heard in state at the
Chapel of the Tuileries. On the return journey to Malmaison Josephine
confessed to Madame de Remusat her fears that Bonaparte's will was
unalterably fixed: "I have done what I could, but I fear his mind is
made up." She and Joseph approached him once more in the park while
Talleyrand was at his side. "I fear that cripple," she said, as they
came near, and Joseph drew the Minister aside. All was in vain. "Go
away; you are a child; you don't understand public duties." This was
Josephine's final repulse.

On March 20th Napoleon drew up the form of questions to be put to the
prisoner. He now shifted the ground of accusation. Out of eleven
questions only the last three referred to the duke's connection with
the Cadoudal plot.[297] For in the meantime he had found in the
duke's papers proofs of his having offered his services to the
British Government for the present war,[298] his hopes of
participation in a future Continental war, but nothing that could
implicate him in the Cadoudal plot. The papers were certainly
disappointing; and that is doubtless the reason why, after examining
them on March 19th, he charged Real "to take secret cognizance of
these papers, along with Desmarest. One must prevent any talk on the
more or less of charges contained in these papers." The same fact
doubtless led to their abstraction along with the _dossier_ of the
proceedings of the court-martial.[299]

The task of summoning the officers who were to form the court-martial
was imposed on Murat. But when this bluff, hearty soldier received
this order, he exclaimed: "What! are they trying to soil my uniform! I
will not allow it! Let him appoint them himself if he wants to." But a
second and more imperious mandate compelled him to perform this
hateful duty. The seven senior officers of the garrison of Paris now
summoned were ordered not to separate until judgment was passed.[300]
At their head was General Hulin, who had shown such daring in the
assault on the Bastille; and thus one of the early heroes of the
Revolution had the evening of his days shrouded over with the horrors
of a midnight murder. Finally, the First Consul charged Savary, who
had just returned to Paris from Biville, furious at being baulked of
his prey, to proceed to Vincennes with a band of his gendarmes for the
carrying out of the sentence.

The seven officers as yet knew nothing of the nature of their mission,
or of martial law. "We had not," wrote Hul