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Page 3
The eighteenth Brumaire of the Year VIII, corresponding to the ninth
of November, 1799, was fixed as the day for the revolution. By that
date soldiers to the number of 10,000 men had been collected in the
gardens of the Tuileries. There they were reviewed by General
Bonaparte and the leading officers of his command. He read to the
soldiers the decree which had just been issued under the authority of
the Council of the Ancients. This included the order for the removal
of the legislative body to St. Cloud, and for his own command. He was
entrusted with the execution of the order of the Council, and all of
the military forces in Paris were put at his disposal. In these hours
of the day there were all manner of preparation. That a conspiracy
existed was manifest to everybody. That General Bonaparte was reaching
for the supreme authority could hardly be doubted. His secretary thus
writes of him on the morning of the great day.
"I was with him a little before seven o'clock on the morning of the
eighteenth Brumaire, and, on my arrival, I found a great number of
generals and officers assembled. I entered Bonaparte's chamber, and
found him already up--a thing rather unusual with him. At this moment
he was as calm as on the approach of a battle. In a few moments Joseph
and Bernadotte arrived. I was surprised to see Bernadotte in plain
clothes, and I stepped up to him and said in a low voice: 'General,
everyone here except you and I is in uniform.' 'Why should I be in
uniform?' said he. Bonaparte, turning quickly to him, said: 'How is
this? You are not in uniform.' 'I never am on a morning when I am not
on duty,' replied Bernadotte. 'You will be on duty presently,' said
the general!"
To Napoleon the crisis was an epoch of fate. The first thing was to be
the resignation of Sieyes, Barras and Ducos, which--coming suddenly on
the appointed morning--broke up the Directory. Bonaparte then put out
his hand as commander of the troops. Too late the Republicans of the
Council of Five Hundred felt the earthquake swelling under their feet.
Napoleon appeared at the bar of the Assembly, and attempted a rambling
and incoherent justification for what was going on. A motion was made
to outlaw him; but the soldiers rushed in, and the refractory members
were seized and expelled. A few who were in the revolution remained,
and to the number of fifty voted a decree making Sieyes, Bonaparte and
Ducos provisional _Consuls_, thus conferring on them the supreme
executive power of the State. By nightfall the business was
accomplished, and the man of Ajaccio slept in the palace of the
Tuileries. He had said to his secretary, Bourriene, on that morning,
"We shall sleep to-night in the Tuileries--or in prison."
The new order was immediately made organic. There could be no question
when Three Consuls were appointed and Bonaparte one of the number,
which of the three would be _First_ Consul. He would be that himself;
the other two might be the ciphers which should make his unit 100. The
new system was defined as the "Provisionary Consulate;" but this form
was only transitional. The managers of the _coup_ went rapidly forward
to make it permanent. The Constitution of the Year III gave place
quickly to the Constitution of the Year VIII, which provided for an
executive government, under the name of the CONSULATE. Nominally the
Consulate was to be an executive committee of three, but really an
executive committee of _one_--with two associates. The three men
chosen were Napoleon Bonaparte, Jean Jacques Cambaceres and Charles
Francois Lebrun. On Christmas day, 1799, Napoleon was made FIRST
CONSUL; and that signified the beginning of a new order, destined to
endure for sixteen and a half years, and to end at Waterloo. The old
century was dying and the new was ready to arise out of its ashes.
HOW THE SON OF EQUALITY BECAME KING OF FRANCE.
The French Revolution spared not anything that stood in its way. The
royal houses were in its way, and they went down before the blast.
Thus did the House of Bourbon, and thus did also the House of Orleans.
The latter branch, however, sought by its living representatives to
compromise with the storm. The Orleans princes have always had a touch
of liberalism to which the members of the Bourbon branch were
strangers.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of
Orleans, fraternized with the popular party, threw away his princely
title and named himself Philippe Egalit�; that is, as we should say,
Mr. _Equality_ Philip. In this character he participated in the
National Assembly until he fell under distrust, and in despite of his
defence and protestations--in spite of the fact that he had voted for
the death of his cousin the king--was seized, condemned and
guillotined.
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