Their objects were different:
That of one was to carry off the Duke d'Enghien from Ettenheim;
That of the other, to seize the conspirators at Offenbourg, which was eight or ten leagues distant.
Perhaps it will be objected, that M. de Caulincourt was not ignorant of General Ord**'s being directed, to seize the Duke d'Enghien. Be it so: I cannot perceive the consequence, attempted to be drawn from this. But what I have seen in the cabinet, and what I attest, is, that the order given to M. de Caulincourt said nothing of Ettenheim, and that the name of the Duke d'Enghien was not even mentioned in it: it related solely, in the first place, to the construction of a flotilla, that was preparing on the Rhine; and, secondly, to the expedition of Offenbourg; an expedition that terminated, as no doubt is still remembered, in the laughable flight of the minister Drake and his agents.
I have thought it my duty as a Frenchman and an historian, to enter into these details, and destroy for ever an error, which malevolence and the spirit of party have laid hold of, in order to tarnish the political life of one of the men, who do the greatest honour to the imperial government and to France.
M. de Caulincourt would not have been less irreproachable, had he committed the fatal seizure ascribed to him: he would have done his duty, as General Ord** did his. A soldier is not the judge of the orders he is to execute. The great Condé, covered with the laurels of Rocroy, Fribourg, Norlinguen, and Lenz, was arrested, in spite of the faith pledged to him, in the apartments of the King; yet neither his contemporaries, nor posterity, have charged Marshal d'Albret with this arrest as a crime.[(Back to main text)]
Footnote 103: I have been assured, that Georges was three times offered his pardon by Napoleon, if he would promise, not to engage in any conspiracy again; and that it was not till after his third refusal, that his sentence was ordered to be carried into execution.[(Back to main text)]
Footnote 104: Marshal Augereau, Duke de Castiglione, was also in this list. His name was struck out at the request of the duchess, and in consideration of the proclamation, which he published on the 23d of March.[(Back to main text)]
Footnote 105: These conversations with persons, whose merit and opinion Napoleon esteemed, were always pleasing, instructive, interesting, always marked with strong thoughts, and bold, ingenious, or sublime expressions. With persons indifferent to him, or whose nullity he discerned, his phrases, scarcely begun, were never finished: his ideas turned only on insignificant, common-place matters, which, by way of amusing himself, he was apt to season with biting sarcasm, or jokes more whimsical than witty.
This explains the contradictions between the different opinions given of Napoleon's understanding by foreigners introduced at his court.[(Back to main text)]