* The relations or friends of the dead were prohibited, under ſevere penalties, from following their remains to the grave.
I thought, while we traverſed the walk, and beheld this ſcene, that every thing about me bore the marks of the revolution. The melancholy objectſ I held on my arm, and the feeble ſteps of Clementine, whom we could ſcarcely ſupport, aided the impreſſion; and I fear that, for the moment, I queſtioned the juſtice of Heaven, in permitting ſuch a ſcourge to be let looſe upon its works.
I quitted Madame de St. E__m__d this morning with reluctance, for we ſhall not meet again till I am entirely at liberty. The village municipality where ſhe now reſides, are quiet and civil, and her miſfortunes make her fearful of attracting the notice of the people in authority of a large place, ſo that ſhe cannot venture to Amiens.—You muſt obſerve, that any perſon who has ſuffered is an object of particular ſuſpicion, and that to have had a father or a huſband executed, and to be reduced to beggary, are titles to farther perſecution.—The politics of the day are, it is true, ſomething leſs ferocious than they were: but confidence is not to be reſtored by an eſſay in the Orateur du Peuple,* or an equivocal harangue from the tribune; and I perceive every where, that thoſe who have been moſt injured, are moſt timid.
* "L'Orateur du Peuple," was a periodical paper publiſhed by Freron, many numbers of which were written with great ſpirit.— Freron was at this time ſuppoſed to have become a royaliſt, and hiſ paper, which was comparatively favourable to the ariſtocrats, waſ read with great eagerneſs. The following extract from the regiſters of one of the popular commiſſions will prove, that the fears of thoſe who had already ſuffered by the revolution were well founded: "A. Sourdeville, and A. N. E. Sourdeville, ſiſters of an emigrant Noble, daughters of a Count, ariſtocrats, and having had their father and brother guillotined. "M. J. Sourdeville, mother of an emigrant, an ariſtocrat, and her huſband and ſon having been guillotined. "Jean Marie Defille—very ſuſpiciouſ—a partizan of the Abbe Arnoud and La Fayette, has had a brother guillotined, and always ſhewn himſelf indifferent about the public welfare." The commiſſions declare that the above are condemned to baniſhment.
I did not reach this place till after the family had dined, and taking my ſoup and a diſh of coffee, have eſcaped, under pretext of the headache, to my own room. I left our poet far gone in a claſſical deſcription of a ſort of Roman dreſſes, the drawings of which he had ſeen exhibited at the Lyceum, as models of an intended national equipment for the French citizens of both ſexes; and my viſit to Madame de St. E__m__d had incapacitated me for diſcuſſing revolutionary draperies.
In England, this is the ſeaſon of feſtivity to the little, and beneficence in the great; but here, the ſterile genius of atheiſm haſ ſuppreſſed the ſounds of mirth, and cloſed the hands of charity—no ſeaſon is conſecrated either to the one or the other; and the once-varied year is but an uniform round of gloom and ſelfiſhneſs. The philoſopher may treat with contempt the notion of periodical benevolence, and aſſert that we ſhould not wait to be reminded by religion or the calendar, in order to contribute to the relief of our fellow creatures: yet there are people who are influenced by cuſtom and duty, that are not always awake to compaſſion; and indolence or avarice may yield a too ready obedience to prohibitions which favour both. The poor are certainly no gainers by the ſubſtitution of philoſophy for religion; and many of thoſe who are forbidden to celebrate Chriſtmas or Eaſter by a maſs, will forget to do it by a donation. For my own part, I think it an advantage that any period of the year is more particularly ſignalized by charity; and I rejoice when I hear of the annual gifts of meat or firing of ſuch, or ſuch a great perſonage—and I never enquire whether they might ſtill continue their munificence if Chriſtianity were aboliſhed.—Adieu.