The execution lasted forty-three minutes; that is, a little more than two minutes for each convict.

In the evening of the same day, Charles Henri Sanson complained to Fouquier of the extraordinary conduct of Hébert's protégé in the hope of getting rid of the ruffian; he argued that the way to beget sympathy for the condemned was to insult prisoners, as Jacot had done. Fouquier paid no attention to my grandfather's recriminations, and asked him why he did not with his own hand pull the rope which communicated with the knife. My grandfather replied that under the former régime it was customary for the executioner to carry out himself sentences entailing decapitation, but that since a machine had been substituted for human strength and dexterity, the most important duty was to watch the preparations and the carrying out of an execution; that the slightest neglect could give rise to frightful accidents; and that, as he was personally responsible, it was only natural that he should see himself to the superintendence.

Fouquier-Tinville appeared satisfied with these reasons; but in sending my grandfather away, he told him that he should keep an eye upon him, and added, with a significant gesture, that if he did not discharge his duties not only as an experienced executioner, but as a patriot, he, Sanson, might very well change parts, and be executed himself.

The result of this conversation was that Jacot was maintained as my grandfather's assistant; and the man's sinister grimaces were repeated in most important executions, to the great satisfaction of the mob.

71

CHAPTER XXXIII.

ADAM LUX.-THE DUKE OF ORLEANS.

FROM the time of the death of the Girondins, executions became more and more frequent; the real Reign of Terror began. Not a day passed without the guillotine being used, and my grandfather and my father had scarcely breathing time. Three executions took place on the 11th of Brumaire, and three more on the 12th. On the 13th the Revolutionary Tribunal sent to the scaffold Olympe de Gouges, a woman famous for her talents and courage. She had hailed the Revolution with delight; but pity soon invaded her heart, and in a fit of generous boldness she wrote to the Convention, to ask leave to defend the King. She then attacked the revolutionary party with such violence that the papers refused to accept any more of her contributions, and she was obliged to use placards as a medium of communication with the public. For this she was incarcerated for five months, tried, and executed.

On the 14th two convicts appeared on the guillotine. One was a woman called Marie Madeleine Contelet. She had been found in possession of a letter in which the Commune and the Convention were spoken of con

temptuously. This was enough to ensure a condemnation to death. The other convict was Adam Lux, sent by the town of Mayence to solicit the annexation of his native town to France. Adam Lux was an enthusiastic dreamer, who judged men in the simplicity of his heart and with the sincerity of faith. He believed that universal regeneration would succeed to the proclamation of the principles of right and justice. Adam Lux was plunged in deep and dark despair, and was thinking of committing suicide, when he saw Charlotte Corday. He had sought in vain for liberty, but the tenderness which filled his mystic heart could not remain unquenched; he gave himself to the priestess as he had given himself to the goddess. Full of faith in this extraordinary posthumous love, he only wished to join Charlotte in death, and he lost no opportunity of impeaching and attacking the Montagne. He was soon arraigned before the Revolutionary Tribunal. Nor was he unworthy of Charlotte Corday. After the act of accusation had been read to him, he said to Fouquier-Tinville: I am a stranger to your laws as well as to your crimes; if I have deserved. to perish, it is not among the French that I should suffer.' When sentence was passed he exclaimed: 'At last I shall be free!' He dressed himself with much care to proceed to the guillotine, as if hoping that Charlotte Corday's spirit was waiting for him over the scaffold. His female companion was executed first. Hardly was the body removed when Adam Lux appeared on the platform, and stretched himself out on the plank, exclaiming At last!'

On the 15th another woman, named Madeleine Kolly, was executed; on the 16th it was the turn of one of the most famous initiators of the Revolution, Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans. It was in vain that this prince had exchanged his title for the significant name of Egalité, that he had given to the Revolution a far more awful guarantee by voting the death of his king and relative; he had not succeeded in obliterating the recollection of his birth and immense fortune. Justly hated by the Royalists, he had soon embarrassed the Republicans. The Girondins would not believe that patriotism was the only reason for the democratic conversion of a prince of the blood. Ever since the first meeting of the Convention, they had never ceased to treat him as a pretender. On the other hand, the Montagne was aware that the presence of a Bourbon in its ranks would estrange from it all other revolutionary parties. It was therefore resolved that he should die. Dumouriez's treason was seized upon as the best opportunity for the execution of this design. Arrested April 7, Égalité was transferred to Marseilles on the 12th. He found there his two sons, the Dukes of Montpensier and Beaujolais, who had also been arrested. After an incarceration of six months in the Fort St. Jean, he was led back to Paris on the 2nd of Brumaire, and imprisoned in the Conciergerie.

The death of this troublesome accomplice was soevidently decided beforehand that Fouquier-Tinville did not even try to elaborate an indictment, and used that which had been drawn up against the Girondins, the relentless enemies of Égalité. When the latter heard.

himself described as a Brissotin, when he heard the charge that he had attempted to place the Duke of York on the throne of France, he interrupted the reading, and exclaimed: 'But surely this is a joke!' When the president asked him if he had any answer to make, he said coldly that the charges just uttered against him conflicted with each other, and could not possibly be urged against him, since it was well known that he had constantly opposed the system and the measures of the party he was accused of having favoured.'

He was defended with much energy by Charles Voidel; but, as I said before, his death had been considered indispensable, and the Duke of Orleans's popularity was not sufficient to make the jury hesitate upon a measure which they deemed necessary. The Duke heard the sentence without displaying the slightest emotion; and turning towards Antonnelle, the foreman of the jury, who had once been one of his close friends, he said:

'Since you were determined to kill me, you should have devised more plausible pretexts than you have alleged; for you will never persuade any one that I am guilty of the crime for which you put me to death; and you less than anybody else, Antonnelle, for you know me well. Since my fate is decided, I request you not to make me wait until to-morrow, and to order my immediate execution.'

General Coustard, his aide-de-camp, also a member of the Convention, was sentenced to death with him. The Tribunal having granted the Duke's request, Charles