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THE MAGDALEN CHURCHYARD.

He came to my apartments, where the same scene was repeated, but accompanied with more disagreeable circumstances. The table was laid, when the duke appeared, a general cry warned him, that nobody should be allowed to come near the table; as though the company had apprehended that he might poison. the food. The duke enraged, retired without having an audience; he attributed to us the insults offered him by the courtiers, swore a new and implacable hatred against us, and determined to exterminate us under the weight of a vengeance, the means of which were in his hands. He began to fulfil his oath on the 20th. of June, and accomplished it partly on the 21st. of January. Philip, prepare thy daggers, and sharpen the axe of the executioners; there are still some heads to chop, the son of Louis XVI. exists, and thou dost not reign!

AMONG the multiplicity of causes, which have preceded the revolution, said the queen, after reading the manuscript, which I have copied, such is the cause which struck me most forcibly. I understand perfectly, that the degree of fermentation excited by the theories of the encyclopedists and economists in the public minds, rendered it impossible, that the crisis, which was to effect the change, should not sooner or later arrive, and resolve the philosophical problems, which agitated every man. But without the acci dental concurrence of the king's indolence, of the rivalship existing between his brother and the duke of Orleans, without the levity, which induced me to treat slightly important affairs, and with importance the

least serious, the epoch of innovations would not only have been retarded, but it is probable, that it would not have been stigmatized by all the vilest and most ferocious passions, engendered in society by corruption, as putrid vapors exhaled from the mud of marshes. If royalty had been preserved, its train of abuses would have been curtailed, and its appendage of utility and beneficence would have been enlarged. The fundamental laws of state, without which it resembles an edifice without foundation and cement, would have been permanently fixed. The ministerial power, circumscribed within just limits, would have become the living and responsible action of the law. Without having recourse to an impost, which galls the people, without enriching the government, by degrees, the gaps of the deficit would have been filled. More moderation in the diplomatic system would have created fewer rivalships, and less frequent wars. Respected abroad, happy at home, France would have become the residence of talents, virtue, and felicity. Such is, if I mistake not, the sketch of the true republican regimen, which is nothing but universal humanity, gospel like fraternity,

diffused through the social order, which can exist even under a king, as Sparta and Rome have proved, but which could not exist without honour and virtue. Instead of this consoling picture, it is with mud and blood, that the hand of a fury, let loose against France, traces that, in which we are at once the actors, spectators, and victims. Tyranny, resembling that fatal tree, whose shade is death, has taken root in Paris amidst the ruins of a government, perhaps abusive, but easy to correct, it extends to the last acre of the French soil its murderous branches. Oh! treacherous blasphemy! this system of oppression is decorated with the title of republicanism; while the nation is in fetters, its people sing anthems in honour of liberty; the murderer stammers from his bloody lips the fraternal greeting, and the seducing name of equality is read on the frontispieces of the palaces of the despots of France! Excuse this wandering, pardon those exclamations; alas! the dying ought at least to be indulged with a groan! I resume the recital of the circumstances, which relate to me, or in which I acted a part since the death of Louis XVI.

Two commissioners of the communes were charged with the fatal tidings. One of them was this too famous Hebert, whom nature, by one of those contradictions, which it seldom exhibits, had endowed with a furious and bloody soul, concealed under the most agreeable countenance. My children and my sister stood around me, when he and his colleagues entered my apartment. Too certain of the fate of my husband, since the eve on which we received his last embrace, we had indulged our grief and tears. Yet the hearts of the tender Elizabeth and my children still cherished a ray of hope. No, sister, said Elizabeth, the sacrilegious hand of the executioner will never dare to lay its weight on my brother. They mean to give him a glimpse of the scaffold to convince him that kings are but men ; but they know, that this man, who was a king, is not guilty; they will restore him to the tenderness of his family, and I have a presentiment, that the dreadful situation, to which we are reduced, borders on the path of full consolation. Yes, our captivity will soon be at an end, and, if the grandeur of the throne does not succeed the infamy of this