42 
Memoirs of Napoleon. 
repaired to St. Cloud, where the sol¬ 
diers occupied all the avenues. The 
council of ancients assembled in the 
galleries; that of five hundred, of 
which Lucien Bonaparte was the pre¬ 
sident, met in the Orangery. Bona¬ 
parte entered the hall of the ancients, 
and addressed them in a spirited speech, 
vindicating his own character, and 
calling on them to exert themselves in 
behalf of liberty and equality. In the 
council of five hundred, meanwhile, a 
violent scene took place. Several mem¬ 
bers demanded an enquiry into the rea¬ 
son, why the meeting had been trans¬ 
ferred to St. Cloud. Lucien Bonaparte 
endeavoured to calm the storm which 
was evidently rising, but the proposi¬ 
tion had created a great deal of heat, 
and the cry was— 44 Down with the Dic¬ 
tator ! No Dictator /” At that mo¬ 
ment Bonaparte entered the hall with 
four grenadiers. Several of the mem¬ 
bers exclaimed — 44 Ifliat does this 
mean? No sabres here! No armed 
men/” while others descended into the 
hall and surrounded him, collaring 
him, and crying out— 44 Outlaw him l 
Down with the Dictator /” At this 
moment General Lefebvre came to his 
assistance, and they retired together. 
Bonaparte mounted his horse, and 
leaving Murat to observe what was 
going on, he sent a piquet of grenadiers 
into the hall. These grenadiers, con¬ 
ducted by Murat, entered at the charge- 
step to the sound of the drum, with 
bayonets fixed, when Lucien declared 
that the representatives who wished to 
assassinate his brother were audacious 
robbers in the pay of England. He 
then proposed a decree, which was im¬ 
mediately adopted, to this effect:— 
44 That his brother, and all those wdio 
had seconded him, deserved well of 
their country; that the directory was 
at an end; and that the executive power 
should be placed in the hands of three 
provisory consuls, namely, Bonaparte, 
Sieyes, and Roger Ducos.” 
A legislative committee, chosen from 
the tw T o councils, then, in conjunction 
w T ith the consuls, framed a constitution, 
which ’was known as the constitution of 
the year 8. By this fourth constitution 
Bonaparte was declared first consul, 
and Cambaceres and Le Brun second 
and third, or assistant consuls. The 
same commission created a senate, a 
council of state, a tribunate, and a le¬ 
gislative body. 
He now published a proclamation to 
[Aug. I 
the French people, in which he declared 
that he desired peace, that he had sought 
it with England, but that the English 
government had refused to listen to any 
terms. Under these circumstances, 
France had nothing left but to shew to 
the disturbers of the public peace, that 
she could maintain tranquillity. The 
result of these measures w r as prepara¬ 
tions for carrying on a vigorous w T ar, 
and he looked to Italy, the theatre of 
his first glory, for the stage to com¬ 
mence operations. He assembled the 
army, and addressed the soldiers in a 
proclamation, in which he said, he did 
not want them 44 to assist in defending 
their own frontiers, but to invade the 
states of their enemies.” He left Paris 
towards the end of April, 1800, with a 
well-appointed army, for Italy. He 
passed the Great St. Bernard by a won¬ 
derful inarch, hurst into Italy, and, 
after several minor successes, he utterly 
defeated the Austrians, under General 
Melas, at Marengo, on the 14tli of June, 
1800. The vanquished general pur¬ 
chased the safety of his army by the 
surrender of Italy into the power of the 
conqueror. 
This battle, and that of Hohenlin- 
den, enabled Bonaparte to dictate the 
conditions of peace to the House of 
Austria. The result w r as the re-esta¬ 
blishment of the Cisalpine republic. 
In the interior of France, the efforts of 
the royalists were frustrated, and La 
Vendee w^as compelled to submit to the 
republic. 
Just at this moment, also, the object 
next Bonaparte's heart was on the eve 
of being accomplished—a peace with 
England ! Peace had been concluded 
with Russia and Portugal, he had me¬ 
diated for Switzerland, and he had 
given to the Italian republic a new T con¬ 
stitution, placing himself at the head 
of that government; and, shortly after, 
England recognised in him the chief 
magistrate of France. Peace w 7 as con¬ 
cluded at Amiens on the 27th of March, 
1802, the preliminaries having been 
signed some months before. The ac¬ 
complishment of this object secured to 
him the consulate for life. 
This elevation produced him enemies 
among the envious and wicked; 
all parties in England united their 
prejudices against the revolution and 
Bonaparte, and under various pre¬ 
texts, recommenced the war. On the 
24th of December, as he was passing 
in his carriage through the Rue St. Ni- 
caise, 
