432 
infimate. .M. Noirot relaied to. the 
prince some circumstances which 
nearly concerned him; the result was, 
that, the prinee placed the greatest 
confidence in bim; he begged him 
never to quit him; and, when he was 
ready to die, he charged him to remit 
mato the hands of Madame de R #** R. 
Some rings, and other marks of ten- 
derness. This officer eame the follow- 
ing day to consult me, and requested 
my. permission to comply with that 
request, which of course I readily 
granted. M. Noirot, I believe, still 
lives ; he enjoys the esteem and consi- 
deration of all those who know hiin; 
he can say with truth whether any 
eruel hand attached a lantern to the 
breast of the Due d'Enchien, or if any 
one carried away his watch, or indeed 
any portion of his spoils. He would 
not have been suffered to do so, neither 
would any of the ollicers present at 
this cruel moment. 
What. have not the enemies of 
France imagined in order to render 
this event odious!. They have said, 
that the prince had solicited, in his last 
moments, the consolations of religion, 
but that they were denied him : this is 
a circumstance of which JI had no 
knowledge whatever. Noperson what- 
soever ever spoke to me on the subject; 
but, even if it were true, it was not to 
me that the request ought to have been 
made; I had no power either to grant 
or to refuse. I repeat, therefore, let 
each take to himself the part which 
was allotted to him: I have detailed 
what was mine. If the prince had 
invoked the succours of religion, the 
proper authorities were bound to have 
granted the request. I mercly know, 
that, at that epoch, ecclesiastics were 
very rare to be met with, and it would 
probably have been impossible to have 
found a priest at Vincennes, or in the 
neighbourhood of that place. 
L have seen in the army several of 
the judges of the Duc d’Enghien; all 
‘of them have informed me, that his 
own confessions were his ruin; that, 
without them, they never would have 
been able to have fennd in the papers 
which were remitted to them sufficient 
means to justify his condemnation. 
The, captain who reported the pro- 
ceedings has frequently written to me 
since that melancholy event in the 
following terms: ‘Could it in any 
way depend on myself, I would sooner 
be found ina hundred successive bat- 
Documents iilustrative of History. 
[Dec. 1, 
tles, than be present at a ‘single judg o- 
ment!” 
I was commandant of the troops 
whose presence was thought neces- 
sary at, Vincennes at that period. It 
was a piquet of that corps which was 
charged with the execution of the sen- 
tence; this is the whole that can be 
_alléged both against that corps and 
myself, Let those who would impute 
thatas a crime to me say in what man- 
ner I could have acted in order to. 
have saved the Duc d’Engiien; that is 
to say, admitting that I ever enter- 
tained this idea, it would have been 
necessary to cause a revolt among thé 
troops, and turn them from their duty ; 
a step which, according to all probabi- 
lity, would have been the cause of my 
immediate execution, without being 
able to save the Duc d’Enghicn. L 
appeal to the military of every coun- 
try. But did this piquet act, without 
proper orders? Was not the sentence 
rendered by atribunal? Did it belong 
to me to examine the invompetence of 
the tribunal and the validity of the 
sentence? Military commissions are 
tribunals recognized by the Jaws. 
There is not a single government in 
Europe who would not punish in an 
exemplary manner any officer who 
should constitute himself a judge over 
his judges. The responsibility never 
reaches. him who executes, but the 
man who ordains. FE acted no other 
part than what would have been done 
by any officer whatever in similar cir- 
cumstances. Have we not witnessed, 
in 1815, Marshal Monccy sent as a 
prisoner to the castle of Ham, for 
having refused to preside at the Coun- 
cilof War by which it was endeavoured 
Marshal Ney should be tried? When 
the highest sentence of the law was 
passed on the marshal, if the governor 
of Paris had refused to furnish the 
piquet for the execution of the judg- 
ment, would he not himself. have 
incurred the punishment prescribed 
by the laws? Marshal Ney had nu- 
merous partisans in the army; yet, 
notwithstanding, what individual has 
ever made the slightest reproach on 
this subject to the Viscount Roche- 
chouart, the Governor of Paris? Let 
us not swerve from principles ; for the 
day in wlgch the armed force of a 
country shall deliberate, will be fatal 
to the security of the state. 
After the exccution of the sentence, 
I dismissed, the. troops into their 
casernes, 
