punish no one. Do you take me rightly? Tell M. ****
clearly, that I will forget every thing. We have all reason to
reproach each other."--"Sire, I will tell him so with the greatest
joy. This assurance will completely gain all opinions over to your
side; because even amongst your partisans there are men who dread your
return; lest you should revenge yourself."--"Yes, I know that it is
thought that I am revengeful, and even sanguinary; that I am
considered as a kind of ogre, as a man-eater. They are mistaken: I
will make every one do his duty, and I will be obeyed; and that's
all. A weak sovereign is a calamity to his subjects. If he allows
criminals and traitors to fancy that he does not know how to punish,
there is no longer any security either for the state or for
individuals. More crimes are prevented than repressed by severity. A
sovereign must govern by his head, and not by his heart. Yet, tell
X*** that I except Talleyrand, Augereau, and the Duke of Ragusa, out
of the general pardon. They caused all our misfortunes. The country
must be revenged."--"But why exclude them, Sire? Is there not reason
to fear that this exclusion may deprive you of the fruits of your
clemency, and may even raise doubts as to your sincerity in
future?"--"It would be much more exposed to doubt were I to pardon
them."--"But, Sire...."--"Don't you trouble your head about it ...
what is the strength of the army?"--"Sire, I do not know; I only know
that it has been much weakened by desertion and by discharges, and
that few of the regiments consist of more than three hundred
men."--"So much the better; those who are good for nothing have
probably left the army; the good soldiers will have remained. Do you
know the names of the officers who command the maritime districts, and
the eighth division?"--"No, Sire."--Napoleon (out of temper), "Why
did not X*** give you that information?"--"Sire, both M. X*** and
myself were far from supposing that your Majesty would immediately
embrace the glorious resolution of re-appearing in France; besides
which, he might believe, according to the common report, that your
agents did not allow you to remain in ignorance of any circumstance
which might interest you."--"I do know that the newspapers gave out
that I had agents.... It is an idle story. It is true that I sent some
of my people to France, in order to learn what was going on; but they
stole my money, and only treated me with the gabble of the canaille.
C*