efforts which were made to give importance to trifles; and yet he
received the reports of the police agents as if he thought them of
consequence. This was because he thought Fouche badly informed, and he
was glad to find him at fault; but when he sent for the Minister of
Police the latter told him that all the reports he had received were not
worth a moment's attention. He told the First Consul all, and even a
great deal more than had been revealed to him, mentioning at the same
time how and from whom Bonaparte had received his information.

But these petty police details did not divert the First Consul's
attention from the great object he had in view. Since March 1802 he had
attended the sittings of the Council of State with remarkable regularity.
Even while we were at the Luxembourg he busied himself in drawing up a
new code of laws to supersede the incomplete collection of revolutionary
laws, and to substitute order for the sort of anarchy which prevailed in
the legislation. The man who were most distinguished for legal knowledge
had cooperated in this laborious task, the result of which was the code
first distinguished by the name of the Civil Code, and afterwards called
the Code Napoleon. The labours of this important undertaking being
completed, a committee was appointed for the presentation of the code.
This committee, of which Cambaceres was the president, was composed of
MM. Portalis, Merlin de Douai, and Tronchet. During all the time the
discussions were pending, instead of assembling as usual three times a
week, the Council of State assembled every day, and the sittings, which
on ordinary occasions only lasted two or three hours, were often
prolonged to five or six. The First Consul took such interest in these
discussions that, to have an opportunity of conversing upon them in the
evening, he frequently invited several members of the Council to dine
with him. It was during these conversations that I most admired the
inconceivable versatility of Bonaparte's genius, or rather, that superior