friends at court,
and he requested me to employ their influence in procuring to his
order the restoration of the property which it possessed in France.
This letter was signed "Father A .... priest and procureur of La
Trappe," and he added, as a postscript, "If a twenty-three years'
emigration' and four campaigns in a regiment of horse-chasseurs in
the army of Conde, give me any claims to the royal favor, I beg you
will make use of them."

I could not help laughing, both at the idea which this good monk had
of my influence at court, and at the use of it which he required
from a protestant. I sent his letter to M. de Montmorency, whose
influence was much greater than mine, and I have reason to believe
that the petition was granted.

In other respects, these Trappists were not, in the deep vales
of the Canton of Fribourg, such strangers to politics as their
residence and their habit would lead one to believe.

I have since learned that they served as a medium for the
correspondence of the French clergy with the pope, then a prisoner
at Savonne. Certainly, although this does not at all excuse the
rigor with which they were treated by Bonaparte, it gives a
sufficient explanation of it.
(End of editor's note.)

I know not of what M. de L'Estrange was accused; but it is scarcely
probable that such a man should have meddled with the affairs
of the world, much less the monks, who never quitted their solitude.
The Swiss government caused search to be made every where for M. de
L'Estrange, and I hope for its honor, that it took care not to find
him. However, the unfortunate magistrates of countries which are
called allies of France, are very often employed to arrest persons
designated to them, ignorant whether they are delivering innocent
or guilty victims to the great Leviathan, which thinks proper to
swallow them up. The property of the Trappists was seized, that is
to say, their tomb, for they hardly possessed any thing else, and
the order was dispersed. It is said, that a Trappist at Genoa had
mounted the pulpit to retract the oath of allegiance which he had
taken to the emperor, declaring that since the captivity of the
pope, he considered every priest as released from this oath. At his
coming out from performing this act of repentance, he was, report
also says, tried by a military commission, and shot. One would think
that he was sufficiently punished, without rendering the whole order
responsible for his conduct.