d, Lameth, Dupont, Boissy d'Anglas,
Portalis, Chenier, Roederer, and Benjamin Constant, discussed at the
place of familiar meeting many a half-formed decree, and many
important state nominations. The only member of the Directory who
visited there was Barras; and it was a common saying, that every visit
cost him a good deed; for Mme de Stael never slackened in her
intercessions for the victims of the tribunals. She infused courage
into the hearts of those who were pleaders for them. Through her
means, Talleyrand was recalled, and even named minister of foreign
affairs. 'He wanted some help,' she said, 'in order to arrive at
power, but none to enable him to keep it when gained.' Her sagacity
was at fault, if she persuaded herself that the returned
emigrant-priest would bring harmony into public counsels. On these
evenings, pregnant with deeds both evil and good, it was said that
some very foul conspiracies were concocted, and some of these were
directly imputed to Mme de Stael; but she earnestly denied the truth
of such surmises. Her salon, not herself, was guilty. Most generously
did she exert herself in behalf of those who suffered after such
conspiracies; but some one was heard to say: 'She is a good woman, but
would push any of her friends into the water for the delight of
fishing them up again with her own tackle.'

When the Consulate was established, Mme de Stael's salon empire was
watched by the rising influence of the day with a jealous eye. It was
certainly a turbulent scene. Very bitter were the complaints of the
men of the Revolution. They had risked so much; they had fought so
courageously for liberty! They saw the disorders of the time, but they
could not bear to lose all the fruits of their toil; and Garat and
Andrieux, Daunon and Benjamin Constant, urged on by the eloquence of
Mme de Stael, framed powerful appeals on these occasions for the
morrow. Bonaparte could not tolerate this. His power was too recently
gained--his projects too unripe. In vain did the friends of Mme de
Stael say, that a _salon_ could never be dangerous to a rule like his.
'It is not a salon,' said he; 'it is a club.' It was, in fact, the
antagonism between mind and physical force. The First Consul had said
before, of the orators of the Tribune: 'I have no time to answer these
refractory speechifiers: they _do_ nothing but perplex all things;
they must be silenced.' And one great point of attack was Mme de
Stael's salon. It was necess