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diff --git a/old/cm56b10.txt b/old/cm56b10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ae44f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cm56b10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2184 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, v2 +#2 in our series by Stewarton, Gentleman at Paris, to Nobleman in London +#56 in our series Historic Court Memoirs + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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The +Houses of Austria and Brandenburgh, the Electors of Bavaria and Baden, +have by turns been cajoled into a belief of his exclusive support towards +obtaining it at the first vacancy. Those, however, who have paid +attention to his machinations, and studied his actions; who remember his +pedantic affectation of being considered a modern, or rather a second +Charlemagne; and who have traced his steps through the labyrinth of folly +and wickedness, of meanness and greatness, of art, corruption, and +policy, which have seated him on the present throne, can entertain little +doubt but that he is seriously bent on seizing and adding the sceptre of +Germany to the crowns of France and Italy. + +During his stay last autumn at Mentz, all those German Electors who had +spirit and dignity enough to refuse to attend on him there in person were +obliged to send Extraordinary Ambassadors to wait on him, and to +compliment him on their part. Though hardly one corner of the veil that +covered the intrigues going forward there is yet lifted up, enough is +already seen to warn Europe and alarm the world. The secret treaties he +concluded there with most of the petty Princes of Germany, against the +Chief of the German Empire which not only entirely detached them from +their country and its legitimate Sovereign, but made their individual +interests hostile and totally opposite to that of the German +Commonwealth, transforming them also from independent Princes into +vassals of France, both directly increased has already gigantic power, +and indirectly encouraged him to extend it beyond what his most sanguine +expectation had induced him to hope. I do not make this assertion from a +mere supposition in consequence of ulterior occurrences. At a supper +with Madame Talleyrand last March, I heard her husband, in a gay, +unguarded, or perhaps premeditated moment, say, when mentioning his +proposed journey to Italy: + +"I prepared myself to pass the Alps last October at Mentz. The first +ground-stone of the throne of Italy was, strange as it may seem, laid on +the banks of the Rhine: with such an extensive foundation, it must be +difficult to shake, and impossible to overturn it." + +We were, in the whole, twenty-five persons at table when he spoke thus, +many of whom, he well knew, were intimately acquainted both with the +Austrian and Prussian Ambassadors, who by the bye, both on the next day +sent couriers to their respective Courts. + +The French Revolution is neither seen in Germany in that dangerous light +which might naturally be expected from the sufferings in which it has +involved both Princes and subjects, nor are its future effects dreaded +from its past enormities. The cause of this impolitic and anti-patriotic +apathy is to be looked for in the palaces of Sovereigns, and not in the +dwellings of their people. There exists hardly a single German Prince +whose Ministers, courtiers and counsellors are not numbered, and have +long been notorious among the anti-social conspirators, the Illuminati: +most of them are knaves of abilities, who have usurped the easy direction +of ignorance, or forced themselves as guides on weakness or folly, which +bow to their charlatanism as if it was sublimity, and hail their +sophistry and imposture as inspiration. + +Among Princes thus encompassed, the Elector of Bavaria must be allowed +the first place. A younger brother of a younger branch, and a colonel in +the service of Louis XVI., he neither acquired by education, nor +inherited from nature, any talent to reign, nor possessed any one quality +that fitted him for a higher situation than the head of a regiment or a +lady's drawing-room. He made himself justly suspected of a moral +corruption, as well as of a natural incapacity, when he announced his +approbation of the Revolution against his benefactor, the late King of +France, who, besides a regiment, had also given him a yearly pension of +one hundred thousand livres. Immediately after his unexpected accession +to the Electorate of Bavaria, he concluded a subsidiary treaty with your +country, and his troops were ordered to combat rebellion, under the +standard of Austrian loyalty. For some months it was believed that the +Elector wished by his conduct to obliterate the memory of the errors, +vices, and principles of the Duc de Deux-Ponts (his former title). But +placing all his confidence in a political adventurer and revolutionary +fanatic, Montgelas, without either consistency or firmness, without being +either bent upon information or anxious about popularity, he threw the +whole burden of State on the shoulders of this dangerous man, who soon +showed the world that his master, by his first treaties, intended only to +pocket your money without serving your cause or interest. + +This Montgelas is, on account of his cunning and long standing among +them, worshipped by the gang of German Illuminati as an idol rather than +revered as an apostle. He is their Baal, before whom they hope to oblige +all nations upon earth to prostrate themselves as soon as infidelity has +entirely banished Christianity; for the Illuminati do not expect to reign +till the last Christian is buried under the rubbish of the last altar of +Christ. It is not the fault of Montgelas if such an event has not +already occurred in the Electorate of Bavaria. + +Within six months after the Treaty of Lundville, Montgelas began in that +country his political and religious innovations. The nobility and the +clergy were equally attacked; the privileges of the former were invaded, +and the property of the latter confiscated; and had not his zeal carried +him too far, so as to alarm our new nobles, our new men of property, and +new Christians, it is very probable that atheism would have already, +without opposition, reared its head in the midst of Germany, and +proclaimed there the rights of man, and the code of liberty and equality. + +The inhabitants of Bavaria are, as you know, all Roman Catholics, and the +most superstitious and ignorant Catholics of Germany. The step is but +short from superstition to infidelity; and ignorance has furnished in +France more sectaries of atheism than perversity. The Illuminati, +brothers and friends of Montgelas, have not been idle in that country. +Their writings have perverted those who had no opportunity to hear their +speeches, or to witness their example; and I am assured by Count von +Beust, who travelled in Bavaria last year, that their progress among the +lower classes is astonishing, considering the short period these +emissaries have laboured. To any one looking on the map of the +Continent, and acquainted with the spirit of our times, this impious +focus of illumination must be ominous. + +Among the members of the foreign diplomatic corps, there exists not the +least doubt but that this Montgelas, as well as Bonaparte's Minister at +Munich, Otto, was acquainted with the treacherous part Mehde de la Touche +played against your Minister, Drake; and that it was planned between him +and Talleyrand as the surest means to break off all political connections +between your country and Bavaria. Mr. Drake was personally liked by the +Elector, and was not inattentive either to the plans and views of +Montgelas or to the intrigues of Otto. They were, therefore, both doubly +interested to remove such a troublesome witness. + +M. de Montgelas is now a grand officer of Bonaparte's Legion of Honour, +and he is one of the few foreigners nominated the most worthy of such a +distinction. In France he would have been an acquisition either to the +factions of a Murat, of a Brissot, or of a Robespierre; and the Goddess +of Reason, as well as the God of the Theophilanthropists, might have been +sure of counting him among their adorers. At the clubs of the Jacobins +or Cordeliers, in the fraternal societies, or in a revolutionary +tribunal; in the Committee of Public Safety, or in the council chamber of +the Directory, he would equally have made himself notorious and been +equally in his place. A stoic sans-culotte under Du Clots, a stanch +republican under Robespierre, he would now have been the most pliant and +brilliant courtier of Bonaparte. + + + + +LETTER XIII. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--No Queen of France ever saw so many foreign Princes and +Princesses in her drawing-rooms as the first Empress of the French did +last year at Mentz; and no Sovereign was ever before so well paid, or +accepted with less difficulty donations and presents for her gracious +protection. Madame Napoleon herself, on her return to this capital last +October, boasted that she was ten millions of livres--richer in diamonds; +two millions of livres richer in pearls, and three million of livres +richer in plate and china, than in the June before, when she quitted it. +She acknowledged that she left behind her some creditors and some money +at Aix-la-Chapelle; but at Mentz she did not want to borrow, nor had she +time to gamble. The gallant ultra Romans provided everything, even to +the utmost extent of her wishes; and she, on her part, could not but +honour those with her company as much as possible, particularly as they +required nothing else for their civilities. Such was the Empress's +expression to her lady in waiting, the handsome Madame Seran, with whom +no confidence, no tale, no story, and no scandal expires; and who was in +a great hurry to inform, the same evening, the tea-party at Madame de +Beauvais's of this good news, complaining at the same time of not having +had the least share in this rich harvest. + +Nowhere, indeed, were bribery and corruption carried to a greater extent, +or practised with more effrontery, than at Mentz. Madame Napoleon had as +much her fixed price for every favourable word she spoke, as Talleyrand +had for every line he wrote. Even the attendants of the former, and the +clerks of the latter, demanded, or rather extorted, douceurs from the +exhausted and almost ruined German petitioners; who in the end were +rewarded for all their meanness and for all their expenses with promises +at best; as the new plan of supplementary indemnities was, on the very +day proposed for its final arrangement, postponed by the desire of the +Emperor of the French, until further orders. This provoking delay could +no more be foreseen by the Empress than by the Minister, who, in return +for their presents and money almost overpowered the German Princes with +his protestations of regret at their disappointments. Nor was Madame +Bonaparte less sorry or less civil. She sent her chamberlain, Daubusson +la Feuillad, with regular compliments of condolence to every Prince who +had enjoyed her protection. They returned to their homes, therefore, if +not wealthier, at least happier; flattered by assurances and +condescensions, confiding in hope as in certainties. Within three +months, however, it is supposed that they would willingly have disposed +both of promises and expectations at a loss of fifty per cent. + +By the cupidity and selfishness of these and other German Princes, and +their want of patriotism, Talleyrand was become perfectly acquainted with +the value and production of every principality, bishopric, county, abbey, +barony, convent, and even village in the German Empire; and though most +national property in France was disposed of at one or two years' +purchase, he required five years' purchase-money for all the estates and +lands on the other side of the Rhine, of which, under the name of +indemnities, he stripped the lawful owners to gratify the ambition or +avidity of intruders. This high price has cooled the claims of the +bidders, and the plan of the supplementary indemnities is still +suspended, and probably will continue so until our Minister lowers his +terms. A combination is supposed to have been entered into by the chief +demanders of indemnities, by which they have bound themselves to resist +all farther extortions. They do not, however, know the man they have to +deal with; he will, perhaps, find out some to lay claim to their own +private and hereditary property whom he will produce and support, and who +certainly will have the same right to pillage them as they had to the +spoils of others. + +It was reported in our fashionable circles last autumn, and smiled at by +Talleyrand, that he promised the Comtesse de L------ an abbey, and the +Baroness de S-----z a convent, for certain personal favours, and that he +offered a bishopric to the Princesse of Hon----- the same terms, but this +lady answered that "she would think of his offers after he had put her +husband in possession of the bishopric." It is not necessary to observe +that both the Countess and the Baroness are yet waiting to enjoy his +liberal donations, and to be indemnified for their prostitution. + +Napoleon Bonaparte was attacked by a fit of jealousy at Mentz. The young +nephew of the Elector Arch-Chancellor, Comte de L----ge, was very +assiduous about the Empress, who, herself, at first mistook the motive. +Her confidential secretary, Deschamps, however, afterwards informed her +that this nobleman wanted to purchase the place of a coadjutor to his +uncle, so as to be certain of succeeding him. He obtained, therefore, +several private audiences, no doubt to regulate the price, when Napoleon +put a stop to this secret negotiation by having the Count carried by +gendarmes, with great politeness, to the other side of the Rhine. When +convinced of his error, Bonaparte asked his wife what sum had been +promised for her protection, and immediately gave her an order on his +Minister of the Treasury (Marbois) for the amount. This was an act of +justice, and a reparation worthy of a good and tender husband; but when, +the very next day, he recalled this order, threw it into the fire before +her eyes, and confined her for six hours in her bedroom; because she was +not dressed in time to take a walk with him on the ramparts, one is apt +to believe that military despotism has erased from his bosom all +connubial affection, and that a momentary effusion of kindness and +generosity can but little alleviate the frequent pangs caused by repeated +insults and oppression. Fortunately, Madame Napoleon's disposition is +proof against rudeness as well as against brutality. If what her friend +and consoler, Madame Delucay, reports of her is not exaggerated, her +tranquillity is not much disturbed nor her happiness affected by these +explosions of passionate authority, and she prefers admiring, in +undisturbed solitude, her diamond box to the most beautiful prospects in +the most agreeable company; and she inspects with more pleasure in +confinement, her rich wardrobe, her beautiful china, and her heavy plate, +than she would find satisfaction, surrounded with crowds, in +comtemplating Nature, even in its utmost perfection. "The paradise of +Madame Napoleon," says her friend, "must be of metal, and lighted by the +lustre of brilliants, else she would decline it for a hell and accept +Lucifer himself for a spouse, provided gold flowed in his infernal +domains, though she were even to be scorched by its heat." + + + + +LETTER XIV. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--I believe that I have mentioned to you, when in England, that I +was an old acquaintance of Madame Napoleon, and a visitor at the house of +her first husband. When introduced to her after some years' absence, +during which fortune had treated us very differently, she received me +with more civility than I was prepared to expect, and would, perhaps, +have spoken to me more than she did, had not a look of her husband +silenced her. Madame Louis Bonaparte was still more condescending, and +recalled to my memory what I had not forgotten how often she had been +seated, when a child, on my lap, and played on my knees with her doll. +Thus they behaved to me when I saw them for the first time in their +present elevation; I found them afterwards, in their drawing-rooms or at +their routs and parties, more shy and distant. This change did not much +surprise me, as I hardly knew any one that had the slightest pretension +to their acquaintance who had not troubled them for employment or +borrowed their money, at the same time that they complained of their +neglect and their breach of promises. I continued, however, as much as +etiquette and decency required, assiduous, but never familiar: if they +addressed me, I answered with respect, but not with servility; if not, +I bowed in silence when they passed. They might easily perceive that I +did not intend to become an intruder, nor to make the remembrance of what +was past an apology or a reason for applying for present favours. A +lady, on intimate terms with Madame Napoleon, and once our common friend, +informed me, shortly after the untimely end of the lamented Duc d' +Enghien, that she had been asked whether she knew anything that could be +done for me, or whether I would not be flattered by obtaining a place in +the Legislative Body or in the Tribunate? I answered as I thought, that +were I fit for a public life nothing could be more agreeable or suit me +better; but, having hitherto declined all employments that might restrain +that independence to which I had accustomed myself from my youth, I was +now too old to enter upon a new career. I added that, though the +Revolution had reduced my circumstances, it had not entirely ruined me. +I was still independent, because my means were the boundaries of my +wants. + +A week after this conversation General Murat, the governor of this +capital, and Bonaparte's favourite-brother-in-law, invited me to a +conversation in a note delivered to me by an aide-de-camp, who told me +that he was ordered to wait for my company, or, which was the same, he +had orders not to lose sight of me, as I was his prisoner. Having +nothing with which to reproach myself, and all my written remarks being +deposited with a friend, whom none of the Imperial functionaries could +suspect, I entered a hackney coach without any fear or apprehension; and +we drove to the governor's hotel. + +From the manner in which Murat addressed me, I was soon convinced that if +I had been accused of any error or indiscretion, the accusation could not +be very grave in his eyes. He entered with me into his closet and +inquired whether I had any enemies at the police office. I told him not +to my knowledge. + +"Is the Police Minister and Senator, Fouche, your friend?" continued he. + +"Fouche," said I, "has bought an estate that formerly belonged to me; may +he enjoy it with the same peace of mind as I have lost it. I have never +spoken to him in my life." + +"Have you not complained at Madame de la Force's of the execution of the +ci-devant Duc d'Enghien, and agreed with the other members of her coterie +to put on mourning for him?" + +"I have never been at the house of that lady since the death of the +Prince, nor more than once in my life." + +"Where did you pass the evening last Saturday?"--"At the hotel, and in +the assembly of Princesse Louis Bonaparte." + +"Did she see you?" + +"I believe that she did, because she returned my salute." + +"You have known Her Imperial Highness a long time?" + +"From her infancy." + +"Well, I congratulate you. You have in her a generous protectress. But +for her you would now have been on the way to Cayenne. Here you see the +list of persons condemned yesterday, upon the report of Fouche, to +transportation. Your name is at the head of them. You were not only +accused of being an agent of the Bourbons, but of having intrigued to +become a member of the Legislature, or the Tribunate, that you might have +so much the better opportunity to serve them. Fortunately for you, the +Emperor remembered that the Princesse Louis had demanded such a favour +for you, and he informed her of the character of her protege. This +brought forward your innocence, because it was discovered that, instead +of asking for, you had declined the offer she had made you through the +Empress. Write the Princess a letter of thanks. You have, indeed, had a +narrow escape, but it has been so far useful to you, that Government is +now aware of your having some secret enemy in power, who is not delicate +about the means of injuring you." + +In quitting General Murat, I could not help deploring the fate of a +despot, even while I abhorred his unnatural power. The curses, the +complaints, and reproaches for all the crimes, all the violence, all the +oppression perpetrated in his name, are entirely thrown upon him, while +his situation and occupation do not admit the seeing and hearing +everything and everybody himself. He is often forced, therefore, to +judge according to the report of an impostor; to sanction with his name +the hatred, malignity, or vengeance of culpable individuals; and to +sacrifice innocence to gratify the vile passions of his vilest slave. +I have not so bad an opinion of Bonaparte as to think him capable of +wilfully condemning any person to death or transportation, of whose +innocence he was convinced, provided that person stood not in the way of +his interest and ambition; but suspicion and tyranny are inseparable +companions, and injustice their common progeny. The unfortunate beings +on the long list General Murat showed me were, I dare say, most of them +as innocent as myself, and all certainly condemned unheard. But suppose, +even, that they had been indiscreet enough to put on mourning for a +Prince of the blood of their former Kings, did their imprudence deserve +the same punishment as the deed of the robber, the forger, or the +housebreaker? and, indeed, it was more severe than what our laws inflict +on such criminals, who are only condemned to transportation for some few +years, after a public trial and conviction; while the exile of these +unconvicted, untried, and most probably innocent persons is continued for +life, on charges as unknown to themselves as their destiny and residence +remain to their families and friends. Happy England! where no one is +condemned unheard, and no one dares attempt to make the laws subservient +to his passions or caprice. + +As to Fouche's enmity, at which General Murat so plainly hinted, I had +long apprehended it from what others, in similar circumstances with +myself, had suffered. He has, since the Revolution, bought no less, than +sixteen national estates, seven of the former proprietors of which have +suddenly disappeared since his Ministry, probably in the manner he +intended to remove me. This man is one of the most immoral characters +the Revolution has dragged forward from obscurity. It is more difficult +to mention a crime that he has not perpetrated than to discover a good or +just action that he ever performed. He is so notorious a villain that +even the infamous National Convention expelled him from its bosom, and +since his Ministry no man has been found base enough, in my debased +country, to extenuate, much less to defend, his past enormities. In a +nation so greatly corrupted and immoral, this alone is more than negative +evidence. + +As a friar before the Revolution he has avowed, in his correspondence +with the National Convention, that he never believed in a God; and as one +of the first public functionaries of a Republic he has officially denied +the existence of virtue. He is, therefore, as unmoved by tears as by +reproaches, and as inaccessible to remorse as hardened against +repentance. With him interest and bribes are everything, and honour and +honesty nothing. The supplicant or the pleader who appears before him +with no other support than the justice of his cause is fortunate indeed +if, after being cast, he is not also confined or ruined, and perhaps +both; while a line from one of the Bonapartes, or a purse of gold, +changes black to white, guilt to innocence, removes the scaffold waiting +for the assassin, and extinguishes the faggots lighted for the parricide. +His authority is so extensive that on the least signal, with one blow, +from the extremities of France to her centre, it crushes the cot and the +palace; and his decisions, against which there is no appeal, are so +destructive that they never leave any traces behind them, and Bonaparte, +Bonaparte alone, can prevent or arrest their effect. + +Though a traitor to his former benefactor, the ex-Director Barras, he +possesses now the unlimited confidence of Napoleon Bonaparte, and, as far +as is known, has not yet done anything to forfeit it,--if private acts of +cruelty cannot, in the agent of a tyrant, be called breach of trust or +infidelity. He shares with Talleyrand the fraternity of the vigilant, +immoral, and tormenting secret police; and with Real, and Dubois, the +prefect of police, the reproduction, or rather the invention, of new +tortures and improved racks; the oubliettes, which are wells or pits dug +under the Temple and most other prisons, are the works of his own +infernal genius. They are covered with trap-doors, and any person whom +the rack has mutilated, or not obliged to speak out; whose return to +society is thought dangerous, or whose discretion is suspected; who has +been imprisoned by mistake, or discovered to be innocent; who is +disagreeable to the Bonapartes, their favourites, or the mistresses of +their favourites; who has displeased Fouche, or offended some other +placeman; any who have refused to part with their property for the +recovery of their liberty, are all precipitated into these artificial +abysses there to be forgotten; or worse, to be starved to death, if they +have not been fortunate enough to break their necks and be killed by the +fall. + +The property Fouche has acquired by his robberies within these last +twelve years is at the lowest rate valued at fifty million livres--which +must increase yearly; as a man who disposes of the liberty of fifty +millions of people is also, in a great part, master of their wealth. +Except the chiefs of the Governments and their officers of State, there +exists not an inhabitant of France, Italy, Holland, or Switzerland who +can consider himself secure for an instant of not being seized, +imprisoned, plundered, tortured, or exterminated by the orders of Fouche +and by the hands of his agents. + +You will no doubt exclaim, "How can Bonaparte employ, how dares he +confide, in such a man?" Fouche is as able as unprincipled, and, with +the most unfeeling and perverse heart, possesses great talents. There is +no infamy he will not stoop to, and no crime, however execrable, that he +will hesitate to commit, if his Sovereign orders it. He is, therefore, a +most useful instrument in the hand of a despot who, notwithstanding what +is said to the contrary in France, and believed abroad, would cease to +rule the day he became just, and the reign of laws and of humanity +banished terror and tyranny. + +It is reported that some person, pious or revengeful, presented some time +ago to the devout mother of Napoleon a long memorial containing some +particulars of the crimes and vices of Fouche and Talleyrand, and +required of her, if she wished to prevent the curses of Heaven from +falling on her son, to inform him of them, that he might cease to employ +men so unworthy of him, and so repugnant to a Divinity. Napoleon, after +reading through the memorial, is stated to have answered his mother, who +was always pressing him to dismiss these Ministers: The memorial, Madame, +contains nothing of what I was not previously informed. Louis XVI. did +not select any but those whom he thought the most virtuous and moral of +men for his Ministers and counsellors; and where did their virtues and +morality bring him? If the writer of the memorial will mention two +honest and irreproachable characters, with equal talents and zeal to +serve me, neither Fouche nor Talleyrand shall again be admitted into my +presence. + + + + +LETTER XV. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--You have with some reason in England complained of the conduct +of the members of the foreign diplomatic corps in France, when the +pretended correspondence between Mr. Drake and Mehee de la Touche was +published in our official gazette. Had you, however, like myself, been +in a situation to study the characters and appreciate the worth of most +of them, this conduct would have excited no surprise, and pity would have +taken the place both of accusation and reproach. Hardly one of them, +except Count Philipp von Cobenzl, the Austrian Ambassador (and even he is +considerably involved), possesses any property, or has anything else but +his salary to depend upon for subsistence. The least offence to +Bonaparte or Talleyrand would instantly deprive them of their places; +and, unless they were fortunate enough to obtain some other appointment, +reduce them to live in obscurity, and perhaps in want, upon a trifling +pension in their own country. + +The day before Mr. Drake's correspondence appeared in the Moniteur, in +March, 1804, Talleyrand gave a grand diplomatic dinner; in the midst of +which, as was previously agreed with Bonaparte, Duroc called him out on +the part of the First Consul. After an absence of near an hour, which +excited great curiosity and some alarm among the diplomatists, he +returned, very thoughtful and seemingly very low-spirited. + +"Excuse me, gentlemen," said he, "I have been impolite against my +inclination. The First Consul knew that you honoured me with your +company today, and would therefore not have interrupted me by his orders +had not a discovery of a most extraordinary nature against the law of +nations just been made; a discovery which calls for the immediate +indignation against the Cabinet of St. James, not only of France, but of +every nation that wishes for the preservation of civilized society. +After dinner I shall do myself the honour of communicating to you the +particulars, well convinced that you will all enter with warmth into the +just resentment of the First Consul." + +During the repast the bottle went freely round, and as soon as they had +drunk their coffee and liqueurs, Talleyrand rang a bell, and Hauterive +presented himself with a large bundle of papers. The pretended original +letters of Mr. Drake were handed about with the commentaries of the +Minister and his secretary. Their heads heated with wine, it was not +difficult to influence their minds, or to mislead their judgment, and +they exclaimed, as in a chorus, "C'est abominable! Cela fait fremir!" + +Talleyrand took advantage of their situation, as well as of their +indiscretion. "I am glad, gentlemen," said he, "and shall not fail to +inform the First Consul of your unanimous sentiments on this disagreeable +subject; but verbal expressions are not sufficient in an affair of such +great consequence. I have orders to demand your written declarations, +which, after what you have already expressed, you cannot hesitate about +sending to me to-night, that they may accompany the denunciation which +the First Consul despatches, within some few hours, to all the Courts on +the Continent. You would much please the First Consul were you to write +as near as possible according to the formula which my secretary has drawn +up. It states nothing either against convenance, or against the customs +of Sovereigns, or etiquettes of Courts, and I am certain is also +perfectly congenial with your individual feelings." + +A silence of some moments now followed (as all the diplomatists were +rather taken by surprise with regard to a written declaration), which the +Swedish Ambassador, Baron Ehrensward, interrupted by saying that, "though +he personally might have no objection to sign such a declaration, he must +demand some time to consider whether he had a right to, write in the name +of his Sovereign, without his orders, on a subject still unknown to him." + +This remark made the Austrian Ambassador, Count von Cobenzl, propose a +private consultation among the members of the foreign diplomatic corps at +one of their hotels, at which the Russian charge d'affaires, D'Oubril, +who was not at the dinner--party, was invited to assist. They met +accordingly, at the Hotel de Montmorency, Rue de Lille, occupied by Count +von Cobenzl; but they came to no other unanimous determination than that +of answering a written communication of Talleyrand by a written note, +according as every one judged most proper and prudent, and corresponding +with the supposed sentiments of his Sovereign. + +As all this official correspondence has been published in England, you +may, upon reading the notes presented by Baron de Dreyer, and Mr. +Livingstone, + + [In consequence of this conduct, Livingstone was recalled by his + Government, and lives now in obscurity and disgrace in America. To + console him, however, in his misfortune, Bonaparte, on his + departure, presented him with his portrait, enamelled on the lid of + a snuff-box, set round with diamonds, and valued at one thousand + louis d'or.] + +the neutral Ambassadors of Denmark and America, form some tolerably just +idea of Talleyrand's formula. Their impolitic servility was blamed even +by the other members of the diplomatic corps. + +Livingstone you know, and perhaps have not to learn that, though a stanch +republican in America, he was the most abject courtier in France; and +though a violent defender of liberty and equality on the other side of +the Atlantic, no man bowed lower to usurpation, or revered despotism +more, in Europe. Without talents, and almost without education, he +thinks intrigues negotiations, and conceives that policy and duplicity +are synonymous. He was called here "the courier of Talleyrand," on +account of his voyages to England, and his journeys to Holland, where +this Minister sent him to intrigue, with less ceremony than one of his +secret agents. He acknowledged that no Government was more liberal, and +no nation more free, than the British; but he hated the one as much as he +abused the other; and he did not conceal sentiments that made him always +so welcome to Bonaparte and Talleyrand. Never over nice in the choice of +his companions, Arthur O'Connor, and other Irish traitors and vagabonds, +used his house as their own; so much so that, when he invited other +Ambassadors to dine with him, they, before they accepted the invitation, +made a condition that no outlaws or adventurers should be of the party. + +In your youth, Baron de Dreyer was an Ambassador from the Court of +Copenhagen to that of St. James. He has since been in the same capacity +to the Courts of St. Petersburg and Madrid. Born a Norwegian, of a poor +and obscure family, he owes his advancement to his own talents; but +these, though they have procured him rank, have left him without a +fortune. When he came here, in June, 1797, from Spain, he brought a +mistress with him, and several children he had had by her during his +residence in that country. He also kept an English mistress some thirty +years ago in London, by whom he had a son, M. Guillaumeau, who is now his +secretary. Thus encumbered, and thus situated at the age of seventy, it +is no surprise if he strives to die at his post, and that fear to offend +Bonaparte and Talleyrand sometimes gets the better of his prudence. + +In Denmark, as well as in all other Continental States, the pensions of +diplomatic invalids are more scanty than those of military ones, and +totally insufficient for a man who, during half a century nearly, has +accustomed himself to a certain style of life, and to expenses requisite +to represent his Prince with dignity. No wonder, therefore, that Baron +de Dreyer prefers Paris to Copenhagen, and that the cunning Talleyrand +takes advantage of this preference. + +It was reported here among our foreign diplomatists, that the English +Minister in Denmark complained of the contents of Baron de Dreyer's note +concerning Mr. Drake's correspondence; and that the Danish Prime +Minister, Count von Bernstorff, wrote to him in consequence, by the order +of the Prince Royal, a severe reprimand. This act of political justice +is, however, denied by him, under pretence that the Cabinet of Copenhagen +has laid it down as an invariable rule, never to reprimand, but always to +displace those of its agents with whom it has reason to be discontented. +Should this be the case, no Sovereign in Europe is better served by his +representatives than his Danish Majesty, because no one seldomer changes +or removes them. + +While I am speaking of diplomatists, I cannot forbear giving you a short +sketch of one whose weight in the scale of politics entitles him to +particular notice: I mean the Count von Haugwitz, insidiously +complimented by Talleyrand with the title of "The Prince of Neutrality, +the Sully of Prussia." Christian Henry Curce, Count von Haugwitz, who, +until lately, has been the chief director of the political conscience of +His Prussian Majesty, as his Minister of the Foreign Department, was born +in Silesia, and is the son of a nobleman who was a General in the +Austrian service when Frederick the Great made the conquest of that +country. At the death of this King in 1786, Count von Haugwitz occupied +an inferior place in the foreign office, where Count von Herzburg +observed his zeal and assiduity, and recommended him to the notice of the +late King Frederick William II. By the interest of the celebrated +Bishopswerder, he procured, in 1792, the appointment of an Ambassador to +the Court of Vienna, where he succeeded Baron von Jacobi, the present +Prussian Minister in your country. In the autumn of the same year he +went to Ratisbon, to cooperate with the Austrian Ambassador, and to +persuade the Princes of the German Empire to join the coalition against +France. In the month of March, 1794, he was sent to the Hague, where he +negotiated with Lord Malmesbury concerning the affairs of France; shortly +afterwards his nomination as a Minister of State took place, and from +that time his political sentiments seem to have undergone a revolution, +for which it is not easy to account; but, whatever were the causes of his +change of opinions, the Treaty of Basle, concluded between France and +Prussia in 1795, was certainly negotiated under his auspices; and in +August, 1796, he signed, with the French Minister at Berlin, Citizen +Caillard, the first and famous Treaty of Neutrality; and a Prussian +cordon was accordingly drawn, to cause the neutrality of the North to be +observed and protected. Had the Count von Haugwitz of 1795 been the same +as the Count von Haugwitz of 1792, it is probable we should no longer +have heard of either a French Republic or a French Empire; but a +legitimate Monarch of the kingdom of France would have ensured that +security to all other legitimate Sovereigns, the want of which they +themselves, or their children, will feel and mourn in vain, as long as +unlimited usurpations tyrannize over my wretched country. It is to be +hoped, however, that the good sense of the Count will point out to him, +before it is too late, the impolicy of his present connections; and that +he will use his interest with his Prince to persuade him to adopt a line +of conduct suited to the grandeur and dignity of the Prussian Monarchy, +and favourable to the independence of insulted Europe. + +When his present Prussian Majesty succeeded to the throne, Count von +Haugwitz continued in office, with increased influence; but he some time +since resigned, in consequence, it is said, of a difference of opinion +with the other Prussian Ministers on the subject of a family alliance, +which Bonaparte had the modesty to propose, between the illustrious house +of Napoleon the First and the royal line of Brandenburgh. + +On this occasion his King, to evince his satisfaction with his past +conduct, bestowed on him not only a large pension, but an estate in +Silesia, where he before possessed some property. Bonaparte also, to +express his regret at his retreat, proclaimed His Excellency a grand +officer of the Legion of Honour. + +Talleyrand insolently calls the several cordons, or ribands, distributed +by Bonaparte among the Prussian Ministers and Generals, "his leading- +strings." It is to be hoped that Frederick William III. is sufficiently +upon his guard to prevent these strings from strangling the Prussian +Monarchy and the Brandenburgh dynasty. + + + + +LETTER XVI. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--Upwards of two months after my visit to General Murat, I was +surprised at the appearance of M. Darjuson, the chamberlain of Princesse +Louis Bonaparte. He told me that he came on the part of Prince Louis, +who honoured me with an invitation to dine with him the day after. +Upon my inquiry whether he knew if the party would be very numerous, +he answered, between forty and fifty; and that it was a kind of farewell +dinner, because the Prince intended shortly to set out for Compiegne to +assume the command of the camp, formed in its vicinity, of the dragoons +and other light troops of the army of England. + +The principal personages present at this dinner were Joseph Bonaparte and +his wife, General and Madame Murat, the Ministers Berthier, Talleyrand, +Fouche, Chaptal, and Portalis. The conversation was entirely military, +and chiefly related to the probable conquest or subjugation of Great +Britain, and the probable consequence to mankind in general of such a +great event. No difference of opinion was heard with regard to its +immediate benefit to France and gradual utility to all other nations; but +Berthier seemed to apprehend that, before France could have time to +organize this valuable conquest, she would be obliged to support another +war, with a formidable league, perhaps, of all other European nations. +The issue, however, he said, would be glorious to France, who, by her +achievements, would force all people to acknowledge her their mother +country; and then, first, Europe would constitute but one family. + +Chaptal was as certain as everybody else of the destruction of the +tyrants of the seas; but he thought France would never be secure against +the treachery of modern Carthage until she followed the example of Rome +towards ancient Carthage; and therefore, after reducing London to ashes, +it would be proper to disperse round the universe all the inhabitants of +the British Islands, and to re-people them with nations less evil- +disposed and less corrupted. Portalis observed that it was more easy to +conceive than to execute such a vast plan. It would not be an +undertaking of five, of ten, nor of twenty years, to transplant these +nations; that misfortunes and proscription would not only inspire courage +and obstinacy, but desperation. + +"No people," continued he, "are more attached to their customs and +countries than islanders in general; and though British subjects are the +greatest travellers, and found everywhere, they all suppose their country +the best, and always wish to return to it and finish their days amidst +their native fogs and smoke. Neither the Saxons, nor the Danes, nor +Norman conquerors transplanted them, but, after reducing them, +incorporated themselves by marriages among the vanquished, and in some +few generations were but one people. It is asserted by all persons who +have lately visited Great Britain, that, though the civilization of the +lower classes is much behind that of the same description in France, the +higher orders, the rich and the fashionable, are, with regard to their, +manners, more French than English, and might easily be cajoled into +obedience and subjection to the sovereignty of a nation whose customs, by +free choice, they have adopted in preference to their own, and whose +language forms a necessary part of their education, and, indeed, of the +education of almost every class in the British Empire. The universality +of the French language is the best ally France has in assisting her to +conquer a universal dominion. He wished, therefore, that when we were in +a situation to dictate in England, instead of proscribing Englishmen we +should proscribe the English language, and advance and reward, in +preference, all those parents whose children were sent to be educated in +France, and all those families who voluntarily adopted in their houses +and societies exclusively the French language." + +Murat was afraid that if France did not transplant the most stubborn +Britons, and settle among them French colonies, when once their military +and commercial navy was annihilated, they would turn pirates, and, +perhaps, within half a century, lay all other nations as much under +contribution by their piracies as they now do by their industry; and +that, like the pirates on the coast of Barbary, the instant they had no +connections with other civilized nations, cut the throats of each other, +and agree in nothing but in plundering, and considering all other people +in the, world their natural enemies and purveyors. + +To this opinion Talleyrand, by nodding assent, seemed to adhere; but he +added: "Earthquakes are generally dreaded as destructive; but such a +convulsion of nature as would swallow up the British Islands, with all +their inhabitants, would be the greatest blessing Providence ever +conferred on mankind." + +Louis Bonaparte then addressed himself to me and to the Marquis de F----. +"Gentlemen," said he, "you have been in England; what is your opinion of +the character of these islanders, and of the probability of their +subjugation?" + +I answered that, during the fifteen months I resided in London I was too +much occupied to prevent myself from starving, to meditate about anything +else; that my stomach was my sole meditation as well as anxiety. That, +however, I believed that in England, as everywhere else, a mixture of +good and bad qualities was to be found; but which prevailed, it would be +presumption in me, from my position, to decide. But I did not doubt that +if we cordially hated the English they returned us the compliment with +interest, and, therefore, the contest with them would be a severe one. +The Marquis de F---- imprudently attempted to convince the company that +it was difficult, if not impossible, for our army to land in England, +much more to conquer it, until we were masters of the seas by a superior +navy. He would, perhaps, have been still more indiscreet, had not Madame +Louis interrupted him, and given another turn to the conversation by +inquiring about the fair sex in England, and if it was true that handsome +women were more numerous there than in France? Here again the Marquis, +instead of paying her a compliment, as she perhaps expected, roundly +assured her that for one beauty in France, hundreds might be counted in +England, where gentlemen were, therefore, not so easily satisfied; and +that a woman regarded by them only as an ordinary person would pass for a +first-rate beauty among French beaux, on account of the great scarcity of +them here. + +"You must excuse the Marquis, ladies," said I, in my turn; "he has not +been in love in England. There, perhaps, he found the belles less cruel +than in France, where, for the cruelty of one lady, or for her +insensibility of his merit, he revenges himself on the whole sex: + +"I apply to M. de Talleyrand," answered the Marquis; "he has been longer +in England than myself." + +"I am not a competent judge," retorted the Minister; "Madame de +Talleyrand is here, and has not the honour of being a Frenchwoman; but I +dare say the Marquis will agree with me that in no society in the British +Islands, among a dozen of ladies, has he counted more beauties, or +admired greater accomplishments or more perfection." + +To this the Marquis bowed assent, saying that in all his general remarks +the party present, of course, was not included. All the ladies, who were +well acquainted with his absent and blundering conversation, very good- +humouredly laughed, and Madame Murat assured him that if he would give +her the address of the belle in France who had transformed a gallant +Frenchman into a chevalier of British beauty, she would attempt to make +up their difference. "She is no more, Madame," said the Marquis; "she +was, unfortunately, guillotined two days before----" the father of Madame +Louis, he was going to say, when Talleyrand interrupted him with a +significant look, and said, "Before the fall of Robespierre, you mean." + +From these and other traits of the Marquis's character, you may see that +he erred more from absence of mind than any premeditation to give +offence. He received, however, the next morning, a lettre de cachet from +Fouche, which exiled him to Blois, and forbade him to return to Paris +without further orders from the Minister of Police. I know, from high +authority, that to the interference of Princesse Louis alone is he +indebted for not being shut up in the Temple, and, perhaps, transported +to our colonies, for having depreciated the power and means of France to +invade England. I am perfectly convinced that none of those who spoke on +the subject of the invasion expressed anything but what they really +thought; and that, of the whole party, none, except Talleyrand, the +Marquis, and myself, entertained the least doubt of the success of the +expedition; so firmly did they rely on the former fortune of Bonaparte, +his boastings, and his assurance. + +After dinner I had an opportunity of conversing for ten minutes with +Madame Louis Bonaparte, whom I found extremely amiable, but I fear that +she is not happy. Her husband, though the most stupid, is, however, the +best tempered of the Bonapartes, and seemed very attentive and attached +to her. She was far advanced in her pregnancy, and looked, +notwithstanding, uncommonly well. I have heard that Louis is inclined to +inebriation, and when in that situation is very brutal to his wife, and +very indelicate with other women before her eyes. He intrigues with her +own servants and the number of his illegitimate children is said to be as +many as his years. She asked General Murat to present me and recommend +me to Fouche, which he did with great politeness; and the Minister +assured me that he should be glad to see me at his hotel, which I much +doubt. The last words Madame Louis said to me, in showing me a princely +crown, richly set with diamonds, and given her by her brother-in-law, +Napoleon, were, "Alas! grandeur is not always happiness, nor the most +elevated the most fortunate lot." + + + + +LETTER XVII. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +My LORD:--The arrival of the Pope in this country was certainly a grand +epoch, not only in the history of the Revolution, but in the annals of +Europe. The debates in the Sacred College for and against this journey, +and for and against his coronation of Bonaparte, are said to have been +long as well as violent, and arranged according to the desires of +Cardinal Fesch only by the means of four millions of livres distributed +apropos among its pious members. Of this money the Cardinals Mattei, +Pamphili, Dugnani, Maury, Pignatelli, Roverella, Somaglia, Pacca, +Brancadoro, Litta, Gabrielli, Spina, Despuig, and Galefli, are said to +have shared the greatest part; and from the most violent anti- +Bonapartists, they instantly became the strenuous adherents of Napoleon +the First, who, of course, cannot be ignorant of their real worth. + +The person entrusted by Bonaparte and Talleyrand to carry on at Rome the +intrigue which sent Pius VII. to cross the Alps was Cardinal Fesch, +brother of Madame Letitia Bonaparte by the side of her mother, who, in a +second marriage, chose a pedlar of the name of Nicolo Fesch, for her +husband. + +Joseph, Cardinal Fesch, was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, on the 8th of +March, 1763, and was in his infancy received as a singing boy (enfant de +choeur) in a convent of his native place. In 1782, whilst he was on a +visit to some of his relations in the Island of Sardinia, being on a +fishing party some distance from shore, he was, with his companions, +captured by an Algerine felucca, and carried a captive to Algiers. Here +he turned Mussulman, and, until 1790, was a zealous believer in, and +professor of, the Alcoran. In that year he found an opportunity to +escape from Algiers, and to return to Ajaccio, when he abjured his +renegacy, exchanged the Alcoran for the Bible, and, in 1791, was made a +constitutional curate, that is to say, a revolutionary Christian priest. +In 1793, when even those were proscribed, he renounced the sacristy of +his Church for the bar of a tavern, where, during 1794 and 1795, he +gained a small capital by the number and liberality of his English +customers. After the victories of his nephew Napoleon in Italy during +the following year, he was advised to reassume the clerical habit, and +after Napoleon's proclamation of a First Consul, he was made Archbishop +of Lyons. In 1802, Pius VII. decorated him with the Roman purple, and he +is now a pillar of the Roman faith, in a fair way of seizing the Roman +tiara. If letters from Rome can be depended upon, Cardinal Fesch, in the +name of the Emperor of the French, informed His Holiness the Pope that he +must either retire to a convent or travel to France, either abdicate his +own sovereignty, or inaugurate Napoleon the First a Sovereign of France. +Without the decision of the Sacred College, effected in the manner +already stated, the majority of the faithful believe that this pontiff +would have preferred obscurity to disgrace. + +While Joseph Fesch was a master of a tavern he married the daughter of a +tinker, by whom he had three children. This marriage, according to the +republican regulations, had only been celebrated by the municipality at +Ajaccio; Fesch, therefore, upon again entering the bosom of the Church, +left his municipal wife and children to shift for themselves, considering +himself still, according to the canonical laws, a bachelor. But Madame +Fesch, hearing, in 1801, of her ci-devant husband's promotion to the +Archbishopric of Lyons, wrote to him for some succours, being with her +children reduced to great misery. Madame Letitia Bonaparte answered her +letter, enclosing a draft for six hundred livres--informing her that the +same sum would be paid her every six months, as long as she continued +with her children to reside at Corsica, but that it would cease the +instant she left that island. Either thinking herself not sufficiently +paid for her discretion, or enticed by some enemy of the Bonaparte +family, she arrived secretly at Lyons in October last year, where she +remained unknown until the arrival of the Pope. On the first day His +Holiness gave there his public benediction, she found means to pierce the +crowd, and to approach his person, when Cardinal Fesch was by his side. +Profiting by a moment's silence, she called out loudly, throwing herself +at his feet: "Holy Father! I am the lawful wife of Cardinal Fesch, and +these are our children; he cannot, he dares not, deny this truth. Had he +behaved liberally to me, I should not have disturbed him in his present +grandeur; I supplicate you, Holy Father, not to restore me my husband, +but to force him to provide for his wife and children, according to his +present circumstances."--"Matta--ella e matta, santissimo padre! She is +mad--she is mad, Holy Father," said the Cardinal; and the good pontiff +ordered her to be taken care of, to prevent her from doing herself or the +children any mischief. She was, indeed, taken care of, because nobody +ever since heard what has become either of her or her children; and as +they have not returned to Corsica, probably some snug retreat has been +allotted them in France. + +The purple was never disgraced by a greater libertine than Cardinal +Fesch: his amours are numerous, and have often involved him in +disagreeable scrapes. He had, in 1803, an unpleasant adventure at Lyons, +which has since made his stay in that city but short. Having thrown his +handkerchief at the wife of a manufacturer of the name of Girot, she +accepted it, and gave him an appointment at her house, at a time in the +evening when her husband usually went to the play. His Eminence arrived +in disguise, and was received with open arms. But he was hardly seated +by her side before the door of a closet was burst open, and his shoulders +smarted from the lashes inflicted by an offended husband. In vain did he +mention his name and rank; they rather increased than decreased the fury +of Girot, who pretended it was utterly impossible for a Cardinal and +Archbishop to be thus overtaken with the wife of one of his flock; at +last Madame Girot proposed a pecuniary accommodation, which, after some +opposition, was acceded to; and His Eminence signed a bond for one +hundred thousand livres--upon condition that nothing should transpire of +this intrigue--a high price enough for a sound drubbing. On the day when +the bond was due, Girot and his wife were both arrested by the police +commissary, Dubois (a brother of the prefect of police at Paris), accused +of being connected with the coiners, a capital crime at present in this +country. In a search made in their house, bad money to the amount of +three thousand livres was discovered; which they had received the day +before from a man who called himself a merchant from Paris, but who was a +police spy sent to entrap them. After giving up the bond of the +Cardinal, the Emperor graciously remitted the capital punishment, upon +condition that they should be transported for life to Cayenne. + +This is the prelate on whom Bonaparte intends to confer the Roman tiara, +and to constitute a successor of St. Peter. It would not be the least +remarkable event in the beginning of the remarkable nineteenth century +were we to witness the papal throne occupied by a man who from a singing +boy became a renegade slave, from a Mussulman a constitutional curate, +from a tavern-keeper an archbishop, from the son of a pedlar the uncle of +an Emperor, and from the husband of the daughter of a tinker, a member of +the Sacred College. + +His sister, Madame Letitia Bonaparte, presented him, in 1802, with an +elegant library, for which she had paid six hundred thousand livres--and +his nephew, Napoleon, allows him a yearly pension double that amount. +Besides his dignity as a prelate, His Eminence is Ambassador from France +at Rome, a Knight of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece, a grand +officer of the Legion of Honour, and a grand almoner of the Emperor of +the French. + +The Archbishop of Paris is now in his ninety-sixth year, and at his death +Cardinal Fesch is to be transferred to the see of this capital, in +expectation of the triple crown and the keys of St. Peter. + + + + +LETTER XVIII. + +Paris, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--The amiable and accomplished Amelia Frederique, Princess +Dowager of the late Electoral Prince, Charles Louis of Baden, born a +Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, has procured the Electoral House of Baden +the singular honour of giving consorts to three reigning and Sovereign +Princes,--to an Emperor of Russia, to a King of Sweden, and to the +Elector of Bavaria. Such a distinction, and such alliances, called the +attention of those at the head of our Revolution; who, after attempting +in vain to blow up hereditary thrones by the aid of sans-culotte +incendiaries, seated sans-culottes upon thrones, that they might degrade +what was not yet ripe for destruction. + +Charles Frederick, the reigning Elector of Baden, is now near fourscore +years of age. At this period of life if any passions remain, avarice is +more common than ambition; because treasures may be hoarded without +bustle, while activity is absolutely necessary to push forward to the +goal of distinction. Having bestowed a new King on Tuscany, Bonaparte +and Talleyrand also resolved to confer new Electors on Germany. A more +advantageous fraternity could not be established between the innovators +here and their opposers in other countries, than by incorporating the +grandfather-in-law of so many Sovereigns with their own revolutionary +brotherhood; to humble him by a new rank, and to disgrace him by +indemnities obtained from their hands. An intrigue between our Minister, +Talleyrand, and the Baden Minister, Edelsheim, transformed the oldest +Margrave of Germany into its youngest Elector, and extended his dominions +by the spoils obtained at the expense of the rightful owners. The +invasion of the Baden territory in time of peace, and the seizure of the +Duc d'Enghien, though under the protection of the laws of nations and +hospitality, must have soon convinced Baron Edelsheim what return his +friend Talleyrand expected, and that Bonaparte thought he had a natural +right to insult by his attacks those he had dishonoured by his +connections. + +The Minister, Baron Edelsheim, is half an illuminato, half a philosopher, +half a politician, and half a revolutionist. He was, long before he was +admitted into the council chamber of his Prince, half an atheist, half an +intriguer, and half a spy, in the pay of Frederick the Great of Prussia. +His entry upon the stage at Berlin, and particularly the first parts he +was destined to act, was curious and extraordinary; whether he acquitted +himself better in this capacity than he has since in his political one is +not known. He was afterwards sent to this capital to execute a +commission, of which he acquitted himself very ill; exposing himself +rashly, without profit or service to his employer. Frederick II., +dreading the tediousness of a proposed congress at Augsburg, wished to +send a private emissary to sound the King of France. For this purpose he +chose Edelsheim as a person least liable to suspicion. The project of +Frederick was to idemnify the King of Poland for his first losses by +robbing the ecclesiastical Princes of Germany. This, Louis XV. totally +rejected; and Edelsheim returned with his answer to the Prussian Monarch, +then at Freyburg. From thence he afterwards departed for London, made +his communications, and was once again sent back to Paris, on pretence +that he had left some of his travelling trunks there; and the Bailli de +Foulay, the Ambassador of the Knights of Malta, being persuaded that the +Cabinet of Versailles was effectually desirous of peace, was, as he had +been before, the mediator. The Bailli was deceived. The Duc de +Choiseul, the then Prime Minister, indecently enough threw Edelsheim into +the Bastille, in order to search or seize his papers, which, however, +were secured elsewhere. Edelsheim was released on the morrow, but +obliged to depart the kingdom by the way of Turin, as related by +Frederick II. in his "History of the Seven Years' War." On his return he +was disgraced, and continued so until 1778; when he again was used as +emissary to various Courts of Germany. In 1786 the Elector of Baden sent +him to Berlin, on the ascension of Frederick William II., as a +complimentary envoy. This Monarch, when he saw him, could not forbear +laughing at the high wisdom of the Court that selected such a personage +for such an embassy, and of his own sagacity in accepting it. He quitted +the capital of Prussia as he came there, with an opinion of himself that +the royal smiles of contempt had neither altered nor diminished. + +You see, by this account, that Edelsheim has long been a partisan of the +pillage of Germany called indemnities; and long habituated to affronts, +as well as to plots. To all his other half qualities, half modesty can +hardly be added, when he calls himself, or suffers himself to be called, +"the Talleyrand of Carlsrhue." He accompanied his Prince last year to +Mentz; where this old Sovereign was not treated by Bonaparte in the most +decorous or decent manner, being obliged to wait for hours in his +antechamber, and afterwards stand during the levees, or in the drawing- +rooms of Napoleon or of his wife, without the offer of a chair, or an +invitation to sit down. It was here where, by a secret treaty, Bonaparte +became the Sovereign of Baden, if sovereignty consists in the disposal of +the financial and military resources of a State; and they were agreed to +be assigned over to him whenever he should deem it proper or necessary to +invade the German Empire, in return for his protection against the +Emperor of Germany, who can have no more interest than intent to attack a +country so distant from his hereditary dominions, and whose Sovereign is, +besides, the grandfather of the consort of his nearest and best ally. + +Talleyrand often amused himself at Mentz with playing on the vanity and +affected consequence of Edelsheim, who was delighted if at any time our +Minister took him aside, or whispered to him as in confidence. One +morning, at the assembly of the Elector Arch-Chancellor, where Edelsheim +was creeping and cringing about him as usual, he laid hold of his arm and +walked with him to the upper part of the room. In a quarter of an hour +they both joined the company, Edelsheim unusually puffed up with vanity. + +"I will lay and bet, gentlemen," said Talleyrand, "that you cannot, with +all your united wits, guess the grand subject of my conversation with the +good Baron Edelsheim." Without waiting for an answer, he continued: "As +the Baron is a much older and more experienced traveller than myself, I +asked him which, of all the countries he had visited, could boast the +prettiest and kindest women. His reply was really very instructive, and +it would be a great pity if justice were not done to his merit by its +publicity." + +Here the Baron, red as a turkey-cock and trembling with anger, +interrupted. "His Excellency," said he, "is to-night in a humour to +joke; what we spoke of had nothing to do with women." + +"Nor with men, either," retorted Talleyrand, going away. + +This anecdote, Baron Dahlberg, the Minister of the Elector of Baden to +our Court, had the ingenuity to relate at Madame Chapui's as an evidence +of Edelsheim's intimacy with Talleyrand; only he left out the latter +part, and forgot to mention the bad grace with which this impertinence of +Talleyrand was received; but this defect of memory Count von Beust, the +envoy of the Elector Arch-Chancellor, kindly supplied. + +Baron Edelsheim is a great amateur of knighthoods. On days of great +festivities his face is, as it were, illuminated with the lustre of his +stars; and the crosses on his coat conceal almost its original colour. +Every petty Prince of Germany has dubbed him a chevalier; but Emperors +and Kings have not been so unanimous in distinguishing his desert, or in +satisfying his desires. + +At Mentz no Prince or Minister fawned more assiduously upon Bonaparte +than this hero of chivalry. It could not escape notice, but need not +have alarmed our great man, as was the case. The prefect of the palace +was ordered to give authentic information concerning Edelsheim's moral +and political character. He applied to the police commissary, who, +within twenty hours, signed a declaration affirming that Edelsheim was +the most inoffensive and least dangerous of all imbecile creatures that +ever entered the Cabinet of a Prince; that he had never drawn a sword, +worn a dagger, or fired a pistol in his life; that the inquiries about +his real character were sneered at in every part of the Electorate, as +nowhere they allowed him common sense, much less a character; all blamed +his presumption, but none defended his capacity. + +After the perusal of this report, Bonaparte asked Talleyrand: "What can +Edelsheim mean by his troublesome assiduities? Does he want any +indemnities, or does he wish me to make him a German Prince? Can he have +the impudence to hope that I shall appoint him a tribune, a legislator, +or a Senator in France, or that I shall give him a place in my Council of +State?" + +"No such thing," answered the Minister; "did not Your Majesty condescend +to notice at the last fete that this eclipsed moon was encompassed in a +firmanent of stars. You would, Sire, make him the happiest of mortals +were you to nominate him a member of your Legion of Honour." + +"Does he want nothing else?" said Napoleon, as if relieved at once of an +oppressive burden. "Write to my chancellor of the Legion of Honour, +Lacepede, to send him a patent, and do you inform him of this favour." + +It is reported at Carlsruhe, the capital of Baden, that Baron Edelsheim +has composed his own epitaph, in which he claims immortality, because +under his Ministry the Margravate of Baden was elevated into an +Electorate!!! + + + + +LETTER XIX. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--The sensation that the arrival of the Pope in this country +caused among the lower classes of people cannot be expressed, and if +expressed, would not be believed. I am sorry, however, to say that, +instead of improving their morals or increasing their faith, this journey +has shaken both morality and religion to their foundation. + +According to our religious notions, as you must know, the Roman pontiff +is the vicar of Christ, and infallible; he can never err. The atheists +of the National Convention and the Theophilanthropists of the Directory +not only denied his demi-divinity, but transformed him into a satyr; and +in pretending to tear the veil of superstition, annihilated all belief in +a God. The ignorant part of our nation, which, as everywhere else, +constitutes the majority, witnessing the impunity and prosperity of +crime, and bestowing on the Almighty the passions of mortals, first +doubted of His omnipotence in not crushing guilt, and afterwards of His +existence in not exterminating the blasphemous from among the living. +Feeling, however, the want of consolation in their misfortunes here, and +hope of a reward hereafter for unmerited sufferings upon earth, they all +hailed as a blessing the restoration of Christianity; and by this +political act Bonaparte gained more adherents than by all his victories +he had procured admirers. + +Bonaparte's character, his good and his bad qualities, his talents and +his crimes, are too recent and too notorious to require description. +Should he continue successful, and be attended by fortune to his grave, +future ages may perhaps hail him a hero and a great man; but by his +contemporaries it will always be doubtful whether mankind has not +suffered more from his ambition and cruelties than benefited by his +services. Had he satisfied himself by continuing the Chief Magistrate of +a Commonwealth; or, if he judged that a monarchical Government alone was +suitable to the spirit of this country, had he recalled our legitimate +King, he would have occupied a principal, if not the first, place in the +history of France,--a place much more exalted than he can ever expect to +fill as an Emperor of the French. Let his prosperity be ever so +uninterrupted, he cannot be mentioned but as an usurper, an appellation +never exciting esteem, frequently inspiring contempt, and always odious. + +The crime of usurpation is the greatest and most enormous a subject can +perpetrate; but what epithet can there be given to him who, to preserve +an authority unlawfully acquired, asssociates in his guilt a Supreme +Pontiff, whom the multitude is accustomed to reverence as the +representative of their God, but who, by this act of scandal and +sacrilege, descends to a level with the most culpable of men? I have +heard, not only in this city but in villages, where sincerity is more +frequent than corruption, and where hypocrites are as little known as +infidels, these remarks made by the people: + +"Can the real vicar of Christ, by his inauguration, commit the double +injustice of depriving the legitimate owner of his rights, and of +bestowing as a sacred donation what belongs to another; and what he has +no power, no authority, to dispose of? Can Pius VII. confer on Napoleon +the First what belongs to Louis XVIII.? Would Jesus Christ, if upon +earth, have acted thus? Would his immediate successors, the Apostles, +not have preferred the suffering of martyrdom to the commission of any +injury? If the present Roman pontiff acts differently from what his +Master and predecessors would have done, can he be the vicar of our +Saviour?" + +These and many similar reflections the common people have made, and make +yet. The step from doubt to disbelief is but short, and those brought up +in the Roman Catholic religion, who hesitate about believing Pius VII. +to be the vicar of Christ, will soon remember the precepts of atheists +and freethinkers, and believe that Christ is not the Son of God, and that +God is only the invention of fear. + +The fact is, that by the Pope's performance of the coronation of an +Emperor of the French, a religious as well as a political revolution was +effected; and the usurper in power, whatever his creed may be, will +hereafter, without much difficulty, force it on his slaves. You may, +perhaps, object that Pius VII., in his official account to the Sacred +College of his journey to France, speaks with enthusiasm of the +Catholicism of the French people. But did not the Goddess of Reason, did +not Robespierre as a high priest of a Supreme Being, speak as highly of +their sectaries? Read the Moniteur of 1793 and 1794, and you will be +convinced of the truth of this assertion. They, like the Pope, spoke of +what they saw, and they, like him, did not see an individual who was not +instructed how to perform his part, so as to give satisfaction to him +whom he was to please, and to those who employed him. As you have +attended to the history of our Revolution, you have found it in great +part a cruel masquerade, where none but the unfortunate Louis XVI. +appeared in his native and natural character and without a mask. + +The countenance of Pius VII. is placid and benign, and a kind of calmness +and tranquillity pervades his address and manners, which are, however, +far from being easy or elegant. The crowds that he must have been +accustomed to see since his present elevation have not lessened a +timidity the consequence of early seclusion. Nothing troubled him more +than the numerous deputations of our Senate, Legislative Body, Tribunate, +National Institute, Tribunals, etc., that teased him on every occasion. +He never was suspected of any vices, but all his virtues are negative; +and his best quality is, not to do good, but to prevent evil. His piety +is sincere and unaffected, and it is not difficult to perceive that he +has been more accustomed to address his God than to converse with men. +He is nowhere so well in his place as before the altar; when imploring +the blessings of Providence on his audience he speaks with confidence, as +to a friend to whom his purity is known, and who is accustomed to listen +favourably to his prayers. He is zealous but not fanatical, but equally +superstitious as devout. His closet was crowded with relics, rosaries, +etc., but there he passed generally eight hours of the twenty-four upon +his knees in prayer and meditation. He often inflicted on himself +mortifications, observed fast-days, and kept his vows with religious +strictness. + +None of the promises made him by Cardinal Fesch, in the name of Napoleon +the First, were performed, but all were put off until a general +pacification. He was promised indemnity for Avignon, Bologna, Ferrara, +and Ravenna; the ancient supremacy and pecuniary contributions of the +Gallican Church, and the restoration of certain religious orders, both in +France and Italy; but notwithstanding his own representations, and the +activity of his Cardinal, Caprara, nothing was decided, though nothing +was refused. + +By some means or other he was made perfectly acquainted with the crimes +and vices of most of our public functionaries. Talleyrand was surprised +when Cardinal Caprara explained to him the reason why the Pope refused to +admit some persons to his presence, and why he wished others even not to +be of the party when he accepted the invitations of Bonaparte and his +wife to their private societies. Many are, however, of opinion that +Talleyrand, from malignity or revenge, often heightened and confirmed His +Holiness's aversion. This was at least once the case with regard to De +Lalande. When Duroc inquired the cause of the Pope's displeasure against +this astronomer, and hinted that it would be very agreeable to the +Emperor were His Holiness to permit him the honour of prostrating +himself, he was answered that men of talents and learning would always be +welcome to approach his person; that he pitied the errors and prayed for +the conversion of this savant, but was neither displeased nor offended +with him. Talleyrand, when informed of the Pope's answer, accused +Cardinal Caprara of having misinterpreted his master's communications; +and this prelate, in his turn, censured our Minister's bad memory. + +You must have read that this De Lalande is regarded in France as the +first astronomer of Europe, and hailed as the high priest of atheists; +he is said to be the author of a shockingly blasphemous work called "The +Bible of a People who acknowledge no God." He implored the ferocious +Robespierre to honour the heavens by bestowing, on a new planet pretended +to be discovered, his ci-devant Christian-name, Maximilian. In a letter +of congratulation to Bonaparte, on the occasion of his present elevation, +he also implored him to honour the God of the Christians by styling +himself Jesus Christ the First, Emperor of the French, instead of +Napoleon the First. But it was not his known impiety that made +Talleyrand wish to exclude him from insulting with his presence a +Christian pontiff. In the summer of 1799, when the Minister was in a +momentary disgrace, De Lalande was at the head of those who imputed to +his treachery, corruptions, and machinations all the evils France then +suffered, both from external enemies and internal factions. If +Talleyrand has justly been reproached for soon forgetting good offices +and services done him, nobody ever denied that he has the best +recollection in the world of offences or attacks, and that he is as +revengeful as unforgiving. + +The only one of our great men whom Pius VII. remained obstinate and +inflexible in not receiving, was the Senator and Minister of Police, +Fouche. As His Holiness was not so particular with regard to other +persons who, like Fouche, were both apostate priests and regicide +subjects, the following is reported to be the cause of his aversion and +obduracy: + +In November, 1793, the remains of a wretch of the name of Challiers-- +justly called, for his atrocities, the Murat of Lyons--were ordered by +Fouche, then a representative of the people in that city, to be produced +and publicly worshipped; and, under his particular auspices, a grand fete +was performed to the memory of this republican martyr, who had been +executed as an assassin. As part of this impious ceremony, an ass, +covered with a Bishop's vestments, having on his head a mitre, and the +volumes of Holy Writ tied to his tail, paraded the streets. The remains +of Challiers were then burnt, and the ashes distributed among his +adorers; while the books were also consumed, and the ashes scattered in +the wind. Fouche proposed, after giving the ass some water to drink in a +sacred chalice, to terminate the festivity of the day by murdering all +the prisoners, amounting to seven thousand five hundred; but a sudden +storm prevented the execution of this diabolical proposition, and +dispersed the sacrilegious congregation. + + + + +LETTER XX. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--Though all the Bonapartes were great favourites with Pius VII., +Madame Letitia, their mother, had a visible preference. In her +apartments he seemed most pleased to meet the family parties, as they +were called, because to them, except the Bonapartes, none but a few +select favourites were invited,--a distinction as much wished for and +envied as any other Court honour. After the Pope had fixed the evening +he would appear among them, Duroc made out a list, under the dictates of +Napoleon, of the chosen few destined to partake of the blessing of His +Holiness's presence; this list was merely pro form, or as a compliment, +laid before him; and after his tacit approbation, the individuals were +informed, from the first chamberlain's office, that they would be +honoured with admittance at such an hour, to such a company, and in such +an apartment. The dress in which they were to appear was also +prescribed. The parties usually met at six o'clock in the evening. On +the Pope's entrance all persons, of both sexes, kneeled to receive his +blessing. Tea, ice, liqueurs, and confectionery were then served. In +the place of honour were three elevated elbow-chairs, and His Holiness +was seated between the Emperor and Empress, and seldom spoke to any one +to whom Napoleon did not previously address the word. The exploits of +Bonaparte, particularly his campaigns in Egypt, were the chief subjects +of conversation. Before eight o'clock the Pope always retired, +distributing his blessing to the kneeling audience, as on his entry. +When he was gone, card-tables were brought in, and play was permitted. +Duroc received his master's orders how to distribute the places at the +different tables, what games were to be played, and the amount of the +sums to be staked. These were usually trifling and small compared to +what is daily risked in our fashionable circles. + +Often, after the Pope had returned to his own rooms, Madame Letitia +Bonaparte was admitted to assist at his private prayers. This lady, +whose intrigues and gallantry are proverbial in Corsica, has, now that +she is old (as is generally the case), turned devotee, and is surrounded +by hypocrites and impostors, who, under the mask of sanctity, deceive and +plunder her. Her antechambers are always full of priests; and her closet +and bedroom are crowded with relics, which she collected during her +journey to Italy last year. She might, if she chose, establish a +Catholic museum, and furnish it with a more curious collection, in its +sort, than any of our other museums contain. Of all the saints in our +calendar, there is not one of any notoriety who has not supplied her with +a finger, a toe, or some other part; or with a piece of a shirt, a +handkerchief, a sandal, or a winding-sheet. Even a bit of a pair of +breeches, said to have belonged to Saint Mathurin, whom many think was a +sans-cullotte, obtains her adoration on certain occasions. As none of +her children have yet arrived at the same height of faith as herself, +she has, in her will, bequeathed to the Pope all her relics, together +with eight hundred and seventy-nine Prayer-books, and four hundred and +forty-six Bibles, either in manuscript or of different editions. Her +favourite breviary, used only on great solemnities, was presented to her +by Cardinal Maury at Rome, and belonged, as it is said, formerly to Saint +Francois, whose commentary, written with his own hand, fills the margins; +though many, who with me adore him as a saint, doubt whether he could +either read or write. + +Not long ago she made, as she thought, an exceedingly valuable +acquisition. A priest arrived direct from the Holy City of Jerusalem, +well recommended by the inhabitants of the convents there, with whom he +pretended to have passed his youth. After prostrating himself before the +Pope, he waited on Madame Letitia Bonaparte. He told her that he had +brought with him from Syria the famous relic, the shoulder-bone of Saint +John the Baptist; but that, being in want of money for his voyage, he +borrowed upon it from a Grecian Bishop in Montenegro two hundred louis +d'or. This sum, and one hundred louis d'or besides, was immediately +given him; and within three months, for a large sum in addition to those +advanced, this precious relic was in Madame Letitia's possession. + +Notwithstanding this lady's care not to engage in her service any person +of either sex who cannot produce, not a certificate of civism from the +municipality as was formerly the case, but a certificate of Christianity, +and a billet of confession signed by the curate of the parish, she had +often been robbed, and the robbers had made particularly free with those +relics which were set in gold or in diamonds. She accused her daughter, +the Princesse Borghese, who often rallies the devotion of her mamma, and +who is more an amateur of the living than of the dead, of having played +her these tricks. The Princess informed Napoleon of her mother's losses, +as well as of her own innocence, and asked him to apply to the police to +find out the thief, who no doubt was one of the pious rogues who almost +devoured their mother. + +On the next day Napoleon invited Madame Letitia to dinner, and Fouche had +orders to make a strict search, during her absence, among the persons +composing her household. Though he, on this occasion, did not find what +he was looking for, he made a discovery which very much mortified Madame +Letitia. + +Her first chambermaid, Rosina Gaglini, possessed both her esteem and +confidence, and had been sent for purposely from Ajaccio, in Corsica, on +account of her general renown for great piety, and a report that she was +an exclusive favourite with the Virgin Mary, by whose interference she +had even performed, it was said, some miracles; such as restoring stolen +goods, runaway cattle, lost children, and procuring prizes in the +lottery. Rosina was as relic-mad as her mistress; and as she had no +means to procure them otherwise, she determined to partake of her lady's +by cutting off a small part of each relic of Madame Letitia's principal +saints. These precious 'morceaux' she placed in a box upon which she +kneeled to say her prayers during the day; and which, for a +mortification, served her as a pillow during the night. Upon each of the +sacred bits she had affixed a label with the name of the saint it +belonged to, which occasioned the disclosure. When Madame Letitia heard +of this pious theft, she insisted on having the culprit immediately and +severely punished; and though the Princesse Borghese, as the innocent +cause of poor Rosina's misfortune, interfered, and Rosina herself +promised never more to plunder saints, she was without mercy turned away, +and even denied money sufficient to carry her back to Corsica. Had she +made free with Madame Letitia's plate or wardrobe, there is no doubt but +that she had been forgiven; but to presume to share with her those sacred +supports on her way to Paradise was a more unpardonable act with a +devotee than to steal from a lover the portrait of an adored mistress. + +In the meantime the police were upon the alert to discover the person +whom they suspected of having stolen the relics for the diamonds, and not +the diamonds for the relics. Among our fashionable and new saints, +surprising as you may think it, Madame de Genlis holds a distinguished +place; and she, too, is an amateur and collector of relics in proportion +to her means; and with her were found those missed by Madame Letitia. +Being asked to give up the name of him from whom she had purchased them, +she mentioned Abbe Saladin, the pretended priest from Jerusalem. He, in +his turn, was questioned, and by his answers gave rise to suspicion that +he himself was the thief. The person of whom he pretended to have bought +them was not to be found, nor was any one of such a description +remembered to have been seen anywhere. On being carried to prison, he +claimed the protection of Madame Letitia, and produced a letter in which +this lady had promised him a bishopric either in France or in Italy. +When she was informed of his situation, she applied to her son Napoleon +for his liberty, urging that a priest who from Jerusalem had brought with +him to Europe such an extraordinary relic as the shoulder of Saint John, +could not be culpable. + +Abbe Saladin had been examined by Real, who concluded, from the accent +and perfection with which he spoke the French language, that he was some +French adventurer who had imposed on the credulity and superstition of +Madame Letitia; and, therefore, threatened him with the rack if he did +not confess the truth. He continued, however, in his story, and was +going to be released upon an order from the Emperor, when a gendarme +recognized him as a person who, eight years before, had, under the name +of Lanoue, been condemned for theft and forgery to the galleys, whence he +had made his escape. Finding himself discovered, he avowed everything. +He said he had served in Egypt, in the guides of Bonaparte, but deserted +to the Turks and turned Mussulman, but afterwards returned to the bosom +of the Church at Jerusalem. There he persuaded the friars that he had +been a priest, and obtained the certificates which introduced him to the +Pope and to the Emperor's mother; from whom he had received twelve +thousand livres for part of the jaw bone of a whale, which he had sold +her for the shoulder-bone of a saint. As the police believe the +certificates he has produced to be also forged, he is detained in prison +until an answer arrives from our Consul in Syria. + +Madame Letitia did not resign without tears the relic he had sold her; +and there is reason to believe that many other pieces of her collections, +worshipped by her as remains of saints, are equally genuine as this +shoulder-bone of Saint John. + + + + +LETTER XXI. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--That the population of this capital has, since the Revolution, +decreased near two hundred thousand souls, is not to be lamented. This +focus of corruption and profligacy is still too populous, though the +inhabitants do not amount to six hundred thousand; for I am well +persuaded that more crimes and excesses of every description are +committed here in one year than are perpetrated in the same period of +time in all other European capitals put together. From not reading in +our newspapers, as we do in yours, of the robberies, murders, and frauds +discovered and punished, you may, perhaps, be inclined to suppose my +assertion erroneous or exaggerated; but it is the policy of our present +Government to labour as much as possible in the dark; that is to say, to +prevent, where it can be done, all publicity of anything directly or +indirectly tending to inculpate it of oppression, tyranny, or even +negligence; and to conceal the immorality of the people so nearly +connected with its own immoral power. It is true that many vices and +crimes here, as well as everywhere else, are unavoidable, and the natural +consequences of corruption, and might be promulgated, therefore, without +attaching any reproach to our rulers; but they are so accustomed to the +mystery adherent to tyranny, that even the most unimportant lawsuit, +uninteresting intrigue, elopement, or divorce, are never allowed to be +mentioned in our journals, without a previous permission from the prefect +of police, who very seldom grants it. + +Most of the enormities now deplored in this country are the consequence +of moral and religious licentiousness, that have succeeded to political +anarchy, or rather were produced by it, and survive it. Add to this the +numerous examples of the impunity of guilt, prosperity of infamy, misery +of honesty, and sufferings of virtue, and you will not think it +surprising that, notwithstanding half a million of spies, our roads and +streets are covered with robbers and assassins, and our scaffolds with +victims. + +The undeniable TRUTH that this city alone is watched by one hundred +thousand spies (so that, when in company with six persons, one has reason +to dread the presence of one spy), proclaims at once the morality of the +governors and that of the governed: were the former just, and the latter +good, this mass of vileness would never be employed; or, if employed, +wickedness would expire for want of fuel, and the hydra of tyranny perish +by its own pestilential breath. + +According to the official registers published by Manuel in 1792, the +number of spies all over France during the reign of Louis XVI. was +nineteen thousand three hundred (five thousand less than under Louis +XV.); and of this number six thousand were distributed in Paris, and in a +circle of four leagues around it, including Versailles. You will +undoubtedly ask me, even allowing for our extension of territory, what +can be the cause of this disproportionate increase of distrust and +depravity? I will explain it as far as my abilities admit, according to +the opinions of others compared with my own remarks. + +When factions usurped the supremacy of the Kings, vigilance augmented +with insecurity; and almost everybody who was not an opposer, who refused +being an accomplice, or feared to be a victim, was obliged to serve as an +informer and vilify himself by becoming a spy. The rapidity with which +parties followed and destroyed each other made the criminals as numerous +as the sufferings of honour and loyalty innumerable; and I am sorry to +say few persons exist in my degraded country, whose firmness and +constancy were proof against repeated torments and trials, and who, to +preserve their lives, did not renounce their principles and probity. + +Under the reign of Robespierre and of the Committee of Public Safety, +every member of Government, of the clubs, of the tribunals, and of the +communes, had his private spies; but no regular register was kept of +their exact number. Under the Directory a Police Minister was nominated, +and a police office established. According to the declaration of the +Police Minister, Cochon, in 1797, the spies, who were then regularly +paid, amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand; and of these, thirty +thousand did duty in this capital. How many there were in 1799, when +Fouche, for the first time, was appointed a chief of the department of +police, is not known, but suppose them doubled within two years; their +increase since is nevertheless immense, considering that France has +enjoyed upwards of four years' uninterrupted Continental peace, and has +not been exposed to any internal convulsions during the same period. + +You may, perhaps, object that France is not rich enough to keep up as +numerous an army of spies as of soldiers; because the expense of the +former must be triple the amount of the latter. Were all these spies, +now called police agents, or agents of the secret police, paid regular +salaries, your objection would stand, but most of them have no other +reward than the protection of the police; being employed in gambling-- +houses, in coffee--houses, in taverns, at the theatres, in the public +gardens, in the hotels, in lottery offices, at pawnbrokers', in brothels, +and in bathing-houses, where the proprietors or masters of these +establishments pay them. They receive nothing from the police, but when +they are enabled to make any great discoveries, those who have been +robbed or defrauded, and to whom they have been serviceable, are, indeed, +obliged to present them with some douceur, fixed by the police at the +rate of the value recovered; but such occurrences are merely accidental. +To these are to be added all individuals of either sex who by the law are +obliged to obtain from the police licenses to exercise their trade, as +pedlars, tinkers, masters of puppet-shows, wild beasts, etc. These, on +receiving their passes, inscribe themselves, and take the oaths as spies; +and are forced to send in their regular reports of what they hear or see. +Prostitutes, who, all over this country, are under the necessity of +paying for regular licenses, are obliged also to give information, from +time to time, to the nearest police commissary of what they observe or +what they know respecting their visitors, neighbours, etc. The number of +unfortunate women of this description who had taken out licenses during +the year 12, or from September, 1803, to September, 1804, is officially +known to have amounted to two hundred and twenty thousand, of whom forty +thousand were employed by the armies. + +It is no secret that Napoleon Bonaparte has his secret spies upon his +wife, his brothers, his sisters, his Ministers, Senators, and other +public functionaries, and also upon his public spies. These are all +under his own immediate control and that of Duroc, who does the duty of +his private Police Minister, and in whom he confides more than even in +the members of his own family. In imitation of their master, each of the +other Bonapartes, and each of the Ministers, have their individual spies, +and are watched in their turn by the spies of their secretaries, clerks, +etc. This infamous custom of espionage goes ad infinitum, and appertains +almost to the establishment and to the suite of each man in place, who +does not think himself secure a moment if he remains in ignorance of the +transactions of his rivals, as well as of those of his equals and +superiors. + +Fouche and Talleyrand are reported to have disagreed before Bonaparte on +some subject or other, which is frequently the case. The former, +offended at some doubts thrown out about his intelligence, said to the +latter: + +"I am so well served that I can tell you the name of every man or woman +you have conversed with, both yesterday and today; where you saw them, +and how long you remained with them or they with you." + +"If such commonplace espionage evinces any merit," retorted Talleyrand, +"I am even here your superior; because I know not only what has already +passed with you and in your house, but what is to pass hereafter. I can +inform you of every dish you had for your dinners this week, who provided +these dinners, and who is expected to provide your meats to-morrow and +the day after. I can whisper you, in confidence, who slept with Madame +Fouche last night, and who has an appointment with her to-night." + +Here Bonaparte interrupted them, in his usual dignified language: "Hold +both your tongues; you are both great rogues, but I am at a loss to +decide which is the greatest." + +Without uttering a single syllable, Talleyrand made a profound reverence +to Fouche. Bonaparte smiled, and advised them to live upon good terms if +they were desirous of keeping their places. + +A man of the name of Ducroux, who, under Robespierre, had from a barber +been made a general, and afterwards broken for his ignorance, was engaged +by Bonaparte as a private spy upon Fouche, who employed him in the same +capacity upon Bonaparte. His reports were always written, and delivered +in person into the hands both of the Emperor and of his Minister. One +morning he, by mistake, gave to Bonaparte the report of him instead of +that intended for him. Bonaparte began to read: "Yesterday, at nine +o'clock, the Emperor acted the complete part of a madman; he swore, +stamped, kicked, foamed, roared--", here poor Ducroux threw himself at +Bonaparte's feet, and called for mercy for the terrible blunder he had +committed. + +"For whom," asked Bonaparte, "did you intend this treasonable +correspondence? I suppose it is composed for some English or Russian +agent, for Pitt or for Marcoff. How long have you conspired with my +enemies, and where are your accomplices?" + +"For God's sake, hear me, Sire," prayed Ducroux. "Your Majesty's enemies +have always been mine. The report is for one of your best friends; but +were I to mention his name, he will ruin me." + +"Speak out, or you die!" vociferated Bonaparte. + +"Well,'Sire, it is for Fouche--for nobody else but Fouche." + +Bonaparte then rang the bell for Duroc, whom he ordered to see Ducroux +shut up in a dungeon, and afterwards to send for Fouche. The Minister +denied all knowledge of Ducroux, who, after undergoing several tortures, +expiated his blunder upon the rack. + + + + +LETTER XXII. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--The Pope, during his stay here, rose regularly every morning at +five o'clock, and went to bed every night before ten. The first hours of +the day he passed in prayers, breakfasted after the Mass was over, +transacted business till one, and dined at two. Between three and four +he took--his siesta, or nap; afterwards he attended the vespers, and when +they were over he passed an hour with the Bonapartes, or admitted to his +presence some members of the clergy. The day was concluded, as it was +begun, with some hours of devotion. + +Had Pius VII. possessed the character of a Pius VI., he would never have +crossed the Alps; or had he been gifted with the spirit and talents of +Sextus V. or Leo X., he would never have entered France to crown +Bonaparte, without previously stipulating for himself that he should be +put in possession of the sovereignty of Italy. You can form no idea what +great stress was laid on this act of His Holiness by the Bonaparte +family, and what sacrifices were destined to be made had any serious and +obstinate resistance been apprehended. Threats were, indeed, employed +personally against the Pope, and bribes distributed to the refractory +members of the Sacred College; but it was no secret, either here or at +Milan, that Cardinal Fesch had carte blanche with regard to the +restoration of all provinces seized, since the war, from the Holy See, or +full territorial indemnities in their place, at the expense of Naples and +Tuscany; and, indeed, whatever the Roman pontiff has lost in Italy has +been taken from him by Bonaparte alone, and the apparent generosity which +policy and ambition required would, therefore, have merely been an act of +justice. Confiding foolishly in the honour and rectitude of Napoleon, +without any other security than the assertion of Fesch, Pius VII., within +a fortnight's stay in France, found the great difference between the +promises held out to him when residing as a Sovereign at Rome, and their +accomplishment when he had so far forgotten himself and his sacred +dignity as to inhabit as a guest the castle of the Tuileries. + +Pius VII. mentioned, the day after his arrival at Fontainebleau, +that it would be a gratification to his own subjects were he enabled to +communicate to them the restoration of the former ecclesiastical domains, +as a free gift of the Emperor of the French, at their first conference, +as they would then be as well convinced of Napoleon's good faith as he +was himself. In answer, His Holiness was informed that the Emperor was +unprepared to discuss political subjects, being totally occupied with the +thoughts how to entertain worthily his high visitor, and to acknowledge +becomingly the great honour done and the great happiness conferred on him +by such a visit. As soon as the ceremony of the coronation was over, +everything, he hoped, would be arranged to the reciprocal satisfaction of +both parties. + +About the middle of last December, Bonaparte was again asked to fix a +day when the points of negotiation between him and the Pope could be +discussed and settled. Cardinal Caprara, who made this demand, was +referred to Talleyrand, who denied having yet any instructions, though in +daily expectation of them. Thus the time went on until February, when +Bonaparte informed the Pope of his determination to assume the crown of +Italy, and of some new changes necessary, in consequence on the other +side of the Alps. + +Either seduced by caresses, or blinded by his unaccountable partiality +for Bonaparte, Pius VII., if left to himself, would not only have +renounced all his former claims, but probably have made new sacrifices to +this idol of his infatuation. Fortunately, his counsellors were wiser +and less deluded, otherwise the remaining patrimony of Saint Peter might +now have constituted a part of Napoleon's inheritance, in Italy. "Am I +not, Holy Father!" exclaimed the Emperor frequently, "your son, the work +of your hand? And if the pages of history assign me any glory, must it +not be shared with you--or rather, do you not share it with me? Anything +that impedes my successes, or makes the continuance of my power uncertain +or hazardous, reflects on you and is dangerous to you. With me you will +shine or be obscured, rise or fall. Could you, therefore, hesitate (were +I to demonstrate to you the necessity of such a measure) to remove the +Papal See to Avignon, where it formerly was and continued for centuries, +and to enlarge the limits of my kingdom of Italy with the Ecclesiastical +States? Can you believe my throne at Milan safe as long as it is not the +sole throne of Italy? Do you expect to govern at Rome when I cease to +reign at Milan? No, Holy Father! the pontiff who placed the crown on my +head, should it be shaken, will fall to rise no more." If what Cardinal +Caprara said can be depended upon, Bonaparte frequently used to +intimidate or flatter the Pope in this manner. + +The representations of Cardinal Caprara changed Napoleon's first +intention of being again crowned by the Pope as a King of Italy. His +crafty Eminence observed that, according to the Emperor's own +declaration, it was not intended that the crowns of France and Italy +should continue united. But were he to cede one supremacy confirmed by +the sacred hands of a pontiff, the partisans of the Bourbons, or the +factions in France, would then take advantage to diminish in the opinion +of the people his right and the sacredness of His Holiness, and perhaps +make even the crown of the French Empire unstable. He did not deny that +Charlemagne was crowned by a pontiff in Italy, but this ceremony was +performed at Rome, where that Prince was proclaimed an Emperor of the +Holy Roman and German Empires, as well as a King of Lombardy and Italy. +Might not circumstances turn out so favourably for Napoleon the First +that he also might be inaugurated an Emperor of the Germans as well as of +the French? This last compliment, or prophecy, as Bonaparte's courtiers +call it (what a prophet a Caprara!), had the desired effect, as it +flattered equally Napoleon's ambition and vanity. For fear, however, of +Talleyrand and other anti-Catholic counsellors, who wanted him to +consider the Pope merely as his first almoner, and to treat him as all +other persons of his household, His Eminence sent His Holiness as soon as +possible packing for Rome. Though I am neither a cardinal nor a prophet, +should you and I live twenty years longer, and the other Continental +Sovereigns not alter their present incomprehensible conduct, I can, +without any risk, predict that we shall see Rome salute the second +Charlemagne an Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, if before that time +death does not put a period to his encroachments and gigantic plans. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Bestowing on the Almighty the passions of mortals +Bow to their charlatanism as if it was sublimity +Cannot be expressed, and if expressed, would not be believed +Feeling, however, the want of consolation in their misfortunes +Future effects dreaded from its past enormities +God is only the invention of fear +Gold, changes black to white, guilt to innocence +Hail their sophistry and imposture as inspiration +Invention of new tortures and improved racks +Labour as much as possible in the dark +Misfortunes and proscription would not only inspire courage +My means were the boundaries of my wants +Not suspected of any vices, but all his virtues are negative +Nothing was decided, though nothing was refused +Now that she is old (as is generally the case), turned devotee +Prelate on whom Bonaparte intends to confer the Roman tiara +Saints supplied her with a finger, a toe, or some other parts +Step is but short from superstition to infidelity +Suspicion and tyranny are inseparable companions +Two hundred and twenty thousand prostitute licenses +Usurped the easy direction of ignorance +Would cease to rule the day he became just + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Court of St. Cloud, v2 +by Stewarton, a Gentleman at Paris, to a Nobleman in London + |