The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 546, May 12, 1832Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 546, May 12, 1832
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
The said Pope was a very extraordinary fellow: a slight fair form,
pointed features, and eyes that were penetrating, despite their common
shade of grey. He was called _Champenois_, his real name unknown, not
more than three-and-twenty, and the Lieutenant of the _Chaine_ said, one
of the most talented and extraordinary characters that _he_ had ever met
with. He had been the prime mover of the intended insurrection, but
without a proof against him, except his universal authority, unusual in
so young a thief. His physiognomy was one, which it required not a
second look in order to remember for ever.
Another figure struck me, not so much as singular in itself, as in
contrast with those around. It struck me as that of an English
cabin-boy, a pale, freckled, ill-conditioned lad. On following the
calling over of the register in roll, I found my conjecture too true. He
was an unfortunate young sailor, a native of England, guilty of some
misdemeanour, and by name Aikin. He understood not a word of French, but
protested with a shake of his head against his being English; patriotism
had in him outlived honesty and self-respect. I spoke to him in English:
he wept, but would not reply, puckering up his poor lips in all the
agony of his desolate condition. I was glad to remark the humanity with
which he had been chained to a prisoner, pensive and downcast like
himself.
There were some cases certainly hard; one or two for resisting the
_gen-d'armerie_ in a riot at Rouen. To transport a rioter, unless under
aggravated circumstances, is grievous enough; but after the revolution
of July, that hallowed riot, to make a galley-slave of a _brave_ for
resisting the police, must have been at least surprising to him. The
tribunal no doubt felt the necessity of severity; and we acknowledged it
all in deploring the degradation of these poor devils for an act, which
in so many thousand others was, at the moment, extolled to the skies as
the acmé of heroism. But justice hath her lottery-wheel as well as
fortune.
As the last _chaine_ was completing, an ecclesiastic went round to
collect money of the visitors. But as there were few, so were the
offerings. The convicts at the same time produced the fruits of their
ingenuity in straw work-boxes, needle-cases, carved ivory and wood. The
guardians, to do them justice, seemed humane.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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