The years 1802 and 1803--Country-houses--Madame de Custine--M. de Saint-Martin--Madame de Houdetot and Saint-Lambert--Journey to the south of France--M. de la Harpe--His death--Interview with Bonaparte--I am appointed First Secretary of Embassy in Rome--Journey from Paris to the Savoy Alps--From Mont Cenis to Rome--Milan to Rome--Cardinal Fesch's palace--My occupations--Madame de Beaumont's manuscripts--Letters from Madame de Caud--Madame de Beaumont's arrival in Rome--Letters from my sister--Letter from Madame de Krüdener--Death of Madame de Beaumont--Her funeral--Letters from M. de Chênedollé, M. de Fontanes, M. Necker, and Madame de Staël--The years 1803 and 1804--First idea of my Memoirs--I am appointed French Minister to the Valais--Departure from Rome--The year 1804--The Valais Republic--A visit to the Tuileries--The Hôtel de Montmorin--I hear the death cried of the Duc d'Enghien--I give in my resignation. My life became quite disturbed so soon as it ceased to belong to myself. I had a crowd of acquaintances outside my customary circle. I was invited to the country-houses which were being restored. One did as best he could in those half-unfurnished, half-furnished manor-houses, in which old arm-chairs and new stood side by side. Nevertheless, some of these manor-houses had remained intact, such as the Marais[447], which had come into the possession of Madame de La Briche[448], an excellent woman, whom happiness could never succeed in shaking off. I remember that my immortality went to the Rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer to take a seat for the Marais in a wretched hired coach, where I met Madame de Vintimille and Madame de Fezensac[449]. At Champlâtreux[450] M. Molé was having some small rooms on the second floor rebuilt. His father[451], who had been killed in the revolutionary style, was replaced, in a dilapidated drawing-room, by a picture in which Matthieu Molé was represented stopping a riot with his square cap: a picture which brought home the difference in the times. A splendid intersection of roads lined with lime-trees had been cut down; but one of the avenues still remained in all the magnificence of its old shade; new plantations have since been mixed with it: this is the age of poplars.