received at Eckmühl. "At the siege of Acre," continued he," a shell thrown by Sydney Smith, fell at my feet. Two soldiers, who were close by, seized and closely embraced me, one in front and the other on one side, and made a rampart of their bodies for me, against the effect of the shell, which exploded, and over whelmed us with sand. We sunk into the hole formed by its bursting; one of them was wounded. I made them both officers. One has since lost a leg at Moscow, and commanded at Vincennes when I left Paris. When he was summoned by the Russians, he replied, that as soon as they sent him back the leg he had lost at Moscow, he would surrender the fortress. Many times in my life," continued he, " have I been saved by soldiers and officers throwing themselves before me when I was in the most imminent danger. At Arcola, when I was advancing, Colonel Meuron, my aide-decamp, threw himself before me, covered me with his body, and received the wound which was destined for me. He fell at my feet, and his blood spouted up in my face. He gave his life to preserve mine. Never, yet, I believe, has there been such devotion shown by soldiers as mine have manifested for me. In all my misfortunes never has the soldier, even when expiring, been wanting to me-nerer has man been served more faithfully by his troops. With the last drop of blood gushing out of their veins, they exclaimed Vive l'Em pereur."-O'MEARA. VENICE. I took my departure, says Bourrienne, on the 11th April, and arrived in the Venetian States at the very moment when the insurrection against the French broke out: I passed through Verona on Easter Sunday, April 16; the ministers of peace were preaching, that it was permitted, and even meritorious, to murder the Jacobins so the French were designated. "Death to the French Death to the Jacobins !" were the war cry and watch-word. I remained only two hours, not apprehending the massacre that followed. On Monday, four hundred French were butchered in the hospitals and streets, to the ringing of bells. The forts held out against the Venetians, who besieged them with the most determined fury. On the same day, the French were assassinated in Vicenza, through which I had passed the evening oefore; and in Padua I leared the massacre had begun ere I was well beyond the gates. Once on the Sunday, indeed, I was stopped by body |