earth, it would doubtless, in a similar
way, throw at the heads of mankind, eulogiums of peace and war, of
knowledge and prejudices, of liberty and despotism, praises and
insults upon all governments and all religions.

It was at this period that Bonaparte sent General Leclerc to Saint
Domingo, and designated him in his decree our brother-in-law. This
first royal we, which associated the French with the prosperity of
this family, was a most bitter pill to me. He obliged his beautiful
sister to accompany her husband to Saint Domingo, where her health
was completely ruined: a singular act of despotism for a man who is
not accustomed to great severity of principles in those about his
person; but he makes use of morality only to harass some and dazzle
others. A peace was in the sequel concluded with the chief of the
negroes, Toussaint-Louverture. This man was, no doubt, a great
criminal, but Bonaparte had signed conditions with him, in complete
violation of which Toussaint was conducted to a prison in France,
where he ended his days in the most miserable manner. Perhaps
Bonaparte himself hardly recollects this crime, because he has been
less reproached with it than others.

In a great forge, we see with astonishment the violence of the
machines which are set in motion by a single will: these hammers,
those flatteners seem so many persons, or rather devouring animals.
Should you attempt to resist their force, they would annihilate you;
notwithstanding, all this apparent fury is calculated beforehand,
and a single mover gives action to these springs. The tyranny of
Bonaparte is represented to my eyes by this image; he makes
thousands of men perish, as these wheels beat the iron, and his
agents are the greater part of them equally insensible; the
invisible impulse of these human machines proceeds from a will at
once violent and methodical, which transforms moral life into its
servile instrument. Finally, to complete the comparison, it is
sufficient to seize the mover to restore every thing to a state of
repose.

CHAPTER 8.

Journey to Coppet.--Preliminaries of peace with England.

I went, according to my usual happy custom, to spend the summer with
my father. I found him extremely indignant at the state of affairs;
and as he had all his life been as much attached to real liberty as
he detested popular anarchy, he felt inclined to draw his pen
against the tyranny of one, after having so long fought against that