He now declared his hostility to the Directory, and looked around for some complaisant military chief who should act as his tool and then be cast away.

His first choice, Joubert, was killed at the battle of Novi.

Moreau seems then to have been looked on with favour; he was a republican, able in warfare and singularly devoid of skill or ambition in political matters.

Relying on Moreau, Sieyes continued his intrigues, and after some preliminary fencing gained over to his side the Director Barras.

But if we may believe the assertions of the royalist, Hyde de Neuville, Barras was also receiving the advances of the royalists with a view to a restoration of Louis XVIII., an event which was then quite within the bounds of probability.