HISTORY OF EUROPE. [13 



execution, it was communicated to 

 wider and wider circles of such 

 members of the legislative assem- 

 blies, as they reckoned with con- 

 fidence among their friends and 

 adherents. And, what is remark- 

 able in so communicative a nation, 

 the secret, though necessarily im- 

 parted to a great number of persons, 

 was kept till the moment of the 

 intended explosion. On the even- 

 ing of the day after the feast, twenty 

 members of both councils assembled 

 at the house of Lemercier, president 

 of the council of elders. These 

 were Lucien Buonaparte, Boulay 

 de la Meurthe, Lemercier, Cour- 

 tois, Cabarrus, Regnier, Fargues, 

 Villetard, Chazal, Barillon, Bou- 

 teville, Cornet, Wimar, Delecloy, 

 Fregeville, le Ilatry, Goupil, Pre- 

 selyn, Rousseau, Herwyn, Cor- 

 nudet. These legislators, after 

 taking an oath of secrecy, sepa- 

 rated, for the purpose of preparing 

 as many as they could trust for the 

 new crisis. 



By an article of the constitution 

 of the third year of the republic, 

 1 795, it was established " that the 

 council of elders might change 

 wlienever they should think proper, 

 tjie residence of the legislative 

 bodies • that in this case they should 

 appoint a new place and time for 

 tlie meeting of the two councils ; 

 and that whatever the ciders should 

 decree, with regard to this point, 

 should be held irrevocable. This 

 fundamental law, which had been 

 ad()[)ted on the recommendation 

 and authority of abbo Sieyes, wlio 

 liad been a member of tlic commis- 

 sion for framing the constitution. 



became the fulcrum, as it were, of a 

 new revolution. A majority of the 

 commission of inspectors, agreeably 

 to what had been agreed on, on 

 the pretext of jacobin conspiracies 

 ready to burst forth in Paris (an 

 alarm for which, according to some 

 writers, there was not a little foun- 

 dation), sent letters of convocation 

 to the members of the council of 

 elders, with the exception of such 

 as were distinguished by an excess 

 of Jacobinical ardour, and at eight 

 o'clock in the morning of the ninth 

 of November, the members, to 

 whom letters had been sent, at five, 

 assembled at their usual place of 

 meeting. The greatest number, ig- 

 norant of the cause of this unusual 

 convocation, were informed, by 

 those in the secret, of a consf)iracy 

 that was brewing, and advised 

 the adoption of whatever eftectual 

 measures should be proposed for 

 averting the danger. As soon as 

 the assembly was formed, Carnot, 

 one of the inspectors, having as- 

 cended the tribune, represented 

 the dangers which threatened the 

 country, and expatiated on the 

 necessity of speedy and effective 

 measures for its deliverance. He 

 was followed in the same, but in a 

 more animated and alarming strain 

 by Regnier, who, in conclusion, 

 declared, that the remedy which 

 had been prepared, was, to trans- 

 port the legislative body to a com- 

 mune near Paris, where they might 

 deliberate safely on the measures 

 necessary for the salvation of tlio 

 country. He assured the council, 

 at the same time, tliat Buonaparte 

 was ready to undertake the cxecu- 



dclicient in tlic knowlodgft of men unci business. 'J'liis is tlie same Roedeier that is 

 noticed in our volume for 1792, on tlie occasion of the kind's throwing himself into 

 the arms of the constituent assembly. See volume XXX IV. of this work.— History 

 of Europe, page 42. 



