she decided on the latter, which she bought from M. Lecoulteux-Dumoley,
for, I think, four hundred thousand francs. Such were the particulars
which Charvet was kind enough to give me when I first entered the service
of Madame Bonaparte. Every one in the house loved to speak of her; and
it was certainly not to speak evil, for never was woman more beloved by
all who surrounded her, and never has one deserved it more. General
Bonaparte was also an excellent man in the retirement of private life.

After the return of the First Consul from his campaign in Egypt, several
attempts against his life had been made; and the police had warned him
many times to be on his guard, and not to risk himself alone in the
environs of Malmaison. The First Consul had been very careless up to
this period; but the discovery of the snares which were laid for him,
even in the privacy of his family circle, forced him to use precautions
and prudence. It has been stated since, that these pretended plots were
only fabrications of the police to render themselves necessary to the
First Consul, or, perhaps, of the First Consul himself, to redouble the
interest which attached to his person, through fear of the perils which
menaced his life; and the absurdity of these attempts is alleged as proof
of this. I could not pretend to elucidate such mysteries; but it seems
to me that in such matters absurdity proves nothing, or, at least, it
does not prove that such plots did not exist. The conspirators of that
period set no bounds to their extravagance; for what could be more
absurd, and at the same time more real, than the atrocious folly of the
infernal machine?

Be that as it may, I shall relate what passed under my own eyes during
the first month of my stay at Malmaison. No one there, or, at least, no
one in my presence, showed the least doubt of the reality of these
attempts.