DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0317
HISTORY OF THE SAVAGE OF AVEVNON.
281
at the moment he was climbing a tree to avoid them.
They carried him to a neighbouring village, where he was
placed under the care of an old woman, from whom he,
however, found means to escape before the end of the
week, and fled to the mountains, where he wandered about
during the winter, which was uncommonly severe, with-
out any clothing but a ragged shirt. At night he retired
to solitary places, but in tbe day approached nearer the
houses and villages.
He thus passed a roving life, till, at length he volun-
tarily took refuge in a house in the canton of St. Sernin.
After being there kept two or three days, he was then sent
to the hospital of St. Afrique, whence he was removed to
Rhodez, where he remained several months. During his
abode in these different places, he always seemed to be
wild, impatient of restraint, and capricious; and con-
stantly intent on getting away.
How this unfortunate child was at first reduced to that
state of total abandonment, in which he was discovered,
it is impossible to ascertain. One circumstance, however,
affords room to conjecture, that he was destined for one
of the victims of that sanguinary revolution, which occa-
sioned the shedding of such torrents of innocent blood.
On the fore-part of his neck, was a scar of considerable
extent, which appeared to have proceeded from a wound,
made by some sharp instrument. It may reasonably be
presumed, that some person more disposed than accus-
tomed to acts of cruelty, had attempted the life of the
child, and that, left for dead in the woods, he owed to the
timely assistance of nature, the cure of his wound. Be-
sides this, he had on various parts of his body, twenty-
three scars, some of which appeared to have come from
the bites of animals, and others from scratches and ex-
coriations ; affording incontestible evidence of the long
and total abandonment of the unfortunate youth. From
Eccentric, No. VI. o o ' the
281
at the moment he was climbing a tree to avoid them.
They carried him to a neighbouring village, where he was
placed under the care of an old woman, from whom he,
however, found means to escape before the end of the
week, and fled to the mountains, where he wandered about
during the winter, which was uncommonly severe, with-
out any clothing but a ragged shirt. At night he retired
to solitary places, but in tbe day approached nearer the
houses and villages.
He thus passed a roving life, till, at length he volun-
tarily took refuge in a house in the canton of St. Sernin.
After being there kept two or three days, he was then sent
to the hospital of St. Afrique, whence he was removed to
Rhodez, where he remained several months. During his
abode in these different places, he always seemed to be
wild, impatient of restraint, and capricious; and con-
stantly intent on getting away.
How this unfortunate child was at first reduced to that
state of total abandonment, in which he was discovered,
it is impossible to ascertain. One circumstance, however,
affords room to conjecture, that he was destined for one
of the victims of that sanguinary revolution, which occa-
sioned the shedding of such torrents of innocent blood.
On the fore-part of his neck, was a scar of considerable
extent, which appeared to have proceeded from a wound,
made by some sharp instrument. It may reasonably be
presumed, that some person more disposed than accus-
tomed to acts of cruelty, had attempted the life of the
child, and that, left for dead in the woods, he owed to the
timely assistance of nature, the cure of his wound. Be-
sides this, he had on various parts of his body, twenty-
three scars, some of which appeared to have come from
the bites of animals, and others from scratches and ex-
coriations ; affording incontestible evidence of the long
and total abandonment of the unfortunate youth. From
Eccentric, No. VI. o o ' the