otte.

After my nomination as Director-General of the Post office the business
of that department proceeded as regularly as before. Having learned that
a great many intercepted letters had been thrown aside I sent, on the 4th
of April, an advertisement to the 'Moniteur', stating that the letters to
and from England or other foreign countries which had been lying at the
Post-office for more than three years would be forwarded to their
respective addresses. This produced to the Post-office a receipt of
nearly 300,000 francs, a fact which may afford an idea of the enormous
number of intercepted letters.

On the night after the publication of the advertisement I was awakened by
an express from the Provisional Government, by which I was requested to
proceed with all possible haste to M. de Talleyrand's hotel. I rose, and
I set off immediately, and I got there some minutes before the arrival of
the Emperor's Commissioners. I went up to the salon on the first floor,
which was one of the suite of apartments occupied by the Emperor
Alexander. The Marshals retired to confer with the monarch, and it would
be difficult to describe the anxiety--or, I may rather say,
consternation--which, during their absence, prevailed among some of the
members of the Provisional Government and other persons assembled in the
salon where I was.

While the Marshals were with Alexander, I learned that they had
previously conversed with M. de Talleyrand, who observed to them, "If you
succeed in your designs you will compromise all who have met in this
hotel since the 1st of April, and the number is not small. For my part,
take no account of me, I am willing to be compromised." I had passed the
evening of this day with M. de Talleyrand, who then observed to the
Emperor Alexander in my presence, "Will you support Bonaparte? No, you
neither can nor will. I have already had the honour to tell your Majesty
that we can have no choice but between Bonaparte and Louis XVIII.;
anything else would be an intrigue, and no intrigue can have power to
support him who may be its object. Bernadotte, Eugene, the Regency, all
those propositions result from intrigues. In present circumstances
nothing but a new principle is sufficiently strong to establish the new
order of things which must be adopted. Louis XVIII. is a principle."

None of the members of the Provisional Government were present at this
conference, for no one was willing to appear to influence in any way t