An American merchant, concerned in the commerce of the
whale-oil, proposed to government to despatch his ships from Havre and
Boston at stated periods, and to take on board the French courier and
mail, and the proposition has been well enough received. I avail myself
of a merchant vessel going from Havre, to write the present.
In my letter of the 4th, I stated to you the symptoms which indicated
that government had some great stroke of authority in contemplation.
That night they sent guards to seize Monsieur d'Epremenil and Monsieur
Goiskind, two members of parliament, in their houses. They escaped,
and took sanctuary in the Palais (or parliament house). The parliament
assembled itself extraordinarily, summoned the Dukes and Peers
specially, and came to the resolution of the 5th, which they sent to
Versailles by deputies, determined not to leave the palace till they
received an answer. In the course of that night a battalion of guards
surrounded the house. The two members were taken by the officers from
among their fellows, and sent off to prison, the one to Lyons, the other
(d'Epremenil), the most obnoxious, to an island in the Mediterranean.
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