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26 THE REGENT.
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that
in 1800 Napoleon, then First Consul, pawned the Regent to the Berlin
banker Tres-cow. With the money thus obtained he set out on that famous
campaign beyond the Alps which ended at Marengo and which began his
career of unexampled success. Thus once more the Regent may be said to
have founded the fortune of a great house, but more aspiring in its
second attempt it succeeded less effectually than in the case of Pitt.
However in 1804 the house of Bonaparte had not fallen upon its ruin and
it is some idea of this fact that gives color to the extraordinary
revelations of the man called " Baba."
In
1805 several men were tried for having forged notes on the Bank of
France, and one of them who went by the nickname of " Baba" made a full
confession of how the forgeries were accomplished, and then, to the
vast astonishment of the court, he delivered this theatrical speech :
" This is not the first time that my avowals have been useful to
society, and if I
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