A plainer proof of confidence on one hand
and distrust on the other could not have been given.[571]
[Footnote 571: _Le Ministre a Vaudreuil et Bigot, 20 Fev. 1759._]
One Querdisien-Tremais was sent from Bordeaux as an agent of Government
to make investigation. He played the part of detective, wormed himself
into the secrets of the confederates, and after six months of patient
inquisition traced out four distinct combinations for public plunder.
Explicit orders were now given to Bigot, who, seeing no other escape,
broke with Cadet, and made him disgorge two millions of stolen money.
The Commissary-General and his partners became so terrified that they
afterwards gave up nearly seven millions more.[572] Stormy events
followed, and the culprits found shelter for a time amid the tumults of
war. Peculation did not cease, but a day of reckoning was at hand.
[Footnote 572: _Proces de Bigot, Cadet, et autres, Memoirs pour Francois
Bigot, 3'me partie_.]
NOTE: The printed documents of the trial of Bigot and the other
peculators include the defence of Bigot, of which the first part
occupies 303 quarto pages, and the second part 764. Among the other
papers are the arguments for Pean, Varin, Saint-Blin, Boishebert,
Martel, Joncaire-Chabert and several more, along with the elaborate
_Jugement rendue_, the _Requetes du Procureur-General,_ the _Reponse aux
Memoires de M. Bigot et du Sieur Pean,_ etc.
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