, by the step he has now taken.

I am ignorant of the designs of Heaven respecting me and my
subjects; but I know the obligations which God has imposed upon me.
As a Christian, I will fulfil my duties to my last breath--as the
son of St. Louis, I would, like him, respect myself even in chains--
as the successor of Francis I., I say with him--'Tout est perdu fors
l'honneur'.

MITTAU, 1802. LOUIS.

Louis XVIII.'s letter having reached Paris, the Royalist committee
assembled, and were not a little embarrassed as to what should be done.
The meeting took place at Neuilly. After a long deliberation it was
suggested that the delivery of the letter should be entrusted to the
Third Consul, with whom the Abby de Montesqiou had kept up acquaintance
since the time of the Constituent Assembly. This suggestion was adopted.
The recollections of the commencement of his career, under Chancellor
Maupeou, had always caused M. Lebrun to be ranked in a distinct class by
the Royalists. For my part, I always looked upon him as a very honest
man, a warm advocate of equality, and anxious that it should be protected
even by despotism, which suited the views of the First Consul very well.
The Abbe de Montesquiou accordingly waited upon M. Lebrun, who undertook
to deliver the letter. Bonaparte received it with an air of
indifference; but whether that indifference were real or affected, I am
to this day unable to determine. He said very little to me about the ill
success of the negotiation with Louis XVIII. On this subject he dreaded,
above all, the interference of his brothers, who created around him a
sort of commotion which he knew was not without its influence, and which
on several occasions had excited his anger.

The letter of Louis XVIII. is certainly conceived in a tone of dignity
which cannot be too highly admired; and it may be said that Bonaparte on
this occasion rendered a real service to Louis by affording him the
opportunity of presenting to the world one of the finest pages in the
history of a dethroned King. This letter, the contents of which were
known in some circles of Paris, was the object of general approbation to
those who preserved the recollection of the Bourbons, and above all, to
the Royalist committee. The members of that committee, proud of the
noble spirit evinced by the unfortunate monarch, whose return they were
generously labouring to effect, replied to him by a sort of manifest