Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Several poor women of the neighbourhood ran and took a child each, and some two from them. Upon this the poor creatures shrieked, and tore her hair worse than before. Oh, my dear, my love, my darling babe! am I never to see your dear face again! Heavens protect my poor dear little love !' Such heart-piercing cries were sure, never, before heard, yet these could not soften the hell-hounds that conducted them.

"Many of those women were far advanced with child. All were taken into the boats, a part were immediately dispatched, and the rest put on board the Dutch sloop the next day. When the day arrived," continued this witness, "though we were all panic-struck, many had courage to ask for a child each from those that were left alive: but the hard-hearted villain Fonquet refused, pretending his orders were changed,—and all that remained on board the sloop were drowned."

"I attest," says Mrs. Laillet, another witness, "that I have seen numbers of bodies of women lying by the side of the river Loire, thrown up by the tide; I have seen heaps of human bodies gnawed and partly devoured by the dogs and birds of prey; which latter were continually hovering over the city, and particularly near the water-side; I have seen numbers of carcases in the bottoms of the lighters, partly covered with water.”

Captain Banlet, a witness, says, "that one day, on weighing anchor, he saw four or five hundred dead bodies raised by the cable, and adds that there was one hundred and thirteen women confined at Marabeau, who disappeared all at once."

In another French work of authority, entitled "Les Nouvelles à la Maine, Messidor," I take the following extracts. They present to the reader several accounts of drowning, and a most inhuman degradation of the massacred,-Republican marriages," as these villains called them :

66

[ocr errors]

"I was present at a drowning," says the witness Tabonet, " on board a lighter, conducted by Affilé. Come on, my lads,' said he, to the island of topsy-turvy.' Before we got out to the sinking place, I heard the prisoners make the most terrible lamentations. Save us! oh, for pity's sake, save us!' cried they there is yet time, oh! pray, pray, save us! Some had their hands untied, and they ran them through the railing, crying, 'Mercy, mercy!" It was then I saw the villain Grandmaison chop off their hands and arms with his sabre. Ten minutes after I heard the carpenters, placed in the little boat, hammering at the sides of the lighter, and directly down it went to the bottom."

Laurency, another witness, attests, "that he saw at one time three hundred men in the water. They were all naked, and had their hands tied behind them. I saw too," adds this witness," several naked girls on board a barge in the river, I also saw two of them beheaded by a young lad with his sabre, while he sung the Carmagnonel.

"I saw," says the witness Girault, who was one of the leaders of the Sans Culottes," about three or four hundred persons drowned. There were women of all ages among them, some big with child, and of these several were delivered in the very lighters, aniong water and mud. The most shocking circumstance was their groans, their heart-piercing shrieks, which excited no compassion from the villains that conducted them. They with the fruit of their conjugal love, went to the bottom together."

We now come to our last quotation from these works,-the most cruel and immodest :—“ I must now," says the last quoted witness, “speak of a new

sort of cruelty. The young men and women were picked out from among the mass of sufferers, stripped naked, and tied together face to face. After being kept in this situation about an hour, they were put into an open lighter, and, after receiving several blows on the skull with the butt end of a musket, thrown into the water. These were called "Republican marriages."

"THE FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE."

The following anecdote of George the Fourth should be recorded by al the journals of the empire: it is worthy the humane and generous sovereign of a humane and generous people.

A representation having been made to his majesty, that two men, (namely, William Nadin and William Daubney,) sentenced at the assizes for Nottingham to be transported for life, were innocent of the offence with which they had been charged, and had been mistaken for other characters, a gentleman holding a high official situation, was directed immediately to go on board the vessel in which the men were embarked, and which was waiting only for a fair wind to set sail for New South Wales, and make the necessary inquiries of the individuals themselves. The result, we are happy to say, proved so far satisfactory, that his majesty was induced, without a moment's delay, to grant them a free pardon. The governor, in announcing the pleasing intelligence to the men, told them that he had orders to give them a certificate of their good conduct, which had been such as to entitle them to every indulgence. He also presented each of them with a pair of handsome trowsers, being the only article of dress they appeared to stand in need of. The clergyman on board the vessel, as a proof of his good opinion, likewise made them a handsome present. After bidding adieu to their late unhappy companions, the men proceeded to take a respectful leave of the governor, and to thank him for the many kindnesses they had received at his hands, when he informed them that he had a present to make them from their kind-hearted sovereign, and to their delight and astonishment presented each of them with three one-pound notes to defray their expenses home. With streaming eyes and grateful hearts they received this unlooked-for favour, and when their feelings permitted them to speak, they both at the same moment exclaimed, mighty God bless King George the Fourth!" They arrived in Nottingham on Saturday, and after seeing their friends, waited on the worthy mayor, to thank him for his kindness and humanity towards them.

SURPRISING ESCAPE OF KING CHARLES II., IN HOLLAND. The king, when at Brussels, being desirous and resolved to see his sister the Princess of Orange, but withal under the necessity to make the journey with the utmost secresy, did communicate it to no person whatever. He ordered Fleming, a servant of the Earl of. Wigton, (who was in his service, and of whose fidelity he neither then nor ever after did doubt,) secretly to provide a good couple of horses, and have them ready at a certain place and time of the next ensuing night by his Majesty appointed; that Fleming with these horses should remain alone till he heard from the king. At the time appointed the king (having gone to bed, and afterwards dressed himself, and privately gone out at a back door, and leaving only a letter to some one of his

servants in whom he confided, and with directions to keep his absence as secret as possible, under pretence of being indisposed) came to the place, where he found Fleming with the horses, as he had directed. He then acquainted Fleming of his design to see his sister at the Hague, and not regarding the hazards he might be exposed to, away he went with this slender equipage and attendance, travelling through the most secret bye-ways, and contriving it so that he came to the Hague by six in the morning, and alighted at a scrub inn in a remote part of the town, where he was confident none would know him, under the disguise he was then in. He immediately sent Fleming to acquaint his sister where he was, and to leave it to her to contrive the way and manner of his having access to her, so as not to be known. Fleming having dispatched his commission in a very short time (in less than an hour) was no sooner returned to the king (whom he found in the room where he had left him, and where he had been still alone) than an unknown person came and asked of the landlord if two Frenchmen had not alighted at his house that morning. The landlord replied, that indeed two men had come, but of what country he knew not. The stranger desired him to tell them that he wanted to speak with them: which he having done, the king was much surprised, but withal inclined to see the person. Fleming opposed it, but the king being positive, the person was introduced, being an old reverend-like man, with a long grey beard, and ordinary grey clothes, who looking and speaking to the king, told him he was the person he wanted to speak to, and that all alone on matters of importance. The king believing it might be perhaps a return from his sister, or being curious to know the result of such an adventure, desired Fleming to withdraw, which he refused, till the king taking him aside and told him there could be no hazard from such an old man, for whom he was too much, and commanded him to retire. They were no sooner alone, than the stranger bolted the door, (which brought the king to think on what might or would happen) and at the same time falling down on his knees, pulled off his very nice and artificial mask, and discovered himself to be Mr. Downing (afterwards well known by the name of Sir George, and ambassador from the king to the States after his restoration) then envoy or ambassador from Cromwell to the States, being the son of one Downing, an Independent minister, who attended some of the Parliament-men who were once sent to Scotland to treat with the Scots to join against the king, and was a very active virulent enemy to the royal family, as appears from Lord Clarendon's History. The king was a little surprised at the discovery, but Downing gave him no time for reflection, having immediately spoke to him in the following manner :-that he hoped his Majesty would pardon him for any share he had acted, during the rebellion, against his royal interest, and assured him, that though he was just now in the service of the usurper, he wished his Majesty as well as any of his subjects, and would, when an occasion offered, venture all for his service, and was hopeful what he was about to say would convince his Majesty of his sincerity. But before he mentioned the cause of his coming to him, he must insist that his Majesty would solemnly promise not to mention what had happened, either to Fleming or any othe person whatsoever, till it pleased God to restore his Majesty to his crown, when he said he should not desire it to be concealed; though even then he must have his Majesty's promise not to ask him, or expect he should discover, how or when he came to know of his being there. The king having solemnly promised, and engaged on the terms required, Downing proceeded

and told him, That his master, the usurper, being now at peace with the Dutch, and the States so dependant and obsequious to him that they refused nothing he desired, had, with the greatest secresy, in order to make it more effectual, entered into a treaty, by which, among other trifling matters agreed to hic indé,' the chief and indeed main end of the negociation was, that the States stood engaged to seize and deliver up to the usurper the person of his Majesty, should he at any time happen by chance or design to come within their territories, when required thereto by any in his name; and that this treaty having been signed by the States, was sent to London, from whence it had returned, but yesterday morning, and totally finished yesterday night, betwixt him and a secret committee of the States. He represented Cromwell's intelligence to be so good, that a discovery would be made even to himself (Downing) of his Majesty's being there; and if he neglected to apply to have him seized, his master would resent it to the highest, which would infallibly cost him his head, and deprive his Majesty of a faithful servant. And being desirous to prevent the miserable consequences of what would follow, if his being there were discovered, he resolved to communicate the danger he was in, and for fear of a discovery he had disguised himself, being resolved to trust no person with the secret. He then proposed that his Majesty should immediately mount his horses, and make all the dispatch imaginable out of the territories of the States; that he himself would return home, and under pretence of sickness lie longer a-bed than usual, and that when he thought his Majesty was so far off, as to be out of danger to be overtaken, he would go to the States and acquaint them, that he understood his Majesty was in town, and require his being seized on the terms of the late treaty; that he knew they would comply and send to the place directed; but on finding his Majesty was gone so far off as to be safe, he would propose to make no further noise about it, lest it should discover the treaty, and prevent his Majesty afterwards falling into their hands. The king immediately followed his advice, and he returning home, every thing was acted and happened as he had foretold. The king, having thus escaped this imminent danger, most religiously performed what he had promised, never mentioning any part of this history till after his restoration, and not then desiring to know how Downing's intelligence came, (which he never discovered) though the king often said it was a mystery. For no person knew of his design till he was on horseback, and that he could not think Fleming went and discovered him to Downing; beside he so soon returned from his sister he could not have time; Downing having come much about the time Fleming returned.

This story was told by several who frequented King Charles's court, particularly by the Earl of Cromartie, who said, the next year after the restoration, he with the Duke of Rothes and several other Scots of quality, being one night with the king over a bottle, they all complained of an impertinent speech Downing had made in parliament, reflecting on the Scots nation; which they thought his Majesty should resent so as to discard him from court, and withdraw his favours from him. The king replied, he did not approve of what he had said, and would reprove him for it; but to go farther he could not do well, because of this story, which he repeated in the terms here narrated, which made such an impression on all present, that they freely forgave what had past, and Rothes asked liberty to begin his health in a bumper.

AFFECTING HISTORY OF TWO SISTERS.

About the close of those troublesome times, when England was shook by the feuds between the houses of York and Lancaster, there resided, in a village near the banks of the Medway, a gentleman, whose name was Geoffry de Saint Clair, descended from a family of great repute. The many lances, and pieces of armour, that hung around the old hall, did not render it more respectable than the unbounded benevolence of its possessor.

Saint Clair had allied himself in marriage with the Lady Margaret de Boys, a woman of high birth, whose accomplishments might have embellished the greatest scenes, had not a love of domestic life, and a religious turn of mind, induced her to prefer retirement. All the leisure hours, which her family did not call for, were spent in duties, which, in that age, ladies of the noblest rank exercised, without thinking they demeaned their stations;-she relieved the indigent,-advised with the unfortunate,-visited the sick,—and brought up her twin daughters, Frances and Isabella, in the same sentiments. As these young ladies were the sole issue of Saint Clair and Lady Margaret, they devoted their whole attention to their education; and had the comfort to find in their minds so rich a soil that every thing prospered which was planted in them.

When Frances and Isabella arrived at the age of twenty-five, they won the admiration of all who approached them, and had, from similitude of manners, contracted such a warm affection for each other, that it seemed as if Nature, by forming them together in the womb, had prepared them for those effusions of elevated friendship, which the loss of their exemplary mother was one day to call forth.-Nor was this event very remote; Lady Margaret was seized with a sudden illness, which, in a few days, desolated one of the happiest families in the world.

Frances and Isabella had the weight of a father's sorrow added to their own; which compelled them to smother their feelings, great as they were, and to assume a fortitude their hearts disavowed.

Though Saint Clair called in the aid of all his philosophy, to support himself under the loss of his beloved lady, yet his silent fortitude had so visible an effect on his health, as to menace his life; and, in about a year, put an end to it.

In this mournful interval, the greatest comfort his dejected daughters received was from the frequent visits of their uncle, John de Saint Clair, Abbot of the monastery of St. Augustin, in Canterbury. He was the younger brother of Geoffry, and was reputed to be a man of so much learning and virtue, that St. Clair, by his will, recommended his children to his care and protection, bequeathing to each of them a very large inheritance.

The manner in which Frances had been brought up, added to her natural turn of mind, determined her to a religious life; and a great convent of Benedictine nuns, not very distant from Feversham, happening, a few months after, to lose their principal (who was always one of a considerable family), the Abbot of St. Augustin, perceiving her fixed in her scheme of life, procured her to be named lady Abbess of it.

Isabella, who had never as yet been separated from her sister, would, on this occasion, most willingly have taken the veil; and it was with great difficulty, that, by the repeated solicitations of Frances and her uncle, she was prevailed on entirely to relinquish her scheme of a monastic life. She resided for some time in her father's mansion, accompanied by a widowed

« ПредишнаНапред »