the care of Dr. RENAUDET, physician at the Hot Wells. On the first opportunity fhe escaped, and repaired to her beloved hay-stack. Her rapture was inexpreflible on finding herself at liberty, and once more fafe beneath this miferable refuge. Beneath a hay-stack LOUISA's dwelling rofe, Here the fair maniac bore four winters' fnows. Here long the fhiver'd, ftiffening in the blast, And lightnings round her head their horrors caft. Difhevell'd, lo! her beauteous treffes fly, And the wild glance now fills the staring eye: The balls fierce glaring in their orbits move; Bright spheres, where beam'd the sparkling fires of love, Ill-ftarr'd LoUISA! It was nearly four years that this forlorn creature devoted herself to this defolate life, fince fhe knew the comfort of a bed, or the protection of a roof. Hardship, fickness, intenfe cold, and extreme misery, have gradually impaired her beauty, but she still is a most interesting figure; and there remains uncommon fweetness and delicacy in her air and manner; and her anfwers are always pertinent enough, except when the fufpects the question is meant either to affront or enfnare her, when the feems fullen or angry. Some Quaker ladies at this time interpofed, and LOUISA, as she was called, was conveyed to Guy's Hofpital, where where she at present is, and ftill maintains her indignation against the men *. The perfon with whom the lodged, upon her death-bed, divulged the fecret of the flight of this ftranger from Portsmouth, which correfponds nearly with the time of her arrival near Bristol, and future enquirers have discovered, that she is "the natural daughter of FRANCIS Emperor of Germany t." * When any gentleman enters the room where she is kept, fhe always turns her head aside, and ftill expreffes a fullen difdain. † Vide the Narrative of Facts refpecting the Bristol Stranger, or Maid of the Hay-ftack. SECT. SECT. VII. HISTORY OF MADEMOISELLE DE M THE page of history furnishes us alfo with another inftance equally terrible; when that system of government was established in FRANCE, during the continuance of which, to ufe the words of an eloquent member of the Convention, there was under every footstep a fpring-gun, under every roof a fy, and in every family an informer, and on every bench of juftice an affaffin. A fmall tree of liberty which had been planted on a folitary spot near Bedouin, was, during the night, torn from the ground by a wretch, who knew that this incident would furnish a pretext for pillage and devastation. At break of day the very person who was the perpetrator of this act, the prefident of one of thofe focieties, which was the terror of all good citizens, being the combination only of the violent and worthless, founded a general alarm, and accufed the guiltless inhabitants of Bedouin of the facrilege committed against the hallowed fymbol of freedom. Without further inquiry a municipal commiffion was immediately organized by MAIGNET, which prefented itself for the hope of fpoil. Revolutionary troops were inftantly fummoned to fpread through the village and territory of Bedouin defolation and death. Five hundred habitations were were delivered to the flames; the fruits of the harvest were confumed; and the mandate of MAIGNET, fatal as the fabled wand of an evil magician, ftruck the rich and luxuriant foil with fudden fterility. The flourishing filk manufactures of Bedouin fhared alfo the fate of its defolated fields. The inhabitants being unable to name the guilty perfons, were all involved in one general profcription. Thofe who escaped the guillotine fought for fhelter in the depths of caverns, after the conflagration of their habitations, on the ruins of which bills were affixed, forbid ding any perfon to approach the fpot. Two hundred and eighty young men of Bedouin, who were clothed by the village, and had flown to the frontier even before the requifition in order to defend their country, in vain dispatch fucceffive letters pleading with fond folicitude for their parents. Thofe gallant young foldiers will return to their native village, their brows bound with the laurels of valour. Alas! they will find their native village but one fad heap of ruins!-in vain they will call upon the tender names of father, of mother, of fifter: a melancholy voice will feem to iffue from the earth that covers them, and figh, they are no more! For thofe victorious warriors no car of triumph is prepared; no mother's tears of transport shall hail the bleffed moment of their return; no father fhall clafp them to his bofom with exulting joy, proud proud of their heroic deeds. Ah, no! their toils, their dangers, and their generous facrifices, fhall find no recompenfe in the fweetnefs of domeftic affection, in the foothing blifs which, after abfence, belongs to home!-Alas! their homes are levelled with the ground; they will find no spot upon which to repofe their wearied limbs but the graves of their murdered parents. Amidst the groans of fo general a calamity, no doubt many a figh of private forrow has never reached the ear of fympathy, and many a victim has fallen unpitied and unknown. Some of the martyrs of MAIGNET's tyranny have however found the fad recorder of the penfive tale, and the fate of Monfieur de M's family is not among the least affecting of those scenes which were extended over the district of Bedouin. Monf. de M, after wandering as far as his infirmities would permit, for he was old and fick, took refuge in a lonely habitation, a few leagues diftant from Avignon, fituate in one of the wildest parts of that romantic country; in that celebrated region, for ever dear to the lovers of the elegant arts, where the immortal PETRARCH poured forth his impaffioned ftrains. Divine poet! no more shall the unhappy lover feek for confolation in fhedding delicious tears on the brink of that fountain where thou haft wept for LAURA!-no more shall he haunt with penfive enthusiasm that folitary valley, thofe craggy rocks, those hanging VOL. IV. woods, D |