862 



ENGHIEN, 



usual vivacity, observed, " it wo.ildhave been noble 

 to pardon a prince, who, in plotting against me, 

 avait fait son metier." " lie was young," continued 

 Napoleon, " my favours would have attached him to 

 me ; he would have become better acquainted with 

 the state of France, and would luive ended by enter- 

 ing my service ; it would have been gratifying to 

 have had the descendant of the great Conde for my 

 aid-de-camp." This view is corroborated by Na- 

 poleon's own assertions, in Las Cases' Memorial, vol. 

 vii. p. 437. 



The declarations of Napoleon himself, in his will, 

 however, are at variance with tin's view of the sub- 

 ject. He there says, " I ordered the duke of Enghien 

 to be arrested and executed, because it was necessary 

 for the safety, the welfare, and the honour of the 

 French nation. Under the same circumstances, I 

 should act in the same way ; the death of the duke 

 of Knghieu is to be imputed to those who plotted in 

 London against the life of the first consul, and who 

 intended to bring the duke of Berri by Seville, and 

 the duke of Enghien by Strasburg, into France." 

 Savary, who was himself a witness of the regrets of 

 Bonaparte on account of the death of the duke, gives 

 the following explanation of this inconsistency: that 

 Napoleon, even on his death-bed, preferred to take 

 the charge of the duke's death upon himself, rather 

 than to allow his power to be doubted ; and that he 

 acted thus from regard to the dignity of a sovereign, 

 who. if he enjoys the credit of the good which is done 

 in his name, would act unworthily in throwing the 

 blame of the evil done in his name upon others. He 

 says, when the emperor uses the words Le due 

 d'Enghien est inort parceqve je I'aivoulu, his meaning 

 amounts only to this : " When I reigned, no one 

 dared conceive the thought of disposing of the life 

 or liberty of any one. It might liave been possible 

 to impose upon me, but never for a moment to 

 encroach upon my power." 



Las Cases, vol. vii. p. 418, gives a long passage, 

 as containing the words of "Napoleon himself on this 

 subject. In this he says that France was infested 

 with conspirators sent from London, that his life was 

 in constant danger (a well known feet), and that lie 

 acted as in war, to put a stop tu these outrages. He 

 there goes only en the ground of justice, thinking it 

 due to his honour to defend himself personally. It is 

 certain, that in the critical situation in which he 

 found himself, walking upon volcanoes, still active, 

 and ever ready for eruption, he could not have suf- 

 fered it to be believed that such an act could be com- 

 mitted without liis consent. A belief in his power 

 was of the utmost importance to the peace and order 

 of France. The welfare of France required that he 

 should take upon himself the responsibility of every 

 act done in his name. 



Another account of this catastrophe is given in 

 Bignon's Histoire de France depuis le 18 Brumaire 

 (November, n99,)jusqu'd la Paix de Tilsit, (Juillet, 

 1807), Paris, 1829, with the motto, Je I' engage a 

 ecrire f/iistoire de la diplomatic Francaise de 1792 a 

 1815. Testament de Napoleon. (See Bignon.) He says, 

 among other things, such was the character of the 

 first consul, that none of his acts can be taken from 

 him Le mat, comme le bien gu'il a fait, lui appartient 

 et n 'appartient qu'd lui an assertion much too general, 

 because the greatest man can build only with the 

 materials which the time affords him. Napoleon him- 

 self often repeated " I am no God ; I do not do 

 what I wish, but what I can." Bignon says that, in 

 a note written by Napoleon himself, there is the fol- 

 lowing passage respecting the duke d'Enghien : " If 

 guilty, the commission was right to sentence him to 

 death ; if innocent, they ought to have acquitted 

 him, because no order whatever can justify a judge 



in violating his conscience." He says, also, tliat at 

 this time (before the execution), people who were 

 near the first consul saw him internally struggling 

 (Itvre aux angoisses les plus penibles) between what 

 he i In ni:: lit a fatal necessity, and wliat his own dispo- 

 sition dictated ; but that no friend advised mercy. 

 He then continues : "None of the statements givi-n 

 of the arrest and sentence of the duke of Engliim 

 explain why there was no communication between 

 the court-martial and the superior authority, between 

 Vincennes and Malmaison." 



And the question forces itself on our minds. Was 

 every tiling so preconcerted, was the sentence of 

 death so certain, that it was not even sent to the first 

 consul for consideration ? Here we may add, at the 

 same time, Why was the duke's request for an inter- 

 view with the chief consul not reported to the latter, 

 neither the petition which lie presented to the court- 

 martial, nor the letter which he wrote, some say from 

 Strasburg, others from Vincennes ? The answer is 

 this : count Real declared before the same persons 

 whom we have mentioned in a previous note, that, 

 on the fatal night, a gew<farwie delivered a letter, not 

 knowing the import of it. Real was asleep, and the 

 letter was put on his mantel-piece. In the morning, 

 when he opened the letter, he hastened to the first 

 consul, but it was too late.* The fatal sentence liad 

 been executed. But who sends despatches of such 

 a nature without orders to deliver them immediately 

 and personally ? In the whole of the process, there 

 was an odious haste. Napoleon says, tliat when he 

 was first spoken to of Enghien, all the orders for his 

 arrest, &c. were already drawn up ; and here is an 

 unpardonable delay. Who is guilty of both ? To 

 whom is to be ascribed the irregularities in the whole 

 process, wliich M. Dupin, in his publication on this- 

 catastrophe, proves to have existed, and which the 

 duke of Rovigo acknowledges, and even imputes to 

 certain individuals ? 



We are far from pretending to be able to clear up 



So we are informed, by good authority, count Real declared 

 himself in America. Another account is given in an article, 

 Napoleon and Bourienne, in the American Quarterly Review, 

 September. 1830: "We have it, says the Review, in our 

 power, from high authority (that of a person not now in this 

 country), to state, what the duke of Rovigo was not aware of, 

 the reason why the duke d'Enghien suffered death without the 

 sanction or knowledge of the first consul. The prisoner, in 

 extremity, asked to see the first consul, which was not per- 

 mitted ; but the judge-advocate, Dantaucourt, humanely sug. 

 gested to him to write a letter ; which was done, and tne let- 

 ter sent to Real. During that eventful night, the first consul 

 had been called up five times, on the arrival of as many mes- 

 sengers, with insignificant despatches. So often disturbed, he 

 gave orders not to be called again, unless for a very serious 

 occasion. M. Real sent the duke d'Eughien's letter to Mai. 

 maisou by a private horseman of the gendarmerie, who unin- 

 formed of its contents, gave no intimation that it required 

 immediate attention. It was laid on a table, where it remained 

 unnoticed till after the first consul had deliberately risen, and 

 made his toilet as usual, without the least notion of its con- 

 tents. In the meanwhile, indeed before he got out of bed, the 

 ill-starred writer of that neglected letter was shot. The inter- 

 view between the first consul and Real, which immediately 

 followed that between the first consul and Savary, disclosed the 

 deplorable cause, as Savary's prior tidings- had revealed tht 

 catastrophe. Real's reception was that of a man who had been 

 guilty of unpardonable negligence. He will, no doubt, at some 

 proper time, submit his account to the world. But he knows 

 that the duke d'Enghien was not sacrificed t<> a tyrant's pas. 

 sions, policy, or fears ; that the general agitation and very 

 natural misunderstanding which his family and friends had 

 occasioned throughout the capital and the council, the over- 

 zealous, perhaps treacherous advice of some, the over-active, 

 precipitate despatch of others, and one of those misadventures, 

 which are so common in the affairs of this world, are the 

 causes to which this disa-ter was owing. Orce done, how- 

 ever, nu/la vestigia retrortum, never to recant, or apologize 

 or recede, was cue of Bonaparte's imperious maxims. He felt 

 the full force of the French proverb, that whoever excuses, 

 accuses himself; and nothing would induce him to disown a 

 deed done under hi* orders, though they were violated to hit 

 infinite injury and mortification in almost every stage of ihe 

 proceeding." Perhaps both accounts are correct; at all 

 events, both exculpate Napoleon from the haste of the pro- 

 cess. 



