Page images
PDF
EPUB

of upwards of two hundred thousand pounds, and is permitted by his great patron and friend, Bonaparte, to occupy the corner wing of the old palace, from which every other man of genius and fcience, who was entitled to refide there, has been removed to other places, in order to make room for the reception of the grand National Library, which the firft conful intends to have depofited there. His apartments are very magnificent, and furnished in that taste, which he has, by the influence of his fame, and his elegance of defign, fo widely and fuccefsfully diffufed. Whilst I was feated in his rooms, I could not help fancying myself a contemporary of the most tasteful times of Greece. Tunics and robes were carelessly but gracefully thrown over the antique chairs, which were" furrounded by elegant ftatues, and ancient libraries, fo difpofed, as to perfect the claffical illufion. It found David in his garden, putting in the back ground of a painting. He wore a dirty robe, and an old hat. His eyes are dark and penetrating, and beam with the luftre of genius. His collection of paintings and ftatues, and many of his own studies, afforded a perfect banquet. He was then occupied was then

in drawing a fine portrait of Bonaparte. The pref ence of David covered the gratification with gloom. Before me, in the bofom of that art, which is faid, with her divine affociates, to foften the fouls of men, I beheld the remorseless judge of his fovereign, the destroyer of his brethren in art, and the enthusiast

and confidential friend of Robespierre. David's political life is too well known. During the late fcenes of horror, he was afked by an acquaintance, how many heads had fallen upon the scaffold that day, to which he is faid coolly to have replied, "only one "hundred and twenty!! The heads of twenty thouf❝and more muft fall before the great work of phi lofophy can be accomplished."

It is related of him, that during the reign of the Mountain, he carried his portfolio to the front of the fcaffold, to catch the laft emotions of expiring nature, from the victims of his revolutionary rage.

[ocr errors]

He directed and prefided at the fplendid funeral folemnities of Lepelletier, who was affaffinated by Paris, in which his taste and intimate knowledge of the ceremonies of the antients, on fimilar occafions, were eminently displayed.

Farewel, David! when years have rolled away, and time has mellowed the works of thy fublime penoil, mayft thou be remembered only as their creator; may thy fame repofe herself upon the tableau of the dying Socrates, and the miraculous paffage of the Alpine hero, may the enfanguined records of thy polit ical frenzy, moulder away, and may science, who knew not blood till thou wert known, whofe pure, and haliowed infpirations have made men happier, and better, till thou wert born, implore for thee for giveness, and whilft, with rapture the points to the immortal images of thy divine genius, may the cover

[ocr errors]

with an impenetrable pall, the palend oddering, and bleeding victims of thy fanguinery Luki

The great abilities of this man, have en unabled him to furvive the revolution, which, itange to re late, has throughout its ravages, preferved a veneration for science, and, in general, protected her diftinguished followers. Bonaparte, who poffeffes great taste" that instinct fuperior to ftudy, furer than reaf❝oning, and more rapid than reflection," entertains the greatest admiration for the genius of David, and always, confults him in the arrangement of his paintings and statues. All the coftumes of government have been defigned by this artist.

David is not without his adherents. He has many pupils, the fons of refpectable, and fome of them, of noble families refiding in different parts of Europe. They are faid to be much attached to him, and have formed themselves into a military corps, for the purpofe of occafionally doing honor to him, and were lately on the point of revenging an infult, which had been offered to his perfon, in a manner, which if perpetrated, would have required the interest of their mafter to have faved them from the fcaffold.

J

But neither the gracious protection of confular fa-] vor, nor the fplendor of unrivalled abilities, can reftore their polluted poffeffor, to the affections and endearments of focial intercourfe. Humanity has drawn a fable circle, round him. He leads the life of a profcribed exile, in the very centre of the gayeft city

in Europe. In the gloomy fhade of unchofen feclufion, he paffes ungladdened hours, in the hope of covering s guilt with his glory, and of presenting to posterity, by the energies of his unequalled genius, fome atonement for the havoc, and ruin of that political hurricane, of which he directed the fury, and befriended the defolations, against every contemporary object that nature had endeared, and virtue confecrated.

After leaving the gallery of David, I vifited la Place de la Concorde. This ill fated spot, from its fpaciousness, and beauty of fituation, has always been the theatre of the great fêtes of the nation, as well as the scene of its greatest calamities. When the nuptials of the late king and queen were celebrated, the magnificent fireworks, fhows, and illuminations which followed, were here difplayed. During the exhibition, a numerous banditti, from Normandy, broke in upon the vaft affemblage of fpectators: Owing to the confufion which followed, and the fall of the scaffolding, the fupporters of which were fawed through by these wretches, the diforder became dreadful, and univerfal; many were crushed to death, and fome hundreds of the people, whilst endeavoring to make their efcape, were stabbed and robbed. The king and queen as a mark of their deep regret, ordered the dead to be entombed in the new burial ground of l'Eglife de Madeleine, then erecting at the entrance of the Boulevard des Italiens,

[ocr errors]

in the neighborhood of the palace, under the immediate inspection and patronage of the fovereign. This building was never finished, and ftill presents to the eye, a naked pile of lofty walls and columns. Alas! the gloomy auguries which followed this fatal fpectacle, were too truly realized. On that spot perifhed the monarch and his queen, and the flower of the French nobility, and many of the virtuous and enlightened men of France, and in this cemetery, their unhonored remains were thrown, amidst heaps ef headlefs victims, into promifcuous graves of unflacked lime!

How infcrutable are the ways of destiny!

This fpot, which, from its enchanting scenery, is calculated only to recal, or to infpire the most tender, and generous, and elegant fentiments, which has been the favored refort of fo many kings, and the fcene of every gorgeous fpectacle, was doomed to become the human fhambles of the brave and good, and the Golgotha of the guillotine! In the centre, is an oblong fquare railing, which encloses the exact fpot where formerly stood that inftrument of death, which was voted permanent by its remorfeless employers.

A temporary model in wood, of a lofty fuperb monsument, two hundred feet high, intended to be erected in honor of Conaparte and the battle of Marengo, was raised in this place, for his approval, but from policy or modefty, he declined this diftinnguished

L

« PreviousContinue »