try in the service of Prussia. Two sons of Louis
de Rapin were killed in the battles of Smolensko and Leipsic.

Many of the Rapins attained high positions in the military service of
Prussia. Colonel Philip de Rapin-Thoyras was the head of the family in
Prussia. He was with the Allied Army in their war of deliverance
against France in the years 1813, 1814, and 1815. He was consequently
decorated with the Cross and the Military Medal for his long and
valued services to the country of his adoption.

The handsome volume by Raoul de Cazenove, entitled "Rapin-Thoyras, sa
Famille, sa Vie, et ses OEuvres," to which we are indebted for much of
the above information, is dedicated to this distinguished military
chief.

III.

CAPTAIN RIOU, R.N.

"Brave hearts! to Britain's pride
Once so faithful and so true,
On the deck of fame that died,
With the gallant good Riou:
Soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave!"

CAMPBELL'S _Battle of the Baltic_.

The words in which Campbell describes Captain Riou in his noble ode
are nearly identical with those used by Lord Nelson himself when
alluding to his death in the famous despatch relative to the battle of
Copenhagen. These few but pregnant words, "the gallant and the good,"
constitute nearly all the record that exists of the character of this
distinguished officer, though it is no slight glory to have them
embalmed in the poetry of Campbell and the despatches of Nelson.

Having had the good fortune, in the course of recent inquiries as to
the descendants of illustrious Huguenots in England, to become
acquainted with the principal events in Captain Riou's life, drawn
from family papers, I now propose to supplement Lord Nelson's brief
epitome of his character by the following memoir of this distinguished
seaman.

Captain Riou was descended from the ancient Riou family of Vernoux, in
Languedoc, of whom early mention is made in French history, several
members of it having specially distinguished themselves as generals in
the wars in Spain. Like many other noble families of Languedoc in the
seventeenth century, the Rious were staunch Huguenots; and when, in
1685, Louis XIV. determined to stamp out Protestantism in France, and
revoked the Edict of Nantes, the principal members of the family,
refusing to conform, left the country, and their estates were
confiscated by the Crown.

Estienne Riou, heir to the estate at Vernoux, was born after the