THE ORPHANS OF NORMANDY; OR, FLORENTIN AND LUCIE. IN the depths of a thick forest, in the beautiful province of Normandy, is an ancient château, which has appertained for many years past to an illustrious family of the name of L. Florentin, Baron de L, the head and representative of this family, immediately before the revolution, was a man of a haughty and insolent spirit, and one who rendered himself suspected among the different parties which divided the country, by the free and unguarded manner in which he delivered his opinions on every subject, and especially on those points which affected his own interests. The baron had married, though not very early in life, and had been left a widower, with one daughter, soon after his marriage; and as he was not capable of enjoying domestic happiness, he never thought of forming a second connexion of a similar kind; but, sending his daughter to be educated in a convent in the capital, henceforward devoted himself to those rural sports which at that period commonly formed the amusement of noblemen when residing on their lands. In this manner passed the time till Mademoiselle Lucie de L- was of an age to be taken from the convent in order to be married. The husband chosen by the baron for his daughter was a young nobleman, the son of an old companion of his youth, and one who had little to recommend him but his family, and the reversion of a large estate in one of the southern provinces. Within two years of this marriage, the baron found himself the grandfather of a beautiful boy, on whom the name of Florentin was bestowed, and who was for a while the darling of the two noble families from whom he was descended. In the mean time, the country became every day more violently agitated by various political opinions, and every head was filled with visions of reform and plans of polit ical improvement. Many, even among the nobility, became influenced with extravagant principles; and thus assisted in preparing that fire on which their honours, their properties, and the lives of many, were to be sacrificed. Among these indiscreet persons, none was more violent than the young Count de S-, husband of Lucie de L—; and as his principles were utterly contrary to those of his father-in-law, a considerable coolness ensued between them; which was rather increased than counteracted by Madame de S, who had imbibed her husband's political opinions in their utmost extent, and who failed not in all companies to expatiate largely on the subject of reform, the rights of the people, and the tyranny of the legislative powers. The consequence of this difference of opinion in the several branches of the family was, that after a while the baron became totally separated from his daughter, who henceforward resided with her husband at Paris; and the little Florentin was deprived from that period of the caresses of his maternal grandfather. In the mean time, the affairs of the royal party be came every day more and more involved; and at length such became the horrors and alarms of the times, that many of the nobility were forced to leave their estates, and withdraw in haste to foreign countries. Among the first of these persons who were compelled to fly from their native land, was the Baron de L'—;` and such was the haste with which he was driven to make his escape, that he had no opportunity of giving his daughter notice of his flight, nor of securing to himself so much of his property as might enable him to live in tolerable comfort in the banishment to which he was reduced. Immediately after the flight of Monsieur de Lhis château was seized by the populace, and, after having been pillaged, was in part destroyed, and then utterly forsaken. |