partly because they had been brainwashed by Napoleonic propaganda.
Bonaparte could not only appeal over the heads of the Directory to the
people of France but, like a Roman legionary commander of old, launch
his cohorts against his country's capital, if that became necessary. Over
and over again he referred to the 8o,ooo heroes who were just waiting for
the chance to defend the constitution against 'royalist conspirators,
cowardly lawyers and miserable chatterboxes'. On 14 July there appeared
this ominous proclamation to the Army of Italy: 'Mountains separate us
from France: but if it were necessary to uphold the constitution, to
defend liberty, to protect the government and the Republicans, then you
would cross them with the speed of an eagle.'
The resolution of the struggle for power on the Directory between
Right and Left took an unconscionable time, partly because Barras and
Talleyrand dithered about whether they really wanted to use Napoleon as
their 'sword' to settle accounts with Carnot and Barthelemy. There were
only two other possible candidates in mid-I79T Bernadotte and Hoche.
Bernadotte was soon out of the running because of his putative ultra
Jacobin views, but for a long time Barras favoured Lazare Hoche as his
hatchetman. Barras's plan was to make Hoche Minister of War as a
prelude to a military coup, but this plan was leaked to the Councils, and
Hoche became temporarily the prime target for the pro-royalist journals.
Something happened to him at this stage, which is most charitably
described as 'going to pieces'. A man who lived for honour and prestige,
Hoche could not take the virulent assault on his reputation and buckled
under the strain. Not yet thirty, he seemed suddenly to have the vigour of
a man of seventy and capped all by dying in mysterious circumstances:
some said it was melancholia, depression and despair that broke his heart,
others claimed he was swept away by tuberculosis, while still others
subscribed to the persistent canard that he had been poisoned by persons
or factions unknown.
Barras now had no choice, if he wanted to survive, than to turn to
Bonaparte. Delighted by the turn of fortune which had wiped out a
dangerous rival, Napoleon sent Augereau to Paris with an unambiguous
message: 'If you fear the royalists, call for the Army of Italy who will
swiftly wipe out the Chouans, the royalists and the English.' The
brilliance of this move was that Napoleon accepted his role as Barras's
'sword' and thus preempted an alliance between the Directors and any
other general, while holding himself aloof from the direct fray, so that it
could never be said that he had once again put down a rising of the people
of Pari s.
Augereau proved an efficient arm of Bonaparte's wrath. During the
marcin
(Marcin)
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