m who had sought and
resolved his death, but evinced a firm resolution to unveil before the
public the odious machinery of the plot into which the police had drawn
him. He also declared that he and his companions had no longer any
object but to consider of the means of leaving Paris, with the view of
escaping from the snares laid for them when their arrest took place.
He declared that they had all of them given up the idea of overturning
the power of Bonaparte, a scheme into which they had been enticed by
shameful intrigues. I am convinced the dread excited by his
manifestation of a resolution to speak out with the most rigid candour
hastened the death of Pichegru. M. Real, who is still living, knows
better than any one else what were Pichegru's declarations, as he
interrogated him. I know not whether that gentleman will think fit,
either at the present or some future period, to raise the veil of mystery
which hangs over these events, but of this I am sure, he will be unable
to deny anything I advance. There is evidence almost amounting 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 suic