pulously used. His duties were
divided between Regnier, the Grand Judge and Minister of Justice, and
Real, a Councillor of State, who watched over the internal security of
France. These men had none of the ability of Fouche, nor did they know
at the outset what Mehee was doing in London. It may, therefore, be
assumed that Mehee was one of Fouche's creatures, whom he used to
discredit his successor, and that Bonaparte welcomed this means of
quickening the zeal of the official police, while he also wove his
meshes round plotting _emigres_, English officials, and French
generals.[282]

Among these last there was almost chronic discontent, and Bonaparte
claimed to have found out a plot whereby twelve of them should divide
France into as many portions, leaving to him only Paris and its
environs. If so, he never made any use of his discovery. In fact, out
of this group of malcontents, Moreau, Bernadotte, Augereau, Macdonald,
and others, he feared only the hostility of the first. The victor of
Hohenlinden lived in sullen privacy near to Paris, refusing to present
himself at the Consular Court, and showing his contempt for those who
donned a courtier's uniform. He openly mocked at the Concordat; and
when the Legion of Honour was instituted, he bestowed a collar of
honour upon his dog. So keen was Napoleon's resentment at this
raillery that he even proposed to send him a challenge to a duel in
the Bois de Boulogne.[283] The challenge, of course, was not sent; a
show of reconciliation was assumed between the two warriors; but
Napoleon retained a covert dislike of the man whose brusque
republicanism was applauded by a large portion of the army and by the
_frondeurs_ of Paris.

The ruin of Moreau, and the confusion alike of French royalists and
of the British Ministry, could now be assured by the encouragement of
a Jacobin-Royalist conspiracy, in which English officials should be
implicated. Moreau was notoriously incapable in the sphere of
political intrigue: the royalist coteries in London presented just the
material on which the _agent provocateur_ delights to work; and some
British officials could, doubtless, with equal ease be drawn into the
toils. Mehee de la Touche has left a highly spiced account of his
adventures; but it must, of course, be received with distrust.[284]

Proceeding first to Guernsey, he gained the confidence of the
Governor, General Doyle; and, fortified by recommendations from him,
he presented himself