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About three miles from Trinite they caught sight of a black spot approaching along the road with great rapidity. As it became more distinct this spot stopped suddenly. "What is that?" asked Roland. "As you see, a man," replied Cadoudal. "Of course; but who is this man?" "You might have guessed from the rapidity of his coming; he is a messenger." "Why does he stop?"
"And the rear-guard?" "La Giberne." The second reply was made with the same unanimity as the first. "Then we can safely continue our way?" "Yes, general; as if you were going to mass in your own village." "Let us ride on then, colonel," said Cadoudal to Roland. Then turning to his men he cried: "Be lively, my lads." Instantly every man jumped the ditch and disappeared.
When their captors approached them every cartridge-box was open; every man had fired his last shot. Cadoudal walked back to Roland. During the whole of this desperate struggle the young man had remained on the mound. With his eyes fixed on the battle, his hair damp with sweat, his breast heaving, he waited for the result.
It is true the corpse bore marks which scarcely tallied with suicide: but Georges Cadoudal, whose cell was hard by, heard no sound of a scuffle; and it is unlikely that so strong a man as Pichegru would easily have succumbed to assailants.
M. Real had been at the Conciergerie, where he had seen Georges Cadoudal, and on his entrance observed to M. Desmarets and the others, sufficiently loud to be distinctly heard by M. Carbonnet and myself, "I have had an interview with Georges who is an extraordinary man.
As for Louis XVI., I will let him pass, but for Pichegru, Moreau, and Cadoudal, that is altogether another thing. Pichegru surrendered his troops to the enemy, Moreau fought against France, and George Cadoudal was an assassin, three kinds of ambitious men, who asked for nothing but to oppress us, and all three deserved their fate. That is what I think."
Of the hundred men surrounding the general, not one seemed to perceive the spectacle that was now before their eyes; it seemed almost as if they were waiting for Cadoudal's order to look at it. Roland had only to cast his eyes on the Republicans to see that they were lost. Cadoudal watched the various emotions that succeeded each other on the young man's face.
Then, casting a glance over the plain and seeing his own men stationed apart, and the Republicans massed for battle, he cried: "A musket!" They brought one. Cadoudal raised it above his head and fired in the air. Almost at the same moment, a shot fired in the same manner from the midst of the Republicans answered like an echo to that of Cadoudal.
It is true the corpse bore marks which scarcely tallied with suicide: but Georges Cadoudal, whose cell was hard by, heard no sound of a scuffle; and it is unlikely that so strong a man as Pichegru would easily have succumbed to assailants.
It was a case in which, to his thinking, negotiation should be substituted for war. But how negotiate with a man like Cadoudal? Bonaparte was not unaware of his own personal seductions when he chose to exercise them. He resolved to see Cadoudal, and without saying anything on the subject to Roland, he intended to make use of him for the interview when the time came.
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