Unfashionable doctrine into the ears of
Princes and unceasingly to exclaim to them and to their ministers:
Discite justitiam moniti et non temnere gentes.[48]
In their conduct on this occasion the French soldiers proved themselves far
more constitutional than those of any other army in Europe; let despots,
priests and weak-headed Tories say what they please to the contrary.
I embarked the following morning at 12 o'clock in the coche d'eau for
Lyons. There was a very numerous and motley company on board: there were
three bourgeois belonging to Lyons returning thither from Paris; a quiet
good-humoured sort of woman not remarkable either for her beauty nor
vivacity; a young Spaniard, an adherent of King Joseph Napoleon, very
taciturn and wrapped up in his cloak tho' the weather was exceeding hot; he
seemed to do nothing else but smoke cigarros and drink wine, of which he
emptied three or four bottles in a very short time - a young Piedmontese
officer, disbanded from the army of the Loire, who no sooner sat down on
deck than he began to chaunt Filicaja's beautiful sonnet, "Italia, Italia,
O tu cui feo la sorte," etc. - a merchant of Lyons who had been some time
in England, and spoke English well - a Lyonnese Major of Infantry, also of
the army of the Loire, who had served in Egypt in the 32nd Demi-brigade;
three Austrian officers of Artillery with their servants.
