Part 8 (2/2)

The husband of Mada) was not so patient, nor such a philosopher as Joseph Bonaparte So reported in the company of a 'bonne ahts in solitude, but that she sought consolation aed visitors at Morfontaine, he deterht when his arrival was announced to Joseph, who had just retired to his closet Madaraine, and her husband was too affectionate not to be the first to infor anybody previously to disturb her With great reluctance, Madame Miot's maid delivered the key of her rooht In the antechareatcoat, and in the closet adjoining the bedroom, a coat, a waistcoat, and a pair of breeches, with drawers, stockings, and slippers Though the allant did not awake froan to use the bludgeon of the lover, which had also been left in the closet A battle then ensued, in which the lover retaliated so vigorously, that the husband called out ”Murder! ht The chateau was instantly in an uproar, and the apartments croith half-dressed and half-naked lovers Joseph Bonaparte alone was able to separate the co the cause of the riot, assured theues in his house, without seriously resenting it An explanation being made, Madame Miot was looked for but in vain; and thewarned by a letter from Paris of her husband's jealousy and determination to surprise her, her mistress had reposed herself in her rooenerous suspicions of her husband, she had persuaded Captain d' Horteuil to occupy her place in her own bed The maid had no sooner finished her deposition, than her mistress made her appearance and upbraided her husband severely, in which she was cordially joined by the spectators She inquired if, on seeing the dress of a gentleman, he had also discovered the attire of a female; and she appealed to Captain d'

Horteuil whether he had not the two preceding nights also slept in her bed To this he, of course, assented; adding that, had M Miot attacked hihly handled as now; for then he was prepared for a visit, which this night was rather unexpected This connubial farce ended by Miot begging pardon of his wife and her gallant; the former of whom, after much entreaty by Joseph, at last consented to share with hiured with two black eyes and suffering from several bruises, and also ashamed of his unfashi+onable behaviour, he continued invisible for ten days afterwards, and returned to this city as he had left it, by stealth

This Niot was a spy under Robespierre, and is a Counsellor of State under Bonaparte Without bread, as well as without a ho of the Revolution, one of the most ardent patriots, and the first republican Minister in Tuscany After the Sovereign of that country had, in 1793, joined the League, Miot returned to France, and was, for his want of address to negotiate as a Minister, shut up to perfor, then transformed into a prison for suspected persons Thanks to his patriotism, upwards of two hundred individuals of both sexes were denounced, transferred to the Conciergerie prison, and afterwards guillotined After that, until 1799, he continued so despised that no faction would accept him for an accomplice; but in the November of that year, after Bonaparte had declared himself a First Consul, Miot was appointed a tribune, an office from which he was advanced, in 1802, to be a Counsellor of State As Miot squanders away his salary with harlots and in ga-houses, and is pursued by creditors he neither will nor can pay, it wasthe other ladies of Madame Joseph Bonaparte's household

LETTER XXVII

PARIS, August, 1805

MY LORD:--Notwithstanding the ties of consanguinity, honour, duty, interest, and gratitude, which bound the Spanish Bourbons to the cause of the Bourbons of France, no monarch has rendered more service to the cause of rebellion, and doneof Spain

But here, again, you must understand me When I speak of Princes whose talents are known not to be brilliant, whose intellects are known to be feeble, and whose good intentions are rendered null by a want of firmness of character or consistency of conduct; while I deplore their weakness and the consequent misfortunes of their contenorant counsellors; because, if no Ministers were fools or traitors, no Sovereigns would tremble on their thrones, and no subjects dare to shake their foundation Had Providence blessed Charles IV of Spain with the judg his Ministers, and the constancy of persevering in his choice, possessed by your George III; had the helm of Spain been in the firm and able hands of a Grenville, a Windham, and a Pitt, the Cabinet of Madrid would never have been oppressed by the yoke of the Cabinet of St Cloud, nor paid a heavy tribute for its bondage, degrading as well as ruinous

”This is the age of upstarts,” said Talleyrand to his cousin, Prince de Chalais, who reproached hies; ”and I prefer bowing to the trampled upon and crushed by them” Indeed, as far as I remember, nowhere in history are hitherto recorded so many low persons who, from obscurity and meanness, have suddenly and at once attained rank and notoriety Where do we read of such a nurand pensionaries, directors, Ienerals, Senators, Ministers, governors, Cardinals, etc, as itness figuring upon the theatre of Europe, and who chiefly decide on the destiny of nations? A these, several are certainly to be found whose superior parts have made them worthy to pierce the crowd and to shake off their native reatest number of these 'novi houes or atrocious crimes

The Prime Minister--or rather, the viceroy of Spain, the Prince of Peace--belongs to the latter class Froeneral-in-chief, and from a harp player in antechambers to a president of the councils of a Prince; and that within the short period of six years Such a fortune is not common; but to be absolutely without capacity as well as virtue, genius as well as good breeding, and, nevertheless, to continue in an elevation so little es and so unstable, is a fortune that no upstart ever before experienced in Spain

An intrigue of his elder brother with the present Queen, then Princess of Asturia, which was discovered by the King, introduced him first at Court as a harp player, and, when his brother was exiled, he was entrusted with the correspondence of the Princess with her gallant After she had ascended the throne, he thought it er, and contrived, therefore, to supplant his brother in the royal favour Promotions and riches were consequently heaped upon hiuised the partiality of the Queen was, the greater the attach displayed itself; and it has ever since been an eet and vilify birth and supre this man not only in the courtly pleasures, but in the functions of Sovereignty Had he been gifted with sound understanding, or possessed any share of delicacy, generosity, or discretion, he would, while he profited by their i their weaknesses and frailties to a discussion and ridicule a objects of hu the people He would have warned theer which at all times attends the publicity of foibles and vices of Princes, but particularly in the present times of trouble and innovations He would have told thereat and wealthy, but not at the expense of your own grandeur or of the loyalty of your people Do not treat an humble subject as an equal, nor suffer Your Majesties, whoh-spirited nation, to be openly ruled by one born to obey I am too dutiful not to lay asideand the tranquillity of h In descending a little, I shall not only rise in the eyes of my contemporaries, but in the opinion of posterity Every step I a a little, if I do not strengthen, I can never injure it” But I beg your pardon for this digression, and for putting the language of dignified reason into the mouth of a man as corrupt as he is imbecile

Do not suppose, because the Prince of Peace is no friend of my nation, that I am his enemy No! Had he shown himself a true patriot, a friend of his own country, and of his too liberal Prince, or even of h I ht have disapproved of his policy, if he has any--I would never have lashed the individual for the acts of the Minister But you must have observed, with me, that never before his administration was the Cabinet of Madrid worse conducted at home or more despised abroad; the Spanish Monarch more humbled or Spanish subjects more wretched; the Spanish power more dishonoured or the Spanish resources worse employed Never, before the treaty with France of 1796, concluded by this wiseacre (which n of Spain), was the Spanish monarchy reduced to such a lamentable dilemma as to be forced into an expensive ithout a cause, and into a disgraceful peace, not only unprofitable, but absolutely disadvantageous Never before were its treasures distributed a its oppressors to support their tyranny, nor its ht the battles of rebellion

The loyal subjects of Spain have only one hope left The delicate state of his present Majesty's health does not pron, and the Prince of Asturia is too well infornorant Minister that ever was adn It is n the misfortunes of the Prince of Peace will inspire as much compassion as his rapid advancenation

A Cabinet thus badly directed cannot be expected to have representatives abroad either of abilities or patriotism The Admiral and General Gravina, who but lately left this capital as an Ambassador from the Court of Spain to assume the command of a Spanish fleet, is more valiant than wise, and more an enemy of your country than a friend of his own He is a profound ad his residence, one of the most ostentatiously aard courtiers of Napoleon the First It is said that he has the modesty and loyalty to wish to become a Spanish Bonaparte, and that he proenius and exploits the lost lustre of the Spanish monarchy When this was reported to Talleyrand, he smiled with contee at the i to associate his nareatness with his own impertinent schemes of absurdities and impossibilities

In the summer of 1793, Gravina commanded a division of the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, of which Adara was the commander-in-chief At the capitulation of Toulon, after the colish and Spanish forces had taken possession of it, when Rear-Adovernor, Gravina was made the coht bravely in different sorties, and on the 1st of October ounded at the re-capture of Fort Pharon He colect fro been exposed unnecessarily to the fire and sword of the enemy merely because he was a patriot as well as an envied or suspected ally His inveteracy against your country takes its date, no doubt, froe of Toulon, or perhaps, from its evacuation

When, in May, 1794, our troops were advancing towards Collioure, he was sent with a squadron to bring it succours, but he arrived too late, and could not save that i of the can of 1795 at Rosa, where he had only time to carry away the artillery before the ene the absence of Admiral Massaredo, he assumed ad interim the command of the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean; but in the Deceraced, arrested, and shut up as a State prisoner

During the embassy of Lucien Bonaparte to the Court of Madrid, in the autumn of 1800, Gravina was by his influence restored to favour; and after the death of the late Spanish Ambassador to the Cabinet of St

Cloud, Chevalier d' Azara, by the special desire of Napoleon, was no of Etruria

A the members of our diploasconader and a bully He more frequently boasted of his wounds and battles than of his negotiations or conferences, though he pretended, indeed, to shi+ne as much in the Cabinet as in the field

In his suite were two Spanish woe nobody knehat to make of them, as they were treated neither as wives, mistresses, nor servants; and they avowed themselves to be no relations After a residence here of soht at the opera, by a young and beautiful dancing girl of the na He hesitated, indeed, for soot the better of his scruples, and he furnished for her an elegant apartment on the new Boulevard On the day he carried her there, he was accoation; and told her that, previous to any further intiious principles did not permit him to cohabit with a woman as not his wife At the san, by which she bound herself never to claim him as a husband before her turn--that is to say, until sixteen other women, to whom he had been previously married, were dead She e or to the conditions annexed to it This girl had a sweetheart of the name of Valere, an actor at one of the little theatres on the Boulevards, to whom she communicated her adventure He advised her to be scrupulous in her turn, and to ask a copy of the agreement After some difficulty this was obtained In it no mention was made of her arded, should she have any Valere had, therefore, another agreeed, according to his own interested views Gravina refused to subscribe to what he plainly perceived were only extortions; and the girl, in her turn, not only declined any further connection with hia this subject, the door was suddenly opened and the two Spanish ladies presented the Gravina, as struck irl that whatever proe she had obtained from him was of no value, as, before they came with him to France, he had bound himself, before a public notary at Madrid, not to form any more connections, nor to marry any other woman, without their written consent

One of these ladies declared that she had been married to Gravina twenty-two years, and was his oldest wife but one; the other said that she had beentheold into Barrois's hand

When Valere heard from his mistress this occurrence, he advised her to make the most money she could of the Spaniard's curious scruples A letter was, therefore, written to hi one hundred thousand livres--as the price of secrecy and withholding the particulars of this business froe of the tribunals and the police; and an ansas required within twenty-four hours The saht Gravina offered one thousand Louis, which were accepted, and the papers returned; but the next day Valere went to his hotel, Rue de Provence, where he presented himself as a brother of Barrois He stated that he still possessed authenticated copies of the papers returned, and that he must have either the full sum first asked by his sister, or an annuity of twelve thousand livres settled upon her Instead of an answer, Gravina ordered him to be turned out of the house An attorney then waited on His Excellency, on the part of the brother and the sister, and repeated their threats and their de that he would write aof Spain, were justice refused to his principals any longer

Gravina ell aware that this affair, though hable than criminal, would hurt both his character and credit if it were known in France; he therefore consented to pay seventy-six thousand livres more, upon a for money sufficient by him, he went to borrow it froents Our Minister, therefore, ordered every step of Gravina to be watched; but he soon discovered that, instead of wanting this ue, it was necessary to extricate hi, however, in what a scandalous manner the Ambassador had been duped and iave Fouche orders to have Valere, Barrois, and the attorney immediately transported to Cayenne, and to restore Gravina his money The former part of this order the Minister of Police executed theto his plan that Barrois had pitched upon Gravina for a lover She had been intended by him as a spy on His Excellency, but had deceived him by her reports--a crime for which transportation was a usual punishment