my manuscript, and they succeeded in saving it, some hours before I was required to deliver it up.  This new blow affected me most severely, I had flattered myself with an honorable success by the publication of my book:  if the censors had in the first instance refused to authorise its being printed, that would have appeared to me very simple; but after having submitted to all their observations, and made all the alterations required of me, to learn that my work was destroyed, and that I must separate my self from the friends who had supported my courage, all this made me shed tears.  But I endeavored once more to get the better of my feelings, in order to determine what was best to be done in a crisis where the step I was about to take might have so much influence on the fortunes of my family.  As we drew near my habitation, I gave my writing desk, which contained some further notes upon my book, to my youngest son; he jumped over a wall to get into the house by the garden.  An English lady*, my excellent friend, came out to meet me and inform me of all that had happened.  I observed at a distance some, gendarmes who were wandering round residence, but it did not appear that they were in search of me:  they were no doubt in pursuit of some other unfortunates, conscripts, exiles, persons in surveillance, or, in short, of some of the numerous classes of oppressed which the present government of France has created.

* (Note of the Editor.) Uneasy at not seeing my mother arrive, I took horse to go and meet her, in order to soften as much as was in my power, the news which she had to learn upon her return; but I lost myself like her, in the uniform plains of the Vendomois, and it was only in the middle of the night that a fortunate chance conducted me to the gate of the chateau where the rites of hospitality had been given to her.  I caused M. de Montmorency to be awakened, and after having informed him of this new instance of the persecution which the imperial police directed against my mother, I set off again to finish putting her papers in safety, leaving to M. de Montmorency the charge of preparing her for the new blow with which she was threatened.

* Miss Randall.

The prefect of Loir and Cher came to require the delivery of my manuscript:  I gave him, merely to gain time, a rough copy which remained with me, and with which he was satisfied.  I have learned that he was extremely ill-treated a few months afterwards, to punish him for having shewn me some attention:  and the chagrin he felt at having incurred the disgrace of the emperor, was, it is said, one of the causes of the illness which carried him off in the prime of life.  Unfortunate country, where the circumstances are such, that a man of his understanding and talent should sink under the chagrin of disgrace!