66 CARNOT. 



% 



of the majority. The exception to which I am about 

 to allude, will be furnished by our Directorial govern- 

 ment. 



When the elections of the year V. brought a reinforce- 

 ment of royalists to the two minorities of the Council 

 of Five-Hundred, and of the Elders, who till then had 

 limited themselves to making a very moderate opposition 

 to the Directory ; when, strong in what they thought the 

 popular support, the minority, fancying that they had be- 

 come the majority, took off the mask so far as to name 

 for the presidency of the Council of Five-Hundred that 

 same Pichegru, who not long before had branded with 

 treason the laurels that he had gained in Holland in the 

 name of the Republic ; when the enemies of the Direc- 

 torial power openly unveiled their projects in the saloons 

 of the celebrated Clichy Club ; when the recriminations, 

 the reciprocal accusations, that had reached the utmost 

 violence, were already succeeded by deeds of violence 

 against patriots, and the gainers of national property, 

 our troops were yet everywhere triumphant. The army 

 of the Rhine and Moselle under the orders of Moreau, 

 the army of the Sambre and Meuse, commanded by 

 Jourdan, had gloriously crossed the Rhine ; they were 

 marching into the heart of Germany ; the army of Italy 

 was only twenty leagues from Vienna ; at Leoben, Bona- 

 parte signed the preliminaries of the much wished-for 

 treaty of peace. Without compromising the negotiations, 

 he could show himself touchy about mere questions of 

 etiquette ; he could BLUNTLY refuse to let the name of 

 the Emperor of Germany precede that of the French 

 Republic in the protocols ; he could also, when General 

 Meerwald, and the Marquis del Gallo talked to him 

 about gratitude, answer, without a boast, in the following 



