goodness I fee written in your countenance, is a fufficient affurance to me, that you are capable of ruling and loving a wife; and your excellent qualities encourage me to hope, that you will make a good gospodar (husband or master). It is in this belief, that I have taken the refolution to come and beg you, with all due humility, to accept me for your fpoufe." She afterwards addreffes the father and mother in words to the fame effect; and folicits them earneftly to confent to the marriage. If the meets with a refufal, or apology, fhe answers, "that he will not quit the house, till fhe fhall have married the object of her love." Sometimes the parents perfift in their refufal; but if the girl be obstinate, and have patience to stay a few days or weeks in the houfe, they are not only forced to give their confent, but frequently to perfuade their fon to marry her. Befides, the young man is generally moved by her perfeverance and affection, and gradually accuf. toms himself to the idea of making her his wife; fo that the young female peasants of the Ukraine feldom fail of being provided with a husband to their mind, if they do but poffefs a tolerable share of conftancy. There is no fear of their being obliged to leave the house of the youth they prefer the parents never think of employing force, becaufe they be lieve, that by fo doing, they should draw down the vengeance of heaven upon their heads; and to this confideration is added, the fear of offend ing the girl's family, who would not fail to refent fuch behaviour, as a grievous affront. The Coffacks have another fingular ufage, which is obferved at the marriage of their daughters. When the hour for conducting the bride to the nuptial bed is come, her relations take her afide, and examine her with the greatest care, to prevent her making ufe of artifice in the mystery about to be confummated.-As foon as the new-married couple are in bed, all the guests come dancing into the room; and if the bride utter fighs and complaints, the dance redoubles, and her kinfmen give a loose to their joy; but if the continue mute, the dance ceafes, and they wait the event in filent fadnefs. When it proves favourable to her virtue, a red ftandard is hoifted at her window, and the neighbours come and congratulate the bride. But if her mifconduct, or a defective conformation, prevent the appearance of the figns défired, a flag, with a hole in it, is hung out, and every one who chooses, has a right to load her with reproaches, of which her father and mother come in for a due share. It fometimes happens, that the lord of a village, in the Ukraine, gives the peafants a dance before his door, and joins in it himfelf, with his wives and children. (Let it be obferved, that most of the villages in the Ukraine are furrounded with thick woods, in which the peasantry conceal themselves in the fummer, when afraid of a vifit from the Tartars.) Although the peasants are ferfs, they have poffeffed, from time immemorial, the right of carrying off any young woman they like from the dance, not excepting even the daughters of their lord, providing they do it with fufficient dexterity; for otherwife, their lives pay the forfeit of their temerity. On thefe occafions, they watch an opportunity to seize their prey, and haften to conceal themfelves in the thickest parts of the neighbouring woods. If they can find means to stay there four and twenty hours undiscovered, the rape remains unpunished, and they are at liberty to marry the young woman, provided the confents; but if taken. before that fpace of time expires, they are beheaded, without farther ceremony. On Eafter Monday, early in the morn morning, the young men affemble in the streets, lay hold on all the girls they meet with, and pour five or fix buckets of water on their heads. This fport is not permitted later than twelve o'clock.-The day after, the girls take their revenge; but as they are inferior in ftrength, they are forced to have recourfe to ftrata gem. They hide themselves five or fix in a houfe, with each a jug of water in her hand, a little girl ftanding centry, and giving the fignal, when the fees a young man approach. In an instant the others rush out; furround him with loud acclamations, two or three of the strongest lay hold on him, the neighbouring detachments arrive, and the poor devil is almost drowned with the torrents of water that are poured upon his head. The men have also another amufe ment on Eafter Monday. They meet in the morning, and go in a body to the lord of the manor, to whom they make a prefent of fowls, and other poultry. The lord, in return, knocks out the head of a cafk of brandy, places it in the court-yard, and ranges the peasants around. He then takes a large ladle, fills it, and drinks to the eldest of the company, who pledges him; and thus it paffes from hand to hand; and from mouth to mouth, till the cafk is empty. If this happens at an early hour, the lord fends for another, which is treated in the fame way; for he is bound to entertain the peafants till funfet. But as foon as the fun finks beneath the horizon, the fignal of retreat is given; and those who are able walk away. The reft pafs the night in the open air; and, in this manner, fome have been known to fleep for upwards of four and twenty hours. ANECDOTES OF PERSONS CONNECTED WITH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Amar From the Monthly Magazine. WAS, by birth, a gentleman of Grenoble, and a counsellor, under the ancient regimen, in the parliament of Dauphine. In early youth, he was expofed to the calumnies of the abbé Elie, canon in the cathedral of Grenoble, who accufed him of having offered violence to him (the priest) pistol in hand, to force him to impart the facramental abfolution to a young lady, his coufin, with whom he had cohabited in the fecret practice of inceft. Amar was able completely to refute this abo minable calumny: the circumftance, however, feemed to infpire him with a melancholy humour, an averfion for fociety, and a predominant love for folitude. After having, therefore, fulfilled the duties of his profeffion, he conftantly employed his leifure hours in the ftudy of philofophy, and natural and political hiftory. His re putation daily increafed in the province of Dauphine, both as an honest lawyer, and a well-informed man. In 1792, he was chofen by the department of Jere, a deputy to the National Convention. When the revolutionary government was moved and carried by Danton, patriots of the most auftere principles were selected for the offices of the committees of government, and Amar was appointed a member of the committee of General Security. He immediately became the organ of that committee, to the National Convention, the reports of which were, for the most part, drawn up by him; and all orders of arreftation were commonly figned by him. This power, with the exercife of it, could not fail to draw upon him the animofities of all the arifocrats and royalifts, who imputed to him the various horrors of the revolutionary regimen. The moft cele. celebrated report made by Amar to the National Convention, was that against the Gironde party, in Nov. 1793. It was in confequence of his report, that the National Convention iffued a decree of accufation againft the 21 Girondine members, all of whom were foon afterwards beheaded. Amar continued to exercife his functions until the death of Robe fpierre, when a new order of things was introduced. Covere, who fucceeded Amar in the committee, fpared no pains to flain the memory of his magiftracy, and to involve him in the fame profcription with. Barrere, Vaudier, &c. All his efforts, however, proved fruitless; for, tho' Amar was known to be a violent patriot, or as it was then the fashion to call them, a terrorift, he was by no means a Robespierrist. Amar acted a very obfcure part during the remainder of that fitting; and when the famous confpiracy of the ft of Prairial was difcovered, being afraid left the inflamed fpirit of party fhould fufpect him of having been concerned, (as others of his colleagues had been fufpected) he concealed himself in the neighbourhood of Paris; neither durft he appear in public again, till the new government was re-established, and a general amnesty proclaimed for all paft errors. He repaired, therefore, to Paris, in the, winter of 1796, where he lived in great obfcurity, and in honeft poverty. He dined every day at Mrs Meux's, in the Palais Royal, among other poor people, and was unknown to every one, until he, one day, happened to difcover himfelf, by a jeft:-going out of the dining-room, the landlady obfer. ved to him, that he had left his hat behind; Amar politely thanked the lady, begged her pardon for being fo distracted, and added, with the ufual French, vivacity-It is better for me, Madam, to leave my hat here, than my head on the fcaffold. Thefe myflerious words excited a curiofity in the lady, to know who he was; and he took the liberty to afk his name. He replied, that he was Amar, fo much talked of in the time of the late government; that he was now happy to have efcaped all farther profcrip. tion; and that he was fatisfied with having spent his time and fortune in ferving his country, although he had been rewarded by it with notorious ingratitude. The landlady, though by no means a republican, could not but feel fome interest for a perfon fo roughly handled by fortune, and she communicated her fentiments to fome of her customers. Among them was a gentleman, who made it his bufinefs to become acquainted with him, and obferving his good fenfe, his civility, his modefty, his various knowledge, and, oratorical abilities, defired to know, why he had been fo fevere, during his adminiftration? Amar, fcarcely able to fupprefs a tear, replied," Because we are French. If my name was hated by the enemies of the republic at home and abroad, I can pardon them, becaufe I have done them the greatest injury. But when I find myself ill-treated by the republicans, I cannot help looking at the examples of Democritus and Heraclitus. We are French, and no other nation could betray fuch proofs of inconftancy and ingratitude. When I was in the committee, the revolutionary laws purported, that all forms were to be difpenfed with, with regard to counter-revolutionifts; that all fufpected perfons were to be ar refted; and that the members of the committee were refponfible for the execution of thefe laws, under penalty of death. Toulon was, at that time, in the hands of the English; Lyons was in open rebellion; all the fouthern countries of France, from Nice to Bourdeaux, from Marfeilles to Orange, were embroiled in civil commotions; Valenciennes, Condé, &c. in the power of the Emperor; Landau and Strafburg befieged; the Spaniards Spaniards poffeffed Roufillon; and perfons, as a man of principle, cha Vendée menaced the very existence Amar is about 40 years of age.Whatever might have been his errors, while an active member of adminiftration-and whatever may be the efforts of his enemies to flander him, no one has ventured, hitherto, to arraign him on the charge of ambition or rapacity: and he will always be efteemed, by confiderate racter, and integrity, who was led, perhaps, into fome extremities not juftitiable, from a mistaken notion of promoting the welfare of his country. Fabre d'Eglantine was born at Châlons, in Champagne. He was early educated, by the care of his parents, in polite literature, and natural philofophy. From his youth, he felt an invincible inclination to court the mufes, and in the year 1786 he published, in a French periodical work, entitled Les Etrennes du Parnaffe, a little poem, called Châlons fur Marne, in which he drew a very charming picture of the moral pleasures that were to be found in that place, and its neighbourhood.This piece, however, was then confidered as a juvenile compofition, and fell very fhort of that high degree of celebrity which the author afterwards attained to. In the years 1789 and 1790, he published two well-known comedies: Le Philinte and L'Intrigue Epiftolaire. Befides his talents for writing comedies, he felt, like Molliere, an inclination to perform parts on the ftage. He accordingly acted his own plays in the theatres of Lyons and Nimes. In 1792, his acknowledged patriotifm caufed him to be chofen deputy to the National Convention. In that affembly, during the winter and the fpring of the year 1793, he acted a part not very commendable; for at that time, the Girondine party was the most powerful. It is very generally reported among the best informed people at Paris, that Fabre contributed, together with Danton and Robespierre, to the famous maffacre of the 31st of May, when the Girondine faction was overthrown by a popular infurrection. What gives the appearance of authenticity to this report is, that Fabre himself, fome days afterwards, obferved to a friend, that the domineering fpirit of the Girondines, who had had engroffed all power and office, had induced him and his colleagues, in order to shake off the yoke, to throw themselves into the hands of the Sansculoterie; that he could not help, however, foreboding dangerous confequences from that day, 31ft of May, as the fame mob which they had taught to despise the legislature, might, at the inftigation of another faction, overthrow him, in his turn; -thus Fabre appeared to have a prefentiment of his own future destiny. On the overthrow of the Girondine party, and the establishment in power of the Sansculotterie, Fabre began to act a confiderable part. He was appointed member of the Committee of Public Inftruction, in which station, in the month of Auguft, 1793, he gave his vote for fuppreffing all academies and literary corporations, which, from their privileges and arifocratic fpirit, were confidered as unfriendly to a truly Republican Government. In October, 1793, he fubmitted to the National Convention, the plan of a new calendar, which was afterwards adopted. The accuracy and regularity with which this calendar was executed, evinced an uncommon degree of knowledge in the mathematics and natural philofophy, and failed not to reflect on its author, great reputation. It gave birth, however, to a pleasant pamph. let, entitled, Le Legislateur a la Mode, in which it was demonftrated, that the 31st chapter of the travels of Anacharfis, by the Abbé Barthelemy, where the defcription of the ancient Greek calendar was introduced, had furnished no inconfiderable part of the plan of the new Fabrine calendar. The Sansculloterie had now become too powerful to be tolerated any longer. In the winter of 1794, that faction was divided into two parts, the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, or, in other words, the Robespierrifs and the Dantonifts. Fabre was of the faction of Danton, and was confined, with Danton's adherents in the prifon of the Luxemburg. From that prifon he wrote a number of letters, which were afterwards printed, these letters are highly extolled as beautiful defcriptions of fenfibility and ta lents in diftrefs. After a month's imprisonment, Fabre was, with many others, executed in the place de la Revolution, in April, 1794, in the 35th year of his age. Herault de Sechelles. Few men made a greater figure, and, it may be added, a more refpectable figure, in the French revolution, during the fix months previous to, and as many after, the fall of the Briffotines, as Herault de Sechelles. He was of a rich and diftinguished family, who had given him a liberal education, and was, independently of his patent place, as advocate-general of the parliament of Paris, ennobled. He was born at Paris, and was chofen a deputy for that department to the National Convention. He enjoyed an independent fortune of his own, but he had very confiderable expectations from a wealthy uncle, greatly advanced in years. The fall of Herault is not, perhaps, wholly to be afcribed to the political fins imputed to him; he was unquef tionably a republican to the heart, but, from a vanity which may be confidered natural, he paid too much regard to the character he had acquired of being what the French term, un joli garcon. Thus, though his language was never incompatible with the aufterities of the newlyadopted government, yet his dress was, by many, thought highly inconfiffent with it, and frequent farcasms would be thrown against him, on this fubject, by his fellow-deputies, who made it a point to drefs as much as poffible en Jacobin. However unpardonable this of. fence against the exterior of republicanifm might appear in the eyes of thofe fhallow-minded reformers, who confound |