-when thy labour al done is Book II, ver. 144. Chaucer was a man of an enthusiastic turn of mind. This may well be inferred from the journey he appears to have made, when already forty-six years old, and employed in affairs of state, across the peninsula of Italy, that he might have the pleasure of seeing and conversing with Petrarca. Let us add to these features of the personal character of Chaucer his description of his own figure, at the time when he was writing the Canterbury Tales. Our hoste to "japen he began.... And saiéd thus: What man art thou? quod he, Thou lokest as thou woldest finde an hare, to M. Lavergne, governor of Longwy, when that fort surrendered to the Prussians. The moment Longwy was retaken by the French, the governor was arrested, and conducted to one of the prisons of Paris: Madame Lavergne followed to the capital. She was then scarcely twenty years of age, and one of the loveliest women of France. Her husband was upwards of sixty, yet his amiable qualities first won her esteem, and his tenderness succeeded to inspire her with an affection as sincere and fervent as that which he possessed for her. That dreadful epocha of the revolution had already arrived, when the scaffold reeked daily with the blood of its unfortunate victims; and while Lavergne expected every hour to be summoned before the dreaded tribunal, he fell sick in his dungeon. This accident, which at any other moment would have filled the heart of Madame Lavergne with grief and For ever on the ground I see thee inquietude, now elevated her to stare. hope and consolation. She could not believe there existed a tribunal so barbarous, as to bring a man before the judgment-seat, who was suffering under a burning fever. A perilous disease, she imagined, was the present safeguard of her husband's the fluctuation of events would life; and she promised herself that change his destiny, and finish in his favour, that which nature had so opportunely begun. Vain expectation! the name of Lavergne had been irrevocably inscribed on the fatal list of the 11th Germinal, of the second year of the republic (June 25, 1794), and he must on that day submit to his fate. Madame Lavergne, informed of this decision, had recourse to tears and supplications. Persuaded that she could soften the hearts of the representatives of the people, by a faithful picture of Lavergne's situation, she presented herself before the committee of general safety: she demanded that her husband's trial should be delayed, whom she represented as a prey to a danger8 ous and cruel disease, deprived of his strength, of his faculties, and of all those powers either of body or mind, which could enable him to confront his intrepid and arbitrary accusers. "Imagine, O citizens," said the agonized wife of Lavergne," such an unfortunate being as I have described, dragged before a tribunal about to decide upon his life, while reason abandons him, while he cannot understand the charges brought against him, nor has sufficient power of utterance to declare his innocence. His accusers in full possession of their moral and physical strength, and already inflamed with hatred against him, are instigated even by his helplessness to more than ordinary exertions of malice; while the accused, subdued by bodily suffering, and mental infirmity, is appalled or stupified, and barely sustains the dregs of his miserable existence. Will you, O citizens of France, call a man to trial while in the frenzy of delirium? Will you summon him, who perhaps at this moment expires upon the bed of pain, to hear that irrevocable sentence which admits of no medium between liberty or the scaffold; and, if you unite humanity with justice, can you suffer an old man At these words every eye was turned upon Madame Lavergne, whose youth and beauty, contrasted with the idea of an aged and infirm husband, gave rise to very different emotions in the breasts of the members of the committee, from those with which she had so eloquently sought to inspire them. They interrupted her with coarse jests and indecent raillery. One of the members assured her with a scornful smile, that young and handsome as she was, it would not be so difficult as she appeared to imagine, to find means of consolation for the loss of a husband, who, in the common course of nature, had lived already long enough. Another of them, equally brutal and still more ferocious, added, that the fervour with which she had pleaded the cause of وو such an husband was an unnatural excess, and therefore the committee could not attend to her petition. Horror, indignation, and despair took possession of the soul of Madame Lavergne ; she had heard the purest and most exalted affection for one of the worthiest of men contemned and vilified as a degraded appetite. She had been wantonly insulted, while demanding justice, by the administrators of the laws of a nation, and she rushed in silence from the presence of these inhuman men, to hide the bursting agony of her sorrows. One faint ray of hope yet arose to cheer the gloom of Madame Lavergne's despondency. Dumas was one of the judges of the tribunal, and him she had known previous to the revolution. Her repugnance to seek this man in his new career, was subdued by a knowledge of his power, and her hopes of his influence. She threw herself at his feet, bathed them with her tears, and conjured him by all the claims of mercy and humanity, to prevail on the tribunal to delay the trial of her husband till the hour of his recovery. Dumas replied coldly, that it did not belong to him to grant the favour she solicited, nor should he chuse to make such a request to the tribunal: then in a tone somewhat animated by insolence and sarcasm, he added, " and is it then so great a misfortune, madame, to be delivered from a troublesome husband of sixty, whose death will leave you at liberty to employ your youth and charms more usefully?" Such a reiteration of insult roused the unfortunate wife of Lavergne to desperation, she shrieked with insupportable anguish, and, rising from her humble posture, she extended her arms towards heaven, and exclaimed, “Just God! will not the crimes of these atrocious men awaken thy vengeance! Go, monster," she cried to Dumas, “I no longer want thy aid, I no longer need to supplicate thy pity: away to the tribunal, there will I also appear: then shall it be known whe ther I deserve the outrages which thou and thy base associates have heaped upon me.” From the presence of the odious Dumas, and with a fixed determination to quit a life that was now become hateful to her, Madame Lavergne repaired to the hall of the tribunal, and mixing with the crowd, waited in silence for the hour of trial. The barbarous proceedings of the day commence. M. Lavergne is called for. The jailors support him thither on a mattrass; a few questions are proposed to him, to which he answers in a feeble and dying voice, and sentence of death is pronounced upon him. Scarcely had the sentence passed the lips of the judge, when Madame Lavergne cried with a loud voice, Vive le Roi! The persons nearest the place whereon she stood, eagerly surrrounded, and endeavoured to silence her, but the more the astonishment and alarm of the multitude augmented, the more loud and vehement became her cries of Vive le Roi! The guard was called, and directed to lead her away. She was followed by a numerous crowd, mute with consternation or pity; but the passages and staircases still resounded every instant with Vive le Roi! till she was conducted into one of the rooms belonging to the court of justice, into which the public accuser came to interrogate her on the motives of her extraordinary conduct. "I am not actuated," she answered, "by any sudden impulse of despair or revenge, for the condemnation of. M. Lavergne, but from the love of royalty, which is rooted in my heart. I adore the system that you have destroyed. I do not expect any mercy from you, for I am your enemy; I abhor your republic, and will persist in the confession I have publicly made, as long as I live." Such a declaration was without reply: the name of Madame Lavergne was instantly added to the list of suspected persons: a few miButes afterward she was brought be fore the tribunal, where she again uttered her own accusation, and was condemned to die. From that instant the agitation of her spirits subsided, serenity took possession of her mind, and her beautiful countenance announced only the peace and satisfaction of her soul. On the day of execution, Madame. Lavergne first ascended the cart, and desired to be so placed that she might behold her husband. The unfortunate M. Lavergne had fallen into a swoon, and was in that condition extended upon straw in the cart, at the feet of his wife, without any signs of life. On the way to the place of execution, the motion of the cart had loosened the bosom of Lavergne's shirt, and exposed his breast to the scorching rays of the sun, till his wife entreated the executioner to take a pin from her handkerchief and fasten his shirt. Shortly afterwards, Madame Lavergne, whose attention never wandered from her husband for a single instant, perceived that his senses returned, and called him by his name. At the sound of that voice, whose melody had so long been withheld from him, Lavergne raised his eyes, and fixed them on her with a look at once expressive of terror and affection. "Do not be alarmed," she said, "it is your faithful wife who called you; you know I could not live without you, and we are going to die together." Lavergne burst into tears of gratitude, sobs and tears relieved the oppression of his heart, and he became able once more to express his love and admiration of his virtuous wife. The scaffold, which was intended to se parate, united them for ever. Filial Affection. During the war of La Vendee, the Duc de la Rochefoucault, condemned to die, as was also his daughter, found in the resources of that affectionate girl the means of concealing himself, till a period arrived more favourable to that justice which he successfully claimed. His daughter's first care was to place him under the roof and protection of an artizan, who had formerly been a domestic in the duke's service, after which she procured an asylum for herself. They were thus both secured from the immediate power of their persecutors; but as the duke's property was confiscated, and as compassion is apt to grow weary of its good offices, the means of their bare subsistence were soon worn out. While the daughter was suffering under the extreme of poverty, she learnt that her father's health was declining, for want of due nourishment. She now saw no way but to devote her life to save her father's, and she instantly made the resolve. A general of the republic at that very time was passing through the city in which was her place of concealment, and to him she wrote the following letter: "CITIZEN GENERAL, "Wherever the voice of nature is heard, a daughter may be allowed to claim the compassion of men in behalf of her father. Condemned to death at the same time with him who gave me being, I have successfully preserved him from the sword of the executioner, and have preserved myself to watch over his safety. But, in saving his life, I have not been able to furnish all that is necessary to support him. My unhappy father, whose entire property is confiscated, suffers at this moment the want almost of every thing. Without clothes, without bread, without friend to save him from perishing of want, he has not even the resource of the beggar, which still furnishes a little hope, that of being able to appeal to the compassionate, and to present his white hairs to those that might be moved to give him aid: my father, if he is not speedily succoured, will die in his place of concealment, and thus, after snatching him from a violent death, I shall have to sustain the mournful reflection of having betrayed him to one more lin gering and painful....that of dying of cold and hunger. "Be the judge, citizen general, of the extent of my misfortune, and own that it is worthy of pity. One resource only is left to me. It is to cast myself upon your generosity. I offer you my head, I undertake to go, and to go willingly, to the scaffold, but give immediate succour to my dying father. Below I give you the name of my place of concealment, there I will expect death with pleasure, if I may promise myself that you will be touched with my prayers, and will relieve my old and destitute parent." The soldier had no sooner read this letter than he hastened to the asylum of Madame de Rochefoucault, and not only relieved her father, but secretly protected both, and after the 9th Thermidor, procured the restoration of M. de Rochefoucault's property by a revision of their sentence. Affection of sisters to brothers. It was the practice at Nantes and other places, to put a number of condemned persons on board a vessel, and sink them in the river. During these terrible drownings, a young girl, whose brother had been arrested, repaired to the house of Carrier to implore his protection in behalf of her brother. "What age is he?" asked Carrier. "Thirty-six years.” "So much the worse; he must die, and three-fourths of the persons in the same prison with him." At this horrible answer, the poor girl knelt before the pro-consul, and declaimed emphatically against the barbarity of his conduct. Carrier ordered her to leave the house, and even brutally struck her with the scabbard of his sabre. Scarcely, however, had she left his apartment, when he called her back to inform her, that if she would yield to his desires, he would spare the life of her brother. His proposition filled her with disdain, and restored her to courage; she replied, that "she had demanded justice, and justice was not to be bought with infamy." She retired, and learning that her brother was on the point of being conducted to one of those dreadful boats at Paimbeuf, she ran again to the pro-consul, hopeless now of his life, and entreating only that she might be allowed to give something to her brother that might support him on the way. "Begone," replied Carrier, "he has no need of any support." The brother of this unfortunate girl went to Paimbeuf, but before he had perished his sister was no more. Fortitude. During the disastrous reign of the assignats, a family formerly opulent, consisting of a father, mother, and five children, pined in want in a small cottage at the extremity of a town. The father, whose temper was violent, supported his misfortune with an impatience difficult to express. He frequently considered whether he should not put an end to his life. His wife, observing the agitation of his mind, and knowing him capable of a rash act, meditated on the means of withdrawing him from his project. But the difficulty was to find motives sufficiently strong. His affection for herself and his children, was rather calculated to push him to extremity; for it was evident, he never thought on them without anguish bordering on despair. To propose to him to have recourse to the charity of his neighbours, she knew would wound his pride, which was excessive. Be sides, she was not certain of the success of that expedient; and she knew, that a refusal would be a thousand times more cruel than any species of torture. Even the resource of consolation was not left her, for her husband would not listen to any topic that might afford hope, but impatiently pressed her to die with him, and to persuade their children to the same resolution. Surrounded by so many subjects of discouragement, the wife never aban doned herself to despair. One idea arose in her mind, which she expressed to her husband with so much tenderness and courage, that it almost instantly restored his mind to tranquillity. "All is not lost," she said, "I have health and our five children also. Let us leave this town, and retire to some place where we are not known, and I and my children will labour to support their father." She added, that if their labour was insufficient, she would privately beg alms for his support. The husband ruminated awhile over this proposition, and took this resolution with a constancy worthy of the honourable life he has since led. "No," he said, "I will not reduce you to the disgrace of beggary for me; but since you are capable of such attachment to me, I know what remains to render me worthy of it." He then lost no time in collecting together the remnants of his property, which produced a hundred pistoles, and quitted the town with his family, taking the road to a distant department; and in the first place where he thought he was not known, he changed his dress for the coarse dress of a peasant, making his whole family do the same; and continuing his route, arrived at a town which he thought fit for his purpose, in the neighbourhood of which he hired a cabin, with a field, and a small vineyard. He then bought some wool and flax to employ the girls, and tools to cultivate the land for himself and the boys, the use of which he hired a peasant to teach him. A few weeks sufficed to conquer all difficulties. The example of the father and mother excited emula, tion among the children; and acquiring a competence from its labour and constancy, originating in the courage of the virtuous mother, this family lived perfect patterns of peace and domestic union. Gratitude. During the unhappy days of September, 1792, a woman conceived |