The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

178 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
barricaded the streets at every point and cooped been a Garde da Corps, was distinguished for his
up the conventional troops within tie defensive intrepidity, and repeatedly rallied the National
position they had assumed, till want if provisions Guard tnder the stormofgrape-shot. Several other
obliged them to sally at disadvaritage or to surren- persons having fled, were in their absence capitally
der. But a popular force is generall impatient of condemned, but were not strictly looked after; and
dlelay. The retreat of Menou had giv, n them spirit, deportation was the punishment inflicted upon others.
and they apprehended, with some sl ow of reason, The accused were indebted for this clenlency chiefly
that the sections, if they did not uni.e their forces, to the interference of those members of Convention,
might be attacked and disarmed se[ Arately. They who, themselves exiled on the 31st May, had suftherefore resolved to invest the ( onvention in a fered persecution, and learned mercy.
hostile manner, require of the mem',ers to recal the The Convention showed themselves at the same
obnoxious decrees, and allow the iation to make a time liberal to their protectors. General Berruyer,
free and undictated election of its epresentatives. who commanded the volunteers of 1789, and other
On the 13th Venddmiaire, co),esponding to the general officers employed on the Day of the Sections,
4th October, the civil affray, cr,nmonly called the were loaded with praises and preferment. But a
Day of the Sections, took pl,.ce. The National separate triumph was destined to Bonaparte, as the
Guards assembled, to the nuae ier of thirty thousand hero of the day. Five days after the battle, Barras
men and upwards, but haviv no artillery. They solicited the attention of the Convention to the young
advanced by different avenr es, in close columns, officer, by whose prompt and skilfuil dispositions tile
but everywhere fbaund the,iost formidable resist- Tuileries had been protected on the 13th Vend&ance. One large force oc.dpied the quays on the nmiaire, and proposed that they should approve of
left bank of the Seine, thl,atening the palace from General Bonaparte's appointmlent as second in conlthat side of -the river.,4other strong division ad- mand of the Army of the Interior, Barras himself'
vanced on the Tuileries, through the street of St- still renmaining coilmander-in-chief. T'lle proposal
Honol-e, designingto de} ouche on the palace, where was adopted by acclamation. The Convention rethe Convention was sitt ng, by the Rue de l'Echelle. tained their resentment against Menon, whom they
They did so, without ouly reflecting that they were suspected of treachery; but Bonapa.rte inter'fering
flanked on most points by strong posts in the lanes as a mediator, they were content to look over iis
and crossings, defended by artillery. offence.
The contest began in the Rue St.Honore. Bona- After this decided triumph over their opponents,
parte had established a strong post with two guns at the Convention ostensibly laid down their authority,
the Cul-de-Sac Dauphin, opposite to the Church of and retiring from the scene in their present characSt-Roch. He permitted the imprudent Parisians to ter, appeared upon it a-new in that of a Priml-y
involve their long and dense columns in the narrow Assembly, in order to make choice of stch of their
street without interruption, until they established a members as, by virtue of the decrees of two-thirds,
body of grenadiers in the front of the church, as they were called, wereto remain on the stage, as
and opposite to the position at the Cul-de Sac. members of the Legislative Councils of Elders and
Each party, as usual, throws on the other the blame Five Hundred.
of commencing the civil contest for which both were After this change of names and dresses, reprepared. But all agree the firing commenced with sembling the shifts of a strolling company of players,
musketry. It was instantly followed by discharges the two-thirds of the old Convention, with one-third
of grape —shot and cannister, which, pointed as the of members newly elected, took upon them the
guns were, upon thick columns of the National administration of the new constitution. The two reGuards, arranged on the quays and in the narrow elected thirds formed a large proportion of' the
streets, made an astounding carnage. The National councils, and were, in some respects, much like
Guards offered a brave resistance, and even at- those unfortunate wonlen, who, gathered from jails
tempted to rush on the artillery, and carry the guns and from the streets of the metropolis, have been
by main force. But a measure which is desperate sometimes sent out to foreign settlements; and,
enough in the open field, becomes impossible when however profligate their former lives may have
the road to assault lies through narrow streets, which been, often regain character, and become tolerable
are swept by the cannon at every discharge. The memrnbers cfsociety, in a change of scene and situation.
citizens were compelled to give way. By a more The Directory consisted of Barras, Si6yes, Rewjudicious arrangement of their respective forces dif- bel, Letourneur de la Manche, and REveilldre
ferent results might have been hoped; but how could LUpeaux, to the exclusion of Tallien, who was
Danican in any circumstances have competed with deeply offended. Four of' these Directors were
Bonaparte? The affair, in which several hundred refbrmed jacobins, or thermidoriens; tihe fifth,
men were killed and wounded, was terminated as a Rdveilldre Lepeaux, was esteemed a girondist.
general action in about an hour; and the victorious Sityes, whose taste was rather for speculating in
troops of the Convention, marching into the different politics than acting in them, declined what he consections, completed the dispersion and disarmingof sidered a hazardous office, and was replaced by
their opponents, an operation which lasted till late Carlnot.
at night. The nature of the insurrection of the sections was
The Convention used this victory with the mode- not ostensibly royalist, but several of its leaders
ration which recollection of the reign of Terror had were of that party in secret, and, if successful, it
inspired. Only two persons suffered death for the would most certainly have assumed that complexion,Day of the Sections. One of them, Lafond, had Thus, the first step of Napoleon's rise commenced