usness
of his consulship. It was necessary to establish
something solid, to serve as a support to the
revolution. The republicans were alarmed at the
height, on which circumstances had placed him: they
were suspicious of the use he might make of his
power: they dreaded his renewing an antiquated
royalty by the help of his army. The royalists
fomented this rumour, and took a delight in
representing him as an ape of the ancient monarchs:
other royalists, more adroit, whispered about, that
he was enamoured of the part of Monk, and that he
would take the pains to restore the power, only to
make a present of it to the Bourbons, when it
should be in a proper state to be offered them.

Ordinary minds, unacquainted with his powers,
credited these reports; they sanctioned the tales
of the royalist party, and decried him to the
people, and to the army; for they began to suspect
him, and his attachment to their cause. He could
not allow such an opinion to pass current, because
it tended to unhinge every thing. It was necessary,
at all events, to undeceive France, the royalists,
and Europe at large, in order that they might know,
what they had to reckon upon in him. A persecution
of reports in detail never produces any thing but a
bad effect, for it does not attack the root of the
evil.

The death of the Duke d'Enghien would decide the
question, that agitated France; it would decide the
character of Napoleon beyond return; in fine, it
might intimidate and punish the authors of the
plots incessantly contriving against his life, and
against the state: accordingly he determined on it.

He sent for Marshal Berthier, and this minister
directed General Ord**, by an order which the
Emperor dictated, and which I have _seen_, to set
off post for St