"I request my sister to accept as a token of remembrance the copy of the Travels of Anacharsis, which M. de Fermont presented to me. I leave no testimony of gratitude to this worthy and respectable minister, unless it is the trouble of executing, as much as may be in his power, my last will. To hearts like his, such are the most welcome rewards.

"I give to Madame Richard my pocketbook, and. two drawings in black pencil contained in it. I am satisfied with her humane conduct; she has softened, by her attentions, the asperity of my situation, and. renders honourable in my eyes an avocation in life, which I had hitherto considered disgraceful.

"I give to Madame Harrel, who served me with zeal during my stay in the Conciergerie, my purse and six double louis d'or contained in it. I regret, that I cannot better reward her for her services.

"I ask the forgiveness of Messrs. Michonis, Toulan, Dangé, Jobert, Lepître, and others, municipal officers, and citizens, for the persecutions, which they have suffered for my sake. Since fate has put it out

of my power to reward their devotedness, let them find its noble reward in the heroism, which has inspired them.

"M. de Fermont will find, under the cover of this will, three ladies' portraits. They are those of Madame de Lamballe, de Mecklembourg, and de H****. I beg of him to give the first to M. de Penthièvre, and to send the others to my brother, his majesty, the emperor of Germany, who will return them to the ladies, who have presented them, as pledges of their attachment; this restitution will be the proof of mine.

"I sincerely forgive all those, who with, or without motives, have declared themselves my enemies and persecutors. I exhort the duke of Orleans no longer to abuse a power, which he knows to be usurp ed, but to shew it honour, and to merit a pardon by protecting the weakness of the innocent, and punishing the guilty.

"I conclude with a wish for the prosperity of France, and yielding myself up to Providence, which

I' supplicate charitable souls to address in their prayers

in my behalf.

(Signed)

"MARIA ANTOINETTE."

EXTRACT OF THE JOURNAL OF CITIZEN DESAULT, CHIEF SURGEON OF THE GREAT

HOSPICE OF HUMANITY.

(VOUCHER, No. .......................)

It was on the

day of the

year, that I re

ceived orders from the committee of government, and from the national convention, to repair to the place of their sitting to receive the communication of an im-portant object.

I found there about twenty five representatives, among whom I observed several, whose names are dear to the fine arts, to the sciences, and to the coun try.

They accosted me with a distinction much above my deserts. After a preamble, in which the president had the indulgence to recal to mind my successes, pledges, said he, and the reward of your zeal and

4

talents; he added, that he was about to intrust me with a mission, as interesting as it was delicate. It consisted in attempting to restore, to the son of Louis XVI. the use of his intellectual faculties, almost destroyed by a deplorable concurrence of fatal circum

stances..

The dark policy of the government, destroyed on the 9th. Thermidor, had condemned, not only to the most rigorous captivity, but even to the errors of a corrupted education, this unfortunate child. The barbarian, decorated with the title of his preceptor, exercised his functions by debasing the soul and demoralizing the heart of his pupil. Not satisfied with this moral depravity, he effectually ruined his constitution, and overwhelmed him with those calamities, which eventually produce a physical dissolution.

Such was in fact the result of those diabolical combinations. In a body emaciated by constant sufferings, young Charles concealed a soul deprived of energy, incapable of rising again to the dignity of man, and completely moulded to the meanness of slavery. Those were not the sentiments, which he had receiv

ed from his mother; she had in a manner tempered with pride, and nourished with lofty sentiments, the heart of her son, whose principles and opinions, she had animated with a spring, which characterized her. All the efforts of the cobler, Simon, a vile instrument in the hands of the lieutenants of tyranny, had been united to annihilate, if possible, the elasticity of this spring, which those abject and despotic souls apprehended in future. But already the character of young Charles, developed by the warmth of a premature constitution, was incapable of bending; they resolved to break it; the child fell from the loftiness of the most sublime sentiments into the most deplorable degradation. They feared, that he would act as a king, and reduced him below the common level of

man.

The torments of his executioners gave him no respite. One of the first cares of the regenerated government was to attend to the delivery of the victims of the former power. Some of the representatives of the people, having visited the prisoners of the Temple, were as much frightened as moved at their hor