Part 13 (1/2)
In May, 1793, the Committee of Public Safety deternior, at the head of which was the fauer, De Semonville, whose revolutionary diplomacy had, within three years, alarmed the Courts of Madrid, Naples, and Turin, as well as the republican Government of Genoa His career towards Turkey was stopped in the Grisons Republic, on the 25th of July following, where he, with sixteen other persons of his suite, was arrested, and sent a prisoner, first to Milan, and afterwards to Mantua He carried with him presents of i theilt; what is iron or brass in coe chests were filled with stuff of gold brocade, India gold hty thousand louis d'or in ready old plate of twenty covers, which fors of France; two small boxes full of diamonds and brilliants, the intrinsic worth of which was estireat nu others, the crown diaents', and in your country the Pitt Diamond, fell, with other riches, into the hands of the captors Notwithstanding this loss and this disappointment, we contrived in vain to purchase the hostility of the Turks against our ene to the report of Saint Just, in June, 1794,) than seventy millions of livres: These official statements prove the means which our so often extolled economical and otiations
After the invasion of Egypt, in time of peace, by Bonaparte, the Sultan became at last convinced of the sincerity of our professions of friendshi+p, which he returned with a declaration of war The preliminaries of peace with your country, in October, 1801, were, however, soon folloith a renewal of our fore of Sebastiani into Egypt and Syria, in the autumn of 1802, showed that our tenderness for the inhabitants of these countries had not dis of fraternity Your pretensions to Malta ied us to postpone our so well planned schemes of encroachments It was then that Bonaparte first selected for his representative to the Grand Seignior, General Brune, coes of uer at the head of armies, and a warrior in time of peace when seated in the Council chamber
This Brune was, before the Revolution, a journeyman printer, and married to a washerwoman, whose industry and labour alone prevented hiained when he chose to as generally squandered away in brothels, a prostitutes To supply his excesses he had even recourse to dishonesthisof the Revolution, his very crimes made him an acceptable associate of Marat, ith the -office, and he printed the so dreadfully well-known journal, called 'L'Amie du Peuple' From the principles of this atrocious paper, and frouinary patron, he foruished himself frequently at the clubs of the Cordeliers, and of the Jacobins, by his extravagant ainst a wealth he did not possess, and against a rank he would have dishonoured, but did not see without envy On the 30th of June, 1791, he said, in the former of these clubs:
”We hear everywhere cousted with the sight of unnatural riches, our hearts would not so often be shocked at the unnatural sufferings of hus of our Revolution will never be felt by the world, until we in France are on a level, with regard to rank as well as to fortune I, for nity of human nature ever to bow to a superior; but, brothers and friends, it is not enough that we are all politically equal, we must also be all equally rich or equally poor--we must either all strive to become men of property, or reduce men of property to become sans-culottes Believe erous than the aristocracy of prerogative or fanaticism, because it is more common Here is a list sent to 'L' Amie du People', but of which prudence yet prohibits the publication It contains the names of all the men of property of Paris, and of the Department of the Seine, the amount of their fortunes, and a proposal how to reduce and divide it areat utility in the rand blows, nobody dares doubt; I, therefore, move that a brotherly letter be sent to every society of our brothers and friends in the provinces, inviting each of them to compose one of similar contents and of similar tendency, in their own districts, hat remarks they think proper to affix, and to forward the copies of them for the archives of their own society”
His ain ascended the tribune ”You approved,” said he, ”of the ainst the aristocracy of property; I will now tell you of another aristocracy which we y Their supports are folly, cowardice, and ignorance All priests are to be proscribed as criminals, and despised as impostors or idiots; and all altars must be reduced to dust as unnecessary To prepare the public hten it; which can only be done by disse extracts from 'L' Amie du People', and other philosophical publications
I have here so in my quarter; where all superstitious persons have already tre If you think proper, I will, for a mere trifle, print twenty thousand copies of theratis all over France”
After some discussion, the treasurer of the club was ordered to advance Citizen Brune the sum required, and the secretary to transmit the ballads to the fraternal societies in the provinces
Brune put on his first regimentals as an aide-decaiven proofs of hisSeptember, in the massacre of the prisoners in the Abbey In 1793 he was appointed a colonel in the revolutionary arn of Terror, laid waste the depart his corps, with a human head fixed on his sword On the day when he entered Bordeaux with his troops, a new-born child occupied the sa this brilliant expedition he laid the first foundation of his present fortune, having pillaged in a most unmerciful manner, and arrested or shot every suspected person who could not, or would not, exchange property for life On his return to Paris, his patriotisade On the death of Robespierre, he was arrested as a terrorist, but, after soain released
In October, 1795, he assisted Napoleon Bonaparte in the massacre of the Parisians, and obtained for it, froeneral of division Though occupying, in tih military rank, he had hitherto never seen an eneement
After Bonaparte had planned the invasion and pillage of Switzerland, Brune was charged to execute this unjust outrage against the law of nations His capacity to intrigue procured him this distinction, and he did honour to the choice of his e the Government of Berne into security by repeated proposals of acco a truce, and obtained by treachery successes which his valour did not proe, robberies, and devastations in Helvetia added several reat riches
It was after his ca the autulory He owed, however, his successes to the superior nuenerals and officers serving under hi made a Counsellor of State by Bonaparte, he was entrusted with the coain seduced by his proues, acted infamously--but was successful
LETTER xxxIX
PARIS, September, 1805
MY LORD:--Three months before Brune set out on his embassy to Constantinople, Talleyrand and Fouche were collecting together all the desperadoes of our Revolution, and all the Italian, Corsican, Greek, and Arabian renegadoes and vagabonds in our country, to forreeable to the real object of his mission
You know too much of our national character and of my own veracity to think it ireat men in place are as vain as presuet the better of their discretion and prudence What I a to tell you I did not hear myself, but it was reported to me by a female friend, as estimable for her virtues as admired for her accomplishments She is often honoured with invitations to Talleyrand's familiar parties, composed chiefly of persons whose fortunes are as independent as their principles, who, though not approving the Revolution, neither joined its opposers nor opposed its adherents, preferring tranquillity and obscurity to agitation and celebrity Their number is not much above half a dozen, and the Minister calls them the only honest people in France hom he thinks himself safe
When it was reported here that two hundred persons of Brune's suite had ehty-four at Genoa, and when it was besides known that nearly fifty individuals accompanied him in his outset, this unusual occurrence caused much conversation and many speculations in all our coteries and fashi+onable circles About that time my friend dined with Talleyrand, and, by chance, also , at the same time, that it was too much honour done to the Ottoman Porte, and too much money throay upon splendour, to honour such an i Government
”How people talk,” interrupted Talleyrand, ”about what they do not comprehend Generous as Bonaparte is, he does not throay his expenses; perhaps within twelve adoes or adventurers, whom you all consider as valets of Brune, will be three-tailed Pachas or Beys, leading friends of liberty, who shall have gloriously broken their fetters as slaves of a Selim to become the subjects of a Napoleon The Eastern E expired, but it may suddenly be revived”
”Austria and Russia,” replied land would sooner ruin her navy and exhaust her Treasury than permit such a revolution”
”So they have tried to do,” retorted Talleyrand, ”to bring about a counter revolution in France But though only a es often are necessary to conquer and seize it Turkey has long been ripe for a revolution It wanted only chiefs and directors In time of war, ten thousand Frenchmen landed in the Dardanelles would be masters of Constantinople, and perhaps of the Empire In time of peace, four hundred bold and well-informed men may produce the same effect Besides, with some temporary cession of a couple of provinces to each of the Imperial Courts, and with the te may be settled 'pro ten at Constantinople, as a Napoleon does at Paris”
That the Minister e I can take upon me to affirive a high opinion of his plans or to impose upon his company, I will not and cannot assert
On the subject of this numerous suite of Brune, Markof is said to have obtained several conferences with Talleyrand and several audiences of Bonaparte, in which representations, as just as energetic, were made, which, however, did not alter the intent of our Government or increase the favour of the Russian Ambassador at the Court of St Cloud But it proved that our scheents of overthroould be watched and their manoeuvres inspected
Count Italinski, the Russian Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, is one of those noblemen who unite rank and fortune, talents and modesty, honour and patriotism, wealth and liberality His personal character and his individual virtues made him, therefore, more esteeh station he occupied, and the powerful Prince he represented, s had created prejudices against Brune which he found difficult to ree hiraphs in the Moniteur and in our other papers, in which Count Italinski was libelled, and his transactions or views calunior, Brune coe, and of being under the necessity, therefore, of using interpreters, to whom he ascribed the renewed obstacles he encountered in every step he took, while his hotel was continually surrounded with spies, and the persons of his suite followed everywhere like criminals when they went out Even the valuable presents he carried with hi in value to twenty-four millions of livres--were but indifferently received, the acceptors, see to suspect the object and the honesty of the donor
In proportion as our politics became embroiled with those of Russia, the post of Brune becaland had greater influence and more credit than the French Republic and its chief When Bonaparte was proclaimed an Ement as such at Constantinople would be a mere matter of course and announced officially on the day he presented a copy of his new credentials Here again he was disappointed, and therefore demanded his recall from a place where there was no probability, under the present circu the subjects to revolt, of deluding the Prince into sub his bribes, forgot for what they were given