Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

All so naked as she was born,
She stood her chamber door beforn.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"In the Aresta Amorum,' a lady who had stipulated to throw a nosegay to her lover, on a particular night on each week, complains of the difficulty she found in escaping to the window, ou par fois etoit toute nue par l'espace de deux grosses heures.' This strange practice prevailed at a time when the day-dress of both sexes was much warmer than at present; being generally bordered, and often lined with furs; insomuch that num

berless warrens were established in the neighbourhood of London, for the purpose of supplying its inhabitants with rabbets' skins.

"Perhaps it was this warmth of clothing that enabled our ancestors; in defiance of a northern climate, to serenade their mistresses with as much perseverance as if they had lived under the torrid zone. Chaucer thought he had given us the date of his dream with sufficient exactness, when he described it as happening

About such hours as lovers weep
And cry after their ladies grace.'

"In France, as appears from the work already quoted, the lovers were sometimes bound to conduct

les tabourins et les bas menestriers,' to the doors of their mistresses, between midnight and day-break, on every festival throughout the year; though the principal season for such gallantry was the beginning of May, when the windows were ornamented with pots of marjoram, and maypoles hung with garlands carried through the streets, and raised before every door in

succession. This was called 're-veiller les pots de mariolaine,' and 'planter le mai.' The same season appears to have been chosen by English lovers, for the purpose of crying after their ladies grace.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"In houses, of which the walls were made of clay, and the floors of the same materials, and where the stabling was under the same roof with the dwelling rooms, the furniture was not likely to be costly. Of this the author just quoted received, from some ancient neighbours, the following description: "Our fathers (yea and we ourselves) ' have lien full oft upon straw pal'lets, on rough mats, covered only with a sheet, under coverlets maid of dagswain or hopharlots * (I use their own terms), and a good round log under their heads, in'stead of a bolster or pillow. If it were so that our fathers, or the "good man of the house, had, within seven years after his marriage; purchased a mattress or flock bed, and thereto a sack of chaff to rest his head upon, he thought himself 'to be as well lodged as the lord of "the town; who, peradventure, 'lay seldom in a bed of down or whole feathers. As for servants, if they had any sheet above them, it was well; for seldom had they any under their bodies, to keep them from the pricking straws that ran oft through the canvass of the pallet, and rased their hardened hides.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"The progress of improvement in building, was from clay to lath and plaster, which was formed into panels between the principal timbers: to floors or pargets (as Harrison calls them, i. e. parquets),

dag, Sax. (from whence daggle or draggle), any thing pendent, a shred. The term therefore means any patched materials, like those worn by the poorest country people."

coated

either divers histories, or herbs, beasts, knots, and such like, are stained; or else they are seeled

coated with plaster of Paris; and, to ceilings overlaid with mortar, and washed with lime or plaster, ⚫ of delectable whiteness.' Coun- with @ak of our own, or wainscot

try houses were generally covered with shingles; but in towns, the danger of fires obliged the inhabitants to adopt the use of tile or slate. These latter buildings were ve y solid, and consisted of many stories projecting over each other, so that the windows on opposite sides of the street nearly met.The walls of our houses on the inner sides,' says Harrison, be either hanged with tapestry, arras work, or painted cloths, wherein

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

brought out of the east countries." This relates, of course, to the houses of the wealthy, which he also represents as abounding in plate and pewter. In earlier times, wooden platters, bowls, and drinking vessels, were universally used, excepting in the houses of the nobles. In France, if we may believe M. de Paumy (Vie privée des François), slices of bread, called 'pains tranchoirs,' were used as a substitute for plates, till the reign of Louis XII.”

SUMMARY NARRATIVE of the CIRCUMSTANCES which attended the DETENTION of LATOUR MAUBOURG, BUREAU DE PUZY, LA FAYETTE, and his Family *.

[From SEGUR'S REIGN of WILLIAM II. KING of PRUSSIA.]

"LA

A Fayette, Maubourg, and Bureau de Puzy, having in vain endeavoured to support the constitution of 1791, which they had sworn to maintain, and finding themselves compelled to emigrate, with some officers, in order to avoid the execution of decrees passed against them, meant to proceed to Holland; but, some leagues from the frontier, they were, notwithstanding their protestations, arrested by an Austrian post, and conducted to Luxemburg. Having sent to ask passports from the duke de Saxe-Teschen, they were refused, and those who signified this refusal, barbarously informed them, that they were reserved for

the scaffold.

"As soon as the orders had been received from the court of

Vienna, which determined the fate of the prisoners, and delivered them over to the king of Prussia, they were all three carried and confined at Wesel, where they were guarded by non-commissioned officers, whose orders were to observe them constantly, and not to answer their questions.

"La Fayette had fallen dangerously sick. His fellow-sufferers were refused permission at Maubourg to see their friend ready to expire. A salutary crisis having rescued him from the jaws of death, the king of Prussia thought he might profit by his dejected state, and had a proposal made to him, that his situation should be alleviated, if he would furnish him with plans against France; but he proved, by an energetic reply, his

"Communicated by one of the prisoners."

contempt

contempt of such a proposition. The rigour towards him was then redoubled, and soon after they were thrown into a cart and carried to Magdeburg, and were constantly refused any information of the existence of their families, respecting whom the proscriptions in France gave them the most anxious inquietude.

"In travelling thus, their keepers thought to aggravate their distress and excite the public indignation against them. These wishes, however, were not fulfilled; they every where received marks of the interest excited by the injustice of their detention, and the constancy of their courage.

"They remained a year at Magdeburg, in a damp and dark vault surrounded by high palisadoes, shut by four successive gates, and fastened with bars of iron and padlocks, However, their situation seemed milder, that they were sometimes allowed to see each other, and were walked out an hour each day on a bastion.

"The king of Prussia suddenly sent an order to remove La Fayette to Silesia; Maubourg solicited and obtained leave to be confined there with him they were conducted to Glatz, whither Bureau de Puzy was soon after sent.

observe the same respect towards the court of Vienna, which was irritated against him for having quitted the coalition. The prisoners were transferred to Neifs; and, although the dungeon which they there inhabited was still more dismal and unwholesome than any of the others, this change appeared happy to them, as all the three prisoners together were allowed to enjoy the presence of madame de Maisonneuve, who came courageously to share the chains of her brother, Maubourg.

"The king of Prussia, who did not wish, on making peace with France, to be obliged from justice to release his victims, determined to send them into Austria, and they were carried to Olmutz.

On their arrival at this place, they were robbed of whatever the Prussians had left them, which reduced them to their watches and buckles; some of their books even were seized in which was found the word liberty, particularly Helvetius de l'Espirit and Paine's Common Sense; on which La Fayette asked if these were contraband articles.

"Each of them was told, on being shut up separately in his cell, That they should hereafter sco

[ocr errors]

only their four walls; that they 'would have neither news, neces"Alexander Lameth, being dansaries, nor visitors; that it was gerously ill, could not be trans-forbidden to mention their names ported with his companions. His even among the jailers, or in the mother, who enjoyed a respect government dispatches, in which merited by her virtues, obtained they were distinguished by numof Frederic William, after ardent 'bers; that they would never be solicitation, that he should remain informed of the fate of their fain prison in his dominions; and milies, nor of each other's exissome time after, peace being con- tence; and that, as this situation cluded between that monarch and 'might naturally lead them to selfthe French, she succeeded in pro-destruction, they were forbidden curing his liberty. The king of Prussia granted it, because he did not think himself longer obliged to

knife, fork, and every means 'whatever of suicide.'

"After three certificates of physicians

sicians of the indispensable necessity of air for La Fayette, after three replies that he was not yet sufficiently ill, he was at length permitted to walk out unconditionally; for it is false that La Fayette enjoyed this, liberty, as has been alleged, on his engagement of honour that he should not attempt to make

his escape.

"The public know the enterprise of Dr. Boleman and the young Huger, the son of the man at whose house La Fayette first landed in America.

"Boleman, after several months' unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in procuring a note to be secretly delivered to him, and executed a very bold plan. He repaired to Vienna, sent for the young Huger thither, and posted himself with him at the place where La Fayette was to be conducted to take the air; and these two attempted to rescue him at the moment when, having misled some of his keepers, they endeavoured to disarm the one that remained with him.

"In this struggle, La Fayette gave himself a violent strain in the loins, and the corporal-jailer, with whom he contended, and whom he had disarmed, tore with his teeth his hand to the bone.

"His generous deliverers succeeded in getting him on horseback, with such negligence of their own safety, that they could scarcely find their horses to escape them selves. This loss of time, and the alarms of the keepers, having attracted people and troops, Huger

was

immediately secured, La Fayette, separated from Boleman, was seized eight leagues from Olmutz, and with the less difficulty, as he had no arms. Boleman Teached the Prussian territories,

"

but the king of Prussia had the barbarity to deliver him up to the Austrians.

"From this time the captivity of La Fayette was more rigorous, and his illness became more serious; he was left without relief, with an unremitting fever, during a remarkably severe winter, deprived of light, and not even allowed the linen which his situation rendered necessary.

"To increase his suffering, he was constantly made to believe that his companions had perished on the scaffold.

"The care that had been taken to keep La Fayette from the knowledge of every thing that might serve to inform him of the fate of his family is remarkable in the following anecdote.

"Latour Maubourg, having at length obtained permission to dispatch letters to his relations, learnt that madame de la Fayette was alive; he requested the commandant to allow his friend to be told that his wife yet lived: the commandant, after answering 'that his orders in this respect were too express,' from that time suppressed all the letters in which madame de la Fayette was mentioned, and did not deliver them to him till near a year afterwards, when he quitted Olmutz.

"Whilst La Fayette, reserved for the scaffold, was tortured in the prisons of Olmutz, his wife, uncertain of his existence, and condemned to perpetual grief in the prisons of Paris, daily expected to be led to execution, as had happened to the greater part of her family. The fall of the tyrant saved her life; but she did not, till long after his death, regain her liberty and strength sufficient to exe-,

cute

cute her designs. Having landed at Altona the 9th of -September 1795, she set out for Vienna under the name of Mottier, with an American passport; and arrived at Vienna before the court could be informed of her purpose, or prepared against her application.

"The prince de Rosenberg, affected with her virtues, obtained for her and her daughters an audience of the emperor, some detail of which it may be proper to give.

"Madame de la Fayette claiming the liberty of her husband, in the name of justice and humanity, that prince answered her, This affair is complicated; my hands are tied respecting it; but I grant with pleasure all that is in my power, by permitting you to join M. de la Fayette: I should act as you do, were I'in your place. M. de la Fayette is well treated, but the presence of his wife and daughters will be an additional indulgence.'

[ocr errors]

"Madame de la Fayette spoke of other prisoners, and particularly of La Fayette's servants, who she knew had suffered much, and whose affair could not be complicated. The emperor very graciously permitted her to write respecting those from Olmutz, and to address her applications directly to his imperial majesty; and madame de la Fayette, re-assured by the reception she had met with, then wrote on the road from Vienna to Olmutz, that she was astonished to find herself yet susceptible of all the happiness she was beginning to enjoy. But it was not long before sad experience convinced her that the emperor was deceived, and was ignorant of the cruel and tyrannical abuse his bar

barous agents made of his name and authority.

"Mesdames de Maubourg and de Puzy, inspired by the same sentiments, wished also to partake the chains of their husbands; but they were never permitted to enter the Austrian dominions.

"It is easy to imagine the im presion La Fayette must have ex, perienced at the sudden appearance of his wife and his children, whose existence had long been to him an object of fear and uncer tainty, and that which his affectionate daughters and their mother must have felt at the sight of his emaciated figure and pale countenance; but they did not expect that their embraces would be interrupted, by the jailers' robbing the travellers of all they had brought with them.

[ocr errors]

They took their purse, very ill supplied, and eagerly seized three forks, considered as instruments of suicide; for they well knew the temptation to it they had inspired. On this unexpected treatment, madame de la Fayette desired to speak to the comman dant; they answered, that he was forbidden to see her, but that she might write to him. She desired to write to the emperor, conformably to the permission he had granted her; this they refused, telling her that her applications to the commandant would be forwarded to Vienna. They consisted in attending mass on Sunday, having a soldier's wife to wait on her daughters, and being, as well as La Fayette, waited on by one of his domestics. She received no answer to all these demands, nor to an application she some time afterwards addressed to the minister of war, to see La

tour

« PředchozíPokračovat »