which she did not employ for the sake of annoying me. She never left me; and as these visits seemed to vex her exceedingly, I did violence to my own feelings and scarcely ever went to Malmaison. Still, however, when I did happen to go, I was sure to encounter a flood of tears and a multitude of contrivances of every kind. Josephine always kept in view the example of the wife of Henry IV, who, as she observed, lived in Paris, visited the court, and attended the coronation after her divorce. But she remarked, that her own situation was still preferable, for she already had children of her own, and could not hope to have more."

Josephine possessed a perfect knowledge of all the different shades of the emperor's character, and she evinced the most exquisite tact in turning this knowledge to the best account. "For example," said the emperor, "she never solicited any favour for Eugène, or thanked me for any that I conferred on him. She never even showed any additional complaisance or assiduity at the moment when the greatest honours were lavished on him. Her grand aim was to prove that all this was my affair, and not her's, and that it tended to my advantage. Doubtless she entertained the idea that one day or other I would adopt Eugène as my suc

cessor."

The emperor said he was well convinced that he was the individual whom Josephine loved best in all the world; and he added with a smile, that he was sure she

would have relinquished any assignation to attend him. She never failed to accompany him on all his journies. Neither fatigue nor privation could deter her from following him; and she employed importunity and even artifice to gain her point. "If I stepped into my carriage at midnight, to set out on the longest journey, to my surprise I found Josephine already prepared, though I had had no idea of her accompanying me. But,' I would say to her, You cannot possibly go, the journey is too long, and will be too 'fatiguing for you.'-' Not at all,' Josephine would reply. Besides, 'I must set out instantly.'-' Well, 'I am quite ready.' But you must take a great deal of luggage.'

ON the 25th of June, 1795, the Convention adopted the constitution, known under the title of the Constitution of the Year III. The government was intrusted to five persons, under the name of the Directory; the legislature, to two councils, called the Council of the Five Hundred, and the Council of the Ancients. This constitution was submitted to the acceptance of the people called together in primary assembly.

It was a prevalent opinion, that the fall of the constitution of 1794, was to be attributed to that law of the Constituent Assembly, which excluded its members from the legislature. The Convention did not fall into the same error; it annexed two additional laws to the constitution, by which it prescribed that two-thirds of the new legis-, lature should be composed of members of the Convention, and that the electoral assemblies of departments should, on this occasion, have to elect only one-third of the two councils. The Convention farther prescribed, that these two additional laws should be submitted to the acceptance of the people, as inseparable parts of the constitution.

The discontent was thenceforth general. The forty-eight Sections of Paris assembled, forming as many tribunes, to which the most violent orators immediately hastened: Laharpe, Serizi, Lacretelle the younger, Vaublanc, Regnault,

&c.

The national guard, too, consisting of upwards of forty thou

sand men, armed and clothed, shared fully in the exasperation of the Sections against the Convention; and the additional laws were rejected throughout Paris. The Sections appeared, one after another, at the bar of the Convention, and there warmly declared their sentiments. The Convention, however, still believed that all this agitation would subside, as soon as the provinces should have manifested their opinion by accepting the constitution and the additional laws. It thought this commotion in the capital was like those riots

SO

common in London, and of which instances often happened at Rome at the time of the Comitia It proclaimed, on the 28th of September, the acceptance of the constitution and additional laws by the majority of the primary assem blies; but on the following day the Sections of Paris appointed deputies to form a central assembly of electors, which met at the Odeon.

The Convention annulled the assembly of the Odeon, declared it illegal, and ordered its committees to dissolve it by force. On the 10th of Vendemiaire the armed power proceeded to the Odeon, and executed this order. The people, collected in the place de l'Odeon, uttered some murmurs, and indulged in some railing, but offered no resistance.

The decree of the Convention for shutting up the Odeon excited the indignation of all the Sections. That of Lepelletier, of which the central place was the convent of

the Filles-Saint-Thomas, appeared to take the lead in this movement. By a decree of the Convention it was ordered, that the place of its sittings should be closed, the assembly dissolved, and the Section disarmed.

On the 12th of Vendemiaire (3rd October), at seven or eight in the evening, general Menou, accompanied by the representatives of the people, who were commis sioners to the army of the interior, proceeded with a numerous body of troops to the place of meeting of the Section Lepelletier, to carry into execution the decree of the Convention. The infantry, caThe infantry, cavalry, and artillery were all crowded together in the rue Vivienne, at the extremity of which is the convent of the FillesSaint-Thomas. The Sectionaries occupied the windows of the houses of this street; several of their battalions drew up in order of battle in the court of the convent, and the military force, which general Menou commanded, found itself compromised.

The committee of the Section had declared itself a representation of the sovereign people, in the exercise of its functions; it refused to obey the orders of the Convention; and after spending an hour in useless negotiations, general Menou and the commissioners of the Convention withdrew, by a species of capitulation, without having dispersed or disarmed the meeting.

The Section, thus victorious, declared itself permanent; sent deputations to all the other Sections; boasted its success, and has tened the organization necessary for securing the success of its resistance. Preparations commenced for the 18th of Vendemiaire.

General Bonaparte, who had been for some months attached to the directors of the movements of the French armies, was in a box at the theatre Feydeau, when some of his friends informed him of the singular events that were passing. He was curious to witness the particulars of so grand a spectacle. Seeing the Conventional troops repulsed, he hastened to the assembly to observe the effect of this intelligence, and to trace the developements and character which would there be given to it.

The Convention was in the greatest agitation. The representatives with the army, in order to exculpate themselves, loudly accused Menou. The consequences of his want of skill were ascribed to treason. He was placed under arrest.

Various representatives then appeared at the tribune; they described the extent of the danger. The news which every moment arrived from the Sections, showed, but too plainly, how great the peril actually was. Every member recommended the general who possessed his confidence. Those who had been at Toulon, and with the army of Italy, and the members of the committee of Public Safety, who were in daily communication with Napoleon, proposed him as more capable than any other person, from the promptness of his coup-d'oeil, and the energy of his character, of bringing them safely through the present danger. Messengers were sent into the city to seek him.

Napoleon, who had heard all that had been said, and knew what was in agitation, deliberated with himself more than half an hour on the course most eligible for him to pursue. A deadly war was break

ing out between the Convention and Paris. Would it be prudent to declare himself-to speak in the name of all France? Who would dare to enter the lists alone as the champion of the Convention? Victory itself would be attended with a degree of odium, whilst defeat would devote the unsuecessful combatant to the eternal execration of future generations. Why thus devote himself to be the scape-goat of crimes to which he had been a stranger? Why voluntarily expose himself to add, in a few hours, one more to the list of those names which men shudder to pronounce?

But, on the other hand, if the Convention should sink, what would become of the great truths of our Revolution? Our numerous victories, our blood so often shed, would then be only disgraceful actions. The foreigner, whom we had often vanquished, would triumph, and load us with his contempt; an insolent unnatural crew would re-appear triumphant; would reproach us with our crimes; would indulge their revenge, and rule us, like helots, by foreign force.

Thus the defeat of the Convention would place a victorious crown on the brows of the foreigner, and seal the disgrace and slavery of the nation.

This sentiment-the ardour of five and twenty-confidence in his own powers and his destiny, prevailed. He made up his mind, and went to the committee, to which he represented with energy, the impossibility of directing so important an operation, while subject to the interference of three representatives, who, in fact, exercised all power, and impeded all the cperations of the general. He added,

that he had witnessed all the pro ceedings of the rue Vivienne; that the commissioners had been chiefly to blame, and had, nevertheless, acted the part of accusers in the assembly with triumphant

success.

Struck with these arguments, but unable to deprive the commissioners of their functions without a long discussion in the assembly, the committee, to conciliate matters, for they had no time to lose, resolved to select the general from the assembly itself. With this view, it proposed Barras to the Convention, as general-inchief, and gave the command under him to Napoleon, who thus found himself relieved from the three commissioners, without their having any thing to complain of.

The

As soon as Napoleon found himself invested with the command of the forces destined to protect the Assembly, he went to one of the cabinets of the Tuileries, where Menou remained, to obtain from him the necessary information as to the force and position of the troops and artillery. army consisted of only five thou sand soldiers of all descriptions, with forty pieces of cannon, then at the Sablons, guarded by fifteen men: it was an hour after midnight. Napoleon instantly des patched a major of the 21st light horse (Murat) with three hundred cavalry, to proceed, with all possible expedition, to the Sablons, and bring off the artillery to the garden of the Tuileries. One moment more would have been too late. This officer, on arriving at the Sablons at two o'clock, fell in with the head of a column of the Section Lepelletier, come for the purpose of carrying off the artillery; but his troops being

cavalry, and the ground a plain, the Section retreated; and at six in the morning the forty guns entered the Tuileries.

From six o'clock to nine, Napoleon visited all the posts, and placed his artillery at the head of the Pont Louis XVI, of the Pont Royal, of the rue de Rohan, at the Cul-de-sac Dauphin, in the rue St. Honoré, at the Pont Tournant, &c. He intrusted the custody of the guns to officers worthy of confidence. All the matches were lighted, and the whole of the little army was distributed at the different posts, or in reserve at the garden, and the Place Carrousel. The generale beat throughout Paris, and the national guards formed at all the debouches; thus surrounding the palace and gardens. Their drums carried their insolence so far as to come and beat the generale on the Carrousel, and the Place Louis XV.

The danger was imminent. Forty thousand national guards well armed and trained, presented themselves as the enemies of the Convention: the troops of the line intrusted with its defence were few in number, and might easily be brought over by the sentiments of the population which surrounded them. The Convention, in order to increase its forces, armed 1,500 individuals called the Patriots of 1789. They were men, who, after the 9th of Thermidor, had lost their employments and quitted their departments, where they were persecuted by public opinion. Three battalions were formed of them, which were placed under the command of general Berruyer. These men fought with the greatest valour. Their example influenced the troops of the

line, and they were of the greatest importance to the success of this day.

A committee of forty members, composed of the committees of Public Safety and General Security, directed all affairs. Cambacérès was president: they discussed much, and decided nothing; while the pressure of the danger increased every moment.

Some were desirous to lay down their arms, and receive the sectionaries as the Roman senators received the Gauls. Others were desirous that the assembly should retire to Cæsar's camp at the heights of Saint-Cloud, there to be joined by the army of the coasts of the ocean. Others wished deputations to be sent to all the forty-eight Sections, to make various propositions to them. During these vain discussions, at two in the afternoon, a man named Lafond debouched on the Pont Neuf, coming from the Section Lepelletier at the head of three or four battalions; whilst another column of the same foree advanced from the Odeon to meet them. They joined in the Place Dauphine.

General Cartaux, who had been stationed at Pont Neuf with 400 men and four pieces of cannon, with orders to defend the two sides of the bridge, abandoned his post, and fell back under the wickets. At the same time a battalion of the national guard occupied the garden of the Infanta: they professed to be well affected towards the Convention, and nevertheless seized on this post without orders. On another side Saint-Roch, the theatre Français, and the hotel Noailles, were occupied in force by the national guard. The opposite posts were not more than from twelve to fifteen yards asunder.