BLANCHE DE BEAULIEU. 247 
make any one pause before he differed from it ; but were mere names 
to be taken as evidence in scientific inquiries, all improvements would 
fast be at an end. The only legitimate way of interrogating nature 
is by observation and experiment, and facts fairly deduced from these 
are of more value than theories the most beautiful, no matter by 
whose name they are supported. 
BLANCHE DE BEAULIEU ; 
A TALE OF THE REVOLUTION. 
TAKEN FROM THE FRENCH OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS. 
On the evening of the 15th of December; 1793, a strange and 
fearful spectacle presented itself from the hill which, on the road 
from Clisson,* overlooks the valley where the village of St. Crepin 
lies almost hidden among the trees. At first the eye could discover 
only, in the dim twilight, three or four columns of thick smoke, 
which, separated at their base, united into one dense mass as they 
rose, lazily waving in the heavy atmosphere ; then rolling away, 
mixed with the low and foggy clouds. Gradually the dark vapour 
became more lurid; and at length, bursting from the roofs of the 
houses, the long forked flames usurped its place with a crackling 
sound ; now, creeping stealthily along; then, darting spirally up- 
wards, piercing the thick mist which hung over them like a mantle. 
From time to time, as a roof fel] in, a more vivid blaze arose, which, 
mingled with a thousand sparks, disclosed to view a company of 
soldiers, whose occasional shouts and bursts of merriment contrasted 
strangely with the awful scene before them. It was a republican 
brigade of fourteen or fifteen hundred men; who, having found 
the village deserted, had wantonly set it on fire. 
One detached cottage, however, was not yet burning. Every 
precaution seemed to have been taken to prevent the flames from 
reaching it. Two sentinels stood at the door, and occasionally an 
officer or aide-de-camp passed in, and returned to transmit orders to 
* Clisson, a small town in Bretagne, near Nantes. 
