It taught a severe lesson to a fickle populace which, according to Mme.

de Stael, was hungering for the spoils of place as much as for any political object.

Of all the events of his post-Corsican life, Buonaparte need surely never have felt compunctions for Vendemiaire.[34] After four signal reverses in his career, he now enters on a path strewn with glories.

The first reward for his signal services to the Republic was his appointment to be second in command of the army of the interior; and when Barras resigned the first command, he took that responsible post.

But more brilliant honours were soon to follow, the first of a social character, the second purely military.
Buonaparte had already appeared timidly and awkwardly at the _salon_ of the voluptuous Barras, where the fair but frail Madame Tallien--Notre Dame de Thermidor she was styled--dazzled Parisian society by her classic features and the uncinctured grace of her attire.