volume one

Xl BIOGEAPHICAL NOTICE.
Lis entrance, officers were bearinor aM'av her liumble far-
niture, for the paltry sum of sixty francs. He offered to
pay the amount if they would come with him to his home
but they refused, and continued their operations in his pre-
sence. This irritated him to such a degree, that he threatened
to make use of his gun ; and, at length, struck one of
them so severe a blow with the stock of it, that the fellow
died immediately. He retired to a place near Bourg, in
Bresse, where he married ; and he afterwards established
himself as a notary and commissary at Terrier, in that
province. An early death left his widow burdened with a
numerous family, of which Joseph was the eldest. Xotwithstanding
this calamity, he received an excellent education at
the college of Bourg, and acquired great credit as a rhetorician
and a composer of French verses. His studies and
some juvenile travels completed, it became necessary for him
to fix upon a mode of getting a living ; and the Ilarro^^"ne33
of his mother's resources confining his efforts to trade, he
went into the house of a bookseller at Lyon, attracted, no
doubt, by the affinity between the bookseller and the man of
letters. He remained here till 1790, when the passage of
the rich, influential, and intellectual Countess Fanny de
Beauharnais through that city, aroused all the provincial
muses to make their ofleriugs to the great lady. Among
the poets, Michaud was so successful, that he thought him-
self warranted in following her to Paris, ^vith the view of
pursuing a literary career under her auspices. Immediately
on his arrival, he laid the contents of his poetical portfolio
before the public, and soon became the associate of Cerisier,
in the Gazette UniverseUe. and with Esmenard, in the Po5tiUon
de la Guerre. His opinions and early associations led
him towards the Eoyalist party, to which the accession of
his talents was veiy acceptable. He may be said to have
been faithful to his colours, throu£:h all the disasters of the
ujihappy cause he had embraced ; for, in spite of imprisonment,
banishment, and repeated concealments, we find him,
in 1799, publishing two satirical pamphlets against Buonaparte,
by the orders of Louis XYIII. One of his escapes
was so well managed, and so opportunely effected, that we
will offer an account of it to our readers. He had been sent
prisoner to Paris, walking between two mounted gendarmes,
;