we shall see what will happen.
Bernadotte is a singular man. When he was War Minister Augereau,
Salicetti, and some others informed him that the Constitution was in
danger, and that it was necessary to get rid of Sieyes, Barras, and
Fouche, who were at the head of a plot. What did Bernadotte do?
Nothing. He asked for proofs. None could be produced. He asked for
powers. Who could grant them? Nobody. He should have taken them; but
he would not venture on that. He wavered. He said he could not enter
into the schemes which were proposed to him. He only promised to be
silent on condition that they were renounced. Bernadotte is not a help;
he is an obstacle, I have heard from good authority that a great number
of influential persons wished to invest him with extensive power for the
public good; but he was obstinate, and would listen to nothing."

After a brief interval of silence, during which Bonaparte rubbed his
forehead with his right hand, he then resumed:

"I believe I shall have Bernadotte and Moreau against me. But I do not
fear Moreau. He is devoid of energy. I know he would prefer military to
political power. The promise of the command of an army would gain him
over. But Bernadotte has Moorish blood in his veins. He is bold and
enterprising. He is allied to my brothers.

--[Joseph Bonaparte and Bernadotte had married sisters. Mario-Julie
and Eugenie Bernardine-Desiree Clary. The feeling of Bourrienne for
Bernadotte makes this passage doubtful. It is to be noticed that in
the same conversation he makes Napoleon describe Bernadotte as not
venturing to act without powers and as enterprising. The stern
republican becoming Prince de Monte Carlo and King of Sweden, in a
way compatible with his fidelity to the Constitution of the year
III., is good. Lanfrey attributes Bernadotte's refusal to join more
to rivalry than to principle (Lanfrey, tome i. p. 440). But in any
case Napoleon did not dread Bernadotte, and was soon threatening to
shoot him; see Lucien, tome ii. p. 107.]--

"He does not like me, and I am almost certain that he will oppose me. If
he should become ambitious he will venture anything. And yet, you
recollect in what a lukewarm way he acted on the 18th Fructidor, when I
sent him to second Augereau. This devil of a fellow is not to be
seduced. He is disinterested and clever. But; after all, we have but
just arrived, and know not what may happen."

Bernadotte, it was reporte