-three members of
which the commission was composed, and the famous Barrere was also of the
number. Barrere, fertile in projects however visionary and destructive,
proposed to Mercier, as a _bright thought_, "to make a short extract from
every book in the national library: to have these extracts superbly printed
by Didot;--and to ... BURN ALL THE BOOKS FROM WHICH THEY WERE TAKEN!" It
never occurred to this revolutionising idiot that there might be a
_thousand_ copies of the _same work_, and that some hundreds of these
copies might be OUT of the national library! Of course, Mercier laughed at
the project, and made the projector ashamed of it.[98] Robespierre, rather
fiend than man, now ruled the destinies of France. On the 7th of July,
1794, Mercier happened to be passing along the streets when he saw
_sixty-seven human beings_ about to undergo the butchery of the GUILLOTINE.
Every avenue was crowded by spectators--who were hurrying towards the
horrid spectacle. Mercier was carried along by the torrent; but, having
just strength enough to raise his head, he looked up ... and beheld his old
and intimate friend the ex-abbe ROGER ... in the number of DEVOTED VICTIMS!
That sight cost him his life. A sudden horror ... followed by alternate
shiverings, and flushings of heat ... immediately seized him. A cold
perspiration hung upon his brow. He was carried into the house of a
stranger. His utterance became feeble and indistinct, and it seemed as if
the hand of death were already upon him.

Yet he rallied awhile. His friends came to soothe him. Hopes were
entertained of a rapid and perfect recovery. He even made a few little
visits to his friends in the vicinity of Paris. But ... his fine full
figure gradually shrunk: the colour as gradually deserted his cheek--and
his eye sensibly lacked that lustre which it used to shed upon all around.
His limbs became feeble, and his step was both tremulous and slow. He
lingered five years ... and died at ten at night, on the 13th of May 1799,
just upon the completion of his jubilee of his bibliographical toil. What
he left behind, as annotations, both in separate papers, and on the margins
of books, is prodigious. M. Barbier shewed me his projected _third_ edition
of the _Supplement to Marchand_, and a copy of the _Bibliotheque Francoise
of De La Croix du Maine_, &c. covered, from one end to the other, with
marginal notes by him.[99] That amiable biographer also gave me one of his
little bib