mmodation with the King, if he would consent, to dismiss certain
dangerous persons, and make fresh concessions to France.

This change, too sudden not to be noticed, drew on his conduct more
than ever the scrutinizing eyes and reproaches of the antagonists of
the Bourbons.

He was accused of encouraging by impunity the newspaper writers and
pamphleteers, who openly advocated the recall of the ancient dynasty
of protecting the royalist party; and of having restored to liberty
one of its most subtle agents, Baron de Vitrolles.

He was charged with holding nocturnal conferences with this same M. de
Vitrolles, and several eminent royalists; and with daily sending
emissaries, unknown to his colleagues, to the King, to M. de
Talleyrand, and to the Duke of Wellington.

Two of the deputies, M. Durbach and General Solignac, went to him, and
declared, that they were acquainted with his manoeuvres; that his
ambition blinded him; that no compact could ever subsist between Louis
XVIII. and the murderer of his brother; and that sooner or later
France would take vengeance on this treason.

An old minister of state, M. Deferment, reproached him to his teeth
with privately selling the lives and liberties of the French.

Other accusations, not less serious, or less virulent, were addressed
to him by M. Carnot, and by General Grenier. "If he betray us," said
the latter, "I will blow his brains out."

The Duke of Otranto, accustomed to brave political storms, coolly
repelled these imputations. He reminded his accusers of the numerous
pledges he had given to the revolution. He offered his head as the
guarantee of his fidelity. His protestations, his oaths, and the
imperturbable assurance, with which he answered for the safety and
independence of the nation, if he were suffered to go on his own way,
allayed the storms: but he had too much penetration, not to be aware
of the ground on which he stood; he could not but feel, that he was
lost, if he did not hasten to a conclusion; and there is every reason
to believe, that he rejected _no means_ of arriving speedily at a
decisive result[83].

[Footnote 83: If we may believe the declaration of M.
Macirone, confirmed by the testimony of two other secret
agents, MM. Marechal and St. Jul***, the Duke of Otranto
wrote to Lord Wellington, by a letter of which M.
Macirone was the bearer, and which he concealed in his