“And above all very cautious, general!” said Talleyrand.
“Yes. We will need a corkscrew to pull anything out of him.”
“Oh, no; on the contrary, now that he has joined us, he, will broach the question frankly.”
And, indeed, no sooner had Bruix joined them than he began in words as clear as they were concise: “I have seen them; they waver!”
“They waver! Cambacérès and Lebrun waver? Lebrun I can understand—a sort of man of letters, a moderate, a Puritan; but Cambacérès—”
“But it is so.”
“But didn’t you tell them that I intended to make them each a consul?”
“I didn’t get as far as that,” replied Bruix, laughing.
“And why not?” inquired Bonaparte.
“Because this is the first word you have told me about your intentions, Citizen General.”