The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-02-26 00:00:00

FIESCHI, MOREY, AND PEPIN..

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~camili:);;rtorotionidls
The French grand national meld-drarno,'" Tlit;Trial of Fieschi
and the other Heroes of the internal Machine Plot," has been
succeeded by a
.petite tragedy, " Tbe BxeJution of Fieschi,
Morey, and 'Pepin." This jedival was given on Friday last,
at eight o'clock in the morning, and is thus described by the
Parisian correspondent of the illornilig Herald:— ..
So early as two o'clock a piequet of Municipal Cites's, a
pied, arrived at the Barrit':re St. Jacques. In halt an hour after-
wards a loud lumbering. noise announced the approach of the
scaffold and the guillotine, and in a few minutes they appeoatit•eidt
under the escort of some mounted Municipal Guards.
all:s'irestapan_t
Prepa-
rations for erectiu,g the scaffold and, gailloUne were immediate-
ly made; and as they and the workmen who accoiu,rtled-ittad
lung been familiar tweach other; they.yiTifi
minutes. A-fire was then kindled near to
whiCh hivonucked its guardians and turner t.VeVO)-•
executioners. -After repeatedirials;,,l44i-vket'° I*eitaiii'ws
therali i
niniiag. axe,hi I ei
nr y-o-laelle,xrti,egrliitinaeilildt.s.inmgaii,) Oi
lidit:lt
jridn lir•-•7o:tr‘) ec:
auditor beat. In a few minutes emumence,iiLAie arrival
owfaishoe;ilitnhe;b4-obtz:totialgiounasidinTghiehpetattXuooctir,!'ooells,.;ls:airePthia,,lestldt7u:tthridde
uf all Spectators, '*io
place, , By- half-past five o'clock all i6f4
the barrier be.
orders were issued to interdict the.:l4lP'°"li-
that none who had -not reached the_ precincts of
fore that time were allowed. t' arriv--r-ccw;or none 0-those WhO
had made their wav were .naacJi .I)elteY.,iiii, tin ,the". Whole. ~1 the
semicircle in the front of the, barrier, which I have itieutiened
was filled with soldiers .aud Municipal quaills. L may safely
say that one hundred thonsand spectators were thus prevented
approaching within half a mile of • the,place ,of,exeeution,'end
that not one thousand of those who had made th6ii way in it
could catch a glimpse of that which was passing within. The
scaffold on which the guillotine stood was extremely low,: not
inure than five feet from the ground. The yieW frinat'withont
the circle of soldiers was consequently extremely limited... 'Pie
cisely as the clock struck eight, the first soldieerif the escort of
,he condemned arrived at the place of execution.' The Melari•
. .. ,

choly cortege had left the prisim of the Luxembourg at a quar-
ter to eight, proceeding for the harrier by precisely the same
route traversed by Ney, le brace les braces, to the 81).4. on which
he died; but front thence it turned to the right along the .Itue.
d'Eufer until it reached the 13oulevard,. and then,' turtling to
the left proceeded straight to the,Earriere at, Jacques.
Ott former similar occasions I tied ,Seetili&i4itilappy persons'
about to suffer conveyed to the .§64roia Coreinon carts or
hackney-coaches. The three, condeinned afteitipt of
the 28th of J uly" were—for .what, reason; Ino# not:---brought
from their prison to the place of execution in as many vehicles,
something like the van used in England far carrying prisoners,
but on a smaller scale, termed here a paitier a scatide. • In each
of these vehicles was one of the,concleinned,ra priest, a turnkey
or two, and, I believe, an ,execationer's, agsistatit.., rought to
observe, perhaps, that in. atiditieuAgr,v,Was..eo that.which con-
veyed Fiesehi the reporter:fortlWi!t;elie (,/e trAunaux.
"Arrived on'the place , the first ve-
hicle was opened, .aud Pepin, Operated. Ile was paler than
when I saw him in courtAM the faXclay-of his trial; but the
then improved 'colleaeduess of his manner had increased to
perfect confidence and self.possessiOP, •,,HO hall ,on his trials
before. the council of war in 716U,,.44ct. befOre the Court of
Peers recently', Manifested little ;Outage., His air now was
that of a man fully aware that lierttsAit?Out to die, and equally
prepared to meet death with an.anhoodantl fercitude. He had
never excited among the spectators:. when on trial a more hos-
tile feeling than .something contempt—perhaps for his want
of resolution. His firmness , and yesignation, now produced
feelings of coramisseration, to which_ the criine ef,whie.,ll he was
convicted did not certainly entitle burn. lie wore ablack frock,
coat, with the collar cut off down lqw eo.the shoal ers, , It was
buttoned by a single button, acrosts,tbe,hrea.st; the sreeves hung
loosely, for his hands were tied behind, Felon was
followed from the vehicle in which he Arr,iyeit:hr confessor
*and the turnkeys and executioners. ,A secorid vehicle 'drew
and front it descended the unfortunate Morey nearly inanimate.
He was assisted or lifted from the steps by the-" valets" of. the
executioner, followed by his confessor, &c. He still wore a
black silk nightcap, and was already in apparently dying
state, but without the slightest indication, of fear tn,his counte-
nance. He was appareled something like ;Pepin., The third
vehicle opened, and from it Fieschi, ,his confeSsor, and the
other companions of this his last joureey, descended. He had
the same air of impudent or insane bravado whieff, had appalled
and shocked the beholder during his trial, Here he stood, by
the side of Pepin and Morey, his teat victims, with a suit of
impatient grin on his Satanic visage. Scarcely had the un-
happy triumvirate been thus ranged on earth far the .last time,
than the preparations for the death of Pepin commenced.
He
and his companions knelt, as (lid their attending 'confessors, the
other persons in the group uncovered, and the short prayer for
the departing was recited. All rose. Pepin bent his bead to-
wards his confessor. A warm embrace ensued, and in au in-
stant he mounted the scaffold, with a slow and steady step. He
spoke a few words—(" 1 die innocent" was their purport)—
placed his foot on the ledge which is formed at the foot of the
fatal plank—cast a glance upwards (some said at the axe, but
others, more charitably, described it as in supplication)—in an
instant he was strapped to the plank, which, turning on its
pivot, descended to the horizontal—was pushed home—the
groove to receive the neck was placed—the axe fell, and he
ceased to live ! The whole proceeding took up less time than
this brief narrative of it will be read in.
The sound of the heavy fall of the instrument of death had
not reverberated when the executioner's assistants were busy
with the lifeless remains of the ill. fitted man. A large oblong
basket was opened, into which one removed from the box into
which it had fallen, the head, streaming with gore; four others
unstra:Ted the body and placed it in the basket. The execu-
tioner wound up the axe-,--the blood dropping from it—to its
point of elevation.
While this first act of the tragedy was in performance, Fieschi,
who had been speaking with rapidity and volubility to the per-
sons near him, kept his eyes averted from the scaffold. He
turned half rouud to Morey at the noise made by the fall of the
axe ; but already that unfortunate man was in time hands of the
executioners, and slowly ascending to the scaffold. Fieschi
again withdrew his regard. "Courage I" said cane of the
assistant executioners to Morey on his reaching the last step of
the ascent. "It is not my courage that fails me," observed he
with his usual calmness; " it is my bodily strength—ley limbs."
He still wore a black silk nightcap ;.over his shoulders hung his
frock, fastened by a single button ucioss the breast. Some
difficulty presenting itself to the attempt of one of, the assist-
ants to open it, he tote away the button. "Why do you de-
stroy my Coat " the pviswic,:,. These were his last %voids,