But she could not aspire to “direct the storm,” without running some danger of being caught in it; and it is probable, as indeed she herself admits, that if she had foreseen the troubles which political influence was to bring upon her, she would have been well pleased to resign all pretension to it. At the end of 1799, Bonaparte rose to power on the ruin of the Directory. That remarkable man inspired Mad. de Stael from the first with an indescribable fear and dislike, which she has expressed throughout her very interesting work, entitled ‘Dix Années d’Exil;’ and as she saw at once the danger to which the cause of rational liberty was exposed by his ambition, and feared not to express her sentiments, her house became the focus of discontent. Benjamin Constant, then one of her intimate associates, having prepared and communicated to her a speech to expose the dawning tyranny of the First Consul, warned her that, if spoken, it would necessarily be followed by the desertion of the brilliant society which she loved, and by which she was surrounded. She replied, “We must do as we think right.” It was accordingly pronounced on the following day, on the evening of which her favourite circle was to assemble at her own house. Before six o’clock she received ten notes of excuse. “The first and second I bore well enough, but as one note came after another, they began to disturb me. I appealed in vain to my conscience, which had bidden me resign the pleasures which depended on Bonaparte’s favour: so many good sort of persons blamed me, that I could not hold fast enough by my own view of the question.” And she says just before, with her usual candour, “If I had foreseen what I have suffered, dating from that day, I should not have been resolute enough to decline M. Constant’s offer to abstain from coming forward, for the sake of not compromising me.” The speech was followed by an intimation from Fouché, that Mad. de Stael’s retirement from Paris for a short time would be expedient.