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our frontiers. I left millions, the spoils of Italy; I find CHAP. nothing but misery and spoliation. What has become of the 100,000 companions of my glory? They are dead.” Whilst Bonaparte made sure of the troops and their commanders, Fouché and Talleyrand were equally adroit in winning or in silencing the municipal bodies, and keeping the capital calm. The Cinq Cents met for a moment, to be told of the transfer of its sitting to St. Cloud, where it was to assemble on the following day. Bonaparte had appointed Moreau to the command of the Luxemburg, the residence of the Directory. Strange that, with his opinions, he should have accepted the duty! Siéyes and Ducos had resigned. Barras, who had tried to bend Bonaparte, remained in the Luxemburg. Talleyrand undertook to alarm and persuade him. They offered him any amount of money, and no pleasing alternative if he refused. The Cerberus swallowed the sop, and went off escorted by dragoons to his country house at Grosbois. Gohier and Moulins were, on the contrary, obstinate. They counted on Bernadotte, and came to brave Bonaparte. Gohier was enabled to do this by his familiarity with the general and his family. They were indeed to have dined with Gohier on that day. The general tried to pacify his friend. Moulins he threatened. "Santerre is your relative," observed Bonaparte; "I am told he is trying to raise the Faubourg St. Antoine. Tell him I shall have him shot." Gohier and Moulins refused to resign, and withdrew to the Luxemburg. Whatever their intention, they were prevented by their instant arrest and seclusion.

The revolution, consummated or at least not opposed in the capital, had still to triumph over the councils. Before midday on the 19th, the members had collected in the gardens of St. Cloud, the Orangerie and the other hall destined for them not being yet fitted with benches and chairs. The members of the Cinq Cents were furious, the Ancients uncertain. The troops and generals

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were for Bonaparte, save two or three, who, whilst adhering in appearance, were ready to welcome an opportunity of declaring for the republic. In such opinions were Augereau and Jourdan. The sittings opened at two o'clock; the clamorous of both assemblies dominated there. They voted a message to the Directory. They were told it no longer existed, and Barras's letter of resignation was read. The Bonapartists proposed a commission to report on the state of affairs. The opposition, on the contrary, demanded and carried the motion for renewing the oath to the constitution. To put a stop to this Bonaparte resolved to address each council.

He first appeared before the Ancients, towards four o'clock. He told them, with some truth, that they were standing on a volcano. He had been summoned to save the republic, and would do so without being either a Cæsar or a Cromwell. He was determined to respect liberty and equality. "And the constitution ?" cried out several voices. "How can you invoke the constitution," continued Bonaparte-"you, who have violated it on three several occasions, and in the name of which the most disgusting tyranny was established? Content yourselves with securing liberty and equality. I will help you, and abandon power when my task is done." Bonaparte concluded by saying he counted on the Ancients, and not on the Cinq Cents, who wanted to reconstruct the Convention, and who had already sent to excite an insurrection in Paris. "These people talk of proscribing me, putting me hors la loi," added he. "If so, I will appeal to my companions in arms."

Having made an impression on the Ancients, Bonaparte hastened to the Cinq Cents; but he no sooner showed himself at the door, acccompanied by his aidesde-camp and followed by grenadiers, than a terrible tumult arose. As the general advanced, the deputies surrounded, apostrophized, and hustled him. "Down

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with the dictator!"-" Death to the tyrant!" were the CHAP. exclamations. Overtopped by men superior to him in stature, Bonaparte was more stifled than confounded. The soldiers, who had remained at the door, perceived their general disappear, whilst poignards were brandished in more than one hand. They rushed into the hall immediately, and extricated him from the crowd. It was then proposed to draw up an accusation, and vote the general hors la loi. His brother Lucien, who presided, resisted to the utmost of his strength, but was obliged to desist, it being necessary to send soldiers to rescue him also from those who threatened and surrounded him. Both brothers appealed at once to the troops, Bonaparte declaring that the members had attempted to assassinate them. General Leclerc, at the head of some grenadiers, was then ordered to clear the hall. This he proceeded to do, with beat of drum. The explosion of rage was great amongst the members when the grenadiers with fixed bayonets pressed forward. In vain they appealed to the soldiers, and equally in vain did some generals. Jourdan, for one, protested. The members, to avoid the points of the bayonets, were obliged to escape by the large open windows of the Orangerie, which feat, performed by legislators clothed in long togas, provoked more ridicule than commiseration. The most part of the deputies dispersed for Paris, but some fifty were retained, brought again together, and induced to vote the adjournment of the councils and the formation of a Consulate. Commissioners from both chambers, twenty-five in number each, were appointed to prepare, with the aid of the consuls, a new constitution.*

The Revolution, which had run a ten years' career, was thus brought to a conclusion. A fortunate soldier stamped out its last embers with his boot, amidst the

* Gohier, Bourrienne, Napoleon; Notice Historique published in Buchez and Roux, Lavalette, &c.

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CHAP. indifference of the population. Most of the actors in the commencement of that fearful drama had disappeared in its convulsions. Saturn, as Vergniaud said, devoured his children. They had embraced it as the religion and regeneration of humanity. Such illusions had long vanished from the minds of the few survivors, who looked for security from anarchy and repose from strife as boons for which all else might well be sacrificed. The nation had certainly thrown off a dreadful incubus, consisting of the privileges and prejudices of a dominant class, royal, aristocratic, sacerdotal; and if again obliged to bow to one, it was at least to one who wielded power first for the defence, and then for the grandeur and glory of the country, and who, in exchange for representative government and individual liberty, communicated the largest satisfaction ever given to national pride. The economical existence and relations of every class had been completely overthrown during these years of convulsion, and the dominant desire was to put an end to these oscillations of the social earthquake. By it the agricultural classes had enormously profited, provided they were allowed to enjoy their profits in security. Farmers and tenants had become proprietors. The middle class, which used to risk its savings in the purchase of government place, had since the Revolution vested in land, and, order and peace being now restored, were ready to do so in industrial enterprises. Those who had embraced the military profession and survived its dangers dazzled other classes by the brilliant career they had run. More civilian tempers were eager to rival them in peaceful walks, and the reorganization of the administrative hierarchy by Bonaparte soon opened for them the way. All this, indeed, was not in the sense of either liberty or equality. The Revolution forsook that road, almost as much as the ancient monarchy itself. There was no such thing as a free and public forum opened, either for law or

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for letters, for politics or for trade. Men were allowed CHAP. to institute nothing of themselves, but to take their place in the regiment or the rank that government assigned. There was no press, no association, nor anything that was not reached by the long arm of the minister of police. No one invoked liberty-that was sacrificed to glory. But Frenchmen still boasted of equality, as if there could be equality between that portion of the population which, from chance contact with the government, wielded administrative power, and the larger portion, which had but to doff the hat to every functionary, from the great ruler to the rural guard. A functionary aristocracy took the place of an hereditary one; a military court superseded a feudal one. Centralization and domination formed the spirit of both. And the survivors of 1789 saw the régime they had overthrown stand up once more erect before their eyes and upon their necks, with merely colours, customs, and titles changed. What animated both was the same old spirit of absolutism.