The National Register.
London, England, 1822-09-30 00:00:00

No. 1,388.—V0t. XV.

EXECUTION
OF THE ROCHELLE CONSPIRATORS.

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{FROM A PRIVATE LETTER.)
Pants, Stmt. 23.—About eleven o'clock the walls
of the difreftut public buildings were covered with
the " Arrct de la Cour Royale de Paris," announc-
ing the condemnation of Buries, Pomier, Goubin,
and Raoulx, four sub-officers (serjesnts and serjeant-
majors) of the 45th regiment of the line, for conspi-
racy, treason. &c. Almost at the same moment, and
simultaneously through the entire of the city of
Paris, the same Arret, adding, " that it would be
carried into execution that day on the Place de
Greve," was in the hands of the hawkers, who cried
it about the streets precisely as " last speeches" are
announced in London.
Up to two o'clock half a dozen mounted gendarmes
were the only military on duty in the Place de
Greve; but strong detachments of the same descrip-
tion of force, horse and foot, were posted at all the
commanding points in that quarter. In the Place
du Chatelet, particularly, a numerous laxly was
drawn up. I proceeded towards the Conciergerie.
The people were crowding towards the place of exe-
cution. No symptoms of sympathy for the miserable'
struck my eye. In a cafe, within twenty yards of
the guillotine, officers were playing at billiards, the
shops were open—the passengers laughing, enjoying
themselves—showmen were exhibiting—and low
gaming going on even where I passed. A great
crowd had assembled round the prison of the Con-
ciergerie, to which the condemned had been remove.]
between the hours of five and six o'clock in the,

morning, under a guard of 50 mounted gendarmes.
On their teaching that, their last human living
abode, they were placed in a chamber very different
from the condemned cells attached to English gaols.
It is well furaiihed,and centains a clock that strikes
the quarters, which consequently intimates inces-
santly to the unhappy ajounsers in that melancholy
apartment, that their moments, already numbered,
are fast expiring; but neither that circumstance,
nor the presence and wearied exertions and exhorta-
tions of the clergymen by whom they were attended,
produced any effect upon the condemned men. They
are said to have been all of good families, more par-
ticularly Bories and Raoul:. In the course of the
morning, one of the Judges of the Criminal Court of
Paris had an interview with them, which lasted
nearly two boors ; doubtless he endeavoured to pro-
cure front them some information respecting the plot
for which they were to suffer, or that to favour their
escape from the Bicetre, which hod been detected.
No one believes that they gave the slightest infiir-
minion respecting either, although the journals may
probably assert the contrary. From the moment of
their conviction, up to that of their quitting the
Conciergerie finr the place of execution, they mani-
fested constantly the same levity, or rather volatility,
accompanied by allusions to their unhappy laic.
About two o'clock five hundred soldiers of different
regiments marched into the place, preceded by
drum;, and binned a square. Numbers of mounted
gendarmes issued from under the porch of the Hotel
du Ville (or Mansion-house), which is the centre of
the eastern side of the place. The only persons al-
lowed to remain near the guillotine, except the exe-
cutioner anti his assistants, were the people who
crowded the flauway by the front of it ; on the edge
of which, and within tau yards of the seafliold, sat a
number of women, although made aware that they
would be deluged with the blood of the condenmed
at the moment of execution! About halt' past two
o'clock the two WaggollP left the Place de Greve for
the Conciergerie, under an escort of gendarmerie.
The executioner (a tall, elderly, decent-looking man,
wearing a fitshionable blue silk handkerchief on his
neck, and a black straw hat) billowed, leaving behind
him a small, rough, white dog, called a bathe, who
took his post on the scidlidd at the top of the ladder.
The animal appeared as watchful as those dogs
which you see on waggons in London. The crowd
continued incessantly to increase—new bodies of the
gendarmerie traversed the place. About 50 of the
gendarmes d'elite finally marched in, and remained
stationed near the scaffold. The usual amusements
of a mob went on. Four o'slock at length arrived,
and ittere being no appearance of the sad cavalcade

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