(I find myself in honourable company, thought I.)
"Slaves without a crime," growled Bossoit.
"At least I had no crime," said the other, "save that I bore the hated name of Damien."
"What," I exclaimed, as a sudden light broke upon me; "are you a kinsman of—"
"Exactly, monsieur, of Robert Francis Damien, you would say—of that unfortunate peasant of Tieuloy, who, in January last year, stabbed King Louis, just as he was stepping into his state coach at Versailles, and so nearly rid France of a tyrant—yes, I am his brother."
"Was not this would-be regicide deranged?" said I, as fresh doubts of the value of such a pilot occurred to me, and I feared for my own honour, if found in company with Frenchmen of such a character, and especially at such a conjecture.
"His reason was wavering—poverty and the long wanderings of an unsettled life had made it so; but instead of confining him in a prison or fortress, he died of the most dreadful tortures," replied the first Frenchman.
"So I have heard."
"The king's wound was slight; but my brother was beaten to the earth by the sword hilt of Guillaume de Boisguiller, a captain of the French Guards, several of whom in the first transports of their zeal and fury, burned him severely with their torches, while he lay prostrate at their feet. A fortnight after this he was tried and tortured. Shall I tell you what followed? Tête Dieu! my blood boils, and my heart sickens at the memory of it. After making the amende honorable in the Church of Notre Dame, he was conveyed to the Place de Grove, where vast multitudes were assembled; where every window was filled with eager faces—and every housetop bore a living freight.
"The Provost of the merchants, the Echevins and other magistrates of Paris, in their robes, with all the great lords and ladies of the court, occupied the windows of the gloomy Maison aux Piliers, or Hotel de Ville, on the spire and pavilions of which banners waved as for a festival. In the square, beyond the scaffold and the troops who circled it, scarcely was there breathing space, so closely, so densely were the spectators massed; but a silence like that of death hushed every tongue, for they knew that a scene of horror was about to ensue."