nder Leclerc had been chiefly furnished, and they considered
their employment in that unwholesome climate as dictated, more by the
Consul's doubts of their fidelity to himself, than his high appreciation
of their discipline and gallantry. How far Pichegru, while corresponding
with the Bourbons as head of the army of the Rhine, had intrigued among
his own soldiery, no evidence has as yet appeared. But after Pichegru's
banishment, Moreau possessed the chief sway over the minds of one great
division of the armed force of the Republic.

Carnot, meantime, and other genuine republicans in the legislative
bodies, had been occupied with the endeavour, since they could not
prevent Napoleon from sitting on the throne of France, to organise at
least something like a constitutional opposition (such as exists in the
Parliament of England) whereby the measures of his government might be,
to a certain extent, controlled and modified. The creation of the Legion
of Honour, the decree enabling Buonaparte to appoint his successor, and
other leading measures, had accordingly been carried through far less
triumphantly than could be agreeable to the self-love of the autocrat.

On the other hand, the return of so many emigrants--(a great part of
whom, not receiving back the property promised to them, were
disappointed and aggrieved anew)--could not fail to strengthen the
influence of the royalists in the private society of Paris; and by
degrees, as has often happened in the history of parties, the leaders of
the republicans and those of the Bourbonists came together, sinking for
the time the peculiar principles of either side, in the common feeling
of hatred to Napoleon.

Pichegru returned from his exile at Cayenne, and after spending some
time in England, where he, no doubt, communicated with the Bourbon
princes, and with some members of Mr. Addington's government, passed
over secretly into France. Georges Cadoudal and other Chouan chiefs were
busy in stirring up their old adherents, and communicated with Pichegru
on his arrival in Paris.

Suddenly, on the 12th of February, Paris was surprised with the
announcement, that a new conspiracy against the life of the Chief Consul
had been discovered by the confession of an accomplice; that 150 men had
meant to assemble at Malmaison in the uniform of the consular guard, and
seize Buonaparte while hunting; that Georges, the Chouan, had escaped by
a quarter of an hour--but that Mairn, La Jollais,