—­[H.  J. G. Clarke, afterwards Minister of War under Napoleon,
   1807-1814, acid under the Bourbons in 1816, when he was made a
   Marshal of France.  He was created Due de Feltre in 1819.]—­

to treat for peace, as second plenipotentiary.  Bonaparte has often told me he had no doubt from the time of his arrival that General Clarke was charged with a secret mission to act as a spy upon him, and even to arrest him if an opportunity offered for so doing without danger.  That he had a suspicion of this kind is certain; but I must own that I was never by any means able to discover its grounds; for in all my intercourse since with Clarke he never put a single question to me, nor did I ever hear a word drop from his mouth, which savoured of such a character.  If the fact be that he was a spy, he certainly played his part well.  In all the parts of his correspondence which were intercepted there never was found the least confirmation of this suspicion.  Be this as it may, Bonaparte could not endure him; he did not make him acquainted with what was going on, and his influence rendered this mission a mere nullity.  The General-in-Chief concentrated all the business of the negotiation in his own closet; and, as to what was going on, Clarke continued a mere cipher until the 18th Fructidor, when he was recalled.  Bonaparte made but little count of Clarke’s talents.  It is but justice, however, to say that he bore him no grudge for the conduct of which he suspected he was guilty in Italy.  “I pardon him because I alone have the right to be offended.”

He even had the generosity to make interest for an official situation for him.  These amiable traits were not uncommon with Bonaparte.

Bonaparte had to encounter so many disagreeable contrarieties, both in the negotiators for peace and the events at Paris, that he often displayed a good deal of irritation and disgust.  This state of mind was increased by the recollection of the vexation his sister’s marriage had caused him, and which was unfortunately revived by a letter he received from her at this juncture.  His excitement was such that he threw it down with an expression of anger.  It has been erroneously reported in several publications that “Bacciocchi espoused Marie-Anne-Eliza Bonaparte on the 5th of May 1797.  The brother of the bride was at the time negotiating the preliminaries of peace with Austria.”

In fact, the preliminaries were signed in the month of April, and it was for the definitive peace we were negotiating in May.  But the reader will find by the subjoined letter that Christine applied to her brother to stand godfather to her third child.  Three children in three months would be rather quick work.

          Ajaccio, 14th, Thermidor, year V. (1st August 1797).