New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-10-04
LAST BANQUET OF THE GIR0NDINs;
Or, Nine O'clock.

Or, Nine O'clock.
The night of the 3Oth of June, 1898, is mem.
orable in the prison annals of Paris, as the last
night in confinement OF the leaders of the fa-
nous Glrondin party in the first French revolu-
ton. On the morning of the 3lst, the twenty
one deputies who represented the department of
the Gironde were guillotined to make way for
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
With these men fell the last revolutionists of
that period who shrank from founding repub-
lie on massacre-who recoiled from su bstitutinq
for monarchy of corruption, a monarchy Of
bloodshed. The elements of their defeat lay as
much IN themselves as in the events of their
time They were not, as party, true to their
own convictions. They temporized they final
ly attempted to take middle course amid the
terrible emergencies of a terrible epoch: and
they tell-fell before worse men, because those
men were i'll earnest
Condemned to die, the Girondins submitted
nobly TO their fate: their great glory was the
glory of their deaths The speech of one of
them on hearing his sentence pronounced, was
a prophecy OF the future, fulfilled to the letter
" die" he said to the Jacobin judges, the
creatures OF Robespierre, who tried him.
die at time when the people have lost their
reason; you will die on the day when they re-
cover It," Nalaze was the only member of the
condemned party who displayed momentary
weakness: he stabbed himself on hearing his
sentence pronounced. But the blow was not
mortal-he died on the scatfold, and died brave
ly with the rest.
On the night of the Both, the Girondins held
their famous banquet in prison, and celebrated.
with the feroclous stoicism of the tme their last
social meeting before the morning on which they
were to die. Other men, beside the twenty one
were present at this supper of the condemend
Ihey were prisoners who held Girondin opinions
In ut1F,Sa
for history to preserve. Though sentenced TO
confinement, they not sentenced to death
Some OF their number, who had protested most
boldly against the condemnation of the deputies
were ordered to witness the execution on the
morrow, as timely example to terrify them
into submission. More than this, Robespierre
and his colleagues did not, as yet, venture to
attempt: the Reign of Terror was cautious
reign at starting.
The supper table of the prison was spread ::
the guests, twenty -one of their number stamped
already with the seal of death, were congre-
gated at the last Girondin banquet; toast followed
toast; the .HdrselIaise was sung; the desner-
ate triumph Of the feast was rising fast to its
climax, when a new and ominous subject of
conversation was started at the lower end of
the table, and spread electrically, almost in a
moment, to the top.
This subject (by whom originated no one
the morning at which the execution was to take
place. Every one of the prisoners appeared to
be IN ignorance on this point; and the jailors
either could not, or would not enliphten them
Until the cart for the condemned rolled into the
prison-yard, not one Of the Girondins could tell
whether he was to be called out to the guillo-
tine soon after sunrise, or not till near noon
This uncertainty was made topic for dis
cussion or for jesting on all sides 1t was ca
s a aiSip To
highest pitch the CHASTITY animation and hilar-
ity of the evening. In some quarters, the re-
cognlzed hour Of former executions was quoted
as precedent sure to be followed by the exc
cutioners Of the morrow; in others, it was as |
serted that Robespierre and his party would |
depart from established custom in |
this, as in previous instances Dozens of wild |
schemes were suggested for guessing the hour
by fortune telling rules on the cards. bets were
offered and accepted among the prisoners who
were not condemned to death, and witnessed in |
social mockery by the prisoners who were and |
Jests were exchanged about early rising and
hurried toilets. In short, every man contrib
uted an assertion, contradiction or witticism |
to keep up the new topic of conversation, with
one solitary exception. That exception was the
Duprat one of the deputies who was
sentenced to die by the guillotine
He was younger man than the majority of
his brethren, and was personally remarkable
by his pale, handsome, melancholy face, and
his reserved yet gentle manners, Throughout
the evening he had spoken but rarely There
was something of the silence and serenity of a
martyr in his demeanor. That he feared death
as little as any of his companions was plainly
visible in his bright, steady eye-in his un-
changing complexion--in his firm, calm voice.
when he occasionally addressed those who hap
pened to be near him. But he was evidently
out of place at the banquet His tempera-
ment was reflective, his disposition serious and
feasts were at no time q sphere in which he was
calculated to shine.
His taciturnity, while the hour of the execu-
ton was under discussion, had separated him
from most of those with whom he sat at the
lower end of the table They edged up towards
the top, where the conversation was most gem
eral, and most animated. One of his friends
however, still kept his place by Duprat's side,
and thus questioned him anxiously, but in low
tones on the cause of his immovable silence:
" Are you the only man of the company, Du-
prat, who has neither guess nor a joke to make
about the time of the execution :''
=" never joke, Marigny," was the answer,
given with slight smile that had somethingef
he sarcastic in it; "and as for guessing the
lime of the exection, l never guess at things
which knop."
" Know! You know the hour of the execu-
'lon Then why not communicate your know
edge to your friends around you %
Because not one Of them would believe what
ssid.' "'''''
:" But surely, you'could prove it, Somebody
must have told you,os
"' Nobody has told me-
fop have seen some private letter, then ,or
fou have managed to get sight of the execution
,rder; Or
Spare your conjectures, Marigny. l have
not read, as l have not been told, what is the
lour at which We are to die tomorrow"