the public prosecutor and member of the Commune, was the first who suffered. Maximilian Robespierre stood leaning against one of the carts, his back turned to the scaffold. His brother was held up by two gendarmes, his wounds not allowing him to stand without support. Couthon was in a chair specially provided for him. When Saint-Just's turn came he embraced the cripple, and in passing before the Robespierres he pronounced the only word of 'Farewell!' His voice betrayed no emotion. Robespierre the elder nodded in answer, turned round, and looked on while his friend was being strapped to the weigh-plank. Robespierre was the tenth to appear on the platform; he went up the steps of the scaffold without any assistance whatever. His demeanour exhibited neither weakness nor assumed bravery; his eye was cold and calm. Charles Henri told one of his men to take off the linen in which the prisoner's face was wrapped; the man did as he was directed and uncovered the broken jaw. The pain must have been horrible, for Robespierre uttered a fearful cry. The blood trickled down from the jaw and the mouth remained wide open. He was immediately strapped down, and, less than a minute after, the knife fell. The head was shown to the crowd, just like Danton's and the King's.

A natural wish to contradict whatever may be of a nature to cast undeserved discredit on my family, induces me here to address an observation to an eminent historian. In his 'History of the Revolution' (p. 265, vol. x.), M. Louis Blanc says: 'When Robespierre was

on the platform of the guillotine, the executioner, a rabid royalist, having, by a rough and barbarous movement, torn away the bandage which covered his wounds, the unexpected pain which shot through his face drew a piercing cry from him,' &c. I have no wish to clear my grandfather of the charge of royalism which M. Louis Blanc brings against him, but I cannot allow the charge of cruelty to pass without protest. The energy which Charles Henri Sanson displayed in trying to put a stop to the hideous saturnalia of the Rue SaintHonoré-and this energy was remarked by manygives the exact measure of the sanguinary instincts of this rabid royalist. In this circumstance, as in that alluded to by M. Louis Blanc, my grandfather forgot his own antipathy only to think of the strict and humane discharge of his duty. Robespierre's wound was covered by a wet piece of linen which was made fast with a napkin. Another piece of linen surrounded the forehead and the back of the head. Had my grandfather attempted to execute Robespierre with these bandages, the most serious consequences might have ensued; and I think, speaking from a professional point of view, I have a right to assert that, however sharp was the unfortunate. man's pain, it spared him torments far more terrible.

CHAPTER XLVI.

LESURQUES.

ALTHOUGH it is impossible for me to mention all the instances of capital punishment that occurred in the course of the French Revolution, I cannot pass to another phasis of these Memoirs without dwelling on one of the many criminal cases of the period, which is still, and is likely to remain, one of the most notorious causes célèbres. I allude to the Lesurques affair.

At the beginning of the year 4 of the French Republic considerable terror prevailed in the provinces in consequence of the sinister deeds of a large gang of bandits who styled themselves the Chauffeurs (literally 'warmers'). Almost every day the news came of the capture of some castle or farm, attended with atrocious scenes in which these formidable malefactors surpassed the cruelty of former judicial tortures. The name of 'Chauffeurs' was but too significant; the gang had chosen the locality of La Beauce for the scene of their operations, and their least cruel crime was murder. These ruffians, with the object of compelling their victims to point out the spot where their property was concealed, had invented an atrocious infliction. They

lighted a large fire and brought the feet of the victim in contact with the flames until a confession was extorted. The inhabitants of La Beauce were so terrified that they dared not venture out of their houses even in broad daylight.

Just when outrages of this kind were being perpetrated with the utmost audacity, a report reached Paris to the effect that the mail of Lyons had been waylaid. The courier and the postilion had been found in a lifeless state at a short distance from each other, and the only clue found near the scene of the murder was a deserted horse and cart.

Citizen Dau

The police immediately set to work. banton, justice of the peace of the section of the Pont Neuf, was entrusted with the care of discovering the guilty parties. A man of the name of Courriol was arrested at Chateau-Thierry, and he was found in possession of sums and letters which were eventually proved to have been stolen from the mail. Courriol was transferred to Paris, together with one of his friends named Golier, and a third individual named Guesno, who lived in the same house as Courriol. This treble capture, however, threw but little light on the mystery. Courriol alone was seriously compromised; but nothing could be proved against Golier and Guesno, whose social position and antecedents were above question. Guesno was finally set at liberty. He was returning to the prefecture of police to ask for his passport, when he met one of his compatriots of the name of Lesurques, and forthwith he told him of the unpleasant position in which

he had been placed. His story was not finished when they reached the prefecture, and Guesno proposed to Lesurques to come in with him and hear the end of his account while his passport was being looked for.

Scarcely, however, had Lesurques and his companion entered the ante-chamber of M. Daubanton's closet when they became aware that two of the witnesses called on behalf of the prosecution in the Mail affair were looking at them with more than ordinary curiosity. These witnesses, who were women, thought they identified Guesno and Lesurques as two of the supposed murderers, whom they had seen at a short distance from the place where the crime had been committed; and they hastened to intimate the fact to M. Daubanton. This magistrate was much perplexed, for it appeared to him highly improbable that two criminals would thus expose themselves to instant recognition, and rush into the lion's den. Lesurques, especially, had no reason whatever for coming to the prefecture; and as to Guesno, his presence was sufficiently justified. But the evidence of the two women was so positive that he felt it his duty to arrest Lesurques and Guesno.

The two prisoners had great chances of escape, in spite of the affirmations of the women, so long as the case remained in the hands of M. Daubanton; but, for unknown reasons, the affair was sent for investigation to the criminal tribunal of Melun; and the instructing magistrate of this last court, instead of imitating the prudence of his Parisian colleague and trying to dis