Ten Years Exile | Page 5

who would sell themselves too dear. Thus, as we
shall see in the sequel, has he never been deceived in his calculations
but by integrity, encountered either in individuals or nations.


CHAPTER 2.
Commencement of opposition in the Tribunate--My first persecution on
that account--Fouche.
Some of the tribunes, who attached a real meaning to the constitution,
were desirous of establishing in their assembly an opposition analogous

to that of England; as if the rights, which that constitution professed to
secure, had anything of reality in them, and the pretended division of
the bodies of the state were anything more than a mere affair of
etiquette, a distinction between the different anti-chambers of the first
consul, in which magistrates under different names could hold together,
I confess that I saw with pleasure the aversion entertained by a small
number of the tribunes, to rival the counsellors of state in servility. I
had especially a strong belief that those who had previously allowed
themselves to be carried too far in their love for the republic would
continue faithful to their opinions, when they became the weakest, and
the most threatened.
One of these tribunes, a friend of liberty, and endowed with one of the
most remarkable understandings ever bestowed upon man, M.
Benjamin Constant, consulted me upon a speech which he purposed to
deliver, for the purpose of signalizing the dawn of tyranny: I
encouraged him in it with all the strength of my conviction. However,
as it was well known that he was one of my intimate friends, I could
not help dreading what might happen to me in consequence. I was
vulnerable in my taste for society. Montaigne said formerly, I am a
Frenchman through Paris: and if he thought so three centuries ago,
what must it be now, when we see so many persons of extraordinary
intellect collected in one city, and so many accustomed to employ that
intellect in adding to the pleasures of conversation. The demon of ennui
has always pursued me; by the terror with which he inspires me, I could
alone have been capable of bending the knee to tyranny, if the example
of my father, and his blood which flows in my veins, had not enabled
me to triumph over this weakness. Be that as it may, Bonaparte knew
this foible of mine perfectly: he discerns quickly the weak side of any
one; for it is by their weaknesses that he subjugates people to his sway.
To the power with which he threatens, to the treasures with which he
dazzles, he joins the dispensation of ennui, and that is a source of real
terror to the French. A residence at forty leagues from the capital,
contrasted with the advantages collected in the most agreeable city in
the world, fails not in the long run to shake the greater part of exiles,
habituated from their infancy to the charms of a Parisian life.

On the eve of the day when Benjamin Constant was to deliver his
speech, I had a party, among whom were Lucien Bonaparte, MM. ----
and general others, whose conversation in different degrees possesses
that constant novelty of interest which is produced by the strength of
ideas and the grace of expression. Every one of these persons, with the
exception of Lucien, tired of being proscribed by the directory, was
preparing to serve the new government, requiring only to be well
rewarded for their devotion to its power. Benjamin Constant came up
and whispered to me, "Your drawing room is now filled with persons
with whom you are pleased: if I speak, tomorrow it will be
deserted:--think well of it." "We must follow our conviction," said I to
him. This reply was dictated by enthusiasm; but, I confess, if I had
foreseen what I have suffered since that day, I should not have had the
firmness to refuse M. Constant's offer of renouncing his project, in
order not to compromise me.
At present, so far as opinion is affected, it is nothing to incur the
disgrace of Bonaparte: he may make you perish, but he cannot deprive
you of respect. Then, on the contrary, France was not enlightened as to
his tyrannical views, and as all who had suffered from the revolution
expected to obtain from him the return of a brother, or a friend, or the
restoration of property, any one who was bold enough to resist him was
branded with the name of Jacobin, and you were deprived of good
society along with the countenance of the government: an intolerable
situation, particularly for a woman, and of which no one can know the
misery without having experienced it.
On the day when the signal of opposition was exhibited in the tribunate
by my friend, I had invited several persons whose