18 Brumaire II: Napoleon Strikes Back

As we left the intrepid First Emperor of the French, he had herded all seven hundred and fifty members of the French National Assembly into the Chateau Saint-Cloud, under his "protection," in order to elect a new government to replace the corrupt Directoire. All did not go as planned. Twenty hours after debate began, the deputies continued to argue. Most of them were of the Jacobin party, and they supported the old government (and hated Bonaparte). After waiting for this long, Napoleon decided that it would be a good idea to pay a visit to the deputies while they were in session, armed with an escort of Grenadiers, or heavy infantry. He first swung by the Council of Elders, telling them that "the Revolution is over" and that the constitution was moot. Having thus impressed them, he went to the considerably more rowdy Council of Five Hundred, of which his brother Lucien was President.
It seems here that Napoleon's impetuousity got the better of him. The Five Hundred attacked Napoleon as soon as he entered the chamber. They managed to injure him somewhat before Lucien ordered the Grenadiers to escort him out. This gave Napoleon and Lucien the pretext to summon the soldiers waiting outside. Lucien told the soldiers that a "desperate faction" of men with daggers threatened the assembly, and that they had to disrupt the meeting to ensure the safety of the deputies. He then produced a dagger himself, and pointed it at Napoleon's chest, proclaiming that he would "stab him...if I suspected of violating the rights..." Thus encouraged, the troops cleared the chamber. The deputies, thus cowed by military force, submitted to Napoleon's new constitution. Napoleon became First Consul of France. Seiyes and Roger-Ducos were replaced on December 31 of the same year with more pliable consuls. In 1804, Bonaparte declared the French Empire, and became its emperor.