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Page 6
Rapp then announced me to the Emperor, and I was immediately admitted to
his presence. After pinching my ear and asking his usual questions, such
as, "What does the world say? How are your children? What are you
about? etc.," he said to me, "By the by, have you attended the
proceedings against Moreau?"--" Yes, Sire, I have not been absent during
one of the sittings."--" Well, Bourrienne, are you of the opinion that
Moreau is innocent?"--"Yes, Sire; at least I am certain that nothing has
come out in the course of the trial tending to criminate him; I am even
surprised how he came to be implicated in this conspiracy, since nothing
has appeared against him which has the most remote connexion with the
affair."--" I know your opinion on this subject; Duroc related to me the
conversation you held with him at the Tuileries; experience has shown
that you were correct; but how could I act otherwise? You know that
Bouvet de Lozier hanged himself in prison, and was only saved by
accident. Real hurried to the Temple in order to interrogate him, and in
his first confessions he criminated Moreau, affirming that he had held
repeated conferences with Pichegru. Real immediately reported to me this
fact, and proposed that Moreau should be arrested, since the rumours
against him seemed to be well founded; he had previously made the same
proposition. I at first refused my sanction to this measure; but after
the charge made against him by Bouvet de Lozier, how could I act
otherwise than I did? Could I suffer such open conspiracies against the
Government? Could I doubt the truth of Bouvet de Lozier's declaration,
under the circumstances in which it was made? Could I foresee that he
would deny his first declaration when brought before the Court? There
was a chain of circumstances which human sagacity could not penetrate,
and I consented to the arrest of Moreau when it was proved that he was in
league with Pichegru. Has not England sent assassins?"--"Sire," said I,
"permit me to call to your recollection the conversation you had in my
presence with Mr. Fox, after which you said to me, 'Bourrienne, I am very
happy at having heard from the mouth of a man of honour that the British
Government is incapable of seeking my life; I always wish to esteem my
enemies."--"Bah! you are a fool! Parbleu! I did not say that the
English Minister sent over an assassin, and that he said to him, 'Here is
gold and a poniard; go and kill the First Consul.' No, I did not believe
that; but it cannot be denied that all those foreign conspirators against
my Government were serving England, and receiving pay from that power.
Have I agents in London to disturb the Government of Great Britain?
I have waged with it honourable warfare; I have not attempted to awaken a
remembrance of the Stuarts amongst their old partisans. Is not Wright,
who landed Georges and his accomplices at Dieppe, a captain in the
British navy? But rest assured that, with the exception of a few
babblers, whom I can easily silence, the hearts of the French people are
with me; everywhere public opinion has been declared in my favour, so
that I have nothing to apprehend from giving the greatest publicity to
these plots, and bringing the accused to a solemn trial. The greater
number of those gentlemen wished me to bring the prisoners before a
military commission, that summary judgment might be obtained; but I
refused my consent to this measure. It might have been said that I
dreaded public opinion; and I fear it not. People may talk as much as
they please, well and good, I am not obliged to hear them; but I do not
like those who are attached to my person to blame what I have done."
As I could not wholly conceal an involuntary emotion, in which the
Emperor saw something more than mere surprise, he paused, took me by the
ear, and, smiling in the most affectionate manner, said, "I had no
reference to you in what I said, but I have to complain of Lacuee. Could
you believe that during the trial he went about clamouring in behalf of
Moreau? He, my aide de camp--a man who owes everything to me! As for
you, I have said that you acted very well in this affair."--" I know not,
Sire, what has either been done or said by Lacuee,--whom I have not seen
for a long time; what I said to Duroc is what history teaches in every
page."--"By the by," resumed the Emperor, after a short silence, "do you
know that it was I myself who discovered that Pichegru was in Paris.
Everyone said to me, Pichegru is in Paris; Fouche, Real, harped on the
same string, but could give me no proof of their assertion. 'What a fool
you are,' said I to Real, when in an instant you may ascertain the fact.
Pichegru has a brother, an aged ecclesiastic, who resides in Paris; let
his dwelling be searched, and should he be absent, it will warrant a
suspicion that Pichegru is here; if, on the contrary, his brother should
be at home, let him be arrested: he is a simple-minded man, and in the
first moments of agitation will betray the truth. Everything happened as
I had foreseen, for no sooner was he arrested than, without waiting to be
questioned, he inquired if it was a crime to have received his brother
into his house. Thus every doubt was removed, and a miscreant in the
house in which Pichegru lodged betrayed him to the police. What horrid
degradation to betray a friend for the sake of gold."
Then reverting to Moreau, the Emperor talked a great deal respecting that
general. "Moreau," he said, "possesses many good qualities; his bravery
is undoubted; but he has more courage than energy; he is indolent and
effeminate. When with the army he lived like a pasha; he smoked, was
almost constantly in bed, and gave himself up to the pleasures of the
table. His dispositions are naturally good; but he is too indolent for
study; he does not read, and since he has been tied to his wife's
apronstrings is fit for nothing. He sees only with the eyes of his wife
and her mother, who have had a hand in all these late plots; and then,
Bourrienne, is it not very strange that it was by my advice that he
entered into this union? I was told that Mademoiselle Hulot was a
creole, and I believed that he would find in her a second Josephine; how
greatly was I mistaken! It is these women who have estranged us from
each other, and I regret that he should have acted so unworthily. You
must remember my observing to you more than two years ago that Moreau
would one day run his head against the gate of the Tuileries; that he has
done so was no fault of mine, for you know how much I did to secure his
attachment. You cannot have forgotten the reception I gave him at
Malmaison. On the 18th Brumaire I conferred on him the charge of the
Luxembourg, and in that situation he fully justified my, choice. But
since that period he has behaved towards me with the utmost ingratitude
--entered into all the silly cabala against me, blamed all my measures,
and turned into ridicule the Legion of Honour. Have not some of the
intriguers put it into his head that I regard him with jealousy? You
must be aware of that. You must also know as well as I how anxious the
members of the Directory were to exalt the reputation of Moreau. Alarmed
at my success in Italy, they wished to have in the armies a general to
serve as a counterpoise to my renown. I have ascended the throne and he
is the inmate of a prison! You are aware of the incessant clamouring
raised against me by the whole family, at which I confess I was very much
displeased; coming from those whom I had treated so well! Had he
attached himself to me, I would doubtless have conferred on him the title
of First Marshal of the Empire; but what could I do? He constantly
depreciated my campaigns and my government. From discontent to revolt
there is frequently only one step, especially when a man of a weak
character becomes the tool of popular clubs; and therefore when I was
first informed that Moreau was implicated in the conspiracy of Georges I
believed him to be guilty, but hesitated to issue an order for his arrest
till I had taken the opinion of my Council. The members having
assembled, I ordered the different documents to be laid before them, with
an injunction to examine them with the utmost care, since they related to
an affair of importance, and I urged them candidly to inform me whether,
in their opinion, any of the charges against Moreau were sufficiently
strong to endanger his life. The fools! their reply was in the
affirmative; I believe they were even unanimous! Then I had no
alternative but to suffer the proceedings to take their course. It is
unnecessary to affirm to you, Bourrienne, that Moreau never should have
perished on a scaffold! Most assuredly I would have pardoned him; but
with the sentence of death hanging over his head he could no longer have
proved dangerous; and his name would have ceased to be a rallying-point
for disaffected Republicans or imbecile Royalists. Had the Council
expressed any doubts respecting his guilt I would have intimated to him
that the suspicions against him were so strong as to render any further
connection between us impossible; and that the best course he could
pursue would be to leave France for three years, under the pretext of
visiting some of the places rendered celebrated during the late wars; but
that if he preferred a diplomatic mission I would make a suitable
provision for his expenses; and the great innovator, Time, might effect
great changes during the period of his absence. But my foolish Council
affirmed to me that his guilt, as a principal, being evident, it was
absolutely necessary to bring him to trial; and now his sentence is only
that of a pickpocket. What think you I ought to do? Detain him? He
might still prove a rallying-point. No. Let him sell his property and
quit? Can I confine him in the Temple? It is full enough without him.
Still, if this had been the only great error they had led me to commit--"
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