a respectable man, but a simpleton. He does not
understand me!--I ought, perhaps, to have him transported. He wrote
against me to the Council of the Ancients; but I have his letter, and
they know nothing about it. Poor man! he expected me to dinner
yesterday. And this man thinks himself a statesman!--Speak no more of
him."

During our discourse the name of Bernadotte was also mentioned.
"Have you seen him, Bourrienne?" said Bonaparte to me.--"No,
General"--"Neither have I. I have not heard him spoken of. Would you
imagine it? I had intelligence to-day of many intrigues in which he is
concerned. Would you believe it? he wished nothing less than to be
appointed my colleague in authority. He talked of mounting his horse
and marching with the troops that might be placed under his command. He
wished, he said, to maintain the Constitution: nay, more; I am assured
that he had the audacity to add that, if it were necessary to outlaw me,
the Government might come to him and he would find soldiers capable of
carrying the decree into execution."--"All this, General, should give
you an idea how inflexible his principles are."--"Yes, I am well aware
of it; there is something in that: he is honest. But for his obstinacy,
my brothers would have brought him over. They are related to him. His
wife, who is Joseph's sister-in-law, has ascendency over him. As for
me, have I not, I ask you, made sufficient advances to him? You have
witnessed them. Moreau, who has a higher military reputation than he,
came over to me at once. However, I repent of having cajoled
Bernadotte. I am thinking of separating him from all his coteries
without any one being able to find fault with the proceeding. I cannot
revenge myself in any other manner. Joseph likes him. I should have
everybody against me. These family considerations are follies!
Goodnight, Bourrienne.--By the way, we will sleep in the Luxembourg
to-morrow."

I then left the General, whom, henceforth, I will call the First Consul,
after having remained with him constantly during nearly twenty-four
hours, with the exception of the time when he was at the Council of the
Five Hundred. I retired to my lodging, in the Rue Martel, at five
o'clock in the morning.

It is certain that if Gohier had come to breakfast on the morning of the
18th Brumaire, according to Madame Bonaparte's invitation, he would have
been one of the members of the Government. But Gohier acted the part of
the stern republican.