e of Modena, with whom he and Bonaparte signed a treaty of
neutrality, for which they received a large sum in ready money; but
shortly afterwards the duchy was again invaded, and an attempt made to
surprise and seize the Duke. In 1797 he was chosen a member of the
Council of Five Hundred, where he always continued a supporter of violent
measures.

When, in 1799, his former protege, Bonaparte, was proclaimed a First
Consul, Salicetti desired to be placed in the Conservative Senate; but
his familiarity displeased Napoleon, who made him first a commercial
agent, and afterwards a Minister to the Ligurian Republic, so as to keep
him at a distance. During his several missions, he has amassed a
fortune, calculated, at the lowest, of six millions of livres.

The order Salicetti received to prepare the incorporation of Genoa with
France, would not, without the presence of our troops, have been very
easy to execute, particularly as he, six months before, had prevailed on
the Doge and the Senate to resign all sovereignty to Lucien Bonaparte,
under the title of a Grand Duke of Genoa.

The cause of Napoleon's change of opinion with regard to his brother
Lucien, was that the latter would not separate from a wife he loved, but
preferred domestic happiness to external splendour frequently accompanied
with internal misery. So that this act of incorporation of the Ligurian
Republic, in fact, originated, notwithstanding the great and deep
calculations of our profound politicians and political schemers, in
nothing else but in the keeping of a wife, and in the refusal of a
riband.

That corruption, seduction, and menaces seconded the intrigues and
bayonets which convinced the Ligurian Government of the honour and
advantage of becoming subjects of Bonaparte, I have not the least doubt;
but that the Doge, Girolamo Durazzo, and the senators Morchio, Maglione,
Travega, Maghella, Roggieri, Taddei, Balby, and Langlade sold the
independence of their country for ten millions of livres--though it has
been positively asserted, I can hardly believe; and, indeed, money was as
little necessary as resistance would have been unavailing, all the forts
and strong positions being in the occupation of our troops. A general
officer present when the Doge of Genoa, at the head of the Ligurian
deputation, offered Bonaparte their homage at Milan, and exchanged
liberty for bondage, assured me that this ci-devant chief magistrate
spoke with a faltering voice