CHAP. 1 Bert. de 428. Lac. were astonished at his composure. An attempt at rescue, made by a few gallant royalists near the Port 1793. St Martin, failed from the magnitude of the military Moll.x. 426, force, and the want of general support. The streets x.254. Mig. were filled with an immense crowd, who beheld in silent iii. 398. dismay the mournful procession: a large body of troops 194. Edge- Surrounded the carriage; a double file of soldiers and worth, 218, national guards, and a formidable array of cannon, rendered hopeless any attempt at rescue.1 i. 240. Th. Cléry, 183, 220. 97. of the King. Jan. 21. When the procession arrived at the place of execution, Execution between the gardens of the Tuileries and the Champs Elysées, near the centre of the Place Louis XV., the carriage stopped, and he whispered to M. Edgeworth"This is the place, is it not?" The Place was lined with cannon, and an innumerable multitude of heads extended as far as the eye could reach. He then descended from the carriage, and undressed himself without the aid of the executioners, but testified momentary indignation when they began to bind his hands. "No!" said he, "I will never submit to that! Do what you were ordered; but do not think of that." The executioners called for aid, and the King looked to the Abbé Edgeworth, who exclaimed, with almost inspired felicity"Submit to that outrage as the last resemblance to the Saviour, who is about to recompense your sufferings!" "Nothing," said the King, "but such an example would make me submit to such an affront. Now, do as you please, I will drink the cup to the dregs!" At these words he resigned himself, and walked to the foot of the scaffold. He there received the sublime benediction from his confessor-"Son of St Louis, ascend to heaven!" No sooner had he mounted, than, advancing with a firm step to the front of the scaffold,* with one look he "Souvent avant le coup qui doit nous accabler, VIII. 1793. worth, 222, imposed silence on twenty drummers, placed there to CHAP. prevent his being heard, and said with a loud voice-" I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I pardon the authors of my death, and pray God that my blood may never fall upon France. And you, unhappy people"- -At these words Beaufranchet, Count of 1 EdgeOzat, a natural son of Louis XV., the chief of the staff, 225, 227. by orders of Santerre, commanded the drums to beat; 340. Lac. the executioners seized the King, and the descending axe terminated his existence. One of the assistants seized the head, and waved it in the air; the blood fell on the Lam. Hist. confessor, who was still on his knees beside the lifeless 113. body of his sovereign.1 Th. iii. 339, x. 255. Bert. de Moll. x. 428, 429. des Gir. v. his body in leine. The body of Louis was, immediately after the execu- 98. sion, removed into the ancient cemetery of the Madeleine, Interment of at the end of the Boulevard Italienne, where it was the Madeplaced in a grave of six feet square, with its back against the wall of the Rue d'Anjou. Large quantities of quicklime were immediately thrown into the grave, which occasioned so rapid a decomposition, that when his remains were sought after in 1815, with a view to their being conveyed to the royal mausoleum in St Denis, it was with great difficulty that any part could be recovered. Near the place where he was interred, Napoleon commenced the splendid Temple of Glory, after the battle of Jena, professedly as a memorial of the Grand Army, but with the secret design of converting it into a monument to the victims of the Revolution, which he did not intend to reveal for many years, and till monarchical feelings were to a certain degree restored. The exact spot was afterwards marked by a little temple of elegant propor Mais quand ce coup tombé vient d'épuiser le sort Et se rend tout entière à toute sa vertu." CORNEILLE, Edipe, Act V. Scene 9. VIII. 1793. CHAP. tions, which still attests the humble grave. In this, as in so many other great designs, he was interrupted by the calamities which occasioned his fall, and the superb edifice was completed by the Bourbons, and now forms the church of the Madeleine, the most beautiful of the many beautiful structures in Paris. The King suffered almost in the centre of the Place Louis XV., but rather nearer the buildings on the northern side, on the same ground where the Queen, the Princess Elizabeth, and so many other of the noble victims of the Revolution perished; where Robespierre and Danton, and nearly all who had been instrumental in his destruction, were afterwards executed; and where the Emperor Alexander and the Allied sovereigns took their station, when their victorious armies entered Paris on the 31st March 1814. The greatest of revolutionary crimes was perpetrated, the greatest of revolutionary punishments was consummated, on the same spot. The history of modern Europe has not a scene fraught with equally interesting recollections to exhibit. It is now marked by the colossal obelisk of blood-red granite, which was brought from Thebes, in Upper Egypt, in 1833, by the French government. The monument, which witnessed the march of Cambyses, and survived the conquests of Alexander and Cæsar, is Hist. de la destined to mark, to the latest generation, the scene of the martyrdom of Louis, and of the final triumph of his avengers.1 1 Nap. in Las Cases, i. 370, 371. Conv. ii. 13, 14. 99. The character of this monarch cannot be better given Reflections than in the words of one of the ablest of the republican and Louis's' writers of France. "Louis inherited a revolution from character. his ancestors: his qualities were better fitted than those on the event, of any of his predecessors to have prevented or terminated it; for he was capable of effecting reform before it broke out, and of discharging the duties of a constitutional throne under its influence. He was perhaps the only monarch who was subject to no passion, not even that of power, and who united the two qualities most essential "1 VIII. 1793. to a good king, fear of God and love of his people. He CHAP. perished, the victim of passions which he had had no share in exciting; of those of his supporters, to which he was a stranger; of the multitude, which he had done nothing to awaken. Few kings have left so venerated a memory. History will inscribe as his epitaph, that, with a little more force of mind, he would have been a perfect sovereign." The great and touching qualities, however, Mig. i. 241. exhibited by this unhappy monarch in his later days, his unexampled sufferings and tragic fate, must not throw into oblivion the ruinous consequences of the indecision. and weakness of his conduct on the throne; or make us forget that the calamities, the bloodshed, and irretrievable changes in society produced by the Revolution, sprang from his amiable but unhappy and unconquerable aversion to resolute measures. The man in existence who knew France and the Revolution best, has left a decided opinion on the subject. "Had Louis XVI.," said Napoleon, "resisted manfully; had he evinced the courage, the activity, the resolution of Charles I. of England, he would 2 Nap. in have triumphed." The emigration of the nobility, indeed, ii. 213. deprived him of the principal stay of the throne; but it was the known irresolution of his character which was one main cause of that defection, by rendering the whole class of proprietors desperate when such a chief was at the head of affairs; and the prolonged struggle in Lyons and la Vendée proved what elements of resistance remained in the nation, even after they had withdrawn. Las Cases, 100. on the con Girondists Among those who voted for death there were many, such as the Duke of Orleans, influenced by base or selfish Reflections motives; but the Girondists, as a body, did so, and after- duct of the wards struggled for an appeal to the people, in the hope on this occaof saving his life. In adopting this timid course, they sion. erred as much in statesmanlike wisdom as in moral virtue. Their conduct is thus stigmatised by one of the greatest masters of political ability whom modern Europe has produced: "The Girondists and Jacobins," says Napoleon, VOL. II. X VIII. CHAP. "united in condemning the King to death; and yet the majority of the former had voted for the appeal to the 1793. people, which was intended to save him. This forms the inexplicable part of their conduct. Had they wished to preserve his life, they had the power to have done so : nothing more was necessary but to have adjourned the sentence, or condemned him to exile or transportation ; but to condemn him to death, and, at the same time, endeavour to make his fate depend on a popular vote, was the height of imprudence and absurdity: it was, after having destroyed the monarchy, to endeavour to tear France in pieces by a civil war. It was this false combination which ruined them. Vergniaud, their main pillar, was the very man who pronounced as president the sentence of death on Louis; and he did this at the moment when the predominance of their party was such in the Assembly, that it required several months of labour, and more than one popular insurrection, to overturn it. That party would have ruled the Convention, destroyed the Mountain, and governed France, if they had at once pursued a manly, straightforward course. It was the refinements of metaphysicians which occasioned their fall." It is remarkable that Napoleon, in this instance, notwithstanding his great penetration, did not perceive the real motive which influenced the Girondists in adopting this course. It was terror and selfishness. By voting for the appeal to the people, they took a popular line, and if they had saved him, would have compromised 1 Nap. in Las Cases, others; in voting directly to preserve his life, they would 190, 191. have taken an unpopular one, and compromised themselves.1 ii. 184, 185, 101. pedience of But there were others, doubtless, of a different character; Final inex many great and good men, who mournfully inclined to the the death of severer course, from an opinion of its absolute necessity to the Revo to annihilate a dangerous enemy, and establish a republic lutionists. still unsettled. Among these must be reckoned Carnot, Louis, even who, when called upon for his opinion, gave it in these |