[Footnote 1256: "Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. In VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. Vol I. chap. IX. and X. pp. 225-268. (Admirable portraiture of his principal agents, Cambacérès, Talleyrand, Maret, Cretet, Real, etc.) Lacuée, director of the conscription, is a perfect type of the imperial functionary. Having received the broad ribbon of the Legion d'Honneur, he exclaimed, at the height of his enthusiasm: "what will not France become under such a man? To what degree of happiness and glory will it not ascend, always provided the conscription furnishes him with 200,000 men a year! And, indeed, that will not be difficult, considering the extent of the empire."--And likewise with Merlin de Douai: "I never knew a man less endowed with the sentiment of the just and the unjust; everything seems to him right and good, as the consequences of a legal text. He was even endowed with a kind of satanic smile which involuntarily rose to his lips... every time the opportunity occurred, when, in applying his odious science, he reached the conclusion that severity is necessary or some condemnation." The same with Defermon, in fiscal matters] [Footnote 1257: Madame de Rémusat, II., 278; II., 175.] [Footnote 1258: Ibid., III., 275, II., 45. (Apropos of Savary, his most intimate agent.): "He is a man who must be constantly corrupted."] [Footnote 1259: Ibid., I., 109; II., 247; III., 366.] [Footnote 1260: "Madame de Rémusat," II., 142, 167, 245. (Napoleon's own words.) "If I ordered Savary to rid himself of his wife and children, I am sure he would not hesitate."--Marmont, II., 194: "We were at Vienna in 1809. Davoust said, speaking of his own and Maret's devotion: "If the Emperor should say to us both, 'My political interests require the destruction of Paris without any one escaping,' Maret would keep the secret, I am sure; but nevertheless he could not help letting it be known by getting his own family out. I, rather than reveal it I would leave my wife and children there." (These are bravado expressions, wordy exaggerations, but significant.)] [Footnote 1261: Madame de Rémusat, II., 379.] [Footnote 1262: "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 230. (Words of Maret, at Dresden, in 1813; he probably repeats one of Napoleon's figures.)] [Footnote 1263: Mollien, II., 9.] [Footnote 1264: D'Haussonville, "L'Église Romaine et le premier Empire,"VI., 190, and passim.] [Footnote 1265: Ibid., III., 460-473.--Cf. on the same scene, "Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Chancelier de France. (He was both witness and actor.)] [Footnote 1266: An expression of Cambacérès. M. de Lavalette, II., 154.] [Footnote 1267: Madame de Rémusat, III. 184]