to the ideals of freedom and democracy, but being flexible in the means to achieving
them. He detested royalism, but he also feared a return of Jacobin terrorism, anarchy, and
the confiscation of private property: he deplored the arbitrary exercise of power, but on
this occasion he was willing to tolerate it. It is perhaps not too early to speak of
Constant’s developing political position as liberal—a notoriously difficult one to
maintain without exposing oneself at times to accusations of trimming or of having one’s
cake and eating it. Constant’s speech to the Cercle constitutionnel, which was widely
commented on in the press, was entitled ‘For the planting of a Tree of Liberty’—a
reminder of the curious secular ceremonies characteristic of France in the post-
revolutionary period. He had no doubt had to preside in his official capacity at Luzarches
at other stranger rites recently invented by the Republic to replace earlier religious ones.
In fact on 5 November 1797 Constant was reinstated to an honorary post there, and took
up his seat having sworn the customary oath of hatred of royalty and anarchy and fidelity
to the Republic and the Constitution of Year III.^65
In early January 1798 Constant accompanied Germaine de Staël to the Swiss border,
then returned to Hérivaux. At this stage Germaine was a fervent admirer of the hero of
Italy, the young General Bonaparte and on his return to Paris in December 1797 she had
succeeded in meeting him.^66 Now on 28 January 1798 French troops entered the Pays de
Vaud, which was annexed by France. Such an invasion by the government he was
supporting was not likely to endear Constant to his family in Switzerland, but he wrote
confidently to his aunt de Nassau on 19 February 1798 about the Vaudois’s liberation
from the yoke of Berne:
If the overthrow of everything that was founded on simply
privilege and prejudice was inevitable, all one can hope is that this
change takes place in an atmosphere of calm and good order. That
is the nature of your revolution, and one could call it more a series
of reforms.^67Whether Constant was really quite as sanguine about the prospects for his
native canton as he appeared to be is perhaps doubtful, but he could hardly
afford to lose his nerve now that there was a distinct possibility of his
being elected to the Legislature in the forthcoming elections. He took a
step along that road when on 22 March he was made an elector for the
canton of Luzarches and wrote to the Director Barras on 27 March to ask
for his support in now being elected a deputy.
68
He made a desperate bid
at electoral meetings in Versailles to have himself nominated for the
Department of Seine-et-Oise, but he had acquired too many enemies and
was unsuccessful. One outcome was a duel in the Bois de Boulogne with
Georges Sibuet, one of the owners of L’Ami des lois, a newspaper which
had campaigned against him; it resulted in Constant’s receiving an
apology.^69
Benjamin constant 166