1823.) ° avian | 
425 J 
DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF HISTORY. 
—— 
On the cATAsTROPHE of the puc 
D'ENGHEIN; by SAVARY, DUC DE 
ROVIGO. 
[As the unexplained execution of the 
Due d’Enghein, in 1804, has often been 
assigned as the just cause of our rup- 
ture of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802-3, 
and as this attack on legitimacy has 
been handled with much effect by its 
hirelings, the subject is of sufficient 
interest to warrant our introducing a 
correct narrative of the entire affair, in 
a translation which we have made from 
a pamphlet published in Paris by a 
distinguished officer in command at the 
time. The conduct of Talleyrand, if 
we may depend on Savary, is characte- 
ristic of his own Machiavelian policy, and 
may be ascribed either to a design to 
place an insuperable barrier between 
Napoleon and the Bourbons, or to com- 
promise him with all the sovereigns in 
Europe. The lifting of the curtain is, 
at any rate, highly interesting. ] 
T may be recollected, that the 
- epoch of the consular government 
was fertile in plots and conspiracies of 
every kind. Witness the infernal 
machine of the Sd Nivosc; the project 
of assassination of the First Consul at 
the Opera ; the conspiracies of B——te, 
on the occasion of the Concordat, &c. 
The republicans could not pardon him 
for having broken the fasces of the 
republic and of the directory; and the 
royalists saw in his destruction the 
means of re-establishing the throne of 
the Bourbons. Of all these conspira- 
cies, the most celebrated and the most 
dangerous for Napoleon was that of 
Georges Cadoudal; because he reck- 
oned among the number of his .accom-. 
plices two generals, one of whom 
exercised a great influence over the 
army. 
I shall not undertake here to exa- 
mine, whether there was a design to 
kill the First Consul, or merely to 
overthrow his authority,as has been 
pretended by its abettors: but the 
conspiracy existed ; thatiisa fact which 
it is impossible to controvert. That 
this conspiracy was the motive and 
the cause of the mis/ortuhe of the Duc 
W@Enghein, is what T shall how demon- 
strate and submit to the judgment of 
the public. 
At the epoch when the conspiracy 
of Georges was discovered, the First 
Consul was inthe highest degree of his 
Montiity Mac. No, 389. 
moral power. — The eclat of his victo- 
ries, the return of public order, the 
great political. creations which owed 
to him their existence, the re-esta- 
blishment of religion, the security of 
the state;—all these great advantages 
of social order, which succeeded to 
the chaos of anarchy, inspired:a teal 
enthusiasm. ‘The army, which was 
all encamped, professed towards: him, 
the most unbounded devotion. From 
all parts of the country the First 
Consul received addresses, which im- 
portuned him to put an end to the 
attempts of his enemies. General 
Moreau had been arrested on the 
15thaof February, on the report of the 
erand judge. The whole of France 
was in expectation of the greatest 
events. 
The process of Georges was insti- 
tuted with the greatest solemnity. The 
judge established his quarters in the 
Temple, in order to facilitate the 
‘numerous confrontations which he had. 
to make. This extraordinary seat of 
justice was open to the public; and 
the access to it was rendered very 
easy. The police continued its re- 
searches with an extreme ardor. They 
considered Georges only as an agent, 
proper to execute the orders of his 
employers, —- an instrument put in 
action by a more powerful hand than 
his own. They asked each other who 
could be the chief of the enterprise, 
—what exalted head would come to 
reccive the crown on the day in which 
the First Consul was destined to lose 
his life. The interrogatories were . 
mulliplied; and questions were eagerly 
put, sometimes to.the friends of 
Georges,—then to his accomplices,— 
and, lastly, to the individuals who had 
lived in the same houses with these 
persons. All these researches were of 
no avail. ; l 
At length two subordinates of 
Georges declared, that, every ten or 
twelve days, their master received the 
visit of a personage of whose name 
they were ignorant, but who must be 
of the highestimportance. He appear- 
ed to be about thirty-six years of age, 
of a fair complexion, middling statare, 
and well dressed ; great respect was 
shown to him; and, on his entering 
the apartment, every one rose, and 
continued standing, even MM. de 
31 Polignae 
