roke them, at least so far
as regards human connections, which can no longer exist between us;
but I never lift my eyes towards heaven without thinking of my
excellent friend, and I venture to believe also, that in his prayers
he answers me. Beyond this, fate has denied me all other
correspondence with him.

When the exile of my two friends became known, I was assailed by a
whole host of chagrins of every kind; but a great misfortune renders
us in a manner insensible to fresh troubles. It was reported that
the minister of police had declared that he would have a soldier's
guard mounted at the bottom of the avenue of Coppet, to arrest
whoever came to see me. The prefect of Geneva, who was instructed,
by order of the emperor he said, to annul me (that was his
expression), never missed an opportunity of insinuating, or even
declaring publicly, that no one who had any thing either to hope or
fear from the government ought to venture near me. M. de
Saint-Priest, formerly minister of Louis XVI. and the colleague of
my father, honored me with his affection; his daughters who dreaded,
and with reason, that he might be sent from Geneva, united their
entreaties with mine that he would abstain from visiting me.
Notwithstanding, in the middle of winter, at the age of
seventy-eight, he was banished not only from Geneva, but from
Switzerland; for it is fully admitted, as has been seen in my own
case, that the emperor can banish from Switzerland as well as from
France; and when any objections are made to the French agents, on
the score of being in a foreign country, whose independence is
recognised, they shrug up their shoulders, as if you were wearying
them with Metaphysical quibbles. And really it is a perfect quibble
to wish to distinguish in Europe anything but prefect-kings, and
prefects receiving their orders directly from the emperor of France.
If there is any difference between the soi-disant allied countries
and the French provinces, it is that the first are rather worse
treated. There remains in France a certain recollection of having
been called the great nation, which sometimes obliges the emperor to
be measured in his proceedings; it was so at least, but every day
even that becomes less necessary. The motive assigned for the
banishment of M. de Saint-Priest was, that he had not induced his
sons to abandon the service of Russia. His sons had, during the
emigration, met with the most generous reception in Russia; they had