ter the violence of her love for Benjamin Constant, who drew
her back to politics, was somewhat cooled, she became an ardent
Republican, writing her treatise _Reflexions sur la Paix adressees
a M. Pitt et aux Anglais_, which facilitated her return in 1795 to
Paris, where she found her husband reinstalled as ambassador. Her
hotel in the Rue de Bac was reopened, and she proceeded to form a
salon from the debris of society floating about in Paris. It was an
assembly of queer characters--elements of the old and new regime, but
not at all reconciled, converts of the Jacobin party returning for the
first time into society, surrounded by the women of the old regime,
using all imaginable efforts and flattery to obtain the _rentree_ of
a brother, a son, or a lover; it was composed of the most moderate
Revolutionists, of former Constitutionalists, of exiles of the
Monarchy, whom she endeavored to bring over to the Republican cause.

Through the influence of Mme. de Stael, the decree of banishment was
repealed by the convention, thus opening Paris to Talleyrand. In 1795
appeared her _Reflexions sur la Paix Interieure_; the aim of that
work being to organize the French Republic on the plan of the United
States; it strongly opposed the restoration of the Monarchy. The
Comite du Salut Publique accused her of double play, of favoring
intrigues, and, seeing the plots of the Royalists, she adopted a new
plan in her salon; politics being too dangerous, she decided to devote
herself more to literature. In her book _Les Passions_ she endeavored
to crush her calumniators; she wrote: "Condemned to celebrity, without
being able to be known I find need of making myself known by my
writings."

It was not safe for her to return to Paris until 1797, when her friend
Talleyrand was made minister of foreign affairs. Her efforts to charm
Napoleon led only to estrangement, although he appointed her friend
Benjamin Constant to the tribunate; but when he publicly announced the
advent of the tyrant Napoleon, she was accused of inciting her friends
against the government, and was again banished to Coppet, where she
wrote the celebrated work _De la Litterature Consideree sous ses
Rapports avec les Institutions Sociales_, a singular mixture of
satirical allusions to Napoleon's government and cabals against
his power; in that work she announced, also, her belief in the
regeneration of French literature by the influence of foreign
literature, and endeavored