—­[Of this confidence the following instructions for me, which he
   dictated to Duroc, afford sufficient proof:—­

“1st.  Citizen Bourrienne shall open all the letters addressed to the First Consul, Vol, and present them to him three times a day, or oftener in case of urgent business.  The letters shall be deposited in the cabinet when they are opened.  Bourrienne is to analyse all those which are of secondary interest, and write the First Consul’s decision on each letter.  The hours for presenting the letters shall be, first, when the Consul rises; second, a quarter of an hour before dinner; and third, at eleven at night.

“2d.  He is to have the superintendence of the Topographical office, and of an office of Translation, in which there shall be a German and an English clerk.  Every day he shall present to the First Consul, at the hours above mentioned the German and English journals, together with a translation.  With respect to the Italian journals, it will only be necessary to mark what the First Consul is to read.

“3d.  He shall keep a register of appointments to offices under Government; a second, for appointments to judicial posts; a third for appointments to places abroad; and a fourth, for the situations of receivers and great financial posts, where he is to inscribe the names of all the individuals whom the First Consul may refer to him.  These registers must be written by his own hand, and must be kept entirely private.

“4th.  Secret correspondence, and the different reports of surveillance, are to be addressed directly to Bourrienne, and transmitted by him to the hand of the First Consul, by whom they will be returned without the intervention of any third party.

“6th.  There shall be a register for all that relates to secret extraordinary expenditure.  Bourrienne shall write the whole with his own hand, in order that the business may be kept from the knowledge of any one.

“7th.  He shall despatch all the business which maybe referred to
him, either from Citizen Duroc, or from the cabinet of the First
Consul, taking care to arrange everything so as to secure secrecy.

“(Signed) “Bonaparte, First Council.

“Paris, 13th Germinal, year VIII.
“(3d.  April 1800.)"]—­

Official business was not the only labour that devolved upon me.  I had to write to the dictation of the First Consul during a great part of the day, or to decipher his writing, which was always the most laborious part of my duty.  I was so closely employed that I scarcely ever went out; and when by chance I dined in town, I could not arrive until the very moment of dinner, and I was obliged to run away immediately after it.  Once a month, at most, I went without Bonaparte to the Comedie Francaise, but I was obliged to return at nine o’clock, that heing the hour at which we resumed business.  Corvisart, with