factions, being an accomplice in their guilt and a sharer of their
spoils. In the convention, he voted for the death of Louis XVI. and
pursued without mercy the unfortunate Marie Antoinette to the scaffold.
During his missions in the departments, wherever he went the guillotine
was erected and blood flowed in streams. He was, nevertheless, accused
by Robespierre of moderatism. At Lille, in 1797, and at Rastadt, in
1798, he negotiated as a plenipotentiary with the representatives of
Princes, and in 1799 corresponded as a director with Emperors and Kings,
to whom he wrote as his great and dear friends. He is now a Counsellor
of State, in the section of legislation, and enjoys a fortune of several
millions of livres, arising from estates in the country, and from leases
in the capital. As this accident at Madame de C----n's soon became
public, his friends gave out that he had of late been exceedingly absent,
and, from absence of mind, puts everything he can lay hold of into his
pocket. He is not a favourite with Madame Bonaparte, and she asked her
husband to dismiss and disgrace him for an act so disgraceful to a grand
officer of the Legion of Honour, but was answered, "Were I to turn away
all the thieves and rogues that encompass me I should soon cease to
reign. I despise them, but I must employ them."

It is whispered that the police have discovered another of Madame de Cn's
lost gold plates at a pawnbroker's, where it had been pledged by the
wife of another Counsellor of State, Francois de Nantes.

This I give you merely as a report! though the fact is, that Madame
Francois is very fond of gambling, but very unfortunate; and she, with
other of our fashionable ladies, has more than once resorted to her
charms for the payment of her gambling debts.