mself, from among the vilest and most vulgar of the rabble. It is
not necessary to be a keen observer to remark in Napoleon the upstart
soldier, and in Joseph the former low member of the law; but I defy the
most refined courtier to see in Lucien anything indicating a ci-devant
sans-culotte. He has, besides, other qualities (and those more
estimable) which will place him much above his elder brothers in the
opinion of posterity. He is extremely compassionate and liberal to the
truly distressed, serviceable to those whom he knows are not his friends,
and forgiving and obliging even to those who have proved and avowed
themselves his enemies. These are virtues commonly very scarce, and
hitherto never displayed by any other member of the Bonaparte family.

An acquaintance of yours, and--a friend of mine, Count de T-----, at his
return here from emigration, found, of his whole former fortune,
producing once eighty thousand livres--in the year, only four farms
unsold, and these were advertised for sale. A man who had once been his
servant, but was then a groom to Lucien, offered to present a memorial
for him to his master, to prevent the disposal of the only support which
remained to subsist himself, with a wife and four children. Lucien asked
Napoleon to prohibit the sale, and to restore the Count the farms, and
obtained his consent; but Fouche, whose cousin wanted them, having
purchased other national property in the neighbourhood, prevailed upon
Napoleon to forget his promise, and the farms were sold. As soon as
Lucien heard of it he sent for the Count, delivered into his hands an
annuity of six thousand livres--for the life of himself, his wife, and
his children, as an indemnity for the inefficacy of his endeavours to
serve him, as he expressed himself. Had the Count recovered the farms,
they would not have given him a clear profit of half the amount, all
taxes paid.

A young author of the name of Gauvan, irritated by the loss of parents
and fortune by the Revolution, attacked, during 1799, in the public
prints, as well as in pamphlets, every Revolutionist who had obtained
notoriety or popularity. He was particularly vehement against Lucien,
and laid before the public all his crimes and all his errors, and
asserted, as facts, atrocities which were either calumnies or merely
rumours. When, after Napoleon's assumption of the Consulate, Lucien was
appointed a Minister of the Interior, he sent for Gauvan, and said t