obstructions. The First Consul
entered Milan without having met much resistance, the whole population
turned out on his entrance, and he was received with a thousand
acclamations. The confidence of the Milanese redoubled when they learned
that he had promised the members of the assembled clergy to maintain the
catholic worship and clergy as already established, and had compelled
them to take the oath of fidelity to the cisalpine republic.

The First Consul remained several days in this capital; and I had time to
form a more intimate acquaintance with my colleagues, who were, as I have
said, Hambard, Roustan, and Hebert. We relieved each other every
twenty-four hours, at noon precisely. As has always been my rule when
thrown into association with strangers, I observed, as closely as
circumstances permitted, the character and temper of my comrades, so
that I could regulate my conduct in regard to them, and know in advance
what I might have to fear or hope from association with them.

Hambard had an unbounded devotion for the First Consul, whom he had
followed to Egypt, but unfortunately his temper was gloomy and
misanthropic, which made him extremely sullen and disagreeable; and the
favor which Roustan enjoyed perhaps contributed to increase this gloomy
disposition. In a kind of mania he imagined himself to be the object of
a special espionage; and when his hours of service were over, he would
shut himself up in his room, and pass in mournful solitude the whole time
he was not on duty. The First Consul, when in good humor, would joke
with him upon this savage disposition, calling him Mademoiselle Hambard.
"Ah, well, what were you doing there in your room all by yourself?
Doubtless you were reading some poor romances, or some old books about
princesses carried off and kept under guard by a barbarous giant." To
which Hambard would sullenly reply, "General, you no doubt know better
than I what I was doing," referring in this way to the spies by which he
believed himself to be always surrounded. Notwithstanding this
unfortunate disposition, the First Consul felt very kindly to him. When
the Emperor went to camp at Boulogne, Hambard refused to accompany him;
and the Emperor gave him, as a place of retreat, the charge of the palace
of Meudon. There he showed unmistakable symptoms of insanity, and his
end was lamentable. During the Hundred Days, after a conversation with
the Emperor, he threw himself against a carving-knife wit