Sieyes, an experienced observer of such scenes, was still on horseback in the court, and quickly re-assured him.  General Augereau came up but a moment afterwards, and said, “You have brought yourself into a pretty situation.”  “Augereau,” answered Napoleon (once more himself again), “things were worse at Arcola.  Be quiet:  all this will soon right itself.”  He then harangued the soldiery.  “I have led you to victory, to fame, to glory.  Can I count upon you?” “Yes, yes, we swear it” (was the answer that burst from every line), “Vive Buonaparte!”

In the council, meantime, the commotion had increased on the retreat of Napoleon.  A general cry arose for a sentence of outlawry against him; and Lucien, the President, in vain appealed to the feelings of nature, demanding that, instead of being obliged to put that question to the vote, he might be heard as the advocate of his brother.  He was clamorously refused, and in indignation flung off the insignia of his office.  Some grenadiers once more entered, and carried him also out of the place.

Lucien found the soldiery without in a high state of excitement.  He immediately got upon horseback, that he might be seen and heard the better, and exclaimed:  “General Buonaparte, and you, soldiers of France, the President of the Council of Five Hundred announces to you that factious men with daggers interrupt the deliberations of the senate.  He authorises you to employ force.  The Assembly of Five Hundred is dissolved.”

Napoleon desired Le Clerc to execute the orders of the President, and he, with a detachment of grenadiers, forthwith marched into the hall.  Amidst the reiterated screams of “Vive la Republique” which saluted their entrance, an aide-de-camp mounted the tribune, and bade the assembly disperse.  “Such,” said he, “are the orders of the General.”  Some obeyed; others renewed their shouting.  The drums drowned their voices.  “Forward, grenadiers,” said Le Clerc; and the men, levelling their pieces as if for the charge, advanced.  When the bristling line of bayonets at length drew near, the deputies lost heart, and the greater part of them, tearing off their scarfs, made their escape, with very undignified rapidity, by way of the windows.  The apartment was cleared.  It was thus that Buonaparte, like Cromwell before him,

    “Turn’d out the members, and made fast the door."[31]

Some of his military associates proposed to him that the unfriendly legislators should be shot, man by man, as they retreated through the gardens; but to this he would not for a moment listen.

Lucien Buonaparte now collected the moderate members of the Council of Five Hundred; and that small minority, assuming the character of the assembly, communicated with the Ancients on such terms of mutual understanding, that there was no longer any difficulty about giving the desired colouring to the events of the day.  It was announced by proclamation, that a scene of violence and uproar, and the daggers and pistols of a band of conspirators, in the Council of Five Hundred, had suggested the measures ultimately resorted to.  These were—­the adjournment of the two councils until the middle of February next ensuing; and the deposition, meantime, of the whole authority of the state in a provisional consulate—­the consuls being Napoleon Buonaparte, Sieyes, and Ducos.