d, had advised that Bonaparte should be brought
to a court-martial, an the two-fold charge of having abandoned his army
and violated the quarantine laws. This report came to the ear of
Bonaparte; but he refused to believe it and he was right. Bernadotte
thought himself bound to the Constitution which he had sworn to defend.
Hence the opposition he manifested to the measures of the 18th Brumaire.
But he cherished no personal animosity against Bonaparte as long as he
was ignorant of his ambitious designs. The extraordinary and complicated
nature of subsequent events rendered his possession of the crown of
Sweden in no way incompatible with his fidelity to the Constitution of
the year III.

On our first arrival in Paris, though I was almost constantly with the
General, yet, as our routine of occupation was not yet settled, I was
enabled now and then to snatch an hour or two from business. This
leisure time I spent in the society of my family and a few friends, and
in collecting information as to what had happened during our absence, for
which purpose I consulted old newspapers and pamphlets. I was not
surprised to learn that Bonaparte's brothers--that is to say, Joseph and
Lucien--had been engaged in many intrigues. I was told that Sieyes had
for a moment thought of calling the Duke of Brunswick to the head of the
Government; that Barras would not have been very averse to favouring the
return of the Bourbons; and that Moulins, Roger Ducos, and Gohier alone
believed or affected to believe, in the possibility of preserving the
existing form of government. From what I heard at the time I have good
reasons for believing that Joseph and Lucien made all sorts of endeavours
to inveigle Bernadotte into their brother's party, and in the hope of
accomplishing that object they had assisted in getting him appointed War
Minister. However, I cannot vouch for the truth of this. I was told
that hernadotte had at first submitted to the influence of Bonaparte's
two brothers; but that their urgent interference in their client's behalf
induced him to shake them off, to proceed freely in the exercise of his
duties, and to open the eyes of the Directory on what the Republic might
have to apprehend from the enterprising character of Bonaparte. It is
certain that what I have to relate respecting the conduct of Bernadotte
to Bonaparte is calculated to give credit to these assertions.

All the generals who were in Paris, with the exception of Berna