in 
 the person of his wife with such culpable indifference or 
 insolent carelessness. 
 
 At the first commencement, no one could believe that 
 the trial before the parliament could have such an end ; 
 and I felt convinced that Madame de Lamotte would be 
 more severely treated than she was — that is to say, that 
 she would lose her life At ten o'clock at night, some 
 days after my return from Fontainebleau, I received a 
 request from M. de Crosne to go to him immediately. I 
 did not know to what cause I should attribute such a 
 message, and it gave me some concern. I looked at my 
 Bastille luggage, not yet disturbed, and thought I should 
 have to use it this time ; but since the trial was already 
 before Parliament, it would not be for long. I went to 
 the Lieutenant of Police. As soon as he saw me he said : 
 " Sir, I have to speak to you for the Countess de 
 Lamotte. I am sorry to have disturbed you at so late 
 an hour, but I was hi haste to see you." This com- 
 mencement was not reassuring. M. de Crosne added, " I 
 have just left Madame de Lamotte, and she selects you 
 for her counsel. Here is your order of admission to the 
 Bastille. I request you to be there to-morrow at its 
 opening, from nine to ten o'clock. The poor lady 
 has not seen a friend's face for two months, and I 
 promised her without fail that you should be at her 
 orders to - morrow morning." I thanked M. de 
 ■Crosne for his order of admission, and replied that I 
 
86 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 could not accept the choice that Madame de Lamotte 
 had made of me ; her affair was most serious ; I had 
 neither the experience nor the talent that she required. 
 It would be extravagant presumption on my part, and I 
 refused. M. de Crosne persisted ; and objected, that if I 
 required assistance, which he did not in the least believe, 
 I could call in the aid of as many of my colleagues as 
 I pleased. He made me especially observe that it 
 was a case which would cause a very great sensation, 
 and might make the reputation of a young advocate, and 
 he insisted that I could obtain all the information and 
 assistance that I might want. M. de Crosne could not 
 manage to persuade me, though he was eloquent for 
 perhaps the first time in his life. We parted. Next 
 day came a fresh message from M. de Crosne, and 
 another visit from me. He gave me an open letter from 
 Madame de Lamotte, who could not understand the 
 difficulties that I made about undertaking her defence, 
 and begged me to come and see her. The official added 
 his own very pressing entreaties, and supposed from my 
 refusal, or perhaps from what Madame de Lamotte had 
 told him, that I imagined there was some danger in the 
 performance of the duty proposed to me. tie used every 
 possible means to reassure me on this head, and ended 
 by trying to persuade me to see M. de Breteuil. I 
 refused again ; I could say nothing to the Minister that I 
 had not said to himself, and he would not persuade me 
 to do what I refused to the Lieutenant of Police. M. de 
 Crosne insisted still more, I really do not know why, and 
 made me perceive that greater readiness on my part to 
 comply with the views of those in power would not 
 injure my advancement, or my good luck, and continually 
 repeated, " See the Baron de Breteuil." I protested to 
 him that I could not have that honour, because I did not 
 see what it could induce me to do ; and I left him. 
 
COUNSEL FOR MADAME DE LAMOTTE. 87 
 
 after having asked liis permission to write him a letter in 
 answer to that of Madame de Lamotte. He might have 
 known through one of his confidential persons, to whom 
 I had expressed my sentiments, that I thought the theft 
 of the necklace a miserable incident, while the scene in 
 the gTOve appeared to me a capital charge. Apparently 
 his own opinion was the same, and it suited him that the 
 counsel of Madame de Lamotte should at the bottom of 
 his heart share the same views. I answered the letter 
 that she had written to me, imputing my refusal merely 
 to my deficiency of experience and talent for so serious a 
 cause, and added that it would be useless for her to insist 
 on it any more ; for my denial was conscientious, and I 
 would not retract it. I heard no more of it. 
 
 Instead of me, M. de Crosne selected M. Doitot as 
 counsel for Madame de Lamotte ; he was the family 
 lawyer of the Lieutenant of Police. He had been in prac- 
 tice a long time, and was not without some fame. At the 
 age of more than sixty years he had retired to chamber 
 practice, where he was still sought for as having a clear 
 knowledge of the law. Even this old man did not come 
 in contact with Madame de Lamotte without suffering for 
 it. She turned his head. He really believed all the stories 
 she told him, became enthusiastic for her and for her 
 innocence, and made his entrance into the business by a 
 printed memorial, one of the most extravagant that 
 had ever come from the pen of an advocate since me- 
 morials have been invented. Nevertheless, it had a 
 miraculous success, for it was the preface to the 
 "Arabian Nights;" and it was furnished by an old 
 lawyer of seventy ! 
 
 Cagliostro was violently attacked in the memorial of 
 Madame de Lamotte. M. Thilorier rushed into the 
 arena to defend the man of miracles. For the first time 
 were the caverns of Memphis, whence the hero had 
 
88 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OP COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 issued, and the labyrinths of tlie Pyramids, where he had 
 been brought up, spoken of in the courts of justice ! 
 The sacred obscurity that veiled his origin, his education, 
 and his entire Hfe, were adduced as presages of marvels 
 that should one day disclose themselves, and astonish the 
 universe. Meanwhile, by way of a prelude to his super- 
 human destiny, Cagliostro had cured the sick, assisted 
 the poor, consoled the afflicted, and allowed some rays of 
 the infinite light to penetrate into various places ; but he 
 could not conceive why he was in the Bastille, implicated 
 in an affair with which he had no connection. This 
 absurdity, which the advocate Thilorier, a man of 
 excellent sense, was the first to turn into ridicule, was 
 thought quite reasonable and fashionable. 
 
 The wife of Cagliostro had been imprisoned in the 
 Bastille at the same time as her husband. An advocate, 
 M. Polverit, quickly pounced upon her case, and gave us, 
 in a hvely and well- written memorial, the defence of 
 Seraphina Feliciani. Her origin was no better known 
 than that of her husband. She was an angel in human 
 form, sent on earth to share and soothe the hfe of the 
 man of miracles. Radiant with a beauty above that of 
 other women, she was only a model of tenderness, 
 sweetness, and resignation ; no more, for she can only 
 conjecture the contrary vices ; her nature offers to us 
 poor human creatures the ideal of a perfection that we 
 may be able to worship, but never to understand ! Yet 
 this angel, without the power of sinning, is under lock 
 and key ; it is a cruel anomaly that cannot be too soon 
 put a stop to. What connection is there between a 
 being of such a nature and a criminal indictment ? This 
 new folly had likewise its success ! 
 
 The advocate Blondel appeared for Mademoiselle 
 d'Oliva. His short memorial was a little model, appro- 
 priate and well written. He passed over the social rank 
 
VILLETTE. 89 
 
 of Mademoiselle d'Oliva, who did not entirely partake of 
 the innocence of Seraphina Feliciani ; but her advocate 
 represented her as a young person whom it had been too 
 easy to deceive, and whom they had made to act in the 
 groves of Versailles a part that she could not in the 
 least imagine. Such was the skill of her advocate, and 
 such is usually the power of skilful writing, that the 
 public became prepossessed in favour of Mademoiselle 
 d'Oliva, and this prepossession passed from the public into 
 the members of the Session. 
 
 Villette in his turn appeared on the scene, defended 
 by M. Jaillant Deschainets, a little humpbacked 
 advocate, and as spiteful as accorded with his stature. 
 He even managed to make something out of the 
 position of this wretched man. He drew him, as he 
 really was, extremely facile, always ready to do what was 
 asked of him, without being much aware of the drift. 
 He confessed that Villette had traced at the bottom of 
 the letter that caused the transfer of the necklace the 
 words Marie Antoinette de France, but this form of 
 signature is not that of the Queen, nor of any other 
 person. Then to trace a line, with no signification at all 
 in it, at the base of any document whatever is not a legal 
 offence. So far it was all very well ; but the advocate, 
 Jaillant, subsequently cast on Madame de Lamotte the 
 blame of having caught Villette in her toils ; yet it was 
 true that he had come to offer himself as a prey already 
 bruised all over with wounds, received in snares that 
 were worth not much more than those of Madame de 
 Lamotte. 
 
 Every one of these memorials was greatly in vogue, 
 and called attention to the advocates who wrote them, 
 and to the persons who furnished the subject. And now 
 a person, emulous of this sort of fame, suddenly and 
 unexpectedly appeared on the scene. He published a 
 
90 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 memorial ; he said liis name was Bette d'Etienville, and 
 that he was a country magistrate. For two years he had 
 followed Madame de Lamotte like her shadow. He had 
 seen and heard all ; had been present at all the scenes. 
 He passed in review the Cardinal, Cagliostro, his wife, 
 and all the personages of the drama. He contrived a 
 position for himself in each action, and that the position 
 of a very able man. He, with his genius, contended 
 against those of Madame de Lamotte and Cagliostro 
 united. The contest was sometimes doubtful, but he 
 always triumphed at last. It is a fine thing to sing one's 
 own praises. But whence came this new arrival? 
 Whom had he a grudge against? What right had he 
 to publish a memorial? This memorial is a romance 
 full of animation, of interest, and good style. All the 
 world read it, and was interested in M. Bette 
 d'Etienville, without troubling their heads to know 
 whether he was a real personage, or a fantastic being. 
 
 Such are the childish games with which one of the 
 most serious matters ever presented to the judgment 
 of the Parliament was complicated. How could the 
 Session itself allow these extravagancies of imagina- 
 tion to displace the sohd forms of defence ? Was it 
 a previous determination to bury under indecency 
 and ridicule the crime they were unwilling either to 
 prosecute or punish? Perhaps this may be believed. 
 The house of Rohan, powerful in itself and through 
 illustrious marriages, desired to save at any price one of 
 its members who had been seriously compromised. The 
 Prince de Conde did not refuse the assistance due to a 
 family allied to his own. Such influences had full weight 
 upon the upper class of society in Paris, disgusted at the 
 commencement by the forcible arrest of the Cardinal, and 
 not reconciled by the angry severity of the Baron de 
 Breteuil. Dependants of the house of Rohan were 
 
M. DE ALIGEE. 91 
 
 found in every direction, and infused sympathy for the 
 Cardinal even into the middle classes. It was hoped, 
 and not unreasonably, that this mass of opinion would 
 be sufficient to turn Parliament, from severe measures. 
 That great body began to lose its self possession. The 
 party in opposition to the court gained strength daily. 
 De Calonne, the Finance Minister, had estranged the 
 First President de Aligre, for some matter in which the 
 latter had been really to blame ; but the moment for 
 explosion was ill chosen. M. de Aligre had none of the 
 qualities that make a great magistrate. He rather had 
 the opposite faults ; but he had a singular dexterity in 
 managing those around him, and since 1774 had always 
 contrived to have a majority at his court. In this state 
 of things the old government might have continued, at 
 least for some time. But if, in 1786, M. de Aligre did 
 not favour the opposition in the Parliament, he allowed 
 it to arise ; and it met with encouragement at Versailles, 
 even very near the throne — a most unheard-of circum- 
 stance. At the time of the Cardinal's trial this opposition 
 had not obtained a footing, but it already was in 
 existence, and only awaited opportunity. It is to be 
 conceived that it made trial of its power in this unhappy 
 business. It only exercised too much influence. The 
 court was hurt, and M. de Calonne took advantage of 
 this moment of irritation to get his assembly of notables 
 decreed. The Session could have no doubt that this 
 assembly had been contrived in opposition to it, and 
 never forgave even the successors of M. de Calonne. 
 The disastrous results of these first intrigues are well 
 known.* The scattered portions of this picture must be 
 gathered together, in order to form an estimate of the 
 
 * The Parliament of Paris was put in possession of the affair, called that of 
 the necklace, by letters patent of the king-, dated the 5th of September, 1785. 
 The preliminary examinations took nine months. 
 
92 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 strange and scandalous matters in the prosecution and 
 judgment of the affair of the Cardinal de Eohan. 
 
 On the 31st of May, 1786, after eighteen hours of deliberation, the Session- 
 al! chambers together — gave a decree by which the following were con- 
 demned: — 
 
 The Count de Lamotte to be branded and to the gaUeys, and his wife to be 
 branded, and to imprisonment for life, and their property confiscated. 
 
 Retaux de ViUette to be banished from the kingdom. 
 
 The woman D'Oliva to be dismissed. 
 
 Cagliostro and the Cardinal de Rohan acquitted of the acccusation brought 
 against them. 
 
 M. de Lamotte, who had escaped by flight from the judgment of the 
 session, led a degraded and miserable life in England and in France, whither 
 he returned in 1814. He died in Paris in the year 1831, in the month of 
 November. 
 
 The decree of the Session against Madame de Lamotte was executed on the 
 21st of June, 178(j. Imprisoned in the Salpetricre, she remained there six 
 months, at the end of which she managed to escape and joined her husband in 
 England. She died in London in 1791, at the age of thirty-four years, in con- 
 sequence of a dreadful fall she met with in a paroxysm of raging fever. 
 
 The day after the decree of the Session the Cardinal de Rohan received the 
 king's orders to return the Cordon of the Order of the Saint Esprit, and give up 
 his charge of Grand Abnoner. He was banished to his abbey of La Chaise Dieu 
 in Auvergne, and afterwards to that of Marmoutier near Tours. He obtained 
 permission sometime afterwards to return to his bishopric of Strasburg. In 
 ISOl, after the concordat, he resigned and retired to Ettenheim, where he died 
 the 10th of February, 1803. 
 
 Cagliostro, acquitted by the Session, was, nevertheless, obliged to leave 
 France after a confinement of nine months and a half. He took refuge in 
 turn in England, Switzerland, and Italy. Accused at Rome before the synod 
 of the Inquisition as an adept in Freemasonry, he was condemned to imprison- 
 ment for life, and underwent his j)unishment at the castle of Saint Leon, where 
 he died in 1711.5. 
 
 His wife Seraphina Felioiani followed his fate, and was also condemned to 
 imprisonment. The date of her death is not known. 
 
 As for Retaux de ViUette and the woman D'Oliva, their celebrity ended with 
 the trial about the necklace. 
 
 These details are extracted from the interesting work of M. Campardon, in 
 charge of the records of the empire, entitled, Marie Antuineitc and the Trial of 
 the Necklace. — [Fk. Ed.] 
 
93 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Return to Bar-sur-Aube— Measures taken to secLire my Election as Deputy — 
 The Electors — The Grand Bailli and his Costume — General Assembly of the 
 Three Orders — M. le Vicomte de Laval — Le Comte de Brienne — Jurisdic- 
 tion of Chaumont — Dupont de Nemours — M. Guillaume — Nomination of 
 GomperWe-Chevaux — My Nomination to the Etats Generaux — Reception 
 at Bar-sur-Aube — Insurrection of Paris —Capture of the Bastille — Brigand- 
 age — Decrees of August 4. 
 
 I LEFT Paris bearing with me the famous result of the 
 council that allotted a double representation to the Tiers 
 Etat, and the report of the prodigious effect produced by 
 the publication of this result in the capital. As I passed 
 through Chalons I myself gave it to the superintendent 
 and to the syndics of the province. The cause that had 
 taken me to Paris could no longer be thought of ; public 
 attention was occupied by matters of too great interest 
 for the smallest portion to be obtained by a little quarrel 
 between two subaltern officials in a corner of the pro- 
 vince. Indeed people did me the honour of believing 
 that I had made use of this quarrel as an excuse for 
 reaching the court of M. Nocker, and of making myself 
 known to the great man of the day. I allowed this inter- 
 pretation to pass, because it was less ridiculous than the 
 reality. 
 
 I returned to Bar-sur-Aube to take steps for fulfilling 
 the engagement I had made to Madame de Stael to get 
 myself elected a deputy. Every service I could desire had 
 been already done me ; for during and notwithstanding 
 my absence my fellow-citizens had nominated me elector 
 
94 LIFE AND AUVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 for tlie assembly of tlie Bailiwick. Unluckily for me, Bar- 
 snr-Aube did not nominate directly to the States-General. 
 This town, that of Joinville, and their jurisdictions, joined 
 at Chaumont, the chief place of the electoral Bailiwick. 
 Xow at Chaumont there were circumstances unfavourable 
 to me, for it was at the cost of the dignity of this town 
 that I had six months before arranged the court of judica- 
 ture at Bar-sur-Aube. Nevertheless, I had confidence 
 in the mass of votes I brought with me ; and my hope 
 increased when I found at Chaumont, with the same 
 tenets and the same ambition as myself, M. Becquey, 
 who likewise occupied at Joinville the position of syndic 
 of the Tiers Etat.* M. Becquey was of my own age. I 
 
 * Becquey, a minister of state, director-general of roads and bridges and of 
 mines, and deputy for fifteen consecutive years of the department of the Upper 
 ilame under the Restoration, was born at Vitry le Francjais, in 1760. Elected 
 a member of the provincial assembly of Champagne, and general syndic of the 
 department of the Upper Marne, he was chosen by the electors of this depart- 
 ment to represent them in the legislative assembly in 1790. There was formed 
 an intimacy between him and the author of these memoirs, founded on the 
 same religious and political views, that lasted nearly forty years, and survived 
 all changes of government. In the Assembly Becquey sat in the ranks of the 
 Constitutionals, near Quatremere, Beugnot, Dumas, Jancourt and Ramond, 
 supporting, sometimes at the risk of his life, the eternal principles of reason, 
 right, and liberty, 
 
 Under the Directory, his royalist feelings caused him to be chosen a member 
 of the secret committee of Louis XVIII. This committee, whose duty was to 
 give useful information to the King aboiit events and about men, and to pre- 
 pare the basis of a reconciliation between the Bourbons and the nation, should 
 a favourable occasion appear, was composed of Royer CoUard, Becquey, the 
 able Montesquieu, the Marquis Clermont GaUerande, and Quatremere de 
 Quincy. It was dissolved in the time of the Consulate, and Becquey betook 
 himself to study in retirement, and did not issue from it till 1810, to take 
 his seat in the Imperial Council of the University, by the active persuasion of 
 Fontanes. 
 
 Under the Restoration, Becquey, deputy of the Upper Marne, was appointed 
 successively director-general of commerce, Counsellor of State, Under-Secretary 
 of State in the Home Office, and lastly, director-general of roads, bridges, and 
 mines. 
 
 He performed these last functions for thirteen years, from the 17th September, 
 181G, to the I'Jth of May, 18.30, and the recollections of his administrations are 
 still fresh in the office of the Minister of Public Works. His name remains 
 attached to the construction of canals ordered by acts of 1821-22. 
 
 In 1831 Becquey resigned his position as deputy of the Upper Marne, and 
 
M. BECQUEY. 05 
 
 had made his acquaintance in the haw courts when 
 we were botli attending them ; and he aheady jaossessed 
 among us youths the reputation he has preserved un- 
 clouded to the present day, that of an upright man and 
 one of great intellect. They all swore by him at Join- 
 ville, and he was at least as well accredited there as I 
 was at Bar-sur-Aube. Our coalition was induced by 
 our respective positions. It seemed clear that by uniting 
 the two bodies of electors of Bar and Joinville we should 
 carry off two thirds of the votes ; and as a majority 
 only was required for the election, it seemed certain 
 that we should be elected, even allowing a great deal 
 for desertions. We both w^ere too confident of it. We 
 could not hear the names that were proposed against us 
 without a secret joy and a good deal of apparent scorn. 
 M. Becquey had by nature the kind of pride that 
 preserves a man from any questionable steps. This 
 feeling is honourable, and therefore contagious ; he had 
 communicated it to me. Besides, we were both a little 
 tinctured with pride at the part we had played in the 
 provincial assembly, and we rejected as far beneath us 
 the measures necessary, in such a case, for creating a 
 party wliere a person has not one ; and, what is still 
 more difficult, for keeping together one already gained. 
 
 The electors of the three orders came in crowds to the 
 General Assembly, presided over by the Baron de Mandat, 
 the Grand Bailli of Chaumont. The Baron de Mandat 
 was a gentleman in the fullest sense of the term, full of 
 honour, generous even to prodigality, and satisfactory to 
 every one except his creditors. The electors united 
 under his leading to attend the mass of the Holy Ghost, 
 
 retired completely from political life. He died at Paris on the 2ud of May 
 IS-tn, at the age of S!) years. 
 
 The characteristic of his life was unison in good, — (" Life of Becquey," by 
 Beugnot, Paris, 1852). [Fr. Ed.] 
 
96 LIFE AND ADVENTUKES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 a reverential and necessary preliminary to our great as- 
 semblies. The most striking thing was the dress of the 
 Grand Bailli — a hat with feathers, short Spanish cloak,, 
 falling neck-tie, long sword, and rosettes in his shoes. 
 We had not yet adojDted dresses of all shapes, given them 
 up and taken to them again, and we were easily asto- 
 nished at anything beyond everyday clothes ; besides, 
 M. de Mandat was small in stature, witty and facetious, 
 somewhat comic in character and appearance, and in his 
 costume of Grand Bailli was not unlike Crispin in his 
 Sunday dress. The mass was got through somehow 
 amid all the noise. But at departure everyone rushed 
 to see the Grand Bailli pass and enjoy his appearance. 
 He marched with two halberdiers before him, giving 
 blows right and left to the too curious electors. One of 
 them was thrown down and trampled on ; the others 
 took his part. The disturbance became violent when M. 
 Becquey sprung into the pulpit to endeavour to separate 
 the combatants. That was the first of innovations ; and 
 it was another that a layman should ascend the pulpit of 
 truth. It produced immediate effect ; the appearance of 
 M. Becquey in the pulpit became the forie virum quern ; 
 people left off pulling each other's hair that they might 
 listen. Like a practised orator, M. Becquey took his 
 audience on their weak side ; he enlarged on the dignity 
 and inviolability of the electors, and blamed the Grand 
 Bailli's halberdiers for having hurt this one and touched 
 that other ; but in the name of this very dignity he begged 
 the electors not to be so hasty in taking the law into 
 their own hands, and to respect decorum more scrupu- 
 lously. He engaged that the Grand Bailli would punish 
 the zeal of his halberdiers as rather too rough. His last 
 words were a touching exhortation to peace, confidence, 
 and emulation, as to who should best perform the lofty 
 functions of an elector. Unanimous applause was heard 
 
TUE ABBOT OF CLAIRv'AUX. HT 
 
 in the place wliicli an instant before had echoed with 
 shouts of anger, and everybody went home quietly. The 
 triumph of M. Becquey was complete, and it would have 
 seemed strange if they had not sent to the States-General 
 a young orator so ready in calming the passions and 
 lending to wisdom all the seductions of wdt. The three 
 orders met in General Assembly. The king's attorney 
 made a very long and insignificant discourse. The Grand 
 Bailli, happily expeditious by nature, added some words, 
 and sent off each order into its special chamber. 
 
 The order of the clergy named the Abbot of Clairvanx 
 as President, with two parochial clergy as his secretaries. 
 The parochial clergy were by far the most numerous in 
 this Chamber, and brought to it an unrestrained hatred 
 of the monks and the higher clergy. Without doubt 
 there were some honourable exceptions ; but generally 
 these rash and very ignorant clergy had lost respect for 
 the sacred chain that connects the different degrees of 
 the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The}' blindly proceeded to 
 the seizure of tithes, the abasement of the higher clergy, 
 and the dispersion of the religious orders. Had they 
 been left time and means they would have established 
 Presbyterianism without wishing or knowing it. The 
 parochial clergy had named the Abbot of Clairvaux as 
 their president ; but loudly declared that it was only to 
 the large fortune of the abbot that he was indebted for 
 his selection to that honour, because he was beyond all 
 comparison the member of the Chamber who could most 
 splendidly represent them, that is to say, give them the 
 best dinners. But, however good were the dinners he 
 gave, they did not prevent their showering sarcasms on 
 him during his presidency. He had to submit to a sort 
 of reproaches and anti-monastic quips such as well-bred 
 secular clergy would not have allowed themselves to 
 use ; and no one gave less cause for this persecution than 
 
OS LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT I5EUGN0T. 
 
 Dom Rocourt, the last Abbot of Clairvaux. He was a 
 handsome, well-made man, of a refined politeness with 
 men that approached the borders of gallantry with wo- 
 men. An equally fortunate exterior had given him a 
 reputation for superiority which he by no means merited. 
 His mind was narrow ; he had little or no learning, and 
 not the least foresight. He thought it an impossibility 
 that they should overturn the edifice of Saint Bernard. 
 When he saw it overthrown before his eyes he could 
 hardly believe it, and died thirty years afterwards, 
 stih expecting its restoration. Surely it was inhuman to 
 persecute so simple a man ! 
 
 The Grand Bailli presided over the chamber of nobles in 
 ' virtue of his office. The Count de Choiseul d'Aillecourt 
 and * * * were appointed secretaries. The first houses 
 of France were represented in this assembly, but chiefly 
 by proxy. This Chamber was not animated by any very 
 marked design. The Duke of Orleans was the largest 
 landowner within the bounds of the Bailiwick of Chau- 
 mont. Pie had conferred his powers on the Viscount de 
 Montmorency Laval. The wife of this nobleman, being- 
 independent of him in fortune, also appeared among the 
 landowners of this Bailiwick. Less confiding than the 
 prince, she hail not thought it well to entrust her hus- 
 band with the honour of representing her ; and as it 
 was necessary for a person to possess a dehberative 
 voice in the assembly on his own account before repre- 
 senting anyone else, objections might have been raised 
 to the Viscount de Laval's entrance into the Chamber. 
 Some precisians objected to it, but the majority passed 
 over the difficulty. 
 
 The Viscount de Laval had come from the Palais 
 Royal with full confidence that he should carry all votes 
 with him for the Orleans party, whose noble commissary 
 he was. He had caused to be forwarded in advance a 
 
YLSCOUXT UE LAVAL. 99 
 
 sclieme of official instructions to the depntics of tlie 
 States-General for the district, composed by the Abb6 
 Sieyes, who was so unhappily lanious for his numerous 
 concoctions of Constitutions. This sclieme had been 
 sent to all the districts where the Duke cf Orleans had 
 property. Besides, he broup,-ht with him a scheme of 
 instructions by the same author for the assembly of the 
 Bailiwick ; and in order to back him up on liis mission 
 he was flanked by an Abbe dc Simon, one of the second- 
 rate rogues of the Palais Eoyal, a man of spirit and 
 audacity, presenthig in his single person all the scandals 
 that his cloth could cover. Finally, that no provision 
 for success might be omitted, these gentlemen brought 
 with them a good number of decorations for a chapter of 
 ladies, which, in truth, had as yet no existence ; but 
 which the Duke of Orleans had a fancy to create, and the 
 insignia of which he now began to distribute to ladies 
 whose credit might be of service to him, in considera- 
 tion of the urgency of the case. If to these honourable 
 methods of persuasion be added more ordinary ones, 
 such as dinners, balls, evening parties, promises to an}' 
 extent, engairements that mio-lit be thoucrht sacred, and 
 all this in the midst of a little provincial town inhabited 
 by a poor country population, the Viscount de Laval max- 
 well be pardoned for havhig had no doubts of success 
 at the beginning. 
 
 This nobleman was, besides, possessed of a great 
 fund of self-confidence. Leaving his elder brother, the 
 Duke de Laval, to be famed tor eccentric speeches, he 
 had won renown by deeds. He had been known to 
 hasten to the reviews of Potsdam, to kiss the boot of 
 the great Frederic there, and then come and plume him- 
 self on it at Paris, as if it were some heroic action, tie 
 had, of course, brought back from this remarkable pil- 
 grimage a permanent enthusiasm for Prussian drill and 
 
100 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 discipline. He was irambered among the zealous for 
 mechanical immobility, narrow ranks, and blows with the 
 flat of the sword. He had long tormented the fine regi- 
 ment of Auvergne, of which he was colonel, with his 
 mania for inventions, with his caprices, and liis harsh- 
 ness ; and as he did not make use of more than a small 
 portion of sense, qualified that little with a good deal of 
 insincerity, and led a loose life in other respects ; he 
 had entirely disgusted Louis XA"I., and, as a natural 
 consequence, was thrown into the Orleans party. Twenty 
 years later I met him again in Germany in the service of 
 the Emperor, and at the head of a newly-formed body, 
 called, I tliink, the Gendarmes of Ordnance. I even was 
 myself charged with the ^jainful mission of licensing him 
 and his corps. If I get so far in my Memoirs 1 will nar- 
 rate what befel him before my eyes ; and any one would 
 be very clever to recognise the same Viscount Moirt- 
 morency Laval that I have just described. 
 
 But he was, at the time I speak of, a nobleman of the 
 French court, polite, and of tolerably good manners, 
 though affected. Ajiparently M. de Becquey and I had 
 been pohited out to him as men who ought to be gained. 
 We became acquainted at his fetes and dinners, and he 
 asked us to come to him oner morning, as he had some- 
 thing of consequence to communicate. AVe attended, in 
 the expectation of some unforeseen news from Paris ; but 
 he wanted to read to as in great state the scheme of instruc- 
 tions of the Abbe Sieyes. Tliey ought to have given the 
 Viscount de Laval a master in modern elocution before 
 letting him depart upon his ujission. He read his scheme 
 in a high key, regularly emphasizing the letter M when- 
 ever it came next to the letter I at the beginning of 
 a word. As the word impost obtnrded every moment 
 in tlie discourse, the reader, gaining animation as he Avent 
 on, improved on his method of pronouncine- it. and 
 
CHAMBER OF NOBLES. 101 
 
 ended by singing it. We were already prepared for tins, 
 as Avell as for the contents of the tamous scheme; and 
 thus Ave took no interest in anything but the elocution, 
 which excited in ]M. Becquey and myself a very keen 
 desire to laugh, which only good luck prevented 
 from exploding. We had strength enough left to 
 thank the Viscount do Laval for his communication, 
 to praise the generous ideas comprised in the scheme, 
 and to see the exhausted orator drink a glass of water ; 
 but we had no sooner passed the threshold than we had 
 a rare laugh at the reader and at his certainty of having 
 penetrated us with admiration and gratitude. 
 
 Xotwithstanding the pains taken by the Viscount de 
 Laval, and the efforts of his assistants, which proceeded 
 to almost indecorous extremities, he could never manage 
 to gain his point in the chamber of the nobles. He was 
 not more fortunate when he addressed himself to that 
 of the Tiers-Etat. The situation of the Orleans party 
 was very good, for they numbered, especially in the 
 third chamber, a great many officers, registrars, and 
 principal farmers of revenue, all influential men ; never- 
 theless this party aroused a distrust that had gained all 
 classes at Chaumont, and nothing was less calculated to 
 allay it than the manners the Viscount de Laval had 
 adopted there. So he got nothing by his dinners, his 
 balls, his declamations, nor even by his Order; for he 
 had brought up this reserve before he retreated. The 
 lieutenant-general of the Bailiwick had admitted two 
 canonesses at a ball. This might be regarded as a 
 singular place for the reception of nuns ; but in every 
 respect these were nuns only in jest. 
 
 Thus far the prudence of the chamber of the nobles 
 merited nothing but praise ; but it afterwards gave a 
 singular proof of ingratitude by rejecting the Count de 
 Brienne. This nobleman, worthy of respect on all sides, 
 
102 LIFE AXD ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 did not share the unpopularity attaching to the name of 
 ■his brother. It was known that if he had been a mem- 
 ber of the same cabinet, it was because he could not 
 avoid it ; for he had no personal ambition. A zealous 
 and sedulous patron — the chamber of the nobles seemed, 
 if the expression may be permitted, paved with gen- 
 tlemen wdiom he had brought forward, for whom he 
 had obtained appointments, and whose position he had 
 established. It was expected that the nobility would 
 take advantage of such an occurrence as had never 
 before taken place, to prove their gratitude to him, and 
 console him in private for the kind of public disgrace 
 he had experienced ; but nothing of the sort was done. 
 Young men were seen intriguing against him, creatures 
 of the house of Brienne, who owed to the Count their late 
 promotions in the lower ranks of the army ; and when I 
 freely addressed reproaches to them, they coolly answered 
 me, " Yes, the Count de Brienne is an excellent man ; 
 but he is a man who is done for, and must be left quiet 
 at home." This disloyalty was carried to such a pitch 
 that I do not know whether this benefactor of the coun- 
 try obtained as many voices as I did. The election fell 
 on the Count de Choiseul d'Aillecourt, a cavalry colonel, 
 certainly an honourable man in more than one respect ; 
 but who did not display the talents expected of him in 
 the National Assembly. They gave him M. Clermont 
 d'Esclaibes as a colleague, a gentleman unknown till 
 then, and not much better known from his presence in 
 the Assembly. 
 
 The third chamber had no decided character. A 
 large number of the electors walked about the streets 
 or crowded the inns, waiting to see what would be 
 done with them. They had been called together for the 
 purpose of naming the officials, or rather of electing 
 the secretaries, for thfi_ Gtraird Railli's lienfpnnnf wno 
 
SCHEMES OF OFFICIAL INSTEUCTIOXS. 103 
 
 naturally presiJent. J\[. Bec(|ney and I made our first 
 mistake by neglecting this appointment, in which we nnght 
 have then succeeded. When the parties are not yet 
 formed it is useful to accustom the electors to your name 
 by this first vote. Besides, the secretaries are constantly 
 before the eyes of the assembly ; they canvass without 
 speaking, by no means the worst way of so doing. The 
 secretaries being named, the assembly was divided into 
 sections to examine the schemes of official instructions 
 sent up from the Communes, and to prepare a scheme for 
 the Bailiwick that should be referred to the assembly. 
 M. Becquey and I were appointed especially to work at 
 this, and we took great pains with it. I was not struck 
 with anything very remarkable in the bundle of schemes 
 that passed beneath my eyes ; though doubtless there 
 would have been real interest in reading the simple ex- 
 pression of the wants and grievances of the Tiers-Etat, 
 from one end of France to the other. The best elements 
 for composing the histoiy of the time might have been 
 found in them ; but all these schemes had been copied 
 from printed ones tliat were put into circulation, with 
 some additions that were the work of the local politician. 
 For example, the numerous communes of wdiich the 
 Duke of Orleans was seigneur, had scrupulously copied 
 the scheme prepared by the Abbe Sieyes and the oc- 
 casional additions formed a strange contrast to the rest. 
 Thus after a demand for the perfect separation of the 
 legislative, executive, and judicial powers, the liberty of 
 the press, trial by jury, and the abolition of all serfdom, 
 the peasants insisted that their yard-dogs should be 
 delivered from the clog, a sort of heavy stick that was 
 hung to the neck of these poor brutes by orders of the 
 lord of the manor, to hinder them from catching a hare 
 if it should happen to be within their reach ; I say if it 
 should happen — for dogs of this kind are not inclined 
 
104 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 to Imnt, and rarely stray far from the houses ; but there 
 was such a desire for the suppression of the clog that, do 
 what I would, it remained in the scheme of instructions 
 for the Bailiwick. Afterwards, having voted for all the 
 liberties that had as yet been emitted by the brains of 
 the Abb6 Sifeyes, the peasants made a further requisition 
 to be allowed guns for their defence against the wolves. 
 One of these schemes alone seemed to me worthy of 
 attention ; it came from a Commune near Chateauvillain. 
 The composer had amassed a crowd of demands more or 
 less exaggerated, and ended with this impudent formula : 
 " Let us give power to our deputies to request of our 
 sovereign lord the King his consent to the jsrevious de- 
 mands ; in case of his granting them, to give him thanks ; 
 and in case of his refusal, to unking him." The last 
 verb w^as underlined. I carried this scheme to the jjro- 
 cureur du roi and declared that 1 thought it would 
 be proper for him to denounce it to the Chamber, so 
 that it should be excluded from the number for con- 
 sideration, and that he should reserve the right of in- 
 stituting a criminal prosecution against its authors and 
 compilers. The procureur seemed angry at the dis- 
 covery, and faithfully promised to do as J advised, but 
 as he too was a candidate, and feared to make himself 
 unpopular by doing his duty, the insult to the King's 
 majesty was not taken notice of; the word transpired 
 and was repeated ; indeed, at last, it came to be con- 
 sidered as clever. The author had probably no notion of 
 making anything but a wretched hon mot, and had not 
 the least suspicion of having made a prophecy ! 
 
 While I was occupied in examining the papers a 
 powerful intrigue was being contrived against me. 
 The city of Chaumont, a former hunting seat of the 
 Counts of Champagne, is perched on a rock surrounded 
 on all sides by a barren country. In order to make 
 
PERSONAL ADVENTURE. 105 
 
 the best of this unpromising- locahty, they had estab- 
 hshed a court of Judicature, -with a very extensive dis- 
 trict that inchided Bar-sur-Aube and Joinville. Chau- 
 mont only existed by means of its jurisdiction. Nothing 
 but a haw-suit couki make any one climb this rock, and 
 the only trade was in stamped paper. So the number of 
 counsellors, advocates, attorneys, clerks, bailiffs, and inn- 
 keepers was vast and made up the city. Bar-sur-Aube, 
 whose lot had fallen in a better situation than Chaumont, 
 had endeavoured for some time to shake off the yoke of its 
 jurisdiction, and had accomplished it for a moment through 
 the edicts of 1788. It was known that Joinville had the 
 same desire, and was about to be equally successful, 
 when the edicts were withdrawn ; so Chaumont appeared 
 to think its existence depended on not sending deputies 
 selected from Bar-sur-Aube or Joinville to the States- 
 General, especially any who had given their adherence to 
 the system that had endangered its existence. It was a 
 very prudent precaution on their part. What ought M. 
 Becquey and I to have done then? We should have 
 closely united the electors of Bar-sur-Aube and Joinville, 
 and marched against those of Chaumont with colours 
 flying. The strongest party would have gained the day, 
 but we did not even prepare our battle array. The 
 electors who were drawing-room company remained 
 faithful to us, but some of that greater number crowding 
 the inns, and whom we affected to neglect, were daily 
 seduced from us. 
 
 A personal adventure of my own also weakened our 
 side. The commissioners for the preparation of the 
 instructions met every evening in the refectory of the 
 Capuchin Convent to prepare their work. This meeting 
 gave me some confidence. The articles of the periodical 
 meeting of the States-General, the partition of legislative 
 power between them and the King, and the reservation 
 
106 LIFE AKD ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 of the imposition of taxes to the Tiers-Etat alone had 
 akeady been passed. People had become used to listen 
 to me, and I had gained authority. On that account, I 
 fancy, a snare was prepared for me. We had come to 
 the directions about judicature, and a member of the 
 Assembly, the Bailli of Chateau villain, the only public 
 officer, then asked, " AVhat is to be done with the local 
 Parliaments?" I answered shortly and very imprudently, 
 " Suppress them." At these words a sort of electric shock 
 of rage seemed to take possession of the honourable 
 members present ; they all began to threaten me in 
 word and gesture. An advocate of Montierender, named 
 Delassire, left his seat and rushed at me with clenched 
 fists. I thought I was going to be sacrificed to the glory 
 of the Parliaments. Besides, the scene took place after 
 dinner. Madame de Sevigne has said, somewhere, that 
 a Breton neighbour is a very bad neighbour after dinner ; 
 a native of Champagne is not much better. All that the 
 men who remained cool in the midst of this uproar could 
 do, was to protect my escape, and even in the street my 
 angry colleagues pursued me, crying out, " To Lamoi- 
 gnon, to the high court of justice ; Oh ! the servant of 
 Brienne," and other kind expressions, just the things to 
 get me knocked on the head on the spot if the bravos 
 of the party had not been busied in the inns. 
 
 It will be supposed that this scene discouraged me 
 completely, as it revealed to me the danger, or, at least, 
 the difficulty of my position, which up to that time 
 I had scarcely perceived. I tliought I must give up 
 the preparation of the scheme, and also the candidature. 
 The evening after my unfortunate adventure, I received a 
 visit from the Bailli of Chateauvillain, who expressed 
 his regret at having been the innocent cause of the 
 tumult, and from some members of the Assembly, who 
 were ashamed of w ha,t lia,d occurred- T liev ur.o-ed me 
 
DUPONT DE NEMOUES. 107 
 
 to return the next day and explain my opinion fully, 
 assuring me that the majority would arrange so that I 
 should be lieard with the respect due to my opinion and 
 to my person. 
 
 I had not courage to yield to them ; I retired into my 
 tent without thinking that tlie Greeks would abstain 
 from coming to seek me there. I was not at all 
 necessary to the taking of Troy. I brooded over 
 ridiculous projects of revenge against the advocate 
 Delassire ; I wanted to send him a challenge. I was 
 answered that the advocate Delassire was a man of 
 sixty, who had never fought in his life, except with 
 strokes of the pen or blows in verses, and would laugh 
 at my proposal. I wanted to wait for him in the street 
 and give him a good caning ; but I was strongly dis- 
 suaded, because he was able to furnish a collective 
 retort, so I should not have the best of the bargain. 
 I was reduced to champ the bit alone, and only to go 
 out from my rooms for the indispensable duty of dropping 
 my ballot into the urn. This cowardly resolution made 
 my affairs almost desperate. 
 
 - Dupont dc Nemours once told me that he was placed 
 in a very shnilar position at that time for the same reason. 
 He too was a commissioner for the preparation of the 
 schemes of instruction for the Bailiwick, and when they 
 came to the article of the Parliaments, he voted for their 
 suppression out of pure economy. As at Chaumont, this 
 proposition caused most violent excitement ; but the dan- 
 ger was greater, for the place of meeting was on the first 
 floor ; they wanted to throw Dupont out of window, it 
 was open, and men in the heat of passion were proceed- 
 ing to execute this sentence of death, when Dupont per- 
 ceived among the spectators a very corpulent man who 
 was not interfering. He rushed at him and seized him 
 round the body with as firm a grasp as he could. They 
 
]€8 LIFE AND ADVEKTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 could not drag him awaj'; "What in the world do you 
 want ? " cried the fat man. " Indeed, Sir," said Dupont, 
 " every one for himself, they are going to throw me out 
 of window, and I intend you to act as my mattress." 
 
 This appropriate and courageous jest turned anger 
 into mirth. Dupont did not in the least retract his 
 proposal against the Parliaments because he has never 
 retracted anything in his life, and, what was more, he 
 was named deputy. Perhaps I should have had the 
 same reward if I had been brave enough to uphold my 
 views against Delassire and Company ; but Dupont was 
 unequalled in good-humour and braverJ^ 
 
 The scheme of instructions for the Bailiwick was 
 adopted in all its elegance, and just as it is printed, to 
 the eternal honour of the meetings for its preparation, 
 held after dinner in the refectory of the Capuchin Con- 
 vent at Chaumont. The next business was the nomina- 
 tion of the four deputies, which was done singly. The 
 first named was the king's attorney. At this scrutiny 
 M. Becquey had still a large number of the votes from 
 Joinville, and I from Bar-sur-Aube ; but they supported 
 both of us at once ; and Chaumont, which we could have 
 conquered for one, beat us when united. The same want 
 of sense on our side gave them a majority in the second 
 election, as that was gained by a M. Laloi, doctor, sur- 
 geon, apothecary, and wine-broker at Chaumont; after 
 all, however, a good sort of man, and not wanting in 
 sense, but of vulgar manners and destitute of education. 
 At the third nomination we began to come to an under- 
 standing, and the danger became pressing from the cabal 
 at Chaumont. The notion it adopted was that of loudly 
 demanding an agriculturist. The king's advocate and 
 the lieutencxnt-general poured themselves out in pastorals 
 to the best of their ability ; they, in their discourses, 
 praised the fields, a nd the pleasure s nf the fields and t.lip 
 
M. JAUXY. 109 
 
 men of tlie fields. It was for these latter especially tliat 
 the States-General were convoked ; sad would be the 
 fate of the coimtry that did not send up agriculturists. 
 The music of these pipes was soothing to the ears of the 
 majority of the electors, and they rallied round a Isl. 
 Moul, a farmer, who was absent from the Assembly from 
 illness. Wherr informed of the honour conferred on him, 
 he flatly refused, and had the good sense not to leave his 
 plough for politics. There was still one more deputy to 
 elect. Our party, thrice beaten, could do no more, be- 
 cause in the war of elections, as well as any other, every 
 defeat entailed desertions. But the cabal thought that 
 they must come to some compromise with the electors of 
 Bar-sur-Aube. They offered to elect a deputy from 
 among them, provided it was not me. After much dis- 
 cussion as to whom they should select, they united on M. 
 Jauny, an advocate of Brienne. M. Jamiy had been for 
 the space of twenty-five years an advocate at Paris, with- 
 out ever having pleaded a cause or had his name men- 
 tioned anywhere. He was among the two or three 
 hundred poor devils of advocates that came with their 
 long robes to Paris, with sallow countenances and un- 
 certain steps, to fish for some bits of writing or some 
 matter-of-course signatures requiring a fee. Never since 
 Champagne had been called by that name had human 
 being otfered in shape, mind, and face a more perfect 
 type of the man of Champagne ; and the province was 
 bound to elect him. Having retired for some years to 
 Brienne, he had not been better received at the great 
 house than was due to his personal amiability ; and he 
 had made himself a member half from resentment, 
 half from pride in his title of advocate to the Par- 
 liament of Paris. He constituted a small opposition at 
 Brienne composed of few members besides himself and 
 his old female servant. That was enough for the cabal 
 
110 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUXT BEUGNOT. 
 
 of Cliaumont to adopt him warmly. M. Jauny, wlien 
 without his gown, could, like some of his colleagues, 
 find curious garments to put on his back. The clothes 
 he wore at the assembly of the Bailiwick were not 
 unlike the get-up of the knave of hearts ; and, as in 
 other respects the two figures were sufficiently alike, 
 the electors called him Quinola. This nickname re- 
 sulted in good fortune for him. They were proceeding 
 to the last election, and all cried out, " Up -with 
 Quinola!" By the power of shouting, Quinola was 
 put up, and M. Jauny elected. 
 
 The cabal, thinking they had thus acceded to the 
 wishes of Bar-sur-Aube, desired also to become recon- 
 ciled to Joinville. They took up the notion of having a 
 substitute named, and some electors sought M. Becquey 
 to know wdietlier he would be willing to accept this 
 deferred honour. He was out, and they found no one to 
 speak to but M. Guillaume, in whose house he, like 
 myself, lodged. I have already had occasion to mention 
 what M. Guillaume was — that is to say, he was the man 
 the most inclined that I have ever seen in my life to joke 
 upon serious matters. " Gentlemen," answered our 
 facetious host, "you do great honour to ]\I. Becquey, but 
 I doubt if he will accept the very heavy responsibility of 
 being a substitute ; he is not strong enough for it. You 
 have elected M. Moul, who is said to be ill. M. Jauny 
 can breathe, but that is all. M. Becquey is not strong. 
 You want Gomhert tlie horses^ he could, at need, carry 
 your whole deputation on his shoulders." 
 
 Those present, among whom I was, repeated to ls\. 
 Guillaume what had been told him a thousand times, 
 that his jokes were always unseasonable, and that he 
 would do better to discover M. Becquey, to let him 
 judge for himself of the proposition made him. " No," 
 answered M. Guillaume. " there is no time to lose. T 
 
GOMBERT THE HORSES. 11] 
 
 am going tins moment, but it is to propose Gombert 
 the liorses, and I do not come home till he is elected. 
 It is supposed I am not a good patriot. I will show 
 what I can do ! " 
 
 In very truth, he flmig down his night-ca}), which he 
 never pulled off except at dinner, and in his loose 
 dressing-gown, his most usual one for the whole day, 
 he ran into the street, visited the inns, stopped in the 
 open places, and demanded Gombert the horses, with 
 loud shouts ; he is the saviour of the country, and the 
 only man that can support the deputation. M. Guillaume 
 got numerous groups to follow and applaud him. He 
 marched at their head to the courts where the electoral 
 assemblies held their sittings ; he met at the foot of the 
 stairs Gombert himself, who asked him the meanuig of 
 his joke, and threatened to pay him wages for it on the 
 spot. He put himself in readiness to do so, and M. 
 Guillaume had no other way of escape but hastily to 
 mount the stejos and take refuge in the courts. There, 
 thinking himself secure from Gombert's marks of grati- 
 tude, he continued more vehemently to insist on his 
 nomination. There was surprise, laughter, at the candi- 
 date and his proposer, the manner of the one and the 
 dress of the t)ther. But the scrutiny was commenced : 
 some in joke, others in earnest, threw the name of Gom- 
 bert the horses into the urn, and he was elected. 
 
 This Gombert was a man of most robust constitution 
 — great shoulders, great head, square figure — a sort of 
 ill-made Hercules. He had a stentorian voice, and as 
 the rudeness of his manners was in harmuny ^\•ith the 
 proportions of his person, the people, who distribute their 
 quips so as to strike to the purpose, had fclt that it 
 would not be doing him justice to call him simply 
 Gombert the horse, and without troubling themselves 
 with the grammatical concord of numbers, had called in 
 
112 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BE0GNOT. 
 
 the plural to support what the smgular seemed too weak 
 for. So M. Gombert was known by the extraordinary 
 nickname of the horses. It was given to him, and he 
 accepted it without an idea that it was any stigma. 
 
 So the election of the Bailiwick of Chaumont for the 
 States- General was made more than complete. M. 
 Moul, as I have mentioned before, did not accept his 
 nomination ; and it happened that, not without intending 
 anything more than a joke, a deputy had really been 
 named in the person of M. Gombert. He, for the 
 matter of that, did no more and no less than the other 
 seven deputies of the Bailiwick : not one of them spoke 
 a word or wrote a line. The two deputies of the nobles 
 sat on the right ; the advocate Jauny where he could 
 be best out of sight ; the two provosts and the four 
 deputies of the Tiers-Etat on the left. All spent three 
 years without being seen in this assembly, and left it 
 rather more obscure than they entered it. 
 
 The strange success of the last nomination, the part 
 M. Guillaume had taken in it, and the glory he got from 
 it, were the cause of mirth to the guests at his house. 
 Like men of sense, we consoled ourselves with songs. 
 The victorious party were a little ashamed of their 
 victory, and we made them a good deal more so. After 
 a few days employed in hissing the play that we all had 
 reason to be discontented with, I parted with W. Becquey, 
 who went to spend some time with his wife's family, one 
 of the most honourable and amiable in the province ; 
 and, on my side, I went to my father-in-law's. It was 
 at that time that I contracted with M. Becquey a sort 
 of brotherhood in arms that has lasted forty years, all in 
 kindnesses, in toucliing attentions, and generous actions 
 on his side, and on mine in gratitude and devotion. 
 
 We have often considered whether we should resfret 
 or be thankful that -"^q ^vqtp not, hnth plpftprl to flip- 
 
IXTEEVIKW WITH MY FATHER-IN-LAW. 113 
 
 Constitutional Assembly, and at last agreed to be 
 grateful to Providence. We were equally young, and 
 not destitute of some ambition for renown that early and 
 easy success had fostered in us. "Who can tell how far 
 this former feeling might have led us astray? If we 
 had been so unfortunate as to be praised for a first error, 
 we should have very quickly fallen into a second. And 
 how easy it was to go far astray. The path of illusions 
 was so wide and attractive ! Doubtless we should have 
 arrived with our souls honest and intentions pure ; but 
 for that very reason we should have embraced at the 
 commencement the cause of the Tiers-Etat that had 
 deputed us, and at what period and how could we have 
 separated from it ? And if we had remained attached to 
 it, whither might it not have conducted us ? The few 
 survivors of that time have not found out their mis- 
 take, and M. de Lafayette, the father of the unrepentant, 
 numbers as manv adherents of different degrees of fervour 
 as there remain members of the left. 
 
 When I reached my father-in-law's house, I had great 
 trouble to persuade him that I was not nominated to the 
 States-General. I told him the names of those who had 
 prevailed ; and, as was natural, did not forget M. Gom- 
 bert the horses. Then he became angry, and took the 
 truth for one of those stories that his sons-in-law some- 
 times took the liberty of telling him. When at last he 
 was reduced to believing me, after viewing the subject 
 on all points, he congratulated me on not having been 
 put into such bad company. He said, " They wanted 
 to name me also an elector for the Assembly at Langres, 
 but gave me as companions four rustics whom I should 
 have sent to dine in my kitchen ; so I sent them all to 
 the devil. There is nothing I would not do to do any 
 good, but everyone in his proper place." " Yes," re- 
 plied I, " provided every one can stop there." " Oh, you 
 
114 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 are always afraid. Has not the king got a liundred 
 and fifty thousand men ? " The king's hundred and fifty 
 thousand men were the final response of my father-in- 
 law to all my apprehensions : he removed all doubts and 
 closed all questions in this convenient manner. 
 
 Yet I considered the little arsenal he had around 
 him, and saw him with great plenitude of confidence 
 continue his ancient tyranny over the inhabitants of the 
 barony of Choiseul. I did not believe that things could 
 remain long on the same footing. I was anxious for the 
 personal security of my father-in-law, who was not a 
 man to grant the slightest concession. I addressed my- 
 self to Madame Morel. One was sure of a hearino; 
 when one made any sort of accusation against her hus- 
 band. I explained my uneasiness, and she must soon 
 have shared it. I advised her to make a mild use of 
 severe rights tliat were spoken against on all sides ; she 
 promised me that she would work to effect this, and really 
 did so every day at her own great risk. I also infused into 
 lier mind certain germs of patriotism, which were so de- 
 veloped there by the contradictions which she experienced 
 from her husband, that at last they gave us uneasiness 
 of quite a different nature. 
 
 After having accomplished this little mission in my 
 father-in-law's house, I returned to Bar-sur-Aube ; and 
 jny fellow-citizens received me well. It was known that 
 1 had been beaten at the elections for the sake of the 
 county, and they were grateful to me for my defeat. 
 Besides, the man who had been preferred to me was so 
 ridiculous that they required no explanations, but were 
 contented with laughing. So I resumed my usual em- 
 })loyments at the " Bureau Intermediaire," and applied 
 myself to them more closely than ever; but the times had 
 suddenly changed. During the previous year, confidence 
 had widened the paths that hone seemed to onen : this 
 
MEETING OF THE STATES-GENEUAL. 115 
 
 year minds were a prey to tlie anxiety that marks the 
 expectation of some great catastrophe. Either fear or 
 expectation of the future devoured the present. I felt this 
 myself; I was a partaker of the illusion that the States- 
 General would not touch provincial assemhlies. But I 
 saw so many other points of equal gravity questioned ; 
 minds appeared to me so heated and so violently dis- 
 tracted, that I felt paralysed by vague terror. Besides, 
 my position was altered ; there was nothing more for me 
 to do but to enlarge the sphere of my powers as much 
 as I could, even were I to be obstructed by the super- 
 mtendent or his delegate ; and this was just the thing to 
 suit my youth and ardour. The depositories of any sort 
 of authority exercised it with timitlity, or had to defend 
 it against men who had returned Avitli an entirely novel 
 audacity from the assembhes of the bailiwick, and already 
 rehearsed the part they were to enact later. Every day 
 produced virulent pamphlets against the clergy and 
 nobihty. A design was becoming manifest of keeping 
 the tliird estate in a perpetually increasing state of 
 irritation ao-ainst the two other orders ; and some his- 
 torical researches, published by well-known writers, 
 seemed to have no other object. Amid these rumours 
 came the period for the meeting of the States-General. 
 Certainly all the antecedents would have been contra- 
 dicted had this meeting proved unanimous between the 
 three orders and respectful to the Throne. So I was 
 prepared for, and more saddened than surprised at, the 
 taking of the Bastille, the insurrection in Paris, the 
 Kino^'s o-oins: to the Hotel de Ville, the discourse of IM. 
 Bailly, and the parody on f]cce Homo by il. Lally 
 Tollendal. 
 
 When the news of the capture of the Bastille arrived 
 at Bar-sur-Aube I feared that some castles of less im- 
 portance would be taken, and I hastened to Choiscnl. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 As I approaclied it from Chaumont I found the scat- 
 tered poiJulation upon the high road, and was much 
 alarmed, but I regained confidence on seeing that every 
 peasant had a green bough in his hand, and on hearing 
 the discordant notes of some village fiddlers. I inquired 
 the reason of all this rejoicing, and they told me that 
 they expected M. Necker, who was coming to Chau- 
 mont, or perhaps had already arrived. I quickened my 
 steps, and learnt on entering the town that M. Necker 
 himself had arrived and alighted at the inn of the 
 Fleur de Lys. I hurried thither that moment and had 
 much difficulty in getting to the inn through a crowd 
 of people, wondering, enchanted, full of emotion and 
 crying, with tears in their eyes, " Long life to our pre- 
 server ! long life to our good minister ! long life to 
 M. Necker ! " The most vigorous of the band were 
 already prepared to draw his carriage, and I remember 
 I was strongly affected by this scene so novel to me. 
 I reached M. Necker, but not without many efforts and 
 the influence of my brother-in-law who was municipal 
 officer at Chaumont. His influence would not have been 
 enough without the aid of a stratagem that M. Guillaume 
 alone could have invented. He took a scrap of paper, 
 rolled it up in his hand and raising it above the by- 
 standers, he cried out, " Gentlemen, please let me pass, 
 M. Necker has sent me to buy him some snuff, and here 
 I am carrying it to him." 
 
 Every one made haste without raising a doubt as to 
 the oddity of the commission or of the messenger, and 
 we reached the minister. I found him in the company 
 of his daughter and Dufresne Saint Leon, Avho had been 
 sent to fetch him. ^ I was very well received, but hardly 
 had time to utter some words of congratulation in my 
 emotion before they came to tell him that the Countess 
 de Brionne had just arrived at Chaumont and had 
 
M. NECKEE. 117 
 
 entered the same hotel. The arrival of such a guest, at 
 such a moment, disagreeably surprised both father and 
 daughter. M. Necker said to Madame de Stael, "AVe 
 must ask if she will see us." My brother-in-law under- 
 took the mission and returned saying, that Madame de 
 Brionne would be ready in a moment; this moment was 
 ■one of anxiety. ]\I. Necker soon passed with Madame 
 de Stael into Madame de Brionne's rooms. My brother- 
 in-law, who was present at the scene, told me that she 
 received them in their triumph with calm dignity. Con- 
 versation was immediately commenced on the causes 
 that had determined ^Madame de Brionne to retreat 
 so speedily. She answered M. Necker, " Sir, it was 
 all that is going on at Paris, to which your presence 
 will put a stop, at least I hope so; you will have 
 much to do." And as Madame de Statil expressed her 
 regret that Madame de Brionne had decided so speedily, 
 4she answered, " Madame, yours is an age of confidence 
 and a moment of good fortmie. Enjoy your father's 
 triumph ; no one can be more desirous for its perma- 
 nency than I am ; but allow me to pass to the gates 
 of France, to await the issue of all this." And they 
 parted with professions on the one side respectful, on 
 the other cool, and somewhat displeased. 
 
 When these illustrious travellers left Madame de 
 Brionne's rooms their means of departure, or rather the 
 instruments of their triumph, were prepared. Between 
 the palms, the crowns, the musicians, the men who were 
 harnessed to the carriage, the joyful cries of all the 
 l^opulation, they had only time to give me some tokens 
 of interest. M. Necker and his daughter, while they 
 seemed affected even to tears, but embarrassed with 
 these honours, yielded themselves up to them, probably 
 in order not to waste time. And who would have told 
 me that hardly two years would have passed before, not 
 
118 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT EEUGNOT. 
 
 far from Cliaumont and again in an inn, I should have- 
 great difficulty in defending M. Necker from the insults 
 of the same people who now harnessed themselves to 
 his car ? How many times in my life has this sorrowful 
 compai'ison struck my thoughts ! 
 
 Madame de Brionne, of whom I have just spoken, had 
 been one of the most beautiful women of her time, and 
 the dignity of her character had preserved her from 
 the dangers that would have surrounded her beauty. 
 She had borrowed nothing from her times but what 
 she could not refuse without seeming ridiculous, and, 
 above all, she had remained a great lady to the full 
 extent of the words. Before the Revolution she had 
 been intimate with the Abbe de Perigord, who was 
 Bishop of Autun, and was himself celebrated for the 
 extent and elegance of his intellect, but beneath it 
 concealed a great stock of family pride that has not 
 yet left him. It was a title to admission with Madame 
 de Brionne. 
 
 At the time of the first insurrection in Paris the 
 Bishop of Autun, a deputy of the States-General, learnt 
 that Madame de Brionne was on the point of making 
 her escape. He hastened to her. "Why this hasty 
 resolution, Madame?" "Because I do not wish to be 
 a victim, nor to witness scenes that horrify me." " But 
 must you leave France for that ?" " Well, where would 
 you like me to go ? " "I do not advise you to remain 
 in Paris because you are alarmed, nor even to retire to 
 one of your estates ; but go and spend some time in 
 a little provincial town where you are unknown ; live 
 there without making yourself remarkable, and no one 
 will discover you there." "A Httle provincial town — • 
 oh, M. de Perigord, I can be a peasant if you please, but 
 never a bourgeoise." The expression is worthy of a 
 Rohan, the widow of a prince of the house of Lorraine. 
 
M. DILLON. 119 
 
 At the moment I write we have no more aristocracy, 
 its language is lost. Yet it is well to preserve some 
 of these expressions of a lofty insolence that are like 
 medals stamped with the spirit of the age. The last 
 Archbishop of Narbonne was Dillon, nominal uncle of 
 all those Dillons that we have seen making their way in 
 the world with their names and fine fio-ures as their 
 whole fortune. He liimself was a man of five feet six or 
 seven inches, well made, with a large chest, the bent of 
 whose inclinations, the air of whose head, whose gestures 
 and voice testified to natural superiority. His most 
 apparent fault was an inordinate love of hunting. 
 Louis XV. blamed him for it at his levee. M. de Dillon 
 was then no more than Bishop of Evreux, but his 
 hunting equipments were the scandal of Normandy. 
 " JSly lord bishop, you are a great hunter," said the 
 king to him, " I know something about it. How can 
 you forbid your priests from hunting if you spend your 
 life in setting them an example of it?" "Sire, for my 
 priests hunting is their own vice, in my case it is that 
 of my ancestors." The same M. Dillon, when appointed 
 Archbishop of Narbonne, put no restraint on his tastes, 
 and his expenses had soon put his affairs in disorder. It 
 came to the knowledge of Louis XVL that he was very 
 much in debt. This prince, a lover of order, and dis- 
 mayed by the sad example just given by the Prince 
 de Guemenee, preached economy and payment of debts 
 from morning till night. One day he said to M. Dillon, 
 "My lord archbishop, they say that you are in debt, 
 and very deeply?" "Sire," answered the prelate, "I 
 will ask my steward about it and have the honour of 
 informing your majesty." There is no place in society 
 at present for the feeling that dictated these haughty 
 answers, which are not understood by the descendants 
 of those who made them, for the middle classes have 
 
120 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 extended over the next not only their power, but their 
 thoughts, and fashions, and language. 
 
 I met a good number of persons on the road and 
 imparted to them the joyful news of the passage of M. 
 Necker through Chaumont, and they everywhere seemed 
 delighted at it. They were there only curious to know 
 what had been passing at Paris. I gave satisfactory infor- 
 mation, and crowned it by that of the return of M. Necker, 
 whom I had met at Chaumont. They wanted to know if 
 I had really seen him ; I declared it as solemnly as I 
 could, and all the rest of the day they kept coming to 
 the house to see a man who had seen M. Necker. AVhat 
 a calm followed his return, at least in the province where 
 I dwelt. Yet I was not without anxiety how to preserve 
 my father-in-law's mansion from insult, and made my 
 wife and sister come thither. Both were beloved by 
 the peasants, for they were never tired of interced- 
 ing for them. My wife especially was beloved, and 
 even after her marriage they called her nothing but our 
 good young lady. The ladies arrived, laughed at my 
 apprehensions, and their presence attracted society to the 
 house. 
 
 Confidence was established, and I was delighting in 
 the happiness of the life we led there while Paris was so 
 cruelly rent, when a piece of intelligence that burst on 
 France like thunder destroyed our security — that of the 
 brigands. One beautiful evening we were quietly eat- 
 ing our supper, with a number of guests, when a labourer 
 from Choiseul arrived in great agitation to tell us that the 
 brigands were spreading over the country, and were ad- 
 vancing on the house to sack it. Everyone cried out, 
 " But how about the brigands, where do they come from?" 
 I did not extend my inquiry thus far, and only wanted the 
 labourer to say whether he liad seen these brigands ; he 
 stated that he had recognised one band passing the wood 
 
KEPORT OF BEIGANDS. 121 
 
 of Montot, another the wood of Penneciere, two small 
 woods not far from the house. I began to beheve the 
 more because this labourer did not want for sense, and 
 was a confidential man about the house. I\I. Morel, per- 
 suaded of the truth of the story, did not wish to lose 
 time in deliberation. His ancient courage was ready, 
 quite perfect ; he ordered the guns to be loaded, and 
 showed me that the arsenal I had so nmcli derided 
 was not too large now. He sent out three men as 
 scouts, one on the hill of Saint Nicholas, at the back of 
 the house, and the two others on the roads to the woods 
 of Moutot and Pemreciere, with orders to retire to head- 
 quarters on the first appearance of the brigands. He 
 lined the two approaches to the chateau with armed men, 
 and reserved to himself the central position, from which 
 .all orders should issue. He allowed me to remain with 
 him and act as chief of the staff. When his arrange- 
 ments were made he caused a good allowance of brandy 
 to be served out to all the company, and informed the 
 ladies that they must be pleased to go down into the 
 cellar on the first shot. I cannot help laughing when I 
 think of their anxiety — they would have much preferred 
 to depart from the position menaced with a siege. They 
 iimidly made the proposal to M. Morel, but he saw nothing 
 but difficulties and dangers in their departure. Besides, 
 when once the plan of defence was determined on, the 
 old soldier was easy and left the rest to fortune. The 
 night passed without the scouts falling back, or the 
 guard being attacked, or the chief of the staff having an 
 order to give, or the ladies descending to the cellar. 
 Next morning they laughed heartily at their own fright, 
 and the military preparations of the evening before. 
 But ]\L Morel thought it would not be prudent to re- 
 move the defences. It was true that the brigands had 
 not appeared at the points named the night before, but 
 
 to 
 
122 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 tliey had incontestably aiopeared, and Avitli effect, in the 
 neighbourhood. Mansions that had been burnt were 
 mentioned, an<I others that were burning still, and my 
 father-in-law said, aloud, that they had not dared tO' 
 knock their heads against his ; but he therefore judged 
 that there was the greater reason for keeping a good 
 countenance. So the state of siege lasted a whole week, 
 though its severity daily diminished. 
 
 Then I did what I could to make out by what means 
 this report of brigands had come to the place where I 
 was living ; for if they liad really effected their purpose, 
 it might have given an indication of the cause. I could 
 not discover anything to clear up doubts and uncertainty. 
 The labourer of Choiseul who had brought us the news 
 said he had received it from an inhabitant of CoUombey, 
 a neighbouring village. He was full of the notion when 
 he got to Choiseul, and in the uncertain light of the 
 moon had seen, or thought he had seen, the brigands at 
 the two spots he had stated. I went back to the man of 
 Collombey, and he told me he had heard it from one of 
 Montigny. I did not pursue my researches any further, 
 because I perceived plainly that I should only get to 
 channels that had passed this news from one to the other, 
 and scared one another in the most perfect good faith. 
 I also had occasion to read letters from deputies of the 
 Tiers-Etat, containing information that the brigands were 
 roaming over France, and that it was necessary to arm 
 to repel them. These deputies, otherwise obscure persons, 
 were only instruments of those of the first order, but no 
 one knows whence orighiated this strange expedient. It 
 has been attributed to ]\Iirabeau ; but he would not 
 accept the honour, and complained to me that no one 
 lends but to the rich. 
 
 This fear of brigands created brigandage. Every man 
 who had a weapon snatched it up ; evervone who had 
 
SEARCH FOE THE MARQUIS OF YAUBECOURT. 123 
 
 not, took one by force, and in a moment France was 
 covered with bands armed by cliance, without disciphne 
 or controh This institution of an internal mihtary force 
 was afterwards organised into a national guard ; but at 
 the beginning it was only a blind power. Taking- 
 example from the States-General, which had become the 
 National Assembly, in which committees were daily 
 multiplied, every town and village had its committee of 
 superintendence, and its permanent committee for national 
 protection ; and the irregular movements of these new- 
 fashioned bodies were surprisingly well calculated to 
 paralyse the action of the old authorities. In making 
 the divisions, the barony of Choiseul fell to the lot of 
 the committee of superintendence of Montigny le Roi, 
 a considerable village, and one of the keys of Bassigny 
 to the south, as Clefmont is to the north. 
 
 During the first days of the month of August, this 
 committee sent commissioners to search the Chateau de 
 Choiseid to see if the Marquis of Vaubecourt was not 
 hidden there. I got my father-in-law out of the house, 
 and did the honour of it to these gentlemen. I had the 
 doors of every room opened to them, even the most 
 retired. The commissiouers entered them all, with a 
 courage that nothing but religious respect for duty 
 could inspire ; and when they were convinced that M. de 
 Vaubecourt was not hidden anywhere — not even in the 
 drawers of my father-in-law's desk — I asked them to do 
 me the favour of taking breakfast. The commissioners, 
 feeling easy on the subject of their mission, obligingly 
 accepted. When the little amenities of a meal had 
 relaxed their brows, I asked them to expound to me by 
 what law the Marquis of Vaubecourt was forbidden to 
 come and live at the Chateau de Choiseul, if he had a 
 fancy for doing so; and what they would have done 
 with him if they had found him there. The answer I 
 
124 LIl^E AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 received was that M. de Vaubecourt was an aristocrat, 
 and denounced as such ; and if lie had been found he 
 woukl have been taken before the committee, and they 
 would have decided what to do with him. The gentle- 
 men added that I might be quite easy, as they never 
 acted without orders. I pretended indeed to be easy, 
 but I was not so, either on M. Vaubecourt's account or 
 on my father-in-law's. 
 
 Two days after the visit of these commissioners, the 
 resolutions of the night of the 4th of August were every- 
 where reported in Bassigny. I gathered from them that 
 nothing was any longer safe, and I pressed my fatlier-in- 
 law to retire to his property at Arbigny, but could not per- 
 suade him. He received letters from M. de Vaubecourt, 
 who advised him to remain firm, and not to make any 
 compromise of the least of his rights ; for that all this 
 was only a fire of straw. And besides that his personal 
 inclination lay that way, he thought himself bound in 
 gratitude to M. de Vaubecourt. He was faithful, and, in 
 consequence, nearly lost his life for having paid the 
 price of his land twice over — once to the Republic at 
 home, and once to his friend, the lord of the manor, 
 abroad. He was bold enough to persist in playing 
 this dangerous and honourable part till the time when he 
 was denounced by an unfaithful messenger, arrested, and 
 accused before the revolutionary tribunal at Paris for this 
 good action. I cannot doubt that a letter of M. Vaube- 
 court's had been opened by the committee of superinten- 
 dence at Montigny, and that we owed the visit of the 
 commissioners to this circumstance, then a very common 
 one. 
 
 On the publication of the resolutions of the 4th of 
 August, the committee of surveillance at jMontigny, re- 
 inforced by all the patriots of the country, descended on 
 the Barony of Choiseul like a torrent, and in two or three 
 
PATRIOTS AT CHOISEUL. ]25 
 
 days pitilessljr exterminated the hares and partridges that 
 had lived there a long time without being touched, thanks 
 to my father-in-law's mercy. They fished in his stews, 
 and even came into the court-yard of the house to fire at 
 pigeons and destroy the dove-cote. These fine fellows 
 then extended their insolence to my father-in-law, so far 
 as to offer to sell him some of his own fish, of which 
 they had a superfluity, and of his pigeons, that they 
 did not know what to do with. I was but little excited 
 by these patriotic excesses ; I had enough to do to re- 
 strain my father-in-law, though precautions were taken 
 to keep everything away that might furnish arms to 
 his rage. 
 
 But I must do justice to the peasants of the barony, 
 for not one of them mixed with these bands, composed 
 of patriots from Montigny, and of smugglers or scamps 
 from the neighbourhood. The peasants had come to 
 understand very well that any improvement of then- 
 condition was to be expected from the law alone, and 
 that any excess on their part would not redound to their 
 honour or profit. ]\I. Morel was angry with them for 
 not undertaking to defend him ; but in all good faith 
 could they be expected to defend an order of things that 
 I do not like to dwell on for a moment ? 
 
 The best fields in the three viUages were the property 
 of the lord, and called his demesne. The peasants were 
 bound to cultivate them, sow and reap them, on 
 the lord's account, and to bring the produce into his 
 barns ; every portion of land, every house, every head of 
 cattle, owed him service ; he had the right to keep for 
 himself any property that was sold, always on condition 
 of repaying the purchaser what he had paid, but taking 
 advantage of the lord's clues upon sales. There was 
 thirlage of ovens, of weights, and markets. In fine, the 
 children only succeeded their parents on condition of 
 
126 LIFE AND AbVENTUKES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 having lived with tliem ; if they were absent at the time 
 of decease, it was the lord who inherited. The charter 
 conferring these rights came down from the twelfth 
 century, and had been granted to the inhabitants of the 
 barony by one Gualtier de Choiseul by way of grace and 
 as a form of enfranchisement. What could have been 
 their case before ? 
 
 Assuredly, when the resolutions of the night of the 
 4th of August suddenly fell among a population thus 
 treated, some excesses might have been excusable in 
 the outburst of their joy. As I said, none of any 
 sort were committed, and when all the fish in the 
 stews had been caught, the hares slaughtered, and 
 l^igeons destroyed by strangers, matters nearly resumed 
 their usual course. 
 
 I received pressing letters recalling me to Bar-sur- 
 Aube, where matters were not going differently from 
 other places. All the mischief at Choiseul seemed to be 
 over ; and I had great confidence in Madame Morel, 
 who, half from uiterest, half out of hatred of domestic 
 tyranny — which she confused with public tyranny — had 
 set up the tricoloured cockade, preached liberty before 
 lier husband's face, and had already gained a distin- 
 guished reputation for patriotism for some leagues 
 around. So I left Choiseul with the ladies. We were 
 in a rather nice carriage, and stopped at the village of 
 JMandres, between Choiseul and Chaumont, where we 
 usually baited. We found in one of tlie front rooms of 
 the inn a dozen peasants assembled round a table fur- 
 nished with glasses and bottles, among which could be 
 seen an ink-stand, some pens, and something like a 
 register. I went into the second room with the ladies. 
 The mistress of the inn, who took an interest in us, came 
 to tell us to be on our guard, and, above all, to say 
 nothing to the peas ant? in tlip firft rnnn^ — " t j^ „„4- 
 
COMMITTEE OF TEAS ANTS. 127 
 
 know what they are about," said the good woman ; "but 
 they are there from mornhig to night, drinkmg, swearmg, 
 -and abusing everyone, and they call themselves a com- 
 mittee." I asked no more; I called the postihon who 
 brought us, and told him to put to his horses at once, 
 whether they were baited or not, for I wanted to be oft" 
 very quickly. ^Aliat I gathered from the deliberations 
 of the committee redoubled my desire of placing some 
 distance between ourselves and this new power. 
 
 A\' hen I saw from the window that the horses were 
 put to, I pressed the ladies to be gone, and especially 
 begged them to moderate the merriment inspired by 
 what was passing while they went through the front 
 room. I followed them in some uneasiness on this score. 
 As they went through, an honourable member said to 
 them, " A good journey to you, my pretty ladies ! " One 
 of them answered in a rather derisive tone, " Au revoir, 
 gentlemen of the Tiers-Etat." Though the insult was 
 only in the manner in which it was spoken, an explosion 
 was produced, and the honourable members rose in a fury 
 to rush at the ladies. I threw myself before them. They 
 liad time to get out of the door, hastily enter into the 
 carriage, and the postilion spurred his horses. They es- 
 caped ; but I remained in pledge for them. One of the 
 more violent seized me by the collar, and said that I 
 should suffer for their insolence, and indeed I did receive 
 a shower of cuff's that would have knocked me down if 
 the man who held my collar had let go. The woman of 
 the house, seeing this, began to cry Murder ! assassins ! 
 Her cries were so dreadful that I hear them still. Her 
 son-in-law and two men, who were at work in the house, 
 ran up and persuaded them to listen to me if they would 
 not let me go. 
 
 The son-in-law said, " They did not make you a com- 
 mittee in order to beat the passers-by, but to question 
 
128 LIFE AND ADTENTUKES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 them ; do your business." This observation restored a 
 little calm. One of tlie members of the committee placed 
 himself before the register, visibly alarmed at the task 
 that awaited him there. The president, who had so far 
 held me by the collar, asked me what brought me to 
 Mandres, and whether I was not against the nation. 
 " What sort of a question are you putting there?" said 
 the hostess. "Why, this is the gentleman who goes by 
 here a dozen times a year, it is M. Beugnot." And then 
 she detailed my name, my condition, and where I lived, 
 adding the names of my father, my father-in-law, and my 
 two uncles, and with such assurance that one would have 
 thought she was reading the preamble of my marriage 
 settlements. The secretary of the committee stared, and 
 despair of ever being able to write so much was visible 
 in his eyes. I felt the president's fist relax its hold on 
 my collar, and thus furtively recovered my liberty. A 
 member of the committee rose, eyed me over, and cried, 
 " Yes, it is indeed M. Beugnot. I recognise him ; he 
 was at our assembly at Ghaumont." He called in one of 
 his colleagues, who had also been an elector and recog- 
 nised me as well as he did. The president did not deny 
 it. "It is his fault, the worse for him ; why would he 
 not speak ? People must tell their names to a com- 
 mittee." The mistress of the inn, trembling with rage, 
 cried louder than the president, " Did you give him time, 
 you old barbarian ? It is a shame. Go and hold your 
 meeting somewhere else. I won't have you disgrace my 
 inn." Tlie committee divided on this reply, and the 
 honourable members were coming to blows among them- 
 selves. A victim a moment before, I now became the 
 peace-maker, and cried out aloud for a calm. They 
 asked me to drink the health of the nation — I ac- 
 cepted ; to that of the brave deputies — I did it again. 
 They wanted to give me some comnanions to bear wit- 
 
SPREAD OF ANAECHY. 129 
 
 ness to my patriotism on my journey. I had a great 
 deal of trouble in avoiding this dehcate attention. I 
 escaped, bruised, feasted, and honoured by the same 
 persons all in one quarter of an hour. 
 
 I expected to iind the carriage a short distance off, 
 and walked slowly, revolving in my mind how much the 
 chapter of unforeseen events had increased in the last two 
 months. Who could have told me when I left Choiseul 
 that I should experience such treatment before getting to 
 Chaumont ? How had the public order, under which I 
 had travelled in safety all my life, so quickly disap- 
 peared? When was that security as natural to Fr-ance 
 as the air itself? 
 
 I rested at Chaumont from the fatigues of the journey. 
 My brother-in-law told me that there was also a national 
 guard in that place, and two or three committees which 
 worked in emulation, that I should find as many more at 
 least at Bar-sur-Aube, and that the old officials had 
 nothing better to do than to give up their place ; and 
 then, without much minding my ill-humour and dis- 
 comfort, he kept on merrily joking about the good 
 people, and even on my unfortunate adventure. I re- 
 proached him sharply. " What do you mean?" said he, 
 in answer. "It is impossible to keep cool among these 
 disgraceful follies. A man must laugh or cry. Both 
 are humbugs, and I choose the pleasantest ; but what 
 a capital idea it is of the Committee of Surveillance at 
 Mandres to hold their sittings in an inn on the high road. 
 To-morrow I shall propose to that of Chaumont to do 
 the same." 
 
 When I got back to Bar-sur-Aube I found that my 
 brother-in-law had not deceived me ; the authors of 
 anarchy had been spread over France symmetrically 
 enouo'h. The Committee of Surveillance seemed to be 
 trembling at the projects of the aristocrats, and the 
 
130 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 greater its fear the wider it extended its operations; while 
 the committee of the national guard was making efforts 
 to arm the towns and villages. These committees were 
 formed by some unknown inspiration of which no one 
 could give any account, and kept up a correspondence 
 with the National Assembly. I found the ancient muni- 
 cipality irritated against these new-comers. I calmed 
 them, and advised them to bear what they could not pre- 
 vent. I took the same advice to myself, resuming the 
 functions of syndic advocate in the Bureau Intermediaire. 
 I employed myself on the taxes and roads alone, and also 
 in appeasing the disputes arising from the conflict of the 
 old authorities with those that unexpectedly appeared 
 everywhere. The Bureau Intermediaire threw them- 
 selves into this with a zeal that I should like to praise 
 again at the present time, when, of all the excellent men 
 who composed it, not one survives, and it contributed 
 not a little to preserve the district of Bar-sur-Aube 
 from the deplorable excesses that took place in neighbour- 
 ing divisions. In this year the provincial assemblies, 
 ' the Parliaments, the Government — in a word, all the in- 
 stitutions of the first rank — were granted vacations. To 
 the intermediate commission of the provincial assembly 
 was given the duty of performing the work that should 
 have been done by the Assembly itself; and by analogy 
 the Bureau Intermediaire had to do the work of the 
 Assembly of the district. This change laid on us by the 
 circumstances increased the work that devolved on me ; 
 and although I felt convinced that it was for the last 
 time, I did not acquit myself of it with the less zeal and 
 attention. These duties accomplished, I was curious to 
 go and observe more closely this new but vast power 
 that was shaking France to its foundations. I went 
 to Paris, led thither by an unreasoning resentment. 
 The law for the division of France into departments 
 
DIVISION OF FRANCE INTO DErARTMENTS. 131 
 
 was carried, and I wished to get the district of 
 Bar-sur-Aube detached fi-om the department of Chau- 
 mont, and attached to that of Troyes. I easily ob- 
 tained this, because there really were conveniences that 
 agreed with my Httle passion, and were wortli more than 
 it was. 
 
U-2 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Eeminiscences of 1793 — Order for my Arrest — Reflection in the Labyrinth, 
 Jardin des Plantes — My Arrest — The Inspector and the Gendarme— The 
 Conciergerie — Companions in my Dnngeon — The Infirmary — The Doctor — 
 Night in Prison — The Girondists — Duces, Fonfrede, and Fanchet. 
 
 In 1790 M. Beugnot was elected at Bar-sur-Aube as 
 syndic attorney-general of that department, and in the 
 month of September, 1791, he was elected to the Legis- 
 lative Assembly. He sat in the ranks of the constitu- 
 tional and loyalist party, and especially turned his 
 attention to questions of finance. 
 
 M. Beugnot, who desired a sincere ahiance of the 
 ancient monarchical principle with the new liberties, 
 could do nothing but lament the violent excesses that 
 outraged the king's majesty every day, and even attacked 
 the inviolability of the Legislative Assembly. 
 
 In the sitting of the 3rd of Ma}^, 1792, he mounted 
 the tribune, and held up to public indignation that publi- 
 cation of the demagogues Marat and Carra, called The 
 People s Friend. 
 
 "The first duty of the National Assembly," said he, 
 " when a great public evil becomes manifest, is to care- 
 fully search out the cause, and to drain the source. You 
 shuddered at what took place at Lille, and will shudder 
 much more when I tell you that a bloodthirsty exhorta- 
 tion is being delivered to the people at your door ; that 
 a proposal to massacre your generals is there audaciously 
 made. I hold the proofs of it in my hand. It is 
 
M. BEUGNOT S SPEECH AGAINST EEGICIDES. ili3 
 
 a pamphlet signed "Marat," and liere is a passage 
 of it. 
 
 " ' It is more than six months ago that I predicted 
 that onr generals, all faithful menials of the court, would 
 betray the nation, that they would give up our fron- 
 tiers. My hope is that the arm}^ will open its eyes, 
 and feel that the first thing it has to do is to put its 
 generals to death.' 
 
 " When crime raises its head so high, when every day 
 the mind of the nation is being poisoned by bloodthirsty 
 maxims, when here beneath your eyes, on tlie terrace of 
 the Tuileries, the principles of a vile regicide are openly 
 professed, how can order and confidence be re-estab- 
 lished ? I have heard them, these shouts of the factions, 
 and have shuddered with horror at them. Cast your 
 eyes on Lille, and you will see in practice this famous 
 theory, which we ought to reproach ourselves for not 
 having sooner repressed. These are the publications of 
 Marat and Carra (some murmurs were raised at the two 
 ends of the hall, but an almost universal shout came 
 from the Assembly, Yes, yes, it is they) ; yes, I say these 
 are the wi-iters who have provoked all these disorders. 
 If you wish to know who are the most mortal enemies 
 of our country, here they are ; these are the pretended 
 friends of the people, who preach principles and distribute 
 writings dripping with blood. How can you have an 
 army, how can you have a government, when Avriters 
 who dare to call themselves patriots devote the generals 
 to death, the king to the scorn of the people, the repre- 
 sentatives of the nation to its indignation, when several 
 of us have been insulted without redress at the doors of 
 this Chamber ? It is time to know whether the disorder 
 will cease, and to see which of the two powers must yield 
 — that which is created to protect us, or that which tears 
 us to pieces. The interests of the army and of the public 
 
134 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 demand a severe example. The nation is not in the 
 hands that impudently claim the title ; it is composed of 
 the citizens who have this morning come to bring you 
 patriotic gifts, of peaceful workmen, of the citizens of all 
 the departments who look to you with respect, and desire 
 peace with the Constitution and by the Constitution 
 (applause). It cannot be forgotten that there is a party 
 of factious men to contend with, when they have begun 
 already by threatening the representatives of the nation, 
 and besides by carrying off prisoners no less inviolable. 
 Let us fear to see dissolution extend to the ultimate 
 elements of the social body, and the arrival of Praetorian 
 bands in Paris to preserve us. No, rather let us take 
 courage ; it is now time for the punishment of such 
 audacity ; let seditious movements be repressed, and the 
 incendiaries prosecuted. Let us contend with the army 
 of crime ; let us unite our efforts, and our first triumphs 
 will secure the constitution. This horrible licentiousness 
 of the press has determined many of our colleagues to 
 carry their complaints to the Minister of Justice. I will 
 not publish his answers here. I will submit to you 
 the scheme of a decree to prevent there being need for 
 any more to be made in future. I demand that the 
 Minister of Justice should be directed in this very sit- 
 ting to order the public accusers to prosecute the 
 authors and distributors of writings that provoke dis- 
 obedience to the law, as well as assaults and violence 
 committed against public officers (Applause)." — Matiiteur 
 of May 4th, 1792. 
 
 The decree of accusation against Marat and Carra was 
 agreed to almost unanimously, and a few days after- 
 wards M. Beugnot was nominated Secretary of the 
 Legislative Assembly. After the 10th of August, he 
 very seldom appeared in the tribune. His attitude in 
 
 the Assembly and b ig rlpnnnrigtinn nf Maraf. harl rnarkpd 
 
REFLECTIONS IN THE LABYRINTH. 135 
 
 him for the vengeance of the party of terrorists. In the 
 month of October, 1793, he was arrested and sent to 
 prison. In the following chapters the author relates his 
 captivity during the Reign of Terror. 
 
 I had been warned during the first days of October, 
 1793 (old style), that an order to arrest me had been 
 issued. There was no middle course. The storm of 
 blood that was soon to drown France began to 
 lower. A swarm of barbarous men had sprung up, 
 no one knew whence or how, and covered the Republic 
 with spies, informers, administrators, judges, and exe- 
 cutioners. There was no spot left where virtue could 
 breathe in peace. Courage was depressed, minds were 
 blighted, and looks downcast. Men feared to speak, 
 to cast a look, to stop, or to listen ; and in these 
 hateful days Frenchmen might have lost memory and 
 speech altogether, if it had been as easy to forget as to 
 be silent. How could a proscribed man have found an 
 asylum amid this consternation ? Where could he pray 
 for hospitality, when death was the wages of this time- 
 honoured virtue ? Obliged either to fly or to await the 
 fetters prepared for me by the tyrant, I wished to decide 
 after reflection, so that I might firmly adhere to my reso- 
 lution. I had need of quiet and solitude. I walked to the 
 Jardin des Plantes, and when I got there slowly climbed 
 the labyrinth, comparing in my mind the motives for 
 either decision. Reason counselled me to flight. I knew 
 the men to whom my country was delivered by fate. I 
 knew very well that they were too stupid to govern it ; 
 but I also knew that they were savage enough to try to 
 devour it. The generous friend who had warned me of 
 my fate, offered me nearly certain means of escape. I 
 inclined to flight, and had come without noticing it to 
 
136 LIFE AND ADYENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 the top of the labyrinth. Thence I mechanically cast a 
 look on the magnificent city that was covered by the 
 pall of tyranny. It was still lighted up by a fine day. 
 From that height it seemed calm and surrounded by all 
 means for happiness. I know not what emotion passed 
 through my mind, but a crowd of subjects that I had 
 hitherto regarded with indifference presented themselves 
 to my thoughts in affecting forms. I considered them, 
 and went over them ; at length I could not distract myself 
 from them. At the furthest point, I recalled the building 
 that had been witness of my studies and my childhood's 
 games ; further on a dome excited the deepest feelings 
 of my heart, and the remembrance of pleasures felt 
 with delight ; or some spot reproached me with errors 
 to regret. In a word, the beautiful day, the river, the 
 markets, and the green grass took away my reason, and 
 elevated me into sentiment. The remembrance of my 
 wife and daughter, and my old father, added to my agita- 
 tion, and, as if I had feared to deliberate any more in 
 their presence, I said to myself with a sigh, " No, no, I 
 will not flee. Rather die a thousand times among them ! 
 Cowards, who always have the word country on your 
 lips ! Yes, there is a country, I felt it then. Yes, the 
 country of a virtuous man is composed of all the ex- 
 periences that nature has prepared for him, and that 
 society warrants. There is a country for the good son, 
 for the tender father, for the faithful husband, for the 
 feeling and pious man ; but there is none for crime, and 
 you have never had one ; your country, yours is a den !" 
 I came down from the labyrinth, pleased at having 
 made up my mind. I felt as if I had left a heavy 
 burden at the top. As I came down I tenderly greeted 
 a number of objects that I had not even seen as I went 
 up. I was no longer indifferent to anything. All the 
 inanimate objects around me appeared like so many old 
 
UNKNOWN VISITORS. 137 
 
 friends that I had been going to part with, and amid 
 whom I was rejoiced to find myself. I prolonged my 
 dream of sentiment till it was late. I was weak enough 
 to go and visit the spots that had struck me most from 
 the top of the labyrinth, and I repeated to each of them 
 my protest against separation. 
 
 My resolution firmly taken, I went home calmly, and 
 took precautions dictated by prudence. I confided my 
 money to one man whom I thought trustworthy, my 
 papers to another, and I poured into the bosom of a third 
 a secret that weighed on my mind. Of these three confi- 
 dants the first robbed me, the second appropriated my 
 papers, and the third entirely betrayed me — and none of 
 these things surprised me. A persecuted man is no longer 
 a man — that is, he is, if possible, something worse. So it 
 required an exertion of courage not to deny or outrage 
 him, and it must be confessed, to the shame of humanity, 
 that very few showed themselves capable of it. 
 
 A fortnight went by without my hearing anything, 
 and — I confess my weakness — I began to hope. I had 
 two years before had a violent scene with the titular 
 tyrant, and Couthon, his invalid Omar, was my debtor ; 
 but on this last head he had so completely forgotten me, 
 and the other seemed taken up with such vast considera- 
 tions, that I reckoned on human weakness omitting some 
 details, and modestly appropriated one of these details to 
 myself But my mistake did not last long. 
 
 On the 18th Vend^miaire, about nine o'clock in the 
 morning, two unknown persons presented themselves at 
 my study. From their mysterious ways, and tones of 
 forced politeness, I understood the object of their mis- 
 sion. One mentioned his own name — it was the inspector 
 of police. The other stammered a few confused words 
 informing me of his. I did not entirely comprehend the 
 language he spoke, but something low and sinister in his 
 
l;i8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 face and person formed a commentary on his speech, and 
 I understood that this second individual was one of those 
 Hcensed brigands then known by the name of the revo- 
 lutionary committee. I asked the inspector to show me 
 his order. He unrolled a very dirty list, containing per- 
 haps twenty names, and modestly requested me to find 
 my own. I went over the list, and answered what 
 was quite true, that 1 did not recognise my name in 
 it, and that he must have made a mistake. The 
 inspector hesitated, and seemed to have decided on re- 
 tiring. On reflection he proposed to the member of the 
 committee to go to the police office and ask whether 
 there was not an order of arrest out against me. He 
 gave him as credentials a pencil note, in which he muti- 
 lated my name and condition. The member of com- 
 mittee accepted the message, departed, and left me alone 
 with the inspector of police, who did not cease to declare 
 that he must have made a mistake, and yet told me with 
 silly candour that Robespierre's following was at my door, 
 that is to say, that the avenues of my rooms, the house, 
 and the street were crowded with ragged bravoes. 
 
 I answered by some observations on the carelessness of 
 his proceedings, and the conversation increased in warmth, 
 when my friend, casting a look into the garden, told me 
 in a dry tone that we should soon know what to believe, 
 for he saw a gendarme running up. He then left me 
 hastily, in order to go and meet the new-comer, and con- 
 versed with him some time in the ante-room. Probably 
 he told him that I was not respectful to the executors of 
 arbitrary orders ; for I can only attribute to a strong pre- 
 judice, based on a still stronger breakfast, the stupid and 
 barbarous manner in which this gendarme treated me. 
 He entered my room with his sword drawn, and after 
 cursing for some minutes, asked where I was, and who I 
 was. The inspector pointed me out to his hae-ffard eves. 
 
INSPECTOR AND GENDARME. 139 
 
 glowing with anger and moist witli brandy. "It is he, 
 indeed," lie cried. "I know him. Here he is ! I have 
 been looking for him for a fortnight, without being able 
 to find him. His business is settled. To the Concier- 
 gerie with him, hands and feet bound ; here is game for the 
 guillotine." And my friend marched fiercely about my 
 room, cutting right and left in the air with his sword, 
 vociferating the proverbs of Father Duchesne, and 
 making occasional apphcations of them to me, such as 
 made the honourable audience equally merry. I coolly 
 waited till his lungs should no longer respond to the 
 efforts of his memory. The moment came ; I made use 
 of it to ask for the warrant of arrest. The gendarme re- 
 fused, and returned to his favourite refrain of tying my 
 hands and feet. I insisted ; the inspector supported me ; 
 and at last I so far prevailed as to obtain the reading 
 of a warrant signed Soules and Marino, that did indeed 
 despatch me direct to the Conciergerie. The sound of 
 this death-warrant restored all my courage, and I showed 
 myself like a man who has no more than a few days to 
 live. I raised my voice and asked which was the civil 
 officer, the man representing law? No one answered. 
 " Well," said I to the member of the revolutionary com- 
 mittee, " as you do not know, I inform you that it is your- 
 self, you who have just performed the work of an officious 
 servant, that are the legal officer here. By that title I 
 now summon you to relieve me of that impertinent fellow, 
 who, to your shame, has been abusing me this half hour. 
 His place is not here, it is at my door, to await your 
 orders in case I oppose any resistance, and you have an 
 infallible jiledge of my submission ; namely, that you are 
 twenty to one." Then I insisted on being brought before 
 some constituted authority, for I declared that I did not 
 recognise myself in the warrant they had just read. ' ' Take 
 care what you are about, the matter is no common 
 
14.0 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 arrest, but to clear up whether I am, or am not, a state 
 criminal" My three men were discomposed at this 
 harangue, forcibly uttered, and especially at the word 
 state criminal. The gendarme, who two minutes before 
 was sending me to the guillotine without ceremony, iixed 
 a stupid look on me, like a precious object that he saw for 
 the first time. He seemed to be saying to himself, — So 
 this is what a state criminal is made of. The inspector of 
 police protested he would take nothing on himself, and the 
 member of committee, folding his arms, raised his eyes 
 to the ceiling in token of embarrassment. They sent 
 him to the section ofiice again. He went, and came 
 back with these distinct orders, " There is nothing to do 
 but to put on the seals and bring along the citizen." 
 "What," said I, "shaUJ not have a hearing?" "No, 
 citizen." " But what an atrocious violation of all reason 
 and humanity! Have they posted up the Rights of Man at 
 all the street corners, only to tear them up with greater 
 convenience?" "Citizen, that has nothing to do with 
 it." " Well, since that has nothing to do with it, I was 
 wrong. So put on the seals, and take me away. Your 
 business is to do as you like with men ; you are right." 
 
 The doors of my rooms were closed, sealed up, and so 
 were the windows ; my time had come. The gendarme, 
 who had become careful of me since he knew that I was 
 a state criminal, and had heard my proposal that he 
 should be turned out of the room, observed that I had 
 taken no parcel. "Why should I take a parcel?" 
 said I to him ; " do you think I shall remain long where 
 I am going?" "Citizen, your business will last six 
 weeks or two months." " And what reason have you 
 for so judging ? " "I heard what you said just now ; is 
 not your business like that of Custine ? " "Not alto- 
 gether," answered I, with a smile, "but the end of it 
 may be very like." A new difiiculty ; the seal had been 
 
CHOICE OF BOOKS FOE PEISON. 141 
 
 put on my wardrobe. The question was wlietlier it 
 could be removed. JMy men took counsel whether they 
 had a right to do so. My patience failed. I went up to 
 a seal and tore it off. " Now, gentlemen," I said to 
 them, " the question is resolved ; give me some linen, 
 and let us make an end of it." 
 
 They were in haste to satisfy me. Emboldened by 
 this first success, I asked if I might take some books. 
 They answered yes, provided they knew what books 
 they were. " I will take," said I to them, " if you have 
 no suspicions of them, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, 
 and Thomas a Kempis." These three authors passed 
 without difficulty, and by favour of their obscurity. But 
 chancing to take up Tasso, I was awkward enough to call 
 it by the title of the book rather than by the name of the 
 writer. I went on, " Do you aUow me to add Jerusalem 
 Delivered.'" The inspector gravely replied, " That one 
 cannot be permitted." I did not jjerceive what quarrel 
 Tasso could have with the capturers of the year 11. of 
 the Republic, and therefore persisted. The gendarme 
 came up to me, and laying his hand on my shoulder 
 as a mark of interest, said in a low voice, " Citizen, 
 believe me ; look you here, at this moment anything 
 from Jerusalem is in bad odour." I replied to the 
 rascal, " You are right ; let us be gone." 
 
 We got into a hired carriage that my clever gendarme 
 had taken care to call. We were surrounded by pjke- 
 men, who quarrelled for the seats in the carriage, or on 
 the coachman's box. This emulation in baseness made 
 me indignant. I spoke out about it, and persuaded 
 them to reduce the escort to five, and thus I made 
 malcontents. About noon I arrived at my destination. 
 The steps leading up to the law-courts were full of 
 women, as if seated in an amphitheatre awaiting a 
 favourite exhibition. Indeed the death-cart was at the 
 
142 LIFE AND ADTENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 door, awaiting tlie two mifortunates who were destined 
 that day for prey of the wild beasts. When I alighted 
 from the carriage, the whole amphitheatre rose and gave 
 a long shout of delight. They clapped their hands, they 
 stamped their feet, and laughed convulsively, expressing 
 their fierce cannibal joy at the arrival of fresh prey. 
 The short space that I passed on foot was long enough 
 for me to be covered all over with filth showered on me 
 from every side, and I could judge of the reception that 
 awaited my exit by that which hailed me on entrance. 
 
 The wicket was a harbour of safety for the moment, 
 and I was not sorry to see it open. So I was swallowed 
 up in the vast antechamber of death, still called the Con- 
 ciergerie. I crossed a kind of lantern, and reached a 
 room on the left, where the prison office was. The 
 chamber is divided by an open partition. The jailer's 
 arm-chaii', his desk, and registers are placed in the por- 
 tion looking towards the yard of the law-courts, and 
 in this place, a fresh comer is received and enrolled, 
 with his description. The other portion is intended for 
 the reception of the condemned during those endless 
 hours intervening between condemnation and execution. 
 The new-comer could see and speak to them if bold 
 enough, and the slight barrier that intervened seemed 
 like an emblematic warning that there was but one 
 step between him and the scaffold. On the day that I 
 entered, two men were awaiting the summons of the 
 executioner. Their coats were off, their hair untied, and 
 their necks prepared. Their countenances betrayed no 
 emotion. Whether intentionally or otherwise, they held 
 their hands in the position in which they would be tied, 
 and made attempts at fierce and disdainful attitudes. They 
 cast looks of scorn on all who approached, and I judged, 
 from some words that occasionally escaped them, that 
 they were not unworthy of their fate. A kind of muni- 
 
CONDEMNED TO DEATH. 143 
 
 cipal officer had the impudence to address to them some 
 words of consolation, and ask them if they knew the 
 name of the president who had sentenced them. " JSFo," 
 answered one of the condemned. " Pray do not tell it. 
 I should be sorry to bear the name of such a wretch to 
 the grave with me." The second said in a softer tone, 
 " I earnestly hope that the president is not a French- 
 man." Unfortunate men! Still loving your country! 
 I reverence your memory for this heroic love and noble 
 hope. You were right. These monsters, to whom 
 nature gives birth in a moment of madness, belong to no 
 country. He who delivered you over to death was born 
 among us, but France, torn by his impious hands, would 
 be indignant at his being termed a child of hers. What 
 a scene did the place present where these unfortunate 
 persons awaited their last hour ! Mattresses laid on the 
 floor showed that they had been there since last evening, 
 and had already passed through the long torment of that 
 night. The remains of their last meal stood near, their 
 coats were thrown aside, and two candles that they had 
 forgotten to extinguish were struggling with daylight to 
 enhance the funereal gloom of the scene. I was examining 
 in detail the horrors of this living sepulchre, when the 
 door was noisily opened. I saw the gendarmes, the 
 jailer, and executioners appear. I could look no more. 
 I felt a sudden pang ; it seemed as if my blood had 
 frozen in my heart, and I fell on a bench in the office, 
 haunted by this apparatus of death. 
 
 The clerk had been taken up by the departure of the 
 two sufferers, and we were four new arrivals awaiting 
 our destination. I remained on my bench, buried in a 
 melancholy reverie. It was not for some time, and 
 after having been jostled against him more than once, 
 that I perceived among the new-comers a dandy who 
 had not abated a morsel of the impertinence of his 
 
"144- LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 manners. His dress, his curled hair, liis boots, bore 
 witness to his respect for the absurdities most in fashion. 
 He misused a very narrow space by neghgently pacing 
 to and fro, treading on his neighbours' toes, pouring out 
 a flood of excuses, repeating the acts, and humming an 
 Italian air all the time. Even in the crush-room of the 
 opera he would have been remarkable for his affectation 
 of the excess of folly. His name was a good deal 
 like mine, and was the only thing we had in common. 
 He was arrested for a forgery of assignats, and I as 
 a measure of public security. The clerk, who was 
 generally a very exact person, made a mistake, for 
 perhaps the first time in his life. He applied the warrant 
 by which I was taken to the airy figure of the dandy, and 
 presented me with his. In fairness, however, I must 
 allow that my gloomy and miserable appearance con- 
 tributed to the error. We were divided among the 
 jailers, who led the dandy to the chamber I ought to 
 have occu2)ied, in the division of the prison called the 
 infirmaiy, and I went to take his place in a dungeon that 
 was still, as I should fancy, under the intercession of 
 Saint Charles.""' 
 
 This dungeon was fifteen feet square, and light enough 
 to disclose its hideousness was only admitted through 
 a hole made in the door. I found two companions there. 
 One, who was accused of murdering his mother, was a 
 man about forty. Whether it were prejudice or reality, I 
 thought I never had met a face with crime more legibly 
 written on it. He had a leaden complexion, squinting 
 eyes, and a distorted mouth. His eyebrows con- 
 tracted when he wished to observe anything, and his 
 lips were always trembling with a convulsive motion 
 which gave a horrible and threatening expression to 
 the whole of his features. He spoke little, his manners 
 
 * St. Charles Borromeo, natron in t,imf- nf Ppat.ilpnrg. rOnprv V.n ^ 
 
PRISON COMPANIONS. 145 
 
 were rough, and lie was angry with everything around 
 him. The wretch seemed at variance with aU nature, 
 even with himself. It was a remarkable coincidence, 
 that he suffered death on the very same day on which I 
 was restored to life and liberty ; and this became another 
 cause for thankfulness to and adoration of Eternal Provi- 
 dence, which sometimes deigns to overrule human justice. 
 
 My other companion was a young man of twenty to 
 twenty-five years old. I fear that from early years he had 
 filled a place hi the higher ranks of the band of thieves 
 that permanently infest the capital. His pleasant and 
 open countenance formed a perfect contrast to that of 
 the assassin. He had a kind of politeness in his prison 
 manners wliicli contrasted most favourably with the con- 
 stant surliness of the other. He received me pleasantly, 
 deplored our common fate in very good language ; and 
 as we are al\va}'s inclined to some exaggeration when 
 we conceive a favourable opinion of one another, I was 
 persuaded that he was a political prisoner like myself 
 
 I finished the day without communication with my 
 comrades. I answered very shortly any questions they 
 put to me, most frequently I did not answer at all. Bj' 
 night I had a violent attack of fever. JMy thoughts were 
 aimless and confused. I dreamed with my eyes open, 
 and my wandering fancy happily absorbed my reason. 
 The only very distinct sensation that I felt was a want, 
 and that was thirst. I drank water to excess. This diet 
 did not suit me. I passed a painful night. Next day I 
 lay on the straw exhausted, and faint from the effects 
 of the night. The fancies I formed were quite uncon- 
 nected ; one alone predominated over all the others, namely, 
 that I was destined to die. I went no farther, and had 
 no strength to be alarmed, or even concerned as to the 
 time and manner. 
 
 My young comrade took pity on me. He became 
 
& 
 
 146 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 pressing, even importunate ; but witli such grace that he 
 managed to restore me, even against my will. From 
 the evening of the second day, a sort of confidence 
 grew up between us. I was in the bosom of Paris like 
 a traveher lost in the midst of a desert ; a vast abyss 
 separated me from the rest of the world, and in such a 
 condition the meeting with a fellow-creature is a boon 
 from heaven ; there is no possibility of remaining in- 
 different to him. So I talked to my companion. He 
 learned my secret, which was no secret at all. His em- 
 barrassment betrayed him as he was just going to 
 explain his own. Some incautious questions that he put 
 to me about the proceedings by jury made me completely 
 understand with whom 1 had to deal, and I was pained 
 to have to diminish the esteem with which I was so glad 
 to regard him. I spent the night quietly enough ; 
 nature resumed her rights, and I slept. But how dearly 
 did I pay for this passing annihilation when it was neces- 
 sary to issue from it ! No, I know nothing so painfal as 
 the moment of awaking in the midst of a dungeon where 
 the most horrible dream is less horrible than the reality. 
 When once awakened, one prays, one endeavours to 
 dream again. Sensibility struggles against the senses 
 which are obstinately reconstructing around you the in- 
 struments of torture ; it is always as if you saw them 
 for the first time. Every day at the moment of awaking* 
 despair launched a dart through my mind, and when 
 latterly I could have disposed of my own fate I have 
 been a hundred times tempted to make use of the means 
 I possessed of putting myself to sleep so as never to 
 awake again. 
 
 The third day passed with less embarrassment ; now 
 we had all found our place. The assassin remained in 
 his corner, a prey to his savage temper. The young 
 man continued the same care for me, and did not cease to 
 
INTEEEOGATED BY THE JAILEE. 117 
 
 wonder at tlieir having placed us both m snch rigorous 
 confinement, for he pretended that he had only been 
 arrested for a police matter, and confounded his business 
 and mine together without ceremony. Towards the evening 
 of this day the jailers came to pay their usual visit. The 
 young man pleaded the cause of both of us with warmth 
 and even adroitness. He adduced me as an example of 
 an unheard-of persecution, and insisted that I should die 
 in the dungeon if they left me there two days more. The 
 turnkey cut short his arguments with laconic brutality, 
 but he chose to look at my face, so as to know the in- 
 dividual who had excited so great an interest, and he 
 even asked me some questions. He inquired the cause 
 of my arrest. I told him it was a measure of the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety. He, likewise, was surprised at 
 finding me there, and wanted to know the reason ; I told 
 him I did not know. He asked what I had been doing 
 during the Revolution, and I detailed it in a few words ; 
 my name — I told him. "I would bet," said the jailer, 
 " that this is the Minister of the Interior's man. Wait a 
 bit, I will finish shutting up, and come back." 
 
 This expression, "the Minister of the Interior's man," 
 put me off the scent. I could not think how I could be 
 the man of Citoyen Parey, whom I had never spoken to 
 in my life ; but, on the other hand, for three days past I 
 need not have been surprised at anything. I was in this 
 perplexity when the jailer returned, told me to follow him, 
 and boasted of his skill in discovering me buried there. 
 
 I proceeded to prepare to obey him, but I wished first 
 to express my gratitude to my companion in the dungeon. 
 The jailer opposed this, saying that he was a rogue who 
 had robbed me. I protested the contrary. The jailer 
 persisted, and told me to look over my property. I did 
 so, and found everything that I had brought in correct. 
 The jailer did not see that he was defeated ; he declared it 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 was impossible but that I must have been robbed, thun- 
 dered arain, and threatened that he would return armed 
 with a terrible weapon if all that had been taken from 
 me were not instantly restored. I prayed and begged ; 
 I hardly persuaded him not to tear my poor companions 
 to pieces, because they ought to have robbed me, even 
 though they had really done no such thing. 
 
 On the way I asked the jailer what he meant by 
 saying that I was the " Minister of the Interior's man." 
 He told me I should learn at the office. Indeed, the 
 clerk of the prison showed me a note he had received 
 from Citoyen Grandpre, first clerk in the Home Office, 
 who had requested him to do as much for me as the 
 rules would permit, and to get me anything I might 
 want. I also learnt that, on receipt of this note, they 
 had made search in the rooms without success, and that 
 the continual changes in the prison had caused both my 
 person and the search to be forgotten the next day. I 
 afterwards found myself at La Force, with Citoyen Grand- 
 pre, whose crime consisted of having wished to make the 
 benefits of the Eevolution of the 9th Thermidor pene- 
 trate into the prisons by the 11th or 12th. Barrere gave 
 him this little lesson in politics, by the way, but happily 
 it was not long, and I regi-etted that I did not learn till 
 after he had left La Force, that it was to him that I was 
 obliged for having been removed from the dungeon at 
 the Conciergerie. 
 
 The protection of Citoyen Grandpre, and still more my 
 pale and dejected face, obtained for me a place in the 
 infirmary, which was lauded to me as a privileged place. 
 Now this infirmary really was the most horrible hospital 
 that existed in the world. The building is twenty-five 
 feet wide by a hundred long, closed at the two ends by 
 iron gratings and covered by a lofty vault. It was built 
 of cut stone, paved with lon<r flas's. and besides. a.s its 
 
THE INFIRMARY. 149 
 
 architecture was of the heaviest of this horrible style, it 
 might have been supposed to have been hewn out of a 
 rock. The stone is begrimed with a dark tint by the 
 smoke of charcoal and of the lamps. The light only 
 entered by two shaded windows, very narrow, and set 
 within the arches of the vault, so that nothing could be 
 more like the infernal palaces as seen at the Opera. Pro- 
 bably the architect went thither for his model. From 
 forty to fifty beds lined the walls of this long narrow 
 room, and on these beds might be seen cast, two and 
 two, and often three and three, poor wretches suffering 
 under different maladies. It was impossible to renew 
 the air there, there was not even a thought of purifying 
 it, any more than of changing the straw of the beds or 
 cleaning their covers ; so that an unfortunate person 
 brought thither was suddenly enveloped in a whirlwind 
 of miasma and corruption. The corruption was such that 
 it sprouted on the flags of the floor, and in the driest 
 weather no one could go through the infirmary dry-shod. 
 To make matters worse, the conveniences of this part of 
 the prison were placed in the middle of the infirmary, 
 without means of separation, and as they were not enough 
 for the large number, the environs were likewise used, 
 and these environs were the infirmary itself! Besides, 
 there was no place where they treated humanity so bar- 
 barously and disgustingly. I often found among the 
 conveniences sick persons lying on the pavement and 
 covered with filth, who had endeavoured to drag them- 
 selves thither and fell from weakness and pain. They 
 would have died if their companions in misfortune had 
 not dragged them out. I could multiply these hideous 
 pictures. If a sick person died, they just pulled a bit of the 
 coverlet common to him and his neighbour over his head, 
 while the latter, undoubtedly the more m-etched of the 
 two, lay freezing with cold while waiting to have the 
 
150 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 body removed. There was a regular liour for that, 
 and, besides, they -would not have put themselves to 
 the expense of transport for only a single corpse — the 
 contingent for a journey "was three or four. Above all 
 these scourges v^as one greater still ; a doctor, a fierce 
 and barbarous wretch, the only person who could make 
 a sick man feel that he himself was not the most de- 
 graded being in the world. Never did a word of 
 consolation pass his lips ; he never gave a sign of pity 
 to suffering and tortured humanity. His daily visit 
 generally lasted eighteen minutes — sometimes twenty or 
 twenty-two, — never was longer than twenty-five. I re- 
 strained my anger to count that in twenty-two minutes 
 he had seen forty sick, giving a trifle more than half a 
 minute to each person. His most common prescription 
 was a decoction, a decoction for all, and never anything 
 else. His carelessness in this point at least acted as a 
 slight preservative against the effects of his ignorance, 
 and perhaps the sick were the gainers. What was said 
 of hun in the Almanac of Prisons was literally true. 
 It is positively the case that more than once a sick man 
 was placed in the same bed where another had died the 
 evening before without this cruel Sangrado's knowing 
 anything about it ; and still supposing it was the same 
 patient, he saw no reason for changing his treatment, 
 and prescribed the continuance of the tisane. Well, this 
 is all explicable ; the doctor was very rich, he had held 
 an important post in the times gone by ; he had been 
 among the happy of the earth, he had contracted pre- 
 judices from them, arrogance and insolence. Such a man 
 was quite out of place in a prison infirmary. Yes, 
 Doctor Thierry, you were very much out of place ! 
 I know you ; you wanted great palaces, riches, men 
 cooks, and you only found the wretched there. Then 
 you were too old to learn, and too hardened to feel that, 
 
A COMPANION IN MISFORTUNE. 151 
 
 the unfortunate is a sacred object; tliat your art— tlie 
 most beautiful of all arts — is sublime when employed in 
 his behalf, and that it was for the persevering and 
 courageous application of tlieir knowledge to distress 
 that the physicians of antiquity merited the title of demi- 
 gods. So console yourself, I can very well suppose that 
 you could prepare some grandee for the Pantheon, if he 
 were foolish enough to take your prescriptions ; but I 
 warrant that you will never have a place there. 
 
 At sight of this refuge of all the horrors and pains 
 that could afflict the human species, I cursed the protec- 
 tion of Citoyeu Grandpre, and I regretted my dungeon. 
 I calculated how many stages of misery society produces 
 that men of the ordinary lot are born, live, and die 
 without even an idea of; and I perceived why the philo- 
 sopher of Geneva regretted the woods, and why he had 
 met so many fine minds sincerely determined to make 
 him out a madman. So I was in preparation of a com- 
 mentary on Hobbes, when a companion in misfortune 
 came to distract me from my meditations. This happily- 
 constituted individual had preserved his coolness, his 
 originality, and even a kind of cheerfulness, in the midst 
 of the infirmary. He complimented me on my arrival iu 
 the infirmary — which he had the goodness to call the 
 most quiet and convenient room in the prison. So people 
 may judge of the rest. My advocate said to me, " You 
 are not very ill ; if you like we will be partners at bed 
 and board ; I have cleanliness and good living, and we 
 shall suit each other very well." However, he wanted to 
 know, above all, if I was a Revolutionist, and why I had 
 been apprehended. I satisfied him on these two heads, 
 and then he commenced the recital of his own adven- 
 tures. His family was well known in Anjou. As for 
 himself, he had been modestly contented with the pro- 
 fession of an advocate, because he had a taste for litera- 
 
152 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 ture and independence. He liad comjDOsed some writings 
 tJhat had made some noise in his province, and was 
 naturally surprised that they had never reached me. 
 The Revolution had deprived him of the consideration 
 of his fellow-citizens ; he had been jostled by new men 
 and ncAV institutions ; the old man's bile was raised, and, 
 in a fit of anger, he had composed a dialogue between 
 the nation and Henry IV. The King spoke first, and 
 spoke loud, and even in a disrespectful manner, to the 
 nation. The author had gone thus far, and the nation 
 had not said anything, when a Revolutionary Committee 
 had surprised my advocate from Anjou and his dialogue, 
 and had sent them, packed up, by the same coach to the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal. 
 
 I did all I could to defend and excuse myself, but I was 
 obliged that very evening to endure the reading of the 
 dialogue and give my advice. It was impossible for me to 
 conceal that I thought Henry IV. spoke with royal inso- 
 lence. " So much the better," said my advocate to me; 
 " indeed, so much the better. I expected you to say so. 
 What a proof that I have preserved the truth of history ; 
 for this Henry IV. was a rough sort of gallant. You can 
 see him with his plume, his long sword and moustache, 
 you remember his harangue to the assembly at Rouen, 
 and I ask your opinion, could 1 do otherwise?" I told 
 him, " You might have done better." "And how, if you 
 please? " " You might have made him not speak at all. 
 If you had useful truths to reveal, why did not you 
 choose some other organ ? You know we do not want 
 any more kings, nor plumes, nor moustaches." "All in 
 good time," replied my advocate ; " but the thing is 
 done. Well, since I have been in here I have made the 
 nation reply, and, upon my word, I find that the speech 
 does not fall short of the other. You can judge of it 
 for yourself." I asked a respite from that till the next 
 
NIGHT IN THE INFIEMAEY. 153 
 
 morning, to my advocate's great regret, as he declared that 
 his work was one of those that must be read straight 
 through by any one who wanted to see ah the merit of it. 
 
 The shdiug of bohs, the noise of keys, and the barking 
 of dogs proclaimed night. My advocate wanted me to 
 share his bed. I dreaded the intimacy of the chancellor 
 of Henry IV. I prepared to pass the night on a bench 
 placed around the stove, between an officer of the mer- 
 chant navy, who had made a leap from the East Indies to 
 the Conciergerie, and a tailor of Paris, who had made his 
 way there firom the Rue Mouffetard. Thus this tyranny, 
 the most powerful and hideous that has ever laid waste the 
 human race, struck in opposite hemispheres at the same 
 moment while it preyed on everything around. It 
 passed over space, and rushed to the four corners of the 
 world to seize its victims. Prodigious scourge, its birth, 
 its progress, and fall will long weary human reflection. 
 The marine officer, more accustomed than others to bad 
 beds, slept very well on the bench ; the tailor went to 
 sleep, telling me that he was in the Conciergerie for 
 having made the sleeves of the hussars' jackets too short, 
 and notwithstanding the interest of the subject he failed 
 in sending me to sleep. So there I was alone awake, in 
 the midst of the infirmary of the Conciergerie. 
 
 I am wrong ; pain kept several of the poor wretches 
 sleepless on their pallets. Then I felt all the depth of 
 the verse of Colardeau — 
 
 How lengthy seems the night to wakeful pain 
 
 I heard plaintive cries and groans around me. In the 
 distance a wretch, haunted by a terrible dream, would 
 utter shrieks that froze my blood with terror. I could 
 distinguish plainly enough the words blood, executioner, 
 death ; these words floated round these funereal couches, 
 and from hour to hour brazen clocks meted out this 
 
154 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 eternity of sorrow by its tardy strokes. Tlie dogs an- 
 swered tlie clock by long bowls. And you wbo bave 
 not spent a nigbt tbere, in tbe midst of tbis assemblage 
 of borrors, j^ou bave neitber bad any real experience nor 
 suffering in tbis world. As an addition to the misery, a 
 staircase that leads to one of the courts of the Palace of 
 Justice is attached to tbe infirmary wall. Tbis staircase 
 must lead to one of tbe balls of tbe Revolutionary Tri- 
 bunal; for by five o'clock in tbe morning all tbe sick 
 wbo could sleep were awakened with a start by the noise 
 of the amateurs hurrying and fighting for tbe front places, 
 and this clatter, terrifying for more than one reason, was 
 renewed daily and prolonged some time into the morn- 
 ing. So tbe first feeling of a sick man awaking was 
 tbe fear that they were fighting over his bead for the 
 pleasure of battening upon bis last moments ; for hence- 
 forward — that is to say from tbe first days of Brumaire, 
 illness, even extremity itself, was no dispensation from 
 tbe necessity of appearing before the tribunal ; and I saw 
 carried thither a priest of Autun who was not supposed 
 to bave twelve hours to live, and who really died the 
 very moment he was thrown into the tumbril. In pre- 
 sence of so much and such profound misery I blushed at 
 being born a man. Despair pierced my soul ; my eyes 
 were dry and blood burning. I wandered through the 
 infirmary with hasty steps, at once awaiting and dreading 
 the light that began to penetrate through the bars. 
 Pursued by tbe images of tbe nigbt, uneasy as to what 
 might await me by day, had I been then called to execu- 
 tion I could have flown with transport. I more than once 
 made tbis reflection, that death on tbe scaffold only causes 
 horror to the generality of men, because they compare it 
 with a state of peace, of enjoyment, and perhaps of 
 happiness that they are experiencing ; but death con- 
 sidered from tbe depths of a dungeon, or wliat is worsp 
 
MY ADVOCATE S DIALOGUE. 155 
 
 from one of the beds I speak of — death when the whole 
 existence is changed into torture — is no longer the height 
 of evils but their remedy. The courage of the greater 
 part of those who perished in these later times really 
 consisted of great satisfaction at arriving at the end 
 of their sufferings. Biron said to me, " These people 
 have been wearying me too long ; they are going to cut 
 off my head, but at least there will be an end of this." 
 
 The infirmary had no sooner received the feeble por- 
 tion of light that was its due than my advocate came 
 obligingly to inquire how I had passed the night. I was 
 a thousand miles away from his adventures or his 
 Henry IV., and gave him a sorry welcome. He attri- 
 buted my ill-humour to the fatigue I had experienced, 
 and scolded me for having disdained his advice, and 
 spending the night on a bench by the stove. In his 
 opinion it was bad enough to kill me. " There would be 
 no great harm if I had succeeded," I bitterly replied; 
 and thereupon my man read me a very fine sermon 
 on patience, and worked round to his favourite point 
 the second part of his dialogue. " You have prepared 
 me very well," said I ; " let us see." He read the reply 
 of the nation to Henrj^ IV. Here the good man was 
 going astra3^ The nation spoke like a trollop. It an- 
 swered like one crazy with abuse, and mere abuse. I 
 showed him this, and called his attention to the fact 
 that no one would attend to it ; that in the first part he 
 had worked with spirit, and his muse was felt to be in 
 her element, while in this it was with an effort that he 
 assumed a character, and he stumbled at every step. 
 The old man perceived that there was some truth in my 
 view. I seemed pleased with his opinion, and uninten- 
 tionally flattered his foible ; and he conceived a favour- 
 able idea of me, and kept it to the last. Some time 
 afterwards, the day before his death, for such was the 
 
156 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 reward of the poor author, he set his affairs in order ; he 
 entrusted his domestic arrangements to General Marce, 
 and made me the depositary of his literary productions, to 
 be published or suppressed as I pleased. I did not fail 
 to take advantage of the alternative. 
 
 I have mentioned that the infirmary was burthened 
 with an insupportable service to the dwellers in that 
 part of the prison. I passed them all in review that 
 morning, and recognised a good many of our comrades. 
 The cliief part greeted me with consolatory interest. I 
 speedily left the infirmary through their solicitude, and 
 was admitted into a small room called the little surgery. 
 As this chamber was intended to receive a famous woman, 
 it had in addition to all the rest a double door five inches 
 thick, bound with iron and furnished with three enormous 
 locks. Of the two windows that had previously lighted 
 it one was hermetically closed, the other almost entirely ; 
 but by way of amends it was hung with a paper that 
 multiplied around us the emblems and words Liberty, 
 Equality, Rights of Man, Constitution ; it was impossible 
 to raise one's eyes without encountering the word Liberty, 
 or bars, or that of Equality and bolts. This chamber, 
 intended for an uncommon purpose, was now occupied 
 by the national representation ; that is to say, its in- 
 mates all were or had been deputies. The trial of the 
 twenty-one deputies was coming to a conclusion. An 
 object of more lofty interest soon made a diversion from 
 all I had so far felt, thought, and experienced. I had 
 before my eyes the struggle of talent and knowledge, of all 
 that men are accustomed to cherish and honour, but of 
 talent and knowledge loaded with unworthy fetters, against 
 ignorance in favour, wickedness in action, and crime all- 
 loowerful. An eloquent writer has already excited the 
 curiosity of the public about the last moments of these 
 celebrated men. I will be careful not to reneat details 
 
THE GIRONDISTS. 157 
 
 SO truly and interestingly given by his pen. Reverence 
 for the pictures of ancient masters must be proved by 
 abstaining from touching them. Their cause is still 
 being tried by both France and Europe at large ; but 
 posterity, that judge without appeal, is coming forward 
 to decide it. Already it is recognised that the word 
 federalism is a moral monster, sprung from the head of a 
 fanatic wretch, even as the hideous figure that represents 
 it, is the fruit of the brain of a tasteless workman ; and 
 that the one has no more existed in politics than the 
 other in reality. Already has the Convention yielded to 
 the return of some reason, by ordering the demolition of 
 all those ridiculous monuments that tyranny had spread 
 over the soil of the Republic, in order to give existence to 
 this federalism from which it derived so much of its 
 strength. Thus we must seek elsewhere the motives for 
 the fall of the first Frenchman immolated to this sangui- 
 nary chmiera, of those who were the first to denounce the 
 reign of the Marats, the Robespierres, and all those 
 wretches, — the disgrace of humanity, nature, and the 
 shame of the nation. 
 
 I watched them loaded with the same fetters as myself 
 — these men whose ability I had so often admired, whom 
 I had lately seen at the highest point of power and credit, 
 and who had crushed me, as well as many others, by the 
 weight of their unbounded popularity. What reflections 
 were inspired within me by this spectacle ! I had said to 
 one of them, " The Revolution is death. It pitilessly 
 breaks whtrtever it encounters. Neither age nor reputa- 
 tion, nor credit, nor virtue, nor wealth, is any protection 
 from its blows." Posterity will anxiously inquire what 
 strange concurrence of circumstances could have hurried 
 these founders of the Revolution to the scaffold. The 
 time for comparison is not yet come, but even now can it 
 be said that the party of the Girondists has indeed fur- 
 
158 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT, 
 
 nished orators, metaphysicians, distinguished writers, but 
 not a single statesman ? The chief part of them, bred 
 up in the rules of the old bar, had contracted an absurd 
 faith in the powers of oratory, and persuaded themselves 
 that they had killed their enemies with a well-pointed 
 sarcasm or a pompous discourse. Those were the prin- 
 cipal instruments. They did but prick the tiger when 
 his mouth was gaping to devour them. Besides, they had 
 given a handle against themselves by not vigorously 
 following up an idea that was forcible and ingenious 
 enough in itself The party of the Girondists had pur- 
 sued a tortuous course in the Legislative Assembly. Alter- 
 nately the friends or enemies of the court, as it committed 
 or withdrew the reigns of government from them, they were 
 still negotiating with it even to a short time before the 
 10th of August. On that very day at seven o'clock in the 
 morning the Gironde had not determined on its course ; it 
 was not till two hours later, when the victory of the popular 
 party was decided, that it came forth at the head of this 
 party. When the day was over the Girondists behoved 
 that the results would be glorious, and wished to claim 
 the glory of them in the eyes of France. They were not 
 so well contented with the proceedings that had accom- 
 panied or followed the events of this day, and endea- 
 voured to cast the blame on the real authors of the deeds 
 of the 10th of August. I repeat this was a clever idea, 
 and besides they omitted nothing that could conduce to 
 its success. Roland employed all the energy of his 
 virtue, and, what was more important, all his wife's ability 
 against Danton, against the Commune, against the 
 marauders of the chateaux ; Brissot composed diatribes 
 against the Jacobins ; Vergniaud, Gaudet, and Gensonn6 
 pressed the motion on the Assembly. It was a contest 
 who should most rejoice over the 10th of August, — who 
 should most successfally claim the honour, and most 
 
MAEAT AND HIS PAETY. 159 
 
 abuse the true originators of that day's proceedings. The 
 opposite party felt all the cruelty and insult towards 
 themselves of the proceedings of the Girondists, and were 
 enraged by it. They multiplied horrors in the midst of 
 the capital, and to disgust the Girondists with the 10th 
 of August, did not fail to confound the massacres of 
 September with that day's work. These massacres, of 
 shameful and lamentable memory, offered a great oppor- 
 tunity to the Girondists of carrying their line of action as 
 far as they pleased. They had almost declared that they 
 would prosecute the authors of them in the face of all 
 Europe. They bad the command of the civil service 
 through Roland, of the army through the generals. The 
 majority of the Convention came full of indignation 
 against the executioners of September. They might have 
 reconquered the municipality if they would have left 
 Petion in the post of mayor. It is only difficult to enu- 
 merate the quantity of opportunities then at their dis- 
 posal. What did they do with all these opportunities? 
 They lost three months in contending with Marat, and 
 composing some kind of metaphysical allegory under the 
 name of Constitution, no longer remembered, — indeed, 
 which was forgotten a week after its appearance. But a 
 month or a day is an age in a Revolution. The opposite 
 side manoeuvred during the first months of the Constitu- 
 tion ; but when they saw that the Girondists had let 
 chance slip by, they caught them in their own snare. 
 They accepted all the reproaches cast on them, avowed 
 the excesses the others had not known how to punish, 
 and placed them under the protection of increasing popu- 
 larity. Weary of acting on the defensive, they made an 
 attack in their turn. Strengthened by all the wretches 
 whose hopes lay with them, they turned out Roland as an 
 inconvenient dotard, exalted Marat as a just man under 
 persecution, filled the offices with his creatures, named 
 
ICO LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 ministers of his selection, and when at last he came to 
 the plenitude of his power he overthrew the Girondists 
 for having had the presumption to be his rivals in glory 
 and power, but not in crime. 
 
 Besides, this party had an advantage over the Giron- 
 dists in coalescing in principle, or in absence of prin- 
 ciple, better and much more quickly with the desires of 
 the maddened and unrestrained populace. Permanent 
 anarchy under the name of Liberty, invasion of property 
 under that of Equality, assassinations, executions, thefts 
 held sacred as means of regeneration, all vices of I'epute ; 
 the names of virtue and honour had become ridiculous 
 or dangerous ; such was the doctrine or instinct of this- 
 party ; and they were likely to find, and really did find, 
 a frightful number of followers among a people corrupted 
 by a long period of slavery. After the dreadful shock of 
 the Revolution, when all the springs of social order had 
 been shattered by the convulsion, such doctrines were 
 more in favour than the hotch-potch of Condorcet, the 
 diatribes and apologues of Brissot, or the sophisms of 
 Gaudet. The sans-culottes did not understand a word 
 of the meaning of these gentlemen ; but they understood 
 Marat very w^ell when he advised them to hang the 
 pastrycooks, so as to plunder their shops at their ease ; 
 or Danton, when he granted them forty sous each for 
 every sitting of their section ; or Barrfere himself, when 
 he promised them the wealth of the aristocrats ; ' — ■ 
 in short, these men distributed things worth having-, 
 patents of appointment to municipal and government 
 offices, for thieves, assassins, commissaries, guards, all 
 inviolable. The sans-culottes perceived their sovereignty 
 by these marks ; but they only saw the words in the 
 productions of the Girondists, whose meaning, expres- 
 sions, and intentions were equally problematic to them. 
 So France was compelled, by the force of circumstances, 
 
THE GIRONDISTS. 161 
 
 and by the feebleness of those men who could neitlier 
 foresee nor dh-ect them, to experience every stage of mis- 
 fortune, until these cruel but salutary lessons had pene- 
 trated to the illusions of the lowest class of society, and 
 had taught them that for them, as for others, and per- 
 haps even more than for others, welfare can only be 
 obtained by moderation, and happiness by control. 
 
 But a vast number of men were to perish before the 
 extremity of misery had undeceived all minds, and those 
 men, above all, who, being placed at the head of affairs, 
 offered some resistance to the torrent, and next those 
 who, cast into the midst of this society, by their very 
 presence were a standing remonstrance against this out- 
 burst of folly and wickedness. Doubtless, to be at all 
 remarkable either for integrity, knowledge, or wealth, 
 was a death-brand in the eyes of the followers of Marat ; 
 and if that part}^ made a mistake it was not in loudly 
 publishing its reasons for proscription, but in concealing 
 them under contradictory or ridiculous forms. If they 
 had thro^'^^l away the mask instead of only putting it on, 
 if they had proceeded as decided partisans, the sworn 
 foes of virtuous, learned, or wealthy men in the Republic, 
 if they had audaciously weeded France in this manner, 
 instead of mowing it without foresight or method, they 
 would have destroyed with impunity the very traces of 
 civilisation and organised in the midst of Europe the 
 most dangerous horde of barbarians that has ever terrified 
 the world. 
 
 We have seen how they began with the deputies who 
 were most in their way ; that is to say, those who com- 
 posed the party of the opposition, who defended virtue 
 beneath the daggers of crime, property beneath the 
 pikes of covetousness, and liberty beneath the sword of 
 tyrants. 
 
 Seven of these deputies were in the same room with 
 
162 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Lamourette and me. On the day that sentence was given 
 Ave were left alone. We were far from fathoming the 
 depth of this horrible plot, for we retained some hopes. 
 "We knew well that the chief part of the deputies would 
 not escape the powerful hatred they had aroused, but we 
 could not imagine what object there could be in making 
 victims of Ducos and Fonfrfede, who had never vigorously 
 adopted these principles, and were both endowed with 
 a sweetness of manner, a frankness, and an amiability 
 that are everywhere charming in society, and nowhere 
 fall under the suspicions of Government. We also made 
 an exception in favour of Fauchet, the Republican Fau- 
 chet, who could not even be reproached with Federalism, 
 for he had opposed with all his power the meeting at 
 Calvados, especially when he knew that Wimphen was 
 the military head of it. Lastly, we were unable to 
 conceive that they could think that miserable Boileau, of 
 Yonne, was not a Jacobin, as he disgraced his fetters by 
 complaints, tears, and regrets for having been present at 
 the " commission des douze," and by his protestations that 
 he was a friend of Eobespierre's, and a worthy member of 
 the Mountain. 
 
 On the 2nd of November, about two o'clock in the 
 morning, we heard our room-door noisily opened. Three 
 jailers with torches hastily entered. They made an in- 
 ventory of our comrades' little furniture, and made pre- 
 parations for taking it away. We asked them if sentence 
 was given. They said no, but that they would not return 
 to the prison any more, whatever might be the result of 
 the trial, and that the removal of the property from the 
 room was customary. The time at which this removal 
 was made was a sad commentary on the jailer's speech, 
 l)ut it is difficult to cease to hope for what is eagerly 
 desired. AVe continually endeavoured to assuage our grief 
 at the loss of the others by flattering ourselves that 
 
FAUCHET. 163 
 
 Ducos, Fonfrede, and Faucliet, would escape. Indeed, 
 our hope for the Latter was increased when about seven 
 o'clock he sent for his breviar}'^ as the jailers had onaitted 
 it in their inventory. We supposed that in their last 
 moments some of the victims had been aftected by some 
 recollection of their religion, and that Faucliet remained 
 with them to console them. We were wronii,-. Fauchet 
 shared the honoured hrte of his collearrues, and wished 
 to dedicate his last moments to the performance of one 
 of the duties of his order. Philosophers like Hebert and 
 Chaumette will give a compassionate smile to the last 
 hours of the Bishop of Calvados ; true philosophers will 
 not be in haste to judge. Fauchet was born with an ardent 
 spirit, an imagination rising even to enthusiasm, a taste 
 for the marvellous, and, as a result of this organisation, a 
 decided leaning to credulity. Brought up in the Catholic 
 faith, and trained in its schools, his mind was early 
 fostered amid prophecies, miracles, and presentiments. 
 Destined to be a preacher of this rehgion, he was attached 
 to it by inclination, and as it is not easy to stop short in 
 such a course, he had very nearly become a prophet 
 himself The Bishopric of Calvados had weaned him 
 from the dreams of the social club, and he had ended by 
 being a priest in thorough earnest. At a moment when 
 men neither desire nor require to dissemble, he proclaimed 
 his firm belief and kept his conduct in accordance with his 
 principles. He protested strongly against the appearances 
 to the contraiy which some portions of his life had pre- 
 sented, and he took pains to persuade us that he was 
 blameless on the point on which the public usually most 
 accused him. Every day he devoutly recited his breviary, 
 read the Holy Scriptures, and a chapter of the Imitation of 
 Christ. The book of Holy Scripture that he was most 
 inclined to was the Apocalypse. He maintained that it 
 was the French Eevolution itself that St. John had seen 
 
164 LIFB AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 in tlie isle of Patmos, but allowed tliat, until the taking 
 of the Bastille, it had not been easy to understand it. But 
 after that the explanation was perfectly plain. In the 
 Apocalypse Fauchet found the birth, progress, and tri- 
 umphs of the Jacobins, the reign of Robespierre, the 
 noyades of Carrier, the fusillades of Collot, and even the 
 Jacobinical violence of Barc;re. He often drew parallels 
 so striking and developed them with so much eloquence, 
 that he excited the cold materialist Gensonnd, and 
 amazed Brissot. Besides, the latter, of whom every- 
 thing has been said except the truth, had also his own 
 sort of credulity. He was an old child, always ready to be 
 deceived, and quite incapable of deceiving others. If 
 ever a wrong sense was given to a word, it is that which 
 the public have applied to the word hrissoter. This 
 deputy had much ability and equal imprudence ; he knew 
 history perfectly, and man very little, easily embraced an 
 extended circle of political relations, and could not see 
 beyond the end of his nose. Very desirous of showing 
 that he was rio:ht, he did not know how to be so in 
 reality. In a word, he possessed all that was needed to 
 make a noise in a party, and to lead it to its ruin, as he 
 actually did. 
 
165 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Execution of fhe Girondists — The Revolutionary Tribunal — Bailly — General 
 Houchard — Madame Roland and tlie Revolution — Femmes de Monde in 
 tlie Conciergerie — Egle — Lamourette — Death of Claviures — The Deputy 
 Cassy — Conversation with the Advocate Lafeutrie — General La Marliere — 
 Strange Scene of Evocation. 
 
 The deatli of the twenty-two deputies filled tlie pri- 
 soners with gloom and consternation. All hearts were 
 affected by their loss, and the manner in which they 
 had been sacrificed added to this feeling of terror. With- 
 out doubt this revolutionary tribunal had been, from its 
 institution, what all judicial commissions will always be, by 
 whatever pretext they may be coloured, or by whatever 
 name they may be hidden, that is to say, — a weapon, and 
 a most Ibrmidable weapon, in the hand of the ruling- 
 party ; but whether it were that this party did not rule 
 exclusively ; whether the trade of executioner requires an 
 apprenticeship as well as all others; whether from pohcy, 
 or chance, before the massacre of the twenty-two depu- 
 ties, some victims escaped — at long intervals indeed, but 
 still they did escape — and every prisoner beguiled himself 
 by the hope of one of these fortunate chances. But no 
 one could deceive himself any longer when the founders 
 of the Repubhc had been sacrificed with an inconceiv- 
 able shamelessness and barbarity. It was evident that 
 tyranny had by this bold stroke made the experiment to 
 determine whether there was any vigour remaining in the 
 body politic ; and having found in it nothing but the sad 
 
1G6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 immobility of a corpse, proceeded to satiate all its rage on 
 it and tear it to pieces. This is what the depnties de- 
 clared even up to the very place of their execution. 
 Robespierre's people, that is to say all the wicked and all 
 the fools of Paris, pursued these unfortunate men with 
 their usual cries and insults, devised the day before by 
 the secret committee of the Jacobins. Some of them 
 smiled in pity ; others did not appear to pay the 
 smallest attention. Duchatel replied in these prophetic 
 words, " Poor Parisians ! we leave you in the hands of 
 those who will make you pay very dear for your pleasure 
 of to-day." 
 
 From this time forward the revolutionary tribunal worked 
 with disheartening activity ; but it gave the preference 
 to distinguished talents and eminent virtue. Such are 
 those whom tyranny particularly requires to be rid of. 
 Immediately after the trial, or rather the scandalous scene 
 that had preceded the death of the deputies, Bailly was 
 despatched to the same theatre. He appeared there with 
 the calm dignity of one of the first men of the age. 
 Neither reproach nor complaint escaped his lips for the 
 six days that he was a prey to this mockery of a tribunal. 
 To the last he replied with the same coolness, the same 
 precision, and the same dignity; and yet the blood of 
 the most careless man boils at reading the questions ad- 
 dressed to him. They might have been somewhat suit- 
 able addressed to Mandrin, to Collot d'Herbois, or any 
 other chief of the brigands. But who could help being 
 indignant when reflecting that this tissue of atrocious lies 
 was prepared for one of the first of philosophers, one of 
 the warmest friends of the human race, one of the 
 most distinguished savants that France can claim to her 
 honour? No doubt special orders had been given to 
 make him drain every drop of the cup they had prepared ; 
 for within the prison, whither he had so latelv been 
 
BAILLY. 1(37 
 
 the bearer of comfort and succour, and -^vhere lie had 
 appeared in all the splendour of fortune and virtue, he 
 was treated with a refinement of barbarity. The time 
 occupied in dragging him before the tribunal afforded a 
 quarter of an hour's sport to the jailers. They sur- 
 rounded him with an indecent affectation ; and when 
 he hastened to obey them and put an end to their 
 reiterated shouts, the turnkeys pushed him in different 
 directions, and sent him from one to the other, crying, 
 "Here's Bailly ! Bailly to you ! catch Bailly !" and laugh- 
 ing loudly at the gravity the unfortunate man preserved 
 in the middle of this cannibal dance. Yes, I have 
 seen Bailly, covered with glory and virtue, venerable if 
 only for his years — Bailly whose name is connected with 
 the most glorious deeds of the revolution, soiled by the 
 hands of jailers whose barbarity had been bought, totter- 
 ing under the attacks of some, upheld by the brutality of 
 others, and treated as their laughing-stock, as a drunken 
 man sometimes becomes to the crowd collected round him. 
 This spectacle was to me sadder than any death, however 
 terrible ; for the death of a just man in the midst of 
 suffering is always grand and sacred. It is felt that the 
 executioners do a good office in consecrating him to im- 
 mortality, and the mind is consoled by what rends the 
 body with grief; but there is nothing but repugnance at 
 ill treatment, and it can hardly be ennobled even by the 
 virtue constrained to endure it. 
 
 I must here mention a passage from the "Almanac of 
 Prisons" on the subject of Bailly. It is there stated 
 that one day coming back from the trial and asked by 
 some one how his business was proceeding, he replied, 
 rubbing his hands, " Our good little friend is still ahve." 
 The author, who is generally very correct, has here been 
 led astray. Anyone who has ever known Bailly knows 
 that the question and answer are alike foreign to his 
 
168 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 character. Bailly did not vary an instant from his grave 
 and gentle manner. Only it might be remarked in the 
 days when he appeared before the tribunal that his 
 gravity had assumed a more vigorous expression, and 
 almost amounted to self-assertion. Besides, he avoided 
 speaking of his trial, and nowhere sought to gather con- 
 solation or hopes. If the conversation inclined to litera- 
 ture he joined in it willingly, and would show some spark 
 of that kindly knowledge and delicate taste which dic- 
 tated the History of Astronomy and Letters on Atlatitis. 
 He never failed whenever he found an opportunity to 
 utter some consoling reflections for misfortune, such as 
 these, " The part of an honest man is the safest even in 
 time of revolution. An individual only requires an en- 
 lightened selfishness to put him in the way of justice and 
 truth. Now that innocence can be sacrificed with im- 
 punity the action of crime is uncertain. There is a vast 
 difference between the death of a good and of a wicked 
 man, so great that the generality of men cannot measure 
 it. It is false, quite false, to suppose that a crime can 
 ever be useful. We must know how to bear death as an 
 inconvenience incidental to the vocation of an honest 
 man ; but life has attractions for virtuous hearts, and we 
 need not be ashamed of regretting them. I should 
 have a bad opinion of anyone who had not a regret to 
 leave behind him when he died." 
 
 I twice saw Bailly agitated when speaking of his wife, 
 of the modest house he had selected at Melun, and the 
 peaceful days he had hoped to pass with her there. I 
 only knew Madame Bailly from the miserable jokes that 
 were passed on her, but respected her none the less. I 
 can suppose from these very things that if she did not 
 follow her husband in his literary career, she had been 
 able to gain his affection by such real virtues as are more 
 suited to her sex than knowledge, which seldom adorns it. 
 
APOSTASY OF BISHOP GOBEL. 169 
 
 and more usimlly corrupts it. Indeed, the affection that her 
 husband bore to her even thus received a more touching^ 
 character. The philosopher, shedding tears over his 
 remembrance of a woman who displayed no kind of bril- 
 hant aspect, thus returned to the class of ordinary mortals, 
 and we love the points of contact that are left between 
 us and our superiors. 
 
 Once only did Bailly break the silence that he pre- 
 served on political matters. It was on the day when the 
 solemn apostasy of Bishop Gobel formed a prelude to 
 the ridiculously impious farces, the exhibition of Avhich 
 the Convention was so often forced to permit in the midst 
 of it. The president, otherwise a very obscure person, 
 whose name I do not remember, but certainly a man 
 without any foresight, applauded the proceeding of the 
 shameless priest as long as his voice held out, and with 
 an answer worthy of the original address. Bailly drew a 
 deep sigh when the article in the paper was read, and 
 observed, " I am surprised at this proceeding of the 
 Bishop of Paris, but grieved at the answer of the presi- 
 dent. What sort of a man is this president?" His 
 name was read, but did not conduce to much better know- 
 ledge of him. Bailly said, "Ah! my lord president, 
 whoever you may be, what would you substitute? I 
 hope that the Convention will not separate without having- 
 given you the lie." 
 
 There was a limit even to these preliminary horrors. 
 The day before his death Bailly had a presage of the 
 next day's events, and spoke of them without emotion. 
 He said, "They have ordered all the assistants to be 
 present on my account, and I am afraid that the simple 
 execution of the sentence may not satisfy them, and 
 the consequences would be dangerous ; for I am per- 
 suaded that the police will be on the watch." " AYhat," 
 answered I to him, "why, even yesterday, indeed every 
 
170 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 day, you seemed undisturbed at tlie turn which the debates 
 and disposition of the tribunal were taking. Were you 
 deceiving us ? " " No," replied Bailly ; " but I was set- 
 ting you the example of never despairing of the laws of 
 your country." I left him with a breaking heart, and 
 longing to give a course to my tears for this excellent 
 man. I could not but give way to the feelings that 
 agitated me when I got back to my room. I repeated, 
 " What ! can men who bear the name of jurors find 
 that Bailly a murderer?" A certain Bon, a painter of 
 portraits, a dirty little Jacobin, had fallen to our 
 lot. He was a great nuisance to me, and said, " We 
 must not speak evil of the tribunal ; it will not exactly 
 condemn Bailly as a murderer, but as a great criminal." 
 "Wretch!" I replied, "you never cease talking about 
 great criminals, and praising the cartloads of your tri- 
 bunal. Give me your definition of a great criminal, or 
 I will throttle you." And I really had him by the neck 
 when Lamourette, springing from his couch, snatched my 
 prey from me and scolded me roundly for this outburst 
 of passion. I became more calm without being quieter, 
 and spent the night in imagining chances that might 
 save Bailly, and then overthrowing them. Tired of not 
 discovering any well-founded hope, I wished, since I was 
 devoted to the same fate, to die with him. Next day I 
 went down into his room. I inquired how he had passed 
 the night, and was told that he had slept as usual. He 
 had already risen and drunk his cup of chocolate. I con- 
 gratulated him on his aj)petite. He said he was satisfied 
 with it ; besides, he liked chocolate, because it was 
 nourishing without being heavy, and calmed the temper, so 
 that he often had recourse to it. I soon went away ; his 
 moments were too precious to be wasted ; but I watched 
 on the staircase for his passing to give him a last adieu. 
 I saw him for three-quarters of an hour conversing: with 
 
GENERAL HOUCHAED. 171 
 
 a young man in the uniform of a national guard, one ot 
 his relations. The young man -n-as affected even to 
 tears ; Bailly remained calm. Towards the end of the 
 interview he rapidly drank two cups of plain coffee. The 
 young man went away. I entered the gallery. He 
 seemed inchned to speak to me. I trembled, and chd 
 not know how to begin. At last I expressed my sur- 
 prise at his drinking coffee without milk after chocolate. 
 "I drank chocolate," said Bailly to me, "because it 
 soothes and supports ; but as I have a somewhat difficult 
 journey to take, and do not trust my constitution, I had 
 the coffee after it, for it is exciting and restorative ; and 
 with such provision I hope I shall hold out to the last." 
 He was called at this moment, and I embraced him for 
 the last time. He wished me a better fate, and thanked 
 me tenderly for the interest I had taken in him. 
 
 General Houchard was dragged to the same theatre 
 immediately after Bailly. It was hard to imagine a sus- 
 jiicion of treason or intrigue on the face of this old 
 warrior. Houchard was six feet hia^h, fierce in manner, 
 and terrible in aspect. A wound had distorted his 
 month and turned it towards the left ear. His upper li]) 
 had been divided by a sabre-cut, which had also touched 
 the nose ; and two other sabre-cuts had made two parallel 
 furrows in his left cheek. The remainder of his body 
 had not fared any better than his head. His breast was 
 scored with scars. It seemed as if victory had amused 
 herself with mutilating him. He spoke a barbarous jar- 
 gon, half German, half French, rendered more rugged still 
 by his difficulty of utterance. Bred amid the rudeness 
 of camps, and having purchased with his own blood each 
 grade from private to general, the roughness of his man- 
 ners enhanced his forbidding countenance. I do not 
 know whether he was an able general ; but at least it is 
 certain he had been a fortunate one. He had constantly 
 
172 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 obtained advantages at the head of the armies of the Re- 
 public. He dehvered Dunkirk, and gained the memorable 
 day of Hondschott over the Duke of York. It was not 
 the fault of his dispositions if the Enghsh army escaped 
 finding its Caudinc forks on the plains of Flanders. Re- 
 called, imprisoned, accused as the consequence of a sys- 
 tem that was still less likely to forgive a general for 
 victory than for defeat, there was still some difficulty 
 in preparing an indictment against him. After the 
 customary protocol on complicity with those who made 
 attempts against liberty, the sovereignty of the people, 
 the unity and indivisibility of the Republic, he was ac- 
 cused of not having hilled enough English. These were 
 the terms. According to the impudent compiler, not one 
 of them should have escaped from the plains of Flanders ; 
 and any Englishman alive after the day of Hondschott 
 Avas a conclusive witness against the French general. 
 The indignation of the old warrior was raised by 
 the stujsidity, the ignorance, and especially the impu- 
 dence, that had dictated the preparation of this indict- 
 ment. He himself prepared a kind of harangue for his 
 defence, and I always regret that I omitted to take a 
 copy. Certainly the style was not that of the Academy ; 
 but it breathed a wild eloquence, and, above all, the 
 indignation of great valour. One seemed to hear Marius 
 among the marshes of Minturnfe. Here and there were 
 comparisons which recalled the songs of Homer or of 
 Ossian. I admit that I conceived a higher opinion of 
 Houchard when I had read it, and I saw that nature had 
 apportioned a spark of genius to him that had not been 
 extinguished by the manners and tone of the day. He 
 modestly presented his harangue to me for criticism, and 
 I took good care not to advise him to alter anything in 
 it. I tried to induce him to deHver it exactly as it was 
 written ; but he did not perceive the value of my advice, and 
 
EEPLY TO AN UNJUST ACCUSATION. 173 
 
 on my refusal to alter it, addressed himself to a miserable 
 rogue named Osselin, wlio diluted this really remarkable 
 production into the style of the law courts, and took a 
 pretty heavy fee for this bad service. Houchard went 
 to his trial provided with Osselin's performance, and 
 assisted by an official counsel for the defence, once an 
 attorney's clerk ; and he, knowing nothing of the art of 
 war except by the fights in the lanes of Paris, proceeded 
 to justify the campaigns of the general-in-chief before a 
 band of drunken cobblers, with a monk for president. 
 Such vras in general the character of all the revolutionary 
 institutions, presenting on one side an excess of horror, on 
 the other an excess of absurdity ; and when everything 
 impelled the man of feeling to tears, the sage was still 
 tempted to smile. It is easy to imagine the general's 
 fate — it was determined beforehand ; but what he did 
 not expect, what no one could expect, was that the 
 monk Dumas dared to reproach Houchard with cowardice ! 
 At this word, the commencement of the sufferino's of the 
 •old warrior, he tore open his clothes and cried, showing 
 his breast covered with scars, " Citizens of the jury, read 
 my answer, it is written there ! " This movement, which 
 would have roused the people of Rome, was considered 
 very impertinent by the dregs of Paris. They ordered 
 Houchard to be silent, and he fell back on the fatal seat 
 drowned in tears. Perhaps they were the first that had 
 ever fallen from his eyes. After that, sentence could be 
 passed, he could be led to execution, murdered, not in the 
 least knowing wdiat passed around him. He had only one 
 feeling in his heart, that of despair, and only one word 
 in his mouth, which he repeated even to the scaffold, 
 " The wretch ! he called me a coward." And when, on 
 coming back to the prison, he was asked what was the 
 issue of his trial, he answered, "He called me a coward," 
 and thought nothing of all the rest. So true it is that 
 
174 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 to great courage there is a kind of insult worse than 
 death. 
 
 Probably the revolutionary tribunal had not sufficient 
 confidence in the savage constancy of its spectators, and 
 thought it must, like other mountebanks, vary its spec- 
 tacle to retain the crowd. After the tragedy of Houchard 
 it produced the drama of Madame Roland. A more com- 
 plete contrast could not be obtained. I had refused 
 many of my acquaintance who offered to introduce me to 
 her when she held an office for politics and wit at the 
 house of the home-secretary ; and I attributed to party 
 spirit the eulogiums poured out on her, and the celebrity 
 she had all at once obtained. Besides, I had been near 
 enough to observe closely all the women who had placed 
 their names on the records of the Revolution, and had 
 come at last not to esteem any one of them. Reflecting 
 on it, I saw that a woman in the midst of such a fright- 
 ful catastrophe could only retain the vices of her sex, and 
 none of the virtues. Their sweet, amiable, and sensitive 
 qualities increase, and are developed in the bosom of 
 peace and domestic enjoyment ; in the heat of argu- 
 ment they retire, and are lost in the exasperation of 
 parties and the shock of passion. The tender and delicate 
 foot of woman is unfitted to tread these paths bristling 
 with iron and stained with blood. In order to walk there 
 steadily she must make herself a man, and a masculine 
 woman is a monster in my eyes. Ah! let them leave 
 the field of contention and the issue of combats to us, to 
 whom nature has allotted the unenviable advanta2;e of 
 strength. We are sufficient for this cruel destiny ; but 
 let them keep to the more sweet and easy duty of pour- 
 ing balm into wounds and wiping away tears. Let their 
 expansive and compassionate soul search for sorrow 
 wherever it may be found, and may they bless the social 
 rule that does not permit them to 1iate ' 
 
MADAME EOLAND. 175 
 
 My opinion on tliis point was confirmed when I was 
 bronglit into contact with Lladame Roland by our com- 
 mon misfortune. Her arrival at the Conciergerie was 
 an event, and I was then curious to know this woman 
 who had been obscure fifteen months ago, and had in so 
 short a time won numbers of friends, still greater numbers 
 of enemies, very elevated rank, a prison and death. 
 Madame Roland was from thirty-five to forty years of 
 age. Her face was not regularly beautiful, but very 
 agreeable. She had beautiful fair hair, and blue, well- 
 opened eyes. Her figure was graceful, and her hand per- 
 fectly shaped. Her looks were expressive, and even in 
 repose her countenance was noble and interesting in expres- 
 sion. She had no occasion to speak for her ability to be 
 perceived ; but no woman could speak so purely, gracefully, 
 and elegantly. She owed the power of giving a rhythm 
 and a really new cadence to the French language to her 
 famiharity with the tongue of Italy. And she enhanced 
 still more the harmony of her voice by gestures fiiU of truth 
 and nobleness, and by the expression of her eyes, which 
 became animated as she spoke. I felt each day a new 
 charm in listening to her, less from what she said than 
 from the magic of her utterance. She united to these 
 gifts, so rare in themselves, much natural intellect 
 and extensive acquaintance with literature and political 
 economy. Thus it was that I beheld Madame Roland, 
 and I must confess that I beheld her with an unfavour- 
 able prejudice. 
 
 She had imbibed a taste, or, in her own words, a 
 passion for liberty from reading the great v^-riters of 
 antiquity. In them she had seen humanity at a pitch 
 of elevation of which she had always been ambitious 
 fi'om her youth. Cato the Elder was her hero, and 
 it was probably from respect for this last of the Romans 
 that she had made her husband adopt their rough- 
 
176 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 ness and their costume. I am willing to believe that 
 Madame Roland's passion for liberty flowed in part from 
 a pure source ; but when transported from ancient to 
 modern history it was perceptible that the late govern- 
 ment's oblivion of her talents, produced under her hus- 
 band's name, had some part in her fervour for the new. 
 She did not conceal her satis&ction in her husband's 
 having been twice in the ministry, and she took so much 
 pains to prove that resentment was no motive for the 
 famous letter to Louis XVI., that she completely con- 
 vinced a judicious observer that it was the chief motive. 
 Besides, this woman of vivid imagination, led on by her 
 head rather than by her heart, threw the violence of a 
 passion into her opinions ; she loved all who shared them, 
 and detested those who did not. In this respect she 
 was especially unjust. She would not recognise talents, 
 probity, virtue, or intelligence in anyone besides Roland 
 and her admirers ; everywhere else she could only see 
 baseness, ignorance, or treason. She had inspired into 
 the whole party a heat of prejudice which contributed 
 not a little to alienate minds, and to raise up hatred. 
 More than once have I taken Madame Roland to task on 
 this subject, and thus excited sufficiently spirited discus- 
 sion. I remember, among other things, that we were 
 one day on the subject of Louis XVI., when she was 
 violently tearing his memory to pieces. I reminded 
 her of the respect due to misfortune ; I considered that 
 the man in whom she would allow nothing tolerable 
 had displayed a lofty courage in the depth of mis- 
 fortune, and that he had met death with true mag- 
 nanimity. " Very well," said she, " he was fine enough 
 on the scaffold ; but there is no reason for giving him 
 credit for it. Kings are reared from childhood to act a 
 part." A profoundly cruel irony, showing more of re- 
 sentment against the corruntion of the old rule than of 
 
CHARACTER OF MADAME ROLAND. 177 
 
 republican candour or liumanity. Vanity was the vehicle 
 that had elevated this woman to the pitch we have seen ; 
 she was continually under its influence, and made no 
 secret of it. At the risk of abasing her husband to the 
 position of an automaton, and of only leaving him his 
 doubtful virtue, she loudly laid claim to the principal 
 share in his literary productions and all his political 
 glory. She deprived others of the pleasure of praising 
 them by informing them on this point. Nothing seemed 
 to her so natural, and she believed that this was another 
 analogy with the most famous personages of antiquity. She 
 would not see that there was as much difference between 
 the wife of Roland and of the Roman consul as between 
 the Brutus of the revolutionary tribunal and him of the 
 Capitol. 
 
 A perpetual enthusiast on the idea of transforming the 
 French into Greeks and Romans, she would never recog- 
 nise the absurdity of her system, and defended it with as 
 much warmth as grace ; and when the lady surprised me 
 by the beauty of her thoughts and the elevation of her 
 language, I could no longer recognise her who, by her 
 own confession, frequented the tribunes of the Jacobins, 
 and soiled herself with the mud of fraternal societies. 
 
 Separate IMadame Roland from the Revolution, and she 
 no more appears the same person. No one could define 
 better than she could the duties of wife and mother, or 
 could more eloquently prove that a woman's only happi- 
 ness was in the performance of these sacred obligations. 
 On her lips a picture of domestic enjoyment assumed a soft 
 and enchanting tint ; tears fell fi-om her eyes when she 
 spoke of her husband and daughter ; the female partisan 
 had disappeared ; and she was a sensitive and gentle 
 woman, singing the praises of virtue in the style of Fcne- 
 lon. I did not know enough of Madame Roland, and so 
 am ignorant whether her practice justified the sublimity 
 
178 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 of her theory. While talking of the miion of virtuous 
 hearts, and vaunting the energy that it inspires, she said 
 to me, "The coldness of the French astonishes me. If 
 I had been at liberty and my husband led to execution, I 
 should have stabbed myself at the foot of the scaffold ; 
 and I am convinced that when Roland learns my death 
 he -will pierce his own heart." She was not mistaken. 
 
 I must add to her honour that she had formed for 
 herself a most honourable empire even in the depths 
 of the dungeon. The Duchess de Grammont and a pick- 
 pocket were cast indifferently upon the same straw and 
 guarded by the same bolts, Madame Roland and a wretch 
 off the streets, a good nun and a jail bird of the 
 Salpetrifere. This mixture was cruel to the high-bred 
 women, because they were daily obliged to behold 
 horrible or disgusting spectacles. We were waked every 
 night by the cries of wretches tearing one another to 
 pieces. The room where Madame Roland dwelt had 
 become an asylum of peace in the midst of this infernal 
 spot. If she went down into the yard her presence 
 recalled orderliness, and these women over whom no 
 recognised power had the slightest hold, were restrained 
 by the fear of displeasing her. She distributed assist- 
 ance in money to the most needy, and advice, consola- 
 tion, and hope to all. She walked about, like a tutelary 
 divinity, surrounded by these women, who pressed about 
 her. She was very different from that foul courtesan, 
 the shame of Louis XV. and of his age — that Du Barry 
 who was imprisoned in the same place, and was treated 
 by other women there with energetic equality, though 
 she still preserved even there the unctuous demeanour 
 and haughty airs of a royal mistress. 
 
 The day Madame Roland had to appear before the 
 tribunal Claviferes gave me a commission to her. I 
 excused myself; Clavieres insisted, pointing out that 
 
INFLUE.NX'E OF MADAME EOLAND. 179 
 
 an interview between liim and her on sucli a clay miglit 
 harm them both. I yielded, and watched for the 
 moment when she left lier room, in order to meet her 
 in the passage. She was waiting at the gate to be 
 called. She was attired with some care ; she wore a 
 white Enghsh mnslin trimmed with blonde, with a black 
 velvet sash ; her head was carefully dressed in a 
 light hat of elegant simplicity, her beautiful hair stream- 
 ing over her shoulders. Her expression seemed to 
 me more animated than usual ; her colour was charm- 
 ing, and a smile rested on her lips. With one hand 
 she held up the skirt of her dress, and the other was 
 abandoned to a crowd of women who thronged to kiss 
 it. Those who were informed of the fate that awaited 
 her sobbed around and recommended her to Provi- 
 dence. There is no describing the scene, it must 
 have been seen to be imagined. Madame Roland re- 
 plied to all with affectionate kinchiess ; she made no 
 j)romise of returning ; she did not announce that she was 
 going to her death ; but the last words she said to them 
 were so many touching bits of advice. She exhorted them 
 to peace — courage — hope — to the practice of the virtues 
 suitable in suffering. An old jailer named Fontenay, whose 
 kind heart had resisted the influence of his cruel office 
 for thirty years, came weeping to open the gate for her. 
 As she passed I performed Clavieres' commission; she 
 answered me in a few words, with a steady voice, and 
 was beginning a sentence, when two jailers from within 
 called her to the tribunal. At this summons, so dreadful to 
 any save herself, she stopped and said, pressing my 
 hand, " Adieu, sir. Let us make peace. It is time." 
 Raising her eyes to my face she saw that I was repress- 
 ing my tears, and was greatly agitated ; she seemed to 
 perceive it, but only added " Courage." 
 
 Amid these lugubrious scenes, daily renewed, the 
 
180 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Frencli women lost none of their cliaracter, they were 
 as ready as ever to sacrifice to the necessity of pleasing. 
 The part of the prison that we lived in looked out on the 
 women's yard. The only place where we could breathe 
 a little more at our ease was a space about ten to twelve 
 feet long and seven wide, formed of two bays of the 
 vaulting, and making a landing for the staircase, and a 
 passage from the women's yard to the wicket. This 
 kind of corridor was closed by iron bars on the side 
 towards the yard, but the bars were not so close as to 
 compel a Frenchman to do nothing but despair. As the 
 corridor was our favourite promenade, and our only one, 
 we went down to it as soon as we were let out of our 
 duno-eons. The women came out at the same time, 
 but not so quickly as we did, dress claiming its pre- 
 scriptive rights. They appeared in the morning in 
 a coquettish demi-toilette, every detail of which was 
 arranged with a freshness and grace that by no means 
 suggested that they had passed the night on a pallet, 
 and oftener still on fetid straw. Generally the women 
 of the world who were taken to the Conciergerie pre- 
 served there the sacred fire of good breeding and taste 
 even to the very last. When they had appeared in 
 demi-toilette in the morning, they returned to their 
 rooms, and about midday they might be seen coming 
 down attired elegantly, their hair beautifully dressed. 
 Neither were their manners those of the morning ; they 
 Avere more decided and dignified. Towards evening 
 they appeared again in an undress. I observed that 
 almost all women who could manage it were faithful to 
 three costumes a-day. The others supplied the want 
 of elegance by such neatness as was compatible with 
 the locality. The women's yard contained a treasure, 
 a fountain, that supplied them with as much water as 
 they wanted ; and everv mornin.s: I observed the un- 
 
LADIES IN THE CONCIEEGEEIE. 181 
 
 lucky ones, who had not brought more than one gar- 
 ment with them, and perhaps had no more, engaged 
 in washing, bleaching or drying it with lively emula- 
 tion. The first hour of the day was sacred to these 
 cares, and nothing would have disturbed them, not even 
 an indictment. Richardson has observed that the care 
 of their chattels and the passion for packing equal, if 
 they do not surpass, the highest interests in the minds 
 of women. 
 
 I am convinced that at this time no promenade in 
 Paris could produce an assemblage of women so ele- 
 gantly appointed as the yard of the Conciergerie at 
 noon ; it was like a flower-bed adorned with flowers, but 
 fenced round with iron. France is probably the only 
 country, and the French the only women, who could 
 furnish such strange contrasts, producing all that is most 
 attractive and voluptuous in the most horrible and dis- 
 gusting place in the universe. I liked to watch the 
 ladies at noon, but preferred to talk to them in the 
 morning, and I took my share of more intimate converse 
 in the evening, when I ran no risk of disturbing any 
 one's bliss ; for at nightfall all was in our favour, the 
 increasing darkness, the weariness of the jailers, the 
 absence of most of the prisoners, and the discretion of 
 the rest. In the tranquil interval that precedes night, 
 there was many a blessing on the want of foresight of 
 the architect who designed the grating ! And yet the 
 beings who could thus forget themselves had their death- 
 warrants in their pockets. Besides, I was almost a 
 witness to a scene of this kind. A woman about forty 
 years old, but still fresh, preserving her beauty and an 
 elegant figure, was condemned to death, in the first 
 decade of Frimaire, with her lover, an officer of the army 
 of the North, a young man who seemed to unite a high 
 spirit to a handsome face. They came from the tribunal 
 
182 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 about six o'clock in the evening, and were separated for 
 the night. She managed to retain in reserve some 
 means of seduction, which she employed with such success 
 as to obtain her reunion with her lover. They gave up 
 their last night to love, they tasted the cup of pleasure 
 once more, and only tore themselves away from each 
 other's arms to mount the fatal cart. 
 
 I have never been able to do anything but wonder 
 at such indifference, and feel that I was not in the least 
 made for it. My mind is not yet decided whether it 
 lowered or raised the persons who exhibited it ; but it 
 is certain that it had an aspect peculiar to itself The 
 neighbourhood of the ladies gave us dissipations of a 
 lighter character of which I was more jealous. We 
 often had the pleasure of breakfasting with them. 
 Benches of about the height to lean on were set against 
 the grating in different places, and on them were placed 
 all together, and with the confusion unavoidable in the 
 place and at the time, not merely the preparations for, 
 but the substantial parts of breakfast, and if any room 
 was left on the ladies' side the graces were not slow in 
 taking possession of it. They were not indeed the same 
 graces as those carelessly disj^layed on the sofa or around 
 an elegant tea-table ; but were more original and attrac- 
 tive. While despatching the meats seasoned by hunger, 
 in spite of the purveyor, graceful observations, witty 
 allusions, and striking repartees were exchanged on either 
 side of the grating. There was agreeable conversation 
 on all subjects. Misfortune was only treated like a 
 naughty child, to be merely laughed at and thrust aside. 
 In fact, there was open merriment at the divinity of Marat, 
 the priesthood of Robespierre, and the magistrateship of 
 Fouquier ; and the greeting to all that blood-stained crew 
 seemed to be, " You may kill us when you please, but 
 
 you cannot hinder US^'"'^'"" lipino- sooiablp " This dpsprin- 
 
EGLB. 1S3 
 
 tion is not in the least dressed up, and may well be 
 believed when I add that the guests were, perhaps, all the 
 persons of distinguished ability still left in France, and I 
 can caU to witness the only two men who escaped at the 
 Conciergerie, by what miracle I know not, M. Eiouffe, at 
 last known to be the author of Memoires d'un Detenu^ 
 and M. Marchena, whom the revolution attracted from 
 Spain, and who would be an ornament to any country. 
 
 I do not know what spirit fortified and elevated the 
 minds of all, steeping them in energy; but I only saw 
 one man show tokens of pusillanimity; it was M. du 
 Chatelet. He was brought from the Madelonettes in a 
 pitiable state of intoxication, and was thrown upon a 
 bed, where he spent the night. Next day he had 
 regained his reason, and was not much the better for it. 
 He hawked about everywhere his complaints, tears, and 
 regrets, and seemed astonished at not finding anyone 
 disposed to sympathise with him. He came to the ladies' 
 grating, and there as elsewhere he continued crying and 
 mumbling his lamentations. A girl — more than a girl — 
 looked at him as a novel object, and asked what he could 
 be ? AVhen informed, she went to him and said, " Fie ! are 
 you weeping ? Know, M. le Due, that those who have 
 no name acquire one here, and that those who have one 
 ought to learn how to bear it." It may be supposed 
 that the personage from whom this sound lesson issued 
 was an aristocrat, and nothing could be more true. It 
 might be asked where in the world aristocracy could 
 23erch itself; for then it was nestled in a wretched 
 girl from the streets, who played her part to the end 
 with a kind of heroism that none of the prudes of the 
 halls of Coblentz would have been capable of 
 
 She was called Egle, and was from about seventeen to 
 twenty years of age. For the last two years she had 
 had lodgings in the Eue Fromanteau, having before 
 
181 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 lived in a garret in the Faubourg Saint Antoine. At 
 first, one of the many victims of the corruption of our 
 manners, she had afterwards become a very active agent 
 in carrying it on, but the soul had retained its vigour 
 amid all the stains of the person. Egl^ detested the new 
 order of things, and did not conceal her sentiments. She 
 published her opinions at the corners of the streets, and 
 accompanied the expression of them with seditious re- 
 marks and outcries. The police had arrested her and 
 taken her to the Conciergerie with one of her com- 
 panions, whom she had infected with her aristocratic 
 poison and her passion for spreading it. Chamnette had 
 conceived the idea of having these two poor girls brought 
 before the tribunal at the same time as the Queen, and 
 sending all three to execution in the same cart. No- 
 thing could agree better with his famous accusation, and 
 it must be owned that this galley-slave, become the 
 prosecutor-general of the commune of Paris, was pro- 
 ceeding consistently. The committee of government 
 considered that there was something unsuitable in this 
 jest; it was decided that Marie Antoinette of Austria 
 should go alone to her death, and poor Egle was re- 
 served for a better occasion. 
 
 Three months had passed since the Queen's death, and 
 it is likely that Eglc and her companion might have 
 been forgotten, if the former had observed the most 
 ordinary reserve ; but she would have thought it shame- 
 ful to dissemble, or even to be silent, and she gave them 
 such a seditious course in the midst of the Conciergerie 
 that Fouquier wanted to have done with her. 
 
 No one took the trouble to prepare a new indictment 
 against these two girls, but looked up that which had 
 been prepared for Chaumette's project, and it was left in 
 its primitive simplicity, so that Egl6 and her companion 
 found themselves absolutelv and preciselv accused of 
 
A DEVOTED EOYALIST. 185 
 
 having been in communication with the widow Capet, 
 and of consiDiring with her against the sovereignty and 
 Hberty of the j^eople. I read it, and can bear witness 
 to it. 
 
 Egle was proud of her indictment, but indignant at 
 the articles that it contained. She could not conceive it 
 possible for anyone to lie in such a stupid way, and 
 threw out some broad sarcasms against the tribunal, which 
 had a merit of their own, but only in her mouth. I 
 interrupted her in the middle of one of these philippics, 
 and said to her, " Notwithstanding all that, my dear 
 Egle, if you had been led to the scaffold with the Queen, 
 there would not have been any difference between her 
 and you, and you would have seemed her equal." 
 "Yes," she answered, "but I should have caught the 
 rogues nicely." "How would you have done that?" 
 " How ? Why, right in the middle of the way I should 
 have cast myself at her feet, and executioner or devil 
 would never have made me get up." The poor giid must 
 be pardoned for such a piece of extravagance. She was 
 born in the bosom of ignorance and poverty, the pur- 
 suit of her deplorable condition had left her no time 
 for thought or consideration. So it is not surprising- 
 that she could never raise her thoughts to the region 
 where kings appear on the same level as other mortals ; 
 and, besides, what a school of morals and republican 
 notions was the Rue Fromanteau! 
 
 Before the tribunal, Egle avowed the royalist speeches 
 and exclamations imputed to her ; but when they came 
 to the head of her complicity with the Queen — " As for 
 that," said she, raising her shoulders, " that is a fine 
 story, and upon my word you are uncommonly clever ; 
 I an accomplice of her you call the widow Capet, 
 who really was the Queen in spite of your malice. I, a 
 poor gud, who gained my living at the street corners, and 
 
186 LIFE AND ADVEKTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 could not have got near a scullion of lier kitchen ! This 
 is worthy of a pack of good-for-nothings and idiots like 
 yon ! " Notwithstanding this sally, Egle found favour at 
 the tribunal. A juror observed that she was probably 
 drunk when she made the speeches imputed to her, 
 since even now she was excited, and others — old 
 acquaintances — seconded him. Egle refused this excuse, 
 and the reasons given for it, with the same boldness ; 
 she maintained that if there was anyone drunk among 
 the honourable company, it was not herself, and as a 
 proof of that, she maintained she had made the speeches 
 imputed to her in cold blood, and repeated them exactly, 
 though precautions were taken to make her keep silence. 
 They forced her to sit down, and the tribunal went on to her 
 companion. She found the same feeling in the jury, 
 doubtless from having known her of old. She hesitated, 
 less decided than Egle, and accepted the imputation of 
 drunkenness that was made to save her from death. Egl^ 
 indignantly broke silence, cried out to her companion 
 that her weakness was a crime, that she was dishonouring 
 herself (the word is precious), and recalled her to courage 
 and truth. The other, now more confused, and trembling 
 at Egle rather than at tlie judges, abjured her momentary 
 weakness and confessed that she also had been guilty in 
 cold blood. The tribunal made a proper difference in its 
 decision, sent Egle to the scaffold as an incorrigible royalist, 
 and was contented with shutting up the other in the Sal- 
 petrifere for some twenty years. When the judgment 
 was read, Egle smiled as she heard the reasons that 
 established her guilt of the crime of counter-revolution, 
 and condemned her to death ; but when they came to 
 the article that confiscated her goods, she said to the 
 president, " You thief, I expected that from you. I wish 
 you joy of my goods ! I will answer for it that, if you 
 cat them all, they will not disasrree with vou." Esrl^. 
 
LAMOUEETTE. 187 
 
 wlien she returned from the trial, blamed her com- 
 panion's conduct, and was well satisfied with her own ; 
 she was only afraid of going to sleep with the devil. I 
 give her own language. The angel of this prison, the 
 good M. Emery, comforted her, and she sprang into the 
 cart as lightly as a bird. If it was worth while to make 
 inquiries as to the origin of this poor girl, it would doubt- 
 less be discovered that she had received a detestable 
 education. Some good woman had implanted the germ 
 of the prejudices in favour of the former state of things 
 in Egle's mind. The active dissipation of her life might 
 have stifled it for a long time, but the persecutions of the 
 revolution had, it would seem, favoured its development, 
 and it reached its height in this ardent soul, with a 
 capacity for passions of more than one kind. 
 
 I was interrupted in these bitter thoughts by Lamou- 
 rette, the constitutional Bishop of Lyons, who shared my 
 room. His society was a pleasure to me. Lamourette 
 was an educated man, a good orator, and, at the time of 
 the Revolution, one of the most distinguished priests of 
 the Order of the Oratory. In common with almost all 
 the members of this learned congregation, he had allowed 
 himself to be led away by the new principles, and was 
 on this account appointed Bishop of Lyons. During the 
 siege he displayed the zeal and courage in which French 
 priests have never been deficient in time of danger, 
 carrying ghostly aid to his sheep in the midst of the 
 balls and grape-shot. Our good Abbe Piosier, author of 
 the Dictionary of Agriculture^ as well as his vicar- 
 general, were killed there. The bishop was only wounded, 
 but he expected that the executioner's steel would com- 
 plete the work of the soldiers of Dubois de Craned. He 
 was by no means discouraged, and I never saw any one 
 carry Christian stoicism to such an extent. He might be 
 seen regularly and unaffectedly going through the daily 
 
188 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 oiEces of a priest. Thougli a constitutional bishop, and so 
 apparently greatly opposed to M. Emery, ex-Superior of 
 Saint Sulpice, wlio was also among our companions in 
 misery, lie shared the good works of that excellent man. 
 When Lamourette was taken before the tribunal, he 
 confessed what they accused him of as one of the most 
 sacred duties of his profession, confessed his faith, made 
 the sign of the cross, and awaited his condemnation. 
 He charged me to publish his retractation of the oath he 
 had taken to the civil constitution of the clergy. I will not 
 fail in so doing. Lamourette, who saw me overwhelmed 
 with grief on returning from the wicket, thought that I 
 had been informed that I should be brought before the 
 tribunal next day, and commenced an exhortation suitable 
 to the gravity of the position. I informed him of his mis- 
 take, and explained the cause of my dejection. He replied 
 somewhat sharply, and tried to show, me that my wife's 
 coming should be a great consolation, happen what 
 might. To all my objections, he contented himself with 
 answering, " Only learn to be a good Christian, and you 
 will not experience such violent agitation." 
 
 During the night that followed this very day, we were 
 both of us subjected to a painful trial. The depar- 
 ture of the Girondists had left five places vacant in 
 the room that I was lodged in. They were occupied by 
 Lamourette; a former prior of Molisme named Saumenil; 
 Boos, the portrait-painter ; a Parisian tailor, and Cla- 
 vi^res, the ex-minister of finance. This chamber was an 
 exception to the rest. It was so orderly and quiet that 
 it had acquired the name of the room of the seven wise 
 men. Claviferes was a materialist, the bishop and the 
 prior very pious priests, the tailor was a protestant, and 
 the painter nothing at all. All this agreed delight- 
 fully. Clavieres had attempted a few jokes when our 
 priests were saying their breviarv tocrether. but T p-ave 
 
CLAVIBEES. 189 
 
 him a sharp set-down, and made him discontinue that 
 bad habit. The ver)^ daj^ of my first interview with my 
 wife, Claviferes received his indictment, and was informed 
 that he would be tried the next day. He read tliis 
 indictment half through, and then trampled it under foot 
 in an outbreak of indignation. I picked it up. "Read 
 it," said Clavi(ires to me, "if you are bold enough, 
 and tell me what is left for a man of spirit to do." I 
 read a long compendium, in which all the crimes of 
 Claviferes were related, and yet his real ones were not 
 there. I advised him to send for his advocate. " Why 
 so ? " he replied. " I prefer to send for Montessin, my 
 son-in-law, and consult with him about my daughter's 
 fortune." I said, " The one is no hindrance to the 
 other." He sent for them both. I invited him to make 
 a third at dinner with Lamourette and myself, as he 
 would be better there than at a somewhat noisy table 
 where he usually had his meals with a party of eight. 
 He refused, went to dinner as usual, ate neither more 
 nor less than was his wont, and preserved his coolness ; 
 only he cleverly made prize of the carving knife, and 
 brought it into our room. In the afternoon he saw his 
 son-in-law and his advocate, and said no more to us 
 about his trial. He only told me that the advocate, 
 whose name was Lafeutrie, was either a knave or a fool, 
 for he had tried to persuade him that he had brought off 
 patients in worse case than himself. To which I an- 
 swered. He went on, " Citizen for the defence, you 
 have not felt my pulse. Observe, I do not consult you 
 on the grounds of my indictment, but only whether I can 
 demand a delay, so as to procure the large number of 
 proofs required to refute twenty items of accusation ; 
 since no delay can possibly be obtained, there is nothing 
 left for me to do but to thank you." 
 
 The hour arrived when the rooms were closed. We 
 
190 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 were shut up in ours, and Clavi^res with us. The con- 
 versation fell, as it often did, on the miseries of our situa- 
 tion, and Lamourette dexterously brought in some reflec- 
 tions on the shortness of life, which only the rage of 
 our ^persecutors could render a little shorter. Every 
 one went to bed and to sleep, for one is sure to sleep. 
 The first nights spent in a prison are sleepless, unless to 
 a person possessed of great force of character ; but nature 
 soon recovers her inalienable rights, and for my part I 
 observed that from the day that I was imprisoned, my 
 dreams were of scenes of entire liberty, and probably 
 when I get out (if I get out) I shall dream of prisons and 
 dungeons again. 
 
 An hour after we had gone to bed and to sleep, I was 
 waked by a cry from Lamourette. " Clavieres ! wretched 
 man ! what have you done ? " Then I heard distinctly 
 two equally horrible sounds ; the death-rattle of a man, 
 and the sound of blood dropping on the pavement. I 
 sprang from my bed ; all the other five did the same. 
 What was to be done ? what was to become of us ? No 
 aid from without could be called, there was no means of 
 procuring a light ; there was only a lanthorn in one of 
 the passages of the Palais de Justice, opposite to the 
 window of our room, which cast some feeble rays, suffi- 
 cient to show this scene of horror, but not enough to 
 make it clear. The two priests flung themselves on 
 their knees, and begged us to do the same, to entreat the 
 mercy of God upon the unhappy man whose self-destruc- 
 tion we were beholding. Every one knelt. A quarter 
 of an hour later, there was nothing more to be heard but 
 the dropping of the blood. We returned to our beds, 
 but as we had trodden on the blood that covered the 
 floor, we in our turn soiled our beds, and next day, 
 at the opening of this melancholy retreat, it looked 
 like the shambles, and of what flesh, 2:ood heavens ! 
 
FAMOUS TEIUMVIEATE. 191 
 
 When there was a kind of kill we could manage to 
 gather together several circumstances that ought to have 
 warned us of Clavieres' resolution. More than once he 
 had protested that he would not debase the dignity of 
 man so far as to appear before the infamous tribunal. 
 He had consulted the painter Boos on the attitudes in 
 which pictures and statues represented persons stabbing 
 themselves with daggers, and he had noted the spot on the 
 left side that would give the readiest access to a blow meant 
 to reach the auricle of the heart. In fact, it was evident 
 by his talk the night before that he spurned the tribunal, 
 and there was no means of escape but death that very 
 night. But the kind of death he had chosen required an 
 incredible amount of determination; it is hardly possible to 
 understand that lying upon a mere mattress upon straps, 
 without any steady resting-place, it was possible for him 
 to rest the dagger upon his left hand, guide it to the part 
 he intended to pierce, and drive it in with the right hand 
 by several repeated efforts, and all this without a cry, 
 without any clumsy movement that might have waked 
 us. Yet such, according to scientific evidence, was the 
 only manner in which he could have put himself to death. 
 So perished Clavieres, the first minister of finance of the 
 Republic. He was one of the famous triumvirate — Roland, 
 Clavieres, and Servan — who, when summoned by Louis 
 XVI. to his defence, gave themselves over to the 
 Jacobins, and presided over scenes that, increasing daily 
 in violence, ended in the execution of that excellent 
 prince. Roland had stabbed himself on the road to 
 Rouen a fortnight before the death of Clavieres ; Servan 
 had obtained a short respite by hastening to enter the 
 army, but pitiless destiny was pursuing him even thither, 
 when death preserved him from the recompense that his 
 party were preparing for him. 
 
 Clavih-es was a Genevese — yes, and a distinguished 
 
192 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Genevese, that is to say that he was a man of sense, an 
 able arithmetician, and a good writer. He had taken 
 lessons from Pauchan, and was regarded as one of his best 
 pupils. Claviferes was in the financial department when 
 M. Necker was at its head. He was opposed to his 
 celebrated countryman as long as the Constitutional 
 Assembly lasted ; he sought weapons against him among 
 the Jacobins, and when these became masters, Claviferes 
 of course was their man. When he became the minister 
 of the Republic, he believed himself on the point of 
 realising his great economical and financial projects, and 
 of exposing what he called poor Necker's emphatic 
 ignorance. The Jacobins, who understood nothing at all 
 about it, and to whom he refused the right of pillage, 
 treated him as a thief and intriguer, arrested him as one, 
 and were going to cut off his head, when he had the 
 impertinence to anticipate them. 
 
 I had foreseen that the night's catastrophe would pro- 
 voke an inquiry, where the chamber companions of 
 Claviferes would figure at least as witnesses, and I did 
 not care to give my name among them. As soon as I 
 could, I went down to the prison office, where I had 
 managed to obtain a little favour by making copies or 
 preparing tables for the clerk. I communicated to him 
 my fear of appearing in the formal report, and he 
 managed to get me off, advising me, as a precaution, 
 to remain in the office while the inquiry was being con- 
 ducted. I was still there when the body of my room- 
 fehow was brought down and placed in the condemned 
 cell. Some madmen, thirsting for his execution, were 
 waiting to depose against him at the tribunal. When 
 informed that he had committed suicide, they would not 
 believe it, and went down to certify themselves. On 
 coming to the body, they poured forth most horrible 
 abuse against the wretch who had dared to rob them of 
 
MADAME BEUGXOT S DISGUISE. 193 
 
 the pleasure of tasting of his punishment. They snatched 
 off the cloak that was thrown over the bloody corpse, 
 hurled themselves furiously upon it, and struck it with 
 their hands and feet. A dance of cannibals is not nearly 
 so horrible as was this scene, which at once displayed 
 the ferocity of the savage, and the extreme corruption of 
 the civilised man. I departed from this scene feeling 
 the remembrance of it will never be effaced from my 
 mind. However, the tribunal steadily pursued its course 
 of slaughter to right and left, whatever was presented to 
 it, without the smallest partiality. I had great difficulty 
 in persuading myself that my wife could ever contrive to 
 withdraw me from the fete that overtook my companions 
 one after another. I was called to the wicket again, 
 but thenceforward I no longer went down there in 
 anxiety, but in delight at meeting my guardian angel. 
 I looked for my wife, but only saw some charwomen 
 who performed the office of messengers at the prison 
 doors. These women were allowed by the porter to 
 pei'form commissions for the prisoners, bring them food, 
 and pay them small domestic services. Some young 
 ladies who were impatient to get a sight of the prisoners, 
 and could not get permits, conceived the idea of putting 
 on the dress of these women, taking their baskets, 
 and getting into the prison under this disguise. The 
 price of service was a ten franc assignat to the woman 
 who furnished the disguise, and as much more to the 
 jailer who consented to be deceived. And the disguised 
 lady was obliged to fill and empty her basket, as the real 
 charwoman would have done. My wife had donned this 
 contraband garb, and at first I did not recognise her 
 beneath it, but was only surprised to be thus famiharly 
 accosted by a servant as she said, " This time, you 
 will not complain of my elegance ; what do you think 
 of it?" On hearing her voice I perceived my mis- 
 
194. LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 take, looked at ker, and answered by a fooksk burst 
 of laugkter, and ske answered by anotker equally pokte. 
 After a good conversation my wife said, " Tkis is not all, 
 I come kere as commissioner for a M. Ducourneau ; I 
 must give kim kis clean linen, and take back tke otker ; 
 I kave some letters, snuff, and books for kim. I know 
 notking about kim, but tke ckarwoman told me tkat if I 
 kad kim called ke would come at once." " Quite true, 
 and I will kave kim called." Ducourneau came down. 
 He was from Bordeaux, of tke party of tke Girondists, a 
 clever young man, wko could make capital verses. Tke 
 ckarwoman addressed kim witk great embarrassment. 
 " I am, s«V," ske said to kim, " tke woman wko usually 
 performs your commissions." "No more, citizen," an- 
 swered Ducourneau, quickly, " tke sir kas told me all ; 
 it kas told me tkat you are a ckarming woman, brave, 
 and an aristocrat. Tkat is wkat I like tkem to be, and 
 I am at your feet. Let us leave out kousekold matters, 
 and talk of sometking better. I congratulate Citizen 
 Beugnot on kis kappiness in knowing you." " Tkere is 
 good reason for it," I answered, "for tke ckarwoman 
 to-day is my wife." Tken by means of tkis masquerade, 
 and tkanks to Ducourneau, tkere sprung up between 
 us so merry a conversation tkat, perkaps, nowkere in 
 Paris (at tke same time) was tkere suck joyous laugkter. 
 Suck are we poor Frenckmen ! Ducourneau, wken ke 
 went back to kis room, composed a very pretty poem for 
 my wife, entitled tke Revolutionary Messenger. Tkis 
 amiable ckdd of tke Garonne was not allowed time to 
 climb tke first steps of our Parnassus ; a week after tkis 
 scene ke kad swelled tke catalogue of men wko died 
 witk a smile. 
 
 As I remained tkree montks at tke Conciergerie after 
 my wife came to Paris, I continually formed new ac- 
 quaintances tkere, and lost tkem a few davs later, but 
 
CITOYEN CUSSY. 195 
 
 sometimes with circmiistances worth recollecting. For 
 example, a deputy of the Convention, from Calvados, 
 named Cussy, had been brought to the Conciergeric, said 
 to be outlawed. It is well-known that a man said to 
 be outlawed was, at that time, simply given up to the 
 executioner, and that his arrest and execution were the 
 same thing. Citoyen Cussy was a man of some conse- 
 quence in his own department; he had figured with 
 honour in the Constitutional Assembly, and his personal 
 qualities were worthy of interest. He had very good 
 reasons for thinking that the sentence of outlawry, in 
 virtue of which he had been arrested, did not apply to 
 himself, and he addressed a petition to the Conventional 
 Assembly to decide the point. The answer of the 
 Assembly was life or death to him. From the day when 
 his petition was sent to the Convention, two of us stood 
 sentry at the wicket to seize on the evening paper, and only 
 give it up to the curious if there should be no mention of 
 Cussy in it, or if the decision of the Convention should 
 be in his favour. Our j^recaution was successful for 
 several days. On one only did it fail, and on that day 
 the paper fell into the hands of the man himself He 
 brought it as usual into the room where the prisoners 
 assembled to listen to it, and began to read it. We all 
 felt a mortal dread, and angry looks were cast on the 
 guardians of the wicket, as if to reproach them for their 
 culpable negligence. De Cussy read aloud, and did not 
 seem at all uneasy. He came to the account of the 
 meeting of the Convention, where the Committee of 
 Public Safety reported on his own petition, and resolved 
 to proceed with the order of the day, that is to say, to 
 take no account of it. He read the decision. This 
 line was his death-stroke. He went on reading in the 
 same tone without feeling, or at least without showing 
 
 nnv no'itntiou. Hnvino- finiwlipd rpmlino- lip calmly said 
 
 2 
 
196 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 " Very well, It will be to-morrow ; I have the night to set 
 my affairs in order." After these few words he embraced 
 the person who was nearest to him, and whoDi he had 
 known for a long time. By a sort of sympathetic move- 
 ment each of ns embraced him in turn ; he thanked us 
 with emotion and added, " Dear comrades, you cheer my 
 last moments ; it is like the death of Socrates ; but we 
 shall not be allowed to talk philosophy together till the 
 hemlock is brought." He had only just finished when 
 the jailer came to seize him by the collar, and take him 
 to the condemned cell. 
 
197 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Advocate Lafeutrie — General La Marliere — Aide-de-camp of tlie Comte 
 d'Estaing — Magic in Prison — Prisoners condemned to Death — Suicides — 
 Le Due du Chatelet — Removal from the Conciergerie — La Force — My 
 Fellow-prisoners — The Native Parisian — Chambre duConseil — Deputies in 
 Prison — Dupont de Nemours — Francoeur, Director of the Orchestra of the 
 Opera — My Refusal of a Mission to Genoa. 
 
 At this period of the revolutionary tribunal, towards the 
 end of 1793 and the earher months of 1794, two classes of 
 accused had the preference — the generals of the army, 
 who, whether victorious or S^anquished, alike lay under 
 the absurd accusation of treason ; and men of the 
 Girondist party, who were picked up in all corners of 
 France, as infected with the crime of Federalism, Avhich 
 passed for the most abominable of crimes in the eyes of 
 persons who did not the least in the world know what 
 the word meant. My wife had insisted on my having a 
 consultation with the advocate Lafeutrie. I had refused, 
 saying that to me an advocate was a piece of extrava- 
 gance ; because, were he a Demosthenes, he would never 
 get me acquitted were I once brought before the tri- 
 bunal. The object was not exactly to prepare my de- 
 fence, but to know fully what accusations they would 
 bring against me, so as to prevent any false moves on 
 the part of the persons who interested themselves for 
 me. This was especially desired by Citoyen Gatrez, and 
 he had himself pointed out Lafeutrie, as they were very 
 intimate, and supped together every day. I consented 
 to make my confession to my uncle's guest. Lafeutrie 
 wanted to know in the first place whether I was a 
 
198 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Federalist. I told him I was not, and gave liim a dozen 
 good reasons why such an accusation could not apply 
 to me. He insisted, and I rehearsed to him the terms of 
 the warrant of my arrest, in which I was termed an ac- 
 complice of Capet, his wife, and Lafayette. I added 
 that it was possible that they might have found somewhere 
 a letter I had written to Lafayette in the month of May, 
 1792, to dissuade him from coming to Paris, and in which, 
 among other reasons for keeping away, I told him I was 
 sure this journey would not be successful at the Tuileries. 
 Lafeutrie was, or seemed to be, but little afraid of this 
 letter, and we were not certain Avhether it had been dis- 
 covered. He only suspected me of being a Royalist, and 
 reassured me as to my unfortunate position as such ; 
 because Royalists were not the order of the day with 
 the government committees. They were busy with the 
 Federalists, and the tribunal still had enough of them to 
 last for three months. " And three months hence," 
 elegantly added the citizen for the defence, " the king or 
 you or the ass may die."* "And yourself" " Ah! in- 
 deed," said he, "you think that a joke; but so it may 
 well be with me." The visit of this double-dyed rascal 
 did me good. I took comfort as I looked around me ; 
 for I really saw that the tribunal selected Federalists by 
 preference, and only swerved from this course of prose- 
 cution in favour of generals. Two or three of these were 
 sacrificed every decade for the sake of example, and ap- 
 parently to keep up emulation in the army. The fate of 
 these generals is a great subject for meditation, men of 
 force and bravery who had won the grades of their pro- 
 motion by prodigies of valour against the enemy, yet 
 
 * An allusion to the Eastern story of the sage who being- commanded by 
 a despot on pain of death to teach his ass to speak, demanded a year in which 
 to do so, on the ground, as he told his friends, that in that space " the king 
 may die, the ass may die, or I may die myself. " 
 
GENERAL DE LA MAELIEEE. 199 
 
 whom persons bearing the title of representatives of 
 the people, had removed at will from the midst of their 
 battahons and sent bound hand and foot to the Con- 
 ciergerie, hke sheep to the shambles, all allowing them- 
 selves to be taken like sheep. The most resolute of 
 them, Lafayette and Dumouriez, had no notion save 
 of flight ; for this reason, that none had any moral 
 courage. The ancient institutions of the monarchy were 
 not such as to call it forth, there had not been time 
 for further attempts ; besides, this courage, the first of 
 virtues among a free people, is not learnt in a day. We 
 were nothing more as yet thaii the French of 1789, who 
 had been much drilled into obedience, and in whom the 
 habit of it has not been lost under a new power, and cer- 
 tainly a very hideous one. 
 
 Among the generals prepared for the revolutionary tri- 
 bunal was a general of division named De la Marliere, 
 who had been in command at Lille when it was attacked 
 by the Austrian army under the orders of the Duke of Sase 
 Teschen. This general had been very slightly attached 
 to the old order of things ; he had held before the Revo- 
 lution an office rather more ridiculous than the rest, 
 that of Master of Monsieur's Harriers. When that prince 
 emigrated he left his harriers in France, and their master 
 with them. La Marlifere, who was ambitious, was not 
 among the last to become a turncoat ; he had been for 
 the Constitution in 1791, and a Republican in 1793. He 
 was really a man of sense and of amiable character, 
 though inclined to intrigue. But not the less was he 
 accused of having betrayed the Republic when he was 
 commander of Lille, and it must have been a very odd 
 sort of treason, for the Duke of Saxe Teschen had dis- 
 gracefully raised the siege and retired with loss in men 
 and guns. In truth, the cause of this poor general was 
 very good ; he defended himself with skill and courage. 
 
 to 
 
200 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 A shrewd man, if ever tliere was one, lie managed from 
 the depths of his prison to interest judges, juries, gen- 
 darmes, and even the turnkeys in his favour. No one 
 doubted of his acquittal, and they were delighted. He 
 furnished the subject of a scene of necromancy that I am 
 going to relate, which took place at the Conciergerie, 
 before five or six persons, where the position of P3'thoness 
 was occupied by an aide-de-camp of the Count d'Estaing. 
 The speedy accomplishment of the prediction filled us all 
 with dread ; and the result gave us up a defenceless prey 
 to superstitious terrors, so that the dread of the future 
 was added to the horrors of the present ; and it was a 
 wonder that the strongest mind could hold out. And as 
 if everything was to be curious in the fate of this poor 
 La Marli^re, his companion on the way to the scaffold 
 was the famous Parisot, my old fellow-student in the 
 law-courts, who had since tried several professions with- 
 out making a fortune, and ended by that of editor of an 
 aristocratic newspaper ; and this led to his death, as I 
 have before mentioned. He mounted the scaffold just 
 as La Marli^re, who was desirous of haranguing the 
 honourable spectators, was declaring that he had always 
 been, and would die, a Repubhcan, and recommending 
 his family and memory to the good people. As his dis- 
 course was lengthy, Parisot, becoming impatient, raised 
 his voice still louder, and shrugging his shoulders, called 
 out, " Citizens, do not listen to him ; he is a liar, he 
 is an aristocrat, and a greater one than I am." Thus 
 my old friend Parisot, whom I had known successively as 
 an advocate, an author of comic operas, the manager of a 
 theatre, an actor, rich, and always cheerful, a practical 
 philosopher, meeting by chance with a victim even in his 
 last moment, in spite of his awful condition, discharged a 
 shaft in his own fashion, just as if he had been at a ball 
 at the opera. 
 
COUNT T> ESTAING S AIDE-DE-CAMP. 201 
 
 But to return to tlie strange scene of necromancy that 
 I have promised to relate. 
 
 The aide-de-camp of the Count d'Estaing had gone 
 through a campaign in America. He was a cultivated 
 man of polished and reserved manners. We met him 
 and La Marliere every evening in the apartment of 
 Bunel, a member of the Convention ; but still a good 
 man, who, during a rather long residence in the East 
 Indies, had made some careful inquiries respecting the 
 first traces of human knowledge. "We made up a whist 
 party, and if there was any time afterwards before we 
 were shut up in our several dungeons, a discussion 
 was raised on some point of metaphysics. Bailly never 
 failed to come into our room at this precise moment 
 every evening, and prided himself on being punctual as 
 he used to be at the Academy. The burden of the aide- 
 de-camp's song was that what we called possibility, was 
 only a decree made by our ignorance, which would be 
 infallibly transgressed by the future. Nor did examples 
 fail hun of the bounds of possibility having been much 
 enlarged since the time of Pythagoras and Aristotle. He 
 accused the Christian religion of having restraiued the 
 scope of the mind, and freely applauded the blows that 
 were dealt at it. His system of religion was pantheism ; 
 he believed in an innumerable quantity of animated 
 beings imperceptible to our senses, and held that man 
 was still very far from the place that he might occupy in 
 the great universe. Bunel, by way of not wasting upon 
 commonplace thoughts the time he had spent in learning 
 Hindostanee, or in travelling to visit pagodas, supported 
 the aide-de-camp, and quoted authorities that we were 
 not prepared to verify. The general remained faithful 
 to the philosophy of his old master Voltaire. He allowed 
 that there had been progress in some natural sciences ; 
 but less important than people thought, save that there 
 
202 LIFE AND ADVENTDEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 had been no really new flight of miagination, and it is so 
 easy to advance on roads that have once been opened. 
 Besides, he thought nothing more uncertain than what 
 every age in turn had agreed to call the truth. He be- 
 lieved that the ideas of men received chfTerent forms in 
 each period ; but that they went round in a circle that 
 they could not overpass. I remember that he added, "As 
 an instance, gentlemen, you applauded the proceeding of 
 the Bishop of Paris in abjuring his religion in the midst 
 of the Convention and before the eyes of the universe. 
 Very good. We are near the end of the eighteenth cen- 
 ' tury, and it is very likely that none of us will see the 
 nineteenth ; but I predict that it will not expire before 
 Frenchmen, or those who then dwell in France, behold 
 l^rocessions of Capuchins in the streets of Paris, and the 
 members of the Convention attending with rosaries in 
 their hands, that is if they are allowed to be present." 
 Bailly inclined to the other side, and to the perfectibility 
 of human nature. " The storm that is now raging," said 
 he, " doubtless] proves nothing, and yet will make many 
 leaves of the forest fall. It will even tear up some trees; 
 but it will also carry away some old corruptions, and the 
 purified soil may bear some fruits hitherto unknown." 
 At the end of one of these conversations General La 
 Marlifere asked the aide-de-cam]o, " So you beheve in 
 Mesmer, Cagliostro, and tutti Quanti lot?" He coldly 
 answered, "Undoubtedly." "I should be very glad to 
 see before my death an exhibition of a scene of clair- 
 voyance or somnambulism." "It is not easy here, but I 
 will do what I can." 
 
 This aide-de-camp, who was, I repeat, a man of culti- 
 vation and of good sense, took it up quite seriously, and 
 under cover of our preparations for dinner got conveyed 
 into the Conciergerie all the different things he required 
 for this scene. There was no means of bringing in a 
 
MAGIC IN THE CONCIEEGERIE. 203 
 
 woman to be the clairvoj'ante ; but in case of necessity, 
 lier place miglit l^c taken by a boy, if only lie was no 
 more tlian twelve or fourteen years old, and born under 
 the signs of Sagittarius, Gemini, or Virgo, and above 
 all perfectly pure. One was found ; Init before he was 
 brought in the conjurer spent some time in carefully 
 assuring himself by the examination of his baptismal 
 register on what day he was born, and in asking him 
 everything he had ever done. He fulfilled the required 
 conditions ; the da}' was appointed ; the conjurer arranged 
 the apparatus in the place where we had used to play 
 whist, measuring the respective distances of each object 
 with a pair of compasses, the whole scrupulously set out, 
 and the boy was placed on his knees before the glass 
 globe. " General," said the conjurer, "mention any fact 
 in the past or future you would like to know." " The 
 issue of the trial I am expecting." " General, select 
 some other subject, I should be in despair at an unfavour- 
 able answer." " I insist, and assure you that whatever 
 the answer may be I shall not be the least in the world 
 afraid of it." " If that be the case I will not proceed 
 with the exorcism, and we can resume our hands." 
 " You make too much of it. What! beaten so soon, and 
 really before you have begun ? I very much suspected 
 that it was all child's play." " You are determined, 
 general ? In that case I will begin." 
 
 After half an hour of rather hard exercise the exerciser 
 and the boy were in a violent perspiration, and each of 
 the three spectators had grown weary of the proceeding, 
 and of the convulsions so close to him, and felt an insur- 
 mountable oppression. At last every one could see that 
 the water was disturbed, and the lad cried out that he 
 ^What?" "Two men fighting." " AVho are 
 
 saw. 
 
 a-^-^'-^ &• 
 
 they ? " "I do not know." " AVho are they ? " " I do 
 not know." And each question was accompanied by 
 
204 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 conjurations, threats, and shouts. At last the child 
 answered, " A national guard and an officer in a laced 
 hat." "Who is the strongest?" " The national guard 
 lays the officer down on the ground, and cuts off his 
 head." The boy fell back. 
 
 We were in consternation, and the poor general, an 
 unbeliever a moment before, trembled in all his limbs. 
 We endeavoured to reassure him, said that the judgment 
 as to the issue of which the question had been put had 
 nothing to do with a struggle between a national guard 
 and an officer. The hour for separation came, and we 
 each carried with us to our cell some terror and regret at 
 having been present at this miserable scene. It took 
 place on the 20th of December ; on the evening of the 
 21st the general received his indictment, was condemned 
 to death on the 23rd, and executed the same day by an 
 executioner dressed as a grenadier of the national guard. 
 I am the only surviving witness of this scene ; but I 
 could appeal to M. Bailleul, of the Convention, who was 
 living in the same part of the Conciergerie. He was not 
 present at the scene of sorcery; but it was sufficiently 
 notorious in the prison for him to remember it. I doubt 
 the possibility of this scene having been concocted by 
 accomplices. The aide-de-camp was a grave man, and 
 too honourable to have permitted himself to play off a 
 criminal joke. He had had no time nor means to train 
 the child, who had been chosen from among five or six 
 others. Indeed, we had been on the point of renouncing 
 the enterprise for fear that it might get wind and be 
 considered a conspiracy by Robespierre. There was 
 some mystery about it, without doubt ; where was it ? 
 I do not know. 
 
 If anyone had described to me this act of necromancy 
 I should not have believed it ; so my readers may be 
 forgiven if they do not believe it. It mav be sunnoserJ 
 
MADEMOISELLE DE LATOUR. 205 
 
 that it was the subject of much discussion among persons 
 who badjiothing better to attend to, and we never came 
 to a satisfactory conchision. If there was nothing true 
 in this apparatus of necromancy, it was a trick played 
 upon La Marhere ; but such a blow could not be dealt by 
 any save a foe, and the general had about him only 
 friends quickly gained through the force of common suf- 
 fering ; and then what a horrible choice of a subject ! in 
 such a place ! in such circumstances ! Thus, on all ac- 
 counts it was most unlikely that there should have been 
 any desire to practise upon anyone's credulity. Besides, 
 the boy was the son of the porter at the street wicket, 
 whose name was Lauglois. All that could be known 
 about him showed him as c|ualified to fulfil his part, that 
 is to say, perfectly innocent. His father was present, 
 and was determined to remove his son if anything im- 
 proper had been required of him. The further one goes 
 the greater is the embarrassment from the number of 
 accomplices in the fraud, if there was one. And yet after 
 the scene, which assumed a far more serious character 
 iipon the death of La Marlifere, all our researches could 
 not discover a trace of fraud. 
 
 A similar incident occurred during the unhappy affair 
 of the necklace. Mademoiselle de Latour performed in it 
 the part of the young innocent. She saw the Archangel 
 Gabriel come down into the globe filled with water, and 
 the archangel showed her everything that they wanted 
 to make the credulous cardinal believe. It is easy to 
 suppose that Cagliostro and his crew could prepare this 
 mystification at their ease ; they had all means at hand, 
 and were not niggardly in making use of them, always 
 excepting the perfect innocence of Mademoiselle de 
 Latour, of which I have good reasons to doubt; and 
 thus success was easy among a band of rogues who 
 perfectly understood each other with the poor cardinal, 
 
206 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 wlio believed in anything but his God. But in 1793, at 
 Paris and in prison, and such a prison as the Goncier- 
 gerie, nothing of the kind could reasonably be imagined. 
 Nevertheless, I do not believe in auguries, nor in necro- 
 mancy, nor divination, nor even in the Rosy Cross. The 
 scene I have related may possibly be accounted for by 
 very natural causes^ perhaps even by very simple ones. 
 I am only surprised at not having been able to find 
 them out. 
 
 In spite of my endeavours to endure my stay at the 
 Conciergerie I became daily more impatient of it. I do 
 not suppose that in the memory of man such a horrible 
 scene had ever taken place as that which was constantly 
 before me. Not only did the torrents of blood that were 
 shed disgust one with life ; but at times there were hor- 
 ribly immoral incidents, such as humanity could never 
 have been supposed capable of. In addition to these, 
 suicides became daily more common within the prison. 
 Cabanis had invented some lozenges, chiefly consisting 
 of laudanum, so well prepared that they silently opened 
 the way to the other world. All the prisoners who 
 belonged to the sect of philosophers were provided with 
 them. I kept one myself, though not much inclined 
 to make use of it. These lozenges were furnished by 
 another physician. Doctor Guillotin, who was not afraid 
 to deprive his machine of subjects in order to do us a 
 service. This poor man was a generous philanthropist, 
 and was not wanting in skill or ability ; but his life was 
 embittered by the misery of having given his name to 
 the instrument of death. 
 
 I pressed my wife every day to get me out of these 
 infernal regions, where I could no longer live. I had 
 lost my old friends one after another, that is to say those 
 with whom I had passed a month or six weeks in prison. 
 I did not care to ^■'-■i^+^-'^^'-'- ^^"-■-^ -t-i^t' "-i^i^^ -*-" k^„^,,^..»,i ,v 
 
DUKE DU CIIATELET. 207 
 
 a week by the blade of the guillotine ; and thus I might 
 be said to remain alone at the Conciergerie, though it 
 was fuller than ever. A scene that disturbed the last 
 visit that my wife paid me there greatly diminished 
 her pleasure in these meetings. We were as usual in 
 the lantern that formed a vestibule to all parts of the 
 prison. Our talk was prolonged beyond measure. A 
 husband in prison becomes a lover and lovers can never 
 break off. All at once a man, surrounded by gendarmes, 
 crossed the lantern on his way to the condemned cell. 
 He stopped close to me and said, "Adieu, Beugnot ! " 
 I rose to run after him. He was hurried off, and only 
 had time to make me a sign, Avhich I needed not to 
 assure me that he was lost. I returned to my wife. 
 "Who is that?" said she ; "I think I recognise him." 
 "Of course you know him ; it is the Duke du Chatelet." 
 " Oh ! 1 am sorry I did not wish him good night. 
 Where is he going? " I answered, coldly, " He is going- 
 back to the part of the prison where he lives. You 
 dined with him sometimes last year ; but that is no 
 reason why yon should manifest your interest in him 
 here. You must preserve that entirely for your own 
 family." "You are right," said my wife, and we parted. 
 Next day she saw in the newspapers that the Duke du 
 Chatelet was condemned to death, and saw that his fate 
 had been decided when he had passed her the day before. 
 On our next interview she reproached me for having 
 deceived her about the Duke du Chatelet. " Why not 
 have told me the truth ? you deceive me daily ; you 
 never warned me that poor Ducourneau was dead." 
 " Indeed no, I do not deceive you ; but I do not tell you 
 all the truth, for it is too terrible. I only belong to the 
 world during the brief moments when I see you. I pass 
 the rest of my life in hell. Even your visits are a mix- 
 ture of torment and pleasure to me ; of torment when 
 
208 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 I tliink that if tlie municipal officer, wlio overlooks the 
 prison, were to meet you disguised, as you generally 
 come, he would have you arrested, and we should both 
 go to the scaffold next day ; and I with the distracting 
 idea that I had brought you there." " That is what my 
 uncle tells me every day," replied my wife ; "but I do 
 not attend. I do my duty, and do not trouble myself 
 about anything else." "But, my darling, as long as I 
 am here this duty is too dangerous for you ; obtain my 
 I'emoval to another lorison, or do not come to this without 
 a pass from the public accuser." My wife promised she 
 would move heaven and earth to get me removed, and 
 went away asking me to be patient a few days longer. 
 She pressed me in her arms and added, sobbing, " I 
 know that, like many others, you always have poison 
 about you ; I beg of you, for the sake of our poor little 
 Clementine, do not make use of it unless you are con- 
 demned." I assured her I had no other intention, and 
 she left me bathed in tears. An interview of this kind 
 engrossed me for several days, and prevented my taking 
 part in the scenes that passed around me ; besides, I had 
 come at last to be hardened amid these sentences or 
 murders, which were all alike. The power of feeling 
 and emotion is used up like any other ; and I hardly 
 attended to what would have caused me transports of 
 indignation four months sooner. 
 
 Such was my position, when one morning I received 
 an order to go down immediately to the office. I thought 
 I was wanted there to receive some statements to copy 
 for the clerk, for whom I was glad to perform such 
 services. So I went down very quietly, but a much 
 more serious affair awaited me there ; I found Citizens 
 Soul^s and Manno, municipal officers, on an extra- 
 ordinary visit to the prisons. These inspectors, on 
 going through the imirnal nf entries at the Concierfferie, 
 
OEDEE OF EEMOVAL. 209 
 
 Lad discovered that I had been four montlis there without 
 being- examined, and without anyone having troubled 
 himself at all about me. They asked me the reason, I 
 had none to give them ; and these two municipals inter- 
 changed some angry words about a citizen having been 
 left in confinement for four months without examina- 
 tion, when the law required that he should be tried in 
 twenty-four hours. They wondered at my patience, 
 considered me a fool for having made no remonstrance, 
 and assured me they should go at once to the public 
 prosecutor's office, give him a good scolding, and enjoin 
 him to have me examined, if not that very evening, at 
 any rate the next day early in the morning. When I 
 got back to my room, I saw that there was not a moment 
 to lose. I sent message after message to my wife to tell 
 her that if she could not get me out of the Conciergerie 
 during the day, I should not get out of it for anything 
 but my last journey. She instantly ran to her uncle, 
 and fortunately found him. They went together to the 
 municipal officer Dauges, who had charge of the police 
 of the Conciergerie, and he promised he would come 
 during the day to order my removal. ]My wife told him 
 that she would not leave him till the thing was done, 
 and dragged him with her to the Conciergerie, while 
 Citoyen Gatrey on his side went to the Palais de Justice 
 to obtain the permission of the public accuser. All 
 succeeded, and thanks to the energetic activity of my 
 wife, I that day doubled the most dangerous cape I 
 ever encountered on my perilous journey. Re-called to 
 the office at six o'clock in the evening, I found Citizen 
 Danges there, and he signed my order of removal, and 
 told me that my wife would only leave him at the 
 wicket, and did not wait for him there, for she had 
 hurried to the prison of La Force to select my room there. 
 I burned to go and take possession of it. I could not 
 
210 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 go up to my room again to pack up tlie few things I 
 possessed as a prisoner, and I let the clerk take his 
 choice, whether to send me all I had or nothing at all. 
 But there was another difficulty that delayed my depar- 
 ture ; there were only ^mvate gendarmes to be found 
 available for taking me to La Force, and the clerk would 
 not trust me to any but an officer, in order to spare me 
 the humiliation of being tightly bound and dragged at a 
 horse's tail. The officer was not bound down to employ 
 such harsh methods ; he could use a carriage and let the 
 escort march alongside. So we waited — I with mortal 
 impatience. He came at last; but the difficulty now arose 
 from another quarter. The gendarmes were not there, and 
 the hour for closing approached. I thought I should he 
 lost if I had to pass the night at the Conciergerie. I begged 
 the officer to take me out, and passed my word to him to 
 follow him wherever he chose to take me. He allowed 
 himself to be prevailed on, and sent for a carriage. Half 
 an hour went by without any carriage coming. I saw the 
 preparations for closing being made. I was seized with 
 despair, and redoubled my entreaties to the officer, while 
 he told me it would be impossible for me to walk, because 
 having been shut up so long, I should be affected by the 
 fresh air. I denied this, and my words were so piteous 
 that at last the officer took me out through the wicket. 
 But what he had predicted really occurred. I was so 
 overpowered by the external air that I could not move, 
 and was obliged to sit down on the first boundary stone 
 on the level of the Palace yard. The officer proposed to 
 me to go in for a few minutes ; the very notion of it made 
 me cry out with horror. I summoned up all my strength, 
 and with the assistance of the officer's arm I dragged 
 myself as far as the Palace guard-room, where he left 
 rac while he returned to the Conciergerie to fetch the 
 The guard-room was occupied by the National 
 
LA FORCE. 211 
 
 Guard of these days; that is to say, by men m rags, 
 with red caps and armed witli pikes. They paid but 
 little attention to the orders of the officer to keep me in 
 sight. A prisoner more or less was then such an 
 indifferent matter, that my guardians did not pay any 
 attention to it. The guard-room was dim with tobacco 
 smoke ; the chief part of the honourable company were 
 drunk, the others were hard at work in following their 
 example, so that no one would have thought of stopping 
 me if I had had either the power or will to escape ; but I 
 had neither. At last, to my delight, I heard the carriage 
 coming, and got into it for my journey to the prison of 
 La Force. On the way I poured out a great many 
 excuses and thanks to the officer of the gendarmerie ; 
 but I told him that at the last place he had trusted me 
 to very careless guards, and that any one else would 
 have easily escaped. The officer agreed, but added that 
 he was a good physiognomist, and besides having been 
 informed by the clerk of the cause of my arrest, he had 
 entirely relied on my word. Besides, this officer, a 
 native of Nancy, had served in the army of the princes 
 the year before, and had got out of the scrape through 
 the credit of an uncle, who was a deputy in the Con- 
 vention. So strange was the confusion of society, or 
 that which passed for society. 
 
 We arrived at La Force. The portress, Citoyenne 
 Lebau, was naturally a kind woman, and not hardened by 
 her office, besides she had been assisted by, and had been 
 under obligations to Gatrey, on more than one occasion. 
 So I was charmingly received there ; she made me come 
 into her room to await my wife, who lived opposite, and 
 whom she went to call. It was so much sudden hap- 
 piness that I pinched myself to see whether I was really 
 awake. My wife hurried in ; the scene was ecstasy on 
 both sides ; we should only have the street between us, 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 and should see one another nearly whenever we pleased. 
 
 The reniainder of the captivity I had to endure, was 
 
 nothing- in comparison with the peril that I had just 
 
 escaped. I no longer feared for my life, and I repeated 
 
 a thousand times to my wife that I owed it to her alone 
 
 that I was alive. She said she was still happier than 
 
 I was, but that after all she had only done her duty, 
 
 and that any other person in her place would have done 
 
 as much. We parted. I had to cross the great court of 
 
 La Force to get to the room where I was to lodge. It 
 
 was one of those fine nights in January, when the blue 
 
 of the sky is clear, and the stars shine with their full 
 
 brightness. For four months I had lived under vaults 
 
 of stone, almost without the light of day. The first sight 
 
 of the firmament threw me into an ecstasy such as that 
 
 in which Milton depicts the father of the human race 
 
 when for the first time he perceived the magnificent 
 
 spectacle around him. I begged the jailer, who went 
 
 with me, to allow me some time in the yard. I walked 
 
 about it in all directions ; to see, to walk, to breathe, 
 
 were so many enjoyments to me ; and the jailer reported 
 
 to Madame Lebau, that evening, that the tall prisoner 
 
 was mad, and ought rather to be at Charenton than at La 
 
 Force. Next morning the good woman sent for me, and 
 
 inquired with visible uneasiness about my health, and as 
 
 to how I had passed the night, and I heard from her 
 
 afterwards that it was my mental health that had caused 
 
 her anxiety. 
 
 The room that I was to occupy was a very good one 
 for a prison ; it was meant for four persons. At the 
 Conciergerie it would have contained twice as many. 
 My three comrades in it were, a former counsellor to the 
 Parliament of Paris, named de Saint Roman, the actor 
 Neuville (husband of La Montansier) and the famous 
 lawyer Linguet. Monsieur Roman, though he had been 
 
NEUVILLE. 213 
 
 a counsellor in tlic first of sovereign Courts, was an 
 amusing- original. He liad a basket at the side of his 
 table to hold his papers, and he daily threw into it small 
 sheets of paper carefully written and folded. As long as 
 I did not know him, I thought lie was composing some 
 dictionary, remembering that Ducange had composed his 
 in this manner. Nothing of the sort ; these sheets contained 
 the detail of his dinner, and the number of glasses of 
 wine and of water he had drunk. This good man had 
 arrived at the age of fifty years without ever having 
 taken any journey except irom Paris to his family country 
 house about five miles from the capital. The removal 
 of the Parliament to Troyes, in 1787, had compelled him 
 to travel a hundred and twenty miles there and back 
 again ; and his tales of what he had seen and felt during 
 the journey never ceased. Though I had taken the same 
 journey, perhaps a hundred times myself, I was never 
 weary of hearing the marvels from the counsellor's 
 mouth. He was credulous even to simplicity, and told 
 us as facts the cock and bull stories of his porteress. 
 Though well up on the subject of ghosts and conjurers, 
 he had never in his life opened a law-book, and could 
 not speU a word correctly. They executed this poor arian, 
 and what good did it do them, I should like to know ? 
 
 Neuville had been created and sent into the world to 
 act tragedy, and if he had not one day been called on to 
 act it too seriously, he would have been selected to con- 
 sole France for the loss of Lekain, for he was a hundred 
 times better than Larive. His fixce was expressive, he 
 had a good voice, a superior understanding, and majestic 
 air. A disciple of the school of Clairon, he spoke of 
 ordinary matters of life in the tone in which he would 
 have declaimed the part of Rhadamistes. After a for- 
 tunate dehut in Paris, ho went to perfect himself in the 
 country, and held the first place among the actors at 
 
214 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Rouen. One day lie had the part of Don Jnan m the 
 " Festin de Pierre," his hair-dresser had kept him waiting, 
 the play was late, and the pit furious. At last the hair- 
 dresser came, and Don Jnan, faithful to his character, 
 ran his sword through his body and killed him on the 
 spot. The proceeding was entirely in the spirit of his 
 part, but the Law Court of Rouen did not forgive 
 Neuville this slight variation from Corneille's piece, and 
 condemned him to death. He got a pardon, but could 
 never obtain permission to act in Paris. Afterwards, he 
 married La Montansier, and became by his marriage, 
 sometimes an actor, sometimes a manager in a provincial 
 troop, and always a very humble servant of his lady 
 wife ; and thus he did not pay any more attention to the 
 serious studies that might have raised him to the highest 
 rank. He had just built the Opera House in the Rue de 
 Richelieu. It was said to be with the money that Dan- 
 ton and Lacroix had gained by their journey to Belgium ; 
 it was not fully proved, but till more should be known 
 about it, Robespierre had taken upon himself to provide 
 for Neuville, and had sent him to La Force. It is even 
 supposed that it was the beginning of the hostilities 
 between Danton and his savage rival. 
 
 I met the Advocate Linguet with a mixture of 
 curiosity and respect. There were many recollections 
 of great interest connected with this name ; he possessed 
 oratorical talent of the first order, an original writer 
 formidable to Governments as well as to private persons, 
 persecuted in turns by the Society of Advocates, by the 
 Parliament, by Ministers, both French and foreign, his 
 life had been one long storm. I expected to find a sort 
 of Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage ; I only found 
 a morose old man, on bad terms with himself, and un- 
 bearable to others. It only took me a few days to 
 imderstand perfect ^" '-^^^ o^.^-^o;^,^ 1.^ ^^^i'+«;i ■^'kr,-,^ i-,a 
 
THE NATIVE PARISIAN. 215 
 
 was in contact with his equals in busmess or society. 
 When I came to the room he had reduced Saint-Roman 
 to a kind of domestication, but he had not gained such 
 an easy victory over the comedian as over the counsellor, 
 and a quarrel was raging between him and Orosmanes. 
 I tried to keep neutral, but it was impossible ; I was 
 obliged to take one side or the other, and I declared 
 against Linguet, for his conduct was unreasonable on all 
 points. From that time he turned upon me as an 
 inveterate enemy, and tried to do me a bad turn. I 
 escaped through the protection of Citoyenne Lebau, who 
 removed me from the cave of discord, and put me into 
 the Council Chamber, the best, the most habitable, and 
 inhabited by the best people in the prison. 
 
 This chamber contained twelve boarders, and was 
 remarkable for the politeness and good breeding that 
 reigned in it. The foundation of the society, of the 
 mess if you please, was composed of very ancient and 
 very honourable bourgeois of Paris, who had been em- 
 ployed in the capital in occupations suited for their 
 class, rate-payers of the Hotel de Ville, tax-collectors, 
 magistrates of the Chatelet, &c. The native Parisian 
 has a peculiar character that may be expressed by the 
 epithet cochieij ; he is attached to his religion, to his 
 king, to his relations, to old customs ; credulous, easily 
 amused, and as easily abused. The circle of his acquaint- 
 ance rarely extends beyond the boundaries of the capital, 
 and he seriously beheves that all the wonders of the 
 world are collected there. This race of men was per- 
 secuted and decimated by the Ptcvolution ; it had grown 
 up during a long period of rest, beneath the shadow of a 
 Government that seemed to be everlasting; it is at an 
 end, and will never be reproduced. Political adventurers, 
 or schemers, now invade the old houses of the Marais, 
 whose peaceful generations succeeded each other, and m 
 
216 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OP COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 the island of Saint Louis, where no revolutions were 
 known but those that winter sometimes caused in the 
 course of the Seine. 
 
 The company in the Council Chamber was composed 
 of dwellers in these two quarters ; so all prisoners were 
 not admitted there indifferently, and by a scandalous 
 practice, that however really did not last very long, they 
 balloted for those who presented themselves ; and in 
 spite of all the influence of Citoyenne Lebau and our 
 eager prayers they disdainfully repulsed poor Neuville 
 because he had been on the boards ; an exclusiveness 
 very curious at the time and the place. It is true this 
 chamber had some enviable privileges, the provisions 
 were excellent, indeed one of the most renowned 
 cooks in Paris had established himself opposite to the 
 prison to work for this one apartment, and this artiste^ 
 a zealous aristocrat, [beat up every corner of Paris to 
 lay hands on delicacies on our behoof The greater 
 number of the inhabitants of the chamber, having in 
 their cellars those wines which only improve by being 
 forgotten, dug them out for the occasion, and graciously 
 did the honours to such as like myself had no such 
 resource. In the afternoon the chamber was furnished 
 with whist tables, picquet, and chess, which employed 
 the time of those who had no occupation, and so calm 
 was our life compared with that without, that one citizen, 
 Mercier de la Source, a foster-brother of Louis XV., an 
 old man of eighty, and the handsomest old man I ever 
 saw, repeated to us, "If they wanted to set me at 
 liberty, I should respectfully beg of the gentlemen to 
 leave me here. Nowhere shall I find better company, 
 nor as much attention as in your society." 
 
 Good manners and orderliness were the rule in the 
 chamber. We made it a regulation to dress for dinner 
 
 every day, neither bp.ttpT nor wnrsr" in onr nn'smi tlinn 
 
DUQUESNOY. 317 
 
 if we Avere at liberty ; but among the main body of us 
 there were few conversational resources. I hardly found 
 any one with whom to talk except Duquesnoy of the 
 Constitutional Assembly, and Foissey who had been my 
 colleague in the Legislative Assembly, both of them 
 highly educated persons, and the first an amiable man 
 full of wit. I had been intimate with him before we 
 were brought together by our common danger, and as 
 we now became better acquainted, these connections had 
 become a close friendship. He had a beautiful and 
 virtuous wife who had come to her husband's assistance 
 as mine had done. These two wives, both young, hved 
 together at the Hotel d'Espagne. They had been born 
 and married in the same years and the positions of their 
 husbands were perfectly similar. Thus they lived upon 
 the same hopes and fears, they shared some brief 
 moments of joy and long intervals of suffering. All 
 this was scarcely needed to unite them very closely, 
 even if a natural sympathy had not drawn them to- 
 gether. Every day they wrote to us and we never failed 
 to reply. Our day began by this charming duty. After- 
 wards we considered that it would not do to lose this 
 portion of our lives entirely in idleness, and that study 
 would be the best employment for our time whatever 
 might happen to us. Duquesnoy resumed the study of 
 German, which he spoke a little as a matter of course 
 like everyone from the 'Messin, and I returned to my 
 English. Then we laboured to clear up some points 
 of history that we thought obscure. Such of our friends 
 as were not imprisoned placed their libraries at our 
 disposal, making it their business to send us books ; nor 
 can I omit to mention the particular favours conferred 
 on us in that point by our honest friend Dussauh, the 
 translator of Juvenal and our comrade in prison. When 
 he knew what question we were engaged on, he would 
 
218 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 himself look out the works that we wanted, and took 
 all possible pains to procure them from his own library 
 or those of his friends. 
 
 The prison of La Force had received forty out of the 
 seventy-three Deputies whom the Convention had caused 
 to be arrested for having entered their protest against 
 the day of the 31st of May, and among them were some 
 persons of merit. Dussault, whom I have just mentioned, 
 was one of those men who by their very presence are a 
 justification to the party they have embraced ; Mercier, the 
 author of "Tableaux de Paris" and many other works 
 whose originality of thought sometimes resembles genius ; 
 Aubry, a soldier learned in all the knowledge that bears 
 on the art of war ; Daunon, already admirable for the 
 extent of his information, and who never subtracted half- 
 an-hour from his studies even when on a journey; the 
 architect Ledoux, so well-known for the fertility and 
 curiosity of his fancy; Latouche, the famous chancellor 
 of the Duke of Orleans, who experienced some amount 
 of suspicion in the prison, and who was no stranger to 
 the governing and overwhelming party though a pri- 
 soner himself Among the personages I have mentioned, 
 or others whom I might put on the same level, we 
 found resources against the complete insufficiency of the 
 Council Chamber for all that appertained to mental 
 enjoyment. 
 
 A treasure awaited us in Dupont de Nemours, who 
 at last sulfered the general fate and came to take his 
 place at La Force. I had been acquainted with him 
 long before, and no one could know the man without 
 loving him. He had heard of my arrest and confine- 
 ment in La Force from a friend of my wife's, and had _ 
 written her such a letter as he alone could write. 
 Himself arrested at Saint Maur les Fossds and brought 
 to Paris, he had begged to be taken to the same prison 
 
DUrONT DE NEIIOUES. 219 
 
 as myself, and liad some difficulty in olrtaining his re- 
 quest. I thought ^\dien I saw him come in that he had 
 come to pay me a visit, and I flung myself on his neck 
 to show him how much I was affected by it. " I did 
 really come in search of you, my dear Dares," cried 
 Dupont, "but it was like you, justly or unjustly arrested. 
 I came here like a conscript to join his regiment, will 
 you take care of my education ? " It Avas not difficult, 
 for no man bore misfortune, I will not say so courageously, 
 for courage implies an effort, hut with such perfect 
 equanimity, which he only interrupted for a moment 
 by some gay or witty sally. His arrival among us 
 was a public benefit ; he seemed to multiply himself in 
 order to distribute all around words of patience and 
 hope, and he was sure to be found where there was any 
 good to be done that was within his power. It will be 
 supposed that he did not lose this good chance of 
 preaching economical science. He opened his school ; 
 from morning to night he was engaged in speaking or 
 writing, and as every one heard him with interest or 
 read his writintrs with delisrht, it seemed that science had 
 no loss in the enforced retirement imposed alike on 
 master and scholars. This remarkable man dreamed 
 from night till morning of the good of his kind, and 
 showed his anxiety for it in the smallest details. I was 
 one day walking with him in the yard of La Force, and 
 we were sorrowfully inquiring into the issue of what we 
 we had before us. He saw a peach-stone on the pave- 
 ment before us, stooped and picked it up, selected a good 
 position with a southerly aspect, made a hole of the 
 proper depth with his knife, and planted the stone. I 
 could not help laughing Avhen I saw him at work. 
 But Dupont said, " You are laughing at me, my dear 
 Dar^s ; remember that when I saw the stone you were 
 iust saying to me that we had revolution upon us for 
 
230 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 perhaps half a century. Well, my friend, the stone will 
 have time to grow and become a handsome peach-tree, 
 and how can any one tell ? — may be in ten, twenty, or 
 thirty years some poor wretches, held captive as we are 
 by the eternal right of power, may see my peach-tree 
 and admire its beautiful flowers and fruit. They will 
 find some comfort at sight of one of the most charming 
 productions of the neighbourhood of Paris, and I rejoice 
 in the idea that they will be obhged to me ; and, as you 
 see, it has cost me very little." 
 
 As soon as the Citoyennes Duquesnoy and Beugnot 
 knew that Dupont had been unfortunate enough to be 
 arrested, but that we were so happy as to have him 
 among us, they desired us to invite them to dinner. 
 It was quite a new pleasure to the Council Chamber to 
 invite ladies to dine with them. The bill of fare was but 
 slightly changed ; our dress was not made more sump- 
 tuous, but they were charmed with the arrangement of 
 the meal and the way in which the honours of it were 
 performed. After dinner they made up a whist table and 
 left us not inclined to think our state much to be pitied 
 provided our captivity did not become more severe. 
 
 Francceur, the conductor of the orchestra at the Opera, 
 was one of our party ; when he saw Madame Beugnot 
 enter he was struck dumb at her resemblance to Saint- 
 Huberti. Indeed it is hard for two women to be so 
 much alike ; the same features, the same elegant figure, 
 the same splendid fair hair, and especially an expression 
 mobile and full of animation. Poor Francoeur, he had 
 supposed his musical throne no less firm by inheritance 
 than that of the Bourbons, but yet he too had been hurled 
 from it and cast into prison. He was accused of having 
 maliciously placed obstacles in the way of the production 
 of an opera on the subject of the " Passion of Our Lord." 
 
 ^Ve were curious to know hnw n «nl\ior>+ liorl Ka^n +,.„r,+„,l 
 
OCCUPANTS OF LA FOECE. 221 
 
 by impiety on wliicli the pious simplicity of our fathers 
 had been more than once exercised. Francosur sent for 
 the manuscript. The opera was in three acts ; the ac- 
 cusation, the judgment, the execution. The last terrible 
 scene of Golgotha was complete. It was impossible to 
 avoid being agitated by it, so true it is that religious 
 faiths might be among us, as among the Greeks, the 
 most powerful resources of the dramatic art. The 
 committees of government did not agree as to the 
 suitability of the representation. Fabre d' Eglantine 
 had taken some share in the poem, and that was enough 
 to make Collot d'Herbois, his rival in more matters than 
 one, averse to it, ""and until these powers should come 
 to an agreement, Francoeur, who had only testified re- 
 pugnance to its production out of respect for decorum, 
 had been sent to La Force. 
 
 Our condition continued such as I have described 
 it during the months of Nivose, Ventose, and Plu- 
 viose. No one was taken from La Force to be brought 
 before the revolutionary tribunal ; we fancied we were 
 out of the scope of the great storm. The govern- 
 ment only appeared to see in the occupants of La 
 Force a little nest of the suspected ; that is to say, 
 poor insignificant wretches who could be attended to 
 in the absence of anything more pressing. What would 
 be our fate ? It was not easy to conjecture ; but the 
 family of the suspected, thanks to the learned definitions 
 of Merlin of Douai, was too numerous to be led to the 
 scaffold, or even to be transported. They would be got 
 rid of in the course of time. An exception had already 
 been admitted in the case of the arrested husbandmen, 
 by which the Duke de Mazarin had profited under the 
 name of Jacqaes Aumont ; to-morrow one would be 
 introduced for the cordwainers, and the Duke de Nevers 
 would benefit by it under the name of Jean Mazarin. 
 
222 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 One way or anotlier, if tlaey could not put us to deatti 
 tliey would be obliged to remove us from lience, since 
 we could not remain here till eternity. 
 
 Study, pleasant conversation, continual contact with 
 educated and well-trained men, rendered our seclusion 
 preferable to anything we should have found in what 
 was then society. But towards the end of Ventose the 
 horizon suddenly darkened ; Danton, in whom lay our 
 hopes of safety, was arrested with his party, and brought 
 before the revolutionary tribunal on the futile accusa- 
 tion of conspiracy. Perhaps this accusation was not 
 entirely unfounded, and this is what makes me think so : 
 though Danton and I were at the extremes of opposite 
 parties, he had always been friendly towards me. At 
 the end of the Constitutional Assembly, after the mourn- 
 ful executions in the Champ de Mars, there had been 
 a decree that a writ should be issued against him. The 
 decree had been addressed to me as syndic attorney- 
 general of the department of the Aube to be put in force, 
 and I had at the same moment received information that 
 Danton would be at Arcis, at the house of a merchant 
 named Sannet, or at Troyes with the advocate-general 
 Milard. He had really taken refuge with the latter; 
 and, knowing this, I caused him to be informed that he 
 might be easy, and that I would not have him arrested. 
 The amnesty soon arrived. When I came to Paris as 
 a deputy of my division, Danton sought me out and 
 desired to enroll me in his party. I dined with him 
 three times in the Board of Trade, and came away each 
 time terrified at his designs and his vehemence. I had 
 quietly detached myself from him after a conversation in 
 which he had displayed his designs to me, and the not very 
 enticing share in them which he destined for me in it. 
 We ceased to meet without having quarrelled. He was 
 contented with saying about me to Courtois, his friend 
 
MISSION TO GENOA. 223 
 
 and my colleague, " Your great Beugnot is nothing but 
 a devotee, there is nothing to be made of him." How- 
 ever, I met him sometimes at Courtois' house when he 
 treated me to the rough familiarity which he reserved 
 for his friends. In one of these meetings in the month 
 of April, 1793, he told me that I ought to leave Paris, 
 and even France if I could without being made an 
 emigre, because the land was getting too hot for me 
 and such as me. He offered to help me to do so, and 
 indeed obtained for me from Lebrun, the minister for 
 foreign affairs and his jprotege, the mission to Genoa, 
 which, however, I decided on refusing, though it would 
 have placed me in security during the continuance of the 
 Reign of Terror. 
 
 The object of this mission was to facilitate the im- 
 portation of corn in France by the Mediterranean, and 
 seeing nothing political in it I at first accepted it. I was 
 busy about the preparations for my departure for several 
 days, when chancing to cross the Rue de la Madeleine 
 I remembered that there lived in that street an old 
 friend of my father's who had been employed on several 
 missions such as that I had just accepted. I thought 
 I might profit by his experience, and I went to see him. 
 Des Fermes, the old official, received me with open 
 arms, praised me for my conduct at the Assembly, and 
 expressed himself truly and forcibly on the disgrace of the 
 times in which it was our misfortune to live. Our con- 
 versation was long and animated, and yet concluded 
 without my daring to say a single word about my 
 mission. When I had gone away I began to reflect 
 alone on what had just taken place, and to question 
 myself I had feared to wound a good man to the 
 heart, a man in whom my father had perfect confidence, 
 by revealing to him that I had had the weakness to ally 
 myself with persons whom I detested as much as he 
 
224 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 did. If I felt sliame before liim, another time it would 
 be so with some one else. Could I then be in the path of 
 duty, whence I had resolved never to deviate ? I must 
 say the contest was not long, and in an hour's time 
 I was with Danton and told him of my refusal. " Since 
 such is your opinion," said he, "you are right; but, 
 bethink yourself, that I shall not be able to protect you 
 much longer. You see how we proceed in the Con- 
 vention, people of your sort will serve only as the stake 
 of the losing party in the game. As you will neither 
 throw yourself into the melee nor go away, get yourself 
 forgotten if you can." I fully intended to have followed 
 his advice, with what consequences has been shown. 
 
 AVhen Danton heard, six months afterwards, that I 
 was arrested, he stamped his foot, crying out, " The 
 wretch ! Why would he not go to Genoa? " He it was 
 who, not knowing in what prison I was confined, 
 caused an order to be sent to them all, by Parey, the 
 Minister of the Interior, that I should be treated with aU 
 the consideration compatible with the rules of the house. 
 Only sixteen days before his arrest, he had come to La 
 Force to see Citoyenne Lebau, who owed her situation to 
 him ; and said in course of conversation, " Have not you 
 got Citoyen Beugnot here ? " The portress answered in 
 the affirmative, and even asked whether she should call 
 me. Danton refused to see me, but added, " Recollect 
 this : if, as is possible, another attack on your prison 
 should take place, or some great disturbance, call 
 Beugnot down and shut him up in your kitchen ; then 
 when you have an opportunity, give him means to 
 escape." This was told me by Citoyenne Lebau the 
 day after the fall of Robespierre. I may add that if 
 Danton met Citoyen Gatrey anywhere, he never failed 
 to ask after me, and to advise me to keep as much as 
 possible out of sight, tie added " We will get him out 
 
RULES OF THE PRISON. 225 
 
 of the business. His time is coming, but is not yet come. 
 I was not the only one in the prison who looked to that 
 quarter for rescue, either because it was the general 
 belief that Danton was the only man who could over- 
 turn Robespierre, or because the former was in commu- 
 nication with persons who were under arrest, as I could 
 readily believe. However, so it was ; and after the death 
 of Danton the rules of the prison of La Force were en- 
 tirely changed. The members of the community who 
 had taken the superintendence of that house for several 
 months in succession were sent to the scaffold, and re- 
 placed by individuals of unparalleled brutality. We 
 could not so much as think of having our wives to dinner ; 
 our interviews with them were subject to a host of im- 
 pediments ; they could hardly take place above once a 
 week, and then were short, and under the perpetual fear 
 of being observed by the municipal officer. This was 
 restoring order to the place. 
 
 We had to thank Trial for it — an actor of the Comic 
 Opera who thought himself at least a Roman consul 
 under his tri-coloured scarf, and afforded us original 
 farces, quite unawares to himself, though, as if to put a 
 finish to our misery, we did not dare to laugh at them. 
 Trial's colleague was a shoemaker of Saint Martin-des- 
 Champs, named Vassot. The former undoubtedly bore the 
 palm of eloquence, but the latter was a deeper thinker. 
 He applied the full power of his brain to defend equality 
 from the attacks daily made on it before his eyes, and, 
 consequently, was indignant at the good cheer kept 
 in the council-chamber, as compared with the more 
 moderate repasts to which the poorer prisoners were 
 condemned, since if it was possible for any one to be at 
 once a patriot and a prisoner, it was quite certain that 
 patriots would be found among the poor. So he intro- 
 duced into the prison the rule of a common table, where 
 
226 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 every person sliould take his seat without distinction. 
 The price of the ordinary was fixed at forty sous a meal, 
 and amongst every twenty gnests three gratuitous places 
 were reserved for poor prisoners who should be appointed 
 by the magistrate of the Commune. There was one 
 only kitchen established in the prison, and Heaven 
 knows what the contractor could furnish at this time for 
 forty sous in assignats per head, when he had deducted 
 the gratuitous places, and likewise those that the author 
 of this subhme project had retained for himself and his 
 accomplices, the principal agents in the execution. What 
 did it matter ? We had to tear ourselves from the charms 
 of the dinner in the council-chamber, to sit down to an 
 untidy table, and in a disgusting intermixture — for we 
 were placed in alphabetical order. The very smell of 
 the meat was unendurable, and it was quite impossible 
 to eat, at any rate to us ; but among our equals there 
 were some stomachs of iron, and teeth of steel, by whom 
 everything we rejected was instantly devoured. To add 
 to our dehght, the municipal officer, Vassot, often granted 
 us the favour of his company at this banquet ; always 
 with the same compliment, " Well, citizens, how goes 
 it ? Is your appetite good ? " " Yes, citizen municipal, 
 but the soup is bad." " Oh, indeed ! The fact is that 
 one must not be dainty, you see ; there are a devil of a 
 lot of patriots that would be precious glad to have their 
 shai-e." 
 
 The epicurean guests of the council-chamber were in 
 despair. Dupont de Nemours alone considered the 
 invention somewhat amusing, and could not imagine why 
 reasonable men could find it a matter of vexation. " In- 
 deed, my dear Beugnot," said he, " you ought to be 
 charmed at this general table. Why, only yesterday you 
 were defending your tiresome Mably and wearisome 
 Lycurgus against me ; well, what you are angry about 
 
FEIENDS OF EQUALITY. 227 
 
 to-day is just like Lycurgus, only more dainty. Have 
 patience ; some other friend of equality will come to us 
 more easy-going than Citizen Vassot. He would recom- 
 mend thieving in the prisons, provided the thief were not 
 caught in the fact. Now you can only see your young 
 and loving wife by stealth, and not so much as you 
 would like. The current money is so depreciated that it 
 will soon be necessary, as I have predicted, to drag about 
 a whole pile of assignats to pay for a pair of slippers. 
 Don't you know that this is one step towards that consti- 
 tution of Lycurgus that you admire so heartily ? We 
 have no helots ; but we labour from morning to night 
 to make them, and the material is ready." 
 
 q2 
 
22S 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The First Victim from La Force — Es-Comte de Ferrieres — Sauvebceuf — Touiig- 
 FasMonables in La Force — Covmsellor Leconteulx de la Noraye — Results 
 of his Inconsiderate Denunciation — The Lesoontenlx transferred to the 
 Eveche — Illness of Madame Beugiiot — L'Abbe de Perigord — The Comte de 
 Brienne — Condemnation of Madame Elizabeth — Increased Activity of the 
 Revolutionary Triljrmal — The Tocsin — A Friend of Robespierre — Death of 
 Robespierre — Restored to Liberty. 
 
 Up to this time we had liad nothing to contend with 
 but the tedium of prison hfe ; but anxiety soon resumed 
 its fuh sway, when we saw that it had come to the turn 
 of La Force to furnish its contingent to the Revolutionary 
 Tribunah The unhappy Linguet was the earhest victim. 
 At first no great numbers were taken, and we saw that 
 they were selected with such discernment that there 
 must be some one among us who had the office of selec- 
 tion. We were convinced that this miserable office was 
 really fiUed by an ex-Count de Ferrieres Sauvebceuf. 
 He was the younger son of a very ancient family at 
 Limoges. I had long known him ; for his eldest brother, 
 the Marquis de Sauvebceuf, had taken up his abode nine 
 miles from the town where I was born, and had married 
 the rich heiress of the Abbe de Dinteville. Ferric'res 
 Avas nearly as ugly as Danton, and of the same Hercu- 
 lean form ; and to this he united ability, audacity, un- 
 bridled passions, and the most perfect indifference as to 
 the means of gratifying them. He was one of those men 
 Avhom those in power always have at their disposal, to 
 
EX-COMTE DE FEEEIEEES. 229 
 
 do all the evil that they desire. He would have assas- 
 sinated the Duke of Guise at Blois, vs^ithout making any 
 difficulty ; but he would not have recoiled in the least at 
 the Cardinal's red robes. He made a rather long tour 
 in the Levant, whether he were only impelled by the 
 spirit of adventure, or whether he had to fulfil a kind of 
 mission there that it was undesirable to entrust to Count 
 Choiseul Gouffier, who was then our ambassador there. 
 When he came back, he published a book on the Levant 
 which obtained some success. The pubhc were not so 
 well informed as they are now of what goes on in that 
 part of Europe, and besides, he censured the line of 
 politics we were then pursuing — and this was enough for 
 success. Then he exerted himself to get appointed am- 
 bassador to Persia ; but he met with more than one sort 
 of obstacle, and employed the three years that preceded 
 the Revolution in intrigues more or less foul. It had 
 been more than once proposed to the Count de Mont- 
 morin to send him to the Bastille, and no one, according 
 to the jurisprudence of the time, could have better 
 deserved it ; but the Minister did not venture — for his 
 natural timidity was increased by circumstances. The 
 Revolution came : Ferriferes managed to attach himself 
 to the Diplomatic Committee, by the favour of Mirabeau, 
 who said of him that he was a knave that something 
 might be made of He was soon at variance with his 
 illustrious protector, who was himself at the trouble of 
 turning him out of the committee-room. It was in 
 the nature of Ferriferes to descend every step on the 
 ladder of revolution. Thus he was to be found again 
 among the Jacobins, the CordeHers, constantly among 
 the worst ; and, after the 31st of May, he was, or pre- 
 tended that he was, sent as third, by the Committees 
 of Government, with Poterat, the old diplomatic agent, 
 and a member of the Convention, to arrange some in- 
 
230 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OP COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 trigue or another with Prussia, the locahty of which 
 was Bale.* 
 
 Ferri^res complained that he had been deprived of all 
 the glory of the business — if glory there were. The 
 committees, in order to get rid of him, or to silence him, 
 sent him to La Force. He had been a prisoner from the 
 first, and apparently feared or hoped to remain where he 
 was for a lona: time ; for he chose a small set of two 
 rooms on the first floor, very commodious for such a 
 place, and fitted them up with Oriental luxury. There 
 was a divan round the bed-room, and there, lolling at 
 full length, he passed his life in smoking, in Eastern 
 fashion, with a magnificent pipe, the last remains of his 
 diplomatic splendour. He had around him those pretty, 
 agreeable, and convenient trifles that opulence delights 
 in, and, better than that, nightingales, brought up and 
 kept with the greatest care, which kept up an incessant 
 spring-like song in the prison of Paris. The first room 
 contained a collection of our most agreeable authors 
 recently published in duodecimo by Cazin and Diderot, 
 and several portfolios of prints. His dinner was pre- 
 pared in Madame Lebau's own kitchen, by a cook at his 
 orders, who sent him up the most delicate dishes that 
 could be procured. He laughed at the common table, and 
 commiserated me and Duqucsnoy for being both reduced 
 to this disgusting reyime. He proposed to us to appear 
 there for form's sake, and to dine with him every day. 
 One day we allowed ourselves to be persuaded, and a 
 dinner was sent up, such as to scare us by its luxury. 
 AVarned by this experience, we promised ourselves faith- 
 
 * The details of this curious intrigne, proTing- that the Committee of Public 
 Safety, or rather Eobespierre, had flattered themselves with the notion of 
 inducing the court of Prussia to enter into negotiations with the Eepublic, is 
 to be found in the second volume of " Memoirs extracted from the Papers of 
 a Statesman." The first two volumes of this work contain many valuable 
 revelations on the secret historv of the Revolution. 
 
FIRST LEVY AT LA FOECE. 231 
 
 fully not to get into any scrape with Ferriferes, but also not 
 to become intimate with him, because both courses might 
 be dangerous. We learned afterwards that he went out 
 of the prison almost every day, not returning till very 
 late, and that sometimes a turnkey had to sit up half the 
 night waiting for him. So there could no longer be 
 any doubt that he communicated frequently with the 
 Committees of Government, and that he was their agent 
 in the prison of La Force. An incident that I shall 
 have immediate occasion to relate completely proved it. 
 After all, he applied some conscience — if such a term 
 may be used — or rather discernment, to this infamous 
 calling. The first levy made at La Force took off five 
 subordinate blackguards, universal knaves, indifferent 
 alike to any Grod, such as derive from a revolution only 
 sach relaxation of authority as renders easier the exer- 
 cise of the art of living at the expense of others. These 
 men were just as innocent of the crime of opposition to 
 the Kevolution as honest men ; but they really had in 
 their way misused the Revolution. Such a judicious 
 choice struck the minds of all, and it was agreed that 
 there would have been nothing in it to be called in ques- 
 tion if these wretches had been sent to the Bicetre instead 
 of to the scaffold. At the same time the forty deputies 
 of the Convention were removed from La Force to join 
 their comrades at the prison of the Madelonnettes. It 
 was nearly certain that they would never be called up for 
 trial, and for that reason they had been placed in La 
 Force. Their departure was an additional reason for us 
 to suppose that the kind of immunity that we had 
 hitherto seemed to enjoy was come to an end. 
 
 A new levy succeeded the first, and the selection for 
 this went higher : some of the young fops were chosen, 
 generally well born, whom the horrors of the Revolution 
 had not been able to tear away firom the delights of Capua, 
 
233 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 and who had been lost among the dehghts of Paris while 
 their relations were dying of famine in Conde's army ; 
 they had been senseless enough to believe that the Revo- 
 lution would let them alone because they had mounted 
 its costume and borrowed its language. The drawing- 
 room of Madame de Sainte Amaranthe was their daily 
 place of meeting, and there they still preserved the 
 sacred fire, in spite of a by-favour of travestie. The Re- 
 volution made a siiyn, Madame de Sainte Amaranthe and 
 her charming daughter were sent to the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, and all the dandies that had graced their draw- 
 ing-room were picked out of the prisons of Paris to form 
 their escort. La Force furnished eight unfortunates for 
 this immolation, one of the most cruel furnished by these 
 annals of blood, and the very poptilace seemed sorry for 
 it. This second list was attributed to the same person 
 as the former. Perhaps the idea was not wrong. Some 
 time afterwards I had an irrefragable proof 
 
 We had in our council-chamber Counsellor Lecon- 
 teulx de la Noraye, who had come in for a share, with his 
 brother and cousins, of the very fine fortune gained by 
 the Leconteulx who was called " Don Louis," the only 
 one who had any genius among all who have borne the 
 name. La Noraye set up to be somebody, though he 
 had only received for his share just as much sense as is 
 required not to be a fool. Emboldened by the example 
 of ]\L Necker, before the Revolution he had dreamed of 
 becoming Controller-Greneral ; he got together pamphlets 
 from all quarters, and gave them to M. de Vergennes, 
 Archbishop of Sens, as his own ; he even did the latter 
 the service to introduce to him his friend Le Normand, 
 who could not find a single sou to provide for the ex- 
 penses of the last six months of 1788, and thus accelerated 
 that Minister's fall. All the intrigues of La Noraye, 
 before and duriuQ- the Revolution, ended in liis bpino- 
 
INTRIGUES OF LA NOEAYE. 233 
 
 named Member of the General Council of the Depart- 
 ment of Seine and Oise, and in getting turned out and 
 shut up in the council-chamber at La Force. There 
 again he established himself on the footing of factotum, 
 took the details into his own hands, and managed them 
 with the greatest satisfaction. Like every one else, I let 
 him go his own way. I even let him tell me that if 
 the Archbishop of Sens had listened to him he would 
 still be first Minister, and he, La Noraye, Comptroller- 
 General. However, by malice, or rather, perhaps, folly. 
 La Noraye played me a wicked tiick at the time I 
 mention. From the beginning of Germinal the Govern- 
 ment had paid forty sous a day to each person detained 
 under suspicion in the prisons of Paris. The real object 
 of this remuneration was a plan to transport all the sus- 
 pected persons, and to sequestrate their goods from that 
 date. Notwithstanding, Duquesnoy and I were most 
 deeply interested in always receiving the forty sous a day, 
 since that kept us in the list of the suspected ; as other- 
 wise we must have been sent back to the Conciergerie. 
 The clerk of the prison, who was devoted to us, had 
 willingly lent himself to the fraud. So we got the 
 money during the months Germinal and Flor^al. The 
 next month it was refused. I went to the office to hear 
 the reason ; the clerk told me that it had been Citoyen 
 La Noraye who had come and told him that he was 
 compromising himself very much by placing Duquesnoy 
 and me in the list of suspected persons, for we were 
 neither more nor less than summoned to the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, and ought to be at the Conciergerie. The 
 clerk told me, "You know Citoyen La Noraye and all 
 his imprudence ; what he told me he will repeat to the 
 first municipal officer who visits the prison, and will not 
 fail to add that he has warned me. I may lose my place 
 for it ; and you know, in these days, it is not only one's 
 
231 LIFE AND ADVENTDKES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 place tliat is lost, but one's head." He showed me the list 
 he had prepared for the month Prairial : neither my name 
 nor that of Duquesnoy appeared in that of the suspected. 
 After the suspected came the names of the condemned ; 
 then, lastly, those of the accused, and we figured among 
 them. I did all I could by insisting, praying, conjuring him, 
 but could get nothing. I carried my sorrows to Duquesnoy, 
 Avho was equally interested : he had more influence over the 
 clerk than I, for he was his feflow-countryman, and he 
 prevailed on him that our names should not appear among 
 the suspected, nor in any other place, but be erased from 
 the list. Duquesnoy announced this unhoped-for victory 
 to me, and urged me to an absolute silence towards 
 La Noraye. I promised to do all I could. When I left 
 him, I T/ent into the council-chamber. It was a fine 
 summer day, and all the prisoners were walking in the 
 yard. I only found La Noraye asleep in a chair; he 
 awoke at my entrance, and we were tete-cl-tete. I wanted 
 to go ; he stopped me, and began a conversation in spite 
 of me ; he blamed me for leaving on him the whole 
 burden of the business of the room, and pressed me to 
 unite with him in order to put an end to the common 
 table, our daily infliction. I replied to him that I did not 
 care about it, for a reason that he very well knew ; that 
 I ought not to be classed among the suspected, since I 
 was only at La Force by stratagem, and that my place 
 was at the Conciergerie, in the hands of the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal, to which I had been summoned. La Noraye 
 considered mine a fair excuse, but he pointed out that I 
 should endure the misery of the common table as long as 
 I remained at La Force. I answered that my stay would 
 not be long if his denunciation to Richelot, the clerk, took 
 effect. La Noraye answered, " I did not intend to make 
 a denunciation, but to give a bit of advice to Richelot, in 
 whom I take an interest, and who is a relation of mv 
 
ASSAULT IN PRISON. 335 
 
 friend Gougeon, syndic advocate of the department of 
 Seine and Oise." I answered that I cared as little for 
 his friendship with Gougeon as for the latter's relation- 
 ship to Richelot ; that if he did not understand that he 
 was making a denunciation against Duquesnoy and 
 myself he was a dangerous lunatic, and that if I was not 
 disarmed by pity I would box his ears at once. At these 
 words he took up some of the fire-irons from the grate to 
 defend himself, and advanced upon me with a sufficiently 
 determined air. I seized the arm that bore his weapon 
 with one hand, and I gave him such a violent blow with 
 the other hand open, that he fell back, stunned, on his 
 chair, and bleeding at the nose. I ran hastily downstairs 
 after this fine performance, and went to lose myself 
 among all the promenaders. It came to time for returning 
 to our rooms, and I went up in great embarrassment as 
 to what figure I was going to cut there. Nobody said a 
 word to me. Duquesnoy looked at me with an air of 
 consternation, and shrugged his shoulders. La Noraye 
 was in bed, and there were three or four persons round 
 him, who seemed to be occupied with him. I saw that 
 I had been unanimously condemned. I requested to be 
 allowed a word of explanation : no one answered or even 
 looked at me. In spite of such a marked prejudice, I 
 began to speak, and told the facts as I have just related 
 them. When I avowed that I had undoubtedly exceeded 
 the defensive attitude, and struck M. de la Noraye with 
 my open hand, he rose up into a sitting posture and cried 
 out in a voice of thunder, "It is not true! It is not 
 true ! He did not strike with his open hand." I accepted 
 the negation, and confessed that it relieved my mind 
 from a heavy weight, and I declared that I had nothing 
 more to say. Everyone looked about in astonishment. 
 Willeminot, the most intimate friend of La Noraye in the 
 room, said to him, "What, my poor friend, have you 
 
-336 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 gone mad?" "No, no," answered La Noraye ; "I 
 know very well what I am saying. I repeat that it was 
 not with his open hand, but with his closed fist that 
 Citizen Beugnot struck me right in the face, and that 
 made my nose bleed instantly." I accepted the latter 
 version. I had no right to be fastidious ; but see the 
 intricate folds of human folly ! The gravity of my 
 insult was very much diminished in the eyes of the 
 honourable spectators by the colour that La Noraye per- 
 sisted in giving to it. It ceased to be a mortal affront : one 
 had made menaces with an iron bar ; the other protected 
 himself by a blow with his fist : and then La Noraye's 
 conduct Avas not fair ; he was a man who meddled with 
 what did not belong to him ; he was managing in the 
 prison from morning till night, and what for ? What a 
 fine piece of work to expose two comrades to the scaffold 
 to save the Republic a few pence ! Before the candles in 
 the room were put out, my comrades thought there was a 
 great deal of excuse for me, and poor La Noraye got 
 nothing but his blow with the hand or fist, and all the 
 disgrace, whichever it might be. 
 
 Some days passed. We had tried to hush up the 
 matter among ourselves ; but what passes among twelve 
 persons in prison is scarcely a greater secret than if they 
 were at liberty. Ferrieres knew the adventure in the 
 most minute details, and never ceased railing against La 
 Noraye. Duquesnoy and I went to his rooms, making it 
 our pretext that we wished to see some views of the 
 Bosphorus in water-colours, which he never ceased ex- 
 tolling to us, but really in order to try to stop his infernal 
 tongue. He spoke of the scene that had taken place 
 between La Noraye and me. We underrated its im- 
 portance as much as we could, trying to reduce it to a 
 mere joke; but our friend would not be so easily blinded. 
 He told us that was all verv wsll but tlmt Ita lil.-awioo 
 
CONSPIRACY OF JANUARY, 1793. 237 
 
 had a reckoning to bring against that rogue La Noraye, 
 who had dared to say, in Madame Lebau's kitchen, that 
 he, Ferriferes, was a spy; and added, " He wanted to send 
 you to the tribunal : be easy, he shall precede you." 
 Duquesnoy answered, " That would not tranquillize us or 
 any one else ; for the poor fellow is such a gossip, and so 
 inconsistent, that if he were brought before the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal, he might easily be the cause of our all 
 three being taken thither, and I do not know how many 
 more with us." " I do not know," answered Ferri^res, 
 " whether he would find that as easy as you suppose ; but 
 he has a right to have a whelp of my dog's, and so he 
 shall." And so far Ferri^res but too well justified the 
 reproach that La Noraye had applied to him. Two days 
 afterwards we read in the evening paper that the Citoyens 
 Leconteulx de Canteleu and Leconteulx du Mole had 
 been removed from their houses, where they were 
 guarded by sans-culottes, and had been taken to the 
 Bishop's palace, where they were going to collect all the 
 members of the family, as authors or accomphces of the 
 conspiracy that took place in January 1793, to deliver 
 the tyrant from the scaffold. 
 
 At the same time La Noraye was informed that he 
 might at any moment expect to be transferred to the 
 Bishop's palace. The form of the accusation was all the 
 more threatening, that it was true that, at the King's trial, 
 Leconteulx de Canteleu had been commissioned by the 
 Bank of Saint Charles to open an account with the 
 Spanish Minister at Paris, and furnish him with all the 
 funds that might be needed to secure the safety of Louis 
 XVL ; and Leconteulx had thrown himself with equal 
 devotion and courage into everything demanded of him. 
 I even believe that this great trust had been extended to 
 La Noraye, and that he had acquitted himself in an 
 honourable manner. When the unhappy man found 
 
238 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 himself in such extremities, he lost the little head he 
 ever had, and persuaded himself that he had to thank 
 Ferrieres for the misfortune that impended over him and 
 his connections. He did not dare to ask me to take any 
 steps towards Ferrieres on his behalf, but applied to 
 Duquesnoy, who answered for me as well as for himself 
 that we would do all in our power. We attacked Fer- 
 rieres, both together and separately ; I threw myself, so 
 to speak, at his feet, to beg him not to persecute an 
 honourable family for the folly of a single member, who 
 had not himself deserved such cruel treatment. Fer- 
 rieres asserted that he had nothing to do with what was 
 preparing against the Leconteulx. " Perhaps I might 
 be able to do for them what I have done for others — ■ 
 delay their trial by means peculiar to myself; but if I 
 have no reason for persecuting them, neither have I any 
 for serving them. Say no more about it : justice must 
 take its course. It is all one to me." We called in the 
 assistance of our wives, whom we named the dames de 
 hon secours. Ferriferes, ruffian as he was, seemed full of 
 consideration and respect towards them, and so they 
 warmly undertook the affair. At last he went to see 
 them, and said, "I am a great scoundrel, am I not? 
 Well, you have persuaded me to do -what I should have 
 refused to do for God or devil. You know that torrents 
 are sometimes stemmed by bits of straw. The bits of 
 straw are there. Let the Leconteulx hold their tongues; 
 they have plenty of time before them. To prove it to 
 you. La Noraye shall not be disturbed in La Force." 
 
 Such was our vengeance on La Noraye, who, I ought 
 to say, never afterwards ceased to show most profound 
 gratitude for it to Duquesnoy and to me. 
 
 It was during the month of Messidor that a new and 
 very poignant grief fell upon me. I suddenly learned 
 that my wife was dangerously ill. As I have mentioned, 
 
HOUSE OF BEIENNE. 239 
 
 I wrote a letter, and had a reply from her every day. 
 All at once the communication ceased. Several excuses 
 were devised and given to me for two or three days, but 
 the truth came out at last. The cause of my wife's illness 
 was so remarkable, that I will relate it in detail. I have 
 already had occasion to mention the exchange of patronage 
 and goodwill on one side, and respect and gratitude on 
 the other, that existed between the house of Brienne and 
 my family. This house, like some others at that time, 
 exercised a certain lofty patronage of the province where 
 its seat lay. It possessed all the qualifications that then 
 combined to create influence of the highest order — high 
 birth, wealth, the possession of grand posts, and the 
 expectation of sooner or later reaching the highest posi- 
 tion in the state. The eldest member of the family, the 
 Archbishop of Toulouse, had for twenty years been in 
 expectation of becoming Prime Minister, and people 
 seemed impatient for the fulfilment of the expectation. 
 His brother, the Count de Brienne, had directed his am- 
 bition into easier channels. In the city, he had deserved 
 the appellation of an honest man, and was adored on his 
 estates for his enlightened and ever-readjr charity. He 
 passed the greatest portion of the year amid his vassals ; 
 kept them in peace, never leaving distress unaided, or a 
 grief unassisted. The mansion at Brienne was another 
 Chanteloup. The one was frequented on account of the 
 past, the other for the sake of the future. The Arch- 
 bishop of Toulouse had followed in the track of the Duke 
 de Choiseul, feeling very sure that if the Queen could not 
 get back the Minister whom she preferred to all others, 
 she would transfer her support to the statesman who 
 most resembled him. In course of time, and by the help 
 of continual intrigues, this scheme was completely suc- 
 cessful. The archbishop gained the post of Prime 
 Minister, and made his brother take that of Minister of 
 
240 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 War. When the prelate came into office, the fabric of 
 the state was crumbling on all sides ; nor was he strong 
 enough to sustain the monarchy even for a few moments 
 over the brink of the abyss. He left the charge to those 
 who were generally supposed to be better able to support 
 it, but who met with no better success. On giving up 
 office, the archbishop hastened into Italy to air his dis- 
 comfiture. The count returned to Brienne, and was 
 better received there than ever, since there was no fear 
 of losing him. I was known to them both, and it was 
 enough to have a fair reputation, and to live in the pro- 
 vince, to be welcomed at Brienne. The spirit of philo- 
 sophy ruled at that house, and raised the family above 
 those prejudices about nobility which were fostered by 
 the country noblesse of the neighbourhood, but were 
 rated at their true worth in the halls of Brienne. 
 
 Then came the Revolution, and displayed all its 
 severity. The archbishop took a bold step ; he alone, of 
 the old bishops of France, took the oaths to the civil 
 constitution of the clergy. I say alone., for the Abb6 de 
 Perigord had hardly time to put on his bishop's robes 
 before he pulled them off again. The Bishop of A^erviers 
 had been insane for some time, and De Jarente, the 
 coadjutor of Orleans, could only be numbered among 
 men of infamous and debauched character. It would be 
 no promotion for the archbishop to be put at the head of 
 such a trio. However, when once he had chosen his part, 
 he continued faithful to it to the end. The Pope censured 
 the oath he had taken, and enjoined him by a brief to 
 retract ; the archbishop considered this an insult, and 
 returned his cardinal's hat. Every day he took a further 
 step, till, being elected president of the Jacobin club of 
 Sens, he fulfilled the functions with the red cap on 
 his head. The Count de Brienne did not go so far, 
 although he might have done so without causing so much 
 
UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT. 241 
 
 scandal as his brother. He remained at Brienne, and 
 acted as mayor of the place, not sparing himself any 
 more than did the archbishop in the matter of the red 
 cap, when there was any need of mounting it. These 
 exhibitions of adhesion to the Revolution preserved his 
 credit with the people, and as he employed it, as he had 
 done before all this, in keeping the peace and doing 
 good, no one in the county would have sought him out 
 or disturbed him. The end of the month Germinal, in 
 the year II., had come, and in his part of the country it 
 was hardly perceptible that there was a revolution in 
 France, when suddenly this tranquillity was disturbed by 
 a most unhappy incident. The archbishop lived at Sens, 
 in the abbey of St. Pierre le Vif, which he had bought as 
 a more convenient habitation than the old archbishop's 
 palace. He had with him his niece, the Marquise de 
 Canisy — an amiable woman, who could understand the 
 prelate, and knew how to make him listen to her — and 
 one of his adopted nephews, the Abbe de Lomenie, who 
 had been appointed his coadjutor before the Revolution, 
 and who would have supplied his place in every respect, 
 had he not been carried away, with the rest, in the ship- 
 wreck of the clergy. The Count de Brienne, who at 
 times visited his brother, was at Sens at the moment I 
 speak of, and had brought two other nephews with him, 
 brothers to the coadjutor — the Viscount and Charles de 
 Lomenie, both of them persons of distinction, and of 
 different characters. So the whole family was together 
 at Sens, except Madame de Brienne, who was left alone 
 at Brienne. It happened that an agent of the Com- 
 mittee of Government came to Sens to an-est and take 
 to Paris an old officer, an acquaintance of the MM. de 
 Lomenie. They thought that they ought to go and take 
 leave of him before his departure. The interview was 
 touching, and, unfortunately, was witnessed by the agent 
 
242 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 of the committee. Pity was then a crime, or very near 
 it. The agent asked the name of these young men, 
 their conduct and habits. This information could not be 
 given without communications relating to the Brienne 
 family. He took down notes, and went to Paris. Two 
 days later the same agent returned bearing warrants of 
 arrest against every member of the family, and proceeded 
 to execute them, only leaving them the night to prepare 
 for their departure. Ever since the beginning of the 
 Revolution, the archbishop had taken the precaution of 
 being provided with one of Cabanis' lozenges ; he swal- 
 lowed it when he went to bed, and was found dead the next 
 morning. The rest of the family were brought to Paris, 
 and taken to the prison of the Madelonnettes. M. de 
 Brienne, who had an attack of the gout, went to his 
 house in the Rue Saint Dominique, and stayed there 
 guarded by four sans-culottes. My wife no sooner learned 
 this sad inteUigence than she hastened to the Count de 
 Brienne's house. She saw that he was very badly 
 guarded, and pressed him a first time to make his 
 escape ; he answered that he had still plenty of time 
 before him, and said he must consider. Next day she 
 returned to the charge, and proposed the means of 
 escape. The Hotel de Brienne had a railing towards 
 the square of the Bourbon Palace; nothing could be 
 easier than to fasten a rope-ladder outside this, by which 
 the railing could be very easily passed. M. de Brienne 
 wished to know where he could hide, if he got away; 
 ]ny wife, with an answer for everything, told him that 
 his retreat was all ready, in a place free from suspicion, 
 with one of the clerks of the Revolutionary Tribunal. 
 M. de Brienne seemed as if he would consent : my wife 
 arranged the day and hour Avith him. That day, when 
 all was in readiness, my wife went to his house ; she 
 found M. de Brienne's intention at first doubtful, and 
 
 fc> 
 
CONDEMNATION OF MADAME ELIZABETH. 243 
 
 afterwards decidedly against her plan. After all, what 
 could they accuse him of? He had never done anything 
 against the Republic— no intrigues, no agent sent to those 
 who had fled the country, no correspondence without. 
 He accused my wife of confounding his position with my 
 own. The difference was great : I had been put forward, 
 and belonged to a party ; this party had been van- 
 quished, and I might naturally look for their ven- 
 geance ; but against him, once more, what allegations 
 could be brought ? My wife had replies enough ready ; 
 but M, de Brienne having added that he was deeply 
 affected by her devotion, but feared that her visits might 
 bring suspicion on him, she left him with many tears, 
 and refrained from presenting herself at his house. Nine 
 days went by. It was said that Madame Elizabeth had 
 been condemned, and was going to be led to the scafi"old. 
 She was a princess, or rather an angel, going to be 
 united in heaven with the martyrs of her race. Madame 
 Duquesnoy and my wife wished to behold her last 
 moments on earth; and they arranged to stand on the 
 road and pray for her as she passed, and accordingly 
 placed themselves at the corner of the Rue St. Honore. 
 The dreadful train advanced, consisting that day of six 
 vehicles. My wife cast a glance on the first of these, 
 and it fell on M. de Brienne. She knew him, and saw 
 that he knew her. This was a thunder-stroke, and she 
 fell back insensible. She was carried home in a burning 
 fever, her brain already affected. Janroy, her doctor, 
 came in haste, and thought her in great danger. Indeed, 
 she was in extreme peril, and was hardly expected to 
 survive the fourth night. My friends prepared me, as 
 best they might, for this distracting bereavement. I took 
 my resolution. Only one being still bound me to life, my 
 daughter of four years old. I considered that, whatever 
 might be the lot of my family, she would find refuge in 
 
244) LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 that of hex mother, whose misfortunes I did not antici- 
 pate, and I entreated pardon most earnestly ; but I was 
 resolved to die, and should have infallibly carried out 
 my guilty purpose if my wife had sunk. We had been 
 advised, in case we had kept Cabanis' lozenge for some 
 time without using it, to soften it with three or four 
 drops of ohve oil. I prepared it thus : I burned my papers, 
 and left a letter for an old friend of the family. Freed 
 from every care, I went down to the wicket in a sort of 
 barbarous indifference, to learn whether I was to live or 
 to die. I heard then that my wife continued very ill, 
 but had at least survived the night. I went back to my 
 room, softened by this ray of hope, and even shed a few 
 tears. I cannot tell whether I should have confronted 
 death the next day with equal composure : I have my 
 doubts. Unless a man has been trained in a stern 
 stoicism, or is a prey to such physical emotion as to 
 deprive him of freedom of thought, he seldom long 
 retains the notion of putting himself to death, or medi- 
 tates on it at his leisure ; and this is the reason why 
 the very persons who have only half succeeded in accom- 
 plishing their purpose willingly accept the relief admi- 
 nistered to them, and end by wishing for a renewal of 
 their life. My wife's suffering state lasted nearly two 
 months, and only yielded by degrees under the continual 
 attentions of her friends, and to the general joy at the 
 revolution of Thermidor. I had taken very little share 
 in what passed around me during these two months, and 
 was only aroused from my indifference by the news of 
 the battle of Fleurus. 
 
 Among the inmates of the council-chamber, was Citizen 
 Garat, one of the first clerks of the Treasury. He thoroughly 
 understood the mechanism of this great machine, and the 
 Deputy Gambon, who had undertaken to manage it, had 
 begged the Commi+tpps nf Gnvfirnment to restore Garat. 
 
CHANGES IN THE PEISON. 245 
 
 since lie could not get on without him. The committees 
 had refused ; but, in order to reconcile the requirements 
 of the Treasury with the detention of Garat, two gen- 
 darmes daily came to conduct him from La Force to the 
 Treasury, where he worked all day, and was brought 
 back to sleep in prison ; besides which, he was for- 
 bidden to bring either papers or news into the prison; 
 and the man, uncommunicative by nature, faithfully 
 observed the injunction. But on the day when the 
 battle of Fleurus was known in Paris, he could not with- 
 hold the information, and awakened us with it. As soon 
 as I heard it, I cried out, " We are saved ! Terror can- 
 not dog the heels of victory." Indeed, the internal 
 divisions in the Government Committees, that were to 
 bring about a catastrophe, dated from that epoch. 
 
 However, the batches of the Revolutionary Tribunal 
 daily became more numerous, and the aspect of the prison 
 was entirely changed. From thirty to forty deputies, 
 among whom ten at least were men of education and 
 good breeding, had been, as I have said, transferred to the 
 Madelonnettes. Since the establishment of the general 
 table, the old or rich, to whom the comforts of life had 
 become necessities, had passed into hospitals. Those 
 who had been taken to the Revolutionary Tribunal were, 
 if not the most estimable of the prisoners, at least those 
 of the most elegant manners ; so that the council-chamber, 
 with the exception of about five or six persons, was only 
 now occupied by individuals who lived very much apart. 
 Then we saw that La Force had become a sort of chapel 
 of ease to the Conciergerie, and that the superabundance 
 that flowed in from the provinces was sent thither. So the 
 new-comers were but few days there, and speedily passed 
 to the tribunal. The manner in which they were sum- 
 moned was cruel to every one. At this time all forms of 
 justice, even the most expeditious, had been laid aside. 
 
246 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 and counsel for the defence had been suppressed. The 
 indictment was notified to the accused at ten in the 
 morning ; he was brought up for trial at eleven or 
 twelve ; judgment was given at two, and executed before 
 four. It was difficult for the usher who brought the 
 indictments to unearth the prisoners in their rooms, and 
 thus it was found convenient to announce the coming of 
 the usher by a bell, at whose sound all the prisoners, 
 without distinction, were obliged to assemble in the gal- 
 lery outside the first floor, along the buildings of the 
 great yard of the prison. The officer, surrounded by 
 gendarmes, stood in the centre of the yard, with the 
 bundle of indictments in his hand, and shouted out one 
 of the names that appeared in these documents. The 
 unhappy man who was called, without any more prepara- 
 tion than the rest of the spectators, had only time to give 
 his next neighbour the greatest treasures he had about 
 him. Generally this was the portrait of his wife or of 
 his mistress, a lock of hair, some relic or jewel, a farewell 
 letter that he always had ready. Alas ! more than once 
 I received these sad deposits from hands almost un- 
 known to me, because I chanced to be by the side of the 
 unfortunate who, on his descent into the yard, was sur- 
 rounded by gendarmes, and never left by them till the 
 foot of the scaffold was reached. Though I had reason 
 to hope that my name would not be pronounced in this 
 formidable arena, I could not be certain ; so that this 
 lottery of blood that was drawn every day poisoned my 
 life, as it did that of all around me, and to such an extent 
 that the evening before the decade a visible repose and 
 satisfaction could be perceived among the prisoners. 
 The decade was one of relaxation for the tribunal, and 
 every prisoner felt his life safe for twenty-four hours. We 
 were in this condition when we heard that the Com- 
 mittees of rrnvernm ent. hnri at last. r-nmA in g rlar.i"oi'r„i r^n 
 
THE NINTH THEEMIDOE. 247 
 
 the fate of the prisoners. Those who were not to be 
 tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal were to be 
 divided into two classes — one to be condemned to trans- 
 portation, the other to be imprisoned till peace should be 
 made. And some commissions were really appointed to 
 take charge of this great operation, and make the divi- 
 sion. One of these began to sit at La Force to inter- 
 rogate the prisoners; but, as a preface to the examination, 
 they had given us some papers to fill up and sign, the 
 result of which would have been, in fact, to set forth 
 what we had done to deserve hanging in case of a 
 counter-revolution- This paper contained twelve columns. 
 In one was the question, " Where were you on the day 
 of the tyrant's death? Do you approve of his execution 
 ■ — ^yes or no?" and in another, "Do you consent to 
 equality with the sans-culottes, or not?" Some prisoners, 
 apparently very respectable men, were base enough to 
 reply to these questions in the affirmative, and repeat the 
 same assurance in their verbal examination, and thus 
 gained the favour of being only condemned to imprison- 
 ment till the time of peace. As for Dupont, Duquesnoy, 
 and myself, we did not hesitate a moment, and flatly 
 refused to fill up the papers that had been given to us, 
 whatever might come of it. The prison was quite in an 
 agitation over this work of filling up papers, submitting 
 to examinations, and pronouncing decisions, when safety 
 appeared from quite a different quarter. 
 
 On the 9th Thermidor, about four o'clock in the after- 
 noon on a fine summer day, I was walking in the yard 
 with Dupont and Admiral Latouche Treville. Dupont 
 was in warm discussion with the admiral on the substi- 
 tution of free for slave labour in the sugar islands, when 
 all at once he stopped and said, "My dear comrades, 
 I hear the tocsin. Yes, it is indeed, really and 
 truly, the tocsin ; we must be on our guard." The 
 
24-8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 admiral instantly left us, went up to liis room and 
 barricaded himself into it. We were twenty-four hours 
 without hearing- anything of him. He afterwards told 
 us that his notion was, in case of a revolutionary crisis, to 
 keep himself quiet till it was decided who had the best 
 of it, and then to go and salute the conqueror. We also 
 went up to the council-chamber, and were soon all 
 assembled there. Dupont harangued us, and explained 
 the danecer that we were menaced with. From the 
 sounding of the tocsin, it was very likely they intended 
 to renew the scenes of September in the prisons, and for 
 his o^vn part he was determined to sell his life dearly. 
 He exhorted us to do the same, and detailed his plan 
 of defence. There were twelve of us, and we could arm 
 ourselves after a fashion with the fire-irons, which were 
 happily not taken away, with two daggers which we had 
 amongst us, and, lastly, with our knives and the legs of the 
 chairs. The old order of battle must be adopted ; that is, 
 the strongest in the first line, next two others, three in 
 the next line, and four in the last. This order of battle 
 will take ten men ; the two that are left, selected from 
 the youngest, will be on the flanks of the army to assist 
 wherever it may be required. Lastly, retreat must be 
 thought of; and we would establish a strong barricade 
 with our beds, behind which we would gather our forces 
 together and wait for external aid. However anxious 
 the moment was, it was impossible not to laugh at the 
 serious way in which our good Dupont mai-shalled his 
 Ixittle array. He quite expected to fight, and insisted 
 on a rehearsal of the manoeuvre; but that was refused, 
 though the post of military dictator for the moment of 
 danger was unanimously decreed to him, and we really 
 tliought in the night that the dictator's dreadful office 
 Iiad really begun. Towards midnight we heard an 
 extraordinary noise in the prison ; the turnkevs. who 
 
A FEIEND OF EOBESPIEREE. 249 
 
 were keeping a faithful watch, intending either to defend 
 or release us, came and told us that it was the brinmno; 
 of Robespierre to La Force ! AVe made them repeat it 
 several times, while we remained dumb with astonish- 
 ment. Half-an-hour later a still greater disturbance. 
 This was said to be on setting Robespierre at liberty. The 
 turnkeys had deceived us unintentionally : it was really 
 a Robespierre who was the subject of these tours de 
 force^ but not the great Robespierre — only his brother. 
 We were doubly terrified. It was plain that there was a 
 fight somewhere, and it seemed as if Robespierre had 
 been beaten at first and had got the upper hand again. 
 A new incident confirmed this notion. There had come 
 among us, a fortnight before, a certain juryman of 
 the Revolutionary Tribunal, named Villate. This Villate 
 was an intimate friend of Robespierre, and served him 
 as a spy at the tribunal. The Committees of Govern- 
 ment imputed some treason or another to him in the 
 performance of these noble duties, and had arrested him. 
 This little man, less than thirty years old, was endowed 
 with an attractive and gentle face, and a tone and 
 manner in conformity witli it, and he affected an 
 exquisite sensibility. It might be said of him, " A 
 wounded butterfly made him shed tears." And the 
 wretch was wliat was called in that den a sound jury- 
 man, which meant that it had not once happened to him 
 in a whole year to vote for the acquittal of a prisoner. 
 When he arrived in the prison, people were ready to beat 
 him to death ; Ferrieres had even insinuated that it 
 might be done with impunity, and I fancy it would have 
 been done had not Duquesnoy and I opposed it. Just 
 at the moment when young Robespierre was set at 
 liberty, Villate had been called to go with him. We 
 therefore thought that the elder one's victory was com- 
 plete ; but Villate, a thorough fop, took some time to 
 
250 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 dress, and at the very moment when he was stooping 
 to pass the street- wicket he met Bourdon de I'Oise, com- 
 missary to the Convention, who roughly shoved him back 
 and had him locked up again. 
 
 These contradictory scenes succeeded rapidly, and were 
 not unlike phantasmagoria. We could not tell how to 
 fix our thoughts when, about two in the morning, they 
 came to tell us of the triumph of the Convention, and 
 that Robespierre and his friends had been arrested 
 and cut to pieces. Dupont loudly announced that he 
 resigned the dictatorship, and we all went to bed as 
 usual ; but no one could sleep, and daylight found us 
 vehemently discussing the causes and probable conse- 
 c|uences of the passages of that night. We had not 
 long to wait for them ; for the next day Robespierre and 
 the chiefs of his party were put to death, and on the 
 following the members of the Council General of the Com- 
 mune, the presidents and secretaries of the rebellious 
 sections, and the staff of the National Guard underwent 
 the same fate. The mischief was deep, but the remedy 
 was violent, and applied with blind energy. I will give 
 a specimen. My wife's illness required much time and 
 constant attention. Doctor Janroy, at that time the 
 busiest physician in Paris, had substituted for himself in 
 the daily visits a young physician whom he had selected 
 by preference, as possessing an influence in the Com- 
 mune that might be useful to the patient. My wife had 
 taken a great fancy to him, because he was kindly atten- 
 tive. He was with her during the evening of the 9th 
 Thermidor. He was three times summoned to the 
 General Council of the Commune. My wife begged him 
 to go there, but he obstinately refused, not liking to 
 leave her in the middle of all this disturbance, and saying 
 besides that he had had enough of these perpetual con- 
 flicts between the Commune and the Convention. He 
 
EEJOICINCr IN HOPE. 251 
 
 spent the niglit by my wife's bedside, only leaving her 
 to obtain tidings in the house itself, that he brought to 
 her when they were good, and varied if they were bad. 
 When about two o'clock in the morning he thou2;-ht that 
 the crisis had ceased, he began to read to my wife, and 
 ended by putting her and himself to sleep. At seven 
 o'clock he was still in his chair ; when he awoke, he 
 said he should go to the Hotel de Ville to ascertain the 
 truth as to the scenes of the night, and that he would 
 return immediately with the intelligence. So he went. 
 He must have been arrested as soon as he reached the 
 Hotel de Ville, and so harshly treated as to have no 
 means of defence, nor even of giving the most simple 
 explanation ; for the only tidings of him the next day 
 was his name in the list of members of the General 
 Council executed for having taken part in the proceed- 
 ings of the niglit of the 9th and 10th Thermidor. 
 Doctor Janroy concealed this cruel mistake from my 
 wife. She was told that the young doctor had hastily 
 quitted Paris, for fear of being called in question for 
 some matters that had taken place earlier than 
 Thermidor. 
 
 This great day had borne fruit rapidly within the 
 prison. The Revolutionary Tribunal had a hohday. 
 The words justice and humanity began to come to light. 
 We all rejoiced in hope. All the commissaries of the Con- 
 vention who had come in relays to torment us for six 
 months past had perished ; even Citoyen Vassot, the inge- 
 nious founder of our common meal. However, the Reign 
 of Terror was still strugglmg for life among the Govern- 
 ment Committees and at the tribune of the Convention. 
 There it was loudly asserted that the Convention had 
 not brought about the events of the 9th Thermidor for 
 the benefit of its enemies, and that the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal was going to be re-established to make a fresh 
 
252 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 start. Municipal officers were named not much better 
 than tlie old ones. Those who fell to our lot were rather 
 worse — Trial, the actor of the Comic Opera, who had, 
 I do not know how, passed without hindrance through 
 the day that was so fatal to his friends. One day he 
 came to the prison at noon, and had us all shut up in 
 our rooms — a thing unheard of at that time of day ; then 
 he had them opened in succession, to display before the 
 prisoners an allocution of his muse applicable to the 
 circumstances. Among other beautiful things, he told 
 the councd-chamber that he knew that its inhabitants 
 were nothing but pure aristocrats, and thought about 
 nothing but good eating and drinking, but that we had 
 better take care they did not put an end to our eating. 
 While he delivered himself of these polite speeches and 
 many more such, everyone of us pretended to be busy 
 reading, or doing something else, so as not to seem to 
 hear him. He fell into a rage, and called us hardened 
 criminals. There was still the same silence. When 
 the orator had retired we looked at one another, not 
 knowing what to think or say. Dupont alone was not 
 disturbed. He said, " Our villains threaten ; therefore 
 they are afraid. You can easily see that the poor devil 
 has been prompted, I do not know where or by whom, 
 but certainly by people who are not too secure. Let us 
 hope ! Neque semper arcnm tendit Apollo." And, in 
 fact, a fortnight had not expired before, in the midst of 
 their hesitations, and even of their efforts to resume the 
 Reign of Terror, the Committees of Government were 
 borne away by a contrary current. Some orders of 
 release had already gone forth, and the first to be set at 
 liberty were some pure aristocrats. Great was the 
 offence among the constitutional prisoners. Poor La 
 Noraye even sent a flat protest to the Committees of 
 Government. I could not make him understand that 
 
DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING MY DISCHARGE. 253 
 
 names which, for whatever reason, had never come for- 
 ward in the Eevohition would naturally find favour more 
 readily in the eyes of the Convention than those of con- 
 stitutionals who had at any time been found in the ranks 
 of opposition to those now in power. However this 
 might be, the sensible men among the constitutionals 
 made up their minds to wait. Almost entirely delivered 
 from any fear for our lives, we spent our time pleasantly 
 and happily, notwithstanding Citoyen Trial's allocution. 
 Even Dupont could not recall us to economical science. 
 " See the danger of victory ! " he cried; " their senses are 
 at Capua." 
 
 Madame Lebau had told me that as soon as my wife's 
 health permitted I should see her as often as she liked ; 
 so I got through the first month without too much im- 
 patience. My wife paid her first visit to me in the 
 earlier days of Fructidor. I found her physical strength 
 destroyed, and her mental powers still quite weak. She 
 had lost her beautiful fair hair, was excessively thin, 
 and had a fixed glance that alarmed me. I saw she 
 had much difficulty in collecting her ideas, and con- 
 sidered it best not to talk to her on business ; besides, 
 I knew that her uncle was doing what he could for me. 
 There was more difficulty in obtaining my discharge 
 than that of any one else, because it was stated that 
 there were overwhelming charges against me in the 
 possession of the Committee of General Safety. One of 
 my friends, a deputy named Pierret, a man excellent in 
 every respect, undertook the task of going to ascertain 
 the fact. By means of some pretext unconnected with 
 me, he obtained the portfolio containing the papers 
 having reference to the deputies from the department of 
 the Aube, and managed to abstract that letter from me 
 to Lafayette which I have before had occasion to men- 
 tion, and which had somehow got there in consequence 
 
254 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 of the trial of a M. d'Aigremont, who had been con- 
 demned to death during the first days of the Revolu- 
 tionary Tribunal. When the letter was removed, my 
 bundle contained nothing but my denunciation by another 
 deputy named Garnier — -just like all the denunciations 
 of the period, but containing not a single precise state- 
 ment. When it had been made certain that there was 
 no other paper against me in the office, stronger sohci- 
 tations were made for my release ; but there still re- 
 mained among the members of the committee two of my 
 old colleagues in the Legislative Assembly who bore me 
 a grudge, and held out against me. Citoyen Gatrey, 
 tired of their resistance, in order to overcome it applied 
 to Legendre, the famous deputy for Paris, and repre- 
 sented me as an old acquaintance and countryman of 
 his fiiend Danton, unable on that account to obtain 
 justice from the committee. Legendre remembered that 
 he really had met me at dinner at Danton's, grew ex- 
 cited at this remembrance, and himself going to the 
 committee, ordered in very forcible terms the passing of 
 a decree that I should be set at liberty. No one durst 
 refuse. Legendre did more ; he came with Citoyen Gatrey 
 to La Force to fetch me, and blamed me for not having 
 thought of him sooner ; and he was the more proud of 
 his feat when he heard from Citoyenne Lebau of the 
 kind of interest Danton had displayed on my behalf 
 
 Thus I quitted the prison of La Force, with regret 
 at still leaving my friends Duquesnoy and Dupont de 
 Nemours there, but also in hopes of being fortunate 
 enough to expedite their deliverance. I think I have 
 before mentioned the singular coincidence that struck 
 me at my first step outside of the prison. I heard pro- 
 claimed the condemnation . to death of the miserable 
 assassin whose cell at the Conciergerie I had for some 
 time shared. I felt as if it were a warning from above. 
 
DEPUTIES OF TnEEMIDOE. 255 
 
 and I went to my wife's house mucla oA^ercome. The 
 rejoicing of all around me seemed to pass by me with- 
 out being shared by me. I was blamed ; but I would not 
 explain the shock that still stunned me, lest it should 
 seem superstitious. Next da}^ my wife's delight, and 
 the number of beloved dear objects all recovered at 
 once, restored me to ordinary life and the activity of mind 
 which I was soon able to use or even abuse. Just 
 gratitude had led me to Legendre's, where I found 
 myself among the party of Thermidorians — Tallien, 
 Merlin, De Thionville, Freron, Barras, &c. It was then 
 resolved, and rightly, that the fall of Robespierre had 
 not destroyed his party, and that the deputies of Ther- 
 midor must keep together as closely as ever, and must 
 call to their aid all the men of any worth whom they 
 had restored to liberty. They did me the honour of 
 mentioning me among the rest, and pressed me much 
 to stay at Paris. 
 
256 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Leg Annales Troyennes — M. Beugnot Prefect of La Seine Inferieure — Financial 
 Minister of Westphalia — Appointed President of the Council of Eegency 
 of the Grand Duchy of Berg — JH. de Talleyrand — Diisseldorf — Miinater — 
 Feudality — Le Colonat — Westphalia — LaMarck — Nassau-Siegen — Portrait 
 of Beumonvllle — Murat at Dtisseldorf — M. Agard — Le Due de Gaeta. 
 
 After the 9th Thermidor, M. Beugnot recovered his 
 liberty, and retired to Bar-sur-Aube to his friends, to 
 resume the functions of syndic advocate-general there, 
 that his fellow-citizens had conferred on him in 1790. 
 But he did not remain inactive in his retirement, and, 
 while he performed the duties intrusted to him, took a 
 considerable part in the editing of a paper called the 
 Annals of Troy es. This collection had been estabhshed 
 to sustain in the old province of Champagne those ideas 
 of order and moderate reaction that were allowed to 
 express themselves at last after the death of Robespierre. 
 M. Beugnot set himself especially in this journal to treat 
 of the questions of finance and foreign politics that then 
 took up public attention. In an article entitled "A Word 
 a,bout Italy " the author wrote as follows, dated 3rd Mes- 
 sidor, of the year V. These lines have still the merit of 
 being suitable. He said — 
 
 " Political reasons would counsel us to divide Italy into 
 several independent states, each of which should have 
 sufficient power to serve us, and among which there 
 should not be any powerful enough to injure us. The 
 project of making the Pope a mere bishop, and doing 
 
APPOINTED PREFECT OF ROUEN. 257 
 
 something with Rome, is not new. . . . We ought 
 to i-espect Italy on account of both rehgion and art. 
 
 " To destroy the throne of rehgion at Rome, and to 
 desolate the empire of the fine arts in Italy, is to put an 
 extinguisher on the human mind." 
 
 But the 18th Brumaire was the real date of M. 
 Beugnot's entrance into political life. Lucien Bona- 
 parte, who had known him during the latter times of the 
 revolution, summoned him to his side in quality of Secre- 
 tary-general to the Home Department, and employed him 
 in organizing the Prefectures. When this work was finally 
 settled, M. Beugnot was employed by the Minister to 
 carry up the proposed enactment for the First Consul's 
 signature. In this proposal every department was filled 
 up with the name of the person intended to occupy it. 
 The department of the Seine alone remained unoccupied. 
 This vacancy caught the eye of the First Consid, who said 
 to him — " AVell, and Paris ; do not you want it to 
 have a prefect?" "Pardon me, general, but the 
 Minister for Home Affairs gave me hopes that the First 
 
 Consul " "It is impossible: you are too late. I 
 
 have promised the prefecture of the Seine to Frochot, 
 who asked me for it before you did. Choose something 
 else." 
 
 And sometime afterwards M. Beugnot was appointed 
 to the Prefecture of Rouen. He remained there six 
 years, from the 3rd of March, 1800, to the 21st of 
 March, 180G. The remembrance of his administration 
 is not lost in the department of the Lower Seine. In 
 1816 the electors of Rouen chose their old prefet of the 
 Consulate to represent them at the Chamber of Deputies 
 of the Restoration. And twenty years later, in 1835, 
 the perpetual secretary of the Academy of Rouen, in- 
 forming his colleagues of his death, expressed himself 
 thus : — 
 
258 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 " M. Beugnot came among us on the 3rd of March, 
 1800 ; then we saw him substitutmg among us, without 
 reaction, without violence, and also without weakness, 
 for the weak or tyrannical rule of the Directorate, the 
 activity of the Consulate, and, later, the splendour of the 
 Empire. Moderator of every one, he was calm after all 
 the storms ; wise after so much firothy folly, his chief 
 care was to revive our manufactures and re-establish our 
 most cherished institutions. 
 
 " Our agriculture owes to him the scarlet trefoil that 
 he brought from Belgium, the Virginian poplar of such 
 rapid growth, the productive English barley, and the 
 importation of several Swiss bulls. 
 
 " Our manufactures ought to be grateful to him; for he 
 encouraged our handicrafts so well that we ceased to 
 draw from England the chief part of the woven fabrics 
 that we needed. 
 
 " As to commerce, he seconded the views of a repair- 
 ing government, and re-established our roads, which had 
 been neglected for fifteen years. Those in the en- 
 virons were annually repaired to the amount of fifteen 
 or twenty thousand pounds, and warehouses for foreign 
 merchandise were erected as well at Rouen as at Havre 
 and Dieppe. 
 
 " Always ready to hear the voice of Pouchet and other 
 manufacturers, friends of humanity, he took, in 1802, 
 measures worthy of praise from all philanthropists, by 
 estabhshing workshops for spinning and weaving in the 
 House of Detention of Rouen. The prisoners had to 
 learn to read, write, and cypher, and received lessons in 
 religious morahty. 
 
 " Public instruction owes to M. Beugnot the Cabinet of 
 Natural History formed near the Central School, which 
 is to our rich libraries what a first thought is to the dis- 
 course that unfolds it. 
 
MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE. 259 
 
 " Beloved by the learned societies of this town, he re- 
 estabhshed the Academy; and there for two continuous 
 years he was a member of the committee, and read some 
 excellent papers. 
 
 "I must not forget the benefit of vaccination which 
 through him we first enjoyed in France. 
 
 " It was by his administrative correspondence, an in- 
 stitution that did him honour, that he diffused all useful 
 ideas, and made known how plane-trees must be propa- 
 gated at once by slips, and those industrial exhibitions, 
 on the first attempt to establish which the Lower Seine 
 obtained two medals of gold. 
 
 " Charged with the difficult task of restraining the 
 various parties, it might be observed that he disdained 
 to employ either cunning or force. In 1804, a time of 
 uneasiness and activity of the police, he was lenient, and 
 yet the orders from Paris were violent. There is an 
 anecdote on this head I can vouch for. 
 
 "After the ai'rival of Pichegru and Georges, Napoleon 
 ordered M. Beugnot to seize suspected despatches at 
 Rouen. But the postmaster maintained that letters in- 
 trusted to his guardianship were a sacred deposit. How 
 did M. Beugnot act ? He embraced the postmaster, and 
 said, ' Yes, sir, I love and respect you. ' 
 
 " The faithfirl depositary did not lose his situation. M. 
 Beugnot well knew how to defend a noble cause in 
 his report. So, on the rock of St. Helena, Napoleon 
 said, ' Beugnot, when he was prefect, always told me the 
 truth.' " 
 
 In 1806 M. Beugnot left the Prefecture of the Lower 
 Seine to enter the Council of State. He took a consider- 
 able part in the labours of this illustrious assembly, and 
 especially distinguished himself in the discussion of the 
 decree that allowed a legal recognition of their worship to 
 the Jews, and permitted them, for the first time in France, 
 
 s 2 
 
260 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 to unite in general assembly under tlie name of San- 
 hedrin. 
 
 But the Emperor, who, during his long stay at the 
 camp at Boulogne, in the department of the Seine 
 Inf^rieure, had shown himself satisfied with M. 
 Beugnot's administration, did not leave him long at 
 the Council of State, and on the 12th of March, 
 1807, he appointed him, with Counsellors of State 
 Simeon and Jollivet, to organize the kingdom of West- 
 phalia, created in favour of his youngest brother, 
 Jerome Bonaparte. Appointed Finance Minister to 
 the King of Westphalia, M. Beugnot applied himself 
 to establishing in the new kingdom the methods of 
 order and accounts that were in existence in France. 
 But he was not slow to see that it was a difficult 
 task. 
 
 The Duke de Gaeta wrote to him, " Do not forget 
 that you are the Emperor's Minister in the states of 
 the King of Westphalia. His majesty lays great stress 
 on your not losing sight of this." 
 
 So placed between the exigencies of Napoleon, who 
 arrogated to himself rather unscrupulously the direction 
 of the finances of Westphalia, and the well-founded com- 
 plaints of King Jerome, M. Beugnot sohcited his sove- 
 reign's permission to return to France. 
 
 The King of Westphalia graciously granted his re- 
 quest, and expressed his regrets to him that he was 
 deprived of his services, and on his departure gave him 
 as a remembrance a valuable snuff-box adorned with his 
 portrait. 
 
 However, M. Beugnot did not remain long in France. 
 On the 19th of July, 1808, he was named imperial com- 
 missioner and President of the Council of Regency of 
 the Grand Duchy of Berg, which the Emperor intended 
 for the eldest son of the King of Holland. It is his stay in 
 
GEAND-DUCHY OF BEEG. 261 
 
 the grand ducliy that the author relates in the following 
 fragments : — 
 
 THE GEAND-DUCHT OF BERG. 
 1808—1813. 
 
 I was at Paris, expecting a new mission. The 
 Emperor, who had one half of the Continent beneath his 
 dominion, and was in thought devouring the rest, had 
 numerous agents to despatch to all parts. I expected to 
 be sent to Spain, where the Grand-duke of Berg, Murat, 
 was pursuing a course that was quite untenable. I had 
 gathered some words which kept up my hopes, and di- 
 rected them to that quarter. Meanwhile, the events that 
 summoned the Emperor to the Castle of Marac and to 
 Bayonne were taking place in the Peninsula. In fact, I 
 was to have been of the party ; but the Emperor judged, 
 with great reason, that the Archbishop of Malines 
 Avas much more suitable than myself for the kind of 
 negotiation that was to be set on foot there, and I re- 
 sumed my old place at the Council of State. I hardly 
 regretted having lost this opportunity. A new distribu- 
 tion of crowns took place at Bayonne. In consequence 
 of the strange confusion that prevailed there, the Em- 
 peror's eldest brother mounted the throne of Spain, and 
 left that of the Two Sicilies to the Grand-duke of Berg. 
 The Grand-duchy of Berg passed to the son of the King- 
 of Holland, to whom the Emperor bore an especial affec- 
 tion. I received from Bayonne an order to proceed 
 immediately to Diisseldorf, there to receive the Grand- 
 duchy from the hands of the Ministers of the former 
 possessor, and to assume the administration. I was 
 desired to take care that these Ministers did not commit 
 any sort of depredations, and to examine very closely the 
 condition in which they were going to leave the business 
 
262 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 to me. At that time, when orders were received, it was 
 scarcely to be called life till they were executed. I 
 decided to start the next day. I proceeded at once to 
 the Arch-Chancellor to take leave. The Trince received 
 me with his accustomed grace, and made vows for the 
 success of this novel mission, in which he wished me all 
 sorts of happiness, and he added, " My dear Beugnot, the 
 Emperor arranges crowns as he chooses : here is the 
 Grand-duke of Berg going to Naples. He is welcome : 
 I have no objection. But every year the Grand-duke 
 sent me a couple of dozen hams from his grand-duchy, 
 and I warn you I do not intend to lose them, so you must 
 make your preparations." 
 
 I assured his highness that I should feel much 
 honoured by taking on myself this office of the Grand- 
 duke of Berg, and that he should see how exact I should 
 be. I never once omitted to acquit myself of the obliga- 
 tion as long as I managed the grand-duchy, and if 
 there were any delay on the part of those whom I em- 
 ployed, his highness caused one of his secretaries to 
 write a good scolding to my house-steward. But when 
 the hams arrived exactly, his highness never failed to 
 wTite to my wife himself to thank her for her present.* 
 That was not all: the hams were to come carriage 
 free ! I was obliged to have them all collected at 
 Cologne, whence they were entrusted to the mail- 
 couriers in succession, who could not carry more than 
 two at a time. 
 
 This petty jobbery occasioned discontent that I had 
 
 " To the Countess Beugnot. — " I mil not defer the thanks, Countess, that I 
 owe you for sending me the Westphalia hams that you announce to me in 
 your letter of the 2] st of this month. I am infinitely sensible of this proof of 
 your attention, and beg you to believe that I feel it very much. Receive, my 
 dear Countess, the sincere assurance of my attachment. 
 
 " The Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, 
 
 " Cajubac^ees." 
 
DUSSELDOEF. 263 
 
 to repair, and it would not liave cost me more to pay 
 tlie carriage. The Prince would not allow it. There 
 was an agreement between him and Lavalette for the 
 couriers to bring gratis from all points of the empire 
 tributes to be laid on his table ; and my lord appeared to 
 lay as much stress on the performance of this treaty as 
 on the procuring of the hams. 
 
 I called on M. Talleyrand the same evening. There 
 was not the slightest allusion to the delicacies of the 
 table. The Prince was informed of all that had passed 
 at Bayonne, and seemed indignant at it. He said, 
 " Victories are not enough to efface such actions, because 
 there is something mean, deceitful, and tricky about them. 
 I cannot say what will happen, but you will see that no 
 one will eA'cr forgive him this." 
 
 Duke Decrcs has more than once told me that the 
 Emperor had in his presence reproached M. de Talley- 
 rand svith having advised him to do all that took place at 
 Bayonne, and that he made no attempt to defend himself 
 It always surprised me. Besides, a slight knowledge of 
 M. Talleyrand was sufficient to be very sure that, even if 
 he had secretly been of the opinion that the princes of 
 the House of Bourbon ought to be dispossessed of the 
 throne of Spain, he certainly did not point out the means 
 that were employed. Afterwards, when he spoke to me, 
 it was with a kind of passion, such as he never evinced 
 except when events had greatly moved him. Otherwise, 
 he considered my mission an excellent one, but recom- 
 mended me to manage better than I had done at Cassel, 
 and to strive to make myself independent. I felt the 
 meaning of the reproach, and, while doing justice to the 
 feeling that had dictated it, I promised myself to continue 
 to deserve it. 
 
 I came to Diisseldorf It is a pretty town, situated in 
 a picturesque position at the junction of the Dtissel with 
 
264 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 the Ehlne. Tlie river washes its walls to tlie west, and 
 serves as a defence. On the other side, the country 
 comes close np to the town ; the streets are tidy, and at 
 convenient distances ; the houses are not wanting in 
 elegance. It is not easy to find a spot that lends itself 
 more readily to embellishment. I found much pleasure 
 in attending to it. Since my departure, the works I 
 had not time to begin have been completed ; and it is 
 said, by general consent, to be now one of the most 
 smiling cities of Germany. Diisseldorf was then the 
 capital of the Grand-duchy of Berg, Avhich had been 
 just constructed out of the Duchy of Berg, properly so 
 called, which had been ceded by Bavaria, the county 
 of La Mark and country of Miinster, detached from 
 Prussia by the treaty of Tilsitt, and the Duchy of Nas- 
 sau-Siegen obtained by exchange from the House of 
 Nassau. 
 
 The population consisted of a million of souls, com- 
 prising two hundred thousand households, and scattered 
 over an extent of eight hundred and forty-six leagues. I 
 saw that this population was not wanting in industry. 
 When I had verified the ]3roportion between the employed 
 and unemployed, the husbandmen and artisans, the great 
 classes of workmen between themselves, and all with the 
 officials, I found that industry had advanced in certain 
 parts to a degree of perfection and activity I could never 
 have supposed. Agriculture had not proceeded at a 
 similar pace. The country contained a large proportion 
 of open plains, heaths, and marshes ; and I saw that I 
 must begin with an attack on them. 
 
 Manners were, in general, of the mild and pompous 
 character usual among all the Germans ; but each di- 
 vision presented a pecuhar shade, partly derived from the 
 difference of religion and government, and partly from 
 its geographical position. The country of Miinster, for 
 
MtJNSTEE. 265 
 
 instance, savoured of tlie old ecclesiastical power that had 
 at first held the authority, cemented and riveted after- 
 v\rards by the feudal system. The town, as is shown by 
 its very name, began in the eleventh century around a 
 monastery, and thus contained a great number of fra- 
 ternities of men and women within its bounds, and the 
 bishop was the sovereign. AVhen the population collected 
 round the monastery, it received feudal laws in all their 
 integrity, and these laws were still in force when France 
 took possession of the country in virtue of the treaty of 
 Tilsitt. The town of Miinster only contained a very 
 limited number of merchants, who furnished the most neces- 
 sary articles of consumption. The rest w^as occupied by 
 spacious mansions, where the gentlemen of the neighbour- 
 hood passed a portion of the year. Their luxury re- 
 minded one of that of France in the seventeenth century ; 
 for that age had attracted the imitation of all Germany, 
 and the traces of it are still to be found in the most 
 retired countries of this vast territory. The mansions at 
 Miinster are generally more extensive than commodious ; 
 the servants were numerous, and the old etiquettes were 
 scrupulously observed ; the furniture and plate rich, 
 though heavy. I had observed in the coach-houses a 
 sort of wooden horse, or rather rack, on which it would 
 be very difficult to keep one's balance ; and I asked for 
 what sort of game this instrument could be employed. 
 The answer I got was that it was not intended for a 
 game, but to punish a servant, by putting him on it for 
 some hours for any failure in his duty. There were still 
 severe punishments in case of necessity ; but this was 
 the most common, and was inflicted by the masters, like 
 all the others, without any notion of appeal or objection 
 on the part of the servants. 
 
 One bank of the Rhine was at this time a long way off 
 from the other. These masters, who ruled over their 
 
2G6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 servants like the villains or serfs, behaved to them other- 
 wise like fathers. They hastened to their aid when there 
 was any misfortune to remedy ; they took care of them in 
 sickness, and sheltered their old age. A large number of 
 children was a matter of pride to the retainer, and of joy 
 to the proprietor. All these good things had taken such 
 firm root in their manners, that they went on unnoticed. 
 I have often, when encountering such facts, traced out 
 the principle whence they were derived, and ceased to 
 wonder that the feudal system lasted so long. Besides, 
 the population — bound down, it is true, to the cultivation 
 of the land, but allowed a certain profit as payment for 
 its work — was, at least, protected from the dangers of 
 poverty, and of illness and old age ; so, I would ask, was 
 it more to be pitied than that cloud of men whom we see 
 likewise crowded and enchained by want to the manufac- 
 turing workshops that feed or make victims of them with 
 equal indifference, and frequently, having used up their 
 powers in trades often fatal to life, only offer them the 
 prospect of the hospital in sickness, and mendicancy when 
 unable to work ? Unhappy are they who never find a 
 protector to help them, or a friend to console them, amid 
 these troubles of Hfe. Certainly I do not share the 
 Gothic infatuation of the Count de Boulainvilliers, but it 
 is possible that the question may still be undecided 
 whether the manufacturing system is more favourable 
 than the old feudal system to the men of toil and labour 
 — that is to say, to infinitely the greatest number. Go- 
 vernments now rush along the road to manufactures, as 
 if it were the only road to salvation ; the splendour of 
 Great Britain captivates and seduces them ; but penetrate 
 through this splendour and fascination, and what do you 
 find ? A small number of large owners, of very rich 
 ca})italists, of gigantic manufactories, plunged into the 
 middle of a population miserable in everv resriprt nnrl 
 
THE COLONAT. 267 
 
 "wliich will end by finding out tlieir numbers. The 
 country of ^Miinstor, of wliich I am speaking, still belongs 
 to a different system. 
 
 The jieasants there are generally religious, sober, 
 hard-working, and all-attentive to the culture of the lands 
 they possess under the title of colonat. This colonat 
 resembles to some extent the serfage that still existed in 
 some parts of France before the Eevolution. The lord, 
 who apparently was originally owner of the whole of a 
 domain, had distributed it out to colonists on a perpetual 
 lease of various covenants, larger or smaUer, in proportion 
 to the fertility of the land and the number of colonists of 
 whom the community was first formed. In most of the 
 colonats the lord received half the produce of all kinds, 
 including that of cattle ; and on the death of the holder 
 of the colonat he became his heir for a certain portion of 
 the property. He had not altogether the power of retain- 
 ing on the soil a colonist who wished to c|uit it ; but the 
 latter lost all his rights in the colonat, and it became free, 
 and devolved to the seigneur. The detail of the provi- 
 sions for division among children, for assistance in 
 case of fire or losses of other kind, for widows, and for 
 old men, were conceived in a spirit of wisdom and 
 humanity. 
 
 This sort of establishment encouraged labour, and at 
 the same time provided complete security for the la- 
 bourers, and thence arose the spirit of peace that reigned 
 among them. These men, continually occupied at work 
 in the fields, always beneath the vault of llea^'cn, awaiting 
 the dew to make their labours bear fruit, are very reli- 
 gious. The Holy Scripture furnishes them with all they 
 want in the way of light, consolation, and hope ; and they 
 want none from elsewhere. It has often been said that 
 they slept under the same roof and without separation 
 from the cattle ; and that is true in a certain degree. 
 
268 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 But this old German custom is not so disgusting as our 
 delicacy would suppose. The arrangement of the ground 
 floor of a farm in Westphalia is more convenient and 
 often cleaner than the kind of stable where most of the 
 farmers of France are pent up apart from their flocks and 
 herds. The Westphalian farm is a repetition of the 
 patriarch's tent ; for men in the early days of the world, 
 apparently from recollection of the joys of Eden, lived in 
 familiarity with the animals, which preserved something 
 of their original tameness. Voltaire has liberally poured 
 forth his derision on poor AVestphalia, its castles, its 
 inhabitants, and there is not a Frenchman who sets 
 his foot in it without remembering his Thunder-ten- 
 tronke. I was quite ready to laugh at his class : the 
 difficulty was in finding them. I have met, among the 
 nobles of the country, men wanting neither in learning 
 nor in dignity, and nearly all marked by an inexhaustible 
 charity. In the country, I have seen the men gentle and 
 hospitable, the women chaste and industrious, and the 
 children obedient. There certainly, according to the fine 
 expression of Tacitus, corrumpere et corrumpi non scecu- 
 lum voeatur. When I visited this ancient country with 
 my Germania in my hand, I recognised the truth of the 
 sketches of the great painter, and I no longer suspect 
 his pictures of being imaginary. 
 
 The county of La March, close by, presented a perfectly 
 different scene. This little province had been detached 
 from the kingdom of Prussia by the treaty of Tilsitt. 
 The land is generally mountainous, and that portion of it 
 which is level is not very fertile ; but the county of La 
 March preserved traces of the long and careful adminis- 
 tration of Frederick the Great in full activity, and I can- 
 not imagine that it could be made better than I found 
 it. Not a stream but had been made use of, not a 
 useful communication but had been opened, nor a com- 
 
THE PRUSSIANS. 269 
 
 mercial correspondence presenting any advantage but 
 was established. So this country was covered with very 
 active workshops, where ingenious processes, still un- 
 known in France, were largely employed. Frederick 
 had put in charge of the manufacturing interest of La 
 Marck M. Eversmann, one of the most capable men I ever 
 met. He always travelled to Sans Souci every year 
 during the life of Frederick the Great. The King had 
 speedily recognised his worth, and liked to hear him on 
 matters of political economy ; but, faithful to his system 
 of not removing a man from a post where he was doing 
 well in order to put him into another where it was sup- 
 posed that he would do better, Frederick always sent 
 M. Eversmann back to his county of La Marck. I repeat, 
 this country was then the most advanced in the grand- 
 duchy, and perhaps in Germany ; but the inhabitants 
 were not men of the Grand-duchjr of Berg, nor even 
 Germans, — they were Prussians ; and it will be found, by 
 close observation, that great is the difference between 
 these latter and the rest. The Prussians have in com- 
 mon with the Germans their language, courage, inclina- 
 tion to be iUuminati ; but in the school of Frederick they 
 have become unscrupulous, bold, and especially irreli- 
 gious ; their master taught them that success was every- 
 thing, and that the means were nothing. The glories of 
 a long reign, the reputation of the name of Frederick, 
 who was the one warrior of the eighteenth century, as 
 well as one of its cleverest men, when cleverness was a 
 power, had given the Prussians an exaggerated notion of 
 themselves, and also a love of their country amounting 
 to idolatry. They retained that love when I was ad- 
 ministrator of their provinces, that is to say, at the 
 very time when Prussia was cut into fragments, which 
 Napoleon was distributing to the right and left; and 
 yet, when I took possession of the county of La Marck, 
 
270 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 I saw that all was not over with men who did not allow 
 that they were conquered, and dreamed of vengeance 
 even while their enemy had them under foot and was 
 ready to give the finishiag stroke. 
 
 The country of Nassau-Siegen composed the third por- 
 tion of the grand-duchy. This was the ancient patri- 
 mony of the House of Nassau, fertile in warriors and 
 statesmen of the foremost rank, and it has on this account 
 long played a great part in the empire, and afterwards 
 presided with wisdom over the destinies of Holland. 
 This little country is one of the most picturesque in 
 Germany. The inhabitants are hard-working, educated, 
 livelier than usual in such a climate, and well-disposed 
 to everything good that can be required of them. When 
 I went to visit this country for the first time, I asked to 
 be taken to the old oak under which Maurice was sit- 
 ting when a deputation of the Gueiix of Hohand came to 
 ask him to put himself at their head, and assist them to 
 defend their liberty. My respect for a tradition dear to 
 the country was successful. I was accompanied by a 
 numerous cortege in my political pilgrimage. I reahy 
 did see an enormous oak, such as I had never seen 
 before. A bench, kept in good order, and, besides, thick 
 enough to have lasted out the time, is fixed at the foot of 
 the tree, and surrounds it. Here, they told me, was the 
 place where Maurice was wont to come and rest, and 
 where he really received the first Dutch deputation. 
 Some doubts might well occur to my mind, not of the 
 fact itself, but of the identity of the bench and oak-tree. 
 I was surprised that they had remained so long ; but so 
 many men of respectable appearance attested it with 
 such good faith, they added so many histories more or 
 less marvellous, but all to the honour of the princes of 
 the House of Nassau, that I thought the best thing I 
 could do was to beheve it all in a lump. What is the 
 
DUCHY OF NASSAU. 271 
 
 use of attacking by reasoning those old stories repeated 
 with such perfect good faith, and listened to with so 
 much pleasure in the country ? All of them celebrate fine 
 acts of virtue or marvels prompted by religion ; they 
 celebrate them in the very places supposed to have wit- 
 nessed them, and thence arises a charm superior to all 
 the researches of art, and perhaps to truth. I know 
 nothing that more affected me as a child than the song 
 of Genoveva of Brabant, and even to this day I cannot 
 hear it without emotion. 
 
 As I am permitting myself a digression while giving a 
 description of the countries that made up the Grand- 
 duchy of Berg, I should like to relate the curious nego- 
 tiation which was employed to obtain from Prince William 
 the cession of his Duchy of Nassau. This country was 
 indispensable to the boundaries of the new state which the 
 Emperor was resolved to form under the title of the Grand- 
 duchy of Berg, and besides it could not remain in the 
 air, so to speak, between France, possessing all the left 
 bank of the Rhine, and the States that were just orga- 
 nized on the right bank. The Emperor took the course 
 of treating with Prince WiUiam for the exchange of his 
 principality for one as extensive and more productive in 
 the interior of Germany. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand was Minister of Foreign Affairs. The 
 Prince was then at Paris, where he had some acquaint- 
 ance with General Beurnonville. M. de Talleyrand cast 
 his eyes on the latter to manage the exchange. He knew 
 that the general had that swaggering exterior, together 
 with something decisive about him, which he thought just 
 the thing to overcome the obstinacy of Prince William, 
 which had passed into a proverb. The proposal to 
 exchange had been reduced to writing beforehand ; and 
 the Minister, giving it to General Beurnonville, advised 
 him to make use of all the dexterity at his command to 
 
272 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 obtain tlie consent of the Prince, but to do notliing 
 hastily, and to engage in it very gently, and with mode- 
 ration. The Minister added, " It certainly is a cruel 
 extremity for the chief of the House of Nassau to give up 
 an hereditary state that has so many glorious remem- 
 brances attached to it. His feelings may be very strong 
 on this point without any extravagance. We must proceed 
 cautiously, and, I repeat, take time on our side." Beur- 
 nonville praised the delicate precautions of the Minister 
 over and over again, and took charge of the papers 
 containing his mission. Next morning M. Talleyrand 
 found the general at his levee. " Well, have you 
 seen Prince Wilham already ? No doubt you are come 
 to tell me that you have had a sharp reception. We 
 expected that. But the beginning is not much in such an 
 affair : patience, and we shall succeed." " Not at all," 
 said Beurnonville; " all is complete. Here are the dupli- 
 cates of the treaty signed by the Prince." M. de Tal- 
 leyrand : " But by what miracle, and how, did you seize 
 your opportunity?" The General: "Jia/oz'.' I care- 
 fully turned the recommendations you gave me yesterday 
 over in my mind. When I left you, I went straight to 
 the Prince, and found him alone. It was the very moment 
 to talk business to him, so I said to him, ' Prince, you 
 know, or you do not know, that the Emperor wants your 
 Duchy of Siegen. He offers you in exchange a princi- 
 pality in the interior of Germany, with a numerous popu- 
 lation and more valuable productions : here is the treaty 
 in readiness. I know very weU that you have several 
 good reasons for refusing this arrangement ; but (with an 
 oath) you are not the strongest. So beheve me, and 
 take the pill as best you may.' " " And the Prince took 
 the pill ? " inquired M. Talleyrand, coolly. " Yes, without 
 making faces," said Beurnonville; "and, indeed, I did 
 not expect to get it done so soon." 
 
DUCHY OF BERG. 273 
 
 Some time afterwards the militarj^ negotiator had his 
 picture painted in all the splendour then indispensable, in 
 the complete costume of a general, his left hand leaning 
 on a great sabre, in the distance a hussar holding two 
 horses by the bridle. So far there was nothing in this 
 portrait but what was sure to be in that of any other 
 general, — such was the portrait-painting of the day ; but, 
 in order at the same time to indicate the negotiator, the 
 painter had placed in the right hand of his figure a roll 
 of papers three parts unfolded, with the word "Treaty" 
 at the head, while the rest of the page remained in blank. 
 This roll Beurnonville was presenting with a decided and 
 menacing deportment, seeming to those who knew the 
 details as if he were repeating the words that were the 
 keystone of his negotiation with Prhice AVilliam. M. de 
 TaUeyrand one day said to me, " Beugnot, have you seen 
 the portrait of Beurnonville, by Pmbert Lefebvre? "Yes;" 
 I think it is like, and rather well painted." "That was not 
 what I meant ; but something is wanting. Wli}' did he not 
 inscribe on the blank page, in the General's hand, ' Prince, 
 take the pill "? Then it would be complete ; the expres- 
 sion of the head, the motion of the lips, would be ex- 
 plained, and the portrait become historical. You are 
 intimate with Beurnonville. Tell him not to leave the 
 work unfinished ; he owes it both to us and to himself" 
 
 This has been a tolerably long digression from the 
 grand-duchy of Berg, and it is scarcely excused by its 
 being d propos to a notable portion of that state. I return 
 to my subject. I have already rapidly described the 
 Bishopric of Minister, the county of La IMarck, and the 
 territory of Nassau : I conclude with the portion that 
 ought to have been first attended to, being the most con- 
 siderable, and giving its name to the rest, — the Duchy 
 of Berg properly so caUed. 
 
 This province was long an appanage of the Palatine 
 
274 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 house, and then passed to that of Bavaria. The city of 
 Diisseldorf is the capital, which is very happily situated 
 on the Rhine, well built, and showing evidently, both by 
 its buildings and the manners of the inhabitants, that it 
 has been the seat of a polished court, friendly to the fine 
 arts. A Medici was the wife of the Prince Palatine who 
 had to pay so dear for being in the way of Louis XIV. 
 She brought in her train to the depths of Germany the 
 fine arts, those ancient and noble guests of her family. 
 Diisseldorf thus obtained one of the most beautiful gal- 
 leries of pictures in Europe, public places, some tolerable 
 public buildings, and at Bensburg, not far from the city, a 
 mansion in the Italian taste, of which any country in 
 Europe might be proud. The princes who succeeded 
 Charles Louis held themselves bound to maintain the 
 impulse he had given. Under such a government the 
 inhabitants of the Duchy of Berg contracted gentle and 
 polished manners, and tastes rather for office than for in- 
 dependence. This, however, is only true of Diisseldorf 
 and its immediate circle. Turning eastward, the valleys 
 of Barmen and Eberfeld, and the cantons of Eonstorf, of 
 Ptomscheit, or Solingen, present a triumph of human in- 
 dustry that it Avould be vain to expect in any other 
 country of Europe, not excepting England. 
 
 Few states of the second or third order offered so many 
 advantages as the grand-duchy in the hands of a prince 
 allied with France — a fine position on the Rhine, a popu- 
 lation divided between agriculture and manufactures; 
 the first deserving some encouragement, which was easy 
 to obtain ; the latter come to a pitch at which there was 
 nothing more to do than to let it have its swing and 
 admire it. The inhabitants had education, a natural 
 gentleness, taste for improvement, and Avere ready to 
 give their love to the French, if only they were treated 
 Avith some sort of iustice. Assuredlv a principality thus 
 
rrJNCE MURAT. 275 
 
 composed miglit satisfy a tolerable amount of ambition ; 
 but it was far from satisfying that of Marshal Murat, and 
 Lis consort even felt almost liimiiliated by it. They had 
 accepted it while awaiting something better. 
 
 Murat had made two journeys to Diisseldorf, in the 
 course of which he had displayed his natural love of 
 splendour to a ridiculous extent. The inhabitants had 
 been dazzled, but secretly flattered. The state of the new 
 Grand-duke very far surpassed in magnificence that of the 
 ancient sovereigns, and Diisseldorf thought it had gained 
 by the change. Besides, to do Mm^at justice, when once 
 his princely or knightly pantomimes were over, he showed 
 himself to be an intellifrent and well-intentioned man. 
 His military glory served him for a pedestal. When the 
 bulletins of the Prussian campaign spoke unceasingly of 
 the Grand-duke of Berg and his prowess, his new subjects 
 were quite elated ; the newspapers were read in public 
 places, and there were serions fears for the safety of the 
 intrepid prince. Oh, how little would it have cost to gain 
 the attachment of the Germans, who cannot resist the 
 fascination of military glory, in whose eyes the oath of 
 fidelity is not an empty phrase, and who felt a sort of 
 old inclination for France, of which we so cruelly cured 
 them ! 
 
 Marshal Murat had no sooner been raised to the rank 
 of Prince than he took a fancy to be exactly like any 
 other, and a match for any of them — even the Emperor. 
 The Duchy of Berg, as it was when he received it, included 
 the tomi of Wesel, a strong town on the Rhine, and of 
 great importance to the defence of the river, as the Em- 
 peror had already perceived. The Emperor required that 
 the grand-duchy should yield him this town in exchange 
 for the Duchy of Nassau and the Principality of Dissem- 
 bourg. The Grand-duke hesitated long. Such a place 
 in his dominions enhanced his importance, and, exag- 
 
276 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 gerating the value to France of this acquisition, he 
 demanded an enormous recompense. I beUeve the 
 negotiators of this grand affair had to be very careful in 
 mentioning to the Emperor the difficulties in which liis 
 brother-in-law delighted. Yet the delay could not be 
 concealed, and the Emperor, wearied out, uttered his 
 ultimatum. Marshal Murat became furious, and loudly 
 declared that there was now only one course left for him 
 — to throw himself into the town of Wesel with his army 
 and defend it. He should see whether the Emperor 
 would have the face to come and besiege him before the 
 eyes of Europe ; and as for himself, he could hold out to 
 the last extremity. These words were all smoke, and 
 ended in a fine treaty of exchange, the duplicate of which 
 remained among my papers, at first from the difficulty of 
 knowing to whom to restore it, and afterwards because it 
 is a curious relic of the time, from the splendour of its 
 lettering, of its binding, and getting up. This ridiculous 
 little struggle of the Grand-duke may have contributed 
 somewhat to his discomfiture in the affairs of this 
 country. 
 
 The Grand-duke of Berg certainly had hopes of the 
 crown of Spain when he was in command at Madrid in 
 1808. He even persuaded himself that he had a promise 
 from the Emperor. It was to hasten the event that he 
 had stirred up a fermentation in the midst of the capital, 
 and afterwards repressed it, but with such strange cir- 
 cumstances that some motives for his conduct different 
 from those he put forward must be sought for. It is not 
 likely that the Emperor positively promised the crown of 
 Spain to Marshal Murat ; he must have given him some 
 equivocal words of encouragement, which the latter ex- 
 plained in his own way by the magic of his ambition. 
 His wife may have contributed to lead him astray, for this 
 sister of the Emi^pT^r thou.o-ht herself out of place anv- 
 
M. AGAED. 27 7 
 
 wliere but on the throne ; and it must be allowed that 
 the force of her character and the loftmess of her mind 
 seemed to have prepared her for one. The husband and 
 wife were baffled in their views on Spain. Possibly the 
 petty strife raised up by the Marshal for the town of 
 Wesel caused the Emperor to lay aside the idea of in- 
 trusting to him a position of so much importance as Spain 
 and the Indies. So he had to resign himself to the throne 
 of the Two Sicilies, which he received ungraciously enough. 
 This is worth noting for the instruction of posterity. 
 
 Then was the time when I arrived at Diisseldorf to 
 take possession of the grand-duchy for the Emperor. I 
 received it from the hands of M. Agard, who had ad- 
 ministered it on behalf of the last sovereign. This M. 
 Agard is a man of perpetual cares, always on guard 
 against himself as well as others ; for the rest, cultivated 
 literature, and yet was a good man of business. He had 
 begun with some small oftice in the branch of public 
 education, and then had attached himself to the fortunes 
 of Murat, his countryman and friend from childhood. 
 He had grown with them ; and as there is no predicting 
 how far the appetite may reach when once excited, his 
 ambition had gone so far as to pretend to the hand of a 
 cousin-german of the Prince — a little empty thing, who 
 was only wanting in sense, figure, and health. At first 
 the Prince thought this a great liberty on the part of his 
 ex-comrade Agard, but finally allowed himself to be per- 
 suaded, and even ended by giving, by way of dowry, 
 the commandery of Mosbourg, and ujaking it a county. 
 It was very doubtful whether the Prince had a right to 
 make this donation at the time that he did so ; but right 
 was not looked after much more closely by givers than by 
 receivers. And in this affair, by a curious inconsistency, 
 the Prince, while making a count of M. Agard, imposed 
 on him, before a notary, the condition never to avad him- 
 
278 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 self of any title, or even to speak of his relationship to 
 himself 
 
 I had been advised to be sharp with M. Agard, and I 
 was, perhaps, excessively so. His temper unhinged me. 
 I was disgusted with his discretion, or, if you prefer it, 
 dissimulation, which he carried so far as to try to conceal 
 that he was an honest man. The Grand-duke, who had 
 dreamed of the throne of Spain six months before he was 
 sent elsewhere, had sold as much of the domains of the 
 grand-duchy as he could, and more than he ought. He 
 had anticipated the revenue falling due, and squeezed the 
 orange that was slipping from his hand to the best of his 
 ability. I brought out these facts : I looked into all their 
 details, and I discovered that M. Agard had dealt largely 
 on behalf of his master, but always with fidelity. Grant- 
 ing the right of sale, there was no blame to anyone. 
 
 While examining some portions of the correspondence 
 ■of M. Agard with the Grand-duke, I saw that the latter 
 sometimes introduced literary quotations. I mentioned 
 my surprise to M. Agard, for I did not suppose General 
 Murat to be much in advance of the rest on those subjects. 
 M. Agard undeceived me by showing some portions of the 
 "iEneid," translated into verse by the Grand-duke, and 
 giving me unequivocal proofs of their paternity. I have 
 since found means to convince myself that General Murat 
 was a fair scholar, and had not forgotten his studies in 
 spite of his prodigious military activity. It appeared that 
 he had been bred by his family for the clerical profession, 
 and that he owed to the Revolution the change to another, 
 where he made a better display of the brilliant qualities 
 with which nature had so generously endowed him. 
 
 The differences between M. Agard and myself were 
 referred to the supreme arbiter, and M. Agard quitted 
 the grand-duchy to take the place of Finance Minister at 
 Naples. The Em peror did not consider that my zeal in 
 
PICTURE OF THE BATTLE OF ABOUKIE. 279 
 
 this matter had been exactly in accordance with rnle, and 
 passed a very sharp judgment on my conduct, which lie 
 charged his Minister to transmit to me. This was happily 
 the Finance Minister, and he so much softened its stinsr 
 that I hardly felt it. I had not sufficientl}^ considered 
 that, in treating M. Agard harshly, I should find the King 
 of Naples at his back, which was something, and behind 
 the King, or, rather, before him, the Queen, and that was 
 much. The royal pair were about the Emperor, and had 
 too many advantages over me, and, Avhere I then was, I 
 could not parry the blows, or even guess them. 
 
 Among the objects of strife between ]\I. Agard and 
 myself, I found the picture of the Battle of Aboukir, which 
 the Grand-duke had caused to be brought to Dllsseldorf. 
 He had ordered the picture from Gros, and paid for it ; 
 so it was his property. The Emperor ordered me to 
 make him a special report on this head, in which I was 
 to detail my reasons for retaining this picture at Diissel- 
 dorf I set forth that in reality I had considered this 
 picture as evidence of one of the greatest achievements 
 of the French in Egypt ; and that was the reason it had 
 received from the public the name of the Battle of 
 Aboukir ; that it had been exhibited at the Louvre as 
 such, admired by Frenchmen and foreigners, and I could 
 not suppose that such a picture could belong to any 
 but the Emperor, as it is an indispensable portion 
 of the series of monuments that will attest to posterity 
 those prodigies of valour that the very witnesses can 
 hardly believe. Only it might be considered just to 
 indemnify the Grand-duke for what the picture had 
 cost him. These reasons were not good for much ; 
 and having reconsidered this matter, without allowing 
 myself to be prejudiced by the opinions formed of 
 the picture, or by the name given to it, I had dis- 
 covered that the painting, though most valuable as a 
 
280 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 work of art, did not in real truth represent tlie Battle of 
 Abonkir; at the utmost, only one incident of that day 
 could be found in it, arranged, as was most natural, in 
 accordance with the taste of the person who had ordered 
 the picture. General Murat, splendidly mounted and 
 equipped, was in the foreground, and attracted all the 
 notice by his action with the group of the Pacha and his 
 son. The Battle of Abonkir was so confusedly drawn in 
 the middle distance that some effort was required to 
 make out which side was victorious. Therefore this 
 picture is not historical ; it is only a family portrait 
 that should take its place among the possessions of the 
 Grand-duke, like any other. I could not have pleaded 
 better if I had been desirous to obtain the restitution 
 of the picture. Contrary to custom, the report was 
 returned to me, with the decision in the Emperor's own 
 hand on the nrargin ; it was, " TJie restoration approved 
 as a family portrcdtr And I heard that the Emperor 
 spoke of Gros' picture in those terms when he had to 
 mention it. 
 
 At first my correspondence with the Emperor was 
 placed in the department of the Minister of Finances (the 
 Duke de Gaeta), and I could not have fallen into better 
 hands. The Duke de Gaeta was one of the best men 
 who ever obtained the Emperor's confidence. Even 
 before the Revolution he had made some advance in the 
 civil service — the only career then open to him. He 
 was first clerk under M. de Vergennes, the director- 
 general of taxes, and there displayed the qualities that he 
 has never lost. Endued with an upright rather than 
 broad intellect, exact, hard-working, careful in every- 
 thing, in his business as well as his dress, a constant 
 frequenter of the opera, scrupulous in performing his 
 duties to society, unchangeable in his habits, full of 
 reverence for power, a little reluctant to accept novelties, 
 
M. GAUDIN. 281 
 
 Tinder the old system lie would have presented a perfect 
 model of tliose senior clerks who neither were born nor 
 died, because from generation to generation they were 
 always precisely the same. M. Gaudin — for so he was 
 then called — had passed through the Revolution without 
 much molestation, offering his knowledge of business to 
 whoever wanted it ; working under the financier Canibon 
 and the minister Eaniel no otherwise than he would 
 have done under M. de Fleury or j\I. de Calonne — a 
 financial tool, and nothing more. However, M. Gaudin's 
 reputation gradually increased with the restoration of 
 sociitl peace, and he had climbed so high as to have the 
 direction of the Post Office entrusted to him by the 
 Directory ; and there the revolution of Brumaire found 
 him. 
 
 AAlien Bonaparte came into power, he was possessed 
 with the idea that the Directory had understood nothing 
 of finance, and had committed faults without number in 
 it ; and he endeavoured therefore at first to gather around 
 him men who had known the old system, and were able 
 to reproduce whatever in it might be good and still prac- 
 ticable. Consul Lebrun mentioned M. Gaudin, with 
 whom he had formerly been connected ; he said much in 
 his favour, and no one spoke ill of him. Bonaparte ap- 
 pointed him Finance Minister. He showed himself just 
 the man to serve under such a master. Bringing with 
 him some good old notions, he put them forth without 
 pretension, and abandoned them without resistance ; 
 besides introducing order everywhere, and cleansing the 
 stables of Augeas from morning to night without giving 
 himself out for a Hercules. To him are due the recovery 
 of discipline in the administration of finance, the proper 
 estabhshment of the public receipts, and laudable efforts 
 to attain that noble object, a just distribution of taxation. 
 The only blame that can be imputed to him on this head 
 
282 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 is that lie yielded to the suggestions of his friend Hennet 
 on the subject of the register of the survey of lands, and 
 caused an expense of hundreds of thousands to France 
 for work, still incomplete, which would be difficult to bring 
 to a conclusion, nor ever will be finished, so long as sub- 
 ordinate parts of it must continually be done over again 
 to repair the breaches made in it by time. The Emperor 
 had created him Duke, and never let slip an occasion of 
 testifying his high opinion of him. The new duke used 
 his favour without abusing it ; and this is worth remark- 
 ing, for his favourite foible would have led many into 
 temptation. On the return of the Bourbons, the Duke 
 de Gaeta, seemed quite ready for this new world — rather 
 this old one. He had preserved everything, even to the 
 dress. He alone had brought down French full dress 
 through the Revolution — the pigeon-breasted coat, long 
 sleeves, and curls a la cTArtois. He even had made no 
 change in the two watch-chains and jingling bunch of 
 seals. He might have served for master of the ceremo- 
 nies to those members of the new court who appeared 
 with the forgotten gold lace of the fashion of forty years 
 before. The Bourbons might have recovered an excel- 
 lent servant in the Duke de Gaeta ; but the Abbe Louis 
 had taken possession of the finances from the first 
 moment of the restoration, and of necessity he consi- 
 dered any one an enemy who might have disputed this 
 post with him, or, failing him, could occupy it. He did 
 not spare the poor Duke de Gaeta or M. Mollien any 
 reproaches. It was regarded as indisputable among the 
 Abbe's friends that neither the one nor the other under- 
 stood anything about finance, that they were only poor 
 tools in the hand of their master, and that their genius 
 was at Saint Helena. This opinion was sheer insolence, 
 but it had the power to keep aloof two men who might 
 have been usefully employed. 
 
DUKE OF GAETAS COKKESPONDENCE. 283 
 
 I liad as much opportunity as any one of judging of 
 the deUcacy and kindness of the Duke of Gaeta's corre- 
 spondence. He carried the work that I sent him to the 
 Emperor, and gave his advice on it. Whenever tlie 
 Emperor's decision was in conformity witli my views, lie 
 felt no embarrassment ; but if it clianced that the Em- 
 peror entertained a different opinion fronr mine, or blamed 
 any step that I had taken, the ]\Iinister, who could not 
 avoid informing me, did so with all possible consideration, 
 and chose terms he thought fittest to console or reassure 
 me. For instance, the Emperor had found fault with 
 my excessive severity towards M. Agard, and his letter, 
 which fell into my hands after the Restoration, contained, 
 "Inform M. Beugnot that I do not want a reaction, and 
 that I disapprove of his conduct. He ought to make a 
 report, and await orders." This is the version I received: 
 — " Monsieur le Comte, the Emperor informs me that it 
 would have been more in accordance with his intentions 
 if you had referred to his majesty for orders after examin- 
 ing the accounts furnished by M. Agard and giving your 
 opinion upon them. As for the rest, M. Agard is in 
 Paris, and I shall easily settle the points left at variance 
 with him, as you have made them perfectly plain. So 
 you will not have to trouble yom-self any more about 
 what occurred during the previous administration." It 
 seemed as if by giving me the Duke of Gaeta as my 
 correspondent at the beginning of my administration, 
 and M. Roederer at the end, the Emperor had wished to 
 make me feel the pleasure and the pain of two opposite 
 extremes. 
 
 It was somewhat of a position in Europe at that time 
 to be a Frenchman, and it was a considerable one to be 
 the Emperor's representative anywhere. With the sole 
 exception that I could not have abused my position with 
 impunity, I held in Germany the same position as the 
 
284 LIFE AND ADYENTUEES OF COUNT BEDGNOT. 
 
 ancient Roman proconsuls. There were the same respect 
 and obedience on the part of the people, the same obse- 
 quiousness of the nobles, the same desire to please and 
 obtain my favour. At that time we were under the 
 charm of the peace of Tilsitt ; the invincibility of the 
 Emperor had not experienced any check. I came from 
 Paris, where 1 had spent my hfe at his court, that is to 
 say, in the midst of the memorable labours and fascina- 
 tions of his reign. In his councils I had been able to 
 admire near at hand this genius ruling over human 
 thought. I thought he was born to hold fortune in his 
 chains, and that it was quite a matter of course for 
 nations to fall at his feet. The country that had fallen 
 to my lot increased this feeling. Germany, always much 
 addicted to the marvellous, took a long time to get rid of 
 its admiration for the Emperor; at that time it was 
 entirely devoted to the hero who had only need to 
 breathe to make it lose confidence in that Prussian 
 monarchy which had been unable to defend either the 
 armies or recollections of Frederick the Great, united to 
 the so long invincible legions of the successor of Peter 
 the Great. 
 
 I presented myself in the grand-duchy under the sway 
 of these ideas. I was not astonished at any amount of 
 regard, and even respect, of which I was the object. How- 
 ever, I was not lulled asleep by these flattering delusions, 
 but worked with remarkable zeal from morning to night, 
 astonishing the inhabitants of the country, who did not 
 know that the Emperor exercised the miracle of his 
 actual presence upon his servants, however far they 
 might be away from him. I thought I saw him before 
 me when working in my study; and if this perpetual 
 imagination sometimes inspired ideas above my scope, 
 it still oftener preserved me from faults tliat arise from 
 negligence or carelessness. One of the ancients has said 
 
A MISTAKE IN MY ADMINISTRATION. 285 
 
 that much is to be gained in our conckict in life by keep- 
 ing ourselves in thought in the presence of a superior 
 man ; and I am inclined to believe that the Emperor 
 would not have been generally so well served had not 
 every one of his servants continually seen him at his 
 side, either from the precautions that he took, or from 
 the influence of his name, which was daily repeated 
 everywhere. 
 
 I had a perfectly honest confidence in the importance 
 and stability of my position ; but my disposition preserved 
 me from the extravagances that might have prejudiced 
 minds against me. I have some self-love, like all other 
 men ; but it is not excessive. I am mote disposed to 
 exaggerate the merits of others than to depreciate them. 
 I love and seek out the good ; and, at the bottom of my 
 heart, I thought a great deal of the inhabitants of the 
 grand-duchy; but there, as well as at Cassel, I made 
 the mistake of speaking with levity in society of what 
 Germans regard seriously, of seeing all with French eyes, 
 and especially of giving the rein to my inclination to 
 pleasantry. This last fault was what could least be 
 forgiven : I should have succeeded more quickly and 
 more pleasantly if I had been able to resist it. 
 
J86 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Gift of the Grand-duchy of Berg to Napoleon Louis— Le Due de Bassano— M. 
 Maret — M. Regnault — Organization of the Grand-ducal Government — Le 
 Comte de Nesselrode — M. Fuschius — General Damas — Journey through the 
 Grand-duchy — Secrets of German Diplomacy — Threatennigs of War — 
 Humiliation of Prussia — Major Schill — Battle of Essling — Le Duo de 
 Brunswick-Oels — Battle of Wagram. 
 
 During tlie first six months of my administration 
 bnsiuess went on easily. I followed the steps of the 
 old government, and interfered with neither persons nor 
 things. The inhabitants were pleased, and the Emperor's 
 interest did not suffer. I should have desired to continue 
 some time on the same footing, and only to introduce 
 alterations one after the other, and in moderation. I 
 should especially have desired to preserve such old insti- 
 tutions as flattered the pride of the inhabitants without 
 any injury to the order or despatch of business. I was 
 continually finding opportunities of applying this system, 
 and of explaining it to the Duke de Gaeta in my corre- 
 spondence with him. This Minister shared my opinion 
 from the bottom of his heart, and left me all the liberty 
 compatible with fear that the Emperor might see matters 
 otherwise. 
 
 I considered myself too happy in having fallen under 
 this kind supervision, and I prayed Heaven that I might 
 so remain for a long time. My prayers were not heard, 
 for in the first days of 1809 I was informed that the 
 Emperor had decided that the Secretary of State for the 
 Empire should perform the same functions for the e-rnud- 
 
M. MAKET. 287 
 
 ducliy of Berg. A little while afterwards liis majesty 
 issued a decree declaring that he made a gift of the grand- 
 duchy to Napoleon Louis, eldest son of the King of 
 Holland, a boy wlio promised remarkable ability, and to 
 whom he bore a very close affection, that seemed well 
 accounted for. 
 
 Since I w-as to lose the Duke of Gaeta I could not have 
 fallen into better hands than those of the Duke of Bas- 
 sano. We had stepped forth together on the great stage of 
 the Revolution. My antecedents, and the easy circum- 
 stances of my family, had at first given me the advantage 
 over him. I was a member of the Legislative Assembly 
 when he was no more than reporter of the debates for the 
 Moniteur ; but I was pohtically ruined on the day of the 
 lOtli of August, while M. LLaret easily passed through 
 it, being as yet unknown except by his remarkable power 
 of furnishing the orators in the assemblies with the sense 
 they had omitted in their speeches. However, it was 
 natural that he who had so much sense at the service of 
 others should desire to make use of it on his own account. 
 When M. ]\Iaret offered himself for public employment, 
 many friends came to his assistance, whom he had gained 
 by means of the Moniteur ; besides, he had an ex- 
 cellent heart, and was naturally disposed to everything 
 good. His mind was cultivated, and, if business had not 
 taken him away from literature, he would have been a 
 literary man in good estimation, if not in the first rank. 
 His greatest talent consisted in a remarkable facihty in 
 expressing the ideas of others ; and he employed it so 
 much in reporting for the Muniteur and other work of 
 the same kind, that his mind seemed, as it were, absorbed 
 in it. The Abbe Sieyes at first procured the place of 
 Secretary to the Consulate for him. He was displeasing 
 to the First Consul at the outset for the very same quali- 
 ties that afterwards made him so much esteemed — his 
 
288 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 obsequiousness, his eagerness, and liis propensity to 
 obliterate liimself in the minds of others ; but in propor- 
 tion as the First Consul arrogated authority to himself, 
 and became accustomed to wield it alone, he became 
 reconciled to the Secretary of the Consulate. The 
 despotic power of the one, and the favour he showed to 
 the other, increased in equal proportion, and the Duke 
 de Bassano ended by being absorbed into the Emperor ; 
 and it was to him a kind of additional sense by which to 
 manifest to the common herd his determinations quick as 
 lightning. Indeed, there are no terms that justly express 
 with what attention, what ease and rapidity, the orders of 
 the Emperor, which were communicated to the Secretary 
 of State by words that flew as fast as signs, received 
 complexion, sense, and interpretation, and hastened forth 
 to rule in all the corners of the vast empire, without 
 delay, remonstrance, or remark ; and this entire self- 
 abnegation cost the Duke of Bassano nothing. Having 
 been so long completely prostrate before the Emperor's 
 genius, he thought him infallible. This explains the 
 reproaches that were addressed to him when the times be- 
 came unpropitious. He was accused of having always 
 dissuaded the Emperor from treating with the coalition — of 
 having opposed the Congress of Prtrgue — of having neu- 
 tralized that of Chatillon ; but, in spite of all these defeats, 
 the Emperor was far from feeling himself defeated. He 
 awaited his enemies on the heights of Montmartre, and 
 thus it was supreme injustice to expect the Duke of 
 Bassano to think differently ; and I do not know that he 
 even dared once to do so, even when he was weeping 
 over his master in the court at Fontainebleau. 
 
 But during the fifteen years of favour — or, to speak 
 more correctly, of success — the Duke of Bassano cannot 
 be reproached with a single bad action ; and a great 
 number of persons can be called to bear witness to this. 
 
M. EEGNAULD. 289 
 
 Very few men have been placed in such a position of 
 whom as much might be said. If he laid himself open 
 to some slight ridicule, it did not arise from his high 
 rank, but from his peculiarity. He plumed himself on 
 the beauty of his figure and the grace of his deport- 
 ment, and even pretended to be a hel esprit. There 
 really was some vanity at the bottom of this, but not 
 amounting to pride or haughtiness. "When he wished to 
 marry, he 'had already attained to a remarkable amount 
 of favour, and might have raised his views pretty high. 
 A large number of families, even in the most exclusive 
 faubourgs, would have vied with one another for the 
 pleasure of adopting him ; but he sought his wife at 
 Dijon, the city of his birth ; he selected her from among 
 his own family, and she was not wealthy, though really 
 young, pretty, and not without good sense. 
 
 The Duke of Bassano had no doubt persons to envy 
 him, but no enemies ; but he watched with pain the 
 ■ever-increasing ascendancy that Regnauld de Saint Jean 
 d'Angely took in the Council of State. The mould of the 
 latter's mind was quite different : he had as much facility 
 in working, and was as unwearied in it, as the Duke of 
 Bassano ; but his ease was not compliance : he was like 
 a, vigorous steed restrained by a strong hand, champing 
 the bit, and always ready to break loose. M. Regnauld 
 possessed qualities of the first order ; he had rendered 
 himself a correct writer, an eloquent orator, and, what 
 I never remarked in any other person, even when he 
 had nearly reached his fiftieth year he still made 
 rapid progress ; his mind was just and penetrating, 
 and the most complicated affairs were sport to him. 
 With power of toil at will, he would pass the night 
 over a portfoHo of the Council of State, would com- 
 pose a lecture for the Academy in the morning, rush 
 to his mistress, and be among the first arrivals at St. 
 
290 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Cloud ; but, as may well be supposed, lie had the defects 
 that combine with his qualities, and gave way to them 
 so freely as sometimes to border on excess. And he 
 had retained a tincture of vulgarity from his earher 
 years ; in him the upstart was betrayed by little vanities, 
 boastfulness, and sometimes by inexcusable proceedings. 
 The Emperor, who saw him every day, valued him at his 
 worth ; and though assuredly no man came under his 
 hand better suited to become at will a good Minister of 
 the Interior, of Justice, or of Finance, he had inwardly 
 decided in his heart that this should never be ; and poor 
 Regnauld had the pain of seeing himself passed over in 
 favour of Champagny, Cretet, and Montalivet, whose 
 three capacities might have been all united without 
 being a match for his. The Emperor left him in the 
 post of president of the section of Home Affairs in the 
 Council of State, and added important missions that 
 were more or less in the department of the council. He 
 had made him Secretary of State of the Imperial House- 
 hold, had loaded him with orders ; he had received very 
 lai'ge rewards, and had a large salary. The Emperor 
 seemed to say to him at every turn, "Whatever you 
 please, but never a minister." 
 
 The Duke of Bassano, knowing this feeling of the 
 Emperor's, wished to profit by it, and looked out for 
 some one to take Regnauld's place and send him to the 
 Senate. He thought well enough of me to suppose that 
 I could. He was wrong ; but I stood well enough in his 
 regard to be glad to be placed in correspondence with 
 him ; and as a Secretary of State at Paris was necessary 
 to the administration of the grand-duchy, that adminis- 
 tration felt itself honoured in this Secretary of State being 
 that of the empire. I was not long in feeling that the eyes 
 of the master were upon me. A table of statistics of the 
 ducliy was required of me, a project for the organisation 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GOVEENMENT. 291 
 
 of sucli governmeut as it would be desirable to establish 
 there, in order to prepare for the speedy introduction 
 of the French code. I was to bring the receipts and 
 expenditure into the sj^stem introduced in the imperial 
 treasury, and to send a detailed report every week of 
 anything that might interest the Emperor throughout the 
 grand-duchy and the circles of Germany in postal com- 
 munication. 
 
 I asked for delay on some points, such as the intro- 
 duction of the code, the preparation of statistics, &c. ; 
 but I sent a project of organisation of government. I pro- 
 posed a minister to preside at once over Justice, the 
 Home Office, and Public Education, a Finance Minister, 
 a Minister-at-War, chief commandant of the troops, a 
 Council of State of ten members ; at the head of the 
 machine a commissioner of the Emperor, as principal 
 minister, president of the Council of the Ministers and of 
 the Council of State, who should decide on pressing or 
 important matters, and communicate with Paris on any 
 others, with his opinion and the reasons for it, and pro- 
 posed orders. The imperial commissioner should keep 
 in his own hands the administration of the Prince's 
 domains, and should himself prepare the budget, and go 
 every year to lay it before the Emperor, after presenting 
 it to the Council of State. The secondary administrations 
 consisted of the general direction of the customs, post- 
 office, registration, and public lands, organised after the 
 French system by M. Agard. I preserved them, and 
 added an office for waters and forests, which had hitherto 
 remained under the Grand Huntsman, and an office for 
 direct taxation, that should immediately preptrre a survey. 
 
 I received neither censure nor approval of my plans ; 
 nor indeed any answer at all. So I took upon myself to 
 carry out provisionally all I had proposed as to subor- 
 dinate administrations. I organised the treasury of the 
 
 TJ 2 
 
292 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 grand-duchy on tlie model, on a' small scale, of that of 
 France ; for I knew that the Emperor would not have 
 excused any delay on this head, and that I needed rules 
 for myself. Gradually the machine got into regular 
 motion, and went on smoothly. 
 
 Count Nesselrode, Minister of the Interior, was the 
 head of the family of Nesselrode, one of the most ancient 
 in Germany, and capable of furnishing most distinguished 
 members of the diplomatic body. He himself was first 
 cousin, once removed, to the Nesselrode who was 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs in Russia, and whom we had 
 seen in Paris. He was not without culture or zeal, 
 nor did he make any objection to French ideas or forms 
 of government. Like almost all in his station, he was 
 burdened with great ill-managed estates, loaded with 
 debts, and not bold enough to attend to either. A true 
 gentleman in the best sense of the word, he frankly 
 supported measures damaging to his private interest 
 when he saw they were for the public good ; and thus 
 he enjoyed true popularity. I left to him, nearly un- 
 controUed, the direction of all municipal matters ; and he 
 managed them quite paternally. I suppose it was a good 
 way of softening the foreign yoke in the eyes of the 
 Germans to set over this section of afflxirs, which comes 
 into daily action, a man of name, who spoke their own 
 lanmiajre, shared their tastes, and even weaknesses, and 
 wliose example was a reply to all prejudice. 
 
 M. Fuschius, the Minister of Justice, was a bourgeois 
 whom nothing in the world would have persuaded that 
 he could be the equal of Count Nesselrode ; and he 
 therefore remained his subordinate, and I saw no reason 
 against it. He was a thorough Bavarian lawyer, honest, 
 industrious, a tolerable scholar, of patriarchal manners, 
 liut so slow of mind that it was impossible to me to work 
 with him. 
 
GENEEALS DAMAS AND KLEBER. 293 
 
 General Damas had all the business connected with 
 the army. Damas was a hero of the earlier days, whose 
 good luck had been lost through a serious blunder. He 
 entered the service in 1790, and was aide-de-camp to 
 General Maunier at the first passage of the Rhine, where 
 he received a wound. Pursuing his career in the fol- 
 lowing years, he had passed through the different grades, 
 and then shared in the famous expedition to Egyjit in 
 the position of chief of the staff to General Klebcr, whose 
 intimate friend he became. History has already told 
 how the commander-in-chief of this army left it on a 
 sudden, and without having given notice to General 
 Kluber, who was to command in his absence. Kleber 
 was one of the greatest captains of an age when there 
 were so many. Homer never dreamed of a figure in 
 wdiicli ardour and courage were more nobly delineated ; 
 and a lofty, firm, and generous mind animated this 
 splendid form. Kleber passionately loved the Republic, 
 because it was the only government that could satisfy 
 his noble ambition. It was all for his country's liberty 
 and glory, and he believed that this could only be at- 
 tained through respect to the laws and making a religion 
 of duty. He saw with much indignation how Bonaparte 
 had trifled with this by leaving his army. He took the 
 command because it was necessary, but at the same 
 time denounced Bonaparte's flight to the Directory. He 
 himself had dictated the words of this denunciation in 
 the spirit of antique severity. Although Damas was a 
 man of understanding, he was not of the mould to pro- 
 duce anything like this ; but, as chief of the staff, he 
 signed the despatch, and addressed it to the Directory. 
 While the packet was crossing the seas the Directory 
 had ceased to exist, and was replaced by the Consulate. 
 It was Bonaparte, the First Consul, who opened the packet 
 containing the denunciation of his flight fi-om Egypt. 
 
is 
 
 to 
 
 29 L LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Manehat altd mente repostum. However, during; the 
 lifetime of Kleber, who so splendidly upbore the heavy- 
 burden that had been shifted off upon him, and in whom 
 was likewise discernible a formidable adversary to certain 
 ulterior projects, the Consul dissembled. But when his 
 good fortune had relieved him of Kleber, and the shat- 
 tered forces that composed the expedition to Egypt re- 
 gained their native soil, poor Damas, who had returned 
 with no resources save his sword, could not escape the 
 resentment so long concentrated upon him. His name 
 was erased from the muster-rolls of the army, and he was 
 left in the streets of Paris with a wife and children. 
 Even there he had not the comfort of being forgotten. 
 Once he was arrested and confined in the Temple for 
 having too publicly spoken in praise of Kleber, since such 
 a eulogium implied a censure of the First Consul. Set at 
 liberty by the care of his friend General Belliard, he was 
 arrested again a short time afterwards, as being supposed 
 likely to have taken part in Moreau's affray. The pro- 
 ceedings furnished no proof against him. It became 
 necessary to restore him to liberty again ; that is to say, 
 to neglect and poverty. Murat, who, like all really 
 courageous men, had a generous heart, ventured to hold 
 out his hand to him, and sent him into the grand-duchy 
 of Berg to command the troops there. And there I found 
 him ; but as his position became perilous as soon as the 
 Emperor resumed the government of the country, I ad- 
 vised him to go to Naples, where Murat was ready to 
 welcome him. The first soldiers of the Revolution bore 
 an almost passionate attachment to their country. Damas 
 could never resolve to pass the Alps, and only entreated 
 my promise to do all I could to reconcile him with the 
 Emperor, to keep him in the grand-duchy, now in some 
 sort a part of France. This was not the work of a day ; 
 for, the first time I menti oned his name, the Fmnpi-or said. 
 
INDICATIONS OF A FEESH STRUGGLE. 295 
 
 " He lias remained in the grand-duchy ; very well ! 
 All that I can do for him is to forget him." And yet 
 Damas was a well-trained officer, modest, of tried resolu- 
 tion, and of the same school as Kleber, Hoche, and 
 Marceau. 
 
 I managed matters to the best of my abilities and 
 understanding, for I seldom received replies from the 
 Duke of Bassano. ^^^len, in 1809, I had a month at 
 my own disposal, I used it in visiting the grand-duchjr, 
 leaving Diisseldorf on the 28th of May, and not returning 
 till the 1st of July. I studied the manufactures of 
 Elberfeld, Barmen, Roustorf, Lunen, Romscheit, Solingen, 
 &c., in all their details. 
 
 During this journey — a rather rapid one — I had only 
 cast a superficial glance over the grand-duchy. I only 
 wished to perceive for myself the condition of affairs it 
 would be desirable to bring about. I had projects for 
 frequently repeating my visits. I could estimate the value 
 of each prefect by making him give explanations in the 
 very localities and in presence of the objects of my inter- 
 rogations. I perceived that our hands were good, and 
 MM. de Bock and Rumberg and others promised to be 
 distinguished magistrates. 1 gave them the instructions 
 that I had prepared for the first prefects of the Empire 
 ten years before, with the corrections dictated by experi- 
 ence or rendered necessary by the difference of the places 
 added to them. 
 
 The advices I received, the disdainful tone affected by 
 the newspapers pubhshed in the Confederation of the 
 Rhine in speaking of France, a general recall of all 
 military men on leave in the states of Austria, showed 
 me that a fresh struggle between that power and France 
 was approaching. I feared that the day of peace was 
 already past, and betook myself to Benrath, a castle so 
 near Diisseldorf that business was as promptly despatched 
 
296 LIFE AND ADVENTUKES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 in the one place as in the other. I soon learned that war 
 was inevitable, that it was closely approaching, and that 
 Austria was making an extraordinary display of force in 
 hopes of surpassing that of the Emperor, one portion of 
 whose forces was supposed to be employed in subjugating 
 Spain, and another in guarding Italy. I at once called for 
 General Damas, with whom I determined on the prepara- 
 tions and measures of precaution that were in our power. 
 AVhen I reached Dlisseldorf, in the middle of the previous 
 year, I found in full force the renown for invincibility 
 accjuired by the Emperor on the fields of Marengo, Auster- 
 litz, and Jena. I was in the age of ambition, and the road 
 seemed open before me, broad and strewn with flowers. 
 I could have no more doubts of my fortune than of the 
 Emperor's. Before crossing the Ehine, I had traversed 
 the fertile champaign of the Roer. It was animated by 
 the joyful and varied scenes that are everywhere pro- 
 duced by harvest. The weather was magnificent, and 
 I can still recall the sort of intoxication that I felt 
 at crossing this eternally famous river, now brought 
 beneath our yoke by our victories. It was then a 
 matter of difficulty for a soldier or a servant of 
 Napoleon to be modest, — ■ the utmost that could be 
 expected of him was not to be insolent ; but this charm- 
 ing state of mind — I may add, excessively charming — 
 was of short duration. The defeat of General Dupont at 
 Baylen, and the shameful circumstances attending it, 
 caused a rapid and profound sensation in the minds of 
 foreigners. The mask had fallen ; they saw that it was 
 possible to defeat us, and they had no further thoughts 
 but of conflict. 
 
 I was well situated for watching some secrets of Ger- 
 man diplomacy. The postal privilege of the grand-duchy 
 extended to the TIanse Towns, and I received a great deal 
 
 (JJ I}^"VVS irOIll HSjIH -wy-^-irA^ oa nonfil +Ti/^ i-vi-x-io-fm* 
 
EEPOKTS TO THE EMPEEOE. 297 
 
 part was conjecture, the lesser, fact. The principal 
 famihes of the grand-duchy had sons in the Austrian 
 service, and received letters from them; and something in 
 them always transpired, in spite of all the care to conceal 
 the contents from the French. For my part, at Dlissel- 
 dorf I no more neglected any means of discovering 
 secrets interesting to the Emperor than others did else- 
 where. I had been well served, and in the earlier 
 months of 1809 I had informed him of the warlike 
 frenzy that had seized on the family of the Emperor of 
 Austria, recommending no credence to be given to any 
 interpretation that the cabinet of Vienna might give of 
 its open preparations when saying that they had no in- 
 tention of attacking France, only preparing for defence. 
 The Emperor ordered me to send in a fortnightly report 
 of the state of the grand-duchy, as well as of anything 
 that had come to my knowledge from the rest of Ger- 
 many. It would have been a serious offence if these 
 returns had been late, yet I never had any opportunity 
 of knowing at what rate he estimated this work. Indeed, 
 when, later, I carried to him, at Mayence, reports, only 
 too exact, of the defection of Bavaria and the Austrian 
 change of politics, he received them very ill, and harshly 
 reproached me with antechamber diplomacy. However, 
 the next day he was on his road to the army. 
 
 On the 3rd of March, 1809, the Emperor had granted 
 the Grand-duchy of Berg, by letters-patent, to the eldest 
 sou of the King of Holland. This measure had a bad 
 effect : the inhabitants of the grand-duchy beheld in it 
 their future union with Holland, and dreaded being one 
 day called on to share the burden of its enormous debt. 
 King Louis, on his side, did his best to confirm this pre- 
 vision of evil, by saying, in his speech to the Chambers, that 
 in this measure the men of Holland should perceive the 
 Emperor's intention to indemnify them for the losses they 
 
29S LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 had snfFered. I certainly -wns very far from sharing this 
 general mistake. I knew that the Emperor had natnral 
 motives for wishing well to the eldest son of the King of 
 Holland, and that he had desired to give him something 
 more positive than a crown which had no real hold. 
 Nothing so certain could be deduced from the fact, as it 
 seemed to me, as that from that time the Emperor was 
 arranging a fresh destiny for Holland. I did not dare to 
 give this explanation to anyone. I answered all who 
 came to ask particulars of me, that the cession made by 
 the Emperor was the most fortunate thing for the grand- 
 duchy ; and, that no doubt might remain in people's minds, 
 I had a Te Deum sung, and gave as magnificent &fete as 
 the place would admit of 
 
 At the same time I was informed that war was deter- 
 mined on in the cabinet of Vienna ; and that a last 
 effort had been resolved on for raising the whole of 
 Germany against France. Men of importance, such as 
 those generally employed by the cabinet of Vienna, were 
 dispersed in different places throughout Germany to feel 
 their way. A commandant, De Kaunitz, son of the 
 famous minister, had fallen to our lot, but he had nothing 
 of his father but the name. I could always find out the 
 truth by assuming the contrary to whatever he uttered. 
 My conjectures were confirmed by an able man, my corre- 
 spondent at Hamburg ; and I sent a courier, who did not 
 find the Emperor in Paris : he was on the Spanish expe- 
 dition. He hurried off like a flash of lightning, beat 
 the Austrians, who had been making preparations for 
 three years, with the troops he found on his road, and 
 was at the gates of Vienna itself when Vienna was 
 determined to beheve that he had not left Spain. 
 
 At the same time I received orders, one after the 
 other, to levy men, and to forward everything disposable 
 
 I could pick up t'^ ^lif^ rrrnnrl nrmv T h ad in It^n.vp ni l 
 
MAJOR SCIIILL. 299 
 
 other work, and employ myself exclusively on military 
 matters. The Emperor's marvellous swiftness was indeed 
 a necessity. 
 
 The turn taken by the war in Spain was undermining 
 our credit in Germany. The princes of the Confedera- 
 tion in public followed our standards, but their people's 
 secret wishes were against us. One of the princes said to 
 me, " How long do you expect us to go on with your 
 never-ending victories ? We preserve the honour of our 
 arms, and exhaust the blood of our people." Prussia, 
 as was natural, played the first part in this concert of 
 hatred. 
 
 Perhaps our conquering hand had been laid too heavily 
 upon them ; perhaps we had to blame oui'selves for having 
 wounded them in those delicate points that remain sacred 
 even among enemies. At the bottom of the heart 
 of every Prussian, was not only a need but a rage for 
 vengeance against everything that bore the French name. 
 The Court of Prussia, by leaving Berlin for Konigsberg, 
 had opened the floodgates to the universal hatred that 
 was boiling over in the capital. Young men of distin- 
 guished families organised themselves into bands of 
 adventurers, and took oaths to fall upon the French 
 anywhere and everywhere. A Major Schill managed to 
 cany oft' his whole regiment on this novel crusade ; and 
 among his companions was numbered a son of General 
 Bliicher. This general himself, whose retirement from 
 the service was not in earnest, was the soul of the enter- 
 prise. His plan was to allow the movement to begin, 
 and to join it soon afterwards with all the troops he 
 might find disposed to follow him. Schill, when drilling 
 his regiment on the parade at Berlin, would call for the 
 sabre-cut to strihe off a Frcnchnans head, and how to 
 be ready for another Frenchman s head. All this was 
 done in broad day, when Prussia had become an ally 
 
300 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 after the treaty of Tilsit, when we had a minister at 
 Berhn, and an army at the gates. But there was in 
 all Prussia only one man really honest in the wish to pre- 
 serve peace. The army had been destroyed, the monarchy 
 dismembered, and the king humiliated; but a new 
 power had arisen from this extremity of misfortune, 
 namely, that of the nation, wdiich would consent to its 
 own ruin, and dashed blindly into every mode of 
 resistance. Major Schill's declaration of war could pro- 
 duce nothing but brigandage ; but it gave us an idea of 
 what we had to expect from a country where such a 
 thing could take place with impunity. Schill had become 
 a hero beforehand. The fashionable ladies of Berlin 
 wore his picture or cypher attached to an iron necklace 
 of light and elegant design. Their saying was, " Prussia 
 will raise herself again with iron ; it is wanted every- 
 where, even on women's breasts." The fashion of iron 
 ornaments for ladies dates from this period. The Prussian 
 ladies had introduced them at home from a very praise- 
 worthy feeling, and they were adopted not only by the 
 rest of Germany, as was natural enough, but even by 
 France, against which they had been invented. So true 
 it is that there is nothing that caprice will not take up, 
 and fashion justify. 
 
 Major Schill crossed the Elbe in the first days of May ; 
 his direction was towards Halle and AUerstadt, somewhat 
 near the grand-duchy. I was not without uneasiness 
 about the department formed of the old county of La 
 March, where I knew he had correspondents. The army 
 of the grand-duchy was all abroad, — part in the grand 
 army, part in Spain. My remaining resources were 
 the gendarmerie, the regimental depots, and a company 
 of veterans. General Damas formed two strong detach- 
 ments out of them, and proceeded to post them at Rheda 
 
 and Lipstadt, t h" J-^rn nninta mn at tjirpatpriprl lippans ft 
 
BATTLE OF ESSLING. 301 
 
 they were those by which Schill could most easily pene- 
 trate. This miserable little war was so far dangerous 
 that wherever it extended it put forth as a watch-word 
 the extermination of the French, while the Emperor was 
 engaged with all the powers of the Austrian monarchy. 
 
 I was thus surrounded with subjects for disquiet, and 
 I had nothing to oppose to them but my confidence in 
 the Emperor's genius. Such was my state of mind when 
 I received a courier that the Secretary of State had sent 
 off to me, on the 6th of May, the day after the battle of 
 Essling. The Minister's letter was a long one, and all in 
 his own hand ; it contained a history of the battle of the 
 day before, and represented it as a victory obtained with- 
 out difficulty. The despatch was very artfully written. 
 So much precaution in its preparation, so much care in 
 ensuring its reaching me, were just the thing to awaken 
 my suspicions. I read the letter twenty times, and, 
 through considering it, thought it safer to believe what 
 was omitted in it than what was written, and that the 
 Secretary of State's factitious joy covered a real defeat. 
 I decided at once what to do. I prepared the bulletin of 
 a victory, more clear and more decided than the letter of 
 the Duke of Bassano. I forwarded it to all parts of Ger- 
 many to which the posts of the grand-duchy extended, 
 and I sent couriers in other directions, into Holland, and 
 even to the left bank of the Rhine. I impudently 
 affirmed that the Emperor had addressed this bulletin to 
 me from the field of battle. I deemed it requisite to seize 
 the initiative, and in this I was not mistaken. Two days 
 had scarcely passed before a flood of letters of a very 
 different stamp poured from all quarters into the grand- 
 duchy. All in honour and honesty, the eldest son of the 
 Minister of Home Affairs was colonel of the Berg regi- 
 ment of chasseurs, and his younger son colonel of Lichten- 
 stein's regiment of hussars, which belonged to the Austrian 
 
802 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 army. After tlie battle of Essling the younger Count 
 Nesselrode sent his father a detailed account of the contest, 
 managing- very cleverly to conceal from me the intelli- 
 gence which I had, so to speak, as soon as he. I saw 
 that our loss had been great, and that it was only by 
 Marshal Massena's systematic intrepidity that the French 
 army had escaped a complete defeat. I beheved this 
 letter, for I knew that he who wrote it was a distinguished 
 man, and that exaggeration was foreign to his nature. 
 
 The joy of the Austrian party at Diisseldorf was great. 
 They made pilgrimages to the Home Office of the grand- 
 duchy, to read the famous despatch of the Minister's son 
 there. I became annoyed, and had then resolved on a 
 courteous request to Count Nesselrode to return his 
 portfolio ; but I suspended this measure for fear of the 
 shock that it would cause at a moment when I was 
 myself, so to speak, at sea. I thought it better to wait 
 for the end of the campaign, and by that time it was 
 not necessary ; for young Count Nesselrode perished 
 at the head of his regiment on the field of Wagram. 
 A very different feeling succeeded to my dissatisfaction. 
 The unhappy father could not communicate his loss to 
 me, nor could I mention it to him ; but I seized every 
 indirect means in my power of evincing my sympathy 
 without the least dissimulation. The young count de- 
 served the regrets of all parties, for he was an amiable 
 man, full of loyalty, without hatred or prejudice against 
 us,- — in a word, a generous enemy. He one day said to 
 me, "My brother is well off, for he is one of you : I serve 
 in the Austrian army — the place for younger sons." 
 
 In spite of my bulletin, the battle of Essling was con- 
 sidered a defeat, and the agitation became general in 
 Germany. Prussia thought she would be delivered as 
 speedily as she had been enslaved. Every state, even 
 to Denmark, assumed a hostile attitude, without any 
 
ISLAND OF LOBAU. 303 
 
 assignable reason except tlie perpetual English intrigues. 
 Sweden was no better disposed ; and the princes of the 
 Confederation of the Ehine, whose soldiers swelled our 
 legions, secretly cherished the hope of speedy dehver- 
 ance from their harsh protector. The conflagration was 
 so threatening that the Prince-Primate thought himself, 
 or was, obliged to address a political pastoral address to 
 the confederate princes, in which he laid it do^vn that the 
 Emperor had gained the victory, that he would not cease 
 to gain it ; and things would turn out for the best, for the 
 good of the world, and of the Confederation of the PJiine 
 in particular. If at this critical moment, between the 
 battles of Essling and A\^agram, Russia had made one 
 sign, no one can tell what would have happened ; but 
 such was still the ascendancy of the Emperor's person, 
 that after the day of Essling, and in the perilous situation 
 of the island of Lobau, he was singly a match for 
 fortune, till by his incredulity he had overcome her. 
 
 All Germany had its eyes fixed on this island of 
 Lobau. Would it be the grave of the French army, or 
 W'ould Napoleon's eagle escape victorious ? I was much 
 disturbed by the opiirions of professional persons, who, 
 whether French or Germans, were agreed as to the 
 danger of the position. No one believed that the 
 Emperor would find in the island of Lobau resources 
 to refit his army and resume the offensive ; and still less 
 was it believed that the Archduke Charles would allow 
 him to do so. 
 
 Major Schill caused me no more uneasiness, as his 
 expeditions were self-interested. Above all, he had aban- 
 doned his march to the grand-duchy in order to proceed 
 towards the Hanseatic towns, which offered a richer booty, 
 easier to come by. Pursued by a Dutch division under 
 command of General Gratien, he was overtaken in the 
 town of Stralsuud itself, where, after a vigorous defence. 
 
301 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 his band was dispersed, and lie himself was killed in 
 action, with a courage worthy of a better cause. 
 
 The partisans of Schill at once found means to rally 
 round another banner — that of the Duke of Brunswick- 
 Oels. This prince had made his way into Saxony at 
 the head of a division partly composed of Austrian 
 regular troops, partly of those adventurers who spring 
 up in long wars, and offer themselves to any party that 
 will pay them. His aim was to recover the patrimony 
 of his house, wdiich the Emperor had seized on to 
 include in the kingdom of Westphalia. With this pro- 
 ject he rapidly crossed Saxony, and even penetrated to 
 the capital of his former dominions. He ought not to 
 have stopped then, but to have marched straight on 
 Wesel, passing through the grand-duchy. I was in no 
 less dread of the approach of the Duke of Brunswick 
 than I had been of that of Major Schill ; for his troops 
 had committed all sorts of excesses at Leipsic and at 
 Halle. He had entitled them " the Army of Vengeance," 
 and had given them uniforms in conformity therewith, 
 namely — a black suit bordered with death's heads and 
 human bones in white embroidery. He exacted a 
 horrible oath from them ; and the worst of it was that 
 this lugubrious equipment acted in scenes that it seemed 
 only to threaten. Frenchmen accidentally captured, 
 and for the most part unarmed, had been pitilessly 
 massacred. The chief of the expedition, who was not 
 without courage or audacity, kept the field for a month, 
 up to the 7th of August, when being enclosed on all 
 sides by the King of Westphalia's troops, which were four 
 times more numerous, he threw himself into the Duchy 
 of Oldenburg, and there embarked with his band to join 
 the English in Walcheren. 
 
 AVhen he passed through Brunswick in his flight from 
 our troops, he would not dismount at his father's palace, 
 
DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. 305 
 
 but slept in tlie oiDen road on the rampart, lying on a 
 bundle of straw. His courage was not daunted by the 
 signature of the armistice with Austria. Abandoned by 
 those who had thrust him forward, he found resources 
 in himself It was through a thousand dangers that he 
 went to join the banners of the only power that hated 
 the French with hatred equal to his own. I could not 
 refrain from a kind of admiration of the man who gave 
 an example of such perseverance to cowed and van- 
 quished Europe ; and yet, instructed by the Moniteur, 
 I was forced to brand him with the name of brigand in 
 my reports to the Emperor. 
 
 This prince was the son of that Duke of Brunswick 
 who allowed his name to be placed at the foot of the 
 famous declaration of July, 1792, so fatal to the cause of 
 the emigrants. He was not the author of it. This was 
 in fact a certain Abb6 Limon, an intriguer of the first 
 water, who after deserting the Orleans party had carried 
 his zeal into that of the counter-revolution. The terms 
 in which this manifesto was couched were a contrast to 
 the former well-known temper of the duke, a fortunate 
 broth er-in-arms and friend of Frederick the Great. He 
 professed the same philosophical opinions, and shared his 
 taste for literature and art. In consequence of the small- 
 ness of his dominions he had been able to maintain there 
 a paternal government, the foundations of which were 
 in his own heart. He was adored by his subjects ; his 
 acts of charity were not reckoned up, for it would have 
 been an endless repetition. Intelligence, probity, devo- 
 tion to the public good were titles to his favour, and at 
 a time when the Jews were shamefully persecuted in 
 Germany he had placed a merchant of Brunswick, named 
 Jacobson, on his council of state, — a Jew, and attached 
 to his religion, but a virtuous man and a philanthropist. 
 
 The high consideration enjoyed by the Duke of 
 
306 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Brunswick in Germany had witlistood tlie unhappy dis- 
 comfiture in the plains of Champagne. It was known that 
 he had been deceived from the beginning on the nature 
 of the intended war. When he returned to his domi- 
 nions no one showed himself more helpful to the 
 emigrants in general ; and besides, he had opened at his 
 court an asylum for French families of rank with whom 
 he had been acquainted in happier times, and seemed 
 to have cured them of longing to return by his delicate 
 attentions ; for I found them still in Brunswick when I 
 went to take possession for the King of Westphalia. 
 In 1806 the romantic party of the court of Berlin 
 desired war at all costs against France. The Duke of 
 Brunswick opposed it, and threw the weight of his 
 renown into the balance. The King listened, and from 
 confidence in him kept the determination some time in 
 suspense. The old warrior was at last overcome in 
 the council, and only obtained by his long resistance 
 the derisive title of Prince of Peace^ which was once 
 affixed behind his carriage on a journey from Berlin to 
 Brunswick. The duke hoped at least from the notoriety 
 of his repugnance that if war should be declared he should 
 be excused from taking a share in it, and he was again 
 mistaken. Three days before the commencement of the 
 campaign, when all the preliminary dispositions had been 
 made by Prince Louis of Prussia, the king announced 
 to the Duke of Brunswick that war was declared, and 
 ordered him to come and take the command of the 
 army. He obeyed, complaining of not having been 
 sooner informed, nor was he long in perceiving for him- 
 self the justice of the complaint, for he had an enemy 
 before him who never let himself be long waited for. 
 The Emperor rushed upon Prussia like lightning, and 
 on his way thrust a sword into the vitals of the Duke 
 of Brunswick, who was trying to manoeuvre to take up 
 
TUE DUKE AVOUNDED AT JENA. 1307 
 
 a position after the tactics of the ohl school He Avas 
 forced to accept battle at Jena and Auerstadt, and the 
 Prussians were everywhere crushed. 
 
 The Duke of Brunswick received, at Jena, a wound 
 which deprived him of siglit, and was not long in proving 
 mortal. He was withdrawn from the field of battle in a 
 pitiable condition, but he chose to resume his joiniicy to 
 Brunswick that same night. Not a complaint had escaped 
 him, not a simple word unworthy of himself He said to 
 the surireon who drcssLMl his wound, " I shall alwavs be 
 blind. AVell, that is not so bad at my age." The castle 
 of Brunswick re-echoed with lamentations when he was 
 brought thither. His minister in charge, from Avhom 1 
 received these details, entreated him not to remain there, 
 since the French would arrive in twentj^-four hours. 
 "That is rather soon," replied the did<;e; "but what is 
 the good of flying from them?" "His highness does not 
 know what he is exposing himself to." " I will tell you," 
 replied the prince. " I have long known the French 
 better than you. They will respect an old general 
 wounded on the field of battle. The officers will give 
 balls, and go to the theatre ; the soldiers will kiss thc^ 
 girls a little. Take care of the billets, and see that they 
 want nothing. I feel sure that there is a courier of the 
 Emperor's on the road to know how I am." Non ernt 
 hoc tempus. No matter, this trustfulness of noble minds 
 is indeed the most touching thing in the world. AAdiy 
 must policy needs be compelled to betray it ? Next 
 day the minister, prompted by information that he re- 
 ceived from all quarters, returned to the charge, urging 
 the necessity of a speedy departure. The duke con- 
 tinued to resist, and only yielded on being told by his 
 minister that his presence at Brunswick would be a 
 pretext for aggravating the liorrors of military occupa- 
 tion. Then he consented to be carried elsewhere, saying. 
 
SOS LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 "I fcol that I am too weak to bear a long journey; but 
 if my presence here is hkely to add to the misfortune of 
 my subjects, I must leave the place, and I hesitate no 
 longer." 
 
 The first day the weakness kept on increasing. On the 
 second the Duke of Brunswick had ceased to live. I 
 reproached good M. Wolfrad for having recommended 
 this departure. I much fear that the information which 
 alarmed him came to him from very high quarters, where 
 tlie deprivation of the unfortunate duke was already 
 determined. 
 
 I lived on the alert. After the alarms given me by 
 -Alajor Schill and the Duke of Brunswick, came the 
 descent of the English upon the island of Walcheren. 
 I received information that, on the 29th of July the 
 English had shown themselves with a fleet of a hundred 
 and thirty transports, and twenty-five men-of-war, off the 
 town of Veere. I could not believe it, because I could 
 not credit that the preparations for such an important 
 expedition had not long ago aroused the attention of the 
 only power that could be threatened. But the day after 
 the fleet was reported. Lord Chatham, who commanded 
 the land forces, had effected his landing at Bresaut, had 
 seized the forts of Haak and Orscapel, and was marching 
 upon Flushing. The expedition had three objects : first, 
 the capture of Flushing ; then the burning of the port 
 of Antwerp and the fleet there shut up ; lastly, the 
 importation of a considerable cpiantity of English goods. 
 The two first objects were not accomplished. The 
 Antwerp fleet ascended the river high enough to be 
 sheltered from insult. Five thousand men threw them- 
 selves into Flushing, and made a vigorous defence. 
 Lord Chatham was not fortunate in any of the partial 
 actions in which his position compelled him to engage. 
 Disease ravajred In'w m-mv and tliis expedition, which 
 
WAGEAM AND THE TREATY OF VIENNA. 309 
 
 had started so splendidly, and had been hailed by so 
 many hopes as it left the English ports, returned 
 lightened of great numbers of the troops it had carried, 
 and with the shame of a complete failure. The goods 
 of English manufacture, that held a considerable place 
 in the expedition, apparently remained on the Continent ; 
 but the expense of carriage and escort had been too 
 enormous for England on the whole to find it a pro- 
 fitable speculation. 
 
 The 5th of July came. On this day fortune, which had 
 seemed to hesitate for some time, fully returned to her 
 favourite. Wagram was a decisive victorj^^ whatever may 
 have been said, and the proof is the treaty of Vienna that 
 followed it. I made use of my intimate connection with 
 the Secretary of State to lay before the Emperor, just 
 when he was about to arrange the conditions of peace, 
 a claun from the country of Miinster against Austria for 
 an old debt, which was not contested, but only opposed 
 at Vienna by the eternal clog of protocols. An under- 
 taking to pay the debt inmrediately on the part of the 
 Emperor of Austria was placed in the ninth article of 
 the treaty of Vienna, and the grand-duchy was proud 
 of possessing a sovereign who placed the partly domestic 
 interests of his subjects on the same level with the most 
 lofty political arrangements. 
 
 Two great events, in rapid succession, re-established 
 beyond the Rhine the credit of the Emperor's power : 
 the victory of Wagram and Lord Chatham's departure 
 from the island of AValcheren. ]\Ien were surprised to. 
 see that the Emperor had so easily repulsed an attack 
 so long in preparation upon a point distant from the- 
 centre of his states, and at a moment when he himself 
 had to strive with all the forces of the Austrian empire 
 on the banks of the Danube, and in Spain against the 
 whole Peninsula, assisted by England. Some persons. 
 
olO LIFE AND ADYENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 believed that there was an hnmense though unjoerceived 
 advantage for France at the bottom of the treaty of 
 Vienna. The Emperor had given reason to beheve that 
 it would not be his fault if this treaty were not the last. 
 Warned by the difficulties, or rather perils, that he had 
 just encountered, he seemed disposed to venture no 
 longer the fate of France and its inhabitants on the turn 
 of a card. He had been heard among a circle of gene- 
 rals to deplore the distant expeditions in which he always 
 lost some of the companions of his earlier days, and had 
 added, " I have had enough of acting the soldier ; it is 
 time for me to act the king." He repeated that, accord- 
 ing to old custom, he would have his great and little 
 journeys ; the great ones to Compiegne or Fontainebleau, 
 the little ones to Saint Cloud and Meudon. Would 
 that Heaven but had granted, and France likewise, that 
 mercy to him ; but the time for these charms of peace 
 was not yet come ! Not that 1 thought, like several of 
 those most about the Emperor's person, that war was to 
 him an imperious necessity of nature ; but I thought that 
 no real peace could be inade anywhere, or with anyone, 
 as long as the Emperor had not signed one with England. 
 The foundation of liis policy was to obtain such a peace. 
 To that purpose he used the gigantic means of which 
 each will give his own account. It will be plain that 
 it was not in the Emperor's power to stop ; while, on 
 tbe contrary, he traversed the steppes of the North in 
 warrior guise in order that ho miglit rest securely in 
 the thickets of Trianon or on the enchanted heights of 
 St. Cloud. 
 
311 
 
 CPIAPTER XL 
 
 Administration of the Grand-duohy — M. de Semonyille — The Waters of Aix- 
 la-Chapellc— The Court of Madame Mere— The King- of Holland— La 
 Princesse Borghcse — Divorce of the Empress Josephine — Surprising 
 effect, in Germanj', of Napoleon's Second Blarriage— Introduction of the 
 Civil Code into the Grand-duchy — M. Rcederer — Studies in Political 
 Economy — A Miracle. 
 
 I TOOK advantage of the Emperor's return to Paris, 
 and the general respite from military operations that 
 prevailed, to petition for the laws of organisation that 
 were requisite for the government and administration of 
 the grand-duchy. All that bore on serfage or feudal 
 rights had been suppressed ; and I took the oppor- 
 tunity of introducing the civil code and an analogous 
 judicial order. I distributed the objects of govern- 
 ment, as in France, into seven principal divisions : cus- 
 toms; registration and stamps; post; waters, woods, and 
 mines; direct taxes; indirect taxes; and the prince's 
 domain. I applied the French system to each of these 
 divisions, always, however, reducing it into due propor- 
 tion to the purpose for which it was destined. I traced 
 rules to be followed by the Council of State and the 
 Ministers. Thus the machine had received all the 
 springs, and all that remained was to set it going and 
 maintain it. I began by the regulation of the department 
 without which there is no safety in administration — the 
 finances. I presented the accounts of the year 1808, and 
 a regular budget for 1809. I finished the work of the 
 year with one of the most urgent and most difficult tasks 
 
313 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 that had come before me — the introduction of the franc as 
 the monetary denomination in all public accounts, and the 
 application of the tariff arranged for the French depart- 
 ments on the left bank to all the moneys that circulated 
 in the grand-duchy. I had taken the precaution of 
 causing this measure to be requested from me, and had 
 myself discussed its merits in the public prints, so as to 
 prepare public opinion for it. Nevertheless I dreaded 
 some disturbance in the markets, because the proportion 
 I had adopted considerably reduced the nominal value 
 of the copper coinage, which constitutes the ever-circu- 
 lating treasure of the most numerous class of society. 
 There was, however, no murmuring, for it had been every- 
 where felt that French administration could not allow a 
 disorder to exist on the right bank of the Rhine, which it 
 had allayed on the left, to the satisfaction of the com- 
 mercial interest, and even of all classes of society. 
 
 The first eighteen months of my stay in the grand - 
 duchy were a time of anxieties at times very poignant, 
 diversified by triumphant security — of sorrows, and like- 
 wise of pleasures. Continual toil moderated any excess 
 of these contrary emotions ; but what in my eyes annihi- 
 lated all vexations, and doubled all enjoyments, was that 
 the Emperor had appeared to be satisfied with my conduct, 
 and conferred on me the title of Count, though my rank 
 among his Councillors gave me no right as yet to this 
 dignity. My zeal in his service could not increase ; I do 
 not know whether anything could have added to my 
 admiration and devotion. 
 
 I gave all my time to the administration of the grand- 
 duchy. I worked at it with my whole heart, first in 
 fulfilment of my duty towards the Emperor, next from 
 personal liking ; and likewise because, as a whole, the 
 inhabitants of the grand-duchy, so long as one overlooked 
 their not being French, were some of the best people in 
 
SEMONVILLE. 313 
 
 the world. Thus affairs advanced in all matters of detail 
 of simple execution ; but when I was obliged to ask a 
 decision from Paris, it was impossible to get an answer 
 from the Duke of Bassano, the only man in the world 
 who could fulfil the duties of his office, except where the 
 Grand-duchy of Berg was concerned. He was aware of 
 it himself, and though the post of Secretary of State to 
 the grand-duchy was worth 4,000/. a year to him, he 
 endeavoured to get it transferred to his friend Semon- 
 ville. I was in the secret, and advised to be silent. 
 Except the Duke of Bassano, I could not have a more 
 appropriate correspondent given me than Semonville. 
 
 I had long Imown him, even since the banishment of the 
 ParHament to Troyes, and I had met him again, in 1790, 
 with Mirabeau. Every acquaintance of Semonville's was 
 to him a friend, and his friendship slept or revived in 
 proportion as the acquaintance rose or diminished in 
 favour. He should have been faithful to the Duke of 
 Bassano, with whom he had shared misfortunes such as 
 unite for ever two responsive hearts. They had been 
 arrested in Italy together when the duke, then no more 
 than Citizen Llaret, was going on an embassy to Naples, 
 and Semonville to Constantinople ; both had been taken 
 to the dungeons of Olmlitz, where they had for three 
 years suffered the pains of an Austrian captivity. Men 
 do not forget one another when they have together 
 escaped a great danger; and Semonville, besides, was not 
 a man to allow himself to be forgotten by anyone who 
 could be of use to him. Semonville is a peculiar man ; 
 for him intrigues are necessary to life. Nature has en- 
 dowed every individual with the instinct of self-preserva- 
 tion, and thus Semonville has been found intriguing 
 under every one of the successive governments of France 
 for forty years, with no respect for time, place, or person : 
 before the Revolution in the assemblies of the chambers 
 
314 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 of Parliament, or at Versailles ; then around the Constitu- 
 tional Assembly, the Convention, the Committee of Public 
 Safety, the Directorate, the Empire, and the Ptestoration ; 
 friend at once, or by turns, of D'Epremenil, of Lamoignon, 
 of Robert de Sainte-Vincent, of Talon, of Mirabeau, of 
 Danton, of Sieyes, of Chaumette, of Dambray, of the 
 Duke of Bassano, of General Foy, and of the Duke of 
 Riviere. His instinct informed him of the instability of 
 the governments that have been tried upon France for 
 nearly fifty years ; under any existing government he 
 was always one half for the present, and one half in the 
 future one. He took good care to have a finger in every 
 cabal ; and whenever he did but approach one, he took 
 care to proclaim, " Here I am." Though he is short- 
 sighted, he looked at once to right, to left, and before 
 liim, and one would have thought that he had eyes be- 
 hind. Such a wearisome, thorny part required a crafty 
 ]nind, prudent and dexterous in calculation, and such was 
 the character of our friend Semonville. In the first place, 
 he employed such means as are in the power of ordinary 
 persons with extreme dexterity ; and, besides, he dis- 
 covered, picked up, and moulded to his purpose things 
 that would escape any other glance than his own. In 
 everything, and for everything, he thought first of him- 
 self, as was natural, and never could be accused of, in the 
 slightest degree, losing sight of this object. Talleyrand, 
 the great master of epigrams off our age, hit of his cha- 
 racter perfectly Avhen he said, in reply to some who told 
 him that Semonville was ill, " What, Semonville has a 
 fever! how will he make use of it?" His egotism was col- 
 lective ; it extended to all the Semonvilles — children, 
 grandchildren, male and female cousins. The family he 
 had to provide for was large, and to it Semonville added 
 as cousins, or persons who ought to be such, whoever 
 could be of any service to him from far or near. This 
 
RCEDEEEi;. 3] 5 
 
 had gained him a reputation for willingness to assist and 
 oblige, which was established by many small services, 
 and even some of more importance scattered in various 
 quarters, as if from inclination, but really by calculation, 
 among the different ranges of society. And thus no one 
 looked on Semonville with ill-will ; he was a tree bearing- 
 its natural fruits. 
 
 Under the Empire, he had long aspired to be Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs. He seemed adapted for it by his 
 ability, and by some diplomatic missions in which he 
 had been successful. Intimacy with the Secretary of 
 State seemed as if it would smooth his way. But for 
 ten whole years all efforts had been useless. The eagle 
 eye had thoroughly searched him out. The Duke de 
 Bassano, avIio had come at last to despair of getting 
 Semonville made Foreign Secretary, had tried to jiut him 
 off with the easy and well-paid post of Secretary of State 
 for the grand-duchy. IMatters had been long previously 
 arranged and prepared with the greatest care. The Duke 
 of Bassano, though slow to hope, thought himself secure. 
 On a certain Wednesday, he summoned Semonville to 
 St. Cloud, on the day when the decree, already prepared, 
 was to be presented for signature, and advised his friend 
 to bring his senator's robes with hhn, so as to be in readi- 
 ness to take the oaths. Semonville went — the dinner 
 was a gav one — and drank the health of the new Secre- 
 tary of State. The Duke of Bassano went up to the 
 castle. Semonville put on his robes. He waited and 
 waited for the messenger to summon him, but, instead 
 of him, behold the ]\Iinistcr was seen coming back 
 Avith tlie intelligence that the Emperor had erased 
 the name of Semonville from the decree, and put in — 
 whom? — Roederer, the Duke's enemy, Semonville's 
 enemy, the enemy of the whole world. 
 
 I resolved to get out of the game. I did not write to 
 
316 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Roederer to congratulate liim ; he was surprised, and 
 sent me some most obliging messages through a common 
 acquaintance ; 1 replied harshly, and behaved like an 
 invader who has burnt his ships. I employed the 
 Minister of Police to ask the Emperor for the post of 
 Director of the Press ; the Emperor answered that I was 
 mad, and would not listen to me. He gave the post 
 to Pommereuil, one of the most witty men, and certainly 
 the most cynical I have met in this lower world. The 
 electoral college of the Aube re-assembled to elect a can- 
 didate for the Senate. I stood for it, and was elected. 
 I sent my wife to Paris to beg permission for me to 
 enter the Senate ; the Emperor laughed in her face, 
 and replied that in perhaps twenty years I might be 
 thought of I wrote to the Duke of Bassano to en- 
 treat for my recall to the Council of State. He begged 
 me to wait a little, for some other opening for my 
 employment. 
 
 I wrote to Picgnauld, who replied that, by thus 
 knocking at all doors, I was implying a censure on the 
 Emperor's late choice, and that was very imprudent. 
 I could not bear to stay at Diisseldorf ; so I went to 
 the watering-place of Aix-la-Chapelle. These waters 
 ought to be considered an active remedy ; but, like all 
 the mineral springs of Germany, they were less fre- 
 Cjuented by the really sick than by the idle rich, who 
 could afford to pay pretty dear for the pleasures of 
 the season. There was a tolerable theatre, au assembly- 
 room where there was play, and pretty high play, and 
 good company that came from Paris, or gathered from 
 the neighbourhood. This year the town of Aix might 
 call itself privileged, for included among the guests 
 whom it had the honour of receiving were the Emperor's 
 mother, the Princess PaiUine, and King Louis. Each 
 of these powers had arrived with the locomotive court 
 
THE EMPEKOR S MOTHER. 317 
 
 that followed their steps, and these little courts con- 
 tained agreeable women and men of education. Among- 
 the numerous ladies who had come from Paris two 
 were especially remarkable for wit, grace, or beauty, 
 Mesdames Regnauld de Saint Jean d'Angely and 
 Hainquerlot. 
 
 In the Imperial Court I had an advantage over most 
 of my colleagues ; I had not known any of the 
 Emperor's family before he was himself the first per- 
 sonage in the state. I had begun with forms of respect 
 to his relations ; and when in the sequel such forms 
 were forced on all the world, they were no trouble to 
 me. The members of the family soon perceived this 
 shade of difference, and were never embarrassed with new 
 acquaintances ; it was with such that they enjoyed them- 
 selves most. I saw it even in the Princess Borgh(:;se her- 
 self, though she was so much the spoilt child of nature 
 as to be able to disdain the additions made by rank 
 to her powers of captivating. 
 
 I made my appearance at the little court of Madame 
 ]Mere. The Princess Pauline made it so agreeable 
 that even the King of Holland could not render 
 it gloomy. The Emperor's mother was from fifty to 
 fifty-five years old ; as beautiful as a woman of her age 
 could be ; and if Raffaelle had had access to her when 
 he painted his beautiful pictures of the Holy Family, 
 he would have had no further to seek for that figure 
 of Saint Anne, who graces so well what time has not 
 been able to remove from features originally of great 
 beauty, that the reverence due to age is always 
 mingled with some degree of love. She had wit, and 
 such energetic good sense as not to allow a loophole 
 for her position to dazzle her ; her education was 
 neither better nor worse than that of the women of her 
 time and country; she had retained its very marked 
 
318 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 accent, and some vulgar plirases that slie took no pains 
 to alter, though she would have done as well to sup- 
 press them. Her rule was all goodness, display, and 
 dignity. The Emperor, who had a sort of intuition 
 for the proprieties of an exalted station, wished his 
 mother to undertake this part to the fullest extent, and 
 amply furnished her with the means ; but he had 
 continually to contend against a fixed propensity 
 Avhich could never be eradicated, namely, a passion 
 for economy. At the first visit I had the honour of 
 paying her, Madame pressed me to give her the par- 
 ticulars of the expenses of an arrival and sojourn at 
 the waters. I knew nothing about it ; to me it was, as 
 for most people, my servants' business. I answered all 
 wrong, always making the prices so small so as to give 
 her an excellent opinion of my management. Un- 
 fortunately she took my fine statements for the current 
 prices, and the very next day began a campaign against 
 her attendants and tradesmen, insisting that she was 
 cruelly pihaged by both, and adducing me as an 
 exception to the fate she lamented, mentioning each 
 article and my price for it, so that it was impos- 
 sible to get it out of her head. However, General 
 Beurnonville, when once witnessing one of the numerous 
 scenes I had unwittingly occasioned, assured Madame 
 that I knew very little about housekeeping, and it was 
 a matter on which my authority was very slight. She 
 persisted, and desired me to come again. I avoided the 
 second visit as much as I could, till an invitation to 
 dinner drove me to the wall ; and I was obliged to take 
 up the conversation where I had left it. I was ill 
 prepared. Whether on purpose, or merely in mischief, 
 iMadame set me at once upon the expenses of Aix- 
 la-Chapelle, loudly vaunted my ability, and begged me 
 to procure her the articles mentioned, at the same 
 
THE KING OF HOLLAND. 319 
 
 price as I paid for them myself. At first I did not take 
 tlie matter seriously, but she insisted, and gave me 
 reason to suppose that she meant to extract a profitable 
 sort of revenge from my effrontery. The Princess 
 Pauline was present. She allowed my embarrassment to 
 last some time, and then so shuffled the cards as to put 
 out her mother's calculations, and get me out of the 
 wasps' nest into which I had run by my unlucky 
 assertions. 
 
 The King of Holland had brought to Aix-la-Chapelle 
 his bad health, his nervousness and all its consequences. 
 He had never chosen to understand what a king sent to 
 Holland by the Emperor was, or rather might be. A 
 man conscientious, even to scrupulousness, he had in all 
 honesty taken up the defence of the country for itself 
 against the Emperor. Thence arose incessant collisions 
 and perpetual disputes, the solution of which was always 
 the same — the sic volo coming from the Tuileries. While 
 this poor King saw all Holland's means of prosperity 
 slipping one by one firom his hands, he was obliged to 
 encounter an immense debt, for wliose acquittal the only 
 possibility was the utilisation of these means, besides 
 the obligation of furnishing such a contingent to the 
 French army as excessively raised his military expenses. 
 He had brought with him perfectly prepared tables of 
 his actual and possible resources, if the Emperor would 
 allow him a little liberty, and favour a loan that he pro- 
 posed to open in France. The manner of this loan was 
 skilfully planned by the able Dutch ; but it took for 
 granted that the Emperor's necessities would not in- 
 crease, and could never retard the payment of arrears 
 and of the gradual liquidation of the loan. The King 
 o-ave me the tables and the project, and asked me to 
 furnish him with my written opinion. I sent him the 
 report he had asked for. Fie was pleased with it, and 
 
3:30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 asked me to enter his service as Finance Minister. In 
 any other case I should have declined the honour, but I 
 thought myself excluded from the grand-duchy by M. 
 Roederer's appointment. I was not even sure that the 
 Emperor would allow my ill-humour a retreat into the 
 Council of State. I therefore accepted, and have no 
 reason to doubt that the King proposed it to the 
 Emperor, for he told me so. I left Aix-la-Chapelle 
 before the answer came. It must have been unfavour- 
 able, for the King, with whom I continued to correspond, 
 ]iever mentioned it again. The only time I was in close 
 communication with the King of Holland was during my 
 stay at Aix-la-Chapelle, and that was enough to make 
 me hold that prince in most honourable remembrance. 
 He resisted his brother's will as long as he could, and 
 once, when forced to endure it, he plainly told the 
 Emperor that he should be devoted, body and soul, to 
 the interests of Holland. His honest conscience held 
 him high above the calculations of politics ; he would 
 not even conceive that he had been sent to Holland, 
 above all, to assist in the war that the Emperor "as 
 carrying on against England — a concurrence that might 
 possibly promise some distant compensation to Holland, 
 but was sure, at present, to be ruinous. He regarded 
 as barbarous the coolness with which the Emperor pur- 
 sued his aim, without paying the slightest attention to 
 his remonstrances, prayers, or lamentations. He was 
 grieved to such a degree as to take no part in the 
 pleasures of the watering-place. His conversation was 
 sure to gravitate to his unfortunate position. I was 
 doubtful whether he could retain it much longer ; his 
 health, already frail, was giving Avay under it ; but it 
 was to be expected that he would resist as long as he 
 had the power, and that the Emperor must at last per- 
 ceive that even a brother, not sufficientlv one with him 
 
PRINCESS BOEGHESE. 321 
 
 to exact all lie insisted on exacting from Holland, and 
 that in such an affair he could depend on no one but 
 himself The presence of the Princess Borghese made a 
 diversion in the melancholy introduced by the King of 
 Holland into the society of Madame Mfere. This Princess 
 was the type of French beauty, that is to say, beauty 
 tempered by grace and animated by gaiety. I should 
 wish her statue to be entrusted to the genius of Canova, 
 and that, when completed by his exquisite chisel, it 
 might be reproduced in a thousand different places, 
 and should, by general consent, assume among the 
 moderns the same rank as a model as the Venus de' 
 Medici among the ancients. The Princess was naturally 
 clever, and had all the tact needful to prevent any de- 
 traction from her other valuable gifts. She rapidly 
 floated through all the enjoyments belonging to her age, 
 beauty, and fortunate independence. She came to Aix 
 for two reasons: one quite respectable, and the other 
 important; her health, and the duty of accompanying 
 her mother ; but the journey left despair in more than 
 one "place, and hope in several others. She had been 
 followed to Aix, and did not know whether to choose to 
 perceive it ; and there she found more than one adorer, 
 whose incense was lost in smoke. She treated this 
 matter with charming levity ; she might be called 
 Atalanta skimming over the flowers without leaving 
 any trace of her footsteps. At sight of her I said to 
 myself, not without keen regret, " Happy the mortals 
 who still sojourn in that fair stage of life when such vows 
 and such altars are permissible ! " 
 
 I spent my time at Aix-la-Chapelle very tranquilly, 
 without troubling myself what became of the grand- 
 duchy. I had, at leisure, for some days, bitterly re- 
 gretted my separation from a country that I loved, and 
 where I had found occupation so congenial to my tastes 
 
322 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 and studies that I sliould have devised it for myself, 
 even if it had not fallen to my lot ; but, after this time of 
 regret, I had made my decision, and the grand-duchy 
 Avas to me only a country of which I had some pleasant 
 recollections. Yet I received letters daily from my 
 heads of departments, vying with one another in 
 pressing my return. I was not yet shaken ; but M. 
 Eegnault wrote to me, somewhat at the instigation of 
 M. Roederer, that he could not understand my conduct ; 
 that my sojourn at Aix-la-Chapelle without having asked 
 joermission or notice, was a dereliction of duty ; that he 
 advised me to return speedily to Diisseldorf, and resume 
 business, till I should receive the Emperor's permission 
 to resign. 1 still nourished the hope of passing into the 
 service of the King of Holland, and reflected that, if 
 I aimed at that, I must not get into disgrace with the 
 Emperor. This consideration determined me to go 
 back. I found things at Diisseldorf as I had left them, 
 in very good condition. My absence had caused neither 
 difficulty nor even anxiety, and I had a suspicion that I 
 was not so necessary as I had flattered myself This 
 reflexion reduced my ill-humour a good deal ; the exhor- 
 tations of my fellow-workers did the rest, and I resumed 
 the reins of government. 
 
 This period was that of the divorce and second mar- 
 riage of the Emperor. The divorce had affected me 
 much. I had known Madame de Beauharnais before her 
 marvellous elevation ; and she herself had not dropped 
 my acquaintance when she was at the pinnacle of her 
 honours. In such different positions, I had found her 
 always the same, affable, sincere, kindly, graceful in the 
 exercise of these amiable qualities, and of an elegance 
 peculiar to herself Everyone fell under a charm in her 
 presence. She was listened to with a kind of rapture, 
 because grace was disnlaved in her gestures as well as 
 
EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 323 
 
 her words. Old intimacies between lier and my wife had 
 brouglit us closer to her court, and it was not her fault 
 that ^Madame Beugnot did not hold a situation there. 
 So we suffered privately when the Empress Josephine 
 herself lost by her retirement the means of patronage. 
 More than that, from the affection I bore her I had let 
 myself fall into the crowd of fortune-tellers. AAltli them, 
 I repeated, and in some degree believed, that Josephine 
 was the Emperor's genius of good-fortune, and thus that 
 of France, and that if ever she was separated from 
 her husband she would carry fortune with her. The 
 Emperor had so accustomed us to such wonders that the 
 teachings of common sense did not satisfy us. We tried 
 to forestall the future of so wonderfid a present ; and 
 laying aside the ordinary calculations of human foresight, 
 everyone in his degree allowed himself to be carried along 
 by divinations, prophecies, and a renewal of our fathers' 
 follies about the cabala. Women were the first to give 
 themselves up to the dominion of these enchantments. 
 The Empress, above all, yielded to them, and they be- 
 came the habitual rule of her hopes and fears. It was- 
 said that she had good reasons ; since in the flower of 
 her youth, when she was as yet no more than the most 
 graceful of Creoles, the high fortune to which she was 
 destined by Heaven had been predicted in the most 
 precise terms ; and the man himself, the man of men^ 
 was not above believing in a destiny that drew him on. 
 Such indeed had been the belief of the greatest per- 
 sonages of antiquity, and those especially who at the fall 
 of the Eoman Republic assisted in the dismemberment of 
 that colossus. 
 
 The marriage that followed the divorce had produced 
 an astonishing effect in Germany. The prodigies of the 
 earlier campaigns against Austria and Prussia remained 
 incontestable. The names of Austerlitz and Jena still 
 
824 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 echoed ; but it was not at all the same about the last 
 campaign against Austria. The victory of Essling was 
 matter of dispute, and with some reason; and that of 
 "Wagram had cost us dear. While though the honours 
 of the treaty of peace had remained with us, since 
 Austria had yielded to us Venice and the isles, these im- 
 portant cessions of territory were explained by the over- 
 haste of the Emperor of Austria, who had been little 
 inclined for war at first, and then had insisted on peace 
 too soon and at any price. Far-sighted men, experi- 
 enced in the art of war, had remarked some exhaustion 
 in the French army ; and it seemed as though the Em- 
 peror was of the , same opinion, since he at this time 
 required an immense development of artillery to accom- 
 plish what he had previously securely depended on ob- 
 taining merely through the force and discipline of his 
 soldiers. It was openly said in Germany, " It is all very 
 well for this time ; but Napoleon will return no more." 
 
 Wagram must have made a deep impression on 
 him. The Supreme Council w'ere deliberating on the 
 selection of a princess whose hand should be asked for 
 the Emperor. Votes, as it- seems, were divided among 
 three princesses, among whom was the Archduchess 
 Marie Louise. The Count de Cessac, who was present 
 at the Council, opposed the choice of an archduchess as 
 much as he could. He quoted a sad and yet recent 
 example of an archduchess sharing the throne of France, 
 and ended by saying that policy did not counsel this 
 alliance, as Austria was no longer a power. " Austria 
 no longer a power ! " sharply repHed the Emperor. " It 
 is plain. Monsieur, that you were not at Wagram." 
 
 Thus the last peace had made but a very slight addi- 
 tion to the Emperor's moral power over Germany. So- 
 cieties, secret but ardent to the pitch of infuriation, were 
 stirring up hatred and fomenting resentment against us, 
 
Id 
 
 SECRET SOCIETIES IN GEEMAXY. 3:35 
 
 and preparing for the clay of triumph for the friends of 
 virtue, namely, for that on which the French should he 
 swept from the face of Germany, or at least thro^Yn back 
 across the Rhine. The Universities were so many fur- 
 naces where this formidable mine was being prepared. 
 Men of spirit and courage such as Baron Stein, and Count 
 Walmoden, &c., were loudly mentioned as chiefs of 
 the league, and took no trouble to deny it. The Em- 
 peror's ministers beyond the Rhine did not cease to warn 
 him. I had myself furnished two reports, in which I 
 had been able to relate better than most the origin, pro- 
 gress, and aim of these societies ; for the details had 
 been given me by the historian, Johann von Miiller, who^ 
 had been at first all on fire for the association, but who 
 betrayed it the moment the Emperor took his fortune in 
 hand. The answers we received from Paris, and the 
 measures we were directed to take, w-erc trilling, and 
 could not be otherwise. The Emperor's Cabinet could 
 only exercise compulsion on the sovereigns ; and even 
 allowing to them (what certainly did not exist) an equal 
 desire for the destruction of the secret societies, they 
 were destitute of the means ; for these societies had been 
 formed independently of their respective governments, 
 and indeed one of their objects was to supply the weak- 
 ness of those governments, and to repair the disasters 
 caused by that weakness. What conclusion, then, can 
 be deduced from this curious result of our great victories. 
 in Germany ? That we had reached a point of civilization 
 when it was easier to conquer a territory than to subdue 
 the inhabitants. No doubt the ancient conquerors suc- 
 ceeded better ; but at what a price ! By depriving the 
 conquered people of their institutions, their temples and 
 their gods, and absolutely reducing them to a state of 
 slavery. But the conc|uered Prussian provinces remained 
 no less Prussian ; and even became more so after the 
 
326 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 conqueror liaci presented tliem with tlie monopoly of salt 
 and tobacco licences, and a code of laws. It is useless to 
 quote the example of the Romans. They, it is true, 
 religiously preserved such institutions of conquered 
 nations as might secure their tranquil lit j', that is to say, 
 perpetuate their weakness, and failed not to put down 
 the others. Besides, it is very doubtful if they could 
 have managed their conquests in Asia and Africa so 
 easily, or retained them so long, if the people of these 
 countries had equalled the Romans in civilization. Secret 
 societies would have been formed there likewise, and 
 vengeance would not have delayed so long, nor have 
 come from such a distance. 
 
 The marriage of the Emperor with an archduchess, 
 if it did not extinguish this furnace, certainly moderated 
 its heat. Such an event acting powerfully on public 
 opinion, modified it better than any partial measures. 
 A great change was immediately perceptible in the 
 disposition of the grand-duchy. The families who had 
 sons in the Austrian service invited them to Diisseldorf, 
 to spend their leave there, as in a friendly country. 
 These well-educated and distinguished young men, among 
 whom were some chamberlains of the Emperor, frater- 
 nised in the most cordial manner with the French and 
 German officers of our little army. If they still talked 
 of war, it was with the hope of in future fighting side 
 by side, and it was most pleasant to hear these bril- 
 liant young soldiers at last doing one another justice; 
 the French allowing the superiority of the German 
 arms on the day of Essling, and the Germans wonder- 
 ing at tlie marvellous manner in which we had l^ken 
 our revenge on the field of Wagram. The Minister 
 of the Interior assured me, on his own behalf and 
 that of the other old partisans of the House of Austria, 
 that peace with France was, from henceforward, not 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF THE GRAND-DUCHY. 327 
 
 only on their lips, but in tlieir licarts ; and tliat from 
 being a necessity, it bad become a sentiment. I saw 
 this every day, as I observed the increase of those 
 relations of confidence and of future connection that 
 are only maintained with a government of unquestioned 
 stability. The entertainments I gave in honour of this 
 grand wedding were different from any I had hitherto 
 given. I believed that this was the real celebration 
 of the reconciliation of the two first nations of the 
 continent, and, while trying to make them as splendid 
 as the place permitted, I endeavoured to make them 
 exhibit the character that I attributed to the occasion. 
 I was easily understood. There was real joy in all 
 hearts, such as a similar occurrence had never before 
 produced. The Minister of the Interior and the prin- 
 cipal functionaries in turn celebrated the event of the 
 day. It was received with acclamations throughout 
 the grand-duchy, always excepting the Prussian pro- 
 vinces, who could not forgive Austria any more than 
 France, and saw with extreme sorrow an alliance from 
 which they had nothing to hope for the future, but much 
 to fear. 
 
 The administration of the grand -duchy continued 
 peaceable. We had introduced French methods one 
 after the other, and they were as well understood and 
 better observed than in the country of their origin. Our 
 codes had been made public there. The adoption of 
 the civil code had necessitated the alteration of serfage 
 and colonat into free holdings. There had been a verit- 
 able emulation between M. Roederer and myself, who 
 should show most respect for the rights of property, 
 and we were apparently successful, for there was no 
 appeal anywhere. The only chapter of French legisla- 
 tion that we passed by was the law of mortgage ; that 
 we were agreed in considering defective in many of its 
 
328 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 principles, arid especially inapplicable to Germany. The 
 Emperor had given permission for us to offer a different 
 project, better suited to the locality. We took the 
 advice of the most learned lawyers in France and 
 Germany, and we offered a work to the Emperor on 
 which he had no time to give his opinion. 
 
 We had reduced the budgets and financial accounts 
 to such simple and clear methods that they could be 
 understood at a glance ; and nowhere, perhaps, had 
 control of the expenses been better and more firmly 
 estabhshed. We were desirous of making a model 
 administration, and, if permitted, of publishing the 
 history of it. I was already at work on the statistics 
 of the grand -duchy ; M. Roederer had taken the task 
 of developing the theory, and the third portion would 
 have been completed by tables showing the best means 
 of putting it in operation. We had not time to leave 
 such a memorial behind us, but some special subjects 
 had furnished matter for reports that might still be 
 advantageously consulted. I would point out, among 
 others, a work on the origin of colonats in the portions 
 of Germany near the Rhine ; on the system of mort- 
 gages ; on the coinage ; and even on the lottery. 
 There may be some surprise that two partisans, more 
 or less warm, of the doctrine of economy should have 
 taken any notice of the lottery, but to order its dis- 
 appearance. Such had been my very decided opinion 
 at first. M. Roederer had made me change my mind by 
 sufficiently weighty considerations. The German taste 
 for the lottery had taken the place of their fathers' pas- 
 sion for games of chance. Thus every province had 
 its lottery, and they were not contented with prizes of 
 money alone ; but also of pictures, curious bits of fur- 
 niture, town or country houses, and even considerable 
 estates. If an attempt were made to put down the lottery 
 
LOTTEEIE.S. 329 
 
 in a single State of Germany, notliing would be gained, 
 for people would only send the money tliey intended 
 for the state-lottery into some country where it was 
 not forbidden. And here, as the distance was never 
 great, the transfer of money could not be regarded 
 as an impediment. What, then, was the best, or least 
 bad thing to be dojie in such a situation ? To invent 
 a lottery that should offer chances enough, and suffi- 
 ciently favom-able, to satisfy the cupidity of the players, 
 and yet not make them pay too dear for their chance. 
 For instance, care should be taken to avoid the system 
 of the royal lottery of France, in which the prizes 
 depended on some combinations that were very unlikely 
 to occur, and the whole of the chances for the best were 
 irrevocably gone in one drawing, leaving nothing but 
 despair for the losers. Nothing similar was found in the 
 system that had been in use in the grand-duchy. The 
 payment of the prizes and the expense of the adminis- 
 tration were deducted, as must of course be understood, 
 from the total of the stakes, but did not exhaust it as in 
 France. The stake, only slightly reduced, appeared 
 again in a second and third drawing ; so that, on con- 
 dition of a small sacrifice of capital, a person had the 
 chance of several drawings, and, all things considered, 
 such a lottery, when entered on with moderation, might 
 be a speculation which a wise man might embark in, like 
 other people. We had not time to judge of the success 
 of this establishment ; but it had already gained so 
 much confidence that considerable stakes were sent in 
 to us from all parts of Germany. 
 
 An opportunity was afforded me to put the transcen- 
 dental philosophy of M. Roederer to the proof As to 
 religion, he was thoroughly a man of the eighteenth 
 century, and would have been one of the leaders in the 
 salons of Holbach, if he had made his appearance in 
 
330 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 the capital a few years earlier. Joint owner of the 
 Journal de Paris together with the Duke of Bassano, 
 he had edited it during the imprisonment of the latter, 
 and he fenced with sharp weapons against priests and 
 religion during the religious reaction which prevailed 
 throughout France just after the Reign of Terror. His 
 anger had carried him beyond the bounds of good taste, 
 and he received his punishment for it, for he never came 
 within them again ! I was aware of M. Eoederer's 
 opinions, and I was delighted at having to report a 
 miracle to him, submissively asking him to give the 
 ]\Iinisters of the grand-duchy an outline of the line of 
 conduct they ought to adopt, in a perfectly exceptional 
 case. This is the fact : — 
 
 The Minister of the Interior one day communicated 
 a letter to me that he had just received from the Prefect 
 of Mvinster with an account of a miracle. There was 
 a girl of twenty-three years old, living at Dalmen, who 
 had been brought up in a Carmelite convent, and who 
 had returned to her family after going through a 
 noviciate, because her lamentable state of health had 
 prevented her from taking the vows. The girl had been 
 brought up in extravagant mysticism. She hardly took 
 any food or sleep, and passed all the leisure time allowed 
 her by the rule at the foot of the cross, where she had 
 no doubt a thousand times prayed for the favour never 
 yet granted to any one but Saint Francis of Assisi. 
 Apparently she had been found worthy of acceptance. 
 When she returned home she could not stand, and lay 
 stretched on a bed, where she presented the most extra- 
 ordinary spectacle. Round her forehead was a circle 
 exactly representing a crown of thorns ; on her hands 
 and feet the mark of the nails, and on her left side 
 that of the print of the spear. Blood flowed from these 
 stigmata, and especially from that on the forehead. The 
 
MIEACLE AT DALMEN. 331 
 
 poor girl was in a state of suffering, for tlie feeble sounds 
 that she could produce resembled groans. Small quan- 
 tities of broth, given at intervals, was her sole nourish- 
 ment. She gave no sign of life but by her endeavours 
 to make the sign of the cross ; but she could not suc- 
 ceed, as her arm fell back as soon as lifted. She kept 
 her eyes almost constantly shut, and when she opened 
 them it was plain that she was blind. 
 
 The Prefect of Miinster had been informed of these 
 facts by the priest of Dalmen, and in order to divest 
 himself of any responsibility of behef, he had taken care 
 to forward the priest's original letter. I was not much 
 more inclined to believe than the Prefect. I replied to 
 the Minister that it was always suspicious when a village 
 priest was the witness of a miracle, and that there must 
 be some imposition at the bottom of it, or some good 
 Westphalian credulity. Count Nesselrode answered, " I 
 should think the same, if I did not know the priest of 
 Dalmen. He was an old comrade of mine ; we were 
 at the University together ; he is a sensible man, well 
 educated, and one of those Catholics who believe that 
 there were miracles at the time when they were 
 necessary, but do not believe that they continue since 
 they are no longer needed. Read his letter again, and 
 3'ou will see it is that of a man who is not so easily 
 imposed on." I did read it again, and was shaken. 
 We agreed that the matter should be investigated. 
 The Minister ordered a report on the physical condition 
 of the girl to be made by two physicians, one of whom 
 should be selected from the reformed religion, and re- 
 quired a circumstantial relation of the facts, prepared, 
 if possible, jointly, by the priest of Dalmen and the 
 nearest Protestant pastor. Precautions were taken to 
 prevent a great resort to the cottage, and to restrain the 
 saint from performing miracles in her turn. 
 
332 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 We were at that point when I wrote to M. Eoederer 
 about this prodigy. I related it with pecuhar satisfac- 
 tion, and weighing the reasons for doubt or behef, I in- 
 clined a little to the latter. I thought I should catch 
 my old tough unbehever so. He replied to me from the 
 pinnacle of his philosophy with a laconic disdain, and told 
 me that if any persons, except Catholics, had been caUed 
 as witnesses of this miracle, as common sense would 
 have directed, the story would never have reached me. 
 I expected that answer. 
 
 Meanwhile, the physicians' report had arrived, as well 
 as the account of the ecclesiastics. The first confirmed 
 the physiological details that I have just related. The 
 second gave some particulars respecting the young per- 
 son's family, and her habits from childhood. There 
 was nothing about herself or her surroundings that 
 could give the least suspicion of imposition. The doc- 
 tors closed their report with this observation, that it 
 was impossible that it could be anything but an acci- 
 dental effect of natural causes, but one so rare that not 
 a step had been made to the discovery of the cause. 
 The ecclesiastics showed no less prudence. They could 
 not deny to Him who had given laws to nature the right 
 of varying them in the interests of the human species, 
 but they expatiated on the rarity of those deviations, 
 and required, for the establishment of a miracle, evidence 
 of a higher degree than that of the example before their 
 eyes. They concluded by a proposal that the girl should 
 be carried to a hospital at Miinster, to put a stop to the 
 disturbance which her presence occasioned in the village 
 where she was. I thought this advice very prudent, 
 even philosophic. The Minister of the Interior and I 
 both felt our curiosity increased by reading these papers, 
 and we took the determination of proceeding to Dalmen. 
 M. de Nesselrode appointed the coadjutor Bishop of 
 
APPEARANCE OF THE GIPvL. 333 
 
 Miinster, M. Drost, to meet us there, a man of rare 
 piety and good sense, eminently calculated to ensure 
 the success of precautionary measures. We all three 
 came to Dalmen. For my part, I saw a young girl at 
 the point of death, lying on a bed, and really marked 
 with the prints we had been told of. Blood flowed in a 
 small quantity, but almost continually, from the kind of 
 wounds she had on her hands and feet, and the circle 
 around her forehead. This circle, by its texture and the 
 little pricks that marked the outlines, nearly resembled a 
 crown of thorns. IModesty prevented our pushing our 
 researches further, but those present unanimously de- 
 clared the presence of a wound on the left side, and 
 this was likewise confirmed by the medical report. The 
 unhappy creature could neither speak nor move. She 
 only just slightly unclosed her eyes at long intervals. It 
 was plain that her slight bodily powers were exhausted 
 by the miracle of which she had been the subject. The 
 civil magistrates, at whose head I was, shared the 
 doubts of the physicians, that is to say, their igno- 
 rance. Bishop de Drost and two other ecclesiastics held 
 themselves aloof, and reserved an opinion which they did 
 not reveal. The bishop was one of those who easily 
 explain any natural event the cause of which is unknown 
 to them by the special intervention of the Deity. But, 
 like a prudent man, he avoided any explanation, calmed 
 people's minds, and had the girl carried to a hospital at 
 Mtinster, where she died of inanition three months after. 
 I had replied to M. Eoederer, taking credit to myself 
 for having agreed with him on the necessity of calling in 
 others than Catholics to observe the phenomenon that I 
 had told him of I informed him of the measures taken 
 for this purpose by the Minister of the Interior, and I 
 told him that we must wait to see their success before 
 giving any judgment on this strange business. He re- 
 
334 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 plied with praise of tlie prudent measures that I had 
 adopted, and added that he particularly dreaded the 
 Yexatious comments of the Protestants on the Dalmen 
 miracle. I made the journey to Dalmen. I let some 
 time elapse, and then I forwarded the physicians' report 
 to M. Roederer, containing this vexatious Protestant com- 
 ment, with the memorial of the ecclesiastics, signed by an 
 austere Protestant minister. I also told him what I had 
 seen, and that there was nothing more left of me but a 
 Saint Thomas convinced by evidence. I proposed that 
 he should forward these ]3apers to the Institute, as they 
 might wish to examine such an unusual case, and en- 
 deavour to ascertain whether it did not proceed from the 
 powerful influence of mind over matter, and was not in 
 some way connected with galvanism, magnetism, or 
 some of those agencies that have recently displayed 
 themselves in the domain of science, and produce a 
 variety of marvels which are not yet analysed. I 
 quoted facts to him that had been mentioned in the 
 reports of the Academy, and were somewhat analogous 
 with the one in question. The journey to Dalmen 
 heated my brains a little. I gave myself up to researches 
 on phenomena that bore any relation to what I was in- 
 terested in. I did not even neglect what is told cf Saint 
 Francis of Assisi and his stigmata. In the legends I 
 only found stories most absurd in every point ; but I 
 contended in vain against magisterial incredulity per- 
 sonified in M. Roederer. In him I met the thorough 
 editor of " The Journal of Paris." He would not 
 publish anything, and he considered the whole affair as 
 utter folly, a view that was necessarily infinitely flattering 
 to his colleagues the Ministers of the grand-duchy. 
 
335 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Arrival of the Emperor at Diisseldorf — Presentation of the Authorities — 
 Review of the Troojjs — Council of Administration — A Stormy Sitting — 
 Displeasure of the Emperor — Le Haras Sauvage — Unexpected Invitation 
 to Dinner — Imperial Familiarity — Semi-official Conversation with tlie 
 Emperor Napoleon I. — The Empress — Dinner at the Residence — Reception 
 of the Emperor in Public — Right and Left Banks of the Rhine. 
 
 In tliis year, 1811, the Emperor caused his coming to 
 Diisseldorf to be announced. It seemed at that time as 
 if heaven had filled up the measure of his happiness. 
 He had just had a son born, whose destiny the poets 
 might well forecast after their pleasure. The child who 
 inspired the swan of Mantua with the idyl, or rather 
 splendid prophecy, to the Sicelides Miiscc, was only a little 
 adventurer in comparison with him who united in his 
 person the honours of ancient family with all the dazzling 
 splendour of a new and boundless glory unparalleled in 
 the past. The Emperor was wise in showing to his 
 provinces of German origin the Archduchess, mother 
 of the King of Rome. He began his journey with 
 Belgium, went on through Holland, and thus reached 
 the grand-duchy. His sojourn in the Belgian provinces 
 was a success, that is, if he took to himself the very 
 enthusiastic homage of which the Empress was the 
 object ; and which, perhaps, was in great measure 
 addressed to the descendant of Maria Theresa. He had 
 not been equally well pleased in Holland. His mode of 
 government did not in the least agree with the require- 
 
336 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 ments of the Dutch, who live by navigation, by their 
 colonies, by commerce and credit. He was assailed by 
 demands he coukl not listen to, and by complaints that 
 it was not in his power to redress. The Dutch were 
 always persecuting him with their calculations in which 
 the ruin of the country was the necessary result of 
 the continuance of the continental system. They were 
 not the sort of people to find compensation in the fine 
 speeches, of which the Emperor was not sparing, until 
 on his side he grew tired of making them, and left 
 Holland more quickly than had been indicated in the 
 programme of his journey. I knew that he blamed 
 the prince arch-treasurer, to whom he had confided 
 the conversion of the Dutch, for having done so little 
 towards it. The arch-treasurer without doubt had a 
 mind of the highest order, but he found it easier to 
 translate Homer and Tasso, and to handle the most 
 arduous points of political economy with facility and 
 elegance, than to console a Dutchman for the loss of 
 ten florins. 
 
 I could easily see that the Emperor had been vexed 
 when he came to Diisseldorf. Domestic events were not 
 the cause, the daily reports of the King of Rome were 
 excellent. The interior of France enjoyed perfect tran- 
 quillity, and it would have been the same on the rest 
 of the Continent but for the continuance of English in- 
 trigue. Probably he was convinced that these intrigues 
 had their focus in Holland, and that this country be- 
 longed to England in heart, and more than ever since 
 it had been united to France and placed under the 
 double dominion of his army and his laws. 
 
 The Emperor arrived at Diisseldorf about eleven 
 o'clock in the forenoon. During the rest of the morning 
 he received the constituted authorities. The speeches 
 addressed to him pleased him doubly, first because they 
 
NAPOLEON AND THE MINISTERS OF EELIGION. 337 
 
 were short, and secondly because they were written and 
 even passably delivered in French. It seemed as if he 
 had not been spoilt in these two particulars in Holland, 
 iind on the literary side of the question the advantage 
 lay decidedly with the grand-duchy. One circumstance 
 in the presentation of the authorities, in which I had 
 taken no share, in no way interfering with it, surprised 
 the Emperor's court, and was judged of in various ways. 
 The chiefs of the different religions established in the 
 grand-duchy presented themselves before His Majesty 
 together, all in a row. The chief of the synagogue was 
 in the centre ; on his right, in the absence of the bishop, 
 was the dean of the Catholic chapter, and at his left the 
 oldest Protestant minister. The rabbi had a fine old 
 man's head, in beautiful accordance with his costume, 
 and the two Christian priests were not much inferior 
 in appearance. The courtiers would have been glad to 
 laugh, but the Emperor was serious. The rabbi j)ro- 
 nounced the following discourse in a grave tone : — 
 
 " Sire, the ministers of the rehgions who acknowledge 
 the same God, preach the same morality, and equally 
 endeavour, but by sometimes different means, to make 
 men virtuous on earth, and worthy of a better life in 
 heaven, have come together to lay their homage at the 
 feet of him who, like a new Cyrus, has rebuilt our 
 temples, renewed our altars, and restored the ancient 
 respect for our solemnities. Sire, they declare that they 
 instruct the people in love for your sacred person, in 
 respect for your laws, and gratitude for your benefits ; 
 and they judge themselves worthy to set the example." 
 
 The Emperor answered : — " I receive your homage, 
 and approve your feelings. All men are brothers before 
 God. They ought to love and succour one another, what- 
 ever be the difference of their religions. You here set 
 a good example. I would advise you always to keep 
 
338 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 the peace, and have no disputes about anythuig but the 
 means of makmg men obedient to the laws, attached to 
 their princes, and faithful to the commands that God 
 himself has given, and of which you are alike depo- 
 sitaries." 
 
 I here repeat the address and answer exactly as the 
 public papers gave them at the time. I was not con- 
 cerned in the harangue of the religious ministers, and 
 allowed it to be given only in the hope that its novelty 
 would make a break in the barrenness of these pre- 
 sentations. At first I was afraid as to its success. The 
 scene had confounded the great exponents of etiquette, 
 who were on the high road to become as ridiculous as 
 the Dangeaus or Staintots of Louis XIV. I had plainly 
 heard General Lauriston complaining bitterly that any 
 one had dared to play such a pitiful farce before the 
 Emperor, and especially the Empress, and saying that 
 such people ought to be kicked out. But, after the 
 Emperor's answer, his wrath was suddenly appeased, and 
 he did not neglect to make me sure of it by saying, 
 " Did you hear how the Emperor has set all right by 
 his answer? If he was not angry, it was for fear of 
 frightening the Empress." 
 
 "What! can the Emperor be angry or pleased at 
 will ? This is a new quality ; but, in this case, what was 
 there to make him angry ? The priests presented 
 themselves with dignity ; their speech, I thought, was 
 good ; and the Emperor, who loses no time in flattery, 
 praised it." 
 
 The same day, after dinner, the Emperor received the 
 princes of the neighbourhood who had assembled to pay 
 their court to him, and the persons of note in the grand- 
 duchy. He had so cleverly addressed his budgets of 
 questions, that before he went to bed he was better in- 
 formed respecting the interests of the country than I was 
 
COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION. liSO 
 
 myself. In the evening I attended to know how the 
 next day woiikl be employed. He appointed a review of 
 the troops at eight o'clock in the morning, a Council of 
 Administration at ten, and a sitting of the Council of 
 State at two. 
 
 The review was successful. I observed that he sliowcd 
 some symptoms of kindness towards General Damas. I 
 had left the infantry in their white coats with flicings of 
 full blue, cut straight, exactly like those of the German 
 troops. I had added cloth trousers, and shoes that were 
 fastened above the ankle, like half-boots. The Emperor 
 called a soldier out of the ranks, turned him round and 
 round, put his hand under the collar of his coat and 
 under his waistcoat, then said, showing him to the Prince 
 of Neuchatel — 
 
 " Berthier, here is a well-dressed soldier. And 
 mme ; 
 
 " All very fine," answered the prince. " Ask Beugnot 
 what he costs." 
 
 That very moment the question was put, my good 
 star brought the knowledge to my fingers' ends. The 
 Emperor did not consider the price excessive. He 
 wanted to know where I got the cloth, and how much I 
 paid for it. I satisfied him about these last ciuestions ; 
 but after that time the manufacturers of the grand-duchy 
 were put in requisition for the Emperor's service, and so 
 exclusively that I could not get a piece of cloth for the 
 army of the grand-duchy. 
 
 I confidently awaited the Council of Administration, as 
 I fancied that the Emperor would come very well dis- 
 posed towards it. I was mistaken. The council was 
 stormy, and I had to bear the brunt. It was composed 
 of the Duke of Bassano, of the Prince of Neuchatel, of 
 MM. Dam, Boederer, and Nesselrode, ministers of the 
 grand duchy. First the Emperor attacked me on my 
 
340 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 system of accounts, which lie picked to pieces after liis 
 rough way, and made out to be ill arranged. I could 
 only reply to him by reconstructing the business as I 
 understood it myself, and as in my opinion everyone 
 ought to understand it. The end of it was that after a 
 great many cyphers and explanations neither of us was 
 the forwarder ; indeed, in such a discussion between two 
 persons it is hardly possible not to get entangled. The 
 Duke de Bassano endeavoured to relieve my embarrass- 
 ment in the kindest manner possible. Three different 
 times did he attempt to show that the results that my 
 accounts presented were perfectly correct, even when 
 analysed in the Emperor's way. The Emperor would 
 not give up, and summoned the director of the ac- 
 counts of the grand-duchy to the sitting. He replied, 
 and worked out his answer exactly as I had done. 
 "There is nothing to be done with all these people," 
 said the Emperor, harshly : "it is a conspiracy of dis- 
 order." 
 
 And this good German director answered, " No, Sire, 
 be quite easy ; there is no disorder. Your Majesty has 
 not had time to see that it is all right." 
 
 The Emperor, but little satisfied with the result of the 
 council, attacked me about the public debt, for its daily 
 increase by indirect means, without his being informed. 
 I answered that the debt could only increase in one way, 
 and that very direct, by the pensions His Majesty was 
 pleased to grant. I had not proposed a single one that 
 was not in conformity with the rules. I even waited as 
 long as it was possible before proposing a new pension 
 for the extinction of an old one of the same value, so as 
 not to augment the amount ; but the Emperor, of his 
 own proper motion, had granted considerable pensions 
 upon the grand-duchy, and it was not surprising that the 
 total amount was infliipncp,d_ 
 
STOllMY INTEEVIEW. 341 
 
 " All your pensions and your public debt sliould liave 
 been subjected to revision." 
 
 " I could not have done it without having received the 
 orders of the Emperor, and perhaps I might have had 
 the happiness of convincing His Majesty that the result 
 of such a measure would have been very small as regards 
 profit, and would only have made me lose credit." 
 
 " What do you mean by those words ; and what is 
 your credit, if you please ? I did not send you here to 
 do business. A merchant or banker wants credit : as for 
 you, it is order that I want, and I do not find much here." 
 
 " Sire, I beg your majesty's pardon for having iLsed 
 an improper expression. I meant by credit the confi- 
 dence I require to enable me to fulfil the mission with 
 which I am honoured." 
 
 " Again, what is this sum of deposits that appeals at 
 chapter eight of the receipts, and hicreases in one year 
 by more than twelve thousand pounds ? It is a never- 
 ending disorder. '' 
 
 " Sire, the smallest explanation will vouch for tliis 
 receipt. The ancient rules of the grand-duchy required 
 that the receipts from estates owned by minors when 
 exceeding the sum of forty pounds should be lodged in 
 the public treasury. Private persons are also allowed to 
 place their capital there. When they wish to withdraw 
 it they inform the Treasury, and it is restored witli a 
 longer or shorter delay, according to the importance of 
 the capital withdrawn. These sums bear an interest of 
 four per cent, for private persons. The Treasury gets. 
 one-fifth and a trifle more by placing the funds in France 
 in State bonds." 
 
 At this moment the thunder broke. In vain I proved 
 that the grand -duchy thus obtained profits which I 
 carried exactly into my accounts ; in vain I mentioned 
 the honourable house in France that conducted the 
 
342 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 business ; and insisted, in order to show him that this 
 institution had to be preserved or suppressed, that I 
 had found it long since established, that its sup- 
 pression would be the rupture of a bond of honourable 
 confidence between the prince and his subjects, and that 
 long use had rendered it necessary. The Emperor flew 
 into a regular passion. He maintained that I allowed 
 myself to keep loans always open in the grand-duchy, 
 and I required credit apparently for that purpose. He 
 wanted to see to the bottom of this fund. I begged the 
 Emperor to order it to be verified that moment, and 
 before I leit the council. I spoke these last words in a 
 tone of great emotion, and those present saw I could 
 hardly restrain my tears. The Emperor called on the 
 Minister of the Interior to be so 2:ood as to tell him what 
 he knew of the fund. Count Nesselrode answered that 
 he could add nothing to what the Finance Minister had 
 just said ; and he could only repeat that the suppression 
 of this establishment would have had a bad effect on 
 the duchy. M. Roederer timidly added that perhaps 
 some difficulty might have been found in the employ- 
 ment of the receipts from the estates in wardship. The 
 Emperor's anger resolved itself into an animated allocu- 
 tion on the dangers of credit, the ways of which are thus 
 opened to the young Grand Duke, who on his accession 
 would find a machine ready prepared to enable him to 
 get hold of the fortune of his subjects. He wiU seize on 
 it greedily ; he will borrow all he can, and Heaven knows 
 what use he will make of the money ! Then came a 
 digression on the foolish expenses that the German 
 princes run into ; and as an instance, an account of a 
 day's sport given to him in the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, 
 which was only a disgusting butchery, and had cost I do 
 not know how many thousands of pounds. I was glad 
 lO see the Emperor go a little afield, in hopes that he 
 
OEDINANCES OF PAYMENT. 343 
 
 would slacken somewhat in liis career ; but tliere re- 
 mained an article to be treated of, in any way very delicate, 
 and on that point I expected new rigours, — it was the 
 ordinances of payment. 
 
 It is well known that the expenses of the twelve 
 months of the year were fixed once for all by the budget ; 
 but on the first of each month the Emperor issued orders 
 for the j^ayment to the different ministers of the smns 
 considered necessary for the service of the month, and it 
 was only in virtue of this order, and in exact accordance 
 with the sums there stated, that the treasury cashed the 
 orders of the ministers. This method had been applied 
 to the grand-duchy. It may well be supposed that I 
 never failed to forward on the 20th of each month the 
 list of funds necessary for the various services during 
 the ensuing mouth. Certainly most frequently I re- 
 ceived an order of payment which was always in con- 
 formity, but sometimes, and especially during the last 
 Austrian war, these orders had been delayed for two 
 months. Yet we encountered expenses which admitted 
 of no delay, and I had taken upon myself to draw provi- 
 sional orders upon the Treasury without authorisation ; 
 and it was a remarkable thing that these orders, though 
 subsequently authorised, did not escape the Emperor's 
 observation in the examination he made of the condition 
 of the treasury three years afterwards. He asked me 
 the reason of breaking through such a strict rule as that 
 forbidding a single coin leaving the treasury without an 
 order for payment; and he added that I had compromised 
 my responsibility, and that of the accountant, who 
 deserved to be dismissed, or worse, as the reward of his 
 complaisance. I explained that I had committed this 
 transgression with full knowledge of what I was doing, 
 and in reality pledging my responsibility ; but under 
 what circumstances ? First I forwarded exactly my esti- 
 
344 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 mate of expenses. I did more ; I followed them up with 
 two reminders, and sent information in a third letter, 
 that if I did not receive the order for payment, I should 
 find myself obliged to draw on the treasury for expenses 
 that could not be deferred, such as the pay of the troops, 
 the price of the equipments that had been made for 
 them, and the expenses of the hospitals that were charge- 
 able to the State. I quoted, among other pressing 
 matters, the order I had received to forward an infantry 
 regiment immediately to Spain, at a time when the 
 orders were delayed. I could not send it off without 
 money, and I inquired if I ought to have delayed the 
 departure of the regiment till I received the orders 
 for payment, and whether I should not have been as 
 seriously compromised by the delay as by the abuse for 
 which I was blamed. Besides, I had only employed this 
 extreme method three times, while the Emperor was at 
 the furthest extremity of Germany ; and I had employed 
 it with so much moderation that I had left in arrear the 
 payments to the judges, ministers, ecclesiastics, and all 
 the persons employed in the administration ; in a word, 
 I had only drawn from the treasury for the most urgent 
 expenses, and within the limits of my requisitions, so 
 that when the distribution orders did arrive, the pro- 
 visional payments had been authorised without any kind 
 of difficulty. A slight murmur and some signs of 
 approbation made me believe that my answers had been 
 considered satisfactory ; and so perhaps they were by all 
 except the Emperor. 
 
 " That is all very fine," replied His Majesty. " I know 
 nothing that people cannot manage to justify by neces- 
 sity, especially when they constitute themselves judges of 
 that necessity. I take the instance you have quoted. 
 Well ! this second regiment would not have started for 
 Spain ; and, I ask you, should I have been able to blame 
 
TEEMINATION OF THE SITTING. 345 
 
 you for not having forced the doors of the treasury and 
 committed a robbery in order to enable it to start ? 
 The object of payment orders for tlie grand-duchy, as; 
 for all France besides, is to keep the keys of both 
 treasuries always in my pocket. AVlien I sign a pay- 
 ment order I lend this key, and it may be legally used ; 
 but when I have not lent it, there is no other way of 
 getting into the treasury but by breaking open the 
 doors ; and when doors are forced to obtain money, what 
 is it called? It would be a fine thing to see the 
 ministers of France and those of Italy flying upon 
 the public treasures after the pattern of those of the 
 grand -duchy, and every one making out credits for 
 himself after his own fashion. It would be worse than 
 the Tower of Babel!" 
 
 At this point the approbation of the spectators was 
 markedly evinced. I was too much agitated to feel 
 mdiguant that the superior men called to this council, 
 no doubt to make matters clearer, should not have 
 found anything but signs or monosyllables of applause 
 to give to these strong expressions with which the 
 Emperor was evidently sporting. 
 
 Some matters in the department of the Minister of 
 the Interior were considered. The Emperor showed 
 himself propitious then, and accepted without any diffi- 
 culty the praises that M. Roederer gave to the adminis- 
 tration of Count Nesselrode, who hitherto had done 
 nothing without consulting me. The last thing con- 
 sidered was the wild breeding-stud ; and, as if it was 
 to be an unlucky council for me, I found myself in 
 this matter again of a different opinion from the Em- 
 peror. The sitting had been prolonged, and the hour 
 appointed for the council had struck. So the Emperor 
 raised the siege, and left me c[uite convinced that it was 
 the last time I should have the honour of working with 
 
3-1-6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 liim. Such and so profound was my persuasion, that 
 I did not accompany him to the Council of State, where 
 he overwhelmed the good Germans with admiration, as 
 they did not know how he had become acquainted with 
 their interests, and wondered at the superior manner in 
 Avhich he handled them. M. Fuschius said to me when 
 he came from the council, "Indeed, nronsieur, I have 
 read a great many things about the Emperor, and heard 
 more, but I did not yet know him : he is more than 
 a man." 
 
 " I think as you do," answered I : " he is a devil." 
 Five or six persons were present when this word 
 slipped out ; it was repeated, with some kindly intention, 
 to the Emperor ; but he was not offended, and, on the 
 contrary, said gaily, " Indeed, he is right, for I kept him 
 on hot coals all the morning." 
 
 I went home, told my wife my misfortune, and advised 
 her to pack up, for I was disgraced, and certainly a 
 message would come to demand the return of my port- 
 folio. We were mournfully considering our fate, when a 
 messenger from the Emperor was announced. I had 
 both leaves of the door opened, and advanced nobly, 
 like a man unmoved by disgrace. I found a servant 
 who brought me a vivd voce invitation to dinner Avith the 
 Emperor for that very day. I explained to him that he 
 had most hkely made a mistake, and that the invitation 
 must be for Count Roederer, who was in the same house, 
 and I sent him to that gentleman. The servant per- 
 sisted, and told me that it was somewhat remarkable 
 that he had received the order from the Emperor him- 
 self; that he had made no mistake ; that he had heard 
 my name quite plainly, and could not go to the Emperor 
 for an explanation. The change was so quick that I was 
 quite puzzled at it. I was taking counsel with my wife 
 whether I should go to the Castle, when the Duke of 
 
IMPEEIAL FAMILIARITY. 347 
 
 Bassano arrived, brought by liis unwearied good-nature. 
 He came to encourage me, and made no doubt of the 
 reality of the invitation, and even of its flattering nature, 
 since the dinner would be a family one. The Emperor 
 had appointed the dinner for the ministers and some 
 persons of importance for the next da}^ The Duke's 
 visit somewhat calmed me ; but the feelings by 
 ■which I had at first been agitated gave place to some 
 sort of resentment at the way I had been treated all the 
 morning, and I went to the Emperor in a tolerably 
 moody franre. I cannot tell how the man's feelings 
 resumed their sway under the discontented minister. I 
 think if His ]\Iajesty had continued to hold the same tone 
 to me I should not have diminished in any way the 
 profound respect which I owed him, but should have 
 begged him to set me at liberty. I entered with a sad 
 and distrustful face. The Emperor was in the room, 
 walking with the Prince of Neuchatel. I made two low 
 bows, and kept aj^art. He came to me. 
 
 " Well, you great idiot, have you recovered your 
 wits?" 
 
 I bowed lower, without having a word to answer. 
 The Emperor instantly took hold of my car, which was 
 the most intoxicating mark of favour towards him who 
 had the luck to receive it. All was forgotten, repaired, 
 embellished b}^ this imperial gesture of familiarity. 
 Conversation became general. I am sensitive almost 
 to the point of weakness, and if anything is to be done 
 with me, I must be dealt wath at a calm moment. I 
 had in a moment returned to affection and gratitude. 
 
 The Emperor blamed me for having been so obstinate 
 about the system of accounts, where I was wrong. I 
 owned it, and if he had chosen he might have made me 
 own graver faults, and equally untrue. With regard to 
 the other matters, the Emperor asked me why bridges 
 
348 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 always have parapets. I was racking my brains for 
 an answer, when he gave one himself. 
 
 "Do not seek so far; it is just simply to keep fools 
 from jumping into the rivers. Out of ten thousand — 
 why should I say ten thousand? — out of a hundred 
 thousand persons who cross a bridge, perhaps there is 
 not one who has a fancy to go and see what is at the 
 bottom of the river ; and yet parapets are built to all 
 bridges, and with justice, for a few instances of persons 
 throwing themselves over w^ould be enough to make 
 bridges the regular resort of suicides. Well, my orders 
 for payment are my parapets. I reckon you as a tried 
 man ; I know less of Nesselrode, but he seems to me 
 a German nobleman in the best sense of the word. lu 
 France my Ministers of Finance and of the Treasury 
 are excellent. No matter, I must have parapets ; for 
 my confidence is more securely founded on severity of 
 rule than on the characters of men. I employ many, 
 and I am far from knowing them all. So I must trust. 
 Now for me, and even for them, it is safest to put them 
 in a position it is impossible to abuse. You will not 
 refuse to avow that with your provisional warrants 
 and the complaisance of your man of the treasury (I 
 do not know his name), you might get fifty or a hundred 
 thousand pounds out of this treasury and run off with it. 
 You would not do it now ; but after you will come some 
 one else. Who will he be ? You do not know, no more 
 do I. Perhaps an honest man up to that point, but who 
 will take advantage because I have left him the power of 
 doing so." 
 
 I rephed, " The Emperor perhaps has not forgotten 
 that he has entrusted more considerable sums to me 
 which I might have misused." 
 
 "I stop you, for you are falling back into the morning's 
 mania once more. It is not your own self that is in 
 
CONVERSATION WITH THE EMPEEOE. 349 
 
 question : I am reasoning in a general way. In a word, 
 can you answer to me for all tlie people I employ ? You 
 would be very bold." 
 
 " But I only infringed the rule at the last extremity, 
 and was reduced to it by the delay of the orders for 
 payment." 
 
 " That is your only argument ; and, after all, the sky 
 would not have fallen on the grand-duchy or anywhere 
 else, if your payments had been a little delayed. Besides, 
 the exception does not destroy the rule ; on the contrary, 
 it was the rule I was defending. When you were 
 speaking this morning about the government of the 
 communes, you quoted what had been your own practice 
 in this matter before the Revolution. What were you 
 doing before the Revolution ?" 
 
 " Sire, I filled the post of provincial syndic attorney." 
 
 " Oh, indeed, then you must be older than Berthier?" 
 
 " That is very possible. I have not had any chance of 
 knowing." 
 
 The Prince of Neuchatel said, " I should not think so. 
 In what year were you born?" 
 
 I named it, and we found that I was ten years 
 younger than the Prince. The Emperor took his text 
 from it to prove that a difference of ten years, more or 
 less, between two persons who are past forty is immense. 
 He observed that the men of his Council of State, and 
 the great majority of those with whom he began his 
 government, were of my age, and would all fail him at 
 the same time. I answered that he had a rich nursery- 
 ground in the class of Masters of Requests and Auditors, 
 where he would easily find means to replace us. The 
 Emperor rephed, " I do not at all know that : you were 
 all of you, loy different names, children of the Revo- 
 lution ; you were tempered in its waters, and you rose 
 from them with a vigour that will not be repeated." He 
 
350 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 then spoke of the diificulties surrouncling the choice of 
 pubhc functionaries by a new Government, and con- 
 cluded with these words : " I have made the fortune of 
 those who have worked with me to found the Empire, 
 and I will make that of their children : it is a duty. 
 After that, I will never employ any man who has not got 
 his thousand a year in land. I am not rich enough to 
 pay all the world ; and those who are most interested in 
 the maintenance of the State ought to serve gratuitously. 
 When we have done with war — and Heaven grant it 
 may be soon ! — we must turn our hands to the task ; for 
 all our present work has been but provisional. But 
 patience." 
 
 The Empress, the Duchess of Montebello, and the 
 Duke of Bassano entered the room. The conversation 
 lost the semi-official character it had so far possessed, 
 and turned upon the country, its beauties and defects, 
 on the Empress's abode and accommodation. "All that," 
 said the Emperor, " is very bad, and it is Count Beu- 
 gnot's fault ; for he ought to know that I expect to find 
 convenient dwellings in the places where I stay and am 
 master." I stammered out some lame excuses. We 
 went in to dinner. The Emperor was in a good humour 
 then, and entertained the company a little at my expense. 
 He criticised with nice tact the little negligences I had 
 fallen into from being so much absorbed after their 
 majesties' arrival at Dtisseldorf I saw that he had not 
 thought the comj^letion of his education beneath him, and 
 that there was a great, very great difference between the 
 Emperor of 1811 and the First Consul whom I had 
 received at Eouen ten years before. Then I had to act 
 as master of the ceremonies and suggester of good 
 manners, and had a laborious post ; and to-day I could 
 hardly get into my head the forms of respect and de- 
 ferential acts of observance making up the etiquette 
 
EMPRESS MAKIE LOUISE. 351 
 
 in the midst of which the Emperor moved. After dinner 
 I made np the Empress's card-table with the Duchess of 
 Montebello and the Duke of Neuchtitel, and had the 
 honour to be lier partner at wliist. The game w^as a 
 very careless one, as often happens in such a case, each 
 of the players hardly doing more than glancing at the 
 cards, while giving his mind to what was passing around 
 the table, to which the Emperor came every now and 
 then to say something pleasant to the Empress, or 
 address some joke to the Prince of Neuchatel or me. 
 My mind was not sufficiently at ease to observe, during 
 or after dinner, in what sort of humour was the Em- 
 press, or to perceive any impress of her character in her 
 features. The journey had been long ; she seemed 
 fatigued and weary. She only answered the Emperor 
 in monosyllables, and everyone else Avith a monotonous 
 gesture of the head. I cannot really give any cause 
 for it, but am inclined to believe that Her Majesty was 
 not exempt from the timid awe that her august spouse 
 imposed on all who had the honour of approaching him. 
 When the game was over, I waited till the Emperor 
 had concluded some audiences to ask his orders. 
 He told me that the next day he would have his 
 ministers to dine with him, the coadjutor of Miinster, 
 the prefect, the mayor of the town, and the princes who 
 chanced to be at Diisseldorf ; that he had accepted an 
 entertainment at the theatre and a ball, and that this 
 would consume part of the evening. He desired me 
 to arrange with the Duke of Bassano to have a dinner 
 of forty persons in my house at the same time, at which 
 the latter and myself should preside, and to invite the 
 principal functionaries of the grand-duchy, whom his 
 arrival had brought to Diisseldorf Things had to be 
 done as magnificently as the locality permitted, so that 
 the Germans might feel themselves the guests of the 
 
352 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Emperor, and I employed a portion of the night in 
 preparing the ordinances of which the Emperor had 
 reminded me. I was also afraid of the deliberation of 
 M. Roederer's proceedings. He was naturally hard to 
 satisfy. Other people's work seldom was lucky enough 
 to please him, and he was even hard upon his own. He 
 would revise it again and again, and spend a great deal 
 of time in seeking for perfection. This merit, praise- 
 worthy in an author, becomes a defect in the despatch 
 of business. However, when the Emperor was there, 
 speed was needful, and this time M. Roederer let me 
 have my way. 
 
 He meant to depart the day after the morrow, and 
 Avished before going to sign the decrees that had been 
 decided on in the council. He had already warned 
 l\r. Roederer, whom he suspected of not being expe- 
 ditious ; and it was well that I should come to an 
 understanding with him. I returned home, possessed 
 with fresh zeal. I spent the rest of the evening in 
 giving audiences to persons who had come to Diisseldorf 
 Avith requests to make to the Emperor, or simply out of 
 a by no means unsuitable curiosity. 
 
 Next morning I attended the levee. The Emperor 
 kept me ; and when the company had gone, his first 
 word was, "Well, my ordinances?" " Sire, they are 
 ready, and M. Roederer will bring them when he comes 
 at two o'clock for his work." 
 
 " Very well. I have by me the two requests of the 
 city of Mulheim that you refused, and you were not 
 wrong ; but what could not be allowed as a right may 
 be granted as a favour, and I should like to grant a 
 few on my waj'. You must take the bundle, and these 
 matters may be passed with the others." 
 
 The Emperor went on thence to enter into details 
 very interesting to me. He saw that I had done some 
 
A CAREER ARRANGED FOE ME. Soo 
 
 good in the country ; he especially approved of my 
 having put down mendicity, -whicli is so odious on the 
 other side of the Rhine ; he kept on striving, hand to 
 hand, witli it in France, but it is a difficult sore to 
 extirpate in a large state. The Emperor reproached 
 me with my parsimony : I was badly housed, and ill 
 equipped, and he would not have it so. He held to order 
 in everything and everywhere, but he did not therefore 
 object to pay proper expenses. I mast see to the repair 
 and furnishing of the hunting-lodge, which was very 
 uncomfortable even as a resting-place on a journey. He 
 supposed the town-house was not much better, since I 
 chd not live there. There was not a prefect who was 
 not lietter lodged than I. Sonre attention must also be 
 paid to the lodge at Benrath and the castle of Bensberg. 
 All this must be done gradually, economically, and ac- 
 cording to plans which should be submitted to him ; or 
 rather he would send soine one from Paris, for there 
 was no architect in the country. I was settled there 
 for a long time. My name was always being urentioned 
 to him ; what did I want? To be one of his ministers 
 in Paris. To judge by what he saw of me the other 
 day, I should not be there long. I should die in tor- 
 ments before the month was over. He had already killed 
 Portalis, Cretet, and even Treilhard, who, however, died 
 very hard, but he could not get on any more than the 
 others ; the same would hapjien to me, if not worse. I 
 was well off with these people, who were good })eople. 
 I must stay here till the yiamg prince came to take 
 possession of his grand-duchy, and even stay on two 
 or three years to teacli him his business ; after which I 
 should be old, or ratlier we should all be old, and he 
 would send me to the Senate to twaddle at my case. 
 There was my career; and he did not know a better. AA'as 
 my malady the longing for dear Paris, like the rest? 
 
 VOL. I. ^ ^ 
 
354 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 He would not refuse me leave every year to go and 
 spend some time there : it would even be as well 
 for me to bring my budget there, and explain it in 
 person. In thanking the Emperor for this last favour 
 I found means to say that it was the more valuable to 
 me because the Emperor only knew as much of my 
 work and of my conduct as suited his Secretary of State 
 for the grand duchy to report, and I could not feel sure 
 of his goodwill. 
 
 " I allow/' replied the Emperor, " that Pusderer is not 
 a nice person to deal with ; but I know his fault, and 
 attend to it." 
 
 The dinner that was given at the Residence had a kind 
 of magnificence about it. The Duke of Bassano did 
 the honours with much grace, and with the kind- 
 ness natural to him — captivating, like everything that 
 comes from the heart. I had got together forty-six guests. 
 At the beginning of dinner all preserved a grave silence ; 
 but bv degrees the 2,'ood wines of France relaxed the 
 brows of the illustrious company, and we had not reached 
 the dessert Avhen they were all at the confusion of 
 tongues. All the time there was not the slightest 
 approach to disorder ; only an intermingling of a little 
 of the kindly warmth that cannot now be found any- 
 where but beyond the Rhine. I can well suppose that 
 the Emperor's dinner did not offer a trace of anything 
 similar : notwithstanding Hebe and her nectar, the 
 repasts of Olympus are enough to kill with weariness. I 
 had ordered at the theatre Mozart's Do7i Giovanni. 
 Either there lingers in Germany some tradition of the 
 manner in which the master wished his setting to be 
 sung, or else Mozart's music gains Ijy passing through 
 German throats ; for certainly Don Giovanni is better 
 felt and better sung in Germany than in France, and 
 for that reason I had selected this piece to be played 
 
EECEPTION OF THE EMPEEOR. 355 
 
 before the Court. But the Emperor, who had perhaps not 
 had the opportunity of making the same comparison as 
 I had, was not tempted by the bill ; he sent orders for the 
 piece to begin, and did not make his appearance till 
 towards the end. He said next day that if he had fore- 
 seen that it would be no worse he should have come 
 sooner. From the theatre the Emperor went to the ball- 
 room, and was kind enough to remain some time there. 
 Wherever he went, he found universally expressed two 
 deeply marked feelings of different sorts. In his presence 
 there was a kind of shock like that experienced at sight 
 of a miracle ; towards the Empress, the most affectionate 
 respect was felt. These feelings were not of a nature to 
 produce the thunders of applause to which France had 
 accustomed the Emperor. His reception would even 
 have been cold by comparison, if the Frenchmen living 
 at Diisseldorf and those in the suite of tlie Emperor, had 
 not encouraged the Germans to applaud, and given them 
 the signal and example. The Duke de Bassano took 
 advantage of the Emperor's presence at the ball to pre- 
 sent our dinner-guests to him, and they were most 
 kindly received. On the whole, the day went off well ; 
 and the Emperor, who would not allow that it had been 
 at all tedious, appeared satisfied. He informed me that 
 he had appointed his departure for the next day at six in 
 the morning, and added that, as the wild breeding-stud 
 would not take him far out of his road, he would stop 
 there and examine the state of things for himself, so as 
 to be better enabled to decide between his opinion and 
 mine. Next day I was at the palace at half-past five, 
 and three-quarters of an hour later in the forest of Duis- 
 bourg, where is the wild breeding-stud. The Emperor 
 did really go thither in his carriage at the time appointed, 
 and mounted his horse ; but when he had advanced 
 some distance into the forest, and saw that the stud was 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 disioersed over twenty-four thousand acres of wood, and 
 that the horses were so scattered that it was very hard to 
 collect them, he perceived that he could make no obser- 
 vation that would be of any use, and resumed his journey 
 to Cologne. 
 
 M. Roederer did not accompany the Emperor ; he 
 stayed a week longer with me, and displayed himself, in 
 milder form, almost good-natured. I knew that he had 
 watched with some envy the manner in which the 
 Emperor treated me, especially in nratters of display, 
 and that, either by design or chance, his complaints 
 had reached the Emperor, who had replied, " Roederer 
 is a fool if he does not see the reason of the difference. 
 He follows me ; Beugnot stays behind." 
 
 M. Roederer, remarking on the reproaches that the 
 Emperor had made me for having no proper house, or 
 furniture, or establishment, took the trouble to explain 
 to me what he would have done in my place to pro- 
 cure such enjoyments ; and he displayed a dehcacy of 
 taste, a knowledge of comfort and refinement in all 
 things, that no one would ever have expected to encounter 
 in him. I perceived that he was no stranger to the 
 fine arts : he placed on paper some ideas for the 
 embellishment of the town of Diisseldorf, that have 
 been useful. A¥e parted, retaining on both sides the 
 same feelings towards one another as when we met, 
 and yet the friction of an intimacy lasting for a fort- 
 night had slightly rubbed off the sharp points of the 
 angles. 
 
 The Emperor, before he left Diisseldorf, had deter- 
 mined all matters in suspense, as he usually did, only 
 leaving that of tlie wild breeding-stud undecided. I had 
 constantly begged for its abolition, but the Emperor 
 always delayed the sentence, as he was prejudiced in 
 favour of the utility of such establishments, having seen 
 
AEMS OF THE GERMAN EMPIEE. 357 
 
 them in Poland and Northern Germany. He Avonhl not 
 nnderstand that -wild breedmg-stnds are only well situ- 
 ated in such countries as haA'"e no strong impulse of 
 civilization, but that they are intolerable where the woods 
 are valuable, and arable land is precious. Thus the}'' 
 are found to disappear in Germany in proportion as the 
 distance from tlie Ehine diminishes. The civilization of 
 the Gauls, and of one jiart of Germany, advanced by the 
 Roman conc|uest, and even by the efforts that the people 
 had made to escape from it, had cjuickly extended as far 
 as the Rhine ; but it had great difficulty in gaining a 
 footing on the right bank of the stream. It was on the 
 very territory of the grand-duchy that Varus had lost 
 his legions ; and the forest of Duisbourg, where the wild 
 breeding-stud was then situated, was probably the site of 
 that ill-fated general's tribunal when overthrown for his 
 first act of violence. His other acts are well known, as 
 well as the fact that the eao;les of three leo'ions remained 
 in the hands of the victors. Two eagles, back to back, 
 compose the most glorious trophy of the Germans. This 
 trophy was copied thousands and thousands of times by 
 barbarous artists, and was distributed from one end of 
 CTcrmany to the other, so as to minister to the public 
 intoxication. To this day we find them, and they are 
 ■well placed ; for the arms of the empire of Germany, 
 the eagle with two heads and four feet, is nothing but the 
 reproduction of the eagles captured from Varus — a 
 clumsy reproduction, just as it was at first, but since con- 
 secrated to the holy Roman empire by the immutable 
 principles of heraldry. Anyhow, such an origin is as 
 good as another, and if heraldic science had possessed 
 many such to preserve, it w^ould not be the stateliest 
 vanity of this lower world. 
 
 In spite of the defeat of Varus, or rather because of 
 it, the right bank of the Rhine was guarded by the 
 
35S LIFK AND ADVENTDEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 Romans as a military post, and had lost its popula- 
 tion, which had retreated into the interior. This 
 explains how wealthy colonies, great cities, such as Stras- 
 bourg, Treves, Mayeuce, Cologne, form a rich belt on 
 the left bank of the river, while nothing of the sort is 
 present on the right bank ; and thence arises also the 
 different amount of cultivation between the opposite sides. 
 The ground that composes the grand-duchy had long 
 been covered by forest, and the traces of it may be seen 
 to this day, the country having been only recently 
 reclaimed. The urus, the horse, swine, and wild animals 
 lived at pleasure in these immense forests. The inhabi- 
 tants of several cantons united at stated times to hunt 
 them ; and thus we see that certain communes and 
 some ancient families have preserved a right to share 
 in the capture of horses. It seems that afterwards 
 some skill was introduced into this chase ; successive 
 enclosures were contrived which brought the animals 
 within reach of the hunters without danger or even 
 fatigue ; and at the present day the establishment called 
 the breeding-stud in the grand-duchy consists of an 
 enclosure of this kind. 
 
 It is composed of a forest of twenty-four thousand 
 acres, where large and magnificent trees have resisted all 
 attacks ; but where the underwood perishes as fast as it 
 springs up beneath the murderous tooth of the animals. 
 A hundred and fifty mares roanr at will in this vast en- 
 closure, with their colts of one, two, and three years. 
 These animals spend the whole year in the forest ; but 
 some support is provided for them in winter. Straw and 
 corn is placed for them under sheds at some distance 
 apart, and the mares come there to get food and shelter 
 if the weather is too severe. At the proper season a 
 dozen stallions are turned loose into the forest. These 
 animals only remain there three or four months, after 
 
CAPTUEE OP WILD COLTS. 359 
 
 wliicli tliey are brought back to the stables and carefully 
 attended to. The stallions of the wild breeding-stud 
 were the best and most thorough-bred to be procured of 
 Arab, Turkish, or English blood. One Arab of the best 
 blood, aud splendidly grown, had been purchased for five 
 hundred pounds. 
 
 AAlien these animals were turned out into the forest they 
 were shining with eight months' rest and close attend- 
 ance ; but they did not please the mares, whose exterior 
 was very different, and who never permitted them to 
 approach till they were as rough and dirty as themselves. 
 Till then the mares ran awav, or united together against 
 the dandy who preserved the demeanour of the city in 
 the fields. But by a week's end the stallions were so dis- 
 figured, that when they returned to the stable they could 
 hardly be recognised. The colts were captured in the forest 
 when three years old, and brought back to the stables, 
 where they spent two years more, and after that were sent 
 to their destination as horses. The way of capturing the 
 colts in the forest was called the hunt, and this hunt had 
 its curious incidents. Some days previously, a general 
 sweep was made, and an attempt to separate the colts 
 they wanted to catch. Then on a given day the place 
 they had been driven to was surrounded with beaters, 
 using instruments for making a noise to frighten the 
 colts into a smaller enclosure bounded by hedges. This 
 was twice repeated, and each time the colts were made 
 to pass from a larger to a smaller enclosure, till at last 
 they were pushed into a defile, the only exit from which 
 was a great farm-yard. Those intended for capture were 
 caused to pass successively from this first yard into 
 a smaller one filled with straw several feet thick. In 
 spite of all these trials, the colt still retained the inde- 
 pendence of the forest ; but in this second yard he found 
 a groom who managed, by plying a rope, to throw him 
 
3G0 LIFE AND ADVENTUEES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 down. Once on the straw, a halter was put on him, and 
 the two greatest dehghts of nature were lost : he could 
 experience no more of liberty or love. 
 
 During this hunt the colts kept in a single troop, with 
 the strongest and boldest at their head. A commander 
 always sprang up among them and walked at the head 
 of the troop, seeming to direct their evolutions. On the 
 part of the colts, these evolutions consisted in a length- 
 ened resistance to passing from one enclosure to another ; 
 and when their strategy was well managed, the resist- 
 ance was prolonged and sustained by very dexterous 
 movements, pleasant to witness. Very often the band 
 turned about, passed right over the beaters, crossed 
 the enclosures, and regained the forest. This was the 
 case whenever a bold and clever individual had gained 
 the command. I say clever, for once there was such a 
 general, who made it impossible to finish the chase, which 
 was in vain deferred to another day. Whenever he was 
 found at his post, there was no success. Those who have 
 witnessed these hunts will not think I have exaggerated ; 
 but I allow that nothing but sight will make any one 
 understand with what docility the horses place them- 
 selves, in time of danger, around him who has the charge 
 of their defence, what discipline they observe, and how 
 much bravery and ability the commander displays. I 
 have been present at these hunts four or five times. I 
 was never tired of seeing this contest in some sort be- 
 tween the mind of man and that of the " warrior animal 
 born of the trident." 
 
 I had long been requesting that this establishment 
 should be abolished. I gave proofs, and to spare, that 
 it was no longer suitable to the advanced state of society 
 in tlie grand-ducliy of Berg. The forest of Duisburg, if 
 freed from the breeding stud, reclaimed and managed as 
 it might be, would in time become a snlendid and nro- 
 
INSPECTOE-GEXEKAL OF TIfE STUD. 361 
 
 1 
 
 lactive property. The first yccar, wood to the amount of 
 twelve hundred pounds might be sold from it, and this 
 source of income would go on increasing. The stud fur- 
 nished a hundred or a hundred and twenty horses yearly. 
 It cost a considerable sum in materials and in the pay- 
 ment of persons employed, and after all only furnished 
 horses excellent for endurance, but poor as to form ; aird 
 for the same cost, twice as many might be selected from 
 the most famous studs in Germany. These good reasons 
 did not find favour vrith the Emperor ; he would have 
 the stud, because he had seen something like it in Poland, 
 and his majesty could hardly bear to be without anything 
 he had liked elsewhere. Before making a definite order, 
 the Emperor had sent an inspector-general of the stud 
 into the grand-duchy, named — — , who fulfilled his mis- 
 sion in a sufficiently amusing way. 
 
 This gentleman, whom the Emperor had just made 
 
 baron, w'as head of the ancient house of , one of the 
 
 '' quatre r/rauds chevaux. de Lorraine"* and which had 
 indisputably been allied with the ancient sovereigns of 
 the duchy. The arrival of ^Marie Antoinette in France 
 made the fortune of this famih', and the person in 
 question had reached the rank of brigade-major of the 
 body-guards of De Xoailles' company very young. The 
 officers of this compan}^, in garrison at Troj'es, came to 
 pay their court at Brienne. I had known — — , then 
 ill his youth, when he was remarked, and was remarkable, 
 for nothing but the arrogance inspired by his supposed 
 relationship to the Queen. In spite of this relationship, 
 he did not emigrate in 1792 ; and Dumouriez, who 
 liked recruits of that stamp, made him soon pass through 
 the higher grades up to that of lieutenant-general, 
 where he was obliged to stop. He contrived to live 
 as best as he could, sometimes in hiding, sometimes in 
 
 * Four of the noblest old families of Lorraine were known by this sobriquet. 
 
3C2 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 the country, from the time when he was driven from the 
 army as a noble, up to the Eevolution of Brumaire. 
 After this Revohition he did not apply for leave to 
 serve: the phantasmagoria of 1792 was not in much 
 estimation with the new chief of the army. General 
 
 Beurnonville, who had known ]\I. de through all 
 
 these adventurous times, and the Countess de Brienne 
 strongly recommended him to me for the post of pre- 
 fect. Both of them ascribed to him the regulation 
 amount of good qualities ; and I hastily put down his 
 name for the department of the Higher Marne, which 
 was my own. I thought I had presented my depart- 
 ment with a real treasure, by sending it a man of high 
 birth, a general of division, and rich besides, who could 
 establish a prefecture nobly ; but I was mistaken in my 
 
 attempt. M. de took it into his head to persecute 
 
 the nobles and the emigrants, apparently in order to 
 punisli them for not having emigrated himself; while 
 he paraded his sympathies to the lowest class of society, 
 whose manners exactly suited him. Honest men were 
 frightened, and complained of a selection for which they 
 thought me responsible ; and I managed to get M. de 
 
 ■ transferred from the prefecture of the Higher Marne 
 
 to the bosom of the Legislative body, at a time when 
 the opinion of its members was held in very little re- 
 gard. He had not felt any gratitude to me for his 
 nomination as prefect, as he had no difficulty in at- 
 tributing it to his peculiar merit ; but he never forgave 
 me for the honour he had received in being trans- 
 ferred to the Legislative body, and quitted it as soon as 
 the term of his appointment had expired. It was fortu- 
 nate for him that this was at the very time when the 
 Emperor had just married Marie Antoinette's great- 
 niece. He put the glory of his relationship to the best 
 use, and was appointed inspector-general of breeding- 
 
LE GRAND CHEVAU. 3C3 
 
 S 
 
 studs. This was tlie man who came to me from the 
 Emperor. He appeared m the grand-duchy with superb 
 ans and the evident determination to treat me as a per- 
 son of small account. On my side I aflected to treat 
 him with as much respect as the hero of La Mancha 
 received at the hands of the duchess. The grand 
 clicvidi* let himself be taken in, and treated us every day 
 to the most ridiculous specimens of vanity. He spent 
 the morning in riding about the stud-ground, and the 
 evening in preparing what he called luminous notes ; and 
 I trembled lest the year should not be long enough for 
 the completion of his work. I contrived to have him 
 followed two or three times in the forest by a troop of 
 rascals, who kept shouting, " Long live the general ! 
 Long live the fiiend of the stud ! " Li the evening my 
 friend had no better employment than to come and in- 
 form me of these ovations, enchanted by his popultirity. 
 At first I congratulated him ; but one day I added, as if 
 on reflection, " I do not like to see these scenes repeated, 
 because I am not sure how the Emperor will take it if 
 he hears of it : public applause is a thing he is very 
 touchy about. I know very well that it is less to the 
 friend of the stud than to le grand dievau, the relation 
 of Maria Theresa ; and therefore all the more will he 
 feel a little touch of jealousy. I advise you not to go 
 often into the forest, and to be moderate in showing 
 
 yourself in public." ^l. de considered that it 
 
 was very probable I might not be wrong, and deter- 
 mined not to remain at Diisseldorf longer than was 
 needful to prepare his report. He asked me to lend him 
 a clerk from my office to write from dictation, and even, 
 if necessary, correct the faults to which all composers 
 are liable. "For," he complaisantly told me, "you know, 
 like me, from experience, that it is only those who never 
 
 * Sic. 
 
36i LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COUNT BEUGNOT. 
 
 do anything- that never make mistakes." I gave him a 
 sharp fellow for secretary, whom I advised to coUect all 
 the general's thoughts, to reduce them to some order 
 and orthography, but to alter them as little as possible. 
 The secretary obeyed his orders, and the result was a 
 report, of which I piously kept a copy as one of the 
 most curious papers of the time. The general took all 
 manner of pains to prove that the stud was an admirable 
 establishment in all points, and was very indignant 
 with those who plotted its suppression. Having ex- 
 hausted the resources of human eloquence, the author, 
 after the pattern of Homer, makes the horses themselves 
 speak. 
 
 M. de added, at the end, " Sire, might not the 
 
 wild horses say, ' By what right does Minister Beugnot 
 claim to drive us from a domain bequeathed to us by our 
 sires ? Let this minister do as he likes elsewhere, but 
 allow us to live quietly at home, and labour for the 
 glory of our invincible Emperor.'" In different places in 
 the report were to be found kicks against me ; but this 
 last bit was the masterpiece. Wishing to part with me 
 
 on friendly terms, ]\I. de offered to suppress the 
 
 horses' speech, as containing something too directly aimed 
 against me. I did all I could to prevent its being sup- 
 pressed. I agreed that the shaft was a little too sharp, 
 but that was only because my name was inserted in so 
 many letters. Let the horses say the ministers of the 
 grand-duchy, instead of the Minister Beugnot, and there 
 would be nothing to criticise in their speech. |It contained 
 nothing more than a warmth very pardonable in people 
 wdio were going to be turned out of their home without 
 
 rhyme or reason. Poor horses ! M. de accepted 
 
 the correction, and the morcecm was preserved. 
 
 The matter of the stud came up again while the Em- 
 peror was stay in.o- at Diisse ldorf When His Maiesty 
 
EUIN OF THE STUD. 365 
 
 spoke of it, I asked whether he had caused the report of 
 his inspector-general of the stud to be presented to him, 
 and was sorry to see that he knew nothing- about it. No 
 decision was come to about tliis stud till the next year's 
 frightful tempest accomplished its ruin. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 BEADBTJKT, EVANS, AND CO., PMNTEK9, WHITEFKIAEa.