During the negotiations which followed the treaty of Leoben, the Directory ordered General Bonaparte to demand the liberty of mm. de La Fayette, Latour-Marbourg, and Bureau de Puzy, detained at Olmutz since 1792 as prisoners of state.  The General-in-Chief executed this commission with as much pleasure as zeal, but he often met with difficulties which appeared to be insurmountable.  It has been very incorrectly stated that these prisoners obtained their liberty by one of the articles of the preliminaries of Leoben.  I wrote a great deal on this subject to the dictation of General Bonaparte, and I joined him only on the day after the signature of these preliminaries.  It was not till the end of May of the year 1797 that the liberation of these captives was demanded, and they did not obtain their freedom till the end of August.  There was no article in the treaty, public or secret, which had reference to them.  Neither was it at his own suggestion that Bonaparte demanded the enlargement of the prisoners, but by order of the Directory.  To explain why they did not go to France immediately after their liberation from Olmutz, it is necessary to recollect that the events of the 18th Fructidor occurred between the period when the first steps were taken to procure their liberty and the date of their deliverance.  It required all Bonaparte’s ascendency and vigour of character to enable him to succeed in his object at the end of three months.

We had arrived at the month of July, and the negotiations were tediously protracted.  It was impossible to attribute the embarrassment which was constantly occurring to anything but the artful policy of Austria:  Other affairs occupied Bonaparte.  The news from Paris engrossed all his attention.  He saw with extreme displeasure the manner in which the influential orators of the councils, and pamphlets written in the same spirit as they spoke, criticised him, his army, his victories, the affairs of Venice, and the national glory.  He was quite indignant at the suspicions which it was sought to create respecting his conduct and ulterior views.

The following excerpts, attributed to the pens of Dumouriez or Rivarol, are specimens of some of the comments of the time: 

   Extracts of letters in “Le SPECTATUER du Nord” of 1797.

General Bonaparte is, without contradiction, the most brilliant warrior who has appeared at the head of the armies of the French Republic.  His glory is incompatible with democratic equality, and the services he has rendered are too great to be recompensed except by hatred and ingratitude.  He is very young, and consequently has to pursue a long career of accusations and of persecutions.

........Whatever may be the crowning event of his military career,
Bonaparte is still a great man.  All his glory is due to himself
alone; because he alone has developed a character and a genius of
which no one else has furnished an example.

   Extract of letter or 18th April 1797 in “The Spectateur du Nord.”