Part 24 (1/2)

This interrogatory was the last undergone by Captain Wright He was then again stretched on the rack, and what is called by our regenerators the INFERNAL tor pinched with red-hot irons all over his body, brandy, unpowder, was infused in the numerous wounds and set fire to several times until nearly burned to the bones In the convulsions, the consequence of these terrible sufferings, he is said to have bitten off a part of his tongue, though, as before, no groans were heard As life still reeon; but, as he was exceedingly exhausted, a spy, in the dress of a Protestant clergyman, presented himself as if to read prayers with hian to ask some insidious questions, he cast on him a look of conte no means to obtain any inforled him in his bed Thus expired a hero whose fate has excited more compassion, and whose character has received reatfor our Eht has diffused new rays of renown and glory on the British naeon

You have certainly a right to call me to an account for all the particulars I have related of this scandalous and abouarantee the truth of the narration, I am perfectly satisfied of it myself, and I hope to explain myself to your satisfaction Your unfortunate countryeon of the naained his confidence, and orthy of it, though eust of life, or froht, he survived hi details I have given you, and sent then diplomatic corps, with a prayer to have them forwarded to Sir Sidney Sht be inforht orthy of their protection and kindness Froeard's own handwriting

I know that Bonaparte and Talleyrand proht to the Spanish Ambassador; but, at that time, he had already suffered once on the rack, and this liberality on their part was merely a trick to iet rid of his iht, like Sir George Rumbold, would himself have been the first to announce in your country the recovery of his liberty

LETTER xxxII

PARIS, October, 1805

My LORD:--Should Bonaparte again return here victorious, and a pacificator, great changes in our internal Government and constitution are expected, and will certainly occur Since the legislative corps has completed the Napoleon code of civil and criminal justice, it is considered by the Emperor not only as useless, but troublesome and superfluous For the same reasons the tribunate will also be laid aside, and His Majesty will rule the French Empire, with the assistance of his Senate, and with the advice of his Council of State, exclusively You know that the Senators, as well as the Councillors of State, are no to his whi to the present constitution, are to hold their offices for life, the alterations which reislature and the tribunate may also make Senators movable But as all members of the Senate are favourites or relatives, he will probably not think it necessary to resort to such a measure of policy

In a foreneous coislative corps are worthy to figure by its side; their members are also ci-devant mechanics of all descriptions, debased attorneys or apostate priests, national spoilers or rebellious regicides, degraded nobles or dishonoured officers The nearly unanimous vote of these corps for a consulate for life, and for an hereditary Emperor, cannot, therefore, either be expressive of the national will, or constitute the legality of Bonaparte's sovereignty

In the legislature no vote opposed, and no voice declainity; but in the tribunate, Carnot--the infamously notorious Carnot--'pro forma', and with the perainst the return of a monarchical foruery did not iood Parisians, otherwise, and so frequently, the dupes of all our political and revolutionary mountebanks Had Carnot expressed a sentiment or used a word not previously approved by Bonaparte, instead of reposing hi in Cayenne

Son of an obscure attorney at Nolay, in Burgundy, he was brought up, like Bonaparte, in one of those military schools established by the munificence of the French Monarchs; and had obtained, froineers when the Revolution broke out

He was particularly indebted to the Prince of Conde for his support during the earlier part of his life, and yet he joined the enemies of his house, and voted for the death of Louis XVI A member, with Robespierre and Barrere, of the Committee of Public Safety, he partook of their power, as well as of their crih to deny that he had anything to do with other transactions than those of the armies Were no other proofs to the contrary collected, a letter of his own hand to the ferocious Lebon, at Arras, is a written evidence which he is unable to refute It is dated November 16th, 1793 ”You y, all measures of terror commanded or required by present circumstances Continue your revolutionary attitude; never mind the amnesty pronounced with the acceptance of the absurd constitution of 1791; it is a crime which cannot extenuate other crimes Anti-republicans can only expiate their folly under the age of the guillotine The public Treasury will always pay the journeys and expenses of informers, because they have deserved well of their country Let all suspected traitors expire by the sword or by fire; continue to march upon that revolutionary line so well delineated by you The cos, all your our; they are not only all permitted, but co the establishment of revolutionary tribunals, and particularly that for the organization of the atrocious ned by hiineers, certainly is not without talents; but his presu hi the years 1794, 1795, and 1796, were so triuru, Moreau, and Bonaparte, is impertinent, as well as unfounded At the risk of his own life, Pichegru entirely altered the plan sent him by the Committee of Public Safety; and it was Moreau's n could prescribe, thatsuccesses of Bonaparte in Italy were both unexpected and unforeseen by the Directory; and, according to Berthier's assertion, obliged the, coe five ti his tenty as a director, Carnot honestly has made a fortune of twelve millions of livres; which has enabled him not only to live in style with his wife, but also to keep in style two sisters, of the name of Aublin, as his irls, and prouillotine in 1793, to be their second father; but he debauched and ruined the Aublin, who, in 1796, reproached him with the infamy of his conduct, was delivered up by him to a rant He has two children by each of these unfortunate girls

Bonaparte e well aware that, should another National Convention be convoked, and the E of France was, he would, with as great pleasure, vote for the execution of Napoleon the First as he did for that of Louis XVI He has waded too far in blood and crirade

To this saislator Baptiste Cavaignae was, before the Revolution, an excise officer, turned out of his place for infidelity; but the depart him, in 1792, a representative of the people to the National Convention, he there voted for the death of Louis XVI and remained a faithful associate of Marat and Robespierre After the evacuation of Verdun by the Prussians, in October, 1792, he hty-four citizens of that toere arrested and executed Airls, under twenty years of age, whose cri of Prussia on his entry after the surrender of Verdun He was afterwards a national commissary with the armies on the coast near Brest, on the Rhine, and in Western Pyrenees, and everywhere he signalized hiuinary deeds The following anecdote, printed and published by our revolutionary annalist, Prudhoenerator and Inac and another deputy, Pinet,” writes Prudhomme, ”had ordered a box to be kept for the they expected to arrive in that town Entering very late, they found two soldiers, who had seen the box empty, placed in its front

These they ordered i outraged the national representation, to be guillotined on the next day, when they both were accordingly executed!” Labarrere, a provost of the Marechaussee at Dax, was in prison as a suspected person

His daughter, a very handsoirl of seventeen, lived with an aunt at Severe The two pro-consuls passing through that place, she threw herself at their feet, i mercy for her parent This they not only proe to Dax, that she ht see him restored to liberty On the road the monsters insisted on a ranso, afflicted and asha, the accomplish of the alarh the hen she saw her unfortunate parent ascending the scaffold! After having remained lifeless for half an hour, she recovered her senses an instant, when she exclaimed:

”Oh, the barbarians! they violatednac assisted Barras and Bonaparte in the destruction of some thousands of men, women, and children in the streets of this capital, and was, therefore, in 1796, eneral of the custoislator His colleague, Citizen Pinet, is now one of our Emperor's Counsellors of State, and both are coion of Honour; rich, respected, and frequented by our entlemen

LETTER xxxIII

PARIS, October, 1805

MY LORD:--I suppose your Governilant and too patriotic not to be inforns in our arsenals, dockyards, and seaports I have seen a plan, according to which Bonaparte is enabled, and intends, to build twenty shi+ps of the line and ten frigates, besides cutters, in the year, for ten years to come I read the calculation of the expenses, the names of the forests where the tin countries where a part of the necessary ed, and of our own departments which are to furnish the remainder The whole has been drawn up in a precise and clear manner by Bonaparte's Maritime Prefect at Antwerp, M

Malouet, well known in your country, where he long rerant, and, I believe, was even employed by your Ministers

You may, perhaps, smile at this vast naval scheme of Bonaparte; but if you consider that he is the master of all the forests, reat part of Gerable rivers and seaports of these countries and Holland, and remember also the character of the reatest obstacle he has to encounter, and to reh even in this he has advanced greatly since the present war, during which he has added to his naval forces twenty--nine shi+ps of the line, thirty--four frigates, twenty-one cutters, three thousand praunboats, pinnaces, etc, with four thousand naval officers and thirty-seven thousand sailors, according to the saned by Malouet It is true that most of our new naval heroes have never ventured far froathered under our land batteries; but the iiven to the national spirit, and our conscripts in the maritime departments prefer, to a man, the navy to the army, which was not formerly the case

It cannot have escaped your observation that the incorporation of Genoa procured us, in the South of our Empire, a naval station and arsenal, as a counterpoise to Antwerp, our new naval station in the North, where twelve shi+ps of the line have been built, or are building, since 1803, and where tiht ates have lately been launched, and four shi+ps and two frigates are on the stocks; and the Genoese Republic has added sixteen thousand seafaring men to our navy Should Bonaparte terminate successfully the present war, Naples and Venice will increase the number of our seaports and resources on the borders of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas All his courtiers say that he will conquer Italy in Germany, and determine at Vienna--the fate of London