l of Five Hundred, now found them an obstacle.
The defeats of the armies were making them unruly. They had formed a
club, meeting in the Manege, that threatened to develop all the
characteristics of the old Jacobin Club, and that caused widespread
alarm. The Ancients ordered the closing of the _Manege_. But the
Jacobins, led by Jourdan, Bernadotte, minister of war, and others,
continued their meetings in new quarters. They began to clamour for a
new committee of public safety.

Sieyes now selected Joubert to retrieve the situation. This young
general had been one of Bonaparte's most brilliant divisional
commanders. He had a strong following in the army, was a staunch
republican, and was possibly a general of the first order. He was sent
for, was told to assume command in Italy, and was given every battalion
that could possibly be scraped together. With these he was to win a
battle decisive not only of the fate of Italy but of that of the
Republic and of the Directoire.

Joubert left Paris on the 16th of July. A month later, having
concentrated all that was left of the Italian armies together with his
{259} reinforcements at Genoa, he marched north. At Novi, half way to
the Po, Suvaroff barred his advance. A great battle was fought; the
French were heavily defeated; and Joubert was killed. One week later,
just as the disastrous news of Novi was reaching Paris, General
Bonaparte with a few officers of his staff embarked at Alexandria, and
risking the English men of war, set sail for France.

Bonaparte now becomes the central figure on the historical stage, and
the events that follow belong to his history more than to that of the
Revolution. Here all that remains to be done is to indicate the nature
of the change that now took place, his connection with the schemes of
Sieyes for ridding France of the Directoire and placing something more
effective in its stead.

While Bonaparte was sailing the Mediterranean,--seven long weeks from
Alexandria to Frejus,--the disgust and weariness of France increased.
Jourdan and Bernadotte, in a blundering way, attempted to wrest power
from the Directors, but proved unequal in prestige and ability to the
task;--a more powerful and more subtle political craftsman was needed.
Then in the gloom of the public {260} despondence three sudden flashes
electrified the air, flash on flash. Massena, with the last army of
the Republic, turning sharply right and left, beat the Austri