Buonaparte readily consented,
and told him that de Kolly arrived at Paris and lived in the greatest
obscurity, dressed shabbily, and eating his meals only at cheap
traiteurs in the Fauxbourg St. Antoine. However, he was not satisfied
with the common wine served up, and would ask for the best Bordeaux,
for which he paid five francs per bottle. This contrast of poverty and
luxury excited suspicions in the waiters of the two houses he thus
frequented, who being in the pay of the police, immediately sent in a
report. De Kolly was watched, and soon afterwards seized with all
his papers. Buonaparte said he then procured a person, as nearly
resembling de Kolly as could be found, to carry on the English
stratagem, under a hope that Ferdinand would have fallen into the
trap; and with all the original credentials, this agent of the French
police went into the castle of Valencay, under a pretext of selling
some trinkets. Ferdinand however, said Buonaparte, was too great a
coward to enter into the views proposed to him, but instantly gave
information of what had been communicated, to his first chamberlain,
Amazada, in a letter written to the governor of the castle!--By this
means Ferdinand escaped being placed at the mercy of Buonaparte, whose
intention was to intercept him in his flight.
Although the conduct of Ferdinand was in this instance pusillanimous
and cruel, it was next to an impossibility that he could have
effected his escape. He was surrounded by guards and spies of every
description, under the superintendence of M.
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