ESCAPE OF THE EEPUBLICAX EXILES. 119 



were powerfully affected by the appropriateness of 

 the text ; the poor negroes wept, we must suppose 

 for the same reason. But fame, even at Sinamary, 

 was not without its perils. The governor of Cayenne, 

 not approving of these "powerful" emotions in his 

 prison, sent clown a notice that any orator who in 

 future made either soldiers or negroes shed tears over 

 the dust of the prisoners, should be shot without 

 mercy. Demosthenes himself would have shrunk 

 from the laurel at this price. Du Coudray was si- 

 lenced for ever. 



Laffond, formerly a man of commercial wealth, 

 which was publicly thrown into a state of ruin by 

 his arrest, employed himself talking to his wife's 

 picture. Pichegru, the only individual of the party 

 in whom it is possible to feel the slightest interest, 

 employed his time like a man who disdained the 

 despair of one portion of his fellow-exiles, and the 

 childish pursuits of the other. He gave up his days 

 to learning English, doubtless with a bold view to 

 better times. His relaxation was singing, and his 

 songs were by choice on bold and martial subjects. 

 Throughout the whole period he retained peculiarly 

 the bearing and habits of the great soldier. The ex- 

 Director Barthelemy was just as congenially em- 

 ployed until his illness ; he made war upon the 

 insects, put the scorpions to the route, and was voted 

 the general bug-destroyer by acclamation. 



In January, Willot and Bourdon, two of the exiles, 



