committees of the Convention which visited the Temple on special occasions were controlled, contradicted, rebuked, and set at defiance by the shoemakers, carpenters, and chandlers who happened to bo for the moment the delegates of the Commune. The parties in the Convention were so perilously struggling for the destruction of each other, that they had neither leisure nor courage to grapple with the Commune, and they all- and especially the more moderate, already trembling for their own heads- -were not sorry to leave to those obscure agents the responsibility and odium of such a persecution.

Council General gives the Commissaries full power to do whatever their prudence may suggest for the safe custody of these hostages.

Unius in miseri exitium conversa tulere.
Jamque dies infanda aderat !

But the infanda dies the 21st January-in which they all thus concurred, did not save the Girondins from the 31st October- -nor nor

the Dantonists from the 16th GerminalRobespierre from the Neuf Thermidor! To the usurped, but conceded supremacy of the Commune, and the vulgar habits and rancorous feeling of the majority of its members, may, we suspect, be more immediately attributed the otherwise inexplicable brutalities of the Temple.

Every page of the works of Hue, Cléry, Madame Royale, and M. de Beauchesne exhibit proofs of the wanton outrages of the Commune and their tools. The last gives us, from the archives of that body, an early instance, which we quote the rather because it was not a mere individual caprice but an official deliberation. In reading it, we must keep in remembrance the peculiar character of the prison.

Commune de Paris, 29th Sept., 1792, the fourth year of Liberty and first of Equality and the Republic.

Considering that the custody of the prisoners of the Temple becomes every day more difficult by the concert and designs which they may form amongst themselves, the Council General of the Commune feel it their imperious duty to prevent the abuses which might facilitate the evasion of Ethose traitors; they therefore decree :

1. That Louis and Antoinette shall be sepa

rated.

2. That each prisoner shall have a separate dungeon (cachol).

3. That the valet de chambre shall be placed

in confinement.

4. That the citizen Hébert [the infamous Hébert, of whose crimes even Robespierre and Danton grew tired or afraid] shall be added to the five existing Commissa

ries.

5. That this decree shall be carried into effect this evening - immediately -even to taking from them the plate and other table utensils (argenterie et les accessoires de la bouche). In a word the

ferred to an apartment in the great tower, immediately over the king's. On the 26th October a fresh decree directed that the prince should be removed from his mother's to his father's apartment, under the pretext that the boy was too old (seven years and six months) to be left in the hands of women; but the real object was to afflict and insult the queen.

For a short time after the whole family had been located in the great tower, though separated at night and for a great portion of the day, they were less unhappy-they had their meals together and were allowed to meet in the garden, though always strictly watched and habitually insulted. They bore all such outrages with admirable patience, and found consolation in the exercise of whatever was still possible of their respective duties. The king pursued a regular course of instruction for his son in writing, arithmetic, geogra phy, Latin, and the history of France-the ladies carried on the education of the young princess, and were reduced to the necessity of mending not only their own clothes, but even those of the king and prince; which, as they had each but one suit, Madame Elizabeth used to do after they were in bed.

This mode of life lasted only to the first week in December, when, with a view no doubt to the infanda dies, a new set of commissaries was installed, who watched the prisoners day and night with increased insolence and rigor. At last, on the 11th December, the young prince was taken back to the apartinent of his mother-the king was summoned to the bar of the Convention, and, on his return in the evening, was met by an order for his total separation from the whole of his family. The cruelty revolted, even his patience. He adabsurdity of such an order surprised, and its dressed a strong remonstrance to the Convention on the barbarous interdiction; that assembly, on the 1st December, came to a resolution of allowing him to communicate with his family; but it was hardly passed when it was objected to by Tallien, who audaciously announced thut, even if they adhered to the vote, the Commune would not obey it. This was con

clusive, and the debate terminated in a declaration"that the king might, till the definitive judgment on his case, see his children, on condition, however, that they should have no communication with either their mother or their aunt. The condition rendered the permission derisory as to his daughter, and the king was 80 convinced of the grief that a renewed separation from her son would cause to the queen, that he sacrificed his own feelings, and the decree became, as it was meant to be, wholly inoperative. He never saw any of his family again until the eve of his death.

To what we already knew of that scene, M. de Beauchesne has added an anecdote new to us, for which he quotes in his text the direct authority of the Duchess of Angoulême :—

My father, at the moment of parting from us forever, made us promise never to think of avenging his death. He was well satisfied that we should hold sacred these his last instructions; but the extreme youth of my brother made him desirous of producing a still stronger impression on him. He took him on his knee and said to him, "My son, you have heard what I have said; but as an oath has something more sacred than words, hold up your hand, and swear that you will accomplish the last wish of your father." My brother obeyed, bursting out into tears, and this touching goodness redoubled ours. —- p. 448. There can be no doubt that this anecdote represents truly the sentiments of the king as he had already expressed them in that portion of his will which was specially addressed to his son - but we own that the somewhat dramatic scene here described seems hardly reconcilable with the age of the child or the sober simplicity of his father's character. Nor are we satisfied with M. de Beauchesne's statement of his authority; for, after giving it in the text as directly from the lips or pen of the Duchess d'Angoulême herself, he adds in a foot-note a reference to "Fragments of unpublished Memoirs of the Duchess of Tourzel." But as Cléry, who was an anxious eye-witness, and describes minutely the position and attitudes of all the parties, does not mention any such demonstration or gesture, we suspect that this ceremony of an oath is an embroidery on the plain fact as stated by Madame Royale. Royal Mem., p. 200.* The next day Louis XVI. ceased to live. He died under the eyes of an hundred thousand enemies and of but one solitary friend his confessor; yet there was no second opin ion in this hostile crowd as to the courage and dignity of his deportment from first to lust, and it is only within these few years that we

* See the volume published by Murray in 1823, under the title of "Royal Memoirs," in which there is a translation of the Duchess d'Angoulême's most interesting "Account of what passed in the Temple from the Imprisonment of the Royal Family to the Death of the Dauphin."

We

have heard insinuations, and even assertions (contradictory in themselves), that he exhibited both fear and fury-struggled with his executioner, and endeavored to prolong the scene in the expectation of a rescue. have against such injurious imputations the sacred evidence of that single friend — the official testimony of the Jacobin Commissioners, who were appointed to superintend the execution, and the acquiescence of the vast assemblage that encircled the scaffold. But M. de Beauchesne has discovered at once the source of this calumny and its complete refutation, in two contemporaneous docuinents, so curious in every way, that we think them worth producing in extenso, though the fact is already superabundantly established without them.

In a newspaper, called Le Thermomètre du Jour, of the 13th February, 1793 (three weeks only after the execution), there appeared this anecdote:

is Sanson the executioner himself who has reWhen the condamnè ascended the scaffold (it lated the fact, and who has employed the term and courage; but at the roll of the drums which condamné), “I was surprised at his assurance drowned his voice at the movement of my assistants to lay hold of him, his countenance suddenly changed, and he exclaimed hastily three times, I am lost' (je suis perdu)! This circumstance, corroborated by another which Sanson equally narrated—namely, that "the condamné had supped heartily the preceding evening and breakfasted with equal appetite that morning," shows that to the very moment of his death he had reckoned on being saved. Those who kept him in this delusion had no doubt the design of giving him an appearance of courage but the roll of the drums dissipated this fulse that might deceive the spectators and posterity; courage, and contemporaries and posterity may now appreciate the real feelings of the guilty tyrant.-i. 479.

We-who now know from the evidence of

the Abbé Edgeworth and Cléry how the king passed that evening, night, and morning, and that the only break of his fast was by the reception of the Holy Communion are dissurdity of this statement; but it met an earpensed from exposing the falsehood and ablier and even more striking refutation.

Our readers may recollect (Q. R., Dec. 1843, v. 73, p. 250), that Sanson (Charles Henry) was a man more civilized both in manners and

mind than might be expected from his terrible occupation. On reading this article in the paper, Sunson addressed the following letter to the editor, which appeared in the Thermomètre of the 21st:

Paris, 20th Feb. 1793,

First year of the French Republic.}

CITIZEN A short absence has prevented my sooner replying to your article concerning Louis Capet. But here is the exact truth as to what

rougher household work. Their conduct at first had been decent; but at length their tempers became soured by their own long confinement (for they were strictly kept close also), and especially by being suddenly interdicted from receiving the visits of their daughter, to whom they were much attached. These vexations they vented on their prisoners. Tison was, moreover, as might be expected from the selection of him for the service of the Temple, a zealous Republican. He was, therefore, much offended at the sympathy which two of the municipals, Toulan and Lepitre, showed for the captives, and denounced these persons and another. converted municipal of the name of Michonis as having undue intelligence with the ladies; and though these men escaped death for the moment, they were all subsequently guillotined on these suspicions. A more rigorous set of commissaries were now installed by Hébert, by whom the royal family were subjected to new interrogations, searches, privations, and indignities. Their condition became so miserable that even the Tisons were shocked at the mischief their denunciations had done, und both soon showed signs of repentance, especially the woman, who actually went mad from anxiety and remorse. She began by fulling into a deep and restless melancholy, accusing herself of the crimes she had wituessed, and of the murders which she foresaw of the queen, Madame Elizabeth, and the three municipals. The derangement gradually amounted to fury, and she was after some delay removed to a madhouse. One of the strangest vicissitudes of this long tragedy was, that, while the unhappy woman remained in the Temple, the queen and Madame Elizabeth watched over, and endeavored by their charitable care and consolations to soothe the malady of their former persecutor.

The spirit of the new commissaries will be sufficiently exhibited by one anecdote. The little prince (not yet eight years old) had been accustomed to sit at table on a higher chair. One of these men, an apostate priest, Bernard by name, who had lately been selected to conduct the king to the scaffold, saw in this incident a recognition of the royalty of the child, and took the first opportunity, when the prisoners were going to dinner, of seating himself on that very chair. Even Tison was revolted and had the courage to remonstrate with Bernard, representing that the child could not eat comfortably on a lower chair; but the fellow persisted, exclaiming aloud,

"I never before saw prisoners indulged with chairs and tables. Straw is good enough for them." (p. 49.) And, strangest of all, after what we have seen of the state of the Temple, new walls and works were made

He was guillotined with Robespierre.

externally, and what more affected the pris oners, wooden blinds (abat-jours) were fixed to all the windows that had them not already. About this time (7th or 8th May), the boy fell sick, and the queen solicited that M. Brunier, his ordinary physician, should be allowed to attend him. The Commissaries for several days not only disregarded but laughed at her request. At last the case looked more serious, and was brought before the Council of the Commune, where, after two days' debate, they came to this resolution:

Having considered the representation of the Commissaries on duty in the Temple, stating ordinarily employed in the prisons shall attend that little Capet is sick, Resolved that the doctor the little Capet, seeing that it would be contrary to the principle of equality to allow him to have any other.ii., p. 51.

The date prefixed to the resolution is worthy of its contents. "10 Mai, 1793; 2de de la République, ler de la Mort du Tyran." It is, our readers will observe, bad French, and, moreover, nonsense, but its import on such an occasion is but too intelligible. The prison doctor, however, M. Thierry, acted like a man of humanity and honor. He secretly consulted M. Brunier, who was acquainted with the child's constitution, and for the three weeks that his attendance lasted, the queen and Madame Elizabeth, who never quitted the child's pillow, had every reason to be satisfied with M. Thierry.

This illness, though so serious that Madame Royale thought her brother had never recovered from it, made no noise; for all other interests were at the moment stifled in the great struggle between the Jacobins and the Girondins, which ended, on the celebrated 31st of May, in the overthrow of the latter. Hitherto the general government that is, the Convention busy with its internal conflicts had, as far as we are informned, left the Temple to the discretion of the Commune

but it now (9th July) intervened directly, and a decree of the Committee of Public Safety directed the separation of "the son of Capet" from his mother and his transfer to the hands of a tutor (instituteur), to be chosen still by the municipals (ii. p. 67). It was 10 o'clock at night-the sick child was asleep in a bed without curtains, to which he had hitherto been accustomed - but his mother had hung a shawl over it, to keep from his eyes the light by which she and Madame Elizabeth were sitting up later than usual mending their clothes. The doors suddenly opened with a loud crash of the locks and bolts, and six commissaries entered — one of them abruptly and brutally announcing the decree of separation. Of the long scene that ensued we can only give a summary. The