ires 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

--[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 Clark