begged him at the same time to overlook the faults of some young soldiers, of whose conduct he had reason to complain. The general granted their request with a good grace, and the promenade continued. Each seemed actuated with the best intentions; the men returned to their respective stations, and all appeared forgotten. The suspicions of the French plenipotentiary were not however lulled the late agitation among these men appeared to him too singular to be unconnected with some political combination. He therefore directed all the officers to be present at the evening roll-call; and by thus placing the men under the immediate observation of their superiors, he succeeded in keeping them in order. Meanwhile party malevolence was at work, and the ferment it produced became every instant more active. Ney therefore ordered that the French posts should be doubled; and by this display of force he succeeded in delaying the explosion.

Nor would it perhaps have taken place at all, had not a trumpeter of the Helvetian hussars, more eager than his fellows, sounded the bout-selle.

At this signal the men rushed forth in a state of mutiny, and committed the most unpardonable excesses. In vain did the officers attempt to stem the torrent; their authority was disregarded, and several among them were stabbed with bayonets. The French posts came up on hearing the tumult; but the instant the Swiss perceived them they sounded the charge and fired upon them. A cor

poral of the 42nd was killed; the patrols, whose anger was roused at the sight of their slain comrade, were eager to avenge his death. Nevertheless the officer who commanded them succeeded in preventing them from returning the fire, and calmly addressed the mutineers, whom he informed that the perpetrators of the murder just committed should be punished in due course of law. They however paid no attention to this, but spread through Berne in order to obtain artillery and ammunition, neither of which they possessed, and also to plunder the houses of some of the citizens, in which they expected to find a rich booty. But Ney had already taken his measures, and the French troops were under arms. Their patrols were increased, circulated through the streets, and drove from the arsenal some of the mutineers who had succeeded in effecting an entrance there. Order was soon restored; at daybreak a court-martial assembled, and one Swiss grenadier was condemned to be shot. After the execution of the sentence, his comrades walked round his body, wondering how this single execution could suffice for the expiation of their crime, and how the French could have the generosity to leave the punishment of their guilt to their own officers.

Such was the result of this infernal machination. It cost the lives of two men; but the corps of Swiss troops marched very peaceably to Auxonne, where it arrived without any event worth recording.

CHAPTER III.

THE satisfaction was general among the inhabitants of Switzerland; but their new institutions required men capable of making them work, and those to whom this task had been confided were precisely the individuals who had already been declared incapable of performing such duties. The minister for foreign affairs in France consented to set at liberty Reding and his friends, who were detained in captivity at Aarbourg, but on condition that they should go to France, and not return to their own country until the elections were over. Under existing circumstances, this measure was useless, and not very generous: for, on the one hand, the passions of the multitude no longer seconded the intrigues of these men, whilst on the other, the constitution proclaimed an amnesty for all political errors and offences, and it was unfair to make conditions for granting them what was their right. Ney took this view of the case in his despatch to the minister.

"I have received," he wrote to the latter, “your instructions under date of the third instant, and will conform to them. I will, however, venture to observe, that what relates to the prisoners offers more difficulties than one. In the first place, it is nearly

optional with them to proceed to France or not; in the next, as the act of mediation pardons all the offences necessarily attendant upon a political revolution, I am of opinion that their freedom ought to be full, entire, and free from restriction. And this opinion is the stronger, inasmuch as these prisoners have now scarcely any influence in their mountains. The inhabitants compare their present situation with the past they contrast the tranquillity of the one with the sacrifices and alarms of the other, and are not at all inclined for a revival of their late troubles. I think then, that the deliverance of the prisoners should be unshackled with conditions; nevertheless I shall impose those which you specify.

'Berne, 8th Nivose, Year XI. (February 27th, 1803.)”

The minister avoided a reply, and Ney applied to the First Consul in person, who, more magnanimous than his minister, authorised the plenipotentiary not only to send the prisoners to their respective cantons, but likewise not to use any influence to prevent their being elected members of the diet. This was a happy measure, as it prevented a fresh collision; for whether the people were desirous of giving their fallen chiefs a mark of their esteem, or whether the aristocracy had exerted their influence among them, certain it is, that a great majority elected Reding to the chief magistracy of Schweitz, Wursch to that of Underwalden, and Zellweiger to that of Appenzell.

Ney was thus able to yield to the wishes of the people, and his doing so rendered him very popular. It did not however facilitate the duties of his mission. The men whom he had thus allowed to rise once more into power, still retained the irritability consequent upon defeat. Far from moderating unjust pretensions, they lent their aid to support them. The former central administration, established perhaps upon correct views, had nevertheless been formed upon a scale out of proportion with the resources of the country. Surcharged with sinecures, and much of the useless machinery which encumbers the other governments of Europe, it was from the very beginning unable to provide funds to meet the expenses of its own support. Its troops were consequently unpaid, its subordinate functionaries were left without their salaries, and it was under the necessity of resorting to expedients to raise money. It increased the taxes to a most unreasonable amount, sold off annuities, and yet the arrears left at its dissolution still exceeded six millions of francs.*

The act of mediation provided for the liquidation of this debt, by directing that what was termed national property should be applied to this purpose. This property consisted of the domains and bonded securities belonging formerly to the different cantons as sovereign states. Having been declared national property by law, they had been placed at the disposal of the minister of finance, and in part dissi

* £240,000.