Emilion,
but which have to be searched for by the visitor, is the cave where during
the Reign of Terror seven of the Girondins sought refuge, and where they
remained hidden from their persecutors several months, notwithstanding
the unflagging efforts made to discover their retreat. Their enemies were
convinced that they were somewhere in the town, or, rather, underneath the
town, for the rock on which it rests is honeycombed with quarries. These
Girondins were Guadet, Salles, Barbaroux, Petlon, Buzot, Louvet, and
Valady. Guadet was a native of St. Emilion, and he had a relative there
named Madame Bouquey. She and her husband were a brave and noble-minded
couple at a time when the craven-hearted--always the accomplices of
tyrants--were in the ascendancy everywhere. They sheltered Guadet and his
companions in a cave under their garden. The fugitives had first thought of
hiding in the old quarries, but they realized that they would be much safer
in the cave.
Hearing that the 'Grotte des Girondins' was in the garden of the school,
now kept by Christian Brothers, thither I went. A little boy in a long
black blouse, with a leather belt round his waist, having obtained the
permission, pulled open a trapdoor in the garden, and, candle in hand, led
the way down a flight of steps into a cavern, about the same size as St.
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