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collapsed to the ground, shot through the heart.
    When the news emerged there was widespread shock in France. Many awakened for the first time to the ruthless side of the first consul’s nature. Even Bonaparte’s mother criticised him for what he had done: but there were no more Bourbon plots against his life.
    For the main conspirators in the Cadoudal plot there was to be no reprise. On 6 April, just over two weeks later, Pichegru was discovered dead in his prison cell. Initially rumours circulated that he had been murdered, but laterthese were discredited and it appears more likely that he took his own life. Moreau, Cadoudal, and the other Royalist conspirators taken in February and March were put on trial. Despite a determined cross-examination of a number of witnesses, the prosecution was not able to indict Moreau directly in the plot, other than ascertain that he had met with Pichegru and was aware of the plot but did not report it to the authorities. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, which, with a pretence of clemency, Bonaparte commuted to banishment to America. Of the others, twenty were sentenced to death, although eight of noble birth later had their sentences commuted to imprisonment. For Cadoudal and the remaining eleven there was no reprieve: they were executed on 10 June 1804.
    The enormity of his decision regarding the duc d’Enghien stayed with Bonaparte all his life. Even in his Last Will and Testament he remembered it and continued to defend his actions:
‘I caused the duc d’Enghien to be arrested and tried, because that step was essential to the safety, interest, and honour of the French people, when the comte d’Artois was maintaining, by his own confession, sixty assassins at Paris. Under similar circumstances, I should act in the same way.’ 5
    To Fouché, recently removed from the post of minister of police, and now a senator, the decision was a bad one. To him is attributed the condemnation: ‘It is more than a crime; it is a mistake’.
    To the crowned heads of Europe, Bonaparte simply became an unrestrained monster and murderer. Their fury knew no bounds. It was the spark that ignited the flames of war.
    _________
    * Napoleon Bonaparte to Lord Whitworth, British Ambassador in Paris, 13 March 1803.

Chapter 3
    The Eagles of Europe
    ‘Eagles don’t breed doves.’ *
    The shock waves created by the arrest and execution of the duc d’Enghien reverberated around Europe. The dynastic heads, as one, condemned what they considered an act of murder and territorial violation. Nowhere was this response more pronounced and more damning than in Russia: when the news reached Alexander his sense of outrage was unbounded. To the tsar, not only was Bonaparte guilty of murder, but he also directly insulted Russia: for when French troops seized the duke they violated territory ruled by the venerable margrave of Baden, father of Alexander’s wife, the Tsarina Elizabeth. The king of Sweden shared the tsar’s indignation: he was married to another of the margrave’s daughters. Alexander declared a period of mourning at the Russian court and issued a note of protest to Paris. The carefully chosen response wounded the tsar deeply, hinting as it did, at Alexander’s own complicity in the murder of his father, Paul I, as well as suggesting British involvement. 1 Unwilling to respond, Alexander called a meeting of the State Council in April 1804, when a decision was taken to issue a series of demands to France. It was August before Bonaparte bothered to issue a repudiation.
    Russia put aside her plans for domestic reform and focused attention on drawing together a powerful alliance against France. Talks began with Sweden and Prussia, and discussions with Britain reopened too. There, the resumption of a state of war with France in 1803 had led to mounting pressure on Prime Minister Addington, until, with his support fading away, he resigned in April 1804. William Pitt swept back into office after an