It does not appear that the new branch of the clan Grimaldi was a marked improvement on the old one. When the revolution of 1789 broke out in France, it spread to the principality; and so much was Honore III. disliked for his arbitrary measures, that he had to flee for his life, leaving his patrimony to its fate, which consisted in being absorbed into the French republic. Unfortunately, the change of masters produced only some new varieties of oppression. There was, to be sure, a very distinct proclamation of liberty and equality; but it was associated with relentless taxation and conscription, along with an assiduous search for victims for the guillotine. Recesses in the mountains above Mentone are pointed out where _suspects_ took refuge in these terrible times, and to whom food was under great difficulty taken by their families. With the fall of the Convention in 1793, and the rise of Bonaparte, the Mentonians experienced a gratifying relief, although the conscription continued as severe as ever. In the course of Napoleon’s marvellous military feats in Italy, he visited Mentone; and observing the imperfect character of the old road along the coast, gave orders to construct that entirely new carriage-way, the existing Corniche, an engineering exploit which was the making of Mentone. Previously, the old road in proceeding eastwards ascended to a vaulted gateway, and was thence continued in the Rue Longue, a curious narrow passage environed by tall antique buildings on each side, the exit being by a gateway at the farther extremity, whence the road descended to the eastern bay. For this inconvenient thoroughfare, the French engineer substituted an artificial terrace-road, raised within the sea-margin, and skirting the backs of the gaunt old houses of the Rue Longue. All who have travelled along the Corniche, will remember this ingeniously constructed part of the route, styled the Quai Bonaparte, and how, after getting clear of the town, it ascends to the Pont St Louis, on the front of the rugged cliffs which overhang the Mediterranean.