o
him, "Great misfortunes have early made you wretched and unjust, and you
have frequently revenged yourself on those who could not prevent them,
among whom I am one. You do not want capacity, nor, I believe, probity.
Here is a commission which makes you a Director of Contributions in the
Departments of the Rhine and Moselle, an office with a salary of twelve
thousand livres but producing double that sum. If you meet with any
difficulties, write to me; I am your friend. Take those one hundred
louis d'or for the expenses of your journey. Adieu!" This anecdote I
have read in Gauvan's own handwriting, in a letter to his sister. He
died in 1802; but Mademoiselle Gauvan, who is not yet fifteen, has a
pension of three thousand livres a year--from Lucien, who, has never seen
her.

Lucien Bonaparte has another good quality: he is consistent in his
political principles. Either from conviction or delusion he is still a
Republican, and does not conceal that, had he suspected Napoleon of any
intent to reestablish monarchy, much less tyranny, he would have joined
those deputies who, on the 9th of November, 1799, in the sitting at St.
Cloud, demanded a decree of outlawry against him. If the present quarrel
between these two brothers were sifted to the bottom, perhaps it would be
found to originate more from Lucien's Republicanism than from his
marriage.

I know, with all France and Europe, that Lucien's youth has been very
culpable; that he has committed many indiscretions, much injustice, many
imprudences, many errors, and, I fear, even some crimes. I know that he
has been the most profligate among the profligate, the most debauched
among libertines, the most merciless among the plunderers, and the most
perverse among rebels. I know that he is accused of being a
Septembrizer; of having murdered one wife and poisoned another; of having
been a spy, a denouncer, a persecutor of innocent persons in the Reign of
Terror. I know that he is accused of having fought his brothers-in-law;
of having ill-used his mother, and of an incestuous commerce with his own
sisters.

I have read and heard of these and other enormous accusations, and far be
it from me to defend, extenuate, or even deny them. But suppose all this
infamy to be real, to be proved, to be authenticated, which it never has
been, and, to its whole extent, I am persuaded, never can be--what are
the cruel and depraved acts of which Lucien has been accused to the
enor