No one but the great Corsican would have dared to brave the comments which this coincidence provoked.

But he was necessary to France, and all men knew it.

At the first sitting of the provisional Consuls, Ducos had said to him: "It is useless to vote about the presidence; it belongs to you of right"; and, despite the wry face pulled by Sieyes, the general at once took the chair.
Scarcely less remarkable than the lack of energy in statesmen was the confusion of thought in the populace.Mme.Reinhard tells us that after the _coup d'etat_ people _believed they had returned to the first days of liberty_.

What wonder, then, that the one able and strong-willed man led the helpless many and re-moulded Sieyes' constitution in a fashion that was thus happily parodied: "J'ai, pour les fous, d'un Tribunat Conserve la figure; Pour les sots je laisse un Senat, Mais ce n'est qu'en peinture; A ce stupide magistrat Ma volonte preside; Et tout le Conseil d'Etat Dans mon sabre reside." * * * * *.