DE MAISTRE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS

Xavier de Maistre younger brother of the celebrated Joseph de Maistre, was boni at Chambe'ry, in Savoy, in 1763. Xavier entered the arniy and spent his youth in the différent garrison towns of Piedmont.

Whilst garrisoned at Turin Xavier fought a duel, and for having disobeyed the order which forbade single combats, he was eonnned to his quarters for the space of 42 days. This confinement which gave him plenty of time for reflection suggested to him the most original work he ever produced, namely le Voyage autour de ma chambre which though written either in 1789 or 1790 was not published for several years as is proved by the various insertions made in the original manuscript of events which

YI PREFACE.

took place later, and especially of the massacres perpetrated during the period known by the naine of the Terror. After the annexation of Savoy to France and the occupation of Piedmont by the French troops, Xavier de Maistre fonnd himself an exile, and sought refuge in Eussia, where he maintained himself for some time by painting pictures. But having entered the Eussian service he was enabled to take up his sword again, fought in the Caucasus where he was severely wounded, and rose to the rank of General. He had by that time married a Eussian lady of great beauty, and found with her the most perfect possible happiness.

His next work, entitled Expédition nocturne is a continuation of le voyage and like most continuations, it is not equal to the flrst portion of the work.

Nearly twenty years elapsed before anything further came from the pen of Xavier de Maistre. One day in 1810 in Petersburgh during the course of conversation somebody alluded to the leprosy of the Jews. Tins was an opportunity for Xavier to speak of a leper he had known at Aosta. He spoke so warmly of that unfortunate man and so roused the sympathy of his hearers, that he himself felt more than ordinary interest in the story he had related, and committed it to writing under the title of Le lépreux de la cité d'Aoste.

We hâve to notice two more stories by the same author, namely, Les Prisonniers du Caucase et La Jeune Sibé-