Note 637 — BOOK III[594]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
This is the anecdote:
"After the execution of the sentence," says the Duc de Rovigo, "I took the road back to Paris. I was approaching the barriers, when I met M. Réal going to Vincennes in the dress of a councillor of State. I stopped him to ask him where he was going:
"'To Vincennes,' he replied; 'I received orders yesterday to repair there to examine the Duc d'Enghien.'
"I told him what had just happened, and he appeared as much astonished at what I had told him as I at what he had told me. I began to ponder. My meeting with the Minister of Foreign Relations at General Murat's recurred to my mind, and I began to doubt whether the death of the Duc d'Enghien was the work of the First Consul."—B.