Bottot, who was secretary to Barras, was astonished that I was not erased, and he made fine promises of what he would do.

On his return to France he wrote to Bonaparte: "Bourrienne is erased." But this was untrue.

I was not erased until November 1797, upon the reiterated solicitations of General Bonaparte.
It was during my absence from France that Bonaparte, in the rank of 'chef de bataillon', performed his first campaign, and contributed so materially to the recapture of Toulon.

Of this period of his life I have no personal knowledge, and therefore I shall not speak of it as an eye-witness.

I shall merely relate some facts which fill up the interval between 1793 and 1795, and which I have collected from papers which he himself delivered to me.