Engraved by Thomson, from the Original Painting by F. Gérard
]
Napoleon observed that a celebrated actress (Mademoiselle Raucourt) had
described him with great truth. “If you ask him a question,” said she,
“he is an iron chest, whence you cannot extract a syllable; but if you
ask him nothing, you will soon be unable to stop his mouth—he will
become a regular gossip.”
This was a foible which, at the outset, destroyed the confidence of the
Emperor, and made him waver in his opinion of T——. “I had entrusted
him,” said Napoleon, "with a very important affair, and, a few hours
afterwards, Josephine related it to me word for word. I instantly sent
for the Minister, to inform him that I had just learned from the Empress
a circumstance which I had told in confidence to himself alone. The
story had already passed through four or five intermediate channels.
"T——’s countenance," added the Emperor, “is so immoveable that nothing
can ever be read in it. Lannes and Murat used jokingly to say of him
that if, while he was speaking to you, some one should come behind him
and give him a kick, his countenance would betray no indication of the
affront.”
M. de T—— is mild and even endearing in his domestic habits. His
servants, and the persons in his employment, are attached and devoted to
him. Among his intimate friends he willingly and good-humouredly speaks
of his ecclesiastical profession. He one day expressed his dislike of a
tune which was hummed in his hearing. He said he had a great horror of
it; it reminded him of the time when he was obliged to practise
church-music, and to sing at the desk. On another occasion, one of his
intimate friends was telling a story during supper, while M. de T—— was
engaged in thought, and seemed inattentive to the conversation. In the
course of the story, the speaker happened to say in a lively manner of
some one whom he had named, “That fellow is a comical rogue; he is a
married priest.” T——, roused by these words, seized a spoon, plunged it
hastily into the dish before him, and with a threatening aspect called
out to him, “Mr. Such-a-one, will you have some spinach?” The person who
was telling the story was confounded, and all the party burst into a fit
of laughter, M. de T—— as well as the rest.
The Emperor, at the time of the Concordat, wished to have made M. de
T.... a Cardinal, and to have placed him at the head of ecclesiastical
affairs. He told him that his proper destiny was to return to the bosom
of the Church, to refresh his memory, and to stop the mouths of the
declaimers. T——, however, would never agree to this; his aversion to the
ecclesiastical profession was insurmountable.
Napoleon was very near appointing him Ambassador to Warsaw, a dignity
which he subsequently conferred on the Abbé de Pradt; but his dirty
stock-jobbing tricks, as the Emperor called them, occasioned this
intention to be abandoned. The Emperor was induced by the same reasons,
and at the instance of several sovereigns of Germany, to deprive him of
the portfolio of Foreign Affairs.
The Emperor remarked that Fouché was the T—— of the clubs, and that T——
was the Fouché of the drawing-rooms. “Intrigue,” he said, "was to Fouché
a necessary of life. He intrigued at all times, in all places, in all
ways, and with all persons. Nothing ever came to light but he was found
to have had a hand in it. He made it his sole business to look out for
something that he might be meddling with. His mania was to wish to be
concerned in every thing...! Always in every body’s shoes." This the
Emperor would often repeat.
At the time of the conspiracy of Georges, when Moreau was arrested,
Fouché was no longer at the head of the Police, and he endeavoured to
make himself very much regretted. “What stupidity!” said he, “they have
arrested Moreau when he was returning to Paris from his country
residence, a circumstance which at least appeared like the confidence of
innocence. On the contrary, he should have been seized when he went to
Gros-Bois, for then he was evidently running away.”
The remark which he made, or which is attributed to him on the affair of
the Duke d’Enghien, is well known; “It is more than a crime, it is a
fault,” said he. Such traits as these paint the character of a man
better than whole volumes.
The Emperor knew Fouché well, and never became his dupe. He has been
much blamed for having employed him in 1815, when indeed Fouché basely
betrayed him. Napoleon was not ignorant of his disposition; but he also
knew that the danger depended more on the circumstances than on the
individual. “If I had been victorious,” said he, “Fouché would have been
faithful. He took great care, it is true, to hold himself in readiness
for whatever might happen. I ought to have conquered!”
The Emperor, however, was acquainted with his underhand dealings, and he
did not spare him. After Napoleon’s return in 1815, one of the first
bankers of Paris presented himself at the Elysée, to inform him that, a
few days previously, a person just arrived from Vienna had waited upon
him with letters of credit, and had made enquiries respecting the means
by which he could meet with Fouché. Whether from reflection or
presentiment, the banker conceived some doubts respecting this
individual, and accordingly came to communicate them in person to the
Emperor, who was astonished that Fouché had concealed the matter from
his knowledge. In the course of a few hours Réal found the person in
question, and immediately brought him to the Elysée, where he was shut
up in a small room by himself. The Emperor ordered him to be brought
into the garden. “Do you know me?” said he to the man. This
commencement, and the feelings which the Emperor’s presence inspired,
greatly startled the stranger. “I am acquainted with all your
proceedings,” continued Napoleon, in a tone of severity: “if you this
moment confess all you know, I may pardon you; if not, you will be taken
from this garden to be shot.”—"I will tell all," said the man. “I am
sent hither by M. de Metternich to the Duke of Otranto, to propose that
he will despatch a messenger to Bâle, who will there meet the messenger
sent by M. de Metternich from Vienna. These,” continued he, delivering
some papers, “are the marks of recognition which they are to
possess.”—"Have you executed your mission to Fouché?" enquired the
Emperor.—"Yes."—"Has he despatched his messenger?"—"I do not know." The
man was put under confinement, and within an hour a confidential person
(M. F——) was on the road to Bâle. He introduced himself to the Austrian
messenger, and even held four conferences with him.
Meanwhile Fouché, who was uneasy at the non-appearance of his Vienna
messenger, one day waited on the Emperor, and attempted with an air of
gaiety and cheerfulness to conceal his extreme embarrassment. “There
were several looking-glasses,” said the Emperor, “in the apartment, and
I was much amused in studying him by stealth; the expression of his
countenance was hideous; he did not know how to enter upon the subject
which interested him so deeply.”—"Sire," said he at length, "a
circumstance occurred to me four or five days ago, which I fear I was
wrong in not communicating to your Majesty.... But I have so much
business on my hands——I am surrounded with so many reports, so many
intrigues——. A man came to me from Vienna with most ridiculous
propositions,——and he is now no where to be found!"—"M. Fouché," said
the Emperor, “you may injure yourself, if you take me for a fool. I have
secured the man you speak of, and I have known the whole intrigue for
several days. Have you sent to Bâle?”—"No, Sire."—"That is fortunate for
you. If it be otherwise, and I obtain proofs of it, it may cost you your
life."
Subsequent events have proved that this would have been but justice. It
appears, however, that Fouché had not sent, and here the business ended.