onsul. Shortly after, he appeared in his new official
costume, a dress of red silk and a black stock. Someone observed to him
that this last article was out of keeping with the rest: "No matter,"
answered he, smiling, "a small remnant of the military character will do
us no harm." It was about the same time that Buonaparte heard of the
death of Washington. He forthwith issued a general order, commanding the
French army to wrap their banners in crape during ten days in honour of
"a great man who fought against tyranny and consolidated the liberties
of his country."

Talleyrand, appointed minister of foreign affairs by Buonaparte, was now
the chief partner of his counsels. The second Consul, Cambaceres, soon
learned to confine himself to the department of justice, and Lebrun to
that of finance. The effective branches of government were, almost from
the first, engrossed by Napoleon. Yet, while with equal audacity and
craft he was rapidly consolidating the elements of a new monarchy in his
own person--the Bourbonists, at home and abroad, had still nourished the
hope that this ultimate purpose was the restoration of the rightful king
of France. Very shortly after the 18th Brumaire, one of the foreign
ambassadors resident at Paris had even succeeded in obtaining a private
audience for Messieurs Hyde de Neuville and Dandigne, two agents of the
exiled princes. Buonaparte received them at night in a small closet of
the Tuileries, and requested them to speak with frankness. "You, sir,"
they said, "have now in your hands the power of re-establishing the
throne, and restoring to it its legitimate master. Tell us what are your
intentions; and, if they accord with ours, we, and all the Vendeans, are
ready to take your commands." He replied that the return of the Bourbons
could not be accomplished without enormous slaughter; that his wish was
to forget the past, and to accept the services of all who were willing
henceforth to follow the general will of the nation; but that he would
treat with none who were not disposed to renounce all correspondence
with the Bourbons and the foreign enemies of the country. The conference
lasted half-an-hour; and the agents withdrew with a fixed sense that
Buonaparte would never come over to their side. Nevertheless, as it will
appear hereafter, the Bourbons themselves did not as yet altogether
despair; and it must be admitted, that various measures of the
provisional government were not unlikely to kee