the patience and tenacity of the Cardinal; and finally, by the good
offices of Joseph Bonaparte, the objectionable demands thrust forward
at the eleventh hour were removed or altered.

The question has been discussed whether the First Consul was a party
to this device. Theiner asserts that he knew nothing of it: that it
was an official intrigue got up at the last moment by the
anti-clericals so as to precipitate a rupture. In support of this
view, he cites letters of Maret and Hauterive as inculpating these men
and tending to free Bonaparte from suspicion of complicity. But the
letters cannot be said to dissipate all suspicion. The First Consul
had made this negotiation peculiarly his own: no officials assuredly
would have dared secretly to foist their own version of an important
treaty; or, if they did, this act would have been the last of their
career. But Bonaparte did not disgrace them; on the contrary, he
continued to honour them with his confidence. Moreover, the First
Consul flew into a passion with his brother Joseph when he reported
that Consalvi could not sign the document now offered to him, and tore
in pieces the articles finally arranged with the Cardinal. On the
return of his usually calm intelligence, he at last allowed the
concessions to stand, with the exception of two; but in a scrutiny of
motives we must assign most importance, not to second and more prudent
thoughts, but to the first ebullition of feelings, which seem
unmistakably to prove his knowledge and approval of Hauterive's
device. We must therefore conclude that he allowed the antagonists of
the Concordat to make this treacherous onset, with the intention of
extorting every possible demand from the dazed and bewildered
Cardinal.[158]