ad been charged with fresh communications for M. Fouche. "He has
never opened his mouth to me on the subject," said Napoleon. "I am now
persuaded, that he is betraying me. I am almost certain, that he is
intriguing both at London and at Ghent: I regret, that I did not
dismiss him, before he came to disclose to me the intrigues of
Metternich: at present, the opportunity is gone by; and he would every
where proclaim me for a suspicious tyrant, who had sacrificed him
without any cause. Go to him: say nothing to him of Montron or
Bresson; let him prate at his ease, and bring me a full account of all
he says."

The Emperor imparted this second interview to the Duke of Vicenza; and
directed him, to send for M. de Montron, and M. Bresson, and endeavour
to set them talking. The Duke de Vicenza having been able to get
nothing out of them, the Emperor, as I have been informed, would see
them himself; and, after having questioned and sounded them for four
hours, he dismissed them both, without having heard any thing but
accounts of the hostile dispositions of the allies, and the
conversations they had had at Vienna with M. de Talleyrand and M. de
Metternich, the substance of which was the same as that of my
conferences with M. Werner.

As the Emperor had rejected my first suspicions with so much
indifference, I was flattered to see him sharing my distrust: but
this gratification of self-love gave way to the most painful
reflexions.

I had conceived the highest opinion of the character and patriotism of
the Duke of Otranto; I considered him as one of the first statesmen in
France; and I bitterly regretted, that such qualities, and such
talents, instead of being devoted to the good of his country, should
be employed in favouring the designs of our enemies, and in coolly
contriving with them the means of subjugating us.

These reflexions, which ought to have inspired me with horror for M.
Fouche, had on me an opposite effect: I was staggered by the enormity
of the crime I ascribed to him. No, said I to myself, M. Fouche cannot
be guilty of such baseness: he has received too many benefits from the
Emperor, to be capable of betraying him, and has given too many proofs
of attachment and affection to his country, to conspire its dishonour
and ruin. His propensity to intrigue may have led him astray; but his
intrigues, if reprehensible, are at least not criminal.

Thus I repaired to the Duke of Otranto's in the persuasion, that I ha