408 
the houfe of Auftria from an abyfs of 
calamities. ¢ 
‘ M. Peltier is rather paradoxical in his. 
epinions. He maintains that France 
poffefled a conftitution previoufly to the 
revolution, and that the king’s power 
was limited by the moral agency of the 
pulpit, and the /egal exergy of the parlia- 
ments. The firft of thefe pofitions is 
denied by M, Calonne, all the enzugrés, 
not of the firft, or Codlentz edition, and, 
in fhort, by all the world. As to the li- 
‘mitation of the royal power by the clergy, 
this is too whimfical to demand an an- 
fwer; we have one folitary inftance of it 
however, in the petite careme ; but as to 
the oppofition of the parliaments, a /it de 
juftice, or an arrét of banifhment, fettled 
all that ; for in the firft cafe, the king 
in perfon had only to order an obnoxious 
act to be regiftered in his prefence, and 
as to the fecond, any clerk in office could 
fill up the blanks in half a quire of Jez- 
ives de cachet. 
M. Peltier publifhes a periodical work 
im favour of the geod o/d caufe, as a fimi- 
Jar one was ence termed by the adhe- 
rents of the houfe of Stuart. It is term- 
ed “ Tableau de l Europe,’ and has a con- 
fiderable fale, for it unites great bitter- 
nefs with confiderable talents. 
MESDEMOISELLES DE FERNIGS. 
Thefe two young heroines were the 
daughters cf a quarter-mafter of cavalry, 
and by accompanying the French troops 
in their excurfions at the beginning of 
the war, attained a certain degree of at- 
tachment to military exploits, and evén 
an enthufiafm againft the common 
enemy. Unlike the “ maid of Or- 
leans,” they were dreffed in female 
attire, and pretended neither to pro- 
phecy nor revelation, but they headed 
the French roops, in 17912, with the 
fame boldnefs that the martial female 
alluded to, was accuftomed to do, two 
centuries before. 
Dumourier, who never let flip any 
occafion of infpiring his army with con- 
fidence, invited thefe ladies to the camp 
at Maulde, and made fuch a flattering 
report to the Convention of their mo- 
defty, intrepidity, and good conduét, 
that they received a houfe, and an ad- 
joining piece of land, as a prefent from 
tue republic. 
On the defeétion of this general, pre- 
ferring gratitude to duty, and perional 
attachment to the love of their country, 
they both took part with him, and were 
eut-lawed. 
Anecdotes. =Maffs. Fernigs. +. La Tude. 
. tinels. 
[ June- 
It is not a little remarkable, that 
this hoary headed warrior, although old 
enough to be the grandfather of moft of 
our generals, has yet found means to 
attach a great number of ladies to him; 
fome young and handfome, fuch as Mef- 
demoifelles Orleans, Sercy, and Fernigs; 
and fome old but accomplifhed, fuch as 
Madame de Genlis—Sillery—Bruart, 
and Madame de Beauvert, the laft of 
whom has been his mifirefs for many 
years, a 
M. pr LA TUDE. 
This extraordinary man, a noble by 
birth, and an officer by profedfion, was 
imprifoned for a great number of years; 
in the Baftille, the dungeon of Vincennes, 
and the Bicetre, by order of Madame de 
Pompadour, the mifirefs of Louis XV, 
whom unluckily he had offended. By 
means of a rope.ladder, four hundred 
feet in length, with two hundred: fteps 
or crofs bands, all conftruéted out of © 
fhirts and ftockings, carefully unravelled 
for that purpofe, he and his companion 
d’Alegre found means to efcape from 
one of the towers of the Baftille, 
At Amfterdam, he was claimed by the 
French ambaflador, conduéted in chains 
to France, and indulged, or rather pu- 
nifhed, with the fight of his former com-= 
panion, whom he found raving mad in 
the hofpital for lunatics at Charenton ! 
_ After remaining forty months in his 
old apartment iu the Baftille, he learned, 
by means of a piece of paper pafted on 
a window in /a rue de St. Antoine, that 
the Marchioneis was no more ; but as 
he refufed to difclofe how he came by - 
this intelligence, he was remanded, by 
M. de Sartines, then lieutenant de police, 
to the dungeon at Vincennes, whence . 
he efcaped by knocking down two cen- 
Being again taken, hé was com- 
mitted to a gloomy cell m the Brcetre, 
whence he was at length extricated by 
the kindnefs of a charitable lady, called , 
Madame le Gros, who became fecurity 
for his good behaviour, and actually 
maintained him out of her little in- 
come. a 
The memoirs of Henry Mafers de la 
Tude, containing. an account of his con- 
finement during. cbirty-fve years in the, 
ftate prifons of France, were publithed 
in 1788, and made a great noife through- 
out all Europe, as they werifed every ’ 
thing afferted relative to the horrid de- 
fpotifm that had prevailed, and might at 
any future time be renewed in that king- 
dom. 
M. DROUETs 
