escape.  Besides, there is an indescribable sort of shame in recommencing such solemn farewells, and one can scarcely resuscitate for one’s friends more than once.  I know not what would have become of me, if this uncertainty, even at the very moment of action, had lasted much longer; for my head was quite confused with it.  My children decided me, and especially my daughter, then scarcely fourteen years old.  I committed myself, in a manner, to her, as if the voice of God had made itself be heard by the mouth of a child*.

* England was then the hope of all who suffered for the cause of liberty; how comes it, that after the victory, her ministers have so cruelly deceived the expectation of Europe?  (Note by the Editor.)

My son took his leave, and after he was out of my sight, I could say, like Lord Russel:  the bitterness of death is past.  I got into my carriage with my daughter:  uncertainty once terminated, I collected all my strength within myself, and I found sufficient of that for action which had altogether failed me for deliberation.

Note by the Editor:  * It was but a trifle to have succeeded in quitting Coppet, by deceiving* the vigilance of the prefect of Geneva; it was also necessary to obtain passports for the purpose of going through Austria, and that these passports should be under a name which would attract no attention from the different polices which then divided Germany.  My mother entrusted me with this commission, and the emotion which I experienced from it will never cease to be present to my thoughts.  It was undoubtedly a decisive step; if the passports were refused, my mother sunk again into a much more cruel situation; her plans were known; flight was thenceforward become impracticable, and the rigors of her exile would have every day been more intolerable.  I thought I could not do better than to address myself directly to the Austrian minister, with that confidence in the feelings of his equals which is the first movement of every honest man.  M. de Schraut made no hesitation in granting me the so much desired passports, and I hope he will allow me to express in this place the gratitude which I still retain to him for them.  At a period when Europe was still bending under the yoke of Napoleon, during which the persecution directed against my mother estranged from her persons who probably owed to her courageous friendship the preservation of their fortunes, or their lives, I was not surprised, but I was most sensibly affected by the generous proceeding of the Austrian minister.

I left my mother to return to Coppet, to which the interests of her fortune recalled me; and some days afterwards, my brother, of whom a cruel death has deprived us almost at the moment of entrance into his career set off to rejoin my mother at Vienna with her servants and travelling carriage.  It was only this second departure which gave the hint to the police of the prefect of the Leman:  so true it is, that to the other qualities of espionnage we must still add stupidity.  Fortunately my mother was already far beyond the reach of the gendarmes, and she could continue the journey of which the narrative follows. (En of Note by the Editor).