But there were at Berlin and in the North of
Germany, at the period of the spring of 1804, a great many old
partizans of the French revolution, who had not yet discovered that
Bonaparte was a much more bitter enemy of the first principles of
that revolution, than the ancient European aristocracy.
I had the honor to form an acquaintance with Prince Louis-Ferdinand,
the same whose warlike ardor so transported him, that his death was
almost the precursor of the first reverses of his country. He was a
man full of ardor and enthusiasm, but who, for want of glory,
cultivated too much the emotions which agitate life. What
particularly irritated him against Bonaparte was his practice of
calumniating all the persons he dreaded, and even of degrading in
public opinion those whom he employed, in order, at all risks, to
keep them more strongly dependant on him. Prince Louis said to me
frequently, "I will allow him to kill, but, moral assassination is
what revolts me." And in truth let us only consider the state in
which we have seen ourselves placed, since this great libeller
became master of all the newspapers of the European continent, and
could, as he has frequently done, pronounce the bravest men to be
cowards, and the most irreproachable women to be subjects of
contempt, without our having any means of contradicting or punishing
such assertions.
CHAPTER 14.
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