Note 57 — Chapter XXVIII
Reading edition
"The idea of the death of the Duke d'Enghien never crossed the first consul's mind, till he was astonished and confounded by the tidings communicated to him by Savary of his execution. The question was not whether he should be put to death, but whether he should be put on his trial. Joseph, Josephine, Cambacérès, Berthier, earnestly expostulated with the chief magistrate against it. Joseph, who was living at Morfontaine, and transiently in town, on the 20th of March, the day the Duke d'Enghien was taken a prisoner to Paris, spoke to his brother in his behalf, warmly urging the defence of the grandson of the Prince of Condé, who, he reminded his brother, had seven times crowned him for as many distinctions gained at the Royal School; to which expostulation the first consul's reply affords a curious proof of the state of his mind at the moment. His answer was given by declaiming the following passage from a speech of Cæsar, in Corneille's tragedy of La Mort de Pompée:—
'Votre zèle est faux, si seul il redoutait Ce que le monde entier à pleins vœux souhaitait: Et s'il vous a donné ces craintes trop subtiles, Qui m'ôtent tout le fruit de nos guerres civiles, Où l'honneur seul m'engage, et que pour terminer Je ne veux que celui de vaincre et pardonner; Où mes plus dangereux et plus grands adversaires, Sitôt qu'ils sont vaincus, ne sont plus que mes frères; Et mon ambition ne va qu'à les forcer, Ayant domté leur haine, à vivre et m'embrasser. Oh! combien d'allegresse une si triste guerre Aurait-elle laisée dessus toute la terre, Si l'on voyait marcher dessus un même char, Vainqueurs de leur discorde, et Pompée et César.'"
Joseph Buonaparte.