554 



PICHEGRU. 



right wing of the army in Alsace. In connection 

 with this general, and nominally under his command, 

 Pichegru stormed the lines of Hagenau, December 

 23, 1793, relieved Landau, and took Lauterburg. 



The-e successes gained him the highest commen- 

 dation in Paris, even from Robespierre and Collot 

 d'Herbois. On the dismissal of Hoche, in 1794, he 

 was appointed to command the army of the north, 

 which disasters had reduced to a state of disorgani- 

 zation. Here he also restored order and discipline. 

 After failing in the attack (made by command of 

 the committee of safety) on the enemy's centre, 

 under the prince of Cobourg, Pichegru, at his own 

 peril, pressed forward into West Flanders, and, by 

 thus turning the enemy's flank, gained (April 26 

 29) the brilliant victories of Courtray, Montcassel 

 and Menin, which forced* Clerfayt to a hasty re- 

 treat. May 18, he defeated the united forces of 

 prince Cobourg and York, between Menin and Cour- 

 tray, and, to draw Clerfayt from his strong position 

 at Thiel, he made a movement towards Ypres, near 

 which he defeated the Austrian general, June 10 

 and 13. All West Flanders fell into the hands of 

 the French, and Jourdan having soon after gained 

 the victory of Fleurus, Pichegru passed the Scheldt, 

 and thus cut off Clerfayt from, the British army, 

 took Bruges, Ostend, Ghent, and Oudenard, and 

 besieged or blockaded Nieuport, Sluys, Conde, 

 Valenciennes, and Quesnoy. He then advanced 

 to Mechlin, defeated on the 16th and 17th of July 

 the combined British and Dutch, took Antwerp, 

 drove (in Sept.) the British beyond the Meuse, 

 and, after a siege of three weeks, captured Herto- 

 genbosch (see Bois le Due), then deemed impreg- 

 nable. October 19, he again defeated the British 

 at Puhlach, blockaded Grove, and occupied Hulst, 

 Axel, Sas de Gand and Nimeguen. The cruel 

 commands of the convention, to spare no Briton, 

 and to put to the sword the garrisons of Conde, 

 Valenciennes, Landrecies and Quesnoy, unless they 

 immediately surrendered, were evaded by Pichegru ; 

 and on January 2, 1795, with an army destitute 

 of almost every thing but courage, he crossed the 

 Waal and Meuse on the ice, took Grave, Bemmel 

 island, and fort St Andrew, by storm, and invested 

 Breda. Thus was Holland conquered, the Dutch 

 army dispersed, the British obliged to embark ; 

 the hereditary stadtholder fled to Britain, and 

 Pichegru entered Dortrecht and Amsterdam in 

 triumph. The convention now conferred on him 

 the chief command of the army of the Rhine and 

 Moselle; but he retained at the same time, the 

 command of the army of the north, under Moreau, 

 and of the army of the Meuse, under Jourdan. 



In April, 1795, he was recalled, to take com- 

 mand of the capital, where the terrorists were mak- 

 ing their last efforts to recover their power. Hav- 

 ing suppressed the insurrection of the fauxbourgs, 

 for which he was called in the convention " the 

 saviour of the country," he returned to the army 

 of the Rhine, where, however, his career, hitherto 

 so brilliant, now took another turn. He entered 

 into negotiations with the prince Conde, through 

 Fauche-Borel to co-operate in the restoration of 

 the Bourbons. But the secret was soon revealed 

 to the French government. Pichegru's conduct as 

 general had already excited suspicion, for, instead 

 of improving his advantages over the enemy, he had 

 retreated when he should have advanced. But 

 Montgaillard, an agent in the negotiations of the 

 Bourbons with the general, in whose hands was the 

 correspondence on the subject, delivered up the 



papers to the directory, who, too weak at the mo- 

 ment to bring the general to an account, recalled 

 him from the command, in 1796, under the pretence 

 of appointing him ambassador to Sweden. Piche- 

 gru declined the post of ambassador, but instead 

 of saving himself while it was still time, he retired 

 to the abbey of Belle vaux, near Arbois, which he 

 had purchased, where he lived in narrow circum- 

 stances, till March, 1797, when the electors of his 

 department (the Upper Saone) chose him representa- 

 tive in the legislative body. Here he was chosen 

 president of the council of the five hundred ; but 

 he did not abandon his secret projects. On the con- 

 trary, he appeared at the head of the Clichy party, 

 and incurred suspicion by his propositions in relation 

 to the new organization of the national guards of 

 Paris, evidently intended to overthrow the republi- 

 can party. The directory, in concert with the coun- 

 cil of elders, secretly sent for troops from the Italian 

 army under Augereau, by whose aid, September 4, 

 1797 (18 Fructidor, year V.), the plots of the royal- 

 ists were baffled, and Pichegru, with his accompli- 

 ces, was arrested and sent to the Temple. The direc- 

 tory published the correspondence of Pichegru with 

 the emigrant Bourbons, particularly with Conde, part 

 of which had been obtained through Montgaillard, 

 and part found by the army of the Rhine under 

 Moreau, in the baggage of general Klingin, and, 

 with twenty of his accomplices, he was condemned 

 to deportation to Cayenne. Having arrived at Cay- 

 enne, they were transported to the unhealthy wilder- 

 ness of Sinamari, where most of them died of the 

 marsh fever. Pichegru and seven others succeeded, 

 after remaining there eight months, in escaping to 

 Paramaribo, the capital of the Dutch colony of Suri- 

 nam, in a light boat. 



From this place they went to Britain, where 

 Pichegru, now an avowed adherent of the Bourbons, 

 met with a favourable reception, and was ordered 

 to join the Austrian and Russian army, under Kor- 

 sakorF. But as Korsakoff, to whom Pichegru, before 

 the battle of Zurich, had given some useful advice, 

 which was neglected, was defeated, Pichegru re- 

 turned to Britain, where he was often consulted 

 both by the ministers, and by the French princes. 

 The latter, as is well known, flattered themselves 

 that Bonaparte would play the part of general Monk, 

 and restore the exiles to the throne ; but as the 

 grounds for this hope disappeared, it was resolved to 

 put the first consul out of the way ; and in the exe- 

 cution of this plan, Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal, 

 chief of the Chouans, and inventor of the infernal 

 machine, with whom Pichegru had become acquainted 

 in London, were employed. Having been landed 

 on the French coast by captain Wright, in January, 

 1804, with several of the old Vendean leaders, the 

 conspirators repaired in disguise to Paris, hoping to 

 find there a party favourable to their views, and to 

 engage Moreau in their plans. But the police (un- 

 der Fouche) discovered the plot, and Georges was 

 suddenly arrested. Pichegru escaped his pursuers 

 several days, but was finally betrayed by a merchant, 

 with whom he had taken refuge, and arrested Feb. 

 29, 1804. He was confined in the Temple, and a 

 process commenced against him ; but he was found 

 one morning (April 6) strangled in prison. An at- 

 tempt was made to fix on the first consul the stigma 

 of having caused the unhappy man to be tortured 

 and then strangled; but this would have been a most 

 wanton act of cruelty; the ordinary legal process 

 would have resulted in his condemnation to death, 

 as it was proved, by his own confession, that it had 



