The First Consul was harassed by the continual demands for money made on him by his brothers.  To get rid of Joseph, who expended large sums at Mortfontaine, as Lucien did at Neuilly, he gave M. Collot the contract for victualling the navy, on the condition of his paying Joseph 1,600,000 francs a year out of his profits.  I believe this arrangement answered Joseph’s purpose very well; but it was anything but advantageous to M. Collot.  I think a whole year elapsed without his pocketing a single farthing.  He obtained an audience of the First Consul, to whom he stated his grievances.  His outlays he showed were enormous, and he could get no payment from the navy office.  Upon which the Consul angrily interrupted him, saying, “Do you think I am a mere capuchin?  Decres must have 100,000 crowns, Duroc 100,000, Bourrienne 100,000; you must make the payments, and don’t come here troubling me with your long stories.  It is the business of my Ministers to give me accounts of such matters; I will hear Decres, and that’s enough.  Let me be teased no longer with these complaints; I cannot attend to them.”  Bonaparte then very unceremoniously dismissed M. Collot.  I learned afterwards that he did not get a settlement of the business until after a great deal of trouble.  M. Collot once said to me, “If he had asked me for as much money as would have built a frigate he should have had it.  All I want now is to be paid, and to get rid of the business.”  M. Collot had reason and honour on his side; but there was nothing but shuffling on the other.

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Calumny such powerful charms
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Most celebrated people lose on a close view
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To leave behind him no traces of his existence
Treaty, according to custom, was called perpetual