re the tricolour to victory would vanish or bow their heads
before a Corsican, the prophet would speedily have closed his
croakings for ever. Yet the reality was even worse. Marceau and Hoche
died in the Rhineland: Kleber and Desaix fell on the same day, by
assassination and in battle: Richepanse, Leclerc, and many other brave
officers rotted away in San Domingo: Pichegru died a violent death in
prison: Carnot was retiring into voluntary exile: Massena and
Macdonald were vegetating in inglorious ease: others were fast
descending to the rank of flunkeys; and Moreau was on his trial for
high treason.

Even the populace, dazzled with glitter and drunk with sensations,
suffered some qualms at seeing the victor of Hohenlinden placed in the
dock; and the grief of the scanty survivors of the Army of the Rhine
portended trouble if the forms of justice were too much strained.
Trial by jury had been recently dispensed with in cases that concerned
the life of Napoleon. Consequently the prisoner, along with Georges
and his confederates, could be safely arraigned before judges in open
court; and in that respect the trial contrasted with the midnight
court-martial of Vincennes. Yet in no State trial have judges been
subjected to more official pressure for the purpose of assuring a
conviction.[310] The cross examination of numerous witnesses proved
that Moreau had persistently refused his help to the plot; and the
utmost that could be urged against him was that he desired Napoleon's
overthrow, had three interviews with Pichegru, and did not reveal the
plot to the authorities. That is to say, he was guilty of passively
conniving at the success of a plot which a "good citizen" ought to
have denounced.

For these reasons the judges sentenced him to two years'
imprisonment. This judgment excessively annoyed Napoleon, who desired
to use his imperial prerogative of pardon on Moreau's life, not on a
mere term of imprisonment; and with a show of clemency that veiled a
hidden irritation, he now released him provided that he retired to the
United States.[311] To that land of free men the victor of Hohenlinden
retired with a dignity which almost threw a veil over his past
incapacity and folly; and, for the present at least, men could say that
the end of his political career was nobler than Pompey's, while
Napoleon's conduct towards his rival lacked the clemency which graced
the triumph of Caesar.

As for the actual conspirators, twenty of th