least to a desire for a stable government, in which she might
place her confidence, upon which she might lean, which would act
for her, and which would permit her some repose while it acted.

In the stead of this vaguely desired government, the country
obtained the feeble and irresolute Directory, composed for the
moment of the voluptuous Barres, the intriguing Sieyes, the brave
Moulins, the insignificant Roger Ducos, and the honest but somewhat
too ingenuous Gohier. The result was a mediocre dignity before
the world at large and a very questionable tranquillity at home.

It is true that at the moment of which we write our armies, so
glorious during those epic campaigns of 1796 and 1797, thrown
back for a time upon France by the incapacity of Scherer at Verona
and Cassano, and by the defeat and death of Joubert at Novi, were
beginning to resume the offensive. Moreau had defeated Souvarow
at Bassignano; Brune had defeated the Duke of York and General
Hermann at Bergen; Massena had annihilated the Austro-Russians at
Zurich; Korsakof had escaped only with the greatest difficulty;
the Austrian, Hotz, with three other generals, were killed, and
five made prisoners. Massena saved France at Zurich, as Villars,
ninety years earlier, had saved it at Denain.

But in the interior, matters were not in so promising a state,
and the government of the Directory was, it must be confessed,
much embarrassed between the war in the Vendee and the brigandages
of the Midi, to which, according to custom, the population of
Avignon were far from remaining strangers.

Beyond doubt the two travellers who descended from the carriage