“Madame de Lomenie, the Cardinal’s niece, before her life was sacrificed by the revolutionary tribunal, intrusted Father Patrault with the care of her two daughters, who were yet in their childhood. The moment of terror having passed away, their aunt Madame de Brienne, who had escaped the storm and preserved a considerable portion of her fortune, applied to Father Patrault for the children; but he refused to give them up, on the ground that their mother had directed him to withdraw them from the world and to devote them to the occupation of peasants. He had conceived the design of literally executing these figurative commands, and was on the point of uniting them to two of his own nephews. ‘I was then,’ said Napoleon, ‘General of the Army of the Interior, and I became the mediator for the restoration of the two children, an object which was not accomplished without difficulty. Patrault employed every possible means of resistance. These daughters of Madame de Lomenie were the two ladies whom you have since known by the names of Madame de Marnesia, and the beautiful Madame de Canisy, Duchess de Vicenza.’
“Father Patrault, having renewed his acquaintance with his old pupil, followed him and joined the Army of Italy, where he proved himself better able to calculate projectiles than to meet their effects. At Montenotte, Millesimo, and Dego, he evinced the most puerile cowardice. During the action he was occupied, not like Moses, in praying, but in weeping. The General-in-chief appointed him administrator of domains at Milan, from which he derived considerable profits. On Napoleon’s return from Egypt, he presented himself to him: he was no longer the little Minim monk of Champagne, but a corpulent financier, possessed of upwards of a million. Two years afterwards he again sought an interview with the First Consul at Malmaison: he now looked mean, dejected, and shabbily dressed. ‘How is this?’ inquired the Consul. ‘You see before you a ruined man,’ replied Patrault; ‘one who is reduced to beggary; the victim of severe misfortune.’ The First Consul determined to investigate the truth of this statement; he discovered that Father Patrault had commenced the trade of an usurer. The great calculator had lost his fortune through bankruptcies, in lending at great risk for a high interest. ‘I have already paid my debt,’ said the First Consul, at his next interview with him; ‘I can do no more for you; I cannot make a man’s fortune twice.’ He contented himself with granting Patrault a pension sufficient for his subsistence.