appeared. A soldier of fortune presented himself,
covered with glory; he had planted the standard of France on the Capitol
and on the Pyramids. The whole world acknowledged his superior talent;
his character, his courage, and his victories had raised him to the very
highest rank. His great works, his gallant actions, his speeches, and
his proclamations ever since he had risen to eminence left no doubt of
his wish to secure happiness and freedom to France, his adopted country.
At that critical moment the necessity of a temporary dictatorship, which
sometimes secures the safety of a state, banished all reflections on the
consequences of such a power, and nobody seemed to think glory
incompatible with personal liberty. All eyes were therefore directed on
the General, whose past conduct guaranteed his capability of defending
the Republic abroad, and liberty at home,--on the General whom his
flatterers, and indeed some of his sincere friends, styled, "the hero of
liberal ideas," the title to which he aspired.

Under, every point of view, therefore, he was naturally chosen as the
chief of a generous nation, confiding to him her destiny, in preference
to a troop of mean and fanatical hypocrites, who, under the names of
republicanism and liberty, had reduced France to the most abject slavery.

Among the schemes which Bonaparte was incessantly revolving in his mind
may undoubtedly be ranked the project of attaining the head of the French
Government; but it would be a mistake to suppose that on his return from
Egypt he had formed any fixed plan. There was something vague in his
ambitious aspirations; and he was, if I may so express myself, fond of
building those imaginary edifices called castles in the air. The current
of events was in accordance with his wishes; and it may truly be said
that the whole French nation smoothed for Bonaparte the road which led.
to power. Certainly the unanimous plaudits and universal joy which
accompanied him along a journey of more than 200 leagues must have
induced him to regard as a national mission that step which was at first
prompted merely by his wish of meddling with the affairs of the Republic.

This spontaneous burst of popular feeling, unordered and unpaid for,
loudly proclaimed the grievances of the people, and their hope that the
man of victory would become their deliverer. The general enthusiasm
excited by the return of the conqueror of Egypt delighted him to a degree
which I cannot