Pontarlier Is A
Dreary, Melancholy Looking Place, Consisting Of A Very Long Street And
Several Offsets Of Streets, Situated In The Midst Of Mountains, Eternally
Covered With Snow.
Winter reigns here during nine months of the year.
At
Pontarlier the whole garrison were under arms, when I arrived, to pay the
last duties to a most respectable and respected officer, whose death was
occasioned by falling into the river, while at the necessary, by the
under board giving way. This officer had served in almost all the campaigns
of Napoleon and had greatly distinguished himself. What a cruel death for a
warrior who had been in fifty battles! That death should have shunned him
in the field of battle, to make him fall in a manner at once inglorious and
ridiculous! yet such is destiny. Pyrrhus fell by a tile flung from a house
by an old woman, and I am acquainted with a gallant captain in the British
Navy who lost his leg by amputation, having broken it (oh horror!) by a
fall from the top of a stage coach.
I left Pontarlier on the 2d July, and arrived at Lausanne the same evening
at five o'clock. On my return to Lausanne I had the pleasure to form an
acquaintance with several eminent Frenchmen proscribed and banished from
France, on account of having voted the death of Louis XVI, as members of
the National Convention, which tried him, and for having voted, after the
return of Napoleon from Elba, the Acte additionnel, which excluded the
Bourbons for ever from the throne of France, Among them are, 1st, Monsieur
Lamarque, who was one of the commissioners sent by the Convention to arrest
Dumouriez, but being seized by him, and delivered over to the Austrians, he
passed some time in captivity and was at length released, by being
exchanged with some others against the Duchess d'Angouleme.[67] He is a
very able man and seems to have far more political talent than any of the
other Conventionnels who are here. On Napoleon's return from Elba he
voted for him, but made strong objections against the formation of a
peerage, which he said was perfectly useless in France, and pregnant with
mischief to boot, as it would only serve as an appui to despotism. He
wrote a pamphlet with some excellent remarks on this, subject. He therein
points out the evils of an hereditary Chamber, and of a priviledged
aristocracy, who have nothing to expect from the people, but all from the
Prince; and in its stead he proposes an additional elective Chamber,
something on the plan of the Senate in America, but he decidedly reprobates
an hereditary peerage.
The next is General Espinassy, a very good classical scholar and a most
upright and amiable man.[68] In his vote he was solely influenced by strong
but conscienscious republican principles; he resides here with his wife and
two sons; he was considered as one of the best engineer officers in France
and he opposed the nomination of Napoleon to the Imperial dignity in 1804.
Another, M. Bordas,[69] opposed Napoleon's assumption of the Consulship on
the 18th Brumaire, and was proscribed by him for a short time, but
afterwards amnestied and received into favour. He gave his vote for
Napoleon on the Champ de Mai in 1815, but accompanied this vote by a bold
speech towards Napoleon wherein he found fault with his former despotic
practises, and reminded him of the solemnity of his promise to govern in
future paternally and nationally, as became the sovereign of a free people.
M. Bordas is a very cheerful, lively, companionable man and tho' seventy
years of age, he has an uncommon share of vivacity, with something of the
ci-devant jeune homme about him, and He is pleased to be considered still
as a man a bonnes fortunes.
The next to him is M. Gauthier, who had been a lawyer, and held a
considerable post as a magistrate in the time of the Republic and under the
Empire.[70] He possesses a good deal of talent, close logical reasoning,
and has determined public principle.
The next, M. Michaud, had been also an advocate, and is possessor of
considerable property in the department of the Doubs;[71] he is a most
rigid unbending republican, something in the style of Verrina in Schiller's
Fiesco; he opposed the assumption of the supreme power by Buonaparte on
the 18th Brumaire; he voted against the Consulship for life, as well as
against the assumption of the Imperial dignity. He is a very good classical
scholar. He is a widower and has with him here Mlle Elisa, his only
daughter, who follows her father's fortunes. She is a very amiable and
accomplished young lady; she has a thorough knowledge of music and of
painting in oils, and is classically versed in the Italian language. I soon
became acquainted with the whole of these illustrious exiles, and I find
great delight and instruction from their conversation; and this is a great
relief to me, for the life one leads in a Swiss town is rather monotonous.
LAUSANNE.
I dine very often with my neighbour the Baron de Falkenskioeld, and at his
house I became acquainted with M. de Laharpe, who was preceptor to the
present Emperor of Russia. He is a native of this Canton, and has returned
here to pass the remainder of his life. He is married to a very amiable
Russian lady, and having acquired a pretty good fortune in Russia, he lives
here very happily and comfortably; but notwithstanding this, he is often
tempted to visit Paris, Milan and other great cities, and when there, sighs
to return to his native mountains.
As the Ultras of France bear a great hatred towards the inhabitants of the
Canton de Vaud, on account of the asylum given and sympathy shown to the
proscrits, they have been at the pains of trumping up and printing a
pretended petition from the inhabitants of the department of the Doubs,
praying that the French Government would endeavor to obtain the removal of
these proscrits from the Canton de Vaud, and stating that the said Canton
was the foyer of Jacobinical principles, and the place where Napoleon's
return from Elba was planned and accelerated, and thro' which the
conveyance of intelligence backwards and forwards was conducted.
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