GENERAL HISTORY. 



[113 



dispersing the seditious. He dis- 

 tributed cartridges to the regular 

 troops, and tlie national guard 

 requested leave to fight in the 

 same ranks. In the meantime 

 the prefect, Count de Montlivant, 

 dispatched a courier to Lyons, 

 who was for some time detained 

 near the town by a gi'oup of the 

 disaffected. At nine in the even- 

 ing, about 600 men, under the 

 command of one Giallet, a half- 

 pay lieutenant of artillery, ap- 

 peared before the gates of Gre- 

 noble, with the intention of at- 

 tempting a coup de main upon the 

 town. A patrole of 80 men of 

 the legion of the Isere, who had 

 been sent out by Gen. Donadieu, 

 were fired upon from various 

 quarters, while signal fires were 

 seen lighted up at different dis- 

 tances. The General now, having 

 ordered the inhabitants to ])lace 

 lights in their windows, and keep 

 within their houses, marched out 

 with his troops and a piece of 

 cannon, and meeting the ad- 

 vanced guard of the insurgents, 

 by some discharges of grape shot 

 drove them back, and a general 

 action ensued. The insurgents, 

 reckoned in one account at 1.500, 

 were soon put to fiight, leaving 

 on the field a number of killed 

 and wounded. In the pursuit, 

 many piisoners were taken, who 

 were brought to Grenoble on the 

 next morning, and thrown into 

 jjrison ; and thus was entirely 

 (juelled an incipient rebellion, 

 vyhich aj)pears to have been not 

 less rash and inconsiderate than 

 daring. 



About this period, but probably 

 without any paiticipation in the 

 same design, a body of malcon- 

 tents in Paris was brooding over 



Vol. LVIII. 



plots, the object of which is said, 

 in the account published in the 

 Moniteur, to have been " the re- 

 newal of the execrable system of 

 the year 1793-" According to 

 this narrative, they had circulated 

 among their brothers and friends 

 a printed proclamation, and a 

 certain number of stamped cards, 

 to serve for rallying tokens. In 

 order to excite confidence in their 

 projects, they availed themselves 

 of the most absurd and extraor- 

 dinary reports, which obtained 

 belief among the credulous, and 

 were beginning to act upon the 

 public mind, when the police, 

 which always kept these move- 

 ments under its eye, thought 

 proper to interfere. The printer 

 of the proclamation, the engraver 

 of the cards, and those who un- 

 dertook the work of distribution, 

 were simultaneously arrested, and 

 were delivered into the hands of 

 justice ; and the Moniteur af- 

 firmed, that it was an obscure 

 plot, the ramifications of which 

 had constantly been under the 

 power of the police, and had 

 never been of a nature to give 

 the slightest serious alarm to go- 

 vernment. That, however, the 

 machinations of disaffection had 

 extended more widely, and under 

 a more alarming aspect, than this 

 writer chooses to acknowledge, 

 may be inferred from a royal or- 

 dinance published on May .5th. 

 Its words are, " On the account 

 rendered to us, that a political 

 and secret society has assembled 

 for three months at Amiens, with- 

 out any obstacle having been in- 

 terposed thereto by the authori- 

 ties ; that our Attorney-general 

 before the Royal Court had even 

 consented to become a member 

 [I] of 



