Ducos, waited
for their colleague, Barras, in the hall of the Directory, to adopt some
measure on the decree for removing the Councils to St. Cloud. But they
were disappointed; for Barras, whose eyes had been opened by my visit on
the preceding night, did not join them. He had been invisible to his
colleagues from the moment that Bruix and M. de Talleyrand had informed
him of the reality of what he already suspected; and insisted on his
retirement.

On the 18th Brumaire a great number of military, amounting to about
10,000 men, were assembled in the gardens of the Tuileries, and were
reviewed by Bonaparte, accompanied by Generals Beurnonville, Moreau, and
Macdonald. Bonaparte read to them the decree just issued by the
commission of inspectors of the Council of the Ancients, by which the
legislative body was removed to St. Cloud; and by which he himself was
entrusted with the execution of that decree, and appointed to the command
of all the military force in Paris, and afterwards delivered an address
to the troops.

Whilst Bonaparte was haranguing the soldiers, the Council of the Ancients
published an address to the French people, in which it was declared that
the seat of the legislative body was changed, in order to put down the
factions, whose object was to control the national representation.

While all this was passing abroad I was at the General's house in the Rue
de la Victoire; which I never left during the whole day. Madame
Bonaparte and I were not without anxiety in Bonaparte's absence.
I learned from Josephine that Joseph's wife had received a visit from
Adjutant-General Rapatel, who had been sent by Bonaparte and Moreau to
bring her husband to the Tuileries. Joseph was from home at the time,
and so the message was useless. This circumstance, however, awakened
hopes which we had scarcely dared to entertain. Moreau was then in
accordance with Bonaparte, for Rapatel was sent in the name of both
Generals. This alliance, so long despaired of, appeared to augur
favourably. It was one of Bonaparte's happy strokes. Moreau, who was a
slave to military discipline, regarded his successful rival only as a
chief nominated by the Council of the Ancients. He received his orders
and obeyed them. Bonaparte appointed him commander of the guard of the
Luxembourg, where the Directors were under confinement. He accepted the
command, and no circumstance could have contributed more effectually to
the accomplishment of Bonaparte's