Court being assembled, the President
ordered the prisoners to be brought in. They entered in a file, and
ranged themselves on the benches each between two gendarmes. They
appeared composed and collected, and resignation was depicted on the
countenances of all except Bouvet de Lozier, who did not dare to raise
his eyes to his companions in misfortune, whom his weakness, rather than
his will, had betrayed. I did not recognise him until the President
proceeded to call over the prisoners, and to put the usual questions
respecting their names, professions, and places of abode. Of the
forty-nine prisoners, among whom were several females, only two were
personally known to me; namely, Moreau, whose presence on the prisoner's
bench seemed to wring every heart, and Georges, whom I had seen at the
Tuileries in the First Consul's cabinet.

The first sitting of the Court was occupied with the reading of the act
of accusation or indictment, and the voices of the ushers, commanding
silence, could scarce suppress the buzz which pervaded the Court at the
mention of Moreau's name. All eyes were turned towards the conqueror of
Hohenlinden, and while the Procureur Imperial read over the long
indictment and invoked the vengeance of the law on an attempt against the
head of the Republic, it was easy to perceive how he tortured his
ingenuity to fasten apparent guilt on the laurels of Moreau. The good
sense of the public discerned proofs of his innocence in the very
circumstances brought forward against him. I shall never forget the
effect produced--so contrary to what was anticipated by the
prosecutors--by the reading of a letter addressed by Moreau from his
prison in the Temple to the First Consul, when the judges appointed to
interrogate him sought to make his past conduct the subject of
accusation, on account of M. de Klinglin's papers having fallen into his
hands. He was reproached with having too long delayed transmitting
these documents to the Directory; and it was curious to see the Emperor
Napoleon become the avenger of pretended offences committed against the
Directory which he had overthrown.

In the letter here alluded to Moreau said to Bonaparte, then First
Consul--

"In the short campaign of the year V. (from the 20th to the 23d of
March 1797) we took the papers belonging to the staff of the enemy's
army, and a number of documents were brought to me which General
Desaix, then wounded, amused himself by perusing. I