Josephine warmly espoused his interests:  but Buonaparte was with difficulty persuaded to give his consent to the match.  “Murat is the son of an innkeeper,” said he,—­“in the station to which events have elevated me, I must not mix my blood with his.”  These objections, however, were overcome by the address of Josephine, who considered Napoleon’s own brothers as her enemies, and was anxious, not without reason, to have some additional support in the family.  Her influence, from this time, appears to have remained unshaken; though her extravagance and incurable habit of contracting debts gave rise to many unpleasing scenes between her and the most methodical of mankind.

[Footnote 32:  The morning after the constitution was announced, the streets of Paris were placarded with the following pasquil:—­

------------------------------------------------
|        POLITICAL SUBTRACTION.                |
|                From 5 Directors              |
|                Take 2                        |
|                    ---                       |
|        There remain 3 Consuls                |
|      From them take 2                        |
|                    ---                       |
|   And there remains 1 BUONAPARTE.            |
------------------------------------------------

This sufficiently expresses what was considered to be the essence of the new constitution.]

CHAPTER XV

     The Chief Consul writes to the King of England—­Lord Grenville’s
     Answer—­Napoleon passes the Great St. Bernard—­The taking of St.
     Bard—­The Siege of Genoa—­The Battle of Montebello—­The Battle of
     Marengo—­Napoleon returns to Paris—­The Infernal Machine—­The
     Battle of Hohenlinden—­The Treaty of Luneville.

Much had been already done towards the internal tranquillisation of France:  but it was obvious that the result could not be perfect until the war, which had so long raged on two frontiers of the country, should have found a termination.  The fortune of the last two years had been far different from that of the glorious campaigns which ended in the treaty—­or armistice, as it might more truly be named—­of Campo-Formio.  The Austrians had recovered the north of Italy, and already menaced the Savoy frontier, designing to march into Provence, and there support a new insurrection of the royalists.  The force opposed to them in that quarter was much inferior in numbers, and composed of the relics of armies beaten over and over again by Suwarrow.  The Austrians and French were more nearly balanced on the Rhine frontier; but even there, there was ample room for anxiety.  On the whole, the grand attitude in which Buonaparte had left the Republic when he embarked for Egypt, was exchanged for one of a far humbler description; and, in fact, as has been intimated, the general disheartening of the nation, by reason of those reverses, had been of signal service to Napoleon’s ambition.  If a strong hand was wanted at home, the necessity of having a general who could bring back victory to the tricolor banners in the field had been not less deeply felt.  And hence the decisive revolution of Brumaire.