Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
educating the pupils of the Military School of Brienne, being very poor,
and their poverty not enabling them to hold out much inducement to other
persons to assist them, they applied to the minims of Franche-Comte.
In consequence of this application Pichegru's relation, and some other
minims, repaired to Brienne. An aunt of Pichegru, who was a sister of
the order of charity, accompanied them, and the care of the infirmary
was entrusted to her. This good woman took her nephew to Brienne with
her, and he was educated at the school gratuitously. As soon as his
age permitted, Pichegru was made a tutor; but all, his ambition was
to become a minim. He was, however, dissuaded from that pursuit by his
relation, and he adopted the military profession. There is this further
remarkable circumstance in the youth of Pichegru, that, though he was
older by several years than Bonaparte, they were both made lieutenants
of artillery at the same time. What a difference in their destiny!
While the one was preparing to ascend a throne the other was a solitary
prisoner in the dungeon of the Temple.
I had no motive to induce me to visit either the Temple or La Force,
but I received at the time circumstantial details of what was passing in
those prisons, particularly in the former; I went, however, frequently
to St. Pelagie, where M. Carbonnet was confined. As soon as I knew that
he was lodged in that prison I set about getting an admission from Real,
who smoothed all difficulties. M. Carbonnet was detained two months
in solitary confinement. He was several times examined, but the
interrogatories produced no result, and, notwithstanding the desire
to implicate him in consequence of the known intimacy between him and
Moreau, it was at last found impossible to put him on trial with the
other parties accused.
The Temple had more terrors than St. Pelagie, but not for the prisoners
who were committed to it, for none of those illustrious victims of
police machination displayed any weakness, with the exception of Bouvet
de Lozier, who, being sensible of his weakness, wished to prevent its
consequences by death. The public, however, kept their attention riveted
on the prison in which Moreau was confined. I have already mentioned
that Pichegru was conveyed thither on the night of the 22d of February;
a fortnight later Georges was arrested, and committed to the same
prison.
Either Real or Desmarets, and sometimes both together, repaired to
the Temple to examine the prisoners. In vain the police endeavoured to
direct public odium against the prisoners by placarding lists of their
names through the whole of Paris, even before they were arrested.
In those lists they were styled "brigands," and at the head of "the
brigands," the name of General Moreau shone conspicuously. An absurdity
without a parallel. The effect produced was totally opposite to that
calculated on; for, as no person could connect the idea of a brigand
with that of a general who was the object of public esteem, it was
naturally concluded that those whose names were placarded along with his
were no more brigands than he.
Public opinion was decidedly in favour of Moreau, and every one was
indignant at seeing him described as a brigand. Far from believing him
guilty, he was regarded as a victim fastened on because his reputation
embarrassed Bonaparte; for Moreau had always been looked up to as
capable of opposing the accomplishment of the First Consul's ambitious
views. The whole crime of Moreau was his having numerous partisans among
those who still clung to the phantom of the Republic, and that crime
was unpardonable in the eyes of the First Consul, who for two years had
ruled the destinies of France as sovereign master. What means were not
employed to mislead the opinion of the public respecting Moreau? The
police published pamphlets of all sorts, and the Comte de Montgaillard
was brought from Lyons to draw up a libel implicating him with Pichegru
and the exiled Princes. But nothing that was done produced the effect
proposed.
The weak character of Moreau is known. In fact, he allowed himself to
be circumvented by a few intriguers, who endeavoured to derive advantage
from the influence of his name. But he was so decidedly opposed to the
reestablishment of the ancient system that he replied to one of the
agents who addressed' him, "I cannot put myself at the head of any
movement for the Bourbons, and such an attempt would not succeed. If
Pichegru act on another principle--and even in that case I have told
him that the Consuls and the Governor of Paris must disappear--I believe
that I have a party strong enough in the Senate to obtain possession of
authority, and I will immediately make use of it to protect his friends;
public opinion will then dictate what may be fit to be done, but I will
promise nothing in writing." Admitting these words attributed to Moreau
to be true, they prove that he was dissatisfied with the Consular
Government, and that he wished a change; but there is a great difference
between a conditional wish and a conspiracy.
The commander of the principal guard of the Temple was General Savory,
and he had reinforced that guard by his select gendarmerie. The
prisoners did not dare to communicate one with another for fear of
mutual injury, but all evinced a courage which created no little alarm
as to the consequences of the trial. Neither offers nor threats produced
any confessions in the course of the interrogatories. Pichegru, in
particular, displayed an extraordinary firmness, and Real one day, on
leaving the chamber where he had been examining him, said aloud in the
presence of several persons, "What a man that Pichegru is!"
Forty days elapsed after the arrest of General Pichegru when, on
the morning of the 6th of April, he was found dead in the chamber he
occupied in the Temple. Pichegru had undergone ten examinations; but he
had made no confessions, and no person was committed by his replies.
All his declarations, however, gave reason to believe that he would
speak out, and that too in a lofty and energetic manner during the
progress of the trial. "When I am before my judges," said he, "my
language shall be conformable to truth and the interests of my country."
What would that language have been? Without doubt there was no wish that
it should be heard. Pichegru would have kept his promise, for he was
distinguished for his firmness of character above everything, even above
his qualities as a soldier; differing in this respect from Moreau, who
allowed himself to be guided by his wife and mother-in-law, both of whom
displayed ridiculous pretensions in their visits to Madame Bonaparte.
The day on which Real spoke before several persons of Pichegru in the
way I have related was the day of his last examination. I afterwards
learned, from a source on which I can rely, that during his examination
Pichegru, though careful to say nothing which could affect the other
prisoners, showed no disposition to be tender of him who had sought and
resolved his death, but evinced a firm resolution to unveil before the
public the odious machinery of the plot into which the police had drawn
him. He also declared that he and his companions had no longer any
object but to consider of the means of leaving Paris, with the view of
escaping from the snares laid for them when their arrest took place. He
declared that they had all of them given up the idea of overturning
the power of Bonaparte, a scheme into which they had been enticed
by shameful intrigues. I am convinced the dread excited by his
manifestation of a resolution to speak out with the most rigid candour
hastened the death of Pichegru. M. Real, who is still living, knows
better than any one else what were Pichegru's declarations, as he
interrogated him. I know not whether that gentleman will think fit,
either at the present or some future period, to raise the veil of
mystery which hangs over these events, but of this I am sure, he will be
unable to deny anything I advance. There is evidence almost amounting
to demonstration that Pichegru was strangled in prison, and consequently
all idea of suicide must be rejected as inadmissible. Have I positive
and substantive proof of what I assert? I have not; but the concurrence
of facts and the weight of probabilities do not leave me in possession
of the doubts I should wish to entertain on that tragic event. Besides,
there exists a certain popular instinct, which is rarely at fault,
and it must be in the recollection of many, not only that the general
opinion favoured the notion of Pichegru's assassination, but that the
pains taken to give that opinion another direction, by the affected
exhibition of the body, only served to strengthen it. He who
spontaneously says, I have not committed such or such a crime, at least
admits there is room for suspecting his guilt.
The truth is, the tide of opinion never set in with such force against
Bonaparte as during the trial of Moreau; nor was the popular sentiment
in error on the subject of the death of Pichegru, who was clearly
strangled in the Temple by secret agents. The authors, the actors, and
the witnesses of the horrible prison scenes of the period are the only
persons capable of removing the doubts which still hang over the
death of Pichegru; but I must nevertheless contend that the preceding
circumstances, the general belief at the time, and even probability, are
in contradiction with any idea of suicide on the part of Pichegru. His
death was considered necessary, and this necessity was its real cause.
CHAPTER XXV.
1804.
Arrest of Georges--The fruiterer's daughter of the Rue de La
Montagne--St. Genevieve--Louis Bonaparte's visit to the Temple--
General Lauriston--Arrest of Villeneuve and Barco--Villeneuve
wounded--Moreau during his imprisonment--Preparations for leaving
the Temple--Remarkable change in Georges--Addresses and
congratulations--Speech of the First Consul forgotten--Secret
negotiations with the Senate--Official proposition of Bonaparte's
elevation to the Empire--Sitting of the Council of State--
Interference of Bonaparte--Individual votes--Seven against twenty--
His subjects and his people--Appropriateness of the title of
Emperor--Communications between Bonaparte and the Senate--Bonaparte
first called Sire by Cambacérès--First letter signed by Napoleon as
Emperor--Grand levee at the Tuileries--Napoleon's address to the
Imperial Guard--Organic 'Senatus-consulte'--Revival of old formulas
and titles--The Republicanism of Lucien--The Spanish Princess--
Lucien's clandestine marriage--Bonaparte's influence on the German
Princes--Intrigues of England--Drake at Munich--Project for
overthrowing Bonaparte's Government--Circular from the Minister for
Foreign Affairs to the members of the Diplomatic Body--Answers to
that circular.
Georges was arrested about seven o'clock, on the evening of the 9th
of March, with another conspirator, whose name, I think, was Leridan.
Georges was stopped in a cabriolet on the Place de l'Odeon, whither he
had no doubt been directed by the police agent, who was constantly about
him. In not seizing him at his lodgings, the object, probably, was to
give more publicity to his arrest, and to produce an effect upon the
minds of the multitude. This calculation cost the life of one man, and
had well-nigh sacrificed the lives of two, for Georges, who constantly
carried arms about him, first shot dead the police officer who seized
the horse's reins, and wounded another who advanced to arrest him is
the cabriolet. Besides his pistols there was found upon him a poniard of
English manufacture.
Georges lodged with a woman named Lemoine, who kept a fruiterer's shop