l82 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. The ablest man among them was the t.^-Abbi Siiyes^ a clever, speculative politician, but his hand was not strong enough for tl.a task. When Buonaparte came back in October, JJ^, he took measures quietly with Sieyes and another Director, named Duces, who agreed that in time of war so unwieldy a state-machine as these two Councils could not work. The Directors were partly persuaded, partly compelled to resign, and the two Councils were per- suaded to sit at St. Cloud, while Buonaparte received the military command of Paris. On the 9th of November, 1799) the iSM Bnirtiaire of the year VI., as the French called it, followed by five grenadiers, he came before the Council of the Elders and told them that their constitu- tion was good for nothing, and that France, which he had left flourishing, had been beaten at all points, while for himself he was accompanied by the god of fortune and of war. The elders cheered him ; but when he repaired to the Five Hundred, where his brother, Lucieii Buona- parte, was president, and spoke in the same strain, a cry of '■ Cromwell " arose ; he was threatened with outlawry, collared, and hurled out of the room. But his grenadiers came to his rescue, and, while Lucian defended him by word, he showed his troops all the marks of the scuffle, telling them that he had pointed the way toglory and had been answered with daggers. A guard went in to fetch out his brother, and this done the drum was beaten, and Murat rushed into the Council, calling " Forward ! " Out dashed the Five Hundred by the doors and windows, leaving the place strewn with fragments of their gowns. In the evening about fifty were got together, who together with the Elders agreed to make three consuls, Buonaparte, Sieyes, and Ducos, for the purpose of drawing up a new coristitution. After the discussion of some plans of Sieyes' a constitution was framed, by which the executive power was placed for ten years in three consuls, Buonaparte, Cambaceres, and Lebrun, of whom Buonaparte was the first consul, and had all the real power. There was to be a senate appointed for life, a legislative assembly, and a body of a hundred Tribunes. All were to be appointed in a very complicated way, in which the people had no direct share. This constitution was put to a vote of the whole people, which the French call a plebiscite, and was accepted by a large majority. Buonaparte now took up his residence at the Tuilleries, with his wife, yosepliine de la Pagerie, the vidow of the Viscount of Beauharnais,
