If ever man was murdered, it was the Duke d'Enghien.
Such was the fate of the gallant and generous youth, who, by his fiery courage, won the battle of Bertsheim; and who, when his followers, to whom the republicans had so often refused quarter, seemed disposed to retaliate in the hour of victory, threw himself between them and their discomfited countrymen, exclaiming, "They are French--they are unfortunate; I place them under the guardianship of your honour." The horror with which this remorseless tragedy was heard of in Paris, soon spread throughout all Europe; and from that day the name of Buonaparte was irremediably associated with the ideas of sullen revenge and tyrannic cruelty.

The massacre of Jaffa had been perpetrated in a remote land, and many listened with incredulity to a tale told by the avowed enemies of the homicide.

But this bloody deed was done at home, and almost in the sight of all Paris.

Of the fact there could be no doubt; and of the pretexts set forth by the organs of the French government, there were few men of any party who affected not to perceive the futility.

Hitherto Napoleon had been the fortunate heir of a revolution, in whose civil excesses he had scarcely participated--henceforth he was the legitimate representative and symbol of all its atrocities.
In so far as Buonaparte had the power to suppress all mention of this catastrophe, it was, at the time, suppressed.