The Final Stages of the Revolution 475

Because the role of the army had grown enormously, he concluded that it
would emerge as the arbiter of France’s political future. In the face of
endemic instability, Sieves decided in 1799 to overthrow the Directory. The
go-between was Talleyrand, the foreign minister. The career of Talleyrand
provides another remarkable example of revolutionary survival; a detractor
once claimed that Brie cheese was “the only king to whom he has been
loyal.’’ Sieves contacted General Napoleon Bonaparte. On November 9,
1799 (the 18th Brumaire), General Bonaparte announced to the hastily con­
vened councils that another Jacobin conspiracy had been uncovered and
that a new constitution had to be framed to provide France with a stronger
executive authority. The deputies were justly dubious. Some demanded his
immediate arrest. Napoleon’s response was incoherent and ineffective, but
the quick thinking of his brother, Lucien, president of the lower assembly,
saved Bonaparte from one of his few moments of indecision. Lucien
rejected the call for a vote to outlaw Napoleon, and he ordered troops to
evict members who opposed him. Those w'ho remained delegated complete
power to Sieves and General Bonaparte. Would Napoleon, whose rise to
pow'er would have been almost unthinkable without the French Revolution,
be the heir of the French Revolution, or its destroyer?

A contemporary British caricature of the 18th Brumaire: “The Corsican Crocodile

dissolving the Council of Frogs!!!”