Suppression of the 'Merceure'--M. de Chateaubriand ordered to leave
Paris--MM. Lemercier and Esmenard presented to the Emperor--Birth of
the King of Rome--France in 1811.

Since my return to France I had heard much of the intrigues of M.
Czernischeff, an aide de camp of the Emperor of Russia, who, under the
pretest of being frequently sent to compliment Napoleon on the part of
the Emperor Alexander, performed, in fact, the office of a spy. The
conduct of Napoleon with regard to M. Czernischeff at that period struck
me as singular, especially after the intelligence which before my
departure from Hamburg I had transmitted to him respecting the
dissatisfaction of Russia and her hostile inclinations. It is therefore
clear to me that Bonaparte was well aware of the real object of M.
Czernischeffs mission, and that if he appeared to give credit to the
increasing professions of his friendship it was only because he still
wished, as he formerly did; that Russia might so far commit herself as to
afford him a fair pretext for the commencement, of hostilities in the
north.

M. Czernischeff first arrived in Paris shortly after the interview at
Erfurt, and after that period was almost constantly on the road between
Paris and St. Petersburg; it has been computed that in the space of less
than four years he travelled more than 10,000 leagues. For a long time
his frequent journeyings excited no surmises, but while I was in Paris
Savary began to entertain suspicions, the correctness of which it was not
difficult to ascertain, so formidable was still the system of espionage,
notwithstanding the precaution taken by Fouche to conceal from his
successor the names of his most efficient spies. It was known that M.
Czernischeff was looking out for a professor of mathematics,--doubtless
to disguise the real motives for his stay in Paris by veiling them under