Reubell who asserted: "We do not want Court people, but men who are devoted

to the Republic.'2 2 There were, however, some local compensations. Berthier

was able to see much of Madame Visconti during a tour in the middle of
September The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, by de Bourrienne, II, p.
34. essential — would seem like disloyalty toBonaparte. Accordingly on
The Threshold of Fame (1 798-1 799)
But whereas the Holy See was anti-French in outlook, the populace — contrasting
their poverty with the Church's riches — were largely anticlerical, and their
sentiments were no doubt encouraged by French political agents. The climax
came
The Army of Italy was now largely an Army of Occupation, and its tasks were
primarily administrative and political. Berthier's directive4 had enjoined him to
support the nascent Cisalpine Republic and to encourage the formation of a
Republic of Ancona and a Ligurian Republic based on Genoa. These tasks he
found far from congenial. Unlike Bernadotte he was not inclined to politics, nor
had he any ambition to become a ruler himself.
He regarded all politicians as suspect, and Italian politicians as criminal: so it
was with heart-felt sincerity that he wrote to Bonaparte on 24th December: 'I
would prefer to be your aide-de-camp to being Commander-in-Chief here.'