618 
chamber, at the head of a detachment in 
close column.) ‘At this crisiss General 
B * #o* ventured to ask) him ‘for fifty 
men, in order to: place himself in ‘am- 
buseade upon the way, and fire upon the 
fagitives:’ Napoleon’ relied! to ‘this’ re- 
quest) only’ by enjoining ‘the grenadiers 
to: commit! no ‘excesses.’ ‘It is my 
wish,*said she, “ that not one drop of 
blood may’ be shed.” ; 
| Marat presented himself at the door, 
and summoned the Council to disperse. 
The shouts and vociferations continued. 
Colonel Moulins, “aide-de-camp of 
Brune, who had just arrived from Hol- 
land; ‘ordered the charge to be beaten. 
Thedrum jut ao end to the clamour. 
The soldiers entered the chamber charg- 
ing bayonets.- The deputies leaped out 
at the windows, and dispersed, leaving 
their'gowns, caps, &c.: in one noment 
the) chamber was empty. Those mem- 
hexs of the Council who had shewn most 
pertinaeity; fled with the’ utmost pre- 
cipitation to Paris. 
About one hundred deputies of the 
Five’ Handred rallied at the office and 
round the|inspectors of the hall. They 
presented themselves in a body to the 
Couneil of the Ancients. Lucién re- 
preseiited that the Vive Hundred had 
been dissolved at his instance; that, in 
the exercise of his functions as Presi- 
dent of ihe assembly, he had been sur- 
rounded ‘by daggers; that he bad sent 
attendants to ‘summon the Council 
again; that nothing had been done con- 
trary to form, and that the troops had 
but obeyed his mandate. The Council 
of the Ancients, which had witnessed 
with some! mneasiness this exercise of 
military power, was satisfied with th 
explanation. At eleven at night the two 
Councils‘ re-assembled; they formed 
large majorities.’ Two committees were 
appointed to report upon the state of the 
Republic. On the report of Beranger, 
thanks to Napoleon and the troops were 
carried. Boulay de Ja Meurthe; in the 
Five Handred, and Villetard in the An- 
cients, detailed the situation of the Re- 
public, and the measures necessary to 
be-taken. - The law of the 19th of Bru- 
maire was passed; it. adjourned the 
Couneils to’the Ist of Ventose follow- 
ing; it created two committees of twenty- 
five members each, torepresent the Coun- 
ceils: provisionally. | These committees 
were also to prepare a civil code. A Pro- 
visional Consular Commission, consisting 
of Sieyes,'Roger-Ducos, and Napoleon, 
was charged with the executive power, 
4 soe 
Napoleon s\ History of France, 
“PASSAGE OF THE SAINT-BERNARD, 
The first Consul preferred the passage 
of the Great Saint-Bernard, to that of 
Mount Cenis: the one was not’ more 
difficultthai the other. There is a road 
practicable for Artillery, leading from 
Lausanne to Saint-Pierre, a villagevat 
the foot of the Saint- Bernard; and from 
the village’ of Saint! Remi | to Aosta; 
there is likewise away practicable for 
carriages. The difficulty then lay only 
in the ascent and ‘descent of the Suint- 
Bernard: the same difficulty ‘existed 
with respect to the passage of! Mount 
Cenis; but the passage of Saint#Bernard 
offered the advantage of leaving ‘Parin 
on the right, and acting in a country 
more covered and’ Iess known,‘ and “in 
which the movements’ ‘of ‘the army 
could go on more secretly than upon the 
high road of Savoy, where’ the enemy 
would of course have numerous’ spies. 
A speedy passage of the artillery ap 
peared impossible. A’ great numberof 
mules, and a considerable quantity of 
small eases, to hold the infantry cart- 
ridges and the ammunition ‘of: the ‘ar- 
tillery, had been provided. These eases, 
as well as mountain-forges, were to be 
carried by the mules, so’ that) the real 
_ difficulty which remained to be ‘str- 
mounted, was that of getting the pieces 
themselves over. Buta hundred trunks 
of trees, hollowed out for the reception 
of the guns, which were fastened into 
them by their trunnions, had been pre- 
pared before hand: to every piece’ thus 
arranged, a hundred soldiers were to be 
attached ; the carriages were to be taken 
to picces and placed upon mules.) Alb 
these arrangements’ were carried’ into 
execution by the Generals of Artillery 
Gassendi and Marmont, with'so muctt 
promptness that the march of| the’ ar- 
tillery caused no delay: the troops them- 
selves made it a point of honour’ not’ to 
leave their artillery in the rear, and un- 
dertook to drag it along: Throughout 
the whole passage the regimental bands 
were heard; and it was only in ‘difficult 
spots that the charge was beaten 'to 
give fresh vigour to the soldiers:'* One 
entire division, rather than Ieave their 
artillery, chose to bivouac upon the 
summit of the mountain in the ‘midst of 
show and excessive cold; instead® of de- 
scending into the plain, though they had 
time to do so before night. 'T'wo half 
companies of artillery-artificers iadibeen 
stationed in the villages of Saint-Pierre 
and Saint-Remi; witha few field-forges 
for dismounting and remounting 'the-va- 
ww ‘rious 
