ch he
had no partiality for. This expression (etre siffle) bears the stamp
of the deceitfully affable vulgarity in which he frequently took
pleasure in indulging. Roederer and Desmeunier wrote the act of
mediation from his dictation, and the whole passed during the time
that his troops occupied Switzerland. He has since withdrawn them,
and this country, it must be confessed, has been better treated by
Napoleon than the rest of Europe, although both in a political and
military point of view more completely dependent upon him;
consequently it will remain tranquil in the general insurrection.
The people of Europe were disposed to such a degree of patience that
it has required a Bonaparte to exhaust it.

The London newspapers attacked the first consul bitterly enough; the
English nation was too enlightened not to perceive the drift of his
actions. Whenever any translations from the English papers were
brought to him, he used to apostrophize Lord Whitworth, who answered
him with equal coolness and propriety that the King of Great Britain
himself was not protected from the sarcasms of newswriters, and that
the constitution permitted no violation of their liberty on that
score. However, the English government caused M. Peltier to be
prosecuted for some articles in his journal directed against the
first consul. Peltier had the honour to be defended by Mr.
Mackintosh, who made upon this occasion one of the most eloquent
speeches that has been read in modern times; I will mention farther
on, under what circumstances this speech came into my hands.

CHAPTER 11.

Rupture with England.--Commencement of my Exile.

I was at Geneva, living from taste and from circumstances in the
society of the English, when the news of the declaration of war
reached us. The rumour immediately spread that the English
travellers would all be made prisoners: as nothing similar had ever
been heard of in the law of European nations, I gave no credit to
it, and my security was nearly proving injurious to my friends:
they contrived however, to save themselves. But persons entirely
unconnected with political affairs, among whom was Lord Beverley,
the father of eleven children, returning from Italy with his wife
and daughters, and a hundred other persons provided with French
passports, some of them repairing to different universities for
education, others to the South for the recovery of their health, all
travelling under the safeguard of laws re