ate they saw so near them. Nothing bound them
together but fear and a common hatred for the obtrusive dogmatist at
the head of affairs; and it was not evident to each that they were
acting in the same cause. But there was a man among them, still
somewhat in the background, but gifted with an incredible dexterity,
who hurled Napoleon from power in 1815 and Robespierre in 1794.

Fouche, formerly an Oratorian, had been one of the most unscrupulous
deputies on missions, and had given the example of seizing the
treasure of churches. For he said there were no laws, and they had
gone back to the state of nature. After the execution of Hebert he was
recalled from Lyons; and Robespierre, whose sister he had asked in
marriage, defended him at the Jacobins on April 10. Being an unfrocked
ecclesiastic, he was elected president of the Club on June 6, as a
protest against the clerical tendencies of Robespierre. On the 11th,
immediately after the procession, and the law of Prairial, Fouche
attacked him in a speech in which he said that it is to do homage to
the Supreme Being to plunge a sword into the heart of a man who
oppresses liberty. This was the first opening of hostilities, and it
seems to have been premature. Fouche was not supported by the club at
the time, and some weeks later, when Robespierre called him the head
of the conspiracy against him, he was expelled. He was a doomed man,
carrying his life in his hand, and he adopted more subtle means of
combat. July 19, five days after his expulsion, Collot was elected
President of the Convention. He and Fouche were united in sacred bands
of friendship, for they had put 1682 persons to death at Lyons. About
the same day others joined the plotters, and on July 20, Barere, the
orator of the Committee, who watched the turning of the tide, made an
ambiguous declaration portending a breach. No plan of operations had
been agreed upon, and there was yet time for Robespierre, now fully
awake to the approaching danger, to strike an irresistible blow.

During the last few weeks the position of the country had undergone a
change. On the 1st of June, Villaret Joyeuse had given battle to the
English off Ushant. It was the beginning of that long series of fights
at sea, in which the French were so often successful in single combat,
and so often defeated in general actions. They lost the day, but not
the object for which they fought, as the supplies of American grain
were brought safely into po