cause, as he said, at the end of life | refused to adopt it because of the dan-
thoughts come to the composed spirit ger to which her friend would be ex-
which before were unthinkable. How posed, and from a fear of injuring the
calm must have been the courage wife of the concierge, a woman who
which could make such a request at had shown her kindness. It is pleas-
such an hour! The queen was a Chris- ant to think that Madame Roland tore
tian; Madame Roland was a Pagan ; up that proud letter, which indirectly
but Pagau and Christian died with appealed to the then omnipotent Robes-
equal fortitude. She did not foresce pierre, and which, torn to pieces, was
the lengths to which that Revolution, yet pieced together again and still ex-
which at its beginning she had fur- ists. In the Conciergerie she behaved
thered so ardently, would go ; and she with cheerful courage and devoted un-
indignantly denounced the September selfishness. When she descended from
massacres. “ Vous connaissez mon her mock trial to the yard, she looked
enthousiasme pour la Révolution ? eh radiant and beautiful. She drew her
bien, j'en ai honte, elle est devenue finger across her throat ; and the pris-
hideuse ... l'histoire peindra-t-elle oners all understood. La nominée Phi-
jamais l'horreur de ces temps affreux, lippon, femme du nommé Roland, was
et les hommes abominables qui les rem-condemned for conspiring against the
plissent de leur forfaits ? . . . Mais à unity and indivisibility of the Repub-
quoi peut-ou comparer la domination lic.
de ces hypocrites qui, toujours revêtus She was executed November 8, 1793,
du masque de la justice, toujours par- just twenty-three days after that queen
lant le langage de la loi, ont créé un whose death she had ardeutly desired.
Tribunal pour servir à leur vengeance, She went to the scaffold in a cart with
et envoient à l'échafaud, avec des one Lamarche, an old man, who showed
formes juridiquement insultantes, tous a great dread of death. Heedless of
les hommes dont la vertu les offense, the insults of the mob, Madame Ro-
dont les talents leur font ombrage, ou land tried to lend her courage to her
dont les richesses excitent leur convoi-companion, and sought to soothe aud
tise ?” She well understood the men cheer him. She herself was wholly un-
who wanted to take her life ; and when dismayed. Savson usually beheaded
she stood at last close to the colossal ladies first, but the heroine begged him
clay statue of Liberty, wearing the red to begin with her timid companion in
cap, she apostrophized it in immortal misfortune, and she waited and looked
words.

on while poor Lamarche was executed.
Madame Roland suffered a long im- Her firmness and composure did not
prisonment before death released her desert her in that terrible moment;
from her sorrows. On the 31st of May, and she died as bravely as did Marie
1793, she was incarcerated in L’Ab- Antoinette.
baye; in which prison her cell was Another memorable woman stands
afterwards occupied, for a brief time, upon the scaffold, not this time in
by Charlotte Corday. Released from white, but in the red smock of the
L'Abbaye, she was immediately recap- murderess.

It is Charlotte Corday, tured and iminured in Ste-Pélagie ; in born D'Armans ; and she has killed which she completed those rapidly writ- Marat. If ever murder were justifiten but most valuable “ Mémoires,” to able, it was this assassination. The which we owe so much, and in which sternest moralist cannot refrain from naive vanity co-exists with brilliant admiring this high-souled, undaunted talent. She entered Ste-Pélagie on the girl ; for the murder that she comnitted 24th of June. She was removed to the is elevated far above an ordinary crime. Conciergerie on October 31. While She was impelled neither by lust of she was in Ste-Pélagie, her devoted gain, vor by jealousy, nor by ordinary friend, Henriette Cannot, devised a bate ; and she only slew a monster in plan of escape, but Madame Roland / order to save unbappy France from

wholesale slaughter. Shortly before case which now leads upwards to the his end, Marat had screeched a demand Courts of Justice, is the grated door for twenty-five hundred victims at through which prisoners emerged from Lyons, for three thousand at Marseilles, the dreadful prison in order to mount for twenty-eight thousand at Paris, and the death-carts. There the military for even three hundred thousand in escort was drawn up in readiness; and Brittany and in Calvados. No wonder there the “furies” of the Revolution, that Dauton, Camille Desmoulins, and all warm admirers of Robespierre, were Robespierre went to see this extraordi- waiting to receive the victims with yells nary and most resolute young woman, and howls of execration, and of insult. whose motive had drugged her con- On the day of the execution of a large science, and who neither denied her fournée there must have been great act nor sought to escape its conse- bustle and activity in the prison. The quences. She was beheaded at 7.30 in condemned sometimes slept in the the July summer evening. Calm-eyed arrière greffe ; or, if they had not slept, and composed she went to death, but they were pinioned there. Once more, she turned pale for a moment when and for the last time, the doomed men first she caught sight of the guillotine. and women issued into the broad light “I killed one man to save a hundred of day, so strange after the gloomy obthousand, a villain to save innocents ; scurity of the pestilential jail, and felt a savage wild beast to give repose to once more the fresh, free air. Once my country.” Never has murder found more they saw streets and houses, and so noble an excuse ; and she was only crowds of persous who, at least, were twenty-five. After the execution, the not immured for death by the guillomanhood of the Jacobin tyrants caused line. The drive through the mob the headsman and his valets “ de re- lasted about an hour. The carts chercher sur les restes encore chauds crossed the Pont au Change, and passed de Charlotte les traces de vice, dont les along the Quai into the Rue St. Houoré, calomniateurs voulaient la fêtrir. On at the end of which they turued to the ne constata que la pureté de son corps left, by the Rue Royale, to the Place de dans cette profanation de la beauté et la Révolution, on which generally slood de la mort.'

the scaffold and the guillotine. As the Charlotte Corday, like Madame Ro-tumbrils drew near their destination, land, was a Pagan. The victims in the doomed men and women saw that the Conciergerie had, generally speak- sinister frame standing out ominously ing, but little Christianity or religion to against the passive sky, and they were console their last sad hours. The com- helped up the steps of the guillotine by mon temper of mind during the Revo- Sanson and his busy assistants. lution was Pagan or sceptical ; and M. Audot, who in his youth lived some victims may well have doubted through the Revolution, tells us that, whether Heaven still continued to look while popular fètes were very largely at the crimes and cruelties of the mas- attended, the chief events of the Revoters of life and death in unhappy lution, and these necessarily include France. There was philosophy ; there trials and executions, attracted the was the light-hearted carelessness of Jacobins and the populace, but were the aristocrats ; there were sublime neglected by the people - in the proper courage and the dreary sentiment of sense of the word. M. Audot's father, desperation — "puisqu'il était aussi as a member of the garde nationale,

commun alors d'être décapité que de was a witness of the execution of Louis s'enrhumer; " but, with some excep- XVI., and records that the people did tions, there was little Christianity. not seem to be moved. The crowd was Brutus and Cato seemed to have re- so small that women and children placed the Christ.

found plenty of comfortable room to Round the corner of the palace, in see the show. “En général, les grands the cour du Mai, beside the great stair-événements de la Révolution attiraient

our

peu de monde.” M. Audot was on the badly kept, and are unreliable. For pavement of the Pont au Change, when anything like a correct record of the Madame Elisabeth passed in the tum- total number of victims of the Jacobius bril, but, “il n'y avait presque per- we must consult Taine. The error sonne.” At the Abbaye, on September surely consists in under-estimating 2, “Pas de foule. Les ruisseaux rou- greatly the number of persons delaient une eau rouge. Peu de foule à stroyed; and the traditions of the ces grands spectacles ; peu d'empresse- Conciergerie as to the numbers butchment et d'émotion." M. Audot was cred in the September massacres are present at the decapitation of Robes- doubtless untrustworthy. Of those pierre, but “il n'y avait pas foule au butchered, no full record was kept. 10 Thermidor.” The Jacobins were a Considering the Conciergerie as a minority, and the true French people storehouse for the guillotine, and rewere not willing witnesses of their membering how short a time the mass crimes.

of the prisoners passed within its walls, When Madame Elisabeth, termed by it may be asked, How shall we find the Revolution “ la nommée Elisabeth adequate recorders of the facts of the Marie Capet, seur de Louis Capet, life in the prison ?

We owe dernier tyran,” was brought to trial, so knowledge of its prison life mainly to called, the jury, when they heard the three authorities — the Baron Riouffe, name, without waiting for further in the Comte Beugnot, and M. Beaulieu. formation, cried out, “C'en est assez. Riouffe, when he was first arrested, La mort, la mort ! " and she was, of was merely a poor player, cohabiting course, condemned to death. Four- with the citoyenne Toussaint. He was and-twenty companions in misfortune a zealous friend of the Revolution, but were sentenced at the same tinie, and became suspect, and was hurried up to went to the guillotine, May 25, 1794. Paris and thrown into the ConcierShe was executed last, and had to look gerie. Overlooked by one of those on while the four-and-twenty passed strange accidents which occurred occaunder the heavy, sharp blade. Her sionally in the wild turmoil of the fichu fell off and lay at the feet of the Revolution, he remained fourteen headsman. She cried, in a voice of months in the deadly prison, and supplication, “ Au nom de la pudeur, escaped with life. He was made baron couvrez-moi le sein !” and these were by Napoleon. When restored to libher last words. She died with resigned erty, Riouffe wrote “Mémoires d'un courage, and her quiet bravery con- Détenu pour servir à l'histoire de la trasts strongly with the gross coward-Tyrannie de Robespierre.” An imice of Madame du Barry. Madame pressionable, excitable man, Riouffe Elisabeth was in no way dangerous to was carried away by pity and by indig. the Republic or to the Revolution, and nation, and wrote down his recollecwas, indeed, a most innocent victim. tions and his thoughts without greatly She was gentle, tender, pious, modest, caring for accuracy of detail ; though benevolent; and her death is one of the substance of his narrative is terthe greatest crimes of the Jacobins. ribly true. He entered the Concier

Barthélemy Maurice gives the num- gerie two days before the condemnation ber of persons sent from the Concier- of the Girondins, and has left a record gerie to the guillotine as 2,742. Of of the impression made upon him by these 2,742, 344 were women, 41 were these doomed men. The blood of the infants, 102 were over seventy years of Girondins had hardly dried when Maage, while one man, D. T. G. Dervilly, dame Roland arrived in the prison ; épicier, rue Mouffetard, was ninety-three and Riouffe recounts, with genuine years of age. Taine suggests that the admiration, how bravely she received numbers given are understated, and it her sentence of condemnation, and is more than probable that such rec- with what calm heroism she went to ords, at least during the Terror, were death.

LIVING AGE. VOL. VI. 298

was

Riouffe says, that if he were to men- 1 others, Riouffe actually saw. Women tion individually all the doomed whose who hesitated to commit suicide cried, courage equalled their virtues, he Vive le Roi ! in order that they might should have to fill volumes. Of the escape, even by death, from their agoRevolutionary Tribunal, he says : “ Je dies. Riouffe was charged with many puis attester qu'il n'a jamais été qu'un, messages to widows, and to orphans Tribunal de sang, ne suivant d'autre left desolate. Thus Madame Lavioloi que son caprice, ou la férocité des lette was condemned by a drunken jury tyrans auxquels il n'a jamais cessé as it issued from the buvette. Through d'être vendu." It

a tribunal the bars of a window she called to which “ne fut jamais composé que Riouffe, “Regardez-moi, je suis trand'assassins." He records for us, quille : assurez vos camarades que je among his experiences of the Con- meurs digne d'eux."

" Vous exciergerie, that the indictments, more pliquer,” adds Riouffe, “comment j'ai properly listes de proscription, were pu vivre, c'est m'excuser d'avoir vécu. printed forms, which were used for any Mes oreilles ont entendu les cris des vicprisoner, or for many prisoners. Turn- times, mes yeux ont vu ces sanglantes keys and jailers, men who could hardly iniquités ; j'ai été quatorze mois sous read or write, often filled up the in- l'échafaud, et je ne suis pas mort de dictments at their own pleasure. A douleur !” young man of twenty-five, unmarried, Jacques-Claude Beugnot, born July was beheaded for having a son among 25, 1762, entered the Conciergerie the émigrés. An indictment was handed under somewhat unfavorable auspices. to a lady on which was written tête à He was mistaken for a very unpopular guillotiner sans remission. If one man character; and when his cab stopped received an indictment intended for at the cour du Mai, he was received another person, the huissier simply with cries of joy, mingled with execrasubstituted

for another. tions, and was saluted with a shower of Joignons celle-là à son mari ; and the ordure which, coming from all sides, name of a wife was added to the indict-covered all his face. He was really ment of a husband. The ci-devant glad to be within the shelter even of Duchesse de Biron received a form of the prison. At the gate a tumbril was indictment drawu out for her man of waiting to carry some victims to the business. The jury never leant to guillotine ; and in the greffe Beugnot acquittal. There were sixty jurymen saw the prisoners waiting for Sanson, permanently appointed and regularly in their shirt-sleeves, with cut hair and paid, and they had only to find guilty open necks. They had slept in the all that appeared before them. The arrière greffe. names of the sixty are on record, and This was a characteristic introduction No. 45 was Duplay, the landlord of to the gloomy, fatal prison. He was Robespierre.

merely suspected of being an aristoThe myrmidons of the Tribunal crat; but he was furnished with a seemed to be animated by a blind strong letter of recommendation to the hatred of the weaker sex. Male- clerk of the Conciergerie from Grandsherbes, more than eighty years of age, pré, the friend of Madame Roland and was executed with his whole family, a man of influence, because he was first with his sister, his daughter, his son- clerk in Danton's ministry. The conin-law, and the daughter and son-in- sequence of this letter that law of his daughter. Fourteen young Beugnot was not écroué, that is, his girls of Verdun went at the same time name was not entered on the register, to the scaffold. Twenty poor peasant and was therefore not seen by Fou. women of Poitou were sent to death quier-Tinville, who was in the habit of together. When they started, an infant searching les régistres d'écrou, in the was snatched from the breast of one hope of inding la piste du gibier oublié. young mother, These things, and One half of the greffe contained the

one

name

was

registry office ; while the other part, theless, “ les propos délicats, les alluseparated by wooden barriers, was des- sions fiues, les reparties saillantes,” tined for the last hours of the con- passed through the deaf and blind raildemned. Beugnot bad been arrestedings. par mesure de sûreté générale. He was Claude-François Beaulieu, rédacteur, a stronger man than poor Riouffe ; had was arrested by Marino as a suspect, more character; could see more clearly and was immured in the Conciergerie and think more deeply. His style is the 29th of October, 1793. He ultibetter than that of the impulsive come- mately escaped after 9 Thermidor. dian.

He passed four or five months in the Beugnot, when he rose to honors and Conciergerie, and was in the Luxemto high office under Napoleon, must bourg during the worst of the massaoften have looked, with strange cres. Whilst he was in the Couciergerie thoughts in his mind, at the lowers of he saw the prison refilled three or four the Conciergerie. He had a deeply times. Few escaped death. M. Beauladen memory ; and was a man who lieu introduces us to Barassin, who was could feel profoundly and remember among the turnkeys that which Ravage well. What awful and pathetic sights was among the dogs.

“ Je n'ai jamais he had seen! One fancies that bis vu de figure plus farouche que celle de whole after-life must have been sad- Barassin ; je n'ai entendu de son de dened. Speaking of the horrors and of voix plus affreux.” He was a highway the misery which he had witnessed in robber, if not murderer, and, as he the Conciergerie, Beugnot says, “En frankly admitted, deserved to have présence de tant et de si profondes been broken on the wheel. He was in misères, j'ai rougi d'être né homme. the Conciergerie under a sentence of Le désespoir avait traversé mon âme ; fourteen years' imprisonment; but the j'avais les yeux secs et le sang brû- concierge saw how singularly adapted laot.” The terrors of the prison life Barassin was to all “ liberal” employwere such that the guillotine almost ment, and he appointed him to the lost its terror; and the management of lowest and most loathsome work of the the Conciergerie was la scélératesse en prison, and gave him charge of the laaction et le crime tout-puissant.

trines. “If we were both at liberty,” But le too speaks of the gaiety of said Barassin to Beaulieu, “and if I the meetings of men and women, only met you near a wood, I should certainly separated by iron railings, in the court- rob, and, if necessary,

murder you ; yard. He notices the besoin de plaire but here I dare not rob you, and would on the part of French women ; an im- even protect you from thieves. If I pulse which could not wholly be re- were to rob you, the guichetier would pressed even by the constant presence know who did it, and I should be put of the shadow of the red guillotine. in irons and locked up in a dungeon." He heard the ripple of laughter and He discharged certain duties in the cell the whisper of tender sighs ; and he of Marie Antoinette, and told Beaulieu, asserts that no promenade in Paris “ La Capet! va, elle était bien pecould surpass the yard for a collection naude ; elle raccommodait ses chausses, of elegantly dressed ladies. He adds pour ne pas marcher sur la chrétienté." rightly, as we think, that French She was, he said, always under superwomen were the only women who, vision by gendarmes : “ elle n'en était under such dire circumstances, could separée que par un paravent tout percé preserve “ le feu sacré du bon ton et du et à travers lequel ils pouvaient se voir goût.” Towards evening, when jailers à leur aise l'un et l'autre.” She was were tired, “ on a béni plus d'une fois treated, said Barassin,

comme les l'imprévoyance de l'artiste qui a des autres ; ça ne peut surprendre que les siné la grille.” Many of the prisoners aristocrates." capable of such“ abandon avaient leur Beaulieu tells us of the “innom-' arrêt de mort dans la poche.” Never-Ibrables victimes que j'ai vu condamner