he genius of Bonaparte, his tenacity in
advancing towards his object, and that adroit employment of suppleness
and audacity which made him sometimes dare fortune, sometimes avoid
difficulties which he found insurmountable, to arrive, not merely at the
throne of Louis XVI., but at the reconstructed throne of Charlemagne.

CHAPTER XXIV.

1804.

Pichegru betrayed--His arrest--His conduct to his old aide de camp--
Account of Pichegru's family, and his education at Brienne--
Permission to visit M. Carbonnet--The prisoners in the Temple--
Absurd application of the word "brigand"--Moreau and the state of
public opinion respecting him--Pichegru's firmness--Pichegru
strangled in prison--Public opinion at the time--Report on the death
of Pichegru.

I shall now proceed to relate what I knew at the time and what I have
since learnt of the different phases of the trial of Georges, Pichegru,
Moreau and the other persons accused of conspiracy,--a trial to all the
proceedings of which I closely attended. From those proceedings I was
convinced that Moreau was no conspirator, but at the same time I must
confess that it is very probable the First Consul might believe that he
had been engaged in the plot, and I am also of opinion that the real
conspirators believed Moreau to be their accomplice and their chief; for
the object of the machinations of the police agents was to create a
foundation for such a belief, it being important to the success of their
scheme.

It has been stated that Moreau was arrested on the day after the
confessions made by Bouvet de Lozier; Pichegru was taken by means of the
most infamous treachery that a man can be guilty of. The official police
had at last ascertained that he was in Paris, but they could not learn
the place of his concealment. The police agents had in vain exerted all
their efforts to discover him, when an old friend, who had given him his
last asylum, offered to deliver him up for 100,000 crowns. This infamous
fellow gave an enact description of the chamber which Pichegru occupied
in the Rue de Chabanais, and in consequence of his information Comminges,
commissary of police, proceeded thither, accompanied by some determined
men. Precautions were necessary, because it was known that Pichegru was
a man of prodigious bodily strength, and that hesides, as he possessed
the means of defence, he would not allow himself to be taken without
making a desperate resistance. Th