Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/208

iS4 HISTORY OF FRANCE. fcHAr. and making public the cession of the Rhine Provinces, which had been secretly agreed to in that Treaty. Even with England peace was signed at Aviietis on the 25th of March, 1803. By one of the provisions of the treaty Malta was to be given back to the knights. Buonaparte profited by this peace to send out his brother-in-law, Leclerc, to reduce the island of Haiti, where the example of revo- lution had been followed by a terrible insurrection of the slaves. The island had fallen under the rule of Toussaiut L Oiiverttire, one of the few great men of the negro race. But his troops could not stand against those of Leclerc, and he was treacherously seized and made away with. Leclerc soon died from the climate, and the island was lost. When the English found that Buonaparte was not content with what he had gained by the Peace of Amiens, and that he was determined also to annex Piedmont, they refused to give up Malta. Buonaparte now required that all the English writers of newspaper articles against him should be punished, and that the French royal family, then in England, should be driven out, together with all the emigrants. He insulted Lord Whitwoith, the Eng- lish ambassador, for refusing such demands, and having thus forced England to declare war, he seized, without any notice, on English travellers, and kept them as close prisoners, contrary to all usages of civilized nations Meanwhile he poured his troops into Hanover, and pre- pared his fleet and army for a great invasion of England. Plots were now laid againt him, one undoubted one by a Breton royalist named George Cadoiidal, who intended to attack Buonaparte in the midst of his guards in the streets, of Paris. General Pichegm was concerned in this plot ; Moreau was falsely accused of being concerned in it. Both generals were thrown into prison. Pichegru was found strangled in his cell. Moreau was exiled, and went to America. Cadoudal died bravely, owning his intention of killing the first consul as a virtuous action. This plot seems to have been the cause of the blackest deed of Buonaparte's life. The Duke of Enghien, a youth of two-and-twenty, the only son of the Prince of Condd, was living harmlessly at Ettenheim, in the Duchy of Baden, when he was one night seized by a troop of French soldiers, hurried to Vincenncs, led before a court-martial, and sentenced to be shot, which sentence was instantly carried out. 21. The Consulate, 1799^-1804. — But the whole of this