Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/79

the doctor in Paris. He was then on the point of returning to England to take up his residence on the rectory of Stourton which had been conferred on him by his warm friend sir Richard Colt Hoare. He did leave Paris to cross to the shores of Albion but an embargo was laid on him just as he arrived at Boulogne and he prudently did not draw on him the observation of the authorities by any attempt to depart from France. He took up his abode " in a village about two leagues from Boulogne " where he stayed in strict retirement until the tyrannous days of Robespierre had passed over. A glimpse of Warner under the Revolution is given to us in a little volume entitled "leisure-moments in the camp and in the guard-room, by a veteran British officer " which was printed at York in 1812. The dedication to Francis Wrangham is signed J. F. N. and a previous owner of the copy in the library of the British Museum gives the author's name as Neville. He was according to his daily custom taking an early morning walk " on the memorable twenty- first of June" in the Tuileries gardens when he met La Fayette on his milk-white steed, attended by his usual crowd of admirers in a state of more than usual excitement. Neville hastened to convey to Warner the news that the Royal Family had escaped from their jailers but it was not received in the spirit that he expected. The doctor exclaimed " Damn the Miscreants ! Have they escaped ? well, that they may be brought back to Paris before evening and be guillotined before to-morrow morning, are the two wishes next to my heart." Warner was introduced by this friend to the author Mercier, presumably Louis Sebastien, and was taken by him to dine at Mercier's rooms at Mont Rouge. Neville asserts that Warner " could not speak a single word of French," a statement which seems incredible considering the number of occasions on which he had visited the continent, the testimony of