order to the detachment.-The alarm turned out to be a false one. to the agony of another removal. At length, they were landed on the opposite bank; where wretchedness and desolation appeared still more conspicuous. Thousands of helpless he was so much recruited by the repose, that At Laval they halted for several days; and wretches were lying on the grassy shore, or he was able to get for half an hour on horseroaming about in search of the friends from back, and seemed to be fairly in the way whom they had been divided. There was a of recovery; when his excessive zeal, and general complaint of cold and hunger; and no-anxiety for the good behaviour of the troops, body in a condition to give any directions, or tempted him to premature exertions, from the administer any relief. M. de L. suffered excru- consequences of which he never afterwards ciating pain from the piercing air which blew recovered. upon his feverish frame;-the poor infant and refreshed at Laval, it was resolved to The troops being all collected screamed for food, and the helpless mother turn upon their pursuers, and give battle to was left to minister to both;-while her at- the advancing army of the republic. The tendant went among the burnt and ruined conflict was sanguinary; but ended most villages, to seek a drop of milk for the baby. decidedly in favour of the Vendeans. The At length they got again in motion for the first encounter was in the night,—and was adjoining village of Varades,-M. de L., borne characterized with more than the usual conin a sort of chair upon the pikes of his soldiers, fusion of night attacks. with his wife and the maid-servant walking crossed each other in so extraordinary a The two armies before him, and supporting his legs, wrapped manner, that the artillery of each was supup in their cloaks. With great difficulty they plied, for a part of the battle, from the caisprocured a little room, in a cottage swarming sons of the enemy; and one of the Vendean with soldiers,-most of them famishing for leaders, after exposing himself to great hazard want of food, and yet still so mindful of the in helping a brother officer, as he took him to rights of their neighbours, that they would be, out of a ditch, discovered, by the next flash not take a few potatoes from the garden of of the cannon, that he was an enemy-and the cottage, till Madame de L. had obtained immediately cut him down. After daybreak, leave of the proprietor. M. de Bonchamp died as they were taking a complete victory. This was the last grand the battle became more orderly, and ended in him out of the boat; and it became necessary crisis of the insurrection. to elect another commander. M. de L. roused | Vendée was once more open; and the fugi himself to recommend Henri de Larocheja- tives had it in their power to return triumphant The way to La quelein; and he was immediately appointed. to their fastnesses and their homes, after rousWhen the election was announced to him, M. ing Brittany by the example of their valour de L. desired to see and congratulate his and success. M. de L. and Henri both inclined valiant cousin. He was already weeping to this course; bat other counsels prevailed. over him in a dark corner of the room; and Some were for marching on to Nantes-others now came to express his hopes that he should for proceeding to Renues-and some, more soon be superseded by his recovery. "No," sanguine than the rest, for pushing directly Baid M. de L., "that I believe is out of the for Paris. Time was irretrievably lost in these question: But even if I were to recover, deliberations; and the republicans had leisure I should never take the place you have to rally, and bring up their reinforcements, now obtained, and should be proud to serve before any thing was definitively settled. as your aid-de-camp."-The day after, they advanced towards Rennes. could find no other conveyance than a bagM. de L. gage-waggon; at every jolt of which he suffered such anguish, as to draw forth the that his only regret was for leaving her most piercing shrieks even from his manly in the midst of such a war, with a helpless bosom. After some time, an old chaise was child, and in a state of pregnancy. For himdiscovered: a piece of artillery was thrown self, he added, he died happy, and with away to supply it with horses, and the humble reliance on the Divine mercy-but wounded general was laid in it,-his head her sorrow he could not bear to think of ;-being supported in the lap of Agatha, his and he entreated her pardon for any neglect mother's faithful waiting-woman, and now the only attendant of his wife and infant. He added many other expressions of tenderor unkindness he might ever have shown her. In three painful days they reached Laval;-ness and consolation; and seeing her overMadame de L. frequently suffering from whelmed with anguish at the despairing tone absolute want, and sometimes getting noth- in which he spoke, concluded by saying, that ing to eat the whole day, but one or two sour he might perhaps be mistaken in his progapples. M. de L. was nearly insensible du- nosis; and hoped still to live for her. Next ting the whole journey. He was roused but day they were under the necessity of moving once, when there was a report that a party forward; and, on the journey, he learned of the enemy were in sight. He then called accidentally from one of the officers, the for his musket, and attempted to get out of dreadful details of the Queen's execution, the carriage;-addressed exhortations and re- which his wife had been at great pains to proaches to the troops that were flying around keep from his knowledge. This intelligence him, and would not rest till an officer in whom seemed to bring back his fever-though he he had confidence came up and restored some still spoke of living to avenge her "If I do In the meantime, M. de L. became visibly was in the room, he called her to him, and worse; and one morning, when his wife alone told her that he felt his death was at hand, V 2 ney, had remained alone with the dead body for all the rest of the day! Fatigue, grief, and anguish of mind, now threatened Madame de L. with consequences which it seems al together miraculous that she should have escaped. She was seized with violent pains, and was threatened with a miscarriage in a room which served as a common passage to the crowded and miserable lodging she had procured. It was thought necessary to bleed her-and, after some difficulty, a surgeon was procured. She can never forget, she says, the formidable apparition of this warlike phlebotomist. A figure six feet high, with ferocious whiskers, a great sabre at his side, and four huge pistols in his belt, stalked up with a fierce and careless air to her bed-side; and when she said she was timid about the operation, answered harshly, "So am not I— I have killed three hundred men and upwards in the field in my time-one of them only this bleed a woman-Come, come, let us see your arm." She was bled accordingly-and, contrary to all expectation, was pretty well again in the morning. She insisted for a long time in carrying the body of her husband in the carriage along with her;-but her father. after indulging her for a few days, contrived to fall behind with this precious deposit, and informed her when he came up again, that it had been found necessary to bury it privately in a spot which he would not specify. live," he said, "it shall now be for vengeance | march had carried her ahead; but the faithonly-no more mercy from me!"-That ful Agatha, fearful lest her appearance might evening, Madame de L., entirely overcome alarm her mistress in the midst of the jourwith anxiety and fatigue, had fallen into a deep sleep on a mat before his bed:-And soon after, his condition became altogether desperate. He was now speechless, and nearly insensible;-the sacraments were administered, and various applications made without awaking the unhappy sleeper by his side. Soon after midnight, however, she started up, and instantly became aware of the full extent of her misery. To fill up its measure, it was announced in the course of the morning, that they must immediately resume their march with the last division of the army. The thing appeared altogether impossible; Madame de L. declared she would rather die by the hands of the republicans, than permit her husband to be moved in the condition in which he then was. When she recollected, however, that these barbarous enemies had of late not only butchered the wounded that fell into their power, but mutilated and insulted their re-morning-I think then I may venture to mains, she submitted to the alternative, and prepared for this miserable journey with a heart bursting with anguish. The dying man was roused only to heavy moanings by the pain of lifting him into the carriage, where his faithful Agatha again supported his head, and a surgeon watched all the changes in his condition. Madame de L. was placed on horseback; and, surrounded by her father and mother, and a number of officers, went forward, scarcely conscious of any thing that was passing only that sometimes, in the bitterness of her heart, when she saw the dead bodies of the republican soldiers on the road, she made her horse trample upon them, as if in vengeance for the slaughter of her husband. In the course of little more than an hour, she thought she heard some little stir in the carriage, and insisted on stopping to inquire into the cause. The officers, however, crowded around her; and then her father came up and said that M. de L. was in the same state as before, but that he suffered dreadfully from the cold, and would be very much distressed if the door was again to be opened. Obliged to be satisfied with this answer, she went on in sullen and gloomy silence for some hours longer in a dark and rainy day of November. It was night when they reached the town of Fougeres; and, when lifted from her horse at the gate, she was unable either to stand or walk:-she was carried into a wretched house, crowded with troops of all descriptions, where she waited two hours in agony till she heard that the carriage with M. de L. was come up. She was left alone for a dreadful moment with her mother; and then M. de Beauvolliers came in, bathed in tears, and taking both her hands, told her she must now think only of saving the child she carried within her! Her husband had expired when she Beard the noise in the carriage, soon after their setting out-and the surgeon had accordingly left it as soon as the order of the This abstract has grown to such a bulk that we find we cannot afford to continue it on the same scale. Nor is this very necessary; for though there is more than a third part of the book, of which we have given no accountand that, to those who have a taste for tales of sorrow, the most interesting portion of itwe believe that most readers will think they have had enough of La Vendée; and that all will now be in a condition to judge of the degree of interest or amusement which the work is likely to afford them. We shall add, however, a brief sketch of the rest of its contents.-After a series of murderous battles, to which the mutual refusal of quarter gave an exasperation unknown in any other history, and which left the field so cumbered with dead bodies that Madame de L. assures us that it was dreadful to feel the lifting of the wheels, and the cracking of the bones, as her heavy carriage passed over them,—the wreck of the Vendeans succeeded in reaching Angers upon the Loire, and trusted to a furious assault upon that place for the means of repassing the river, and regaining their beloved country. The garrison, however, proved stronger and more resolute than they had expected. Their own gay and enthusiastic courage had sunk under a long course of suffering and disaster; and, after losing a great number of men before the walls, they were obliged to turn back in confusion, they did not well know whither, but farther and farther from the land to which all their hopes herd the sheep or cattle of her faithful and compassionate host, along with his raw boned daughter. In this situation they remained till late in the following spring;-and it would be endless to enumerate the hairbreadth 'scapes and unparalleled sufferings to which they were every day exposed-reduced frequently to live upon alms, and forced every two or three days to shift their quarters, in the middle of the night, from one royalist cabin to another. Such was the long-continued and vindictive rigour of the republican party, that the most eager and unrelaxing search was made for fugitives of all descriptions; and every adherent of the insurgent faction who fell into their hands was barbarously murdered, without the least regard to age, sex, or individual innocence! While skulking about in this state of peril and desolation, they had glimpses and occasional rencounters with some of their former companions, whom similar misfortunes had driven upon similar schemes of concealment. In particular, they twice saw the daring and unsubduable M. de Marigny, who had wandered over the whole country from Angers to Nantes; and notwithstanding his gigantic form and remarkable features, had contrived so to disguise himself as to élude all detection or pursuit. He could counterfeit all ages and dialects, and speak in perfection the patois of every village. He now appeared before them in the character of an itinerant dealer in poultry; and retired unsuspected by all but themselves. In this wretched condition, the term of Madame de L.'s confinement drew on; and, after a thousand frights and disasters, she was delivered of two daughters, without any other assistance than that of her mother. One of the infants had its wrist dislocated; and so subdued was the poor mother's mind to the level of her fallen fortunes, that she had now no other anxiety, than that she might recover strength enough to carry it herself to the waters of Bareges, which she fancied might be of service to it;-but the poor baby died within a fortnight after it was born. and wishes were directed. In the tumult of this retreat, Madame de L. lost sight of her venerable aunt, who had hitherto been the mild and patient companion of their wanderings; and learned afterwards that she had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and, at the age of eighty, been publicly executed at Rennes, for the crime of rebellion! At Fougeres, at Laval, at Dol, and Savenay, the Awindled force of the insurgents had to sustain new attacks from their indefatigable pursuers, in which the officers and most of the soldiery gave still more extraordinary proofs, than any we have yet recorded, of undaunted valour, and constancy worthy of better fortune. The weather was now, in the latter end of November, extremely cold and rainy; the roads almost impassable; and provisions very scarce. Often, after a march of ten hours, Madame de L. has been obliged to fish for a few cold potatoes in the bottom of a dirty cauldron, filled with greasy water, and polluted by the hands of half the army. Her child sickened from its teething, and insufficient nourishment; and every day she witnessed the death of some of those gallant leaders whom the spring had seen assembled in her halls in all the flush of youthful confidence and glory. After many a weary march, and desperate struggle, about ten thousand sad survivors got again to the banks of that fatal Loire, which now seemed to divide them from hope and protection. Henri, who had arranged the whole operation with consummate judgment, found the shores on both sides free of the enemy:-But all the boats had been removed; and, after leaving orders to Construct rafts with all possible despatch, he himself, with a few attendants, ventured over in a little wherry, which he had brought with him on a cart, to make arrangements for covering their landing. But they never saw the daring Henri again! The vigilant enemy | came down upon them at this critical moment -intercepted his return-and, stationing several armed vessels in the stream, rendered the passage of the army altogether impossible. They fell back in despair upon Savenay; and there the brave and indefatigable Marigny Towards the end of 1794, their lot was told Madame de L. that all was now over somewhat softened by the compassionate that it was altogether impossible to resist the kindness of a Madame Dumoutiers, who offerattack that would be made next day-and ed them an asylum in her house; in which, advised her to seek her safety in flight and though still liable to the searches of the blooddisguise, without the loss of an instant. She hounds of the municipality, they had more set out accordingly, with her mother, in a assistance in eluding them, and less misery gloomy day of December, under the conduct to endure in the intervals. The whole hisof a drunken peasant; and, after being out tory of their escapes would make the advenmost of the night, at length obtained shelter tures of Caleb Williams appear a cold and in a dirty farm house, from which, in the barren chronicle; but we have room only to course of the day, she had the misery of see-mention, that after the death of Robespierre, ing her unfortunate countrymen scattered over the whole open country, chased and butchered without mercy by the republicans, who now took a final vengeance for all the losses they had sustained. She had long been clothed in shreds and patches, and needed no disguise to conceal her quality. She was sometimes hidden in the mill, when the troopers came to search for fugitives in her lonely retreat; -and oftener sent, in the midst of winter, to there was a great abatement in the rigour of pursuit; and that a general amnesty was speedily proclaimed, for all who had been concerned in the insurrection. After several inward struggles with pride and principle, Madame de L. was prevailed on to repair to Nantes, to avail herself of this amnesty-but, first of all, she rode in to reconnoitre, and consult with some friends of her hostess; and proceeded boldly through the hostile city, in Les A peine les connaissait-on. cadavres restaient quelquefois plus d'un jour sans qu'on vint les emporter. the dress of a peasant, with a sack at her back, | aucun soin. envoya chercher Lamberty. Il la conduisit dans un Agathe ne doutant plus d'une mort prochaine, petit bâtiment à soupape, dans lequel on avait noyé les prêtres, et que Carrier lui avait donné. Il était seul avec elle, et voulut en profiter: elle résista. Lamberty la menaça de la noyer: elle courut pour dit: Allons! tu es une brave fille, je te sauverai, se jeter elle-même à l'eau. Alors cet homme lui entendait les noyades qui se faisaient la nuit ; ensuite il la cacha chez un nommé S***, qui était, comme lui, un fidele exécuteur des ordres de Carrier. This amnesty drew back to light many of her former friends, who had been univer-II la laissa huit jours seule dans le bâtiment, où elle sally supposed to be dead; and proved, by the prodigious numbers whom it brought from their hiding-places in the neighbourhood, how generally the lower orders were attached to their cause, or how universal the virtues of compassion and fidelity to confiding misery are in the national character. It also brought to the writer's knowledge many shocking particulars of the cruel executions which so long polluted that devoted city. We may give a few of the instances in her own words, as a specimen of her manner of writing; to which, in our anxiety to condense the information she affords us, we have paid perhaps too little attention. "Madame de Jourdain fut menée sur la Loire, pour être noyée avec ses trois filles. Un soldat voulut sauver la plus jeune, qui était fort belle. Elle se jeta à l'eau pour partager le sort de sa mère. La malheureuse enfant tomba sur des cadavres, et n'enfonça point. Elle criait: Poussez-moi, je n'ai pas assez d'eau et elle périt. "Mademoiselle de Cuissard, âgée de seize ans, qui était plus belle encore, s'attira aussi le même intérêt d'unofficier qui passa trois heures à ses pieds, la suppliant de se laisser sauver. Elle était avec une vielle parente que cet homme ne voulait pas se risquer à dérober au supplice. Mademoiselle de Cuissard se précipita dans la Loire avec elle. "Une mort affreuse fut celle de Mademoiselle de la Roche St. André. Elle était grosse: on l'épargna. On lui laissa nourrir son enfant; mais il mourut, et on la fit périr le lendemain! Au reste, il ne faut pas croire que toutes les femmes enceintes fussent respectées. Cela était même fort rare; plus communément les soldats massacraient femmes et enfants. Il n'y avait que devant les tribunaux, où l'on observait ces exceptions; et on y laissait aux femmes le temps de nourrir leurs enfants, comme étant une obligation républicaine. C'est en quoi consistait l'humanité des gens d'alors. "Ma pauvre Agathe avait couru de bien grands dangers. Elle m'avait quitté à Nort, pour profiter de cette amnistie prétendue, dont on avait parlé dans "Quelque temps aprés, la discorde divisa les républicains de Nantes. On prit le prétexte d'accuser Lamberty d'avoir dérobé des femmes aux noyades, et d'en avoir noyé qui ne devaient pas l'être. Un jeune homme, nommé Robin, qui était fort dévoué à Lamberty, vint saisir Agathe chez Madame S***, la traîna dans le bateau, et voulut la poignarder, pour faire disparaître une preuve du crime qu'on parvint à l'attendrir, et il la cacha chez un de ses reprochait à son patron. Agathe se jeta à ses pieds; amis, nommé Lavaux, qui était honnête homme, et qui avait déjà recueilli Madame de l'Epinay: mais on sut dès le lendemain l'asile d'Agathe, et on vint l'arrêter. When the means of hearing of her friends to hear but what was mournful. Her father were thus suddenly restored, there was little had taken refuge in a wood with a small party of horsemen, after the rout of Savenay, and afterwards collected a little force, with which they seized on the town of Ancenis, and had nearly forced the passage of the Loire; but they were surrounded, and made prisoners, and all shot in the market-place! The brave Henri de Larochejaquelein had gained the north bank with about twenty followers, and wandered many days over the burnt and bloody solitudes of the once happy La Vendée. Overcome with fatigue and hunger, they at last reached an inhabited farm-house, and fell fast asleep in the barn. They were soon roused, however, by the news that a party of the republicans were approaching the same house; but were so worn out, that they would not rise, even to provide against that extreme hazard. The party accordingly entered; and being almost as much exhausted as the others, threw themselves down, without asking any questions, at the other end of the barn, and slept quietly beside them. Henri afterwards found out M. de la Charrette, by whom he was coldly, and even rudely received; but he tinctement tout ce qui se trouvait à l'entrepôt; came again formidable in the scenes of nis soon raised a little army of his own, and be tellement qu'on noya un jour l'état major d'une first successes:-till one day, riding a little in corvette Anglaise, qui était prisonnier de guerre. Une autre fois, Carrier, voulant donner un exemple front of his party, he fell in with two repubde l'austérité des mœurs républicaines, fit enfermer lican soldiers, upon whom his followers were trois cents filles publiques de la ville, et les mal- about to fire, when he said, "No, no, they heureuses créatures furent noyées! Enfin, l'on shall have quarter;" and pushing up to them, estime qu'il a péri à l'entrepôt quinze mille per- called upon them to surrender. Without say sonnes en un mois. Il est vrai qu'outre les supplices, la misère et la maladie ravageaient les prisonniers, ing a word, one of them raised his piece, and qui étaient pressés sur la paille, et qui ne recevaient shot him right through the forehead. He fell ce moment. Elle vint à Nantes, et fut conduite devant le général Lamberty, le plus féroce des amis de Carrier. La figure d'Agathe lui plait: As-tu peur, brigande?' lui dit-il. Non, général,' réponditelle. Hé bien! quand tu auras peur, souviens-toi de Lamberty,' ajouta-t-il. Elle fut conduite à l'entrepôt. C'est la trop fameuse prison où l'on entassoit les victimes destinées à être novées. Chaque nuit on venait en prendre par centaines, pour les mettre sur les bateaux. Là, on lait les malheureux deux à deux, et on les poussait dans l'eau, à coups de baïonnette. On saisissait indis at once dead before them, and was buried where he fell. "Ainsi périt, à vingt et un ans, Henri de la Rochejaquelein. Encore à présent, quand les paysans se rappellent l'ardeur et l'éclat de son courage, sa modestie, sa facilité, et ce caractère de guerrier, et de bon enfant, ils parlent de lui avec fierté et avec amour. Il n'est pas un Vendéen dont on ne voie le regard s'animer, quand il raconte comment il a servi sous M. Henri."-Vol. ii. pp. 187, 188. tle in the same cause which proved fatal to the first, during the short period of Bonaparte's last reign, and but a few days before the decisive battle of Waterloo. We have not left room now for any general observations-and there is no need of them. The book is, beyond all question, extremely curious and interesting-and we really have no idea that any reflections of ours could appear half so much so as the abstract we have The fate of the gallant Marigny was still now given in their stead. One remark, howmore deplorable. He joined Charrette and ever, we shall venture to make, now that our Stofflet; but some misunderstanding having abstract is done. If all France were like La arisen among them upon a point of discipline, Vendée in 1793, we should anticipate nothing they took the rash and violent step of bring- but happiness from the restoration of the ing him to a court-martial, and sentencing him Bourbons and of the old government. But the to death for disobedience. To the horror of very fact that the Vendeans were crushed by all the Vendeans, and the great joy of the re- the rest of the country, proves that this is not publicans, this unjust and imprudent sentence the case: And indeed it requires but a mowas carried into execution; and the cause de- ment's reflection to perceive, that the rest of prived of the ablest of its surviving champions. France could not well resemble La Vendée in When they had gratified their curiosity with its royalism, unless it had resembled it in these melancholy details, Madame de L. and the other peculiarities upon which that royalher mother set out for Bourdeaux, and from ism was founded-unless it had all its nothence to Spain, where they remained for blesse resident on their estates; and living in nearly two years-but were at last permitted their old feudal relations with a simple and to return; and, upon Bonaparte's accession agricultural vassalage. The book indeed to the sovereignty, were even restored to a shows two things very plainly, and both of great part of their possessions. On the earnest them well worth remembering. In the first entreaty of her mother, she was induced at place, that there may be a great deal of kindlast to give her hand to Louis de Larochejaque- ness and good affection among a people of lein, brother to the gallant Henri-and the in- insurgents against an established government; heritor of his principles and character. This and, secondly, that where there is such an match took place in 1802, and they lived in peaceful retirement till the late movements for the restoration of the house of Bourbon. The notice of this new alliance terminates the original Memoirs; but there is a supplement, containing rather a curious account of the intrigues and communications of the royalist party in Bourdeaux and the South, through the whole course of the Revolution,-and of the proceedings by which they conceive that they accelerated the restoration of the King in 1814. It may not be uninteresting to add, that since the book was published, the second husband of the unfortunate writer fell in bat- | aversion to a government, as to break out in spontaneous insurrection, it is impossible entirely to subdue that aversion, either by severity or forbearance-although the difference of the two courses of policy is, that severity, even when carried to the savage extremity of devastation and indiscriminate slaughter, leads only to the adoption of similar atrocities in return-while forbearance is at least rewarded by the acquiescence of those who are conscious of weakness, and gives time and opportunity for those mutual concessions by which alone contending factions or principles can ever be permanently reconciled. (November, 1812.) Mémoires de FREDERIQUE SOPHIE WILHELMINE DE PRUSSE, Margrave de Bareith, Sœur de Frederic le Grand. Ecrits de sa Main. 8vo. 2 tomes. Brunswick, Paris, et Londres: 1812. PHILOSOPHERS have long considered it as probable, that the private manners of absolute Sovereigns are vulgar, their pleasures low, and their dispositions selfish ;-that the two extremes of life, in short, approach pretty closely to each other; and that the Masters of mankind, when stripped of the artificial pomp and magnificence which invests them in public, resemble nothing so nearly as the meanest of the multitude. The ground of this opinion is, that the very highest and the very lowest of mankind are equally beyond the influence u that wholesome control, to which all the intermediate classes are subjected, by their mutual dependence, and the need they have for the good will and esteem of their fellows. Those who are at the very bottom of the scale are below the sphere of this influence; and those at the very top are above it. The one have no chance of distinction by any effort they are capable of making; and the other are secure of the highest degree of it, without any. Both therefore are indifferent, or very nearly so, to the opinion of mankind: the former, because the naked subsistence which they earn by their labour will not be affected |