and the confidence of the people. He arrived in France on the eve of the seventh revolution, when the Abbe Syeyes was projecting a new constitution, if such ephemeral appointments as those, which have directed, in succession, the public affairs of France, be worthy of a name so dignified and important. The fiend of discord had pervaded the state, and resistance was threatened in every quarter. The severities of the government but heightened the discontent of the nation, and while the royalists were oppressed, the Jacobin party were also fretful, and loud in their complaints. The tide of public prosperity had run back, and the national glory had become dim. Sad reverses had happened in Italy; the Russians too were pouring down their hostile troops toward France, and the terrible Suwarrow was at hand. The Abbe Syeyes had looked toward Moreau as a powerful and popular leader, who might join him in active measures to overthrow the degraded government, and establish a more vigorous and efficient authority. But that general was cool in his views, and did not frankly coincide with the wish and designs of the artful projector. At this momentous era, Bonaparte arrived at Paris, and in him was readily found the active and ambitious agent whom Syeyes wanted to adopt his schemes.

Immediately on his arrival at Paris, Bonaparte had a private audience of the directory; the courts and all the streets leading to the Luxembourg were crowded with spectators eager to behold him, and he seemed more sensible of these demonstrations of joy than formerly: he shook several sol diers by the hand, who had served with him in Italy, and appeared more open and affable in his manners than usual: he was dressed in a grey riding coat and without uniform, a Turkish sabre hung in a silk scarf over his shoulder, his hair was cut quite short, and without powder; his tawny complexion, acquired by the burning sun of Egypt, gave him an appearance of greater manliness and strength than before he left Europe.

Bonaparte arrived at Paris on the 16th of October, and on the 9th of November the constitution of 1795 was overturned. During this period we must suppose him to have been employed in concerting measures for effecting his grand purpose; accordingly very little is said of him, and he seldom appeared in public. On the 7th of November a great dinner was given by the Directory and the councils to Bonaparte and Moreau in the Church of St. Julpice (then the temple of victory); the company consisted of 750 guests, and was no doubt intended to deceive those who were so shortly to be overthrown, with an appearance of friendship and fraternity. The toast given by the president of the Directory was 'Peace.' and that by the General 'A union of all parties;' nevertheless it was evident that this was a mere dinner of ceremony; the whole company viewed each other with distrust; there was neither mirth nor confidence; and though the meeting pretended to effect a union of parties, it served only to put them further asunder. Bonaparte quitted the room after a few toasts were given, and none of the company staid long; the whole ceremony did not last three hours, and within three days after, the great explosion which had been long preparing, burst forth; nay, on that very evening the mode of operation was concerted. Syeyes no doubt emitted the first spark, which fell upon Moreau, but was damped by his unambitious temper. The next, however, was more successful, for it lighted on Bonaparte, who instantly took fire, and communicated the flame by degrees to a larger and a larger number, till on the 7th a number of deputies and others in the secret met at the house of Le Mercier, and concerted measures for the grand display, which it was agreed should take place on the 9th; and accordingly the committee of inspectors belonging to the Council of Antients, at five o'clock in the morning of that day, sent messages to an hundred and fifty chosen members of the council (very few of whom were in the secret) to meet at eight o'clock in the Thuilleries. When they were assembled it appeared that the most violent of the

Jacobins, in number about an hundred, were left out. Cornet, reporter of the committee, opened the meeting with a speech, in which he stated very fully the dangers of the republic and the movements of the factions, and ended with proposing that the Assembly, according to the 102d and 103d articles of the constitution, should adjourn to St. Cloud; that Bonaparte should be charged to put the decree in execution, and for that purpose appointed commander of all the troops in Paris, as well as of the guard of the assemblies and the national guard. This decree was passed by a great majority, and Bonaparte immediately appeared at the bar attended by Berthier, Moreau, Lefebvre, Macdonald, and others. Being informed by the President of his appointment, he spake as follows:-The republic was on the brink of ruin, but your decree has saved it. Woe to those who wish for anarchy, whoever they be. I and my brave companions in arms will arrest their course. Let us not seek in the past for examples to justify the present. For nothing in history resembles the present moment. We wish a republic founded on liberty, on civil liberty and national representation, and we will have it. I swear it, and I swear it also in the names of my brave comrades.' 'I swear it,' was immediately returned by the other generals, and the sitting was dissolved amid the cries of Long live the republic.' The decree of the council was carried to the council of five hundred, who soon after adjourned their deliberations to the next day at St. Cloud. The committees of inspection from the two councils remained in the room belonging to them, to concert measures as the urgency of affairs might require, and Bonaparte assembled his staff at the same place, to give all the requisite orders for the preservation of tranquillity, and the removal of the councils to St. Cloud. The walls of Paris were soon covered with two proclamations, one addressed to the national guard, and the other to the troops of the line, both expressed with Bonaparte's usual energy. On the first news of the decree of the Council of Antients he had repaired to

the Thuilleries with ten thousand troops, and guarded every avenue to the palace so effectually that no one was permitted to pass either into the courts, the garden, or within the walls of the castle. He had formed all his dispositions, and harangued his troops in the great court, while three of the directors and all the rest of Paris were completely ignorant of what was going forward. Syeyes and Roger Ducos, the latter of whom was entirely governed by the former, being both in the secret, waiting in silence the result of the meeting. Syeyes was walking in the garden of the Luxembourg, and Ducos was in his own apartments, when they were informed of what had passed: they repaired immediately to the Thailleries, and joined the two committees of inspection, the generals, and the rest of the military, in deliberating upon the measures to be taken, for putting the decree in execution, and providing for the public tranquillity. Barras knew what had happened long before his colleagues, Gohier and Moulinst, for he had been required to give in his resignation very early in

The nomination of Gohier to a place in the Directory surprised no one more than himself; and such was his foolish joy on the `occasion, that when he was first introduced to the other directors and some of the ministers who were met together, he ran up to his four colleagues and embraced them; and then turning round to Merlin, he asked if he might not do the same to the ministers? Merlin cooly and sneeringly answered him, that he might if he pleased; on which he immediately threw his arms round the minister of justice, Lambretchs, who, not being prepared to expect such a favour, could hardly speak for surprize.

✦ Moulins was a man who, though exalted to the rank of a general and a director, was once literally a sans culotte-a man in a complete state of poverty, and almost of nudity. The first thing he did, after he was advanced to his new dignity, was to hire a great fat squab of a woman for his mistress, and to take her an apartment near the Luxemburg, for such was his poverty that he could not afford to give her much money, so he sent her dinner every day from his own table, by two servants in livery, to the great entertainment of all those who Baw them conveying the lady her repast.

the morning, and the lady through whom there quest came, was empowered to offer him any pecuniary assistance he might require: he at first appeared to be violently irritated, but in a little time he became more calm, and acknowledged that the government required some vigorous individual at its head, for it was impossible it could go on with five people who had no confidence in each other; but still he refused to give in his resignation. Gohier, who was that morning to have breakfasted with Bonaparte, was extremely surprised when he got up to find what had passed, but particularly at the decree for transferring the assemblies to St. Cloud: he went, however, into the audience chamber of the Directory, and sent for his colleagues. Moulins, who was equally surprized, 'came to him immediately; but they were both still more so when they heard that Syeyes was gone to the Thuilleries: they then sent for Ducos, and found he was there also. Barras was summoned next, and he refused to come. Gohier sent immediately for La Garde the secretary general, and ordered him to register a decree which he dictated to him; but La Garde answered, that as two members could not make a majority of the Directory, it was impossible for him to do as he requested. Moulins having now learnt part of what had happened, became extremely agitated, and proposed immediately to send a guard to invest the house of Bonaparte, and keep him a prisoner; but he was told that it would be impossible, for every soldier then in Paris was under Bonaparte's command. General Lefebvre was next summoned, but he confirmed what they had before heard, and said, that as he was under the orders of Bonaparte, he could not march a single man without his permission. They then began to find that it was all over with them, and that nothing remained for them but to retire into the obscurity from whence they had been taken, and submit quietly to their fate. In a few minutes the Luxemburg was invested with a strong guard sent there by Bonaparte.