South of France, and lived for some time at Toulouse. That city was an incessant scene of gayety, and Courier, all unskilled, "In the smooth dance, to move with graceful mein,” had daily cause to lament his early inattention to that art. At various times he had taken masters, who found in him all the qualifications necessary for complete success in the poetry of motion-save patience. He now laboured with such assiduity, that he was soon not only able to 'trip it on the light fantastic toe' with good approbation, but to give lessons. Among his pupils, were some ladies. While toiling amain to shew them steps and figures, unfortunately he taught one fair élève some graceless steps, not needed in fashionable figures, that rendered it neofficer to make an early retreat, one morcessary for our young ning, without drum or trumpet. Pleasure, however, did not interrupt his more serious avocations. He made a particular study of Cicero, but without neglecting his Greek in the meanwhile. His literary labours were partaken by a M. Chlewaski, a learned Pole, with whom he afterwards kept up a correspondence. During a short period, Courier was in Brittany, with what was called the Army of England, but in 1798, he was ordered to Italy-the very land of his choice. In his very first letter from Rome, we find him comfortably domiciliated in the Vatican, tumbling over MSS. and decyphering inscriptions. We may here remark, by the way, that throughout his military career, as soon as he arrived in a city, he immediately installed himself in the libraries, where he always continued, without leave or license, so long as his troops were not engaged in fighting. In his letters, he laments the rapid disappearance of the monuments of antiquity from Italy, from wanton outrage, and the cupidity of both French and Italians. After advising his friends to hasten to Rome, if they wished to see it before its disappearance, he says, "Every thing that was at the Chartreux, at 'the Villa Albani, among the Farnese, the Honesti, at the Muse'um Clementi, at the Capitol, is carried off, pillaged, lost or sold. The English have their part, and the French Commissioners 'suspected of this commerce, have been arrested; but the matter 'will end here. Some soldiers who entered the Vatican Libra'ry, destroyed, among other rarities, the famous Terence of 'Bembo, one of the most valuable manuscripts, in order to have 'some of the gilding that ornamented it. The Venus of the 'Villa Borghese has been wounded in the hand by some of the 'descendants of Diomede, and the Hermaphrodite, immane nefas! 'has a foot shivered."* The Neapolitan army had just evacuated Rome when Courier arrived, and, of course, there was little active service. During the brief occupation of the Papal Dominions by the Neapolitans, the fortress of Civita Vecchia raised the flag of the Pope, and refused to submit. Afterwards, Courier, with his artillery, forming a part of the troops sent against the revolted city, was, on account of his knowledge of Italian, sent in company with an officer of dragoons, and a trumpeter, to summon the place, for the last time, to surrender. The three horsemen were within a short distance of the gates, when perceiving that a rouleau of gold pieces had escaped through his pocket, Courier dismounted to look for it. After a few moments of useless search, he was preparing to join his comrades, when he heard a volley of muskets and saw, immediately after, the trumpeter returning alone, with speed. The officer had been shot. Courier then returned, probably well consoled for the loss of his money, by the consideration of the danger he had escaped. The small French army under Garnier was obliged to evacuate Rome, the 29th September, 1799. Courier could hardly tear himself from the Vatican library, and remained until night, when every Frenchman had retreated. His danger was imminent—alone, surrounded by foreign troops, in the midst of a hostile populace. In passing along a street, under favour of darkness, he was unfortunately recognized by the light of a lamp burning before a Madonna. The cry of Giaccobino was raised-he was pursuedand a musquet fired at him. The ball did not strike him, but glancing from the wall, wounded a woman at some distance off, whose cries diverted the attention of the populace, while Courier regained his lodgings. The next day, his Italian host conducted him, in his own carriage, to the French army. He now returned to France, and on account of his ill health, was, for a considerable time, absent from the army. Bosquillion was his physician, and no one could have suited him better, for he was also a Greek professor. It was through his means, that Courier became acquainted with the Hellenist, Cluvier, afterwards his father-in-law. During a visit to Touraine, he closed the eyes of his mother, which, like the death of his father, produced most lively and durable impressions on him. In a letter long after, to M. Sainte Croix, who had just lost a daughter, he says, "I am little calculated to console. Afflicted by a similar sorrow, ten years ago, I feel it now as I did the first day.' 典 Œuvres, vol. p. iv. 37. + Œuvres, vol. iv. p. 240. On the decease of his father-in-law, Clavier, he was so affected, that he was unable to look at his books for many months. At the close of 1801, Courier was ordered to Strasbourg, where he made acquaintance with Schweighaeuser, the learned editor of Athenæus, Stobæus, Herodotus, &c. A critique on Schweighaeuser's Athenæus, with twenty pages of notes on the Greek text, published by him, about this time, was, we believe, his first appearance in print, though various things written by him, some as far back as 1799, and now given to the world in the edition of his works, shew how constantly he had been employed in his literary labours. By the favour of Generals Duroc and Marmont, Courier was appointed Major, in 1803, and once more departed for Italy. He joined his regiment at Piacenza, March, 1804. It was in that year, that Bonaparte made himself Emperor, and Courier, in a letter, details the proceedings of his Colonel, to obtain the signatures of the army, in favour of the usurper. Towards the conclusion, he says, "Tell me, what does it signify, a man like Bonaparte, a soldier, chief of the army, the first captain of the 'world, to wish to be called MAJESTY? To be Bonaparte, and 'to make himself SIRE! He aspires to descend; but no; he 'believes himself ascending by equalizing himself with kings. 'He loves a title better than a namie. Poor man, his notions are 'below his fortune."* 6 Not even in his earliest letters does Courier say one word in favour of the Captain who then filled Europe with his renown, and took no pains after the elevation of Bonaparte to conceal his offensive opinions. He thus writes among other matters to Sainte Croix. "I can assure you of the Marquis Rodio, that his death here passes for an assassination and a mean revenge. They owed him ill-will, because being a minister and favourite of the Queen, he seemed opposed to a marriage which they proposed of some son or daughter of Naples with some one of the family. The Emperor has this weakness of all upstarts, that he exposes himself to refusals. He was refused there and elsewhere. Poor Rodio, afterwards taken in a corner of Calabria at the head of some insurgents, although he had made a good capitulation, was however, arrested, tried by a military commission, and what is wonderful, acquitted. He then wrote to his wife, to his friends, and thought himself out of difficulty, when the Emperor caused him to be retaken and retried by the same judges who this time condemned him! Every one was horror-struck at this; the French, perhaps, even more than the Neapolitans. He was shot behind, as a traitor, felon and rebel against his own legitimate sovereign! This action ap * Euvres, vol. iv. p. 56. pears violent to you; I know others similar. When General Vcommanded at Leghorn, he received the order, and he executed it, to arrest two rich merchants of the city, of whom one perished like Rodio, the other got off by sheer luck, having escaped from prison by the assistance of his wife and an aid-de-camp. The General was in trouble and received a sharp reprimand. We have seen here a courier, who was bearing letters of the Queen, assassinated by command, his despatches taken and sent to Paris. I see every day the man who committed the deed, or at least who ordered it. But what then! Even at Paris, in order to obtain a paper, was not an envoy or secretary of one of the embassies slain in his chamber ?"—Vol. iv. p. 177. Receiving an order to join the army of Gouvion St. Cyr, as commander of the artillery, Courier proceeded to Barletta; on the way he stopped occasionally to examine the libraries, and finding one to his mind at Parma, he tarried fifteen days working on the Greek text of Xenophon. When the army of St. Cyr was recalled to the North of Italy, Courier was still with it, and was in the battle of Castel Franco, where the Prince of Rohan and his army were captured. Courier next went with the army of Reynier against Naples, and was present at that General's victory at Campo Tenese. Desiring to arm the coast opposite to Sicily, Reynier sent to Courier to take possession of the ordnance at Tarentum. After despatching several vessels loaded with cannon, he set out on his return in a polacre, having on board twelve heavy pieces. He was soon chased by an English brig, and seeing the impossibility of escaping with his freight, he ordered the Captain to sink the polacre, and then with the rest of the company gained the shore in the boat. But the vessel would not sink and before he landed, he had the mortification to see the English take possession of her. Scarcely had Courier's party landed before they were overpowered by brigands, who stripped them even to their clothes, and were about putting them to death. One of the cannoniers wept, and displayed a degree of fear that only augmented their danger. Courier exclaimed aloud to him, "What! you a French soldier, and fear to die?" Luckily, the Syndic of Corrigliano arrived, accompanied by a few men, but not having a sufficient force to restrain the brigands, he pretended to approve their conduct. "Comrades," said he, "let us not show any mercy to these French scoundrels, but let us conduct them into town, that the people may have the pleasure of taking vengeance on them." The Frenchmen were then carried to prison, but the succeeding day they were conducted safely to the next French VOL. V.-No. 9. 19 garrison. Twice afterwards, Courier was stripped, by brigands, in Calabria, until, he says, his friends are tired of giving alms and clothing him, and that he believes he will have to die dressed as he was born. A letter to Sainte Croix thus describes his "hair-breadth 'scapes, and moving accidents, by flood and field." "SIR-Since my last letter, to which you replied in such an obliging manner, things have occurred here, which we ourselves consider great events, but of which, I believe, there will be little talk in your part of the world. However, if the history of Great Greece, during the last three months, has any interest for you, I send you my journal,* that is, a few sheets, in which I have noted à loisir, the most remarkable men and buffooneries I have witnessed. It is difficult to see more of the same sort, in so little time and space. If the features, thus foreshortened, of these execrable farces, inspire you with nothing but disgust, I shall not be surprised. It may, perhaps, excite, for an instant, the curiosity of those who know the actors-others only see the shame of the human race. It is, nevertheless, history stripped of its ornaments. Behold the canvasses that Herodotus and Thucydides have embroidered. As for me, I am of opinion that this concatenation (enchainement) of follies and atrocities, that is called History, scarcely merits the attention of a sensible man. Plutarch, with L'air d'homme sage, Et cette large barbe au milieu du visage, excites my pity in vaunting those givers of battles, (donneurs de battailles.) whose only merit is to have their names tagged to events which the course of things brought about. us, Since our junction with Massena, we march more valiantly, and are in a rather less pitiable situation. We are retracing our steps, forming the advance-guard of this little army, and carrying on the most villainous of all wars against the insurgents. We kill few of them, and take still fewer. On account of the nature of the country, and their knowing and being accustomed to it, even when surprised, they escape easily from us; but not we from them. Those we catch, we hang up to the trees; when they take they burn us as pleasantly as they can. I, who am talking to you, fell into their clutches, and to get myself out, required many miracles. I assisted at a deliberation, in which the question was, whether I should be hanged, burnt or shot? I was permitted to give an opinion. Some day I will divert you with the recital. I have often escaped finely in the course of this campaign; for, besides common danger, I have travelled twice from Reggio to Tarentum, going and returning, that is to say, more than four hundred leagues through the midst of the insurgents, alone, or with few attendants, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, sometimes on all-fours, sometimes slipping sur mon derrière, or tumbling, heels-over-head, down the mountains. It was in one of those trips, that I was taken by our |