all to be
patient, and wait calmly for the decision of the Council, which could
not, now, be long of coming.

As they were still at table, M. Carnet, the deputation of the Council,
entered, and delivered into Buonaparte's hands the sealed packet, from
which he announced to the assembly that the legislative bodies had been
removed to St. Cloud, to avoid the interruption of popular clamour, and
that he, General Buonaparte, was named Commander-in-chief of the Army,
and intrusted with the execution of the decree.

This first step had been effected by the skilful agency of Sieyes and
Roger Ducos, who spent the whole of the preceding night in issuing
the summonses for a meeting of the Council to such as they knew to be
friendly to the cause they advocated. All the others received theirs too
late; forty-two only were present at the meeting, and by that fragment
of the Council the decree was passed.

When Buonaparte had read the document to the end, he looked around
him on the fierce, determined faces, bronzed and seared in many a
battle-field, and said, "My brothers in arms, will you stand by me
here?"

"We will! we will!" shouted they, with one roar of enthusiasm.

"And thou, Lefebvre, did I hear thy voice there?"

"Yes, General; to the death I'm yours."

Buonaparte unbuckled the sabre he wore at his side, and placing it in
Lefebvre's hands, said, "I wore this at the Pyramids; it is a fitting
present from one soldier to another. Now, then, to horse!"

The splendid _cortege_ moved along the grassy alleys to the gate,
outside which, now, three regiments of cavalry and three battalions
of the 17th were drawn up. Never was a Sovereign, in all his pride of
power, surrounded with a more gorgeous staff. The conquerors of Italy,
Germany, and Egypt, the greatest warriors of Europe, were there grouped
around him--whose glorious star, even then, shone bright above him.

Scarcely had Buonaparte issued forth into the street than, raising his
hat above his head, he called aloud, "_Vive la Republique!_" The troops
caught up the cry, and the air rang with the wild cheers.

At the head of this force, surrounded by the Generals, he rode slowly
along towards the Tuileries, at the entrance to the gardens of which
stood Carnet, dressed in his robe of senator-in-waiting, to receive him.
Four Colonels, his aides-de-camp, marched in front of Buonaparte, as he
entered the Hall of the Ancients--his walk was slow and measured, and
his air s