‘Good. Then while our diplomats do their work abroad, we shall provide proof of our desire for peace here in France.We will make a new nation. We will consolidate the gains of the revolution so that our enemies see the futility of their desire to restore the Bourbons and all that they stand for. And we must convince our people that they have a stake in the future of France. All our people.’

‘What do you mean by all?’ asked Lucien.

‘I mean that we cannot succeed unless we resolve those issues that divide the French people.’

Lucien stirred uncomfortably. ‘There are good reasons why the people are divided, brother. Class, religion and politics are the very stuff of society. And there are those who are for the revolution and those who are against. It is our duty to see that the latter are suppressed and eventually eradicated.’

Napoleon sighed. ‘Can’t you see? That will never happen. As long as we drive people into the ranks of those who oppose us, France will never be at peace with itself. The process of revolution will never end. We will always see enemies about us, and be locked into one bloody purge after another.’

‘Then what are you saying?’ Lucien asked suspiciously.

Napoleon stared at him for a moment before replying. ‘Perhaps it is time that the revolution came to an end. Perhaps it is time that we embraced those who opposed the revolution.’

‘We once called them enemies of the people.’

‘But they are the people,’ Napoleon countered earnestly.‘They always were, even when the Committee of Public Safety was drawing a line between those who supported the revolution and those who opposed it. That was the Committee’s mistake. There was hardly a peasant in the land who was not a revolutionary, until the Committee turned their sights on the church. The moment they began to attack the priests, they drove a wedge between their own supporters. It is the same with the nobility. Many of them were radicals, yet because of their birth they were branded enemies of the people.’ Napoleon uttered the last phrase with contempt. ‘It was the same in Corsica, Lucien. You remember how our people embraced the revolution? You recall those times at the Jacobin club in Ajaccio?’

‘I remember.’

Napoleon smiled. ‘Every one of us was a fervent radical . . . until the French government decided to suppress our Corsican identity. They lost Corsica because they did not embrace us as Corsicans. Such a little thing, and yet, people being people, there was a conflict where there never should have been one.That was the great mistake. That is what we must resolve.’

Lucien shrugged.‘How? There has been too much blood shed for people to even imagine resolving their differences.’