CHAPTER 6.

Corps diplomatique during the Consulate.--Death of the Emperor
Paul.


I passed that winter in Paris very tranquilly. I never went to the
first consul's--I never saw M. de Talleyrand. I knew Bonaparte did
not like me: but he had not yet reached the degree of tyranny which
he has since displayed. Foreigners treated me with distinction,--the
corps diplomatique were my constant visitors,--and this European
atmosphere served me as a safeguard.

A minister just arrived from Prussia fancied that the republic still
existed, and began by putting forward some of the philosophical
notions he had acquired in his intercourse with Frederick the Great:
it was hinted to him that he had quite mistaken his ground, and that
he must rather avail himself of his knowledge of courts. He took the
hint very quickly, for he is a man whose distinguished powers are in
the service of a character particularly supple. He ends the sentence
you begin, and begins that which he thinks you will end; and it is
only in turning the conversation upon the transactions of former
ages, on ancient literature, or upon subjects unconnected with
persons or things of the present day, that you discover the
superiority of his understanding.

The Austrian Ambassador was a courtier of a totally different stamp,