The day before yesterday an officer arrived at the army from Paris.  He reported that he left Paris on the 25th, when anxiety prevailed there as to the feelings with which I viewed the events of the 18th He was the bearer of a sort of circular from General Augereau to all the generals of division; and he brought a letter of credit from the Minister of War to the commissary-general, authorising him to draw as much money as he might require for his journey.

   It is evident from these circumstances that the Government is acting
   towards me in somewhat the same way in which Pichegru was dealt with
   after Vendemiaire (year iv.).

I beg of you to receive my resignation, and appoint another to my place.  No power on earth shall make me continue in the service after this shocking mark of ingratitude on the part of the Government, which I was very far from expecting.  My health, which is considerably impaired, imperiously demands repose and tranquillity.

The state of my mind, likewise, requires me to mingle again in the mass of citizens.  Great power has for a longtime been confided to my hands.  I have employed it on all occasions for the advantage of my country; so much the worse for those who put no faith in virtue, and may have suspected mine.  My recompense is in my own conscience, and in the opinion of posterity.

   Now that the country is tranquil and free from the dangers which
   have menaced it, I can, without inconvenience, quit the post in
   which I have been placed.

   Be sure that if there were a moment of danger, I would be found in
   the foremost rank of the defenders of liberty and of the
   constitution of the year iii.

The Directory, judging from the account which Bottot gave of his mission that he had not succeeded in entirely removing the suspicions of Bonaparte, wrote the following letter on the 30th Vendemiaire: 

The Directory has itself been troubled about the impression made on you by the letter to the paymaster-general, of which an ’aide de camp’ was the bearer.  The composition of this letter has very much astonished the Government, which never appointed nor recognised such an agent:  it is at least an error of office.  But it should not alter the opinion you ought otherwise to entertain of the manner in which the Directory thinks of and esteems you.  It appears that the 18th Fructidor was misrepresented in the letters which were sent to the army of Italy.  You did well to intercept them, and it may be right to transmit the most remarkable to the Minister of Police.  —­(What an ignoble task to propose to the conqueror of Italy.)

   In your observations on the too strong tendency of opinion towards
   military government, the Directory recognises an equally enlightened
   and ardent friend of the Republic.

Nothing is wiser than the maxim, ‘cedant arma togae’, for the maintenance of republics.  To show so much anxiety on so important a point is not one of the least glorious features in the life of a general placed at the head of a triumphant army.

The Directory had sent General Clarke