esides express my surprise at the means which have been employed to lead
astray public opinion, and to load with infamy not only the accused but
also their intrepid defenders. I have read with pain in the journals of
to-day that the proceedings--" Here the President interrupting, observed
that "these were circumstances foreign to the case."--"Not in the
least," replied Cosier St. Victor; "on the contrary, they bear very
materially on the cause, since mangling and misrepresenting our defence
is a practice assuredly calculated to ruin us in the estimation of the
public. In the journals of to-day the speech of M. Gauthier is
shamefully garbled, and I should be deficient in gratitude were I not
here to bear testimony to the zeal and courage which he has displayed in
my defence. I protest against the puerilities and absurdities which have
been put into his mouth, and I entreat him not to relax in his generous
efforts. It is not on his account that I make this observation; he does
not require it at my hands; it is for 'myself, it is for the accused,
whom such arts tend to injure in the estimation of the public."

Coster St. Victor had something chivalrous in his language and manners
which spoke greatly in his favour; he conveyed no bad idea of one of the
Fiesco conspirators, or of those leaders of the Fronds who intermingled
gallantry with their politics.

An anecdote to this effect was current about the period of the trial.
Coster St. Victor, it is related, being unable any longer to find a
secure asylum in Paris, sought refuge for a single night in the house of
a beautiful actress, formerly in the good graces of the First Consul; and
it is added that Bonaparte, on the same night, having secretly arrived on
a visit to the lady, found himself unexpectedly in the presence of Coster
St. Victor, who might have taken his life; but that only an interchange
of courtesy took place betwixt the rival gallants.

This ridiculous story was doubtless intended to throw additional odium on
the First Consul, if Cosier St. Victor should be condemned and not obtain
a pardon, in which case malignity would not fail to attribute his
execution to the vengeance of a jealous lover.

I should blush to relate such stories, equally destitute of probability
and truth, had they not obtained some credit at the time. Whilst I was
with Bonaparte he never went abroad during the night; and it was not
surely at a moment when the saying of Fouche, "The air is