of address, and contrived to neutralise by flattery many whom promises had failed to gain.  Meanwhile his house was frequented by the principal officers who had accompanied him from Egypt, and by others who had served in his Italian campaigns; and though no one pretended to say what was about to happen, the impression became universal throughout Paris, that some great and decisive event was at hand, and that it was to be brought about by means of Buonaparte.

His friends at first busied themselves with schemes for making him one of the directorial body; but the law, requiring that every candidate for that office should be forty years of age, still subsisted; and this presented an obstacle which Napoleon chose rather to avoid than to overcome.  The conspirators in his confidence were from day to day more numerous, and, before he had been three weeks in Paris, audacity reached its height.  “During this crisis” (writes Bourienne) “there occurred nothing a whit more elevated, more grand, more noble, than had been observed in our preceding revolutionary commotions.  In these political intrigues, all is so despicable—­so made up of trickery, lying, spying, treachery, and impudence—­that for the honour of human nature the details ought to be buried under an eternal veil.”

Sieyes governed absolutely one of his colleagues in the Directory, Ducos; and the party of which he was the chief predominated strongly, as has been mentioned, in the Council of Ancients.  It was through the instrumentality of that council, accordingly, that the conspirators resolved to strike their first blow.  And how well their measures had been preconcerted, will sufficiently appear from the most naked statement of the events of the 18th and 19th Brumaire (Nov. 10 and 11, 1799), in the order of their occurrence.

As soon as Buonaparte’s arrival was known, three regiments of dragoons, forming part of the garrison of Paris, petitioned for the honour of being reviewed by him.  He had promised to do this, but delayed naming the day.  In like manner the forty adjutants of the National Guard of Paris (which, as we have seen, was remodelled by himself while General of the Interior) had requested leave to wait upon him, and congratulate him on his arrival:  these also had been told that he would soon appoint the time for receiving them.  Lastly, the officers of the garrison, and many besides, had sent to beg admittance to Napoleon’s presence, that they might tender him the expression of their admiration and attachment; and to them also an answer of the same kind had been given.

On the evening of the 17th Brumaire all the officers above-mentioned received, separately, the General’s invitation to come to his house in the Rue de la Victoire, at six o’clock the next morning; and the three regiments of dragoons were desired to be mounted for their review, at the same early hour, in the Champs Elysees.  How many of these persons knew the real purpose of the assemblage it