dragged to the block, and beheaded in the great court of the palace: their heads were stuck upon spears, and led the procession: whilst the royal captives, who followed in the train, were slowly moved along, amidst the horrid yells, and shrilling screams, and frantic dances, and infamous contumelies, and all the unutterable abominations of the furies of hell, in the abused shape of the vilest of women. After they had been made to taste, drop by drop, more than the bitterness of death, in the slow torture of a journey of twelve miles, protracted to six hours, they were, under a guard composed of those very soldiers who had thus conducted them through this famous triumph, lodged in one of the old palaces of Paris, now converted into a bastile for kings.

Is this a triumph to be consecrated at altars? to be commemorated with grateful thanksgiving? to be offered to the divine humanity with fervent prayer and enthusiastic ejaculation?-These Thebau and Thracian orgies, acted in France, and applauded only in the Old Jewry, I assure you, kindle prophetic enthusiasm in the minds but of very few people in this kingdom; although a saint and apostle, who may have revelations of his own, and who has so completely vanquished all the mean superstitions of the heart, may incline to think it pious and decorous to compare it with the entrance into the world of the Prince of Peace, proclaimed in a holy temple by a venerable sage, and not long before not worse announced by the voice of angels to the quiet innocence of shepherds.

At first I was at a loss to account for this fit of unguarded transport. I knew, indeed, that the

sufferings of monarchs make a delicious repast to some sort of palates. There were reflections which might serve to keep this appetite within some bounds of temperance. But when I took one circumstance into my consideration, I was obliged to confess, that much allowance ought to be made for the society, and that the temptation was too strong for common discretion; I mean the circumstance of the Io Paan of the triumph, the animating cry which called "for all the bishops to be hanged on the lamp-posts,"* might well have brought forth a burst of enthusiasm on the foreseen consequences of this happy day. I allow to so much enthusiasm some little deviation from prudence. I allow this prophet to break forth into hymns of joy and thanksgiving on an event which appears like the precursor of the millennium, and the projected fifth monarchy, in the destruction of all church establishments. There was, however, (as in all human affairs there is) in the midst of this joy something to exercise the patience of these worthy gentlemen, and to try the long-suffering of their faith.-The actual murder of the king and queen, and their child, was wanting to the other auspicious circumstauces of this "beautiful day." The actual murder of the bishops, though called for by so many holy ejaculations, was also wanting. A group of regicide and sacrilegious slaughter, was, indeed, boldly sketched; but it was only sketched: it unhappily was left unfinished in this great historypiece of the massacre of innocents. What hardy pencil of a great master, from the school of the

Tous les evêques à la lanterne.

rights of men, will finish it, is to be seen hereafter. The age has not yet the complete benefit of that diffusion of knowledge that has undermined superstition and error; and the king of France wants another object or two, to consign to oblivion, in consideration of all the good which is to arise from his own sufferings, and the patriotic crimes of an enlightened age.*

It is proper here to refer to a letter written upon this subject by an eye-witness. That eye-witness was one of the most honest, intelligent, and eloquent members of the National Assembly, one of the most active and zealous reformers of the state. He was obliged to secede from the assembly; and he afterwards became a voluntary exile, on account of the horrors of this pious triumph, and the dispositions of men, who, profiting of crimes, if not causing them, have taken the lead in public affairs.

Extract of M. de Lally Tollendal's second Letter to a Friend.

"Parlons du parti que j'ai pris; il est bien justifié dans ma conscience.-Ni cette ville coupable, ni cette assemblée plus coupable encore, ne meritoient que je me justifie; mais j'ai à cœur que vous, et les personnes qui pensent comme vous, ne me condamnent pas.-Ma santé, je vous jure, me rendoit mes fonctions impossibles; mais même en les mettant de coté, il a été au-dessus de mes forces de supporter plus long-tems l'horreur que me causoit ce sang, -ces têtes, cette reine presque egorgée,-ce roi amené esclave, entrant à Paris, au milieu de ses assassins, et precédé des têtes de ses malheureux gardes.-Ces perfides janissaires, ces assassins, ces femmes cannibales, ce cri de Tous les evêques à la lanterne, dans le moment où le roi entre sa capitale avec deux evêques de son conseil dans sa voiture Un coup de fusil, que j'ai vu tirer dans un des carosses de la reine-M. Bailey appellant cela un beau jour-L'assemblée ayant declaré froidement le matin, qu'il n'étoit pas de sa dignité d'aller toute entière environner le

Although this work of our new light and knowledge did not go to the length that in all probability it was intended it should be carried; yet I must

roi-M. Mirabeau disant impunément dans cette assemblée, que le vaisseau de l'état, loin d'être arrêté dans sa course, s'elanceroit avec plus de rapidité que jamais vers sa regeneration-M. Barnave, riant avec lui, quand des flots de sang couloient autour de nous-Le vertueux Mounier⚫ echappant par miracle à vingt assassins, qui avoient voulu faire de sa tête une trophée de plus.

"Voilà ce qui me fit jurer de ne plus mettre le pied dans cette caverne d'Antropophages (the National Assembly,) où je n'avois plus de force d'elever la voix, où depuis six semeines je l'avois elevée en vain. Moi, Mounier, et tous les honnêtes gens, ont sentis que le dernier effort à faire pour le bien étoit d'en sortir. Aucune idée de crainte ne s'est approchée de moi. Je rougirois de m'en defendre. J'avois encore reçu sur la route, de la part de ce peuple, moins coupable que ceux qui l'ont enivré de fureur, des acclamations, et des applaudissemens, dont d'autres auroient été flattés, et qui m'ont fait fremir. C'est à l'indignation, c'est à l'horreur, c'est aux convulsions physiques, que le seul aspect du sang me fait eprouver que j'ai cedé. On brave une seule mort; on la brave plusieurs fois, quand elle peut être utile. Mais aucune puissance sous le ciel, mais aucune opinion publique ou privée, n'ont le droit de me condamner à souffrir inutilement mille supplices par minute, et à perir de desespoir, de rage, au milieu des triomphes du crime que je n'ai pu arrêter. Ils me proscriront, ils confisqueront mes biens. Je labourerai la terre, et je ne les verrai plus.Voilà ma justification. Vous pouvez la lire, la montrer, la laisser copier; tant pis pour ceux qui ne la comprendront pas; ce ne sera alors moi qui auroit eut tort de la leur donner."

N. B. Mr. Mounier was then speaker of the National Assembly. He has since been obliged to live in exile, though one of the firmest assertors of liberty.

think that such treatment of any human creatures must be shocking to any but those who are made for accomplishing revolutions. But I cannot stop. here. Influenced by the inborn feelings of my nature, and not being illuminated by a single ray of this new-sprung modern light, I confess to you, sir, that the exalted rank of the persons suffering, and particularly the sex, the beauty, and the amiable qualities of the descendant of so many kings and emperors, with the tender age of royal infants, inseusible only through infancy and innocence, of the cruel outrages to which their parents were exposed, instead of being a subject of exultation, adds not a little to my sensibility on that most melancholy occasion.

I hear that the august person, who was the principal object of our preacher's triumph, though he supported himself, felt much on that shameful occasion. As a man, it became him to feel for his wife and his children, and the faithful guards of his person that were massacred in cold blood about him; as a prince, it became him to feel for the strange and frightful transformation of his civilized subjects, and to be more grieved for them than solicitous for himself. It derogates little from his fortitude, while it adds infinitely to the honour of his humanity. I am very sorry to say it, very sorry indeed, that such personages are in a situation in which it is not unbecoming to praise the virtues of the great.

This military man had not so good nerves as the peaceable gentleman of the Old Jewry.-See Mons. Mounier's narrative of these transactions; a man also of honour, and virtue, and talents, and, therefore, a fugitive.