Note 388 — BOOK XI[336]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
October 1810. The three volumes of l'Allemagne were hardly printed, when the Duc de Rovigo, the Minister of Police, sent his agents to destroy the ten thousand copies that had been struck off, and served an order on the author to leave France within three days. Having read in the newspapers that some American ships had arrived in the Channel ports, Madame de Staël decided to make use of a passport which she had for America, hoping that it would be possible for her to land in England. She required a few days, in any case, to prepare for the voyage, and she was obliged to apply to the Minister of Police for those few days. In a letter dated 3 October 1810, Rovigo allowed her eight days and said:
"It appears to me that the air of this country does not suit you, and we are not yet reduced to looking for models in the peoples which you admire. Your last work is un-French; I myself stopped the printing.... I am instructing M. Corbigny [the Prefect of Loir-et-Cher] to attend to the execution of the order which I have given him, when the delay which I am granting you has expired."
The letter of the Minister of Police ends with this postscript:
"I have my reasons, madame, for mentioning to you the ports of Lorient, the Rochelle, Bordeaux and Rochefort as the only ports at which you can embark. I request you to let me know which you select."
The Channel ports were forbidden to Madame de Staël, in order to prevent her from going to England. So soon as Coppet became the sole alternative to America, she determined to go back to Coppet, where she arrived in the latter half of October 1810.—B.