commander-in-chief of the French
forces, and one of his aides-de-camp; Santerre, the commandant of the
armed force of Paris, and an aide-de-camp; Condorcet; Brissot; Gaudet;
Genson-net; Danton; Rersaint; Claviere; Vergniaud; and Syeyes; which,
with three other persons, whose names I do not now recollect, and
including Paine and myself, made in all nineteen."

Paine found warm welcome in the home of Achille Du-chatelet, who with
him had first proclaimed the Republic, and was now a General. Madame
Duchatelet was an English lady of rank, Charlotte Comyn, and English was
fluently spoken in the family. They resided at Auteuil, not far from the
Abbe Moulet, who preserved an arm-chair with the inscription, _Benjamin
Franklin hic sedebat_, Paine was a guest of the Duchatelets soon after
he got to work in the Convention, as I have just discovered by a letter
addressed "To Citizen Le Brun, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paris."

"Auteuil, Friday, the 4th December, 1792. I enclose an Irish newspaper
which has been sent me from Belfast. It contains the Address of the
Society of United Irishmen of Dublin (of which Society I am a member)
to the volunteers of Ireland. None of the English newspapers that I have
seen have ventured to republish this Address, and as there is no other
copy of it than this which I send you, I request you not to let it go
out of your possession. Before I received this newspaper I had drawn up
a statement of the affairs of Ireland, which I had communicated to my
friend General Duchatelet at Auteuil, where I now am. I wish to confer
with you on that subject, but as I do not speak French, and as the
matter requires confidence, General Duchatelet has desired me to say
that if you can make it convenient to dine with him and me at Auteuil,
he will with pleasure do the office of interpreter. I send this letter
by my servant, but as it may not be convenient to you to give an answer
directly, I have told him not to wait--Thomas Paine."

It will be noticed that Paine now keeps his servant, and drives to the
Mayor's dinner in a hackney coach. A portrait painted in Paris about
this time, now owned by Mr. Alfred Howlett of Syracuse, N. Y., shows him
in elegant costume.

It is mournful to reflect, even at this distance, that only a little
later both Paine and his friend General Duchatelet were prisoners. The
latter poisoned himself in prison (1794).

The illustrative notes and documents which it seems best to set before