ENGHIEN. 



861 



and such urgent representations were made to him, 

 that a special council of state was convened for in- 

 vestigating this subject, where the chief justice, 

 Regnier, acting minister of police, read a report on 

 the state of things within the country, and Talley- 

 rand, minister of foreign affairs, another report, on 

 the state of things without the country, connected 

 with the conspiracy. Fouche attended by particular 

 invitation, not being a member, but having displayed 

 superior talent as well as zeal in tracing the con- 

 spiracy : Talleyrand's report closed with a proposi- 

 tion to seize the duke of Enghien at Ettenheim, and 

 bring him by force into France, for examination. 

 The object was to confront him with the two fol- 

 lowers of Georges, and ascertain whether he was 

 the mysterious personage in the habit of calling on 

 him, as before mentioned. At this time, Pichegru's 

 presence in France was unknown ; he was supposed 

 to be in London, where he had been. The proposi- 

 tion to violate the neutral territory of Baden, and 

 forcibly carry off the object of suspicion, was warmly 

 contested by Cambaceres, then second consul, but, 

 being put to vote, was adopted by the council of 

 state. Bonaparte, who did not know the duke of 

 Enghien, either by name or character, and was far 

 from being inclined to groundless suspicions, left the 

 whole management of this affair to those to whose 

 department it belonged. Such was his practice on 

 all occasions. For instance, Bourienne says he 

 would declare in council, where the discussions were 

 perfectly free, " Gentlemen, I am here under your 

 tuition : take care to set me right, as I shall act on 

 your information and impulse. ' Woe be to him that 

 misleads me." 



The order for the arrest of the prince was issued 

 to general Ordener ; he was also ordered to arrest 

 Dumouriez, who was supposed to be with the 

 prince, a mistake arising from the German pronun- 

 ciation of the name of Thumery, a companion of 

 the prince. General Ordener, who was sent to 

 Strasburg, transferred the duty of seizing the duke 

 and all his suite to a major of the gendarmerie. 

 This officer having, by means of his soldiers, ascer- 

 tained the situation of the house which the prince 

 inhabited, surrounded it on the night of March 17, 

 1804, with from 3 to 400 soldiers and gendarmes. 

 The duke at first wished to defend himself ; but the 

 force was too great to be opposed, and thus the duke 

 and Thumery, who had been taken for Dumouriez, 

 a colonel Grundstein, lieutenant Schmidt, an abbe 

 named Weinbrunn, and five domestics, were seized 

 and carried prisoners to Strasburg. This was done 

 with such celerity, that the prisoners were not even 

 allowed time to dress themselves. 



Early upon the eighteenth, the escort set off with 

 the duke for Paris, and as they arrived, towards 

 evening, upon the twentieth, at the gates of the 

 capital, they received an order to conduct their 

 prisoner to Vincennes, where he arrived exhausted 

 by hunger and fatigue and just as he had dropped 

 asleep, he was awaked, at eleven o'clock at night, 

 to undergo his trial. The troops, which were 

 marched to Vincennes on this occasion, were com- 

 manded by Savary. He found a court-martial, con- 

 sisting of general Hullin, the president, together 

 with five colonels, and a captain, who was secretary, 

 He was accused of having borne arms against 

 France ; of having offered his services to England, 

 received agents of that country, and supplied them 

 with means of maintaining connexions in the interior 

 of France ; of having put himself at the head of a 

 band of insurgents and other persons, collected 

 from Baden and Freyburg, and paid by England ; oi 

 having had communications with the fortress oi 

 Strasburg, to excite insurrection in the neighbouring 



departments; and of having aided in the plots 

 against the life of the first consul. To these charges 

 the duke answered that he had always commanded 

 ;he vanguard of his grandfather, the prince of Conde', 

 ;hat he had a pension of 125 guineas a month 

 rom England, his only means of living : that he never 

 knew Pichegru,and was glad that he did not, if what 

 was said of him was true. The charge of having 

 lad any part in the conspiracies against the life of 

 the first consul he repelled with indignation. At the 

 end of the minutes of his answer, he placed a note in 

 lis own hand-writing, at the suggestion of the cap- 

 ain-reporter (the official accuser), requesting an 

 nterview with the first consul : " My name," he 

 wrote, "my rank, my way of thinking, and the 

 horrors of my situation, induce me to hope that he 

 will not refuse my request." 



Though nothing was proved against the prince, no 

 witnesses being brought against him, he was executed 

 the next morning at six o'clock, in the fosse of the 

 castle. The prince met death with the greatest com- 

 posure. Several circumstances have been related 

 respecting his execution, as that a lantern was tied to 

 his breast to direct the aim of the soldiers ; that he 

 ^ave a lock of his hair to one of the soldiers to carry 

 to the princess de Rohan, and that an officer snatched 

 it away with the words, " No one shall receive the 

 commissions of a traitor," and many other particulars, 

 some of which have been proved false, and some are 

 not authenticated. 



Very different accounts have been given of the con- 

 duct of Bonaparte in this affair. Thus it has been 

 said that Josephine and Hortense entreated him to 

 spare the Me of the prince ; that Cambaceres and 

 Berthier represented to him, in the most pressing 

 manner, the uselessness of this bloody measure, and 

 that he seemed disposed to yield to them when the 

 news of the prince's death arrived; according to 

 others, he would not listen to the entreaties and 

 representations of his wife and of his friends. On 

 the other hand, it is known to every impartial inves- 

 tigator, that Napoleon was far from being of a cruel 

 disposition, that he was never deaf to prayers for 

 mercy, if the great interests of France allowed him 

 to listen to them. He pardoned most of the persons 

 implicated in the conspiracy of Georges ; he pardon- 

 ed the prince of Hatzfeld ; he offered pardon even to 

 Staps, the young assassin at Schonbrunn ; in short, 

 proofs enough exist to show that his disposition was 

 the opposite of cruel. 



The narratives of several persons concerned in the 

 duke's death, tend also to exculpate Bonaparte. 

 Savary, duke of Rovigo, informs us in his Memoires, 

 that the consul heard, through him, of the execution 

 of the prince with amazement, and greatly regretted 

 it. The count Real, counsellor of state, then prefect 

 of Paris, and therefore charged with the police of 

 that city, declares the same. He has asserted in the 

 United States, where he has lived a long time,* that 

 Napoleon did not know of the execution of the duke 

 until after it had taken place, and that he learned it 

 with amazement from Savary's mouth, and that the 

 consul had intended to set the prince at liberty. 



This agrees with the following statement, which 

 we have from the most authentic source. Joseph, 

 the brother of the consul, found him, after this 

 catastrophe, much affected, and highly indignant at 

 those persons whom he accused of having occasioned 

 this catastrophe. He regretted much that he had 

 lost so fine an opportunity of doing an act of mercy. 

 Even long after, in conversation with his brother, lie 

 frequently alluded to this sad event, and, with his 



* In presence of Joseph Bonaparte, count de Survilliers, 

 Mr Dupoiiceau, general Lallemand, captain Sary, aud 

 others. 



