I quickly interrupted M. de Gallo, and assured him that both my conscience and my duty obliged me to reject his proposal; and so put at once an end to the conversation.

I took care to let the General-in-Chief know this story, and he was not surprised at my reply.  His conviction, however, was strong, from all that M. de Gallo had said, and more particularly from the offer he had made, that Austria was resolved to avoid war, and was anxious for peace.

After I had retired to rest M. Bottot came to my bedroom and asked me, with a feigned surprise, if it was true that my name was still on the list of emigrants.  On my replying in the affirmative, he requested me to draw up a note on the subject.  This I declined doing, telling him that twenty notes of the kind he required already existed; that I would take no further steps; and that I would henceforth await the decision in a state of perfect inaction.

General Bonaparte thought it quite inexplicable that the Directory should express dissatisfaction at the view he took of the events of the 18th Fructidor, as, without his aid, they would doubtless have been overcome.  He wrote a despatch, in which he repeated that his health and his spirits were affected—­that he had need of some years’ repose-that he could no longer endure the fatigue of riding; but that the prosperity and liberty of his country would always command his warmest interests.  In all this there was not a single word of truth.  The Directory thought as much, and declined to accept his resignation in the most flattering terms.

Bottot proposed to him, on the part of the Directory, to revolutionise Italy.  The General inquired whether the whole of Italy would be included in the plan.  The revolutionary commission had, however, been entrusted to Bottot in so indefinite a way that he could only hesitate, and give a vague reply.  Bonaparte wished for more precise orders.  In the interval peace was concluded, and the idea of that perilous and extravagant undertaking was no longer agitated.  Bottot, soon after his return to Paris, wrote a letter to General Bonaparte, in which he complained that the last moments he had passed at Passeriano had deeply afflicted his heart.  He said that cruel suspicions had followed him even to the gates of the Directory.  These cruel suspicions had, however, been dissipated by the sentiments of admiration and affection which he had found the Directory entertained for the person of Bonaparte.

These assurances, which were precisely what Bonaparte had expected, did not avail to lessen the contempt he entertained for the heads of the Government, nor to change his conviction of their envy and mistrust of himself.  To their alleged affection he made no return.  Bottot assured the hero of Italy of “the Republican docility” of the Directory, and touched upon the reproaches Bonaparte had thrown out against them, and upon his demands which had not been granted.  He said: