Bonaparte made him a sign to join them.

A less able man would have done so at once, but Bruix avoided such a mistake.
He walked about the room with affected indifference, and then, as if he had just perceived Talleyrand and Bonaparte talking together, he went up to them.
"Bruix is a very able man!" said Bonaparte, who judged men as much by little as by great things.
"And above all very cautious, general!" said Talleyrand.
"Yes.

We will need a corkscrew to pull anything out of him." "Oh, no; on the contrary, now that he has joined us, he, will broach the question frankly." And, indeed, no sooner had Bruix joined them than he began in words as clear as they were concise: "I have seen them; they waver!" "They waver! Cambaceres and Lebrun waver?
Lebrun I can understand--a sort of man of letters, a moderate, a Puritan; but Cambaceres--" "But it is so." "But didn't you tell them that I intended to make them each a consul ?" "I didn't get as far as that," replied Bruix, laughing.
"And why not ?" inquired Bonaparte.
"Because this is the first word you have told me about your intentions, Citizen General." "True," said Bonaparte, biting his lips.
"Am I to repair the omission ?" asked Bruix.
"No, no," exclaimed Bonaparte hastily; "they might think I needed them.
I won't have any quibbling.

They must decide to-day without any other conditions than those you have offered them; to-morrow it will be too late.

I feel strong enough to stand alone; and I now have Sieyes and Barras." "Barras ?" repeated the two negotiators astonished.
"Yes, Barras, who treated me like a little corporal, and wouldn't send me back to Italy, because, he said, I had made my fortune there, and it was useless to return.