170 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



The Count d'Artois gave a very cold reception to the prefect and his 

 comniiinications. He declared that the arrival of Napoleon at Grenoble 

 was impossible ; that no alarm need be apprehended respecting the dis- 

 position of the country people. "As regards the facts," said he to 

 Fourier, " which would seem to have occurred in your presence at the 

 very gates of the city, with respect to the tricolored cockades substi- 

 tuted for thecocl^ade of Henry IV, with respect to the eagles wbich you 

 say have replaced the white Hag, I do not suspect your good faith, but 

 the uneasy state of your mind must have dazzled your eyes. Prefect, 

 return then without delay to Grenoble ; you will answer for the city 

 with your head." 



You see, gentlemen, after having so long proclaimed the necessity of 

 telling the truth to princes, moralists will act wisely by inviting princes 

 to be good enough to listen to its language. 



Fourier obeyed the order which had just been given him. The wheels 

 of his carriage had made only a few revolutions in the direction of 

 Grenoble, when he was arrested by hussars and conducted to the head- 

 quarters at Bourgoin. The Emperor, who was engaged in examining a 

 large chart with a pair of compasses, said upon seeing him enter, " Well, 

 prefect, you also have declared war against mef "Sire, my oath of 

 allegiance made it my duty to do so !" "A duty you say? and do you 

 not see that in Dauphiny nobody is of the same mind ? Do not imagine, 

 however, that your plan of the campaign will frighten me much. It 

 only grieved me to see among my enemies an JEf/yption, a man who had 

 eaten along with me the bread of the bivouac, an old friend!" 



It is painful to add that to those kind words succeeded these also : 

 " How, moreover, could you have forgotten, Monsieur Fourier, that I 

 have made you what you are ? " 



You will regret with me, gentlemen, that a timidity, which circum- 

 stances would otherwise easily explain, should have prevented our col- 

 league from at once emphatically protesting against this confusion, 

 which the powerful of the earth are constantly endeavoring to estab- 

 lish between the perishable bounties of which they are the dispensers 

 and the noble fruits of thought. Fourier was prefect and baron by the 

 favor of the Emperor ; he was one of the glories of France by his own 

 genius. 



On the 9th of March, Napoleon, in a moment of anger, ordered Four- 

 ier, by a mandate, dated from Grenoble, to quit the territory of tJie sev- 

 enth miUtary division within Jive days, under jxnn of being arrested and 

 treated as an enemy of the country ! On the following day our colleague 

 departed from the conference of Bourgoin, with the appointment of pre- 

 fect of the Rhone and the title of count, for tha Emperor after his retui-n 

 from Elba was again at his old practices. 



These unexpected proofs of favor and confidence afforded little pleas- 

 ure to our colleague, but he dared not refuse them, although he per- 



