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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Ten Years' Exile, by Anne Louise Germaine
+Necker, Baronne (Baroness) de Stael-Holstein, Edited by Auguste Louis,
+Baron de Stael-Holstein
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Ten Years' Exile
+       Memoirs of That Interesting Period of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein, Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript, by Her Son.
+
+
+Author: Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Baronne (Baroness) de Stael-Holstein
+
+Editor: Auguste Louis, Baron de Stael-Holstein
+
+Release Date: July 8, 2005  [eBook #16245]
+[Last updated: September 9, 2014]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN YEARS' EXILE***
+
+
+TEN YEARS' EXILE;
+
+Or
+
+Memoirs of That Interesting Period
+of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein,
+
+Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813,
+and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript,
+by Her Son.
+
+Translated from the French
+
+London:
+Printed for
+Treuttel and Wurtz, Treuttel Jun. and Richter,
+Foreign Booksellers to his Royal Highness Prince Leopold of
+Saxe-Coberg,
+30, Soho Square.
+
+1821
+
+Howlett & Brimmer, Printers,
+10, Filth Street, Soho Square.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE BY THE EDITOR (Augustus, Baron de Stael-Holstein.)
+
+The production which is now submitted to the reader, is not a
+complete work, and ought not to be criticized as such. It consists
+of Fragments of her Memoirs, which my mother had intended to
+complete at her leisure, and which would have probably undergone
+alterations, of the nature of which I am ignorant, if a longer life
+had been allowed her to revise and finish them.
+
+This reflection was sufficient to make me examine most scrupulously
+if I was authorized to give them publicity. The fear of any sort of
+responsibility cannot be present to the mind, when our dearest
+affections are in question; but the heart is agitated by a painful
+anxiety when we are left to guess at those wishes, the declaration
+of which would have been a sacred and invariable rule. Nevertheless,
+after having seriously reflected on what duty required of me, I am
+satisfied that I have fulfilled my mother's intentions, in engaging
+to leave out in this edition of her works*, no production
+susceptible of being printed. My fidelity in adhering to this
+engagement gives me the right of disavowing beforehand, all which at
+any future period, persons might pretend to add to this collection,
+which, I repeat, contains every thing, of which my mother had not
+formally forbid the publication.
+
+(* Les Oeuvres completes de Madame la Baronne de Stael, publiees par
+son Fils. Precedees d'une notice sur le caractere et les ecrits de
+Madame de Stael, par Madame Necker de Saussure. Paris, 17 vols. 8vo.
+and 17 vols. in 12mo.)
+
+The title of TEN YEARS' EXILE, is that of which the authoress
+herself made choice; I have deemed it proper to retain it, although
+the work, being unfinished, comprises only a period of seven years.
+The narrative begins in 1800, two years previous to my mother's
+first exile, and stops at 1804, after the death of M. Necker. It
+recommences in 1810, and breaks off abruptly at her arrival in
+Sweden, in the autumn of 1812. Between the first and second part of
+these Memoirs there is therefore an interval of nearly six years. An
+explanation of this will be found in a faithful statement of the
+manner in which they were composed.
+
+I will not anticipate my mother's narrative of the persecution to
+which she was subjected during the imperial government: that
+persecution, equally mean and cruel, forms the subject of the
+present publication, the interest of which I should only weaken. It
+will be sufficient for me to remind the reader, that after having
+exiled her from Paris, and subsequently sent her out of France,
+after having suppressed her work on Germany with the most arbitrary
+caprice, and made it impossible for her to publish anything, even on
+subjects wholly unconnected with politics; that government went so
+far as to make her almost a prisoner in her own residence, to forbid
+her all kind of travelling, and to deprive her of the pleasures of
+society and the consolations of friendship. It was while she was in
+this situation that my mother began her Memoirs, and one may readily
+conceive what must have been at that time the disposition of her
+mind.
+
+During the composition of the work, the hope of one day giving it to
+the world scarcely presented itself in the most distant futurity.
+Europe was still bent to that degree under the yoke of Napoleon,
+that no independent voice could make itself be heard: on the
+Continent the press was completely chained, and the most rigorous
+measures excluded every work printed in England. My mother
+thought less, therefore, of composing a book, than of preserving the
+traces of her recollections and ideas. Along with the narrative of
+circumstances personal to herself, she incorporated with it various
+reflections which were suggested to her, from the beginning of
+Bonaparte's power, by the state of France, and the progress of
+events. But if the printing such a work would at that time have
+been an act of unheard of temerity, the mere act of writing it
+required a great deal of both courage and prudence, particularly in
+the position in which she was placed. My mother had every reason to
+believe that all her movements were narrowly watched by the police:
+the prefect who had replaced M. de Barante at Geneva, pretended to
+be acquainted with every thing that passed in her house, and the
+least pretence would have been sufficient to induce them to possess
+themselves of her papers. She was obliged therefore, to take the
+greatest precautions. Scarcely had she written a few pages, when she
+made one of her most intimate friends transcribe them, taking care
+to substitute for the proper names those of persons taken from the
+history of the English Revolution. Under this disguise she carried
+off her manuscript, when in 1812 she determined to withdraw herself
+by flight from the rigors of a constantly increasing persecution.
+
+On her arrival in Sweden, after having travelled through Russia, and
+narrowly escaped the French armies advancing on Moscow, my mother
+employed herself in copying out fairly the first part of her
+Memoirs, which, as I have already mentioned, goes no farther than
+1804. But prior to continuing them in the order of time, she wished
+to take advantage of the moment, during which her recollections were
+still strong, to give a narrative of the remarkable circumstances of
+her flight, and of the persecution which had rendered that step in a
+manner a duty. She resumed, therefore, the history of her life at
+the year 1810, the epoch of the suppression of her work on Germany,
+and continued it up to her arrival at Stockholm in 1812: from that
+was suggested the title of Ten Years' Exile. This explains also,
+why, in speaking of the imperial government, my mother expresses
+herself sometimes as living under its power, and at other times, as
+having escaped from it.
+
+Finally, after she had conceived the plan of her Considerations
+on the French Revolution, she extracted from the first part of Ten
+Years Exile, the historical passages and general reflections which
+entered into her new design, reserving the individual details for
+the period when she calculated on finishing the memoirs of her life,
+and when she flattered herself with being able to name all the
+persons of whom she had received generous proofs of friendship,
+without being afraid of compromising them by the expressions of her
+gratitude.
+
+The manuscript confided to my charge consisted therefore of two
+distinct parts: the first, the perusal of which necessarily offered
+less interest, contained several passages already incorporated in
+the Considerations on the French Revolution; the other formed a sort
+of journal, of which no part was yet known to the public. I have
+followed the plan traced by my mother, by striking out of the first
+part of the manuscript, all the passages which, with some
+modifications, have already found a place in her great political
+work. To this my labour as editor has been confined, and I have not
+allowed myself to make the slightest addition.
+
+The second part I deliver to the public exactly as I found it,
+without the least alteration, and I have scarcely felt myself
+entitled to make slight corrections of the style, so important did
+it appear to me to preserve in this sketch the entire vividness of
+its original character. A perusal of the opinions which she
+pronounces upon the political conduct of Russia, will satisfy
+every one of my scrupulous respect for my mother's manuscript; but
+without taking into account the influence of gratitude on elevated
+minds, the reader will not fail to recollect, that at that time
+the sovereign of Russia was fighting in the cause of liberty and
+independence. Was it possible to foresee that so few years would
+elapse before the immense forces of that empire should become the
+instruments of the oppression of unhappy Europe?
+
+If we compare the Ten Years' Exile with the Considerations on the
+French Revolution, it will perhaps be found that the reign of
+Napoleon is criticized in the first of these works with greater
+severity than in the other, and that he is there attacked with an
+eloquence not always exempt from bitterness. This difference may be
+easily explained: one of these works was written after the fall of
+the despot, with the calm and impartiality of the historian; the
+other was inspired by a courageous feeling of resistance to tyranny;
+and at the period of its composition, the imperial power was at its
+height.
+
+I have not selected one moment in preference to another for the
+publication of Ten Years' Exile; the chronological order has been
+followed in this edition, and the posthumous works are naturally
+placed at the end of the collection. In other respects, I am not
+afraid of the charge of exhibiting a want of generosity, in
+publishing, after the fall of Napoleon, attacks directed against his
+power. She, whose talents were always devoted to the defence of the
+noblest of causes, she, whose house was successively the asylum of
+the oppressed of all parties, would have been too far above such a
+reproach. It could only be addressed, at all events, to the editor
+of the Ten Years' Exile; but I confess it would but very little
+affect me. It would certainly be assigning too fine a part to
+despotism, if, after having imposed the silence of terror during its
+triumph, it could call upon history to spare it after its
+destruction.
+
+The recollections of the last government have no doubt afforded a
+pretence for a great deal of persecution; no doubt men of integrity
+have revolted at the cowardly invectives which are still permitted
+against those, who having enjoyed the favors of that government,
+have had sufficient dignity not to disavow their past conduct;
+
+Finally, there is no doubt but fallen grandeur captivates the
+imagination. But it is not merely the personal character of
+Napoleon that is here in question; it is not he who can now be an
+object of animadversion to generous minds; no more can it be those
+who, under his reign, have usefully served their country in the
+different branches of the public administration; but that which we
+can never brand with too severe a stigma, is the system of
+selfishness and oppression of which Bonaparte is the author. But
+is not this deplorable system still in full sway in Europe? and have
+not the powerful of the earth carefully gathered up the shameful
+inheritance of him whom they have overthrown? And if we turn our
+eyes towards our own country, how many of these instruments of
+Napoleon do we not see, who, after having fatigued him with their
+servile complaisance, have come to offer to a new power the tribute
+of their petty machiavelism? Now, as then, is it not upon the basis
+of vanity and corruption that the whole edifice of their paltry
+science rests, and is it not from the traditions of the imperial
+government that the counsels of their wisdom are extracted?
+
+In painting in stronger colours, therefore, this fatal government,
+we are not insulting over a fallen enemy, but attacking a still
+powerful adversary; and if, as I hope, the Ten Years' Exile are
+destined to increase the horror of arbitrary governments, I may
+venture to indulge the pleasing idea, that by their publication I
+shall be rendering a service to the sacred cause to which my mother
+never ceased to be faithful.
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+ Preface, by the Editor
+
+ Part The First
+
+ Chapter 1. Causes of Bonaparte's animosity against me
+
+ Chapter 2. Commencement of opposition in the Tribunate.--My first
+            Persecution on that account.--Fouche
+
+ Chapter 3. System of Fusion adopted by Bonaparte.--Publication of
+            my Work on Literature
+
+ Chapter 4. Conversation of my Father with Bonaparte.--Campaign of
+            Marengo
+
+ Chapter 5. The Infernal Machine.--Peace of Luneville
+
+ Chapter 6. Corps diplomatique during the Consulate.--Death of the
+            Emperor Paul
+
+ Chapter 7. Paris in 1801
+
+ Chapter 8. Journey to Coppet.--Preliminaries of Peace with
+            England
+
+ Chapter 9. Paris in 1802.--Bonaparte President of the Italian
+            Republic.--My return to Coppet
+
+ Chapter 10. New symptoms of Bonaparte's ill will to my Father and
+             Myself.--Affairs of Switzerland
+
+ Chapter 11. Rupture with England.--Commencement of my Exile
+
+ Chapter 12. Departure for Germany.--Arrival at Weimar
+
+ Chapter 13. Berlin.--Prince Louis-Ferdinand
+
+ Chapter 14. Conspiracy of Moreau and Pichegru
+
+ Chapter 15. Assassination of the Duke d'Enghien
+
+ Chapter 16. Illness and Death of M. Necker
+
+ Chapter 17. Trial of Moreau
+
+ Chapter 18. Commencement of the Empire
+
+
+ Part the Second
+
+ Chapter 1. Suppression of my Work on Germany.--Banishment from
+            France
+
+ Chapter 2. Return to Coppet--Different Persecutions.
+
+ Chapter 3. Journey in Switzerland with M. de Montmorency
+
+ Chapter 4. Exile of M. de Montmorency and Madame Recamier.--New
+            Persecutions
+
+ Chapter 5. Departure from Coppet
+
+ Chapter 6. Passage through Austria;--1812
+
+ Chapter 7. Residence at Vienna
+
+ Chapter 8. Departure from Vienna
+
+ Chapter 9. Passage through Poland
+
+ Chapter 10. Arrival in Russia
+
+ Chapter 11. Kiow
+
+ Chapter 12. Road from Kiow to Moscow
+
+ Chapter 13. Appearance of the Country--Character of the Russians
+
+ Chapter 14. Moscow
+
+ Chapter 15. Road from Moscow to Petersburg
+
+ Chapter 16. St. Petersburg
+
+ Chapter 17. The Imperial Family
+
+ Chapter 18. Manners of the great Russian Nobility
+
+ Chapter 19. Establishments for Public Education.--Institute of St.
+             Catherine
+
+ Chapter 20. Departure for Sweden.--Passage through Finland
+
+
+
+
+TEN YEARS' EXILE
+
+Part The First
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+Causes of Bonaparte's animosity against me.
+
+
+It is not with the view of occupying the public attention with what
+relates to myself, that I have determined to relate the
+circumstances of my ten years' exile; the miseries which I have
+endured, however bitterly I may have felt them, are so trifling in
+the midst of the public calamities of which we are witnesses, that I
+should be ashamed to speak of myself if the events which concern me
+were not in some degree connected with the great cause of threatened
+humanity. The Emperor Napoleon, whose character exhibits itself
+entire in every action of his life, has persecuted me with a minute
+anxiety, with an ever increasing activity, with an inflexible
+rudeness; and my connections with him contributed to make him known
+to me, long before Europe had discovered the key of the enigma.
+
+I shall not here enter into a detail of the events that preceded the
+appearance of Bonaparte upon the political stage of Europe; if I
+accomplish the design I have of writing the life of my father, I
+will there relate what I have witnessed of the early part of the
+revolution, whose influence has changed the fate of the whole
+world. My object at present is only to retrace what relates to
+myself in this vast picture; in casting from that narrow point of
+view some general surveys over the whole, I flatter myself with
+being frequently overlooked, in relating my own history.
+
+The greatest grievance which the Emperor Napoleon has against me, is
+the respect which I have always entertained for real liberty. These
+sentiments have been in a manner transmitted to me as an
+inheritance, and adopted as my own, ever since I have been able to
+reflect on the lofty ideas from which they are derived, and the
+noble actions which they inspire. The cruel scenes which have
+dishonored the French revolution, proceeding only from tyranny under
+popular forms, could not, it appears to me, do any injury to the
+cause of liberty: at the most, we could only feel discouraged with
+respect to France; but if that country had the misfortune not to
+know how to possess that noblest of blessings, it ought not on that
+account to be proscribed from the face of the earth. When the sun
+disappears from the horizon of the Northern regions, the inhabitants
+of those countries do not curse his rays, because they are still
+shining upon others more favored by heaven.
+
+Shortly after the 18th Brumaire, Bonaparte had heard that I had been
+speaking strongly in my own parties, against that dawning
+oppression, whose progress I foresaw as clearly as if the future had
+been revealed to me. Joseph Bonaparte, whose understanding and
+conversation I liked very much, came to see me, and told me, "My
+brother complains of you. Why, said he to me yesterday, why does not
+Madame de Stael attach herself to my government? what is it she
+wants? the payment of the deposit of her father? I will give orders
+for it: a residence in Paris? I will allow it her. In short, what is
+it she wishes?" "Good God!" replied I, "it is not what I wish, but
+what I think, that is in question." I know not if this answer was
+reported to him, but if it was, I am certain that he attached no
+meaning to it; for he believes in the sincerity of no one's
+opinions; he considers every kind of morality as nothing more than a
+form, to which no more meaning is attached than to the conclusion of
+a letter; and as the having assured any one that you are his most
+humble servant would not entitle him to ask any thing of you, so if
+any one says that he is a lover of liberty,--that he believes in
+God,--that he prefers his conscience to his interest, Bonaparte
+considers such professions only as an adherence to custom, or as
+the regular means of forwarding ambitious views or selfish
+calculations. The only class of human beings whom he cannot well
+comprehend, are those who are sincerely attached to an opinion,
+whatever be the consequences of it: such persons Bonaparte looks
+upon as boobies, or as traders who outstand their market, that is to
+say, who would sell themselves too dear. Thus, as we shall see in
+the sequel, has he never been deceived in his calculations but by
+integrity, encountered either in individuals or nations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+Commencement of opposition in the Tribunate--My first persecution
+on that account--Fouche.
+
+
+Some of the tribunes, who attached a real meaning to the
+constitution, were desirous of establishing in their assembly an
+opposition analogous to that of England; as if the rights, which
+that constitution professed to secure, had anything of reality in
+them, and the pretended division of the bodies of the state were
+anything more than a mere affair of etiquette, a distinction between
+the different anti-chambers of the first consul, in which
+magistrates under different names could hold together, I confess
+that I saw with pleasure the aversion entertained by a small number
+of the tribunes, to rival the counsellors of state in servility. I
+had especially a strong belief that those who had previously allowed
+themselves to be carried too far in their love for the republic
+would continue faithful to their opinions, when they became the
+weakest, and the most threatened.
+
+One of these tribunes, a friend of liberty, and endowed with one of
+the most remarkable understandings ever bestowed upon man, M.
+Benjamin Constant, consulted me upon a speech which he purposed to
+deliver, for the purpose of signalizing the dawn of tyranny: I
+encouraged him in it with all the strength of my conviction.
+However, as it was well known that he was one of my intimate
+friends, I could not help dreading what might happen to me in
+consequence. I was vulnerable in my taste for society. Montaigne
+said formerly, I am a Frenchman through Paris: and if he thought so
+three centuries ago, what must it be now, when we see so many
+persons of extraordinary intellect collected in one city, and so
+many accustomed to employ that intellect in adding to the pleasures
+of conversation. The demon of ennui has always pursued me; by the
+terror with which he inspires me, I could alone have been capable of
+bending the knee to tyranny, if the example of my father, and his
+blood which flows in my veins, had not enabled me to triumph over
+this weakness. Be that as it may, Bonaparte knew this foible of mine
+perfectly: he discerns quickly the weak side of any one; for it is
+by their weaknesses that he subjugates people to his sway. To the
+power with which he threatens, to the treasures with which he
+dazzles, he joins the dispensation of ennui, and that is a source
+of real terror to the French. A residence at forty leagues from the
+capital, contrasted with the advantages collected in the most
+agreeable city in the world, fails not in the long run to shake the
+greater part of exiles, habituated from their infancy to the charms
+of a Parisian life.
+
+On the eve of the day when Benjamin Constant was to deliver his
+speech, I had a party, among whom were Lucien Bonaparte, MM. ------
+and several others, whose conversation in different degrees
+possesses that constant novelty of interest which is produced by the
+strength of ideas and the grace of expression. Every one of these
+persons, with the exception of Lucien, tired of being proscribed by
+the directory, was preparing to serve the new government, requiring
+only to be well rewarded for their devotion to its power. Benjamin
+Constant came up and whispered to me, "Your drawing room is now
+filled with persons with whom you are pleased: if I speak, tomorrow
+it will be deserted:--think well of it." "We must follow our
+conviction," said I to him. This reply was dictated by enthusiasm;
+but, I confess, if I had foreseen what I have suffered since that
+day, I should not have had the firmness to refuse M. Constant's
+offer of renouncing his project, in order not to compromise me.
+
+At present, so far as opinion is affected, it is nothing to incur
+the disgrace of Bonaparte: he may make you perish, but he cannot
+deprive you of respect. Then, on the contrary, France was not
+enlightened as to his tyrannical views, and as all who had suffered
+from the revolution expected to obtain from him the return of a
+brother, or a friend, or the restoration of property, any one who
+was bold enough to resist him was branded with the name of Jacobin,
+and you were deprived of good society along with the countenance of
+the government: an intolerable situation, particularly for a woman,
+and of which no one can know the misery without having experienced
+it.
+
+On the day when the signal of opposition was exhibited in the
+tribunate by my friend, I had invited several persons whose society
+I was fond of, but all of whom were attached to the new government.
+At five o'clock I had received ten notes of apology; the first and
+second I bore tolerably well, but as they succeeded each other
+rapidly, I began to be alarmed. In vain did I appeal to my
+conscience, which advised me to renounce all the pleasures attached
+to the favour of Bonaparte: I was blamed by so many honorable
+people, that I knew not how to support myself on my own way of
+thinking. Bonaparte had as yet done nothing exactly culpable; many
+asserted that he preserved France from anarchy: in short, if at that
+moment he had signified to me any wish of reconciliation, I should
+have been delighted: but a step of that sort he will never take
+without exacting a degradation, and, to induce that degradation, he
+generally enters into such passions of authority, as terrify into
+yielding every thing. I do not wish by that to say that Bonaparte
+is not really passionate: what is not calculation in him is hatred,
+and hatred generally expresses itself in rage: but calculation is in
+him so much the strongest, that he never goes beyond what it is
+convenient for him to show, according to circumstances and persons.
+One day a friend of mine saw him storming at a commissary of war,
+who had not done his duty; scarcely had the poor man retired,
+trembling with apprehension, when Bonaparte turned round to one of
+his aides-du-camp, and said to him, laughing, I hope I have given
+him a fine fright; and yet the moment before, you would have
+believed that he was no longer master of himself.
+
+When it suited the first consul to exhibit his ill-humour against
+me, he publicly reproached his brother Joseph for continuing to
+visit me. Joseph felt it necessary in consequence to absent himself
+from my house for several weeks, and his example was followed by
+three fourths of my acquaintance. Those who had been proscribed on
+the 18th Fructidor, pretended that at that period, I had been guilty
+of recommending M. de Talleyrand to Barras, for the ministry of
+foreign affairs: and yet, these people were then continually about
+that same Talleyrand, whom they accused me of having served. All
+those who behaved ill to me, were cautious in concealing that they
+did so for fear of incurring the displeasure of the first consul.
+Every day, however, they invented some new pretext to injure me,
+thus exerting all the energy of their political opinions against a
+defenceless and persecuted woman, and prostrating themselves at the
+feet of the vilest Jacobins, the moment the first consul had
+regenerated them by the baptism of his favor.
+
+Fouche, the minister of police, sent for me to say, that the first
+consul suspected me of having excited my friend who had spoken in
+the tribunate. I replied to him, which was certainly the truth, that
+M. Constant was a man of too superior an understanding to make his
+opinions matter of reproach to a woman, and that besides, the speech
+in question contained absolutely nothing but reflections on the
+independence which every deliberative assembly ought to possess, and
+that there was not a word in it which could be construed into a
+personal reflection on the first consul. The minister admitted as
+much. I ventured to add some words on the respect due to the liberty
+of opinions in a legislative body; but I could easily perceive that
+he took no interest in these general considerations; he already knew
+perfectly well, that under the authority of the man whom he wished
+to serve, principles were out of the question, and he shaped his
+conduct accordingly. But as he is a man of transcendant
+understanding in matters of revolution, he had already laid it down
+as a system to do the least evil possible, the necessity of the
+object admitted. His preceding conduct certainly exhibited little
+feeling of morality, and he was frequently in the habit of talking
+of virtue as an old woman's story. A remarkable sagacity, however,
+always led him to choose the good as a reasonable thing, and his
+intelligence made him occasionally do what conscience would have
+dictated to others. He advised me to go into the country, and
+assured me, that in a few days, all would be quieted. But at my
+return, I was very far from finding it so.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+System of Fusion adopted by Bonaparte--Publication of my work
+on Literature.
+
+
+While we have seen the Christian kings take two confessors to
+examine their consciences more narrowly, Bonaparte chose two
+ministers one of the old and the other of the new regime, whose
+business it was to place at his disposal the Machiavelian means of
+two opposite systems. In all his nominations, Bonaparte followed
+nearly the same rule, of taking, as it may be said, now from the
+right, and now from the left, that is to say, choosing alternately
+his officers among the aristocrats, and among the jacobins: the
+middle party, that of the friends of liberty, pleased him less than
+all the others, composed as it was of the small numbers of persons,
+who in France, had an opinion of their own. He liked much better to
+have to do with persons who were attached to royalist interests, or
+who had become stigmatized by popular excesses. He even went so far
+as to wish to name as a counsellor of state a conventionalist
+sullied with the vilest crimes of the days of terror; but he was
+diverted from it by the shuddering of those who would have had to
+sit along with him. Bonaparte would have been delighted to have
+given that shining proof that he could regenerate, as well as
+confound, every thing.
+
+What particularly characterizes the government of Bonaparte, is his
+profound contempt for the intellectual riches of human nature;
+virtue, mental dignity, religion, enthusiasm, these, these are in
+his eyes, the eternal enemies of the continent, to make use of his
+favorite expression; he would reduce man to force and cunning, and
+designate every thing else as folly or stupidity. The English
+particularly irritate him, as they have found the means of being
+honest, as well as successful, a thing which Bonaparte would have us
+regard as impossible. This shining point of the world has dazzled
+his eyes from the very first days of his reign.
+
+I do not believe, that when Bonaparte put himself at the head of
+affairs, he had formed the plan of universal monarchy: but I
+believe that his system was, what he himself described it a few days
+after the 18th Brumaire to one of my friends: "Something new must
+be done every three months, to captivate the imagination of the
+French Nation; with them, whoever stands still is ruined." He
+flattered himself with being able to make daily encroachments on the
+liberty of France, and the independence of Europe: but, without
+losing sight of the end, he knew how to accommodate himself to
+circumstances; when the obstacle was too great, he passed by it, and
+stopped short when the contrary wind blew too strongly. This man, at
+bottom so impatient, has the faculty of remaining immoveable when
+necessary; he derives that from the Italians, who know how to
+restrain themselves in order to attain the object of their passion,
+as if they were perfectly cool in the choice of that object. It is
+by the alternate employment of cunning and force, that he has
+subjugated Europe; but, to be sure, Europe is but a word of great
+sound. In what did it then consist? In a few ministers, not one of
+whom had as much understanding as many men taken at hap-hazard from
+the nation which they governed.
+
+Towards the spring of 1800, I published my work on Literature, and
+the success it met with restored me completely to favor with
+society; my drawing room became again filled, and I had once more
+the pleasure of conversing, and conversing in Paris, which, I
+confess has always been to me the most fascinating of all pleasures.
+There was not a word about Bonaparte in my book, and the most
+liberal sentiments were, I believe, forcibly expressed in it. But
+the press was then far from being enslaved as it is at present; the
+government exercised a censorship upon newspapers, but not upon
+books; a distinction which might be supported, if the censorship had
+been used with moderation: for newspapers exert a popular influence,
+while books, for the greater part, are only read by well informed
+people, and may enlighten, but not inflame opinion. At a later
+period, there were established in the senate, I believe in derision,
+a committee for the liberty of the press, and another for personal
+liberty, the members of which are still renewed every three months.
+Certainly the bishopricks in partibus, and the sinecures in England
+afford more employment than these committees.
+
+Since my work on Literature, I have published Delphine, Corinne, and
+finally my work on Germany, which was suppressed at the moment it
+was about to make its appearance. But although this last work has
+occasioned me the most bitter persecution, literature does not
+appear to me to be less a source of enjoyment and respect, even for
+a female. What I have suffered in life, I attribute to the
+circumstances which associated me, almost at my entry into the
+world, with the interests of liberty, which were supported by my
+father and his friends; but the kind of talent which has made me
+talked of as a writer, has always been to me a source of greater
+pleasure than pain. The criticisms of which one's works are the
+objects, can be very easily borne, when one is possessed of some
+elevation of soul, and when one is more attached to noble ideas for
+themselves, than for the success which their promulgation can
+procure us. Besides, the public, at the end of a certain time,
+appears to me always equitable; self-love must accustom itself to do
+credit to praise; for in due time, we obtain as much of that as we
+deserve. Finally, if we should have even to complain long of
+injustice, I conceive no better asylum against it than philosophical
+meditation, and the emotion of eloquence. These faculties place at
+our disposal a whole world of truths and sentiments, in which we can
+breathe at perfect freedom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+Conversation of my father with Bonaparte.--Campaign of Marengo.
+
+
+Bonaparte set out in the spring of 1800, to make the campaign of
+Italy, which was distinguished by the battle of Marengo. He went by
+Geneva, and as he expressed a desire to see M. Necker, my father
+waited upon him, more with the hope of serving me, than from any
+other motive. Bonaparte received him extremely well, and talked to
+him of his plans of the moment, with that sort of confidence which
+is in his character, or rather in his calculation; for it is thus we
+must always style his character. My father, at first seeing him,
+experienced nothing of the impression which I did; he felt no
+restraint in his presence, and found nothing extraordinary in his
+conversation. I have endeavoured to account to myself for this
+difference in our opinions of the same person; and, I believe, that
+it arose, first, because the simple and unaffected dignity of my
+father's manners ensured him the respect of all who conversed with
+him; and second, because the kind of superiority attached to
+Bonaparte proceeding more from ability in evil action, than from the
+elevation of good thoughts, his conversation cannot make us conceive
+what distinguishes him; he neither could nor would explain his own
+Machiavelian instinct. My father uttered not a word to him of his
+two millions deposited in the public treasury; he did not wish to
+appear interested but for me, and said to him, among other things,
+that as the first consul loved to surround himself with illustrious
+names, he ought to feel equal pleasure in encouraging persons of
+celebrated talent, as the ornament of his power. Bonaparte replied
+to him very obligingly, and the result of this conversation ensured
+me, at least for some time longer, a residence in France. This was
+the last occasion when my father's protecting hand was extended over
+my existence; he has not been a witness of the cruel persecution I
+have since endured, and which would have irritated him even more
+than myself.
+
+Bonaparte repaired to Lausanne to prepare the expedition of Mount
+St. Bernard; the old Austrian general could not believe in the
+possibility of so bold an enterprise, and in consequence made
+inadequate preparations to oppose it. It was said, that a small body
+of troops would have been sufficient to destroy the whole French
+army in the midst of the mountainous passes, through which Bonaparte
+led it; but in this, as well as in several other instances, the
+following verses of J. B. Rousseau might be very well applied to the
+triumphs of Bonaparte:
+
+ L'experience indecile
+ Du compagnon de Paul Emile,
+ Fit tout le succes d'Annibal.
+
+(The unruly inexperience of the colleague of Paulus Emilius, was the
+cause of all the victories of Hannibal).
+
+I arrived in Switzerland to pass the summer according to custom with
+my father, nearly about the time when the French army was crossing
+the Alps. Large bodies of troops were seen continually passing
+through these peaceful countries, which the majestic boundary of the
+Alps ought to shelter from political storms. In these beautiful
+summer evenings, on the borders of the lake of Geneva, I was almost
+ashamed, in the presence of that beautiful sky and pure water, of
+the disquietude I felt respecting the affairs of this world: but it
+was impossible for me to overcome my internal agitation: I could
+not help wishing that Bonaparte might be beaten, as that seemed the
+only means of stopping the progress of his tyranny. I durst not,
+however, avow this wish, and the prefect of the Leman, M. Eymar (an
+old deputy to the Constituent Assembly), recollecting the period
+when we cherished together the hope of liberty, was continually
+sending me couriers to inform me of the progress of the French in
+Italy. It would have been difficult for me to make M. Eymar (who was
+in other respects a most interesting character,) comprehend that the
+happiness of France required that her army should then meet with
+reverses, and I received the supposed good news which he sent me,
+with a degree of restraint which was very little in unison with my
+character. Was it necessary since that to be continually hearing of
+the triumphs of him who made his successes fall indiscriminately
+upon the heads of all? and out of so many victories, has there ever
+arisen a single gleam of happiness for poor France?
+
+The battle of Marengo was lost for a couple of hours: the negligence
+of General Melas, who trusted too much to the advantages he had
+gained, and the audacity of General Desaix, restored the victory to
+the French arms. While the fate of the battle was almost desperate,
+Bonaparte rode about slowly on horseback, pensive, and looking
+downward, more courageous against danger than misfortune, attempting
+nothing, but waiting the turn of the wheel. He has behaved several
+times in a similar way, and has found his advantage in it. But I
+cannot help always thinking, that if Bonaparte had fairly
+encountered among his adversaries a man of character and probity, he
+would have been stopped short in his career. His great talent lies
+in terrifying the feeble, and availing himself of unprincipled
+characters. When he encounters honour any where, it may be said that
+his artifices are disconcerted, as evil spirits are conjured by the
+sign of the cross.
+
+The armistice which was the result of the battle of Marengo, the
+conditions of which included the cession of all the strong places in
+the North of Italy, was most disadvantageous to Austria. Bonaparte
+could not have gained more by a succession of victories. But it
+might be said that the continental powers appeared to consider it
+honorable to give up what would have been worth still more if they
+had allowed them to be taken. They made haste to sanction the
+injustice of Napoleon, and to legitimate his conquests, while they
+ought, if they could not conquer, at least not to have seconded him.
+This certainly was not asking too much of the old cabinets of
+Europe; but they knew not how to conduct themselves in so novel a
+situation, and Bonaparte confounded them so much by the union of
+promises and threats, that in giving up, they believed they were
+gaining, and rejoiced at the word peace, as much as if this word
+had preserved its old signification. The illuminations, the
+reverences, the dinners, and firing of cannon to celebrate this
+peace, were exactly the same as formerly: but far from cicatrizing
+the wounds, it introduced into the government which signed it a most
+certain and effectual principle of dissolution.
+
+The most remarkable circumstance in the fortune of Napoleon is the
+sovereigns whom he found upon the throne. Paul I. particularly did
+him incalculable service; he had the same enthusiasm for him that
+his father had felt for Frederic the Second, and he abandoned
+Austria at the moment when she was still attempting to struggle.
+Bonaparte persuaded him that the whole of Europe would be pacified
+for centuries, if the two great empires of the East and West were
+agreed; and Paul, who had something chivalrous in his disposition,
+allowed himself to be entrapped by these fallacies. It was an
+extraordinary piece of good fortune in Bonaparte to meet with a
+crowned head so easily duped, and who united violence and weakness
+in such equal degrees: no one therefore regretted Paul more than he
+did, for no one was it so important to him to deceive.
+
+Lucien, the minister of the interior, who was perfectly acquainted
+with his brother's schemes, caused a pamphlet to be published, with
+the view of preparing men's minds for the establishment of a new
+dynasty. This publication was premature, and had a bad effect;
+Fouche availed himself of it to ruin Lucien. He persuaded Bonaparte
+that the secret was revealed too soon, and told the republican
+party, that Bonaparte disavowed what his brother had done. In
+consequence Lucien was then sent ambassador to Spain. The system of
+Bonaparte was to advance gradually in the road to power; he was
+constantly spreading rumours of the plans he had in agitation, in
+order to feel the public opinion. Generally even he was anxious to
+have his projects exaggerated, in order that the thing itself, when
+it took place, might be a softening of the apprehension which had
+circulated in public. The vivacity of Lucien on this occasion
+carried him too far, and Bonaparte judged it advisable to sacrifice
+him to appearances for some time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+The infernal machine.--Peace of Luneville.
+
+
+I returned to Paris in the month of November 1800. Peace was
+not yet made, although Moreau by his victories had rendered it more
+and more necessary to the allied powers. Has he not since regretted
+the laurels of Stockach and Hohenlinden, when France has not been
+less enslaved than Europe, over which he made her triumph? Moreau
+recognized only his country in the orders of the first consul; but
+such a man ought to have formed his opinion of the government which
+employed him, and to have acted under such circumstances, upon his
+own view of the real interests of his country. Still, it must be
+allowed that at the period of the most brilliant victories of
+Moreau, that is to say, in the autumn of 1800, there were but few
+persons who had penetrated the secret projects of Bonaparte; what
+was evident at a distance, was the improvement of the finances, and
+the restoration of order in several branches of the administration.
+Napoleon was obliged to begin by the good to arrive at the bad; he
+was obliged to increase the French army, before he could employ it
+for the purposes of his personal ambition.
+
+One evening when I was conversing with some friends, we heard a very
+loud explosion, but supposing it to be merely the firing of some
+cannon by way of exercise, we paid no attention to it, and continued
+our conversation. We learned a few hours afterwards that in going to
+the opera, the first consul had narrowly escaped being destroyed by
+the explosion of what has been called the infernal machine. As he
+escaped, the most lively interest was expressed towards him:
+philosophers proposed the re-establishment of fire and the wheel for
+the punishment of the authors of this outrage; and he could see on
+all sides a nation presenting its neck to the yoke. He discussed
+very coolly at his own house the same evening what would have
+happened if he had perished. Some persons said that Moreau would
+have replaced him: Bonaparte pretended that it would have been
+General Bernadotte. "Like Antony," said he, "he would have
+presented to the inflamed populace the bloody robe of Caesar." I
+know not if he really believed that France would have then called
+Bernadotte to the head of affairs, but what I am quite sure of is,
+that he said so for the purpose of exciting envy against that
+general.
+
+If the infernal machine had been contrived by the jacobins, the
+first consul might have immediately redoubled his tyranny; public
+opinion would have seconded him: but as this plot proceeded from
+the royalist party, he could not derive much advantage from it. He
+endeavoured rather to stifle, than avail himself of it, as he wished
+the nation to believe that his enemies were only the enemies of
+order, and not the friends of another order, that is to say, of the
+old dynasty. What is very remarkable, is, that on the occasion of a
+royalist conspiracy, Bonaparte caused, by a senatus consultum, one
+hundred and thirty jacobins to be transported to the island of
+Madagascar, or rather to the bottom of the sea, for they have never
+been heard of since. This list was made in the most arbitrary manner
+possible; names were put upon it, or erased, according to the
+recommendations of counsellors of state, who proposed, and of
+senators, who sanctioned it. Respectable people said, when the
+manner in which this list had been made was complained of, that it
+was composed of great criminals; that might be very true, but it is
+the right and not the fact which constitutes the legality of
+actions. When the arbitrary transportation of one hundred and thirty
+citizens is submitted to, there is nothing to prevent, as we have
+since seen, the application of the same treatment to the most
+respectable persons.--Public opinion, it is said, will prevent this,
+Opinion! what is it without the authority of law? what is it without
+independent organs to express it? Opinion was in favor of the Duke
+d'Enghien, in favor of Moreau, in favor of Pichegru:--was it able to
+save them? There will be neither liberty, dignity, nor security in a
+country where proper names are discussed when injustice is about to
+be committed. Every man is innocent until condemned by a legal
+tribunal; and the fate of even the greatest of criminals, if he is
+withdrawn from the law, ought to make good people tremble in common,
+with others. But, as is the custom in the English House of Commons,
+when an opposition member goes out, he requests a ministerial member
+to pair off with him, not to alter the strength of either party,
+Bonaparte never struck the jacobins or the royalists without
+dividing his blows equally between them: he thus made friends of
+all those whose vengeance he served. We shall see in the sequel that
+he always reckoned on the gratification of this passion to
+consolidate his government: for he knows that it is much more to be
+depended on than affection. After a revolution, the spirit of party
+is so bitter, that a new chief can subdue it more by serving its
+vengeance, than by supporting its interests: all abandon, if
+necessary, those who think like themselves, provided they can
+sacrifice those who think differently.
+
+The peace of Luneville was proclaimed: Austria only lost in this
+first peace the republic of Venice, which she had formerly received
+as an indemnity for Belgium; and this ancient mistress of the
+Adriatic, once so haughty and powerful, again passed from one master
+to the other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+Corps diplomatique during the Consulate.--Death of the Emperor
+Paul.
+
+
+I passed that winter in Paris very tranquilly. I never went to the
+first consul's--I never saw M. de Talleyrand. I knew Bonaparte did
+not like me: but he had not yet reached the degree of tyranny which
+he has since displayed. Foreigners treated me with distinction,--the
+corps diplomatique were my constant visitors,--and this European
+atmosphere served me as a safeguard.
+
+A minister just arrived from Prussia fancied that the republic still
+existed, and began by putting forward some of the philosophical
+notions he had acquired in his intercourse with Frederick the Great:
+it was hinted to him that he had quite mistaken his ground, and that
+he must rather avail himself of his knowledge of courts. He took the
+hint very quickly, for he is a man whose distinguished powers are in
+the service of a character particularly supple. He ends the sentence
+you begin, and begins that which he thinks you will end; and it is
+only in turning the conversation upon the transactions of former
+ages, on ancient literature, or upon subjects unconnected with
+persons or things of the present day, that you discover the
+superiority of his understanding.
+
+The Austrian Ambassador was a courtier of a totally different stamp,
+but not less desirous of pleasing the higher powers. The one had all
+the information of a literary character; the other knew nothing of
+literature beyond the French plays, in which he had acted the parts
+of Crispin and Chrysalde. It is a known fact, that when ambassador
+to Catherine II, he once received despatches from his court, when
+he happened to be dressed as an old woman; and it was with
+difficulty that the courier could be made to recognize his
+ambassador in that costume. M. de C. was an extremely common-place
+character; he said the same things to almost every one he met in a
+drawing room: he spoke to every person with a kind of cordiality in
+which sentiments and ideas had no part. His manners were engaging,
+and his conversation pretty well formed by the world; but to send
+such a man to negotiate * with the revolutionary strength and
+roughness that surrounded Bonaparte, was a most pitiable spectacle.
+An aide-de-camp of Bonaparte complained of the familiarity of M. de
+C.; he was displeased that one of the first noblemen of the Austrian
+monarchy should squeeze his hand without ceremony. These new
+debutans in politeness could not conceive that ease was in good
+taste. In truth, if they had been at their ease, they would have
+committed strange inconsistencies, and arrogant stiffness was much
+better suited to them in the new part they wished to play. Joseph
+Bonaparte, who negociated the peace of Luneville, invited M. de C.
+to his charming country seat of Morfontaine, where I happened to
+meet him. Joseph was extremely fond of rural occupation, and would
+walk with ease and pleasure in his gardens for eight hours in
+succession. M. de C. tried to follow him, more out of breath than
+the Duke of Mayenne, whom Henry IV. amused himself with making walk
+about, notwithstanding his corpulence. The poor man talked very much
+of fishing, among the pleasures of the country, because it allowed
+him to sit down; he absolutely warmed in speaking of the innocent
+pleasure of catching some little fish with the line.
+
+When he was ambassador at Petersburg, Paul I. had treated him with
+the greatest indignity. He and I were playing at backgammon in the
+drawing room at Morfontaine, when one of my friends came in and
+informed us of the sudden death of that Sovereign. M. de C.
+immediately began making the most official lamentations possible on
+this event. "Although I had reason to complain of him," said he, "I
+shall always acknowledge the excellent qualities of this prince,
+and I cannot help regretting his loss." He thought rightly that the
+death of Paul was a fortunate event for Austria, and for Europe, but
+he had in his conversation, a court mourning, that was really quite
+intolerable. It is to be hoped, that the progress of time will rid
+the world of the courtier spirit, the most insipid of all others, to
+say nothing more.
+
+Bonaparte was extremely alarmed at the death of Paul, and it is
+said, that on that occasion he uttered the first--Ah, my God! that
+was ever heard to proceed from his lips. He had no reason, however,
+to disturb himself; for the French were then more disposed to endure
+tyranny than the Russians.
+
+I was invited to general Berthier's one day, when the first consul
+was to be of the party; and as I knew that he expressed himself very
+unfavourably about me, it struck me that he might perhaps accost me
+with some of those rude expressions, which he often took pleasure in
+addressing to females, even to those who paid their court to him; I
+wrote down therefore as they occured to me, before I went to the
+entertainment, a variety of tart and piquant replies which I might
+make to what I supposed he might say to me. I did not wish to be
+taken by surprise, if he allowed himself to insult me, for that
+would have been to show a want both of character and understanding;
+and as no person could promise themselves not to be confused in the
+presence of such a man, I prepared myself before hand to brave him.
+Fortunately the precaution was unnecessary; he only addressed the
+most common questions possible to me; and the same thing happened to
+all of his opponents, to whom he attributed the possibility of
+replying to him: at all times, however, he never attacks, but when
+he feels himself much the strongest. During supper, the first consul
+stood behind the chair of Madame Bonaparte, and balanced himself
+sometimes on one leg, and sometimes on the other, in the manner of
+the princes of the house of Bourbon. I made my neighbour remark this
+vocation for royalty, already so decided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+Paris in 1801
+
+
+The opposition in the tribunate still continued; that is to say,
+about twenty members out of a hundred, tried to speak out against
+the measures of every kind, with which tyranny was preparing. A
+grand question arose, in the law which gave to the government the
+fatal power of creating special tribunals to try persons accused of
+state crimes; as if the handing over a man to these extraordinary
+tribunals, was not already prejudging the question, that is to say,
+if he is a criminal, and a criminal of state; and as if, of all
+crimes, political crimes were not those which required the greatest
+precaution and independence in the manner of examining them, as the
+government is in such causes almost always a party interested.
+
+We have since seen what are the military commissions to try crimes
+of state; and the death of the Duke d'Eughien marks to all the
+horror which that hypocritical power ought to inspire, which covers
+murder with the mantle of the law.
+
+The resistance of the tribunate, feeble as it was, displeased the
+first consul; not that it was any obstacle to his designs, but it
+kept up the habit of thinking in the nation, which he wished to
+stifle entirely. He put into the journals among other things, an
+absurd argument against the opposition. Nothing is so simple or so
+proper, was it there said, as an opposition in England, because the
+king is the enemy of the people; but in a country, where the
+executive government is itself named by the people, it is opposing
+the nation to oppose its representative. What a number of phrases of
+this kind have the scribes of Napoleon deluged the public with for
+ten years! In England or America the meanest peasant would laugh in
+your face at a sophism of this nature; in France, all that is
+desired, is to have a phrase ready, with which to give to one's
+interest the appearance of conviction.
+
+Very few persons showed themselves strangers to the desire of having
+places; a great number were ruined, and the interest of their wives
+and children, or of their nephews and nieces, if they had no
+children, or of their cousins, if they had no nephews, obliged
+them, they said, to seek employment from the government. The
+great strength of the heads of the state in France, is the
+prodigious taste that the people have for places; vanity even makes
+them more sought for, than the emolument attached to them. Bonaparte
+received thousands of petitions for every office, from the highest
+to the lowest. If he had not had naturally a profound contempt for
+the human race, he would have conceived it in running over
+petitions, signed by names illustrious from their ancestry, or
+celebrated by revolutionary actions in complete opposition to the
+new functions they were ambitious of fulfilling.
+
+The winter of 1801 at Paris was made extremely agreeable to me, by
+the readiness with which Fouche granted the applications I made to
+him for the return of different emigrants: in this way he left me,
+in the midst of my disgrace, the pleasure of being useful, and I
+retain a most grateful recollection to him for it. It must be
+confessed, that in the actions of women, there is always a little
+coquetry, and that the greater part of their very virtues are mixed
+with the desire of pleasing, and of being surrounded by friends,
+whose attachment to them is heightened by the feeling of obligation.
+In this point of view only, can our sex be pardoned for being fond
+of influence: but there are occasions when we ought even to
+sacrifice the pleasure of obliging to preserve our dignity: for we
+may do every thing for the sake of others, excepting to degrade our
+character. Our own conscience is as it were the treasure of the
+Almighty, which we are not permitted to make use of for the
+advantage of others.
+
+Bonaparte was still at some expense on account of the Institute,
+upon which he piqued himself so much when he was in Egypt: but there
+was among the men of letters, and the savants, a petty philosophical
+opposition, unfortunately of a very bad description, which was
+entirely directed against the re-establishment of religion. By a
+fatal caprice, the enlightened spirits in France wished to console
+themselves for the slavery of this world, by endeavouring to destroy
+the hopes of a better: this singular inconsistency would not have
+happened under the protestant religion; but the catholic clergy had
+enemies, whom their courage and misfortunes had not yet disarmed;
+and perhaps, it is really difficult to make the authority of the
+pope, and of priests subject to the pope, harmonize with the
+independence of a state. Be that as it may, the Institute exhibited
+for religion, independant of its ministers, none of that profound
+respect, inseparable from a lofty combination of mind and genius;
+and Bonaparte was left to support, against men of more value than
+himself, opinions which were of more value than them.
+
+In this year (1801), the first consul ordered the king of Spain to
+make war upon Portugal, and the feeble monarch of that illustrious
+nation condemned his army to this expedition, equally servile and
+unjust, against a neighbour, who had no hostile intentions, and
+whose only offence was his alliance with that England, which has
+since shewn itself so true a friend to Spain: and all this in
+obedience to the man who was preparing to deprive him of his very
+existence. When we have seen these same Spaniards giving with so
+much energy the signal of the resurrection of the world, we learn to
+know what nations are, and what are the consequences of refusing
+them a legal means of expressing their opinion, and regulating their
+own destiny.
+
+Towards the spring of 1801, the first consul took it into his head
+to make a king, and a king of the house of Bourbon: he bestowed
+Tuscany upon him, designating it by the classical name of Etruria,
+for the purpose of commencing the grand masquerade of Europe. This
+infanta of Spain was ordered to Paris for the purpose of exhibiting
+to the French the spectacle of a prince of the ancient dynasty
+humbled before the first consul; more humbled by his gifts than he
+ever could have been by his persecution. Bonaparte tried upon this
+royal lamb the experiment of making a king wait in his antechamber:
+he allowed himself to be applauded at the theatre, upon the
+recitation of this verse:
+
+ "J'ai fait des rois, madame, et n'ai pas voulu l'etre:"
+
+(I have made kings, madam, and have not wished to be one:) promising
+himself to be more than a king, when the opportunity should offer.
+Every day some fresh blunder of this poor king of Etruria was the
+subject of conversation: he was taken to the Museum, to the Cabinet
+of Natural History, and some of his questions about quadrupeds and
+fishes, which a well educated child of twelve years old would have
+been ashamed to put, were quoted as proofs of intelligence. In the
+evening, he was conducted to entertainments, where the female opera
+dancers came and mixed with the ladies of the new court; the little
+monarch, in spite of his devotion, preferred dancing with them, and
+in return sent them next day presents of elegant and good books for
+their instruction. This period of transition from revolutionary
+habits to monarchical pretensions in France, was a most singular
+one; as there was as little independence in the one, as dignity in
+the other, their absurdities harmonised perfectly together; each of
+them in their own way formed a group round the parti-coloured
+potentate, who at the same time employed the forcible means of both
+regimes.
+
+For the last time, the 14th of July, the anniversary of the
+revolution, was celebrated this year, and a pompous proclamation was
+put forth to remind the people of the advantages resulting from that
+day, not one of which advantages the first consul had not made up
+his mind to destroy. Of all the collections that were ever made,
+that of the proclamations of this man is the most singular: it is a
+complete encyclopedia of contradictions; and if chaos itself were
+employed to instruct the earth, it would doubtless, in a similar
+way, throw at the heads of mankind, eulogiums of peace and war, of
+knowledge and prejudices, of liberty and despotism, praises and
+insults upon all governments and all religions.
+
+It was at this period that Bonaparte sent General Leclerc to Saint
+Domingo, and designated him in his decree our brother-in-law. This
+first royal we, which associated the French with the prosperity of
+this family, was a most bitter pill to me. He obliged his beautiful
+sister to accompany her husband to Saint Domingo, where her health
+was completely ruined: a singular act of despotism for a man who is
+not accustomed to great severity of principles in those about his
+person; but he makes use of morality only to harass some and dazzle
+others. A peace was in the sequel concluded with the chief of the
+negroes, Toussaint-Louverture. This man was, no doubt, a great
+criminal, but Bonaparte had signed conditions with him, in complete
+violation of which Toussaint was conducted to a prison in France,
+where he ended his days in the most miserable manner. Perhaps
+Bonaparte himself hardly recollects this crime, because he has been
+less reproached with it than others.
+
+In a great forge, we see with astonishment the violence of the
+machines which are set in motion by a single will: these hammers,
+those flatteners seem so many persons, or rather devouring animals.
+Should you attempt to resist their force, they would annihilate you;
+notwithstanding, all this apparent fury is calculated beforehand,
+and a single mover gives action to these springs. The tyranny of
+Bonaparte is represented to my eyes by this image; he makes
+thousands of men perish, as these wheels beat the iron, and his
+agents are the greater part of them equally insensible; the
+invisible impulse of these human machines proceeds from a will at
+once violent and methodical, which transforms moral life into its
+servile instrument. Finally, to complete the comparison, it is
+sufficient to seize the mover to restore every thing to a state of
+repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+Journey to Coppet.--Preliminaries of peace with England.
+
+
+I went, according to my usual happy custom, to spend the summer with
+my father. I found him extremely indignant at the state of affairs;
+and as he had all his life been as much attached to real liberty as
+he detested popular anarchy, he felt inclined to draw his pen
+against the tyranny of one, after having so long fought against that
+of the many. My father was fond of glory, and however prudent his
+character, hazards of every kind did not displease him, when the
+public esteem was to be deserved by incurring them, I was quite
+sensible of the danger to which any work of his which should
+displease the first consul, would expose myself; but I could not
+resolve to stifle this song of the swan, who wished to make himself
+heard once more on the tomb of French liberty. I encouraged him
+therefore in his design, but we deferred to the following year the
+question whether what he wrote should be published.
+
+The news of the signature of the preliminaries of peace between
+England and France, came to put the crown to Bonaparte's good
+fortune. When I learned that England had recognised his power, it
+seemed to me that I had been wrong in hating it; but circumstances
+were not long in relieving me from this scruple. The most remarkable
+article of these preliminaries was the complete evacuation of Egypt:
+that expedition therefore had had no other result than to make
+Bonaparte talked of. Several publications written in places beyond
+the reach of Bonaparte's power, accuse him of having made Kleber be
+assassinated in Egypt, because he was jealous of his influence; and
+I have been assured by persons worthy of credit, that the duel in
+which General D'Estaing was killed by General Regnier was provoked
+by a discussion on this point. It appears to me, however, scarcely
+credible that Bonaparte should have had the means of arming a Turk
+against the life of a French general, at a moment when he was far
+removed from the theatre of the crime. Nothing ought to be said
+against him of which there are not proofs; the discovery of a single
+error of this kind among the most notorious truths would tarnish
+their lustre. We must not fight Bonaparte with any of his own
+weapons.
+
+I delayed my return to Paris to avoid being present at the great
+fete in honour of the peace. I know no sensation more painful than
+these public rejoicings in which the heart refuses to participate.
+We feel a sort of contempt for this booby people which comes to
+celebrate the yoke preparing for it: these dull victims dancing
+before the palace of their sacrificer: this first consul designated
+the father of the nation which he was about to devour: this mixture of
+stupidity on one side, and cunning on the other: the stale hypocrisy
+of the courtiers throwing a veil over the arrogance of the master:
+all inspired me with an insurmountable disgust. It was necessary
+however to constrain one's feelings, and during these solemnities
+you were exposed to meet with official congratulations, which at
+other times it was more easy to avoid.
+
+Bonaparte then proclaimed that peace was the first want of the
+world: every day he signed some new treaty, therein resembling the
+care with which Polyphemus counted the sheep as he drove them into
+his den. The United States of America also made peace with France,
+and sent as their plenipotentiary, a man who did not know a word of
+French, apparently ignorant that the most complete acquaintance with
+the language was barely sufficient to penetrate the truth, in a
+government which knew so well how to conceal it.
+
+The first consul, on the presentation of Mr. Livingston,
+complimented him, through an interpreter, on the purity of manners
+in America, and added "the old world is very corrupt;" then turning
+round to M. de ----, he repeated twice, "explain to him that the
+old world is very corrupt: you know something of it, don't you?"
+This was one of the most agreeable speeches he ever addressed in
+public to this courtier, who was possessed of better taste than his
+fellows, and wished to preserve some dignity in his manners,
+although he sacrificed that of the mind to his ambition.
+
+Meantime, however, monarchical institutions were rapidly advancing
+under the shadow of the republic. A pretorian guard was organized:
+the crown diamonds were made use of to ornament the sword of the
+first consul, and there was observable in his dress, as well as in
+the political situation of the day, a mixture of the old and new
+regime: he had his dresses covered with gold, and his hair cropped,
+a little body, and a large head, an indescribable air of awkwardness
+and arrogance, of disdain and embarrassment, which altogether formed
+a combination of the bad graces of a parvenu, with all the audacity
+of a tyrant. His smile has been cried up as agreeable; my own
+opinion is, that in any other person it would have been found
+unpleasant; for this smile, breaking out from a confirmed serious
+mood, rather resembled an involuntary twitch than a natural
+movement, and the expression of his eyes was never in unison with
+that of his mouth; but as his smile had the effect of encouraging
+those who were about him, the relief which it gave them made it be
+taken for a charm. I recollect once being told very gravely by a
+member of the Institute, a counsellor of state, that Bonaparte's
+nails were perfectly well made. Another time a courtier exclaimed,
+"The first consul's hand is beautiful!" "Ah! for heaven's sake,
+Sir," replied a young nobleman of the ancient noblesse, who was not
+then a chamberlain, "don't let us talk politics." The same courtier,
+speaking affectionately of the first consul, said, "He frequently
+displays the most infantine sweetness." Certainly, in his own
+family, he amused himself sometimes with innocent games; he has been
+seen to dance with his generals; it is even said that at Munich, in
+the palace of the king and queen of Bavaria, to whom no doubt this
+gaiety appeared very odd, he assumed one evening the Spanish costume
+of the Emperor Charles VII. and began dancing an old French country
+dance, la Monaco.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+Paris in 1802.--Bonaparte President of the Italian republic.--My
+return to Coppet.
+
+
+Every step of the first consul announced more and more openly his
+boundless ambition. While the peace with England was negotiating at
+Amiens, he assembled at Lyons the Cisalpine Consulta, consisting of
+the deputies from Lombardy and the adjacent states, which had been
+formed into a republic under the directory, and who now inquired
+what new form of government they were to assume. As people were not
+yet accustomed to the idea of the unity of the French republic being
+transformed into the unity of one man, no one ever dreamt of the
+same person uniting on his own head the first consulship of France
+and the presidency of Italy; it was expected therefore that Count
+Melzi would be nominated to the office, as the person most
+distinguished by his knowledge, his illustrious birth, and the
+respect of his fellow citizens. All of a sudden the report got
+abroad that Bonaparte was to get himself nominated; and at this
+news a moment of life seemed still perceptible in the public
+feeling. It was said that the French constitution deprived of the
+right of citizenship whoever accepted employment in a foreign
+country; but was he a Frenchman, who only wanted to make use of the
+great nation for the oppression of Europe, and vice versa? Bonaparte
+juggled the nomination of president out of all these Italians, who
+only learned a few hours before proceeding to the scrutiny, that
+they must appoint him. They were told to join the name of Count
+Melzi, as vice-president, to that of Bonaparte. They were assured
+that they would only be governed by the former, who would always
+reside among them, and that the latter was merely ambitious of an
+honorary title. Bonaparte said to them himself in his usual emphatic
+manner, "Cisalpines, I shall preserve only the great idea of your
+interests." But the great idea meant the complete power. The day
+after this election, they were seriously occupied in making a
+constitution, as if any one could exist by the side of this iron
+hand. The nation was divided into three classes; the possidenti, the
+dotti, and the commerrianti. The landholders, to be taxed; the
+literary men, to be silenced; and the merchants, to have all the
+ports shut against them. These sounding words in Italian are even
+better adapted to the purposes of quackery than the corresponding
+French.
+
+Bonaparte had changed the name of Cisalpine republic into that of
+Italian republic, thereby giving Europe an anticipation of his
+future conquests in the rest of Italy. Such a step was every thing
+but pacific, and yet it did not prevent the signature of the treaty
+of Amiens; so much did Europe, and even England itself, then desire
+peace! I was at the English ambassador's at the moment of his
+receiving the terms of this treaty. He read them aloud to the
+persons who were dining with him, and it is impossible for me to
+express the astonishment I felt at every article. England restored
+all her conquests; she restored Malta, of which it had been said,
+when it was taken by the French, that if there had been nobody in
+the fortress, they would never have been able to enter it. In short,
+she gave up every thing, and without compensation, to a power which
+she had constantly beaten at sea. What an extraordinary effect of
+the passion for peace! And yet this man, who had so miraculously
+obtained such advantages, had not the patience to make use of them
+for a few years, to put the French navy in a state to meet that of
+England. Scarcely had the treaty of Amiens been signed, when
+Napoleon, by a senatus-consultum, annexed Piedmont to France. During
+the twelve months the peace lasted, everyday was marked by some new
+proclamation, provoking to a breach of the treaty. The motives of
+this conduct it is easy to penetrate; Bonaparte wished to dazzle the
+French nation, now by unexpected treaties of peace, at other times
+by wars which would make him necessary to it. He believed that a
+period of disturbance was favourable to usurpation. The newspapers,
+which were instructed to boast of the advantages of peace in the
+spring of 1802, said then "We are approaching the moment when
+systems of politics will become of no effect." If Bonaparte had
+really wished it, he might at that period have easily bestowed
+twenty years of peace upon Europe, in the state of terror and ruin
+to which it was reduced.
+
+The friends of liberty in the tribunate were still endeavouring to
+struggle against the constantly increasing power of the first
+consul; but they had not then the advantage of being seconded by
+public opinion. The greater number of the opposition tribunes were
+every way deserving of esteem: but there were three or four persons
+who acted along with them, who had been guilty of revolutionary
+excesses, and the government took especial care to throw upon all,
+the blame which could only attach to a few. It is certain, however,
+that men collected in a public assembly generally end in
+electrifying themselves with the sparks of mental dignity; and this
+tribunate, even such as it was, would, had it been allowed to
+continue, have prevented the establishment of tyranny. Already the
+majority of votes had nominated, as a candidate for the senate,
+Daunou, an honest and enlightened republican, but certainly not a
+man to be dreaded. This was sufficient, however, to determine the
+first consul to the elimination of the tribunate; which means to
+make twenty of the most energetic members of the assembly retire one
+by one, on the designation of the senators, and to have them
+replaced by twenty others, devoted to the government. The eighty who
+remained, were each year to undergo the same operation by fourths. A
+lesson was in this manner given them of what they were expected to
+do, to retain their places, or in other words, their salary of
+fifteen thousand francs; the first consul wishing to preserve some
+time longer this mutilated assembly, which might serve for two or
+three years more as a popular mask to his tyrannical acts.
+
+Among the proscribed tribunes were several of my friends; but my
+opinion was in this instance altogether independent of my
+attachments. Perhaps, however, I might feel a greater degree of
+irritation at the injustice which fell upon persons with whom I was
+connected, and I have no doubt that I allowed myself the expression
+of some sarcastic remarks on this hypocritical method of
+interpreting the unfortunate constitution, into which they had
+endeavoured to prevent the entrance of the smallest spark of
+liberty.
+
+There was at that time formed round general Bernadotte, a party of
+generals and senators, who wished to have his opinion, if some means
+could not be devised to stop the progress of the usurpation, which
+was now rapidly approaching. He proposed a variety of plans, all
+founded upon some legislative measure or other, considering any
+other means as contrary to his principles. But to obtain any such
+measure, it required a deliberation of at least some members of the
+senate, and not one of them was found bold enough to subscribe such
+an instrument. While this most perilous negociation continued, I was
+in the habit of seeing general Bernadotte and his friends very
+frequently; this was more than enough to ruin me, if their designs
+were discovered. Bonaparte remarked that people always came away
+from my house less attached to him than when they entered it; in
+short he determined to single me out as the only culprit, among
+many, who were much more so than I was, but whom it was of more
+consequence to him to spare.
+
+Just at this time I set out for Coppet, and reached my father's
+house in a most painful state of anxiety and mental oppression. My
+letters from Paris informed me, that after my departure, the first
+consul had expressed himself very warmly on the subject of my
+connections with general Bernadotte. There was every appearance of
+his being resolved to punish me; but he paused at the idea of
+sacrificing general Bernadotte; either because his military talents
+were necessary to him; restrained by the family ties which connected
+them; afraid of the greater popularity of Bernadotte with the French
+army; or finally because there is a certain charm in his manners,
+which renders it difficult even to Bonaparte to become entirely his
+enemy. What provoked the first consul still more than the opinions
+which he attributed to me, was the number of strangers who came to
+visit me. The Prince of Orange, son of the Stadtholder, did me the
+honour to dine with me, for which he was reproached by Bonaparte.
+The existence of a woman, who was visited on account of her literary
+reputation, was but a trifle; but that trifle was totally
+independant of him, and was sufficient to make him resolve to crush
+me.
+
+In this year, 1802, the affair of the princes, who had possessions
+in Germany was settled. The whole of that negociation was conducted
+at Paris, to the great profit, it was said, of the ministers who
+were employed in it. Be that as it may, it was at this period that
+began the diplomatic spoliation of Europe, which was only stopped at
+its very extremities.
+
+All the great noblemen of feudal Germany, were seen at Paris
+exhibiting their ceremonial, whose obsequious formalities were much
+more agreeable to the first consul than the still easy manner of the
+French; and asking back what belonged to them with a servility which
+would almost make one lose the right to one's own property, so much
+had it the air of regarding the authority of justice as nothing.
+
+A nation singularly proud, the English, was not at this time
+altogether exempt from a degree of curiosity about the person of the
+first consul, approaching to homage. The ministerial party regarded
+him in his proper light; but the opposition, which ought to have a
+greater hatred of tyranny, as it is supposed to be more enthusiastic
+for liberty, the opposition party, and Fox himself, whose talents
+and goodness of heart one cannot recollect without admiration, and
+the tenderest emotion, committed the error of shewing too much
+attention to Bonaparte, thereby serving to prolong the mistake of
+those, who wished still to confound with the French revolution, the
+most decided enemy of the first principles of that revolution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+New symptoms of Bonaparte's ill will to my father and myself.
+--Affairs of Switzerland.
+
+
+At the beginning of the winter 1802-3, when I saw by the papers that
+so many illustrious Englishmen, and so many of the most intelligent
+persons in France were collected in Paris, I felt, I confess, the
+strongest desire to be among them. I do not dissemble, that a
+residence in Paris has always appeared to me the most agreeable of
+all others; I was born there--there I have passed my infancy and
+early youth--and there only could I meet the generation which had
+known my father, and the friends who had with us passed through the
+horrors of the revolution. This love of country, which has attached
+the most strongly constituted minds, lays still stronger hold of us,
+when it unites the enjoyments of intellect with the affections of
+the heart, and the habits of imagination. French conversation exists
+nowhere but in Paris, and conversation has been since my infancy, my
+greatest pleasure. I experienced such grief at the apprehension of
+being deprived of this residence, that my reason could not support
+itself against it. I was then in the full vivacity of life, and it
+is precisely the want of animated enjoyment, which leads most
+frequently to despair, as it renders that resignation very
+difficult, without which we cannot support the vicissitudes of life.
+
+The prefect of Geneva had received no orders to refuse me my
+passports for Paris, but I knew that the first consul had said in
+the midst of his circle, that I would do well not to return; and he
+was already in the habit, on subjects of this nature, of dictating
+his pleasure in conversation, in order to prevent his being called
+upon, by the anticipation of his orders. If he had in this manner
+said, that such and such an individual ought to go and hang himself,
+I believe that he would have been displeased, if the submissive
+subject had not in obedience to the hint, bought a rope and prepared
+the gallows. Another proof of his ill will to me, was the manner in
+which the French journals criticized my romance of Delphine, which
+appeared at this time; they thought proper to denounce it as
+immoral, and the work which had received my father's approbation was
+condemned by these courtier criticks. There might be found in that
+book, that fire of youth, and ardour after happiness, which ten
+years, and those years of suffering, have taught me to direct in
+another manner. But my censors were not capable of feeling this sort
+of error, and merely acted in obedience to that voice which ordered
+them to pull to pieces the work of the father, prior to attacking
+that of the daughter. In fact we heard from all quarters, that the
+true reason of the first consul's anger, was this last work of my
+father, in which the whole scaffolding of his monarchy was
+delineated by anticipation. My father, and also my mother, during
+her life-time, had both the same predilection for a Paris residence
+that I had. I was extremely sorrowful at being separated from my
+friends, and at being unable to give my children that taste for the
+fine arts, which is acquired with difficulty in the country; and as
+there was no positive prohibition of my return in the letter of the
+consul Lebrun,* but merely some significant hints, I formed a
+hundred projects of returning, and trying if the first consul, who
+at that time was still tender of public opinion, would venture to
+brave the murmurs which my banishment would not fail to excite. My
+father, who condescended sometimes to reproach himself for being
+partly the cause of spoiling my fortune, conceived the idea of going
+himself to Paris, to speak to the first consul in my favor. I
+confess, that at first I consented to accept this proof of my
+father's attachment; I represented to myself such an idea of the
+ascendancy which his presence would produce, that I thought it
+impossible to resist him; his age, the fine expression of his looks,
+and the union of so much noble mindedness, and refinement of
+intellect, appeared to me likely even to captivate Bonaparte
+himself. I knew not at that time, to what a degree the consul was
+irritated against his book; but fortunately for me, I reflected that
+these very advantages were only more likely to excite in the first
+consul a stronger desire of humbling their possessor. Assuredly he
+would have found means, at least in appearance, of accomplishing
+that desire; as power in France has many allies, and if the spirit
+of opposition has been frequently displayed, it has only been
+because the weakness of the government has offered it an easy
+victory. It cannot be too often repeated, that what the French love
+above all things, is success, and that with them, power easily
+succeeds in making misfortune ridiculous. Finally, thank God! I
+awoke from the illusion to which I had given myself up, and
+positively refused the noble sacrifice which my father proposed to
+make for me. When he saw me completely decided not to accept it, I
+perceived how much it would have cost him. I lost him fifteen months
+afterwards, and if he had then executed the journey he proposed, I
+should have attributed his illness to that cause, and remorse would
+have still kept my wound festering.
+
+* This letter is the same which is spoken of in the 4th part of the
+Considerations on the French revolution, chap. 7.
+Editor.
+
+It was also during the winter of 1802-3, that Switzerland took arms
+against the unitarian constitution which had been imposed upon her.
+Singular mania of the French revolutionists to compel all countries
+to adopt a political organization similar to that of France! There
+are, doubtless, principles common to all countries, such as those
+which secure the civil and political rights of free people; but of
+what consequence is it whether there should be a limited monarchy,
+as in England, or a federal republic, like the United States, or the
+Thirteen Swiss Cantons? and was it necessary to reduce Europe to a
+single idea, like the Roman people to a single head, in order to be
+able to command and to change the whole in one day!
+
+The first consul certainly attached no importance to this or that
+form of constitution, or even to any constitution whatever; but what
+was of consequence to him, was to make the best use he could of
+Switzerland for his own interest, and with that view, he conducted
+himself prudently. He combined the various plans which were offered
+to him, and drew up a form of constitution which conciliated
+sufficiently well the ancient habits with the modern pretensions,
+and in causing himself to be named Mediator of the Swiss
+Confederation, he drew more persons from that country, than he could
+have driven from it, if he had governed it directly. He made the
+deputies nominated by the cantons and principal cities of
+Switzerland come to Paris; and on the 9th of January 1803, he had a
+conference of seven hours with ten delegates, chosen from the
+general deputation. He dwelt upon the necessity of re-establishing
+the democratic cantons in their former state, pronouncing on this
+occasion some declamations on the cruelty of depriving shepherds
+dispersed among the mountains, of their sole amusement, namely,
+popular assemblies; stating also, (what concerned him more nearly,)
+the reasons he had for mistrusting the aristocratic cantons. He
+insisted strongly on the importance of Switzerland to France. These
+were his words, as they are given in a narrative of this conference:
+"I can declare that since I have been at the head of this
+government, no power has taken the least interest in Switzerland:
+'twas I who made the Helvetic republic be acknowledged at Luneville:
+Austria cared not the least for it. At Amiens I wished to do the
+same, and England refused it: but England has nothing to do with
+Switzerland. If she had expressed the least apprehension that I
+wished to be declared your Landamann, I would have been so. It has
+been said that England encouraged the last insurrection; if the
+English cabinet had taken a single official step, or if there had
+been a syllable said about it in the London Gazette, I would have
+immediately united you with France." What incredible language! Thus,
+the existence of a people who had secured their independence in the
+midst of Europe by the most heroic efforts, and maintained it for
+five centuries by wisdom and moderation, this existence would have
+been annihilated by a movement of spleen which the least accident
+might have excited in a being so capricious. Bonaparte added in this
+same conference, that it was unpleasant to him to have a
+constitution to make, because it exposed him to be hissed, which he
+had no partiality for. This expression (etre siffle) bears the stamp
+of the deceitfully affable vulgarity in which he frequently took
+pleasure in indulging. Roederer and Desmeunier wrote the act of
+mediation from his dictation, and the whole passed during the time
+that his troops occupied Switzerland. He has since withdrawn them,
+and this country, it must be confessed, has been better treated by
+Napoleon than the rest of Europe, although both in a political and
+military point of view more completely dependent upon him;
+consequently it will remain tranquil in the general insurrection.
+The people of Europe were disposed to such a degree of patience that
+it has required a Bonaparte to exhaust it.
+
+The London newspapers attacked the first consul bitterly enough; the
+English nation was too enlightened not to perceive the drift of his
+actions. Whenever any translations from the English papers were
+brought to him, he used to apostrophize Lord Whitworth, who answered
+him with equal coolness and propriety that the King of Great Britain
+himself was not protected from the sarcasms of newswriters, and that
+the constitution permitted no violation of their liberty on that
+score. However, the English government caused M. Peltier to be
+prosecuted for some articles in his journal directed against the
+first consul. Peltier had the honour to be defended by Mr.
+Mackintosh, who made upon this occasion one of the most eloquent
+speeches that has been read in modern times; I will mention farther
+on, under what circumstances this speech came into my hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+Rupture with England.--Commencement of my Exile.
+
+
+I was at Geneva, living from taste and from circumstances in the
+society of the English, when the news of the declaration of war
+reached us. The rumour immediately spread that the English
+travellers would all be made prisoners: as nothing similar had ever
+been heard of in the law of European nations, I gave no credit to
+it, and my security was nearly proving injurious to my friends:
+they contrived however, to save themselves. But persons entirely
+unconnected with political affairs, among whom was Lord Beverley,
+the father of eleven children, returning from Italy with his wife
+and daughters, and a hundred other persons provided with French
+passports, some of them repairing to different universities for
+education, others to the South for the recovery of their health, all
+travelling under the safeguard of laws recognised by all nations,
+were arrested, and have been languishing for ten years in country
+towns, leading the most miserable life that the imagination can
+conceive. This scandalous act was productive of no advantage;
+scarcely two thousand English, including very few military, became
+the victims of this caprice of the tyrant, making a few poor
+individuals suffer, to gratify his spleen against the invincible
+nation to which they belong.
+
+During the summer of 1803 began the great farce of the invasion of
+England; flat-bottomed boats were ordered to be built from one end
+of France to the other; they were even constructed in the forests on
+the borders of the great roads. The French, who have in all things a
+very strong rage for imitation, cut out deal upon deal, and heaped
+phrase upon phrase: while in Picardy some erected a triumphal arch,
+on which was inscribed, "the road to London," others wrote, "To
+Bonaparte the Great. We request you will admit us on board the
+vessel which will bear you to England, and with you the destiny and
+the vengeance of the French people." This vessel, on board of which
+Bonaparte was to embark, has had time to wear herself out in
+harbour. Others put, as a device for their flags in the roadstead,
+"a good wind, and thirty hours". In short, all France resounded with
+gasconades, of which Bonaparte alone knew perfectly the secret.
+
+Towards the autumn I believed myself forgotten by Bonaparte: I
+heard from Paris that he was completely absorbed in his English
+expedition, that he was preparing to set out for the coast, and to
+embark himself to direct the descent. I put no faith in this
+project; but I flattered myself that he would be satisfied if I
+lived at a few leagues distance from Paris, with the small number of
+friends who would come that distance to visit a person in disgrace.
+I thought also that being sufficiently well known to make my
+banishment talked of all over Europe, the first consul would wish to
+avoid this eclat. I had calculated according to my own wishes; but I
+was not yet thoroughly acquainted with the character of the man who
+was to domineer over Europe. Far from wishing to keep upon terms
+with persons who had distinguished themselves, in whatever line that
+was, he wished to make all such merely a pedestal for his own
+statue, either by treading them underfoot, or by making them
+subservient to his designs.
+
+I arrived at a little country seat, I had at ten leagues from Paris,
+with the project of establishing myself during the winter in this
+retreat, as long as the system of tyranny lasted. I only wished to
+see my friends there, and to go occasionally to the theatre, and to
+the museum. This was all the residence I wished in Paris, in the
+state of distrust and espionnage which had begun to be established,
+and I confess I cannot see what inconsistency there would have been
+in the first consul allowing me to remain in this state of voluntary
+exile. I had been there peaceably for a month, when a female, of
+that description which is so numerous, endeavouring to make herself
+of consequence at the expense of another female, more distinguished
+than herself, went and told the first consul that the roads were
+covered with people going to visit me. Nothing certainly could be
+more false. The exiles whom the world went to see, were those who in
+the eighteenth century were almost as powerful as the monarchs who
+banished them; but when power is resisted, it is because it is not
+tyrannical; for it can only be so by the general submission. Be that
+as it may, Bonaparte immediately seized the pretext, or the motive
+that was given him to banish me, and I was apprized by one of my
+friends, that a gendarme would be with me in a few days with an
+order for me to depart. One has no idea, in countries where routine
+at least secures individuals from any act of injustice, of the
+terror which the sudden news of arbitrary acts of this nature
+inspires. It is besides extremely easy to shake me; my imagination
+more readily lays hold of trouble than hope, and although I have
+often found my chagrin dissipated by the occurrence of novel
+circumstances, it always appears to me, when it does come, that
+nothing can deliver me from it. In fact it is very easy to be
+unhappy, especially when we aspire to the privileged lots of
+existence.
+
+I withdrew immediately on receiving the above intimation to the
+house of a most excellent and intelligent lady*, to whom I ought to
+acknowledge I was recommended by a person who held an important
+office in the government*; I shall never forget the courage with
+which he offered me an asylum himself: but he would have the same
+good intentions at present, when he could not act in that manner
+without completely endangering his existence. In proportion as
+tyranny is allowed to advance, it grows, as we look at it, like a
+phantom, but it seizes with the strength of a real being. I arrived
+then, at the country seat of a person whom I scarcely knew, in the
+midst of a society to which I was an entire stranger, and bearing in
+my heart the most cutting chagrin, which I made every effort to
+disguise. During the night, when alone with a female who had been
+for several years devoted to my service, I sat listening at the
+window, in expectation of hearing every moment the steps of a horse
+gendarme; during the day I endeavoured to make myself agreeable, in
+order to conceal my situation. I wrote a letter from this place to
+Joseph Bonaparte, in which I described with perfect truth the extent
+of my unhappiness. A retreat at ten leagues distance from Paris, was
+the sole object of my ambition, and I felt despairingly, that if I
+was once banished, it would be for a great length of time, perhaps
+for ever. Joseph and his brother Lucien generously used all their
+efforts to save me, and they were not the only ones, as will
+presently be seen.
+
+* Madame de Latour.
+* Regnault de Saint-Jean-d'Angely.
+
+Madame Recamier, so celebrated for her beauty, and whose character
+is even expressed in her beauty, proposed to me to come and live at
+her country seat at St. Brice, at two leagues from Paris. I accepted
+her offer, for I had no idea that I could thereby injure a person so
+much a stranger to political affairs; I believed her protected
+against every thing, notwithstanding the generosity of her
+character. I found collected there a most delightful society, and
+there I enjoyed for the last time, all that I was about to quit. It
+was during this stormy period of my existence, that I received the
+speech of Mr. Mackintosh; there I read those pages, where he gives
+us the portrait of a jacobin, who had made himself an object of
+terror during the revolution to children, women and old men, and who
+is now bending himself double under the rod of the Corsican, who
+ravishes from him, even to the last atom of that liberty, for which
+he pretended to have taken arms. This morceau of the finest
+eloquence touched me to my very soul; it is the privilege of
+superior writers sometimes, unwittingly, to solace the unfortunate
+in all countries, and at all times. France was in a state of such
+complete silence around me, that this voice which suddenly responded
+to my soul, seemed to me to come down from heaven; it came from a
+land of liberty. After having passed a few days with Madame
+Recamier, without hearing my banishment at all spoken of, I
+persuaded myself that Bonaparte had renounced it. Nothing is more
+common than to tranquillize ourselves against a threatened danger,
+when we see no symptoms of it around us. I felt so little
+disposition to enter into any hostile plan or action against this
+man, that I thought it impossible for him not to leave me in peace;
+and after some days longer, I returned to my own country seat,
+satisfied that he had adjourned his resolution against me, and was
+contented with having frightened me. In truth I had been
+sufficiently so, not to make me change my opinion, or oblige me to
+deny it, but to repress completely that remnant of republican habit
+which had led me the year before, to speak with too much openness.
+
+I was at table with three of my friends, in a room which commanded
+a view of the high road, and the entrance gate; it was now the end
+of September. At four o'clock, a man in a brown coat, on horseback,
+stops at the gate and rings: I was then certain of my fate. He asked
+for me, and I went to receive him in the garden. In walking towards
+him, the perfume of the flowers, and the beauty of the sun
+particularly struck me. How different are the sensations which
+affect us from the combinations of society, from those of nature!
+This man informed me, that he was the commandant of the gendarmerie
+of Versailles; but that his orders were to go out of uniform, that
+he might not alarm me; he shewed me a letter signed by Bonaparte,
+which contained the order to banish me to forty leagues distance
+from Paris, with an injunction to make me depart within four and
+twenty hours; at the same time, to treat me with all the respect due
+to a lady of distinction. He pretended to consider me as a
+foreigner, and as such, subject to the police: this respect for
+individual liberty did not last long, as very soon afterwards, other
+Frenchmen and Frenchwomen were banished without any form of trial. I
+told the gendarme officer, that to depart within twenty four hours,
+might be convenient to conscripts, but not to a woman and children,
+and in consequence, I proposed to him to accompany me to Paris,
+where I had occasion to pass three days to make the necessary
+arrangements for my journey. I got into my carriage with my children
+and this officer, who had been selected for this occasion, as the
+most literary of the gendarmes. In truth, he began complimenting me
+upon my writings. "You see," said I to him, "the consequences of
+being a woman of intellect, and I would recommend you, if there is
+occasion, to dissuade any females of your family from attempting
+it." I endeavoured to keep up my spirits by boldness, but I felt the
+barb in my heart.
+
+I stopt for a few minutes at Madame Recamier's; I found there
+General Junot, who from regard to her, promised to go next morning
+to speak to the first consul in my behalf; and he certainly did so
+with the greatest warmth. One would have thought, that a man so
+useful from his military ardor to the power of Bonaparte, would have
+had influence enough with him, to make him spare a female; but the
+generals of Bonaparte, even when obtaining numberless favours for
+themselves, have no influence with him. When they ask for money or
+places, Bonaparte finds that in character; they are in a manner then
+in his power, as they place themselves in his dependance; but if,
+what rarely happens to them, they should think of defending an
+unfortunate person, or opposing an act of injustice, he would make
+them feel very quickly, that they are only arms employed to support
+slavery, by submitting to it themselves.
+
+I got to Paris to a house I had recently hired, but not yet
+inhabited; I had selected it with care in the quarter and exposition
+which pleased me; and had already in imagination set myself down in
+the drawing room with some friends, whose conversation is in my
+opinion, the greatest pleasure the human mind can enjoy. Now, I only
+entered this house, with the certainty of quitting it, and I passed
+whole nights in traversing the apartments, in which I regretted the
+deprivation of still more happiness than I could have hoped for in
+it. My gendarme returned every morning, like the man in Blue-beard,
+to press me to set out on the following day, and every day I was
+weak enough to ask for one more day. My friends came to dine with
+me, and sometimes we were gay, as if to drain the cup of sorrow, in
+exhibiting ourselves in the most amiable light to each other, at the
+moment of separating perhaps for ever. They told me that this man,
+who came every day to summon me to depart, reminded them of those
+times of terror, when the gendarmes came to summon their victims to
+the scaffold.
+
+Some persons may perhaps be surprized at my comparing exile to
+death; but there have been great men, both in ancient and modern
+times, who have sunk under this punishment. We meet with more
+persons brave against the scaffold, than against the loss of
+country. In all codes of law, perpetual banishment is regarded as
+one of the severest punishments; and the caprice of one man inflicts
+in France, as an amusement, what conscientious judges only condemn
+criminals to with regret. Private circumstances offered me an
+asylum, and resources of fortune, in Switzerland, the country of my
+parents; in those respects, I was less to be pitied than many
+others, and yet I have suffered cruelly. I consider it, therefore,
+to be doing a service to the world, to signalize the reasons, why no
+sovereign should ever be allowed to possess the arbitrary power of
+banishment. No deputy, no writer, will ever express his thoughts
+freely, if he can be banished when his frankness has displeased; no
+man will dare to speak with sincerity, if the happiness of his whole
+family is to suffer for it. Women particularly, who are destined to
+be the support and reward of enthusiasm, will endeavour to stifle
+generous feelings in themselves, if they find that the result of
+their expression will be, either to have themselves torn from the
+objects of their affection, or their own existence sacrificed, by
+accompanying them in their exile.
+
+On the eve of the last day which was granted me, Joseph Bonaparte
+made one more effort in my favour; and his wife, who is a lady of
+the most perfect sweetness and simplicity, had the kindness to come
+and propose to me to pass a few days at her country seat at
+Morfontaine. I accepted her invitation most gratefully, for I could
+not but feel sensibly affected at the goodness of Joseph, who
+received me in his own house, at the very time that I was the object
+of his brother's persecution. I passed three days there, and
+notwithstanding the perfect politeness of the master and mistress of
+the house, felt my situation very painfully.
+
+I saw only men connected with the government and breathed only the
+air of that authority which had declared itself my enemy; and yet
+the simplest rules of politeness and gratitude forbid me from
+shewing what I felt. I had only my eldest son with me, who was then
+too young for me to converse with him on such subjects. I passed
+whole hours in examining the gardens of Morfontaine, among the
+finest that could be seen in France, and the possessor of which,
+then tranquil, appeared to me really an object of envy. He has been
+since exiled upon thrones, where I am sure he has often regretted
+his beautiful retreat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12.
+
+Departure for Germany.--Arrival at Weimar.
+
+
+I hesitated about the course I was to adopt on quitting France.
+Should I return to my father, or should I go into Germany? My father
+would have welcomed his poor bird, ruffled by the storm, with
+ineffable goodness; but I dreaded the disgust of returning, sent
+back in this manner, to a country, which I was accused of finding
+rather monotonous. I was also desirous of exhibiting myself, by the
+kind reception which I had been promised in Germany, superior to the
+outrage I had received from the first consul; and of placing in
+public contrast the kind reception of the ancient dynasties, with
+the rude impertinence of that which was preparing to subjugate
+France. This movement of self-love triumphed, for my misfortune; I
+should have again seen my father, if I had returned to Geneva.
+
+I requested Joseph to ascertain if I might go into Prussia, for it
+was necessary for me to be at least certain, that the French
+ambassador would not reclaim me abroad as a Frenchwoman, while in
+France I was proscribed as a foreigner. Joseph went in consequence
+to St. Cloud. I was obliged to wait his answer at a public-house, at
+two leagues from Paris, not daring to return to my own house in the
+city. A whole day passed before this answer reached me. Not wishing
+to attract notice by remaining longer at the house where I was, I
+made a tour of the walls of Paris in search of another, at the same
+distance of two leagues, but on a different road. This wandering
+life, at a few steps from my friends and my own residence,
+occasioned me such painful sensations as I cannot recollect without
+shuddering. The room is still present to me; the window where I
+passed the whole day, looking out for the messenger, a thousand
+painful details, which misfortune always draws after it, the extreme
+generosity of some friends, the veiled calculations of others,
+altogether put my mind in such a cruel state of agitation, as I
+could not wish to my greatest enemy. At last this message, on which
+I still placed some hopes, arrived. Joseph sent me some excellent
+letters of recommendation for Berlin, and bid me adieu in a most
+noble and touching manner. I was obliged, therefore, to depart.
+Benjamin Constant was good enough to accompany me; but as he also
+was very fond of Paris, I felt extremely for the sacrifice he made
+me. Every step the horses advanced made me ill, and when the
+postillions boasted of having driven me quickly, I could not help
+sighing at the disagreeable service they were rendering me. In this
+way I travelled forty leagues without being able to regain my
+self-possession. At last we stopped at Chalons, and Benjamin
+Constant, rallying his spirits, relieved by his wonderful powers of
+conversation, at least for some moments, the weight which oppressed
+me. Next day we continued our route as far as Metz, where I wished
+to stop to wait for news from my father. There I passed fifteen
+days, and met one of the most amiable and intelligent men whom
+France and Germany combined could produce, M. Charles Villers. I was
+delighted with his society, but it renewed my regret for that first
+of pleasures, a conversation, in which there reigns the most perfect
+harmony in all that is felt, with all that is expressed.
+
+My father was extremely indignant at the treatment I had received at
+Paris; he considered that his family were in this manner proscribed,
+and driven as criminals out of that country which he had so
+faithfully served. He recommended me to pass the winter in Germany,
+and not to return to him until the spring. Alas! alas! I calculated
+on then carrying back to him the harvest of new ideas which I was
+going to collect in this journey. For several years preceding he was
+frequently telling me that my letters and conversation were all that
+kept up his connection with the world. His mind had so much vivacity
+and penetration, that one was excited to think by the pleasure of
+talking to him. I made observations to report to him,--I listened,
+to repeat to him. Ever since I have lost him, I see and feel only
+half what I did, when I had the object in view of giving him
+pleasure by the picture of my impressions. At Frankfort, my
+daughter, then five years old, fell dangerously ill. I knew nobody
+in that city, and was entirely ignorant of the language; even the
+physician to whose care I entrusted my child scarcely spoke a word
+of French. Oh! how much my father shared with me in all my trouble!
+what letters he wrote me! what a number of consultations of
+physicians, all copied with his own hand, he sent me from Geneva!
+Never were the harmony of sensibility and reason carried further;
+never was there any one like him, possessed of such lively emotion
+for the sufferings of his friends, always active in assisting them,
+always prudent in the choice of the means of being so; in short,
+admirable in every thing. My heart absolutely requires this
+declaration, for what is now to him even the voice of posterity!
+
+I arrived at Weimar, where I resumed my courage, on seeing, through
+the difficulties of the language, the immense intellectual riches
+which existed out of France. I learned to read German; I listened
+attentively to Goethe and Wieland, who, fortunately for me, spoke
+French extremely well. I comprehended the mind and genius of
+Schiller, in spite of the difficulty he felt in expressing himself
+in a foreign language. The society of the duke and duchess of Weimar
+pleased me exceedingly, and I passed three months there, during
+which the study of German literature gave all the occupation to my
+mind which it requires to prevent me from being devoured by my own
+feelings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13.
+
+Berlin.--Prince Louis-Ferdinand.
+
+
+I left Weimar for Berlin, and there I saw that charming queen, since
+destined to so many misfortunes. The king received me with great
+kindness, and I may say that during the six weeks I remained in that
+city, I never heard an individual who did not speak in praise of the
+justice of his government. This, however does not prevent me from
+thinking it always desirable for a country to possess constitutional
+forms, to guarantee to it, by the permanent co-operation of the
+nation, the advantages it derives from the virtues of a good king.
+Prussia, under the reign of its present monarch, no doubt possessed
+the greater part of these advantages; but the public spirit which
+misfortune has developed in it did not then exist; the military
+regime had prevented public opinion from acquiring strength, and the
+absence of a constitution, in which every individual could make
+himself known by his merit, had left the state unprovided with men
+of talent, capable of defending it. The favor of a king, being
+necessarily arbitrary, cannot be sufficient to excite emulation;
+circumstances which are peculiar to the interior of courts, may keep
+a man of great merit from the helm of affairs, or place there a very
+ordinary person. Routine, likewise, is singularly powerful in
+countries where the regal power has no one to contradict it; even
+the justice of a king leads him to place barriers around him, by
+keeping every one in his place; and it was almost without example in
+Prussia, to find a man deprived of his civil or military employments
+on account of incapacity. What an advantage therefore ought not the
+French army to have, composed almost entirely of men born of the
+revolution, like the soldiers of Cadmus from the teeth of the
+dragon! What an advantage it had over those old commanders of the
+Prussian fortified places and armies, to whom every thing that was
+new was entirely unknown! A conscientious monarch who has not
+the happiness, and I use the word designedly, the happiness to have
+a parliament as in England, makes a habit of every thing, in order
+to avoid making too much use of his own will: and in the present
+times we must abandon ancient usages, and look for strength of
+character and understanding, wherever they can be found. Be that as
+it may, Berlin was one of the happiest and most enlightened cities
+in the world.
+
+The writers of the eighteenth century were certainly productive of
+infinite good to Europe, by the spirit of moderation, and the taste
+for literature, with which their works inspired the greater part of
+the sovereigns: it must be admitted, however, that the respect
+which the friends of knowledge paid to French intellect has been one
+of the causes which has ruined Germany for such a length of time.
+Many people regarded the French armies as the propagators of the
+ideas of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire; while the fact was,
+that, if any traces of the opinions of these great men remained in
+the instruments of the power of Bonaparte, it was only to liberate
+them from what they called prejudices, and not to establish a single
+regenerating principle. But there were at Berlin and in the North of
+Germany, at the period of the spring of 1804, a great many old
+partizans of the French revolution, who had not yet discovered that
+Bonaparte was a much more bitter enemy of the first principles of
+that revolution, than the ancient European aristocracy.
+
+I had the honor to form an acquaintance with Prince Louis-Ferdinand,
+the same whose warlike ardor so transported him, that his death was
+almost the precursor of the first reverses of his country. He was a
+man full of ardor and enthusiasm, but who, for want of glory,
+cultivated too much the emotions which agitate life. What
+particularly irritated him against Bonaparte was his practice of
+calumniating all the persons he dreaded, and even of degrading in
+public opinion those whom he employed, in order, at all risks, to
+keep them more strongly dependant on him. Prince Louis said to me
+frequently, "I will allow him to kill, but, moral assassination is
+what revolts me." And in truth let us only consider the state in
+which we have seen ourselves placed, since this great libeller
+became master of all the newspapers of the European continent, and
+could, as he has frequently done, pronounce the bravest men to be
+cowards, and the most irreproachable women to be subjects of
+contempt, without our having any means of contradicting or punishing
+such assertions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14.
+
+Conspiracy of Moreau and Pichegru.
+
+
+The news had just arrived at Berlin of the great conspiracy of
+Moreau, of Pichegru, and of George Cadoudal. There was certainly
+among the principal heads of the republican and royalist parties a
+strong desire to overturn the authority of the first consul, and to
+oppose themselves to the still more tyrannical authority which he
+resolved to establish on making himself be declared emperor: but it
+has been said, and perhaps not without foundation, that this
+conspiracy, which has so well served Bonaparte's tyranny, was
+encouraged by himself, from his wish to take advantage of it, with a
+Machiavelian art, of which it is of consequence to observe all the
+springs. He sent an exiled jacobin into England, who could only
+obtain his return to France by services to be performed for the
+first consul. This man presented himself, like Sinon in the city of
+Troy describing himself as persecuted by the Greeks. He saw several
+emigrants who had neither the vices nor the faculties necessary to
+detect a certain kind of villainy. He found it therefore a matter of
+great ease to entrap an old bishop, an old officer, in short some of
+the wrecks of a government, under which it was scarcely known what
+factions were. In the sequel he wrote a pamphlet in which he
+mystified, with a great deal of wit, all who had believed him, and
+who in truth ought to have made up what they wanted in sagacity by
+firmness of principle, that is to say, never to place the least
+confidence in a man capable of bad actions. We have all our own way
+at looking at things; but from the moment that a person has shewn
+himself to be treacherous or cruel, God alone can pardon, for it
+belongs to him only to read the human heart sufficiently to know if
+it is changed; man ought to keep himself for ever at a distance from
+the person who has lost his esteem. This disguised agent of
+Bonaparte pretended that the elements of revolt existed in France to
+a great extent; he went to Munich to find an English envoy, Mr. Drake,
+whom he also contrived to deceive. A citizen of Great Britain ought
+to have kept clear of this web of artifice, composed of the crossed
+threads of jacobinism and tyranny.
+
+George and Pichegru, who were entirely devoted to the Bourbon party,
+came into France secretly, and concerted with Moreau, whose wish was
+to rid France of the first consul, but not to deprive the French
+nation of its right to choose that form of government by which it
+desired to be ruled. Pichegru wished to have a conversation with
+General Bernadotte, who refused it, being dissatisfied with the
+manner in which the enterprise was conducted, and desiring first of
+all, to have a guarantee for the constitutional freedom of France.
+Moreau, whose moral character is most excellent, whose military
+talent is unquestionable, and whose understanding is just and
+enlightened, allowed himself in conversation, to go to great
+lengths in blaming the first consul, before he could be at all
+certain of overthrowing him. It is a defect very natural to a
+generous mind to express its opinion, even inconsiderately; but
+General Moreau attracted too much the notice of Bonaparte, not to
+make such conduct the cause of his destruction. A pretext was
+wanting to justify the arrest of a man who had gained so many
+battles, and this pretext was found in his conversation, if it could
+not be in his actions.
+
+Republican forms were still in existence; people called each other
+citizen, whilst the most terrible inequality, that which liberates
+some from the yoke of the law, while others are under the dominion
+of despotism, reigned over all France. The days of the week were
+still reckoned according to the republican calendar; boasts were
+made of being at peace with the whole of continental Europe; reports
+were, (as they still continue to be,) continually presenting upon
+the making of roads and canals, the building of bridges and
+fountains; the benefits of the government were extolled to the
+skies; in short, there was not the least apparent reason for
+endeavouring to change a state of things, with which the nation was
+said to be so perfectly satisfied. A plot therefore, in which the
+English, and the Bourbons should be named, was a most desirable
+event to the government, in order to stir up once more the
+revolutionary elements of the nation, and to turn those elements to
+the establishment of an ultra-monarchical power, under the pretence
+of preventing the return of the ancient regime. The secret of this
+combination, which appears very complicated, is in fact very
+simple: it was necessary to alarm the revolutionists as to the
+danger to which their interests would be exposed, and to propose to
+complete their security, by a final abandonment of their principles;
+and so it was done.
+
+Pichegru was become a decided royalist, as he had formerly been a
+republican; his opinion had been completely turned; his character
+was superior to his understanding; but the one was as little
+calculated as the other to draw men after him. George had more
+elasticity about him, but he was not fitted either by nature or
+education for the rank of chief. As soon as it was known that these
+two were at Paris, Moreau was immediately arrested, the barriers
+were shut, death was denounced to any one who should give an asylum
+to Pichegru or George, and all the measures of jacobinism were put
+in force to protect the life of one man. This man is not only of too
+much importance in his own eyes to stick at any thing, when his own
+interests are in question, but it likewise entered into his
+calculations to alarm men's minds, to recall the days of terror, in
+short to inspire the nation, if possible, with the desire of
+throwing itself entirely upon him, in order to escape the troubles
+which it was the tendency of all his measures to increase. The
+retreat of Pichegru was discovered, and George was arrested in a
+cabriolet; for, being unable to live longer in any house, he in this
+manner traversed the streets night and day, to keep himself out of
+sight of his pursuers. The police agent who seized him, was
+recompensed with the legion of honour. I imagine that French
+soldiers would have wished him any reward but that.
+
+The Moniteur was filled with addresses to the first consul,
+congratulating him on his escape from this danger; this incessant
+repetition of the same phrases, bursting from every corner of
+France, offers such a concord in slavery as is perhaps unexampled in
+the history of any other people. You may in turning over the
+Moniteur, find, according to the different epochs, exercises upon
+liberty, upon despotism, upon philosophy, and upon religion, in
+which the departments and good cities of France strive to say the
+same thing in different terms; and one feels astonished that men so
+intelligent as the French, should attach themselves entirely to
+success in the style, and never once have had the desire of
+exhibiting ideas of their own; one might say that the emulation of
+words was all that they required. These hymns of dictation, however,
+with the points of admiration which accompany them, announced that
+France was completely tranquil, and that the small number of the
+emissaries of perfidious Albion were seized. One general, it is
+true, amused himself with reporting, that the English had thrown
+bales of Levant cotton on the coast of Normandy, to give France the
+plague; but these inventions of grave buffoonery were only regarded
+as pieces of flattery addressed to the first consul; and the chiefs
+of the conspiracy, as well as their agents, being in the power of
+the government, there was reason for believing that calm was
+restored in France; but Bonaparte had not yet attained his object.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15.
+
+Assassination of the Duke d'Enghien.
+
+
+I resided at Berlin on the Spree Quay, and my apartment was on the
+ground floor. One morning I was awoke at eight o'clock, and told
+that Prince Louis-Ferdinand was on horseback under my windows, and
+wished me to come and speak to him. Much astonished at this early
+visit, I hastened to get up and go to him. He was a singularly
+graceful horseman, and his emotion heightened the nobleness of his
+countenance. "Do you know," said he to me, "that the Duke d'Enghien
+has been carried off from the Baden territory, delivered to a
+military commission, and shot within twenty four hours after his
+arrival in Paris?" "What nonsense!" I answered, "don't you see that
+this can only be a report spread by the enemies of France?" In fact
+I confess that my hatred of Bonaparte, strong as it was, never went
+the length of making me believe in the possibility of his committing
+such an atrocity. "As you doubt what I tell you," replied Prince
+Louis, "I will send you the Moniteur, in which you will read the
+sentence." He left me at these words, and the expression of his
+countenance was the presage of revenge or death. A quarter of an
+hour afterwards, I had in my hands this Moniteur of the 21st March,
+(30th Pluviose), which contained the sentence of death pronounced by
+the military commission sitting at Vincennes, against the person
+called Louis d'Enghien! It is thus that the French designated the
+descendant of heroes, who were the glory of their country. Even if
+they abjured all the prejudices of illustrious birth, which the
+return of monarchical forms would necessarily recall, could they
+blaspheme in thus manner the recollection of the battles of Lens and
+Rocroi? This Bonaparte who has gained so many battles, does not even
+know how to respect them; with him there is neither past nor future;
+his imperious and contemptuous soul will recognize nothing for
+opinion to hold sacred; he admits only respect for the force which
+is in existence. Prince Louis wrote to me, beginning his note in
+these words, "The person called Louis of Prussia begs to know of
+Madame de Stael, &c." He felt the insult offered to the royal blood
+from which he sprung, to the recollection of the heroes, in the roll
+of whom he burned to place his name. How was it possible, after this
+horrible action, for a single monarch in Europe to connect himself
+with such a man? Necessity, will it be said? There is a sanctuary in
+the soul to which his empire never ought to penetrate; if there were
+not, what would virtue be upon this earth? a mere liberal amusement
+which could only suit the peaceful leisure of private individuals.
+
+A lady of my acquaintance related to me, that a few days after the
+death of the Duke d'Enghien, she went to take a walk round the
+castle of Vincennes; the ground, still fresh, marked the spot where
+he had been buried; some children were playing with little quoits
+upon this mound of turf, the only monument for the ashes of such a
+man. An old invalid, with silvered locks, was sitting at a little
+distance, and remained some time looking at these children; at last
+he arose, and leading them away by the hand, said to them, shedding
+some tears, "Do not play there, my children, I beseech you." These
+tears were all the honors that were paid to the descendant of the
+great Conde, and the earth did not long bear the impression of them.
+
+For a moment at least, public opinion seemed to awaken in France,
+and indignation, was general. But when these generous flames were
+extinguished, despotism was but the more easily established, from
+the vain efforts which had been made to resist it. The first consul
+was for some days rather uneasy at the disposition of men's minds.
+Fouche himself blamed this action; he made use of this expression,
+so characteristic of the present regime: "It is worse than a crime;
+it is a fault." There are many ideas in this short phrase; but
+fortunately we may reverse it with truth, by affirming that the
+greatest of faults is crime. Bonaparte asked an honest senator, what
+was thought of the death of the Duke d'Enghien. "General," replied
+he, "it has given great affliction." "I am not astonished at it,"
+said Bonaparte, "a house which has long reigned in a country always
+interests:" thus wishing to connect with motives of party interest
+the most natural feeling that the human heart can experience.
+Another time he put the same question to a tribune, who, from the
+desire of pleasing him, answered: "Well, general, if our enemies
+take measures against us, we are in the right to do the same against
+them;" not perceiving that this was tantamount to a confession that
+the deed was atrocious. The first consul affected to consider this
+act as dictated by reasons of state. One day, about this period, in
+a discussion with an intelligent man about the plays of Corneille,
+he said, "You see that the public safety, or to express it better,
+that state necessity, has with the moderns been substituted in the
+place of the fatality of the ancients: there is, for instance, such
+a man, who naturally would be incapable of a crime, but political
+circumstances impose it upon him as a law. Corneille is the only one
+who has shewn, in his tragedies, an acquaintance with state
+necessity; on that account, if he had lived in my time, I would have
+made him my prime minister." All this appearance of good humour in
+the discussion was intended to prove that there was nothing of
+passion in the death of the Duke d'Enghien, and that circumstances,
+meaning such as the head of the state is exclusively the judge of,
+might cause and justify every thing. That there was nothing of
+passion in his resolution about the Duke d'Enghien, is perfectly
+true; people would have it that rage inspired the crime,--it had
+nothing to do with it. By what could this rage have been provoked?
+The Duke d'Enghien had in no way provoked the first consul:
+Bonaparte hoped at first to have got hold of the Duke de Berry, who
+it was said, was to have landed in Normandy, if Pichegru had given
+him notice that it was a proper time. This prince is nearer the
+throne than the Duke d'Enghien, and besides, he would by coming into
+France have infringed the existing laws. It therefore suited
+Bonaparte in every way better to have sacrificed him than the Duke
+d'Enghien; but as he could not get at the first, he chose the
+second, in discussing the matter in cold blood. Between the order
+for carrying him off, and that for his execution, more than eight
+days had elapsed, and Bonaparte ordered the punishment of the Duke
+d'Enghien long beforehand, as coolly, as he has since sacrificed
+millions of men to the caprices of his ambition. We now ask, what
+were the motives of this horrible action, and I believe it is very
+easy to penetrate them. First, Bonaparte wished to secure the
+revolutionary party, by contracting with it an alliance of blood. An
+old jacobin, when he heard the news, exclaimed, "So much the better!
+General Bonaparte is now become one of the convention." For a long
+time the jacobins would only have a man who had voted for the death
+of the king, for the first magistrate of the republic; that was what
+they termed, giving pledges to the revolution. Bonaparte fulfilled
+this condition of crime, substituted for that of property required
+in other countries; he thus afforded the certainty that he would
+never serve the Bourbons; and thus such of that party as attached
+themselves to his, burnt their vessels, never to return.
+
+On the eve of causing himself to be crowned by the same men who had
+proscribed royalty, and of re-establishing a noblesse composed of
+the partisans of equality, he believed it necessary to satisfy them
+by the horrible guarantee of the assassination of a Bourbon. In the
+conspiracy of Pichegru and Moreau, Bonaparte knew that the
+republicans and royalists had united against him; this strange
+coalition, of which the hatred he inspired was the sole bond, had
+astonished him. Several persons who held places under him, were
+marked out for the service of that revolution which was to break his
+power, and it was of consequence to him that henceforward all his
+agents should consider themselves ruined beyond redemption, if their
+master was overturned; and, finally, above all, he wished at the
+moment of his seizing the crown to inspire such terror, that no one
+in future should think of resisting him. Every thing was violated in
+this single action: the European law of nations, the constitution
+such as it then existed, public shame, humanity, and religion.
+Nothing could go beyond it; every thing was therefore to be dreaded
+from the man who had committed it. It was thought for some time in
+France, that the murder of the Duke d'Enghien was the signal of a
+new system of revolution, and that the scaffolds were about to be
+re-erected. But Bonaparte only wished to teach the French one thing,
+and that was, that he dared do every thing; in order that they might
+give him credit for the evil he abstained from, as others get it for
+the good they do. His clemency was praised when he allowed a man to
+live; it had been seen how easy it was for him to cause one to
+perish. Russia, Sweden, and above all England, complained of this
+violation of the Germanic empire; the German princes themselves were
+silent, and the weak sovereign on whose territory the outrage had
+been committed, requested in a diplomatic note, that nothing more
+should be said of the event that had happened. Did not this gentle
+and veiled expression, applied to such an act, characterize the
+meanness of those princes, who made their sovereignty consist only
+in their revenues, and treated a state as a capital, of which they
+must get the interest paid as quietly as they could?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16.
+
+Illness and death of M. Necker.
+
+
+My father lived long enough to hear of the assassination of the Duke
+d'Enghien, and the last lines which I received, that were traced by
+his own hand, expressed his indignation at this atrocity.
+
+In the midst of the most complete security, I found one day upon my
+table two letters, announcing to me that my father was dangerously
+ill. The courier who brought them was concealed from me, as well as
+the news of his death. I set out immediately with the strongest
+hope, which I preserved in spite of all the circumstances which
+ought to have extinguished it. When the real truth became known to
+me at Weimar, I was seized with a mingled sensation of inexpressible
+terror and despair. I saw myself without support in the world, and
+compelled to rely entirely on myself for sustaining my soul against
+misfortune. Many objects of attachment still remained to me, but the
+sentiment of affectionate admiration which I felt for my father,
+exercised a sway over me with which no other could come in
+competition. Grief, which is the truest of prophets, predicted to me
+that I should never more be happy at heart, as I had been, whilst
+this man of all-powerful sensibility watched over my fate; and not a
+single day has elapsed since the month of April 1804, in which I
+have not connected all my troubles with his loss. So long as my
+father lived, I suffered only from imagination; for in the affairs
+of real life, he always found means to be of service to me; after I
+lost him, I came in direct communication with destiny. It is
+nevertheless still to the hope that he is praying for me in heaven,
+that I am indebted for the fortitude I retain. It is not merely the
+affection of a daughter, but the most intimate knowledge of his
+character which makes me affirm that I have never seen human nature
+carried nearer to perfection than it was in his soul; if I was not
+convinced of the truth of a future state, I should become mad with
+the idea that such a being could have ceased to exist. There was so
+much of immortality in his thoughts and feelings, that it happens to
+me a hundred times, whenever I feel emotions that elevate me above
+myself, I believe I still hear him.
+
+During my melancholy journey from Weimar to Coppet, I could not help
+envying the existence of every object that circulated in nature,
+even the birds and insects which were flying round me; I asked only
+a day, a single day, to talk to him once more, to excite his
+compassion; I envied those forest trees whose existence is
+prolonged for centuries; but the inexorable silence of the grave has
+something in it which confounds the human intellect; and although it
+is the truth of all others the best known to us, the strength of the
+impression it leaves can never be effaced. As I approached my
+father's residence, one of my friends pointed out to me on the
+mountain some clouds which bore the resemblance of an immense human
+figure, which would disappear towards the evening: it seemed to me
+that the heavens thus offered me the symbol of the loss I had just
+sustained. He was a man truly great: a man, who in no circumstances
+of his life ever preferred the most important of his interests to
+the least of his duties;--a man, whose virtues were inspired to that
+degree by his goodness, that he could have dispensed with
+principles, and whose principles were so strict that he might have
+dispensed with goodness.
+
+On my arrival at Coppet, I learned that my father, during the
+illness of nine days which had deprived me of him, had been
+continually and anxiously occupying himself about my fate. He
+reproached himself for his last book, as the cause of my exile; and
+with a trembling hand, he wrote, during his fever, a letter to the
+first consul, in which he assured him that I had nothing whatever to
+do with the publication of his last work, but that on the contrary,
+I had desired that it should not be printed. This voice of a dying
+man had so much solemnity! this last prayer of a man who had played
+so important a part in France, asking as an only favor, the return
+of his children to the place of their birth, and an act of oblivion
+to the imprudences which a daughter, then young, might have
+committed,--all this appeared to me irresistible: and well as I
+ought to have known the character of the man, that happened to me,
+which I believe is in the nature of all who ardently desire the
+cessation of a great affliction:--I hoped contrary to all
+expectation. The first consul received this letter, and doubtless
+must have thought me an extreme simpleton to flatter myself for a
+moment that he would be in the least moved by it. Certainly, I am in
+that point quite of his opinion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17.
+
+Trial of Moreau.
+
+
+The trial of Moreau still proceeded, and although the journals
+preserved the most profound silence on the subject, the publicity of
+the pleadings was sufficient to rouse the minds, and never did the
+public opinion in Paris show itself so strongly against Bonaparte as
+it did at that period. The French have more need than any other
+people of a certain degree of liberty of the press; they require to
+think and to feel in common; the electricity of the emotions of
+their neighbours is necessary to make them experience the shock in
+their turn, and their enthusiasm never displays itself in an
+isolated manner. Whoever wishes to become their tyrant therefore
+does well to allow no kind of manifestation to public opinion;
+Bonaparte joins to this idea, which is common to all despots, an
+artifice peculiar to the present time, to wit, the art of
+proclaiming some factitious opinion in journals which have the
+appearance of being free, they make so many phrases in the sense
+which they are ordered. It must be confessed that our French writers
+are the only ones who can in this manner every morning embellish the
+same sophism, and who hug themselves in the very superfluity of
+servitude. While the instruction of this famous affair was in
+progress, the journals informed Europe that Pichegru had strangled
+himself in the Temple; all the gazettes were filled with a surgical
+report, which appeared very improbable, notwithstanding the care
+with which it was drawn up. If it is true that Pichegru had perished
+the victim of assassination, let us figure to ourselves the
+situation of a brave general, surprised by cowards in the bottom of
+his dungeon,--defenceless,--condemned for several days to that
+prison solitude which sinks the courage of the soul,--ignorant even
+if his friends will ever know in what manner he perished,--if his
+death will be revenged,--if his memory will not be outraged!
+Pichegru had, in his first interrogatory, exhibited a great deal of
+courage, and threatened, it was said, to exhibit proofs of the
+promises which Bonaparte had made to the Vendeans of effecting the
+return of the Bourbons. Some persons pretend that he had been
+subjected to the torture, as well as two other conspirators, (one of
+whom, named Picot, shewed his mutilated hands at the tribunal), and
+that they dared not expose to the eyes of the French people one of
+its old defenders subjected to the torture of slaves. I give no
+credit to this conjecture; we must always, in the actions of
+Bonaparte, look for the calculation which has dictated them, and we
+shall find none in this latter supposition: while it is, perhaps,
+true, that the appearance of Moreau and Pichegru together at the bar
+of a tribunal would have inflamed public opinion to its highest
+pitch. Already the crowd in the tribunes was immense; several
+officers, at the head of whom was a loyal man, General Lecourbe,
+exhibited the most lively and courageous interest for General
+Moreau. When he repaired to the tribunal, the gendarmes who guarded
+him always respectfully presented arms to him. Already it had begun
+to be felt that honor was on the side of the persecuted; but
+Bonaparte, by his all at once making himself be declared emperor,
+in the midst of this fermentation, entirely diverted mens' minds by
+this new perspective, and concealed his progress better in the midst
+of the storm by which he was surrounded, than he could have done in
+the calm.
+
+General Moreau pronounced before the tribunal one of the best
+speeches which history presents to us; he recalled, with perfect
+modesty, the battles which he had gained since Bonaparte governed
+France; he excused himself for having frequently expressed himself,
+perhaps with too much freedom, and contrasted in an indirect manner
+the character of a Breton with that of a Corsican; in short, he
+exhibited at Once a great deal of mind, and the most perfect
+presence of mind, at a moment so critical. Regnier at that time
+united the ministry of police with that of justice, in the room of
+Fouchc, who had been disgraced. He repaired to Saint Cloud on
+leaving the tribunal. The emperor asked him what sort of speech
+Moreau had made: "Contemptible," said he. "In that case," said the
+emperor, "let it be printed, and distributed all over Paris." When
+Bonaparte found afterwards how much his minister had been mistaken,
+he returned at last to Fouche, the only man who could really second
+him, from his carrying, unfortunately for the world, a sort of
+skilful moderation into a system that had no limits.
+
+An old jacobin, one of Bonaparte's condemned spirits, was employed
+to speak to the judges, to induce them to condemn Moreau to death.
+"That is necessary" said he to them, "to the consideration due to
+the emperor, who caused him to be arrested; but you ought to make
+the less scruple in consenting to it, as the emperor is resolved to
+pardon him." "And who will enable us to pardon ourselves, if we
+cover ourselves with such infamy?" replied one of the judges,* whose
+name I am not at liberty to mention, for fear of exposing him.
+General Moreau was condemned to two years' imprisonment; George and
+several others of his friends to death; one of the MM. de Polignac
+to two, and the other to four years' imprisonment: and both of them
+are still confined, as well as several others, of whom the police
+laid hold, when the period of their sentence had expired. Moreau
+requested to have his imprisonment commuted for perpetual
+banishment; perpetual in this instance should be called for life,
+for the misery of the world is placed on the head of one man.
+Bonaparte readily consented to this banishment, which suited his
+views in all respects. Frequently, on Moreau's passage to the place
+where he was to embark, the mayors of the towns, whose business it
+was to viser his passport of banishment, shewed him the most
+respectful attention. "Gentlemen," said one of them to his audience,
+"make way for General Moreau," and he made an obeisance to him as he
+would have done to the emperor. There was still a France in the
+hearts of men, but the idea of acting according to one's opinion had
+already ceased to exist, and at present it is difficult to know if
+there remains any, it has been so long stifled. When he arrived at
+Cadiz, these same Spaniards, who were a few years after destined to
+give so great an example, paid every possible homage to a victim of
+tyranny. When Moreau passed through the English fleet, their vessels
+saluted him as if he had been the commander of an allied army. Thus
+the supposed enemies of France took upon them to acquit her debt to
+one of her most illustrious defenders. When Bonaparte caused Moreau
+to be arrested, he said, "I might have made him come to me, and have
+told him: 'Listen, you and I cannot remain upon the same soil; go
+therefore, as I am the strongest;' and I believe he would have gone.
+But these chivalrous manners are puerile in public matters."
+Bonaparte believes, and has had the art to persuade several of the
+Machiavelian apprentices of the new generation, that every generous
+feeling is mere childishness. It is high time to teach him that
+virtue also has something manly in it, and more manly than crime
+with all its audacity.
+
+* M. Clavier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18.
+
+Commencement of the Empire.
+
+
+The motion to call Bonaparte to the Empire was made in the tribunate
+by a conventionalist, formerly a jacobin, supported by Jaubert, an
+advocate, and deputy from the merchants of Bourdeaux, and seconded
+by Simeon, a man of understanding and good sense, who had been
+proscribed as a royalist under the republic. It was Bonaparte's wish
+that the partisans of the old regime, and those of the permanent
+interests of the nation, should unite in choosing him. It was
+settled that registers should be opened all over France, to enable
+every one to express his wish regarding the elevation of Bonaparte
+to the throne. But without waiting for the result of this, prepared
+as it was before-hand, he took the title of emperor by a senatus
+consultum, and this unfortunate senate had not even the strength to
+put constitutional limits to this new monarchy. A tribune, whose
+name I wish I dared mention,* had the honor to make a special motion
+for that purpose. Bonaparte, in order to anticipate this idea,
+adroitly sent for some of the senators, and told them, "I feel very
+much at thus being placed in front; I like my present situation much
+better. The continuation of the republic is, however, no longer
+possible; people are quite tired out with it: I believe that the
+French wish for royalty. I had at first thought of recalling the old
+Bourbons, but that would have only ruined them, and myself. It is my
+thorough conviction, that there must be at last a man at the head of
+all this; perhaps, however, it would be better to wait some time
+longer I have made France a century older in the last five years;
+liberty, that is a good civil code, and modern nations care little
+for any thing but property. However, if you will believe me, name a
+committee, organise the constitution, and, I tell you fairly." added
+he smiling, "take precautions against my tyranny; take them, believe
+me." This apparent good nature seduced the senators, who, to say the
+truth, desired nothing better than to be seduced. One of them, a men
+of letters, of some distinction, but one of those philosophers who
+are always finding philanthropic motives for being satisfied with
+power, said to one of my friends, "It is wonderful! with what
+simplicity the emperor allows himself to be told every thing! The
+other day, I made him a discourse an hour long, to prove the
+absolute necessity of founding the new dynasty on a charter which
+should secure the rights of the nation." And what reply did he make
+you? was asked. "He clapped me on the shoulder with the most perfect
+good humour, and told me: 'You are quite right, my dear senator; but
+trust me, this is not the moment for it'." And this senator, like
+many others, was quite satisfied with having spoken, though his
+opinion was not in the least degree acted upon. The feelings of
+self-importance have a prodigiously greater influence over the
+French than those of character.
+
+* M. Gallois.
+
+A very odd peculiarity in the French, and which Bonaparte has
+penetrated with great sagacity, is, that they, who are so ready to
+perceive what is ridiculous in others, desire nothing better than to
+render themselves ridiculous, as soon as their vanity finds its
+account in it in some other way. Nothing certainly presents a
+greater subject for pleasantry, than the creation of an entirely new
+noblesse, such as Bonaparte established for the support of his new
+throne. The princesses and queens, citizenesses of the day before,
+could not themselves refrain from laughing at hearing themselves
+styled, your majesty. Others, more serious, delighted in having
+their title of monseigneur repeated from morning to night, like
+Moliere's City Gentleman. The old archives were rummaged for the
+discovery of the best documents on etiquette; men of merit found a
+grave occupation in making coats of armour for the new families;
+finally, no day passed which did not afford some scene worthy of the
+pen of Moliere; but the terror, which formed the back ground of the
+picture, prevented the grotesque of the front from being laughed at
+as it deserved to be. The glory of the French generals illustrated
+all, and the obsequious courtiers contrived to slide themselves in
+under the shadow of military men, who doubtless deserved the severe
+honors of a free state, but not the vain decorations of such a
+court. Valor and genius descend from heaven, and whoever is gifted
+with them has no need of other ancestors. The distinctions which are
+accorded in republics or limited monarchies ought to be the reward
+of services rendered to the country, and every one may equally
+pretend to them; but nothing savours so much of Tartar despotism as
+this crowd of honors emanating from one man, and having his caprice
+for their source.
+
+Puns without end were darted against this nobility of yesterday;
+and a thousand expressions of the new ladies were quoted, which
+presumed little acquaintance with good manners. And certainly there
+is nothing so difficult to learn, as the kind of politeness which is
+neither ceremonious nor familiar: it seems a trifle, but it
+requires a foundation in ourselves; for no one acquires it, if it is
+not inspired by early habits or elevation of mind. Bonaparte himself
+is embarrassed on occasions of representation; and frequently in his
+own family, and even with foreigners, he seems to feel delighted in
+returning to those vulgar actions and expressions which remind him
+of his revolutionary youth. Bonaparte knew very well that the
+Parisians made pleasantries on his new nobility; but he knew also
+that their opinions would only be expressed in vulgar jokes, and not
+in strong actions. The energy of the oppressed went not beyond the
+equivoque of a pun; and as in the East they have been reduced to the
+apologue, in France they sunk still lower, namely, to the clashing
+of syllables. A single instance of a jeu de mots deserves, however,
+to survive the ephemeral success of such productions; one day as the
+princesses of the blood were announced, some one added, of the blood
+of Enghien. And in truth, such was the baptism of this new dynasty.
+
+Several of the old nobility who had been ruined by the revolution,
+were not unwilling to accept employments at court. It is well known
+by what a gross insult Bonaparte rewarded their complaisance. "I
+proposed to give them rank in my army, and they declined it; I
+offered them places in the administration, and they refused them;
+but when I opened my anti-chambers, they rushed into them in
+crowds." They had no longer any asylum but in his power. Several
+gentlemen, on this occasion, set an example of the most noble
+resistance; but how many others have represented themselves as
+menaced before they had the least reason for apprehension! and how
+many more have solicited for themselves or their families,
+employments at court, which all of them, ought to have spurned at!
+The military or the administrative careers are the only ones in
+which we can flatter ourselves with being useful to our country,
+whoever may be the chief who governs it; but employments at court
+render you dependant on the man, and not on the state.
+
+Registers were made to receive votes for the empire, like those
+which had been opened for the consulship for life; even all those
+who did not sign, were, as in the former instance, reckoned as
+voting for; and the small number of individuals who thought proper
+to write no, were dismissed from their employments. M. de Lafayette,
+the constant friend of liberty, again exhibited an invariable
+resistance; he had the greater merit, because already in this
+country of bravery, they no longer knew how to estimate courage. It
+is quite necessary to make this distinction, as we see the divinity
+of fear reign in France over the most intrepid warriors. Bonaparte
+would not even subject himself to the law of hereditary monarchy,
+but reserved the power of adopting and choosing his successor in the
+manner of the East. As he had then no children, he wished not to
+give his own family the least right; and at the very moment of his
+elevating them to ranks to which assuredly they had no pretensions,
+he subjected them to his will by profoundly combined decrees, which
+entwined the new thrones with chains.
+
+The fourteenth of July was again celebrated this year, (1804)
+because it was said the empire consecrated all the benefits of the
+revolution. Bonaparte had said that storms had strengthened the
+roots of government; he pretended that the throne would guarantee
+liberty: he repeated in all manner of ways, that Europe would be
+tranquillized by the re-establishment of monarchy in the government
+of France. In fact, the whole of Europe, with the exception of
+illustrious England, recognized his new dignity: he was styled my
+brother, by the knights of the ancient royal brotherhood. We have
+seen in what manner he has rewarded them for their fatal
+condescension. If he had been sincerely desirous of peace, even old
+King George himself, whose reign has been the most glorious in the
+English annals, would have been obliged to recognize him as his
+equal. But, a very few days after his coronation, Bonaparte
+pronounced some words which disclosed all his purposes: "People
+laugh at my new dynasty; in five years time it will be the oldest in
+all Europe." And from that moment he has never ceased tending
+towards this end.
+
+A pretext was required, to be always advancing, and this pretext was
+the liberty of the seas. It is quite incredible how easy it is to
+make the most intelligent people on earth swallow any nonsense for
+gospel. It is still one of those contrasts which would be altogether
+inexplicable, if unhappy France had not been stripped of religion
+and morality by a fatal concurrence of bad principles and
+unfortunate events. Without religion no man is capable of any
+sacrifice, and as without morality no one speaks the truth, public
+opinion is incessantly led astray. It follows therefore, as we have
+already said, that there is no courage of conscience, even when that
+of honor exists: and that with admirable intelligence in the
+execution, no one even asks himself what all this is to lead to?
+
+At the time that Bonaparte formed the resolution to overturn the
+thrones of the Continent, the sovereigns who occupied them were all
+of them very honorable persons. The political and military genius of
+the world was extinct, but the people were happy; although the
+principles of free constitutions were not admitted into the
+generality of states, the philosophical ideas which had for fifty
+years been spreading over Europe had at least the merit of
+preserving from intolerance, and mollifying the reign of despotism.
+Catherine II. and Frederic II. both cultivated the esteem of the
+French authors, and these two monarchs, whose genius might have
+subjected the world, lived in presence of the opinion of enlightened
+men and sought to captivate it. The natural bent of men's minds was
+directed to the enjoyment and application of liberal ideas, and
+there was scarcely an individual who suffered either in his person
+or in his property. The friends of liberty were undoubtedly in the
+right, in discovering that it was necessary to give the faculties an
+opportunity of developing themselves; that it was not just that a
+whole people should depend on one man; and that a national
+representation afforded the only means of guaranteeing the
+transitory benefits that might be derived from the reign of a
+virtuous sovereign. But what came Bonaparte to offer? Did he bring a
+greater liberty to foreign nations? There was not a monarch in
+Europe who would in a whole year have committed the acts of
+arbitrary insolence which signalized every day of his life. He came
+solely to make them exchange their tranquillity, their independence,
+their language, their laws, their fortunes, their blood, and their
+children, for the misfortune and the shame of being annihilated as
+nations, and despised as men. He began finally that enterprize of
+universal monarchy, which is the greatest scourge by which mankind
+can be menaced, and the certain cause of eternal war.
+
+None of the arts of peace at all suit Bonaparte: he finds no
+amusement but in the violent crises produced by battles. He has
+known how to make truces, but he has never said sincerely, enough;
+and his character, irreconcileable with the rest of the creation, is
+like the Greek fire, which no strength in nature has been known to
+extinguish.
+
+END OF   THE   FIRST   PART.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.
+
+There is at this place in the manuscript a considerable vacuum, of
+which I have already given an explanation*, and which I am not
+sufficiently informed to make the attempt to fill up. But to put the
+reader in a situation to follow my mother's narrative, I will run
+over rapidly the principal circumstances of her life during the five
+years which separate the first part of these memoirs from the
+second.
+
+* See the Preface.
+
+On her return to Switzerland after the death of her father, the
+first desire she felt was to seek some alleviation of her sorrow in
+giving to the world the portrait of him whom she had just lost, and
+in collecting the last traces of his thoughts. In the Autumn of
+1804, she published the MSS. of her father, with a sketch of his
+public and private character.
+
+My mother's health, impaired by misfortune, necessitated her to go
+and breathe the air of the South. She set out for Italy. The
+beautiful sky of Naples, the recollections of antiquity, and the
+chefs-d'oeuvre of art, opened to her new sources of enjoyment, to
+which she had been hitherto a stranger; her soul, overwhelmed with
+grief, seemed to revive to these new impressions, and she recovered
+sufficient strength to think and to write. During this journey, she
+was treated by the diplomatic agents of France without favor, but
+without injustice. She was interdicted a residence at Paris; she was
+banished from her friends and her habits; but tyranny had not, at
+least at that time, pursued her beyond the Alps; persecution had not
+as yet been established as a system, as it was afterwards. I even
+feel a real pleasure in mentioning that some letters of
+recommendation sent her by Joseph Bonaparte, contributed to render
+her residence at Rome more agreeable.
+
+She returned from Italy in the summer of 1805, and passed a year at
+Coppet and Geneva, where several of her friends were collected.
+During this period she began to write Corinne.
+
+During the following year, her attachment to France, that feeling
+which had so much power over her heart, made her quit Geneva and go
+nearer to Paris, to the distance of forty leagues from it, which was
+still permitted to her. I was then pursuing my studies, preparatory
+to entering into the Polytechnic school; and from her great goodness
+to her children, she wished to watch over their education, as near
+as her exile could allow her. She went in consequence to settle at
+Auxerre, a little town where she had no acquaintance, but of which
+the prefect, M. de la Bergerie, behaved to her with great kindness
+and delicacy.
+
+From Auxerre she went to Rouen: this was approaching some leagues
+nearer the centre to which all the recollections and all the
+affections of her youth attracted her. There she could at least
+receive letters daily from Paris; she had penetrated without any
+obstacle the inclosure, entrance into which had been forbidden to
+her; she might hope that the fatal circle would progressively be
+contracted. Those only who have suffered banishment will be able to
+understand what passed in her heart. M. de Savoie-Rollin was then
+prefect of the Lower Seine; it is well known by what glaring
+injustice he was removed some years afterwards, and I have reason to
+believe that his friendship for my mother, and the interest which he
+shewed for her, during her residence at Rouen, were no slight causes
+of the rigor of which he became the object.
+
+Fouche was still minister of police. His system was, as my mother
+has said, to do as little evil as possible, the necessity of the
+object admitted. The Prussian monarchy had just fallen; there was no
+longer any enemy upon the Continent to struggle with the government
+of Napoleon; no internal resistance shackled his progress, or could
+afford the least pretext for the employment of arbitrary measures;
+what motive, therefore, could he have for prolonging the most
+gratuitous persecution of my mother? Fouche then permitted her to
+come and settle at the distance of twelve leagues from Paris, upon
+an estate belonging to M. de Castellane. There she finished Corinne,
+and superintended the printing of it. In other respects, the retired
+life she there led, the extreme prudence of her whole conduct, and
+the very small number of persons who were not prevented by the fear
+of disgrace from coming to visit her, might have been sufficient to
+tranquillize the most suspicious despotism. But all this did not
+satisfy Bonaparte; he wanted my mother to renounce entirely the
+employment of her talents, and to interdict her from writing even
+upon subjects the most unconnected with politics. It will be seen
+that even at a later period this abnegation was not sufficient to
+preserve her from a continually increasing persecution.
+
+Scarcely had Corinne made her appearance, when a new exile commenced
+for my mother, and she saw all the hopes vanish, with which she had
+for some months been consoling herself. By a fatality which rendered
+her grief more pungent, it was on the 9th of April, the anniversary
+of her father's death, that the order which again banished her from
+her country, and her friends, was signified to her. She returned to
+Coppet, with a bleeding heart, and the prodigious success of Corinne
+afforded very little diversion to her sorrow.
+
+Friendship, however, succeeded in accomplishing what literary glory
+had failed to do; and, thanks to the proofs of affection which she
+received on her return to Switzerland, the summer passed more
+agreeably than she could have hoped. Several of her friends left
+Paris to come to see her, and Prince Augustus of Prussia, to whom
+peace had restored his liberty, did us the honor to stop several
+months at Coppet, prior to his return to his native country.
+
+Ever since her journey to Berlin, which had been so cruelly
+interrupted by the death of her father, my mother had regularly
+continued the study of the German literature and philosophy; but a
+new residence in Germany was necessary to enable her to complete the
+picture of that country, which she proposed to present to France. In
+the autumn of 1807, she set out for Vienna, and she there once more
+found, in the society of the Prince de Ligne, of the Princess
+Lubomirski, &c. &c. that urbanity of manners and ease of
+conversation, which had such charms in her eyes. The Austrian
+government, exhausted by the war, had not then the strength to be an
+oppressor on its own account, and notwithstanding preserved towards
+France, an attitude which was not without dignity and independence.
+The objects of Napoleon's hatred might still find an asylum at
+Vienna; the year she passed in that city, was therefore, the most
+tranquil one she had enjoyed since the commencement of her exile.
+
+On her return to Switzerland, where she spent two years in writing
+her reflections upon Germany, she was not long in perceiving the
+progress which the imperial tyranny was every day making, and the
+contagious rapidity with which the passion for places, and the fear
+of disgrace, were spreading. No doubt several friends, both at
+Geneva and in France, preserved to her during her misfortunes, a
+courageous and unshaken fidelity; but, whoever had any connection
+with the government, or aspired to any employment, began to keep at
+a distance from her house, and to dissuade timid people from
+approaching it. My mother suffered a great deal from all these
+symptoms of servitude, which she detected with incomparable
+sagacity; but the more unhappy she was, the more she felt the desire
+of diverting from the persons who were about her, the miseries of
+her situation, and of diffusing around her that life and
+intellectual movement, which solitude seemed to exclude.
+
+Her talent for declamation was the means of amusement which had the
+greatest influence over herself, at the same time that it varied the
+pleasures of her society. It was at this period, and while she was
+still laboring on her great work on Germany, that she composed and
+played at Coppet, the greater part of the little pieces which are
+collected in the 16th volume of her works*, under the title of
+Dramatic Essays.
+
+* Or the Second Volume of her OEuvres inedites.
+
+Finally, at the beginning of summer, 1810, having finished the three
+volumes of Germany, she wished to go and superintend the printing of
+them, at 40 leagues distance from Paris, a distance which was still
+permitted to her, and where she might hope to see again those of her
+old friends, whose affections had not bent before the disgrace of
+the Emperor.
+
+She went, therefore, to reside in the neighbourhood of Blois, in'
+the old castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire, which had in former times been
+inhabited by the Cardinal d'Amboise, Diana of Poitiers, and
+Catherine de Medicis. The present proprietor of this romantic
+residence, M. Le Ray, with whom my parents were connected by the
+ties of friendship and business, was then in America. But just at
+the time we were occupying his chateau, he returned from the United
+States with his family, and though he was very urgent in wishing us
+to remain in his house, the more he pressed us politely to do so,
+the more anxiety we felt, lest we should incommode him. M. de
+Salaberry relieved us from this embarrassment with the greatest
+kindness, by placing at our disposal his house at Fosse. At
+this period my mother's narrative recommences.
+
+
+
+
+Part The Second
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+Suppression of my Work on Germany.--Banishment from France.
+
+
+Being unable to remain longer in the castle of Chaumont, the
+proprietors of which had returned from America, I went and fixed
+myself at a farm called Fosse, which a generous friend lent me.* The
+house was inhabited by a Vendean soldier, who certainly did not keep
+it in the nicest order, but who had a loyal good nature that made
+every thing easy, and an originality of character that was very
+amusing. Scarcely had we arrived, when an Italian musician, whom I
+had with me to give lessons to my daughter, began playing upon the
+guitar; my daughter accompanied upon the harp the sweet voice of my
+beautiful friend Madame Recamier; the peasants collected round the
+windows, astonished to see this colony of troubadours, which had
+come to enliven the solitude of their master. It was there I passed
+my last days in France, with some friends, whose recollection lives
+in my heart. Certainly this intimate assemblage, this solitary
+residence, this agreeable occupation with the fine arts did no harm
+to any one. We frequently sung a charming air composed by the Queen
+of Holland, and of which the burden is: 'Do what you ought, happen
+what may'. After dinner, we had imagined the idea of seating
+ourselves round a green table and writing letters to each other,
+instead of conversing. These varied and multiplied tetes-a-tete
+amused us so much, that we were impatient to get from table, where
+we were talking, in order to go and write to one another. When any
+strangers came in accidentally, we could not bear the interruption
+of our habits; and our penny post (it is thus we called it) always
+went its round. The inhabitants of the neighbouring town were
+somewhat astonished at these new manners, and looked upon them as
+pedantic, while there was nothing in this game, but a resource
+against the monotony of solitude. One day a gentleman of the
+neighbourhood who had never thought of any thing in his life but the
+chase, came to take my boys with him into the woods; he remained
+sometime seated at our active but silent table; Madame Recamier
+wrote a little note with her beautiful hand to this jolly sportsman,
+in order that he might not be too much a stranger to the circle in
+which he was placed. He excused himself from receiving it, assuring
+us that he could never read writing by day-light: we laughed a
+little at the disappointment which the benevolent coquetry of our
+beautiful friend had met with, and thought that a billet from her
+hand would not have always had the same fate. Our life passed in
+this manner, without any of us, if I may judge from myself, finding
+the time at all burdensome.
+
+* M. de Salaberry.
+
+The opera of Cinderella was making a great noise at Paris; I wished
+to go and see it represented at a paltry provincial theatre at
+Blois. Coming out of the theatre on foot, the people of the place
+followed me in crowds from curiosity, more desirous of knowing me
+because I was an exile, than from any other motive. This kind of
+celebrity which I derived from misfortune, much more than from
+talent, displeased the minister of police, who wrote sometime after
+to the prefect of Loir and Cher, that I was surrounded by a court.
+"Certainly," said I to the prefect* "it is not power at least which
+gives it me."
+
+* M. de Corbigny, an amiable and intelligent man.
+
+I had always the intention of repairing to England by the way of
+America; but I was anxious to terminate my work on Germany. The
+season was now advancing; we were already at the fifteenth of
+September, and I began to foresee that the difficulty of embarking
+my daughter with me would detain me another winter, in some town, I
+knew not where, at forty leagues from Paris. I was then desirous
+that it should be Vendome, where I knew several clever people, and
+where the communication with the capital was easy. After having
+formerly had one of the most brilliant establishments in Paris, I
+was now contented to anticipate considerable pleasure from
+establishing myself at Vendome; fate however denied me even this
+modest happiness.
+
+On the 23d of September I corrected the last proof of Germany; after
+six years' labor, I felt the greatest delight in putting the word
+End to my three volumes. I made a list of one hundred persons to
+whom I wished to send copies, in different parts of France and
+Europe; I attached great importance to this book, which I thought
+well adapted to communicate new ideas to France; it appeared to me
+that a sentiment elevated without being hostile, had inspired it,
+and that people would find in it a language which was no longer
+spoken.
+
+Furnished with a letter from my publisher, which assured me that the
+censorship had authorised the publication of my work, I believed
+that I had nothing to apprehend, and set out with my friends for an
+estate of M. Mathieu de Montmorency, at five leagues from Blois. The
+house belonging to this estate is situated in the middle of a
+forest; there I walked about with the man whom I most respect in the
+world, since I have lost my father. The fineness of the weather, the
+magnificence of the forest, the historical recollections which the
+place recalled, being the scene of the battle of Fretteval, fought
+between Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion, all contributed
+to fill my mind with the most quiet and delightful impressions. My
+worthy friend, who is only occupied in this world with rendering
+himself worthy of heaven, in this conversation, as in all those we
+have had together, paid no attention to affairs of the day, and only
+sought to do good to my soul. We resumed our journey the next day,
+and in these plains of the Vendomois, where you meet not with a
+single habitation, and which like the sea seem to present every
+where the same appearance, we contrived to lose ourselves
+completely. It was already midnight, and we knew not what road to
+take, in a country every where the same, and where fertility is as
+monotonous as sterility is elsewhere, when a young man on horseback,
+perceiving our embarrassment, came and requested us to pass the
+night in the chateau of his parents.* We accepted his invitation,
+which was doing us a real service, and we found ourselves all of a
+sudden in the midst of the luxury of Asia, and the elegance of
+France. The masters of the house had spent a considerable time in
+India, and their chateau was adorned with every thing they had
+brought back from their travels. This residence excited my
+curiosity, and I found myself extremely comfortable in it. Next day
+M. de Montmorency gave me a note from my son which pressed me to
+return home, as my work had met with fresh difficulties from the
+censorship. My friends who were with me in the chateau conjured me
+to go; I had not the least suspicion of what they were concealing
+from me, and thinking there was nothing but what Augustus's letter
+mentioned,* whiled away the time in examining the Indian curiosities
+without any idea of what was in store for me. At last I got into the
+carriage, and my brave and intelligent Vendean whom his own dangers
+had never moved, squeezed my hand, with tears in his eyes: I guessed
+immediately that they were making a mystery to me of some new
+persecution, and M. de Montmorency, in reply to my interrogations,
+at last acquainted me that the minister of the police had sent his
+myrmidons to destroy the ten thousand copies which had been printed
+of my book, and that I had received an order to quit France within
+three days. My children and friends had wished me not to hear this
+news while I was among strangers; but they had taken every possible
+precaution to prevent the seizure of my manuscript, and they
+succeeded in saving it, some hours before I was required to deliver
+it up. This new blow affected me most severely, I had flattered
+myself with an honorable success by the publication of my book: if
+the censors had in the first instance refused to authorise its being
+printed, that would have appeared to me very simple; but after
+having submitted to all their observations, and made all the alterations
+required of me, to learn that my work was destroyed, and that I must
+separate my self from the friends who had supported my courage, all
+this made me shed tears. But I endeavored once more to get the
+better of my feelings, in order to determine what was best to be
+done in a crisis where the step I was about to take might have so
+much influence on the fortunes of my family. As we drew near my
+habitation, I gave my writing desk, which contained some further
+notes upon my book, to my youngest son; he jumped over a wall to get
+into the house by the garden. An English lady*, my excellent friend,
+came out to meet me and inform me of all that had happened. I
+observed at a distance some, gendarmes who were wandering round
+residence, but it did not appear that they were in search of me:
+they were no doubt in pursuit of some other unfortunates, conscripts,
+exiles, persons in surveillance, or, in short, of some of the
+numerous classes of oppressed which the present government of France
+has created.
+
+* (Note of the Editor.)
+Uneasy at not seeing my mother arrive, I took horse to go and meet
+her, in order to soften as much as was in my power, the news which
+she had to learn upon her return; but I lost myself like her, in the
+uniform plains of the Vendomois, and it was only in the middle of
+the night that a fortunate chance conducted me to the gate of the
+chateau where the rites of hospitality had been given to her. I
+caused M. de Montmorency to be awakened, and after having informed
+him of this new instance of the persecution which the imperial
+police directed against my mother, I set off again to finish putting
+her papers in safety, leaving to M. de Montmorency the charge of
+preparing her for the new blow with which she was threatened.
+
+* Miss Randall.
+
+The prefect of Loir and Cher came to require the delivery of my
+manuscript: I gave him, merely to gain time, a rough copy which
+remained with me, and with which he was satisfied. I have learned
+that he was extremely ill-treated a few months afterwards, to punish
+him for having shewn me some attention: and the chagrin he felt at
+having incurred the disgrace of the emperor, was, it is said, one of
+the causes of the illness which carried him off in the prime of
+life. Unfortunate country, where the circumstances are such, that a
+man of his understanding and talent should sink under the chagrin of
+disgrace!
+
+I saw in the papers, that some American vessels had arrived in the
+ports of the Channel, and I determined to make use of my passport
+for America, in the hope that it would be possible to touch at an
+English port. At all events I required some days to prepare for this
+voyage, and I was obliged to address myself to the minister of police
+to ask for that indulgence. It has been already seen that the custom
+of the French government is to order women, as well as soldiers, to
+depart within twenty-four hours. Here follows the minister's reply:
+it is curious to observe his style*.
+
+* (Note of the Editor.)
+This is the same letter which was printed in the Preface to Germany,
+
+"GENERAL POLICE.
+MINISTER'S CABINET.
+Paris, 3d October, 1810.
+
+"I have received the letter, madam, which you did me the honor to
+write to me. Your son will have informed you that I saw no
+impropriety in your delaying your departure for seven or eight days:
+I hope they will be sufficient for the arrangements which you have
+yet to make, as I cannot grant you any more.
+
+"You must not seek for the cause of the order which I have signified
+to you, in the silence which you have observed with regard to the
+emperor in your last work; that would be a great mistake; he could
+find no place there which was worthy of him; but your exile is a
+natural consequence of the line of conduct you have constantly
+pursued for several years past. It has appeared to me that the air
+of this country did not at all agree with you, and we are not yet
+reduced to seek for models in the nations whom you admire.
+
+"Your last work is not at all French; it is by my orders that the
+impression has been seized. I regret the loss which it will occasion
+to the bookseller; but it is not possible for me to allow it to
+appear.
+
+"You know, madam, that you would not have been permitted to quit
+Coppet but for the desire you had expressed to go to America. If my
+predecessor allowed you to reside in the department of Loir and
+Cher, you had no reason to look upon this license as any revocation of the
+arrangements which had been fixed with regard to you. At present you
+compel me to make them be strictly executed; for this you have no
+one to blame but yourself.
+
+"I have signified to M. Corbigny* to look to the punctual execution
+of the order I have given him, as soon as the term I grant you is
+expired.
+
+* Prefect of Loir and Cher.
+
+"I regret extremely, madam, that you have forced me to begin my
+correspondence with you by an act of severity; it would have been
+much more agreeable to me to have only had to offer you the
+assurance of the high consideration with which I have the honor
+to be, madam,
+
+"Your most humble, and most obedient servant,
+Signed the DUKE of ROVIGO.
+
+"P. S, I have reasons, madam, for mentioning to you that the ports
+of Lorient, La Rochelle, Bourdeaux, and Rochefort, are the only ones in
+which you can embark. I request you to let me know which of them you
+select*."
+
+* This postscript is easily understood; its object was to prevent me
+from going to England.
+
+The stale hypocrisy with which I was told that the air of this
+country did not agree with me, and the denial of the real cause of
+the suppression of my book, are worthy of remark. In fact, the
+minister of police had shown more frankness in expressing himself
+verbally respecting me: he asked, why I never named the emperor or
+the army in my work on Germany? On its being objected that the work
+being purely literary, I could not well have introduced such
+subjects, "Do you think," then replied the minister, "that we have
+made war for eighteen years in Germany, and that a person of such
+celebrity should print a book upon it, without saying a word about
+us? This book shall be destroyed, and the author deserves to be sent
+to Vincennes."
+
+On receiving the letter of the minister of police, I paid no
+attention to any part but that passage of it which interdicted me
+the ports of the Channel. I had already learned, that suspecting my
+intention of going to England, they would endeavour to prevent me.
+This new mortification was really above my strength to bear; on
+quitting my native country, I must go to that of my adoption; in
+banishing myself from the friends of my whole life, I required at
+least to find those friends of whatever is good and noble, with
+whom, without knowing them personally, the soul always sympathises.
+I saw at once all that supported my imagination crumbling to pieces;
+for a moment longer I would have embarked on board any vessel bound
+for America, in the hope of her being captured on her passage; but I
+was too much shaken to decide at once on so strong a resolution; and
+as the two alternatives of America and Coppet were the only ones
+that were left me, I determined on accepting the latter; for a
+profound sentiment always attracted me to Coppet, in spite of the
+disagreeables I was there subjected to.
+
+My two sons both endeavoured to see the emperor at Fontainbleau,
+where he then was; they were told they would be arrested if they
+remained there; a fortiori, I was interdicted from going to it myself.
+I was obliged to return into Switzerland from Blois, where I was,
+without approaching Paris nearer than forty leagues. The minister
+of police had given notice, in corsair terms, that at thirty-eight
+leagues I was a good prize. In this manner, when the emperor
+exercises the arbitrary power of banishment, neither the exiled
+persons, nor their friends, nor even their children, can reach
+his presence to plead the cause of the unfortunates who are thus
+torn from the objects of their affection and their habits; and these
+sentences of exile, which are now irrevocable, particularly where
+women are the objects, and which the emperor himself has rightly
+termed proscriptions, are pronounced without the possibility of
+making any justification be heard, supposing always that the crime
+of having displeased the emperor admits of any.
+
+Although the forty leagues were ordered me, I was necessitated to
+pass through Orleans, a very dull town, but inhabited by several
+very pious ladies, who had retired thither for an asylum. In walking
+about the town on foot, I stopped before the monument erected to the
+memory of Joan of Arc: certainly, thought I to myself, when she
+delivered France from the power of the English, that same France was
+much more free, much more France than it is at present. One feels a
+singular sensation in wandering through a town, where you neither know,
+nor are known to a soul. I felt a kind of bitter enjoyment in picturing
+to myself my isolated situation in its fullest extent, and in still
+looking at that France which I was about to quit, perhaps for ever,
+without speaking to a person, or being diverted from the impression
+which the country itself made upon me. Occasionally persons passing
+stopped to look at me, from the circumstance I suppose of my
+countenance having, in spite of me, an expression of grief; but they
+soon went on again, as it is long since mankind have been accustomed
+to witness persons suffering.
+
+At fifty leagues from the Swiss frontier, France is bristled with
+citadels, houses of detention, and towns serving as prisons; and
+every where you see nothing but individuals deprived of their liberty
+by the will of one man, conscripts of misfortune, all chained at a
+distance from the places where they would have wished to live. At
+Dijon, some Spanish prisoners, who had refused to take the oath,
+regularly came every day to the market place to feel the sun at
+noon, as they then regarded him rather as their countryman; they
+wrapt themselves up in a mantle, frequently in rags, but which they
+knew how to wear with grace, and they gloried in their misery, as it
+arose from their boldness; they hugged themselves in their sufferings,
+as associating them with the misfortunes of their intrepid country.
+They were sometimes seen going into a coffee house, solely to read the
+newspaper, in order to penetrate the fate of their friends through
+the lies of their enemies; their countenances were then immoveable,
+but not without expression, exhibiting strength under the command of
+their will. Farther on, at Auxonne, was the residence of the English
+prisoners, who had the day before saved from fire, one of the houses
+of the town where they were kept confined. At Besancon, there were
+more Spaniards. Among the French exiles to be met with in every part
+of France, an angelic creature inhabited the citadel of Besancon, in
+order not to quit her father. For a long period, and amidst every
+sort of danger, Mademoiselle de Saint Simon shared the fortunes of
+him who had given her birth.
+
+At the entrance of Switzerland, on the top of the mountains which
+separate it from France, you see the castle of Joux, in which
+prisoners of state are detained, whose names frequently never reach
+the ear of their relations. In this prison Toussaint Louverture
+actually perished of cold; he deserved his fate on account of his
+cruelty, but the emperor had the least right to inflict it upon him,
+as he had engaged to guarantee to him his life and liberty. I passed
+a day at the foot of this castle, during very dreadful weather, and
+I
+could not help thinking of this negro transported all at once into
+the Alps, and to whom this residence was the hell of ice; I thought
+of the more noble beings, who had been shut up there, of those who
+were still groaning in it, and I said to myself also that if I was
+there, I should never quit it with life. It is impossible to convey
+an idea to the small number of free nations which remain upon the
+earth, of that absence of all security, the habitual state of the
+human creatures who live under the empire of Napoleon. In other
+despotic governments there are laws, and customs, and a religion,
+which the sovereign never infringes, however absolute he may be; but
+in France, and in Europe France, as every thing is new, the past can
+be no guarantee, and every thing may be feared as well as hoped
+according as you serve, or not, the interests of the man who dares
+to propose himself, as the sole object of the existence of the whole
+human race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+Return to Coppet.--Different persecutions.
+
+
+In returning to Coppet, dragging my wing like the pigeon in
+Lafontaine, I saw the rainbow rise over my father's house; I dared
+take my part in this token of the covenant; there had been nothing
+in my sorrowful journey to prevent me from aspiring to it. I was
+then almost resigned to living in this chateau, renouncing the idea
+of ever publishing more on any subject; but it was at least
+necessary, in making the sacrifice of talents, which I flattered
+myself with possessing, to find happiness in my affections, and this
+is the manner in which my private life was arranged, after having
+stript me of my literary existence.
+
+The first order received by the prefect of Geneva, was to intimate
+to my two sons, that they were interdicted going into France without
+a new permission of the police. This was to punish them for having
+wished to speak to Bonaparte in favor of their mother. Thus the
+morality of the present government is to loosen family ties, in
+order to substitute in all cases the emperor's will. Several
+generals have been mentioned as declaring, that if Napoleon ordered
+them to throw their wives and children into the river, they would
+not hesitate to obey him. The translation of this is, that they
+prefer the money which the emperor gives them, to the family which
+they have from nature. There are many instances of this way of
+thinking, but there are few who would have impudence enough to give
+utterance to it. I felt a mortal grief at seeing for the first time
+my situation bear upon my sons, scarcely entered into life. We feel
+ourselves very firm in our own conduct, when it is founded on
+sincere conviction; but when others begin to suffer on our account,
+it is almost impossible to keep from reproaching ourselves. Both my
+sons, however, most generously diverted this feeling from me, and we
+supported each other mutually by the recollection of my father.
+
+A few days afterwards the prefect of Geneva wrote me a second
+letter, to require me, in the name of the minister of police, to
+deliver up the proof sheets of my book which were still in my hands;
+the minister knew exactly the number I had sent and kept, and his
+spies had done their duty well. In my answer, I gave him the
+satisfaction of admitting that he had been correctly informed; but I
+told him at the same time that this copy was not in Switzerland, and
+that I neither could nor would give it up. I added, however, that I
+would engage never to have it printed on the Continent, and I had no
+great merit in making this promise, for what Continental government
+would then have suffered the publication of any book forbidden, by
+the emperor?
+
+A short time afterwards, the prefect of Geneva* was dismissed, and
+it was generally believed on my account; he was one of my friends,
+yet he had not deviated one iota from the orders he had received:
+although he was one of the most honorable and enlightened men in
+France, his principles led him to the scrupulous obedience of the
+government, whose servant he was; but no ambitious view, or personal
+calculation gave him the zeal required. It was another great source
+of chagrin to be, or to be regarded as being, the cause of the
+dismissal of such a man. He was generally regretted in his
+department, and from the moment it was believed that I was the cause
+of his disgrace, all who had any pretensions to places avoided my
+house as they would the most fatal contagion. There still remained
+to me, however at Geneva, more friends than any other provincial
+town in France could have offered me; for the inheritance of liberty
+has left in that city much generous feeling; but it is impossible to
+have an idea of the anxiety one feels, when one is afraid of
+compromising those who come to visit you. I made a point of getting
+the most exact information of all the relations of any lady before I
+invited her; for if she had only a cousin who wanted a place, or had
+one, it was demanding an act of Roman heroism to expect her to come
+and dine with me.
+
+At last, in the month of March 1811, a new prefect
+arrived from Paris. He was a man admirably well adapted to the
+reigning system: that is to say, having a very general acquaintance
+with facts, coupled with a total absence of principles in matters of
+government; calling every fixed rule mere abstraction, and placing
+his conscience in devotion to the reigning power. The first time I
+saw him, he told me that talents like mine were made to celebrate
+the emperor, who was a subject well worthy of the kind of enthusiasm
+which I had shown in Corinna. I gave him for answer, that persecuted
+as I was by the emperor, any thing like praise of him coming from
+me, would have the air of a petition, and that I was persuaded that
+the emperor himself would find my eulogiums very ridiculous under
+such circumstances. He combatted this opinion very strongly: he
+returned to my house several times to beg me, in the name of my own
+interest, as he styled it, to write something in favor of the
+emperor, were it but a sheet of four pages; that would be
+sufficient, he assured me, to put an end to all the disagreeables I
+suffered. He repeated what he told me to every person of my
+acquaintance. Finally, one day he came to propose to me to celebrate
+in verse the birth of the king of Rome; I told him, laughing, that I
+had not a single idea on the subject, and that I should confine
+myself to wishes for his having a good nurse. This joke put an end
+to the prefect's negociations with me, upon the necessity of my
+writing in favor of the present government.
+
+* M. de Barante, father of M. Prosper de Barante, member of the
+* Chamber of Peers.
+
+A short time afterwards the physicians ordered my youngest son the
+baths of Aix, in Savoy, at twenty leagues from Coppet. I chose the
+early part of May to go there, a time of the year when the waters
+are quite deserted. I gave the prefect notice of this little
+journey, and went to shut myself up in a kind of village, where
+there was not at the time a single person of my acquaintance. I had
+hardly been there ten days, before a courier arrived from the
+prefect of Geneva to order me to return. The prefect of Mont-Blanc,
+in whose department I was, was also afraid lest I should leave Aix
+to go to England, as he said, to write against the emperor; and
+although London was not very near to Aix in Savoy, he sent his
+gendarmes every where about, to forbid my being furnished with post
+horses on the road. I am at present tempted to laugh at all this
+prefectorial activity against a poor thing like myself; but at that
+time the very sight of a gendarme was enough to make me die with
+fright. I was always alarmed lest from a banishment so rigorous the
+change might shortly be to a prison, which was to me more terrible
+than death itself. I knew that if I was once arrested, that if this
+eclat were once got over, the emperor would not allow himself again
+to be spoken to about me, even if any one had the courage to do so;
+which was not very probable at that court, where terror was the
+prevailing sentiment every minute of the day, and in the most
+trifling concerns of life.
+
+On my return to Geneva, the prefect signified to me not only that he
+forbid me from going under any pretence to the countries united to
+France, but that he advised me not to travel in Switzerland, and
+never to go in any direction beyond two leagues from Coppet. I
+objected to him that being domiciliated in Switzerland, I did not
+clearly understand by what right a French authority could forbid me
+from travelling in a foreign country. The prefect no doubt thought
+me rather a simpleton to discuss at that moment a point of right,
+repeated his advice to me in a tone singularly approaching to an
+order. I confined myself my protest: but the very next day I learned
+that one of the most distinguished literati of Germany, M. Schlegel,
+who had for eight years been employed in the education of my sons,
+had received an order not only to leave Geneva, but to quit Coppet.
+I wished still to represent that in Switzerland the prefect of
+Geneva had no orders to give; but I was told, that if I liked better
+to receive this order through the French ambassador, I might be
+gratified: that the ambassador would address the landamann, and the
+landamann would apply to the canton of Vaud, who would immediately
+send M. Schlegel from my house. By making despotism go this
+roundabout, I might have gained ten days, but nothing more. I then
+wished to know why I was deprived of the society of M. Schlegel, my
+own friend, and that of my children. The prefect, who was
+accustomed, like the greater part of the emperor's agents, to couple
+very smooth words with very harsh acts, told me that it was from
+regard to me that the government banished M. Schlegel from my house
+as he made me an Anti-gallican. Much affected by this proof of the
+paternal care of the government, I asked what Mr. S. had ever done
+against France: the prefect objected to his literary opinions, and
+referred among other things to a pamphlet of his, in which, in a
+comparison between the Phedra of Euripides and that of Racine, he
+had given the preference to the former. How very delicate for a
+Corsican monarch to take in this manner act and cause (sic) for the
+slightest shades of French literature! But the real truth was, M.
+Schlegel was banished because he was my friend, because his
+conversation animated my solitude, and because the system was now
+begun to be acted upon, which soon became evident, of making a
+prison of my soul, in tearing from me every enjoyment of intellect
+and friendship.
+
+I resumed the resolution of leaving Switzerland, which the pain of
+quitting my friends and the ashes of my parents had made me so often
+give up; but there remained a very difficult problem to solve, and
+that was to find the means of departure. The French government threw
+so many difficulties in the way of a passport for America, that I
+durst no longer think of that plan. Besides, I had reason to be
+afraid lest at the moment of my embarkation they should pretend to
+have discovered that I was going to England, and that the decree
+might be applied to me, which condemned to imprisonment all who
+attempted to go there without the authority of the government. It
+seemed to me, therefore, much preferable to go to Sweden, that
+honorable country, whose new chief already gave indications of the
+glorious conduct which he has since known how to sustain. But by
+what road to get to Sweden? The prefect had given me to understand
+in all ways, that wherever France commanded, I should be arrested,
+and how was I to reach the point where she did not command? I must
+necessarily pass through Russia, as the whole of Germany was under
+the French dominion. But to get to Russia, I must cross Bavaria and
+Austria. I could trust my self in the Tyrol, although it was united
+to a state of the confederation, on account of the courage which its
+unfortunate inhabitants had shewn. As to Austria, in spite of the
+fatal debasement into which she had sunk, I had sufficient
+confidence in her monarch to believe that he would not deliver me
+up; but I knew also that he could not defend me. After having
+sacrificed the ancient honor of his house, what strength remained to
+him of any kind? I spent my days, therefore, in studying the map of
+Europe to escape from it, as Napoleon studied it to make himself its
+master, and my campaign, as well as his, always had Russia for its
+field. This power was the last asylum of the oppressed; it was
+therefore that which the conqueror of Europe wished to overthrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+Journey in Switzerland with M. de Montmorency.
+
+
+Determined to go by the way of Russia, I required a passport to
+enter it. But a fresh difficulty occurred; I must write to
+Petersburgh to obtain this passport: such was the formality which
+circumstances rendered necessary; and although I was certain of
+meeting with no refusal from the known generous character of the
+emperor Alexander, I had reason to be afraid that in the ministerial
+offices it might be mentioned that I had asked for a passport, and
+in that way get to the French ambassador's ears, which would lead
+to my arrest, and prevent me from executing my project. It was
+necessary, therefore, to go first to Vienna, to ask for my passport
+from thence, and there wait for it. The six weeks which would be
+required to send my letter and receive an answer, would be passed
+under the protection of a ministry which had given the archduchess
+of Austria to Bonaparte;-could I trust myself to it? It was clear,
+however, that by remaining as a hostage, under the hand of Napoleon,
+I not only renounced the exercise of my own talents, but I prevented
+my sons from following any public career; they could enter into no
+service, either for Bonaparte or against him; it was impossible to
+find an establishment for my daughter, as it was necessary either to
+separate myself from her, or to confine her to Coppet; and yet if I
+was arrested in my flight, there was an end of the fortune of my
+children, who would not have wished to separate themselves from my
+destiny.
+
+It was in the midst of all these perplexities, that a friend of
+twenty years standing, M. Mathieu de Montmorency proposed to come
+and see me, as he had already done several times since my exile.
+It is true that I was written to from Paris, that the Emperor had
+expressed his displeasure against everyone who should go to Coppet,
+and especially against M. de Montmorency, if he again went there.
+But I confess I made light of these expressions of the Emperor,
+which he throws out sometimes to terrify people, and struggled very
+feebly with M. de Montmorency, who generously sought to tranquillize
+me by his letters. I was wrong, no doubt; but who could have
+persuaded themselves that an old friend of a banished woman would
+have it charged to him as a crime, his going to spend a few days
+with her. The life of M. de Montmorency, entirely consecrated to
+works of piety, or to family affections, estranged him so completely
+from all politics, that unless it would even go the length of
+banishing the saints, it seemed to me impossible that the government
+would attack such a man. I asked myself likewise, cui bono; a
+question I have always put to myself whenever any action of Napoleon
+was in discussion. I know that he will, without hesitation, do all
+the evil which can be of use to him for the least thing; but I do
+not always conjecture the lengths to which his prodigious egotism
+extends in all directions, towards the infinitely little, as well as
+the infinitely great.
+
+Although the prefect had made me be told that he recommended me not
+to travel in Switzerland, I paid no attention to an advice which
+could not be made a formal order. I went to meet M. de Montmorency
+at Orbd, and from thence I proposed to him, as the object of a
+promenade in Switzerland, to return by way of Fribourg, to see the
+establishment of female Trappists, at a short distance front that of
+the men in Val-Sainte.
+
+We reached the convent in the midst of a severe shower, after having
+been obliged to come nearly a mile on foot. As we were flattering
+ourselves with being admitted, the Procureur of la Trappe, who has
+the direction of the female convent, told us that nobody could be
+received there. I tried, however, to ring the bell at the gate of
+the cloister; a nun appeared behind the latticed opening through
+which the portress may speak to strangers.
+
+"What do you want?" said she to me, in a voice without modulation as
+we might suppose that of a ghost. "I should wish to see the interior
+of your convent."--"That is impossible."--"But I am very wet, and
+want to dry myself."--She immediately touched a spring which opened
+the door of an outer apartment, in which I was allowed to rest
+myself; but no living creature appeared. I had hardly been seated a
+few minutes, when becoming impatient at being unable to penetrate
+into the interior of the house, I rung again; the same person again
+appeared, and I asked her if no females were ever admitted into the
+convent; she answered that it was only in cases when any one had the
+intention of becoming a nun. "But," said I to her, "how can I know
+if I wish to remain in your house, if I am not permitted to examine
+it."--"Oh, that is quite useless," replied she, "I am very sure
+that you have no vocation for our state," and with these words
+immediately shut her wicket. I know not by what signs this nun had
+satisfied herself of my worldly dispositions; it is possible that a
+quick manner of speaking, so different from theirs, is sufficient to
+make them distinguish travellers, who are merely curious. The hour
+of vespers approaching, I could go into the church to hear the nuns
+sing; they were behind a black plose grating, through which nothing
+could be seen. You only heard the noise of their wooden shoes, and
+of the wooden benches as they raised them to sit down. Their singing
+had nothing of sensibility in it, and I thought I could remark both
+by their manner of praying, and in the conversation which I had
+afterwards with the father Trappist, who directed them, that it was
+not religious enthusiasm, such as we conceive it, but severe and
+grave habits which could support such a kind of life. The tenderness
+of piety would even exhaust the strength; a sort of ruggedness of
+soul is necessary to so rude an existence.
+
+The new Father Abbe of the Trappists, settled in the vallies of the
+Canton of Fribourg, has added to the austerities of the order. One
+can have no idea of the minute degrees of suffering imposed upon the
+monks; they go so far as even to forbid them, when they have been
+standing for some hours in succession, from leaning against the
+wall, or wiping the perspiration from their forehead; in short every
+moment of their life is filled with suffering, as the people of the
+world fills theirs with enjoyment. They rarely live to be old, and
+those to whom this lot falls, regard it as a punishment from heaven.
+Such an establishment would be barbarous if any one was compelled to
+enter it, or if there was the least concealment of what they suffer
+there. But on the contrary, they distribute to whoever wishes to
+read it, a printed statement, in which the rigors of the order are
+rather exaggerated than softened; and yet there are novices who are
+willing to take the vows, and those who are received never run away,
+although they might do it without the least difficulty. The whole
+rests, as it appears to me, upon the powerful idea of death; the
+institutions and amusements of society are destined in the world to
+turn our thoughts entirely upon life; but when the contemplation of
+death gets a certain hold of the human heart, joined to a firm
+belief in the immortality of the soul, there are no bounds to the
+disgust which it may take to every thing which forms a subject of
+interest in the world; and a state of suffering appearing the road
+to a future life, such minds follow it with avidity, like the
+traveller, who willingly fatigues himself, in order to get sooner
+over the road which leads him to the object of his wishes. But what
+equally astonished and grieved me, was to see children brought
+up with this severity: their poor locks shaved off, their young
+countenances already furrowed, that deathly dress with which they
+were covered before they knew any thing of life, before they had
+voluntarily renounced it, all this made my soul revolt against the
+parents who had placed them there. When such a state is not the
+adoption of a free and determined choice on the part of the person
+who professes it, it inspires as much horror as it at first created
+respect. The monk with whom I conversed, spoke of nothing but death;
+all his ideas came from that subject, or connected themselves with
+it; death is the sovereign monarch of this residence. As we talked
+of the temptations of the world, I expressed to the father Trappist
+my admiration of his conduct in thus sacrificing all, to withdraw
+himself from their influence. "We are cowards" said he to me, "who
+have retired into a fortress, because we feel we want the courage
+to meet our enemy in the open field." This reply was equally modest
+and ingenious*.
+
+A few days after we had visited these places, the French government
+ordered the seizure of the father Abbe, M. de L'Estrange; the
+confiscation of the property of the order, and the dismissal of the
+fathers from Switzerland.
+
+* (Note of the Editor.)I accompanied my mother in the excursion here
+related. Struck with the wild beauty of the place, and interested by
+the spiritual conversation of the Trappist who had attended us, I
+besought him to grant me hospitality until the following day, as I
+proposed going over the mountain on foot, in order to see the great
+convent of the Val-Sainte, and rejoining my mother and M. de
+Montmorency at Fribourg. This monk, with whom I continued to
+converse, had not much difficulty in discovering that I hated the
+imperial government, and I could guess that he fully participated in
+that sentiment. Afterwards, after thanking him for his kindness, I
+entirely lost sight of him, nor did I imagine, that he had preserved
+the least recollection of me.
+
+Five years afterwards, in the first months of the Restoration, I was
+not a little surprised at receiving a letter from this same
+Trappist.
+
+He had no doubt, he said, that now the legitimate monarch was
+restored to his throne, I must have a number of friends at court,
+and he requested me to employ their influence in procuring to his
+order the restoration of the property which it possessed in France.
+This letter was signed "Father A .... priest and procureur of La
+Trappe," and he added, as a postscript, "If a twenty-three years'
+emigration' and four campaigns in a regiment of horse-chasseurs in
+the army of Conde, give me any claims to the royal favor, I beg you
+will make use of them."
+
+I could not help laughing, both at the idea which this good monk had
+of my influence at court, and at the use of it which he required
+from a protestant. I sent his letter to M. de Montmorency, whose
+influence was much greater than mine, and I have reason to believe
+that the petition was granted.
+
+In other respects, these Trappists were not, in the deep vales
+of the Canton of Fribourg, such strangers to politics as their
+residence and their habit would lead one to believe.
+
+I have since learned that they served as a medium for the
+correspondence of the French clergy with the pope, then a prisoner
+at Savonne. Certainly, although this does not at all excuse the
+rigor with which they were treated by Bonaparte, it gives a
+sufficient explanation of it.
+(End of editor's note.)
+
+I know not of what M. de L'Estrange was accused; but it is scarcely
+probable that such a man should have meddled with the affairs
+of the world, much less the monks, who never quitted their solitude.
+The Swiss government caused search to be made every where for M. de
+L'Estrange, and I hope for its honor, that it took care not to find
+him. However, the unfortunate magistrates of countries which are
+called allies of France, are very often employed to arrest persons
+designated to them, ignorant whether they are delivering innocent
+or guilty victims to the great Leviathan, which thinks proper to
+swallow them up. The property of the Trappists was seized, that is
+to say, their tomb, for they hardly possessed any thing else, and
+the order was dispersed. It is said, that a Trappist at Genoa had
+mounted the pulpit to retract the oath of allegiance which he had
+taken to the emperor, declaring that since the captivity of the
+pope, he considered every priest as released from this oath. At his
+coming out from performing this act of repentance, he was, report
+also says, tried by a military commission, and shot. One would think
+that he was sufficiently punished, without rendering the whole order
+responsible for his conduct.
+
+We regained Vevay by the mountains, and I proposed to M. de
+Montmorency to proceed as far as the entrance of the Valais, which I
+had never seen. We stopped at Bex, the last Swiss village, for the
+Valais was already united to France. A Portuguese brigade had left
+Geneva to go and occupy the Valais: singular state of Europe, to
+have a Portuguese garrison at Geneva going to take possession of a
+part of Switzerland in the name of France! I had a curiosity to see
+the Cretins of the Valais, of whom I had so often heard. This
+miserable degradation of man affords ample subject for reflection;
+but it is excessively painful to see the human countenance thus
+become an object of horror and repugnance. I remarked, however, in
+several of these poor creatures, a degree of vivacity bordering on
+astonishment, produced on them by external objects. As they never
+recognize what they have already seen, they feel each time fresh
+surprize, and the spectacle of the world, with all its details, is
+thus for ever new to them; it is, perhaps, the compensation for
+their sad state, for certainly there is one. It is some years since
+a Cretin, having committed assassination, was condemned to death: as
+he was led to the scaffold, he took it into his head, seeing himself
+surrounded with a crowd of people, that he was accompanied in this
+manner to do him honor, and he laughed, held himself erect, and put
+his dress in order, with the idea of rendering himself more worthy
+of the fete. Was it right to punish such a being for the crime which
+his arm had committed?
+
+There is at three leagues from Bex, a famous cascade, where the
+water falls from a very lofty mountain. I proposed to my friends to
+go and see it, and we returned before dinner. It is true that this
+cascade was upon the territory of the Valais, consequently then upon
+the French territory, and I forgot that I was not allowed more of
+that than the small space of ground which separates Coppet from
+Geneva. When I returned home, the prefect not only blamed me for
+having presumed to travel in Switzerland, but made it the greatest
+proof of his indulgence to keep silence on the crime I had
+committed, in setting my foot on the territory of the French empire.
+I might have said, in the words of Lafontaine's fable:
+
+*Je tondu de ce pre la largeur de ma langue
+
+(I grazed of this meadow the breadth of my tongue.) But I confessed
+with great simplicity the fault I had committed in going to see this
+Swiss cascade, without dreaming that it was in France.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+Exile of M. de Montmorency and Madame Recamier--New persecutions.
+
+
+This continual chicanery upon my most trifling actions, rendered my
+life odious to me, and I could not divert myself by occupation;
+for the recollection of the fate of my last work, and the certainty
+of never being able to publish any thing in future, operated as a
+complete damper to my mind, which requires emulation to be capable
+of labor. Notwithstanding, I could not yet resolve to quit for ever
+the borders of France, the abode of my father, and the friends who
+remained faithful to me. Every day I thought of departing, and every
+day I found in my own mind some reason for remaining, until the last
+blow was aimed at my soul; God knows what I have suffered from it.
+
+M. de Montmorency came to pass several days with me at Coppet, and
+the wickedness of detail in the master of so great an empire is so
+well calculated, that by the return of the courier who announced his
+arrival at Coppet, my friend received his letter of exile. The
+emperor would not have been satisfied if this order had not been
+signified to him at my house, and if there had not been in the
+letter itself of the minister of police, a word to signify that I
+was the cause of this exile. M. de Montmorency endeavoured, in every
+possible way, to soften the news to me, but, I tell it to Bonaparte,
+that he may applaud himself on the success of his scheme, I shrieked
+with agony on learning the calamity which I had drawn on the head of
+my generous friend; and never was my heart, tried as it had been for
+so many years, nearer to despair. I knew not how to lull the rending
+thoughts which succeeded each other in my bosom, and had recourse to
+opium to suspend for some hours the anguish which I felt. M. do
+Montmorency, calm and religious, invited me to follow his example;
+the consciousness of the devotedness to me which he had condescended
+to show, supported him: but for me, I reproached myself for the
+bitter consequences of this devotedness, which now separated him
+from his family and friends. I prayed to the Almighty without
+ceasing, but grief would not quit its hold of me for a moment, and
+life became a burden to me.
+
+While I was in this state, I received a letter from Madame Recamier,
+that beautiful person who has received the admiration of the whole
+of Europe, and who has never abandoned an unfortunate friend. She
+informed me, that on her road to the waters of Aix in Savoy, to
+which she was proceeding, she intended stopping at my house, and
+would be there in two days. I trembled lest the lot of M. de
+Montmorency should also become hers. However improbable it was, I
+was ordained to fear every thing from hatred so barbarous and
+minute, and I therefore sent a courier to meet Madame Recamier, to
+beseech her not to come to Coppet. To know that she who had never
+failed to console me with the most amiable attention was only a few
+leagues distant from me; to know that she was there, so near to my
+habitation, and that I was not allowed to see her again, perhaps for
+the last time! all this I was obliged to bear. I conjured her not to
+stop at Coppet; she would not yield to my entreaties; she could not
+pass under my windows without remaining some hours with me, and it
+was with convulsions of tears that I saw her enter this chateau, in
+which her arrival had always been a fete. She left me the next day,
+and repaired instantly to one of her relations at fifty leagues
+distance from Switzerland. It was in vain; the fatal blow of exile
+smote her also; she had had the intention of seeing me, and that was
+enough; for the generous compassion which had inspired her, she must
+be punished. The reverses of fortune which she had met with made the
+destruction of her natural establishment extremely painful to her.
+Separated from all her friends, she has passed whole months in a
+little provincial town, a prey to the extremes of every feeling of
+insipid and melancholy solitude. Such was the lot to which I was
+the cause of condemning the most brilliant female of her time; and
+thus regardless did the chief of the French, that people so renowned
+for their gallantry, show himself towards the most beautiful woman
+in Paris. In one day he smote virtue and distinguished birth in M.
+de Montmorency; beauty in Madame Recamier, and if I dare say it, the
+reputation of high talents in myself. Perhaps he also flattered
+himself with attacking the memory of my father in his daughter, in
+order that it might be truly said that in this world, under his
+reign, the dead and the living, piety, beauty, wit, and celebrity,
+all were as nothing. Persons made themselves culpable by being found
+wanting in the delicate shades of flattery towards him, in refusing
+to abandon any one who had been visited by his disgrace. He
+recognises but two classes of human creatures, those who serve him,
+and those, who without injuring, wish to have an existence
+independent of him. He is unwilling that in the whole universe, from
+the details of housekeeping to the direction of empires, a single
+will should act without reference to his.
+
+"Madam de Stael," said the prefect of Geneva, "has contrived to make
+herself a very pleasant life at Coppet; her friends and foreigners
+come to see her: the emperor will not allow that." And why did he
+torment me in this manner? that I might print an eulogium upon him:
+and of what consequence was this eulogium to him, among the millions
+of phrases which fear and hope were constantly offering at his
+shrine? Bonaparte once said: "If I had the choice, either of doing a
+noble action myself, or of inducing my adversary to do a mean one, I
+would not hesitate to prefer the debasement of my enemy." In this
+sentence you have the explanation of the particular pains which he
+took to torment my existence. He knew that I was attached to my
+friends, to France, to my works, to my tastes, to society; in taking
+from me every thing which composed my happiness, his wish was to
+trouble me sufficiently to make me write some piece of insipid
+flattery, in the hope that it would obtain me my recall. In refusing
+to lend myself to his wishes, I ought to say it, I have not had the
+merit of making a sacrifice; the emperor wished me to commit a
+meanness, but a meanness entirely useless; for at a time when
+success was in a manner deified, the ridicule would not have been
+complete, if I had succeeded in returning to Paris, by whatever
+means I had effected it. To satisfy our master, whose skill in
+degrading whatever remains of lofty mind is unquestionable, it was
+necessary that I should dishonor myself in order to obtain my return
+to France,--that he should turn into mockery my zeal in praise of
+him, who had never ceased to persecute me,--and that this zeal
+should not be of the least service to me. I have denied him this
+truly refined satisfaction; it is all the merit I have had in the
+long contest which has subsisted between his omnipotence and my
+weakness.
+
+M. de Montmorency's family, in despair at his exile, were anxious,
+as was natural, that he should separate himself from the sad cause
+of this calamity, and I saw that friend depart without knowing if he
+would ever again honor with his presence my residence on this earth.
+On the 31st of August, 1811, I broke the first and last of the ties
+which bound me to my native country; I broke them, at least so far
+as regards human connections, which can no longer exist between us;
+but I never lift my eyes towards heaven without thinking of my
+excellent friend, and I venture to believe also, that in his prayers
+he answers me. Beyond this, fate has denied me all other
+correspondence with him.
+
+When the exile of my two friends became known, I was assailed by a
+whole host of chagrins of every kind; but a great misfortune renders
+us in a manner insensible to fresh troubles. It was reported that
+the minister of police had declared that he would have a soldier's
+guard mounted at the bottom of the avenue of Coppet, to arrest
+whoever came to see me. The prefect of Geneva, who was instructed,
+by order of the emperor he said, to annul me (that was his
+expression), never missed an opportunity of insinuating, or even
+declaring publicly, that no one who had any thing either to hope or
+fear from the government ought to venture near me. M. de
+Saint-Priest, formerly minister of Louis XVI. and the colleague of
+my father, honored me with his affection; his daughters who dreaded,
+and with reason, that he might be sent from Geneva, united their
+entreaties with mine that he would abstain from visiting me.
+Notwithstanding, in the middle of winter, at the age of
+seventy-eight, he was banished not only from Geneva, but from
+Switzerland; for it is fully admitted, as has been seen in my own
+case, that the emperor can banish from Switzerland as well as from
+France; and when any objections are made to the French agents, on
+the score of being in a foreign country, whose independence is
+recognised, they shrug up their shoulders, as if you were wearying
+them with Metaphysical quibbles. And really it is a perfect quibble
+to wish to distinguish in Europe anything but prefect-kings, and
+prefects receiving their orders directly from the emperor of France.
+If there is any difference between the soi-disant allied countries
+and the French provinces, it is that the first are rather worse
+treated. There remains in France a certain recollection of having
+been called the great nation, which sometimes obliges the emperor to
+be measured in his proceedings; it was so at least, but every day
+even that becomes less necessary. The motive assigned for the
+banishment of M. de Saint-Priest was, that he had not induced his
+sons to abandon the service of Russia. His sons had, during the
+emigration, met with the most generous reception in Russia; they had
+there been promoted, their intrepid courage had there been properly
+rewarded; they were covered with wounds, they were distinguished
+among the first for their military talents; the eldest was now more
+than thirty years of age. How was it possible for a father to ask
+that the existence of his sons, thus established, should be
+sacrificed to the honor of coming to place themselves en
+surveillance on the French territory? for that was the enviable lot
+which was reserved for them. It was a source of melancholy
+satisfaction to me, that I had not seen M. de Saint-Priest for four
+months previous to his banishment; had it not been for that, no one
+would have doubted that it was I who had infected him with the
+contagion of my disgrace.
+
+Not only Frenchmen, but foreigners, were apprised that they must not
+go to my house. The prefect kept upon the watch to prevent even old
+friends from seeing me. One day, among others, he deprived me, by
+his official vigilance, of the society of a German gentleman, whose
+conversation was extremely agreeable to me, and I could not help
+telling him, on this occasion, that he might have spared himself
+this extraordinary degree of persecution. "How!" replied he, "it was
+to do you a service that I acted in this manner; I made your friend
+sensible that he would compromise you by going to see you." I could
+not refrain from a smile at this ingenious argument. "Yes,"
+continued he with the most perfect gravity, "the emperor, seeing you
+preferred to himself, would be displeased with you for it." "So
+that" I replied, "the emperor expects that my private friends, and
+shortly, perhaps, my own children, should forsake me to please him;
+that seems to me rather too much. Besides, I do not well see how a
+person in my situation can be compromised; and what you say reminds
+me of a revolutionist who was applied to, in the times of terror, to
+use his endeavours to save one of his friends from the scaffold. I
+am afraid, said he, that my speaking in his favor would only injure
+him." The prefect smiled at my quotation, but continued that train
+of reasoning, which, backed as it is with four hundred thousand
+bayonets, always appears the soundest. A man at Geneva said to me,
+"Do not you think that the prefect declares his opinion with a great
+deal of frankness?" "Yes," I replied, "he says with sincerity that
+he is devoted to the man of power; he says with courage that he is
+of the strongest side; I am not exactly sensible of the merit of
+such an avowal."
+
+Several independent ladies at Geneva continued to show me marks of
+the greatest kindness, of which I shall always retain a deep
+recollection. But even to the clerks in the custom houses, regarded
+themselves as in a state of diplomacy with me; and from prefects to
+sub-prefects, and from the cousins of one and the other, a profound
+terror would have seized them all, if I had not spared them, as much
+as was in my power, the anxiety of paying or not paying a visit.
+Every courier brought reports of other friends of mine being exiled
+from Paris, for having kept up connections with me; it became a
+matter of strict duty for me to avoid seeing a single Frenchman of
+the least note; and very often I was even apprehensive of injuring
+persons in the country where I was living, whose courageous
+friendship never failed itself towards me. I felt two opposite
+sensations, and both, I believe, equally natural; melancholy at
+being forsaken, and cruel anxiety for those who showed attachment to
+me. It is difficult to conceive a situation in life more painful at
+every moment; for the space of nearly two years that I endured it, I
+may say truly that I never once saw the day return without a feeling
+of desolation at having to support the existence which that day
+renewed. But why should not you leave it then? will be said, and was
+said incessantly to me from all quarters. A man whom I ought not to
+name*, but who I trust knows how much I esteem the elevation of his
+character and conduct, said to me: "If you remain, he will treat you
+as Elizabeth did Mary Stuart:--nineteen years of misery, and the
+catastrophe at last." Another person, witty but unguarded in his
+expressions, wrote to me, that it was dishonorable to remain after
+so much ill-treatment. I had no need of these recommendations to
+wish, passionately wish, to depart; from the moment that I could no
+longer see my friends, that I was only a burden to my children's
+existence, was it not time to determine? The prefect, however,
+repeated in every possible way, that if I went off, I should be
+seized; that at Vienna, as well as at Berlin, I should be reclaimed;
+and that I could not make the least preparation for departure
+without his being informed of it; for he knew, he said, every thing
+that passed in my house. In that respect he was a boaster, and, as
+the event has proved, exhibited mere fatuity in matters of
+espionnage. But who would not have been terrified at the tone of
+assurance with which he told all my friends that I could not move a
+step without being seized by the gendarmes!
+
+* Count Elzearn de Sabran.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+Departure from Coppet.
+
+
+I passed eight months in a state I cannot describe, every day making
+a trial of my courage, and every day shrinking at the idea of a
+prison. All the world certainly fears it; but my imagination has
+such a dread of solitude, my friends are so necessary to me, to
+support and animate me, and to turn my attention to a new
+perspective when I sink under the intensity of painful sensations,
+that never has death presented itself to me under such terrible
+features as a prisoner a dungeon, where I might remain for years
+without ever hearing a friendly voice. I have been told that one of
+the Spaniards who defended Saragossa with the most astonishing
+intrepidity, utters the most dreadful shrieks in the tower at
+Vincennes, where he is kept confined; so much does this frightful
+solitude affect even the most energetic minds! Besides, I could not
+disguise from myself that I was not courageous; I have a bold
+imagination, but a timid character, and all kinds of perils appear
+to me like phantoms. The species of talent which I possess brings
+images to me with such living freshness, that if the beauties of
+nature are improved by it, dangers are made more dreadful. Sometimes
+I was afraid of a prison, sometimes of robbers, if I was obliged to
+go through Turkey, in the event of Russia being shut against me by
+political combinations: sometimes also the immense sea which I must
+cross between Constantinople and London, filled me with terror for
+my daughter and myself. Nevertheless I had always the wish to
+depart; an inward feeling of boldness excited me to it; but I might
+say, like a well known Frenchman, "I tremble at the dangers to which
+my courage is about to expose me." In truth, what adds to the
+horrible barbarity of persecuting females, is, that their nature is
+both irritable and weak; they suffer more acutely from trouble, and
+are less capable of the strength required to escape from it.
+
+I was also affected by another kind of terror: I was afraid that the
+moment the emperor knew of my departure, he would insert in the
+newspapers one of those articles which he knows so well how to
+dictate, when he wishes to commit moral assassination. A senator
+told me one day, that Napoleon was the best journalist he ever knew;
+and certainly if this expression meant to designate the art of
+defaming individuals and nations, he possesses it in the highest
+degree. Nations are not affected by it; but he has acquired in the
+revolutionary times he has passed through, a certain tact in
+calumnies suitable to vulgar comprehension, which makes him find the
+expressions best adapted for circulation among those whose wit is
+confined to repeating the phrases published by the government for
+their use. If the Moniteur accused any one of robbing on the
+highway, no French, German, or Italian journal could admit his
+justification. It is almost impossible to represent to one's self
+what a man is, at the head of a million of soldiers, and possessed
+of ten millions of revenue, having all the prisons of Europe at his
+disposal, with the kings for his gaolers, and using the press as his
+mouth-piece, at a time when people have hardly the intimacy of
+friendship to make a reply; finally, with the ability of turning
+misfortune into ridicule: execrable power, whose ironical enjoyment
+is the last insult which the infernal genii can make the human race
+endure!
+
+Whatever independence of character one had, I believe that no one
+could refrain from shuddering at the idea of having such power
+directed against one's self; at least I confess having felt this
+movement very strongly; and in spite of the melancholy of my
+situation, I frequently said to myself, that a roof for shelter, a
+table for sustenance, and a garden for exercise, formed a lot with
+which one must learn to be contented; but even this lot, such as it
+was, no one could be certain of retaining in peace; a word might
+escape, a word might be repeated, and this man, whose power was
+continually on the increase, to what a point might he not at last be
+irritated? When the sun shone brightly, my courage returned; but
+when the sky was covered with clouds, travelling terrified me, and I
+discovered in myself a taste for indolent pursuits, foreign to my
+nature, but which fear had given birth to; physical happiness
+appeared to me then greater than I had previously regarded it, and
+every sort of exertion alarmed me. My health also, cruelly affected
+by so many troubles, weakened the energy of my character, so that
+during this period I put the patience of my friends to a most severe
+test, by an eternal discussion of the plans in deliberation, and
+overwhelming them with my uncertainties.
+
+I tried a second time to obtain a passport for America; they made me
+wait till the middle of winter before they gave me the answer I
+required, which terminated in a refusal. I then offered to enter
+into an engagement never to print any thing upon any subject, not
+even a bouquet to Iris, provided I was allowed to live at Rome; I
+had the vanity to remind them that it was the author of Corinna who
+asked permission to go and live in Italy. Doubtless the minister of
+police had never found a similar motive inscribed upon his
+registers, and the air of the south, which was so necessary to my
+health, was mercilessly refused me.
+
+They never ceased declaring to me that my whole life should be spent
+in the circle of two leagues, which separates Coppet from Geneva. If
+I remained, I must separate myself from my sons, who were of an age
+to seek a profession; and if my daughter shared my fortune, I
+imposed upon her the most melancholy perspective. The city of
+Geneva, which has preserved such noble traces of liberty, was,
+notwithstanding, gradually allowing herself to be gained over by the
+interests which connected her with the distributors of places in
+France. Every day the number of persons with whom I could be in
+intelligence diminished; and all my feelings became a weight upon my
+soul, in place of being a source of life. There was an end of my
+talents, of my happiness, of my existence, for it is frightful to be
+of no service to one's children, and to be the cause of injuring
+one's friends. Finally, the news I received, announced to me from
+all quarters the formidable preparations of the emperor: it was
+evident that he wished first to make himself master of the ports of
+the Baltic by the destruction of Russia, and that afterwards he
+reckoned on making use of the wrecks of that power to lead them
+against Constantinople: and his subsequent intention was to make
+that the point of starting for the conquest of Asia and Africa. A
+short time before he left Paris, he had said, "I am tired of this
+old Europe." And in truth she is no longer sufficient for the
+activity of her master. The last outlets of the Continent might be
+closed from one moment to another, and I was about to find myself in
+Europe as in a garrisoned town, where all the gates are guarded by
+military.
+
+I determined therefore on going off, while there yet remained one
+means of getting to England, and that means the tour of the whole of
+Europe. I fixed the 15th of May for my departure, the preparations
+for which had been arranged long before-hand in the most profound
+secrecy. On the eve of that day, my strength abandoned me entirely,
+and for a moment I almost persuaded myself that such a degree of
+terror as I felt could only proceed from the consciousness of
+meditating a bad action. Sometimes I consulted all sort of presages
+in the most foolish manner; at others, which was much wiser, I
+interrogated my friends and myself on the morality of my resolution.
+It appears to me that the part of resignation in all things may be
+the most religious, and I am not surprised that pious men should
+have gone so far as to feel a sort of scruple about resolutions
+proceeding from free will. Necessity appears to bear a sort of
+divine character, while man's resolution may be connected with his
+pride. It is certain, however, that none of our faculties have been
+given us in vain, and that of deciding for one's self has also its
+use. On another side, all persons of mediocre intellect are
+continually astonished that talent has different desires from
+theirs. When it is successful, all the world might do the same; but
+when it is productive of trouble, when it excites to stepping out of
+the common track, these same people regard it no longer but as a
+disease, and almost as a crime. I heard continually buzzing about me
+the commonplaces with which the world suffers itself to be led: "Has
+not she plenty of money? Can she not live well and sleep well in a
+good house?" Some persons of a higher cast felt that I had not even
+the certainty of my sad situation, and that it might get worse,
+without ever getting better. But the atmosphere which surrounded me
+counselled repose, because, for the last six months I had not been
+assailed by any new persecution, and because men always believe that
+what is, is what will be. It was in the midst of all these
+dispiriting circumstances that I was called upon to take one of the
+strongest resolutions which can occur in the private life of a
+female. My servants, with the exception of two confidential persons,
+were entirely ignorant of my secret; the greatest part of those who
+visited me had not the least idea of it, and by a single action, I
+was going to make an entire change in my own life and that of my
+family. Torn to pieces by uncertainty, I wandered over the park of
+Coppet; I seated myself in all the places where my father had been
+accustomed to repose himself and contemplate nature; I regarded once
+more these same beauties of water and verdure which we had so often
+admired together. I bid them adieu, and recommended myself to their
+sweet influence. The monument which encloses the ashes of my father
+and my mother, and in which, if the good God permits, mine also will
+be deposited, was one of the principal causes of the regret I felt
+at banishing myself from the place of my residence; but I found
+almost always on approaching it, a sort of strength which appeared
+to me to come from on high. I passed an hour in prayer before that
+iron gate which inclosed the mortal remains of the noblest of human
+beings, and there, my soul was convinced of the necessity of
+departure. I recalled the famous verses of Claudian*, in which he
+expresses the kind of doubt which arises in the most religious minds
+when they see the earth abandoned to the wicked, and the destiny of
+mortals as it were floating at the mercy of chance. I felt that I
+had no longer the strength necessary to feed the enthusiasm which
+developed in me whatever good qualities I possessed, and that I must
+listen to the voice of those of similar sentiments with myself, for
+the purpose of strengthening my confidence in my own resources, and
+preserving that self-respect which my father had instilled into me.
+In this state of anxiety, I invoked several times the memory of my
+father, of that man, the Fenelon of politics, whose genius was in
+every thing opposed to that of Bonaparte; and genius he certainly
+had, for it requires at least as much of that to put one's self in
+harmony with heaven, as to invoke to one's aid all the instruments
+which are let loose by the absence of laws divine and human. I went
+once more to look at my father's study, where his easy chair, his
+table, and his papers, still remained in their old situation; I
+embraced each venerated mark, I took his cloak which till then I had
+ordered to be left upon his chair, and carried it away with me, that
+I might wrap myself in it, if the messenger of death approached me.
+When these adieus were terminated, I avoided as much as I could any
+other leave-takings, which affected me too much, and wrote to the
+friends whom I quitted, taking care that my letters should not reach
+them until several days after my departure.
+
+* Saepe mihi dubiam traxitisententia mentem,
+  Curarent Superi terras, an nullus inesset
+  Rector, et incerto fluerent mortalia casu.
+
+Abstulit hunc tandem Rufini poena tumultum,
+ Absolvitque Deos.    Jam non ad culmina rerum
+ Injustos crevisse queror; tolluntur in altum
+ Ut lapsu graviore raent.
+
+The next day, Saturday the 23rd of May,
+1812, at two o'clock in the afternoon, I got into my carriage,
+saying that I should return to dinner. I took no packet whatever
+with me; I had my fan in my hand, and my daughter hers; only my son
+and Mr. Rocca carried in their pockets what was necessary for some
+days journey. In descending the avenue of Coppet, in thus quitting
+that chateau which had become to me like an old and valued friend, I
+was ready to faint: my son took my hand, and said, "My dear mother,
+think that you are setting out for England*." That word revived my
+spirits: I was still, however, at nearly two thousand leagues
+distance from that goal, to which the usual road would have so
+speedily conducted me: but every step brought me at least something
+nearer to it. When I had proceeded a few leagues, I sent back one of
+my servants to apprize my establishment that I should not return
+until the next day, and I continued travelling night and day as far
+as a farmhouse beyond Berne, where I had fixed to meet Mr. Schlegel,
+who was so good as to offer to accompany me; there also I had to
+leave my eldest son, who had been educated, up to the age of
+fourteen, by the example of my father, whose features he reminds one
+of. A second time all my courage abandoned me; that Switzerland,
+still so tranquil and always so beautiful, her inhabitants, who know
+how to be free by their virtues, even though they have lost their
+political independence: the whole country detained me: it seemed to
+tell me not to quit it. It was still time to return: I had not yet
+made an irreparable step. Although the prefect had thought proper to
+interdict me from travelling in Switzerland, I saw clearly that it
+was only from the fear of my going beyond it. Finally, I had not yet
+crossed the barrier which left me no possibility of returning; the
+imagination feels a difficulty in supporting this idea. On the other
+hand, there was also something irreparable in the resolution of
+remaining; for after that moment, I felt, and the event has proved
+the feeling correct, that I could no longer escape. Besides, there
+is an indescribable sort of shame in recommencing such solemn
+farewells, and one can scarcely resuscitate for one's friends more
+than once. I know not what would have become of me, if this
+uncertainty, even at the very moment of action, had lasted much
+longer; for my head was quite confused with it. My children decided
+me, and especially my daughter, then scarcely fourteen years old. I
+committed myself, in a manner, to her, as if the voice of God had
+made itself be heard by the mouth of a child*.
+
+* England was then the hope of all who suffered for the cause of
+liberty; how comes it, that after the victory, her ministers have so
+cruelly deceived the expectation of Europe?
+(Note by the Editor.)
+
+My son took his leave, and after he was out of my sight, I could
+say, like Lord Russel: the bitterness of death is past. I got into
+my carriage with my daughter: uncertainty once terminated, I
+collected all my strength within myself, and I found sufficient of
+that for action which had altogether failed me for deliberation.
+
+Note by the Editor:
+* It was but a trifle to have succeeded in quitting Coppet, by
+deceiving* the vigilance of the prefect of Geneva; it was also
+necessary to obtain passports for the purpose of going through
+Austria, and that these passports should be under a name which
+would attract no attention from the different polices which then
+divided Germany. My mother entrusted me with this commission, and
+the emotion which I experienced from it will never cease to be
+present to my thoughts. It was undoubtedly a decisive step; if
+the passports were refused, my mother sunk again into a much more
+cruel situation; her plans were known; flight was thenceforward
+become impracticable, and the rigors of her exile would have
+every day been more intolerable. I thought I could not do better
+than to address myself directly to the Austrian minister, with
+that confidence in the feelings of his equals which is the first
+movement of every honest man. M. de Schraut made no hesitation in
+granting me the so much desired passports, and I hope he will
+allow me to express in this place the gratitude which I still
+retain to him for them. At a period when Europe was still bending
+under the yoke of Napoleon, during which the persecution directed
+against my mother estranged from her persons who probably owed to
+her courageous friendship the preservation of their fortunes, or
+their lives, I was not surprised, but I was most sensibly
+affected by the generous proceeding of the Austrian minister.
+
+I left my mother to return to Coppet, to which the interests of her
+fortune recalled me; and some days afterwards, my brother, of whom a
+cruel death has deprived us almost at the moment of entrance into
+his career set off to rejoin my mother at Vienna with her servants
+and travelling carriage. It was only this second departure which
+gave the hint to the police of the prefect of the Leman: so true it
+is, that to the other qualities of espionnage we must still add
+stupidity. Fortunately my mother was already far beyond the reach of
+the gendarmes, and she could continue the journey of which the
+narrative follows. (En of Note by the Editor).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+Passage through Austria;--1812.
+
+
+In this manner, after ten years of continually increasing
+persecutions, first sent away from Paris, then banished into
+Switzerland, afterwards confined to my own chateau, and at last
+condemned to the dreadful punishment of never seeing my friends, and
+of being the cause of their banishment: in this manner was I obliged
+to quit, as a fugitive, two countries, France and Switzerland, by
+order of a man less French than myself: for I was born on the
+borders of that Seine where his tyranny alone naturalizes him. The
+air of this fine country is not a native air to him: can he then
+comprehend the pain of being banished from it, he who considers this
+fertile country only as the instrument of his victories? Where is
+his country? it is the earth which is subject to him. His fellow
+citizens? they are the slaves who obey his orders. He complained one
+day of not having had under his command, like Tamerlane, nations to
+whom reasoning was unknown. I imagine that by this time he is
+satisfied with Europeans: their manners, like their armies, now bear
+a sufficient resemblance to those of Tartars.
+
+I had nothing to fear in Switzerland, as
+I could always prove that I had a right to be there; but to leave
+it, I had only a foreign passport: I must go through one of the
+confederated states, and if any French agent had required the
+government of Bavaria to hinder me from passing, who does not know
+with what regret, but at the same time, with what obedience it would
+have executed the orders thus received? I entered into the Tyrol
+with a great respect for that country, which had fought from
+attachment to its ancient masters, but with a great contempt for
+such of the Austrian ministers as had advised the abandonment of men
+compromised by their attachment to their sovereign. It is said that
+a subaltern diplomatist, head of the spy department in Austria,
+thought proper one day, during the war, to maintain at the emperor's
+table, that the Tyrolese should be abandoned: M. de H., a gentleman
+of the Tyrol, counsellor of state in the Austrian service, who in
+his actions and writings has exhibited the courage of a warrior, and
+the talents of an historian, replied to these unworthy observations
+with the contempt they deserved: the emperor signified his entire
+approbation to M. de H., and showed by that at least that his
+private feelings were strangers to the political conduct which he
+was made to adopt. Thus it is that the greater part of the European
+sovereigns, at the moment of Bonaparte making himself master of
+France, who were extremely upright persons as individuals, were
+already become mere cyphers as kings, as the government of their
+states was entirely committed to circumstances and to their
+ministers.
+
+The aspect of the Tyrol reminds one of Switzerland: there is not,
+however, so much vigour and originality in the landscape, nor have
+the villages the same appearance of plenty; it is in short a fine
+country, which has been wisely governed, but never been free; and it
+is only as a mountaineer people, that it has shown itself capable of
+resistance. Very few instances of remarkable men can be mentioned
+from the Tyrol: first, the Austrian government is scarcely fit to
+develope genius; and, besides, the Tyrol, by its manners as well as
+by its geographical position, should have formed a part of the Swiss
+confederation: its incorporation with the Austrian monarchy not
+being conformable to its nature, it has only developed by that union
+the noble qualities of mountaineers, courage and fidelity.
+
+The postilion who drove us showed us a rock on which the emperor
+Maximilian, grandfather of Charles the Fifth, had nearly perished:
+the ardor of the chace had stimulated him to such a degree, that he
+had followed the chamois to heights from which it was impossible to
+descend. This tradition is still popular in the country, so
+necessary to nations is the admiration of the past. The memory of
+the last war was still quite alive in the bosoms of the people; the
+peasants showed us the summits of mountains on which they had
+entrenched themselves: their imagination delighted in retracing the
+effect of their fine warlike music, when it echoed from the tops of
+the hills into the vallies. When we were shown the palace of the
+prince-royal of Bavaria, at Inspruck, they told us that Hofer, the
+courageous peasant and head of the insurrection, had lived there;
+they gave us an instance of the intrepidity shown by a female, when
+the French entered into her chateau: in short, every thing displayed
+in them the desire of being a nation, much more than personal
+attachment to the house of Austria.
+
+In one of the churches at Inspruck is the famous tomb of Maximilian.
+I went to see it, flattering myself with the certainty of not being
+recognized by any person, in a place remote from the capitals where
+the French agents reside. The figure of Maximilian in bronze, is
+kneeling upon a sarcophagus, in the body of the church, and thirty
+statues of the same metal ranged on each side of the sanctuary
+represent the relations and ancestors of the emperor. So much past
+grandeur, so much of the ambition formidable in its day, collected
+in a family meeting round a tomb, formed a spectacle which led one
+to profound reflection: there you saw Philip the Good, Charles the
+Rash, and Mary of Bergundy; and in the midst of these historical
+personages Dietrich of Berne, a fabulous hero: the closed visor
+concealed the countenances of the knights, but when this visor was
+lifted up a brazen countenance appeared under a helmet of brass, and
+the features of the knight were of bronze, like his armour. The
+visor of Dietrich of Berne is the only one which cannot be lifted
+up, the artist meaning in that manner to signify the mysterious veil
+which covers the history of this warrior,
+
+From Inspruck I had to pass by Saltzburg, from thence to reach the
+Austrian frontiers.
+
+It seemed as if all my anxieties would be at an end, when I was once
+entered on the territory of that monarchy which I had known so
+secure and so good. But the moment which I most dreaded was the
+passage from Bavaria to Austria, for it was there that a courier
+might have preceded me, to forbid my being allowed to pass. In spite
+of this apprehension, I had not been very expeditious, for my
+health, which had been seriously injured by all I had suffered, did
+not allow me to travel by night. I have often felt, during this
+journey, that the greatest terror cannot overcome a sort of physical
+depression, which makes one dread fatigue more than death. I
+flattered myself, however, with arriving without any obstacle, and
+already my fear was dissipated on approaching the object which I
+thought secured, when on our entrance into the inn at Saltzburg, a
+man came up to Mr. Schlegel who accompanied me, and told him in
+German, that a French courier had been to inquire after a carriage
+coming from Inspruck with a lady and a young girl, and that he had
+left word he would return to get intelligence of them. I lost not a
+word of what the innkeeper mentioned, and became pale with terror.
+Mr. Schlegel also was alarmed on my account: he made some farther
+inquiries, all of which made it certain, that this was a French
+courier, that he came from Munich, that he had been as far as the
+Austrian frontier to wait for me, and not finding me there, that he
+had returned to meet me. Nothing appeared more clear: this was just
+what I had dreaded before my departure, and during the journey. It
+was impossible for me now to escape, as this courier, who it was
+said was already at the post-house, would necessarily overtake me.
+I determined on the spur of the moment to leave my carriage, my
+daughter, and Mr. Schlegel at the inn, and to go alone and on foot
+into the streets of the town, and take the chance' of entering the
+first house whose master or mistress had a physiognomy that pleased
+me. I would obtain of them an asylum for a few days; during this
+time, my daughter and Mr. Schlegel might say that they were going to
+rejoin me in Austria, and I should leave Salzburg afterwards in the
+disguise of a country woman. Hazardous in the extreme as this
+resource appeared, no other remained to me, and I was preparing for
+the task, in fear and trembling, when who should enter my apartment
+but this so much dreaded courier, who was no other than Mr. Rocca.
+After having accompanied me the first day of my journey, he returned
+to Geneva to terminate some business, and now came to rejoin me;
+he had passed himself off as a French courier, in order to take
+advantage of the terror which the name inspires, particularly to the
+allies of France, and to obtain horses more quickly. He had taken
+the Munich road, and had hurried on as far as the Austrian frontier,
+to make himself sure that no one had preceded or announced me. He
+returned to meet me, to tell me that I had nothing to fear, and to
+get upon the box of my carriage as we passed that frontier, which
+appeared to me the most dreadful, but also the last of my dangers.
+In this manner my cruel apprehension was changed into a most
+pleasing sentiment of gratefulness and security.
+
+We walked about the town of Salzburg, which contains many noble
+edifices, but like the greater part of the ecclesiastical
+principalities of Germany, now presents a most dreary aspect. The
+tranquil resources of that kind of government have terminated with
+it. The convents also were preservers; one is struck with the number
+of establishments and edifices which have been erected by bachelor
+masters in their residence: all these peaceable sovereigns have
+benefited their people. An archbishop of Salzburg in the last
+century has cut a road which is prolonged for several hundred paces
+under a mountain, like the grotto of Pausilippo at Naples: on the
+front of the entrance gate there is a bust of the archbishop, under
+which is an inscription: Tesaxa loquuntur. (The stones speak of
+thee). There is a degree of grandeur in this inscription.
+
+I entered at last into that Austria, which four years before I had
+seen so happy; already I was struck by a sensible change, produced
+by the depreciation of paper-money, and the variations of every kind
+which the uncertainty of the financial measures had introduced into
+its value. Nothing demoralizes a people so much as these continual
+fluctuations which make every man a broker, and hold out to the
+working classes a means of getting money by sharping, instead of by
+their labour. I no longer found in the people the same probity which
+had struck me four years before: this paper-money sets the
+imagination at work with the hope of rapid and easy gains; and the
+hazardous chances overturn the gradual and certain existence which
+is the basis of the honesty of the middling classes. During my
+residence in Austria, a man was hanged for forging notes at the very
+moment when the government had reduced the value of the old ones; he
+called out, on his way to execution that it was not he who had
+robbed, but the state. And, in truth, it is impossible to make the
+common people comprehend that it is just to punish them for having
+speculated in their own affairs, in the same way as the government
+had done in its own. But this government was the ally of the French
+government, and doubly its ally, as its monarch was the very patient
+father-in-law of a very terrible son-in-law. What resources therefore
+could remain to him? The marriage of his daughter had been the means
+of liberating him from two millions of contributions-at most; the
+rest had been required with the kind of justice of which the other
+is so easily capable, and which consists in treating his friends and
+his enemies alike: from this proceeded the penury of the treasury.
+Another misfortune also resulted from the last war, and especially
+from the last peace: the inutility of the generous feeling which had
+illustrated the Austrian arms in the battles of Essling and Wagram,
+had cooled the national attachment to the sovereign, which had
+formerly been very strong. The same thing has happened to all the
+sovereigns who have treated with the emperor Napoleon; he has made
+use of them as receivers to levy imposts on his account; he has
+forced them to squeeze their subjects to pay him the taxes he
+demanded; and when it has suited him to dethrone these sovereigns,
+the people, previously alienated from them by the very wrongs they
+had committed in obedience to the emperor, have not raised an arm to
+defend them against him. The emperor Napoleon has the art of making
+countries said to be at peace, so singularly miserable that any
+change is agreeable to them, and having been once compelled to give
+men and money to France, they scarcely feel the inconvenience of
+being wholly united to it. They are wrong, however, for any thing is
+better than to lose the name of a nation, and as the miseries of
+Europe are caused by one man, care should be taken to preserve what
+may be restored when he is no more.
+
+Before I reached Vienna, as I waited for my second son, who was to
+rejoin me with my servants and baggage, I stopped a day at Molk,
+that celebrated abbey, placed upon an eminence, from which Napoleon
+had contemplated the various windings of the Danube, and praised the
+beauty of the country upon which he was going to pounce with his
+armies. He frequently amuses himself in this manner in making
+poetical pieces on the beauties of nature, which he is about to
+ravage, and upon the effects of war, with which he is going to
+overwhelm mankind. After all, he is in the right to amuse himself in
+all ways, at the expense of the human race, which tolerates his
+existence. Man is only arrested in the career of evil by obstacles
+or remorse; no one has yet opposed to Napoleon the one, and he has
+very easily rid himself of the other. For me, who, solitary,
+followed his footsteps on the terrace from which the country could
+be seen to a great distance, I admired its fertility, and felt
+astonished at seeing how soon the bounty of heaven repairs the
+disasters occasioned by man. It is only moral riches which disappear
+altogether, or are at least lost for centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+Residence at Vienna.
+
+
+I arrived at Vienna on the 6th of June, very fortunately just two
+hours before the departure of a courier whom Count Stackelberg, the
+Russian ambassador, was dispatching to Wilna, where the emperor
+Alexander then was. M. de Stackelberg, who behaved to me with that
+noble delicacy which is so prominent a trait in his character, wrote
+by this courier for my passport, and assured me that within three
+weeks I might reckon on having an answer. It then became a question
+where I was to pass these three weeks; my Austrian friends, who had
+given me the most amiable reception, assured me that I might remain
+at Vienna without the least fear. The court was then at Dresden, at
+the great meeting of all the German princes, who came to present
+their homage to the emperor of France. Napoleon had stopped at
+Dresden under the pretext of still negociating there to avoid the
+war with Russia, in other words, to obtain by his policy the same
+result as he could by his arms. He would not at first admit the king
+of Prussia to his banquet at Dresden; he knew too well what
+repugnance the heart of that unfortunate monarch must have to what
+he conceives himself obliged to do. It is said that M. de Metternich
+obtained this humiliating favor for him. M. de Hardenberg, who
+accompanied him, made the remark to the emperor Napoleon, that
+Prussia had paid one third more than the promised contributions. The
+emperor turning his back to him, replied: "An apothecary's bill,"--
+for he has a secret pleasure in making use of vulgar expressions,
+the more to humble those who are the objects of it. He assumed a
+sufficient degree of coquetry in his way of living with the emperor
+and empress of Austria as it was of importance to him that the
+Austrian government should take an active part in his war with
+Russia. In a conversation with M. de Metternich, I have been assured
+that he said, "You see very well that I can never have the least
+interest in diminishing the power of Austria, as it now exists; for,
+first of all, it suits me that my father-in-law should be a prince
+of great consideration: besides, I have more confidence in the old
+than in the new dynasties. Has not General Bernadotte already taken
+the side of making peace with England?" And in fact, the Prince
+Royal of Sweden, as will be seen in the sequel, had courageously
+declared himself for the interests of the country which he governed.
+
+The emperor of France having left Dresden to review his armies, the
+empress went to spend some time at Prague with her own family.
+Napoleon himself, at his departure, regulated the etiquette that was
+to subsist between the father and the daughter, and one may
+conjecture that it was not very easy, as he loves etiquette almost
+as much from suspicion as from vanity, in other words, as a means of
+isolating individuals among themselves, under the pretence of
+marking the distinction of their ranks.
+
+The first ten days, which I passed at Vienna, passed unclouded, and
+I was delighted at thus finding myself again in a pleasing society,
+whose manner of thinking corresponded with my own; for the public
+opinion was unfavorable to the alliance with Napoleon, and the
+government had concluded it without being supported by the national
+assent. In fact, how could a war, the ostensible object of which was
+the re-establishment of Poland, be undertaken by the power which had
+contributed to the partition, and which still retained in its hands
+with greater obstinacy than ever the third of that same Poland?
+Thirty thousand men were sent by the Austrian government to restore
+the confederation of Poland at Warsaw, and nearly as many spies were
+attached to the movements of the Poles in Gallicia, who wished to
+have deputies at this confederation. The Austrian government was
+therefore obliged to speak against the Poles, at the very time that
+it was acting in their cause, and to say to her subjects of
+Gallicia: "I forbid you to be of the opinion which I support." What
+metaphysics! they would be found very intricate, if fear did not
+explain every thing.
+
+The Poles are the only nation, of those which Bonaparte drags after
+him, that create any interest. I believe they know as well as we do,
+that they are only the pretence for the war, and that the emperor
+does not care a fig for their independence. He has not even been
+able to refrain from expressing several times to the emperor
+Alexander his disdain for Poland, solely because she wishes to be
+free: but it suits his purposes to put her in the van against
+Russia, and the Poles avail themselves of that circumstance to
+restore their national independence. I know not if they will
+succeed, for it is with difficulty that despotism ever gives
+liberty, and what they will regain in their own cause, if
+successful, they will lose in the cause of Europe. They will be
+Poles, but Poles as much enslaved as the three nations upon whom
+they will no longer depend. Be that as it may, the Poles are the
+only Europeans who can serve under the banners of Napoleon without
+blushing. The princes of the Rhenish Confederation think to find
+their interest in it by the loss of their honor; but Austria by a
+combination truly remarkable, at once sacrifices in it both her
+honor and her interest. The emperor Napoleon wished the archduke
+Charles to take the command of these thirty thousand men; but the
+archduke fortunately saved himself from this insult; and when I saw
+him walking alone in a brown coat, in the alleys of the Prater, I
+recovered all my old respect for him.
+
+The same subaltern diplomatist who had so unworthily advised the
+abandonment of the Tyrolese, was entrusted, during the absence of
+Prince Metternich from Vienna, with the police of foreigners, and he
+acquitted himself as you shall see. The first few days he allowed me
+to remain undisturbed; I had formerly passed a winter at Vienna, and
+been very well received by the emperor and empress, and by the whole
+court: it was, therefore, rather awkward to tell me that this time I
+would not be received, because I was in disgrace with the emperor
+Napoleon; particularly as this disgrace was partly occasioned by the
+praises which I had bestowed in my book on the morality and literary
+genius of the Germans. But what was much more awkward was to run the
+risk of giving the least umbrage to a power, to which it must be
+confessed, they might very well sacrifice me, after all they had
+already done for it. I suppose, therefore, that after I had been
+some days at Vienna, the chief of the police received some more
+exact information of the nature of my situation with Bonaparte, and
+in consequence thought it necessary to watch me; and this was his
+method of inspection. He placed spies at my gate in the street, who
+followed me on foot, when my carriage drove slowly, and got into
+cabriolets in order not to lose sight of me, when I took an airing
+into the country. This method of exercising the police appeared to
+me to unite both the French machiavelism, and German clumsiness. The
+Austrians have persuaded themselves that they have been beat,
+because they had not so much wit as the French, and that the wit of
+the French consists in their police system; in consequence they have
+set about making a methodical espionage, organizing that ostensibly
+which should it all events be concealed; and although destined by
+nature to be very honest people, they have made it a kind of duty to
+imitate a state which unites the extremes of jacobinism and
+despotism.
+
+I could not help, however, being uneasy at this espionnage, when
+the least common sense was sufficient to see that flight was now my
+only object. They tried to alarm me about the arrival of my Russian
+passport; they pretended that I might have to wait several months
+for it and that then the war would prevent me from passing. It was
+easy for me to judge that I could not remain at Vienna after the
+French ambassador returned to it; what would then become of me? I
+intreated M. de Stackelberg to give me some means of passing by
+Odessa, to repair to Constantinople. But Odessa being Russian, a
+passport from Petersburg was equally necessary to go there; there
+therefore remained no road open but the direct one to Turkey through
+Hungary; and this road passing on the borders of Servia was subject
+to a thousand dangers. I might still reach the port of Salonica by
+going across the interior of Greece; the archduke Francis had taken
+this road to get into Sardinia; but the archduke Francis is a good
+horseman, and of that I was scarcely capable: still less could I
+think of exposing so young a person as my daughter to such a
+journey. I was obliged, therefore, although the idea was most
+painful to me, to determine on parting with her, and sending her by
+the way of Denmark and Sweden in the charge of persons in whom I
+could confide. I concluded at all hazards an agreement with an
+Armenian to take me to Constantinople. From thence I proposed to
+pass by Greece, Sicily, Cadiz, and Lisbon, and however hazardous was
+this voyage, it offered a fine perspective to the imagination. I
+addressed the office for foreign affairs, directed by a subaltern
+during the absence of M. de Metternich, for a passport which would
+enable me to leave Austria by Hungary, or by Gallicia, according as
+I might go to Petersberg or to Constantinople. I was told that I
+must make my election; that they could not give me a passport to go
+by two different frontiers, and that even to go to Presburg, which
+is the first city of Hungary, only six leagues from Vienna, it was
+necessary to have an authority from the committee of the States.
+Certainly I could not help thinking that Europe, which was formerly
+so open to all travellers, is become, under the influence of the
+emperor Napoleon, like a great net, in which you get entangled at
+every step. How many restraints and shackles there are upon the
+slightest movements! And can it be conceived that the unhappy
+governments which France oppresses, console themselves for it by
+making the miserable remains of power which has been left them, fall
+heavy in a thousand ways upon their subjects!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+Departure from Vienna.
+
+
+Obliged to make my election, I decided at last for Gallicia, which
+would conduct me to the country I preferred, namely, to Russia. I
+flattered myself, that once at a distance from Vienna, all these
+vexations, excited no doubt by the French government, would cease;
+and that at all events, I might, if it was necessary, quit Gallicia,
+and regain Bucharest by Transylvania. The geography of Europe, such
+as Napoleon has constituted it, is but too well learned by
+misfortune; the turnings which I was obliged to take to avoid his
+power were already near two thousand leagues; and now at my
+departure even from Vienna I was constrained to borrow the Asiatic
+territory to escape from it. I departed, therefore, without having
+received my Russian passport, hoping thereby to quiet the uneasiness
+which the subaltern police of Vienna appeared to feel about the
+presence of a female who was in disgrace with the emperor Napoleon.
+I requested one of my friends to rejoin me, by travelling night and
+day, as soon as the answer from Russia arrived, and I proceeded on
+my road. I did very wrong in taking this step, for at Vienna I was
+protected by my friends and by public opinion; I could there easily
+address myself to the emperor or to his prime minister: but once
+confined to a provincial town, I had only to do with the stupid
+wickedness of a subaltern, who wished to make a merit with the
+French government, of his conduct towards me; this was the method he
+took.
+
+I stopped for some days at Brunn, the capital of Moravia, where an
+English colonel, a Mr. Mills, was detained in exile; he was a man of
+the most perfect goodness and obliging manners, and according to the
+English expression, altogether inoffensive. He was made dreadfully
+miserable, without the least pretence or utility. But the Austrian
+ministry is apparently persuaded that it will derive an air of
+strength from turning persecutor; its counsellors are not mistaken;
+and as was said by a man of wit, their manner of governing in
+matters of police, resembles the sentinels placed upon the half
+destroyed citadel of Brunn,--they keep a strict guard round the
+ruins. Scarcely had I arrived at Brunn when all sorts of
+difficulties were started about my passports, and those of my
+companions. I asked permission to send my son to Vienna, to give the
+necessary explanations upon these points. I was told that neither
+myself nor my son would be allowed to go one league backwards. I
+know not if the emperor, or M. de Metternich were informed of all
+these absurd acts, but I encountered at Brunn, in the agents of
+government, a dread of compromising themselves which appeared to me
+quite worthy of the present French regime; and it must even be
+admitted that when the French are afraid, they are more excusable,
+for under the emperor Napoleon they run the risk of exile,
+imprisonment, or death.
+
+The governor of Moravia, a man in other respects very estimable,
+informed me that I was ordered to go through Gallicia as quickly as
+possible, and that I was forbid stopping more than twenty-four hours
+at Lanzut, where I had the intention of going. Lanzut is the estate
+of the princess Lubomirska, the sister of prince Adam Czartorinski,
+marshal of the Polish Confederation, which the Austrian troops were
+going to support. The princess Lubomirska was herself generally
+respected from her personal character, and the liberal use which she
+made of her splendid fortune; besides, her attachment to the house
+of Austria was conspicuous, and although a Pole by birth, she had
+never participated in the spirit of opposition which has always been
+exhibited in Poland to the Austrian government. Her nephew and
+niece, Prince Henry and the princess Theresa, with whom I had the
+honor to be intimate, are both of them endowed with the most
+brilliant and amiable qualities; they might no doubt be supposed to
+entertain a strong attachment to their Polish country, but it was
+then rather difficult to make a crime of this opinion, when the
+prince of Schwarzenberg was sent at the head of thirty thousand men
+to fight for the restoration of Poland. To what miserable shifts are
+those princes reduced, who are constantly told that they must yield
+to circumstances? it is proposing to them to govern with every wind.
+The successes of Bonaparte excite the envy of the greater part of
+the governors of Germany; they persuade themselves that they were
+beat because they were too honest, whereas it was because they had
+not been honest enough. If the Germans had imitated the Spaniards,
+if they had said:--whatever be the consequences, we will not bear a
+foreign yoke: they would still be a nation, and their princes would
+not be dangling, I do not say in the anti-chambers of the emperor
+Napoleon, but in those of all the persons on whom a ray of his favor
+is fallen. The emperor of Austria and his intelligent companion
+certainly preserve as much dignity as they can in their situation;
+but this situation is so artificial in itself, that it is impossible
+to give lustre to it. None of the actions of the Austrian government
+in favor of French interests can be attributed to any thing but
+fear; and this new muse inspires very sorrowful strains.
+
+I tried to represent to the governor of Moravia, that if I was thus
+hurried with so much politeness towards the frontier, I knew not
+what would become of me, having no Russian passport, and that I
+should be obliged, from inability to go either forward or backward,
+to pass my life at Brody, a frontier town between Russia and
+Austria, inhabited by Jews, who have settled there to carry on the
+trade of carrying from the one empire to the other. "What you say
+is very true," replied the governor, "but here is my order." For
+some time past governments have found the art of inculcating that a
+civil agent is subject to the same discipline as a military officer;
+with the latter reflection is altogether forbidden, or at least
+rarely finds a place; but one would have some difficulty in making
+men responsible in the eye of the law, such as are all the
+magistrates of England, comprehend, that they are not allowed to
+have an opinion upon the order that is given them. And what is the
+consequence of this servile obedience? If it had only the head of
+the state for its object, it might still be considered proper in an
+absolute monarchy; but during the absence of that head, or his
+representative, a subaltern may abuse at his pleasure those measures
+of police, the infernal inventions of arbitrary governments, and of
+which real greatness will never make use.
+
+I departed for Gallicia, and this time, I confess, I was completely
+depressed; the phantom of tyranny followed me every where; I saw
+those Germans, whom I had known so upright, depraved by the fatal
+marriage, which seemed to have even altered the blood of the
+subjects, as it had done that of their sovereign. I thought that
+Europe existed only beyond the seas, or the Pyrenees, and I
+despaired of reaching an asylum to my inclination. The spectacle of
+Gallicia was not of a kind to revive any hopes of the destiny of the
+human race. The Austrians have not acquired the art of making
+themselves beloved by the foreign nations which are subject to them.
+During the period they were in possession of Venice, the first thing
+they did was to put down the Carnival, which had become in a manner
+an institution, so long a time had elapsed since the Venetian
+carnival was talked of. The rudest people of the monarchy were
+selected to govern that gay city; no wonder therefore that the
+nations of the south should almost prefer being pillaged by the
+French to being governed by the Austrians.
+
+The Poles love their country as an unfortunate friend: the country
+is dull and monotonous, the people ignorant and lazy; they have
+always wished for liberty; they have never known how to acquire it.
+But the Poles think that they can and may govern Poland, and the
+feeling is very natural. The education however of the people is so
+much neglected, and all kind of industry is so foreign to them, that
+the Jews have possessed themselves of the entire trade, and make the
+peasants sell them for a quantity of brandy the whole harvest of the
+approaching year. The distance between the nobility and the
+peasantry is so immense, the contrast between the luxury of the one,
+and the frightful misery of the other is so shocking, that it is
+probable the Austrians have given them better laws than those which
+previously existed. But a proud people, and the Poles are so even in
+their misery, does not wish to be humbled, even when they are
+benefited, and in that point the Austrians have never failed. They
+have divided Gallicia into circles, each of which is commanded by a
+German functionary; sometimes a person of distinction accepts this
+employment, but it is much more frequently a kind of brute, taken
+from the subaltern ranks, and who in virtue of his office commands
+in the most despotic manner the greatest noblemen of Poland. The
+police, which in the present times has replaced the secret tribunal,
+authorizes the most oppressive measures. Now let us only imagine
+what the police can be, namely, the most subtle and arbitrary power
+in the government, entrusted to the rude hands of the captain of a
+circle. At every post-house in Gallicia there are to be seen three
+descriptions of persons who gather round travellers' carriages: the
+Jew traders, the Polish beggars, and the German spies. The country
+appears exclusively inhabited by these three classes of men. The
+beggars, with their long beards and ancient Sarmatian costume,
+excite deep commiseration; it is very true that if they would work
+they need not be in that state; but I know not whether it is pride
+or laziness which makes them disdain the culture of the enslaved
+earth.
+
+You meet upon the high roads processions of men and women carrying
+the standard of the cross, and singing Psalms; a profound expression
+of melancholy reigns upon their countenance: I have seen them, when
+not money, but food of a better sort than they had been accustomed
+to was given them, turn up their eyes to heaven with astonishment,
+as if they considered themselves unfit to enjoy its bounty. The
+custom of the common people in Poland is to embrace the knees of the
+nobility when they meet them; you cannot stir a step in a village
+without having the women, children, and old men saluting you in this
+manner. In the midst of this spectacle of wretchedness you might see
+some men in shabby attire, who were spies upon misery: for that was
+the only object which could offer itself to their eyes. The captains
+of the circles refused passports to the Polish noblemen, for fear
+they should see one another, or lest they should go to Warsaw. They
+obliged these noblemen to appear before them every eight days, in
+order to certify their presence. The Austrians thus proclaimed in
+all manner of ways that they knew they were detested in Poland, and
+they separated their troops into two equal divisions: the first
+entrusted with supporting externally the interests of Poland, and
+the second employed in the interior to prevent the Poles from aiding
+the same cause. I do not believe that any country was ever more
+wretchedly governed than Gallicia was at that time, at least under
+political considerations; and it was apparently to conceal this
+spectacle from general observation that so many difficulties were
+made in allowing a stranger to reside in, or even to pass through
+the country.
+
+I return to the manner in which the Austrian police behaved to me to
+hasten my journey. In this road it is necessary to have your
+passport examined by each captain of a circle; and every third post
+you found one of the chief towns of the circle. They had put up
+placards in the police offices of all these towns that a strict eye
+must be kept on me as I passed through. If it was not for the
+singular impertinence of treating a female in this manner, and that
+a female who had been persecuted for doing justice to Germany, one
+could not help laughing at the excess of stupidity which could
+publish in capital letters measures of police, the whole strength of
+which consists in their secrecy. It reminded me of M. de Sartines,
+who had formerly proposed to give spies a livery. It is not that the
+director of all these absurdities is, as some say, devoid of
+understanding: but he has such a strong desire to please the French
+government, that he even seeks to do himself honor by his
+meannesses, as publickly as possible. This proclaimed inspection was
+executed with as much ingenuity as it was conceived: a corporal, or
+a clerk, or perhaps both together, came to look at my carriage,
+smoking their pipes, and when they had gone the round of it, they
+went their way without even deigning to tell me if there was any
+thing the matter with it; if they had done that, they would have
+been at least good for something. I made very slow progress to wait
+for the Russian passport, now my only means of safety in the
+circumstances in which I was placed. One morning I turned out of my
+road to go and see a ruined castle, which belonged to the princess
+Lubomirska. To get to it, I had to go over roads, of which, without
+having travelled in Poland, it is impossible to form an idea. In the
+middle of a sort of desert which I was crossing alone with my son, a
+person on horseback saluted me in French; I wished to answer him,
+but he was already at a distance. I cannot express the effect which
+the sound of that dear language produced upon me, at a moment so
+cruel. Ah! if the French were but once free, how one would love
+them! they would then be the first themselves to despise their
+allies. I descended into the court yard of this castle, which was
+entirely in ruins. The keeper, with his wife and children, came to
+meet me, and embraced my knees. I caused them to be informed by a
+bad interpreter, that I knew the princess Lubomirska; that name was
+sufficient to inspire them with confidence; they had no doubt of the
+truth of what I said, although I travelled with a very shabby
+equipage. They introduced me into a sort of hall, which resembled a
+prison, and at the moment of my entrance, one of the women came into
+it to burn perfumes. They had neither white bread nor meat, but an
+exquisite Hungarian wine, and every where the wrecks of magnificence
+stood by the side of the greatest misery. This contrast is of
+frequent recurrence in Poland: there are no beds, even in houses
+fitted up with the most finished elegance. Every thing appears
+sketched in this country, and nothing terminated in it; but what one
+can never sufficiently praise is the goodness of the people, and the
+generosity of the great: both are easily excited by all that is good
+and beautiful, and the agents whom Austria sends there seem like
+wooden men in the midst of this flexible nation.
+
+At last my Russian passport arrived, and I shall be grateful for it
+to the end of my life, so great was the pleasure it gave me. My
+friends at Vienna had succeeded at the same time in dissipating the
+malignant influence of those who thought to please France by
+tormenting me. This time I flattered myself with being entirely
+sheltered from any farther trouble; but I forgot that the circular
+order to the captains of the circles to keep me under inspection,
+was not yet revoked, and that it was only direct from the ministry
+that I had the promise of having these ridiculous torments put an
+end to. I thought, however, that I might venture to follow my first
+plan, and stop at Lanzut, that castle of the princess Lubomirska, so
+famous in Poland for the union of the most perfect taste and
+magnificence. I anticipated extreme pleasure from again seeing
+prince Henry Lubomirska, whose society, as well as that of his
+amiable lady, had made me pass at Geneva many agreeable moments. I
+proposed to myself to remain there two days, and to continue my
+journey with great speed, as news came from all quarters that war
+was declared between France and Russia. I don't quite see what there
+was in this plan of mine so dreadful to the tranquillity of Austria;
+it was a most singular idea to be jealous of my connection with the
+Poles, because they served under Bonaparte. No doubt, and I repeat
+it, the Poles cannot be confounded with the other nations who are
+tributary to France: it is frightful to be obliged to hope for
+liberty only from a despot, and to expect the independence of one's
+own nation only from the slavery of the rest of Europe. But finally,
+in this Polish cause, the Austrian ministry was more to be suspected
+than I was, for it furnished troops to support it, while I only
+consecrated my poor forces to proclaim the justice of the cause of
+Europe, then defended by Russia. Besides, the Austrian ministry, in
+common with all the governments in alliance with Bonaparte, has no
+longer any knowledge of what constitutes opinion, conscience, or
+affection: the one single idea which they retain, the inconsistency
+of their own conduct and the art with which Napoleon's diplomacy has
+entangled them, is that of mere brute force; and to please that they
+do every thing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+Passage through Poland.
+
+
+I arrived in the beginning of July at the chief town of the circle,
+in which Lanzut is situated; my carriage stopped before the
+posthouse, and my son went, as usual, to have my passport examined.
+I was astonished, at the end of a quarter of an hour, not to see him
+return, and I requested M. Schlegel to go and ascertain the cause of
+his delay. They both came back immediately, followed by a man whose
+countenance I shall never, during my life, forget: an affected
+smile, upon the most stupid features, gave the most disagreeable
+expression to his countenance. My son, almost beside himself,
+informed me that the captain of the circle had declared to him that
+I could not remain more than eight hours at Lanzut, and that to
+secure my obedience to this order, one of his commissaries should
+follow me to the castle, should enter into it with me, and should
+not quit me until I had left it. My son had represented to this
+captain, that overcome as I was with fatigue, I required more than
+eight hours to repose myself, and that the sight of a commissary of
+police, in my weak state, might give me a very fatal shock. To all
+these representations the captain replied with a brutality which is
+quite peculiar to German subalterns; nowhere also do you meet with
+that obsequious respect for power which immediately succeeds to
+arrogance towards the weak. The mental movements of these men
+resemble the evolutions of a review day; they make a half turn to
+the right, and a half turn to the left, according to the word of
+command which is given to them.
+
+The commissary intrusted with the inspection of me, fatigued himself
+in bowing to the very ground, but would not in the least modify his
+charge. He got into a caleche, the horses of which followed me so
+close that they touched the hind wheels of my berline. The idea of
+entering, escorted in this manner, into the residence of an old
+friend, into a paradise of delight, where I had been feasting my
+ideas by anticipation, with spending several days; this idea I say
+made me so ill, that I could not get the better of it; joined to
+that also was, I believe, the irritation of finding at my heels this
+insolent spy, a very fit subject, certainly, to outwit, if I had had
+the desire, but who did his duty with an intolerable mixture of
+pedantry and rigor*: I was seized with a nervous attack in the
+middle of the road, and they were obliged to lift me out of my
+carriage, and lay me down on the side of the ditch. This wretched
+commissary fancied that this was an occasion to take compassion on
+me, and without getting out of his carriage himself, he sent his
+servant to find me a glass of water. I cannot express how angry I
+felt with myself for the weakness of my nerves; the compassion of
+this man was a last insult, which I would at least have wished to
+spare myself. He set off again at the same time that I did, and I
+made my entry, along with him, into the court yard of the castle of
+Lanzut. Prince Henry, not in the least suspecting any thing of the
+kind, came to meet me with the most amiable gaiety; he was at first
+frightened at the paleness of my looks, but when I told him, which I
+did immediately, what sort of guest I had brought with me, from that
+moment his coolness, firmness, and friendship for me did not belie
+themselves for a moment. But can one conceive a state of things in
+which a commissary of police should plant himself at the table of a
+great nobleman like prince Henry, or rather at that of any person
+whatever, without his consent?
+
+(Note of the Editor)
+* To explain how strong and well-founded was the anguish which my
+mother experienced at this point of her journey, I ought to mention
+that the attention of the Austrian police was not then confined to
+her only. The description of M. Rocca had been sent all along the
+road, with an order to arrest him in quality of his being a French
+officer; and although he had resigned his commission, and his wounds
+had incapacitated him from continuing his military service, there is
+no doubt, that if he had been delivered up to France, the forfeiture
+of his life would have been the consequence. He had therefore
+travelled alone, and under a borrowed name, and it was at Lanzut
+that he had given my mother the rendezvous. Having arrived there
+before her, and not in the least suspecting that she would be
+escorted by a commissary of police, he came out to meet her, full of
+joy and confidence. The danger to which he was thus, insensibly,
+exposing himself, transfixed my mother with terror, and she had
+barely time to give him a signal to return back; and had it not been
+for the generous presence of mind of a Polish gentleman, who
+supplied M. Rocca with the means of escaping, he would infallibly
+have been recognized and arrested by the commissary. Ignorant of
+what might be the fate of her manuscript, under what circumstances,
+public or private, she might ever publish it, my mother felt herself
+under the necessity of entirely suppressing these details, to which
+I am at present allowed to give publicity.
+(End of Note of the Editor.)
+
+
+After supper this commissary came up to my son, and said to him,
+with that coaxing tone of voice which I particularly dislike, when
+it is used to say cutting words, "I ought, according to my orders,
+to pass the night in your mother's apartment, in order to be certain
+that she has no communication with any one; but from regard to her,
+I will not do it." "You may add also," said my son, "from regard to
+yourself, for if you should dare to put your foot in my mother's
+apartment during the night, I will throw you out of the window."
+"Ah! Monsieur le Baron," replied the commissary, bowing lower than
+usual, because this threat had a false air of power which did not
+fail to affect him. He went to lay down, and the next day at
+breakfast, the prince's secretary managed him so well, by giving him
+plenty to eat and drink, that I might, I believe, have remained
+several hours longer, but I was ashamed at having been the occasion
+of such a scene in the house of my amiable host. I did not even
+allow myself time to examine those beautiful gardens, which remind
+us of the southern climate whose productions they offer, nor that
+house, which has been the asylum of persecuted French emigrants, and
+where the artists have sent the tribute of their talents in return
+for the services rendered them by the lady of the castle. The
+contrast between such delightful and striking impressions and the
+grief and indignation I felt, was intolerable; the recollection of
+Lanzut, which I have so many reasons for loving, even now makes me
+shudder, when I think of it.
+
+I took my departure then from this residence, shedding bitter tears,
+and not knowing what else was in store for me during the fifty
+leagues I had yet to travel in the Austrian territory. The
+commissary accompanied me to the borders of his circle, and when he
+took his leave, asked me if I was satisfied with him; the stupidity
+of the fellow quite disarmed my resentment. A peculiar feature in
+all this persecution, which formerly never entered into the
+character of the Austrian government, is, that it is executed by its
+agents with as much rudeness as awkwardness: these ci-devant honest
+people carry into the base commissions with which they are entrusted
+the same scrupulous exactness that they formerly did into the good
+ones, and their limited conception of this new method of government,
+which was not known to them, makes them commit a hundred blunders,
+either from want of skill or clumsiness. It is like taking the club
+of Hercules to kill a fly, and during this useless exertion the most
+important matters may escape them.
+
+On leaving the circle of Lanzut, I still found as far as Leopol, the
+capital of Gallicia, grenadiers placed from post to post to make
+sure of my progress. I should have felt regret at making these brave
+fellows thus lose their time, had it not been for the thought that
+they were much better there, than with the unfortunate army
+delivered by Austria to Napoleon. On arriving at Leopol, I found
+again ancient Austria in the governor and commandant of the
+province, who both received me with the greatest politeness, and
+gave me, what I wished above every thing, an order for passing from
+Austria into Russia. Such was the end of my residence in this
+monarchy, which I had formerly seen powerful, just and upright. Her
+alliance with Napoleon while it lasted, degraded her to the lowest
+rank among nations. History will doubtless not forget that she has
+shown herself very warlike in her long wars against France, and that
+her last effort to resist Bonaparte was inspired by a national
+enthusiasm worthy of all praise; but the sovereign of this country,
+by yielding to his counsellors rather than to his own character, has
+destroyed for ever that enthusiasm, by checking its ebullition. The
+unfortunate men who perished on the plains of Essling and Wagram,
+that there might still be an Austrian monarchy and a German people,
+could have hardly expected that their companions in arms would be
+fighting three years afterwards for the extension of Bonaparte's
+empire to the borders of Asia, and that there might not be in the
+whole of Europe, even a desert, where the objects of his
+proscription, from kings to subjects, might find an asylum; for such
+is the object, and the sole object, of the war excited by France
+against Russia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+Arrival in Russia.
+
+
+One had hardly been accustomed to consider Russia as the most free
+state in Europe; but such is the weight of the yoke which the
+Emperor of France has imposed upon all the Continental states, that
+on arriving at last in a country where his tyranny can no longer
+make itself felt, you fancy yourself in a republic. It was on the
+14th of July that I made my entrance into Russia; this co-incidence
+with the anniversary of the first day of the Revolution particularly
+struck me; and thus closed for me the circle of the history of
+France which had commenced on the 14th of July 1789.* When the
+barrier which separates Austria from Russia was opened to let me
+pass, I made an oath never to set my foot in a country subjected in
+any degree to the emperor Napoleon. Will this oath ever allow me to
+revisit beautiful France?
+
+* (Note by the Editor) It was on the 14th of July, 1817, that my
+mother was taken from us, and received into the bosom of God. What
+mind is there that would not be affected with religious emotion on
+meditating on the mysterious co-incidences which the destiny of the
+human race presents!
+(End of Note by the Editor.)
+
+The first person who received me in Russia was a Frenchman, who had
+formerly been a clerk in my father's bureaux; he talked to me of him
+with tears in his eyes, and that name thus pronounced appeared to me
+of happy augury. In fact, in that Russian empire, so falsely termed
+barbarous, I have experienced none but noble and delightful
+impressions: may my gratitude draw down additional blessings on this
+people and their sovereign! I entered Russia at the moment when the
+French army had already penetrated a considerable distance into the
+Russian territory, and yet no restraint or vexation of any kind
+impeded for a moment the progress of a foreign traveller; neither I,
+nor my companions, knew a syllable of Russian; we only spoke French,
+the language of the enemies who were ravaging the empire: I had not
+even with me, by a succession of disagreeable chances, a single
+servant who could speak Russian, and had it not been for a German
+physician (Dr. Renner) who in the most handsome manner volunteered
+his services as our interpreter as far as Moscow, we should have
+justly merited the epithet of deaf and dumb, applied by the Russians
+to persons unacquainted with their language. Well! even in this
+state, our journey would have been quite safe and easy, so great is
+the hospitality of the nobles and the people of Russia! On our first
+entrance we learned that the direct road to Petersburg was already
+occupied by the armies, and that we must go to Moscow in order to
+get the means of conveyance there. This was another round of 200
+leagues; but we had already made 1500, and I now feel pleased at
+having seen Moscow.
+
+The first province we had to cross, Volhynia, forms a part of
+Russian Poland; it is a fertile country, over-run with Jews, like
+Gallicia, but much less miserable. I stopped at the chateau of a
+Polish nobleman to whom I had been recommended, who advised me to
+hasten my journey, as the French were marching upon Volhynia, and
+might easily enter it in eight days. The Poles, in general, like the
+Russians much better than they do the Austrians; the Russians and
+Poles are both of Sclavonian origin: they have been enemies, but
+respect each other mutually, while the Germans, who are further
+advanced in European civilization than the Sclavonians, have not
+learned to do them justice in other respects. It was easy to see
+that the Poles in Volhynia were not at all afraid of the entrance of
+the French; but although their opinions were known, they were not in
+the least subjected to that petty persecution which only excites
+hatred without restraining it. The spectacle, however, of one nation
+subjected by another, is always a painful one;--centuries must
+elapse before the union is sufficiently established to make the
+names of victor and vanquished be forgotten.
+
+At Gitomir, the chief town of Volhynia, I was told that the Russian
+minister of police had been sent to Wilna, to learn the motive of
+the emperor Napoleon's aggression, and to make a formal protest
+against his entry into the Russian territory. One can hardly credit
+the numberless sacrifices made by the emperor Alexander, in order to
+preserve peace. And in fact, far from Napoleon having it in his
+power to accuse the emperor Alexander of violating the treaty of
+Tilsit, the latter might have been reproached with a too scrupulous
+fidelity to that fatal treaty; and it was rather he who had the
+right of declaring war against Napoleon, as having first violated
+it. The emperor of France in his conversation with M. Balasheff, the
+minister of police, gave himself up to those inconceivable
+indiscretions which might be taken for abandon, if we did not know
+that it suits him to increase the terror which he inspires by
+exhibiting himself as superior to all kinds of calculation. "Do you
+think," said he to M. Balasheff, "that I care a straw for these
+Polish jacobins?" And I have been really assured that there is in
+existence a letter, addressed several years since to M. de Romanzoff
+by one of Napoleon's ministers, in which it was proposed to strike
+out the name of Poland and the Poles from all European acts. How
+unfortunate for this nation that the emperor Alexander had not taken
+the title of king of Poland, and thereby associated the cause of
+this oppressed people with that of all generous minds! Napoleon
+asked one of his generals, in the presence of M. de Balasheff, if he
+had ever been at Moscow, and what sort of city it was. The general
+replied that it had appeared to him to be rather a large village
+than a capital. And how many churches are there in it?--continued
+the emperor. About sixteen hundred:--was the reply. That is quite
+inconceivable, rejoined Napoleon, at a time when the world has
+ceased to be religious. Pardon me, sire, said M. de Balashoff, the
+Russians and Spaniards are so still. Admirable reply! and which
+presaged, one would hope, that the Russians would be the Castilians
+of the North.
+
+Nevertheless, the French army made rapid progress, and one has been
+so accustomed to see the French triumphing over every thing abroad,
+although at home they know not how to resist any sort of yoke, that
+I had some reason to apprehend meeting them already on the road to
+Moscow. What a capricious destiny, for me to flee at first from the
+French, among whom I was born, and who had carried my father in
+triumph, and now to flee from them even to the borders of Asia! But,
+in short, what destiny is there, great or little, which the man
+selected to humble man does not overthrow? I thought I should be
+obliged to go to Odessa, a city which had become prosperous under
+the enlightened administration of the Duke of Richelieu, and from
+thence I might have gone to Constantinople and into Greece; I
+consoled myself for this long voyage by the idea of a poem on
+Richard Coeur-de-Lion, which I have the intention of writing, if
+life and health are spared me. This poem is designed to paint the
+manners and character of the East, and to consecrate a grand epoch
+in the English history, that when the enthusiasm of the Crusades
+gave place to the enthusiasm of liberty. But as we cannot paint what
+we have not seen, no more than we can express properly what we have
+not felt, it was necessary for me to go to Constantinople, into
+Syria, and into Sicily, there to follow the steps of Richard. My
+travelling companions, better acquainted with my strength than I was
+myself, dissuaded me from such an undertaking, and assured me that
+by using expedition, I could travel post much quicker than an army.
+It will be seen that I had not in fact a great deal of time to
+spare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+Kiow.
+
+
+Determined to continue my journey through Russia, I proceeded
+towards Kiow, the principal city of the Ukraine, and formerly of all
+Russia, for this empire began by fixing its capital in the South.
+The Russians had then continual communication with the Greeks
+established at Constantinople, and in general with the people of the
+East, whose habits they have adopted in a variety of instances. The
+Ukraine is a very fertile country, but by no means agreeable; you
+see large plains of wheat which appear to be cultivated by invisible
+hands, the habitations and inhabitants are so rare. You must not
+expect, in approaching Kiow, or the greater part of what are called
+cities in Russia, to find any thing resembling the cities of the
+West; the roads are not better kept, nor do country houses indicate
+a more numerous population. On my arrival at Kiow, the first object
+that met my eyes was a cemetery, and this was the first indication
+to me of being near a place where men were collected. The houses at
+Kiow generally resemble tents, and at a distance, the city appears
+like a camp; I could not help fancying that the moveable residences
+of the Tartars had furnished models for the construction of those
+wooden houses, which have not a much greater appearance of solidity.
+A few days are sufficient for building them; they are very often
+consumed by fire, and an order is sent to the forest for a house, as
+you would send to market to lay in your winter stock of provisions.
+In the middle of these huts, however, palaces have been erected, and
+a number of churches, whose green and gilt cupolas singularly draw
+the attention. When towards the evening the sun darts his rays on
+these brilliant domes, you would fancy that it was rather an
+illumination for a festival, than a durable edifice.
+
+The Russians never pass a church without making the sign of the
+cross, and their longbeards add greatly to the religious expression
+of their physiognomy. They generally wear a large blue robe,
+fastened round the waist by a scarlet band: the dresses of the women
+have also something Asiatic in them: and one remarks that taste for
+lively colours which we derive from the East, where the sun is so
+beautiful, that one likes to make his eclat more conspicuous by the
+objects which he shines upon. I speedily contracted such a
+partiality to these oriental dresses, that I could not bear to see
+Russians dressed like other Europeans; they seemed to me then
+entering into that great regularity of the despotism of Napoleon,
+which first makes all nations a present of the conscription, then of
+the war-taxes, and lastly, of the Code Napoleon, in order to govern
+in the same manner, nations of totally different characters.
+
+The Dnieper, which the ancients called Borysthenes, passes by Kiow,
+and the old tradition of the country affirms, that it was a boatman,
+who in crossing it found its waters so pure that he was led to found
+a town on its banks. In fact, the rivers are the most beautiful
+natural objects in Russia. It would be difficult to find any small
+streams, their course would be so much obstructed by the sand. There
+is scarcely any variety of trees; the melancholy birch is
+incessantly recurring in this uninventive nature; even the want of
+stones might be almost regretted, so much is the eye sometimes
+fatigued with meeting neither hill nor valley, and to be always
+making progress without encountering new objects. The rivers relieve
+the imagination from this fatigue; the priests, therefore, bestow
+their benedictions on these rivers. The emperor, empress, and the
+whole court attend the ceremony of the benediction of the Neva, at
+the moment of the severest cold of winter. It is said that Wladimir,
+at the commencement of the eleventh century, declared, that all the
+waters of the Borysthenes were holy, and that plunging in them was
+sufficient to make a man a Christian; the baptism of the Greeks
+being performed by immersion, millions of men went into this river
+to abjure their idolatry. It was this same Vladimir who sent
+deputies to different countries, to learn which of all the religions
+it best suited him to adopt; he decided for the Greek ritual, on
+account of the pomp of its ceremonies. Perhaps also he preferred it
+for more important reasons; in fact the Greek faith by excluding the
+papal power, gives the sovereign of Russia the spiritual and
+temporal power united.
+
+The Greek religion is necessarily less intolerant than the Roman
+Catholic; for being itself reproached as a schism, it can hardly
+complain of heretics; all religions therefore are admitted into
+Russia, and from the borders of the Don to those of the Neva, the
+fraternity of country unites men, even though their theological
+opinions may separate them. The Greek priests are allowed to marry,
+and scarcely any gentleman embraces this profession: it follows that
+the clergy has very little political ascendancy; it acts upon the
+people, but it is very submissive to the emperor.
+
+The ceremonies of the Greek worship are at least as beautiful as
+those of the catholics; the church music is heavenly; every thing in
+this worship leads to meditation; it has something of poetry and
+feeling about it, but it appears better adapted to captivate the
+imagination than to regulate the conduct. When the priest comes out
+of the sanctuary, in which he remains shut up while he communicates,
+you would say that you saw the gates of light opening; the cloud of
+incense which surrounds him, the gold and silver, and precious
+stones, which glitter on his robes and in the church, seem to come
+from countries where the sun is an object of adoration. The devout
+sentiments which are inspired by gothic architecture in Germany,
+France and England, cannot be at all compared with the effect of the
+Greek churches; they rather remind us of the minarets of the Turks
+and Arabs than of our churches. As little must we expect to find, as
+in Italy, the splendor of the fine arts; their most remarkable
+ornaments are virgins and saints crowned with rubies and diamonds.
+Magnificence is the character of every thing one sees in Russia;
+neither the genius of man nor the gifts of nature constitute its
+beauties.
+
+The ceremonies of marriage, of baptism, and of burial, are noble and
+affecting; we find in them some ancient customs of Grecian idolatry,
+but only those which, having no connection with doctrine, can add to
+the impression of the three great scenes of life, birth, marriage
+and death. The Russian peasants still continue the custom of
+addressing the dead previous to a final separation from his remains.
+Why is it, say they, that thou hast abandoned us? Wert thou then
+unhappy on this earth? Was not thy wife fair and good? Why therefore
+hast thou left her? The dead replies not, but the value of existence
+is thus proclaimed in the presence of those who still preserve it.
+
+At Kiow we were shown some catacombs which reminded us a little of
+those at Rome, and to which pilgrimages are made on foot from Casan
+and other cities bordering on Asia; but these pilgrimages cost less
+in Russia, than they would anywhere else, although the distances are
+much greater. It is in the character of the people to have no fear
+of fatigue or of any bodily suffering; in this nation there is both
+patience and activity, both gaiety and melancholy. You see united
+the most striking contrasts, and it is that which makes one predict
+great things of them; for generally it is only in beings of superior
+order that we find an union of opposite qualities; the mass is in
+general of a uniform color.
+
+I made at Kiow the trial of Russian hospitality. The governor of the
+province, General Miloradowitsch, loaded me with the most amiable
+attentions; he had been an aide-de-camp of Suwarow, like him
+intrepid; he inspired me with greater confidence than I then had in
+the military successes of the Russians. Before this, I had only
+happened to meet some officers of the German school, who had
+entirely got rid of their Russian character. I saw in General
+Miloradowitsch a real Russian; brave, impetuous, confident, and
+wholly free from that spirit of imitation which sometimes entirely
+robs his countrymen even of their national character. He told me a
+number of anecdotes of Suwarow, which prove that that warrior
+studied a great deal, although he preserved the original instinct
+which is connected with the immediate knowledge of men and things.
+He carefully concealed his studies to strike with greater force the
+imagination of his troops, by assuming in all things an air of
+inspiration.
+
+The Russians have, in my opinion, much greater resemblance to the
+people of the South, or rather of the East, than to those of the
+North. What is European in them belongs merely to the manners of the
+court, which are nearly the same in all countries; but their nature
+is eastern. General Miloradowitsch related to me that a regiment of
+Kalmucks had been put into garrison at Kiow, and that the prince of
+these Kalmucks came to him one day, to confess that he suffered very
+much from passing the winter cooped up in a town, and wished to
+obtain permission to encamp in the neighbouring forest. Such a cheap
+pleasure it was impossible to refuse him; he and all his regiment
+went in consequence, in the middle of the snow, to take up their
+abode in their chariots, which at the same time serve them for huts.
+The Russian soldiers bear nearly in the same degree the fatigues and
+privations of climate or of war, and the people of all classes
+exhibit a contempt of obstacles and of physical suffering, which
+will carry them successfully through the greatest undertakings. This
+Kalmuck prince, to whom wooden houses appeared a residence too
+delicate in the middle of winter, gave diamonds to the ladies who
+pleased him at a ball; and as he could not make himself understood
+by them, he substituted presents for compliments, in the manner
+practised in India and other silent countries of the East, where
+speech has less influence than with us. General Miloradowitsch
+invited me the very evening of my departure, to a ball at the house
+of a Moldavian princess, to which I regretted very much being unable
+to go. All these names of foreign countries and of nations which are
+scarcely any longer European, singularly awaken the imagination. You
+feel yourself in Russia at the gate of another earth, near to that
+East from which have proceeded so many religious creeds, and which
+still contains in its bosom incredible treasures of perseverance and
+reflection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12.
+
+Road from Kiow to Moscow.
+
+
+About nine hundred versts still separated Kiow from Moscow. My
+Russian coachmen drove me along like lightning, singing airs, the
+words of which I was told were compliments and encouragements to
+their horses, "Go along," they said, "my friends: we know one
+another: go quick." I have as yet seen nothing at all barbarous in
+this people; on the contrary their forms have an elegance and
+softness about them which you find no where else. Never does a
+Russian coachman pass a female, of whatever age or rank she may be,
+without saluting her, and the female returns it by an inclination of
+the head which is always noble and graceful. An old man who could
+not make himself understood by me, pointed to the earth, and then to
+the heaven, to signify to me, that the one would shortly be to him
+the road to the other. I know very well that the shocking
+barbarities which disfigure the history of Russia may be urged,
+reasonably, as evidence of a contrary character; but these I should
+rather lay to the charge of the boyars, the class which was depraved
+by the despotism which it exercised or submitted to, than to the
+nation itself. Besides, political dissentions, everywhere and at all
+times, distort national character, and there is nothing more
+deplorable than that succession of masters, whom crimes have
+elevated or overturned; but such is the fatal condition of absolute
+power on this earth. The civil servants of the government, of an
+inferior class, all those who look to make their fortune by their
+suppleness or intrigues, in no degree resemble the inhabitants of
+the country, and I can readily believe all the ill that has been and
+may be said of them; but to appreciate properly the character of a
+warlike nation, we must look to its soldiers, and the class from
+which its soldiers are taken, the peasantry.
+
+Although I was driven along with great rapidity, it seemed to me
+that I did not advance a step, the country was so extremely
+monotonous. Plains of sand, forests of birch tree, and villages at a
+great distance from each other, composed of wooden houses all built
+upon the same plan: these were the only objects that my eyes
+encountered. I felt that sort of nightmare which sometimes seizes
+one during the night, when you think you are always marching and
+never advancing. The country appeared to me like the image of
+infinite space, and to require eternity to traverse it. Every
+instant you met couriers passing, who went along with incredible
+swiftness; they were seated on a wooden bench placed across a little
+cart drawn by two horses, and nothing stopped them for a moment. The
+jolting of their carriage sometimes made them spring two feet above
+it, but they fell with astonishing address, and made haste to call
+out in Russian, forward, with an energy similar to that of the
+French on a day of battle. The Sclavonian language is singularly
+echoing; I should almost say there is something metallic about it;
+you would think you heard a bell striking, when the Russians
+pronounce certain letters of their alphabet, quite different from
+those which compose the dialects of the West.
+
+We saw passing some corps de reserve approaching by forced marches
+to the theatre of war; the Cossacks were repairing, one by one, to
+the army, without order or uniform, with a long lance in their hand,
+and a kind of grey dress, whose ample hood they put over their head.
+I had formed quite another idea of these people; they live behind
+the Dnieper; there their way of living is independent, in the manner
+of savages; but during war they allow themselves to be governed
+despotically. One is accustomed to see, in fine uniforms of
+brilliant colors, the most formidable armies. The dull colors of the
+Cossack dress excite another sort of fear; one might say that they
+are ghosts who pounce upon you.
+
+Half way between Kiow and Moscow, as we were already in the vicinity
+of the armies, horses became more scarce. I began to be afraid of
+being detained in my journey, at the very moment when the necessity
+of speed became most urgent; and when I had to wait for five or six
+hours in front of a post-house, (as there was seldom an apartment
+into which I could enter) I thought with trembling of that army
+which might overtake me at the extremity of Europe, and render my
+situation at once tragical and ridiculous; for it is thus with the
+failure of an undertaking of this kind. The circumstances which
+compelled me to it not being generally known, I might have been
+asked why I quitted my own house, even although it had been made a
+prison to me, and there are good enough people who would not have
+failed to say, with an air of compunction, that it was very unlucky,
+but I should have done better to stay where I was. If tyranny had
+only its direct partisans on its side, it could never maintain
+itself; the astonishing thing, and which proves human misery more
+than all, is, that the greater part of mediocre people enlist
+themselves in the service of events: they have not the strength to
+think deeper than a fact, and when an oppressor has triumphed, and a
+victim has been destroyed, they hasten to justify, not exactly the
+tyrant, but the destiny whose instrument he is. Weakness of mind and
+character is no doubt the cause of this servility: but there is also
+in man a certain desire of finding destiny, whatever it may be, in
+the right, as if it was a way of living in peace with it.
+
+I reached at last that part of my road which removed me from the
+theatre of war, and arrived in the governments of Orel and Toula,
+which have been so much talked of since, in the bulletins of the two
+armies. I was received in these solitary abodes, for so the
+provincial towns in Russia appear, with the most perfect
+hospitality. Several gentlemen of the neighbourhood came to my inn,
+to compliment me on my writings, and I confess having been flattered
+to find that my literary reputation had extended to this distance
+from my native country. The lady of the governor received me in the
+Asiatic style, with sherbet and roses; her apartment was elegantly
+furnished with musical instruments and pictures. In Europe you see
+every where the contrast of wealth and poverty; but in Russia it may
+be said that neither one nor the other makes itself remarked.
+
+The people are not poor; the great know how to lead, when it is
+necessary, the same life as the people: it is the mixture of the
+hardest privations and of the most refined enjoyments which
+characterizes the country. These same noblemen, whose residence
+unites all that the luxury of different parts of the world has most
+attractive, live, while they are travelling, on much worse food than
+our French peasantry, and know how to bear, not only during war, but
+in various circumstances of life, a physical existence of the most
+disagreeable kind. The severity of the climate, the marshes, the
+forests, the deserts, of which a great part of the country is
+composed, place man in a continual struggle with nature. Fruits, and
+even flowers, only grow in hot-houses; vegetables are not generally
+cultivated; and there are no vines any where. The habitual mode of
+life of the French peasants could not be obtained in Russia but at a
+very great expense. There they have only necessaries by luxury:
+whence it happens that when luxury is unattainable, even necessaries
+are renounced. What the English call comforts are hardly to be met
+with in Russia. You will never find any thing sufficiently perfect
+to satisfy in all ways the imagination of the great Russian
+noblemen; but when this poetry of wealth fails them, they drink
+hydromel, sleep upon a board, and travel day and night in an open
+carriage, without regretting the luxury to which one would think
+they had been habituated. It is rather as magnificence that they
+love fortune, than from the pleasures they derive from it:
+resembling still in that point the Easterns, who exercise
+hospitality to strangers, load them with presents, and yet
+frequently neglect the every day comforts of their own life. This is
+one of the reasons which explains that noble courage with which
+the Russians have supported the ruin which has been occasioned them
+by the burning of Moscow. More accustomed to external pomp than to
+the care of themselves, they are not mollified by luxury, and the
+sacrifice of money satisfies their pride as much or more than the
+magnificence of their expenditure. What characterizes this people,
+is something gigantic of all kinds: ordinary dimensions are not at
+all applicable to it. I do not by that mean to say that neither real
+grandeur nor stability are to be met with in it: but the boldness
+and the imagination of the Russians know no bounds: with them every
+thing is colossal rather than well proportioned, audacious rather
+than reflective, and if they do not hit the mark, it is because they
+overshoot it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13.
+
+Appearance of the Country.--Character of the Russians.
+
+
+I was always advancing nearer to Moscow, but nothing yet indicated
+the approach to a capital. The wooden villages were equally distant
+from each other, we saw no greater movement upon the immense plains
+which are called high roads; you heard no more noise; the country
+houses were not more numerous: there is so much space in Russia that
+every thing is lost in it, even the chateaux, even the population.
+You might suppose you were travelling through a country from which
+the people had just taken their departure. The absence of birds adds
+to this silence; cattle also are rare, or at least they are placed
+at a great distance from the road. Extent makes every thing
+disappear, except extent itself, like certain ideas in metaphysics,
+of which the mind can never get rid, when it has once seized them.
+
+On the eve of my arrival at Moscow, I stopped in the evening of a
+very hot day, in a pleasant meadow: the female peasants, in
+picturesque dresses, according to the custom of the country, were
+returning from their labour, singing those airs of the Ukraine, the
+words of which, in praise of love and liberty, breathe a sort of
+melancholy approaching to regret. I requested them to dance, and
+they consented. I know nothing more graceful than these dances of
+the country, which have all the originality which nature gives to
+the fine arts; a certain modest voluptuousness was remarkable in
+them; the Indian bayaderes should have something analogous to that
+mixture of indolence and vivacity which forms the charm of the
+Russian dance. This indolence and vivacity are indicative of reverie
+and passion, two elements of character which civilization has yet
+neither formed nor subdued. I was struck with the mild gaiety of
+these female peasants, as I had been, in different degrees, with
+that of the greater part of the common people with whom I had come
+in contact in Russia. I can readily believe that they are terrible
+when their passions are provoked; and as they have no education,
+they know not how to curb their violence. As another result of this
+ignorance, they have few principles of morality, and theft is very
+frequent in Russia as well as hospitality; they give as they take,
+according as their imagination is acted upon by cunning or
+generosity, both of which excite the admiration of this people. In
+this mode of life there is a little resemblance to savages; but it
+strikes me that at present there are no European nations who have
+much vigor but those who are what is called barbarous, in other
+words, unenlightened, or those who are free: but the nations which
+have only acquired from civilization an indifference for this or
+that yoke, provided their own fire-side is not disturbed: those
+nations, which have only learned from civilization the art of
+explaining power and of reasoning servitude, are made to be
+vanquished. I frequently imagine to myself what may now be the
+situation of the places which I have seen so tranquil, of those
+amiable young girls, of those long bearded peasants, who followed so
+peaceably the lot which providence had traced for them; they have
+perished or fled, for not one of them entered into the service of
+the victor.
+
+A thing worthy of remark, is the extent to which public spirit is
+displayed in Russia. The reputation of invincible which their
+multiplied successes have given to this nation, the natural pride of
+the nobility, the devotedness inherent in the character of the
+people, the profound influence of religion, the hatred of
+foreigners, which Peter I. endeavoured to destroy in order to
+enlighten and civilize his country, but which is not less settled in
+the blood of the Russians, and is occasionally roused, all these
+causes combined make them a most energetic people. Some bad
+anecdotes of the preceding reigns, some Russians who have contracted
+debts with the Parisian shopkeepers, and some bon-mots of Diderot,
+have put it into the heads of the French, that Russia consisted only
+of a corrupt court, military chamberlains, and a people of slaves.
+This is a great mistake. This nation it is true requires a long
+examination to know it thoroughly, but in the circumstances in which
+I observed it, every thing was salient, and a country can never be
+seen to greater advantage than at a period of misfortune and
+courage. It cannot be too often repeated, this nation is composed of
+the most striking contrasts. Perhaps the mixture of European
+civilization and of Asiatic character is the cause.
+
+The manner of the Russians is so obliging that you might imagine
+yourself, the very first day, intimate with them, and probably at
+the end of ten years you would not be so!
+
+The silence of a Russian is altogether extraordinary; this silence
+is solely occasioned by what he takes a deep interest in. In other
+respects, they talk as much as you will; but their conversation
+teaches you nothing but their politeness; it betrays neither their
+feelings nor opinions. They have been frequently compared to the
+French, in my opinion with the least justice in the world. The
+flexibility of their organs makes imitation in all things a matter
+of ease to them; they are English, French, or German in their
+manners, according to circumstances; but they never cease to be
+Russians, that is to say uniting impetuosity and reserve, more
+capable of passion than friendship, more bold than delicate, more
+devout than virtuous, more brave than chivalrous, and so violent in
+their desires that nothing can stop them, when their gratification
+is in question. They are much more hospitable than the French; but
+society does not with them, as with us, consist of a circle of
+clever people of both sexes, who take pleasure in talking together.
+They meet, as we go to a fete, to see a great deal of company, to
+have fruits and rare productions from Asia or Europe; to hear music,
+to play; in short to receive vivid emotions from external objects,
+rather than from the heart or understanding, both of which they
+reserve for actions and not for company. Besides, as they are in
+general very ignorant, they find very little pleasure in serious
+conversation, and do not at all pique themselves on shining by the
+wit they can exhibit in it. Poetry, eloquence and literature are not
+yet to be found in Russia; luxury, power, and courage are the
+principal objects of pride and ambition; all other methods of
+acquiring distinction appear as yet effeminate and vain to this
+nation.
+
+But the people are slaves, it will be said: what character therefore
+can they be supposed to have? It is not certainly necessary for me
+to say that all enlightened people wish to see the Russian people
+freed from this state, and probably no one wishes it more strongly
+than the Emperor Alexander: but the Russian slavery has no
+resemblance in its effects to that of which we form the idea in the
+West; it is not as under the feudal system, victors who have imposed
+severe laws on the vanquished; the ties which connect the grandees
+with the people resemble rather what was called a family of slaves
+among the ancients, than the state of serfs among the moderns. There
+is no middling class in Russia, which is a great drawback on the
+progress of literature and the arts; for it is generally in that
+class that knowledge is developed: but the want of any intermedium
+between the nobility and the people creates a greater affection
+between them both. The distance between the two classes appears
+greater, because there are no steps between these two extremities,
+which in fact border very nearly on each other, not being separated
+by a middling class. This is a state of social organization quite
+unfavorable to the knowledge of the higher classes, but not
+so to the happiness of the lower. Besides, where there is no
+representative government, that is to say, in countries where the
+sovereign still promulgates the law which he is to execute, men are
+frequently more degraded by the very sacrifice of their reason and
+character, than they are in this vast empire, in which a few simple
+ideas of religion and country serve to lead the great mass under the
+guidance of a few heads. The immense extent of the Russian empire
+also prevents the despotism of the great from pressing heavily in
+detail upon the people; and finally, above all, the religious and
+military spirit is so predominant in the nation, that allowance may
+be made for a great many errors, in favor of those two great sources
+of noble actions. A person of fine intellect said, that Russia
+resembled the plays of Shakspeare, in which all that is not faulty
+is sublime, and all that is not sublime is faulty; an observation of
+remarkable justice. But in the great crisis in which Russia was
+placed when I passed through it, it was impossible not to admire the
+energetic resistance, and resignation to sacrifices exhibited by
+that nation; and one could not almost dare, at the contemplation of
+such virtues, to allow one's self even to notice what at other times
+one would have censured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14.
+
+Moscow.
+
+
+Gilded cupolas announced Moscow from afar; however, as the
+surrounding country is only a plain, as well as the whole of Russia,
+you may arrive in that great city without being struck with its
+extent. It has been well said by some one, that Moscow was rather a
+province than a city. In fact, you there see huts, houses, palaces,
+a bazaar as in the East, churches, public buildings, pieces of
+water, woods and parks. The variety of manners, and of the nations
+of which Russia is composed, are all exhibited in this immense
+residence. Will you, I was asked, buy some Cashmere shawls in the
+Tartar quarter? Have you seen the Chinese town? Asia and Europe are
+found united in this immense city. There is more liberty enjoyed in
+it than at Petersburg, where the court necessarily exercises great
+influence. The great nobility settled at Moscow were not ambitious
+of places; but they proved their patriotism by munificent gifts to
+the state, either for public establishments during peace, or as aids
+during the war. The colossal fortunes of the great Russian nobility
+are employed in making collections of all kinds, and in enterprises
+of which the Arabian Nights have given the models; these fortunes
+are also frequently lost by the unbridled passions of their
+possessors. When I arrived at Moscow, nothing was talked of but the
+sacrifices that were made on account of the war. A young Count de
+Momonoff raised a regiment for the state, and would only serve in it
+as a sublieutenant; a Countess Orloff, amiable and wealthy in the
+Asiatic style, gave the fourth of her income. As I was passing
+before these palaces surrounded by gardens, where space was thrown
+away in a city as elsewhere in the middle of the country, I was told
+that the possessor of this superb residence had given a thousand
+peasants to the state: and another, two hundred. I had some
+difficulty in accommodating myself to the expression, giving men,
+but the peasants themselves offered their services with ardor, and
+their lords were in this war only their interpreters.
+
+As soon as a Russian becomes a soldier, his beard is cut off, and
+from that moment he is free. A desire was felt that all those who
+might have served in the militia should also be considered as free:
+but in that case the nation would have been entirely so, for it rose
+almost en masse. Let us hope that this so much desired emancipation
+may be effected without violence: but in the mean time one would
+wish to have the beards preserved, so much strength and dignity do
+they add to the physiognomy. The Russians with long beards never
+pass a church without making the sign of the cross, and their
+confidence in the visible images of religion is very affecting.
+Their churches bear the mark of that taste for luxury which they
+have from Asia: you see in them only ornaments of gold, and silver,
+and rubies. I was told that a Russian had proposed to form an
+alphabet with precious stones, and to write a Bible in that manner.
+He knew the best manner of interesting the imaginations of the
+Russians in what they read. This imagination however has not as yet
+manifested itself either in the fine arts or in poetry. They reach a
+certain point in all things very quickly, and do not go beyond that.
+Impulse makes them take the first steps: but the second belong to
+reflection, and these Russians, who have nothing in common with the
+people of the North, are as yet very little capable of meditation.
+
+Several of the palaces of Moscow are of wood, in order that they may
+be built quicker, and that the natural inconstancy of the nation, in
+every thing unconnected with country or religion, may be satisfied
+by an easy change of residence. Several of these fine edifices have
+been constructed for an entertainment; they were destined to add to
+the eclat of a day, and the rich manner in which they were decorated
+has made them last up to this period of universal destruction. A
+great number of houses are painted green, yellow, or rose color, and
+are sculptured in detail like dessert ornaments. The citadel of the
+Kremlin, in which the emperors of Russia defended themselves against
+the Tartars, is surrounded by a high wall, embattled and flanked
+with turrets, which, by their odd shapes, remind one of a Turkish
+minaret rather than a fortress like those of the West of Europe. But
+although the external character of the buildings of the city be
+oriental, the impression of Christianity was found in that,
+multitude of churches so much venerated, and which attracted your
+notice at every step. One was reminded of Rome in seeing Moscow;
+certainly not from the monuments being of the same style, but
+because the mixture of solitary country and magnificent palaces, the
+grandeur of the city and the infinite number of its churches give
+the Asiatic Rome some points of resemblance to the European Rome.
+
+It was about the beginning of August, that I was allowed to see the
+interior of the Kremlin; I got there by the same staircase which the
+emperor Alexander had ascended a few days preceding, surrounded by
+an immense people, who loaded him with their blessings, and promised
+him to defend his empire at all hazards. This people has kept its
+word. The halls were first thrown open to me in which the arms of
+the ancient warriors of Russia are contained; the arsenals of this
+kind, in other parts of Europe, are much more interesting. The
+Russians have taken no part in the times of chivalry; they never
+mingled in the Crusades. Constantly at war with the Tartars, Poles,
+and Turks, the military spirit has been formed among them in the
+midst of the atrocities of all kinds brought in the train of Asiatic
+nations, and of the tyrants who governed Russia. It is not therefore
+the generous bravery of the Bayards or the Percys, but the
+intrepidity of a fanatical courage which has been exhibited in this
+country for several centuries. The Russians, in the relations of
+society, which are so new to them, are not distinguished by the
+spirit of chivalry, such as the people of the West conceive it; but
+they have always shown themselves terrible to their enemies. So many
+massacres have taken place in the interior of Russia, up to the
+reign of Peter the Great, and even later, that the morality of the
+nation, and particularly that of the great nobility, must have
+suffered severely from them. These despotic governments, whose sole
+restraint is the assassination of the despot, overthrow all
+principles of honor and duty in the minds of men: but the love of
+their country and an attachment to their religious creed have been
+maintained in their full strength, amidst the wrecks of this bloody
+history, and the nation which preserves such virtues may yet
+astonish the world.
+
+From the ancient arsenal I was conducted into the apartments
+formerly occupied by the czars, and in which the robes are preserved
+which they wore on the day of their coronation. These apartments
+have no sort of beauty, but they agreed very well with the hard life
+which the czars led and still lead. The greatest magnificence reigns
+in the palace of Alexander; but he himself sleeps upon the floor,
+and travels like a Cossack officer.
+
+They exhibited in the Kremlin a divided throne, which was filled at
+first by Peter I. and Ivan his brother. The princess Sophia, their
+sister, placed herself behind the seat of Ivan, and dictated to him
+what to say; but this borrowed strength was not able to cope long
+with the native strength of Peter I. and he soon reigned alone. It
+is from the period of his reign that the czars have ceased to wear
+the Asiatic costume. The great wig of the age of Louis XIV. came in
+with Peter I. and without touching upon the admiration inspired by
+this great man, one cannot help feeling the disagreeable contrast
+between the ferocity of his genius and the ceremonious regularity of
+his dress. Was he in the right in doing away as much as he could,
+oriental manners from the bosom of his people? was it right to fix
+his capital in the north, and at the extremity of his empire? These
+are great questions which are not yet answered: centuries only can
+afford the proper commentaries upon such lofty ideas.
+
+I ascended to the top of the cathedral steeple, called Ivan Veliki,
+which commands a view of the whole city; from thence I saw the
+palace of the czars, who conquered by their arms the crowns of
+Casan, Astracan, and Siberia. I heard the church music, in which
+the catholikos, prince of Georgia, officiated in the midst of the
+inhabitants of Moscow, and formed a Christian meeting between Asia
+and Europe. Fifteen hundred Churches attested the devotion of the
+Muscovite people.
+
+The commercial establishments at Moscow had quite an Asiatic
+character; men in turbans, and others dressed in the different
+costumes of all the people of the East, exhibited the rarest
+merchandize: the furs of Siberia and the muslins of India there
+offered all the enjoyments of luxury to those great noblemen, whose
+imagination is equally pleased with the sables of the Samoiedes and
+with the rubies of the Persians. Here, the gardens and the palace
+Razoumowski contained the most beautiful collection of plants and
+minerals; there, was the fine library of the Count de Bouterlin,
+which he had spent thirty years of his life in collecting: among the
+books he possessed, there were several which contained manuscript
+notes in the hand-writing of Peter I. This great man never imagined
+that the same European civilization, of which he was so jealous,
+would come to destroy the establishments for public instruction
+which he had founded in the middle of his empire, with a view to
+form by study the impatient spirit of the Russians. Farther on, was
+the Foundling House, one of the most affecting institutions of
+Europe; hospitals for all classes of society might be remarked in
+the different quarters of the city: finally, the eye in its
+wanderings could rest upon nothing but wealth or benevolence, upon
+edifices of luxury or of charity; upon churches or on palaces, which
+diffused happiness or distinction upon a large portion of the human
+race. You saw the windings of the Moskwa, of that river, which,
+since the last invasion by the Tartars, had never rolled with blood
+in its waves: the day was delightful; the sun seemed to take a
+pleasure in shedding his rays upon these glittering cupolas. I was
+reminded of the old archbishop Plato, who had just written a
+pastoral letter to the emperor Alexander, the oriental style of
+which had extremely affected me: he sent the image of the Virgin
+from the borders of Europe, to drive far from Asia the man who
+wished to bear down upon the Russians with the whole weight of the
+nations chained to his steps. For a moment the thought struck me
+that Napoleon might yet set his foot upon this same tower from which
+I was admiring the city, which his presence was about to extinguish;
+for a moment I dreamed that he would glory in replacing, in the
+palace of the czars, the chief of the great horde, which had also
+once had possession of it: but the sky was so beautiful, that I
+repelled the apprehension. A month afterwards, this beautiful city
+was in ashes, in order that it should be said, that every country
+which had been in alliance with this man, should be destroyed by the
+fires which are at his disposal. But how gloriously have the
+Russians and their monarch redeemed this error! The misery of Moscow
+may be even said to have regenerated the empire, and this religious
+city has perished like a martyr, the shedding of whose blood gives
+new strength to the brethren who survive him.
+
+The famous Count Rostopchin, with whose name the emperor's bulletins
+have been filled, came to see me, and invited me to dine with him.
+He had been minister for foreign affairs to Paul I., his
+conversation had something original about it, and you could easily
+perceive that his character would show itself in a very strong
+manner, if circumstances required it. The Countess Rostopchin was
+good enough to give me a book which she had written on the triumphs
+of religion, the style and morality of which were very pure. I went
+to visit her at her country-house, in the interior of Moscow. I was
+obliged to cross a lake and a wood in order to reach it: it was to
+this house, one of the most agreeable residences in Russia, that
+Count Rostopchin himself set-fire, on the approach of the French
+army. Certainly an action of this kind was likely to excite a
+certain kind of admiration, even in enemies. The emperor Napoleon
+has, notwithstanding, compared Count Rostopchin to Marat, forgetting
+that the governor of Moscow sacrificed his own interests, while
+Marat set fire to the houses of others, which certainly makes a
+considerable difference. The only thing which Count Rostopchin could
+properly be reproached with, was his concealing too long the bad
+news from the armies, either from flattering himself, or believing
+it to be necessary to flatter others. The English, with that
+admirable rectitude which distinguishes all their actions, publish
+as faithful an account of their reverses as they do of their
+victories, and enthusiasm is with them sustained by the truth,
+whatever that may be. The Russians cannot yet reach that moral
+perfection, which is the result of a free constitution.
+
+No civilized nation has so much in common with savages as the
+Russian people, and when their nobility possess energy, they
+participate also in the defects and good qualities of that
+unshackled nature. The expression of Diderot has been greatly
+vaunted: The Russians are rotten before they are ripe. I know
+nothing more false; their very vices, with some exceptions, are not
+those of corruption, but of violence. The desires of a Russian, said
+a very superior man, would blow up a city: fury and artifice take
+possession of them by turns, when they wish to accomplish any
+resolution, good or bad. Their nature is not at all changed by the
+rapid civilization which was given them by Peter I.; it has as yet
+only formed their manners: happily for them, they are always what we
+call barbarians, in other words, led by an instinct frequently
+generous, but always involuntary, which only admits of reflection in
+the choice of the means, and not in the examination of the end; I
+say happily for them, not that I wish to extol barbarism, but I
+designate by this name a certain primitive energy which can alone
+replace in nations the concentrated strength of liberty.
+
+I saw at Moscow the most enlightened men in the career of science
+and literature; but there, as well as at Petersburg, the professors'
+chairs are almost entirely filled with Germans. There is in Russia a
+great scarcity of well-informed men in any branch; young people in
+general only go to the University to be enabled sooner to enter into
+the military profession. Civil employments in Russia confer a rank
+corresponding to a grade in the army; the spirit of the nation is
+turned entirely towards war: in every thing else, in administration,
+in political economy, in public instruction, &c. the other nations
+of Europe have hitherto borne away the palm from the Russians. They
+are making attempts, however, in literature; the softness and
+brilliancy of the sounds of their language are remarked even by
+those who do not understand it; and it should be very well adapted
+for poetry and music. But the Russians have, like so many other
+continental nations, the fault of imitating the French literature,
+which, even with all its beauties, is only fit for the French
+themselves. I think that the Russians ought rather to make their
+literary studies derive from the Greeks than from the Latins. The
+characters of the Russian alphabet, so similar to those of the
+Greeks, the ancient communication of the Russians with the Byzantine
+empire, their future destinies, which will probably lead them to the
+illustrious monuments of Athens and Sparta, all this ought to turn
+the Russians to the study of Greek: but it is above all necessary
+that their writers should draw their poetry from the deepest
+inspiration of their own soul. Their works, up to this time, have
+been composed, as one may say, by the lips, and never can a nation
+so vehement be stirred up by such shrill notes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+Road from Moscow to Petersburg.
+
+
+I quitted Moscow with regret: I stopped a short time in a wood near
+the city, where on holidays the inhabitants go to dance, and
+celebrate the sun, whose splendor is of such short duration, even at
+Moscow. What is it then I see, in advancing towards the North? Even
+these eternal birch trees, which weary you with their monotony,
+become very rare, it is said, as you approach Archangel; they are
+preserved there, like orange trees in France. The country from
+Moscow to Petersburg is at first sandy, and afterwards all marsh:
+when it rains, the ground becomes black, and the high road becomes
+undistinguishable. The houses of the peasants, however, every where
+indicate a state of comfort; they are decorated with columns, and
+the windows are surrounded with arabesques carved in wood. Although
+it was summer when I passed through this country, I already felt the
+threatening winter which seemed to conceal itself behind the clouds:
+of the fruits which were offered to me, the flavor was bitter,
+because their ripening had been too much hastened; a rose excited
+emotion in me as a recollection of our fine countries, and the
+flowers themselves appeared to carry their heads with less pride, as
+if the icy hand of the North had been already prepared to pluck
+them.
+
+I passed through Novogorod, which was, six centuries ago, a republic
+associated with the Hanse towns, and which has preserved for a long
+period a spirit of republican independence. Persons have been
+pleased to say that freedom was not reclaimed in Europe before the
+last century; on the contrary, it is rather despotism, which is a
+modern invention. Even in Russia the slavery of the peasants was
+only introduced in the sixteenth century. Up to the reign of Peter
+I. the form of all the ukases was: The boyars have advised, the czar
+will decree. Peter I. although in many ways he has done infinite
+good to Russia, humbled the grandees, and united in himself the
+temporal and spiritual power, in order to remove all obstacles to
+his designs. Richelieu acted in the same manner in France; Peter I.
+was therefore a great admirer of his. It will be recollected that on
+being shown his tomb at Paris, he exclaimed, "Great man! I would
+give one half of my empire to learn from thee how to govern the
+other." The czar on this occasion was a great deal too modest, for
+he had the advantage over Richelieu of being a great warrior, and
+what is more, the founder of the navy and commerce of his country;
+while Richelieu has done nothing but govern tyrannically at home,
+and craftily abroad. But to return to Novogorod. Ivan Vasilewitch
+possessed himself of it in 1470, and destroyed its liberties; he
+removed from it to the Kremlin at Moscow, the great bell called in
+Russian, Wetchevoy kolokol, at the sound of which the citizens had
+been accustomed to assemble at the market place, to deliberate on
+public matters. With the loss of liberty, Novogorod had the
+mortification to see the gradual disappearance of its population,
+its commerce, and its wealth: so withering and destructive is the
+breath of arbitrary power, says the best historian of Russia. Even
+at the present day the city of Novogorod presents an aspect of
+singular melancholy; a vast inclosure indicates that it was formerly
+large and populous, and you see nothing in it but scattered houses,
+the inhabitants of which seem to be placed there like figures
+weeping over the tombs. The same spectacle is now probably offered
+by the beautiful city of Moscow; but the public spirit will rebuild
+it, as it has reconquered it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16.
+
+St. Petersburg.
+
+
+From Novogorod to Petersburg, you see scarcely anything but marshes,
+and you arrive in one of the finest cities in the world, as if, with
+a magic wand, an enchanter had made all the wonders of Europe and
+Asia start up from the middle of the deserts. The foundation of
+Petersburg offers the greatest proof of that ardor of Russian will,
+which recognizes nothing as impossible: everything in the environs
+is humble; the city is built upon a marsh, and even the marble rests
+on piles; but you forget when looking at these superb edifices,
+their frail foundations, and cannot help meditating on the miracle
+of so fine a city being built in so short a time. This people which
+must always be described by contrasts, possesses an unheard of
+perseverance in its struggles with nature or with hostile armies.
+Necessity always found the Russians patient and invincible, but in
+the ordinary course of life they are very unsteady. The same men,
+the same masters, do not long inspire them with enthusiasm;
+reflection alone can guarantee the duration of feelings and opinions
+in the habitual quiet of life, and the Russians, like all people
+subject to despotism, are more capable of dissimulation than
+reflection.
+
+On my arrival at Petersburg my first sentiment was to return thanks
+to heaven for being on the borders of the sea. I saw waving on the
+Neva the English flag, the symbol of liberty, and I felt that on
+committing myself to the ocean, I might return under the immediate
+power of the Deity; it is an illusion which one cannot help
+entertaining, to believe one's self more under the hand of
+Providence, when delivered to the elements than when depending on
+men, and especially on that man who appears to be a revelation of
+the evil principle on this earth.
+
+Just facing the house which I inhabited at Petersburg was the statue
+of Peter I.; he is represented on horseback climbing a steep
+mountain, in the midst of serpents who try to stop the progress of
+his horse. These serpents, it is true, are put there to support the
+immense weight of the horse and his rider; but the idea is not a
+happy one: for in fact it is not envy which a sovereign can have to
+dread: neither are his adulators his enemies: and Peter I.
+especially had nothing to fear during his life, but from Russians
+who regretted the ancient customs of their country. The admiration
+of him, however, which is still preserved is the best proof of the
+good he did to Russia: for despots have no flatterers a hundred
+years after their death. On the pedestal of the statue is written:
+To Peter the First, Catherine the Second. This simple, yet proud,
+inscription has the merit of truth. These two great monarchs have
+elevated the Russian pride to the highest pitch; and to teach a
+nation to regard itself as invincible, is to make it such, at least
+within its own territory: for conquest is a chance which probably
+depends more upon the faults of the vanquished than upon the genius
+of the victor,
+
+It is said, and properly, that you cannot, at Petersburg, say of a
+woman, that she is as old as the streets, the streets themselves are
+so modern. The buildings still possess a dazzling whiteness, and at
+night when they are lighted by the moon, they look like large white
+phantoms regarding, immoveable, the course of the Neva. I know not
+what there is particularly beautiful in this river, but the waves of
+no other I had yet seen ever appeared to me so limpid. A succession
+of granite quays, thirty versts in length, borders its course, and
+this magnificent labour of man is worthy of the transparent water
+which it adorns. Had Peter I. directed similar undertakings towards
+the South of his empire, he would not have obtained what he wished,
+a navy; but he would perhaps have better conformed to the character
+of his nation. The Russian inhabitants of Petersburg have the look
+of a people of the South condemned to live in the North, and making
+every effort to struggle with a climate at variance 'with their
+nature. The inhabitants of the North are generally very indolent,
+and dread the cold, precisely because he is their daily enemy. The
+lower classes of the Russians have none of these habits; the
+coachmen wait for ten hours at the gate, during winter, without
+complaining; they sleep upon the snow, under their carriage, and
+transport the manners of the Lazzaroni of Naples to the Sixtieth
+degree of latitude. You may see them laying on the steps of
+staircases, like the Germans in their down; sometimes they sleep
+standing, with their head reclined against the wall. By turns
+indolent and impetuous, they give themselves up alternately to
+sleep, or to the most fatiguing employments. Some of them get drunk,
+in which they differ from the people of the South, who are very
+sober; but the Russians are so also, and to an extent hardly
+credible, when the difficulties of war require it.
+
+The great Russian noblemen also show, in their way, the tastes of
+inhabitants of the South. You must go and see the different country
+houses which they have built in the middle of an island formed by
+the Neva, in the centre of Petersburg. The plants of the South, the
+perfumes of the East, and the divans of Asia, embellish these
+residences. By immense hot houses, in which the fruits of all
+countries are ripened, an artificial climate is created. The
+possessors of these palaces endeavour not to lose the least ray of
+sun while he appears on their horizon; they treat him like a friend
+who is about to take his departure, whom they have known formerly in
+a more fortunate country.
+
+The day after my arrival, I went to dine with one of the most
+considerable merchants of the city, who exercised hospitality a la
+Russe; that is to say, he placed a flag on the top of his house to
+signify that he dined at home, and this invitation was sufficient
+for all his friends. He made us dine in the open air, so much
+pleasure was felt from these poor days of summer, of which a few yet
+remained, to which we should have scarcely given the name in the
+South of Europe. The garden was very agreeable; it was embellished
+with trees and flowers; but at four paces from the house the deserts
+and the marshes were again to be seen. In the environs of
+Petersburg, nature has the look of an enemy who resumes his
+advantages, when man ceases for a moment to struggle with him.
+
+The next morning I repaired to the church of Our Lady of Casan,
+built by Paul I. on the model of St. Peter's at Rome. The interior
+of this church, decorated with a great number of columns of granite
+is exceedingly beautiful; but the building itself displeases,
+precisely because it reminds us of St. Peter's: and because it
+differs from it so much the more, from the mere wish of imitation.
+It is impossible to create in two years what cost the labour of a
+century to the first artists of the universe. The Russians would by
+rapidity escape from time as they do from space: but time only
+preserves what it has founded, and the fine arts, of which
+inspiration seems the first source, cannot nevertheless dispense
+with reflection.
+
+From Our Lady of Casan I went to the convent of St. Alexander
+Newski, a place consecrated to one of the sovereign heroes of
+Russia, who extended his conquests to the borders of the Neva. The
+empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I. had a silver coffin made for
+him, upon which it is customary to put a piece of money, as a pledge
+of the vow which is recommended to the Saint. The tomb of Suwarow is
+in this convent of Alexander Newski, but his name is its only
+decoration; it is enough for him, but not for the Russians, to whom
+he rendered such important services. This nation, however, is so
+thoroughly military, that lofty achievements of that description
+excite less astonishment in it than other nations.
+
+The greatest families of Russia have erected tombs to their
+relatives in the cemetery which belongs to the church of Newski, but
+none of these monuments are worthy of remark; they are not
+beautiful, regarded as objects of art, and no grand idea there
+strikes the imagination. It is certain that the idea of death
+produces little effect on the Russians; whether it is from courage,
+or from the inconstancy of their impressions, long regrets are
+hardly in their character; they are more susceptible of superstition
+than emotion: superstition attaches to this life, and religion to
+another; superstition is allied to fatality, and religion to virtue;
+it is from the vivacity of earthly desires that we become
+superstitious, and it is on the contrary by the sacrifice of these
+same desires, that we are religious.
+
+M. de Romanzow, the minister of foreign affairs in Russia, loaded me
+with the most amiable attentions, and it was with regret that I
+considered him as so implicated in the system of the emperor
+Napoleon, that he must necessarily retire, like the English
+ministers, when that system was abandoned. Doubtless, in an absolute
+monarchy, the will of the master explains every thing; but the
+dignity of a prime minister perhaps requires that words of an
+opposite tendency should not proceed from the same mouth. The
+sovereign represents the state, and the state may change its system
+of politics whenever circumstances require it; but the minister is
+only a man, and a man, on questions of this nature, ought to have
+but one opinion in the course of his life. It is impossible to have
+better manners than Count Romanzow, or to receive strangers more
+nobly. I was at his house when the English envoy, Lord Tyrconnel,
+and Admiral Bentinck were announced, both of them men of remarkably
+fine appearance: they were the first English who had re-appeared on
+that continent, from which the tyranny of one man had banished them.
+After ten years of such fearful struggle, after ten years during
+which victories and disasters had always found the English true to
+the compass of their politics' conscience, they returned at last
+into the country which first emancipated itself from the universal
+monarchy. Their accent, their simplicity, their fierte, all awakened
+in the soul that sentiment of truth in all things, which Napoleon
+has discovered the art of obscuring in the eyes of those who have
+only read his journals, and listened to his agents. I do not even
+know if Napoleon's adversaries on the continent, constantly
+surrounded with a false opinion which never ceases to deafen them,
+can venture to trust themselves without apprehension to their own
+feelings. If I can judge of them by myself, I know that frequently,
+after having heard all the advices of prudence or meanness with
+which one is overwhelmed in the Bonapartist atmosphere, I scarcely
+knew what to think of my own opinion; my blood forbid me to renounce
+it, but my reason was not always sufficient to preserve me from so
+many sophisms. It was therefore with the most lively emotion that I
+heard once more the voice of that England, with which we are almost
+always sure to agree, when we endeavour to deserve our own esteem,
+and that of persons of integrity.
+
+The following day, I was invited by Count Orloff to come and spend
+the day in the island which bears his name, and which is the most
+agreeable of all those formed by the Neva; oaks, a rare production
+in this country, overshadow the garden. The Count and Countess
+Orloff employ their fortune in receiving strangers with equal
+facility and magnificence; you are at your ease with them, as in a
+country retreat, and you enjoy there all the luxury of cities. Count
+Orloff is one of the most learned noblemen to be met with in Russia,
+and his love of his country bears a profound character, with which
+it is impossible to help being affected. The first day I passed at
+his house, peace had just been proclaimed with England; it was a
+Sunday; and in his garden, which was on that day opened to all
+comers, we saw a great number of these long-bearded merchants, who
+keep up in Russia the costume of the Moujiks, that is to say of the
+peasants. A number of them collected to hear the delightful band of
+music of Count Orloff; it gave us the English air of God save the
+King, which is the song of liberty in a country, of which the
+monarch is its first guardian. We were all much affected, and
+applauded this air, which is become national for all Europeans; for
+there are no longer but two kinds of men in Europe, those who serve
+tyranny, and those who have learned to hate it. Count Orloff went up
+to the Russian merchants, and told them that the peace between
+England and Russia was celebrating; they immediately made the sign
+of the cross, and thanked heaven that the sea was once more open to
+them.
+
+The isle Orloff is in the centre of all those which the great
+noblemen of Petersburg, and the emperor and empress themselves, have
+selected for their residence during summer. Not far from it is the
+isle Strogonoff, the rich owner of which has brought from Greece
+antiquities of great value. His house was open every day during his
+life, and whoever had once been presented might return when they
+chose; he never invited any one to dinner or supper on a particular
+day; it was understood that once admitted, you were always welcome;
+he frequently knew not half the persons who dined at his table: but
+this luxurious hospitality pleased him like any other kind of
+magnificence. The same practice prevails in many other houses at
+Petersburg; it is natural to conclude from that, that what we call
+in France the pleasures of conversation cannot be there met with:
+the company is much too numerous to allow a conversation of any
+interest even to be kept up in it. In the best society the most
+perfect good manners prevail, but there is neither sufficient
+information among the nobility, nor sufficient confidence among
+persons living habitually under the influence of a despotic court
+and government, to allow them to know any thing of the charms of
+intimacy. The greater part of the great noblemen of Russia express
+themselves with so much elegance and propriety, that one frequently
+deceives one's self at the outset about the degree of wit and
+acquirements of those with whom you are conversing. The debut is
+almost always that of a gentleman or lady of fine understanding: but
+sometimes also, in the long run, you discover nothing but the debut.
+They are not accustomed in Russia to speak from the bottom of their
+heart or understanding; they had in former times such fear of their
+masters, that they have not yet been able to accustom themselves to
+that wise freedom, for which they are indebted to the character of
+Alexander.
+
+Some Russian gentlemen have tried to distinguish themselves in
+literature, and have given proofs of considerable talent in this
+career; but knowledge is not yet sufficiently diffused to create a
+public judgment formed by individual opinions. The character of the
+Russians is too passionate to allow them to like ideas in the least
+degree abstract; it is by facts only that they are amused; they have
+not yet had time or inclination to reduce facts to general ideas. In
+addition, every significant idea is always more or less dangerous,
+in the midst of a court where mutual observation, and more
+frequently envy are the predominant feelings.
+
+The silence of the East is here transformed into amiable words, but
+which generally never penetrate beyond the surface. One feels
+pleasure for a moment in this brilliant atmosphere, which is an
+agreeable dissipation of life; but in the long run no information is
+acquired in it, no faculties are developed in it, and men who pass
+their life in this manner never acquire any capacity for study or
+business. Far otherwise was it with the society of Paris; there we
+have seen men whose characters have been entirely formed by the
+lively or serious conversation to which the intercourse between the
+nobility and men of letters gave birth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17.
+
+The Imperial Family.
+
+
+I had at last the pleasure of seeing that monarch, equally absolute
+by law and custom, and so moderate from his own disposition. The
+empress Elizabeth, to whom I was at first presented, appeared to me
+the tutelary angel of Russia. Her manners are extremely reserved,
+but what she says is full of life, and it is from the focus of all
+generous ideas that her sentiments and opinions have derived
+strength and warmth. While I listened to her, I was affected by
+something inexpressible, which did not proceed from her grandeur,
+but from the harmony of her soul; so long was it since I had known
+an instance of concord between power and virtue. As I was conversing
+with the empress, the door opened, and the emperor Alexander did me
+the honor to come and talk to me. What first struck me in him was
+such an expression of goodness and dignity, that the two qualities
+appear inseparable, and in him to form only one. I was also very
+much affected with the noble simplicity with which he entered upon
+the great interests of Europe, almost among the first words he
+addressed to me. I have always regarded, as a proof of mediocrity,
+that apprehension of treating serious questions, with which the best
+part of the sovereigns of Europe have been inspired; they are afraid
+to pronounce a word to which any real meaning can be attached. The
+emperor Alexander on the contrary, conversed with me as statesmen in
+England would have done, who place their strength in themselves, and
+not in the barriers with which they are surrounded. The emperor
+Alexander, whom Napoleon has endeavoured to misrepresent, is a man
+of remarkable understanding and information, and I do not believe
+that in the whole extent of his empire he could find a minister
+better versed than himself in all that belongs to the judgment and
+direction of public affairs. He did not disguise from me his regret
+for the admiration to which he had surrendered himself in his
+intercourse with Napoleon. His grandfather had, in the same way,
+entertained a great enthusiasm for Frederic II. In these sort of
+illusions, produced by an extraordinary character, there is always a
+generous motive, whatever may be the errors that result from it. The
+emperor Alexander, however, described with great sagacity the effect
+produced upon him by these conversations with Bonaparte, in which he
+said the most opposite things, as if one must be astonished at each,
+without thinking of their being contradictory. He related to me also
+the lessons a la Machiavel which Napoleon had thought proper to give
+him: "You see," said he, "I am careful to keep my ministers and
+generals at variance among themselves, in order that each may reveal
+to me the faults of the other; I keep up around me a continual
+jealousy by the manner I treat those who are about me: one day one
+thinks himself the favorite, the next day another, so that no one is
+ever certain of my favor." What a vulgar and vicious theory! And
+will there never arise a man superior to this man, who will
+demonstrate its inutility? That which is wanting to the sacred cause
+of morality, is, that it should contribute in a very striking manner
+to great success in this world; he who feels all the dignity of this
+cause will sacrifice with pleasure every success, but it is still
+necessary to teach those presumptuous persons who imagine they
+discover depth of thinking in the vices of the soul, that if in
+immorality there is sometimes wit, in virtue there is genius. In
+obtaining the conviction of the good faith of the emperor Alexander,
+in his relations with Napoleon, I was at the same time persuaded
+that he would not imitate the example of the unfortunate sovereigns
+of Germany, and would sign no peace with him who is equally the
+enemy of people and kings. A noble soul cannot be twice deceived by
+the same person. Alexander gives and withdraws his confidence with
+the greatest reflection. His youth and personal advantages have
+alone, at the beginning of his reign, made him be suspected of
+levity; but he is serious, even as much so as a man may be who has
+known misfortune. Alexander expressed to me his regret at not being
+a great captain: I replied to this noble modesty, that a sovereign
+was much more rare than a general, and that the support of the
+public feelings of his people, by his example, was achieving the
+greatest victory, and the first of the kind which had ever been
+gained. The emperor talked to me with enthusiasm of his nation, and
+of all that it was capable of becoming. He expressed to me the
+desire, which all the world knows him to entertain, of ameliorating
+the state of the peasants still subject to slavery. "Sire," said I
+to him, "your character is a constitution for your empire, and your
+conscience is the guarantee of it." "Were that even the case,"
+replied he, "I should only be a fortunate accident."* Noble words!
+The first of the kind, I believe, which an absolute monarch ever
+pronounced! How many virtues it requires, in a despot, properly to
+estimate despotism! and how many virtues also, never to abuse it,
+when the nation which he governs is almost astonished at such signal
+moderation. At Petersburg especially, the great nobility have less
+liberality in their principles than the emperor himself. Accustomed
+to be the absolute masters of their peasants, they wish the monarch,
+in his turn, to be omnipotent, for the purpose of maintaining the
+hierarchy of despotism. The state of citizens does not yet exist in
+Russia; it begins however to be forming; the sons of the clergy,
+those of the merchants, and some peasants who have obtained of their
+lords the liberty of becoming artists, may be considered as a third
+order in the state. The Russian nobility besides bears no
+resemblance to that of Germany or France; a man becomes noble in
+Russia, as soon as he obtains rank in the army. No doubt the great
+families, such as the Narischkins, the Dolgoroukis, the Gallitzins,
+&c. will always hold the first rank in the empire; but it is not
+less true that the advantages of the aristocracy belong to men, whom
+the monarch's pleasure has made noble in a day; and the whole
+ambition of the citizens is in consequence to have their sons made
+officers, in order that they may belong to the privileged class. The
+result of this is, that young men's education is finished at fifteen
+years of age; they are hurried into the army as soon as possible,
+and everything else is neglected. This is not the time certainly to
+blame an order of things, which has produced so noble a resistance;
+were tranquility restored, it might be truly said, that under civil
+considerations, there are great deficiencies in the internal
+administration of Russia. Energy and grandeur exist in the nation;
+but order and knowledge are still frequently wanting, both in the
+government, and in the private conduct of individuals. Peter I. by
+making Russia European, certainly bestowed upon her great
+advantages; but these advantages he more than counter-balanced by
+the establishment of a despotism prepared by his father, and
+consolidated by him; Catherine II. on the contrary tempered the use
+of absolute power, of which she was not the author. If the political
+state of Europe should ever be restored to peace: in other words if
+one man were no longer the dispenser of evil to the world, we should
+see Alexander solely occupied with the improvement of his country!
+and in attempting to establish laws which would guarantee to it that
+happiness, of which the duration is as yet only secured for the life
+of its present ruler.
+
+* (Note by the Editor)
+* This expression has been already quoted in the third volume of the
+Considerations on the French Revolution; but it deserves to be
+repeated. All this, however, it must be remembered, was written at
+the end of 1812.
+(End of Note by the Editor.)
+
+From the emperor's I went to his respectable mother's, that princess
+to whom calumny has never been able to impute a sentiment
+unconnected with the happiness of her husband, her children, or the
+family of unfortunate persons of whom she is the protectress. I
+shall relate, farther on, in what manner she governs that empire of
+charity, which she exercises in the midst of the omnipotent empire
+of her son. She lives in the palace of the Taurida, and to get to
+her apartments you have to cross a hall, built by prince Potemkin,
+of incomparable grandeur; a winter garden occupies a part of it, and
+you see the trees and plants through the pillars which surround the
+middle inclosure. Every thing in this residence is colossal; the
+conceptions of the prince who built it were fantastically gigantic.
+He had towns built in the Crimea, solely that the empress might see
+them on her passage; he ordered the assault of a fortress, to please
+a beautiful woman, the princess Dolgorouki, who had disdained his
+suit. The favor of his Sovereign mistress created him such as he
+showed himself; but there is remarkable, notwithstanding, in the
+characters of most of the great men of Russia, such as Menzikoff,
+Suwarow, Peter I. himself, and in yet older times Ivan Vasilievitch,
+something fantastical, violent, and ironical combined. Wit was with
+them rather an arm than an enjoyment, and it was by the imagination
+that they were led. Generosity, barbarity, unbridled passions, and
+religious superstition, all met in the same character. Even now
+civilization in Russia has not penetrated beyond the surface, even
+among the great nobility; externally they imitate other nations, but
+all are Russians at heart, and in that consists their strength and
+originality, the love of country being next to that of God, the
+noblest sentiment which men can feel. That country must certainly be
+exceedingly different from those which surround it to inspire a
+decided attachment; nations which are confounded with one another by
+slight shades of difference, or which are divided into several
+separate states, never devote themselves with real passion to the
+conventional association to which they have attached the name of
+country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18.
+
+Manners of the Great Russian Nobility.
+
+
+I went to spend a day at the country seat of prince Narischkin,
+great chamberlain of the court, an amiable, easy and polished man,
+but who cannot exist without a fete; it is at his house that you
+obtain a correct notion of that vivacity in their tastes, which
+explains the defects and qualities of the Russians. The house of M.
+de Narischkin is always open, and if there happen to be only twenty
+persons at his country seat, he begins to be weary of this
+philosophical retreat. Polite to strangers, always in movement, and
+yet perfectly capable of the reflection required to stand well at
+court: greedy of the enjoyments of imagination, but placing these
+only in things and not in books; impatient every where but at court,
+witty when it is to his advantage to be so, magnificent rather than
+ambitious, and seeking in everything for a certain Asiatic grandeur,
+in which fortune and rank are more conspicuous than personal
+advantages. His country seat is as agreeable as it is possible for a
+place of the kind to be, created by the hand of man: all the
+surrounding country is marshy and barren; so as to make this
+residence a perfect Oasis. On ascending the terrace, you see the
+gulph of Finland, and perceive in the distance, the palace which
+Peter I. built upon its borders; but the space which separates it
+from the sea and the palace is almost a waste, and the park of M.
+Narischkin alone charms the eye of the observer. We dined in the
+house of the Moldavians, that is to say, in a saloon built according
+to the taste of these people; it was arranged so as to protect from
+the heat of the sun, a precaution rather needless in Russia. However
+the imagination is impressed to that degree with the idea that you
+are living among a people who have only come into the North by
+accident, that it appears natural to find there the customs of the
+South, as if the Russians were some day or other to bring to
+Petersburg the climate of their old country. The table was covered
+with the fruits of all countries, according to the custom taken from
+the East, of only letting the fruits appear, while a crowd of
+servants carried round to each guest the dishes of meat and
+vegetables they required.
+
+We were entertained with a concert of that horn music which is
+peculiar to Russia, and of which mention has been often made. Of
+twenty musicians, each plays only one and the same note, every time
+it returns; each of these men in consequence bears the name of the
+note which he is employed to execute. When one of them is seen going
+along, people say: that is the sol, that is the mi, or that is the
+re of M. Narischkin. The horns go on increasing from rank to rank,
+and this music has been by some one called, very properly, a living
+organ. At a distance the effect is very fine: the exactness and the
+purity of the harmony excite the most noble ideas; but when you come
+near to these poor performers, who are there like pipes, yielding
+only one sound, and quite unable to participate by their own
+emotions in the effect produced, the pleasure dies away: one does
+not like to see the fine arts transformed into mechanical arts, to
+be acquired by dint of strength like exercise.
+
+Some of the inhabitants of the Ukraine, dressed in scarlet, came
+afterwards to sing to us some of the airs of their country, which
+are singularly pleasing: they are sometimes gay and sometimes
+melancholy, and sometimes both united. These airs sometimes break
+off abruptly in the midst of the melody, as if the imagination of
+the people was tired before finishing what at first pleased them, or
+found it more piquant to suspend the charm at the very moment its
+influence was greatest. It is thus that the Sultana of the Arabian
+Nights always breaks off her story, when its interest is at the
+height.
+
+M. Narischkin in the midst of this variety of pleasures, proposed to
+us to drink a toast to the united arms of the Russians and English,
+and gave at the same moment a signal to his artillery, which gave
+almost as loud a salute as that of a sovereign. The inebriety of
+hope seized all the guests; as for me, I felt myself bathed in
+tears. Was it possible that a foreign tyrant should reduce me to
+wish that the French should be beat? I wish, said I then, for the
+fall of him, who is equally the oppressor of France and Europe; for
+the true French will triumph if he is repulsed. The English and the
+Russian guests, and particularly M. Narischkin, approved my idea,
+and the name of France, formerly like that of Armida in its effects,
+was once more heard with kindness by the knights of the east, and of
+the sea, who were going to fight against her.
+
+Calrnucks with flat features are still brought up in the houses of
+the Russian nobility, as if to preserve a specimen of those Tartars
+who were conquered by the Sclavonians. In the palace of Narischkin
+there were two or three of these half-savage Calmucks running about.
+They are agreeable enough in their infancy, but at the age of twenty
+they lose all the charms of youth: obstinate, though slaves, they amuse
+their masters by their resistance, like a squirrel fighting with the
+wires of his cage. It was painful to look at this specimen of the
+human race debased; I thought I saw, in the midst of all the pomp of
+luxury, an image of what man may become, when he derives no dignity
+either from religion or the laws, and this spectacle was calculated
+to humble the pride which the enjoyments of splendor may inspire.
+
+Long carriages for promenade, drawn by the most beautiful horses,
+conducted us, after dinner, into the park. It was now the end of
+August, but the sun was pale, the grass of an almost artificial
+green, because it was only kept up by unremitting attention. The
+flowers themselves appeared to be an aristocratic enjoyment, so much
+expense was required to have them. No warbling of birds was heard in
+the woods, they did not trust themselves to this summer of a moment;
+neither were any cattle observable in the meadows: one could not
+dare to give them plants which had required such pains to cultivate.
+The water scarcely flowed, and only by the help of machines which
+brought it into the gardens, where the whole of this nature had the
+air of being a festival decoration, which would disappear when the
+guests retired. Our caliches stopped in front of a building in the
+garden, which represented a Tartar camp; there, all the musicians
+united began a new concert: the noise of horns and cymbals quite
+intoxicated the ideas. The better to complete this entire banishment
+of thinking, we had an imitation, during summer, of their sledges,
+the rapidity of which consoles the Russians for their winter; we
+rolled upon boards, from the top of a mountain in wood with the
+quickness of lightning. This amusement charmed the ladies as much as
+the gentlemen, and allowed them to participate a little in those
+pleasures of war, which consist in the emotion of danger, and in the
+animated promptitude of all the movements. Thus passed the time; for
+every day saw a renewal of what appeared to me to be a fete. With
+some slight differences, the greater part of the great houses of
+Petersburg lead the same kind of life: it is impossible, as one may
+readily see, for any kind of continued conversation to be kept up in
+it, and learning is of no utility in this kind of society; but where
+so much is done only from the desire of collecting in one's house a
+great multitude of persons, entertainments are after all the only
+means of preventing the ennui which a crowd in the saloons always
+creates.
+
+In the midst of all this noise, is there any room for love? will be
+asked by the Italian ladies, who scarcely know any other interest in
+society than the pleasure of seeing the person by whom they wish to
+be beloved. I passed too short a time at Petersburg to obtain
+correct ideas of the interior arrangements of families; it appeared
+to me, however, that on one hand, there was more domestic virtue
+than was said to exist; but that on the other hand, sentimental love
+was very rarely known. The customs of Asia, which meet you at every
+step, prevent the females from interfering with the domestic cares
+of their establishment: all these are directed by the husband, and
+the wife only decorates herself with his gifts, and receives the
+persons whom he invites. The respect for morality is already much
+greater than it was at Petersburg in the time of those emperors and
+empresses who depraved opinion by their example. The two present
+empresses have made those virtues beloved, of which they are
+themselves the models. In this respect, however, as in a great many
+others, the principles of morality are not properly fixed in the
+minds of the Russians. The ascendancy of the master has always been
+so great over them, that from one reign to another, all maxims upon
+all subjects may be changed. The Russians, both men and women,
+generally carry into love their characteristic impetuosity, but
+their disposition to change makes them also easily renounce the
+objects of their choice. A certain irregularity in the imagination
+does not allow them to find happiness in what is durable. The
+cultivation of the understanding, which multiplies sentiment by
+poetry and the fine arts, is very rare among the Russians, and with
+these fantastic and vehement dispositions, love is rather a fete or
+a delirium than a profound and reflected affection. Good company in
+Russia is therefore a perpetual vortex, and perhaps the extreme
+prudence to which a despotic government accustoms people, may be the
+cause that the Russians are charmed at not being led, by the
+enticement of conversation, to speak upon subjects which may lead to
+any consequence whatever. To this reserve, which, under different
+reigns, has been but too necessary to them, we must attribute the
+want of truth of which they are accused. The refinements of
+civilization in all countries alter the sincerity of character, but
+when a sovereign possesses the unlimited power of exile,
+imprisonment, sending to Siberia, &c. &c. it is something too strong
+for human nature. We may meet with men independent enough to disdain
+favor, but heroism is required to brave persecution, and heroism
+cannot be an universal quality.
+
+None of these reflections, we know, apply to the present government,
+its head being, as emperor, perfectly just, and as a man, singularly
+generous. But the subjects preserve the defects of slavery long
+after the sovereign himself would wish to remove them. We have seen,
+however, during the continuance of this war, how much virtue has
+been shown by Russians of all ranks, not even excepting the
+courtiers. While I was at Petersburg, scarcely any young men were to
+be seen in company; all had gone to the army. Married men, only
+sons, noblemen of immense fortunes, were serving in the capacity of
+simple volunteer, and the sight of their estates and houses ravaged,
+has never made them think of the losses in any other light than as
+motives of revenge, but never of capitulating with the enemy. Such
+qualities more than counterbalance all the abuses, disorders, and
+misfortunes which an administration still vicious, a civilization
+yet new, and despotic institutions, may have introduced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19.
+
+Establishments for Public Education.--Institute of Saint Catherine.
+
+
+We went to see the cabinet of natural history, which is remarkable
+by the productions of Siberia which it contains. The furs of that
+country have excited the cupidity of the Russians, as the Mexican
+gold mines did that of the Spaniards. There was a time in Russia,
+when the current money consisted of sable and squirrel skins, so
+universal was the desire of being provided with the means of
+guarding against the cold. The most curious thing in the museum at
+Petersburg, is a rich collection of bones of antediluvian animals,
+and particularly the remains of a gigantic Mammoth, which have been
+found almost whole among the ices of Siberia. It appears from
+geological observations, that the world has a much older history
+than that which we know: infinity is fearful in all things. At
+present, the inhabitants, and even the animals of this extremity of
+the inhabited globe are almost penetrated with the cold, which makes
+nature expire, a few leagues beyond their country; the color of the
+animals is confounded with that of the snow, and the Dearth seems to
+be lost in the ices and fogs which terminate this lower creation. I
+was struck with the countenances of the inhabitants of Kamstchatka,
+which are perfectly imitated in the museum at Petersburg. The
+priests of that country, called Shamanes, are a kind of
+improvisators; they wear, over their tunick of bark, a sort of steel
+net, to which some pieces of iron are attached, the noise of which
+is very great when the improvisator is agitated; he has moments of
+inspiration which a good deal resemble nervous attacks, and it is
+rather by sorcery, than talent, that he makes an impression on the
+people. The imagination, in such dreary countries, is scarcely
+remarkable but by fear, and the earth herself appears to repel man
+by the terror with which she inspires him. I afterwards saw the
+citadel, in the circumference of which is the church where the
+coffins of all the sovereigns, from the time of Peter the Great,
+are deposited: these coffins are not shut up in monuments; they are
+exposed in the same way as they were on the day of their funeral,
+and one might fancy one's self quite close to these corpses, from
+which a single board appears to separate us. When Paul I. came to
+the throne, he caused the remains of his father, Peter I. to be
+crowned, who not having received that honor during his life, could
+not be placed in the citadel. By the orders of Paul I. the
+ceremonial of interment for both his father and mother was
+recommenced. Both were exposed afresh: four chamberlains once more
+kept guard over the bodies, as if they had only died the day before;
+and the two coffins are now placed by the side of each other,
+compelled to live in peace under the empire of death. Among the
+sovereigns who have stayed the despotic power transmitted to them by
+Peter I. there are several whom a bloody conspiracy has cast from
+the throne. The same courtiers, who have not the strength to tell
+their master the least truth, know how to conspire against him, and
+the deepest dissimulation necessarily accompanies this kind of
+political revolution; for they must load, with the appearance of
+respect, the person whom they wish to assassinate. And yet, what
+would become of a country governed despotically, if a lawless tyrant
+had not to dread the edge of the poniard? Horrible alternative, and
+which is sufficient to show the nature of the institutions where
+crime must be reckoned as the balance of power.
+
+I paid homage to Catherine II. by going to her country residence,
+Czarskozelo. This palace and garden are arranged with great art and
+magnificence; but the air was already very cold, although we Were
+only at the first of September, and it was a singular contrast to
+see the flowers of the South agitated by the winds of the North. All
+the traits which have been collected of Catherine II. penetrate one
+with admiration for her as a sovereign; and I know not whether the
+Russians are not more indebted to her than to Peter I. for that
+fortunate persuasion of their invincibility which has so much
+contributed to their victories, The charm of a female tempered the
+action of power, and mingled chivalrous gallantry with the
+successes, the homage of which was paid to her. Catherine II. had,
+in the highest degree, the good sense of government; a brilliant
+understanding than hers would have less resembled genius, and her lofty
+reason inspired profound respect in the Russians, who distrust their
+own imagination, and wish to have it directed with wisdom. Close to
+Czarskozelo is the palace of Paul I., a charming residence, as the
+empress dowager and her daughters have there placed the
+chefs-d'oeuvrefc of their talents and good taste. This place reminds
+us of that admirable mother and her daughters, whom nothing has been
+able to turn aside from their domestic virtues.
+
+I allowed myself to indulge in the pleasure excited by the novel
+objects of my daily visits, and I know not how, I had quite
+forgotten the war on which the fate of Europe depended; the pleasure
+I had in hearing expressed by all the world the sentiments which I
+had so long stifled in my soul, was so strong, that it appeared to
+me there was nothing more to dread, and that such truths were
+omnipotent as soon as they were known. Nevertheless a succession of
+reverses had taken place, without the public being informed of them.
+A man of wit said that all was mystery at Petersburg, although
+nothing was a secret; and in fact the truth is discovered in the
+end; but the habit of silence is such among the Russian courtiers,
+that they dissemble the day before what will be notorious the next,
+and are always unwilling to reveal what they know. A stranger told
+me that Smolensk was taken and Moscow in the greatest danger.
+Discouragement immediately seized me. I fancied that I already saw a
+repetition of the deplorable history of the Austrian and Prussian
+treaties of peace, the result of the conquest of their capitals.
+This was the third time the same game had been played, and it might
+again succeed. I did not perceive the public spirit; the apparent
+inconstancy of the impressions of the Russians prevented me from
+observing it. Despondency had frozen all minds, and I was ignorant,
+that with these men of vehement impressions, this despondency is the
+forerunner of a dreadful awakening. In the same way, you remark in
+the common people, an inconceivable idleness up to the very moment
+when their activity is roused; then it knows no obstacle, dreads no
+danger, and seems to triumph equally over the elements and men.
+
+I had understood that the internal administration, that of war as
+well as of justice, frequently fell into the most venal hands, and
+that by the dilapidations which the subaltern agents allowed
+themselves, it was impossible to form any just idea either of the
+number of troops, or of the measures taken to provision them; for
+lying and theft are inseparable, and in a country of such recent
+civilization the intermediate class have neither the simplicity of
+the peasantry, nor the grandeur of the boyars; and no public opinion
+yet exists to keep in check this third class, whose existence is so
+recent, and which has lost the naivete of popular faith without
+having acquired the point of honor. A display of jealous feeling was
+also remarked between the military commanders. It is in the very
+nature of a despotic government to create, even in spite of itself,
+jealousy in those who surround it: the will of one man being able to
+change entirely the fortune of every individual, fear and hope have
+too much scope not to be constantly agitating this jealousy, which
+is also very much excited by another feeling, the hatred of
+foreigners. The general who commanded the Russian army, General
+Barclay de Tolly, although born on the territories of the empire,
+was not of the pure Sclavonian race, and that was enough to make him
+be considered incapable of leading the Russians to victory: he had,
+besides, turned his distinguished talents towards systems of
+encampment, positions, and manoeuvres, while the military art, which
+best suits the Russians, is attack. To make them fall back, even
+from a wise and well reasoned calculation, is to cool in them that
+impetuosity from which they derive all their strength. The prospects
+of the campaign were therefore the most inauspicious possible, and
+the silence which was maintained on that account was still more
+alarming. The English give in their public papers the most exact
+account, man by man, of the wounded, prisoners and killed in each
+action; noble candour of a government which is equally sincere
+towards the nation and its monarch, recognizing in both the same
+right to have a knowledge of what concerns the nation. I walked
+about with deep melancholy in that beautiful city of Petersburg
+which might become the prey of the conqueror. When I returned in the
+evening from the islands, and saw the gilded point of the citadel
+which seemed to spout out in the air like a ray of fire, while the
+Neva reflected the marble quays and the palaces which surround it, I
+represented to myself all these wonders faded by the arrogance of a
+man who would come to say, like Satan on the top of a mountain, "The
+kingdoms of the earth are mine." All that was beautiful and good at
+Petersburg appeared to me in the presence of approaching
+destruction, and I could not enjoy them without having these painful
+ideas constantly pursuing me.
+
+I went to see the establishments for education, founded by the
+empress, and there, even more than in the palaces, my anxiety was
+redoubled; for the breath of Bonaparte's tyranny is sufficient, if
+it approach institutions tending to the improvement of the human
+race, to alter their purity. The institute of St. Catherine is
+formed of two houses, each containing two hundred and fifty young
+ladies of the nobility and citizens; they are educated under the
+inspection of the empress, with a degree of care that even exceeds
+what a rich family would pay to its own children. Order and elegance
+are remarkable in the most minute details of this institute, and the
+sentiment of the purest religion and morality there presides over
+all that the fine arts can develope. The Russian females have so
+much natural grace, that on entering the hall where all the young
+ladies saluted us, I did not observe one who did not give to this
+simple action all the politeness and modesty which it was capable of
+expressing. They were invited to exhibit us the different kinds of
+talent which distinguished them, and one of them, who knew by heart
+pieces of the best French authors, repeated to me several of the
+most eloquent pages of my father's Course of Religious Morals. This
+delicate attention probably came from the empress herself. I felt
+the most lively emotion in hearing that language uttered, which for
+so many years had had no asylum but in my heart. Beyond the empire
+of Bonaparte, in all countries posterity commences, and justice is
+shown towards those who even in the tomb, have felt the attack of
+his imperial calumnies. The young ladies of the institute of St.
+Catherine, before sitting down to table, sung psalms in chorus: this
+great number of voices, so pure and sweet, occasioned me an emotion
+of tender feeling mingled with bitterness. What would war do, in the
+midst of such peaceable establishments? Where could these doves fly
+to, from the arms of the conqueror? After this meal, the young
+ladies assembled in a superb hall, where they all danced together.
+There was nothing striking in their features as to beauty, but their
+gracefulness was extraordinary; these were daughters of the East,
+with all the decency which Christian manners have introduced among
+women. They first executed an old dance to the tune of Long live
+Henry the Fourth, Long live this valiant King! What a distance there
+was between the times which this tune reminded one of, and the
+present period! Two little chubby girls of ten years old finished
+the ballet by the Russian step: this dance sometimes assumes the
+voluptuous character of love, but executed by children, the
+innocence of that age was mingled with the national originality. It
+is impossible to paint: the interest inspired by these amiable
+talents, cultivated by the delicate and generous hand of a female
+and a sovereign.
+
+An establishment for the deaf and dumb, and another for the blind,
+are equally under the inspection of the empress. The emperor, on his
+side, pays great attention to the school of cadets, directed by a
+man of very superior understanding, General Klinger. All these
+establishments are truly useful, but they might be reproached with
+being too splendid. At least it would be desirable to found in
+different parts of the empire, not schools so superior, but
+establishments which would communicate elementary instruction to the
+people. Every thing has commenced in Russia by luxury, and the
+building has, it may be said, preceded the foundation. There are
+only two great cities in Russia, Petersburg and Moscow; the others
+scarcely deserve to be mentioned; they are besides separated at very
+great distances: even the chateaux of the nobility are at such
+distances from each other, that it is with difficulty the
+proprietors can communicate with each other. Finally, the
+inhabitants are so dispersed in this empire, that the knowledge of
+some can hardly be of use to others. The peasants can only reckon by
+means of a calculating machine, and the clerks of the post
+themselves follow the same method. The Greek popes have much less
+knowledge than the Catholic curates, or the Protestant ministers; so
+that the clergy in Russia are really not fit to instruct the people,
+as in the other countries of Europe. The great bond of the nation is
+in religion and patriotism; but there is in it no focus of
+knowledge, the rays of which might spread over all parts of the
+empire, and the two capitals have not yet learned to communicate to
+the provinces what they have collected in literature and the fine
+arts. If this country could have remained at peace, it would have
+experienced all sorts of improvement under the beneficent reign of
+Alexander. But who knows if the virtues which this war has
+developed, may not be exactly those which are likely to regenerate
+nations?
+
+The Russians have not yet had, up to the present time, men of genius
+but for the military career; in all other arts they are only
+imitators; printing, however, has not been introduced among them
+more than one hundred and twenty years. The other nations of Europe
+have become civilized almost simultaneously, and have been able to
+mingle their natural genius with acquired knowledge; with the
+Russians this mixture has not yet operated. In the same manner as we
+see two rivers after their junction, flow in the same channel
+without confounding their waters, in the same manner nature and
+civilization are united among the Russians without identifying the
+one with the other: and according to circumstances the same man at
+one time presents himself to you as a European who seems only to
+exist in social forms, and at another time as a Sclavonian who only
+listens to the most furious passions. Genius will come to them in
+the fine arts, and particularly in literature, when they shall have
+found out the means of infusing their real disposition into
+language, as they show it in action.
+
+I witnessed the performance of a Russian tragedy, the subject of
+which was the deliverance of the Muscovites, when they drove back
+the Tartars beyond Casan. The prince of Smolensko appeared in the
+ancient costume of the boyars, and the Tartar army was called the
+golden horde. This piece was written almost entirely according to
+the rules of the French drama; the rhythm of the verses, the
+declamation, and the division of the scenes, was entirely French;
+one situation only was peculiar to Russian manners, and that was the
+profound terror which the dread of her father's curse has inspired
+in a young female. Paternal authority is almost as strong among the
+Russians as among the Chinese, and it is always among the people
+that we must seek for the germ of national character. The good
+company of all countries resembles each other, and nothing is so
+unfit as that elegant world to furnish subjects for tragedy. Among
+all those which the history of Russia presents, there is one by
+which I was particularly struck. Ivan the Terrible, already old, was
+besieging Novorogod. The boyars seeing him very much enfeebled,
+asked him if he would not give the command of the assault to his
+son. His rage at this proposition was so great, that nothing could
+appease him; his son prostrated himself at his feet, but he repulsed
+him with a blow of such violence, that two days after the
+unfortunate prince died of it. The father, then reduced to despair,
+became equally indifferent to war and to power, and only survived
+his son a few months. This revolt of an old despot against the
+progress of time has in it something grand and solemn, and the
+melting tenderness which succeeds to the paroxysm of rage in that
+ferocious soul, represents man as he comes from the hand of nature,
+now irritated by selfishness, and again restrained by affection.
+
+A law of Russia inflicted the same punishment on the person who
+lamed a man in the arm as on one who killed him. In fact, man in
+Russia is principally valuable by his military strength; all other
+kinds of energy are adapted to manners and institutions which the
+present state of Russia has not yet developed. The females at
+Petersburg, however, seemed to be penetrated with that patriotic
+honor which constitutes the moral power of a state. The princess
+Dolgoronki, the baroness Strogonoff, and several others equally of
+the first rank, already knew that a part of their fortunes had
+suffered greatly by the ravaging of the province of Smolensko, and
+they appeared not to think of it otherwise than to encourage their
+equals to sacrifice every thing like them. The princess Dolgorouki
+related to me that an old long-bearded Russian, seated on an
+eminence overlooking Smoleusko, thus, in tears, addressed his little
+grandson, whom he held upon his knees: "Formerly, my child, the
+Russians went to gain victories at the extremity of Europe; now,
+strangers come to attack them in their own homes." The grief of this
+old man was not vain, and we shall soon see how dearly his tears
+have been purchased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20.
+
+Departure for Sweden.--Passage through Finland.
+
+
+The emperor quitted Petersburg, and I learned that he was gone to
+Abo, where he was to meet General Bernadotte, Prince Royal of
+Sweden. This news left no farther doubt about the determination of
+that prince to take part in the present war, and nothing could be
+more important at that moment for the salvation of Russia, and
+consequently for that of Europe. We shall see the influence of it
+developed in the sequel of this narrative. The news of the entrance
+of the French into Smolensko arrived during the conferences of the
+prince of Sweden with the emperor of Russia; and it was there that
+Alexander contracted the engagement with himself and the Prince
+Royal, his ally, never to sign a treaty of peace. "Should Petersburg
+be taken," said he, "I will retire into Siberia. I will there resume
+our ancient customs, and like our long-bearded ancestors, we will
+return anew to conquer the Empire." "This resolution will liberate
+Europe," exclaimed the Prince Royal, and his prediction begins to be
+accomplishing.
+
+I saw the Emperor Alexander a second time upon his return from Abo,
+and the conversation I had the honor of holding with him, satisfied
+me to that degree of the firmness of his determination, that in
+spite of the capture of Moscow, and all the reports which followed
+it, I firmly believed that he would never yield. He was so good as
+to tell me, that after the capture of Smolensko, Marshal Berthier
+had written to the Russian commander in chief respecting some
+military matters, and terminated his letter by saying that the
+Emperor Napoleon always preserved the tenderest friendship for the
+Emperor Alexander, a stale mystification which the emperor of Russia
+received as it deserved. Napoleon had given him some lessons in
+politics, and lessons in war, abandoning himself in the first to the
+quackery of vice, and in the second to the pleasure of exhibiting a
+disdainful carelessness. He was deceived in the Emperor Alexander;
+he had mistaken the nobleness of his character for dupery; he had
+not been able to perceive that if the emperor of Russia had allowed
+himself to go too far in his enthusiasm for him, it was because
+he believed him a partizan of the first principles of the French
+revolution, which agreed with his own opinions; but never had
+Alexander the idea of associating with Napoleon to reduce
+Europe to slavery. Napoleon thought in that, as well as in all
+other circumstances, to succeed in blinding a man by a false
+representation of his interest; but he encountered conscience, and
+his calculations were entirely baffled; for that is an element, of
+the strength of which he knows nothing, and which he never allows to
+enter into his combinations.
+
+Although General Barclay de Tolly was a military man of great
+reputation, yet as he had met with reverses at the beginning of the
+campaign, the general opinion designated as his successor, a general
+of great renown, Prince Kutusow; he took the command fifteen days
+before the entry of the French into Moscow, but he got to the army
+only six days before the great battle which took place almost at the
+gates of that city, at Borodino. I went to see him the day before
+his departure; he was an old man of the most graceful manners, and
+lively physiognomy, although he had lost an eye by one of the
+numerous wounds he had received in the course of a fifty years'
+service. On looking at him, I was afraid that he had not sufficient
+strength to struggle with the rough young men who were pouncing upon
+Russia from all corners of Europe: but the Russian courtiers at
+Petersburg become Tartars at the army: and we have seen by Suwarow
+that neither age nor honors can enervate their physical and moral
+energy. I was moved at taking leave of this illustrious Marshal
+Kutusow; I knew not whether I was embracing a conqueror or a martyr,
+but I saw that he had the fullest sense of the grandeur of the cause
+in which he was employed. It was for the defence, or rather for the
+restoration of all the moral virtues which man owes to Christianity,
+of all the dignity he derives from God, of all the independence
+which he is allowed by nature; it was for the rescuing of all these
+advantages from the clutches of one man, for the French are as
+little to be accused as the Germans and Italians who followed his
+train, of the crimes of his armies. Before his departure, Marshal
+Kutusow went to offer up prayers in the church of Our Lady of Casan,
+and all the people who followed his steps, called out to him to be
+the saviour of Russia. What a moment for a mortal being! His age
+gave him no hope of surviving the fatigues of the campaign; but
+there are moments when man has a wish to die for the satisfaction of
+his soul. Certain of the generous opinions and of the noble conduct
+of the Prince of Sweden, I was more than ever confirmed in the
+resolution of going to Stockholm, previous to embarking for England;
+towards the end of September I quitted Petersburg to repair to
+Sweden through Finland. My new friends, those whom a community of
+sentiment had brought about me, came to bid me adieu; Sir Robert
+Wilson, who seeks every where an opportunity of fighting, and
+inflaming his friends by his spirit: M. de Stein, a man of antique
+character, who only lived in the hope of seeing the deliverance of
+his country; the Spanish envoy; and the English minister, Lord
+Tyrconnel; the witty Admiral Bentinck; Alexis de Noailles, the only
+French emigrant from the imperial tyranny, the only one who was
+there, like me, to bear witness for France; Colonel Dornberg, that
+intrepid Hessian whom nothing has turned from the object of his
+pursuit; and several Russians, whose names have been since
+celebrated by their exploits. Never was the fate of the world
+exposed to greater dangers; no one dared to say so, but all knew it:
+I only, as a female, was not exposed to it; but I might reckon what
+I had suffered as something. I knew not in bidding adieu to these
+worthy knights of the human race, which of them I should ever see
+again, and already two of them are no longer in existence. When the
+passions of man rouse man against his fellows, when nations attack
+each other with fury, we recognize, with sorrow, human destiny in
+the miseries of humanity; but when a single being, similar to the
+idols of the Laplanders, to whom the incense of fear is offered up,
+spreads misery over the earth in torrents, we experience a sort of
+superstitious fear which leads us to consider all honorable persons
+as his victims.
+
+On entering into Finland, every thing indicates that you have passed
+into another country, and that you have to do with a very different
+race from the Sclavonians. The Finns are said to come immediately
+from the North of Asia; their language also is said to have no
+resemblance to the Swedish, which is an intermediate one between the
+English and the German. The countenances of the Finns, however, are
+generally perfectly German: their fair hair, and white complexions,
+bear no resemblance to the vivacity of the Russian countenance; but
+their manners are also much milder; the common people have a settled
+probity, the result of protestant instruction, and purity of
+manners. On Sundays, the young women are seen returning from sermon
+on horseback, and the young men following them. You will frequently
+receive hospitality from the pastors of Finland, who regard it as
+their duty to give a lodging to travellers, and nothing can be more
+pure or delightful than the reception you meet with in those
+families; there are scarcely any noblemens' seats in Finland, so
+that the pastors are generally the most important personages of the
+country. In several Finnish songs, the young girls offer to their
+lovers to sacrifice the residence of the pastor, even if it was
+offered to them to share. This reminds me of the expression of a
+young shepherd, "If I was a king, I would keep my sheep on
+horseback." The imagination itself scarcely goes beyond what is
+known.
+
+The aspect of nature is very different in Finland to what it is in
+Russia; in place of the marshes and plains which surround St.
+Petersburg, you find rocks, almost mountains, and forests: but after
+a time, these mountains, and those forests, composed of the same
+trees, the fir and the birch, become monotonous. The enormous blocks
+of granite which are seen scattered through the country, and on the
+borders of the high roads, give the country an air of vigor; but
+there is very little life around these great bones of the earth, and
+vegetation begins to decrease from the latitude of Finland to the
+last degree of the animated world. We passed through a forest half
+consumed by fire; the north winds which add to the force of the
+flames, render these fires very frequent, both in the towns and in
+the country. Man has in all ways great difficulty in maintaining the
+struggle with nature in these frozen climates. You meet with few
+towns in Finland, and those few are very thinly peopled. There is no
+centre, no emulation, nothing to say, and very little to do, in a
+northern Swedish or Russian province, and during eight months of the
+year, the whole of animated nature is asleep.
+
+The Emperor Alexander possessed himself of Finland after the treaty
+of Tilsit, and at a period when the deranged intellects of the
+monarch who then reigned in Sweden, Gustavus IV., rendered him
+incapable of defending his country. The moral character of this
+prince was very estimable, but from his infancy, he had been
+sensible himself that he could not hold the reins of government. The
+Swedes fought in Finland with the greatest courage; but without a
+warlike chief on the throne, a nation which is not numerous cannot
+triumph over a powerful enemy. The Emperor Alexander became master
+of Finland by conquest, and by treaties founded on force; but we
+must do him the justice to say, that he treated this new province
+very well, and respected the liberties she enjoyed. He allowed the
+Finns all their privileges relative to the raising of taxes and men;
+he sent very generous assistance to the towns which had been burnt,
+and his favors compensated to a certain extent what the Finns
+possessed as rights, if free men can ever accede voluntarily to that
+sort of exchange. Finally, one of the prevailing ideas of the
+nineteenth century, natural boundaries, rendered Finland as
+necessary to Russia, as Norway to Sweden; and it must be admitted as
+a truth, that wherever these natural limits have not existed, they
+have been the source of perpetual wars.
+
+I embarked at Abo, the capital of Finland. There is an university in
+that city, and they make some attempts in it to cultivate the
+intellect: but the vicinity of the bears and wolves during the
+winter is so close, that all ideas are absorbed in the necessity of
+ensuring a tolerable physical existence; and the difficulty which is
+felt in obtaining that in the countries of the north, consumes at
+great part of the time which' is elsewhere consecrated to the
+enjoyment of the intellectual arts. As some compensation, however,
+it may be said that the very difficulties with which nature
+surrounds men give greater firmness to their character, and prevent
+the admission into their mind of all the disorders occasioned by
+idleness. I could not help, however every moment regretting those
+rays of the South which had penetrated to my very soul.
+
+The mythological ideas of the inhabitants of the North are
+constantly representing to them ghosts and phantoms; day is there
+equally favorable to apparitions as night; something pale and cloudy
+seems to summon the dead to return to the earth, to breathe the cold
+air, as the tomb with which the living are surrounded. In these
+countries the two extremities are generally more conspicuous than
+the intermediate ones; where men are entirely occupied with
+conquering their existence from nature, mental labors very easily
+become mystical, because man draws entirely from himself, and is in
+no degree inspired by external objects.
+
+Since I have been so cruelly persecuted by the Emperor, I have lost
+all kind of confidence in destiny; I have however a stronger belief
+in the protection of providence, but it is not in the form of
+happiness on this earth. The result is, that all resolutions terrify
+me, and yet exile obliges me frequently to adopt some. I dreaded the
+sea, although every one said, all the world makes this passage, and
+no harm happens to any one. Such is the language which encourages
+almost all travellers: but the imagination does not allow itself to
+be chained by this kind of consolation, and that abyss, from which
+so slight an obstacle separates you, is always tormenting to the
+mind. Mr. Schlegel saw the terror I felt about the frail vessel
+which was to carry us to Stockholm. He showed me, near Abo, the
+prison in which one of the most unfortunate kings of Sweden, Eric
+XIV. had been confined some time before he died in another prison
+near Gripsholm. "If you were confined there," he said to me, "how
+much would you envy the passage of this sea, which at present so
+terrifies you." This just reflection speedily gave another turn to
+my ideas, and the first days of our voyage were sufficiently
+pleasant. We passed between the islands, and although there was more
+danger close to the land than in the open sea, one never feels the
+same terror which the sight of the waves appearing to touch the sky
+makes one experience. I made them show me the land in the horizon,
+as far as I could perceive it; infinity is as fearful to the sight
+as it is pleasant to the soul. We passed by the isle of Aland, where
+the plenipotentiaries of Peter I. and Charles XII. negociated a
+peace, and endeavored to fix boundaries to their ambition in this
+frozen part of the world, which the blood of their subjects alone
+had been able to thaw for a moment. We hoped to reach Stockholm the
+following day, but a decidedly contrary wind obliged us to cast
+anchor by the side of an island entirely covered with rocks
+interspersed with trees, which hardly grew higher than the stones
+which surrounded them. We hastened, however, to take a walk on this
+island, in order to feel the earth under our feet.
+
+I have always been very subject to ennui, and far from knowing how
+to occupy myself at those moments of entire leisure which seem
+destined for study.
+
+ Here the manuscript breaks off.
+
+After a passage which was not without danger, my mother was landed
+safely at Stockholm. She was received in Sweden with the greatest
+kindness, and spent eight months there, and it was there she wrote
+the present journal. Shortly after, she departed for London, and
+there published her work on Germany, which the Imperial police had
+suppressed. But her health, already cruelly affected by Bonaparte's
+persecutions, having suffered from the fatigues of a long voyage,
+she felt herself obliged without farther delay to undertake the
+history of the political life of her father, and to adjourn to a
+future period all other labors, until she had finished that which
+her filial affection made her regard as a duty. She then conceived
+the plan of her Considerations on the French Revolution. That work
+even she was not spared to finish, and the manuscript of her Ten
+Years' Exile remained in her portfolio in the state in which I now
+publish it.
+
+(End of Note by the Editor.)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN YEARS' EXILE***
+
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