although it would have been but a just revenge so to do. Which has chosen the truer part? Go, seek in peace an asylum where thou canst return to better thoughts of thy country. My lips shall never utter thy name. Repent, and above all, appreciate my motives. This I deserve, for they are noble and generous." In these words to the political refugee he employs the familiar republican "thou"; in the peroration, addressed, like the introduction, to the lady herself, he recurs to the polite and distant "you." "Mme. Permon, my good wishes go with you as with your child. You are two feeble creatures with no defense. May Providence and the prayers of a friend be with you. Above all, be prudent and never remain in the large cities. Adieu. Accept my friendly greetings."[49] [Footnote 49: Correspondance, I, No. 40.] The meaning of this missive is recondite; perhaps it is this: Mme. Permon, I loved you, and could have ruined the rival who is your protégé with a clear conscience, for he once did me foul wrong, as he will acknowledge. But farewell. I bear you no grudge. Or else it may announce another change in the political weather by the veering of the cock. As a good citizen, despising the horrors of the past, I could have denounced you, Salicetti. I did not, for I recalled old times and your helplessness, and wished to heap coals of fire on your head, that you might see the error of your way. The latter interpretation finds support in the complete renunciation of Jacobinism which the writer made soon afterward, and in his subsequent labored explanation that in the "Supper of Beaucaire" he had not identified himself with the Jacobin soldier (so far an exact statement of fact), but had wished only by a dispassionate presentation of facts to show the hopeless case of Marseilles, and to prevent useless bloodshed. CHAPTER XXII. Bonaparte the General of the Convention[50]. [Footnote 50: For this chapter the Mémoires du roi Joseph, I, and Böhtlingk: Napoleon Bonaparte, etc., I, are valuable references, in addition to those already given. The memoirs of Barras are particularly misleading except for comparison. For social conditions, cf. Goncourt, Histoire de la Société Française sous le Directoire, and in particular Adolph Schmidt: Tableaux de la Révolution Française; Pariser Zustände während der Revolutionszeit.] Disappointments -- Another Furlough -- Connection with Barras -- Official Society in Paris -- Buonaparte as a Beau -- Condition of His Family -- A Political General -- An Opening in Turkey -- Opportunities in Europe -- Social Advancement -- Official Degradation -- Schemes for Restoration -- Plans of the Royalists -- The Hostility of Paris to the Convention -- Buonaparte, General of the Convention Troops -- His Strategy. [Sidenote: 1795.]