508 De Bourrienne’s Memoirs. [May, 
arriving at the spot where many of the slain where buried, demanded to be 
shewn the place where the battle of Morathad been fought. A plain opposite 
the chapel was pointed out to him. An officer who had served in France 
took pains to explain to him how the Swiss, rushing down from the neighbour- 
ing hills, and protected by a thick wood, had succeeded in putting the army 
of Burgundy completely to the rout. ‘Of what strength was the army com- 
posed?’ asked Bonaparte. ‘Of sixty thousand men.’ ‘ Sixty thousand men !’ 
cried he, ‘ that force was sufficient to cover the whole of the mountains.’ 
‘ Frenchmen now-a-days fight better, said Lannes, who was one of the 
officers of his suite. ‘ In those days,’ interrupted Bonaparte, sharply, ‘ the 
men of Burgundy were not French.’ ” 
“¢ Bonaparte lodged in a small house, No. 6, Rue de Chantereine, which, in 
virtue of a departmental decree soon afterwards received the name of Rue de la 
Victoire. The cries of ‘ Vive Bonaparte,’ and the incense of flattery heaped 
upon him effected no change in his position. Erst while conqueror and ruler 
of Italy, now the subject of a party for whom he could feel no respect, and 
who in turn looked upon him as a formidable rival, he one day observed to me, 
‘the air of Paris is not favourable to the recollections of greatness. If I res 
main much longer inactive, I am undone. In this second Babylon one repu- 
tation succeeds another. Were I to go three times to the theatre, I should 
no longer be even looked at: for that reason I go as seldom as possible.’ 
When he did go thither, he invariably sat in a latticed box. On one occasion 
he commissioned me to request of the Director the representation of two pieces 
then much in vogue, and in which figured the most celebrated performers of 
the day. He however demanded the representation merely in the event of its 
being possible. The director returned me for answer, that ‘ nothing was impos- 
sible when desired by the conqueror of Italy, who had long since erased the 
word from the French dictionary.’ Bonaparte could not avoid laughing 
heartily at this extravagant compliment. The administration of the opera 
wished to gratify him with a representation arranged expressly for the occa- 
sion. This however he refused. When I observed to him that he could not 
but feel flattered at the sight of his fellow citizens, who pressed together in 
crowds to obtain a glimpse of his person. ‘ Bah!’ said he, ‘ the same people 
would throng as eagerly to witness my execution, were I this moment dragged 
to the scaffold.’ ” 
“ Bonaparte departed for the north on the 10th of February, 1798, but 
received no order to repair thither, as has been commonly asserted, to prepare 
operations that had for their object a descent upon England. His voyage to the 
coast was merely a rapid excursion, and was intended to throw a feeble light 
‘ upon the ground-work of the question. His absence lasted only eight days, 
and not several weeks, as has been currently reported. We were four in num- 
ber, and travelled in his carriage, himself, Lannes, Sulkowsky, and I. Bona- 
parte was nota little surprised on reading in the Moniteur of the 10th Febru- 
ary, an article that attached to his short excursion a degree of importance 
which, in reality, it by no means merited. My readers have on this point learned 
the exact truth. Bonaparte visited Etaples, Ambleteuse, Boulogne, Calais, 
Dunkerque, Furnes, Newport, Ostend, and the Isle of Walcheren. In these 
different ports he obtained the various information requisite, and displayed 
the patience, the presence of mind, the tact, and the perspicacity that he pos 
sessed in an eminent degree. 
“ We returned to Paris by way of Anvers, Brussels, Lille, and St. Quentin. 
« T am at a loss to know where Sir W. Scott obtained his information that 
the preliminaries of invasion were proceeding with vigour, and that immense 
preparations were being made: when, in fact, everything was confined to 
some common-place official correspondence, and some still less important 
conversations. Whatever may have been asserted on this subject, never were 
any serious preparations for the invasion made by either Bonaparte or the 
