Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
nine-tenths, and saved more than fifty thousand. These are the
partisans I should look to! All my aides de camp, all the officers of my
acquaintance, have been arrested; not the shadow of a suspicion could be
found against any of them, and they have been set at liberty. Why, then,
attribute to me the madness of aiming to get myself made Dictator by
the aid of the adherents of the old French Princes, of persons who have
fought in their cause since 1792? You allege that these men, in the
space of four-and-twenty hours, formed the project of raising me to the
Dictatorship! It is madness to think of it! My fortune and my pay have
been alluded to; I began the world with nothing; I might have had by
this time fifty millions; I have merely a house and a bit of ground;
as to my pay, it is forty thousand francs. Surely that sum will not be
compared with my services."
During the trial Moreau delivered a defence, which I knew had been
written by his friend Garat, whose eloquence I well remember was always
disliked by Bonaparte. Of this I had a proof on the occasion of a grand
ceremony which took place in the Place des Victoires, on laying the
first stone of a monument which was to have been erected to the memory
of Desaix, but which was never executed. The First Consul returned home
in very ill-humour, and said to me, "Bourrienne, what a brute that Garat
is! What a stringer of words! I have been obliged to listen to him for
three-quarters of an hour. There are people who never know when to hold
their tongues!"
Whatever might be the character of Garat's eloquence or Bonaparte's
opinion of it, his conduct was noble on the occasion of Moreau's trial;
for he might be sure Bonaparte would bear him a grudge for lending the
aid of his pen to the only man whose military glory, though not equal
to that of the First Consul, might entitle him to be looked upon as
his rival in fame. At one of the sittings a circumstance occurred
which produced an almost electrical effect. I think I still see General
Lecourbe, the worthy friend of Moreau, entering unexpectedly into the
Court, leading a little boy. Raising the child in his arms, he exclaimed
aloud, and with considerable emotion, "Soldiers, behold the son of your
general!"
--[This action of Lecourbe, together with the part played in this
trial by his brother, one of the judges, was most unfortunate, not
only for Lecourbe but for France, which consequently lost the
services of its best general of mountain warfare. His campaigns of
Switzerland in 1799 on the St. Gothard against Suwarrow are well
known. Naturally disgraced for the part he took with Moreau, he was
not again employed till the Cent Jours, when he did good service,
although he had disapproved of the defection of Ney from the
Royalist cause. He died in 1816; his brother, the judge, had a most
furious reception from Napoleon, who called him a prevaricating
judge, and dismissed him from his office (Rémusat, tome ii. p.
8).]--
At this unexpected movement all the military present spontaneously rose
and presented arms; while a murmur of approbation from the spectators
applauded the act. It is certain that had Moreau at that moment said but
one word, such was the enthusiasm in his favour, the tribunal would have
been broken up and the prisoners liberated. Moreau, however, was silent,
and indeed appeared the only unconcerned person in Court. Throughout the
whole course of the trial Moreau inspired so much respect that when he
was asked a question and rose to reply the gendarmes appointed to guard
him rose at the same time and stood uncovered while he spoke.
Georges was far from exciting the interest inspired by Moreau. He was
an object of curiosity rather than of interest. The difference of their
previous conduct was in itself sufficient to occasion a great contrast
in their situation before the Court. Moreau was full of confidence and
Georges full of resignation. The latter regarded his fate with a fierce
kind of resolution. He occasionally resumed the caustic tone which he
seemed to have renounced when he harangued his associates before their
departure from the Temple. With the most sarcastic bitterness he alluded
to the name and vote of Thuriot, one of the most violent of the judges,
often terming him 'Tue-roi';
--[Thuriot and the President Hemart both voted for the death of the
King. Merlin, the imperial Procureur-General, was one of the
regicides.--Bourrienne.]--
and after pronouncing his name, or being forced to reply to his
interrogatories, he would ask for a glass of brandy to wash his mouth.
Georges had the manners and bearing of a rude soldier; but under his
coarse exterior he concealed the soul of a hero. When the witnesses
of his arrest had answered the questions of the President Hemart, this
judge turned towards the accused, and inquired whether he had anything
to say in reply.--"No."--"Do you admit the facts?"--"Yes." Here Georges
busied himself in looking over the papers which lay before him, when
Hemart warned him to desist, and attend to the questions. The following
dialogue then commenced. "Do you confess having been arrested in the
place designated by the witness?"--"I do not know the name of the
place."--"Do you confess having been arrested?"--"Yes."--"Did you
twice fire a pistol?"--"Yes."--"Did you kill a man?"--"Indeed I do not
know."-- "Had you a poniard?"--"Yes."--"And two pistols?"--"Yes."--"Who
was in company with you?"--"I do not know the person."--"Where did you
lodge in Paris?"--"Nowhere."--"At the time of your arrest did you
not reside in the house of a fruiterer in the Rue de la Montagne St.
Genevieve?"-- "At the time of my arrest I was in a cabriolet. I
lodged nowhere."-- "Where did you sleep on the evening of your
arrest?"--"Nowhere."--"What were you doing in Paris?"--"I was walking
about."--"Whom have you seen in Paris?"--"I shall name no one; I know no
one."
From this short specimen of the manner in which Georges replied to the
questions of the President we may judge of his unshaken firmness during
the proceedings. In all that concerned himself he was perfectly
open; but in regard to whatever tended to endanger his associates he
maintained the most obstinate silence, notwithstanding every attempt to
overcome his firmness.
That I was not the only one who justly appreciated the noble character
of Georges is rendered evident by the following circumstance. Having
accompanied M. Carbonnet to the police, where he went to demand his
papers, on the day of his removal to St. Pelagic, we were obliged to
await the return of M. Real, who was absent. M. Desmarets and several
other persons were also in attendance. M. Real had been at the
Conciergerie, where he had seen Georges Cadoudal, and on his entrance
observed to M. Desmarets and the others, sufficiently loud to be
distinctly heard by M. Carbonnet and myself, "I have had an interview
with Georges who is an extraordinary man. I told him that I was disposed
to offer him a pardon if he would promise to renounce the conspiracy
and accept of employment under Government. But to my arguments and
persuasions he only replied, 'My comrades followed me to France, and I
shall follow them, to death.'" In this he kept his word.
Were we to judge these memorable proceedings from the official documents
published in the Moniteur and other journals of that period, we should
form a very erroneous opinion. Those falsities were even the object of
a very serious complaint on the part of Cosier St. Victor, one of the
accused.
After the speech of M. Gauthier, the advocate of Coster St. Victor, the
President inquired of the accused whether he had anything further to
say in his defence, to which he replied, "I have only to add that the
witnesses necessary to my exculpation have not yet appeared. I must
besides express my surprise at the means which have been employed to
lead astray public opinion, and to load with infamy not only the accused
but also their intrepid defenders. I have read with pain in the journals
of to-day that the proceedings--" Here the President interrupting,
observed that "these were circumstances foreign to the case."--"Not in
the least," replied Cosier St. Victor; "on the contrary, they bear very
materially on the cause, since mangling and misrepresenting our defence
is a practice assuredly calculated to ruin us in the estimation of
the public. In the journals of to-day the speech of M. Gauthier is
shamefully garbled, and I should be deficient in gratitude were I not
here to bear testimony to the zeal and courage which he has displayed in
my defence. I protest against the puerilities and absurdities which have
been put into his mouth, and I entreat him not to relax in his generous
efforts. It is not on his account that I make this observation; he does
not require it at my hands; it is for 'myself, it is for the accused,
whom such arts tend to injure in the estimation of the public."
Coster St. Victor had something chivalrous in his language and manners
which spoke greatly in his favour; he conveyed no bad idea of one of the
Fiesco conspirators, or of those leaders of the Fronds who intermingled
gallantry with their politics.
An anecdote to this effect was current about the period of the trial.
Coster St. Victor, it is related, being unable any longer to find a
secure asylum in Paris, sought refuge for a single night in the house
of a beautiful actress, formerly in the good graces of the First Consul;
and it is added that Bonaparte, on the same night, having secretly
arrived on a visit to the lady, found himself unexpectedly in the
presence of Coster St. Victor, who might have taken his life; but that
only an interchange of courtesy took place betwixt the rival gallants.
This ridiculous story was doubtless intended to throw additional odium
on the First Consul, if Cosier St. Victor should be condemned and not
obtain a pardon, in which case malignity would not fail to attribute his
execution to the vengeance of a jealous lover.
I should blush to relate such stories, equally destitute of probability
and truth, had they not obtained some credit at the time. Whilst I was
with Bonaparte he never went abroad during the night; and it was not
surely at a moment when the saying of Fouché, "The air is full of
poniards," was fully explained that he would have risked such nocturnal
adventures.
Wright was heard in the sixth sitting, on the 2d of June, as the hundred
and thirty-fourth witness in support of the prosecution. He, however,
refused to answer any interrogatories put to him, declaring that, as
a prisoner of war, he considered himself only amenable to his own
Government.
The Procureur-General requested the President to order the examinations
of Captain Wright on the 21st of May' and at a later period to be read
over to him; which being done, the witness replied, that it was omitted
to be stated that on these occasions the questions had been accompanied
with the threat of transferring him to a military tribunal, in order to
be shot, if he did not betray the secrets of his country.
In the course of the trial the most lively interest was felt for MM. de
Polignac--
--[The eldest of the Polignacs, Armand (1771-1847), condemned to
death, had that penalty remitted, but was imprisoned in Ham till
permitted to escape m 1813. He became Duc de Richelieu in 1817.
His younger brother, Jules (1780-1847) was also imprisoned and
escaped. In 1814 he was one of the first to display the white flag
in Paris. In 1829 he became Minister of Charles X. and was
responsible for the ordinances which cost his master his throne in
1830. Imprisoned, nominally for life, he was released in 1836, and
after passing some time in England returned to France. The