The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 16 | Page 8

attacked (in 1759) Saint Pierre of
Martinique, afterwards captured by Rodney in 1762, the sprightly

littérateur showed abundant courage and conduct, but over-exertion
injured his health, and he was again driven from his post by sickness.
He learned, on landing in France, that his brother, whilome
Vicar-General to M. de Choiseul, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, had
died and left him a fair estate, Pierry, near Epernay; he therefore
resigned his appointment and retired with the title "Commissary
General to the Marine." But presently he lost 50,000 écus--the whole
fruit of his economies--by the speculations of Père Lavalette, to whose
hands he had entrusted his estates, negroes, and effects at Martinique.
These had been sold and the cheques had been forwarded to the owner:
the S. J., however, refused to honour them. Hence the scandal of a
law-suit in which Cazotte showed much delicacy and regard for the
feelings of his former tutors.
Meanwhile Cazotte had married Elizabeth Roignon, daughter to the
Chief Justice of Martinique; he returned to the Parisian world with
some éclat and he became an universal favourite on account of his
happy wit and humour, his bonhomie, his perfect frankness, and his
hearty amiability. The vogue of "Olivier" induced him to follow it up
with Le Diable Amoureux, a continuation or rather parody of Voltaire's
Guerre civile de Genève: this work was so skilfully carried out that it
completely deceived the world; and it was followed by sundry minor
pieces which were greedily read. Unlike the esprits forts of his age, he
became after a gay youth- tide an ardent Christian; he made the Gospel
his rule of life; and he sturdily defended his religious opinions; he had
also the moral courage to enter the lists with M. de Voltaire, then the
idol-in-chief of the classes and the masses.
In later life Cazotte met Dom Chavis, who was translating into a
curious jargon (Arabo-Franco-Italian) certain Oriental tales; and,
although he was nearing the Psalmist's age-term of man, he agreed to
"collaborate." The Frenchman used to take the pen at midnight when
returning from "social pleasures," and work till 4-5 a.m. As he had
prodigious facility and spontaneity he finished his part of the task in
two winters. Some of the tales in the suite, especially that of
"Maugraby," are attributed wholly to his invention; and, as a rule, his
aim and object were to diffuse his spiritual ideas and to write treatises

on moral perfection under the form of novelle.
Cazotte, after a well-spent and honourable life, had reason to expect
with calmness "the evening and ending of a fine day." But this was not
to be; the Great Revolution had burst like a hurricane over the land, and
he was doomed to die a hero's death. His character was too candid, and
his disposition too honest, for times which suggested concealment. He
had become one of the Illuminati, and La Harpe ascribed to him the
celebrated prophecy which described the minutest events of the Great
Revolution. A Royalist pur sang, he freely expressed his sentiments to
his old friend Ponteau, then Secretary of the Civil List. His letters came
to light shortly after the terrible day, August IO, 1792: he was
summarily arrested at Pierry and brought to Paris, where he was thrown
into prison. On Sept. 3, when violence again waxed rampant, he was
attacked by the patriot-assassins, and was saved only by the devotion of
his daughter Elizabeth, who threw herself upon the old man crying,
"You shall not reach my father's heart before piercing mine." The
courage of the noble pair commanded the admiration of the ruffians,
and they were carried home in triumph.
For a few weeks the family remained unmolested, but in those days
"Providence" slept and Fortune did not favour the brave. The
Municipality presently decreed a second arrest, and the venerable
littérateur, aged seventy two, was sent before the revolutionary tribunal
appointed to deal with the pretended offences of August 10. He was
subjected to an interrogatory of thirty-six hours, during which his
serenity and presence of mind never abandoned him and impressed
even his accusers. But he was condemned to die for the all-sufficient
reason:--"It is not enough to be a good son, a good husband, a good
father, one must also prove oneself a good citizen." He spent his last
hours wit'. his confessor, wrote to his wife and children, praying his
family not to beweep him, not to forget him, and never to offend
against their God; and this missive, with a lock of his hair for his
beloved daughter, he finally entrusted to the ghostly father. Upon the
scaffold he turned to the crowd and cried, "I die as I have lived, truthful
and faithful to my God and my King." His venerable head, crowned
with the white