Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 10 — page 3: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Pr Car and inscribed ‘* To the Citizen Commandant of the I ' at Philippeville. = ee me to enter a cavalr a AGG RO Expeck Polk toa fortnicht’simprisonment, becauseI had not answer- | r- courage. This worthy man, who had taken an inter- 2d to three stmmonses. I underwent my punishment in _estin me ever since he had seen me cut away among » dungeon beneath one of the bastions, where one of the hussars of Saxe-Teschen, told me that as an am- my comrades was 8'1ut up with me, a soldicrin thesame nesty would henceforward place me out of the reach of regiment. Ho was accused of various robberies, which | all pursuit, he should have much pleasure in again he had confessed. Scareely were we alone when he | having me under his order. I told him how glad it told me the froun ls or his detention. Donbtie: 5 the would make me; and he, undertaking to ar re the regiment 1 TOU give him up, and this idea, Pag to affair, I was once more reinstated in the 1ith. y old the dread of dishonoring his family, threw him into ' comrades received me with pleasure, and I was not less despair. I pitied him, and seeing no remedy for so de- plorable a case, I counseled him to evade punishment either by escape or suicide. He determined to try the former ere he resolved on the latter; and, aided by a oung friend who came to visit me, I prepared all for is flight. At midnight two bars of iron were broken wnd we conducted the prisoner to the ramparts, an Shen Isaid to him—‘*Go: you must either jump or hang.’ He calenlated the hight, and hesitating, deter- mined rather to run the chance of his sentence than to break lis legs. He was preparing to return to his dun- geon: at a moment when he least expected it, we gave tim a push over: he shrieked ont while I bid him be silent. Ithen returned to my cell: when on my straw { tasted the repose which the consciousness of a good deed always brings, The next day, on the flight of my companion being discovered, [ was ¢ nestioned, and dis- missed on saying that I knew nothing of the affair. | Some years afterward, I met this unfortunate fellow, | to light some letters of hers, which established my in- who looked on meas his liberator. Since his fall he | nocence. Manon, conscience-stricken, retracted. T had had been lame, but had become an honest man. been shut up in the house of confinement at Stenay, Teould not remain eternally at Arras: war had been | whence I was set at liberty, and sent back as white as declared agninst Austria, and I set out with the regi- | snow. My captain, who had never thought me guilty, ment, and soon after was present at the route of Mar- | was delighted at seeing me again; but the chasseurs quain, which entled at Lille by the massacre of the could not forgive my being even suspected; and in con- brave and unfortunate Generel Dillon. After this we sequence of various allusions and comments, I had no were ordered against the cam» at Maulde, and thenin less than six duels in as mahy days. In the last I was that De la Lune, when, with the infernal army under badly wounded, and was conveyed to the hospital, the command of Killerman, I was engaged in the battle | where I remained for a month before I recovered. On against the Prussians of the 30th of October. The next going out, my officer, convinced that these quarrels day 1 was made corporal of grenadiers: thereupon it woul be renewed if I did not go away for a time, gave became necessary to baptize my worsted lace, and [ac- mea furlough for six weeks. I went to Arras, where I quitted myself with much credit at the drinking booth, was much astonished to find my father in a public em- when, I know not how or why,I guarreled with the ployment. As an old baker, he had been appointed to sergeant-major of the regiment which I had just left. watch over the su yplies of the conimissariat, He op- An honorable meeting, which I proposed, was agreed posed the distribution of bread at a time of scarcity; pleased to find myself once again among them; and nothing was ba to complete my happiness, when Love, who is alway busy, determined on playing one of his tricks. It will not be thought surprising that at seventeen I captivated the housekeeper of an old gentile- man. Manon, for that was her name, was near twice my age, but then she loved me very tenderly, and proved it. She had already given me a watch, and I was proudly adorned with various jewels, proofs of the love with which I had inspired her, when I learnt that Manon was accused by her master of robbery. Manon confess@§ the fact, but at the same time, to assure herself that after sentence I should not leave the country, she pointed me out as her accomplice, and even asserted that I had proposed the theft to her. It had the appearance of probability, and I was consequently implicated, and should have extri- cated myself with difficulty if chance had not brought upon, but when on the ground my adversary pretended and this discharge of his duty, although he performe that the difference in rank would not allow of his it gratis, was so offensive, that he woul assuredly measuring weapons with me. I sought to compel him by violence, he went to make complaint of me, and the same evening I was, together with my second, laced under arrest. Two days afterward we were formed that we were to be tried by court-martial, and I thereupon determined to desert. My comrade in his waistcoat only, with a cap on his head, like a soldier about to undergo punishment, walked before me, who had on a hairy cap, my knapsack, and musket -at the end of which was a large packet sealed with rec have been conducted to the guillotine had he not been protected by citizen (now leutenant-general) Souham, commandant of the 2d battalion of Correze, into which I was temporarily drafted. My furlough being out, I rejoined my ent at | Givet, whence we marched for the county of Namur. We were quartered in the villages on the banks of the Meuse; and as the Austrians were in sight, not a day passed without some firing on both sides. At the ter- |mination of an engagement more serious than usual, ' we were driven back almost under the cannon of Givet; arters at Vitry-le-Francais.’* This was taal per! rhs and inthe retreat [ received a ball in my leg, which and we reached Vitry in safety, and procured citizens’ | compeiled me to go again to the hospital, and after- habits from a Jew. At this period the walis of every | ward to remain at the depot; and I was there when the city were covered with placards, in which all French- ' Garmanie legion passed, principally composed of a ’men were invited to fly to the defense of their country. | party of deserters, fenciug-masters, ete. - One of the At such a juncture the first comers were eurolied: a chief officers proposed that I should enter this corps, quarter-master of the 11th chasseurs received us, gave | offering the rank of quartermaster. “Once ad- us our route, and we immediately started for the depot mitted,” said he, “I will answer for you, you shall be saved from all pursuit.” The certainty of not being asked for, joined to the remembrance of the dis- agreeables of my intimacy with Manon, decided me; I accepted the offer, and the next day was with the legion on the road to Flanders. No doubt, in continuing to serve in this corps, where promotion was very rapid, I should have been made an Officer, but my wound open- ed afresh, with such bad symptoms that I determined to ask for leave again, which on obtaining, I was six days afterward once more at the gates of Arras. CHAPTER IL. On entering the city, I was struck with the air of con- My companion and self had but little cash, when for- tunately a lucky windfall was in waiting for us at ‘Chalons. In the same inn with us was a soldier of »Beaujolais, who invited us to drink, He was an open- yhearted countryman of Picardy, and as I conversed } with him in the provincial dialect of his country, while | the giass was circulating we grew such great friends, that he showed us a portfolio filed with assignats, which he said he had found near Chateau-l’Abbaye. “Comrades,” said he, “I cannot read, butif you will tell me what these tL wte are worth, I will give youa share.”’ The Picard could not have asked any one) ‘better able to inform him, and in bulk he had much the | sternation which every countenance wore; some per- greater quantity; but he had no suspicionthat we had | sons whom I questioned looked at me with contempt, retained in value nine-tenths of the sum. This little | and left me without making any reply. What extra- supply was not useless during the remainder of our | ordinary business was being transacted? Penetrating journey, whiich we finished with much glee. Arrived | the crowd, which was thronged in the dark and winding at our place of destination, we still had enough left to | streets, I soon reached the fish-market, Then the first —— the pot boiling. A short time afterwar we wera object which struck my sight was the guillotine, raisin sufficiently skilled in horsemanship to be appointed to its blood-red boards above the silent multitude. An ol one of the squadrons on service, and we reached the | man, whom they had just tied to the fatal plank was army two days before the battle of Jammappes. It was | the victim: sudden! heard the sound of te, not the first time that I had smelt powder, and I was high ‘place wht Be aetine Bh tone no coward: indeedI had reason to know that I had found favor in the eyes of my officers, when my cap- tain informed me, that having been discovered to be a | deserter, I should be most certainly arrested. The | er was imminent, and that same evening I saddled my horse, intending to go over to the Austrians, I soon e-— ----- and blue stripes. is person, whose appearance an- nounced monastic rather than military habits, was leaning carelessly on @ cavalry saber, the large hilt of ' which ae serie the Cap of Liberty; a row of pistols ornamented his girdie, and his hat, turned up in the reached their outposts; and on asking to be admitted, | Spanish fashion, was surmounted by a large tri-colored was incorporated at once with the cuirassiers of Kinshi. _eockade: I recognized Joseph Lebon, At this moment What I most feared was lest I should be compelled next | his mean countenance was animated with a horrid ‘day to cross swords with the French, and I hastened to | smile; he paused from beating time with his left foot; avoid any such necessity. A pretended illness enabled | the trumpets stopped; he mado a signal, and the ok me to be left at Louvain, where after passing some days | man was placed under the blade. A sort of clerk, half in the hospital, I offered to give the officers in the gar- | drunk, then appeared at the side of the “avenger of rison lessons in feucing. They were delighted with the | the people,” and read with a hoarse voice a bulletin of ogre ant supplied me with masks, gloves, aud the army of the Rhine and Moselle. At each paragraph oils; and an assault, in which I disarmed two or three | the orchestra sounded a chord; and when the reading retended German masters was enough to give them | was concluded, the head of the wretched old man was 6 highest opinion of my skill. I soon many | stricken off amidst shouts of “ Vive la republique!”’ re- pupils, and reaped a good harvest of florins. peated by the satellites of the ferocious Lebon. I shall was too much elated with my snecess, When at the | never forget, nor can I adequately depict the impres. horrible sight. I reached my father’s end of a brisk attack on a brigadier, I was condemned | sion of t to undergo twenty stripes of the cat, which, according |house almost as lifeless as the misera be to custom, were given to me on parade. This trans- | whose agony had been so cruelly prolonged; an rted me with rage, and I refused to give another | then I learned that he was M. de Mongon, the old com- esson. Iwas ordered to continue, with the choice of | mandant of the citadel, condemned as an aristocrat. I decided on the A few days before, they had executed at the same giving lessons or a fresh flogging —incgt but the cat annoyed me, and I resolved to place, M. de Vieux-Pont, whose only crime was that dare all to escape from it. Being informed that a| of having a parrot, in whose chatte there were lieutenant was going to join the army under General | some sounds like the ery of “ Vive le roi!’ The par- Schroeder, I begged to accompany him as his servant; | rot had escaped the fate of his master; and it was said to which he agreed, under the idea that I should make that it had been pardoned at the entreaty of the cit- a St.George of him; but he was mistaken, for as we | izeness Lebon, who had undertaken to convert it. The approached Quesnoi I took French leave, and directed | citizeness Lebon had been a nun of the abbey of Vivier: my mags toward Landrecies, where I passed for a | with this qualification added to many others, she was Be who had left the Austrian banner, They | the fitting consort of the ex-curate of Neuville and ex- regiment, but the fear of | erciseda powerful influence over the members of the being wes and shot, if ever! should be brigaded commission at Arras, in which were seated, as judges with 4 old regiment, made me give the preference to or jurymen, her brother-in-law and three uncles. The the lith Light Regiment (the old chasseurs of the bar- | ex-nun was no less greedy of gold than blood. One riers). The army of the Sambre and Meuse was then | evening at the theater, she ventured to make this ad- pe hogs 2 toward Aix-la-Chapeile; the company to dress to the crowded auditory: “Ah, Sans Culot which I belonged received orders to follow it. We set | they say it is not for you that the guillotine is a out, and on a Rocroi I saw the chasseurs of the | work? Mth. I gave myself up for lost, when my old captain, | emies of the country? Do ou know with whom I could not avoid an interview, gave me | Tich person, any aristecrati shopkeeper noble, an Dentutine of this monster was only — —— — — —--— — .- ——- 3 —— ae ee A autpenmnsinn ade ciemadnns _— ——— a him and you shall have his money-bags.”” The atrocity ualed by that of her hue band, who abandoned himself to the greatest excessea. Frequently after his rm jeer he was seen running through the city making bestial propositions to one young per- son, brandishing a saber over another's head, and fir- far as to plunge his ing pistols in the ears of women and children. An old apple-woman, with a red cap ind sleeves tucked up to the shoulders, carrying a long stick of hazelwood, usually attended him in his walks, and they were frequently met arm-in-arm together, This woman, J cailed mother Duchesne, in allusion to the famous fa- ther Duchesne, figured as the Goddess of Liberty in several democratic solemnities. She regularly assisted at the sittings of the commissions, for which she pre- red the arrests by her speeches and denunciations. e thus brought to the guillotine all the inhabitants of one street, which was left entirely desolated. have often asked myself how, in the midst of such deplorable scenes, the taste for pleasure and amuse- ment lost none of its relish. e fact is, that Arras continued to offer to me the same dissipations as ever, and I began to pay my homage to a beauty of the Rue de la Justice; and one day I met my rival in m walks. He, who was the old musician of the regimen was one of those men who, without boasting of the success which they have obtained, hint in plain terms that they have experienced refusals. I charged him with boasting in this way, and he became enraged ;“1 pibrens him the more, and the more angry he grew: had forgotten my own cause of anger with him, when I remémbered that I had good grounds of offense. I demanded an explanation, which was useless; and he only consented to meet me after I had inflicted on him the most degrading humiliation. The rendezvous was fixed for the next morning. I was punctual: but scarcely had I arrived when | was surrounded by a troop of gendarmes and police officers, who demanded my sword and ordered me to follow them. I obeyed, and was soon inclosed within the walls of the Baudete, whose use had been changed since the terrorists had ut the population of Arrasin a state of periodical decapitation. The jailer, Beaupre, covered with an enormous red cap, and followed by two large black dogs, who never quitted him, conducted me to a vast rret, where he held iv his keeping the principal in- abitants of the country. There, deprived of com- munication from without, they scarcely received nour- ishment, and not even that until it had literally been overhauled by Beaupre, who carried his precaution so thy dirty hands in the broth, to assure himself that there were no arms or keys. If anybody complained, be said to him, “"Umph! you are very difficult to please for the time you have left to live. How do you know that it will not be your to-morrow? Oh, by the way, what is your name?f’— “Bo and so."’—** Ah! by my faith it is your turn to-mor- row!’ And the predictions of Beaupre were the less likely to fail as he himseif pointed out the individuals to Joseph Lebon. who, after his dinner, consulted him, saying, “* Who shall we bathe to-morrow?” Among the gentry shut up with us was the Count de Bethune. One morning they sent for him to the tribunal. Before leading bin: out to the fore court, Beau- pre said to him abruptly, “‘ Citizen Bethune, since you are going down there, am not I to have all you leave behind your’ — * Certainly, M. Beaupre,”’ answered the old man, tranquilly. “There are no ministers now,” said the grinning wretch of a jailer, “ we are all citizens;"" and, at the gate, he cried out to him, “Adieu, citizen Bethune!” M. de Bethune was, how- ever, acquitted. He was brought back to prison as a suspected person. His return rejoiced us all; we thought him saved, but the next day he was called up. Joseph Lebon. during whose absence the Bentence of uittal had been passed, arrived from the country: furious at a deprived of the blood of 80 worthy a man, he had orde the members of the ‘commission to assemble immeédiately, and M. de Be- me. The denunciation was in the Ona high place which overlooked the orchestra, was | _ Seated a man, still young, clad in a Carmagnole of black ° speak ill of the Sans Culottes—you thune, condemned at the next sitting, was executed by torechlight. : This event, which Beaupre announced to us with fero- cious joy, Seve me serions twneasiness; every day condemned to death men who were ignorant even the cause of their arrest, and whose fortune or situa- tion in society never intended them for ey oe com- motion; and on the other hand, I knew t Beaupre, very scrupulous as to the number, thought not of the uality; and that frequently, noi seeing immediately the number of individuals pointed out, sent the first who came to hand, that the service of the state might suffer nothing from delay. Every moment then might place me in the clutch of Beaupre, and you may believe salieon idea was not the most satisfactory in the world, I had been already detained sixteen days, when a visit froni Joseph Lebon was announced; his wife ac- companied him, and he bad in his train the principal terrorists of the country, among whom I my father’s old barber, and an emptier of wells, ed Delmotte, or Lantilette. I asked them to say a word for me to the representative, which they promised; and I augured the better of itas they were both in good estimation. However, Joseph Lebon went through the rooms, questioning the prisoners in a brutal man- ner, and pretending to address them with frightful hness. When he came to me, he stared a _, and said in atone half severe and half jc ng, “Ah ah! is it you, Francois? What, you an a you regret your old urbon ment—take care, for I can send you to be cooked — But send your mother to me.” I told him, that be ws, Sw strictly immured (au secret) I could not see her. “ upre,"’ said he to the jai