“1st. To side with the preponderating party in the Councils—but it was too late; the army had declared itself, and the leaders of that party, the orators of the Council, by attacking incessantly both the General and his army, had not left him the possibility of adopting that resolution.
2dly. “To embrace the party of the Directory and of the Republic. That was the plainest course, that which duty pointed out, which the army inclined to, and in which he was already engaged; for all the writers who had remained faithful to the cause of the Revolution had declared themselves, of their own accord, the ardent defenders and warm advocates of the army and its commanders.
3dly. “To overpower both factions, by stepping forward boldly and appearing openly in the contest as regulator of the Republic. But notwithstanding the strength which Napoleon felt that he derived from the support of the army, although his character was highly esteemed in France, he did not think that the spirit of the times and public opinion were such as to allow him to take so daring a step. And besides, if this third measure had been that to which he secretly inclined, he could not have adopted it immediately, and without having previously sided with one of the two parties, which appeared at that moment in the political lists. It was absolutely necessary, even in order to form a third party, to side first either with the Councils or with the Directory.
“Thus, of the three measures to be adopted, the third in its execution merged into the two first, and he was entirely debarred from adopting the first of these two by the new formation of the Councils, and by the attacks already made upon him by them.
“These considerations and conclusions,” the Emperor observed, “were the natural result of a deep meditation upon the then existing state of affairs in France. The General had therefore nothing to do but to let events take their course, and second the impulse of his troops. And this view of the subject produced the proclamation to the army of Italy, and the far-famed order of the day of its General.
“‘Soldiers!’ he said, ‘I know that your hearts are full of grief at the calamities of our country; but, if it were possible that foreign armies should triumph, we would fly from the summit of the Alps with the rapidity of the eagle, to defend once more that cause which has already cost us so much blood.’