That gave five hours for the Deputies to form groups outside and discuss the situation. Excitedly they said to one another, 'What is this plot that has been used as a pretext to get us out of Paris? ' ' Why were the " patriot" members of the Anciens not summoned to its meeting yesterday?' 'What are all these hundreds of troops doing bivouacked in the park? It can only be to coerce us. Bonaparte is a traitor. He intends to betray the Revolution and make himself Dictator.'
As time went on tempers rose, indignation increased and many of even the Moderate Deputies declared their determination to resist any attempt to alter the Constitution. At last, at one o'clock, when the Orangerie was ready to receive the Five Hundred, the Deputies streamed into it, angry, intense and, almost to a man, hostile to Bonaparte.
The clamour was such that Lucien had difficulty in getting a hearing. He called on Gaudin, one of the conspirators, who proposed that a Committee be formed to report on the state of the Republic and that the assembly should adjourn until the report was presented. The proposal was aimed at getting rid of the Five Hundred while giving the Anciens time to retrieve the situation. But it did not work. The Deputies saw through it and shouted it down with cries of execration. 'The Constitution or death! ' they yelled. 'No Dictatorship! Bayonets do not frighten us! We are free men! Down with the Dictators! '
When the pandemonium had died down, Grandmaison proposed that the members should individually renew their oath to the Constitution. The whole Assembly rose to its feet, shouting ' Vive la Republic!' The motion was carried by acclamation and the next two and a half hours were passed going through this, in the circumstances, futile ceremony.
The Anciens had met in the Gallery of Apollo and things were not going well there either. The Deputies who had deliberately been kept away from the previous day's sitting were indignantly demanding an explanation and, when they asked for particulars of the Jacobin plot, no one could give them any. The five Directors had been sent a formal notification of the session. At half past three the news was received that three of them had resigned and the other two were under arrest. The Deputies who were not in the plot then took alarm, and it looked as though the Anciens, too, would turn against Bonaparte.
With Sieyes, Ducos and others of his co-conspirators, Bonaparte was in a room on the first floor of the Palace. Every few minutes news was brought to them of what was going on in the two Chambers. Roger was not among the aides-de-camp who kept them informed. He had been allotted the task of acting as liaison with Talleyrand, and neither Talleyrand nor Fouche was in the Palace.
The wily Minister of Police had preferred to remain in Paris so that, if things went wrong, he could disclaim any connection with the conspirators; but, even so, he rendered them a valuable service. At midday he ordered the gates of Paris to be closed, thus preventing any mobs marching out of the city to support the Jacobin Deputies at St. Cloud.
Talleyrand, the arch-conspirator, was also much averse to taking an active part in coups d'etat. He preferred on such days to stay at home; but the preceding day he had felt that unless he used his persuasive powers personally Barras might have refused to resign and, as the conference that night had left matters in such an uncertain state, he had decided that he dare not remain more than a few minutes' distance from Bonaparte during the all-important sessions at St. Cloud in case the General made a mess of things. He had, therefore, hired a small house near the Palace and had driven out to it that morning accompanied by Roederer, de Montrond and Roger. As the hours passed they became more and more anxious.
So, too, did Bonaparte. Soon after three o'clock Jourdan arrived on the scene and, far worse, he brought with him that terrible, swashbuckling revolutionary, General Augereau. Rumours then came in that the Five Hundred had sent representatives back to Paris to raise the mobs and sieze the city. On hearing this Bonaparte decided to make a personal bid for the support of the Anciens.
Accompanied by Berthier and Bourrienne he entered the Chamber of Apollo and asked permission to address the Assembly. It was granted but, when he started to speak, it was obvious to everyone that he had lost his nerve.
This was the second important occasion in his career when he had done so. The first had been in Italy, before the battle of Castiglione. On the previous day the castle and village had been in the hands of the French. After only a weak defence, General Valette had allowed the Austrians to push him out of them. As the castle dominated the situation and Bonaparte's Army was already partially surrounded he had been absolutely furious and, on the spot, reduced Valette to the ranks. But that did not improve the situation.
At a morning Council of War Augereau and the other Generals urged that the only possible course was to retake the castle by assault and cut their way out. Bonaparte, faced with this unexpected hitch in his carefully laid plans, temporarily lost his resolution. Fearful of having his unbroken chain of victories brought to an end by a shattering defeat, he refused to give any orders at all. Exclaiming 'I wash my hands of it! I am going away! ', to the utter amazement of the others he walked out of the tent. Augereau had shouted after him, 'Who, then, is to take command? ' ' You,' Bonaparte shouted back. Augereau had then led his Division in a furious charge up the hill and driven the Austrians out of the castle. Only after it had been taken did Bonaparte actively resume his Command. It was on account of this that, later in his career, whenever anyone complained to him of Augereau's outrageous behaviour, he always excused him by saying, 'Ah, but remember what he did for us at Castiglione.'
Now, again, Bonaparte went all to pieces. He spoke hesitantly, in confused, broken sentences, muttering vaguely that he did not intend to play the part of a Cromwell; that the Jacobins had made a plot; that the Constitution had often been violated before. Horrified at the lack of firmness he was suddenly displaying, when he stammered to a stop not knowing what to say next, Berthier and Bourrienne took him by the arms and hurried him out of the Chamber.
Whitefaced, de Montrond came hurrying over to Talleyrand to tell him what had happened. Clearly disaster was imminent. Talleyrand turned to Roger.
'Go to him, Breuc. He has faith in you. Tell him from me that he must now throw aside all legal scruples. He must use his troops or he is lost.'
Roger set off at a run across the park. By the time he reached the Palace, Bonaparte, his mind still hopelessly confused, had apparently had the idea that he might be better received by the Five Hundred. With four Grenadiers as an escort, he entered the Orangerie. His appearance was met with howls of rage. The Deputies began to fight among themselves, while the greater part of them yelled, ' Down with the Dictator! Down with Cromwell! ' A huge Deputy, named Destrem, hurled himself on Bonaparte and struck him several times. His Grenadiers dragged him, bruised and bleeding, from the Chamber. As they did so the terrible cry went up, 'Hors la toil Outlaw him! Outlaw him! Death to the traitor! '
As Roger entered the hall he heard those cries which threatened an end not only to the attempt to give France a new Government, but to Bonaparte's life. At the top of the long staircase he saw the General stumbling along between the Grenadiers as they helped him back to the room in which Sieyes and the others waited.
At the foot of the stairs Roger halted. Never in his life had he been faced with alternatives which could have such momentous results as at that moment. By prompt action, the situation might still be saved. But if he refrained from delivering Talleyrand's message Bonaparte was finished. Mr. Pitt believed Bonaparte to be the most dangerous potential leader of Britain's enemies, and close on two years before he had sent Roger to France with definite instructions to do everything he could to wreck the career of the young General. Those were Roger's orders. Chance had put it into his power to carry them out, finally and completely. Dare he ignore them?