eight to his denunciation. It is
sufficient for his purpose that he should throw into the Post Office
any letter so worded as to confirm the impression which it is his
object to convey. The worthiest man may thus be committed by a
letter which he has never read, or the purport of which is wholly
unintelligible to him.

I am speaking from personal experience. It once happened that a
letter addressed to myself, relating to an alleged fact which had
never occurred, was opened. A copy of the letter so opened was also
forwarded to me, as it concerned the duties which I had to perform
at that time; but I was already in possession of the original,
transmitted through the ordinary channel. Summoned to reply to the
questions to which such productions had given rise, I took that
opportunity of pointing out the danger that would accrue from
placing a blind reliance upon intelligence derived from so hazardous
a source. Accordingly, little importance was afterwards attached to
this means of information; but the system was in operation at the
period when M. de Bourrienne was disgraced; his enemies took care to
avail themselves of it; they blackened his character with M. de
Barbe Marbois, who added to their accusations all the weight of his
unblemished character. The opinion entertained by this rigid public
functionary, and many other circumstances, induced the First Consul
to part with his secretary (tome i. p. 418).

Peculation is the crime of those who make a fraudulent use of the public
money. But as it was not in my power to meddle with the public money, no
part of which passed through my hands, I am at loss to conceive how I can
be charged with peculation! The Due de Rovigo is not the author, but
merely the echo, of this calumny; but the accusation to which his Memoirs
gave currency afforded M. de Barbe Marbois an opportunity of adding one
more to the many proofs he has given of his love of justice.

I had seen nothing of the Memoirs of the Due de Rovigo except their
announcement in the journals, when a letter from M. de Barbe Marbois was
transmitted to me from my family. It was as follows:

SIR--My attention has been called to the enclosed article in a
recent publication. The assertion it contains is not true, and I
conceive it to be a duty both to you and myself to declare that I
then was, and still am, ignorant of the causes of the separation in