ely tranquil, and that the small number of the
emissaries of perfidious Albion were seized. One general, it is.
true, amused himself with reporting, that the English had thrown
bales of Levant cotton on the coast of Normandy, to give France the
plague; but these inventions of grave buffoonery were only regarded
as pieces of flattery addressed to the first consul; and the chiefs
of the conspiracy, as well as their agents, being in the power of
the government, there was reason for believing that calm was
restored in France; but Bonaparte had not vet attained his object.

CHAPTER 15.

Assassination of the Duke d'Enghien.

I resided at Berlin on the Spree Quay, and my apartment was on the
ground floor. One morning I was awoke at eight o'clock, and told
that Prince Louis-Ferdinand was on horseback under my windows, and
wished me to come and speak to him. Much astonished at this early
visit, I hastened to get up and go to him. He was a singularly
graceful horseman, and his emotion heightened the nobleness of his
countenance. "Do you know," said he to me, "that the Duke d'Enghien
has been carried off from the Baden territory, delivered to a
military commission, and shot within twenty four hours after his
arrival in Paris?" "What nonsense!" I answered, "don't you see that
this can only be a report spread by the enemies of France?" In fact
I confess that my hatred of Bonaparte, strong as it was, never went
the length of making me believe in the possibility of his committing
such an atrocity. "As you doubt what I tell you," replied Prince
Louis, "I will send you the Moniteur, in which you will read the
sentence." He left me at these words, and the expression of his
countenance was the presage of revenge or death. A quarter of an
hour afterwards, I had in my hands this Moniteur of the 21st March,
(30th Pluviose), which contained the sentence of death pronounced by
the military commission sitting at Vincennes, against the person
called Louis d'Enghien! It is thus that the French designated the
descendant of heroes, who were the glory of their country. Even if
they abjured all the prejudices of illustrious birth, which the
return of monarchical forms would necessarily recall, could they
blaspheme in thus manner the recollection of the battles of Lens and
Rocroi? This Bonaparte who has gained so many battles, does not even
know how to respect them; with him there is neither past nor future;
his imperious and contemptuous