CHAP. 1799. Arrival of Napoleon at Frejus. queror of Rivoli was the destined saviour of the state for whom all classes were so anxiously looking. His name was in every mouth. Where is he? What will he do? What chance is there that he will avoid the English cruizers? were the questions universally asked. Such was the anxiety of the public mind on the subject, that rumour had twice outstripped the hopes of his friends, and announced his arrival; and when at length the telegraph gave the official 429, 431. intelligence that he had arrived at Frejus, the public transports knew no bounds.' 1 Th. x. Mign. ii. 449. Universal which it excited. When the people at Frejus heard that the conqueror of Egypt was on their coast, their enthusiasm enthusiasm broke through all the restraints of government. The laws of quarantine were in a moment forgotten. A multitude, intoxicated with joy and hope, seized the first boats, and rushed on board the vessels; Napoleon, amidst universal acclamations, landed and immediately set out for Paris. The telegraph, with the rapidity of the winds, announced his arrival, and the important intelligence speedily spread over the capital. The intoxication was universal, the joy unanimous. All wishes had been turned towards a hero who could restore peace to desolated France, and here he was, dropt from the clouds; a fortunate soldier presented himself, who had caused the French standards to float on the Capitol and the Pyramids, in whom all the world recognised both civil and military talents of the very highest order. His proclamations, his negotiations, his treaties, bore testimony to the first; his astonishing victories afforded irrefragable evidence of the second. So rare a combination might suggest alarm to the friends of liberty, were it not that his well-known principles and disinterestedness precluded the idea that he would em XXVI. 1799. ploy the dictatorship to any other end than the public CHAP. good and the termination of the misfortunes of the country. Discourses of this sort, in every mouth, threw the public into transports, so much the more entrancing as they succeeded a long period of disaster; the joyful intelligence was announced, amidst thunders of applause, at all the theatres; patriotic songs again sent forth their heart-stirring strains Bour. iii. from the orchestra; and more than one enthusiast 28, 29. Th. expired of joy at the advent of the hero who was to Nap. i. 56. terminate the difficulties of the Republic.' x. 432. and arrival The conqueror was greeted with the most enthu siastic reception the whole way from Frejus to Paris. At Aix, Avignon, Vienne, and Lyons, the people came forth in crowds to meet him; his journey resembled a continual triumph. The few bells which the Revolution had left in the churches were rung on his approach; his course at night marked by the bonfires on all the eminences. On the 16th October Oct. 16. he arrived unexpectedly at Paris; his wife and bro- His journey, thers mistaking his route, had gone out to meet him at Paris. by another road. Two hours after his arrival he waited on the Directory; the soldiers at the gate of the palace, who had served under him at Arcola, recognised his figure, and loud cries of Vive Bonaparte! announced to the Government that the dreaded commander had arrived. He was received by Gohier, and it was arranged that he should be presented in public on the following day. His reception Oct. 17. then was, to external appearance, flattering, and splendid encomiums were pronounced on the victo-x. 433. Nap. i. 55, ries of the Pyramids, of Mont Thabor, and Abou- 56. Goh. i. kir; but mutual distrust prevailed on both sides, and 197, 202. a vague disquietude already pervaded the Directory at the appearance of the renowned conqueror, who 2 Bour. iii. 38, 39. Th. 1 CHAP. XXVI. 1799. there by the at so critical a moment had presented himself in the capital. Though convinced that the moment he had so Reception long looked for had arrived, and resolved to seize the Directory. supreme authority, Napoleon landed in France without any fixed project for carrying his design into execution. The enthusiasm, however, with which he had been received in the course of his journey to Paris, and the intelligence which he there received of the state of the country, made him at once determine on the attempt. The circumstances of the time were singularly favourable for such a design. None of the Directory were possessed of any personal consideration except Siêyes, and he had long revolved in his mind the project of substituting, for the weak and oppressive government which was now desolating France, the firm hand of a vigorous and able military leader. Even so far back as the revolt of the sections on the 13th Vendémiaire, (10th Nov. 1795,) he had testified his opinion of the weakness of his colleagues to Napoleon. At the most critical moment of the day, when the Committee of Government had lost their heads, Siêyes approached Napoleon, and, taking him into the embrasure of a window, said, "You see how it is, general; they are haranguing when the moment for action has arrived; large bodies are unfit for the lead of armies, they never know the value of time. You can be of no use here. Go, general, take counsel only of your own genius, and the dangers of the country; the sole hope of the Republic is in you." These words were not lost on Napoleon; they pointed him out as the fit associate in his designs; and to these were soon added M. Talleyrand, who was too clearsighted not to perceive that the only chance of safety was in the authority of a dictator,' Nap. i. 57, 59. Jom. xii. 392, 393. Bour. iii. 32. and who had also private grievances of his own to induce him to desire the overthrow of the Government. CHAP. XXVI. 1799. trigues of the XVIII. 45. Hist. de In truth, so general was the impression at that period of the impossibility of continuing the govern- Previous inment of France under the Republican form, that, pre- Directory vious to Napoleon's arrival, various projects had with Louis been not only set on foot, but were far advanced, for the restoration of monarchical authority. The brothers of Napoleon, Joseph and Lucien, were deeply implicated in these intrigues. The Abbé Siêyes at one time thought of placing the Duke of Brunswick on the throne; Barras was not averse to the restoration of the Bourbons, and negotiations were on foot with Louis XVIII. for that purpose.' They had ' Bour. iii. even gone so far, that the terms of the director were la Restaurafixed for playing the part of General Monk; twelve tion, i. 129. millions of livres were to have been his reward, besides two millions to divide among his associates. But Capefigue in the midst of these intrigues, Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte were in a more effectual way advancing their tion, i. 129, brother's interests, by inducing the leaders of the 66. army to cooperate in his elevation; they had already engaged Macdonald, Leclerc, Lefebvre, Augereau, and Jourdan, to favour his enterprise; but Moreau hung back, and all their efforts had failed in engaging Th. x. Bernadotte, whose republican principles were proof iii. 41, 45. against their seductions." 2 No sooner had Napoleon arrived at his unassuming dwelling in the Rue Chantereine, than the whole generals who had been sounded, hastened to pay their court to him, and with them all who had been dismissed or conceived themselves ill-used by the Directory. His saloon soon resembled rather the court of a monarch than the rendezvous of the 3 Hist. de la Restaura 155. Nap. i. 434. Bour. XXVI. 1799. Junction of the malecontents of support Napoleon. CHAP. friends of any private individual, how eminent soever. Besides Lannes, Murat, and Berthier, who had shared his fortunes in Egypt and were warmly attached to him, there were now assembled Jourdan, Auall parties to gereau, Macdonald, Bournonville, Leclerc, Lefebvre, and Marbot, who, notwithstanding their many dif ferences of opinion on other subjects, had been induced, by the desperate state of the Republic, to concur in offering the military dictatorship to Napoleon; and although Moreau at first appeared undecided, he was at length won by the address of his great rival, who made the first advances, and affected to consult him on his future designs. In addition to this illustrious band of military chiefs, many of the most influential members of the legislature were also disposed to favour the enterprise. Roederer, the old leader in the municipality, Regnault St Angely, long known in the Revolution, and a great number of the leading deputies in both Chambers, had paid their court to him on his arrival. Nor were official functionaries, and even the members of administration, awanting. Siêyes and Roger Ducos, the two directors who chiefly superintended the civil concerns, and Moulins, who was at the head of the military department of the Republic, Cambaceres, the minister of justice, Fouché, the head of the police, and Real, a commissary in the department of the Seine, an active and intriguing partisan, were assiduous in their attendance. Eight days had hardly elapsed, and already the direction of Nap. i. 64, government seemed to be insensibly gliding into his hands.1 Goh. i. 211, 212. 65, 74. Th. x. 435, 437. The ideas of these different persons, however, were far from being unanimous as to the course which should be adopted. The Republican generals offer |