In September 1814 the King had appointed me charge d’affaires from France to Hamburg, but not having received orders to repair to my post I have not hitherto mentioned this nomination.  However, when Louis XVIII. was on the point of leaving France he thought that my presence in Hamburg might be useful for the purpose of making him acquainted with all that might interest him in the north of Germany.  But it was not there that danger was to be apprehended.  There were two points to be watched—­the headquarters of Napoleon and the King’s Council at Ghent.  I, however, lost no time in repairing to a city where I was sure of finding a great many friends.  On passing through Brussels I alighted at the Hotel de Bellevue, where the Duc de Berri arrived shortly after me.  His Royal Highness then invited me to breakfast with him, and conversed with me very confidentially.  I afterwards continued my journey.

CHAPTER VI.

1815.

Message to Madame de Bourrienne on the 20th of March—­Napoleon’s nocturnal entrance into Paris—­General Becton sent to my family by Caulaincourt—­Recollection of old persecutions—­General Driesen—­ Solution of an enigma—­Seals placed on my effects—­Useless searches —­Persecution of women—­Madame de Stael and Madame de Recamier—­ Paris during the Hundred Days—­The federates and patriotic songs—­ Declaration of the Plenipotentiaries at Vienna.

At Lille, and again at Hamburg, I received letters from my family, which I had looked for with great impatience.  They contained particulars of what had occurred relative to me since Bonaparte’s return to Paris.  Two hours after my departure Madame de Bourrienne also left Paris, accompanied by her children, and proceeded to an asylum which had been offered her seven leagues from the capital.  She left at my house in Paris her sister, two of her brothers, and her friend the Comtesse de Neuilly, who had resided with us since her return from the emigration.

On the very morning of my wife’s departure (namely, the 20th of March) a person, with whom I had always been on terms of friendship, and who was entirely devoted to Bonaparte, sent to request that Madame de Bourrienne would call on him, as he wished to speak to her on most important and urgent business.  My sister-in-law informed the messenger that my wife had left Paris, but, begging a friend to accompany her, she went herself to the individual, whose name will be probably guessed, though I do not mention it.  The person who came with the message to my house put many questions to Madame de Bourrienne’s sister respecting my absence, and advised her, above all things, to conjure me not to follow the King, observing that the cause of Louis XVIII. was utterly lost, and that I should do well to retire quietly to Burgundy, as there was no doubt of my obtaining the Emperor’s pardon.

Nothing could be more gloomy than Bonaparte’s entrance into Paris.  He arrived at night in the midst of a thick fog.  The streets were almost deserted, and a vague feeling of terror prevailed almost generally in the capital.