When the First Consul received the report of the Grand Judge relative to Drake's plots' against his Government he transmitted a copy of it to the Senate, and it was in reply to this communication that the Senate made those first overtures which Bonaparte thought vague, but which, nevertheless, led to the formation of the Empire. Notwithstanding this important circumstance, I have not hitherto mentioned Drake, because his intrigues for Bonaparte's overthrow appeared to me to be more immediately connected with the preliminaries of the trial of Georges and Moreau, which I shall notice in my next chapter.
—[These were not plots for assassination. Bonaparte, in the same
way, had his secret agents in every country of Europe, without
excepting England. Alison (chap. xxxvii. par. 89) says on this
matter of Drake that, though the English agents were certainly
attempting a counter-revolution, they had no idea of encouraging the
assassination of Napoleon, while "England was no match for the
French police agents in a transaction of this description, for the
publication of Regular revealed the mortifying fact that the whole
correspondence both of Drake and Spencer Smith had been regularly
transmitted, as fast as it took place, to the police of Paris, and
that their principal corresponded in that city, M. Mehu de la
Tonche, was himself an agent of the police, employed to tempt the
British envoys into this perilous enterprise.">[—
At the same time that Bonaparte communicated to the Senate the report of the Grand Judge, the Minister for Foreign Affairs addressed the following circular letter to the members of the Diplomatic Body:
The First Consul has commanded me to forward to your Excellency a
copy of a report which has been presented to him, respecting a
conspiracy formed in France by Mr. Drake, his Britannic Majesty's
Minister at the Court of Munich, which, by its object as well as its
date, is evidently connected with the infamous plot now in the
course of investigation.
The printed copy of Mr. Drake's letters and authentic documents is
annexed to the report. The originals will be immediately sent, by
order of the First Consul, to the Elector of Bavaria.
Such a prostitution of the most honourable function which can be
intrusted to a man is unexampled in the history of civilised
nations. It will astonish and afflict Europe as an unheard of
crime, which hitherto the most perverse Governments have not dared
to meditate. The First Consul is too well acquainted with
sentiments of the Diplomatic Body accredited to him not to be fully
convinced that every one of its members will behold, with profound
regret, the profanation of the sacred character of Ambassador,
basely transformed into a minister of plots, snares, and corruption.
All the ambassadors, ministers, plenipotentiaries, envoys, ordinary or extraordinary, whatever might be their denomination, addressed answers to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in which they expressed horror and indignation at the conduct of England and Drake's machinations. These answers were returned only five days after the Duc d'Enghien's death; and here one cannot help admiring the adroitness of Bonaparte, who thus compelled all the representatives of the European Governments to give official testimonies of regard for his person and Government.
CHAPTER XXVI.
1804.
Trial of Moreau, Georges, and others—Public interest excited by
Moreau—Arraignment of the prisoners—Moreau's letter to Bonaparte—
Violence of the President of the Court towards the prisoners—
Lajolais and Rolland—Examinations intended to criminate Moreau—
Remarkable observations—Speech written by M. Garat—Bonaparte's
opinion of Garat's eloquence—General Lecourbe and Moreau's son—
Respect shown to Moreau by the military—Different sentiments
excited by Georges and Moreau—Thoriot and 'Tui-roi'—Georges'
answers to the interrogatories—He refuses an offer of pardon—
Coster St. Victor—Napoleon and an actress—Captain Wright—
M. de Riviere and the medal of the Comte d'Artois—Generous struggle
between MM. de Polignac—Sentence on the prisoners—Bonaparte's
remark—Pardons and executions.
On the 28th of May, about ten days after Napoleon had been declared Emperor, the trials of Moreau and others commenced. No similar event that has since occurred can convey an idea of the fermentation which then prevailed in Paris. The indignation excited by Moreau's arrest was openly manifested, and braved the observation of the police. Endeavours had been successfully made to mislead public opinion with respect to Georges and some others among the accused, who were looked upon as assassins in the pay of England, at least by that numerous portion of the public who lent implicit faith to declarations presented to them as official. But the case was different with regard to those individuals who were particularly the objects of public interest,—viz. MM. de Polignac, de Riviere, Charles d'Hozier, and, above all, Moreau. The name of Moreau towered above all the rest, and with respect to him the Government found itself not a little perplexed. It was necessary on the one hand to surround him with a guard sufficiently imposing, to repress the eagerness of the people and of his friends, and yet on the other hand care was required that this guard should not be so strong as to admit of the possibility of making it a rallying-point, should the voice of a chief so honoured by the army appeal to it for defence. A rising of the populace in favour of Moreau was considered as a very possible event,—some hoped for it, others dreaded it. When I reflect on the state of feeling which then prevailed, I am certain that a movement in his favour would infallibly have taken place had judges more complying than even those who presided at the trial condemned Moreau to capital punishment.