or wrongly, that my affairs in Spain were going astray, to say to all that would listen to you, that you always blamed my undertaking there, whereas it was you yourself who first put it into my head, and who persistently urged it. And that man, that unfortunate (he was thus designating the Duc d'Enghien), by whom was I advised of the place of his residence? Who drove me to deal cruelly with him? What, then, are you aiming at? What do you wish for? What do you hope? Do you dare to say? You deserve that I should smash you like a wine-glass. I can do it, but I despise you too much to take the trouble."
M. Pasquier goes on to say:
"The foregoing is, in an abridged form, the substance of what M. de Talleyrand was compelled to listen to during this mortal half-hour, which must have been a frightful one for him if one is to judge of it by the suffering felt at it by those present, none of whom ever subsequently referred to it without shuddering at its recollection."
But the most curious part of the transaction, and what struck everybody who was present, was:—
"the seeming indifference of the man who had to listen to all this, and who, for nearly a whole half-hour, endured, without flinching, a torrent of invective for which there is probably
