1823.] 
fulfilled my mission. The words alone 
of General Murat directed my thoughts 
to other objects. 
I received an order to take under 
my, command a brigade!-of infantry, 
which oceupied the exiremities of the 
Faubourg St. Antoine, and which was 
to! assemble’ at Vincennes at ten 
o’clock at ‘night. As *my legion 
of gendurmerie was in the vicinity of 
this corps (it occupied ‘the Arsena!), I 
was directed to observe that no enden- 
vours were used to alienate it from its 
duties: when I say myself, 1 mean the 
legion under my orders; for I was the 
most frequently absent. The disco- 
‘very of the conspiracy of Georges, in 
which Moreau was found compro- 
mised, excited the solicitude of govern- 
ment even in the most trifling affair. 
The picked gendarmerie of which 5 
was the colonel did not yet form part 
of the guard; it belonged to the garri- 
son of “Paris, and was composed of a 
small battalion and four squadrons of 
cayalry, chosen out of the entire corps 
of gendarmerie. It had received an 
order from the governor of Paris to 
send the infantry belonging to its body, 
and.a strong detachment of cavalry, to 
occupy the garrison of Vincennes; 
d a duplicate of this order was for- 
warded to me. 
About eight o’clock in the evening, 
I repaired myself to the spot, in order 
to assemble the brigade. it consisted 
of nearly 600 men; the greater part 
had been serjeants and serjcant-majors 
in the army: I was attached to them in 
such a manner as was due from a 
colonel to. a brave regiment, and I 
enjoyed no greater pleasure than when 
Thad an opportunity of doing them 
service. The marks of their attach- 
ment for my person have in a great 
measure supported me against all the 
malice to which a command exposed 
me, which was the object of so much 
jealousy.. L had communicated to 
them, all the zeal with which I felt 
myself animated; and I must say, in 
the’ face of the world, that I. never 
‘knew a single individual amongstthem 
to. whom any one would have dared to 
propose a mission of an equivocal na- 
ture,—I was occupied, then, in dis- 
posing of this, corps aud the gendar- 
merie ‘at all tie outlets of the place, 
when I perceived the members»of the 
Military Commission arrive. Up. to 
the very moment of my learning, at 
Vincennes. that) the Duc od Enghein 
had arrived there from Strasbourg, at 
Catastrophe of the Duc d@ Enghein. 
429 
four o’clock in the afternoon, under 
an escort: of gendarmerie, I firmly be- 
lieved that he had been found in a 
larking-place ‘in’ Paris; as were the 
companions of Georges, so little did I 
recollect of what had:transpired from 
the telegraphic dispatch. it was im- 
possible -that © these ‘circumstances 
should not excite in my breast a lively 
curiosity. [ was impatient to know 
the details of so extraordinary an 
affair. A» Commission might easily 
have been formed of fiery hot-headed 
individuals; but this one Was ‘com=- 
posed of varivus colonels, whose regi- 
ments formed the garrison of Paris, 
and the commaniant of the place na- 
turally became ihe chief. This Commis- 
sion kuew not one word of the confes- 
sious made by the confederates of 
Georges respecting the mysterious 
personage ; it had nothing in the world 
to go upon bat the report of the 
eflicer of gendarmerie sent to Etten- 
heim, and the documents sent by’ M. 
Shée, the prefect. Phe men whocom- 
posed it were pot of exaggerated opi- 
nions; they were, like. “the rest’ of 
France, indignant at a project, the 
object of w hich was the assassination 
of the First Consal: they were per- 
suaded, as every one was, that Georges 
only acted under the direction of a 
prince who was interested!in the stuc- 
cess of the enterprise, and who must 
either be at Paris, or be ready to repair 
thither when his presence became'ne- 
cessary. ‘They thought cf no ‘one but 
the Duc d’Enghein,: who, from ‘his 
position, could take a jead in this affair. 
Such were the colours under which it 
was represented. 
The Commission assembled in the 
great haii of that part whichis) oecu- 
pied by the castle; its sitting -was in 
no Way mysterious, as ‘has ‘been: said 
in several patvphlets; itohado been 
conyoked, not merely by order of the 
First Consul, bat bya deevee: of go- 
vernment, countersignédiby the Sveére- 
tary of State, and:addressedé tothe 
governor of Parisy who handed ivover 
to the President. - Each of the mem- 
bers who composed it had received 
his nonination: separately, before: re- 
pairing to Viucennes, and that without 
having communicated tovany one in- 
dividual; for ‘the: timeuwhich would 
have been’ physically necessary, in 
order to make some ‘aitemptsy ab cor- 
rupting them, was not allordeds even 
presuming for a moment thatoitheir 
personal characters were insullicient 
to 
