monuments.

I attach only a relative importance to what I am about to lay before the
public. I shall give authentic documents. If all persons who have
approached Napoleon, at any time and in any place, would candidly record
what they saw and heard, without passion, the future historian would be
rich in materials. It is my wish that he who may undertake the difficult
task of writing the history of Napoleon shall find in my notes
information useful to the perfection of his work. There he will at least
find truth. I have not the ambition to wish that what I state should be
taken as absolute authority; but I hope that it will always be consulted.

I have never before published anything respecting Napoleon. That
malevolence which fastens itself upon men who have the misfortune to be
somewhat separated from the crowd has, because there is always more
profit in saying ill than good, attributed to me several works on
Bonaparte; among others, 'Les Memoires secrets d'un Homnae qui ne l'a pas
quitte', par M. B-------, and 'Memoires secrets sur Napoleon Bonaparte,
par M. de B------, and 'Le Precis Historique sur Napoleon'. The initial
of my name has served to propagate this error. The incredible ignorance
which runs through those memoirs, the absurdities and inconceivable
silliness with which they abound, do not permit a man of honour and
common sense to allow such wretched rhapsodies to be imputed to him. I
declared in 1816, and at later periods in the French
and foreign journals, that I had no hand in those publications, and I
here formally repeat this declaration.

But it may be said to me, Why should we place more confidence in you than
in those who have written before you?