[126] Letters from Paris, written during the last reign of Napoleon, vol. i., p. 197 [By John Cam Hobhouse, Esq.; now Sir J. C. Hobhouse.]
[127] It was subjected, notwithstanding, with the usual success, to the electoral bodies, whose good-nature never refused a constitution which was recommended by the existing government. The number of those who gave their votes were more than a million; being scarce a tenth part, however, of those who had qualifications.
[128] Moniteur, June 2; Savary, tom. iv., p. 34; Fouché, tom. ii., p. 277.
[129] The punsters of Paris selected Labédoyère, Drouot, Ney, and L'Allemand, as the Quatre pairs fides (perfides.) while Vandamme and others were termed the Pairs sifflés.—S.
[130] See Moniteur, June 6.
[131] Moniteur, June 9.
[132] The particulars of this intrigue show with what audacity, and at what risk, Fouché waded, swam, or dived, among the troubled waters which were his element. An agent of Prince Metternich had been despatched to Paris, to open a communication with Fouché on the part of the Austrian government. Falling under suspicion, from some banking transaction, this person was denounced to Buonaparte as a suspicious person, and arrested by his interior police, which, as there cannot be too much precaution in a well-managed state, watched, and were spies upon, the general police under Fouché. The agent was brought before Buonaparte, who threatened to cause him be shot to death on the very spot, unless he told him the whole truth. The man then confessed that Metternich sent him to Fouché, to request the latter to send a secure agent to Bâle, to meet with a confidential person on the part of the Austrian minister, whom Fouché's envoy was to recognise by a peculiar sign, which the informer also made known. "Have you fulfilled your commission so far as concerns Fouché?" said the Emperor.—"I have," answered the Austrian agent.—"And has he despatched any one to Bâle?"—"That I cannot tell." The agent was detained in a secret prison. Baron Fleury de Chamboullon, an auditor, was instantly despatched to Bâle, to represent the agent whom Fouché should have sent thither, and fathom the depth and character of the intrigue betwixt the French and Austrian ministers. Fouché soon discovered that the agent sent to him by Metternich was missing, conjectured his fate, and instantly went to seek an audience of the Emperor. Having mentioned other matters, he seemed to recollect himself, and begged pardon, with affected unconcern, for not having previously mentioned an affair of some consequence, which, nevertheless, he had forgotten amid the hurry of business. "An agent had come to him from the Austrian government," he said, "requesting him to send a confidential person to Bâle, to a correspondent of Metternich, and he now came to ask whether it would be his Majesty's pleasure that he should avail himself of the opening, in order to learn the secret purposes of the enemy?" Napoleon was not deceived by this trick. There were several mirrors in the room, by which he could perceive and enjoy his perfidious minister's ill-concealed embarrassment. "Monsieur Fouché," he said, "it may be dangerous to treat me as a fool: I have your agent in safe custody, and penetrate your whole intrigue. Have you sent to Bâle?"—"No, Sire."—"The happier for you: had you done so, you should have died." Fleury was unable to extract any thing of consequence from Werner, the confidant of Metternich, who met him at Bâle. The Austrian seemed to expect communications from Fouché, without being prepared to make them. Fleury touched on the plan of assassinating Buonaparte, which Werner rejected with horror, as a thing not to be thought of by Metternich or the allies. They appointed a second meeting, but in the interim Fouché made the Austrian aware of the discovery, and Baron Fleury, on his second journey to Bâle, found no Mr. Werner to meet him.—See Fleury de Chamboullon, tom. ii., p. 6.
Buonaparte gives almost the same account of this intrigue in his St. Helena Conversations as Fouché in his Memoirs. But Napoleon does not mention Carnot's interposition to prevent Fouché from being put to death without process of law. "You may shoot Fouché to-day," said the old Jacobin, "but to-morrow you will cease to reign. The people of the Revolution permit you to retain the throne only on condition you respect their liberties. They account Fouché one of their strongest guarantees. If he is guilty, he must be legally proceeded against." Buonaparte, therefore, gaining no proof against Fouché by the mission of Fleury, was fain to shut his eyes on what he saw but too well.—S.
[133] Las Cases, tom. ii., p. 276.
[134] "The madmen! a moment of prosperity has blinded them. The oppression and humiliation of the French people are beyond their power: if they enter France, they will there find their tomb. Soldiers! we have forced marches to make, battles to fight, hazards to run; but, with firmness, victory will be ours: the rights, honour, and happiness of our country will be reconquered. To every Frenchman who has any heart, the moment is arrived—to conquer or to die!"—Moniteur, June 17.