PROJECTED ASSASSINATION OF NAPOLEON. 17 
ities did not even enter my thoughts. It seemed a fatal- 
ity which came to smite me, and of which I must undergo 
the consequences, however serious they might be. 
I counted much on the solicitations of Brissot’s mother, 
already so cruelly tried during the revolution. I went to 
her home, in the Rue de Condé, and implored her earn- 
estly to codperate with me in preventing her son from 
carrying out his sanguinary resolution. “Ah, sir,” re- 
plied this lady, who was naturally a model of gentleness, 
“if Silvain” (this was the name of her son) “ believes 
that he is accomplishing a patriotic duty, I have neither 
the intention nor the desire to turn him from his pro- 
ject.” 
It was from myself that I must henceforth draw all my 
resources. I had remarked that Brissot was addicted to 
the composition of romances and pieces of poetry. I 
encouraged this passion, and every Sunday, above all, 
when I knew that there would be a review, I went to 
fetch him, and drew him into the country, in the environs 
of Paris. I listened then complacently to the reading 
of those chapters of his romance which he had composed 
during the week. 
The first excursions frightened me a little, for armed 
with his pistols, Brissot seized every occasion of showing 
his great skill; and I reflected that this circumstance 
would lead to my being considered as his accomplice, if 
he ever carried out his project. At last, his pretensions 
to literary fame, which I flattered to the utmost, the 
hopes (though I had none myself) which I led him to 
conceive of the success of an attachment of which he 
had confided the secret to me, made him receive with at- 
tention the reflections which I constantly made to him on 
his enterprise. He determined on making a journey be- 
