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and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Baron Louis, Minister of Finance.
The Duke of Otranto, Minister of the Police.
Baron Pasquier, Minister of Justice, and Keeper of the Seals.
Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr, War Minister.
Comte de Jaucourt, peer of France, Minister of the Marine.
The Duc de Richelieu, peer of France, Minister of the King's Household.
The portfolio of the Minister of the Interior, which was not immediately
disposed of, was provisionally entrusted to the Minister of Justice. But
what was most gratifying to the public in the composition of this new
ministry was that M. de Blacas, who had made himself so odious to
everybody, was superseded by M. de Richelieu, whose name revived the
memory of a great Minister, and who, by his excellent conduct throughout
the whole course of his career, deserves to be distinguished as a model
of honour and wisdom.
General satisfaction was expressed on the appointment of Marshal
Macdonald to the post of Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour in lieu
of M. de Pradt. M. de Chabrol resumed the Prefecture of the Seine,
which, during the Hundred Days, had been occupied by M. de Bondi, M. de
Mole was made Director-General of bridges and causeways. I was
superseded in the Prefecture of Police by M. Decazes, and M. Beugnot
followed M. Ferrand as Director-General of the Post-office.
I think it was on the 10th of July that I went to St. Cloud to pay a
visit of thanks to Blucher. I had been informed that as soon as he
learned I had a house at St. Cloud he sent a guard to protect it. This
spontaneous mark of attention was well deserving of grateful
acknowledgment, especially at a time when there was so much reason to
complain of the plunder practised by the Prussians. My visit to Blucher
presented to observation a striking instance of the instability of human
greatness. I found Blucher residing like a sovereign in the Palace of
St. Cloud, where I had lived so long in the intimacy of Napoleon, at a
period when he dictated laws to the Kings of Europe before he was a
monarch himself.
--[The English occupied St. Cloud after the Prussians. My large
house, in which the children of the Comte d'Artois were inoculated,
was respected by them, but they occupied a small home forming part
of the estate. The English officer who commanded the troops
stationed a guard at the large house. One morning we were informed
that the door had been broken open and a valuable looking-glass
stolen. We complained to the commanding officer, and on the affair
being inquired into it was discovered that the sentinel himself had
committed the theft. The man was tried by a court-martial, and
condemned to death, a circumstance which, as may naturally be
supposed, was very distressing to us. Madame de Bourrienne applied
to the commanding officer for the man's pardon, but could only
obtain his reprieve. The regiment departed some weeks after, and we
could never learn what was the fate of the criminal.--Bourrienne.]--
In that cabinet in which Napoleon and I had passed so many busy hours,
and where so many great plans had their birth, I was received by the man
who had been my prisoner at Hamburg. The Prussian General immediately
reminded me of the circumstance. "Who could have foreseen," said he,
"that after being your prisoner I should become the protector of your
property? You treated me well at Hamburg, and I have now an opportunity
of repaying your kindness. Heaven knows what will be the result of all
this! One thing, however, is certain, and that is, that the Allies will
now make such conditions as will banish all possibility of danger for a
long time to come. The Emperor Alexander does not wish to make the
French people expiate too dearly the misfortunes they have caused us.
He attributes them to Napoleon, but Napoleon cannot pay the expenses of
the war, and they must be paid by some one. It was all very well for
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