d give him an account of the result.

In fine, to fulfil, as much as in him lay, the public expectation, the
Emperor made numerous changes in the laws relating to the
consolidated taxes (_droits reunis_), which, while they diminished the
impost, freed it from its abuses and tyrannical forms, and rendered it
less odious, and more supportable. These beneficial meliorations,
though incomplete, were received with gratitude; and the Emperor was
thanked for his endeavours to reconcile the interests of individuals
with the wants of the public treasury.

But the satisfaction Napoleon derived from the happy effects of his
solicitude was frequently disturbed by the disquietude and perplexity,
which the cabals and manoeuvres of the royalists occasioned him.
"The priests and the nobles," said he one day in a fit of ill-humour,
"are playing a deep game. If I were to let loose the people upon them,
they would all be devoured in the twinkling of an eye[101]."

[Footnote 101: These words, and several others that
I have quoted, prove Napoleon not to have been
ignorant of the use he might make of the people. If
he did not have recourse to them, no doubt it was
because he feared, that the remedy might prove
worse than the disease.]

By a decree of the 25th of March, he had already ordered the ministers
of the King, and the civil and military officers of his household, as
well as of those of the princes, as also the chiefs of the Chouans, of
the Vendeans, and of the royal volunteers, to remove to a distance of
thirty leagues from Paris. This prudent precaution was but imperfectly
executed. M. Fouche, to secure himself a refuge in the King's party,
had sent for the principal of the proscribed persons to his house;
expressed to them how much he felt interested for their situation, and
the efforts he had made, to prevent their banishment; and finally
authorised them pretty generally, to remain at Paris.

The Emperor, not aware that their audacity was owing to the protection
of his minister, watched for an opportunity of intimidating them by an
act of severity. While things were in this state, a M. de Lascours, a
colonel, was arrested at Dunkirk, where he had introduced himself as
an emissary from the King. Napoleon, deceived by the similarity of the
name, supposed this officer to be the person, who pretended, in 1814,
to have