Yet there also the plotters found many adherents, who followed the lead now cautiously given by Lucien Bonaparte.

This young man, whose impassioned speeches had marked him out as an irreproachable patriot, was now President of that Council.

No event could have been more auspicious for the conspirators.

With Sieyes, Barras, and Ducos, as traitors in the Directory, with the Ancients favourable, and the junior deputies under the presidency of Lucien, the plot seemed sure of success.
The first important step was taken by the Council of Ancients, who decreed the transference of the sessions of the Councils to St.Cloud.
The danger of a Jacobin plot was urged as a plea for this motion, which was declared carried without the knowledge either of the Directory as a whole, or of the Five Hundred, whose opposition would have been vehement.

The Ancients then appointed Bonaparte to command the armed forces in and near Paris.