To return to his trip. After staying some time in Vienna, where he
seems to have been received with favor in high social circles, though
the illness of the emperor prevented his being presented, he went to
Amsterdam via Hamburg. Here he remained for some time, engaged, as
usual, in correspondence. He still seems to have cherished the
sailor's dream of buying a farm and passing his remaining years
thereon, for we find among his letters an inquiry addressed to Mr.
Charles Thompson, the Secretary of Congress, about an estate near
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which he thought of purchasing from funds
invested in the United States. But in view of his anomalous connection
with Russia he thought it well to remain in Europe until it had either
ceased or been renewed. This was the time, being in need of funds,
that he wrote to his old friend Krudner to endeavor to secure payment
of the Danish pension.
Krudner readily undertook Jones' commission, and the Danish Government
promised to pay the pension at Copenhagen to any one whom Jones would
authorize to receive it. They never paid it. Krudner always retained
his friendship for Jones, and one of his letters closes with these
words:
"At all events, I flatter myself, as a good Russian, that your arm is
still reserved for us."
At the end of April, 1790, he crossed over to London on some financial
business, which he settled to his satisfaction. He remained but a
brief time in England--his visits there were always brief and devoid
of publicity; he seems to have felt keenly the hatred with which the
English regarded him, and under such circumstances his action was
wise.
Toward the close of May he returned to Paris, which was perhaps the
place where his happiest hours had been spent, and at Paris he
continued to reside until the last scene in his eventful history. It
was no longer the gay and pleasure-seeking resort of his earlier and
happier years. The grim shadow of the Revolution, as yet no larger
than a man's hand, was already lowering on the horizon. A year before
his arrival the States-General had been summoned for the first time in
a hundred and seventy-five years. On the 14th of July, eight months
before his coming, the drums of the sections rolled the knell of the
Bastile, and a little later still the old feudal constitution, which
had endured the vicissitudes of a thousand years of change, was
abrogated, and the rule of the people began. Louis XVI, poor puppet of
fortune, "imponderous rag of circumstance," was driven hither and
thither by the furious blasts of liberated passion charged with
centuries of animosity, for a few aimless, pitiful years, and
then--the guillotine!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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