The young man had already held the same relation to a minister, who went out of office in 1827, taking care before he did so to appoint his young secretary to a place in the foreign office.

Ernest de La Briere, then about twenty-seven years of age, was decorated with the Legion of honor but was without other means than his salary; he was accustomed to the management of business and had learned a good deal of life during his four years in a minister's cabinet.

Kindly, amiable, and over-modest, with a heart full of pure and sound feelings, he was averse to putting himself in the foreground.

He loved his country, and wished to serve her, but notoriety abashed him.
To him the place of secretary to a Napoleon was far more desirable than that of the minister himself.

As soon as he became the friend and secretary of Canalis he did a great amount of labor for him, but by the end of eighteen months he had learned to understand the barrenness of a nature that was poetic through literary expression only.