CHAPTER XXXIII.
AFTER LONG WANDERINGS.
For the city of Paris the 16th of February, 1804, was a day of
terror. The gates remained closed the whole day, military patrols
passed through the streets, at whose corners the proclamations were
posted, by which Murat, the governor of Paris, announced to the city
that fifty assassins were within the walls, intent on taking the
life of the First Consul.
The condemned surgeon, Querolle, had, meantime, made his confession,
and named the heads of the conspiracy and their accomplices, and,
only after all the persons mentioned by him were arrested, were the
gates of the city opened.
A great trial then commenced of the men who had been sent by the
Bourbons for this nefarious purpose. Among the accused were General
Pichegru, the abettor of Georges, and General Moreau, the most
prominent of all.
The history of this trial was enveloped in obscurity, and it was
faintly whispered that Pichegru had taken his own life in prison,
and more faintly yet was it rumored that he was secretly dispatched
in prison. And then, on one of these days, there were to be seen
through all Paris only pale, sad faces, and a murmur of horror ran
through all the streets and all the houses.
The story was current that the Duke d'Enghien, the grandson of the
Prince de Conde, had been arrested by French soldiers at Baden,
beyond the frontier, and had been brought to Vincennes; that he was
accused there that same night of being an accomplice in a plot to
take the life of the First Consul, and to disturb the peace of the
republic; that he was quickly condemned by a court-martial, and shot
before morning within the fortress of Vincennes.
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