of the defenders of the French monarchy. Now that the contest is over, both parties might derive from these books a wholesome lesson of political charity; and in all times, wherever they may be read, they will convince a wise and well regulated mind, that of all evils-of all miseries-of all curses which can befall a civilized country,--revolution is the greatest.
Victorine Donnissan, Marchioness de la Roche Jaquelein, was the only child of the Marquis de Donnissan, gentilhomme d'honneur to Monsieur, at present Louis XVIII. Her mother, daughter of the Duc de Civrac, was dame d'atours to Madame Victoire. Her parents being thus attached to the court, Victorine was born at Versailles, in 1772, and educated in the Chateau, where she remained till the royal family were dragged to Paris, in 1789. From her childhood she was designed to marry her first cousin, the Marquis de Lescure. Lescure's father was a gambler and a debauchee; and, as if his own ill example were not sufficient to corrupt this his only son, he chose for his tutor a man who was the confidant and companion of his debaucheries! and the father and tutor, when they had involved themselves in any difficulty by their profligate conduct, went to the son for advice and consolation! At the age of eighteen, Lescure was left with a debt of 800,000 francs, incurred by this dissolute parent: he was advised rather to renounce his inheritance than charge himself with the payment; a sense of honour forbade this; and in the course of six years he paid off three-fourths of the debt, and remained with a yearly revenue of 80,000 francs. The former state of embarrassment had occasioned the marriage-contract to be broken; it was renewed when his affairs were thus re-established. At the age of thirteen he had entered the Military School,and remained there three years. His person was good, but he was shy, awkward, and reserved: a deep sense of religion enabled him to restrain passions which were naturally strong; and the same religious feeling insulated him at court, and in the world in which he lived.-A silent man, of solitary and repulsive habits, he loved to dwell upon his own thoughts, and was attached, sometimes even with obstinacy, to his own opinions; but his disposition was gentle, and no circumstance ever disturbed his perfect equanimity. Such a character bears little resemblance to the fair ideal' of a maiden's imagination: Victorine, however, from long regarding him as her future husband, had learnt to appreciate the real excellencies of his nature, and esteem and love had grown together. Poitou was his native province; the greater part of that country was attached to the royal cause. and in the summer of 1791, when the revolution had taken a course which, unless it were violently opposed, could only end in the overthrow of the monarchy,a confederacy was formed there, whose