540 VICTOR DUCANGE. 



which we purpose giving an abstract raisonne, as a specimen of the 

 Vaudevittistcs) is a paper manufacturer, arid his probity, superior in- 

 telligence and usefulness, are happily contrasted with the idleness, 

 intrigue, and insignificant pretensions of a Marquis of the ancien 

 regime. Git-au-diable, the Baronial Castle of the latter, overlooks 

 a little settlement of industrious Huguonots in the distant vil- 

 lage of Ghyl au Bois, and a rapid sketch of its vicissitudes of pro- 

 prietorship, until it reaches the Marquis, lays open the miseries and 

 injustice resulting from the feudal system under every succeeding 

 reign. From the crusading barons, it passes into the hands of the 

 monks, from them it is transferred to the Huguonots, and then by the 

 revocation of the edict of Nantes, it is seized as a forfeiture to the 

 crown : at length Louis XV. bestows it on a poor but noble Limousin 

 gentleman, who is inveigled into a marriage with a young beauty of 

 his seraglio in the Pare au Cerfs. The count discovers his dishonour 

 at the moment his young bride is dying in childbirth, breaks the 

 sword that could not be his avenger, sends his commission and title 

 deeds to the Minister in disdain, and quits France for ever. 



After this overt act of rebellion, the house of Kerneseck, which traced 

 its origin to the remotest antiquity, became possessors of the castle and 

 domaine of Git-au-diable, and from them it descended in a right line 

 to Timothy, Marquis of Kerneseck. Hisbrothers, Martin and 

 Gregory, having previously been disposed of, by being thrust, the first 

 into the navy, and the second into a monastery, his two sisters take 

 the veil in the convent of St. Affrique, where the eldest dies in the 

 odour of sanctity from the consequences of a wonderful fast. Every 

 thing seems prosperous, when as ill luck would have it, the revolu- 

 tion breaks out, and the Marquis is induced by circumstances to 

 mount his horse and set off to join the Austrians at Coblentz. 



Meantime the property of the emigrants is confiscated the con- 

 vents are closed, the nuns are flying in every direction, and a depu- 

 tation of Sans Culottes from the Jacobins, seal up the gates of Git-au- 

 Diable, andvwrite on the little church adjoining 



" THE FRENCH PEOPLE RECOGNIZE THE SUPREME BEING AND THE 

 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL." 



" The Marquis Timothy did not return with the Austrians, but con- 

 tinued his route to Poland, where he found the festivities very agreeable. 

 Martin the sailor went out with the expedition of Rochambeau, to America; 

 Gregory the Monk abjured his faith at the bar of the Convention, married a 

 Carmelite nun, and enlisted as a dragoon in the revolutionary army, while 

 Andoche the nun (the younger sister) fled with her confessor into Piedmont. 

 The Castle of Git-au-Diable was by the revolutionary hammer, knocked down 

 to the sturdy paper manufacturer, Jean Phol, who converted it into a factory. 

 All the resources of art were put into requisition : the idle population of the 

 neighbouring village found employment, and the whole country became en- 

 riched by the industry of Jean Phol. Meantime the Emigre Marquis was 

 teaching his pure French to some dozen heavy Germans in Silesia. 

 Among the pupils who attended his lectures, from charity, was a fair young 

 pastry-cook, whom the Marquis reasoned himself into espousing, by the fol- 

 lowing soliloquy. : 



" ' Illustrious descendant of the victors of Tolbiac, you are no longer any 

 thing more than a poor devil, as beggarly, thin, and contemptible as your 



