the laws of the kingdom, the authors of these excesses and of all these deeds of violence."

After having read to them the orders of his Catholic Majesty which prescribed to him the course he was pursuing, he added: "Gentlemen, I regret to say, that you are accused of being the authors of the late insurrection. I therefore arrest you in the King's name. My earnest wish is, that you may prove your innocence, and that I may soon set you free again. Here are your judges (pointing to some officers who were in the room). They are as equitable as they are learned, and they will listen to your defence.* The only part which I shall take in the trial will be, to favor you as much as I may be permitted. In the mean time, all your property, according to the custom of Spain with regard to prisoners of state, shall be sequestered. But you may rest assured that you shall be treated as well as possible in the places where you shall be respectively confined. As to your wives and children, be persuaded that I shall grant them all the assistance of which they may stand in need. In relation to the sequestration of your estates and effects, a faithful inventory shall be made of them, and I invite each of you now to appoint whom he pleases, to be pres ent on his behalf at that inventory, and every person so appointed by you shall also countersign the inventory of your papers."

He paused for an answer; and the unfortunate prisoners, after they had somewhat recovered from the first shock they had felt at such a proceeding, gave, according to O'Reilly's invitation, the names of those who were to represent them, and a list of those names was made on

*Dijó que S. E. no tomaria otra parte en esta causa (cuyos jueces estaban alli presentes, y les hizo ver), que la que fuese conducente á favorecerlos, y que deseaba que todos pudiesen justificar, plenamente su conducta.

the spot. "Now, gentlemen," resumed O'Reilly, "please to deliver up your swords." Whilst this scene was acting, the whole house had been surrounded by troops, and the rooms had been filling up with grenadiers. One of O'Reilly's aids received the swords of the prisoners, and some officers of grenadiers, courteously taking them arm in arm, placed them between two companies of grenadiers, and thus conducted them to their places of confinement, where they were all separated from each other. Some were put in the frigate in which O'Reilly had come, some in two of the other vessels, and the rest in a wellguarded house. It was ordered that they should be interrogated, and their depositions be taken down in writing, and that they be allowed all the conveniences they might want, provided they be not permitted to communicate with each other, nor with any body else. On rendering an account of this event to the French ministry, Aubry said: "I have the honor to forward to you a list of the small number of those whom the General was indispensably obliged to have arrested. This proves his generosity and the kindness of his heart, considering that there are many others whose criminal conduct would have justified their being treated in the same manner.'

With regard to Villeré, it seems that he had been the only one who had prepared to fly with his family and negroes, when he had heard of the arrival of the Spaniards. His plan was to retire to Manchac, under the protection of the English flag. But, either being deceived as some say by a letter from Aubry, who pledged himself for his safety, or believing, when he was informed of the kind reception made to his associates in the late revolution, that it was not the intention of the Spanish government to act with rigor, he gave up his original design and came to town from the German Coast, to pre

sent himself to the General and ascertain the true state of things. He was one of those who were confined in the frigate. Being of an exceedingly violent temper, this sudden blasting of his hopes threw him,* as the Spanish official report says, into such a fit of frenzy, that he died raving mad on the day of his arrest. Bossu, in his work on Louisiana, gives a different version, but he is so fanciful in all his relations of pretended facts, that he is hardly to be believed. Judge Martin, in his history of Louisiana, gives a third version, and says: "He (Villeré) was immediately conveyed on board of a frigate that lay at the levee. On hearing of this, his lady, a granddaughter of De Lachaise, the former commissary general and ordonnateur, hastened to the city. As her boat approached the frigate she was hailed and ordered away. She made herself known, and solicited admission to her husband, but was answered she could not see him, as the captain was on shore and had left orders that no communication should be allowed with the prisoner. Villeré recognized his wife's voice, and insisted on being permitted to see her. On this being refused, a struggle ensued, in which he fell pierced by the bayonets of his guards. His bloody shirt thrown into the boat announced to the lady that she had ceased to be a wife; and a sailor cut the rope that fastened the boat to the frigate." This atrocity of the bloody shirt is not probable. It is not mentioned in the official French despatches which I have seen, and rests only on popular tradition, which delights in tales of similar exaggeration. It has, no doubt, been preserved and handed down on account of the dramatic effect which it produces, and which has made it acceptable to the imagination.

It is impossible to describe the terror which the arrest *Murió al 1o dia de su prision, de terror y enojo, y antes perdió el juicio.

of these men and the death of Villeré scattered far and wide. They were so much identified with the whole population, their personal friends were so numerous, their family connections so extensive, that the misfortune which had befallen them could not but produce a general desolation. Besides, every one trembled for his own life, or for the safety of others, and many, in secret, began to make immediate preparations to fly to the English. In New Orleans, the doors of the majority of the houses were closed, and the inhabitants deserted the streets, which resounded only with the heavy tramp of Spanish patrols. On the 22d of August, the day following the arrest of Lafrénière and his companions, O'Reilly, in order to dissipate the fears which agitated the population, had this proclamation posted up at the public square and at the corner of every street:

"IN THE NAME OF THE KING,

"We, Alexander O'Reilly, Commander of Benfayan in the order of Alcantara, Major General and Inspector General of the armies of his Catholic Majesty, Captain General and Governor of the Province of Louisiana, in virtue of his Catholic Majesty's orders, and of the powers with which we are invested, declare to all the inhabitants of the Province of Louisiana, that, whatever just cause past events may have given his Majesty to make them feel his indignation, yet his majesty's intention is to listen. only to the inspirations of his royal clemency, because he is persuaded that the inhabitants of Louisiana would not have committed the offence of which they are guilty, if they had not been seduced by the intrigues of some ambitious, fanatic and evil-minded men, who had the temerity to make a criminal use of the ignorance, and excessive credulity of their fellow citizens. These men

sent himself to the General and ascertain the true state of things. He was one of those who were confined in the frigate. Being of an exceedingly violent temper, this sudden blasting of his hopes threw him,* as the Spanish official report says, into such a fit of frenzy, that he died raving mad on the day of his arrest. Bossu, in his work on Louisiana, gives a different version, but he is so fanciful in all his relations of pretended facts, that he is hardly to be believed. Judge Martin, in his history of Louisiana, gives a third version, and says: "He (Villeré) was immediately conveyed on board of a frigate that lay at the levee. On hearing of this, his lady, a granddaughter of De Lachaise, the former commissary general and ordonnateur, hastened to the city. As her boat approached the frigate she was hailed and ordered away. She made herself known, and solicited admission to her husband, but was answered she could not see him, as the captain was on shore and had left orders that no communication should be allowed with the prisoner. Villeré recognized his wife's voice, and insisted on being permitted to see her. On this being refused, a struggle ensued, in which he fell pierced by the bayonets of his guards. His bloody shirt thrown into the boat announced to the lady that she had ceased to be a wife; and a sailor cut the rope that fastened the boat to the frigate." This atrocity of the bloody shirt is not probable. It is not mentioned in the official French despatches which I have seen, and rests only on popular tradition, which delights in tales of similar exaggeration. It has, no doubt, been preserved and handed down on account of the dramatic effect which it produces, and which has made it acceptable to the imagination.

It is impossible to describe the terror which the arrest *Murió al 1o dia de su prision, de terror y enojo, y antes perdió el juicio.