“And I listen,” said Bonaparte, visibly on thorns.
“My ministry dates from the 30th Prairial, the 8th of June if you prefer; we will not quarrel over words.”
“Which means that we shall quarrel about things.”
Bernadotte continued without replying.
“I became minister, as I said, the 8th of June; that is, a short time after the siege of Saint-Jean-d’Acre was raised.”
Bonaparte bit his lips. “I did not raise the siege until after I had ruined the fortifications,” he replied.
“That is not what Kléber wrote; but that does not concern me.” Then he added, smiling: “It happened while Clark was minister.”
There was a moment’s silence, during which Bonaparte endeavored to make Bernadotte lower his eyes. Not succeeding, he said: “Go on.”
Bernadotte bowed and continued: “Perhaps no minister of war—and the archives of the ministry are there for reference—ever received the portfolio under more critical circumstances: civil war within, a foreign enemy at our doors, discouragement rife among our veteran armies, absolute destitution of means to equip new ones. That was what I had to face on the 8th of June, when I entered upon my duties. An active correspondence, dating from the 8th of June, between the civil and military authorities, revived their courage and their hopes. My addresses to the armies—this may have been a mistake—were those, not of a minister to his soldiers, but of a comrade among comrades, just as my addresses to the administrators were those of a citizen to his fellow-citizens. I appealed to the courage of the army, and the heart of the French people; I obtained all that I had asked. The National Guard reorganized with renewed zeal; legions were formed upon the Rhine, on the Moselle. Battalions of veterans took the place of old regiments to reinforce the troops that were guarding our frontiers; to-day our cavalry is recruited by a remount of forty thousand horses, and one hundred thousand conscripts, armed and equipped, have received with cries of ‘Vive la Republique!’ the flags under which they will fight and conquer—”
“But,” interrupted Bonaparte bitterly, “this is an apology you are making for yourself.”