“No; I can die without help, and like a good citizen.”
He went to the place of execution at three, accompanied by three others.
Reaching 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.”
He 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.
Terror was rapidly reddening all the land.
The guillotine was not quick enough, and squads of soldiers shot down the condemned.
Such sentences as the following, were accepted as truths:—
“The time is come when the prophecy shall be fulfilled. The wealthy shall be despoiled, and the poor shall be enriched.
“If the people want bread, let them profit by the sight of their misery, to seize on the possessions of the wealthy.