to demonstration that Pichegru was strangled in prison, and consequently all idea of suicide must be rejected as inadmissible.  Have I positive and substantive proof of what I assert?  I have not; but the concurrence of facts and the weight of probabilities do not leave me in possession of the doubts I should wish to entertain on that tragic event.  Besides, there exists a certain popular instinct, which is rarely at fault, and it must be in the recollection of many, not only that the general opinion favoured the notion of Pichegru’s assassination, but that the pains taken to give that opinion another direction, by the affected exhibition of the body, only served to strengthen it.  He who spontaneously says, I have not committed such or such a crime, at least admits there is room for suspecting his guilt.

The truth is, the tide of opinion never set in with such force against Bonaparte as during the trial of Moreau; nor was the popular sentiment in error on the subject of the death of Pichegru, who was clearly strangled in the Temple by secret agents.  The authors, the actors, and the witnesses of the horrible prison scenes of the period are the only persons capable of removing the doubts which still hang over the death of Pichegru; but I must nevertheless contend that the preceding circumstances, the general belief at the time, and even probability, are in contradiction with any idea of suicide on the part of Pichegru.  His death was considered necessary, and this necessity was its real cause.

CHAPTER XXV.

1804.

Arrest of Georges—­The fruiterer’s daughter of the Rue de La Montagne—­St. Genevieve—­Louis Bonaparte’s visit to the Temple—­ General Lauriston—­Arrest of Villeneuve and Barco—­Villeneuve wounded—­Moreau during his imprisonment—­Preparations for leaving the Temple—­Remarkable change in Georges—­Addresses and congratulations—­Speech of the First Consul forgotten—­Secret negotiations with the Senate—­Official proposition of Bonaparte’s elevation to the Empire—­Sitting of the Council of State—­ Interference of Bonaparte—­Individual votes—­Seven against twenty—­ His subjects and his people—­Appropriateness of the title of Emperor—­Communications between Bonaparte and the Senate—­Bonaparte first called Sire by Cambaceres—­First letter signed by Napoleon as Emperor—­Grand levee at the Tuileries—­Napoleon’s address to the Imperial Guard—­Organic ’Senatus-consulte’—­Revival of old formulas and titles—­The Republicanism of Lucien—­The Spanish Princess—­ Lucien’s clandestine marriage—­Bonaparte’s influence on the German Princes—­Intrigues of England—­Drake at Munich—­Project for overthrowing Bonaparte’s Government—­Circular from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the members of the Diplomatic Body—­Answers to that circular.

Georges was arrested about seven o’clock, on the evening of the 9th of March, with another conspirator,