rative.

obey the order of the government, to deliver up their authorities, and discusses the truth of Scott's nararms, and retire to their homes. But they gained as little by parley as by force; for Delalot, the leader of the rebels, not only refused obedience to the summons, but delivered an inflammatory harangue to the troops, in which he boldly declared, that force alone should deprive the citizens of Paris of their arms. Instead of ordering a charge, Menou and his council of deputies were glad to enter into a compromise, by which the insurgents agreed to disperse themselves, if Menou would first with draw his troops. This capitulation enabled the regular troops to retreat, and the insurgents to maintain their ground, continue their violence, defy the government, and proclaim their triumph.

Fortunately for the Convention, the taste of Bonaparte for dramatic entertainments had led him that evening to the theatre Feydeau, which is close by the head of the street Vivienne. Informed of the threatened conflict, he left the theatre for the purpose of observing this more important scene. He witnessed the unfortunate check of the government force, and, by a natural movement of concern and curiosity, hastened to the gallery of the Convention to see what would be done to repair it. He found that assembly in the greatest agitation; the commissaries, who had accompanied Menou, in order to shift the blame from their own shoulders, were accusing the absent general of treason. On their representation, Menou's arrest was decreed; and, of consequence, a successor was to be appointed. The danger was great; and the intelligence of every moment proved that it was increasing. Various members proposed different commanders-some Barras, some Bonaparte; the leading Thermidoriens the former, because of his activity in the defeat of Robespierre; the commissaries of the army of Italy and the members of the committee who were in daily intercourse with him, the latter, because of his military talents, and energetic, but moderate character. Attending in the gallery, he heard these suggestions, deliberated whether he should accept a service, which, from Menou's fate, was not inviting, might prove more distasteful than the war of Vendée or the mobs of Toulon, might bathe him deep in civil blood, and blight for ever his hopes of serving his country. But, reflecting, that if the insurgents succeeded in overturning the government, the proposed improvement in the constitution of the country would fail to be effected, and the royalist, or foreign party, would gain the ascendency, and surrender France to the coalition, he resolved, if he could,

to defend the Convention.

"Having come to this decision, Bonaparte repaired to the executive committee, told them he had been a witness of the affair in the street Vivienne, and that the deputies were more to blame than Menou was; assuring them it would be impossible for him, should he be appointed to command the troops, to execute their orders on this critical occasion, with his hands tied by a commission of deputies. The members of the committee, struck by his confidence, were convinced by his representation; but it was not in their power, without exciting a debate, for the issue of which there was not time, to procure a decree of the Convention innovating their long established custom so completely, as to send forth a general in chief unattended by a deputation of their own body. In this exigency, they devised an expedient, which, while it conformed to their rule, obviated its inconvenience. They resolved to nominate their colleague Barras as general in chief of the army of the interior, and to appoint Bonaparte second in command; so that while Barras was to have the attendance of the deputies, Bonaparte was to take the direction of the troops."

The ac

"This account of the manner in which Napoleon came to be placed in command of the forces of the Convention on the 13th Vendémiaire, is derived from his own relation of that event (Montholon, t. iii. ch. 3), from the files of the Moniteur of that period (folio for the last six months of the year 1795), and from the procès-verbal of the Convention (t. lxx. p. 232. et t. lxxii. p. 16). The narrative of Sir Walter Scott, in reference to this subject, has evidently been constructed of very different materials. It is as follows (v. iii. p. 74). The general management of affairs, and the direction of the conventional forces' (says this inventive historian) was then committed to Barras; but the utmost anxiety prevailed among the members of the committee by whom government was administered, to find a general of nerve and decision enough to act under Barras in the actual command of the military force, in a season so delicate, and times so menacing. It was then that a few words from Barras, addressed to his colleagues Carnot and Tallien, decided the fate of Europe for well nigh twenty years. "I have the man," he said, "whom you want; a little Corsican officer, who will not stand upon ceremony." quaintance of Barras and Bonaparte had been, as we have already said, formed at the siege of Toulon. On the recommendation of Barras, Bonaparte was sent for.' It is needless to insist on the direct contradiction to which this fabrication is exposed by the declaration of Napoleon, that he had no acquaintance with Barras at Toulon, and that he went, of his own accord, to the committee; because there is one fact which ought to have satisfied Sir Walter that his story, whether formed by his own fancy, or furnished by some unmentionable slanderer, could not be believed by any person of common It is, that Carnot and Tallien, with the know. sense. ledge of Barras, were members of the committee, with which, for many weeks, Napoleon had been in official and constant communication. It is impossible, therefore, that to men thus situated, Barras could have ejaculated the sudden discovery here ascribed to him, respecting the birth, stature, or character of Napoleon, or that, had he done so, Carnot and Tallien would have committed the safety of themselves, their families, their friends, and government, when they were under the utmost anxiety,' to an obscure officer, thus suddenly and queerly remem bered. What renders the remark more incredible, is, that Napoleon, instead of being an obscure 'little Corsican officer,' was personally known to a number of the leading members of the Convention, as the most distinguished officer of his rank in the army."

Had all been written in the style of these extracts, there would have been no occasion for the remark already hazarded, or for much observation upon the appendix. As it is, however, it must be said, that the majority of its notes are too long, especially as some relate to small matters. What is worse than diffuseness, many of them are composed in a bad spirit-a spirit of detraction, and with a disposition to cavil; whilst the greatest violence seems reserved for doubts or details, as the fiercest tirades of the old annotators related to commas. In his zeal for Napoleon, the author sometimes tortures a joke of Scott's into a wilful libel, and appears disposed, in his zeal for his hero, to make little allowance for mistakes or misapprehensions. We state these things plainly, because they can easily be rectified in the future The text is incomplete without the commen-volumes: and these volumes we shall be glad to tary. The following is part of Mr. Lee's note see-not because we think Mr. Lee will produce upon the subject, in which he refers to his own a complete life of Napoleon, or supersede the best

of the biographies now existing, but because we have little doubt that his keen and active research, and his ingenious spirit of partisanship, will throw some new light even on a subject apparently so exhausted.

From the London Athenæum.

AFRICAN EXPEDITION.

The expedition from the Cape of Good Hope to explore Central Africa, began its operations in June. On the 7th the wagons started from Cape Town, under the charge of a corporal of the 72d regiment, and on the 26th the heavy stores were shipped for Algoa Bay, on board the brig Test. These are expected to reach Graaf Reynet by the 15th July. The following statement has been received from the Cape. "Dr. Andrew Smith, conductor of the expedition; Capt. Edye, 98th regiment, second conductor; B. Keft conducts the leading department; John Burrow, surveyor and astronomer; George Ford, draughtsman; Charles Bell, draughtsman, and fit for any thing; C. Hartwell, assistant in general capacity; J. Minteen, servant to Dr. Smith; two missionai es sent out by the Missionary Society established at Berlin; three European soldiers, (one of the 72d, and two of the 98th regiment,) five Hotten tots, of the Cape Mounted Rifle Corps; about twenty-two Hottentots, to be engaged at Graaf Reynet. Four wagons have been purchased, with ninety-six oxen; one with twenty-four oxen, belonging to Dr. Smith; and it is contemplated to buy one more, with twenty-four oxen. Fourteen of the Hottentots will be required as leaders and drivers of the oxen. Thus, the party will consist of about forty persons. The expense, exclusive of very considerable government aid in fitting out, and exclusive of wages yet to be paid to Hottentot servants, may be estimated at 1.300/. On the morning of the 3d of July, this expedition for exploring Central Africa, under the command of Dr. Smith, proceeded on its perilous undertaking. Dr. Smith took up his quarters at the Royal Observatory on the preceding night, and was joined the next morning at breakfast by Sir John and Lady Herschel, Baron Ludwig, Messrs. Edye, Bell, Burrow, and the gentlemen who accompany the party as far as Lattakoo. After packing up the astronomical instruments, they started in excellent spirits, making allowance for those feelings the occasion excited, where solicitude for the safe return of these enterprising men was mixed up with sincere friendship and esteem. Indeed the history of all former expeditions to the interior of Africa proves how much hazard must be incurred, even where the greatest prudence and address are exercised. The present has been planned with much care, and, considering the talents of Dr. Smith, there is a strong hope that it will be crowned with success."

A NEW FIRE-ESCAPE.

The house was on fire: Zeno, circled in flame,
In vain called for aid-sure no case e'er was sadder;
He escaped-Tell me how? Why, Antimachus came,
And lent him the use of his nose for a ladder.
VOL. XXVI. JAN. 1835.-8

From Blackwood's Magazine.

THE WATER DRINKER IN THE PYRENEES. *** The party for the ascent of the Pic consisted of my friend Captain C, the two brothers of the ladies, the Italian, and three stout game-keepers or huntsmen, whom our French friend sent as guides, with an apology for his own declining to attend us, as he had given up all hope of rising in the world." We laughed at the old gentleman's pleasantry, and set forward just

as the sun was setting over the valley of the
Adour, so memorable by Wellington's passage in
the teeth of Soult's army. The object is to gain
the highest ridge of the peak by dawn, and see
the effect of sunrise on the immense surrounding
landscape. We rode by the little hamlet of St.
Mary's, and half a dozen others, with hard Basque
names, until we reached Grip, or La Grippe, as
one of our attendants called it, in compliment to
the popular disease of the year. His wit amused
round in the native tongue-a mixture of French
himself and his companions, and the jest went
and Spanish-of which one could catch but a
word here and there. We were soon in the rising
country, which forms the base of the mountain.
It was altogether pasturage; sheep and sheep-folds
were every where, and the noise of our approach
roused a perpetual chorus of the huge shepherd-
dogs which guard them from the wolves.
road soon dwindled to a bridle-path, winding
upwards along the course of the Adour, which

Our

was here a succession of falls. Even the bridle

path soon narrowed-we were forced to dismount, and, as all travellers had done before us, leave our horses at a little rude chalet or shed, where a fellow clothed in sheepskin was waiting to receive them-this being the spot from which pedestrianism begins. At this height we all seriously felt the cold; and the sharp short gusts of wind which swept through the ravines not only rebelow, but that the world into which we had minded us that we had left the snug, sunny world climbed, was one where to keep our footing was a delicate matter. A few hundred yards upwards we had a proof of this delicacy. About half way up the side of the mountain is one of those tarns or lakes which are so frequent in the Highlands of this lake, and so fearfully over the edge, that of Scotland; a ledge of rock leads over the edge a false step would inevitably plunge the climber into its waters,-an affair of death, for if the plump from such a height did not drown him at once, the icy chill of the lake would paralyse all exertion. At this ledge we arrived in Indian file, tired enough, with some occasional murmurs at the unexpected steepness of the ascent, and, to strong sense of the superior wisdom of being confess the unheroic truth, on my part, a very quietly in my bed. It was midnight, the moon broad as a city on fire, in the mist of the valley; was already touching the horizon. She loomed but we had no time to think of the picturesque. We must on. I had hitherto led the way; but here the Italian, probably thinking that he had a professional right to do the honours of the picturesque, hurried up to me, and finding that I was still inclined to lead, sprang along a projection of the hill, and then slipping down on the narrow

the fellow out of his berth. He was half dead with fright. In his ambition to overpass us on the ledge, he had trodden on a loose stone; he found himself tottering, and by one of those desperate efforts which defy calculation, had actually sprung up against the perpendicular face of the rock, at least to twice his own height; there he clung by holding on to some weeds; the weeds at length gave way, bringing down with them the heap of rubbish, which had sounded to us as his knell in the bottom of the lake. By what means he now contrived to ascend, he had no recollection whatever, but he had finally ensconced himself on the projection where we discovered him, and where," to the best of his belief, he had fallen asleep."

ledge, made good his advance. One of the game- | some straw ropes made for the occasion, weighed keepers, not wishing to be outdone, followed his example. Some confusion followed. At this crisis, down plunged the moon, and a sharp and powerful blast coming down the hill side at the same time, every one was forced to cling to the face of the rock. All was perfectly dark at the instant. The setting of the moon, and the storm above, turned the atmosphere into utter blackness. Suddenly there came a rushing of stones over the ledge, and a wild cry, followed by the fall of the stones into the lake. I, of course, concluded that either the Italian or the huntsman, or both, had paid the forfeit of their haste, and that all was over with them. As giving assistance to either was out of the question, and as our own fate might be the next, if we proceeded, I called a halt, and proposed that we should light torches, A general dram, to keep out the cold, which and having ascertained the state of our comrades, was now as keen as I had felt it in Newfoundmove on or return, as might be advisable. My land, was served round; we faced about again, proposal was approved of-a phosphorus box and and moved upward. Giving a lecture on discia few bundles of thorns speedily made a blaze; pline, and dividing our party into pairs, who were and fagot in hand we proceeded in our search. It to assist each other, I took upon me the command, was fortunate for the Italian hero that we had and triumphantly led the way over the formidaadopted this measure. He had ventured about ble ledge. The wind was still our great obstacle; half way along the ledge, till just as he came to it came with the suddenness of a Mediterranean a corner scarcely a foot broad, a glimpse of the gale, and my only wonder now is, that some of lake in the fearful depth below, given by the last us were not whisked away far over the valley, light of the moon, turned his head. He was un-like gossamer. We now came into the region of able to stir another step, and the sudden darkness snow, and found it lying thick in all the spots threw him into despair; all our party were hidden sheltered from the wind. Snow, in the middle from him, and he acknowledged that his first im- of August, under the sky of the fiery south! I pulse was to fling himself downward at once, and felt frozen to the midriff; and nothing but frethus escape the hideous suspense of his position.quent halts, and that established resource of the For a while he had even lost all sense of hearing, mountain adventurer, the brandy flask, could have and our voices, and they were loud enough on the kept up our strength to reach the summit. We occasion, were entirely lost upon him. The blast had lost so much time in the search at the ledge, luckily screwed him to the rock, and he clung by and had found the ascent so much steeper than instinct. Our fagots, however, gave him new life, we expected, that we were now near losing the though in the dizziness of his first emotion, he main object of our expedition-the view of the thought that the sun was rising under his feet, or sunrise from the pinnacle. The darkness, which that he was a witness to the last conflagration. had been intense, was evidently beginning to give In short, for half an hour after we had extricated way-dim streaks of light were glancing through him from his awkward position, the man was all the clouds, still hanging heavy on the east, and but a lunatic; he raved, danced, screamed, tore the rugged top of the Pic was slowly shaping his hair, and embraced every body. Our next en-itself above us. But the sight was not to be lost quiry was for the hunter. This we commenced with a general feeling of hopelessness, for the cry and the fall of stones were fearfully indicative of the unfortunate fellow's fate. Still the search must be made. More brambles were kindled, more shouts given, and one of the gamekeepers fired a fowling-piece which he had brought with him to have a shot at the wolves or eagles, as the case might be. Not a sign nor a sound was returned, and we gave him over for lost. In this state of affairs, to proceed on an excursion of mere curiosity would be heartless, and the proposal to make the best of our way homewards with our bad news was unanimously seconded. Accord-detail, and too high for exactness. ingly we put ourselves in march, and had returned down a portion of the precipice, when we heard a new fall of stones, and a feeble cry from above. To come to the event at once, the hunter was seen, lying at his length on a shelf of rock, twenty or thirty feet above our heads, and unable either to ascend or descend. We roused a shepherd from one of the chalets, and by the help of

for want of energy. With one accord we made a sudden rush up the precipice, through a small cleft running along its side; the bareness of the rock itself was more favourable to the footing than the shivery and sliding soil lower down, and finally, by mutual help, holding on of hands, and dragging up with our mountain staffs, we one and all stood upon the top. It was not the spire that we had seen from the valley, but a narrow, rugged edge of rock, splintered by many a thunder-storm. The view was immeasurably grand, but unluckily, like the view from Mont Blanc, and all other great elevations, it was too vast for

All below us for a while was cloud, with the Pyrenees shooting upwards through it, like ranges of islands in some intermediate ocean. The small villages of the Basque country were little dots at our feet. The whole vast and diversified region round the base of the Pic was reduced to a plain, with a few lines of silver, the small mountain rivers, glistening through its extent.

us.

They offer a release from all the ills that flesh is heir to, and unless a man is perversely fond of his heirship, the waters of Bareges would relieve him of every thing but poverty, an evil which unequivocally haunts the people of the town, though even that evil they attempt very strenuously to cure by the help of their waters, the experiment being made upon every stranger whom they can fleece. I must, however, acknowledge that I found benefit from those waters, abhorrent to the sight and smell as they are. They are sulphureous, and the fetor is enough to strangle a virgin nostril. But use does much, the odiousness of the taste, which exactly resembles a compound of bilge water and the rinsings of a foul musket, becomes, if not palatable, at least endurable, and the sense of returning health, of all senses the most charming, enables us to go through the daily martyrdom with nothing worse than a few contortions of the "human face divine."

As the dawn advanced, and the vapours thinned | cession of tumblers, or dips in the water; and the away, the position of Thoulouse was pointed out, true wonder is, that any inhabitant of Bareges and, to save the credit of my perspicuity, I ima- should die. gined that I saw it, in a confused mass which lay huddled on the extreme verge of the horizon. But the sun rose at last, and all the grandeurs and glories of a southern sunrise were fairly before In one point we had miscalculated. His rise, instead of clearing, confused the outlines of all the distant objects. I lost sight of my vision of Thoulouse in a moment. It was buried in a mass of gold. The Adour, and its brother and sister streams, were like spiders' webs, of all colours. But the true pomp of the morning was expanded on the Pyrenee range, and, first and stateliest of the whole, the Mont Perdu, which, with its sides glittering in all the hues of rock and verdure, and with its summit lighting under the first rays of the sun, looked like a citadel of silver among the clouds. But though no description can equal the reality of such scenes, it must be confessed, that until balloons shall be made manageable, or man furnished with wings, the pleasantest part of those excursions is in the anticipation. By the time we reach the height, the From Bareges, a fine region for the tourist spirit of curiosity is, in general, entirely walked, opens along the mountains. My last visit was to climbed, and frozen out of the adventurer. We Gavarini, the most beautiful cascade, or succeswere all tired to death, and as we sat on the brow sion of cascades, in the Pyrenees, or perhaps in of one of the most magnificent precipices of Eu- the world. Its shape is totally unlike that of the rope, were thinking much less of its sublimities precipitous mountain falls which flourish in the than of the comforts of our hotel, and the possi- pictures of Salvator. It has neither the elevability of enjoying a sound sleep, à l'abri of all tion, nor the forest, nor the romantic pilings of the storms, freezings, and ledges half an inch the rocks; still it is indescribably grand and imwide. We now began our descent, for the sun, pressive, without losing its beauty. The image after painting the skies with all possible prodi-that most strikes me in the hundred resemblances gality of gem and lustre, had begun to gather the which every traveller finds for it, is that of a mists of the lower grounds into huge masses of marble amphitheatre of the most colossal size, vapour, which slowly ascended, bulging against with a vast body of water poured from its highthe sides of the hills. Our old antagonist, the est range down into the arena, the water of wind, too, gave now and then an ominous roar, course variously broken in all the successive sounding among the mountain clefts like thunder. ranges, here rushing in a powerful torrent, there A storm at our present exposed position would shooting down in a thin silvery sheet, a litprobably have hurried us loose upon the vext tle farther on winding and circling round the winds," and blown us half-way "round the pen- glistening steps, farther on still, resuming its dant globe." We hastened down with suitable force and pouring down in a magnificent volume expedition. The descent was sharp, yet was of crystal. It has been conjectured by the theomade without accident, and after about twenty rists, of whom whole hosts are found hunting hours of continued walking, from the time of after specimens of geology, during the summer, our beginning the ascent, I was rejoiced to find that it may have been the crater of some mighty myself treading on level ground again, and with-volcano. To this the objection is, that no volcain the door of the hotel of Bareges.

At Bareges I remained a month. A wound which I had received in a cutting out affair in the Persian Gulf, and for which I had no satisfaction but shooting the black visaged pirate who gave it, made me desirous of trying the virtue of the baths. They are celebrated for healing old wounds. After the baths of England, or, indeed, of any other civilised country, the baths of the Pyrenean aborigines have not much to boast of; narrow, dim, dismal coffins, where wretches are boiled down into a jelly. The very sight of them requires no common fortitude, and I never lay down in one of those catacombs without feeling it necessary to draw strongly on my philosophy. But, to hear the inhabitants speak of them, the age of Romish miracles is totally eclipsed. Every disease under the moon is curable by a mere suc

nic traces are to be found in the neighbourhood. But the theorist answers, that all this happened some millions of years ago, when the earth was a comet, and the sun was a rushlight. As with a theorist, especially if he have printed his theory, argument is useless, I never attempt to shake the belief, and satisfy myself with the hope that posterity will be wiser than their fathers. At the various towns on the route, I met Spanish refugees, escaping from the feuds of their fine but unhappy country, to starve in France; they were the factiosos. Times are now changed, and the apostolicos are rambling and hungering through their old quarters. In all my conversations with these unhappy people, some of whom were elegant and graceful, and all interesting, if it were only from their fortitude, I never could discover any satisfactory reason for the feuds which drove

Having steadfastly looked for a few seconds at a particular part of the cascade, admiring the confluence and decussation of the currents forming I have since been enabled to observe the apthe liquid drapery of waters, and then suddenly pearance, with certain peculiar variations, whilst directed my eyes to the left, to observe the verti-traveling parallel to one side of a narrow valley cal face of the sombre age-worn rocks immedi-or lake, and looking across to the other. It takes ately contiguous to the water-fall, I saw the rocky place when moving in ships in sight of proximate surface as if in motion upwards, and with an apland. parent velocity equal to that of the descending water, which the moment before had prepared my eyes to behold this singular deception.