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THE
REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH
EXHIBITING THE MOST
DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS,
LITERARY, MILITARY, AND POLITICAL,
In the Recent Annals of the
FRENCH REPUBLIC.
THE GREATER PART
FROM THE ORIGINAL INFORMATION
OF
A GENTLEMAN RESIDENT AT PARIS.
FOURTH EDITION.
IN THREE VO LIMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
Printed for
JOHN MURRAY, FLEET-STREET, JOHN HARDING,
ST. JAMES'S-STREET.
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS,
1805.
A TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. III.
Louis Antoine Henry Bourbon, Duke of
Exghiex (xiith a Portrait J _ . » 1
Louis XVIII. King of France and Navarre 67
The Royalist General George Cadoual "
(commonly called Georges) _ 86
The Vexdean and Chouan War: a Sketch 94
Gemeral Alex. Berthier, Buonaparte's Mi-
nister of War * 12!
General Abd allah Mexou, Buonaparte's Go-
vernor-General in Piedmont __ 140
General Murat, Brother-in-law of Buona-
parte - •. _ 178
General Rochambeau ... _ 210
General Boyer 216
Admiral Lixois 224
T. T. Cambaceres, the Second Consul of the
French Republic, and Arch-Chancellor
of the Empire of the French, &c. &c. . . 244
The Grand Judge Regnier, Grand Officer of
Buonaparte's Legion of Honour . 253
Jaques Alexis Thuriot, Judge of the Cri-
minal and Special Tribunal of the Depart-
ment of the Seine, before whom Moreau,
Pichegru, Georges, &c. were privately
examined -■.»-«».-...--*».»». 297
if CONTENTS*
P. F. Real, the Director of Buonaparte's
Police, and his Counsellor of state 304
Mehee de la Touche, the French Spy (with
a Fac Simile of a curious Memorial J . 329
Garat, Buonaparte's favourite Senator 375
Fontanes, Buonaparte's first-chosen Presi-
dent over the Legislative body 390
Marie Joseph Cheniers, the French Re-
publican Poet Laureat, the Author of
."Goddam!" 3^5
General Frere 403
Rutger John Schimmelpenninck, First-
Pensionary or Chief Magistrate of the
Batavian Republic 411
Index - 423
THE
REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
1
LOUIS ANTOINE HENRY BOURBON,
DUKE OF ENGHIEN.
14 Long has the tyrant wav'd his iron rod,
Long on the bending neck of Europe trod,
Insulting Nature, and blaspheming God ;
But ne'er have yet his rank offences given
More wanton imjury to earth and heaven,
Than when he stretch'd his ruffian arm to tear
From neutral Baden Conde's princely heir;
Proud to insult a state his sword oppress'd,
And fix another wound on Bourbons breast."
V OLTAIRE justly remarks, that no family
either of sovereigns or subjects, have been more
exposed to the vicissitudes of fortune, and to
that misery which attends human life in all con-
ditions, than the Royal Family of the house of
Stuart; of whom, during twelve generations,
three only died natural deaths : all the others
were killed either in the field, during civil or fo-
reign wars ; in prisons, by poison administered bv
vol. in. b trei
2 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
treacherous foes, or on the scaffolds erected by-
rivals, rebels, or regicides. Had this French au-
thor lived to see our wretched days, and witness-
ed the shocking consequences of a political, mo-
ral and religious revolution, to which his writings
in some degree contributed, he would have been
forced to acknowledge, that another Royal Fa-
mily, considering the long period of its prospe-
rity, and the accumulated sufferings of some few
years, might claim a melancholy priority. For
fourteen centuries, the Bourbons have, almost
without interruption, possessed the sovereignty
of France. Factions and revolts, invasions and
insurrections, have sometimes disturbed their
reio-ns ; but most of them died in their beds, and
all in ruling on their hereditary throne, which,
when occupied by the most patriotic monarch of
the whole race, was overturned ; a revolutionary
tyranny was created on its ruins, and during
eleven years, five Bourbons have perished by
violent deaths, victims to the barbarity of French
republicans. Neither the virtues of the good
Louis XVI. ; nor the elegance, the beauty, the
sex, the heroic constancy in misfortunes, of Ma-
ria Antoinette ; neither the pure, the immaculate
life of the religiously tender Princess Elizabeth ;
the innocence and youth of Louis XVII. nor the
valour,
DUKE OF ENGHIEN S
Valour, honour, and loyalty of the Duke of
Enghien, were sufficient protections (though de-
fended besides by the laws of all civilized nations)
to prevent crimes, at the bare mention of which all
Europe would have shuddered twenty years ago.
The Conde braneh of the Bourbon family de-
scends from Louis, brother to Antoine, king of
Navarre, and father to Henry IV. the great
kins of France and Navarre. During two cen-
turies every Conde has been illustrious as war-
riors, eminent as statesmen, and conspicuous as
patriots. If ever such noble qualities were here-
ditary, it was in this family. Before loyalty was
proscribed in France, the name of a Conde was
there always regarded as sj nonymous with that
of an hero, who combated with equal valour,
zeal, and generosity, the external enemies of his
country, and the internal despotisms qf the mi-
nisters of his royal relatives ; for, into the coun-
cils of several Bourbons, despotical ministers had
insinuated themselves ; but no Bourbon was ever
a tyrant. If, therefore, the princes of the housi
of Conde were not always favourites at court,
they were at all times adored by the people, and
esteemed by their sovereigns ; being too liberal,
and too just, not to regard as the first duty to
those, who from their birth bad the privilege of
B 2 f-eque'.'t
4 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
frequent approaches to the throne, to remon-
strate against acts, supposed unconstitutional, or
complained of as oppressive.
Among the many generals who distinguished
themselves during the reign of Louis XIV. the
Grand Conde, whose victories extended the nor-
thern and western frontiers of France, by con-
quering part of Flanders, the whole of Alsace,
and Franche Comte, stands the foremost. Tu-
renne, Luxembourg, Vendome, Vauban, Cati-
nat, -and other great commanders of the seven-
teenth century, were all his pupils, instructed,
in combating by his side, how to defeat opposing
armies, yet be sparing of the lives of their own
soldiers ; how to be terrible in battle, and gene-
rous to the vanquished; how always to blend hu-
manity with valour. It is not necessary to re-
mark, that the French republican generals are
not of the school of the Grand Conde, or of that
of his progeny.
The Duke of Enghien was the only son of
Louis Henry Joseph, Duke of Bourbon, and
grandson of Louis Joseph de Bourbon, the pre-
sent Prince of Conde. His mother was the Prin-
cess Louisa Maria Theresa Matilda, sister of the
late Duke of Orleans; and he was born at Chan-
tilly, on the 2d of August, 1772, Destined one
- day
DUKE OF ENGF1IEN. 5
day to bear the name of Conde, his education was
as to make him worthy of that honour.
His governor, the Commodore of Malta, de Vi-
rieux, and his instructor, Abbe I'Abdan, were
two gentlemen, who, to the polished manners
of courtiers, united the' rare merit of erudition
and probitv, of virtue and knowledge of the
world, of religion and philosophy. To unfold
the naturally noble faculties of his genius and of
his heart, they made him study only the history
of his ancestors, and the examples given him by
his father and by his grandfather, under whose
eyes, at Chantilly, he passed almost without in-
terruption the first fifteen years of his life.
The character of the man may often be pre-
dicted from the sallies of the youth. In the sum-
mer of 1781, when, one day, the Abbe l'Abdaa
read with him that part of the history of France,
mentioning the particulars of the battle of Jarnac,
where a Prince de Conde commanded the protes-
tants ; but, after being defeated by superior
forces, was made a prisoner; and after having
surrendered himself, was cowardly murdered by
Montousquieux, a fanatic of the Catholic army ;
the young Duke suddenly started from his seat,
and interrupted his instructor, saying: "Abbe,
if any one tf (he Montousquieux be yet alive, give me
B 3 his.
6 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
hisaddr&ss, andliulll immcdiatly send him a chal-
lenge to fight me." The Abbe rather reproved
feim for giving way to revenge, one of the most
ignoble of all passions ; but added : " Suppose the
Montousquieux yet remaining were the father of a
numerous and young family, tormented by poverty,
and deserted by friends; would your Highness
pierce his heart for the crimes of his forefathers
two centuries ago ?" — "Not I, indeed" answered
the Duke j "I should tell him, however, that I did
not like his name ; lut 1 shoidd ask my grandfather
to make him rich, and to provide for his children.'"
Virtuous and noble youth ! little did he expect
to fall himself a victim to a more wanton and
dastardly barbarous assassin, than even he who
killed his ancestor.
In the autumn of 1788, the Prince de Conde<
commanded 30,000 men, assembled for manoeu-
vres in a pleasure camp near St. Omcr. Here the
Duke of Enghien commenced his military career,
and evinced those early talents, which afterwards
made him so much admired, not only by the arch-
duke Charles, by the Prince deCobourg, by Gene-
rals Wurmser, Clairfiyt, and Kray, but by the
republican GeneralsKellermann, Pichegru, Hoche
and Moreau. He here acquitted himself of his
duty in a manner that surpassed the most san-
guine
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 7
guine wishes and expectations of his father and
grandfather, who, after their return to Ver-
sailles, were both complimented by Louis XVI.
on the brilliant qualities of the Duke, attained by
their lessons, or from their supcrintendancy, as
the monarch said, alike honourable to them and to
their pupil.
Hitherto, the Duke had felt little else of life
but its comforts. Hitherto happy himself, he had
only known how to make others happy. Hitherto
he had seen nothing of his countrymen but what
was dutiful ; but, in I " ?9, he beheld the stand-
ard of revolt erected, and saw the destruction of
Monarchy threatened, fie therefore left France
with his loyal parent and relatives. A country
where a King was insulted and imprisoned, and
where every person who did not act as a rebel was
proscribed or butchered as a traitor, was unworthy
to number among its inhabitants, aConde and his
descendants. The Prince de Conde, the Dukes
of Bourbon and of Enghien, emigrated on the
l6th of July, two days after ignorance or cowar-
dice had given up the Bastile.
As their Serene Highnesses were among the
rust French emigrants who quitted their degraded
country, it may not be improper here to remind
some Continental Princes of their conduct towards
b 4 them ;
8 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
them ; to reprobate those who indiscreetly or
wickedly have persecuted them, and to do justice
to Great Britain, as the only empire where hos-
pitality has not been refused them ; where their
loyalty has been rewarded, and their distresses re-
lieved ; where age has been supported ; the female
sex protected, and the youth instructed j and where
delicacy and generosity have gone hand in hand ;
where theindustrious'has been encouraged ; where
the brave has been employed, and the infirm ha
been succoured.
Most emigrants were noblemen or gentlemen j
all were men of property, and proscribed. The
object of the Prince de Conde, in emigrating,
was, to assemble round him such of his country-
men as were faithful to their God and to their
Kincr, and with their assistance to preserve both
the altar and the throne. His Highness's popu-
larity in France, and the respectable opinion de-
servedly entertained of his character abroad,
would have made this plan successful, had Sove-
reigns known their danger, and subjects their
duty. Millions of Frenchmen would in 1789
and 1790, have joined his Highness, had not the
German Princes, misled by their philosophical
or illuminati ministers, recompensed the fidelity
of the emigrants by insult, chicanery, vexation,
and
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. Q
and contempt j though, by doing so, they in-
directly assisted the French rebels, approved
of the French rebellion, and prevented others
from sharing the dangers of their friend and par-
tisans. No one, who has not travelled in Ger-
many and Italy, can form an idea of the cruel
and impolitic manner in which the emigrants have
been treated; with what patience they have en-
dured poverty, with what courage they have
fought, -and with what resignation they
countered imprisonment and death. Even lately,
Hereditary Princes, in obedience to the decree of
an infamous usurper, or from an ungenerous idea
that the unfortunate is always in the wrong,
have, by their dccrees.banished all emigrants from
their states, after cruelly and cowardly delivering
over others to the Corsican executioner. What
horrid anti-social deeds have these persecuted per-
sons perpetrated ! — To the eternal shame of some
Continental Sovereigns, loyalty is the' only
crime of those faithful subjects, more elevated
more disinterested, than the counsellors of indem-
nified Kings and Electors; neither seduced from
their faith in their religion by the Pope's revo-
lutionary concordat, nor from their duty to their
King by offers of wealth and rank from the re-
.lionary tyrant of their country.
B 5 It
10 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
It required all that praiseworthy constancy of
the Prince de Conde, which has commanded re-
spect even from his Highness's opposers, to be
enabled to collect around him those few corps of
loyal emigrants which composed his army in 1792,
at and near Worms and Coblentz. During: the
summer of 1791> however, several changes had
taken place in the decisions of the Cabinet of
Vienna and Berlin, favourable to the cause of the
Bourbons. The Emperor and the King of
Prussia had met at the Castle of Pilnitz, in Up-
per Saxony, to discuss in person some arrange-
ments of a nature too delicate for the common
diplomatic forms of negotiation. At this place
the royal brothers of Louis XVI. obtained per-
mission to attend ; and the Imperial and Prussian
Sovereigns took into consideration their represen-
tations on the state of France, and its probable
effects on the other nations of Europe. The
Prussian Ministers had previously received from
M. de Bouille a plan for the disposition and ope-
rations of foreign armies on different parts of the
French frontiers : it was approved by a Council,
at which the Marshals de Broglio and de Castries
assisted ; and Frederick-William apeared so anxi-
ous to put it in execution, that M. de Bouille, not
doubting a speedy declaration of war, wrote his
senti-
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. n
sentiments to the King of Sweden, in whose
service he was then engaged, and joined the other
parties at Pilnitz.
The meeting took place on the 25th of Au-
gust, when the Emperor and the King of Prussia
speedilv arranged the compact which had occa-
sioned the interview ; but they differed entirely on
the measures to be pursued respecting France.
Frederick -William was eager for hostilities; but
Leopold, considering the danger of his sister,
the Queen of France, and her children, or
influenced, perhaps, by other political consi-
derations, proposed, first, to try pacific mea-
sures. Both, however, concurred in viewing
with jealousy the preparations of the King
of Sweden, the heroic Gustavus III. the Rova\
Chevalier of Monarchs and Monarchy, who
was employed in raising a force to succour
the French King. With such diversities of
views, no extensive operation could be agreed
upon; but Baron de Spielmann, the Empeior's
Minister, M. de Bischofswerder for the King of
Prussia, and M. de Calonne on behalf of the
French Princes, drew up a declaration, which,
was settled after a long debate, in which it was
declared : " That the situation of the King of
France was an object of common interest to all
B 6 the
12 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the Sovereigns of Europe. They hoped that that
interest would be recognized by other Powers, who
would not refuse to employ, in conjunction with
them, the most efficacious means, according to
their abilities, of enabling Louis XVI. to establish
at perfect liberty the foundations of a Monarchi-
cal Government, equally agreeable to the rights
of Sovereigns, and the welfare of the French
people; then, and in that case, their Majesties were
determined to act promptly with the forces ne-
cessary to the end proposed, and in the mean
time order their troops to be in readiness." The
French Princes gained nothing more from the
conference than this paper, and a secret conven-
tion that the Emperor and the King of Prussia
should each furnish twelve thousand men on the
frontiers of the Rhine, to support the army of
emigrants, under the command of the Prince de
Condi, .and the Dukes of Bourbon and En-
ghien, to^ demonstrate unequivocally their pro-
tection of the French Princes, and to urge the
concurrence of other States. .
It might have been thought that this assurance
if two great Powers would not only have given
consistency to the loyal efforts of the French
Princes, but procured them an asylum with their
armed countrymen every where in Germany #
The
DUKE OF ENGHIENT 13
The contrary, unfortunately, was the case. The
weak and wicked La Fayette had, with his accom-
plices, some few weeks after the meeting at Pil-
nitz, forced Louis XVI. to accept an absurd and
anarchical code, as the constitution of the French
Monarchy, and to write to all Sovereigns that he
was determined to resist any attempt to change
what he had sworn to preserve. The Elector of
Treves honoured the intimation of the King of
France with immediate compliance, and put an
end to all assembling and hostile preparation on
the part of the emigrants, who were obliged to
quit Worms, which rendered their situation less
respectable, abridged their comforts, and dimi-
nished their numbers, as well as their resources.
The only solid hope of the Princes was founded
on the activity, talents, enterprize, and fidelity of
the King of Sweden, who was animated with
the most honourable and sincere desire to ame-
liorate the condition of Louis XVI. ; but, not pos-
sessing in himself sufficient means, was obliged to
await the motions of Austria and Prussia, and
submit to delusive promises from Russia and
Spain. This great King did not, however, live
to see some Sovereigns repent of their envy, and
others of their irresolution or duplicity : he was
murdered on the 16th of March, 1792; and
four
14 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
four clays afterwards the Legislative Assembly de-
clared war against the House of Austria. The
majority of the members of this Assembly were
among the very lowest classes of society, includ-
ing even that of criminals. The sweepings of
monasteries, the scum of colleges, the refuse of
printing-offices, thieves or murderers from the
gallies, the meanest class of literati, with bank-
rupt tradesmen, poor farmers, and even discarded
menials, formed the mass of those Legislators,
who wese reinforced by Condorcet, Brissot, and
other leaders of the republican party from Ro-
land's, and encouraged by the most violent of the
Jacobin and Cordelier orators out of doors. —
These were the men who proclaimed all Kino-s
tyrants, and the Bourbon Princes and their fol-
lowers rebels and brigands; who dethroned their
own King, and threatened the destruction of all
thrones.
During these transactions the emigrants were
again embodied near Coblentz; the King of
Prussia prepared to co-operate with them and the
Emperor, in resisting the aggression of France ;
and an invasion was agreed on, in which the joint
forces were to be commanded by the Duke of
Brunswick, who was considered as the first Ge-
neral in Europe. Mallet du Pan had proposed the
plan
DUKE OF ENGKIEX. 15
plan of a manifesto, which was approved by
the Austrian and Prussian Ministers, declaring,
"That no vieu of 'ambition, personal interest, or dis-
memlerment, entered into the projects of their Save-
reigiis. They wished to restore order in France
for the sake of peace, which could not exist till
the reign of anarchy was terminated ; they did
not, however, pretend to impose any form of go-
vernment, but left that arrangement to the King
and Nation." But aftet Mallet du Pan had re-
tired to his native country — without the know-
ledge of the French Princes, another impolitic
manifesto was drawn up by M. Dulimon, as
dictated by the same Ministers of the Emperor and
the King of Prussia, and was signed bv the Duke
of Brunswick, a ho had not leen consulted in tl e
composition. This manifesto wrought irreparable
injury to the cause of the allied sovereigns, of the
emigrants, and of the unfortunate King whom
they intended to befriend. All parties were either
provoked at, or ridiculed the boasting of the
Duke of Brunswick. The rebels did not fail to
attribute to the suggestions of their King, all the
menaces respecting the safety of himself and his
family ; and thence concluded that his Majesty
was in correspondence with the enemies of the
nation.
In
16 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
In the declaration of the French Princes, pub-
lished on the Sth of August, their Highnesses
justly remarked, "That the Revolution was pro-
duced by a conspiracy of atrocious minds, which
had converted a mild people attached to their
King, into hordes of robbers, cannibals, and regi-
cides. They, however, solemnly disclaimed every
idea of revenge , and wished only to become the de-
liverers of their country." Toward the conclusion,
theirHighnesses "gavethe most pressing invitation
to the French troops to return to their ancient fide-
lity to their lawful sovereign, and join the forces
which they commanded for him, without looking
upon themselves as bound by any illusory oaths,
which they could never take willingly to the pre-
judice of their supreme chief." They also re-
quired, "in the King's name as well as in their
own, all commanders of towns, citadels, and for-
tresses, throughout the kingdom, to open their
gates, and deliver up the keys on the first sum-
mons, under penalty of being tried for disobedi-
ence to their King, and treated as rebels."
In the mean time the hero of the league, Fre-
derick-William II. left his capital, and arrived at
Coblentz, where he was received as a future con-
queror by his own troops, while the emigrants
hailed in him their deliverer. Being loyal them-
selves,
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 17
stives, thev confided implicitly in the promises of
a Prince who had relinquished the pleasures of
the table, and the seductions of the fair sex, on
purpose to espouse their cause. Amidst the in-
toxication of ioy and exultation, they already
fiattered themselves with the idea of restoring
tluir virtuous King to his authority, and libe-
rating their countrymen from the vilest of all bon-
dage that of a barbarous mob.
The combined army was composed of fifty
thousand Prussians, headed by their Sovereign j
thirty thousand Austrians, under the command of
the Prince de Hohenlohe and the Count de Clair-
fayt ; and six thousand Hessians. Besides these
troops, the French nobles, who had now assumed
the name of the royal army, including a few
regiments levied by the minor German Princes,
already amounted to twenty- two thousand. These
were divided into three different bodies : one of
twelve thousand men, led by Monsieur, and by
the Count D'Artois, brothers of Louis XVI.
was destined to serve with the grand army ; while
the other two, consisting of five thousand each,
commanded by the Prince de Conde, the Dukes
of Bourbon and Enghlen, were cantoned on the
borders of the Rhine.
When all delavs 3 caused bv petty intrigues or
by
3 8 REVOLUTIONARY PLULARCH.
by German phlegm, were overcome, and the
combined troops were at length put in motion, the
emigrants offered, with their accustomed gallan-
try, to act as an advanced guard, and were not
only desirous of encountering all the dangers of
this expedition, but also admirably calculated, by
their information and connections, to ensure
its success. Among them were many princes
and peers of France, who were still sup-
posed to possess immense influence : in their
ranks were seen several generals, such as the
Marshals de JBroglio and Castries ; while the
names of the Dukes of Bourbon and Enghien,
and the military talents of the successor of the
great Conde, the Nestor of loyal warriors, re-
flected lustre on their cause. This body, in
which almost every soldier had been an officer
and a noble, exhibited, by its ardour and ac-
tivity, a singular contrast to the gravity and
• slowness of the German troops ; but these cir-
cumstances, which in the moment of defeat, were
construed by faithless Prussia into a crime, ap-
peared at this period to afford a happy presage
of approaching success ; which the capture of
Longwy and Verdun, and the rapid, and almost
uninterrupted march to the vicinity of Chalons,
seemed to confirm.
But
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 19
But here the selfish policy of the house of Bran-
denburgh began to shew itself. Either wearied
by the fatigues of the campaign, disgusted with
the uncomnonly bad weather, or disheartened
by a resistance that he did not expect, Frederick-
William, instead cf attacking General Dumou-
rier, negotiated with him ; and, notwithstanding
the representations of the French Princes, of the
Marshals de Broglio, de Castries, and of General
Clairfayt, as to the great importance of achieving
something for the relief of Louis XVI., his queen
and family, and the great probability of being
victorious in a battle ; on the 29th of Septem-
ber, just as the troops were expecting to en-
gage, and the royal army under the French
Princes exulted in the hope of shedding their
blood for the life and safety of their Sovereign,
orders were issued for a retreat. But this was
not enough ; the French Princes and the other
emigrants were not only prevented from dying
like men of honour, but were sacrificed to be
executed like criminals ; for, some few days
before, the Prussian Colonel Manstein had
signed a treaty at the head-quarters of Dumourier
relative to the exchange of prisoners; but it ex-
tended only to the Prussian, Austrian, and Hes-
sian troops ; the unfortunate emigrants were ex-
cluded
eo REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
eluded from any participitaton in this cartel,
and that too, by the express consent of the very
Monarch who pretended to have invaded France
for the sole purpose of restoring the King to his
throne, a«d the nobles to their estates. Such a
flagrant dereliction in an ally, so gross a violation
of faith with confederates, in some measure
sanctions the suspicions entertained by the French
nation, as well as by many of the best statesmen
in Europe, relative to the purity of the motives by
which Austria and Prussia were actuated.
During this fatal campaign, the Duke of
Enghien continually fought under his father the
Duke of Bourbon, and with him and his other
countrymen, after having for months nobly sup-
ported incessant fatigue, repeated dangers, and
continual disgust, without murmur, in the hope of
at length fighting a decisive battle, was, by the
humiliating measure of a retreat, devoted to mise-
ry, opprobrium, or death. The Princes, however,
did every thing in their power to change the deter-
mination of the Prussian Monarch, and to awaken
in his bosom the honourable sentiments that ani-
mated their own. A number of emigrant chiefs
being suddenly convoked at their head-quarters
in the castle of Vouzicrs, his Royal High-
ness the Count D'Artois was deputed by them
to
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 2t
to wait on the King of Prussia, in order to lay
before him their critical situation. The Princes,
whose representations were supported by those of
General Clairfayt, supplicated the King of Prus-
sia in the name of royalty to abjure so fatal a reso-
lution. On being informed, in reply, that it was
no longer prudent to persevere, his Royal Highness
requested that the Austrians and French emi-
grants alone might be permitted to march against,
and attack the enemy; but this favour was also
denied. What an indifferent opinion of modern
Icings must a Prince form, aged twenty, with a
mind as noble and disinterested as his character
was elevated, when his royal relative returned
with his refusal ! A nobleman who had then the
honour of beins; bv his side, assured the Au-
thor, "that his Highness's first emotion was, to
lay his hand on his sword, and to propose forcing
the Prussians to do their duty as allies, or to chas-
tise them as traitors ; to vanquish them, or to
perish in the attempt." This ardour, though
praiseworthy, was repressed by the Duke of
Bourbon, who rightly observed, " that it was
more generous to forgive, than to return evil for
evil ; that treachery, as well as crueltv, carried its
own punishment with it ; that the transactions of
kings as well as of individuals are recorded by
con-
\
«A REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
contemporaries, and judged of by posterity \ that
he whose conduct bid defiance to both was un-
worthy of their vengeance, and deserved only
their compassion ; and finally, that the errors of
kings must always , by true royalists, he ascribed to
the advice of ignorant or corrupt counsellors"
The retreat began the next day, and the re-
publican general, Kellermann, appeared rather to
escort than to pursue the Prussians out of the
French territory ; while the Austrians were re-
peatedly attacked by General Dillon ; and both
the victors and the defeated seem to have ex-
hausted their wrath on the unhappy French no-
bles : instead of being detached in front, they
were frequently employed in the rear guard ;
the aged, the wounded, and the infirm, unable
to keep up with the main body of the combined
army, fell into the hands of their rebellious coun-
trymen, and were guillotined or shot \ others in
despair destroyed themselves j while the Prussian
hussars pillaged their baggage with the most un-
paralleled barbarity and insolence. It is impos-
sible to consider the fate of these gallant emi-
grants without pity ; nor can the time and man-
ner in which they were abandoned be contem-
plated without the most lively indignation !
But even when out of the reach of their faith-
less
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 23
less or inimical marauders and assassins, the dis-
tress of the loyal emigrants was not lessened.
Confiding in the hope which the Prussian Mo-
narch had held out to them, of returning to their
country and property, most of them had expend-
ed their last shilling in equipping themselves for
the campaign ; and many, whose rank, places or
possessions in France, made them regarded as
rich, had borrowed, money in Holland and Ger-
many, to assist their less fortunate, though
equally zealous countrymen. In this latter case
was the Duke ofEnghien and the other French
Princes, who nobly deprived themselves, not
only of all comforts, but of what their rank had
made necessaries. At Liege the royal emigrant
army was disbanded as a corps ; and noblemen,
whose whole life had been spent in affluence or
luxury, whose education was totally military,
were turned adrift upon the world almost naked,
without resources, without friends, and without
a country; rebuked and deserted by the Prus-
sian royalists, and despised, detested and perse-
cuted by all the numerous hordes of Jacobins,
who, at that period, over-ran not only France,
but Europe.
The Prince de Condc with a corps of emi-
grants, and the Prince of Hohenlohe with some
Austrian
24 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Austrian regiments, had, while the grand con-
federate army was advancing towards Paris, in-
vested Thionville, an important fortress on the
German frontiers, sixty miles fron Treves and
Metz. But the King of Prussia had neglected
to provide General D'Autichamp, who super-
intended the attack, with any battering cannon,
otherwise little doubt is entertained that the gar-
rison would have followed the example of Long-
wy and Verdun. Such was the end of a cam-
paign which, from the weakness of a King, or
from the selfish policy or depravity of his minis-
ters, instead of saving the life of a lawful Sove-
reign, was one of the principal causes of his
murder; and, instead of restoring Monarchy in
France, has, ever since made all other Monarchs
unsafe upon their thrones.
The Author has, from undoubted authority,
an anecdote worthy to be related, as displaying
the generous heart of the Duke of Enghien. It
occurred at Liege, in the latter part of October
179- ; but the benefactor was unknown until
1 796. Having saved four of his horses from the
republican or Prussian robbers in Champagne,
his Highness ordered a trusty servant to dispose
of them. They had been bought for, and were,
worth three hundred Louis d'orsj but ninety only
were
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. if
were obtained for them. Among the many
other suffering emigrants then at Liege, was the
family of the Marquis de M t, who near
Stenay had seen two of his sons and his brother-
in-law cut to pieces before his face, and who,
after being wounded, was made a prisoner, and
as such guillotined by the republicans. His wi-
dow, with three young daughters and two in-
fant sons, unacquainted with the cruel fate of
persons so near and dear to her, had prepared
with the last Louis d'or she possessed, a small
feast for their return, expecting them with an
anxiety more easily imagined than expressed.
The Duke of Enghien sent his servant to her,
dressed like a French dragoon, who presented her
as from her husband, with ninety Louis d'ors, in-
timating that this money was destined to carry
her to Holland, to join the Marquis, who, af-
ter the disasters of the campaign, had retired
to that country, whither the servant was to ac-
company her; who said, that the letter which
the Marquis gave him for his Lady was torn to
pieces in his retreat, for fear of being evi-
dence against him if taken by the republicans.
Arrived in Holland, he said that he heard
from friends, that her husband had found
means, with his sons and relative, to return to
vol. hi. c France,
26 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
France, and was enabled to remit her, through
secret channels, a yearly sum of one hundred
Louis d'ors, though not daring to write to her,
for fear of exposing himself. For four years the
Duke regularly sent this sum ; and it was not
until the death of the servant at Hamburgh, in
1796, that the Marchioness knew she was a
widow, and had to mourn two sons and a bro-
ther; but at the same time, that she owed her
own and her children's existence to the most li-
beral and delicate of benefactors, who, in an age
of dissipation, had made humanity the first of his
pleasures.
Firmness under misfortune is more laudable
and more to be extolled than modesty in prospe-
rity ; because the mind of the unfortunate is more
, exposed to irritation, than that of the fortunate 13
tempted by insolence, vanity, or ambition. The
Prince de Conde not only forgot his own suffer-
ings, but, after having passed the Rhine in
November lf92, tried to alleviate those of his
wretched countrymen, by establishing a small
army at his ownexpence, and keeping together as
much as possible those corps which had served un-
der him ; and uniting with them those emigrants
who wanted bread and a home, and who, with
him, had a country to regret, injuries to forgive
2 crimes
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. *r
crimes to punish, and the murder of their King
to revenge. The Dukes of Bourbon and of En-
ghien, who now had joined his Highness, never
ceased to assist him in this desirable and meritori-
ous undertaking. What obstacles these Princes
had to counteract, and what private sacrifices
they were forced to make, by the impolitic oppo-
sition which they encountered from some Powers*
% the absurd jealousy of others, and by the
base hatred of several, may be easily conceived,
when, in the midst of one of the most terrible
of wars, in which men were. so much wanted :o
combat an enemy directing armies unusually
numerous, their Highnesses exhausted all their
resources by paying, during six months, their
loyal countrymen in arms, from their private 1
purses, before Austria tardily took them into her
pay.
During the campaign of 1 793, the Duke of En -
ghien acquired, under the eyes of his grandfather,
great perfection in the art of war, in which his
father, the preceding campaign, had given him $•
many instructive lessons. In the engagement by
Gorkrim, on the 20th of August, his Highness,
at the head of the first battalion of Chassears-
Kolles, merited and obtained the thanks of the
^>!d General Wurmser: and the next day, wher
c 2 brilliant
28 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
brilliant success crowned the valour of the
army of Conde, and the excellent dispositions
of its august chief, the same General did not
know which to praise the most, his cool courage
or his vigorous charge. At the battle which
forced the famous lines of Weissembourg, on the
13th of October, in his charge on the enemy,
his Highness had two horses killed under him.
But it was partiailarly in the daily combats near
Bertsheim, from the 2d to the 9th of December,
that he distinguished himself by his intrepidity,
by the vivacity of his manoeuvres, by the precision
of his orders, and, above all, by the calm of his
great mind in the midst of dangers, which showed
him at twenty-one the worthy emulator of the
heroes of his race, It was on the first of these
honourable, but perilous and murdering days,
that the house of Conde offered the rare exam-
ple of three generations, combating at the same
time and place, and repulsing an enemy three
times more numerous; where the Prince de
Conde, at the head of his noble infantry, dared
death fifteen paces from cannon loaded with grape-
shot j and, notwithstanding the fire of the mus-
quetry, and the obstinate resistance of the repub-
licans carried the strongly fortified village of
Bertsheiru with the bayonet, without firing a shot j
where
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 29
where the Duke of Bourbon, at the head of the
cavalry, the Duke of Enghien by his side, charged
and fought with the same valour and with the
same success; but, being severely wounded by
the cut of a sword, from the loss of blood was
obliged to resign the command to his son. It is
impossible to describe the mutual affection of the
father and son on this trying occasion, and the
anxiety of the Duke of Enghien concerning his
father's wound. But, lively as his alarm was,
his great heart proved itself sufficient to satisfy, at
the same time, the sentiments of nature and the
duties which his honour and rank imposed upon
him. With that sure and quick coup d'oeil which
always characterised the Condes upon the field of
battle, he observed the enemy's cavalry forming
again two hundred paces from where it had been
routed : no time was to be lost: with a division
of the Chevaliers de la Couronne. and of the reoi-
ment of Dauphin, his Highness immediately
charged, defeated, and dispersed their cavalry,
captured all their cannon, of which he seized
one with his own hand, and carried it away in
triumph. The whole army, which had witness-
ed this courageous manoeuvre, and admired it s
execution, was trembling at the dangers sur-
rounding the young hero, acd thanking Provi-
c 3 dence
30 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
dence that he had escaped them by only having
his clothes pierced with bullets, and torn by bay-
onets. This, however, was not the only danger
that his Highness encountered that day, when he
fought by the side of his father : in crossing a
hollow way, during the most furious part of the
engagement, a republican dragoon lifted his
sword over the Duke's head, and his life was
saved by one of his loyal companions cutting off
the arm of this wretch, whose sword fell upon
the Duke's saddle.
When the action was over, he rushed into his
father's arms, and, after assuring himself of his
situation, accompanied his grandfather in a visit
to the wounded men of his own army, as well as
to those of the enemy. The regicide Convention
had decreed no quarter to be given to any emi-
grants; and so certain were the wounded re-
publican soldiers that they were destined to death
by reprisal, that when these two Princes hu-
manely inquired after their situation, and sur-
geons were ordered to take the same care of
them as of their own soldiers, they exclaimed,
U Why cure our wounds and hang us afterwards!"
They were, however, agreeably surprized, when
the Duke of Enghien assured them, "That they
were more safe in the power of their royal op-
» posers,
DUKE OF ENGHIEX. 31
posers, than if they were in that of their repub-
lican tyrants; that French royalists combated like
warriors, but never dishonoured themselves by
murdering like assassins !
On the evening of that terrible day, the Duke
of Enghien heard of an act of resignation and
true courage, in walking over the field of battle,
which he often mentioned, but never without
tears in his eyes. Two French noblemen, Che-
valier 4e St. Luc and Baron de Chavernais, were
kft as killed among the dead, but life was not
yet entirely gone : the latter, as he awoke from a
fainting, complained loudly of his pains, while the
former, who hitherto hrd remained silent, offer-
ed him the following consolation : — " My friend,
whoever you art," said the Chevalier, "rememler
that our God died on thecross, our Kingon the scaf-
fold ; and if you have strength to look al him who
speaks to you, you will see that he hath loth his legs
shot away." In so saying, he breathed his last.
Civic crowns may be presented on the tombs of
rebels and regicides who, when expiring, howl
out the Marseillois hymn; but a paradise must
await him who, suspended between existence and
death, forgets his own misery to console his fel-
low-sufferer's, and who dies as he has lived,
mindful of his religion, and dutiful to his King.
c 4 Until
32 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Until the end of this campaign, which finished
on the 25th of December, the Duke of Enghien
continued to command the cavalry. During the
last three weeks, no less than sixteen engagements
had taken place, each more bloody than many
great battles fought in former times. Having more
energy of mind than strength of body, the fa-
tigues which his Highness had endured brought
on a dangerous illness during the winter, and his
valuable life was for a long time in danger. Pro-
vidence preserved him still, however, to be the
admiration of the loyal, an example for the brave,
and a terror to traitors.
During the campaign of 1794 and 1795, the
army of Conde was charged to observe the ene-
my, and to guard the borders of the Rhine. In
the former of these years, the Duke of Enghien
received the cross of St. Louis, a military order,
from which, according to statutes, even the
Princes of the blood were excluded, if tbey did
not deserve it by military achievements. In 1795,
the Duke of Bourbon was called to take the com-
mand, which was thought at that time to be of
the greatest importance : his Highness left his
father's army, and embraced his son for the last
time: their adieu was tender and affectionate ; but
little did they suppose that they should never meet
more
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 33
more on this side the grave. Louis XVIII had
just then succeeded to the rank of his ancestors ;
the regicide murderers of his brother and nephew
were then as much detested in France as abhorred
elsewhere ', and the greatest and soundest part of
his subjects desired ardently the return of a King,
whose eminent virtues deserved a throne, had it
not already been his own by birth — but this is not
an aee in which virtue is rewarded and crimes are
punished. In revolutionary France, more than
in all other countries, the very reverse has conti-
nually been the case ; and there, for twelve
years, the usurper in power has never ceased to
be a criminal, whose atrocities would, in other
countries, have sent even a Prince to the scaffold ;
while millions of French republicans, though
knowing his guilt, and cursing his oppression,
have cowardly submitted to his tyranny.
After the impolitic armistice which Austria
had granted to France in the autumn of 1795
had expired, the republicans, who, by it, had
obtained time to repair their losses in the last
campaign, and to organize their newly created
Directorial government, prepared again to invade
Germany. In the spring of 1796 the Prince de
Conde gave his grandson the command over the-
advanced guard of his army. General Moreau r
c 5 whoj
31 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
who, on the 24th and 25th of June, had passed
the Rhine with 85,000 men, attacked the army
of Conde in cantonments along this river, where
it had been joined by 10,000 men, troops of the
German circles : these troops immediately gave
way, and left the Duke of Enghien at Oflfenburgh,
with 1500 emigrants, surrounded by 15,000 re-
publicans. During ten hours, every body believed
his Highness and those under him to be either
killed or prisoners; but, sword in hand, he pierced
the ranks, and led his men through the lines of
the enemy, penetrated into the neighbouring val-
ley, and manoeuvred with such prudent boldness,
that he joined, with very little loss, the main
body with his advanced guard.
For the three following weeks, while the retreat
pf the allied army towards Bavaria was continued,
not a day passed without some skirmishes, or some
serious battles ; and though the Duke had seve-
ral horses killed under him, and his clothes often
pierced with balls, he escaped unhurt. In the
combat on the 13 th of August, the army of Conde,
consisting of no more than 2100 men, was at-
tacked by 13,500 republicans: the advanced
guard, consisting of 550 men, commanded by
the Duke of Enghien, was almost surrounded by
3600 enemies, whom he gloriously routed, after.
having,
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 35
having, according to the reports of prisoners,
killed near 600 of them. On the Sth of Decem-
ber, he distinguished himself again in the attack
on ihe bridge at Munich, of which the republi-
cans occupied one half. By his valour on that day,
he prevented Moreau from passing the bridge,
and contributed not a little to force that General
to begin his famous retreat, during which the
army of Conde, united with the Austrians under
General La Tour, pursued him. At the battle of
Biberach, on the 2d of October, the Austrians
were obliged to retire in confusion, and would
have been entirely destroyed, had it not been for
the resistance made by the advanced guard of the;
army of Conde, with whom the Duke of En-
ghien not only covered their retreat, but saved
their baggage. At the battle of Steinsted, gained
by the Archduke Charles, on the 24 th of October,
the Duke of Enghien carried the village which
gave the name to this victory, with his bavonets,
without firing a shot, and with 700 men made
1700 prisoners. He received next day the pub-
lic thanks of the Archduke, who, from that time,
took all occasions to convince his Highness how
highly his talents were esteemed and his bravery
admired.
When Moreau had achieved his retreat, the
c6 Tete
36 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Tete du Pont, near Huninguen, was attacked by
the Austrians and the army of Conde, and, after
an obstinate resistance, forced to capitulate. The
Duke of Enghien went afterwards into the works,
attended only by an aid-de-camp, to inspect
them, and to instruct himself at the same time.
More than 300 republican soldiers immediately
surrounded him, requesting permission to behold,
at their ease, the little hero, as they expressed
themselves; and when he retired, they accom-
panied him with u Huzza ! Conde and Enghien
for ever!" With that generous presence of mind
which never forsook him, he silenced them,
pointed towards the ramparts of the town, by
saying ; (i My friends, I should he wretched if your
kindness to me exposed you to punishment from
your superiors." His Highness's supposition was
too just : fifty of these unfortunate men were shot
as royalists two days afterwards*.
After the treaty of Leoben, in 1797> the Rus-
sian Emperor having taken the army of Conde,
then greatly diminished, into his service, it was
ordered to march towards Poland. This army
was now formed into four regiments, one of
* La Champagne del 'Armeede Conde, 1796. Basle, 17 97.
page 24 and 25 .
which
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 37
which was given to the Duke of Enghien. But,
before he left Germany, his Highness made a
romantic tour on foot into Switzerland, visited all
its mountains, and scaled precipices where even
his guides dared not attempt to follow him. His
agility was as great as his intrepidity ; and though
incognito, the Swiss, as well as his countrymen
and the Germans, hailed in him a hero. In
October of the same year, he was charged to con-
duct the remnant of his grandfather's army into
Russian Poland; which, through a long journey
and difficult roads, he did so much to the satis-
faction of the Emperor Paul, that this Sovereign,
in a letter written with his own hand, thanked
him for his performance, and presented him
with a regiment of dragoons.
When the war was renewed in 1799, the
army of Conde was ordered to the frontiers of
Switzerland. England had hitherto been almost
the only Power that interested itself for this body
of brave and loyal men, whom she now took into
her pay. After the loss of the battle near Zu-
rich, in September, this army was shut up in
Constance ; and it was only by prodigies of va-
lour, and after fighting for a whole day in the
streets of that town, that it escaped. Both the
Prince de Conde and the Duke of Enghien nar-
rowly
$8 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
rowly avoided death on this occasoin. The re-
publicans occupied the bridge over the Rhine,
which when the Princes attempted to force, a
volley of shot was fired at them ; and a grena-
dier, with his bayonet against the breast of the
Duke, said, " Surrender yourself, Prince; I
know you : but he had scarcely time to utter the
last word before his Highness cut him down.
This act astonished the republicans, and opened
the passage for himself and his friends. Had he
hesitated, valour had been no longer, useful, be-
cause in a minute several thousand enemies
rushed upon the bridge.
The singular campaign in 1800, during which-
France obtained more success by her negotiations
than by her arms, confirmed the reputation that he
had gained in 1796. The republicans who fought
against him did not conceal the esteem they had
for his capacity, and the knowledge they had of
his generosity, Many of them had experienced his
clemency when the chance of war had made them
his prisoners. Among other traits, the follow-
ing deserves to be recorded : after a severe action
in Bavaria, on the 1st of December 1800, re-
turning to his apartment in the town of Rosen-
heim, he found there a wounded French prisoner,
whom he ordered his own surgeou to take care
of 5
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 39
of; and after his wounds were dressed, gave him
up his only bed to rest on. This man, moved by
gratitude, desired one favour more, that of seeing
the Duke of Enghien, of whom he had heard so
many noble traits. His surprize was, therefore,
not great when he found ill this Prince his be-
nefactor.
Another day the Duke \isited the hospital at
Ulm, which contained several hundred wounded
French prisoners whom the Austrians, rather
from want themselves, than from inclination, had
neglected. His Highness had but a small sum of
money at his disposal ; but a ring, with which
the Russian Emperor had presented him, was not
a sacrifice for him, when he could relieve even
the wretchedness of foes. He sold it, therefore, to
a Jew, much under its real value, but for what
was sufficient to give each wounded republican a
crown. They were ignorant to whom they
owed their succour ; but some months afterward
the Archduke Charles was informed of it ; and
the last time he saw his Highness, he jocosely
said : " Prince ! the French republicans have
charged me to pay their debt : keep this ring in
remembrance of your generosity, and of your
friend." This ring was the very same sold at
Ulm;
40 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Ulm ; but set round with six new and large
diamonds in the form of a C.
The preliminaries of peace signed on the 25th
of December 1800, finished the short, but glo-
rious military career of the Duke of Enghien,
whom Nature had made a hero before age had
made him a man. After the degrading peace of
Luneville, in February 1801, the army of Conde
was disbanded. Though at different periods,
during a ten years cruel war, it had been more or
less numerous, its origin was always the same, and
it consisted of the following corps : Infantry Noble,
2000 men ; Cavalry Noble, 800 men j besides the
Legion of Mirabeau, the Chasseurs of Noinville
and D'Astorg ; the regiment of Dauphin Cavalry,
the regiment of Hohenlohe infantry, and the two
regiments of Hussars, of Bachy and Damas. At
the time this army was disbanded, four regiments
of infantry of the line were attached to it ; re-
cruited mostly from young conscripts or other
deserters, who refused to combat under the co-
lours of rebellion. Every private in the Cavalry
and Infantry Noble, was noble by birth, and few
of them had been less than captains in the service
of their King before the Revolution. In their
ranks were counted several former generals and
colonels,
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 41
colonels, who did the duty, and received the
pay of common soldiers, as their only means of
subsistence. If this do not prove loyalty and dis-
interestedness, it is difficult to say what can de-
serve those appellations.
The Duke of Enghien was the idol of this
army ; and in return, its honour and the comfort
of its members were his daily occupation. When
these brave men, who had so generously sacrificed
their rank, riches, and country for the cause
of kings, though it was neglected, if not deserted,
by kings themselves, were (many in an advanced
period of life) turned adrift upon a selfish world,
where prosperity is regarded as the only pledge
of merit, his liberal and humane heart had more
painful combats to sustain than those which he
had just finished with so much glory. Imitating
the examples of his august grandfather, and of
the other Princes, he hastened to satisfy their
present wants ; and not one individual who had
been under his Hi^hness's command left him with
less than fifty crowns in his pocket. This bene-
volence exhausted the trifling resources of the
Duke, and was one of the causes of his residence
in Germany ; where, by laudable economy, he
intended to repair his finances, that they might
for the future enable him to continue many small
pensions
42 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
pensions which he allowed from his own purse,
to those of his countrymen whom wounds had
maimed, age made infirm, or whose children
were numerous; to widows whose husbands had
died in fighting for their King, or to orphans
whose parents had been butchered by the repub-
licans. Thus has the cruel usurper, by the wan-
ton murder of this good Prince, taken away con-
solation and support from misery of every age,
and of either sex. The balls that pierced the vir-
tuous breast of a Duke of Enghien, must there-
fore break the hearts -of thousands, whose suf-
ferings and destruction will be added to those of
millions of others whom Napoleon Buonaparte's
tyranny has made wretched, who have already
either been forced to swallow his poisonous
draughts, or whom his bayonets have stabbed,
or his cannons annihilated.
At Ettenheim, where his Highness had resided
for some time, few persons constituted his society;
but they were all selected, of well-informed
minds, and irreproachable conduct, religious
and loyal. Among them may be counted, fore-
most, his amiable and elegant relative, the young
Princess Clementina, of Rohan, whose innocent
sallies often diverted him in his solitude, and
whose courageous friendship accompanied him
even
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 43
even to Strasburgh, where she demanded in vain
to share his dungeon or his scaffold. Study,
the culture of a small garden, and hunting, were
his principal occupations in this retreat ; when,
on the 15th of March 1804, the armed banditti
of the Corsican violated the independence of the
German empire, to enable the foreign tyrant to
assassinate a French Prince in France. He ar-
rived the same day at Strasburgh, where he re-
mained shut up in the citadel 'until tlie 17th;
when orders were received by the telegraph from
Paris, that he should be immediately carried to
that city, a distance of near 400 miles. He tra-
velled day and night, and was escorted from re-
lay to relay, by the gens d'armes, a corps of
French thief-takers, spies, and informers. He
was chained hand and foot the whole way. At
six o'clock in the momiag of the £0th he ar-
rived at Paris, where he was first carried to the
Temple, as if it were only to shew him a prison
in which so many of his royal relatives had suf-
fered, and which they had left only to perish ;
and afterwards to the castle of Vincennes, where,
by the orders of Buonaparte, a mock tribunal,
under the appellation of a Special Military Com-
mission, had been convened. At nine o'clock in
the forenoon, though almost fainting, from want
of
44 REVOLUTIONARY PLULARCH.
of nourishment, and almost asleep from want of
rest, he was carried before the assassins, members
of this military commission, who, at eleven
o'clock, barbarously passed the following sen-
tence :
SPECIAL MILITARY COMMISSION,
Formed in the First Military Division by virtue of
a Decree of Government dated the igthMarch,
12 th year of the Republic, one and indivisible*
JUDGMENT.
In the name of the French People —This day,
20th March, 12th year of the Republic :
The special Military Commission, formed in
the first military division, by virtue of a decree of
Government of the date of the IQth March, 12th
year, composed according to the law of the 5th
September, year 5, of seven members, that is to
say :.
Citizens Hulin, General of Brigade, Com-
mander of the fort grenadier guards, President j
Guiton, Colonel, Commander of the 1st regiment
of Cuirassiers .; Bazancourt, Colonel, Commander
of the 4th regiment of light infantry.
Ravier, Colonel, Commander of the 18th re-
giment of the infantry of the line.
Barrois,
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 45
Barrois, Colonel, Commander of the 96th
regiment of ditto.
Rabbe, Colonel, Commander of the 2d regi-
ment of the municipal guard of Paris.
D'Autencourt, Captain Major of the gens-d'ar-
merie d'elite, performing the functions of Cap-
tain Reporter.
Molin, Captain in the 18th regiment of infan-
try of the line, Register ; all appointed by the
General in Chief, Murat, Governor of Paris, and
commanding the first military division: which
president, members, reporter, and register, are
neither related nor allied to each other, or the
accused, within the degree prohibited by the law.
The Commission convened by order of the Ge-
neral in Chief, Governor of Paris, met in the
castle of Vincennes, in the apartment of the Com-
mander of the place, for the purpose of trying
Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duke D'En-
ghien, born at Chantilly upon the 2d of August,
1772, about five feet six inches high, fair hair
and eye-brows, oval face, long, well made, grey
eyes inclining to brown, small mouth, aquiline
nose, the chin a little pointed, and well turned.
Accused, 1st, of having carried arms against
the French Republic ; 2d, of having offered his
services to the English Government, the enemy
of
4(5 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
of the French people ; 3d, of having received and
accredited agents of the said Government — of
having procured for them the means of maintain-
ing an understanding lri France, and having con-
spired with them against the internal and external
safety of the State ; 4th, of having placed himself
at the head of an assemblage of French emigrants,
and others in the pay of England, formed in the
countries of Fribourg and Baden; 5th of having
maintained a correspondence in the town of Stras-
burgh, tending to stir up the neighbouring de-
partments, for the purpose of effecting there a
diversion in favour of England ; 6th, of being
one of the favourers and accomplices of the con-
spiracy planned by the English against the life of
the First Consul, and intending, in case of the
success of that conspiracy, to enter France.
The Sitting having been opened, the President
ordered the Reporter to read all the documents j
as well those in the charge as those in the de-
fence.
The papers having been read, the President
ordered the guard to bring in the accused, who
was introduced free, and without irons, before
the Commission.
Being interrogated as to his christian and sur-
names, age, place of birth, and residence :
H
DUKE OF ENGHIEX. 47
He answered, Louis Antoine Henri de Bour-
bon, Duke of Enghien, aged 32 years, born at
Chantilly, near Paris, having quitted France on
the 16th July, 1780.
After having interrogated the accused through
the medium of the President, with respect to every
part of the contents of the charge against him :
having heard the Reporter in his report and in his
conclusions, and the Accused in his means of de-
fence ; after the latter had declared that he had
nothing to add in his justification, the President
demanded of the members, whether they had any
observations to make. Upon their answer in
the negative, and before he put it to the vole, he
ordered the accused to withdraw. The accused
was then conducted back to prison by his es-
cort j and the Reporter, the Register, as also the
citizens who attended as auditors, retired at tht
desire of the President.
The Commission having deliberated in pri-
vate, the President put the following questions :
Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duke of
Enghien, accused,
1st, Of having carried arms against the French
Republic — Is he guilty ?
2d, Of having offered his services to the Eng-
lish
48 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
lish Government, the enemy of the French
People — Is he guilty ;
3d, Of having received and accredited about
him agents of the said English Government ; of
having procured for them the means of keeping
up an understanding in France ; of having con-
spired with them against the internal and exter-
nal safety of the State — Is he guilty ?
4th, Of having put himself at the head of a
body of French emigrants and others, in the pay
of England, formed upon the frontiers of France
in the countries of Fribourg and Baden — Is he
guilty ?
5th, Of having kept up a correspondence in
Strasburgh, tending to produce a rising of the
neighbouring departments, to effect there a di-
version favourable to England — Is he guilty ?
6th, Of having been one of the favourers and
accomplices of the conspiracy framed by the
English against the life of the First Consul;
and intending, in case of the success of that
conspiracy, to enter France — Is he guilty ?
The voices being received separately upon
each of the above questions, beginning with
the junior in rank, the President giving his opi-
nion the last ',
The
DUKE OF ENGHftLN. 49
The Commission declares Louis Antoine
Henri do Bourbon, Duke of Enghien—
1st, Unanimously, guilty of having carried
arms against the French Republic.
2dly, Unanimously, guilty of having offered
his services to the English Government, the ene-
my of the French People.
3dly, Unanimously, guilty of having received
and accredited about him agents of the said
English Government, of having procured them
the means of keeping up an understanding in
France, and of having conspired with them
against the external and internal safety of the
State.
4thly, Unanimously, guilty of putting himself
at the head of a bodv of French emigrants and
others, in the pay of England, formed upon the
frontiers of France, in the countries of Fribourg
and of Baden,
5th!y, Unanimously, guilty of having kept up
a correspondence in Strasburgh, tending to stir
up the neighbouring departments, to effect there
a diversion favourable to England.
o
6thly, Unanimously, guilty of being one of
the favourers and accomplices of the conspiracy
planned by the English against the life q!
VOL. III. D
50 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
First Consul j and intending, in case of the suc-
cess of that conspiracy, to enter France.
Upon this the President put the question rela-
tive to the application of the punishment. The
voices were received again in the form above
mentioned.
The Special Military Commission condemns,
unanimously, to the pain of death, Louis An-
toine Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, in
satisfaction of the crimes of being a Spy, of car-
rying on a correspondence with the enemies of
the Republic, and of an attempt against the in-
ternal and external safety of the State.
The said sentence is pronounced in confor-
mity with article ii. title iv. of the military code
of crimes and punishments of the 12th Novem-
ber, year 5 ; 1st and 2d section of the first title
of the ordinary penal code of the 6th of Octo-
ber 1791, thus expressed, viz.
2. Of the 12th November, year 5, " Every
person, whatever may be his slate, quality, or
profession, convicted of being a spy for the ene-
my, shall be punished with death."
Art. 1. Even' conspiracy and attempt against
the Republic shall bepupished with death.
2. (Of the sixth of October 17[)l), Every con-
spiracy
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 51
spiracy and plot tending to disturb the State by
a civil war, by arming the citizens against each
other, or against the exercise of the lawful au-
thority, shall be punished with death.
Orders the Captain Reporter to read the sen-
tence, in presence of the guard assembled under
arms, to the condemned.
Orders that there shall be sent within the
time prescribed bv the law, due diligence being
used by the President and the Reporter, a copy-
to the Minister at War and the Grand Judge,
the Minister of Justice, and the General in Chief,
Governor of Paris.
Done, concluded, and judged, without sepa-
rating, the said month, day, and year, in pi.
sitting; and the members of the Special Military
Commission have signed, with the Reporter ani
Register, the minute of the judgment.
Signed — Guiton, Bazaxcourt, Ra-
MER, BARROrS, RABBE, d'Au-
tencourt, Captain Reporter,
Molin, Captain Register, and
Huli.v, President.
In this mock trial, accusations as ridiculous a?
groundless are presented, but no evidence is p
; which proves the truth of the Duke 'a
.on, when before the tribunal of his mur-
d 2 derers,
52 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
derers, that his sentence was pronounced before he
had left Sirasbiirglr, that he was only the inno-
cent victim of the ferocious Buonaparte's rage
against, the Bourbons. Should other Sovereigns
not avenge this atrocious crime, they or their
children must sooner or later share the fate of
the Duke of Enghien ; because, whatever rank
Buonaparte assumes, he is unable to change his
birth ; and guilty as be is, he will consider every
S;ood prince, as much a censuring enemy as a
proud superior, with whom neither an Imperial
crown, however brilliant, nor cnterprizes, how-
ever successful, can make him even an equal.
He knows that he is despised and detested by j
all hereditary Sovereigns ; and his dark, bar-
barous, and revengeful soul will never cease to
plan subversions, or to commit or command
murders, until the grave of the last lawful prince
is inundated with the blood of the last loyal
subject.
The Dukcof Enghien shewed himself a wor-
thy descendant of the Condes, even in the den
where he was surrounded by the hired assas-
sins of the usurper of his family's throne. His '
firmness was as great during his trial, as his re-
sionation after being condemned, and would
have moved even revolutionary brigands, had
nol
DUKE OF ENGH1EN. 63
not Buonaparte, from all his ruffian accomplices,
procured the most wicked to dispatch a Bourb
His Highness's calmness and courage on tins
trying occasion were the most surprizing, as
during the five preceding days and nights, every
indignity had been ordered him that could ir-
ritate his mind, and he had endured every suf-
fering that could enervate his body. From the
time of his arrest, bread and water had been
his only nourishment — he had never been <
permitted to lie down on a bed, to undress, to
shave, or to change his linen. From the weight
of his fetters, and from the fatigue of a long-
journey, his feet and legs were so swollen that
he could hardly stand. For the fourteen hours
that he lived after condemnation, he was shut
up with four gens-d'armes d'elite, or
spies, in the dungeon at Vincennes, without a
bed, and even without a chair. In a c rner
only was some rotten straw, on which he sat
down : but he was prevented from a moment's
rest by the noise, questions, and cannibal songs,
of these satellites, who had orders to prevent
even his slumbers. A clergyman was with him for
an hour, but was not permitted to speak with
him, unless he spoke so loud as to be heard by
the guards.
d 3 Before
54 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Before day-light in the morning of the 21st,
General Murat, under an escort of Mamelukes,
arrived at Vincennes ; he was accompanied by
four aids-de-camp, and Generals Edward Mor-
tier, Duroc, Hulin, and Louis Buonaparte, who
had come on purpose from the coast. Each Ma-
meluke held a flambeau ; and Italian troops and
gens d'armes surrounding the castle, prevented
the approach of every one, and guarded all the
avenues to that part of the wood of Vincennes
appointed as the place of execution. The Duke,
being told that his sentence was to be executed,
said calmly, " I am ready and resigned !
Ce malheureuxheros, sans armes, sans defense,
Voyant qu'il taut pcrer, et perir sans vengeance,
Voulut niourir, du moins, comme il avait vecu,
Avtc touie su globe et toute sa vertu.
VOLTAIRE.
When his Highness heard, upon inquiry, that
the grenadiers commanded to shoot him were
Italians of Buonaparte's guard, he said, " Thank
God ! they are not Frenchmen — I am condemned
by a foreigner, and God be praised that my exe-
cutioners are also foreigners — it will be a stain
less upon my countrymen ! At the place of
execution he lifted his hands towards heaven,
exclaiming, " May God preserve my King, and
deliver my country from the yoke of the foreigner !'
Two
DUKE OF ENGH1EX. 55
Two gens- d'armes then proposed to tie an hand-
kerchief over his eyes ; but he said, " A loyal
soldier, who has so often been exposed to fire and
sword, can see the approach of death with naked
eves and without fear, He then looked at the
grenadiers, who had already pointed their fusils
at him, saying, " Grenadiers ! lower your arms,
otherwise you will miss me, or only wound
me !" Of the nine grenadiers who fired at him,
seven hit him : two bullets had pierced his head,
and five his body. Iramediatelv after his murder
General Murat sent his aid-de-camp to Buona-
parte at Malmaison. A small coffin, filled with
lime, was ready to receive his corpse, and a grave
had been dug in the garden of the castle, where
he was buried.
Such was the end of the Duke of Enghien,
inhumanly butchered in the 3 2d year of his age,
by the barbarous foreign usurper of the throne
of his family : a prince, who would have illus-
trated obscurity by his talents, but who often
forgot his rank, when the misery of others
made it necessary to descend to that of an
individual ; whose humanity preserved the lives
of thousands of republicans vanquished bv
valour, and whose generosity relieved those o*
them in an enemy's country, who were destitute,
D 4 in
56 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
in prisons, or suffering on a pick bed ; — they alt
found in him a 3tcond Providence.
In Les Nouvcllcs a la Main, Fructidor 20th,
year 12, or September 5th, 1804, pages 9 and
10, is related, as a known fact at Paris, " ,that
Madame Buonaparte implored her ferocious hus-
band, upon her knees, ' to spare the life of the
Duke of Engbien, to whose father and grand-
father herself and -her family owed the greatest
obligations, for their protection and generosity
during monarchy.' Napoleon let her repeat her
request several times, while lie was marching,
much agitated, backwards and forwards in the
small saloon at Malmaison, without paying atten-
tion to what she said. At last, her patience be-
ing tired, she threw herself at his feet, cry-
ing ' Pardon ! Pardon !' He then regarded
her with the most terrible look, which terrified
her so much, that she fainted away, and was car-
ried sensJess out of the room. In this state of
insensibility she remained near three hours, and
at her recovery, Madame Remusat, her lady in
wa ting, presented her a letter from her husband,
full of reproaches for her impolitic and iinseason-
alle interference, when it was a question about
wi grand amp d'etat, which surpassed her compre-
hension. He declared, at the same time, that
both
DUKfc OF ENGHIEN. 57
both his and her life and rank depended upon
the removal of the Duke of Enghien, more than
even upon that of the Duke of Angouleme, be-
cause the former had many friends in the French
army, where the latter was hardly known. ' That
we, besides,' added Buonaparte, * have more to
apprehend from his enterprizing character than
from that of any other Bourbon, the following
letter may convince you :'
TO HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY LOUIS XVIII.
KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE.
" SIRE,
"The letter of the 2d March, with which your
Majesty has vouchsafed to honour me, reached
me in due time. Your Majesty, is too well ac-
quainted with the blood which flows in mv veins,
to have entertained a moment's doubt respecting
the tenor and spirit of the answer which your
Majesty calls for. I am a Frenchman, Sire, and
a Frenchman/hi//;/}// to his God, to his King, and
of course to the oaths that are binding by his honour
as much as by his religion. Many others may,per~
haps, one" day envy me' this triple advantage.
Will your Majesty, therefore, vouchsafe to permit
me to annex my signature to that of the Duke
d' Angouleme, adhering, as I do, with him in
o 5 heart
53 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
heart and soul, to the contents of the note of my
Sovereign ? It is in these invariable sentiments,
that I remain, Sire,
" Your Majesty's most humble,
" most obedient,
" and very faithful subject and servant,
" (Signed) louis antoine henry de bourbon.
" Ettenheim, in the Dominions of the Margrave
11 of Baden, March 2zd, 1803."
This letter was written in consequence of the
humiliating proposal made by the Prussian Pre-
sident, Meyer, at Warsaw, in February 1803,
in the name of one legitimate king upon his
throne, to another legitimate king in exile, of
resigning his hereditary right to the throne of
France to the foreign adventurer, the sworn and
natural enemy to all hereditary sovereignty,
who had usurped it by force and fraud, and pre-
served his usurpation by the impunity that he
held out to regicides, and by the national plunder
with which he rewarded his criminal accom-
plices, those who had butchered with him in
Europe, and poisoned with him in Africa, and
Asia.* hi
* In a note of the same Number of Let Nowvclles a la M«n %
it is said, that bet .are laid at Pari:;, u that before twelve months
after the day of the martyrdom of the Duke of Enghitti, Napo,
Icon
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 59
In his person the Duke of Enghien was hand-
some, and of a noble and graceful iigure. The
sound of his voice was harmonious, and his ex-
pressions correct and natural. In his manners he
was condescending, in his conversation lively, but
becoming. Ever master of himself, his temper
was always equal and moderate. He was fre-
quently so polite and obliging, that it might have
been taken for familiarity, but for that air of
dignity which never left him, which was born
with him, and which followed him to the grave.
From his youth he was an enemy to idleness and
fond of those exercises which contribute to
strengthen the constitution, and to accustom a
person intended for a military life to the fatigues
of war. Fencing and hunting were often his
amusements before he headed battalions or com-
manded armies. His courage and capacity were
known 1 before they were tried. Nature as well
as education, had made him a general. His
brilliant qualities during the first campaign made
him distinguished even in the midst of so many
heroes of his family. Faithful to the noble prin-
ciples of his ancestors; convinced, with th
d 6 that
leontbe First, so fond of elevations, will be elevated on a gib-
bet, and Madame Buonaparte confined in a bouse of ccrr
en • ! ! ' • . The above letter is found translated in the London
papers cf July ::!::, 1:04.
60 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
that a good general may be defeated, but cannot,
be taken by surprize, he was determined never
to be attacked unprepared. He was therefore
always sober, active, and vigilant 5 hearing all
reports, receiving all advices, and attentive even
to rumours that were circulated in his camp,
lie never ceased to observe his enemy, and to
meditate on their lesser movements, either to dis-
cover or prevent their projects; either to turn
them against themselves, or to render them of no
use by his means of defence. Fully aware of that
dangerous confidence, which want of rest after
long fatigues is often inclined to give, he de-
pended only upon himself to reconnoitre the
ground, to establish posts, and to fix the place of
rendezvous in case of sudden attacks. Con-
stantly the first every where, every part of the
service equally fixed his attention, particularly
what could in any way contribute to the com-
forts, or relieve the pains of his soldiers. Though
severe with others as with himself, he was always
liberal,, just, and good, with those who served
under him, and therefore soon became their idol.
A competent judge of military as well as of all
other kinds of merit, the Archduke Charles on
all occasions extolled his liighness's talents j ad-
mired his courage ', desired and obtained his
friend-
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. <5i
friendship ; and new deplores his untimely loss.
If Champagny, the Consular emissary at Vienna,
has reported faithfully what he has heard and
seen in that capital, the usurper is informed, that
England, Russia, and Poland, are not the only
countries where loyalty mourns, and where vir-
tue abhors, Buonaparte's atrocities. To the ho-
nour of the British nation, the feelings were the
same, and unanimous among all classes of peo-
ple j and the wanton murder of the Duke of
Engliien has made Buonaparte execrated even by
those who hitherto had doubted, palliated, or
disbelieved, his former enormous crimes.
Two solemn services have been celebrated in
the Roman Catholic chapels in London, at the
command and expence of the French Princes and
emigrants, in honour of the memory, and for the
repose of the soul, of the late Duke of Enghien.
The chapels, though one of them can contain
l&OO persons, were not large enough for ad-
mitting half the number of those who presented
themselves. More of the English nobility and
gentry, than of the French, were present in
these devout and pious assemblies, so gene-
ral was the interest which the unfortunate des-
tiny of the butchered hero inspired, and the
horror
62 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
horror and detestation of the monster who was
his assassin*.
In
* The following are the correct particulars of the funeral
services celebrated for the Duke of Enghien
On the 1 8th of April a solemn service, in honour of the late
Duke of Enghien, was celebrated at the desire of His Royal
Highness Monsieur, brother to the King of France and Navarre,
in the Roman Catholic Chapel, King-street, Portman- square.
The Bishop of Montpellier officiated pontifically. The Abbe
de la Tille, Chaplain to His Royal Highness Monsieur, pro-
nounced a brief but beautiful sermon from the 20th and 2ist
verses of the 9th chapter of the First book of the Maccabees :
Et fteverunt cum omnis populis Isratl, planetu magno, et luge-
bant dies multcs. Et dixerunt : quo modo cecidit potens t qui sal.
vumfaciebat populum Israel .
The eloquent Preacher, without entering into the particulars
of the short but brilliant career of this amiable and much-la-
mented Prince, drew tears from every eye, by the unaffected
piety of his sentiments, and his pathetic expression He con-
fined himself to a view of this young hero, as a model of fidelity
and devotion to his King, at a time when fidelity was so rare in
most continental countries among subjects, and loyalty among
princes. He recommended resignation in sufferings to the will
of God, and confidence in the Divine Justice, which never
fails to avenge the innocent, and punish the guilty. The
preacher frequently burst into tears, which interrupted his
speech. It is impossible to describe the sensation produced by
the following passage towards the close of the sermon :
" Speaking as I am, to Christian Princes, and to Chevaliers
always faithful 10 the religion of their ancestors, as well as to
the laws of honour, I will only call to your remembrance the
last words of - he hero whose untimely end we iitrt deplore ! ! ! —
Oh my God, preserve my King and delivir my Country from the yoke
tf the foreigner ."' He then added, " Let us all repeat this
p raver
DUKE OF EXGHIEX. Gs
In their lamentable condition, it must be a con-
solation (if consolation be possible) for their Se-
rene
prayer to the God of Goodness ! May the Almighty save *ur vir-
rrserve His Atzjetty Jrom those dingers -which
lurrouni him ! f ' ' At these words the audieru e were deeply
affected, and overwhelmed with grief. I n this pious and devout
circie, we observed His Royal Highness Monsieur, the Duke of
Berry, Duke of Orleans, DukeofMontpensier, DukeofBeau-
jolois, all the French Bishops, and French Nobility, with a great
number cf the English Nobility of both sexes. The chapel could
not contain one half of the company who presented themselves.
The Prince of Conde and the Duke of Bourbon were not pre-
sent. They were indisposed at Wanstead- house ; to which
place, we understand, Her Majesty and the Royal Dukes fre-
quently sent to inquire after their be
the 27th of April, at the chapel of St. Patrick, in Soho-
-, a solemn service was performed for the repose of the
s;>ul of the late Duke of Enghien, at the request and expence
of the French emigrant nobiiity and gentry. Notwithstanding
most of them have scarcely the means of subsistence, there
was an honourable emulation to contribute to this funeral cere-
mony, not commanded by an usurper, but offered voluntarily
as a feeble but sincere proof of their attachment to the family
■.- Kirg, ar.d of their high consideration for their Serene
s :he Prir.ce de Conde and the Duke of Bourbon. The
exper.ce of the decorations amounted to 6ccl.
The Bishop of Montpellier officiated pontifical!}', and the
be B_.uvens, Vicar-General to the Biahop of Arras, pro-
nounc. ul sermon.
\a hung with black, all round, from the top
om. In the if cut, and at the sides, were placed
les, ornarr.e:ite;i with mauy wax .. i 144
nde.
Near thi altar was e: . .', or sarcophagus, sur-
mounted
64 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
rene Highnesses the Prince de Conde and Duke
of Bourbon to be convinced, that by all good and
loyal
mounted with a canopy supported by four columns, and orna-
mented with a number of white feathers. Round it were se-
veral wax candles intermixed with the escutcheons of the arms
of Conde. Four mutes were placed at the four corners.
A row of fauteuils or elbow-chairs were placed by the right
side of the choir, where his Royal Highness Monsieur, brother
to the King of France, with their Serene Highnesses the Dukes
of Berry, Orleans, Montpensier, and Beaujolois, were seated ;
opposite them were placed all the French Bishops yet faithful
to their God and to their King.
The Chapel, though it can contain 1800 persons, was not
large enough for half of those who presented themselves. More
English ladies, noblemen, and gentlemen, were observed in this
assembly than Frenchmen, so general and so honourable to the
feelings ofthe English Nation, was the interest which the un-
fortunate destiny of the murdered hero inspired, and the horror
and the detestation ofthe monster who committed this murder.
Eight hundred ladies occupied the galleries. The gentlemen
sat below in the choir and at the sides. Three hundred cards
had been distributed : among the English nobility were obser-
ved, the Duke of Northumberland, the Duke of Portland, the
Earls of Shrewsbury, Talbot, Chatham, Kilmain, with several
others, besides most ofthe members ofthe foreign diplomatic
corps.
The preacher pronounced his sermon with a strong and clear
voice, so as to be heard distinctly in every part ofthe chapel ;
from the beginning he fixed the attention of every one. He de-
livered gracefully what he conceived with truth and sentiment.
Not an eye was dry, not a heart that did not feel pity for
the virtuous victim ofthe malice and cruelty of the usurper.
He chose for his text the 39th and 40th verses of the 12th
chapter of the first book of the Maccabees ; — -
Et cum coritasscl Trypbon, rtgntre Asia et auumete diadenia et
txtendere man urn in Antiochftm regent,
" Timtut
DUKE OF ENGHIEN. 05
il Sovereigns as well as subjects, justice i3 ren-
dered to the virtues of the Duke of Engnien ;
and
*• Timeus ne jorto nen petmetttret adversus e ■ .', ud
fmgvartt ad-jtrtui rum, auetebat comprebendert turn et ecc.'Jere. ' *
H sving expatiated upon the virtues, courage, and talents of
Jonathan, ar.d of his zeal to save his country, the preacher said,
after having mentioned these partk .ilars, to mention the name
of the Duke of E.ghien was to complete the parallel.
He spoke oFthose traits at valour which so clearly distin-
guished tiie Duke of Engbien, and made hi:..
hero, before he was entitled to be called a man. He repn
ed him combating, with his grandfather and father wounded
by 1: ;ing himself with the laurels of victory, and
afterwards distinguishing himself by his hu:r
toward his enemies ; and finally honouring the nam* of
Conde, already overcharged with a lustre and glory difficult
to support and to carry.
After having eloquently pourtrayed, and feelingly deplored
the misfortunes of France, under the ycke of a foreigner, he
addressed to God a tervent prayer to restore his country to her
former tranquillity and happiness ; and he thanked the Al-
mighty for not permitting buch an atrocious assassination, per-
petrated in the darkness of the night, to be committed by the
hands of Frenchmen.
He represented the young hero raising his hands towards Hea-
ven, and praying, " M.iy G^Jpreterve my King, and deliver my
• from the y.ke if lit foreigner !" — " Let us (said he re-
member this invocation ; ir.d Jet us ardently pray GoJ to give
our virtuous, but unfortunate King, a safe retrear, where he may
be out of the reach of regicides, and their weak or vile accom-
plices ; and let us repeat upon the tomb of a Bourbon, our oath
of fidelity to our lawful King, and his heirs and family,
we all be able to say in the last moment of our lives, as on
this day, " "You know cur heavenly Saviour, that we have
juflered persecution, contempt, and poverty — but we have ne-
ter been apostates to ourCs./, nor traitors to out K:
66 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
and that in the present, as well as in future ages,
every tender parent, either residing humbly in a
cottage, or gloriously occupying a throne, will
hold out this Prince as a model for their children,
that they may learn how to live like heroes, and
how to die like Christians ! Disce, pucr, vlrtu-
iemahillo* ! ! \"
He taught us how to live ; and oh ! too high
The price of knowledge, taught us how to die I
Tt is impossible to do justice in an extract, to a sermon, of
which no just idea can be formed, without reading or hearing
the whole, as it did not contain a phrase that was not re-
markable for its justness, its beauty, and its propriety.
Their Serene Highnesses the Prince de Condi and the Duke
of Bourbon were not present. They continued ill at Wan-
stead-house.
* The Author has been favoured with most of the particu-
lars of this sketch by noblemen who have fought by the side
of the Duke of Enghien ; to whom, besides, he had the honour
of being presented as long ago as 1788. Other authentic sources
have beea used, but which the Author is not permitted to
mention. The very interesting L'Jmiigu of the loyal M. Pel-
tier has been consulted in some parts of the campaigns. The
original is well worth reading
Louis
<er )
LOUIS XVIII.
KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE.
LOUIS Stanislaus Xavier, Count cle Pro-
vence (since the accession to the throne of
France of his elder brother, the good and unfor-
tunate Louis XVI. commonly known by the
name of Monsieur), was the protector of sciences
and men of letters from his youth, and a pa-
triot before he was a man. In the vicious court
of his grandfather, Louis XV. no malice dared to
suspect his morals, and no scandal could publish
his vices. Like his elder brother, he loved vir-
tue, adored religion, and respected the laws of
his country, and the liberties and rights of his
countrymen j strict and severe with himself, he
was indulgent to others : but barefaced wicked
ness never escaped his contempt, censure, or re-
probation. That old corrupt courtier, the Duke
of Richelieu, and others of, his description, ho-
noured, therefore, the Count de Provence with the
mock appellation of " the young Cato at an old
Court."
When,
68 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
When, in 1787, want of order, or profusion,
forced M. de Calonne to convoke the Notables,
the Count de Provence, then Monsieur, opposed
all infraction of the privileges of the nobility and
clergy, and all new burthens proposed to be laid
upon the people, because, said he, " I am con-
vinced that some few years of economy and regu-
larity will more than supply the deficiency of the
revenue." His answer to M. de Calonne, who
told him it was the King's desire that the plan
of finance laid before the Notables should be
accepted, is well known, and has long been ad-
mired; " My heart," said this Prince, " is alike
my brother's and the people's; my understanding
is my own; and my head is the King's." Had
his advice been followed by M. de Calonne's suc-
cessors, the ambitious intriguers de Brienne and
Necker, what a series of wretchedness would
both France and Europe have avoided ! !
At the breaking out of the French rebellion in
1789, instead of emigrating, as most of the other
Princes of the blood royal did, Monsieur conti-
nued in his former modest residence, and boldly
defended the prerogatives of his Sovereign, as well
as the claims or demands of the subjects, when
the latter did not encroach upon the former.
After the Parisian mob and murderers had, on the
6th
LOUIS XVIII. 69
6th of October, amid the heads of his butchered
guard-de- corps upcui pikes, forced Louis XVI.
from Versailles, and Escorted him and his royal
family to Pari?, Monsieur took up his settled abode
in the Luxcmburgh, in he very apartments since
occupied by the regicide B?>rras, and at present
by the regicide Abbe and Senator Sieves. He
was now the only au: ; necessary consoler and
friend to the dearest of brothers and best of Kings,
whom ingratitude, desertion, and rebellion, had
isolated, and made destitute and miserable, though
the hereditary chief over a civilized, populous,
and rich people. To deprive him even of this last
consolation, and at the same time, Monsieur of
his popularity every calumnv that treachery could
invent, and disaffection propagate, was spread
about by the then licentious presses of France.
In January 1791, the chief rebel La Fayette, and
his accomplices, in hopes to humiliate the brother
of their King with the King himself, and to un-
dermine hereditarv monarch v, implicated Mon-
sieur in a pretended conspiracy of the Marquis de
Favras ! and persuaded him under a promise and
hope of saving innocence from the then fa-
shionable lamp-post of the sovereign people, to
end and exculpate himself before a vile and
.aous municipality. His condescension and
humanity
70 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
humanity had, however, not the desired effect ;
La Fayette and Mirabeau, without faith and ho-
nour, as well as without loyalty, wanted to in-
spire terror by the execution of Favras, who was
the first faithful and innocent subject to perish,
in consequence of a mock trial, and a mock sen-
tence of a mock tribunal of rebels.
From that period Monsieur was exposed to
public insult ; and with Louis XVI. continually
threatened with destruction. Under the windows
of his apartments, he heard the act of accusation
against himself, and all the other Bourbons,
cried about, as preparatory to their condemnation,
distributed from the presses of the notorious jaco-
bin Prudhomme. At length his patience was
exhausted ; and his personal safety, and the wel-
fare of France demanded that he should try to
break the bondage under which he had for two
years groaned. More fortunate, or rather less
unfortunate, than Louis XVI. by the courageous
assistance of a loyal Swede, Count de Fersen,
he escaped, in June 1791? by way of Valen-
ciennes, into Brabant; while the ill-placed,
though praise- worthy, humanity of Louis XVI.
caused himself to be arrested at Varennes. He
now joined his brother, Count d' Artois, and the
other Princes of his house, at Coblentz, and be-
LOUIS XVIII. 71
:; an to organize an army of emigrants, /iccording
to the plan of .the Emperor Leopold and the
Kings of Prussia and Sweden; who, with their
joint forces, had promised to re-establish order in
France, and to revenge insulted royalty.
When the Constituent Assembly, with the
execration of all good men, resigned its usurpa-
tion to the Legislative Assembly, composed of
even more atrocious characters than its atrocious
predecessor, one of the first decrees was, c< to
declare Monsieur to have forfeited his eventual
right to the regency, if he did not return to
France within the space of two months." With-
out considering what right rebels had to dictate
laws to the brother of their King, the cruel fate
of Louis XVI. and his Queen, of Madame
Elizabeth, and of Louis XVII. shews what Louis
XVIII. might have expected, had he trusted to
their decree, and surrendered himself to their
ferocity.
After this assembly had declared sot against
Austria and Germany, the armed loyal emi-
grants, collected near Coblentz, were ordered to
act under the command of Monsieur, who, in
his turn, depended upon the orders of the Kin 2
of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick. Be-
fore the emigrants, called the royal army, ap-
proached
72 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
proached the French frontiers, a manifesto was
published, and signed by Monsieur and the
other French Princes. Tn this it was truly ob-
served, " that the Revolution had converted
a mild people, attached to their Kin£. into
hordes of robbers, cannibals, and regicides:
every idea of revenge was discla med by the
Princes, who wish- J only to become f he deli-
ver rs of their country^ and the restoreis of good
order, of laws, and of humanity. " Toward the
conclusion, their Highnesses gave (l the most
pressing invitation to the French troops to re-
turn to their ancient fidelity, to their lawful So-
vereign, and to join those forces which they
commanded for him." Unfortunately this li-
beral invitation was not listened to, be:ng made
ineffectual by the duplicity and jealousy of
Prussia; and 22,000 French noblemen and gen-
tlemen, armed in the cause of monarchy and
religion, were, by the ungenerous conduct of
the Prussian Monarch, obliged to disperse and
become miserable wanderers, without a friend,
without a home, and without resources; and to
exhibit their wretchedness in most parts of Eu-
rope and America, after being plundered, be-
traved, and proscribed in their own country.
Poison, in 1795, made the throne of France
again
louis xvnr. n
again vacant by the death of Louis XVII. the
ill-fated son of the ill-fated Louis XVI. who,
before he had reached his second lustre, hatl
seen his father, mother, and aunt, murdered, and
his sister with himself treated with brutalitv and
cruelty, and suffering from want in the same
prison which his parents and relatives had lefl
only to ascend the scaffold. Monsieur now suc-
ceeded his nephew, and assumed the name of
Louis XVIII. with the title of King of Fiance
and Navarre, and was proclaimed and acknow-
ledged as such, both in the army of Conde. and
by the royalists in La Vendee.
Louis XVIII. had since 1792 resided in dif-
ferent parts of Germanv; at Turin with his
father-in-law, the King of Sardinia j and at las {
at Verona, under the name of Count de Lille.
In the spring of 1796, the Republic of Venice,
to please Buonaparte, added insult to the mis-
fortunes of the King of France, by ordering htm
to q«it Verona and the Venetian territory.
With a spirit and dignity that never forsook thi*
Prince, he demanded iheLivre D'Or, containing
all the names of the Venetian Nobles, end erased
from it thai of the Bourbon?, inscribed bv his
great grandfather'* grandfather Henrv IV. Re-
volutionary France always degraded those go-
YCi.. in. I vrrnments
7i REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
vernments which it intended to destroy. The
rebel Buonaparte, whom Venice had basely flat-
tered, revenged the wrongs done to Louis XVIII.
his King; for, in the spring of 1797, by the orders
of Buonaparte, Venice was declared no longer an
independent state. .
In the summer of this year, having left Ve-
nice for Germany, a foreign assassin, or French
regicide, waited for him there. Standing in the
window of an obscure inn of a small village, a
shot was fired at this Prince, which wounded him
slightly in the head. The perpetrator of the
deed has never been discovered ; because Louis
XVIII. forbade all search to be made; saying
" It must either be a mistake or a premeditated
crime — in the former case, it would be cruel to
pursue ; and in the latter, as I have done no human
lelng any harm, the person who would murder me,
has punishment enough in hisownbosom, and uants
my forgiveness more than I do his death ! !"
In 1798, Louis XVIII. was acknowledged by
the Emperor of Russia, Paul the First, as King
of France and Navarre ; and was invited by him
to reside in the ducal castle at Mittau, until he
could restore him 10 the throne of his ancestors.
Louis XVIII. left therefore the army of Conde,
with whom he had fox near two years shared all
privations,
LOUIS XVIII. 7*
•paivations, penury, wants, and dangers. At
Mittau the King of France was at first treated
with all the honours due to a Sovereign, which
another more fortunate, liberal-minded Sovereign
could bestow. He had a guard of honour of 200
Russians in his castle, besides a body-guard of
French noblemen, created for him, and paid by
the Emperor. The Russian Commander at Mit-
tau was entirely under his orders, and his levees
were crowded by the nobility of Courland, Li-
vonia, and Russia. As the pecuniary bounties of
Paul were more than sufficient for a prince, eco-
nomical from principle and custom, as well a*
from delicacy, a number of ruined emigranti
flocked to Russia to share them. The duration
of this prosperous adversity, however, was not
long. The generous but weak Emperor, seduced
by republican intriguers, suddenly changed his
conduct, and, adopting the ignoble sentiment*
of his new ignoble friend Buonaparte, sent the
King, whom he had acknowledged and invited
\o his dominions, orders ta leave the Russian
territority within a week.
Three months previous to this order, the pay-
ment of the usual pension had been wit!.'..
Louis XVIII. and all the Frenchmen at Mittau
were, therefore, reduced to the greatest distress
e2 Be
76 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
because they had all been ordered to depart with
their King.
The Duchess of Angouleme, the virtuous
daughter of Louis XVI. had never ceased to
reside with her uncle, since she had recovered
her liberty, and married her first cousin. Louis
XVIII. always the same, told her his determi-
nation " to quit, within 24 hours, a coun-
try where insult and humiliation had taken the
place of hospitality ; and that, as he had not the
means to travel as he had formerly done, and the
little that he possessed was necessary for the sup-
port of those of his subjects who had accompanied
him, he would, the next day, on foot, leave Mit-
tau, and shew the unfortunate French emigrants
an example how to support misfortunes." At her
marriage, the Duchess of Angouleme had receiv-
ed from her first cousins, the Emperor and Em -
press of Germany | an ecrhi, or jewel-box : with-
out informing any body of her intention, she
sent for some Jews, and obtained upon these
jewels a sum of monev, sufficient, not only for
her uncle's travelling expences, but to provide
for the present wants of her countrymen at Mit-
tau ; and when her uncle the next morning found
but this generous act, the tears of all relieved
Frenchmen told their Prince, that by pressing his
niece
LOWS XV III. 77
niece to his bosom, he should reward, instead of
resenting, the first act of her lite which she ever
concealed from him. This young Princess had,
in the dungeons of the Temple, early learned to
know the little value of either jewels-, rank, or
life, as well as the real duty of humanity, and the
worth of undeserved wretchedness !
After some wandering in the wilds of inhos-
pitable' Prussia, the policy of Buonaparte to keep
Louis XVIII. at a distance from his kingdom,
left him at last permission to inhabit the castle of
the dethroned King of Poland at Warsaw,
where, in more fortunate times, one of his
ancestors, Henry III. had ruled as a King — where
his maternal grandfather, Stanislaus, had ;
elected King by a Polish diet, and proscribed aj>
an usurper by a Polish faction. What painful
remembrances, what sad reflections, for the well-
informed and active mind of Louis XVIII. 1
The tranquillity of this retreat was disturbed
last February, by another humiliation from
other Monarch. The Prussian President, Meyer,
had the audacity to ask Louis XVIII. to renounce
what he had no right to renounce, the Throne .01
France, in favour of a murderer and poi^
whom crime and success, not merit or choice,
Jwd seated upon it. The well-known noble and
E3 dr£- .
78 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
dignified answer of this Prince must convinct
"Mr. Meyer, and all Europe, that though fortune
may desert virtue, and render- it distressed or mi-
serable, she is unable to degrade or dishonour it.
The present magnanimous Russian Emperor
provides, with Imperial liberality, for the ne-
cessities of Louis XVII [. and his few followers,
in the former capital of Poland, where religion
consoles and studv improves the knowledge of one
of the most humane and best-informed among
modern Sovereigns — whose constancy and cou-
rage, during a long and unexampled adversity,
have only been surpassed by his modesty and
moderation, when surrounded by every thing
that made rank illustrious, ambition tempting,
and life desirable.
This portrait of an unfortunate King is histo-
rical and not flattering; it contains historical
facts, not imaginary fictions. A christian submits;
but a heathen would have exclaimed, " that the
decrees of Providence are incomprehensible, if
not unjust, when Buonaparte prospers while
Louis XVII I. suffers; when Buonaparte reigns
iA France, while Louis XVIII. is an exile in
Poland*!!!"
One
• A pamphlet printed at Hamburgh, 1802, called •' Mes
Souvenirs en Russie," contains many of the anecdotes related
in thii ' ketch.
LOUIS XVIII. 79
On-: could hardlv suppose, but that the Corsi-
cao usurper, Napokone Buonaparte, after seizing
the throne, and enjoying the authority of his
legitimate Sovereign, would have been satisfied
with keeping his most* Christian Majesty in
exile; but while this work was in the press,
/mother plot* of the darkest hue was at-
tempted
* On the 22dofJul>\ theEaron deMiIleville,Equerry to the
Queen of France, disclosed to the Due de Pier.ne, the plot, as it
had been denounced to him by a person of the name of Coulon,
a Frenchman, a native of Lyons, who, after having been in the
service of the said Baron de Milletille hid married a Polish wo-
man, and settled at Warsaw, where he kept a billiard-table.
This man stated, that on the preceding Friday, tiie 20th, two
persons came to bis billiard-room, and made many inquiries of
him, relative to the King, and his own situation ; that the fol-
lowing day they returned, and made fresh inquiries respecting
Louis XVI 1 1. They wished, they said, to know whether iiis Ma-
jesty went out often-— by what number of men he was usually
accompanied--and whether his attendants were armed or not ?--
They then asked Coulon, whether he himself was in debt, and
whether he would net be glad to find an opportunity to obtain
immediately a considerable sum of money for a particular ser-
vice i— Being answered in the affirmative, they observed to him
that as he was known to the persons belonging to the household
of the King, he might easily obtain admission into the kitchen ;
an:l if he consented to throw, un perceived, into the boiler { U
m-irmi/e], a little parcel which would be given to him, his for-
tune would be made : 460 Louis dors would be given to him
in the first instance, and too more for every individual of the
Royal Family who might die in the course of a twelvemonth.
They added that lie was nor to trouble himself about his wife,
for they would take her safely to France; and when they were
about
so REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
tempted by this audacious rebel, against the un-
fortunate Louis XVIII. He has not sent 3
band
about to part, he heard them say in Italian, " We have no time
to lose ; the day is come when we ought to strike."
On the following day (Tuesday the 2 2d), after many Visits
from them, another ruffian, whom Coulon had not before seen,
called on him in the evening, and requested him to take a waH
with him, in order that they might speak more freely on a sub«i
ject of great concern, which had been mentioned to him the
preceding day. In the course of their walk, they were met by
one cf the two who had first opened the project to Coulon.
Considering him a man discontented with his lot, and ready
to catch at any chance that promised better, they unfolded to
him the secret which was to make his fortune :— " You are well
acquainted," said they, " with the cook of Louis the XVIIIth.
Upon your next visit to him, about the hour when he is pre-
paring dinner, throw two carrots which we will give you into
the kettle in which the soup is boiled for the Pretender's table.
If he shall die in a given time after, you shall receive 400 Louis
d'ors ; but should his wife, with the Duke and Duchess of An-
gouleme, share his fate, 1200 Louis d'ors shall be paid to you
by Monsieur Boyer.Commercial C omm ' ss ary to the Emperor of
the French in this city. Do not apprehend any punishment from,
the success of the attempt. You reside in a country, the Sove-
reign of which is the steady and sincere friend of Napoleon the
First, and whose Ministers are as much attached to France as to
their own. country. As to remorse of conscience, the fortune
that has seated Buonaparte upon the throne of France will sup-
port him there, and shew that he deserves it ; and providence
and fortune are the same. The Bourbon race are proscribed by
destiny, and therefore, in dispatching them, you serve the Divi-
r.itv. You might, perhaps, apprehend the vengeance of other
Bourbons, who reside in England; but you ought to know, that
their destroyers follow them as their shades; and, although they
are still among the living, the grave is dug ready to swallow its
vie tiro,
louis xvnr. si
band of assassins to Warsaw, as to Ettenheim,
to carry off the King of France, and murder him
like
victim, and they shall only liye to set the day of Buonaparte's
coronation. This is the time appointed by the Eternal fop. aj;
tUAl change or dynasties ove=i the world ; and, betcre:
ten years, not a Prince will reign who was not, ten years before,
an unnoticed subject. The Emperor of the French can never
rule with safety, until fortune and merit Have taken the place of
birth-right and prerogatives, until all present Sovereigns shall
have been dethroned or annihilated, and individuals like himself
placed upon their thrones. " Do not think, "said they, " that
what we promise are the sudden and insignificant sentiments of
men imposed upon, or impostors themselves. We are mem-
bers of Buonaparte's secret police, whose influence extends to.
all countries, to all ranks, who distribute indemnities among
the Germans, who prepared the death of the Duke of Enghien,
the disgrace of Drake, and the elevation of a Parmasan Prince
to the throne of Etruria." In the course of an entertainment,
which lasted from three o'clock until nine, these and other
such sentim;nrs were infused into his min'i ; and with a view
to complete by terror what temptation might leave unfinished,
they produced pistols, daggers, and poison, intimating at the
same time, that not only the suspected traitor, but the man who
proved lukewarm in the cause of the Emperor of the French,
should certainly perish. Their unfortunate guest assented to
every thing they said, as well from policy as from necessity.
Coulon insisted on receiving some money, on aecount of the
400 Louis which had been promised him ; upon which one of
the ruffians, who was in liquor, said : " I don't know whether
Boyer (the name of the commercial a?ent at Warsaw,' would
consent to give so large a sum. ' ' His companion, condemning
this indiscretion, replied : " Why do you mention Boyer : he is
net in town ; he will not return these two days." ' At last they
fave him a ducat to get some wine to drink with the cook, and
made an appointment for the following night, whea they were?
x 5 to
82 REVOLUTIONARY PLULARCH.
like the Duke of Enghien, in a ditch, in the
wood of Vincennesj but, pursuing a system more
congenial
to give him the parcel, which was to be thrown into the boiler.
They parted at one o'clock in the morning.
The sameday(Sunday)Coulon disclosed theplot to the Baron
«le Millevijle, and the Duke de Pienne, by whom it was com-
municated, to Compte D'Avaray, Captain of the Guards to
Louis XVIII. who hastened to inform M. de Hoym, president
of the chamber, and governor of the town, of the circumstance,
and who had orders from his Prussian Majesty for superintend-
ing all the concerns and safety of the French Royal Family.
At first, the president Hoym received the information with
the most feeling emotion, and promised to mount his horse, and
repair personally, either to the place of rendezvous fixed by the
ruffians, to give the poison to Coulon, or to the spot appointed
for paying him the money, and setting of}' for France. He also
promised to send persons to secure the whole gang, and Coulon
himself, in case he should have forged the story in order to ob-
tain a reward. The sensibility of the president Hoym was high-
ly increased by the alarming reports which were spread every
day, of plots to takeaway the life of the King at the eve of his
departure for Russia.
The 23d of July, Coulon, being ordered by the Baron de
Milieviile, went to the appointed spot, at a place called the
New Village, situated in the middle of the lines which sur-
round Warsaw; there he was joined by one of the men, and soon
after by another, who was concealed in a corn field, and who
actually delivered him the parcel, and a bottle of liquor for
his own use. They agreed upon a signal, by which they were
to know when the deed had been effected. They told him that
when it was executed, he might repair to a place called Les Cinq
fete/tea, where he would be joined by his employers, and taken
to France with His w\fe ; and in case they could not meet there,
he was to go to Stockayer, where he would find them at the
Foit-mastet's. house, and that he should there receive the 400
Louis.
LOUIS XVIII. 63
congenial to his barbarous and cowartllv heart
o
and Italian vices, this poisoner of Jaffa has re-
verted
Louis. Upon his asking for some money, they gave him only six
crowns, alkdging that they had been already cheated more than
once.
The President Hoym, however, afraid of committing his
master with the French Emperor, declined either to g"or send
to t.iS appointed spot, contrary to his promise. Coulon deli-
vered ;he parcel and the bottle to M. de Milleville, on the
24th, in the morning. The Comte D'Avaray went at ten
O'clock to M. de Hoym's, and presented him the parcel, which
contained three carrots charged with arsenic. M. de Hoym,
from excess of fear, refused to interfere any further in t;;e
business, saying, it ahoulcl be referred to the police office ; and
even refused to affix his seal to the parcel, which was seal-
ed by the Archbishop of Rheims and the Comte D'Avaray.
On that clay Louis the XVII l:h was informed of the plot,
His Majesty expressed the greatest arid the most tender solici-
tude for his faithful servants, but displayed an unalter ib!e tran-
quillity of mind with re pect to his own personal safety; He
w.ote to the President, H ; -.1, who did not wait on his
jesty till the following day, and then confined himself to vague
assurances that the business should be followed up with ac-
tivity by the police officers.
A formal demand was made by the Kine, that a resort
should be made by an assembly of professional men, respect-
Tie contents of the parcel, which demand being answered
in an evasive manner, the King ordered that rhe pa'cel sn
be opened and examined before his own physician, M. Le Fa-
ire, aided by M. Gagatkiewish, the most eminent ar.d rt
table physician of Warsaw, Or. Bergenzoni, and Dr. Gut
apothecary. One of the ca rots bddg opened, was found per*
sound, the upper part being covered wi:h a kind c.
ptr paste, of a colour similar to that of the root : the mid-
die part was found to contain a powder, which, afar achvmi-
t 6 ^1
84 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
verted to his old trade, and purchased execu-
tioners to dispatch Louis XVIII. by his former
practice
cal operation, was discovered to be a mixture of three different
sorts of arsenic, one white, another yellow, and another red.
Theproces verbal was signed by all present, and the parcel sealed
again, and s«nt to the police office with all the necessary docu-
ments. Upon application being made by the King to M. de
Tilly, Chief Magistrate, for a prosecution to be instituted, that
officer, actuated by the same fears as M. de Hoym, declined
to interfere, or even to order the suspected persons to be ap-
prehended, observing that it did concern the Tribunal of Cri-
minal justice, and that the law of the country did not permit
him to arrest any person who had not actually been convicted
of a crime!
His most Christian Majesty intended to have left Warsaw on
the 25th ult. but this scandalous affair and some other circum-
stances prevented it. Having informed the Prussian Command-
er of the day of the departure, his Majesty was told, " that it
would be more agreeable to his master, if the Count de Lille
(Louis XVIII.) would wait some days until farther instruct!-
ens could be obtained from Berlin." The King of France then
asked, if he had orders to prevent his departure, and demanded
to see them, adding, that if none were produced, his Majesty
was determined to quit that city immediately, and nothing but
open force should prevent him from doing so. A bow was the
only answer of the Prussian Commander, and Louis XVIII.
left Warsaw on the 30th of last month, at seven o'clock in the
morning, on his way to Grodno with the Due D'Angouleme.
M. de Hoym granted his Majesty an escort of Hussars, who
had strict orders not to quit his royal person until they had
committed him to the care of a similar escort of Russians, who
awaited his arrival on the frontiers. The Queen and the Duch-
ess D'Angouleme only remain at Warsaw until they receive
instructions from his Majesty to join him, or until that Provi-
dence, which gave him a throne, but refuses him a home, put*
« itef
LOUIS XVIII. *5
practice of secret poison and clandestine assassina-
tion. .*
A long proces verbal of the whole plot is in
the hands of the Bourbon Princes in this country,
from which the particulars in the note are ait
abridgement. It is signed by the Archbishop o?
Rheims, the Duke de Pienne, the Duke d'Havre
de Croy, the Marquis de Bonnay, the Comte
de la Chapelle, the Comte de Damas Crux, the
Comte Etienne de Damas, and the Abbe Edge \
worth de Fermont.
a stop to his wanderings, by touching the hearts of other legi-
timate Sovereigns, his equal*, to allow him a place to reside
in with safety. It is said, that his most Christian Majesty lias
Tecently been offered an asylum at Calmar, in Sweden. It is
worthy the virtuous and spirited Gustavus Adolphus IV. to
set other princes an example of honour and hospitality, and to
defy the threats and despise the hatred of the infamous Corsi-
can Adventurer, who has usurped the throne of the Bourbons ;
the sworn enemy of all hereditary rank, the blasphemer of
all true religion, and the perverter and destroyer of all moral-
*HE
td REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
THE ROYALIST GENERAL,
GEORGE CADOUDAL,
POXOURED BY BUONAPARTE WITH THE 1'ITLB
OF CHIEF OF BRIGANDS.
In a Revolution where so many noblemen
have debased their rank, and so many clergymen
dishonoured their order — where a Duke de la
Rochefbucault, and a Marquis de la Fayette, have
been the treacherous tools or accomplices of a
rebellious mob — and a Cardinal de i.i.cnne, and
a Bishop Talleyrand de Perigord, avowed them-
selves apostates to their God, and traitors to their
King — it is sonic consolation to suflft .ng loyalty,
to find, in a class that had neithei privileges to
defend, nor places to regret, men voluntarily come
forward, to combat for a throne when fallen,,
which they had never approached when firm — and
for altars in ruins, of which they might have
shared the spoils.
CadoudaPs father was a wealthy miller in Mor-
bihan, where George was born upon the 18th of
May, J 770. Intended by his parents for the
church, he received a better education than most
young
CADOUDAL. 8f
young men of his rank. He had scarcely left the
college, before the revolution broke out. At hi*
entrance into the world from his studious retreat,
he saw nothing but crimes, and heard nothing
inculcated but principles as abominable as contra-
ry to those in which he had been brought up. —
His virtuous mind did not know whom most to
despise, those who undermined monarchy, or
those who calumniated religion — the rebels or the
atheists. He had not long to meditate upon this
painful subject, before the demolition of that
temple in which his infant prayers had been ad-
dressed to the Almighty, and the sale of that
college wherein his youth had been instructed,
determined him never to associate with men as
vile as wicked, as selfish as sacrilegious, who,
under the name of patriots, libelled patriotism,
and, as pretended friends to libertv, organized
the worst of tyranny, the tyranny of the rab-
ble.
The year 1793 added to the wounded feelings
of the loyal and religious subject, those of the
outrageously injured individual. The murder of
his parents, of his brother, and two sisters, fol-
lowed within six months the murder of his King.
Hitherto he had hesitated between emigration
and misery that awaited him abroad, and the dan-
cers
68 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
gers or death that threatened him if he remained
at home. But the blood that flowed in his veins,
the scaffold had mingled with that of his Sove-
reign, and both called loudly for revenge. His
countrymen of La Vendee and Morbihan were in
arms, and he would have been a despicable
coward had he not joined them. He now not
only hated the sanguinary republicans as regi-
cides, but abhorred and determined to annihilate
them as patricides, parricides, and fratricides.
He was besides proscribed by them as a fanatic ;
that is, as a christian faithful to the religion of
his forefathers, the sole and same crimes for
which his parents and relations had perished.
After the battle before Thours, on the 25th of
September, 1793, where 5000 loyalists under
Lescure defeated 20,000 republicans, George
was made an officer. In civil wars, talents soon
make their way, obtain rapid advancement, and
at length silence even envy. While his valour
and activity made him esteemed by his superiors,
his intelligence *nd popular manners gained him
the confidence and friendship of his inferiors.
Having distinguished himself on all occasions
during 1794 and 1795, he was, in 1796, with
general approbation, promoted to the command
of the division of Royalist-Chouans in Morbihan.
But
CADOUDAL. hg
But after treason nad delivered Charette and
Stofflet over to the- republican executioners,
George was obliged to disband his weakened
army, and to wait for another opportunity to
avenge his country, his king, and his family.
This opportunity presented itself in 1799* when
he assembled a greater number of troops than
any other chief, and had almost daily engage-
ments with the republicans, whom he often
routed, and from whom he never experienced
any loss that could be called a defeat. In
December 1799 he commanded the expedition
on the borders of the river Vilaine, where a con-
siderable quantity of arms and ammunition had
been debarked from England, which he carried
away, though • surrounded every where by ene-
mies three times more uumerous than his own
men. Before the usurpation of Buonaparte,
George was on the eve of beins proclaimed a
generalissimo, a place vacant since the death of
Charette. According to the advice of the guilty
intriguers Talleyrand and Fouche, the First Con-
sul adopted with the rovalists, a conduct dif-
ferent from that of the Directory. By hvpocri-
tical promises and liberal bribes, he divided and
seduced men whom his revolutionary predeces-
sors had been unable to conquer. He promi-
1 sed
©o REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
sed royalty to some, places to others, and
money to them all. Every royalist chief who
signed a peace obtained 300,000 livres, or
12,5001. sterling. When, therefore, George,
on the 25th and 26th of January, 1800, .glo-
riously fought the republicans at Grandchamp
and Delven, all other royalist chiefs, with the*
single exception of Frotte, had disbanded their
troops and delivered up their arms. But ob-
serving the intrigues of the republican emis-
saries among his men, who, by their desertion,
proved that they were not so incorruptible as
their commanders, he deferred his vengeance
without changing his loyalty. Having heard
that General Brune intended, on the 9th of
February, to reconnoitre the country, he ad-
vanced to the village of Theix, attended only by
three royalists, one of whom he sent to announce
to the General that he desired to speak with
him. After a conference of an hour, in the
open air, at the corner of a hedge, every thing
was terminated, George agreed to dismiss his
troops, and General Brune pledged himself, in
the name of the Republican Government, f( that
they should not be punished for having been in
arms; that they and their countrymen should be
exempted from military conscriptions for ten
years>
CADOUDAL. 91
years, and indemnified for the losses which they
had suffered from the devastation of their country
by the republicans during the civil troubles/'
Neither of these conditions has been kept; all
have been disregarded or violated. George be-
came, therefore, the irreconcileable foe, not of
Buonaparte, but of an usurper, who, by his ty-
rannical breach of faith, had caused his own to
be suspected by his adherents, now suffering vic-
tims from the perfidy of the Consular Govern-
ment.
After the pacification George went to Paris,
and was presented to Buonaparte, who offered
him a commission as a General of Division ia
the army of reserve then collecting near Dijon.
He declined, however, this republican rank, as
he formerly had refused republican money. As,
with the First Consul, every man who refused to
be his slave is regarded as a traitor, orders were
issued for arresting George j who escaped death
only by flight, and was convinced that his life
would never be- safe in his country as long as a
foreigner was its tyrant. He determined, there-
fore, to dethrone a monster who employed the
laws themselves to murder innocence ; who had
no claim to kingly supremacy in France, where
nature had, by his birth-right, made George a
1 citizen i
9* REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
citizen *, and who had done nothing to forfeit
this right j whilst, in more moral times, the
whole universe would, for his enormous crimes,
have proscribed Buonaparte as an infamous out-
law, the opprobrium of humankind.
Buonaparte accuses George with an intent to
assassinate him; but as long as no other evi-
dence than the dictum of the First Consul is
.produced, justice and generosity demand of us
not to condemn as an assassin, a man who was
never suspected of any crime, upon the mere as-
sertion of another man, whose atrocious guilt is
known and proverbial in Europe and America,
as well as in Asia and Africa, who has been unde-
niably a murderer and drowner in France and in
Italy, and a convicted poisoner and murderer in
Syria and in Egypt.
When the incalculable difficulties are consider-
ed that a royalist commander in France h£
to encounter, from want of union, of patriot-
ism, of discipline, of arms, of clothing, of
money, &c. and the dangers to which he is ex-
posed, more from the treachery of weak or
faithless friends, than from the bayonets of
powerful enemies in possession of an autho-
rity, governing, or rather oppressing, fifteen-
sixteenths of the inhabitants ,- every candid mind
must
CADOUDAL. 9S
ftiust acknowledge that to dare to oppose such
means requires not only firmness of character,
courage, capacity, and vigilance, but the noble
sacrifice of one's self, which makes the country
and the cause the first, and existence only a se-
condary object.
For his humanity and generosity, added to
his abilities, George was become the most popu-
lar royalist chief in France j and how much he
was dreaded by Buonaparte, the correspondence
with the British Government, through Lord
Whitworth, Otto, and Andreossey, will evince.
This feeble sketch is intended to make a Bri-
tish Public better acquainted with a man, so
basely calumniated abroad, and so imperfectly
known in England ; whose sufferings from the
Revolution are only surpassed by his constancy
in supporting them, and by that magnanimity,
with which, to serve his King, he resigned quiet
and ease in this country, to face proscription and
to meet death in France.* Had George existed
in the ages of the crusades, he would have been
revered
* The reward which every loyal man has to expect in these
scandalous times of selfishness and baseness, George has ob-
tained. He has bled on the same scaffold, among the same
depraved people, in the same degraded city, where the Royal
Martyr Louis XVI, eleven years before exchanged his tempo-
ral
9* REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
revered as a saint; and had he been born in those
of chivalry, crowned as a hero*! ! !
* Le Dictionnaire Biographique, art. George, et la Cham-
pagne des Chouans, en 1799 et i8co, par un Chouan, pag*
* 6 et 37 ' __
THE VENDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR:
A SKETCH.
The Vendean war has been traced to a varie-
ty of causes ; but loyalty and religion may justly
be considered as the chief. Distant from Paris,
the focus of corruption, insurrection, and athe-
ism,
ral for an eternal crown. As the !ast moments of a good, loyal,
and religious man, are not only consoling to the virtuous, but
may be edifying even to the wicked; and while encouraging
persons labouring under unmerited misfortunes to support
their misery, may inspire even fortunate criminals with repent-
ance of their guilt ; the following particulars of the conclusion
of George's short but honourable career, cannot be misplaced
in a work, having equally for its object, to publish the noble
actions of dutiful subjects and faithful Christians, and to hold
out to detestation the infamy of rebels, the atrocities of regi-
cides, and the blasphemy of infidels. What the Author relates,
lie has from loyal friends, eye-witnesses of what they have
reported.
" Both in the prison of Bicetre (which George has ennobled 1,
and in the Conckrgerle, Buonaparte ottered this royalist general
his pardon ; hut upon such terms, that neither his loyalty,
his honour, nor his religion, could permit him to accept. The
Corsican usurper not only wanted to make him a slave, but a»
informer. The only answer that he gave to the police director,
the infamous Real, in consequence of these insulting oilers, was,
" France has been enough inundated with the blood of inno-
cence } were I fond of a life, almost unsupportable when Buo-
naparte
VENDEAN AND DHOUAN WAR. 95.
rsm, among the first classes of the inhabitants in
La Vendee was found morality ; and among the
lower
naparte prospers and Louis XVIII. suffers, I would not pro-
log it, by mentioning the name of a single individual ©f my
former loyal companions in arms j even were he from treache-
ry or weakness become my denouncer, or from rivalry or envy
my foe." George's death-warrant was, therefore, si^n>:d, and
ordered to be executed on the 25th of June 1804. On his way
to the place of execution, in passing the Chatelet, some per-
sons exclaimed, " Pan George !" and others applauded him ;
but Buonaparte's poUce agents arrested them immediately.
George bowed respectfully to seve-al ladies on the Quay, who,
from the windows of different houses, saluted him with their
handkerchiefs, and with tears in their eyes, shewed that they
felt for his destiny, and admired his loyalty and constancy.
Upon the scaffold, he desired to address the people, but like
the unfortunate Loois XVI.) he was not permitted. Gen.
Jlurat, the governor of Paris, who was present, demanded
what he had to say ? His answer was — " that be desired it to be
knoivH to bit cou> ymen c-'i'i-y.rarics, aid tt posterity, that
*e died as be bad lived, '.. jtd t: bis King ; and,
as a true Chr.sc. ever, his murderer, Buonaparte,
whose repentance and conversion he sincerely prayed for, and
that he might, in his last moments, meet death with equal
tranquillity, consolation, and hope."
Buonaparte had ordered that George should be executed the
last ; but a rumour had reached his fellow-sufferers, that ha
would be pardoned on the scaffold. To set them an example
how Ioyil men should die, he requested of Murar, as a favour,
to be beheaded first. This was consented to. Before the ex-
ecutioner tied his hands, he embraced his confessor, and look-
ing at his fellow-sutferers, with a countenance expresshe of
Ktion, he said, " Courage, Comrades ! What is the -rth-
ly throne of the usurper, to the hcavei.ly blessings awaiting
us ! ! ! " Before laying down his head under the fatal axe, he
lifted
96 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCft.
lower orders, a sincere belief in the faith of their
forefathers. The Revolution insulted the sen-
timents of the former ; and the constitutional de-
cree of the National assembly, concerning the in-
novations in the statutes of the Roman Catho-
lic Church, disturbed the timorous consciences
of the latter, all the materials for an insurrec-
tion, therefore, were collected from the very be-
ginning of the French rebellion; it was not,
however, until the enacting of the impolitic and
scandalous laws relative to the Clergy, and the
arrest, imprisonment, trial, and murder of the
King, that they burst into a flame.
The first chief of the Vendeans was a priest of
the name of Catineau ; who, having put himself
at the head of the malcontents of Lower Poitou,
seized upon Beaupreau on the 10th of May,
1793, and immediately displayed the standard of
royalty from the steeple of that edifice, in which
he had so lately officiated as a clergyman. But
lifted up his eyes towards heaven, and exclaimed loudly,
** Vive k Roi ! vivant let Bourbons!!!"
The scaffold had been placed nearly opposite the grocer's
house, in Place de Greve, which became dreadfully notorious on
the 14th of July, 1789, from the lamp-post at if, corner, where
the rebels of that period, under the command of the then king
of faction, La Fayette, murdered so many dutiful and good sub-
jects. Eleven other royalists perished with George, and met
<leath with equal firmness, resignation, and devotion. Theif
last words were — " Vive h Roi, Louis XVIII,!!!'*
3 the
VEXDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR. 97
the fortune of the war was not to be entrusted
to hands consecrated to the chalice : he was,
therefore, placed under the superintendance of
Duhoun, d'Hauterive, and d'Elbee, who labour-
ed to give a svstematic direction to the efforts of
an undisciplined multitude; and no sooner had
the army of the royalists been organised, than
Catineau voluntarily resigned the command to
the Marquis de Beauchamp, a young nobleman of
Angers, who had been an officer in the regiment
of Aquitainc.
Armed only with pitch-forks, staves, and im-
plements of husbandry, their success was at first
astonishing. The ablest republican generals were
routed, and the most numerous republican armies
dispersed. In four months time, therefore, the
royalists had 50,000 men armed with republi-
can fusils and bayonets, and a complete park
of artillery, composed of captured republican
cannons. No longer content with petty expe-
ditions, or predatory excursions during the night,
the Catholic and Royal army, as it was now
called, prepared for greater achievements; and
after a signal victory on the 29th of May, actu-
ally took possession of Fontenay Le Peuple, the
chief town in the department.
The National Convention, deceived by false
vol. in. p reports,
98 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
reports, treated them at first as a handful of
brigands ; but repeated intelligence of their pro-
gress soon altered that rash opinion. From
the taking of Fontenay, the Vendean war began
to exhibit a degree of consistency highly inau-
spicious to the stability of the Republic. A so-
vereign council, consisting of -generals, priests,
and civilians, assembled at Chatillon, and not
only directed the operations of the army, but
concentrated all authority within itself. Ber-
nard de Marigny, nephew to the admiral of
the same name, presided at this board; and
Lescure, Stofflet, d'Elbee, Fleuriot, Beauchamp,
and others, assisted with their presence, influ-
ence, and advice. By these, the ancient laws
were substituted in the place of the new code;
all acts of authority were proclaimed in the
name of Louis XVII., and an assignat was
not permitted to have currency, unless sanc-
tioned by their signature.
Enthusiastic defenders of the altar and the
throne, the royal soldiers encountered toils,
difficulties, and death, with an heroic constancy.
As disinterested and brave as they were pious
and loyal, they were never anxious about mo-
ney, but satisfied with the rations of provisions
distributed among them. The exclusive es-
tablishment
VENDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR. 99
tablishment of the Christian religion, and the
plenary restoration of Royalty, were the avowed
objects sought by them all. Unfortunate';/,
however, the leaders differed about the means;
and some of them, actuated by personal ambition,
aspired to supreme command, to the entire
exclusion of their colleagues. Talmont and
d'Autichamp imagined that their birth entitled
them to superiority ; Charette piqued himself
upon his military talents, and the number of
his followers; but d'Elbee, who united the
lustre of birth with acknowledged abilities, was
elected generalissimo. In consequence of this
difference among the chiefs, two distinct bodies
of troops were now formed : the Catholic and
Royal Army of Anjou and Upper Poitou, led by
d'Elbee ; and the Army of the Throne and the
Altar, by some called the Army of Jesus, ia
Lower Poitou, under the direction of Charette.
A consummate general, the former of these al-
ways fought in a manner conformable to the
nature of the country and the genius of the
people : the latter wa» brave, enterprising, ac-
tive, and full of stratagems, but more ambi-
tious, and less informed than his rival.
The first defeat which the royalists met with,
was in their attack on Nantes, on the 29th of
f 2 June.
100 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
June. The cause of this miscarriage originated
partly in disputes among the leaders, and partly
in the folly of permitting the peasantry to re-
main in great towns. The royalist peasants in
Saumer found a Capua, but they soon took their
revenge. The republican general, Biron, had
been .called from the army of Italy, to head the
war against the insurgents of La Vendee. Seek-
ing to signal. ze himself by rapid conquests, he
surprized the chateau de Lescure, one of the
royalist captains, at Parthenay ; he then cap-
tured the town of Amaillon, which he permitted
his troops to plunder, and reduced that and the
chateau '. de Lescure to ashes. Westerman, the
second in command under Biron, made similar
ravages at Bressuire, and burnt the chateau of
La Roche Jaquclin, another chief of the insur-
gents ; promising to capture the towns of Cha-
tillon and Chollct, and finally to exterminate
the royalists. He succeeded indeed in taking
Chatillon, but was surrounded by the royalists,
his infantry cut to pieces, his artillery taken,
and himself escaped with great difficulty, at-
tended by his cavalry. The republican com-
manders now meditated a general attack on the
rovalists, entered La Vendee by the brjdge of
C& s and encamped at MartignS Briand. Here
thev
VLNDLAX AND CHOUAN WAR. lol
were attacked by 40,000 men, "whom thev
at first repulsed, but who afterwards forced ; them
to begin a retreat towards Montaigu. In this
retreat thev were constantly harassed by h
parties; and, when fatigued with three davs
marches, on the ISth of Julv, attacked bv 5(),00O
royalists, who routed and drove them in t
order across the country in every direction. So
great was the panic, that even arms, knapsacks,
and accoutrements, were thrown awav, as impedi-
ments to speed. Some fled into almost all the
neighbouring towns, and some even to Paris.
Such had been the slaughter, or such was yet the
terror, that when, three days after the engage-
ment, the republican generals at Chinon
tempted to make a muster, they* could only find
4000 men, the wretched remnants of 62,000.
The affairs of the royalists were now in thei
highest state of prosperity : their chiefs issued
a wise and moderate proclamation, in the name
of Louis XVII. ; many emigrants quitted tl e
frontiers of Holland and Germany to join the
riders of the altar and the throne; and
many more were waiting to join them at Jersey
and Guernsey. Their partisans grew dailv more
numerous, and encouraged the most sanguine
hopes of ultimate success. Thus, the. insunec-
f 3 tion
1 02 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
tion in La Vendee began in it* first year to as-
same the shape and consistency of a formida-
ble rebellion. From May to August ten gene-
ral actions, and more than sixty skirmishes, the
death of 100,000 royalists, and even the plun-
der, burning, and devastation of the country,
did not enable the regicide Convention to quell
a sedition originating in the loyalty of the inha-
bitants, by whose hands upwards of 200,000 re-
publicans had perished.
Unfortunately, the royalist chiefs, who, if at
this glorious period united, might perhaps have
decided the fate of France, were once more di-
vided by their personal jealousies, and contended
tor superiority with a pertinacity little to be ex-
pected from noblemen, the thread of whose lives
was in hourly danger of being cut, either by the
sabre or the guillotine; and who after every
unsuccessful battle, were hunted down like so
many wild beasts. The Prince de Talmont,
who possessed large estates on the right bank of
the Loire, and had achieved some brilliant ex-
ploits, after crossing that river, still aspired to
the supreme command, although d'F.lbee had
released him from a dungeon in Angers. Le-
scure> who was rescued by Stofflet from a similar
confinement in the prison of Bressuire, and had
lately
VENDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR. 103
lately displayed equal bravery and conduct oil
the 95th of September in the action before
Thouars (where he had routed an army of vete-
rans four times superior), was also a candidate for
the same dangerous pre-eminence. Another ap-
peared in Chevalier d'Autichamp, who from the
beginning of the contest had urged the necessity
of crossing the Loire, and either marching
straight to Paris, or securing a sea- port, in order
to keep up a communication with foreign powers.
The fourth was Charette, originally a lieutenant
of the King's navy, and famous in consequence
of his successes against the republican general
Beysser, as well as by the desperate valour, ra-
ther than the professional knowledge, displayed
by him upon all occasions.
At this period the King of Prussia, having laid
siege to Mentz, forced the Garrison to surrender ;
but by an impolitic capitulation, permitted the
French troops to serve against the royalists in
La Vendee: and it is to these very troops that
the republicans are indebted for their principal
advantages in that country. They turned the
fortune of the day in the famous battle of the
16th of October. The republican general, Le-
chelle, originally a fencing-master at Saintes,
and, but little acquainted with the military art,
f 4 disji )scd
104 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
disposed his troops in an injudicious position
under the walls of Chollet, when d'EIbce,
Beauchamp, Lescure, Stofflet, and several other
royalist chiefs, at the head of 50,000 men, made
a dreadful onset, and for two hours appeared to
have gained the victory. The republicans, how-
ever, after mortally wounding d'Elbee, Beau-
champ and Lescure, and routing their adversaries,
remained masters of the field of battle. To the
disappearance of these royalist chiefs, the defeat
is in some measure to be attributed; but more
to the steady valour of the troops from Mentz.
At this epoch, atrocious measures of barbarous
severity, and such as neither justice nor policy
can sanction, were recurred to by the regicide
National Convention. Fire as well as the sword
was now to be carried into the recesses of La
Vendee. The royalists, honoured by the regi-
cides with the appellation of banditti, were to be
pursued to their most secret retreats. The vil-
lages, which afforded them occasional shelter,
were doomed to be destroyed, the granaries
to be burnt, the windmills and ovens to be
thrown down, the cattle and crops to be seized ;
all suspected persons, tnen, woman, or children, to
be shot or guillotined, and the peaceable part of
the inhabitants to be removed. That neither
the
VENDLAN AND CHOUAN WAR. 105
the principles nor tenderness of the representa-
tives of the people, nor of the republican gene-
rals, prevented them from carrying into execu-
tion these execrable decrees of the Convention,
the following may evince. General Turreau,
on commencing an expedition against the Ven-
deans, addressed his soldiers as follows : u We
are about to enter the country of the insurgents ;
you are to hum every thing, a?ul to bayonet all the
inhalitants. There may be, indeed, some few
patriots among them ; but, notwithstanding that,
the whole must he sacrificed." The representative
Francastle assisted the representative Carrier, in
the massacre of priests and of Yendean women
and children at Nantes. On one day he issued
an order to bind 6l of the clergv of Nievre to-
gether ; and on another, 1500 Vendean women
and 1S00 Vendean child r en, and saw them
drowned in his presence, by means of vessels
sunk for that purpose ; and when the victim*
forced their hands through the rotten planks of
- vessels and prayed for mercy, he ordered
his assistants, the French republican officers and
soldiers, to cut off their hands, and he was
obeyed. In his directions to General Grignon,
.ys : '•' You must make the robbers tremble,
acd give them no quarter. Our prisons are
f 5 crowded
106 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
crowded — What! prisoners in La Vendee! — It
is necessary to burn all the lone houses, the
mills, and above all, the castles; in shorty to
transform the whole country into a desert — neither
mildness nor clemency — such are the intentions
of the Convention." — He forbade the revolu-
tionary committees to take down the names of
the victims that he sent to perish ; they were
particularly to leave out those of women and
children, that their husbands or parents might
in vain look for them for years, and add the
torments of incertitude to their other sufferings.
In the valley of St. Game, he ordered to be shot
a corps of 1200 Vendeans who had capitulated
to General Moulins on the condition of having
their lives saved. The representative of the peo-
ple, Carrier, if possible, surpassed in cruelty all'
his accomplices. He called the guillotine " un
jeu mesquin," where 25,000 heads' were to be cut
off only. He therefore invented, with another
representative, Fouche*, what he called the re-
publican marriages ; that is to say, men and wo-
men by hundreds were tied naked together, and
'thrown into the river Loire and drowned. " He
amused himself for hours in disposing of the
' proscribed
* This is the same regicide whose life, as Minister of Police,
is given in the first volume. He is a Grand officer of Buo-
naparte's legion of Honour.
VENDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR. 107
proscribed Vendeans," as he wrote, " in a man-
ner the most laughable. Boys of twelve were tied
with women of seventy, and girls of eleven with
old men of eighty, Sec." At the jacobin so-
ciety at Nantes he said, " People, take your
clubs, and crush the rich ! take your swords,
and exterminate the merchants ! you are in
rags ; and affluence is by your side, and by the
side of the river ! But if the people want ener-
gy, I swear that heads shall never cease to tum-
ble on the national scaffold ! were I even to make
of all France a church-yard, I must regenerate her
in my own manner." Prudhomme, in his history
of Crimes, Vial, in his history of La Vendee, and
many other French republican authors, have
mentioned these and other abominations. Bres-
suire, Floutiere, La Chatelgueraye, PouzangeSj
Bon-Pere, Meilleray, and one hundred other
communes, were burnt to ashes, and the inha-
bitants of both sexes and of every age cut to
pieces. In a work* printed in London, and
written by a general who commanded the repub-
lican troops in La Vendee, is the following re-
mark : " In October 1793, after the decrees of
the National Convention, the whole of La Ven-
dee was burnt; even the patriotic communes
f 6 were
• Sec L« Brigands Demasques, par Danican, a well- writ-
ten and loyal work, page 81 and 82, note.
108 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
were not spared. Each republican column car-
ried before it fire and sword, with which were
destroyed all, without distinction of age or sex.
An immense population, that fled before the
republicans to escape the flames, joined the
Catholic army in the passage of the Loire at
St. Florent, and wa9 surrounded. Imagine you !
people of feelings ! upwards of 100,000 French-
men, women, old men and children, seeing burn-
ino- sixty miles round, their cottages and their
houses, and having only some few moments to
escape a certain death ! Well, what our generals
and our august representatives never have the
honesty to acknowledge, is a fact, that the Ven-
deans, about to leave their devastated country for
ever, gave liberty and life to 5 or 6000 repub-
lican soldiers, prisoners during four months in
the Abbey St. Florent. It was to the humanity
of the royalist general Beauchamp, who died the
next day of his wounds, and to the solicitations
of his wife, that the republicans are indebted for
their preservation. What is singular, every body
with me knows this as well as myself; but no-
bodv has the courage to publish this trait of
humanity, which is sublime."
" If," continues the same author, " the Ca-
tholic Army had any design to make reprisals,
it
VENDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR. log
it might have set iire to the country from Ya-
rades to Granville. It might have burnt Laval,
where it remained eleven days, undisturbed by
the republicans. " Who dares be impudent
enough to deny these facts ? — This frank avowal
of a republican general evinces, that courage,
generosity, humanity, and loyalty, were united
in the rovalists' councils as well as in their
camps; while temerity, ferocity, and wicked-
ness, dictated the decrees of the republican rulers,
and the transactions of the republican armies.
These horrors commanded by the National
Convention, instead of terminating the insur-
rection of La Vendee, extended it to the neigh-
bouring provinces. After the army under Prince
Talmont and d'Autichamp passed the Loire,
loyal men every where flocked to the standard of
royalty, and increased their number to 50,000
men ; but they were in want of arms, ammu-
nition, and provisions. That they might ob-
tain succours from England, Prince Talmont
pushed forwards to gain a position on the coast;
in prosecution of which plan he captured May-
ence, and afterwards Dol, with an intention to
proceed to St. Malo. While waiting the ex-
pected supplies, the royalists made an unsuccess-
ful attack on Granville; but being threatened on
all
110 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
all sides by the republicans, and in danger of
being surrounded, while they obtained no intel-
ligence of the expected aids, they again de-
camped for the interior, hoping to find relief,
and a rallying point, from which they might
issue under more favourable auspices. Their
disappointment was not occasioned by any ne-
glect of the British Ministry ; on the contrary,
everv exertion was made to afford them suc-
cour; and the valiant Earl of Moira, amply pro-
vided to supply their wants, arrived on the coast
eight days after their departure. He repeated
his signals, and renewed all efforts in vain, and
was, after near a month's expectation of their join-
ing him, obliged to return to the British coasts*.
Meanwhile, the royalists pressed by necessi-
ties, arftl suffering hardships of every description,
consumed their forces in attacking great towns.
They were repulsed with loss at Angers, but suc-
ceeded at La Fleche, which they took by surprize.
At Mons, however, their approach was anticipated:
there the republicans defeated and put to hope-
less and irreparable rout their whole army ; no
quarter was given ; and the massacre was com-
puted at 18,000 men, 5000 women, and 7000
children.
* Sec Lord Moira's Narrative of the transaction, and the de-
bate* of the British House of Lords, 14th of February, 1794*
VENDEAN AND CHOUAX WAR. 1 1 1
children. A remnant of the discomfited army-
endeavoured to regain the friendly territory of
La Vendee j but they were pursued by the re-
publicans under Kleber and Westerman, and,
after a conflict of two days, again defeated with
similar slaughter at Savenay.
At an early period in the year 1794, Charette
was expelled from the Isle of Noirmoutier, situa-
ted in the mouth of the Loire. In the mean
time the royalist general, La Roche Jaquelin,
Stofflet, and Bernard de Marigna, traversed the
insurgent districts, and endeavoured to collect
and re-organize the fugitives. They only waited
the return of spring, and the arrival of the am-
munition and warlike stores expected from Eng-
land, to attack the republican posts now esta-
blished in the centre of La Vendee en mas.se as
before ; while they employed themselves during
winter in a petty warfare against convoys, es-
corts, and patroles.
The wreck of the Grand Catholic and Royal
Army was now divided into three circles, in
consequence of the death of d'Llbee, and com-
manded by Stofflet, La Roche Jaquelin, and
Bernard de Marigni j while Charette, on whom
thirty successive defeats had hitherto made but
little impression, still maintained the honour of
Jus
112 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
his name, and roamed amid the woods at the
head of a body of brave and faithful followers.
During the spring of 17£H> several engage-
ments took place between the contending armies,
with various success, though the republicans, on
account of their number, were mostly victori-
ous. Charette, as usual, avoided a general en-
gagement, aud often eluded the efforts of the
barbarous republican General Turreau. At
length, being pursued and pressed on every
side, he was overtaken on the 26th of April,
1794, and defeated a body of republicans com-
manded by General Haxo, who on that day lost
his life. On the other hand, Stofflet, after
having twice overcome General Grignon, was
twice beaten by the latter ; while Charette,
whether victorious or vanquished, still nobly
cherishing the same inveterate hatred to the re-
publicans, was foiled at Chalons, and retired
again with his usual good fortune, into the
strong woody country denominated the Borage ;
and the republican General Dusirat was, about
the same time, worsted by Stofflet and Marigni
near Mont-Glone. Thus, notwithstanding La-
Vendce was attacked on all sides, the flame of
insurrection still remained unquenched, and the
combustibles of civil war, being thus condensed
into
YENDEAN AND CIIOUAN WAR. i T3
into a focus, blazed out from time to time, as
demonstrate that persecution, injustice, and
cruelty, are unable to overcome the sentiments
of loyalty and religion. Although a girdle of
fire seemed now to consume the insurgent dis-
tricts, although the Vendeans were at this mo-
ment comined within a desolate circle, where
they perished by a series of the most cruel evils
that ever afflicted humanity ; the murderous steel
of the regicide republicans, an epidemical dis-
ease assuming the appearance of leprosy, and a
penury of subsistence that might be well termed
famine j yet with minds still unsubdued, and
arms unenervated Ly this combination of cala-
mities, they still breathed unceasing vengeance
.st their assassins and the - of their
King; and were ready to start even from the
bed of sickness to encounter a certain I
the call of honour and d
Alter the death of Robespierre, the National
Convention sent c . i conciliate the \
deans; those brave men, unconquered by the
arms of the republicans, were deluded into a
fatal pacification on the 24th of April, 1795;
and republican treachery affected what republi-
can scaffolds and bayonets had attempted in vain.
The bad faith of republican uegociators, is evi-
dent
114 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
dent from Charette's proclamation on the 26th
of June following, when he was again forced
to resort to arms. In this he asserted, and
his assertion was never refuted, " That the De-
puties of the Convention had inveigled the Ven-
deans into a negociation for peace, on the ex-
press condition, that Louis XVII. should be
SEATED ON THE THRONE OP HIS ANCESTORS."
He added, what is well known, " That to avoid
keeping their promises, the ill-fated son of their
unfortunate Monarch had been poisoned in a
base and cowardly manner, by that impious and
barbarous sect, which far from being destroyed,
still desolated the unfortunate kingdom."
By the late pacification the power and autho-
rity of the royalist chiefs had been shaken j and
their followers were neither so numerous, nor
so enthusiastic as before. They could, there-
fore, no longer collect and retain large armies,
make inroads into distant districts, or fight
pitched battles as before. While on the other
hand, the republican General Hoche, with a nu-
merous force, and backed by corruption, was
able to carry all his treacherous schemes into
execution j and the first Vendean insurrection
was at length drawing to a close. In February
1796* Stofflet, betrayed into the hands of the
8 republicans,
VENDLAN AND CHOUAN WAR. 1 15
republicans was murdered by them; and in the
next month Charette shared the same fate. On
the fall of their chiefs, the insurgent depart-
ments were obliged to submit to the iron rod of
republican tyranny. They were quieted, but
suffering; disarmed, but calling for vengeance ;
oppressed, but ready to fall upon their oppres-
sors.
When, in 1 799> the war was renewed on the
Continent, and the republican armies were
routed in Italy as well as in Germany, the cor-
don of republican troops which had always con-
tinued in the Western Departments, was re-
moved ; and the inhabitants again flew to arms.
Their former chiefs, d'Elbee, Talmont, Lescure,
Beauchamp, La Roche Jaquelin, Charette, and
Stofflet, had all perished, either in combating
their rebellious countrymen, or by their poison,
or the guillotine. D'Autichamp, George, and
Sapineau, were the only now remaining popular
leaders, but particularly George, whose valour,
honour, disinterestedness, and talents, made him
a worthy successor of d'Elbee. To them were
soon joined other distinguished military cha-
racters; as Frotte, Bourmont, Chatillon, and
Laprevallaye, who each commanded a different
corps of insurgents, better known since 179,5
by
116 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
by the appellation of Chouans, than of Ven-
deans or Royalists.
I'he origin of the name of Chouan is not cer-
tainly known, though most pretend that it came
from three brothers, Louis, Joseph, and Francis
Chouan, who, some say, armed in defence of
monarchy and religion; whilst others pretend,
that they at first headed only a gang of smug-
glers. The first body of Chouan troops heard
of, were those assembled in the winter of
1/oi between Laval and La Gravellc. In
the beginning thejr were not very numerous,
and therefore seldom left the forests of Pertre
and Guerche. Being reinforced by the disaf-
fected from the departments of Calvados, of La
Manche, of Brittany, and by the remnants of
Prince Talmont's army after the unfortunate
battles of Chollet and Savenav, they declared
themselves armed in the cause of Louis XVI I L ;
assumed more consistency, and extended their
forces, though continuing the same sort of petty
warfare, by cutting oil" detachments of republican
troops, surprizing their, camps, capturing their
convoys, and laying under contribution . repub-
lican treasuries wherever they could get at them ;
by stopping the mails, as well as by plundering
the republican receivers or other public function-
2 arics.
YEXDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR. lit
aries. The successive dispersion of the royalist
armies procured them a number of brave men :
particularly what they stood mest in need of,
able chiefs ; who, from principle attached to
royalty, gave them more lustre than before.
Among these was Count de Puisaye, formerly an
aid-de-camp to General Wimpfen, and who pos-
sessed some influence with them. After that
disastrous affair, the expedition to Quiberon, the
Chouans signed a peace with the Directory.
Some of them, however, continued separately to
attack, in small corps, the republicans, to way-
lav them, and to plunder their diligences, &c.
which conducted many of them to the scaffold.
In 1 7 99 j they rose to more notoriety and power
than before, chiefly owing to the vigorous and
wise councils of George, and the other leaders.
According to the reports of the republican gene-
rals, they then occupied almost the whole pro-
vince of Normandy, of La Main, Anjou, a great
part of Brittany and of La Tourain, and extended
themselves to several neighbouring provinces.
They were, however, far from occupying these
countries in a stable manner. Each chief had a
district where he recruited, and where he com-
manded those who joined him. This was called
his government, though it was covered with re-
publican
118 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
publican troops, and often the majority of the
inhabitants were against him. Dispersed jfcbout
the country concealed, and therefore often in-
visible, they attacked small parties of republi-
cans, but disappeared before any considerable
corps. It was not until the revolution effected
by Buonaparte in November 1799, and which
caused a momentary stagnation in the Govern-
ment, that they began to have fixed head-
quarters, and regularly to combat the republican
battalions. They were then said to amount to
upwards of 100,000 men ; but their numbers
were certainly exaggerated. The suspension of
arms which they soon afterwards concluded with
the republican commander, General Hedouville,
gave them yet more consistency. After several
conferences, Buonaparte judged that they only
intended to gain time by their negotiations, and
therefore ordered 50,000 fresh troops, under the
command of General Brune, to march against
them, and to attack them before the end of
January 1800.
On his arrival in Brittany, Brune learned that
all the insurgent departments on the left of the
river Loire had laid down their arms, in pursu-
ance of a treaty of peace signed at Montfaucon.
This event enabling him to concentrate his ope-
rations,
VENDEAN AND CHOUAN WAR. 119
rations, he began by publishing insidious procla-
mations to the people, and by sending emissaries
among the Chouan troops, who either bribed or
intimidated them to desertion. A few smart,
though not important skirmishes, enabled him
to subdue, in less than a month, all that appear-
ed formidable in the insurrection, and reduced
the Chouans to nothing more than a small set of
detached bodies. To this, for Buonaparte, for-
tunate event, the want of concert among some
of the chiefs greatly contributed ; and it was for-
warded in no inconsiderable degree bv his pru-
dent, though hypocritical, order for restoring
the churches to the communes, for the purpose
of performing divine service, and for celebrating
a pompous funeral ceremony in honour of the
Pope, Pius VI. who had been deposed, harassed,
and in effect, murdered, in consequence of a trea-
son planned, if not executed, by his ivorthy bro-
ther Joseph Buonaparte. Deserted by their
followers, the different chiefs concluded a peace
with the republic, and disbanded their troops.
George was the last who took this step, but not till
he was left with hardly any troops to command.
Such are some of the particulars of the Ven-
dean and Chouan war, which loyalty began, and
the treason of the republicans, and not their mi- %
litary
120 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
litary exploits, finished. The new disturbances
in the Western Departments during the winter
of 1803 evince, that if the revolutionary agents
are yet rapacious and cruel, and continue their
oppression and extortion, the spirit of the inha-
bitants is unbroken ; and that it requires but
little to re-kindle the civil war, notwithstanding
the organized military tyranny of Buonaparte.
GENERAL
( 121 >
GENERAL ALEX. BERTHIER,
buokaparte's minister of war.
Few of those rebels, who, in 1739, erected
;he standard of revolt, and belonged to the fac-
:ions of Orleans, of Mirabeau, or of La Fayette,
aave survived their offspring, the French Revolu-
tion ; or, if alive, occupy any places of conse-
quence, possess the consideration of their feilow-
:itizens, or the confidence of an usurper, whom
their absurd plans for an impracticable liberty,
dangerous plots for an imaginary equality, and
real crimes in favour of a destructive anarchy,
have dragged from a well-merited obscuritv, ele-
vated into unlimited power, and made a tyrant
over France under the specious appellation of a
First Consul of the French Republic Alexan-
der Berth ier and Talleyrand de Perigord are the
only exceptions. The former, as well as the lat-
ter, is Buonaparte's confidential minister, trusty
counsellor, and devoted friend, if a. slave can be
called the friend of his master.
vol. in. g Bora
122 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Born a gentleman, and destined from his youth
for a military career, Berthier received that bril-
liant education which fortune, guided by judg-
ment, can bestow, and early made a progress
which announced genius, seconded and improved
by diligence and assiduity. His father was Go-
vernor of the Hotel of the War Office, an im-
portant and profitable place under the monarchy.
By the favour of Louis XVI. he was, at the age
of eighteen, made joint Governor with his parent,
and soon after placed on the staff of the army sent
by an ill-advised French King to assist in Ame-
rica the revolted subjects of another King ; and
whose example was soon after imitated by his
own subjects, with effects most fatal to himself,
to his family, to his country, and to the universe.
It was in America that Berthier formed his
political connexions with La Fayette, with
Rochainbeau, with the La Meths, and with
other men, who, in the annals of the first three
years of the French Revolution, are noted for
their disloyalty as subjects, ingratitude as cour-
tiers, fanaticism as demagogues, and sophistry as
politicians; whose anti-social and innovating doc-
trine has done, and must do mankind more harm
than their progeny, the guillotine of Robespierre*
the fusillades of the Directory, and the bayonets
or
BERTHIER. 123
%r poison of Buonaparte. He served there in the
army under the elder Rochambeau with such dis-
tinction, that he returned to Europe with the rank
of a Colonel, and was made a Knight of the Or-
ders of St. Louis and Cincinnatus.
At the beginning of the Revolution, he em-
braced with ardour the principles of the demo-
cratical party j but conducted himself, notwith-
standing, with greater moderation than any of his
associates. When d'Estaing was chosen the
commander of the National Guard at Versailles,
Berthier was appointed his major-general, and,
as such, opposed the motions of some incen-
diaries among his men, who, on the 3d of Octo-
ber 17S9, proposed to force the King's Body
Guard to exchange their white cockades of loy-
alty for the tri-coloured ones of rebellion. On
the Qlh of September, 1790, he presented himself
at the head of a deputation of the same national
guard, at the bar of the National Assembly,
and demanded, " that in remembrance of the
late patriotic occurrences at Nancy in Lorraine,
a simple but majestic pyramid should be erected at
one of the gates of that city, with this inscription:
" Many citizens soldiers, and soldiers citizens,
perished here for their country in the second
month of the second year of French Libe-
Q 2 Dis^ufted
124 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Disgusted with the repeated insurrections^ con-
tinual cabals, and want of subordination among
the citizen soldiers of the national guard at Ver-
sailles, he resigned his place in June 179l,and
was succeeded in his command by Le Cointre, a
bankrupt linen-draper, and, of course, a flaming
patriot. In December of the same year, his
friend, Louis de Narbonne, then a minister of
the war department, nominated him adjutant-
general, and charged him to carry to Metz, and
present on the part of the King, the Field Mar-
shal Staffs to the Generals Luckner and Rocham-
beau. In 1792, when the Brissot faction, as the
only means to prevent or retard the npuishment
due to their treachery and conspiracy, deter-
mined upon an universal war, and forced the
unfortunate Louis XVI. to attack the House of
Austria, Berthier obtained the place of a chief
over the staff, in the army collecting under
Luckner ; but from the intrigues of contending
factions, and from the various changes of plans
of campaigns, of ministers, and of generals, he
had neither opportunity, nor, perhaps, inclina-
tion, to exhibit those talents which have since pro-
cured him so much admiration, and i.o which
Buonaparte is principally indebted for all his bril-
liant successes in Italy during 1796, 1797* and
1800.
BERTHIER. 1*4
1800. He was besides firmly attached to La
Favette, and an enemy of Dumourier and other
ambitions persons, who, at that period, plotted to
supplant his friend both in popularity and com-
mand, even at the expence of monarchy and of
sacrificing their prince. And when, after the
10th of August, La Fayette in a cowardly man-
ner deserted his army, and left a country which
his rebellion, vanity, and ignorance, had made
wretched, Berthier intended to join him ; but
was prevented by the vigilance of the spies who
surrounded him, and by the account of the well-
deserved reception that La Fayette had met with
from Austria and Prussia.
After the insurrection, in 1793, of the loyal in-
habitants of La Vendee, in arms to revenge the
murder of their King, to defend their altars, and
to re-establish the throne, Berthier was sent
thither to serve under Santerre and other sans-
culotte generals, as cruel as incapable. All well-
informed officers formerly in the King's ser-
vice were then regarded as enemies of the Re-
public ; and it was as dangerous for them to owe
to their abilities and courage any advantages, as
to suffer a repulse from not daring to employ
them. Berthier has more than once acknow-
ledged, that he now tried to fibd a death in the
OS
126* REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
field which he believed awaited him on the scaf-
fold, and therefore on many occasions fought as
a desperate adventurer who had a character to
gain, rather than as a general who had a reputa-
tion to lose. At the taking of Saumur he had
three horses killed under him ; and in every ac-
tion during this murderous campaign, he had
aids-de-camp shot by his side, horses under him,
and his clothes pierced with bullets ; but he was
never once wounded. The decree which pro-
scribed, as suspected, all noblemen and gentlemen
and their relatives, deprived him of his military
rank, and forced him to exchange the bustle of
camps for the melancholy indolence of a prison*
Though his name was upon the fatal list of vic-
tims for the guillotine, the death of Robespierre,
and his own prudence and moderation, saved him
from an exit, which Custine, Houchard, Dillon,
Westerman, Beauharnois, Biron, and so many
ojher generals, made.
His release from confinement, which soon fol-
lowed the interruption of the reign of terror, waa
accompanied by an offer from the committee of
Public Safety, of employment again in the ar-
mies of the Republic. Fatigue, ill-treatment,
and anxiety of mind, however, having impaired
a constitution strong by nature, he declined all
service,
3
BERTHIER. isf
service, until the ill successes of the campaign of
1795 in Germany made him think it his duty
to trv to repair the losses of his country, and to
prevent those laurels from withering, which Pi-
chegru with so much labour and honour had con-
quered and preserved. He accepted therefore,
in 1 796, the command as Chief of the Staff* in
the army of Italy, headed by Buonaparte, who,
when Beithier four years before occupied the
same station in the army under Field Marshal
Luckner, was only a sub-lieutenant of artillery.
It was the first step of Buonaparte's fortune, in
advancing the grandeur of her iil-chosen favou-
rite, to procure him the benefit of the long ex-
perience and superior talents of a general |
.ambitious than himself, and satisfied with the
second rank while he had a right to claim the
first.
The justice which In this sketch has -already
been done to Berthier, considered both as a gene.
ral and as a citizen, requires that before he is far-
ther delineated, some outlines should be exhibited
of a character so totally different, since connected,
or rather subjected to the artificial and ferocious
Buonaparte.
With capacity to plan the most extensive cr
intricate campaign— to execute with vigour $sd
G 4 judgment
128 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
judgment the plans of others — to command the
mosf numerous armies — to direct with order and
regularity their civil and economical as well as
military department and details, Berthier pos-
sesses a weak and contracted mind, guided or
imposed upon by the bombast or consequential
airs of any impertinent or audacious upstart,
whose sentiments he espouses, whose vices he
imitates, and whose crimes he executes with the
same deference, as if it belonged to military
subordination to obey the commands of a supe-
rior, even to the extent of infamy or villany,
plunder or murder. The moment he finds any
one to put above himself, he instantly forgets
his dignity, his duty as a man, his rank in so-
ciety, and sacrifices to the idol of his imagina-
tion his own superior understanding, renounces
all honourable notions, and lays aside all hu-
manity, all generosity. He becomes rapacious,
though despising wealth ; and cruel, with a heart
tender, or at least not unfeeling. An instru-
ment more useful, but at the same time more
dangerous, never was placed in the power of a
tyrant, and at the disposal of an usurper. To
this incomprehensible and contradictory pliable-
ness of character, with ability, may, without ex
iteration, be attributed the brilliant advantage ■
obtained
BERTHIER. 129
obtained by Buonaparte during the campaign of
1796, when he was unacquainted with the en-
semlle of the rapid but difficult movements of an
army, combating in a mountainous country, or
in places interspersed with numerous rivers ;
and therefore he was under the necessity of trust-
ing entirely to the advice and councils of Ber-
thier, who. not satisfied with regulating the im-
portant transactions and proceedings of the Staff,
often exposed himself bravely in the most de-
structive attacks, as a General heading his divi-
sion. On the 12th of May, 1796, after 4000
grenadiers had been completely swept away by
the grape shot of the Austrians, on. the bridge of
Lodi, Berthier encouraged the Generals Mas-
sena, Cervoni, and d'Allemagne, to start with
him from the ranks, and to invite the troops to
renew the attack: by his example he set them
instantly in motion, seized upon the artillery that
had so lately spread death, terror, and destruction
among them, and stopped their progress. At
the action of Rivoli, on the 14th of January,
1797} the courage and presence of mind of this
General changed the fortune of the day : in the
most critical moment, Berthier, making a charge
with the cavalry, obliged an enemy who thought
Q 5 himself
1.30 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
himself victorious to retreat with precipitation to
the heights of Cortona.
On all occasions he shewed the same activity,
the same powers, and was therefore called by
the soldiers the right hand of Buonaparte. It is,
however, not to be omitted, that these same sol-
diers accused him of sharing with Buonaparte
the extortions and pillage of vanquished foes,
and of partaking his commander's secrets in or-
dering those men who had been wounded in
vanquishing them, to be strangled in the hospi-
tals — drowned in the rivers— poisoned in their tents,
or buried alive in pits covered ivitk lime ! ! ! —
What success, what exploits can even palliate
such hitherto unheard of enormities !
When Buonaparte, after the treaty of Campo
Formio, resigned his command in Italy, Berthier
was nominated his successor. Joseph Buonaparte
was at that period the French republican emis-
sary at Rome, and by his plots prepared there a re-
volution which was to procure the French troops
the so long and ardently desired pretext to lay
waste another friendly country. The French
General Duphot, destined to command the rebels
in the papal dominions, was killed by mistake
in an unsuccessful insurrection, provoked by the
Jacobins
BERTHIER. 131
Jacobins in the pay of France, and protected by
France : orders were immediately issued by the
French Government for General Berthier to re-
volutionize Rome, and give up the country to
pillage ; and though his friends have attempted
to excuse his conduct on this occasion, as subjected
to, and the consequence of his instructions from,
General Buonaparte and the Director)-, it is,
will ever remain inexcusable.
A few days before his arrival with the French
army, the Pope deputed Prince Belmonte, the
Neapolitan minister, to learn from him his pre-
cise instructions ; and with a duplicity worthy,
of the Buonapartes themselves, he seized this op-
portunity to make his conquest more easy and
profitable. The only design of the Directory, he
said, was to apprehend those who were ac-
cessary to the death of Duphot — the Pope might
rest assured of the utmost security ; the existing
government, the Catholic religion, and all property,,
public as well as private, should be respected, and
he would not even enter the city. To impress
greater confidence, ne delivered these declara-
tions in writing, requiring at the same time
that the Pope should issue an edict to tran-
quillize the people and prevent bloodshed :
he repeated, that nothing should It removed from
<*6 . the
132 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the museums* the libraries, or the picture gal-
leries.
The commands of Berthier were observed
with punctuality ; but his promises were vio-
lated without scruple. His Holiness removed
no part of his property, nor took any measure
for his personal safety ; but published an edict,
exhorting all his people to tranquillity, and for-
bidding them even to talk on their affairs in
such a manner as to give offence to the French.
Berthier in the mean time advanced to Rome by
forced marches, summoned the castle of St. An-
gelo on the 10th of February, 1796, allowing
- only four hours for its evacuation by the Papal
troops : the convicts ivere set at liberty: ; the gates
of the city secured by the French ; and Pius VL,
all the Cardinals, and the whole people of Rome,
made prisoners at discretion.
On the 15th following, this republican Gene-
. ral made his triumphal entry into Rome ; and, a
iree of liberty being planted on the capitol, he
pronounced a puerile address to the shades of the
Catos, the Pompeys, the Ciceros, and the Hor-
tensii : u The descendants of the Gauls," said
he, " have come with the olive of peace, to re-
build the altars of liberty erected by the first
Brutus. And you, people of Rome ! who have
now
BERTH IER. 133
now recovered your ancient rights, recollect that
blood which flows in your veins ; survey all these
monuments of glory by which you are sur-
rounded, resume your pristine greatness, and
emulate the virtues of your ancestors." As the
means of acquiring these honourable distinctions,
they were to be indulged with a modern Gallic
reform : a proclamation was issued, declaring
them afree and independent republic, under the spe-
cial protection of the French army. The autho-
rity emanating from the Pope was suppressed,
and a provisional government, as established by
the sovereign people, was acknowledged.
The people, however, were so little elevated by
the promises of regeneration and glory, that even
Berthier's procession to the capital was languidly
attended, and few appearances of approbation or
applause were exhibited. None shouted but
some desperate and criminal jacobins, bribed to
the French interest. The tree of liberty, far from
being regarded with rapture, was scarcely observed
with moderate curiosity. But Berthier and his
followers cared little about popularity : as with all
other French republicans, when their interest or
some end which they had in view, did not lead
ihem to wish for it, the good opinion of the pre-
sent age was no more desirable than the favour-.
able
134 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
able judgment of posterity, which in all their
acts they seemed almost expressly to renounce.
The refinement in the art of deliberate barba-
rity and cruelty, which attended the deposition
and subsequent treatment of a virtuous Pontiff in
the eighty-second year of his age, was rendered
excessive by every species of wanton and unne-
cessary insult. The anniversary of his accession
to the sovereignty was studiously selected for an-
nouncing to him the termination of his authority.
Instead of his tiara, General Cervoni, a Sardinian
deserter, offered him a national cockade, and re-
publican soldiers replaced his Swiss guard. A pri-
soner in his own palace, which Berthier had
erected into barracks, he saw seals of confiscation
put oh all his effects, not excepting even the furni-
ture of his apartments. The property of his sub-
jects was no more spared than his own : they
were pillaged by demands of loans, of presents,
and of requisitions. The Vatican and Qivirinal
palaces were stripped of all their most costly and
valuable articles, of the most beautiful paintings,
and incomparable tapestry ; nothing escaped the
rapacity of the republicans, from the most pre-
cious furniture of the state chambers to the most
trifling utensil in the kitchen. All other palaces,
churches, chapels, convents, and villas, under-
went
BERTHIER. 136
went the same fate. Berthier also permitted the
new government to tax the possessors of money
with an unlimited authority. The acts of extor-
tion were finally practised to such a shocking
excess, that not only gold and silver, but even
copper was exhausted and exported.
This republican commander and his fellow-
citizens shewed, in all their proceedings, an un-
principled eagerness for plunder. On the 23d of
February a grand funeral was celebrated in ho-
nour of General Duphot ; and while the people
crowded the piazza of St. Peter, which was chosen
for the scene, parties of Frenchmen plundered
every church in the city of its plate, not even
excepting those belonging to the chapels of Spain
and the Emperor, then at peace with France.
As some compensation to the people for the loss
of liberty, religion, and property, Berthier confer-
red upon them a federation, a constitution, and
a jacobin club. The first was a mixture of osten-
tation, profaneness and pedantry ; the constitu-
tion, a mere repetition of the absurd, anarchical
and inefficient code of France; and the club
shewed a rapid proficiency in the principles of its
great parent at Paris. ' .
These were the last patriotic transactions of Ge-
neral Berthier at Rome, he being recalled to attend
Buonaparte
138 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Marengo, and had been defeated, when Desaix
sacrificed himself, and by his death made Buona-
parte immortal and France victorious.
Buonaparte not finding in Carnot the same
implicit submission, tacit obedience, and pliant
temper as in Berthier, dismissed the former in the
autumn of 1800, and restored to the latter his
place in the ministry, which he yet occupies,
though at the breaking out of hostilities with
England, a deficit of 60,000 men was discovered
in the army, which caused a momentary disgrace.
In the Nouvelles a la Main* it is said, that this
(under a military government) important place
is trusted by Berthier to his secretary Archam-
baud, who trusts to his clerk, Bernard, who is
governed by his mistress, Madame Lautiere ; who
gives to lovers, or sells to intriguers, rank, pro-
motions, and appointments due to merit and
service; the author, infers, therefore, that not
Berthier, but Madame Lautiere, is the war mi-
nister of the French Republic.
From what has been shewn of Berthier's
character, it cannot be called a hazardous, but
an impartial conclusion, to say, that had he
served under a Henry IV. he would have been
loyal; under a Gustavus Adolphus, religions; un-
der
* Lcs Nouvelles a la Main, Fructidoran xi. No. vli. page 9.
BERTHIER. 139
der a Conde, generous; under a Turenne, hu-
mane; under a Charles XII., temerarious ; under
a Marlborough, avaricious; under a Eugene,
vindictive; under a Frederick the Great, an
alfieist; under a Mareschal de Saxe, a libertine}
under Dumourier, an intriguer ; under Pichegru,
modest; under Moreau, ambitious, but amiable
and insinuating. He would have lutchered un-
der Marius ; proscribed under Sylla ; jfed under
Pompey, and pardoned under Caesar*.
GENERAL
* In writing this sketch the Author has consulted L«s Actes
des Apotres of 1790 et 1791 ; L'Ami du Roi of 1790, 1-91,
et 1792 ; Le Dictior.naire Biognphique, art. Berthier. Vial'j
History of La Vendue } Duppa's Brief Account of the Subrer.
sion of the Papal Government ; History of the Campaign in
1796. Histoire du Directoire Executif, and Berthier's Rela-
tion des Campa£nes du General Buonaparte en Egypte et co
Syrie.
138 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Marengo, and had been defeated, when Desaix
sacrificed himself, and by hi3 death made Buona-
parte immortal and France victorious.
Buonaparte not finding in Carnot the same
implicit submission, tacit obedience, and pliant
temper as in Berthier, dismissed the former in the
autumn of 1800, and restored to the latter his
place in the ministry, which he yet occupies,
though at the breaking out of hostilities with
England, a deficit of 60,000 men was discovered
in the army, which caused a momentary disgrace.
In the Nouvelles a la Main* it is said, that this
(under a military government) important place
is trusted by Berthier to his secretary Archam-
baud, who trusts to his clerk, Bernard, who is
governed by his mistress, Madame Lautiere ; who
gives to lovers, or sells to intriguers, rank, pro-
motions, and appointments due to merit and
service; the author, infers, therefore, that not
Berthier, but Madame Lautiere, is the war mi-
nister of the French Republic.
From what has been shewn of Berthier's
character, it cannot be called a hazardous, but
an impartial conclusion, to say, that had he
served under a Henry IV. he would have been
loyal; under a Gustavus Adolphus, religions', un-
der
* Les Nouvelles a la Main, Fructidoran xi. No. vii. page 9.
BERTHIER. 139
der a Conde, generous; under a Turenne, hu-
mane; under a Charles XII., temerarious; under
a Marlborough, avaricious; under a Eugene,
vindictive; under a Frederick the Great, art
eU/ieist; under a Mareschal de Saxe, a Ulertiney
under Dumourier, an intriguer ; under Pichegru,
modest; under Moreau, ambitious, but amialle
and insinuating. He would have lutchered un-
der Marius ; prose-riled under Sylla j fied uuder
Pompey, and pardoned under Cassar*.
GENERAL
* In writing this sketch the Author has consulted L«s Actes
des Apotres of 1-790 et 1791; L'Ami du Roi of 1790, 1-91,
et 1792 ; Le Dictior.naire R:ogr3phique, art. Berth ier. ViaPs
History of La Vendie ; Duppa's Brief Account of the Subrer-
sion of the Papal Government ; History of the Campaign in
1796. Hiitoire du Directoire Executif, and Berthier's Rela-
tion des Campagnes du General Buonaparte en Egypte et ca
Syrie.
140 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
GENERAL ABDALLAH MENOU,
boonapartb's governor-general in piedmont.
Eternal smiles his emptiness betray,
As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.
By the manner in which the Freemasons'
lodges have been conducted in France and Ger-
many, they have produced many recruits to the
French Revolution, and many admirers of its
anti-social and destructive principles. Of the
French lodges, the late Duke of Orleans was a
Grand Master, and Abdallah Menou, ci-devant
Jacques Bon. Baron de Menou, one of their most
fanatic members. In them were laid those plots
for subversion and anarchy, which brought Louis
XVI. to the scaffold, changed free subjects into
republican slaves, and seated a tyrannical First
Consul upon the throne of the most patriotic of
Kings. In them Mirabeau, Sieyes, Menou, and
others, laid the foundation for that Orleans fac-
tion which paved the way for succeeding fac-
tions,
8
MENOU. HI
tions, the Consular, as well as all others, and
murdered its chief, after having dishonoured,
plundered, and deserted him.
By the money and intrigues of the emissaries
of the Duke of Orleans, Menou was, in 1760,
chosen a member to the States General, for the
; nobility of the bailiwick of Touraine ; and he
rushed into the Revolution with an ardour which
would have been taken for patriotism, had he
[concealed his hatred to the court, and his con-
jnexion with its enemies. He was one of the first
imembers of the nobility who betrayed the trust
!of his electors, by sacrificing their privileges, and
joining the Commons, or Tiers Etat. After the
appellation of States General was laid aside for
that of a National Assembly, and the club of
the Bretons was incorporated with that of the Ja-
cobins, Menou figured in their different commit-
. principally in the Jacobin Committee of
Correspondence and of Propaganda, where he used
a seal with this motto ; E/memi des Cultes et des
Rois*, or enemy of the worship and of Kings.
Though neither by nature nor by education
destined for an orator, he often ascended the tri-
june of the Assembly. On the 12th of Novem-
ber, 1789, he there violently attacked the Parlia-
ment
* See Dictionaaire Biographique, page 7, torn, iii.
142 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
ment of Rouen; and on the 19th of the same
month pronounced a speech on the organization
of a national army ; and, to form citizen soldiers
and soldier citizens, he proposed " to settle a mili-
tary conscription, in which the names of all male
children should be registered, and they them-
selves obliged to serve their country as soldiers,
for a certain number of years/' By adopting
and improving this idea, the National Conven-
tion, the Directory, and the Consular Govern-
ment, have been enabled to bring into the field
those numerous armies which, while tyrannizing
France, oppress and enslave most other continen-
tal states. In January 1790, he was a member
of the Committee of Pensions, and assisted in
the publication of the Livre Rouge, containing
some truths and many falsehoods ; but which
had the desired effect, that of making the court
odious. Elected in March president of the Na-
tional Assembly, he proved himself one of the
ungenerous persecutors and calumniators of the
clergy, and was therefore nominated one of the
commissaries directing the disposal or sale of
the property of that order. In April he de-
claimed, with great indecency, against a deputa-
tion of the Parliament of Bourdcaux ; and on
the 25th of June made a motion, to suppress
all
-MENOU. US
all orders of knighthood, and to create, in their
place, one single national order. In August he
became a member of the Diplomatic Committee,
which, notwithstanding his incapacity, em bold-,
ened him to pretend to the place of an am-
bassador. But when Count de Montmorin, the
King's Minister for the Foreign Department,
refused him the appointment, he, in a speech of
two hours, attacked this minister, whom he ac-
cused of ignorance and aristocracy, and insisted
upon his dismission. This sortie, however, had
not the desired effect, because the orator, whose
disinterestedness and impartiality were known, was
often interrupted by the hisses of one part of the
National Assembly, and by the laughter of the
other part. When in 1 791, the King's aunts
went to Italy, provided with regular passes, they
were stopped on the frontiers, and not permitted
to continue their journey, until the determination
of the National Assembly was known. Menou,
on this occasion, in a speech of considerable
length, used such vulgar, blunt, and coarse lan-
guage, that he was called to order, even by the
democratical and republican members. He spoke
tor the last time in this assembly, when the dis-
cussion took place concerning the incorporation
with France of the Comiat Fenaissin, a province
belonging
144 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
belonging to the Popes for centuries, but dis-
turbed and invaded by the revolutionary banditti
of the Jacobin Propaganda at Paris. This act of
injustice was eloquently opposed by the famous
Abbe Maury, and defended by Menou, who was
then used so roughly, and so turned into ridicule
by his adversary, that for months afterwards
caricatures, ballads, epigrams, and vaudevilles, ex-
posed his presumption as well as his folly, his
want of candour as well as of information. It
was so much the more easy for the Abbe to show
the hypocrisy and inconsistency of the other
members who desired this incorporation, as one
of their first and most solemn decrees, as repre-
sentatives of the people, had been to renounce in
the name of the French nation, all conquests : un-
fortunately for the peace of the world, and for
the happiness of mankind, though the first, this
was not the last time that the transactions of
French revolutionary rulers and legislators have
been the very reverse of their determinations and
professions*.
The first blessing which the unfortunate inha-
bitants of the Comtat Venaissin experienced in
consequence of their union with France, was
the
* See Les Moniteurs, 179O and 1791, Lt RtcutU d' Anecdote*
page 565.
MENOL". 145
t!he massacre en masse of detained and suspected
persons in the Glac'iere, or ice-house, at Avig-
non, the lQth of October, 1791. Jourdan,
called the cut-throat, who headed the assassins,
when afterwards arrested, declared publicly, that
the leading members of the National Assembly
had advised him to act as he did, to strike the
people with teiror, and by it to procure addresses
for a re-union. To convince his judges of the
truth of this assertion, he laid before them se-
veral letters from Menou, Mirabeau, Talley-
rand, and Sieves. In that of Menou it was
said, " It is better to strike vigorously than just-
ly. By dispatching some hundred aristocrats or
fanatics, you will convert thousands of luke-
warm or hesitating patriots ; and the blood of
some few Papal slaves at Avignon will white-
wash the mass of the people in this Papal pro-
vince, bv giving them energy to be French free-
men*."
After the King had accepted the constitution
decreed bv the first National Assembly, a great
military promotion took place, and Menou, be-
fore a Colonel, was promoted to the rank of a
Mareschal-de-camp ; he was, besides, the secord
in command over the troops of the line quar-
vol. in. H lereJ
* See Les Annales du Terr»risme, page 6jj,
146 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
tered in or near Paris on the 10th of August,
1792. His equivocal conduct on that day having
made him suspected of royalty, he went to the
bar of the Legislative Assembly and took the oath
of equality, not only to justify himself, but in
the hope of being promoted to the ministry of
the war department. Under the latter suppo-
sition he addressed a letter to the President, in
which he asked him to remember his former
services. — " I was," said he, u a patriot long
before the year 1789, and at all times have held
the Court in abhorrence. I have always de-
fended the dogma of insurrection, and have dis-
tinguished myself in the Constituent Assembly."
His incapacity, however, was so well known,
that his ambition was again disappointal*.
In the spring of 1797, he was sent as lieu*.
tenant-general to the republican army in La
Vendee, and on the 6th of June nominated by
the Committee of Public Safety commander-
in-chief. £ut though he possessed such cou-
raoe as will make a subaltern noticed, he had
none of those talents necessary to make a chief
victorious. The royalists therefore easily de r
feated him, took the town of Saumur in the
sight
* See the last mentioned woilc, page 639, and Dictionnaire
Eiographique.
MENOU. 147
sight of his army, and by it opened a passage
over the river Loire, and extended the civil war
on both its borders, by Pont au Ci Viluers. On
the 17th and loth of July, though the royalists
had no other arms than pikes or bludgeons, he
was so completely routed, that he lost all his ar-
tillery, his ammunition, and field equipage ; and
the royalist commander, the young Laroche Jac-
quelin, pursued him for two leagues so near,
that he was shot through the body by a pistol.
The representatives of the people with the repub-
lican armies then cashiered him, and he was or-
dered to Paris, where he would undoubtedly
have been guillotined; but his wound, which ha
bribed a surgeon to declare dangerous, procured
him permission to reside at Tours until he was
cured ; and he prudently remained in that town
during the reign of Robespierre.
In May 1795, he commanded under Pichegru,
at Paris, a division of the troops who defended
the National Convention, and defeated the Jaco-
bins, who had attacked this Assembly. When
Pichegru returned to the army of the Rhine,
Menou was made commander-in-chief of the
army near Paris. In the struggle between toe
Sections of that city and the National Conven-
tion, concerning the just demand of the former
H 2 tO
lis REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
to chuse their representatives with freedom,
Menou acted with great duplicity, caressing
and deceiving both parties. He promised the
Committee of General Safety that he would
never desert the conventional standard ; and de-
clared at the same time to the Sections, that he
would not command a conventional army against
them ; by which they could not but understand
that he spoke in the name of the troops under
his command, and that they were gained over by
him. Unfortunately for the just and loyal partv,
they were soon convinced of his treachery ; be-
cause, though he refused to lead his armv against
them, it obeyed the orders of Barras and Buona-
parte, who, on the 6th of October, in a few
hours, dispersed the deluded and disarmed Pari-
sians, after killing 8000 men, women, and chil-
dren, in the streets of Paris. The victorious
Convention, after upbraiding Menou with deser-
tion from the duties of a republican in a time
of the most pressing danger, and accusing him
of having received bribes from the Sections, de-
creed his asrest ; and a mock trial by a military
commission took place, more to prevent him
from experiencing the vengeance of the Pari-
sians, than with a view to his condemnation ami
punishment
MENOU. |4|
punishment for disobedience. He was therefore
acquitted ; and -soon afterward--, the important
Jry in the Interior was
conferred on him by the Director Barras.
Menou was an old acquaintance of Madame
de Beauharnois, whom Barras, in the winter- of
1795, had made Madame Napoleon Buona-
parte. When, therefore, in 1796, this general's
successes gained him the favour of the French
Government and the caresses of the French .Ja-
cobins, Menou was assiduous in his attention to
.Madame Buonaparte, who, in return, procured
him in 179^ permission to accompany her hus-
band to Egypt, At the unnecessary and barba-
rous storming of the city of Alexandria, he was
wounded in two places, and received a contusion
at the battle of the Pyramids. Buonaparte was,
however, so convinced of his want of military
talents, that in August 1790, when the army of
Egypt was cowardly deserted by its chief, he ap-
pointed Kleber his successor, though Menou was
the senior of the generals of division.
Destitute and dispirited as Kleber found these
troops, he was ordered not only to command then*
against foreign foes, but to preserve them from
the dangerous effects of disunion among them-
selves. He soon, however, by economy and regit-
H 3 fcrit^
J5o REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
larity, satisfied their most pressing wants j and by
his negociations as well as by his battles, proved
both to his officers and men, that in a distant
country, where the enemies were as numerous as
the inhabitants, harmony was absolutely neces-
sary, if they would avoid subscribing a disho-
nourable capitulation, or perishing by disgraceful
defeats. After the assassination of this General,
Menott, from seniority, assumed the command
over the French in this part of Africa, where
hitherto he had neither filled any important de-
partment, nor performed a single exploit worthy
of record. On the contrary, his apostacy in em-
bracing the Mussulman faith — his marriage with
a Turkish woman, and his disputes with Kleber,
a commander at once adored by the soldiery and
worthy of their esteem, had long since rendered
him contemptible and unpopular with the mass of
the army. Accustomed to be conducted by gal-
lant and fortunate chiefs, the troops placed but
little confidence in a leader, whom they consi-
dered as an intriguer rather than as a general.
Kleber left him, however, the situation of his
countrymen considerably meliorated, in conse-
quence of the victory of Heliopolis ; and by the
total defeat of the Grand Vizier, the natives of
Kgypt, true to the tenets of fatality inculcated
by
MEXOU. 151
by the reigning superstition, were struck with
dread, and remained quiet, imagining that they
were predestinated to submit to a nation which
they had seen uniformly triumphant. The con-
tributions levied on the people at Cairo, as a pu-
nishment for their late insurrection, enabled the
French Generals to quiet the clamours of their
men for pay, and Kleber had formed plans for
replenishing his ranks by recruiting among the
natives : 300 Copts, 300 Franks and 1500
Greeks were already in the army, and the placid
temper and accommodating disposition of this
General had insured an uninterrupted unanimitv.
No murmur, no cry of cabal was heard, except
from the man who was destined to. be his succes-
sor. Such was the situation of the French at this
moment. Their empire appeared to be firmly es-
tablished in that quarter of the globe ; and it re-
quired no small display of cool valour, superior
tactics, and scientific combination in the English
troops, to restore a favourite province to the Ot-
toman throne, and exchange the tri-coloured
flag, now flaunting along the frontiers of the
Desert and the borders of the Nile, for the
Turkish Crescent. But under the haughty and
insolent Menou, a new order of things seemed to
have arisen. He afTeeted rather the profound po-
h 4 liticiaa
152 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
litician than the active general — issued pompous
and declamatory general orders — paid some at-
tention to details, yet left the most important re-
gulations in a state of neglect — counteracted the
prudent measures of his predecessor — altered the
mode of collecting taxes, and laid the founda-
tion of religious feuds, bv shewing an unusual
preference to that mode of worship to which he
had become a renegade convert. Even these
malversations were of small moment, compared
with his cowardly efforts to tarnish the fame of
Kleber ; to maintain a distance between himself
and the subordinate Generals, by spreading re-
ports injurious to their character; and to intro-
duce into the army the factious distinguishing
terms of colonists or anti-colonists. Such a sys-
tem revived peculations, oppressions, and inju-
ries, calculated to renew the hostility of the na-
tives whenever opportunity should present a
prospect of success, exhausted the slender re-
sources of the army, prevented the accumula-
tion of supplies in case of an attack, diminished
the spirit of the troops, and produced at length
vigorous and even angry remonstrances from the
field-officers *.
But
* See the State of Egypt after the battle of Heliopolis, by
Cencrai Regnier.
MEXOU. , 153
But notwithstanding the impolitic and imbe-
cile transactions of Menou, the position of the
French was very formidable in Egypt, when an
expedition directed and animated by the loyal
generosity of Great Britain was sent to act
against them. The British force which had
been employed in the Mediterranean, aided by
the discomfited bands of the Grand Vizier, and
a bodv of sepovs and English troops from India,
were selected to achieve the expulsion of the re-
publicans from their ill- acquired territory. The
troops under Sir Ralph Abercromby, were un-
usually weakened by a long continuance at sea
during ihe most tempestuous season ever remem-
bered. Bv their failure in several attempts, par-
ticular's- that against Ferrol, and by the uncer-
tainty in what direction their active services
would be employed, they were very much dispi-
rited. Yet, when the order arrived, announc-
ing their next destination, joy and alacrity gene-
rally prevailed ; health was restored by a short
residence on shore ; and regiments, that were not
obliged to extend their services so far, offered
themselves as volunteers. The bav of Marmo-
rice was fixed for the general rendezvous j but
during the stay there of the British fleet, the
French succeeded in throwing into Ee;vpt im-
h 5 portant
131 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
portant succours of men and ammunition, dis-
patched in the frigates L'Egyptienne, La Justice,
La Regenere, and the cutter Lodi.
At length the English squadron, consisting of
near two hundred sail, with an army on board of
15,330 men, left the Coast of Asia Minor, for the
purpose of subjugating a great province occupied
by an enemy vastly superior ; while on the other
hand, the British commanders had not a single
officer acquainted with the interior of the coun-
try, or even a map which could be depended
upon. Even this small army included 990 sick,
500 Maltese, and various other descriptions of
persons attached to it ; so that the effective force
could not be computed at more than 12,000,
while the French under Menou, on a moderate
calculation, amounted to 21,000 able men, and
had the additional advantage of possessing the
ground which was to be the scene of conten-
tion, with strong forts, good cavalry, an ample and
■well-supplied artillery, and a perfect knowledge
of the place ; in all of which the English were
lamentably defective. They had not sufficient
artillery, and the Turks had supplied them with
the very worst of horses to remount their ca-
valry. Of the coast they knew little or no-
thing ; and to complete this state of ignorance,
Major
MENOU. )5
Major Mackerras, one of the engineers sent to
reconnoitre the coast, was killed, and another,
Major Fletcher, wounded.
After a boisterous passage of six days, the
Arabs' Tower was descried ; and in the course of
the next morning, the convoy arrived in Abou-
kir Bar, a scene endeared to all true Britons by
the glorious battle of the Nile, and now bursting
afresh upon their recollection, in consequence of
having anchored in the very spot where that
memorable action had been fought. After waiting
several days for favourable weather, on the 7 th
of March, when the wind had abated, General
Abercromby proceeded in a boat to examine the
shore. Sir Sidney Smith, with his usual activity,
also seized this opportunity of reconnoitering the
neighbouring lake ; and being actuated with that
laudable, though hazardous zeal of serving his
country, and to obtain some information, he
boldly went on shore, and returned soon after
with a French republican colonel, an ass, zvA an
Arab fellah its driver, to the no small amusement
of the sailors and soldiers of the fleet, who consi-
dered these captives as the first fruits of victorv.
On the next day a landing was attempted. The
first division of the army, consisting of 5500 men,
under Major-general Coote, assembled in the
h 6 t boats
156 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
boats at two o'clock in the morning, an additional
number being placed in ships close to the shore
to afford support after the first embarkation was
effected. From the extent of their anchorage
at the place of rendezvous, the assembling and
arrangement of the boats could not take place till
nine o'clock ; and the French, thus fully prepared,
had posted 2500 men, under General Friant, on
the top of the sand-hills, forming the concave
arch of a circle, on the front of about a mile, in
the centre of which rose an height almost perpen-
dicular, and apparently inaccessible. The boats,
protected by cutters, bomb and gun-vessels, rowed
rapidly towards the shore ; while the republicans,
from their well -chosen station, where they had
planted twelve pieces of artillery, and from the
castle of Aboukir, poured a discharge of shot and
shells, and a shower of grape and musketry
which seemed to plough the surface of the water,
and render destruction inevitable. The troops,
placed fifty in each boat, were pent up close, and
unable to move, exposed to this dreadful fire
without returning a shot. Still the boats pressed
boldly forward, and the reserve, consisting of the
23d regiment of foot, and the four flank compa-
nies of the 40th, under General Moore, leaped
on shore, forming as they advanced. — The
French
1
MENOU 157
French met and opposed them, even at the wa-
ter's edge ; but they nobly advanced, shouting
as if victory was actually within their grasp.
Without llrtng a shot, they rushed up the height:?,
charged with the bayonet two battalions, carried
two mole-hills in the rear, which commanded
the plain to the left, and took three pieces of
cannon. The remaining :roops effected a landing
with equal courage and success ; and after a
struggle of twenty minutes duration, the repub-
licans gave way in every direction ; and a body
of seamen, under Sir Sidney Smith, secured pos-
session of the hills by dragging up several field-
pieces. Sir Ralph Abercromby himself went on
shore in the evening, and expressed the gratitude
and admiration due to his troops for so gallant an,
exploit; which, from a consideration of the
strength of their opponents, and the nature of the
position, military men must have pronounced
almost impossible. The possession of the ground
just occupied by the enemy, the capture of seven
pieces of cannon and a howitzer, together with
the discomfiture of a large body of men protected
by a fortress, strong batteries, and a nearly in-
accessible eminence, were the brilliant achieve-
ments of the British heroes on that day. But
the result is not to be measured by any common
rule,
158 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
rule, or estirflated by arithmetical calculation :
for the French now perceived that they had no
longer Turks or even Mamelukes to contend
with ; they felt that the soldiers of one of the
bravest European nations had landed in Egypt,
and from this moment the ultimate possession of
that country became problematical.
After this victory, several days were passed in
improving the situation of the troops, landing
ammunition and stores, and digging for water,
which was found in sufficient quantities to pre-
vent fear of want. The lake of Aboukir or
Maadie, which Menou had neglected to order
his troops to secure, was a most important re-
source, facilitating the transport of necessaries,
and enabling the British forces to procure those
supplies, which their total want of beasts of bur-
then would otherwise have prevented them from
obtaining. On the 12th, when their preparations
were completed, the English army moved to-
wards Alexandria, opposed by the French, but
not with so much vigour as to make the loss of
the assailants bear any proportion to the advan-
tages they gained. They had two men killed, a
lieutenant and four privates wounded. The
enemy was encamped on an advantageous ridge
of sand-hills, with their right towards the canal
of
3
MENOU 159
of Alexandria, and their left to the sea. Next
morning orders were given to attack the French,
with an intention to turn their right flank. To
prevent the success of this evolution, the enemy
descended from the heights, and charged the
leading brigades of the two advancing lines,
DO O *
commanded by the Major- Generals Craddock
and the Earl of Cavan. The French had up-
wards of six hundred horse well trained and
mounted ; while the English had only two hun-
dred and fifty, and those in so wretched a condi-
tion, that they were hardly able to act. The
republicans had brought into the field forty
pieces of cannon, most of them curricle guns;
while the British had only a few pieces of artil-
lery, slowly and laboriously drawn through the
sand by men. Notwithstanding these great dis-
advantages, the regiments which formed their
respective advanced guards received the assailants
firmly, and after having changed their position
with equal quickness and precision, obliged them
to retire under the protection of the fortified
heights that constituted one part of the defence
of the city of Alexandria. It was intended to
have carried them also ; and the reserve, under
General Moore, which had remained in column
during the whole day, was brought forward for
that
ICO REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
that purpose, while {he second line, under Gene-
ral Hutchinson, advanced to the left, across part
of the lake of Mareotis, with a view to assail both
flanks. It became apparent, however, that from
the state of the forts on the hills, and the unex-
pected strength of the position, further progress
would be attended with great difficulty and de-
struction ; the troops were therefore ordered to
withdraw, and encamp with their right to the sea,
and their left to the canal of Alexandria, and to be
content with the advantages they had acquired.
The soldiers were halted, while Sir Ralph
Abercromby deliberated on the propriety of ad-
vancing ; and, during this period, the fire of the
French was tremendous. Aim was unnecessary;
they had only to load and fire; their bullets
plunged into the lines, and swept away great
numbers: but although this dreadful scene con-
tinued several hours, the brave soldiery never
murmured, nor expressed any impatience, ex-
cept what arose from an ardent wish to be led to
the attack. The loss on this day was 1300 men
killed and wounded ; and four pieces of cannon,
a howitzer, with a large quantity of ammunition,
were captured. The firmness of the British
troops is highly and deservedly extolled. Their
movements were executed with the same steadi-
ness
MENOU. J 61
ncss and accuracy, as if at a review on their
native plains.
The English now began to fortify their new
position, by means of heavy cannon brought on
shore for that purpose ; and, as a defensive war-
fare on the part of an invading army always
assumes an unprosperous aspect, the late retreat
appeared in every point of view to be eminently
disastrous. What rendered the situation of the
British troops still more critical, was the arrival
of Menou from Cairo with a large reinforcement
of troops j but on the other hand, the castle of
Aboukir, which had sustained a siege of eight
davs while in possession of the Turks, now sur-
rendered to the British at the end of five.
Menou's approach to Alexandria was an-
nounced by the failure of the market from which
the English were supplied, owing to the strict-
ness with which his cruel orders were executed
for killing the Arabs engaged in that traffic.
All this severity, however, ooilM not prevent one
of these people from disc'. > the British
Commander the absurd and improbable intention
of Menou to surprize the camp, or to give battle
to the English. Although Sir Sidney Smith
vouched for the truth of this intelligence, and the
fidelity of the reporter, it was so obviously repug-
nant
162 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
nant to the interest of the republicans to make
the attempt, that the assertion obtained no credit.
It could, in fact, hardly be believed, that the igno-
rance of the French Commander was equal to his
presumption ; and that he, instead of hemming in
the invaders, cutting off their supplies, intercept-
ing their convoys, and meditating a tedious and
destructive war against troops unaccustomed to
the country, had resolved to decide the fate of
Egypt in a single combat. The discipline esta-
blished by Sir Ralph Abercromby was, however,
no less effectual in this crisis, than any prepara-
tion which he could have made in consequence
of the information that he had disregarded.
The troops were, as usual, under arms half an
hour before day-break on the ever-memorable
2 J st of March.
With a body of 12,000 men, Menou began his
attack at half past three o'clock in the morning.
In the general orders issued on the preceding
evening, describing the order of battle, he had
impudently, in a bombastic style, announced,
" that his design was to drive the English army
into the sea, or the lake Maadie:" so certain was
he of the issue. The left wing of the French
army, consisting of four demi-brigades of light
infantry, was commanded by General Lanusse,
assisted
MENOU. 163
assisted by General Roize with a body of cavalry ;
the Generals Friant and Rampon were stationed
in the centre with five demi-brigades ; General
Regnier was posted on the right with two demi-
brigades, and two regiments of cavalry; while
General d'Estaing commanded the advanced
guard, consisting of one demi-brigade, some
light troops, and a detachment of artillery. The
action commenced by a false attack on the left
wing of the British by the dromedary corps ;
but the real contest was reserved fo the right ;
against which the French infantry, sustained by
a strong body of cavalry, advanced and charged
in column, while the brigade under General Silly
marched straight against the grand redoubt : they
at the same time tried to penetrate the centre,
while the left was kept in check by a body of
light troops.
The first onset, as is usual on the part of the
French, was impetuous, and was by their proud
chief expected to have been irresistible; but the
cool and steady valoar of the English checked
their ardour, and they were repulsed in two suc-
cessive charges, during which the British infan-
try, although broken, and contending hand to
hand with a well-appointed cavalry, succeeded in
remaining masters. But, notwithstanding the
whole
IC4 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Whole line had been partially engaged, the hot-
test part of the action occurred on the right ; tor
the chief effort of the twelve French &nii "bri-
gade's, and all the cavalry in their camp, one re-
giment only excepted, was evidently directed
against this flank ; as it was intended, after turn-
ing it, to envelope the reserve, and thus ensure a
complete victory. A body of chosen troops, con-
sisting of about 000, which, in consequence of a
series of brilliant achievements in Italy, had ac-
quired the appellation of " The Invincibles," actu-
ally succeeded in a certain degree, by piercing
between the walls of an ancient ruin and a mo-
dern battery, which they attempted to storm
three different times : but repeated vollies of grape
and ball, together with a charge of bayonets,
nearly annihilated the whole of these celebrated
soldiers, who perished on the ground they occu-
pied without flinching; while the officer who
bore the famous standard embroidered with their
exploits, surrendered this trophy at the same
moment with his life. The ammunition of both
parties was exhausted ; and so great was their
inveteracy, that they maintained a conflict by
throwing large stones, with one of which an
English serjeant was killed. Menou, at length,
finding that he was completely foiled^ ordered a
retreat
MENOU. 16$
retreat at ten o'clock in the morning, after a
fight of near seven hours duration.
The triumph of the British was damped when
it was known that their valiant and beloved Leader
had received a wound, which afterwards proved
mortal. On the first alarm of the irruption on
the right, Sir Ralph Abercromby, proceeding to
the spot, dispatched his aids-de-camp in different
directions. While he was left alone, some French
cavalrv reached the place, and he was thrown
from his horse : one of the party rode at him,
endeavouring to cut him down; but the brave
veteran, seizing the uplifted sword, wrested it
from his hand, at the very moment when a sol-
dier of the 4 ^d came up and put an end to the
assailant with iiis bayonet. The General was
wounded in the thigh, and by a contusion on
his breast, but nobly refused to remove from the
field till the end of the conflict. His memory
will be recorded in the annals of his coun-
try, will be sacred to every British soldier, and
embalmed in. the recollection of a grateful pos-
terity.
The loss of the French is calculated at 4000
killed, wounded, and prisoners; and this num-
ber would have been greatly augmented, but for
want of ammunition, or rather of cattle to con-
vey
165 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
vey it from the magazines, which hindered the
English from annoying them to the utmost in
their retreat. The British army had to lament
the loss of 6 officers and 223 men killed, 60 offi-
cers and 1 100 men wounded, and 3 officers and
29 men missing. The French Generals La-
nusse, Roize, and Beaudot were slain j Generals
d'Estaing, Silly, Eppler, and several other officers
of distinction wounded. In the English army,
besides the brave Abercromby, the no less valiant
Generals Moore, Hope, Oakes, and Lavvson, with
the undaunted hero Sir Sidney Smith, were
wounded. The day was, on the whole, one of
the most glorious that ever occurred to reflect
honour on the British arms. And though a vast-
ly superior army was yet to be overcome, lines
nearly impregnable to be stormed, and four forti-
fied towns to be taken, this action, fought on
the barren isthmus of Aboukir, by its moral and
political, as well as military effects, eventually
decided the sovereignty of the whole of this por-
tion of Africa. Nor was even the scene of this
important and memorable contest devoid of in-
terest or unworthy of record. The field of bat-
tle exhibited the ruins of a Roman colony. At
a little distance was a city famous in the annals
of mankind, and calculated at once to remind
the
MENOU. 107
the beholder of the genius of Alexander, and the
exploits of the first Csesar. These monuments
of ancient grandeur, now designated by the
names of the Pillar of Pompey, and the Needle
of Cleopatra, were finely contrasted with the
Pharillon, CafFerelli, and Cretin, all fortified
according to the modern rules of war, as well
as with the armies of two northern nations
contending for a remote and unhealthy corner
of the East ; while the adjacent sea presented an
object eminently interesting, as connected with
the signal defeat of Anthony in one age, and of
De Bruyes in another. A terrific grandeur was
at the same time impressed by the sight of so
many bodies of men and horses mingled pro-
miscuously together; while scores of cannon
darting forth scorching flames, and metals winged
with death, at once enlivened the gloom, and
added to the multitude of victims, To crown
the whole, an heroic chief, pierced with a mortal
wound, and yet consoled even in the embrace of
death by the achievements of his soldiers, was
borne reluctantly from that field which- still re-
sounded with his victorv.
Two days after the battle of Aboukir, Sir
Sidney Smith, by the authority of the naval
and military commanders-in-chief, repaired to the
enemy's
368 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
enemy's lines, for the purpose of making an offer
of renewing the Convention of El Arish._ But to
this offer Menou ordered General Friant to send
a reply couched in his usual lofty language, ex-
pressing surprize that an offer so disrespectful to
the Army of the East and to himself, should he
made, and with assurances that circumstances by
no means warranted the proposal, but the Army
would defend Egypt to the last.
To throw upon others the odium that he had
incurred bv the absurd rashness of his attack on
this day, and to silence the clamour excited in the
army by his disgraceful defeat, Menou accused,
arrested, embarked, and sent to Europe, Reg-
nier, and all other generals who had talents to
discover, and courage to expose, his nnmerous
blunders and dangerous incapacity. The events,
however, which succeeded their departure, clear-
!y proved, that Menou was as unfit to command
armies as unable to head civil departments ; as
irresolute and imprudent in directing military
operations, as impolitic and ridiculous in pro-
viding for the security and prosperity of a co-
lony.
On the 25th of March the British Comman-
der-in-chief was gratified by the arrival of the
Captain Pacha, with a reinforcement of 6000
men,
MENOU. 16&
men, in consequence of which a small portion of
the British force and 4000 Turks, under the
command of Colonel Spencer, were detatched
against Rosetta, which commands the navigation
of the Nile. After a painful march through the
Desert, the united troops, slightly opposed by the
French, took the place, blockaded the fort St.
Julien, and advanced with the main body to El
Hamed. A communication was now opened
with the Delta, so as to obtain fresh provisions
for the army. Sir Sidney Smith, with an armed
flotilla., soon after this navigated the river as high
as El Aft ; while General Hutchinson, the wor-
thy successor of Sir Ralph Abercromby, apprised
of the fears of the French by a letter from Me-
nou found in the pocket of General Roize, or-
dered the canal of Alexandria to be cut, so as to
let the waters of the sea into the lake Mareotis,
and thus strengtken the position of the English
camp, as well as cut off all direct communication
between the garrison of Alexandria and the inte-
rior of Egvpt.
In consequence of this inundation, and the
conquest of Rosetta and St. Julien inspiring.,
sanguine hopes, General Hutchinson repaired to
the main body of troops at El Hamed, leav-
ing General Coote and Admiral Bickerton to
\ol. in. i blockade
170 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
blockade Alexandria. Rhamanich was captured
on the 10th of May, and the British Commander
continued to advance into the heart of the coun-
try. In the course of his march he intercepted a
convoy of 500 camels, with an escort of 600 men
destined for Menou at Alexandria. On the 16th
of May, the Turks under the Grand Vizier de-
feated the French detachment from Cairo, and
forced it to retreat to El Hanka, seven miles from
the scene of action. This victory was not, in a
military point of view, of great moment, as the
French retreated in good order, though they left
300 killed and wounded on the field. But it
repressed their sanguine hopes of seeing another
Heliopolis, and gave the Turks confidence, by
proving that their adversaries, though generally
successful, were not invincible.
In the mean time the English army, now-
strengthened by the arrival of 1 500 Mamelukes,
under the command of Osman Bey, the successor
of Mourad, had advanced without interruption
to Giza, opposite Cairo, garrisoned by about
4000 Frenchmen; while the Turks, flushed with
success equally novel and unexpected, prepared
to form a junction, and besiege that city in con-
cert. Accordingly, after a variety of delays, part-
ly arising from the low state of the river, and
8 partly
MENOU. I- 1
partly from the bar at Rosetta, the heavy cannon
were brought up and batterie5 erected ; the Bri-
tish, troops, aided by the Captain Pacha, having
invested Giza, while the Grand Vizier, as-
sisted by Colonel Ualloway and other British
Officers, assumed a position just out of the range
of the guns of the capital. This city was ca-
pable of a good defence, but no reasonable hope
could be entertained of ultimate triumph ; and
therefore, after a siege of twenty days, distin-
guished by no military operation worth recount-
ing, a convention was concluded, and Cairo sur-
rendered on the 27 th of June. It was provided
by a specific article, that the terms, which
were nearly the same as those allowed by the
treaty of El Arish, should be communicated to
General Menou, who was at liberty to accede
to them, provided his acceptance should be no-
tified at the head-quarters of the English troop*
before Alexandria, within the space of ten days.
The intelligence of the surrender of Cairo oc-
casioned great regret and surprize at Alexandria;
and General Menou was now as much incensed
against General Belliard as he had some few
months before been against General Regnier.
By new proclamations he tried to keep up the
*p:rit of his soldiers, and by new abuse and ca-
1 2 lumuics
172 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
luranies he hoped to make their hatred against
the British nation as violent and ungenerous as
his own. But they soon found that his accu-
sations were as contemptible, as his professions
were false and despicable. On the 3d of August
General Hutchinson with the British troops from
Cairo arrived before Alexandria, and serious
operations were commenced. An attempt was,
however, yet made to send in M. Esteve, the
French paymaster-general from Cairo, as a flag
of truce ; but to such an excels were the vile sus-
picions of Menou carried, that he was not al-
lowed to enter.
The siege was formed by General Coote on
the western side, who, taking the command of a
large body of troops, embarked them on the
inundation ; and having effected a landing near
the desired spot, took his position along a ridge
of steep quarries, his right to the inundation,
and his left to a sandy plain which extended to
the sea. General Hutchinson, to make a diver-
sion in his favour, commenced a general attack
to the eastward, which produced the desired ef-
fect.
After great preparatory labours General Coote
opened a battery against fort Maralon, destroyed
the signal tower, and obliged the garrison, con-
sisting
MENOU. 173
sisting of 195 men, to surrender prisoners of
war. Animated by this success, and seven sloops
of war having entered the western harbour, Ge-
neral Coote took a position close under the
works of the town. Two days after this, bat-
teries were opened against the redoubt de Bain,
and in the course of the following night, Lieu-
tenant Colonel Smith succeeded in an attempt
to surprize the advanced guard. In this extre-
mity General Menou, being closely pressed by
the Commander-in-chief on the east, and Ge-
neral Coote on the west side, 'instead of bu-
rying himself in the rubbish of Alexandria, as
he so repeatedly promised to do) deemed it phi-
dent to capitulate. Accordingly, a negociation
for that purpose being entered into, the same
terms were granted as to the" garrison of Cairo;
after which the English took possession of the
entrenched camp, the heights above Pompev's
pillar, and fort Triangular. Thus, bv British
valour, Egypt was liberated from the dominion
of the French republican tyrants, after they had
overcome, plundered, and butchered the Arabs,
the Mamelukes, and the Turks ; obtained pos-
session of all the cities, seized on the Said,
made eruptions into Syria, and threatened the
1 3 remotest
174 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
remotest shores of Asia with subjugation and
slavery !
After Menou's return to Europe he was in a
temporary disgrace with the First Consul, and
forced to remain at Marseilles until his justifi-
cation, backed by the influence and intrigues of"
his old constitutional friends, Madame Buona-
parte and Talleyrand, procured him, in March,
1802, permission to arrive in the capital of
the French Republic. But here General Reg-
nier waited for him, challenged him, and, af-
ter killing his friend General d'Estaing one
day, appointed a meeting with him for the
next. Buonaparte, however, interfered, and
Regnier was obliged to reside forty leagues
from Paris. This, perhaps, saved Menou's life,
but, according to the opinion of the French
military characters, stained his honour and re-
putation. No officer would afterwards serve
under him ; and when his opponents, Gene-
rals Regnier and Belliard, obtained military
commands, the one at Toulon, and the other
in Belgium, after being long unemployed, he
received at last the civil appointment of Lieu-
tenant-Governor in Piedmont, where he has
not only himself become a christian again,
but
MEXOl". 17"'
buf converted his Mahometan wife to ch.
tianitv *. I 4
The
* Py an English gentleman who, during the last summer
..id Piedmont, the following particulars have been
i in the public prints, concerning Menou's conduct, as a
revolt .rnor of that unfortunate country, where the
tent of the people from the tyranny of this, Buonaparte's
satrap, has made it necessary to suspend the Constitution, and
the Cousiitutior-al Tribunals, ami to erect in their piace, Spe-
iiihary Commissions, uudtr xhztpecial command anddis-
tion of Menou.
" Turin, the capital of Piedmont, formerly the residence of
his Sardinian Majesty, the seat of refinement, luxury, and po-
liteness, is now as tame, dull, and insipid, as any provincial
town of Italy or France. Ahdallah Mer.ou, who commands
tliere, rules with the most despotic sway, and is execrated by
all the inhabitants. His extravagance, in keeping up a kind of
eastern magnificence, has led him into enormous expences. e
to be in debt to the mercers, jewellers, and other :
people, to the amount of six millions of livres, for no bill of his
has been paid since his appointment to the chief comro-.
. The following anecdote may give some idea of ih^
mildness of the administration of government in the conquer-
ed pievinces, as well as of the scrupulous regard to justice in
the Imperial Cabinet. Menou's poulterer, to whom he
above 40,coo livres, after many fruitless attempts to procure
payment of even part of his debt, contrived, by uncommon per-
ince, last spring, to obtain a personal interview of the
. ral. He found Menou, on being ordered into the dining
saloon, with his etat-major, in one of his daily revels, immer-
sed in inebriety, and reclining on a Turkish sofa ! He made a
very peai to the feelings of the general, con .
the ruin which would inevitably fall on liim, if not paid some
of h: ; A drunken laugh succeeded his representation
when Menou coolly replied, Mo* ami, m von* cbigrinex. point,
I'onva vous fxtyer. He was instantly taken into an adjoining
room, tied up by the heels by a couple of Mamelukes, and se-
verely
176 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
The French writers srive the followinsr cha-
racter of Menou : — " This man, who is one of
the vilest members furnished by the order of the
nobility of the revolutionary party, has shewn all
the vices of a factious intriguer, without placing
in the opposite scale a single virtue or talent :
and has therefore from the beginning of the Re-
volution inspired contempt in a!! factions, and
been insulted or ridiculed by all parties ; even by
his own accomplices. Vain without knowledge,
proud without dignity, and insolent without
judgment: he has been hissed and despised at
the head of armies, as well as when ascending
the tribune in the senate. He has served Louis
XVL, the Duke of Orleans, Danton, Robes-
pierre, Marat, Barras, and Buonaparte, as he
has done Christ and Mahomet; or which is the
same — he has been alike a political and religious
apostate, regarding no more 'the principles of
virtue than, those of religion^ ! ! In his person,
Menou
verely bastinadoed in presence of Menou and his officers; after
■which he was precipitated from the window, and killed on tiie
spot. The mayor of the city had sufficient spirit to transmit
a procrs -verbal of the facts to the grand judge Regnier, at Paris ;
but no answer had been received to it so late as August last
(1804)."
f See Le Rccueil d'Anecdotes, Les Annales du Terrorism?,
aud Lc Dh tionnaire Biographkme.
MENOU. 177
Menou is a tall good-looking man, between 50
and 60 years of age •«
* The paaticulars of Menou' s transactions in Egypt, are ta-
ken from Political Reflections, by G. Baldwin, and from Sir
Robert Wilson, Walsh, Witman, Regnkr, and the State Pa-
pers. .
I 5 GENERAL
178 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
GENERAL MURAT,
BROTHEFv-IN-LAW OF BUONAPARTE.
C'est du sein des sifflcts,
Que nai'ssent les succes. anon.
Since the destruction of the Roman em-
pire by the Goths, Huns, and Vandals, no politi-
cal convulsions have, in so short a time, brought
forward from obscurity so many low and un-
known individuals as revolutionary France.
During the last twelve years more persons have
appeared upon her bloody stage, who, from their-
more or less interesting posts, have unexpectedly
become the objects of public curses, curiosity,
inquiry, or conversation, than in the twelve pre-
ceding centuries. Not only every year, but al-
most every month, has changed the perform-
ers, though not the scene ; and men who but
lately were regarded as the underlings of this
shocking theatre, start suddenly forward, usurp-
the place of the first-rate tragedians, proscribe,
crush, or butcher their predecessors, and rule
with
MURAT. i"9
with an iron rod, until in their turn, we see
them overpowered, dead, or dethroned. Re-
publican tyrants have been killed by republican
tyrants: Brissot, Condorcet, Petion, and their
accomplices, were guillotined or outlawed by
Danton, Robespierre, and their blood-hounds;
who, after devouring each other, were nearly
annihilated by the Barras, by the Talliens, by the
Merlins, by the Rewbels, 8cc. who, in their turn,
were removed or exiled by Buonaparte. Un-
fortunately, the republican tyranny has survived
them all ; the republican scaffolds erected in the
year 1, are yet standing in the year IS; and if
the regicide Maximilian Robespierre murdered
one Bourbon in 1793, the poisoner and assassin
Napoleon Buonaparte butchered another Bour-
bon in 1801. If in 1795, the regicide Direc-
tor Barras poisoned in the Temple, his rival,
Louis XVII., in 1804, the abominable First Con-
sul Buonaparte strangled in the same prison his
rival, General Pichegru ; and the republican
dungeons contain as many innocent victims un-
der the reign of terror in Buonaparte's Con-
sulate, as they did under that of Robespierre's vile
Committee of Public Safetv.
General Murat, who stands foremost among
the many active and guilty instruments or ac-
1 complices
18(3 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
complices of Napoleon Buonaparte, is the son of
a water-carrier at Paris, who, for some crime,
to save himself from the search of the police,
fled into the mountains of Dauphiny, where he
joined a gang of smugglers and coiners, and
where General Murat was born in 1764*. Be-
ing accused of belonging to the corps of bri-
gands commanded by the famous captain of
smugglers Mandrin, Murat's father was tried at
Valence, and there broken upon the wheel in
May 1709; and young Murat was sent to the
orphan-house at Lyons, where he remained,
until an actor of the name of St. Aubin took
him as an errand boy, procured him to be a Gar-
con du Theatre, or a servant attached to the
theatre in that city, and paid, besides, a master
for teaching him to read and write. Being of an
intriguing disposition and good appearance, he
easily insinuated himself into the favour of the
principal actresses, and was in 1780, upon their
recommendation, permitted to appear upon the
stage, first in the parts of valets, and af-
terwards in those of pct'its maitres ; but in
neither was he successful, wanting manners,
memory,
• In the pamphkt, La Sainte Famille, page 76, it is said
that Murat is the son of a corporal in the Guer, and was, in
1790 a soldier of the regiment of Flanders ; but several more
authentic works quoted hereafter, give him the parentage, &c.
related here.
MURAT. 181
memorv, and application. He was, however,
endured until 1786, when, being hissed while
plaving the Marquis, in the comedy called Le
Circle, he dared to threaten the spectators by hi 3
gestures. From that time hisses pursued him so
much whenever he presented himself, that he
was obliged to quit the stage ; and after leaving
Lyons secretly to avoid the demands of his cre-
ditors, he enlisted in the regiment of cavalry
called Royal Allemagne y which was with other
corps ordered to the neighbourhood of Paris,
when, in 1789, Orleans, La Fayette, and other
rebels of the Constituent Assemblv, set up the
standard of revolt against their King : he was
among the few men of that loyal regiment whom
their emissaries seduced, and he deserted when it
was encamped in the Elysian Fields on the 12th
of July. After the capture of the Bastile had
completed the Revolution, and several companies
of the King's Guard had joined the Parisians in
arms, a National Guard under the command of
La Fayette was decreed, in which Murat was
made a corporal. In the plots and disagreements
of different factions he always assisted the Ter-
rorists ; and in return, Santerre promoted him to
a Lieutenancy in the battalion of St. Antoine, of
which that brewer then had the command. On
• the
182 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
the 20th of June, 1792, he accompanied his
patron and the brigands who insulted the unfor-
tunate Louis XVI. and his family in the Castle
of the Thuilleries, where he was heard to re-
peat: Louis, tu es un traitre, ilnoicsfaut ta tite m \
and when the courageous Madame Elizabeth
said : " Are you not ashamed to insult the most
patriotic of Kings with such language V he
impudently answered : Tais tol coquine, auirement
je te covpe en deux~\. The next day Santerre ad-
vanced him to be his aid-de-camp j and as such
he was employed on the 10th of August in the
attack of that dreadful day, which made the best
of Princes the most wretched of prisoners, by
changing the throne into a dungeon.
Marat, Danton, Mehee, Tallien, and other
assassins, who prepared the massacres of the pri-
soners, regarded Santerre as a man possessing little
or no character : they therefore sent him on an
expedition to Versailles, that he might be absent
when these cruelties were perpetrated ; and the
command of different districts of the city of Paris
was confided to men as barbarous as themselves.
Murat headed the troops who on the 2d, 3d,
and 4th of September, of the same year, guarded
the
* Louis, thou art a traitor ; we must have thy head !
t Hold thy tongue b— h, otherwise I will cut thee in two.
MURAT. 183
the prison called La Force ; where, with other
innocent persons, the beautiful Princess of Lam-
balle was butchered, and a refinement of savage
barbarity was exercised on her person, even when
a corpse, almost incredible, if it were not authen-
ticated *-. For these infamous and ferocious deeds
he was promoted by Marat to be a Colonel. But,
instead of going to the frontiers and combating
the enemies of his country, he remained at Paris,
denounced at the clubs, and plotted in the com-
mittees. On the 1 1th of December, when Louis
XVI. was carried from the Temple to be inter-
rogated at the bar of the National Convention j
and on the 21st of January, 1793, when the re-
gicide members of that Assembly sent the most
virtuous of sovereigns and of men to die like a
criminal ; the gens d'armes of the escort were
commanded by Murat, who had passed the night
before on duty in the Temple, regarded then as
a post of confidence and of honour. In March,
during the pillage of the grocers shops, he was
a Secretary in the Jacobin Club, and signed with
Marat
* All the particulars of Murat's birth, ice. and transactions
until 1-96, are taken from Let A.tnales du Terrorismt, and Le
Reeked d' Anecdotes. In the latter, chap, xi page 97, it is said,
that he ordered the head of the Princess of Lambalie to be car-
Tied to the Queen, with whom she was a favourite ; and had a
*vig made of her hair, which he cut oti before she was cold.
184 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Mamt the proclamation of the 10th, addressed
to the citizens sans-culottes at Paris, inviting them
to do themselves justice for the aristocracy of the
bankers, merchants, and shop-keepers. " If you
want money," expresses this curious proclama-
tion, " you know where the bankers live ; if you
stand in need of clothing, visit the clothiers j and
if you have no other means to procure yourselves
coffee, sugar, soap, &c. fraternize with the gro-
cers. What you take from them is only your
property restored to you, and of which you and
your brethern have been robbed by their aristo-
cratical cupidity." In May he was president of
the Club of the Cordeliers ; and in a speech
printed in Marat's Paper, U Ami du Veuple, of
the 25th of the same month, he demands the heads,
of sixty -nine politicians of Brissot's and Roland's
factions, as the sole promoters of the defeats of the
armies, and of the troubles at Lyons, Bourdeaux,
and Marseilles ; accomplices with Pitt and Colour g,
as ivell as with Dumourier.
After the revolution of the 31st of May, and
the victory which the terrorists gained on the two
following days over the moderate party, Santerre
obtained the command of an army of 14,000
men, with whom he marched against the royalists
of La Vendee j and Murat, who was then ad-
- . -vanced
MURAT. 185
vartced to a General of Brigade, commanded the
cavalry ; but, either from misfortunes or from
incapacity, he was continually routed, and two-
thirds of the troops were killed in less than three
weeks. This caused great discontent at Paris,
both in the Jacobin Club and in the National
Convention ; and Santerre was recalled in dis-
grace, which was made so much the more morti-
fying, when, being accused by M,urat of drunken-
ness, ignorance, and cowardice, he was sent to
prison*.
When, after the death of Marat, an emulation
took place between all the sans-culottes patriots
of those days, who should bestow the greatest
praise on this worthy apostle of French repub-
licanism, the most extravagant motions were
made by the jacobins ; the most violent speeches
were published ; and the most atrocious addresses
were circulated all over France. On this occa-
sion, Murat sent to the Jacobin Club, in the
street St. Honore, at Paris, the following letter,
printed in Le Journal des Jacobins of July 28th,
1793, page 6, and in Le Recueii d' Anecdotes,
tome ii. page 99.
" BROTHERS
* During his command in La Vendee, Murat gave once for
his watch*- word ; Pillage, rallying, horror ! — Ydlmge, rallltment^
bvneur ! Prudhommc Hiitoire Generale, torn. i. page 23.
1S6 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
" BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,
*f Chance made my name nearly the same
with that of the ever- regretted martyr of equa-
lity, Marat ; fellow feeling made me his admirer,
before conviction made me his worshipper, or
patriotism his follower, defender, and mourner.
Others have offered perfumes upon the altar of
this thtir country's god of liberty ; others have
compossd hymns to the glory of this the best and
jirst of French republicans ; others, again, have
placed his bust by the side of the immortal Grac-
chus, Publicola, and Brutus !
" A soldier who possesses nothing but his love
of liberty and his valour, his enthusiasm, sans-
culotism, and his sword, can neither build altars,
nor carve statues, neither sing apotheoses, nor
write deifications : but he can do more ; — he can
immolate himself. If an hecatomb of the carcasses of
Marat's friends had been decreed, upon its sum-
mit before this day should have been placed my
corpse. It is neither ambition to shine with bor-
rowed colours, nor presumption to think that mil-
lions of sans-culottes are not as good patriots as
myself. It is neither meant as a reproach to the
lukewarm zeal of others, nor as a praise of that
ardour, which almost consumes me, and forces me
to desire to eternalize the name of Marat. No ! I
am
MURAT. 167
am much above those petty and selfish conside-
rations. I am a sans-culotte by birth as well as
Marat ; my father died a victim to the tyranny
of kings, as he did to the treachery of kingly
aristocracy. I am married to a sans-culotte wo-
man, now in a situation to give citizens to the
Republic. Let mv progeny immortalize the
memory of Marat, by permitting me to change
onlv one letter in my name. I promise you,
brothers and friends, upon the faith of a jacobin
mountaineer, that, should I observe any aristo-
cratical inclination in my children, another Bru-
tus, I shall be their executioner ! Accept, there-
fore, this patriotic offer from your devoted fel-
low sans-culotte. — The jacobins for ever ! The
mountain for ever ! The guillotine for ever !
Health and fraternitv.
(Signed) " Marat ci-devant Mu&at."
This offer, however, was declined, upon the
observation of Citizen Felix Pelletier de Su For-
geaux, " that, was every sans-culotte patriot per-
mitted to follow his inclination, twenty millions of
Marats would already have been registered at the
municipalities of the French Republic. Besides,
the constitutional equality of die French com-
monwealth, could never allow any distinction
that
188 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
that would place one citizen above another ; and a
person who now should be suffered to call him-
self Marat, would be as much above other citi-
zens in the public opinion, as Louis Capet was,
from the imbecility or weakness of his subjects,
regarded ten years ago.' 5 This sans-culotte, de
St. Forgeaux, was a brother to the murdered
regicide of that name, and had a revenue of
300,000 livres or 12,0001. This curious monu-
ment of the former revolutionary sentiments of
Murat forms a striking contrast with the present
aristocratical conduct and notions of this Gene-
ral, now as vain and proud of his rank, riches,
and fraternity with a First Consul, as he was
then ambitious of being considered a sans-cu-
lotte a la Marat, the most blood-thirsty of all
French sans -culottes, Robespierre not excepted.
In the winter of the same year, Murat com-
manded at Lyons a brigade of the horse chasseurs
of the revolutionary army, with the 9th regi-
ment of dragoons. These corps were chiefly
employed to arrest those inhabitants whom the
vengeance or ferocity of the pro-consuls, Col-
.ot D'Herbois, Dubois-Creance, Fouche, and
others proscribed ; to escort them, after their
mock trials, to be executed, or to execute them,
by shooting, or cutting them down with their
swords
MURAT. 139
swords. In the spring of 1794, he was ordered
to join the army of the Alps, where he continued
without distinguishing himself until 179«\ when
• Buonaparte assumed the command over that
army ; where, hearing of Murat's local know-
ledge and military intelligence, he appointed him
first aid-de-camp, and the second officer in the
staff next to General Berthier. He now shewed
not only an undaunted courage, but talents which
nobody supposed him to possess before the battle
of Mondovi, on the 17th of April, 1795, where
he caused himself to be particularly remarked ;
so much so, that when the King of Sardinia, in
the latter part of the same month, made over-
tures for a pacification with the French Republic,
Buonaparte sent him to Turin with full powers
to negotiate, and afterwards gave him, together
with General Juvot, the honourable commission
to carry to Paris, and to present to the Directory,
the 21 colours and standards conquered in seve-
ral enoao-ements from the combined army of
Austria and Sardinia. On the 24th of May he
came again to Turin, with dispatches from Paris,
concerning the negotiations then carrying on be-
tween France and Sardinia ; but after a stay of
some few days only, Buonaparte ordered him
back to the army, where he daily advanced in
the
1 90 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the good graces of this Chief. In June, he ac-
companied the French minister at Genoa, Fay-
poult, to the Doge, with a summons in the name
of Buonaparte, to order the Imperial Ambassador
to leave the territory of the Republic of Genoa
within 48 hours. He here behaved with such
insolence, that it was with difficulty the old and
respectable Doge, whom he had so cowardly in-
sulted, could prevent the people from tearing
him to pieces. This was the first specimen of
the intended French republican fraternity which
this ancient Republic experienced, and the first
act of Buonaparte's revolutionary diplomacy, not
to respect the sacred and privileged characters
of the representatives of independent princes to
independent states, though protected by those
laws of nations, acknowledged and regarded as
inviolable by the unanimous consent of all civi-
lized governments over all civilized people. Had
the Continental Princes (not then quite so de-
graded and enslaved as they now are) resented in
a spirited and determined manner this imper-
tinent infraction, and attempt of a fortunate up-
start to make power pass for right, and passion
for justice, the world would not since have wit-
nessed the Temple at Paris inhabited by foreign
ministers, nor seen them worse treated in the
palace
MURAT. 191
palace of the Thuilleries, than even in that state
prison.
When one neutral and independent country in
Italy had already been unlawfully attacked, a»
Buonaparte advanced with his armed banditti,
all other weak states might, in its invasion and
subversion, read their own destiny. The violent
hatred of this General against England, has
shewn itself from the first month that his crimes
and fortune elevated him into notoriety. The
Grand Duke of Tuscany, after unwillingly re-
nouncing his neutrality in 1/93, renewed, on the -
gth of February, 1795, his former treaties with
France; a French minister resided at Florence;
and the South of France, suffering from a famine,
was liberally provided with supplies from Leg-
horn. But advantageous as the neutrality of
Tuscany was to the French Republic, and sacred
as the ties should have been which united these
two Governments, no sooner had the Genoese
territory been invaded, terrified, and plundered,
than Buonaparte gave orders for one division of
his army, under the command of Generals Vau-
bois and Marat, to advance by forced marches
towards Leghorn, and to seize upon thnt citv,
the rich depot of English product and industry ;
and on the 28th of June his orders were executed
by
192 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
by these Generals, who on that day occupied
all the forts; and, in a proclamation, declared
all British property in this neutral place to be
confiscated to the French Republic. In some
few days more, fines, imprisonment, and even
death, was inflicted on all persons who did not
make fair declarations. The consequence was,
that in twelve days, or before the 11th of July,
according to the pamphlet called Les Crimes des
Republicains en Italic, p. 177, General Murat car-
tied away from Leghorn 500,000 sequins, or
250,0001. ; a sum of money that he no doubt
more than shared with his Commander, who, by
this robbery, from which British subjects were
the chief sufferers, had an opportunity to gratify
two of his noble passions : his spiteful malice
against this country, and his unbounded cupidity
every where ; in Italy as in Germany, in Europe
as in Africa.
On the 18th of the same month, General Mu-
rat commanded the attack to the left, on the in-
trenched camp of the Austrians near Mantua, and
succeeded in carrying it. For several weeks he
gained almost daily advantages over the Imperial
General VVurmser, who commanded an harassecl,
defeated, dispirited and inferior army. In the re-
treat which this General was forced to make on
the
MURAT. 193
the 9th of September, Murat pursued him at the
head of a corps of chasseurs , and on the 1 1 th
tried to cut oft' his retreat towards Ceva. But af-
ter having routed several divisions of the enemy,
he was repulsed in his turn, though superior in
number. Rallying, however, and continuing
the attack, he was wounded in an engagement
on the 15 th, where the courageous Austrian ve-
teran charged at the head of the light troops of
his army. This wound forced him to demand
leave of absence, and he resided at Milan until
December, when he re- assumed his former sta-
tion in the blockading corps round Mantua.
During the campaign of 1797 he displayed
the same activity. On the 14th of January, at
the head of a demi-brigade of light infantry, he
advanced by Monte-Baldo, forced the Austrians,
who occupied La Corona, routed them after a
very obstinate resistance, and obliged their ca-
valry to cross the Adige by swimming; and In
contributed not a little bv his indefatigable vic-i-
lance to the surrender of Mantua. Notwith-
standing the astonishing courage and frequent
sorties of General Wurraser, this city was forced
by famine and disease to open its gates to the
French Republicans, by a capitulation signed on
the 2d of February the same year. The defence
VOL. ui. K of
194 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
of this place, which excited the admiralion of the
enemy, and the praise of Buonaparte himself, cost
the Austrians 24,000 men ; and 22,000 French-
men perished in the different engagements dur-
ing the siege and the blockades, of whom 9000
are calculated by the author of the Campaigns in
Italy of 1 796 and 1797, to have been killed in
fighting under Murat.
After the reduction of Mantua, Buonaparte
ordered some divisions of his army to invade the
defenceless Papal territory; but upon the unex-
pected approach of the Archduke Charles to-
wards Italv, with a small, but well-affected and
well-disciplined body of troops, the French Com-
mander postponed his intention of dethroning
the Sovereign Pontiff, whom he obliged, how-
ever, to sign a humiliating and ruinous peace.
On the 24th of February, Murat was ordered to
attack the enemy, strongly fortified near Fo'y ;
where, after being repulsed twice, and having
two horses killed under him, he finally succeed-
ed ; though he on this occasion had more men
killed, than the number of Austrians whom he
combated and vanquished; but he, like most
other republican generals, has justly been repro-
bated for the profusion with which they squan-
dered away, often unnecessarily, the lives of
their
3
MLR AT. 19*
their soldiers. Had he, after being repulsed
once, waited half an hour only before he renewed
the assault, according to the last quoted author,
seven hundred Frenchmen less had perishes
that day: as the Auslrians were preparing to
evacuate their entrenchments when they were at-
tacked a second and third time.
Upon the determination of Buonaparte to pe-
netrate into Carinthia, many petty skirmishes
took place between the advanced posts of the
Imperialists and the French under the Generals
Murat, Belliard, and Kellermann. The Arch-
duke, already under the necessity of acting on the
defensive, in continuing, however, to retreat,
avoiding as much as possible any serious engage-
ments ; and therefore in crossing the Tagliamuito
cut down the bridges behind him, and threw up
entrenchments, which extended from the passes of
the mountains to the neighbourhood of Belgrado.
In this position the young prince halted for some
days, determined to dispute the passage of that
river, which, though naturally impetuous and
rapid, might then be forded, the stream being
greatly diminished, in consequence of the- seve-
rity of the frost in the mountainous region*.
Taking advantage of this fortunate circumstance,
Buonanarte, on the 1 6th of March, ordered J. I
k 2 at
196 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
at the head of one division, and Duphot head-
ing another, to cross the ford, so as to advance
against the right of the enemy's entrenchments,
while the troops under General Guieux executed
the same operation in a different quarter. Murat
mid Duphot precipitated themselves nearly at the
same time into the water, and gained the opposite
bank, where the French infantry was repeatedly,
but ineffectually, charged by the Austrian horse,
whom they received, without flinching, on the
points of their bayonets; but it was principally
to the muiderous fire of their artillery, that the
republicans were indebted for this day's victory,
as the cannon were stationed sg as to shower
down such terrible and incessant discharges of
grape-shot on the foe, that all opposition soon
became ineffectual. The Austrians, however,
still presented an undaunted front, fearless of
danger and of death. But Murat and Guieux
having penetrated to the village of Cainin, where
the Archduke had established his head-quarters,
they fell into some disorder, and retreated to-
wards the mountains. On the loth, in pursuit
of the vanquished enemy, Murat distinguished
himself again at the passage of Lizonzo, where
he had a horse killed under him, and his clothes
pierced with bullets.
After
MURAT. 197
After the preliminaries of Leoben had been
signed, Buonaparte, with his usual treacherous
policy, overturned the Republic of Venice; and
while the definitive treaty was negociating at
Campo Fonuio, he first intrigued to change this
form of government, and afterwards openly
attacked the independent and neutral republic
of the Grisons and of the Valteline. Marat
was ordered by him in September, 1797, to
march with a column towards the frontiers of
the Valteline, and to settle the differences be-
tween these two States. After some pre-
vious plunder and requisitions, Murat pub-
lished a declaration, " That considering the
many wrongs of the Grisons towards their allv,
and the unanimous desire of the citizens of
the Valteline, this latter country was incorpo-
rated with the Cisalpine Republic." Si
however, was the unanimity, that the very day*
September 26th, when this impertinent and
false declaration appeared, this republican Gene-
ral ordered twenty-two of the most respectable
citizens, who formerly had occupied places as
magistrates, to be tried as conspirators, by a
military eommission, for protesting against tins
union with the Cisalpine Republic, and they
K 3 were
198 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
were all shot the next clay*. Such has been,
and will always be, the conduct of revolutionary
Frenchmen wherever they penetrate. Of the
timid and cowardly they make slaves — of the
traitors, friends — the patriots they butcher — the
rich they pillage : plots generally precede them —
tyranny enters with them — ruin and wretched-
ness rema ; n behind them ; and the curses or de-
testation of the good and the virtuous, of the
religious and of the moralists, accompany them
both under their triumphal arches and to their
graves.
In November, when Buonaparte left Italy, and
according to the treaty of Campo Formio, a con-
gress for the pacification, or rather partition, of
the German Empire, was assembled at Rastadt,
he went by way of Switzerland, where he sent
Murat to prepare for his reception, and to gain
information of the public spirit, previous to exe-
cuting the plans of destruction which the Cor-
sican had formed against this once prosperous Re-
public. This mission was delicate and difficult,
because Buonaparte was disliked and suspected
by the Swiss democrats, and despised, if not ab-
horred by the Swiss aristocrats. Murat, however,
by
* Les Crimes ties Rcpublicains en Italic, page 362.
MURAT. 199
by intimidating some by threats, deceiving
others bv specious promises, and buying over
others with a small part of the plunder of Italy,
procured his Chief to be received with the same
honours as are paid to Sovereigns. Deputations
flattered, guns were fired, and cities illuminated ;
and the deluded Helvetians entertained, treated,
feasted, complimented, and extolled a petty vil-
lain, to whom, from the scenes of horror that
he had just left, their innocence, quiet, and
happiness, were not only reproaches, but in-
citements so much the sooner to bury their in-
dependence and riches in the rubbish of Italy and
Germany.
Murat was now so greatly advanced in the
good graces of his commander, that when the
latter chose his companions for the invasion of
Egypt, the province of another friendly and neu-
tral state, the former was the fourth upon the
list of Generals which he presented, not to the
approbation, but for the information of the Di-
rectory. Iu Egypt he always attended Buona-
parte, and generally dined with him every dav.
He was of the expedition into Svria in the spring
of 1790, and commanded one division, consist-
ing of the cavalry, during the memorable siege
K 4 of
200 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
of St. Jean d'Acre, whilst the other four divi-
sions of the French army were headed by Gene-
rals Kleber, Regnier, Lannes, and Bon. At the
battle of Mount Tabor, on the 16th of April
that year, while Buonaparte was burning the
Naplonsian village, and killing such of the inha-
bitants as he suspecled of having appeared in
arms against him, Murat chased the Turks from
Jacob's Bridge, and surprized the son of the Go-
vernor of Damascus. At the battle of Aboukir,
on the 25th of July following, the right wing,
consisting of 4000 cavalry, and nine battalions ot
infantry, with some artillery, was commanded
by Murat, who, after their defeat, cut off the
retreat of the Turks, who, according to Gene-
ral Berthier's report, struck with a sudden terror
at being surrounded on every side with death, preci-
pitated themselves info the sea, where no less than
ten thousand perished by musquetry, grape-shot,
and the waves.
In the next month, when Buonaparte unex-
pectedly and basely deserted the French army
in Egypt, Murat was one of the four Gene-
rals whom he selected to accompany him in
his flight. On this disgraceful subject General
Dugua, at present a Consular Prefect, writes the
following
MURAT. 201
following remarks, copied from his letter to the
Director Barras* : — " I shall say but little to you
on the departure of the General; it was only
communicated to those who were to accompany
him : it was precipitate. The army was thirteen
days without a Commander-in-chief. There was
not a sous in any of the military chests ; no part
of the service arranged; the enemy, scarcely
retired from Aboukir, was still before Damietta.
I confess to you, Citizen Director, I could never
have believed that General Buonaparte would
have abandoned us in the condition in which we
were; without money, without powder , ivithout
loll, and many of the soldiers without ar?ns. Delti
to an enormous amount; more than a third of the
army destroyed by the plague, by the dysentery,
by ophthalmia, and by the war; that which re-
mains almost naked, and the enemy but eight
days march from us. Whatever may be told
you at Paris, this description is but too true. 1 '
Such are some of the particulars of the last
infamous actions of Buonaparte, as a General-in-
chief of the army in Egypt, and of which
Murat shared the infamy.
When the annihilation of that constitution
was determined upon, which Buonaparte had so
k 5 ofteu
* Intercepted Correspondence, part in. page 15b.
202 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
often sworn to defend and obey, Murat, in th&
confidence of his friend, received, first, the com-
mand over the posts near the Council of Five
Hundred; and, when the Revolution was ef-
fected which seated the usurper upon the throne
of the Bourbons, the command over the Con-
sular Guard. To bind more firmly those bands
which united these two worthies, Buonaparte
gave him in marriage his sister Caroline Buona-
parte, who, in 1707» had been betrothed to
General Duphot, murdered in an insurrection
provoked by Joseph Buonaparte at Rome, on
the 27th of December that year. What had
become of Mu rat's former sans-culotte wife is not
known for a certainty. In a pamphlet called
" La Sainte Famille," it is said, that he had been
divorced in 1795; and in another pamphlet,
u Lettre d'un gentilhomme Francois a L'usurpa-
teur Corse" it is reported that she had died of
hard drinking.
In the spring of 1800 an army of reserve was
collecting near Dijon, under the command of
General Berthier, and Murat was appointed one
of his Lieutenant-generals. After the negli-
gence of General Melas had permitted this army
to cross the Alps and to enter Italy, the Aus-
trians were defeated at Monttbello on the 10th
of
MURAT. 203
of June, and the next day General Murat, who
commauded the advanced guard, succeeded in
driving them across the Bormida. At the bat-
tle of Marengo on the 14th, he led on the ca-
valrv, and, though at the onset completely-
routed, rallied again; and when the valorous
General Desaix took advantage of the imbecility
of the Imperial General, he, with Generals Mar-
mont and Bessieres, pierced the third and last
line of the Austrian infantry; in consequence of
which a defeat ensued, and the horse, infantry,
and artillerv, fled promiscuously towards one of
the bridges laid across the Bonnida.. But such
was the undaunted courage of the Imperialists,
deserving to be headed by a more able chief,
that the rear- guard presented a regular front,
though Murat cut many of them to pieces in
protecting valorously the retreat of the main
body.
On his return to Paris in August, he found the
scandalous boasting of his brother-in-law Lucien,
concerning an incestuous intrigue carried on with
Madame Murat, the common topic of conver-
sation. Three dtiels during two months were
the consequence; and had not the First Consul
interfered, and for this and for some other offences ,
removed Lucien from the Ministry of the Interior,
K.0 and
204 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
and sent him in disgrace as ambassador to
Spain, Murat would either have been divorced
from his wife, perished himself, or killed his
brother-in-law. Twelve months absence of Lu-
cien, and even an apology on his arrival from
Madrid, in 1801, did not produce a recon-
ciliation with Murat, who challenged, fought,
and wounded him again. To put an end to these
family quarrels, Napoleon Buonaparte promoted
Murat to the command in chief over the French
army in Italy, or, which is the same, made him
Viceroy over the Italian and Ligurian Republics,
and over the revolutionary kingdom of Etruria.
His wife accompanied him; and when he was
last December recalled to Paris, Lucien was first
sent off to plot at Naples, and afterwards or-
dered to visit his senatories on the Rhine, and
to travel in Germany: so discordant is yet the
fraternity between these two brother Septem-
brizers, of whom may be truly said :
II faut rendere justice a l'un et l'autrc membre,
lis ont ete parfaits les deux et trois Septembre.
During Murat's reign in Italy, his manner of
Jiving was more expensive and more sumptuous
his retinue more brilliant, his staff more showy,
his palaces more magnificent, and his guards more
numerous, than those of any lawful European
Sovereign,
MURAT. 205
Sovereign, and hardiy surpassed by the Cor-
sican usurper at Paris. He introduced at Milan
nearly the same etiquette that prevailed at the
Thuilleries and St Cloud. Madame Murat
had her maids of honour, her routs, her assem-
blies, her petit and grand entr<e, her petit s soupers,
and her grand circles ; as her husband had his
pages, his prefects of palace, his aids-de-camp,
his military reviews, his diplomatic audiences,
his presentations, his official dinners, his sallies of
humour against foreign Ministers, and his smiles
of complaisance to his minions; with ail the
other farrago of the pedantic, insolent, affected,
but revolutionary haut ton, introduced by the"
upstart and foreign tyrant of the French Re-
public*.
After Buonaparte's second visit to the army on
the Coast, where his Admirals as well as his
Generals tried to convince him of the danger, if
not the absurdity, of attempting an invasion with
his flotilla, which two or three of our small
craft kept blocked upf ; to occupy the public
attention and to divert the discontent which
delay or disappointment must excite among his
soldiers,
» See Les Nouvelles a la Main, Brumaire, an xii. No. xi.
page 6 and 7.
t See Les NoureUes a la Main, Ventosc, an xii. No. xi.
206 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
soldiers, who had already been ten months de-
vouring the riches of Great Britain, and regard-
ing her conquest as easy and certain, a plot was
necessary to be invented* The treachery of the
spy Mehee, and the impudence and indiscretion
of others, unfortunately procured him documents
enough to cause his French slaves to think it not
only probable but certain. If all occurrences'
during last winter are remembered, and if the
changes and promotions, and every thing else
which has been known of his internal as well as
external policy, be considered, little doubt re-
mains but that the arrest and disgrace of Moreau,
the death of the Duke of Enghien, and the pub-
lication of the pretended conspiracy in February
1804, had been determined upon in December
1S03. In that month Moreau's base enemy,
Jourdan, was nominated Commander-in-chief in
Italy, and his impertinent and cowardly calum-
niator, Junot, Commander-in-chief over the corps
d' Elite of the Army of England ; Louis Buona-
parte, received a command in the camp on the
Coast ; Joseph Buonaparte was sent to Brabant,
and Murat re-called from Italy to be the Go-
vernor of Paris, and Commander of the Army
of the Interior.
In this post Murat continues the same pa-
geantry^
MURAT. 207
geantrv, ostentation, profusion, and pomp, as in
that he had resigned in Italy; which evinces that
he is certain of no resistance in the execution of
the revengeful, political, or ambitious schemes of
his brother-in-law the First Consul ; but that
Frenchmen will see with the same indifference,
or silent indignation, the condemnation of Mo-
reau, as they did the barbarous murder of the
Duke of Enghien ; that the French refmblicans
will as much applaud the coronation of Buona-
parte as Emperor of the Gauls, as the foreign,
diplomatic corps in France has admired the for-
gery which a French spy has made of the name
of a British Minister.
Murat has 150,000 livres (COOOL) in the
month for appointments, as the Governor of
Paris, besides hotels furnished at the expence
of the Republic for himself, his w ife, and his
aids-de-camp. 30,000 livres (12301.) are allowed
him for the open table that he keeps for officers
on business, or on leave of absence in the
capital; and according to a French publication,
when Buonaparte assumes the Imperial diadem,
he is to be declared a Marshal of France, or
rather of the Empire of the Gauls, a place for-
merly occupied by Princes of the House of Bour-
bon.
208 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
bon. In landed property in France and Italy he
has laid out seven millions of livres, and his
wife's diamonds are valued at four millions*.
The painful and disgusting task which the
Author's loyalty has imposed upon him in deli-
neating this man's life, as well as those of many
of his accomplices, is mixed with the satisfaction,
that future ages will not be ignorant of the infa-
mous means to which they owe their notoriety,
their rank, and riches; and this may probably
prevent other ambitious individuals, if they ar e
not entirely deprived of all honourable or moral
principles, from attempting to gain advancement
and obtain affluence in following their foot-
steps, by remembering that neither an Imperial
sceptre, nor the Staff of Constable, have been
able to silence the virtuous indignation of Con-
temporary writers, from whose evidence they must
expect to be judged by an impartial posterity.
There is something romantic in most of these
revolutionary lives : had Murat been a good
actor, he probably would have figured no where
but upon the stage. The hisses which his inca-
pacity as a comedian provoked, changed the
scene; and he is become not an indifferent
tragedian
* Sec the same publication, Germinal, an xii. No. iii. page 9.
MURAT. 209
tragedian upon the great political and military
theatre of modern Europe*.
GENERAL
» What the Author has related in this life without quoting
his authorities, is taken from Recuell d' Anecdotes, from Diets-
tnnai'c Biograpbique y Die tionn 2' re dei jfueobins, Les Crimes des Rt~
^uilicuirts tn LaJie, and from Let Jnna!cs du Terrorism*.
fiio REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
GENERAL ROCHAMBEAU.
A kind of reputation acquired by the old
Field-marshal Count de Rochambeau, during
the seven years war in Germany, and during his
campaigns in America, as an ally of the revolted
subjects of the King of Great Britain, procured
from the bounty of Louis XVI. an early ad-
vancement for his son, the late Commander at
St. Domingo, who, at the age of twenty-five, was
promoted to the rank of a Colonel of the regi-
ment called Royal D'Auvergne. Like all other
French officers who had imbibed the rebellious
and democratical principles of the Americans,
Rochambeau joined, in 1789, the standard of
revolt erected in his own country, and became a
fashionulle patriot, because he was tormented by
an unprincipled ambition to gain notoriety; but
possessed neither capacity nor loyalty enough to
distinguish himself in quiet times, or as a dutiful
subject of the best of Sovereigns.
In 1791, the constitutional faction, N then ty-
rannizing over their King and his councils, pro-
cured
ROCHAMBEAU. Sil
cured Rochambeau the rank of a Marshal-de-
camp, and he served as such during the cam-
paign of 1792, under General Duke de Biron,
and was repulsed with him before Mons, en the
29th April. He was spoken well of in the
dispatches of his commander, for the intelligence
with which he performed the retreat on that
day j but, during the remainder of the year no
other notice was taken of him, except that, af-
ter the desertion of his friend La Fayette, he
was rather suspected by the jacobins, until his
oath of equality, in breaking his former oaths of
allegiance, made him worthy to regain their con-
fidence, and fortunately for him, to be appointed
Governor of Martinique. Had he remained in
France during the reign of Robespierre, there is
little doubt but that he would have shared the
fate of his accomplices, Biron, de Beauharnois,
Custine, and others, and his revolutionary
achievements must have terminated in the begin-
ning of their career.
As Governor of Martinique, Rochambeau
conducted himself in such a manner, that when
the English, on the 14th of March, 1794, cap-
tured its principal town, St. Pierre, they were
received by the inhabitants as deliverers, rather
than as enemies. But on all occasions, while
the
212 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
the attacks on the different forts continued, Ro»
chambeau exhibited oftener the little mind of a
vain man in a private station, than the neces-
sary talents for a commander, or the liberal sen-
timents of a true patriot. Sir Charles Grey, on
the 7 th of March, by a well conducted attack,
during a sortie by the mulatto General Bel-
legarde, seized on the heights of Sourrierre,
a post under the command of the latter;
who, perceiving his camp in possession of the
English, endeavoured to enter Fort Bourbon,
with a view of contributing to its defence ; but
notwithstanding the small number of the garrison*
he was repulsed by General Rochambeau, who was
at enmity with him, and obliged to throw himself
into the hands of the English, by whom he and
his companions were immediately sent to Ame-
rica. To this impolitic, if not cruel transaction,
many ascribe the necesstiy under which Ro-
chambeau felt himself in a fortnighit afterwards*
to capitulate and surrender the whole island to
the enemy. This General was so well aware of
what awaited him in France, that whilst all
his countrymen were made prisoners of war, he
stipulated for himself, by a secret article, per-
mission to go to America, where he resided with
Talleyrand, and other intriguers of the constitu-
tional
ROCHAMBEAU. 213
tional partv, until the guillotine was no longer
the order of the day in the French Republic.
In January 1796, he was, by the Directory,
nominated Governor- General of St. Domingo,
where he arrived on the 11th of May. He had
under his command Generals Laveaux, Toussaint
Louverture, and Rigaud. He was, besides, ac-
companied bv the four National Commissaries,
Santhonax, Le Blanc, Giraud, and Raimond, and
a number of officers and gunners, destined to in-
struct and form regiments of mulattbes and ne-
groes, to combat the English occupying the dif-
ferent points of that island. But, instead of act-
ing against the common enemy, Rochambeau dis-
agreed and quarrelled, not only with all the other
Generals, but even with the civil commissaries,
who deprived him of his command, and sent him
home as a prisoner to France ; where, soon after
his arrival, he was, by order of the Directory,
put under arrest, and shut up among some ter-
rorists in the castle of Ham. In a short time,
however, he recovered his liberty, with orders
to justify himself at Paris, which he did in a
manner rather to obtain forgiveness than to de-
serve future employment. For the remaining
part of the Directorial usurpation, he was con-
demned
214 REVOLUTIONARY PEUTARCH.
dcmned to obscurity : a severe punishment for an
ambitious, revolutionary intriguer.
When Buonaparte, under the name of a First
Consul, had proclaimed himself the king of a
faction in France, and determined to employ and
cajole every man of family or ability who had
figured in the bloody annals of the French Revo-
lution, Rochambeau was called forward, and, with
General Suchet sent to defend, with 20,000 men,
the principalities of Oneilla, St. Remo, and the
county of Nice ; but these Generals, at the ap-
proach of the. Austrians, instead of resisting, af-
ter placing garrisons in the forts, retreated be-
yond the Var, and employed themselves in pre-
venting the enemy from entering Provence ;
which, not their vigorous measures, but the un-
expected and undeserved victory at Marengo,
alone effected.
After the preliminaries with England, when
Buonaparte, to gain a commercial as well as
a military renown, sent out his brother-in-law,
the terrorist Le Clerc, as Captain- General of
St. Domingo, Rochambeau, from his know-
ledge of the country, was chosen his second,*
and the son of a nobleman, who, in 1789,
was a Colonel, accepted the command under
3 the
ROCHAMBEAU. SIS
the son of a miller, who, in 1789, was a com-
mon soldier.
The campaign of St. Domingo will probably
increase the revolutionary laurels of Citizen Ro-
chambeau, who now carries with him the same
curses from that island, as in 1794 from Mar-
tinique ; and therefore, if the policy of Buona-
parte demands no victims to pacify the manes of
his butchered white and Hack slaves, he undoubt-
edly merits as distinguished a place in the Le-
gion of Honour, as either Augereau or Fouche,
Santerre or Sieves.
This justice must, however, be done to Gene-
ral Rochambeau, that he has been alike constant
and faithful to all former republican factions,
when popular and powerful, as to the present
Consular one, which he certainly will not desert
so long as it disposes of places and pensions.
But should Buonaparte once share the destiny of
his predecessors the former kings of factions, La
Fayette, Brissot, Marat, Robespierre, Rewbel,
and Barras, Rochambcau's revolutionary con-
science will certainly not be an impediment to
joining his successors ; he will, doubtless, fight
their battles, cringe in their anti- chambers, bow
at their levees, and execute their orders, were they
d to command him to transport the whole
Buonaparte family to Cayenne.
GENERAL
21 e REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
GENERAL BOYER.
At Civrac and St. Christoly, in the depart-
ment of Gironde, stili exists a noble family of
the name of Boyer, one of whom was guillotined
in December 1793. Another person, from the
same department, of the name of Boyer- Fon-
frede, figured in the French Revolution during
1791 and 1792, as a patriotic Jacobin; and, a*
such voted in the National Convention for the
death of Louis XVI., but was sent in his turn
to the scaffold by the jacobins of 1793. To
neither of these is General Boyer related. He
was born at Paris in 1771 ; .where his father, a
citizen in easy circumstances, was enabled to
give him a good and careful education.
Young Boyer joined with enthusiasm, in 1739,
the subverters of Government, and served early
a Revolution which promised advancement to
the ambitious, employment to the active, plun-
der to the rapacious, and rank to all unprincipled
intriguers. At the forming of the National
Guard
8
BOYER. 217
Guard at Paris, he was chosen one of its offi-
cers. Employing with assiduity and genius all
his time to gain military knowledge, he soon dis-
tinguished himself by his capacity: in 1793 he
was made a Colonel, and in 179* an Adjutant-
General in the army of the Sambre and Meuse,
commanded by General Jourdan. He fought
bravely at the famous battle of Fleurus, and
caused himself afterwards to be particularly re-
marked in the engagements which took place in
the month of July, at Hui and St. Tron. Dur-
ing the remainder of this ( for the misfortune of
loyalty ) brilliant campaign for rebellion, he was
always foremost in dangers, and obtained the
esteem of his superiors and equals, as wrll as of
his inferiors. Even General Clairfayt spoke
well of his manoeuvres, and of his conduct to-
ward those Austrians whom the fortune of war
made his prisoners; and as the praise of an
enemy cannot be suspicious, it would be un-
generous, when he is in the same situation, to
conceal this trait of his character, though per-
haps hardened since by the examples of the fe-
rocious Buonaparte, and by the rivers of blood
which he himself afterwards waded through hi
Italy, Egypt, and St. Domingo.
In 1793, when France determined t act i.pon
TOL. Ill, £ t.;C
218 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the offensive on the other side of the Alps, Citi-
zen Buyer was sent to serve in the army of Italy,
where Buonaparte often mentions him in the re-
ports to the Directory, for his talents and bra-
very; and where he, on the 14th of April, 1796,
contributed greatly to the victory at Dego. He
was, in the autumn of the same year, attached to
the division commanded by General Kilmain;
which, by its vigilance, courage, and perseverance,
effected principally the fall of Mantua in February
1797; and a friendship was then formed between
him and this General, which continued to the
death of the latter.
When, after the peace of Campo Formio,
Buonaparte received from the Directory a carte
llanche to elect all the officers and troops that he
desired should accompany him to Egypt, in his
attack and pillage of provinces belonging to a
friendly Power, protected by treaties of two
centuries standing; Adjutant-General Boyer was
one of the first officers of that rank, whom he
ordered to join the expedition then preparing at
Toulon.
After the landing in Egypt, General Boyer
was among those who stormed the defenceless
city of Alexandria. Of the letters intercepted
by our cruizers, two are from this General,
dated
BOYER. 21$
dated Cairo, July 28, 179S: the one addressed
to General Kilmain, and the other to his pa-
rents. In these are reported some of the atro-
cities of Buonaparte, and of his armed banditti
" We began," says Boyer, " by making an as-
sault upon a place without any defence, and gar-
risoned bv about 500 Janissaries, of ichom scarce a
man knew how to level a musket. I allude to
Alexandria, a huge and wretched skeleton of a
place, ofjen on ev:ry side, and most certainly very
unable to resist the efforts of 25,000 men, wha
attacked it at the same instant. We lost, notwith-
standing, 150 men, whom we might have preserved
ly only summoning the town ; lut it was thought
necessary to legin ly striking ternjr into the enemy."
And again ie Repulsed," contiuues he, " oru
every side, the Turks betake themselves to God
and their prophet, and rill their mosques — men,
aomen. old, yowis children at the breast, all are
massacred. At the end of four hours, the fury
of our troops ceases, tranquillity revives iu the
city, several forts capitulate.- / myself reduced
one, into which 700 Turks had fled : confidence
springs up. and by the next day all is quiet."
In the march from Alexandria to Cairo, Buo-
naparte ordered Boyer with three armed sloops
to pick up some intelligence. Of this expedition
l 8 the
S
220 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the latter gives the folloVing account, in his letter
to his parents : <* With this little flotilla I ad-
vanced about three leagues in front of the army.
1 landed at every village on both sides of the
Nile, to gain what information I could respecting
the Mamelukes. In some I was fired at, in
others received with kindness, and offered provi-
sions. I took advantage of the goodness of these
good people, collected all the information I could,
and, continuing my route up the Nile, came to
anchor for the night opposite a village called
Chebriki, where the Mamelukes were collected
in force, and where the first action took place.
I sent off my dispatches that night. As soon as
the dav broke, 1 clambered up the mast of my
vessel, and discovered six Turkish shallops bear-
infr down noon me : at the same time I was re-
ts * *
■irforced bv a demi-galley. 1 drew out my little
Beet to meet them, and at half afrer four a can-
nonade began between us, which lasted five
hours: in spite of the enemy's superiority, I
made head against them ; they continued never-
theless to advance upon me, and I lost for a mo-
ment the demi-galley, and one of the gun-boats.
Yielding, however, was out of the question ; it
was absolutely necessary to conquer; in this
dreadful moment our army came up ; and I was
disen^a^ed.
BOYER. 221
disengaged. One of the enemy's vessels blew
up. Such was the termination of our naval
combat.''
Of these two letters, that to General Kilmain
is from a master-hand, confident of knowledge,
and deciding on fact, without periphrasis or af-
fectation. It is from an experienced officer, giv-
ing an account to his superior, whom he neither,
dared, nor, perhaps, wished to deceive, of such
operations as fell under his immediate inspection.
The other, to his parents, is also well written, and
with a sufficient knowledge of the transactions it
records ; and, except some few geographical and
historical blunders, does honour to his abilities,
though it is defective in simplicity and manly
decision, and deals out his little modicums of
information in a style of gravity and self-import-
ance, as if destined to be published in some
Parisian Gazette, to proclaim him to the cock-
neys or gossips of France as a man of conse-
quence.
During the remainder of the occupation of
EgyP 1 D >" ms countrymen, Bbyer was employed
in the division under General Desaix in Upper
Egypt j and, on his return to France, was made
a General of Brigade, and, as such, sent with tlie
army under Le Clerc to St. Domineo.
L3 On
222 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
On. his return from this colony last summer,
he was captured by our cruizers,-and is said to
have lost on this occasion, several thousand dol-
lars, which he claimed as his private property.
This, no doubt, made him forget himself, and to
speak and act in a manner, which did not pro-
cure him either the compassion or the esteem of
those who heard him during the first months of
his captivity in this country. Knowing that his
insulting; boasts and threats deserved at least to
be reprimanded, Buonaparte, judging the pro-
ceedings of our Government after his own r Hule
O
and revengeful character, with his usual pre-
cipitancy believed the rumour of General Boyer's
imprisonment, and in consequence shut up in
the castle of Lourdes, Lord Elgin, a traveller,
arrested contrary to the law of nations, as repri-
sal for a General enjoying a large share of Bri-
tish generosity and hospitality, though a prisoner,
both according to the laws of war and of na-
tions *.
Of
* Of this business, General Royer sent the following expla-
nation :
LETT!:? taOM GENERAL BO\KR TO LORD EARDLEY.
" MY LORD,
-" I received the letter you did me the honour to write ine,
and I lose not ■ moment in answering it, in order to bear tes-
t-inimiv to truth.
" The orders given by the French Government to use repri-
sals
BOYER. 22 J
Of General Bovcr's achievements in St. Do-
mingo, little is mentioned in the official reports.
But in some publications in an evening paper,
concerning the cruelties of Buonaparte's white
slaves at St. Domingo, is mentioned one General
Boyer, who, J or some pilfering, ordered his cook
to be devoured by blood-hounds. It is to be
supposed that this is not that General Boyer
now prisoner in England, but some other repub-
lican General of the same name.
L 4 ADMIRAL
sals aeainst the English prisoners bfdisfinction in France, c
oray iuve been occasioned by i\\\ departure from Tiverton,
the order o: i i Government which confine*! me to Cis-
tleton, in the mountains of Derby shite. That order, however,
having been revoked in seventeen days, and being now at Ches-
terfield, it is with pleasure that I take this opportunity to do
the most merited justice to the inhabitants of that town, ail of
whom feel towards the French prisoners of war the sentiments
due to misfortune
" As soon as 1 was removed from Castleton, I immediately
wrote to Fiance ; and I have no doubt that the French Govern-
ment is, by this time, apprised that, far from being I
rigour, I experience from the magistrates and inhabitants, the
protection of the laws, and the feelings which distinguish gene-
rous ini..
" Accept, my T.ord, the sentiments of high consideration
with which I have the honour to be,
" My Lord,
" Your Lordship's most humble, and most obedient Servant,
(Signed) " The French General, Boye r. '
44 Chesterfield, Jan. 7, 1804.
" The Right lion. Lord Eardley."
9S4 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
ADMIRAL LINOIS.
He who fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day.
The impolitic and selfish conduct of most
of the Continental Princes, has done as much to
advance the power of revolutionary France, as
the victories of its soldiers, and the intrigues of
its negotiators. Instead of receiving with kind-
ness, and rewarding w'th generosity, those loyal
emigrants who, faithful to their God and to their
King, and for the common cause of all lawful
Sovereigns, renouncing rank, riches, and a home,
became voluntary exiles, and distressed wan-
derers; the several governments in Germany,
Italy, -and Spain, treated them not only with
contempt, but with injustice and cruelty. An
asylum was refused them in most countries, and
bread in all. Insulted by their equals in rank,
but not in honour or loyalty, ministers gave
them up as criminals; the half-learned sophist
exposed their poverty upon the stage to common
ridicule, the jacobin lawyers and merchants
hatfd
LINOIS. 225
hated them, and the common people hunted
them as wild beasts. Neither age, sex, rank, ta-
lents, nor a noble firmness and resignation under
misfortunes, procured them the esteem of the
first classes of society, nor the compassion of the
inferior orders. Several of the French officer?
who had emigrated, or intended to emigrate,
returned therefore to their country, or changed
their minds. Berthier, Andreossy, Truguet,
Macdonald, Maringuy, and other men of capa-
city, were among the latter; and Linois, Lauris-
ton, and Desaix, among the former.
Linois was made a Lieutenant in the roval
navy during the American -war, and, in 1/5Q.
emigrated with several of his comrades to Italy ;
which, the next year, he left for Spain. Ob-
serving, however, the incomprehensible beha-
viour and prejudice of foreign government*
against all emigrants, he returned to France in
1791, after the unfortunate Louis XVI. had
accepted the constitution forced upon him bv the
rebels of the Constituent Assembly. In the fol-
lowing year he was promoted to the rank of
captain of a frigate, and during the action of the
1st of June, he commanded one of the "4-gun
ships which with difficulty escaped into Brest,
after Lord Howe had obtained such a gloriou*
1 5 victory*
225 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
victory. The national deputy, Jean Bon St.
Andre,, enraged at the defeat, which courage
had caused, and not treachery sold, to- revenge
his disgrace, and, perhaps, to extenuate his-
own ignorance and cowardice at the Committee
of Public. Safety, ordered several officers to be
arrested, accusing them of not having done their
duty. Linois was one of the number; and he-
remained in confinement until the death of Ro-
bespierre opened the doors of the republican pri-
sons for 200,000 suspected persons.
Under the. Director}', he was employed first
at Brest, and afterwards at Toulon; but it was
Buonaparte who advanced him to the rank of an«
Admiral, in 1800*. When, in the following,
spring, it was determined to send succours to*
General Menou, in Egypt,. Linois was offered
the command of the squadron intended for this-
expedition ; but he declined it, and Gantheaume
was appointed. It was only want of naval offi-
cers that prevented Linois' disgrace on this oc-
casion, as with the Corsican tyrant,, only to he-
sitate to execute even the most absurd or im-
practicable schemes, is regarded as rebellion, and.
often punished as such.
About June, 1801, Sir James Saumarez,. with
seven ships of the line, a frigate, and two armed
vessels,
LINOIS. C£7
vessels, rode in the bay of Cadiz, and inter-
cepted not only the trade with Spain, but be-
tween the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Buo-
naparte knew that six sail of large ships were at
Cadiz, ready for sea, and seven more in a state
of preparation; and therefore ordered Linois
to join, with three men of war and a frigate,
this Spanish armament. He sailed accordingly
but could proceed no farther than off Algesiias,
where he cast anchor. No sooner w r as the Bri-
tish Admiral informed of this event, than he
proceeded towards the entrance of the Straits,
to attack the enemy. Having made a signal to
prepare for an engagement, and also for a gene-
ral chace, he resolved to reconnoitre Linois 5 po-
sition, and the order of battle was prepared.
The squadron led by Captain Hood, of the Ve-
nerable, and reinforced by the Calpe, two gun-
vessels, and several boats from the neighbouring
garrison, on opening Cabareta Point, beheld
Linois' squadron, consisting of two ships of 64
guns, and one of 74, with a large frigate, -tying
at some distance from the very strong Spanish
batteries ; and when, in addition to this circum-
stance, the advantage of a leading wind was
taken into consideration, an attempt to obtain
possession of them not only seemed feasible, but
l G aflbr-ded
228 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
afforded well grounded hopes of success. The
signal was accordingly given for the ships to
take their stations, and engage as close as pos-
sible. However, the failure of the breeze, at a
critical moment, enabled Linois to waip nearer
the land, and exposed our armament to the
most imminent danger; for the Venerable, in-
stead of weathering the enemy, was under the
necessity of dropping her anchor. The Pompcc,
Captain Stirling, taking advantage of a light and
partial air, assumed a position opposite to the
inner vessel, which proved to be the Formidable,
bearing the flacr of Linois, and commenced the
action in a spirited and gallant manner, until
disabled. Some of the other ships were pre-
vented, for some time, by a failure of wind,
from coming up; but at length, the Hannibal,
receiving the benefit of the breeze, was endea-
vouring, by a bold and decisive manoeuvre, to
get between the French Admiral and the batte
rics, when she struck on a shoal, immediately
under the enemy's guns, and became unmanage-
able. In this situation, she was reduced to the
painful necessity of striking her flag. In the
mean time, the English Admiral, finding that
the. enemy, by drawing closer to the land, had
UiCiXased their distance, took advantage of an
occasional
LINOIS. 229
occasional breeze to approach nearer; it soon
after fell calm ; they drifted along with the cur-
rent close to the Island battery, on which they
opened a heavy fire. On receiving the benefit
of a gentle gale, they instantly prepared to re-
sume their former stations, when the wind once
more died away, and rendered all their efforts
useless. At length, after an action of nearly
five hours continuance, the British squadron re-
tired to Rosa Bay, leaving the Hannibal a-ground,
and in possession of the enemv, while two
French sail of the line appeared at the same time
on shore, and the whole detachment was supposed
to be rendered nearly unserviceable.
This action took place on the 6th of July.
Seven days afterwards, or on the 13th, by the in-
defatigable exertions of British officers and sea-
men, who received every assistance from the
garrison of Gibraltar, the whole squadron, one
ship only excepted, was nearly refitted and ready
for sea, when a new and more propitious oppor-
tunity occurred of distinguishing their valour.
Linois' three sail of line of battle, disabled in the
action, had been reinforced by five more, under
the command of Don Juan Joaquin de Moreno,
as well as by a French seventy- four carrying a
broad pendant. These, together with the Han-
nibal,
230 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH. .
nibal, which was with some difficulty warped
into deep water, and a number of Spanish fri-
gates and gun- boats, got under weigh, with an
intention of returning to Cadiz ; safe, in conse-
quence of their numbers, and assured, as they
imagined, of an easy victory, in ease of a contest
with a detachment so vastly inferior, and which
had been so recently foiled. Notwithstanding
Sir James Saumarez had no more than five dis-
abled ships of less rate and metal, to oppose
more than double that number commanded by
Linois, he was determined to avenge the late dis-
aster, and therefore once more hoisted the
signal for battle, and followed the enemy, which,
at eight o'clock in the evening, cleared Caba-
reta Point. The brave Captain Keates, having
received orders to attack the sternmost ship, and
keep between the fleet and the shore, the Superb
began the engagement at eleven o'clock at
night, by firing on several ships (particularly
the Real Carlos), which formed a cluster, and in
consequence of the darkness engaged with each
other through mistake. The Caesar, in the
course of a few minutes, also began to open on
another Spanish three-decker that had hauled
her wind ; but she was observed to be in flames,
and shortly after run on board another vessel of
the
LINOIS. 231
the same force to which the conflagration ex-
tended with uncommon rapidity ; so that, after
the lapse of a short but awful period, they both
blew up. These proved to be the San Hermini-
geldo and the Real Carlos, of 112 guns, and
1250 men each ; the former carrying the Spanish
Admiral's flag, and both officered from the
noblest families in Spain. In the mean time,
the English Admiral passed on to the assistance
of the Superb, Captain Keates, then engaged
with the Saint Antonio, carrying the broad pen-
dant of Commodore Le iioy, which had before
been silenced, and now struck her colours. After
the firing had ceased, it became so dark, that
none of the enemy's squadron were visible; the
Caesar, however, continued her course, during
a heavy gale, in chace of the remainder of the
fleet; and, at the approach of morning, could
only discover one French ship, which proved to
be Admiral Linois' flag ship, the Formidable,
endeavouring to reach the channel leading through
the shoals of Conil. Captain Kood attacked her,
and, after a spirited engagement, had nearly si-
lenced the enemy r when his mainmast, which
had been wounded before, was unfortunately
shot away; aud a calm ensuing, Linois effected
his escape into Cadiz, Such are the particulars
of
232 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
of two actions, in the latter of which the supe-
riority of the enemy was immense ; and, althouo-h
the confused state of the whole fleet rendered
the victory less difficult, yet the original design
of the English Admiral to engage ten sail of the
line, two of which were first rates, with one
eighty and four seventy-fours, evinces a degree
of gallantry which for ever reflects honour on the
English name.
Modesty and generosity are always compa-
nions of true courage. Linois was always thought
an experienced officer, but never a brave man,
even during the American war. The numerous
Spanish batteries, gun and mortar vessels in Al-
gesiras Bay, besides the want of wind, got into
his power the English ship Hannibal. His re-
port to Buonaparte on this occasion, in which
no mention is made of batteries, &c. or favour-
able accidental occurrences, in the most gasco-
nading style, boasts of a victory of three French
ships of the line over six English. But this im-
pudent falsehood is not enough. In relating the
particulars of the second engagement, he says,
that with his ship alone, he drove away four
British ships of the line, whilst, in fact, without
the accident to Captain Hood's ship, the Vene-
rable, he probably would have dated his report
from
LiNOIS. «*
from Gibraltar or Portsmouth, after being forced
to surrender his 84 to an English 74. Tt is true,
that Linois had a character to establish, whilst
he had no reputation to lose ; and chance, and
not talents or valour, procured him an opportu-
nity to usurp the pretensions of a hero, whilst
his whole conduct waa that of a trembling coward.
With such a man as Buonaparte, his military
slaves have no necessity to be over nice in their
official stories ; a man who, during his cam-
paign in Italy and Lgv;', wrote himself reports
containing hardly a word which was not an ab-
surdity, an impossibility, an exaggeration, or a
falsehood, cannot find himself offended at being
repaid in his own coin.
Immediately after the preliminaries of peace
had been signed with England, Linois was ap-
pointed to command the French expedition in-
tended to reinforce the troops at the Isle of
France, and at the Isle of Bourbon, and to take
possession of Pondicherry. He obtained this
appointment, because he had formerly served in
that part of the world under Count de Suffrein.
When Buonaparte again forced us into war,
his object was more to ruin our commerce,
than to conquer our territories in the Eastern
world. The bravery of Sir Nathaniel Dance,
and
234 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
and the dastardly behaviour of Linois, have dis-
appointed his expectations of pillage, and the
latter will probably suffer for the noble and un-
expected resistance of the former, and of his
companions in arms, because General Decaen,
Governor of the Isle of France, denounces poor
Linois to the vengeance of the Corsican, their
common tyrant", in a dispatch inserted in the
Moniteur of the 16th of September, 1801.
Many had conceived that the French official
paper, in its usual style of gasconade and misre-
presentation, would announce this shameful de-
feat as a victor v, or at least as a drawn battle ; but
the case was too strong even for Gallic ingenuity.
An impulse is supposed to have been formerly
given to the spirit of the British Navy by shoot-
ing an Admiral : Buonaparte will, probably, sa-
crifice Linois to the glory of the great nation. At
least private advices from France say, that orders
have already been sent out to Governor Decaen,
not only immediately to deprive Linois of the
command over the fleet, but to send him home
a prisoner by the first safe opportunity.
The following official dispatch deserves to be
preserved, as an honourable monument of Bri-
tish heroism, acknowledged even by the most ir-
reconcilable and illiberal of its foes.
Paris,
LINOIS. 235
Paris, S(pt. \6, 1S04.
MINISTRY OF MARINE AND OF THE COLONIES.
LVcaen, Captain- General of the French Settlements Eastward
»f the CapeofGooa Hope, to the Minister of Marine, and of
the Colonies.
Head-qu*>tfs, Isle »fFr'a*ct t A/.jy 15, 18^4.
" I have the honour to announce to you, Citi-
zen Minister, that the Rear- Admiral Linois has
arrived in the Road of the Isle of France, the 1st
of April, with the vessels Le Marengo, La Se-
millante, and Le Berceau. This unexpected re-
turn naturally excited my surprize, after the in-
formation I had received from the Rear-Admi-
ral in his letter, dated Batavia, Dec. IG. Afte r
enumerating the naval forces of the English, he
says, '* As they have many points to defend,
their forces must necessarily be divided; and I
hope to be able to do them a great deal of mis-
chief, by moving off successively to great dis-
tances in different parts of the Indian Seas."
And, in a postscript of the 24th of December,
" I have just taken in at Batavia six months pro-
visions for the squadron."
" The dispatches of Rear-Admiral Linois,
brought you by the Le Belicr, must have apprized
you of the same, and have flattered you, as it
did me, with the hope of the most successful
result. I was so confident in the conjectures
which
23<J REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
which I had made on the probability of success,
that when the squadron was discovered, I mul-
tiplied them, in the persuasion that the China
fleet had been met, attacked, and the greatest
part of it captured. I even supposed that the
two other frigates, which were not present, as
well as the Dutch brig, which had been placed
at the disposal of the Rear- Admiral, had stayed
behind to escort the captured vessels, and that
Rear-Admiral Linois had pushed forward only
to clear the way, and to look out for any Eng-
lish cruizers that might be off the Isle of France.
But I was deceived in my expectations, particu-
larly when, upon the return of my aid-de-camp,
whom I dispatched to the Admiral, he delivered
me a letter from him, beginning thus :— ( c I can-
not have the pleasure of seeing you till the ship*
of the squadron are under the protection of
your batteries; I therefore request you will be
kind enough to give orders that we may be ad-
mitted into the port as speedily as possible."
<f This letter the Rear- Admiral accompanied
with a narrative of the cruize of the squadron
under his orders. I think it necessary to insert
an extract here, and, after you have read it, I
request you to judge, Citizen Minister, whether
it was not natural, that I should express surprize
at
LINOIS. 23?
at Rear- Admiral Linois, when, on the following
day, he presented himself with the officers of his
squadron to pay their respects to me.
" At day-break of the 14 th of January, the
men at the mast-head discovered four, eight, and
successively twenty-seven sail to the N. N. E.
The number of these vessels left no doubt that
it was the China fleet. The Admiral* had
with him at this moment only Le Berceau and
L'Aventurier; the frigates La Belle Poule and
La Semillante, having kept under sail, had been
carried two leagues to leeward of the ship by
the force of the currents and stress of weather
on the preceding day. At a quarter past eleven,
a detachment of five of the enemy's ships came
to reconnoitre the squadron, while the others
lay -to. The admiral taking advantage of a
squall, which prevented the enemy from seeing
our movements, speedily called in his frigates, and
kept the wind in line of battle. The squall being
over, the five hostile ships formed in a line, and
likewise kept the wind. At half past five P. M. the
Admiral made a signal, that it being his intention
"oid an engagement in the night, he would
wait fur day-light to attack the enemy. He, how-
ever, endeavoured to get to windward of them.
"It
* Linois writes in the third person.
3
233 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
■" If the position of the enemy, during the
day, had been but an artifice to impose on us
to conceal their weakness, they would have
availed themselves of the darkness of the night
O
to endeavour to conceal their retreat from the
squadron, and upon that occasion the Admiral
might take advantage of their movements. But
he was presently convinced that this security was
not pretended. Three of their vessels had con-
stantly their lights, and the fleet lay by the
whole night, and kept themselves in good order.
This position enabled the Admiral to gain the
wind, and observe them more nearly. The
26th, at six in the morning, the enemy were
within a cannon shot and a half. The calm did
not permit the Admiral to undertake any thing
against thenif but he profited of it to call the
Captains of the squadron on board his ship: he
informed them, that his intention was to ad-
vance against the enemy with the first fair
breeze, to menace the centre of their line, and
to cut off the vessels in the rear. All the Cap-
tains were anxious to second the projects of the
Admiral, and informed him of the ardour which
prevailed among their crews j and it was not
without admiration that we saw in reality some
of the sick, then so numerous in our division,
quit
LTNOIS. 239
quit their hammocks, to drag themselves to the
post of battle. At half past seven the enemy
hoisted their colours ; our squadron also hoisted
theirs. Although near enough to distinguish the
vessels of the fleet, the Admiral could not disco-
ver its real force. Twenty of their ships had
the appearance of two-decked vessels. We
thought we discovered a frigate; a sloop of war
had a blue flag, so had three other vessels.
These made part of eight vessels which seemed
more particularly charged with the protection of
the convov. By the information which the Ad-
miral had obtained from neutrals coming from
China, he had learnt that there were seventeen
of the Company's vessels, six country ships, and
the brig, in all twenty-four vessels, ready to sail.
The three extra vessels which we saw might be
the intended convoy. At eight o'clock, the
wind having freshened a little, the fleet stood to
the south, drawn up in a line. From eignt to ten
vessels formed a double line to windward of the
first. The squadron bore down on the head of the
line, earning all its sails; but the wind having
shifted fromE. N. E. and at the same time havino-
died away, no longer permitted the Admiral to
stand to windward. At length, at noon, taking
advantage of a little breeze, he made all ready
to
€40 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
to cut off the two vessels in the rear of the enemy's
line.
tl Scarcely was his manoeuvre perceived, when
five ships of the double line attempted to get
to leeward, and fell upon the division. It then
became necessary to change the plan of attack,
and to avoid being placed between two fires :
he put to windward to meet the first two ships
of the line which had put about, and to attack
them.
" At half past twelve, the Marengo fired the
first shot, and the engagement commenced im-
mediately after. The nearest of the enemy's
ships sustained some damage; but being sup-
ported by those which followed, she put herself
alongside a-new, and kept up, as well as the rest,
a very brisk fire. — The ships which had stood off
joined those which engaged the division; and
three of them which had been among the first
engaged in the action, manoeuvred to get round
to leeward of us, while the rest of the fleet, com-
ing up with all their sails spread, shewed that
their plan was to surround us.
" The enemy, by this manoeuvre, had ren-
dered the position of the Admiral very dangerous.
The superiority of their force was evident; and
there was no longer time to deliberate upon the
part
LINOIS. 5«
fcart to be taken to avoid the disastrous conso-
quences of an unequal engagement. The Ad-
miral, availing himself of the smoke which en-
veloped him, sheered off, and running to E. N. E.
got to a distance from the enemy, who conti-
nued to pursue him for three hours, firing seve-
ral broadsides, but out of cannon shot.
w The Admiral was able to remark, during the
action, that from six to eight ships of the line
fired from their two decks. There is no doubt
but that they wished to be attacked, as it was
not until the moment of the engagement that
they shewed their upper tier of guns. This
engagement lasted forty minutes. The enemy's
shot generally pointed at our rigging, but did us
slight damage. Not one man was wounded.
ie As this cruize afforded no farther prospect
of advantage for this monsoon, the Admiral re-
solved on the 16th of February to steer for Bs-
tavia. After passing through Gaspard's Straits,
the frigate A la-Jan te btood in on the %\ st of Febru-
ary towards the squadron. On the 2,3th it cacr.e
to an ancliorat Batavia. Vice-Admiral Hartsinck,
commanding two men of war and a frigate, re-
cently arrived from Europe, was likewise at an-
chor in the road. The limited instructions of
that officer would not permit him to undertake any
vol. in, if expedition
N i C REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
expedition against the enemy, by combining his
forces with those of the Admiral.
i: In five days the squadron had taken in water
and six months provisions; it had likewise taken
on board refreshments for the sick, the number
of whom on board the Marengo alone amounted
to 70.
" The Admiral wishing to accelerate the sale
of the prizes, the Admiral Rainier and the Hen-
rietta, after consulting the captains of the squa-
dron, accepted the proposal made him by the
Shabendar, to purchase the two prizes and their
cargo for the sum of 133,000 piastres, exempt
from all deductions. The Council of the Govern-
ment, out of respect to its allies, permitted the
money to be exported by the squadron.
" On the 4th of March the squadron weighed
from Batavta, and found that of Admiral Jlart-
jinek at anchor under North Island : it had set
off four days -before. In standing into the
Strait of Sunda the French squadron was be-
calmed; and being carried away by the exces-
sive violence of the currents, it was for some
time in considerable danger. A small anchor
belonging to the Belle I'oule, was fortunately
the onlv loss that it sustained. On the Gth,
'•i;\;ng ckarcd the Strait of Sunda, the Admiral
dis-oatched
LINOIS. 543
dispatched the frigates Belle Poule and Atalante
on a cruize, and, keeping with hira the Semil-
lante and Le Berceau, steered for the Isle of
France, where he arrived on the 1st of April."
Lmois is between forty and fifty years of age,
a gentleman by birth, and from his youth edu-
cated for the navv.
M 2 CAMBACEttES*
-214 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
J. J. R. CAMBACERES,
THE SECOND CONSUL OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC,
AND ARCH-CHANCELLOR OF THE EMPIRE
OF THE FRENCH, &C. &C.
Ce renegat, a barbe grise,
De Robespierre ancien patron,
Porte empreinte la paillardise
Sur sa figure de Guenon.
AUCUSTE DANICAN.
Before the Revolution, while he was a Coun-
sellor of the Parliament of Toulouse, Camba-
ceres caused himself to be remarked for his extra-
vagant political principles, for his dangerous athe-
istical notions, and for his unnatural debauchery*.
In
* The unnatural propensities of Cambaceres are in France as
proverbial as those of Barras. In a work called Let Brigands
Demasques, by Danican, page 138, are these verses concerning
this Arch-chancellor :
Si vous avez peau douce et fine
Et chute de reins d' Apollon,
Vite il vous suit a la sourdine
II vous attrapeet sans facon,
Du plat d'une maine pateline,
II vous caressc le nienton;
La luxurc adoucit son ton
De fetits noms doux il vous nomine,
Et meme en plein jour il est homme,
A Vilitiscr son garjon.
CAMBACERES. 24*
In 1789, during the elections of Deputies for the
States General, he intrigued in vain to be no-
minated. He was not more successful in 1 79 1 ,^
in his attempt to be elected into the Legislative
Assembly; but in 179-', after the overthrow of
the throne and the imprisonment of Louis XVI.
when brigands governed, plundered,, and mur-
dered with impunity — when every loyal man had
emigrated, was imprisoned, or concealed, Cam-
baceres was without opposition, chosen a re-
presentative in the National Convention for the
department of Herault. From his -earliest youth
destined for the bar, and having for years, as a
Counsellor of Parliament, been accustomed to
legal transactions, he was chiefly occupied by this
Assembly in such of its committees as were busy
in revising or proposing the civil and criminal
laws. On the 12th of December, 1792, lie was
appointed by the National Convention, one of its
Commissaries to be sent to the Temple, to demand
of their unfortunate King the names of those per-
sons whom his Majesty desired should defend and
plead for him, during a trial where an assembly of
rebels and regicides had the sacrilegious audacity
to arraign their lawful Sovereign, and to con-
demn and murder him as a criminal. On the
day when the mock sentence ag-iinst this virtuous
m 3 Prince
'2ii5 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Prince was pronounced, Cambaceres voted his
provisional detention ; and death, in case the
French territory was invaded by the leagued
crowned tyrants.
During the reign of Robespierre he courted
the protection of that republican Anthropophage,
cither by attending with assiduity to his duty in
the committees, or by a silent vote in favour of
all the atrocious laws and measures proposed by
the Committee of Public Safety. He, by these
means, escaped proscription. It was, however,
observed, even by the vile and vicious members
of the regicide Convention, that on all occasions
he took an opportunity to produce motions or
persuade determinations in favour of libertinism,
immorality and licentiousness. On the 30th of
October, 1793, he caused a decree to be sanc-
tioned, by which all illegitimate children ob-
tained the same rights to succeed to the estates,
property, and names of their parents and rela-
tives, as those born in lawful wedlock: on an-
other day, a plan of his for licensing divorces on
account of the incompatibility of tempers, was
converted into a law. The consequence of the
first decree was, that within six months every
family in France possessing property, was at-
tacked by some pretended bastard or other, who
desired
CMteACERES. 247
desired to share it; and according to Prudhomme,
•' The admission of divorces for incompatibility
of temper, has alone made two millions of or-
phans, and caused a total dissolution in the mo-
rals of the people, extending to all classes, more
difficult to correct than the antisocial effect
the writings of Voltaire, IKIvetius, and other athe-
istical writers or mtt;i physical dreamers*.*'
On the Cist of August, 1793, he was elected a
member of the commission which was charged
by the National Convention to compile a new
code of laws. With his- usual prudence, he nv.de
this employment an excuse for not taking anr
active part in the divisions which at that period
detracted this Assembly, and was thc-refore not
implicated in any of those blood v scenes pro-
voked or committed by different factions. Af-
ter the death of Robespierre he first shewed a
desire to be remarked, and an ambition to obtain
places, if not popularity. In discussing, on the
11th of August, 179*, the question relative to
the organization of the committees, he insisted
upon the necessity of not granting anv of them
the right to dispose of the liberty of the repre-
sentatives of the people. On the lOih of No-
vember following, when the seventy-three
M 4 Conventional
* SceHistoiredes Crimes, par Priulhouunt, torn. v. page 96.
248 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Conventional Deputies, arrested by the orders of
Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety,
recovered their liberty, he demanded an amnesty
for all crimes not mentioned in the criminal code
Being afterwards appointed a member of the
Commission of Twelve for framing the plan of
the new constitution, he was, with Boissy d'An-
glas, Lanjuinais, and Sieves, regarded as one of
the authors of the very directorial constitution
of 1795, which he assisted Buonaparte to over-
turn in 1799. It is true, he had been disap-
pointed in his ambition of being one of the
Directors, and by a discovery that he had duped
the Royalists as well as the Jacobins, in flattering
them by turns, he had become the detestation
of them both; and therefore, from necessity as
well as from vengeance, he joined a man, the
chief of a new, or the Consular and revolutionary
aristocraticai faction, which he foresaw would
sooner or later crush or swallow up all the former
ones.
With Buonaparte he has long shared the
curses of the Parisians, because, if the former
"butchered 8000 of them in the streets of Paris
on the 6th of October, 1795, the advice of the
latter, in the united committees of the expiring
Convention, made such an act and a civil war
almost
CAMBACERES. fttt
almost unavoidable. In the night preceding that
day, the majority of the members in these com-
mittees intended to revoke the decrees of the
5th and 13th Fructidor, which in a tyrannical
manner deprived the French citizens of their
right to chuse their representatives, and which,
had forced the Parisians to arm in defence of
their violated privileges, while Cambaceres alone
opposed such an intention with a threatening
obstinacy. " We are lost," said he, " if we
return on our steps ; whether the decrees are, or
are not, just, and according to lauj'ul principles, it
is not thut which we have now to consider about
or to examine. I say again, a retrograde step
destrovs us all." The terror of his own guilty
conscience was soon extended and communicated
to those of his accomplices : the butchery on the
next day was the consequence, and 8000 inno-
cent men, women, and children perished, be-
cause 500 rebels and regicides were trembling at
the apprehension of those gibbets which they
knew they so well merited*.
When the Council of Five Hundred had suc-
ceeded the National Convention, Cambaceres
was made its first secretary, a temporary place,
m 5 but
* Sec Le Recueil d' Anecdotes, page 466 5 and Les Brigands
Demasques, page 138, and 139.
1
250 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
but little calculated to gratify the ambition of a
man who pretended to be not only one of the so-
vereigns over this Council, but over all France,
as a Director. From that time, he gave out
with Sieyes, that the Directorial Constitution
was not perfect enough for the honour, liberty,
and happiness of Frenchmen, and for the tran-
quillity of the French commonwealth ; and, as
the guillotine was no longer the order of the
day, he more openly joined the discontented and
the factious, though at the same time paying an
assiduous court to the Directory, by attending
the levees of Barras, Carnot, Rewbel, and La Re-
vcillere. In October 1790, Ik; was in conse-
quence elected a member of the Diplomatic
Committee, charged to examine the treaty which
Buonaparte had but lately, in the name of the
Directory, concluded with the King of Naples ;
and in November he became a member of the
National Institute. The reflections that he deli-
vered in his speech, at the first sitting of that
society of revolutionary savans, with respect to
the classification of the several branches of sci-
ence, and the order of the correspondence, were
replete with good sense, and adopted according-
ly ; and many began to think him possessed
of a mind equally capable of embracing literary
as
CAMBACERES. a*J
as political transactions. It was soon discovered,
however, that this speech had been composed
• La Harpe, as a grateful return to Cambaceres
to; having reversed the outlawry against him of
1795, when he was inculpated in the opposition
of the armed Parisian sections *.
In J7y/ he vacated his scat in the Council of
Five Hundred, and intrigued to succeed Merlin
of Douai, in the place of a minister of justice,
when the latter, after the revolution of the 4th
of September in favour of the jacobins, had suc-
ceeded Barthelemy as a Director: but Rewbel,
who at all times had declared himself his perso-
nal enemv, excluded him ; and it was not till
July 1799, when Rewbel was no longer a Direc-
tor, that he obtained this ministry, in which he
continued until Buonaparte, in the December
following, advanced him to be Second Consul |.
Cambaceres was born at Montpelier, in 1750,
where his father was a Counsellor in the Cows
des Aides, and his uncle, the famous Abbe Cam-
baceres, afterwards Chaplain to the King, a
Canon and Archdeacon. He is of middle size,
and a thin, pale, or rather sallow complexion;
and his constitution is worn out by his debau-
54 6 cheries.
* Le Recueil d' Anecdotes, page 467.
♦ Histoire Secrete du Dircctcirc Geneve, 1800, page a.i.
*52 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
chcrics. At a dinner with the banker Recamier,
in the spring of 1802, where Generals Moreau
and Macdonald, with several other republican
fivil and military characters, were present, the
author heard it declared, as the uncontradicted
©pinion in France, that of all the citizens who
had figured in the regicide National Convention,
Cambaceres was the purest and most respectable f
THE
( 253 )
THE GRAND JUDGE REGNIER,
CRAN'D OFFICER OF BUONAPARTE'S LEGION 0*
HONOUR.
hi* fois ! Juge et plaideurs, il faudroit tout Her.
HACIKS.
It is difficult to say which is the most dis-
gusting in the revolutionary annals of France, the
barefaced unfeeling injustice and cruelty with
which French republican judges have condemned
innocence, or the shocking indifference with
which the French nation has seen dragged to
the scaffold, virtue of all ranks, of all classes 5.
the monarch from his throne ; the nobles from
their palaces ; the priests from their altars ; the
merchants from their warehouses $ and the pea*
sants from their cottages. Persons of both
sexes, of all ages, have been judicially mur-
dered : on the borders of eternity at fourscore,
or in the spring of life, before youth had counted
three lustres: the most pure, the most irre-
proachable life availed nothing : eighty years of
honour and of probity did not preserve any
one
854 T1 " r PLUTARCH.
rid
■
otsti frgi I ai'd w >ng ; what in
civiff^ed natibfts is punishable as guilt., or even
among baroarians, is respected and protected as
innocence. These tiurrui deeds h«ve intro-
duced into France a confusion of ideas advan-
tageous to real malefactors, because the public
opinion and the public compassion are yet al-
ways uncertain, whether the condemned be cul-
pable or innocent; a victim of the violated laws
of his country, or of the caprice, cruelty, or ven-
geance of outrageous factions in power.
Regnier is the son of a waggoner near Nancy,
in the former duchy of Lorraine. Educated by
the Jesuits from charity, and by a subscription
of some noble families at Nancy afterwards
enabled to pursue the study of the law, the
French Revolution found him an humble ad-
vocate of little practice and less talent. 3y bis
political and religious hypocrisy, he had per-
suaded both the nobility and the clergy that he
was not only a loyal subject, but a sincere chris-
tian; and the united interest of these, tbe two
first orders of the State, procured him in 1789,
his election as a Deputy of the Tiers Etat to the
States
•35
States General, a on afn
bv the- appellation of the Const., >ly.
This Assembly contained a most heterogene-
ous composition of men of talents and ot itleots j
of princes of the blood, and of "persons from the
very dregs of the people ; of the wealthiest pro-
prietors in the kingdom, and of individuals not
possessing an acre of land, or a revenue, in mo-
nev, of the value of a guinea. The majority
were, unfortunately for France and Europe, of
the latter description. Ambitious, unprinci-
pled, and half-learned, they were ail greedy for
power, passionate for riches, eager to usurp
places, desirous to humiliate rank, and voraci-
ous to plunder wealth. Their pretensions were
as absurd as their conduct was criminal. To be
enabled to rule, or rather to tyrannize, they
assailed all governments with sophistical decla*
mations in favour of liberty ; and to remove the
only barrier to human passions, they published
writings, or pronounced speeches, in which re-
ligion was made not only ridiculous, but odious }
well knowing, that as long as the mass of the
nation revered the faith of their ancestors, and
respected the altars of Christ, individuals of fac-
tions might secretly undermine, but could not
expect
8
Zse REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
expect any support in an open attack on the
throne of their King.
Pretended philosophers, they were political
and revolutionary fanatics, the most intolerant,
despotical and ferocious of men ; and while pro-
claiming principles of universal philanthropy,
they endeavoured to plunge a dagger into the
bosom of every person who was not an accom-
plice, who disapproved of their doctrine, or who
detested their enormities. Among these men,
Regnier conducted himself with a duplicity
which he called prudence ; because he deceived
all parties,, while he was cajoled and paid by
them all. He was, however, both from birth
and inclination attached to those innovators
who, like himself, had no property to preserve,
and no morality to prevent them from regarding
all the riches of France as their patrimony. In
October 1789, therefore, he was chosen by the
National Assembly a member of the Financial
Committee; and in May 1799, of that of Le-
gislation. But he never declared himself in any
decided manner, either in defending the pre-
rogatives of his King, the rights of his bene-
factors of the privileged classes, or the anarchical
and destructive opinions of conspirators, rebels,
and
REGNIER. 25T
ind atheists. On the 22d of June, 1791, he
was sent as a representative of the people to the
departments of the Rhine and of Vosges, to keep
up the puUlic spirit in favour of the Revolution,
and to prevent an insurrection, which the Na-
tional Assembly apprehended would be the con-
sequence of the unfortunate departure from
Paris of the betrayed Louis XVI. and his fa-
mily at that period. Except some few arbitrary
imprisonments and requisitions, he acted dur-
ing this mission with moderation j being yet,
from the sentiments that he heard expressed
every where by the majority of the inhabitants,
uncertain whether loyalty would not finally
crush rebellion.
At his return to Paris, La Fayette, the two
brothers Lameth, Talleyrand, Barnave, Sieyes,
and the other leading members of the Assembly,
had been bought over by the Court ; and to
wear his crown of thorns some few months,
longer, the good, but ill-advised Louis XVI. had
enriched instead of punishing those traitors, to>
whom alone he owed all his sufferings, and his
subjects all their misery. Of these spoils of rov-
alty, Regnier, no doubt, had his share; because,
after the King, in September of the same year,
bad been forced to accept that code of royal
democracy
2*8 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
democracy decreed by the Constituent Assem-
bly, he went back to his province, and sudden-
ly exhibited an affluence which was an humi-
liating and dishonourable contrast to the dis-
tressed situation of those plundered, beggared,
or proscribed noblemen and gentlemen, to whom
he was indebted for every thing, except his ill-
gotten riches.
Want of gratitude has been complained of at
all times and in all countries ; but at no period
have been related, and no where have been wit-
nessed, so many examples of ingratitude as since
the Revolution in France, where the benefactor
has not only been neglected and insulted, but
often murdered; and that for no other reason
than the remembrance of past generosity, and the
claim that it carries with it, and to which it is en-
titled. With the purse-proud national robbers,
egotism is prevalent even in regard to their secret,
private, or internal feelings; and death is their
sentence on those who have known them beg-
gars, relieved their necessities, encouraged their
talents, or rewarded their industry. Not only
all benevolent men, but all persons in power in
France, from the King to Barras, have expe-
rienced during these last liftcen years the truth of
this remark. Robespierre, as well as Louche,
Talleyrand
HEGXIER. 209
i aileyrand as well as Tallien, have directly or in-
directly sent to perish, those who protected or in-
structed their youth — who paid for their education,
or who procured their advancement. And if
Buonaparte has not, like the regicide assassins of
Louis XVI. murdered hvs benefactor Barras, the
life of this euifrv man is connected with circum-
stances which make it politic for the usurper to
spare him, and to be satisfied with having disgraced
and exiled him, after quietly occupying his revo-
lutionary throne.
Hitherto Regnier had been looked upon as a,
man of moderate rather than of violent notions ;
as more avaricious than sanguinary ; as an intri-
guer, but not as an assassin. But meeting witn a
well-deserved contempt, when with the insolent
airs of an upstart, he pretended to an impertinent
familiarity with his former patrons, and expected
an equality which fortune every where lias the
audacity to require from suffering, though me-
ritorious rank and eminence, he entirely threw
off the mask, became a terrorist — a President of
the Revolutionary Committee at Nancy, and, as
he signed himself, one of the purveyors for the re-
publican guillotine of the department of La Meur-
the; and among those whom he thus provided
for, and recommended to inevitable destruction,
were
S6a REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
were two noblemen who generously articled him
as clerk to an attorney, who had elevated him,
and paid for his board and lodging during eight
years j and three old Jesuits of that college where
he charitably, though with so little profit, had
been taught the duties of a christian and of a
citizen*.
In i( Les Annates du Terrorisme," page 93, is a
letter from Regnier to the republican hero, Maxi-
milian Robespierre, dated Nancy, April 2, 1-79-1,
in which he says : — iC I too worship Marat,
and kneel before the goddess of reason. I too
adore the sublime principles of the Mountain,
X too have dispatched 62 noble aristocrats, and
86 aristocratical priests, for the scaffold. I too
have arrested 496 suspected persons, and de-
manded the heads of 942 lukewarm patriots or
federalists, who have refused from my hands th?
diadem of republican patriotism— the red cap ! I
too have ordered all our sittings to begin with
Sonde Marat ! ora pro nobis ; and to finish with
" The Mountainf&r ever !" &c. &c. In " Recueil
d' Anecdote*," page 33, he is proved " to have
murdered tivo hundred persons, amongst others, an
old blind man, aged eighty -four ; and a young lady,
Mademoiselle-
» See Diclionnaircdes Jacobins, torn. \i* page 163, and- Is
Rapport du Courtois,page 39.
REGNIER. " Sffll
Mademoiselle de Fresnoy, aged thirteen, whom he
violated lefore he ordered her to he guillotined', and
to have appropriated upwards of two millions of
livres worth of national property, in his seques-
trations of the estates and effects of emigrants."
This is an authentic, though only a slight sketch
of the patriotic transactions of the Consular Grand
Judge during the reign of terror. But his revo-
lutionary consistency was no greater than his
revolutionary humanity. Prudhomme in his
General History mentions, " That no sooner
was Robespierre dead, and the Jacobins and Sans-
culottes out of fashion, than Regnier exchanged
the dress of a Septcmlrizei- for that of a Muscadin,
and of the prayers to Marat were made hymns to
royalty: from August 179*> to February 1795, he
never went out of his house but with a white
cockade in his pocket, while he wore a tri-colour-
ed one in his hat."
In 1795 he was nominated by the department
of Meurthe a member for the Council of An-
cients, where he apper.Ted very often in the tri-
bune, and always opposed moderate, liberal, or
just measures. In November of the same vear,
he was chosen Secretary, and in February 1796
President of the Council. Observing, however,
that after the Revolution in favour of the Jaco-
bins
262 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
bins in 1 7 i» 7 5 the Terrorists again wished to revive
the reign of Robespierre, to denounce, to impri-
son, and to butcher en masse, he re-assumed his
former prudence, and silently followed the violent
current of c'anten 'ing factions, which then carried
every thing before it. Bi.t hi attending the levees
of Rewbel and Harras he took care to natter Buo-
naparte, to bow to Tal ley rand, to praise Jourdan
and to comp'iment Moreau.
At the new Jacobin Club of 1 799, a member
proposed a decree, obliging all einiched patriots,
under pain of death, to render an account of their
fortunes. This created a general alarm among
the thousands of rapacious upstarts who had
built palaces of the rubbish of the throne, of
churches, and of casdes ; and who weltered in a
scandalous affluence in the midst of the great
distress of their country, and the universal poverty
of all good men, their fellow-citizens; and this
made many jacobins, with Regnier, favourable
to the Revolution which seated the jacobin
Buonaparte upon the republican throne, at the
expence of the rights of all other jacobins- He
was, therefore, among the conspirators of the
Councils of Ancient?, who, in a committee, pre-
pared the overthrow of the Directory and of the
constitution of the year 8, both which they had
so
REGNIER. 263
so often sworn to respect and to defend ; and in
return, he was appointed by the Consular Go-
vernment, first, a Counsellor of State in 1799,
and afterwards, in 180', . Buonaparte was
dechred Consul for hre, a G ... d J 'dge, and
Minister of the Gene ral Police of the Fra r :\ Re-
public, fie is, be>id<?s, a Senator, and a G r, nd
Officer of the infamous Legion of Honour*,
and
* The following particulars of Buonaparte's Legion of Ho-
nour are taken from a French publication :
" The number of members of Buonaparte's Legion of Honour
is unlimited, and, once chosen by him, tbey continue f»r life, if
'bey con'inuf to possess bis confidence. They arc a kind of re volution-
ary nobility, because, though their children do not inherit their
rink and privileges, they have a right to demand, in preference ^
places at the Prytanees, or republican free-schools, admittances
into the public offices, and promotions in the army. On all oc-
casions, with equal merit, they precede other competitors ; and
at public feasts or processions they occupy from father to son
the places of honour; and a fourth of the national pensions of the
fathers descends to the oldest son. The daughters receive their
portions from the treasury of the Legion of Honour, if their fa-
thers die poor, and their husbands share their rights of preceden-
cy. They are distinguished by some external marks, and all
sentries whom they pass are to present arms. All classes of
citizens are admitted when approved of by the First Consul ;
and the cooler who shews any extraordinary merit in mending
shoes, or the architect in building palaces; the soldier who with
dexterity dispatches an individual enemy, or the general who de-
feats a whole hostile army ; a pettyfogging attorney mtorieut
for chicanery, or a grand judge famous for capacity and integri-
ty ; the pariotic mayor of a village, or the patr'atie prefect of a
department ; the niU drummer in the camp, or the no less aiU
fiddler
#S4 HEVOLUTIONATRY PLUTARCH.
and unites in his person more power and salaries
than five of the King's former Ministers enjovcd
together.
Such
fiddler at the opera ; the ingenious dauber of sign-posts, or the
no less ingenious painter of the museums; inventors of every
kind, colour, and description; the inventor of the guillotine, as
well as the inventor of the telegraph ; the improver of wooden
shoes, as well as the improver of telefcopes ; the tailor who
r.ew-fashions the sleeve of a coat, or the metaphysician who new-
models an empire; the industrious of all classes; the retail
pickpocket in the street, or the banker pilfering** masse in his
hotel ; the village curate, as well as the cardinal archbishop
of the capital : — in short, citizens of great merit and great ta-
lents, ever so low or ever so high, ever so humble or ever so
exalted, have all the same claims to be incorporated am org
the revolutionary nobility of the French republic, a*.- and in->: .
visible.
According to the official matriculation book (matiicuu), 96$
citizens were elected by the First Consul Members of the Le-
gion of Honour up to the first \ivose (December aij. A revo-
lutionary amateur, envious, no doubt, at not being one amonf
them, has published insidiously the revolutionary merits of til
the honourable members of the honourable Legion of Honour ;
and pretends that this legion consists of 82 regicides, 218 ter-
rorists, 306 moderate jacobins, 74 notorious murderers, 20 con-
demned thieves before the Revolution, 6z notorious and cor-
victed plunderers since the Revolution, 16 Septembrizers, zz
thieves and forgers burnt on their shoulders upon the pillory,
36 released galley-siaves, 44drowners en masse, 66 shooter* em
masse, and 27 incendiaries. — Lfl the whole, 969 rebels.
We apprehend that this account is rather exaggerated ; but we
know for certain, that no foreign citizen is yet a member of ihe
Legion of Honour ; and tlwt the report of the King of P ,
of the Elector of B , and of the Ministers Haugvvitz, Lur.
chesini, Montgelas, and Cctto, having accepted places in thii
corps, is hitherto without foundation, Let Noavcllfi * /*
Main, Nivose No. ii. page 12,
REGNIER. 205
Such is the imperfectly drawn portrait of a
titled rebel, the public functionary of the vilest
and most ferocious of usurpers, who has lately
excited the public attention by his impudence in
placing the Duke of Enghien, and the Generals
Pichegru, Moreau, and Georges, upon one (by
him called; List of Brigands and Conspirators ;
and for his audacity in daring to calumniate the
British Government and Nation. Such is the
moral character of a Grand Judge, the protector
of the laws, and the guardian of the lives, liberty,
and property, of thirty millions of Frenchmen.
Such is the public, political, and revolutionary
life of a man, who, in a high official capacitv,
denounces, in the following ReporLs to Buona-
parte, the pretended immorality, and, as he mo-
destly says — the despicable characters of the En-
glish Ministry, composed of noblemen and gentle-
men whose unblemished virtues as statesmen, even
their opposers acknowledge to be equal to their
private worth as individuals.
THE GRAND JUDGE'S RERORT TO THE FIRST-
CONSUL.
C1T1IEN TIJlST COVifL,
I think it my duty to separate from the in-
formation respecting the vile conspiracy which
VOL. III. R p U bh C
26.6 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
public justice will shortly bring to public view,
and punish, those pieces of additional correspon-
dence, which, in this great affair, and, as far as
concerns the police, is but trifling; but, in its po-
litical point of view, seems to me of a nature that
cannot fail to open the eyes of Europe to the
despicable character of the English Ministry, the
meanness of its agents, and the miserable expe-
dients it has recourse to, fur accomplishing it*
views.
An English Minister is accredited at a Court
bordering on France ; the manners of the people
attach distinctions and privileges to this place,
and not without reason. The residence of a
Foreign Minister is everv where designed for
the ascertaining and maintaining of those bonds
of friendship, confidence, and honour, which
unite States, and whose preservation constitutes
the glory of a government, and the happiness of
the people.
But these are not the views of the diplomatic
agents of the British Government. I shall lav
before you, Citizen Consul, the direct corres-
pondence which Mr. Drake, the English Am-
bassador to the Elector of Bavaria, has held for
these four months with agents sent, paid, and
employed, by him in the heart of the Republic.
This
REGNIER. "67
This correspondence consists of ten original letters,
written in his own hand.
I shall also lay before you the instructions
which that gentleman is charged to distribute te
his agents; and an authentic account of the sums
already paid, and of those premised, as an en-
couragement and reward of crimes, which tha
mildest laws even* where punish with death.
(See the instructions, Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, of
the correspondence) .
It was not as the representative of his Sove-
reign that Mr. Drake came to Munich, with
the title of Plenipotentiary. This is merely hii
ostensible character, a pretence for sending him :
the genuine object of his mission is, to recruit
for agents of intrigue, revolt, and assassination,
to stir up a war of plunder and murder against
the French Government, and to wound the neu-
trality and dignity of the Government where he
resides.
It is premised, though Mr. Drake appears
ostensibly as a public character, that he is in
reality (as his private instructions prove) the se-
cret director of English machinations on the
Continent • the sinews of which are gold, cor-
ruption, and the foolish hopes of those con-
n 2 cemod
26s REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
corned in the plot, and of all the ambitious peo-
ple in Europe. -
His aim is plainly pointed out in the eighteen
articles of his instructions with which Mr. Drake
furnishes his agents, and which form the first of
the pieces added to this Report.
Nos. 2, 7, S, 9, and 13, of these instructions,
are sufficiently remarkable.
Art. 2. The principal point in view being the
overthrow of the present Government, one of
the principal means of accomplishing this is, the
obtaining a knowledge of the plans of the ene-
my ; for this purpose it is of the utmost import-
ance to begin by establishing a correspondence
in the different bureaus, for obtaining particular
information of all the plans, both as to the ex-
terior and the interior. The knowledge of these
plans suggests the best mode of rendering them
abortive ; and the want of success is the most
effectual means of discrediting the Government,
the first and most important step toward the end
proposed.
7. To gain over those employed in the pow-
der-mills, so as fo be able to blow them up, as
occasion may require.
8. It is indispensably necessary to gain over a
certain
REGNIER. 569
certain number of printers and engravers who
may be relied on, to print and execute every thing
that the confederacy may stand m need of.
9. It is verv much to be wished, that a per-
fect knowledge may be gained of the situation of
the different parties in France, and particularly in
I'uris.
13. It is well understood, that every means
must be tried to disorganize the armies, both in
and out of the Republic.
Thus you see that the real objects of Mr.
Drake's mission are, to bring fire and flames
into the Republic, to blow up the powder-mills,
to procure trusty printers, and engravers for
the purposes of forgery, to penetrate into the
heart of every assembly, to arm one party
against the other, and, in fine, to disorganize the
armies.
But, happily, this evil genius is not so power-
ful in its means, as it is fertile in illusions and
sinister projects; were it otherwise, there would
be an end of society. Hatred, craft, gold, and
a total indifference as to the means employed,
are neither wanting to Mr. Drake nor the im-
moral policy of the Government whose agent
he is. But they do not possess power enough
to shake the organization of France, which is
M 3 of
270 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
of the strongest nature, having its foundation
in the affections of thirtv millions of citizens.
cemented together by their joint strength and
interest, and animated by the wisdom and genius
of the Government.
Those whose only abilities consist in low in-
trigue, and who consider nothing of any value
besides, are not able to conceive the strength and
power of a combination of circumstances, there-
stilt often years of sufferings and ten years of vic-
tories, of a concurrence of events, and of the estab-
lishment of a noble nation, founded on thi
dangers and efforts of a glorious war, and a terrible
revolution.
In the midst of these means, Mr. Drake sees
nothing but opportunities for intrigue, and the
efforts of spies. "During my stay in Italy," he
says to one of his correspondents (Munich Jan.
27, No. 7), " I had connections with the interior
of France : — I should continue to have them, at
I am at this moment, of all the English Minis-
ters, the nearest to the frontiers."
This is his pretence for exercising his utmost
endeavours for the overthrow of France, lint his
means are no better than his right.
He has agents in whom he dares not con-
fide. His doubtful correspondents write to him
viz
REGNIER. 271
Switzerland, Strasburgh, Kehl, Orenburg,
and Munich. He ha* subalterns in these cities',
to take especial care of his correspondence. " Ke
makes. use of forged passports (No. 635), of ficti-
tious names, of sympathetic ink.
(No. 1.) These are the modes of communis
cation through which he transmits his ideas,
projects, and rewards ; and by thtse means, he
is informed of the schemes planned by his or-
ders for raising insurrection, in the first place, in
four departments ; (Xo. 7), for raising an army,
increasing the number of the disaffected, and over-
throwing the Consular Government.
These efforts and promises are too mad, and
the vile miserable methods employed are too dis-
proportioned to the difficulties of the enterprise,
to give us any uneasiness as to their success. But
it is not with regard to what may occssion fear,
nor with a view of punishing, that the opera-
tions of that interior arrangement, called the
police, acts ; its principal object is, not alone to
prevent crimes, as that of the exterior is to con-
line ambition, but to remove eveu the very occa-
sion of vice and weakness.
In those countries that are the best governed,
there are always to be found certain persons who
suffer themselves tc be led astray by a sort of
>■' * innate
£72 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
innate inconstancy. In the best regulated com-
monwealths there are to be found perverse and
weak men. It has always been considered by
my predecessors as a duty, to watch over such
persons, not in the vain hope of rendering thern
good, but to stop the developement of their
vices ; and as, on this head, all civilized nations
have the same interest to watch over, and the
same duty to fulfil, it has always been a received
maxim, that no Government should suffer a
standard to be erected, around which hirelings
of every country or profession might gather, for
the purpose of planning a general disorganization,
and much less should they permit an infamous
school of briberv, and recruiting, to the prejudice
at once of the fidelity, constancy, affections, and
conscience of the citizens.
Mr. Drake had an agency at Paris ; but other
ministers, the instruments of discord and ex-
citers of mischief, like him, may also have agen-
cies. — Mr. Drake, in his correspondence, un-
masks nil those that exist in France, by the very
measures he takes to deny that he knows any
thing of them. " I repeat," (says he, Nos. 4,
5, 6, 8 and o), " that I have no knowledge of the
existence of any other society besides yours. But 1
repeat to you," (he observes in several places),
" that
REGXIKR. 273
" that if there docs, I do not doubt hut that you and
your friends will take the necessary measures, not
only not to embarrass one another, but tobtmutnaUtf
serviceable to each other.'-' In fine, he adds (Mu-
nich, December 9, 1503), with a brutal fury,
and worthv of the part he plays — " It is of very
little consequence by u'hom the beast is brought to the
ground: it is sufficient that you are all ready to join
in the chace."
Pursuant to this system, on the tlrst breaking
out of the conspiracy that now employs the hand
of justice, he writes : M If you see any means of
extricating any of Georges' associates, dunotjailto
make use of them" (So. 9/ ; and as his evil
genius is never discouraged, even in his dis-
grace, Mr. Drake will not have his friends give
themselves up for loss in this unexpected reverse
of fortune.
" / earnestly request you" he writes (Munich,
25th February, 1S04, No. 9), " to print and dis-
tribute a short address to t fie army immediately."
(both to the officers and soldiers). " The main
point is to gain partizans in the army ; for I am
thoroughly persuaded that it is through the tinny
alone that one can reasonably hope to gain the
change so much desired."
How vain these hopes were, is swfF.cientlv cha-
N 5 racterized
'27* REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
racterized by the striking unanimity that pre-
vails every where, now that the danger is dis-
covered with which France was menaced.
But the attempt to commit a crime, the bare
idea of which is an outrage to humanity, and the
execution of which would not only have Lfeen a
national calamity, but, I may add, a calamity for
all Europe, demands not only a reparation for
the past, but a guarantee for the future. *
A solitary, scattered banditti, a prey to want,
without harmony, and without support, is always
weaker than the laws which are to punish it, or
the police which ought to intimidate it. But if
they have the power of uniting, if they could
correspond, with each other and the brigands of
other countries, if in a profession the most ho-
nourable of all, inasmuch as the tranquillity of
empires, and the honour of sovereigns depend
thereon, there should be found men authorized
to make use of all the power their situation
affords, to practise vice, corruption, infamy, and
villany, and to raise from out of the refuse of
human nature, an army of assassins, rebels, and
forgers, under the command of the most immoral
and most ambitious of all Governments, there
would be no security in Europe f or « the exist-
ence of any state for public morality, nor evchi
for
REGMER. ?75
for the continuance of the principles of civiliza-
tion.
It is not mv dutv to discuss the means you
may possess to secure Europe, by guranteeing
her against such dangers. I content myself with
informing and proving to you, that there exists
at Munich an Englishman, called Drake, invested
with a diplomatic character, who, profiting of
this guise, and of the vicinity of that place,
directs dark and criminal efforts to the heart of
the Republic; who recruits for agents of cor-
ruption and rebellion ; who resides bevond the
environs of the town, that his agents may have
access to him without shame, and depart without
being exposed ; and who directs and pays men in
France, charged bv him with paving the wav to
an overthrow of the Government.
This new species of crime exceeding, from its
nature, the ordinary means of suppression which
{he laws put in my power, I must confine m
to the unmasking it to vou, and pointing out to
you at the same time, the sources, circumstances,
and consequences. Health and respect,
Peris, March L>3, 160-1. Regnier.
CITIZEN FIRST CONSUL,
My conjectures are verified. Mr. Drake is
n 6 not
270 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
not the only agent of England whose political
mission is merely the plausible mark of a hidden
ministry of seduction and insurrection. I have
the honour to place before your eyes papers'
which prove that Mr. Spencer Smith, diplomatic
agent of England in the states of Wirtemburg,
after the example of Mr. Drake, has occupied
himself, since his arrival at his place of residence,
only in prostituting his public character, his in-
fluence, and the gold of his Government, to that
infamous ministry.
Mr. Spencer Smith has suffered a discovery of
the secret part which formed the real object of
his diplomatic mission. I present to the First
Consul an enigmatical letter, which this Minister
has written to M. Lelievre dc Saint Remi, one of
his agents in Holland ; this agent, spy, and emi-
grant, who has received his pardon, was already
known to the Police; but before I had any one
of the parts of his correspondence with Mr.
Spencer Smith, I knew by other reports, that
when he was about to obtain his amnesty, which
he procured in Pluviose, year 11, he quitted Scez,
his place of birth, in Nwose, the same year, in
order to go to Camhray ; and that, on the 2d of
last Frimaire, he had gone to Holland, thereto
serve under the name of Pruneau, and to follow
there
REGNIER. 277
there the double direction of a Frenchman and a
spy, named Le Clerc, whom the British Ministry
supported at Abbeville, and that of an accredited
spy, named Spencer Smith, whom for the pur-
pose of covering his designs, that same Ministry
had invested with a diplomatic character (See the
pieces 8, 9, , &cc.) I further know, by
papers equally numerous, and not less instructive,
seized on the spy at Abbeville, that Mr. Spencer
Smith, before he quitted London, had entered
into such intimate connexions with a general Com-
mittee of Espionage established by the above ad-
ministration, and the direction of which was en-
trusted to the Abbe Katel, that he had demanded
and obtained of that Committee a confidential
secretary, named Pericaud, who was to follow the
secret correspondence, and to receive and com-
municate all the necessary documents to the agents
in Holland, the spies on the coast, and the con-
spirators in Paris. The letters to Lclievre, the
credit for 2000 Louis d'ors given on the house of
Osy, at Rotterdam, the cypher, the enigmatical
letter, No. 7, are of the hand writing of this Peri-
caud ; and thus it will be seen, that Mr. Spencer
Smith is goue to his residence with all the exteri-
or of a diplomatic Minister from England ; that
is to say, with sympathetic inks, watch-words to
communicate
*78 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
communicate with all the spies, bills off exchange
to reward their services, and a confidential inter-
mediate agent, to follow up their proceedings
and to direct them, without committing him-
self.
It is necessary to recur once more to Mr.
Drake. The two reports which I lay before
you, Citizen First Consul, will give you an ac-
count of a mission to that Minister, by Citizen
Rosey, Captain and Adjutant-Major of the <)th
regiment of the line in garrison at Strasburgh,
whom Mr. Drake was very willing to employ
as an agent of a pretended General, who was
to stir up four departments, to draw round him
the French army, to overthrow your Govern-
ment, to instal in its stead a democratic Di-
rectory, and finally, to put this phantom of pow-
er, and all France, at the discretion of the English
Government.
I should hesitate to present to you these mon-
strous absurdities, if I had not to lay before you an
original letter from Mr. Drake, backed by consi-
derable sums of gold, counted by Mr. Drake, and
deposited at my office by Citizen Rosey. This
letter serves as a proof of the accuracy of the re-
ports of the, French. agent, and ought to be pub-
lished, because the. odious particulars which it
contains,
REGNIER. «79
contains, give additional colouring to the picture
of infamy which Mr. Drake has himself delinea-
ted of his incendiary diplomacy, in the first part
of his correspondence.
Mr. Drake replied to the pretended General.
He acknowledges the receipt of his Envoy with
his credentials. lie congratulates himself on the
harmony subsisting between him and the Com-
mittee of Disorganization, over which the <jfene-
neral presides. * Your views/ says he, compla-
cently, * are quite conformable to mine, and I
need not enlarge further on this point/
But he requires (and here follows the first
vagaries of his predecessor Wickham) that pro-
visionally they should secure two strong places ;
Huninguen by all means, and Strasburgh if pos-
sible. — By this means only could they depend
upon a sure communication. Then would Mr.
Drake take his residence near the Rhine; and k.
will suffice to inform him immediately of the
moment fixed for commencing the operations^
and of the precise periods when farther- assist--
ance will be necessary, as well as of the amount
of the succours required, that he mav havB time
to take measures to provide for lift same,- and
that the operations may not fail for waiJt of sup-
port. (See iS T o. 6.) *
How-
280 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
However, the most important point is not the
taking of places, and securing stages for the safe
arrival of subsidies. First of all, we must disor-
ganize the army.
, [The Report goes on repeating against Mr.
prake all the calumnies contained in the first
Report.]
Concerning Mr. Spencer Smith, I have strong
reasons to think that the operations entrusted
to him are not confined to these plots ; that he
directs the events which are taking place in the
Canton of Zurich; and that the disturbances by
which that miserable district is again agitated,
are owing to his gold and his intrigues.
Citizen First Consul, perhaps I transgress the
bounds of my function; but I must tell yon,
with that truth which you love to hear, France
cannot suffer a hostile power to establish, on
neutral territory, accredited agents, whose prin-
cipal mission is to carry discord to the bosom of
the Republic. You are at the head of a na-
tion, great enough, strong enough, and brave
enough, to obtain, as your right, an absolute
neutrality. You have constantly commanded
me not to suffer that conspiracies be framed in
any part of our immense territory, against any
existing government j and already, during, the
short
REGNIER. 25 r
short space of time elapsed since T have been en-
trusted with the administration of the police,
have I repeatedly annulled machinations which
threatened the King of Naples, and the Holy
See ; I have pursued as far as Strasburgh the
forgers of Vienna bank-notes. All these facts
have proved how sincere your wish is to secure
established governments against every kind of
propagandas and plots. Why should you not
have a right to demand an entire reciprocity
from the States of the Germanic Empire ? —
Why should Munich, Stutgard, Ettenheim, and
Friburgh, have the right of remaining the centre
of the conspiracies which England never ceases
to form against France and Helvetia ?
These objects deserve your utmost solicitude,
Citizen First Consul ; and I dare to tell you so,
because this privilege belongs to the Chief of
Justice, and the most serious attention in this
respect forms part of your first duties.
It may be objected, I know, that England,
as a friendly power, has a right to send Minis-
ters to the Electors of Bavaria, Baden, and Wir-
temburg. But English diplomacy is composed
of two sorts of agents, whom all the Continent
well knows how to distinguish. Such Ministers
as Comwallis and Warren, are never accredited
bu t
282 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
but for honourable missions, to maintain a good
understanding between nations, and to regulate
the grand interests of policy or of commerce ;
whilst the Wickhams, the Drakes, and the
Spencer Smiths, are known throughout Europe
as the artificers of crime, whose cowardice is
protected by a sacred character. 1 will say
more : the presence of these contemptible agents
is very mortifying to the Princes in friendship
with France ; and the Courts of Munich and
Stutgard cannot support, without disgust, Drake
and Spencer Smith, whom numberless reasons
render suspected of a very different mission from
that which is announced by their official title.
In consequence of the demand that you have
made of them, the Electors of Bavaria and Wir-
temburg have driven from their states the im-
pure remains of the French who are enemies
to their country, and whose hatred has survi-
ved the calamities of civil war, and the par-
don which you have granted them. Let them
likewise drive away these artificers of conspi-
racy, whose mission has no other object but to
re-animate the intestine dissensions of France,
and to sow fresh discord on the Continent.
Ought not our neighbours to suffer an equa]
alarm with oursekes at the return of political
troubles
REGNrER. «83
troubles, and of all those horrors of war, which
can be profitable only to that nation which is
the enemy of every -other? — 1 demand, in the
most earnest manner, and every duty I owe you,
Citizen First Consul, impels me to make the re-
quest, that the Cabinet may take such effectual
measures, that the Wickhams, the Drakes, and
the Spencer Smiths, may not be received by any
power in friendship with France, whatever may-
be their title or character ; men who preach up
assassination, and foment domestic troubles ; the
agents of corruption, the missionaries of revolt
against all established governments, and the ene-
mies of all states, and of all governments. The
law of nations does not apply to them. I have
fulfilled my duty, Citizen First Consul, in ex-
posing to your view the facts which prove that
Drake and Spencer Smith exercise upon the
Continent the same mission with which Wick-
ham was charged during the last war. Your su-
preme wisdom will do the re
Rkgkier.
Dated Paris, 28th Germinal, in there; 1 -:
12, April 18, 1804.
!
Those Continental Governments which have
been intimidated or seduced to sign indiscreetly,
bv their representatives at Paris, a belief in this
stupid
584 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
tupio*' farrago of absurdity, falsehood, and for-
gery, the production of minds tormented by
remorse for past crimes, dreading future chas-
tisements, and furious at their impotency to
otherwise injure a great and free nation, as
much above the republican tyrants and their
slaves for her loyalty, as for her spirit and
patriotism ;— let them compare the public and
private characters of an Addington, of a Hawkes-
bury, and a St. Vincent, with those of a Buona-
parte, of a Regnier, and of a Talleyrand ; and
then they will, no doubt, disavow such degrad-
ing and impolitic transactions of their Ministers,
and be ashamed of having diplomatic agents in
France, so ignorant, so weak, or so wicked, as
to stoop to be the panegyrists of infamy, the
promoters of the plans of the guilty, and the
indirect accomplices in the plots of rebels and re-
gicides.
As to Regnier's accusation and charge against
the unfortunate and so barbarously murdered
Duke of Enghien and General Pichegru, against
Moreau, Georges, and others, they are to be
received with caution and viewed with suspicion j
because Buonaparte's ambition, and even safety,
required at this moment a great plot. He
wanted it, to take away the public attention
from
REGN1ER. 295
from the inefficacy of his means to invade Eng-
land, and to divert the murmurs and quiet the
impatience of his soldiers : it was necessary,
before his debased Senate could invite him to
assume an imperial dignity, to which, ever
since the peace of Amiens, he had anxiously
looked, and which had been impeded, but not
laid aside, by the renewal of the war. It has,
besides, been a favourite maxim with all the
revolutionary rulers in France to invent con-
spiracies. Traitors themselves, they saw in
every opposer a rebel against their authority,
and in very rival a conspirator against their
power. When their popularity was decreasing,
or when they apprehended the punishment due
to their crimes; when their cruel deeds of inter-
nal vengeance became abhorred ; when their
absurd schemes of external ambition had mis-
carried ; when defeats had irritated their pride,,
or when disaffection raged in their armies ;
when their soldiers wanted pay, or the people
bread, to silence clamour, and to occupy the
thoughts of the injured and offended, but giddy
French nation; — plots were announced, de-
nounced, and punished — prisons crowded — scaf-
folds erected — or the wilds of Cayenne peopled
with victims. Des OcTouard, Prudhomme, and
other
286 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
other revolutionary writers, have acknowledged,
" That during ten years, from 1789 to 1 799,
the different members of different factions in
that period, pretended to have discovered no
less than 860 conspiracies, of which sixteen only
were supposed to he real, though they have cost
the lives or liberties of no less than 144,000
persons, of whom 9666 were women." The
member of the National Convention, and of the
Council of Ancients, Poultier, originally a Car-
melite friar, whom the Revolution converted suc-
cessively into a strolling player, a regicide, a legis-
lator, a general, and an author, confessed in his
work " On Republican Parties/' that, " Of these
860 pretended conspiracies} he had, by the desire
of Mirabeau, Orleans, Talleyrand, Condorcet, Bris-
sot, Danton, Robespierre, La Reveillere,or Barras,
invented 721, and published them as real in the
daily papers, particularly in that, newspaper called
U Ami des Lois." He ingenuously adds, (< That
France will cease to be a republic if she ceases to
he agitated, and, secure from present dangers,
gives the people time to recollect their past un-
interrupted tranquillity under Monarchy ; to see
what they are, and remember what they were.
From the murder of the innocent Marquis
de Favras as a conspirator, by La Fayette, in
Feb.
8
REGNldfe. 287
Feb. 1 790, every year since the people have been
more or less alarmed, more or less tormented ;
under the appellation of measures of police, or
measures of public safety, new measures of ri-
gour, of slavery, and of terrorism, have been
resorted to. Under pretext of the necessity to
save the country, but in fact to ensure the con-
tinuance of their usurpation, Robespierre and
his Committee of Public Safety decreed the most
oppressive and tyrannical laws against the quiet
and liberty of French republicans. These laws the
Directory improved, and, after being extended,
they are now confirmed, and regarded by Buona-
parte's Consulate as the fundamental laws of
the Republic ; and have obtained a perfection
with the assistance of Fouche, Talleyrand, and
other liberal-minded counsellors, at which all acts
6f former republican tyrants coukl never arrive.
No person of either sex in modern France, above
hfteen years of age, is exempted from the obli-
gation of having a card of citizenship, or a pass,
containing a minute description of his or her
person, as if in the modern French common-
wealth it was suspected that every individual was
born to be at one period or other a traitor or a
conspirator, a rebel or a felon, whose person it
was
2 S8 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
was- necessary to keep registered in the polic*
offices, where volumes are found, with copies of
the passes or cards of thirty millions of degraded
originals, or free French republicans. In Italy
as in Switzerland, in Holland as in Hanover,
and in all countries where a French citizen enters
to rule and to plunder, the same oppressive acts
are introduced, with domiciliary visits, arbitrary
imprisonments, requisitions, extortions, &c. j
liberty disappears with prosperity, and nothing
remains but wretched slaves and proud tyrants.
If, therefore, a Cochon or a Sottin, a Fouche
or a Regnier, occupies the place of a Police
Minister in the French Republic, if he possesses
no honour or feelings, and but common under-
standing, he will, by the ignorant, be considered
as) an able, if not a great man. This explains the
success of the admired French police, backed by
132,000 avowed spies at Paris alone (one-sixth
of the population*) ; and shews the utter impos-
sibility that any conspiracy of any considerable
extent can exist long without discovery. It
proves besides, that when government finds it
necessary, it has at its command 132,000 irre-
proachable witnesses ready to discover, or to
swear
♦ Ste Les Nouvcllcs a la, Main, No. iii. Brumaire, an xii.
REGNIER. S59
swear to any plot that may be thought necessary
either to impeach internal rivals, or to calumniate
foreign foes.
The anarchy and immorality of the French
Revolution have introduced themselves into all
the branches of the administration, the judicial
department not excepted. Fiddlers, barbers,
strolling-players, and apostate friars, have been
seated on the bench of judges, as well as headed
battalions. The cruel Dumas, the President of
the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris in 1793
and 1794, had first in 1790 left his convent;
Collot D'Herbois and Fernix, who butchered in
the same capacity during the same period at
Lyons and at Orange, had both in 1789 been
attached to the theatre in the former city, the
one as an actor and the other as a musician.
The Judge at Strasburgh, Schneider, had been a
barber, and the Judge in La Vendee, Heron,
was a tailor from Versailles. A hundred others
as low, as ignorant, and as cruel, might he men-
tioned. The consequence is, that the honest
man has no security that he shall not be punished
as a rogue, or executed as an assassin ; whilst the
really criminal, by monev or friends, is alwavs
sure to escape chastisement. Corruption and
ignorance walk hand-in-hand; and it is more
* vol. in. v o easy
290 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
easy for Buonaparte to clear the highways of
robbers, than to prevent his tribunals from being
dens of thieves, where innocence is condemned
for want of means or inclination to bribe, and
where guilt is acquitted, by dividing with the
judges the spoils of its nefarious deeds; tribunals
from which the sole whim of the usurper sends a
prisoner to fill a place in his senate, or to be shot
in the wood of Vincennes.
To give an English public some idea of the
indecency and want of probity and decorum in
the French tribunals, the following is trans-
lated verbatim from a Paris paper, Le Journal
des Tribuneavx, page 6, of the 2d of January,
1804. The trial took place on the 23d of the
preceding December :
•'" Lately a young man, handsome in his person,
and formed like a Hercules, appeared before the
Criminal Tribunal at Paris, and caused there
such a crowd, and was so much the fashionable
hero of the day, that Parisian beaux, belles,
cockneys, and gossips, paid as much for places in
the galleries of this tribunal as for those in the first
boxes at the Opera.
l ' The prisoner, Francais Benoit, had, for the
last ten years, once or twice every year, been
tried for thieving or robbery, and condemned;
but
REGNIER. Ct)i
but had alwavs e>captd either from the prisons
or from the galleys, and returned again to the
beau monde at Paris, where his personal agree-
ableness, insinuating manners and address, soon
procured him new acquaintances, new intrigues,
new adventures, and new opportunities to pilfer
or to steal. He was at last arrested when on the
eve of marrying the sister of General Murat,
who, report says, is now dying for love, and has
even petitioned the First Consul to allow her to
share the fate of her lover; by the publicity of
whose imprisonment the police has not aug-
mented their interest with the Consular family,
because the theft was committed in the Council
of State, where Buonaparte had appointed him
an Under Secretary ; and where this affair has
caused great scandal, as the Counsellor of State,
Emmery, had accused another Counsellor of
State, Francois de Nantes, of being the stealer of
a gold snuff-box, which was picked out of his
pocket in the council chamber, and which was
stopped at a pawnbroker's where Benoit went to
pledge it.
" The first question the President asked Be-
noit, on the day of his trial, the 1st of Nivose,
on the 23d of last December, was, " How did vou
come here; did we not condemn you last year
02 to
292 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
to the galleys for life?" To which he made the
following answer : ** Fellow-thieves ! you no*
only condemned me last year; but every year
since 1798 I have been condemned by fellow-
thieves to the galleys for life. As to the his-
tory of my escape, it is simple ; it is the same
now as ten years ago, and has cost me neither
more nor less than 100 Louis d'ors. I paid to
you, fellow-thieves, 25 Louis d'ors for condemn-
ing me only to the galleys ; I paid to the fellow-
thief who commands at Brest, 25 Louis d'ors,
to overlook my escape ; to the fellow-thief y the
keeper over the galley-slaves, 25 Louis d'ors to let
me escape; and 25 other Louis d'ors for travel-
ling post from Brest to' Paris ; where you pro-
bably will condemn me to-day, but where you
will see me again within six months."
" After sentence of transportation to Cayenne
for life had been passed, he addressed himself to
the Judge, but, bowing, regarded the Ladies in
the galleries, saying, " My fellow-thieves have
sent me to Cayenne ; but, Ladies, do not break
your hearts; I shall never leave France, and but
for a short time Paris. I am a thief, it is true,
but a patriotic thief, having never yet stolen any
thing but from thieves en masse, enriched by a
revolution which has ruined my family and myself.
I am
REGMER. £03
I am besides an anti-republican, and an anti-
regicide, and have revenged M my bum meaner the
murder of an innocent King, and the destruction
of Monarchy. Of the regicides who murdered
Louis XVI. I have cockled 6*3 of the former
kings of factions, I have cockled all the members
of Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety ;
all the members of the late Directorv •, the whole
Consular family; all the Consular ministers and
counsellors of state; most of the senators, legis-
lators, tribunes, and many of the other revolu-
tionary gentry, now so proud, so great, and so
honest. The snuff-box for which I am now
pinched, interrupted my career to the consulate
for life, in the same manner as a gold bracelet
squeezed me in 1796", and prevented me from
being a Director for five years." Turning to-
wards the public accuser, Merlin of Douai, he
said, *■ Is it not true, fellow-thief, that I was
that year a favourite aide-de-camp to you, both
in the directorial hall, and in your good wife's
bed-room; at your table as well as in vour bed ;
Excuse Ladies ! this indiscretion; the sneer of
my old friend forces it from me — and remember,
Parisian beauties, that if you desire to see your
tonstant admirer soon again — cT argent, leaucoup
o 3 d'argent,
294 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
(Targent, can alone break his fetters, in making
hitn your slave."
" When he was carried away, several purses
with gold were thrown to him from the galleries ;
and in the passage from the tribunal back to the
prison, a servant to the beautiful wife of a rich
banker presented him with a rouleau of fifty
Louis d'ors. During his speech, he had often
been interrupted by the Judges, who had or-
dered the gens d'armes to carry him away, but
they were prevented by the crowd from ap-
proaching him or the bar. He often received loud
and repeated applauses from the galleries, and
from the people in the hall."
A gentleman who was present at this trial is
now in London, and assures me that he saw
Benoit the week before at Madame Buonaparte's
ball, where his frequent dances with her not
only caused the envy and whispers of all other la-
dies present, but even the jealousy of the First
Consul, whose frowns forced his dear moitic,
though unwillingly, to change partners ! ! !
That the Consular Grand Judge Regnier of
1S04, possesses the same debased mind with the
revolutionary Judge Regnier of 179-1, an anec-
dote well known at Paris, and extracted front
Les
KEGN1ER.
i a la Main, So. i. Yenuemiaire,
an. xii. evinces: — "In January, 1S03, Majlc-
m Mselle de C , a young lady whose father,
the Marquis de C , died during his emigra-
tion, was left entitled to a fortune of iO'..
livres, or 1 6,001)1. per annua:. This only child
was educated in a Roman Catholic school in this
country. Of her family property nearly half
remained unsold, and, according to Buonaparte's
amnesty, was to be restored to her. She waited
therefore on the Grand Judge to prove her
claims. Regnier is a man near sixty, with the
ferocious looks of an executioner, improved by
the vulgar and brutal manners of a sans-culottes.
This public functionary offered this beautiful
lady more than she demanded, upon condition
of accepting his hand, being, as he said, deler ■
mined to obtain a divorce, should hi? old wife not die
soon. Upon Mademoiselle de C 's refusal,
and declaration. " That she hoped Providence
would give her strength to support poverty,
rather than do any thing contrary to her princi-
ples of virtue ;" the Grand Judge fell into a rage,
told her to be gone, and never call again; as those
who believed in Providence and in virtue might
trust to their assistance, and had miking to ex~
from him. In a memorial presented to the
o 4 First
296 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
First Consul, this lady related the behaviour of
his Grand Judge, and asked for reparation and
justice; for which, however, she is yet waiting.
The proverb, quinon cognoscitur ex se, cognosci-
tur ex sociis, is truly applicable to Buonaparte.
With very few, if any exceptions, all persons
having his confidence, serving his usurpation,,
transacting as his ministers, or acting as his mi-
litary or political tools, are, with Regnier, equally
notorious for crimes, and dangerous from their
want of all moral and religious notions*.
* The particulars for which the authorities are not quoted,
are taken from Histoirt Centra/ des dimes, by Prudhomme j
D'ctionnairt des jfacobins and Let Annates du Ttrrorisme,
By a decree of the ioth of July 1804, Regnier was deprived
of his place as a minister of the Police ; and his functions as
a Grand Judge, are now of the same nature as those of the for-
mer ministeis of justice.
( 297 )
JACQUES ALEXIS THURIOT,
JCDGE OF THE CRIMINAL AND SPECIAL TRIBUNAL
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SEINE, BE-
FORE WHOM MOREAU, PICHEGRC,
GEORGES, &C. WERE PRI-
VATELY EXAMINED.
Most of the men employed by Buonaparte
as instruments to entrap and condemn the
pretended conspirators, whom he regards as per-
sonal rivals, or as enemies to his usurpation, are
the very same men who plotted the destruction
of Monarchy in 1791 ; who murdered the terror-
ists in the name of libertv, and who plun-
dered, while they extolled equalitv, during the
years 1792, 1793, and 1794, and whose crimes
were so notorious, that, since the death of Ro-
bespierre, none of his successors, exeept Buona-
parte, have stooped to associate with characters,
corrupted as well as atrocious. The Judge Thu-
riot, and the Police Director Real, are both of
this description. Both were, in 1789, advocates
of the Parliament ; both were disgraced by nefa-
rious actions ', both were despised by their* supe-
o 5 riora
298 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
riors and shunned by their equals ; both, there-
fore, became flaming patriots, and as such joined
in rebellion.
Thuriot was, on the 14th of July, 1789, one
of the Electors of Paris ; and on the 10th of
September, 1791* chosen a deputy to the Legis-
lative Body for the department of Marnej in
which post he shewed himself one of the most
violent and bitter enemies of his King, and of
Monarchy. He was, at the same time, one of
La Fayette's persecutors, whose imbecile and
lukewarm patriotism displeased him. In March,
1792, he provoked measures of rigour towards
the emigrants, and threatened, in case of oppo-
sition, an insurrection of the people at Paris.
On the 25th of May, he declaimed against reli-
gion, and against the clergy, " whom he wished,
for the welfare of mankind, at the bottom of the
sea.*" In July 'he ascended the tribune every
day to calumniate his King and to blaspheme
his God. On the 26th he proposed to declare
the country in danger, and the permanency
of the Parisian Sections. After the 10th of
August he became the interpreter of the insur-
rection municipality, caused domiciliary visits
and a revolutionary tribunal to be decreed, and
defended
* SeeRecueil d'Anecdotcs, page 452.
TIIURIOT. 299
defended the massacres of prisoners in Septem-
ber, because this summary justice of the sovereign
people was necasay-y for the safety of the country,
as the tree of liberty could never flourish without
being continually inundated with the blood of aristo-
crats, and other enemies of the Revolution?. Elected
a member of the National Convention, he con-
tinued faithful to his former ferocious principles ;
and, during the trial of the virtuous and unfor-
tunate Louis XVI., he daily called for the de-
struction of that good prince. On the ICth of
December he demanded that the tyrant Capet
should be tried, and ascend the scaffold within three
days. On the same day he was appointed one of
the Conventional Commissaries, and sent to the
Temple to ask Louis XVI. the names of the
counsellors whom he chose for defenders. On
the 18th Thuriot declared in the Jacobin Club,
That if the National Convention evinced any signs
of clemency, he would go himself 'to the Temple, and
blow out the brains of the King, for whose death
he, of course, voted in January 1793t. Al-
ways a partisan of violent and oppressive mea-
sures, this friend of liberty caused , in March, a
o 6 law
* See Recueild' Anecdotes, page 453.
+ See the same work and page ; aad Le Dictionnaire Biog'-a-
phique, art. Thuriot.
300 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
law concerning passes to be decreed, to which
free Frenchmen are still so subject, that they
dare not walk in the streets without a pass in
their pocket. In May, he denounced all bankers
and merchants as incorrigible aristocrats ; and,
as a punishment, moved, that they should im-
mediately be obliged to pay a forced loan of
one million. In June, he was made a member
of the Committee of Public Safety, " where,"
(according to Recue'd d' Anecdotes, page 345),
tl having appropriated to himself 500,000 livres in
assignats, deposited there, and belonging to ar-
rested persons, he was turned out by Robes-
pierre, and escaped the guillotine only by assist-
ing that republican tyrant in sending his revolu-
tionary antagonists, the Brissotines, to prison
and to death. During the remaining part of
Robespierre's reign, Thuriot was his assiduous
, valet ; but remained silent in the National Con-
vention, from fear of exposing himself to the
opposing factions. After Robespierre's execu-
tion, he became the official defender of Bar-
rere, Collot d'Herbois, and their republican ac-
complices, who, during eighteen months, had
condemned more innocent persons to be guillo-
tined, shot, and drowned, than had perished,
during
THURIOT. 301
during the Monarchy, for the fourteen preceding
centuries.
In February 1795, Le Gendre accused him in
the National Convention of being chief of the
Terrorists; after whose defeat by Pichegru, in the
insurrection on the first of the following April,
he was ordered first to be arrested, and after-
wards to be outlawed, as on that day one of the
principal plotters for restoring the reign of terror.
He remained concealed until the amnesty of this
Assembly in October permitted him again to
fraternize with his former associates. The revo-
lution effected by Buonaparte in 1 799 found him
without bread as well as without a conscience,,
ready to perpetrate the same enormities in erect-
ing a throne for an usurper, that he had already
committed in annihilating that of his lawful
Sovereign.
His past crimes and infamy were, with the
guilty Corsican, pledges for his future obedience
and fidelity ; he was therefore promoted to the
place that he now occupies. Prudhomme's work*
gives him this character: — " Before the Revolu-
tion, dishonoured and indebted ; atheist, to crush
the
* Prudhomme's Histoiie d*s Crimes, torn. W. page 644 ;
and Recueil d'Anscdytcs, page 354,
302 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the remorse of his conscience; and factious, to
be enabled to silence the reproaches of his ac-
quaintances, and the demands of his creditors ;
Thuriot saluted cordially in 1789 the overthrow
of rank, property, morality, and religion. Fana-
ticism operated upon Marat, St. Just, and even
sometimes upon Robespierre; but Thuriot was al-
ways cool and deliberate, defending with the same
sang froid the barbarity of others, as he offered
himself to shoot Louis XVI. Besides his thefts en
masse in the committees, he dearly sold his pro-
tection, and by it, in detail, picked the pockets
of his countrymen. In 1795 he was accused in
the National Convention by Le Cointre, of hav-
ing stabbed his wife ; by Le Gendre of having
poisoned his mother; and by Freron of having
caused twelve of his creditors to be murdered in
the Abbey prison, on the 2d of September, 1 792."
To these grave accusations, his only answer
was — prove it; well knowing, that during the
reign of terror all witnesses to his guilt had been
removed to a place where they can tell no tales.
As a politician, he said in 1791. "The Re-
volution was designed to raise the lowest ; and
will never rest till it has effected that purpose."
As an orator it may be added, that he would li-
terally
S
THURIOT. 303
terally beat both the air and the earth amidst
his declamations, that his adversaries might have
no rest.
Such is the judge who had at his disposal the
lives of Moreau, Georges, and other illustrious
and loyal men ! ! I
p. F. REAL,
304 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
P. F. REAL,
THE DIRECTOR OF BUONAPARTE'S POLICE, AND HIS
COUNSELLOR OF STATE.
Comme ce lourd Res! eerie !
Commc il ment sans gout, sans esprit !
L'entendcz vous vanter avec emphase
I.e cii'hme de ses gredins ?
Comme il jouit ! Comme il est en extase
Devant les chants des assassins !
C'est un quatre vingt-neuf, ami de la patrie,
O Je charmant jeune homme ! O I'honnete garron !
Pour certains petits tours, qui ne flairoient pas bon,
Sa griffe fut, dit-on, au palais raccourciej
Mais j'en jure Fyon Rossignol et Bubauf t
S'il fut fort en filouterie,
En terrorismc il n'est pas neuf.
AUGUSTS DAN1CAN.
The theories, speculations, or reveries of
physiognomists, though less dangerous to the
happiness of society, arc as defective, and as little
to be depended upon, as those of modern philo-
sophers, metaphysicians, politicians, or other
fashionable innovators. Of the rebellious mon-
sters that have butchered, or caused butcheries,
it\ fevoknionary France, with the exception of
Mirabeau,
REAL. 305
Mirabeau, Sieves, Marat, and Danton, most of
them were good-looking men, whose faces and
features bespoke neither cruelty nor villany.
Such are, or were, those of a La Fayette, Brissot,
Robespierre, Carrier, Hebert, Le Bon, Barras*
Fouche, Mehee, and other notorious rebels or
regicides. Even from viewing the picture of
Napoleon Buonaparte, no man would imagine
the original more atrocious than a Nero; a greater
hypocrite than a Cromwell ; more deliberately
wicked than a Sylla; and more coolly barbarous
than a Marius.
Had a Lavater been asked to delineate the fea-
tures of a man morally good, and religiously
virtuous, the portrait of Real would, according
to the rules laid down by himself, have furnished
him with a complete model. But with a pleasing
and open countenance, that shews candour itself;
with an agreeable and soft voice, and very insi-
nuating manners; with a language that breathes
nothing but humanity; having tears at his com-
mand on all occasions, and bestowing them libe-
rally either in defending crimes or in accusing
innocence; either on hearing in society a narra-
tive of invented distress, or on seeing in the
theatre the imaginary misery of a tragedian, Real
conceals
306 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
conceals within a body of perfect shape, the mos
hypocritical, ferocious, and base mind.
Real is the son of a Clerk in the Police Office
at Paris, and was born in 1760: accused of for-
gery, and convicted of fraud, he was shortly be-
fore the Revolution struck off the list of advo-
cates by the King's Parliament in that city. He
therefore, of course, became ajashiunable patriot,
and early made himself remarked by his exag-
gerated opinions at the Jacobin Club, and by
his dangerous and sophistical writings in the peri-
odical papers of 1789, 1790, and 1791. He was
with Mehee a co-operator in the paper he Ta~
triote, in 17 89, and with Gorsas in the Journal
des LXXXIII Departmens. In the confidence
of the conspirators who planned and effected the
revolution of the 10th of August, 1792., he was
by them appointed the Jirst public accuser of the
Jirst revolutionary tribunal. In this terrible situ-
ation, he was the first judicial functionary that
forced French judges and a French jury to lay
aside the laws of their country; to silence the
dictates of their own consciences, and to substi-
tute in their place the passions and vengeance of
factions. He was the Jirst to destroy the im-
mense distance which, in all civilized nations,
separates the punishment for an imprudent word
from
REAL. 307
from that of a murderous deed. According to
his conclusions, as a public accuser, " all persons
carried before a revolutionary- tribunal were guilty,
lecause they were suspected ) for in revolutionary
times, to cause suspicion was always guilt, and all
guilt deserved death. And a citizen who mentioned
the name of a king, or who talked of a peace with
a king, committed high treason toward his na-
tion; and was as culpable as the parricide who
strangled his father, the matricide who poisoned
his mother, or the fatricide who stabbed his
brother*."
Among the many other persons whom Real,
as a public accuser, sent to the scaffold, was the
brave and loyal General Blackman, of the King's
Swiss guard. He was condemned for conspiring
against the people, by defending, on the 10th of
August, the King, his family, and the palace of
the Thuilleries against the mob of assassins and
plunderers who had attacked them; and though
he proved, that in doing otherwise he would
have acted not only contrary to his honour as
an officer, but to that duty imposed upon him
by his oath of allegiance to Louis XVI., by the
French constitution, and by the several military
capitulations between France and Switzerland,
he
* Le Recueil d' Anecdotes, page 177.
309 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
he was guillotined on the 3d of September. It
was to him that Real addressed those remark-
able words, which have so often been quoted to
inspire horror against their abominable author :
'• / have two consciences j the one acquits thee, not
only as innocent, lut as just ; but the other condemn s
thee, to save the country, and to inspire terror to
innocence as ivell as to guilt*."
With Danton, Sergent, Marat, Panis, Mchee,
Santerre, Tallien, and Jarat, Real organized the
massacres of the confined persons in the prisons
of Paris and Versailles in September 1792 ; and
he wrote the official letter which Danton signed
as Minister of Justice, m which all the depart-
ments were invited to imitate the summary justice
of the people at Paris; to empty all prisons, and
to dispatch all prisoners as enemies to liberty
and equality +. The consequence of this official
letter was, the murder of 22,531 prisoners, con-
fined as suspected, in different jails all over
France £.
In 1796 he was elected deputy Procureur
of
* Le Recueil d' Anecdotes, page 178 ; and Lcs Annates du
Terrorisme, page 644.
t See Les Annales du Terrorisme, page 406 ; and Le Recueil
d'Anecdotes, page 104, in the note.
% See the last- mentioned work ; and Le Dictionnaire des Ja-
cobins, art. Real.
REAL. 309
of the Committee at Paris, under the notorious
Chaumette, in which situation he was succeeded
by the no less notorious Hebert; when, after
the death of Marat, in pronouncing an apo-
theosis of this martyr of French liberty, he
offended Robespierre, whom he called on this
occasion, " not the republican providence, as he
has lately done Buonaparte, but only a republican
apostle of equality." His speech on this occasion
is preserved in Les Annales du Terrorisrne, p. 1SS.
Real, it is said, ascending the tribune of the
jacobins, pale and disfigured, sobbing, sighing,
and crying, addressed himself to Robespierre :
i( Apostle of liberty ! thy Christ (Marat) is no
more ; but his gospel (evangilej, shewing Ma-
rat's atrocious journal, called The Friend of the
People, will exist for ever in free France, and
instruct Frenchmen in their duty as freemen.
I propose, therefore, that busts of Marat shall be
placed in all jacobin clubs, in the National Con-
vention, in the revolutionary tribunals and com-
mittees, and in the halls of the 45,000 munici-
palities of the French Republic: and that every
day, at the opening of each sitting, the president
shall address not a prayer (republicans never pray) ,
but a fraternal salute to the representatives of
St. Marat." He was here interrupted by the
abundance
1
310 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
abundance of tears which flowed down his
cheeks ; but turning towards the galleries, he
continued, after a pause of five minutes : "Bro-
thers and friends ! my fellow-citizens ! the vir-
tuous shade of Marat must suffer in the purga-
tory of equality until it is revenged : let us
release it by sacrificing all detained, suspected,
or imprisoned persons :" (at that period the re-
publican prisons contained 250,000 prisoners.)
" Yes," continued he, " gratitude and huma-
nity demand these numerous sacrifices. We
owe it to Marat that we can discuss freely here.
And the annihilation of a small portion, and the
unworthy part of the present generation, will
preserve future generations from the chains of
royal tyrants, and the gibbets of kingly execu-
tioners." As Robespierre was not flattered
enough in this speech, Real was shortly after
arrested, and confined in the Luxcmburgh,
where he saved his life by becoming, with ano-
ther Consular Counsellor of State, Miot, a spy
upon his fellow-prisoners, whom he denounced
after having treacherously gained their confi-
dence ; and the last quoted work mentions,
p. 190, as a known fact, " that from the begin-
ning of January to the latter part of July, 1794,
not a day passed that one or more persons did
not
REAL. 311
not perish bvthe guillotine, victims of Real's false
denunciations. "
The revolution of the gth Thermidor, or 27th
July 171)1} which made his former accomplice,
Tallien, a momentary king of faction, released
him from his confinement ; and on the 6th of
August following, he again ascended the tribune
of the jacobins, and gave a shocking picture of
the interior of the prisons in the reign of terror,
which, after the destruction of the jacobins, he
augmented and printed. In the next winter he
became the defender of the criminal members of
the revolutionary committees at Nantes, who
had committed so many enormities under Carrier,
Francastle and others, in Brittany, particularly in
La Vendee.
To insinuate himself into the favour of the
Director)', he published in the autumn 1795, a
pamphlet called Essay on the \3thof Vendemiaire,
in which he attempted to defend, or at least to
palliate, the crimes of Barras and Buonaparte,
who on the 6th of October of that year had
butchered 8000 men, women, and children in the
streets of Paris, because the citizens had insisted
upon choosing with freedom their representatives *.
But
* See La Brigands Demitju/t, an excellent work by General
Danican, page 238, 139, and following.
3 1 2 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
But his duplicity and hypocrisy were so well
known, mistrusted, and despised, that during the
whole directorial reign he remained without
any public employment. Buonaparte, however,
was not so nice. After his usurpation, Real was
in December 1799 nominated a Counsellor of
State in the section of Justice; and in February
1804, a Director of the French police, an office
corresponding nearly with that which Fouche
resigned in 1802. For this last place he is in-
debted to his worthy friend Mehee de la Touche,
whose services as a spy in England were regarded
so eminently by the First Consul, that this title
was created purposely for him, as a reward for hi*
recommendation of this infamous man :
" Fcrt bien, Real, cc dernier trait ine touche ;
Mais toi, done le front seuj signale tes forfaits ;
.»**■»#****»**■#
Tu le sais, la vertu se fietritdans tabouche,
Comme une belle fieur sur un aride sol,
En paries tu ? ton air est si faux, si-farouohe,
Que j'imagine entendre, on Mandrin ou Cartouche
Prechantleshorreurs du vol."
DANICAN.
The following account of the barbarous Police
of France shews Real's conduct as a Police Direc-
tor. It was related to the Author by persons of
known probity, who are still in England, and
contains only their own sufferings, or what hap-
pened to them when in prison :
Persons
AL.
Persons of both sexes, implicated in the pre-
tended conapiraey of Moreau, Georges, and
Pichegru, have escaped to this countrv, after
being shut up m the Temple, in the Conciergerie,
and in La Force prisons, fur several months,
and Mring endured all the augmentations of the
horrors of captivitv, that the dread of tortures
and of poison must inspire. It has been observ-
ed by several political writers, that little reli-
ance is be placed on the reports of proscribed
persons: but when corresponding with rumours
which thev could not know, being confined when
these were disseminated, and congenial with the
characters of men in power, their persecutors, they
deserve, at least, to be narrated ; as they throw
some light on the infamous transactions of the pre-
sent barbarous government of France, which may
be. exposed to a well-merited detestation, but
which it is impossible either to libel or to calum-
niate.
During last February, March, and April, the
number of persons arrested as accomplices in
the alleged conspiracy, amounted, at Paris alone,
to eight thousand three hundred, ladies as well
as gentlemen ; old people near fourscore, as well
as boys and girls under fifteen. The number of
prisoners taken up in the provinces is known
to the police only; but in the department of
vol. in. p La
314 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
La Vendee, two third parts of the inhabitants
were either actually arrested, or put under the
inspection of the military commanders, or of
the police agent, as suspected adherents to the
Bourbons.
At Paris, the following formality was observed
with a prisoner : after being taken from his home
by the spies of the police, accompanied by the
gens d'armes* d' elite, he was carried to the office
of
* As gent d'armet are so often mentioned in this work, the
following particulars of this corps may be interesting to Eng-
lish readers.
Before the Revolution, this corps was called la marcbautse
and composed of 6000 men. The corps of gem d'armet amount
at present, to 25,000 men, of whom 20,000 are on horseback,
and 5000 on foot. To these have lately been added 3000 cho-
sen men, selected from the agents of the secret police, and
known by the name of gens d'armet, d' elite. These have five li-
vres each a day (four shillingsand two-pence); whilst the other,
have only half-a-crown, or three livres. The gens d'armet are
quartered, and doing duty, all over France, and every two
leagues, or six miles, some of them are found. They patrole
the high and bye roads night and day; stop every person travel-
ling on foot, to look at his pass, and every one in carriages,
post-chaises, or diligences as often as they change horses, and
ofrener, if they are so inclined, as they have no account to give
of their conduct, but to their general officer, who depends en-
tirely upon the Minister of the Polite, from whom he receives
confidential orders or instructions. To him are sent all the
descriptions of criminal or suspected persons, and he distributes
them to every brigade under his command, and they are posted
tip inside in all the c.orpq de gardes of U>e£"U d'armet all over
France. On the frontier departments, or in those provin-
REAL. 315
of the Secret Police, which is sitting night and
day. If any other prisoner was examined, or if
it
ccs where the constitution is suspected, the vigilance and ths
gens d'armts are doubled ; but they are exceedingly troublesome
to all foreign travellers not accustomed to the organized slavery
of modern France, and ignorant of the numerous formalities
required to make a pass good in that free country ; from which
the gens d'amtes take advantage to extort money, and to detain
them until they have purchased their liberty. They escort ali
prisoners every where in France to the tribunals, to the gallic:-,
or to the scaffold. They guard the prisons and houses of dt.
ttnthn, and assist the police agents in making domiciliary visits,
or in arresting guilty or suspected persons. They are chosen
from the most desperate characters in the army ; must know
how to read and write, and cannot be accepted without having
■made three campaigns, and received wounds.
The gen.-d'armes d'e'iite belong to the secret, or, as it is some-
times called, haut police, and are the confidential servants of*
the Minister, Director, and Members of the Secret Police Of-
fice. They are employed on the most trusty, as well as on the
most desperate undertakings and expeditions. They escorted
the Duke of Enghien from Strasburgh to Paris, guarded him
at Vindennes, and were present at his midnight murder. They
are the exclusive guards of the Temple, and other state prisons,
the actors in torture, the distributors of the poisonou.
draughts, and the secret executioners of those unfortunate \iv\\
viduals or families, whom Buonaparte's, Fouche's, ar.d Real's
matures of safety require to remove or to conceal. In what
revolutionary tyrants call grand ctups d'etat, as butchering, cr
poisoning, or drowning in masse, they are exclusively employed
They must have been five years agents, or, which is the same.
spies of the secret police, before they can be received amor.5
gensd'armesd e'.'iu; and given proois not only of dexterity, but
of that barbarous mind requisite to commit those enormous
crimes, which the vengeance and safety of revolutionary ty-
» * tftafe
S 1 6 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
it was intended to inspire terror, the arrested
person generally continued shut up, chained
there in what is called la Chamlrc d'Enfer, or the
Chamber of Hell, for 48, and sometimes oG
hours. This room is a large hall under ground,
where no light penetrates, paved with stones, and
in the wall are large iron rings, to which the
chains of the prisoner, with which his hands and
feet are bound, are fastened, and locked with a
padlock. lie cannot move farther from the ring
than six feet. This dark hall is large enoucrh to
contain 150 prisoners at the same time. The onlv
time light is admitted into this abode of misery,
is when the jailers are bringing anew victim to be
chained, as they then generally carry a lantern in
their hands. Nothing but sighs and lamentations
are heard, and no consolation can be given, is ex-
pected, or will be received, as, even here, the nearest
person
rants demind. They are called in France, the. mutes of
• UOKATARTr..
The dresses of all the gins J^armn is the same; dark blue
coats with red lapels and with white buttons; waistcoats and
beeches of yellow cloth. The uniforms of the ginx d'armn
d't'Hte, arc of tine r cloth; but these, except upon guard, are
mostly dressed in coloured cloth, toenablethem toohserveand
report more easily what is going forward. Many of them are
-waiters in cofice- houses, at restaurateurs, and in hotels. They
frequent alt the theatres, gardens, and other places of resort.
In the gambling houses tbej Jo duty night and day, in colourcc.
rlothes.— Houvtllfi a la Main, 20 FrJctidor, )far n; or
t»th September, 1804.
!
REAL. 317
| trson to an innocent sufferer may be a ixoulon, or
Spy, sent to obtain and betray confidence. Haif-
a-pound of bread and two pints of water are
allowed each prisoner, for each -2-i hours. When
carried to his first interrogatory, he does not leave
the Chamber of Heli by the same way that he en-
tered it, but passes through other large subterra-
neous rooms, where the stench strikes one of his
tenses, and blood-stained rags, instruments of
torture, and coffins, another ; for these rooms
are so well lighted, that he can see spots of blood
not only on the wall, but on the floor. Arrived
before the Secret Police Magistrate, who gene-
rally was the barbarous Real, or the ferocious
louche, sometimes both ; he is told that his
pretended crimes have long been known to the
government, he being watched for months bv
the agents of the Secret Police; of course all
evasion or denial are of no other avail than to
expose himself to the rack, and certain death.
If he persists in being innocent, he is carried back
to the Chamber of Hell by the way that he left it,
and the turnkeys shew him, en passant, the in-
struments of torture, explain the manner of ap-
plying them, the terrible sufferings they produce,
and finish by intimating that few persons have
strength enough to sur\ ive their torments. After
i* 3 bein£
318 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
being for forty-eight hours more in the Chamber
of Hell, upon bread and water, he is carried to
a second interrogatory, under a supposition, no
doubt, that want of nourishment has enervated
the strength of his body, as well as anguish re-
duced the vigour of his mind. If he is not sus-
pected of being a chief, or a principal confidant
of the pretended chief conspirators; he is then,
after undergoing a second interrogatory, sent to
the Temple, or some other prison, after signing^
made-up interrogatories, which, if he refuses to
do, forty-eight hours more in the Chamber of
Hell teach him to be less obstinate. If he has
been arrested by mistake, or no evidence is
found against him, he continues in prison as long
as it pleases the police, which seldom opens the
doors of the jails, if friends or relatives do not
make pecuniary sacrifices, which has been the
case with those persons who have had the good
fortune to escape to England. If the persons
arrested be related to suspected individuals, or
supposed to possess great talents, or known ha-
tred against the Corsican family, a dose of poison
usually removes them from the prison to the
grave. Of the eight thousand three hundred
persons imprisoned last spring, not a fourth part
have again made their appearance in society ; and
though
REAL. 3f$
though the police agents say, that they have de-
manded a voluntary banishment to the colonies,
the burial places at Paris are known to be inha-
bited by most of them. It is well known that
Georges' servant, Picot, before the criminal tri-
bunal, in the presence of the public, declared
that his confession had been extorted by tor-
tures; and no one at Paris doubts that the vir-
tuous Pichegru received the reward of the great
services he had done his degraded country, by
death upon a rack. A gens d'armes £ elite, of the
name of Jean Pierreaux, one of his executioners*
is now raving mad, and shut up at Charenton,
where he never ceases to exclaim — • I have mur-
dered Pichegru, the most honest man in France,"
Before he was sent to Charenton, he proclaimed
this, both on the Pont Neuf and in the Palais
Royal. Roland, the friend of Pichegru, lost the
use of his right leg on the rack j but his discre-
tion, in not mentioning it before the tribunal,
saved his life, which is said to be the case even
with Major Roussillion. During all the inter-
rogatories of Georges, Pichegru, and Moreau,
at the Secret Police Office, Buonaparte was,
with Murat, and his favourite aid-de-Camp
Duroc,in an adjoining closet, where he could hear
what was going on j and it was he who, in a fit
p 4 of
320 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
of rage against Pichegru, who denied even'
thing, and refused even to sign the interroga-
tories, ordered the instantaneous and atrocious
murder of this great General, who was more ad-
mired in France for his greatness of mind, when
surrounded by Buonaparte's assassins, than for
his illustrious achievements when leading on
those victorious armies, to whom France is in-
debted, not only for all her conquests, but for
escaping, perhaps, subjection to the confederate
powers in 1794.
Every person who has the good fortune of being
set at liberty, is, before he obtains his release,
obliged to sign a declaration, praising the le-
nity, generosity, and humanity, of the present
Government, and of the persons employ ed by
itj to which, and not to his innocence, he owes
that the doors of the piison have not been
shut for ever against him. He is informed
that this declaration is, in the hand of the po-
lice, •a.mandatd' arret, which will be made use of
the instant his conduct becomes suspected.
The Author has been assured, that the late
conduct of Buonaparte has served the cause of
the Bourbons more in France, than all the armu
of their adherents in La Vendue, and the under-
takings and endeavours of their friends at Paris,
and
REAL. 3 -J l
and in the provinces; because, formerly, the
French royalists residing in France were di-
vided among themselves : some were for Louis
XVI I L others for the Duke of Orleans, and
others again for the Prince of Conde ; but they
are now united, and regard their legitimate So-
vereign, Louis XVIII., as the only Prince who
can save them from the cruel and tyrannical
yoke of the Corsican. Besides, all other French-
men, either attached to Pichegru, Moreau, or to
8 republican form of government, and who have
no crimes to reproach themselves with, hare
joined the staunch royalists, in hope of escaping
the vengeance or oppression of Buonaparte,
whose cruelty against the Duke of Enghien and
Pichegru, and whose envy and ingratitude
against Moreau, have made him detested by
every man, who does not want this upstart's
elevation to collect plunder, or to escape the
punishment due to his crimes. Buonaparte is bo
well convinced of the public hatred, that during
his late journey he has declined all guards of
honour offered by citizens, and trusts the pro-
tection of his person only to Mamelukes, who
poisoned or murdered with him in Svria and
Egypt, or to those picked men of his guards, or
gens $ mines d' elite, who, during 17 03 and 179o,
p 5 were
32«2 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
were accomplices in bis massacres of the inhabi-
tants of Toulon and Paris.
In confirmation of the above statement, the
following letter may be added ; of its authenticity,
unfortunately for humanity, little doubt can re-
main:
PRIVATE LETTER FROM NEW- YORK, DATED
SEPT. 6, 1804.
* ( The widow of the unfortunate Toussaint
has just landed upon our Continent. Her ac-
counts of her own and her husband's sufferings,
from Buonaparte's tyranny and executioners,
would be incredible, were they not already
equalled by the Corsican's former atrocities, and
those of his accomplices, Her mutilated limbs
and numerous wounds are, besides, visible proofs
of the racks and other instruments of torture,
from which she has suffered in the dungeons of
free, enlightened, and civilized France, and under
which, little doubt remains, that General Toussaint
expired. From the moment that Le Clerc, by
perfidy and breach of treaties, got her husband
and herself into his possession, they were loaded
with chains, and, during their whole passage to
France, they continued in irons, with hardly
food enough to support life. At their landing
tit Bourdeanx, they were separated, though shut
up
REAL. 3£9
up in the same prison. What happened since
to her husband she does not know, nor is she
yet certain whether he has perished, as the
French papers have published, in a dungeon at
Besancon: or whether, with a mutilated body,
he continues to breathe the pestilential air ef
French gaols, exposed to the caielties, and en-
during that refinement in torments, which
French ingenuity so ably invents, and of which
Corsican barbaritv so willingly makes use. Her
first examination was before Lucien Buonaparte's
brother-in-law, the police commissary at Eour-
deaux, Pierre Pierre, who told her, rt that her
grave was already dug ; and that her last day was
come, if she did not immediately discover the
place where her husband's secret correspondence
with the English was concealed, and where his
and her own treasures were buried or depo-
sited." Having never heard of any secret trans-
actions with the English, and being convinced
that when Le Clerc so perfidiously surprized
her husband, he got possession, not only of all
his papers, but of all his money, amounting to
about 300,000 livres ( 1 2, 5001.) she declared ber-
•elf unable to make any discoveries. She was
then carried back to her prison, where Pierre
Pierre arrived in the midst of the night, with
P 6 four
£24 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
four ge/is d 'amies ci 'elite, who dragged her to a
subterraneous hall. Here the police commis-
sary, shewing her the instruments of torture, re-
peated his former questions and threats. Her
assurances, her prayers, her tears, and her de-
claration that she was in a state of -pregnancy,
availed nothing. On the gens d'armes laying
hold of her, she fainted away. They carried
her, notwithstanding, to the rack, where the
most excruciating pain soon deprived her of
sense, which she only recovered to feel that
the premature delivery of a child, by miscar-
riage, was at hand. One of the gens d'armes'
wives was then sent for, and she was delivered
of a dead child. Her situation became at last
so desperate, that the surgeon of the prison was
ordered to visit her, and to prolong a life, still
necessary to the policy, avarice, and ferocity of
Buonaparte and his ferocious gaolers. After an
illness which continued for six months, during
which # time she had repeated promises of li-
berty to see her husband, she gathered strength
enough to support a journey ; and one evening,
after dark, Pierre Pierre arrived with a joyful
countenance, informing her, that Buonaparte had
generously permitted her to join her husband at
Paris. She was accompanied^ during the jour-
ney,
REAL. 325
ney, by two police agents, and one of the negro
girls who came with her to Europe as an at-
tendant. The former forbade her to mention
on the road who she was under pain of im-
prisonment ; and the latter informed her, by
her signs only, that she also had felt the ef-
fect of Buonaparte's tortures, because they were
never left by themselves, nor permitted to
speak low, one of the police agents being al-
ways with them. She entered Paris at eleven
o'clock at night, and was immediately carried
to the Prefecture of Police, from which the Po-
lice Prefect Dubois, ordered her to the Temple.
The next evening she was brought before the
Grand Judge Regnier, and the Police Director
Real. Their Secretary, Desmarais, read to her
the former interrogatories before Pierre Pierre,
at Bourdeaux, together with her pretended con-
fessions when upon the rack ; the proas verlal
of which was not only signed by Pierre Pierre,
but by the four gens d'armes d'tlite. She was
now told to be more explicit, her husband havinc
confessed more than herself, as the onlv means
not only to obtain her liberty, but to avoid new
tortures. — Having nothing to discover, she per-
sisted in her former denial, and was, therefore,
upon a signal from Regnier, seized by the gens
8 d'armes
326 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
d'armes in the room, and carried to a dungeon,
to which she descended sixty-six steps. There
she was stripped naked, and put again on the
rack, when Desmarais questioned her about the
names of the secret agents from the English
Governor at Jamacia, of their transactions, of
the houses in England and America to whom
money had been remitted ; where, in St. Do-
ming©, they had buried treasure, in gold, to the
amount of ten millons, &c. What she had
suffered at Bourdeaux was merely a trifle to the
terrible pains inflicted on her at Paris, which, in
a few minutes, deprived her both of the faculty of
thinking and of speaking. What happened to her
afterwards in the Temple she does not remember,
having been entirely deprived of her reason.
When she began to recover it last April, she
found herself shut up and chained in the mad-
house for women, called La Salpetricre, near the
Jardan des Plantes, at Paris. When AHemand,
the surgeon general of this hospital, had made
his report of her convalescent state, her second
son was permitted to see her; and the consola-
tion that she received from his visits soon restored
lier as much as she could expect to be on this
side of the grave. This lenity of Buonaparte
was caused by the promise and engagement of
the
REAL. 3«T
the young man to form a party at St. Domingo
against Dessalines ; and it was by her agreeing
to co-operate with her son, that they both were
permitted to embark for the American continent,
after previously signing an acknowledgment of
the kind treatment she had experienced in France.
Both she and her son remained in a house of
detention at Paris until an American vessel had
been hired to carry them away from Europe.
In this house they were treated not only with
humanity, but with respect : before her de-
parture she received from Buonaparte 1000
Louis d'ors, as an indemnity for her detention in
France ; and Madame Buonaparte sent her a dia-
mond ring worth 500 Louis d'ors, with a mes-
sage that she felt much for her situation, and de-
sired her to forget the past, but remember that
she was born a French subject.
" These particulars of her sufferings, Madame
Toussaint has related to the widow of a rich
planter of St. Domingo, Madame Bernard, who
has sent them in the above letter, to a relative
in this country, with the addition that Tous-
saint's widow has lost, by the torture, the
use of her left arm ; and has no less than forty-
four wounds on different parts of her body.
Pieces of flesh have been torn from her breast,
M
328 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
as with hot irons, together with six nails off her
toes ! a living witness of the humanity and honour
of the tender Emperor of the French, the august
Chief of the French Legion of Honour."
In the Dictionnaire des, Jacobins, art. Real, is
said : " Successively the accomplice or defender
of all guilty men, it is nothing to Real, that
he nourishes himself with the tears of the op-
pressed. The assassin on the highway is prefer-
able to the hypocrite Real j you mistrust the
former, while the latter, with all the exterior of
virtue, causes you to fall into the snare*.
* Besides the works quoted, the Author has made use of Lt
Rttutild'A'iecdotts, Dictionnaire Bicgravkhur^ and Lrs Neavcllts
i U Mai/i, Ventose, an iz. No. iii.
( 329 )
MEHEE DE LA TOUCHE,
THE FRENCH SPY.
Accipe nunc Danaum insidias, et crimine ab uno
Disce omnes.
It was a maxim with Richelieu and Maza-
rine, to trust neither political nor religious apos-
tates ; to employ them if they possessed talents,
but never so as to afford them means to regain
by treason the favour of that party or sect to
which early inclination or education had attached
them. The knowledge which these able minis-
ters had of mankind, their long experience,
their judgment and talents, prepared the gran-
deur of the reign of Louis XVI. and they are
still consdered in Europe as the greatest states-
men of France, so fertile in political genius, and
so proud of her Sully, of her Louvois, of her
Choiseul, and of her Talleyrand. In his writ-
ings Richelieu says, " that indination for the
cause that he serves, is teen necessary in a spy ; as
it often has the same effect on his conduct that ho-
nour has on that of an ambassador." The justness
of
330 REVOLUTIONARY P LUTARCH
Crrt c :: notbe<,o ' ,bt -'--'™-
cherousMeheeis 1 I U" 8 ™'*'''"* the *»-
J- -as able „ Wo " ^ ^ """i^' «*-
-rets ofBnon a p a „e befor h^M 7 **
««te to those of Lo„ is v VI ? r * S f e to P<™-
« -bjeets who fa ^J r ;;t° f h ,h0Se f3ith -
*hro„e of his ancestors. h ™ '° the
The father of Mehee de la To,,,),
surgeon at Mcaux M •, , Uche was «
o ivaeaux, 30 mi es from Pan. l
hw son was born in 1 762 h! 7' ^
-cceed his father; bu a * the WaS / duCated »
'eft his home and U* \ ^ ° f tWeIve he
and after severa T2 "^ / ,A P° ck «> at Paris;
se\eral reprimands from the r>nW
finally sent to the Bicetre ^ n P ' WaS
correction for those T ? ^ a h ° Use of
derate and Xr n t;r edaSm ° St
**u«i XVf h,\ f!,K • coronation of
•ained his r iease L T""" *" 3 " d *"
Cher's ho el, C ° ndUCt ' h °™ CT > in *
ws P are„rVhe y rr: d K hedeath ° fboth
»n 6> a„d,he„l;L a ti° r fbrokeni >-'-»
^^^icetrejr^/r^t'
wag
MEHEE, S3 3
•was sent to Brest to serve on board the fleet >
but he escaped, and was not heard of until the
Revolution made it safe for everv French villain,
on assuming the aame of a patriot, to return to
his country, from which his crimes had pre-
viously proscribed him. In 1790 he was sent as
a spy to St. Petersburgh, by the revolutionary
propaganda at Paris. Mirabeau and La Fayette
procured him a pass as Chevalier De la Touche 3
and a patriotic mercantile house at Marseilles, by
the desire of the former, the representative of
their province, gave him a credit sufficient to
live according to his assumed rank. His ma-
noeuvres were, however, soon suspected ; and his
actions were watched by the police at St. Peters-
burgh, until a letter from the then Russian
Ambassador at Paris, Count de Semonville, in-
formed his Court of the danger that the pre-
sence of such a man created ; in consequence of
which two Russian police agents, in March
1791, carried him, by the orders of Catherine IT.
out of her dominions. He then went to Po-
land in the same employment, and established a
French Journal, which was printed at Warsaw.
He began by publishing those principles whicli
caused so much wretchedness in France, till
Abb£ Piatolis, Secretary to the King of Poland,
bought
332 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
bought him over, for 500 ducats, to write for
the royalist party. But it being discovered that
he betrayed to the jacobins in France the secrets
of his Polish Majesty, and thereby served the
jacobins in Poland, he was arrested, and acknow-
ledged his treason. The generous lenity ot
Stanislaus inflicted no other punishment than an
order to depart immediately from his capital,
and in eight days to leave his kingdom. In
Mav 1792, he announced in the paper called
Ami du Peuple, his arrival at Paris, tojight and to
die under the colours of Marat, as he said. This
worthy apostle of French liberty introduced him
to Danton, and in June he was received in the
clubs of the Jacobins and of the Cordeliers. On
the 10th of August of that year, he was among
the banditti who attacked the castle of the
ThuiHeries in the morning; and in the evening
his name, as Secretary to the self-appointed
commune, appeared in a publication posted up
every where at Paris, exciting the people to
murder, and calumniating the unfortunate Louis
XVI. and his family. On the 2d of September
and the following days, he directed and paid
those who murdered the prisoners at Paris. An
English gentleman now in London met him on
the 3d, in the street Dcs St. Peres, Fauxlourg
St.
MEHEE. 333
St. Germain, atcorated with a red jacobin cap, with
a bleeding head on the point of a sword, accom-
panied by sixteen assassins, marching two and
two, each carrying a head by the hair in each hand,
and who went with him to the municipality,
where they said they expected the salaries due
for their patriotic labours. This same gentleman
met him again in London last summer (1803) at
a coffee-house. Astonished to see, after the
declaration of war, such a guilty character in
England, he asked him by whose permission
he resided here, and, after having committed so
many atrocities in France, how he dared to pol-
lute a country with his presence where a halter
and a gibbet punished many persons much less
criminal than himself? — To these questions and
reproaches he answered with an hypocritical
impudence, that his repentance for his past
errors was so sincere, and so well known both to
the French royalists and to the English Minis-
ters, that he had regained, by great services f the
confidence of the former and the protection of
the latter. He would not, however, have
escaped chastisement, had he not found an op-
portunity to steal away through a back door
unperceived, while the gentleman informed the
master of the house who his guest was, and
desired
334 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
desired a constable to be sent for. All the
orders for the murder of the prisoners in Sep-
tember 1792, and all the Ions for the payment of
the murderers, were signed Huguenin, Tallien,
and Mehee.
On the 17th of the same month, while the
Section of the French Pantheon were deliberat-
ing what government, either republican or mo-
narchical, they should recommend to their mem-
bers lately elected for the National Convention,
the terrible Mehee, sent them from the com-
mune a note, which is here translated verbatim :
i{ Citizens! If what is called a King, or any thing
resembling it, dare to present itself in France, and
somebody is wanted to stab it, have the goodness to
inscribe me among the number of canditates — my
name is Mehee." This note was printed in all
the papers of that time, and is found in Les
Annales du Terror isme, and in the Dictiormaire
Biographique. He was afterwards Tallien's secre-
tary, and composed with him the pamphlet which
inspired ao much horror, called " The Apotheosis
of the Septembrizers," and the newspaper called
if Les Patriotes de 1789," in which he preserved
the same passion for blood, and recommended
the massacre of the terrorists then in disgrace,
as he shortly before had done that of the
pretended
MEHEE. 335
pretended aristocrats and priests, shut up in the
dungeons of Paris. By his patron Tallien he
was introduced to the members of the Directory,
who, on the 25th of November, 1795, appointed
him First Secretary to the Minister of the War
Department ; and shortly afterwards he obtained
the same place in the Foreign Department under
the imbecile La Croix. But his crimes were so
notorious, and the public opinion was so much
against him, that even the then all-powerful Di-
rectory could not protect him, and he was forced
to resign in April 1796, as he pretended, to have
time to justify himself.
Few, if any, of those guilty men who have
figured in the French Revolution and in the
French Republic, have satisfied themselves with
committing one sort of crime. They have ge-
nerally been both assassins and robbers, forgers
and plunderers. Mehee was hitherto only
known as a Septembnzer, whose hands had
been stained with the blood of innocent and
disarmed prisoners. But he now joined some
contractors who defrauded the government of
large sums of money, for which fraud he was
tried in October 1/96; but by the interest of
his friend, Merlin of Douai, then Minister of
Justice, he escaped, though his accomplices were
condemned
336 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
condemned to the gallics, where they still re-
main.
About this period the moderate party of the
republicans began to court a connexion with that
of the constitutional royalists; and their united
efforts were visible in the elections of members
for the two Councils in the spring of 17 97. Not
doubting of that punishment which awaited him
as well as all other criminals, should order and
a regular government be once restored in France,
Mehee, to prevent it, made his peace with his
old friends the terrorists, and became the Editor
of their official gazette, called, Le Journal des
Homines Litres, in which he affected the lan-
guage, policy, and morality of Marat. To
make himself distinguished from the other libel-
lers, who in this vile and violent paper at-
tacked religion and calumniated all lawful So-
vereigns, he signed barbarous and regicide arti-
cles, " Felkemesi," the anagram of Mehee jih.
So atrocious and dangerous, however, were the
consequences of his doctrine, that when the ja-
cobin faction of the Directory, by the revolu-
tion of the 4th of September, 1797* proscribed
all loyal and moderate men, to shew their pre-
tended justice in not suffering terrorists more than
royalists, Mehee was made an example of, and
the
MEHEE. 337
the only terrorist and Septembrizer condemned
to be transported to Cayenne, with Pichegru,
Willot, Barthelemy, and others accused of mo-
narchical principles. At that time it was not,
as it is now under the reign of the ferocious
Buonaparte, a capital crime to conceal and pre-
serve from destruction individuals of one faction,
victims of the vengeance and passions of another
faction. Mehec therefore remained for some
months hidden by his accomplices, who presented
a' petition that he had composed, to the then
King of party, Barrasj in which this staunch re-
publican basely held the same language to the
regicide Director, and praised as much his
mency, justice, and generous notions of liberty,
as the Consular Senators or Bishops now extol
the virtues, humanity, and liberality of Buona-
parte. This petition had the desired effect. He
was pardoned, on condition of defending, in the
official directorial paper, i Lc Redact eur-> all tf>e
crimes which the D' bad committed, or
intended to commit : he continued to
do until the summer of VjQih vyjien jacc
•clubs were again opened at j
again were fashionable. ower
of the jacobins, who then constituted the majo-
rity in the Council qf Five I •. deluding
VOL. III. £
358 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the jacobin Lucien Buonaparte), he turned
against the Directory, and, in the/tribune of the
Jacobin Club, " proclaimed lists of proscriptions,
denounced imaginary conspiracies, and demand-
ed that the guillotine should once more be the order
of the day*."
The revolution effected by Buonaparte on the
9th November of the same year, cooled, however,
his revolutionary patriotism ; and he petitioned
to be the Counsellor of State to an usurper who
acknowledges neither a superior nor an equal,
after having some few weeks before sincerely and
ardently desired a republic of perfect equality, and
the constitution of the year 1 1 +. But the Corsi-
can then declined this fraternity in his Council of
State; not but that most of its members were
as infamous as Mahee ; but because Tallien, when
he was on the eve of deserting his army in Egypt,
had been very severe in reproaching him, in the
National Institute at Cairo, with the enormous
crimes which he had committed at Jaffa; and that
he suspected Mehee of being Tall ien's friend; who,
in revenge for his disappointment, wrote a libel
ngainst the Consular Government, which caused
him to be sent to the Temple, the gates of which
were
* See Les Jacobin de l'an vii. page it, printed by Le Nor-
man, an viii.
+ Les Septembrizeurs Dernasque, chez Dantu, an x. page 19.
MEHEE. 33§
were opened to him in 1801 by another libel
against the Bourbons. Being without employ-
ment, and without bread, alike detested and
despised, and having no hope but from terrorists
and atheists; he began in 1802 a weekly maga-
zine, called L' Antidote, where the Christian reli-
gion was abused and ridiculed, and, under the
appellation of philosophy, the tenets of atheism
were preached. As the policy of that apostate to
Christ, as to Mahomet, Napoleon Buonaparte
had just then concluded a concordat, which in-
troduced the same revolution in the church as
had before been introduced in the state, Mehee
was again arrested, and transported to the Isk
d'Oleron, where, through the interference of his
friends at Paris, he gained the favour of the
First Consul, by taking upon himself to be hi*
spy in England, to which country he was permit-
ted to make his escape in an American ship.
\ .hen Mehee landed in this country, a peace
subsisted between Great Britain and France ; and
Buonaparte wanted less to stir up rebellion here,
than to prevent those royalist emigrants whom
his impertinent amnesty could not seduce from
their loyalty, and those emigrant Bishops whose
faith and allegiance his revolutionary concordat
was unable to charge or to purchase, from
Q. - creating:
3-10 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
creating disturbances in the French Republic.
The principal object of this spy was, therefore,
to try, by a pretended repentance of his former
crimes, and by declamations against the Corsican
usurper, to gam the confidence of the principal
emigrants, to inspect their actions, and to report
their conduct. He went, therefore, to those
French houses frequented Ly his countrymen ;
but for a long time his very name inspired hor-
ror. By continuing, however, his assiduity, by
enduring insults with patience, and finally, by
going regularly to the mass, and to confess, he
imposed on some few, and familiarized others
with the idea that even a Septembrizer may be-
come a reformed man. As soon as he remarked
(as he thought) that the prejudice against his per-
son and the abhorrence of his former crimes were
lessened, he offered himself, in atonement for his
past conduct, as & disinterested victim to bleed for
* the cause of his King, in attempting to annihilate
the Republic with the usurpation. But neither
his Royal Highness Monsieur, the brother of the
King of France, nor any of the other French
Princes, would admit him into their presence.
After the provocations of Buonaparte had again
obliged England to resort to arms in defence of
her honour, liberty, and independence, his spy ad-
dressed
1
MEHEE. S I I
dressed himself to seme of the principal emigrants,
possessing the confidence or' the English Govern-
ment, and the esteem of the King of France and
of his royal relative*, with a plan for engaging the
terrorists to destroy the Cor s iean, and to restore
Monarch v; as according to his assertion, .
had hen overturned by terrorists could om
halt by terrorists. He had even the audacity to
desire them to present him to the British Minis-
ters j but one of them, whose taljp.tsa.nd judg-
.: are as great as his honour and loyalty, in
return for this impudent application, scut him
the i . wry, in which s - I his
atrocities are recorded. It was in answer to
this that he wrote the following memorial * ;
in
•To pn-ve th? authenticity of this document, the Autiu.1
js the oii,i
NPmiEOR,
Je vous renvoye votre Dictionnaire soi-disant Hlstorique, et
tcus remercie de m'avoir bien voulu ccmrnuniquer ce qui me
regardedans le recueil, donr les ziiteurs or.: eu l'art de calomnier
jusqu'a des gens que Ton na croyait pas calomniables. Quar.J
au conseil que vous me donne» a.- rcpondre a ce qui m: comernei
je vous priedob-erverquecet buvragen'eponeninom d'auteur,
ni nom d'imprimeur, ni nom de libraire, et qui! est a peu pres
rtcu, que des Strocit£s que personnc n*. ;,e meritent
qie le mepris des horm£tes gens. Lor.-que d.s ca!omn:ate«rs
plus hardis m'ont calomnie a Pari* et op.t ose signer ce >
avancaiei t, sur le champ je lc; at rraduits, devant !es tribunaux,
tt j'ai obtenu justice, lorsque le Mor.iteur il y i deux
• par crdre de Ja tour, la calomnie deja ju^es, js me suis
fo/t
342 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
in which he attempted to excuse, or totally de-
nied, these known enormities, which no repent-
ance can extenuate, and no evidence diminish ;
THE
fort peu embarras^e sil'article etait du Premier Consul, et j'ai
attaque et traduit devant les juges le Moniteur et ses copistes.
J'ai a la veritc cte arrete et deporte pour tout jugement, mais
cet acte la meine est un aveu que le despote craignait que son
journal ne tut condamne.
Lorsqu'a Londreson me dit que Mr. Richer Serisy repandait
contre moj les memes calomnics, commeMr. Richer Serisy, est
un homme a qui on peut repondre, vous s^avez si jc perdis une
minute pour aller m'expliquer avec lui. Je le trouvai aigri par
le malheur et la maladie ; il m'avoua que me regardant com-
me un ennemi des royalistes il s'etait exprime fort durement
sur mon compte, et qu'il avait dit avoir lu tout ce que vous
venes de me montrer.Je m'appercus que, toutel'humeurde M.
Richer portait sur ce qu'il avait lu et entendu dire. Je lui
prouvai que je n'avais jamais occupe les places dans Icsquellcs
il me supposait.
11 ne connaissait rten des persecutions que j'ai eprouvees et
il arriva avec lui ce qui arrivera toujours avec les gens de bonne
foi, qui voudront m'entendre et me juger sur ce que j'ai fait,
et non pas sur les ordures que les partis le jettent au nes dans
une Revolution.
Viola ce j'ai toujours fait quandquelqu'un s'est presente ;
et si aujourde'hui vous trouves quelqu'un qui veuille signer ou
articuler devant temoins, lesfaitscontenus djns le Dictionnaire
que je vous renvoye, je vous donnema parole d'honneurdelui
prouver de toutcs les manieres possibles qu'il est un fourbe,
ct un lache calomniateur.
Mais lorsqu'un libelle dcgoutant, raporte des faits deja
plusieurs fois juges, et par les tribunaux, et par l'opinion des
honnetes gens, que voulcz vous que je fasse ? — Voulez vous
que j'aille me battre seul devant le public, etqueje disc- :
Messieurs, il n'est pas vrai, que je soye un terroristc, un
Maratiite, un asjassin .... tout le monde me rirait au nes.
On
M£HEE. 34$
THE MEMORIAL.
TO
I LORD,
I return you the soi-dlmnt Historial Dictionary,
and thank you for the obliging manner in which
Q, 4 you
On me dirait : pourquoi vous defendes vous de ces horreurs ?
C'est que On, m'en accuse— quel est ce On qui vous ac-
cuse ? — Des gens de lettre de Hambourg. — A lor* alles les
trouver — Jene lesconnais pas. Addresses vous a l'imprimeur.
On ne le connait pas — Au libraire, cela se vend en cachette
en ce cas la, mepmes les, et laisess nous tranquilles.
Voila a coup sur ce que 1'on me dirait ; mais j'avoue que
cela ne me suffit pas avec vous, et que je dois a la bienveil lance
que vous m'aves temoignee, de vous montrer et dz vous faire
connaitre l'homme que vous aves accueilli. Je vais done jetter
avec vous, et pour vous seul, un coupd'ceil sur l'odieux
bouquin dont it est question.
II commence par dire que j'etais comme ci-devant sous le
nom de CkevaUct Js la Toacce— quoique ceci nesoit pas une in-
jure, c'est encore un mensongeet prouve combien il me connait,
Vous saves quelle est mafamille, rcon grandpere enderogeant,
comme il a fait, separe la branche a laquelle j'appartiens, du
reste d'une famille fort ancienne. Avant d'etre medecin, mon
pere avait long- terns exerce la chirurgerie. II est fort connu
par plusieurs ouvrages sur cet art, et vous saves comment i 1
serait facile en France, de se faire passer pour Chevalier, lorsque
l'on a toute sa vie demeure chez son pere cbirurgic-., comm=
ainsi vos gens de lettre de HamLourg, me declarent eormu par
un titre sous lequel je ne me suis jamais connu moi-meme.
Eleve dans nos colleges ou nous icccvions une education
toute republicaiue, puisquc nos livres Grccs ct Latins ne nous
rspresectaiex.;
344 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
you have communicated to me whatever con-
cerns myself in that collection, the conductors
xeprescntaient que les ver'.us ct les beaux traits des anciennf!
rcpubliques, vous concevr's que ne connaissar.t lemondeet la
politique que par le beau loV, il n'est point snrprcr, riant, que je
sois arrive a l'agede 2^ ans (j'avaisa-j ans lorsque commence ia
revolution) avec iles klees trer. favorablesa une republique. 1! y
ava-it alors cinq ans que je voyaccais dans re rord ou des :.
de commerce m' avail tart envoyer par \mc compagnie de
Marseille. ( Guis et Cousin, et Bcaumavchais).
J'etaisen Russia en 89, 90, et 91, j'avais sous les yeux le pre-
mier gouvernement sur lequel j'aye pu reftechir. Les journavix
me peignaient ]a Revolution Francai. c sous les couleurs les plus
favorablcs a la libertej'etais plein de mon Ta».ite et de nion
Plutarque. I.e Roi de France paraissait alors, dumoins dar.t
les journaux, approuver cctte Revolution. Je yous demande
s'ii n'etaitpas asses naturel que je la vissede bon ceil : je vou-
Jois revenir sur le champ en France pour res pi r;r en fin l'air de
la liberre, Letat de mes affaires ne me le permit pas. Enrin
en 91, le Baron d'Estat avec leqvel j'etais tort lie. revint en
France, il avait une grande voiture je lui demand-i une place,
qu'i m'aceorda, et je partis.
Arrive* Varsovie, nouss'ejournames quelques jours, pen.
dans lesquels j'eus occasion de voir i'Abbe Fiattali, Secretaire
du Roiet homme de beaucoup demerite, Il me dit qu'au mo-
ment de Ia Revolution qui venait de s'opcrer, (e'etait en Mai
91) le Roi sctait bien aise, que Ton f:t une Gazette Francaise
sur les lieux, afinque les ctrangers pussent connaitre les discus-
sions de la Diette, autrement que par les mauvaises traductions
qui en circulaient. Je ne risistai pas au plaisir d'ecrire mes
it.ces long- terns enf'erme'es dans ma tefe, et je commencai la
Gazette de Varsovie. Je n'eus pas fait trois numeros, que
j'sppris que le Roi trouvait mes pensees trop libres, et que je
ne louai pjs asses ks discours et les mesures du parti royal : on
voulait ensuite que jc me prononcisse contre la Revolution du
France qui me paiaiasait super be, et que j'inserasse des mor-
ceaux tres violent de M. Burke que le Roi traduisait ct m'en-
Of
MEHEE. 345
nf which have contrived to calumniate even
those whose characters they themselves knew to
vo) ait. Je refusal de me soumettre 2 ce que je regardais corn-
me une tyrannic, ct je ne [is que douzenumeros de certe Ga-
zette. J'employai le tems que je resu'i a Varsovie, a receuil-
lir des notes sur ia manieredont s'etait op.re la Revolution da
3 MV; 91, et vins * Pans, taire imprimer une histoire de cette
Revolution. C'estbien un des plus mauvais ouvrages qui aient
paru encegenre, quoiqu'il aiteu 1'honneur de deux editions, et
de plusieurs traductions. Au reste il avait le merite de re ren-
fermer que des taits vrais; et je crois que e'est ce quia le piiii
contribue a le faire romber.
Jen'allai jamais a la societedes jacobins, mais mon mauvais
ouvrage ayant ete astes bien traite par Condwctl sous le r
des principes, jefus regardedans ma section commeun patriore,
et le soirdu 10 Aoust 1-91, on m'apprit que j'avaisecenom ne
membreduconseil general d'unenouvellecommune. Jemeren-
dis au poste qu'on m'irdiquait, et quatre jours aorts, TallieH,
qui oe me connaissait que par mon ouvrage, me proposa pour
Secretaire. Je fus nomr.ie le 14 ou ie 15 Aoust, Secretaire de la
Commune.
Les fondions d' un Secretaire de la Commune de Paris, se re-
duisenta assistera Ia seance, a prendre note de ce quis'y passe,
a en rediger un procrt verbal, a signer les patentes et les passe-
ports : du reste le secretaire n'a ni avis ni ordre a donr?r, et
n'eit jama's contuhe sur rien. Cependant j'erais loin de trou-
ver agrtabie ce qui se passait. J; n'avois vueni dans Tacire,
nidans Plutarque que pour etre republican, il fallut etre cri-
ard, despote, peisecutetir ou aumoir.s denonciateor; le degGdt
de rna position perja malgre moi, et les plus fins commen.
a me regarder comuie un mode e. Beaucoup de royaliste; •t;ein-
blans venaient chez moi et me demandaient, les xins des •:-
ports, les autre;, cesconseils. II se repar.ditalors parmices Kles.
sieufs, que je n'euis point un patriote ommel cs autres, et que
Ten pouvait se conlier a moi. JVr ai v. ucoup vu alors q .
r.e ccniiaisaais pas le moin» du monde $ et a qui je t
i'iiic utile.
346 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
be unimpeachable. With respect to the advice
that you give me, to apply to these malevolent
M. de Flahautt dont on connait le malheureux sort, fut du
nombre de ceux qui me venaient voir le plus souvent ; il nc
concevait pas qu'on put etre patriote et humain et obligeant ;
et moi je ne concevai pas sa surprise. II essaya de me ramener
aux idees royalistes ; mais sa logique n'etait pas asses robuste
at je croyais alors de tres bonne foi, que presque toutc la France
voulait maintenir la Revolution.
Un journal redige par Etienne Feuillant, ayant un jour inserre
un article signe Mthee, dans lequel an proposait de tuer le pre-
mier qui voudrait £tre Roi, je me rendis chez le journaliste pour
savoir pourquoi il avait ainsi use de mon nom ; il me montra
une lettre qu'il avait recue par la poste, et qu"il avoit eopiee
dans son journal. Je reconnus facilement que la signature ne
resemblait pas meme a lamienne, et voulaireckirncrcontre cettc
insertion ; mais j'en fus heureusement empeche par quclqu'un
qui m'apprit que c'etait un piegequim'etait tendu par le nom-
ine Chaumette, procureur de la commune. J'appris que ce
miserable avait use du meme moyen a l'egard de plusicurs per-
sonnesdont il n'etait pas sur : il les fesait ainsi se prononcer
dans les journaux par des lettres de sa facon. Si ces personnes
reclamaient et desavouaient les lettres, elles etaient perdues,
parce que dans ces momens terribles, oserdire qu'on n'etait
pas un Brutut etait fe vouer a une mort certaine. M. de Flahautt
jut le premier a m'engager a me taire; il regardait meme cet in-
cident comme asses heureux parcequ'au moyen de l'air repub-
licain qu'il me donnait, je pourrais ctre plus utile au Roi que
nous songions a sauvcr.
.Les memes considerations m'empScherent dc quitter ma
place, comme je levoulais des lors ; mais lc> massacres de Sep-
tembre ayant en lieu, et les assemblies electorates s'etaivt ou-
yert sous ces allYeux auspices, je ne pus pas mc contenir d'ad-
vantagc et j 'ecrivis une lettre aux 48 sections de Paris, pour leur
rienoncer Robespierre et ses marceuvrcs. Cette lettre affichee
partout Paris, fut brulee dans presque toutes les sections par
Ivs amis du tyrao>/^.r d* 40 f races vtrkcaux enctre exist jus, at-
insinuatioas
MEHEE. 347
insinuations, I beg you to reflect, that the pub-
lication is anonymous, and even without a pub-
testent l'improbaticn que j'essuyais alors ; et plusde 40 depu-
tations vinrent demander a la commune de chasser l'aristocrate
qui avait ossattaquer Uvertueitx Robespierre. Jefus alors regarde
a la commune comme un royaliste deguiss, lonque moi, je me
croyais le seul republicain de l'assemblee.
II n'etaitpas facile meme de donner sa demission, car alors
on etait doublement suspect. Mr. Flahautt dailleurs m'avait
fait promettre de rester jusqu'apres le proces du Roi, et j'etais
tres dfcivH, a empecher de tout mon pouvoir un crime que je
croyais, dailleurs aussi contraireauxinterets de la libertequ'il
ctait atroce. M. Flahautt se rendit dans un port de mer, d'ou
il me fesait passer des ballots des memoires de M. Bertrand en
faveur du Roi, et des sommes d'argent que je remettais aux
addresses qui m'etaient donnees.
Ce ne fut pas s^r.s le grands dangers que je m'acquitta de
ces commissions. Je craignais en outre, d'etre trahis par ies por-
teurs de Mr. Flahautt, et parquelques ccarts de son zele plus
ardent, qu'eclaire pour son prince. Je composai, et fis composer
des placards, qui furent imprimeschez Guillot, dont j'ai remis
les re$us a Madame Bertrand. Errfin tous nos eiforts avar.t ets
inutile, le Roi ayant peri ; et Mr. de Flahautt l'ayant suivi peu
apres; epouvantc des crimes qui m'entouraient et des dangers
que je courais moi mSme, je declarai au conseil que men projet
etait d'allcr a l'armee, e'etait le seul moyen de dormer ma de-
misr.on, sms exJter des souvvons. Le plaisir d'erre debarr.-se
de moi et de pouvoir disposer de ma place, fit qu'on a;
monoti're sans ballance. Je deviens inspecteur general des equi-
pages d'artillerie, et je re;tai dans cette place tranquille et ob-
scur, jusqui ce qu'un represenfint d 1 pcuple mayar.t rencon-
tre et se souvenant de ma qt _ . re, prit un
arie;e par iequel il rue declare aristocrute, indigce d'etre chef
des charretiers et me de-
Si les gens delettre de Hambourg avaient ete obligesa cette
epc^ue d"scrirc ira vie, je nc sais pas cuils auraient trouvc ce
a 6 Usher's
348 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Usher's name; and that, it is almost universally
admitted, aspersions which none dare avow,
qu'ils enontdit,carj'ctais bicn alors pour tcus Ies jacobins, sus-
pect, et archi-suspect ; j'erais religue a 20 lieues des frontiers, et
a 20 lieus de Paris. Hcureusement je ne fus pas asses bite pour
obcYr ; car je savais que e'etuit dans ces deux rayons qu'on ar.
xetait tous ceux que Ton voulaitp°rdre. J'allai a Meux, lieu c'.e
ma naissance, ou je restai tranquille jusqu'au 9 Thermidor.
L'Essai que j'avais fait d'une republique n'etaitpas fort at«
trayant j mais par malheur je me persuadai, que e'etaient les
gens persecutes comme moi qui etaisnt les republicans, et lors -
que le regne de Robespierre cessa, je nedoutai pas un moment
que les beaux sicclesd'Athenes nc dussent enfin succedera taut
d'horreurs.
Cependant Robespierre n'erait pas mort tout entier. Sa
queue mer.ajait encore de la continue,', tout le monde tremblait,
et personne n'osait ecrire un mot contre les jacobins. Je com-
mensal l'attaque par un pamphlet, que j'intitulai la Queue de
Robespierre ; les jacobins jetterent les hauts cris, le fameux
Fouchi qui depuis m'a deporte comme jjce&in, monta alors
a la tribune dc jucceins, et denonja la Queue de Robespierre.
thuriot, membrc du comite de salut public, la fit arrete chex
1'imprimeuv j mais il en avait deja paru plus de 60 mille ex-
trnplaires. Je sentis le danger dene pas 1 'importer dans cettc
•ccasion, et je publiai un second pamphlet intitule Rcide's mei ma
f^ueue, ou lcitrea Sarliut Tburiot. Un mandat d arret fut lance
contre moi, par le comrnite de salut public. J'y k pondis par
un troisieme pamphlet, intitule, Defens ta Queue, alors ayant
eu le bonheurde faire riie demes persecuteurs, tout le monde
ccrivit contre eux ; et per.dant deux mois on n'entendait par'ex
que de queues dans Paris.
C'est alors que cornmenja, c -que les jacobins appellerent la
je-action, c'est adi-e que les royalistes entreprirent dc; renver-
5sr, non pas la republique, qui, suivantmoi, n'a jamais existe,
mais la Revolution, far malheur pour la cause du Roi, les
loyalistesont aujsi ]evirsja„obirs,qui lui font tout le rral, que
ks autres out fait a la republique. Des gen* qui avaient servis
deserve
MEHEE. 349
rve only the contempt of virtuous men.
When more daring calumniators openly attacked
sous toutes les bannieres de la Gironde et de Robespierre vou-
Jurent B'cofblla souscelles dcs royalties. Je r.e les Citjmaix
pas ass-s pcur les suivre de conriar.ce. Je n'etais p3S alor*
suade, que la republique fut impossible; je rexusai de me
joindre i eux.
Alors, et sculement alcrs, furent imaginees les calorr
dont on m'a assailli depuis. Madame Btaubamtis, aujourd'hui
-■ da Consul, me rk inviter de passer chez elie, et apres
m'avcir engage inu'ilement a me joindre a ceux dont elle fesatt
alors sa socieie ; elie nvannonca qu'on allait publier un ecrit
quej'avais sigr.e etant a la commune: on lui en avail laisse
e me montra. Cet ecrit etait im ordre donne
par queiques officicri ir.unicipaux, de payer trois ouvriers, qui
avaient travaiile a une prison. J'avais, a ce que 1'on prefer
_re da ces ohitiers municipaux ; et ccmme
tout cela paraissait fort simple, on precendart que ces ouvriers
ctaient des assassins ; et en etfet ce tut ainsi que ion fill oblige
de traduire le not ouvrier, pour trouver quelque chose .
primandabie dans ce bi.
Jobservai que la commune etait char^ee de l'entretien des
prisons, et que tous les jpurs on payait les ouvriers ; qu\.
Ddxc 4 ans apres, que le mot ouvr -
assassin ; qu'au reste ce n'etsit pas moi, mais trois ofEcier ^
lux qui avaient doar.e 1 'ordre, et que pour lega User des
• :res, un homme public, n'est dans lusage de soccuper
du corps de lecr.t, mats des seules signatures.
Tout cela e:a:t sans replique, rr.ais on ne vculaitqu'un pe-
texte. Un journaliste inserra un jour, que j'avais sigr.e des
•> J .e payement pcur des assassins. Je le traduisis de-
vant les tribunaux et le rls cor.iumr.er ; mais cela n'a pas era-
peche les gens de lettres qui font des Dictionnaires B
de copier ces calcmnie>; ili en sont quittes pour r.e point
mettre de noma d'zatexu ni de hbra.res. Dar.s les places que
j'ai occupces, soit a la guerre, t-oit aux relation, ex-.eri-
«res, j'ai toujours etc persecute par les gouTenians,
my
350 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
my character at Paris, I immediately cited them
before the proper tribunals, and obtained justice:
qui se sont succedes. II est incroyable qu'un homme aussi
jnethunt que je suis peint dans ce Dictionr.aire, n'est pu
Convenir rri a Robetpierrt, ni a Barcas, ni a Rcivbel, ni a Merlin,
Ili a Bu? % :xparte>
Le Dictiomu'ire E-iographique me fait secretaire de Tallien.
Certes je n'aurais pas voulu de Tallien pour mon secretaire,
comment 1 '< .-.:is?.i- je choisi pour mon maitre ? II me fait de-
nonce par le merne Tallien, ce qui ne'st pas plus vrai que le
reste. II di*: que j'ai fait avec Tallien le Journal desPatriotes
de 89 ; si vous vculez lira Tarricle Real, vous verrez qu: e'est
a Real qu'il attribute ce journal. 11 pretend queje l'ai signe
Felbev.esi. Je n'ai signe ainsi que les trois queues que je vous
envoye. Jamais le nora de Ftltem/A n'a parudans le journal
en question ; les articles que j'y ai mis sont tous s'gnes Mehee.
II m'attribue les principes de Marat, lorsqu'il est connu par
tous ce qui sait lire en France, que je suis abhorre par tous les
partisans de ce fol fanatique, pour avoir sane- esse attaque ses
principes. Enfin il pretend que j'ai excite !e peuplea se de-
faire des terroristes lorsqu'il est no:oire queje ne me suis attire
la haine et les persecutions de tous les partis, que pour m'Stre
en tout terns oppose aux injustices qu'ils voulaient commettre.
Unroyalistefurieux est pourmoi u.-. r?rroriste comme un autre*
et je ne crois pas que la cause royaie puisoe rien gagner a suivre
des mesures qui ont perdu pour jamais la cause republicaine.
Voila, mon chcr Monsieur, cequi m'est arrive dans la Revo-
lution ; les crimes des gens qui se sont dit republicans m'au-
raient eclaire beaucoup plutot sur l'impossibilited unerepub-
lique en France, si ks injustices de ceux qui se disaient roy-
alistes, nem'avaient fair voir p. 11 tout le memc sy ; ,teme de fu-
reurs et de proscriptions. Enfin 1 'experience ct le terns ont
produit en moi un eflfet qu'ils pouvalent seuls produire. J'ai
vu que tous ccux qxii s'etaient prescntes comme les plus fiers
champions de la liberte, etaient de vils hypocrites qui n'atten-
daient quede l'arger.t ct du pouvoir pour changer de langagc.
Je serais encore republicain, si j'eusse trou\e beaucoup de
when
MEHEE. 351
when the Monitcur, two years since, offici-
ally repeated the same calumnies, I felt myself
republicans honnetes et justes. Je ne veux pas me faire a vos
yeux meilleurs que jene suls : ily a deja long-tems que je suis
converti ; mais c'est a force de voir des lachetes et des trahisons
que je me suis persuade qu'une republique etait impossible
en France. Mon gout particulier m'eut porte a desirer de
vivre sous une republique, et je ne desire aujourd'hui sincere
m«nt le retablissement de la royaute, que parceque je sais fort
bien quece n'est pas demon gout qu'il s'agit, et qu'ii n*j a de
tranquillite a esperer en France, que lorsqu'un Roi juste aura
fait oublier par sa sagesse, les malheurs occasionnes par les dis-
sentions publiques.
Vous voyez asses que je ne me suis pas peint en beau dans
cette esquisse que je brochc a la bite. Je sais qu'un royaliste
aussi prononce que vous, ma p.irdonnera difficHemcnt des
idees aussi diri^entes des votres ; mais en me rapprocbant de
vous, je ne veux tromper personne, sur ce que j'ai ete. Je ne
me defendrai jamas d ! avoir eu des opinions que je ne me suis
pas donnees moi meme, mais lorsquil s'agira dc mes actions, je
serai toujors pret a paraitredavant tousles tribunauxdumonde ;
et leplus severeseraceluique jeprefererai.
Agrees, Monsieur, 1'assuraHce de la parfaite consideration,
avec laquelle je suis, Monsieur,
Votres tres humble et obeissant Serviteur,
MEHEE UE LA TOUCH.E.
P. S. Je n'at pas repondu a l'article oi Ton me ditehasse
de Russie en 92, II y avait 18 mois que j'en etais parii avec le
Earon d'Estat, qui etait lui meme au service deRussre et qui a
coup sur, n'eut pas donne dans sa voiture une place a un iiorru
mequiaurait ete chassed'un pays, od il servaitcouimemajor.
Jenerepons pas davantageace qui est dit de ma traduction de*-
vant les tribunaux, corame escroc et chef d'v.^i compcgniede
fournisseurs, c'est la premiere nouvelle que j'en recois, et les
gens de lettres de Hambourg, ne sont pas * cct cgard, d'aecord
avec leurs cAnwrades de Pais*
somewhat
S52 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
somewhat embarrassed ; for if the article was in-
troduced by order of the First Consul, and I had
prosecuted either the Editor of the Moniteur,
or those who had copied from it the paragraphs
in question, it was generally believed that my
arrest and transportation would have been the con-
sequence, since the despot might have feared that
his journal would have been condemned.
During my stay in London, when I learned
that Mr. Richer Seriey propagated similar calum-
nies against me, as he was a gentleman deserv-
ing a reply, you know I lost not a moment in
coming to an explanation with him. I found
him oppressed by sickness and misfortune; he
acknowledged that, regarding me as an enemy
to the royalists, he had expressed himself very
harshly concerning me, and he did not deny
having read every thing that you have shewn
me. I perceived that the censures of Mr. Richer
were altogether directed by what he had heard
and read. I demonstrated to him that I had
never occupied those situations which he sup-
posed; and he was, I soon discovered, unac-
quainted with the persecutions that I had expe-
rienced. In this case it happened, as will al-
ways happen, when people of candour are will-
ing to examine and judge a man by his actions,
and
MEHEE. 353
.'iom the abuse that the parties engaged
in a revolution throw on their enemies.
has uniformly been my mode of con-
duct ; and if, in the present instance, any one
will boldly avow the facts contained in the Die
tionary, I give you my word of honour to prove,
in the clearest possible manner, that he is a knave
ind a false calumniator.
But when a malignant libel relates as facts,
circumstances which have already been several
times declared to be unfounded, not only by the
solemn decisions of the tribunals, but by the
opinion of every honest man, what would you
have me do? Would you have me appear before
the public, and say — It is not true that I am a ter-
rorist, a Maratist, an assassin ? — every one would
hold me in derision, and say to me, why do you
not rid yourself of your fears? — Because I have
been accused: — Who has accused you? — The
men of letters of Hamburgh: — Go, then, and
find them: — But I know them not: — Write
to the Printer:— His name does not appear to
the work:— To the Publisher:— It is sold pri-
vately :— Despise it, then, and leave us at rest.
Such would be the language held to me by the
world in geueral; but I acknowledge that I owe
something more to you, and that the firtendi
you
354 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
you have testified towards me, requires I should
make you acquainted with the man you have
cherished: I shall therefore, proceed to give you
a succinct account of the odious business in
question.
This production sets out by stating, that I wa«
formerly known by the title of the Chevalier dela
Touches now, although this is certainly no injury,
it is nevertheless a falsehood, and shews how
little he knew of my relations. My grandfather,
by derogating, as he has done, from his dignity,
separated the branch to which I belong from a
very ancient family. My father, before becoming
a physician, had long practised surgery, and is
well known by several publications in this branch
of science; and you know how easy it was in
France, for any one to pass for a Chevalier, who
had all his life remained in the house of his
father, a celebrated surgeon. The literati of
Hamburgh declare, that I was known by a title,
which I myself never heard. Brought up in one
of our colleges, in which we receive what may
•be justly termed a republican education, since
the Greek and Latin authors that we read ex-
hibit the most fascinating pictures of the ancient
republics; you must be sensible that, knowing
the world and republics only through thai
seducing
MEHEE. 355
-educing medium, it was not surprising that I
should, at twenty-five, which was my age at the
commencement of the Revolution, possess ideas
very favourable to a republican form of govern-
ment. At that period I had been five years in
the North of Europe, whither I had been sent
on commercial concerns bv a house at Marseilles
(Guis, Cousin, and Beaumarchais) . I was in
Russia in the years 1 7 so, 1790, and 1791 : I had
under my eyes the only government I could
practically examine. The journals depicted the
French Revolution in colours the most auspicious
to liberty. My head teemed with Tacitus and
Plutarch. The King of France appeared at that
time, if I could credit the representations in the
journals, to approve of the Revolution. I ask if
it was not natural that I should regard it favour-
ably? I longed to return instantly to France,
that I might breathe the air of liberty ; but my
affairs did not permit me to indulge my wishes.
In 1791, however, the Baron D'Estat, with whom
I had intimate connexions, returned to France;
and as he travelled in a carriage in which there
was spare room, I begged he would allow me to
occupy an empty seat, a request which he rea-
dily granted; and I accordingly departed with
him.
Having
356 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
Having arrived at Warsaw, the Baron re-
mained some days in that city; during which I
had occasion to visit the Abbe Piattoli, Secretary
to the King, and a man of great merit, who in-
formed me, that in the beginning of the Revo-
lution which had just happened (May 1791), the
King was very desirous to see a Gazette published
in the French -language, and on the spot, that
foreigners might read the discussions of the Diet
otherwise than in the defective translations which
were in circulation. Eagerly seizing on the
opportunity of publishing opinions that held an
eminent place in my affections, I commenced
the Warsaw Gazette; but I had only published
three numbers, when 1 was informed that the
King thought my opinions too free, and that I
did not sufficiently praise the speeches and mea-
sures of the royal party. It was afterwards pro-
posed to me, that I should declare myself against
the French Revolution, which I then thought
sublime, and that I should insert in my journal
some of the most violent passages from Mr.
Burke's work, which the King translated, and sent
to me. I refused compliance with a mandate
that I thought tyrannical, and I published only
twelve numbers of that Gazette. The remainder
of the time I continued at Warsaw was employed
by
MEHEE. 357
by me in collecting materials for tracing the
causes of the Revolution of the 3d of May
1791, and I proceeded to Paris to publish my
history of that Revolution. I do not dispute that
it may be one of the worst productions of
the kind, although it had the honour to go
through two editions, and was translated into
several languages. It had, however, the merit
of containing nothing but facts; and this I be-
lieve to be the reason that it has since fallen into
discredit.
I never went to the society of jacobins; but
my work was well spoken of by Condorcet, on
account of the principles d splayed in it : I was
considered in my section as a patriot; and on
the evening of the 10th of August, 1792, was
informed that 1 had been nominated a member
of the Council General of a new commune. I
accepted this situation, and four days afterwards
Tallien, to whom I was only known by my pub-
lications, proposed me as secretary, and on the
14th or 15th of August I was appointed Secretary
of the Commune*
The functions of a Secretary of a Commune
in Paris is confined to the being present at the
. sittings, making minutes of what passes, draw-
ing up a report of the proceedings, and signing
passports.
358 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
passports. The Secretary has no authority to
issue orders, and is never consulted on any kind of
business.
I was far however, from finding my situation
agreeable. I had read neither in Tacitus nor
Plutarch, that in order to be a republican it was
necessary to be a furious despot, a persecutor, or,
at least, a denunciator. The disgust that I felt
became evident, notwithstanding my efforts to
conceal it, and I soon began to be considered as
amodere; many of the royalists came tremblino-
to my house, in order to request passports, or
to solicit my advice : it having got abroad among
these gentlemen that T was not a patriot like the
others, and that I might be trusted, I saw many
of them with whom I was wholly unacquainted,
and to whom I endeavoured to render every ser-
vice in my power.
M. de Flahautt, whose unfortunate fate is well
known, was among the number of those who
visited me most frequently. He could not per-
suade himself that it was possible for any one
possessed of benevolence and humanity to be a
patriot, and I could not convince him of his
znistake. He endeavoured to convert me to
i-oyalism, but his logic was not sufficiently power-
ful to produce this effect, as I was fully persuaded
that
MEHEE. 359
that a majority of the French nation was inclined
to support the Revolution.
A journal conducted by Etienne, who was a
Feuillant, having one day inserted an article
signed Mehee, in which it was proposed to kill
the first individual who should aspire to be Kincr,
I called on the Editor to know why he had thus
made use cf my name; on which he put into
my hand a letter which he had copied into his
journal. The signature did not even resemble
mine, and I resolved to prosecute the journal;
but was prevented by one who informed me that
it was a snare spread for me by Chaumette, Pro-
cureur to the commune, and that he had used
the same artifice with manv persons, respecting
whose political creed he had any doubts. His
practice was, to publish similar letters in their
names, and if they disavowed the articles they
were lost; for at that period, to deny being a
Brutus was certain death. M. de Flahautt was
the first who persuaded me to be silent respect-
ing this affair. He even considered it as a very
fortunate circumstance ; since, by means of the
republican air it gave me, I could be more useful
to the King, whom we were labouring to save.
The same motives prevented me from resign-
ing my office, which, after that affair, I wished
to
7
380 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
to do. But the massacres of September taking
place, and the Electoral Assemblies having
opened under these frightful auspices, I could
no longer restrain my feelings, and I addressed
n letter to the forty-eight sections of Paris, de-
nouncing Robespierre and his machinations,
This, letter, posted up in every part of Paris,
was burnt in almost every section by the tyrant's
friends : more than forty procls verhaux, still ex-
isting, attest the opprobrium that I then endured;
and more than forty deputations came to my
commune, to demand the dismissal of the aristo-
crat who had dared to denounce the virluojis
Robespierre. I was then regarded at the com-
mune as a disguised royalist, whilst I thought
myself the only true republican of the assembly.
It was not easy to procure my dismission, as 1
was suspected by both parties. M. Flahautt had
besides made me promise to remain until the
trial of the King; and I was myself determined
i4> exert all my influence to prevent a crime
which I was convinced would be as inimical to
the true interests of liberty, as it was wicked in
itself.
M. de Flahautt repaired to one of our sea-
port towns, whence he transmitted me some
packets of M. Bertrand's Memoirs in favour of
the
MEHEE. 361
the King, as well as several sums of money, which
I remitted according to the directions that had
been given to me.
It was not without considerable danger that I
acquitted myself of these commissions: I dreaded
being betrayed by the messengers of M. de Fla-
hautt, and by the effusions of his zeal for his
Prince, which were more ardent than enlight-
ened. I myself wrote, and caused to be written,
placards, which were printed at the house of
Guillot, to whom I transmitted the receipts for
M. de Bertrand. All my efforts, however, proved
unavailing — the King perished, and M. Flahautt
soon experienced the same fate. Appalled by
the crimes which surrounded me, and terrified
by the dangers that threatened myself, I inti-
mated to the Council a desire to join the army,
aware that it was the only means to obtain hay
dismission without exciting suspicions of my
civism. The pleasure they felt at being rid of
my presence, and having my place at their dis-
posal, induced them to accept my resignation
without delay. I was appointed Inspector-Ge-
neral of the Artillery, in which obscure and
tranquil situation I remained until one of the re-
presentatives of the people, knowing me, and
recollecting the quarrel I had with Robespierre,
vol. hi. r published
362 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
published an arrets, by which I was declared an
aristocrat, unworthy of holding any post in the
army, and dismissed from it.
If the Literati of Hamburgh had been then
obliged to write my life, they would have found
it difficult to invent what they have now affirmed,
because at that period I was very much suspected
by the jacobins. I was ordered to repair to the
interior of the country, twenty leagues from
Paris, and twenty from the frontiers. Happily
I was not stupid enough to obey this order,
as it was principally in these two districts that
all those were arrested, whom they had deter-
mined to destroy, I proceeded to Mcaux, the
place of my birth, where 1 was suffered to remain
in tranquillity until the 9th Thcrmidor.
The trial that I had made of a republic was
not very attractive, but unhappily 1 persuaded
myself that individuals persecuted like me were
the only true republicans ; and when the reign of
Robespierre ceased, I hesitated not to believe that
the splendid days of Athens would succeed to so
anany horrors !
The Robespierrian faction was, however, not
yet extinct — a remnant of them still threatened
to prolong the reign of terror: every one trem-
bled, and none dare open their mouths against
the
MEHEE. 363
thejacobins, when I began the attack by a pam-
phlet entitled, " The Tail of Robespierre." This
production was haughtily received by thejacobins.
The notorious Fouche, who afterwards deported
me as a jacobin, ascended the tribune of the jaco-
bins, and denounced the work in question. Thu-
riot, a member of the Committee of Public Safety,
seized it in the house of the printer, but there
had already appeared of it more than 60,000
cop': .
Perceiving the danger which threatened me
on this occasion, I published a pamphlet, entitled,
" Give me tack my Tail," or a Letter to Sartine
Tkuriot. A warrant of arrest was issued against
me by the Committee of Public Safety; to which
I replied by a third pamphlet, entitled, " Defend
Tail:" having by this had the good fortune
to raise the laugh against my persecutors, every
one began to write against them., and during
two months nothing was spoken of but Tails in
Pa
It was then that the re-action, as it is termed
by thejacobins, commenced; that is to say, that
the royalists entered on the design, not of over-
turning the Republic, for according to me it
never existed, but the' Revolution. Unfortu-
nately for the cause of the King, the royalists
R e had
2
9M REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
bad also their jacobins, who brought on them all
the miseries which the others had produced to the
Republic. Those individuals who had served
under the banners of the Gironde, Bnd Robes-
pierre, inclined to rank me among the royalists;
but I had not sufficient confidence in them to
unite myself to their party, neither was I yet fully-
convinced that the establishment of a Republic
was impossible.
Then, and not till then, were the calumnies,
conceived which have since assailed me. Ma-
dame de Bcauharnois, at present the wife of the
First Consul, invited me to an interview at her
house; and having in vain endeavoured to in-
duce me to join those who at that time formed
her society, she gave me to understand that they
would publish an order which I had signed at
the commune : a copy had been left with her,
which she shewed, it was an order given by
some municipal officers to pay three workmen
who had leen employed in one of the prisons. I
had, as it was stated, witnessed the signature of
these municipal officers; and it was pretended
that these workmen were assassins* Thus it was
that they found themselves compelled to interpret
the word workmen, to find cause of calumny m
this transaction.
I observed
MEHEE. 365
I observed that the commune was charged
with the care of the prisons, and that the work-
men were paid at the end of each day ; that
it was therefore absurd to pretend at the termi-
nation of four years, that the term ivorkmm
signified asiassim: besides, it wa3 well known
that three municipal officers always gave the or-
ders, and that their signatures were only wit-
nessed by 3 public functionary, as a mere matter
of form, who signed them without perusing ther
contents.
It was impossible to reply to this statement ;
but they wished for a pretext. It was accordingly
asserted by one of their journalists, that I
had signed the orders for the pavment of the
assassins ; and I cited him before the proper tri-
bunal, where be was condemned ; but even that,
it seems, has not been sufficient to deter the
conductors of Biographical Dictionaries from re-
peating the same calumnies.
In every situation that I have occupied, I have
been always persecuted by the governing party :
and it is incredible that a man so unprincipled as
I am represented to be, showld not have suited
the purposes either of Robespierre, Barras, Rew-
bel, Merlin, or Buonaparte.
In the Biographical Dictionary I am said to
a 3. have
3fi6 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
have been the secretary of Tallien ; certainly I
would not have wished Tallien for my secre-
tary : how then should I chuse him for a mas-
ter ? — It is affirmed in the same work, that I
was denounced by Tallien, which is not more
true than the other assertions. It is likewise
said, that I conducted, in conjunction with Tal-
lien, the Patriotic Journal oil 789. If you read
the article Real, you will see that it is to him
this journal must be attributed. It is pretended
that I wrote under the signature of Felhemesi.
I never employed this name but in the three
pamphlets already mentioned, which I herewith
send you. Never did the name of Felhemesi
appear in the journal in question; the articles
that I communicated to it are all signed Meliee.
It also attributes to me the principles of Marat,
although it is well known in France, that I was
detested by the partisans of that foolish fanatic,
and that I unceasingly attacked his principles.
In short, it is pretended that I excited the peo-
ple to become terrorists, when it is notorious
that I incurred the hatred and persecution of all
parties, by constantly opposing the injustice
'which they were inclined to commit. — A furious
royalist is with me as much a terrorist as any
other, and I believe the cause of royalty can
never
MFJIEE.
ncVer be forwarded by measures which have tor
ever destroyed the Republic.
T have laid before you, my Lord, what has
happened to me during the Revolution. The
crimes of persons stiling themselves republicans
would have much sooner convinced me of the
impossibility of establishing a Republic in France,
if the injustice of those who called themselves
royalists had not discovered to me, that on each
side the S3me system- of oppression and proscrip-
tion prevailed. In a word, experience and time
have produced in me an effect which they alone
could produce. I have seen that those who re-
presented themselves as the fiercest champions of
liberty were vile hypocrites, who waited only
for gold or power to change their language. I
should still have been a republican, bad I fouixl
many republicans honest and just. I do not
wish to represent myself to you better than I
really am. It is long since I became a convert.
But it was from contemplating the crimes and
treasons which prevailed, that I became* con-
vinced that a Republic was impossible in France.
My own particular taste led me to wish to live
under a republican form of government; and I
at present sincerely desire the re-establishment
of royalty, only because I well know, that the
R 4 question
3£is REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
question Is not respecting my taste, and that
tranquillity can never be hoped for in France,
till a just and wise king shall, by his wisdom,
have caused the evils occasioned by the public
dissensions to be forgotten.
You will observe, that I have not depicted
myself better than I am in this hasty
sketch. I am aware that a royalist as deter-
mined as yourself, will with difficulty pardon
sentiments so very different from your own;
but I shall never have to reproach myself with
deceiving any person respecting what I have
been: I will never apoligize for maintaining
opinions that I did not give to myself, hut
when my actions are attacked, I am always
ready to appear before the tribunal of the pub-
lic, and court the most severe investigation into
my conduct.
Accept, my Lord, the assurances of the high
consideration with which -I have the honour to
be,
Your Lordship's very humble,
and obedient Servant,
MtHEK DE LA TottCHB,
P. S. I have not answered the article which
affirms that I was sent out of Russia in 1792. I
departed with the Baron D'Estat, who was in the
se"vice
ri S H II vH^
I 5 5 ,-s.c ; s. S W
I^J ^> |si 1°-
MEHEE. 3<J£=
service of Russia, and who certainly would not
have given a place in his carriage to a man
driven from a country in which he served as a-
Major.
Not do I answer the charge which states that
I was carried before a tribunal as chief of a horde
of knavish contractors. This is the first time I
ever heard of the charge ; and in this, the Lite-
rary Society of Hamburgh do not accord with,
their brethren at Paris.
This curious piece, though artfully written^
imposes upon nobody. By its publication, and
the^ac simile of MeheVs hand-writing, the Au-
thor's object is to prevent other Governments
from being the dupes of the artifice and hypo-
crisy of this member of Buonaparte's Secret Po*
lice, and to recommend him to due chastisement,
should he present himself any where else but ill
the French Republic; ahne ivorthy to- pc
nvch a citizen, even in the Legion- of Hencur of
her august Chief.
All Governments, particularly those at war,
mutually employ spies, to gain informal n.
to impede or counteract, by their intrigues, the
attempts of an enemy. This usage existed lone*
before society was civilized. The barbarians
R o o£
370 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
of former ages, as well as the present savages in
America; the half-civilized Indians in Asia, as
well as the so barbarously civilized French repub-
licans in Europe, had, or have yet their spies
in other countries. The laws of nations do
not permit such practices; but by their silence
they indirectly assent to them, at least to a
certain point, or so far as they may he useful to
force an enemy to be just. The illegal usurpa-
tion and the tyranny of Buonaparte's govern-
ment make almost every thing excusable, that
might compel this ferocious adventurer to de-
scend again to that situation wherein nature by
his birth had placed him. And when, as is
.now the case, his monstrous ambition and power
are the sole causes of the agitated, disturbed,
tormented, oppressed, or enslaved state of most
European nations; when the quiet and liberty of
millions are only prevented by the unlawful au-
thority of an obscure individual; to remove him
is not only commanded by necessity, but ne-
cessary for self-defence ; commendable as a
political act, and honourable as a moral trans-
action.
That Mehee was a spy first of France, and
afterwards of England, is more than probable;
bat that his pretended correspondence with Mr.
Drake,
MEHEE. 371
Drake, published with so much eclat by Buona-
parte, in his official libel the Moniteur, and
afterwards communicated with so-much ostenta-
tion by his official libeller, Talleyrand, to the
foreign diplomatic corps, are mostly forgeries, is
evident from their ridiculous, absurd, and puerile
contents themselves. It is not to be forgotten,
that at every one of the former disastrous
periods of the French Revolution, when any
great blow was intended to be struck, or when
a great crime was meditated, discoveries have
been made, apropos, of documents undoubtedly
forged in the offices of the government, or in the
dens of the conspirators ; for the purpose of
holding out the advantage either of changing; or
ensuring the republican tyranny ; either to exte-
nuate past horrors, or to disguise present abomi-
nations. Papers found in an iron chest, in
179C were produced by the regicides upon the
mock trial of Louis XVI. Other papers, found
in a portfolio on the ramparts of Lille, were
published in 1 794 to palliate the barbarous de-
cree of no quarter to English prisoners ; and a
correspondence captured apropos in an Austrian
waggon (fourgemj, was printed on the day of the
revolution of the 4th of September 1797, as a
justification of the lilerticide Directory for hav-
R 6 ing,
372 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH,
ing, without a trial, condemned Pichegru and
several hundred other representatives of the
people, or citizens, to transportation during
their lives.
On the 24th of March (1S04), when these
pretended letters and instructions of Mr. Drake
were printed, the indignation of all parties in
France was great against the First Consul", for
the cruel and unnecessary murder of the Duke
of Enghien two days before. To divert the
public attention from this crime, and to turn the
public hatred from him upon England, the re-
volutionary assassin became a political forger.
Another coup d'etat was besides then preparing.
Jn four days more, or on the i 28tb, the slavish
French Senate presented, ly orders, an address
mviting and praying their foreign tyrant, not
«nly to change his rank and dignity, but the
dynasty ; to make the Corsican scoundrels, the
vile and petty Buonapartes, the hereditary sove-
reigns of a throne, which for fourteen centuries
has been the hereditary property of the French
Bourbons.
On comparing these epochas, it requires neither
information nor genius, but common sense only,
to see the internal evidence of the forgery which
this publication carries with it j and those foreign
Biinistcrs
MEHEE. 3*5
ministers at Paris who looked upon it in any-
other light were either despicable ideots, traitors
bought over by the Corsican's gold, or cowards
trembling at the Corsican's bayonets.
From what has happened in France during
these last fifteen years, it would not be sur-
prising if Mehee de la Touche, from a known
spy, were to be advanced to a place in the repub-
lican ministry; and that those foreign agents
who now cannot but depise him, even in offici-
ally acknowledging his veracity, should then be
obliged to dance attendance in his ante -chamber
bow at his levees, and, by his command, sub-
scribe to future forgeries of future spies. With
the exception of some few, all the others deserve
such humiliations j because it is difficult to say.
which is the most disgusting to a loyal and vir-
tuous mind, the conduct of Buonaparte, of
Mehee, or that of some members of the Foreign
Diplomatic Corps at Paris.
Mehee de la Touche is near forty-two years
of age, but does not appear to be thirty- six. He
is a very handsome man, six feet two inches high,
well-proportioned, has a round face, fair hair,
and a smiling prepossessing countenance. Be-
sides French, he speaks some Italian, English,
Polish and German, His intelligence and insi-
nuating
374 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
nuating manners, his savoir vivrc, and his hypo-
critical though enthir'.astic praise of virtue and
liberty, make him, with his other personal quali-
ties, to the good and unsuspicious, one of the
most dangerous of all the infamous and unprin-
cipled men who have weltered in the mire of the
French Revolution*.
* Most of the particulars of Mehee's life and conduct are
taken from Les Atnaitt du Terrorisme ; from D'ictlonnaire B'wgrz.
fibifut', from Rccitell d' Anecdotes ; and from H'.stcire General^
by I'rudhomme.
GAIUT,
m )
GARAT,
TAETE's FAVOURITE SENATOR*
Comrrie ce roitelet sans pitie vous assomrr.e "
Par son bavardage erudit !
C 'est un savant sans concredit ;
s que lui manque-il en somme !
Rien, excepte d'etre honr.ete homme,
El de comprendre ce quit dit.
A. DAXtCA.V.
Garat is a Gascon by birth, and his
whole literary, political, philosophical and revo-
lutionary life, has been a despicable, dangerous,
and cruel gasconade masquerade. Poor, half-
learned, ambitious,- and immoral, he, in 1789,
preached in the Journal de Paris, of which he
was one. of the editors, contempt and proscrip-
tion of rank and riches, which he had no pros-
pect of ever possessing j held out the advantage
of an equality, by which he had ever)' thing to
gain ; spoke of the comfort of, modern philoso-
phy, which he knew would bring wretched-
ness on millions; and placed a fashionable mo-
rality, unloosing all passions, above a religion
restraining them all, and without which no hap-
piness, no society, no morality, can exist.
In
376 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
In 1786, by the recommendation of the late
Duchess of Polignac, he was appointed Profes-
sor of History at the Lyceum at Paris : he had
written to her the most servile and humiliating
letters, u pointing out his own unworthiness, but
great misery ; imploring those succours for the
latter, which the former had no right to claim ;
praising the generosity and greatness of soul,
which, on all occasions, accompanies the lustre
of birth, and eminence of station ; declaring her
the idol of the nation, as well as the favourite of
the court*.'*
In 1789, when his sophistical declamations in
the chair as a Professor had procured him the
place of a Deputy of the Tiers Etat for Labour,
at the States General, afterwards called the Na-
tional Assembly, and his benefactress became
proscribed and an exile, he called her, in the
Journal de Paris, (l the most vicious of cour-
tiers, the most debauched of courtesans, and the
most ungenerous and unfeeling of her sex, whom
he recommended to the sovereign people of all
countries, as a fit prey for the popular lamp-
posts of outraged liberty t."
In his speeches, and by his conduct in the
National
.* See Le Recueil d' Anecdotes, pape i$6.
+ See the same work, page 157, eonti -ining, in the note, an ex-
tract from the Journal de Paris of the 19th of December, 1789.
6
GAR AT. 377
National Assembly, he proved himself the
rontinual, illiberal, and incensed enemy of the
King and of Monarchy ; and in his incendiary
writings, confounding rebellion with patriotism,
envy and licentiousness with liberty, every rebel
was his hero; and every anarchist, plunderer, or
murderer, a persecuted patriot. He poisoned the
public spirit so much, that he was put upon the
same line with those of two other infamously
notorious characters; and Garat, Carra, and
Marat, were sung in common by the revolution-
ary poets, howled out by the revolutionary pois-
sards, and detested alike by every loyal, humane,
and religious person. Being governed by a
cowardice equal to his treachery, he seldom
ascended the tribune to speak in public ; but by
numerous anonymous libels in the diurnal prints
of that period, he served disaffection and atheism,
without endangering himself either as a deputy
or as an individual. He was therefore held in
such contempt, even by the contemptible plura-
lity of the first National Assembly, that he never
was elected a president, nor even a secretary.
After Louis XVI. had been forced, in Sep-
tember, 1791, to accept the constitution decreed
by this assembly of traitors and intriguers, Garat,
as he said himself, « being without fortune, and
oltiged
3/8 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
olligcdto live upon the world*," accepted a pen-
sion from the King's civil list, for compiling with
Roedcrer and Regnault, articles for the Journal
fie Paris, and other constitutional prints,, in de-
fence of the royal democracy, contained in the
lately published constitutional code. Being, of
course, in the confidence of the monarchists, he
sold their secrets and plans to their avowed ene-
mies, the republicans of the Brissot and Girondist
faction ; who were betrayed by him, in their turn,
to the anarchists ofDanton's, Marat's, and Ro-
bespierre's party.
By the favour and influence of the Girondists,
Condorcet, and Rabaud St. Etienne, he was, on
theoth of October, 1792, appointed a Minister
of Justice. In this place, he had besides another
title, having according to Prudhomme, been
the official apologist for all the crimes committed
since the beginning of the Revolution, and par-
ticularly for the late enormous massacre on the
10th of August, and on the 2d, 3d, and 4th of
September. He at this shocking period pro-
claimed the anxiom, that to Paris alone belonged
the initiation for insurrection, for energetic ex-
ertion to save freedom, and to destroy its enemies
en
* Sec Lc Recueil d' Anecdotes, page 159, and Histoire Ge-
neral, par Prudhomme, torn. v. page 93.
Bflj
:
:
r.cuacs ta hi» iiagr the nafertwun Lama XVI.
ing
.-i :
lg
380 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
will of the people, but even by teal and useful
services, that Garat assisted the conspirators of
the 31st of May, 1793." Such were the formal
expressions of Danton at the Jacobin Club on
the 16th of the following July ; and his words
and compliments are so much the less to be sus-
pected, as he reproached the Minister at the same
time, " with not having written enough for a
cause (anarchy), for which he otherwise had done
so muck.'* In this manoeuvre of Garat, who does
not write for a cause that he secretly served, the
usual duplicity of character is exhibited, which
his creatures or accomplices chose to call modesty
or reserve *. He was now as active in dragging
his benefactors the Girondists to the scaffold,
as the year before in proscribing or butchering
his protectors of the constitutional party. He
now served Danton and Robespierre, who were
the rebellious heroes of the day; as twelve
months before he had done the then revolu-
tionary divinities, Brissot and Condorcet. Urged
by Danton, to cause the constitution of 1793 to
be freely accepted by the people, that chief of
faction wrote to him : — " Order plenty of money
to be distributed for this operation; do not spare
it;
* See Histoire General Des Crimes, par Prudhomme, torn.
V« page 466, and Journal des Jacobias, July 17, 1793,
GAR AT. 331
it; the Republic always has more than it wants.*'
To this letter the fashionable patriot Garat an-
swered: <c If money can do the business, which
I do not doubt, rely entirely on me*."
After the death of Robespierre, and the de-
struction of the mountaineers and terrorists, Ga-
rat tried by obscurity to obtain oblivion or for-
giveness; and, regarded with a just contempt
by the royalists as well as by the republicans, he
hoped to be enabled, undisturbed, to squander,
in retirement and obscure debauchery, his ill-
gotten treasures. But when, in 17y6, the mo-
mentary liberty of the press made known the
crimes of most men noted in the bloody re-
cords of the French Republic, Garat was at-
tacked, accused, and held up to universal de-
testation, and therefore under the necessity to
try to defend himself, or rather to proclaim
himself a villain, in a publication, called by him
" An Account of Garat's Conduct during the
Revolution." The regicides, Septembrizers,
murderers, and other French patriots of principle,
having at that period lost their empire and their
credit, Garat, their advocate and accomplice, at-
tempted a reconciliation with the public, parti-
cularly with the Girondists, who were returning
to
* See Dktionna:: e Biographique, art. Garat.
3S2 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
to the revolutionary helm. In that pamphlet,
containing 800 pages, winch those who study
the French Revolution run through, Garat
calls Robespierre a monster, and his eloquence
a tiresome and perpetual repetition, an insigni-
Jicant prate, £cc. Unfortunately for this heroic
rhetorician, monuments remain of his admira-
tion of the monster Robespierre, at the time
when he was shedding streams of French blood.
On the 30th of October, 1793, Garat volun-
teered the following letter to him, which was
found among Robespierre's papers, copied from
the original at the very office of the committee
charged with taking a list of the contents of his
port- folio, and printed by order of the National
Convention, with Courtois's report. Its autho-
rity has never been denied :
" TO CITIZEN MAX. ROBESPIERRE.
" Pat is, October 7 0, 1793.
41 Citizen Representative!
" I have read your report upon the foreign
powers, and the extracts of your last speeches to
the jacobins; and having at this time no means
of addressing the public, I must address yourself
for a moment, upon the impression they hav«
made upon me.
"The report struck me as a grand piece of
politics t
GAR AT. 363
politics, of 'republican morality, of style, and of elo-
quence: it is by such profound and elevated senti-
?nents of virtue, and,.! will add, by such lan-
guage, that a man honours in the eyes of all na-
tions, the nation he represents. I think no
more of the merit of style, than another would,
when that merit is no more than a vain orna-
ment of language; but I call style, the art of
seizing the objects of one's thought under the
most extensive and truest relations; and the art
of afterwards giving the relations so seized, the
expressions and forms most striking to every
imagination, and the most affecting to every
mind. If such be the talent of style, it must be
allowed that such a talent is the instrument most
necessary in a Revolution, the object of which
is to improve the Government ly its clearness, and
tlw human race ly the Government . The style of
the report upon foreign powers, is every ivhere
neat, firm, keen, or elegant; and when it rises to
the highest pitch of eloquence, it is always ly the
grandeur of the sentiments and ideas.
" Your speech to Louvet, that on the sen-
tence of Louis Capet, and this report, are, in
my opinion, the finest pieces that have appeared
sines the Revolution. They will pass in the
schools of the Republic as classic ?nodels of
eloquence,
384 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
eloquence, and in the views of history as the
causes that acted most powerfully upon the des-
tiny of France.
" Health, admiration and respect !
" Garat V
It is the writer of such a base letter to such an
atrocious man, who, in the above-mentioned
pamphlet, with a sacrilegious blasphemy, has the
impudence to compare himself to Jesus Christ
persecuted, and to declare that his fame no longer
depended upon men t.
When the revolution of the 4th of Septem-
ber, 1797, had placed the jacobins at the head
of the government ; and the Directory, to in-
sult Monarchs, and to degrade Monarchy, sent
regicides as French ambassadors to different al-
lied or neutral Kings; Garat was appointed to
the Court of Naples, where, with the inso-
lence of an ill-bred upstart, and in the jargon of
a revolutionary pedant, proud of his rank, and
unashamed of his crimes, he addressed the
King and Queen, plotted with their disaffected
subjects, demanded and promised the enlargement
of confined traitors and rebels, and publicly de-
clared that he was ready to put himself at the
head
* See I.e. Rapport de Courtois, page 132.
+ Seeanaccount of Carat's Conduct during the Revolution,
page 62.
GARAT. §S3
head of that pack, once let loose, to make use
of them to effect an insurrection, and to co-ope-
rate with the directorial agents then residing at
Rome. Not only incensed at, but affronted by,
the conduct of this violator of the laws of na-
tions, the King of the Two Sicilies insisted upon
his recall ; and the Directory, to avoid giving
public satisfaction to his Sicilian Majesty — but at
the same time not willing to provoke a Mo-
narch by a refusal, whom their policy then re-
quired them to cajole, caused Garat, in March
1793, to be elected a member in the Council
of Five Hundred, for the Department of Seine
and Oise. It was in this manner that this citi-
zen, while a diplomatic emissary, w r orked for a
peace, which he soon after, as a legislator, de-
clared was his own, and the sincere wish of the
Directory, as well as the want of his country, and
the desire of his countrymen *.
During his stay in Italy, Garat had witnessed
and shared in the pillage and extortion of his
fellow -citizens. Now, one may estimate the de-
gree of good sense, or good faith, which, in the
winter of 1795, when the Directory informed
vol. in. s the
» See Gam's speech in th? Council of Fite Hundred on
the 2d of December, 1-9S, printed in the daily pa;icrs 1
Ami des Lois, of the 3d of December, 1798, pa^e j.
336 REVOLUTIONARY PLUTARCH.
the two Councils of the successes of the French
in the kingdom of Naples, suggested to Garat a
buffoonery truly worthy of observation. He
inv 
