I will now tell how he entangled that man in his meshes.
"Malin was only Malin in those days,--a secret agent and correspondent of Louis XVIII.

Fouche now compelled him to reduce to writing all the proclamations of the proposed revolutionary government, its warrants and edicts against the factions of the 18th Brumaire.

An accomplice against his own will, Malin was required to have these documents secretly printed, and the copies held ready in his own house for distribution if Bonaparte were defeated.

The printer was subsequently imprisoned and detained two months; he died in 1816, and always believed he had been employed by a Montagnard conspiracy.
"One of the most singular scenes ever played by Fouche's police was caused by the blunder of an agent, who despatched a courier to a famous banker of that day with the news of a defeat at Marengo.

Victory, you will remember, did not declare itself for Napoleon until seven o'clock in the evening of the battle.