A relieved and cheering crowd greeted Napoleon when he returned to Paris on October 16. The next day he was on his way to meet with the five members of the Directory, but stopped on the way to surprise Kosciuszko in his Left Bank apartment on the Rue de Lille. Napoleon warmly greeted the Pole as if he were a brother-in-arms, saying, “I urgently wanted to meet the hero of the north.” Kosciuszko, who expected Napoleon to be an ally, replied, “And I am happy to see the conquerer of Europe, and the hero of the East.”38 The meeting continued with all the niceties of diplomacy, but the Polish
...more
