of the Bank paper--Ouvrard--His great discretion--
Bonaparte's opinion of the rich--Ouvrard's imprisonment--His
partnership with the King of Spain--His connection with Waalenberghe
and Desprez--Bonaparte's return to Paris after the campaign of
Vienna--Hasty dismissal of M. Barbe Marbois.

At the moment when the Emperor had reason to hope that the news of his
extraordinary success would animate public spirit he was informed that
considerable disquietude prevailed, and that the Bank of France was
assailed by demands for the payment of its paper, which had fallen, more
than 5 per cent. I was not ignorant of the cause of this decline. I had
been made acquainted, through the commercial correspondence between
Hamburg and Paris, with a great financial operation, planned by M.
Ouvrard, in consequence of which he was to obtain piastres from Spanish
America at a price much below the real value; and I had learned that he
was obliged to support this enterprise by the funds which he and his
partners previously employed in victualling the forces. A fresh
investment of capital was therefore necessary for this service, which,
when on a large scale, requires extensive advances, and the tardy payment
of the Treasury at that period was well known.

I was well acquainted with M. Ouvrard, and in what I am about to say I do
not think there will be found anything offensive or disagreeable to him.
I observed the greater number of the facts to which I shall refer in
their origin, and the rest I learned from M. Ouvrard himself, who, when
he visited Hamburg in 1808, communicated to me a variety of details
respecting his immense transaction with the King of Spain. Among other
things I recollect he told me that hefore the 18th Brumaire he was
possessed of 60,000,000, without owing a franc to any person.

This celebrated financier has been the object of great public attention.
The prodigious variations of fortune which he has experienced, the
activity of his life, the immense commercial operations in which he has
been engaged; the extent and the boldness of his enterprises, render it
necessary, in forming a judgment of M. Ouvrard, to examine his conduct
with due care and deliberation. The son of a stationer, who was able
merely through his own resources to play so remarkable a part, could be
no ordinary man. It may be said of M. Ouvrard what Beaumarchais said of
himself, that his life was really a combat. I have known him long, and I
s