self to despair. To be immolated, it was sufficient to exclaim "Vive le Roi!" she made it resound through the hall. In vain were the judges willing to consider her as insane; she persisted in repeating the exclamation, till she obtained her wish and was condemned. Madame Roland, the minister's wife, pleaded his cause, at the bar of the convention, with as much for titude as eloquence. When arrested and unable to assist him, she bequeathed an example of intrepidity in death, in the calm with which she went to the scaffold. Some unfortunate persons were brought to Paris, and put in the Plessis, to be tried. One of them had a young and beautiful wife, who had not quitted him. While she was walking in the yard, with the other prisoners, her husband was called to the door of the prison. Anticipating this as the signal for his death, she endeavours to follow him; the jailer objects to it; but strengthened by her misery, she breaks through every thing, runs into the arms of her husband, and clasps him, to enjoy at least the direful comfort of sharing his fate. The guards separate them. "Barbarians," said she, "still I will die;" instantly she flies to the iron door of the prison, violently strikes her head against it, and falls expiring on the spot. Marshal de Mouchy was carried to the Luxembourg. No sooner was he there, than his wife comes in. They observe to her that the warrant does not mention her; her answer is: "Since my husband is imprisoned, I am also a prisoner." He is brought before the revolutionary tribunal; she accompanies him. The publick accuser observes that she has not been subpoenaed; her answer is: "Since my husband is summoned here, I must come also." He is at last sentenced to die; she steps with him into the bloody cart. The exe cutioner tells her she is not condemned: "Since my husband is condemned:" says she, "I am also." Without uttering another word, she was executed with her husband.* - If, in those horrid days, Hymen made every exertion in behalf of the unfortunate, it may be well conceived that Love, more impetuous, did not yield to him. The mistress of citizen Causs', a merchant in Toulouse, gave an instance of this. The revolutionary commission of that town had condemned him; it was dark when his sentence was pronounced; therefore the execution was delayed till the next day. His mistress having heard of the delay, resolved to take advantage of it to deliver him from the hands of the executioners. There was an uninhabited house adjoining the place where he was to spend the night. She, who, during his trial, had sold all her property, to procure money to lavish in his behalf, immediately purchases that house. Thither she runs with a trusty chambermaid. They perforate the wall adjoining the prison, and make an opening in it large enough for the escape of the captive whom they wish to release; but the neighbourhood being crowded with guards, how can their discovery of him be prevented? A military disguise, which this cautious friend has brought with her, conceals his escape. Dressed herself as a gend'armes, she leads him on through the sentries. They went thus through the town without being recognised, and passed by the very place where the instrument was preparing which was to cut off a head, that Love contrived in this manner to preserve. Love rescued also a young man of Bourdeaux, who had been thrown into one of the prisons of that town. This venerable Duke, the Marshal de Mouchy, was upwards of seventy years of age; his lady was nearly as old.-Editor. The pestilential air he breathed there, undermined his health; he was carried to the hospital. A young nurse was ordered to attend on him. To a handsome face he joined the advantages of birth and fortune. At first, his pleasing countenance interested her, and when he had acquainted her with all his misfortunes and forebodings, pity completed what tender sympathy began. She resolved to effect his escape. After imparting her design to him, without avowing her partiality, she advised him to feign as if he were in violent convulsions and expiring. The young man acted the part allotted to him. Sister Theresa, according to custom, spread the sheet over his head. The physician came at the usual hour; she told him the patient had just breathed his last; he went away, without suspecting her deception. At dark sister Theresa pretended that the corpse had been claimed, for the instruction of the young surgeons, and she had it brought to the hall for dissection. When he was there she gave him a suit of clothes, belonging to a surgeon who was in the secret; and in this disguise he escaped without notice. The fraud was not discovered till the next day. Sister Theresa was examined; and using no dissimulation, so awful was her candour, that she was spar ed. Meanwhile, she had inspired the young Bordelese with a passion still stronger than her own; he induced her to come to his retreat; and there, on his knees, he entreated her to embellish the days she had preserved, by consenting to be his wife; as may be readily conceived, she did not refuse; since she was receiving as much happiness as she conferred They went together to Spain, where they were married. Madame C......r could prove her love to Cit. Boyer only by dying with him. They were imprisoned together in Paris. One day Boyer was summoned before the tribunal, as a witness. His fellow prisoners thought they should not see him any more, and the looks of all were directed towards his mistress She seemed to be composed, and retired to write. One of her friends, suspecting that this apparent calm might conceal a daring design, watched her, and intercepted a letter which she had written to the publick accuser. By this letter he was informed of every feeling of her burning heart. Ma dame C.......r expressed in it her wishes for the restoration of royalty, which was the same as calling for death; she expected it. But as she received no answer, she was afraid her letter had been intercepted; she wrote another, and took every care that it might reach its destination. In the mean while the journals were kept out of her sight, because Boyer was on the list of those who had been executed. She said to her friends: I know he is no more, do not deceive me, I have courage. They at length confessed the truth. She re ceived this last blow with the great est fortitude, and retired again to her apartments: there she read over once more her lover's letters, of which she made a girdle round her waist, and spent the remainder of the night in lamenting him. On the next day, she dressed herself with great nicety, and while at breakfast with the other prisoners, she heard the bell ringing. “It is me whom they come to fetch," exclaimed she joyfully. "Farewell, my friends; I am happy, I am going to follow him." She then cut off her beautiful hair, and divided it among her friends. She gave a ring to one of them, a necklace to another, and after begging that they would sometimes look at these presents, she took her leave. She ran to the tribunal; she was asked if she was the author of the letter which she was called to account for: Yes, Monsters! I directed it to you; you have murdered my lover; strike me now; here is my head. When on the scaffold she exclaimed: here, he perish ed yesterday, at the same hour; I see his blood; come, executioner, and mix that of his lover's with it! After uttering these words, she tendered her neck to the bloody axe, repeating to her last moment the name she held so dear. Another woman distinguished herself, after the death of her lover, by an action of a different nature but no less affectionate. She had witnessed the execution of the unfortunate, on whom her affection was fixed. She followed his remains to the place where they were to be buried with those of several others. There she entices the cupidity of the gravedigger to obtain the head of a beloved victim, and tells him: "Eyes full of love, which death has just now extinguished, the finest hair in the world, youthful graces withered by sorrow; such is the picture of the one I want; 100 Louis d'or will be the reward of such a service." The head was promised. She came again alone and trembling, to receive it in a valuable veil. But nature was not so strong as love. Exhausted by such struggles, this fond lover fell down at the corner of Rue St. Florentin, and to the terrified eyes of beholders revealed her secret, and what she was carrying. She was sent before the tribunal, where the judges made a charge against her, of what ought to have excited their sympathy; and she went to the scaffold, in the consoling hope of finding in another world the object which had animated her with such a delirious passion! Fraternal affection inspired also sacrifices. The sister of a bookseller in Paris, of the name of Gatty, being present when her brother was condemned, exclaimed Vive le Roi! within the court itself. She wanted to die with him; but this sad satisfaction was denied her, and her execution was delayed till the next day. Mademoiselle Maille, confined in Rue de Sevres, sacrificed herself VOL. V. for her sister in law. She went to the yard with the other prisoners, to hear the names of the condenined called over; her name being pronounced, she steps forwards, but observes that the surname not belonging to her, must apply to another person. She is asked whether she knows who that person is? [it was her sister in law] she remains silent; she is ordered to disclose her retreat. "I do not wish for death," says she, " but I prefer it a thousand times to the shame of saving myself at the expense of another; I am ready to follow you.” After the surrender of Lyons five prisoners escaped from a dungeon called the Cave of Death; the sisters of young Porral facilitated their evasion. They gave a part of their fortune to obtain access to their brother, and through the greatest dangers visited him several times, and procured him the necessary implements: young Porral made use of them with as much success as boldness, and soon came with his four fellow prisoners, to thank his sisters, who assisted him to elude the search which his flight occasioned. [A very particular account of this evasion, with many others, some of them conducted with wonderful dexterity, was published at Lyons, after the reign of terrour had subsided. It shows to what fury revolutionary principles may be impelled.] Madame ELIZABETH could have avoided the dangers which threatened the Bourbons, by joining those of her brothers who emigrated from France; but she rather renounced all thought of herself than forsake the most unfortunate of them. She was executed soon after the king, with the placidity of mild innocence. When carrying to the scaffold, her neck handkerchief fell off; being thus exposed to the gaze of the crowd, she addressed to the execu tioner these memorable words: "In the name of decency cover my bo som." TO BE CONCLUDED IN NEXT NO. MEMOIRS OF THE LATE ALEXANDER ADAM, L. L. D. DR. ADAM, it appears, was born in 1741, the son of one of those little farmers who then abounded in Scotland, but are now swallowed up in the vortex of monopolists, or rather pluralists. His father, though poor, had the honest ambition, so creditable to Scotchmen, of giving his son a liberal education; and the son appeared no less ambitious of profiting by this paternal attention. Having gone through the routine of the Latin language, as it was then usually taught in a parochial school, Mr. Adam turned his steps towards Aberdeen, with the intention of contending for a Bursary, an exhibition of small value." Being, however, unsuccessful, he proceeded to Edinburgh, and here comes the economical anecdote, and which we shall give in his biographer's own words: His studies were continued with unremitting vigour, and his finances were so straitened, that in his anxiety to go forward to the grand object of his career, he even abridged his portion of the necessaries of life. He entered the Logick Class, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, 4th Nov. 1758, and about that time began to assist young Mr. Maconochie (now a lord of session, by the title of lord Meadowbank) in that capacity which is commonly styled a private teacher. For his services he received only one guinea in three months; yet, as he had no other method of raising a sixpence, he contrived to subsist upon this sum, and in a manner that will now appear incredible. He lodged in a small room at Restalrig, in the northeastern suburbs; and for this accommodation he paid four pence per week. All his meals, except dinner, uniformly consisted of oatmeal made into porridge, together with small beer, of which he only allowed himself half a bottie at a time. When he wished to dine, he purchased a penny loaf at the nearest baker's shop, and if the day was fair, he would despatch his meal in Dr. Adam's merits as a scholar, a teacher, a grammarian, and an author, were undoubtedly high; and, during the forty three years he held the rectorship, by his talents and assiduity he raised the school (es-. pecially the higher class, which it was his immediate province to teach), from a very low state to the zenith of prosperity; and he was enabled for many years to live and entertain his friends in a style of excellence, perhaps not inferiour to the learned lord, his former pupil. POETRY. [ORIGINAL.] The following beautiful ode from a correspondent, whose pen enriched a former number of the Select Reviews, was sent to us many months since. It was unfortunately mislaid; but being now recovered, is inserted without hesitation or delay.] [Ed. Sel. Rev. ODE TO PLEASURE. I. 1. WHENCE the touch, the magick thrill, That through my bosom glides and glowing frame? Quick glancing as the lightning's flame Scaths the proud oak or pine at Jove's high will, Waving on the frighted hill,' When, hid in clouds, the awful monarch stands, And rolls his angry thunders o'er the sky, Fading from my kindling eye, And startled at the power's commands, Pale care retires, amid the train That hid in brooding night remain: Her spell no longer now confines; A new born spirit wakes, a new-born radiance shines. I. 3. And lo! advancing on the plain, Appears a smiling, beauteous train, With tripping footstep slightly bounding To delighted musick sounding, And, as flushed the forms advance, On me they bend the favouring glance, Pointing to enchanted ground. Foremost pleasure moves along, And softly breathes her siren song; While giddy Mirth, with wreath fantastick crowned, Whom Bacchus taught of old, and With him in his viny shade, Unsuspecting hearts beguiling, II. 1. Hail ye guides on man who wait! For whom ye deigned to leave your native sky, And, while the fiends of death stood by, Snatched half the bitter from the cup |