“L____.”

You will read M. L____’s letter with all the grief and indignation we
have already felt, and I will make no comment on it, but to give you a
slight sketch of the history of Guermeur, whom he mentions as being
President of the Committee of Surveillance.—­In the absence of a man,
whom he called his friend, he seduced his wife, and eloped with her:  the
husband overtook them, and fell in the dispute which insued; when
Guermeur, to avoid being taken by the officers of justice, abandoned his
companion to her fate, and escaped alone.   After a variety of adventures,
he at length enlisted himself as a grenadier in the regiment of Dillon. 
With much assurance, and talents cultivated above the situation in which
he appeared, he became popular amongst his fellow-soldiers, and the
military impunity, which is one effect of the revolution, cast a veil
over his former guilt, or rather indeed enabled him to defy the
punishment annexed to it.   When the regiment was quartered at ____, he
frequented and harangued at the Jacobin club, perverted the minds of the
soldiers by seditious addresses, till at length he was deemed qualified
to quit the character of a subordinate incendiary, and figure amongst the
assassins at Paris.   He had hitherto, I believe, acted without pay, for
he was deeply in debt, and without money or clothes; but a few days
previous to the tenth of August, a leader of the Jacobins supplied him
with both, paid his debts, procured his discharge, and sent him to Paris. 
What intermediate gradations he may have passed through, I know not; but
it is not difficult to imagine the services that have advanced him to his
present situation.—­It would be unsafe to risk this letter by the post,
and I close it hastily to avail myself of a present conveyance.—­I
remain, Yours, &c.

Arras, September 14, 1792.

The camp of Maulde is broken up, and we deferred our journey, that we
might pass a day at Douay with M. de ____’s son.   The road within some
miles of that place is covered with corn and forage, the immediate
environs are begun to be inundated, and every thing wears the appearance
of impending hostility.   The town is so full of troops, that without the
interest of our military friends we should scarcely have procured a
lodging.   All was bustle and confusion, the enemy are very near, and the
French are preparing to form a camp under the walls.   Amidst all this, we
found it difficult to satisfy our curiosity in viewing the churches and
pictures:  some of the former are shut, and the latter concealed; we
therefore contented ourselves with seeing the principal ones.

The town-house is a very handsome building, where the Parliament was holden previous to the revolution, and where all the business of the department of the North is now transacted.—­In the council-chamber, which is very elegantly carved, was also a picture of the present King.  They were, at the very moment of our entrance, in the act of displacing it.