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25
)
The wives of the deported perfons waited on several of the Deputies to obtain an alleviation of their fate. " What reafon have you to complain ?" replied Jacomin, who had just been nominated a member of the Committee of Inspectors: " your " husbands will be deported, whereas they deferved " death."—" They have been treated with lenity," faid another; " they ought to have been shot." Bailleul faid, with a frnile of derision, that Guiana was a very good country; and there was nothing alarming in deportation.
Le Hardy alone thawed
some signs of humanity. The wife of one of the deported waited on Merlin, hoping to' move his compassion, by representing the great age and infirmities of her husband.
She employed in his behalf that affect-
ing eloquence which flows directly from the heart, and which women alone seem to possess. indeed,
for a moment,
Merlin,
appeared fomewhat af-
fected; fome tears escaped him, and he promifed to comply ; but when he returned to the Directory he foon overcame this emotion, and was the first to move the order of the day on his memorial.
In-
credible as it may appear, it is a fadt, that Merlin, after having dropt two or three tears, revenged E
himself