streets covered with dead and wounded: the troops of the Convention
marched into the various sections, disarmed the terrified inhabitants,
and before nightfall everything was quiet.

This eminent service secured the triumph of the Conventionalists, who
now, assuming new names, continued in effect to discharge their old
functions. Barras took his place at the head of _the Directory_, having
Sieyes, Carnot, and other less celebrated persons, for his colleagues;
and the First Director took care to reward the hand to which he owed his
elevation. Within five days from _the day of the Sections_ Buonaparte
was named second in command of the army of the interior; and shortly
afterwards, Barras, finding his duties as Director sufficient to occupy
his time, gave up the command-in-chief of the same army to his "little
Corsican officer."

He had no lack of duties to perform in this new character. The National
Guard was to be re-organised; a separate guard for the representative
body to be formed; the ordnance and military stores were all in a
dilapidated condition. The want of bread, too, was continually producing
popular riots, which could rarely be suppressed but by force of arms. On
one of these last occasions, a huge sturdy fishwife exhorted the mob to
keep to their places, when Buonaparte had almost persuaded them to
disperse. "These coxcombs with their epaulettes and gorgets," said she,
"care nothing for us; provided they feed well and fatten, we may
starve." "Good woman," cried the general of the interior, who at this
time was about the leanest of his race, "only look at me,--and decide
yourself which of the two is the fatter." The woman could not help
laughing: the joke pleased the multitude, and harmony was restored.

Buonaparte, holding the chief military command in the capital, and daily