tude of persons with drums, that the noise of these instruments might drown any cries which might be raised in favour of the King. But whence could such cries have proceeded? Nobody appeared either at the doors or windows, and in the streets were only to be seen the rows of armed citizens. In this manner the carriage arrived amidst the deepest silence at the Place Louis XV., and stopped in the middle of a large empty space which had been formed around the scaffold. This space was rounded by cannons; and beyond it, as far as the eye could reach, was to be seen a multitude in arms. As soon as the King perceived that the carriage had stopped, he turned towards me and said, 'We have reached the place, then, if I am not mistaken.'

sur

The particulars that follow we collect from different narratives. It appears that immediately on the carriage halting, one of the executioners advanced and opened the door, on which the two gendarmes rose to step out; but before they went, the King, with a firm and dignified accent, charged them with the protection of his confessor from any insult to which he might be exposed after his death. He then descended to the ground with a steady step.

He was dressed in a brown coat, a white vest, grey-coloured smallclothes, and white stockings. "On descending from the carriage," says Sanson (the person who executed the sentence), in a narrative which M. Dulaure has printed*, "he was told that it would be necessary to pull off his coat; he made some difficulty as to this, saying that they could execute him as he was. When it was represented to him that the thing was impossible, he himself assisted in pulling off his coat. He made the same difficulty when his hands were going to be tied, but offered them of his own accord, when the person who was with him (M. * Exquisses Historiques, ii. 380.

Edgeworth) observed that it was the last sacrifice. He then inquired if the drums were not to cease beating. We replied that we did not know, which was the truth. He ascended the scaffold, and wished to advance to the front, as if for the purpose of speaking; but it was represented to him that the thing was impossible. He then suffered himself to be conducted to the spot where we placed him, and from which he called out with a very loud voice: People, I die innocent; then, turning to us, he said, Gentlemen, I am innocent of all they accuse me of; may my blood cement the happiness of Frenchmen. These were his true and last words." To render homage to the truth," concludes Sanson, "he sustained the whole with a sang-froid and a firmness which astonished us all. I remain very much convinced that he had derived this firmness from the principles of religion, with which no person ever appeared more penetrated than he was, or more persuaded of their truth."

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It has been attempted to be denied by some writers that anything which Louis uttered from the scaffold could be heard by those around him. As a specimen of the extraordinary vehemence of feeling which even the most unimportant questions connected with the French Revolution used at one time to excite, we transcribe a manuscript note in reference to this matter, which we find on the margin of one of the pages of a volume now lying before us-Dr. Moore's Journal of a Residence in France. The author having reported the words commonly ascribed to his majesty, "This," remarks his commentator, "is an abominable falsehood: Dr. Moore, you confess you were not present yourself; I, who was present, swear by the Almighty God that the drums did not cease beating, and no man could hear the tyrant speak." The utterance of the words in question,

however, by the King is testified by other authorities as well as by Sanson. According to the Abbé Edgeworth (and his account is confirmed by M. Goret) Louis was prevented from continuing his address by a man on horseback, and dressed in the uniform of the national guard, rushing suddenly sword in hand, and with ferocious cries, upon the persons with the drums, and compelling them to beat their instruments with redoubled vigour. This was Santerre, then commander-in-chief of the national guard. "Several

voices were raised at the same time," proceeds M. Edgeworth, "to encourage the executioners; they themselves appeared to acquire more confidence, and, seizing forcibly the most virtuous of kings, they drew him under the axe, which, at a single stroke, made his head fall from his body. All this was the work of a few seconds; the youngest of the executioners (he did not appear to be more than eighteen years of age) immediately took up the head and shewed it to the people, making the round of the scaffold; he accompanied this monstrous ceremony by the most atrocious cries and the most indecent gestures. The deepest silence reigned at first; after a short time some cries of Vive la Republique arose. By degrees the voices so exclaiming grew more numerous; and in less than ten minutes the ery became that of the whole multitude, and all their hats were waving in the air."

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CHAPTER XII.

PLACE LOUIS XV.-CONTINUued.

Reign of Terror-Revolutionary Tribunal-State of the Place Louis XV.— Executions of Charlotte Corday; of Marie Antoinette; of Brissot, &c.; of the Duke of Orleans; of Madame Roland; of the Duc de Brion; of Hebert, &c.; of Danton, &c.; of the Princess Elizabeth; of Roberspierre and his associates.

GARDE MEUBLE-BARRIERE DE NEUILLY.

THE influence of the Mountain, or ultra-democratic party, continued to increase rapidly in the Convention after the execution of the King. On ordinary occasions, however, they could not yet always depend upon carrying their measures-many who voted with them through terror on such questions as, like that of the King's sentence, excited in a high degree the turbulent demonstrations of the multitude, taking a course more in accordance with their real sentiments at other times, when they could do so with greater safety. The strength of the faction in short lay as yet, not within the walls of the legislative chamber, but in the mob without. But on the other hand this power, from repeated victories, was becoming every day more formidable; those who still dared to oppose themselves to its domination, were waxing both fainter in courage and fewer in numbers; and it seemed evident that one or two more vigorous assaults would suffice to reduce them to insignificance. This end was in a great degree attained by the tumultuous and menacing crowds which assembled around the Convention on the 10th of March, and which, although dispersed by a band of Fédérés from Bretagne before they had perpetrated

any actual outrages, had the effect, nevertheless, by the confusion and consternation which their visit occasioned, of terrifying the legislature into the adoption of the most unhappy and disastrous measures. It was on this occasion that Leonard Bourdon proposed the institution of the famous Court for the punishment of offences against the state, originally denominated the Extraordinary Criminal Tribunal, and afterwards more notorious under the name of the Revolutionary Tribunal. After several tumultuous debates, this enormous tyranny was regularly established in the exercise of its functions on the 28th of March. On the same night domiciliary visits, as they were called, were made to all the houses in Parisas had been done preparatory to the massacres of the preceding September-and more than five hundred persons were again seized and thrown into prison.

It was not, however, till after the expulsion and proscription of the Girondists on the decisive day of the 2d of June, that their opponents became the sole and undisputed masters of France. This event established the reign of terror, the apparent dictatorship of Roberspierre, and the real sovereignty of the lowest and most abandoned of the rabble, whose slave that tyrant was, by pandering to whose passions he for a time retained his power, and to whose desertion and opposition at last, when still more extravagant leaders had arisen to court their favour, he mainly owed his fall. The government was now entirely in the hands of the Mountain. The thinned and humiliated Convention sat only to obey the bidding, and register the decrees, of Roberspierre. The only individuals among its members who could be said to exercise any portion even of delegated and subordinate authority were those composing the two committees of General Security and of Public Safety -both established about the same time with the Re