you." "But where will you go?" "God knows!" "What! you have no place to go to, and yet you wish me to let you go away! No! The more your situation is dangerous to me, the more I am interested in it. I beg you will wait in this house till the times become more settled." The old man refused; and, in spite of the most earnest entreaties, was the conqueror in this generous struggle. Mad. Desmarets, Mad. Ruvilly's sister, was then with her. She witnessed the affecting scene, and kept the secret. But the eyes of tyranny are always watchful, and she was soon informed against, on account of that hospitable action. Mad. Ruvilly, before her judges, gloried in the service she had rendered; and her only affliction was to see her sister condemned for not having denounced her. These two women underwent their fate, proud of being punished for an act of generosity. Mad. Payssac, who lived in Paris, did more than grant hospitality; she offered it. The respectable Rabaud de Saint Etienne, was outlawed in consequence of the events of the 31st of May. Mad. Payssac offered him a shelter in her house; his remonstrances respecting the danger to which his acceptance would expose her, were useless; she insisted, and overcame Rabaud's reluctance. He was afterwards discovered in her house, and she soon followed him to the scaffold, no less courageously than she had braved the peril. The celebrated Condorcet was proceeded against at the same period. A female friend offered to hide him. He refused, saying: You would be deprived of the benefit of the law! Oh! said she, am I to be deprived of the benefit of humanity? This answer did not shake his determination; and, some time after, he was found murdered by his own hands,* in a village near Paris. Mad. Le Jai, a bookseller in Pa ris, was more successful. She gave shelter to citizen Doulcet Pontecoulant, and so effectual was her zeal, that she saved his life and her own. The niece of a sexton in Brussels succeeded, likewise, in giving assistance to a Frenchman who had fled to that city during those bloody days. It was after the battle of Fleurus, when the French troops entered Belgium. Fearful of being apprehended in Brussels, he was leaving it. A young girl, who was sitting at a door, prompted by a sympathy for the unfortunate, stopt him, exclaiming: You are lost if you go further! If I go back, I am lost also! Then come in here. He went in. After informing him, that they were in the house of her uncle, who would not permit her to save him, if he knew it, she conducted him to a barn, where he concealed himself. Scarcely was it night, when a party of soldiers came to sleep there. The niece followed them unperceived; and, as soon as they were asleep, she tried to extricate the Frenchman from such a perilous place; but, as he was escaping, one of the soldiers awoke and took him by the hand. On this she stepped between them, saying: Let me go, it is I who am come. She needed not say more. The soldier, deceived by the female voice, let his captive go. She conducted the latter to her own room, from whence, taking the keys of the church, and carrying a lamp in her hand, she opened that building to him. They came to a chapel, which the ravage of war had despoiled of its ornaments; behind the altar was a trapdoor, not easily perceivable. She lifted it up, and said: "You see this dark staircase; it leads to a vault, in which the remains of an illustrious family are deposited. It is very likely that nobody will so much as suspect that you are there. Have fortitude enough to remain there, till a favourable opportunity offers for your escape." See his Memoirs. The Frenchman entered without hesitation. What was his surprise, when the first objects he perceived, by the light of the lamp, were the armorial bearings of his own family, originally of this country! He recognises the tombs of his forefathers! He salutes them respectfully, and with the most lively emotions, lays his hands upon these venerated marbles. His conductress left him under those impressions. The delight they imparted, and particularly the hope of seeing again a fond wife, rendered him, for some time, unmindful of his abode. Two days had elapsed, and his deliverer had not returned. He knew not what to think. At one moment he was terrified, lest she had fallen a victim to her generosity. At another, he feared lest she had forgotten him. These painful feelings were quickened by those of hunger; and he had no other prospect than that of a death still more dreadful than what he had avoided. His strength failed, and he sunk almost senseless on the tomb of one of his ancestors. Suddenly, he heard a noise. It was the voice of his kind deliverer, who was calling him. Overcome with joy, as well as with weakness, he could not answer. She believed he was dead, and sighing, she let the trap door fall down again The unfortunate young man, exceedingly terrified, made an exertion, and screamed aloud. She heard it, and came back. She immediately gave him food, and explained the cause of her delay; adding, that precautions were now so weil taken, that the same should not happen again. She was leaving him, when she heard the noise of arms She precipitately went down again, bidding the Frenchman be silent. In fact, a number of armed men were at that moment conducted there by the sexton, who had been charged with having secreted an emigrant in the church, that they might search for him. They examined every where; they even trod upon the trap door. What a moment for the two prisoners! Every step resounded in their hearts, and was felt as a forerunner of their fate. But the noise by degrees diminished, and at length was heard no more. The niece ventured out with the greatest caution and anxiety. After informing her guest, to make him easy, she withdrew. On the ensuing days she regularly carried food to him. He remained a long time in the vault, under the care of this benevolent girl. More quiet days arrived; and she informed him of the change. He bid a tender and respectful farewell to the remains of his ancestors, which had protected him; quitted the vault, reached his country, and soon joined a wife, whose society and affection made him still more grateful for the service rendered him by his generous deliverer. The sublime action of Mlle. de Sombreuil, amid the massacres of September, is too well known, for me to dwell long upon it. Nevertheless, it is but just that I record here, another proof of her magnanimity. One of the murderers, as the condition of her father's deliverance, insisted on her drinking a glass of blood. Filial love gave her strength to submit to this horrid proposal. She afterwards experienced frequent fits, which returned at regular periods. She persevered in her constant attention to her father, and shared his captivity, when, in the days of terrour, he was incarcerated again. When she first appeared among the other prisoners, all fixed their eyes upon her, and all wept. Every heart paid her the tribute due to virtue. A sentiment addressed to her by Mad. de Rosambe, is creditable to both. She was going out of the prison with the venerable Malesherbes, to appear before the court; when she perceived Mlle. de Sombreuil. "You have had the glory of saving your father," said she," and I have the comfort of going to die with mine."* The daughter of the respectable Cazottet saved him, also, from the hands of the murderers in the prisons. Her action is less known than the other, but the particulars of it are not less interesting. Some days before the 2d of September, Mlle. Cazotte, who had been imprisoned with her father, in the abbey, was acquitted; but she would not leave him there alone, and without assistance. She was allowed to stay with him. Those days came, in which fell so many Frenchmen. On the eve preceding, Mademoiselle Cazotte's lovely face, innocent mind, and lively discourse, had raised feelings of sympathy in some of the Marseillois, who guarded the interiour of the abbey. They assisted her in saving Cazotte. This old man, being condemned, after thirty hours of massacre, was about to fall beneath the blows of a crowd of assassins. His daughter rushes among them, her countenance pale, but still more lovely in her disorder and tears; exclaiming: "You shall not reach my father, but after piercing through my heart." A single voice cries out: "pardon," a hundred voices repeat the exclamation; the Marseillois open a passage for Mlle. Cazotte, who carries off her father, and restores him to his family. Her triumph did not last long. On the 12th of September, Cazotte was again thrown into a prison. His daughter accompanies him to the Conciergerie; but the door, opened to admit her father, is rudely shut against her. She applies to the municipality, and to the minister of the interiour. After many tears and entreaties, she at last obtains leave to attend on her father. She remained night and day near him, leaving him only to supplicate the judges in his favour, or to prepare his defence. She had already secured the assistance of those Marseillois, to whom she had been so greatly indebted, in the former danger. She had already assembled many women, who had engaged to support her; she was beginning to indulge some hopes, when she was ordered into close confinement. Cazotte's enemies dreaded so much her zeal, that they considered this as absolutely necessary, to prevent his escaping a second time. In fact, during the absence of his daughter, they murdered that man, whose old age and talents they should have respected; they should have respected, too, the terrours of that dreadful scene of death, which, during the horrours of September, hung over his head for six and thirty hours. Mademoiselle Cazotte had then no other comfort left, but that of soothing the sorrows of her mother; a duty which she now fulfils with all the nice and tender feelings which nature has bestowed on her. In the course of these anecdotes, M. le Gouvé informs us, that no obstacle prevented the women from attending at the prisons. Every day, and in every season, the garden of the Luxembourg was crowded with women, who, in spite of excessive heat or cold, rain or wind, were spending the morning there, in expectation of seeing, for a single moment, either at a window, or on the roof of the building, their fathers, brothers, or husbands, retained there, See more particulars in the memoirs of M. de Malesherbes, who, with his daughter and grandchild, were guillotined, merely because he had been one of the counsel to Louis XVI. The exalted conduct of this venerable old man was an honour to human nature. His expression of fidelity to his sovereign ought to be written in letters of gold: "They will never forgive me for defending the hapless Louis XVI! Nevertheless, I solemnly protest, that I glory in sacrificing my life for him; and, far from repenting that act, would again do the same, were it again to be done." t. The author of several very pleasing works, such as Olivier, le Diable Amoureux, &c. to direct towards them, or to receive from them, a look, a gesture, or any token of affection or concern. Some of them did more. On the outside of prisons from which sewers issued, they stooped over these infectious streams, to converse with a friend or relative, and remove from their minds a distrust too natural in mis fortune. Who, then, can refrain from joining in unison with the last four lines of M. le Gouvé's poem, la Mérite des Femmes, as a just tribute to the fair sex? Reviens de ton erreur, Toi qui veux les flétrir; Sache les respecter autant que les chérir; Et, si la voix du sang n'est point une chimère, Tombe aux pieds de CE SEXE à qui tu dois TA MERE! MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF PRINCE EUGENE, of SAVOY. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. [Concluded from page 57.] 1711-I went to Utrecht, to see how the negotiations proceeded. England, Savoy, Portugal, and Prussia, were ready to sign their treaties; and Holland hung only by a thread. I set out for Vienna to report this to the emperour. On my arrival, Charles VI. said to me: "You are right; Holland has just signed too. So Zinzendorf informis me; and he has sent me the proposals of France, to which you will certainly not advise me to agree." "Your majesty does me justice," I replied. "We will obtain neutrality for the Low Countries; and with the troops which you will order thence, as well as from Naples and Lombardy, we shall be able to keep the French in check on the Rhine." I hastened to all the states and courts of the empire to collect men and money. I procured three millions of crowns in one quarter, and a million of florins in another. But the tardiness of the princes and circles in marching from their quarters, prevented me from anticipating the French on the Upper Rhine. Charles VI. manifested a desire to command his army in person. I represented to him that he could gain no honour by it. My opinion was but too well founded, as I clearly perceived that Villars meant to make an attempt on Landau. I orVov. v. 2 B dered lines to be formed at Etlingen, within which I sent one half of my army, and posted the other at Mühlberg, where I hoped my reenforcements would arrive before the fall of Landau; but the prince of Würtemberg was obliged to capitulate. Still I was in hopes of preventing the French from besieging Friburg. I took possession of all the defiles of the mountains. I threw up intrenchments, formed abattis, and erected redoubts at all the principal points. The inferiority of my force made me fear that the peace, which must necessarily be soon concluded, would be detestable. I called in all my troops, leaving only 18,000 with Aubonne, to defend the passage of the mountains. Villars attacked the heights with his gre nadiers. The troops of the circles, which I had placed behind the abattis, behaved like the Dutch at Denain, and ran away at the first fire. The duke of Bourbon and the prince of Conti began the attack of the defiles at seven in the evening. Aubonne, hurried away by the fugitives, could not rally them till they were at such a distance that he could not regain his intrenchments, and contented himself with throwing twelve battalions into Friburg. After so many battles during a period of thirteen years, the emperour's troops themselves were but raw recruits. The best of my intrenchments at Hohlgraben being forced, there was nothing to check Villars in his march across the Black Forest, and he opened the trenches before Friburg on the 1st of October. Harsch disputed every inch of ground. In the night between the 14th and 15th, the covered way was taken by assault; and he there lost 1700 men. When the inhabitants saw that Harsch was determined not to surrender till the assault of the body of the place, which was battered down with balls, the oldest priest carrying the host, the magistrates, women, and children, all thronged to him. The fire from the ramparts continued as before; and when the breach was wide enough to enter in companies, on the 1st of November, he abandoned the town and retired into the citadel. This was followed by defending, fighting, writing, demanding, refusing, granting, prolonging suspensions of hostilities till the 21st, and then by capitulating. Farewell to the empire! farewell to its two bulwarks! was the general cry at all the courts of Germany, which were dying of fear. Why are they incorrigible? If little ministers, and great or little mistresses, were not gained by France, they might raise 100,000 men, to defend, in the first place, the passage of the Rhine; and then the fortresses erected, and to be erected. There are very bad Germans in Germany. The same courts and states of the empire having crossed me, as some years before, they had done prince Louis of Baden, had rendered it impossible for me to relieve those two places. This, I confess, horribly disgusted me of the war; so that I was one of the first to advise the emperour to make peace. France had been making prodigious efforts. Her resources are infinite. 'Tis the will of one individual, and of one nation. The Austrian monarchy is composed of five or six, which have different constitutions. What a difference in civilisation, population, and importance! The title of emperour does not bring in a single man, or a single kreutzer. He must even negotiate with his empire, that it may not be French; with the Bohemians, that they may not run away into Prussia and Saxony, for fear of becoming soldiers; with his Lombards, who are ready to turn Savoyards; with his Hungarians, ready to turn Turks; and with his Flemings, ready to become Dutchmen. [Soon after the disasters related above, the prince was appointed by the emperour to negotiate a peace with France. M. Villars was the ambassadour of Louis XIV. The preli minaries were signed at Rastadt on the 16th of March, 1714.] I could not help laughing at the titles assumed by the emperour. Such, for instance, as king of Corsica, of Algiers, of Jaen, and of the Canaries; duke of Athens, and Neopatri; lord of Tripoli, &c. and by the side of these, the most serene prince and lord Louis XIV. then my titles in abundance; and beside them, the general of the French army, named de Villars; and I admired the impertinence of our chanceries. 1715. When I heard of the death of Louis XIV. I confess, it produced upon me the same effect as an old majestick oak, uprooted and overthrown by a hurricane. He had been standing so long! Death, before it erases great recollections, recalls them all at the first moment. History is always indulgent towards beginnings. The commencement of the reign of this great king, had no need of any. But now age had blunted the claws of the lion. 1719. The emperour made me his vicar general in Italy, with a salary of 150,000 florins. Alberoni, our inveterate enemy, being dismissed, and his Philip IV. having acceded to the quadruple alliance, I had time to think of my |