Let’s have another look at Hortense’s Memoirs. If you want to read the book it is available for free at the side bar in English and French. Use the widget on the sidebar to translate the text below into pretty much any language.
Here we see how the innocent are framed with the very behavior of the framers. I always wonder how it feels for the ones actually responsible to frame the innocent with the very activity they are committing.
Hortense’s memoirs continues:
If the least sign of unrest appeared in some corner of France I was at once supposed to be the instigator of it. It was by remarks like this that those who were indebted to me for favors sought to pay their debts, although they might have realized that if plotting were going on, if remarks were being made about the King, my personal position was such a delicate one and my house was certainly so closely watched that it was the last spot where any political demonstration was likely to be made.
Only on one occasion, when Messieurs de Broglie, de La Bedoyere, de Flahaut, de Segur, Lavallette and Perregaux all happened to be calling at the same time, a discussion came up as to whether, as an appeal for those national liberties which had been promised but not granted, General Exelmans should not be advised to refuse to obey an order from the government which arbitrarily forbade his remaining in Paris.
The General at the time was not in active service, and everyone agreed that a protest ought to be made against the order. I rose, telling these gentlemen that as the subject they were discussing was too serious for me I should leave them to continue it among themselves, and I withdrew to my apartment.
The party at once broke up, and from then on, no political matters were ever talked of in my presence. When I had come to live in Paris on account of my miserable lawsuit, I had expected to receive only a few intimate friends. All this talk of conspiracies, however, made me decide to hold a reception once a week, to which I would invite some of those English people who in vain had asked to be presented to me.
In admitting them to my circle I hoped they would repeat impartially what they saw going on there and consequently help make the true facts known which so many people sought to misinterpret. I was not wrong.
A Mr. Bruce, a young Englishman n whom I had met several times and who had pleased me with his simplicity and idealism, and his accounts of the journeys he had made in Africa, happened to be at the house of the Duchesse de Mouchy.
The hostess, Madame Moreau and a Lady Hamilton were expressing their astonishment that the King allowed me to remain in France and described my receptions as being in reality meetings of conspirators against the government.
Mr. Bruce protested violently against such statements. "You ladies do not attend these receptions, and I have done so. I declare that it is the only house in Paris where one finds the atmosphere of a true French drawing-room, which was so justly famous throughout Europe and which no longer exists in your own country. There at least people converse without discussing politics.
The topics are literature and the arts, and one never hears scandal about anybody. In this case injustice had brought me a partisan.
I had given Monsieur Boutiaguine, the Russian chargé d'affaires, permission to come to the house even when I was at home only to my intimate friends. I did not fear to have anyone see what went on there. I avoided all arguments about political matters and was delighted to think that they were no longer any concern of mine.
Yet at the same time how could I remain deaf to the complaints of Frenchmen who saw themselves humiliated in their own country while foreigners ruled in their place? All I could do was to attempt to calm their anger, but new incidents provoked fresh outbursts.
The brother of the famous Georges Cadoudal had just received a title. Was it possible that the Bourbons so openly admitted they were the accomplices of an assassin?
Madame Moreau was authorized to assume the title of marechale and her husband had died fighting against us. I was asked to recommend someone to Monsieur Pozzo di Borgo in order to obtain a post and he then made the following naive remark to me: "One cannot count on Monsieur de Blacas for anything. Would you believe it? He promised for a long time a post to a man to whom we certainly owe a favor since he helped us capture Paris, and he has not yet secured it."
I could not say a word. I was dumbfounded. I was ashamed at the idea of recommending a man who really deserved something to a person who dared boast to me that he was helping a traitor. Thus my country had been enslaved.
It was foreigners who made her laws. How could one blame those who were unable to forget it had been France that only yesterday had dictated to the rest of Europe? But I felt we must suppress our irritation. The thought of the hotheadedness of our young Frenchmen alarmed me.
Every day they became more incensed, while I, constantly prudent, sought to use this very memory of our former grandeur to bring them back to a more reasonable state of mind. I pointed out to them that our armies had won for the French nation the highest honors that could be attained and that a period of calm was needed properly to appreciate those honors.
It was time they became acquainted with and grew to appreciate the benefits of peace, and I urged them to do so. Thus, by degrees soothing the indignation the unfortunate political situation provoked I brought them to discuss subjects less perilous and more enjoyable to all.
The original French is available below:
