IOC A MARVELLOUS DELIVER ANTE. 



Bordeaux. The wish was readily complied with. 

 and the insect was conveyed to MM. Bory de St. 

 Vincent and Dargelas. Latreille's eminence as an 

 entomologist was already known to these gentle- 

 men, and, being thus made acquainted with his 

 perilous situation, they immediately exerted them- 

 selves to obtain, if possible, his liberation, in which 

 they ultimately succeeded. One trembles to think 

 that a month later he must in all probability have 

 shared the fate of his fellow-prisoners, who were 

 shipped as convicts for Cayenne, and the vessel 

 which conveyed them foundered in the Bay of 

 Biscay, when every soul on board perished. The 

 deliverance was truly marvellous, if we refer to its 

 cause the accidental discovery of an insect. It 

 has been said by one of our great divines,* that " a 

 fly with God's message could choke a king ;" and 

 a little insignificant beetle thus saved Latreille. 

 How obscure the means God often employs, and 

 how apparently inadequate the instruments He 

 uses, to effect His wondrous purposes I It is as 

 though He said, in language not to be mistaken, 

 " I kill, and I make alive." 



After Latreille's release he relinquished his views 

 of entering the Church, and devoted himself en- 

 tirely to his favourite study. In 1797 he was again 

 proscribed as an emigre ; but the favour of his fel- 



* Jeremy Taylor. 



