CHAPTER IX.
Pichegru--The Directory appeal to Buonaparte--The 18th Fructidor--The Court of Montebello--Josephine--The Treaty of Campo-Formio--Buonaparte leaves Italy.
In their last agony the Venetian Senate made a vain effort to secure the personal protection of the general, by offering him a purse of seven millions of francs.

He rejected this with scorn.

He had already treated in the same style a bribe of four millions, tendered on the part of the Duke of Modena.

The friend employed to conduct the business reminded him of the proverbial ingratitude of all popular governments, and of the little attention which the Directory had hitherto paid to his personal interests.

"That is all true enough," said Napoleon, "but for four millions I will not place myself in the power of this duke." Austria herself, it is said, did not hesitate to tamper in the same manner, though far more magnificently, as became her resources, with his republican virtue.