MUtfl^LF 
 
 *B 7S0 t?t 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 1- -.r^' 
 
 
 
 ^, -f :-.- . 
 
 .i/ -^ 
 
eXj(^lBRIS 
 
 JViLFRED Harold Munro 
 
 ;-m.^ 
 


THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
- A 
 
 PICTURE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EMPIRE OF BUONAPARTE, 
 
 AND HIS FEDERATE NATIONS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER: 
 
 BEING A TOUU 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 HOLLAND, FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND, 
 DURING THE YEARS 1804-5. 
 
 IN A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM A NOBLEMAN TO A MINISTER 
 OF STATE, 
 
 Kdited by the Author of The Revolutionary Plutarch^ Isfc, 
 
 Tel est Tesprit Fran^ais, je radmire et le plains ; 
 Dans son abaissement, quel exc^s de courage ; 
 La tete sous le joug, les lauriers dans les mains, 
 II cherit k la fois la gloire et Tesclavage, 
 Ses exploits et sa honte ont rempli Tunivers ! 
 
 MIDDLETOW^r, (COKK.) 
 
 PRINTED BY ALSOP, RILEY AND ALSOP. 
 
 1807. 
 

 BXOHANGE 
 
TO THE 
 RIGHT HONORABLE 
 
 W. WINDHAM, M. P. 
 
 ONE OF HIS majesty's PRINCIPAL SECHETARIES OF 
 
 HAD the Jirst war against France been con- 
 ducted according to those liberal ideas which your 
 talents and patriotism suggested, I am persuaded the 
 world would long ago have beeji delivered from that 
 revolutionary monster, noxv threatening to devour 
 all legitimate sovereignty, all ancient distinctions, 
 all hereditary property, all social morality, and all 
 political honesty. Louis XVIII. would then have 
 ruled over millions, and Napoleon the First have 
 commanded only a battalion; the freedom of the con- 
 tinent would then have still existed, and that of Great 
 Britain would not have been endangered. Nations 
 would then have found their safety in peace, and 
 their rulers been revered as fathers, not dreaded as 
 tyrants, or despised as criminals. These sentiments 
 
VI DEDICATION. 
 
 are not mine alone^ hut those of a statesman^^ unfor^ 
 tunately too profound ; one who^ during a residence in 
 England^ had opportunity to study public characters ; 
 and who since, when directing the foreign transact 
 tions of revolutionary France, has no less i?ifluenced 
 the destiny of states by his able counsels in the cabinet^ 
 than French warriors by their brilliant achievements 
 in the field, I know that during the last war he 
 dreaded your talents more than those of ariy other 
 statesman. Even in the presence of continental am- 
 hassadors he more than once expressed this opinion. 
 
 Accept, Sir I this dedication as a sincere, disinter- 
 ested tribute of admiration. It is offered by one 
 who, though an ardent friend to lawful monarchy, 
 is a total stranger to courtly flattery ; whose name 
 has 7iever appeared upon the civil lists either of 
 Princes or Republicans, though it may be read upon 
 all the lists of proscription issued by regicides and 
 rebels. 
 
 I have the honor to be. Sir, 
 Your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
 London, June, 1806. 
 
 * Talleymnd. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE many contradictory reports circulated 
 by Buonaparte's emissaries, or disseminated by ig- 
 norant or malicious travellers, concerning the pre- 
 sent situation, and the public spirit of the people of 
 Holland, France and Switzerland, induced a Conti- 
 nental Sovereign to direct one of his Ministers of 
 State, in the latter part of 1803, to engage some 
 judicious, well informed person to undertake a 
 journey through these countries. 
 
 The Minister, with the approbation of his Prince, 
 fixed upon a Brabant Nobleman, as eminent for his 
 talents as for his birth, who had more than once at- 
 tentively travelled over the same ground ; whose 
 relatives possessed rank, and wealth; and whose 
 friends were powerful ; who was well recommend- 
 ed from abroad ; and who had protectors at home, 
 to support him in case of any unforeseen occur- 
 rences, resulting from the watchful and oppressive 
 jealousy of the French government. 
 
 The Editor has been favoured with a manuscript 
 copy of the correspondence of this Nobleman with 
 the Minister of State, and its contents form this 
 volume. They carry with them internal evidence 
 of talents and veracity, and evince, that a person. 
 
vm ixTRODuc rioK. 
 
 to whom Ministers opened their cabinets, and whom 
 the great admitted to their familiar society, could 
 be no ordinary traveller. 
 
 This work presents to the world a moral and po- 
 litical sketch highly and miiversally interesting. It 
 holds out warnings to sovereigns, and lessons to 
 nations ; it admonishes the former, what they ought 
 not to be, and the latter, what they ought not to 
 endure. 
 
 The Editor claims no other merit from this pub- 
 lication, than to have translated and arranged the 
 materials furnished from abroad, in the shape in 
 which they now appear before the public. His 
 principal object, in this publication, is the same 
 that it has been in his former works : to confirm 
 the loyal in their duty, the religious in their faith, 
 md, if possible, to reclaim the seditious, the factious, 
 ^nd the infidel, by exposing the horrors and misery 
 of rebellion and Atheism in France. Although his 
 zeal may exceed his capacity, the virtuous part of the 
 community will give him credit for the purity and 
 disinterestedness of his motives, when he solemnly 
 declares, that having seen his nearest relatives mur- 
 dered, his property plundered, and his rank destroy- 
 ed by the French Revolution, he labours in obscu- 
 rity, unnoticed, in defence of the prerogatives, pos- 
 sessions and safety of that society, where, except his 
 honour, he has nothing either to lose or to preserve* 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LETTER I. — Amsterdam. My baggage seized at Doesburgh ; the 
 
 . Mayor dare not interfere. I dine with him and the Governor. 
 
 Conduct of the Governor ; his literary pretensions, vanity and 
 
 ignorajice 1 
 
 LETTER 11. — Arnheim. Respectable club. Mayor and municipal 
 officers rather spies than magistrates. Politics of the inhabitants. 
 Former prosperity. Its trade nearly annihilated by French cus- 
 tom-house officers, &c. Unjust seizure and confiscation of two 
 vessels 8 
 
 LETTER III. — Occurrences on the road from Arnheim to 
 Utrecht. Vigilance of the police. Outrages of the garrison of 
 Utrecht 13 
 
 LETTER IV.— Encampment at Ziest. Description of the coun- 
 try. Profanation of the church at Amersfort. Sufferings of the 
 inhabitants . . '. IS 
 
 LETTER V. — Return to Utrecht ; insolence of the postillion ; 
 the commissary takes part with him ; redress given by the 
 French military commander. Immorality of modern Dutch- 
 men. Theft committed by the municipal officers ... 23 
 
 LETTER VI. — Difficulties with the police. Former prosperity 
 and present decline of Utrecht. Ingratitude of Colonel Beau- 
 cour to Citizen Van T. Infamous conduct of another republi- 
 can officer 28 
 
 LETTER VIL— Visit to Naarden. Decay of the fortifications^ 
 Trekschuits. Get my servant out of prison. Measures adopted 
 by the police ruinous to the inhabitants. Associations of thieves 
 and swindlers 33 
 
 LETTER VIII. — Hospitality at Amsterdam. Remarks on the 
 education of females in Holland ; immorality of the lower and 
 
 2 
 
n CONTENTS, 
 
 middle classes arising from French fi'atemity ; paint and rouge 
 becoming common 40 
 
 LETTER IX. — Clubs and literary societies. Fi'ench theatre. 
 Prevalence of the French language through the policy of go^ 
 vernment. Prejudice in favour of French fashions ; their conse- 
 quences. Citizen M. and Baron d'Y 44 
 
 LETTER X. — Former and present wealth and population of Am- 
 sterdam. Frequency of suicides. Citizen Vander ©eulen ; tra- 
 gical catastrophe .... .•...-. . . . . . . 49 
 
 LETTER XI. — Musicoes, spiel-houses, or brothels, licensed in 
 Holland ; parents introduce their children there ; anecdote of 
 one of the females 54 
 
 LETTER- XII.— The Jews one seventh partof the Batavian po- 
 pulation ; the cause. A Jew Rabbin. The extension of French 
 principles. Former plan of Buonaparte to be King of the Jews^ 
 address prepared but not issued 58 
 
 LETTER XIII.— Beggary of the populace at Amsterdam. De- 
 testation of the French. An Irish adventurer; his swindling 
 transactions ; escapes punishment, and goes to Paris. Infamous 
 
 - conduct of General Augereau . ^ . . . . . . . .63 
 
 LETTER XIV. — The Dutch more anxious for pleasure than for- 
 merly. My host ; his sufferings from French fraternity ; his 
 brother-in-law ruined by it 68 
 
 LETTER XV. — Servants paid by visitors at Amsterdam and 
 Hamburgh, and in Denmark and Sweden. Anecdote of an old 
 gentleman at Harlem. Baron d'H. his vicissitudes, mysterious 
 conduct and death 71 
 
 a. 
 
 LETTER XVI. — Arrest of Pichegru and Moreau ; their charac- 
 ters. Pichcgru much beloved in Holland. General Brune ; his 
 injustice and peculation 77 
 
 LETTER XYII. — The Batiavian.commer.cial character injured by 
 French adventurers. Increase of French merchants ; theii* im- 
 morality and profligacy. Fraud committed by a French house ; 
 protected by tlieir governmcut / . 8:^ 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 LETTER XVni.— Visit to the coffee-houses, Sec. round the 
 city. Embarrassment. Incivility of an innkeeper . . 85 
 
 LETTER XIX. — French coffee-house ; formerly a place of resort 
 
 . for Dutch republicans. An old acquaintance; reasons for his 
 
 change of opinons. Sauster, a republican orator ... 89 
 
 LETTER XX. — Fraud on a merchant. Citizen R. ruined by a 
 pretended Baroness de Montaut 93 
 
 LETTER XXI.— Excursion to North Holland. Visit the scenes 
 of the principal engagements. Remarks on the expedition to 
 the Helder. The French detested in North Holland . . 98 
 
 LETTER XXIL— The exchange. Present and former aspect of 
 affairs and conduct of men. Ruined merchants and tradesmen. 
 Commerce entirely carried on by neutral, and a few covered 
 ships 102 
 
 LETTER XXIII. — Harlem. Superstitious devotion of a passenger 
 in the trekschuit. Dine at a friend's house ; his present and 
 former opinions ; he is confined, and released by La Croix for a 
 large sum. Sufferings of one of his neighbours .... 106 
 
 5^ETTER XXIV. — Valkenaar, a republican deputy to the Bata- 
 vian Convention, disgraced for speaking against Buonaparte's 
 military despotism. Restrictions on the liberty of the press 111 
 
 LETTER XXV.—The rocf, the best place in the trekschuit. 
 Description of French travellers in Holland. Interesting female 
 companions from Leyden to Delft 115 
 
 LETTER XXVI. — Dutch perseverance and industry in repairing 
 the dikes. The low people as great friends to order as ever. 
 Inveteracy of the Dutch against the French. Contest between 
 three French dragoons and the master of the trekschuit ; the 
 master arrested, and imprisoned. I obtain his release. Anec- 
 dote of him. Pichegru's generosity 120 
 
 LETTER XXVII.— Opinions respecting the murder of the Duke 
 d'Enghein. Anecdote of the Duke ........ 125 
 
 LFTTER XXVIIL— Rotterdam favourable to the House of 
 Orange j distressed less than Amsterdam, Introduction to an 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 English merchant, and to the different clubs ; description of 
 them 129 
 
 LETTER XXIX. — The poor Jews at Amsterdam mostly revolu- 
 tionists. Tne reverse at Rotterdam. Robbery and swindling 
 practised on them by the French. Frequency of robberies and 
 impositions since the revolution ; consequent mistrust and sus- 
 picion < 133 
 
 LETTER XXX. — Theatrical amusements. Adventure of a Jew- 
 actress. Libertinism of French officers and soldiers. General 
 Salm ; his infamous conduct towards the daughter of a Dutch 
 Admiral. Colonel Fctuvier; his artifice and perfidy . . 1S7 
 
 LETTER XXXT. — Atrocious murder by a French surgeon, who is 
 suffered to escape punishment ; another instance of similar pro- 
 tection of French criminals 142 
 
 LETTER XXXII.— Advantage to Rotterdam from the English 
 trade. Buonaparte's enmity to British commerce. Smuggling re- 
 gularly carried on in this country ; by whom ..... 146 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. — Markets here. Goldsmiths plundered, and a 
 congregation robbed by French soldiers ; similar conduct in 
 North Holland, and at Schiedam 150 
 
 LETTER XXXIV.— Tree of liberty. Horrid instance of republi- 
 <:an fanaticism 153 
 
 LETTER XXXV.— Dutch capitalists conceal their wealth, or 
 eihigrate. Reciprocal hatred of the French and Batavians 156 
 
 LETTER XXXVI.— Story of Citizen Van R. and his daugh- 
 ter 160 
 
 LETTER XXXVII.— Hague. A Dutch fair; its amusements, &c^ 
 Fortune-tellers; a Dutch heiress inveigled into marriage with a 
 Frenchman 167 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. — Public executions during the fair ; policy 
 of them ; account of the criminals 172 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 LETTER XXXIX.— Civility of the French ambassador; his cha- 
 racter ; conversation with him respecting the state of France 
 
 175 
 
 LETTER XL.— The Russian and Swedish ambassadors ; their 
 characters and talents. French emissaries. Madame de M. an 
 agent of Talleyrand ; her connection with a foreign ambassa- 
 dor 181 
 
 LETTER XLL — The Batavian Directors; their affectation of 
 parade; Buonaparte discontented with their conduct ; their ho- 
 nour and patriotism ; their difficult situation lo4 
 
 LETTER XLIL— The effect of Buonaparte's imperial rank on 
 the minds of the people ; the patriots ashamed of being duped by 
 French artifice 1C8 
 
 LETTER XLIII. — Tlie Prince of Orange's country house now a 
 coffee-house. Anecdote of a young French lady ; the murders 
 she committed. The Batavian Admiral Verheul ; his ignorance 
 and gasconade ; promoted by Buonaparte ..*... 192 
 
 LETTER XLFV.— Dordrecht. Sufferings of the inhabitants of 
 Middleburgh. Distress caused at Flushing by Buonaparte fixing 
 upon it as one of the rendezvous of his fleet ; houses demolished j 
 persons imprisoned and property confiscated. The Batavian 
 government remonstrate in vain. Tyranny and exactions of the 
 French General Monnet 200 
 
 LETTER XLV. — Antwerp. French custom-house on the frontiers ; 
 civility of the officers ; my passports demanded by gensdarmes. 
 Travellers detained by order of the minister of police ; vigilance 
 and severity lately increased ; new regulations respecting pass- 
 ports, M. Herbouville, the prefect ; his character . . . 204 
 
 LETTER XLVL— Exertions of Buonaparte to render Antwerp 
 an eminent naval station. Opinions concerning the state crimi- 
 nals at Paris. Political conjectures 208 
 
 LETTER XLVII. — Origin of the tiade of Antwerp ; its pros- 
 perity and decline. Contrast of wealth and poverty. Beggars 
 numerous and insolent. Public discontent. Unjust taxation, 
 requsitions, extortions, §cc 212 
 
iiciv CONTENTS, 
 
 LETTER XLVin. — The ci'devant nobles more economical than 
 before the revolution. Society at present formal and witliouf 
 harmony. Emigrant monks, nuns and abb^s, permitted to return 
 to France ; their credulity ; loss of their property. . . 216 
 
 LETTER XLIX— Wretchedness of tlie English artificers at 
 Antwerp ; Buonaparte's cruelty to their wives and children. 
 Preparations for an encampment 221 
 
 LETTER L. — Ghent j vigiiance of police agents. Invasion of 
 England j docti-ine of predestination favourable to Buonaparte's, 
 views 224, 
 
 LETTER LI. — Faypoult, the prefect ; his revolutionary zeal ; 
 promotions, extortion and vanity. General Van Damme ; his 
 conduct towards Faypoult ; his murder of a disarmed pri- 
 soner «... 228 
 
 LETTER LIL— M. Dellafaille, the Mayor. Popular discontent 
 at requisitions. French debauchery and extravagance. . 232. 
 
 LETTER Lilt — ^IVIode of collecting taxes. Practice of quar- 
 tering garnisaire on the inliiibitants. Tyranny and pillage, by 
 order of Admiral Bruix 234 
 
 LETTER LIV. — No tlieatrical exhibitions permitted except iit 
 French. Appearance of the ladies. Economy. Subscription 
 club ; French spies, Sec 238 
 
 LETTER LV.— Lisle. The diligence cheap and commodious. State 
 of the roads ; conversation during the journey. French liberty 
 execrated by a Turk ; fraud practised on him by the Frencl\ 
 niinistei's. Similar instance of swindling . 242 
 
 LETTER LVI. — Buonaparte's indefatigable activity at Boulogne. 
 Dissatisfaction and schisms in the churches since their re-open ■ 
 ing. Debire, one of the grand vicars, a murderer and blas- 
 phemer. M. Bclmas, bishop of Cambray 347 
 
 LETTER LVII. — Ruin of manufactures and trade ; unfair ad- 
 ministration of justice. Increase of vice ; six thousand prosti-^ 
 tutes sent hither from Paris. General licentiousness and 
 Immorality 251 
 
CONTElSTTS, XV 
 
 UETTER LVni.— Dunkirk. General Andrcossy ; political and 
 military conversation. Theatrical exhibition in , the camp. 
 Gambling privileged. . - 25S 
 
 LETTER LVIX. — General Dumas. Decline of commerce and 
 manufactures. Mather, an English jacobin .... 259 
 
 I^ETTER LX. — Encampment at Dunkirk, General OudincA; 
 his origin, promotions, and military abilities ; his female aid- 
 de-camp. . 262 
 
 JLETTER LXI.— Buonaparte's ill temper. Behaviour of his 
 officers, Buonaparte's sentiments concerning the best govern- 
 jnent for the great Hation 267 
 
 X.ETTER LXTI. — Calais. Restrictions on travellers; insolence 
 and vulgarity of the police commissary ; his character, and 
 conduct towards me f^d 
 
 ^UETTER LXIII.— Character of Barbazon the governor ; his 
 courage and ability ; polite conduct. Anecdote of governor 
 Walk 27S 
 
 LETTER LXIV.— Calais. Privateers. Decline of trade ; har- 
 bour ; scarcity of naval stores. Story of Laritot . - . 277 
 
 LETTER LXV. — Boulogne. Encampment, and its construction- 
 Political conjectures 280 
 
 LETTER LXVI.—Exercise of the flotilla by Buonaparte ; ar- 
 rangement of his time ; his reception in the camp as emperor 285 
 
 LETTER LXVII. — Opinions concerning the wealth of Britain. 
 French plan of conquest and disposition of Britain, China, Ame- 
 ^rica, Sec 288 
 
 LETTER LXVIII.— Generals Key and Sebastian! ; their birth 
 and character. The French character 293. 
 
 ^LETTER LXIX.— Montreuil. Malice of the sub-prefect Pojil- 
 tier ..,,... ^ .,, . 294 
 
xvi CONTENTS, 
 
 LETTER LXX.— History of Poultier 298 
 
 LETTER LXXI. — Abbeville. Inveteracy of the Italians against 
 the French and Buonaparte. Menou's tyranny. Moveable spies. 
 Arrestation of sixty officers. Liberality of General Gouvion ; 
 his character 301 
 
 LETTER LXXII. — Histor}- of Buonaparte's sub -prefect, Andre 
 Dumont ^ 305 
 
 LETTER LXXIII.— Amiens. Splendour of Buonaparte's public 
 functionaries. Decrease of politeness towards the fair sex 309 
 
 LETTER LXXIV.— Pillory of a man for forgery. Prefect Qui- 
 nette's behaviour j his origin . 312 
 
 LETTER LXXV. — Paris. The Duke of Fitz -James' estate sold 
 to a barber. Demolition of the Prince of Conde's chateau. His 
 former pensioners reduced to beggary. Fidelity of his hunts- 
 man 314 
 
 LETTER LXXVn. — Partition of the estates of the nobles and 
 clergy not productive of industry ; the lands mostly cultivated 
 by women 318 
 
 LETTER LXXVII. — Politeness and vigilance of the police agents. 
 Policy in hiring a valet de place, though a spy .... 321 
 
 LETTER LXXVIII. — Ruin of one of my friends and his cousin, 
 the Marquis de St. L. by the revolution. Proclamation of Buona- 
 parte's coronation . 323 
 
 ^I^ETTER LXXIX.— Different factions in the Senate. Lanjuinais 
 and Volncy. Conduct of Lanjuinais ; his conference with Buona- 
 parte 327 
 
 LETTER LXXX.— Fcuch6 and Cabanis. Fouch6's spies. Bar- 
 thelcmy andTronchet. Barthelemy, Secretary of Legation in 
 England ; member of the Directory ; expelled, and transport- 
 ed ; his escape ; made Senator by Buonaparte. Tronchet ; his 
 conduct. LcFevrejuid Serrurier Le Fevre's origiji. Scrrurier's 
 eumpaigns, conduct;-' and promotion 330 
 
CONTENTS. xvii 
 
 LETTER LXXXI. — Political opinions of Massena, Augereau, 
 and Eugenius de Beauliarnois ; their sentiments and gasconades 
 respecting England. Fate of the officers arrested at Abbeville. 
 Berthier's avarice ; contempt shown him by Buonaparte j his 
 pusillanimity 335 
 
 LETTER LXXXIL— Introduction to Talle^-rand ; conversation 
 with him ; his candour and private sentiments concerning Buona- 
 parte and the Bourbons . . .^ 340 
 
 LETTER LXXXIII.— Pomp of Fouche ; his ridiculous behaviour. 
 Number of prisoners in the Temple ; some supposed to be poi- 
 soned ; severity towards them j imprisonment unjustly pro- 
 longed ... 345 
 
 LETTER LXXXIV. — Sens. Order of arrest on my pass, in case 
 of my deviation. Buonaparte's hunting equipage. Napoleon L 
 obtains full absolution. Cannibal feast of Fouche and others. Sin- 
 gular anecdote of my landlord. Suicide of Cardinal de Brienne 349 
 
 LETTER LXXXV.— Chalons.on the Saone. Severity of the police ; 
 one of our party arrested. Buonaparte's corps of espionage 
 Tradesmen forced to be spies . » 352 
 
 LETTER LXXXVI.— Macon. The banker BoUeau. Some ac- 
 count of the infamous Carra 356 
 
 LETTER LXXXVIL— Lyons ; decrease of its population; at. 
 tachment of the Lyonese to the Bourbons ; ideas of Buonaparte's 
 intentions. Agreeable way of travelling on the river Saone; 
 French urbanity. Anecdote of a young nobleman. The revo* 
 lutionary general Brouette . 361 
 
 LETTER LXXXVIIL— Lyons. Vigilance of the police. M.Bu- 
 reau de Puzy, the prefect ; his character 365 
 
 LETTER LXXXIX— Courage and loyalty of the people of Lyons. 
 Massacres committed there by the regicides 368 
 
 LETTER XC— Dyhesme, the governor ; his character, origin, 
 
 &c. Cardinal Fesch, archbishop ; his immorality. State of re- 
 
 - ligion in France ^ 371 
 
 LETTER XCI. — Comparison of the present and former popula- 
 tion and trade of Lyons j cause of their decrease. , . . 2>7S 
 
 3 
 
xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER XCII.— Dinner party at the prefect's. Popular dis- 
 content ; measures adopted by government to prevent emigra- 
 tion ; scarcity of money ; exorbitant usury 378 
 
 LETTER XC III.— Public entertainments. Sanguinary conduct 
 of CoUot d*Herbois at Lyons. Death of Madame St. Claire ; her 
 heroism 382 
 
 LETTER XCIV. — Avignon. An inn. Good accommodation. Pre- 
 cautions taken by the landlady. Inconvenience and distress of 
 many of the officers of the army 387 
 
 LETTER XCV.— Vigilance of the gensdarmes. Sufferings of the 
 Comtat Venaissin. Jourdan Coufi-tete; his infamous character 391 
 
 LETTER XCVI.— History of the Marquis de R.; his former 
 wealth, happiness and liberality ; his present distress . 396 
 
 LETTER XCVII. — Fountain of Vaucluse. Enormous taxation. 
 
 French theatre. Laura's tomb 401 
 
 LETTER XCVIII.— Marseilles. Jouniey from Avignon. Rigour 
 
 of the gensdarmes and police 404 
 
 LETTER XCIX.— Description of the police office. Religious dis- 
 sensions and violences ; the Pope burnt in effigy ; caricature of 
 him 407 
 
 LETTER C. — Destruction of commerce. Increase of licen- 
 tiousness. Privileged gambling houses. Board and lodging 
 agreeable and cheap. Manner of passing time at Marseilles. 
 Theatres. Adultery not deemed scandalous. The present 
 and former Police Commissaries 409 
 
 LETTER CI.— Thibaudeau, the prefect ; political conversation 
 ■with him ; his sentiments, conduct. Sec. Character and anec- 
 dotes of the former prefect 413 
 
 LETTER CII.— General Cervoni ; his intrigue with Buonaparte** 
 sister ; promotion ; hospitality, &c. General Bizanet, his hon- 
 ourable principles. Galley slaves ; a review of thtra ; mostly 
 beggars 415 
 
 LETTER cm.— Military schools ; probability of extinction of 
 religion in France. Distress, degradation, and death of Baron 
 deF— 4X3 
 
CONTENTS. xiz 
 
 LETTER CIV. — Return to Lyons. Open complaints against the 
 government. Extortions in granting passes ; imprisonment 
 of a Polish Nobleman 421 
 
 LETTER CV.— Geneva. The public spirit in the South of 
 France. Roads and travelling from Lyons to Geneva. Vigi- 
 lance of the police from Lyons to Geneva, with respect to 
 passports. Civility of M. Barante the Prefect, and General 
 Morand Dupuch. The republican system adapted only to 
 very small states. Political errors of the Genevese. Decline 
 of public spirit and industry ; contamination of French immo- 
 rality. History of M. P , . . 423 
 
 LETTER CVI. — Former and present population, industry, and 
 integrity of the inhabitants of Geneva, Sec 427 
 
 LETTER CVII. — Lausanne. Public misery and discontent 
 throughout Switzerland. French Police extortions. Swiss offi- 
 cers and soldiers inimical to the French. Merited disgrace of 
 the Vaudois revolutionists. Colonel Weiss ; his folly and 
 treachery 429 
 
 LETTER CVIII. — Number of beggars. Incorrigibility of a peo- 
 ple once infected with the revolutionary mania. Anecdote of 
 Saunier 433 
 
 LETTER CXIX.— Berne. History of a ci-devant royalist co- 
 lonel 436 
 
 LETTER ex.— Liberality of the Swiss Officers. Patriotism of 
 the Landamman Glutz. Power and resources of the French 
 empire. Other governments should adopt a system of military- 
 education for their youth. Heroism of sixty women and eight 
 hundred Swiss youths at the battle of Frauenbrun. . . 439 
 
 LETTER CXI. — Remorse and suicide of a Swiss senator. Fe- 
 male heroism. French malignity 444 
 
 LETTER CXII. — Happy economy of Switzerland previous to its 
 invasion ; present exorbitant taxation and distress^ . . . 448 
 
 LETTER CXin.— Anecdote of a Swiss lady, and the French Co- 
 lonel Daurier 452 
 
 LETTER CXIV.— Character of M. Vial, Buonaparte's represen- 
 tative ; gives a fete. Popular vexation at the defeat of the Aus- 
 trians ; attachment of the Swiss to the House of Bourbon . 456 
 
THE 
 
 BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 . , , , ;\ , 'i-' 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Amsterdam^ January^ 1804 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I ENTERED the territory of the Batavian 
 commonwealth by Doesburgh, a Dutch fort on the 
 frontiers of Westphalia. In passing the bridge a 
 French sentry stopped my carriage, a French com- 
 missary demanded my pass, and a French custom- 
 house officer examined my baggage ; those, with a 
 guard-house of French soldiers by the gate, another 
 in the centre of the town, and a French officer for its 
 governor, convinced me immediately of the true 
 worth of the independence of modern Holland, a 
 conviction which I since have found no reason to 
 alter, or to consider as too hastily formed. 
 
 A banker at Munster had given me a letter of cre- 
 dit and recommendation to one of the principal mer- 
 chants of this place, who was a relation of the mayor. 
 Having some difficulties about a part of my baggage, 
 
 A 
 
2 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 vviiich the French custom-house officer detained un- 
 der pretence that it contained contraband goods, I 
 applied to the mayor for his interference, in hopes to 
 obtain justice, which I was refused by the French 
 governor. The case was simply this: I had pur- 
 chased of a Lyonese manufacturer at Hamburgh six 
 pair of silk stockings, four of which were still not 
 worn. These the custom-house officer determined 
 ;'iVe're of, EngUsh manufacture, and therefore kept 
 them, together with the whole contents of a port- 
 manteau in which they were packed up. I in vain 
 exhibited the receipt and certificate of the Lyonese, 
 and offered to pay any duty fixed by law ; even the 
 sacrifice of the unfortunate stockings could not pro- 
 cure me the restitution of the remainder of my pro- 
 perty ; the governor threatened, if I did not cease to 
 be troublesome^ to order me to prison as an English 
 smuggler. 
 
 The mayor, to whom I was introduced by the mer- 
 chant, acknowledged the iniquity of the proceeding, 
 but he avowed also his own want of power to remedy 
 it, as well as his fear of intermeddling in the business, 
 though it really belonged to his office. He called 
 aside his relation, and after a short conversation with 
 him in private, said that an expedient to serve me 
 would be tried, which had more than once suc- 
 ceeded with regard to other strangers in similar 
 situations ; he invited me at the same time to dinner, 
 that I might become acquainted with the governor, 
 who would be of the party. Half an hour before 
 dinner my portmanteau was restored me with the 
 greater part of its contents ; a douceur of a louis d'or 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 3 
 
 to the custom-house officer, and of two pair of 
 the silk stockings to the governor, had easily con- 
 vinced these public functionaries of their mistake, 
 or at least of my innocence. 
 
 Rousseau, the governor of Doesburgh, is a lieu- 
 tenant-colonel in the French service. You remem- 
 ber, no doubt, to have read in the Confessions of J. J. 
 Rousseau, that that philosopJier and philanthropist, 
 sent all his children, both by his mistress and wife, 
 as soon as they were born, to the foundling hospital 
 of Paris, without any mark or direction, by which 
 they might afterwards be known and recovered; and 
 that all the endeavours of the Dutchess of Luxem- 
 burgh some years after to ftnd them out were fruit- 
 less. Governor Rousseau declares himself, however, 
 one of these renounced and lost brats, and proves the 
 truth of his claim of parentage, both by a great 
 family likeness with the citizen of Geneva, and by 
 a similitude of passions, of inclination, and even of 
 genius, (as he frequently and modestly repeats) with 
 the greatest philosopher of the eighteenth century. 
 But the only thing certain of the origin of this gen- 
 tleman is, that he was a foundling, and brought up 
 by charity at Paris, where, in 1792, he was enrolled 
 as a soldier under the name of Rousseau; a name 
 so fashionable, and so highly esteemed at that pe- 
 riod of our revolution, that within six weeks after 
 the 10th of August no less than two hundred and 
 ten orphans and foundlings registered themselves at 
 the municipality of the capital, as the children of a 
 man more than suspected of being an accomplice in 
 infanticide, who has proclaimed himself the most 
 
4 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 unnatural and unfeeling of parents, and who inso- 
 lently and hypocritically preached to others those 
 duties which he himself so audaciously and so bar- 
 barously neglected. As to governor Rousseau's li- 
 terary pretensions, they consist, according to his own 
 assertions, in a novel, called '' The Daughter of the 
 New Eliza," which the booksellers in France and 
 Holland have refused to publish; and in a volume of 
 poems inscribed to liberty and equality, which no- 
 body bought after it had been printed. He has also 
 began another Emilius, and has in meditation to 
 write a continuation of " the Social Compact;" but 
 as his contemporaries seem not inclined to appreci- 
 ate and to reward his merit as an author, " an Appeal 
 to Posterity," is intended to be his last performance, 
 from which he hopes to derive the same posthu- 
 mous honours as have been heaped upon the memory 
 of his pretended father, whom he never mentions but 
 with tears in his eyes. 
 
 At his first entrance into the room I formed my 
 opinion of him. He was equally awkward and pre- 
 sumptuous, and with an air of self-consequence ap- 
 peared to demand admiration from the company, or 
 to resent as an indignity the omission of that tribute 
 of praise which he claimed for whatever he said or 
 did. His conversation was affected, his language 
 vulgar, and his manners Vv^ere a composition of au- 
 dacity and meanness. He made not a single obser- 
 vation, but what w^as marked with either imperti- 
 nence or absurdity. He assured us, '* that posterity 
 would admire Napoleon Buonaparte, as a philoso- 
 pher^ dL philanthropist J and a friend offreedom^ more 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 5 
 
 than as a victor and conqueror ; and that he would 
 be considered not only as a Lycurgus, a Cassar, and 
 an Augustus, but as a Gracchus and a Publicola. 
 As examples of his master's justice and moderation, 
 he quoted the independence of Switzerland and Hol- 
 land; and as a proof of his liberality and modesty, 
 his being satisfied with the appellation of Citizen, 
 and of First Consul, when he might have assumed 
 the title x)f an Imperial Sovereign." 
 
 It was singular to hear the French governor of a 
 Batavian town proudly boast of the independence of 
 a people over a portion of whom he tyrannized, and 
 to see Batavian magistrates implicitly assent to this 
 assertion, made by a man whom they had but just 
 before represented to me as their oppressor, as one 
 who disregarded all law, and was governed solely 
 by motives of interest or personal convenience; a 
 man whom they alike feared and despised, and de- 
 tested in their hearts while they invited him to their 
 tables. But the most absurd of all was, that he was 
 constantly declaiming " on the necessity of incul- 
 cating in the minds of all persons destined for a mili- 
 tary life, principles of honour y as the exclusive foun- 
 dation of valour, of resignation, of heroism, both in 
 the officer and in the soldier, and of all other virtues 
 which give preeminence to the warrior above the 
 statesman, and make the resolutions of cabinets de- 
 pend entirely on the achievements of armies." For 
 at the very time he was thus zealously launching 
 forth in praise of honour, he liad on a pair of the 
 same stockings, which he had in so very honour- 
 able a manner pillaged from my portmanteau; 
 
6 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 he had, nevertheless, (when I could not avoid smiling 
 at the contrast exhibited by his words and actions) 
 too mttch effrontery to manifest any symptoms of 
 shame, or too much ignorance to comprehend that 
 his observations were tlie most severe satire upon 
 his conduct. 
 
 That my sarcastic smiles did not, how^ever, escape 
 the notice of this revolutionary governor, or that I 
 had been wanting in that complaisance which he ex- 
 pected, I soon experienced. On the next morning, 
 when I was ready to continue my journey, his aid- 
 de-camp informed me, that one of the many formali- 
 ties requisite in a passport for travelling in modem 
 France, and in countries under her controul, was 
 wanting. On observing to him that it had the day 
 before received the signature of the governor, he in- 
 vited me to accompany him to that officer's house, 
 where every thing tvould be explained to me, and 
 the error, if possible, corrected. 
 
 Before setting out, I had been very particular to 
 have my passport correct. It was signed by our 
 minister at Hamburgh, Rcinhard, and his secretary, 
 Teulon. I had also exhibited it at the office of Ge- 
 neral Mortier, in Hanover, who made no difficulty 
 in affixing to it his name and seal. In passing through 
 Bremen I w\aited on our commercial agent, and re- 
 ceived his signature. It contained a minute descrip- 
 tion of my person, of my age, the colour of my eyes, 
 eye-brows and hair, of the form of my face, the 
 shape of my nose, and of the size of my mouth; but 
 a law of the National Convention, which had become 
 obsolete, ordered, that it should also mention how; 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. J 
 
 many languages the bearer spoke, wrote, or under- 
 stood. In the printed formula of my passport nothhig 
 was said of it, and no question was made me on the 
 subject by our minister; it procured, however, Rous- 
 seau an opportunity to evince his malignity, and to 
 gratify his avarice. After much chicanery and equi- 
 vocation during a detention of six hours, he held a 
 consultation with his aid-de-camp, who, when alone 
 with me, told me, " that, considering the expense 
 and loss of time my stay at Doesburgh, until an an- 
 swer arrived from the Mhiister of Police at Paris, 
 would cause me, the governor, from mere friend- 
 ship, though the hazard he ran of incurring censure 
 was great, would consent to my departure; but as 
 this affair had reached several persons whom he sus- 
 pected to be spies upon his conduct, a small douceur 
 of five louis d'ors was proper to purchase their se- 
 crecy.'* I did not hesitate to submit to this imposi • 
 tion, well convinced that resistance would have been 
 vain as well as impolitic. You may conclude 
 from this, that prudence and the observance of 
 known laws are but of little service to travellers in 
 revolutionary countries, and in revolutionary times, 
 and that patience and money arc the surest means 
 to soften unfeeling and greedy upstarts in power, and 
 to avoid those delays, which the thousands of our 
 revolutionary regulations authorize them, if so in- 
 clined^ to invent and enforce. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Amsterdam^ January^ 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 ON my arrival at Arnheim, I found there both 
 more civility and better accommodation than at 
 Doesburgh. I lodged at the Golden Plough, the 
 landlord of which, Mr. Thomas, is also the principal 
 banker of the town. With great politeness he car- 
 ried me to a club, consisting of fifty of the first in- 
 Jiabitants, who meet there every night, either to 
 play at billiards or at cards, for small sums. There 
 may be found Dutch, German, French and English 
 newspapers and magazines, with other curious or 
 entertaining publications in the same languages. — 
 A stranger, who is introduced there, may frequent it 
 daily for a month without any expense whatever. If 
 he calls for wine, coffee, tea, tobacco, Sec. he pays 
 for it the same price as in a coffee-house, though 
 every thing is of a much better quality. Sandwiches 
 or cold suppers, may also be had on reasonable terms. 
 Four times in the year balls are given, and every 
 Sunday, a lai'ge garden adjoining the club-house, is 
 open to the wives, daughters, or female friends of the 
 subscribers. They had wisely made it one of the 
 rules of the club, that no foreigner can be admitted 
 as a member, or as a visitor, above a month. This 
 has prevented the intrusion of French officers, who 
 swarm here, as well as every where else in the Bata- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 9 
 
 vian republic. Here I met with the Mayor and some 
 of the municipal officers, who, to judge from their 
 conversation, seemed not to be the most enlightened 
 or respectable citizens of the society ; I was indeed 
 told, that they owed their places more to the dread 
 and influence of foreign bayonets, than to free choice 
 and good opinion of their townsmen, or to their own 
 merit. They were, therefore, treated as intruders, 
 and shunned like spies, rather than revered as magis- 
 trates, or liked as companions ; but they seemed as 
 insensible of contempt, as regardless of dignity. 
 
 Arnheim has always been known for its Anti- Or- 
 ange principles, and for its opposition to the govern- 
 ment of a Stadtholder. It now repents, because it 
 suffers from a change, and from a revolution so long 
 desired. " We have now twelve, instead of one, 
 Stadtholder," said one of the citizens to me, " and we 
 pay twenty-four times the contributions we paid to 
 the Prince of Orange. Each of our twelve Directors 
 has a larger family to enrich, more numerous relatives 
 to support, and favourites to advance than he had ; 
 and we are called upon to satisfy the immense txi- 
 gencies of the State, always now involved and con- 
 founded with the cupidity, interest and extravagance 
 of the individuals, our present rulers. Had our pros- 
 perity increased with our burdens, we should, in 
 hope of a better futurity, shut our eyes at what we now 
 observe around us provoking, vexatious or irritating; 
 but, our misery augments with our imposts, our 
 bondage with our oppression, and our strides are 
 equally rapid towards national ruin and national 
 slavery." 
 
 B 
 
10 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 That this complaint was not unjust, nor the pic- 
 ture too high coloured, I had every reason to beUeve, 
 boih from my own remarks, and from the assertions 
 of several persons, with whom I conversed. The 
 situation of Arnheim, near the frontiers of Germany, 
 and in the vicinity of the Rhine, made formerly its 
 transit trade with Westphalia, and the German Em- 
 pire, very flourishing ; and its inhabitants were indus- 
 trious and wealthy. Commercial liberty is more nearly- 
 connected with political freedom and social happiness, 
 than many historians or writers seem to believe. When 
 a people is forced to endure illegal restraint on its fair 
 dealings ; when its habitual intercourse with neigh- 
 bouring States is impeded by prohibitory laws and 
 ruinous edicts ; when its productions have no issue, 
 its labour little recompence ; poverty succeeds to 
 afilucnce, and indolence takes the place of activity ; 
 its genuine and national spirit is gone, or exchanged 
 for a shameful indifference or disgraceful apathy ; it 
 becomes debased as well as beggared, and is ready 
 to stretch out its neck to receive the niost heavy yoke, 
 the most cruel tyrant offers or determines to impose. 
 
 But some few years ago, the citizens of Arnheim 
 were the pride of their countrymen for their industry, 
 and the envy of foreigners on account of their pros- 
 perity : at present they can excite no other sensations 
 or feelings, but those of pity and of compassion. Under 
 pretence that English goods and manufactures were 
 introduced from Germany by way of this town, a 
 demi-brigade of Buonaparte's custom-house officers 
 ^•re, with some gensd'armes, quartered here, and 
 on the banks of tlie Rhine. These men began their 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. H 
 
 Hmctions with seizing, as contraband goods, every- 
 thing they could lay hand on, without inquiring whe- 
 ther it was the produce of the Batavian colonies, or 
 of the Batavian commonwealth. When, afterwards, 
 notwithstanding the remonstrances of the municipali- 
 ty, and the petitions of the merchants, these seizures 
 were, by our commercial commissaries, declared le- 
 gal prizes ; many capital houses suffered, some be- 
 came insolvent ; and three months, and three hundred 
 armed Frenchmen were sufficient to annihilate the spirit 
 of trade and order, which during the three preceding 
 centuries had so distinguished the people here. 
 
 That you may judge both of the injustice and 
 cruelty of these proceedings, 1 will relate some anec- 
 dotes, illustrating, in part, the sufferings of a nation, 
 of whose independence our official memoirs and offi- 
 cial papers so frequently boast. 
 
 A ship, or rather barge, from Utrecht, loaded 
 with bale«5 of woollen goods and fine cloths, fabricat- 
 ed at Leyden, was stopped b) our custom-huuse offi- 
 cer, two leagues from Arnheim. The Skipper had 
 his passes and certificates all in order. In these were, 
 according to the Batavian laws, declared, that the 
 contents of the cargo was entirely of Dutch manufac- 
 ture, and all military and civil officers, therefore, en- 
 joined not to obstruct its passage ! But the regulations 
 of Buonaparte (which were at that time not published 
 or enforced in Holland) require not only a general 
 certificate of municipalities, but a particular one of 
 the commercial tribunals, in which are specified not 
 only the quality and quantity of the goods, but the 
 name, and stamps of the manufacturer. In this 
 
12 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 country they have no commercial tribunals, but the 
 magistrates never, at present, grant any passes for 
 goods, without a previous declaration upon oath by 
 the merchant as well as by the manufacturer. Not- 
 withstanding a strong remonstrance on this subject, 
 by the owners, and the interference and recommen- 
 dation even of the Batavian Directory, the ship and 
 cargo were confiscated, and the Skipper arrested un- 
 til the penalties to which our laws subjected him, 
 were acquitted. 
 
 A grocer here received a cargo of sugar and coffee 
 from Rotterdam. It was the produce of a plantation 
 he possessed at Surinam ; which was proved both by 
 certificates from the municipality and merchants at 
 Rotterdam, and from his direct correspondence with 
 his partner, residing in that colony. It was, never- 
 theless, adjudged a lawful capture, because the Skip- 
 per, on his first examination, said it was the growth 
 of another colony, Berbice, and the owner could 
 produce no attestation to the contrary, from the tri- 
 bunal of commerce at Paramariba in Surinam, where 
 no such tribunal ever existed. In this affair two 
 municipal officers at Rotterdam, who had been too 
 zealous in defence of innocence and of justice, were 
 also implicated. They were not only dismissed but 
 fined. The consequence of this seizure was the 
 ruin of four honest and worthy merchants, fathers of 
 eighteen children, while it only procured some tem- 
 porary means of extravagance to two of our custom- 
 house officers, who, from being the private spies of 
 Madame Buonaparte, had, according to her recom- 
 mendation to our minister, Chaptal, obtained a lucrch- 
 tive post where they might soon enrich themselves. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 13 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Amsterdam, January y 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 TO travel by land in this country is both dull, 
 tedious and expensive. Between Arnheim and 
 Utrecht you pass but few villages and not one town. 
 The country is dreary and even, the roads heavy and 
 sandy, and people look gloomy and discontented. 
 For economy I went with the dily, or as it is called, 
 the post- waggon. For my place aiid luggage I paid 
 only six florins, (eleven shillings) while, if I had tra- 
 velled post, I should have been charged twenty-three 
 florins, (two pounds, two shilling.s) besides the turn- 
 pikes, and not arrived earlier. The distance is only 
 fourteen leagues, but I was sixteen hours on the road, 
 including one hour allowed for dinner. The Dutch 
 coachmen and postillions move on rather faster than 
 the German drivers, but they are exceedingly tire- 
 some to persons accustomed to travel in France, Italy 
 and England. They stop almost every hour or 
 league, and are always more careful of their horses 
 and of themselves, than of their passengers. 
 
 The Dutch post- waggons are generally construct- 
 ed so as to contain from six to eight travellers. 
 Each place has its number, and the name of each 
 passenger is registered. In paying for his place, he 
 obtains a ticket with a number, which indicates 
 
14 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 where he is to sit, and that he has paid for his jour- 
 ney. His trunks or portmanteaus are packed up or 
 tied behind, but in such an awkward or negHgent 
 manner, that they are frequently either cut to pieces 
 by the shaking, or dropped, or stolen on the way. 
 The owners of the coach-offices not being responsible 
 for loss, nor obhged to repair damages, travellers 
 cannot be too much on their guard in looking after, 
 or rather in not losing sight of their effects. The 
 waggons are covered with wax cloth, but are not sus- 
 pended upon springs ; they are very low and narrow, 
 and you sit there in a very uncomfortable manner, 
 particularly as the passengers have permission to 
 smoke and to perfume you with their stinking to- 
 bacco. 
 
 I had the misfortune to be seated between a Ger- 
 man Jew and a Dutch clergyman. They both light- 
 ed their pipes the instant they entered the post- wag- 
 gon. Disgusted with their behaviour, and being sick 
 of the smell, I resolved to frighten these heroes of the 
 pipe into decency. I told them very gravely, that 
 the bag under my feet, (in which was nothing but my 
 dressing gown, &c.) contained two pounds of gun- 
 powder, and requested them, therefore, to be mind- 
 ful not to drop any fire or cinders. No sooner had I 
 uttered these words, than all my companions called 
 out in a chorus to the coachman to stop. They ex- 
 postulated with me on the danger, and desired that 
 the bag might be put somewhere else, as on the top 
 of the post-waggon. The coachman, who was also 
 an amateur of tobacco, was accordingly going to re- 
 move my bag, when I remembered that I was in a 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 15 
 
 mercantile country, and in Holland, particularly, 
 and therefore put my veto against all removal, by de- 
 claring that my bag also had within it, two hundred 
 Dutch ducats in gold. This declaration settled the 
 aftair at once. My bag remained in statu quo^ but 
 with me was honoured with some hearty curses by 
 the disappointed smokers, who took their revenge 
 every time the jx^st- waggon stopped, to encircle it 
 and myself in a cloud of smoke. 
 
 I had been recommended to lodge at Utrecht at 
 the hotel, called ** the New Citadel of Antwerp." If 
 the charges had not been rather high, I should have 
 addressed all travellers wishing for, and able to pay 
 for comforts, to this house. It is well situated in the 
 middle of the city; is airy and clean; the landlord 
 civil, and the waiters attentive. There is no ordina- 
 ry, as is commonly the casein Holland, as well as 
 in other continental states ; but you are served in 
 your room almost in the manner of Paris and London ; 
 but you pay more in proportion than in these capitals. 
 
 The police at Utrecht seem more vigilant and trou- 
 blesome than inmost other Dutch cities. Before we en- 
 tered it, the post- waggon was stopped by some French 
 gens-d'armes, who asked for our passports, which 
 were delivered by them to a French police commis- 
 sary, who had his office near the gate. After his in- 
 spection was over, two gens-d'armes accompanied the 
 post- waggon and took the name of the inns, where 
 we ordered the luggage to be carried. Arrived there, 
 the first thing the landlord presented me with, even 
 before I was shown my room, was a kind of police 
 register, in which I was to write down from my pass- 
 
16 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 port, all the particulars concerning my person, cha- 
 racter, figure, and business ; I was also to mention 
 to whom I was known in the place ; how long would 
 be my stay ; where I had slept the night before ; and 
 where I intended to travel from thence. To this hu- 
 mihating formality, and to this insulting inquisition, 
 Batavian citizens were equally subject with for- 
 eigners. 
 
 To the query in the register, where the traveller 
 had slept the night before ? some impertinent or 
 ridiculous answers had been inserted. One did not 
 sleep at all ; another slumbered on the river Rhine ; 
 a third dreamed in a trekschuit ; a fourth snored in 
 a post- waggon, Sec. This demand and these replies, 
 suspicion on one side and contempt on the other, 
 evinced that I was in a country i^rmented by tyran- 
 ny, or dreading anarchy. 
 
 Though Utrecht is not fortified, but only sur- 
 rounded by a wall and a ditch ; it had a garrison of 
 twelve thousand Gallo-Batavian troops, of the army 
 of England. They conducted themselves, accord- 
 ing to report, very soberly as to wine and liquors ; 
 but with regard to the fair sex, they lived on free 
 quarters, and excesses and outrages were related, 
 which are hardly credible in the present age of gallan- 
 try and refinement. I heard the name of a wine-mer- 
 chant, father of four daughters, of whom the young- 
 est was not eight years of age, who, after being tied to 
 a bed-post, where he was obliged to witness the vio- 
 lence committed on liis wife and children, by thirty- 
 two grenadiers, was cut to pieces by them.. His wi- 
 dow, the same night became uisane, and was sent to 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 17 
 
 a mad-house ; and of his daughters, the two youngest 
 survived their parent only some few hours ; and the 
 two others are dragging on a lingering existence, 
 worse than death itself. And what do you think was 
 the punishment of these assassins, of these ravishers ? 
 They were not permitted, on the Sunday following, to 
 be present at the ceremony of consecrating the co- 
 lours of their regiment ! This anecdote was related 
 to me with the greatest sangfroid^ by their own co- 
 lonel, who assured me, at the same time, that they 
 were the bravest men in the French army. 
 
 Another gang of twenty-six mounted riflemen, 
 went during divine service, into a church, two 
 leagues from this city. After passing all the women 
 and girls present in review, they put a dozen of them 
 into requisition, and carried them off by force to their 
 post, half a league distant from the church, where 
 they kept them for twenty-four hours, and until the 
 commandant here, upon a complaint of their parents 
 and friends, sent a company of hussars to release the 
 captives, and disarm their violators. These, ex- 
 pecting such a visit, had prepared for a serious de- 
 fence. Upon the hussars observing this, they en- 
 tered into a parley, and instead of disarming the rifle- 
 men joined in their infamy ; and when, shortly af- 
 terwards, a regiment of dragoons was ordered to ar- 
 rest both the riflemen and hussars, they, after some 
 struggle and opposition succeeded ; but of the women 
 five were dead ; and of the seven remaining, three 
 were dying, and four unable to walk or to be removed. 
 The ravishers were, for a punishment, ordered in the 
 rear of the army ! When such is the conduct and 
 
 c 
 
18 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the impunity of soldiers in a friendly country, what 
 may not be dreaded and expected from them on the 
 territory of nations at war with France. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Amsterdaniy January^ 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE troops quartered at Utrecht are, with 
 others, intended to form a camp at Ziest, two leagues 
 from that city. As I had some business at Amers- 
 fort I visited the ground selected for this encampment. 
 From its position I judge it subject to inundations, 
 and from what others told me, agues and fevers are 
 very common in its vicinity during the summer and 
 autumn. Fifty thousand men may conveniently 
 manoeuvre here, but they must expect to encounter 
 dust, wind, and water, all the country being flat and 
 sandy, exposed to the blasts of north, east and south, 
 and protected from the western gales only by some 
 sand hills. Great preparations are, however, made, 
 and great improvements will no doubt take place 
 previously to the time when the troops are marching 
 tliither. Some say, that they will amount to forty 
 thousand, but a staff* officer assured me that they will 
 not exceed twenty-five thousand ; of whom one- 
 third are to be Dutch, or of the Germans in the 
 Dutch service. In my opinion these troops arc 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 19 
 
 merely intended for parade, to amuse the Hollanders, 
 rather than to invade Great Britain. 
 
 The distance from Utrecht to Amersfort is only- 
 four leagues ; but for a two-wheeled post-chaise, 
 called here 2ifurgon, with two horses, I was charged 
 seven florins, ten stivers, (sixteen shillings) and I was 
 four hours on the way. It was on a Sunday that I 
 arrived in the last town. After visiting a friend, I 
 went to church, where I observed such shocking in- 
 decencies as I have never witnessed before in any 
 place consecrated to a Supreme Being. Not only 
 most of the men had their heads covered with their 
 hats, bonnets, or night caps^ but some, with great 
 phlegm smoked their pipes, facing the clergyman 
 preaching in the pulpit. The unconcern with which 
 the audience remarked such scandalous behaviour, 
 proved to me that it was neither new nor uncommon. 
 In this idea I was confirmed by my friend, who la- 
 mented that since (to use his own words) the French 
 friends of liberty had taken upon themselves to re- 
 generate Dutch patriots, the latter had degenerated 
 both in morality and religion to a level with the for- 
 mer, and they went to church as to a public house, 
 displaying the same brutal manners and unfeeling 
 minds. He assured me that some of the lower peo- 
 ple even carried with them to church gin or brandy 
 as well as tobacco, and that the sermon of the preach- 
 er was frequently interrupted by the political discus- 
 sions or vulgar jokes of the audience. Upon my in- 
 quiry whether blasphemy and sacrilege were not 
 within the reach of the laws of the Batavian repub- 
 lic, I was answered that in the revolutionary laws was 
 
20 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 no question of a God or of his worship, but that the 
 most severe pains were pronounced against those, 
 who mentioned with disrespect revolutionary rulers. 
 The professors of religion and its propagators, had 
 had also fallen into the same disrepute with religion 
 itself. Every body is at full liberty to style them 
 fools and hypocrites, and the Divinity they adore, our 
 Suviour, an impostor ; but was any one even to say 
 that the French consuls or Batavian directors were 
 criminal usurpers, and their supporters wicked ac- 
 complices, the revolutionary laws would strike, nay, 
 crubh the culprit instantly. 
 
 The mass of the people at Amersfort was attached 
 to the house of Orange, but the most wealthy and 
 respectable inhabitants were formerly of the patriotic 
 party. In their number was my friend, without ex- 
 actly knowing why he was an enemy of the Stadthol- 
 der, and wished for the assistance of France to alter 
 tlie government. Our troops and our commissaries 
 had, however, not been many weeks in the country, 
 before he more sincerely wished for their departure, 
 than he had rejoiced at their arrival. He now began 
 to meditate on the motives which had induced him 
 to adopt his past political conduct, and could account 
 to himself for it in no other manner, than that he 
 bad hated the Princes of Orange, because their ances- 
 tors had been hated by his forefathers ; who, more 
 fortunate than himself, had lived and died freemen, 
 their persons honoured and their property protected by 
 that very government they so cordially had detested. 
 With him it was very different. What had consti- 
 tuted the complaints and disappointments of their 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 21 
 
 lives, had, in being removed, occasioned his suffering, 
 and the disgrace and ruin of his country. Elected a 
 member of the Batavian national convention, he sim- 
 ply supposed, that because revolutionary France had 
 proclaimed the independence and freedom of Hol- 
 land, he was, as a free citizen, at full liberty to pro- 
 nounce his opinion freely and conscientiously as to 
 the means of preserving the blessings so generously 
 conferred by a conquering neighbour. But no sooner 
 was his first speech known to the French ambassador, 
 than he was invited to resign his place of a deputy, if 
 he would avoid being expelled by force. He returned, 
 therefore, in disgust tt) his native place, convinced that 
 wherever foreigners are masters, the people are slaves, 
 and that their cant words of liberty, equality, and 
 fraternity, are merely snaresto entrap the unsuspicious 
 and unwary multitude, to humble the great, to plun- 
 der the wealthy, and to oppress them all, whether 
 aristocrats or democrats, republicans or dema- 
 gogues. He now resolved to withdraw from the public 
 and busy scene for ever, and mourn in silence, in the 
 bosom of his family, the misery of his contemporaries* 
 He hoped that prudence would banish suspicion, and 
 obscurity insure safety, but being rich as well as 
 patriotic, his property was attacked by those who 
 could not, or dared not, accuse his principles. 
 
 The first public functionaries France bestowed on 
 regenerated Holland, were needy adventurers from 
 Brabant, Liege, and Flanders, or exiled or emigrated 
 Dutchmen, many of whom were bankrupts in for- 
 tune as well as in character. Of this last description 
 was the first and temporary magistrate appointed at 
 
22 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Amersfort after the revolution of 1795. Having no 
 doubt received orders from his principal at the 
 Hcii^ue, the French ambassador, to let my friend 
 feel the effect of Gallic displeasure, he began a 
 chicanery concerning the amount that was to be 
 paid to the state by all capitalists. He pretended 
 that my friend's declaration was not fair, and there- 
 fore condemned him to a heavy fine. Havhig, how- 
 ever, proved his innocence to the department, the 
 fine was remitted, but his enemy became more 
 enraged than ever, and plotted new mischiefs. At 
 a sale in Amsterdam my friend had bought seve- 
 ral rare and valuable pictures, without inquiring 
 exactly to whom they had belonged. A decree of 
 the French national convention ordered about this 
 time, that all pictures, monuments of arts, Sec. 
 appertaining to the ci-devant Stadtholder, and the 
 members of his government, who had followed him 
 abroad, should be confiscated and sent to France. 
 Under pretence that those purchased by my friend 
 had been seen in the collection, or at the hotel of the 
 late grand pensionary, Fagel, the revolutionary 
 mayor, accompanied with soldiers, forced his way 
 into my friend's house, and not only seized those 
 pictures, but several others that had been in his 
 family for upwards of a century. Seeing it vain to 
 resist the malignity of this petty tyrant, or to trust 
 to the dormant and unavailing laws for protection 
 against his persecution, my friend resorted to nego- 
 tiation, and by the interference of a third person, 
 after some large pecuniary sacrifices, not only was 
 for a time left undisturbed, but recovered all the pic- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 23 
 
 turcs seized in the name of the great nation ; so in- 
 corruptible is modem patriotism ! He has, never- 
 theless, ever since experienced that his name has been 
 noted among the anti-Gallicans. It has always been 
 the first upon lists of exactions, requisitions, and other 
 organized pillage ; he is, therefore, now collecting 
 the vvreck of his impaired fortune, with which he in- 
 tends to emigrate to America. This private history 
 of one Dutch patriot and anti-Orangist is that of all 
 his respectable partisans. All those whom our seve- 
 ral governments have not been able to corrupt and 
 dishonour, they have oppressed, and either ruined, or 
 forced into a voluntary exile. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Amsterdam^ January^ 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 INTENDING to return to Utrecht early in the 
 morning, I ordered post-horses to be ready at six 
 o'clock. Knowing the regularity and punctuality of 
 the Dutch, I expected no delay, and was going to 
 take my place in the chaise when I observed a small 
 trunk I had brought with me, instead of being placed 
 by my side, as at my arrival, tied behind and exposed 
 to be lost. Ordering the postillion to untie it and put 
 it inside, he sourly answered that it could not be done, 
 because it looked as if we should have rain, and he 
 
24 THE BELGTAlSr TRAVELLER. 
 
 wanted to sit by my side himself. (You remembei* 
 Dutch post-chaises are on two wheels.) Insisting 
 upon being obeyed, he as resohitely refused to stir. 
 It is the custom in Holland that you always pay be- 
 forehand for post-horses to a commissary, who often 
 takes upon himself to decide the diiferences between 
 the travellers and the postillions. I appealed to this 
 man, who decided against me, not on account of the 
 cloudy weather, but on account of the heavy roads ; 
 as the weight of the driver, a man of seven feet, and 
 stout in proportion, would be less felt by the horses if 
 he was inside, than as usual, placed before the chaise 
 upon a seat. Being informed by my landlord, a civil 
 German, who kept the inn called Heeren Logementy 
 that the decision of the commissary was unjust, 1 de- 
 manded my money back again, with intent to wait 
 for the post- waggon. But money once in the pocket 
 of a Dutchman is not easily restored. I was told, 
 that if I did not choose to make any use of the horses, 
 I was equally obliged to pay for them as soon as they 
 were ordered. Tired of the impertinence of the com- 
 missary, I requested the landlord to accompany me 
 to the mayor, where I would have proffered my com- 
 plaint. During the way, he said to me, " if } ou will 
 follow my advice, instead of waiting on the mayor, 
 who is not yet up, and besides very partial, apply to 
 the military commander, who is a Frenchman, and 
 has an invincible dislike to the Dutch. He is now 
 exercising the troops." Upon my observation, that 
 he was not the proper man, my complaint not being 
 of a military nature, he replied, *' never mind that, 
 he meddles with every thing, decides every thing, and 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 25 
 
 transacts every thing just as he thinks proper. He 
 is a relation of the French ambassador de Simonville, 
 and a favourite with General Marmont." 
 
 No sooner had I related to this officer the cause 
 of my application to him, than he said, *' a mo- 
 ment's patience, sir ! I shall soon settle the busi* 
 ness ; this town contains only a set of thieves and 
 rascals.'' He accepted my invitation to breakfast, 
 and accompanied me to the inn. At his presence 
 both the commissary and the postillion turned pale. 
 He asked the former whether I had not hired the 
 chaise of him to go to Utrecht? This was an- 
 swered in the affirmative, when he ordered him to 
 return me my money, as he had by his obstinacy 
 violated the agreement. To this the commissary de» 
 murred, as contrary to the post regulations of the 
 Batavian Republic. *' D—^n your regulations and 
 your republic," continued the commander, ** you 
 shall immediately obey my orders, or I will send! 
 you where you shall repent of it ;" so saying, he 
 ordered his aid-de-camp to fetch five grenadiers from 
 the nearest guard house, " Do you know," inter^ 
 rupted the commissary, ** that I am also a municipal 
 officer ?" *^ Are you," retorted the commander, 
 *' then I am certain that you not only deserve to be 
 arrested, but to be hanged, Do you not remem- 
 ber that last week I sent four of your worthy com- 
 rades to the Rasp Huis, (bridewell) where they are 
 waiting for the gallows, for the thefts comniitted in 
 their official capacity, in taking an inventory of the 
 property of the deceased jeweller ?" The commis- 
 sary was then marched off between the grenadiers i 
 
26 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLED. 
 
 and the postillion, alarmed for his own liberty, begged 
 me as a favour to set out in the manner I first desired. 
 During breakfast the commander drew the 
 most disgusting, and, I hope, exaggerated picture of 
 the characters of modern Dutchmen in general, and 
 of those employed in the magistracy in particular. 
 He said that he had been in Holland upwards of two 
 years, and found every where the same meanness, 
 avarice, and immorality. The people abhorred the 
 French, but had not the courage to manifest their 
 sentiments ; they loved nothing but money, for which 
 they would willingly renounce their God, and sell 
 their parents, children and country ; and, to obtain it, 
 would stoop to the most abject and vilest actions, de- 
 ceive their friends, and cheat their neighbours. 
 From these, and other expressions, you may easily 
 suppose that he was at least prejudiced against an 
 unfortunate nation, enduring so many wrongs from 
 powerful and tyrannical foreigners. 
 
 Upon hinting my apprehension, that the service 
 he had rendered me might expose him to disagree- 
 ments with the municipality, and requesting him that 
 the commissary might be released, he only said, 
 laughing, " I know well with what people I have to 
 deal ; before noon the Mayor at the head of the mu- 
 nicipality will wait on me and supplicate for the liber- 
 ty of the fellow I ordered to be imprisoned. They 
 hate, but they fear me, and I rule them by terror, be- 
 cause I despise them. Only some few days ago they 
 had the audacity to propose an accommodation for the 
 theft I mentioned, which was committed by four of 
 them ; but I remained inflexible to the promise I had 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 27 
 
 given the amiable widow of the jeweller. The man- 
 ner in which their crime was discovered marks both 
 Dutch infamy and Dutch stupidity. The wife of 
 one of the municipal officers went to a wedding with 
 a ring for which the bridegroom had lately bar- 
 gained with the aforesaid jeweller ; upon inquiry 
 how much had been paid for it, the husband an- 
 swered that it had been given him by the deceased : 
 it was well known, however, that he never gave 
 away any thing. This caused suspicion, and when 
 the friends of the widow looked over the books they 
 remarked that several other valuable trinkets were 
 also missing. After many delays to obtain justice 
 from the Mayor, the widow called on me, and relat- 
 ed her situation and suspicions. I instantly caused 
 the suspected person to be apprehended. When I 
 questioned him about the lost trinkets, he acknow- 
 ledged, after some hesitation, that he and his three 
 comrades had taken them secretly, though with a full 
 determination to pay for them, with what was due to 
 them for their official duty by the widow. Without 
 farther ceremony I ordered all four o^ii^hem to be 
 conducted to prison, and it shall not be my fault if 
 they escape the gallows." 
 
 The particulars of this anecdote the postillion con- 
 firmed to me on the road, with the addition, that 
 the Commander's conduct in this affair was not quite 
 so disinterested ; as he first offered for three thousand 
 florins, 260/. to bury it in oblivion, but after some 
 interviews with the young widow changed his re- 
 solution ; and as he visits her every day, it is believ- 
 ed that he has some view either on her person or 
 property, and perhaps on both. 
 
28 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Amsterdam^ January^ 1804. 
 My JLORD, 
 
 THOUGH I had only been absent from Utrecht 
 three days, and left part of my baggage behind me in 
 the inn, the same formalities were observed with re- 
 gard to my passport, and its insertion in the Police 
 Register, as on the first night I arrived there. This 
 caused nie some surprise, but no uneasiness. I order- 
 dered supper, and in waiting for it, was musing 
 in my room, when the door was suddenly opened, 
 and a police commissary, accompanied by two gens- 
 darmes, presented himself to me. He asked for 
 my passport, and after looking over it, inquired my 
 business at Amersfort, and particularly the reason 
 of my walking round the ground where the camp at 
 Ziest was to be formed. He also asked whether I had 
 taken any dewing of the spot. To the first ques- 
 tion I replied, that my business was entirely of a pri- 
 vate nature ; that I had been to see a friend, who ten 
 years ago had shown me great civility, and rendered 
 me many services : as to my visit to Ziest, it was 
 in my way to Amersfort, and curiosity alone made me 
 leave the carriage ; but that the postillion never lojgt 
 sight of me, and could, therefore, witness that I had 
 neither paper nor pencil in niy hand during the short 
 time I walked about. The commissary then de- 
 manded the keys to my trunk and portmanteau, as 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 29 
 
 he must look over my books and papers. These I 
 delivered, and after a strict search of three hours, 
 during which he discovered nothing suspicious, he 
 went away, but I was directed to continue in my 
 room, under the guard and responsibility of a gen- 
 darme until ordered otherwise 
 
 I carried with me several open letters of recom- 
 mendation to merchants and others at Amsterdam, 
 Rotterdam, and the Hague, but I had none for 
 Utrecht. I could not, therefore, claim the inter- 
 ference of any one in my behalf, but was reduced to 
 trust entirely to my own innocence ; a feeble support 
 in revolutionar}' times, when vice in power often 
 confounds the accused with the guilty, and immo- 
 lates the unfortunate to the dread of vengeance, or to 
 secure impunity. 
 
 What a blessing is a good conscience, resigna- 
 tion, and contempt of death! In our days no man 
 should frequent countries bleeding from anarchy, or 
 agitated by parties, without having previously con- 
 vinced himself of the litde value of existence, and 
 who cannot lay down with the same indifference on 
 a rack as on a bed. • It was near nine o'clock in the 
 morning before the gendarme awoke me with the 
 glad tidings that I was no longer his prisoner, and 
 asked me for some money to drink my health. 
 
 When dressed I went to see the police commis- 
 sary, wlio had taken ^vith him my passport the 
 night before. He now received me in a very dif* 
 ferent manner, assuring me that my momentary de- 
 tention had originated entirely from mistake, and 
 from the erroneous reports of those spies whom 
 
30 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 government had placed in the vicinity of Ziest to 
 watch travellers. He returned me my passport, to 
 which he had added his own signature. This oc- 
 currence evinces the necessity of prudence, as well 
 as the effects of mistrust. 
 
 In quitting him I took a walk round the city. Its 
 former beautiful alleys wear visible marks of depre- 
 dation and of neglect. Though all the cities and 
 towns of the Batavian Republic have more or less 
 planted walks, those in the neighbourhood of Utrecht 
 were formerly, in my opinion, even preferable to 
 those round Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Here he, 
 whom misfortune, learning, choice, or character, 
 rendered a philosopher, was seldom interrupted in 
 his meditations, either by the bustle of commerce, 
 by the noise of pleasure, or by the riot of debauchery . 
 He might walk for hours with no other interrup- 
 tion to his meditations than the play of childhood, 
 and its natural and unaffected felicity ; a pleasing 
 interruption, or rather a lively gratification to a mind 
 disgusted with the usual artifices of manhood. Here 
 children and nurses were no longer to be seen ; sol- 
 diers and harlots had taken their place, and profligacy 
 and indecency had driven away both innocence and 
 tenderness. 
 
 Utrecht is not more a commercial city than Amers- 
 fort. It derives its affluence and population from being 
 the capital of a province, from its university, and from 
 the numerous rich annuitants who have retired from 
 trade, or who live here upon the capitals gained in 
 trade by their ancestors. Its situation is compara- 
 tively rather elevated, and is considered as very 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 31 
 
 healthy. Had I to select a residence in this country, 
 I should prefer it to any other. When I was here 
 ten years ago, the society was very agreeable, and, 
 what I like much, very musical. At present, I was 
 told, that many of the principal families had emi- 
 grated, and that those still remaining invited no fo- 
 reigners, in consequence of the ungrateful and unbe- 
 coming behaviour of the French republican officers, 
 who often, after borrowing money from the father or 
 the husband, seduced the daughter, and debauched 
 the wife. I have heard some anecdotes on this sub- 
 ject, which, although recent, seem to me to apper- 
 tain to ages unknown to civilization, or to nations 
 where the barbarian respects no virtue, and the 
 savage reveres no divinity. 
 
 Citizen Van T , of this city, at the age of 
 
 fifty, had married a young woman of twenty. This 
 was not one of those unnatural matches which pa- 
 rental authority or filial cupidity so often conclude. 
 It was the disinterested desire of the father, and un- 
 biassed choice of the daughter, which united Made- 
 moiselle B n to a husband so much older than 
 
 herself. She had almost grown up under his eye, 
 and had esteemed him for years, as a friend, before 
 affection made her his wife. Though far from even 
 being handsome, his politeness, his delicacy, his 
 generosity, his attention, and his maimers were irre- 
 sistible, and in his company, all women forgot his 
 age, and regarded only the accomplished, amiable 
 gentleman. This couple had passed together ten 
 years of uninterrupted domestic happiness, and were 
 the parents of two daughters and of three sons, when 
 
32 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLED. 
 
 the French RepubHcan Colonel Beaucour was intro- 
 duced to them. After an acquaintance of three 
 months, he was ordered to march towards North 
 Holland, then threatened by an English invasion, 
 and was wounded near Heldern, when the troops 
 under General Abercromby made good their landing. 
 When Citizen Van T was informed of this ac- 
 cident, he invited him to his house, where better 
 care would be taken of him, than in the military 
 hospital, then crowded with wounded and dying of- 
 ficers and soldiers. Beaucour accepted the invita- 
 tion, and became, in a short time, an inmate of 
 the family. But what was the return he made for 
 50 much kindness — for such generous hospitality ? 
 Having heard that his host had some diamonds of 
 
 great value, he persuaded Madame Van T not 
 
 only to steal them, and a sum of five thousand ducats, 
 in money, but to desert her children, and to dis- 
 honour and make wretched their father. He soon, 
 however, became as cruel to his mistress, as he had 
 been ungrateful to his benefactor. After plunder- 
 ing her of all her ill-gotten valuables, and almost 
 stripping her of her clothes, he left her in an inn 
 near Cleves, from which place she wrote a repentant 
 letter to her husband, before she finished her misery 
 and buried her infamy in the Rhine. By bribes and 
 presents, Beaucour had procured himself the rank 
 of general of brigade, and expired as such in the 
 field of honour^ at an engagement in Suabia, during 
 the autumn of 1800. 
 
 Another republican officer, Danvilliers, a captain 
 of dragoons, was quartered in the house of a wine 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 33 
 
 merchant in this city, who was absent in Germany 
 on business. On his return, his wife was dying of 
 an infamous disease, and his two daughters, both 
 under twenty, pregnant by the villain who had injured 
 their mother. Inquisitive travellers may collect, in 
 every city or town of the United Provinces, hundreds 
 of similar anecdotes, all more or less abominable and 
 atrocious. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Jttnaterdam, January, 1804. 
 
 HAVING some acquaintance at Naarden, I 
 took that town in my way to this city. You know it 
 is one of the strongest fortresses of Europe, and the 
 key of Amsterdam. It seems, however, at present 
 much neglected, the fortifications are in many parts 
 falling to ruin, and the ditches filling with filth and 
 mud. Some invalids were upon duty at the gates 
 and on the ramparts, but the streets, the houses, and 
 the inhabitants, looked poor and desolate. Neither 
 manufactories nor commerce prosper here, and the 
 only branch of gain, the former and numerous gar- 
 risons, are also withdrawn. 
 
 This town capitulated to the Duke of Brunswick 
 in October, 1787, and opened its gates to the French 
 
 E 
 
34 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 troops in January, 1795. Had the Duke of York 
 succeeded in the autumn, 1799, to capture Amster- 
 dam, a plot is said to have been formed here, by 
 some secret friends of the House of Orange, to sur- 
 render it to the Anglo- Russian army, in the name of, 
 and for the Stadtholder. Four persons were shot, 
 and eighteen still continue in prison, in consequence 
 of the discovery of this real or pretended conspiracy. 
 
 Four times in the winter, and six times in the 
 summer, trekschuits sail or are drawn by horses 
 backwards and forwards between Naarden and Am- 
 sterdam. This mode of travelling is certainly the 
 cheapest and most convenient, though not the most 
 pleasant or agreeable. For a trifling sum the prin- 
 cipal cabin, called the roef^ might be engaged; but if 
 even there alone, one is not free from being plagued 
 with the pipes of the eternal Dutch smokers. The 
 passengers in the next cabin smoke on one side, while 
 the master and his man, on the other, never have 
 their pipes out of their mouths 
 
 The appearance of Amsterdam is not so striking 
 or imposing in coming from Naarden, as when you 
 enter it on the side of Harlem or Utrecht. The coun- 
 try houses and gardens aie less numerous and less 
 tasteful ; but what is wanted in splendour is made up 
 in utility. Every where are seen windmills and manu- 
 factories, bai'ges loading and unloading, timber yards, 
 brick houses, founderies, dock yards, rope walks, and 
 other signs of industry, and evidences of activity and 
 gain. 
 
 After being obstructed cwr vexed at the entrance 
 of every place in Holland, I expected the same, or 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 35 
 
 more troublesome ceremonies, before I was permit- 
 ted to set my feet on the pavement of this city ; but 
 neither names were asked, nor passports required, 
 and I began to think that the most populous placq 
 was also the most free. I soon found, however, that 
 I was in an errour. 
 
 My baggage was hardly brought into my room, 
 before the landlord laid before me a police register, 
 similar to those I had seen every where else on the 
 road. When he had read my name, he inquired 
 whether I did not expect a servant from Hamburgh? 
 Having answered in the affirmative, he said, then I 
 have a letter for you from him. He has been in pris- 
 on, poor devil! these five days, for want of patrons 
 to protect him, or friends to interest themselves for 
 him. His letter was doleful indeed; he had been 
 four times carried between soldiers to the Stadt-house 
 from the prison, to mention or find some securities. 
 No objection could be made against his passport, 
 but before he was at liberty to remain in this city, it 
 was necessary that some citizen should declare his 
 knowledge of him, and of the business which occa- 
 sioned his arrival. Had I been a day later, he would 
 have been sent out of the city as a vagabond, and 
 perhaps out of the country as an impostor. 
 
 I waited immediately on the Burgomaster, showed 
 my passport, and particularly my letters of recom- 
 mendation. He directly wrote a note to one of 
 the houses to which I was addressed, to be inform- 
 ed, no doubt, whether my letter to it was genuine or 
 fabricated. Being satisfied on this subject, he ac- 
 cepted me as bail for my servant, but ordered me, at 
 
36 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the same time, to present myself with him once in the 
 week, at the police office, where, within eight days, 
 if my conduct was approved of, I should be favoured 
 with a card of hospitality, which would protect me 
 during my stay. A similar one would also be given 
 to my servant ; but he advised us both not to walk 
 out without them or our passes in our pocket, for 
 feai' of being detained by the police, which is now 
 so severe, that every house-keeper is obliged, under 
 a fine of five hundred florins, 44/. to send there im- 
 mediately a written account of every stranger who in- 
 tends to pass a night in his house. This regulation 
 is even extended to masters of ships or of small craft, 
 at anchor in the harbour. 
 
 All these troublesome and impertinent measures 
 of safety have been introduced in Holland since that 
 country was cursed with French revolutionary fra- 
 ternity. Formerly, if some few rogues escaped, no 
 honest man was insulted ; at present, every honest 
 man is treated like a rogue ; while the passports of 
 those who have the most to fear, or to reproach 
 themselves with, are usually the least faulty ; per- 
 sons whose motives for travelling are pure, and 
 whose business is fair, are often negligent of for- 
 malities, humiliating as well as degrading, and, there- 
 fore, become the sole suiFerers from such tyrannical 
 vexation. 
 
 I was particularly inquisitive to know w^hether, 
 since such restrictions had been laid on travellers, 
 the number of criminals, of vagabonds, and of ad- 
 venturers, had decreased. As every liberal and 
 enlightened mind might have conjectured, the re- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 37 
 
 verse was the case. The impediments caused by 
 them to trade and a free intercourse diminished the 
 resources and wealth of many citizens, who sub- 
 sisted entirely by letting lodgings, or by accommo- 
 dating travellers, and who, before they could attend to 
 their private aflairs, were now obliged to lose half a 
 day or more in dancing attendance at the munici- 
 pality or in the police offices ; they, therefore, make 
 as few joumies as possible, and contrive to transact 
 in one the business of several. To the catalogue of 
 guilt these restrictions add a new class of culprits, 
 consisting of forgers of passes, of cards of citizen- 
 ship, or of hospitality, of ruined innkeepers, and beg- 
 gared keepers of furnished lodging houses. 
 
 My servant informed me, that the first day he 
 passed in prison, a man called upon him there, and 
 offered him, if he could dispose of one hundred 
 florins, 10/. 10^. not only to obtain his liberty, but to 
 procure whatever necessary papers he wanted to re- 
 side here undisturbed by the police. This offer he 
 declined, trusting for his release to my arrival, which 
 he knew could not be far distant. Having mentioned 
 this occurrence to a respectable merchant, he told me 
 the following anecdote : 
 
 Before the revolution, no country was less infested 
 with robbers and house-breakers than Holland. The 
 numerous examples of industry, the many means of 
 honest gain, the general comfort witnessed every 
 where, which is the natural consequence of labour, 
 made even idleness active, and vice repentant. But 
 no sooner had our republican reformers become mas- 
 ters of the Batavian commonwealth, than property 
 
S8 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 was rendered unsafe, by extortions and requisitions, 
 and a general stagnation of commerce was experi- 
 enced. Within six months after the departure of 
 the Prince of Orange, between three and four thou- 
 sand merchants' clerks were out of place in this city 
 alone, together with twenty thousand barge or boat- 
 men, porters, carriers, and other persons who gained 
 their livelihood in the employment of merchants and 
 traders. Some of these unfortunate men were pressed 
 for the colonies or for the navy, others enlisted in the 
 army, but many, seduced by the depravity of the 
 times, and the precepts of the invaders, or from cor- 
 rupt habits, established associations of thieves and 
 swindlers, who committed frauds and robberies, but 
 escaped discovery by the support they purchased 
 from French generals and commissaries, or from the 
 difficulty of tracing their offences, which were so 
 artfully committed as to perplex the vigilance of the 
 judges. They hired houses, which they furnished in 
 the most expensive style, not only at Amsterdam, 
 but at Brussels, Bordeaux, Paris, Lyons, Hamburgh, 
 and in all the other principal cities and towns on the 
 continent. Though often suspected, and sometimes 
 accused, they were for years never convicted of any 
 depredations ; on the contrary, their reputation in- 
 creased with their thefts and frauds, and had they 
 been more prudent, and less audacious, tliey might 
 have entirely destroyed all credit on the continent. 
 
 A woman was the cause of the apprehension and 
 punishment of some of them, and of the dispersion of 
 the remainder. Her name was Casner, a native of 
 Brabant ; she was kept by a certain Van Barger, one 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 39 
 
 of the chiefs of this gang of villains, who resided 
 here. Having quarrelled with him, she left him 
 privately, and carried away a trunk, of which he 
 seemed particularly careful. She expected to find 
 in it diamonds or money, but was much disappointed 
 in finding it to contain nothing but letters, old bills 
 of exchange, and other papers, of no use or value to 
 her. Van Barger's care of this trunk, and some 
 expressions in the letters, made her, however, con- 
 ceive, that it must be of great importance to him, 
 and in consequence she addressed herself to a rela- 
 tion, an attorney, and asked him to look over the 
 papers, and, if he thought proper, to give them back 
 to the o\vner, in consideration of some pecuniary re- 
 muneration. The first paper he perused determined 
 him to give information against Van Barger and his 
 associates to the magistrates. But the former had 
 already escaped with what cash and valuables he 
 could collect, and of the latter only twenty-three 
 were brought before the tribunal, and received the 
 punishment of their offences ; several hundred per- 
 sons were alsOvtaken up in France, Germany and 
 Italy, as implicated in the same crimes, but few of 
 them were found guilty, and the remainder let loose 
 again upon a society, which they had so much in- 
 jured. 
 
 In their search after these men, the police also dis- 
 covered four other lodging houses, containing a num- 
 ber of suspicious characters, who could give but an 
 indifferent account of themselves, and of their meims 
 of subsistence : they were all, however, provided with 
 regular passes or cards of citizenship, so well imi- 
 
40 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 tated, that it did not at first occur to the magistrates 
 that they might be forged; but one of them, being 
 recognised as an old offender, turned evidence against 
 his accomplices ; much stolen property was recov- 
 ered, and nine housekeepers, who had been consi- 
 dered as respectable characters were convicted as 
 accomplices in the forgeries and robberies. It is, 
 however, but justice to say, that of these criminals 
 very few were Dutchmen, but most of them natives 
 of Brabant, Flanders, and France. Van Barger 
 was from Ghent. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Amsterdam^ February^ 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 A FOREIGNER, well recommended, (though 
 not a merchant) meets no where with more real ci- 
 vility, than in this city. On certain days in the 
 week many of the first merchants and bankers keep 
 open houses ; after the first invitation a place at ta- 
 ble is always reserved for the guest, and he is as re- 
 gularly expected as one of the partners of the house, 
 or one of the members of the family. The principal 
 inhabitants have their country residences, if possible, 
 still more splendid than their houses in town. The 
 instant a stranger is introduced he is also informed, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 41 
 
 that an apartment there is at his exclusive service, 
 and that he is welcome to make use of it whenever 
 agreeable to himself. In the fine season, the ladies 
 of the opulent Dutch families generally pass their 
 time in the country, where their husbands, fathers, 
 sons, or brothers, join them every Saturday, and 
 spend their Sundays in hilarity. This interval is 
 devoted to excursions on the water, musical parties, 
 and other innocent amusements, which render it 
 extremely pleasant. On Monday morning the gen- 
 tlemen return to town, to their usual occupations. 
 Strangers are, nevertheless, always desired to keep 
 the ladies company, and with them often forget the 
 beauties of their own countries, the wives to whom 
 they are united, and the mistresses to whom they 
 have sworn fidelity. 
 
 In most countries very unjust and erroneous ideas 
 are entertained of the characters of the fair sex in 
 Holland. Those of the first classes are here, as well 
 as in France and England, educated with a great deal 
 of care and attention ; but their education is a mixture 
 of English and French manners and opinions ; and, 
 on his first introduction to a fashionable circle of 
 Dutch belles, a stranger is struck with this singula- 
 rity. He scarcely knows what to think of the contra- 
 dictions before his eyes ; of the frequent ease and 
 bashfulness, modesty and boldness, elegance and 
 awkwardness, that often display themselves in the 
 same person, during the same evening. 
 
 The Dutch women, notwithstanding first appear- 
 ances, and the remarksof cursory travellers, are lively 
 and amiable, and do not evince that phlegm which 
 
42 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER- 
 
 makes the society of Dutchmen often dull and fa- 
 tiguing ; but they must first know and esteem the 
 visitor they admit to their company. When he is once 
 received upon amicable or domestic terms, their art 
 or timidity wears away, and their character appears 
 to much advantage divested of restraint or disguise. 
 They are much more sincere than our French wo- 
 men, and, notwithstanding what I have experienced 
 and read of the constancy of the fair sex in the British 
 islands, I do not know whether I should not place 
 equal confidence, at least, in a female friend of this 
 country. 
 
 That the occupation of Holland by French revo- 
 lutionary soldiers, has injured the morals of the wo- 
 men as well as of the men, I do not deny. Where- 
 ever they penetrate, the effect must always be equally 
 fatal. But they have not been able to intrude them- 
 selves into the first societies, and the misery caused 
 by their immorality and corruption, (though not the 
 less to be deplored) with few exceptions, falls on the 
 middle and lower classes ; among them, as I have 
 been informed, they have left such seeds of profliga- 
 cy, such examples of depravity, that ages of order, 
 of virtue, and of religion, must succeed our times of 
 anarchy, vice, and infidelity, before any favourable 
 change can be expected. I speak only from hearsay, 
 though the bold looks and indelicate language of some 
 of the women of the middle classes I had an oppor- 
 tunity to converse with, seemed to indicate that I 
 had been but too well informed ; and that their ex- 
 cesses would be more seducing and dangerous than 
 those of abandoned women in France, because the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 43 
 
 last usually have some regard to appearances, and 
 tempt not youth, nor alarm innocence, by audacious 
 looks and impudent expressions. 
 
 One alteration I observed among the ladies of 
 fashion here, which I highly disapproved. Paint and 
 rouge are now as common among them as among our 
 belles in France. Those, however, put it on with so 
 much care and art that it seldom disfigures ; but 
 here, neither the mistresses nor the maids show any 
 taste or judgment. A lady, to whom I spoke on this 
 subject, gravely assured me that my objection would 
 soon be removed ; as a French priest had advertised 
 in the public prints, that, for a small sum, he would 
 attend the toilets of ladies, and teach them how to 
 use rouge and white in a manner to imitate nature so 
 perfectly as to impose even upon husbands and lovers* 
 Twelve lessons, she said, were sufficient. But al- 
 though I saw her some months afterwards, and was 
 informed by her that she had engaged the abbe, her 
 face presented decay rather than improvement. It is 
 true that she was on the wrong side of forty, and had 
 not led the most regular life. 
 
44 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Amsterdum^ February^ 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 BESIDES several clubs and literary societies, 
 where a foreigner may be introduced, and pass his 
 time agreeably, there is a French theatre here, en- 
 tirely supported by voluntary subscriptions. If he 
 obtains a recommendation to any of the subscribers, 
 a free ticket of admittance is given him for the time 
 of his stay. Here he is sure to meet the best and 
 most select company, as no tickets are transferable, 
 and no entrance money required or received. As to 
 the performers, they are certainly superior to those 
 on many of our theatres at Paris ; in my opinion, in 
 point of merit, they are nearly equal to those of the 
 French theatre at Hamburgh ; they are liberally re- 
 warded, and if possessed of talents, and irreproach- 
 able characters, are preferred as language or music 
 masters by many respectable families. 
 
 It is not yet nine years since Holland has formed 
 a part of our revolutionary dominions ; the French 
 language, nevertheless, is common among the peo- 
 ple ; most of them speak it, and all understand it. 
 Even grooms and chambermaids, peasants and fisher- 
 men, addressed me in French. The policy of our 
 government is, in this respect, strongly visible. By 
 ordering that no persons should be public function- 
 aries, who could not converse in French as well as in 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 4$ 
 
 Dutch, and by employing and advancing, in prefer- 
 ence, those who were most perfect in the former, every 
 one has been, or is, studying French, even to the neg- 
 lect of his own native tongue. Should the prosperity 
 of our arms continue half a century longer, I should 
 not be surprised if the French should supersede or 
 extinguish many other continental languages, and be 
 more universal than even Latin was in the most bril- 
 liant days of ancient Rome. 
 
 Nothing but French is spoken here in all compa- 
 nies, and the servants speak it with equal fluency 
 with their masters. French fashions, French dishes, 
 French furniture, have entirely banished the whole- 
 some and neat English, and the plain Dutch manner 
 of di'essing and of eating. I do not approve of these 
 changes ; they are neither congenial with the habits 
 of the people, nor with the climate of the country. 
 One eastern blast, or one night's fog, is sufficient to 
 ruin the constitution of all the Batavian nudes en 
 masse ; and some meals of our ragouts, and of our 
 fricassees, of our entrees, and of our entremets, will 
 be enough to derange, forever, Dutch stomachs, ac- 
 customed to simple fare, and sound diet. 
 
 Formerly, and but a few years since, the hours of 
 breakfast, dinner, and supper were the same among 
 all classes of people in this republic ; they all break- 
 fasted at eight, dined at two, and supped at eight or 
 nine. At present, no one of the higher and the wealthy 
 class rises before ten or eleven, dines before six, or 
 sups before twelve at night, or one in the morning. 
 This irregular and unnatural manner of living is in- 
 jurious to the health of a people accustomed from 
 
46 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 youth to regular hours, and hurtful to the affairs of a 
 commercial nation, whose long prosperity is entirely 
 owing to order and regularity. The principals of the 
 first and richest houses here were, ten years ago, in 
 their counting houses, dictating to, or directing their 
 clerks, before nine o'clock in the morning ; they had 
 then time to consult and meditate about their concerns 
 and speculations before they went upon the ex- 
 change, the hours of which are still what they were, 
 between one and two o'clock. At present their 
 breakfast is not over before noon ; they must, there- 
 fore, trust to confidential clerks, who often are as 
 fashionable as their masters, and, therefore, in their 
 turn, depend upon others. Our fraternization, in- 
 deed, has not left our Batavian brethren many com- 
 mercial afikirs to transact : but, for that very reason, 
 what little remains requires the more attention, if Hol- 
 landers would avoid being involved in the same com- 
 mercial ruin with Frenchmen. The regulations of 
 the mails, as it respects the time of arrival and de- 
 parture, are, however, the same as formerly. Ex- 
 cept the bags for Great Britain, and some other fo- 
 reign states, all others are made up before six o'clock 
 in the evening, and a merchant who loses four hours 
 of his morning, will hardly have time to transact bu- 
 siness, and answer correspondents, during some few 
 hours of the afternoon. 
 
 These remarks are not my own, but were made to 
 
 me by Citizen M , a Dutch capitalist, who had 
 
 retired from commerce, and though a staunch patriot 
 before the arrival of our Frei;ich patriots, is at present 
 such a violent Anti-Gallican, that he has disinherited 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. %7 
 
 an only son, because he learned the French language 
 contrary to his commands, and frequents no com- 
 pany where French is spoken. I once saw him re- 
 tire abruptly from table, because a giddy young girl 
 asked me in French to help her to the wing of a fowl. 
 He has sold all his property in this country, and does 
 not, at present, own a foot of ground within it. He 
 is considered to be worth three millions of florins, 
 270,000/. the whole of which he has placed in the 
 English funds. *' I carry my fortune in my pocket- 
 book," said he once to me, " and am waiting only 
 for peace between England and France to determine 
 where I shall finish my days. Should Buonaparte 
 then continue master of Holland, I shall immediately, 
 and forever, take leave of my native land." He has 
 sent his only daughter to be educated somewhere 
 near London, with the strictest injimction for her not 
 to be taught French. He asserts, that if every patri- 
 otic father was as prudent and determined as himself, 
 the French would soon be spoken only within the an* 
 cient limits of the French monarchy. 
 
 I once met in company a Baron d'Y , another 
 
 Dutchman, (the very reverse of Citizen M ) a 
 
 fop, who is infatuated with France, with Buonaparte, 
 and with himself. Having passed a winter at Paris, 
 dined with Napoleone, and danced with Josephine, 
 felicity is found by him no where beyond the barriers 
 of our capital, nor good breeding and manners any 
 where else but in the palace of the Thuilleries. He 
 has renounced forever the vulgar Dutch tongue, and 
 carries his aversion to it so far, that if those with whom 
 he converses do not understand French, he calls his 
 
48 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Flemish valet to be his interpreter. His business here 
 now is to dispose of all the property left him by his 
 father, who was a general in the service of the Prince 
 of Orange. His intention is to purchase a house at 
 Paris, and there, without interruption, admire the 
 first consul, and congratulate himself on his good for- 
 tune, which has permitted him to live in the age of 
 Buonaparte, and to be counted among the inhabi- 
 tants of the most polished city in the universe. I 
 have, as near as possible, written down his own 
 words. His mother, two sisters, and a brother in law, 
 are inconsolable for his folly, and have in vain ap- 
 plied to the magistrates to prevent the sale of his es- 
 tate. As he is near thirty years of age, I am inclined 
 to think that he is past cure. Of this opinion was 
 also a very lovely lady, who had resided two years 
 at Paris. Upon his asking her, where he should 
 establish himself in that city, she answered, turning 
 her back on him, ** in the hotel of the incurables." 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLED. 49 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 jimsterdatn, February^ 180^ 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 BEFORE the revolution, this city contained, 
 according to several statements, four hundred thou- 
 sand inhabitants ; and of these, only four thousand 
 five hundred were in a state of beggary, or a charge 
 to the community. The calculations made last year 
 from official documents prove that it has lost above 
 one- fourth of its population, and that of the remain- 
 der, nearly one-third, or eighty-five thousand souls, 
 had no resource but the charity of the compassion- 
 ate. What a melancholy change ; what a honible 
 lesson to revolutionists, to reformers, and lovers of 
 innovations ! Yes, collections have been made, not 
 only in all churches and chapels, but magistrates, ac- 
 companied by clcrg}^men, have, from door to door, 
 from house to house, implored generosity and pity 
 for a state of wretchedness bordering on despair. 
 These donations, though liberal, are very far, how- 
 ever, from being sufficient; this is strongly evi- 
 denced by the WTctched objects who are to be met 
 with every where, by the frequent instances of sui- 
 cide, and the numerous crimes with which the news- 
 papers are constantly filled. Here, where ten years 
 ago not a beggar was suffered in the streets, you are 
 now surrounded by hundi'eds, imploring, teazing, 
 and even threatening. A single suicide at that time^ 
 
 G 
 
50 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLED. 
 
 excited surprise and terrour, and became the subject 
 of conversation among the people for months, nay, for 
 years ; at present, every day, nay, almost every hour 
 exhibits some shocking spectacle of this sort. Here, 
 a vi^hole family poisoned ; there, a mother burying 
 herself with her children in a watery grave. In one 
 place a pistol has terminated the existence of a ruined 
 father ; while, in another, five or six victims of mise- 
 ry, who have put a period to their distress and lives 
 by hanging, are dragged out to be buried and for- 
 gotten. In this street, famine has raged and depopu- 
 lated half the houses ; in that, thieves, robbers, and 
 forgers have taken up their abode, and murdered 
 those they had stripped or plundered ! Inquire into 
 the causes of all these horrours, and the answer is al- 
 ways the same : " All this wretchedness xvas brought 
 on us by the revolution. We were well, we wished to 
 be better J and we are now as you see us^ 
 
 A friend related to me a most lamentable tale. A 
 father, a mother, and eight children, all coldly and 
 deliberately hurried into the presence of their creator^ 
 and to escape some temporary evils, exposed them- 
 selves to the risk of eternal perdition. A citizen of 
 the name of Vander Beulen, the son of a rich banker, 
 had inherited from his parents a fortune of two mil- 
 lions of florins, 166,000/. Seduced by the sophistry, 
 the declamations, and the promises of the first Na- 
 tional Assembly, he went to settle in France, whither 
 he carried all his property. He placed his money in 
 the French funds, guaranteed by the honour of the 
 French nation^ according to the expressions of Mi- 
 rabeau and Talleyrand. Of this guarantee he, how» 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVEI.LER. SI 
 
 ever, soon experienced the real value. He was paid 
 his interest in assignats, and when he complained of 
 the loss upon them, he was imprisoned as a suspicious 
 character, and narrowly escaped the guillotine, as a 
 conspirator, for having depreciated the current money 
 of the French Republic. After the death of Robes- 
 pierre, the doors of his prison were opened. No 
 longer the dupe of visionary schemes, he gathered 
 together the wreck of his fortune, returned to this 
 city, and settled here as a merchant ; as such he was 
 respected, and continued with various success until 
 the spring of 1800, when a French commissary, ac- 
 companied by French soldiers, demanded the keys 
 of his warehouses, and sequestered their contents, 
 under pretence that they were English productions, 
 or English goods. Besides his own capital, which 
 was vested in these goods, he was considerably in- 
 debted for them to merchants in London, Embden, 
 and Hamburgh. After having in vain petitioned 
 and complained, pleaded and supplicated, he took 
 the desperate resolution of terminating an existence 
 which so many and complicated misfortunes had ren- 
 dered insupportable. Not wishing to leave a wife 
 and children, whom he tenderly loved, to the con- 
 tempt of the unfeeling, or to the temptations of the 
 libertine, he convoked a kind of family council, be- 
 fore which he explained the dreadful situation of 
 liis affairs, and his still more dreadful determination 
 of perishing that night, with those members of his 
 family who had sufficient courage and affection to 
 accompany him to the grave. He required their 
 separate and written opinions or assent before eight 
 
52 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 o'clock at night. They all preferred death to pov- 
 erty, and to die with their father and friend, rather 
 than to live without him. The youngest daughter, 
 just past fourteen, gave her assent in the following 
 words : 
 
 *' Dearest and most beloved Parenty 
 
 "In such a selfish and depraved age, at a time 
 when Providence itself seems to be the protector 
 of guilt, and the persecutor of virtue, what have I, 
 who have no crimes to reproach myself with, and 
 no intent to become criminal, to do in a world seem- 
 ingly created for the worthless only ? I atn, there- 
 fore, resigned, and ready to die, in a manner you think 
 least painful. Only let my agony, dearest papa, be 
 as short as possible ! 
 
 (Signed) " Anna Vander Beulen^ 
 
 At nine o'clock they all sat down, mournfully 
 and silently, to their last supper, which consisted 
 of some vegetables and cold meat. The father, as 
 usual, drank a glass of wine with his wife and chil- 
 dren. When the table cloth was removed, and the 
 servant had retired, they all looked at him, trembling 
 and agitated, and Madame Vander Beulen took cou- 
 rage to ask him what preparations he had made for 
 their common exit. After some hesitation he replied : 
 *' My friends, we have already swallowed death in 
 the wine we have drank. Within an hour we shall 
 be no more. How many will then envy our lot ! Let 
 us embrace each other, and implore the blessings and 
 forgiveness of the Supreme Being!" 
 
 At midnight the servant knocked at the door, 
 which was bolted, but receiving no answer, seeing 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 53 
 
 no light, and hearing no noise, she thought that they 
 had all retired to bed, and did the same. On the next 
 morning, however, after knocking and calling in vain, 
 she alarmed the neighbours, and the door was forced 
 open. What a sight ! ten corpses lying on the floor, 
 disfigured by convulsions, and horrid in death. Upon 
 the table were found in writing the consent of 
 Madame Vander Beulen, of her three sons and five 
 daughters, together with an address to his fellow- 
 citizens, signed by her husband, in which he assigns 
 the motives that made him prefer poison to poverty, 
 and certain destruction to a lingering and humiliating 
 existence. They were all secretly interred during 
 the night, and the magistrates endeavoured to screen 
 this tragical event from public notice. 
 
 I have translated the above particulars from a copy 
 of the proces verbal, deposited with the municipality, 
 but I have left out many details too dangerous and 
 too horrid for insertion. Here, as well as in many 
 other countries, those Avho were most attached to 
 France, and to revolutionary tenets, have suffered 
 the most from the fallacy of their allurements. 
 
54 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 Jmsterdam, February^ 1804, 
 
 TO inspire their children with an aversion to 
 drunkenness, the Lacedasmonians were accustomed, 
 several times in the year, to make their slaves drunk. 
 To expose the infamy of prostitution and profligacy, 
 Dutch parents frequently carry their sons and daugh- 
 ters to public and privileged brothels, called musicoes 
 or spiel houses. Without minutely discussing the 
 utility or danger of such exhibitions and of such 
 visits, I am inclined to believe, that the novelty and 
 curiosity of the scene inspire young persons with 
 more sensations of pleasure than of pain, and pro- 
 duce notions in lively and ardent imaginations, the 
 very reverse of what was hoped and intended. At 
 least, the widow of a Dutch banker, a lady whose gal- 
 lantries are proverbial, told me that before she had, at 
 the age of fifteen, accompanied her father to a musico, 
 she was innocence itself ; but that from what she ob- 
 served there, her mind became corrupted long be- 
 fore her person was debauched ; that she frequently 
 meditated about the means to get there by herself, 
 to kiss, drink and dance with the debauchees, as she 
 had seen the female inmates do, and that she so often 
 spoke to her mother on the subject, that she at last 
 alarmed her, and for fear tliat she would choose worse, 
 her parents gave her to a man whom she neither 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 55 
 
 loved nor esteemed, but of whom she willingly ac- 
 cepted, merely to gratify a desire which had tor- 
 mented her, without her being able to explain it, 
 ever since her father had the imprudence to cairy her 
 to the place of prostitution. 
 
 The Dutch ai-e so much prejudiced in favour of 
 this preservative of chastity, that it avails but little 
 to attempt to argue with them on this subject. I 
 dined, one day last week, with a very rich, and, of 
 course, very respectable merchant, who, after tea, 
 invited me to attend his wife and daughters to the mu- 
 sico ; I took him apart and let him know my opinion, 
 and what I had been told by a country-woman of his ; 
 in return he smiled at my simplicity, saying, " for 
 three hundred years have Batavian fathers carried 
 their daughters to these brothels ; have Batavian 
 mothers degenerated in consequence ? bare-faced 
 vice is too hideous to corrupt ; it is only vice that 
 assumes the mask and garb of virtue that is to be 
 shunned." None of his daughters were under fif- 
 teen, and none above nineteen ; and, upon inquiiy, 
 they said that they had all three been there several 
 times before, and ahvays felt a strong curiosity to go 
 again, because they pitied the poor girls, exposed to 
 the caresses and brutality of every new comer. Star- 
 ing and gaping at them was certainly a very novel 
 manner of expressing pity ; but from the looks of the 
 misses, I suspect, that when talking among them- 
 selves, some other motive than curiosity was held 
 out and explained. 
 
 When I was present, ten years ago, at the same 
 musico, all the prostitutes were of this country, or 
 
56 'THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 from Germany. At present, their number is in- 
 creased and recruited from the dregs of France, 
 Brabant, Flanders and England. These last were 
 strumpets of soldiers, captured from, or left behind, 
 the Anglo-Russian army, in 1799. They were the 
 handsomest in their persons, though their manners 
 were vulgar and disgusting. They seemed satisfied 
 with their situation, or, as I suspect, rather buried 
 discontent in riot and debauchery. 
 
 You have, perhaps, learned, that the spectators in 
 these houses are more genteel, and more numerous, 
 than the amateurs and customers, and that every one 
 pays entrance money, as in going to the Dutch play. 
 For one florin, (20 pence) the price of admittance, 
 you may order a bottle of wine, and treat any of the 
 unfortunate females you like. They ^e all obliged 
 to drink and to dance as long as they can stand upon 
 their legs. The musicoes are open every hour, night 
 as well as day, but \h^ fashionable hour for the grave 
 Dutch citizens and their families to visit them, is 
 about eight o'clock in the evening ; they usually con- 
 tinue there until midnight, walk about, smoke and 
 drink, hardly uttering a word. The girls are placed 
 in two rows, on the right and the left, in a kind of 
 long hall, at the bottom of which some fiddlers are 
 seated in a gallery. When any amateur desires to 
 jump about, (dancing it cannot be called) he nods to 
 a woman, who joins him, when a rivalry of awkward- 
 ness is exhibited. Sometimes only one couple is 
 dancing, at others ten or twelve, but they all evinced 
 that they were untaught by art, tasteless from nature, 
 and equally deficient in judgment and grace. All 
 
TH£ BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 57 
 
 the men who danced, were of the lowest descrip- 
 tion; soldiers, sailors, or servants, many of whom 
 were foreigners, particularly Frenchmen. 
 
 Observing one of the most modest looking girls 
 rather sorrowful, with tears in her eyes, which she 
 strove to restrain and conceal, I inquired of her the 
 cause of her pain. She replied with a great deal of 
 naivete, that she was there against her inclination, 
 being the daughter of a tradesman at Coblentz, 
 where she married a French officer, who being over- 
 taken here by a former wife from France, turned her 
 away to shift for herself. She informed h,er parents 
 of her misfortunes, but as she had married against 
 their consent, they refused to take her back again, 
 or to support her any where else. Thus situated, 
 after parting with all her clothes, slie had no other re- 
 fuge but a musico, the common receptacle of wretch- 
 edness and vice. She added, that she would now 
 willingly accept of a place as a servant, could she 
 but recover her liberty, which was almost impossi- 
 ble, as her debts in the house amounted to a sum she 
 should never be able to pay ; it being the custom of 
 the keepers to charge the poor girls m^ny hundred 
 per cent, above the value for every thing they fur- 
 nish them; and until they have satisfied all their ex- 
 tortions, they are, according to the laws of the 
 country, prisoners in the house, and cannot leave 
 it without permission. Upon my inquiring whether 
 all the other girls were in the same predicament, 
 she answered, that all of them were more or less 
 hidebted, but having so long been accustomed to this 
 kind of life, they were less unfortunate than herself, 
 
 H 
 
$8 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 though they all wished and sometimes attempted to 
 escape, notwithstanding the severe chastisement in- 
 flicted on them when retaken. The number of fe- 
 males in this musicoy was forty-four, of whom she 
 was the youngest, being only eighteen : all of them, 
 except five others, had passed thirty; four of the 
 latter had been born in this house, where their mo- 
 thers had lived and died. Government receives 
 a large contribution for the protection of these 
 brothels, which are visited twice in the week by sur- 
 geons, and once in the month by a municipal officev 
 and a police commissary. 
 
 LETTER XIL 
 
 Amsterdam^ February^ 1804, 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I HAVE been informed by one of the magis- 
 trates, that the Jews formed one-seventh of tlie popu- 
 lation of the Batavian commonwealth, and one-fifth 
 of the inhabitants of this city. The impolitic perse- 
 cution of other governments, and the liberal toleration 
 of this, have attracted hither the sons of Moses, pro- 
 scribed and expelledfrom Spain andPortugal, or hum- 
 bled, tormented, and plundered in Italy and Germany. 
 Though most of them have been born here, and de- 
 scend from forefathers who have enjoyed the bless- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 59 
 
 ings of liberty for centuries, the national characte- 
 ristics and traits are still visible, and it is as easy to 
 distinguish a Jew of Portuguese or Spanish origin, 
 from one of German extraction, as to recognise a 
 Dutchman from a Frenchman 
 
 The Jews of the diiferent nations in Holland 
 intermarry seldomer among themselves than with 
 the Christians; they continue to speak and to 
 teach their children the language of that country 
 which their ancestors were forced to leave, and 
 to make it as familiar to them as Dutch or He- 
 brew. This conduct is dictated by superstition as 
 well as policy. Whenever the King of Jerusalem, 
 the Messiah whom they expect, makes his appear- 
 ance upon earth, they intend to return as masters 
 where their fathers lived like slaves, and from whence 
 they were driven away and exiled like criminals. 
 You know that numbers of Jews were compelled by 
 the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions to choose 
 between fire and Christianity; between death and 
 apostacy ; and that many, therefore, externally at 
 least, professed a faith which they secretly abhorred. 
 With the descendants of these the Jews here still 
 keep up a regular correspondence, and manage all 
 their business, in which the knowledge of their 
 native European language is particularly useful, as 
 these new Christians have been prohibited learning 
 Hebrew, or any other language but that spoken in 
 the country where they live. 
 
 Of the Jews here, those called the German, are 
 the poorest and the most numerous ; the Spanish 
 and Portuguese Jews are the wealthiest, and the 
 
60 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Italian Jews the fewest. The first and last live chiefly 
 among themselves; but the others visit and are visited 
 by Christians of the first rank ; have their assemblies, 
 dinner parties, balls and routs, equally as splendid 
 and well frequented as those of the most fashionable 
 Batavians. In October, 1787, after Amsterdam had 
 capitulated to the army under the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick, that prince took up his residence in the beau- 
 tiful house of the Portuguese Jew Capadoce, on the 
 Amstel, where I myself once dined in a company of 
 which the late stadtholder was one of the guests. 
 Several of these enlightened and fashionable Jews 
 have, however, since the revolution, quitted Holland, 
 and settled in Prussia, in Hamburgh, or in England. 
 The loss of the capitals, which they carried away 
 with them, is still severely felt upon the exchanges 
 here, Avhere politics are oftener discussed than com- 
 mercial affairs transacted 
 
 Among the eighty-five thousand inhabitants who 
 subsist here by alms, I have heard that twenty thou- 
 sand are German Jews. As no sectaries are more 
 industrious than those of the Old Testament, this 
 poverty is another evidence of the stagnation of trade 
 here, and that most of the resources for the ingenious 
 and laborious are exhausted. Indeed, when persons 
 who will stoop to any honest occupation rather than 
 starve in idleness, want bread, the national anarchy 
 or penury must be greater than supposed abroad. 
 When a state wants means to procure employment 
 for activity and honesty, its ruin cannot be distant. 
 For it has no right to punish as criminals, those citi- 
 zens whom necessity, and not vice, has rendered so. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 61 
 
 I have in this place formed an acquaintance witli 
 a Rabbin, a man of much research and information, 
 who possesses great influence with his nation ; he is 
 in high estimation with Buonaparte, and in posses- 
 sion of many of the secrets of our government. 
 From him I have learned several curious and inte- 
 resting facts, which serve to display the characters 
 and develope the views of our present rulers. From 
 his conversation, I have no doubt, that Prussia is on 
 the list, and will form one of the next revolutionary 
 victims of Buonaparte, notwithstanding the selfish 
 policy that has dictated the measures of the court of 
 Berlin. Deplorable indeed have been the conse- 
 quences of this policy, which, in its event, will most 
 probably involve the north of Europe in the ruin of 
 the south. In all the northern courts, particularly 
 in those of Prussia, Sweden and Denmark our go- 
 vernment has its emissaries, who intrigue with the 
 discontented, encourage the factious, and excite the 
 hopes of cupidity. France is by all considered as 
 the focus of anarchy, and the rail} ing point of revo- 
 lutionists. With this truth Buonaparte is unfortu- 
 nately too well acquainted, and therefore acts, in- 
 trigues and governs accordingly. But Europe is 
 not the only part of the world threatened with a ge- 
 neral overthrow. If I can believe the Rabbin, had 
 not the present contest between France and Engliind 
 taken place, Asia, Africa, and America would al- 
 ready have been in flames. Combustibles were col- 
 lected, the mine loaded, and the matches lighted, 
 when the difierences between the cabinets of St. 
 Cloud and St. James prevented an explosion, which 
 
62 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 is deferred but not relinquished. Political incendi- 
 aries are still busy in China as well as in Egypt, in 
 the vicinity of Constantinople as well as on the fron- 
 tiers of Mexico. 
 
 This Rabbin also told me an anecdote, w^hich shows 
 that revolutionary rulers are as greedy of wealth as 
 ambitious of power, and often make use of the latter 
 to seize the former. 
 
 When, in the spring of 1798, Buonaparte was pre- 
 pai'ing for his expedition to Egypt, the richest and 
 principal Jews in Holland, Italy, Germany and Eng- 
 land, were visited by French emissaries, who oifer- 
 ed, for certain sums of money, to re-establish the 
 Jewish nation in Palestine, and to fortify and garrison 
 Jerusalem, in the name of, and for a King of the Jews, 
 selected by themselves. It was even hinted, that if 
 their choice should fall on Buonaparte, he would 
 have no objection to circumcision, and to abrogate 
 Christianity. According to these proposals, a large 
 sum was subscribed, collected, and presented to Buo- 
 naparte. A committee of wise and wealthy Jews was 
 organised and permitted to sit and deliberate at Paris. 
 An address to all the Jews of Europe was in readi- 
 ness, inviting them to prepare, with their families 
 and treasures, to sail for the Holy Land, when the 
 repulse Buonaparte experienced from Sir Sidney 
 Smith, before St. Jean d'Acrc, prevented its publi- 
 cation. The members of this committee continued, 
 however, at Paris, until the peace of Amiens, when, 
 not to give cause of suspicion to England, Russia 
 and Turkey, they separated, but were instructed to 
 meet again secretly at Marseilles, where they have 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 63 
 
 ever since been negociating, deliberating and impos- 
 ing contributions on their sectaries, who still expect 
 to return to the land of promise ; an expectation 
 which Buonaparte and Talleyrand keep up, and 
 which has converted even the many Jews in the 
 states of Barbary to proselytes of our revolutionary 
 politics, and adherents to our government. The 
 Rabbin assured me, that he had been secretaiy to 
 this committee until the summer of 1802, when he 
 resigned to accompany Sebastiani on his mission to 
 Egypt and Syria. He seemed not to place much 
 confidence in Buonaparte's assurances, nor to wish 
 to become a subject of a King of Jerusalem. 
 
 LETTER XIIL 
 
 jimsterdam^ February, 1804. 
 
 THE garrison of this city, formerly, seldom ex- 
 ceeded three thousand men ; at present, ten thousand 
 are hardly sufficient to keep in order a populatioa 
 reduced to beggary and despair. Of the troops, 
 two-thirds are Frenchmen quartered on the citizens, 
 who endure with patience the inconvenience of har- 
 bouring such troublesome guests, ibr fear that with- 
 out them the populace would rise, plunder and com- 
 mit outrages. Indeed, you cannot ^valk in the streets^ 
 
64 THE BELGIAN TRAVEiLLER. 
 
 enter a coffee-house, or visit a citizen, without heal'- 
 ing curses on the revolution, complaints of suffer- 
 ings, and expressions of detestation of the foreigners 
 who have brought on them all these evils. But as 
 things now are, these very foreigners alone prevent 
 still greater evils. Were the Batavians now left to 
 themselves, violent as party animosity is, no body 
 knows to what horrid excesses misery and revenge 
 would carry them. 
 
 To take advantage of this painful situation, and 
 to inflict new wounds on those already so cruelly 
 treated, is both ungenerous and infamous. I have 
 been told, that our commanders and officers here, as 
 well as every where else in this republic, impede 
 justice, sell protection, sacrifice innocence on the 
 altar of cupidity, and for gold rescue guilt from the 
 hands of the executioner. 
 
 An Irish adventurer of the name of Cane, who 
 had been, successively, a united Irishman at Dublin, 
 a loyalist at London, a rebel at Paris, and a patriot 
 at Hamburgh, settled here as a merchant in 1798. 
 Unprincipled and audacious, selfish but insinuating, 
 with some talents, but more impudence, he succeeded 
 in duping a respectable body of merchants, whom he 
 persuaded to enter with him into a commercial scheme, 
 from which he promised them the greatest profit. He 
 had contrived that the issue of the first speculations 
 should be advantageous, which increased the confi- 
 dence of his associates so much, that they doubled 
 the capitals entrusted to him. Under pretence of a 
 journey on business to Rotterdam, he left this city, 
 after having previously dispatched to Hamburgh, in 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 65 
 
 cash and bills of exchange, one hundred and fifty- 
 thousand florins, (12,000/.) He had fitted up a large 
 house, and an extensive counting house, wherein he 
 employed ten clerks. One of these, who had been 
 absent on leave with a friend near Deventer, happen- 
 ed to return sooner than was expected, and met his 
 master on the road to Germany, without being seen 
 by him. He related this circumstance to one of the 
 associates ; the others were convoked, and it was re- 
 solved to break open the closet, where the bills and 
 cash were usually kept. It was found empty ; and 
 upon their application, a state messenger was sent 
 after the fugitive, who overtook him near ZwoU, but 
 his ill-gotten treasures were already safe on the other 
 side of the Batavian frontiers. He was tried and con- 
 victed of thieving and swindling, and sentenced to 
 four hours' exposure on the pillory, after being flog- 
 ged, and burnt with a hot iron by the hands of the 
 public hangman ; and afterwards to pass seven years 
 in hard labour in the house of correction. 
 
 By a douceur of one thousand ducats he convinc- 
 ed General Brune, at that time commander in chief 
 here, of his innocence, and a hint was given by that 
 officer to the judges, that they must not attempt to 
 carry the sentence into execution. They neverthe- 
 less continued inflexible, and a day was fixed for 
 punishing the culprit. On the eve of that day an or- 
 der signed " Brune," commanded the gaoler to de- 
 liver up Cane to the bearers, four gensdarmes, who 
 were to escort him to Paris, where he was accused 
 of a state crime. No sooner, however, had they ar- 
 rived in France, than, according to their secret in- 
 
 I 
 
66 TWE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 structions, they released the prisoner, who went to 
 Paris, laughed at his Dutch dupes, bought a house, 
 took a mistress, gave dinners, and met with still 
 greater rogues than himself^ who, after ruining him 
 by gambling, advised hrm to enlist in Buonaparte's 
 English Guides, in which situation, the person wha 
 narrated this anecdote to me, saw him last November. 
 
 A still more cruel and infamous act was perpe- 
 trated here, by the order of another of our comman- 
 ders. General Augereau. A young Dutchman, nam- 
 ed GuUickee, was on the eve of marrying a beauti- 
 ful and rich heiress, daughter of a banker of this city. 
 The banns had already been published once, when 
 General Dutertre, one of Augereau^s friends, hap- 
 pened to see her, and hear of her fortune. He im- 
 mediately wrote to Gullickee to give up the lady or 
 to fight him. Not knawing him, nor having given 
 him any offence, the Dutchman declined the combat, 
 )but continued his addresses to his mistress, who, to 
 avoid seeing Dutertre, went into the country, Au* 
 gereau in the mean time called on the mother, (the 
 father being dead) and told her with the frankness of 
 a soldier^ that she must give her daughter to his friend. 
 The lady having declined the honour of such an alli- 
 ance, Augereau gave her to understand that he had 
 irresistible means of breaking off the intended match 
 with Gullickee, as well as of compelling her to obe- 
 dience. 
 
 The Dutchman had formerly served as a lieutenant 
 in the colonial troops, but since the revolution had 
 given up his commission without leaving his coun- 
 ty. Augereau ordered him, nevertheless, to be ar- 
 
 \ 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 67 
 
 rested as an adherent of the Prince of Orange, and ^ 
 Dutch emigrant ; and a military commission was 
 appointed to try him for those crimes. As might be 
 expected, this mock trial did not last long ; he was 
 convicted and sent to be shot. 
 
 While Augereau was thus busy, Dutertre was not 
 idle. Attended by some French hussars, the same 
 night Gullickee was arrested he surrounded the 
 country house whither his mistress had retired, broke 
 open the doors, carried off his victim, and the next 
 morning forced a Dutch priest to perform the mar- 
 riage ceremony. After it was over, he can'ied the 
 unfortunate bride, more dead than alive, to her mo- 
 ther's house. This lady was then weeping over the 
 unfortunate fate of Gullickee, of which she had just 
 been informed. At the sight of her pale and trem- 
 bling child in such company, she fainted away, and 
 during the few hours she lived, never uttered a word. 
 Dutertre, after seizing upon the riches of his bride, 
 whom so many misfortunes had entirely stupified, 
 left her in the fifth month of her pregnancy, to join a 
 wife he had in France. Shortly afterwards an illness, 
 occasioned by a miscarriage, put an end to her miser 
 ry. From a cousin of her 's I heard this shocking detail. 
 This Dutertre i§ the same who, after being condem-. 
 ned to the galleys for robberies, was in 1797 released 
 by the director Barras, and who seconded Augereau 
 in his cruel treatment of Pichegru, and other repre^ 
 §entatives of the people, after the revolution of the 
 X8th Fructidor, or 4th September, 1797. He is at 
 present a commander of the legion of honour, 
 
68 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Amsterdam^ February^ 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 BESIDES a national Dutch theatre, and the 
 French subscription theatre^ operas, concerts, Sec. 
 are often performed here by strolling parties of 
 Frenchmen and Germans. The Dutch, in propor- 
 tion as they grow poor, seem more anxious to grasp 
 at pleasure. All the theatres are well frequented, and 
 the audience is composed more of the middle and 
 inferiour than of the superiour classes of society. 
 Having now, thanks to the revolution ! no business to 
 occupy them at home, they seek for dissipation 
 abroad, and attempt at shows to purchase some 
 hours' forgetfulness of their troubles. 
 
 After residing four weeks at the inn called " The 
 Arms of Amsterdam," I took private lodgings in 
 the house of a linen draper, a sober and industrious 
 man, the father of four young children, who had 
 been deserted by their unnatural mother, who had 
 eloped with a former lodger, a French officer of 
 artillery. He told me a mournful tale of the distress 
 of the times. His commerce was chiefly carried on. 
 with Portugal and Spain; but since the revolution, 
 and the war with England, some inland trade had 
 been his principal occupation. His losses, within 
 ten years, he calculated at fifty thousand florins, 
 (four thousand pounds) which was half his capital ; 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 69 
 
 of the remaining part of which he paid, annually, 
 four per cent, to the state, besides twenty per cent, 
 of his total income. He had also been a patriot, and 
 deplored, with tears in his eyes, his folly. He as- 
 sured me, that his father and grandfather, who, 
 during thirty- six years, had been in the same line of 
 business with himself, had not paid one half the 
 taxes which had been extorted from him within six 
 years. On asking him what had become of his wife 
 since her elopement, he replied, " You may see her 
 every night at the theatres with her seducer, who has 
 tlireatened to cut my throat, should I ever try to get 
 her back again. As long as Frenchmen govern the 
 laws of Holland, our poor and injured citizens have 
 nothing to do but to sigh, pay, and comply with 
 their demands." He owned that, previous to 1787, 
 he had been one of the most inveterate enemies of 
 the House of Orange ; had moved for addresses, and 
 procured votes and signatures to resolutions against 
 the Stadtholder and his ministers, insulting, illiberal, 
 and unjust; " But," said he, with a groan, " though 
 the Prince of Orange is no longer in IJolland, he 
 is much happier than his former persecutors who 
 remain behind. Should ever a counter-revolution 
 take place, that prince will find his best and most 
 disinterested friends among those misled citizens 
 who, some years back, were his most violent perse- 
 cutors and oppressors. In a country, and among a 
 people accustomed to order and regularity, some 
 few months of French fraternity are sufficient to cure 
 them of their mania for innovations and reform^ of 
 discontent and of disaffection. 
 
70 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 I one morning saw a person with my landlord, 
 who, he told me, was his brother in law, and a much 
 greater sufferer by the revolution than himself. 
 He was, in 1794, one of the first jewellers of this 
 city, and worth several millions of florins, but is now 
 reduced to the humble occupation of a letter carrier. 
 In 1787 he was a colonel of a regiment of burgher 
 volunteers, a station hereassumed in January, 1795, 
 when the French army approached this city, and was 
 among those who went out to meet and compliment 
 those whom they foolishly thought and called their 
 
 DELIVERERS. But tllCSe DELI VERERS, lUStcad of 
 
 cash, brought with them assignats, and one day when 
 this colonel -jeweller was upon duty, some citizen- 
 soldiers, and soldier- citizens, went into his ware- 
 houses, emptied them, and paid for their contents in 
 GssignatSj which were then scarcely of any value. 
 Four hours of French fraternity reduced one of the 
 wealthiest citizens to beggary, and though he pro-» 
 duced certificates of years of patriotism, of his par- 
 tiality to France and enmity to the stadtholder and 
 England, not a trinket, not a tea-spoon was restored 
 to him. Thus situated, his creditors fell on him at 
 once, and being unable to satisfy tlieir demands, he 
 became a bankrupt, and was turned out of the regi- 
 ment by those very Frenchmen who had so infa- 
 mously pillaged his property, and occasioned his 
 ruin. These misfortunes deprived his wife of her 
 reason, and his mother of her life, who died brokeiit 
 hearted. His only child, a son of seventeen, in de- 
 spair put an end to his existence. After being sup* 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. Tl 
 
 ported for three years by the charity of my landlord, 
 he at last, with great difficulty obtained a place, which 
 merely prevents him from starving. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 jimaterdamy February, X804, 
 
 liY LORD, 
 
 ALTHOUGH every thing is much dearer than 
 formerly in this city, you can still live here for much 
 less than at Bremen and Hamburgh. When I lodged 
 at " the Arms of Amsterdam," I paid a florin (twenty 
 pence) a day for my lodgings, half a florin for my 
 breakfast, a florin and a half for my dinner, including 
 a pint of wine, and a florin for my supper, with wine. 
 The expences of my servant amounted to one-third 
 of my own. At my present lodgings I pay a ducat 
 (nine shillings and six pence) the week, for three 
 rooms for myself, and a garret for my man ; and 
 my breakfast does not cost me half what I was 
 charged at the Inn. When not engaged, I frequent 
 the ordinaries of different inns and hotels, (the cus- 
 tomary manner of dining here) and can any where 
 get a dinner of two courses, and a desert, with wine, 
 for a florin and a half. In the north of Germany I 
 paid nearly double for board as well as for lodgings, 
 iind was not half so well accommodated. 
 
72 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 A disgraceful and humiliating custom prevails 
 both here and at Hamburgh, as well as in Den- 
 mark and Sweden. Their pretended hospitality is a 
 real meanness. You are laid under contribution in 
 every house where you dine, by invitation, either 
 in town or country. With the consent of their 
 masters, the servants have a fixed price for every 
 meal you eat, and for every day you pass un- 
 der the roof where they attend you. If you once 
 neglect, forget, or do not choose to submit to these 
 extortions, the next time you appear, you may be 
 sure of being slighted, if not insulted. The common 
 present the servants expect from you is a florin for a 
 dinner or supper, and two florins a day when a lodg- 
 er or a visiter. I am told, but I can hardly believe 
 it, that some masters and mistresses share these gains 
 with their servants, while others oblige them to pro- 
 vide their houses with cards, wax candles, refresh- 
 ments, &c. from what they beg at the door. In 
 Holland, as well as in the north, the servants are like 
 spies, watching the visiters, and when they are going 
 away stretch out their hand on opening the door, and 
 with a significant look, hint the remembrance of the 
 tribute. 
 
 I lately passed almost a fortnight with a friend at 
 his country house near Harlem. He has retired 
 from business, and enjoys the otium cum dignitate^ 
 and expects, advanced as he is in the vale of years, 
 with philosophical resignation, the orders of the su- 
 preme commander in chief, to yield up his station, 
 and to remove to a place from which no travellers 
 return. He is an old bachelor, and has for house- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. f$ 
 
 keepers and companions an amiable sister, the widow 
 of a general, and her four lovely daughters. Here 
 the guests enjoy every proper liberty, and if they are 
 not pleased, they must be very difficult indeed. He 
 has travelled over all Europe, and whenever he met 
 with an agreeable man, without inquiring into his 
 character or circumstances, he always invited him 
 to his cottage near Harlem, which, by the by, is one 
 of the largest and most tasteful country houses in the 
 Batavian Republic. The consequence of these gen- 
 eral, and, as his sister will have it, indiscreet invita- 
 tions, has been, that he never wanted lively and 
 pleasant companions, and if some have not done 
 much honour to their host, or shown much delicacy 
 with regard to his purse, they have all anriused and 
 entertained the company. No man is more ready to 
 contribute his share of mirth and gratitude than 
 the ^vretch whom misfortune, vice, or imprudence 
 has made a kind of outcast from society. He is sel- 
 dom noticed, and, therefore, feels so much the more 
 strongly any kindness that is offered him. Should 
 any seeds of virtue remain in his bosom, (and in what 
 bosom are not some fostered ?) he will pay a double 
 tribute of gratitude for any attention experienced, or 
 for any notice taken of him. He may, perhaps, from 
 necessity be reduced to borrow some trifling sum, 
 which he knows himself unable to repay, but this is 
 nothing but a contribution, which in all classes of 
 society the unfortunate more or less impose on the 
 generous and prosperous. What I have said here 
 regards only persons whose sentiments of birth or 
 
 K 
 
74 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 education misery may obscure, but can never en- 
 tirely eradicate. 
 
 I have been induced to make the above remarks 
 from the character drawn by my friend of a kind of 
 genteel adventurer, who had passed near thirty years 
 with him, and who died last week, without discover- 
 ing himself, or leaving any papers behind him to 
 evince who he really was. 
 
 During my friend's travels in Poland, he happen- 
 ed one day to dine at an ordinary by the side of a 
 person, whose dress did not bespeak affluence, but 
 whose manners and conversation indicated that he 
 had seen better days, and been intended for a diffe- 
 rent life. He called himself Baron d'H , a Swe- 
 dish nobleman, whom an affair of honour had exiled 
 from his own country. He said that he was going 
 to Warsaw, in hopes to enter into the service of the 
 king and republic of Poland ; and as my friend was 
 travelling the same way, he offered the stranger a 
 place in his carriage, which, after some excuses, was 
 at last accepted. A man of less penetration than 
 my friend might have perceived the combat between 
 pride and poverty which agitated the bosom of his 
 companion, whom he, with his usual delicacy, soon 
 set at ease, by informing him that he was a Dutch 
 capitalist, travelling more for pleasure than for busi- 
 ness, and to whom, therefore, the additional expenses 
 of a second person were of little consideration ; but 
 as he did not wish to hurt his feelings, he would leave 
 him at full liberty to repay them whenever it was 
 convenient to him. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 75 
 
 At Warsaw Baron d'H obtained the rank of 
 
 a lieutenant- colonel in one of the provincial regi- 
 ments, and repaid with gratitude what my friend had 
 expended for him on the road. He promised also 
 to keep up a correspondence with a gentleman, to 
 whom he considered himself much obliged, and 
 wrote several letters to him ; but the troubles of 
 Poland, and the dissolution of the Polish army, in- 
 duced Baron d'H to quit that country, and em- 
 bark at Dantzic, in a Dutch ship destined for this 
 city, in hopes that the patronage of my friend might 
 procure him some military post in the Batavian co- 
 lonies. He was not disappointed ; my friend obtain- 
 ed him a colonel's commission in one of the regi- 
 ments in Batavia, and fitted him out, and recom- 
 mended him in such a manner, that his situation might 
 be comfortable. He had, however, the misfortune to 
 be shipwrecked on the coast of France, and to lose 
 every thing he carried with him. No sooner was 
 this accident known to my friend, than a remittance 
 gave him means to return to Holland, and he once 
 more inhabited the mansion of disinterested hospi- 
 tality. What often is not the case with the distress- 
 ed, he gained by being known, and my friend offered 
 him an annuity of twelve hundred florins, and his 
 house for his home, if he thought he could be hap- 
 py to pass his days in obscurity indeed, but in the 
 bosom of friendship. To this he assented, upon 
 condition of being at perfect liberty to retire, should 
 he ever find that he was not treated like a gentleman, 
 and that should he survive a relation, of whom he 
 was the heir, my friend should permit him to repay 
 
76 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 with interest all money presented or lent him. 
 These points settled, he became an inmate, and du- 
 ring thirty years lived with my friend, the same agree- 
 able 3nd inoffensive companion as the first day of 
 their acquaintance. He had read a great deal, and 
 seen much of the world ; his conversation was, there- 
 fore, both amusing and instructive, and as far as it 
 lay in his power he returned in kind any civility or 
 kindness shown him. He was usually cheerful and 
 in good spirits, but was always marked with a gloom 
 as soon as any question was made about his family 
 and earlier days, and he always tried in as delicate a 
 manner as possible to change the subject of inquiry 
 or conversation. Even upon his death bed he was 
 reserved, and wished to avoid all remarks concern- 
 ing himself and his relations. Some few hours be- 
 fore he expired, he sent for my friend, and said : 
 ** My benefactor, you do not know what great and 
 undeserved wretchedness you have relieved in as- 
 sisting me so many years ; it grieves me to die with- 
 out communicating to you the secret of my life ; but 
 it does not belong to me alone ; and you are too ge- 
 nerous to think me ungrateful. I can only say, that 
 the errour of a moment has caused me a life of mise- 
 ry, which I have in vain tried to put a period to in 
 battle, since the bullets of the enemy have avoided a 
 heart almost broken by great and uncommon suffer- 
 ings. My nearest relative is not unacquainted with 
 my obligations to you, or with your liberality to- 
 wards me. Should she live a little longer your pe- 
 cuniary advances will be repaid, and the secret of 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 77 
 
 my life revealed. You will then be convinced that 
 I was never unworthy of your friendship." 
 
 To judge from Baron d'H 's last moments, as 
 
 my friend observed, he dreaded no avenger, but 
 seemed to fly with hope, fortitude, and confidence 
 towards the bosom of a tender parent. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 Amaterdam^ February^ 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE arrival of several couriers from Paris has 
 caused the greatest consternation here, and nothing 
 is talked of but the discovery of a pretended conspi- 
 racy, and the arrest of Pichegru and Moreau. It is 
 reported that Buonaparte has insisted upon the seiz- 
 ure of several Batavian citizens, and foreign travel- 
 lers who are now in this republic, as implicated 
 with the prisoners in France, and to have them all 
 delivered up to be tried by his laws and his judges. 
 These facts and rumours evince both his terrour and 
 tyranny, the instability of his usurpation, and the 
 conviction he feels of the readiness and desire of his 
 slaves to break on his own head the heavy fetters 
 he has imposed upon them. 
 
 Of all the French revolutionary generals who have 
 so dreadfully figured upon the revolutionary stage, 
 
78 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Picliegru is the only one whose hands are unstained 
 with blood, and unsullied by plunder; he, when 
 marching between victory and the guillotine, threat- 
 ened by Jacobinical bloodhounds, and denounced by 
 sanguinary anarchists, protected innocence, display- 
 ed generosity to the vanquished, and humanity to 
 the proscribed, and always showed himself a valiant 
 warrior, but never, like most of his contemporaries, 
 descended to become a dastardly assassin. This un- 
 fortunate general is adored in the Batavian common- 
 wealth ; a voluntary tribute of gratitude which seldom 
 before has been paid by a subjugated people to their 
 conqueror. 
 
 When Pichegru dictated the destiny of Holland, 
 that republic was the richest state of the European 
 continent. It surrendered almost without any capi- 
 tulation,^ and at discretion, and he became master of 
 the immense treasure hoarded by ages, of the gain of 
 commercial prosperity for centuries, of the gold and 
 diamonds India had given in exchange for European 
 industry and European commodities, during three 
 hundred years ; but never since the revolution have 
 Batavian citizens been less oppressed, nor Batavian 
 property more respected and secure, than during the 
 period of Pichegru 's command. Though courted 
 by all, and offered rank and wealth by all parties, his 
 modesty was equal to his disinterestedness; he left 
 Holland a simple citizen, and as poor as he had en- 
 tered it. Even the annuity of twelve thousand 
 florins (1100/.) which the Batavian national conven- 
 tion decreed to him, he declined; well convinced, 
 that before Holland had satisfied the greediness and 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 79 
 
 extortions of French revolutionary rulers, and the 
 claims of French fraternity, they would not have 
 much money left to reward heroism and liberality. 
 What a contrast between the conduct of the victors 
 of Holland and of Italy ! while the one sufters in a 
 dungeon, the other sways a sceptre on a throne! 
 
 Among my acquaintances here is the widow of a 
 burgomaster, in whose house Pichegru lodged du- 
 ring his residence in this city. No sooner did she 
 hear of his an'cst than she sent for me, to consult on 
 the best means of serving or saving him, in his pre- 
 sent perilous situation; she told me that she was 
 ready to sacrifice half her fortune, ^nd to carry it 
 with her in bills on Paris, for which city she was de- 
 termined to set out. With much difficulty was I 
 able to convince her, how little her individual efforts 
 would avail against enmity and rivalry in power, and 
 of the danger as well as of the imprudence of a jour- 
 ney to France. I could not, however, prevail on her 
 to desist from going to the Hague, to endeavour, by 
 her connections there, to influence the government 
 to petition for her favourite, and by her riches to 
 purchase the recommendation and good offices of 
 Buonaparte's ambassador. Were not this lady past 
 threescore, I should be induced to attribute the 
 warmth with which she interests herself for Piche- 
 gru to a revived affection for a lover; but I am now 
 persuaded that gratitude, arising from the love of 
 her country, and her admiration of the generosity of 
 its conqueror, are the sole and pure motives of all 
 her friendship and all her anxiety. She esteems the 
 
80 THE, BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 good citizen, she admires the humane general, but 
 all other sentiments are out of the question. 
 
 Another lady, a relative of the friend of Pichegru, 
 would not, I presume, be quite so uneasy were ano- 
 ther ex -commander of Holland, General Brune, in 
 equal danger. She is also a rich widow ; but from 
 the beginning of the revolution abhorred its princi- 
 ples, and dreaded their fatal effects. She looks upon 
 Great Britain as the only barrier against the revolu- 
 tionary current, and the sole dike against a univer- 
 sal devastation ; and while her own country, from its 
 present weakness, and the present anarchy in the I 
 political system of Europe, must be under the guid- 
 ance of foreigners, she prefers the preservers of civi- 
 lized society to its destroyers, and, therefore, wishes 
 rather to see the loyal English than the revolutionary 
 French, masters of Holland. 
 
 From these feelings, which she does not conceal, 
 it is not surprising that she rejoiced at the first pro- 
 gress of the Anglo-Russian army, in 1799; and that 
 she, with other sufferers from the present order of 
 things, believed what flattered their wishes, and ex- 
 pected to be soon delivered from their troublesome 
 Gallic guests. 
 
 Her house is one of the largest and most commo- 
 dious in this city ; this she fitted up in a very splen- 
 did and tasteful manner, in hopes that it would be the 
 residence of the Duke of York. She is also the mo- 
 ther of four beautiful children under sixteen, for 
 whom an English master was hired to instruct them 
 how to pronounce, becomingly and gracefully, some 
 verses written to compliment the royal British com- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 81 
 
 mander on his victorious entry into Amsterdam. 
 When, from causes difficult to be detailed in a let- 
 ter, a convention for the evacuation of the Batavian 
 Republic by the Anglo- Russian army had been 
 signed with General Brune ; this officer, informed of 
 her pretended Anglomania, not only put her house 
 in requisition for himself, as his head quarters, but 
 forced her to engage a French master to teach her 
 children a poem he had composed in praise of his 
 own achievements, which they were to address to 
 him at a fete given by the municipality of the city. 
 
 But this was not his only revenge. When on the 
 point of returning to France, he laid the lady under 
 a patriotic requisition of sixty thousand florins, for 
 his lenity in not having her tried for a conspiracy 
 against the republic, and sold all the new furniture 
 of her house, under pretence of distributing the 
 amount among the widows and orphans of the offi- 
 cers and soldiers killed during the late invasion. 
 Both these sums, however, he put into his own poc- 
 ket, together with half a million of florins more, ex- 
 torted from other rich individuals, whom he accused 
 of having plotted to restore the government of the 
 Stadtholder. But in revolutionary countries, pillage, 
 oppression and peculation are so common, that they 
 are hardly noticed, seldom complained of, and if 
 complained of, reparation or restoration is never ob- 
 tained. 
 
B-2. THE BELGIAN tRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 jtmster.damy March, 18041 
 MY I.ORD, 
 
 THE old respectable Dutch merchants mur- 
 mur much at the obloquy throwa on the character 
 of Batavian traders by the numerous foreign, parti- 
 cularly French, adventurers, settled here since the 
 revolution, who, by their fraudulent dealbigs, de- 
 ceive and injure the merchants of other countries. 
 Ten years ago, not more than six French houses, of 
 any consequence, were established here ; at present^ 
 when all commerce is nearly annihilated, they amount 
 to upwards of sixty, all pretending to possess great 
 capitals, unimpaired credit^ and extensive connec- 
 tions* Their manner of life corresponds with their 
 assertions; their extravagance, immorality, profli- 
 gacy, and bad example, scandalize but fcwj but 
 they seduce many, and often ruin those on whom 
 their ostentation and impudence impose. On inquir- 
 ing of what country are the bankrupts, so numerous 
 of late, you will find that two-thirds of them are of 
 the above description. Should these legal and com- 
 mercial swindlers infest this state some years longer, 
 and, under the name of Amsterdam or Rotterdam 
 merchants, commit depredations on the Germans, 
 Spaniards, Italians, English, and Americans, the 
 Hollanders, like the French, will entirely lose their 
 tharacter as a commercial people, and suffer in their 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. ^ 
 
 business from a want of confidence, owing chiefly 
 to these dangerous intruders. It is, however, said, 
 that the Batavian Government has in contemplation 
 the publication of a law, which will restrain foreign- 
 ers from establishing tliemselves so easily as they 
 have hitherto done. This law, it is reported, is al- 
 ready referred to a committee of Batavian merchants 
 for their opinions and remarks. But, besides the dif- 
 ficulty, if not the impossibility, of making commer- 
 cial innovations, which must be frequently vexatious 
 to honest dealers, the Batavian Republic can never 
 enforce its laws whilst it groans under a foreign des- 
 potism. A fiat of Buonaparte, of his ministers, or 
 his generals, will instantly silence, alter or render 
 null, the wisest laws and most patriotic resolutions. 
 The only remedy the Dutch merchants can resort to, 
 is to have no dealings themselves with these foreign 
 interlopers, and to warn their correspondents abroad 
 against their artifices and deceptions. 
 
 ' I have been told the names of two young men, 
 (which in consideration of their families I shall con- 
 ceal) who arrived here four years ago, strongly re- 
 commended by some of the first banking houses at 
 Paris, They pretended to have great influence with 
 our government, and, on some occasions, proved 
 that they were ntot unconnected with our men in 
 place, procuring, for a stipulated sum, the payment 
 of Batavian demands on France. Encouraged by 
 these successes, they opened a commercial, banking 
 and negociating ofiice, and during twelve months 
 behaved honourably and prudently. They were 
 supposed to have gained, in a fair manner, upwards 
 
84 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 of one hundred thousand florins during that period ; 
 but, to the surprise of every one, one day, when 
 their notes to a considerable amount were due, they 
 decamped, carrying with them not only their books, 
 and the money of their creditors, but several valuable 
 diamonds, deposited with them to be sold on com- 
 mission. The debts they left behind them exceeded 
 two millions of florins, without mentioning the sums 
 of which they had defrauded many Dutch claimants 
 on France, whose papers and contracts had been as-- 
 signed over to them. One of them is said to be the 
 secretary of Louis Buonaparte, and the other has 
 married a niece of General Murat; thus protected, 
 they have not hesitated to employ their ill-gotten 
 treasures in the purchase of national estates. Some 
 qf their creditors have followed them to Paris, and 
 even presented a petition against them to the First 
 Consul; but after being laughed at and threatened, 
 two of the most tenacious were t^keu up by the po-» 
 lice, and carried out of the country, under an escort 
 of gensdarmes ; they were also, under pain of death, 
 forbidden ever to re-enter the French territory. This 
 measure, in a few days, frightened away all others 
 who had complained against them. It must be al- 
 lowed, that this way of paying debts is both expedi- 
 tious and efficacious; but it was never heard of be- 
 fore the revolution. Since that time, however, our 
 different governments have more than once impri- 
 soned, transported, and even shot state creditors who 
 w^ere ti'oublesome, or those from whom their mem- 
 bers individually had borroAved money. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER^ 85 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 Amsterdam^ March ^ 1804^ 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 WE have of late had some unusually fine days 
 for the season, and the coffee and wine-houses m 
 the vicinity of the city have been crowded with cus- 
 tomers. I was led by curiosity to visit many of 
 them, and found them much as formerly, except 
 that, like all other places of entertainment and plea- 
 sure, they had augmented in number. The guests, 
 though not so neat and clean as formerly, at least 
 the female part, seemed to enjoy their excursions 
 from home, in a greater degree, and were gayer, 
 because, as I have reason to suppose, they were 
 poorer than when I saw them ten years ago. As 
 usual, they drank tea, coffee and wine by the side of 
 their husbands, fathers, cousins or friends, who per- 
 fumed them with incessant smoaking. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great increase of taxes, the 
 price of entertainment in these houses had varied 
 but little. You may, at present, get a bottle of wine 
 for twelve stivers^ ( 1^. sterling) tea for ten pence, 
 and coffee for eight pence, including bread and but- 
 ter. It is true, however, that every thing with 
 which you are served, is of a poor quality, compar- 
 ed with* what you obtain in the best inns of the city. 
 
 I was accompanied in my walk by the wife of a 
 friend, from Antwerp, who had been married only 
 
^6 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLED. 
 
 a fortnight. In rambling from place to place, the 
 evening passed away, and we had forgot, that at a 
 certain hour, the gates are shut, and on no account 
 could be again opened until the next morning. 
 When we were within some few yards of the Ley- 
 clen gate, the draw-bridge w^as lifted up, and we 
 were left outside. I sent my servant to find some 
 boat, to carry us over the ditch into the city ; but 
 all in vain. My young companion, was at first very 
 much alarmed, and even wept ; but, after some min- 
 utes, her good humour returned, and I dispatched 
 my servant to look for some good accommodation 
 for us during the night. After nearly an hour's 
 absence he returned unsuccessful : This did not 
 trouble me, as I supposed that the people of the cof- 
 fee-house where we had taken tea, would give a bed,, 
 at least, to my female companion. I was, however, 
 mistaken ; they even answered my request rudely, 
 and in nine other coffee-houses I was equally disap- 
 pointed ; they would no where even allow us to pass 
 the night upon chairs in a Avarm room, though I of- 
 fered to pay them before hand whatever they should 
 demand. 
 
 In order to avoid exposure to the cold and damp 
 night air, I ordered a supper in one of these inhos- 
 pitable dwellings, and in the mean time again sent 
 my serA^ant to try what money would do, permitting 
 him even to offer two ducats for a single bed. Be- 
 fore our supper was over he came back followed by 
 an honest German miller, who said that he had a 
 spare bed for the lady, and a good fire- side for me 
 and my man, to which we were heartily welcome, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 87 
 
 leaving to our own generosity to reward him as we 
 thought proper. 
 
 No sooner did our host hear that we were at least 
 certain of not passing the night in the open air, than 
 he said, " if the lady has not had the small-pox, I 
 should advise her not to enter the house of the mil- 
 ler, who last week lost two of his children by that 
 disease ; and as I observe you, Sir, to be liberal, (I 
 had given the miller two ducats) I shall give both 
 you and the lady better beds than you would get 
 even in Amsterdam. Observing some reluctance 
 in the lady to go to the miller's, I accepted of the of- 
 fer, and after I had visited her bed-room, and seen- 
 every thing right, she went to bed. 
 
 When I was alone with the landlord, I asked him- 
 what could induce him to behave in such an indeli^ 
 cate and ungenerous manner as he had first done ; 
 *' I shall tell you the truth, Sir," said he : " Many 
 persons purposely cause themselves to be locked out 
 with ladies they like, and they never pay us less than 
 a ducat a bed to pass the night under our roof. As 
 I suspected you to be a Frenchman, I did not expect 
 that you had so much money to spare ; or if you had 
 it, that you would have parted with it. Besides, I 
 once lodged a French commissary, who came hi- 
 ther with a lady ; he paid mc my full demand, in- 
 deed, but on the next morning he returned, attend- 
 ed by seven soldiers and t^^o carts, put in requi- 
 sition, and carried away three of my best beds for 
 the use, as he said, of the army hospitals. After 
 such treatment you cannot be sui^rised at my reluc- 
 tance to harbouring persons of that country. The 
 
{ 
 88 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLERi 
 
 same tricks have been played on all my neighbours-'* 
 ** But how do you know," replied I, " whether I too 
 am not a French commissary, and may not act in the 
 same manner?" *' No, Sir," replied he, " before I 
 offered to lodge you, I inquired of your servant who 
 you were, and was satisfied that you are a Brabant 
 gentleman ; had I thought you a Frenchman, you 
 might have passed your night on the high road, on 
 the canal, or in the ditch, but you should never 
 have passed it in my house." 
 
 What reflections do not such occurrences occa- 
 sion ! The impunity and audacity of revolutionary 
 banditti not only inspire suspicion and mistrust, but 
 make people unjust, unfeeling and unhospitable. 
 
 Innocent and honest persons are consequently 
 exposed to contempt, to sufferings and to harsh 
 treatment. Their reputations, as well as their lives, 
 are endangered, because infamy has deceived cupid- 
 ity, and duplicity over-reached meanness. Can 
 posterity believe such actions possible ? Yes ! I 
 apprehend that our grand children will suffer more 
 from crimes than we have done, and, therefore, 
 envy as morality what w^e detest as enormity. It 
 is with revolutions as with old age ; maturity and 
 decrepitude do not diminish the attachment to early 
 depravities, early vices, and early crimes. 
 
 At six o'clock in the morning' the gates were 
 opened, but wc had already been waiting forty 
 minutes to enter the city. The carriage of the lady's 
 husband met us on the bridge. My friend, who on 
 not seeing us return in time, had suspected the cause 
 of our absence, laughed heartily at our adventure. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 89 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 Amsterdam^ Marchy 1804. 
 
 I HAVE often during my stay here frequent- 
 ed the most fashionable and popular coffee-houses ; 
 not from idleness or from want of better society, 
 but merely to discover whether the revolution has 
 produced the same alterations with regard to coffee- 
 house politicians as with regard to the mercantile 
 patriots and patriotic merchants. The new French 
 coffee-house in Calve's street was ten years ago a 
 place of debate and altercation between the emi- 
 grant, the victim of the revolution, and the staunch 
 Dutch republican, who from a revolution expected to 
 enjoy that imaginary equality of which he accused a 
 Stadtholder to have deprived him ; it was then the 
 most noisy place of Amsterdam, nay of Holland. 
 When I now for the first time sat down there, I look- 
 ed round me to reconnoitre it, supposing, from the 
 mournful silence that prevailed that I was mistaken, 
 and had stept into a church instead of a coffee- 
 house. But round the same tables I still remarked 
 most of the same customers, the same landlord 
 smiled at me, and the same waiter attended on me. 
 For several days scarcely any one noticed me ; some 
 seemed however to regard me in a manner as if to 
 say, you are an old acquaintance, but who you are 
 
 we do not remember ; still no one said a word 
 
 M 
 
90 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 to me. Tired of this singular reserve, and curi- 
 ous to know the cause of it, I addressed myself to a 
 person whom I perfectly recollected, who pretended 
 to have been a musketeer under Louis XVI. but 
 who was a revolutionist and language -master when 
 I saw him the last time. " Pray Citizen," said I, 
 " is not your name Berger ?" — '* Yes Citizen, it is, 
 at your service. I believe that I have had the ho- 
 nour of seeing you somewhere." — " In this very 
 coffee-house, where I have more than once admired 
 your eloquence and patriotism." — " Do not speak so 
 loud Citizen ! times are of late much changed." — 
 ^' Changed indeed ! but for the better for persons of 
 your sentiments." — ^' You think so, (taking me by 
 the hand to a window, and whispering) but you are 
 egregiously mistaken. We dare no longer express 
 our opinions here, because we are surrounded by 
 spies, and run the risk of being transported or 
 shot." — " A Citizen of your known patriotism !" — 
 " Yes ! yes ! I speak from conviction and experi- 
 ence; I have endured ten months' imprisonment for 
 my zeal in the cause of liberty and equality," — " Is 
 it possible ?" — " Yes ! not only myself, but every 
 pther admirer of our revolution, who, in this coiFee- 
 house, so enthusiastically served our patriots, and 
 propagated their precepts, has severely suffered for 
 it. We were all taken up on the same evening as 
 anarchists, carried in irons to the Temple at Paris, 
 from which we were liberated only on condition of 
 never more interfering in politics or in the affairs of 
 our government. We have all been completely dup- 
 ed by hypocrites and impostors, and when we ex- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 91 
 
 pected preferment and notice as our reward, we 
 were threatened with persecution and proscription, 
 as a just punishment. What shocking times we 
 live in ! 
 
 Thinking we were observed, he proposed to me 
 a walk on the ramparts. Here he unbosomed him- 
 self entirely. He assured me, that in consequence 
 of the turn the revolution had taken, and of the suc- 
 cess which a set of guilty and unprincipled adven- 
 turers had obtained in consequence of the labours of 
 the true friends of liberty, the general wish was to 
 see affairs as they were fifteen years ago : a Bourboit 
 upon the throne of France, and a Prince of Orange 
 at the head of the government of Holland. He was 
 particularly violent against Buonaparte, who, accor- 
 ding to him, had alone retrograded the regeneration 
 and the perfectibility of the human species, more 
 than all other revolutionary despots who, in the 
 name of liberty, had organized the most oppressive 
 slavery. Under Louis XVI. and under the Prince 
 of Orange, said he, we dared speak our sentiments 
 like men, like reasonable beings; under Buonaparte, 
 and under a Batavian Directory, who are his toolsj 
 we are reduced to a state of imbecility ; we are bru- 
 talised; we dare hardly think, much less own what 
 we think; assassins and highwaymen are sooner 
 forgiven than the admirers of the rights of man, and 
 the votaries of equality. 
 
 I easily accounted for the enmity of this citizen 
 to Buonaparte, when I heard that it was but the 
 week before that he had arrived from his visit to the 
 Temple, where he more than once had been sur- 
 
92 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 rounded by racks and executioners. As to the 
 seizure en masse of all the patriots of this coffee- 
 house, it took place in consequence of their having 
 the indiscretion to find fault with Buonaparte for 
 extorting a consulate for life, and for signing the 
 religious concordate with the Pope. 
 
 The revolution has indeed disappointed all 
 paities; its adherents as well as its opposers; its 
 supporters as well as its victims. Some of them 
 have waded through rivers of blood, and committed 
 every atrocity, while others have wandered through 
 a circle of errours and inconsistencies, to bend 
 their necks at last under the yoke of an upstart ty- 
 rant. What follies, what crimes, what extravagan- 
 cies were necessary to establish Buonaparte's su- 
 premacy ! 
 
 One of the orators of this coffee-house, a brewer 
 of the name of Sauster, perished a martyr to his 
 zeal, and involved his family in his own ruin. When 
 upon the road to the Temple, he constantly declaim- 
 ed against Buonaparte, and declared that the usurp- 
 er would perish as he had lived, like a criminal. For 
 this imprudence he was tried and shot as a conspi- 
 rator. His wife, who knew nothing of his fate, fol- 
 lowed him with three children, and carried with her 
 a large sum (advanced her upon their property by 
 some friends) with the expectation that money, pro- 
 perly applied, might restore her husband to society. 
 After some weeks' attendance she obtained infor- 
 mation that he had long been dead. Rendered fu- 
 rious by grief, she returned to her lodgings, where, 
 ^ter stabbing her children to the heart, she cut her 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. , 93 
 
 own throat. As all occurrences of this nature are 
 concealed by the police of Paris, and, if possible, 
 buried in oblivion, her relatives and friends in this 
 country would never have known any thing of it, 
 but for some bills of exchange she took with her, 
 one of which the police agents, ignorant dF her hand- 
 writing, had imitated in such a clumsy manner that 
 the forgery was easily discovered, and payment of 
 course refused. It was then first known that the 
 bills had belonged to a dead person; and the Bata- 
 vian ambassador in France, Schimmelpenninck, 
 after much pains, was informed by the prefect of 
 the police of the horrid act which Madame Sauster 
 had committed; but it was not till seven months af- 
 terwards that the fate of her husband was knowri to 
 their friends in Holland. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Amsterdam, Marchy 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I DINED yesterday with a respectable mer- 
 chant, who was lately swindled out of one hundred 
 thousand livres (4000/.) in the follov/ing curious 
 manner : He received from an old correspondent, a 
 banker at Paris, a letter by the regular post, in 
 which he was confidentially informed, that one of 
 
94 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the principal clerks of his house had absconded with 
 five hundred thousand livres (20,000/.) in bank 
 notes, and was supposed to have escaped to Amster- 
 dam. He gave a description of the clerk's person, 
 dress, &c. and desired his friend to look after him, 
 and, if possible, to get the money back again. 
 But he added that, as the clerk had been a faithful 
 servant for twenty years, he had intended to take 
 him into partnership, and wished his friend, provid- 
 ed the money was recovered, to do no harm to the 
 culprit,^ and to give him the sum of one hundred 
 thousand livres, that he might settle in England or 
 America, and there, by his good behaviour in fu- 
 ture, repair his past misconduct in France. 
 
 The same day the Dutch merchant received 
 this letter he was upon the exchange, where he 
 thought that he observed a person answering to the 
 description given of the clerk. As he went up to- 
 wards him, he seemed terrified, and abruptly left the 
 exchange ; being, however, overtaken by the mer- 
 chant and questioned, he reluctantly acknowledged 
 himself to be the same person, and that he would 
 deliver up nearly the whole sum immediately. When 
 the merchant had pocketed the money, he read to 
 him his former master's letter, and told him, that 
 the same night he might call at his counting-house 
 for the one hundred thousand livres, which he punc- 
 tually did, and the next day embarked for England 
 or America. 
 
 Rejoicing at his success, the merchant, by the 
 first mail, sent to his correspondent at Paris the five 
 hundred thousand livres ; but what was his surprise, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 95 
 
 when by the return of the post he was informed, 
 that the Parisian banker never had such a person for 
 a clerk, never had lost such a sum of money, never 
 had written to him to give away one hundred thou- 
 sand livrcs, and that all the bank notes he had sent 
 him were forged. -Notwithstanding a large rewai'd 
 was offered in all the Dutch and French papers for 
 the discovery of this ingenious swindler, it has never 
 been discovered who he was or what has become of 
 him. 
 
 A French woman arrived in this city two years 
 ago, attended by a numerous retinue of servants, 
 and well provided with letters of credit and recom- 
 mendation. She called herself Bai'oness de Mon- 
 "^aut, widow of Baron de Montaut, who was shot in 
 la Vendee. She took a house in one of the most 
 fashionable streets, which in a short time, from her 
 polite and engaging behaviour, became the fashion- 
 able rendezvous of the principal persons of both 
 sexes. No gaming, except for trifles, was suffered 
 in her house ; music, reading and conversation were, 
 with some tea parties, balls and suppers, the chief 
 entertainments. Pretending to be an amateur in 
 pictures and a connoisseur in diamonds, she made 
 several large purchases, for which she paid in bills, 
 which were duly honoured. 
 
 Her refined manners, and especially her supposed 
 riches, gained her many admirers. One of them, a 
 
 citizen R f, a young man of large property, 
 
 finally obtained the preference, and was married to 
 her. Some few weeks after her marriage, she per- 
 suaded her hu«1^aT^^^ " ^r\e a tour in France and 
 
95 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Italy ; and, as he was partner in one of the first hou^s 
 here, he left this city with an unlimited credit. His 
 wife had also with her a large sum, her private pro- 
 perty, together with diamonds to the amount of six 
 hundred thousand florins, which she bought the 
 day before her departure, by the direction, as she 
 said of Madame Buonaparte, for which she gave 
 bills . on her banker at Paris. On the evening of 
 her arrival in that capital with her husband she paid a 
 visit, without him, to a near relative, of whom she 
 said she was the heiress, but who she was afraid, 
 would not approve of her match with a merchant. 
 
 To convince him, however, that citizen R fwas 
 
 a person of great wealth, she carried with her the 
 signature of his house for an unlimited credit. On 
 her return she appeared rather in low spirits, having 
 been treated as she said, with severity on account of 
 her misalliance^ but after some more interviews, she 
 hoped to obtain forgiveness. 
 
 Citizen R f had not the least suspicion, but 
 
 that he had married the rich and amiable widow of 
 Baron de Montaut ; even on the third night, when 
 she did not return to the hotel, he was unhappy only 
 for fear of some accident having befallen her, but 
 had no idea that he was a dupe, until he was arrested 
 for the bills she had given on her banker at Paris, to 
 the jewellers at Amsterdam. Even then he thought 
 it a mistake. He drew instantly on his house for the 
 amount, and, while waiting for an answer, employed 
 several agents of the police to discover what had be- 
 come of his wife. In a few days even his own bills 
 came back protested, as his partner had already ad- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 97 
 
 vanced money for a million of florins on drafts with 
 his signature. He then wrote to the Batavian anv 
 bass: dor, relating his misfoitunes, and requesting 
 advice and assistance ; but the only consolation he 
 received from his official countryman, was, that the 
 police had reason to believe his wife to be a female 
 adventurer, connected with a gang of rogues and 
 impobtors. 
 
 But while the police was in search of the fugitive 
 and her associates at Paris, the house of citizen 
 
 R f was involved in great embarrassments on 
 
 account of the many bills Madame R f had ne- 
 gotiated before her elopement, in the name of her 
 huaband. With a considerable loss in money, and 
 still greater in credit, after dissolving partnership 
 and declaring R f a bankrupt, they were, how- 
 ever, able to continue their commerce, and gene- 
 rously settled an annuity of three thousand florins on 
 their unfortunate, deluded partner, who remained 
 in prison nine months before the police could seize 
 
 on Madame R f, who was nothing but the kept 
 
 mistress of a notorious swindler, Dubois Mouchi, 
 who had sent her for the purpose of taking in some 
 Dutch capitalist. By the correctional police she 
 was condemned to three years imprisonment and 
 hard labour in the house of correction ; but very 
 little of R f 's property was recovered, as Du- 
 bois Mouchi had carried it with him and sailed for 
 America. From the description of his person it 
 was supposed that he was the same who had taken 
 in the Dutch merchant for one hundred thousand 
 livresj as related in the beginning of this letter. 
 
 N 
 
98 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Amaterdaihy March, 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 DURING these last three days I have been 
 absent on an excursion to North Holland, as I had a 
 cviriosity to visit a country so lately the field of con- 
 test between powerful armies. 
 
 Though I have no more pretensions to be able to 
 discuss than to delineate military atchievements, it 
 requires but an ordinary military education to judge 
 what might be done in a country so difficult of ac- 
 cess, and so easily defended, where, during two-thirds 
 of the year, from inundations, marshes, Sec. it is 
 almost as impossible to advance as to retreat, and 
 where the defendants as well as the assailants are ex- 
 posed to the same ravages of a damp and unhealthy 
 climate. 
 
 I had fallen in company at a friend's with a Bata- 
 vian officer of Scotch extraction, whom I had found 
 both intelligent and communicative. He belonged, 
 during the campaign of 1799, to the staff of general 
 Daendels, but was now with his regiment quartered 
 at the Helder, where I visited him. He went round 
 with me to the different places, where the principal 
 engagements had taken place, and where the oppo- 
 sing armies had encamped both before and after the 
 action*, I shall give, as nearly as possible in his 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER* 99 
 
 own words, his opinion of the causes of the fdilure 
 of the Anglo- Russian army in its attempt to restore 
 the Prince of Orange to his supremacy. 
 
 " The expedition," said he, " when determined 
 on by the British cabinet, was retarded rather too 
 long before it set sail, and when it sailed, encoun- 
 tered such gales and high winds as are unusual in 
 the summer months ; a misfortune which dispersed 
 the fleet, and put oft' the attack for ten days longer; 
 during which time, the Gallo-Batavians had an op- 
 portunity not only to fortify themselves, but to re- 
 ceive considerable reinforcements. I know that the 
 movements of the English were calculated according 
 to the probability of the junction of their Russian 
 allies, without whom they were not numerous 
 enough to march against Amsterdam, and to leave 
 sufiicient garrisons to defend the strong posts and 
 holds, they left behind them ; but their landing a 
 fortnight earlier, might have delivered up to them 
 the Batavian army as well as the Batavian navy, j^s 
 all the Batavian regiments were in a state of muti- 
 ny until the arrival of French troops forced them 
 into obedience." 
 
 *' After the first victories of the English," conti- 
 nued he, " every body considered Holland as lost 
 to France, and restored to the Prince of Orange. 
 All Dutchmen, his enemies, and those who had 
 committed any crimes, or had any punishment^ to 
 apprehend, had transported their principal effect^ to 
 Antwerp, and were ready to follow in person. The 
 bombastic addresses of the French government, the 
 intrigues and threats of General Brune, and some 
 
100 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 trifliitg advantages which he called great victories, 
 intimidated some and gave courage to others; but 
 still, so certain were the inhabitants of Amsterdam, 
 Rotterdam and the Hague, that these places would 
 soon be garrisoned by Anglo- Russians, that when 
 the news of a negotiation between the Duke of 
 York and General Brune was spread, the common 
 belief was, that the latter would consent to relinquish 
 his endeavours to impede the progress of the enemy 
 in North Holland, and retreat to our strong fortresses 
 on the Flemish frontiers. Thus supposed those who 
 didnot know that Brune was as formidable in intrigue 
 as he was destitute of militaiy capacity; and that, 
 considering the season of the year, and the daily rein- 
 forcements which France, after the victories of Masse- 
 na in Switzerland, was enabled to send to Holb.nd,the 
 situation of the royal British commander had become 
 most critical, and, according to probability, a deci- 
 ded superiority in numbers, and even a frost, might 
 have occasioned the total dispersion or destruction 
 of those brave troops, who eighteen months after- 
 wards astonished Europe, by their exploits in Afri- 
 ca, and whom an honourable convention saved on the 
 borders of the Texel to dictate soon afterwards ano- 
 ther convention, or rather an humiliating capitulation 
 to Frenphmen, on the banks of the Nile. But," con- 
 cluded he, " Prussia is the cause of the wi*etched-^ 
 ness of my country under the French yoke. The 
 least threatening movement made by her on the Ba- 
 tavian German frontiers would have produced a ge- 
 neral insurrection in most of our provinces, and 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. ; . , , . .101 
 
 created a diversion in favour of our deliv.erers,Avliach 
 might not only have saved Holland ffoiti 'ruin, 'biit 
 the continent from bondage." 
 
 For my part, though I agree in the principal points 
 with the Dutch officer, I do not think, from what we 
 have witnessed since, that had the Anglo- Russians 
 even succeeded to establish the Prince of Orange 
 in 1799, they had troops enough to prevent him from 
 being expelled again after the battle of Marengo, in 
 June 1800, or, at least, after the Russian monarch in 
 the following winter withdrew from the coalition. 
 
 The French are more detested in North Holland 
 than in any other part of the Batavian Republic. I 
 should have been liable to insult every where, had 
 not the officer let his countrymen understand that I 
 was from Brabant, and a sufferer as well as them- 
 selves from French fraternity. In twenty places I 
 received the same answers, when I saw any villages 
 or houses rebuilt or in ruins. " These buildings," 
 said those of whom I inquired, " have been con- 
 structed by the money presented us by our English 
 enemies; and these ruins are the effects of the can- 
 nons of our French brothers, who destroy but never 
 repair." In fact, the British government paid the 
 unfortunate inhabitants the full value of all damages 
 experienced by the invasion of the Anglo- Rus- 
 sians, while our revolutionary rulers not only refus- 
 ed all the claims of the sufferers for their losses, 
 but appropriated to themselves, by their deputies, 
 our generals and commissaries, several considerablq 
 sums given by England and by the Batavian Direc- 
 
102 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 tpiyfA.ii:icler pretence that these sums were due to our 
 trbopV for their loss of baggage, and they were to be 
 satisfied before the Batavian citizens could receive 
 any thing. 
 
 LETTER XXIL 
 
 Amsterdam^ March, 180*. 
 
 My LORD. 
 
 THIS will be my last letter to you from this 
 city, which I leave with regret, on account of the 
 many disinterested civilities which I have met with 
 both from my old and new friends. 
 
 I went yesterday upon the exchange, to take my 
 
 leave of some merchants whom I had not been able 
 
 to find at home. As commerce is not my business, 
 
 I have rarely been upon exchange any where, and 
 
 only twice during my present stay in this place. In 
 
 wandering about, which I did at my pleasure, I could 
 
 not help remarking the great difference between the 
 
 aspect of affairs and conduct of men now, and ten 
 
 years ago. Some few solitary persons were to be 
 
 seen, with bills of lading in their hands, conversing 
 
 with masters of neutral merchantmen about trade; 
 
 but in most groups, the Moniteur or other French 
 
 papers were read, and their contents commented on, 
 
 according to the hopes or fears, wishes or interests 
 
 of the parties; and, from the tenour of their remarks, 
 
 I was more inclined to think myself in a Jacobin 
 
•THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 103 
 
 club, than upon the ci-devant first exchange of the 
 continent. Will Pichegru be shot? asked one. Will 
 Moreau be tried? inquired another. The armies will 
 suffer neither, interrupted a third. Yes, exclaimed 
 a fourth., Buonaparte may shioot, try, imprison, or 
 transport all the French generals en masse, and the 
 French soldiers would not even murmur were he to 
 order them to execute their own fathers and bro- 
 thers. You degrade the national spirit, cried a fifth ; 
 you calumniate the French soldiers, who are free ci- 
 tizens, and will act as well as combat like freemen. 
 Like freemen! like freemen! was heard from seve- 
 ral persons, coughing, stamping and laughing. I 
 thought that they were going to fight, when a patrole 
 of French soldiers made its appearance, and settled 
 the dispute of these politicians, who presently dis- 
 persed. 
 
 In another part of the exchange, a Dutchman who 
 had just arrived from England, related the immense 
 preparations made to defend its liberty and indepen- 
 dence against the meditated invasion of Buonaparte. 
 Great Britain will, nevertheless, be conquered, said 
 one; Buonaparte will never attempt to invade her, 
 said another; her struggle will be long, said the first, 
 but she will be annihilated at last; Buonaparte will 
 perish if he sets his feet on British ground, retorted 
 the second speaker; the liberty of the seas! several 
 voices called out; the liberty of the continent! an- 
 swered others. Here again the sight of French 
 bayonets put an end to all differences, and adjourned 
 the debates. 
 
104 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Some minutes afterwards a person read a letter 
 from his correspondent at Hamburgh, containing 
 tlie intelligence of the pretended capture of. the Cape 
 of Good Hope by the English. It is not true ! it is 
 impossible ! several voices exclaimed. England 
 has no troops to spare ; no expedition has sailed for 
 such an undertaking. Not from Europe, said the 
 reader of the letter, but from Asia. It is believed 
 in the Exchanges of Hambursh and Bremen, and 
 will soon be confirmed from the Exchange of Lon- 
 don. ^ Here the murmur became general, some cry- 
 ing out, no true patriot can wish for such a confir- 
 mation ; while others said, the whole rumour is a 
 fjtock -jobbing business ; no such thing, replied 
 some ; yes, yes, it is nothing else, exclaimed others. 
 The tri- coloured regulators of political as well as 
 commercial affairs were now approaching, and the 
 believers as well as the disbelievers of the conquest 
 of this Batavian colony, immediately ceased the 
 contest and retired different w?tys. 
 
 I mentioned to a friend what I had seen and heai'd 
 this day and the surprise it caused me. What you 
 ' have witnessed this day, is every day's scene of late, 
 said he. Seven-eighths of the present frequenters of 
 cur Exchange are nierchants or tradesmen who 
 have been ruined by the revolution, and who having 
 RO business of their own, regulate gratuitously the 
 affairs of other states, and from the habit of conver- 
 sing on politics, consider themselves first rate poli- 
 ticians. Many arc also in tlie pay of France or Eng- 
 land, and even of individuals, and are engaged to 
 disseminate false reports or rumours to serve the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. lOi 
 
 private views of their employers. A few years back 
 they were much more violent tlian at present ; they 
 often came to blows, which obliged our muni- 
 cipality to request the French commander to send 
 every day during the Exchange hours a patrole to 
 keep them in awe ; but this did not succeed until 
 some of the most hot-headed orators had been taken 
 up, and fined as disturbers of the peace. At present 
 the sight alone of a French soldier is sufficient to 
 make the most furious opponents agree, at least in 
 dispersing. 
 
 As to commercial transactions, these he said, did 
 not amount during a month to what was ten years 
 ago done during one hour. The maritime trade is 
 entirely carried on by some few neutrals, and some 
 Dutch ships under Prussian and Danish colours ; 
 and the French government has dictated so many 
 prohibitory laws to impede the inland commerce, 
 that it has become, if any thing, worse than the mari- 
 time. Every year our burdens augment, and our 
 resources diminish. The arrival of a ship in the 
 Texel, or the Meuse, is now an epoch upon our 
 Exchange, and occasions greater rejoicings than 
 formerly the return of whole fleets from our coIo* 
 nies. We nevertheless pay at present more duties 
 upon one single cargo, than we did formerly upon 
 ten. I fear, added he with a groan, that I shall live 
 long enough to see the Exchange of London as 
 much transformed as the Exchange of Amsterdam; 
 though unprincipled and wicked, Buonaparte is a 
 fortunate man. After swearing hatred to monarchy 
 for years, he has made a King of Etruria ; and after 
 
 O 
 
106 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 abjuring Christ in Africa, he has established Chris* 
 tianity in France. Not satisfied with a political and 
 religious revolution, he now meditates a commercial 
 one, and I should not be astonished, were he, after 
 demolishing all the Exchanges of Europe, from the 
 same policy which influenced him in his prece- 
 ding acts, to declare himself a sovereign banker, as 
 well as a sovereign consul, and a sovereign high 
 priest. I could not help smiling at the alarms and 
 suppositions of my friend, though after what had 
 passed under our eyes within these last few years, I 
 am apt to think that improbabilities are no longer 
 improbable, nor impossibilities impossible. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 jimsterdam, March^ 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 IN the trekschuit, between Amsterdam and 
 this town, I was witness to such a foolish scene of 
 superstition, as I little expected to see in our pre- 
 sent enlightened age. Among the passengers was a 
 middle-aged Jew, who stripped himself to the shirt, 
 threw himself several times on his knees and on his 
 face, spoke some prayers aloud, murmured softly 
 some others, turned his eyes, grinned ghastly, and 
 ivorked his whole body into th^ most shocking con- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 107- 
 
 tortlons. This disgusting mummery continued up- 
 wards of an hour. 
 
 As the Dutch passengers seemed not so surprised 
 as I was myself, I inquired what could be intended 
 by what I supposed an act of folly, devotion or re- 
 pentance. One of them answered, that this Jew 
 must have on the same day in a former year escaped 
 some danger, and had, therefore, made a vow to per- 
 form during the remaining part of his life, some act 
 of penance at that time. That this was the case, 
 the Jew, when he recovered a little, confirmed. He 
 said, that five years before, he was at sea, and a sud- 
 den gust of wind overset the vessel. With much 
 difficulty he got upon its bottom, where he remain- 
 ed two days and three nights, and on that day and 
 hour was released from his perilous situation, 
 when he had made the solemn vow, which we 
 saw him perform ; of all the persons on board he 
 was the only one saved. I observed that he had 
 several beads round his neck, which he often 
 kissed ; these, he told me, were charms, which 
 had been brought by his fore-fathers from Palestine. 
 In their virtues he seemed to have the same confi- 
 dence as Roman Catholics in the relics of their 
 saints. 
 
 I dined to-day with a friend, who has a beautiful 
 house half a league from this town, which is his na- 
 tive place, and where his family has resided since 
 Holland has been a republic. Though every thing 
 around him still bespoke affluence, I could not but 
 remark some difference from his former manner of 
 living, and of being attended. He said to me, when J 
 
108 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 saw him in September, 1794, upon my compliment- 
 ing him on his excellent table, and splendid retinue, 
 ** My friend, though we differ in politics, I shall 
 always be happy to see you. Should we ever get 
 rid of the government of a Stadtholder, call on me, 
 and no independent citizen, nay, no sovereign, will 
 have it in his power to treat you more sumptuously^ 
 or to have you better attended." But I found him 
 now, when what he so anxiously desired had occur- 
 red, not only less comfortable for a rich man, but 
 his conversation, as well as his appearance, announc- 
 cd disappointment, if not discontent. 
 
 When dinner was over, and the servants retired, 
 he said, " I have not forgotten the brilliant promises 
 and pompous boasts I held out to you the last time 
 you were here, but we are not only a betrayed but 
 ruined people; since our recovery, as I thought it, 
 of tlie liberty of our ancestors, we have become beg- 
 gared slaves, dishonoured, disgraced, and, what is 
 worse, deserving our fate. I, who was such a warm 
 and disinterested friend of the French revolution, 
 and of the French nation, have been plundered by 
 Frenchmen of half my property, and escaped the 
 death of a criminal only by sacrificing a part of my 
 wealth. I intend to dispose of every thing I possess 
 in the Batavian commonwealth, and in some few 
 months seek the neighbourhoodandsociety of Ame- 
 rican savages, which I prefer to the fraternity of 
 civilized Frenchmen." 
 
 Upon further inquiry, I found that my friend, in 
 the first moments of his enthusiasm, after the suc- 
 cesses of the French produced a revolution in HoU 
 
THE BELGLVN TRAVELLER. 109 
 
 land, when a patriotic donation was called for, had 
 given much more than was expected from him, and 
 even advanced money to others to enable them to do 
 the same. Instead of increasing his popularity with 
 his country-men, or preserving the friendship of the- 
 invaders by such extravagance, the former suspect- 
 ed his ardent patriotism, and the latter began to think 
 him much richer than he really was. He was, there- 
 fore, not chosen a member of the Batavian National 
 Convention; and when he complained of such unde- 
 served neglect, some enemy or spy denounced him 
 as keeping up a secret correspondence with the 
 Prince of Orange, and he was arrested, and his pa- 
 pers searched and sealed up. Though nothing to 
 implicate him was found in them, the French gene- 
 ral required his imprisonment until a general paci- 
 fication. After fourteen months' confinement, an 
 opportunity presented itself to escape, and he took 
 advantage of it; but being retaken, he was again 
 not only more severely confined, but threatened with 
 a trial by a military commission, which here, as in 
 France, is ^ tribunal of death. Thus circumstanced, 
 his sister ^waited on the French ambassador, La 
 Croix, and for a sum of two hundred thousand flo- 
 rins, to be divided between him and the French 
 commander, obtained her brother's release, and a 
 permission for him to reside undisturbed in his 
 house near this town. 
 
 Such was his history since the revolution ; but he as- 
 sured me that, though he had suffered a great deal, he 
 was not so ill treated as many of his neighbours. He 
 told me that the former owner of a house w^hich I 
 
110 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 could see from his windows, who had been as warm 
 a friend of the revolution as himself, had seen his 
 wife seduced, and his two daughters violated and 
 carried away by French officers, and upon a com- 
 plaint of these outrages, had been himself accused as 
 being an accomplice with forgers of assignats, and 
 sent to France under that pretext, where despair 
 made him commit suicide in his prison. The sedu- 
 cer of his wife is now the owner of his house, his 
 wife has died broken-hearted, and his daughters, in 
 the Palais Royal at Paris, augment the number of 
 victims of seduction and agents of vice. 
 
 In the Batavian Republic, and in the kingdom of 
 Naples, the majority of ancient, wealthy and respec- 
 table families were the most dissatisfied with their 
 own governments, and the greatest admirers of a re- 
 volution which, from its beginning, maintained prin- 
 ciples tending to level all ranks and distinctions, pro- 
 claimed destruction to hereditary property, and en- 
 dangered the personal safety of every one. In this 
 town commerce was always relatively trifling, most 
 of its inhabitants being annuitants or rich merchants, 
 retired from business; nevertheless, its opposition 
 to a Stadtholder manifested itself on all occasions ; 
 it wished and plotted for an overthrow of the go- 
 vernment, which has since reduced some of its inha- 
 bitants to despair, many to poverty, and all to bon- 
 dage. One-eighth of its houses are empty and de- 
 serted, and one-sixth of its population fled. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. Ill 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Ley den ^ March, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD 
 
 THIS city has a few cloth manufactories 
 which are still employed, and is the cleanest in the 
 Batavian Republic, which, every traveller must be 
 sen^ble, is saying a great deal. The streets are large 
 and well aired, the canals kept free from filth, and 
 many of the houses as elegant as those of Utrecht 
 and Amsterdam; but its university, from whence it 
 derived its wealth and celebrity, has lost its popula- 
 rity as well as its lustre. Where the celebrated 
 Boerhaave once gave lectures to students whom his 
 fame attracted from all parts of Europe, a Valke- 
 naar of late has commented on the rights of man^ 
 and preached the sacred duty of insurrection to some 
 imbecile natives, who mistook sophistry for sublim- 
 ity, and revolutionary nonsense for inspiration, be- 
 cause they could not. comprehend its absurdity and 
 danger. Since the revolution, Luzac and some 
 others of its most learned and able professors, have 
 been either proscribed or forced to resign, by the 
 intolerance and injustice of demagogues. A mili- 
 tary mania has likewise in Holland, as well as in 
 France, infected many young minds; books have been 
 relinquished for the musket, and while the schools 
 of vice and depravity, the guard-houses and the 
 
112 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 camps have been crowded, the seats of mental im- 
 provement, the colleges and the universities, have 
 been neglected and deserted. The fatal conse- 
 quence of this juvenile licentiousness, will be felt 
 more severely by future generations than our own. 
 
 It happened with Professor Valkenaar, as with 
 most other reformers and innovators : wishing to 
 regenerate mankind according to his own notions of 
 human perfectibility, but meeting in his revolution- 
 ary career, with other regenerators more subtle, 
 more extravagant, and more audacious, they have in 
 their turn drawn from him the foolish and the igno- 
 rant, and left him equally disappointed and despised. 
 Under the mild and benevolent reign of the Prince 
 of Orange, he showed himself one of the most in- 
 veterate enemies of the government of a Stadtholder, 
 and was, therefore, elected a deputy of the Batavian 
 National Convention, and employed afterwards both 
 in the administration at home and in diplomatic mis- 
 sions abroad, until he dared to hint that the military 
 despotism exercised by Buonaparte in France, was 
 not the best of all possible government. Disgrace 
 was the immediate remuneration of all his past revo- 
 lutionary services, and, what was still greater pun- 
 ishment to an ambitious and vain revolutionist, no 
 one seemed to notice the neglect he experienced. 
 
 How very different has been the pure life and ho- 
 nourable conduct of Professor Luzac. An adherent 
 to the government of a Stadtholder, but never a 
 pensioner of the House of Orange, he resigned his 
 academical chair the instant that anarchists and de- 
 magogues exercised an authority which his con* 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 113 
 
 science and understanding forbade him to approve. 
 As he had never been the slave of a legitimate 
 prince, neither would he become the accomplice nor 
 tool of rebels. He preferred a philosophical and do- 
 mestic retirement to the agitated and frequent guilty- 
 supremacy of the usurped power of factions. He 
 saw parties plot, supplant and proscribe each other; 
 by turns envied and calumniated, elevated and 
 crushed. In his voluntary obscurity he dreaded 
 nothing but the ruin of his country, and sighed only 
 for its preservation and prosperity. As an indivi- 
 dual citizen, his single efforts would have availed 
 nothing, nor retarded its progress towards that pre- 
 cipice upon which it is at present placed; but if he 
 has not been able to save it, at least he has not to 
 reproach himself with its approaching destruction. 
 He possesses, therefore, the esteem of his contem- 
 poraries, and has nothing to apprehend from the 
 judgment of posterity. 
 
 This professor had for twenty years been the edi- 
 tor of the Levden Gazette, the best conducted news- 
 paper on the continent ; a collection of this Gazette 
 affords the best and most impartial concise history 
 of the times, that ever was written in a hasty and 
 cursory manner. Such was its known impartiality, 
 that it was publicly read at Naples as well as at St. 
 Petersburgh, at Madrid as well as at Vienna; even 
 despotic governments respected the opinions of a 
 writer, who himself always revered truth. But when 
 the friends of liberty and equality had effected a re- 
 volution in Holland, they assailed instantly both the 
 civil liberty of citizens and the political liberty of 
 
114 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER^ 
 
 the press. Sweral articles, containing illiberal at^ 
 tacks on other states, and gross falsehoods concern- 
 ing domestic aiFairs, were sent from the victorious 
 party for insertion in the Leyden Gazette. To this 
 violation of the principles upon which it had so long 
 been conducted, Professor Luzac could never con- 
 sent. The Gazette was, therefore, stopped by the 
 revolutionary government of his country ; but as its 
 profit had for near a century been an inheritance in 
 the Luzac family, it was by its members considered 
 as a family estate, and another paper under another 
 title was continued and sent to the subscribers, the 
 contents of which, though another person was the 
 nominal editor, it was fully evident, were inspect- 
 ed and selected by the professor. But guarded as 
 the Luzacs have since been not to give offence, by 
 inserting hardly any thing that was not official, their 
 Gazette, within ten years, has been stopped thretf 
 times, not so much for what it contained, but be- 
 cause it did not contain the official scurrilities and 
 falsehoods which Buonaparte and Talleyrand heap 
 in such abundance on lawful sovereigns and inde- 
 pendent nations, who will not bow to their dictates, 
 or who arc refractory to their mandates. Since thfr 
 rupture with England last year, Professor Luzac 
 has wisely renounced all concern in this paper, of 
 which Buonaparte's ambassador in Holland is now 
 the real editor, to the immense loss of its ancient 
 proprietors. 
 
 Among other blessings promised mankind from 
 the French revolution was a universal liberty of 
 the press. How this promise has been kept, is well 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 115 
 
 known, and that not a newspaper, a magazine, a 
 pamphlet, nor a book, is printed upon the continent, 
 without the assent or imprimatur of a government, 
 which has sworn the annihilation, if possible, of the 
 very name of liberty. But it is incomprehensible, 
 that so fallacious a promise ever could make any 
 dupes. Every one endued with reflection, and not 
 bewildered by revolutionary fanaticism, might have 
 foreseen that those who, mid crimes and horrours, 
 through torrents of blood, and over the corpses of 
 the murdered, march to dominion, and whose pri- 
 vate lives are often as infamous as their public lives 
 are culpable, must be the last class of Sove- 
 reigns to protect and encourage the liberty of the 
 press. They had naturally, and individually, too 
 much to dread from indiscriminate publicity, not to 
 oppose or impede it. In a regular and free go- 
 vernment, like that of Great Britain, the liberty of 
 the press can alone hope to prosper undisturbed 
 under the protecting shade of salutary laws. 
 
116 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 Delft^ March, 1804. 
 MV LORD, 
 
 A TRAVELLER in the trekschuits of this 
 country may, for a trifling addition, secure the roef, 
 or the best place, where he is neither exposed to be 
 offended by the gross behaviour of ill-bred compan- 
 ions, nor troubled or disgusted with the incessant 
 smoaking of the genteel Hollanders. When I left 
 Amsterdam, through the negligence of my servant 
 I missed that opportunity, and was under the ne- 
 cessity of sitting amidst superstitious Jews and vul- 
 gar Christians, along with soldiers, sailors, mounte- 
 banks, pimps and infamous women. 
 
 The. roef had been bespoke, and was occupied 
 by two young Dutchmen, who, as I afterwards dis- 
 covered, were relations of the Batavian Directors, 
 and, therefore, thought themselves men of conse- 
 quence. As ten persons can sit conveniently in the 
 roef, I asked the master of the trekschuit to inquire 
 of them, whether on my paying half the expenses 
 they would not permit me to join them to Harlem. 
 I added, that I was a gentleman, and a foreigner, 
 and should endeavour not to be disagreeable ta 
 them. They very abruptly replied no ! they would 
 be by themselves, and have no intruders. 
 
 As soon as I arrived at Harlem, I sent my ser- 
 vant to secure the roef of tlie Ley den trekschuit. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 117 
 
 for the eleven o'clock departure of the next morn- 
 ing. Just as I was entering the roef, one of these 
 polite Dutch citizens came up to me, and begged 
 me to permit him and his friend to sit in the roef 
 with me. Upon my inquiring whether they had 
 not come in the Harlem trekschuit the day before, 
 and refused me a place, I was coldly answered in 
 the affirmative. " Well, citizens, if that is the case, 
 you ai'c very welcome to enter the roef;" which 
 they did with such indifference as indicated neither 
 shame nor gratitude. Upon the way they told me 
 that the father of the one and the brother of the other 
 were Directors, at the Hague, and that during my 
 stay they should be happy to see me, adding, *' had 
 we not taken you for a Frenchman, we would wil- 
 lingly have received you into our company yester- 
 day ; but French travellers in this country, are not 
 only troublesome but dangerous companions ; they 
 borrow our money, cheat us in gaming, are spies 
 upon our actions, and report our conversation". 
 
 To-day I had also secured the roef from Leyden 
 to Delft, and by offering places to a very amiable 
 family, a mother and two daughters, passed with 
 them some very agreeable hours. They had been 
 on a visit to a relation at Leyden, and were going to 
 visit a friend half a league from Delft. The mother 
 informed me, that her husband had been an officer in 
 the Dutch fleet, and was killed in the battle with 
 Lord Duncan, in October, 1797. She had a pension 
 from the Batavian government, but so small that it 
 was not sufficient to procure her and her daughters 
 decent dresses. From eight of her relations and 
 
118 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 friends, who commisserated her situation, she had a 
 permanent invitation to pass six weeks with each 
 alternately; so that she had no real home, but was 
 constantly a visitor. 
 
 Misfortunes brutalize and harden minds, cruel or 
 unfeeling by nature, or rendered so by a faulty edu- 
 catioii; but they soften and elevate those naturally 
 tender, good and compassionate. The latter was 
 the case with my travelling companions. Standing 
 in need of assistance themselves, universal benevo- 
 lence seemed to be their ruling principle; they 
 seemed to be willing to be the only unfortunate be- 
 ings upon earth, and to say, O, Providence ! ren- 
 der all others happy, and our misfortunes will cease. 
 I never before met with females who, after so short 
 an acquaintance, made such an impression on my 
 mind. It was not love but veneration. They sub- 
 mitted without a murmur to their destiny, which had 
 made them wanderers without a home ; to-day treat- 
 ed like friends, to-morrow regarded as troublesome 
 intruders. Every where under the necessity of sub- 
 mitting to the ill-temper, humouring the caprices, 
 flattering the vanity, and bearing the reproaches of 
 the selfish, interested and narrow-minded, on whom 
 they were dependent. I could see by their looks that 
 their whole study was to make themselves as pleasant 
 and inoffensive as possible. When I asked the mo- 
 ther whether hospitality in Holland was delicate and 
 liberal ? she answered, after some hesitation and. 
 with a sigh, sometimes. Sir! The tears in the eyes 
 of her beautiful daughters made me afraid that I had 
 struck upon a string which it would have been, per- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 119 
 
 haps, more humane to have left untouched. But 
 their cheerfulness soon returned ; and, as if to make 
 reparation for the involuntary expression of their 
 feelings, they related several acts of kindness which 
 they had lately experienced from those they had vi- 
 sited. I suppose they remarked that I felt for their 
 situation, as the mother, on leaving me, shook me 
 by the hand, saying, " We cannot be unhappy. Sir, 
 even in a life of dependence, when Ave recollect that 
 so many thousand beings exist who have no homes 
 and no friends, and who deserve those blessings 
 much better than we do. We do not believe that 
 contentment and resignation are merely a negative' 
 happiness, and we can speak from experience." 
 
 She had hardly uttered these words when a ser- 
 vant in livery stopped the trekschuit and inquired 
 after the ladies. " Ah !" said he, " why did you 
 not come yesterday, when my master and mistress 
 expected you ; they are very angry with you, in- 
 deed?" *' We could not help it," replied the mo- 
 ther, " the trekschuit was full, we could get no 
 place." " So it happened the last year," continued 
 the servant. -r-" My mistress observed this morning, 
 that you had better either come the day they have 
 appointed or not come at all." The mother's face 
 I did not see, she wished me adieu without looking 
 at me ; but the poor girls covered their faces with 
 their handkerchiefs to conceal the impression this 
 reception had made on their lovely countenances. 
 
 Though I have wandered over the greatest part 
 of the world, thank God ! I have never accepted of 
 ai>7 hospitality whibh I have not paid for ; I hav(r 
 
120 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 even preferred to go without a dinner rather than to 
 dine with those who make a boast of their hospitahty. 
 I have the meanest opinion of the hospitality of our 
 days, and think that a man of an independent mind 
 and of noble sentiments should prefer even a 
 draught of poison to the richest viands of chilling, 
 selfish ostentation. 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Ddft^ March^ 1804, 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I HEARD a French general at Amsterdam 
 call the inhabitants of this republic, on account of 
 T.heir minute regularity, '' a people of old maids." 
 They indeed owe to their laudable spirit of order, 
 not only their riches, but the preservation of their 
 country from the ocean. The German sea would 
 long ago have extended its limits over Holland, had 
 the Hollanders, only for one year, neglected to at- 
 tend to the minute and tedious repairs of these em- 
 bankments, e:*jcted many centuries back, but 
 which require daily, and almost hourly vigilance, 
 to prevent them from being undermined, or over- 
 powered by the efforts of an almost in'csistible ele- 
 ment. Necessity and self-preservation have, there- 
 fore, been with them the parents of order, as well 
 as of industry ; and what appears to foreigners af- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 121 
 
 fected, ridiculous, or troublesome, has to the na- 
 tives become, from habit, easy and natural. 
 
 I expected that the long and numberless examples 
 of French irregularities, inconsistencies, and fickle- 
 ness, would have made some alteration in the national 
 character. I am happy to say that I was mistaken 
 in my expectations. Even the lower class of the 
 people are as great friends and practisers of order as 
 ever. On most occasions, though the inveteracy 
 of the Batavians against their French tyrants could 
 not escape an attentive observer, they outwardly 
 seemed to endure with patience French insolence 
 and provocations. It was only during the passage 
 between Ley den and this town, when an attempt 
 was made to encroach on their favourite system of 
 regularity, that I saw a Dutchman fly into a passion 
 and use force against the French oppressors, though 
 he was alone, without arms, and they were well 
 armed. 
 
 The trekschuits have their fixed hours to set out 
 and to arrive ; and as all accidents are calculated for, 
 a traveller may know to a minute how long he will 
 be on the way, and how far he can travel by day or 
 night. The least delay would not only alter the time 
 he calculates upon, and usually employs to that part 
 of the country where he is going, but derange for 
 twenty-four hours the conveyances all over Holland. 
 Among the passengers in the trekschuit from Ley- 
 den to Delft, were three French dragoons; when 
 the schuit stopped half-way, between these two 
 places, to take in some parcels, they insisted upon 
 having time allowed them to breakfast, and to stay 
 
 Q 
 
122 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLED. 
 
 there half an hour, instead of five minutes, as is the 
 custom. The master first civilly explained to them 
 the impossibility of waiting for them so long, on ac- 
 count of the inconvenience and delay it would occa- 
 sion to all the other travellers ; but upon their insist- 
 ing, he told them frankly that he would depart with- 
 out them. To prevent it, one of them unsheathed 
 his sword, and placed himself by the head of the 
 horse that drew the trekschuit, and his comrades 
 said they would act as sentries and relieve him in 
 their turn, that he might also have time to breakfast. 
 The master immediately attacked the dragoon, 
 wrested the sword from him, threw him into the ca- 
 nal, jumped into the schuit, and ordered the postil- 
 lion to proceed as fast as possible. The cry of the 
 dragoon alarmed his comrades, who, seeing him in 
 the water, and the schuit gone, after helping him 
 out, soon came, by a bye-road, near enough to fire at 
 the schuit, and to force us to stop for them. They 
 all three then fell with the butt-ends of their car- 
 bines on the master, who knocked down two of them, 
 when the passengers interfered, and obliged them 
 to cease their outrages. During the conflict I heard 
 the master of the schuit several times call out, *' kill 
 me, you villains, if you like, but do not delay the 
 trekschuit any longer." I am inclined to believe that 
 he was resolved either to drive off his assailants, or to 
 perish in the attempt. 
 
 As on our arrival here nothing was said hf 
 either party on this subject, I thought I should not 
 hear any thing more of it. But this morning a 
 Dutch woman demanded to speak to me in the in« 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. l^ 
 
 where I lodge, called the " Heerin Logemenf^ (di^ 
 hotel for gentlemen) ; she told me that she was the 
 wife of the master of the schuit that brought me here 
 yesterday, and that her husband had been arrested by 
 the French commander, and was threatened to be 
 shot, because he had resisted tlie attacks of the 
 French dragoons ; and she asked me as a favour to 
 wait on the commander, and bear witness to his 
 innocence. 
 
 It would have been cruel in me to refuse the poor 
 woman my good offices ; I therefoi^e sent my name 
 in and desired to speak with the commander. On 
 being asked to walk in, I found him sitting upon a 
 sofa, drinking chocolate between two harlots. Hav- 
 ing related my business, he said abruptly, " How 
 can you, a French citizen, ask the release, or the life 
 cf a Dutchman ? If the people of this country had 
 it in their power, they would fall upon us and mas- 
 sacre us all en masse, and it is well when an oppor- 
 tunity offers, to revenge ourselves a little in detail,^* 
 I then applied to his belles to back my supplication 
 with their influence, adding, that his poor wife, 
 more dead than alive, ^\^s expecting the issue at 
 my lodgings. They good naturedly enough joined 
 me, and we succeeded in obtaining an order for the 
 Dutchman's release; who, during dinner, came and 
 thanked me for his life, as he said, from the threats 
 held out, he expected nothing less than to be shot 
 that very day. Upon my inquiiing whether such 
 summary executions had before taken place here for 
 such trifling disputes, he replied, " a perfumer of 
 this town, who had a quarrel in his own shop with a 
 
124 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 French soldier, and who in the struggle, happened 
 slightly to wound the latter, was last week shot as 
 an assassin, some few hours after. Three other ci- 
 tizens have lately also, for similar offences, been 
 condemned to death, and were glad to give up 
 every thing they possessed to save their lives. I am 
 poor and could pay no ransom, and but for your 
 generosity should probably ere this have been no 
 more." 
 
 From my remarks it maybe seen that the Batavians 
 take as little pride in the distinction of being allies 
 to the French as the Belgians in the honour of be- 
 ing citizens of the French Republic. I wish the dis- 
 satisfied of all countries could make a tour among 
 the different nations groaning under the French yoke, 
 see their situation, listen to their complaints, and 
 hear of the atrocities daily perpetrated with impu- 
 nity; they would then return home and bless their 
 stars that they were at a distance from French revo- 
 lutionists. 
 
 The tombs of the Princes of Orange, and of some 
 famous Dutch admirals, are still entire in the prin- 
 cipal church here. They had, however, a narrow 
 escape from French Vandalism in 1795, and had it 
 not been for the strict prohibition of Pichegru, who 
 placed sentries to protect them, would have shared 
 the fate of the tombs of the kings of France at St. 
 Denis, in 1792. As Buonaparte has lately sent 
 some of his savans here, who were several days in- 
 specting them, and consulting about them, the 
 people believe, that they will be removed to Paris, 
 to ornament the museum of Napoleone, or Josephine, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER - 125 
 
 For my part I do not think them sufficiently well ex- 
 ecuted to tempt these merciless plunderers and de- 
 stroyers of the fine arts. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 Rotterdam^ Marc/i, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 ON my arrival here yesterday, the capture and 
 murder of the Duke d'Enghien was the common 
 subject of conversation and lamentation among all 
 classes of people. I lodge at the inn called the 
 " Swyri's Hoofd,'^ (the head of the wild boar) Eras- 
 mus' Square, where near thirty French officers dined 
 at the ordinary, who all not only boldly expressed 
 their disapprobation of the deed, but their abhorrence 
 of the perpetrator. I was so much the more surpris- 
 ed at their conversation, as they must well kngw that 
 Buonaparte has spies every where, and that with him 
 an indiscreet word is very frequently more punisha- 
 ble than a criminal act. 
 
 One of the officers, a lieutenant- colonel of the 
 IJOth demi-brigade, said frankly, ** I am indebted to 
 the Duke d'Enghien for my life. In the summer, 
 1789, I was made a prisoner by the Austrians, who 
 sent me, together with sixty-two other officers, under 
 a weak escort towards Ulm. The peasants in Suabia 
 
125 ^HE BELGIAN TRAVELLElt. 
 
 having suffered much from the pillage and violence 
 ©f our troops, collected together and attacked and 
 murdered all the French prisoners they could sur- 
 prise. The army of Conde had just arrived from 
 Russia, and Was marching towards Switzerland, when 
 we were assailed in a village by several thousand 
 peasants ; we had already lost some of our comrades, 
 when, to our great joy and surprise, the Duke 
 d'Enghein, by a forced march, arrived to our relief, 
 and not only delivered us from the danger that threat- 
 ened us, but gave us an escort strong enough to pro- 
 tect us from future attacks. To these who had lost 
 their baggage he distributed money from his owti 
 purse ; and for those who had been wounded, he or- 
 dered the attendance of his own surgeons. I was 
 among the latter. When convalescent I wrote a let- 
 ter of thanks in my own name, as well as in that of 
 my fellow sufferers ; in return, this amiable Prince 
 sent me a draft on a banker at Ulm for one hundred 
 louis d'ors, to procure us, as he said, some comforts 
 on the road to Bohemia, with an apology for tlie sum 
 not being larger. He also recommended us strongly 
 to the Austrian officer who was to escort us to our 
 place of destination, and who assured me that, to his 
 certain knowledge, many hundred French prisoners 
 had, through the humanity of the Duke d'Enghien^ 
 not only escaped death from the hands of assassins^ 
 but by his liberality been rescued from fomi*^, 
 and that he had freqcntly deprived himself even of 
 v.'hat may be called necessaries, (according to his 
 rank) that he might be able to assist his unfortunate 
 countrymen in distress.'^ He concluded with say- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 12T 
 
 \i\gy ** Let the consequences be what they would, 
 were I in the presence of Buon^p^'te, I should not 
 conceal my feelings, but say to him, murderer/ 
 restore me and my countrymen a benefactor you have 
 so barbarously assassinated /^' 
 
 Several other French officers spoke as violently 
 against their Corsican master, and related nume- 
 rous anecdotes, equally honourable to the memory of 
 the princely victim, and disgraceful to the character 
 of his dastardly assassin. They even considered his 
 murder in a political point of view unnecessary as 
 well as cruel. *' A descendant," said they, " of a 
 younger branch of the Bourbon family, tliere was 
 no probability of his surviving all those whose birth- 
 right to the throne of France must precede his own; 
 nor was it possible that he would have influence 
 enough to obtain from one party a crown, which 
 another seems to destine for a Buonaparte. His ge- 
 nerosity and valour had indeed procured him many 
 admirers and even partisans in France, but they were 
 not powerful enough to elevate him to supremacy at 
 the expense of the other Bourbons, had he even been 
 disloyal enough to prefer grandeur to duty ; a sup- 
 position as unjust as unfounded, and of which the 
 sliOrt but brilliant career of his life uniformly proved 
 the fallacy. Neither had tliese same admirers and 
 partisans any more means to disturb Buonaparte's 
 iisurpation, than to place him upon the throne of 
 Louis X VIIL Some other motives for this atrocious 
 act must, therefore, be looked for; and was sup- 
 posed by tlie officers to be found, in the spirited let- 
 ter of adherence, which the Duke d'Enghien ad- 
 
128 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 dressed to his King, Louis XVIII. when that prince 
 so nobly, becomingly and indignantly, repulsed and 
 rejected the humiliating offers which the king of 
 Prussia made in the name of his - friend Napoleon 
 Buonaparte, in February, last year. The Corsicans 
 are known to be revengeful and never to forgive!" 
 
 Whatever was the real motive of the First Con- 
 sul's conduct on this occasion, certain it is, that he, 
 by the murder of the Duke d'Enghien, wished to in- 
 spire the other Bourbons with terrour ; he told them, 
 indirectly, to read in the fate of this prince, their own 
 destiny, and that death alone should deprive him of 
 an usurped authority which had belonged to their an- 
 cestors for fourteen centuries. This murder was 
 Buonaparte's declaration of an eternal war, not only 
 against the Bourbon dynasty, but against all other 
 legitimate sovereigns, who must cease to reign, be- 
 fore he can tyrannise with safety 
 
 Among the officers was a young man who said 
 nothing ; but the tears which he could not restrain, 
 bespoke his sentiments. After dinner I was in- 
 formed, that he had been during five years, page to 
 the Duke d'Enghien, whom he had not quitted un- 
 til the peace of Luneville, and that this prince con- 
 stantly had allowed his mother and two sisters a 
 pension, though they resided in France, in mere 
 compassion to their reduced circumstances and great 
 misfortunes. The father and two brothers of this 
 officer had been killed in La Vendee, after seeing 
 their family seat in flames, and their other property 
 laid waste, or disposed of by French republicans. 
 When the army of Conde was dissolved, and no op- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 1^9 
 
 portunity remained of employing loyal Frenchmen 
 on the left Bank of the Rliine, the Prince advised 
 him to accept of service in France, which, after 
 much difficulty he was enabled to obtain through the 
 influence of one of Buonaparte's tribunes, who had 
 formerly been his father's valet-de-chambre. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 Rotterdam^ jifiril^ 1804. 
 
 THIS city has always been distinguished for its 
 loyalty and adherence to the Princes of the House 
 of Orange, and, nevertheless, it has comparatively 
 not suffered so much from the revolution as the pa^ 
 triotic city of Amsterdam. From the number of 
 English houses established here, it was formerly 
 called the Dutch London ; but though most of the 
 British subjects, from dread of the persecution of 
 the French revolutionists, have been obliged, or 
 thought it prudent, to return to their own country ; 
 they have left some Dutch correspondents behind, 
 and a commercial intercourse has hitherto, notwith- 
 standing the chicanery of our government, been 
 tolerably well kept up between the two countries. 
 
 Among the respectable English merchants still 
 here, is Mr. Crawford, on the Booxnkeys. I was 
 
 H 
 
15b THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER- 
 
 introduced to his acquaintance by a letter from a 
 friend at Amsterdam, and he immediately told me 
 that he had every day on his table twelve covers for 
 those he esteemed, and by not absenting myself from 
 his dinners, he hoped I would prove that our senti- 
 ments were reciprocal. I have dined with him to- 
 day, and can truly declare, that even in the first 
 houses at Amsterdam, the tables are not more sump- 
 tuous, nor the wines more choice and delicious. 
 Although all conversation respecting politics was, 
 from prudential reasons, avoided, the information 
 and agreeable manners of our host made us all regret 
 the quickness of the time, when it was announced 
 that our coffee was ready. 
 
 Mr. Crawford is an old bachelor, who, I am told, 
 lias made his own fortune, having arrived here, 
 when young, from Scotland, and entered as a clerk 
 in a counting-house. He is considered to be worth 
 several millions of florins, fairly and honourably ob- 
 tained. His brother, who now lives in England, 
 was formerly the English consul here, and is, I am 
 assured, equally rich and respectable. 
 
 The merchants here have several subscription 
 clubs, but no subscription theatre. To avoid the 
 consequences of disagreement and violence in party 
 matters, there are three different clubs, where only 
 those persons meet whose political opinions harmo- 
 nize. As a stranger I have been introduced to them 
 all thi'ee, and, from what I observed, think that they 
 may be styled the Dutch, English and French clubs. 
 In the first was more silence, in the second more 
 freedom, and in the third more cringing, more sus- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 151 
 
 picion, and more insincerity. They have all three, 
 however, nearly the same regulations, take in the 
 same newspapers, books and pamphlets, have tlic 
 same refreshments, and offer the same amusements. 
 They have all several billiard tables, and in the eve- 
 ning numerous card tables are occupied by parties 
 playing at whist, ombre, picquet, &.c. No hazard 
 games are permitted; but from the sums I saw won 
 and lost, whist appeared to be transformed into ha- 
 zard. 
 
 All the members of what I call the Dutch club, 
 were Dutchmen by birth, and seemed to be no great 
 admirers of the revolution, no great friends of 
 France, nor great enemies of England. They care- 
 fully avoided any complaint of the present situation 
 of affairs, but they spoke with enthusiasm of the 
 former state of things. 
 
 Dutchmen, descendants of English, Scotch or 
 Irish families, and the few British subjects still resi- 
 ding here, formed the society of what I have desig- 
 nated as the English club. Here was no reserve. 
 They freely discussed the contents of English news- 
 papers, cursed the war, the interruption of com- 
 merce, and the foreign oppression under which they 
 groaned. They were strenuous admirers of the 
 liberty which the land of their fathers and ancestors 
 enjoys, and despised those shameful hypocrites who, 
 in the name of liberty, have destroyed the freedom of 
 the continent. They spoke without reserve, because 
 they were well acquainted with each other, and be- 
 cause they knew no stranger was introduced among 
 them who was unworthy of that distinction^ 
 
135 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 A medley of Germans, Batavians, Italians, French- 
 men, Flemings, Belgians, Spaniards, Swedes and 
 Danes, formed the groupe of the third club. There 
 the revolution was the text, and Buonaparte the hero 
 of their conversation and applause. They extolled 
 liberty and equality, while at the same time they 
 read in the Moniteur the numerous imprisonments 
 by order of a First Consul, to whom a crown had 
 just been offered, and while their looks seemed to 
 say, " Are we certain of meeting here again to-mor- 
 row? Shall we pass the night without being molest-^ 
 ed? Do we not take too great a freedom in mention- 
 ing the name of the great Napoleon with pipes in our 
 mouths, and while sitting and standing, instead of 
 kneeling? We know that our lives, liberties, and 
 what little property we have, are at his disposal, and 
 that he is now to be the hereditary chief of the revo- 
 lution; but for all that, the revolution is a stupen- 
 dous monument of French wisdom, and the parent 
 of universal liberty and equality. Hear us, spies! 
 (we are certain that we have some among us) and 
 let us awake in our houses to-morrow morning, and 
 not in a prison!" In this club no other papers were 
 read but those published in France, Holland and 
 Germany; and the *' destruction of the tyrants of 
 the sea,'^ was the standing toast and the continual 
 order of the day. 
 
 I was not surprised at the suspicion and terrour, 
 duplicity and patriotism^ that reigned in this last 
 society. Within twenty-four hours, two of its mem- 
 bers and ten of their IViends had been taken up to be 
 carried under safe escort to Paris. Their crime wi^s 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 135 
 
 of that heinous nature that merited such ti'eatment ; 
 they had lately been in England, but whether as 
 spies or merchants, opinions are divided here. Some 
 supposed this seizure to be a sham, merely to force 
 them to relate what they never had any intent to 
 keep secret; but others said that they Avere suspect- 
 ed by Buonaparte of dealing not only in commercial 
 but in political contraband. As far as I could learn 
 they were not much pitied : jealousy, rivalry in trade, 
 and prejudice, represented them as schemers, needy 
 and enterprising adventurers, ready to undertake 
 any profitable or hazardous business, whether to 
 serve a commercial house, a Buonaparte, or a Prince 
 of Orange. 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 Rotterdam, February, 1804i» 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE poorest Jews at Amsterdam, were all 
 more or less tainted with revolutionary principles. 
 Here all the Jews abhor the revolution, mourn its 
 consequences, and pray for the return of a regular 
 government and regular times. Many of the weal- 
 thiest Jews frequent the new French coiFee-house, 
 nearly opposite the exchange, where one may hear 
 them lament the great losses they have met with. 
 
134 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 regret the immense profits they have missed, and 
 compare the riches of England with the poverty 
 of France. Their chief business at present consists 
 in the exchange of money Avith foreign travellers, 
 who on that account resort to this coffee-house, just 
 before the exchange hours. 
 
 I was informed by a friend, of the following ex- 
 traordinary manoeuvre which was put in practice by 
 some of our French officers, in order to pillage one 
 of the Jews who frequent that house as money bro- 
 kers. One day a carriage stopped at the Jew's 
 door, and a person pretending to be a police com- 
 missary entered, accompanied with two other per- 
 sons in the dress of gensdarmes. They produced 
 an order signed b)^ the minister of police, to arrest 
 him, and carry him to France, as connected with a 
 gang of coiners, and to seize all his ready money. 
 In the house were his wife, two children, and a 
 servant maid ; these were locked up in the cellar, 
 and under pain of death forbidden to make the least 
 noise. After all the cash and valuables of the Jew 
 had been packed up, they set out for Antwerp, and 
 travelled all night. Just before they came to the 
 French frontiers, one of them, the police commis- 
 sary, asked the Jew to leave the carriage, as he 
 wanted to converse with him. He said, that hu- 
 manity alone suggested to him the following arrange- 
 ment : As you declare yourself a ruined man if you 
 should lose all we have carried away from your 
 house, in the name of the law and on the part of our 
 government, I will make you this generous propo- 
 sal — you aflirm upon your honour, tliat of all the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 135 
 
 money in the carriage, none is bad ; I am inclined 
 to believe you, and, therefore, will keep that only, 
 set you at liberty, and restore you all the jewels and 
 other valuables in the box. I should not keep even 
 your money, were I not obliged to save myself 
 from the vengeance of the minister of police, for 
 suffering you to escape. The jew cried and prayed 
 to have at least half of the money back ; but the com- 
 missar}^ was inflexible, spoke of nothing but dun- 
 geons, racks, and the guillotine, till at last the Jew 
 assented. The box, sealed with the commissary's 
 seal, was returned to him, and he made such haste 
 back to Rotterdam, that he got there before his 
 neighbours were in bed. The commissary having 
 forgotten to give him back the key of his house, he 
 called on them to inquire whether they had seen any 
 thing of his wife and family ; being answered in the 
 negative, he requested their assistance to force open 
 his house. He found the prisoners in the cellar, 
 almost frightened out of their wits on account of 
 his long absence, the police commissary having as- 
 sured them, that he would be back in a few hours. 
 The Jew, when a little more composed, related all 
 his adventures within the last twenty-four hours, ad- 
 ding, "I have, however, been fortunate in not being 
 •robbed by such desperadoes, of more than thirty 
 three thousand florins, (3000/.) Had they kept this 
 box, they would have got seven times the amount 
 of that sum." But upon opening the box, instead of 
 jewels, he found pebbles only in their room. In vain 
 he complained to the municipality, to the French 
 ambassador 4t the Hague, and even to the police 
 
136 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 minister at Paris ; no discovery was made of the 
 marauders, though the Jew was positive that he had 
 seen two of them before, in the regimentals of French 
 officers. The rehiter of this anecdote, assured me 
 that he had heard the particulars from the Jew 
 himself. 
 
 Another Jew, of the name of Aaron Zachariah, 
 told me, that he had been swindled by two French- 
 men, out of six thousand florins, (550/.) in the fol- 
 lowing manner: They pretended to be jewellers 
 from Bordeaux, and sold him several trinkets cheap 
 enough, and borrowed money upon some others. 
 One day they called upon him with a box contain- 
 ing real diamonds of great value, and requested a 
 loan of six thousand florins for a fortnight, and 
 offered to leave the box and its contents, as security. 
 To this he agreed, and the box was sealed with his 
 and their seals. After two months had elapsed, 
 without hearing from the borrowers, he opened the 
 box in the presence of witnesses, but found in it 
 nothing but some pieces of lead covered with cotton. 
 This fraud surprised him so much the more, as he 
 thought that he had never lost sight of the box, 
 after he had assured himself of the real value of the 
 diamonds inclosed. The same trick, he said, had 
 also been played on a Jew at the Hague, who, more 
 fortunate than himself, had afterwards, when tra- 
 velling in Flanders, met with the swindlers, and ob- 
 liged them to refund his money. 
 
 But these kind of robberies and impositions have, 
 since the revolution, become so common that thej 
 ^e no longer a subject of astonishment, and are con-* 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 137 
 
 stantly succeeded by acts of knavery, still more 
 shameful and audacious. They have created such 
 a general distrust and suspicion, at least, among the 
 Jews here, that before they conclude any bargain, or 
 exchange, they take numerous precautions, which, 
 though necessary, are extremely vexatious and pro- 
 ductive of much delay. 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 Rotterdam, April, .1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THOUGH this is the second city of the Bata- 
 vian republic, in point of wealth and commerce, it 
 has no regular company of performers, even during 
 the winter season. Some Dutch, German and French 
 strollers play here occasionally ; but, whether from 
 iiidifFerence to theatrical amusements, or from the 
 unfortunate circumstances of the times, I have al- 
 ways found the audience very thin. The former the- 
 atre having been burnt, the present one has, there- 
 fore, been placed outside of the walls, and though 
 rather small, is larger than is wanted for the inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 A company of German Jew performers arrived 
 here lately from Amsterdam, where they had been 
 much applauded. They chiefly represented operas 
 
138 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLEIi. 
 
 and dramas, and though not much can be said in fa- 
 vour of their acting, their singing is .excellent. The 
 actresses, as well as the actors, are of the Jewish re- 
 ligion. Their features and expression of countenance 
 would have announced their origin, had it not been 
 otherwise known. They all seem to be brothers and 
 sisters, though they are not even related to each 
 other. On the second night of their performance the 
 play was interrupted by the absence of the youngest 
 and best looking of the actresses. Like the rest of 
 their nation, they too are all traders or pedlars. This 
 actress was carrying through the street a band-box 
 with laces, ribbands, &c. when a French officer of 
 hussars met her, and requested her to accompany 
 him to his wife, who wanted to purchase some lace. 
 On her arrival at his lodgings, his wife was said to 
 have gone out, and she was asked to sit down, and 
 treated with some wine and cakes. Whether she 
 drank too freely, or, as she pretended, some som- 
 niferous drugs were mixed with the wine, she re- 
 mained in bed with ^the officer until the next morn- 
 ing, when, furious with grief, she tried to destroy 
 herself. The officer, however, coldly sent for the 
 Jew manager, and delivered his bed-fellow safe over 
 to his care ; but she flew from him to the house of 
 the governor, and demanded punishment on her 
 ravisher. A douceur of some louis d'ors was then 
 tried, and had the desired effect ; she not only forgave 
 the captain, but lives with him now, having his pro- 
 mise of marriage. When she appeared again upon 
 'the stage, the audience seemed, by their reception, 
 inore to commisserate tlian to blame her. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 13 9 
 
 The libertinism and profligacy of French soldiers 
 have been proverbial in all times, but the revolu- 
 tionary soldiers surpass their predecessors in these 
 as well as other vices. Officers and men, as soon as 
 they arrive in a foreign country, pay their addresses, 
 seduce under promises of marriage, and even marry 
 those who have the misfortune to be victims of their 
 debauchery, though most of them have wives, not 
 only in France, but in other countries where they 
 have been. It may be thought that this infamous 
 conduct is practised only by inferior officers and the 
 common men ; but the very reverse is the case. The 
 general has more than once set the ensign an exam- 
 ple, and while the colonel has ruined the mother, he 
 has incited the drummer to dishonour the daughter. 
 
 A revolutionary general of the name of Salm, 
 (but no relation of the Princes and Counts Salm) 
 paid his addresses here some time since to the only 
 daughter of a Dutch admiral, who had a fortune of 
 live hundred thousand florins left her by an uncle 
 w^ho died at Batavia. He succeeded in gaining 
 her afiections, and was married to her. By caresses, 
 persuasions and threats, he became, within a few 
 weeks, the master of his wife's whole fortune, which 
 he exchanged for bills on Paris. Two months af- 
 terwards, another w^ife came from France, claimed 
 and carried away her husband, who deserted the 
 heart-broken Dutch lady, whose fortune he had 
 plundered, and whose health he had ruined by an 
 infamous disease. Salm had remitted to his wife 
 in France all the money of which he had robbed his 
 wife in Holland, and, it !§ said, stiU boasts of h}^ 
 
140 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 adroitness in the fashionable circles of Buonaparte's 
 Capital. 
 
 Another revolutionary officer in garrison here, a 
 Colonel Fauvier, became acquainted with the widow 
 of a wealthy Bataviati banker, who had bequeathed 
 her all his property to the exclusion of a daugh- 
 ter. The colonel observing that the old doating 
 mother would be an easy prey for him, could he but 
 get rid of the vigilant and clear-sighted daughter, 
 introduced as a brother officer, a young, handsome 
 drummer, who, following the instructions of his 
 superior, soon became the favourite of the young 
 lady. Having thus disposed of her, he settled every 
 thing according to his wishes. The mother and 
 the daughter were married on the same day ; but 
 after the colonel was master of his wife's property, 
 he informed her, that she should enjoy with him all 
 possible connubial happiness, as soon as death had 
 released him from the prior claims of his wives in 
 France, Italy, and Switzerland. To evince, howe- 
 ver, his gratitude to the family, he advanced her 
 son-in-law, who was only a drummer, to the rank 
 of ensign. A year had not elapsed before both 
 these female victims of French perfidy and immo- 
 rality were in the grave. 
 
 Not long ago, a French colonel, Sauvisi, intro- 
 duced himself into a respectable family here, in 
 whicft were t^vo daughters, of whom the oldest was 
 under eighteen. In a short time the youngest of 
 them disappeared, and notwithstanding the endea- 
 vours of her disconsolate pai'ents, no trace of her 
 could be discovered, and the colonel seemed no 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. l4l 
 
 less anxious about her than the rest of her famil}-. 
 His seemingly kind conduct induced the parents, 
 when four months afterwards he demanded the hand 
 of the remaining child, both to consent to the match, 
 and to give their daughter a handsome fortune. On 
 the day after his marriage, while seated at the table of 
 his father and mother-in-law, by the side of his wife, 
 the long lost child rushed in with a knife in tier 
 hand, and attempted to stab him, exclaiming, " This 
 villain is my seducer, I am pregnant by him, he has 
 promised to marry me, and this very forenoon a vul- 
 gar woman came to my retreat, and proved that she 
 was his wife long ago." The scene that followed 
 may more easily be imagined than it can be des- 
 cribed. The unfortunate girl did not know of his 
 marriage with her sister, as he had secreted her in 
 his house, where she was permitted to see no one 
 until his wife from France made an unexpected ap- 
 pearance, and informed her with what a monster 
 she was connected. The whole family has since 
 left this country for Germany, and Sauvisi serves as 
 a general in Italy ! ! ! 
 
142 THE BELGIAN TKAVELLEIt, 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 Rotterdam^ Jjiril^ 180i/ 
 Ur LORD, 
 
 THOUGH this republic never was officially 
 declared to be under martial law, except when the 
 Anglo- Russian army had landed in Holland, yet in 
 many instances, I may say in most, when any French- 
 men have been accused of crimes, their chiefs have 
 seized the authority, either to screen the culprits 
 from the punishment due to their crimes, to miti- 
 gate their offences, or to procure them an oppor- 
 tunity to escape. 
 
 Some time ago, a most atrocious murder was com- 
 mitted in an inn of this city, called " The Kleine 
 Skipper Huis,'' by the French surgeon Du Ha- 
 mel. This man happened to meet in the trekschuit, 
 between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a Gene- 
 vese jeweller, who had attended the different fairs in 
 Holland, and whom he recommended to the same 
 inn where he himself lodged. When they arrived 
 the house was full, and only one room, with two 
 beds, was vacant, of which they accepted. 
 
 After supper the jeweller went to bed; the suK 
 geon continued up, and informed the landlord and th$ 
 waiters, that his companion was very subject to fits 
 and convulsions, during which he sometimes called 
 out for assistance ; but as the infirmity ceased of 
 
 i 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 143 
 
 Itself, they need not be alarmed or trouble them- 
 selves, should they hear any noise or cries. 
 
 About three o'clock in the morning the call of 
 murder! murder! and the rattle of the watchmen, 
 made every one in the inn get out of his bed, the 
 surgeon Du Hamel was found bleeding from several 
 Wounds, which he pretended to have received in his 
 struggle to defend his life against the attempts of the 
 Genevese jeweller, who had disappeared. He asked 
 for the assistance of a Dutch surgeon to bind up his 
 wounds, seeming to be faint from the loss of blood. 
 
 When the Dutch surgeon had been informed of 
 all the incidents, and compared ihem with the slight 
 wounds of Du Hamel, a suspicion occurred to him, 
 which he communicated to the landlord, that the 
 Frenchman was rather the assassin than the victim. 
 In this suspicion he was confirmed, on remarking 
 the great quantity of blood with which the floor was 
 covered, and still more so in observing it flowing 
 from the apertures of a large trunk. Upon his appli- 
 cation the trunk was opened, when, horrible to relate, 
 the corpse of the jeweller was found in it, cut to 
 pieces. A magistrate was then sent for, and Du 
 Hamel made a full confession of his guilt. 
 
 He stated, that some very valuable jewels showft 
 him by his fellow traveller in the treckschuit, had 
 tempted him to commit this crime. That when he 
 returned to their bed-room after supper, he found 
 the jeweller asleep ; that he went up to his bed, and, 
 with a single stroke of a stiletto, dispatched him 
 without a groan; that he emptied afterwards the 
 large trunk of all its effects, cut the corpse of the 
 
14.4 THE BELGL\N TRAVELLER. 
 
 jeweller to pieces, and placed the morsels in it; that 
 done, he inflicted on himself several light wounds, 
 ran down stairs, opened the door, and called out 
 murder, which made the watchman spring his rattle^ 
 and knock at the door; that his plan was, early in 
 the morning to have taken the trunk to the' water- 
 side, and thrown it into the river; that he had filled 
 the drawers in the room with all the effects and valu- 
 ables of the jeweller, which he hoped to be enabled 
 to appropriate to himself. In consequence of this 
 confession, which he signed, he was committed to 
 prison by the Dutch magistrate. 
 
 On the next morning, when this crime was report- 
 ed to the French commander, he ordered Du Hamel 
 to be removed from the Batavian criminal prison to 
 the principal French guard-house, and to be tried by 
 a French court-martial instead of a Dutch tribunal* 
 A long contest took place on account of this resolu- 
 tion of the French governor, but it was at last agreed 
 that Du Hamel should be tried by a military com- 
 mission, when tie was sentenced to be shot on the 
 following morning. 
 
 Du Hamel was a protege of the governor, who 
 wished to save him; but as it was necessary, in 
 order to avoid scandal, to appear to carry the sen- 
 tence into execution, he ordered a British prisoner, 
 who, in attempting to escape from confinement, had 
 been recaptured and considered as a spy, to be shot^ 
 and tlren had it given out to the people that his 
 corpse was that of Du Hamel, who in the meantime 
 returned back to France with a pass. This atrocious 
 act would, perhaps, never have been known, had not, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 145 
 
 Annokee, the landlord of '' The Kleine Skipper's 
 House," in a journey to France, met Du Hamel, 
 who w«QS then the first surgeon of a regiment of 
 horse quartered at Lisle. Annokee could hardly 
 believe his eyes, until Du Hamel, with great sang 
 froid, explained to him how he had escaped, and who 
 had perished in his place. This Du Hamel is at 
 present a surgeon in the troops of Buonaparte's house- 
 hold. 
 
 A French woman, married to a Dutch tallow- 
 chandler, after having some words with her husband, 
 in a fit of passion, knocked out with a hammer the 
 brains of their only child, who was the fondling of 
 his father. She was sentenced to be hanged by a 
 Dutch tribunal, when the French commander inter- 
 fered, under pretence that, being a French female 
 citizen by birth, the recognition and judgment of 
 her crime appertained to French judges alone. She 
 was forcibly taken from her place of imprisonment 
 by a guard of French soldiers, and, as it was said, 
 carried to Antwerp, to be tried again. But the 
 fact was, that one of the aide-de-camp of the com- 
 mander had an intrigue with her, and no sooner had 
 she arrived in the French territory than she was set 
 at liberty. She is said at present to be married to a 
 French custom-house officer at Antwerp. I have 
 heard it also related as a fact, that a person, pretend- 
 ing to be her brother, but who was her present hus* 
 band, came here not long ago, and claimed her share 
 in the property of her Dutch husband, who, after 
 some resistance, and being menaced with a trip to 
 France, at last consented. This protection granted 
 
 T 
 
146 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 to crimes by French governors and commandem 
 has not diminished the number of French crimwials 
 iti Holland. 
 
 LETTER XXXIL 
 
 Rotterdam^ March, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE Exchange of this city is far from being 
 crowded, but it is more frequented by real merchants 
 than that of Amsterdam, and, as I am informed, 
 more business is also done here. This advantage is 
 entirely owing to the English connections, which 
 the principal houses still keep up, and which, on 
 account of its vicinity, or rather facility of commu- 
 nication with Great Britain, even French restrictions 
 cannot always impede. 
 
 That Buonaparte has resolved upon the ruin of 
 English trade, and wax? at present more against Bri- 
 tish commerce than against British independence, 
 (well convinced that the latter will perish with the 
 former) would be folly to deny; that he also pur- 
 sues measures which he considers as the most effica- 
 cious for that purpose, is evident from his numerous 
 prohibitory laws in all countries where his bayonets 
 tyrannise, his councils dictate, or his threats terrify. 
 Biit the prosperity, and even the increase of the com- 
 
 I 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. I47 
 
 merce of Great Britain, still display how unavailing 
 have hitherto been these efforts of ambition, jea- 
 lousy, hatred, policy or malevolence. The fault 
 does not, however, always lay with him, nor can it 
 be ascribed to imperfect or hasty ordinances. 
 
 The council of Buonaparte is composed of 
 very able and very wicked men, not one of whom 
 can be named, whose crimes or immorality are not 
 as notorious as his capacity or talents are conspicu- 
 ous. If, when their personal interest is not involved, 
 or the temptation of infidelity too great, they serve 
 him faithfully, they also, when opportunity oflFera 
 and insures them a probability of impunity, are easi- 
 ly corrupted, and never miss any occasion to enrich 
 themselves in betraying their trust. 
 
 A respectable merchant here told me that, not- 
 withstanding Buonaparte's severe edicts, Holland, 
 Italy, Switzerland, and even a great part of France, 
 were never better supplied with English goods than 
 during the last war. Regular associations of smug- 
 glers were established under the very protection of 
 Buonaparte's directors or inspectors of his custom- 
 houses. For an insurance of ten per cent, every 
 thing was delivered as safe as before the revolution. 
 Since the rupture with England last year, many of 
 the custom-house officers have been changed, re- 
 moved or dismissed, but they are too well acquaint- 
 ed in this country with the morality of revolutionary 
 Frenchmen, to have any fear of a total interruption 
 of commercial intercourse with the British empire. 
 
 The other day, when I was at the French coffee- 
 house, opposite the exchange, a well dressed man 
 
148 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 came up to me and took me aside : "I suppose," 
 said he, " that you are a merchant, and probably 
 wish some means to get the goods you have pur- 
 chased in England, safe over to Holland. For twelve 
 per cent. I will insure their safety. I am well 
 known to such and such houses, (mentioning two of 
 those to which I had been recommended) and the 
 French and Batavian custom-house officers are all 
 my friends. I have this very morning landed and 
 housed two cargoes of goods of English manufac- 
 ture, and expect in the course of a fortnight three 
 cargoes more." I thanked him for his oiFer, but 
 told him that I was no merchant. " From seeing 
 you so often upon the exchange conversing with 
 merchants, I thought you were," said he coldly; 
 " no harm, I hope." He left me, without even re- 
 questing secrecy. 
 
 When I related to my friend my conversation with 
 this man, and expressed my surprise at his indis- 
 cretion thus to accost a stranger, he smiled, saying, 
 " this fellow knows very well what he is about. 
 Frenchmen of rank much superior to custom-house 
 officers are. connected with him, share with him in 
 the profits, and protect him both from danger and 
 losses. He was four years ago a common waggon- 
 er, and is now thought to be worth two hundred 
 thousand florins, gained entirely by his partnership 
 in smuggling with powerful Frenchmen here, and at 
 the Hague. But his influence in the contraband 
 line extends to persons as well as to property. He 
 has smuggled hClndreds of emigrants back to France, 
 and for a douceur of twenty louis d'ors, will at all 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 149 
 
 times procure aiiy one a passport, which will enable 
 him to travel undisturbed here, as well as in France, 
 Italy, and Switzerland. If you add five louis more, 
 you may choose the name you wish to travel under, 
 and the country to which you think it most prudent 
 to belong, 
 
 I have forgotten to tell you that, except writing 
 down my name. Sec. in the police bills of the inn, I 
 had no trouble here with regard to my passport. I 
 was neither obliged to wait on the French governor, 
 nor dance attendance in a French police office, or at 
 a Batavian municipality. On inquiring the cause of 
 such difference between Amsterdam and Rotterdam 
 in the department of police, a friend replied, " at the 
 former place the public functionaries are more ardent 
 PATRIOTS, an appellation which we here consider as 
 synonymous with that of oppressors ; because wc 
 have experienced that liberty and safety are banish- 
 ed from all cities or towns governed by our modem 
 patriots." 
 
ISO THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 Rotterdam, March, 1804, 
 MT LORD, 
 
 MONDAYS and Saturdays are market days 
 here, and the Erasmus square, under my windows, 
 is covered with temporary stalls, erected early in 
 the morning and taken down at night. They con- 
 tain but little, except what is worn by the country 
 people, by sailors and soldiers, or used to decorate 
 the persons and dwellings of individuals belonging 
 to these classes of society. I have heard, that be- 
 fore the revolution several goldsmiths had also their 
 stalls here, and sold gold and silver trinkets of con- 
 siderable value to the wealthy peasants and their 
 wives, who in this country are very fond of these 
 kind of ornaments ; but that on a market day, some 
 time ago, some French soldiers picked a sham quar- 
 rel near tlie stalls of the goldsmiths, and fell fighting 
 with each other, and in the confusion ran against 
 and knocked down these stalls, the contents of which 
 instantly disappeared. 
 
 Similar acts of audacity and violence have also 
 tended much to discontinue the wearing of gold and 
 silver trinkets. In Friezland, where this fashion 
 was common to all classes, on a Sunday, a brigade 
 of French soldiers surrounded the church of one 
 of the most populous villages, and under pretence of 
 wanting shoes and stockings, stripped the women of 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 151 
 
 their ornaments and the men of their wearing appa- 
 rel, in place of which they left their own rags. 
 When complaint was made by the municipality to 
 the French commander, it was answered, that the 
 whole was only a badinage, and could be considered 
 in no other light. 
 
 Another brigade of French soldiers, in their march 
 towards North Holland, happened to pass by a house 
 where a rich merchant was celebrating the wedding 
 of his daughter, and to which all the principal inha- 
 bitants were invited. Pretending that a sufficient 
 quantity of provisions had not been prepared for 
 them, they resolved to put the wedding dinner into 
 requisition, and placing sentries round the house^ 
 both to prevent escape and assistance, fifty forced 
 their entrance into the house. One of them very 
 civilly asked the master of the house and the guests 
 to make a patriotic donation of their repast to their 
 starving French brethren, who so valiantly combated 
 for their liberty ; but the consternation which their 
 unexpected arrival had occ?sioned preventing the 
 i?ierchant from giving an immediate answer, they 
 seized at once every thing upon the table or in the: 
 kitchen, part of which they threw out of the win- 
 dows to their comrades, who had crowded round 
 the house. This scene of confusion and terrour 
 caused several of the ladies to faint, and the French 
 marauders, first politely, under offer of assistance to 
 some, and afterwards in the name of the great na- 
 tion, as they said, plundered them of their bracelets, 
 necklaces, rings, Sec. en masse. Every thing valua- 
 ble in the house was also carried away, not excepting. 
 
152 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the gentlemen's watches, shoe-buckles and hats, or 
 the neckcloths, handkerchiefs, and even the silk 
 stockings of some of the ladies. Though the mer- 
 chant dispatched a messenger to the head-quarters, 
 and requested satisfaction for the outrage, and pun- 
 ishment of the robbers, no notice whatever was 
 taken of it, and it was laughed at by the French ge- 
 nerals merely as another badinage. 
 
 The patriots at Schiedam three years ago celebra- 
 ted the anniversary of the revolution with a splendid 
 supper and ball, to which the French commander and 
 several superior French officers were also invited. 
 The party had hardly sat down to table before seve- 
 ral hundred French soldiers entered with their 
 swords drawn, and said, that as the fete was given 
 in honour of liberty and equality^ they also insisted 
 upon having their share of tlie entertainment. When 
 their commander ordered them to withdraw, they 
 replied, that they were ready to obey him on the pa- 
 rade, but that here he was not at his post. They then 
 laid hold of the supper, and when it was devoured, 
 politely asked the citizens and their ladies to bestow 
 on them their trinkets, as tokens of gratitude for 
 their civil and decent behaviour. As their request 
 was a command, obedience immediately followed, 
 and the Schiedam patriots went home, not only with 
 empty stomachs but with empty pockets. To pre- 
 vent their commander (who was, strange as it may 
 seem, not in the secret, nor shared the spoils) from 
 resenting their conduct, tney deputed four of the 
 most guilty to the head- quarters of the commander 
 in chief. General Augercau, then at the Hague, com- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 153 
 
 plained of their superior officer, and petitioned for 
 his removal. As the deputies had prudently car- 
 ried with them some of the stolen trinkets, Auge- 
 reau listened to them favourably, the commander 
 was removed to Gonda, and the soldiers ordered to 
 Brielle. To the memorial of the Schiedam patriots 
 it was replied, that General Augereau advised them 
 as a friend, to bury the whole disagreeable fracas 
 in oblivion. I have not heard, whether the Schie- 
 dam patriots have since celebrated another fete in 
 honour of French fraternity. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 Rotterdamy Afirily 1804. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 OPPOSITE the door of my inn, is a tree of 
 liberty, decorated, not with a bonnet, but with a hat. 
 It is merely a long pole painted with three colours, 
 encompassed by a wooden railing, and guarded by a 
 sentinel. Inquiring the other day of one of the offi- 
 cers, if the soldier was there to prevent it from run- 
 ning away ? he answered, " No Sir ! there is no 
 danger of that, and I do not know where it would 
 be received, should it take a fancy to escape. Its 
 baleful effects have been too much felt in those 
 
 wretched countries where it has been planted by 
 
 u 
 
154 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 force to suppose that any people would be willing 
 to accept of it. The sentry is there to prevent it 
 from being cut down and burnt, as three other trees 
 haVe been on tlie same spot. The people here are 
 too wise, and have suffered too much to be attached 
 to trees of liberty, or any other unmeaning emblems, 
 when freedom has been entirely banished from the 
 continent by our friends of liberty." 
 
 I have just heard that Buonaparte has sent an or- 
 der to the government of this republic to have all 
 the trees of liberty removed, as has already been 
 done in France. Were it possible for him to repair 
 the sufferings which have been endured, and to eradi^ 
 cate all remembrance of the horrours witnessed sincc^ 
 revolutionary tyrants first planted, and revolutionary 
 slaves first danced round these trees, he would con-, 
 fer greater blessings on his contemporaries than any 
 chieftain ever did before. 
 
 These trees of liberty have, in the states where 
 they have been planted, served as rallying points 
 for traitors and conspirators, for impostors and fools, 
 for sedition and infidelity. At their feet loyalty has 
 bled, and Christianity suffered ; in their poisonous 
 shade cannibals have feasted, and rebels fraternized; 
 anarchy has howled hymns, and profligacy preached 
 licentiousness. 
 
 Even here in Holland, where fewer lives have 
 been sacrificed than in France and Italy by revolu- 
 tionar}^ banditti, innocence has more than once, and 
 on the most trifling occasions, watered the trees of li- 
 berty with its tears, and stained them with its blood. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. IBS 
 
 Some years ago at Dort, a young lady, whose 
 father and brother were officers, who had perished in 
 the service of their country, was one day walking in 
 the street with a favourite lap-dog under her arm. 
 The colour of the animal was white, but round its 
 head were several spots of orange colour. As after 
 the restoration of the Stadtholder, in 1787, cockades 
 of this colour became the marks of distinction of 
 those who wished to display their attachment to his 
 authority, some fanatics reproached her with want 
 of patriotism in carrying an animal so coloured, 
 and one of them, snatching it from her, dashed it 
 against the pavement, and killed it on the spot. In 
 the first moment of surprise and indignation she ex- 
 claimed, that one Prince of Orange was preferable 
 to thousands of patriotic oppressors, and that she 
 would willingly give her life to see him once more 
 restored to the authority of his ancestors. She had 
 not time to say more before she was knocked down, 
 and dragged to the tree of liberty, where, after en- 
 during for a quarter of an hour outrages of every 
 description, a friend, who was unable to deliver her, 
 asked a French soldier, as a deed of humanity, to 
 dispatch her, which he did. What rendered her 
 fate the more lamentable, was her being engaged to ' 
 marry a young gentleman on the Sunday following; 
 and she had been, wlien stopped by the rabble, to 
 her mantua- maker to give directions for her wedding 
 dress. Her lover, who resided at some miles dis^ 
 tance, was the same afternoon informed of his loss, 
 and arrived at Dort, accompanied by some friends, 
 who with difficulty prevented him from laying vio^ 
 
156 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 lent hands on himself. He carried away the muti- 
 lated remains of his beloved mistress, and buried 
 them in the vault of his family, near his country 
 house. His friends remained with him for a fort- 
 night ; but the day after they left him he entered 
 the vault unperceived, and blew out his brains by 
 the side of the coffin of his mistress. 
 
 Several Dutch citizens, who had before the revo- 
 lution been officers in the service of the Prince of 
 Orange, have also been shot as emigrants at the 
 feet of these trees of liberty. It must, however, be 
 added, that their accusers, judges and execution- 
 ers were all Frenchmen. 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Rotterdam, May, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD- 
 
 THE Dutch capitalists are so well acquainted 
 with the rapacity as well as with the cruelty of their 
 foreign masters, that they contrive all possible means 
 to conceal their wealth, and to have it placed out of 
 their reach. Most of them have diminished their 
 expenses, and assign the reduction of their circum- 
 stances as the cause. Some have disposed of their 
 property in this country, and bought estates in Flan- 
 ders, Brabant and France, being less oppressed as 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 157 
 
 subjects than as the allies of Buonaparte. Several 
 have emigrated to America, or established themselves 
 in Germany, Denmark or England; but all, in a 
 greater or less degree, have remitted their capitals to 
 their correspondents in London, to be laid out in the 
 purchase of English stock. As, however, the Frencfi 
 Government may inspect their ledgers, or the British 
 Government stop the remittances of interest, they ha^'e 
 contrived to be naturalized in other governments, 
 and by that means to protect their money transac- 
 tions under neutral colours. 
 
 I dined in company with a rich Dutch merchant 
 of the name of Osy, who has retired from business 
 himself, but whose son, formerly an Austrian con- 
 sul here, has two houses, one at Hamburgh and 
 one here. The father, when the F»ench invaded 
 this republic, thought it prudent to emigrate, and 
 went in 1794 to Bremen, carrying with him his pro- 
 perty, and leaving nothing behind but an estate, a 
 league distant from this city. Having made himself 
 a burgher of Bremen, he sent over to England a part 
 of his money under that title. The winter of 1795 
 he passed at Hamburgh, where, as well as at Alto- 
 na, he procured himself a burgher's brief, and 
 remitted as such more of his property to Great Bri- 
 tain. I have heard that he has also since been natu- 
 ralized at Embden, as a Prussian subject, and has 
 bought a house at Antwerp, in order to become a 
 French citizen. These measures of prudence, to 
 which many other Batavian citizens have also been 
 forced to resort, prove the want of security for pro- 
 perty, and the danger to which it is exposed, and will 
 
158 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 continue to be exposed, as long as a revolutionary, 
 government exists in Fremce ; it* is, and, whatever 
 appellation its chief assumes, w^ill always be revered 
 and looked up to by anarchists and those devoid of 
 property, as their natural protector. 
 
 I have with grief remarked, that the inveteracy of 
 the French and Batavian nations is reciprocal ; the 
 former oppress and plunder the latter, because they 
 hate and despise them ; w^hile the w^ant of rneiuis to fall 
 with success upon their foreign intrudervS, prevents 
 the latter from attempting to throw ofi* the yoke of 
 the former. On every occasion these sentiments 
 evince themselves. I was conversing the other day 
 with an aid-de-camp of one of tlic French generals 
 of the many taxes laid on the Dutch, of their dis- 
 tress, and of file probability of the time not befng 
 remote when they would be unable to contribute 
 any more to the support of their French allies. " As 
 to their taxes," interrupted he, " they* are not taxed 
 enough yet, nor can they become so miserable as the 
 meanness of their characters ought to render them ; 
 but as long as we do not see any ducats in circula- 
 tion, their ruin cannot be so near as you seem to ap- 
 prehend." I remarked to him that ducats w^as not 
 the current coin of this country, but boui^^ht and sold 
 as all other merchandise, and eveiy body had a right 
 to except or refuse them when offered. I asked him 
 whether he had been in Holland previous to the revo- 
 lution, or whether, during his present residence, he 
 had been travelling much in the Batavian Republic. 
 Without knowing this country formerly, and seeing 
 its present situation, it is impossiblcj said I, to judge 
 
 i 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 159 
 
 either what the people can support or what they 
 suffer. A state like France, of an extensive and fer- 
 tile territory, is not so easily ruined as a country 
 that draws but little from its soil, but depends for 
 every thing upon its trade and industr}' ; when these 
 are destroyed, it may for some time subsist upon its 
 past savings, but its progress towards a national 
 bankruptcy, though imperceptible, is not the less 
 certain. I have, continued I with some warmth, 
 seen Holland ten years ago, and, therefore, cannot 
 but lament, as a man interested for the welfare of 
 my fellow-beings, its present wretchedness. I will 
 defy any traveller to mention a people in Europe 
 suffering so much from complicated distress as the 
 middling and lower classes of this republic. Cities, 
 towns, villages and high roads swarm with beggars ; 
 such disgusting beggars, that they almost appear 
 hideous to poverty itself. And these naked and wan- 
 dering skeletons are not reduced by their own fault, 
 by their own indolence, or want of industry, but 
 from the baleful effects of the present disorganized 
 state of civil society. Should Buonaparte com- 
 'tnand his troops to evacuate Holland, respect its 
 independence, and permit it to regulate for itself 
 its commercial and political transactions, within 
 twelve months a beggar would no longer be found 
 in this republic. In 1794 not a single Batavian 
 citizen subsisted by public alms, or by begging. 
 *' You are prejudiced, much prejudiced in favour 
 of the people of this country," said the aid-de- 
 camp; " but could France, with a single blow, an- 
 
160 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 nihilate the whole race, it would be a blessing to 
 Europe. They are a disgrace to the human species.'' 
 
 LETTER XXXVL 
 
 Rotterdam^ May, 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I HAVE been for some days at a friend's house 
 in the country, where I have met with a most inter- 
 esting object. 
 
 Citizen Van R — , a rich brewer, had always dis- 
 tinguished himself for his opposition to the Stadt- 
 holder, for his partiality to France, and for his hatred 
 to England. In 1794, observing that his daughter, 
 an only child, seemed much attached to a British of- 
 ficer of the guards, he sent her to a convent in Bra- 
 bant. She had not been in this retreat many months, 
 before the French were masters of the country. They 
 held no retreat sacred; against their audacity inno- 
 cence and virtue were no protection. The vows ot 
 all religious orders were dissolved, and those destin* 
 ed to a life of devotion were deprived of their re- 
 treats, were seduced or debauched. 
 
 Miss Van R — had the good fortune to possess in 
 the abbess of the convent, not only a governess but 
 a friend. Seeing the dangers that menaced her pu- 
 pil, from the language and threats of a vile soldiery, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 161 
 
 the abbess never lost sight of her; and though by the 
 movements of the armies all correspondence with 
 Holland was intercepted, she was resolved to deliver 
 her back into the arms of her parent, as pure and 
 innocent as she entered the convent. After many- 
 difficulties and great hazards, in January, 1795, she 
 at last arrived at the house of her young friend's 
 father, who received his child with the utmost affec* 
 tion. 
 
 Citizen Van R — • had been four years a widower, 
 and was, therefore, not sorry to see such a welU 
 educated lady as the abbess the companion of his 
 child. He endeavoured to persuade her to remain 
 in his house j not only as the guide of his Maria, but 
 as the superintendant of his domestic concerns. But 
 being disinterested as well as delicate, she declined 
 all his offers, and accepted nothing; she promised, 
 however, not to leave his house before his daughter 
 was settled. 
 
 Among the many French sansculotte officers then 
 attached to the republican army. Citizen Van R — 
 had formed an acquaintance with a lieutenant- colonel 
 Dariie, who professed the same political sentiments 
 with himself, but who Was as immoral as he was in- 
 sinuatingi 
 
 Dariie, the first time he was in company with Miss 
 Van R — , was particularly attentive to her, and im- 
 mediately requested her father's permission to pay 
 his addresses to her, which he easily obtained. But 
 remarking that his assiduities and attention did not 
 advance him much in her affisctions, he began to 
 suspect that her friend the abbess was not favoura*^ 
 
162 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ble to his views, and, therefore, complained to Citi- 
 zen Van R— - of an improper influence exercised 
 over his daughter by her friend. 
 
 When Van R — gave Dariie leave to become 
 a suitor of his daughter, he also told him that he 
 would never force her to form any ties which were 
 repugnant to her inclinations ; but he had also in- 
 formed her that it would be gratifying to him, if she 
 chose this ofiicer for her husband. 
 
 I have mentioned before that the abbess was more 
 her friend than her governess, and possessed all her 
 confidence ; of this her father was well aware, and, 
 therefore, desired a private interview with that lady. 
 He inquired of her what objections his daughter 
 could have against Dariie? None that I know of, 
 answered the abbess, but that her heart is previously 
 
 engaged to the English Captain C , she has 
 
 sworn him an eternal constancy, and I doubt much 
 whether she ever will be able to break it. But, re- 
 plied the father in a rage, Captain C is an En- 
 glishman; she knows that I hate the English; and 
 he is, besides, near forty, while Dariie is only thirty. 
 I will speak to her on this subject; I do .not intend 
 to oblige her to marry Dariie, but never with my 
 consent shall she give her hand to a British subject. 
 The abbess assured him that his daughter was too 
 dutiful a child ever to form any alliance that her fa- 
 ther would not approve. 
 
 It happened that Captain C— — was among the 
 British prisoners in Holland, and had heard of the 
 return of his mistress from Brabant. He found 
 means to inform her that he was on his parole at 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 163 
 
 Breda, and requested an interview, if possible. This 
 she declined, but a correspondence was kept up be- 
 tween them until late in the spring, when the captain 
 was exchanged, and surprised her with a visit before 
 he returned to England. 
 
 It may be easily imagined how happy they were at 
 seeing each other, after an absence of six months ; 
 but their happiness was of short duration. Dariie 
 had watched all her movements ; he was therefore 
 enabled to inform her father of the arrival of the 
 
 British officer, and of his visit to Miss Van R . 
 
 This intelligence offended her father the more, 
 as he thought, that she had added duplicity to 
 want of duty ; and, finding her tete a fete with 
 
 her lover, he ordered captain C^ immediately to 
 
 leave the house, and never to enter it again, if he 
 did not wish to be insulted. 
 
 Captain C replied, that his views were ho- 
 nourable, and that his affection for the daughter alone 
 prevented him from resenting the insults of the 
 father ; but, sure of her love and sincerity, he would 
 go back to his country antil peace took place, when 
 
 he hoped that citizen Van R 's prejudices would 
 
 be removed, and the obstacles to their mutual hap- 
 piness no longer exist. After speaking thus, with- 
 out waiting for an answer, he withdrew. 
 
 Dariie, hearing of his rival's success and assurance, 
 did every thing in his power to prejudice the father 
 against the child, and, by repeated insinuations and 
 indirect attacks on his vanity and patriotism, at last 
 obtained his promise of his daughter's hand. 
 
164 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 One morning, Maria was called into her father's 
 room. She found Dariie by his side. He said, that by 
 commanding her to consider Darlie as her husband, 
 he did not violate the promise which he had made 
 her before, but merely retaliated, as she had without 
 his knowledge, and contrary to her duty, kept up a 
 correspondence, and had interviews with captain 
 
 C . To-morrow, therefore, Maria, you must 
 
 become the wife of citizen Dariie. 
 
 She was at first thunderstruck with this sudden 
 and unexpected command, and could not speak a 
 word ; but at last a flood of tears restored her voice, 
 and she applied both to the tenderness of her fa- 
 ther, and to the generosity of Darlie, not to be made 
 wretched for life. Dariie bowed, and said nothing; 
 
 but Van R replied, that he was inflexible. 
 
 They both immediately quitted the room, where the 
 abbess found poor Maria in a swoon. 
 
 The abbess, in the afternoon, had some conver- 
 sation with Van R- -, during which she repre- 
 sented to him, that his daughter's marriage with 
 Dariie would deprive herj either of her reason or 
 life, and requested at least a short delay ; but he told 
 her that every thing was arranged ; the next morn^ 
 ing Maria was to be married, and would in the 
 evening set out for France with her husband, whose 
 regiment was ordered to La Vendee. The abbess 
 was not permitted even to accompany her young 
 friend. 
 
 Eight months afterwards, citizen Van R re- 
 ceived a letter from a Dutch officer of the Batavian 
 legion, in the French service, then at Nantes, in- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 165 
 
 forming him, that his daughter was shut up in a mad 
 house, being deserted by Dariie, who had a former 
 wife and four children. He desired him to come 
 himself, or to send some confidential person, as his 
 child was not only exposed to ill-treatment but to 
 want. The unfortunate parent, attended by the 
 abbess, in three weeks afterwards arrived at Nantes, 
 but Mai'ia knew neither of them. From the agita- 
 tion of his mind, and perhaps reproaches of his 
 
 conscience. Van R was seized with a fever, 
 
 and expired raving two days after his arrival. The 
 chai'ge of Maiia then, according to her father's will, 
 devolved on the abbess, who in a few wrecks carried 
 her to Paris. There the best possible advice was 
 obtained ; and though she was not perfectly cured, 
 she at intervals so much recovered her reason, as to 
 know her friends, and to be at liberty without either 
 danger to herself or to society. I 
 
 Maria now resides with the abbess in a house in 
 the country, not far distant from this city. Her 
 principal occupation is to write letters to captain 
 
 C , to apologize for her marriage with Dariie, 
 
 and for her father, for having forced her to such 
 a union, and to request him always tp remember 
 her as an affectionate friend, but never to think of her 
 as a wife, The abbess, from whom I heard what i 
 have narrated in this letter, informed me that Dariie 
 
 had been killed in La Vendee, and that captain C 
 
 was now married, and had retired from the service. 
 She put a bundle of Maria's letters into my hands. 
 It is impossible to peruse them, without feeling ab- 
 horrence for the villain who was the cause of her 
 
166 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 troubles, and without sincerely pitying this victim 
 of filial duty and French treachery. 
 
 Maria is only in her twenty-eighth year ; her 
 countenance is handsome and pleasing, melancholy, 
 but interesting. During the three days I was in 
 her company, she attempted to smile once only. 
 The gloom and torpor of her soul seems to be so 
 fixed, so naturalized, that, I am sure, any effort 
 to break through the cloud would either make her 
 raving or kill her. She is now seemingly calm, 
 and generally silent, except when she can meet with 
 some person, whom she judges will listen with com- 
 plaisance to her mournful tale. I heard it over 
 twice, and she began it a third time, when, on re- 
 collecting herself, she said, *^ Good God ! how for- 
 getful I am, and how kind you are. Have I not 
 told you every thing before, and nevertheless you 
 have patience to be attentive, and show yo\irself 
 commiserating. May heaven reward you, and may 
 you meet with a girl as faithful, but more fortunate, 
 than poor Maria Van R — ." 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 1157 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 Hague^ May, 1804, 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I ARRIVED here in the midst of the fair, 
 which is the carnival of the Hollanders. All those 
 who like gaiety, or are fond of shows, who have 
 money to spend, fine clothes to exhibit, or beauty 
 to boast of, assemble and parade about here, stare, 
 and are stared at ; and, after having for some days 
 wandered round the same circle of idleness and dis- 
 sipation, return home, probably dissatisfied with 
 themselves, leaving behind them not only their 
 money, but often their virtue, innocence and 
 health. 
 
 It is an ancient custom among the people of this 
 republic to form what they call fair-parties. Whole 
 families, and frequently whole villages, set out at the 
 same time. They communicate to each other what 
 sums they intend to spend, how much is requisite 
 to purchase necessaries, or what to be squan- 
 dered in finery. Those parties whose local situ- 
 ations do not allow them to come in their painted 
 and gaudy waggons, hire vessels or whole trekschuits 
 to themselves', where they sing, make a noise, and 
 are often entertained by wandering fiddlers, or music 
 grinders, whom they hire for this occasion. All are 
 decked out in their holiday clothes, and ornamented 
 with their most valuable trinkets. The middling 
 
158 THi: BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 and lower classes bring their provisions with them, 
 lodge and eat in mess in their boats, vessels, or in 
 some petty public houses. Those of the higher 
 ranks fill all the principal inns, provided they have 
 no relations or friends to whose houses they are invit- 
 ed, and who, in their turn, revisit them during the 
 fairs held in the vicinity of their residence. 
 
 Since I was last at the Hague fair, it has lost much 
 of its native crowd, and foreigners, from Germany, 
 but principally from France and Flanders, have taken 
 their place both among the buyers and sellers* 
 Nearly one half of the stalls at the present fair 
 occupied by German, French and Flemish shop- 
 keepers, merchants, jewellers, goldsmiths, puppet- 
 shows, pastry-cooks, rope-dancers, milliners, moun- 
 tebanks, fortune-tellers, distillers, quacks, dealers in 
 liquors and in drugs, &c. 
 
 The Dutch are generally an economical as well as 
 a regular people; but, as they seldom give much 
 time to pleasure, when they resolve on any carou- 
 sals or entertainments, they never consider the ex- 
 pense, and catch at every thing within their reach. 
 These foreign adventurers, therefore, collect large 
 sums of money, and lay an indirect contribution 
 on the modern citizens of this republic, entirely un- 
 known to their forefathers, it being formerly severe- 
 ly prohibited to expose any allurements to encourage 
 extravagance, and it required many formalities before 
 the magistrates would suffer foreigners thus to in- 
 trude themselves, even when they were real trades- 
 men and honest dealers. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 169 
 
 Besides the foreigners established in the fair, two 
 parties of French and one of German strolling play- 
 ers give daily representations on their theatres, and 
 some pretended French artists, of the Theatre Fey- 
 deau at Paris, have their concerts every night. 
 Here are also Panoramas of London, Paris, Rome, 
 and St. Petersburgh, with invisible girls, and visible 
 ghosts and devils. A conjurer of the name of 
 Mai'tin from Paris, permits you for a florin to call 
 from their celestial or infernal habitations any de- 
 parted friends or acquaintances, to^ee and converse 
 with them as when alive, to question them about 
 the affairs of this world, and to receive their answers 
 concerning their occupations in another, but you 
 cannot touch them. I have not been curious enough 
 to spare half an hour to be convinced how far the 
 above promises of his handbills are true or false. 
 
 Of the fortune-tellers, two take up their lodgings 
 in the midst of the fair ; and a third, who has more 
 penetration into futurity, or who, at least, demands 
 more for her predictions, occupies an elegant suit of 
 apartments in a private house. The former receive 
 no more than a Dutch skilling, (six -pence) but a 
 dollar is the price of the third, who, I am told, has 
 numerous visitors of fashion of both sexes. Her re- 
 nown increases, while her humble rivals seem to be 
 deserted by all their customers. She is said to have 
 revealed to the wife of one of the Batavian directors 
 a secret, known to no one but her deceased mother; 
 and to have not only predicted to the Batavian ad- 
 miral Verhuel, his future grandeur, but also to have 
 informed him of the contents of dispatches he had 
 
 Y 
 
170 ' THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 just received from Buonaparte, and had not shown to 
 any one. At Amsterdam where she constantly 
 resides, she is said to be often consulted by under- 
 writers and insurers, before they sign any policies 
 for insuring ships against tempests, and dwellings 
 against fire. Her trade is therefore so profitable, 
 that she is enabled to keep her carriage and servants, 
 and to distribute large sums among the poor, whose 
 fortunes she tells gratis. She is a Flemish woman, 
 supposed to be about thirty. 
 
 Young persons who think of forming a matrimo- 
 nial connexion, are among her regular customers ; 
 and she is said to have advanced the interests of 
 more than one lover, and to have made more than 
 one mistress happy. That she is inaccessible to 
 bribes is positively asserted, though the following 
 circumstance would seem to warrant a contrary 
 opinion. 
 
 A Dutch heiress, whose father had been a mer- 
 chant at Amsterdam, was courted by several of her 
 own countrymen, and by a Frenchman, a clerk in 
 the counting-house of one of her relations. She 
 was much inclined to bestow her hand on a Batavian 
 naval officer ; but, according to the advice of an 
 old maiden aunt, she went previously to consult 
 the Flemish prophetess. This woman, after cor- 
 rectly delineating the portraits of all the lady's suit- 
 ors, and giving the characters of some, said, that the 
 officer was worthy of her, if she desired shortly to be 
 a widow, as it was his fate to be drowned before the 
 end of the year; but the lover destined to make you 
 perfectly happy, will meet you just as you are re- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 171 
 
 turning to your house, show you a letter on busmess, 
 sigh, but never utter a word about love. If you do 
 not marry either him or the Batavian officer, you will 
 become the wife of a third, a brutal character, with 
 whom you will experience all the miseries of matri- 
 mony. 
 
 Ruminating in her own mind on the predictions 
 of the prophetess, she was just entering the house, 
 when the Frenchman presented her a letter from one 
 of her relations, concerning some money transac- 
 tions. In this coincidence she thought that she 
 read her fate, and within a week became the wife of 
 the Frenchman, who, as his disappointed rivals say, 
 had previously settled every thing with the pro- 
 phetess, and who, after his marriage, under pretence 
 of making her a present of one thousand ducats for 
 procuring him such an amiable pai'tner paid her the 
 sum promised her for her assistance. It is singu- 
 lar enough that the Batavian officer was, as she had 
 foretold, some few months afterwards drowned in 
 the Texel. 
 
 I give you this anecdote as I received it. My 
 narrator was a Dutch lady who had much confi- 
 dence in this prophetess, whom no doubt she had 
 more than once consulted. So that even in this en- 
 lightened age imposition and credulity go hand in 
 hand, and the dupes are still more numerous than 
 the deceivers. 
 
172 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XXXVIIL 
 
 Hague^ May^ 1804. 
 UY LORD, 
 
 THOUGH criminal executions occur oftener 
 now than formerly in the Batavian commonwealth, 
 they are few when compared with those of other 
 countries. The custom of executing during the fair 
 all those sentenced to capital punishments, is judi- 
 cious, wise and political. It is a salutary warning to 
 the number of adventurers and vagabonds who as- 
 semble here during that period, when the temptations 
 of dissipation allure so powerfully to vice, and induce 
 to the perpetration of crimes. 
 
 Except persons condemned for state crimes, who 
 are beheaded, hanging is here the mode of inflicting 
 capital punishments. A temporary gallows, much 
 higher than I have seen in any other country, is 
 erected, and the criminal, usually blindfolded, as- 
 cends with the executioner on a double ladder with 
 the halter round his neck ; when at the top of the 
 ladder, the halter is fastened to a hook, and the cri- 
 minal pushed oflf and launched into eternity. No 
 more than one is executed at the same instant; the 
 others, if any, pass their time at the foot of the lad- 
 der in prayer, until their turns come. 
 
 The sufiercrs during this fair amounted to six . 
 two Flemish, one German, one Dutchman, one 
 Irishman and one Frenchman. Of these the German 
 
THE BFXGIAN TRAVELLER. 173 
 
 and Irishman were assassins ; the others were rob- 
 bers or housebreakers. It is generally the custom 
 to dispatch the most repentant first and the most ob- 
 durate last. All the criminals seemed resigned and 
 repentant except the Frenchman, who scandalized 
 every one by his obduracy. While the others were 
 praying, he was either whistling revolutionary tunes, 
 or singing the most profligate songs. The Dutch- 
 man, who was the fd'th executed, instead of display- 
 ing the firmness of those who had preceded him, 
 fainted away several times on the ladder, and was 
 almost canied to its top by the hangman. In the 
 mean time the Frenchman was cursing him for de- 
 laying his journey, as he said, and reproached even 
 Jack Ketch for his Dutch phlegm. Being at last 
 ordered to mount the ladder in his turn, he kicked 
 down the priest, who admonished him to repent, 
 refused to be blindfolded, and when on the top of the 
 ladder, just as he was going to be launched off, he 
 spit in the Dutchman's face, and d — d him for his 
 cowardice. 
 
 The Dutchman was a rich farmer, and left behind 
 him above one hundred thousand florins in property. 
 Avarice was his chief passion ; and, though he was 
 fond of the sex, he had never married for fear of 
 having children. One Sunday, while at church, 
 some persons entered his house, and carried away 
 two sacks of one thousand florins each, concealed in 
 his bed-room. This loss preyed upon his mind and 
 made him very melancholy. One of his servant- 
 girls, who pitied his situation, endeavoured to con- 
 sole him ; encouraged with what he thought her ad- 
 
274 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 vances, he attempted to seduce her, and to succeed 
 promised her marriage. 
 
 On their first intimacy, he told her that he could 
 never be happy until he had recovered his loss, and 
 that he knew one of his neighbours who had just re- 
 ceived the same sum as an inheritance from a bro- 
 ther. He, therefore, desired her, as a proof of her 
 affection, to keep watch on the following Sunday, 
 when he purposed to possess himself of the money, 
 to prevent his being surprised. She complied ; but 
 some time after, finding herself pregnant by him she 
 requested him to fulfil his promise of marrying her, 
 which he not only absolutely refused to do, but 
 turned her out of his house. This treatment occa- 
 sioned a miscarriage, which was followed by a fever. 
 When told that her end was near, she sent for a cler- 
 ^^man, and made known the crimes of her seducer, 
 as well as her own culpability ; soon after which she 
 expired. 
 
 The clergyman, from conscientious motives, gave 
 information to the magistrates, and the Dutchman 
 was taken up, tried and convicted, the bags with his 
 neighbour's mark having been found in his house. 
 While under condemnation, he was offered, for the 
 sum of five thousand florins, to be taken from prison, 
 and rendered secure of his life. This he refused, 
 but offered five hundred. Two days before his exe- 
 cution a French officer called upon him, and pro- 
 mised him his release upon his assigning half of his 
 wealth to his deliverers ; but he continued obstinate, 
 declaring that he was determined to die a rich man, 
 whether in his bed or on the gallows. On tlie morn- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 175 
 
 ing of his punishment, however, he sent to the offi- 
 cer, and assented to his former demand, but then it 
 was too late. From what I witnessed of the last mo- 
 ments of this man, I presume that death is more 
 terrible to the avaricious than to any other descrip- 
 tion of men. 
 
 On expressing to a Dutchman my surprise at see- 
 ing a Frenchman executed for robbery, in a country 
 where Frenchmen were the masters, and where so 
 many French murderers had escaped with impunity, 
 he said, " Softly, Sir! this criminal was a fool; he 
 robbed a commissary, one of his own countrymen. 
 Had he robbed, and even assassinated a Dutchman, 
 his impunity would have been certain." 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 Hague^ May, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE French ambassador here, M. de Simon- 
 ville, has been exceedingly civil to me, not only in 
 desiring me to consider myself as at home with him, 
 but by introducing mc to all the other members of 
 the foreign diplomatic corps, as well as to the direc- 
 torial sovereigns of the United States. 
 
 It is astonishing how pliable French revolutionists 
 are, and how easily they renounce and forget their 
 
176 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 former principles and past professions. You cannot 
 but remember this same de Simonville (who at the 
 commencement of the revokition was a counsellor 
 of parliament, deeply involved in debt, and of profli- 
 gate manners) as one of the most violent panegyrists 
 of the rights of man, and of all the horrours that 
 marked the French revolution from its dawn. He 
 was first employed by the jacobin propaganda as an 
 obscure emissary, but afterwards in an official capa- 
 city by jacobin ministers, to stir up rebellion in 
 Italy. Even Robespierre's committee of public safe- 
 ty appointed him an ambassador to the Ottoman 
 Porte ; but his progress towards the cast was imped- 
 ed by Austrian hussars, who arrested him, and cap- 
 tured the spoils of the French monarchy, w ith which 
 he was entrusted to bribe the ministers of a Turk- 
 ish sultan to enter into the views of French regi- 
 cides. 
 
 He was one of the prisoners exchanged in De- 
 cember, 1795, by the Emperor of Germany for his 
 cousin, the Princess Royal of France, and continued 
 to worship sacred equality until Buonaparte, after 
 liis usurpation, appointed him a representative to 
 the Batavian republic. Here he has conducted him- 
 self with much prudence, moderation, and liberality, 
 and is esteemed by all parties, by the governed as 
 well as by the government. But he is at present as 
 ardent an admirer of Buonaparte's military despo- 
 tism, as he was formerly of La Fayette's sacred in- 
 surrection, of Condorcet's atheism, of Brissot's re- 
 publicanism, of Marat's sans-culottism, and of 
 Robespierre's equality and guillotine. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 177 
 
 I had yesterday a curious conversation with him. 
 He began with telling me that from our former ac- 
 quaintance, and from the incorporation of my coun- 
 try for near ten years with France, he considered me 
 as an old friend, and not as a new French citizen ; 
 and as he esteemed me, he would speak with me 
 frankly and without disguise. 
 
 " Since I knew you first in 1788," said he, "men 
 and things are much changed. TVe men of talents 
 were then insulted and despised by an ignorant 
 and despicable kind of beings that frequented the 
 antichambers and surrounded the court of Versailles. 
 These insignificant characters have now finished 
 their career ; they are either emigrated or dead. 
 Some of them are still, indeed, the confidential ser- 
 vants of the Bourbons ; but how well the house of 
 Bourbon has been served by these presumptuous 
 and vile intriguers, its exile and its proscription 
 prove. We were all, in the beginning of the revo- 
 lution, more or less duped by sophistry, or struck 
 with the chimera of liberty and equality. All those 
 illusive phantoms have now disappeared; and we 
 are now, from theory and from practice, persuaded, 
 that as some men possess genius while others are 
 fools ; some well informed, while others have hardly 
 common sense ; so it is totally impossible that civi- 
 lized society should receive that benefit, and acquire 
 that degree of prosperity under the government of 
 ideots or fanatics, as under the sovereignty of wis- 
 dom and liberality, I have reflected on the consti- 
 tutional monarchy under Louis XVI. but it carried 
 with it the democratic seeds of destruction, and of 
 
 z 
 
173 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 course it perished. The federal republic of Brissot 
 must always have been torn to pieces by faction 
 and anarchy, its natural offspring. Robespierre's re- 
 public of equality, founded upon the guillotine, 
 was obliged to be supported by that instrument of 
 death y and could not survive the terrour it inspired. 
 The directorial constitution, a medley of monar- 
 chical pageantry and republican sans-culottism, could 
 neither gratify the views, please the vanity, nor satis- 
 fy the ambition of any party; its progress was there- 
 fore impeded by alU by the royalist as well as 
 the republican, by the democrat as well as the de- 
 magogue. 
 
 " Buonaparte's consulate, though more powerful 
 and less exposed to the vicissitudes of factions and 
 innovations, had still to combat prejudices and fana- 
 ticism, vengeance and proffligacy. But the emperor 
 of the French has but few relations to enrich, few 
 favourites to advance, no partisans to prefer, and 
 therefore unbiassed, promotes merit and recom- 
 penses talents^ whether discovered among the lofty 
 aristocrats, or the creeping and cunning democrats. 
 He is the man fixed by destiny to finish the revolu- 
 tion^ He is young and fortunate, and possesses all 
 the qualities to be hailed a deliverer in troublesome 
 times.'* 
 
 " But,'" interrupted I, " what are Buonaparte's 
 claims to supremacy? Some few fortunate cam- 
 paigns, considered by military men as much less 
 brilliant than those of Pichegru and Moreau. 
 These generals are besides accused of no crimes, 
 while it is asserted that Buonaparte drowned his 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 179 
 
 wounded men in Italy, poisoned them in Syria, sold 
 Austrian prisoners on the other side of the Alps, and 
 massacred disarmed Turkish prisoners at Jaffa. 
 
 " All those reproaches, all those accusations," 
 replied M. de Simonville, *' may be true, false or 
 exaggerated, but nevertheless, France has not for 
 these fourteen years past enjoyed so much tran- 
 quillity as since Buonaparte assumed the reins of 
 government- What are the lives of some thousands 
 of individuals, when put into the balance with the 
 happiness of millions of nations? 
 
 *' In the present aera," said I, " a few crimes 
 more or less, are counted as mere trifles, or as no- 
 thing; but it will not be the same with a virtuous, 
 unprejudiced posterity. Its voice will declare that 
 tlie assassin, though ever so highly elevated, or ever 
 so prosperous, is a criminal, and deserves death; 
 and that the subject, who usurps tlie throne of his 
 sovereign, though ever so eminent, is but a rebel, 
 and ought to expire like a traitor. Powerful,'' con- 
 tinuted I, ." as Buonaparte is, would it not have been 
 more glorious for him to be the second than the first 
 person in France; to have recalled Louis XVIIL 
 and said to him, I found the inheritance of your 
 ancestors tormented by anarchy and destroyed by 
 factions; I have banished the one, and dissolved 
 the others ; I might have reigned as a sovereign, but 
 I am contented to be the first of subjects. If such, 
 said I, had been Buonaparte's conduct, his atroci- 
 ties, his drowning in Italy, shooting at Toulon, can- 
 nonading at Paris, poisoning and massacring in Sy- 
 ria, his murder of Enghien and Pichegru, though 
 
180 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 they never could have been forgiven, might have 
 been palUated ; it might then have been said, that he 
 became criminal only to preserve his contemporaries 
 from still greater crimes, from still more enormous 
 evils. Then the name of Napoleon Buonaparte, 
 stained as it is with the blood of innocence, might 
 not have inspired future generations with horrour. 
 Pity, or even admiration, would then have extenu- 
 ated his crimes, because they would have seen in 
 the perpetrator only the misled restorer of his legi- 
 timate sovereign." 
 
 '* I see," said M. de Simonville, '' that you arc 
 still the same obstinate defender of hereditary rank 
 you were sixteen years ago. But you must agree 
 in one thing, that if Buonaparte is not a truly great 
 man, he is the most extraordinary and fortunate one 
 that has appeared upon the earth for fourteen centu* 
 ries. Where can you find in history an instance of 
 an obscure individual, within the period of nine 
 years, having by merit, fortune, plots or crimes, raised 
 himself from an insignificant subject to an unlimit- 
 ed monarch ? Laying aside all just, vulgar, or il- 
 liberal prejudices. Napoleon the First certainly as- 
 tonishes, and may, some centuries hence, be con- 
 sidered as one of those fabulous beings, which we 
 read of with surprise, butof whose existence we are 
 disposed to doubt." 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 181 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 Hague^ May^ 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 AMONG the members of the foreign diplo- 
 matic corps in this place, the Russian ambassador, 
 Count de Stackelberg, and the Swedish ambassador, 
 Count de Lowenhjelm, are certainly the most en- 
 lightened and most respectable. The former, though 
 he never before figured in the diplomatic career, has 
 from his youth evinced those talents that constitute 
 a statesman, and those principles which announce a 
 patriot. The latter has grown old in diplomatic 
 missions. He was the representative of his king to 
 Frederic the Great, when that prince expired ; and 
 though some of his negociations with Frederic Wil- 
 liam II. were not so satisfactory as he wished, he 
 left Berlin neither disgraced nor dishonoured. The 
 difference about the abbey of Quidlinburgh did not 
 deprive him of the confidence of his sovereign, who 
 first sent him to Hamburgh, and afterwards to Hol- 
 land, where, during the most difficult periods, he has 
 served his sovereign without offending the con- 
 ductors of rebellion. 
 
 Here, as well as at Paris, Talleyrand has his male 
 and female emissaries and agents. I have been told 
 
 of a certain Madame de M , who pretends 
 
 to be the widow of a guillotined general, and is by 
 turns associated with commercial smugglers, ancj 
 
182 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 with political intriguers, but constantly seen in the 
 anti- chamber of the Batavian directors, or in the clo- 
 sets of foreign agents. This lady was, however, not 
 so great a character fifteen years ago, when in the 
 boxes of the theatres of the Vaudeville at Paris, she 
 offered her person to any amateur whom she suppo- 
 sed had a louis d'or to spare, or even a crown piece 
 to spend. She afterwards went with the late Baron 
 
 de M to the East Indies, but in bathing he found 
 
 his tomb in the belly of a shark, and Madame de 
 
 M , as she then called herself, was fortunate 
 
 enough to be received into the family of a rich planter 
 at the Isle of France as a governess. Her inoralitij 
 soon, however, produced a divorce between the hus- 
 band and the wife, and while the sons wished to fol- 
 low their mother, the daughters would not consent to 
 leave their father and their governess. The unex- 
 pected death of the planter, however, in a fit of the 
 apoplexy, obliged her to seek another refuge, and 
 an American captain accepted of her as an amanu- 
 ensis, and brought her to the Cape. There he readily 
 resigned her charms to a British officer, who brought 
 her with him to England as a French emigrant lady, 
 
 the widow of Baron de M -, a general under 
 
 Louis XVI. Her tale made but little impression in 
 London, where she could never obtain admittance 
 into the presence of the French princes, nor into the 
 society of the French noblesse. She was not even 
 able to obtain a pension from the English govern- 
 ment, though strongly recommended by her lover, 
 and by several emigrant amateurs, who were almost 
 willing to make an affidavit, that so much beauty 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 133 
 
 and so much intelligence were the exckisive cha- 
 racteristic of a true royalist. Offended and disap- 
 pointed, she went over to Hamburgh, wlicre new ad- 
 ventures were waiting for her. A rich and, of course, 
 respectable merchant, a Mr. B , who was mar- 
 ried to a lovely woman, by whom he had four chil- 
 dren, fell in love, with her, on seeing her for the first 
 time in one of the boxes of the French theatre. He 
 took for her a house at Altona, and settled upon her an 
 annuity of three thousand marks (300/.) ; with him 
 she lived until a certain infamous disease convinced 
 him that he was not the only shai'er of her favours. 
 He then attempted to recover a part of his squan- 
 dered wealth, but in vain. The house and the an- 
 nuity were both disposed of, and with what ready 
 money she obtained for them from a Ham!3urgh Jew, 
 she returned to France. There some of her former 
 female acquaintances, who had become women of 
 fashion, introduced her to Citizen Talleyrand. Af- 
 ter some private conferences with him, she was first 
 sent on a mission to Vienna, whence she was ex- 
 pelled, and afterAvards to Berlin, where she was ca- 
 ressed. Her business in this place is not precisely 
 known, but she is suspected to be a spy of Buona- 
 parte and Talleyrand, both on the Batavian govern- 
 ment and the foreign ministers on mission to it. 
 
 I learned these particulars from a foreign ambas- 
 sador, who, though well acquainted with her morali- 
 ty^ continues to visit, receive, and entertain her, as 
 
 if she really were the Baroness de M . When 
 
 I warned. him to be on his guard, he said, ** after 
 what I have told you of this female intriguer, I 
 
184 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 should be weak indeed were I either to become her 
 dupe, or suffer as her victim. On the contrary, she is 
 serviceable to me without knowing it, because I am 
 too cunning for her." His Excellency must excuse 
 my difference of opinion and want of faith on this 
 subject, until I have read her private correspondence 
 with his Excellency M. Talleyrand. 
 
 LETTER XLL 
 
 Hague, May, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE twelve Batavian Directors, (called here 
 the twelve revolutionary Apostles, and the twelve 
 Stadtholders) all keep open house, and invite all 
 foreigners who are introduced to them by their re- 
 spective ambassadors. Though the temporary presi- 
 dent of the Directory is looked upon as the only one 
 of them who officially is to do the honours of the 
 Republic, all the others have their regular levees, 
 and give their regular dinners, and their ladies have 
 their regular circles, their regular tea parties, and 
 their regular balls. The Batavian ministers also 
 send official cards of invitation, so that a well known 
 foreigner is never at a loss how to amuse himself, 
 and must find his stay here very agreeable. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 185 
 
 The manner of living, though not more splendid 
 than at Amsterdam in the houses of rich merchants, 
 is much more formal, and has some little and indi- 
 rect taint of court etiquette. You are expected to 
 come in full dress, with a sword and a bag ; a kind 
 of master of ceremonies meets you, and introduces 
 you for the first time, and you see the directors and 
 their ladies surrounded, not by valets, properly cal- 
 led, but by half- chamberlains and half-pages, half- 
 ladies in waiting and half- maids of honour ; and every 
 thing indicates that they wait only for permission 
 Trom the court of the Thuilleries to bestow real titles 
 on those that perform the real offices of the court 
 valetaille, I have some reason to fear, however, that 
 if Buonaparte intends to organise courtly pomp, 
 courtly sovereignty, and courtly servitude in this 
 place, it will not take place until he has collected into 
 a folio volume the present duodecimo volumes of the 
 Directory. His pride will not at present permit such 
 an extensive fraternization, particularly with indir 
 viduals whom he considers in no other light, and 
 even despises, as Batavian shop-keepers. 
 
 Of the Batavian Directors, only two, Citizens 
 Brantsen and Bicker, are in some favour with Buo- 
 naparte, who more than once has said that of all the 
 citizens of the Batavian commonwealth, there were 
 but five worthy of his notice. Besides the above Di- 
 rectors it is believed here that Admiral Verheul, 
 the Secretary of State Vander Goes, and the Am- 
 bassador Schimmelpenninck, possess his good 
 opinion, 
 
 A a 
 
186 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 His discontent with the majority of the Directors 
 originates from many causes. During the last peace 
 they did not evince sufficient obedience, nor since 
 the present war sufficient vigour; that is to say, 
 they proved themselves patriotic enough to endea- 
 vour, during the former period, to repair, by salu- 
 tary commercial laws, past losses, and during the 
 latter have been so courageous as to resist those 
 dictates of France which, if obeyed, would have 
 produced the ruin of Holland. In peace they traded 
 with England, contrary to Buonaparte's command, 
 as before the revolution, and during the present 
 contest, into which they were forced against their 
 interest and inclination, they offered to act as allies 
 of the French government to the full extent of ex- 
 isting treaties, but refused to espouse the unbecom- 
 ing passions of its chief; to act like generous foes, 
 but not use the weapons of calumny, of abuse 
 and insult, against a nation whom they were unable 
 to attack in any other way. 
 
 This honourable spirit of tlie Directory Buona- 
 parte calls the spirit of shopkeepers, " a vile race 
 wJtovi he has sworn to exterminate,''^ as I heard one 
 of his generals express himself. He also accuses 
 several of the Directors of being friendly to Great 
 Britain, as secrely the protectors of British trade 
 with Holland, and insurers against the consequences 
 of their own public prohibitory laws against all com- 
 mercial intercourse with the British empire. But 
 all these accusations are as absurd as unfounded. 
 None of the present Directors have been engaged 
 iti trade, and all of them are citizens of large pro- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 187 
 
 perty, or possessed of a comfortable independence ; 
 most of them have been educated for the bar, some 
 have served in the army or navy, but none of them 
 were ever brought up to commercial pursuits. Of 
 this truth Talleyrand, at least, must have been in- 
 formed by his spies, who also could have told him, 
 that the money which some of the Directors, previ- 
 ous to their present elevation, had in the English 
 funds, was withdrawn as soon as it was evident 
 there would be a rupture between France and Great 
 Britain; yet they have been more than once unjust- 
 ly reproached with having their capitals in England; 
 an accusation which has even been repeated in the 
 French newspapers. But were it so, has not Talley- 
 rand himself, with some of the members of the Buo- 
 naparte family, and many of Buonaparte's generals 
 and public functionaries, large capitals placed in 
 England under fictitious names? and can it be more 
 criminal in Batavian citizens than in Buonaparte's 
 subjects, to lay out their money in a manner they 
 think safest and most advantageous? But when 
 revolutionary rulers are bent upon chicaneiy, they 
 are never over delicate as to the means they employ 
 to injure the characters of those they hate or wish to 
 remove or proscribe. 
 
 Though I do not approve of the general conduct 
 of the Directory, nor of the personal conduct of 
 some of the Directors, yet I must do them the jus- 
 tice to say, that they are all well intentioned, and 
 have the honour of their country, and the welfare of 
 their fellow citizens at heart. But their situation is 
 always delicate, and often very critical. They ar^ 
 
188 IHE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 hot only in duty bound to serve their country to the 
 "Utmost of their abilities, but in doing so, they are 
 compelled to be very attentive not to give offence, 
 nor hurt the pride, vanity, or interest of a capricious 
 and revengeful ally. With the best disposition they 
 have not always the means and the power, at the 
 same time, to preserve their countrymen from op- 
 pression and to please Buonaparte 
 
 I have written on this subject more than I at first 
 intended; but hearing the frequent complaints and 
 €ven threats of our ambassador, De Simonville, and 
 reading many illiberal and unjust attacks on the pre- 
 sent government of this country in public journals, 
 I have thought it not amiss to furnish you with some 
 remarks made on the spot, from which you may 
 draw your conclusions. 
 
 LETTER XLIL 
 
 Hague^ Junr, 1804. 
 
 UY LORD, 
 
 THE assumption of imperial rank by Buona- 
 pjtrte, has been officially announced by his ambassa- 
 dor in delivering his new credentials. The ostenta- 
 tion and show displayed on this occasion, though 
 commanded at Paris, excited verv different sensa- 
 tions here from what was expected in France. It 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 189 
 
 displeased the partizans of the house of Orange, and 
 alarmed and offended the patriotic faction of Anti-* 
 Orangists. The former murmured in silence, but 
 the latter exclaimed aloud that it was intended as a 
 direct insult to their avowed principles of republi- 
 canism and equality, and an indirect hint that the day 
 was not very distant when hereditary sovereignty and 
 its pageantry would in Holland make every friend of 
 liberty regret even the government of a Stadtholder. 
 I even heard on the parade some Batavian officers 
 make use of much stronger expressions, cursing the 
 fickleness, duplicity, and treachery of the French na- 
 tion, as well as the outrageous ambition of its up- 
 start emperor. But all this discontent, these regrets 
 and disappointments, though they prove the spirit of 
 the parties, avail nothing, and I fear will not stop Buo- 
 naparte's progress towards universal sovereignty on 
 the continent. 
 
 I dined this day at a bankers, Citizen Molliere's ; 
 several staunch and ardent patriots were of the party, 
 who were completely cast down, and sighed more 
 than they spoke. They seemed to be ashamed of 
 having been so long the dupes of French artifice, 
 and of French adherents and pensioners in this coun- 
 try, who, under the mask of patriotism, have misled 
 and betrayed them. They now see too late, that these 
 noisy orators, these over- zealous friends of liber- 
 ty, (when liberty was in no danger) these pretended 
 defenders of the rights of the people, were the base 
 instruments employed by the sworn enemies of their 
 country, and of the freedom of mankind, to enslave, 
 plunder, and oppress them. I wish the disaffected 
 
190 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 of other countries, the dupes of traitors and in- 
 triguers, had witnessed what I saw, and listened to 
 what I heard on this day, they would have been con- 
 vinced that the mask of patriotism is oftener assumed 
 than true patriotism displayed, and that it is often 
 worn by the spy, by the emissary, by the slave, and 
 by the tyrant. 
 
 What will become of our unfortunate country half 
 a century hence ? exclaimed one citizen of the 
 party with a sigh ; will it like Venice be a province 
 of a despotic monarchy, or like Geneva form a de- 
 partment of a revolutionary empire ? Are our chil- 
 dren and grand- children to be the subjects of the 
 house of Brandenburgh, or the slaves of the Buona- 
 partean dynasty ? Will not even in our days the Ba- 
 tavian commonwealth be erased, like Poland, from 
 among the independent states of Europe ? My 
 friend, interrupted another citizen, we shall not, I 
 think, have the misfortune to live long enough to 
 witness the dissolution of Holland ; but we shall en- 
 dure what is worse, the misery of witnessing its long 
 agony before it expires, and in the sorrow of our 
 hearts even wish for a release by death from the cruel 
 circumstances of our times, to relieve which no 
 remedy is to be found. Our colonies in the East 
 and West Indies must prolong this agony, until ei- 
 ther France obtains a superior navy, or English per- 
 severance and power reduces France within her for- 
 mer limits. In the former case we shall be French- 
 men, and in the latter case Prussians, because with- 
 out the assistance of Prussia the continent can never 
 be delivered from the French yoke, and without HoU 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 191 
 
 land as an indemnity for its succour, Prussia will 
 never unite against France. Had we ten years ago 
 sacrificed a tenth part of that wealth to support the 
 Stadt holder, which has since been extorted from us 
 to enrich foreign oppressors ; had we been unani- 
 mous in our obedience to a government under which 
 our forefathers and our country had prospered for 
 ages, we should not at present have to mourn the 
 loss of liberty, of independence, of trade, of pros- 
 perity, and of all the other blessings, the remem- 
 brance of which is alone sufficient to rend the heart 
 of every truly patriotic bosom. 
 
 I have but imperfectly delineated the sentiments 
 expressed by these Batavian patriots. But this tardy 
 amende honorable deserves a place, not only in a 
 letter, but in the pages of history. For the patriots 
 of our days are generally as incorrigible as incon- 
 sistent. He who once admired Mirabeau and La 
 Fayette, does not think it a disgrace to have since 
 been an admirer of Brissot, Marat, Robespierre, Tal- 
 lien, Rewbel, Merlin, and Barras, and at present to 
 be an unblushtng partizan of Buonaparte, though 
 each of them have acted upon and professed princi- 
 ples diametrically opposite, and all more or less have 
 encroached upon the rights and the liberties of their 
 contemporaries, until the present revolutionary ruler 
 has given the death blow both to the prerogatives of 
 sovereigns, and to the privileges and freedom of 
 subjects. 
 
I 
 1 92 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 Hague, June, 1804. 
 MY LOUD, 
 
 I HAVE been this morning to take a ride with 
 a foreign ambassador in the beautiful wood in this 
 neighbourhood, where, before the revolution, the 
 Prince of Orange had a country residence. In this 
 house, where formerly counsellors debated, ambas- 
 sadors negotiated, intriguers plotted, deputies re- 
 monstrated, and courtiers bowed, coifee is now sold, 
 wine bought, liquors ordered, and tobacco smoked. 
 It is transformed into a coifee -house, kept by a man 
 who, after several bankruptcies, found himself rich 
 enough to purchase this property of his prince, and 
 debased enough to pollute this habitation of so many 
 great men, of so many valliant warriors, and able ple- 
 nipotentiaries. 
 
 We were joined during our ride by a lady about 
 twenty-five, handsome in her person, and agreeable in 
 her conversation. She was followed by two servants 
 on horseback, and an officer in French regimentals 
 rode by her side. I remarked that my friend was 
 not much pleased with this company, and therefore 
 proposed to him to return home, where I pretended 
 business called me. 
 
 *' I am always so unfortunate," said he, when we 
 were alone, '* as to be pursued by this fury. She 
 haunts all my steps, and watches all my movements, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 1^3 
 
 notwithstanding that I more than once have been 
 under the necessity of letting her know that her as- 
 siduities were troublesome." Few people, inter- 
 rupted I, w buld be so difficult, or of your opinion. 
 The lady has a most charming countenance, and 
 from the little she said, I judge she does not want 
 for talents. Is she a political intriguer, or only a 
 gallant adventurer ? " She is neither," replied my 
 friend, *' but she is worse than both. Being so well 
 known, and so justly shunned, it is surprising that 
 she still continues to reside here. Though her face 
 and her countenance bespeak tenderness and sensi- 
 bilit}% her heart is equally cruel and unfeeling. Young 
 as she is, she has already assassinated, or caused the 
 death of six persons." 
 
 Upon further inquiry, I was informed that her fa- 
 ther was Marquis de T , and that she was born 
 
 in Champaign. During Robespierre's reign her 
 parents were guillotined, and she was left an orphan 
 at the age of fourteen. When her patrimonial pro- 
 perty, two years afterwards, was restored to her, 
 several of her neighbours paid their addresses to her, 
 but they were all soon disgusted by her coquetry. 
 Among them were two brothers, the Marquis and 
 
 Chevalier de C n; but as they experienced 
 
 the same treatment which had driven away her other 
 suitors, they also relinquished the pursuit, and the 
 Chevalier in a short time married a poor but amia- 
 ble woman, who made him perfectly happy. Whe- 
 ther she really had an aflPection for him, or that her 
 pride was hurt by the sudden preference he gave to 
 another, she resolved to revenge herself upon his 
 
 B b 
 
194 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 wife. To be enabled, without incurring suspiciort, 
 to live with her upon an intimate footing, she married 
 
 the Marquis de C n, for whom she previously 
 
 had declared a most decided aversion. 
 
 Within twelve months after the marriage, the 
 wife of the Chevalier was delivered of twins ; she 
 had almost recovered from her accouchement^ when 
 she suddenly expired in convulsions, and the Mar- 
 chioness took care to keep the Chevalier out of the 
 way until his wife was buried. It is said, that about 
 this time she declared a passion for him, but did not 
 meet with that encouragement which she expected. 
 Not discouraged, however, she resolved to break, 
 another barrier, which she thought produced the re- 
 serve of the Chevalier. While she was on a visit to 
 a friend, her husband died as suddenly, and, as it af- 
 terwards appeared, in the same manner as her sis- 
 ter-in-law. On her return home she ordered him to 
 be buried immediately, without any further inquiry. 
 
 Being now free of all engagements, she wrote to 
 the Chevalier, inviting him with his children to her 
 house. Though he had no suspicion of her atrocity, 
 he accepted her invitation, as he wrote to a friend, 
 with great reluctance ; he would even have declined 
 it, had not his poverty and the interest of his chil- 
 dren prevailed over all other considerations. At first 
 she seemed to have forgotten her former sentiments 
 respecting him ; but at last she oftercd him her hand 
 and fortune, as soon as decency would permit it. 
 His circumstances and his children again induced 
 him to new sacrifices; and their union was fixed^ 
 and every thing settled according to his wishes. An- 
 nuities were secured to his children by lais first mar- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. . 195 
 
 riage, in case he should have any by his second wife ; 
 otherwise the whole fortune of the Marchioness was 
 to devolve on them. 
 
 The Marchioness had in the mean time taken and 
 fitted up at Paris a large hotel, whither she asked 
 the Chevalier to accompany her. Her pretended 
 reason was the celebration of their nuptials. Her 
 r>eal motive, however, for leaving the country, was 
 her fears, lest the crime which she meditated against 
 the children of the Chevalier might occasign more 
 suspicion there than in the capital. 
 
 She knew the human heart too well, and was too 
 attentive to the conduct of the Chevalier, not to see 
 tliat his professions of reciprocal affection were forc- 
 ed and not natural. But she mistook the cause and 
 tlie object, in supposing that all his tenderness was 
 concentrated in his children, and that were it not for 
 them he might return her love more warmly and 
 more sincerely. 
 
 Before they set out for Paris, she persuaded the 
 Chevalier to put the children out to nurse near that 
 city, with a sister of her favourite maid, where they 
 would be taken better care of than any where else. 
 The day was already fixed for their marriage, and 
 great preparations had been made to celebrate it with 
 splendour, when a messenger arrived with the dole- 
 ful news, that, during a momentary absence of their 
 nurse, the children had eaten a cake of arsenic pre- 
 pared for rats, and had expired in some few hours 
 afterwards. 
 
 The object of the Marchioness in having the chil- 
 dren murdered before her marriage, was to see whe- 
 
196 TOE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ther their death would make any alteration in the af- 
 fection of their father for her ; she had determined 
 that if, after some months had elapsed, he should 
 continue the same, she would punish him for his 
 want of sensibility and gratitude. 
 
 The untimely death of his children caused the 
 Chevalier a lingering fit of sickness, which obliged 
 his marriage to be deferred, and, by the advice of 
 the faculty, he took a journey into the country. 
 When there, the Marchioness continued his con- 
 stant attendant and indefatigable nurse. She re- 
 marked, however, that her presence was not only 
 disagreeable, but often undesirable. After a dissimu- 
 lation for some weeks on both sides, the Chevalier at 
 last told her, that he did not think himself worthy of 
 her, as he was afraid that he should not make her sa 
 happy as she merited. The loss of his wife, of his 
 children, and of his brother, had rendered his life 
 almost insupportable, and that, therefore, he had re- 
 solved in a week to join the army of Conde, and, in 
 the ranks of the brave and loyal, find an end to all 
 his misery. 
 
 The Marchioness made no objections to the dis- 
 solution of a contract, which she more than once 
 had said constituted the felicity of her life. On the 
 contrary, she entered into it with much seeming ar- 
 dour. She fitted him out for his journey in a man- 
 ner suitable to her rank, and honourable to her 
 friendship. She even procured him from a banker 
 at Paris a letter of credit for a sum much exceeding 
 his most sanguine expectations of subsistence in a 
 foreign country. These acts of kindness the Che- 
 
> THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 197 
 
 valier acknowledged with a gratitude that perhaps 
 revived the former affection of the Marchioness, and 
 hastened his death. 
 
 / The day before his departure, after he had bid 
 adieu to all their neighbours, the Marchioness de- 
 sired to pass the evening alone with him, and there- 
 fore ordered herself to be denied to every one, and 
 upon any inquiries after the Chevalier to answer that 
 he had gone. What their conversation was after 
 dinner is not known, but in pretending to caress him 
 she stabbed him tliiough the heart Vvith a stiletto, 
 stopped the wound with tinder, and when the ser- 
 vants were retired to bed, with the assistance of her 
 maid buried his corps in the garden. On the next 
 morning it was given out that the Chevalier, to 
 avoid bidding farewell, had left the house and began 
 his journey before any body was up. 
 
 Whether this story was not believed, or some 
 other suspicious circumstances had appeared, the 
 justice of peace of the district, upon a rumour that 
 the Chevalier had been murdered, made a domi- 
 ciliary visit. After a long and ineiFectual search, 
 the barking and scratching of a dog in the garden, 
 discovered the spot where the corps had been depo^ 
 sited. As it could not have been carried there by a 
 single person, all the male servants wxre carried to 
 prison, and the mistress and female servants were 
 put in a state of arrest in the house. 
 
 The maid who had assisted her mistress in bury- 
 ing the Chevalier, was a young woman vdiom the 
 Marchioness had by threats and bribes induced to 
 perpetrate most if not all her atrocities. She had 
 
198 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 administered the poison to the wife of the Chevalier, 
 to the Marquis, and to the two infants, and she was 
 not yet twenty. 
 
 During the interrogatories of the senants nothing 
 appeared either to excite suspicion or to inculpate- 
 their mistress ; but the contradictory answers of the 
 maid, caused her to be imprisoned in the country 
 jaiL There slie was visited by the Marchioness, 
 who advised her to avow herself the murderer of the 
 Chevalier, and to declare at the same time, that an 
 attack on her virtue had forced her to become an 
 assassin, and that she had buried him without any 
 other assistance. She was promised impunity, if she 
 followed the advice of her mistress, even if she w^as 
 condemned, and a pension for the remainder of 
 her days. 
 
 Having acknowledged her crime, but being unable 
 to prove the necessity of self-defence, the criminal 
 tribunal sentenced her to be guillotined. It is a no- 
 torious fact, that in France, since the revolution, 
 neai'ly as many criminals have escaped the punish- 
 ment due to their violation of the laws, as innocent 
 persons have suffered from the inefficacy of protec- 
 tion from the same laws. The maid was therefore 
 not terrified by the sentence pronounced against her. 
 She had the promise of her mistress, and knew that 
 she possessed means, in that coiTupted country, to 
 set her at liberty. In her prison she was, however, 
 attended by a clergyman, but even his exhortations 
 to confess and repent were ineffectual until the morn- 
 ing fixed for her execution. She then avowed all 
 her own enormities, and the sh^rc which her mistress 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 199 
 
 had in them ; she died resigned, accusing the Mar- 
 chioness as the cause of her untimely end. 
 
 The confession of the maid, which had been 
 signed by her, and the attestation of the clergyman, 
 occasioned a mandate of arrest to be issued against 
 the Marchioness, who was tried, but for want of 
 sufficient evidence against her, was acquitted. She 
 then sold her property, placed her money in foreign 
 funds, and arrived here, where she had the adroit- 
 ness to procure an introduction into the first socie- 
 ties. But a young conscript of her department hap- 
 pening to be quartered here, published the reason of 
 her voluntary exile from France, which was confirm- 
 ed by a printed proccs verbal^ which I have perused, 
 and find it, upon the whole, corresponding with the 
 information I had received. 
 
 I dined the other day at the house of the Director 
 Van Hoogstraten, in company with the Batavian 
 Admiral Verhuel. I never saw a more impertinent 
 upstart officer, nor a more intolerable military gas- 
 conader. Before the revolution he was master of a 
 merchant ship, and was afterwards made a lieutenant 
 in the Batavian navy ; as such, under pretence of 
 being an adherent of the Prince of Orange, he emi- 
 grated to England; intrigued there for employment; 
 but not succeeding, returned to Holland as a perse- 
 cuted patriot ; formed projects of invasion of Great 
 Britain, spoke of its easy conquest, boasted of his 
 connexions in the British navy, and predicted the 
 destruction of the tyrants of the seas. His decla- 
 mations reached Buonaparte, whose favourite pas- 
 sion they flattered. He was promoted to an aid-de. 
 
200 t* HE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 camp, and to a commander of a division of that flo- 
 tilla destined to invade Great Britain. He has lately 
 been driven into Ostend by British cruizers, and 
 while his gun-boats and praams are repairing their 
 damages, he has arrived here to pride himself upon 
 liis negative victory, to intrigue for advancement, 
 and to denounce vengeance against the audacious 
 islanders who dare to resist the mandates and arma- 
 das of the great sovereign of the great nation. An 
 officer, under whom he served six years ago says 
 that he does not want courage nor practical informa- 
 tion, but that he is equally destitute of liberal senti- 
 ments and a liberal education, of morals and of 
 manners. 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 Dordrecht^ June^ 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I AM now so far on my return to France, where 
 I hope to be before to morrow evening. I lodge 
 here in a hotel called, with propriety. Belle Vue; from 
 the windows of which is an extensive view, not only 
 over the different branches of the river Meuse, but 
 over a country several leagues distant. During the 
 first twenty- four hours a traveller does not want 
 for amusement at this time of the ycai\ Though the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 201 
 
 foreign ships that pass here are but few, the Dutch 
 country ships and barges are numerous, and 
 waggons between Antwerp, Rotterdam and Am- 
 sterdam pass several times in the day, besides post 
 chaises and private caiTiages. 
 
 Taking a walk on the quay for a quarter of an 
 hour last night after my arrival, I heard some fiddles 
 playing and Dutchmen jumping, and on inquiring 
 what occasioned these rejoicings, I was told, that se- 
 veral houses round were musicoes, where seafiu'ing 
 men and soldiers were diverting themselves. I was 
 prompted by curiosity to look into two of these 
 republican state-brothels ; but their extreme ob- 
 scenity and vulgarity soon forced me to retire. These 
 musicoes are permitted in most cities and towns in 
 Holland, but no where did I hear, that, as at Am- 
 sterdam, fathers carried their children, husbands 
 their wives, and brothers their sisters, to these 
 abodes of vice and prostitution for improvement. 
 
 Several refugees from Zealand have settled here 
 since the present war. One of them, who had been 
 a capital merchant at Middleburgli, assured me that 
 the misery I had deplored was prosperity compared 
 with the sufferings of the inhabitants of that island, 
 which within twelve months has by emigration and 
 diseases, the consequences of want, lost one third of 
 its population. 
 
 When Buonaparte resolved upon the invasion of 
 England, he fixed upon Flushing as one of the 
 places for assembling all those vessels destined 
 for the expedition, which were built on the banks 
 of the Rhine and the Meuse, or in the harbours of 
 
 C c 
 
202 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the Batavian Republic. To defend them against the 
 attacks of British cruziers,the fortifications of Flush- 
 ing were ordered to be extended, and to do this it 
 became necessary to pull down fifty-two houses in 
 the vicinity. The owners of these houses received 
 only forty-eight hour's notice to remove their furni- 
 ture, goods, &c. and to provide themselves with 
 other dwellings. This first act of military despotism 
 occasioned great distress, and reduced many indus- 
 trious families to beggary. No compensation was 
 made for losses, but a promise given (which is yet 
 to be fulfilled) that every thing would be paid for at 
 a fair valuation. 
 
 Flushing was also at the same time declared in a 
 state of siege, and, imitating the example of his mas- 
 ter in France, the French commander ordered the 
 arrest, not only of all persons born British subjects, 
 but of those who were of British origin or descended 
 from British parents. Their property, under the 
 pretence of sequestration, was laid hold of, plun- 
 dered, and even sold. These acts were so much 
 the more unjust, as according to the treaty of alli- 
 ance between France and Holland, signed in 1795, 
 though half of the garrison of Flushing was to con- 
 sist of French troops, the inhabitants of that town, 
 as well as of all the other parts of Zealand, were to 
 continue under the protection of Batavian laws, and 
 to be considered as Batavian citizens. 
 
 Many of the British subjects established in Zea- 
 land ^vere not of the most respectable class, and 
 smuggling with England, was almost the only trade 
 carried on by them ; but though they viol^ited the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 203 
 
 laws of their own country, they did not infringe those 
 of the' Batavian republic ; on the contrary, by their 
 capitals, their industry, and their adventurous specu- 
 lations, they supported hundreds of Batavian fami- 
 lies, who became involved in the same ruin with 
 them. The government of the country was so sen- 
 sible of this truth, that it not only remonstrated to 
 the French commander in Zealand on this subject, 
 but also ordered the Batavian ambassador at Paris, 
 to demand the repeal of these outrageous ordinances. 
 Its interference was, however, of no use ; on tlie 
 contrary, hearing his conduct thus indirectly ap- 
 proved by Buonaparte, the French general extended 
 his acts of oppression to Middlcburgh, and to all 
 the other parts of Zealand ; the inhabitants saw no 
 other end to their sufferings, but to withdraw from 
 their native land, and, by a voluntar}^ exile, escape 
 future wretchedness. To profit, even to the last, 
 by the effects (»f his tyranny, he published an order, 
 according to which no person could leave Zealand 
 without a pass signed by him, for which he charged 
 from one florin to a ducat. This stopped the emi- 
 gration of the lower classes, and prevented Zealand 
 from being occupied by Frenchmen alone. 
 
 By another order, still more tyrannical, he directed 
 all the inhabitants of Flushing, whether men or wo- 
 men, above twelve years of age, to provide them- 
 selves with cards of safety, for which they were to 
 pay a florin each. These cards were to be renewed 
 for half the price every Sunday forenoon, at the gov- 
 ernment office, and all persons found without such 
 cards, or neglecting to renew them, were to be tidcen 
 
204 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 up and tried as British emissaries. Monnet is the 
 name of the commander who exercised so many 
 vexations, and treated the citizens of an allied repub- 
 Jic worse than a vanquished people are frequently 
 used ; he was an obscure officer dragged from the 
 mire of the revolution by Buonaparte, whom he 
 in return serves with a devotion that makes him 
 frequently forget both the principles of honour and 
 the sentiments of humanity. 
 
 The citizen who related these particulars to me 
 has, by his emigration, lost upwards of half his 
 fortune ; but he thinks himself happy to have been 
 able to escape with the remainder from the rapacious 
 and unfeeling Monnet, 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 Antwerp^ June, 1804 
 
 MV LORD, 
 
 On the present frontiers of France, two leagues 
 from this city, is a French custom-house, where 
 every traveller is stopped to have his baggage ex- 
 amined. I met here with more civilitv, or at least 
 with less difficulty, than when I entered the Bata- 
 vian republic at Doesburgh. They opened my 
 trunks, but shut them again without touching any 
 thing. It was mere formality; but the| postillion 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 205 
 
 told me, that it was usual to recompense their po- 
 liteness with a small douceur, which I willingly did. 
 Half a crown is not thrown away on such an occa- 
 sion. Had they strictly examined my baggage, it 
 would have taken up near an hour to replace every 
 thing as it was before. 
 
 Half way between the custom-house and this city 
 my chaise was stopped by a brigade of gensdarmes, 
 and my own and my servant's passports demanded 
 by the officer. After looking them over, and writing 
 down our names, &c. he permitted us to proceed* 
 A sentry at the gate of this city stopped us again, and 
 called a police agent, who took our passes to his of- 
 fice, from which, after being gone a quarter of an 
 hour, he returned with them, telling us to present 
 ourselves before eleven o'clock on the next morning, 
 at the prefecture of the department, and asked the 
 name of the inn we were going to. He requested a 
 douceur for his trouble, which I complied with through 
 charity; his appearance being such, that I should 
 sooner have supposed him a beggar than a public 
 functionary, as he called himself. 
 
 With some difficulty I got an apartment at the inn 
 called Le Grand Laboureur, the house being crowd- 
 ed with travellers, detained by order of the min- 
 ister of police. The cause of this detention was the 
 discovery of the late conspiracy ; previous to which, 
 every person entering or leaving France, Avas permit- 
 ted to continue his journey as soon as his passport 
 had been exhibited at the prefecture, and obtained the 
 signature of the prefect. At present, every individual 
 travelling either towards foreign countries, or towards 
 
206 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER; 
 
 the interior of France, cannot go on before a special 
 pass of the minister of police permits it. This regu- 
 lation causes both a great loss of time and great ex- 
 pense ; as, at the police office at Paris, if you have no 
 particular friends who interest themselves for you, 
 and your request is not accompanied with a present, 
 you are forgotten, and may remain and linger on the 
 frontiers for months. Many of the travellers at this 
 inn had been here two, three, and some four months, 
 and were still uncertain when they should be per- 
 mitted to leave it. They are allowed to walk about 
 the streets during the day, but cannot pass the gates 
 without being attended by a sentinel, who is answer- 
 able for their return. Twice in the decade they are 
 obliged to present themselves at the police office, and 
 if they are not in their lodgings before dark, and the 
 landlord does not inform against them, he is fined 
 one thousand livres (42/.) As their former pass- 
 ports are taken from them, and all their papers seal- 
 ed up, were they inclined to escape, it would be no 
 easy matter, as all the roads in the French republic 
 are filled day and night with patroles of gensdarmes, 
 who arrest every one they find without a passport. 
 
 Buonaparte's ambassador at the Hague, M. de 
 Simonville, informed me of the obstacles I had to 
 encounter here, if I were not prepared with a passport 
 signed by Fouche. I therefore had written to a 
 friend at Paris, who was acquainted with that minis- 
 ter, and before I left Holland, he wTote me, that 
 passports had been expedited for me and my ser- 
 vant, and were addressed to the prefecture here, 
 where we might claim them. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 207 
 
 This morning I waited on M. Herbouville, tlie pre- 
 fect of this department, called Des Deux A^ethes. I 
 had known him formerly ; he is a gentleman by- 
 birth, education and principles, and his reception did 
 not, therefore, surprise me. He invited me to dine 
 with him every day during my stay here, and said 
 obligingly that to force me to remain, he would keep 
 my pass for at least a month, when he would furnish 
 me with an opportunity to proceed. I was glad 
 to hear him say that, though a citizen of old France, 
 he liked his situation, and was also liked by the new 
 French citizens of his department. This reciprocal 
 content* is so much the more honourable, because, 
 although he never emigrated, nor approved or oppo- 
 sed the revolution, this is the first place in which he 
 has appeared as a public functionaiy on the revolu- 
 tionary stage. He owes his present preferment to 
 Madame Buonaparte, with whom, during her for- 
 mer marriage, he was intimately acquainted. 
 
2QB THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XLVL 
 
 A7itiverp^ June^ 1804, 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I HAVE been wandering about this city during 
 four hours this morning, to admire the activity with 
 which Buonaparte labours to make it an important 
 naval station. To eiFect this, he spares neither pains, 
 rewards, encouragements, nor punishments. He has, 
 besides Frenchmen, engaged naval architects from 
 Sweden and Denmark, and has bribed a number of 
 artificers from Great Britain. All these men are un- 
 der the direction of the maritime prefect Malouet, 
 and other skilful persons well versed in naval and 
 maritime affairs. The quantity of timber and other 
 materials, already here, for constructing a navy, is 
 very great and valuable, but I do not believe what I 
 heard Malouet say, that it is sufficient for building 
 twenty ships of the line and ten frigates ; but to the 
 master of the forests and rivers of Brabant, Ger- 
 many and Holland, the proximity o-f this port is very 
 advantageous for making use of the immense re- 
 sources offered. For a long time to come, however, 
 it will be more easy to build ships and frigates in 
 this part of modern France, than to find sailors to 
 man them. I heard, nevertheless, Malouet assert 
 with confidence, that it was from the north of France 
 alone tliat the death blow of English power and de- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 209 
 
 pendence could be struck with any probability of 
 success. 
 
 The issue of the trials of the state criminals at 
 Paris, produces here but little sensation ; those who 
 Were capitally convicted (and particularly Georges) 
 are generally pitied as sacrificed victims^ whose 
 manes are intended to terrify from Buonaparte's 
 usurped throne, not only its lawful owner, but any 
 upstart rivals. 
 
 On the subject of this conspiracy I heard many 
 different opinions at a dinner with Citizen Ver- 
 brouck, a capital merchant, and the Mayor of this 
 city. One of the party was imprudent enough to de- 
 clare the w hole merely an invention of the friends of 
 Buonaparte's government ; because, said he, if the 
 death of the Emperor had been resolved on, one man 
 is enough to kill another, and Georges alone would 
 have been sufficient, as he owns, that ever since 1799, 
 (when persons, supposed by him to have been employ- 
 ed by Buonaparte to poison him, were arrested and 
 shot in the western departments, by aChouan council 
 of war) he considered the life of the then First Consul - 
 as forfeited to him, according to the law of nations, 
 and of retaliation. As to the presence at Paris of 
 Pichegru, and other individuals inculpated with 
 him, he believed they came to France for no other 
 puqoose than to revisit their native country, to em- 
 brace the friends of their youth, and perhaps to ex- 
 amine themselves whether the public opinion was 
 favourable to a restoration of the former order of 
 things, or to a continuance of the unlimited power of 
 the present military government. 
 
210 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Another citizen, and a member of the council of 
 the prefecture^ beheved that, notwithstanding some 
 exaggerations and additions, a conspiracy had really- 
 existed, but that the conspirators, instead of intend- 
 ing to murder Buonaparte, had it in view to take him 
 alive, to carry him away, and to make use of his 
 name, of his fortune, and of his authority, to engage 
 the French nation to receive Louis XVIII. for their 
 King or Emperor. He thought that this was evident 
 from the many delays, from the regimentals of Buo- 
 naparte's guides having been bespoken by the con- 
 spirators, and from the relays of horses stationed upon 
 the cross-roads from Paris to Havre, discovCTcd by 
 the minister of the police. Had this not been the case, 
 said he, why did not Georges, who, as a carrier of 
 wood, is known to have penetrated for weeks into 
 Buonaparte's closet and bed-room, and to have lodged 
 in the very palace of the Thuilleries, why did not he, 
 a person of such a desperate and fanatical character, 
 dispatch a man whom he believed the only impedi- 
 ment against the restoration of the Bourbons ? 
 
 All these, said a third, and an Anti- Anglican, are 
 very plausible arguments, but the fact is, that a con- 
 spira.cy existed, not to destroy Buonaparte and his 
 government, but to extirpate the true and faithful 
 adherents of the Bourbons, and to terrify all other 
 loyal men from attempting any thing in favour of a 
 house, which that of Brunswick can never forgive 
 for its former support of the house of Stuart, as it 
 rather desired to relieve it by charity, than to see 
 it powerful and independent. The British ministers 
 are also well convinced that the prosperity of the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 211 
 
 natural enemy of their country must be precarious as 
 long as no lawful prince rules in France, and thus 
 hope to profit by the anarchy, and by the troubles 
 of the continent of Europe. Suppose Buonaparte 
 was to die a natural death, or fall the victim of an 
 assassin, what would be the consequence ? Ten or 
 twenty pretenders to his authority would start up, 
 and perhaps each of our military divisions would sa- 
 lute their commander an Emperor. His will might 
 be sanctioned in the senate and even at Paris, but 
 it would finally share" the fate of the will of Louis 
 XIV,|jpi its accomplishment, its execution, would 
 cease with his life ; the Buonapartean dynasty would 
 certainly expire with him. 
 
 No, said a fourth, it is impossible, that a victo^ 
 rious government, so ably, and so firmly organized, 
 can -depend upon the life of a single individual. 
 Every public functionary, every purchaser of na- 
 tional property, every one who has joined in the rcr 
 volution, who has been seduced by example, or 
 misled by zeal, whom sophistry has duped, or temp- 
 tation debauched, who has been a friend of liberty 
 and of equality, or an enemy of despotism, must be 
 interested in the existence and the preservation of 
 the present constitution, and its continuance with 
 posterity. So many passions, so many views, so 
 many immediate and remote interests coalesce, to 
 eternalize, if I may make use of the expression, the 
 supreme authority of the French empire among the 
 Buonaparte's, that it is almost impossible, that their 
 descendants should not form a new dynasty among 
 the sovereign houses of Europe. The Bourbons 
 
212 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 will finish, like the Stuarts. They will first be as- 
 sisted by policy, caressed by selfishness, and relieved 
 by compassion ; but afterwards,, neglected by indif- 
 ference, or ill treated by illiberality, shunned by their 
 equals, and insulted by their inferiors, they will 
 nioulder away ; and within a century, the oldest 
 branch of the family of the proud Louis XIV. will 
 exist no more. The obscurity of the others will 
 Tnake them happy, like a Cardinal York, to live the 
 pensioner of a Prince, whose forefathers their an- 
 cestors despised and proscribed as usurpers. ^' 
 
 Many more ingenious or extravagant observations 
 were made, but the above remarks are sufficient to 
 prove to you both the agitation and unsettled state 
 of the public mind in Buonaparte's empire. I have 
 not inserted a sentiment which was not pronounced 
 by a superior military or civil public functionary 
 of Napoleon the First. 
 
 LETTER LXVIL 
 
 jintu'crfu July^ 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 YOU are already acquainted with the origin, 
 progress and decay of the trade of Antwerp ; that 
 three centuries ago its merchants were celebrated 
 pvery wh^re, at a time when the Batavians were not 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 213 
 
 known, even as fishermen ; that they erected palaces, 
 while the Hollanders lived in w^ooden huts, and that 
 sovereigns were their debtors, long before the kings 
 of England had any credit either on the continent, 
 or among their own subjects. Political and reli- 
 gious liberty soon altered the face of affairs; ele- 
 vated and enriched their Batavian neighbours ; 
 rendered Britons industrious and powerful, and left 
 Antwerp a prey to superstition, indolence and fa- 
 naticism. 
 
 That the prosperity of commercial industry is of 
 Jonger duration than the wealth seized or extorted 
 by military conquests, the riches of Antwerp even 
 at present evince. Of the treasures captured by the 
 Spanniards in America, nothing is preserved but 
 the memory ; of the capitals gained three hundred 
 years ago by the merchants of Antwerp, their pos- 
 terity to this day enjoy the fruits and the produce. 
 Not a city upon the continent, of the same popula- 
 tion, has within its walls so many individuals and 
 families of independent fortuaes, subsisting entirely 
 on the interests of their money in the funds of the 
 different princes and states of Europe. 
 
 The lofty and beautiful houses of the city, the 
 splendour of the equipages, and the sumptuous en- 
 tertainment of its first citizens, present, however, 
 a shocking contrast to the abject poverty, immora- 
 lity and profligacy of the inferior classes. I have 
 nowhere seen the beggars more numerous, more 
 miserable, more vicious and more insolent. They 
 do not beg, but demand alms; and if they per- 
 
214 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ccive that you are a stranger, offer for prostitution 
 their mothers, sisters or children. 
 
 Several foreign houses have within some few 
 years established themselves here ; but the rupture 
 with England, and above all, the military navy, and 
 military magistracy which Buonaparte intends to 
 establish here, must forever make commercial spe- 
 culations preearious, if not unsafe. Trade can never 
 prosper where freedom is proscribed ; guard-houses 
 always rum counting-houses; and where the parades 
 are crowded the exchanges must be deserted. 
 
 The majority of the people are dissatisfied with 
 being incorporated with France, and detest the whole 
 train of French governors, prefects, bishops, direc- 
 tors, police commissaries, gensdarmes, spies and 
 informers. Though of late years, and just before 
 the revolution, they showed themselves disaffected 
 to the house of Austria, at present their only wish 
 appears to be once more to have the happiness to be 
 counted among the subjects of Francis II. instead 
 of Napoleon the First. I believe, however, upon the 
 whole, that they do not know themselves what they 
 desire, and that the best and mildest government 
 would not exist long without hearing their mur- 
 murs, and being disgusted with their fickleness and 
 inconsistency. 
 
 That this city has suffered much from the revolu- 
 tion cannot be disputed, but it has not endured more 
 than other places in Brabant and Flanders. The 
 French revolutionary rulers, while emptying their 
 purses, have also sported with the feelings of the in- 
 habitiuits of the Low Countries, Thcv have insult- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 215 
 
 ed their prejudices and disregarded their customs ; 
 and- attempted, with an indifference and frivolity 
 which would be incomprehensible were they not a 
 trait of national character, to change in some ftw 
 years the manners and orderly habits of a people that 
 have not varied them for centuries. Although 
 many generations have passed since these countries 
 were under the Spanish dominion, the character of ^ 
 the inhabitants, their modes of living, thinking, and 
 dressing, still resemble those of the Spaniards much 
 more than those of the Austrians. 
 
 As the French revolutionists generally add mock- 
 ery to oppression, they have in this country, besides 
 immense requisitions and extraordinary extortions 
 in money and in other articles, laid them under regu- 
 lai* contributions, as being the subjects of Austria; 
 while, on the other hand, they have levied taxes 
 on them, as French citizens, from their being incor- 
 porated ^4th France. Since the peace of Luneville, 
 this sort of legal and official pillage has, however, 
 in part, ceased, and, excepting what French generals, 
 commissaries, tax-gatherers, collectors, and inferior 
 officers, wrest from tliem by violence and by the law 
 of power, they are not so much harrassed as they 
 were before that period. But here, as well as in 
 Holland, you cannot walk in a street, or frequent a 
 pnblic place or private party, without hearing French 
 fraternization execrated. 
 
216 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 Ajitiverfi^ Jiily^ 1804, 
 MY LORD, 
 
 ALTHOUGH from the losses experienced by 
 the revolution, all the ci-devant nobles do not live in 
 that splendour they did formerly, they still support 
 the dignity of their rank by external show and ap- 
 pearance much better than the returned French nobi- 
 lity. The capitals Avhich their ancestors or them- 
 selves had placed in the funds of foreign countries, 
 and which w^ere out of the reach of revolutionary 
 banditti, have not only secured them from want 
 during their emigration, but have enabled them 
 to enjoy a kind of comfort unknown to refugees 
 of other countries, less prudent, less wise, or less 
 fortunate. 
 
 Among the ancient families, Count de Rose, de 
 Pradt, Bocschart, Dubois, Knigge, and others, still 
 see and invite strangers, have their assemblies, tea- 
 parties, balls and suppers. The society here is, how- 
 ever, very formal, and, as I have heard, is also much 
 troubled by petty jealousies and malice, petty chi- 
 caneries and great gossipping. Indeed, in a city where 
 the first classes have neither business nor diversions 
 to occupy their time, where they have no taste for 
 reading nor are fond of literary amusements, idleness 
 itself is sufficient to produce all the troubles, vices 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 217 
 
 and torments complained of. The wealthy and un- 
 employed must always be a mischief-maker, and he 
 who does no good is generally bent upon evil. Na- 
 ture never intended us to become neutral and inac- 
 tive inhabitants of this globe, where every element 
 is in continual movement, and where, from the mi- 
 nute we enter upon the scene of life, we begin an 
 uninterrupted march towards our destruction. 
 
 During the month of August, 1794, the most re- 
 spectable and opulent families emigrated, first to 
 Holland and afterwards to Germany. They settled 
 at last en masse^ for the winter, at Bremen, where 
 they brought with them every thing which they 
 could carry from Antwerp, even their family jealou- 
 sies, pretensions and tales. They associated with 
 but few foreigners, and admitted into their coteries 
 no strangers who were not approved of by their con- 
 fessors, (for they were accompanied in their exile by 
 whole establishments of monks, nuns, abbes, &c.) 
 and not a small part of their time was, therefore, 
 stolen from scandal for devotion, or rather for super- 
 stition. There were few of the female part of the 
 Antwerp migration, at least those of a certain age, 
 but would have renounced the society of their fa- 
 thers, husbands and children, sooner than not have 
 had an opportunity of easing their consciences in a 
 weekly chit-chat with some consoling confessor or 
 tender director. To them I am told that they were 
 exceedingly charitable and liberal, while at the same 
 time the distress of their non-clerical countrymen 
 obtained no other relief from them than their pray- 
 ers. 
 
 E e 
 
218 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 While they were thus engaged abroad, their 
 houses and property at home were seized upon, pil- 
 laged and laid waste by French revolutionists, who 
 sold, or appropriated to themselves, their furniture 
 cuid moveables. As the absence, however, of so 
 many capitalists, whose riches were chiefly deposited 
 in foreign countries, and out of the reach of revolu- 
 tionary banditti, was severely felt and complained of, 
 a decree of the National Convention permitted them 
 to return, and ordered their estates to be restored, 
 if within a fixed period they presented themselves 
 before their respective departments, and paid down 
 in ready money one year's revenue of their monied 
 as well as of their landed property. Most of them 
 accepted of this favour^ but soon had reason to re- 
 pent of their credulity and indiscretion. 
 
 The ordinance of France, which confounded the 
 persons and property of other states with French 
 emigrants and their estates, which proscribed the 
 one and confiscated the other, for no other reason 
 but thirst after blood and plunder, was a new outrage 
 against the laws of war and civilized nations, which 
 legitimate princes overlooked too lightly, not foresee- 
 ing the immense resources which this law of terrour 
 would put at the disposal of the conspirators against 
 social order. All the subsidies that Great Britain, 
 during the last war, paid to the continental sove- 
 reigns, do not amount to a tenth part of the produce 
 of the sequestrations and confiscations in the con- 
 quered countries, of which French revolutionary 
 rulers disposed. Had the English government used 
 reprisals in their conquests in the East and West 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 219 
 
 Indies; had they dechired all the estates of the ab- 
 sentees national property, and laid the French owners 
 of all property under such exorbitant contributions 
 as the French government have exacted from the 
 subjects of other states in Europe, more than suffi- 
 cient wealth would have been obtained to have dou- 
 bled the sums transmitted according to subsidiary 
 treaties. 
 
 The first salutation the returned emigrants of this 
 city received from their French brothers, was an 
 order to declare upon oath the amount of their mo- 
 ney in other states, and to withdraw it within a fixed 
 period, under pain of confiscation and imprison- 
 ment. It was intended to force them to exchange 
 it for French assignats ; but an act of the Britisli 
 legislature had wisely foreseen such extortion, and 
 prevented its effects in England, and the Austrian 
 government hastened to follow its example. Disap- 
 pointed and enraged, the French marauders imposed 
 a forced loan of ten per cent, upon the value of all 
 funded or landed property belonging to the ci-de- 
 vant emigrants, under penalty of imprisonment and 
 fine unless paid within a given time. Requisitions, 
 extraordinary contributions and patriotic donations 
 have since continued, without interruption, to such 
 a degree, that all persons of property had, at the 
 conclusion of the peace of Luneville, contributed 
 sixty per cent, of their capitals! 
 
 Here, before their arrival, as in jmost other places, 
 the French had secret admirers and secret adherents 
 of their revolutionary schemes, even among mis- 
 guided and ignorant men of rank and property. 
 
220 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 One of these called upon the French commissary 
 general, proved his opinions, and demanded, as a 
 true patriot, a diminution of the contribution impo- 
 sed upon him. " Have you got a louis d'or in your 
 pocket?" asked the Frenchman; upon receiving 
 it he continued, " here is another louis d'or just 
 paid me by one of your greatest aristocrats, and I 
 do not see any difference between the two coins; if 
 you can prove that there is any, and that the louis 
 d'ors of the patriots are more valuable, and pass for 
 higher value in circulation, I shall certainly diminish 
 in proportion your share of the public burden; but 
 until I am convinced of it, I must tell you, my 
 friend, that money we want, and money we must 
 have, -w^ieiher from patriots or aristocrats is the 
 same to us. I am, nevertheless, of opinion, that 
 the former ought to be taxed rather higher than the 
 latter, because we came here as their deliverers from 
 tyranny," 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 221 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 jintiverpj Jidy^ 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE English artificers here, whether, as report 
 says, they were dismissed from their own country, du- 
 ring the last peace, or deserted over here, after being 
 deluded by Buonaparte's emissaries, deserve great 
 pity. They are treated worse than our galley slaves, 
 work harder, and obtain only a third of the usual 
 pay, the other two thirds -will be paid on a peace 
 with England, This scanty allowance is not suffi- 
 cient to support, without the charitable donations of 
 the compassionate, even their own existence, much 
 less to provide for the wants of their wives and chil- 
 dren. The latter now crowd the streets in rags, 
 and augment the great number of beggars here ; la- 
 ment their folly in having quitted their country, and 
 accuse our government both of perfidy and cruelty. 
 As several of these artificers have contrived means, 
 notwithstanding the violence of Buonaparte's pre- 
 fect of the marine, and of his subalterns, to escape 
 to Holland, Germany and England, they are now 
 all shut up every night, like the galley slaves, in the 
 dungeons of the citadel. A printed ordinance, in 
 the French and English languages, posted up at the 
 gates of this city, informs them, that an attempt to 
 desert from our naval arsenals and dock-yards, in 
 time of war, is a capital crime, and will be punished 
 
222 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 as such ; but though five of them hadViready been 
 executed in consequence, another, retaken last night, 
 was shot this morning, and the person in whose 
 house he w^as found concealed, has been fined twelve 
 Iiuncked livres, and is to stand in the pillory for four 
 hours. I saw him march to death with a <>:reat deal 
 of courage, by turns singing God save the King ! 
 Rule Britannia ! and cursing Buonaparte's tyranny. 
 He was under forty years of age ; his name was 
 Hughes, and he has left a widow and four children 
 to mourn his untimely end. I have, however, been 
 fortunate enough to persuade Herbouvilie and Ma- 
 louet to permit them to return to their own country 
 in an American ship, on my paying for their pas- 
 sage. 
 
 Buonaparte's invetemcy ag*ainstthe British nation, 
 is inexplicable to me. It displays itself on every 
 occasion. I was told, by an authority I cannot 
 doubt, that upon a written representation to him of 
 the necessity of sending back to Great Britain the 
 families of English mechanics and artificers, to pre- 
 vent them from perishing by want, he wrote with his 
 ov/n hand — " JVon ! qu'elles restent et tneurenty^ 
 
 (No! LET THEM REMAIN AND STARVE.) 
 
 How ungenerous, how unfeeling, and how barba- 
 rous, to avenge himself upon innocent and helpless 
 women and children, for the imaginary or real 
 wrongs of the government of their country, or be- 
 cause they are natives of a state, that alone prevents 
 the execution of the favourite plan of his outrageous 
 ambition to govern and oppress the ocean, as he al- 
 rcadv does the continent. Had he been born to a 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 223 
 
 throne, all those unbecoming, illiberal and degra- 
 ding passions would never have been fostered m his 
 bosom, or dishonoured a royal or imperial diadem. 
 
 I have heard a French general declare, that Buon- 
 aparte hates the citizens of America almost as 
 much as the subjects of Great Britain, merely be- 
 cause they are descendants of Britons, and speak 
 the English language. This is, indeed, carrying 
 prejudice and hatred to a great length. 
 
 The garrison here is not numerous, but sufficient 
 to do duty in the citadel, on the harbour and at the 
 gates. Troops are continually passing and repass- 
 ing, and four leagues from hence, preparations are 
 made to encamp ten thousand men. The officers 
 and men conduct themselves with more propriety, 
 or rather with less licentiousness, than in Holland 
 and Hanover. The inhabitants, however, daily feel, 
 from many petty acts of oppression and violence, 
 that they arc ruled by a military despotism, and that 
 almost every bayonet, in the hand of a ruffian, is 
 with impunity transformed into a sceptre. 
 
224 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 Ghent^ July^ 1804. 
 ky LORD, 
 
 AS I had some friends to visit, who are now 
 encamped on the coast, I have taken the nearest way, 
 and arrived here yesterday in the afternoon, after 
 an agreeable journey of seven hours in the diligence. 
 I should advise all travellers, who do not wish to be 
 imposed upon, or to squander unnecessarily their 
 money on the road, to follow my example, if they are 
 blessed with some philosophy, and witli the same 
 happy insignificance with myself. 
 
 These diligences set out at eight o'clock every 
 morning from Antwerp, contain places for twelve 
 inside passengers, stop half way, and allow an hour 
 for dinner, the price of which is regulated as well as 
 that for the seats, and so low that I did not expend 
 two French crowns for myself and my servant. 
 Had I travelled with post horses, the expense would 
 have been about four louis d'ors, or sixteen crowns, 
 for the fare alone. Two French crowns would 
 hardly have been sufficient to pay for the turnpikes, 
 which are both numerous and expensive. 
 
 On leaving Antwerp for Ghent, you are obliged 
 to pass the river Scheldt in a ferry-boat. Before 
 you enter it, a police agent, assisted by two gens- 
 darmes, inspects your pass. On leaving the ferry- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 225 
 
 boat on the opposite bank, another police agent j 
 with another gensdarmes, inspects it again. When 
 you have travelled two leagues, you are stopped at 
 a guard-house of gensdarmes, where all passengers 
 are obliged to alight and exhibit their passes. At a 
 further distance of two leagues, at the beautiful and 
 populous village of St. Nicholas, gensdarmes again 
 present themselves, and the passports undergo ano- 
 ther exhibition. You are thus troubled almost 
 every two leagues, by fixed posts of gensdarmes 
 while patroles of them are constantly hovering 
 about, and stop all travellers, whether in a car. 
 riage, on foot, or on horseback. 
 
 On arriving at the gates of Ghent, the police 
 agent takes the register containing tlie names and 
 number of passengers, and compares its contents 
 with their passes. We were detained at the gate 
 upwards of half an hour ; we were asked the name 
 of the inn where we intended to lodge ; how long we 
 wished to remain, and what was our business here. 
 When at the inn, the landlord asked for our passes, 
 wrote down their contents in the register deposited 
 by the police in his house, and informed us that be- 
 fore our departure, it was our duty to present our- 
 selves at the prefecture, and obtain the signature of 
 the prefect, as without it we could not proceed. 
 
 I lodge at an inn called the Red Lion, kept by a 
 
 civil German ; the accommodation is both better and 
 
 cheaper than at Antwerp-) ; nor are my expenses at 
 
 this house, half so great as at the inns of Holland, 
 
 and I have better food, liquors and lodging. For 
 
 board and lodging for myself and my seryant, in- 
 
 y f 
 
226 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER/ 
 
 eluding wine at dinner and supper^ I do not paj 
 three French half crowns per day. 
 
 Eighty French officers of the garrison, or from 
 the camps in the vicinity, dine here every day at the 
 ordinary ; though more reserved than their country- 
 men at Rotterdam, they speak more freely than I 
 expected, their opinions of the Buonapartean dy- 
 nasty, and of tlie invasion of England, now the com- 
 mon topics of conversation. The sentiments on both 
 these subjects were far from being unanimous ; 
 some thought that Buonaparte had been too hasty in 
 assuming an imperial title, and that the invasion and 
 subjugation of Great Britain should have preceded 
 his elevation ; while others thought that he had wait- 
 ed too long, and that after the peace of Amiens, 
 when he proclaimed himself First Consul for life, 
 was the moment to have forced England, w^ith the 
 rest of Europe, to acknowledge the rights and su- 
 premacy of the Buonapartean dynasty. 
 
 But as to the possibility of invading England, in 
 the present low state of the French navy, opinions 
 were still more divided ; the arguments against it 
 were the strongest, as those who thought it practi- 
 cable only mentioned Buonaparte's former fortune, 
 and the extraordinary things it had enabled him to 
 perform, as the ground of their hope of crushing the 
 tyrants of the seas. I could not help remarking, on 
 this and other occasions, how many proselytes Buo- 
 naparte's doctrine of fatalism, and faith in a particu- 
 lar destiny, has made, especially in the army. When 
 some observed, that as the English were resolved on 
 an obstinate defence, many of them who now dined 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 227 
 
 there might furnish provisions for the fishes next 
 year, should Buonaparte undertake the invasion ; 
 twenty voices at once exclaimed, *' if it has been 
 written in the Book of Fate that we are to be food 
 for fishes, whether we sail for England or not we 
 cannot avoid it. In passing a canal, a river, or 
 only in manceuvring upon our own coasts, the fishes 
 may obtain the prey destined them from eternity, 
 but if we are fated to survive such an attempt, we 
 have nothing more to fear from the waves than from 
 bullets." 
 
 I have heard that Napoleon is not sorry to find 
 that his officers and men are in a fair way of be- 
 coming predestinarians. The conquests of the Turk- 
 ish Sultans were all achieved by fanatics of that de- 
 scription ; and what infidelity has effected in the 
 East it may also produce in the West. Real pre- 
 destinarians will, in gun-boats, assail first-rate men 
 of war, and rush into battle with the same indiffer- 
 ence as they sit down to dinner. 
 
228 THE BELGIAN ll^AX^ELLER, 
 
 LETTER U. 
 
 Ghent j^ June, 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 MY friend Herbouville gave me a letter of re- 
 commendation to the prefect of the department L'Es- 
 caut, who resides here. His name is Faypoult, and 
 before the revolution he was a clerk in a pawnbro- 
 ker's shop, Having joined with zeal in the revolu- 
 tion, he was employed by the ministers Roland and 
 Garat, in the office of the ministry of the interior, and 
 had art enough to escape the proscription and dis- 
 grace of his patrons. In 1795 the directory ap- 
 pointed him a minister of the finances, and he pub- 
 lished several memorials to prove, what every body 
 knew, that the situation of public affairs was despe- 
 rate, but did not propose any remedy for their dis- 
 order. Talleyrand, who in 1796 intrigued to sup- 
 plant him, compared him, in an anonymous publi- 
 cation, to a quack who knows all complaints, but 
 who, with his drugs, aggravates instead of curing 
 them, and turned him so completely into ridicule, 
 that notwithstanding the protection of Rewbel, he 
 was deprived of the ministerial port-folio, and sent 
 as minister to Genoa. On his arrival there he ex- 
 ercised the most absolute despotism. He forced the 
 Doge to recal all the banished Genoese rebels, to or- 
 der away the imperial agent, and to deliver up to him 
 several English ships in the harbour, which by Bri- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRxWELLER. 229 
 
 tish merchants was considered as neutral. He was 
 afterwards appointed a commissary-general of the 
 army in the kingdom of Naples, where his extortions 
 and plunder exasperated the inliabitants, and induced 
 them to revolt. Here, within some few months, he 
 is supposed to have robbed the inhabitants of three 
 millions of livres, ( 126,000/. ) for a part of which lie 
 bought national property in Flanders. By a douceur^ 
 given apropos to Madame Buonaparte, he was ad- 
 vanced to a prefect, and lives here now in great style, 
 boasts of his ancestors, (though it is known that his 
 father was a tinker) and speaks of the great losses his 
 family has suffered by the revolution. You must 
 know that it is at present the height of fashion to be 
 descended from good flunilies, and to have been 
 among the victims of the rebellion. 
 
 He receives his guests with all the stiffness of a 
 proud upstart, and all those who are not favourites of 
 Buonaparte, possess an influence with the government, 
 or are of a revolutionary rank above himself, he treats 
 with an insolence and hauteur which \vould be offcur 
 sive, were they not too affected and too ridiculous 
 to inspire any other sentiments than contempt or 
 pity. I have heard him speak in the rudest manner 
 even to ladies, and cause them not only to blush, but 
 to weep. His wife, who was his mistress, mimicks 
 the tone, and assumes the air and importance of her 
 spouse, whom she despises. It is believed here that 
 ^he is not insensible to the merit of Tinel, her hus- 
 band's secretary, whom, it is said, she employs as an 
 amanuensis in her boudoir. 
 
230 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 The first time I dined with Faypoult, General 
 Van Damme was of the party. This mihtary hero, 
 who is the son of a barber, and who before the revo- 
 lution was flogged, burned upon his shoulders, and 
 condemned to the gallies for house-breaking, is tor- 
 mented with the same upstart vanity as the prefect, 
 whose superior in rank he is. He took cai'e to let 
 Faypoult feel that he knew this superiority, and that 
 he did not allow any kind of familiarity. Once or 
 twice, w^hen the prefect attempted to be jocular, he 
 looked round him with seeming surprise, as much 
 as to say to the other guests, '' observe the impu- 
 dence of this fellow ; am I not very condescending 
 in not knocking him down ?" Before dinner was 
 over, however, he gave his host a broad hint that he 
 was rather displeased. '' When I last week dined 
 with the Emperor of the French," said he, with great 
 emphasis, '* his majesty told us, his grand officers of 
 the legion of honour, that he trusted we would ob- 
 serve, and cause to be observed, the necessary dis- 
 tinction between each rank, and each public function- 
 ary in the state, and that his majesty was resolved to 
 order the same subordination organized with regard to 
 his civil, as with regard to his military officers. Those 
 who dream of perfect equality may complain of this, 
 but meritorious men have been in all times noticed 
 and respected above the vulgar. Every one of us, 
 the grand officers of the legion of honour, has indi- 
 vidually given proof of virtue, talents, and courage, 
 and his majesty has placed us above others because 
 wc deserved it." '* Certainly, your excellency," re- 
 plied Faypoult, ** it is no more possible for all men 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 231 
 
 to occupy the same rank in society, than that all men 
 should be of the same size." The grand officers, 
 and most of the generals, are now styled excellencies, 
 and the name of the Emperor of the French, of which 
 Van Damme made such frequent use, rendered the 
 prefect fearful that he had been rather too forward, 
 and he therefore endeavoured, by cringing and fkit- 
 tery, to make up for his want of prudence. 
 
 In the newspapers of 1793 and 1794, you will see 
 several letters of this Van Damme, who then com- 
 manded the advanced post in mai'itimc Flanders, 
 some addressed to the Prince of Coburgh, some to 
 the Duke of York, and some to the Prince of Orange, 
 all beginning with Liberty ! equality ! fraternity I or 
 death ! and he shot at Furnes with his own hands a 
 French emigrant, who was a prisoner and disarmed, 
 merely because he considered him as an enemy of 
 equality, as he wrote to the national convention. But 
 the inconsistencies of French revolutionist.^ are so 
 notorious, and so common, that were any one to hint 
 any thing to them on this subject, they might be 
 offended, but they vrould never be abashed. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER LIL 
 
 Gkent^ July^ 18C4. 
 
 I MET at the prefect's table M. Dellafaille, 
 the mayor of this city, a civil and well informed man, 
 and I dined yesterday at his house. His guests were 
 chiefly merchants and other respectable inhabitants 
 of this place and its neighbourhood. Considering 
 me as half 2i countryman, their conversation was 
 frank, unguarded and sincere. No one could deny, 
 that the discontent w^as general in the ci-devant Aus- 
 trian Flanders, and that the French w^ere generally 
 hated and disliked. Situated, however, as affairs now 
 were, it was more advantageous for the country to 
 be annexed to France as an integral part, than to be 
 what it had been for centuries, the continual scene 
 of contest and carnage. They all complained bit- 
 terly of the disregard to order, and the want of se- 
 curity to property. A police ordinance, or a requi- 
 sition of a military commissary, throws not only 
 whole villages, but whole departments into agitation 
 and confusion. Any citizen, whose pass or card of 
 citizenship is not quite regular is sometimes insulted, 
 imprisoned and plundered; at other times, his crop, 
 corn, oats, straw, &:c. and his horses, cattle, wag- 
 gons and carts are put into requisition, without any 
 liope of compensation or of return ; the revolutionary 
 anarchy still prevailing more or less in the adminis- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLEll. 23S 
 
 tration of internal affairs, and notwithstanding the 
 incorporation of this country, Frenchmen in office 
 continue to act towards it as if it still belonged, not 
 to Austria, but to England. 
 
 The people of Flanders resemble in many respecta 
 the citizens of the Batavian republic. They are la- 
 borious, industrious and orderly, and nothing pro- 
 vokes them more than to see a parcel of idle and 
 extravagant Frenchmen rioting in debauchery, and 
 spending in show and folly, within a few weeks, 
 what has cost them months and perhaps years of as- 
 siduity and trouble to gain and preserve. This can- 
 not be the fault of Buonaparte; he is unable to know 
 and attend to every thing; but the revolutionary and 
 anarchical spirit of his government, and of those he^ 
 is obliged to employ, causes the mischief. 
 
 Several instances of this species of waste and op- 
 pression were related, and from what I heard and 
 noticed during dinner, I am convinced, that were it 
 possible for an Austrian army to invade, or only to 
 approach this country, a general insurrection would 
 be the consequence ; but as this is out of the ques- 
 tion, the Flemish people will be obliged long to 
 groan under a yoke they abhor; and after the many 
 torments and vexations of the fathers, perhaps the sons 
 may be corrupted by French examples, or seduced 
 by French allurements, to adopt their inconsistencies 
 and irregularities, and in half a century hence, re^ 
 taliate upon the Batavians or Germans the sufferings 
 of their ancestors. 
 
 Gs^ 
 
234 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER LIII. 
 
 » 
 
 Ghent, July, 1804. 
 
 I YESTERDAY dined with a respectable 
 merchant, but our dinner was interrupted in a disa- 
 greeable manner. We had not been at table a quar- 
 ter of an hour before two invalid soldiers, young 
 maimed conscripts entered, and said that they were 
 quartered there as garnisaires, until the contribution 
 of the last half year had been paid, together with 
 what was due to them for their trouble. 
 
 As collectors of taxes have been abolished in 
 France since the revolution, every inhabitant, at 
 present, receives a printed and stamped notification 
 from the director, of the contribution which he has 
 to pay, and the last term fixed by law for the pay- 
 ment. The ofiices of the directors of contribution 
 are opened every morning at nine, and continue so 
 until three o'clock in the afternoon, for the purpose 
 of receiving what is due, which if neglected by any 
 one he incurs a fine or penalty. If he is a house 
 keeper, or a lodger in lodgings furnished by himself, 
 two garnisaires are sent to him, and remain with him 
 until he pays the imposts and half a crown a day for 
 each of them. A^.those young men are frequently 
 the sons of tlie relatives or friends of the director, 
 his secretary or clerks, they endeavour to render 
 their profits as large and as frequent as possible ; and 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 235 
 
 either by not sending any notice at all, or by pre- 
 venting its arrival, billet them upon the most regu- 
 lar and v/ealthy of the community. 
 
 This was the case with the gentleman with whom 
 I dined. He had never received information of any 
 , contributions due from him, nor suspected that such 
 an insult would have been offered him, as he is well 
 known, of a respectable character, and of great wealth. 
 The garnisaires had not been five minutes, however^ 
 in the house before their demand was paid and they 
 were discharged. 
 
 Among a people where French ingenuity and im- 
 position are less known, such an occurrence might 
 injure a man's credit; but here imprisonment and 
 even death, when commanded or executed by 
 Frenchmen, neither injure nor degrade. The rapa- 
 city, violence and injustice of revolutionary govern- 
 ments, are so well understood in this country, that 
 it is more honourable to be persecuted than to» be 
 favoured by them. 
 
 This adventure occasioned a long conversation 
 concerning the immense sums paid in France in ex- 
 tortions and frauds. Twenty thousand of these gar- 
 nisaires are in constant employ all over the French 
 republic. To support so many idlers, how many 
 industrious persons must be deprived of bread I And 
 by some few wise, just, and necessary regulations, 
 how much time, how much trouble and chicanery, 
 and how much expense might be avoided. But 
 these evils, like many others, carry their own cor- 
 rection with them. Few families, if not wealthy, 
 occupy whole houses, or any but furnished lodg- 
 
236 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ings. At tlie period when the contributions are to 
 be paid, and the visits of garnisaires are apprehend- 
 ed, they change places, and at least gain time by it, 
 as before they are found out, particularly in large 
 cities or towns, they have an opportunity to remove 
 to another section, parish, district, or municipality, 
 or another department ; and six or twelve months 
 will elapse before they again give in their declarations 
 or receive their order for contribution. This ma- 
 noeuvre is also one of the causes of the great deficit 
 of the government income, w^hich upon a fair cal- 
 culation exceeds one sixteenth of what is lawfully 
 payable, and would be received were the mode of 
 collecting taxes less violent and less oppressive. 
 
 A merchant and manufacturer of our party related 
 another act of tyranny and pillage, from which he 
 had lately suffered to a great amount. Besides se- 
 veral establishments here, he has a woolkn and cloth 
 manufactory at Ypres. When clothing for twenty 
 thousand sailors was wanted, twelve months ago, he 
 offered to contract with government for the whole 
 upon reasonable terms. As he fixed his lowest 
 price, he could not afford to give any douceurs to 
 aides-de-camp, secretaries, mistresses, pimps, &c. 
 and he lost the contract. The middle of last Febru- 
 ary, an order, signed Admiral Bruix, commanded 
 him to deliver clothing for seven thousand Italian 
 sailors of the flotilla, under penalty of military exe- 
 cution. As he was absent, his manager refused to 
 comply widiout an order from his principal, but 
 twenty -five waggons were at the door, and his ma- 
 gazines were emptied of clothing, not for seven 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 237 
 
 thousand, but for seventeen thousand sailors. When 
 he was informed of this spoliation he went to Bou- 
 logne, but could not see Admiral Bruix, and was 
 ordered away and threatened with being arrested as 
 a spy. He then went to Paris, saw the minister of 
 the parine department, and petitioned to Buonaparte, 
 but has hitherto obtained no other security for his 
 property, but the order signed Bruix, upon which 
 no man would advance him half a crown ; he has 
 therefore been obliged to suspend his business at 
 Ypres, and two hundred persons employed by him 
 there, most of whom have large famihes, are with- 
 out bread. If such an outrage against property had 
 been perpetrated formerly, how clamorous, how vio- 
 lent would the outcry Ixave been ! but at present 
 these acts of despotism are so frequent all over 
 France, that to relate them would require vo- 
 lumes. 
 
 Such are, and such will always be the consequen- 
 ces of an insurrection against lawful authority. 
 How can those who invade the prerogative of their 
 prince be expected to respect the rights of their fel- 
 low subjects? 
 
258 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER LIV. 
 
 Ghent, July, 1804, 
 MY LORD^ 
 
 THIS city, though from its extent and popula- 
 tion it is considered as the first in Flanders, has no 
 regular theatrical exhibitions. Some strolling French 
 parties perform here during the winter, but I am 
 told are not much encouraged. Though the French 
 language is generally understood, the Flemish is 
 chiefly spoken ; and as the policy of Buonaparte pre- 
 vents the inhabitants from having a national theatre, 
 they in return avoid frequenting French plays, ope- 
 ras and concerts. 
 
 The society here is more mixed than at Antwerp, 
 and, upon the whole, much more agreeable. Na 
 Frenchmen are invited or received any where except 
 in the houses of Buonaparte's public functionaries. 
 The females here .are generally fair, with delicate 
 features, and expressive countenances ; but they 
 neglect their teeth, and sometimes even tlieir per- 
 sons. They look old at an early age, and youth 
 and beauty only bloom to fade. 
 
 Females here, as well as in Holland, have the vile 
 custom of putting their feet upon stoves, which pro- 
 duces an artificial heat and a temporary colour in 
 the face, but which generally impairs the health or 
 ruins the constitution. Ladies of the first classes 
 dress much like fashionable French women, but of 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 239 
 
 the lower classes both men and women resemble 
 more the inhabitants of Holland than of France. 
 Among the latter, the women are constantly drink- 
 ing coffee or tea from morning to night ; and I do 
 not know whether the men do not even sleep w ith 
 their pipes in their mouths, so fond are they of 
 tobacco. 
 
 The manner of living, even among the first peo- 
 ple, is more frugal than in Holland. Two courses 
 and two kinds of wine usually constitute the whole 
 entertainment. When invited to dinner, you are 
 expected to retire as soon as coffee and liquors are 
 served, which they are as soon as the table-cloth is 
 removed. Tea parties assemble a little after five 
 and supper is served up between eight and nine. 
 In the interval, whist, ombre, piquet, pharao, and 
 vingt-un, are played, together with a kind of lotto 
 which resembles birribi. 
 
 Though the walks of this city and its vicinity are 
 numerous and beautiful, they are, except on Sun- 
 days, unfrequented by any but foreigners and stran- 
 gers. The people here are not fond of showing 
 themselves except when dressed, which I believe 
 they seldom are except on Sunday. From their an- 
 tiquated colours and stuffs, I should suppose that the 
 ladies often wear the gowns of their grandmothers, 
 altered and new modelled. A wardrobe so seldom 
 used must last for generations. 
 
 Strangers are introduced to a subscription club, 
 or more properly, a news room, where all the French 
 papers, magazines, and reviews are taken ; but as it 
 is known to be infested with French spies it is not 
 
240 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 much frequented. The first day I went there, a 
 person who had the appearance of a countryman 
 complained to me bitterly of the decrease of trade 
 and population, of the neglect of public roads 
 and buildings, and of the shameful manner in which 
 the national domains had been thrown away in Aus- 
 trian Flanders. He assured me that half of the 
 manufactories were, for want of capital and security 
 unemployed, and a fourth of the manufacturers 
 ruined ; the population was less by a fifth, and of 
 that two fifths were starving. That although the 
 turnpike taxes had been augmented five hundred 
 per cent, not a crown was laid out in keeping the 
 high ways in order, nor even passable. With re- 
 gard to the public buildings, every one knew that 
 the poor had much rather die in the streets than 
 enter any of the hospitals, where they were either 
 killed by ignorance or starved by neglect, and where 
 the sequestration and dispersion of capitals left 
 every thing and every body to perish. It was no- 
 torious, that of what is called national property, the 
 gi'eatest part had been sold at one, two, or, at the 
 utmost, three years' purchase. Seven eighths of the 
 buyers were foreigners and needy adventurers with- 
 out probity or property, who were pushed forward 
 by factions, in order that their example might se- 
 duce or tempt the natives, who have always been 
 very scrupulous about purchasers, a part of which 
 their religion made them consider as sacrilegious, 
 and the other part their loyalty and honour prevent- 
 ed them from desiring to possess." Such were 
 nearly the expressions he made use of, and the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 241 
 
 facts he stated. I say facts^ because nobody could 
 deny them to be otherwise. On tlie followmg mom- 
 ing, when I returned to the ckib, I found the greater 
 part of the same company, except the countryman, 
 but not a word was spoken, and every one looked 
 around as if afraid of his neighbour. On inquiring 
 of a friend the cause of this difference of behaviour, 
 he replied in a whisper, ** I will tell you by and by.'* 
 When we had left the house, he said, " you recol- 
 lect the person who spoke so imprudently yesterday; 
 he is a wealthy country farmer and an honest man ; 
 he has nevertheless been arrested and is ordered to 
 Cayenne on an accusation of disaffection. A friend 
 of mine is now busy in negociating, for a sum of 
 money, his release and impunity. You may judge 
 from this circumstance, how vigilant Buonaparte's 
 government is, and that his spies penetrate every 
 where." I have since heard, that by means of the 
 sacrifice of six thousand livres, (250/.) the farmer es- 
 caped banishment, but he was sentenced to perpet- 
 ual exile on his estate, and under pain of death pro- 
 hibited quitting his parish, without a special per. 
 mission from the constituted authorities. Twelve 
 or fourteen years ago, the same man ranked among 
 the pretended patriots in arms against the Austrian 
 government, for which he then suffered nothing, but 
 Buonaparte has now taken care to punish him for it. 
 
 Hh 
 
242 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER LV. 
 
 Lislc^ August^ 1804 
 MY LORD, 
 
 WE were subjected to the same troublesome 
 formalities, with regard to passports, on leaving as 
 on entering Ghent ; and the Diligence was stopped 
 every two leagues regularly, by guard-houses or 
 patroles of gensdarmes, who inspected our passes, 
 and that not always in the most polite manner. A 
 merchant from Courtray, who was returning home, 
 had neglected to show his pass at the prefecture at 
 Ghent, and for this trifling errour was arresied. The 
 Diligence stopped to dine at Courtray, and during 
 dinner we saw him arrive on foot, handcuffed, escort- 
 ed by two gensdarmes, on horseback ; and though 
 he was claimed by the municipstlity, of which he was 
 a member, he could not recover his liberty until the 
 military commander and the police commissary had 
 assented: and the former being absent on a party of 
 pleasure, the merchant was sent to amuse himself in 
 prison until his return. 
 
 Travelling in the Diligence is equally cheap and 
 commodious between Ghent arid Lisle, as between 
 Antwerp and Ghent ; but the roads, particularly be- 
 tween Courtray and Menin, and Menin and Lisle, 
 are in such a state, that walking is to be preferred to 
 riding in a carriage. The high roads both in Aus- 
 trian and French Flanders have been paved ever 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 243 
 
 since the wars of Louis XIV. and were, before the 
 revolution, in most excellent order; but during the 
 last war, the passage of artillery, waggons, &c. broke 
 them entirely up, and no attempt has yet been made 
 to repair them. The money collected since for turn- 
 pikes has been more than sufficient to pave them 
 ten times over, if necessary ; but it has been em- 
 ployed for the soldiers, in building gun-boats, &c. 
 It is said, however, that Buonaparte has lately gi- 
 ven his prefect orders to request the inhabitants of 
 these departments to imitate the example of those 
 in the southern part of France, and to come forward 
 and voluntarily and gratuitously undertake the re- 
 storation of the roads as they were formerly. As 
 this kind of request is a command, tinder a military 
 government) travellers will probably not have rea« 
 son long to complain on this. subject. 
 
 Among the passengers in the Diligence was a 
 Turk, who had purchased, as national property, a 
 church at Brussels, which he had transformed into 
 a cotton manufactory. He was the most impatient 
 of any of us, when we were stopped to exhibit our 
 passes; but he was well known in this country, and 
 the gensdarmes only laughed at his cursing and 
 swearing. More than once he exclaimed, *' French 
 
 liberty ! a d d liberty ! I left Turkey to be free 
 
 in France, and I cannot travel from Brussels to Lisle 
 without being stopped for passes a hundred times, 
 while I have passed backwards and forwards for 
 years, between Constantinople and Aleppo, and 
 Constantinople and Smyrna, and never had a pass, 
 nor was asked for a pass. Frenchmen must go to 
 
244 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Turkey to learn how to be free; the Turkish liber- 
 ty is much better than the French ; we have no po- 
 lice commissaries, no spies, no gensdarmes, no mili- 
 tary commissions, no shooting, and no guillotine." 
 "But you have the silk string," interrupted I. 
 " True," said he, ** we have the silk string, and 
 the sabre of the Janizaries also, but they are the 
 terrour only of great folks; while in France the pes- 
 tilcnce of despotism hovers over all, and sweeps oiF 
 both the lord and the peasant, the general and the 
 soldier, the bishop and the curate, the banker and the 
 Cobler." As I observed he was very fond of spiritu- 
 ous liquors, I said, " You must own that, in travel- 
 ling in Turkey, you have no liberty to refresh thus 
 every hour." " I should not have that liberty here 
 either," answered he, in a pet, " were not the go- 
 vernment persuaded that these liquors, while they 
 bring money into its exchequer, poison the drinkers. 
 I now drink from despair, having lost the greatest 
 part of my property by trusting to the faith of French 
 rulers." He then related, that he had obtained per- 
 mission, in consideration of a douceur to the minis- 
 ters of the interior and of the marine, to bring into 
 France, during the last peace with England, two 
 cargoes of British goods free from duty. He went 
 to London, purchased the goods, put them on board 
 two French ships, and sailed with them for Havre, 
 the port assigned him by the ministers in their passes. 
 He arrived in the road of Havre in the autumn of 
 1802, when Buonaparte was in that town. He show- 
 ed his passes to the custom-house officers, who car- 
 ried them to their superior, who supposed them to 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 245 
 
 be forged,and had the Turk arrested. From his pri- 
 son he sent a petition to Buonaparte, who restored 
 him to liberty, but at the same time ordered the con- 
 fiscation and exportation of the English goods. He 
 went to Paris, but was not admitted again into the 
 presence of the ministers; but Chaptal's secretary, 
 the very man who had seen him pay four thousand 
 louis d'ors to his master for the passes said that he 
 had been imposed upon by some swindlers, who had 
 imitated the minister's hand writing. He sent a pe- 
 tition again to Buonaparte, but, although he had 
 bought the protection of his favourite Mameluke 
 Rostan, he obtained no redress, and returned to 
 Brussels, after experiencing, during nine months, a 
 loss of nine hundred thousand livres, thirty-eight 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 One of the passengers observed, that it was very 
 probable that the Turk had been imposed upon by 
 some adventurers and swindlers, who swarm round 
 tlie ministerial offices at Paris, and had paid the mo- 
 ney, supposing it to be to the minister, into the 
 hands of some person of the above description. He 
 related what he knew had happened to a rich mer- 
 chant of Cologne, whose business at Paris was to 
 obtain permission to export to the other side of the 
 Rhine twenty thousand sacks of wheat, which sold 
 then in Germany fifty per cent, higher than in 
 France. An agent, who advertised in the news- 
 papers, and boasted of his influence with govern- 
 ment, was employed by the merchant, and it was 
 agreed that he should be introduced to the minister 
 Chaptal, and pay him twenty thousand half crowns 
 
246 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 for the permission he requested. Not suspecting any 
 fraud, he paid, as he thought, to the minister him- 
 self this sum, and received from his own hand the 
 permission. He purchased the wheat, and a part of 
 it had already passed the Rhine, when a police com- 
 missary arrested him, put seals on all his effects, and 
 sent him under escort to Paris, to answer for the 
 forgery of the minister's name. He cleared himself 
 from this crime, but all the money he had advanced 
 was lost. When he was examined by the minister 
 Chaptal, before the criminal tribunal, he was con- 
 vinced that he was not the person to whom he had 
 given the money, but that he had been in the hands 
 of sharpers. The Turk, however, was positive, and 
 finished with declaring boldly, that Buonaparte's 
 ministers themselves were nothing but a set of 
 sharpers, because he was too much upon his guard 
 to be taken in by any body else. 
 
 These anecdotes prove that permission may be, 
 and has been purchased to import and export con- 
 traband goods, to the great injury of the fair dealer. 
 How^ highly injurious must it be to commerce in 
 general, and how unsafe to individuals in particular, 
 to enter into any commercial speculations in a coun- 
 try where bribery, corruption and favour vary or 
 prevent the execution of laws and ordinances at 
 pleasure. It is said that Madame Buonaparte, her 
 son, and brothers-in-law, have made immense sums 
 by selling their influence in this way. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 247 
 
 LETTER LVI. 
 
 Lisle^ August, 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I LODGE here in the hotel Fiqiiet, ci-devant 
 hotel de Bourbon, where no ordinary is kept, but 
 where you have dinner served up in an excellent 
 style for half a crown, exclusive of wine, and every 
 thing else in the same proportion. Its situation on 
 the great square, near the town hall and theatre, and 
 the civility and honesty of the landlord, cause it to 
 be frequented by people of rank and fashion. 
 
 During dinner I was introduced to several of the 
 generals, who invited me to visit them and taste their 
 tent sups as they called them. They seemed all in 
 high spirits, and in hopes before the winter to reduce 
 England to reason. Were I to judge from what 
 they said, they had no doubt of success in the at- 
 tempt of landing one hundred thousand men in the 
 British islands, but the countenances of many of them 
 contradicted their expressions. Their conversation 
 in other respects was entirely military, and about 
 military matters. They all admired Buonaparte's 
 indefatigable activity, which they said almost sur- 
 passed belief. In the camp of Boulogne, he was the 
 first up and the last in bed, and allowed himself not 
 above half an hour for his meals. I think, however, 
 that some of them, who seemed rather fond of their 
 
248 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ease, would not be soiTy were he not so often to visit 
 the coast, or when there, make his stay so long. 
 
 I had a letter of credit and recommendation to a 
 very respectable merchant in this place of the name 
 of Le Sage, at whose table I met with Brigade Por- 
 teau, the mayor, and Belmas, the bishop of the dio- 
 cese of Cambray, which includes the department of 
 the north, and, of course, this city. 
 
 During my travels in Austrian Flanders, I was 
 sorry to hear, that though the return of the clergy, 
 and the re-opening of the churches for Christian wor- 
 ship, had at first given a general satisfaction, the man- 
 ner of filling up the sees of the bishoprics, and of ap- 
 pointing curates, had, with the new oath required 
 by Buonaparte's government, occasioned a schism, 
 which had given rise to a number of scandalous and 
 even sacrilegious scenes in the churches and in the 
 church- yards, and divided the faithful into two re- 
 ligious factions, rather than sects. The one party 
 considering as schismatic and intrusive every thing 
 which had been placed upon a different footing from 
 what it was before the revolution ; the other party 
 approving and submitting to all innovations and 
 changes sanctioned by the Roman pontiff. These 
 antagonists do not excommunicate or fulminate mal- 
 edictions or censures against each other, but they 
 write, intrigue, and pursue every means to seduce 
 the adherents of the other, and by a superior number 
 togetand keep possession of the churches and chapels. 
 In many parishes Buonaparte's soldiers have been 
 obliged to terminate the diflferences of the truly mili- 
 tant Gallican church. Some refractory priests have 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 249 
 
 been shot as disturbers of the public peace, others 
 have been transported as fanatics. 
 
 From what I heard the bishop of Cambray say, 
 the same divisions agitate his diocese, but as the peo- 
 ple are more enlightened and less superstitious than 
 their Gallo- Austrian neighbours, they are also less vio- 
 lent or troublesome, and he hoped, should Buona- 
 parte once be enabled to persuade the Pope to pass the 
 Alps, and perform the ceremony of his coronation, 
 tranquillity would be restored to their consciences* 
 
 A gentleman of the party told me that the immo- 
 rality and notoriously viscious lives of many of the 
 present members of the clergy, would for a long time 
 retard the order so much wished for ; and that gov- 
 ernment had done wrong, not to exclude from clerical 
 functions all those who, during the revolution, have 
 preached infidelity, encouraged rebellion, pronounc- 
 ed proscriptions, or shared in plunder. He said 
 that one of the grand vicars of the bishop of Cambray 
 was one of the most infamous and profligate among 
 the revolutionists. He had often seen this apostate 
 priest in the tribune of the Jacobin club of this city, 
 with a red cap on liis head, blaspheme his saviour, 
 and commend the excesses of those who persecuted 
 and murdered priests, whom he called a set of im- 
 postors or fools. He boasted of the manner in which, 
 when in the confessional, he had seduced innocence, 
 and inspired licentiousness and . libertinism. He 
 once saw him at the head of a set of Jacobin ban- 
 ditti, who went to the town hall and seized and mur- 
 dered four clergymen, who were detained there for 
 
 want of cards of citizenship. When the people see 
 
 li 
 
250 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 such a villain as this, whose name (if I remember 
 right) is Debire kneeling before the cross of the God 
 he has so publicly outraged, and officiating at those 
 altars once demolished and polluted by him and his 
 associates, must it not excite both indignation and 
 horrour? Could a sovereign who wished for the pro- 
 gress of infidelity, and the destruction of Christia- 
 nity, adopt a more successful metliod than by no- 
 minating the most wicked of men to be the inter- 
 mediate servants of Christ ? Common sense must 
 teach even the most ignorant, that a just God must 
 detest guilt, and that his worship is dishonoured by 
 its approach, much more by its services. 
 
 M. Belmas, the bishop of Cambray, looks to be 
 about fifty years of age, is modest and rather timid ; 
 from what I could learn of his character, he is a 
 worthy dignitary of the church himself, and has 
 been forced to adopt for grand vicars persons whom 
 as a pious Christian he pardons, but whom it is im- 
 possible he can esteem ; whose reformation he may 
 pray for, but with whose past immorality he cannot 
 be unacquainted. An apostle or a prelate of the first 
 ^ges of Christianity, would have submitted to mar- 
 tyrdom sooner than accept advancement upon con- 
 dition of seeing himself surrounded with men a dis- 
 grace to all stations in life, but totally unworthy of 
 approaching the altars as repentant sinners, much less 
 as public functionaries of a Supreme Being. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 251 
 
 LETTER LVII. 
 
 Litle^ August^ 1804. 
 UY LORD, 
 
 HERE as well in the ci-devant Austrian Flan- 
 ders, they complain loudly of the stagnation, nay, of 
 the ruin of manufactures and trade. Of forty-six 
 wealthy manufacturers, only six remain, and of 
 sixty-two capital bankers or merchants, only nine 
 yet continue in business ; all the others have either 
 retired with the remnants of their fortunes, or have 
 been ruined or murdered since the revolution. 
 There is said to be the same decrease and decay in 
 proportion of the inferior tradesmen, shopkeepers 
 and mechanics. 
 
 When I inquired what had become of persons 
 supported by them, of their clerks, apprentices, 
 journeymen, porters, &c. I was answered, the army 
 has been and still is the resource and receptacle of 
 misfortune and distress, as well as of vice. It swal- 
 lows up and consumes every thing ; both the unfor- 
 tunate who is reduced by unavoidable calamities, 
 and the wretch pursued by laws which he wilfully 
 has infringed. 
 
 In place of these respectable citizens, a set of ad- 
 venturers have settled, or rather intruded themselves 
 in most mercantile places, particularly here. They 
 arrive with a small sum, or with some goods, pro- 
 bably swindled elsewhere, begin to trade, live re- 
 
252 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 gnlarly for some months, obtain credit and abscond. 
 Should they be discovered in other parts of France, 
 and be brought to justice, with their ill-gotten means 
 they either purchase impunity, or, as in all frauds 
 against commerce, the laws inflict only a lenient 
 punishment, they are so soon again let loose up« 
 on society, that the example encourages others 
 to follow their footsteps. A man who speaks against 
 the emperor, or in favour of the Bourbons, is, ac- 
 cording to the degree of his imprudence, either shot 
 or transported, and no more seen or heard of; but a 
 person who does not steal, but only defrauds his 
 fellow-citizens, even to the amount of thousands of 
 louis d'ors, cannot be condemned to more than 
 twelve months imprisonment, and hard labour in 
 the house of correction. The fruits of his rapine be- 
 long to him, and he often splashes over with mud 
 from the wheels of his chariot those, who wander in 
 rags on foot, and have been reduced by him to beg- 
 gary. 
 
 But if honest trade has diminished, that of pros- 
 titution has augmented, and in this country harlots 
 are as numerous as soldiers. Every night in the 
 week two- theatres are open here, but one may safe- 
 ly challenge any man to point out ainong five hun- 
 dred females in each, fifty modest women. I was 
 told by the mayor, that within these four months 
 six thousand and twenty-four prostitutes from Paris, 
 provided with the passes and licenses of the minister 
 of police, had arrived, either to settle here, or estab- 
 lish themselves in some other place in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the armies, I asked him, whether as a 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 253 
 
 magistrate, he had not a right to prevent such 
 colonies of impurity from establishing themselves 
 in this city, or if he could not expel those who 
 were domiciliated here, if the infamy or scandal 
 of their lives excited disgust or produced complaint. 
 " I have no power," replied he, '' to hinder any 
 individuals born in France from remaining here as 
 long as they choose, when they are furnished with 
 good passes. The licenses which these unfortu- 
 nate women purchase from the minister of police 
 carry with them also a kind of privilege to exer- 
 cise their profession wherever they judge it most ad- 
 vantageous. If any of the inhabitants prefer a com- 
 plaint against them, I may send them to what is call- 
 ed the correctional tribunal ; but there, if not accus- 
 ed of robbery, or if murder or some other atrocious 
 crime has not been committed in their dwellings, they 
 are liberated after a reprimand and a small fine. Be- 
 sides, were I to be too rigorous against them, I 
 should not only irritate the whole garrison, but ex- 
 pose my self to insults from all the old as well as young 
 libertines of this city. These females also spend a 
 great deal of money with our shop-keepers, mantua- 
 makers, milliners, and others, and these would never 
 forgive me if any severity of mine drove them away. 
 They have also a number of friends and customers 
 among the generals and officers attached to Buona- 
 parte's person and court ; and I might be deprived 
 of my office, only by incurring their displeasure.'* 
 I believe the Mayor is more solicitous of preserving- 
 his place than anxious about doing his duty^ 
 
254 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 I was invited last night to a ball given by a widow 
 lady to her children. The prefect and several gen- 
 erals were of the party ; but if sixteen years ago I 
 had seen such a licentious manner of dancing, and 
 heard such indecent and indelicate language as here 
 seemed to be common, I should have supposed my- 
 self in a brothel, and not in the house of a respecta- 
 ble mother of a family. I made this remark to Dieu- 
 donne, who said laughing, " As you are going to 
 Paris before you leave France, you will consider 
 this ball as an example of modest behaviour. In 
 advancing towards the interior, you will find a gra- 
 dual augmentation of the progress of vice and cor- 
 ruption." Observing a young woman under twenty 
 who addressed herself in rather too familiar a w^ay 
 to three gentleman near her, I asked whether she 
 was not one of the licentiates of the minister of po- 
 lice? " No such thing," answered my friend. '^ She 
 has been married to, and, in turn, divorced from all 
 three of these gentlemen, and neither of them is the 
 father of the infant with which she is playing." But 
 how could such a character gain admittance among 
 so many innocent and virtuous women and girls as 
 are assembled here? '' Here, certainly," said my 
 friend, " are some females of the description you 
 mention, but I can show you, in an instant, a dozen 
 of divorced women, who both before and since their 
 marriages have had bastard children, and who have 
 been or are still kept by some one who does not wish 
 to expose himself to the chance of matrimony. Do 
 you judge France at present from what it formerly 
 was. A revolution in morals and manners is the na- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. il55 
 
 tural effect of a religious and political revolution. 
 You must see and judge for yourself; my explana- 
 tions at present would be insufficint or incompre- 
 hensible. If you return to Brabant this way, you 
 will understand me better." 
 
 LETTER LVIII. 
 
 Dunkirk, Jugust, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 STAGE coaches pas^ backwards and forwards 
 twice a-day between Lisle, Cassel, St. Omer and 
 Dunkirk. As I observed that they were generally 
 crowded, I preferred to hire an extra one, for which 
 I was charged six French crowns from Lisle to this 
 place, by way of St. Omer. 
 
 I experienced on this road the same difficulties 
 with respect to passes as on the road to Flanders, 
 with this addition, that no innkeper could lodge me 
 at St. Omer, without having a written permission 
 from the commander ; which a general officer, one 
 of my relations, in the camp, easily procured me. 
 I then experienced another difficulty, where to find 
 a bed, as all the houses were filled with the military 
 or their friends and visitors. After some pains, I was 
 at last accommodated in the hotel St. Catherine, the 
 best public house in the town. 
 
25G THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 The day after my arrival I was invited to dine 
 with General Andreossy, the chief of the staff of the 
 division of die army of England, encamped at St. 
 Omer, commanded by General Soult. The dinner 
 was served up in style, in an elegant and rich Tur« 
 kish tent, which, in 1798, he captured from the Ma- 
 melukes in Egypt. We sat down to table, eighteen 
 in number, of whom all were generals or colonels, 
 except myself. The dinner consisted of three 
 courses upon highly finished plate, a present to him 
 from Buonaparte, when, in 1802, he went as ambas- 
 sador to England. 
 
 The conversation at .first chiefly turned upon the 
 manoeuvres of the troops in the camp, two days be- 
 fore, when they had been reviewed by Buonaparte ; 
 but at the desert, a conversation about the politics 
 of England was began by some of the party, who 
 blamed the conduct of the British rulers in India, 
 and predicted that within some few years, a great 
 part of Buonaparte's army of England would en- 
 camp on the coast of Malabar or on the banks of the 
 Ganges, instead of the borders of the channel. They 
 thought that the French revolution would necessa- 
 rily sooner or later make the tour of the globe, and 
 that in all parts of the world French troops would 
 be finally wanted to settle every thing according to 
 the new order. Another general said, that before 
 French armies were sent so far from home, they must 
 take care not to leave America to rot in ignorance, 
 or endanger Europe by its absurd and dangerous 
 political and religious fanaticism. He asked whe- 
 ther a more contemptible being could exist than an 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 257 
 
 American demagogue, from the United States, 
 preaching, in the present state of civilization, a per- 
 fect equality, or a superstitious Spanish American, 
 condemning to hell to all eternity every people and 
 every person not a Roman Catholic? " It is upon the 
 American continent," said he, " that we must seize 
 the treasures necessary for our expedition to India; 
 ^ven the wealth of Great Britain cannot furnish us 
 with gold and silver enough for the expenses of trans* 
 porting to Bengal an army of one or two hundred 
 thousand men. Masters of Europe and America, 
 the conquest of Asia and Africa will be merely chil- 
 dren's play." " But," said a young general (La 
 Croix) " we are not yet masters of Europe." " But 
 when the conquest of England is achieved we shall 
 soon be masters," several voices repeated; " at 
 least we will then rule every country in Europe worth 
 ruling." Not a voice dared to utter (though I be- 
 lieve many were inclined to do so) any doubt with 
 regard to the enterprise against England, upon the 
 success of which were founded all their schemes of 
 pillaging and ravaging the other parts of the ^^ortd. ^ 
 
 During the whole dinner Andreossy was very 5I- 
 tentive, but very reserved; he hardly spoke any 
 thing except in answers to questions made him. He 
 was even upon his guard not to express by his looks 
 any approbation or disapprobation of what occurred 
 in the conversation. As I was placed on his left 
 hand, I said, rather in a low tone of voice, as you, 
 general, have been some time officially in England, 
 what is your opinion of the general character of 
 those islanders, " My stay was ^00 short," replied 
 
 K k 
 
^58 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 he, ** to make any bat superficial remarks; but, as 
 far as I could observe, the English are a patriotic 
 and brave people.'' General Sahuget then asked him 
 what could cause the great difference between the 
 valour of the English army and navy, and why the 
 iormer were usually victorious, while the latter 
 were almost always routed? " The English land 
 forces were not routed in Egypt," answered Andre- 
 ossy, ^' and no where else during the late wars have 
 they been sufficiently strong not to be obliged to de- 
 pend upon the co-operation of allies. Though I 
 do not like the English, and detest the politics of 
 their government, I do not despise them." *' We 
 shall soon have an opportunity of trying their cou- 
 rage," exclaimed several generals, with a sneer; 
 *' in the mean time," interrupted General St. Hi- 
 laire, " let us drink a bumper to the destruction of 
 the tyrants of the seas ! '-' a toast that was drank with 
 universal enthusiasm. 
 
 It was now mentioned that it was time to go to 
 
 the play, and the merits and defects of the actresses 
 
 '\vere^^mediately discussed with the same volu- 
 
 OTity and presumption as the conquest of the globe 
 
 had be^n planned an instant before. 
 
 I fccompanied some of the officers to the theatre 
 in the camp. There some indifferent performers 
 represented the Marriage of Figaro, with an after- 
 piece, wherein the Lord Mayor of London offers 
 Buonaparte the keys of that city. Such a farrago 
 of absurdity, grossness aiid flattery, I have never 
 before seen upon any stage in Europe where I have 
 travelled. It was, nevertheless, much applauded. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. ^59 
 
 The house was crowded with soldiers, who pay only 
 half-price. The full price for a place in the boxes 
 was thirty sous, (fifteen pence) and tickets for the 
 pit were bought for twelve sous (six pence). At " 
 the theatre in the town of St. Omer, I was told that 
 the acting was still worse, and the prices much lower. 
 After the play we adjourned to a coffee-house, where 
 several gambling- tables were kept, and large sums won 
 or lost upon Rouge et Noire, Birribi and la Roulette. 
 The bankers were from Paris, and privileged by the 
 minister of police, Fouche. It is astonishing that 
 Buonaparte permits such a system of plunder of his 
 officers and men. I heard that no less than ten gam- 
 bling-houses, or rather gambling tents, were open 
 daily in this camp; and that from the smallness of 
 the sums suffered to be risked, the drummer has an 
 opportunity to ruin himself as well as the general, 
 
 LETTER LIX. 
 
 Dunfcirkj jiiigust^ 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE best inns being full, I have taken lodgings 
 in one called Le Chapeau Rouge, or the Cardinal's 
 Hat, chiefly frequented by riders. I have hitherto 
 found the accommodation much better than could 
 have been expected, and the prices exceedingly rea- 
 
260 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 sonable. For a dinner of two courses, with a desert 
 and a pint of good wine, I was only charged forty 
 sous, or twenty pence ; and before the encampments 
 were formed here, I am told that it was twenty-five 
 per cent, cheaper still. 
 
 Here, as well as at St. Omer, every stranger must 
 obtain permission from the governor, before any 
 landlord dares to lodge him. These permissions are 
 seldom granted for more than forty-eight hours, and 
 must then be renewed; to avoid too frequent an at- 
 tendance at the government house, I asked a former 
 acquaintance, General Mathieu Dumas, to accompa- 
 ny me to the governor, the general of brigade. Si- 
 beau, who, without difficulty, granted my request of 
 remaining here undisturbed for a fortnight. 
 
 Dumas is one of the first theoretical military cha- 
 racters of France, and is the chief of the staff of those 
 divisions of the army of England, which are en- 
 camped between this place and the Batavian fron- 
 tiers. He served, during the American war, as an 
 officer of the staff of the army commanded by gen- 
 eral Rochambeau, and had, at the beginning of the 
 revolution, the rank of Colonel, He was then a 
 strong' adherent of La Fayette, and a supporter of 
 the rights of man ; and in return was by the revolu- 
 tionary ministers promoted to a Marechal de Camp. 
 He was among the first to insult Louis X VL and his 
 family so cruelly, when on their return from the un^ 
 fortunate journey to Varennes, in June, 1791, and was 
 sent by the National Assembly to prevent the roya- 
 lists of Lorain and Alsace from rising to avenge the 
 outrages offered their King. The same year he was 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 261 
 
 elected a member of the Legislative Assembly ; but 
 at its dissolution in September, 1792, his popularity 
 was lost, and it was only by burying iiimself in ob- 
 scurity, that he escaped being involved in the ruin 
 of that throne which he and his partisans were the 
 first to attack and to undermine. In 1796, he was 
 chosen a deputy of the Council of Ancients ; and was 
 in September, 1797, included in that proscription 
 which sent Pichegru and other loyal men to Cayenne. 
 He escaped, however, to the north of Germany, 
 where, in 1799, he published the best militaiy me- 
 moirs of that part of the revolutionary war, that have 
 been printed on the continent. In 1800, Buonaparte 
 recalled him, made him a counsellor of state of the 
 military section, and employed him as a quarter- 
 master general of the French army in Switzerland. 
 He is now a great favourite with the Emperor of tl^e 
 French, but though above three-score years of age, 
 he cannot hear '' the rights of man ! liberty and 
 equality!" mentioned without blushing, either for 
 himself or for his sovereign. 
 
 Except persons attached to the army or navy, 
 here are but few strangers. In the harbour only six 
 neutral flags are seen, and upon the exchange hardly 
 any business whatever is transacted. I was informed 
 by a neutral consul, that the sale of the cargoes of 
 three English prizes have, in fact, been the onlv 
 commercial business transacted or spoken of upon 
 the exchange for these six months past. Even the 
 commerce with the interior has ceased, on account 
 of the want of capitals and of confidence, and a want 
 <?f importations from abroad. Of the manufacturers. 
 
262 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 formerly established here hy scores, only two con- 
 tinue to employ some few dozens of workmen. 
 
 Of these, one is an Englishman, of the name of 
 Mather, born at or near Manchester. A bankrupt 
 in his own country, he came over here an ardent 
 patriot, and an enthusiastic admirer of the French 
 revolution. He bought national property, set up a 
 cotton manufactory, frequented the jacobin club, 
 and fraternized most cordially with those French 
 sans-culottes, w^ho, in the autumn of 1793, repulsed, 
 destroyed and plundered his countrymen under the 
 command of the Duke of York. His patriotic zeal 
 is now" said to be somewhat cooled, and his former 
 property much diminished ; he feels sensibly the 
 great difference between being a subject of the King 
 of Great Britain and of an Emperor of the French, 
 and of the protection of English and French com- 
 mercial laws and regulations. More than once has 
 he been exposed to domiciliary visits, to requisi- 
 tions, confiscations and imprisonment, and if he 
 dared to speak here as he once did in his own coun- 
 try, he would make a public amende honorable^ ac- 
 kno^vledge his past folly, curse the day he set his 
 feet on French ground, and admonish foreigners 
 even to prefer certain death at home to continual 
 oppression and incessant torment in France, 
 
 Among the mamj national estates he purchased 
 was also the house of the ci-devant Governor of this 
 place ; he bought it in the spring of 1796, and paid 
 for it in mandats, a paper money then ordered by 
 law to have the same currency, and to be taken at 
 par with silver and gold. During the summer of 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 263 
 
 the same year, a relation of the director Reubel was 
 appointed governor here, and thought this house ne- 
 cessary to keep up the dignity of his office, A de- 
 cree of the Directory immediately annulled the sale, 
 and ordered the money to be restored to citizen 
 Mather ; but at that time the mandats had lost eighty 
 per cent, a difference not regarded by revolutionary 
 rulers ; and by this speculation alone, citizen Ma- 
 ther lost eighty per cent, of the capital he had in- 
 vested I Numbers of other strangers and foreigners, 
 purchasers of national estates, have been still worse 
 used ; their improvements or repairs have been dis- 
 regarded and counted for nothing, while their assig- 
 nats or mandats have been returned them, frequent- 
 ly with almost a total loss. 
 
 LETTER LX. 
 
 Dunkirk^ Jidy^ ' 180-J. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I TOOK a ride this morning with General Du- 
 mas, on a visit to the different encampments, in a 
 circle of four leagues round this town. I counted 
 about twelve or fourteen separate camps, each seem- 
 ing to me to contain from four to five thousand men. 
 Instead of tents, it has become the fashion to build 
 huts, where both officers and soldiers are lodced. 
 
264 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 This may be convenient enough in summer, but 
 during autumn, winter and spring, when a great 
 part of this country, on account of its lowness, is 
 exposed to inundations and feverish complaints, 
 they will either be forced to remove, or suffer from 
 the effects of their present situations. 
 
 The general appearance of the men is far from 
 evidential of health or comfort. Their uniforms, at 
 least those of the infantry, are worn out, some are 
 made of tarnished colours, and some even in rags. 
 Their arms are not in a better state than their regi- 
 mentals, and little notice was taken of their neglect 
 by the officers. They were not even all of the same 
 model, which, upon my remarking it to Dumas, he 
 said w^as occasioned by the arming so many con- 
 scripts with the accoutrements of the ci-devant na- 
 tional guards ; but that before the winter, this evil 
 would be remedied, government having contracted 
 with the manufacturers of arms in the county of 
 Liege. 
 
 What pleased me most was the riding, or, as it is 
 called here, the flying artillery. It manoeuvred be- 
 fore us with an adroitness and swiftness which nei- 
 ther the Austrians nor the Prussians can equal. 
 This corps has been doubled since the present war, 
 and is placed all along the coast, at certain distances 
 from Brest to Antwerp, for the protection of our 
 armed small craft, %vhen sailing to their different 
 points of rendezvous, and to prevent British cruizers 
 from debarking emissaries or marauding parties. 
 
 The park of artillery is placed about a league's 
 distance from hence ; it is relatively small, and con- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 265 
 
 tains no heavier metal than long eighteen pounders ; 
 but I heard that in the arsenal there are many pieces 
 sufficient even to undertake a siege ; the guns on 
 board the praams, and other large vessels of Buo- 
 naparte's armada, are also of a large calibre, and 
 have separate carriages, so as to be used on land as 
 well as at sea with equal efficacy. 
 
 The cavalry, the light dragoons, and the horse 
 riflemen, are all indifferently mounted, though 
 twenty thousand horses have been brought here 
 from Hanover and other parts of Germany. The 
 men are, however, better dressed and accoutred 
 than the infantry, and are also more regularly paid. 
 The horses of the hussars, as well as those of the 
 flying artillery, are excellent and select. 
 
 We dined with General Oudinot, whose division 
 has lately been removed from the vicinity of Ostcnd, 
 to augment the number of troops concentrated round 
 this town. This officer is the natural son of the 
 proprietor of a theatre on the Boulevards at Paris, 
 still called " Theatre d'Oudinot." His mother was 
 the daughter of a washer- woman, and an inferior 
 actress on this same theatre. He was born 1765, 
 and enlisted in 1781 as a dragoon in the first regi- 
 ment, known by the name of Medoc. The revo- 
 lution advanced him to an officer, afterwards to the 
 command of a battalion of national guards, and, in 
 1792, to a general. He distinguished himself in 
 several engagements with the Prussians and Aus- 
 trians, and was dangerously wounded in the head in 
 December, 1793, near Hageneau. During the cam- 
 paign of 1795, he commanded the advance guard of 
 
 Iv 1 
 
266 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the army under Pichegru, was repulsed by the Aus- 
 trians, and forced to shut himself up m Manheim, 
 where he was besieged and obliged to surrender. 
 He served afterwards under Moreau in Germany, 
 and Massena in Switzerland, but never under Buo- 
 naparte, before the day of the battle of Marengo. 
 He has seen a great deal of service, is a brave officer 
 of a division, but, as I am informed, does not possess 
 talents to command an army. He is much liked by 
 the soldiers, because he shares in all their hardships 
 and pleasures. He sleeps with them, when neces- 
 sary, uncovered upon the ground, drinks brandy, 
 smokes tobacco, and in their company conducts 
 himself as when he was a dragoon. Even in doing 
 the honours of his table, and when the presence of 
 strangers made him desirous to assume the manners 
 and language of his present rank, the upstart soldier 
 and the officer of fortune displayed themselves every 
 instant ; but as his soldier-like frankness, or rather 
 roughness, is not disagreeable to those accustomed 
 to the society of military men, were he less affected 
 and more natural, he would please more, and place 
 those about him more at their ease. 
 
 Either from policy or from ignorance, he men- 
 tioned the conquest of England as a mere prome- 
 nade ; and repeatedly said, widi a disgusting boast- 
 fulness, " land me but with twenty-live thousand 
 French grenadiers, and I will take upon me to plant 
 the tri-coloured flag on the Tower of London.'- 
 Among his aides-de-camp is a lady, who has the 
 rank of a lieutenant- colonel, and has made all his 
 campaigns with him ; she has had by him three chil- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 267 
 
 dren, and can drink and swear as well as himself. 
 She was upon duty during dinner, but joined us at 
 the dessert ; and made her report as accurately and 
 minutely as any male aid-de-camp possibly could do. 
 
 LETTER LXL 
 
 Dunkirk, September, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I EXPECTED to have had an opportunity of 
 being presented to Buonaparte during his short visit 
 here previous to his journey to Brabant and to the 
 Banks of the Rhine; but was, as well as several other 
 strangers, disappointed. He refused admittance on 
 account of want of time ; but, as some generals have 
 hinted to me, the suite he had with him was not nu- 
 merous or imposing enough for a ceremony of pre- 
 sentation to an emperor of the French. I saw him, 
 however, for above an hour on the harbour, inspect- 
 ing some Batavian armed vessels and gun-boats 
 from Ostend, that had put in hither to avoid the 
 pursuit of the British cruisers. They manoeuvred 
 before him with a great deal of accuracy at the 
 mouth of the harbour; but he said loud enough to 
 be heard by all near him, that the part of his flotilla 
 already collected at Boulogne, had more experience, 
 and acted with more union and precision. Some 
 
268 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 thingmiisthave displeased him here, or just beforehis 
 arrival at this place, for he was in an ill humour, 
 and harsh in his answers and expressions to all who 
 spoke to him, or to whom he addressed himself. 
 
 According to the invitation -of Schadet, the sub- 
 prefect here, the inhabitants had prepared ay^^d'and 
 a ball for Buonaparte, in the town hall; but when 
 informed of it, he said abruptly, *^ it was unneces- 
 sary, I do not stay." His generals and officers were 
 more complaisant. They came there in such num- 
 bers as to excludealithe citizens, and to prevent many 
 ladies who were invited from being present. From 
 want of room the dancing was both intenupted and 
 shortened, and during supper the greatest confusion 
 prevailed; as no one who did not choose to light or 
 push his way to the table could get a morsel. The 
 gallantry of the imperial officers is not so great as 
 that of the royal officers was formerly; the former 
 took care of themselves as if no ladies had been pre- 
 sent, while the latter would certainly never have 
 thought of themselves, as long as a single lady was 
 unhelped or not provided for. 
 
 I was told by the gentleman who invited me, that 
 the ball would not be over until four or five o'clock 
 the next morning; but a little after midnight all 
 dancing ceased, and the musicians retired. Ano- 
 ther scene then opened. Some officers having pro- 
 posed gaming, cards were instantly sent for, and a 
 bank formed and kept by the governor. General Si~ 
 beau J and at two o'clock I left the party, including 
 some ladies, gambling with more attention, and I 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 269 
 
 believe with more pleasure, than they had been 
 dancing. 
 
 Under the supposition that Buonaparte would ho- 
 nour them with his presence, a throne had been 
 erected in the large hall, where a table had also been 
 placed with ten covers, the number of persons it 
 was believed that he would admit to sit down with 
 him. To serve this table in style, silver dishes, 8cc. 
 had been borrowed from all those who had any to 
 lend. In the confusion that the crowd occasioned, 
 the plate was forgotten by the servants, (or perhaps 
 stolen by them) and the greater part of it disap- 
 peared. The owners of the' plate have since sum- 
 moned the masters of the ceremonies, two respecta- 
 ble merchants, and the director, the sub-prefect, be- 
 fore a justice of peace, to return them their -lost 
 property. A subscription has, however, been set on 
 foot to indemnify the losers ; but, from the amount 
 of their claims, and from the trifling sums subscri- 
 bed, their indemnities are not likely to prove so ex- 
 peditious as those bestowed by their sovereign on 
 the German princes. 
 
 Though Buonaparte arrived here incognito^ he 
 suffered an imperial salute to receive him, and to an- 
 nounce his departure. Not only the artillery on the 
 ramparts, and on the forts of the harbour, but the 
 guns of the flotilla were fired on this occasion. He 
 has an idea, and perhaps a just one, that the more 
 noise he makes, and the more pageantry he displays 
 among this fickle and unprincipled people, the more 
 they will respect him, or, what he likes better, the 
 more they will dread him. I am told that once, when 
 
270 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the conversation turned upon the untimely end of 
 Louis XVI. (which, improbable as it may seem, he 
 always appears to deplore) he said, ^' had Louis 
 XVL caused himself to be feared, instead of study- 
 ing how to be beloved, he might still have reigned. 
 In France, terrour alone can prevent crow^ns and 
 sceptres from being trampled on and crushed." 
 
 LETTER LXIL 
 
 Calais^ September, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 IN approaching Boulogne I have observed that 
 the restrictions against travellers are increased. My 
 postillions were frequently forced to turn out of the 
 high way, by piquets placed on the road between 
 Dunkirk and this place, and travel upon cross roads, 
 that I might have no opportunity of noticing some 
 flying camps, placed here and there to keep up a line 
 of communication with the divisions along the coast, 
 and the army of St. Omer. On entering this town, 
 though my passport was demanded and registered at 
 the gate, the postillion was ordered to drive first to 
 the ofiice of the commissary- general of the police, 
 and then to the hotel of the governor, before I could 
 be set down at the inn. In the mean time my chaise 
 was escorted by soldiers, and my person watched. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 271 
 
 I have often during my travels had the misfortune 
 to encounter men of impertinent and brutal beha- 
 viour, but I have never before conversed with such 
 an insupportable and insolent fellow as the police 
 commissary here, whose name is Mengaud. He 
 unites in his person every thing that can make au- 
 thority odious, and the vulgarity of his manners cor- 
 responds perfectly with his language. Nature destin- 
 ed him for nothing but a gaoler or an executioner, 
 to visit dungeons, construct racks, or erect scaffolds. 
 
 Before the revolution, his relations procured him 
 a place in the guards of Monsieur, the present Louis 
 XVIII. but he was soon turned out, as no one would 
 serve with him. At the beginning of the revolution, 
 driven from all decent society, and hated by all good 
 men, he took refuge in that den of infamy and vice, 
 the Jacobin Club, and shortly became one of its he- 
 roes. During the reign of Robespierre, he was pre- 
 sident of a revolutionary committee, and denounced, 
 imprisoned, and butchered. Arrested in his turn, af- 
 ter the death of that tyrant, he was released by Buo- 
 naparte's patron, Barras, and appointed minister to 
 Switzerland, where his treachery was as great as his 
 cruelty ; where his negociations and duplicity dis- 
 armed those victims whom his barbarity had marked 
 for ruin and destruction. His conduct was so out- 
 rageous, that even the revolutionary rulers of that 
 period, the directors, were obliged to recall and dis- 
 grace him — a trifling punishment for so many enor- 
 mities. In 1800, Buonaparte again introduced him 
 upon the revolutionary scene, as his commissary of 
 police in this town, where, during the late peace, his 
 
272 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 presence alone did more harm to the inhabitants than 
 all Buonaparte's vexatious laws and ordinances, be- 
 cause it frightened away numbers of travellers : as 
 all those who once had to do with Mengaud took 
 care to avoid him a second time. 
 
 This is the man before whom I was carried as a 
 kind of prisoner, to exhibit my passport. I shall try 
 to relate as nearly as possible his questions and my 
 answers, his provocation and my patience, his bru- 
 tality and my moderation. What must be the mo- 
 rality and civilization of an empire, where such men 
 are necessary, and employed as public functionaries ? 
 
 " Your passport, Sir V\ 
 
 " Here it is." 
 
 " You are a Belgian ?" 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " You lie." 
 
 " My passport proves that I do not." 
 
 " It is not yours ; you have stolen it, or you have 
 bought it." 
 
 I do not know what to answer to expressions I am 
 unaccustomed to hear." 
 
 " You are an Englishman, your looks betray you." 
 
 *' My passport tells you who I am better than my 
 looks." 
 
 " With English gold such passports are easily 
 procured. I will swear that you are an emissary of 
 Pitt." 
 
 " Then you will perjure yourself." 
 
 " What is your business here ?" 
 
 " To visit some relatives and friends whom I have 
 not seen for some years." 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 273 
 
 " To conspire with your accomplices, I dare say. 
 Ah ! were I the Emperor of the French, such suspi- 
 cious travellers as you should be shot, without a trial, 
 on the other side of the gate." 
 
 " What makes you suspect me. Sir ? 
 
 *' Your looks, your haughtiness, your chaise, your 
 baggage, and your servant, all evince that you are an 
 enemy of the revolution and of France. I have a 
 good mind to send you to prison." 
 
 " Do as you please, but act so as you can answer 
 for it to your superiors." 
 
 " My superiors. Sir! my superiors. Sir! I have 
 none here ; I acknowledge no other any where else 
 but his majesty the Emperor, and his excellency the 
 minister of police. But I shall soon catch you. Who 
 are the relatives and friends you are going to visit 
 here ?" 
 
 *' Here I have no one to visit, but at Boulogne I 
 liave several." 
 
 " You contradict yourself, Sir ; you said just now 
 that your relatives and friends were here, and now 
 you say that they are at Boulogne, when at Boulogne, 
 you will say that they are at Montreuil, and when 
 there, that they are at Amiens, at Paris, and any 
 where, to be enabled to see every thing, and to serve 
 your English employers. But I shall shorten your 
 journey. Under pain of being arrested as a spy, men- 
 tion the names, places of residence, and rank of 
 those you call your relatives and friends." 
 
 '* The generals of division and , 
 
 and the colonel are my relatives ; and I have 
 
 from twelve to twenty years acquaintance with se- 
 
 Mm 
 
274 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 veral other generals and officers (mentioning their 
 names) who are all encamped at or near Boulogne." 
 
 " You a relative to them ! you acquainted with 
 them ! I cannot believe it. I know most of them ; 
 they are all staunch republicans ; I meariy firm friends 
 of the revolution and of Buonaparte. I fear that I 
 shall have to detain you until they own you, unless 
 you can show me letters from some of them." 
 
 '* Sir, if you will let my servant fetch my port- 
 folio from the chaise, you shall soon be convinced in 
 what an illiberal and ungentleman-like manner you 
 have acted with me." 
 
 When Mengaud had perused two of the letters his 
 tone altered, and he said that he was sorry he had 
 used some harsh expressions. "But remember, Sir," 
 said he, " that but lately a Prussian baron, Bulow, 
 was shot as a spy at Ostend ; and we public func- 
 tionaries cannot be too much upon our guard. Now, 
 Sir, I shall sign your passport, and you may remain 
 here as long as agreeable. I hope you will dine with 
 me to-morrow ? 
 
 " No, Sir," replied I, " neither to-morrow nor 
 iany other day, as lam engaged during the whole time 
 I intend to stay here," 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 275 
 
 LETTER LXIIL 
 
 Calais, September, 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 FROM Mengaud's office I was carried to the 
 hotel of the governor. At my entry an aid- de- camp 
 told me to sit down, as the governor was taking a 
 nap after dinner. Having waited above half an hour, 
 I inquired of this officer whether his master's naps 
 were very long, as I had not yet dined. He replied, 
 that within an hour my business would be done, and 
 that I must have patience. 
 
 The name of this governor is Barbazon; he is a 
 general of brigade, and an officer of the legion of 
 honour. Before the revolution he was a clerk to a 
 retail dealer in tobacco and snuff, and ran away with 
 his master's property, enlisted in the regiment of 
 Flanders, and deserted from it to the Parisian na- 
 tional guards. La Fayette made him an officer, Ma- 
 rat a captain, Robespierre a mayor, Barras a colonel, 
 and Buonaparte a general. Since the reign of equa- 
 lity is out of fashion, he has discovered that he is a 
 descendant from some counts of Barbazon, who, 
 three hundred years ago, were wealthy and popular 
 in the south of France. The fact is, that his father 
 was keeper of a livery stable, and that in his youth, 
 he was himself a mule driver. But since he entered 
 upon the military stage as an officer, he has con- 
 
276 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER- 
 
 ducted himself with courage and ability ; he has dis- 
 covered talents, but has perpetrated no atrocities. 
 
 He behaved to me with great politeness, and when 
 I told him in what manner I had been received and 
 detained by Mengaud, he said, " that fanatic is a 
 despicable wretch, and after much trouble, and ma- 
 ny representations from the inhabitants of this town, 
 I have to day been officially informed that he is dis- 
 missed and succeeded by a gentleman of the name of 
 Divilliers, respectable in his character, and agreea- 
 ble in his manners." He signed my passport, at the 
 same time telling me, that if I desired to make any 
 excursions, in the country he would accompany me, 
 and show nie the different enca^ipments in the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 I went to lodge in the ci-devant hotel Descune, 
 which is now kept by two of his nephews ; I found 
 the apartments well furnished, and the accommoda- 
 tions in other respects good and cheap. 
 
 I was told by the present proprietors, that the last 
 lodger their uncle had in his house, was the unfor- 
 tunate Governor Wall. He had, during the late war, 
 resided with hini, in the whole near four years, and 
 though he possessed property at Chantilly, nine 
 leagues from Paris, he came here only to get a sight 
 of England, for whose prosperity his good wishes 
 were expressed, and his toasts given. During the 
 last five months he resided in this hotel, he had, to 
 the knowledge of Descune, expended thirty thou- 
 sand livres, (1250/.) for his suiFering and distressed 
 countrymen. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 277 
 
 LETTER LXIV. 
 
 Calaisy SefUeijiber, 1804. 
 UY LORD, 
 
 THIS town, which formerly owed its affluence 
 to the communication with Dover, is now very much 
 reduced, and many of its inhabitants are ruined. It 
 is filled with soldiers quartered upon the inhabitants 
 who are obliged to support them. The only busi- 
 ness is privateering. Their vessels steal out with 
 the tide, and when the wind is fair, stretch over to- 
 wards the British shores, pick up what merchant- 
 men they can, and return with the next. 
 
 These privateers are built and fitted out by sub- 
 scription, but it must be an unpromising specula- 
 tion, as a person who had bought six shares in one 
 now building, of sixteen guns, offered to dispose of 
 them to me at a loss of twenty^five per ceiit. I heard 
 yesterday that out of four of the fastest sailing pri- 
 vateers three had been captured and carried into Do- 
 ver, and one driven on shore under the batteries in 
 this vicinity. But some of the citizens have made 
 large profits by them ; one of the name of Melz, I 
 was assured, had within twelve months, pocketed 
 two millions of livres (84,000/.) by his concern in 
 privateers. But there are many who have ruined 
 themselves, and sold their last to speculate in this 
 adventurous trade. 
 
278 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 I was recommended by the American consul Cof- 
 fm, at Dunkirk, to a respectable merchant here, 
 Leveux, who some years ago was the mayor of this 
 town, and afterwards, upon suspicion of dealing in 
 contraband with England, was arrested and shut up 
 in the Temple. He now does but little business, 
 preferring certain loss with tranquillity to persecu- 
 tions and disturbances, suspicions and imprison- 
 ments, which are inseparable from a military despo- 
 potism, the natural and unalterable foe of commerce 
 and commercial transactions. 
 
 M. Leveux assured me that within the last four- 
 teen years he had lost two thirds of the fortune he 
 possessed in 1789, and that of forty- three rich mer- 
 cantile individuals, of that period, only four still 
 continued in trade, all the others had been ruined, or 
 had withdrawn from business after having experi- 
 enced great losses, or suiFered from the pillage and 
 exactions of revolutionary banditti, 
 
 I took a walk with the governor, Barbazon, on 
 the harbour. In it were about twenty vessels be- 
 longing to the flotilla, two neutrals, an English prize, 
 and two privateers. The two neutrals had been 
 brought in and detained under pretence that they had 
 English goods and property on board, though the 
 one of them was from Rotterdam, and the other from 
 Embden. Without the harbour, qn the side of Am- 
 bleteuse, I found every hundred yards distance a, 
 battery, and every two hundred yards a piquet of 
 flying artillery. Notwithstanding these precautions, 
 I was told that some few nights ago two boats from 
 ftome English cruisers had surprised and carried off 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. , 279 
 
 two gun-boats and a pinnace. When I inquired 
 whether any of Buonaparte's gun-boats or armed 
 vessels had boarded and captured many English ships 
 under the English batteries, I was answered, that it 
 was not worth their while, as in some few months ail 
 the English merchantmen, as well as their arm^ 
 ships, would fall an easy prey to Buonaparte's ar- 
 mada. I must add that the persons who spoke thus, 
 were not merchants or mariners, but land-officers of 
 Buonaparte's army of England. 
 
 When I returned to the town with Barbazon, I 
 Was accosted by a man about fifty, who said to me 
 in an abrupt manner, have you got twelve sous to 
 spare, (six pence) I have not dined yet? Fifteen 
 years ago I was worth fifteen hundred thousand li- 
 vres, (62,000/.) but I trusted to the promises of the 
 National Assembly, laid out a part of my money in 
 assignats, and lost the remainder by requisitions, 
 forced loans, patriotic donations, &c. I am now in 
 my old age a beggar, after having, in my younger 
 days, assisted hundreds with my charity and gene- 
 rosity. If you doubt what I say, ask the governor 
 who accompanies you, and he can confirm the truth 
 of my statement. 
 
 It was, indeed, fully confirmed to me. Laritot, the 
 man who demanded alms, was, as he said, formerly 
 a rich man; but envying birth its prerogative, and 
 rank its distinction, he had been foremost in the 
 ranks of the revolution. He had subscribed for na- 
 tional feasts, and paid for motions against aristocrats 
 in the Jacobin club. He had exchanged his gold and 
 silver for assignats, printed and distributed the rights 
 
280 THE BELGIAN IRAVELLER. 
 
 of man, and planted trees of liberty and equality. 
 He had purchased a church, and driven monks and 
 nuns out of their convents. He had libelled his king, 
 blasphemed his God, and calumniated and persecu- 
 ted those of his countrymen who belonged to the 
 privileged classes. At last, when his property had 
 been squandered in folly, and his credit ruined by 
 extravagance; when his accomplices in rebellion 
 deserted him, and his victims were unable to assist 
 him, he presented a petition to Buonaparte, told his 
 story, was stared at and forgotten. Disappointment, 
 shame, and, perhaps, self-reproach, having impaired 
 his intellects, tormented his mind, and injured his 
 constitution, he left the cellar to which he had retired, 
 and is now wandering about the streets, and sup- 
 ports, without much shame, a miserable existence 
 by begging. 
 
 LETTER LXV, 
 
 Boulogne, Se/itember, 1804^ 
 MY LORD, 
 
 IN order not to expose myself to the insults I 
 experienced on my arrival at Calais, I had written 
 to my friends encamped in this vicinity, both to pro- 
 cure me a permission to pass some days with them, 
 and to provide me with lodgings in one of the best 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 281 
 
 inns, without being obliged to visit a police com- 
 missary;, or a commander. This permission I found 
 in a letter left for me at the gate, with an invitation 
 to accept of a bed at the quarters of one of them, 
 where, indeed, I was much better accommodated 
 than I could have been at an inn. 
 
 My first excursions with my friends were to visit 
 the different encampments, forming, as it were, an 
 extensive chain of new villages, at least, at a first 
 appearance. Here are still fewer tents used than at 
 St. Omer, or near Dunkirk, but regular rows of huts 
 have been constructed by the industry and ingenuity 
 of the men of each division. They are divided by 
 spacious streets and squares, large enough for mus- 
 tering or reviewing each corps. Every street has 
 its name, and every hut its number. Letters are, 
 therefore, addressed to the officers and men in the 
 same manner as if they resided in a town; " to Ge- 
 neral such a one, London or Paris street, such a 
 number;" or " to Captain such a one, the Maren- 
 go or Cairo street, such a number," &c. Restaura- 
 teurs, billiard-tables, coffee and gambling-houses are 
 established in most streets, and have their usual 
 signs. Three temporary theatres have been built> 
 and are open every night. The camp has also its 
 Tivoli, its Frescati, its Pavilion d'Hanover, its 
 Vauxhall, its Coblentz, its Elysian Fields, and its 
 Boulevards. That nothing may be wanting, an ab- 
 bess from Paris has arrived with four dozen of nuns, 
 and made two establishments, distinguished by her 
 with the appellation of her French and English con- 
 vent. Several Parisian milliners and mantua- makers, 
 
 N n 
 
282 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 perfumers and coeffeurs^ have emigrate^ hither with 
 their shops, and Parisian dancing masters give les- 
 sons in huts, which they style their saloons. 
 
 Adjoining each hut is a small kitchen and flower 
 garden, which adds to the romantic view of the en- 
 campments» When the divisions are ordered to 
 change their positions, the officers and soldiers dis- 
 pose of their huts and gardens to their successors, 
 either in exchange, or for some pecuniary conside- 
 ration, exactly as if they were their private property. 
 
 Though all the troops encamped on the coast be- 
 long but to the same army of England, of which 
 Buonaparte is considered as the commander in chief, 
 they may, in fact, be said to form seven different 
 armies, under the separate command of different ge- 
 nerals. The troops assembled from Montreuil to 
 Antwerp, including those at St. Omer, form altoge- 
 ther, I am assured from good authority, one hundred 
 and fifty-five thousand men. They are divided into 
 seven general divisions, which, in their turn, are di- 
 vided into divisions of cavalry, light horse, grena- 
 diers, fusileers, light infantry, riflemen and artillery. 
 Each general division contains from twenty to twen- 
 ty-five thousand men, and is headed by one of Buo- 
 naparte's confidential generals. I have been told by 
 military men, that as \\\^ tout ensemble was directed 
 by one chief, these divisions or different ai'mies, in- 
 stead of creating confusion, augmented the rapidity 
 of movements. It was more easy for a commander 
 to act quickly and orderly with twenty than with fifty 
 thousand men, and more easy for Buonaparte to give 
 his orders, and to have them comprehended and exe- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 283 
 
 Gutcd by seven generals than by seventy. These 
 seven commanders were besides responsible to him 
 both for themselves and for the punctuality of those 
 generals commanding under them. Some officers 
 also supposed that Buonaparte intended to attempt 
 his invasion of England in several points at the same 
 time, with these divisions, and that, in consequence 
 of such a separation, if one division should suffer 
 from the wind, or be repulsed by the enemy, it 
 would have little effect on the successful divisions, 
 being each organized as distinct armies, and depen- 
 ding entirely upon their own peculiar resources and 
 strength. 
 
 If I am not greatly mistaken, Buonaparte has poli- 
 tical speculations and calculations in view, as well as 
 military movements, by these divisions of his army. 
 Notwithstanding the senatus consultum and oaths of 
 allegiance and adherence, the succession of the 
 throne of France is far from being settled in the 
 Buonapartian family at Napoleon's death. He is 
 well acquainted with the history of other military 
 chieftains and sovereigns, and he knows also too 
 well the fickle character of the soldiers he rules, to 
 trust to their professions, when allured by hopes of 
 advancement and pillage. He cannot be ignorant of 
 the secret measures indirectly adopted already, even 
 by generals whom he trusts the most, as a Murat, a 
 Lasnes, an Augereau, a Brune and others. It is 
 true that they pretend the most inviolable attachment 
 to the Buonapartian dynasty ; but should, at the death 
 of Napoleon, either of these generals find himself at 
 the head of an army of one or two hundred thousand 
 
284 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 men, is it improbable that he would apply to the sol- 
 diers for that rank and supremacy for himself, which 
 they alone conferred on the present Emperor? Is it 
 improbable that his soldiers would prefer an empe- 
 ror of their own making, and who had been their 
 commander, to an individual like Joseph or Louis 
 Buonaparte, who have no merit, no claims in them- 
 selves, but shine only from the borrowed lustre of 
 a fortunate brother? In France, at present, an army 
 of twenty-five thousand men, though it might pro- 
 claim a new emperor, would not be able to support 
 him long, unless joined by more troops; but the jea- 
 lousy and pretensions of all Buonaparte's generals 
 are equally great. All would wish for an imperial 
 throne ; but none would support the elevation of a 
 comrade, if his support was required. He would 
 bow to him as his sovereign, if he headed some hun- 
 dred thousand men, but he would resist if he had for 
 followers only a handful. Should another Buona- 
 parte reign in France, it will, therefore, be owing 
 entirely to Napoleon's combined political and milita- 
 ry arrangements, and to the reciprocal envy, jealousy 
 find ambition of the principal French generals. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 285 
 
 LETTER LXVI. 
 
 Boulogne, October, 1804. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 NEITHER the officers or men encamped here 
 are sorry for Buonaparte's departure ; he harrassed 
 them from morning to night, and from night to 
 morning, with manoeuvres on board the flotilla, 
 with marches, and countermarches, with reviews, 
 parades, and even military yc'^^^. Each division had, 
 in turn, its twenty-four hours duty on board the flo- 
 tilla, to learn the manoeuvres, to row, and to accus- 
 tom themselves to the many inconveniences on board 
 these small crafts ; during these hours of duty they 
 were landed, embarked, attacked and repulsed ten 
 times ; until they could obtain the approbation of 
 their sovereign, who was ready to listen to, and to 
 try every plan of improvement suggested by any in- 
 genious schemer, and, therefore, frequently altered 
 his opinions, and blamed one day, or one hour, 
 what he had applauded the day or the hour before. 
 
 Buonaparte, during his stay here, generally rose 
 every morning with the sun ; but sometimes he was 
 up and found in the harbour before day light. Be- 
 fore he went out he took a small glass of cogniac 
 brandy or Hqueur, with a dry biscuit. When not 
 detained by some particular occurrences, he return- 
 ed to his wooden house in the camp, about ten, and 
 ^rank a dish of chocolate. At three o'clock he 
 
286 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 dined, and except on days of festivals and galas, he 
 remained only half an hour at table. He was served 
 with four courses, but ate seldom of more than tk-ee 
 dishes; fish, poultry, and some pastry. Immediately 
 after dinner he took a strong dish of coffee and a 
 glass of liqueur. At four o'clock he was again upon 
 horseback, or on foot, either visiting the camp or 
 inspecting the flotilla. He seldom returned home 
 before it was dark, and after eating a light cold sup- 
 per, was always in bed before eleven o'clock. Dur- 
 ing his repast he drank no other wine than Burgundy, 
 which he always mixed with water. 
 
 Between the hours of ten o'clock in the morning 
 and three in the afternoon, he transacted business 
 with his ministers, read dispatches, expedited cou- 
 riers, and gave audiences. Such was his usual way 
 of living here, the regularity of which but few un- 
 foreseen accidents interrupted. He went only three 
 times to the play, and declined all invitations to pri- 
 vate j^^e"^ proposed by his generals, who dined with 
 him, each in their turn, and never more than eight at 
 a time, but on the 14th of July, and on his birth day, 
 the 15th of August. All other days his table had 
 only fourteen covers, of which the half were only 
 for military straiigersy as he called his generals. 
 
 As this was his first appearance, as Emperor of the 
 French, among the soldiers of his army- of England, 
 I inquired particularly of several officers, concerning 
 the manner in which he was received, and the sen- 
 sation produced by his new dignity in the encamp- 
 ments. They all agreed in saying that his recep- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. ^87 
 
 tion was at first rather cold, and more indicative of 
 fear or discontent than pleasure and approbation. 
 
 With soldiers fond of show and ornament, the 
 numerous stars of the legion of honour had certainly 
 a great effect, and left, at least momentarily, a favour* 
 able impression on their minds; but this new knight- 
 hood also caused great complaints, among those 
 who thought themselves neglected or injured, which 
 almost every one did, who was not rewarded or de- 
 corated. Some examples of severity, however, soon 
 silenced all murmurs. 
 
 No great event, I was assured, had made a less 
 impression in the camps, than Buonaparte's assump- 
 tion of an imperial name ; either because his inten- 
 tion was known, and such a step expected, or from 
 an unaccountable indifference among the soldiers, 
 who seemed to care but little whether they fought 
 under an equal, as free citizens of a commonwealth, 
 or served as subjects of this equal, who had usurped 
 the sovereignty over them. They were more in- 
 clined to laugh at, than to be angry with their new 
 made Emperor ; and one of the generals told me, 
 that at one time he apprehended that a chorus of 
 loud laughs would at once have assailed the imperial 
 ears, and, if possible, put the new Emperor out of 
 countenance, such convulsive motions agitated the 
 face of every officer he looked at. 
 
288 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER LXVli. 
 
 Boulogne^ October^ 1804. 
 MV LORD, 
 
 I WAS yesterday invited to a dinner where no 
 less than twenty-four general officers were of the 
 party. The question with them was not so much 
 about the conquest of England, which they seemed 
 to believe certain, as how to divide the spoils of the 
 British empire in such a manner as not to excite the 
 alarm of all the other states of Europe, and of the 
 world. According to General Ney, it would be ne- 
 cessary to organize the British islands in Europe 
 into three separate kingdoms, or republics, (of En- 
 gland, of Scotland, and of Ireland) and to put them 
 upon the same footing, with regard to France, as the 
 Batavian Republic, call them independent allies, but 
 treat them as conquered and tributary states ; and as 
 such, exhaust the resources they at present possess, 
 which they otherwise might one day turn against 
 France. The British colonies in the West Indies 
 ought to form, in his opinion, departments of the 
 French West Indian empire, which was requisite to 
 subjugate, by arms or by treaties, the American con- 
 tinent, and to pour the produce of the mines of Peru 
 into France by due and regular ways. To show her 
 moderation^ he wished France to keep, as establish- 
 ments in the East Indies, only all the sea-ports in 
 possession of the English, and no more even of the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 289 
 
 maritime country than was necessary for military 
 stations for the French troops ; in all the other parts 
 of India, France should act as she has done in Spain 
 and Tuscany: either suffer the present sovereigns to 
 remain upon their thrones, on becoming tributary, 
 or appoint new princes, who should purchase their 
 elevation, and would be bound to obedience by the 
 the dread of our power, or by gratitude for our gene- 
 rosity. He thought China, from the treasures of 
 ages hoarded up, still richer than India, and, there- 
 fore, highly deserving our attention. That populous 
 and extensive empire, he said, ought, like the Ger- 
 man empire, to be divided into several small princi- 
 palities, under the indirect sovereignty of an empe- 
 ror, whom we must appoint, or at least guide. 
 Those Chinese princes whose conduct pleased us, 
 we might recompense with an increase of power at 
 the expense of those disagreeable to us; and, when 
 our final plans of the organization of Europe were 
 ripe for execution, we might with a Chinese army 
 invade the Russian empire on one side, while on the 
 other we attacked it with our Turkish and Swedish 
 allies, whom, in return, we might keep in subjuga- 
 tion with the resources of the Russian empire. He 
 believed it to be more politic in us to protect the 
 Turkish empire in its present tottering situation, 
 than to suffer it to be partitioned ; and to employ all 
 our means to diminish the Russian Colossus, before 
 we attacked either Austria or Prussia; two countries 
 which national jealousy will always prevent from 
 acting in unison, but which will separately, at our 
 leisure, fall an easy prey to our forces. 
 
 O o 
 
290 THE BELGIAK TRAVELLER. 
 
 General Sebastian! said, that he could speak from 
 experience of the great value of a part of the Turk- 
 ish empire, and of its relative importance to France. 
 Once masters of the seas and of the English navy, 
 the nearest way to pour the immense riches of the 
 East into France would be by way of Egypt; and 
 this country he judged it absolutely necessary for 
 France to get possession of, either by treaty or by 
 arms, and to keep it as an advanced military position 
 for the conquest and the preservation of the empire 
 in India. As to the West Indies, it would certainly 
 be advisable to unite all the different colonies under 
 one empire; but, except the Spanish part of Ame- 
 rica, he did not think that continent of any conse- 
 quence in the balance of French power. Its climate 
 was unhealthy and its inhabitants rude. It would 
 be more serviceable to the world to cut off all com- 
 munication with the brutish republicans of that part 
 of the globe, who, if they were left for some few 
 years only to themselves, without intercourse with 
 other people, would shortly return to their forests, 
 strip themselves naked, paint their bodies, scalp 
 their enemies, and become, in fact, what they scarce- 
 ly had ceased to be, perfect and avowed savages; 
 he said that, next to the English, he did not know 
 a nation more selfish and despicable, and which he 
 sooner should desire to see driven from amongst 
 civilized people. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 291 
 
 LETTER LXVWL 
 
 Moulogn-e^ October^ 1804, 
 
 UY LORP, 
 
 NEY, one of those political generals who, in 
 such a curious and liberal manner, disposed of the 
 ^vorld, was, fifteen years ago, an apprentice to a re- 
 tailer of snuff and tobacco, and the other, Sebastiani^ 
 was, not more than eleven years since, a postillion in 
 Corsica. You may think that the discussions of such 
 men are too absurd and too insignificant to excite 
 an}^ thing but contempt; and that they are unable to 
 make any proselytes. But in this you are mistaken. 
 Most of the other generals are of equally low ex- 
 traction and neglected education, and shine no where 
 but when leading their troops to carnage. They 
 listen to those who assume to be table or camp ora- 
 tors; their sophistry strikes them as sound argument, 
 their ignorance escapes them, and of their incompe- 
 tency they are not competent judges. In their public 
 or private societies, they repeat, as their own ideas, 
 the wrong notions they have thus imbibed, seduce 
 others in their turn, and when intrusted with private 
 commands in foreign countries, act upon principles 
 of the future universality of French authority, and 
 respect nothing either sacred or respectable. If call- 
 ed into council, the same haughty opinion of French 
 grandeur, and of the insignificance of all other na- 
 tions, dictates their advice. Nothing can be more 
 
29^ I'HE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 cruel and unfeeling than presumptuous ignorance; 
 it can neither be amended, cured, nor convinced of 
 its errours. 
 
 How many deeds of horrour could I mention, that 
 have occurred since the French revolution, all of 
 which confirm my assertion. Besides, the French 
 people are more fond of great names, high sounding 
 words and gi^eat speculations, were they even to fall 
 the victims of this weakness or folly, than of a hum- 
 ble and unassuming happiness and tranquillity. 
 Those politicians understood well the national cha- 
 racter who first suggested the ideas of a French uni- 
 versal monarchy, or of a French universal republic ; 
 or who flattered the pride of a vain people, by telling 
 them that they belonged to the grand nation, and 
 would soon form a grand western family. The plan 
 of making the right bank of the Rhine the borders of 
 the French empire, originated with Cardhial Riche- 
 lieu ; it was not lost sight of under Louis XIV. but 
 nearly laid aside during the reigns of Louis XV, 
 and Louis XVI. No sooner, however, ^ hud rebel- 
 lion broken out, than Beaumarchais,' Mirabeau, 
 Talleyrand, and others among the first revolutignists, 
 while in the national assembly they renounced all 
 conquests and aggrandizement, urged in pamphlets 
 and newspapers an extension of limits, and a uni- 
 versal fraternity^ according to the jargon of the 
 times. By this means they accustomed their con- 
 temporaries to consider invasions and incorporations, 
 not as encroachments or acts of injustice, but as ac- 
 quisitions and possessions of which they had been 
 deprived, and, therefore, had a right to re-conquer. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 293 
 
 The annexation of the Low Countries in 1792, the 
 treaty with Holland- of 1795, the peace with Prus- 
 sia the same year, the preliminaries of Leoben, 
 the definitive treaties of Campo Formio and Lune- 
 ville, were all the consequences of a doctrine held 
 out by some few designing men, adopted by fools, 
 and always supported by an unthinking multitude. 
 Not a Frenchman had courage or honesty enough to 
 warn his countrymen against the danger of an un- 
 bounded ambition, and to prove that these definitive 
 pacifications would remain indefinite sources of con- 
 tinual warfare, and that generations would bleed for 
 the political sophistry, and Machiavelism that had 
 duped or deluded modern Frenchmen. 
 
 I have been induced to make these remarks, not 
 so much from the particular sentiments of Generals 
 Ney and Sebastiani, as from the general tendency 
 of the opinions of every officer present at this dinner. 
 They all talked of invading, conquering, overthrow- 
 ing, incorporating, plundering, revolutionizing or 
 crushing nations and empires, but not one of them 
 seemed to have the least idea of putting an end to 
 such abominations, or to know or care that as long 
 as a revolutionary spirit directed French councils, 
 and agitated and troubled foreign states, France 
 herself could never expect any happiness or tran^ 
 quillity; and that as long as she inflicted misery on 
 other nations, she must suffer wretchedness herself. 
 
 Upon the whole, at this dinner I was more than 
 ever confirmed in the opinions I have before ex- 
 pressed, that the revohitionary spirit instead of re- 
 peiying, gives an impulse to and directs revolution- 
 
294 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ary rulers; and were Buonaparte inclined to be just 
 and moderate, to renounce his system of insults, at- 
 tacks, provocations, and aggrandizement, some ex- 
 traneous, unforeseen and uncontroulable state of 
 tilings would prevent him, and soon again hurry 
 him within the all-devouring and sanguinary revolu- 
 tionary vortex. A legitimate king, and a lawful go- 
 vernment in France, can alone stop the revolutionary 
 current, and dry it up from its source. 
 
 LETTER LXIX. 
 
 Moutreidl^ November, 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 BEFORE my departure from Boulogne, I 
 called on the sub-prefect Duplaquet, to obtain his 
 signature, and to inquire whether any more forma- 
 lities were to be observed, and if I should encounter 
 many obstacles on the road to Paris. He very ci- 
 villy informed me, that I should find the sub-prefect 
 of this town, Poultier, rather troublesome, but that 
 afterwards the strictness observed on the coast would 
 be less felt. 
 
 Here, as at Calais, my chaise was escorted from 
 tlie gate to the house of this sub-prefect, who is also 
 a colonel and commander. After having perused my 
 passport, he asked how long I intended to stay at 
 
tHE BELGIAI^ TRAVELLER. 295 
 
 Montreuil, and what my business was ? in reply I 
 told him, that I wanted to visit a friend in tlie 
 camp, and remain three or four days. *' Three or 
 four days," repeated he with surprise, ^' I grant no 
 permission for above twenty-four hours ; but what 
 is the name of your friend?" Having mentioned his 
 name, he in a very polite manner invited me to walk 
 into the parlour, where I should find my friend at 
 dinner, and if I had not already dined myself, I 
 might join the party, and sit down at the table. 
 
 With my friend, were also three other generals, 
 and seven inferior officers. Several questions were 
 put to me concerning the opinion abroad of the un- 
 dertaking and success of Buonaparte's expedition 
 against England. I avoided as much as possibk 
 giving any direct answers, or saying a word that 
 would hurt the sentiments or feelings of any one; 
 but I did not either flatter vanity, absurdity or pre- 
 sumption. What I thought civility and piTidencc on 
 my part, the sub- prefect regarded as disaffection and 
 enmity of Buonaparte's glory, (as I have heard since) 
 and resolved to let mc suffer for it, or at least to in- 
 sult me. 
 
 Yesterday I went to dine with my friend in an 
 encampment, a league from hence. On entering his 
 tent, he said, " you have made an irreconcilable 
 enemy of Poultier, by your silent doubts of the 
 conquest of England; he has called on me to-day, 
 and sxvorn that you were a secret emissary of Pitt 
 and of Louis XVIII. He inquired of me how long 
 I have known you, and whether I knew you well ? 
 I assured him, that our friendship dated from our 
 
296 TliE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 youth, and that his suspicions were not only un- 
 founded, but illiberal. As he, however, is a mali- 
 cious and revengeful character, and wishes for every 
 opportunity to show his zeal, and to pay his court 
 to Buonaparte, I should advise you, though in op- 
 position to my wishes, to get out of his power as 
 soon as you can, by shortening your stay at Mon- 
 treuil." I thanked him for his advice, and deter- 
 mined to continue my journey on the next morning. 
 
 As my friend had no other company to dinner, but 
 his two aides-de-camp, we conversed unreservedly, 
 principally on the innocent scenes of our earlier 
 days. Since I set my foot on French ground, I 
 have not passed a more philosophical and agreeable 
 day. But while we were thus reviewing and re- 
 gretting the days of our youth, and passing over in 
 silence a dreadful period of near twenty years, to 
 revisit our college, and converse with our tutors and 
 instructors, Poultier, assisted by some gensdarmes 
 had seized all my papers, arrested, questioned and 
 terrified my servant. On my return to the inn, the 
 landlord met me with this disagreeable news, and 
 informed me that although my papers had been re- 
 turned, and my servant released, the latter was ill 
 from fear. He begged me also to set out for Abbe- 
 ville that night, as he had heard the sub-prefect utter 
 dreadful threats against me. 
 
 I sent a messenger to my friend with a note, in- 
 forming him of Poultier's behaviour, and requested 
 his presence. Before he arrived I looked at my pa- 
 pers, which had all been tumbled over, some soiled 
 and others torn. Some sealed letters had been bro- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 297 
 
 ken open, and every thing showed that they had 
 been in the hands of a foe, who was desirous of do- 
 ing me an injury. 
 
 My friend had just sat down to supper with me, 
 when Poultier came to make an apology, as he said, 
 for the trouble his official situation had compelled 
 him to give me, and to return me my will, which 
 had also been opened and perused, but which I had 
 not yet missed. I made no reply ; but my friend, 
 with some warmth, resented his conduct towards 
 me as an indirect insult offered him, and insisted on 
 the satisfaction of a gentleman. I was then obliged 
 to interfere, and as Poultier was as great a coward 
 as he was ungenerous and oppressive, he submitted 
 to make and to sign such an apology as will forever 
 remain a sentence, pronounced by himself, of bis 
 own infamy. 
 
 So little did both my friend and myself trust to 
 the professions of repentance, and promises of ho* 
 nesty of this sub-prefect, and member of Buona- 
 parte's legion of honour, that we remained together 
 until post-horses could be got, and I was enabled to 
 fix the hour of my departure, and had no further ap- 
 prehension of any interruption. 
 
 Pp 
 
298 THE BELGIAN TRAVPXLER. 
 
 LETTER LXX. 
 
 jibbeville<, Ko-vemhery 1804. 
 KY LORD, 
 
 AS the sub-prefect Poultier, mentioned in my 
 last, will, as a regicide and revolutionist, be held up 
 to execration and infamy in the revolutionary annals 
 of France, I shall make you a little better acquainted 
 with him. 
 
 Bom of poor parents in the Comtat Venaissin, he 
 was brought up by charity in a Benedictine convent 
 at Avignon, of which, when of age, he became a 
 member. Taking advantage of the absence of the 
 treasurer, he broke open the coffer where the money 
 and plate were kept, absconded with it from the con- 
 vent, threw off his religious dress, and enlisted as a 
 soldier in the regiment o{ Royal It alien. After some 
 months' service he deserted, and joined some stroll- 
 ing players, with whom he wandered to Paris, and 
 there, upon the small theatres of the Boulevard, ex- 
 hibited himself in the character of a harlequin and 
 merry-andrew. In this gay, but starving situation, 
 the revolution found him, and he became one of its 
 natural and easy recruits. The Jacobins, who had 
 formed the scheme of wresting the Comtat Venais- 
 sin from the Pope, sent him on duty in that unfor- 
 tunate country, where he showed himself one of its 
 most active firebrands. Having, in 1792, married 
 a harlot from Lisle, his patrons rewarded the patriot-* 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 299 
 
 ism which he had displayed in the south of France 
 with the place of commander of a battalion of volun- 
 teers in the department of the north, quartered in 
 that city. There, as soon as the dreadful scenes of 
 the 10th of August were known, Poultier ordered 
 a vault, in which the remains of the ancient Counts 
 of Flanders had been deposited, and had rested un- 
 disturbed for ages, to be demolished, their bones and 
 ashes to be consumed, and of so many great, good, 
 valiant, and amiable persons, preserved nothing but 
 the skull of a countess, during her life admired for 
 her beauty, and renowned for her virtue, and after 
 her death revered for the sanctity of her life. This 
 cannibal trophy he fixed on the point of his sword, 
 and repaired to the Jacobin Club, swearing that he 
 would serve all the aristocrats in the same manner ; 
 that is to say, that he would cut off the heads of all 
 persons faithful to their God and King, who had rajik 
 and property to lose, and honour and duty to pre- 
 serve. These were the aristocrats of 1792. Hon- 
 ourable mention was ordered to be made in the proces 
 verbal of the Jacobins, of this act and declaration of 
 civism. By having recourse to such an infamous 
 stratagem, he over-awed the opulent inhabitants of 
 Lisle, and ingratiated himself with the populace, who 
 procured his election as a member to the National 
 Convention. 
 
 His conduct, as a representative of the people, cor- 
 responded with the atrocities of his life as a citizen, 
 a monk, a mountebank, and a Jacobin. He voted 
 for the death of Louis XVI. and fpr all other mea- 
 sures of blood and terrour of the regicide convention. 
 
300 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 He was sent on several missions into the depart-^ 
 ments, particularly in the south of France, where 
 imprisonment and death marched in his train. After 
 the execution of Robespierre, he set up a journal 
 called L^Ami des Loixy in which he disseminated in- 
 fidelity, denounced loyalty, and encouraged licen- 
 tiousness, rebellion and anarchy. As a member, af- 
 terwards, of the Council of Five Hundred, and of 
 the Ancients, he evinced the same immoral, anti-so- 
 cial, and persecuting spirit, and by the noise he made 
 forced himself into a kind of public notoriety, but it 
 was short-lived, and inspired nothing but contempt 
 and ridicule. 
 
 , To keep the public spirit, in continual agitation, 
 he once or twice in the decade pretended to have 
 discovered conspiracies, and counter-revolutionary 
 projects ; and he has lately published a volume of 
 anecdotes, in which he has the impudence to own, 
 ^' that of one hundred and six conspiracies, denoun- 
 ced by him in his journal, only two had some reali- 
 ty ;" but he says also, " that had it not been for his 
 denunciations, many persons would certainly have 
 conspired, so that upon the whole his lies and fabri- 
 cations were useful as well as political." 
 
 When a member of the Committee of Public Safe- 
 ty, he promoted himself to the rank of a colonel ; 
 but neither the Directory nor Buonaparte, notwith- 
 standing his intrigues, have been induced to advance 
 him to a general. It was with great difficulty that 
 his former associate, Fouche, could persuade Buona- 
 parte to bestow on him even the insignificant place 
 he now occupies. The employment of such infa-* 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 301 
 
 mous characters will, however, be sufficient to fur- 
 nish posterity with some idea of the morality of the 
 present government of France. 
 
 LETTER LXXI. 
 
 Abbeville^ J^ovember^ 1804- 
 MV LORD, 
 
 BETWEEN Montreuil and this town I w-as 
 only twice stopped by gensdarmes to exhibit my 
 passport, but at the entrance of the gate some soldiers 
 again surrounded my chaise, and carried me as a 
 prisoner to tlie prefecture, before I could provide 
 lodgings. This was so much the more disagreeable, 
 as six thousand soldiers had arrived, and were to pass 
 the night here, on their way to the coast, and I was 
 detained near an hour before the prefect had time to 
 inspect and sign my passport. As all the inns were 
 crouded, I could only get a supper at the ordinary 
 of one of them, and was obliged to pass the night in 
 my chaise. 
 
 During supper, I was seated at a table wuth sixty- 
 six officer^ of all ranks. They came with their men 
 from Italy, and had been seven weeks on their march. 
 From what they said, the public opinion on the other 
 side of the Alps is far from being favourable to 
 French politics, or to their chief, Buonaparte, par- 
 
502 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ticularly in Piedmont, where Frenchmen are fre- 
 quently surprised and murdered. They ascribed 
 tliese crimes to fanaticism, and to the hatred and re- 
 venge which the rapacity of French commissaries and 
 civil officers had provoked. Though they blamed the 
 Piedmontese, they loudly complained of some indi- 
 viduals there who had usurped and abused the con- 
 fidence of Buonaparte. They spoke of General 
 Menou, Buonaparte's governor- general in that coun- 
 try, with censure, as the protector of extortioners, 
 if not the sharer in their extortions ; and one of them, 
 a major, declared, " that Menou was a greater des- 
 pot at Turin than the Sultan was at Constantinople. 
 He forced the inhabitants to give him credit, and 
 when they requested payment, arrested them as sus- 
 pected or disaffected, fined them, and even threaten- 
 ed to have them tried by special military tribunals, 
 so that they thought themselves fortunate in renounc- 
 ing their property for the recovery of their liberty. 
 This want of security, and this official rapine, had 
 diminished, if not destroyed, what little commerce 
 and manufactures were formerly carried on in Pied- 
 mont, and augmented the mass of misery of the peo- 
 ple, who were almost reduced to despair as well as 
 to beggary." He stated also as a well known fact, 
 that the population had, according to official docu- 
 ments, decreased a tenth part, and that five-eights of 
 the inhabitants were females ; the men having either 
 emigrated, or been killed in the late wars and insur- 
 rections. 
 
 A stranger at table, who asked whether Buona- 
 parte was informed of the excesses of his functional. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 303 
 
 ries, and of the complaints and suiFerings of the peo- 
 ple, was answered by several voices at the same time, 
 " he must know a part, but Madame Buonapaile 
 protects Menou, or, at least, he boasts of her patron- 
 age." Nothing further was spoken on this subject 
 during supper, but about two hours afterwards, the 
 commander of this division. General Gouvion, sent 
 his aid-de-camp to Colonel Dupuy, and demanded 
 some public building, or place of safety, where he 
 might confine between sixty and seventy officers, 
 whom, upon denunciation, he was forced to put un- 
 der arrest, until the pleasure and orders of the Em- 
 peror of the French were known. A convent, for- 
 merly inhabited by English nuns, and afterwards by 
 Enghsh prisoners, was assigned him, and all those 
 officers with whom I supped are now imprisoned 
 there. The division to which they belonged con- 
 tinued its march yesterday morning as if nothing had 
 "happened, and their places were filled up by non- 
 commissioned officers, or by officers of a brigade 
 quartered here. 
 
 It is supposed that at the table was one of Buona- 
 parte's travellings or as they are called here, moveable 
 spies s and that this person made himself known to 
 General Gouvion, and demanded the arrest of these 
 officers. Certain it is, that this general was not pre- 
 sent, and is much beloved for his liberal and friendly 
 manner of associating with the officers under his 
 command, and, therefore, would not have taken such 
 a step if not forced by imperious circumstances. 
 That he did it with regret is alsoTtvident from his 
 visit to them in prison before he left this town, du- 
 
504 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ring which he declared to them, that though their 
 own imprudence had obHged him to confine them, 
 he had recommended them to the minister Berthier, 
 and represented to him that their fault originated 
 from thoughtlessness and indiscretion, and not from 
 discontent or malevolence. He also requested Du- 
 puy, the governor of this place, to make their con- 
 finement as lenient as possible, and to allow them 
 any little superfluities they should desire, for which 
 he would pay from his private purse. 
 
 This General Gouvion is a gentleman by birth, 
 and brother-in-law of the late Marquis and revolu- 
 tionist Condorcet. Though terrour or fanaticism, se- 
 duction or cupidity, have not left his character with*^ 
 out reproach, yet he is, notwithstanding, less culpa- 
 ble than most other degraded nobles, who have so 
 far forgotten tl^emselves as to fraternize with a revo- 
 lutionary rabble. He has enriched himself with the 
 plunder of the proscribed, but his hands are not 
 stained with the blood of innocence. It is true, how- 
 ever, that the difference is not very great between a 
 revolutionary plunderer and a revolutionary murder- 
 er ; and that the man who appropriates to himself the 
 spoils of victims, should his interest require it, will 
 easily become their butclxer. 
 
l^HE BELGIAlJ TRAVELLER. 305 
 
 LETTER LXXII. 
 
 Abbeville^ Kovember^ ISOk 
 
 I DINED to day with the governor, Dupuy, m 
 company with Andre Dumont, the sub-prefect of the 
 town, another regicide and ex -deputy of the Nation- 
 al Convention. At dinner various were the opinions 
 of what would probably be the fate of these officers* 
 Some supposed that they would be pardoned and re* 
 Stored to their rank, others that they would all be 
 broken, and reduced to serve as common soldiers. 
 
 The sub -prefect thought that lenity should be out 
 of the question, as it would be equally dangerous and 
 impolitic. It would be dangerous to suffer subjects 
 honoured with an imperial commission, to suggest 
 suspicions of the morality of other imperial public 
 functionaries; and it would be impolitic not to punish 
 even indiscretions as crimes, as the only means of 
 preventing indiscretions from becoming real crimes, 
 or producing their consequences. " Had," added 
 lie, '* Louis XVI. been more severe against those of- 
 ficers of his army whose indiscreet sallies or intem- 
 perate language caused his government to be calum* 
 niated, and his authority despised, who set their 
 soldiers the example of insubordination, and gave 
 them lessons of licentiousness^ he would have reign- 
 ed longer, and, like his ancestors, would have died 
 in his bed instead of expiring on the scaffold," 
 
 Qq 
 
30^ THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 These words struck me so much the more forci- 
 bly, as I kne,w this Andre Dumont to be one of the 
 regicide assassins of that virtuous and unfortunate 
 prince ; and that after having been one of the accom- 
 phces in his murder, he for a long time continued 
 one of the most barbarous calumniators of his memo- 
 ry, and pursued the best of kings even beyond the 
 grave, with his unfeeling and cruel perseverance. 
 But, as I have already observed, it is nothing new in 
 this country to find staunch republicans, and the 
 murderers of a legitimate king, the vilest slaves of a 
 despotic usurper, and the firmest supporters of a 
 liberticide usurpation. 
 
 Andre Dumont was, before the revolution, ac^ 
 cording to some, a parish clerk, or, as others say, 
 the clerk of a pettifogging attorney. Immoral, and 
 involved in debt, he became, from its beginning, the 
 partisan of an overthrow which held out pillage to 
 avidity, and impunity to guilt. Though young, in a 
 short time he surpassed the oldest and most extra- 
 vagant Jacobins of his department, and was, there- 
 fore, elected a member of the National Convention, 
 that infamous den of criminality and of corruption. 
 Here he voted for the death of his king, for the confis- 
 cation of the property of the rich, and for the sacri- 
 fice of the lives of the loyal. He rivalled in cruelty, 
 for a time, Carrier, Lebon, Robespierre, Barras, Fou- 
 che, Danton, Barrere, Marat,'and other famous mur- 
 derers of 1793 and 1794. He sometimes even at- 
 tempted to suq^ass them in ferocity. It was he who 
 proposed, in the Jacobin Club, the massacre, e?i 
 masse, of all children the offspring of parents sus- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 307 
 
 pected of aristocracy. On the 24th of March, 1793, 
 he denounced in the National Convention an address 
 of the town of Amiens, which requested the arrest 
 of some terrourists, and a law against assassins and 
 promoters of assassination ; and demanded that all 
 the persons who had signed such an aristocratical 
 address should be outlawed, and sent to the guil- 
 lotine. 
 
 In July of the same year, he procured himself a 
 mission in the department of the Somme, where he 
 was guilty of the most horrible exactions and cruel- 
 ties. He spared not even the poor sans-culottes, 
 then the sovereign people, whom he condemned to 
 wear round their necks badges, on which their names, 
 ages, and the place of their birth and residence, 
 were engraved or written. On the 9th of Septem- 
 ber, 1793, he caused upwards of two hundred per- 
 sons to be imprisoned, as suspected, of whom sixty- 
 four were old and infirm priests and nuns. He wrote 
 on this subject, in a jocular strain, to the National 
 Convention : " I have ordered to be tied together, 
 by two and two, those five dozens of black beasts. 
 They have been exposed, before their imprisonment, 
 to public amusement, under the guard of some 
 strolling players." If he did not cause so much 
 blood to be spilt as a Carrier and a Fouche, his cor- 
 respondence with the Committee of Public Safety 
 is more ferocious than that of those monsters, and 
 his depredations were also more considerable. Be- 
 fore the term of his proconsulate had expired he 
 purchased a superb hotel at Abbeville, which he still 
 occupies, with a large estate in the same canton. 
 
508 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 He began his revolutionary career with a salary of 
 five hundi'ed livres, (20/.) and within three years he 
 possessed estates and lands, producing annually, 
 one hundred and fifty thousand Hvres (6000/.) 
 
 When, after the punishment of Robespierre, the 
 teiTourists and their grand measures were no longer 
 fashionable, he joined the pretended moderate party, 
 and became one of the most violent and indefatiga^ 
 ble persecutors of the Jacobins, demanded the 
 demolition of their clubs, that their regulation? 
 should be burned by the public executioner, and 
 that the members should be forthwith tried by the 
 revolutionary tribunals. Such was his inconsistency, 
 even at that period of the revolution, that, after hav- 
 ing enriched hiqiself with the confiscated estates and 
 plunder of emigrants, he, in 1796, when a member 
 of the Council of Five Hundred, spoke in favour of 
 these same emigrants, to w^hose relations he wished 
 a part of their property to be returned. In 1797, 
 his public career as a deputy ceased, and he remain- 
 ed in well merited obscurity until 1800, when 
 Buonaparte appointed him a sub-prefect of this 
 town, where he is both dreaded and despised, 
 
 yrom w^hat I had experienced myself at Mon, 
 treuil, and from what had occi^rredto the imprison^ 
 ed officers here, I was very much upon my guard 
 during this day's dinner; and when the sub-prefect 
 invited me to pass the day with him to-morrow, I 
 declined, without giving offence, in telling him, that 
 I should already have been at Amiens, had I yester, 
 ^ay paorning been able to obtain post-horses, 
 
THE BEXGIAN TRAVELLER. 309 
 
 ' LETTER LXXIII. 
 
 jlmiensy Kovember^ 1804. 
 MY lORD, 
 
 THE manner of living here of Buonaparte's 
 public functionaries, is not more splendid or more 
 tasteful, but much more extravagant than that for- 
 merly of the king's governors, intendants and offi- 
 cers. The meats and wines of one repast of the for- 
 mer, would have furnished the stewards, cooks and 
 butlers of the latter with provisions and drink suffi- 
 cient for four brilliant state dinners. The revolu- 
 tionary anarchy seems to have intruded itself even 
 into modem entertainments. There is plenty of 
 every thing, but nothing is in its place ; some dishes 
 are too highly, seasoned, while others have no sea- 
 soning at all ; meat is served when fish is wanting, 
 and burgundy is given when claret is asked for. 
 Some guests are ready to perish from repletion, 
 while others are menaced to suffer from inanition in 
 not having received enough. You are no longer at 
 liberty to ask for what you like, but you must like 
 w^hat is offered you. In this part of France, not to 
 taste every plate sent you is rude, and you are, 
 therefore, under the necessity of being civil at the 
 expense of your palate as well as of your stomach. 
 If the master and mistress of the house do not care 
 much about you, your healtJi is in no danger from 
 pverjoading yourself; but if you have th« misfortune; 
 
31(5 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 to please them, it is ten to one, if not upon your 
 guard, that they, with the best intent in the world, 
 will choak you. 
 
 The dinner hour in the camp was three o'clock. 
 The service usually consisted of three courses, and 
 a dessert, with burgundy, claret, champaigne, coffee 
 and liquors. When no duty was to be performed 
 afterwards, it was seldom over before six o'clock, 
 the hour when the play began. At the prefect's, 
 bankers and other private families, the dinner was 
 on the table at half past two o'clock ; the fare con- 
 sisted generally of two, but seldom of three courses, 
 with good burgundy, vin de grave, or some other 
 white wine, coffee and liqueurs. It was always over 
 before four, when whist, back- gammon, picquet, 
 and sometimes pharao, or birribi were introduced. 
 These last games were particularly fashionable at the 
 houses of public functionaries, where politeness 
 seemed to require that you should leave some louis 
 d'ors behind you. The servants do not here, as 
 in Holland, hold out their hands, and demand pay- 
 ment, or beg alms, but if you put half a crown in 
 their hands, you are sure to be well taken care of 
 another time. From the foot- man of the prefect, to 
 the grand- marshal or grand- chamberlain of the Em- 
 peror, all are fond of money ; all are accessible to 
 bribes ; and none render service or good offices for 
 nothing. 
 
 When the military functionaries have dined, they 
 go to the play, and from the play to the coffee-houses 
 and gambling tables. As the civil functionaries have 
 their boxes gratis at the theatres, tliey also go there 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, SH 
 
 and generally invite their guests with them ; but they 
 in their turn expect to be invited, after the play, to 
 some coffee-house or public garden by their guests, 
 and treated with ices, lemonades, &c. Except 
 among the lowest classes, suppers or supper-parties 
 are not heard of much in the provinces. 
 
 From what I have hitherto seen in France, it is 
 not much the fashion to marry among Buonaparte's 
 public functionaries. They all have one or more 
 mistresses, but they seldom associate with them in 
 public. The manners of the men are, therefore, not 
 improved or softened by this neglect of the women, 
 who in their turn neglect their persons, when they 
 observe themselves no longer the objects of the at- 
 tention of the other sex. 
 
 I heard a very handsome and sensible lady, the 
 wife of a general, complain much of the great loss 
 her sex had experienced, in losing that elegant tri- 
 fling, all that real or affected politeness, which be- 
 fore the revolution made the lives of women so agree- 
 able and enviable. " We have indeed," said she, 
 ^* suffered much more than the gentlemen by the com- 
 mon overthrow. They have only been deprived of 
 rank and riches, and may often have opportunities to 
 repair these privations; but we, who usually have 
 too much time to spare, have been robbed of the so- 
 ciety of the men, of those civilities, of that prefer- 
 ence, and of that delicate and refined deportment 
 towards us, which were the chief blessings and 
 comfort of our existence. Ages were necessary 
 to produce by degrees, that height of civilization 
 and amiable gallantry, which distinguished formerly 
 
312 THE BELGIAN TRi^YELLER. 
 
 good company in France ; some few years liave been 
 sufficient to carry us back as many centuries; if the 
 women are not quite so brutalized as the men, it is 
 not owing to the latter; but originates from the mu- 
 tual attentions of the former to each other, which, 
 in those who are friends, appear like the attachments 
 of lovers. Our losses are irreparable ! for the pre- 
 sent generation of women, can never live long enough 
 to witness any social reform, or to enjoy the fruits 
 of any social improvements of the men.'* 
 
 LETTER LXXIV. 
 
 jlimens^ N'ovember^ 1804>. 
 
 Having a letter from governor Dupuy, for the 
 governor here, colonel Durand, I presented it, and 
 was received with great civility. He offered to ac- 
 company me to the prefecture, and to introduce me 
 to the prefect, Quinette, who was, he said, rather 
 severe and punctilious with strangers. 
 
 At the prefecture was a great concourse of people 
 to see a man exposed in the pillory, who had com- 
 mitted a forgery, and a collection of money was 
 made for him among the spectators, who seemed to 
 pity more than to blame him* 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 3 13 
 
 I was told, that before the revokition, he was one 
 of the wealthiest manufacturers of this town ; but 
 becoming the dupe of the sophistry of a sans-culotte 
 schemer, he soon became his tool and his victim. 
 He joined with ardour in the revolution^ and was an 
 inveterate persecutor of all its opposersw When, in 
 1794, Robespierre decreed a maximum, his sans- 
 culotte friend seized the whole contents of his ware- 
 houses, for which he paid in assignats, which had 
 depreciated no less than five- sixths of their value, 
 this patriotic treachery ruined him in one day. The 
 punishment he now underwent, was for having writ- 
 ten the acceptance of this very man, who is now one 
 of Buonaparte's senators, on a bill of exchange of 
 one hundred and fifty livres (6/.) I believe, from 
 the expressions and the looks of the multitude 
 who surrounded the scaffold, that they would have 
 taken more pleasure in seeing there the revolutiona- 
 ry senator, than they felt in contemplating the revo- 
 lutionary manufacturer. 
 
 The prefect Quinette behaved to me much better 
 than I expected ; he not only made no objection 
 to sign my pass, but he also invited me to din- 
 ner, which I declined. Before the revolution he was 
 a notary at Soisson, and in 1791, elected a deputy of 
 the legislative assembly, where he conducted himself 
 with moderation; but being chosen a member of the 
 National Convention, he showed himself extrava- 
 gant, unjust and cruel. He voted for the death of 
 his King, and for the sanguinary tyranny of a revo* 
 lutionary and republican government. Ordered by 
 the Convention, in March, 1793, as a representative 
 
 Rr 
 
314 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 to the army, then commanded by General Dumou. 
 rier, he was one of the four deputies delivered up to 
 the Austrian government, and on the 25th of De- 
 cember, 1795, was exchanged for the Princess Royal 
 of France, the only surviving child of Louis XVL 
 He was afterwards a member of the Council of Five 
 Hundred, and a minister of the interior, when Buo- 
 Tiaparte seized the reins of state. His capacity to fill 
 this place being doubted, and Lucien Buonaparte 
 wanting it, as a means to enrich himself, Quinette 
 was deprived of the ministerial port- folio, but ap- 
 pointed to his present prefecture as an indemnity. 
 He no longer is the persecutor of men of rank and 
 property, but he continues the firm protector of all 
 those pretended patriots and revolutionists, whom 
 pillage has enriched, or crime elevated. 
 
 LETTER LXXV. 
 
 Parisiy November^ 1804, 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 BETWEEN Amiens and this city I was trou- 
 bled no less than twenty-one times to exhibit my 
 passport to gensdarmes and soldiers. 
 
 In its vicinity, sixteen years ago, I visited a 
 friend, the Duke of Fitz-James, who had here 
 an estate, with one of the most elegant chateaua 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 315 
 
 and extensive parks In France. A barber, for a tri- 
 fling sum in assignats, became master of the chateau, 
 which he demolished, and obtained fourteen times 
 the amount of the purchase-money for the materials, 
 which enabled him to buy a part of the park. All 
 the timber and wood was immediately cut down and 
 sold, which again more than doubled his capital. He 
 then thought it prudent or dignified to change his 
 name with his fortune. Under the appellation of 
 Beaumanoir, he came to this capital, bought a ho- 
 tel, speculated in the funds, increased his riches, 
 was advanced to the rank of a general, without ever 
 having seen an enemy, and is now a commander of 
 Buonaparte's legion of honour. His wife's routs, 
 assemblies and balls are now the resort of all the 
 fashionable people of both sexes. 
 
 The Diligence stopped for an hour at Chantilly, 
 to give the passengers an opportunity to dine. You 
 know that this place belonged formerly to the Prince 
 of Conde, who had a chateau here ; I say who hady 
 because it shared the fate of the chateau of the Duke 
 of Fitz-James. A stone mason from Senlis bought 
 it, demolished it, and became rich by selling the ma- 
 terials. He paid the nation for it thirty thousand 
 livres in paper money, which was worth at that time 
 about three thousand livres (125/.) in cash, and sold 
 copper, iron, and other materials from the rubbish, 
 to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand 
 livres (6000/.) in ready money. The beautiful pai-k 
 adjoining the chateau has also in part been disposed 
 of, and totally disfigured. Some manufacturers have 
 established themselves there, built houses, and turn- 
 
316 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLED. 
 
 ed the delightful waters according to their fancy os 
 advantage. Even the so much admired Isle d' Amour 
 exists no longer, and a mill is constructed on its 
 scite. We dined at the Hotel de Londres, where we 
 were assailed with dozens of beggars, who had all 
 seen better days, and were either attached to the 
 household of the Prince of Cond6, or had been his 
 pensioners. They drew such a picture of the mise- 
 ry which all the inhabitants here had suiFered from 
 the revolution, as might have forced tears even from 
 the eyes of a Jacobin. Whole families have commit- 
 ted suicide, others have literally starved to death, 
 and those that still dragged on a wretched existence, 
 had no prospect of a better fate. But, notwithstand- 
 ing their great distress, and the great temptation 
 held out to them by the examples of others, not a 
 single inhabitant of Chantilly has joined in the par- 
 tition of revolutionary spoil, or has even accepted a 
 place under the revolutionary governments. All the 
 public functionaries here have been, and are still, 
 strangers, chiefly from Paris and Senlis. 
 
 One of the unfortunate persons who asked us for 
 alms, said his name was Rossignol, and that he had 
 fprnierly been a huntsnian to the Prince of Conde. 
 He spoke loudly of the horrour which the murder of 
 the Duke d'Enghien had caused at Chantilly, where 
 po threats of the police could make them relinquish 
 their unanimous resolution of putting on mourning 
 for this amiable prince. '* Even I," said he, " laid 
 out my last six sous for this crape ribband, though 
 it deprived me of a dinner ; and were I to speak to 
 Buonaparte himself, I would repeat, that the man 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. Sll 
 
 who ordered the duke to be massacred, is a murder- 
 er, whom the divme vengeance will sooner or later 
 overtake." " Hold your tongue, Rossignol," said 
 a gendarme, who entered to inspect our passes, " or 
 I shall be obliged to send you to the black-hole. 
 You know how narrow an escape you had for your 
 life the last time you were there." *' You may take 
 my life whenever you like," replied the honest hunts- 
 man ; " you will not destroy much happiness ; but 
 as long as I live, and can speak, nobody shall hinder 
 me from calling Buonaparte" — Here all the passen- 
 gers interrupted him, and in praising his attachment 
 and fidelity to his former masters, blamed his impru- 
 dence. The gendarme told us that he was in no dan- 
 ger, '*yor had we ?iot considered him as der'anged in 
 his intellects by the revolution^ we should long ago 
 fiave shot him.'''' This instrument of military des- 
 potism spoke of shooting a fellow citizen with the 
 same sang froid and indifference as he looked over 
 our passes. His language and his countenance both 
 proved that he had long been used to such summary 
 executions, and thought them no more unjust or 
 cruel than to seize a thief, or confine a robber. 
 
 I am told, that notwithstanding the immense 
 wealth of which he has been pillaged by revolution- 
 ary banditti, the Prince of Conde is still rich. How 
 generous would it be in him to relieve the distresses 
 of these loyal and brave servants or tenants, who 
 might have been affluent had they not been faithful^ 
 and whose poverty is equally meritorious and hon- 
 ourable. Examples of duty, of disinterestedness, 
 and of honesty, which are so scarce in moderni 
 
318 THE BELGIAN TRAMiLLER. 
 
 France, that every truly patriotic mind must desire 
 to encourage them, and every patriotic hand that has 
 the means, should be extended to remunerate them. 
 
 LETTER LXXVL 
 
 Paris^ J^'ovembeVy 1804. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 FROM the general appearance of the culture 
 and prosperity of the northern departments of old 
 France, the country is not improved, nor the people 
 more comfortable than they were sixteen years ago. 
 It was supposed by many, that in parcelling the large 
 estates of the nobility and clergy among numerous 
 purchasers of the lower classes, the lands. would not 
 only be better cultivated and more productive, but 
 that the new owners, laborious and industrious, would 
 become easy and independent. 
 
 But these speculations, like most other schemes of 
 modern regenerators, have in great part miscarried. 
 The farms of the nobles and priests were, from the 
 commencement of the sales of national propert}^, 
 bought chiefly by merchants and shopkeepers, who 
 had some small capitals to spare, but who had no 
 other object in view, than to make the most of their 
 money, and as soon as possible ; national property 
 lias always been, and is still considered as unsafe and 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 319 
 
 precarious, so much so, that the difference between 
 it and patrimonial property continues from fifty to 
 eighty per cent ; a circumstance which has prevent- 
 ed many rich landholders and farmers from laying 
 out their money for it. Few of the labourers had anv 
 means of becoming proprietors, and, therefore, only 
 changed masters, without gaining by the exchange. 
 
 But what has caused much complaint, and must 
 be felt for a long time, is the cutting down, by the 
 purchasers, of the forests that had been the care of 
 centuries to plant, cultivate and preserve ; and the 
 demolishing every chateau, church, convent or build- 
 ing, merely to dispose of the materials. 
 
 That the lands are not better cultivated than for. 
 merly proceeds from two causes. The new proprie- 
 tors, unacquainted with agriculture, were obliged to 
 trust to tenants, who profited by the ignorance of 
 the owners, and, like them, made what they could, 
 without regard to futurity, which here is always 
 thought uncertain. Most of the lands have also since 
 the beginning of the revolutionary war, been cultiva- 
 ted by women ; an impolitic and ruinous custom, 
 but for which no remedy can be found, as long as 
 revolutionary governments require for their safety, 
 five, six, and seven hundred thousand men under 
 arms, and resort to requisitions and conscriptions to 
 fill up the great vacancies occasioned by battles, dis- 
 eases, desertions and profligacy 
 
 Even those proprietors who reside on their estates, 
 and cultivate their own lands, seem indiiferent about 
 their improvement, on account of the unsafe state of 
 property in general. Their produce, their cattle and 
 
320 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 horses, are as much at present subject to requisition 
 as their money and childi'en ; and while the lowest 
 police commissary or gendarme may arrest and im- 
 prison their persons, every military commissary may 
 seize their property. Under a despotic government, 
 the despotism of inferior tyrants must be necessarily 
 overlooked, extenuated or supported. 
 
 Of the situation of the highways in Flanders, I 
 have already given a description ; but on account of 
 Buonaparte's frequent journies to the coast, the pub- 
 lic road from Calais to this capital, is in excellent 
 order, except for four leagues between St. Just and 
 Clermont, which, without paving the whole, it will 
 be difficult to mend. 
 
 I found the inns in Flanders and along the coast 
 much cleaner and more comfortable than those of 
 the interior. After I left Montrieul, I did not find 
 a clean or decent bed, nor occupy an apartment that 
 was not more or less dirty. If you dine or sup in 
 your own apartment, the price of every thing is 
 doubled, and the attendants who wait on you expect 
 to be better paid for their trouble. At present, how- 
 ever, the general fashion is for all travellers to dine 
 and to sup at the ordinaries. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 321 
 
 LETTER LXXVII. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 OUR stage-coach was stopped at the gate of 
 this capital, and our passports were demanded by a 
 police agent who had two gensdarmes by his side* 
 He behaved civilly, wrote down our names, asked 
 what inns we were going to, and wished us good 
 evening. 
 
 Lodgings had been bespoken for me in the Rue 
 de la Loi, in a hotel kept by a person who my friend 
 had certain information was a spy of the police. 
 Knowing that I did not come here to intrigue, but 
 to §ee, observe, and study the characters and events 
 of the times, he thought this precaution both political 
 and prudent, and that I should be more secure in 
 the house of a man of this description, who, on being 
 paid a liberal price regularly, and witnessing my 
 conduct, would be convinced that his duty was not 
 incompatible with his interest. 
 
 At my hotel, my passport was as usual registered, 
 and my landlord told me that I must within twenty- 
 four hours present myself at the municipality of the 
 district, and within another twenty-four hours at the 
 prefecture of police. At the municipality I was 
 questioned as to the object of my journey, and the 
 time I intended to remain ; an order was then writ- 
 ten on the passport, commanding me to wait on the 
 
322 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER- 
 
 prefect of police the next day, and to bring with me 
 two citizens, who were public functionaries or house 
 keepers, and who would be my securities during my 
 stay here. These two citizens were obliged at the 
 prefecture, to sign their names both in the register 
 of the police, and on the permit I received to pass 
 thirty days undisturbed here. The secretaiy of the 
 prefect, Piis, cautioned me not to leave my lodgings 
 without this permit in my pocket, as in case any po- 
 lice agent or patrole should judge it proper to stop 
 me in the streets or public places, and I was not pro- 
 vided with it, I should expose myself to be detained 
 or imprisoned. It was also necessary if I intended 
 to visit any of the museums, or other public places 
 of curiosity and amusement, where, with it, I might 
 enter on days when, according to regulations, they 
 were otherwise shut* 
 
 Though I had my own servant, I thought it ad- 
 visable to engage a valet de place. My landlord re- 
 commended me one, and, of course, I was sure of 
 being always followed by a police spy, which, for 
 many reasons, I was not sorry for. To men of sense, 
 these fellows are often protectors and safeguards. 
 Had Pichegru and Georges been attended by such 
 men, they would never have been discovered, but an 
 opportunity might have offered itself to escape pur- 
 suit, and to remain concealed. Half a crown a day 
 >s the common price of a valet de place in this capitaK 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 3^23 
 
 LETTER LXXVHL 
 
 Parity JVovember, 1504. 
 
 JUY LORD, 
 
 THIRTEEN years are passed away since I the 
 last time inhabited this guilty city, this focus of cor- 
 ruption, -immorality and crime. 
 
 When I was here in 1791, the revolutionary fame 
 of La Fayette was eclipsed by the encreasing popu- 
 larity of a Petion, of a Brissot, and of their sanguina- 
 ry and depraved accomplices. Now a man rules 
 unlimited, who then was an obscure individual ; and 
 the weight of his iron sceptre, though oppressive, is 
 endured, if not with content and satisfaction, at least 
 without resistance. Those who then exclaimed, 
 with hypocritical enthusiasm, liberty ! equality ! fra- 
 ternity or death ! now live the quiet and abject slaves 
 of a usurper, who owns no superior, and who suf- 
 fers no equal ; who has trampled upon the rights of 
 man, invaded the sovereignty of his Prince, and an- 
 nihilated the sovereignty of the people ; who, unre- 
 sistingly, tyrannizes over the French nation, and op- 
 presses and treats all other states like France. 
 
 During my first walk through this city since my 
 present arrival, I imagined every moment that I was 
 wandering in blood, between gaols and scaffolds, by 
 the side of gaolers and executioners. Since I was 
 here last, how many thousands have bled, how many 
 millions have suffered or are ruined ! How many 
 
324 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 chiefs of factions have here marched to power over 
 dead bodies, and appeared for a moment like lumi- 
 naries, only to perish, and give place to others, who 
 have been destroyed in their turn. 
 
 Thus meditating, I went up to JRue St. DominiquCy 
 to inquire after a friend, of whose fate I was uncer- 
 tain. I found his hotel transformed into barracks, 
 and though his father and grandfather had lived in 
 the same hotel, no one in the street could give me 
 the information I requested ; they were all new 
 comers, and occupied houses which had been sold, 
 not by their owners, but by the nation. A coffee- 
 house at the upper part of this street, near Rue de 
 Tarranne^ struck me. I thought I had seen it be- 
 fore, and asked the mistress how long she had been 
 established there ? " Thirty- six years, Sir," she 
 answered. Then you must have known Count de 
 
 D , and can tell me what has become of him, 
 
 and his amiable family. '' Yes, Sir ! I have known 
 that generous and philanthropical nobleman, and 
 mourn every day his destiny. He, his wife, and 
 three daughters were all guillotined, in May, 1794, 
 on the same day and hour. His two eldest sons were 
 killed in Germany, serving under the Prince of 
 Conde, and his third son lost his life as a conscript 
 in a corps of the army ofMassena, in Switzerland." 
 
 And his cousin, the Marquis de St. L , is he 
 
 also dead ? " No, Sir ; he is worse ; he is ruined. 
 He passed seven or eight years in being carried from 
 gaol to gaol, from one military commission to ano- 
 ther. His life was spared, and he returned to society, 
 where he was a stranger ; to live in a world where 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 325 
 
 he has not a friend ; and to be plagued with an ex- 
 istence, which the revolution had deprived him of 
 all means to support. All his property was sold du- 
 ring his confinement ; and the last time I heard of 
 him, he was on his way to some foreign country, to 
 court obscurity, and find bread or a tomb." 
 
 Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of 
 trumpets, and I saw a herald, attended by guards, 
 and followed by crowds, who approached us to pro- 
 claim the ceremony to be observed on the occasion 
 of Buonapartes coronation. It was a curious coinci- 
 dence, that I should have seen, on the 10th of Au- 
 gust, 1792, about seven o'clock in the evening, near- 
 ly upon the same spot, Manuel, the procurer- gene- 
 ral of the commune, accompanied with guards and 
 military music, read a decree which abolished royal- 
 ty forever in France. 
 
 Another gentleman whom I formerly knew, a 
 
 Baron du M , had a house in the next street, 
 
 the Rue cle Grenelle, I was afraid to ask after him ; 
 I knew that he was neither dead nor ruined, but I 
 had been informed that he had dishonoured him- 
 self. Just when I was thinking of him, a carriage 
 stopped, and somebody called me by name. It was 
 he. *•' Step in to my carriage," said he ; "I come 
 this instant from the hotel of our minister, Talley- 
 rand, and we have been talking of you. He wants to 
 speak with you, and I shall be glad to introduce you 
 to him." I thanked him for his offer, but declined 
 both it and his company. I could no longer doubt, 
 but that the rumour concerning him Avas true, and 
 that he had descended to become the secret agent of 
 
326 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 the minister, after being refused a place as an official 
 agent of the Emperor. 
 
 Indeed, in this capital, as well as in the army on the 
 coast, fatalism has become the ruling and fashionable 
 religion, and persons of all ranks and ages, and of 
 both sexes, believe in and trust to its irresistible in- 
 fluence. Hence, I judge, in a great degree, origi- 
 nates the passive obedience of Frenchmen to Buo- 
 naparte's usurpation : but hence may also one day 
 originate their equally passive submission to another 
 usurper, to his destroyer. 
 
 But this spirit of fatality also diminishes industry, 
 flatters idleness, and excites a neglect of every thing 
 that does not produce an immediate enjoyment. It 
 increases the passion of gambling, (of which govern- 
 ment takes advantage to a shameful degree) and aug- 
 ments the number of v/retches, who, after being 
 'disappointed, become desperate, and destroy others 
 or themselves. In a few words, its fatal effects are 
 felt, ad infinitum^ already among all classes of socie- 
 ty, and must be still more felt in generations to come. 
 Many true patriots and devout christians hoped that 
 the presence of the Roman Pontiff would put a stop 
 to its progress, and impede its ravages ; but from 
 what I have heard of the public opinion, Pius VIL 
 by his submission to Buonaparte, and by suffering 
 himself to be an instrument of his ambition, has more 
 scandalized faith than converted infidelity. 
 
 I had a long conversation on this subject, with 
 Buonaparte's minister of the Christian worship, Por- 
 talis. Notwithstanding his present attachment to 
 the Emperor of the French, or rather, as I suppose. 
 
THE BELGIAN TILWELLER. 327 
 
 to his place, he could not deny that the religious 
 foundation of the Imperial throne was as precarious 
 and unsafe as the political one, and that it rested and 
 must rest entirely upon bayonets. He said that he 
 had foreseen the inutility, if not the danger of the 
 Pope's arrival in France, and dissuaded Buonaparte 
 from it ; but that Talleyrand, who still continues 
 the most inveterate enemy of the Christian religion, 
 had, from motives different from those urged to Buo- 
 naparte, engaged him to imitate Charlemagne, and 
 to have his usurped supremacy in the state sanction- 
 ed by the revered supreme head of the church. 
 
 LETTER LXXIX. 
 
 Paris J January^ 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 AS far as I can judge from general conversa- 
 tion, as well as from the opinions of influential indi- 
 viduals, the Senate may be divided into four fac- 
 tions; the Republican, the Jacobin, the Royalist and 
 the Imperial. 
 
 Lanjuinais and Volney are considered as chiefs 
 of the Republican party, which is the least numerous, 
 but which, according to report, has showed itself the 
 most consistent, even under Buonaparte's despot- 
 ism. Though the discussions and ^'otes of the sena- 
 
328 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 tors are to be kept secret, it has transpired, that both 
 Buonaparte's consulate for life, and his imperial title 
 and sovereignty, were strongly opposed by this par- 
 ty; and when carried by a large majority, protested 
 against in a spirited manner. According to the pre- 
 sent constitution, the places of senators are for life ; 
 but Buonaparte was so much offended when he heard 
 of this protest, that he resolved upon what he called 
 an epuration, and to clear the Senate of all obnoxious 
 members, a resolution which the Council of State 
 dissuaded him, then^ from carrying into execution, 
 in order not to disclose the want of unanimity of 
 which he had boasted in his speeches and procla- 
 mations. 
 
 Before the revolution, Lanjuinais wasan advocate 
 and professor of civil law at Rennes, and distin- 
 guished himself for his hatred against the nobility 
 and clergy. As a member of the first National As- 
 sembly, he abused the King for writing, according 
 to former customs, in his ordinances, ** I will, and I 
 order." It was in consequence of his motion of the 
 19th June, 1790, that all titles were abolished in 
 France forever; and he declared his indignation, 
 because the National Assembly suffered the brothers 
 of the King still to be called Princes. In 1792, he 
 was elected a deputy of the National Convention, 
 where he displayed much more moderation, and 
 often combated the terrourists, particularly their chief, 
 Robespierre. He spoke with courage in favour of 
 Louis XVI. and requested that he should be allowed 
 the same means of defence as all other accused per- 
 sons ; he attacked, with firmness and ability, the de- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 329 
 
 cree of accusation against this unfortunate prince, 
 and, in the midst of the threats and insults of the 
 Jacobins, proved the atrocity of a trial, where the 
 King's sworn enemies were, at the same time, accu- 
 sers, witnesses, jurors and judges; and he charged 
 the members of the Convention with being guilty of 
 all the blood that flowed on the 10th of August, 1792, 
 by their conspiracy against a falling throne. He re- 
 fused to vote as a judge on his King, whose deten- 
 tion until a peace he thought a sufficient punishment, 
 even if he was culpable, which was not proved. He 
 insisted also on the banishment from France of the 
 Orleans family, and that the assassins of prisoners 
 should be prosecuted. When in June, 1793, the ter- 
 rourist party had become victorious, he was ordered 
 to be arrested, but having escaped was outlawed, 
 and remained concealed until the death of Robe- 
 spierre, when he was again admitted a member of 
 the National Convention. He again conducted him- 
 self with justice, moderation and energy, desiring a 
 republic, and opposing equally the royalists and the 
 anarchists. When he, in 1799, accepted from Buo- 
 naparte his present pkce of a senator, it is certain 
 that he was promised the continuance and organiza- 
 tion of a republic, having for its basis, liberty, equa- 
 lity and popular representations; but in 1802, when 
 it became a question about a consulate for life, and 
 he obtained an audience of Buonaparte, to dissuade 
 him from such an act, and to cause him to remem- 
 ber his former professions, he was answered, " that 
 the mass of the people were attached to and desirous 
 of monarchical forms and institutions:" ^' Then be 
 
 T t 
 
330 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 just," replied Lanjuinais; " recall Louis XVIII. if 
 a throne is again to degrade France, it belongs to 
 him, and to nobody else." 
 
 - I have heard Lanjuinais, more than once, repro- 
 bated for his want of prudence, or, as it has also 
 been called, his indiscretion, when discussing the 
 power and acts of our present ruler ; but his answer 
 has always been, ** What has a man of seventy to 
 fear? I pronounced myself a republican under Louis 
 XVI. I should be contemptible indeed were I to 
 alter my principles and conduct^ under Napoleon the 
 First, who has so often sworn fidelity to a republi- 
 can government, in the name of which he has made 
 all his conquests, and to which alone he owes all his 
 glory. I shall die a republican, whether I expire in 
 the senate or in a dungeon. 
 
 LETTER LXXX. 
 
 Parisy January^ 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 FOUCHE and Cabanis are considered as the 
 chiefs of the Jacobin faction of the Senate, and are 
 supported by all those who, like themselves, have 
 any great crime to reproach themselves with, who 
 have voted for the death of their King, murdered 
 and proscribed their fellow-eitizens, and enriched 
 
3^ 
 
 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. S3l 
 
 themselves with their spoils. They are all of them 
 despised and detested, both within and without the 
 Senate, but they are also dreaded; their activity, 
 their capacity, their sanguinary and desperate cha- 
 racters, inspire with terrour all those who have suf- 
 fered from or remember their former enormities. 
 At the death of Napoleon, should the Senate remain 
 composed as it now is, and Fouche also occupy the 
 important place of a minister of police, the struggle 
 of his partisans to revive their favourite reign of ter- 
 rour, must be opposed by the union of the conten- 
 ding factions, if they would avoid falling victims to 
 their negligence or want of foresight. As a minister 
 of police, Fouche is the commander in chief of one 
 hundred thousand spies in this capital alone, many 
 of whom have figured heretofore as members of 
 revolutionary tribunals and committees, as Septem- 
 brizers, as drowners and shooters under his com- 
 mand at Lyons and in La Vendee. Such an army 
 of banditti and desperadoes, in revolutionary times, 
 is more to be apprehended than an army of soldiers, 
 because they are always more artful, more unprin- 
 cipled, and more ferocious. Many think that should 
 Fouche be enabled to direct any revolutionary move- 
 ments at the death of Buonaparte, he will, pcrhaps) 
 have audacity enough to try to succeed him, and to 
 seize the reins of government as the director or con- 
 sul of a new created commonwealth, where liberty 
 and equality will again be promised, while despotism 
 and slavery are organized. 
 
 Barthelemy and Tronchet are supposed the chiefs 
 of the Royalist party of the Senate ; but neither of 
 
332 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 them possesses that energ^^ of character necessary to 
 head factions that change the destinies of states. 
 Though both of them approved of the revolution in 
 its beginning, they have been concerned in none of 
 its excesses, but openly reprobated them, and held 
 out to detestation their perpetrators. 
 
 Before the revolution, Barthelemy was employed 
 as a secretary of legation in England, and afterwards 
 he was appointed an ambassador to Switzerland, 
 where his moderation and morality gained general 
 admiration, and exhibited a striking contrast to the 
 behaviour of other revolutionary^ diplomatists. In 
 the spring of 1797, as a reward for the treaties of 
 peace he had concluded during the two preceding 
 years, with Prussia and Spain, the two councils elec- 
 ted him a member of the Executive Directorv, from 
 which he was expelled by a regicide majority, and 
 condemned to be transported to Cayenne, He esca- 
 ped from that colony with Pichegru and other loyal 
 men; and after Buonaparte's usurpation, was recal- 
 led to France by him, and made a senator. He is old 
 and infirm, honest but timid. 
 
 Tronchet was, before the revolution, an advocate 
 of parliament, where he givas regarded as a luminary, 
 and enjoyed a general and well deserved esteem. 
 As a member of the first National Assembly, he -con- 
 ducted himself with honour and patriotism ; defen- 
 ded rank against envy and jealousy, and property 
 against cupidity and profligacy. At a time when it 
 was fashionable to insult the King and the Royal 
 Family, on their return from the journey to Varennes, 
 in June, 1791, he was one of the commissioners sent 
 
THE b:^lgian traveller. 333 
 
 by the Assembly to take their declarations, and be- 
 haved as a dutiful and respectful subject, even to 
 royalty in fetters. When, in 1792, Louis XVI. 
 appeared before his assassins of the National Con- 
 vention, he demanded Tronchet for one of his offi- 
 cial defenders, an office which, though dangerous, 
 he accepted, and acquitted himself in a manner that 
 did equal honour to his head and to his heart, and 
 which will carry his name down to the remotest pos- 
 terity with distinction. For this act of loyalty and 
 duty, the Committee of Public Safety decreed his 
 arrest, but he escaped both prison and death by con- 
 cealment. He was afterwards a member of the 
 Council of Ancients, and of the Commission which, 
 under Buonaparte's consulate, was ordered to pre- 
 pare a civil code for France. In February, 1802, he 
 was promoted to the rank of a senator. Though he 
 is a man of more intrepidity than Barthclemy, he is 
 more fit to shine in quiet than in troublesome times; 
 and by no means can boast of that vigour of mind, 
 bordering on temerity, which, in the conflict of fac- 
 tions, braves death to seize on power. 
 
 The generals Le Fevre and Serurier are called 
 the chiefs of the Imperial party, to which all the 
 other generals and officers at present members of 
 the Senate belong, and who carry there every thing 
 either by force or persuasion. In all the constituted 
 authorities of a military despotism, the opinions and 
 interest of military men must prevail; they usually 
 correspond with the views of their master, with 
 which also their individual advantage and advance- 
 ment are connected. 
 
334 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 First a soldier, and afterwards a sergeant of the 
 guards of Louis XVI. Le Fevre was among the first 
 of that corps, whom the Oriean faction seduced to 
 desert, and whose treachery La Fayette recompens- 
 ed with a commission as an officer in the Parisian 
 national guard. In 1793, Robespierre made him a 
 general, and as such he has distinguished himself 
 for his courage more than for his capacity. A mer- 
 ciless plunderer, like most other revolutionary, gene- 
 rals, he was, in 1799, accused by Jourdan of not 
 having done his duty, and that his ill-gotten riches 
 had impaired his valour. Having joined Buonaparte 
 after his return from Egypt, and assisted him in the 
 revolution of St. Cloud, he was made his first lieute- 
 nant, and governor of Paris, a place he resigned 
 when promoted to the Senate. It is said, that when 
 Buonaparte, before his first journey to the coast, de- 
 posited with the Senate, and in Le Fevre 's hand, the 
 will and regulation of his succession, he said, " I 
 trust to your sword and fidelity for the observance 
 of a will, without which France, after my death, will 
 again become a prey to anarchy and revolutions.'* 
 '' With my last breath I shall defend it," replied the 
 general and senator. 
 
 Serurier was, before the revolution, a lieutenant- 
 colonel, and first obtained, in 1795, the rank of a 
 general of division. As such he has made all the 
 campaigns of Italy under Buonaparte, and displayed 
 equal talents and intrepidity; and it was he who, in 
 1797, signed for France the capitulation of Mantua, 
 the blockade of which he had commanded. He was 
 for twelve months a governor of Venice, to the sa- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 335, 
 
 tisfaction of the inhabitants. In November, 1799, 
 he assisted Buonaparte in the overthrow of the Di- 
 rectorial Government; and it was he -vvho, when 
 some members of the Council of Five Hundred 
 threatened Buonaparte with their daggers, marched 
 to his assistance at the head of the grenadiers, and 
 arrested or dispersed the assailants, the representa- 
 tives of the people. In return he was placed in the 
 Senate, where he continues to possess his master's 
 confidence. He was called by the army of Italy the 
 virgin generaly because, during the whole of his 
 command on the other side of the Alps, he had only 
 plundered to the amount of one million of livres! 
 (42,000/.) 
 
 LETTER LXXXL 
 
 Per/*, February^ 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 ANOTHER of my former acquaintances, the 
 minister of war, and one of Buonaparte's field-mar- 
 shals, (Berthier) invited me, some days ago, to dine 
 with him. Massena, Augereau, and Eugenius de 
 Beauharnois were, with other officers, of the party. 
 The place of honour was assigned Eugenius, and 
 even Massena seemed to be a courtier. 
 
 During this dinner, political more than military 
 affairs constituted the chief subject of the conversa- 
 
336 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 tion ; and tlie probable views of the cabinets of St- 
 James and St. Petersburg!! v/ere discussed with 
 Warmth. They all agreed that this alliance was pre- 
 judicial to Russia, without being advantageous to 
 England; because it prevented the aggrandizement 
 of the former at the expense of Turkey, which, 
 without the consent of France, could never take 
 place, and procured the latter no means to injure 
 France, or to prevent the French Colossus from 
 crushing it sooner or later. 
 
 But it is impossible, said I, that two governments, 
 so wisely ruled, can form connections without pre- 
 viously meditating on their real or relative impor- 
 tance and consequences, and without having disco- 
 vered their utility to each state, and their general 
 tendency to support their common plans and system 
 of policy. 
 
 " I deny," interrupted Eugenius, '* that either 
 Russia or England is wisely governed. The one is 
 the dupe of MarkofF's machiavelism, and the other 
 will fall the victim of Pitt's plans, of a universal, 
 commercial and financial tyranny. They have not, 
 and cannot have, any fixed system of politics, in the 
 present situation of the continent ; because they can- 
 not act but upon the defensive against France, while 
 she, with her great armies and resources, might alter 
 or ruin, at a single blow, even the best combined 
 systems, if such existed. She can attack, when dis- 
 posed, the parts they little expect to be vulnerable, 
 and change the scene of action from Europe to Asia, 
 from Africa to America ; keep them upon the alert 
 ever)' where; exhaust their means of defensive mea- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 337 
 
 sures ; and when they are weakened, overwhelm the 
 British Islands, and crush forever the artificial pow-" 
 er of the British empire. The dominions of Russia 
 are too extensive, and her troops too much disper- 
 sed over that immense mass of ice and deserts, to 
 enable her to collect upon one single spot any where, 
 a sufficient number to intimidate or invade France, 
 or to assist England when a French army has footing 
 on English ground. And what succours can she 
 expect from Great Britain, should Austria, Prussia, 
 Turkey and Sweden league against her, and resent 
 her provocations ? A Prussian army on the borders 
 of the Baltic, and a Swedish army on the coast of the 
 gulph of Finland, will prevent the approach of En- 
 glish men of war, and English troops from debark- 
 ing, had England even troops to spare, which is not 
 the case. As to the reciprocal support Russia and 
 England can give each other in the Mediterranean, 
 and their united efforts to prevent France from ex- 
 tending her conquests or acquisitions in and near that 
 sea, a single naval victory only is requisite to fill our 
 prisons with all the Russians at Corfu, to seize the 
 Dardanelles, and to prohibit all Russian ships from 
 leaving the Black Sea, and all English from entering 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 " Land me with only fifty thousand men in En- 
 gland, or with double that number on the Russian 
 territory, near the Baltic," said Augereau, " and 
 we shall within six months count an emperor and a 
 king less, or among the tributary princes of the Em- 
 perx)r of the French. Such measures are the best 
 
 and safest to dissolve all connections that give us any 
 
 u u 
 
338 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 umbrage, or excite our suspicions. I do not pretend 
 to be a politician, but I know what I can effect at 
 the head of French soldiers." 
 
 " Without debarking troops either in England or 
 Russia," interrupted Massena, " the former may be 
 ruined, and the latter called to reason, and forced to 
 obedience. What can prevent France, this moment, 
 from shutting all the ports of Europe against En- 
 gland, from the gulph of Sicily to the Sound. With- 
 out commerce it cannot keep up its fleets and armies 
 for two campaigns ; and must^ therefore, either sub- 
 mit and subscribe to our terms, or be subjugated by 
 our arms. The fate of that country must convince 
 Russia, that her own safety depends entirely upon 
 her prudence in not giving offence to the Emperor 
 of the French ; distant as she is, his arms are long 
 enough to reach her, and to choak her." 
 
 I enquired of Berthier, after dinner, if any thing 
 had been determined with regard to the officers ar- 
 rested at Abbeville, and was told that Buonaparte 
 had degraded them to the ranks, and ordered them 
 to colonial depots. They are destined to serve as 
 soldiers in Cayenne, 
 
 Berthier is still the same able and weak man whom 
 I knew some years ago, when a commander of the 
 national guard at Versailles, under D'Estaing, and 
 a partisan of La Fayette. He wishes to be employ- 
 ed, and to be talked of ; is greedy after rank and 
 riches, and not delicate as to the means of obtaining 
 either ; has talents to command, but a character that 
 submits to be governed ; and he shines with lustre 
 borrowed of a superior, while more firmness would 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 339 
 
 make him a luminary of the first magnitude. Buo- 
 naparte, during the first campaign in Italy, in 1796, 
 owned, even in his dispatches, that he was chiefly in- 
 debted to Berthier, then the commander of the staiF 
 of his army, for the many advantages he obtained, 
 and frequently repeated, ** Berthier is my right 
 hand." At present, he ti'cats him with an insolence, 
 with an hauteur, and with an impatient contempt, 
 that shows he is offended at the recollection of for- 
 mer obligations, and tired of the presence of a man 
 who is known to have placed the first laurels round 
 his temples. A young fop and favourite of Buona- 
 parte, (Duroc) intermeddles now with every thing, 
 even concerning promotions in the army. When the 
 staff of the Army of England was to be nominated, 
 he had the audacity to present and recommend a list 
 containing the names of officers disagreeable to Ber- 
 thier, whose promise was engaged to others. Prefer- 
 ence was, however, given to Duroc's recommenda- 
 tion, and when Berthier dared to make some repre- 
 sentations on that subject. Napoleon held such lan^ 
 guage to him in public, at his military levee, as • no 
 real gentleman would either employ or endure. Gen- 
 eral Le Courbe, who, at the time, stood opposite to 
 Berthier, indignantly laid his hand on his sword, and 
 looked at the minister in such a significant manner, 
 that nobody could mistake his meaning ; but it had 
 no other effect, than to procure him Buonaparte's 
 hatred. Berthier, instead of resenting, like an offi- 
 cer, such a public affront, has since endured still more 
 public outrages. It is said, in the military cir- 
 cle here, that avarice has now excluded all noble 
 
340 TOE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 passions from his bosom ; and that were the Empe- 
 ror of the French condescending 2iXiA gracious enough 
 even to cane or to kick him, he would stoop, bow 
 and smile, to preserve a place which brings him in two 
 millions of livres (84,000/.) in the year. 
 
 In a private conversation with Berthier, I threw 
 out some indirect hints as to the stability of the im- 
 perial government, after the death of the present Em- 
 peror of the French. *' My friend," replied he, 
 *' Napoleon the First is ten years younger than my- 
 self, and of a much stronger constituiion, and both 
 he and his government will outlive me. I foresee 
 that our children will not pass their days more tran- 
 quilly than their fathers ; but they have the advan- 
 tage of their examples, and their lessons, how to con- 
 duct themselves in revolutionary times. If they do 
 not attend to those, so much the worse for them." 
 
 LETTER LXXXIL 
 
 Paris^ March, 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 SEVERAL friends of Talleyrand, since my 
 arrival here, had hinted that he desired to see me, 
 and offered to introduce me to his acquaintance. J 
 have, however, from various motives, hesitated to 
 converse with a man who never had any principles 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 341 
 
 of his own, but who acted according to circumstan- 
 ces ; was a traitor with La Fayette, a jacobin with 
 Brissot, a friend of equality with Robespierre, a re- 
 publican with the Directory, and a slave under Buo- 
 naparte. But yesterday his cousin, the Prince de 
 Chalais, called upon mc, and pressed me much to 
 come and dine with him to day, and to meet the po- 
 litical luminary of the nineteenth century. 
 
 During dinner nothing particular occurred, except 
 that Talleyrand paid some compliments to the con- 
 sistency and constancy of the adherents of the house 
 of Bourbon, whose misfortunes, 2i^ 2i citizen of the 
 world, he sincerely lamented. When coffee and li- 
 queurs had been served up, he said to me, " In my 
 cousin's library there are some curious books I want 
 to show you, as you pass here for a kind of savant ; 
 will you walk up stairs with me ?" 
 
 When in the librar}^, he said, " you have now been 
 here near three months, and though a friend of mine. 
 
 Baron du M , invited you to call upon me the 
 
 first week after your arrival, I have not until this time 
 had the pleasure of seeing you ; and had it not been 
 for the complaisance of my cousin, you would have 
 gone away without affording me what I so much de- 
 sired, a moment's conversation with you." When 
 I assured him that I was equally flattered and hon- 
 oured by the condescension of such an eminent 
 statesman, he replied, " Well, then, I will speak to 
 you frankly, and without disguise, not caring whe- 
 ther what I tell you here should remain behind us 
 in this room or go abroad." 
 
342 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLEH. 
 
 *^From my agents," said Talleyrand, '^ I knew 
 who you were, and your business here, before you 
 
 left Holland. You are sent here by Count de , 
 
 the minister of Louis XVIII. to discover the spirit 
 of the country ; of Buonaparte's civil functionaries, 
 as well as of his military commanders." Without 
 waiting for a reply, he continued, " Tell me sincere- 
 ly, what opinion has that unfortunate Prince of me, 
 of my patriotism, and of my principles?" Upon 
 my assurance that I had not seen Louis XVIII. for 
 seven years, or any of his ministers since 1799, he 
 said rather abruptly, " but you correspond with them. 
 You received a letter two days ago from Count de 
 , which I might have stopped ; can you deny 
 
 it ?" I told him I had several correspondents, but 
 all I could assert was, that my letters never had any 
 political speculations in them. " Then," said he, 
 *' my copyist has misinformed me. Here is the copy 
 of your letter. In it you are not only questioned 
 about France as it is, but asked to penetrate into fu- 
 turity, and to discover what it is to become hereaf- 
 ter, at the death of the Emperor." When I declared 
 tliat I did not remember ever to have received such 
 a letter, he interrupted me by saying, "Let us con- 
 verse with sincerity, and without artifice. You have 
 received such a letter, and in the postscript was the 
 following question : *' Can Talleyrand, a man of rank 
 and talents, who has no great crimes to reproach 
 himself with, be sincerely attached to a government 
 of ill-bred upstarts, of middling capacity, accused 
 and guilty of enormities ?" '* If such a question 
 had been asked," tell me, said I, ** what answer 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 343 
 
 should I have given ?" '' You might have said, that 
 I am always a gentleman in sentiment as well as by 
 birth, but that I love my country and its glory above 
 every thing ; that the Prince whom I judged capable 
 and willing to promote it, w^hether a Louis XVIII. 
 Louis XIX. or a Napoleon the First, should always 
 find in me an obedient servant and a firm adherent. 
 That during the whole period of the revolution, I 
 never was the adherent of any particular faction, but 
 spoke and wrote for every party that I supposed in- 
 clined like myself. I will lay my whole political life 
 open to the scrutiny even of my most inveterate en- 
 emies, and I will defy them to discover any where 
 the partisan, while every act of mine proves the true 
 patriot. Had fortune placed Louis XVIII. upon 
 the throne, now occupied by Napoleon the First, he 
 would have found in me the same faithful, and, I dare 
 say, disinterested servant, as long as I had observed 
 that he was sincerely bent on promoting the grandeur 
 and happiness of my country. Even should I have 
 the misfortune to survive the present sovereign of 
 France, Louis XVIII. from the opinion I have re- 
 cently formed of his liberality and patriotism, may 
 count upon my humble services, adherence and at- 
 tachment ; because, with all other men of any his- 
 torical or practical information, I am convinced, that 
 the first Buonaparte upon the throne of France, will 
 also be the last, and that, with Napoleon the First, 
 the Buonapartian dynasty will descend into its origi- 
 nal and native obscurity. All Frenchmen who wish 
 for the splendour and tranquillity of their country, 
 and who have no interest or inclination to see the re- 
 
244 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 newal of the disasters France has experienced since 
 the revolution, must desire a Bourbon for a succes- 
 sor of Buonaparte. The French monarchy is now 
 estabhshed upon a more firm foundation than it has 
 been since the middle of the reign of Louis XIV. but 
 it requires also great firmness of character in its 
 sovereign to prevent factions from undermining a 
 throne erected upon the ruins of their power." 
 
 I asked him whether I could write to that friend, 
 whom he supposed my correspondent, the particulars 
 of our conversation. ** You are at full liberty," re- 
 plied Talleyrand, " to communicate to him senti- 
 ments which I have not concealed even from the 
 Emperor of the French, who esteems me for my 
 frankness, though he is not flattered with my views 
 of the continuance of his dynasty, as he firmly be- 
 lieves, that the fortune which has elevated him in 
 such an unexampled manner, will also make him the 
 chief of a new dynasty, and support the supremacy 
 of his family after his death." 
 
 I have heard from others, that Talleyrand has, in 
 reality, more than once advised Buonaparte not to 
 look beyond the grave for the continuance of his 
 authority, and that he has, more than once, in Ma- 
 dame Buonaparte's drawing room, been publicly re- 
 buked for this opinion. " Should a Bourbon ever 
 possess MY throne," said Buonaparte, *' he will not 
 spare you more than my relatives ; he will hang you 
 with every other counsellor, minister, general, or 
 other public functionary, who have been my ser- 
 vants, or avowed themselves my subjects." '* Sire," 
 answered Talleyrand, ** should he act so imprudent- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER 346 
 
 ly, he will strangle his own grandeur in its cradle. 
 Misfortunes must have made the Bourbons wiser 
 than to begin with hanging before they are securely 
 established on the throne. If they are prudent and 
 patriotic, they will entirely forget the interregnum, 
 and every thing that has occurred during it, from the 
 10th of August, 1792, to the day of their restoration. '^ 
 
 LETTER LXXXIII. 
 
 Paris^ Marchy 1805. 
 iXY LORD, 
 
 I HAVE to day, after much trouble and delay, 
 and after some expense and humiliation, obtain- 
 ed my passport at the police office, where I have 
 danced attendance for an hour every morning these 
 ten days. I should have been obliged to wait, per- 
 haps, a month longer, had not my banker, who is also 
 a public functionary, waited with me on the minis,^ 
 ter of police, Fouche. 
 
 The pomp w ith which this ci-devant friar is sur- 
 rounded, greatly surpasses what I have witnessed in 
 the hotels of the other ministers, Talleyrand, Ber- 
 thier and Portalis. The air of affected importance 
 and upstart vanity with which he gives audience 
 and answers petitioners, is so ridiculoiis, so unnatu- 
 ral, and so impertinent, that one is apt to be jocular 
 
346 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 aiid angry at the same time, to laugh and to swear 
 at so much real littleness in such a high situation. 
 
 After my banker had presented me to his excel- 
 lency, who condescended to read my memorial, and 
 to order his secretary to expedite my business with- 
 in twenty-four hours, he said: " You are then tra- 
 velling merely from curiosity and for pleasure. 
 Times of war are, however, not often times of 
 amusement; had you requested permission to visit 
 the northern instead of the southern departments, I 
 should have been under the necessity of refusing 
 you, notwithstanding the recommendations of your 
 friends. But where you are going is so distant from 
 the theatre of war, and the inhabitants are so happy 
 and contented^ that even Louis^ XVIII. might travel 
 without any other danger than that of breaking his 
 heart with disappointment and rage." 
 
 These last words gave me some suspicion that 
 Talleyrand had communicated a part of our convert 
 sation to his colleague. I had promised to wait on 
 him before my departure, and took that opportunity 
 to inquire whether it would be safe for me to conti- 
 nue my journey, as I apprehended some one had 
 misrepresented to Fouche the object of my travels? 
 ** You have nothing to fear," replied he, *' if you 
 conduct yourself witli the same discretion in the pro- 
 vinces as you have done in the capital ; if you had 
 caused government any mistrust and alarm, you 
 would already have experienced the consequences in 
 the Temple, and there found the end of your jour- 
 ney.'^ 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 347 
 
 The mere name of " the Temple," made me trem* 
 ble, and, for some minutes, wish myself not only 
 out of Paris, but on the other side of the French fron* 
 tiers. Only some few days ago, a gentleman, who had 
 been an officer among the Chouans, called on me 
 with a letter from a sister married to a friend of mine 
 at Lyons. He had been confined in the Temple for 
 near four years, on suspicion of being connected with 
 tliose who blew up the infernal machine; and the 
 description he gave me of this state-prison would 
 have made me prefer a tomb to one of its dungeons. 
 
 During his confinement he saw upwards of three 
 thousand different prisoners, of whom only seventy- 
 nine remained when he was released ; all the others 
 had either been transferred to Vincennes, or other 
 state-prisons, tried by military tribunals, transported 
 abroad, shot, or secretly destroyed within the walls 
 rof the Temple. He had not suffered from any tor- 
 tures, his innocence being clcai'ed up the first week 
 after his arrest, but he had seen a number of prison- 
 ers maimed and mutilated for life from the effects of 
 racks and other instruments of torture ; and he had 
 heard that some of diose prisoners who were taken 
 up last spring, as accomplices of Georges and Piche- 
 gru, had even expired under their sufferings. He 
 said, that among the prisoners the dread of torture 
 was greater than the fear of death, and that they had 
 rather be shot than to be laid upon the rack. 
 
 As it frequently happened tliat prisoners died sud- 
 denly, an idea prevailed in the Temple, that some 
 strong poison was mixed in their food, and they 
 looked upon themselves as encompassed on every 
 
348 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 side with deaths the most horrible, and of every de- 
 scription. An imprisonment there was nothing but 
 a continual state of suffering, and no one was secure 
 for a moment from receiving the deadly blow, and 
 all were, therefore, prepared for it. 
 
 Every year the severity and the precautions of 
 government increase, A prisoner cannot be shaved, 
 at present, without being placed upon a chair be- 
 tween two gensdarmes, who watch the barbef , and 
 prevent the prisoners both from conversing with him, 
 and from attempting to commit suicide with razor^i, 
 were they thus inclined. 
 
 Those prisoners whose innocence is proved^ are 
 permitted to mess together, and dine every day be- 
 tween two and three o'clock; and when the gaoler 
 and police commissaries are in good humour, are 
 suffered to pass the evenings together, to converse, 
 or play cards. At nine o'clock they are, however, 
 always separated, and locked up in their different 
 dungeons or chambers. In the former there are no 
 beds, but filthy straw is spread on a stone floor; in 
 the other, the prisoners lie down on mattresses, dir- 
 ty, stinking, and often filled with vermin. 
 
 Upon my inquiry why those persons, whose inno- 
 cence was proved, still continued prisoners, I was 
 answered, that, in consequence of what government 
 called measures of precaution, and of severity, they 
 were sometimes confined fpr years, in hopes to dis- 
 cover something new to inculpate them, or to prevent 
 them from publishing their interrogatories, their suf- 
 ferings, and the internal regime of this prison. At 
 other times they m ere forgotten, ?^s was the case 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 349 
 
 with the officer who narrated these particulars to me, 
 for whose release an order had been signed twenty- 
 tliree months before he obtained his liberty. 
 Great confusion certainly prevails in the offices, 
 where the clerks always expect a bribe to expedite 
 the most trifling affiiir; but, under the present mili- 
 tary despotism, the liberties of citizens are less re- 
 spected than their lives, which is saying a great deaL 
 
 LETTER LXXXIV. 
 
 Sen^y J/irzly 1805, 
 MY LORD, 
 
 IN my passport every town I am to pass through, 
 and the road I am to take in my journey, is inserted. 
 Should I stroll or travel out of this fixed way, all 
 gensdarmes who meet me are ordered to take me up, 
 and send me to the nearest prison. This order is 
 printed in the margin of my pass, which, by this 
 clause, you may consider also as a mandate of 
 arrest. 
 
 In one of the Diligences that set out every day 
 from Paris to Lyons, I travelled these thirty leagues 
 in sixteen hours, including an hour allowed to dine 
 at Fontainebleau. Its forest, which is one of 
 Buonaparte's favourite hunting grounds, (though he 
 is not very fond of hunting beasts) is now kept in the 
 same, or rather in better order, than before the re- 
 
350 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 volution. I have heard that several consultations of 
 the Council of State, at which Buonaparte assisted, 
 were necessary to determine him to imitate, in this 
 respect, other sovereigns, to set up his hunting 
 equipages, and send round, as liivours, invitations 
 to hunting parties. The first animal that he killed in 
 this forest was a dog, which he mistook for a fox. 
 
 The chateau of Fontainebleau is now in much 
 better repair than it has been since the reign of 
 Louis XV. It was here where Napoleon I. went to 
 meet Pius VII. last November, and, according to 
 the report of the inhabitants, obtained from the Ro- 
 man Pontiff an absolution in toto for all his sins. 
 
 The simple but beautiful monument of the dau- 
 phin and dauphiness, the parents of Louis XVI. 
 and Louis XVIII. which was erected in the cathe- 
 dral of this town, has shared the fate of all the otlier 
 monuments of French kings ; it w^as first mutilated 
 and afterwards entirely demolished ; the hearts of 
 this prince and princess, preserved in two golden 
 urns, were ordered by Fouche, when, as a represen- 
 tative of the people,he was on his way to Lyons, to be 
 roasted, cut in morsels, and distributed in his pre- 
 sence, at a feast given him by the Jacobins of this 
 town. This fraternal banquet finished with the 
 murder of twelve prisoners, of whom five were la- 
 dies, detained on suspicion, in a house of arrest. 
 
 Observing the landlord of the iim here, where I 
 lodge, always with wooden shoes, even on a Sun- 
 day, a custom not common among people of his cir- 
 cumstances, I asked him the reason : '' Sir," replied 
 he, " I have made a vow never to wear any leather 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 351 
 
 shoes CM* boots, as the last I had on nearly cost 
 me my life. During the reign of Robespierre I was 
 four times, in one decade, stripped of my shoes and 
 boots, by requisitions, for the volunteers ; I had 
 then only one pair of shoes remaining, and none 
 were to be got in this town even for money ; I there- 
 foi'c refused to part with them when citizen Fouche 
 put them under requisition for himself; he had 
 given away his own in a fit of enthusiasm at tlie Ja- 
 cobin Club, where one evening, upon his motion, 
 all the members gave up their shoes and breeches 
 as patriotic donations, and went out into the street 
 sans souliers as well as sans culottes. My refusal 
 was considered as an insult to the national repre- 
 sentation ; I was arrested as an enemy of the repub- 
 lic, and should have been shot as such, had not my 
 wife, by a present of one hundred louis d'ors, con- 
 vinced citizen Fouche of my civism and republi- 
 canism. In prison I made the vow I have already 
 mentioned, and shall certainly keep it to the end of 
 my life." 
 
 You remember, no doubt, that Cardinal de 
 Brienne was, before the revolution, archbishop of 
 Sens ; and that he was one of the ungrateful and 
 apostate prelates, who joined in the rebellion against 
 their king, and in blasphemy against their God. He 
 continued, under the protection of some sans-culotte 
 friends^ to reside undisturbed in the Episcopal 
 chateau, a league from this town, even during a 
 great part of Robespierre's reign. In the spring of 
 1794, the Committee of Public Safety issued a 
 mandate for his imprisonment, and ordered his trial 
 
352 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 by the revolutionary tribunal at Paris. Four gens- 
 darmes, accompanied by a police agent, went to take 
 him into custody. While his servant was preparing 
 his baggage, he invited these five citizens to drink 
 with him a glass of liqueur. Three of them accep- 
 ted, but the two others declined, notwithstanding 
 that they were strongly pressed by him. He then 
 drank a glass himself, and within a few moments 
 dropped down dead, with the three other persons 
 who had swallowed his liqueur, which, from what 
 remained in the bottle, was found to be a most de- 
 structive poison. It is supposed, that had all five 
 accepted of his invitation, he would have attempted, 
 after having killed them, to escape or to conceal 
 himself. In his papers were discovered receipts 
 how to prepare and distil sixteen different sorts of 
 poisons. 
 
 LETTER LXXXV. 
 
 Chalons on the Saouy »^ifirily 1805. 
 
 I TOOK my place for this town in the Dili- 
 gence at Auxerre, and have passed two nights on 
 the road ; one at a village in a most romantic situa- 
 tion, called Lucil des Bois, and the other at Autun. 
 On this road I was told that the gensdarmcs had 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 353 
 
 lately been doubled, and the severity against travel- 
 lers augmented on account of the Emperor's jour- 
 ney to Italy, there to assume another sceptre. They 
 were, however, far from bein^ so troublesome as on 
 the coast, and I think that, with some prudence, a 
 passenger may even, without a pass, escape impri- 
 sonment. A gentleman with us from Saulieu to 
 Autun, had no pass, but every time the gensdarmes 
 rode up to the door of the coach to enquire after any, 
 he laid himself down on the bottom and thus escap- 
 ed observation. At Autun, however, when we had 
 begun our supper, two gensdarmes came into our 
 room, desired to inspect our passes, and as he had 
 none he was carried away. 
 
 Among the passengers was a middle aged man^ 
 very civil, but very silent, who left us a league 
 before we entered Autun. He was suspected by 
 some of the party of being a travelling spy, and the 
 arrest of one of our companions seemed rather to 
 confirm this supposition, as the landlord of the inn 
 said, that the gensdarmes never entered his house 
 to look at passes and after passengers, without 
 somebody being enquired for beforehand. 
 
 This accident produced a long dissertation upon 
 the number of spies employed by government, and 
 a gentleman, who said he was intimately acquainted 
 with one of the chief clerks of the prefecture of po- 
 lice at Paris, gave us the following history of mo^ 
 dern espionage. He assured us that the spies in 
 France, at present, amounted to near a milUon, and 
 were divided into twelve different classes. 1st. The 
 court spies, or courtiers employed by Buonaparte to 
 
554- THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 watch his wife, brothers, sisters, grand dignitaries, 
 and other courtiers about him. 2d. MiUtary spies ; 
 these were generals, officers, and even soldiers, who 
 were engaged to report the actions and conversations 
 of their superiors or equals. 3d. Diplomatic spies ; 
 of these many were foreigners^ some secretaries, 
 others servants in the confidence or employ of the 
 foreign ambassadors at Paris, 4th. Office spies. 
 These were chefs dc bureaux^ or clerks in the offices 
 of ministers, some senators in the senate, some coun- 
 sellors of state in the privy council, some legislators, 
 some tribunes, some judges, and even some mem- 
 bers of the National Institute, who reported regu- 
 larly to the Emperor what was suspicious or sedi- 
 tious in the manners or language of their colleagues, 
 of their superiors or inferiors. 5tli. Financial spies. 
 These were employed about the stock exchange, at 
 the bank, or in the counting houses of stock brokers 
 and bankers, and gave in an account of their princi- 
 pal transactions. 6th. Commercial spies. These 
 acted with regard to merchants and manufacturers, 
 as the financial spies did with regard to brokers and 
 bankers. 6th. Fashionable spies. These were men 
 of insinuating address, and of an elegant dress and 
 deportment, who frequented all fashionable parties ; 
 who had themselves their dinner and supper parties, 
 their routs and balls. 8th. Theatrical spies. These 
 had free admittance into all theatres and green 
 roomsy inspected and reported the conduct of tlic 
 performers, and of the authors, as well as that of 
 the audience. 9th. Gambling house spies. Their 
 ll^ead quarters were at gambling tables, and in lottery 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELL^^R. ' 35^ 
 
 offices. 10th. Coffee house and public garden spiesc 
 These were stationary in all hotels, coffee houses, 
 and gardens. In their department were also all 
 public or private brothels, restaurateurs, and eating 
 houses. 11th. Street spies. These not only re- 
 ported w}iat occurred in the streets, but tried, by 
 the aid of servants, to insinuate themselves into pri- 
 vate families. 12th. Travelling spies. These were 
 never still, or remained long in one place, but passed 
 most of their time in diligences and stage coaches ; 
 at ordinaries and in inns, much resorted to by tra- 
 vellers. One of this last class, I suppose, informed 
 against the oflicers at Abbeville, and against our 
 companion at Autun. 
 
 Besides these, our narrator said that numbers of 
 private and of female spies, were registered at the 
 police. The former surrounded men in high sta- 
 tions, or individuals of great talents ; the latter 
 watched their fathers, their husbands, their lovers, 
 their brothers, and their friends. 
 
 Of these spies some are regularly paid, but the 
 greater number are persons who either obtain their 
 livelihood by terrifying individuals, and extort con- 
 tributions in making themselves known as police 
 agents, as they are styled by courtesy, and by sel- 
 ling their protection to girls of the town, and petty 
 offenders ; or those whose trade cannot be exercised 
 without a licence or patent from the police minister^ 
 who never grants it until they take oath of espionage y 
 and inscribe their names among the spies. Among 
 the higher classes of spies are persons sometimes 
 forced into the service, with whose private vices and 
 
356 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 crimes the police has become acquainted, and who 
 are obliged, to avoid exposure, or escape punish- 
 ment, to enlist in the corps of spies; where 
 also some volunteers enter, in hopes of deserving, by 
 their zeal, pensions, promotions or 'places in the 
 state, in the army, or in the legion of honour. 
 You have read, no doubt, in the public prints, that 
 all those spies who assisted in the capture of the 
 Duke of Enghein, of Pichegru, and of Georges, 
 were immediately proclaimed by Buonaparte mem- 
 bers of his legion of honour, and decorated by him- 
 self with the star of that revolutionary order. 
 
 LETTER LXXXVL 
 
 AIa<^o?iy Jfirilj 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I HAD a letter of recommendation to a ban- 
 ker of the name of Boileau at Chalons, who has fi- 
 gured in the revolutionary annals as a Jacobin, as a 
 legislator, as a tobacco merchant, and as a mayor, 
 but is now tired of notoriety, and wishes for obscur- 
 ity. He told me that the sophistry of some artful 
 sans-culottes had easily seduced him to embrace 
 with enthusiasm the chimera of equality, particularly 
 »s he was very young, very inexperienced, and very 
 sanguine in his ideas of seeing all people upon earth 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 557 
 
 i family of brothers and sisters. He first awoke 
 from his pleasing dream of folly, when he found 
 himself in prison, ruined and threatened with death 
 by his associates and revolutionary brothers. The 
 cause of his imprisonment was his having complain- 
 ed of the seizure of his whole stock in trade as a 
 tobacco manufacturer, for which he had been paid 
 in assignats, that were worth nothing. Had Ro- 
 bespierre lived a week longer, he said that he should 
 have been guillotined, but the end of the reign of 
 the first terrorism, (called here the black reign, to 
 distinguish it from Buonaparte's, now called the 
 reign of white terrour,) saved his life. It left him, 
 however, without bread, with a wife and six chil- 
 dren, while he beheld around him former sans-cu-« 
 lottes, enriched with his spoils, and laughing at his 
 distress. When I now, continued he, hear any one 
 speak of liberty, I always put my hands in my pock- 
 ets ; when of equality, I tremble as in the presence 
 of an assassin, and when of fraternity, run away as 
 fast as I can, for fear of being stabbed and pillaged. 
 Some property left him by an elder brother enabled 
 him to begin business again, and though Buonaparte 
 offered, in 1800, to make him a sub-prefect at Cha- 
 lons, and a member of the legion of honour, he de- 
 clined both, knov/ing that the revolution was far 
 from being yet ended, and having purchased wis- 
 dom at the expence of wealth and tranquillity. He 
 recommended, however, M. Simmonat, a friend of 
 his, to the chief magistracy of Chalons, whom, from 
 the respect shewn him by his fellow citizens, T judge 
 not to be undeserving of it. 
 
.158 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 This town, during the revolution, was very much 
 agitated by the spirit of jacobinism and anarchy, 
 diffused by one of its most infamous citizens. Some 
 traits of his character will evince, that in revolu- 
 tionary times even notorious infamy is enabled to 
 seduce, intimidate and govern. 
 
 A man of the name of Carra, the son of a tailor, 
 was brought up in a college of Jesuits, by an uncle, 
 who was one of the members of that order. Having 
 received chastisement for some proof of profligacy, 
 he ran away, and within a week was arrested with 
 two other robbers and assassins, who had broken 
 open the house of a rich milliner, and plundered it, 
 after having murdered the inhabitants. His uncle's 
 influence saved him from sharing the gibbet of his 
 accomplices, by procuring him an opportunity of 
 escaping to Prussia, where for twenty years he was 
 a language master, but where also his propensity 
 to theft caused him several trials, and two years 
 hard labour in a fortress. 
 
 These scenes passed in the provinces, but in 1784, 
 he had the audacity to present himself at Berlin, as 
 a French savant, and as such offer his services to 
 Frederick the Great, then approaching the period of 
 dotage. Not being admitted among the literati of 
 the King's party, or even a member of the King's 
 academy, he betook himself to his old trades of a 
 language master and of a thief. Had it not been for 
 the impolitic compassion of a lady of quality, whom 
 he robbed of a bracelet, he would probably have 
 ended his guilty career in a Prussian dungeon, instead 
 of adding, in his own country, enormities to crimes. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 359 
 
 Though he had escaped punishment in France, a 
 sentence of death had been passed on him, and he was 
 outlawed, after being executed in effigy. When the 
 revolution crushed all laws, disregarded their obe- 
 dience, and prevented their execution, Carra return- 
 ed to France, and had the effrontery to set up a news- 
 paper, in his own name, extenuating his former crimes, 
 by now professing himself a patriot and regenerator. 
 He was then, even by his own party, called Carra 
 serrure^ or picklock Cai'ra. On the 29th of Decem- 
 ber, 1790, he mounted the tribune of the Jacobins, 
 to announce to France, that, whether she remained 
 in peace with Austria or not, he himself declared 
 war upon the Emperor Leopold, and that, with thir- 
 ty thousand men, twelve presses, and a proportion- 
 able number of printers, he would cause all Germa- 
 ny to revolt within six months. On the 8th of Sep- 
 tember, 1792, he deposited as a patriotic gift at the 
 bar of the National Assembly, a gold snuff box, 
 which he pretended to have received from the King 
 of Prussia, for a work that had been dedicated to 
 him. He requested that this gold, which he despi- 
 sed, might serve to combat tlie despot who had 
 given it. He finished his speech by tearing the sig- 
 nature of the letter which had accompanied the 
 present. 
 
 In the same month he was elected a member of 
 the National Convention, by the very department of 
 Saone and Loire, that had been the early theatre of 
 his infamy, and where his incendiary v/ritings had 
 done much more mischief than the scandalous ex- 
 amples of his crimes. To insult the rank as well as 
 
360 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the person of the Prussian monarch, then heading 
 his army in Champagne, Carra was sent by the Na- 
 tional Convention, as one of the deputies to assist 
 Dumourier in his negociations for the evacuation of 
 France by foreign troops. On his return to the cap- 
 ital, he voted for the death of Louis XVI. but having 
 quarrelled with his fellow regicides, was, in his turn, 
 condemned by them to the guillotine, and executed 
 on the 3 1st of October, 1793. Under the ministry 
 of Roland, he had been one of the librarians of the 
 national library, from which he had stolen several 
 curious manuscripts, books and medals, which were 
 found in his house after his execution. 
 
 A respectable citizen of this town, from whom I 
 heard most of the above particulars, (which are, be- 
 tsides, printed in the works of Prudhomme, and of 
 other revolutionary writers,) assured me, that Car- 
 ra's exhortations^ in his pamphlets and newspapers, 
 which Vv^ere distributed gratis by the Jacobins of 
 this department, occasioned sixteen chateaux to be 
 burned, four hundred and six citizens of both sexes 
 to be murdered, ten thousand persons to emigrate, 
 and the ruin of live hundred families! 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. S^l 
 
 LETTER LXXXVIL 
 
 Lyons^ Maij, 1805. 
 
 My lord, 
 
 I REMAINED longer at Macon than I inten* 
 ded, having discovered in Roujoux, the prefect of 
 the department, an old college companion. He is one 
 of the few Frenchmen who have joined in the revo- 
 lution from a mistaken persuasion of its good effects ; 
 who have occupied many places, but who have no 
 crimes with which to reproach themselves. He has 
 always been moderate and just; and in him Buona- 
 parte has a functionary who does honour to his go- 
 vernment, and who strictly performs his duty, with- 
 out oppressing or tormenting his countrymen. 
 
 The general aspect of the country, and of the in- 
 habitants, between Paris and this city, I thought 
 rather better than between the frontiers of Holland 
 and that capital. It is true these departments have 
 not been the rendezvous of armies, nor have they 
 suffered from foreign wars or domestic troubles, ex- 
 cept by their contributions and quotas of requisitions 
 of men and property. As far as I could gain infor- 
 mation from the communications or conversation 
 of strangers, the male population has greatly decrea- 
 sed, and the people all abhor the revolution, desire 
 the return of the Bourbons, and a reign of order and 
 safety, and are, therefore, far from being attached to 
 
 Zz 
 
$6$ THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the present government. They know but little of 
 Buonaparte's early life, and would like to see him 
 the second or third person of the state, but not the 
 ^rst. Many have still the idea that he intends, at a 
 general peace, to descend from his throne, place upon 
 it Louis XVIIL and seat himself by the side of his 
 lawful Prince ; and that all his acts, even the murder 
 of the Duke d'Enghein, w^ere commanded and re- 
 quired by necessity to enable him to carry his point 
 tvith safety. 
 
 I do not know a more delightful part of France 
 to travel in, or a more agreeable manner of travelling, 
 than between Chalons and this town, in the coc/ie 
 (Peauy or passage boat, on the river Saone. In gene- 
 ral, both liadies and gentlemen in France are pleasing 
 travelling companions, and make public diligences, 
 even on that account, preferable to post-chaises. You 
 are, in this country, scarcely seated in one of these 
 public vehicles, before an pxquaintance is made, and 
 it is your own fault, if you are not as comfortable as 
 with your particular friends; and, for my 'part, I 
 never quitted a French Diligence without regret at 
 the thought of probably never again meeting with, or 
 seeing those persons who had made that part of my 
 journey through life as agreeable as was in their 
 power. 
 
 In the passage boat on the Saone are two cabins ; 
 the best belongs to the passengers of tl^ Paris Dili- 
 gence, and the other is common to all other tra^ el- 
 lers. You always set out in the morning, stop for an 
 hour to dine, and arrive at supper time at Macon, 
 where you pass the night. On the next morning, at 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 363 
 
 SIX o'clock, you TJontinue your journey, dine again 
 on the road, and are landed in this city about five 
 o'clock in the afternoon. As the first cabin has more 
 room than is requisite for those of the Paris Dili- 
 gence, other genteel persons are admitted, and the 
 door of communication with the other cabin is often 
 opened, and the conversation becomes general. 
 Those that have good voices sing, and others amuse 
 themselves with reading or with gambling. A regu* 
 lar pharao bank was kept in the second cabin, by 
 agents appointed by the police, who paid for such a 
 permission ; and more than one imprudent passenger 
 has had reason to repent of not having resisted the 
 allurement which an avaricious and immoral govern^ 
 ment permitted to be held out to him. 
 
 Among other passengers was a very interesting 
 young man, about 25 years of age. He was the soil 
 of a nobleman in Picardy, and, after seeing his pa- 
 rents, with two aunts, murdered, in tlic spring of 
 1794, was forced to save his own life by enlisting, 
 though only fourteen, as a drummer in a corps of 
 vol unteersmaixhing towards the frontiers. In the first 
 engagement, a ball carried away both his arms, and, 
 though he has a fortune of one hundred and twenty 
 thousand livres( 5000/.) per year, his enjoyments of life 
 ean be but few. J^ast year Buonaparte created him 
 a knight of the legion of honour, a distinction he de- 
 clined in a spirited manner, because it had been con- 
 ferred on so many grand criminals, and was therefore 
 arrested and shut up for nine months in the Temple. 
 A sum of money, however, opened the doors of this 
 stated-prison; but nothing could appease Buonaparte'^ 
 
364 ^ THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 wrath, and he was now under an escort of two gens- 
 darmes, on his way to an estate in the mountains of 
 Dauphiny, where he is exiled for life. 
 
 Another passenger, a revolutionary general, Brou^ 
 ette, was also accompanied by two gensdarmes, be- 
 ing condemned to imprisonment, as a Jacobin, in 
 the Chateau d'lf, near Marseilles, He was, before 
 the revolution, a chandler, and, becoming a bank- 
 rupt, to avoid the pursuit of his creditors, engaged 
 as a soldier in the French guards, became a staunch 
 patriot, and one of the pillars of the Jacobin club at 
 Versailles. At one step he was, by Robespierre, in 
 1793, promoted from the ranks to be a general, and 
 served as such under Buonaparte in Italy, and was 
 one of the expedition to Egypt, but was left with 
 the troops that garrisoned Malta, from which island 
 he escaped shortly before its surrender to the En- 
 glish. He is a man of exceedingly vulgar manners, 
 and violent in the extreme, Buonaparte having made 
 him a commander of the legion of honour, but re- 
 fusing to nominate him a grand officer, he flew into a 
 passion in a coffee-house ^t Paris, and accused his 
 master not only of ingratitude, but of incapacity and 
 want of judgment. The same day he was arrested 
 as a Jacobin, and sent away under his present guard 
 to his place of confinement, two hundred leagues 
 from the capitid. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 365 
 
 LETTER LXXXVIII. 
 
 Lyons ^ Maij, 18 05. 
 
 mV lord, 
 
 WHEN the passage boat from Chalons arrived 
 here, before any passengers were permitted to land, 
 a police agent, with half a dozen gensdarmes, came 
 along- side, to inspect our passes, to take down our 
 names, and to inquire those of the inns where we 
 intended to lodge. To be convinced that we went 
 where we said, the agent gave our baggage in charge 
 to ticket-porters, with orders to carry it to no other 
 houses than those we respectively named. 
 
 When here, in 1790, I was very well pleased with 
 an inn near the Place de Terreaux^ called Le Pare; 
 and I had the pleasure of finding this house still kept 
 by the same widow woman, who was then its mis- 
 tress. Her first business was to register my pass- 
 port, to inquire how long I intended to stay, and to 
 tell me, that before noon the next day I must present 
 her a permission to remain, signed by the commissa- 
 ry of police, otherwise she dared not lodge me ano- 
 ther night; as, not more than ten days since, she had 
 been fined one thousand livres, (42/.) because one of 
 her lodgers, whose papers were in order, had, with- 
 out her knowledge, suffered a young conscript to 
 pass the night in his apartment; she therefore hoped 
 that I would excuse her being particular with me. 
 Her price for my apartment, and a bed for my scr. 
 
366 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 vant, is half a crown a day; and at the ordinary, 
 which is always well served, I am charged fifty sous 
 (25^.) for each repast, wine included. 
 
 The first thing I did in the morning after my arri- 
 val, was to wait upon the prefect of the department 
 of the Rhone, Mons. Bureau de Puzy, whom I had 
 known both when a popular partisan of La Fayette, 
 and seven years afterwards, w^hen an exile with him 
 in Holstein. He received me with cordiality, and 
 sent my passport, and that of my servant, by his se- 
 cretary, to the police comissary, Dubois; so that I 
 had no occasion to present myself in an office where, 
 he said, something of the revolutionary rudeness and 
 vulgarity still continued to be the order of the day. 
 
 While I was waiting for the return of the secre- 
 tary, he told me, that it was much against his in- 
 clination that he had accepted his present office, 
 having preferred to serve even in an inferior mili- 
 tary capacity to that which he occupied thirteen 
 years ago ; but that Buonaparte wanted here a man 
 of moderate principles to watch and keep within 
 bounds several former terrourists, whom policy 
 makes him employ, in order to counteract the coun- 
 ter-revolutionary spirit of the inhabitants of this city 
 and department. 
 
 Bureau de Puzy, though a zealous revolutionist, 
 was never unjust or cruel ; a deputy of the nobility 
 of the bailiwick of Amont, to the first National As- 
 sembly, he there conducted himself with prudence; 
 and the only flaming motion made by him was, when 
 the discussion of recruiting the army by requisition 
 occupied the debates, that every male citizen be- 
 
THE BEJLGIAN TRAVELLER. 3^7 
 
 tween twelve and sixty- six should be armed. As 
 an officer of engineers, before the revolution, he 
 was much esteemed for talents and capacity, and 
 was therefore frequently afterwards, under the As- 
 sembly, a member of the military and naval com^ 
 mittees. As such, he proposed, on the 10th of 
 June, 1791, a project for establishing discipline m 
 the army, and desired that every officer should pro- 
 nounce and subscribe a new oath of fidelity to the 
 nation, the law, and the king, and acknowledge 
 himself infamous if ever this oath was infringed 
 by him. 
 
 In April, 1792, when France declared war against 
 Austria, he served under La Fayette, and was de- 
 nounced by Guadet, for having proposed on the 
 part of that General, to Field-marshal Luckner, to 
 unite both their armies and march together to Paris, 
 to punish the outrages offered the King and the 
 Royal Family on the 20th of June, the same year. 
 The National Assembly ordered him to appear at 
 its bar, and justify himself. There he not only ex- 
 hibited a certificate of Luckner, which attested the 
 falsehood of such an accusation, but the originals of 
 all the correspondence between the two command- 
 ers ; but though the Assembly decreed his inno- 
 cence, liis accuser remained unpunished; and to 
 avoid his vengeance, he was obliged to emigrate 
 with La Fayette, in whose captivity in Austrian pri- 
 sons he also participated. Buonaparte recalled him 
 in 1799, appointed him a counsellor of state, and 
 last year sent him here as a prefect. 
 
348 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER LXXXIX. 
 
 Lxjons^ May, 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 NO City in France has suffered more by the 
 revolution than Lyons, and no Frenchmen have 
 displayed more energy^ and character, in defence of 
 their rights, liberties, and properties, than the Lyo- 
 nese. Monuments of their courage, firmness, and 
 loyalty, as well as of the vengeance of their repub- 
 lican tyrants, are still visible in most of the streets, 
 and in all the squares. Every house near the Place 
 de Terreaux still bears the marks of bullets ; on the 
 quays of the Rhone, and on the square of Belle- 
 court, the ruins testify both their vigorous defence, 
 and the merciless outrages of their enemies. The 
 inhabitants even now hold a different language from 
 the rest of their countrymen. In coffee-houses, in 
 public squares, on the exchange, and in the theatre, 
 very different sentiments are heard from those of the 
 inhabitants of Paris. Here they yet talk like free- 
 men, while in the capital no other sounds strike 
 the ear but the fawning of flatterers, or the whining 
 of slaves. 
 
 In conversation the other day with a respectable 
 merchant on the exchange, concerning the present 
 and future situation of France, he said loudly, in 
 calling to a friend, " is it not true what I say, that 
 our unceitain government cannot remain long £^s^ 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLEFT; S6$ 
 
 it is ; the destiny of France must cease to be annex- 
 ed to the life of one man? We live from day to day, 
 like criminals under sentence of death, enjoying a 
 respite, but not certain for a moment that the 
 executioner may not call for us. If Buonaparte 
 really loves France more than he does himself and 
 his own supremacy, why not recall the only family 
 that can and has an interest to make Frenchmen 
 quiet and happy." I was so alarmed at what I 
 thought an indiscretion of the merchant, that I ran 
 away as fast as I decently could, but I discovered 
 afterwards, that these expressions of discontent and 
 regret are common here, and never concealed. 
 
 The square ci-devant Bellecourt, is now called 
 Place de Buonaparte ; but since it Vvas thus baptized 
 in 1800, only three houses have been rebuilt, while 
 the ruins of hundreds of others encompass it un^ 
 touched. L expressed my surprise on this subject 
 to a citizen, who answered me — " can it be prudent 
 to rebuild houses under Napoleon the First, when 
 he may be succeeded by another Robespierre, Collot 
 d'Herbois, or Fouche, who, as they did twelve 
 years ago, may order the demolition of every building 
 an aristocrat can inhabit. Let Buonaparte restore; 
 the Bourbons, and every city, town, and village in 
 France will build squares, erect statues, and con- 
 struct monuments to his honour. Nay ! in the bo- 
 som of every patriotic Frenchman he may then 
 reckon a well- wisher and an admirer." 
 
 A walk called the Bretteaux, on the other side of 
 the Rhone, is well worthy of being visited by every 
 
 one who abhors rebellion, and laments its unavoida- 
 
 3 A 
 
370 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 ble consequences; proscription, plunder, murder, 
 and miser\\ On that spot were shot or cut to pie* 
 ces, within nine months, from November, 1793, to 
 August, 1794, seven thousand and three hundred 
 men, women and children, for no other crime but 
 that of being faithful to their God and their King, 
 and enemies to their enemies. From two to four 
 hundred of these unhappy victims were conducted 
 thither at the same time, by the regicides, chained 
 two and two. They were then tied to two rows of 
 trees, and, at a given signal, fired upon by cannons 
 loaded with grape-shot, pointed from the opposite 
 sides gf the walk. Those random shots killed but 
 few, but wounded all of them more or less. The 
 hussars and light horsemen of the revolutionary 
 army were then called in, to dispatch all those who 
 had the misfortune to be spared by the cannons, and 
 only wounded by their uncertain fire. Iron and 
 leaden bullets, and other marks of havoc, may yet 
 be seen in the trees of this walk, and every valet de 
 place informs strangers of the terrible cruelties per- 
 petrated here. 
 
 The execution of these victims usually took 
 place late in the evening, and the corpses were left 
 upon the ground where they fell, and lay until the 
 next morning ; when all the female relations and 
 friends of the butchered persons were put in requi- 
 sition to bury them. They were obliged, by the 
 revolutionary banditti that inspected them, to dig 
 graves, or rather pits, in the vicinity, and, after see- 
 ing those so dear to tliem stripped naked, to throv.- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 371 
 
 them in and cover their dead bodies with earth, 
 uncertain whether within some few days, or perhaps 
 hours, they also should not be murdered. 
 
 LETTER XC. 
 
 LyoiiSj May, 1605. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE governor of this city is the general of 
 division, Dyhesme, of terrourist memory. Before 
 the revolution an apprentice to a barber, he robbed, 
 ran away from his master, and enlisted into the dra- 
 goon regiment of Schomberg, from which he was 
 expelled for new crimes, in March, 1789. He then 
 went to Paris, announced himself a friend of liberty 
 and equality, was accepted as a volunteer in the 
 National Guard, and afterwards promoted to a 
 lieutenancy by La Fayette, At the attack of the 
 palace of the Thuilleries, on the 10th of August, 
 1792, tht poissardes J or fishwomen, selected him for 
 their commander, a distinction at that time not a 
 little popular, and which therefore procured him on 
 the very next day, the rank of a colonel. As such 
 he was attached to the staff of General Santerre, the 
 new governor of Paris, and headed the guards round 
 the prison of La Force, during the massacres of Sepr 
 tember, in the same year. 
 
372 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 It is true that neither the commander nor his sol- 
 diers murdered any of the prisoners, but it is equally 
 so, that they saved not the life of a single one, or 
 suffered any to escape from their assassins. 
 
 In 1793, he was made a general of brigade, and 
 as such served under Jourdan, in 1794, before 
 Maestricht. In 1795, he vras employed in La Ven- 
 dee, where he suffered several defeats from the 
 Royalists, but revenged himself upon the disarmed 
 peasants, the defenceless women and children. He 
 there made his fortune. Within nine months, he 
 confiscated and pillaged upwards of six millions of 
 livres, 250,000/. 
 
 During the years of 1796 and 1797, he served 
 under General Moreau, in Germany ; during 1799 
 under Massena at Genoa, and during 1800 under 
 Buonaparte in Italy. This last campaign procured 
 him Napoleon's confidence and favour. He de- 
 nounced five generals, who had spoken slightly of 
 the First Consul, and was therefore rewarded by 
 him with the government of the second city in 
 France. 
 
 As a general heading a division, he was consid- 
 ered as not wanting courage ; but in all countries, 
 and under all commanders, he was despised as des- 
 titute of talents ; employed but never trusted. As 
 a governor of this city, he is endured, but neither 
 esteemed or feared. ., ,-, .. 
 
 He has several times tried to imitate the examples 
 of Buonaparte's governors of other cities, to live 
 upon credit, to pocket his salary, and to pay nobody; 
 but in this he has not succeeded. He is obliged to 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 37$ 
 
 deal for ready money, because no one will trust hini. 
 The only thing in which the citizens here have ho- 
 noured him, is to gamble sometimes at a bank 
 which he has established in the name of his wife. 
 Every Sunday it is crowded, and it is supposed that 
 it- brings him in -about one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand livres, 6000/. per annum. 
 
 Buonaparte's uncle, Cardinal Fesch, who is arch- 
 bishop of this city, has not been here above a month 
 each time since his appointment, but resides as an 
 ambassador at Rome. The immorality and lowness 
 of his early life is well known here, where he is treat- 
 ed with contempt, and excluded from all societies, 
 except those of his nephew's pubHc functionaries. 
 He is, however, said to be very liberal to the poor, 
 and very insinuating with the fair sex. If report be 
 true, he had many curious adventures, before he was 
 advanced to the prelacy. He was for years a prisoner 
 in Barbary, forced there to exchange the Bible for 
 the Alcoran, and when he found an opportunity to 
 return to his native island, Corsica, the Christian 
 religion was there out of fashion, and after being 
 some time a curate, he not only became a wine- 
 house keeper, but also kept others of ill fame, from 
 which situation Napoleon drew him to become one 
 of the ornaments of the Gallican church. His library 
 is considered as the most select in France; it was 
 presented him by his sister-in-lav/. Napoleon's mo- 
 ther, who had several literati to collect it, in France, 
 Italy, Germany, Spain and England. She paid for 
 it, according to some, twelve hundred thousand 
 livres, (50,000/.) and, according to others, only half 
 
374 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 tliat sum, which connoisseurs pretend is double its 
 real worth. Strangers are permitted to visit it, and 
 look at the binding of the books, of which none are 
 lent out except by an order to the librarian, a Cor- 
 sican priest, signed by the hand of his eminence. 
 
 As to religion in this city, it is the same as in 
 other parts of France ; the people want a Supreme 
 Being, a God to whom they can confide their sor- 
 rows and griefs, and to whom they can address their 
 prayers for relief, and from whom they can hope for 
 succour. But their worship is mere external mum- 
 mery; their Christianity under Buonaparte is the 
 same as their atheism under Robespierre, and their 
 infidelity under the Directory ; it is the mere fashion 
 of the day. Were the fortune of Buonaparte to con- 
 tinue some years longer, he might with the same 
 ease drive Frenchmen into mosques, as he now 
 drums them into churches; and they would there, 
 with the same sincerity, prostrate themselves before 
 Mahomet, as they at present kneel before the cru 
 cifix. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 375 
 
 LETTER XCI. 
 
 Lyons, May^ 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 IN 1789, the population of this city amounted, 
 according to Necker, to one hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand souls; at present it does not exceed 
 one hundred and twenty thousand. The number of 
 respectable manufacturers were, then six thousand 
 and forty-five ; at present they are estimated at only 
 six hundred and forty-six. Fifty-four bankers, and 
 seven hundred and ten capital merchants were then 
 established here ; the bankers of any credit are now 
 but six, and the merchants of any property not above 
 sixty-tv/o. In the silk manufactories were then em- 
 ployed forty- seven thousand persons, now Ixardly 
 eight thousand have any work. The consequence of 
 this decrease of means to support and reward indus- 
 try is an increase of vice, idleness and bej^gary 
 among the lower classes, which are nearly as nume- 
 rous here still as before the revolution, its pestilen- 
 tial breath having chiefly destroyed the great and 
 the wealthy. 
 
 I was provided with letters of recommendation to 
 two of the most respectable bankers here, M. Cou- 
 dere and M. Odifray. The latter is also a manufac- 
 turer; when I declared to him my surprize at seeing 
 oo more business done here, after ail the po,ins go. 
 
376 THE DELGIA^■ traveller; 
 
 vernment takes to exclude foreign and to encourage 
 internal productions, he replied, '' that prohibitory 
 laws no more than fine proclamations could establish 
 what proscriptions, pillage and murder had ruined. 
 We stand in need of capitals, of confidence, and of 
 safety, and we can hope for neither, as long as we 
 continue unsettled as at present. Twelve years ago, 
 our richest merchants and our most ingenious and 
 wealthy manufacturers were all plundered en masse , 
 many of them afterwards were guillotined or shot, 
 and those who could escape emigrated with the rem- 
 nants of their fortunes, and carried with them into 
 foreign countries not only their industry but all 
 wonkmen of any capacity. Some of them have lately 
 retimed, but after witnessing our situation and dis- 
 tress, have left us for ever, to enjoy abroad, what 
 theyl cannot do at home, protection for their persons 
 and property. We do not, indeed, at present appre- 
 hend death every instant, and the plunder and distri- 
 butioii of our property amongst our assassins ; but 
 arbitrary imprisonments, which often cause the ruin 
 and always produce confusion in the affairs of mer- 
 chanti and manufacturers, still are very frequent, 
 and aie often the consequence either of credit refu- 
 sed to^ a favourite, or of payment demanded of a pub- 
 lic functionary. Six respectable inliabitants of this 
 city arb this moment confined in the Temple, where 
 they liive been since last February, for no other 
 cause than having been rather clamoyrous in de- 
 manding payment for the coronation dresses of the 
 Empei-or and Empress, and the grand officers, cham- 
 berlains, ladies in waiting, pages, &,c. of their court, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 377 
 
 and for having presented several petitions, with 
 complaints of the evils a longer delay would produce, 
 as none of them were rich. During their imprison- 
 ment their houses have stopped payment, and should 
 they even be released, and be enabled to make good 
 their payments, their credit has suffered a wound not 
 easily healed. Buonaparte has not the least notion 
 about trade and commercial transactions ; he hates 
 and despises merchants and manufacturers, and, on 
 this subject, listens only to the advice of persons as 
 prejudiced as himself. The commercial tribunal 
 here, composed of well informed men, after being 
 constantly rebuked for its interference, became dis- 
 gusted, and all its members resigned their useless 
 and ungrateful tasks ; Buonaparte immediately ap- 
 pointed new ones, to the number of seven, of whom 
 four have been officers in his household troops, two 
 surgeons with him in Egypt, and only one a mer- 
 chant, who had failed in Paris to a large amount. 
 These persons now correspond with the minister of 
 the interior, and suggest such improvements for our 
 commerce, and encouragement for our industry, as 
 might be expected from persons who have passed 
 their youth in camps and hospitals. They think of 
 nothing but the sword or the lancet, and always resort 
 to oppressive and violent measures against a class of 
 citizens, who cannot prosper without the most un- 
 limited freedom and encouragement." 
 
 3B 
 
378 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XCII. 
 
 l.yons^ Junc^ 1805. 
 ^lY LORD, 
 
 I WAS yesterday invited to dine with the pre* 
 feet. The party was numerous, and consisted of 
 the first persons here, of both sexes. PoHtics, com- 
 merce, mihtary movements, all passed under the re- 
 view of the guests, who, particularly the ladies, 
 spoke with a freedom I little expected. One of 
 them said loudly, when the conversation turned 
 upon Buonaparte's coronation as King of Italy, 
 " this is another throne which French blood must 
 cement, and French treasures support; which gi-ati- 
 fies the ambition and vanity of a foreign individual, 
 but which will cost France thousands of her citizens 
 and millions of her wealth ; and where will all these 
 encroachments end?" " Never, but with the life of 
 Buonaparte," answered another lady, *' or before he 
 has no more countries to conquer, and nations to 
 subjugate. That is to say, were he to reign a cen- 
 tury, he would have business enough himself, and 
 give trouble enough to others." " You are very 
 severe, my good ladies," said Desfarge, one of the 
 members of the council of the prefecture, " I will 
 lay any wager that the conscription has deprived you 
 of some young gallants, now encamped on the other 
 side of the Alps." " Yes, sir," replied the lady who 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER 379 
 
 Spoke first, " the conscription has deprived me of 
 a person extremely dear to me, but he was not my 
 lover, but my only brother, killed and forgotten at 
 the battle of Marengo, which has made your master 
 so much talked of. You know, I suppose, that 
 Buonaparte's predecessors, twelve years ago, also 
 killed on the scaffold my parents and sister, and that 
 my youth alone preserved me. Do not, therefore, 
 be surprised if I am not very fond of revolutionary 
 rulers, whether emperors, kings or sans-culottes; 
 and that I sigh after order and tranquillity." *' The 
 revolution, Madam, is now finished," retorted Desr 
 farge; " France is tranquil and quiet, thanks to Na- 
 poleon the First." " You say that the revolution h> 
 finished ; what do you call that event which put the 
 Italian iron crown on Buonaparte's head, and the 
 decree which transformed the citizens of the Ge- 
 noese republic into subjects of the son of a Corsican 
 subject of their commonwealth? What are those 
 acts which, within six years, have proclaimed Buo- 
 naparte a First Consul for life, and an Emperor of the 
 French dominions? As to the tranquillity of France, 
 it is nothing but the apathy of Frenchmen, and her 
 quiet is only that of the tombs." At a nod from 
 the prefect, Desfarge said, that he perceived it was 
 necessary to give up all hope of reforming or con- 
 verting his fair opponent. 
 
 Here ended the general conversation respecting 
 Buonaparte's coronation at Milan, and the incorpo- 
 ration of Genoa ; but I heard from a friend whose 
 place must procure him good information, that Bu- 
 onaparte's insatiable ambition had alienated from 
 
380 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 him all those whom his military achievements had 
 formerly attached to him ; and that if' required all 
 the vigilance and severity of his favourite generals, 
 who commanded his armies on the coast, and in 
 Italy, to prevent the troops from expressing their 
 discontent by acts of mutiny and sedition. All pa- 
 rents in France, whose sons approach the age of 
 conscription, declaim against him, well foreseeing 
 that these new acts of usurpation must occasion 
 endless wars, requisitions, and expences ; and all 
 those, who have any property to preserve, or whose 
 capitals are laid out in commercial speculations, 
 abhor him for conquests which require much money 
 for their preservation, at the same time that they in- 
 vite to new seizures, and new revolutions; violences 
 that make the condition of the landholder, as well 
 as of the monied man, at least precarious. 
 
 I was assured that several men of large estates, 
 in this department, had lately sold their property at 
 a loss of from ten to twenty per cent, to obtain ready 
 money, and be enabled, in case of any new civil 
 troubles, which are apprehended after the death of 
 Buonaparte, to emigrate without exposing them- 
 selves to distress in foreign countries ; and that 
 others, under pretence of settling in our colonies, 
 have embarked at Marseilles and Bourdeaux in 
 American or other neutral ships for the American 
 continent, and there laid out their capitals in lands, 
 or in the establishment of commercial houses. 
 
 These and other proofs of distrust and discontent 
 have not escaped the notice of government ; and 
 all public functionaries have therefore received 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 381 
 
 secret orders to impede, as much as possible, the 
 sales of large estates, and where sold, to watch their 
 late owners, and to refuse them passes, in case they 
 should apply for them to go abroad, or even to ap- 
 proach the sea ports. The prefects and police com* 
 missaries there have, no doubt, also their instructions 
 to stop all travellers of that description, and to pre- 
 vent them from embarking. On the frontiers of 
 Switzerland, the vigilance has of late been so great, 
 that several Lyo^iese merchants and manufacturers, 
 who intended to visit the fairs of Frankfort, Leipsig, 
 and other German towns, have suffered gi'eat losses 
 by being detained on the French side of the Rhine, 
 notwithstanding their passes were regular. Italy is 
 the only foreign country, with which the commu- 
 nication is somewhat easy, and many of the discon- 
 tented have taken advantage of it to pass into Ger- 
 many by way of the Tyrol. 
 
 Such is the scarcity of money in this part of 
 France, that a discount of two per cent, for the month 
 is paid even upon bills accepted by the first bankers. 
 Between three and four per cent, discount is charged 
 upon others, though secured by the most respectable 
 signatures. For loans upon landed and patrimonial 
 estates two per cent, is given, and for loans upon 
 national estates, the interest is double. No money 
 is advanced upon bills of a longer date than two 
 months, and upon property for a longer time than a 
 year. The interest is deducted at the time when 
 monies are advanced. Pawn brokers charge four 
 per cent, per month upon pledges of diamonds, of 
 gold, or silver, but upon all other valuables or 
 
382 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 goods five per cent. They lend no money for 
 a longer time than three months ; and the inte- 
 rest is always paid before hand. If the pledge 
 is not taken up on the day of forfeiture, it be- 
 longs to the pawnbroker, who never advances 
 half its real value. These usurious transactions, 
 which are admitted or winked at by government, 
 enrich some individuals, but ruin society at large ; 
 in particular a nation fond of shows and gambling, 
 and naturally inclined to extravagance. No law of 
 France (notwithstanding twenty-four thousand have 
 been enacted ^vithin fifteen years) regulates the rate 
 of interest for money, and no one can therefore in 
 France be tried for usurv. 
 
 LETTER XCIIL 
 
 Lijons^ June^ ISOJ. 
 
 JIY LORD, 
 
 SEVERAL public gardens are open here eve- 
 ly night, for entertainment and debauchery, and 
 are well enough frequented during this season, 
 though much reprobated by the sober citizens, as 
 hurtful in the highest degree to a commercial and 
 manufacturing city, which owes its importance only 
 to its industry. Formerly no sucli gardens existed, 
 and only one theatre was open every night ; another 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 383 
 
 theatre has since the revolution been built on the 
 ruins of the convent of St. Celestine, and attracts 
 daily a numerous audience, particularly of young 
 men, as the boxes are chiefly filled with women of 
 the town. The prices are also very low ; thirty- sous 
 are paid for the first places, and twelve sous for the 
 last. On both these theatres the performers are to- 
 lerable, and they serve as nurseries for the gi-and 
 theatres at Paris. The spectators, at least those in 
 the pit, are more noisy and riotous than in any place 
 through which I have passed during my present 
 journey. They interrupt for hours the performance 
 to quarrel about an air which some desire to be sung, 
 while it is opposed by others. Though a police 
 commissaiy is always present, he does not interfere, 
 but leaves the most persevering or most noisy to 
 carry the point in the manner they think proper. 
 When I complained of this scandalous interruption, 
 which infringed on the rights of others, I was an- 
 swered that this custom was a remnant of revolu- 
 tionary licentiousness, which was endured because 
 it could not be altered without serious disturbances 
 and loss to the theatres ; as the young men would 
 rather renounce the plays than give up a right to 
 show what they called their spirit, and that they zvere 
 free. It had been attempted some years ago, but 
 had not succeeded. 
 
 Several anecdotes on this subject were related to 
 me. The mass of the people of this city were never 
 very much attached to the revolution, and took all 
 opportunities to evince their sentiments. Until late- 
 ly, a law of the state ordered, that before any play 
 
384 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 was begun, as well as between every act, the Mar- 
 seillcis air and other revolutionary tunes should be 
 played ; this tyranny over the feelings of the victims 
 of revolutionary assassins, even in their places of 
 amusement, was violently opposed, and could never 
 be carried into execution here. General Duhesme, 
 as soon as he was established here as a governor, re- 
 solved to have this law obeyed ; and therefore com-r 
 manded from his box the orchestra to play Caira^ 
 A general cry of no ! no ! with whistling and stamp- 
 ing, continued for an hour, notwithstanding the me- 
 naces of the governor. At last he sent his aid- de- 
 camp for a company of grenadiers to arrest the muti- 
 nous or clear the house. After some resistance, 
 which cost the lives of four Lyonese and of one gre^ 
 nadier, the governor remained master of the field of 
 battle. But the boxes and orchestra, as well as the 
 pit, were emptied at the same time, and, though he 
 sent out to inform the people that every thing was 
 quiet, nobody would enter, not even the musicians. 
 Determined, however, to have his patriotic airs play- 
 ed, he ordered the band of one of the regiments ii^ 
 garrison to occupy the orchestra, and obey his or- 
 ders. For a month afterwai'ds, not a single inhabi- 
 tant of Lyons went to the theatre, and the managers 
 would have been ruined, had it not been for the 
 humble condescension of Duhesme, in aimouncing 
 officially that he should not insist on obedience any 
 longer, but leave every thing as it had been under 
 former governors. 
 
 You have, perhaps, read, that the strolling player, 
 Collot d'Herbois, whoni the revolution created a 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 385 
 
 representative of the people, was once an actor on 
 this stage, and, in revenge for being hiss^, when 
 afterwards a deputy of the National Convention on 
 mission here, caused several thousand inhabitants to 
 be guillotined or shot. I inquired as to the reality 
 of this report, and was assured by M. Coudere that 
 it was a well known fact. Most of the boxes, before 
 the revolution, v/ere let out to subscribers, whose 
 names were of course found in the registers of the 
 theatres. These registers were seized by him, and 
 not one of the subscribers, or of their families and 
 friends^ on whom he could lay hold, escaped destruc- 
 tion, " because," he said, *' the hisses came from the 
 boxes. ^"^ 
 
 One of the actresses, a Madame St. Claire, evin- 
 ced in those shocking times a fidelity and a courage 
 worthy a better fate. She was kept by a merchant of 
 the name of Gaudin, who was one of the subscribers, 
 and as such doomed by the tyrant, CoUot d'Herbois, 
 to death. By means of her acquaintances she pro- 
 cured an asylum for her lover, but was arrested her- 
 self, and accused of having effected the escape or 
 concealment of a proscribed person. Letters from 
 Gaudin proved that she knew his retreat, and though 
 she was offered not only her life but a liberal reward 
 to deliver him up, she refused with obstinacy and 
 firmness. After sentence of death had been passed 
 on her, Collot d'Herbois told her it was still not too 
 late to be pardoned: " No, Collot," said she, ** I 
 should be unworthy to live upon such conditions. 
 My death is much preferable to your existence." 
 Then addressing herself to the audience, she said r 
 
 3 c 
 
'^86 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 " Citizens ! listen to the prayers of a dying woman, 
 who has no crimes with which to reproach herself. 
 Should Gaudin survive his persecutors, and see bet- 
 ter days, tell him that poor St. Claire died worthy 
 of herself and of him." She then left the tribunal, 
 marched up the scaifold placed under its windows, and 
 exclaimed, while kissing the portrait of her lover : 
 " Oh, Gaudin ! how happy am I to give you this 
 proof of my sincere affection ;" laid her head under 
 the axe of the executioner, and expired the victim 
 of love and discretion. 
 
 After the death of Robespierre, when Gaudin once 
 more ventured to return to his native city, and reco- 
 vered a part of his lost property, he took two young 
 brothers of his mistress into his house, educated 
 them as his own sons, and has now made them his 
 partners. He has also lately erected a monument in 
 the cathedral of this city, to commemorate this gene- 
 rous sacrifice. This action of Madame St. Claire 
 was so much the more extraordinary and praise- wor- 
 thy, as at nineteen she resigned life for a lover of 
 forty-nine. 
 
 ; 
 / 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 38' 
 
 LETTER XCIV. 
 
 Avi^non^ June^ 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE passage-boat from Lyons to this city, is 
 by no means so convenient as that descending the 
 Saone from Chalons. Its progress is, however, 
 quicker, and it is much preferable to land carriages ; 
 as when the wind is fair, or not contrary, the cur- 
 rent of the Rhone usually carries you in thirty six 
 hours to this place, a distance from Lyons of eighty 
 leagues. , 
 
 Though these boats do not stop to dine, they do 
 not proceed during the night. We stopped the 
 first evening at Teint, near Valence, in Dauphiny. 
 This village, or rather tlie mountain behind it, is 
 famous for producing the hermitage wine, which is 
 got in such small quantities, that even upon the spot 
 it is sold for half a crown a bottle. The mountain, 
 where the grapes of this wine grow, is about half a 
 league in extent on each side ; from the south part 
 only the real hermitage is obtained, on the north 
 part are cultivated vines which produce a white 
 -ivine, also called hermitage, but of inferior quality. 
 
 The hermitage wine sold in most countries, is 
 what is called in Dauphiny and along the banks of 
 the Rhone, vin de cote roti. It is stronger than real 
 hermitage, but has not the same flavour. In the 
 
388 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 cauntr}\ this wine is sold at only twelve sous, (six 
 pence) the bottle. 
 
 The nobleman to whom Teint belonged, before 
 the revolution, emigrated, and his chateau is now 
 the principal inn, whither travellers resort. On 
 asking the mistress of the house what had become 
 of the former proprietor, she said, " Sir, my husband 
 and I did not purchase this house from the nation^ 
 but from the valet of that nobleman, who bought it 
 for a mere trifle. Though we paid its full value, we 
 remitted with great risk several sums of money to 
 its real owner. We have now occupied it seven 
 years, and prospered so well, that was he to return, 
 we would for a small consideration restore it him. 
 But we have learned, that his only son, in the army 
 of Conde, was killed, and that the father and mother 
 have since died broken hearted. 
 
 The accommodation of this inn was exceedingly 
 good and very cheap ; for an excellent supper, and 
 beds for myself and my servant, I only paid four 
 livres, ten sous. 
 
 We continued our journey about four o'clock the 
 next morning. In the passage- boat with us, were 
 eight gensdarmes, escorting exiled persons to their 
 destination. 
 
 I have taken my lodgings here in the inn called 
 ** Le Palais Royal," near the theatre. A singular 
 custom prevails in this house ; when I had. been 
 shewn into my room, the mistress of the house, a 
 widow, came in and asked me whether I dined and 
 supped at the ordinary or in my own apartment, and 
 in what manner my servant was to be boarded. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 389 
 
 Having informed her, she said, " Excuse my tel- 
 ling you, that as I mean to treat my customers in 
 style, necessity forces me to request payment be- 
 fore hand for every thing. I have several thousand 
 livres due to me by our generals and officers, which 
 I never expect to be paid, and therefore to keep up 
 the reputation of my house, I am obliged to give no 
 credit. I agreed accordingly to advance her my ex- 
 penses every twenty-four hours before hand. 
 
 When I sat down to supper, I observed that she 
 adhered to her rule. As soon as a traveller took 
 his chair, the head waiter presented a plate, and 
 asked for the price of the repast. All paid it good 
 humouredly enough except a captain of dragoons, 
 who said he had no money, because his pay was in 
 arrear for sixteen months. '' If you cannot pay, 
 said the waiter, you must not sup ; citizens gens- 
 darmes, I give this gentleman to your charge, if he 
 does not voluntarily retire." Two gensdarmes ad- 
 vanced some steps, but the captain spared them the 
 trouble, and withdrew, cursing the government that 
 caused his distress, and the innkeeper who ex- 
 posed it. 
 
 I had heard in Holland, that the French troops 
 there were regularly paid by the Dutch Govern- 
 ment ; but several generals of the army on the coast 
 told me, that some divisions there had not had their 
 pay for ten months, and that others had not received 
 any for eighteen, but that they all subsisted upon 
 credit, in hopes of discharging their debts, if not 
 before, at least after the conquest of England, which 
 was described to them as a Peru. 
 
390 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 With respect to the army of the interior, I was 
 informed, that the household troops of Buonaparte 
 were regularly paid, but that all the other divisions 
 were more or less neglectedj particularly if their 
 commanders were either not much liked by Buona- 
 parte, or not favourites of his favourites. Many offi- 
 cers had, therefore, been obliged to pawn or sell their 
 watches and trinkets. The soldiers v/ere better off, 
 because they obtained every day a pound and a half 
 of bread, and a quarter of a pound of meat, which 
 kept them from starving. 
 
 Our supper was even sumptuous ; it consisted of 
 three courses, and I counted sixty-six dishes, be- 
 sides the dessert; carp and salmon from the Rlione, 
 trout and craw fish from the fountain of Vaucluse, 
 sturp-eon and lobsters from the Mediterranean, 
 venison from the Alps, and wild game from Lan- 
 guedoc, were all served up in perfection. For the 
 dessert we had green almonds, figs, grapes, straw- 
 berries, and all other delicious productions of the 
 season, and the country. The charge for the whole, 
 a bottle of very good wine included, was fifty sous, 
 (twenty. five pence.) 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 591 
 
 LETTER XCV. 
 
 Avii^non^ June^ 1805, 
 
 TRAVELLERS are subjected to the same 
 formalities here as every where else in France, with 
 regard to their passports. Permission to remain 
 must be had from the prefect, and signed by some 
 other magistrates, before you can get a lodging. 
 Gensdarmes are also stationed just by the inn, and 
 observe all who come or go, and if they suspect that 
 the papers of any one are not quite in order, tliey 
 stop him, or enter during meals, and ask him, at 
 table, for his pass. 
 
 This country, called before the revolution the 
 Comtat Fefiaisshi, was one of the most happy upon 
 earth. Situated in a most delightful climate, fruit- 
 ful in the highest degree, mildly governed by the 
 Pope's vice legate, its inhabitants enjoyed all the 
 blessings of civilized society. But for the revolu- 
 tion they would have still continued quiet and for- 
 tunate. 
 
 The leading members of the Constituent Assem- 
 bly with shameless hypocrisy renounced in the name 
 of France alt conquests and aggrandizements ; but 
 the decree had scarcely been passed, before they 
 plotted in the most treacherous manner the seizure 
 of this state ; and employed, to effect this purpose, 
 the vilest and most sanguinary banditti. At the 
 
392 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 head of these, and worthy of such masters, was 
 Matthieu . Joune Jourdan, terribly notorious under 
 the name of Coupe -tetCy or the cut-throat. 
 
 This monster was born in 1749, at St. Just, near 
 Puy, in the department of the Upper Loire. He 
 was by turns, a butcher, a farrier, and a smuggler 
 on the frontiers of Savoy, a coiner, and then a sol- 
 dier in the regiment of Auvergne, The revolution 
 found him a deserter at Paris, where to disguise 
 himself he had let his beard grow to an unusual 
 length. On the 14th of July, 1789, Jourdan, for 
 the first time, gave a proof of his zeal in the cause of 
 French liberty, by cutting off, and carrying upon a 
 pike, the head of De Launais. In the massacre at 
 Versailles, on the 6th of October following, he cut 
 off the heads of Deshuttes and Varicourt, gentle- 
 men of the King's body guard, and carried them 
 before the carriage of the Royal Family, in the pro- 
 cession of cannibals which accompanied them to the 
 capital. Here, boasting that it was he who tore out 
 the hearts of Foulon and Berthier, he complained of 
 the trifling occupation the assembly gave him at 
 Versailles, where too few heads had fallen, and re- 
 quested a reward of a civic medal for his patriotism. 
 
 It was then that Mirabeau, Talleyrand, Bouche de 
 Rhone, and other directors of the French revolution- 
 ary propaganda, engaged this cut-throat as one of 
 their emissaries in the Comtat Venaissin, to terrify 
 the people into the plots of the French traitors, and 
 to demand a re- union of their country with France. 
 He likewise obtained a considerable sum of money, 
 with which he enlisted accomplices. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 393 
 
 Before his arrival, some French democrats and 
 , Jacobins had already preached insurrection to the 
 lower classes, and the agitation began to be the 
 same as in France. Jourdan gave new activity to 
 the plots of these consjpirators. He demanded the 
 heads of all the rich and noble, under the pretence 
 that they were aristocrats, and ordered the imme- 
 diate massacre of some whom he called the chiefs 
 of the papal faction. He formed an electoral body 
 of men of characters like his own, and organized a 
 corps, of assassins, to which he gave the name of 
 the army of Vaucluse. It was composed of deser- 
 ters, smugglers, and felons let out of prison, or who 
 had escaped from the galleys. These pillaged all 
 the chateaux, convents, churches, and even private 
 houses, and wherever they met with any resistance, 
 massacred the proprietors or tenants, sparing neither 
 sex nor age. Patrix, a bankrupt linen-draper, whom 
 they shot because he saved the lives of two nuns, 
 was their first commander ; but after his execution, 
 Jourdan assumed the command, having for his aid- 
 de-camp, Bernadotte, a serjeant, who had deserted 
 from the regiment of La Vielle Marine^ and who is 
 now one of Buonaparte's field marshals, and grand 
 officer of his Legion of Honour. 
 
 The second city of this country, Carpentras, con- 
 tained a number of loyal inhabitants, who, with 
 many who had joined them, armed theniselves in 
 defence of their lives and properties. The attack 
 of this city was therefore resolved on by Jourdan ; 
 but though he was provided with a numerous artil^ 
 Icry, he was forced to retreat, after the loss of five 
 
 3 D 
 
5D4 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 hundred men, and two of his generals, Chabrou and 
 Pey tavin. New pillage, new murders accompanied 
 this disaster, and was a prelude to the horrible day 
 of La Glaciere. 
 
 Some of the people of Avignon, irritated by their 
 sufferings, had, in an insurrection, killed one of 
 Jourdan's principal agents, (Lescuyer,) a secretary 
 of the revolutionary municipality. Instantly Jour- 
 dan gave the signal of carnage, and the night of the 
 16th of October, 1791, as well as the following days, 
 were employed by him to revenge the death of Les- 
 cuyer. The Apostolical Palace here, known under 
 the name of Xa Glacierc% contained the arsenal, the 
 prisons, the halls of justice, and the residence of the 
 Pope's vice-legate. There Jourdan and his banditti 
 knocked out the brains of sixty-one persons, thir- 
 teen of whom were women ; after tearing off the 
 breasts of these, and cutting out the hearts of their 
 male victims, the cannibals roasted and eat them at 
 a fraternal banquet. 
 
 The general cry of indignation and vengeance 
 obliged the Legislative Assembly to order, in No- 
 vember following, the arrest of Jourdan; the only- 
 measure, as Condorcet expressed himself, to save a 
 citizen so valuable to all friends of liberty. His con- 
 duct was defended by Brissot, Condorcet, Francois 
 de Neufchateau, and the chief patriots of this As- 
 sembly, which, by an amnesty in March, 1792, let 
 this monster again loose upon society, and advanced 
 him to the rank of a general of the gensdarmes. 
 Faction, however, but too late for humanity, aven- 
 ged the outrages perpetrated by him against the 
 
l^E BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 395 
 
 community. Notwithstanding the speeches of Tal- 
 lien, Barras and Fouche, in favour of their friend, 
 Hobespierre, suspecting Jourdan to be attached to 
 the Brissot party, sent him to the revolutionary tri- 
 bunal, which, in May, 1794, condemned him to 
 death. 
 
 Such was the man, and such were the means used 
 by French philosophers and philanthropists to obtaigi 
 the first extension of the territory of revolutionary 
 France, and to extend, as they infamously said, the 
 blessings o^ Yr^nch fraternity ! The people here are 
 now equally oppressed and wretched with their 
 French brothers, and never speak of their former 
 happiness without tears, and of their deceivers and 
 oppressors without execration. Even in the presence 
 of the adjutant of the place here, Cordier, who dines 
 at the ordinary of the inn where I lodge, they did 
 not conceal their feelings. '^ We should not, after 
 being ruined, be thus insulted," said a citizen from 
 Carpentras, whom the gensdarmes arrested yester- 
 day at the table, because he had neglected to shew 
 his pass at the prefecture, '* had Providence, in its 
 wrath, not cursed us with Gallic fraternity ; but we 
 deserve our fate, in not preferring death to a dis- 
 graceful foreign bondage." ** Softly, Sir," inter- 
 rupted Cordier; "your anger makes you forget 
 yourself." A general murmur prevented this public 
 functionary of Buonaparte from saying any thing 
 more ; but the gensdarmes carried off their victim, 
 who will have time enough, in his prison, to medi- 
 tate on French philanthropy and good faith. 
 
396 tHE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XCVI. 
 
 jivi^oriy June^ 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE walks round this city are beautiful, and 
 very much improved since 1790. Their extent is 
 upwards of a league, but the most fashionable part 
 of them is along the banks of the Rhone. There, 
 of an evening, you will see the remains of the ease, 
 elegance and beauty, that formerly Were so common 
 here. 
 
 The other evening I met an old friend, the Mar- 
 quis de R , formerly the happiest and richest 
 
 man in this territory. He was married to an amia- 
 ble lady, by wht)mhe had four sons and two daugh- 
 ters, and was related to the first nobility here, who, 
 twice a week, met at his elegant mansion. During 
 the fine season, dinner parties and balls were fre- 
 quently given at his superb chateau, situated on a 
 most romantic spot, two leagues distant. Every 
 Saturday his steward distributed one hundred crowns 
 among the poor of this city, and a portion of soup 
 and meat was given to all who presented themselves 
 at his hotel on Sundays and days of festival. At 
 Christmas he cloathed one hundred poor persons ; 
 at Easter he paid for the education of twenty-five 
 poor children; and at Whit- Sunday each year he 
 gave portions of two hundred livres each, to twelve 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 597 
 
 girls of good character, who had maiTicd worthy 
 young men. 
 
 I found him now blind and destitute, bereaved of 
 his fortune, family and friends, stooping under the 
 burthen of age, and deserted by every one, except 
 an infirm old woman, whom his charity had former- 
 ly supported. He leaned on her, who had scarcely 
 strength enough to carry herself. I did not at first 
 recognise him, and intended to re-enter the town to 
 inquire what had become of him, when a priest, who 
 walked by, exclaimed to his companion: *' There is 
 a sad example of the vicissitudes of human life, and 
 a convincing proof of another and a better world, 
 Avhere virtue obtains its reward, and where vice can- 
 not escape its punishment." I asked him if it was 
 not the Marquis de R whom I saw thus alter- 
 ed? " Then you have known him before," replied 
 the priest ; " yes, he is that unfortunate nobleman. 
 He now inhabits one of the hospitals endowed by 
 his ancestors, and where he himself has so often re- 
 lieved suffering humanity. The lands w^hich con- 
 stituted the funds of this hospital have been soid as 
 national property, and its inmates endure not only 
 privations but real wants. The small allowance of 
 government is seldom if ever paid, and the general 
 poverty being as great as the general selfishness, the 
 charitable donations of individuals are merely acci- 
 dental trifies, and of the poor wretches there, some 
 literally perish for want every day. I am surprised 
 to see the marquis and his nurse still among the 
 living." 
 
o98 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 I followed the marquis at a distance, and entered 
 with him into this abode of wretchedness and horror. 
 On the entry of the ground floor lay three naked 
 corpses, a man and two women, who had died that 
 day, and who after sun -set were to be thrown into a 
 cart, naked as they were, and carried to a pit dug 
 for the reception of poor people who died in the hos- 
 pital, or for malefactors who expired in gaols, or 
 perished on the scaffold. What an insult to virtu- 
 ous poverty, what cruelty thus to confound misfor- 
 tunes with guilt! This pit is at some distance from 
 the city, and all the corpses thrown into it are imme- 
 diately covered with lime. 
 
 On the first floor a long hall extended on each 
 side of the staircase, and the marquis entertd that on 
 the left hand side. It Ai-as, as I was informed, of the 
 same size as that opposite, and contained formerly 
 twenty-eight beds, which were now reduced to 
 eight, as two, and sometimes three, poor persons oc- 
 cupied one and the same bed. Government was to 
 allow for the board and expenses of each individual 
 six sous per day ; but as neither bakers nor butchers 
 would any longer give credit, nor the physicians 
 and surgeons attend, or the apothecaries furnish 
 drugs, without ready pay, all tlie sick and infirm suf- 
 fered extreme distress, and as many died of want as 
 of disease. Upon inquiry the nurse told me, that 
 this distress had continued ever since May last year, 
 when, she said with naivete ^ Buonaparte began to 
 pay nobody, because he required all the vioncy, of 
 France to pay for his coronation. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 399 
 
 Some minutes were necessary to enable the mar- 
 quis to recollect me, and my obligations to him for 
 his many civilities and friendly hospitality during 
 my stay here fifteen years ago. When I shook 
 him cordially by the hand, and expressed my feel- 
 ings at seeing him thus recompensed for his un- 
 common generosity, tears trickled down his cheeks, 
 and he exclaimed with a faltering voice, " Pardon 
 my weakness ; my nurse can tell you these are the 
 first tears I have shed since Providence placed me 
 here. I have supported neglect, ingratitude, and 
 contempt, with fortitude ; but my heart is so little 
 accustomed of late to meet with delicate compassion, 
 or generous sentiments from any one, that it betrays 
 itself — indeed it was taken by surprise — If those to 
 whom the sight of me and my afflictions is reproach- 
 ful, would but use me with a little kindness, they 
 would soon break it, and get rid of me." 
 
 I heard from this unfortunate nobleman, that two 
 of his sons had been killed during the civil wars here 
 in 1791, and that the two others had been guillotined 
 in 1793, for attempting to emigrate. He was then 
 confined, with the other members of his family, in 
 the Conciergcrie at Paris, where his wife and one of 
 his daughters died from the combined effects of 
 grief and terrour. During his imprisonment in the 
 capital his name was put upon the list of emigrants in 
 this department, and all his property confiscated and 
 sold. In 1795 he returned here with his only re- 
 maining child, who by her industry supported him 
 until 1800, when too great fatigue put a period to 
 her life. To add to his misery, a cold fell on his 
 
400 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 eyts, and deprived him of his sight. He dien ap- 
 plied to those who for a trifling sum had become 
 owners of his property, to allow him a small mainte- 
 nance ; but though some of them had been his own 
 tenants, and all had shared his bounty when in afllu- 
 cnce, they refused him any money, but procured 
 him a place in this hospital, which was built and en- 
 dowed by his great grandfather. Here for upwards 
 of four ye^rs he had dragged on a miserable exist- 
 ence, when the contractors of government became, 
 or declared themselves, insolvent. He and his nurse 
 now subsist together, on ten sous (five pence) a day, 
 given them by an old Irish priest, who has himself 
 no more than thirty sous a day to live upon. He 
 professed himself perfectly resigned and submissive 
 to the chastisement inflicted upon him by the Al- 
 mighty, who he prayed would shorten the remaining 
 part of his sufferings. 
 
 I found out the worthy priest who shared his own 
 scanty pittance Hlkth. the marquis, whom he had not 
 known in the days of his prosperity. His appear- 
 ance and his poverty proclaimed, more strongly than 
 words could do, the faith of a sincere Christian, and 
 the sublimity of his religion. I was happy to ha^'e 
 it in my power to alleviate the burden of genuine 
 goodness, and unmerited distress. It was the most 
 fortunate day of ray life, and the remembrance of it 
 upon my death bed will soften the pangs of dissolu- 
 tion. Oh ! if those whose rank and wealth have 
 not been destroyed by revolutionary tempests, knew 
 bow cheaply pure, lasting happiness might be pur- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER.. 401 
 
 chased, they would fly to hospitals with more eager- 
 ness than they now hasten to scenes of dissipation. 
 
 In the hospital here, of forty-six inmates, eight 
 were nobles, five priests, and six nuns, ruined by 
 the revolution. There were seventy-two in the be- 
 ginning of the year, but the rest have paid the debt 
 of exhausted nature. As two or three persons still 
 die every week, this mansion will soon be unin- 
 habited. ^ 
 
 I am well informed that most of the other hospi-? 
 tals and charitable institutions in France are inhu-* 
 manly neglected. 
 
 LETTER XCVII. 
 
 Avignon^ June^ 1805.- ^ 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I INTENDED to have taken a trip to^the 
 fountain of Vaucluse, had I not, upon enquiry, heard 
 that every thing round it still marks the horrors of 
 which its vicinity has been the theatre within these 
 fourteen years. 
 
 In fact, the people of this country suffer in every 
 way from its incorporation with France; they pay 
 now more taxes in twelve months, than they paid to 
 the Pope in twenty-four years. Formerly, this coun- 
 try was respected as neutral during the wars between 
 
 3E 
 
402 THE BELGIAK TRAVELLER. 
 
 France and England, and British travellers whom ill 
 health, necessity, or pleasure sent abroad, expended 
 immense sums here, and found an hospitable recep- 
 tioUy a healthy elimate^ cheap living, and agreeable 
 society. At present foreigners seldom visit or settle 
 here, as they are often treated by the police agents 
 and other officers of government like criminals. 
 
 This country^ however^ holds out many attrac- 
 tions to strangers. A good stone house, with a 
 prospect over the walks and the river Rhone, may 
 be hired here for three hundred livres, (twelve 
 pounds) a year.* Bread, meat, and wine, are from 
 twenty to forty per cent, cheaper than in other parts 
 of France ; and the climate produces every thing 
 that the affluent can purchase, or the epicure desire. 
 Though sometimes it does not rain here from May 
 to September, the country is not exhausted by 
 drouglits, being surrounded and intersected by nu- 
 merous rivers, and fountains. Like all other coun- 
 tries near the Mediterranean, it sometimes suffers 
 from high winds, but their duration is never above 
 three days. Winter is seldom felt here, but when 
 the 'autumn retires the spring makes its appearance. 
 The people are lively and sociable, and the women 
 beautiful and uncommonly fair for such a warm 
 climate* 
 
 To-day, at dinner, I happened to mention the 
 tomb of Laura, which I often visited formerly in the 
 convent where she Was buried ; and of which I had, 
 this morning, in vain, inquired the situation. " There 
 is nothing singular in your disappointment,'' said 
 ene of the pai'ty : " The convent near this place^ iii 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 403 
 
 which her ashes reposed, is demoHshed, and the 
 chapel, which contained her tomb, is now trans- 
 formed into a stable." Upon going thither, I founcj 
 two asses lying on the tomb- stone of Laura^ It 
 was not without some difficulty that I could make 
 them remove so far as to see that nothing of 
 the inscription remained but ** Laura," ,• ... <. 
 and " requiescat in pace,'''* No! not even her re- 
 mains have been left unpolluted by the abomina- 
 ble monsters, that revered nothing, either respecta^ 
 ble, admirable, or sacred. 
 
 Every thing in this unfortunate and ruined city 
 excites sorrow and regret. When I was here the 
 last time I had letters of <^redit to a respectable 
 banker, B^on Teste. His habitation is now demo^ 
 lished; and when I inquired after him, I was told 
 that he was one of the thousands of victims who 
 had been butchered by the ferocious banditti sent 
 Jiere by revolutionary Frenchmen. 
 
404 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER XCVIIL 
 
 Marseilles, Jiily^ 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE most convenient and cheapest mode of 
 travelling after you have descended the Rhone, is to 
 engage with what is called voiturierSy a kind of 
 coachmen, who have their own carriages, and whose 
 sole occupation is to carry passengers from place to 
 place. The coachman who brought me here from 
 Avignon, asked me, for myself, my servant, and my 
 baggage, twenty-four crowns, and accepted of ten, 
 and would have taken eight had I been tenacious. 
 
 Between Avignon and this city I was stopped 
 eleven times, and had my passports inspected by the 
 gensdarmes. Within ten minutes after my arrival 
 at the inn, my passport was required and registered. 
 I was also warned of the necessity of presenting my- 
 self at the police office before 12 o'clock on the next 
 morning, and afterwards of waiting on the prefect 
 and the commander. 
 
 M. Permon, the commissary general of the police 
 here, told me that he had made it an invariable rule 
 never to grant strangers permissions of residence for 
 more than a week; that if my conduct was appro- 
 ved of, 1 should meet with no difficulty in prolong- 
 ing it to the period I might wish, but that I must 
 present mj'^elf at the police office every Monday 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 405 
 
 morning before noon. This was the more disagree- 
 able to me, as, in the anti-room of the office, I was 
 obliged to mix not only with strangers like myself, 
 but with thieves, house-breakers, assassins, forgers 
 and pick-pockets, all collected there in mass, and 
 admitted each in his turn to be examined. 
 
 Among others for whom I had letters, I w^as re- 
 commended to a merchant of the name of Julien, 
 who was particularly civil, and introduced me to 
 two clubs, of which he was a member. Here any 
 refreshments might be had, and card parties were 
 formed to play whist, ombre, piquet, or other 
 games. In each of these clubs were also two billiard 
 tables, and all the French newspapers were taken. 
 Happening to mention one day to Julien the disa- 
 greeable weekly visit I should be obliged to pay to 
 the police office, he inquired how long I wished to 
 remain here. " Not above six weeks." ** Well, 
 then, give me six half crowns, one for each Monday, 
 and a police agent will fetch your passports, and 
 bring them back to you signed again, and there will 
 be no necessity of your going to the police office. 
 This pretended restraint is nothing more than a real 
 contribution laid on all strangers who are too proud 
 or too busy to dance attendance at the office in the 
 company which is met there." 
 
 At one of these clubs I met with an American 
 merchant of the name of Thompson : he told me 
 that he had, for five months, bought off his atten- 
 dance at the police office in the same manner. He 
 warned me, hov/ever, to be very careful in my con- 
 versation about the police, as he could speak from 
 
406 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 experience, having been in prison three weeks for 
 an indiscretion, and five for an act of imprudence, 
 and had not recoveied his hberty without some con- 
 siderable pecuniary sacrifices. As soon as he was 
 admitted a member of the club, he brought there a 
 bundle of American newspapers, as several of the 
 gentlemen understood English, and had expressed a 
 desire to read them. Forty-eight hours afterwards, 
 just as he was going to bed, a police agent, with two 
 gensdarmes, entered his room, seized him, and car- 
 ried him before the police commissary, who, after 
 examining him, committed him to prison, as an 
 enemy of the French government, and as having 
 disseminated libels against it printed in American 
 papers. After twenty days confinement, a corres- 
 pondent of his called upon him, and informed him 
 that fifty louis d'ors were necessary to procure his 
 release, a sum which he instantly paid. 
 
 I am told that none of Buonaparte's public func* 
 tionaries here have received any salaries for eighteen 
 months past, but subsist either by credit, or less 
 honourably, like the police commissary, by extortion 
 and other acts of injustice and oppression. Such is 
 the effect of Buonaparte's wrath, and such the cru- 
 elty of his military despotism, that many placemen, 
 whose necessities forced them to request a small 
 part of what was due to them, have immediately 
 been dismissed, and lost at the same time their pla- 
 CCS and the amount of their claims. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 407 
 
 LETTER XCIX. 
 
 Marseilles^ July^ 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE police office here is on the iirst floor of 
 the town hall, and in its anti-room is the famous pic- 
 ture representing the dreadful ravages of the plague 
 in this city, ninety years ago. 
 
 The clergy in this part of France, as well as in 
 the northern departments, are divided by an unfor- 
 tunate schism; the churches of the constitutional 
 priests are deserted, while every Sunday or holiday 
 the non-juring priests are forced by the faithful to 
 celebrate, often in the open fields, the mysteries of 
 the Roman Catholic religion. Their audience is 
 always very numerous, and, though they have no 
 salaries, they are better suppprted than their oppo- 
 nents. Acts of cruelty and of violence have been 
 exercised to put an end to this religious scandal, 
 and to produce a desirable union in the church, but 
 all in vain ; and the people have preferred not to go 
 to church at all, rather than to attend the mass of 
 priests whom they consider as perjured and apos- 
 tate. 
 
 In many parishes in the south of France, the Pope 
 has been burnt in effigy, with a jacobin cap on his 
 head, and his bulls have been torn to pieces. He is 
 considered to be as much under the powxr of the 
 
408 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 devil as under that of Buonaparte, and a caricature 
 is hawked about among the country people, repre- 
 senting him fraternizing with Napoleon and Beelze- 
 bub. Under their figures are written these words: 
 " And these three make but one person." In ano- 
 ther caricature, an angel is seen seizing his tiara 
 from his head, the instant he is placing an imperial 
 diadem on the head of Buonaparte. 
 
 As to books or pamphlets, the booksellers all over 
 France are, upon the least suspicion, exposed to do- 
 miciliary visits and arbitrary imprisonments. A 
 respectable bookseller here of the name of Girard, 
 the father of six children, was arrested last year by 
 four gensdarmes, carried to Paris, and shut up in 
 the temple, where he is said to have died suddenly. 
 His crime was, that a pamphlet had been discovered 
 in his shop ridiculing Buonaparte and his expedition 
 to Egypt. It had been printed as long ago as 1798, 
 and Girard had forgotten that he had a copy of it 
 left. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. ^09 
 
 LETTER C. 
 
 Marseilles^ July^ 1805» 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE commerce of this ancient city has been 
 entirely deprived of its former lustre by the revolu* 
 tion. Many capital houses have been ruined by a 
 maximum^ by requisitions^ and by frauds committed 
 with impunity, by individuals as well as by govern- 
 ment. Some bankers and merchants have been 
 murdered, others have emigrated, and the few, very 
 feWy good houses still remaining, do but little busi- 
 ness, as, from the many losses they have experien- 
 ced, they now seldom sell but for ready money. 
 
 The few French merchant vessels that have esca- 
 ped the English cruisers, are laid up dismantled in 
 the harbour, and trade is carried on only by ships 
 under Prussian, Danish and American flags. They 
 bring hither, and also, as I am told, to Bourdeaux, 
 L'Orient and Nantes, most of the products of the 
 French colonies, upon which they get a profit of 
 thirty, and sometimes fifty per cent. Here are also 
 four Danish ships that have, each, within two years, 
 made three voyages to and from Martinico and Gua- 
 daloupe, and are now loading for a fourth. Of 
 the three Prussian ships here, I have been assured, 
 two belong to merchants at Dunkirk, who have 
 obtained, for a trifle, naturalization as Prussis^a 
 
410 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 subjects, and a right to trade under Prussian 
 colours. 
 
 Here, as well as all over France, are privileged 
 gambling houses, and a spirit of gambling prevails 
 among all classes of people, and among both sexes. 
 It is a fashion among the principal inhabitants of 
 both sexes, to adjourn every night, when the perfor- 
 mance is over, from the theatre to tlie private gam- 
 bling houses of some deserted or divorced wives, 
 the favourites of the prefect, of the commander, or 
 of the police commissary. You are there presented 
 with ices or lemonades, and, in return, must show 
 your good breeding by losing some louis d'ors at 
 one or other of the gambling tables; or, if you would 
 get off cheaper, put a double louis d'or under the 
 candlestick, to pay for the cards; which was my cus- 
 tom. You may also there, if inclined, form connec- 
 tions with ladies of easy virtue, provided they sup- 
 pose you rich and generous. I am sorry to say 
 that, in modem France, disinterested love is as 
 scarce amongst the fair sex, as disinterested friend- 
 ship is rare amongst the other. Both are equally un- 
 fashionable here, and are no longer found except in 
 a novel or romance. 
 
 A stranger, and particularly a bachelor, may, 
 however, live here very cheap and very agreeably. 
 In the inn where I first lodged my expenses for my- 
 self and servant amounted to nine livres per day. 
 
 After dinner gentlemen usually go to the coffee- 
 houses, to take their coffee and liqueurs, or to the 
 clubs, to form a party of whist or piquet,, until the 
 play begins. The dinner hours are here from two to 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 411 
 
 three, but never later than four, even with the most 
 fashionable. The theatres are open at half past four, 
 and at half past five the performance begins. It is 
 always over before nine o'clock. The price for 
 boxes at the principal theatre is six livres ; but a 
 stranger may, by paying thirty-six livres before- 
 hand, subscribe for a month, and go every night, 
 and to any part of the house he chuses. The women 
 and the military pay only half that sum, and have 
 the same privileges. The performers here are as 
 good as at Lyons, and this theatre is always well 
 frequented. 
 
 Most married men here who can afford it keep 
 their mistresses, and make no secret of it to their 
 wives. I did not, however, believe that scandalous 
 and open adultery was carried so far as was report- 
 ed, until one evening I went into a box occupied by 
 the wife of a neutral consul. Opposite, in a small 
 private box, I saw a handsome young woman, whose 
 head was ornamented with diamonds. I enquired 
 who she was. " She is my husband's mistress," re- 
 plied the lady, " and lives only five doors from your 
 lodging." As I looked at her with surprise, not 
 knowing whether she was jocose or serious : " Do 
 not think," she continued, *^ that I am telling you 
 an untruth ; every body you ask will confirm what I 
 have said." She said this before her two daughters, 
 girls of nineteen or twenty. She then pointed out to 
 me half a dozen of other young women, kept by 
 married gentlemen with whom I was acquainted. 
 Her husband now entered the box of his mistress, 
 from which he carelessly nodded to us all The 
 
412 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 next day he invited me to dine at a country scat 
 which he had just taken and furnished for his girL 
 From this you may suppose, that there can be no 
 shame or scandal for a bachelor, or a stranger, to 
 dine or appear in public with them. 
 
 These kept women must, as well as the girls of 
 the town, take out their licenses from the police 
 commissary, for which they pay a certain sum 
 monthly, which, with his contributions from gam- 
 bling houses, and extortions from strangers, makes 
 his place more valuable than that of the prefect, or 
 even of the governor. He has from government only 
 a salary of fifteen thousand livres per annum, which 
 IS seldom paid; but the extra revenue of his office, 
 per fas et nefas^ is supposed, at the lowest calcula- 
 tion, to amount to eighteen thousand livres per 
 month. 
 
 The present police commissar}^, M. Permon, is 
 much liked here ; but his predecessor, Le Cointre 
 Puyraveaux, was detested for his cruelties and pil- 
 lage. Permon was educated in the same college with 
 Buonaparte, who in his youth was very fond of him. 
 When Buonaparte became First Consul, he employ- 
 ed Permon some time as private secretary, but judg- 
 ed him fit for no other situation than the present, 
 where he may enrich himself without exposing his 
 want of genius and of talents. He gave him for an 
 assistant an old intriguer and police spy from Paris, 
 Goudeville, whom he made a secretary general of 
 the police office, and who, no doubt, plunders his 
 superior of a part of the pillage, called here ((ouceur^ 
 of office. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 413 
 
 LETTER CI. 
 
 Marseilles^ August^ liBOS. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THIBAUDEAU, the prefect here, to Avhom I 
 had letters of introduction, has invited me both to 
 his official and private parties, and introduced me to 
 all the principal public functionaries of this depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Thibaudeau is one of those men that have figured 
 in the revolution, whose talents place them far above 
 the multitude, but who, without much principle, 
 have been led by terrour to dip their hands in the 
 blood of a virtuous king, and to bend the knee to 
 every assassin or plunderer in power. He was for- 
 merly an advocate in Poitou, where he was succes- 
 sively elected a member of the Assembly and Con- 
 vention, He was not much known in either, though 
 he always voted with the rebels of the former, and 
 with the regicides of the latter. It was not till the 
 the fall of Robespierre that he acquired much cele- 
 brity. In 1795, he often declaimed in favour of the 
 unlimited liberty of the press, and of a perfect equa^ 
 lity among all classes of French citizens. 
 
 As a member of the Council of Five Hundred, in 
 1796, he displayed more moderation; but in 1797, 
 apprehensive that many men of talents, then elected, 
 would clgud his lustre, he began to act an equivocal 
 
414 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 part, sometimes declaring himself an adherent of the 
 Jacobin directors, and then the partisan of their op- 
 posers. Thus he displeased or deceived all parties, 
 and was, in the revolution of the 4th of September, 
 1797, near falling a victim to his own artiiice. In 
 1800, Buonaparte made him a privy counsellor, and 
 last year appointed him a prefect of this department, 
 whence his predecessor had been removed from ab- 
 solute necessity. 
 
 At the beginning of the revolution nobody really 
 knew who the late prefect, La Croix,, was. He had 
 been pushed forward by the Jacobins as a firm pa- 
 triot, and his impudence supplied the place of abi- 
 lities. As a member of the National Convention, he 
 voted for the death of his King, and for all the other 
 violent and cruel projec*ts of that Assembly. He was 
 sent on a mission with Barras and Rewbel, and, 
 therefore, when they were elected Directors, they 
 nominated him a minister of the foreigni department, 
 out of which place he was, in 1797, swmdled by the 
 crafty intriguer Talleyrand. In 1799, Buonaparte 
 found him an ambassador in Holland, a post from 
 which he was recalled ; but by cringing, and by the 
 charms of one of his daughters, Lucien Buonaparte 
 was prevailed upon to procure him this prefecture. 
 Here he became very popular, both for disapproving 
 the conduct of Le Cointre, the police commissary, 
 and for evincing a real or affected zeal for the pros- 
 perity of this city. During his administration it has 
 certainly been very much improved in cleanliness, 
 embellishment and convenicncci 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 415 
 
 Last summer he was thrown off his horse, and 
 his shoulder dislocated. A surgeon being sent for, 
 his shirt was taken off, when the mark of a thief 
 and forger, made by the red hot iron of some 
 public executioner, was discovered ! This accident 
 obliged Napoleon the First to remove him to Bour- 
 deaux ; but the surgeon was also at the same time 
 taken up, carried to Paris^ and has not since been 
 heard off. 
 
 LETTER CIL 
 
 Marseilles, August^ 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 GENERAL CERVONI, the commander of 
 the eighth military division of the French empire, 
 has his head quarters here, and is an agreeable, good 
 looking officer, about forty years of age. A Corsican 
 by birth, and the son of a miller, he enlisted into the 
 service of the king of Sardinia twenty years ago, and 
 was a corporal when he deserted over to France, and 
 became a soldier of the regiment of Royal Italien ; 
 with a company of it he was quartered at Ajacio, 
 where he formed an intrigue with one of Buonaw 
 parte's sisters, the present Princess of Santa Croce, 
 who ran away with him, but whom, being unable to 
 support, he sent back to her mother, after an intima- 
 cy of three months. In 1794, being made a general 
 
416 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 by his countryman, Salicetti, he offered to marry his 
 former mistress, when he was ordered on service to 
 Guadaloupe. When he returned, the good fortune 
 of her brother had made her a princess. As she, 
 however, continued to show an inclination for him, 
 Buonaparte, to keep him at a distance from Paris and 
 Rome, promoted him to his present post. Here he 
 is both beloved and respected, being equally averse 
 to corruption, and to oppression. He invites all fo- 
 reigners of any consequence to his table, where no- 
 thing is seen either of ostentation or extravagance. 
 
 In his house I made acquaintance with the Gene- 
 rals Pelletier, Guillot, Launay, Motte, Schilt, Mo- 
 rengie and Pascalis, who all seemed to have worn off 
 the rust of low birth and education. Though pos- 
 sessed of wealth and rank they were unassuming. 
 From their conversation a person might have sup- 
 posed himself in the company of ci-devant nobles, 
 ruined by the revolution, and cordially detesting it. 
 Nor was the future ever in their thoughts; they were 
 apparently as tranquil, as if Buonaparte were immor- 
 tal, and his favour unchangeable. 
 
 The general of brigade, Bizanet, is the governor 
 of this city. He has by valour and capacity, and not 
 by crimes and intrigues, advanced himself from the 
 ranks to his present situation. 
 
 He permitted me some days ago to be present at 
 his review of the galley slaves, who are now very 
 numerous here, amounting to upwards of twelve 
 hundred. These consisted of assassins, forgers, 
 house-breakers, pickpockets, deserters, some con- 
 scripts, but the greatest number beggars. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 417 
 
 To inflict the same punishment on a conscript 
 who conceals himself, as on a robber or a murderer 
 is shocking to humanity ; but it is still more abomi- 
 nable, that beggary and poverty should be thus 
 punished. Of the galley slaves seven hundred and 
 sixty were accused of no other cr'une but tliat of 
 begging ; and had, without any trial, merely upon 
 a mandate of the minister of police, been taken to 
 the gallies, to labour with the vilest criniinals. 
 
 After I had left Flanders, and particularly at Paris 
 and at Lyons, I was surprized at not seeing more 
 distressed persons begging in the street. Having 
 heard how great the general misery was, it often 
 occurred to me, that the poor wretches in France 
 were so terrified by a sanguinary police, as to pre- 
 fer starving in obscurity, to publicly exposing their 
 misery. My conjectures were correct. 
 
 General Bizanet told me, that Buonaparte sent 
 orders from Mentz, in October last, to the police 
 minister, Fouche, at Paris, to have removed from 
 the sight of the Pope, and of the concourse of stran- 
 gers he expected at his coronation, all beggars or poor 
 persons infesting the high roads. Fouche immedi- 
 ately commanded the seizure of all individuals of the 
 above description. According to report, the num- 
 ber taken up all over France exceeded sixty-two 
 thousand persons, including women and children. 
 As such a great number required large extra ex- 
 pences from government for their support, Fouche, 
 in a circular letter, ordered that all the males above 
 twelve and under sixty should be sent to work the 
 gallies, and all the women and children be employed 
 
4,1% THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 in houses of correction, until a general peace should 
 enable the government to transport them to the co- 
 lonies. But the most atrocious circumstance is the 
 neglect of government to provide for the innocent 
 and unfortunate persons thus confined. Those who 
 are thus imprisoned are left destitute like those suf- 
 fering in the hospitals, and perish daily by scores 
 for want of sustetiance I 
 
 LETTER CIIL 
 
 Alarstilles^ August y 180,5. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE education of young men is here, as eve- 
 ry where else in France, military. The youth are 
 made expert in killing their fellow creatures, but 
 their minds are left void of all notions of a Supreme 
 Being. Should you visit any of the primary or se- 
 condary schools, or any of the prytanees, you would 
 imagine yourself in watch-houses or brothels, from 
 the profane and obscene language which you hear. 
 Should you express any surprise or displeasure at 
 it, those infant daemons will assail and torment you 
 like furies, aud make your stay insupportable. 
 
 It is certainly Buonaparte's intention to make thijs 
 altogether a military nation, and, calculatifig from 
 thq progress aheady made, he will ten years liencc 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 419 
 
 be able within six weeks, if necessary, to triple his 
 troops by levies of conscripts, and other young men, 
 as well drilled as his veteran soldiers. In the mili- 
 tary education which Buonaparte has organized for 
 the French youth, Europe and the world may read 
 their doom ; they will soon have no choice left but 
 between the most oppressive slavery ot eternal wars. 
 No class of French subjects is exempted from 
 conscriptions ; even the few that, in the present age 
 of infidelity, would be inclined to enter into a des- 
 pised priesthood, must either serve themselves, or 
 procure substitutes. From what I have heard and 
 seen, during my present journey, I am more than 
 ever convinced that Christianity in France ap- 
 proaches every day nearer to its extinction. Buona- 
 parte and Talleyrand are too politic to knock on the 
 head, at once, a religion of eighteen centuries. But 
 the degradation of Christianity in the person of its 
 ostensible chief, has produced the same revolution 
 in religious, as the humiliation and murder of the 
 king had already done in political sentiments, and 
 most Frenchmen are therefore infidels. But, if I am 
 not misinformed, Talleyrand said, even when the 
 Pope still fraternized with Buonaparte in the Thuil- 
 lerics, '' Christianity in France will descend into the 
 tomb, without either giving alarm, or making any 
 noise, because the present generation of the French 
 clergy will leave no posterity behind them. Their 
 faith will be buried with them, and no resurrection 
 of either is to be apprehended by the friends of phi- 
 losophy." Indeed when it is recollected that all the 
 present French priests must be now either old, of 
 
420 ' THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 above the middle age, as hardly any young French- 
 men have entered into orders since 1790, it is not 
 improbable that within twenty or thirty years, the 
 altars of Christ in this country will be deserted for 
 want of servants to officiate. 
 
 Formerly when here, I had been acquainted with 
 
 the Baron de F , a rich and amiable nobleman. 
 
 Ruined by the revolution, he had, under the as- 
 sumed name of Battiei, taken an obscure lodging at 
 Nismes, where he taught young children drawing 
 and writing, in order to gain a scanty subsistence. 
 Here he was unexpectedly seized by the police 
 agents, upon suspicion that he subsisted by begging. 
 He proved his innocence, but was notwithstanding 
 condemned to be transported, and in the mean time 
 to work in chains in the gallics. There he continued 
 nine months when, by the intervention of a friend 
 who learned his miserable fate, he was set at liberty; 
 but unable to bear the stigma of dishonour, and 
 smarting under the cruel sufferings he had experi- 
 enced, he shot himself soon after his liberation.. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. , 421 
 
 LETTER CIV. 
 
 Lyons, jiugust, 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 ON the receipt of your letter I left Marseilles. 
 Notwithstanding the number of Buonaparte's spies, 
 a traveller never sits down at an ordinary or enters a 
 diligence, without hearing complaints against his 
 government. On leaving Marseilles, according to 
 custom, we were stopped at the gate, and asked by 
 a police agent for our passes. This, as usual, caused 
 many murmurs and some curses. When we were 
 permitted to go on some of the passengers exclaimed, 
 " How long will thirty millions of Frenchmen pa- 
 tiently endure to be oppressed and insulted, because 
 the safety of a foreigner's usurped crown requires it !" 
 
 During the first day prudence prevented me from 
 joining in the conversation any more than decency 
 required. I recollected the occurrences at Abbeville 
 and Autun, and was besides warned, by a friend 
 in office at Marseilles, to be upon my guard, as go- 
 vernment had lately issued fresh orders to its police 
 agents and gensdarmes, to use the same vigilance 
 with travellers going to the interior, as with those 
 travelling towards the frontiers. 
 
 One of the passengers was a Polish nobleman, 
 whom the last partition of Poland had made a Prus- 
 sian subject, and who was provided with a Prussian 
 
422 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 pass. He travelled both for his health and pleasure, 
 and seemed to be very much upon his guard; he had 
 nevertheless been suspected of being a Russian or 
 English spy, and been imprisoned at Havre, Nantes, 
 Touloilse and Montpelier, and only recovered his 
 liberty by submitting to pecuniary extortions. He 
 told me of a countryman of his, who has been im- 
 prisoned atBourdeaux since last April, notwithstand- 
 ing he had been demanded by the Prussian ambas- 
 sador, the Marquis of Lucchesini, who had obtained 
 an order for his release from the minister of police, 
 Fouche. The police commissary at Bourdeaux, as 
 an excuse for not obeying the commands of his su- 
 perior, always pretends to have made some new dis- 
 coveries of the Prussian prisoner being a spy, though 
 he at the same time almost weekly repeats an oifer 
 made four months ago, to set him at liberty for a 
 douceur of fifty louis d'ors, which he has more than 
 once hinted he should be obliged to share with the 
 minister. When the subjects of Prussia, the most 
 favoured of all foreigners here, are thus treated, 
 what must those of other states endure? Hundreds 
 of foreigners have either already perished or still suf- 
 fer in French dungeons under different pretences. 
 lEven tortures have been resorted to, in order to ex- 
 tort, as it has been said, confessions of supposed guilt, 
 but in fact only to plunder them of their property. 
 
 It may be tliought, perhaps, that such violences 
 and pillage are the private acts of cruel or greedy 
 men in place, and unknown to Buonaparte; on the 
 contrary, though he has been officially informed by 
 neutral and friendly ambassadors of tlie sufferings 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 423 
 
 of their countrymen travelling in France, not a sin- 
 gle police commissar}^ prefect or governor, has yet 
 been punished or even reprimanded for them. 
 
 LETTER CV 
 
 Geneva^ Septeviber^ 180X 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE want of hands in the south of France has 
 prevented the cultivation of lands in the same man- 
 ner as before the revolution; and women perform 
 six eighths of the little labour tliat is done. They 
 now have employments assigned them, to which 
 they never would have submitted before. They 
 plough, hew wood, make instruments of husbandry, 
 and shoe horses. In three places in Dauphiny, wo- 
 men were even the postillions of our diligence. They 
 drank brandy, smoked tobacco, and swore as freely 
 as any veteran postillion in France. 
 
 I travelled in a post-chaise between Lyons and this 
 city. The roads are excellent, though mountainous, 
 the inns very good, and the people, as far as I could 
 judge, loyal, detesting the revolution, and hating the 
 present military despotism. 
 
 Between this city and Lyons I was stopped no less 
 than twelve times, by police agents and gensdarmes, 
 to exhibit my passport, and here also I underwent 
 
424 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 an examination at the gate, where I gave a douceur 
 to the police agent at his request^ and was obliged to 
 tell him the inn where I should lodge. 
 
 I went to the Hotel la Balance^ where I had staid 
 fourteen weeks, fifteen years ago. I paid the same 
 here as at Lyons and Marseilles. Early the next 
 day I was obliged to wait on the prefect, the com- 
 mander, and the police commissary, to obtain per- 
 mission to pass some few days here. 
 
 M. Barante, the prefect, to whom I was intro- 
 duced by M. Maurice, the mayor, whom I had for- 
 merly known, received me civilly, and granted me 
 leave to reside here a fortnight, and longer if I de- 
 sired. 
 
 From the prefecture I went, accompanied by M. 
 Maurice, to General Morand Dupuch, the com- 
 mander at Geneva, who treated me with great polite- 
 ness. 
 
 If any true, zealous, and disinterested republi- 
 cans have existed, or still exist upon the continent 
 of Europe, the republic of Geneva has produced 
 them. The smallness of its territory, and the small 
 number of its citizens rendered it possible to estab- 
 lish and maintain a form of government impracticable 
 and destructive in all states, where each inhabitant 
 cannot be a guardian of the morality of the commu- 
 nity at large, as well as of that of his neighbour. 
 The Calvinist religion, which teaches not only a 
 religious, but political equality of rights, made the 
 citizens of Geneva the natural foes of all social su- 
 periority, and enthusiasts for a government, chim^- 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 425 
 
 rical and impracticable in all other parts of the 
 world, except their own petty republic. 
 
 Until 1792, the republic of Geneva considered 
 the kings of France as their natural protectors, and 
 the kings of Sardinia as their hereditary enemies. 
 But no sooner was Louis XVI. dethroned by pre- 
 tended French Republicans, than they saw their 
 error, and were very near becoming the victims of 
 it. The Jacobin General Montesquieu, who did 
 not hesitate to invade Savoy in time of peace, 
 from an unexpected scruple refused to bury the city 
 of Geneva in its lake^ according to the orders of the 
 executive council of the National Convention. At 
 last, in 1798, during a time of profound peace, it 
 was invaded, conquered, and incorporated with 
 France. 
 
 Since that period, its public spirit has decayed, 
 its industry ceased, its commerce has been ruined, 
 its liberty, and its prosperity banished. In twenty 
 years the citizens of Geneva will be as abject, as 
 idle, as beggarly, as slavish and as corrupt as their 
 French brothers. 
 
 At the country house of the banker P- , where 
 
 I dined, and to whom I had a letter of credit and 
 recommendation, an ancient magistrate of Geneva 
 was of the party. He was a contemporary of J. J. 
 Rousseau, had been his friend, and political disciple ; 
 was, therefore, an irreconcileable foe to tyrants and 
 slaves, and of course to Buonaparte and to French- 
 men. 
 
 ** I have, sir," said he to me, " seen thirteen 
 years too many, as a chastisement for my sins. 
 
 3H 
 
426 tHE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Had I expired on the 10th of August, 1792, my ex- 
 alted imagination would, in my last moments, have 
 contemplated nothing but a regenerating universe 
 advancing towards perfection. Frenchmen pro- 
 claimed themselves the restorers of universal liberty; 
 I was fool enough to believe them. Within a few- 
 years these pretended friends of liberty have done 
 more mischief and greater injury to the freedom ©f 
 mankind than the power, oppression, and proscrip- 
 tions of tyrants for ages. Good God ! that I should 
 see the day when, in my native country, I am a fet- 
 tered stranger, a vile slave of an infamous foreign- 
 er ; when I dare not utter a word for fear it may 
 be caught by an hiformer, and myself hurried to 
 a dungeon. But,'V continued he after a pause, 
 " perhaps I am now speaking in the presence of 
 some spy of Napoleon the First. If so, let him in- 
 form his master, that another victim is ready for his 
 infernal prisons, for his draughts, or for his dag- 
 gers ; from whom even his tortures w ill be unable 
 to extort a groan!" 
 
 The only nephew, and heir, of this old gentleman 
 was in a counting-house in England when Geneva 
 lost its independence ; on his return here, three years 
 ago, merely to pay a visit to his uncle, he was seized 
 by Buonaparte's agents as a conscript, and neither 
 intreaties nor money could procure his liberation. 
 He endeavoured to escape, but was retaken and 
 ahot as a deserter. Several other young citizens of 
 Geneva have, for a similar cause, experienced a si- 
 milar fate! 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 427 
 
 LETTER CVL 
 
 GcJievCy Sejitembcr^ 1805 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 IN proportion to its population, this republic 
 was one of the wealthiest communities of Europe 
 before its incorporation with France. Many of its 
 inhabitants had large sums in the funds of England, 
 France, and Austria, and the industry, regularity^ 
 and economy of all classes here increased the means 
 of affluence, and diminished the temptations to vice. 
 They were, therefore, generally a sober, active, and 
 moral people ; distinguished in the annals of lite- 
 rature and science, as well as for their progress in the 
 arts. An honest and virtuous citizen of Geneva 
 was the happiest of mortals. From the narrow cir- 
 cle of the community, it was totally impossible that 
 his worth should be concealed or forgotten. The 
 same cause that made virtue known and recom- 
 pensed made vice uncommon. 
 
 Since this country has been cursed with French 
 fraternity it has lost an eighth part of its population^ 
 and a fourth part of its most respectable bankers and 
 merchants. From its inland situation, encompassed 
 by French tyrants, or by countries tyrannized over 
 by France, its citizens have many difficulties to en- 
 counter in their attempts to escape their oppressors. 
 But I have been told that, at present, thirty wealthy 
 
428 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 and worthy families have collected their all, and wait 
 only for a favourable opportunity to emigrate, and 
 settle in Great Britain or America. 
 
 The people here, among other branches of indus- 
 try, were renowned for watch-making. In 1792, 
 five hundred families were supported and enriched 
 by it. According to an official register, wliich I was 
 permitted to look into, not above one hundred and 
 sixty persons were, in 1804, employed in this busi- 
 ness, and these were far from making fortunes. All 
 the others had settled in the principality of Neufcha- 
 tel, or near Besangon in France, where they were less 
 exposed to the rapine of the agents of our govern- 
 ment than in their own country. It is a notorious 
 fact, both in Brabant and in the states on the right 
 bank of the Rhine, as well as in those parts of Swit- 
 zerland now forming part of the French Empire, 
 that, notwithstanding their incorporation, they are 
 frequently oppressed and harrassed as a conquered 
 people ; and, while paying the taxes of French sub- 
 jects, are laid under extraordinary contributions and 
 requisitions, as foreigners. 
 
 Yesterday the prefect, with whom I dined, an- 
 nounced that he had been officially informed of the 
 arrival of the first division of the army of the coast, 
 on the banks of the Rhine. The probable issue of a 
 ivar between France and Austria then became the 
 topic of conversation. That the former would pre- 
 serve, and even augment, her power over the conti- 
 nent, no one seemed to doubt, " The Emperor of 
 the French," said one of the guests, a M. Mallet, a 
 secret agent of Buonaparte, ** is resolved that the 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 429 
 
 empire of modern France, like that of ancient Rome, 
 shall extend over all Europe, and tliat the nations, 
 not its tributaries or allies, shall be considered and 
 treated as barbarians." 
 
 LETTER CVII. 
 
 Lausanne, S^JitcmbeVy 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 A TRAVELLER, who has formerly visited 
 Switzerland, must grieve indeed when he sees what 
 this unfortunate country is, and remembers what it 
 was. The public misery almost surpasses the gene- 
 ral discontent, and individual distress seems to have 
 abated, if not extinguished, the public spirit. 
 
 The best way of travelling in this country still is, 
 to hire a coach from town to town. You lose, in- 
 deed, some time upon the road, but you are certain 
 of good accommodations and of safe conveyance. 
 I paid for a coach with two horses, from Geneva to 
 this town, five crowns, including duties, fares of 
 turnpike gates, bridges. Sec. and was only ten hours 
 on the road. 
 
 . If I had not been well recommended and known 
 at Geneva, I should not have been able to quit 
 France without a new passport from the minister of 
 police ; which might have detained me for months 
 
430 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 before it could be expedited. But though the supe- 
 rior officers there were my friends, and shotted them- 
 selves disinterested, a kind of chief clerk, who 
 brought me m}' passport, requested, in a tone not to 
 be refused, a douceur of four louis d'ors for his 
 trouble; I was too prudent not to make, as I thought, 
 this last oiferiag to corruption and cupidity; but, 
 when out of the reach of French gensdarmes, I in- 
 formed the prefect, by letter from tliis place, of what 
 perhaps he knew before, and was forced to wink at; 
 this clerk being presented him by the minister of 
 the interior, of whom he is a favourite. 
 
 On the present French frontiers at Varsoive, I ex- 
 hibited, for the last time, my passport to a French 
 agent, surrounded by gensdarmes. He made several 
 difficulties with regard to my pass, and once even 
 said that it was not in order, and that he should be 
 obliged to stop me, until he had orders from Paris 
 how to act. I was alarmed, and near abusing him 
 for his impertinence or ignorance, Avhen my coach- 
 man made me a sign that he wanted to speak with 
 me. He told me that this agent was very strict, and 
 had powerful protectors at the office af the mi- 
 nister of police; but that if I would give him a cou- 
 ple of louis d'ors, he would try to arrange the affair. 
 Situated as I was, I again submitted, but since my 
 arrival here I have heard that the agent and the coach- 
 man understand each other, and divide between them 
 the spoil of intimidated travellers ; who, if they know 
 how to bargain, may get out of France for a couple 
 of crowns, instead of a couple of louis d'ors. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 431 
 
 On entering this town, which is in the Pays dr 
 Fauci, a Swiss sentry stopped my coach, and a Swiss 
 officer very civilly asked for my passport, which he 
 returned after taking down my name. 
 
 Several Swiss officers and merchants regularly 
 dine at the ordinary of the inn called the Red Lion, 
 where I lodge. They do not conceal their wish to 
 be delivered from the French yoke, and hope that, at 
 the present crisis, Austria will not respect a neutra- 
 lity entirely to the advantage of France. The Lan- 
 damman has, indeed, called- out and armed the mili- 
 tia; but should the Austrians be victorious in Ger- 
 many and Italy, and present themselves here with a 
 sufficient force to encourage and support an insur- 
 rection, instead of opposing them, the Swiss troops, 
 according to \\ hat I have heard, would join them to 
 'A man. 
 
 Some few vagabonds of this territory, under the 
 appellation of Swiss patriots, first invited the French^ 
 in 1797, to pollute this then happy land with their 
 infernal presenpe, and to assist them to crush the 
 oligarchy of Berne. These traitors are now them- 
 selves the victims of their own treachery, abhorred 
 in their own country, where they dare not show 
 themselves, and starving in the gaols or in the hos- 
 pitals of France, like the Irish rebels, despised, ne- 
 glected and oppressed by Buonaparte, and by his 
 government. At the head of these sham patriots 
 w^ere De Sangy and La Harpe, who both had been 
 private tutors at St. Petersburgh, of M'hom I have 
 heard that the one has shot himself, and that the 
 other is still more wretched, wanderinj^' about from 
 
432 THtl BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 State to state, rebuked and repulsed every where, 
 and conscious lliat he has been the chief instrument 
 of the disgrace and ruin of his country. Of the other 
 Vaudois revohiionists, upwards of fifty have been 
 transported to Cayenne by the order of Buonaparte, 
 who has lately sent a dozen more of them to the 
 Temple. j 
 
 Among the persons here who declaimed most 
 violently againBt France and Buonaparte, was a Cap- 
 tain Weiss. He is a cousin of the Colonel of that 
 name, so notoiious in the revolutionary annals of his 
 country, and one of the most extraordinary charac- 
 ters of these extraordinary times. Colonel Weiss 
 was an applauder of all the different systems of the 
 French revolution; and it was enough that a man 
 stood high in tlie revolutionary world, to become his 
 idol. He equally admired Marat, Danton, Robe- 
 spierre and Bf onaparte. Without military or poli- 
 tical talents, without coolness and conduct, and ex- 
 cessively presumptuous, with an army under his 
 command, he idly negociated with a handful of rebels 
 of this vicinity, whom he had been ordered to dis- 
 perse. The feithful inhabitants of this town and 
 country, confounded at his conduct, gave themselves 
 up to despair, and while they wearied both the com- 
 mander and the government with their complaints, 
 the conspirators barefacedly deputed, agents to the 
 French geneml Menard, who, at the head of his 
 armed banditti, soon decided the fate of the Paijs de 
 Vaud, 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 433 
 
 LETTER CVIII. 
 
 % 
 
 Lausanne^ Sefitember^ 1805, 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE iiistant I had entered the Swiss territory, 
 my carriage was surrounded by beggars ; their 
 prayers and lamentations were truly piteous. When 
 I inquired the cause, I received the same answer as 
 in Holland : *' The revolution and French fraternity 
 have ruined us J''* 
 
 This country never boasted of much commerce, 
 or many manufactories, but they were sufficient for 
 the wants of the inhabitants, and for the occupation 
 of the poor. The French troops who invaded the 
 Pays de Faud, those conquerors, whose leaders had 
 plundered from Italy to the amount of hundreds of 
 millions, arrived here all in rags. They, however, 
 said, the Swiss will clothe us. After pillaging public 
 and private banks, seizing the plate of churches, 
 and the funds and provisions of hospitals and orphan 
 houses, they put into requisition all the cloth, linen, 
 leather and muslin which could be found. In one 
 week they thus pillaged and ruined four hundred 
 families, and involved thousands of the poor in their 
 fate. Since that time no one has dared to exert his 
 industry and ingenuity, or to invest his money in 
 trade or manufactories, from fear of tempting the 
 rapacity of French plunderers. 
 
 3 1 
 
434 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Notwithstanding so many strong admonitions, and 
 terrible examples of the danger even to themselves, 
 the revolutionists of the nineteenth century are in-, 
 corrigible. A gentleman of the name of Du Fresne, 
 who has just come from Neufchatel, assures me, 
 that, though the people of that principality, thanks 
 to Prussian neutrality, have remained undisturbed 
 amidst the ruins of Helvetia, and witnessed the in-. 
 famy of Frenchmen and the sufferings of the Swiss, 
 they ai'c all ripe for an insurrection, and do not wish 
 for any thing better than the fraternal hugs of French 
 marauders. 
 
 The inhabitants of that principality live, however, 
 under a very mild and paternal government, are all 
 industrious, and many even wealthy. But they seem 
 to be infected with the general spirit of innovation, 
 now so prevalent upon the continent, which keeps 
 nations, princes, and subjects in such continual agi- 
 tation. The rich want rank, the nobles more power, 
 and the mass of the people want change; not con- 
 sidering or recollecting the cruel and deadly effects 
 of innovations and changes in other states. 
 
 Here, even when you sit down to dinner or supper, 
 you are assailed by beggars, and your feelings har- 
 rowed by tales of distress. I remarked one of them, 
 an old man, w^ith a very expressive countenance, 
 who walked round the table, accepted of what was 
 given him, but never asked for any thing. When 
 he approached the door to leave the room, all the 
 other beggars surrounded him, and he seemed to 
 distribute in silence a part, or the whole, of what he 
 had collected. This singularity made me inqyire 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. -435 
 
 who he could be, and what induced him to act thus. 
 I was told that his name was Saunier, and that before 
 the revolution he had been one of the richest manu- 
 facturers in the Pays de Vaiid, Deluded by the so- 
 phistical arguments and hypocritical promises of the 
 leaders of the French revolution, he became an en- 
 thusiast in its cause, and was among the most vio- 
 lent revolutionists of this country, when all his wishes 
 were gratified by the arrival of those French friends 
 of liberty, whose fraternity he had so long desired 
 with impatience. His house was open for their re- 
 ception, and he spared no expense to evince the sin- 
 cerity of his former principles. He was married to a 
 respectable woman, by whom he had three children, 
 a son and two daughters. These latter immediately 
 found a number of admirers among the French offi- 
 cers, two of whom, after a month's acquaintance, 
 seduced them to elope. The astonished and indignant 
 parent began now first to repent of his indiscretion, 
 and perhaps even to regret his zeal in a cause dis- 
 graced by such partisans and supporters. But what 
 must have been his feelings when he was informed, 
 that both these officers had wives in France, and that, 
 merely to gratify a momentary and base passion, 
 they had thus repaid his hospitality. But the mea* 
 sure of his sufferings, or chastisement^ as he now calls 
 it, was not yet full. His son, who was an officer in 
 the corps of the Vaudois insurgents, flew after the 
 seducers of his sisters, overtook them, and was slain 
 in a duel. His death occasioned his eldest sister 
 to die of a miscarriage, and his mother to expire 
 .broken-hearted. Patriotic contributions and requi- 
 
455 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 sitions had in the mean time diminished Saunicr's 
 property^ and his family misfortunes made him neg- 
 lect the care of what remained; he had been a bank- 
 rupt about a week, when his youngest daughter was 
 brought to him raving and incurably mad ! This last 
 stroke almost deprived him of his own reason, and 
 he is now looked upon as a kind of innocent idiot. 
 He subsists entirely by charity; but whatever is 
 given him more than will provide for his immedi- 
 ate wants, he divides among other poor people, un- 
 der an idea, that had it not been for his infatuation, 
 his country would not have been in slavery, nor his 
 countrymen beggars. 
 
 LETTER CIX. 
 
 Bernfy October^ IS05- 
 UY tORr), 
 
 BEFORE I left Lausanne I went to visit a 
 friend who lives about four leagues distant, on 
 the opposite bank of the Lake of Geneva. He 
 had formerly served in France, with the rank of 
 colonel, and Louis XVHL bestowed on him, in 
 1796, the order of St. Louis. This royal favour, 
 the reward of thirty years services, ensured his pro- 
 scription, the pillage of his property, and the misery 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 437 
 
 of his future life, when France, in 1798, poured out 
 her criminals and slaves upon Helvetic ground. 
 
 ** I vv^as," said he, ** merely for having accepted 
 this favour, thrown, in March 1798, by order of the 
 French general, Menard, into a dungeon at Besan- 
 con, where I heard nothing of the world for ten long 
 months. I was treated like a convicted felon : I was 
 denied pen, ink and paper, nor suffered to receive 
 communications from any one. My only suste- 
 nance for 24 hours was water and half a pound of 
 black bread. In the beginning of 1799 I fell sick, 
 from despondence and ill treatment, and at last was 
 set at liberty only upon my signing bonds and bills 
 of exchange to the amount of one hundred and fifty 
 thousand livres, which was almost my whole pro- 
 perty. These I gave to a person who said he was 
 a commissary of the government. On my way home, 
 I learned atNeufchatel that my plate, pictures, horses, 
 equipage, cattle and furniture were confiscated and 
 sold ; that my sister-in-law, who resided with me, 
 had perished under the outrages of her ravishers, 
 and that my wife was nearly dead of an hifamous 
 disease with which those barbarous villains had for- 
 cibly contaminated her. Judge of my anguish— I 
 wished myself back in my dungeon at Be sang on, 
 never more to behold the light, or the face of man ! 
 When I arrived at the gate of my dwelling where I 
 had enjoyed so much happiness, I was met by my 
 aged servant all in rags, and his faced bathed in 
 tears — " Ah my dear master," said he, " are you still 
 alive! — I had hoped that God, in his mercy, would 
 have spared you the horror of knowing the full ex- 
 
438 THE BELGIAN TRAX^LLER. 
 
 tent of your misfortunes." I entered the house-*- 
 the hall, the saloon, the library, the lodging rooms, 
 all were empty and desolate, and bore the traces of 
 the demon of destruction. When at last I opened 
 the door of my bed-room, I saw, extended on the 
 floor, a corpse, as I at first imagined. Alas ! it was 
 my own dear wretched wife ! The banditti had not 
 even left a bed, and, after abusing her in the most 
 beastly manner, had brutally thrown her senseless 
 on the floor. Her first words to me were, *' do not 
 approach a wretch whose presence alone is suffi- 
 cient to inspire you with horror. I am dying by 
 inches in the most excruciating pains. Tell me if 
 you have heard of the barbarities I have suffered, and 
 if you pardon my misfortunes?" I assured her that 
 she was more dear and precious to me than ever—- 
 *' Thank God," she answered, *'then I die content, 
 and forgive even ferocious Frenchmen!" In four 
 days afterwards she expired. 
 
 " AXter somewhat recovering from my first con- 
 sternation and sorrow, I retired to the hospitable 
 mansion of a friend, who, like myself, had lost most 
 of his property, and whose sister had fallen the vic- 
 tim of French brutality. We now live here toge- 
 -ther in expectation either of better days, or of quiet 
 in the grave." 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 439 
 
 LETTER ex. 
 
 Bcrne^ October^ 1805, 
 MY LORD, 
 
 IN this countr}^ one can go to bed without fear 
 of being disturbed by police agents, or gensdarmes, 
 and when no revolutionary Frenchman happens to be 
 present, a traveller is asked for his pass only on enter- 
 ing or leaving a town, or in the inn where he lodges. 
 No fees are asked, and no douceurs are extorted by 
 the agents of government. They even seem ashamed 
 to perform a duty, unbecoming and insulting to 
 freemen, I had, when I arrived at the gate of this 
 city, from forgetfulness, put my portfolio and pass- 
 port into my trunk. When asked for it by the sen- 
 try, I therefore offered to get it out of my trunk 
 behind the coach. " Never mind it," said the 
 officer, " tell me your name, that will be sufficient. 
 I hate, as much as you do, these tyrannical regula- 
 tions. Good morning, Sir." 
 
 Brothels and gambling houses are now frequent 
 here, where fifteen years ago they were never even 
 heard of. My valet de place told me he had served as 
 valet to General Brune, in 1798, who, to his know- 
 ledge, had imported hither from France, within two 
 months, seven hundred strumpets and two hundred 
 gamesters. These he distributed all over the Hel- 
 vetian republic, according to the population, and 
 wealth of the inhabitants. They have since received 
 
440 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 several reinforcements from the mother country; 
 ajid when you at present hear in Switzerland of a 
 harlot, or of a rogue, it is fifty to one that it is a citi- 
 zen of the great nation. 
 
 With the misery of Switzerland every thing has 
 become dearer; the taxes are ten times their former 
 amount, and the inhabitants, without half their for- 
 mer means or resources, have more than double their 
 former expenditures. 
 
 Commerce and manufactures are annihilated ; 
 there are now only a few petty shopkeepers and some 
 poor stocking-knitters. The former wealthy mer- 
 chants and manufacturers have either perished, emi- 
 gi'ated, or become beggars. The population of the 
 canton of Berne is one fifth less than it was ten years 
 ago, and those who remain, envy those who have 
 escaped into a voluntary exile. 
 
 Buonaparte's deputy sovereign of this country, 
 the present Landamman, Glutz,has long ago evinced 
 his abhorrence of the French revolution. He was, 
 in 1789, an officer of the Swiss guard of the king of 
 France, and on the fatal 10th of August commanded 
 as aid-mnjor in the palace of the Thuilleries; he was 
 one of the few who escaped the stabs of the French 
 repu])lican banditti on that day, and their massacre 
 on the 2d and 3d of September following. With 
 much difficulty he escaped from France, in the dis- 
 guise of a waggoner. Who could have supposed 
 that he would ever have accepted of an appointment 
 from the usurper of that throne, for which, twelve 
 years before, he had so valiantly fought ? It is how- 
 ever but justice to say, that patriotism has made liini 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 441 
 
 accept his place, in order that, as far as it lays in 
 his power, he may alleviate the yoke which a foreign 
 despot has imposed upon his countrymen. 
 
 At his table I have heard more freedom of senti- 
 ment in political discussion than could be expected 
 in a state swayed by the iron sceptre of Buonaparte. 
 
 When suggesting to a Swiss general, the other 
 day, my hope that Buonaparte's financial penury 
 would soon force him to diminish his military estab- 
 lishment, he replied, " No Sir! that will never 
 happen, I observe )^ou have fallen into the same er- 
 ror with most sovereigns and ministers. As long as 
 Buonaparte can, every year, bayonet into the army 
 inore than a hundred thousand conscripts; as long 
 as he yearly educates a million of youth for his army 
 exclusively, and as long as he can bring five hundred 
 thousand men into the field within a month, and, 
 without magazines or money, support them solely 
 by plunder, under the name of requisitions, so long 
 he will continue a most dreadful enemy to the world. 
 
 *' There is only one mode of counteracting Buona- 
 parte. Let the youth of other countries be subjected 
 to the same military education and conscription as 
 in France. Let their arsenals be filled with warlike 
 stores, and their armies be supported in the samei 
 manner as those of Buonaparte; let them, like him, 
 promote talents without regard to seniority or birth, 
 then if it is not too late, Europe may yet be saved!" 
 I have lately been upon a very interesting but very 
 melancholy excursion. I have visited those fields 
 of battle where the Helvetian patriots fell under the 
 
 3 K 
 
442 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 daggers of French banditti, who overpowered them 
 by far superior numbers, and where bravery was 
 vanquished by treachery. 
 
 Of the party was an amiable young lady about 
 twenty-four, who at the battle of Frauenbrun, on the 
 4th of March, 1798, was wounded in seven places, 
 in fighting against the French. She was our guide, 
 and showed us the spot, where sixty Swiss women, 
 with no other weapons than poles, stormed, and, for 
 an hour, kept possession of a French battery of ten 
 twelve pounders, defended by fifty men. Of these 
 sixty heroines only four escaped death; our com- 
 panion was one of these, but she was carried away 
 from the field of battle, having fainted with loss of 
 blood, and supposed to be dead. For eighteen 
 months afterwards she was unable to quit her bed, 
 and her recovery was doubtful, and though her life 
 has been preserved, her health is ruined. During 
 these bloody conflicts, the number of women who 
 so nobly perished, amounted to two hundred and 
 eighty. They all flew to the front of the battle, threw 
 themselves on the cannon of the enemy, and clung 
 to the wheels to prevent them from advancing. She 
 said that this incredible resistance exasperated the 
 French soldiers to madness. When they had no 
 more victims to sacrifice upon the field of battle, 
 they sought tliem in villages and hamlets, which 
 every where became a prey to flames, and to the 
 most horrible carnage. The numerous houses, 
 barns and stables, for three leagues round, were set 
 on fire, given up to pillage and laid waste, with a 
 tarbarity unknown in modern times. The ferocity 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 443 
 
 of the French vented itself both upon every living 
 creature, and on the bodies of those who had just 
 expired, without distinction of age or sex, and with 
 circumstances of inhumanity, the mere recital of 
 which would make the hearer shudder with horrour. 
 She also showed us the valley where one glorious ef- 
 fort of magnanimity surpassed the memorable sacri- 
 fice of the Spartans at Thermopylae. Eight hundred 
 youths, all under twenty-five years of age, devoted 
 themselves to death; attacked at first by three thou- 
 sand Frenchmen, they, within an hour laid one half 
 of them dead on the ground, and repulsed the other ; 
 five thousand fresh troops then surrounded them ; 
 though overpowered by numbers they refused quar- 
 ter; seven who escaped the first carnage, disdained 
 to survive their brethren in arms, and, rushing into 
 the ranks of the enemy, perished under the ruins of 
 their country. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate the fate of the Swiss 
 cantons without a sigh. Formed into little indepen- 
 dent societies on the declivities, or amidst the re- 
 cesses of the mountains, it was they who first resisted 
 the encroachments of the house of Austria, glori- 
 ously repulsed the Burgundian invaders, and, even 
 in their fall, made the last eflPort against the tyranny 
 of France. They were less fortunate than their an- 
 ccstors, and fell, not because they had degenerated, 
 but because they retained their original honest cha- 
 racter when every thing around them was changed, 
 and had to contend with foxes as well as tygers, with 
 secret treachery as well as with open force. 
 
444 TIIR BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER CXI. 
 
 I 
 
 Berne^ October, 1805. 
 MY LORD, 
 
 THE young Swiss lady, mentioned in my last, 
 is the only daughter of a senator of what was called 
 the French faction, and who, when he became cer- 
 tain that Frenchmen wished tlf.e ruin of his countr}', 
 punished himself, by blowing out his brains, for 
 what he called, in his will, his unintentional high 
 treason against society. His daughter was mourning 
 over the dead body of her father, when her lover, 
 the son of another senator, wrote to her, that he had 
 enlisted in that patriotic corps of eight hundred 
 youths, who resolved to die like freemen, when they 
 no longer had a country. He was then already on 
 the advanced post, four leagues from Berne, and in- 
 formed her, that probably before the letter had 
 reached her, he should be a corpse. 
 
 While rendered desperate by this double calami- 
 ty, she was visited by four other young ladies, 
 mourning, like herself, the approaching catastrophe 
 that would deprive them of their lovers. They pro- 
 posed to her not to weep or p^ss the time in unavail- 
 ing lamentations, but to share the patriotic laurels 
 and cypresses of those so justly worthy of their af- 
 fection. She did not hesitate a moment to accompa- 
 ny them. Before they arrived at the field of battle 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 445 
 
 their number was increased to sixty, and would have 
 been six hundred, had not parental authority inter- 
 fered. They did not discover the post selected by 
 their heroic lovers before the battle began. Obser- 
 ving, however, a battery at a distance, the destruc- 
 tive fire of which mowed down whole ranks of their 
 countrymen, they stormed it — and, with the loss of 
 twenty- two of their number, carried it, and disarmed 
 the French; but not knowing how to point or even 
 how to load a cannon, their valour served only to 
 prevent their friends from suffering by its fire. A 
 battalion of grenadiers soon assailed them, and offer- 
 ed them quarter on restoring the cannon ; to this 
 proposal they answered by discharging at them the 
 musquets taken from the French gunners. They 
 were then attacked, hewed down, and, all maimed 
 and mangled, left for dead upon the field of battle. 
 Two of the young girls who, with her, survived the 
 carnage of that day, now reside in her house and 
 are supported by her. One of them has lost an arm, 
 and the other a leg; and though all three have been 
 several times asked in marriage, they are so attached 
 to the memory of their former heroic lovers, that 
 they have declined all offers of this nature. 
 
 When a report was spread in Berne that the per- 
 fidy of the French general, Brune, had rendered all 
 resistance unavailing, these young men sent a depu- 
 tation to their fathers, most of whom were senators,, 
 or members of the government, to learn whether any 
 human efforts could preserve their country. The 
 answer informed them that there was no escape from 
 slavery but by death. They then maixhed out of 
 
446 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 the city in a body, without seeing any of their rela- 
 tives and friends. On arriving near the place pitched 
 upon for battle, they made their wills, and wrote let- 
 ters of eternal farewell to their friends, parents and 
 lovers. They then invited the pastor of the parish 
 to preach their funeral sermon. He, after vainly 
 trying to dissuade them from their rash enterprise, 
 performed the sad office they requested, then admi- 
 nistered the sacrament, and gave them his blessings 
 and his prayers. The venerable pastor, fired by the 
 glorious enthusiasm of the noble youths, then sent 
 for his two sons, belonging to a neighbouring corps 
 of militia, and told them that he himself, though 
 past threescore, would share the glory of such pa- 
 triotic martyrdom. It is unnecessary to say that 
 they did not live to be orphans, nor he to mourn 
 the loss of his children. The pastor placed him- 
 self between his two sons, in the ranks of the 
 militia corps to which they* belonged. Every one 
 was electrified by his presence ; and this corps of five 
 hundred men, after performing prodigies of valour, 
 were all either slain or wounded. 
 
 These facts have more the semblance of romance 
 than of reality, and would be incredible were not so 
 many witnesses still alive to confirm them by their 
 testimony. 
 
 How much might have been done to check the 
 career of French oppression, cruelty and despotism, 
 had the other nations of Europe produced such pa- 
 triots and heroes! 
 
 This lady has erected an altar to the memor}^ of 
 her lover, hung round with black, and surmounted 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 447 
 
 with his bust cro\viied with a civic wreath of laurels. 
 It is in a private room, which is never opened but 
 on the anniversary of his martyrdom, when, with her 
 two friends, she passes the whole day there in 
 mourning, fasting and praying. On the same day, 
 the interest of one thousand louis d'ors, a sum be- 
 queathed her by her lover six hours before his 
 death, is distributed among the nearest and most 
 distressed relations of those who fell with him. 
 
 We should readily believe that even savages would 
 have respected such a sanctuary — but nothing is sa- 
 cred in the eyes of revolutionary Frenchmen. A 
 French police commissary and some gensdarmes, 
 suspecting that a considerable sum in money, or va- 
 luables, was concealed here, upon some frivolous 
 pretence forced open and ransacked the apartment. 
 Disappointed in their wishes, they broke down a 
 monument of black marble, on which were inscri- 
 bed the names of the eight hundred patriotic youths 
 who sacrificed themselves on the tomb of Helvetic 
 independence. 
 
448 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LETTER CXIL 
 
 Berne, October, 1805^ 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 UNTIL her invasion by France in 1798, Swit- 
 zerland was exempt from those public wants which 
 render taxation necessary; but, after that event, 
 the savings, funds of reserve, magazines, revenue of 
 the demesne, &c. being all consumed in six months, 
 it was found necessary to provide for the support and 
 expenses of French reformers and regenerators by 
 an appeal to the purse of the citizens. 
 
 The French revolution was instigated and produ* 
 ced by the excess of expenses, and the abuse of the 
 right of taxation : but the leaders of the French re- 
 volution and their successors, so far from diminish- 
 ing the national expenses and taxes, have augmented 
 them so greatly, that France now looks upon the go- 
 vernment of her kings as the golden age, when, from 
 a population of twenty-four millions, there was taken 
 a revenue of only five hundred millions of livres, 
 (20,000,000/.) A French farmer who, sixteen years 
 ago, was taxed only half a crown, now pays three, 
 and a tradesman who then contributed three half 
 crowns, is now taxed seven. In Italy, Holland, Bel- 
 gium, and, the conquered departments on the Rhine, 
 tlie permanent and annual contributions exacted by 
 Buonaparte are equal to eight years revenue of their 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 449 
 
 former sovereigns. In imitation of their French 
 masters, the revolutionary government in Switzer- 
 land, without the consent of the proprietors, despot- 
 ically seized all feudal rents and services, as well 
 as the tythes, both ecclesiastical and secular, allow- 
 ing the owners only the trifling indemnity of two 
 and an half per cent. 
 
 Nor did this nominal suppression of rents, services 
 and tythes in the least relieve those who had been 
 liable to them. In the hands of the government they 
 became infinitely more burdensome. The manorial 
 free-farms were, in like manner, abolished, with a 
 compensation not equal to the fifteenth part of their 
 value; all the other seigneurial rights, fines, reliefs 
 and aids, were destroyed without indemnity. This 
 decree not only ruined a multitude of individuals of 
 every order, but also took away the support of reli- 
 gion and its ministers, and the funds of the greater 
 number of towns, corporations, hospitals and public 
 establishments, the revenues of which were entirely 
 dependent upon the seigneurial rents and manors. 
 
 To satisfy in part the avidity and profusion of 
 French viceroys in this unfortunate country, the tax; 
 of two in a thousand upon the capital of every person 
 of fortune, imposed in 1798, was, in 1804, increased 
 to four in the hundred^ in order to supply funds for 
 the modern system, and for the douceurs required by 
 Buonaparte's ambassadors, commanders, agents, and 
 all that horde of banditti attached to his pillaging go- 
 vernment. The common funds, the funds for orphans, 
 for widows, and for the poor, and those for coiix- 
 munial tribes, or for private families, have abo L 
 
 3 L * " "' 
 
450 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 seized by these greedy plunderers. Even the popu^ 
 lation is taxed; as, by the mandates of Buonaparte, 
 fifteen thousand Swiss are forced to serve in Spain, 
 and twenty- two thousand in the French empire and 
 the kingdom of Italy. 
 
 Such are the revolutionary blessings! Nor after 
 seven years of extortions and pillage, are these ex- 
 actions any more than a prelude; though they fall 
 upon a country barren by nature, deprived of its 
 former commerce and prosperity, whose industry 
 and exertions are unprotected and discouraged, and 
 which is still bleeding from the incurable wounds in- 
 flicted by French rapacity and cruelty. This is the 
 manner in which the generous Frenchmen, those ho^ 
 nest defenders of property^ those liberal and ^w/z^/zf- 
 ew^flf philosophers, treat the countries and the nations 
 which they honour with their fraternity ! After this, 
 can it be asked why these demons of desolation \vish 
 invasions and preach rebellion, and why they under- 
 take perpetual wars, and how they support them? Is 
 there a man of common understanding who cannot 
 see the object of armies of this kind, and their prin- 
 ciples, and who wishes to know whether they are, ia 
 name, royalists, imperialists or republicans? 
 
 He is egregiously mistaken who supposes that all 
 the immense booty arising from the plunder of those 
 countries which they conquer or deceive, is shared 
 among a few individuals, the commanders of their 
 armies, the ambassadors, intriguers, spies and prin- 
 cipal emissaries. They get but an inferior portion— 
 the rest goes to the Empei-or of the French. 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 451 
 
 Buonaparte has spies in all countries, in his own, 
 and all other, armies, and about all his public function- 
 aries, whether diplomatic, civil or military. He is 
 not ignorant that his ambassadors, generals, agents, 
 and commissioners, acquire great wealth by plunder 
 and extortion; this open robbery he secretly sanc- 
 tions, as it gives rise to emulation among each other, 
 and insures their attachment to himself. For these 
 reasons, since Buonaparte's reign, no one has ever 
 heard of any inquiry or restitution. Buonaparte's fears, 
 jealousy, caprice, hatred or ambition, cause the fre- 
 quent dismissal of his civil and military officers; but 
 none are ever dismissed because they are accused of 
 rapine and pillage. This fund of foreign spoliation is 
 the more precious to the Emperor ofthe French, as he 
 is, and remains, the sole depositary and dispenser of 
 it. Buonaparte's minister of the public treasury, 
 Barbe Marbois, in his report for the month of March, 
 1797, declared, that tlie revolutionary rulers of that 
 time had given no account of more than two hun- 
 dred and forty millions of livres, (11,000,000/.) of 
 direct contributions, which they had received from 
 abroad. Is there now to be found in the senate, in 
 the council of state, in the legislature, or in the tri- 
 bunate, one man bold enough to charge Napoleon the 
 First with similar prevarication, pillage and frauds 
 
452 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 LKTTER CXIII. 
 
 Merne, October, 1805. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 A FEW days since, I met at the country-house 
 of M. Bay, to whom I had letters, and whose cousin 
 has been a conspicuous character in the Helvetic 
 republic, a lady of a very melancholy appearance and 
 silent demeanour, with whom I endeavoured, but in 
 vain, to get into conversation during the first day of 
 my visit. The second day, however, when I hap- 
 pened to mention, with some warmth, what my fa- 
 mily and myself had suffered from the revolution, 
 she no longer maintained her forbidding reserve of 
 manner. Shortly after, when I was accidentally 
 alone with her, she said: "My conduct towards 
 you at first you may, perhaps, suppose to have pro« 
 ceeded from intentional rudeness. The story of my 
 misfortunes, which I will relate, will convince you 
 it was owing to another cause. 
 
 " My family had, for more than a century, been 
 disinterestedly attached to France. Even when the 
 revolution broke out, we thought it would ultimately 
 benefit mankind ; and, though shocked by the mur- 
 der of Louis XVI. were persuaded by the French 
 emissaries, and their adherents among us, that this 
 crime should be imputed golely to Robespierre and 
 a few other wicked demagogues, and tliat the French 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 453 
 
 nation at large was innocent and virtuous. But when, 
 at length, the French invaded Switzerland, my fa- 
 ther and myself viewed them not as friends, but as 
 the bitterest enemies of our country and mankind. 
 On the other hand, my uncle and my cousin, from 
 what motive I know not, maintained their old at- 
 tachment to our invaders. This caused some cold- 
 ness in our family, and for a year we ceased to visit 
 each other; at last, mutually tired of this unnatural 
 quarrel, a reconciliation took place, and, leaving po- 
 litics out of the question, we associated as formerly. 
 
 *' Six years ago, I saw at my uncle's house a 
 French Colonel, Daurier, who, soon after, paid his 
 addresses to me with every appearance of sincere 
 affection. When I married him, having the fullest 
 confidence in his love and honour, I took no precau- 
 tions to secure my fortune. After a short period of 
 happiness, one day when Daurier was on duty, 
 I received a letter from an unknown female, who de^ 
 sired to speak with me alone. According to her re- 
 quest, she was introduced into a private apartment. 
 She was a young and beautiful woman. 
 
 " You are," said she, *' Madame Daurier, I pre- 
 sume ; but I am sorry to inform you that this namd 
 was mine before it was yours, and that it belonged to 
 three other women before it was mine. I am from 
 Yverdun, and was married to him six months ago. 
 From letters I have received since he deserved me, I 
 fmd that he has a wife at Paris, another at Dijon, 
 and a third at Basle. With me he had but little pro- 
 perty, but he is now squandering your fortune at 
 the gaming tables and upon a harlot in this place. 
 
454 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 Do not think that I wish, from jealousy or revenge, 
 to make you unhappy; on the contrary, I tell yoii 
 this merely to prevent you from being entirely ruined 
 by him." She showed me, at the same time, several 
 letters from Daurier, in which he vowed revenge if 
 she attempted to inform me of the truth. 
 
 " I immediately called upon my brother, put my- 
 self under his protection, and asked his advice how 
 to act. He resolved to call on Daurier, and to have 
 an explanation with him, but he could meet with him 
 no where. On the same night my brother's house 
 was surrounded by French gensdarmes, and he, his 
 wife, and myself, forcibly carried to the citadel of 
 Besangon. There my brother was killed, or died bro- 
 ken hearted; and his wife, and myself, after a con- 
 fmement of eleven months, did not recover our li- 
 berty until we had signed bonds to the full amount 
 of all our property. 
 
 *' As soon as I was released, I went to Paris, and 
 presented a petition to Buonaparte, to whom I was 
 recommended by my uncle ; but all in vain — instead 
 of justice I met with scorn and abuse; even my un- 
 cle, who had been such a staunch partisan of the 
 French, who had embroiled himself with his friends, 
 spent a part of his wealth, and lost his popularity in 
 consequence of his attachment to France, was seized 
 for being troublesome to the Emperor, carried under 
 an escort of gensdarmes to the Swiss frontiers, and 
 prohibited under pain of death ever more to revisit 
 Buonaparte's dominions. It is supposed that besides 
 the women I knew had been married to Daurier, he 
 had deluded two others, one at Soleure, and the other 
 
THE BELGL\N TRAVELLER. 455 
 
 at Friburgh. After this perfidious conduct, judge, 
 Sir, if I have not reason to detest Frenchmen, ani 
 avoid their society. Such is the return for all the ser- 
 vices of my family and my ancestors." 
 
 The same lady assured me, that, in this city alone, 
 one hundred and ten ladies, of whom twenty- six 
 were of patrician families, had been duped and pil- 
 laged in the same manner by French officers, who make 
 it a regular custom to marry every woman either of 
 beauty or fortune, without any regard to their pre- 
 vious marriage or engagements, or to the distress 
 which such infamous perfidy may cause their vic- 
 tims. Their impostures and their profligacy have 
 robbed of life twelve amiable young ladies here, who 
 terminated their existence in despair. 
 
 I have since heard that Daurier was killed when 
 serving under General Moreau in the autumn of 
 1800, as a general of brigade; but whether by the 
 enemy, or by individuals whose relations he had dis- 
 honoured, I could not learn. 
 
456 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER, 
 
 LETTER CXIV. 
 
 Berne, Istovemher, 1805. 
 
 ACCORDING to the laws of France, I am 
 bound to wait upon French ambassadors and agents 
 residing in any foreign city or town through which 
 I travel, exhibit my passport, and obtain their sig- 
 natures. I, therefore, immediately on my arrival, 
 presented myself at the hotel of M. Vial, Buona- 
 parte's representative to the Helvetian republic. He 
 not only received me with civility, but has invited 
 me several times to dine with him. He is a man of 
 moderate principles, and, I believe, not a very great 
 politician. From my conversation with him, I am 
 convinced that he would shine only among military 
 diplomatists, who, confounding right with power, 
 confer and negociate with pistols in their pockets, 
 and swords in their hands. He served under Buon- 
 aparte in Italy as a general of brigade, and as such 
 evinced more courage than talents. 
 
 A French officer of my acquaintance, whom I 
 asked whether Vial was a favourite with the Empe- 
 ror of the French, answered me, " Not a favourite ; 
 but the Emperor likes him very well, because he is 
 such a great hater of the English,'*'' That this was 
 the case. I am inclined to believe ; because at his 
 table, whenever any question occurred concerning 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 457 
 
 Great Britain, he flew into a rage and made use of 
 such expressions of abuse and detestation of the 
 British nation, as could hardly have been exceeded 
 by Napoleon himself. 
 
 He has not only proscribed all British goods in 
 this country, but pursued without mercy every tra- 
 veller whom he only suspected of being an English- 
 man. His anti-anglican zeal carried him so far, 
 some months since, that he arrested as English 
 spies two American citizens, well provided with 
 passes and American certificates. Unfortunately 
 for him, one of them was a relation of the American 
 ambassador at Paris, General Armstrong, who com- 
 plained to Buonaparte, and Talleyrand was ordered 
 to reprimand his Excellency. 
 
 Vial yesterday gave a brilliant fete in honour of 
 the late victories of Buonaparte. The landamman, 
 the chancellor of the confederacy, with all the other 
 principal public functionaries of Switzerland, and 
 the members of the foreign diplomatic corps, were 
 present. On such a gay occasion, I never any where 
 remarked the appearance of so little real satisfaction, 
 and I believe that, with the exception of the am- 
 bassador, his secretary, Rouyer, and half a dozen of 
 French officers, not one of the guests but would have 
 rejoiced more sincerely in celebrating Buonaparte's 
 defeat than his triumphs. 
 
 I mentioned in a former letter from Lausanne, how 
 ripe the people in the Pays de Vaud were for an in- 
 surrection against French tyranny, if encouraged, 
 and sure of support from abroad. In the cantons of 
 Berne, Friburg, and Soleure, they are still more 
 
 3 M 
 
458 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 inveterate against their oppressors, having suffered 
 still more from them. When the news of the in- 
 comprehensible disasters of General Mack arrived 
 here, every mouth pronounced curses on him, and 
 every countenance bespoke disappointment and sor- 
 row. The ambassador Vial has too many spies to 
 remain ignorant of the public sentiment, and, there- 
 fore, hisjetewsis generally considered as an insult 
 to the feelings of the people. 
 
 The pretended neutrality of Switzerland is a mere 
 cover to serve the purposes of France at the expense 
 of Austria and Helvetia, nay, of Europe. This city 
 was in August last garrisoned by French soldiers, 
 who evacuated the Helvetian territory just when the 
 army of England evacuated their quarters on the 
 coast. Should success continue to attend Buona- 
 parte's arms, his soldiers will soon again garrison 
 the principal towns and. cities of this neutral repub- 
 lic. Vial has already countermanded the sale of the 
 magazines and depots left here ; a proof that their 
 return is shortly expected. 
 
 Among the persons here whom I regret to leave 
 is the chancellor of the confederacy, Mousson. I 
 have heard him called a jacobin by some, and an in- 
 triguer by others ; but I believe that he is not only a 
 staunch republican, but a true patriot. He has, in- 
 deed, held offices under the different revolutionary 
 governments imposed upon Switzerland by France ; 
 but he has always endeavoured to expose intriguers, 
 and to prevent the state from suffering by their plots. 
 It was he who, when the Jacobin directors, La Harpe, 
 Secretan, and Oberlin, in 1709, formed the plan of 
 
THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 459 
 
 imitating Buonaparte's late revolution in France, 
 and of proclaiming themselves the three consuls of 
 Helvetia, discovered and defeated their conspiracy. 
 He was then appointed secretary- general of the exe- 
 cutive commission that succeeded the directory ; 
 but upon his denouncing some traitors in French 
 pay, he was arrested on some fabricated accusations ; 
 but justified himself so fully, that he was afterwards 
 unanimously nominated to his present elevated sta- 
 tion. That he detests the revolutionary politics of 
 France I am certain, and, therefore, cannot doubt 
 that he is a sincere friend to the honour, liberty and 
 independence of his own country. 
 
 In general, tlie present public functionaries of 
 Switzerland are men of irreproachable lives, and of 
 patriotic characters. Most of them would willingly 
 resign their offices to see the return of the former 
 order of things, and the tranquillity of their country. 
 The people here must be in continual agitation until 
 they are perfectly at liberty, under a government of 
 their own choice. This was the opinion of every 
 public functionary in Switzerland with whom 1 
 spoke upon this subject. 
 
 The Bourbons have no where more sincere friends 
 than in the Helvetian republic. The generosity of 
 the princes of their house, when allies of these coun- 
 tries, compared with the generosity of their present 
 ally, Napoleone the First, is the frequent topic of 
 conversation and regret both in private families and 
 in public places of resort, in coffee-houses and inns. 
 Even at the table of the Chancellor Mousson, I 
 heard a Swiss senator say, " nobody ever accused 
 
460 THE BELGIAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 V 
 
 my countrymen of being royalists ; but even the 
 royalists of France would not hail the return arid 
 restoration of the Bourbons, with the same enthusi- 
 asm as the Swiss republicans, because Swiss liberty 
 can be restored only by a French Bourbon." 
 
 1? I N r s. 
 
^A<&'. 
 
 t."^ BE ASSESSED ^"^ J^J^^.'^THE fENAUTV 
 TH^S BOOK ON ■f"%^'^JJ«?s ON THE FOURTH 
 --!-- -°° °" ^"^ SEVENTH^ 
 
 OVERDUE. 
 
/-~ 
 
 988944 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
i^y ' < 
 
 ^¥:^: 
 
 •H.^'