e. 297 



to the Luxembourg, tried, and condemned to suffer in the morning of the 

 very day on which Tallier succeeded in overthrowing the usurper : but this 

 circumstance would not have saved my life, had not one of those mercies of 

 the Almighty which I have often experienced protracted my existence. Already 

 had ten or twelve of the unhappy victims, who were led out with me, passed 

 under the fatal axe, and I put in their place, with the blood of the sufferers 

 streaming on the scaffold before my eyes, when, as 1 lay expecting every 

 instant the fatal blow, I heard the executioners exclaim, with terrible oaths, 

 that the instrument of death was arrested in its descent by some derangement 

 of the slides. They were busily employed in setting it to rights when the 

 shouts of the populace announced from the gardens of the Tuileries the change 

 of affairs which had been for some time expected. The commandant of the 

 military force attending the execution immediately suspended the work of 

 death, and I was raised up, with the board still strapped to my body. A few 

 minutes explained the cause of my deliverance. The power of Robespierre 

 was no more. He perished shortly after by the axe which had so providen- 

 tially spared me and the rest of its intended victims under the horrible reign 

 of the blood-thirsty monster." 



After some further particulars of his adventures until the time of Napoleon, 

 the veteran concluded by asking pardon for having detained us so long. 

 Tears started from his eyes, and his face was suffused with emotion as I 

 explained to my friends in English the subject of the old gentleman's dis- 

 course, which neither they nor myself will ever forget. 



Evreux. Near this town, at the distance of about two miles, is the cM- 

 teau de Navarre, built by the Bouillen family, and celebrated in after times 

 as the scene of the revelries and amorous excesses of one of those monarchs 

 of France whose follies served to overthrow the Bourbon race and royalty 

 itself Louis XV. At a later period, it became the favourite residence of 

 the empress Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon. A delightful walk of 

 half an hour brought us to the park-gate of the palace, where we were readily 

 admitted by the porter residing in a neat lodge, the only part of the property 

 now inhabited. Time, which spares neither palaces nor cottages, had been 

 very busy with this seat of royalty ; and even the flight of steps leading to 

 the grand entrance shook as we trod on them. The knock which we gave 

 at the principal door resounded through the building, and brought forth an 

 old man, dressed in a working jacket, and who, it appeared, had been em- 

 ployed in sweeping the cobwebs from the princely furniture which it still 

 contains. On expressing our wish to see the interior of the palace, he bowed 

 politely, begged us to permit him to change his dress, and soon after appeared 

 in an old weather-beaten livery coat, an immense cocked hat, the universal 

 emblem of office in France, whether in the civil or military departments. 

 Taking off with much parade this important covering of the human form 

 divine, he bowed and said, ' Me voila, Messieurs, a votre service/ and 

 trudged on before into the grand hall surrounded by a lofty dome, on which 

 were some well- executed paintings in fresco. The hall was adorned with 

 exquisitely finished marble busts of the Roman emperors, by an Italian artist 



