Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/186

162 confiscate and sell the property of all absentees, without distinction of rank, age, or sex. This compelled my sister-in-law and her two sons to join us. She left the Chateau of Pontgibaud, in which she had resided since the rather recent death of our father. He died some months before the Revolution broke out, and was, at least, spared the pain of seeing it. My sister-in-law had left all her furniture in the manor-house, and the keys, so to speak, in the doors, for she thought she was only going to be absent a short time. The utmost that she expected was that the estates would be sequestrated for a short period. She brought with her therefore as little baggage as possible, in order to experience the less difficulty in passing the frontier, but fortunately brought her jewel-case, which in this hour of misfortune, became the means of saving us all.

The family consisted of my brother, his wife, their two sons,—the one a youth, the other a young child,—a lady's maid who had insisted on following her mistress, and a musician, named Monsieur Leriche, a