lf an
hour a hailstorm of reproaches and insults, and then orders him out of
the room as if a lackey who had been guilty of a theft. Whether he
keeps within his function or not, the functionary must be content to do
whatever is demanded of him, and readily anticipate every commission. If
his scruples arrest him, if he alleges personal obligations, if he had
rather not fail in delicacy, or even in common loyalty, he incurs the
risk of offending or losing the favor of the master, which is the case
with M. de Remusat,[1267] who is unwilling to become his spy, reporter,
and denunciator for the Faubourg Saint-Germain, who does not offer, at
Vienna, to pump out of Madame d'Andre the address of her husband so
that M. d'Andre may be taken and immediately shot. Savary, who was
the negotiator for his being given up, kept constantly telling M. de
Remusat, "You are going against your interest--I must say that I do
not comprehend you!" And yet Savary, himself minister of the police,
executor of most important services, head manager of the murder of the
Duc d'Enghien and of the ambuscade at Bayonne, counterfeiter of Austrian
bank-notes for the campaign of 1809 and of Russian banknotes for that
of 1812,[1268] Savary ends in getting weary; he is charged with too many
dirty jobs; however hardened his conscience it has a tender spot; he
discovers at last that he has scruples. It is with great repugnance
that, in February, 1814, he executes the order to have a small infernal
machine prepared, moving by clock-work, so as to blow up the Bourbons on
their return into France.[1269] "Ah," said he, giving himself a blow on
the forehead, "it must be admitted that the Emperor is sometimes hard to
serve!"

If he exacts so much from the human creature, it is because, in playing
the game he has to play, he must absorb everything; in the situation in
which he has placed himself, caution is unnecessary. "Is a statesman,"
said he, "made to have feeling? Is he not wholly an eccentric
personage, always alone by himself, he on one side and the world on the
other?"[1270]

In this duel without truce or mercy, people interest him only whilst
they are useful to him; their value depends on what he can make out of
them; his sole business is to squeeze them, to extract to the last drop
whatever is available in them.

"I find very little satisfaction in useless sentiments," said he
again,[1271] "and Berthier is so mediocre that I do not know why I waste
my ti