and sufficient independence to struggle against misled opinion. Misfortune ceased not; it only changed its appearance. It was at this time that the Duke of Otranto, during twelve years, found himself placed in a situation which pleases no one, even when all is tranquil, because it watches over all. What he has done will be weighed by time. There is yet much to be cleared up; many actions cannot be placed in a just point of view, except by a circumstantial development, which our contemporaries and posterity will find in the "Memoirs of his Life," which the Duke, as is said, is actually occupied in writing. What we are about to lay before the public is only a sketch of his public life. That sketch does not relate all that, during his life, has been done by the Duke of Otranto; but it pourtrays the man as he is, his secret sentiments, the spirit of his public life; the principles which have guided him at all times and in the most diversified situations, and which at whatever distance he himself is placed, he has boldly avowed before sovereigns. He has fully expressed himself in the twelve vouchers of his life, which form the principal part of the present work. We give them as authentic; they have not yet been published, except the letter to the Emperor Napoleon of the 23d April 1814,* and two or three other documents of which have appeared some fragments greatly mutilated and disfigured, but which appear here conformable to the originals,-(we are authorized to give assurance of this)-for the first time. That which must guarantee their authenticity, is that the witnesses to whom they have been addressed, are still alive; Murat alone excepted. History * We have extracted it from the Moniteur, No. 525, 12th September 1815, and its authenticity is unquestionable. will easily recognize in them the real portrait of a man who during seventeen years has always been true and the same; for as he thought, spoke and acted in 1799, so has he acted, spoken and thought in 1815, and in the interval between them. If we examine the two circulars to the bishops and to the prefects of the first year of the consulate, and if we compare the ideas which are there expressed, and their language with the last letters of the Duke of Otranto, even his enemies will be struck with the tone of conscience, of truth, of moderation, of tranquillity and of dignity which reigns in them. It is that serenity of mind, which we scarcely ever see but in the great men of antiquity, which has conducted him, with a sure, firm and tranquil step through the most violent concussions, which have shaken even the ground beneath his feet, but have never changed his courage or his determination. He has served Napoleon, before whom France and the half of Europe bowed; but he has always spoke to him frankly, and without hesitation he has unveiled to him the future. The voice of candour which forewarned him, was not listened to. More than once the Duke of Otranto removed from his post, has been recalled to it. He has remained the same. If he had been only an instrument, he would have been thrown aside or destroyed. If he had been firm and free only for him, and not for the preservation of the laws and for the unity of the nation and of the state, that is to say, for the cause of France, he would have been despised and forgotton. His views are not those of every one, his principles perhaps are not so either. But he need not fear to recognize them even the errors of such a man are lessons to others. The history of the world will not forget in that of the French revolution, the life of Fouché. It is that life which will explain to posterity the truth which penetrates through that terrible dissolution of social order. For in the annals of mankind that great event will not pass without object and without leaving impressions. It is also to the revolution that providence has assigned a place in the development of the moral order of the universe. It is a frivolous hope which flatters the passions to wish to try to annihilate its effect, to wish, if I may say so, to snatch it from between the arms of time. The government which should dare to try it, would only prepare revolutions of another character. Whoever then regards with an impartial eye the life of the Duke of Otranto, will penetrate into the secret of every revolution. It exists before it is perceived; it still remains when we think it is passed. He is not the real statesman who defends the people against anarchy, who destroys the unity between them and the state; but he |