n
perfect silence; which some liken to that of the Roman Senate overfallen
by Brennus; some to that of a nest of coiners surprised by officers of
the Police. (Besenval, iii. 355.) Messieurs, said D'Agoust, De par le
Roi! Express order has charged D'Agoust with the sad duty of arresting
two individuals: M. Duval d'Espremenil and M. Goeslard de Monsabert.
Which respectable individuals, as he has not the honour of knowing
them, are hereby invited, in the King's name, to surrender
themselves.--Profound silence! Buzz, which grows a murmur: "We are
all D'Espremenils!" ventures a voice; which other voices repeat. The
President inquires, Whether he will employ violence? Captain D'Agoust,
honoured with his Majesty's commission, has to execute his Majesty's
order; would so gladly do it without violence, will in any case do it;
grants an august Senate space to deliberate which method they prefer.
And thereupon D'Agoust, with grave military courtesy, has withdrawn for
the moment.

What boots it, august Senators? All avenues are closed with fixed
bayonets. Your Courier gallops to Versailles, through the dewy Night;
but also gallops back again, with tidings that the order is authentic,
that it is irrevocable. The outer courts simmer with idle population;
but D'Agoust's grenadier-ranks stand there as immovable floodgates:
there will be no revolting to deliver you. "Messieurs!" thus spoke
D'Espremenil, "when the victorious Gauls entered Rome, which they had
carried by assault, the Roman Senators, clothed in their purple, sat
there, in their curule chairs, with a proud and tranquil countenance,
awaiting slavery or death. Such too is the lofty spectacle, which
you, in this hour, offer to the universe (a l'univers), after having
generously"--with much more of the like, as can still be read.
(Toulongeon, i. App. 20.)

In vain, O D'Espremenil! Here is this cast-iron Captain D'Agoust,
with his cast-iron military air, come back. Despotism, constraint,
destruction sit waving in his plumes. D'Espremenil must fall silent;
heroically give himself up, lest worst befall. Him Goeslard heroically
imitates. With spoken and speechless emotion, they fling themselves into
the arms of their Parlementary brethren, for a last embrace: and so
amid plaudits and plaints, from a hundred and sixty-five throats; amid
wavings, sobbings, a whole forest-sigh of Parlementary pathos,--they are
led through winding passages, to the rear-gate; where, in the gray of
th