It is distracting to a man of honour to fail in his word. What would M. de Talleyrand think of a man who had promised so much and performed so little? Twice during the day he wrote to Maubreuil: his second note was as pressing as time was. This is what he said—
"Why have you not come? I have expected you all day. You are driving me to desperation!"
Maubreuil returned to change his dress at six o'clock that evening. He found the note: he ran off to Roux-Laborie.
"What is it?"
"You can make your fortune."
"I am your man, then!"
"Come with me."
They entered a carriage and went to M. Anglès'. M. Anglès was at the house in the rue Saint-Florentin. They rushed to the house in the rue Saint-Florentin; M. Anglès had just gone out. They asked to see the prince.
"Impossible! the prince is very busy: he is in the act of betraying. True, he is betraying in good company,—he is betraying along with the Senate." The Senate was next day going to declare that the emperor had forfeited his throne.
Be it remembered that it was this same Senate—Sénat conservateur—which, on the return from the disastrous Russian campaign, fifteen months earlier, had said to the emperor—