sect. The commander, Trestaillon, boasted that he had murdered fourteen protestants with his own hand; and the scene, though on a smaller scale, too much resembled that of the infamous St Bartholomew. Most of the protestants quitted the town, and many assumed arms in their own defence, and were joined by the peasants of their own persuasion from the remote vallies of the Vannage, the Gardonnesque, and the Avennes. The disorder occasioned by these violent proceedings, was of long duration. Houses were burned, and lives taken on both sides; but the protestants, now the weaker party, were by far the greatest sufferers. Mons. de Calviere, the prefect of the department, with the Count de la Garde, a loyal and highly esteemed officer, who commanded for Louis in the district, in vain endeavoured to stop these disorders. General Neipperg was compelled to employ moveable columns of the Austrian troops to disarm both parties. At length the king sent the Duke of Angouleme into the south, to stop, by his authority, the horrors of this religious war! Nov. 4. He arrived at Nismes, used his utmost exertions to appease the minds of the inflamed factions, honoured with every mark of public approbation General de la Garde, who had been active in restraining the excesses of the royalists, and thus contradicted the report that there were members of the royal family who regarded their criminal disorders as good service to the king. Before the departure of the prince, a deputation of the reformed religion obtained an audience, and petitioned for the liberty of re-opening their temples. His royal highness not only acquiesced in their demand, but ex pressed his surprise and dissatisfaction at the conduct of those who should have so far mistaken the pa

ternal intentions and the liberal principles of the government, as to have necessitated their temporary disuse of public worship. On leaving the town, he commanded Gen. de la Garde to see his promises fulfilled. The character of this officer ought to have inspired confidence into both parties; for, on the one hand, he was a determined loya list, and, as such, had emigrated at the very commencement of the revolution, and a second time expatriated himself during the return of Buonaparte; and, on the other hand, his zeal for the king's service was tempered with good sense, liberality, and a respect for the rights of his fellow citizens.

But immediately on the departure of the Duke of Angouleme, new violences broke out in the disturbed departments. A body of royal volunteers repaired to the Nor. 8, Pont de Lunel, to pay their respects to the duke, and to offer their services. In passing through the town of Calvisson, of which the inhabitants are chiefly protestants, they shouted, Vive le Roi! A bas les Buonapartistes ! The people replied with shouts of A bas les Brigands! As the royalists passed through Calvisson, on their return in the evening, (having been dismissed by the duke of Angouleme, with thanks for their offered services,) the quarrel betwixt them and the inhabitants of Calvisson came to blows, in which skirmish the catholics were worsted, one man killed and many wounded. This affair gave rise to new fermentations at Nismes. The protestant women wore sprigs of laurel, in honour, it was alleged, of this petty victory of their party at Calvisson; but more probably as a mark of triumph at re-opening their churches. The catholic rabble arose and attacked the Huguenots in the streets, while another party rushed to the protestant place of worship, which

had formerly been a catholic church, The congregation was insulted, the worship interrupted, and the most shameful disorders committed.

The Count de la Garde called out the troops, and hastened to the spot to restore good order. This excellent officer was personally obnoxious to the rabble, from the exertions he had made on former occasions to protect the Huguenots, and particularly by his activity in arresting and securing Trestaillon, who had been the leader of the catholics in the former atrocities. While endeavouring to persuade the mob to disperse, he struck with the flat of his sword a fellow who was particularly insolent; the ruffian fired a pistol by which La Garde received a wound which had nearly proved mortal This desperate attempt to assassinate the king's officer, while acting in protection of the public tranquillity, at length called forth the energetic exertions of the royal government, disgraced by the conduct of banditti, who affected to be guided by a fanatical zeal in the cause of the king and catholic church. Troops were quartered at Nismes in numbers sufficient to enforce the preservation of

the public peace, and an orNov. 21. dinance of the king directed proceedings to be commenced against the promoters and abet. tors of these tumults, as well as against the assassins of General de la Garde. The tranquillity of the disturbed districts was thus gradually restored.

The report of these transactions made a strong impression on the public mind in Great Britain, and meetings were called in different parts of the kingdom to express the sympathy of the British people with the sufferings of those of their persuasion in France, and to request the interference of government with the restored King of France for protection of the protest ants. As political party mingles itself

in this country with public feeling of almost every kind, it was observed that the desire of fixing some blame upon the new government of France heated the zeal of many, although it would be unfair to doubt that they were also animated by sincere zeal for the professors of the reformed faith. The meetings, therefore, were numerously attended while they confined themselves to votes of censure and remonstrance, but when a subscrip tion was opened for behalf of the suferers, it filled slowly; the amount, we believe, was trifling, and the alarm for the protestant cause was observed to subside into indifference.

There was, indeed, great injustice in throwing upon Louis XVIII. and his ministers, evils which arose from the distracted state of the country. His power during the first period of his restoration was so limited by circumstances, that he had hardly the power of commanding in his own palace, much less that of settling the affairs of a distant and distracted province. So soon as Louis had the means of doing so, his conduct plainly shewed, that, though a sincere catholic, he respected liberty of conscience, and was sensible of the advantages of toleration.

While the fanaticism of the royalists agitated the south of France, with La Vendee, Limosin, and Poitou, the eastern frontiers, including Alsace, Lorraine, the three bishopricks, Ardennes, Champagne, Burgundy, Franche Compté, and Dauphiné, presented a danger of another description. A moral opposition to the royal government was almost universal in these provinces. In others, the parties were more equally balanced; but, in general, to use the words of the Abbé de Salgues, "never since the cruel epoch of 1793, did the provinces of France present a more revolutionary aspect : never did the multitude, the eternal

sport of factions, the sanguinary instrument of all the chiefs of revolt and anarchy, display a more eager disposition to insurrection and violence. Never was the poison of calumny infused with greater care, or the fire of discord fed with more zeal and perseverance."

The central provinces were restrained by their neighbourhood to the seat of government, and by the presence of the allied troops. But the capital was in great agitation, chiefly in consequence of the great number of officers and soldiers belonging to the army of the Loire, who, in spite of all orders to the contrary, repaired thither in numbers, and took every opportunity of quarrelling with and insulting the royalists, the king's body guard, and the officers of the allied armies,

In the midst of this tumult, it seemed at one time as if the disaffected were about to make some strange and desperate effort for a general explosion. In the gardens of the Tuilleries, and amid crowds of royalists of the inferior order, who assembled each night to dance under the king's windows, cries of Vive l'Empereur were frequently heard; and, notwithstand ing all the martial preparation of the allies, there were indications of a tendency to tumult among the inhabitants of the suburbs. In addition to the English and Prussian troops, which already occupied the strong posts of Paris, thirty thousand Russians, the selected force of the emperor's fine army, entered the city, and, after defiling in long procession before the allied sovereigns, took up their quarters in Paris and its vicinity. The King of France also employed some measures of intimidation.

It had long appeared to the spectators of this extraordinary scene, as if the slowness of Fouché's police to take any steps in consequence of the proclamation of the 24th July, encou⚫

raged the disaffected to believe the list of attainted persons then published to have been drawn up merely for the purpose of striking terror; but without the government meaning, or, to speak more properly, daring, to bring any of the accused persons to arrest and trial. Suddenly, as if to contradict such rumours, the public learned that Labedoyere, remarkable for having been the first to adopt the cause of Buonaparte after his landing, and the last to defend him after his abdication, had been seized in Paris, and was to be brought to trial. This enthusiastic Seid, so called because his fanatical attachment to Buonaparte bore a resem blance to that of the character so named to the false prophet in Voltaire's tragedy of Mahomet, had been for some time with Excelmans' division of the army of the Loire, and upon its hoisting the white flag, had returned to Paris, in order, as was suspected, to communicate with those attached to his party on the means of accomplishing an insurrection, or, as he himself alleged, to find the means of transporting himself to America. No proof of new machinations, however, was offered on his trial before the council of war, which turned entirely on the part he had played at Grenoble in the preceding month of March, when he showed the first example of open defection from the royal cause. This charge would admit neither of defence or palliation, and the accused hardly attempted either. He allowed that he might possibly have been misled by illusions, by old recollections, by false ideas of honour, and that his notions of patriotism might have been chimerical. But when he attempted to ground an exculpation on the conduct of Louis XVIII. and his ministry before the arrival of Buo naparte, the court refused to permit him to enter into matter foreign to

his exculpation. The facts charged being clearly established by proof, General Labedoyere received sentence of death accordingly. It was executed, notwithstanding the intercession of his wife, who threw her self at the king's feet; and notwith standing also of a sort of extenuating apology, which appeared in the Inde pendent, a paper conducted under the auspices of Fouché himself. This apology ingeniously urged in the crimi nal's behalf, that "still young, he had never served except under the colours of Napoleon. He had known Louis XVIII. only ten months. The first sovereign, whose abdication appeared to him only a sacrifice dictated by necessity, re-appeared suddenly before him. A habit contracted during fifteen years of considering the emperor, whom all the monarchs of Europe had acknowledged, as his legitimate chief, resumed all its force. It awakened affections which had been but ill extinguished. The ilJusion of the military glory-of the former power of the prince, rendered in the eyes of some of his partisans greater by his misfortunes and his exile, acted on an ardent and elevated imagination, which easily fancies the dictates of duty to be obeyed, even at the very moment in which the most sacred of duties are trampled on. It must be confessed, it was added, that the multiplied vicissitudes of our revolutions, and frequent changes of government have shaken, and have sometimes had the effect, during these 25 years, of rendering doubtful in France the notions of morality on the legitimacy of princes and the fidelity of subjects."

But while these facts are admitted, it ought to be remembered that the welfare of society depends upon re pressing crimes against the state, with out regarding the motives by which

those who engage in them may have been misled; that the defection of Labedoyere was contrary to the oath be had taken; and that if the doctrine of allegiance had become vague and doubtful in France, it was of the laet consequence that it should be confirmed by a solemn example. So soon, therefore, as the sentence of Labedoyere was confirmed by the. Court of Revision, to whom he appealed, it was carried into execution. The criminal was conducted in a carriage to August 19. the plain of Grenelles, and there shot by a detachment of gens d'armes. He died with great firmness; and although, while it is a crime for a soldier to betray his trust, or a subject to rebel against his sovereign, his execution must be considered as amply deserved; yet his youth, high courage, enthusiastic disposition, and handsome person, together with his falling the first victim of a crime which had included so many thousand accomplices, attracted much compassion.

Some weeks afterwards, two subordinate agents, called Cæsar and Constantine Fouchers, brethren, who had played a distinguished part as marshals de camp and commanders of fe derates, in the neighbourhood of Bourdeaux, were also tried and condemn. ed. They were of the true jacobin breed, as appeared from their bearing testimony at their trial against titles of nobility and distinctions of rank, and are said amply to have deserved the distinction which selected them as objects of punishment, by the seve rities they had exercised on the royalists of Bour- Sept. 28. deaux. They refused (as became their sect) all consolation offered them from religion, and walked arm in arm to the place of execution, with the air of serenity and firmness. They would not allow bandages to be

tied over their eyes, and one of them gave the signal for the execution.

These examples, but especially that of Labedoyere, struck terror into the disaffected, and restored to Paris the appearance of tranquillity. Here, therefore, Fouché's policy would have induced him to halt and temporize with the other persons included in the edict; but he was on the eve of losing

the power of protecting those with whom he had acted. The king, by the advice of Talleyrand, had lost no time in summoning a meeting of the Chamber of Representatives, and the temper of the members deputed to serve in that body, occasioned a great change in the cabinet of the Tuilleries.