The report was only too true. Bonaparte had kept his word; he had
sacrificed a royal victim to the threatened cause of the republic;
he would, by one deed of horror, fill the conspirators with fear,
and cause them to abandon their bloody plans.
The means employed were cruel, but the end was reached which
Bonaparte hoped to attain, and thenceforth there were no more
conspiracies against the life of the First Consul, who, on the 18th
of May, that same year, declared himself emperor.
A few days after this, the public trial of the accused began, which
Fouche attended as the reinstalled minister of police, and over
which Regnier presided in his new capacity of chief judge.
Seventeen of those indicted were condemned to death, others to years
of imprisonment, and among these was General Moreau. But the popular
voice declared itself so loudly and energetically for the brave
general of the republic, that it was considered expedient to heed
it. Moreau was released from prison, and went to the Spanish
frontier, whence he sailed to North America.
On the 25th of June, twelve of the conspirators, Georges at their
head, were executed; the other five, who had been condemned to
death, had their sentence commuted to banishment.
The gentle, kind-hearted Josephine viewed all these things with
sadness, for her power over the heart of her husband was waning, and
the sun of her glory had set.
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