Where pleasing profpects brighten in my eye, ON HAPPINESS. M. G. AFTER THE MANNER OF MILTON. [Tranflated from a Collection just published at Berlin.] O HAPPINESS! Where's thy refort? Amidst the splendour of a court? In fearch of truth? Or doft thou rove Laugh at the farces mortals play? Exult amidit the fcenes of war? No more I'll vex, no more I'll mind thee, Memorial and Petition of MADAME GUILLIN to the National Affembly of France. If the narrative that follows were not authenticated in fuch a manner, as to make the moft fceptical perfon fee that it is impoffible to refufe it credit, I should have fuppofed it to be one of the most daring impofitions that ever was attempted on the public. It is the fubftance of a memorial and petition prefented by Madame Guillin, in perfon, at the bar of the National Assembly of France, as published in the Gazette nationale, ou Moniteur univerfel, of Paris, on Tuesday the 16th of Augnft 1791. Monfieur VICTOR BROGLIE, Prefident of the National Affembly, introduced the bufinefs by a short speech from the chair: This, and the Lady's addrefs to the Affembly, with the anfwer to it, by the Prefident, are, for the fake of brevity, omitted. What follows, is the fubflance of a written petition, that was read by one of the Secretaries of the Affembly. Our readers will excufe the fingular file of this compofition, which we have endeavoured, though imperfectly, to imitate. This kind of language is, at the prefent moment, accounted eloquence in France. This article is given as a fingular trait of the national manners, and the spirit of the times, without farther comment. You will recollect without doubt, gentlemen, the cruel circumstances in which the city of Lyons was involved, whilst Monfieur Guillin de Pougelon, brother of my hufband, was accufed, with fome other perfons, of having formed a project of a counter-revolution. The report which was made to you at first, appeared, in some measure, to be well founded; and active forefight and neceffity, engaged your comité de recherches to a rigour, fatal to fome individuals, though falutary to the public caufe. Meffieurs Guillin de Pougelon, Terraffe, and Defcarts being taken, were condemned to prifon till farther orders. I could fhow, in favour of the accufed, triumphant exculpatory pieces, which the equity of the prefent minister of justice has brought to light, to clear the innocence of M. Guillin and the accufed: I ought to confine myself to point to you the deplorable fituation of that good old man, who was the benefactor, the adviser, and the defender of those who dare to accuse him at prefent. The cause is nearly connected with mine and that of my children. M. Guillin Montel, my husband, had ferved his country faithfully, and his country had rewarded him for it: Covered with honourable wounds, loaded with years, and esteemed by the public, he inhabited peaceably his house of Polemieux, near Lyons; I and his children were his only fociety: His houfe was always the afylum of the unfortunate, who never follicited him in vain; it became that of the family of his brother, when the ftorm which was to destroy us, had already gathered over his head. No just complaint, no reproach had ever been made against him; ever faithful to his duty, he refpected all authorities. Several vifits had already been made in the houfe; already it had been obferved that peace reigned in our asylum, and wisdom in our conduct: Ah! without doubt, the enemies of the name which we bear, had not thought their hatred fatisfied by the first misfortunes with which they had afflicted us. On the 26th of June laft, two municipalites joined to that of Polemieux, dared to inveft our habitation; a fearch for arms was the pretext. The apparatus of war is displayed, and 300 national guards prefs round the municipal officers. No defence is oppofed: Ah! what could an old man do, furrounded by a few women, and children in the cradle ! M. Montel afks if they have orders; objects that the acts of the department forbid fuch incurfions: He speaks in the name of the law; he is not heard even by the municipal officers. I advance before the most blood thirsty; they refpected me not; but the cry of fury fpread itself afar: They beat to arms; the villages around affemble : thirty parishes run to arms, thirty ftandards are in motion. Against whom? Great God! againft an old man,-against women and children! They demand with loud cries the head of my husband! The domeftics fled,-the doors were burft open,-the furniture broken ;—I force my husband to take refuge in a concealed cellar ;-he had already given up his arms, without attempting the life of any of his affailants. : I remain alone in the midst of these furious people :Already the pillage is begun; the fire which had preceded it fhews itfelf everywhere;-I make myself a paffage through the flame,-my fex is no longer a protection for me against these furies!-I fupplicate their mercy.I hold out to them, in my arms, my two children, terrified and in the convulfions of death. Wandering in the midst of armed men, loaded with blows and infults, I offer them my life to fave that of my husband: I entreat the municipal officers, in the name of humanity and of the law, to interpofe their authority. The fury appeared for a moment to be fufpended:-I began to flatter myself with hope, but I had no reafon; the flames had made too great progrefs-The unhappy man, pursued from retreat to retreat, avoids one death, only to find from the hands of affaffins another. Some men encourage him, and engage for his life. Vain caths! As foon as he appears, the rage is redoubled;-they try who can give him the first blow. I have feen my unfortunate husband torn to pieces alive; I have feen his members torn afunder, and fcattered around him; I have feen his dying eye; I have heard his expiring mouth bid me his last farewell. -He was put to death! I have feen his head cut off, and his bloody members carried in trophies to the neighbouring villages.-Those who remain, dispute for his mutilated body; they bathe their hideous faces and their hands in his blood; they prefent themselves to the people in this horrible attire. Diftracted, and unconfcious of what I did, I demanded death from them, with loud cries s; but the wretches, without doubt to augment my fufferings, have condemned me to the torment of living. At laft the canibals retire. Where do they go-to renew the feast of Atreus,-to roaft the members of their victim, and then devour them! The national militia ftoped them in the midst of that abominable repast. Wandering through the woods, it was twenty-four hours before I could join the unfortunate remains of my family. We have taken refuge at Lyons, not being able to live in a house reduced to afhes, which had fwallowed in its ruins, furniture, money,-in fine, every thing we had. Alas! What remains to my children and me? Nothing! What remains to an unfortunate woman, and to children, bending under the load of misfortunes? Neither father nor husband! M. Guillin de Pougelon has been in irons for nine whole months. This old man, who during fixty-eight years of useful service, has not been accused of any crime, groans in fecret, deprived of the fight of his children, without any kind of confolation, payed upon by inquietude, and loaded with phyfical diftrefs, which make his life be endangered.-Each day has feemed to aggravate his loffes. The wife of his fon, a tender wife and mother, who was the comfort of his old age, depreffed by this stroke, which deprived her of her father-in-law whom he loved, in an excess of despair, after having bathed her child with her tears, threw herself from a window! and died lamented by every sensible being. M. Guillin de Pougelon whofe liberty I come at your feet to claim, is the tutor of my children. It is on him alone that all our hopes repofe: He is the only protector whom we can claim. Nature bas given him to us,-the magiftrates have confirmed it. I ask of you, gentlemen, in the name of the nation, in the name of justice, to be favourable to my demand, and to crown it by fetting at liberty M. Guillin, my brother-inlaw, and tutor of my children. You will acquire by this act of beneficence a new right to the gratitude and veneration of the French people. The Afembly referred this petition to the Committee of Reporis. |