day.  Find, madams, two responsible persons, who will answer for the appearance of your husband, and I will permit him to go home with you, accompanied by the two guardians.”  Next day two friends were found, one of whom was M. Desmaisons, counsellor of the court, who became bail for M. de Bourrienne.  He continued under these guardians six months, until a law compelled the persons who were inscribed on the fatal list to remove to the distance of ten leagues from Paris.  One of the guardians was a man of straw; the other was a knight of St. Louis.  The former was left in the antechamber; the latter made, every evening, one of our party at cards.  The family of M. de Bourrienne have always felt the warmest gratitude to the judge of the peace and his family.  That worthy man saved the life of M. de Bourrienne, who, when he returned from Egypt, and had it in his power to do him some service, hastened to his house; but the good judge was no more!

The letters mentioned in the narrative were at this time stolen from me by the police officers.

Everyone was now eager to pay court to a man who had risen from the crowd in consequence of the part he had acted at an, extraordinary crisis, and who was spoken of as the future General of the Army of Italy.  It was expected that he would be gratified, as he really was, by the restoration of some letters which contained the expression of his former very modest wishes, called to recollection his unpleasant situation, his limited ambition, his pretended aversion for public employment, and finally exhibited his intimate relations with those who were, without hesitation, characterised as emigrants, to be afterwards made the victims of confiscation and death.

The 13th of Vendemiaire (5th October 1795) was approaching.  The National Convention had been painfully delivered of a new constitution, called, from the epoch of its birth, “the Constitution of Year iii.”  It was adopted on the 22d of August 1795.  The provident legislators did not forget themselves.  They stipulated that two-thirds of their body should form part of the new legislature.  The party opposed to the Convention hoped, on the contrary, that, by a general election, a majority would be obtained for its opinion.  That opinion was against the continuation of power in the hands of men who had already so greatly abused it.

The same opinion was also entertained by a great part of the most influential Sections of Paris, both as to the possession of property and talent.  These Sections declared that, in accepting the new constitution, they rejected the decree of the 30th of August, which required the re-election of two-thirds The Convention, therefore, found itself menaced in what it held most dear—­its power;—­and accordingly resorted to measures of defence.  A declaration was put forth, stating that the Convention, if attacked, would remove to Chalons-sur-Marne; and the commanders of the armed force were called upon to defend that body.