Royalist pur sang, he freely expressed his sentiments to his old
friend Ponteau, then Secretary of the Civil List. His letters
came to light shortly after the terrible day, August IO, 1792: he
was summarily arrested at Pierry and brought to Paris, where he
was thrown into prison. On Sept. 3, when violence again waxed
rampant, he was attacked by the patriot-assassins, and was saved
only by the devotion of his daughter Elizabeth, who threw herself
upon the old man crying, "You shall not reach my father's heart
before piercing mine." The courage of the noble pair commanded
the admiration of the ruffians, and they were carried home in
triumph.

For a few weeks the family remained unmolested, but in those days
"Providence" slept and Fortune did not favour the brave. The
Municipality presently decreed a second arrest, and the venerable
litterateur, aged seventy two, was sent before the revolutionary
tribunal appointed to deal with the pretended offences of August
10. He was subjected to an interrogatory of thirty-six hours,
during which his serenity and presence of mind never abandoned
him and impressed even his accusers. But he was condemned to die
for the all-sufficient reason:--"It is not enough to be a good
son, a good husband, a good father, one must also prove oneself a
good citizen." He spent his last hours wit'. his confessor, wrote
to his wife and children, praying his family not to beweep him,
not to forget him, and never to offend against their God; and
this missive, with a lock of his hair for his beloved daughter,
he finally entrusted to the ghostly father. Upon the scaffold he
turned to the crowd and cried, "I die as I have lived, truthful
and faithful to my God and my King." His venerable head, crowned
with the white honours of age, fell on Sept. 25, 1792.