volume one

X17
EIO GRAPHICAL NOTICE
thinors better tlian anvbodv : liave an eve to these fellows
go down into the kitchen, and see that they don't cheat ns.
Good health to you, gentlemen." Whilst they are drinking,
ISIichaud rises, and is soon. out of the house. Giguet had
the art to keep the guards another half-hour at table, by
sa^Tng his friend was only watching the cooking, for a Bresse
piillet was worth nothing if not roasted a la Bresse ; and
when thev discovered Michaud was not in the kitchen, he
asserted it must either be a joke, or else he was ill, and gone
home; and contrived to lead tliem a long useless search in a
way dii'ectly opposite to that which he knew the late prisoner
had taken. Michaud' s escape was a happy one; for that very
day, the council had condemned him to death. Poor Giguet'
friendly zeal cost him nearly a month's imprisonment, and
placed his life even in jeopardy.
The career of Buonaparte was so successful, that, at length,
further resistance seemed useless, and Michaud even wrote
complimentary verses on the marriage of Napoleon with
Maria Louisa, and upon the birth of the young king of
Rome. But this submission to circumstances was no,voluntarv
homas:^; he was still at heart faithfullv attached to the
Bourbons. For a length of time he resisted the tempting
offers of the emperor, and one of his refusals, for its wit, if
not for its patriotism, almost deserves to be placed by the
side of Andrew Marvel's. Fontaines, Buonaparte's emissary,
said to him : " There must be an end to all resistance ; it is
diminishing every day. Come, do as other men do. Look
at Delille, for instance, he has just accepted a pension of six
thousand francs." "Oh! as to that," replied Michaud,
" he is so frightened, that he would accept a pension of a
hundred thousand francs, if vou were to offer it to him."
Posterity, perhaps, may be thankful that he was di*iven from
politics to literature. During one of his necessary exiles, he
had written his beautiful poem of " Le Printemps d'un
Proscrit :" he afterwards became associated with his brother
as a bookseller, and planned and executed the works of
which we will furnish a list. T^'hatever opinion might be
entertained of his talents, it is more than probable that
without his implied submission to Buonaparte, he never
would have obtained that object of the hopes of all French
authors, the immortal fauteuil in the Academy. This honour
s: