but Napoleon restored both cook and animal. 'Bring him back ,' he said,
'perhaps he will rid me of the new dog to o.'
In August the stalled peace talks moved to Passeriano near Venice.
After a tour of Lake Maggiore, Napoleon removed there on 22 August.
Josephine found an excuse to remain in Milan, where she spent nine days
in dalliance with Hippolyte Charles before he departed on leave; she then
condescended to rejoin her husband. After Fructidor Napoleon moved
quickly to settle matters both with the Austrians and the Directory. In
secret correspondence Talleyrand warned him he would have to move
fast, as Barras and Reubell opposed his ideas on the treaty and in
particular would never agree to ceding Venice. Augereau, meanwhile,
forgetting who had made him, began imagining himself the true author of
Fructidor and started criticizing his leader. Napoleon cut the Gordian
knot by sending an impassioned letter to the Directory, stressing that
there could be no peace unless his proposals about Venice were accepted;
if the Directors did not like this, they should replace him:
I beg you to replace me and accept my resignation. No power on earth
could make me continue to serve after this dreadful sign of ingratitude
from the government, which I was far from expecting. My health ...
needs rest and quiet. My soul also needs to be nourished by contact
with the great mass of ordinary citizens. For some time great power has
been entrusted to me and I have always used it for the good of the
country, whatever those who do not believe in honour and impugn
mine might say. A clear conscience and the plaudits of posterity are my
reward.This letter was written on 23 Se ptember. The Directory received it seven
days later. Barras and Reubell were placed in an impossible situation.
Their position was not yet secure enough to be able to dispense with a
'sword' and all other possible candidates had to be ruled out: Jourdan and
Moreau for suspected sympathy with the ousted faction of monarchists,
Augereau because he daily manifested himself as a vainglorious loud
mouth and Bernadotte because he seemed to be ultra-Jacobin m
sympathies. Barras and Reubell had no choice but to accede to
Napoleon's demands. The day after receiving his ultimatum, they m
effect gave him carte blanche to conclude the treaty.
It was time to deal firmly with the Austrians, already demoralized as
the implications of Fructidor sank in. The new Austrian plenipotentiary
Ludwig Cobenzl was an even more consummate artist of diplomatic
procrastination than his predecessor, frequently nitpicking over points of
protocol and seeking by every means to drag out the talks in hopes that