3-028-784 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"An Incident in the Revolution of 1792," by W. W. Ouless, in the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1871. Engraving of a painting. 'Marquis Cazotte, the aged figure in the picture was a spirituel visionnaire, an author of operas comiques and of the romance of the "Diable Amoureux." He was, however, not the less a hated aristocrat; and there were, besides, written proofs against both him and his daughter of Royalist plotting. These were the crimes for which he was seized and conducted to the prison of L'Abbaye, as here represented...this was, be it remembered, at the period of the commencement of the horrors of the "hundred hours," when upwards of one thousand condemned aristocrats, Royalists, and priests were led out of their prisons to fall under the murderous pikes of the rabble which beset the doors...To...quote Carlyle, in the words given by the painter himself in the catalogue: "Poor old M. de Cazotte is seized; his young, loved daughter with him... With young tears hardly suppressed, and old, wavering weakness rousing itself once more"...the old Marquis...perished on the scaffold, bequeathing to his daughter - all he could bequeath - a lock of his grey hair'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.