Part 20 (1/2)

Bailly brought back thesefor theto thee the collections of the most celebrated moralists:

”It is false, very false, that a crime can ever be useful The trade of an honest otisent individual into the path of justice and truth Whenever innocence can be sacrificed with ireat a difference between the death of a good man and that of a wickedit”

Cannibals devouring their vanquished enemies seem to me less hideous, less contrary to nature, than those wretches, the refuse of the population of large toho, too often alas! have carried their ferocity so far, as to disturb by their clamorous and infamous raillery the last moments of the unhappy victims about to be struck by the sword of the law The radation of the hu the colouring With few exceptions, the historians of Bailly's last agony appear to otten this duty Was the truth, the strict truth, not sufficiently distressing? Was it requisite, without any sort of proof, to impute to the mass of the people the infernal cynicishtly nation rest upon an immense class of citizens? I think not, Gentlenancy of chaining the thoughts for a long ti the drainary details, which are the envenomed fruits of the spirit of the party

I will not shut my ears to the questions that already hum around me

People will say to e of our revolutionary history, on which every one seeht have you to weaken contemporary testimonies, you, who at the time of Bailly's death, were scarcely born; you, who lived in an obscure valley of the Pyrenees, two hundred and twenty leagues from the capital?

These questions do not embarrass me at all In short, I do not ask that the relation of what seems to me to be the expression of the truth, should be adopted upon my word I enumerate my proofs, I express my doubts Within these li forward; the discussion is open to all the world, the public will pronounce its definitive judgeneral thesis, I will add that by concentrating our researches on one circu it correctly and knowing it well, all other things being equal, than by scattering our attention in all directions

As to the merit of contemporaneous narratives, it seems to me very dubious Political passions do not allow us to see objects in their real dimensions, nor in their true forms, nor in their natural colours

Moreover, have not unpublished and very valuable docuht colours, just where the spirit of party had spread a thick veil?

The account that Riouffe gave of the death of Bailly has almost blindly led all the historians of our revolution What does it consist of ”at bottoerie said it himself; of tales related by executioners' valets, repeated by turnkeys

I would willingly allow this account to be set againstthe horrid sewer froed to draw, if it were not evident that this clever writer saw all the revolutionary events through the just anger that an ardent and active young man must feel after an iniquitous imprisonment; if this current of sentiments and ideas had not led him into some manifest errors

Who has not, for example, read with tears in their eyes, in the _Memoires sur les Prisons_, what the author relates of the fourteen girls of Verdun? ”Of those girls,” he said, ”of unparalleled fairness, and who appeared like young virgins dressed for a public fete They disappeared,” added Riouffe, ”all at once, and wereof life The court occupied by the woarden that had been despoiled of its flowers by a storst us a despair equal to that excited by this barbarity”

Far be fros which the catastrophe related by Riouffe must naturally inspire; but every one has remarked that the report of this writer is very circumstantial; the author appears to have seen all with his own eyes Yet he has been guilty of the gravest inaccuracy

Out of the fourteen unfortunate women ere sentenced after Verdun was retaken froe were not condemned to death on account of their youth

This first circuo farther A historian having lately consulted the official journals of that epoch, and the bulletin of the Revolutionary Tribunal, discovered with soirls_ ere condees varied from forty-one to sixty-nine!

Contemporary accounts then, even those of Riouffe, may be submitted without irreverence to earnest discussion When a tenth part of the funds annually devoted to researches in and exa extracts froisters relative to the French Revolution, we shall certainly see many other hideous circumstances that revolt the soul, disappear from our contemporary history Look at the ue report the number of victims that fell in that butchery to have been from six to twelve thousand; whilst a writer who has lately taken the trouble to analyze the prison registers in the gaoler's books, cannot make the whole ae; but, for my part, I thank the author of this recent publication for having reduced the number of assassinations in Septeenerally admitted

When the discussion which I have here undertaken becomes known to the public, it will be seen how many and how iubrious page of our history Another important circumstance may be appreciated, which appears to hedthat the wretches around the scaffold of Bailly were but the refuse of the population, fulfilling for pay the part that had been assigned them by three or four wealthy cannibals

The sentence pronounced against Bailly by the Revolutionary Tribunal was to be executed on the 12th of November, 1793 The reminiscences recently published by a fellow-prisoner of our colleague, the renot, will enable us to penetrate into the Conciergerie, on theof that inauspicious day

Bailly had risen early, after having slept as usual, the sleep of the just He took so ti man was a prey to despair, but the illustrious prisoner preserved all his serenity The previous evening in returning froh springing from a certain disquietude, ”that the spectators of his trial had been strongly excited against him I fear,” he added, ”that the er satisfy theerous in its consequences Perhaps the police will provide against it” These reflections having recurred to Bailly's mind on the 12th, he asked for, and drank hastily, two cups of coffee without milk These precautions were a sinister omen To his friends who surrounded hi aloud, he said, ”Be calm; I have rather a difficult journey to perform, and I distrust my constitution

Coffee excites and reanimates; I hope, however, to reach the end properly”

Noon had just struck Bailly addressed a last and tender adieu to his companions in captivity, wished them a better fate, followed the executioner without weakness as well as without bravado, mounted the fatal cart, his hands tied behind his back Our colleague was accustomed to say: ”Wemoments, have not a look to cast behind theendarly listened to his last words, and faithfully repeated them to hisThe procession reached the entrance to the Champ de Mars, on the side towards the river, at a quarter past one o'clock This was the place where, according to the words of the sentence, the scaffold had been raised

The blinded crowd collected there, furiously exclairound of the Champ de la Federation should not be soiled by the presence and by the blood of hireat criminal Upon their demand (I had alain, and carried piecemeal into one of the fosses, where it was put up afresh Bailly rehtful preparations, and of these infernal clamours Not one co all the ; it was cold; it drenched the body, and especially the bare head, of the venerable , and cried out to him, _”Thou tremblest, Bailly”_--”_I am cold, my friend_,” mildly answered the victim These were his last words

Bailly descended into theof the 17th July; he then with a fire to say it, when the head of our venerable colleague fell, the paid witnesses whom this horrid execution had assembled on the Champ de Mars burst into infamous acclamations

I had announced a faithful recital of the martyrdom of Bailly; I have kept my word I said that I should banish many circumstances without reality, and that the drama would thus become less atrocious If I am to trust your aspect, I have not accoination perhaps cannot reach beyond the cruel facts on which I have been obliged to dilate You ask what I can have retrenched from former relations, whilst what remains is so deplorable