38 A COMPARISON. chap, he coolly said that he would separate himself from ' the Emperor's views as little as possible, and be- sides, wrote almost as one who belonged to a con- stitutional State, saying that he hoped to justify the confidence reposed in him by — not the Em- peror but — the Minister to whom he was writ- ing.* Towards the end of one letter he wrote : — ' I feel my shoulders strong enough for the bur- ' then with which I am laden, but I shall carry ' it all the better if feeling that I have a certain ' freedom of action.' By the stroke of Fate thus oddly busied with its last impish freak of inversion, a metamor- Aiiusion phosed ' Napoleon ' was all at once left in the Directory plight of that unhonoured Directory of 1796 and and the great the following year, which thought it could dictate Buonapa e. .^ ^^ Qr dictate at t ] ie least in State policy to the great Buonaparte, and was answered from over the Alps with resistance, with scorn, and with victory. ( 2 )
- liousset, voi ii. p. 218-
