CHA RIAC TE 
Without either passport or civic 
card, he contrived under the dis- 
guise of a provengal countrywo- 
man, with a white cap on his 
head, to steal through rhe barriers 
of Paris, and reached the-plains of 
Mont Rouge, in the district of 
Bourg-la-Reine; where he hoped 
to have found an asylum in the 
country-house of 2 gentleman with 
whom he had once been intimate. 
This friend having, unfortunately, 
atthe very time, gone to Paris, 
Condorcet was under the dreadtul 
necessity of wandering about in the 
fields and woods, for three successive 
days and nights, not venturing to 
enter any .inn, unprovided witha 
civic card, Exhausted by hunger, 
fatigue, and anguish, with a wound 
in his foot, he was scarcely able to 
drag himself into a deserted quarry, 
where he purposed to await the re- 
turn of his friend. At length, hav- 
ing advanced towards the road-side, 
Condorcet saw him approach, was 
recognized, and received with open 
arms :—but, as they both feared 
Jest Condorcet’s frequent inquiries 
at his friend’s house should have 
faised suspicions ; and as, at any 
Yate, it was not advisale for them 
to make their entrance together, 
in the day time, they agreed 
that Condorcet should stav in the 
fields till dusk, and then be let in 
by aback door. It was then, how- 
ever, that imprudence threw him 
off his guard. 
The forlorn exile,. 
“ 
after having patiently borne hunger . 
and thirst, for three days. together, 
without so much as ajproaching 
an inn, now finds himself incapa- 
ble of waiting a few hours longer, 
at the end of which all his suf- 
ferings were to subside in. the 
bosom of friendship, Transported 
with this happy prospect, and fore. 
RS. (341 
going all caution, which svemed 
to have become habitual to him, 
he entered an inn at Clamars, and 
called for an ommeilette.. His ate 
tire, his dirty cap and long beard, 
his pale meagre coantenance, and 
the ravenous appetite wich which: 
he devoured the victuals, could 
not fail to excite the curiosity and 
suspicion of the company. A mem- 
ber of the revolutionary committee 
who happened to be present, taking 
it for granted that his woe-begone 
figure couid be no other than some 
runaway from the Bicétre, ad- 
dressed and questioned him whence 
he canie, whether he could pro- 
duce a passport, &c. which in- 
quiries, Condorcet having lost all 
self-command, were so unsatisfac- 
torily answereil, that he was taken 
to the house of the committee 
as a suspected person, Thence, 
having undergone a second inter- 
rogatory, during which he acquit 
ted himself equally ill, he was con- 
duéted to Boerg-la-Reine ; and, as 
he gave very inconsistent answers 
to the questions put to him by the 
municipality, it was, inferred that 
this unknown person must have 
some very important reasons for 
wishing to continue undiscovered. 
Being sent to a temporary confine- 
ment till the matter should be 
clearcd up, on the next morning 
he was found senseiess’ on - the 
ground, without any marks of 
violence on his body ; whence it 
was conjectured that he must have 
poisoned himself. Ind-ed, Con. 
dorcet had, for.sometime past, 
carried about him the most deadly 
poison; and, not long betore his 
fatal. exit, he owned to a friend,- 
that he had more than twenty ‘times 
been tempted to make use of it, 
but was checked by motives of af. 
Z 3 fection 
