Bonaparte set off for Genoa, and fulfilled his mission.  The 9th Thermidor arrived, and the deputies, called Terrorists, were superseded by Albitte and Salicetti.  In the disorder which then prevailed they were either ignorant of the orders given to General Bonaparte, or persons envious of the rising glory of the young general of artillery inspired Albitte and Salicetti with suspicions prejudicial to him.  Be this as it may, the two representatives drew up a resolution, ordering that General Bonaparte should be arrested, suspended from his rank, and arraigned before the Committee of Public Safety; and, extraordinary as it may appear, this resolution was founded in that very journey to Genoa which Bonaparte executed by the direction of the representatives of the people.

—­[Madame Junot throws some light on this Persecution of Bonaparte by Salicetti.  “One motive (I do not mean to say the only one),” remarks this lady, “of the animosity shown by Salicetti to Bonaparte, in the affair of Loano, was that they were at one time suitors to the same lady.  I am not sure whether it was in Corsica or in Paris, but I know for a fact that Bonaparte, in spite of his youth, or perhaps I should rather say on account of his youth, was the favoured lover.  It was the opinion of my brother, who was secretary to Salicetti, that Bonaparte owed his life to a circumstance which is not very well known.  The fact is, that Salicetti received a letter from Bonaparte, the contents of which appeared to make a deep impression on him.  Bonaparte’s papers had been delivered into Salicetti’s hands, who, after an attentive perusal of them, laid them aside with evident dissatisfaction.  He then took them up again, and read them a second time.  Salicetti declined my brother’s assistance is the examination of the papers, and after a second examination, which was probably as unsatisfactory as the first, he seated himself with a very abstracted air.  It would appear that he had seen among the papers some document which concerned himself.  Another curious fact is, that the man who had the care of the papers after they were sealed up was an inferior clerk entirely under the control of Salicetti; and my brother, whose business it was to have charge of the papers, was directed not to touch them.  He has often spoken to me of this circumstance, and I mention it here as one of importance to the history of the time.  Nothing that relates to a man like Napoleon can be considered useless or trivial.

“What, after all, was the result of this strange business which might have cost Bonaparte his head?—­for, had he been taken to Paris and tried by the Committee of Public Safety, there is little doubt that the friend of Robespierre the younger would have been condemned by Billaud-Varennes and Collot d’Herbois.  The result was the acquittal of the accused.  This result is the more extraordinary, since it would appear that at that time Salicetti stood in fear of the young