1821.1 Historical Particulars of Napoleon, 435 
Europe. My reputation and my power 
were doubled. It was at this epocli 
that for tile first time, I confided my 
ulterior projects to Josephine. She 
was generally good counsel, but on this 
occasion I found her cold and reserved. 
I presumed that, frightened at the gran¬ 
deur of the enterprise, she durst not 
give me her advice. There was cer¬ 
tainly a little of that, but there were 
other motives joined to it, of which, 
after much trouble, I obtained an ex¬ 
planation. 
It is contrary to my known tem¬ 
per to entertain the public curiosity 
with private facts, almost always un¬ 
worthy of the circle in which I have 
moved; however, the details I am 
about to enter into in spite of myself, are 
of a nature to leave me chargeable with 
an atrocious crime, if I disdained to 
wipe it off. My Son! it is one more 
sacrifice which I make for thee. 
It seems as if I were yet in the pre¬ 
sence of Josephine, alarmed at seeing 
me decided on placing on my head 
the crown of our ancieut kings. But 
to recoil ect her very expressions, is 
impossible; to give the sense of them 
is already a great deal after a lapse of 
fifteen years. 
44 The grandeur of the enterprise,” 
said I to my spouse, 44 is probably that 
which astonishes you to a degree, that 
you are unable to reply to me.” 44 No, 
my friend, your project is worthy of the 
sentiments which I know you possess, 
but the epoch which you choose to ex¬ 
ecute it, is calculated to chill me with 
alarm.” 44 Why so, Madam ?” 44 Con¬ 
sul, the eclat of your glory fatigues 
the eyes of calumny; your enemies are 
awakened; ever since the battle of Ma¬ 
rengo, they have circulated the most 
horrid reports.” 44 What are they I be¬ 
seech you ?” 44 What do you ask of 
me ?” 44 The truth.” 44 It is horrible.” 
4( - What does it matter.” 44 My friend, 
Desaix was killed at Marengo. Mon¬ 
sters insinuate that the deed was accom¬ 
plished by Frenchmen under your or¬ 
ders.” * * * * _ * 
This intelligence, I confess, chilled my 
blood with horror. It was perhaps the 
most lively sorrow which I had ever 
felt. However, I was with respect to 
this r the most innocent of men. But 
there are calumnies against which in¬ 
nocence itself loses courage; that which 
was now directed against me was 
of the number. What! I the assassin 
of Desaix!—of Desaix, who had al¬ 
ways been my friend, who was so even 
to his latest breath ? — 44 But,” said 
the calumniators, 44 you had committed 
crimes in Egypt, against humanity, 
against Kldber, and against your own 
soldiers; the other generals had given 
him the list of them ; he had accepted 
it, and promised to publish it soon after 
his return to France.” Besides that 
these are so many atrocious impostures, 
I have the conscience pure regarding all 
which I have done in Egypt. I did 
only that which I was in duty compell¬ 
ed to do, and that in the interest o^ all: 
I appeal to posterity. As to the com¬ 
mission with which my enemies have 
bestowed upon Desaix, it is an outrage 
at which his great soul would have been 
indignant, had he survived longer for 
friendship. The cruel monsters knew 
not this Desaix, that brave warrior, 
that exceedingly honest man! He 
would have given his life for me; had 
my enemies wished to charge him with 
a list against me, he might have ac¬ 
cepted it, but it would have been to burn 
it secretly, and to drink the remains 
of it. Is a proof wanting of the esteem 
which I bore him, and of the friend¬ 
ship with which I had inspired him? 
Of all the French who were in Egypt, 
he was the only individual, absolutely 
the only one, to whom I confided the 
secret of my return to France, which he 
approved of, as likely to have the great¬ 
est influence on the fate of the army 
which I left in Egypt.* Desaix re¬ 
poses in that eternity, where, no doubt, 
I shall soon join him. If it be permit¬ 
ted for friends to meet there, he will be 
the first of my brave companions into 
whose arms I shall precipitate myself. 
That which Josephine communicated, 
and certain reports spread on the pri¬ 
vate plots of some incorrigiblejacobins, 
decided Napoleon to postpone the 44 en¬ 
circling of his forehead with the diadem 
of munarchs.” 
After alluding to the miserable in¬ 
trigues which Foucht; had arranged to 
compromise the Duke d’Enghien, we 
have the following remarkable state¬ 
ment : 
I was scarcely informed that there 
existed royalist plots beyond the Rhine, 
in which the Duke d’Enghien figured. 
* The whole of this passage on Desaix is 
in the hand-writing of Bonaparte- When 
he shewed it to his friends, they advised 
him to suppress it, but he would absolutely 
not alter ii syllable. 
when 
