aralleled state of confusion.

Bonaparte saw nothing in men but helps and obstacles. On the 18th
Brumaire Fouche was a help. The First Consul feared that he would become
an obstacle; it was necessary, therefore, to think of dismissing him.
Bonaparte's most sincere friends had from the beginning been opposed to
Fouche's having any share in the Government. But their disinterested
advice produced no other result than their own disgrace, so influential a
person had Fouche become. How could it be otherwise? Fouche was
identified with the Republic by the death of the King, for which he had
voted; with the Reign of Terror by his sanguinary missions to Lyons and
Nevers; with the Consulate by his real though perhaps exaggerated
services; with Bonaparte by the charm with which he might be said to have
fascinated him; with Josephine by the enmity of the First Consul's
brothers. Who would believe it? Fouche ranked the enemies of the
Revolution amongst his warmest partisans. They overwhelmed him with
eulogy, to the disparagement even of the Head of the State, because the
cunning Minister, practising an interested indulgence, set himself up as
the protector of individuals belonging to classes which, when he was
proconsul, he had attacked in the mass. Director of public opinion, and
having in his hands the means at his pleasure of inspiring fear or of
entangling by inducements, it was all in his favour that he had already
directed this opinion. The machinery he set in motion was so calculated
that the police was rather the police of Fouche than that of the Minister
of the General Police. Throughout Paris, and indeed throughout all
France, Fouche obtained credit for extraordinary ability; and the popular
opinion was correct in this respect, namely, that no man ever displayed
such ability in making it be supposed that he really possessed talent.
Fouche's secret in this particular is the whole secret of the greater
part of those persons who are called statesmen.

Be this as it may, the First Consul did not behold with pleasure the
factitious influence of which Fouche had possessed himself. For some
time past, to the repugnance which at bottom he had felt towards.
Fouche, were added other causes of discontent. In consequence of having
been deceived by secret reports and correspondence Bonaparte began to
shrug up his shoulders with an expression of regret when he received
them, and said, "Would you believe, Bourrienne, that I have been imp