[1] See Appendix.
[2] These articles have since 1802 increased a hundredfold in
value.--[ED.]
[3] This bird is undoubtedly a Penguin.
[4] Probably an albatross.
[5] Italian or rather Corsican pronunciation.
[6] This statue is the celebrated dying Gladiator immortalised by Byron.
[7] Chauvilet.
[8] I must here relate two very extraordinary circumstances respecting
the younger Sheares, whom I described in Letter XII. as a charming
young man and the admirer of Mlle. Théronne (Théroigne). During the
King’s trial he sat near me, and was so extremely affected he shed
tears, observing at the same time that the French would dishonour their
name and the cause of freedom by this proceeding.
Some days later we visited Versailles together, and as we were
contemplating the scenery of the beautiful garden at Petit Trianon,
laid out by the Queen, he went to the top of the look-out, fell upon
one knee, and exclaimed, drawing a dirk: “By heaven! I’ll thrust this
dirk into the heart of the man who shall dare to propose the least
injury to Marie Antoinette.” His brother, who was of a more cool and
less enthusiastic temperament, immediately observed, “You had better
set off post to Paris and take her out of the Temple.” It may appear
incredible to those who have been unconnected with any of the agents
of those convulsions which have disturbed the world for the last
twelve years, that men previously distinguished for the sensibility of
their natures and for their humanity, have proved, when immersed in
the Revolution whirlpool, the most cruel and inexorable of incarnate
devils. Carrier, Robespierre, Foquet-Tinville, and most of those
exterminating furies who thinned the best part of the population of
France, are instances in point.
[9] A peculiar motive, which I shall not here explain, obliges me
to omit the insertion of the case alluded to, but I have given the
beginning, which contains an account of Mr. Paine’s mode of life before
he was sent to prison, and the conclusion.
[10] This passage and the following, which I have marked in italics,
deserves the solemn reflection of every one who formerly entertained a
favourable prepossession in behalf of the French Revolution.
[11] At this period the French talked of the “Rights of Man,” of the
Republic one and indivisible, democratic and imperishable; and branded
English people with the epithets of English slaves, serfs of George,
&c. &c.
[12] Of the Committee of Public Safety, at that time the executive
power of France in every sense of the word. For the benefit of the
Great Nation they pocketed £400 for signing these very passports,
permitting two of the “serfs _of George and agents of Pitt_” to
escape from France.
[13] So that the £400 these Public Safety scoundrels had touched would
have caused their murder had they delayed their departure for a few
hours, as Barrère wisely observed, “dead men tell no tales”--it would
have been vain to plead the bribe; this plea itself would have been
such an outrage to the Majesty of the Republic that it alone would have
satisfied the consciences of the jury of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
[14] The use of packs of cards with figures of royal personages,
_i.e._, the kings and queens of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and
spades, were forbidden by the revolutionary authorities as being
emblems of royalty, and those who used them were condemned as Royalists.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.