Now do not fancy we are writing a romance: it is history, the record, not of fair and pleasant events, but of sad and ugly ones. If you doubt it, consult the report drawn up by MM. Thouret and Brière de Valigny, deputies of the _procureur impérial_, in the month of June 1815, about this affair, and laid before one of the Chambers of the Court of First Instance of the Seine. If Napoleon had returned but to restore unto us this official paper, it would have been almost sufficient to justify his return. M. de Maubreuil was taken inside M. de Talleyrand's study. Roux-Laborie made him sit down in the prince's own armchair, and said to him-- "You are anxious to recover your position, to retrieve your broken fortunes; it depends upon yourself whether you obtain far more than even that which you desire." "What must I do?" asked Maubreuil. "You have courage, resolution: rid us of the emperor. If he were dead, France, the army, everything would be ours, and you would receive an income of 200,000 livres; you would be made a duke, lieutenant-general and governor of a province."[2] "I do not quite see how I could accomplish it." "Nothing easier." "Tell me how." "Listen." "I am listening." "It is not unlikely that there may be a great battle fought near here in a couple of days. Take a hundred determined men, whom you can clothe in the uniform of the Guards, mingle with the troops at Fontainebleau, and it will be quite easy, either before or during or after the battle, to render us the service I am commissioned to ask of you." Maubreuil shook his head. "Do you refuse?" asked Roux-Laborie quickly. "Not so. I am only thinking that a hundred men would be difficult to find: luckily one would not need a hundred; a dozen would be sufficient. I shall perhaps be able to find them in the army, but I must have power to advance them two or three ranks, and to give them pecuniary recompense, in proportion to the service they will have to undertake." "You shall have whatever you want. What do ten or a dozen colonels, more or less, matter to us?" "That's all right." "You therefore accept?" "Probably ... but I ask until to-morrow to think it over." And Maubreuil went out, followed by Roux-Laborie, who was very uneasy because of the delay requested. However, Maubreuil reassured him, promising to give him a definite answer next day. We can understand Maubreuil's hesitation: he had been introduced into the prince's study, he had sat in the prince's chair, but, after all, he had not seen the prince. Now, when one stakes one's head at another's bidding, one prefers to see the person who holds the cards. Next day they returned to the house. Maubreuil accepted. Roux-Laborie breathed again. "But," added Maubreuil, "on one condition." "What is that?" "I do not look upon your word alone as sufficient authority. I want solid security for your promises. I wish to see M. de Talleyrand himself and to receive my commission from him."