well, and it is to her that I was indebted for many details which enabled me to complete her husband's notes on a memorable period of French history.

Charles Henri Sanson had every reason to be satisfied with the choice he had made. His excellent wife managed his household with great skill and judgment, and won every heart by her gentle disposition and kindly manner. Hardly a year had elapsed since her marriage when Jean-Baptiste Sanson returned, on the occasion of the execution of Lally Tollendal. Some time afterwards the old man lost his wife, Madeleine Tronson; he left his farm of Brie-Comte-Robert and came back to the old house in Paris. He lingered for several years, and during the course of his gradual decline Marie Anne Jugier constantly attended him. Her devotion to the patient was unceasing. Jean-Baptiste expired in August 1778, and it was his daughter-in-law who closed his eyes. My grandfather was superintending an execution on the Place du Châtelet at the moment of the old man's death. He only heard of the sad news on his return.

The Abbé Gomart opened Jean-Baptiste's will. The deceased expressed a wish to be buried with his father in the Saint-Laurent church. An old sexton showed me when I was a boy the stones which cover the graves of my two ancestors. Jean-Baptiste's property was equally divided between his sons, who, as it has been said before, were very numerous. Charles Henri Sanson was therefore compelled to sell the mansion of the Faubourg Poissonnière, and the money was shared between the heirs. My grandfather bought a house in

the Rue Neuve Saint-Jean (now the Rue du Château d'Eau), and settled there with his family. His fortune was, of course, considerably smaller than his father's, but he nevertheless lived comfortably enough on his income and private means from 1778 to 1789.

THE SAFE-CONDUCT.

Before they met on the scaffold, my grandfather was twice in presence of Louis XVI. These two meetings occurred at the beginning of the year 1789. The impoverished state of the funds had for a considerable time prevented the payment of the sums due to Charles Henri Sanson; and as he had hitherto lived in somewhat expensive style, he found himself in serious pecuniary difficulties. In a petition which he sent to the King, he explained his embarrassed position, and he was summoned to Versailles a few days afterwards. Louis received him in his private apartments. The interview was short, but my grandfather remembered every detail of it. The King was standing near a window which opened on the park. Charles Henri, intimidated by the prestige of royalty, dared advance no further than the threshold, so that the few words they spoke were exchanged at some distance. Louis wore a lilac coat embroidered with gold, short breeches and pumps; the blue and red ribbons of the order of Saint-Louis hung across his white satin waistcoat. A lace collar and frill was partly covered by a loose cravat, which showed the prominent muscles of the neck. The King was of strong

but common build. His hair was powdered and curled, and was tied with a ribbon at the back of the neck.

'You have sent in a claim for the sums that are due to you,' said he, without turning round or looking at my grandfather. 'I have ordered that your accounts be examined and settled without delay; but the State is poor for the present, and your claim is for 136,000 livres, I believe?'

'I thank your Majesty with as much gratitude as respect,' answered Charles Henri Sanson; 'but I beseech your Majesty to remember that my debts have so considerably increased that my creditors will not wait any longer, and that they threaten my liberty.'

At these words the King turned round and cast a rapid glance at my grandfather. 'Wait a moment,' said he; 'I must see to this directly.'

He rang a bell which was within his reach. An officer appeared.

'Monsieur de Villedeuil,' said the King, 'fetch me a safe-conduct, and direct it to the names I will tell you.'

The paper was procured, and the King, who had an excellent memory, dictated the names of my grandfather which he had seen on the petition. This curious safeconduct, which I still possess, is couched in the following

terms:

By order of the King.

'His Majesty, being desirous of giving M. Charles Henri Sanson the means of attending to his occupations,

has given him a safe-conduct for a space of three months, during which his Majesty orders his creditors to take no proceedings against him; to all solicitors, police officers, or others not to arrest or molest him in any way; to all gaolers of prisons not to receive him; and if, in spite of the said prohibition, he be imprisoned, his Majesty orders that he be immediately set free. His Majesty also orders that the present safe-conduct be only available after it has been registered at the office of the Gardes du Commerce. 'Delivered at Versailles on the nineteenth of April, seventeen hundred and eighty-nine.

'LOUIS.

'Laurent de Villedeuil'

The King signed the document and handed it to my grandfather, who took it and respectfully bent his knee. His liberty was protected by the man whose life he was soon to take.

As he retired, the Queen and Madame Elisabeth were announced, and swept past him. He was thus in presence on the same day of the three royal persons who subsequently fell under his knife.

221

CHAPTER XXI.

ACTION AGAINST THE PRESS.

TOWARDS the end of the same year (1789) the question of penal reform was raised in the great National Assembly. In the month of October Doctor Guillotin, deputy of the tiers-état of Paris, presented a law by which capital punishment was to be inflicted in a uniform manner, without distinction of classes; and this new mode of punishment was decapitation, considered as the safest and most humane. This motion, which at first was adjourned, was presented again by Doctor Guillotin, and discussed on December 1. The first part of the proposed law was adopted with enthusiasm; but it went otherwise with decapitation, of which the definite sanction was put off for two years, because of the experiments made in view of finding the best. means of inflicting it. I shall refer hereafter to this search, and relate how it ended by the selection of the instrument of execution now in use.

At length the Assembly completed the grand work which it had commenced, by the declaration of the rights of man; and this was for my grandfather an opportunity for a manifestation which I cannot pass without notice.