Among his contemporaries, the valour and victories of Clovis certainly allowed him to claim the foremost rank; but his valour was stained with cruelty, and his victories obfcured by injuftice. In the invafion of the Burgundians and Vifigoths, the most partial hiftorians have defcribed him as the aggreffor; and though in the battle of Tolbiac his fword was drawn against the Alemanni in the defence of his ally and kinfman Sigebert, yet he foon after hesitated not to fecure his throne by the death of that very ally in whofe caufe he had triumphed. His ruling paffion was to render himself abfolute monarch of all Gaul; and he may be confidered as more fortunate in the execution of his defigns than jultifiable in the means he employed. In private life, after his converfion to christianity, he was chafte and temperate; nor does it appear that the husband of Clotilda ever violated the purity of the marriage-bed.'

On the death of Clovis, the kingdom was divided among his fons, who foon after made a conqueft of Burgundy, and overwhelmed the kingdom of the Vifigoths. For a series of years France continued divided into feveral diftinct ftates; and the government of the Merovingian princes was caft into fhade by the growing authority of their principal fervants, the mayors of the palaces. Among these we difcover the Carlovingian race rifing gradully into power, under the adminiftration of Pepin; and under that of his natural fon Charles Martel, it grew to fuch an enormous height, that he was enabled, without fheltering himself under a fhadow of royalty, to affume to himfelf the whole power of the Franks. The fon of Charles, Pepin the Short, by his valour, conduct, and his artful negociations with the court of Rome, added to his father's power, the title of king; and Childeric, the laft of the Merovingian race, was fhaved, and immured for life in a monaftery.-The acceffion of Charlemagne to the imperial throne is next related with brevity and fpirit. The feeble and turbulent reign of Lewis the Meck, or gentle, concludes the fecond chapter.

A new divifion of the government took place on the death of Lewis the Meek, and the empire of Germany was feparated from the kingdom of France. The remainder of this chapter contains the feeble reigns of the Carlovingian race, and among the most remarkable facts during this period, we difcern the rife and establishment of the dukes of Normandy.-The family of Charlemagne was extinguished in the perfon of Lewis the yth, and the crown was transferred to the famous Hugh Capet.

The eight following chapters are occupied by the actions of the immediate fucceffors of Hugh Capet; and the 12th opens with the acceffion of the family of Valois. The wars which enfued between this family, and our Edward III, are well known to most of the readers of English hiftory, and are defailed in the two fucceeding chapters. In the 15th, the ftate of France, previous to the invafion of Henry v. of England,

is defcribed with fome degree of political difcrimination. The origin of that fatal phrenzy in Charles VI, which was the fource of fo much evil to France, is deferving of attention: p. 414.

The Sieur de Craon, a profligate nobleman, had been entrufted by the court of France with a confiderable fum of money for the fupport of the duke of Anjou, reduced to extreme distress by his Italian expedition. He had betrayed the confidence which had been thus repofed in him; and diffipated the money in his li centious pleasures at Venice. By the credit of the duke of Orleans, the brother of the king, he obtained his pardon, and returned to court, to abufe the clemency of his fovereign by an act of more atrocious treachery. To gratify his private refentment, he attempted to affaffinate the conflable, Oliver Cliffon, whom he fufpected of having promoted his difgrace. The veteran hero was attacked as he returned from the hotel of St. Pol, by twenty ruffians; and although he defended himself with his fword with his wonted intrepidity, he at length fell, from the lofs of blood and the number of his wounds. The goodness of his conftitution triumphed over the bloody malice of his affailants, while Craon fled from the vengeance of his incenfed fovereign to the protection of the duke of Brittany.

Charles demanded the criminal; and on the refufal of the duke, prepared to compel him, notwithstanding the remontrances of the dukes of Burgundy and Berri, at the head of a numerous army. Accompanied by thefe princes, he had fearce arrived at Mans before he was feized with a flow fever; but his impatience to punit the crime of Craon, and the contempt of the duke of Brittany, induced him to refift the advice of his phyficians, and to continue his march. As he paffed through a foreft between Mans and La Fleche, in the heat of the day, the bridle of his horfe was fuddenly feized by a man in wretched apparel, black and hideous; who exclaimed, My king, where are you going? you are betrayed!' and then inftantly difappeared. At that moment, a page who carried the king's lance, and who, under the preffure of fatigue had fallen atleep, let fall the lance on a helmet which another page carried before him. This noife, with the fudden appearance and exclamation of the man, concurred to produce an immediate and fatal effect on the king's imagination. He drew his fword, and ftruck furiously on every fide; three perfons, befides the page who dropped the lance, were the victims of his phrenzy ; at length he was difarmed and fecured. The violence of the effort had exhaufted his ftrength; and he was conveyed, fenfelefs and motionlefs, to Mans.

This account, ftrange and improbable, is yet fupported by the united teftimonies of contemporary hiftorians. Probably the mind of the king, oppreffed by indifpofition, prefented to his fancy the ideal figure, the fource of his terror; probably the duke of Burgundy ufed this artifice to fright him from an expedition, from which he had endeavoured ineffectually to diffuade. But whatever was the caufe of Charles's delirium, the confequences were melancholy. The invafion of Brittany was immediately abandoned; the king was re-conducted to Paris; and ex

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preffed,

preffed, on the recovery of his fenfes, his horror at the blood which had been thus unknowingly fpilt.

During the three days that his delirium had lafted, the grief of his people proclaimed the blamelefs tenor of admiftration: The intelligence of his recovery was welcomed by marks of unfeigned and unbounded tranfport; but it was foon difcovered that he no longer poffeffed that clear comprehenfion and ftrength of judgment, which had formerly characterized him. The doubtful state of his intellects rendered it neceffary that the royal power fhould be vested in more able hands; and the competition for the regency brought forward two characters which hitherto had been concealed from public obfervation. Ifabella, the confort of the unfortunate monarch, has already been celebrated for her uncommon beauty and infinuating addrefs: but thefe qualities were alloyed by a mind violent, vindictive, and intriguing; by a heart infenfible to the natural affections of a parent, but open to flattery, and fufceptible of the impreflion of every lawlefs paffion. The duke of Orleans, the brother of the king, had but juft entered his twentieth year; his perfon was graceful, his features animated, and he was by nature and education formed to fucceed in gallantry; his early marriage with Valentina, the daughter of the duke of Milan, a princefs of extraordinary charms and accomplishments, did not prevent him from engaging in a variety of licentious amours; and his intimacy with his royal fifter-in-law was abhorred as criminal and incestuous. Profufe and prodigal, his hopes were inflamed by the partiality of the queen; and he openly afpired to the regency; but the flates regarded him with prudent diftruft and conferred the adminiftration of affairs on the more mature years of his uncle, the duke of Burgundy.'

The account of the Maid of Orleans is fhort and ftriking: P. 469.

While he (Charles the Dauphin) anxioufly and hourly expected the fatal intelligence that Orleans had furrendered, his. attention was engaged by the appearance of a village girl, destined to prop his falling fortunes, and reflore to him the dominions of his ancestors. In the village of Domremi, near Vaucouleurs, on the borders of Lorraine, at a small inn, refided a female fervant called Joan d'Arc; fhe had been accustomed to ride the horses of her master's guests to water; her employment and converfation with the company whom the attended, had given her a degree of boldnefs above her fex; and the littened with pleafure to the martial atchievements, the conftant topics of converfation in a warlike age. The calamities of her country, and the diftrefs of her fovereign, were the objects of her daily thoughts and nightly dreams. She was foon inflamed with the defire of avenging on the English the mifery of France; and an ignorant mind might poffibly mistake the impulfe of her paffions for heavenly infpirations. She procured admiffion to Baudrecourt, the governor of Vaucouleurs; the declared to him that he had been exhorted by frequent vifions and by diftinét voices, to atchieve the deliverance of her country; and the governor either equally credulous himself, or fufficiently penetrating to foresee the effect fuch an enthufiaft might have on the minds of the vulgar, granted

her

her an escort to the French court, which at that time refided at Chinon, in Touraine.

On her arrival at Chinon, fhe is faid to have diftinguished Charles from his courtiers, though divefted of every enlign of royalty; to have revealed a fecret to him unknown to all the world befide himfelf; and to have demanded and described by particular marks, a fword which he had never feen, and which The required as the inftrument of her future victories; fhe afferted that he was commiflioned to raife the fiege of Orleans, and conduct him to Rheims, to be there crowned and anointed. Charles and his ministers pretended to examine her pretenfions with fcrupulous exactnefs: they affected at length to be convinced of the fincerity of her declarations, and of her fupernatural powers. Their opinion was folemnly and publickly countenanced by an affembly of doctors and theologians, and by the parliament of France, then refiding at Poitiers. After repeated examinations, the million of Joan d'Arc was pronounced to be divine; and the fpirits of a defpairing people were again elevated by the hope that heaven had declared itfelf in favour of France.

That Charles might avail himself of the enthufiafm of the moment, he fent Joan to Blois, where a convoy was already provided for the relief of Orleans, and an army of ten thousand men was collected to efcort it. The holy maid, difplaying in her hands a confecrated banner, marched at the head of her troops. She had already declared her intention of entering the city by the road from the fide of Beauffe; but the baitard of Orleans, whom we fhall hereafter ftyle count of Dunois, unwilling entirely to trust the operations of war to the fuggeftions of fanaticifm, controlled the rafh defign, and perfuaded Joan to approach the town on the oppofite fide of the Loire, where he knew the befiegers were weakest.

The English had at first heard with contempt the preparations of Charles, and derided the heavenly commifion of Joan; but the minds of the common foldiers were infentibly impreffed with holy dread, and they awaited the event with anxious horror. The earl of Suffolk, apprifed of the difpolition of his troops, vainly flattered himself that time would difpel their terrors, and banish the illufion. He determined to remain quietly within his entrenchments, while the convoy entered the city with Joan, and the French army returned to Blois without interruption. But inaction ferved only to confirm thofe fears which the tumult of war might have banished: the English beheld their enemies triumphant, and the predictions of Joan, who acquired the furname of the Maid of Orleans, in part fulfilled. A fecond convoy foon after entered the city, on the fide of Beauffe, and was alfo fuffered by the befiegers to pafs without refiftance. The French affumed new fpirits; while the English, formerly elated with victory and impatient for action, beheld the enterprifes of their enemies in filent aftonifhment and religious confternation.

But even this ftate of inactivity was no longer permitted to them; the enthufiafm of Joan could not be restrained within the walls of Orleans: She exhorted the garrifon to listen to her

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voice,

voice, and imitate her example. In a fuccefsful fally, the entrenchments of the befiegers were ftormed, and even the valour of the renowned Sir John Talbot feemed to wither at her approach. A fecond fally fwept away the forts on the oppofite fide of the Loire; and a wound from an arrow, which in the attack was inflicted on the neck of Joan, ferved rather to inflame the courage of the intrepid heroine. The count of Dunois confented to feize the momert of returning fortune; the English were fucceffively chafed from their pofts, with the lofs of above fix thousand men; the earl of Suffolk determined to raise a fiege which he could no longer continue with a probability of fuccefs; and the French, animated by this firft effay of the holy maid, prepared to improve their advantage, and avail themselves of the fuperftitious fears of their adverfaries.'

The remainder of the 1ft volume is employed on the reigns of the French monarchs, from Charles VII. to Lewis x1; and the 20th chapter concludes with a sketch of the conftitution of France, from the acceffion of Hugh Capet, to the death of Lewis XI. The 29th chapter commences with the acceffion of the house of Bourbon, in the perfon of Henry IV.-The 34th, 35th, and 36th, are occupied with the reign of Lewis XIV, whofe death clotes the 2d volume. The 3d volume contains ten chapters, which are devoted to the more modern part of the French hiftory, and which, on that account, arc peculiarly interesting. The causes of the late revolution, and the events preceding it, are developed with much perfpicuity; but we cannot help regretting that the author has not continued his detail beyond the first meeting of the Tiers Etats; and has contented himself with famming up the confequences in a few fentences.

It is but justice to add, that this hiftory is written with fpirit and elegance. The author is evidently an imitator of Mr. Gibbon's ftyle, and he is by no means an unfuccefsful one, though in a few inftances he seems to have adopted even the peculiarities and faults of his original. The compendious fize of this work, will, doubtlefs, render it an object with many readers, who would want leifure to bestow on a more prolix hiftory; from the eafy expence, it is a very proper book to introduce into fchools, and the lively manner in which it is compofed, will probably make it acceptable to young perfons.

D.

ART. 11. La Bastille dévoilée, &c.-The Baftille unveiled, or a Collection of authentic Pieces relative to its History. Nos. I-IX. Small 8vo. about 1400 pages, with a Plan of the Bastille. Paris printed. Imported by De Boffe.

1790.

If ever the Baftille had any claim to our attention,' fay the editors of this publication, or its history to excite our curiofity