stress on the peerage, he said that, in him whether he had received anything ing, by descent or by election, the heads I asked him what he thought of table pour nous débarrasser du Roi de Speaking of the finances of France, he said, "Tout ce que j'ai fait imprimer sur ce sujet est de l'évangile." His civil-list income was thirty million francs, but the expenditure seldom exceeded eighteen million, and with that he had finished two or three of the palaces. His table cost one million francs. His stable and chasse, including seven hundred horses, two million. He had an excellent treasurer, whom he named, but I forget; "Et je ne souffrais jamais de gaspillage." Besides this he had the disposal of the domaines extraordinaires, a fund of two hundred million, out of which he made presents, and rewarded those who distinguished themselves. To my ques- The king of Prussia he called "un tion, whence it came, he answered: caporal," without an idea beyond the "Des contributions de mes ennemis; l'Autriche pour deux paix m'a payé par articles secrets 300,000,000 francs; et le Prusse aussi énormément." I asked 1 The scandal concerning Mrs. Clarke. The Emperor Francis, he said, had more honesty but less capacity. "Je me fierois à lui bien plutôt qu'à l'autre, et s'il me donnait sa parole de faire telle ou telle chose, je serois persuadé qu'au moment de la donner, il aurait l'intention de s'y tenir; mais son esprit est bien borné, point d'énergie, point de caractère." dress of a soldier, "infiniment le plus ent. Speaking of the Russian campaign he in not removing Marmont from his command after the loss of his artillery at Laon, which he now believed to have been treachery. He said that Augereau was a "mauvais sujet," who, he thought, had made his terms a month before he declared himself. He spoke well of Massena. "Il s'est, je crois, bien comporté, comme aussi les Maréchaux Soult et Davoust." I asked if he was not surprised at Berthier having been among the first to hail the king's arrival. He answered with a smile: "On m'a dit qu'il a fait quelques sottises de cette espèce; mais ce n'est pas une tête forte. Je l'avois avancé plus qu'il ne méritoit, puis qu'il m'étoit utile pour la plume. D'ailleurs je vous les larmes aux yeux." 66 said, that when he got to Moscow he considered the business as done; that he was received with open arms by the people on his march, and had innumerable petitions from the peasants praying him to emancipate them from the tyranny of the nobles; that he found the town fully supplied with everything and might perfectly have subsisted his army there through the winter, when in twenty-four hours it was on fire in fifteen places, and the country all round for twelve miles laid waste; "An event," said he, "on which I could not calculate, as there is not, I believe, a precedent for it in the history of the world. Mais parbleu, il faut avouer que cela a montré du carac-assure que c'est un bon diable, qui, s'il tère." me voyoit, seroit le premier à me téHe then talked over his last cam-moigner ses regrets de ce qu'il a fait, paign and ascribed his ruin entirely to Marmont, to whom he had given some of his best troops and the post of the greatest importance, as a person on whose devotion to him he could most depend: "For how could I expect to be betrayed by a man whom I had loaded with kindnesses from the time that he was fifteen years old? Had he stood firm I could have driven the Allies out of Paris; and the people there, as well as generally throughout France, would have risen in spite of the Senate if they had had a few troops to support them; mais même avec lui les alliés étoient trois contre un, et après sa désertion, avec l'incertitude daus laquelle il me mettait, il n'y avait plus d'espoir de succès. J'aurois pu être en ce moment en France, et prolonger peut-être pendant quelques années le combat, mais contre l'Europe les circonstances actuelles, de le terminer heureusement. J'ai bientôt pris réunie je ne pouvais me flatter, dans mon parti, pour éviter à la France une guerre civile, et je me regarde pour mort; car mourir, ou être ici, c'est la même chose." [He spoke of Talleyraud as the greatest of rascals, un homme capable de tout," who had often urged him to have the Bourbons assassinated, or brought off by smugglers while they were in England, and would with as little scruple advise them now to destroy him. He had displaced him from the ministry for having privately extorted large sums from the kings of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, but continued occasionally to see him as he knew he enjoyed some consideration at Paris. It was he who first suggested the expedition to Spain by producing an invitation to him from the malcontents there, of which he urged him to take advantage. On my asking him if he were a man of any superior talents, he said certainly: "Mais que voulez-vous d'un homme dépourvu de tout principe, de toute honte, enfin d'un prêtre défroqué, d'un évêque marié et marié avec une putain ?"] I took occasion to ask what he thought of the king of Spain. He said he was not without natural understanding, but ignorant and bigoted from the He spoke lightly of the talents of his faults of his education, which had been marshals, but having once raised them left entirely to priests. "D'ailleurs le it had been his system to maintain caractère le plus dissimulé que j'ai them. He had always been indulgent jamais vu." He considered Charles respecting military errors, as he showed the Fourth to be honest and well intentioned, but with very little capac- of his had produced in England, and ity. His queen, I think, he called instanced the execution of the Duke une méchante femme; " but I do not d'Enghien. He justified it on the recollect his saying much about her. score of his being engaged in a treaHe inquired if I had seen "le beau souable conspiracy, and having made Musée que je leur ai donné à Paris," two journeys to Strasburg in disguise, but expressed some regret at having in consequence of which he had been taken away so many fine things from seized and tried by a military commisItaly. "J'ai été en cela un peu in- sion which sentenced him to be shot. juste; mais je ne pensois alors qu'à la "On m'a dit qu'il demanda à me parFrance." He had meant, however, to ler; ce qui me toucha, car je savois acquit his debt one day to Italy, by que c'étoit un jeune homme de cœur separating it from the French Empire, et de mérite; je crois même que je and forming it altogether into a sepa- l'aurois peut-être vu; mais M. de rate kingdom for his son. I asked him Talleyrand m'en empêcha, disant: if the king of Naples (Murat) would N'allez pas vous compromettre avec un not have made an obstacle to this ar- Bourbon; vous ne savez pas ce qui en rangement. He said, "Yes, for the pourront être les suites; le vin est present, but I should have settled that tiré, il faut le boire." I asked him if somehow or other by the time my son came of age." He had found the Italians lazy and effeminate ; "Mais j'ai fini par en faire d'aussi bons soldats que les François." On my naming the viceroy he said: "C'est un jeune homme que j'ai toujours traité comme mon fils, et dont j'ai toujours eu lieu de me louer." I asked him if he was not a very good officer. He said: "Oui, il s'est toujours très bien conduit; but he is by no means a man of superior talents." it was true that the duke was shot by torchlight. He replied: "Eh, non ! cela auroit été contre la loi. The execution took place at the usual hour, about eight in the morning; and I immediately ordered the report of it, with the sentence, to be published in every town in France." I mentioned the idea that prevailed in England as to the murder of Captain Wright. He did not recollect the name; but on my saying that he was a companion of Sir Sydney Smith, he said, "Est-il donc mort en prison ? Car j'ai entièrement oublié la circonstance." He scouted the notion of or est He questioned me a good deal about Milan; the disposition of the people towards him; whether the things he had begun there were going on, etc.; foul play, adding that he had never put and seemed pleased at my admiration any man clandestinely to death of the Simplon, which led him to speak without a trial. "Ma conscience of the roads and other public works he sans reproche sur ce point; and had I had made, or intended to have made, been less sparing of blood perhaps I in different parts of the French donrin- | might not have been here now. But ions. Among them he particularly your newspapers charged me also with mentioned, the dockyards at Antwerp the death of Pichegru, who strangled and Venice. himself with his neckcloth." He asked me: "" Que feroit-on avec moi si je venois en Angleterre ? Seroisje lapidé?" I replied that he would. be perfectly safe there, as the violent feelings which had been excited against him were daily subsiding now that we were no longer at war. He said, smiling, "Je crois pourtant qu'il y auroit toujours quelque risque de la part de votre mob de Loudres." I then mentioned to him the odium that some acts He then went into an interesting 1 Captain Wright was taken prisoner together with Sir Sydney Smith in an attempt to capture the French lugger, Vengeur, in the Havre Roads, 17th of April, 1796. He was confined in the Temple, where he committed suicide on the 1st of November, 1805. It was believed in England that he had been first tortured and then murdered, as was currently said of Pichegru, by strangulation. Lord E. in oiting these two cases together with that of the Duke d'Enghien, and of the massacre at Jaffa, uses the stock in trade of the English newspapers. account of Georges' conspiracy; its | hours; I was about to march; I condiscovery by the confession of an sulted Desgenettes as to the means of apothecary, a Chouan; and a curious removing them; he said that it must conversation which was overheard be- be attended with some risk of infectween Moreau, Pichegru, and Georges, tion, and would be useless to them as at a house on the Boulevards. It was they were past recovery. I then recthere settled that Georges should assas-ommended him to give them a dose of sinate him (Buonaparte), that Moreau opium rather than leave them to the should be first, and Pichegru second mercy of the Turks. Il me répondit consul. Georges insisted on being en forte honnête homme que son métier third; to which they objected, saying étoit de guérir et non de tuer; so the that any attempt to associate him with men were left to their fate. Perhaps the government would ruin them with he was right, though I asked for them the people, as he was known to be a what I should under similar circumRoyalist. On this he said: "Si ce stances have wished my best friends n'est donc pas pour moi, je suis pour to have done for me. I have often les Bourbons; et si c'est ni eux ni thought since on this point of morale moi, bleu pour bleu, je voudrois aus- and have conversed on it with others, sitôt que ce fut Bonaparte que vous." et je crois qu'au fond il vaut toujours When this was repeated to Moreau mieux souffrir qu'un homme finisse sa on his examination, he fainted away. destinée quelle qu'elle soit. I judged "Had I been as sanguinary as I am so afterwards in the case of my friend represented in England," said Napo- Duroc, who, when his bowels were leon, "I should have put him to falling out before my eyes, repeatedly death; but after his being convicted cried to me to have him put out of his of having connected himself with misery. Je lui dis, je vous plains, mon Georges, whatever influence or pop-ami, mais il n'y a pas de remède, il ularity he had was at an end." I faut souffrir jusqu'à la fin." asked him if he was a man of talent. He said, "None, except as a soldier; nor would his own disposition ever have led him into political intrigues. Mais il avait une méchante femme, et une belle-mère forte intrigante, who were the causes of it." He spoke with apparent pleasure of Egypt, and described humorously enough his admission and that of his army to Mahommedanism, on receiving from the men of the law, after many meetings and grave discussions at Cairo, a dispensation from being circumcised, and a permission to drink wine under the condition of their doing a good action after each draught. "You can hardly imagine," said he, "the advantages which I gained in the country from this adoption of their culte." I then asked him about the massacre of the Turks at Jaffa; he answered: "C'est vrai, j'en fis fusiller à peu près deux mille. Vous trouvez cela un peu fort, mais je leur avois accordé une capitulation à El Arish à condition qu'ils retourneroient chez eux. Ils l'ont rompu et se sont jeté dans Jaffa, où je les pris par assaut. Je ne pouvois les emmener prisonniers, avec moi, car je manquois de pain, et ils étoient des diables trop dangereux pour les lâcher une seconde fois, de sorte que n'avois d'autre moyen que de les tuer." This is all that I accurately recollect of this interesting conversation, which lasted from eight till half past eleven o'clock, as we walked up and down the room. His manner put me quite at my ease almost from the first, and seemed I mentioned Sir Robert Wilson's to invite my questions, which he anstatement of his having poisoned his swered upon all subjects without the sick. He answered: "Il y a dans cela slightest hesitation, and with a quickquelque fondement de vrai. Three or ness of comprehension and clearness four men of the army had the plague; of expression beyond what I ever saw they could not have lived twenty-four in any other man; nor did he, in the tray either by his countenance or manner a single emotion of resentment or regret. Wednesday, Dec. 8th, 1814. whole course of the conversation, be- | day as a fast in our liturgy, he said: "Eh! mais c'est le contraire de ce que je vous demandois; car je sais bien que le Jacobite signifie Tory par excellence. Je crois pourtant qu'au fond il n'y a guère parmi vous de vrais Jacobins. Vous avez dans votre Opposition toujours devant les yeux ce prenez garde que vous n'ayez un jour la minorité." He at the same time praised our political consistency: "For," said he, "in England a man who quits his party, is, to a certain extent, disgraced, unless he has some good reason to assign for it; whereas, in France, they change sides just as it may suit their present interests, without feeling accountable to any one." As I was embarking to return to Leghorn, an aide-de-camp brought me an invitation to dine with the emperor, which I accepted. I went at seven o'clock, and soon after dinner was announced. It was plain, but well served, on plate which from its size and substance most probably had been his camp service. General Drouot dined with us, but did not join in the conversation, and, almost immediately after we went into the next room to coffee, left me alone with Napoleon. He was surprised at the impolicy of our government with respect to the Catholics. Je crois que le Prince Régent a rompu ses engagements avec eux à cause des intrigues de milord Sidmouth; c'est un bigot que ce milord Sidmouth. Mais malgré cela, je crois He asked me several questions about the administration of justice, the courts of law and the magistracy of England; answering, at the same time, mine respecting the administration of justice in France, and discussing their comparative merits. From this we got to the two Houses of Parliament, and que votre Parlement ne tardera pas some of the principal speakers in them, longtemps de passer l'acte d'émancipasuch as Mr. Canning, Sir Francis Bur- tion." dett, Lord Castlereagh, Lord Liverpool, Lord Grey, and Lord Grenville. He said that he had seen some very good speeches of the latter which gave him a great idea of his talent. He added, "Lord Grey est aussi un de vos grands orateurs.” He asked me about the motion I had made in behalf of Lord Cochrane and said, "Vous aviez raison; un homme comme lui ne devoit pas souffrir une peine si infamante." But he was astonished that the House of Commons should have allowed one of their own body to be so condemned; seeming in this, as in our former conversation, to confound the two Houses of Parliament together, and to consider them as the only tribunal for the trial of their own members. He entered a good deal into the state of parties, and asked if there existed any in England. "Assez Jacobin pour célèbrer comme fête le jour de la mort de Charles I?" On my answering that I believed not, but that, on the contrary, some of the Jacobite clergy still read the service appointed for that He inquired after several persons whom he had seen at Paris during the peace (of Amiens); the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, Lord Whitworth, Lord Erskine, Lord Holland; and a great deal about Mr. Fox, with whom he said he had conversed much: "Et il a été content de moi, n'est-ce pas ?" I told him that I was not sufficiently acquainted with Mr. Fox to have ever heard him say so, but that I understood he was much flattered by the reception he met with from him, as well as generally in France. He said: "Il en avoit bien raison; on l'a reçu partout comme un Dieu, parce qu'on savoit qu'il étoit toujours pour la paix." He spoke of his oratory as compared with that of Mr. Pitt; asked if the former was not more "dans le genre de Demosthène, et l'autre dans celui de Cicéron ?" and discussed the two styles as if he was well acquainted with their authors. He said that it was his wish to have kept the peace of Amiens, but that we chose to break it. He praised, in the |