Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 15 | Page 4

sample the author's ideas before
making an entire meal of them. D.W.]

MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 15.
By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE

His Private Secretary
Edited by R. W. Phipps Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
1891

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER XI.
to
CHAPTER XII.
1815

CHAPTER XI.
1815.
My departure from Hamburg-The King at St. Denis--Fouche appointed
Minister of the Police--Delay of the King's entrance into Paris-- Effect
of that delay--Fouche's nomination due to the Duke of
Wellington--Impossibility of resuming my post--Fouche's language
with respect to the Bourbons--His famous postscript--Character of
Fouche--Discussion respecting the two cockades--Manifestations of
public joy repressed by Fouche--Composition of the new Ministry--
Kind attention of Blucher--The English at St. Cloud--Blucher in
Napoleon's cabinet--My prisoner become my protector--Blucher and
the innkeeper's dog--My daughter's marriage contract--Rigid etiquette--
My appointment to the Presidentship of the Electoral College of the
Yonne--My interview with Fouche--My audience of the King--His
Majesty made acquainted with my conversation with Fouche--The
Duke of Otranto's disgrace--Carnot deceived by Bonaparte--My
election as deputy--My colleague, M. Raudot--My return to
Paris--Regret caused by the sacrifice of Ney--Noble conduct of
Macdonald--A drive with Rapp in the Bois de Boulogne--Rapp's
interview with Bonaparte in 1815--The Due de Berri and Rapp--My
nomination to the office of Minister of State--My name inscribed by
the hand of Louis XVIII.-- Conclusion.
The fulfilment of my prediction was now at hand, for the result of the

Battle of Waterloo enabled Louis XVIII. to return to his dominions. As
soon as I heard of the King's departure from Ghent I quitted Hamburg,
and travelled with all possible haste in the hope of reaching Paris in
time to witness his Majesty's entrance. I arrived at St. Denis on the 7th
of July, and, notwithstanding the intrigues that were set on foot, I found
an immense number of persons assembled to meet the King. Indeed,
the place was so crowded that it was with the greatest difficulty I could
procure even a little garret for my lodging.
Having resumed my uniform of a captain of the National Guard, I
proceeded immediately to the King's palace. The salon was filled with
ladies and gentlemen who had come to congratulate the King on his
return. At St. Denis I found my family, who, not being aware that I had
left Hamburg, were much surprised to see me.
They informed me that the Parisians were all impatient for the return of
the King--a fact of which I could judge by the opposition manifested to
the free expression of public feeling. Paris having been declared in a
state of blockade, the gates were closed, and no one was permitted to
leave the capital, particularly by the Barriere de la Chapelle. It is true
that special permission might be obtained, and with tolerable ease, by
those who wished to leave the city; but the forms to be observed for
obtaining the permission deterred the mass of the people from
proceeding to St. Denis, which, indeed, was the sole object of the
regulation. As it had been resolved to force Fouche and the tri-coloured
cockade upon the King, it was deemed necessary to keep away from his
Majesty all who might persuade him to resist the proposed measures.
Madame de Bourrienne told me that on her arrival at St. Denis she
called upon M. Hue and M. Lefebvre, the King's physician, who both
acquainted her with those fatal resolutions. Those gentlemen, however,
assured her that the King would resolutely hold out against the
tri-coloured cockade, but the nomination of the ill-omened man
appeared inevitable.
Fouche Minister of the Police! If, like Don Juan, I had seen a statue
move, I could not have been more confounded than when I heard this
news. I could not credit it until it was repeated to me by different

persons. How; indeed, could I think that at the moment of a reaction the
King should have entrusted the most important ministerial department
to a man to whose arrest he had a hundred days before attached so
much consequence? to a man, moreover, whom Bonaparte had
appointed, at Lyons, to fill the same office! This was inconceivable!
Thus, in less than twenty-four hours, the same man had been entrusted
to execute measures the most opposite, and to serve interests the most
contradictory. He was one day the minister of usurpation, and the next
the minister of legitimacy! How can I express what I felt when Fouche
took the oath of fidelity to Louis XVIII. when I saw the King clasp in
his hands the hands of Fouche! I was standing near M. de
Chateaubriand, whose feelings must have been similar to mine, to
judge from a passage in his admirable work, 'La Monarchie selon la
Charte'. "About nine in the evening," he says, "I was in one of the royal
antechambers.