Rehabilitation: Political, Literary, and Social, 1795–1815

Rousselin managed to return to public service, but he continued to face recriminations for his participation in revolutionary violence. He became a confidential secretary for General Lazare Hoche, then Paul Barras, and finally Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte when he became minister of war. Forced out by Napoleon’s rise to power, Rousselin devoted himself to writing biographies of Republican generals and to finding new friends Benjamin Constant and Germaine de Staël. He also had a relationship with Josephine Beauharnais, which angered Napoleon, who tried to send him to Egypt as a diplomat. He went into hiding, had a child, and got married to a cousin of Barras, all while serving as a police spy. In 1813 he was adopted by his mother’s second husband and when he died, became comte de Saint-Albin. Surprisingly, he rallied to Bonaparte during the Hundred Days serving as secretary-general under Lazare Carnot at the Interior Ministry.