t first they believed that the
First Consul would soon call back the king, and Bonaparte skilfully
favoured this notion: he offered a pacification, of which some of the
harassed peasants availed themselves. Georges himself for a time
advised a reconciliation, and a meeting of the royalist leaders voted
to a man that they desired "to have the king and you" (Bonaparte). One
of them, Hyde de Neuville, had an interview with the First Consul at
Paris, and has left on record his surprise at seeing the slight form
of the man whose name was ringing through France. At the first glance
he took him for a rather poorly dressed lackey; but when the general
raised his eyes and searched him through and through with their eager
fire, the royalist saw his error and fell under the spell of a gaze
which few could endure unmoved. The interview brought no definite
result.

Other overtures made by Bonaparte were more effective. True to his
plan of dividing his enemies, he appealed to the clergy to end the
civil strife. The appeal struck home to the heart or the ambitions of
a cleric named Bernier. This man was but a village priest of La
Vendee: yet his natural abilities gained him an ascendancy in the
councils of the insurgents, which the First Consul was now
victoriously to exploit. Whatever may have been Bernier's motives, he
certainly acted with some duplicity. Without forewarning Cadoudal,
Bourmont, Frotte, and other royalist leaders, he secretly persuaded
the less combative leaders to accept the First Consul's terms; and a
pacification was arranged (January 18th), In vain did Cadoudal rage
against this treachery: in vain did he strive to break the armistice.
Frotte in Normandy was the last to capitulate and the first to feel
Bonaparte's vengeance: on a trumped-up charge of treachery he was
hurried before a court-martial and shot. An order was sent from Paris
for his pardon; but a letter which Bonaparte wrote to Brune on the day
of the execution contains the ominous phrase: _By this time Frotte
ought to be shot_; and a recently published letter to Hedouville
expresses the belief that _the punishment of that desperate leader
will doubtless contribute to the complete pacification of the
West_.[135]

In the hope of gaining over the Chouans, Bonaparte required their
chiefs to come to Paris, where they received the greatest
consideration. In Bernier the priest, Bonaparte discerned diplomatic
gifts of a high order, which were soon to be tes