Under the royalist majority, the Marquess of Barthélemy, a known monarchist, was elected member of the Directory by the chambers, in replacement of the leaving director Letourneur. François Barbé-Marbois was elected president of the Council of the Ancients,[1] and Jean-Charles Pichegru, a figure widely assumed to be a sympathetic to the monarchy and its restoration, was elected President of the Council of Five Hundred.[2] After documentation of Pichegru's treasonous activities was supplied by General Napoleon Bonaparte, the republican Directors accused the entire body of plotting against the Republic and moved quickly to annul the elections and arrest the royalists.[2]
At dawn 4 September 1797, Paris was declared to be under martial law, while a decree was issued, asserting that anyone supporting royalism or the restoration of the Constitution of 1793 was to be shot without trial.[citation needed] To support the coup, General Lazare Hoche, then commander of the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse, arrived in the capital with his troops, while Bonaparte sent troops under Pierre Augereau.[3] Pichegru, Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret, Barthélemy and Amédée Willot were arrested, while Lazare Carnot made good his escape. 214 deputies were arrested and 65 were subsequently exiled to Cayenne in French Guiana including Pichegru, Ramel, Barthélemy and Carnot. The election results in 49 departments were annulled. In the aftermath 160 recently returned émigrés were sentenced to death, and around 1320 priests accused of "conspiring against the Republic" were deported.[1] The two newly vacant places in the Directory were filled by Philippe Merlin de Douai and François de Neufchâteau.[4]
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