Glancing round this anatomical workshop (the oyster), we find, amongst
other things, some preparations shewing the nature of pearls. Examine
them, and we find that there are dark and dingy pearls, just as there
are handsome and ugly men; the dark pearl being found on the dark
shell of the fish, the white brilliant one upon the smooth inside
shell. Going further in the search, we find that the smooth,
glittering lining, upon which the fish moves, is known as the _nacre_,
and that it is produced by a portion of the animal called the
_mantle_; and, for explanation's sake, we may add that gourmands
practically know the mantle as the beard of the oyster. When living in
its glossy house, should any foreign substance find its way through
the shell to disturb the smoothness so essential to its ease, the fish
coats the offending substance with nacre, and a pearl is thus formed.
The pearl is, in fact, a little globe of the smooth, glossy substance
yielded by the oyster's beard; yielded ordinarily to smooth the narrow
home to which his nature binds him, but yielded in round drops, real
pearly tears, if he is hurt. When a beauty glides among a throng of
her admirers, her hair clustering with pearls, she little thinks that
her ornaments are products of pain and diseased action, endured by the
most unpoetical of shell-fish.--_Leisure Hours._
'ROBESPIERRE.'
In our recent notice of Robespierre, it was mentioned that, at the
period of his capture in the Hôtel de Ville, he was shot in the jaw by
a pistol fired by one of the gendarmes. Various correspondents point
to the discrepancy between this account and that given by Thiers, and
some other authorities, who represent that Robespierre fired the
pistol himself, in the attempt to commit self-destruction. In our
account of the affair, we have preferred holding to Larmartine
(_History of the Girondists_), not only in consequence of his being
the latest and most graphic authority on the subject, but because his
statement seems to be verified by the appearance of the half-signed
document which it was our fortune to see in Paris in 1849.
The following is Lamartine's statement:--'The door soon yielded to the
blows given by the soldiers with the but-end of their muskets, amid
the cries of "Down with the tyrant!" "Which is he?" inquired the
soldiers; but Léonard Bourdon durst not meet the look of his fallen
enemy. Standing a little behind the men, and hidden by the body of a
gendarme, named Méda; with his right hand he seized the arm of the
gendarme who held a pistol, and pointing with his left hand to the
person to be aimed at, he directed the muzzle of the weapon towards
Robespierre, exclaiming: "That is the man." The man fired, and the
head of Robespierre dropped on the table, deluging with blood the
proclamation he had not finished signing.' Next morning, adds this
authority, Léonard Bourdon 'presented the gendarme who had fired at
Robespierre to the notice of the Convention.' Further: on Robespierre
being searched while he lay on the table, a brace of loaded pistols
were found in his pocket. 'These pistols, shut up in their cases still
loaded, abundantly testify that Robespierre did not shoot himself.'
Accepting these as the true particulars of the incident, Robespierre
cannot properly be charged with an attempt at suicide.
In the article referred to, the name Barras was accidentally
substituted for Henriot, in connection with the insurrectionary
movement for rescuing Robespierre. Barras led the troops of the
Convention.
A correspondent asks us to state what was the actual number of persons
slaughtered by the guillotine, and otherwise, during the progress of
the Revolution. The question cannot be satisfactorily answered. Alison
(vol. iv. p. 289) presents a list, which shews the number to have been
1,027,106; but this enumeration does not comprehend the massacres at
Versailles, the prisons of Paris, and some other places. A million and
a half would probably be a safe calculation. One thing is certain,
that from the 2d of September 1792, to the 25th of October 1795, a
space of little more than three years, 18,613 persons perished by the
guillotine. Strangely enough, the chief destruction of life was among
the humbler classes of society, those who mainly promoted the
revolution; and still more strange, the greater number of victims were
murdered by the verdicts of juries--a striking example of that general
subserviency which has since become the most significant defect in the
French character.
* * * * *
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