troops, who had begun their march towards Austria. Such was the
true object of Napoleons last journey to Boulogne.

I had been some time at Hamburg when these events took place, and it was
curious to observe the effect they produced. But I must not forget one
circumstance in which I am personally concerned, and which brings me back
to the time when I was in Paris. My new title of Minister
Plenipotentiary obliged me to see a little more of society than during
the period when prudence required me to live as it were in retirement.
I had received sincere congratulations from Duroc, Rape, and Lauriston,
the three friends who had shown the greatest readiness to serve my
interests with the Emperor; and I had frequent occasion to see M.
Talleyrand, as my functions belonged to his department. The Emperor, on
my farewell audience, having informed me that I was to correspond
directly with the Minister of the General Police, I called on Fouche, who
invited me to spend some days at his estate of Pont-Carre. I accepted
the invitation because I wanted to confer with him, and I spent Sunday
and Monday, the 28th and 29th of April, at Pont-Carre.

Fouche, like the Emperor, frequently revealed what he intended to
conceal; but he had such a reputation for cunning that this sort of
indiscretion was attended by no inconvenience to him. He was supposed to
be such a constant dissembler that those who did not know him well looked
upon the truth when he spoke it merely as an artful snare laid to entrap
them. I, however, knew that celebrated person too well to confound his
cunning with his indiscretion. The best way to get out of him more than
he was aware of was to let him talk on without interruption. There were
very few visitors at Pont-Carre, and during the two days I spent there I
had several conversations with Fouche. He told me a great deal about the
events of 1804, and he congratulated himself on having advised Napoleon
to declare himself Emperor--"I have no preference," says Fouche, "for
one form of government more than another. Forms signify nothing. The
first object of the Revolution was not the overthrow of the Bourbons, but
merely the reform of abuses and the destruction of prejudices. However,
when it was discovered that Louis XVI. had neither firmness to refuse
what he did not wish to grant, nor good faith to grant what his weakness
had led him to promise, it was evident that the Bourbons could no longer
reign over France and thin