Account of the coup d’état du 18/19 Brumaire by Helen Maria Williams
"Buonaparte, had he been permitted to speak might, however, have succeeded in absolving the majority from their oaths; he might easily have shewn them that the Constitution, which they had sworn to keep inviolate, had, from its frequent violations, no real existence; and that instead of addressing their vows for the liberty and safety of the Republic, paramount to every oath, and all other considerations, they had been using harmless perjury towards an organization, so extremely vicious, that it was only on its immediate correction that depended the security of the state. He might, perhaps, have also made some few personal interpellations. He might have pointed out, even among this immaculate minority, so tempestuous in guarding every avenue to the Constitution, certain members who had lately made propositions of not very republican tendency for its subversion, and which he had not hesitated instantly to reject. Happily for the Republic, his rhetoric was not put to this proof. Whether the Jacobin party had the sagacity to foresee the danger of his representations, or whether they were blinded by rage, their conduct was such as changed in an instant the nature of his relationship between themselves and Buonaparte; and instead of regarding him as an officer of the Republic, essentially obedient to the will of its representatives, they threw away that character, and challenged him to equal combat as an enemy...."