The trembling Directory received him, when he presented himself at the Luxembourg, with every demonstration of joy and respect.  Not a question was asked as to his abandonment of his army; for all dreaded the answer which they had the best reason for anticipating.  He was invited to accept of a public dinner, and agreed to do so.  The assemblage was magnificent, and his reception enthusiastic; but his demeanour was cold and reserved.  After proposing as a toast, “the union of all parties”—­ominous words from those lips—­he withdrew at an early hour of the evening.

He continued for some little time to avoid public notice, resuming apparently the same studious and sequestered life which he had led when last in Paris.  It was, however, remarked that, when recognised by the populace, he received their salutations with uncommon affability; and that if he met any old soldier of the army of Italy, he rarely failed to recollect the man, and take him by the hand.

Buonaparte had been tormented when in Egypt by certain rumours concerning the conduct of Josephine in his absence from Paris.  She had quitted the capital with the purpose of meeting him on his journey thither, the moment his arrival at Frejus was known; but taking the road of Burgundy, while he was travelling by that of Lyons, missed him.  When she at length joined him in Paris, he received her with marked coldness; but, after a few days, the intercessions and explanations of friends restored harmony between them.  He felt acutely, says De Bourienne, the ill effects which a domestic fracas must produce at the moment when all France was expecting him to take the chief part in some great political revolution.

The universal enthusiasm which waited on his person at this crisis appears to have at length given definite shape to his ambition.  All parties equally seemed to be weary of the Directory, and to demand the decisive interference of the unrivalled soldier.  The members of the tottering government were divided bitterly among themselves; and the moderates, with the Director Sieyes at their head, on the one side, the democrats, under the Director Barras, on the other, were equally disposed to invoke his assistance.  He received the proposals of both parties; and at length decided on closing with those of the former, as consisting of a class of men less likely than the others to interfere with his measures—­when the new government, which he had determined should be his, had been arranged.  His brother Lucien, recently elected President of the Council of Five Hundred—­the acute and spirited Abbe Sieyes, for whom, as “a man of systems,” Buonaparte had formerly manifested great repugnance, but who was now recommended effectually by his supposed want of high ambition—­and Fouche, minister of police—­these were his chief confidants; nor could any age or country have furnished instruments more admirably qualified for his purpose.  Josephine, too, exerted indefatigably in his cause all the arts