ds of the
sea: against them he now stored up a double portion of hate, for in
the meantime his inspectorship of coast artillery had been given to
his fellow-countryman, Casabianca.

The fortunes of these Corsican exiles drifted hither and thither in
many perplexing currents, as Buonaparte was once more to discover. It
was a prevalent complaint that there were too many of them seeking
employment in the army of the south; and a note respecting the career
of the young officer made by General Scherer, who now commanded the
French Army of Italy, shows that Buonaparte had aroused at least as
much suspicion as admiration. It runs: "This officer is general of
artillery, and in this arm has sound knowledge, but has somewhat too
much ambition and intriguing habits for his advancement." All things
considered, it was deemed advisable to transfer him to the army which
was engaged in crushing the Vendean revolt, a service which he loathed
and was determined, if possible, to evade. Accompanied by his faithful
friends, Marmont and Junot, as also by his young brother Louis, he set
out for Paris (May, 1795).

In reality Fortune never favoured him more than when she removed him
from the coteries of intriguing Corsicans on the coast of Provence and
brought him to the centre of all influence. An able schemer at Paris
could decide the fate of parties and governments. At the frontiers men
could only accept the decrees of the omnipotent capital. Moreover, the
Revolution, after passing through the molten stage, was now beginning
to solidify, an important opportunity for the political craftsman. The
spring of the year 1795 witnessed a strange blending of the new
fanaticism with the old customs. Society, dammed up for a time by the
Spartan rigour of Robespierre, was now flowing back into its wonted
channels. Gay equipages were seen in the streets; theatres, prosperous
even during the Terror, were now filled to overflowing; gambling,
whether in money or in stocks and _assignats_, was now permeating all
grades of society; and men who had grown rich by amassing the
confiscated State lands now vied with bankers, stock-jobbers, and
forestallers of grain in vulgar ostentation. As for the poor, they
were meeting their match in the gilded youth of Paris, who with
clubbed sticks asserted the right of the rich to be merry. If the
_sansculottes_ attempted to restore the days of the Terror, the
National Guards of Paris were ready to sweep them back into th