"After the events of Thermidor, when the Convention caused all the members of the committee of Public Welfare to be arrested, with the exception of himself, Carnot insisted upon sharing their fate. This conduct was the more noble, inasmuch as public opinion had pronounced itself violently against the Committee. He was nominated a member of the Directory after Vendemiaire; but after the 9th Thermidor his mind was deeply affected by the reproaches of public opinion, which attributed to the committee all the blood which had flowed on the scaffold. He felt the necessity of gaining esteem, and, believing that he took the lead, he suffered himself to be led by some of those who directed the party from abroad. His merit was then extolled to the skies, but he did not deserve the praises of the enemies of France; he found himself placed in a critical situation, and fell in Fructidor.
"After the 18th Brumaire, Carnot was recalled by the First Consul and placed in the department of war; he had several quarrels with the Minister of the Finances and Dufrenes the Director of the Treasury, in which it is but fair to say that he was always in the wrong. At last, he left the department, persuaded that it could no longer go on for want of money.
"When a member of the Tribunate, he spoke and voted against the establishment of the Empire; but his conduct, open and manly, gave no uneasiness to the administration. At a later period, he was appointed Chief Inspector of Reviews, and received from the Emperor, on his retiring from the service, a pension of twenty thousand francs. As long as things went on prosperously, the Emperor heard nothing of him: but, after the campaign of Russia, at the time of the disasters of France, Carnot solicited to be employed: he was appointed to command the town of Antwerp, and he behaved well at his post. On his return in 1815, the Emperor, after a little hesitation, appointed him to be Minister of the Interior, and had no cause to repent of having done so; he found him faithful, laborious, full of probity, and always sincere. In the month of June, Carnot was named one of the Commission of the Provisional Government, but being unfit for the place, he was duped.