Imbert de Saint-Amand: "The Last Years of Louis XV."
Louis XVI. (guillotined by a wild and bloodthirsty mob, called the French Republic, the 21st of January, 1793), 1754-1793. "Frenchmen, I die innocent of all the crimes which have been imputed to me. I forgive my enemies; I implore God, from the bottom of my heart, to pardon them, and not to take vengeance on the French nation for the blood about to be shed."
He was proceeding, when Santerre, who was on horseback near the scaffold, made a signal for the drums to beat, when the assistants seized the victim, and the horrid murder was completed.
When the king's head was severed from the body, one of the executioners held it up by the hair, dancing at the same time around the scaffold, with the most savage exultation.
Contemporary History of the French Revolution.
Louis XVII. (second son of Louis XVI. He became dauphin at the death of an elder brother in 1789, and was recognized as king in January, 1793, by the French royalists and several foreign courts, but he was closely confined by the Jacobins. The cruel treatment which he received in prison hastened his death), 1785-1795. "I have something to tell you."
Louis XVIII. (Louis Stanislas Xavier), 1755-1824. "A King should die standing."
Louise (Auguste Wilhelmine Amelie, Queen of Prussia), 1776-1810. "I am a Queen, but have no power to move my arms."
Lovat (Lord Fraser of Lovat, Scottish Jacobite conspirator. In the rebellion of 1745 he was detected in treasonable acts against King George, for which he was executed), about 1666-1747.
He was beheaded on Tower Hill. On reaching the scaffold, he asked for the executioner, and presented him with a purse containing ten guineas. He then asked to see the axe, felt its edge, and said he thought it would do. Next he looked at his coffin, on which was inscribed: