#796] Original Anecdotes M1, de Bouille... Abbi de Percy. 27 
the people that now cheerfully add his 
maintenance to their own increafing 
burdens.. 
M. pe Bou!LL®t, 
During the American war, was a go- 
vernor in the French Weft-India iflands, 
and acquired great and deferved popu- 
larity even among his enemies, by the 
generofity of his difpofition, the ele- 
gance of his manners, and an utter con- 
tempt of that fordid avarice which often 
reduces the reprefentative of a king, in, 
a diftant colony, to the level of a public 
plunderer. On retaking St. Euftatia 
from the Englith, he fcorned to imitate 
its former conquerors, for private pro- 
perty was by him deemed facred and in- 
violable! The Englith Weft-India mer- 
chants were fo much pleafed with his 
conduét, that they prefented him with a 
gold-hilted fword, by the hands, I be- 
Neve, of the venerable and amiable ge-: 
neral Melville. That very fword, on his 
arrival m England in 1794, was rudely 
{matched from his fide by a cuftom-houfe 
officer, im-confequence of an order for 
difarming the French emigrants. ‘This 
hurt him exceedingly; and he never 
mentions the circumftance without in- 
dignation. 
On the revolution, M..de Bouillé re- 
eolleéted that he was a noble, but he 
forgot that he wasa Frenchman. Brave 
and generous, but impetucus, violent, 
and fanguine, many of the errors of 
Louis XVI have been attributed to his 
counfels. He has been often charged 
by his enemies with the mafiacre at 
Nantz; but he is fully conviéted of be- 
ing the author of the king’s flight, an 
event generoufly forgiven by the legifla- 
tive affembly, but never forgotten by 
the people. 
-He at firft refufed.to take the oath- 
for the maintenance of the conftitution, 
an oath tendered to all the military men. 
‘This of courfe awakened fufpicion; but 
that very fufpicion was {oon after lulled 
into fecurity, in confequence of the fol- 
dier-like franknefs with which he after- 
wards fubfcribed it. On this, he -was 
immediately entrufted with the care of 
the frontiers on the fide of Lorraine, by 
the king, who was greatly attached to 
him. ‘This important poft enabled him 
to plan a retreat for his majeity, into the 
Province of Luxembutgh ; and had it 
net been for the intrepidity of a poft- 
matter (Drouet) the plot would har 
affuredly fucceeded. 
After Louis XV1 was brought back 
to Paris, lientenant-general Bouillé was 
declared a rebel. Notwithftanding this, 
his majefty kept up a communication 
with the outlaw; and it was the dif- 
covery of the fecret remittance of a fum 
of money to him that rendered the affem- 
bly zzammous as\to his punithment.: the 
members differed indeed, but it ~was 
merely on the queftion, not of guilt, but 
of policy. | 
THe ‘ABBE DE PERCY AND. THE 
DuKeE or NoRTHUMBERLAND. 
The abbé, who is the younger brother of. 
the count dePercy,was bred to the church, 
and being of an ancient family, and edu- 
cated in the ftriét rules of canonical obe-~ 
dicnce, he was of courfe an enemy to a 
revolution that by one mighty effort put 
an end to the power and authority of the 
nobles and the pope. From his living, at 
anne, ia Normandy, he confequently 
found it prudent to retire, and foon after 
withdrew altogether from France. From 
Hamburgh, which, fince the ‘capture of. 
Coblentz, has become the centre of coun- 
ter-revolutionary projects, he embarked 
on board an Englifh packet, with fome 
of the illuftrious c/-devanis of his pro- 
vince, deftined, like his own brother, for. 
the ill-fated expedition againft Quibe-' 
ron. Happily for them, they were too 
late! elfe they would inevitably have 
fhared the fate of their unhappy coun- 
trymen. 
‘The abbé did not know a fingle word 
of Enclith on his landing at Yarmouth, 
and yet he had been once before in this 
country, and abfolutely hufiled, in the 
neighbourhood of New-ftrect, Covent 
Garden, out of twenty guineas he had 
received but a few minutes before, from 
the houfe of fir R. Herries of St. James’s 
ftreet, in confequence of his ignorance of 
our vernacular tongue. ‘This circum- 
ftance very jufily infpired him with a 
cerrible idea of our Police (which, by the 
bye, has always been worfe regulated 
fince this detefted word has been adopted 
into our language, and /ipendiary magil- 
trates maintained for its prefervation) 
but it did not induce him to learn our 
tongue. Toimmure himfelf after fun- 
fet, and thus conftitute himfelf a prifoner - 
in his own apartment, was the only ex- 
pedient the curé of Vanne could bethink 
himfelf of, in order to fecure his purfe 
and perfon in the metropolis of England. 
To the humanity of a gentleman who 
accompanied him in the packet, he, and 
the whole emigrant noblefe were indebted 
fox pafling their trunks at the cuftom- 
houle, 

