Fouche's deputy, Pierre Fran�Yois Real, solemnly but gloatingly told
Napoleon: 'You've only uncovered about a quarter of this affair.' Acting
on Courson's information, Real and the secret police were able to arrest
several minor conspirators who, under torture, divulged the fu rther
intelligence that a Bourbon prince was privy to the plot. They did not
reveal the name of the prince, but both Fouche and Talleyrand told
Napoleon their sources pointed strongly to Louis de Bourbon Conde, the
young due d'Enghien, who was then at Ettenheim, across the Rhine from
the French border. D'Enghien had given hostages to fo rtune by writing a
note to another British secret agent, affirming his willingness to serve
under the British flag and referring to the French people as his 'most
cruel enemy'. Fouche had a copy of a letter in which d'Enghien claimed
to have spent two years on the Rhine suborning French troops.
Napoleon dearly wanted to arrest Moreau, who had been a thorn in his
side fo r so long, but he feared the effect on public opinion, as the victor
of Hohenlinden was still a popular hero. When the police brought in
Pichegru and the seriousness of the plot could not be gainsaid, Napoleon
pondered his next step. It was the cynical Talleyrand who suggested that
d'Enghien, being so close to the French border, should simply be
kidnapped. On the night of 20 March r8o4 a French snatch squad seized
the Bourbon prince and brought him back to France. It needs to be
emphasized that this was against every canon even of the rudimentary
international law that existed at the time. D'Enghien was not a prisoner
of war, nor a civil prisoner, nor was he wanted for any crime and neither
had France formally made a demand for his extradition; the abduction
was piracy pure and simple.
In the Chateau of Vincennes on the night of 20 March police captain
Dautancourt interrogated the prisoner, under the general supervision of
Fouche's deputy, Pierre Fran�Yois Real. The chain of command was
supposed to run from the First Consul to Murat, as military governor of
Paris, and then to Real, but this clarity was later obfuscated as all parties
to the affair denied they were the effective decision-makers. The
interrogation, and the later summary trial before a military commission,
scarcely provided the proof required fo r a retrospective justification of the
kidnapping. D'Enghien was indicted on six counts before a military
tribunal, consisting of General Hulin, five colonels and a captain, but in
reality nothing more than a kangaroo court. The six counts were: bearing.
arms against the French people; offering his services to the English;
harbouring British agents and giving them the means to spy in France;
heading an emigre corps on the French border; trying to fo ment a revolt
marcin
(Marcin)
#1