Paris with 25,000 men--His animosity against the emigrants and the
Clichy Club--His choice between the two parties of the Directory--
Augereau's order of the day against the word 'Monsieur'--Bonaparte
wishes to be made one of the five Directors--He supports the
majority of the Directory--La Vallette, Augereau, and Bernadotte
sent to Paris--Interesting correspondence relative to the 18th
Fructidor.

Bonaparte had long observed the struggle which was going on between the
partisans of royalty and the Republic. He was told that royalism was
everywhere on the increase. All the generals who returned from Paris to
the army complained of the spirit of reaction they had noticed.
Bonaparte was constantly urged by his private correspondents to take one
side or the other, or to act for himself. He was irritated by the
audacity of the enemies of the Republic, and he saw plainly that the
majority of the councils had an evident ill-will towards him. The
orators of the Club of Clichy missed no opportunity of wounding his self-
love in speeches and pamphlets. They spared no insults, disparaged his
success, and bitterly censured his conduct in Italy, particularly with
respect to Venice. Thus his services were recompensed by hatred or
ingratitude. About this time he received a pamphlet, which referred to
the judgments pronounced upon him by the German journals, and more
particularly by the Spectator of the North, which he always made me
translate.

Bonaparte was touched to the quick by the comparison make between him and
Moreau, and by the wish to represent him as foolhardy ("savants sous
Moreau, fougueuse sous Buonaparte"). In the term of "brigands," applied
to the generals who fought in La Vendee, he thought he recognized the
hand of the party he was about to attack and overthrow. He was tired of