Note 82 — Chapter III · OCCUPATION OF FRENCH FORTRESSES.

The law of Amnesty, as it was called, raised many fierce animosities. It received the Royal sanction on January 12th. By this law, the ordinances against proscribed persons were ratified and extended. Exiled persons might be deprived of their property; the relations of Napoleon were excluded for ever from the kingdom, and were declared incapable of enjoying civil rights or of possessing any property. “Regicides, who, in contempt of a clemency almost boundless, ... accepted offices or employment from the Usurper, and who, by so doing, declared themselves irreconcilable enemies of France and of the lawful Government, are for ever excluded the realm, and are bound to quit it in the space of one month, under pain of the punishment enacted by the 33rd Article of the Penal Code; they cannot possess any civil right in France, nor any property, title, or pension granted to them of favour” (Annual Register , 1816, “General History,” p. 107). It was in virtue of this clause, that Fouché was banished by his recent allies.