Louis the Eighteenth. For I again declare that I found it necessary to roll the thunder back on the metropolis of England, as from thence, with the Count d' Artois at their head, did the assassins assail me. " " Your country also accuses me of the death of Pichegru." I replied, "It is most certainly and universally believed throughout the whole British empire, that he was strangled in prison by your orders." He rapidly answered, "What idle, disingenuous folly! a fine proof, how prejudice can destroy the boasted reasoning faculties of Englishmen! Why, I ask you, should that life be taken away in secret which the laws consigned to the hands of a public executioner. The matter would have been different with respect to Moreau. Had he died in a dungeon, there might have been grounds to justify the suspicion that he had not been guilty of suicide. He was a very popular character, as well as much beloved by the army; and I should never have lost the odium, however guiltless I might have been, if the justice of his death, supposing his life to have been forfeited by the laws, had not been made apparent by the most public execution. "At the same time, I solemnly affirm, that no message or letter from the Duke reached me after sentence of death had been passed upon him."' This last sentence refers to an occurrence which the author next relates; and he says that he saw, in the possession of Count de las Casas, the copy of a letter said to be written by the Duke d'Enghien to Bonaparte, to this effect: It stated his opinion that the Bourbon dynasty was terminated. That was the settled opinion of his mind, and he was about to prove the sincerity of it. He now considered France no otherwise than as his country, which he loved with the most patriotic ardor, but merely as a private citizen. The crown was no longer in his view : it was now beyond the possibility of recovery: it would not, it could not be restored. He therefore requested to be allowed to live and devote his life and services to France, merely as a native of it. He was ready to take any command or any rank in the French army, to become a brave and loyal soldier, subject to the will and orders of the government, in whose hands soever it might be, to which he was ready to swear fealty: and that, if his life were spared, he would devote it with the utmost courage and fidelity to support France against all its enemies.' Talleyrand is accused of having been intrusted with this letter, and, like Lady Nottingham in the case of Lord Essex's If this be ring, of not delivering it till the Duke was no more. true, it seems to give plausibility to our conjecture respecting management and deception in the case of Captain Wright: but we are unable to judge of the account altogether. The poisoning of the sick and wounded Frenchmen at Jaffa, and the murder of 500 Turkish prisoners, formed also portions of of this memorable dialogue; and with regard to the former, Napoleon observed, "Be assured, that if I had committed such a horrid act, my very soldiers themselves would have execrated me; and I might have looked to their ceasing to obey me. There is no occurrence of life to which I gave more publicity than this."" His narrative then stated that, on raising the siege of Acre, and having made every possible arrangement for the numerous sick and wounded, seven men remained in a quarantine hospital, infected with the plague, in such a state that there was not the least probability of their living beyond 48 hours; that their removal was utterly impracticable; that he could not place them under the protection of the English; and that it was the practice of the Turks to mutilate and barbarously treat their Christian prisoners. Influenced by these considerations, he admitted that he suggested to the chief physician the propriety and humanity of shortening the sufferings of these seven men by opium: but that the proposal was opposed and abandoned; that no opium was given: that he halted the army a day longer than he intended, waiting the dissolution of these men; and that a report of their death was brought to him before the rear-guard evacuated the city. He then detailed the facts relative to the prisoners taken at El Arish, 'natives of the mountains, and inhabitants of Mount Tabor, but chiefly from Nazareth,' who were released on engaging to return quietly to their homes. On the subsequent capture of Gaza by assault, these men were found among the garrison, in violation of their engagement; and, said Napoleon, " on this fact being indubitably ascertained, I ordered the 500 men to be drawn out and instantly shot." "- We cannot stay here to discuss the character of this bloody act: but it should be remembered that the prompt avowal of it was a voluntary homage to truth that intitles other declarations to the more belief. Our readers will probably recollect the explosion of an Infernal Machine in the streets at Paris, about sixteen years ago, from which Bonaparte on his passage to the theatre narrowly escaped with life. This topic was introduced by Mr. Warden, who related the current statement of particulars relative to it, and to all of which Napoleon gave his assent. Mr. W. added the report that, in a conversation with Mr. Fox, Napoleon had accused the English of having invented the machine, and particularly alluded to Mr. Windham: this, also, he admitted, declaring that he still retained that opinion. "Yes, the English ministry were instrumental to the plot. Their money has gone for that and other extraordinary purposes." - The author, like a good English man, man, defended his country from the foul imputation of countenancing assassination, but Napoleon would not retract. Some interesting particulars are also given respecting the great battle at Waterloo. Napoleon said that his army consisted of 71,000 men; and General Gourgond endeavoured to convince Mr. Warden that the victory was lost through the blunders of Drouet, Grouchy, and Ney. ' Napoleon, it seems, was completely ignorant of the movement made from Frasnes, by Count Erlon, (Drouet) on the 16th. For when he appeared near Ligny, Napoleon actually deployed a column of French to oppose him, mistaking his force at the time for a division of the Prussian army. - Erlon was now made acquainted with the defeat of the Prussians; and, without thinking it necessary to have any communication with Napoleon, as to future operations, returned to his original position. That division of the army, therefore, became totally useless for that day both to the Emperor and to Marshal Ney. - Grouchy, losing sight of Blucher, and taking the circuitous route which he pursued, was represented as having committed a most fatal error. - While the right wing of the French, in the battle of the 18th, was engaged in defeating the flank movement of Bulow, of which they were perfectly apprised, Marshal Ney had orders to engage the attention of the English during this part of the action; but by no means to hazard the loss of his troops, or to exhaust their strength. Ney, it appears, did not obey the order, or met with circumstances that rendered it impracticable for him to adhere to it. He was stated to have contended for the occupation of a height and thus weakened his corps, so that when the Imperial guards were brought to the charge, he was unable to assist them. - I understood that Napoleon had crossed the Sambre with 111,000 men. In the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras he lost 10,000. Grouchy's division consisted of 30,000 detached to follow Blucher, leaving an effective force, on the morning of the 18th, of 71,000.' Talleyrand is frequently introduced in these pages; and the writer remarks that his French ship-mates always spoke of him with detestation as to principle, but with admiration as to talents. They stated that his separation from their master took place at the period of the invasion of Spain, but not from difference of judgment as to that measure, which he approved; founding his recommendation of it on his unalterable opinion, which he boldly communicated to the Emperor, that his life was not secure while a Bourbon reigned in Europe.' Madame Bertrand unequivocally asserted that Talleyrand was in secret communication with Napoleon when they were last at Paris, and would have joined them in a month.' Of Davoust, Prince D'Eckmuhl, Marshal Bertrand spoke, to our extreme astonishment, in an animated strain of panegyric, REV. DEC. 1816. Ff which which was instantly met with an outcry from all who heard it, respecting the conduct of that officer, at Hamburgh, which we represented as atrocious beyond example. This he would not allow; on the contrary, he described him as a zealous, correct, and faithful commander; and far from being destitute of humanity; as notwithstanding his notions of military obedience, which were known to be of the most rigid kind, he did not act up to the severity of his instructions. As for his taking a bribe, Bertrand declared him to be incapable of such baseness; and asserted, from his own knowledge, that a very large sum had been offered him, to connive at the sailing of some ships from Hamburgh in the night, which he refused with the disdain of a faithful soldier and an honourable man.' The celebrated Abbé Pradt was also mentioned both by It Napoleon and his attendants, and by all with ridicule. appears that this personage was the very humblest of the most humble adulators of Napoleon: he had been in a low situation in the police, but possessed qualities that are favourable to advancement in such times as those in which he lived. "He had both cunning and humour," said Napoleon, " and I took him with me when I went to Spain; and, as I had to wage war with monasteries, I found the Abbé a phalanx against the dominion of priests."" In closing this very uncommon production, we must add to the general remarks with which we commenced our report of it, that the author deserves praise for the spirit with which he appears to have conducted himself in his conversations with the still more uncommon object of it, and for the intelligence which he displayed in eliciting and continuing dialogues of so much delicacy and moment. A few errors of style and of the press have escaped correction; among which, (p. 101.) the Bellerophon is named instead of the Northumberland, and (p. 209.) the Duke of Bassano is called Marat instead of Maret. In p. 197. a publication respecting Bonaparte, 'by a Lieutenant of the Bellerophon,' is so aukwardly included in the mention of other tracts which are stated to be full of silly falsehoods, that it might be supposed to share this imputation with them: but we are persuaded that Mr. Warden did not intend to impeach the veracity of any part of that pamphlet, which was really written by the officer whose name it bears, and whose character is a guarantee for its adherence to cor rectness. Large as this article is, we have not been able to particularize many circumstances occurring in the volume which merit notice: but it is so extensive that we have no room left for farther observations, and we must now consign the work to the judgment of the public and of posterity. 13 MONTHLY MONTHLY CATALOGUE, FOR DECEMBER, 1816. POETRY. Art. 10. The Prisoner of Chillon, and other Poems. By Lord Byron. 8vo. pp. 60. 5s. 6d. sewed. Murray. 1816. The Castle of Chillon is situated on the Lake of Geneva, between Clarens and Villeneuve, and has in it a range of dungeons which in former times have received various unfortunate victims, In the early part of the 16th century, it immured for many years François de Bonnivard, an accomplished ecclesiastic, whose patriotism had incensed the Duke of Savoy on his invasion of Geneva, and who was at length released by the Bernese when they took possession of the Pays de Vaud. In allusion partly to this occurrence, but forming a tale of his own imagination, Lord Byron has written a poem of four hundred lines, in his octo-syllabic measure, in which the narrator is the supposed survivor of three brothers who had here been confined with ingenious cruelty. They chain'd us each to a column stone, And we were three yet each alone, We could not move a single pace, To hearken to each other's speech, 1٠ 4 The speaker was the eldest of the three, and he characterizes the dispositions of the other two, and their gradual dissolution, with much distinctness, force, and pathos. The second brother was of a noble and elevated soul; the youngest, of more gentle frame: 'He faded, and so calm and meek, Ff2 Whose. |