I count on being back at Paris in the course of the decade." "To-morrow I shall review the troops from Egypt.

On the 6th [of Pluviose] all the business of the Consulta will be finished, and I shall probably set out on my journey on the 7th." The next day, 5th Pluviose, sees the accomplishment of his desires: "To-day I have reviewed the troops on the Place Bellecour; the sun shone as it does in Floreal.

The Consulta has named a committee of thirty individuals, which has reported to it that, considering the domestic and foreign affairs of the Cisalpine, it was indispensable to let me discharge the first magistracy, until circumstances permit and I judge it suitable to appoint a successor." These extracts prove that the acts of the Consulta could be planned beforehand no less precisely than the movements of the soldiery, and that even so complex a matter as the voting of a constitution and the choice of its chief had to fall in with the arrangements of this methodizing genius.

Certainly civilization had progressed since the weary years when the French people groped through mists and waded in blood in order to gain a perfect polity: that precious boon was now conferred on a neighbouring people in so sure a way that the plans of their benefactor could be infallibly fixed and his return to Paris calculated to the hour.
The final address uttered by Bonaparte to the Italian notables is remarkable for the short, sharp sentences, which recall the tones of the parade ground.

Passing recent events in rapid review, he said, speaking in his mother tongue: "...Every effort had been made to dismember you: the protection of France won the day: you have been recognized at Luneville.
One-fifth larger than before, you are now more powerful, more consolidated, and have wider hopes.