After Buonaparte had planned the invasion and pillage of Switzerland, Brune was charged to execute this unjust outrage against the law of nations. His capacity to intrigue, procured him this distinction, and he did honour to the choice of his employers. You have no doubt read that, after lulling the government of Berne into security by repeated proposals of accommodation, he attacked the Swiss and Bernese troops during a truce, and obtained by treachery, successes which his valour did not promise him. The pillage, robberies, and devastations in Helvetia, added several more millions to his previously great riches.

It was after his campaign in Holland, during the autumn of 1799, that he first began to claim some military glory. He owed, however, his successes to the superior number of his troops, and to the talents of the generals and officers serving under him. Being made a counsellor of state by Buonaparte, he was entrusted with the command of the army against the Chouans. Here, again, he seduced by his promises, and duped by his intrigues; acted infamously, but was successful.

MY LORD,

LETTER XXXIX.

Paris, September, 1805.

THREE months before Brune set out on his embassy to Constantinople, Talleyrand and Fouche were collecting together all the desperadoes of our revolution, and all the Italian, Corsican, Greek and Arabian renegadoes and vagabonds in our country, to form him a set of attendants agreeable to the real object of his mission.

You know too much of our national character, and of my own veracity, to think it improbable, when I assure you that most of our great men in place are as vain as presumptuous, and that sometimes vanity and presumption get the better of their dis cretion and prudence. What I am going to tell you, I did not hear myself, but it was reported to me by a female friend, as estimable for her virtues as admired for her accomplishments. She is often honoured with invitations to Talleyrand's familiar parties, composed chiefly of persons, whose fortunes are independent as

their principles; who, though not approving the revolution, neither joined its opposers, nor opposed its adherents, preferring tranquillity and obscurity to agitation and celebrity. Their number is not much above half a dozen, and the minister calls them the only honest people in France, with whom he thinks himself safe.

When it was reported here that two hundred persons of Brune's suite had embarked at Marseilles, and eighty-four at Genoa, and when it was besides known that near fifty individuals accompanied him in his outset, this unusual occurrence caused much conversation and many speculations in all our coteries and fashionable circles. About that time my friend dined with Talleyrand, and by chance also mentioned this grand embassy, observing at the same time, that it was too much honour done the Ottoman Porte, and too much money thrown away upon splendour, to honour such an imbecile and tottering government. “How people talk," interrupted Talleyrand, "about what they do not comprehend. Generous as Buonaparte is, he does not throw away his expenses; perhaps within twelve months all these renegadoes, or adventurers, whom you all consider as valets of Brune, will be three-tailed Pachias or Beys, leading friends of liberty, who shall have gloriously broken their fetters as slaves of a Selim, to become the subjects of a Napoleone. The eastern empire has indeed long expired, but it may suddenly be revived."

-“Austria and Russia,” replied my friend, " would never suffer it, and England would sooner ruin her navy and exhaust her treasures than permit such a revolution."-" So they have tried to do," retorted Talleyrand, "to bring about a counter-revolution in France. But though only a moment is requisite to erect the standard of revolt, ages often are necessary to conquer and seize it. Turkey has long been ripe for a revolution. It wanted only chiefs and directors. In time of war, ten thousand Frenchmen landed in the Dardanelles, would be masters of Constantinople, and perhaps of the empire. In time of peace, four hundred bold and well-informed men, may produce the same effect.-Besides, with some temporary cession of a couple of provinces to each of the Imperial courts, and with the temporary present of an island to Great-Britain, every thing may be settled fro tempore, and a Joseph Buonaparte be permitted to reign at Constantinople, as a

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Napoleone does at Paris." That the minister made use of this language, I can take upon me to affirm; but whether purposely or unintentionally, whether to give a high opinion of his plans, or to impose upon his company, I will not and cannot assert.

On the subject of this numerous suite of Brune, Markoff is said to have obtained several conferences with Talleyrand, and several audiences of Buonaparte, in which representations, as just as energetic, were made; which, however, did not alter the intent of our government, or increase the favour of the Russian ambassador at the court of St. Cloud. But it proved that our schemes of subversion are suspected, and that our agents of overthrow would be watched, and their manœuvres inspected.

Count Italinski, the Russian ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, is one of those noblemen, who unite rank and information, talents and modesty, honour and patriotism, wealth and liberality. His personal character, and his individual virtues, made him therefore more esteemed and revered by the members of the Divan, than the high station he occupied, and the powerful prince he represented made him feared or respected. His warnings had created prejudices against Brune, which he found difficult to remove. To revenge himself in his own way, our ambassador inserted several paragraphs in the Moniteur, and in our other papers, in which count Italinski was libelled, and his transactions or views calumniated.

After his first audience with the Grand Signior, Brune com. plained bitterly of not having learned the Turkish language, and of being under the necessity therefore of using interpreters, to whom he ascribed the renewed obstacles he encountered in every step he took, while his hotel was continually surrounded with spies, and the persons of his suite followed like criminals every where, when they went out. Even the valuable presents he car ried with him, amounting in value to twenty-four millions of livres, (100,000.) were but indifferently received, the acceptors seeming to suspect the object and the honesty of the donor.

In proportion as our politics became embroiled with those of Russia, the post of Brune became of more importance; but the obstacles thrown in his way augmented daily, and he was forced to avow that Russia and England had greater influence and more credit than the French Republic and its chief. When Buonaparte

was proclaimed an Emperor of the French, Brune expected that his acknowledgment as such, at Constantinople, would be a mere matter of course, and announced officially on the day he presented a copy of his new credentials. Here again he was disappointed, and therefore demanded his recall from a place, where there was no probability, under the present circumstances, of either exciting the subjects to revolt, of deluding the prince into submission, or seducing ministers, who in pocketing his bribes forgot for what they were given.

It was then that Buonaparte sent Joubert with a letter, in his own hand-writing, to be delivered into the hands of the Grand Signior himself. This Joubert is a foundling, and was, from his youth destined, and educated to be one of the secret agents of our secret diplomacy. You may already, perhaps, have heard that our government selects yearly a number of young foundlings, or orphans, whom it causes to be brought up in foreign countries at its expense, so as to learn the language as natives of the nation, where, when grown up, they are chiefly to be employed. Joubert had been educated under the inspection of our consuls at Smyrna, and when he assumes the dress of a Turk, from his accent and manners, even the mussulmen mistake him for one of their creed, and of their country. He was introduced to Buonaparte in 1797, and accompanied him to Egypt, where his services were of the greatest utility to our army. He is now a kind of under-secretary in the office of our secret diplomacy, and a member of our Legion of Honour.-Should ever Joseph Buonaparte be an Emperor or Sultan of the East, Joubert will certainly be his Grand Vizier. There is another Joubert, (with whom you must not confound him) who was also a kind of Dragoman at Constantinople some years ago; and who is still somewhere on a secret mission, in the East-Indies.

Joubert's arrival at Constantinople, excited both curiosity among the people, and suspicion among the ministry. There is no example in the Ottoman history, of a chief of a Christian nation having written to the Sultan by a private messenger, or of his highness having condescended to receive the letter from the bearer, and to converse with him. The Grand Vizier demanded a copy of Buonaparte's letter, before an audience could be granted. This was refused by Joubert; and as Brune threatened to

quit the capital of Turkey, if any longer delay was experienced, the letter was delivered in a garden near Constantinople, where the Sultan met Buonaparte's agent as if by chance, who it seems, lost all courage and presence of mind, and did not utter four words, to which no answer was given.

This impertinent intrigue, and this novel diplomacy, therefore, totally miscarried, to the great shame, and greater disappointment of the schemers and contrivers. I must, however, do Talleyrand the justice to say, that he never approved of it, and even foretold the issue to his intimate friends. It was entirely the whim and invention of Buonaparte himself, upon a suggestion of Brune; who was far from being so well acquainted with the spirit and policy of the Divan, as he had been with the genius and plots of Jacobinism. Not rebuked, however, Joubert was ordered away a second time, with a second letter, and after an absence of four months, returned again as he went, less satisfied with the second, than with his first journey.

In these trips to Turkey, he had always for travelling companions some of our emissaries to Austria, Hungaria, and in particular to Servia, where the insurgents were assisted by our councils, and even guided by some of our officers. The principal aid-de-camp of Czerni George, the Servian chieftain, is one St. Martin, formerly a captain in our artillery, afterwards an officer of engineers in the Russian service, and finally a volunteer in the army of Conde. He and three other officers of artillery were, under fictitious names, sent by our government, during the spring last year, to the camp of the insurgents.-They pretended to be of the Grecian religion, and formerly Russian officers, and were immediately employed. St. Martin has gained great influence over Czerni George, and directs both his political councils and military operations. Besides the individuals left behind by Joubert, it is said that upwards of one hundred persons of Brune's suite have been ordered for the same destination. You see how great the activity of our government is, and that nothing is thought unworthy of its vigilance or its machinations. In the staff of Paswan Oglou, six of my countrymen have been serving ever since 1796, always in the pay of our government.

It was much both against the inclination and interest of our Emperor, that his ambassador at Constantinople should leave the