Although he would never escape charges from detractors that he abandoned his army, General Bonaparte's return from Egypt was greeted with enthusiasm by a population eager for change. Front and back of 5-franc coin with image of Napoleon as First Consul. Napoleon's venture into the previously untried and sordid arena of French politics posed the greatest risk yet in his ambitious career. Success meant ultimate power. Failure would result in prison, exile, or execution. Rebuffed at the siege of Acre, General Napoleon Bonaparte withdrew his army to Egypt where, in August 1799, he decisively crushed a large Turkish invasion army at Aboukir. Reading about the military reverses suffered by France, he returned on the frigate Muiron, landing at Fréjus on 9 October 1799. Overriding the quarantine regulations, he hastened to Paris, arriving on 14 October. By 10 November (in the revolutionary calendar, the 19 Brumaire) he was at the head of a new, temporary, government. By virtue of a new constitution, he was by December made First Consul, a Roman term evocative of the exploits of Julius Caesar. Napoleon's success in the coup d'état of Brumaire may be explained by the weakness of the French government, by the young general's long term expectations to seize power, and, to a lesser degree, by the participation of his family in the events of November 1799. Bonaparte's attachment to his family in Corsica had been a major factor in the evolution of his early career. Rather than seek promotion in the French army, he took prolonged leaves on his native island. He was anxious for success but too young for elected office, so he prodded his older brother Joseph to make more progress in local politics, tutored his younger brother Louis, supervised the family estate, plotted to seize the Ajaccio citadel, and sought to find employment for another younger brother, Lucien. He outstayed his allotment of leave and faced a court-martial. This could be avoided if he succeeded in gaining field rank at the head of a unit of the National Guard. He did so. Kidnapping one of the returning officers, and preventing one of his rival candidates from addressing the electors by having him violently pulled down from the podium, Bonaparte was elected lieutenant-colonel in Ajaccio in March 1792 at the age of 22. More ballots were cast than electors registered. This could be considered Bonaparte's first "coup." However, if secure as lieutenant-colonel, Bonaparte was unpopular as a result of the election, not least with the influential elder brothers of the defeated candidates, both deputies in the Legislative Assembly in Paris. The accidental murder of a priest by troops in Bonaparte's unit at Ajaccio made him yet more unpopular. Therefore, going to Paris, he made his peace with the Ministry of War, was promoted to captain in the French Army, and prepared to pursue an active military career on the mainland. But the overthrow of the monarchy on 10 August caused him to escort his sister Elisa from her boarding school back to Corsica. This return to Corsica had some unexpected results. Bonaparte was there in time to participate in the invasion of Sardinia in January 1793, itself a failure but which demonstrated that he indeed had genuine military talents. The Sardinia fiasco attracted negative attention to Corsica, already on the point of investigation by Paris because of corruption and inefficiency in its local administration. On 2 April 1793, Lucien Bonaparte made a speech in Toulon, promptly transmitted to Paris, denouncing the Corsican national hero and head of the local administration, General Pascal Paoli. Lucien's letter to his family, claiming that this would make their fortune, was intercepted and published in Corsica. Subsequent news of Paoli's condemnation by the Convention in Paris made life in Corsica intolerable for the Bonapartes, who fled to France. Up to this point Napoleon's family had proved a handicap to him. Career Take Off Now committed completely to France, Bonaparte's career took off. His role in the recapture of Toulon in 1793 at the age of 24 earned him promotion to general and the attention of Paul Barras, a rising politician. This in turn explains his selection by Barras to command the troops in Paris that ruthlessly suppressed an uprising against the government on the 13 Vendémiaire (5 October 1795). The incident was immortalized as the "whiff of grapeshot" which helped influence his selection as commander-in-chief of the Army of Italy. The incredibly successful campaign of 1796-1797 made him a European celebrity. It was then that his thoughts first turned towards the attainment of ultimate power. As he stated on St. Helena: "It was not until the evening of the battle of Lodi [10 May 1796] that I believed myself to be an outstanding man, and that I had the ambition to carry out the great things that, until then, passed through my mind as a fantastic dream." Increasingly, General Bonaparte disregarded orders from the government in Paris. He interfered in political matters — most flagrantly, negotiating peace with the Austrians in 1797. He learned how to manipulate the press and mold public opinion through publishing newspapers extolling his successes, and he made sure they were distributed in Paris. The five-man Directorate that ruled France, however exasperated, had to accept his actions. The government depended on the flow of gold that Bonaparte levied from Italy. He was popular, the Directors were not. Even more importantly, they needed him to keep them in office. Faced with the likelihood of yet another insurrection in Paris in 1797, they appealed to Bonaparte, who sent a detachment of troops from his Army of Italy under the command of General Pierre François Charles Augereau. Deployed in the streets on 4 September, they enabled some of the Directors to arrest the others and manipulate the results of the legislative elections in their favor. This was known as the Conspiracy of Fructidor. Yet another French government was formed to try and achieve stability and prosperity. The Pear is not Ripe It was not surprising therefore that the possibility of Bonaparte's participation in the government should have been considered by his friends and feared by the Directors. No wonder they were happy to see him sail for Egypt the following year. Fortunately for them, Napoleon was too young to be a Director. In a long conversation in April 1797 with the Italian politician Melzi, Bonaparte revealed his thoughts: "It is my intention to leave Italy only when I can play a similar role in France and that moment has not come. La poire n'est pas mûre [The pear is not ripe]." This phrase is highly significant. It suggests that Napoleon had every expectation of securing supreme power, that he thought the government so rotten that it would fall into his hands, and that he had self-control enough to make no premature moves. As the opportunity was not there yet, he went off to the Orient. While Napoleon was campaigning in Egypt and Syria, the benefits of his victories in Italy were lost by the ineptitude of the Directory and misfortune in the field. Britain, Austria and Russia formed a second coalition against France in 1799. A crushing series of Austro-Russian victories under Russian Field Marshal Suvorov recaptured nearly all of Italy. An Anglo-Russian expedition landed in Holland. France was threatened with invasion. The economy was disintegrating and there were food shortages. The Royalists planned a comeback. The insurrection in the Vendée and elsewhere flared up anew. In this atmosphere of crisis and chaos, plots developed to change the French government again. Faced with all of these difficulties, the leading Director, Barras, anxious to preserve himself, managed to get his other colleagues to resign. Of the new Directors, the most significant was Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Siéyès. A former priest, he was adept at writing constitutions and had indeed dreamed up more than one. But his ideas had been spurned in the course of the Revolution, much to his chagrin, and he had declined office under these conditions. Now he accepted it, thinking that he could save the Republic with a better constitution. Siéyès realized that in order to succeed he would need the support of the army; he needed a "sword." General Barthélemy Catherine Joubert was recommended to him by the new Minister of Police, Joseph Fouché. Regrettably, Joubert, whom Siéyès had expected to be a tool in his hands, died in the battle of Novi on 15 August. This partly explains why on 18 September the government recalled Bonaparte from Egypt. However, Napoleon had already sailed on 23 August without orders. Due to the terrible conditions in France, and General Bonaparte's reports of success and great discoveries in Egypt, it is not surprising that his return to Paris in mid-October 1799 was greeted with public jubilation. He, however, kept a low profile, dressing as a civilian. By now Siéyès' conspiracy was well advanced, especially with the cooperation of Foreign Minister Charles Maurice Talleyrand and Fouché who were instrumental in bringing Siéyès and General Bonaparte together. Bonaparte finally began to derive some benefits from his family. Lucien, riding on his brother's popular coattails, had been elected to the Council of Five Hundred, the Lower Chamber of the Legislature. In October 1799 he was elected its President. Conspiracy Lucien and Napoleon met with conspirators at country houses outside Paris, including Joseph Bonaparte's vast estate and castle at Mortefontaine. Joseph too was a member of the council of Five Hundred, but less conspicuous than Lucien. Napoleon's wife Josephine, no doubt anxious to make amends for her adulterous conduct during Napoleon's absence in Egypt, also helped. One of the new Directors, Louis Jerome Gohier, had fallen in love with her, and Josephine kept him so distracted that he quite ignored the machinations of the conspirators. Joseph Bonaparte's brother-in-law, General Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was a Jacobin — the radical left of the political groups. Until recently, Bernadotte had been Minister of War and might have led a Jacobin coup. Joseph's task was to watch over him, and, in the end, Bernadotte played no part against the coup of Brumaire. Not yet a member of the Bonaparte family was General Joachim Murat, but he was actively courting Caroline Bonaparte. Murat was one of a group of pro-Bonaparte generals rounding up support in the army, as was General Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, married to Napoleon's favorite sister Pauline. Later, as the coup was in progress at St. Cloud, Napoleon's mother, Letizia Bonaparte, and his sister Pauline ostentatiously attended the theater, thus demonstrating that nothing unusual was happening. On the 18 Brumaire the legislative bodies were told that because of a terrorist plot they should hold their sessions just outside of Paris, at the château de Saint-Cloud. Siéyès and his acolyte Pierre Roger Ducos resigned as Directors. Barras was induced to resign by Talleyrand, many think as the result of a combination of bribes and blackmail. Gohier, along with Jean-François-Auguste Moulin, neither of whom would resign, were held incommunicado in the Luxembourg palace. The next day (19 Brumaire), the two legislative bodies met at Saint-Cloud in the afternoon. General Bonaparte in person attempted to persuade the Ancients (Senators) and the Five Hundred of the necessity of urgent measures, but he was shouted down in both Houses. At a loss, Napoleon committed a serious error and replied with a veiled threat. A hostile crowd of deputies rushed him and the sudden crush of bodies temporarily stunned him. Precipice of Oblivion As James Arnold notes in his new book, Marengo and Hohenlinden: "Bonaparte staggers on the precipice of oblivion." His brother Lucien saved the day. As President of the Five Hundred, Lucien kept the session going after his brother left the building, then stood down to participate in the discussions. Outside, Murat gathered soldiers to invade the room and forcibly dissolve the assembly. Lucien was confronted by grenadiers loyal to the Legislative Assemblies. In order to firm the support of these troops, he theatrically threatened to stab Napoleon himself if his brother's intentions were bad. This sensational gesture, along with his authority as President of the Five Hundred, persuaded the grenadiers to stand aside. Murat's men then entered the building and drove out the Five Hundred at the point of the bayonet, many legislators jumping from the windows and running through the fields. Lucien saw to it that enough were hauled back to participate in a rump assembly that voted to endorse the proposal now made by the Ancients: There should be a government of three consuls and a dissolution of the assemblies. At 2:00 a.m. Bonaparte, Siéyès and Ducos were sworn in as consuls of a new government. The next day the process of disinformation began. Bonaparte, using all his propaganda skills developed in Italy and Egypt, blamed the Directory for all the things that were wrong, contrasting this with the France he had left in 1798. Assassination attempts against himself and his brother were exhaustively denounced, however nonexistent. In fact, most of the claims asserted at this time in defense of the coup were fraudulent. Yet, from the seeds of these fabrications sprouted what Professor Jean Tulard calls the "the myth of the savior." It is still extant, along with great controversy. While most historians agree that Napoleon was necessary to save the Revolution from the inadequacies of the Directory, the larger question remains: To save the Revolution was it necessary to destroy the Republic? Or was the Republic already dead through the greed and incompetence of one failed government after another? If not Bonaparte, would Siéyès have in the end found another less brilliant sword? In his early career Napoleon had been handicapped by the burden of his family and sabotaged by Lucien's great blunder of 1793. During Brumaire, his family had provided essential help in the coup, Lucien most of all. But Lucien and other republicans were duped by Napoleon, for the new regime was not the one they had anticipated, nor indeed the one Siéyès had planned. Lucien accepted no titles from Napoleon until 1815 and spent four years in exile in England. One of Napoleon's melancholy reflections as he lay dying was that "kings are brought down by their families." However true this statement may have been after 1815, this was not the case in 1799. Color Illustration: The Conspirators (83K) Excerpt: French Countryside: Oct. 1799 J.M.P. McErlean, a leading Napoleonic era diplomatic historian, is a faculty member of York University, which has the largest undergraduate history enrollment in Canada and the second largest in North America. 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