HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
having more pliancy than fortitude, 
and of being rather a time server* ; 
but by those who had observed him 
More carrowly,~he was reputed 
more cautious than timid, and seem- 
ed less desirous of life itself, than 
anxious to see in what manner those 
stependous events would terminate, 
‘in which he bore so considerable a 
“share. He was by the rigid repub- 
Jicans considered as a concealed 
royalist; but the stern and decisive 
_ manner in-which he veted for the 
king’s death i!l agrees with such a 
suspicion. Though fond of influ- 
etice, and not easily foiled in his 
| pretensions and efforts to prescribe 
in-matters of opinion, yet he studi- 
ously avoided ostensibility, and left 
to others the danger, as well as the 
honour, of acting an open and ex. 
plicit part; his known abilfties 
made him a valuable acquisition to 
his party, but as he chose to guide 
unseen he never appeared as a 
leader; and his absence from the 
field of a¢tion, on many important 
occasions, had thrown a stigma of 
uncertainty upon his character, 
which he farther confirmed by re- 
fusing to accept of the high dignity” 
now conferred upon him. This 
refusai occasioned some perplexity. 
‘Though Sieyes could not be charge 
with the various enormities that 
either preceded or followed the 
king’s death, yet his unequivocal 
_ assent to this deed, and his connec- 
tions with that sanguinary faction, 
_ styled the mountain, sufficiently re- 
commended him to the jacobins and 
‘terrorists, as a man whose inclina- 
tion, as well as extraordinary ta- 
ents, fitted him for the highest 
trusts in their power toconfer. His 
one of their rivals. 
f217 
place, after some intrigues and dif. 
ficulties, was supplied by Carnot, 
a man of whose capacity. the most 
brilliant proofs had appeared in the 
arrangement and dire¢tion of mili- 
tary affairs, during the three pres 
ceding campaigns. To him was 
originally attributed the constant 
success that attended the. arms of 
the republic. He was in the cas 
binet. what the celebrated Folard 
had been in the field; an oracle to 
all the generals that consulted him, 
and the aethor of those multifarious 
plans, in executing which they rose 
themselves to such celebrity: though 
bred in the army, and, in the pro- 
gress of the revolution, necessarily 
connected with Roberspierre, in the 
time of his exaltation, yet he was 
wholly guiltless of his harbarities, 
and was only, known by his utility 
These four members of the dis 
reftory were avowedly of the ruling 
party, which would willingly have 
added another out of their own 
body; but the fear of disobliging 
the majority of the nation, by con» 
fining these honours entirely to 
themselves, induced them to remit 
their partiality, and to allow a par« 
ticipation in the supreme power to 
The ian thus 
distinguished was Larevelliere Le. 
paux. He was professionally a law« 
yer, yeteminent not only forhis parts, 
but his-integrity ; he was remark- 
able for the plainness of his man- 
ners, and his aversion to intrigue; 
his disposition was calm and studi- 
ous, and he had cultivated lJitera- 
ture with uncommon success+ he 
of Bertrand de Moleville affirms, that Sieyes was needy and desirous of coming over 
the side of the court,in 1789, on the condition of his being appointed to a rich 
i / 
“abbacy; amatter which was in agitation, but neglected by the archbishop of Seas. 
[13 had 
