Bernadotte was
present, and I believe General Jourdan also. While the grand conspiracy
was hastening to its accomplishment Madame Bonaparte and I had contrived
a little plot of a more innocent kind. We let no one into our secret,
and our 16th Brumaire was crowned with complete success. We had agreed
to be on the alert to prevent any fresh exchange of angry words. All
succeeded to the utmost of our wishes. The conversation languished
during dinner; but it was not dulness that we were afraid of. It turned
on the subject of war, and in that vast field Bonaparte's superiority
over his interlocutors was undeniable.

When we retired to the drawing-rooms a great number of evening visitors
poured in, and the conversation then became animated, and even gay.
Bonaparte was in high spirits. He said to some one, smiling, and
pointing to Bernadotte, "You are not aware that the General yonder is a
Chouan."--"A Chouan?" repeated Bernadotte, also in a tone of pleasantry.
"Ah! General you contradict yourself. Only the other day you taxed me
with favouring the violence of the friends of the Republic, and now you
accuse me of protecting the Chouans.

--[The "Chouans," so called from their use of the cry of the
screech-owl (chathouan) as a signal, were the revolted peasants of
Brittany and of Maine.]--

"You should at least be consistent." A few moments after, availing
himself of the confusion occasioned by the throng of visitors, Bernadotte
slipped off.

As a mark of respect to Bonaparte the Council of the Five Hundred
appointed Lucien its president. The event proved how important this
nomination was to Napoleon. Up to the 19th Brumaire, and especially on
that day, Lucien evinced a degree of activity, intelligence, courage, and
presence of mind which are rarely found united in one individual I have
no hesitation in stating that to Lucien's nomination and exertions must
be attributed the success of the 19th Brumaire.

The General had laid down a plan of conduct from which he never deviated
during the twenty-three days which intervened between his arrival in
Paris and the 18th Brumaire. He refused almost all private invitations,
in order to avoid indiscreet questions, unacceptable offers, and answers
which might compromise him.

It was not without some degree of hesitation that he yielded to a project
started by Lucien, who, by all sorts of manoeuvring, had succeeded in
prevailing on a great number of his colleagues to be pre