 Though the expedition ended in failure the members of the Uitvoerend Bewind became very nervous in the days before the Battle of Bergen . The Agent for Foreign Affairs , Van der Goes who had been in favor of distancing the Republic from the French , chose this inopportune moment to secretly approach the King of Prussia as a mediator , with a scheme in which the Hereditary Prince was to become a kind of constitutional monarch in a constitution on the model of the American Constitution . The Republic would revert to its traditional neutrality , while Britain would occupy North Holland , and France Zeeland . The overture was rejected , and it caused a lot of embarrassment in the relations with the French Directoire . At this time Napoleon Bonaparte performed his coup of 18 Brumaire , establishing the French Consulate . The Franco @-@ Batavian relations now entered a whole new era . 
