hey
desire a condition of peace which, by a wise partition of force, by
a just equilibrium, may hereafter preserve their people from the
innumerable calamities which have for twenty years overwhelmed
Europe.

"The allied powers will not lay down their arms until they have
obtained this grand and beneficent result, the worthy object of all
their efforts. They will not lay down their arms until the
political condition of Europe is again secure; until immutable
principles have regained their ascendency over new pretensions, and
the sanctity of treaties has finally assured a genuine peace to
Europe."

It needs only common sense to ascertain whether the allied powers were
sincere in this declaration, the object of which evidently was to
alienate from the Emperor the affections of his people by holding up his
Majesty before them as an obstacle to peace, and separating his cause
from that of France; and on this point I am glad to support my own
opinion by that of M. de Bourrienne, whom surely no one will accuse of
partiality for his Majesty.

Several passages of his Memoirs, above all those in which he blames the
Emperor, have pained me, I must confess; but on this occasion he does not
hesitate to admit the insincerity of the allies, which opinion is of much
weight according to my poor judgment.

M. de Bourrienne was then at Paris under the special surveillance of the
Duke of Rovigo. I frequently heard this minister mention him to the
Emperor, and always favorably; but the enemies of the former secretary of
the First Consul must have been very powerful, or his Majesty's
prejudices very strong, for M. de Bourrienne never returned to favor.
The Emperor, who, as I have said, sometimes condescended to converse
familiarly with me, never spoke to me of M. de Bourrienne, whom I had not
seen since the Emperor had ceased to receive him. I saw him again for
the first time among the officers of the National Guard, the day these
gentlemen were received at the palace, as we shall see later, and I have
never seen him since; but as we were all much attached to him on account
of his kind consideration for us, he was often the subject of
conversation, and, I may add, of our regrets. Moreover, I was long
ignorant that at the period of which I am now speaking, his Majesty had
offered him the mission to Switzerland, as I learned this circumstance
only from reading his Memoirs. I would not conceal, however,