Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/307

Rh to Paris, and studied hard. He resolved to sleep only one night in three. He acquired in fourteen months such a knowledge of Latin that he wrote a thesis in that language, and could declaim long passages, not only from the works of the poets, but from treatises on law, etc. During the first part of the Revolution he entered the National Assembly as representative of Martinique, but he was far too moderate or good-hearted. He was attacked whilst returning home one night, and left for dead on the pavement, with half a dozen sabre cuts on his head and body. He recovered, and retired to the little village of Forges, where he was arrested by the spies of the Terror. One of these bravos, however, helped him to escape, and he got to Havre, where hearing that Robespierre had issued fresh orders for his arrest, he sailed for America. He kept a book-store and printing business at Philadelphia. The author's statement that he had little or no stock in his shop, and failed for a large amount, is not confirmed by the biographical dictionaries, which assert that he lived in some style in Philadelphia, and was often able to help poor French emigrants. He returned to France and was employed by Napoleon on several missions, but