the two youths seem to have been on friendly terms. It must, however, be
added that the stories of their very close friendship, as told in
Bourrienne's memoirs, are open to suspicion. Leaving Brienne in 1787,
and conceiving a distaste for the army, Bourrienne proceeded to Vienna.
He was pursuing legal and diplomatic studies there and afterwards at
Leipzig, when the French Revolution broke out and went through its first
phases. Not until the spring of 1792 did Bourrienne return to France; at
Paris he renewed his acquaintance with Bonaparte. They led a Bohemian
life together, and among other incidents of that exciting time, they
witnessed the mobbing of the royal family in the Tuileries (June 20) and
the overthrow of the Swiss Guards at the same spot (August 10).
Bourrienne next obtained a diplomatic appointment at Stuttgart, and soon
his name was placed on the list of political _emigres_, from which it
was not removed until November 1797. Nevertheless, after the affair of
13th Vendemiaire (October 5, 1795) he returned to Paris and renewed his
acquaintance with Bonaparte, who was then second in command of the Army
of the Interior and soon received the command of the Army of Italy.
Bourrienne did not proceed with him into Italy, but was called thither
by the victorious general at the time of the long negotiations with
Austria (May-October 1797), when his knowledge of law and diplomacy was
of some service in the drafting of the terms of the treaty of Campo
Formio (October 17). In the following year he accompanied Bonaparte to
Egypt as his private secretary, and left a vivid, if not very
trustworthy, account of the expedition in his memoirs. He also
accompanied him on the adventurous return voyage to Frejus
(September-October 1799), and was of some help in the affairs which led
up to the _coup d'etat_ of Brumaire (November) 1799. He remained by the
side of the First Consul in his former capacity, but in the autumn of
1802 incurred his displeasure owing to his very questionable financial
dealings. In the spring of 1805 he was sent as French envoy to the free
city of Hamburg. There it was his duty to carry out the measures of
commercial war against England, known as the Continental System; but it
is known that he not only viewed those tyrannical measures with disgust,
but secretly relaxed them in favour of those merchants who plied him
with _douceurs_. In the early spring of 1807, when directed by Napoleon
to order a large numbe