The Directory had sent General Clarke

--[H. J. G. Clarke, afterwards Minister of War under Napoleon,
1807-1814, acid under the Bourbons in 1816, when he was made a
Marshal of France. He was created Due de Feltre in 1819.]--

to treat for peace, as second plenipotentiary. Bonaparte has often told
me he had no doubt from the time of his arrival that General Clarke was
charged with a secret mission to act as a spy upon him, and even to
arrest him if an opportunity offered for so doing without danger. That
he had a suspicion of this kind is certain; but I must own that I was
never by any means able to discover its grounds; for in all my
intercourse since with Clarke he never put a single question to me, nor
did I ever hear a word drop from his mouth, which savoured of such a
character. If the fact be that he was a spy, he certainly played his
part well. In all the parts of his correspondence which were intercepted
there never was found the least confirmation of this suspicion. Be this
as it may, Bonaparte could not endure him; he did not make him acquainted
with what was going on, and his influence rendered this mission a mere
nullity. The General-in-Chief concentrated all the business of the
negotiation in his own closet; and, as to what was going on, Clarke
continued a mere cipher until the 18th Fructidor, when he was recalled.
Bonaparte made but little count of Clarke's talents. It is but justice,
however, to say that he bore him no grudge for the conduct of which he
suspected he was guilty in Italy. "I pardon him because I alone have the
right to be offended."

He even had the generosity to make interest for an official situation for
him. These amiable traits were not uncommon with Bonaparte.