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SECT. LXXXV.

CAPTIVITY.

SOON after the execution of the tyrant ROBESPIERRE, the committee of general safety appointed a deputation of its members to vifit the prifons, and speak the words of comfort to the prifoners. In the mean time orders for liberty arrived in glad fucceffion; and the prisons of Paris, fo lately the abodes of hopeless mifery, now exhibited scenes which an angel might have contemplated with ecftafy. Upon the fall of the republican tyrant, the terrible spell which bound the land of France was broken; the shrieking whirlwinds, the black precipices, the bottomlefs gulphs, fuddenly vanished. The generous affections, the tender fympathies, fo long repreffed by the congealing ftupefaction of terror, burft forth with uncontrolable energy; and the enthusiasm of humanity took place of the gloomy terror of defpair, as fuddenly as when the winter's ice diffolves in the clear sunshine, or that luminary affumes its effulgence after an eclipse.

The first perfons released from the Luxenbourg were

Monfieur

Monfieur and Madame BITAUBY, two days after the fall of ROBESPIERRE. When they were liberated, the prisoners, to the amount of nine hundred perfons, formed a lane to see them pass; they embraced them, they bathed them with tears, they overwhelmed them with benedictions, they hailed with transport the moment which gave themselves the earnest of returning freedom: but the feelings of fuch moments may be imagined, but cannot be described. Crowds of people were conftantly affembled at the gates of the prisons, to enjoy the luxury of seeing the prisoners snatched from their living tombs, and restored to freedom: that very people, who, when they first shook off their yoke of regal dominion, had committed every excefs, and afterwards beheld, with ftupid filence, the daily work of death under new rulers, now melted into tears over the sufferers, and filled the air with the loudeft acclamations at their release. Paris was converted into a scene of enthufiaftic transport. The theatres, the public walks, the ftreets, refounded with the fongs of rejoicing; the people indulged themselves in all the frolic gaiety which belongs especially to their character; whilft the transport of the prisoners choaked the voice of utterance.

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SECT. LXXXVI.

ANTITHESIS.

IMAGINE to yourself DEMOSTHENES addreffing the most illustrious affembly in the world, upon a point whereon the fate of the moft illuftrious of nations de pended. How awful fuch a meeting! How vaft the fubject! Is any man poffeffed of talents adequate to the great occafion? Adequate-yes, fuperior. "I beheld "PHILIP," fays DEMOSTHENES, "he with whom "was your conteft, refolutely, while in pursuit of em"pire and dominion, exposing himself to every wound; "his eye gored, his neck wrefted, his arm, his thigh "pierced; whatever part of his body fortune should "seize on, that cheerfully relinquifhing; provided that, "with what remained, he might live with honour and renown. And fhall it be faid, that he, born in PEL

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LA, a place heretofore mean and ignoble, fhould be infpired with fo high an ambition and thirst of fame, "while you, ATHENIANS!!" &c. Thus DEMOSTHENES, by the organs of his body, attuned to the exertions of the mind, through the kindred organs of the

hearers,

hearers, inftantaneoufly, and, as it were, with an electrical spirit, vibrates thofe energies from foul to foul.Notwithstanding the diverfity of minds in fuch a multitude, by the lightning of eloquence, they are melted into one mafs-the whole affembly, actuated in one and the fame way, become, as it were, one man, and have but one voice.-The univerfal cry is" Let us march against PHILIP-let us fight for our liberties-let us conquer-or die !"

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HANNIBAL having affembled together all his forces, previous to the battle of Ticinus, he brought before them the young prisoners, whom he had taken among those barbarians that had difturbed his march across the Alps. With a view to the defign which he now put in practice, he had before given orders, that these men fhould be treated with the laft feverity. They were loaded with heavy chains; their bodies were emaciated with hunger; and mangled by blows and stripes. In this condition, he now placed them in the midst of the affembly; and threw before them fome fuits of Gallic armour, fuch as their kings are accustomed to wear when they engage in fingle combat. He ordered fome horfes alfo to be fet before them; and military habits, that were very rich and fplendid. He then demanded

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young men,

of the 66 try their fate in arms against each other; on condition "that the conqueror should poffefs those spoils that were "before their eyes, while the vanquished would be re❝ leased by death from all his miseries." The captives, with one voice, cried out, and teftified the utmost

“which of them were willing to

eagerness to engage. HANNIBAL then commanded, “that lots should be cast among them and that those

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two, upon whom the lot fhould fall, fhould take the arms that were before them, and begin the combat." When the prifoners heard these orders, they extended their hands towards the heavens; and every one moft fervently implored the gods, that the lot to fight might be his own. And no fooner was their chance decided, than those whofe fortune it was to engage, appeared filled with joy, while the rest were mournful and dejected. When the combat was alfo determined, the captives, that were by lot excluded the trial, pronounced "him who had loft his life in the engagement to be, in "their fight, not less happy than the conqueror: fince,

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by dying, he was released from all that wretchedness,

"which they were still doomed to fuffer." The fame reflections arose alfo in the minds of the Carthaginian foldiers; who, from comparing the condition of the

dead

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