Page:Memoirs of Baron Hyde de Neuville; outlaw, exile, ambassador; (IA memoirsofbaronhy01hyde).pdf/152

122 shown, for a moment, was no secret, and only the courage of Lucien saved the situation. This fact passed unnoticed by the multitude, or at least, they paid little attention to it; but it was carefully noted by those who were studying the position.

A great task lay before Buonaparte; to restore immense ruins, and strengthen ground that had been deeply shaken; but everything concurred to render it easy tohim, All stretched out their hands to a liberator, no matter whom, and prepared to second his efforts. The miseries which weighed down the country, were so many helps to the government that sought to remedy them. It is always an advantage, for a new order of things to begin with acts of justice and reparation. Buonaparte, at once, abolished the forced loan, and law of hostages, and recalled those who had been transported after the 18th Fructidor. This last measure was a natural consequence of the fall of the Directory; but the act of justice was incomplete,—Pichegru was excluded, This exception, in the case of a fellow-student and comrade-at-arms, showed a want of magnanimity full of rancour and suspicion, that was very significant,

It was a happy chance for Buonaparte, that his fellow- consul Siéyés possessed the knowledge of administration that Buonaparte then lacked, although it must be owned that he acquired it with marvellous facility, It would be difficult, indeed, to say what favourable chances were wanting to him. Men, hitherto the most hostile, were carried away by the stream. Even Morcau, who had been chosen as the future Dictator, became, in a manner, his lieutenant; it was an act of renunciation that did Moreau honour. �