—­[General Mallet gave out that the Emperor was killed under the walls of Moscow on the 8th of October; be could not take any other day without incurring the risk of being contradicted by the arrival of the regular courier.  The Emperor being dead, he concluded that the Senate ought to be invested with the supreme authority, and he therefore resolved to address himself in the name of that body to the nation and the army.  In a proclamation to the soldiers he deplored the death of the Emperor; in another, after announcing the abolition of the Imperial system and the Restoration of the Republic, he indicated the manner in which the Government was to be reconstructed, described the branches into which public authority was to be divided, and named the Directors.  Attached to the different documents there appeared the signatures of several Senators whose names he recollected but with whom he had ceased to have any intercourse for a great number of years. .  These signatures were all written by Mallet, and he drew up a decree in the name of the Senate, and signed by the same Senators, appointing himself Governor of Paris, and commander of the troops of the first military division.  He also drew up other decrees in the same form which purported to promote to higher ranks all the military officers he intended to make instruments in the execution of his enterprise.

He ordered one regiment to close all the barriers of Paris, and allow no person to pass through them.  This was done:  so that in all the neighbouring towns from which assistance, in case of need, might have been obtained, nothing was known of the transactions in Paris.  He sent the other regiments to occupy the Bank, the Treasury, and different Ministerial offices.  At the Treasury some resistance was made.  The minister of that Department was on the spot, and he employed the guard of his household in maintaining his authority.  But in the whole of the two regiments of the Qnard not a single, objection was started to the execution of Mallet’s orders (Memoirs of the Duc de Rivogo, tome vi. p. 20.)]—­

I learned from the porter that the Due de Rovigo had been arrested and carried to the prison of La Force.  I went into the house and was informed, to my great astonishment, that the ephemeral Minister was being measured for his official suit, an act which so completely denoted the character of the conspirator that it gave me an insight into the business.

Mallet repaired to General Hulin, who had the command of Paris.  He informed him that he had been directed by the Minister of Police to arrest him and seal his papers.  Hulin asked to see the order, and then entered his cabinet, where Mallet followed him, and just as Hulin was turning round to speak to him he fired a pistol in his face.  Hulin fell:  the ball entered his cheek, but the wound was not mortal.  The most singular circumstance connected with the whole affair is, that the captain whom Mallet had