"However, all the Directory could do to gain over the saloons of Paris proved of no avail: it did not succeed in acquiring any influence over them, and the Bourbon party was gaining ground. No sooner did the Directors perceive this than they hastily retraced their steps; but it was too late to recover the good-will of the republicans, whom they had estranged by their conduct. This led to a system of wavering, which looked like caprice; no course was laid down to steer by, no object was kept in view, no unity prevailed. The reigns of terror and of royalty were equally objected to; but in the mean time the road which was to lead to the goal was left untried. The Directory thought to put an end to this state of uncertainty and to avoid these perpetual waverings, by striking at one blow the two extreme parties, whether they had deserved it or not: if therefore a royalist, who had conspired or disturbed the public tranquillity, was arrested by their orders, they caused a republican, innocent or guilty, to be arrested at the same moment. This system was nicknamed _The Political Seesaw_, but the injustice and fraud which characterized it entirely discredited the government; every heart was closed; it was a government of lead. Every true and generous feeling was against the Directory.
"Men of business, jobbers and intriguers, by possessing themselves of the springs of government, acquired the greatest influence; all places were given to worthless individuals, to _protégés_, or to relations—corruption crept into every branch of the administration. This was soon perceived, and those who had it in their power to waste the public money could act without fear; the foreign relations, the armies, the finances, the department of the Interior, all felt the pernicious effects of so vicious a system. This state of things soon gathered a storm on the political horizon, and we proceeded with rapid strides to the crisis of Fructidor.
"At that period the measures of the Directory were weak, capricious, and uncertain; emigrants returned to France, and newspapers, paid by foreigners, dared openly to stigmatize the most deserving of our patriots. The fury of the enemies of our national glory exasperated the soldiers of the army of Italy, which declared itself loudly against them; whilst the Councils, in their turn, acting the parts of real counter-revolutionists, spoke of nothing but priests, bells, and emigrants. All the officers of the army, who had distinguished themselves more or less in the departments, in the battalions of volunteers, or even in the regiments of the line, finding themselves thus attacked in their dearest interests, inflamed more and more the anger of their soldiers; the minds of all parties were in a state of effervescence. In a moment of such violent agitation, what measures could the General of the army of Italy adopt? He had the choice of three: