Doubtless this reserve was not in keeping with Bonaparte's own feeling at the moment; for after sharing in this commonplace conversation for a short time, he took the former bishop of Autun by the arm and led him into the embrasure of the window.
"Well ?" he asked.
Talleyrand looked at Bonaparte with that air which belonged to no one but him.
"What did I tell you of Sieyes, general ?" "You told me to secure the support of those who regarded the friends of the Republic as Jacobins, and to rely, upon it that Sieyes was at their head." "I was not mistaken." "Then he will yield ?" "Better, he has yielded." "The man who wanted to shoot me at Frejus for having landed without being quarantined!" "Oh, no; not for that." "But what then ?" "For not having looked at him or spoken to him at Gohier's dinner." "I must confess that I did it on purpose.

I cannot endure that unfrocked monk." Bonaparte perceived, too late, that the speech he had just made was like the sword of the archangel, double-edged; if Sieyes was unfrocked, Talleyrand was unmitred.

He cast a rapid glance at his companion's face; the ex-bishop of Autun was smiling his sweetest smile.
"Then I can count upon him ?" "I will answer for him." "And Cambaceres and Lebrun, have you seen them ?" "I took Sieyes in hand as the most recalcitrant.

Bruix saw the other two." The admiral, from the midst of the group, had never taken his eyes off of the general and the diplomatist.

He suspected that their conversation had a special importance.