Conclusive evidence

"How could that be?" The square-faced middle-aged man who had raised the question earlier shook his head vigorously. "Mr. Paoli may go to United States to hide, but he would never collude with the France!"

"Mr. Cesare, then why did he embezzle the money Chamos funded for the Restoration Organization?" Bartorio asked coldly.

"It's clear that Mr. Paoli went to United States with the intention of retiring," Girolamo immediately added, "He's using that Pound Sterling 25,000 as his retirement fund."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"That's probably the only explanation."

"He may have also received a sum of money from the France."

"This is not surprising; if he hadn't compromised, he might have been assassinated by the France."

Only Cesare remained unwilling to believe it, but couldn't find any reason to refute it, and just kept shaking his head.

Girolamo, with a sorrowful expression, looked around at everyone and said:

"Gentlemen, let's not talk about the money for now. I've remembered something more important. We're going to have a riot in Cargèse soon, and if Mr. Paoli has colluded with the France, the riot will become very dangerous."

Bartorio immediately frowned and nodded:

"You're right. But the riot has been in preparation for a long time, and if we cancel it based solely on our suspicions, the other members of the organization probably won't agree."

The Corsican Restoration Organization was large, with nearly 40 members including members of parliament and key leaders. These seven individuals alone had no authority to change the plans for the uprising.

Girolamo pretended to ponder for a moment, then looked at the group and said, "I do have an idea. But it might put Mr. Bartorio in the blame."

"Tell me, I'll do anything for the sake of the Restoration Organization."

"On behalf of the people of Corsica, I express my heartfelt gratitude to you." Girolamo patted him on the shoulder and continued, "You are in charge of liaison with London. You can tell Mr. Paoli that something unexpected happened to Cargèse, and after discussion, everyone agreed that the date of the riot should be moved up by three days."

"And none of the rest of us are to leave here from this moment on, to ensure that the news does not leak out."

"If the France are prepared by then, it will prove that Mr. Paoli betrayed us."

Bartorio frowned deeply. If Paoli was innocent, then his actions would be a betrayal of the organization. But if Paoli was indeed colluding with the France, he could save a large number of the Restoration Organization members involved in the uprising.

He quickly made a decision and nodded:

"Okay! I agree to your plan and am willing to accept the consequences."

He Paoli believed that Poly had embezzled everyone's donations, so his actions would only benefit the organization.

Two weeks later...

As dawn broke, hundreds of people with red cloth strips wrapped around their arms, carrying unidentified objects, silently surged toward the Cargèse City Hall, with more and more people joining them along the way.

When they arrived at the City Hall, the leader took out a long, narrow object from a cloth bag on his back, swung it forcefully, and before he could even shout, a large number of soldiers suddenly appeared from all sides—due to the poor governance of Corsica, Police Reform had not yet been carried out, so security was still the responsibility of the army—and surrounded the people wearing red ribbons, pointing Flintlock Gun at them.

Immediately, an officer shouted, "I order them all arrested on charges of rioting."

As soon as he finished speaking, several people wearing red ribbons protested tremblingly:

"Sir, we've only come to the City Hall to request a pay raise."

"You've wronged us. We really didn't start a riot."

"Look, we're just poor porters..."

As he spoke, he took a wooden sign from his cloth bag and held it up, on which was written "Increase of 3 Franc per month".

The officer was somewhat bewildered. He ordered his men to inspect the area and found that everyone was carrying only wooden signs and banners, but no weapons.

He had no choice but to take the ringleaders away for questioning, while dismissing the rest.

That afternoon.

In Girolamo's home, seven members of the Restoration Organization sat casually in various places, their faces gloomy.

After a long silence, Girolamo finally broke it. "We must thank Mr. Bartorio; he saved the Restoration Organization."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in respect to Bartorio. If he hadn't gone to test Paoli, hundreds of members of the organization involved in the riot would have been arrested.

"I just did what I was supposed to do."

The latter waved wearily, then said in an icy voice:

"It's clear now that Paoli betrayed everyone. I only told him that the riots needed to be announced three days in advance, so he must have leaked the information to the France!"

Everyone nodded in agreement with this conclusion, but in reality, they had fallen into a cognitive bias.

Although none of those involved in the plot had left the room that day, the idea of launching the uprising three days in advance could have been discussed beforehand, with Girolamo bringing it up in reverse. The Corsica army would simply wait until the appointed day to put on a show in Cargèse.

Even Cesare, who had previously trusted Paoli the most, fell silent, his head bowed, fists clenched, and eyes filled with anger.

Bartorio continued:

"I believe Oscar Pauli can no longer be the leader of the Restoration Organization; he should be expelled!"

Girolamo, not expecting his lines to be stolen again, quickly added fuel to the fire:

"I agree! It's always been us risking our lives to push forward the Restoration Movement, while Paoli has only been hiding in the United Kingdom giving orders, and now he's even betrayed us!"

Cesare roared back:

"He's not fit to lead the organization! Get him out!"

Bartorio nodded and sighed:

"Then let's split up and contact the other members of parliament to expel Paoli at the next rally we organize!"

The following day.

The seven Corsica parliamentarians reunited at Girolamo's home, where six more high-ranking members of the Restoration Organization and a slightly overweight middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses were also present.

Bartorio bowed slightly to the middle-aged man wearing glasses, then introduced himself to the group:

"This is Mr. Chamos, a very famous man in Scotland. I think everyone here has heard of him."

The dozen or so people inside the room hurriedly and respectfully greeted Chamos.

This was the "top donor" who had once spent a whopping Pound Sterling 25,000 on the organization, and everyone seemed incredibly attentive and enthusiastic.

Chamos nodded in return, then his expression turned serious, and he said in a deep voice:

"I recently came to Ajaccio to invest in vineyards, but I heard about what happened to Mr. Paoli, which made me very sad and angry!"

He raised his arms again and said in a high-spirited tone:

"But the great cause of national restoration cannot be interrupted because of him alone! Right here, right before my eyes, are many brave warriors fighting for national restoration."

He looked around at everyone:

"Therefore, I've decided to allocate another Pound Sterling 20,000 to fund everyone's campaign for Corsica parliamentary seats next year! Without that bastard Paulie Paoli this time, the Restoration Forces will definitely be able to take control of Parliament in one fell swoop!"