Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/209

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TERRORISTS.
189

till 1792, when he took up his quarters at an inn at Louveciennes, the hamlet inhabited by Madame Dubarry. Here he formed a club, which, the lady being in England in quest of her stolen jewels, audaciously met in her drawing-room. Her Hindoo servant Zamore, whom she had brought up, had stood sponsor to, and had named after one of Voltaire's tragedies, proved unfaithful. She had loaded him with kindness, and as a boy he used, dressed like Cupid, to hold a parasol over her as she went to meet Louis XV. in the garden; but Grieve wormed all her secrets out of him, got an order for seals to be placed on her property, and inserted her name at the head of a list of persons to be arrested. The power of the municipality to make arrests was, however, questioned, and for four months Madame Dubarry remained free, though in perpetual anxiety.

On July 1st, 1793, Grieve escorted the municipality to the bar of the Convention, vehemently denounced her, and obtained authority to apprehend her, but a petition from the villagers, who had profited by her bounty, procured her release. Thereupon Grieve issued a pamphlet describing her luxurious life, and holding her up to odium' as a conspirator. He signed himself "Man of Letters, officieux defender of the brave sans-culottes of Louveciennes, friend of Franklin and Marat,[1] factious (factieux)

  1. Marat perhaps made his acquaintance at Newcastle, or while teaching French at Edinburgh in 1772.