MTJLLID^ OR MULLETS. 139 



pathetically as Sterne describing Le Fevre's death, thus : 

 ' Des mouvements convulsifs marquent seuls I'approche 

 de la fin du ronget ; ancuu son, aucun cri plaintif n^an- 

 noncent ni la vivacite de ses douleurs ni la mort qui va 

 les faire cesser. Les muUes sont muets comme les au- 

 tres poissons, et nous aimons &, croire, pour rhonneur de 

 Pespece humaine, que ces Romains, malgre leur avidite 

 pour de nouvelles jouissanceSj qui echappaient sans cesse 

 h. leur sens emoussees par I'exces des plaisirs, n^'auraient 

 pu register &, la plainte la plus faible de leur malheureuse 

 victime.' 



What ! citizen Lacepede ! you, whose book was printed 

 in the red-letter days of French republicanism — only sis 

 years from the inauguration of that Paris Pandemonium 

 — the Reign of Terror ; before Robespierre^s carcase was 

 yet consmned by worms, and while his spectre still 

 haunted the slumbers of the bereaved ; when the cries 

 of woe from noyades and fusiUadeSj though ceased in the 

 air, had left their long echo on the startled ear, which 

 seemed to hear them stUl ; when the choked-up waters 

 of the Loire had hardly disem1)ogued their unnatural 

 load into the ensanguined sea ; when the guillotine had 

 scarce ceased to reap its horrid harvest, gutters -begun 

 to run limpid again, and pavements to recover from 

 their foul stains, — in the teeth and vivid recollection of 

 all this, can you, scarce escaped yourself from the deso- 

 lating carnage, denounce Apicius as a ' mullet murderer' 

 (assassin des mulles), and then, in pathos and bathos 

 surpassing even a Georges Saiid or a Eugene Sue, wind 

 up with a hope, for the honour of humanity, that could 

 this pretty little fish have found a tongue, these Roman 

 assassins would have spared his life, unable to resist ' la 

 plainte la plus failile de leur malheureuse victime ! ' 

 Bah, citizen Lacepede ! This is, however, but a specimen 

 of that French sentimentality so well apprehended and 

 finely ridiculed by Canning : 



