often placed at the opposite end of the sewer, and answered for his mother when she was too ill to undertake that task herself. A person of my acquaintance heard him say, "Maman a moins pleuré cette nuit-un peu repos, et te souhaite le bon jour; c'est Lolo, qui t'aime bien, qui te dit cela*.? At length this unfortunate mother, when going to execution, transmitted to her son, by the sewer, her long and graceful tresses, as the only inheritance she had to give. She then bade her infant a last farewell, and was led to the scaffold where her husband had perished some months before. 4 Το One of the persons most distinguished by their noble contempt of death was Girey Dupré, with whom I was well acquainted. He was the writer of a paper called the Patriote François, in conjunction with Brissot: he had acquired a high degree of literary reputation, and maintained his mother, a widow, by the labours of his pen. He was twenty-four years of age, and his countenance was one of the most agreeable I ever saw. these personal advantages he united the most frank and pleasing manners, and distinguished powers of conversation. He had defended the deputies of the Gironde with too much energy not to be involved in their fate, and he was also connected by the tie's of friendship with Brissot. Dupré was forced to fly from his persecutors, and seek refuge at Bourdeaux, where he was seized, and brought back in irons to Paris. Far from being depressed by his approaching fate, the natural gaiety of his disposition never forsook him a single moment. When interrogated at the tribunal with respect to his connection with Brissot, he answered only in these "Mamma has not cried so much to-night. She has slept a little, and wishes you a good morning; it is Lolo who speaks to you, who loves you very much." M 2 words, words, "J'ai connu Brissot; j'attesté qu'il a vecu comme Aristide, et qu'il est mort, comme Sydney, martyr de la liberté." He presented himself at the tribunal with his hair cut off, the collar of his shirt thrown open, and all ready prepared for the stroke of the executioner. On his way to the 1. scaffold, he saw Robespierre's mistress at the window of his lodging, with her sister, and some of their ferocious accomplices. A bas les tyrans et les dictateurs+!" cried Dupré, repeating this pŁOphetic exclamation till he lost sight of the house. While going to execution, he sung in a triumphant tone, a very popular patriotic song, which he had himself composed, and of which the chorus was, Plutôt la mort que l'esclavage‡.". That cherished sentiment he fondly repeated even to his last moment, and death left the half finished sentence op his lips. 50 Claviere, who had been contemporary minister with Roland, and who was imprisoned in the Conciergerie, upon receiving his act of accusation, saw that the list, of witnesses against him was composed of his most implacable enemies. "These are assassins," said he to a fellow prisoner I will snatch myself from their rage." He then repeated these lines of Voltaire, * Les criminels, tremblans sont trainés au supplice; Les mortels généreux disposent de leur sort :"> and after deliberating with his companion upon the most effectual means of striking himself so that the dagger might reach his heart, he retired to his cell, where he was found, a few minutes after, breathing Oud I knew Brissot; I atteft that he lived like Aristides, and died like Sydney, the martyr of liberty.", I Down with tyrants and dictators!" his his last sigh. Madame Claviere, upon receiving the tidings of his death, swallowed poison, after having embraced her children, and regulated her affairs. Notwithstanding his suicide, the property of Claviere was confiscated, as if he had been reguJarly condemned. A law had lately been passed to construe an act of suicide into a counter-revolutionary project, when the father of a family who knew that his life was devoted, had voluntarily put an end to his existence in the hope of preserving his children from want, Robespierre and his financial agents, found nothing more pressing than to baffle those conspiracies against the revenues of their government; for confiscation was so evidently the leading motive for the great mass of their judicial assassinations, that the guillotine, amongst other numerous titles, was most generally called "the minister of finance." The tribunal now began, to use the language of the orator*, "to look into the cash accounts for delinquency, and found the offenders guilty of so many hundred thousand pounds worth of treason. They now accused by the multiplication table, tried by the rule of three, and condemned, not by the sublime institutes of Justinian, but by the unerring rules of Cocker's arithmetic." Jason some occasions the genuine feelings of nature burst forth amidst the stupified terror that had frozen every heart. A law had lately passed, obliging every merchant to inscribe on his door the stock of merchandize in his warehouse, under the penalty of death. A wine-merchant, whose affairs had called him hastily into the country, entrusted the business of the inscription to his son, who from ignorance or negligence, for it was clearly proved that there existed no intention of fraud, had omitted to affix the declaration in the precise words of the law. The conscientious jury of the revolutionary tribunal condemned him to death, presuming on the counter revolutionary intention in this case from the act, though they were in general accustomed, for want of other evidence, to find the act by guessing at the intention. The innocent prisoner had prepared himself for death, when the minister of justice, informed of the case, wrote to the convention, demanding a respite. His letter had not been half read before the hall resounded with the cry of reprieve, reprieve! and fearing that the act of pardon would arrive too late, the convention, dispensing with the usual formalities, not only sent its officers and part of the military force, but great numbers of the deputies rushed out to stop the exe 'cution. The officer who received the order first, with which he flew towards the place of the revolu fion, told ine that on his coming out of the conven tipn he saw the scaffold reated, and the crowd assembled: "Ple had scarcely reached the tree cof the first vista when he stw the fatal knife descends He redoubled his speed, but before he got to the end of the walk another head had fallen a third person had mounted the scaffold, but the voice of the messenger was too weak, from the efforts he had made to gain the spot, to be noticed by the multi tude. The fourth had ascended when he gained the place,' rushed through the crowd, called to the executioner, and leaped on the scaffold. The pri soner had been stripped, his shoulders were bare, and he was already tied to the plank, when the cry of" reprieve" burst forth: the officer enquired his name, which the young man told him. Alag! you are not the person," he replied. The prisoner submitted calmly to his fate rode aid 932 The turn away The bearer of the reprieve, who is a person of a very benevolent disposition, declared that he never felt so acute a pang as when he was compelled to from this unfortunate victim. He hastened, however, to the prison, where he found the person who was reprieved awaiting the return of the cart and the executioner, his hair cut and hist hands tied, to be led to death at another part of the city where his house stood. A wife and nine children were deploring the miserable loss of a husband and a father, when the officer who had brought the tidings of life to the prisoner, went at his request to carry them to his distracted family. I need not describe what he related to me of the scene your heart will readily fill up the picture. That class of men which were peculiarly the ob jects of the tyrant's rage were men of letters, with respect to whom the jealousy of the rival was mingled with the fury of the oppressor, and against whom his hatred was less implacable for having opposed his tyranny, than for having eclipsed his eloquence. It is a curious consideration, that the anexampled crimes of this sanguinary usurper, and the consequent miseries which have desolated the finest country of Europe, may, perhaps, if traced to their source, be found to arise from the resentment of a disappointed wit Robespierre, for the misfortune of humanity, was persecuted by the most restless desire of distinguishing himself as an qraton, and nature had denied him the power. He and his brother were born at Abras, and left orphans at an early age. The bishop of Arras had bestowed on them a liberal education. Robespierre distinguished himself by his application to his first studies, and obtained many literary prizes. At the age of sixteen elated by the applause he had received, he fancied himself endowed with such rare powers of genius as would enable him to act a splendid part on |