When she at length joined him in Paris, he received her with marked coldness; but, after a few days, the intercessions and explanations of friends restored harmony between them.

He felt acutely, says De Bourienne, the ill effects which a domestic fracas must produce at the moment when all France was expecting him to take the chief part in some great political revolution.
The universal enthusiasm which waited on his person at this crisis appears to have at length given definite shape to his ambition.

All parties equally seemed to be weary of the Directory, and to demand the decisive interference of the unrivalled soldier.

The members of the tottering government were divided bitterly among themselves; and the _moderates_, with the Director Sieyes at their head, on the one side, the _democrats_, under the Director Barras, on the other, were equally disposed to invoke his assistance.

He received the proposals of both parties; and at length decided on closing with those of the former, as consisting of a class of men less likely than the others to interfere with his measures--when the new government, which he had determined should be _his_, had been arranged.