GENERAL HISTORY. 



[177 



ber 20. A number of prisoners 

 were made in those actions, which 

 cost many men on each side. 



While the French emperor was 

 triumphing amidst the ruins of a 

 hostile capital, 1,500 miles distant 

 from his own, an attempt was 

 made to subvert his power at 

 home, which, for a time, bore a 

 formidable aspect, and if not 

 speedily suppressed, might have 

 been the commencement of a new 

 revolution. Early in the morning 

 of October *23, three ex-gene- 

 rals, said to have been of the re- 

 publican party. Mallet, T,ahorie,and 

 Guidal, having framed a ficii- 

 tioussenatusconsultum,wenttothe 

 barracks occupied by the first divi- 

 sion of the national guards and the 

 dragoons of Paris, and having read a 

 proclamation, informing them of 

 the pretended death of the empe- 

 ror on the 7th, ordered these 

 troops, in the name of the regent, 

 to follow them. The troops obej'- 

 ed, and suffered themselves to be 

 led to different posts, where they 

 relieved the guards. The conspi- 

 rators then presented themselves at 

 the apartments of the minister of 

 the police, and the prefect of the 

 police, whom they arrested, and 

 carried to prison under an escort of 

 300 men. Another division, in 

 the mean time, was marched to 

 the house of the commandant of 

 Paris, General Hullin, when Mal- 

 let informed him that he was no 

 longer commandant ; and on Hul- 

 lin's hesitating to resign his autho- 

 rity. Mallet shot him in the neck 

 with a pistol. Mallet then pro- 

 ceeded with the design of arresting 

 the chief of the etat-major of Pa- 

 ris ; but this person had several of- 

 ficers in his apartment, who prov- 

 ing too powerful for Mallet, ar- 



VoL. LIV. 



rested him. They then harangued 

 the troops which had accompanied 

 him, and having succeeded in con- 

 vincing them that the emperor was 

 not dead, and that this was a con- 

 spiracy, they laid down their arms. 

 The troops cantoned in Versailles 

 and the neighbourhood were then 

 sent for, the barriers were shut, 

 and the conspirators, being, be* 

 sides the three generals, about 20 

 officers and sub-officers, were ar- 

 rested and committed to prison ; 

 and in a short time Paris was per* 

 fectly tranquil. It is asserted by 

 authority, that not a single citizen 

 of Paris or the departments wag 

 suspected of being an accomplice 

 in this affair. A military commis- 

 sion was convoked to try the cul- 

 prits, which declared the three ex- 

 generals and eleven others *' guilty 

 of the crime against the safety of 

 the state," and adjudged them to 

 death, acquitting the rest. The 

 execution took place on October 

 30, in the plain of Crenelle, in the 

 midst of a numerous concourse of 

 spectators ; and thus the conspi- 

 racy seems to have been completely 

 extinguished, no relics of it having 

 since been brought to light.Itsexist- 

 ence, however, is a proof that dis- 

 affection prevails to a certain de- 

 gree in the national guard of Paris, 

 that body which acted so import- 

 ant a part in the Revolution, and 

 which may possibly give origin to 

 some future political change. It 

 is proper to remark, that several 

 additional and varying circum- 

 stances relative to the conspiriicy 

 have been published from private 

 communications, some ©f which 

 indicate much deeper contrivance 

 and greater probability of success 

 than could be inferred from the 

 accounts anthorised by the govern- 

 [N] ment ; 



