ESCAPE OF THE REPUBLICAN EXILES 

 FROM CAYENNE. 



[MAGA. OCTOBER 1832.] 



rpHE following narrative is an account of the fate 

 -L of some of those leaders who figured in the 

 middle stage of the French Eevolution, soon after the 

 period when Robespierre had been .buried in the 

 blood into which that Nero of France had flung so 

 many of his rival lovers of liberty. For these men 

 or their misfortunes we can have no sorrow. But 

 their story has its value. Let it warn wiser and 

 honester enthusiasts of wiser and honester lands. 



The French Directory, in the year 1797, had fully 

 exhibited the folly of government by men suddenly 

 raised to power by popular clamour. Pretended 

 philosophers, they committed every blunder of bad 

 politicians ; and pompous rulers of Republicans, they 

 exhibited all the negligence, profligacy, and peculation 

 that calumny had ever attributed to Kings. France 

 grew weary of the Directory, but it was less because 

 she saw their absurdities, than because she was weary 



