The First Republic. By Alexandre Dumas. Translated by Katherine Prescott
Wormeley. 2 vols. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.)—M. Dumas tells the public in his preface that this story is a continuation of "The Company of Jehu." It covers a period of about six years, 1793-99, and ends with the return of Buona- parte from Egypt, the last portion being occupied with what M.
Dumas was pleased to call the Eighth Crusade. It is interesting to see what he says of the plague patients at Jaffa. M. Thiers quotes an answer of the physician Desgenettes to Buonaparte when he proposed that the hopelessly sick should have a dose of opium,—" My business is to cure them, not to kill them." The answer is fine; but according to Dumas, who knew Desgenettes well, apocryphal. The truth, as testified to by Bourrienne, who was there, is that some plague patients had "their deaths accelerated by a few hours." Bourrienne says "six or eight," but the number, to judge from his previous language, seems doubtful.
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