Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/306

282 Marie Jean Herault de Seychelles, who owing to influence at Court, obtained several good appointments. In the Revolution he became a Girondin, was a follower of Danton, and perished with his leader and Camille Desmoulins on the scaffold.

In spite of the author's prejudices Moreau de St. Mery must be deemed a good man;—in fact if it may be said that La Fayette was the only man who "kept his head" in the Revolution, it might also be averred that Moreau de St. Mery was the only man who kept his heart. He was born in the island of Martinique, 13th January, 1750. When he was only three years old he lost his father, and his mother would not let him go to France to be educated. His grandfather was a judge or magistrate, and young Moreau de St. Mery was when a boy always interceding for some unfortunate prisoner. At his grandfather's death he inherited a sum of money, destined to defray the cost of his legal education in France, but he used the money to pay the old man's debts. At the age of nineteen he came