ng in the feeling of power, said to me, 'You see me master of
Prance; well, I would not, undertake to govern her for three months
with liberty of the press. Louis XVIII., apparently thinking
himself stronger than Napoleon, is not content with allowing the
press its freedom, but has embodied its liberty in the charter"
(Metternich, tome iv, p. 391.)]--

CHAPTER XXXII.

1800.

Successful management of parties--Precautions--Removal from the
Luxembourg to the Tuileries--Hackney-coaches and the Consul's white
horses--Royal custom and an inscription--The review--Bonaparte's
homage to the standards--Talleyrand in Bonaparte's cabinet--
Bonaparte's aversion to the cap of liberty even in painting--The
state bed--Our cabinet.

Of the three brothers to whom the 18th Brumaire gave birth Bonaparte
speedily declared himself the eldest, and hastened to assume all the
rights of primogeniture. He soon arrogated to himself the whole power.
The project he had formed, when he favoured the revolution of the 18th
Fructidor, was now about to be realized. It was then an indispensable
part of his plan that the Directory should violate the constitution in
order to justify a subsequent subversion of the Directory. The
expressions which escaped him from time to time plainly showed that his
ambition was not yet satisfied, and that the Consulship was only a state
of probation preliminary to the complete establishment of monarchy.
The Luxembourg was then discovered to be too small for the Chief of the
Government, and it was resolved that Bonaparte should inhabit the
Tuileries. Still great prudence was necessary to avoid the quicksands
which surrounded him! He therefore employed great precaution in dealing
with the susceptibilities of the Republicans, taking care to inure them
gradually to the temperature of absolute power. But this mode of
treatment was not sufficient; for such was Bonaparte's situation between
the Jacobins and the Royalists that he could not strike a blow at one
party without strengthening the other. He, however, contrived to solve
this difficult problem, and weakened both parties by alternately
frightening each. "You see, Royalists," he seemed to say, "if you do not
attach yourselves to my government the Jacobins will again rise and bring
back the reign of terror and its scaffold." To the men of the Revolution
he, on the other hand, said, "See, the counter-Revolution appears,
threatening r