The public papers of the period detail the particulars of the arrest of Georges, who killed two men before he could be secured. It appears that he was betrayed by his comrade, who drove the cabriolet in which they were both riding together.
As to Pichegru, he was the victim of the basest treachery. “This circumstance,” said the Emperor, “was truly a disgrace to human nature. He was sold by his intimate friend; by a man whom I will not name, on account of the horror and disgust which his conduct is calculated to excite.” We informed the Emperor that the name of this individual had been mentioned in the Moniteur, at which he expressed surprise. “This man,” continued he, "who was formerly a military officer, and who has since followed the business of a merchant at Lyons, offered to deliver up Pichegru for 100,000 crowns. On the day on which he made this proposal, he stated that they had, on the preceding evening, supped together, and that Pichegru, finding himself every day alluded to in the Moniteur, and being aware that the critical moment was fast approaching, said, ‘If I and a few other Generals were boldly to present ourselves to the troops, should we not gain them over?’—‘No,’ replied the friend, ‘you form a wrong idea of the state of feeling in France; you would not gain over a single soldier.’—He spoke truly. At night, the faithless friend conducted the officers of the police to Pichegru’s door; and he gave them a minute description of his chamber and his means of defending himself. Pichegru had pistols on his bed-room table, and he kept a light burning while he slept. The officers gently unlocked the door by means of false keys, which the treacherous friend had procured for them. The table was overturned, the candle was extinguished, and the officers seized Pichegru, who immediately jumped out of bed. He was a very powerful man; he struggled desperately, and it was found necessary to bind him and convey him to prison, without waiting till he could be dressed."
On being placed at the head of the government, the First Consul was extremely anxious to tranquillize the western departments. He summoned nearly all the leading men of those districts, and succeeded in rousing several of them to a sense of the interests and glory of their country; he added that he even drew tears from the eyes of some. Georges had his turn among the rest. The Emperor said that he had endeavoured to touch every individual string of his heart; but in vain, he could produce no vibration. He found him lost to every generous feeling, and coldly intent on his own ambitious calculations. He persisted in his determination to command his Cantons. The Consul, having exhausted every conciliatory argument, at length assumed the language of the first Magistrate of France. He dismissed him, and recommended him to go home and live quietly and submissively; and above all, not to mistake the nature of the course he had that moment adopted, nor to attribute to weakness what was only the result of his moderation and the consciousness of his power. He desired him to repeat to himself, and to all who were connected with him, that, so long as the First Consul should hold the reins of authority, there would be no chance of safety for any who might dare to engage in conspiracy. Georges took his leave; but, as the event proved, not without having imbibed from this conference a feeling of respect for Napoleon, on whose destruction, however, he still continued bent.