In his early years his attention was turned towards military subjects, and the army would no doubt have been his destination, had not some domestic circumstances intervened to change his views. Applying himself to the study of law, he took out his degrees in that faculty, with the intention of practising at the bar; but he was diverted from this purpose at the instance of his father, who wished him to embrace the career of diplomacy. He accordingly removed to Paris to attend the lectures of the celebrated Bouchaud. on the law of nature and of nations, and to be introduced into the great world. The sudden death, however, of his patron, the count de Vergennes, caused him a third time to abandon his pursuits, and left him without chart or compass on the wide sea of life. Of how little avail it often is to form plans for the future!

But the young adventurer was not long to remain thus unemployed. When the Revolution began to appear, he naturally asked himself what advantages he might be enabled to derive from the event. He thought he could do no better than revert to public and international law. He took up his abode at Versailles, that he might be near the sittings of the States-General. At these he constantly attended; and committed to writing such heads of the speeches as promised to be useful for future reference. Insensibly he became so attached to this occupation, that he compressed on paper the substance of every remarkable harangue. As he was an expeditious penman, and very expert at abbreviating words, he found that he could form something like a fair epitome of what passed within the Assembly. For some time he had no intention of communicating these reports to the world; but the advice of some friends, and, above all, the pressure of straitened circumstances, at length induced him to publish them daily. The success of the experiment was so great, that he was engaged to incorporate this arduous labour in the Moniteur; and in a single month the subscribers to that journal increased tenfold. The occupation he doubtless intended as preliminary to, his own debût on the political stage; yet it was so lucrative, that he probably regretted its end on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. It so far answered his purpose that, besides extending his knowledge of national policy, it procured him great celebrity, and the acquaintance of many distinguished men. Among others was Lebrun, who soon introduced him into public life.

The diplomatic career of Maret commenced at Hamburgh as secretary of legation. From Hamburgh he was transferred to Brussels with increased powers; but his most important duty was a mission to London -- the object of which was to negotiate a peace with our ministry. He had an interview on the subject with Mr. Pitt, in the course of which he saw, or fancied he saw, a glimpse of hope that his mission might succeed; but the proceedings of the body he was employed to represent were not of a nature to inspire much confidence in his proposals. At length all negotiation was indignantly ended on the murder of Louis XVI.; and Maret, like the resident ambassador, was peremptorily ordered to leave the kingdom.

Soon after his return to Paris, he was nominated minister plenipotentiary to the Court of Naples. In July 1793, he set out for his destination, accompanied by Semonville, ambassador to Constantinople; but both were arrested by the Austrians, and thrown into prison at Mantua. This was no infringement of the rights of nations: France was not recognized as a republic, and consequently they had no official character; they were justly regarded as neither more nor less than the envoys of a set of ruffians, whose purpose it was to scatter the firebrands of rebellion among the neighbouring states. Besides, Austria bad special grounds for acting in this manner. The aunt of the emperor was in close confinement, and about to share the fate of her murdered husband.

The dungeon in which Maret was confined was so unwholesome, that his health suffered severely. A singular circumstance, and no less honourable than singular, occasioned his removal to a more salubrious situation. His father, an eminent physician, had distinguished himself in several branches of experimental philosophy, and in his day obtained an European reputation. The chancellor of the Mantuan academy, Professor Castellani, heard of the younger Maret's imprisonment, and at the head of a deputation, consisting entirely of academicians, obtained permission from the authorities of the place to visit and relieve the son of a man whose name was so well known to the scientific world. Through their intercession, both he and his companion were transferred to the fortress of Kufstein in the Tyrol, where the air was purer, and the prison free from damp. They both rapidly recovered, although more closely guarded than before.

In this fortress, to relieve the tedium of his situation, Maret devoted his days to literary pursuits. He had none of the necessary materials for writing; but his knowledge of chemistry enabled him to form a composition which served for ink; he found the stump of an old pen in a corner of his room; and some small slips of paper he begged or stole from his gaoler. On these slips, and with the same worn-out stump, he actually wrote two or three comedies, as well as one tragedy, each consisting of five acts. This was not all, with a piece of coal he covered the four walls of his dungeon with scientific disquisitions. It is pleasing to behold such an example of the consolation which letters can bestow in adversity.

After twenty-two months confinement at Kufstein, Maret and his companion, as well as the republican representatives whom Dumouriez had surrendered to Austria, were exchanged for the Princess Maria Theresa, now Duchess d'Augoulême. This was in December 1795; and early in the following year, Maret and Semonville returned to Paris. The former doubtless expected that after near three years close imprisonment, he should be immediately put in possession of some honourable and lucrative post. The directory, however, were contented with decreeing that the two ambassadors had done honour to France by their courage and constancy. He was deservedly punished for his simplicity in looking for either gratitude or justice at the hands of regicides. A year and a half he remained unemployed, though so poor as to be destitute of proper necessaries; and he would probably have remained in this predicament much longer had not the directory called to mind that he was personally known to some of the British ministers, and that he might therefore be serviceable in the projected negotiations with Lord Malmesbury at Lille. To Lille he accordingly repaired, but the revolution of the 18th Fructidor not only convinced England that it was impossible to treat with a government which was not secure a single day, but strengthened the anti-pacific party in the Directory. He was recalled, and again left without employment. But for this he was consoled by 150,000 francs, which the council of Milan awarded him as an indemnification for the losses he had sustained during his captivity. This most acceptable of gifts was owing to the victories of Buonaparte, not to any good will on the part of either the French or the Italian government.

No one will be surprised to hear, that on the return of Buonaparte from Egypt, Maret was ready enough to assist in the subversion of the existing authority by which he had been so shamefully used, and to promote the views of the great soldier, to whom he was indebted for circumstances of comparative ease. He was rewarded with an important office, that of secretary to the consuls; an office which was soon after raised into a secretaryship of state.

From this period the history of Maret becomes that of his master; to whom he proved a most useful acquisition. His acquaintance with every branch of the public administration ; his indefatigable habits of business; his inviolable discretion; the laxness of his moral principles, which rendered him an ever-ready instrument, and above all, his absolute devotedness to his benefactor, were qualities that insured the favour , as much as they served the purposes of Buonaparte. As Fouché truly said of him , he saw only with the eyes, and heard only with the ears, of his master. Prompt at every call on his services, he discharged the lowest drudgery of a clerk as willingly as he undertook the most important negotiations of a minister. In fact, he was ready for every thing, and in every thing he had a hand. He accompanied the emperor on the field of battle; so that it was a common saying of the latter, that not a shot could be fired without his having something to do in it. His relation, indeed, to the other, of whom he was for many years the confidential secretary, rendered him inseparable from Napoleon.

In 1811, Maret (now Duke of Bassano) succeeded Champagny as minister for foreign affairs. In this important station he served Napoleon with as much zeal and as little principle as before, but his talents were probably unequal to the duties required from him. Soon after he was made duke, Talleyrand, alluding doubtless to the increased arrogance which accompanied that dignity, observed: "In all France I know but one greater ass than Maret; that is the duke of Bassano."

Whatever might be the laxity of the duke's principles, there was a constancy in his attachment to Buonaparte, which almost amounted to virtue, and would have done honour to a better man. While other men -- even those who owed every thing to the falling emperor -- deserted him in the hour of need, Maret forsook him not, but testified unabated zeal in his service, and respect towards his person, to the moment of his departure for Elba. That this faithful slave was concerned in the plot for the emperor's return is undoubted, and he willingly accepted office during the Hundred Days. In his excuse it ought to he stated that himself, his relatives, his nearest connexions, had little reason to be grateful to the Bourbons: all had been deprived of their places and dignities; and none had received or solicited favours from the court.

During Napoleon's second reign, Maret's conduct, as Minister of the Interior and Secretary of State, was distinguished by great moderation. It was he who, when the emperor hesitated whether the instrument necessary for the release of the Duke d'Angoulême at Marseilles should be sent or not, took upon himself the responsibility of expediting it, thereby rendering its revocation impossible. This act was the more courageous, as there can be little doubt that the emperor would, in the end, have refused to ratify the convention of Gilly *, and confined the Bourbon. When he knew that that prince's safety was insured, he hastened to acquaint Napoleon with what he had done. His manly avowal of this courageous act made a profound impression on the other: "You have done well!" was his observation after some moments' silence. "I perceive, Sire," said the minister, "that I can still be useful to you, and I consent to withdraw the resignation which I have sent in, and to which, in fact , I was resolved to adhere." It is indisputable then, that to the boldness of Maret, and not to the magnanimity of the emperor, the Bourbon's liberation was owing. One would have thought that so signal a service would have saved the former from the proscription which followed. Well might Napoleon, after alluding to the circumstance at St. Helena, exclaim, "Yet the Duke of Bassano wanders in exile!" We are willing to believe that Louis was unacquainted with the extent of his nephews obligations to this minister. In many other cases, that minister, who was anxious only for the re-establishment of his master, avoided whatever could bring odium on such a cause, and did every thing likely to ensure its success. He was present at Waterloo, and in the retreat from that disastrous field was near being taken prisoner. On his return to Paris, he saw that the restoration of the Bourbons was inevitable; and prepared for the storm which it must pour on his head. Exiled from France, he passed the next five years at Gratz in Styria; but at the end of that period he received the royal permission to end his days in his native country. In 1826, he was residing on his estate in Burgundy, seldom visiting Paris, and occupied with the education and establishment of his children.

* See the Memoirs of Grouchy.