Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/245

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OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.
221


a project to go and visit my brother, but I did not carry it into effect for some time, for chance threw in my way an opportunity of visiting Paris.

The circumstances under which this opportunity arrived were amusing, and I might say instructive. I have no compunction in mentioning them, for it is not probable that there will ever be another emigration from France, and, if there should be, it would be the citizens who had nothing who would rob the citizens who had property—that is the invariable rule. We of the old nobility would not be the sufferers, for, heaven knows, few indeed of the fine castles, mansions, and fortunes, have remained in the families of their original owners.

But, at any rate, if the so-called liberalism—which is very different from the old Jacobinism, because it has the red cap in its pocket instead of on its head—if liberalism, I say, should ever drive the wealth out of France, I thought I should like to know how it came back.

I did not look forward with much pleas-