senseless enough to ask me to revolutionize the whole of Italy once
more, so that the Italians may expel their princes, and that liberty
may prevail throughout the entire peninsula. In order to give them
liberty, they want me to carry first war and revolution into their
midst. These big-mouthed and ignorant Parisians do not know that
Italy will not belong to us in reality until after the restoration
of peace, and that the Directory, even at the first dawn of peace,
will rule her from the mountains of Switzerland to the capes of
Calabria. Then, and only then, the Directory will be able to alter
the various governments of Italy, and for this very reason we have
to attach Austria to our cause by a treaty of peace. As soon as she
has signed it, she will no longer molest us: first, because she is
our ally; and principally because she will apprehend that we might
take back from her what we generously gave, in order to win her over
to our side. The war party at Vienna, however, will not submit
without hoping for some counter-revolution--a dream which the
emigres and the diplomacy of Pillnitz still cherishes with the
utmost tenacity. [Footnote: Bonaparte's own words. See "Memoires
d'un Homme d'Etat," vol. iv., p. 578.] And these unreasonable
gentlemen of the Directory want war and revolution, and they dare to
accuse me of selfish motives. Ah, I am yearning for repose, for
retirement--I feel exhausted and disgusted, and shall for the third
time send in my resignation, which the Directory twice refused to
accept."

He had said all this in a subdued and rapid voice, apparently only
talking to himself--the only man worthy of learning the most secret
thoughts of his soul--and still with proud disdain toward him who
could overhear every word he said. He felt as though he were alone,
and he only spoke and consulted with himself, notwithstanding the