Page:Surprising life and sufferings of Peter Williamson.pdf/13

 from thinking the Convention order Demourier into Holland, seize on all the English ships in the French Ports, and declare war against Britain: thus exposing themselves not only to the resentment of every surrounding nation, but rousing the revenge of the moderate people then remaining in France, who saw that if they did not instantly oppose themselves to the assumed rulers of their country, every hope of saving it from the scourge of such a Government would be totally dissipated. Hence we see this nation, after all its attempts to gain universal dominion, harrassed with internal and external enemies, while their rescources of war are now almost exhausted; and the life and property of every individual seized on by the cruel harpies of democracy, as they think fit. And these, my countrymen, these would be your advantages, if you allow yourselves to be drawn into the vortex of discontent which the lazy, and those who have nothing to lose, have excited in our happy and envied country, against the best King that ever wielded the British sceptre, and the best Constitution that ever was established in the world.

After this carnage and murder last mentioned, they kept on their course near the mountains, where they lay skulking four or five days, rejoicing at the plunder and store they had got. When provisions became scarce, they made their way towards Susquchana; where still to add to the many barbarities they had already committed passing near another house, inhabited by an unhappy old man, whose name was John Adams, with his wife and four small children; and meeting