When La Fayette resisted the commands of the sole remaining legitimate power in France, his "widowed wife" was arrested. Under the despotism of Robespierre, she escaped death only by a miraclepart of her family was actually immolated to his vengeance-but, what to some will appear more terrible, she experienced an unremitting captivity of fifteen months; during which she suffered all the horrors of a close confinement, being immured within four walls, subjected to a scanty and precarious diet, secluded from her children, and prohibited even from the light of heaven.

On the death of the tyrant, the voice of humanity was once more heard, and she was liberated, and restored to the arms of her afilicted daughters. But she was a wife as well as a mother, and her beloved husband was still in bondage! For he who had endeavoured to avert the execution of Louis XVI.—such is the gratitude of courts -was languishing in an Austrian prison !

She accordingly repaired to Hamburgh, accompanied by her children only; for she had not wealth sufficient to hire a single domestic; and she possesses a lofty spirit of independence, which taught her to reject pecuniary assistance, even from her few remaining friends, As soon as her health was a little restored, she set off to Vienna, and prostrated herself at the feet of the Emperor.

Francis III. is in the flower of his youth. The chilling hand of age has not yet rendered him morose; and, surely, victory cannot have blunted his feelings, and made him at once haughty and insensible-No! no! there is not a prince of his house, from the obscure Count de Hapsburg of a former period, to the late powerful tenant of the Imperial diadem, who has had more occasion to find and to feel that he is a man.

Weeping beauty did not supplicate in vain; the German Monarch raised her from her lowly posture, and promised better days. With his permission, she flew on the wings of affection; and, strengthened by conjugal love, knocked at the gate of the fortress that confined her dearly beloved husband, whose speedy deliverance (vain idea!} she hoped instantly to announce.

The massive bolts of the dungeon give way; the grating hinges of the iron doors pierce the ears; she and her virgin daughters are eyed, searched, rifled, by an odious and horrible gaoler; and those who, but a moment before, deemed themselves deliverers, now find themselves captives!

Reclining in the bottom of thy dungeon, these tears cannot be seen, these sighs cannot be heard; nor can the quick decay of youth and beauty, cankered in the bloom, and dissolving amidst the horrors of a German prison, be contemplated. But the heart of sympathy throbs for you, ye lovely mourners! the indignation of mankind is aroused; the present age shudders at your unmerited sufferings; and posterity will shed a generous tear at their recital. Anguish may not yet rend the bosoms of your persecutors, but a dreadful futurity awaits them; and, were it possible to escape the scourge of offended Heaven, they will yet experience all the vengeance of indignant history!'

We

We shall add the account of Isnard, whose elocution was probably less impressive than that of Vergniaud, but whose published speeches far surpass those of any other French

orator:

This Legislator, as deservedly celebrated for his probity and talents, as for his misfortunes, was the son of a wealthy merchant of Grasse, in the south of Provence. No instance could more strongly evince the attention bestowed in France on the important subject of education in the families of private citizens than this of Isnard. Although his father resided in a small provincial town, at a distance from any public seat of learning, yet the education of his son qualified him for a representative of the people, under the first Constitution, and rendered him inferior to none of his colleagues, Vergniaud excepted, in classical and polished eloquence.

He was appointed by the Department of Var a Deputy to the second Legislature. Soon after the assembly of that body, he distinguished himself by an accusation which he brought against the King's Ministers, for not communicating to the Legislature the particulars of the infamous partition treaty of Pilnitz, and for not adopting such defensive measures as might defeat the projects of the associated despots.

• When the insincerity of the King became so notorious that the Legislative Body found it impossible to secure liberty without depriving him of his power, and in mere despair were compelled to convert France into a Republic, the people were called upon to elect a Convention, with sufficient powers to create a Republican Constitution. Isnard was elected to this Convention, and in the first six months was one of its most conspicuous, and at the same time, in his principles, one of its most moderate Members.

He was considered as the chief of the party of the Federalists, which was, however, no more than a ramification of that of the Gironde. From motives of policy he warmly opposed the King's trial ; and prophetically anticipated all the evils of which that event has been partly a consequence. Will you, said he, for the sake of the blood of one man, involve yourselves in a war of ten years' duration, cause the death of three millions of our brethren, and expend ten milliards of property?

After the King's execution, and that England and Spain had engaged in the war, Isnard exclaimed in the Convention-The die is cast; our lot is liberty or extermination! Impressed with this opinion, he wrote an eloquent and pathetic exhortation to the people, the armies, and the popular societies, urging them to persevere in the war, for that in a war of freemen against slaves, the former could have little to apprehend.

On the fatal 31st of May, the day on which the violent Demagogues, Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, violated the sanctuary of the National Representation, Isnard was President of the Convention. His friends had apprised him of the expected commotion; and some of his party had moved that measures of defence should be taken to preserve the integrity of the Legislature. In this critical

situation

situation it was that he made the heroic declaration-" Let them assault me; let them surround me with their daggers; I will, notwithstanding, remain at my post, and die covered with glory, as a faithful repre

sentative!"

The sacrifice of one life would, however, have availed nothing; the measures of the Mountain were too prompt and vigorous to be resisted. It was fortunate for Isnard that he made his escape. His last words on this memorable day were intended to deprecate the mischiefs which he foresaw as the consequence-the astonished traveller shall inquire, said he, on what part of the Seine Paris existed. Being exiled, as well as Petion, Louvet, Buzot, and others of the same party, he was obliged to conceal himself nearly fifteen months in the house of a friend, in one of the inland departments. In this period it was generally supposed that he had perished or emigrated, and the Terrorists gave out that he had stabbed himself. When, after the 9th of Thermidor, he wrote a letter to the President Rewbell, asking leave to take his seat again in the Convention, a sudden ecstacy of joy burst through the hall, the Members exclaiming-Our colleague, Isnard, is come back from the other world!

Isnard took no active part during the remainder of the session of the Convention. In a mission to the Department of the Bouches du Rhone, such had been the mischiefs perpetrated by terrorism, that he found himself inadequate to repair the evils which he every where witnessed. Under the new Constitution, he continued, during one session, a Member of the Council of Five Hundred. In this Assembly he spoke but once, and his speech was an apology for his silence: When Simeon was accusing the Jacobins of the South"My heart also bleeds, said he, but since, in this Assembly, I can only speak to rocks, I choose rather to be silent.”

It was not worth while to insert the name of Voltaire, to talk of him so little and so ill.

ART. III. The Life of Bianca Capello, Wife of Francesco de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Translated from the German Original of J. P. Siebenkees. By C. Ludger. 12mo. pp. 200. 38. sewed. Lee and Hurst. 1797

WE E have already offered some strictures on Mr. Noble's Memoirs of the Medici *; and this work will undeceive the public with respect to some of the characters that were misrepresented by him. It was originally composed in German by M. Siebenkees, a resident at Venice, and was completed in the year 1789. That all-pervading industry of research, which characterises the German inquirers, is a prominent feature of the composition. Besides the printed chronicles, the almost inaccessible archives of Venice, and the libraries and hoarded manuscripts of Florence, have been ransacked for every frag

*See Rev. for October, p. 188.

ment

ment of correspondence or document that might elucidate a fact, or authenticate a date, relative to the heroine Bianca Capello. What remains conjectural is given as conjecture; and the united information is put together with orderly plainness, and without an ambiguous phrase or an oracular philosophic reflection. In short, the author belongs to the old and honest school of historians, whose object was truth, and whose writings, by a natural consequence, infused into society the love of morals and of quiescence.-The translator has properly executed his office.

In one circumstance, however, we apprehend our careful author to be mistaken; namely, in the substitution of Don Antonio. It is far more probable that this young man was really a son of the Grand Duke by Bianca, and that the proofs of his spuriousness were an after-contrivance of the friends of Ferdinando, who might have reason to be jealous of his popularity at Florence; than that Bianca should have invented a pregnancy, when no worldly advantage was likely to result from the deceit. The present author thus tells the story:

The plan, upon which the execution of her future political exist. ence was to be established, developed itself a year after the death of the Grand-duke Cosmo. She had long since prepared every thing, that could answer her ends, and particularly chosen those persons, on whose secrecy she could rely. Both inale and female agents were in her pay, and assisted her, either in deceiving the publick, or in canvassing and executing her scheme. Each individual of this association knew the part, he had to act, but the whole economy of the plot was unknown to them all. This secret was intrusted to none but to Bianca's most intimate chambermaid, Joanna Santi, who ar ranged and conducted the whole. This woman had singled out several pregnant women of the lower class in different parts of Florence; without either these women, or those who were employed in obserying them, knowing any thing of Santi's intentions. At the close of the year 1575 every thing was sufficiently prepared, and Bianca caused the report of her pregnancy to be circulated. During all this time, and till the very critical point of execution, Bianca's conduct was so circumspect, and she acted the part of a pregnant woman so naturally, as to deceive, not only the prince, whose raptures were boundless, but likewise every unbiassed person about her. On the 29th of August 1576 one of the women, who had thus been pointed out, was delivered of a son. Santi had no sooner received this intelligence, but she caused both the mother and child to be conveyed to a house of Bianca's. There she paid a visit to the woman, and under the pretence of shewing the boy to somebody in the adjacent room, took him from his mother's side, and sent him in the night to the mansion of her mistress, to be kept there till the hour appro priated for the fraudulent transaction.

During the whole day Bianca feigned the symptoms of a woman in labour, and the Grand-duke, who never left her a minute, waited with

with impatience for her delivery. But this critical event was protracted so late in the night, that the prince, worn out with fatigue and anxiety, found himself obliged to withdraw for a short time, and left nobody for her assistance but his physicians, whom she likewise contrived to send away. No sooner was she left with her confidential friends, but the news came, that she had been delivered of a son. Francesco had just laid down, when the messenger arrived with the intelligence. Intoxicated with joy, he immediately hastened to Bianca; received the boy in his arms, called him his son, and gave him the name of Antonio, in compliment to St. Anthony, who, he believed, had been propitious to the prayers of his favourite.

Bianca could not expect, that her stratagem should remain concealed, whilst there existed any one, that knew of it. She therefore contrived to rid herself of them in the most cruel manner; so that they were all either murdered, drowned in the Arno, or some way or other dispatched. The real mother, as soon as Santi had taken the child from her, was conveyed to Bologna by Garzi, a physician, in the pay of Bianca, without being ever made acquainted with the fate of her infant. Some time afterwards her conductor, on the point of death, revealed to her the whole transaction, and cautioned her against Bianca's machinations. This unhappy woman, not thinking herself safe at Bologna, wandered all over Italy under an assumed name, during twelve years, till the demise of Bianca, when at the jubilee she discovered her situation in a confession to a Bologriese priest, requesting him to obtain leave for her return to Florence from Francesco's successor, the Grand-duke Ferdinando. The wetnurse and another waiting-woman, who likewise knew part of the secret, were precipitated into the Arno. Joanna Santi a year after the transaction was dismissed by Bianca and sent to Bologna; but on her passage over the Apennines she was assaulted by a set of disguised banditti, who wounded her with several musket-shots. however arrived alive at Bologna, where she made an authentic declaration of every thing she knew of this affair, and of the violent death of all those, who had any knowledge of it. She declared, that she took her murderers for banditti, hired by Bianca, who, fearing lest she should reveal her secret, had determined upon her assassination. This deposition was forwarded to Cardinal Ferdinando, who however during Bianca's life never made use of it against her.

She

Thus the stratagem was made publick by the very means, which had been adopted to keep it secret. But before the sad scenes, which it occasioned, had taken place, several persons had suspected the fraud. Notwithstanding Bianca had arranged every thing with the greatest art to deceive the eyes of the observer, yet she had not entirely escaped the watchfulness of the physicians. These men had remarked, that some of the symptoms of a woman in labour, which Bianca had exhibited, were not quite natural; they had taken umbrage, and their doubts had reached the ears of the Grand-duke-Francesco soon received notice from different quarters, that he had been imposed upon; but all proved to no effect. He could not think of the possibility of a deception, and his joy in haying a son was so great, that he never made the least inquiry into