18 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 



Didot, of Paris. He likewise appeared as the translator of 

 some pieces from the Italian of Casti, author of the '■Animali 

 Parlanti.'' 



But, although these first effusions seem to have received 

 the decided approbation of the public, and to have passed 

 unhurt through the severe ordeal of literary criticism, his 

 friends did not advise him to continue his pursuit after fame 

 in this career. M. de la Madeleine had promised to obtain for 

 him the situation of librarian to the king ; and by Bernardin 

 de St. Pierre he was strongly recommended to direct his re- 

 searches into history, the latter always terminating their con- 

 versations together by advising him to write history, and refer- 

 ing him, as a model, to the ingenuous translation of the Lives 

 of Plutarch, by Amiot. 



In this apparently unobstructed way towards honours as 

 well as emoluments, M. Picot was however suddenly ar- 

 rested by the breaking out of the French revolution. M.-de 

 la Madeleine his fast friend and patron, being attached to the 

 royal cause, lost his influence, and with it all means of con- 

 tinuing any efficient favours to his protege. M. Picot then 

 returned to Rouen, and his opinions on the affairs of the 

 time, being, as with the great majority of the enlightened 

 population of France, in favour of a constitutional king, he 

 took in their defence an active part in the editorial columns 

 of the '■Journal de la Seine inferieure? He was, in conse- 

 quence, soon arraigned before a revolutionary tribunal, to 

 answer for some reflections contained in them, upon the 

 execution of the king — an event that had then just taken 

 place. These reflections, dictated by a noble and independent 

 mind, did not suit tlie captious liberalism of the horde of venal 

 politicians who had already commenced their abominable 

 excesses, and he was compelled to abandon Rouen, whence 

 he retired to his native village, on the eve of submitting to the 

 public, what appears to have been, in his own estimation, his 

 best claim to a literary renown — a tragedy in French verse, 

 entitled Leonidas. 



At this time, the horror which filled every bosom through- 

 out France, on hearing of the king's death, had inspired many 

 persons, particularly among the younger part of the commu- 

 nity, with a desire to avenge the honour of their country, by 



