what I had promised him for some business he executed in England by the
direction of M. de Talleyrand, General Rapp, and myself. Such miserable
wretches are often caught in the snares they spread for others. This was
the case in the present instance, for the fellow had committed, the
blunder of fixing upon the year 1802 as the period of this pretended
business in England, that is to say, two years before my appointment as
Minister-Plenipotentiary to the Hanse Towns. This anachronism was not
the only one I discovered in the letter.

I took a copy of the letter, and immediately carried the original to the
Duc de Rovigo, as had been agreed between us. When I waited on the
Minister he was just preparing to go to the Emperor. He took with him
the letter which I brought, and also the letter which announced its
arrival. As the Duc de Rovigo entered the audience-chamber Napoleon
advanced to meet him, and apostrophised him thus: "Well, I have learned
fine things of your Bourrienne, whom you are always defending." The fact
was, the Emperor had already received a copy of the letter, which had
been opened at the Hamburg post-office. The Due de Rovigo told the
Emperor that he had long known what his Majesty had communicated to him.
He then entered into a full explanation of the intrigue, of which it was
wished to render me the victim, and proved to him the more easily the
falsehood of my accusers by reminding him that in 1802 I was not in
Hamburg, but was still in his service at home.

It may be supposed that I was too much interested in knowing what had
passed at the Tuileries not to return to the Duc de Rovigo the same day.
I learned from him the particulars which I have already related. He
added that he had observed to the Emperor that there was no connection
between Rapp and M. Talleyrand which could warrant the suspicion of their
being concerned in the affair in question. "When Napoleon saw the matter