Her husband nodded. ' As I was about to say, we have since suffered another revolution and, but for the threat of the guillotine, we again suffer under a tyranny almost as bad as that of Robespierre.'
' That was General Augereau's doing, was it not? ' Roger remarked.
' Yes. He arrived here from Italy in the late summer. Covered with jewels and prancing about on his great charger, he rode round the city stirring up trouble wherever he went. By early September he had hatched a plot with Barras. On the 'th he led two thousand soldiers to the Legislative Assembly, arrested the officers of its guard and suborned their men. When the Deputies asked him by what right he dare break into their Chamber he waved his sabre in their faces and bellowed, '' By the law of the sword." He arrested some of them and dispersed the rest. By nightfall it was all over. Barras placarded the city with announcements that a Royalist plot had been discovered and that the revolution had been saved only by immediate action. Over two hundred Constitutionalist Deputies were permanently deprived of their seats. Carnot got away, but Barth£lemy refused to flee. He, General Pichegru and some dozen other leaders of the Moderates were condemned to transportation and shipped off to Cayenne.'
Madame Blanchard raised her eyes and hands in horror. ' Monsieur, you cannot conceive that even the worst of men could treat others of their kind with such brutality. They were trundled across France all the way to Rochefort in open iron cages on wheels, half-starved, and at every stop that was made their guards allowed mobs of ruffians to pelt them with refuse. Even worse followed, for it has since been learned that their voyage to America lasted seven whole weeks. For all that time they lay battened down in the hold with only weevilly biscuits and brackish water to sustain them.'
' Indeed, madame,' Roger agreed, with a sad shake of his head, ' the '' dry " guillotine is far more to be feared than the '' wet" one Many of them, too, were men advanced in years who, as in the case of poor Barthelemy, had rendered valuable service to their country. It is disgraceful that they should have received such treatment.'
After a moment he turned to Blanchard and asked, 'Is it believed that there was a Royalist plot? '
' No; not the ghost of one,' the landlord declared firmly. '1 doubt if there was a single Deputy who wanted a King back, and most of the Constitutionalists differed so widely from one another in their views of what ought to be done that no group would have been large enough to overthrow the Directory.'
' Since they had in common the aims of securing a greater degree of tolerance and bringing about a peace, I find it surprising that sufficient of them did not combine to form a powerful party.'
' That can be partly explained by the seating arrangements in the Chamber, initiated by the Thermidorians. With the object of preventing the formation of such formidable blocs as the " Mountain which might have opposed them, the Directors got a law passed that a separate chair and desk should be provided for each Deputy, and once a month they had to draw lots for where they were to sit. The result was that no two of them sat side by side for more than four weeks. Men of similar opinions could not get together and consult with one another during a session, so their opposition was unco-ordinated and haphazard.'
' From what I am told, I gather the Jacobins again have complete control of the situation.'
' Yes; and they've brought back all the old repressive measures. They have removed every magistrate and official in the Departments where the expelled Deputies were elected, and reinstated their own cronies. Between 10th Thermidor and 18th Fructidor over fifteen thousand names were struck from the lists of emigres, but there have since been very few. Hearing of the turn things had taken, thousands of other exiles returned, without waiting to be struck off the lists. They were publicly welcomed by their friends and no action was taken against them. Now they are in hiding and again in fear of their lives. Should they be denounced to one of these Jacobin courts I was speaking of they are certain to be shot, as the penalty for returning without a permit is death.'
'And the poor Fathers,' lamented Madame Blanchard. 'All over France they had come out of hiding and, although the churches remained closed to them, no objection was raised to their celebrating Mass. Everywhere people were crowding into rooms to hear them, and had begun publicly to observe Sundays again. But now, wherever they can be found, they are seized and killed. On Sundays, too, these abominable atheists compel everyone to work and the children to attend school, while on every tenth day shops must close and anyone who lifts a finger is liable to a heavy fine.'
Her husband nodded. ' Yes, the persecution of the religious is as fierce as ever it was. And, of course, that has set La Vendee aflame once more. General Hoche had done a fine thing there. They sent him to exterminate the Breton priests and their followers. But he was a clever man as well as a brave one. After defeating the Chouans he met their leaders and agreed to grant them a degree of religious tolerance. The country was pacified in no time so, instead of a great Army being tied up there burning villages and massacring indiscriminately men, women and children, he was able to send the greater part of his troops to reinforce our Armies abroad under General. Bonaparte and General Moreau.'
'1 heard tell of Hoche's wise conduct while I was in Italy,' Roger said. ' It was a tragedy that he should have been carried off by consumption last September. And doubly so for a man like him, for one may be certain he would have been far happier had he died in action with his troops, even if it had been when their transports were caught and sunk by Admiral Duncan at the battle of Camperdown.'
' His death is a great loss; but I know one man who has no cause to regret it,' remarked the landlord shrewdly, ' and that's General Bonaparte.'
Roger smiled. ' You are right. Hoche was the only General with the ability, charm and strength of character to have become his rival. Now the ''Little Corporal's" place as first soldier in the Armies of France cannot be disputed.'
For an hour or so longer they continued to talk, then Roger thanked his good friends for the excellent meal and went out to pay his respects to his master.
The house occupied by Bonaparte in the Rue de la Victoire had been given by Barras to Josephine—whom most people believed to have been his mistress—before her marriage. A soldier now stood on guard between two stone lions flanking a long passage that led from the street. He accompanied Roger along to the small, two-storeyed villa at its end where, having sent in his name, Roger was allowed to enter. A servant took him through to the back of the house and into a drawing room with french windows looking on to a little garden.
Bonaparte was standing in a corner, talking animatedly in his harsh voice with its strong Italian accent to Pleville Le Pelay, the Minister of Marine. He acknowledged Roger's entrance with only a nod. But Josephine was seated by the fireplace, with the son and daughter she had had by- her ' first' husband, the Vicomte de Beauharnais, and all three of them greeted Roger with obvious pleasure.
Josephine was then in her thirty-fifth year and was a dark, well-preserved beauty. Her well-rounded form was supple, her manner languorous and she gave the impression that if a man took her in his arms she would give a sigh and melt in his embrace. Her reputation was far from spotless, but no worse than the majority of the women who made up the high society of the post-revolutionary era, and she was the soul of kindness. Her only physical shortcoming was that she had bad teeth.