It states that the whole of the neighbouring inhabitants had fled before the French soldiers, in the belief that they were destroyers of religion and eaters of babies: this was inconvenient, as it prevented the supply of provisions and the success of forced loans.
The letter suggests that he was a man of action rather than of ideas, and probably it was this practical quality which bound Buonaparte in friendship to him.

Yet it is difficult to fathom Buonaparte's ideas about the revolutionary despotism which was then deluging Paris with blood.

Outwardly he appeared to sympathize with it.

Such at least is the testimony of Marie Robespierre, with whom Buonaparte's sisters were then intimate.

"Buonaparte," she said, "was a republican: I will even say that he took the side of the Mountain: at least, that was the impression left on my mind by his opinions when I was at Nice....