Ten Years Exile | Page 2

no
independent voice could make itself be heard: on the Continent the
press was completely chained, and the most rigorous measures
excluded every work printed in England. My mother thought less,
therefore, of composing a book, than of preserving the traces of her

recollections and ideas. Along with the narrative of circumstances
personal to herself, she incorporated with it various reflections which
were suggested to her, from the beginning of Bonaparte's power, by the
state of France, and the progress of events. But if the printing such a
work would at that time have been an act of unheard of temerity, the
mere act of writing it required a great deal of both courage and
prudence, particularly in the position in which she was placed. My
mother had every reason to believe that all her movements were
narrowly watched by the police: the prefect who had replaced M. de
Barante at Geneva, pretended to be acquainted with every thing that
passed in her house, and the least pretence would have been sufficient
to induce them to possess themselves of her papers. She was obliged
therefore, to take the greatest precautions. Scarcely had she written a
few pages, when she made one of her most intimate friends transcribe
them, taking care to substitute for the proper names those of persons
taken from the history of the English Revolution. Under this disguise
she carried off her manuscript, when in 1812 she determined to
withdraw herself by flight from the rigors of a constantly increasing
persecution.
On her arrival in Sweden, after having travelled through Russia, and
narrowly escaped the French armies advancing on Moscow, my mother
employed herself in copying out fairly the first part of her Memoirs,
which, as I have already mentioned, goes no farther than 1804. But
prior to continuing them in the order of time, she wished to take
advantage of the moment, during which her recollections were still
strong, to give a narrative of the remarkable circumstances of her flight,
and of the persecution which had rendered that step in a manner a duty.
She resumed, therefore, the history of her life at the year 1810, the
epoch of the suppression of her work on Germany, and continued it up
to her arrival at Stockholm in 1812: from that was suggested the title of
Ten Years' Exile. This explains also, why, in speaking of the imperial
government, my mother expresses herself sometimes as living under its
power, and at other times, as having escaped from it.
Finally, after she had conceived the plan of her Considerations on the
French Revolution, she extracted from the first part of Ten Years Exile,

the historical passages and general reflections which entered into her
new design, reserving the individual details for the period when she
calculated on finishing the memoirs of her life, and when she flattered
herself with being able to name all the persons of whom she had
received generous proofs of friendship, without being afraid of
compromising them by the expressions of her gratitude.
The manuscript confided to my charge consisted therefore of two
distinct parts: the first, the perusal of which necessarily offered less
interest, contained several passages already incorporated in the
Considerations on the French Revolution; the other formed a sort of
journal, of which no part was yet known to the public. I have followed
the plan traced by my mother, by striking out of the first part of the
manuscript, all the passages which, with some modifications, have
already found a place in her great political work. To this my labour as
editor has been confined, and I have not allowed myself to make the
slightest addition.
The second part I deliver to the public exactly as I found it, without the
least alteration, and I have scarcely felt myself entitled to make slight
corrections of the style, so important did it appear to me to preserve in
this sketch the entire vividness of its original character. A perusal of the
opinions which she pronounces upon the political conduct of Russia,
will satisfy every one of my scrupulous respect for my mother's
manuscript; but without taking into account the influence of gratitude
on elevated minds, the reader will not fail to recollect, that at that time
the sovereign of Russia was fighting in the cause of liberty and
independence. Was it possible to foresee that so few years would elapse
before the immense forces of that empire should become the
instruments of the oppression of unhappy Europe?
If we compare the Ten Years' Exile with the Considerations on the
French Revolution, it will perhaps be found that the reign of Napoleon
is criticized in the first of these works with greater severity than in the
other, and that he is there attacked with an eloquence not