s, and landed
their passengers on the shores of France, where some of them
found a dismal welcome, being seized and thrown into the
Bastille. These were Vaudreuil, Bigot, Cadet, Pean, Breard,
Varin, Le Mercier, Penisseault, Maurin, Corpron, and others
accused of the frauds and peculations that had helped to ruin
Canada. In the next year they were all put on trial, whether
as an act of pure justice or as a device to turn public indignation
from the Government. In December, 1761, judges commissioned
for the purpose began their sessions at the Chatelet, and a
prodigious mass of evidence was laid before them. Cadet, with
brazen effrontery, at first declared himself innocent, but ended
with full and unblushing confession. Bigot denied everything till
silenced point by point with papers bearing his own signature.
The prisoners defended themselves by accusing each other. Bigot
and Vaudreuil brought mutual charges, while all agreed in denouncing
Cadet. Vaudreuil, as before mentioned, was acquitted. Bigot was banished
from France for life, his property was confiscated, and he was condemned
to pay fifteen hundred thousand francs by way of restitution. Cadet was
banished for nine years from Paris and required to refund six millions;
while others were sentenced in sums varying from thirty thousand to
eight hundred thousand francs, and were ordered to be held in prison
till the money was paid. Of twenty-one persons brought to trial ten
were condemned, six were acquitted, three received an admonition,
and two were dismissed for want of evidence. Thirty-four failed to appear,
of whom seven were sentenced in default, and judgment was reserved in
the case of the rest.[860] Even those who escaped from justice profited
little by their gains, for unless they had turned them betimes into land
or other substantial values, they lost them in a discredited paper
currency and dishonored bills of exchange.

[Footnote 860: _Jugement rendu souverainement et en dernier Ressort dans
l'Affaire du Canada_. Papers at the Chatelet of Paris, cited by
Dussieux.]

While on the American continent the last scenes of the war
were drawing to their close, the contest raged in Europe with
unabated violence. England was in the full career of success;
but her great ally, Frederic of Prussia, seemed tottering to his
ruin. In the summer of 1758 his glory was at its height.
French, Austrians, and Russians had all fled before him. But
the autumn brought reverses; a