d" (Mercure de France, Feb.
4).--This Jaille affair is one of the most instructive, and the best
supported by documents (Mercure de France, Dec.10 and 17).--"Archives
Nationales," F7, 3215, official report of the district administrators,
and of the municipal officers of Brest, Nov. 27, 1791.--Letter by M. de
Marigny, commissary in the navy, at Brest, Nov. 28.--Letters by M. de
la Jaille, etc.--M. de la Jaille, sent to Brest to take command of the
Dugay-Trouin, arrives there Nov.27. While at dinner, twenty persons
enter the room, and announce to him, "in the name of many others," that
his presence in Brest is causing trouble, that he must leave, and that
"he will not be allowed to take command of a vessel." He replies, that
he will leave the town, as soon as he has finished his dinner. Another
deputation follows, more numerous than the first one, and insists on his
leaving at once; and they act as his escort. He submits, is conducted to
the city gates, and there the escort leaves him. A mob attacks him,
and "his body is covered with contusions. He is rescued, with great
difficulty, by six brave fellows, of whom one is a pork-dealer, sent to
bleed him on the spot. "This insurrection is due to an extra meeting
of 'The Friends of the constitution,' held the evening before in the
theater, to which the public were invited." M. de la Jaille, it must be
stated, is not a proud aristocrat, but a sensible man, in the style of
Florian's and Berquin's heroes. But just pounded to a jelly, he writes
to the president of the "Friends of the Constitution," that, "could he
have flown into the bosom of the club, he would have gladly done so, to
convey to it his grateful feelings. He had accepted his command only at
the solicitation of the Americans in Paris, and of the six commissioners
recently arrived from St. Domingo."--Mercure de France, April 14,
article by Mallet du Pan "I have asked in vain for the vengeance of the
law against the assassins of M. de la Jaille. The names of the authors
of this assault in full daylight, to which thousands can bear witness,
are known to everybody in Brest. Proceedings have been ordered and
begun, but the execution of the orders is suspended. More potent than
the law, the motionnaires, protectors of assassins, frighten or paralyze
its ministrants."]

[Footnote 2328: Mercure de France, Nov. 12 (session of Oct. 31st,
1792).]

[Footnote 2329: Decree of Feb. 8, and others like it, on the details,
as, for