FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   353   354   355   356   >>  
of the associations consequent upon their occupation, and whose low origin may have denied them opportunities of intellectual cultivation. This observation map even be extended to the liberal arts. It does not follow because a monarch is fond of these that he should so far forget himself as to make their professors his boon companions. He loses ground whenever he places his inferiors on a level with himself. Men are estimated from the deference they pay to their own stations in society. The great Frederic of Prussia used to sap, "I must show myself a King, because my trade is royalty." It was only in destitution and anguish that the real character of Louis developed itself. He was firm and patient, utterly regardless of himself, but wrung to the heart for others, not even excepting his deluded murderers. Nothing could swerve him from his trust in Heaven, and he left a glorious example of how far religion can triumph over every calamity and every insult this world has power to inflict. There was a national guard, who, at the time of the imprisonment of the Royal Family, was looked upon as the most violent of Jacobins, and the sworn enemy of royalty. On that account the sanguinary agents of the self-created Assembly employed him to frequent the Temple. His special commission was to stimulate the King and Royal Family by every possible argument to self-destruction. But this man was a friend in disguise. He undertook the hateful office merely to render every service in his power, and convey regular information of the plots of the Assembly against those whom he was deputed to persecute. The better to deceive his companions, he would read aloud to the Royal Family all the debates of the regicides, which those who were with him encouraged, believing it meant to torture and insult, when the real motive was to prepare them to meet every accusation, by communicating to them each charge as it occurred. So thoroughly were the Assembly deceived, that the friendly guard was allowed free access to the apartments, in order to facilitate, as was imagined, his wish to agonize and annoy. By this means, he was enabled to caution the illustrious prisoners never to betray any emotion at what he read, and to rely upon his doing his best to soften the rigour of their fate. The individual of whom I speak communicated these circumstances to me himself. He declared, also, that the Duc d'Orleans came frequently to the Templ
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   353   354   355   356   >>  



Top keywords:

Assembly

 

Family

 
companions
 

insult

 

royalty

 
deputed
 
persecute
 
information
 

encouraged

 

regular


regicides
 

debates

 

believing

 
deceive
 
disguise
 
special
 
commission
 

stimulate

 

Temple

 
frequent

agents

 

created

 

associations

 

employed

 

argument

 
destruction
 

office

 

render

 

service

 

hateful


undertook

 

friend

 
convey
 

communicating

 

soften

 

rigour

 

emotion

 
prisoners
 

illustrious

 

betray


individual

 

Orleans

 

frequently

 

communicated

 

circumstances

 
declared
 
caution
 

enabled

 

occurred

 

charge