"The concierge," wrote M. Thiers, "lent them a shaky table, a sheet of letter paper, and a writing-desk, with which to write their first message announcing to the two councils that the Directory was established." They sent to the Treasury. There was not a penny there. Barras was their chief; Carnot directed the movements of the armies; Rewbell had charge of the foreign affairs; Letourneur and La Reveillière-Lepaux of the interior administration. Buonaparte had command of the Army of Paris. A fortnight later he signed his name Bonaparte. * * * * * On the 9th of the following March, about eleven o'clock in the morning, two carriages stopped before the door of the mayoralty of the second district of Paris. A young man about twenty-six, wearing the uniform of a general officer, descended from the first. He was followed by two witnesses. A young woman about twenty-eight or thirty descended from the other. She was followed by her two witnesses. The six presented themselves before citizen Charles-Théodore François, civil magistrate of the second district, who asked them the questions usually propounded to matrimonial aspirants, to which they made the customary replies. Then he ordered the following document read to them, which they afterward signed: "The 19th Ventôse, in the Year IV. of the Republic." "Contract of marriage between Napolione Bonaparte, general-in-chief of the army of the interior, aged _twenty-eight_ years, born at Ajaccio, in the department of Corsica, residing in Paris, Rue d'Antin, son of Charles Bonaparte, gentleman, and Lætitia Ramolini: "And Marie-Rose-Josephine Tascher, aged twenty-eight years, born in the island of Martinique, in the Windward Islands, residing in Paris, Rue Chantereine, daughter of Gaspard-Joseph de Tascher, captain of dragoons, and his wife Rose-Claire Desvergers de Sanois. "I, Charles-Théodore François, civil magistrate of the second district of the canton of Paris, after having in the presence of these parties and their witnesses, read; "1st. The certificate of birth of Napolione Bonaparte, which states that he was born on the _5th of February_, 1768, of the lawful marriage of Charles Bonaparte and Lætitia Ramolini; "2d. The certificate of birth of Marie-Rose-Josephine Tascher, which states that she was born on the 23d of June, of the lawful marriage of Joseph-Gaspard de Tascher and of Rose-Claire Desvergers de Sanois; "The certificate of death of Alexandre-François-Marie de Beauharnais, being taken into consideration, which states that he died on the 7th Thermidor, in the year II., married to Marie-Rose-Josephine de Tascher; "Also that the certificate of publication of said marriage was duly posted without opposition during the time prescribed by law;