t
afraid of them; let them go, and report what they have seen to those
who have sent them: let us all drink the health of our Emperor, Long
live the Emperor!" He was spitten upon, turned out, and we saw him no
more.

Another deserter from the royal army presented himself, to reveal an
important secret, as he said, to the Emperor. The Emperor, who knew no
secret but strength, would not waste time in listening to him, and
sent him to me. He was an officer of hussars, the friend and
accomplice of Maubreuil. He did not think me worthy of his secrets,
and I introduced him to the grand Marshal. The substance of what he
said was, that he, as well as Maubreuil, had been commissioned by the
provisional government, and by very great persons, to assassinate the
Emperor, at the time of his departure for the island of Elba: that he
held in execration such an execrable crime, and would not commit it;
and that, after having once saved the life of Napoleon, he came to
place himself near his person, to make a rampart for him with his body
in case of necessity. He delivered to the grand Marshal a memorial of
Maubreuil's, and divers papers, of which the Emperor directed me to
give him an account. I examined them all with the greatest care. They
proved incontestably, that mysterious rendezvous had been given to
Maubreuil in the name of the provisional government; but they
contained no clue, that could enable any one to penetrate the object
and end of these secret conferences: the names of those illustrious
personages, whom some persons have since been desirous of implicating
in this odious plot, were not even mentioned in them. This officer
reaped no benefit from his disclosures, real or pretended, and
disappeared.

From hearing so much of plots against his life, however, a painful
impression was at length made on the Emperor. "I cannot conceive,"
said he to me, "how men liable to fall into my hands can be
incessantly urging my assassination, and setting a price upon my head.
Had I wished to get rid of them by similar means, they would long ago
have been mingled with the dust. Like them, I could have found
Georges, Brularts, and Maubreuils. Twenty times, if I had wished it,
persons would have brought them to me bound hands and feet, dead or
alive. I had always the foolish generosity, to despise their rage: I
despise it still; but wo betide them, wo to all their infernal gang,
if they dare touch one of my people! My blood boils, when I t