1The first to fall was the Duc of Orleans (father of Louis Philippe, King of the French). He had done nothing against the interests of the republic, but his birth was a crime, and his death was decided on.

2The Prince and his sons were at table when the fatal indictment arrived.

3“So much the better,” said he. “This must end one way or the other. Kiss me, children. And I wonder of what they accuse me?” he said, opening the paper. “The scoundrels!” he added; “they accuse me of nothing. Come, boys, eat; for this summons is indeed good news.”

4He was taken to Paris, where, at this time, no man of mark, being put upon his trial, escaped the guillotine.

5The one plausible accusation brought against Orleans must have compressed his heart.

6“Did you not vote the King’s death in the hope of succeeding to his throne?”

7“No; I obeyed my heart and my conscience.”

8He heard his sentence calmly, despite the fact of his cowardice in his early years; and he replied sarcastically to his judges, “Since you were determined to condemn me, you should have found better pretexts than you have; for, as it is, you will deceive no man into believing that you think me guilty. I am in the way. And you too,” he said, turning to a once Marquis d’Autonelle, an old friend,—“you to condemn me! Finally,” he continued, “since I am to die, I demand not to be left in gaol a whole night, but to be at once taken to the block.”

9This desire was not complied with. Returning to the gaol, his rage was terrible.

10The Abbé Lambert approached and said, “Citizen Equality, will you accept my assistance, or, at least, the offer of my condolence?”

11“Who are you?”

12“The Vicar-General of the Bishop of Paris. If you will not accept my religious help, can I be of any service to you after your death? Have you messages to send?”

13“No; I can die without help, and like a good citizen.”

14He went to the place of execution at three, accompanied by three others.

15Reaching the scaffold, he looked at the knife calmly; and the executioner offering to remove his boots, he said, “You will do it more easily afterwards.”

16He was dressed very beautifully for his death, and he died without fear. He had followed the Revolution blindly—had thrown away fortune, name, reputation, in its cause, and it destroyed him simply because he had belonged to royalty.

17Terror was rapidly reddening all the land.

18The guillotine was not quick enough, and squads of soldiers shot down the condemned.

19Such sentences as the following, were accepted as truths:—

20“The time is come when the prophecy shall be fulfilled. The wealthy shall be despoiled, and the poor shall be enriched.

21“If the people want bread, let them profit by the sight of their misery, to seize on the possessions of the wealthy.

22“Do you seek a word which furnishes all you need?—die, or cause others to die.”

23The great Terror began at Lyons.

24“The great day of vengeance has arrived,” cried one Cholier. “Five hundred men amongst us deserve to share the fate of the tyrant. I will give you the list—be it your part to strike!”

25He then seized a crucifix, dashed it upon the ground, and trampled upon it.

26Here is another theory which was applauded:—

27“Any man can be an executioner—it is the guillotine which really takes life.”

28This Cholier, who had trampled upon the crucifix, clung to it when condemned to the death he was always seeking for others. The knife was blunt, and five times it was raised before the head fell. “Quick—quick!” the wretch cried, when it was raised for the fifth time.

29Some time after, when the Terror was rising to its height, Cholier was looked upon as a martyr; his body was burnt, and the ashes placed in an urn, were carried triumphantly through the streets, and placed upon an altar of patriotism raised to him.

30The altar in question was soon thrown down.

31But only after the Terror ended.

32With Cholier’s after-death triumph, the “moderates” began to fall. Ten of the municipals of Lyons (the place of Cholier’s exploits) were beheaded in one day, and a mine was exploded which destroyed the finest parts of the city.

33Lyons was almost annihilated. At a cost of half a million of money (English), houses worth twelve millions were destroyed. Why? France was mad. So hurriedly was this destruction effected, that hundreds of the workmen themselves were buried in the ruins.

34Life, however, was cheap.

35Rags only were to be seen—a decent dress was equivalent to condemnation. The city was dead but for the thunder of fallen houses, the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry mowing down suspected people, and the shrill cry of the ragged as they marked another head fall beneath the guillotine knife. It was now looked upon as a distinction, and reserved only for important people.

36An entire generation was destroyed in Lyons alone. Great houses were unowned—for their owners were dead. Castles, churches, factories, work-shops, were closed, for their heads had all passed under the guillotine.

37Starvation increased, for the land lay a-dying.

38The guillotine was getting old and worn-out at Lyons.

39One morning, sixty-four are marched out to death. They are bound, and ranged in a line before an open trench. Three pieces of cannon, loaded with bullets, sweep the ranks. Not half are touched. “Forward!” is the word given to the dragoons, who hack and shoot down the victims. This lasts two whole hours.

40Nine hundred and thirty executioners, in the shape of an entire regiment, were to send their victims, marshalled in a row, into eternity at the same moment. At the order “Fire!” four bullets struck at the life of the victims, all of whom are tied to a rope stretched from tree to tree.

41Strange—when the smoke arose, only half were found dead. The rest remained either wounded or untouched. The unscathed stared in horror; the wounded screamed to be despatched.

42The soldiers could not fire again. Some of the prisoners had freed themselves, and were escaping. The dragoons were ordered forward to cut them down. The victims were killed piece-meal. One man, a mayor of his town, reached the river, but there his bleeding hand betrayed him, and he was cast into the river.

43The soldiers protested against the use to which they were put. The massacres lasted until night-fall. Yet when the grave-diggers came next morning, some hearts still beat. The sextons put the martyrs out of their misery at once by blows on the head with their pickaxes.

44“We are purging the land,” wrote Collet d’Herbois to the Convention.

45Every day twenty-two were regularly shot. By this time, the fear of life rendered death sweet. Girls, men, children, prayed that they might be shot with their parents. Sometimes they permitted this, and little boys and girls were shot, holding their father’s hands.

46Women who were seen to shed tears at executions, were shot.

47Mourning was prohibited under pain of death.

48One lad of fourteen, says, “Quick—quick! You have killed papa! I want to overtake him!”

49One De Rochefort[2] was accompanied by a son to the butchering-ground, whither he went with three relatives. The men fell—the boy, aged fifteen, remained standing.

50The executioner hesitated—the people murmured.

51“God save the King!” cried De Rochefort.

52A moment—a report—he fell, shattered to death.

53A lovely girl, fourteen, is brought before the judge for refusing to wear the national cockade.

54“Why do you refuse to wear it?” asks the judge.

55“Because you do!” replies the child.

56Her beauty, rather than justice, pleading for her, a sign was made that a wreath should be put in her hair, the emblem of liberation.

57She cast it upon the ground. She died.

58A man came to the Hall of Justice.

59“You have slain my father, my brothers, my wife—kill me. My religion forbids me to destroy myself. In mercy, kill me.”

60In mercy—they killed him.

61A woman, who had fought bravely in the earlier and fairer time of the Revolution, was carried to the scaffold, though about to become a mother. She did not fear death—she pleaded for the other life.

62She was laughed at—hooted—and so died.

63A girl of seventeen, and much resembling Charlotte Corday, was accused of having served as an artillerist in the trenches of the forces opposed to the national forces.

64“What is your name?”

65“Mary; the name of the mother of the God for whom I am about to die.”

66“Your age?”

67“Seventeen; the age of Charlotte Corday.”

68“How!—at seventeen, fight against your country?”

69“I fought to save it.”

70“Citizen—we, your judges, admire your courage. What would you do with your life if we gave it you?”

71“Use it to kill you!”

72She ascended the scaffold, alarmed at the crowd of people—fearless of death. She refused the executioner’s help—cried twice, “God save the King!”—and lay down to die.

73After her death, the executioner found amongst her clothes a note written in blood. It was from her lover, who had been shot some days before.

74The lovers were only separated by a few days. Their history touched the people, but the people of that day did not know how to pardon.

75These awful executions were at last arrested, not because the victims were exhausted, but because the soldiers threw down their arms and positively refused any longer to play the shameful parts of executioners.

76Napoleon Bonaparte, the tyrant-liberator of the oppressed republic, now rose to his first distinction.

77The English were in possession of Toulon. Admiral Hood was preparing to flood France with English red-coats.

78Within a week Bonaparte had compelled the English to retire, but not before they had destroyed the arsenal and the whole of the French navy.

79On the beach, fifteen thousand refugees from various parts of France sought to get away to the combined English and Spanish fleets.

80A storm arose in the midst of this destruction. Seven thousand were rescued from the vengeance of the Republican arms; eight thousand perished.

81These refugees were chiefly carried to Leghorn, where their descendants still reside.

82The Convention ordered that Toulon should be razed to the ground for having submitted to the English.

83This frantic order, however, was not carried out.

84Napoleon was now Emperor of Toulon. Already he disobeyed orders, and rose daily to power.

85Marat had risen over the Girondists and Liberals, Danton over him; Robespierre was to destroy Danton, but Napoleon was to set his foot upon them all, and command, until, in his turn, in 1815, he was to succumb.