journey to the Gulf of Genoa, which he performed in obedience to secret
orders from Paris; and, so soon as his absence from headquarters was
thus explained, he regained his freedom. The officer, who came to
release him, was surprised to find him busy in his dungeon over the map
of Lombardy. The "Representatives," however, had certainly taken up a
general prejudice against him; for he did not reassume his functions at
Nice; and seems to have spent some time in obscurity with his own
family, who were then in very distressed circumstances, at Marseilles.
It was here that he fell in love with Mademoiselle Clery, whom, but for
some accident, it appears he would have married. Her sister was shortly
afterwards united to his brother Joseph, and she herself became in the
sequel the wife of Bernadotte, now King of Sweden. It is supposed that
Buonaparte found himself too poor to marry at this time; and
circumstances interfered to prevent any renewal of his proposals.

Before the end of the year he came to Paris to solicit employment; but
at first he met with nothing but repulses. The President of the Military
Committee, Aubry, objected to his youth. "Presence in the field of
battle," said Buonaparte, "might be reckoned in place of years." The
President, who had not seen much actual service, thought he was
insulted, and treated Napoleon very coldly. After a little while,
however, he was asked to go to _La Vendée_, as commandant of a brigade
of infantry. This he declined, alleging, that nothing could reconcile
him to leave the artillery, but really, if we are to follow De
Bourienne, considering the Vendean warfare as unworthy of him. His
refusal was followed by the erasure of his name from the list of general
officers _in employment_; and for a time his fortunes seemed to be in a
desperate condition. He thought of settling in some way in Paris; and
said to Bourienne, that, if he could afford to have a small house in the
street where his school-fellow lived, and to keep a cabriolet, he would