"T——’s countenance," added the Emperor, “is so immoveable that nothing can ever be read in it. Lannes and Murat used jokingly to say of him that if, while he was speaking to you, some one should come behind him and give him a kick, his countenance would betray no indication of the affront.”
M. de T—— is mild and even endearing in his domestic habits. His servants, and the persons in his employment, are attached and devoted to him. Among his intimate friends he willingly and good-humouredly speaks of his ecclesiastical profession. He one day expressed his dislike of a tune which was hummed in his hearing. He said he had a great horror of it; it reminded him of the time when he was obliged to practise church-music, and to sing at the desk. On another occasion, one of his intimate friends was telling a story during supper, while M. de T—— was engaged in thought, and seemed inattentive to the conversation. In the course of the story, the speaker happened to say in a lively manner of some one whom he had named, “That fellow is a comical rogue; he is a married priest.” T——, roused by these words, seized a spoon, plunged it hastily into the dish before him, and with a threatening aspect called out to him, “Mr. Such-a-one, will you have some spinach?” The person who was telling the story was confounded, and all the party burst into a fit of laughter, M. de T—— as well as the rest.
The Emperor, at the time of the Concordat, wished to have made M. de T.... a Cardinal, and to have placed him at the head of ecclesiastical affairs. He told him that his proper destiny was to return to the bosom of the Church, to refresh his memory, and to stop the mouths of the declaimers. T——, however, would never agree to this; his aversion to the ecclesiastical profession was insurmountable.
Napoleon was very near appointing him Ambassador to Warsaw, a dignity which he subsequently conferred on the Abbé de Pradt; but his dirty stock-jobbing tricks, as the Emperor called them, occasioned this intention to be abandoned. The Emperor was induced by the same reasons, and at the instance of several sovereigns of Germany, to deprive him of the portfolio of Foreign Affairs.
The Emperor remarked that Fouché was the T—— of the clubs, and that T—— was the Fouché of the drawing-rooms. “Intrigue,” he said, "was to Fouché a necessary of life. He intrigued at all times, in all places, in all ways, and with all persons. Nothing ever came to light but he was found to have had a hand in it. He made it his sole business to look out for something that he might be meddling with. His mania was to wish to be concerned in every thing...! Always in every body’s shoes." This the Emperor would often repeat.
At the time of the conspiracy of Georges, when Moreau was arrested, Fouché was no longer at the head of the Police, and he endeavoured to make himself very much regretted. “What stupidity!” said he, “they have arrested Moreau when he was returning to Paris from his country residence, a circumstance which at least appeared like the confidence of innocence. On the contrary, he should have been seized when he went to Gros-Bois, for then he was evidently running away.”
The remark which he made, or which is attributed to him on the affair of the Duke d’Enghien, is well known; “It is more than a crime, it is a fault,” said he. Such traits as these paint the character of a man better than whole volumes.
The Emperor knew Fouché well, and never became his dupe. He has been much blamed for having employed him in 1815, when indeed Fouché basely betrayed him. Napoleon was not ignorant of his disposition; but he also knew that the danger depended more on the circumstances than on the individual. “If I had been victorious,” said he, “Fouché would have been faithful. He took great care, it is true, to hold himself in readiness for whatever might happen. I ought to have conquered!”
The Emperor, however, was acquainted with his underhand dealings, and he did not spare him.[him.] After Napoleon’s return in 1815, one of the first bankers of Paris presented himself at the Elysée, to inform him that, a few days previously, a person just arrived from Vienna had waited upon him with letters of credit, and had made enquiries respecting the means by which he could meet with Fouché. Whether from reflection or presentiment, the banker conceived some doubts respecting this individual, and accordingly came to communicate them in person to the Emperor, who was astonished that Fouché had concealed the matter from his knowledge. In the course of a few hours Réal found the person in question, and immediately brought him to the Elysée, where he was shut up in a small room by himself. The Emperor ordered him to be brought into the garden. “Do you know me?” said he to the man. This commencement, and the feelings which the Emperor’s presence inspired, greatly startled the stranger. “I am acquainted with all your proceedings,” continued Napoleon, in a tone of severity: “if you this moment confess all you know, I may pardon you; if not, you will be taken from this garden to be shot.”—"I will tell all," said the man. “I am sent hither by M. de Metternich to the Duke of Otranto, to propose that he will despatch a messenger to Bâle, who will there meet the messenger sent by M. de Metternich from Vienna. These,” continued he, delivering some papers, “are the marks of recognition which they are to possess.”—"Have you executed your mission to Fouché?" enquired the Emperor.—"Yes."—"Has he despatched his messenger?"—"I do not know." The man was put under confinement, and within an hour a confidential person (M. F——) was on the road to Bâle. He introduced himself to the Austrian messenger, and even held four conferences with him.
Meanwhile Fouché, who was uneasy at the non-appearance of his Vienna messenger, one day waited on the Emperor, and attempted with an air of gaiety and cheerfulness to conceal his extreme embarrassment. “There were several looking-glasses,” said the Emperor, “in the apartment, and I was much amused in studying him by stealth; the expression of his countenance was hideous; he did not know how to enter upon the subject which interested him so deeply.”—"Sire," said he at length, "a circumstance["a circumstance] occurred to me four or five days ago, which I fear I was wrong in not communicating to your Majesty.... But I have so much business on my hands——I am surrounded with so many reports, so many intrigues——. A man came to me from Vienna with most ridiculous propositions,——and he is now no where to be found!"—"M. Fouché," said the Emperor, “you may injure yourself, if you take me for a fool. I have secured the man you speak of, and I have known the whole intrigue for several days. Have you sent to Bâle?”—"No, Sire."—"That is fortunate for you. If it be otherwise, and I obtain proofs of it, it may cost you your life."