That was his own mental attitude towards the fickle goddess.

After entering Milan he cynically remarked to Marmont: "Fortune is a woman; and the more she does for me, the more I will require of her." Suggestive words, which explain at once the splendour of his rise and the rapidity of his fall.
During the few weeks of comparative inaction which ensued, the affairs of Italy claimed his attention.

The prospect of an Austrian re-conquest had caused no less concern to the friends of liberty in the peninsula than joy to the reactionary coteries of the old sovereigns.

At Rome and Naples threats against the French were whispered or openly vaunted.

The signature of the treaties of peace was delayed, and the fulminations of the Vatican were prepared against the sacrilegious spoilers.