LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Napoleon: Powers
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Napoleon proved less hesitant in power. The Directory was replaced by a provisional Consulate composed of Napoleon, the legal expert Jean Jacques Cambacérès and the financial expert Charles Lebrun, who remained among Napoleon’s closest aides. For Napoleon it was only a springboard and he bullied Sieyès into designating him ”First Consul”. His rapid rise to supreme power might have been more predictable to contemporaries had they paid more attention to his political activities in Italy and Egypt. His first priority was the war emergency.... Napoleon confided the more important fronts of Switzerland and the Rhine to Moreau, who rewarded his trust with a crushing victory over the Austrians at Hohenlinden.
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Landing at Fréjus on Oct. 9, 1799, Napoleon went directly to Paris, where the political situation was ripe for a coup d'etat. France had become weary of the Directory, and in collaboration with Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Joseph Fouché, and Talleyrand, Napoleon overthrew the government on 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9-10, 1799). The Constitution of the Year VIII provided for the Consulate. Napoleon was named first consul and given virtually dictatorial powers. The trappings of the republic remained - there were two legislative bodies, the Tribunate and the Corps Legislatif - but real power rested in the hands of the first consul.
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Napoleon was exiled from France. He took a few soldiers to his new "empire" - the small island of Elba. He was allowed to keep his title of emperor and promised to pay two million francs every year to France. About ten months later Napoleon escaped and landed in France where he marched into Paris with a thousand of his old soldiers, and picking up support along the way. He was back in power for a short time known as the Hundred Days. While he was in power, he tried to make peace but the allies outlawed him.
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When one politician pointed out that Napoleon could use this opportunity to seize power for himself, he was quickly rebuked by his colleagues. After all, it wasn't like the French people would allow themselves to be represented in world affairs by a little person, right?
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