His features bespoke a bold, hearty spirit, and his massive frame defied fatigue and hardship.

He struggled on; and in the autumn of 1799 fortune seemed about to favour the "whites": the revolt was spreading; and had a Bourbon prince landed in Brittany before Bonaparte returned from Egypt, the royalists might quite possibly have overthrown the Directory.

But Bonaparte's daring changed the whole aspect of affairs.

The news of the stroke of Brumaire gave the royalists pause.

At first they believed that the First Consul would soon call back the king, and Bonaparte skilfully favoured this notion: he offered a pacification, of which some of the harassed peasants availed themselves.