Events are set forth, it is true, without much glow or inspiration; but on the other hand, the moderation and simplicity of its tone enable one to see events in their true light, and to understand the feelings which took hold of the minds of most Frenchmen, and made them pass without much difficulty or much remonstrance from one sort of government to another governments so diverse as the old French Monarchy, the wild Revolution, and then the iron despotism of Napoleon.
I.
ABOUT THE BASTILLE.
Lavalette was the son of a respectable Paris tradesman. He received a good education, was intended for the Church, and had got as far as holy orders and a small position, when the Revolution broke out and upset him, as everything else. He was soon a member of the National Guard, and was present at many of the stirring and terrible scenes which opened the Revolution. As will be gathered from what I have already said, he is a cool, unimpassioned observer, had military instinct from his whole temperament; and any description, therefore, which he gives of the doings of the mob in that strange period, is free from any enthusiasm, and rather censorious than otherwise. Thus, when he describes what he saw at the taking of the
