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to return to Paris. His obsequious colleague hastened to intimate this by letter; and although the communication was not official, the First Consul's lightest intimations by this time carried so much weight, that Madame de Staël was compelled to obey. She did so very reluctantly; and, perhaps, if her father's prudence had not been greater than her own, her longing to be back in the capital would have overpowered every other consideration. As it was, she made the best that she could of a year's uninterrupted sojourn at Coppet. The Tribunat meanwhile had shown itself again rebellious. Bonaparte, irritated, declared that he would shake twelve or fifteen of its members "from his clothes like vermin," and Constant had no choice but to rejoin his friend in Switzerland.

 

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