Memoir of Armand Carrel. 135 



Carrel, and had signally failed. After having been unable to bring 

 down the eagle, they could not stoop to aim at the falcons ; and the 

 other prisoners were thus discharged without a trial. 



Carrel on being dismissed from the prison of Toulouse found him- 

 self at once thrown almost friendless upon a world which had hitherto 

 been so unfriendly to him, and was in great perplexity what course 

 to pursue for his future support. His former profession of arms, as 

 far as it regarded the French service, was closed against him ; and the 

 revolution in Spain having been quashed, there was no other field 

 for the exertion of those military men, who like himself had retired 

 from the French army in disgust, excepting that afforded by joining 

 the standard of Ypsilanti in Greece, or of Bolivar in America. 

 Many of the old officer, who had been discharged from the army or 

 had voluntarily quitted on the downfal of their general, Napoleon, 

 had, finding themselves unable to convert their swords into plough- 

 shares after being so long inured to the excitement of war, entered 

 these services, and there found that cherished freedom and equality 

 which had prevailed under their emperor, but which now no longer cha- 

 racterized the regime of Louis XVIII. Carrel deeply sympathized 

 in these feelings and it is probable that he would have joined his 

 expatriated countrymen on one or other of these fields, had he not 

 been dissuaded from such a course by the advocate, who had assisted 

 him on his trial. This gentleman, (whose name was Isambert,) had 

 not failed to observe, that the young ex-officer possessed abilities of 

 too high an order to be thrown away in a camp. He therefore per- 

 suaded him to go to Paris, and gave him introductions to Lafitte and 

 some other of his friends in that city. On Carrel's arrival in Paris it 

 was first proposed to place him in a commercial house ; but this pro- 

 ject was given up in consequence of his predilections for the bar, 

 which again in its turn was abandoned, because it was found that 

 Carrel, though eminently qualified for it for he was as ready and 

 eloquent in speech as in his writings had not undergone the preli- 

 minary course of education which was necessary; and before he 

 could do so, several years must elapse, during which he would be 

 wholly unprovided for. He therefore resolved to give himself up to 

 literature; and with this view he became the secretary of Augustin 

 Thierry, the celebrated historian. This eminent and equally amiable 

 man, who had lost his sight from his devotion to study, derived great 

 assistance from Carrel, whom he employed upon his works. Ob- 

 serving the greatness of his talents and the goodness of his heart, 

 Thierry loved him as a friend, and Carrel in return revered him, 

 whom he fondly called his master, and who was the only person 

 whom he ever acknowledged by that name. He did not however 

 long remain in this situation, for he was too great a genius himself 

 to pass his time in writing to the dictates of another ; and some original 

 works, in which he was now engaged, rendered it necessary that he 

 should devote the whole of his time to their completion. These 

 works were a Summary of the History of Scotland and also of that 

 of Modern Greece, with contributions to the "Revue Francaise," a 

 publication of considerable merit, which contained the germs of those 

 opinions and that political spirit which afterwards appeared in the 



