The army and most of the generals were also ready for some change, only Bernadotte and Jourdan refusing to listen to the new proposals; and the former of these came “with sufficiently bad grace” to join Bonaparte at the time of action.  The police was secured through that dextrous trimmer, the regicide Fouche, who now turned against the very men who had recently appointed him to office.  Feeling sure of the soldiery and police, the innovators fixed the 18th of Brumaire as the date of their enterprise.  There were many conferences at the houses of the conspirators; and one of the few vivid touches which relieve the dull tones of the Talleyrand “Memoirs” reveals the consciousness of these men that they were conspirators.  Late on a night in the middle of Brumaire, Bonaparte came to Talleyrand’s house to arrange details of the coup d’etat, when the noise of carriages stopping outside caused them to pale with fear that their plans were discovered.  At once the diplomatist blew out the lights and hurried to the balcony, when he found that their fright was due merely to an accident to the carriages of the revellers and gamesters returning from the Palais Royal, which were guarded by gendarmes.  The incident closed with laughter and jests; but it illustrates the tension of the nerves of the political gamesters, as also the mental weakness of Bonaparte when confronted by some unknown danger.  It was perhaps the only weak point in his intellectual armour; but it was to be found out at certain crises of his career.

Meanwhile in the legislative Councils there was a feeling of vague disquiet.  The Ancients were, on the whole, hostile to the Directory, but in the Council of Five Hundred the democratic ardour of the younger deputies foreboded a fierce opposition.  Yet there also the plotters found many adherents, who followed the lead now cautiously given by Lucien Bonaparte.  This young man, whose impassioned speeches had marked him out as an irreproachable patriot, was now President of that Council.  No event could have been more auspicious for the conspirators.  With Sieyes, Barras, and Ducos, as traitors in the Directory, with the Ancients favourable, and the junior deputies under the presidency of Lucien, the plot seemed sure of success.

The first important step was taken by the Council of Ancients, who decreed the transference of the sessions of the Councils to St. Cloud.  The danger of a Jacobin plot was urged as a plea for this motion, which was declared carried without the knowledge either of the Directory as a whole, or of the Five Hundred, whose opposition would have been vehement.  The Ancients then appointed Bonaparte to command the armed forces in and near Paris.  The next step was to insure the abdication of Gohier and Moulin.  Seeking to entrap Gohier, then the President of the Directory, Josephine invited him to breakfast on the morning of 18th Brumaire; but Gohier, suspecting a snare, remained at his official residence, the Luxemburg Palace.  None the less the Directory was doomed; for the two defenders of the institution had not the necessary quorum for giving effect to their decrees.  Moulin thereupon escaped, and Gohier was kept under guard—­by Moreau’s soldiery![128]