Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Eagles of Europe Read Online Free PDF

were fermented. At the centre, the comte d’Artois, gathered a determined group of supporters to the cause. Amongst them, two men stood out: Georges Cadoudal, a staunch opponent of the Revolution and leading light of the insurrection in the Vendée, in western France; and Charles Pichegru, a former general in the Revolutionary army. Following a coup in 1797 Pichegru had been arrested and exiled to South America, but having made good his escape, he made his way to London. The British government provided clandestine financial support for these Royalist conspirators both in London and on the Continent. Napoleon despatched Méhée de la Touche, a former assassin and spy, to London with instructions to work his way into émigré circles and expose the plotters. De la Touche was successful and consequently departed for the Continent, where he inveigled his way into the confidence of Britain’s envoy at Munich, who was completely taken in by his plausibility as an agent of the Royalist plotters. The envoy, Drake, handed over money and a codebook, with which de la Touche immediately returned to Paris, from which place he proceeded to ply Drake with false information. Thus, Bonaparte’s agents kept a close eye on developments as the plot gained momentum.
    In August 1803 the plotters were ready to advance their plans and so Georges Cadoudal slipped into France. He made his way to Paris to recruit conspirators to the cause. Although elusive, his activities were monitored, and Bonaparte waited. He wanted evidence to incriminate Général Jean Moreau in the plot. Moreau, the victor of Hohenlinden in 1800, openly displayed a sullen resentment of Bonaparte’s rapid rise. The first consul was uneasy, aware that many saw in Moreau a military rival to himself.
    Meanwhile, Pichegru followed Cadoudal to Paris, where he held the first of three meetings with Moreau in January 1804. However, while Moreau was happy to support the removal of Bonaparte, he refused to be drawn into a plot that aimed to restore the Bourbons. But on 14 February Bonaparte was ready to move. Under interrogation, a Royalist supporter had revealed that a number of conspirators, amongst them a French prince, was about to land on the French coast at Biville near Dieppe. The following day Moreau was arrested.On 28 February Pichegru was taken too, but Cadoudal, despite an intensive house-to-house search, evaded capture until 9 March. Other conspirators were quickly netted.
    While these searches were bringing results, Bonaparte ordered Général de division Savary, a trusted aide with a great aptitude for intelligence work and who commanded the Gendarmerie d’Élite, to intercept the landing of the French prince, presumed to be the comte d’Artois. From a cliff top at Biville, Savary employed lantern signals in an attempt to lure the British vessel to discharge her cargo, but despite his best efforts, the captain grew suspicious and returned to England.
    During his communications with the British envoy in Munich, Méhée de la Touche learnt of the plans of the duc d’Enghien, who, it was suggested, planned to lead an émigré force into France when war returned to Europe. At the time, the duke had settled just beyond the borders of eastern France, at Ettenheim in Baden, roughly 35 miles south of Strasbourg and close to the Rhine. This news reached the first consul on 1 March, prompting an investigation. The subsequent intelligence revealed that the duke was in league with another French general, Charles Dumouriez, considered a traitor since his desertion from the army, following his defeat at Neerwinden in 1793, and subsequent sojourn in England. Bonaparte’s fury knew no bounds when he suddenly discovered enemies on his very borders and determined to end these constant intrigues against him once and for all.
    But the first consul’s spy network had let him down. Dumouriez was still in London and had never returned to France. The duc d’Enghien’s companion was an