Combray family; France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815
charged, as we have seen, to help them cross the Oise and direct them to
the wood of La Muette, where Denis Lamotte, the vine-dresser of
Saint-Leu, had come to fetch them.
Such was the result of Manginot's enquiries. He had reconstructed
Georges' itinerary with most remarkable perspicacity and this was the
more important as the chain of stations from the sea to Paris
necessitated long and careful organisation, and as the conspirators used
the route frequently. Thus, two men mentioned in the disembarkation of
August 23d had returned to Biville in mid-September. On October 2d
Georges and three of his officers, coming from Paris, had again
presented themselves before Lamotte, who had conducted them to the wood
of La Muette, where Massignon was waiting for them. It was proved that
their journeys had been made with perfect regularity; the same guides,
the same night marches, the same hiding-places by day. The house of
Boniface Colliaux at Feuquieres, that of Monnier at Aumale, and the farm
of La Poterie seemed to be the principal meeting-places. Another passage
took place in the second fortnight of November, and another in December,
corresponding to a new disembarkation. In January, 1804, Georges made
the journey for the fourth time, to await at Biville the English
corvette bringing Pichegru, the Marquis de Riviere and four other
conspirators. A fisherman called Etienne Horne gave some valuable
details of this arrival. He had noticed particularly the man who
appeared to be the leader--"a fat man, with a full, rather hard face,
round-shouldered, and with a slight trouble in his arms."
"These gentlemen," he added, "usually arrived at night, and left about
midnight; they were satisfied with our humble fare, and always kept
together in a corner, talking."
When the tide was full Horne went down to the beach to watch for the
sloop. The password was "Jacques," to which the men in the boat replied
"Thomas."
Manginot, as may well be imagined, arrested all who in any way had
assisted the conspirators, and hurried them off to Paris. The tower of
the Temple became crowded with peasants, with women in Normandy caps,
and fishermen of Dieppe, dumbfounded at finding themselves in the famous
place where the monarchy had suffered its last torments. But these were
only the small fry of the conspiracy, and the First Consul, who liked to
pose as the victim exposed to the blows of an entire party, could not
with decency take these inoffensive peasants before a high court of
justice. While waiting for chance or more treachery to reveal the refuge
of Georges Cadoudal, the discovery of the organisers of the plot was
most important, and this seemed well-nigh impossible, although Manginot
had reason to think that the centre of the conspiracy was near Aumale or
Feuquieres.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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