On our arrival at Rastadt I soon found that General Bonaparte was determined to stay there only a short time.  I therefore expressed to him my decided desire to remain in Germany.  I was then ignorant that my erasure from the emigrant list had been ordered on the 11th of November, as the decree did not reach the commissary of the Executive Directory at Auxerre until the 17th of November, the day of our departure from Milan.

The silly pretext of difficulties by which my erasure, notwithstanding the reiterated solicitations of the victorious General, was so long delayed made me apprehensive of a renewal, under a weak and jealous pentarchy, of the horrible scenes of 1796.  Bonaparte said to me, in atone of indignation, “Come, pass the Rhine; they will not dare to seize you while near me.  I answer for your safety.”  On reaching Paris I found that my erasure had taken place.  It was at this period only that General Bonaparte’s applications in my favour were tardily crowned with success.  Sotin, the Minister of General Police, notified the fact to Bonaparte; but his letter gave a reason for my erasure very different from that stated in the decree.  The Minister said that the Government did not wish to leave among the names of traitors to their country the name of a citizen who was attached to the person of the conqueror of Italy; while the decree itself stated as the motive for removing my name from the list that I never had emigrated.

At St. Helena it seems Bonaparte said that he did not return from Italy with more than 300,000 francs; but I assert that he had at that time in his possession something more than 3,000,000.

   —­[Joseph says that Napoleon, when he exiled for Egypt, left with
   him all his fortune, and that it was much nearer 300,000 francs than
   3,000,000. (See Erreurs, tome i. pp. 243, 259)]—­

How could he with 300,000 francs have been able to provide for the extensive repairs, the embellishment, and the furnishing of his house in the Rue Chantereine?  How could he have supported the establishment he did with only 15,000 francs of income and the emoluments of his rank?  The excursion which he made along the coast, of which I have yet to speak, of itself cost near 12,000 francs in gold, which he transferred to me to defray the expense of the journey; and I do not think that this sum was ever repaid him.  Besides, what did it signify, for any object he might have in disguising his fortune, whether he brought 3,000,000 or 300,000 francs with him from Italy?  No one will accuse him of peculation.  He was an inflexible administrator.  He was always irritated at the discovery of fraud, and pursued those guilty of it with all the vigour of his character.  He wished to be independent, which he well knew that no one could be without fortune.  He has often said to me, “I am no Capuchin, not I.”  But after having been allowed only 300,000 francs on his arrival from the rich Italy, where fortune never abandoned him, it has been printed that he had 20,000,000 (some have even doubled the amount) on his return from Egypt, which is a very poor country, where money is scarce, and where reverses followed close upon his victories.  All these reports are false.  What he brought from Italy has just been stated, and it will be seen when we come to Egypt what treasure he carried away from the country of the Pharaohs.