Is committed to the prison of Vincennes.

the door of the chef de bataillon, Harel, the commandant of the castle of Vincennes.

LX.

The commandant Harel was formerly a serjeant in the French guards, and an old protégé of the Jacobins, who had promoted him. He was reduced on the 18th Brumaire, by the First Consul, and became discontented with the Consular government. He was therefore tempted, by the conspirators Cerachi, Arena, and Demerville, but he rejected their offers, and denounced their projects; for which he received, as a eparation for his former treatment, the command of this state prison.

The First Consul, in planning the drama of which Vincennes was about to become the theatre, had wished to assure himself of the safety of the walls and the fidelity of the gaolers. A note, written by his order to Harel on the 16th March, immediately after the abduction of Ettenheim was known at Paris, with these two words in the margin in haste and private, had demanded of him the state of the quarters, of the troops, of the workmen, of the inhabitants allowed to live in the castle, and even of the servants, and precise information respecting each. Réal had further written to Harel on the 20th, "The Duke d'Enghien will arrive to-night: the First Consul has ordered that his name, and everything about him, should ke kept a profound secret." Finally, on the same day, a few moments later, Réal, in another letter, said to Harel, "An individual whose name must not be known is to be conducted to the castle. The intention of the government is, that no questions shall be put to him as to who he is or the motives of his detention; you yourself must even be ignorant who he is. You alone are to communicate with him, and you will allow no person whatever to see him. It is probable that he will arrive this night."

LXI.

Harel had scarcely read this last letter, when the carriage, which he had not expected till night, having outstripped, by its

His treatment in prison.

rapidity, the nocturnal hour which it was intended should conceal its entrance into Vincennes, stopped before the quarters of the commandant. The prince descended from the carriage, shivering with cold and the rainy weather. Harei, feeling for his situation, asked him to walk up into his apartment to warm himself by the fire. "With pleasure," said the prince as he thanked him; "I shall look on a fire with great satisfaction; I shall also be glad to have something to eat, for I have taken nothing during the whole day."

A poor woman belonging to a religious order, who educated the children of Madame Harel, and who lived outside the castle, was coming down the staircase from the commandant's quarters at the moment the prisoner was going up with his guardian. She heard the dialogue, and drew aside to let the young man pass. "He was pale," she says, "and appeared very much fatigued; he was tall, and his appearance was noble and distinguished. He was dressed in a long uniform riding coat of blue cloth, with a cloth cap ornamented with gold lace."

Harel allowed the prince to warm himself before the fire. One of his old comrades of the French guards named Aufort, and who at that time commanded the brigade of gendarmerie of the village of Vincennes, lived on his old familiar footing with Harel. He came in and saw the prince, and assisted Harel in preparing a quarter for him. He also went to the village inn to order supper for the prisoner. These preparations being made, and the prince re-animated by the warmth of the commandant's fire, Harel conducted him to his own quarter It was a room in a pavilion called the King's Pavilion. A fire had been lighted in it, and some furniture put in hastily; a bed, a table, and some chairs. The bare walls, and some panes of glass broken by the swallows of the towers, sufficiently attested the precipitation of a furnishing which there had not been time to finish.

LXII.

The prince being thus treated with politeness and good nature by Harel, did not appear to be cast down, or to have

His treatment in prison.

any unpleasant presentiment on establishing himself in his new quarters. He rather displayed a serenity of countenance, lively and almost joyous. He chatted with the commandant with a free and undisturbed mind. He told him that in his childhood, a short time before the Revolution, he had been with the Prince de Condé, his grandfather, to visit the castle of Vincennes; that he never dreamt at that time that he would one day be amongst the number of those poor prisoners whom he had then pitied so much; that he even thought he could recollect the chamber he was then in, and recognise it as one of the rooms he had run through. Then looking out of the window over the tops of the oaks, and on the roads losing themselves in distance through the forest which surrounds the fortress, he was in ecstacy at the beautiful view. He spoke of his passion for field sports, and said that if he was allowed to hunt freely, during his imprisonment in these woods, he would give his parole not to escape. Beyond this he did not appear in any way pre-occupied with the result of his captivity, and repeated to Harel what he had said to Peterman :-" This can be only an affair of a few days' detention;-the time only to recognise an error and my innocence.”

LXIII.

During these conversations of a traveller in a state of repos rather than of a prisoner bewailing his fate, a little boy name Turquin, who served in the hotel of Vincennes, brought th supper ordered by Aufort. The prince approached the table and was going to sit down, when, perceiving on the table-clot] tin covers unpolished and rough instead of silver plate, h appeared to be seized with an involuntary repugnance; and, without making any observation, he returned towards the window, and walked up and down the room without looking at the supper. Harel perceived this movement, and hastened to his quarters for proper covers. The duke then sat down, and appeared to regain his appetite. His dog, which he had kept at his feet or by his side during the whole route, rested his head on his master's knees. He gave a part of the supper

Writes to the Princess Charlotte.

66

that was on the table to the poor animal, and looking at Harel, "I presume," he said to him, that there is no indiscretion in giving my portion of the supper to my dog."

Having finished his supper, the prince wrote a letter to the Princess Charlotte, and concealed it in his clothes to prepare for what might happen.

He then lay down, and slept profoundly, like a man who is sure to awake, and who confides in a happy morrow.

BOOK TWELFTH.

Napoleon at Malmaison-His preparations for the death of the Duke d'Enghien-Examination of the Duke d'Enghien-His Trial-His Condemnation-His Execution-Arrival of the Princess Charlotte at Paris-Remarks on the conduct of Napoleon.

I.

BUT sleep had fled from the chateau of Malmaison, where the First Consul, to enjoy his thoughts, his leisure, and the budding beauties of spring, had been in retirement for the last eight days. These days and nights were filled with agitation, with anger, with councils, with despatches to generals and ministers, revoked by other despatches; with night working, with going and coming of couriers and confidants, from Paris to this retreat, and from this retreat to Paris. It was evident that some tragical resolutions were concocting there, some state precaution, some terror to Europe, some superlative warning to the numerous conspirators,-some vengeance, perhaps a crime, to be followed by a remorse.

It was here, where he seemed to expect an event still unknown to all, that Napoleon received by telegraph, on the evening of the 15th March, the news of the actual abduction His thoughts, until then on the rack of anger, began to waver, and he felt as if embarrassed with his success and with his prey. He instantly wrote to Réal: "Come this evening at ten o'clock,-a carriage will be in waiting for you on the bridge of Neuilly, to bring you the quicker.”

The following day, the 16th, after his first interviews with his councillors, thinking himself certain then of furnishing proofs to public opinion of undoubted criminality, he turned over in his mind the idea of having the prince tried in open day, by a high national tribunal, with all the guarantees of defence and publicity He then fixed on the idea of a great