Note Back to Main Text — MEMOIRS, &c. &c. (continued 5)

The committee gave up the idea; not out of deference to the observations of M. Fouché, for he had lost all his empire over it; but because it was convinced on reflection, that things had gone too far, for any benefit to be expected from this desperate step. It would probably have rekindled the foreign war, and a civil war; and, though the soldiers might be depended on, their leaders could no longer be so, with the same security. Some, as General Sénéchal, had been stopped at the advanced posts, when going over to the Bourbons. Others had openly declared themselves in favour of Louis. The greater number appeared inflexible: but this difference of opinion had brought on distrust and dissensions; and in political wars all is lost, when there is a divergency of wills and opinions. Besides it would have been necessary, since the committee persisted in rejecting Napoleon, to place at the head of the army some other chief, whose name, sacred to glory, might serve as a stay and rallying point: and on whom could the choice of the committee fall[88]?