Napoleon had already pardoned several of the principal actors in the great royalist conspiracy; and yet, though the four gentlemen were merely suspected of complicity, the Emperor, after a meeting of the Council of State, called the senator Malin, Fouche, Talleyrand, Cambaceres, Lebrun, and Dubois, prefect of police, into his cabinet.
"Gentlemen," said the future Emperor, who still wore the dress of the First Consul, "we have received from the Sieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre, officers in the army of the Prince de Conde, a request to be allowed to re-enter France." "They are here now," said Fouche.
"Like many others whom I meet in Paris," remarked Talleyrand.
"I think you have not met these gentlemen," said Malin, "for they are hidden in the forest of Nodesme, where they consider themselves at home." He was careful not to tell the First Consul and Fouche how he himself had given them warning, by talking with Grevin within hearing of Michu, but he made the most of Corentin's reports and convinced Napoleon that the four gentlemen were sharers in the plot of Riviere and Polignac, with Michu for an accomplice.

The prefect of police confirmed these assertions.
"But how could that bailiff know that the conspiracy was discovered ?" said the prefect, "for the Emperor and the council and I were the only persons in the secret." No one paid attention to this remark.
"If they have been hidden in that forest for the last seven months and you have not been able to find them," said the Emperor to Fouche, "they have expiated their misdeeds." "Since they are my enemies as well," said Malin, frightened by the Emperor's clear-sightedness, "I desire to follow the magnanimous example of your Majesty; I therefore make myself their advocate and ask that their names be stricken from the list of _emigres_." "They will be less dangerous to you here than if they are exiled; for they will now have to swear allegiance to the Empire and the laws," said Fouche, looking at Malin fixedly.
"In what way are they dangerous to the senator ?" asked Napoleon.
Talleyrand spoke to the Emperor for some minutes in a low voice.

The reinstatement of the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre appeared to be granted.
"Sire," said Fouche, "rely upon it, you will hear of those men again." Talleyrand, who had been urged by the Duc de Grandlieu, gave the Emperor pledges in the name of the young men on their honor as gentlemen (a term which had great fascination for Napoleon), to abstain from all attacks upon his Majesty and to submit themselves to his government in good faith.
"Messieurs d'Hauteserre and de Simeuse are not willing to bear arms against France, now that events have taken their present course," he said, aloud; "they have little sympathy, it is true, with the Imperial government, but they are just the men that your Majesty ought to conciliate.

They will be satisfied to live on French soil and obey the laws." Then he laid before the Emperor a letter he had received from the brothers in which these sentiments were expressed.
"Anything so frank is likely to be sincere," said the Emperor, returning the letter and looking at Lebrun and Cambaceres.

"Have you any further suggestions ?" he asked of Fouche.
"In your Majesty's interests," replied the future minister of police, "I ask to be allowed to inform these gentlemen of their reinstatement--when it is _really granted_," he added, in a louder tone.
"Very well," said Napoleon, noticing an anxious look on Fouche's face.
The matter did not seem positively decided when the Council rose; but it had the effect of putting into Napoleon's mind a vague distrust of the four young men.