The firm stand taken by Cardinal Consalvi compelled the six commissioners to undertake again a revision of the document in order to be able to please if possible the First Consul, and thus end the affair before the banquet of the following day. It was noon of the fourteenth before they had come to a satisfactory agreement. The new copy was then taken by Joseph Bonaparte who brought it to his brother, the First Consul.
"He returned in less than an hour revealing in his countenance the anguish of his mind. He informed us that the French Consul was seized with a fit of great fury at the news of what had happened; that in the impetuosity of his anger, he had torn into a hundred pieces the draft of the Concordat arranged by us; and that finally yielding to his prayers, his solicitation, his reflections and his reason, he had promised, although with unspeakable repugnance, to accept all the articles agreed upon but as to one, which we had left in suspense, he was as inflexible as irritated, charging me in conclusion, that he looked for that article just as it was written in the copy brought by Abbe Bernier, and that I had only one of two things to do, either to admit that article as it was and sign the Concordat, or to break definitely the whole negotiation; that he was absolutely determined to announce at the banquet of that day either the signing or the rupture of the affair."
It was two o'clock in the afternoon when Joseph Bonaparte brought this strange message. For two hours more this same messenger, aided by Cretet and Bernier, endeavored to bend the unflinching will of Consalvi, but to no purpose. He comprehended fully the great temporal evils that must follow a rupture with France, the dangers to the peace and liberty of the Pope and the welfare of the Church; but he knew at the same time that his action would be precisely in accordance with the wishes of the Holy Father, and therefore a matter of sacred duty. The discussion remained in the same condition when at four o'clock the six commissioners parted to prepare themselves for the banquet which was to begin at five. That this occasion promised to be one of violent anger on the part of Bonaparte was the thought of Consalvi as he entered the banquet hall of the Tuileries. The scene is described dramatically in his own words: