very soon that head and sword would go together.
The 18th Brumaire was contrived by Sieyès; but he was in his coach,
outside S. Cloud, when Napoleon entered to dissolve the Council of
the Five Hundred. In face of the tumult within Bonaparte lost his
confidence and was thrust forth by the Deputies. He found Sieyès in
his carriage, to which were harnessed six horses, ready to start at
full gallop should the _coup_ fail. “Do they seek to outlaw you?” asked
Sieyès. “Man, outlaw them yourself.” Napoleon recovered himself and
re-entered the hall at the head of his soldiery. The situation was
saved.
Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Roger-Ducros were nominated Consuls. The
Revolution had abdicated into the hands of the military. That same
evening Sieyès said to his intimates, “We have given ourselves a
master.”
Afterwards, Bonaparte, as first Consul, took him into the Senate, and
granted to him the domains of Crosne. Later, it was said—
“Bonaparte à Sieyès a fait présent de Crosne,
Sieyès à Bonaparte a fait présent de trône.”
Under the empire Sieyès was created a count.
During the Hundred Days, Sieyès took his place in the Chamber of Peers,
but at the second restoration he was banished as one of the regicides.
He went to Brussels, but after the Revolution of 1830 returned to
Paris, where he died in 1836.
To finish with one more worthy, of a character very different from the
rest: Marc Antoine Désaugiers. Born at Féjus in 1772, he died in 1827.
He was the soul of the _Caveau Moderne_.
The old Caveau had been founded by Piron, Collé, and others. They met
twice a month at the wine-shop of Landelle, where they produced songs,
stories, and epigrams they had composed, dined and drank together. This
réunion began in 1737, and lasted over ten years.
After the 9th Thermidor, and the fall of Robespierre, the Terror was
at an end. Men began to breathe freely, lift up their heads, and
look about for amusements to indemnify themselves for the reign of
horrors they had passed through. Then some choice spirits renewed
the reminiscences of the old Caveau, and met near the Theatre of the
Vaudeville, opened in 1792. The songs that were sung, the stories there
told, flew about. The public desired to share in the merriment, and in
Vendémiaire of the year V. (September, 1796) appeared the first number
of the _Caveau Moderne_. The tavern at which the company met was “Le
Rocher de Cancalle.” A complete edition of the songs was published in
1807. The tunes to which the songs were set were either well-known
folk-melodies, or opera-house airs.
Désaugiers was a large contributor.
As a specimen of his style I give some stanzas of his “Carnaval.”
“Momus agite ses grelots,
Comus allume ses fourneaux,
Bacchus s’enivre sur sa tonne,
Palas déraisonne, Apollon détonne,
Trouble divin, bruit infernal—
V’là c’que c’est que l’Carnaval.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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