Part 16 (1/2)

PARIS, September, 1805

MY LORD:--nobody here, except his courtiers, denies that Bonaparte is vain, cruel, and ambitious; but as to his private, personal, or domestic vices, opinions are various, and even opposite Most persons, who have long known him, assert that women are his aversion; and many anecdotes have been told of his unnatural and horrid propensities On the other hand, his see attachment to his wife is contradictory to these ruerated It is true, indeed, that it was to oblige Barras, and to obtain her fortune, that he accepted of her hand ten years ago; though insinuating, she was far fro passed the period of inspiring love by her charms Her husband's conduct towards her may, therefore, be construed, perhaps, into a proof of indifference towards the whole sex as much as into an evidence of his affection towards her As he kneho she hen he received her from the chaste arms of Barras, and is not unacquainted with her subsequent intrigues particularly during his stay in Egypt--policy may influence a behaviour which has some resemblance to esteem He may choose to live with her, but it is impossible he can love her

A lady, very intimate with Princesse Louis Bonaparte, has assured ular inclination for his youthful stepdaughter, he would have divorced his wife the first year of his consulate, and that indirect proposals on that subject had already been made her by Talleyrand It was then reported that Bonaparte had his eyes fixed upon a Russian Princess, and that from the friendshi+p which the late Emperor Paul professed for him, no obstacles to theThe untimely end of this Prince, and the supplications of his wife and daughter, have since altered his intent, and Madame Napoleon and her children are now, if I may use the expression, incorporated and naturalized with the Bonaparte family

But what has lately occurred here will better serve to show that Bonaparte is neither averse nor indifferent to the sex You read last summer in the public prints of the then Minister of the Interior (Chaptal) being made a Senator; and that he was succeeded by our Any This prorace, occasioned by his jealousy of his e, one of the handsomest women of this capital He was informed by his spies that this lady frequently, in the dusk of the evening, or when she thought him employed in his office, went to the house of a fah a door in an adjoining passage, a person, who carefully avoided showing his face, always entered i as she continued there The house was then by his orders beset with spies, ere to inform him the next time she went to the milliner To be near at hand, he had hired an aparthbourhood, where the very next day her visit to the milliner's was announced to him While his secretary, with four other persons, entered the h the street door, Chaptal, with four of his spies, forced the door of the passage open, which was no sooner done than the disguised gallant was found, and threatened in the most rude manner by the Minister and his companions He would have been still worse used had not the unexpected appearance of Duroc and a whisper to Chaptal put a stop to the fury of this enraged lover The incognito is said to have been Bonaparte hi, deprived Chaptal of his ministerial portfolio, and would have sent him to Cayenne, instead of to the Senate, had not Duroc dissuaded his Sovereign fro an eclat to an affair which it, would be best to bury in oblivion

Chaptal has never fro to report, Napoleon has also renounced this conquest in favour of Duroc, who is at least her noallant The quantity of jehich she has recently been decorated, and displayed with so edy, 'The Ten rather than a subject for a lover And, indeed, she already treats the directors of the theatre, her comrades, and even the public, more as a real than a theatrical Princess Without any cause whatever, but from a mere caprice to see the camp on the coast, she set out, without leave of absence, and without any previous notice, on the very day she was to play; and this popular and interesting tragedy was put off for three weeks, until she chose to return to her duty

When coovernors of our theatres, Duroc said that the orders of the Emperor were that no notice should be taken of this 'etourderie', which should not occur again

Chaptal was, before the Revolution, a bankrupt che ruined himself in search after the philosopher's stone To persons in such circureat presumption, some talents, but no principles, the Revolution could not, with all its anarchy, confusion, and cri, as Chaptal called it in his first speech at the Jacobin Club Wishi+ng toof the Bastille at Paris, he, in May, 1790, seduced the lower classes and the suburbs to an insurrection, and to an attack on the citadel, which the governor, to avoid all effusion of blood, surrendered without resistance He was denounced by the municipality to the National assembly, for these and other plots and attempts, but Robespierre and other Jacobins defended hi 1793 and 1794, hethe arunpowder; a favour for which he paid Barrere, Carnot, and other members of the Committee of Public Safety, six millions of livres--but by which he pocketed thirty-six millions of livres--himself

He was, under the Directory, ht it off by a douceur to Rewbel, Barras, and Siyes In 1799, he advanced Bonaparte twelve millions of livres--to bribe adherents for the new Revolution he meditated, and was, in recompense, instead of interest, appointed first Counsellor of State; and when Lucien Bonaparte, in September, 1800, was sent on an embassy to Spain, Chaptal succeeded him in the Ministry of the Interior You may see by this short account that the chemist Chaptal has, in the Revolution, found the true philosophical stone He now lives in great style, and has, besides three wives alive (from two of whom he has been divorced), five mistresses, with each a separate establisharded here as the ured in our Revolution, having yet neither cole murder nor headed any of our massacres

LETTER VII

PARIS, September, 1805

MY LORD:--I have read a copy of a letter fron diplomatic corps, which draws a dom of Spain Forced into an unprofitable and expensive war, fa from allies the treat his Ministers, His Spanish Majesty totters on a throne exposed to the combined attacks of internal disaffection and external plots, with no other support than the advice of a favourite, who is either a fool or a traitor, and perhaps both

As the Spanishthe twelve years' ad the whole period that it has been governed by Princes of the House of Bourbon, the heir of the throne, the young Prince of Asturias, has, with all the uinity, tried to remove an upstart, universally despised for his immorality as, well as for his incapacity; and who, should he continue soer to rule in the na and his country in one conorant and presueneral, the Prince of Peace treats with insolence all persons raised above him by birth or talents, who refuse to be his accomplices or valets Proud and certain of the protection of the Queen, and of the weakness of the King, the Spanish nobility is not only hued by him, but openly defied and insulted

You know the nice principles of honour and loyalty that have always foruished the ancient fa what appearances indicate to the contrary, the Spanish grandee who ordered his house to be pulled down because the rebel constable had slept in it, has still many descendants, but loyal men always decline to use that violence to which rebels always resort Soon after the e of the Prince of Asturias, in October, 1801, to his cousin, the amiable Maria Theresa, Princess Royal of Naples, the ancient Spanish fahnesses, not for the purpose of intriguing, but to lay before thedom, and to inform them of the real cause of all disasters They were received as faithful subjects and true patriots, and Their Royal Highnesses pro the evil corowth of others

The Princess of Asturias is a worthy granddaughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, and seereed with her royal consort that, after having gained the affection of the Queen by degrees, it would be advisable for her to insinuate soer that threatened their country and the discontent that agitated the people The Prince of Asturias was to act the same part with his father as the Princess did with his mother As there is no one about the person of Their Spanish Majesties, frohest lord to the lowest servant, who is not placed there by the favourite, and act as his spies, he was soon aware that he had no friend in the heir to the throne

His conversation with Their Majesties confirmed hioing on to deprive him of the place he occupied, if not of the royal favour All visitors to the Prince and Princess of Asturias were, therefore, watched by his emissaries; and all the letters or memorials sent to them by the post were opened, read, and; if contrary to his interest, destroyed, and their writers imprisoned in Spain or banished to the colonies These measures of injustice created suspicion, disunion, and, perhaps, fear, a the members of the Asturian cabal, as it was called; all farther pursuit, therefore, was deferred until more propitious times, and the Prince of Peace remained undisturbed and in perfect security until the rupture with your country last autumn

It is to be las of patriotism, the Prince and Princess of Asturias do not possess a little dissie of the world The favourite tried by all ood opinion, but his advances met with that repulse they morally deserved, but which, from policy, should have been suspended or softened, with the hope of future accommodation

Beurnonville, the Ambassador of our Court to the Court of Madrid, was here upon leave of absence as declared by Spain against your country, and his first secretary, Here d'affaires

This Herht up in Talleyrand's office, and is both abler and more artful than Beurnonville; he possesses also the full confidence of our Minister, who, in several secret and pecuniary transactions, has obtained many proofs of this secretary's fidelity as well as capacity

The views of the Cabinet of St Cloud were, therefore, not lost sight of, nor its interest neglected at Madrid

I suppose you have heard that the Prince of Peace, like all other ignorant and illiberal people, believes no one can be a good or clever man who is not also his countryman, and that all the ability and probity of the world is confined within the limits of Spain On this principle he equally detests France and England, Germany and Russia, and is, therefore, not much liked by our Government, except for his irace would not be retted here, where we have it in our power to place or displace Ministers in certain States, whenever and as often as we like On this occasion, however, we supported hiainst hi reasons:

By the assurances of Beurnonville, Bonaparte and Talleyrand had been led to believe that the Prince and Princess of Asturias ell affected to France, and to the theood disposition of the favourite, though they did not take a direct part against him, at the same time they did not disclose what they kneas deter Beurnonville's absence, however, Herirl, in the suite of Asturias, who, influenced by love or bribes, introduced him into the Cabinet where her mistress kept her correspondence with her royal parents With a pick-lock key he opened all the drawers, and even the writing-desk, in which he is said to have discovered written evidence that, though the Princess was not prejudiced against France, she had but an indifferent opinion of the morality and honesty of our present Governinal papers Herman appropriated to himself, and despatched to this capital by an extraordinary courier, whose despatches, more than the rupture with your country, forced Beurnonville away in a hurry froamesters and prostitutes, chiefly frequented by him in this capital

It is not and cannot be known yet as the exact plan of the Prince and Princess of Asturias and their adherents; but a diploentleman, who has just arrived from Madrid, and who can have no reason to i particulars: