ulity seems to have
suggested to the French authorities the sending of an agent so as to
entrap not only French _emigres_, but also English officials and
Jacobinical generals.

The _agent provocateur_ has at all times been a favourite tool of
continental Governments: but rarely has a more finished specimen of
the class been seen than Mehee de la Touche. After plying the trade of
an assassin in the September massacres of 1792, and of a Jacobin spy
during the Terror, he had been included by Bonaparte among the Jacobin
scapegoats who expiated the Chouan outrage of Nivose. Pining in the
weariness of exile, he heard from his wife that he might be pardoned
if he would perform some service for the Consular Government. At once
he consented, and it was agreed that he should feign royalism, should
worm himself into the secrets of the _emigres_ at London, and act as
intermediary between them and the discontented republicans of Paris.

The man who seems to have planned this scheme was the ex-Minister of
Police. Fouche had lately been deprived by Bonaparte of the
inquisitorial powers which he so unscrupulously used. His duties were
divided between Regnier, the Grand Judge and Minister of Justice, and
Real, a Councillor of State, who watched over the internal security of
France. These men had none of the ability of Fouche, nor did they know
at the outset what Mehee was doing in London. It may, therefore, be
assumed that Mehee was one of Fouche's creatures, whom he used to
discredit his successor, and that Bonaparte welcomed this means of
quickening the zeal of the official police, while he also wove his
meshes round plotting _emigres_, English officials, and French
generals.[282]

Among these last there was almost chronic discontent, and Bonaparte
claimed to have found out a plot whereby twelve of them should divide
France into as many portions, leaving to him only Paris and its
environs. If so, he never made any use of his discovery. In fact, out
of this group of malcontents, Moreau, Bernadotte, Augereau, Macdonald,
and others, he feared only the hostility of the first. The victor of
Hohenlinden lived in sullen privacy near to Paris, refusing to present
himself at the Consular Court, and showing his contempt for those who
donned a courtier's uniform. He openly mocked at the Concordat; and
when the Legion of Honour was instituted, he bestowed a collar of
honour upon his dog. So keen was Napoleon's resentment at this
raillery that