because he knew the character of the First Consul well
enough to distinguish between what his passion dictated and what his
reason would approve: in short, he appealed from Philip drunk to Philip
sober. When it happened that M. de Talleyrand suspended the execution of
an order, Bonaparte never evinced the least displeasure. When, the day
after he had received any hasty and angry order, M. de Talleyrand
presented himself to the First Consul, the latter would say, "Well, did
you send off the courier?"--"No," the minister would reply, "I took care
not to do so before I showed you my letter." Then the First Consul would
usually add, "Upon second thoughts I think it would be best not to send
it." This was the way to deal with Bonaparte. When M. de Talleyrand
postponed sending off despatches, or when I myself have delayed the
execution of an order which I knew had been dictated by anger, and had
emanated neither from his heart nor his understanding, I have heard him
say a hundred times, "It was right, quite right. You understand me:
Talleyrand understands me also. This is the way to serve me: the others
do not leave me time for reflection: they are too precipitate." Fouche
also was one of those who did not on all occasions blindly obey
Bonaparte's commands. His other ministers, on the other hand, when told
to send off a courier the next morning, would have more probably sent him
off the same evening. This was from zeal, but was not the First Consul
right in saying that such zeal was unfortunate?

Of Talleyrand and Fouche, in their connections with the First Consul, it
might be said that the one represented the Constituent Assembly, with a
slight perfume of the old regime, and the other the Convention in all its
brutality. Bonaparte regarded Fouche as a complete personification of
the Revolution. With him, therefore, Fouche's influence was merely the
influence of the Revolution. That great event was one of those which had
made the most forcible impression on Bonaparte's ardent mind, and he
imagined he still beheld it in a visible form as long as Fouche continued
at the head of his police. I am now of opinion that Bonaparte was in
some degree misled as to the value of Fouche's services as a minister.
No doubt the circumstance of Fouche being in office conciliated those of
the Revolutionary party who were his friends. But Fouche cherished an
undue partiality for them, because he knew that it was through them he
held his place. He