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 
