A DISCOVERY ! 175 



had long cultivated it at Valenciennes, and had 

 given some of the plants to a medical botanist at 

 Cambray. Having received intelligence from this 

 friend that these offshoots from his treasured 

 shrub were flourishing, in a letter addressed to him, 

 he made use of this expression : " Comment vont 

 nos chers Rhus ? Qu'il me tard de les voir !" This 

 letter, written by an homme suspect, was intercepted 

 and read before the Revolutionary Committee. 

 Here was a discovery for these patriotic citizens ! 

 The Empress of Russia was about to join the allied 

 forces, and Dufresnoy, with his aristocratic ten- 

 dencies, was in intelligence with that sovereign ; 

 for they are doubtless the Bussians whom he is so 

 impatient to see ; the thing is clearly proved ! 



Immediately an order of arrest was made out, 

 and the traitorous physician brought up before the 

 Revolutionary tribunal of Arras, at that time pre- 

 sided over by the atrocious Lebon, the monster 

 who sentenced to the scaffold a quiet and inoffen- 

 sive citizen, solely because he had in his possession 

 a parroquet which cried "Vive le Roy!" It was 

 seriously proposed (by the way) to guillotine the 

 bird as well as his owner, but Lebon's wife saved 

 the creature by undertaking that he should be 

 taught to say " Vive la Montague." 



In the hands of this bloodthirsty wretch, Dufres- 

 noy would have had no chance of escape. His 



