guard. It must be remembered that an act of the convention had made it death to strike a deputy, and every one in company with the person committing the assault refusing to give up the offender was considered as an accomplice.

But a short period before this circumstance happened nine men had been decapitated, one of whom had struck Bourdeur de L'oise, at Orleans. The other eight were walking with him in the street at the time.

Paine was extremely agitated when he reflected on the danger of his unprovoked enemy, and immediately applied to Barrere, at that time president of the committee of public safety, for a passport for the unhappy man, who must otherwise have suffered death; and tho he found the greatest difficulty in effecting this, he however persevered and at length accomplished it, at the same time sending Grimstone money to defray his travelling expences; for his passport was of so short a duration that he was obliged to go immediately from his prison to the messagerie nationale.

Of Mr. Paine's arrest by Robespierre and his imprisonment, &c. we cannot be so well informed as by himself in his own affecting and interesting letters.

"When I was voted out of the French "convention the reason assigned for it was that "I was a foreigner. When Robespierre had

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me seized in the night and imprisoned in "the Luxembourg (where I remained eleven "months) he assigned no reason for it. But "when he proposed bringing me to the tri"bunal, which was like sending me at once "to the scaffold, he then assigned a reason; "and the reason was, for the interest of "America as well as France'-' pour l'intérêt "' de l'Amerique autant que de la France.' The "words are in his own hand-writing and reported to the convention by the committee appointed to examine his papers, and are

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printed in their report, with this reflection "added to them, Why Thomas Paine more "than another? because he contributed to "the liberty of both worlds?' There must "have been coalition in sentiment, if not in

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fact, between the terrorists of America and

"the terrorists of France, and Robespierre "must have known it or he could not have "had the idea of putting America into the "bill of accusation against me.

"Yet these men, these terrorists of the new world, who were waiting in the devotion of "their hearts for the joyful news of my "destruction, are the same banditti who are "now bellowing in all the hackneyed language " of hackneyed hypocrisy about humanity and piety, and often about something they call infidelity, and they finish with the chorus of

"

crucify him, crucify him. I am become so "famous among them that they cannot eat or "drink without me. I serve them as a stand

ing dish, and they cannot make up a bill of "fare if I am not in it,

"Thomas Paine, to their mortification, Pro"vidence has protected in all his dangers,

patronized him in all his undertakings, en"couraged him in all his ways, and rewarded "him at last by bringing him in health and

safety to the promised land. This is more "than it did by the Jews, the chosen people

"whom they tell us it brought out of the land "of Egypt and out of the house of bondage; "for they all died in the wilderness and Moses CC too. I was one of the nine members that "composed the first committee of constitution. "Six of them have been destroyed; Sieyes and

myself have survived. He by bending with "the times, and I by not bending. The other "survivor joined Robespierre and signed with "him the warrant for my arrestation.

"After the fall of Robespierre he was seized " and imprisoned in his turn, and sentenced to transportation. He has since apologized to me "for having signed the warrant by saying he "felt himself in danger and was obliged to do it.

"Herault Sechelles, an acquaintance of Mr. "Jefferson's, and a good patriot, was my suppli"ant as a member of the committee of constitu"tion; that is, he was to supply my place if I "had not accepted or had resigned, being next "in number of votes to me. He was imprisoned " in the Luxembourg with me, was taken to the "tribunal and to the guillotine, and I, his prin"cipal, was left.

"There were but two foreigners in the convention, Anarcharsis Cloots and myself. We

were both put out of the convention by the "same vote, arrested by the same order, and "carried to prison together the same night. He "was taken to the guillotine, and I was again " left. Joel Barlow was with us when we went to prison. Joseph Leban, one of the vilest "characters that ever existed, and who made "the streets of Arras run with blood, was my

suppliant member of the convention for the department of the Pais de Calais. When I was put out of the convention he came and

took my place. When I was liberated "from prison and voted again into the conven"tion he was sent to the same prison and took

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my place there, and he went to the guillotine "instead of me. He supplied my place all the way thro. One hundred and sixty-eight persons were taken out of the Luxembourg in one night, and a hundred and sixty of them guillo"tined the next day, of which I know I was to "have been one; and the manner I escaped that "fate is curious, and has all the appearance of "accident. The room in which I was lodged

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was on the ground floor and one of a long