Fouche, through the medium of his agents, had given Pichegru, Georges, and some other partisans of royalty, to understand that they might depend on Moreau, who, it was said, was quite prepared.  It is certain that Moreau informed Pichegru that he (Pichegru) had been deceived, and that he had never been spoken to on the subject.  Russillon declared on the trial that on the 14th of March the Polignacs said to some one, “Everything is going wrong—­they do not understand each other.  Moreau does not keep his word.  We have been deceived.”  M. de Riviera declared that he soon became convinced they had been deceived, and was about to return to England when he was arrested.  It is certain that the principal conspirators obtained positive information which confirmed their suspicions.  They learned Moreau’s declaration from Pichegru.  Many of the accused declared that they soon discovered they had been deceived; and the greater part of them were about to quit Paris, when they were all arrested, almost at one and the same moment.  Georges was going into La Vendee when he was betrayed by the man who, with the connivance of the police, had escorted him ever since his departure from London, and who had protected him from any interruption on the part of the police so long as it was only necessary to know where he was, or what he was about.  Georges had been in Paris seven months before it was considered that the proper moment had arrived for arresting him.

The almost simultaneous arrest of the conspirators proves clearly that the police knew perfectly well where they could lay their hands upon them.

When Pichegru was required to sign his examination he refused.  He said it was unnecessary; that, knowing all the secret machinery of the police, he suspected that by some chemical process they would erase all the writing except the signature, and afterwards fill up the paper with statements which he had never made.  His refusal to sign the interrogatory, he added, would not prevent him from repeating before a court of justice the truth which he had stated in answer to the questions proposed to him.  Fear was entertained of the disclosures he might make respecting his connection with Moreau, whose destruction was sought for, and also with respect to the means employed by the agents of Fouche to urge the conspirators to effect a change which they desired.

On the evening of the 15th of February I heard of Moreau’s arrest, and early next morning I proceeded straight to the Rue St. Pierre, where M. Carbonnet resided with his nephew.  I was anxious to hear from him the particulars of the general’s arrest.  What was my surprise!  I had hardly time to address myself to the porter before he informed me that M. Carbonnet and his nephew were both arrested.  “I advise you, sir,” added the man, “to retire without more ado, for I can assure you that the persons who visit M. Carbonnet are watched.”—­“Is he still at home?” said I.  “Yes, Sir; they are examining his papers.”—­“Then,” said I, “I will go up.”  M. Carbonnet, of whose friendship I had reason to be proud, and whose memory will ever be dear to me, was more distressed by the arrest of his nephew and Moreau than by his own.  His nephew was, however, liberated after a few hours.  M. Carbonnet’s papers were sealed up, and he was placed in solitary confinement at St. Pelagic.