ought to conciliate him by personal
concessions. In forming his cabinet, he named the Duke de Richelieu, who
was still absent, Minister of the Royal Household, while the Ministry of
the Interior was held in reserve for Pozzo di Borgo, who would willingly
have left the official service of Russia to take part in the Government
of France. M. de Talleyrand placed much faith in the power of
temptations; but, in this instance, they were of no avail. The
Duke de Richelieu, probably in concert with the King himself, refused;
Pozzo di Borgo did not obtain, or dared not to solicit, the permission
of his master to become, once more, a Frenchman. I saw him frequently,
and that mind, at once quick and decisive, bold and restless, felt
keenly its doubtful situation, and with difficulty concealed its
perplexities. The Emperor Alexander maintained his cold reserve, leaving
M. de Talleyrand powerless and embarrassed in this arena of negotiation,
ordinarily the theatre of his success.

The weakness of Fouche was different, and sprang from other causes. It
was not that the foreign sovereigns and their ministers regarded him
more favourably than they did M. de Talleyrand, for his admission into
the King's cabinet had greatly scandalized monarchical Europe; the Duke
of Wellington alone persisted in still upholding him; but none amongst
the foreigners either attacked him or appeared anxious for his downfall.
It was from within that the storm was raised against him. With a
strangely frivolous presumption, he had determined to deliver up the
Revolution to the King, and the King to the Revolution, relying upon his
dexterity and boldness to assist him in passing and repassing from camp
to camp, and in governing one by the other, while alternately betraying
both. The elections which took place at this period throughout France,
signally falsified his hopes. In vain did he profusely employ agents,
and circular addresses; neither obtained for him the slightest
influence; the decided Royalists prevailed in nearly every quarter,
almost without a struggle. It is our misfortune and our weakness, that
in every great crisis the vanquished become as the dead. The Chamber of
1815 as yet appeared only in the distance, and already the Duke of
Otranto trembled as though thunderstruck by the side of the tottering
M. de Talleyrand. In this opposite and unequal peril, but critical for
both, the conduct of these two men was very different. M. de Talleyrand
proclai