whole province in revolt, partly as
hostages for their countrymen.

On my recovery, I had expected to be put down once more in the list
for trial; but it reached even the prison, that the government were in
a state of alarm for themselves, which prevented them from indulging
their friends in the streets with the national amusement. The chance
of mounting the scaffold themselves had put the guillotine out of
fashion; and two or three minor attempts at the seizure of the Jacobin
sceptre by the partisans of the Girondists and Cordeliers, had been
put down with such difficulty, that even the Jacobin Club had begun to
protest against bloodshed, through the prospect of a speedy
retaliation. Thus we were suffered to linger on. But, "disguise
thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, thou art a bitter draught," and
the suspense was heart-sickening. At length, however, a bustle outside
the walls, the firing of alarm guns, and the hurrying of the national
guard through the streets, told us that some new measure of atrocity
was at hand, and we too soon learned the cause.

The army under Dumourier had been attacked by the Austrians under
Clairfait, and had been defeated with heavy loss; despatches had been
received from their favourite general, in all the rage of failure,
declaring that the sole cause of the disaster was information
conveyed from the capital to the Austrian headquarters, and demanding
a strict enquiry into the intrigues which had thus tarnished the
colours of the Republic. No intelligence could have been more
formidable to a government, which lived from day to day on the breath
of popularity; and, to turn the wrath of the rabble from themselves,
an order was given to examine the prisons, and send the delinquents to
immediate execution. It may be easily believed that the briefest
enquiry was enough for vengeance, and the prisoners of St Lazare were
the first to furnish the spectacle. A train of carts rattled over the
pavement of our cloisters, and we were ordered to mount them without
delay. The guard was so strong as to preclude all hope of resistance;
and with all the pomp of a military pageant, drums beating, trumpets
sounding, and bands playing _Ca Ira_ and the _Marseillaise_, we left
our dreary dwelling, which habit had now almost turned into a home,
and moved through the principal streets of the capital, for the
express purposes of popular display, in the centre of a large body of
horse and foot, and an incalcu