[536] "The famous Necker solicited the honour of being presented to the first consul. In all he said he suffered it to appear, that he wished and hoped to have the management of the finances. The first consul was but indifferently pleased with him."—Napoleon, Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 264. "During this conversation, the first consul made a rather agreeable impression on my father, by the confidential way in which he spoke to him of his future plans."—Mad. De Staël, tom. ii., p. 281.
[537] Thibaudeau, tom. vi., p. 260; Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 176.
[538] Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 177.
[539] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 260.
[540] Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 184; Thibaudeau, tom. vi., p. 264; Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 267; Dumas, tom. ii.
[541] Apparently the guide who conducted him from the Grand Chartreux found the Chief Consul in better humour, for Buonaparte says, he conversed freely with him, and expressed some wishes with respect to a little farm, &c. which he was able to gratify. [Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 268.] To his guide from Martigny to St. Pierre, he was also liberal; but the only specimen of his conversation which the latter remembered, was, when shaking the rain water from his hat, he exclaimed, "There! see what I have done in your mountains—spoiled my new hat. Pshaw, I will find another on the other side." For these and other interesting anecdotes, see Mr. Tennant's "Tour through the Netherlands, Holland, Germany, Switzerland," &c.—S.
[542] Joseph Petit, Fourrier des grenadiers de la garde, author of "Marengo, ou Campagne d'Italie," 8vo, an. ix.—S.
[543] "Never did greater regularity preside at a distribution. Each one appreciated the foresight of which he had been the object. Not a soldier left the ranks; not a straggler was to be seen. The first consul expressed his gratitude to the Community, and ordered 100,000 francs to be delivered to the monastery, in remembrance of the service it had rendered him."—Memoirs of Savary, vol. i., p. 165.
[544] "The infantry and cavalry passed one by one, up the path of the mountain, which the first consul had climbed, and where no horse had ever stepped; it was a way known to none but goatherds."—Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 271.
[545] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 271; Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 185.