onaparte on
this occasion rendered a real service to Louis by affording him the
opportunity of presenting to the world one of the finest pages in the
history of a dethroned King. This letter, the contents of which were
known in some circles of Paris, was the object of general approbation to
those who preserved the recollection of the Bourbons, and above all, to
the Royalist committee. The members of that committee, proud of the
noble spirit evinced by the unfortunate monarch, whose return they were
generously labouring to effect, replied to him by a sort of manifesto, to
which time has imparted interest, since subsequent events have fulfilled
the predictions it contained.

CHAPTER XVI

1802.

The day after my disgrace--Renewal of my duties--Bonaparte's
affected regard for me--Offer of an assistant--M. de Meneval--My
second rupture with Bonaparte--The Due de Rovigo's account of it--
Letter from M. de Barbe Marbois--Real causes of my separation from
the First Consul--Postscript to the letter of M. de Barbe Marbois--
The black cabinet--Inspection of letters dining the Consulate--
I retire to St. Cloud--Communications from M. de Meneval--A week's
conflict between friendship and pride--My formal dismissal--Petty
revenge--My request to visit England--Monosyllabic answer--Wrong
suspicion--Burial of my papers--Communication from Duroc--My letter
to the First Consul--The truth acknowledged.

I shall now return to the circumstances which followed my first disgrace,
of which I have already spoken. The day after that on which I had
resumed my functions I went as usual to awaken the First Consul at seven
in the morning. He treated me just the same as if nothing had happened
between us; and on my part I behaved to him just as usual, though I
really regretted being obliged to resume labours which I found too
oppressive for me. When Bonaparte came down into his cabinet he spoke to
me of his plans with his usual confidence, and I saw, from the number of
letters lying in the basket, that during the few days my functions had
been suspended Bonaparte had not overcome his disinclination to peruse
this kind of correspondence. At the period of this first rupture and
reconciliation the question of the Consulate for life was yet unsettled.
It was not decided until the 2d of August, and the circumstances to which
I am about to refer happened at the end of February.

I was now restored to my former foo