1826. ] 
were chiefly women: men, who could bear the fa- 
tigue of standing during the sermon, occupied every 
space large enough for a pair of feet. 
_ The lessive—so the washing is called from the 
wood-ashes employed in it—was neglected; dirty 
shirts and sheets were too common to be complained 
of ; the men were obliged to cook their own dinners; 
children were grouped together by scores, under the 
care of some one contented or paid to stay at home. 
Then came the general confessions, which occupied 
some days; then one day for the communion of the 
male and another for that of the female penitents; 
lastly, the procession of the cross, which was to be 
set up asa perpetual memorial of the mission, and 
a mean of recalling w every one the good resolutions 
he had then made. 
An ill-carved crucifix, larger than life, borne on 
the shoulders of the devout, was followed by the 
missionaries and people singing cantiques, and was 
finally placed on the terrace near the great door of 
the cathedral, to which it gives the appearance of a 
place of public execution. 
~The missionaries turned many from the evil of 
their ways: some sumsof money were deposited in 
their hands, to be by them restored to those who 
had been robbed or defrauded of them ; these sums, 
so unexpeciedly recovered, were in general given to 
the poor. On leaving Avignon, they were accom- 
panied for several miles by the people, who, by way 
of taking leave, tore the cassock off the back of the 
chief missionary, and divided it into shreds, that all, 
or as many as possible of their zealous admirers, 
might have arelic. In this procédé there was a little 
too much of the fougue du midi, and the missionary by 
no means liked the process of popular canonization. 
How long the good effects of the mission may last 
is doubtful. It seems as if it were necessary that 
some strong excitement should exist, in order 
that religion should be present tothe mind. Holy 
men create this excitement to themselves by the aid 
of divine grace, and by a prayer, a powerful mode of 
self-persuasion: for the multitude, this excitement 
must be created for them. I was assured by a very 
worthy’ and experienced curé, who remained in 
France during the whole of the revolution, that in 
the reign of terror, when the churches were shut up, 
many followed the clergy into caverns and hiding 
places, who afterwards could not be persuaded to go 
to church. 
Adventures of « French Serjeant, during 
his Campaigns in Iialy, Spain, Germany, 
Russia, &c. from 1805 to 1823. ~Writien 
by Himself: 1826.—Though it is true, we 
ourselves know nothing of this French 
serjeant’s memoirs, but through the Bur- 
lington Street publication, we are not at 
all inclined to question their authenticity. 
They bear some indisputable marks of ve- 
racity—of being the production of one in 
the stirring, but subordinate station, which 
ie represents himself to have filled. We 
have no general views, nor any extended 
details of political or military events: he 
is full of self. Circumstances placed him 
at an immense distance from the centre of 
power, and he knows nothing, and can 
tell nothing but the effects with which he 
comes in immediate contact. These were 
sain. of them sufficiently extraordinary ; 
but they are described in a simple and un- 
assuming tone, and shew the writer intent 
u presenting what fell within his own 
ation, Active and spirited, as he 
Domestic and Foreign. 
203 
evidently was, and well-inclined to seize 
upon all opportunities of advancing his 
interests, his hopes were cruelly and con- 
tinvally mocked ; and at the end of eighteen 
years’ service he finds himself dismissed. 
The old soldiers have by degrees been su- 
perseded by those “ who knew not” Buo- 
naparte. Of the variety of incident con- 
tained in these memoirs the reader may 
judge by a summary of his career. The 
serjeant, Robert Guillemard, was a native 
of Sixfour, near Toulon; drawn as a con- 
script in 1805, at the age of twenty, and 
sent on board Admiral Villeneuve’s fleet. 
He was in the baitle of Trafalgar, and be- 
lieves himself to have been the person who 
shot Lord Nelson. Afier the action he 
became secretary to Villeneuve, accom- 
panied bim on his return to France, and 
saw him assassinated at Rennes. He was 
afterwerds brought into the presence of 
Buonaparie, and exemined by him re- 
specting the circumstances attending the 
admiral’s death. Ue was then sent to 
join the army in Germany, and was pre- 
sent at tbe siege of Siralsund. On his 
return to France he fought a duel at 
Lyons, in which he was severely wounded. 
After his recovery he was again marched 
to Germany, and was at the batile of Wa- 
gram. His next service was in Spain, 
where he was taken prisoner, and sent to 
the island of Cabrera, where many thou- 
sands of his countrymen were detained. 
After a detention of some months he 
escaped to the Spanish coast, joined the 
French army again, then besieging Tortosa, 
distinguished himself during the siege, was 
made a serjeant, and received the then 
much-valued cross of the Legion of Ho- 
nour. In 1812 he was again in Ger- 
many, and made the Russian campaign ; 
he was at the battle of Borodino, and 
created an officer on the spot by Buona- 
parte in person; but unluckily the yery 
same evening was wounded in a skirmish 
with the enemy, taken prisoner, and sent 
into Siberia. In Siberia he remained till 
1814, when he was allowed to revisit his 
country. At the time of Napoleon’s re- 
turn from Elba he was serving in the Duke 
D’Angouléme’s army in the South, and 
saw what is termed the massacre of the 
Protestants at Nismes. Soon afterwards 
he assisted Murat, King of Naples, in 
escaping from Toulon to Corsica, and ac- 
companied him on his fatal expedition to 
the coast of Calabria In 1823 Guille- 
mard was again in Spain, and shortly 
afterwards discharged. 
The most striking scene in the book is 
doubtless that of Cabrera. This is a bar- 
ren rock a few miles from the coast of 
Spain, about a league in length and very 
narrow, and the spot where the greater 
part of the French taken by the patriot 
Spaniards were sent. Guillemard had 
been intercepted by a guerilla party, and, 
with a score of other unfortunate fellows 
2p2 
