fallen he was just the man we wanted. I therefore adopted such measures
with the police as tended to promote his elevation to the First
Magistracy. He soon showed himself ungrateful, and instead of giving me
all his confidence he tried to outwit me. He put into the hands of a
number of persons various matters of police which were worse than
useless. Most of their agents, who were my creatures, obeyed my
instructions in their reports; and it often happened that the First
Consul thought he had discovered, through the medium of others,
information that came from me, and of the falsehood of which I easily
convinced him. I confess I was at fault on the 3d Nivoise; but are there
any human means of preventing two men, who have no accomplices, from
bringing a plot to execution? You saw the First Consul on his return
from the opera; you heard all his declamations. I felt assured that the
infernal machine was the work of the Royalists. I told the Emperor this,
and he was, I am sure, convinced of it; but he, nevertheless, proscribes
a number of men on the mere pretence of their old opinions. Do you
suppose I am ignorant of what he said of me and of my vote at the
National Convention? Most assuredly it ill becomes him to reproach the
Conventionists. It was that vote which placed the crown upon his head.
But for the situation in which we were placed by that event, which
circumstances had rendered inevitable, what should we have cared for the
chance of seeing the Bourbons return? You must have remarked that the
Republicans, who were not Conventionists, were in general more averse
than we to the proceedings of the 18th Brumaire, as, for example,
Bernadotte and Moreau. I know positively that Moreau was averse to the
Consulate; and that it was only from irresolution that he accepted the
custody of the Directory. I know also that he excused himself to his
prisoners for the duty which had devolved upon him. They themselves told
me this."