Mengaud. Now, if you choose. Yorke. But my passport has not been verified. Mengaud. It shall be done directly. (Here he called his Secretary, and desired him to bring my passport, which he instantly signed.) Yorke. Will this suffice? Mengaud. No; it must be countersigned by the Municipality. Yorke. Must I go with it? Mengaud. Yes, and my Secretary shall accompany you; but your lady need not take that trouble. Yorke. When that is completed, may I then go? Mengaud. Yes, to any part of France you please. Yorke. I thank you. (Here followed another profound reverence, and thus ended the first interview with M. Mengaud, without the words Sir, or Citizen, having been once interchanged between us.) As soon as the Secretary had dispatched my business with the Municipality, I returned to Ducrocq's, expecting to find every thing arranged for our departure; but to my utter surprize, I found I had another ceremony to go through at the Custom-house; our portmanteaus had not been visited. Accordingly I hastened thither with the keys, and after a most rigid search had been made, made, and I had chastised one of the officers for strutting about with my cocked hat for the amusement of his fellows, my things were removed to the inn. In this examination, the articles had been so deranged, that it was necessary completely to unpack them. While this was performing, and the horses were sent for, I paid a visit to a respectable merchant, whom I had known ten years before, and who, to my great joy, had survived the havoc of the revolution. The information he gave me will form the subject of my next letter. LETTER LETTER II. Character of the Citizens of Calais. CALAIS is one amongst the very few towns of the Republic which has not witnessed any of the horrors of the revolution. This circumstance is mentioned in other parts of France with admiration and respect, because from its vicinity to England, and the attachment which its inhabitants have ever borne towards our countrymen, it became an object of suspicion to the Committee of Public Safety. Its escape, however, from the storms of revolutionary phrenzy must be ascribed to a more intelligent cause than the mere operation of chance. To the firmness and humanity of one man, who filled the office of Mayor, and to the mild and unblemished characters of the persons who composed the Municipality, the citizens of Calais are indebted for the preservation of their lives and properties. The Committee of Public Safety accused the inhabitants of an Anglo-mania, and in the first paroxisms of their resentment, ordered Joseph Le Bon, one of the most ferocious of their instruments of extermination, to visit this guiltless town, and to re-organize the constituted authorities. In general, during those days of cruelty and and of mourning, the visit of a Conventional Deputy was the same thing as a visit of the Public Executioner; and of all the men who had distinguished themselves by unfeeling severities, Le Bon stood foremost in the dismal catalogue. A short time before his arrival at Calais, he had perpetrated most horrible cruelties at Arras. The following anecdote will sufficiently delineate the fierceness of this man's character. Two young ladies of Arras, neither of them twenty years of age, were practising on the pianoforte on the morning when the news of the surrender of Valenciennes reached that city: it happened unfortunately for them that Le Bon passed by their window at the time. He listened attentively, and heard the music of Ca ira, a well known popular air in France, and which, one would have imagined, would have been a proof of their civism. Far different was the opinion of Le Bon. These beautiful girls were arrested, tried, and condemned the next day; and, notwithstanding their youth, innocence, and beauty, were executed on the following morning for "playing on the piano on the day that unfavourable news arrived, and thereby shewing that they rejoiced at the defeats of the Republic." The atrocity of this action struck even the Jacobins with horror. It was stated to the Revolutionary Tribunal, in their behalf, that Ca Ira was a republican march, which had often animated their armies on the day of battle, and as they had taken no share whatever in the political divisions of the Republic, it was evident that they must have been well affected, since they were not aware that their domestic occupations would undergo so severe an examination. 66 To these remarks Le Bon replied, that the most popular air might be converted into a vehicle of mischief, and that the time which these young persons had selected for playing Ca Ira was a proof of their evil dispositions. They played Ca Ira," said he, "not for the French, but for the Austrian army. They had heard of the unfortunate surrender of Valenciennes, and therefore they meant by Ca Ira, that the Austrians should advance, and capture more of our fortresses. If they had not this in their minds, why did they not play the Reveil du Peuple?" In Such were the arguments which induced the jurors to condemn to death these unfortunate young persons, and so delicate was the thread on which human existence was suspended during those moments of wretchedness and terror. deed, the effect was so violent on the minds of the people, that the name of Liberty became odious to them, and a vast majority sighed for the return of that ancient despotism, under which they had lived secure, though degraded as men. If they had not felt the dignity of their nature before, they now found themselves sunk below the |