For although I have confined my remarks to Dresden, equal interest attaches to a large section, of which this town is but a small, although a very important part. My sketch could not be exhaustive, even had I time to make it so. Many of the facts are known to some of you already. I believe that others, which I have presented, are entirely new to you. I trust that all have proved to be interesting to you, as they certainly are to me.

HISTORICAL MEMORANDA.

TRACES OF TALLEYRAND IN MAINE.

IN the April number of this publication are comments upon a tradition mentioned in the editorial columns of the "Machias Union," of the visit to Maine, as early as 1794, of the famous diplomatist, Talleyrand. Edward H. Daveis Esq. of this city, son of the distinguished and honored early member of the Maine Historical Society, Charles S. Daveis, has presented to that Society two letters, which we publish, in which further traces appear of the visit to Maine of the famous Frenchman. The first is from Judge Nathan Weston, grandfather of the present Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and is as follows:

Dear Sir:

AUGUSTA, January 18, 1854.

In 1794, if I am right in my reckoning as to time, when I was twelve years old, Talleyrand with another French gentleman, spent a few days in what is now Augusta, then a part of Hallowell. He was known to have been a man of high rank, and a distinguished actor in the French revolution, although the more salient parts of his character had not then been fully developed. My curiosity was strongly excited, and I had many opportunities of seeing him, and noticing his appearance, bearing and deportment, which are strongly impressed on my memory.

He was thin, his complexion dark and sallow, his countenance highly intellectual, indicating deep thought, with an air grave and abstracted. He was lame and walked in the streets with one arm locked in that of his French companion, aided by a cane, in his other hand.

It was then understood that he did not speak English. His companion did. While they were together he inquired of me where they could get some apparatus for angling in the river. He had all the amenity which belongs to his nation; but Talleyrand uniformly preserved, when I saw him, an imperturbable gravity.

His habit of reserve could be more easily maintained, while it was understood that he did not speak English, and he might hope that from this belief others might speak more freely in his presence. He had been a year in a diplomatic capacity in England, and I am well advised that he could speak our language, when he chose to do so.

When in Philadelphia, he was a frequent visitor at the house of Gen. Knox, then secretary of war. His oldest daughter, afterward Mrs. Thacher, stated to me that she had often conversed with Talleyrand in English. On one occasion she spoke favorably to him of a young gentleman, who had just withdrawn. He did not appear to sympathize with her in opinions, but said in reply: "He is very tall."

Mr. Benjamin Vaughan did not come to Hallowell until two or three years after Talleyrand was here.

By the same mail, you will receive a paper,* containing some reminiscences written by me, in which Talleyrand is mentioned.

Very truly yours,

HON. CHARLES S. DAVEIS.

NATHAN WESTON.

Judge Weston's personal description, answers to what is known of Talleyrand. An accident of his childhood made him lame for life, and it was this which determined him to a clerical career, for which his character and ambitions ill fitted him, instead of the military career open to him by his patrician birth.

In 1809 when Napoleon's splendid fortune begun to show signs of approaching eclipse, the wily minister, with his sagacity to read the signs of the times and his instinct to be on the winning side, had given such indications of defection, that his imperious master reproached him with having received all his fortunes at his hands, with the chief guilt of the murder of the Duc d'Enghien, with having enriched himself by speculating in stocks, and receiving bribes from foreign powers. The crafty prince received this torrent of angry reproof in impressive silence, and only remarked "when he was out of the room and limping away," "What a pity that such a great man has been so badly brought up."

But the courteous "French companion," upon whose arm the lame man leaned, was he Louis Philippe, the citizen king? The Machias tradition, as has been seen, declares that these two famous men were fellow travelers in Maine. Hon. Charles E. Allen in his paper in this number, "Leaves from the Early History of Dresden," says they were believed to have been together in Hallowell.

Judge Weston would have been likely to have mentioned the French king, if there was any prevalent belief in the place of his early residence, that he was the companion of the great diplomatist. But he describes a person whose courtly manners might well have been acquired in the society of the high nobility of France.

It is a matter of historic certainty that Louis Philippe spent some time in the United States, and there is a tradition afloat that he kept school here. The distressed prince might have accepted pecuniary or other aid from some American citizen, for which he insisted on giving sɔme equivalent in French lessons to the daughters of his benefactor. He would hardly have been eligible as a schoolmaster for any such schools as w ere in vogue here in 1794.

Louis Philippe, although his father the Duke of Orleans had gone recklessly into the revolution, had assumed the title of Egalité and as a member of the convention had voted for the death of his cousin, the king, could never atone for his kingly blood. When the Terrorists became suspicious of everybody, even their own associates, they sent old *I have not been able to find the paper referred to.

E. H. DAVEIS.

Egalité to the guillotine, and proscribed his son. Dumouriez, the republican general, whose victories over the allies came near making him the Napoleon of the revolution, meeting one defeat, had incurred the suspicion of the jealous cabal that dominated France, and was also proscribed. He went into exile, taking with him Louis Philippe, then only twenty years old, as a companion. This was after 1793.

It is known that Dumouriez went first to Brussels, then to England. If the young prince was with him and came to America, he would have been quite likely to have been in England, at the end of January, 1794, when Talleyrand was sent out of the country by orders in council and sailed for America with letters to the English minister at Washington, and to have there, left Dumouriez and joined Talleyrand on his voyage to the United States.

The probability seems then quite strong that the companion of Talleyrand in his route through Maine in 1794 was the French sovereign,

The other letter referred to is from John H. Sheppard, a' member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1854, but apparently born in Maine, perhaps at Wiscasset. It is also addressed to Mr. Daveis, senior and is as follows:

Ho. OF REP.

CHARLES S. DAVEIS, ESQ.

BOSTON, Jan'y 30, 1854.

Dear Sir:-I have been much engaged in the legislature, or would have replied to your favor of the twentieth inst. before.

I am obliged to you for your good opinion of my notice in the "Boston Journal" of Mr. Bartlett's graphic biography of Jacob Bailey. Subjects touching the early history of Maine have long been interesting to me, and I have long thought that the flourishing state of Maine- where so much of my life was passed-contains a mine of rich matter for the lover of the past.

As to Talleyrand I wish I could give you some information. When a boy I had often heard of his visiting Hallowell, where my father formerly resided and being at Judge Robbins - Chandler Robbins, Esq., afterward judge of the C. C. Pleas, and that he came by the way of Wiscasset, where he arrived, I think, in one of General Wood's ships. Of the last fact I will ascertain for you more particularly the first opportunity.

But you labor under a mistake about Talleyrand's coming to this country in a vessel commanded by my father - Judge Western (Weston) was altogether in error. My father I suspect was not in Maine at that time, nor Dr. Vaughan, with whom he was very intimate. The fact is my father was educated in London as a merchant, and after visiting Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, finally settled in Hallowell, and there for years was in trade and connected with Charles Vaughan, Esq. brother of Dr. Vaughan. Being unfortunate in business, about the first of this century, he gave up his store and took charge as supercargo, of a ship to the East Indies, and afterward in subsequent voyages with an

experienced mate took the command himself of a ship. From this perhaps originated Judge Weston's mistake.

When I visit Wiscasset I will try and get more particular information on this subject.

I am pleased to hear your health is so much re-established.

With respect, yours truly,

JOHN H. SHEPPARD.

Mr. Sheppard's letter effectually contradicts a part of the Hallowell rumor, that Talleyrand arrived in Wiscasset in a ship of General Wood, of which Captain Sheppard was master. It leaves standing the reputation, apparently reported by Judge Weston, that Wiscasset was the port of the United States of the disembarkation of the French exiles.

But that too is probably erroneous. The Machias people have as distinct a tradition of Talleyrand in their town as the Hallowell people have of his sojourn in their settlement. Of course in the little community they were much talked about, and as they arrived in Augusta (Hallowell) from Wiscasset, known to be a place at which ships arrived from foreign ports, it was very likely that a conjecture should have obtained that the distinguished visitors landed there. Of course it was undoubtedly essential in 1796 as well as it is in 1890, that every Yankee should be informed by every stranger he encountered, Where he came from? and as this common inquiry was baffled by the reticence of the older traveler and not likely to be answered against his cautious advice by the younger, the conjecture had to take the place of the fact in the completed history.

CAPT. ABRAHAM PREBLE'S COMPANY, 1703.

The accompanying list of Captain Preble's company I have copied from the original memorandum in his own handwriting, which has been loaned to me by the Hon. J. Wingate Thornton, to whom it belongs.

The writer, Abraham Preble, was the son of Nathaniel, and grandson of Abraham and Judith (Tilden) Preble, the common ancestors of all of the name in America, and should not be confounded with his uncle Abraham, born 1642, died 1714, aged seventy-two, who was also as it is inscribed on his tombstone, "Capt of the Town" of York. He doubtless relinquished that military office before 1703, on account of his age (sixty-one), in favor of his nephew. The latter was many years and until within a year of his death the town clerk. Many pages of the town records are in his handwriting, or attested by his signature, identical with the handwriting and signature of the original memorandum. The blue slate headstone over his grave in the old burial ground in York, was in excellent preservation when I saw it about two weeks since, and bears the following inscription:

Here lies buried ye body of Mr. Abram. Preble, Esq., and Capt. in ye town and judge in ye County of York, he served his country in other various posts and at ye time of his death, which was on March 14, 1723, in ye 50th year of his age, he sustained no less than nine offices of honor and public trusts for the town County and province.