Lucien heard of it he sent for the Count, delivered into his hands an annuity of six thousand livres—­for the life of himself, his wife, and his children, as an indemnity for the inefficacy of his endeavours to serve him, as he expressed himself.  Had the Count recovered the farms, they would not have given him a clear profit of half the amount, all taxes paid.

A young author of the name of Gauvan, irritated by the loss of parents and fortune by the Revolution, attacked, during 1799, in the public prints, as well as in pamphlets, every Revolutionist who had obtained notoriety or popularity.  He was particularly vehement against Lucien, and laid before the public all his crimes and all his errors, and asserted, as facts, atrocities which were either calumnies or merely rumours.  When, after Napoleon’s assumption of the Consulate, Lucien was appointed a Minister of the Interior, he sent for Gauvan, and said to him, “Great misfortunes have early made you wretched and unjust, and you have frequently revenged yourself on those who could not prevent them, among whom I am one.  You do not want capacity, nor, I believe, probity.  Here is a commission which makes you a Director of Contributions in the Departments of the Rhine and Moselle, an office with a salary of twelve thousand livres but producing double that sum.  If you meet with any difficulties, write to me; I am your friend.  Take those one hundred louis d’or for the expenses of your journey.  Adieu!” This anecdote I have read in Gauvan’s own handwriting, in a letter to his sister.  He died in 1802; but Mademoiselle Gauvan, who is not yet fifteen, has a pension of three thousand livres a year—­from Lucien, who, has never seen her.

Lucien Bonaparte has another good quality:  he is consistent in his political principles.  Either from conviction or delusion he is still a Republican, and does not conceal that, had he suspected Napoleon of any intent to reestablish monarchy, much less tyranny, he would have joined those deputies who, on the 9th of November, 1799, in the sitting at St. Cloud, demanded a decree of outlawry against him.  If the present quarrel between these two brothers were sifted to the bottom, perhaps it would be found to originate more from Lucien’s Republicanism than from his marriage.

I know, with all France and Europe, that Lucien’s youth has been very culpable; that he has committed many indiscretions, much injustice, many imprudences, many errors, and, I fear, even some crimes.  I know that he has been the most profligate among the profligate, the most debauched among libertines, the most merciless among the plunderers, and the most perverse among rebels.  I know that he is accused of being a Septembrizer; of having murdered one wife and poisoned another; of having been a spy, a denouncer, a persecutor of innocent persons in the Reign of Terror.  I know that he is accused of having fought his brothers-in-law; of having ill-used his mother, and of an incestuous commerce with his own sisters.