army of the Rhine, and commanded him to march the other half back to France. Paul Barras, one of five directors, was cautious that Napoleon would overturn the Republic, so he appointed Bernadotte commander-in-chief of the Italian Army in order to offset Napoleon's power. Bernadotte was pleased with this appointment but Napoleon lobbied Talleyrand-Périgord, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to appoint him to the embassy of Vienna instead. Bernadotte was very dissatisfied; he finally accepted the post in Vienna, but had to quit owing to the disturbances caused by his hoisting the tricolour over the embassy. After returning from Vienna, he resided in Paris. He married Désirée Clary in August 1798, the daughter of a Marseilles merchant, and once engaged to Napoleon, and Joseph Bonaparte's sister-in-law. In November of the same year he was made commander of the army of observation on the upper Rhine. Although solicited to do so by Barras and Joseph Bonaparte, he did not take part in the coup d'état of the 30th Prairial. From 2 July to 14 September he was Minister of War, in which capacity he displayed great ability. His popularity and contacts with radical Jacobins aroused antipathy of him in the government. On the morning of 13 September he found his resignation announced in the Moniteur before he was aware that he had tendered it. This was a trick; played upon him by Sieyès and Roger Ducos, the directors allied to Napoleon. Though Bernadotte declined to help Napoleon Bonaparte stage his coup d'état of November 1799, Napoleon was resolved to win over the "Obstacle Man" and showered him with honors. Napoleon acknowledged Bernadotte's administrative ability and influence by naming him a Councillor of State in February 1800. In April 1800, despite his Republican sympathies, Bernadotte was offered, and freely accepted, from April 1800 to 18 August 1801, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the West in the rebellious Vendée where he successfully restored its tranquility. This was seen as an appointment of trust as while Napoleon embarked on his summer Italian Campaign, where he ultimately prevailed at the Battle of Marengo, he left Bernadotte not far from Paris with an army. In his farewell note to Bernadotte on his way to Italy, Napoleon wrote: "I am going to fling myself once more into the hazards of war. We do not know how it may turn out. If I fall, you