Council of Ancients
Soon after his return to France he was elected a member of the Council of Ancients in the period of the Directory. After the coup of the 18th Fructidor (4 September 1797) Dumas, being proscribed as a monarchist, made his escape to Holstein, where he wrote the first part of his "Précis des événements militaires" (published anonymously at Hamburg, 1800).