At the door he met Roland.
"Here is the commission, general," said the young man, "and a pen." Bonaparte took the pen, and using the back of his aide-de-camp's hat, he signed the commission.

Roland gave him the pistols.
"Did you look; to them ?" asked Bonaparte.
Roland smiled.

"Don't be uneasy," said he; "I'll answer for them." Bonaparte slipped the pistols in his belt, murmuring as he did so: "I wish I knew what she wrote her husband." "I can tell you, word for word, what she wrote, general," said a voice close by.
"You, Bourrienne ?" "Yes.

She wrote: 'You did right not to come, my dear; all that is happening here convinces me that the invitation was only a snare.

I will rejoin you shortly.'" "You unsealed the letter ?" "General, Sextus Pompey gave a dinner on his galley to Antony and Lepidus.