“Hush, general! listen to my whole reply to your reproaches,” said Josephine, with imperious calmness. “At some other time these hirelings of the press announced in a letter from Turin that an extensive conspiracy was about to break out at Paris; that the Directory was to be overthrown by this conspiracy, and that a dictatorship, at the head of which Bonaparte would be, was to take place. They further circulated the news all over the departments, that the ringleaders of the plot had been arrested and sent to the military commissions for trial; but that the conqueror of Italy had deemed it prudent to avoid arrest by running away.” [Footnote: Le Normand, Memoires, vol. i., p. 267.]
“That is a truly infernal web of lies and infamies!” ejaculated Bonaparte, furiously. “But I shall justify myself, I will go to Paris and hurl the calumnies of these miserable Directors back into their teeth!”
“General, there is no necessity for you to descend into the arena in order to defend yourself,” said Josephine, smiling. “Your actions speak for you, and your friends are watching over you. Whenever such an article appeared in the newspapers. Botot forwarded it to me; whenever the Directory sprang a new mine, Botot sent me word of it. And then I enlisted the assistance of my friend Charles, and he had to refute those articles through a journalist who was in my pay, and to foil the mine by means of a counter-mine.”
“Oh, Josephine, how can I thank you for what you have done for me!” exclaimed Bonaparte, enthusiastically. “How—”
“I am not through yet, general,” she interrupted him, coldly. “Those refutations and the true accounts of your glorious deeds found an enthusiastic echo throughout the whole of France, and every one was anxious to see you in the full splendor of your glory, and to do homage to you at Paris. But the jealous Directory calculated in advance how dangerous the splendor of your glory would be to the statesmen of the Republic, and how greatly your return would eclipse the five kings. For that reason they resolved to keep you away from Paris; for that reason exclusively they appointed you first plenipotentiary at the congress about to be opened at Rastadt, and intrusted the task to you to exert yourself here for the conclusion of peace. They wanted to chain the lion and make him feel that he has got a master whom he must obey.”
“But the lion will break the chain, and he will not obey,” exclaimed Bonaparte, angrily. “I shall leave Rastadt on this very day and hasten to Paris.”
“Wait a few days, general,” said Josephine, smiling. “It will be unnecessary for you to take violent steps, my friends Botot and Charles having worked with me for you. Botot alone not being sufficiently powerful, inasmuch as he could influence none but Barras, I sent Charles to his assistance in order to act upon Madame Tallien. And the stratagem was successful. Take this letter which I received only yesterday through a special messenger from Botot—you know Botot’s handwriting, I suppose?”
“Yes, I know it.”
“Well, then, satisfy yourself that he has really written it,” said Josephine, drawing a sheet of paper from her memorandum-book and handing it to Bonaparte.
He glanced at it without touching the paper. “Yes, it is Botot’s handwriting,” he murmured.