his back, and says, "Very well, sir, your conscience is a
blockhead!"[64] Portalis, director of the publishing office,[65]
having received a papal brief from his cousin, the Abbé d'Astros,
respected a confidential communication; he simply recommended his
cousin to keep this document secret, and declared that, if it were
made public, he would prohibit its circulation; by way of extra
precaution he notified the prefect of police. But he did not
specially denounce his cousin, have the man arrested and the document
seized. On the strength of this, the Emperor, in full council of
state, apostrophizes him to his face, and, "with one of those looks
which go straight through one,"[66] declares that he has committed
"the vilest of perfidies"; he bestows on him for half an hour a
hailstorm of reproaches and insults, and then orders him out of the
room as if a lackey who had been guilty of a theft. Whether he keeps
within his function or not, the functionary must be content to do
whatever is demanded of him, and readily anticipate every commission.
If his scruples arrest him, if he alleges personal obligations, if he
had rather not fail in delicacy, or even in common loyalty, he incurs
the risk of offending or losing the favor of the master, which is the
case with M. de Rémusat,[67] who is unwilling to become his spy,
reporter, and denunciator for the Faubourg Saint-Germain, who does not
offer, at Vienna, to pump out of Madame d'André the address of her
husband so that M. d'André may be taken and immediately shot. Savary,
who was the negotiator for his being given up, kept constantly telling
M. de Rémusat, "You are going against your interest - I must say that
I do not comprehend you!" And yet Savary, himself minister of the
police, executor of most important services, head manager of the
murder of the Duc d'Enghien and of the ambuscade at Bayonne,
counterfeiter of Austrian bank-notes for the campaign of 1809 and of
Russian banknotes for that of 1812,[68] Savary ends in getting weary;