Another law which soon succeeded, and which authorised the chief magistrate to banish disaffected persons, as "enemies of the state," from Paris or from France, whenever such steps should seem proper, without the intervention of any tribunal whatever, completed (if it was yet incomplete) the despotic range of his power: and the police, managed as that fearful engine was by Fouche, presented him with the most perfect means of carrying his purposes into execution.
A singular anecdote belongs to this time--( December, 1800).

During the effervescence of public opinion consequent on the affair of the infernal machine, there appeared a pamphlet, entitled, "Parallel between Caesar, Cromwell, Monk, and Bonaparte"[39]--a production evidently designed to favour the assumption of regal dignity by the Consul.

Appearing at such a moment, it could not fail to excite a vivid sensation; the confidential friends of Napoleon assured him, in one voice, that the publication was likely to injure him.

He sent for Fouche, and reproached him violently for suffering such a pamphlet to appear.

The minister of police heard him with perfect coolness, and replied that he had not chosen to interfere, because he had traced the manuscript to the hotel of his brother Lucien.