under the displeasure of Robespierre, and his
agents. Their only crime was wealth, honourably acquired. A committee,
composed of the most worthless people of Rouen, was formed, who, in the
name of, and for the use of the nation, seized upon the valuable stock
of Messrs. G----, who were natives of France. In one night, by
torchlight, their extensive warehouses were sacked, and all their stores
were forcibly sold in the public marketplace to the best bidder: the
plundered merchants were paid the amount of the sale in assignats, in a
paper currency which then bore an enormous discount, and shortly
afterwards retained only the value of the paper upon which the national
note was written. In short, in a few hours an honourable family, nobly
allied, were despoiled of property to the amount of 25,000_l._ sterling.
Other merchants shared the same fate. This act of robbery was followed
by an act of cruelty. Madame G----, the mother, who was born in England,
and who married a French gentleman of large fortune, whom she survived,
of a delicate frame and advanced in years, was committed to prison,
where, with many other female sufferers, she was closely confined for
eleven months, during which time she was compelled to endure all sorts
of privations. After the committee of rapine had settled their black
account, and had remitted the guilty balance to their employers, the
latter, in a letter of "friendly collusion, and fraudulent familiarity,"
after passing a few revolutionary jokes upon what had occurred, observed
that the G----s seemed to bleed very freely, and that as it was likely
they must have credit with many persons to a large amount, directed
their obedient and active banditti to order these devoted gentlemen to
draw, and to deliver to them, their draughts upon all such persons who
stood indebted to their extensive concern. In the words of a celebrated
orator[7], "Though they had shaken the tree till nothing remained upon
the leafless branches, yet a new flight was on the wing, to watch the
first buddings of its prosperity, and to nip every hope of future
foliage and fruit."

[7] Vide Sheridan's oration against Hastings upon the Begum charge.

The G----s expected this visit, and, by an ingenious, and justified
expedient, prevented their perdition from becoming decisive.

Soon after the gates of the prison were closed upon Madame G----, her
eldest son, a man of commanding person, and eloquent address, in
defiance of every f