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In this situation they remained till late in the following spring;-and it would be end less to enumerate the hairbreadth 'scapes and unparalleled sufferings to which they were every day exposed-reduced frequently to live upon alms, and forced every two or three days to shift their quarters, in the middle of the night, from one royalist cabin to another. Such was the long-continued and vindictive rigour of the republican party, that the most eager and unrelaxing search was made for fugitives of all descriptions; and every adherent of the insurgent faction who fell into their hands was barbarously murdered, without the least regard to age, sex, or individual innocence! While skulking about in this state of peril and desolation, they had glimpses and occasional rencounters with some of their former companions, whom similar misfortunes had driven upon similar schemes of concealment. In particular, they twice saw the daring and unsubduable M. de Marigny, who had wandered over the whole country from Angers to Nantes; and notwithstanding his gigantic form and remarkable features, had contrived so to disguise himself as to elude all detection or pursuit. He could counterfeit all ages and dialects, and speak in perfection the patois of every village. He now appeared before them in the character of an itinerant dealer in poultry; and retired unsuspected by all but themselves. In this wretched condition, the term of Madame de L.'s confinement drew on; and, after a thousand frights and disasters, she was delivered of two daughters, without any other assistance than that of her mother. One of the infants had its wrist dislocated; and so subdued was the poor mother's mind to the level of her fallen fortunes, that she had now no other anxiety, than that she might recover strength enough to carry it herself to the waters of Bareges, which she fancied might be of service to it ;-but the poor baby died within a fortnight after it was born.

and wishes were directed. In the tumult of | herd the sheep or cattle of her faithful and this retreat, Madame de L. lost sight of her compassionate host, along with his tawboned venerable aunt, who had hitherto been the daughter. mild and patient companion of their wanderings; and learned afterwards that she had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and, at the age of eighty, been publicly executed at Rennes, for the crime of rebellion! At Fougeres, at Laval, at Dol, and Savenay, the Awindled force of the insurgents had to sustain new attacks from their indefatigable pursuers, in which the officers and most of the soldiery gave still more extraordinary proofs, than any we have yet recorded, of undaunted valour, and constancy worthy of better fortune. The weather was now, in the latter end of November, extremely cold and rainy; the roads almost impassable; and provisions very scarce. Often, after a march of ten hours, Madame de L. has been obliged to fish for a few cold potatoes in' the bottom of a dirty cauldron, filled with greasy water, and polluted by the hands of half the army. Her child sickened from its teething, and insufficient nourishment; and every day she witnessed the death of some of those gallant leaders whom the spring had seen assembled in her halls in all the flush of youthful confidence and glory. After many a weary march, and desperate struggle, about ten thousand sad survivors got again to the banks of that fatal Loire, which now seemed to divide them from hope and protection. Henri, who had arranged the whole operation with consummate judgment, found the shores on both sides free of the enemy:-But all the boats had been removed; and, after leaving orders to construct rafts with all possible despatch, he himself, with a few attendants, ventured over in a little wherry, which he had brought with him on a cart, to make arrangements for covering their landing. But they never saw the daring Henri again! The vigilant enemy came down upon them at this critical moment --intercepted his return-and, stationing several armed vessels in the stream, rendered the passage of the army altogether impossible. They fell back in despair upon Savenay; and there the brave and indefatigable Marigny told Madame de L. that all was now overthat it was altogether impossible to resist the attack that would be made next day-and advised her to seek her safety in flight and disguise, without the loss of an instant. She set out accordingly, with her mother, in a gloomy day of December, under the conduct of a drunken peasant; and, after being out most of the night, at length obtained shelter in a dirty farm house,-from which, in the course of the day, she had the misery of seeing her unfortunate countrymen scattered over the whole open country, chased and butchered without mercy by the republicans, who now took a final vengeance for all the losses they had sustained. She had long been clothed in shreds and patches, and needed no disguise to conceal her quality. She was sometimes hidden in the mill, when the troopers came to search for fugitives in her lonely retreat; -and oftener sent, in the midst of winter, to

Towards the end of 1794, their lot was somewhat softened by the compassionate kindness of a Madame Dumoutiers, who offered them an asylum in her house; in which, though still liable to the searches of the bloodhounds of the municipality, they had more assistance in eluding them, and less misery to endure in the intervals. The whole history of their escapes would make the adventures of Caleb Williams appear a cold and barren chronicle; but we have room only to mention, that after the death of Robespierre, there was a great abatement in the rigour of pursuit; and that a general amnesty was speedily proclaimed, for all who had been concerned in the insurrection. After several inward struggles with pride and principle, Madame de L. was prevailed on to repair to Nantes, to avail herself of this amnesty-but, first of all, she rode in to reconnoitre, and consult with some friends of her hostess; and proceeded boldly through the hostile city, in

1

Les

A peine les connaissait-on. cadavres restaient quelquefois plus d'un jour sans qu'on vint les emporter.

the dress of a peasant, with a sack at her back, | aucun soin.
and a pair of fowls in her hands. She found
that the tone was now to flatter and conciliate
the insurgents by all sorts of civilities and
compliments; and after some time, she and
her mother applied for, and obtained, a full
pardon for all their offences against the Re-
publican government.

This amnesty drew back to light many of her former friends, who had been universally supposed to be dead; and proved, by the prodigious numbers whom it brought from their hiding-places in the neighbourhood, how generally the lower orders were attached to their cause, or how universal the virtues of compassion and fidelity to confiding misery are in the national character. It also brought to the writer's knowledge many shocking particulars of the cruel executions which so long polluted that devoted city. We may give a few of the instances in her own words, as a specimen of her manner of writing; to which, in our anxiety to condense the information she affords us, we have paid perhaps too little

attention.

"Madame de Jourdain fut menée sur la Loire, pour être noyée avec ses trois filles. Un soldat voulut sauver la plus jeune, qui était fort belle. Elle se jeta à l'eau pour partager le sort de sa mère. La malheureuse enfant tomba sur des cadavres, et n'enfonça point. Elle criait: Poussez-moi, je n'ai pas assez d'eau et elle périt.

"Mademoiselle de Cuissard, âgée de scize ans, qui était plus belle encore, s'attira aussi le même intérêt d'unofficier qui passa trois heures à ses pieds, la suppliant de se laisser sauver. Elle était avec une vielle parente que cet homme ne voulait pas se risquer à dérober au supplice. Mademoiselle de Cuissard se précipita dans la Loire avec elle.

"Une mort affreuse fut celle de Mademoiselle de la Roche St. André. Elle était grosse: on l'épargna. On lui laissa nourrir son enfant; mais il mourut, et on la fit périr le lendemain! Au reste, il ne faut pas croire que toutes les femmes enceintes fussent respectées. Cela était même fort rare; plus communément les soldats massacraient femmes et enfants. Il n'y avait que devant les tribunaux, où l'on

observait ces exceptions; et on y laissait aux femmes le temps de nourrir leurs enfants, comme étant une obligation républicaine. C'est en quoi consistait l'humanité des gens d'alors.

envoya chercher Lamberty. Il la conduisit dans un Agathe ne doutant plus d'une mort prochaine, petit bâtiment à soupape, dans lequel on avait nové les prêtres, et que Carrier lui avait donné. Il était seul avec elle, et voulut en profiter: elle résista. Lamberty la menaça de la noyer: elle courut pour dit: Allons! tu es une brave fille, je te sauverai. se jeter elle-même à l'eau. Alors cet homme lui Il la laissa huit jours seule dans le batiment, où elle entendait les noyades qui se faisaient la nuit ; ensuite il la cacha chez un nommé S***, qui était, comme lui, un fidele exécuteur des ordres de Carrier.

"Quelque temps aprés, la discorde divisa les ré. publicains de Nantes. On prit le prétexte d'accuser Lamberty d'avoir dérobé des femmes aux noyades, et d'en avoir noyé qui ne devaient pas l'être. Un jeune homme, nommé Robin, qui était fort dévoué à Lamberty, vint saisir Agathe chez Madame S***, la traîna dans le bateau, et voulut la poignarder, pour faire disparaître une preuve du crime qu'on parvint à l'attendrir, et il la cacha chez un de ses reprochait à son patron. Agathe se jeta à ses pieds; amis, nommé Lavaux, qui était honnê e homme, et qui avait déjà recueilli Madame de l'Epinay: mais on sut dès le lendemain l'asile d'Agathe, et on vint

l'arrêter.

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When the means of hearing of her friends to hear but what was mournful. Her father were thus suddenly restored, there was little had taken refuge in a wood with a small party of horsemen, after the rout of Savenay, and afterwards collected a little force, with which they seized on the town of Ancenis, and had nearly forced the passage of the Loire; but they were surrounded, and made prisoners, and all shot in the market-place! The brave Henri de Larochejaquelein had gained the north bank with about twenty followers, and wandered many days over the burnt and bloody solitudes of the once happy La Vendée. Overcome with fatigue and hunger, they at last reached an inhabited farm-house, and fell "Ma pauvre Agathe avait couru de bien grands fast asleep in the barn. They were soon dangers. Elle m'avait quitté à Nort, pour profiter roused, however, by the news that a party of de cette amnistie prétendue, dont on avait parlé dans the republicans were approaching the same ce moment. Elle vint à Nantes, et fut conduite devant le général Lamberty, le plus féroce des amis house; but were so worn out, that they would de Carrier. La figure d'Agathe lui plait: As-tu not rise, even to provide against that extreme peur, brigande ?' lui dit-il. ' Ñon, général,' répondit hazard. The party accordingly entered; and elle. He bien! quand tu auras peur, souviens-toi being almost as much exhausted as the others, de Lamberty, ajouta-t-il. Elle fut conduite à threw themselves down, without asking any l'entrepôt. C'est la trop fameuse prison où l'on entassoit les victimes destinées à être novées. questions, at the other end of the barn, and Chaque nuit on venait en prendre par centaines, slept quietly beside them. Henri afterwards pour les mettre sur les bateaux. Là, on liait les found out M. de la Charrette, by whom he malheureux deux à deux, et on les poussait dans was coldly, and even rudely received; but he l'eau, à coups de baïonuette. On saisissait indis- soon raised a little army of his own, and be tellement qu'on noya un jour l'état major d'une first successes:-till one day, riding a little in tinctement tout ce qui se trouvait à l'entrepôt; came again formidable in the scenes of nis corvette Anglaise, qui était prisonnier de guerre. Une autre fois, Carrier, voulant donner un exemple front of his party, he fell in with two repub de l'austérité des mœurs républicaines, fit enfermer lican soldiers, upon whom his followers were trois cents filles publiques de la ville, et les mal- about to fire, when he said. "No, no, they heureuses créatures furent noyées! Enfin, l'on shall have quarter;" and pushing up to them, estime qu'il a péri à l'entrepôt quinze mille per- called upon them to surrender. Without say sonnes en un mois. Il est vrai qu'outre les supplices, fa misère et la maladie ravageaient les prisonniers, ing a word, one of them raised his piece, and aient pressés sur la paille, et qui ne recevaient shot him right through the forehead. He fell

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at once dead before them, and was buried tle in the same cause which proved fatal to where he fell. the first, during the short period of Bonaparte's last reign, and but a few days before the decisive battle of Waterloo.

"Ainsi périt, à vingt et un ans, Henri de la Rochejaquelein. Encore à présent, quand les paysans se rappellent l'ardeur et l'éclat de son courage, sa modeste, sa facilité, et ce caractère de guerrier, et de bon enfant, ils parlent de lui avec fierté et avec amour. Il n'est pas un Vendéen dont on ne voie le regard s'animer, quand il raconte comment il a servi sous M. Henri."-Vol. ii. pp. 187, 188.

The fate of the gallant Marigny was still more deplorable. He joined Charrette and Stoffet; but some misunderstanding having arisen among them upon a point of discipline, they took the rash and violent step of bringing him to a court-martial, and sentencing him to death for disobedience. To the horror of all the Vendeans, and the great joy of the republicans, this unjust and imprudent sentence was carried into execution; and the cause deprived of the ablest of its surviving champions. When they had gratified their curiosity with these melancholy details, Madame de L. and her mother set out for Bourdeaux, and from thence to Spain, where they remained for nearly two years-but were at last permitted to return; and, upon Bonaparte's accession to the sovereignty, were even restored to a great part of their possessions. On the earnest entreaty of her mother, she was induced at last to give her hand to Louis de Larochejaquelein, brother to the gallant Henri-and the inheritor of his principles and character. This match took place in 1802, and they lived in peaceful retirement till the late movements for the restoration of the house of Bourbon. The notice of this new alliance terminates the original Memoirs; but there is a supplement, containing rather a curious account of the intrigues and communications of the royalist party in Bourdeaux and the South, through the whole course of the Revolution, and of the proceedings by which they conceive that they accelerated the restoration of the King in 1814. It may not be uninteresting to add, that since the book was published, the second husband of the unfortunate writer fell in bat

We have not left room now for any general observations-and there is no need of them. The book is, beyond all question, extremely curious and interesting-and we really have no idea that any reflections of ours could ap pear haif so much so as the abstract we have now given in their stead. One remark, however, we shall venture to make, now that our abstract is done. If all France were like La Vendée in 1793, we should anticipate nothing but happiness from the restoration of the Bourbons and of the old government. But the very fact that the Vendeans were crushed by the rest of the country, proves that this is not the case: And indeed it requires but a moment's reflection to perceive, that the rest of France could not well resemble La Vendée in its royalism, unless it had resembled it in the other peculiarities upon which that royalism was founded-unless it had all its noblesse resident on their estates; and living in their old feudal relations with a simple and agricultural vassalage. The book indeed shows two things very plainly,-and both of them well worth remembering. In the first place, that there may be a great deal of kindness and good affection among a people of insurgents against an established government;

and, secondly, that where there is such an aversion to a government, as to break out in spontaneous insurrection, it is impossible entirely to subdue that aversion, either by severity or forbearance-although the difference of the two courses of policy is, that severity, even when carried to the savage extremity of devastation and indiscriminate slaughter, leads only to the adoption of similar atrocities in return-while forbearance is at least rewarded by the acquiescence of those who are conscious of weakness, and gives time and opportunity for those mutual conces sions by which alone contending factions or principles can ever be permanently reconciled

(November, 1812.)

Memoires de FREDERIQUE SOPHIE WILHELMINE DE PRUSSE, Margrave de Bareith, Saur de Fre deric le Grand. Ecrits de sa Main. 8vo. 2 tomes. Brunswick, Paris, et Londres: 1812. PHILOSOPHERS have long considered it as | intermediate classes are subjected, by their probable, that the private manners of absolute Sovereigns are vulgar, their pleasures low, and their dispositions selfish ;-that the two extremes of life, in short, approach pretty closely to each other; and that the Masters of mankind, when stripped of the artificial pomp and magnificence which invests them in public, resemble nothing so nearly as the meanest of the multitude. The ground of this opinion is, that the very highest and the very lowest m mankind are equally beyond the influence of that wholesome control, to which all the

mutual dependence, and the need they have for the good will and esteem of their fellows. Those who are at the very bottom of the scale are below the sphere of this influence; and those at the very top are above it. The one have no chance of distinction by any effort they are capable of making; and the other are secure of the highest degree of it, without any. Both therefore are indifferent, or very nearly so, to the opinion of mankind: the former, because the naked subsistence which they earn by their labour will not be affected

by that opinion; and the latter, because their | the testimony of any competent observer when the volumes before us made their ap pearance, to set theory and conjecture at rest, and make the private character of such sove reigns, a matter of historical record.

They bear to be Memoirs of a Princess of Prussia, written by herself; and are in fact memoirs of the private life of most of the princes of Germany, written by one of their own number-with great freedom indeedbut with an evident partiality to the fraternity; and unmasking more of the domestic manners and individual habits of persons in that lofty station, than any other work with which we are acquainted. It is ushered into the world without any voucher for its authen ticity, or even any satisfactory account of the manner in which the manuscript was obtain ed: But its genuineness, we understand, is admitted even by those whose inclinations would lead them to deny it, and appears to us indeed to be irresistibly established by inter

legal power and preeminence are equally independent of it. Those who have nothing to lose, in short, are not very far from the condition of those who have nothing more to gain; and the maxim of reckoning one's-self last, which is the basis of all politeness, and leads, insensibly, from the mere practice of dissimulation, to habits of kindness and sentiments of generous independence, is equally inapplicable to the case of those who are obviously and in reality the last of their kind, and those who are quite indisputably the first. Both therefore are deprived of the checks and of the training, which restrain the selfishnese, and call out the sensibilities of other men: And, remote and contrasted as their actual situation must be allowed to be, are alike liable to exhibit that disregard for the feelings of others, and that undisguised preference for their own gratification, which it is the boast of modern refinement to have subdued, or at least effectually concealed, among the happier or-nal evidence.* It is written in the vulgar ders of society. In a free country, indeed, the monarch, if he share at all in the spirit of liberty, may escape this degradation; because he will then feel for how much he is dependent on the good opinion of his countrymen; and, in general, where there is a great ambition for popularity, this pernicious effect of high fortune will be in a great degree avoided. But the ordinary class of arbitrary rulers, who found their whole claim to distinction upon the accident of their birth and station, may be expected to realize all that we have intimated as to the peculiar manners and dispositions of the Caste; to sink, like their brethren of the theatre, when their hour of representation is over, into gross sensuality, paltry intrigues, and dishonourable squabbles; and, in short, to be fully more likely to beat their wives and cheat their benefactors, than any other set of persons-out of the condition of tinkers.

But though these opinions have long seemed pretty reasonable to those who presumed to reason at all on such subjects, and even appeared to be tolerably well confirmed by the few indications that could be obtained as to the state of the fact, there was but little prospect of the world at large getting at the exact truth, either by actual observation or by credible report. The tone of adulation and outrageous compliment is so firmly established, and as it were positively prescribed, for all authorized communications from the interior of a palace, that it would be ridiculous even to form a guess, as to its actual condition, from such materials: And, with regard to the casual observers who might furnish less suspected information, a great part are too vain, and too grateful for the opportunities they have enjoyed, to do any thing which might prevent their recurrence; while others are kept silent by a virtuous shame; and the remainder are discredited, and perhaps not always without reason, as the instruments of faction or envy. There seemed great reason to fear, therefore, that this curious branch of Natural History would be left to mere theory and conjecture, and never be elucidated by

gossiping style of a chambermaid; but at the same time with very considerable cleverness and sagacity, as to the conception and delineation of character. It is full of events and portraits-and also of egotism, detraction, and inconsistency; but all delivered with an air of good faith that leaves us little room to doubt of the facts that are reported on the writer's own authority, or, in any case, of her own be lief in the justness of her opinions. Indeed, half the edification of the book consists in the lights it affords as to the character of the writer, and consequently as to the effects of the circumstances in which she was placed: nor is there any thing, in the very curious picture it presents, more striking than the part she unintentionally contributes, in the peculiarity of her own taste in the colouring and delineation. The heartfelt ennui, and the affected contempt of greatness, so strangely combined with her tenacity of all its privi leges, and her perpetual intrigues and quarrels about precedence-the splendid encomiums on her own inflexible integrity, intermixed with the complacent narrative of perpetual trick and duplicity-her bitter complaints of the want of zeal and devotedness in her friends, and the desolating display of her own utter heartlessness in every page of the his tory-and-finally, her outrageous abuse of almost every one with whom she is connected, alternating with professions of the greatest regard, and occasional apologies for the most atrocious among them, when they happen to conduct themselves in conformity to her own little views at the moment-are all, we think, not only irrefragable proofs of the authen ticity of the singular work before us, but.

I have not recently made any enquiries on this subject: and it is possible that the authenticity of this strange book may have been discredited, since the now remote period when I last heard it discuss ed. It is obvious at first sight that it is full of exaggerations: Buthat is too common a characteristic of genuine memoirs written in the tranchant style to which it belongs, to detract much from the credi to which the minuteness and confidence of its de tails may otherwise be thought to entitle it

together with the lowness of its style and dic- | beatings with which it was frequently accom tion, are features-and pretty prominent ones panied!-feigned sicknesses-midnight con-in that portraiture of royal manners and dis- sultations-hidings behind screens and under positions which we conceive it to be its chief beds-spies at her husband's drunken orgies office and chief merit to display. In this -burning of letters, pocketing of inkstands, point of view, we conceive the publication to and all the paltry apparatus of boarding-school be equally curious and instructive; and there imposture;-together with the more revolting is a vivacity in the style, and a rapidity in the criminality of lies told in the midst of caresses, narrative, which renders it at all events very and lessons of falsehood anxiously inculcated entertaining, though little adapted for abstract on the minds of her children. It is edifying or abridgment. We must endeavour, how-to know, that, with all this low cunning, and ever, to give our readers some notion of its practice in deceiving, this poor lady was herself the dupe of a preposterous and unworthy confidence. She told every thing to a favour. ite chambermaid-who told it over again to one of the ministers-who told it to the King: And though the treachery of her confidante was perfectly notorious, and she herself was reduced privately to borrow money from the

contents.

crecy, she never could keep from her any one thing that it was of importance to conceal.

What is now before us is but a fragment, extending from the birth of the author in 1707 to the year 1742, and is chiefly occupied with the court of Berlin, down till her marriage with the Prince of Bareith in 1731. She sets off with a portrait of her father Frederic William, whose peculiarities are already pret-King of England in order to bribe her to sety well known by the dutiful commentaries of his son, and Voltaire. His daughter begins with him a little more handsomely; and as- The ingenious Princess before us had for sures us, that he had "talents of the first or- many years no other brother than the Great der"-"an excellent heart"-and, in short, Frederic, who afterwards succeeded to the "all the qualities which go to the constitution throne, but whose extreme ill health in his of great men." Such is the flattering outline: childhood seemed to render her accession a But candour required some shading; and we matter of considerable probability. Her almust confess that it is laid on freely, and with liance consequently became an early object good effect. His temper, she admits, was un-of ambition to most of the Protestant princes governable, and often hurried him into excesses altogether unworthy of his rank and situation. Then it must also be allowed that he was somewhat hard-hearted; and throughout his whole life gave a decided preference to the cardinal virtue of Justice over the weaker attribute of Mercy. Moreover, "his excessive love of money exposed him" (ber Royal Highness seems to think very unjustly) to the imputation of avarice." And, finally, she informs us, without any circumlocution, that he was a crazy bigot in religion-suspicious, jealous, and deceitful-and entertained a profound contempt for the whole sex to which his dutiful biographer belongs.

This "great and amiable" prince was maried, as every body knows, to a princess of Hanover, a daughter of our George the First; of whom he was outrageously jealous, and who he treated with a degree of brutality that ould almost have justified any form of reve ge. The princess, however, seems to have been irreproachably chaste: But had, notwithstanding, some of the usual vices of slaves; and tormented her tyrant to very good purpose by an interminable system of the most crooked and provoking intrigues, chiefly about the marriages of her family, but occasionally upon other subjects, carried on by the basest tools and instruments, and for a long time in confederacy with the daughter who has here recorded their history. But though she had thus the satisfaction of frequently enraging her husband, we cannot help thinking that she had herself by far the worst of the game; and indeed it is impossible to read, without a mixed feeling of pity and contempt, the catalogue of miserable shifts which this poor creature was perpetually forced to employ to avoid detection, and escape the

of her time; and before she was fully eight years old, her father and mother had had fifty quarrels about her marriage. About the same time, she assures us that a Swedish officer, who was a great conjurer, informed her, after inspecting her hand, "that she would be sought in marriage by the Kings of Sweden, England, Russia, and Poland, but would not be united to any of them :"-a prediction, the good Princess declares, that was afterwards verified in a very remarkable manner. The Swedish proposition indeed follows hard upon the prophecy; for the very next year engagements are taken for that match, which are afterwards abandoned on account of the tender age of the parties.-The Princess here regales us with an account of her own vivacity and angelic memory at this period, and with a copious interlude of all the court scandal during the first days of her existence. But as we scarcely imagine that the scandalous chronicle of Berlin for the year 1712, would excite much interest in this country in the year 1812, we shall take the liberty to pass over the gallantries of Madame de Blas pil and the treasons of M. Clement; merely noticing, that after the execution of the latter, the King ordered every letter that came to his capital to be opened, and never slept without drawn swords and cocked pistols at his side. But while he was thus trembling at imaginary dangers, he was, if we can believe his infant daughter, upon the very brink of others sufficiently serious. His chief favourites were the Prince of Anhalt, who is briefly characterized in these Memoirs as brutal, cruel and deceitful, and the minister Grumkow, who is represented, on the same author ity, as a mere concentration of all the vices. These worthy persons had set their hearts

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