ESCAPE FROM THE GUILLOTINE. 313 



to succour. In vain I remonstrated she was inflexible. She de- 

 layed her departure to the last moment, to render her appearance as 

 striking as possible. Probably she thought the power of beauty 

 might effect that which justice might plead for in vain. If so, never 

 was beauty applied to nobler purpose. I could not witness the ex- 

 hibition, and therefore remained at home, in an agony of apprehension 

 for the result. 



Whether the beauty and eloquence of this fair creature softened 

 the hearts of the miscreants who presided at that dreadful tribunal I 

 know not, but she was successful. The sentence of death which 

 Canoe (who formed one of the members of this tribunal) endeavoured 

 to have decreed against our relative, was commuted to banishment 

 for life, with three months imprisonment as a kind of preparation. 



Morning after morning passed, and regularly as the hour of ten 

 came round did it find my sister at the prison gate an applicant for 

 admission, bearing such luxuries as his prison fare did not afford; 

 and it is with a shudder of horror that I recall to my mind when 

 accompanying her, the sight of blood, warm perhaps from the heart 

 of some victims to private revenge, streaming down the gutter which 

 conveyed it to the Saone. 



It was during the performance of one of these morning duties 

 that we remarked a lady, whom we had known a few months before 

 as the leading star of fashions in Lyons, now walking alone to convey 

 to her husband such consolation as the sight of her would afford. 

 She, as is ever the case, early became surrounded by a crowd of 

 admirers, all envying the look which accidentally she might cast 

 upon any one in particular. Of all these none had so distinguished 



himself in her eyes (as he thought) as N , and he industriously 



circulated rumours that he would shortly receive the hand in mar- 

 rage, which was the object of general rivalry ; and even the day was 

 named when all doubts would be set at rest. Fortune, however, de- 

 creed otherwise, and threw in the way a young man whose accom- 

 plishments appeared in her eyes to outweigh the pretensions of a 1 !! 

 others. His noble countenance interested her his elegant figure 

 captivated her and a few weeks saw the charming the universally 

 admired Annette become the bride of Romeo de Pouilli. Truly 

 might he say with Caesar, Veni, vidi, vici. " I came, I saw, I con- 

 quered." 



The deaths this event occasioned must be acknowledged were but 



few, but the disappointment, I may say, general ; and as N had 



at one time possessed the happiness through the prospect of winning 

 the prize, saw now that all hopes were perished, his share of disap- 

 pointments were the largest; and although time seemed to have 

 washed from his mind the memory of his blighted prospects, still to 

 the veteran physiognomist traces were discernable in his features of 

 deep and bitter enmity to his successful rival. 



Time had passed with this happy pair in a continual round of 

 pleasure until the event took place, which consigned so many of the 



elite of France to the scaffold. De Pouilli and N were both of 



the royalist creed ; but N adopted the revolutionary principles 



to wreak his vengeance on the man, who, as he said, had robbed him 



M.M. 'No. 93. 2 S 



