XLII. the reverse of that of the Directory. It was for revolutionizing every country in Europe, preparatory to robbing them. It would not hear of peace, and breathed nothing but war and revolution. Bonaparte declined to follow such rules: he treated with Piedmont, with the Pope, and with the Austrians, and no doubt he would have treated with England too, had he at the time had any influence over the negotiations with that power. Unfortunately the Constitutionalists in Paris, and the general in Italy, were too far removed to understand each other. Instead of allying, they indulged in mutual denunciation. The prints of the Moderates in Paris denounced Bonaparte as a rank Jacobin, whilst he retaliated by threatening to put them down as royalist. These looked for other military leaders. In Pichegru they showed confidence by electing him president of the Cinq Cents; whilst Moreau, who had discovered Pichegru's relations with Condé without disclosing them, was considered more as a tacit and cautious friend to royalism than an enemy. That the opposition to those Directors who were for persisting in the fanaticism and intolerance of the revolution was not royalist, is sufficiently proved in the fact that Carnot favoured it. He too, like Bonaparte, had gathered wisdom from practical experience. He was for effacing in domestic politics the line of demarcation between the men of the revolution and those who had held aloof from it. As Bonaparte in Italy, he protected the priests and did not consider gentle birth a crime. He moreover approved Napoleon's refusal to revolutionize South Italy.* In these moderate views Carnot was supported by Letourneur, and was for a time and to a certain degree not opposed by La Réveillère Lepaux, who of a * Carnot's Memoirs and Letters. studious and visionary character naturally leaned to moderation. Unfortunately Lepaux conceived the idea of founding a new religion, that of the Theo-Philanthropists, a dreamy worship of the invisible without priests or dogmas or even rites. To establish this sect, La Reveillère was for proscribing the priests of the old religion and immolating the Pope. Carnot smiled in derision at the project, which Bonaparte coolly set aside. La Réveillère did not forgive this, and when Letourneur as Director gave way to Barthelemy, Carnot at once found La Réveillère to be estranged from him, and united to Barras and Rewbell, whilst Barthelemy was of too royalist a colour to be the safe ally that Letourneur had been. The As the summer of 1797 advanced, the Cinq Cents, hostile to the Directory, broke into more flagrant opposition. Motions more and more menacing were passed, many even threatening impeachment. debates assumed a strong anti-revolutionary colour. A deputy named Bailleul denounced the many murders committed in and near Lyons, by the royalist associations, upon the old Terrorists. Camille Jordan, the eloquent orator, excused as much as condemned such excesses. The Constitutionalists themselves thought the Royalists were going too far; and proposed a reconciliation and alliance with the Directory, the terms of which were to be a more moderate policy and a new ministry of both parties. Madame de Staël laboured in favour of such a coalition. Barras, Rewbell, and La Réveillère declined, and appointed a new ministry still more hostile to the Constitutionalists. The triumvirate reckoned on Hoche, who, under pretext of pressing the invasion of the British Isles, was to move his army from the Rhine to the vicinity of Paris. He did so, ere the three Directors were quite prepared for the coup d'état. Summoned to account for his movement Hoche hesitated, hoping that Barras would extricate him from the CHAP. XLII. CHAP. difficulty. But Barras was embarrassed too, and Hoche indignant withdrew.* XLII. Towards the middle of July Camille Jordan denounced in the Assembly the concentration of troops towards Paris. There was a plot, he said, to assassinate the deputies, and the organization of the national guard was necessary to protect them against attempts of the kind. General Pichegru was chosen to draw up the report at first, and was subsequently to take charge of the organization. The three Directors feared a coup d'état being operated against them. Whilst the two parties were thus at open strife in Paris, arrived the address of the commander-in-chief of the army in Italy, made on the anniversary of the 14th of July, threatening extermination to the Royalists, and to the enemies of the constitution. He had in a previous month made offers of service to the Directors. They now besought Bonaparte to come to Paris and head their coup d'état. He declined, but sent the hot-headed Augereau. Yet whilst furnishing the Directors with so able an instrument of violence, Bonaparte took care to procure information of all that was passing from cooler heads. General Bernadotte proceeded to Paris soon after Augereau. Lavalette, Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, had preceded both, and warned his general of the emptiness and extravagance of both the contending parties. § At three o'clock on the morning of the 18th Fructidor (September 4, 1797) Augereau with two divisions forced his way into the gardens of the Tuileries, and proceeded to invest the palace, where the Assembly usually sat. Ramel, the commander of the guard of the Assembly, was sent to the Temple; Augereau was accompanied by the old revolutionary brigands Santerre, Rossignol, Carnot. † Directoral Letter of 24th of June in Bourrienne. Barras says, "Si nous sommes décrétés d'accusation, nous monterons à cheval." Lavalette's Letters in Bour rienne. and Fournier. Their appearance presaged the resuscitation of the Terror. Barthelemy was arrested at the Luxemburg. Carnot escaped through the garden. The members of the Cinq Cents, or at least those in the secret of the coup d'état, met at the Odéon, and at the School of Medicine, to pass the requisite decrees, whilst the majority hastened to the Tuileries and were either excluded, or, if members of eminence, arrested. The three Directors sent to such of the Cinq Cents as had collected at the Odéon a list of the members they proscribed, with their reasons for the coup d'état. The chief ones were the proofs, but too authentic, of the treason of Pichegru. Such a pretext might have the appearance of validity against that general and a score of Royalists, but to implicate the Constitutionalists and republican opposition of the Directory in the same accusation, was a calumny worthy of the Terror. The Conventionalists of the Cinq Cents lost no time in passing their decree, ordering the transportation of their colleagues. There were 42 members of the Cinq Cents, and 12 of the senate, amongst them the most respectable and revered names of the legislature, such as Matthieu Dumas, Barbé Marbois, Portalès, Siméon, BoissyD'Anglas. Carnot and Barthélemy were also in the list, as well as Camille Jordan and of course Pichegru. All these were visited with the same punishment as the Terrorists, Collot d'Herbois and Billaud Varennes, viz., deportation to Sinamari, on the South American coast, a punishment little more merciful than the guillotine. The press furnished its quota of victims. The proprietors, editors and writers of 54 journals were placed on the list of persons to be transported; amongst them were the names of Suard, La Harpe, Fontanes, Lacretelle, Fievée, Bertin, in fact the most promising men of the rising generation. A great many fortunately Carnot estimates the Royalists of the Assemblies at some fifteen in number. Delarue, Hist. du 18 CHAP. XLII. CHAP. made their escape. At the same time most of the revo- nected with them excluded from office. Priests were It was not merely the introduction of more humane and liberal principles of government, which was defeated by the coup d'état of Fructidor, but the conclusion of peace with Europe. However the English government upon Lord Malmesbury's first embassy to Paris might be reluctant to acknowledge the French possession of Belgium, the defeats of Austria in Lombardy had brought it to make a virtue of necessity, and acquiesce even in the possession of Antwerp and the Scheldt by its enemy. Lord Malmesbury came to Lille on his second mission in 1797 prepared to make every reasonable concession. Carnot, Barthelemy, and the Constitutionalists of the Assemblies, were for making peace with England on these conditions. Barras even conveyed an insinuation, that for half a million of money he would bring about peace. But receiving no answer to his offer, he, Rewbell and La Réveillère were hostile to any accommodation. The sole hope of it lay in the prevalence of the Moderate party. When this was crushed |