A mercantile house, then one of the most respectable in Patna, had among its speculations undertaken some army contracts.  With the knowledge of Berthier, with whom, indeed, the house had treated, I had invested some money in this business.  Unfortunately the principals were, unknown to me, engaged in dangerous speculations in the Funds, which in a short time so involved them as to occasion their failure for a heavy amount.  This caused a rumour that a slight fall of the Funds, which took place at that period, was occasioned by the bankruptcy; and the First Consul, who never could understand the nature of the Funds, gave credit to the report.  He was made to believe that the business of the Stock Exchange was ruined.  It was insinuated that I was accused of taking advantage of my situation to produce variations in the Funds, though I was so unfortunate as to lose not only my investment in the bankrupt house, but also a sum of money for which I had become bound, by way of surety, to assist the house in increasing its business.  I incurred the violent displeasure of the First Consul, who declared to me that he no longer required my services.  I might, perhaps have cooled his irritation by reminding him that he could not blame me for purchasing an interest in a contract, since he himself had stipulated for a gratuity of 1,500,000 francs for his brother Joseph out of the contract for victualling the navy.  But I saw that for some time past M. de Meneval had begun to supersede me, and the First Consul only wanted such an opportunity as this for coming to a rupture with me.

Such is a true statement of the circumstances which led to my separation from Bonaparte.  I defy any one to adduce a single fact in support of the charge of peculation, or any transaction of the kind; I fear no investigation of my conduct.  When in the service of Bonaparte I caused many appointments to be made, and many names to be erased from the emigrant list before the ‘Senatus-consulte’ of the 6th Floreal, year X.; but I never counted upon gratitude, experience having taught me that it was an empty word.

The Duc de Rovigo attributed my disgrace to certain intercepted letters which injured me in the eyes of the First Consul.  I did not know this at the time, and though I was pretty well aware of the machinations of Bonaparte’s adulators, almost all of whom were my enemies, yet I did not contemplate such an act of baseness.  But a spontaneous letter from M. de Barbe Marbois at length opened my eyes, and left little doubt on the subject.  The following is the postscript to that noble peer’s letter: 

I recollect that one Wednesday the First Consul, while presiding at a Council of Ministers at St. Cloud, opened a note, and, without informing us what it contained, hastily left the Board, apparently much agitated.  In a few minutes he returned and told us that your functions had ceased.

Whether the sudden displeasure of the First Consul