decree ordering the marquis de Bouillé, who was com mander in chief of the troops at Metz and on all that frontier, to march with a proper force to Nancy, and to suppress the insurgents.

M. de Bouillé executed his orders with the intelligence of an experienced officer who knows the importance of promptitude in military manoeuvres, particularly such as are directed against a mischief so apt to increase by delay as mutiny.

He arrived much sooner than was expected before Nancy, with an army composed of national guards as well as troops of the line.

He immediately sent information that he came in obedience to a decree of the national assembly sanctioned by the king, to re-establish order in the town of Nancythat as a proof of their submission, he exacted that Messrs. Malseigne and De Noue, two general officers whom the insurgents had thrown into prison, should be directly set at liberty and sent to him-that four of the most criminal of each of the revolting regiments should be delivered up to him, that they might be sent under a guard to the national assembly to be judged by themand that the garrison should immediately evacuate the town, and wait his orders at a certain meadow near it.

There was some appearance at first that those conditions would be submitted to. MM. de Malseigne and de Noue, after a considerable dispute among the mutineers, during which both the gentlemen ran a great risk of being killed, arrived safe at M. de Bouille's army,

But when the advanced guard were about to enter the town, the soldiers of the garrison who were stationed at the gate, suspecting that they were betrayed, obstinately refused to obey those who had agreed to accept of the conditions; on which they were joined by many who had previously consented to submit. Some of the garrison who wished to retire were prevented by those who had resolved to resist; and who, when summoned to submit by the troops now within thirty yards of the gate, answered

with threats, and prepared to fire a cannon charged with grape-shot upon the assailants.

A young officer of the name of Désilles, who belonged to the régiment du roi, had been extremely active in his endeavours to persuade them to submission. This young man, being shocked at the idea of that scene of bloodshed which was about to commence, and inspired by heroic enthusiasm, threw himself before the mouth of the cannon as they were applying the match, exclaiming,- Stop, for heaven's sake! Those are your friends, your brethren, whom you are going to destroy: they are sent by the national assembly; shall the king's regiment be dishonoured? This prevented the immediate firing of the piece. Two persons, deputed by M. Bouillé, threw their arms around his neck, and joined their efforts with his to prevent the commencement of hostilities.

These deputies entered the town, carrying young Désilles with them; the troops of the garrison and those of M. de Bouillé remaining in awful inactivity, regarding each other with threatening looks till the effect of the message brought by the deputies should be known.

Instead of being agreed to, the terms offered were rejected; the deputies were insulted and abused by the furious council to which they were presented. When the young Désilles saw this, he rushed again between the mutineers and the advanced guard, and fell pierced by several musket-shot, while he was entreating both parties to abstain from mutual slaughter.

The cannon charged with grape was immediately fired, accompanied with a discharge of musketry, which killed three officers and a considerable number of M. de Boui!lé's troops; others advancing forced the gate and entered the town. Many of them were killed from the windows. The insurgents, however, were driven from house to house; and a dreadful scene of carnage ensued. Three hundred were killed or wounded; four hundred were made prisoners with arms in their hands; the rest laid down their arms, and submitted to the orders of M. de

Bouillé, who sent them under escorts to different garri

sons.

The first accounts of these transactions occasioned amazement and sorrow at Paris. Those sensations wère, by the industry of the seditious, soon converted into rage against M. de Bouillé; though, had he been less alert, and had the mutiny gained vigour in consequence of his inactivity, the same persons would in all probability have raised an outcry against him for not doing that which they now blamed him for having done.

Whatever regret the national assembly might feel at the result of this affair, they were not so much affected by it, nor by the rage of the populace, as to be prevented from publicly approving the conduct of a man who had obeyed their orders with greater expedition and efficacy than they had reason to expect. They voted the thanks of the assembly to M. de Bouillé and the troops which served under him.

This vote, however, did not diminish the rage of the Parisian populace, who loudly exclaimed against M. de Bouillé for having shed so much blood, as they said, unnecessarily. Vast numbers assembled in the Palais Royal, from whence they went, and, surrounding the hall of the national assembly, demanded his head, and the dismission of the ministers, whom they accused of having by misrepresentations betrayed the assembly into the fatal decree under which he had acted.

This spirit of sedition seemed to augment every moment, and would probably have produced very dreadful effects, had it not been for the steady conduct of M La Fayette and the national guards acting under his or ders.

CHAPTER XXI.

M. Necker retires-Reflections on that Event-Inveteracy of the French against Ministers of State and Ecclesiastics-Long Habit more necessary to acquire Excellence in bodily than in mental Exertions-The National Assembly insists that the King shall sanction their Decree, obliging the Clergy to take the Oath to the Constitution-The Pope disapproves of itThe Effect this has on the Minds of the People-The King's Aunts determine to leave France and go to Rome.

M. NECKER, who had for some time seen the decline of his popularity, and had already received several mortify. ing proofs that his influence in the national assembly was greatly diminished, became alarmed for his personal safety; for in the popular outcry against the ministers, no exception was made in his favour. He thought proper, therefore, to send a letter with his resignation to the assembly, on the pretext that his health required retreat and country air. Immediately after it was read, several members called for the order of the day; which is usually done when the matter actually under consideration is thought unworthy of their attention.

M. Necker had lent above two millions of livres to the public treasury, which his friends had often advised him to withdraw and place in greater security; but he had always refused; and, on his leaving Paris, he declared that he had left that sum, with his hotel and furniture, as pledges for the faithfulness of his administration.

Several of the sections of Paris actually assembled, on purpose to determine whether or not he ought to be permitted to leave the kingdom before his accounts were examined and approved; for he had now so entirely lost his popularity, that those very Parisians who a few months before had considered him as the guardian angel of France, now questioned whether all the fortune which he left behind would indemnify the nation for the money of which he had defrauded it. But Mirabeau, Camus, and

others, who were fully convinced of M. Necker's integri. ty, and, sufficiently sensible of the mutability of public opinion, had long wished him out of France, interposed with the sections, and prevented any opposition from being made to his departure.

The calumnies of M. Necker's enemies were not confined to Paris: they were circulated all over France. He had not proceeded on his journey above forty leagues until he was stopped by the municipal officers of a small town. They disregarded his passports, and still more a particular letter from the king which he also shewed them. They insisted that he should remain where he was until they received instructions from the national assembly. He and Madame Necker were accordingly guarded like state prisoners, until two deputies from the municipality returned from Paris with the permission of the assembly for their being set at liberty.

- Before they were out of France they were again stopped, not by the magistrates but by the populace of Ve soul, who, after a number of insults, examining their papers and every article in their trunks, and detaining them several hours in the dread of some greater violence, reluctantly allowed them to proceed on the journey at last, although they could find nothing on which to found a pretext for detaining them.

In this manner was M. Necker obliged to fly from the country, where he had but a few months before been almost adored a man whose exile a short time before had excited universal regret; who, although a Protestant and a foreigner, had enjoyed the confidence of the nation more than any Roman Catholic minister, who was also a native, ever had done: and, what makes the capricious fickleness of the French appear in a sronger point of view, is, that no change of system or political conduct on the part of M. Necker occasioned this sudden alteration of their opinion. Neither his fidelity nor his diligence was ever called in question; and there is strong reason for believing that his earnest wish and supreme ambition