PARIS, October, 1805.

MY LORD:--The Counsellor of State and intendant of the Imperial civil
list, Daru, paid for the place of a commissary-general of our army in
Germany the immense sum of six millions of livres--which was divided
between Madame Bonaparte (the mother), Madame Napoleon Bonaparte,
Princesse Louis Bonaparte, Princesse Murat and the Princesse Borghese. By
this you may conclude in what manner we intend to treat the wretched
inhabitants of the other side of the Rhine. This Daru is too good a
calculator and too fond of money to throw away his expenses; he is master
of a great fortune, made entirely by his arithmetical talents, which have
enabled him for years to break all the principal gambling-banks on the
Continent, where he has travelled for no other purpose. On his return
here, he became the terror of all our gamesters, who offered him an
annuity of one hundred thousand livres--not to play; but as this sum
would have been deducted from what is weekly paid to Fouche, this
Minister sent him an order not to approach a gambling-table, under pain
of being transported to Cayenne. He obeyed, but the bankers soon
experienced that he had deputies, and for fear that even from the other
side of the Atlantic he might forward his calculations hither, Fouche
recommended him, for a small douceur, to the office of an intendant of
Bonaparte's civil list, upon condition of never, directly or indirectly,
injuring our gambling-banks. He has kept his promise with regard to
France, but made, last spring, a gambling tour in Italy and Germany,
which, he avows, produced him nine millions of livres. He always points,
but never keeps a bank. He begins to be so well known in many parts of
the Continent, that the instant he arrives all banks are shut up, and
remain so until his departure. This was the case at Florence last April.
He travels always in style, accompanied by two mistresses and four
servants. He is a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.