itself, can alone alter these barbarous customs. Very few of those means were at my command, and during the course of my mission, I had the pain of witnessing the evil without having the power to eradicate it. It was with satisfaction, therefore, that I took leave of a country where it was so difficult to do good and so easy to do evil.

Before embarking, I once more visited the beautiful mountains of Foce di Guizzavona, and those in the neighbourhood of Bogognano, which I had already explored with great interest. During this final excursion I enjoyed the spectacle of a storm, whose splendour has remained graven on my memory as a solemn token of farewell from those wild regions. I returned late in the evening to Bogognano, and proceeded next day to Ajaccio, where I embarked for Marseilles.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Author returns to Paris-His reception by the First Consul Monarchical customs and strict etiquette with which the First Consul surrounded himself - Joseph Bonaparte imparts the secret designs and great projects of the First Consul to the Author-Lord Whitworth, the English Ambassador, in Paris-General Moreau is fêted at the Ministry of War-Government-mourning on the occasion of the death of General Leclerc - New coinage with the effigy of the First Consul-Lavish endowment of the Senate-The political relations between France and England become strained-Irritation of the First Consul with the English Press-Conversation between Bonaparte and Lord Whitworth-Colonel Sebastiani's Report, published in the Moniteur-The King's speech to Parliament is hostile to France-Effect produced by it in Paris-Progress of the crisis and of the negotiations, official and secret, prior to the definitive rupture between France and England-Simultaneous departure of Lord Whitworth from Paris and of General Andreossy from London - Appendix : Lord Whitworth's Despatch of February 21, 1803, to Lord Hawkesbury.

I EMBARKED, on the 2d Brumaire, year XI. (October 24, 1802), on board La Fortune, Captain Riouffe. Contrary winds obliged us to anchor first at the Isle of Porteros, one of the Hyères, where I stayed two days; and afterwards at Ciotat, a small town in the Department of Var. The bad weather continued, and prevented our voyage by sea, so I resolved on proceeding to Marseilles by land. I arrived there on the 9th Brumaire (October 31), remained two days, waiting for my luggage, which I had left on board at Ciotat, and reached Paris on the 21st Brumaire (November 12).

It was not altogether without apprehension that I found myself once more in the capital. The intrigues against me during the course of my mission, and the somewhat sudden recall that had brought it to a close, made me anticipate an unfavourable reception. But it was not so. Joseph Bonaparte, whom I saw first, welcomed me most cordially. Not only was he free from the prejudices against me which various members of his family had manifested, but he had always warmly defended my motives and my conduct. He reassured me as to the feelings of the First Consul, who, he undertook to say, had more correctly than any other person appreciated the difficulties of my position, and whom I should find quite satisfied with my discharge of its duties.

THE AUTHOR'S FAVOURABLE RECEPTION.

247

Bonaparte was absent at the time of my arrival in Paris, and he did not return to St. Cloud, his habitual residence in autumn, until the 22d Brumaire (November 13). * The following day at noon he received the Council of State, and I joined my colleagues in order to be present at that audience. His first words were pleasant. He told me, jestingly, that I had got into trouble with the Ministers; that Ministers did not like Administrators-General who acted on their own ideas, and that I must make it up with them. When he had finished, and heard what I had to say in reply, I approached the Ministers who were present, and remarked with pleasure that the favourable reception just accorded to me by the great man had already half-effected our reconciliation. Hands were stretched out to me, I was embraced, and I might believe myself restored to favour. Another and more serious conversation on the mission I had just accomplished, and on Corsica generally, ensued. Some points of my conduct were discussed; the First Consul asserted that I had been too kind, that I had leaned too much to conciliation, and that a little severity would have done better. On the whole, he did justice to my intentions, and to the principles of equity and impartiality on which I had acted. In short, I had every reason to be pleased; and, indeed, to be reproached with an excess of kindness and moderation in the exercise of an administration for which I had received such elastic powers, was praise rather than criticism. The Consuls informed me that I was to return to the Council of State in the Section of the Interior, and as that was the sole reward I coveted, I had nothing more to ask for.

I was now at ease concerning my own future, and I began to look about me, and to observe the new aspect of things with astonishment. What changes during an absence of less than two years! Monarchical customs, which were beginning to appear when I left Paris, had extended in every direction, and what little had remained of austere Republican forms at the time of my departure from the capital had now entirely disappeared. Gorgeous liveries, sumptuous garments, similar to those worn in the reign of Louis XV., had succeeded to the military fashions, which, during the Revolution, had been adopted even in the dress of civilians. No more boots, sabres, or cockades, these were replaced by tights and silk stockings, buckled-shoes, dress-swords, and hats held under the arm. All this, however, was as in an early stage, and the awkwardness of some persons not yet accustomed to these Court fashions, together with certain oddities in the dress of others, who still retained traces of the fashions they had just given up,

* He had been inspecting the Seine Inférieure and Calvados, and the sea-coasts of those two departments.

formed an extraordinary spectacle. I was not more free from incongruity than others, and my coat, with turned-back facings, worn with white silk stockings and a sword, shocked the educated taste of several of my colleagues whose costumes did not offer a similar contrast. Fortunately I was not singular in my offence, the First Consul was equally subject to criticism. With a superb coat of violet velvet, magnificently embroidered in gold and silk, he wore a sword, white silk stockings, gold buckles in his shoes, and a black cravat! This was certainly a serious blunder in dress! *

The change was still more apparent in the reality of things than in their outward appearance. The Tuileries and St. Cloud were no longer, as I had left them, the seat of Government, the abode of the first Magistrate of a Republic, but the Court of a Sovereign. Severe etiquette prevailed there; officers attached to the person, prescribed honours paid to the ladies, a privileged family; in short, everything except the name of Consul was monarchical, and that name was destined soon to disappear.

The first impression made on me by this novel pomp and display was disagreeable and painful. No one could be more convinced than I of the necessity of surrounding the Government of a great nation with dignity, and even, if desired, with a certain magnificence, but I should have wished to discern the Government through all this splendour, and not an individual, still less his family. Among all that I saw and remarked at that time, the visit of the great bodies of the State and of the ambassadors to Madame Bonaparte impressed me most. I had presented myself with the other State Councillors. She rose to receive us, remained standing during the address of our President, thanked us for the sentiments expressed by the Council of State, then seating herself without inviting us to do the same, carried on a conversation on ordinary topics for a short time, after which she again rose and dismissed us.

A few days later I returned to St. Cloud to be present at the audience given every Sunday by the First Consul, or, to speak more accurately, I returned thither to pay my court. I found the members of the principal bodies of the State, and the Tribunals, Generals, Ministers, and Bishops, ranged in a line in the great gallery. The First Consul passed through, accompanied by his wife, by some members of his family, by the other two Consuls, and by his civil and military officers, on his way to a sung mass. † On

* Bonaparte rarely wore a civilian costume, he appeared generally in the uniform of a Colonel of Grenadiers, or of the Guard's light infantry. I have several times seen him preside at the Council of State in the uniform of a Councillor.

Although the ancient Gregorian Calendar was not yet restored, Sunday was religiously observed after the re-establishment of Divine worship.

POSITION OF JOSEPH BONAPARTE.

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his return, he paused in the gallery, spoke to a great many persons, received petitions, and then withdrew to his private apartments. All was regulated by the most punctilious etiquette, and the Second and Third-Consuls were as subservient to it as the rest of the crowd; they were present in the gallery, not as colleagues of the First Consul, but as courtiers. They had no distinguishing suite, and could only be recognized by their dress; whereas Bonaparte, surrounded by aides-de-camp, by Prefects of the Palace, and officers of his guard, occupied the principal position. Thus the slight semblance of divided authority had already almost entirely disappeared, and those very men who, at first, had been called to a share in it, were now consenting to reduce that share, externally at least, to nothing.

But I have said enough on this subject. I have pointed out the decisive steps that the First Consul had taken during my absence towards the end which he soon afterwards attained, and I have also recorded the docility with which the public lent themselves to his purposes.

On my return from Corsica, my former intimacy with Joseph Bonaparte became yet closer, and from that period dates the confidence he has never ceased to repose in me and the friendship which still exists between us, notwithstanding the distance that divides us. To that friendship, to that confidence, I owe my acquaintance with many secret facts which throw a strong light on the hidden springs that worked that marvellous drama, so ephemeral when compared with its grandeur, of which astonished Europe was for twelve years the silent spectator. The greater part of what I am about to relate had its origin in my almost daily interviews at this period with Joseph Bonaparte. The lapse of years, and the rapid fall of the Man who created and then destroyed his own power, bring back many details into the domain of History that have ceased to be secrets; I give these particulars, therefore, without fear of misconstruction of my motive.

My earlier conversations with Joseph Bonaparte turned at first on his own position, and afterwards led to an exposition of the projects then entertained by the First Consul. As it is easy to trace the plans he had formed, the means which he proposed to himself to employ, and the reflections which such bold designs called up in our minds, I will simply transcribe the résumé of these conversations made in my note-book on the very days on which they were held.

After expressing to Joseph Bonaparte my surprise at the position in which I found him, I said, "I had expected to see

* Joseph Bonaparte was at that time simply a senator.