victoriously to exploit. Whatever may have been Bernier's motives, he
certainly acted with some duplicity. Without forewarning Cadoudal,
Bourmont, Frotté, and other royalist leaders, he secretly persuaded
the less combative leaders to accept the First Consul's terms; and a
pacification was arranged (January 18th), In vain did Cadoudal rage
against this treachery: in vain did he strive to break the armistice.
Frotté in Normandy was the last to capitulate and the first to feel
Bonaparte's vengeance: on a trumped-up charge of treachery he was
hurried before a court-martial and shot. An order was sent from Paris
for his pardon; but a letter which Bonaparte wrote to Brune on the day
of the execution contains the ominous phrase: _By this time Frotté
ought to be shot_; and a recently published letter to Hédouville
expresses the belief that _the punishment of that desperate leader
will doubtless contribute to the complete pacification of the
West_.[135]

In the hope of gaining over the Chouans, Bonaparte required their
chiefs to come to Paris, where they received the greatest
consideration. In Bernier the priest, Bonaparte discerned diplomatic
gifts of a high order, which were soon to be tested in a far more
important negotiation. The nobles, too, received flattering
attentions which touched their pride and assured their future
insignificance. Among them was Count Bourmont, the Judas of the
Waterloo campaign.

In contrast with the priest and the nobles, Georges Cadoudal stood
firm as a rock. That suave tongue spoke to him of glory, honour, and
the fatherland: he heeded it not, for he knew it had ordered the death
of Frotté. There stood these fighters alone, face to face, types of
the north and south, of past and present, fiercest and toughest of